Nvidia blames its rebranding practices on OEMs

[Matthew DeCarlo]

While some argue that Nvidia is treading in deep water (what with AMD's current lead in the graphics market and all), most can agree on one thing: Nvidia's rebranding policies are annoying and misleading. For instance, the company's G92 GPU made its way into GeForce 8800, 9800, GTS 200, GTX 200M products. More recently, the GT218 has appeared in GeForce 200, 300 and Ion 2 lines.

Facing strong criticism among enthusiasts, Nvidia addressed concerns in a chat with Bit-Tech. The company said that it only rebrands products at the request of large PC OEMs. Nvidia also said that despite how much consumers complain about its rebranding exercises and how confusing it makes buying a new graphics card, most rebrands are OEM-only products and will "never be seen within the retail space."

Unfortunately, Bit-Tech couldn't get the names of companies asking Nvidia to rebrand its graphics solutions. Rebranding a product creates demand without the expense of actually building something new, and Nvidia isn't the only one who does it. The Tech Report notes that AMD appeased the requests of partners with its Mobility Radeon HD 5165 and 5145, which are simply faster 4000-series products.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/38124-nvidia-blames-its-rebranding-practices-on-oems.html

 

[Archean]

It is not just confusing, IMHO re-branding is more of a deceptive tactic, in this case on part of nVidia or AMD. Its like admitting that you do not have something useful to compete with in the market place, but have enough lunacy to sell it anyway by giving it a new name with minutely small bumps of performance here or there.

One thing which comes to mind is "modern business practices somehow demands the finest art of insincerity possible in dealings with its audience to maximize profits, without any care about ethical issues as such".

Regardless of that, I think there is another problem which involve the way people perceive, think and make buying decisions. Often I see people here and on many other forums, taking sides of Corporation X or Y; instead of comparing products (e.g. performance/quality etc.) and making logically correct decision in choosing a solution (regardless of what badge it may carry) according to their needs.

 

[Guest]

This is one of the lamest excuses I've heard from nVidia. Trying to blame it on your customers?!?!?! Either suicide or nVidia is beyond arrogant. This is coming from a company that likes to dictate things to their customer. So, I don't buy your excuse one bit. It would help if they came clean with this, but I doubt their arrogance or ego will allow it.

 

[skitzo_zac]

Guest said:
This is one of the lamest excuses I've heard from nVidia. Trying to blame it on your customers?!?!?! Either suicide or nVidia is beyond arrogant. This is coming from a company that likes to dictate things to their customer. So, I don't buy your excuse one bit. It would help if they came clean with this, but I doubt their arrogance or ego will allow it.

I think your taking this a bit to seriously. They are not blaming it on indivual users they are blaming it on large system builders like Dell, HP etc. And I do believe them, from memory some of the rebrads definately did start life as OEM only parts (GTS 240/250). And the mobile (laptop) cards, I don't see them available for purchase to indivual users so that seems pretty feasable that's it dictated by OEM demand.

 

[DJ83]

Its very sad to hear this poor excuse. Nvidia could easily say no to its suppliers when a request is made for a re-brand. Re-branding in no way benefits the consumer, as Archean notes there is no ethical responsibility in this practice. I'm a techie, but can understand why the average person gets confused with the myriad of products.

 

[Clrabbit]

"most rebrands are OEM-only products and will "never be seen within the retail space.""

Way What? Is this there way of saying there planing to stop selling retail cards, or just bad speech planing?

I'm pretty sure there stupid new naming system has effected there entire line of current and future gen cards.

Doing things just because OEMs tell them they "should" kind of makes me wonder if they have just decided their enthusiast system builder fans are second rate, and not worth there time.

 

[slh28]

Nice excuse, passing the blame is pretty much the only way nvidia could have justified themselves. While nvidia are pissing off the enthusiast market with these tactics, in reality this is only a very small segment of their revenue base and they are probably making a lot more from the rebranding of cards than they are losing from the people switching to AMD at the high end.

Of course this in no way justifies their actions, but from a financial perspective you can see that this makes sense. nvidia are a listed company and unfortunately their ONLY objective is to deliver returns to shareholders.

 

[EduardsN]

All this rebranding nvidia does got me confused a while ago. But does anyone know when the 300 series(dx10.1) video cards are coming out? Or are they not going to release those at all?

 

[slh28]

All this rebranding nvidia does got me confused a while ago. But does anyone know when the 300 series(dx10.1) video cards are coming out? Or are they not going to release those at all?

