Nvidia is “Pulling the Plug on GPP”

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Nvidia is “Pulling the Plug on GPP”

The reasoning behind Nvidia’s Geforce Partner Program (GPP) was crystal clear, to further differentiate Nvidia’s Geforce graphics technology from their AMD counterparts, preventing consumers from accidentally purchasing a competing graphics card due to similar branding from their AIB partners.

This effort can is an extension of Nvidia’s other branding initiatives, which has seen a large number of new Geforce products include the word Geforce on the side of the product while also showcasing Geforce branding and logos in prominent locations on every graphics card box. There is a reason why every GPUs has stunningly identical packaging these days. 

A piece of investigative reporting from HardOCP shed some additional light on Nvidia’s Geforce Partner Program, revealing that those who did not sign onto the program would receive less help from Nvidia when marketing or engineering their custom graphics cards. The program also forced to make their “Gaming Brand Aligned Exclusively With GeForce”, turning well-known gaming brands into Nvidia only brands within the GPU market. 

This information was partially confirmed when ASUS announced their new AREZ sub-brand for Radeon graphics cards, removing their world famous Republic of Gamer branding from Radeon graphics cards. This change forces the global reach of ASUS’ ROG brand would no longer extend to Radeon, cutting their marketing reach significantly. 

To put this into context, ASUS’ ROG Twitter account over has 582,000 followers, whereas their new AREX brand has 136, making the potential reach of an ASUS ROG graphics card tweet over 4,000 times more potent than an equivalent ASUS AREZ tweet. This effect of GPP cuts down the marketing reach of Radeon graphics cards, while also forcing anyone who wants an all-ROG PC into the Geforce camp. 

  

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The Geforce partner Program has turned into a marketing mess for Nvidia, with the term becoming toxic amongst PC gamers the world over. While Nvidia may say that there has been a lot of “rumors, conjecture and mistruths” reported about GPP, it is undeniable that it is an effort that will stifle competition within the GPU market.   

With Nvidia cancelling the Geforce Partner Program, it is unlikely that we will see the explosion of new GPU sub-brands that we previously expected, though it remains unknown whether or not ASUS will continue to create and market ASUS AREZ series graphics cards, or re-absorb the brand into their more marketable Republic of Gamers umbrella. 

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