And now for something no one saw coming: EVGA, one of the most prominent third-party PC graphics card manufacturers and a favorite brand among PC gamers for quality parts and reliable warranties backed by solid customer service, is ending its long-standing relationship with Nvidia. Additionally, the company has reportedly said it will not pursue partnerships with rival silicon giants such as AMD or Intel. Looks like EVGA is just done with GPUs. Kotaku has reached out to EVGA for comment. News of EVGA’s seemingly sudden decision to stop making GPUs broke via popular YouTubers GamersNexus and Jayztwocents. Figures from both channels say they were invited to a one-on-one meeting with EBGA staff, including chief executive Andrew Hahn. At the meeting, EVGA reportedly laid out its desire and intent to move away from Nvidia, citing multiple frustrations with the partnership. These pain points mainly involve what Han describes as Nvidia’s reluctance to share key information about its products with its partners until that same information becomes publicly available, often on stage at a press conference. that they believe Nvidia is undercutting them by selling their own “Founders’ Edition” cards at a lower price. and a feeling among partners like EVGA that Nvidia simply doesn’t value their protection. GamersNexus has a very detailed breakdown of the meeting and this news in their video. GamersNexus EVGA’s top management made its decision to split from Nvidia in April, but kept the decision strictly confidential. Although EVGA, a company so often known and appreciated for its excellent GPUs and reliable customer service, is exiting the GPU market, the company reportedly intends to continue in business. However, it will not expand to new product categories, GamersNexus reports. And while the company makes and sells other computer components, such as motherboards, cases and power supplies, the loss of the GPU side of its business is likely to create challenges for its 280 employees worldwide. G/O Media may receive a commission $10 or more Humble Bundle – Starlight Bundle Benefit Starlight Children’s FoundationFor $10 or more, you can help kids in hospital get access to video games—and get some sweet toys for yourself, too, including Lego Star Wars – The Complete Saga. GamersNexus’ Steve Burke reports that EVGA is looking to reallocate staff to different projects to keep everyone busy. The company laid off 20 percent of its employees in Taiwan 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 the RTX 30 series cards, it expects to run out of inventory by the end of the year and will depend on additional inventory to service warranties and repairs. EVGA is committed to honoring the guarantees 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 cryptocurrency mining craze that has plagued the industry by buying countless mining cards 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 decimation of available GPU stock over the past two years. As you’ve probably noticed, GPUs are once again available for purchase and prices have finally started to come back down to Earth. With the Ethereum switch, we hope this trend will accelerate.
