Nvidia scraps Geforce Partner Program

It has been a stormy spring for Nvidia. The reason is mainly the so-called Geforce Partner Program (GPP), in short a concept to provide benefits to manufacturers who choose to follow certain guidelines. According to Nvidia, the result will be clarity for consumers, but critics say it is more about restricting competition.

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.

Now, however, Nvidia chooses to put the Geforce Partner Program in the mothballs. The company announces in a blog post that they are scrapping the concept, rather than trying to counter “rumors, guesses and untruths”. Furthermore, Nvidia continues to claim that this is something fundamentally positive, with increased clarity for consumers.

Exact details about what the agreements around the Geforce Partner Program actually meant are, however, still shrouded in obscurity. The fact that several companies, including Asus with Arez, have chosen new name series for Radeon cards is believed to be an effect of the concept. It rhymes well with leaked information, which speaks of demands to clearly distinguish between Geforce and Radeon products already in the name.

What the end for GPP means in practical terms remains to be seen, for example, whether Nvidia’s partner manufacturers choose to return to the previous naming and segmentation approach. However, such a move risks putting the spotlight on the changes that were made – attention that is probably undesirable, given the negative criticism that has been leveled.