NVIDIA Terminates GeForce Partner Program
by Ryan Smith on May 4, 2018 8:00 PM EST
Just as quickly as it came into being, NVIDIA’s GeForce Partner Program has come to an end.
In a short article posted to their website today, NVIDIA’s Director of Product Marketing, John Teeple, announced that the program has been cancelled. In making the unexpected decision, Teeple stated “The rumors, conjecture and mistruths go far beyond its [the GeForce Partner Program’s] intent. Rather than battling misinformation, we have decided to cancel the program” and that “today we are pulling the plug on GPP to avoid any distraction from the super exciting work we’re doing to bring amazing advances to PC gaming.” No further information was provided on just what canceled entails, and what this means for existing program partners.
NVIDIA’s GeForce Partner Program is been divisive, to put it lightly. After news of it broke in March and was confirmed by NVIDIA, the program quickly attracted a good deal of negative attention out of concerns over what it meant for the competitive market, and a general degree of mean spiritedness. Adding fuel to the fire, few details of the program were ever confirmed by NVIDIA – with the company seeing little benefit in doing so – which left a great void open for rumors and unsourced reports of all kinds.
Ultimately NVIDIA’s goal with the program was to more thoroughly isolate its partner ecosystem, in the process ensuring that GeForce-aligned brands were just that: GeForce aligned, and that non-GeForce products weren’t sold under the same brand. NVIDIA cited this as a means of transparency so that consumers could be confident that they were buying GeForce products. In practice, the program left NVIDIA with a credibility problem, and the lack of details means that we’ll likely never know for sure the true extent of NVIDIA’s motivations with the program.
Even with this change, NVIDIA is looking to portray it as a positive (or at least neutral) change, noting that “This is a great time to be a GeForce partner and be part of the fastest growing gaming platform in the world. The GeForce gaming platform is rich with the most advanced technology.” Still, the lack of transparency means that it’s not clear what happens next for NVIDIA, or for that matter their partners who were already participating.
Some partners, particularly industry juggernaut ASUS, had already realigned their brands and had launched their AMD-specific brands, in ASUS’s case the new-yet-old Arez brand. The termination of the GeForce Partner Program presumably leaves the door open to ASUS folding these products back into their existing brands. However what they’ll actually do remains to be seen. It does no doubt bring a sigh of relief to AMD themselves, as AMD stood to be the biggest (corporate) loser as a result of the program, and has been ramping up their own “Freedom of Choice” advertising program.
Ultimately at the end of the day this means that the video card market returns to a state of status quo, at least for however long the newly revived status quo lasts.
Pulling the Plug on GPP, Leaning into GeForce
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.
NVIDIA creates cutting-edge technologies for gamers. We have dedicated our lives to it. We do our work at a crazy intense level – investing billions to invent the future and ensure that amazing NVIDIA tech keeps coming. We do this work because we know gamers love it and appreciate it. Gamers want the best GPU tech. GPP was about making sure gamers who want NVIDIA tech get NVIDIA tech.
With GPP, we asked our partners to brand their products in a way that would be crystal clear. The choice of GPU greatly defines a gaming platform. So, the GPU brand should be clearly transparent – no substitute GPUs hidden behind a pile of techno-jargon.
Most partners agreed. They own their brands and GPP didn’t change that. They decide how they want to convey their product promise to gamers. Still, today we are pulling the plug on GPP to avoid any distraction from the super exciting work we’re doing to bring amazing advances to PC gaming.
This is a great time to be a GeForce partner and be part of the fastest growing gaming platform in the world. The GeForce gaming platform is rich with the most advanced technology. And with GeForce Experience, it is “the way it’s meant to be played.”
Source: NVIDIA
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Opencg - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - link
Hey try putting windows 10 on a non secure boot system dumbass. Proved wrong.ಬುಲ್ವಿಂಕಲ್ ಜೆ ಮೂಸ್ - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - link
You proved exactly NOTHING!Putting Spyware Platform 10 on any system is a dumb idea even though you can do it
Why would you put a backdoored Spyware/Extortionware Platform on any computer?
