Hardware manufacturers removing game branding from AMD products?

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 03/20/2018 09:00 PM | source: | 42 comment(s)

If you have been following the recent GPP discussion, you might have noticed some new chatter on the web about yesterday’s Gigabyte release, their new RX 580 Gaming Box was released just as that, the "Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box", while the other two Nvidia versions are listed under the Aorus branding.

That was noticed by a number of users throughout the web, and raised a flag or two, could it have anything to do with the GPP discussion from Nvidia? E.g. separating and segmentation of brands, as Nvidia would require exclusivity from partners that sign up for the program. Earlier reports indicated NVIDIA’s condition for allowing partners into the GPP was that they exclusively reserve their gaming brands for GeForce cards, or else they couldn’t participate. Some users now have noticed that small changes are taking effect. Now let me write this in shouty words, it is NOT CONFIRMED, but Gigabyte MIGHT be separating Radeon cards to the Gigabyte brand and moving Nvidia cards into their separate Aorus brand, again unconfirmed as their website still shows both as an option.

It was also rumored that ASUS STRIX cards would not be available for Radeon products, in the USA there indeed seems to be low stock, likely (and I assume this) resulting in the products indeed not listed. However here in the EU, I can see full availability for anything Radeon branded with ROG / STRIX, the ASUS website shows everything to be normal, so we cannot see any changes taking effect on the ASUS side at this moment. So again, I am not seeing anything alarming.

For MSI there is something noticeable, the Radeon Gaming X series graphics cards are no longer listed on the global and EU websites, the USA website, however, is listing all cards as normal. So that is the one oddity I have found.

All three brands show volume availability here in the EU under all brands, Gaming X, Aorus and ROG STRIX. There is one more observation, at this time I am not certain if the ‘re-branding’ actually is in effect or if it is a result of a lot of speculation, however website ComputerBase received a communication from Gigabyte Europe as to why the RX 580 Gaming box did not carry AORUS branding as one would expect.

“The manufacturer states that the product is not gamer focused. This, however, is inconsistent with the product page, whose headings are ‘Turn Your Ultrabook to Gaming Platform’ and ‘Upgrade the Game Experience’.”

That reply is indeed a bit weird, a Radeon RX 580 is not considered to be a gaming product? We’ll follow this closely, but at this time we’ll need more facts and thus visually see noticeable branding changes to see if GPP partners are actually actively rebranding their products. The proof this far as mentioned on several forums and websites is just too thin. This could very simply be Gigabyte reorganizing, as they have been doing for many months now. I also do wonder, if this GPP discussion would not have surfaced on the web, would anyone even have noticed this? But small subtle changes like these do feed the speculation on the bigger social discussion platforms, often for valid reasons & reasoning.

Asus Radeon RX 580 STRIX edition with 8GB GDDR5 memory

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Fox2232
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Posts: 9121
Joined: 2012-07-20

#5529816 Posted on: 03/20/2018 09:08 PM

Well, there is Sapphire. I buy from them for years. They'll get more sales.
If it is confirmed that particular brand is cooking such thing on AMD, it will affect their other product sales as well.

D3M1G0D
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Posts: 1696
Joined: 2017-03-10

#5529821 Posted on: 03/20/2018 09:23 PM

Well, there is Sapphire. I buy from them for years. They'll get more sales.
If it is confirmed that particular brand is cooking such thing on AMD, it will affect their other product sales as well.
Yeah, hopefully the AMD-specific OEMs can help counteract the impact of the GPP (assuming the worst-case interpretation is true). I've bought cards from Sapphire before, although my RX 580 is from MSI (I like the look of the Twin Frozr cooler). My Nvidia cards are almost always from EVGA, which is exclusively Nvidia, so I guess I can do the same with AMD and one of their exclusive OEMs. Perhaps this won't be as bad as it seems.

Fox2232
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Posts: 9121
Joined: 2012-07-20

#5529825 Posted on: 03/20/2018 09:29 PM

Yeah, hopefully the AMD-specific OEMs can help counteract the impact of the GPP (assuming the worst-case interpretation is true). I've bought cards from Sapphire before, although my RX 580 is from MSI (I like the look of the Twin Frozr cooler). My Nvidia cards are almost always from EVGA, which is exclusively Nvidia, so I guess I can do the same with AMD and one of their exclusive OEMs. Perhaps this won't be as bad as it seems.

Thing is that I see nothing bad at brands which sell only from one manufacturer.
But idea that someone sells both camps and belittles one is disgusting. They are either proud of their product or they should not sell it.

It is similar to Lenovo selling AMD's APUs in horrible configurations crippling performance and more.
Because it is harming AMD as a brand.

Yogi
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Posts: 215
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#5529828 Posted on: 03/20/2018 09:31 PM

Eastcoasthandle
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Posts: 2011
Joined: 2006-05-22

#5529831 Posted on: 03/20/2018 09:39 PM

So long as these AMD "non-gaming" designs still feature all the bells and whistles that raise them above the reference design, I doubt it would make a difference.
I for one couldn't give a damn if my GPU didn't feature Gaming logos and RGB diodes all over the place so long as it performs well.
True, we as an enthusiast community are well informed and it wouldn't make a difference. However, you have a lot of folk out there who go online or in a store and they think there is a difference between X GPU and GAMING X GPU. In which case they hold more value to GAMING X GPU.

