“Founder’s Edition does not compete with our partner manufacturers”

The introduction of Nvidia’s new generation of graphics cards with the Pascal architecture was not without controversy. In addition to restrictions at SLI, the company chose a new pricing strategy, where the reference design was named “Founder’s Edition” and a higher price than tailor-made models from partner manufacturers – at least on paper.

In addition to outraged consumers, frustration was aroused among partners, who were initially only allowed to sell Nvidia’s reference designers of the Geforce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 models. This meant that Nvidia enjoyed high margins and profits, at the expense of their partners who make money on custom solutions.

Behind closed doors, there is now speculation as to whether Nvidia intends to release more lavish solutions under its own flag and thus start competing directly with its partners, which are dependent on the allocation of graphics circuits from Nvidia. Nvidia’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang tells Digitimes that no such plans are on the table.

Huang also points out that Nvidia shared all the information about Founder’s Edition with its partners, to give them the chance to improve the design and make changes. In addition, the move to make the reference design launch exclusive only applied to the Geforce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, and not the GTX 1060, which from day one was also sold with the partner manufacturers’ own solutions.

Furthermore, Nvidia has begun deliveries of the GP107 graphics circuit, which forms the basis for the entry-level models Geforce GTX 1050 Ti and GTX 1050. When these are released in October, it is expected to be only with tailor-made solutions from partners, as Nvidia probably has no reference design to offer.