With the GeForce Partner Program, Nvidia continues to expand its market power and has since been under constant criticism. There are now new insights and legally relevant accusations from the Radeon chief at AMD.
The GPP promises partners exclusive information, deals, hardware, and additionally helps with marketing and sales. Since the official announcement, there have been some turbulences:
- Journalist and founder of the HardOCP website, Kyle Bennett, allegedly discovered with the help of AMD, that Nvidia forces other third-party vendors to exclude AMD from the GPP – otherwise manufacturers would have to deal with significant disadvantages
- Kyle Bennett’s statements are increasingly proving to be accurate: Radeon graphics cards are being sold by MSI and Gigabyte under a different brand, and Asus is even rebranding to the unknown brand Arez for AMD cards
- DELL and HP officially reject the GPP
- AMD declares war on Nvidia, criticizing Nvidia for taking away the freedom of choice from PC gamers
- The European Commission and the Federal Trade Commission are investigating the GPP
And now the head of AMD graphics cards has also gone on the offensive. Graphics card manufacturers are said to have reached out to him at an event.
AMD and Journalist Kyle Bennett Intensify Criticism
In his two tweets, Scott Herkelman, head of the Radeon division, indirectly addressed recent rumors regarding Nvidia’s partner program at an AMD sales event in London:
Many of you have told me how our competition is trying to use incentives and allocations to restrict or block your ability to market and sell Radeon-based products as you and your customers wish. I wanted you to know that your voices have been heard, and I welcome anyone else who has had similar experiences to contact me. Together, we can ensure that gamers receive what they truly deserve: freedom of choice. (Translation via GameStar).
AMD and Nvidia hardly produce their own graphics cards, but mainly manufacture the chips that are used by other vendors for custom designs. These usually stand out through optimized modifications from the reference design. Third-party vendors, such as Asus, have specialized in manufacturing such GPUs for PCs. The more chips Asus receives, the more cards they can produce, and the higher their profit.
If one accuses Nvidia of allocation, it means that Nvidia takes advantage of this situation. For example, by granting fewer chips to companies that are not part of the GPP. As a result, these suffer financial damage. And the pressure to join the GPP increases.
This is reminiscent of the past machinations of “Intel Inside”, where allegedly financially driven exclusive contracts were made with Media Markt or Saturn to keep AMD out of the markets for years. For this, the European Union Court imposed a billion-dollar fine, which is still pending due to a renewed review. Is Nvidia now facing a similar fate?
Kyle Bennett Allegedly Has Evidence
Journalist Kyle Bennett, who set the whole story in motion with the help of AMD, reportedly received written confirmation from responsible parties that discounts and other incentives are only available if one joins the partner program. Initial statements from Nvidia that there are no monetary incentives or discounts for being a member of the GPP he referred to as clear lies in his blog HardOCP.
He also responded to the few accusations that he was receiving money from AMD to spread these untenable rumors. He denies this and suspects Nvidia as the initiator behind this action. However, he sees it as a lesser evil, as he is obviously not the only one who finds these actions strange. The noticeable silence from Nvidia confirms his suspicion: What happened to the statements that the GPP is so great for consumers?
In the official Nvidia blog, the partner program was introduced as a way to help gamers buy the right product.
What do you think of the so far unproven accusations?
