NVIDIA Moves Into Direct Retail Sales of Video Cards

[An Exception]

Ummm, not sure exactly what's going on here?

If this isn't a mix up, then it looks like Nv might be trying to squeeze out some extra margin by cutting out the partners margin.
Hmmm don't think partners like EVGA will be pleased...

http://www.hardocp.com/news/2010/10/04/nvidia_moves_into_direct_retail_sales_video_cards

 

[mupet0000]

Interesting stuff, but I can't tell if this is good for us consumers or not.

 

[DreXeL]

3dfx attempted the same thing when they bought out STB.

 

[Biffa]

And look what happened to them

 

[An Exception]

Looks to me as if those ex 3DFX folks have strong positions of influence at Nvidia.

 

[kylew]

nVidia is looking more and more like 3DFX towards their end with each new thing like this.

 

[rounddodger]

Interesting. Well it's different in a sense that they haven't had to buy a partner to do it. Don't they sell their own tesla/quadros in the same way? Can't remember.

 

[lay-z-boy]

Interesting. Well it's different in a sense that they haven't had to buy a partner to do it. Don't they sell their own tesla/quadros in the same way? Can't remember.

PNY is their uk partner for professional products.

nVidia is looking more and more like 3DFX towards their end with each new thing like this.

Yes, yes! THE END IS NEIGH!

 

[D.P.]

Both ATI and Nvidia have used direct relating before AFAIK.

They probably just see it as a way of earning extra money, preventing price gouging and ensuring supply.

 

[sturmtruppe]

Probably ome surplus 460 cards they are trying to get rid of?

 

[Thesaff]

Could it be someone has bought the license to market their cards as such?

 

[Freddie1980]

There's nothing new in this, before AMD bought them out ATI use to sell its own products directly and were popular with some buyers as they thought if the card was made by ATI it was of better quality and would be more reliable. I have no idea if there was any evidence that ‘made by ATI’ cards were any better then those sold by it’s partners but the ATI name seemingly gave more confidence to buyers about what they were buying.

My guess is Nvidia is working on the same principle as the Nvidia brand name is a lot, lot stronger then any of its partners including EVGA, XFX etc and they will sell OEM cards with a standard warranty leaving partners to battle it out with custom coolers, warranties and boxed games to differentiate themselves. I do wonder if they have setup up there own enterprise or are using a 3rd party? If they were going to sell directly it’s a wonder why they didn’t buy up BFG before they went to the wall.

 

[kylew]

There's nothing new in this, before AMD bought them out ATI use to sell its own products directly and were popular with some buyers as they thought if the card was made by ATI it was of better quality and would be more reliable. I have no idea if there was any evidence that ‘made by ATI’ cards were any better then those sold by it’s partners but the ATI name seemingly gave more confidence to buyers about what they were buying.

My guess is Nvidia is working on the same principle as the Nvidia brand name is a lot, lot stronger then any of its partners including EVGA, XFX etc and they will sell OEM cards with a standard warranty leaving partners to battle it out with custom coolers, warranties and boxed games to differentiate themselves. I do wonder if they have setup up there own enterprise or are using a 3rd party? If they were going to sell directly it’s a wonder why they didn’t buy up BFG before they went to the wall.

The way I see it is that they're doing it to minimise losses.

 

[An Exception]

The way I see it is that they're doing it to minimise losses.

I just had a thought, maybe Nv is also putting plans in motion to take up any slack should any more AIB's that have large contracts with 'Big Retail' go under or simply stop selling Nvidia cards, for the following contributing factors.

GT200 wasn't very profitable but had decent volume, but was EOL'd 6 months before the 400 series was released so hardly any GT200's were sold during that period.
Then when the 400 series was finally released, they wasn't very profitable but unlike GT200, sales volume was catastrophic compared to last gen and the competitions current gen.
Nv only AIB's must be soooo deep in their overdrafts by now just trying to stay solvent and with hardly any demand for their product (except low margin GTX460's), and would explain the rumours about companies like EVGA becoming very strict with RMA's & dust etc.

 

[Azza]

More here about the cards

http://hardocp.com/article/2010/10/05/nvidia_enters_retail_direct_sales_at_best_buy/1


Bloke on NV News forum saying it's not going to be a long term deal though.

 

[Freddie1980]

More here about the cards

http://hardocp.com/article/2010/10/05/nvidia_enters_retail_direct_sales_at_best_buy/1


Bloke on NV News forum saying it's not going to be a long term deal though.

Gordon Bennett makes an interesting observation

We have been informed that NVIDIA is telling people affected by this move into the retail market that this is simply "a test." This could certainly explain NVIDIA's narrow scope of one retailer as well as a very limited amount of SKUs on the shelf. I do not think NVIDIA really wants to be in the video card business. The discreet graphics business in North America is a meat grinder that most folks do not want to stick their hand into

A large portion of Nvidia's sales is from it's video card business and is the companies bread and butter so I can't see Nvidia wanting to pull out of this industry any time soon.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Well he's obviously referring to selling GFX cards directly and not the GPU making business.

 

[An Exception]

I have talked to a lot of NVIDIA AIBs over the last decade and all those companies have one thing in common; a certain amount of scorn for NVIDIA. I have heard many partners over the years describe NVIDA as arrogant, pompous, overbearing, and generally just hard to do business with. Maybe NVIDIA walking a mile in its GPU customers' shoes will give it a new respect for what those companies do. Certainly though moving into a market and becoming your customers competition is not doing anything for its relationship with its partners.

Seems Nv wasn't very popular with it's AIB's even before this...

 

[An Exception]

Here is what Charlie has to say...
http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/10/05/why-nvidia-killing-their-partners-branded-cards/

 

[Freddie1980]

Kyle 'Gordon' Bennett has nearly has a big an axe to grind against Nvidia as Charlie Demerjian does. I don’t know when it started but it flared up a couple of years ago when [H] published a scaving article on the then up and coming GTS250 and accused Nvidia of trying to deceive buyers. The very next day the story was published on some financial news sites which upset Nvidia and [H] were put on the Nvidia’s black list.

If it weren’t for Kyle’s quality reviews I would almost be inclined to lump him and Charlie into the same frame as those types of journalists that have been rubbed the wrong way by Nvidia.