Sure we could educate them about being "marketed" but the truth is that brand hold value. And it does mean something to a PC gaming consumer.

Only time well tell where this leads to though.

RzrTrek
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Posts: 2181
Joined: 2012-04-16

#5529834 Posted on: 03/20/2018 09:41 PM

I don't see the problem since both Polaris and Vega was a major letdown.

Fox2232
Senior Member

Posts: 9121
Joined: 2012-07-20

#5529836 Posted on: 03/20/2018 09:44 PM

I don't see the problem since both Polaris and Vega was a major letdown.

Man, you would not have problem if AIB took dump, shaped it as AMD's logo. Took it's photo and placed it on Graphics card box.

There are not many more funnier things than your comments around... sadly.

Aura89
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#5529838 Posted on: 03/20/2018 09:51 PM

It's sad that people are so worked up over words on a box or plastic. I care about what the product is, not what the product is called.

cowie
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Posts: 13170
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#5529865 Posted on: 03/20/2018 10:30 PM

ok so even if it has started to change branding was all those bs 10 page long threads really worth the further division in consumers ranks?

I am a bitch like that too I would no way in hell want my competitor to have any thing looking like my box except being rectangle
if I was not the market leader in a 2 horse race I would be pissed it would be changed for obvious reasons

so it all depends who I was in the market place if I was pissed or not

Dimitrios1983
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#5529867 Posted on: 03/20/2018 10:43 PM

You know what pi$$es my of after soooooooooooo many years following tech companies like AMD, INTEL, 3DFX, ATI, Nvidia, Cyrix...................... That AMD get's fuc**** and still fights. I'm in my later 30's and considered an old geezer but when will AMD catch a break? If anyone ran AMD even the best CEO AMD would of filed for bankruptcy. Now Lisa has to handle not just the CPU area but that overrated idiot that sold out AMD and is now working for INTEL. If anyone follows AMD it just blows my mind how they are still a running company with all this unfair Bull-$hit.

Quicks
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Posts: 539
Joined: 2006-05-22

#5529882 Posted on: 03/20/2018 11:53 PM

I support both companies, and I must say AMD radeon have come a far way. This BS from Nvidia trying to play unfair just like Intel! Why? then you people that defend a company like that to the end? Why?

Competition is good, hope Intel start getting into discrete video cards as well the more the better!

The Nvidia fanboys will suffer in the end. (prices will only go up, and I will find another hobby)

Kaarme
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#5529887 Posted on: 03/21/2018 12:09 AM

Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte need to invest a certain amount of money to manufacture and sell custom AMD GPU video cards. They obviously want to make as much profit as they can after the investment. Thus they wouldn't hurt their own sales. Of course if Nvidia directly paid them billions not to sell AMD video cards at all, they might accept the deal, but obviously Nvidia would do no such thing. So, any demands from Nvidia must still be within economic reason, one way or another. Nvidia must be able to explain to these companies how these branding things make sense and profit. I find it ridiculous these multi-billion companies would simply accept demands that would hurt them. In fact seeing how successful Nvidia has been, both in making good GPUs and selling them, how could they suddenly be so stupid they would sabotage their own business partners for no reason?

FerCam™
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Posts: 241
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#5529900 Posted on: 03/21/2018 01:03 AM

By me they could sell VGAs totally bulk in an anti-static bag and no cooler at all or ram and vrm only, and sell em 200€ cheaper...

BReal85
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Posts: 277
Joined: 2016-10-25

#5529913 Posted on: 03/21/2018 02:08 AM

I don't see the problem since both Polaris and Vega was a major letdown.

Polaris offered same performance and more VRAM for less money -> better than mid NV cards (GTX 1060 3 and 6GB). Vega 56 beat 1070 (even in NV supported games, they performed the same), and NV decided to release 1070 Ti they never did before. Why? Because AMD made a card about 1,5 year later then the release of 1070 which beat it by 10% or so, and they just couldn't bear it.

Dazz
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Joined: 2001-08-12

#5529916 Posted on: 03/21/2018 02:35 AM

I was reading about this last week, with nVidia laying claim to AIB's branding with black mail and bribing like further discounts on their chips and having priority on allocation of chips, if nVidia lay claim to MSI Gaming, ASUS ROG, Gigabyte Arorus etc, it's a brand the AIB partners have been building up for years and have poured millions into, and nVidia wants to claim it for themselves? It is a dick move and i can see down the line anti competitive practices much like Intel, with HP and Dell. Guess AMD will be getting another 1 billion dollar cash injection. I guess nVidia are shitting them selves when their market share decreased from 72.8% to 66.3% but yeah people are buying more AMD graphics cards.... but thats for mining and absolutely nothing to do with gaming.

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