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We haven't heard much about Nvidia's GeForce Partner Programme over the last couple of weeks. In the last major update to the story, ASUS separated its GPUs, leaving Nvidia with ROG and bumping AMD over to a new AREZ brand. Now, it turns out that may have been an unnecessary step, as Nvidia has pulled the plug on the program.
When Nvidia first announced the GeForce Partner Program in early March, it flew under the radar for a lot of people. However, it didn't take long for behind-the-scenes details to start leaking out, causing some fairly hefty controversy over brand exclusivity and how it might affect AMD in the future. There were questions over Gigabyte and MSI's involvement, but ASUS was the first to bite the bullet and make its branding changes public.
However, all of the controversy surrounding the GPP has given Nvidia a sudden and unexpected change of heart. In an announcement made late last night, the company confirmed that the GeForce Partner Program is no more. Here's a quote from Nvidia's announcement:
“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.”
The post goes on to say that “most partners agreed” with the core tenants of GPP, which aimed to split brands up to make a clear distinction between an Nvidia AiB card and an AMD one. However, despite that, Nvidia is “pulling the plug on GPP to avoid any distractions” when it comes to future launches. We've been expecting to hear about the successor to Pascal for a few months now, and it looks like whatever Nvidia has planned, the company didn't want any GPP-related controversy looming over it.
KitGuru Says: This is a rather unexpected turn of events. Ultimately, I do wonder what this means for ASUS, as it only just recently announced that it would be spinning off its AMD cards under the new AREZ brand.
