EVGA - Long-Time NVIDIA Partner - Ending Graphics Card Production

[mdedetrich]

NVIDIA is a shitshow on every level, it's been the case for years but their cards are so good for gaming/machine learning/crypto (until it crashed this year, which will be interesting since they refused to admit people used them for mining).

Well on this note, the SEC in US told NVidia to stop lying to their shareholders in claiming that their GPU's weren't being used for mining.

[oiaohm]

Lots and lots of people will be laid off regardless. This is a very dubious decision of a single person.

If the decision is not made and the process is always going to be loss leader going forwards this could make a downturn a critical problem. Critical problem means you go from lots of people being laid off to worse all because the company is bankrupt/no more.

Not making profit means not having the money to put away for rainy day issues. Yes 50 percent about cost of production normally gets to profit line and then you are needing 10 to 20 percent above that to be correctly healthy. Yes percentage of that profit normally has to go to company share holders and loans and the rainy day fund.

Running a business is not exactly simple.

[birdie]

Its impossible to get straight facts because this is knowledge that is deliberately hidden behind the scenes because NVidia wants to keep it secret. You have to rely on anonymous statements (or in EVGA's case not anonymous because they are out of the game) from board partners with leaked media, and they have all said this and the sources have already been posted in this thread.

There is another one which is Linus's WAN show, he also had to directly deal with NVidia when selling their products via partners (see https://youtu.be/QADCRdzqOH0).

And there are things that are also just plain obvious to anyone who has actually ran a business, for example NVidia Founders Edition is direct competition with their partners and it basically undercuts them. For example the Founders Edition 3080 was selling for 800 MSRP when it was announced. It was impossible for any partner to sell a 3080 at that price without losing money because NVidia when selling the dies to the partner would add markup however when NVidia users their own dies for their own 3080's they obviously wouldn't mark it up for themselves. Ontop of that here are also all of the logistical advantages that gives them an unfair advantage, i.e. NVidia gets drivers and all of the details for the GPU when making the founders edition much earlier then their partners (one of the primary reasons for EVGA exiting is because NVidia would give the partners critical details right at the last minute).

They basically act like Mafia in a lot of other cases, for example during the crypto bust when partners didn't want to buy as much stock from NVidia (because then they know they wouldn't be able to sell that many GPU's) NVidia would then threaten the board partner by not allocating them as much stock for the next new "hot" generation. As a board partner at this point you have no choice, if you want to sell NVidia cards (which historically has been perceived as the best) then you have to play by their rules, otherwise you are out of business.

This is just the result of what happens when you have a monopolistic company, Intel also did the same and they got sued for it multiple times. Thats why you need competition.

Board partners are not there to throw money at the wind selling RTX 3080's at a loss - sorry, your theory sounds like pure lunacy. And they often sell 3080s at much lower prices than EVGA and do not complain. I do not deal with conspiracies which render common sense invalid and destroy any sane business practices. Again, quotes or bust. Shitting on NVIDIA has become oh so trendy recently. They are far from perfect, but they are not evil to their partners or otherwise all the major players, e.g. ASUS/MSI/Palit/Gigabyte would have long stopped selling any NVIDIA GPUs. This whole situation doesn't stand up to any scrutiny. The original video has made it perfectly clear it's a single person decision who gives zero fucks about his workforce. EVGA is NVIDIA's board partner N1 in terms of sales in US and Canada. I won't believe for a second Jensen Huang said "OK, nice, such a ton of negative PR is totally OK for us".

[user1]

Shitting on NVIDIA has become oh so trendy recently.

Well, they do things like threatening to stop sending review units just because the reviewer didn't focus enough on ray tracing in his review. This kind of behavior, expecting the reviewer to repeat what you tell him is really similar to dictatorships supressing media and free speech. Like what's even the point of objective reviews if you as a company tell the reviewer what to say? This is no different than state media propaganda. AFAIR they stopped doing that after they understood this is going to hurt their PR really bad. No wonder people are sh!tting on Nvidia because of shady practices like these.

[mdedetrich]

Board partners are not there to throw money at the wind selling RTX 3080's at a loss - sorry, your theory sounds like pure lunacy.

No it doesn't if you understand how marketing and brand recognition works. The 3080 and 3090's are halo products and any board partner that doesn't sell those is seen as a cheap company and they will immediately lose a lot of potential sales. Its the social influencer with a million views that shows how awesome an EVGA 3080/3090 is as product that gives EVGA brand recognition, most of the people watching such content can't afford a 3080 so they get a 3060/3070 from that marketing. EVGA's whole branding is about being the highest quality GPU board maker, they even officially hired Kingpin who is one of the best GPU overclockers specifically just for branding. Someone like Kingpin is a net loss for EVGA, hes not building or making anything apart from ridiculous 2k+ overclock edition GPU that only probably around 100 people in the world buy so these decisions always have indirect benefits which isn't monetary.

The majority of the population buys 3060-3070's, not 3080s/3090's. Such cards have terrible value for money (especially the 3090, its completely pointless unless you are a creater that really needs that amount of VRAM) and to boot are also extremely expensive for a large portion of the population.

And they often sell 3080s at much lower prices than EVGA and do not complain. I do not deal with conspiracies which render common sense invalid and destroy any sane business practices. Again, quotes or bust. Shitting on NVIDIA has become oh so trendy recently. They are far from perfect, but they are not evil to their partners or otherwise all the major players, e.g. ASUS/MSI/Palit/Gigabyte would have long stopped selling any NVIDIA GPUs.

