back to article Nvidia quickly kills its AMD-screwing GeForce 'partner program' amid monopoly probe threat

Nvidia has cancelled a partner program after just two months – just as regulators started taking an interest in complaints of anti-competitiveness. In a blog post on Friday, the head of marketing for Nv's GeForce gaming brand complained about the "rumors, conjecture and mistruths" that have surrounded the "GeForce Partner …

  1. georgezilla Silver badge

    So they are saying that if the packaging says "gaming" on it, that customers are so stupid that they can't tell if the box also says nVidia on it or not?

    OK?

    1. doublelayer Silver badge

      Not exactly. It sounds like they were forcing manufacturers to decide whether their flagship brand would have nvidia chips only, or only non-nvidia chips. The companies that have gaming brands have to choose one, because their brands that have former knowledge will sell better than new ones just started. Therefore, they have to essentially choose to give nvidia a guarantee of placement in all their models, or settle for the likelihood that nvidia wouldn't let them sell any of their GPUs. That hurts the computer manufacturers a little, nvidia a little but they were thinking longterm, and customers a lot, both now and in the longterm. It's not about expecting one type of GPU and getting another, because you can easily determine what you're buying, it's about how much you paid for it and how much choice you will be offered to have whatever GPU you'd like to buy.

  2. Steve Knox
    Stop

    Nope.

    Nvidia's GeForce is one of few gaming super-brands so you could forgive the company for imagining it could use that market power to tie companies into its chips.

    No, I can't. And you shouldn't. Antitrust law is clear on this type of thing, and only gross incompetence on a massive scale would prevent a corporation like Nvidia from knowing this.

    1. Tom 64
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: Nope.

      I can't either. I haven't bought a single nVidia 'product' since Charlie D over at the Inq uncovered their cost cutting shitbaggery way back when which meant that your GPU would fail shortly after your warranty.

      If you put profit before customer satisfaction, you can go whistle fuckers.

    2. Steve the Cynic

      Re: Nope.

      No, I can't. And you shouldn't.

      You *should* be willing to forgive them for *imagining* it. It is quite reasonable to withhold that forgiveness if they *do* it.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Basically...

    Some day a store (Amazon?) is going to say they own the right (in any form, patent/trademark/copyright) to the concept of "sale/sold/ownership" and threaten to sell every other corporation in existence.

    Well, there's bound to be at least one person stupid enough to try it?

    1. Zippy's Sausage Factory

      Re: Basically...

      Amazon already sort of did that, with patenting "one-click buying", didn't they?

    2. dbastianello

      Re: Basically...

      Like Intel trying to copyright the letter "i" a few years back...

  4. TRT Silver badge

    GPP?

    Sounds ghastly.

    It is. It all is. Absolutely ghastly. Just don't even talk about it.

  5. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

    Blimey

    Some kind of evil custom keyboard with a delete button where return should be!

    1. Updraft102

      Re: Blimey

      Must be the new Microsoft keyboard, with reference to their "GWX" malware that had the "Upgrade later" button in the place usually occupied by "Cancel".

    2. King Jack
      Happy

      Re: Blimey

      That is of course Jeff Hardy's keyboard....

    3. ScissorHands

      Re: Blimey

      Funnily, it's a key no Mac laptop keyboard has had in a long time, maybe ever (you have to Fn-Backspace to get "delete")

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Remove also the Spyware from the nVidia drivers!! Or else ...GDPR

    nVidia graphic card driver package (400MB) is full of spyware!!

    It automatically installs background services, that start at Windows boot time, consume lot's of memory and run Nodejs processes in the background and send lot's of my personal privat data from my PC to nVidia webservers. That's against the law. Suckers!

    Remove this spyware from nVidia drivers, or we hope you nVidia assholes get nuked by EU GDPR

    source of official spyware infested nVidia drivers: https://www.geforce.co.uk/drivers

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      how to disable telemetry

      How to disable nVidia driver telemetry:

      https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/6g1esg/disable_nvidia_telemetry_a_utility_that_allows/

      A) run the Disable-Nvidia-Telemetry program (see link above) or

      B) delete all 16 telemetry applications from the driver package yourself (see link above)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Remove also the Spyware from the nVidia drivers!! Or else ...GDPR

      '..run Nodejs processes in the background and send lot's of my personal privat data from my PC to nVidia webservers...'

