Resounding! EVGA breaks with NVIDIA and leaves the video card industry!

The sensational news comes like a bolt from the blue: EVGA exits the video card industryand it does so by breaking the long partnership (since 2002) with NVIDIA. We will therefore not see any EVGA GeForce RTX 4090 FTW3 or the extreme Kingpin variant arrive on the market in the coming weeks, despite the fact that the company has already produced about twenty RTX 4090 FTW3 samples this summer.

EVGA pointed out that has no plans to partner with AMD or Intel; the decision to leave the video card sector therefore total and categorical. Although business and economic reasons are behind the choice, CEO Andrew Han mainly talked about a lack of respect by NVIDIA, bringing the relationship to a deterioration to the breaking point.

NVIDIA would have made EVGA very difficult to operatefor example not communicating the MSRP price (the recommended list price) of the cards, as well as the number of GPUs allocated and their cost until the public launch of the models, thus leaving the partner unable to define a price for custom products. Another problem would be related to driverNVIDIA often delivers them to print first than to partners themselves, preventing them from conducting the necessary internal tests before launch.

There is also talk of price caps, in addition to not being able to customize cards by changing specifications, such as adding more memory. This has greatly limited the partners’ room for maneuver, creating a sector where very often “one model is as good as another”, with often small and not decisive differences in the purchase choice between the products of the various AIB partners.

Another problem there competition that NVIDIA does with their Founders Edition cardswhich has become stronger with the recent price cut: the company, as a supplier and manufacturer, does not have to worry much about profit margins, while EVGA today finds itself selling many of its high-end video cards at a loss of hundreds of dollars per model. This is because we are at the end of the cycle and with a lot of inventory to dispose of, an aspect that leads to very marked discounts.

EVGA will now have to proceed with one review of the staff, and while the CEO hopes to relocate the graphics industry employees, it will be tough: about 75% of the company’s business was catalyzed by the sale of GeForce GPUs. The company has ensured that will continue to sell GeForce RTX 3000 solutions and offer legal warranty and card support. How much and in what way still to be established.

NVIDIAfor its part, has issued a very short use via a spokesperson: “We have had a great partnership with EVGA over the years and will continue to support them for the current generation of products. We wish Andrew and our friends at EVGA all the best“.

According to Jon Peddie Research, EVGA’s exit will leave a big hole in NVIDIA’s AIB graphics card business in North America. According to the analyst, EVGA had 40% of the market, to which were added many admirers also in Europe.