Times have been tough. Image: Kotaku / San Francisco Chronicle / Hearst Newspapers (Getty Images)
And now for something no one saw coming: EVGA, one of the top third-party PC graphics card manufacturers and a favorite brand among PC gamers for quality parts and reliable warranties backed by solid service to the customer, is ending its long relationship with Nvidia. In addition, the company said it will also not seek partnerships with competing silicon giants such as AMD or Intel. Looks like EVGA is done with GPUs.
Kotaku has reached out to EVGA for comment.
News of EVGA’s seemingly sudden decision to stop making GPUs came via popular YouTubers GamersNexus and Jayztwocents. Personalities from both channels say they were invited to a private meeting with EVGA staff, including CEO Andrew Han. At the meeting, EVGA outlined its desire and intent to break with Nvidia, citing multiple frustrations with the partnership.
These pain points mostly relate to what Han describes as Nvidia’s reluctance to share essential information about its products with partners until that same information is publicly available, often on stage at a press conference; that he believes Nvidia is undercutting partners like EVGA by selling its own “Founders’ Edition” cards at a lower price; and the feeling among partners that Nvidia simply does not value their sponsorship.
GamersNexus has a very thorough breakdown of the meeting and this news in their video.
GamersNexus
EVGA’s top management made the decision to split from Nvidia in April, but kept the decision strictly confidential. Although EVGA, a company that is often known and valued for excellent GPUs and reliable customer service, is exiting the GPU market, the company is said to be intent on staying in business. However, it will not expand into new product categories, GamersNexus reports. And while the company makes and sells other PC components such as motherboards, cases and power supplies, the loss of the GPU part of its business is likely to pose challenges for its 280 employees across the world
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GamersNexus’ Steve Burke reports that EVGA is looking to reassign staff to different projects to keep everyone busy. The company laid off 20 percent of its Taiwan employees earlier this year, and now several people whose jobs revolved solely around GPU manufacturing and development have no obvious work to do.
While EVGA will continue to sell 30-series RTX cards, it expects to run out of stock by the end of the year and will hold onto additional stock to service warranties and repairs. EVGA’s commitment to honor warranties for existing customers of these cards.
Today is a bittersweet day for PC gamers as EVGA’s presence in the GPU arena will be sorely missed. On the other hand, the cryptomining frenzy that has plagued the industry by buying countless cards for mining rigs seems to be coming to an end. Prominent crypto Ethereum has finally moved away from the GPU-hungry “proof-of-work” algorithms that have contributed to the virtual destruction of available GPU stock over the past two years. As you’ve probably noticed, GPUs are back in stock for purchase and prices have finally started to come down to Earth. With Ethereum changing, we expect this trend to only accelerate.