NVIDIA May Not Like Its GPU Partners Working With Intel For Next-Gen Arc Battlemage Cards

NVIDIA seems to be pretty salty about its AIB partners possibly working with Intel for next-gen Battlemage GPU as reported by PRO Hi-Tech.

It is reported that NVIDIA has "threatened" board partners with limited GPU supply in case they opt for Intel, and the measures could extend to a potential ban. This can be called NVIDIA's efforts to thwart the upcoming Intel Arc Battlemage release, which has garnered interest from the industry, especially after the recent price-to-performance value seen on the Arc Alchemist graphics cards. A drastic approach from NVIDIA could go wrong for the company and consumers, but PRO Hi-Tech hasn't quoted an official source or statement to back the claim; hence we urge consumers to take this with a grain of salt.

This is not the first time NVIDIA has been stated to do this sort of thing. We do have evidence from multiple AIB partners who were stopped from offering top-grade custom designs for AMD GPUs & the same was true for Intel's Arc Alchemist. Intel's Alchemist received no proper support from any of the top three AIBs which include ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte. The same is the case with AMD as the top SKUs from each brand don't feature a Radeon SKU. For ASUS, it's the ROG STRIX, for MSI, it's the SUPRIM X and for Gigabyte, it's the AORUS Xtreme.

In 2018, the company introduced GeForce Partner Program (GPP), which aimed to establish closer partnerships between NVIDIA and manufacturers. The program encouraged board partners to prominently display the "GeForce GTX Gaming" brand on their products and commit to aligning their gaming brands with NVIDIA.

However, the Partner Program received significant criticism and raised concerns in the industry. Critics argued that the program created anti-competitive practices by potentially limiting manufacturers' "free will." There were concerns that partners who did not participate in the program might face disadvantages or be restricted from using NVIDIA's GPU technologies.

Due to the controversy and backlash surrounding the program, Nvidia decided to cancel the GeForce Partner Program in May 2018, which was the first nail in the coffin of relations among board partners. The populous board partner EVGA also ditched NVIDIA's GPU offerings recently, citing concerns with the practices the company had adopted, which led to a decline in business.

Now, things look promising for Intel since the Arc lineup has been steadily growing to have more AIB partners onboard. With the recent addition of Sparkle & Biostar, Intel's relations with partners seem thriving, and this has attracted attention from the NVIDIA booth, and now other companies are inclined towards going to the Team Blue side. With the expected release of the Battlemage lineup by 2H 2024, we hope to see Intel's GPU offerings from more companies.

News Source: VideoCardz