      Alas!, if only there was some way or means of blocking this nefarious code's access to external servers....

      That's against the law. Suckers!'

      So, you've installed something that you know punts your data to their servers and yet you call them 'Suckers'?

      ** Boggle

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Remove also the Spyware from the nVidia drivers!! Or else ...GDPR

        > "Alas!, if only there was some way or means of blocking this nefarious code's access to external servers.... So, you've installed something that you know punts your data to their servers and yet you call them 'Suckers'?"

        Without knowing, first one has to find out, the nVidia driver is suddenly sending data home. Then it's very normal to steam off the frustration and point out it's pretty illegal what they do, especially starting with June 2018 GPRP law they will certainly face law suits. Always ask for opt-in. Whereas nVidia and Microsoft don't even offer a opt-out - it's active and can't be turned off - so illegal!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Remove also the Spyware from the nVidia drivers!! Or else ...GDPR

          It's good that my Windows 10 machine is only used for gaming.

          They can telemeter my micro all they want and get fat & rich on it.

          But this anticompetitive behaviour angers me. I might be appeased by a ritual disemboweling of Nvidia C-Suite personnel at new moon but I don't give any guarantees.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Remove also the Spyware from the nVidia drivers!! Or else ...GDPR

          "June 2018 GPRP law"

          You mean GDPR?

  7. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "Rather than battling misinformation..."

    Translation :

    Um, our heavy-handed tactics have been revealed, so we're backing off before being fined to oblivion. Hey, how could we guess that forcing our partners to use only our products would be illegal ? It's not like we have lawyers to tell us such things, or any respect of an actual Free Market. We just thought we could make all the money. Seems like we can't. Shucks.

  8. CatBlueberry

    Nvidia Owns Kieren

    "Poor Nvidia. Just trying to give people what they want" Did Nvidia perform a market survey on what is it that people wants from Nvidia? The GPP is about "Transparency" yet Nvidia had remained quiet about it ever since news about the GPP broke out. "Helping gamers know what they purchase" are your suggesting the average person is an idiot? How hard can it be to distinguish between these two words? NVIDIA GTX vs AMD RADEON, oh yeah sorry its 99% similar. Look at the recent steam hardware survey, GTX 1060 outsold AMD RX 580/480 by a significant margin, gamers know what they want.

    1. James 51

      Re: Nvidia Owns Kieren

      I would have snapped up a RX card if I could have found one at a sane price. Went for a 2400G as I was tired waiting.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not as slow to learn as Intel

    Apparently Nvidia isn't as slow to learn or as arrogant as Intel. It's expensive to fight the law because the law always wins and criminals pay substantial fines for anti-trust violations - well at least in the EU.

    1. Korev Silver badge

      Re: Not as slow to learn as Intel

      >It's expensive to fight the law because the lawyers always win

      Fixed that for you...

      1. Michael Strorm Silver badge

        I fought the law and the lawyers won....

        I fought the law and the lawyers won.

  10. Francis Boyle Silver badge

    That's odd

    I've never had any trouble ensuring the graphics cards I've bought don't use an Nvidia chip.

  11. rav

    Debranding and forcing AMD out of gaming is anti-competitive and monopolistic.

    ASUS was selling BOTH Radeon and Geforce under the Republic of Gamers or ROG brand. nVidia forced ASUS to DEBRAND RADEON from ROG. Let's now see if ASUS returns RADEON to the ROG BRAND.

    nVidia did not want ASUS or any other OEM to sell RADEON as a GAMING BRANDED AIB.

    nVidia must think GAMERS ARE COMPLETE AND TOTAL IDIOTS if their REASON is making sure that GAMERS GET THE BRAND THEY WANT???

    SERIOUSLY??? NO GREENIE FANBOY would be caught DEAD WITH RADEON!!

    The EU is still trying to collect on the 2BILLION EURO fine they imposed upon INTEL for dirty tricks.