They sell NVidia GPU's because it still overall makes them money. Thats just business, it doesn't advocate for NVidia being shitty.

In any case I already showed you evidence as to why you wont find quotes, no NVidia board partner is going to go on the record for saying this because they will get punished by NVidia like HW unboxed did. Thats literally what Linus said when he wanted to do a video about the whole situation a year ago but no board partner actually wanted to have these problems quoted on camera, doing so will mean that NVidia won't supply that partner with GPU's anymore.

This whole situation doesn't stand up to any scrutiny. The original video has made it perfectly clear it's a single person decision who gives zero fucks about his workforce. EVGA is NVIDIA's board partner N1 in terms of sales in US and Canada. I won't believe for a second Jensen Huang said "OK, nice, such a ton of negative PR is totally OK for us".

No that isn't want the original video said at all, and in fact the CEO of EVGA is actually paying out of his pocket to keep people hired even if he can't find work for them because they no longer have a GPU division. I have no idea what video your watching, but that isn't at all what was said in either GamersNexus or Linus or Jayz2cents said in their videos.

I also have no idea why you are defending NVidia all the time. They are a company, not your wife. They do make good products (just as Linus said) but they are also generally an asshole of a company to deal with and both things can be true. Just because someone makes a good product doesn't mean they are doing it ethically.

[birdie]

Well, they do things like threatening to stop sending review units just because the reviewer didn't focus enough on ray tracing in his review. This kind of behavior, expecting the reviewer to repeat what you tell him is really similar to dictatorships supressing media and free speech. Like what's even the point of objective reviews if you as a company tell the reviewer what to say? This is no different than state media propaganda. AFAIR they stopped doing that after they understood this is going to hurt their PR really bad. No wonder people are sh!tting on Nvidia because of shady practices like these.

Review guidelines have existed since forever.

For AMD, Intel, Apple, etc. etc. etc.

Normally when you receive products for free you're expected to follow the guideline. If you don't you face consequences including and not limited to the termination of your relationships. NDA goes even further, you may face jail time for breaking it.

HWU was the first outlet to shit on/disregard NVIDIA's guidelines and they were punished for that. As if it wasn't enough, they made everything public, i.e. they shat on NVIDIA twice. Maybe you don't understand how this entire industry works. HWU could have bought NVIDIA GPUs in retail for their own money and reviewed them however they saw fit. This is not what happened.

You're so fucking out of the loop it's cringe worthy.

[birdie]

...

Maybe we have watched two different fucking videos. Everything I said was in the video including layoffs. They have hundreds of engineers workings on designing PCBs for NVIDIA cards - maybe a few of them will be moved to the PSU department, others will have literally nothing else to do. You have zero facts, a ton of speculation and very little common sense. Stephen Burke on the other hand was largely unbiased and cool-headed and he, like me, seriously doubted a ton of things.

Not a single person here works for either NVIDIA, EVGA, ASUS, MSI, GigaByte, Palit, etc. yet most have precise insight into the relationships between NVIDIA and its board partners. Sorry, but this is absolute fucking BS which I'm not going to discuss any further.

[user1]

Review guidelines have existed since forever.

For AMD, Intel, Apple, etc. etc. etc.

Normally when you receive products for free you're expected to follow the guideline. If you don't you face consequences.

HWU was the first outlet to shit on/disregard NVIDIA's guidelines and they were punished for that. As if it wasn't enough, they made everything public, i.e. they shate on NVIDIA twice. Maybe you don't understand how this entire industry works. HWU could have bought NVIDIA GPUs in retail for their own money and reviewed them however they saw fit. This is not what happened.

You're so fucking out of the loop it's cringe worthy.

First, I'm not out of the loop. Second, So what? what if those guidlines simply cross the line of being absurdly ridiculous? Like not focusing enough on specific features and like I said, to the point of dictating the reviewer what to say? Have you heard about similar cases with AMD or Intel? about their dissatisfaction with the way their product is reviewed? Cause I haven't.
If these are the guidelines of Nvidia and you defend them, then sorry, but you lack sanity and common sense.

[birdie]

First, I'm not out of the loop. Second, So what? what if those guidlines simply cross the line of being absurdly ridiculous? Like not focusing enough on specific features and like I said, to the point of dictating the reviewer what to say? Have you heard about similar cases with AMD or Intel? about their dissatisfaction with the way their product is reviewed? Cause I haven't.
If these are the guidelines of Nvidia and you defend them, then sorry, but you lack sanity and common sense.

Have you read my message? Go buy in retail/etail whatever you want and review it however you want. Weeks after everyone did it. Which means barely any YouTube views and profits. You're making me feel like I'm talking to an imbecile or someone who doesn't speak English.

And that's so fucking insincere of you to say that I'm defending NVIDIA when I said, precisely:

Review guidelines have existed since forever.

For AMD, Intel, Apple, etc. etc. etc.

Sorry, I've added you to my BL. I have better things to do than to argue with people who don't understand business relationships and laws.

[mdedetrich]

Maybe we have watched two different fucking videos. Everything I said was in the video including layoffs. They have hundreds of engineers workings on designing PCBs for NVIDIA cards - maybe a few of them will be moved to the PSU department, others will have literally nothing else to do. You have zero facts, a ton of speculation and very little common sense. Stephen Burke on the other hand was largely unbiased and cool-headed and he, like me, seriously doubted a ton of things.

Someone moving from one department (GPU) to another department (PSU) is not a layoff. Also someone voluntarily leaving because they can't do the work they want to do anymore is also not a layoff. Thats what the video was saying, if you voluntarily leave while getting paid its not a layoff.