That is beyond dumb
Alexvrb - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - link
You continue to spread misinformation. There's no extortion. There's no spyware, and if you're paranoid you can disable telemetry yourself if you know what you're doing (or really even if you don't).There's no Nvidia Gsync-like vendor-lock. NONE. I don't know why you people bring up secureboot, but you don't need secureboot, even if that polite genius Opencg says you do.
ಬುಲ್ವಿಂಕಲ್ ಜೆ ಮೂಸ್ - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - link
"You continue to spread misinformation. There's no extortion. There's no spyware, and if you're paranoid you can disable telemetry yourself if you know what you're doing"-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you are locked into the Windows eco-system, you must agree to the terms of the License just to use what you already have (Windows Software)
Agreeing to hand over any information Microsoft wants for any purpose without compensation or the ability to reject the license and still use your software is EXTORTION
You may choose to call it Blackmail if you like but it is most likely both
You are not allowed to block Microsoft from accessing your Data and continue using the Internet due to Microsofts Backdoor
Blocking forced updates with the Windows firewall will also kill your Internet access
If you are online, Microsoft has access to anything on your computer, AND, you gave them permission to access whatever they want just to continue using the software you already have in the Windows eco-system
If "Telemetry" were just non-identifiable data to improve Windows, then why is it not improving?
They must have enough telemetry at this point to stop collecting "mandatory telemetry data" and actually start improving Windows with all the data they already have
How much data do they need?
Opting-in to telemetry is fine and I support that but this is not an option
instead, they turn it on by default and make it impossible to completely opt-out?
(and NO, you cannot completely disable telemetry and still maintain Internet access)
Alexvrb, why you continue to spread misinformation is baffling
Spyware Platform 10 is a direct threat to everyones security, not just National Security!
As far as I can tell, Microsoft has done far worse than anything NVidia has (so far)
Now, it's time for you to once again deny the evidence and stick your head back in the sand as any co-conspirator would do
So get to it!
ಬುಲ್ವಿಂಕಲ್ ಜೆ ಮೂಸ್ - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - link
Backdoor(s)timecop1818 - Monday, May 7, 2018 - link
I'm trying to figure out what is your "solution" to all this. You bring up "problems" but what's next? What's the fix? You're a few posts away from calling it Micro$oft, and then what?Surely you're not implying that installing lunix is the solution??? hahahah
PeachNCream - Monday, May 7, 2018 - link
"Surely you're not implying that installing lunix is the solution???"He's not advocating that. In the past, using the screen name Bullwinkle J Moose, his approach has been to tout the use of a read only copy of Windows XP. He's also claimed (trolled) that he's a security expert despite not demonstrating any applied information security knowledge. Others have suggested using a Linux-based solution which he's either ignored or balked at as it doesn't fit the attention-seeking narrative -- something all of us are guilty of encouraging by responding to him and discussing him.
ಬುಲ್ವಿಂಕಲ್ ಜೆ ಮೂಸ್ - Monday, May 7, 2018 - link
Thats nice...Can you show us all where I ignored or balked at using a Linux-based solution?
I'm using Linux Mint right now and prefer Linux for sensitive online passwords
It is not "THE" solution, as passwords are being stolen from online Corporations at a fantastical rate these days
Read Only XP is only used for security research where sensitive passwords are never used
The only time I ever test anything with Windows 10 these days is on an OFFLINE computer
There are programs available to make Windows 10 "basically" a Read Only O.S. but with the backdoors and spyware built into Win10, it becomes a worthless solution
.......and I only know all this because I "am" a Windows security expert
I just avoid "modern" versions of Windows (online) for actual security reasons outlined here and in other topics at this site
If you'd like to learn more, just ask the expert!
and have a nice day! :)
Alexvrb - Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - link
Oh he's THAT troll. Nevermind that explains everything! Good ol' "security expert" Trollwinkle. Good times.hescominsoon - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - link
I do have and continue to install Windows 10 on non secureboot systems. Windows works just fine without being on secureboot.