    1. kain preacher

      Re: Debranding and forcing AMD out of gaming is anti-competitive and monopolistic.

      rav , No they don't think gamers are dumb but what happened is the OEM space. When laptop makers like Asus have a choice. Use the new intel amd Radeon chip or use Nivida they went for Nvida because PPG program

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @rav; Bob- is that you?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "@rav; Bob- is that you?"

        No it didn't have FUCK U EU...USA,USA,USA or COMMIE LIBERALS mentioned anywhere in it.

    3. DJSpuddyLizard

      Re: Debranding and forcing AMD out of gaming is anti-competitive and monopolistic.

      ASUS was selling BOTH Radeon and Geforce under the Republic of Gamers or ROG brand. nVidia forced ASUS to DEBRAND RADEON from ROG

      They should have tried selling the Radeon offerings under the "Republic of Gamerz" brand. There, eliminated the confusion for you!

  12. Maelstorm Bronze badge
    FAIL

    nVidia sucks all around

    To you nVidia fans, I'm sorry, but they suck. They suck as a company, and their hardware sucks. Every nVidia product that I have had has failed within two years of purchase. Because the warranties are only good for a year, too bad. I have ATI cards that are 15 years old and they still work. Usually, after 10 years ATI cards fail for one reason or another, which is more than 5 times longer than any nVidia card that I've had. Of course, this is my personal experience and opinion.

    As to their business practices, Microsoft got their hand slapped for doing something similar in the 1990's here in the US.

    1. Hans 1

      Re: nVidia sucks all around

      As to their business practices, Microsoft got their hand slapped for doing something similar in the 1990's here in the US.

      MS have been doing it ever since, though ...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: nVidia sucks all around

      "I have ATI cards that are 15 years old and they still work.... I have ATI cards that are 15 years old and they still work"

      I've always found they tend to fail about the same item I try to fit the AGP card into a PCI-E slot. They kinda fit after you've hit them with a hammer, but they never seem to work properly after that.

      1. jeffdyer

        Re: nVidia sucks all around

        Ye those 15 year old 640x480 cards. Really useful.

  13. Sil

    Herkleman's post reeks of hypocrisy, announcing AMD's partners launching new brands for their Radeon-based graphics cards, just like what NVIDIA was asking from his partners.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They forgot to include "Awesome" for some overused everyday millennial bombast

    '[Nvidia notes] that it does "our work at a crazy intense level"'

    Picturing some fiftysomething manager getting down with the millennial kids and their hip new trend of replacing adverbs with adjectives.

    Oddly, despite the fact it's been around for years now (#), that irritating millennial manner of speech still sounds stupid when uttered in corporate press release form like that. (As it does when it's uttered anywhere, but that's beside the point).

    (#) So long in fact that the oldest millennials are now in their mid-thirties and most kids are now Generation Z. Who I'm reliably informed (##), have ditched that square old slang and instead confuse their parents by communicating solely using psychic powers.

    (##) By the Daily Mail. (See "Immigrants Spread 'Chrysalid' Trend Threat to Our Children and Lower House Prices").

  15. hellwig

    NVIDIA doesn't make Radeons?

    I know when I'm in the market to spend $300, $500, $1000 on an NVIDIA GPU, I couldn't be assed to read into and research the products I buy. I just find a gpu that matches the price best and buy it. Then when I install my NVIDIA drivers and can't get the card to work in my games, I RMA the card and buy then next one. Oh and you KNOW I leave one-star reviews on those shitty products that just don't work.

    But seriously, I'm in the AMD crowd. NVIDIA's been a dick for a long time. Their proprietary TWIMTBP games (the way it's meant to be played) were just an attempt to screw over AMD/ATI. AMD made their standard open (though I'm sure they're no angels).

  16. goldcd

    nVidia (like Intel) are in a curious position regarding their customers and AMD

    If you *want* the highest FPS then you're going to go with Intel&nVidia - but you'll be grinding your teeth as you hand over the cash for the few % incremental gains you get over the last gen/$.

    AMD have recently come out with maybe the first gear in 5 years that challenges. GPU have more grunt if not quite the game-tuning, their CPU whilst maybe still at a slight core disadvantage have more cores and less costly mobos to put them on. The underdog has done good - and even if you don't want to switch, has forced Intel to compete on price/performance.

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