Unless you've been living under a rock, you have probably heard of the Geforce Partner Program (GPP) launched by Nvidia recently in an effort to further reduce AMD's market share - something that is already in dire need of correction. Currently AMD have about a 27% share of the market with Nvidia holding the remaining 73%. The method Nvidia are employing is to offer preferential treatment (early access to new products, promotion, funding etc) to all partner companies that manufacture their graphics cards and sign up to the GPP. In my mind this is a clear example of anti-competitive behaviour and I can see why many consumers are looking to boycott Nvidia products going forward. The GPP specifies that all partners who sign up cannot include AMD products in their primary gaming brand. For example the Aorus line of Gigabyte products or the ROG line of Asus products. This essentially means that manufacturers who are already likely to be seeing most of their revenue coming from Nvidia sales have a very clear cut choice on their hands. It makes financial sense to drop AMD in favour of Nvidia, further widening the gap in market share.
Here is a round up of the most popular manufacturers:
Asus - very likely to be part of GPP
Gigabyte - very likely to be part of GPP
MSI - very likely to be part of GPP
Zotac - exclusive Nvidia manufacturer
EVGA - exclusive Nvidia manufacturer
PNY - exclusive Nvidia manufacturer
XFX - exclusive AMD manufacturer (rejected GPP)
Sapphire - exclusive AMD manufacturer
Asrock - exclusive AMD manufacturer
Personally, I have been an enthusiast for some time now and this seems to simply be the latest tactic Nvidia are employing in an effort to push AMD out of the market. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a company showing a healthy level of competition as it is the consumers who benefit in the end. However, tactics such as the GPP are clearly anti-competitive policies and for this reason I believe consumers will pay the price. I have dropped Nvidia since the days of my 7900 GTX and have gone with AMD in recent years with a 7850 which I swapped out for an RX480 and have recently purchased a second RX480 to pair with the first. As things stand, I don't think I'll ever go back to Nvidia purely based on their anti-competitive practices.
I would love to know what other members of the steemit community think on this subject as I'm sure there are a lot of opinions going around at the moment. Are you sticking with Nvidia due to their relatively unbeatable performance in comparison to AMD in the high end section of the market? Has the GPP gone a step too far and are you considering joining the boycott? Should it be Nvidia products which are boycotted or just the manufacturers who have signed up to the GPP? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!