Yes, they have come out already and they are rebrands yet again. The Fermi cards are now the 4xx series.

 

[thatguyandrew92]

Well it is confusing at first. But a lot of people find out quick and you can buy the right card without much a problem. Rebranding isn't really an "issue."

 

[selphiroth]

well, nice excuse....
This reminds me of my GTS250 which is another rebranding product form nvidia(which is 9800gtx+). Seems like this game is going on and on...

 

[Tekkaraiden]

I find the naming practices of both AMD and Nvidia overly confusing. Rebadging older part as newer ones just makes it even more so.

 

[fref]

With the imminent release of Fermi, this practice of rebranding cards should come to an end I guess. Nvidia will finally have a real new product to offer us. I can't wait for some benchmarks, even though I'm sure the cards will be very expensive and require loads of power.

 

[Puiu]

They should at least try to improve them a bit more than just single digit gains. At least that way people won't say that they're the same.

 

[klpowell]

nVidia has always drove me nuts with their rebranding. I have always like nVidia products better than ATI and always recommeneded them in the past, but at this point I can not keep up with what is what and have just started to not use their products. The time and research nessecary to find which product is what is not work the time on my part.

 

[walliot]

This rebranding is really pissing off enthusiasts. I think most readers here will know that geforce 200 series dates back to the geforce 8800.

While we're getting angry with this stuff, I am not too surprised to know that a lot of cunsumers less educated in computers are being ripped off my thinking a Geforce 9600gt is better than a 8800gt, which is sad...

Can't believe that Nvidia has to resort to this after failing to get fermi out in time.

 

[compdata]

Nice job passing the blame Of course they benefit as well from the rebranding, so i am sure they are not too upset.

 

[Wolfanoz]

Nvidia is running damage control right now with the runaway success of AMD. In all aspects, however. We all win in the long run with one or the other quickly dropping prices on high quality GPU's.

 

[Guest]

How can you trust the word of a liar? With the past solder bumping fiaso and denial of fault then shirking responsibility and leaving customers hanging out to dry globally, you still want to beleive these people?

 

[Vrmithrax]

Pretty typical response, actually. I'm not surprised in the least that nVidia is trying to deflect the blame to the manufacturers. It's really quite funny though, because if nVidia actually had produced some new products in a timely manner, rather than falling behind while cementing their Fermi and mobile platforms, those manufacturers wouldn't have NEEDED some rebranded crap to try to keep their nVidia GPU lines selling.

Still, you have to admire the big swinging brass balls of nVidia, blaming a huge marketing black eye on the companies that directly buy their chips and build the products that end up in consumer hands. They obviously care more about their reputation than their relationships with their OEM customers.

 

[Deso]

hahahaha "Nvidia, helppp we are victims of OEM's (((((((((((, they made us do it we are good honesy company (((("

 

[thebluemeaner]

Whatever it is, the truth is that Nvidias offerings still compete in the market place, old or new technology.

 

[TomSEA]

What a load of crap. Nvidia is on the ropes right now and they know it - they're doing anything they can to maintain a market share.

 

[elroacho72]

I think if I made video cards, and Dell (or any other manufacturer) came to me and asked to rename a card so I could sell them a boatload of product--making them and myself more revenue--then I would say heck yeah. It's a no-brainer. If the quality remains consistent, or improves, then there is really no reason to whine. It's capitalism. Deal with it.

 

[Vrmithrax]

elroacho72 said:
I think if I made video cards, and Dell (or any other manufacturer) came to me and asked to rename a card so I could sell them a boatload of product--making them and myself more revenue--then I would say heck yeah. It's a no-brainer. If the quality remains consistent, or improves, then there is really no reason to whine. It's capitalism. Deal with it.

It's also deceptive, which is why the backlash is occurring. In your scenario, nVidia could have said "no, we'll just tweak the current numbering scheme to show that they are newer, but NOT in a whole new class (300s)" if they truly wanted to be transparent to the consumers. The OEMs did not twist their arm, they willingly made up a whole tier of part numbers that make it look like they are new tech, when it's just the previous tech. Which is what has consumers up in arms, it's like a slap in the face.

The least nVidia could do is own up to their own decisions, instead of trying to deflect it on their OEM customers. Instead of "they made me do it" and hiding behind their skirts, they could step up and say "yah, we decided there was more profit in going this way" and move on. Honest greed is more respectable than sidestepping the consequences of your actions.