Nvidia: OEMs to Blame for Re-branding GPUs

By Marcus Yam
published

It's big OEMs that are causing this re-branding madness, says Nvidia.

Most recently, GeForce 300-level GPUs appeared on Nvidia's website. Although Nvidia made it clear that the 400-level cards would carry the latest GF100 Fermi technology, the new 300-level cards quietly appeared without any fanfare – likely because they were rebrands meant for OEMs.

What's with this rebranding business? Nvidia explained to Bit-tech that it is something that OEMs want in order to keep their spec sheets looking fresh and cutting edge. The company also said that rebranding is something it does at the request of large PC OEMs, but did not name specific brands.

Nvidia stressed that rebranded products are not likely to make it to the retail space, so that the enthusiast buying a GPU won't be faced with confusing rebrands. Those buying a complete PC, however, could be getting an older technology with a new name.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
38 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Mousemonkey
    I've been saying as much for ages, thanks for the confirmation.
    Reply
  • XD_dued
    Nvidia stressed that rebranded products are not likely to make it to the retail space
    g92 much? :)
    Reply
  • judeh101
    who else should we blame? It's obvious that nvidia made the decision :P
    Reply
  • NapoleonDK
    I don't care. about their stupid excuses. Rebranding is stupid. They can get away with it MAYBE once, but only with some hella overclock and aftermarket cooler.
    Reply
  • turboflame
    Nvidia explained to Bit-tech that it is something that OEMs want in order to keep their spec sheets looking fresh and cutting edge.

    So they chose to slap a new label on something old rather than actually making something fresh and cutting edge.
    Reply
  • gm0n3y
    Are they selling these overclocked, more memory, etc or are these just a straight renaming? Cause that's kinda bull. Not unprecedented for Nvidia, though I'm not sure if ATI has ever done it.
    Reply
  • 4745454b
    Product Manager "Sir, the OEMs want new products so they can have something fresh to sell and keep their sales up."

    JHH "Do we have anything?"

    Product Manager "No sir, still trying to get Fermi to work."

    JHH "Well, you better rebadge something then. We don't want to look like we are doing nothing around here. Don't forget to blame them for our needing to do this."

    Product Manager "Yes sir, excellent idea."

    Sigh.
    Reply
  • mrcmark
    And they think they can get away with it. Why put the blame on others when you obviously made you decision on rebranding. kinda stupid.
    Reply
  • cammmy
    "So they chose to slap a new label on something old rather than actually making something fresh and cutting edge."

    Uh, GF100? Sounds pretty new and cutting edge to me.

    So they rebranded something for OEM's and quietly launched it. So what? It's not like they had a massive campaign for it saying "look at this awesome new technology we have"
    Reply
  • conanstwin
    The sole purpose of complete rebranding is to in some form decieve the customer. The practice is unethical and should be stopped unless there actually are "significant" differences, which there aren't any here. An acceptable practice for example is to take the original name and place "OC" on it because it is over-clocked.
    Reply