NVIDIA Terminates GeForce Partner Program
by Ryan Smith on May 4, 2018 8:00 PM EST
Just as quickly as it came into being, NVIDIA’s GeForce Partner Program has come to an end.
In a short article posted to their website today, NVIDIA’s Director of Product Marketing, John Teeple, announced that the program has been cancelled. In making the unexpected decision, Teeple stated “The rumors, conjecture and mistruths go far beyond its [the GeForce Partner Program’s] intent. Rather than battling misinformation, we have decided to cancel the program” and that “today we are pulling the plug on GPP to avoid any distraction from the super exciting work we’re doing to bring amazing advances to PC gaming.” No further information was provided on just what canceled entails, and what this means for existing program partners.
NVIDIA’s GeForce Partner Program is been divisive, to put it lightly. After news of it broke in March and was confirmed by NVIDIA, the program quickly attracted a good deal of negative attention out of concerns over what it meant for the competitive market, and a general degree of mean spiritedness. Adding fuel to the fire, few details of the program were ever confirmed by NVIDIA – with the company seeing little benefit in doing so – which left a great void open for rumors and unsourced reports of all kinds.
Ultimately NVIDIA’s goal with the program was to more thoroughly isolate its partner ecosystem, in the process ensuring that GeForce-aligned brands were just that: GeForce aligned, and that non-GeForce products weren’t sold under the same brand. NVIDIA cited this as a means of transparency so that consumers could be confident that they were buying GeForce products. In practice, the program left NVIDIA with a credibility problem, and the lack of details means that we’ll likely never know for sure the true extent of NVIDIA’s motivations with the program.
Even with this change, NVIDIA is looking to portray it as a positive (or at least neutral) change, noting that “This is a great time to be a GeForce partner and be part of the fastest growing gaming platform in the world. The GeForce gaming platform is rich with the most advanced technology.” Still, the lack of transparency means that it’s not clear what happens next for NVIDIA, or for that matter their partners who were already participating.
Some partners, particularly industry juggernaut ASUS, had already realigned their brands and had launched their AMD-specific brands, in ASUS’s case the new-yet-old Arez brand. The termination of the GeForce Partner Program presumably leaves the door open to ASUS folding these products back into their existing brands. However what they’ll actually do remains to be seen. It does no doubt bring a sigh of relief to AMD themselves, as AMD stood to be the biggest (corporate) loser as a result of the program, and has been ramping up their own “Freedom of Choice” advertising program.
Ultimately at the end of the day this means that the video card market returns to a state of status quo, at least for however long the newly revived status quo lasts.
Pulling the Plug on GPP, Leaning into GeForce
A lot has been said recently about our GeForce Partner Program. The rumors, conjecture and mistruths go far beyond its intent. Rather than battling misinformation, we have decided to cancel the program.
GPP had a simple goal – ensuring that gamers know what they are buying and can make a clear choice.
NVIDIA creates cutting-edge technologies for gamers. We have dedicated our lives to it. We do our work at a crazy intense level – investing billions to invent the future and ensure that amazing NVIDIA tech keeps coming. We do this work because we know gamers love it and appreciate it. Gamers want the best GPU tech. GPP was about making sure gamers who want NVIDIA tech get NVIDIA tech.
With GPP, we asked our partners to brand their products in a way that would be crystal clear. The choice of GPU greatly defines a gaming platform. So, the GPU brand should be clearly transparent – no substitute GPUs hidden behind a pile of techno-jargon.
Most partners agreed. They own their brands and GPP didn’t change that. They decide how they want to convey their product promise to gamers. Still, today we are pulling the plug on GPP to avoid any distraction from the super exciting work we’re doing to bring amazing advances to PC gaming.
This is a great time to be a GeForce partner and be part of the fastest growing gaming platform in the world. The GeForce gaming platform is rich with the most advanced technology. And with GeForce Experience, it is “the way it’s meant to be played.”
Source: NVIDIA
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ಬುಲ್ವಿಂಕಲ್ ಜೆ ಮೂಸ್ - Friday, May 4, 2018 - link
Supermilkywayer - Friday, May 4, 2018 - link
Finally some feedback knocked these effers back into their senses. Now time to adapt open sync or make free the gsync platform. I use mainly nvidia cards but loathe the lockdown to gsyncAlexvrb - Saturday, May 5, 2018 - link
If by "feedback" you mean "mountains of really negative PR from virtually everyone", then yes, they responded to feedback. :PBasically GPP was an overreach and it backfired. They realized trying to double down and fight it out in public would only make them look like even bigger jerks.
Opencg - Saturday, May 5, 2018 - link
The warcry of idiots against gsync continues. If you understood the technology then you would understand that gsync is the way it is because it is simply better. Having the nvidia certification means that any gsync monitor will have the best possible pixel response, input lag, and if the monitor has blur reduction then that will be configured for optimal crosstalk and colors. Its a certification that is worth the money. Having things like line buffering can cut off a frame time of input lag. Having properly configured overdrive means that pixel response and overshoot will be more ideal. You get these every time with gsync and often times you dont with other vrr tech. I'll pay more for gsync and I wont look back.Azunia - Saturday, May 5, 2018 - link
The problem isn't Gsync.The problem is their refusal to support adaptive refresh with non Gsync displays.
milkywayer - Saturday, May 5, 2018 - link
You are a nice person. I might be an idiot but want to be able to use open sync on my 1080 ti. I don't like companies locking us down but looking at the partner program coming out of nvidia, i'm not holding my breath.Alexvrb - Saturday, May 5, 2018 - link
Nobody cares that Gsync exists. Nobody cares about the certification or hardware components. What they care about is that it's completely proprietary and locked to Nvidia. You can only use Gsync with Nvidia graphics cards, and simultaneously Nvidia refuses to support open standards. But if you understood the technology better you would understand that Gsync is the way it is because it is simply better for Nvidia to lock users in.Reducing consumer choice is Nvidia's main strategy, and it actually only benefits Nvidia. What's hilarious is that their most diehard fanboys convince themselves that having LESS choice makes the tech better. It doesn't. If Nvidia supported both kinds of adaptive sync that wouldn't affect you AT ALL, but it would benefit lots of other Nvidia users who just don't have the cash for a super high end monitor. The kinds of people that buy 1050s and 1060s and get crapped on by Nvidia when it comes to adaptive sync. No adaptive sync for you, peasants.
euskalzabe - Saturday, May 5, 2018 - link
Well said.ಬುಲ್ವಿಂಕಲ್ ಜೆ ಮೂಸ್ - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - link
"What they care about is that it's completely proprietary and locked to Nvidia."If that were true, they must REALLY hate Microsoft's Locked-In, Proprietary. DRM'd Spyware Platform with Extortionary Licensing tactics and hardware requiring Secure Boot!
If it were true!
Alexvrb - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - link
"Hey I heard you don't like oranges, WELL WHAT ABOUT THIS APPLE!?" - ಬುಲ್ವಿಂಕಲ್ ಜೆ ಮೂಸ್MS doesn't lock me to a specific vendor's hardware to obtain access to a feature of a different vendor's hardware. They also doesn't prevent me from installing hardware or software from any vendor. I can even dual boot Linux. I can even run a Linux subsystem ON Windows. Not sure what flavor of anti-MS crack you smoke to find yourself being "extorted". You also conflate telemetry with spyware, hilarious. Yet probably use Google services which are far more invasion in their data collection, they collect basically everything and most of their income is generated using your data for targeted ads. Troll again, I mean try again.