Post-EVGA, Kingpin Seems Open to New Hardware Partnerships

EVGA Kingpin products
(Image credit: EVGA, Kingpin)

Last week, EVGA announced it would be leaving the graphics card business — which came as a huge surprise and left everyone with a lot of questions about the brand's future. There's especially been a lot of discussion, on social media and in online forums, about what EVGA's decision means for the future of the premium Kingpin sub-brand, which was aimed at hardcore enthusiasts and overclockers. 

Vince "Kingpin" Lucido has made a statement about the EVGA bombshell, and has tacitly indicated he is open to offers. 

(Image credit: EVGA, Kingpin)

In a Facebook post to friends and fans, Lucido first thanked friends and colleagues in the industry before moving on to share some love for fans of EVGA Kingpin products. Lucido also made a statement regarding the future of Kingpin products:  

“If the KP hardware is meant to continue on in one way or another, I'm sure that it will [smiley face],” wrote Lucido. 

Reading between the lines, this suggests Lucido is interested in new hardware partnerships. If Kingpin hardware does continue, especially in the GPU sphere, there are some obvious contenders for collaboration. The big three — Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI — are all heavily involved in overclocking competitions and produce hardware tuned for overclocking feats. It's easy to imagine any of these brands partnering with Kingpin Cooling to create GPUs, motherboards, and maybe more. Of course, we might also see one of the lighter-weight contenders looking to use Kingpin's brand to raise its profile.

(Image credit: EVGA, Kingpin)

Digesting Friday’s Announcement

You may have been waiting for an official statement from EVGA about its decision to leave the GPU market, but the company didn't put out a press release. However, EVGA's Global Product Management Director Jacob Freeman posted on the official forums on Friday. Freeman provided the following concise summary:

  • EVGA will not carry the next generation graphics cards.
  • EVGA will continue to support the existing current generation products.
  • EVGA will continue to provide the current generation products.

The above bullet points are direct quotes —  Freeman also emphasized that EVGA was very thankful to the “great community” that supported its graphics card products over the years.

If you're wondering why EVGA made its big decision so close to the GeForce RTX 40 series launch, we think it was probably thanks to an explosive mix of manufacturing economics combined with the weight of EVGA’s customer service commitments (extended warranty, step-up program, etc.) eating too deep into meager profit margins. 

Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

  • gg83
    I think he'll end up working for Asus
    Reply
  • Gam3r01
    It wont happen, but lets see a partnership with Sapphire.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    I vote ASRock, they only do AMD as well, but have just launched their first Intel card.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    TBH I hope for GPu's switches but stays with EVGA for MB's.

    EVAG's Dark KP is probably the msot beautiful board around.

    I'd love to see em stay as the high end XOC MB vendor with Vince. (they do em better than any other brand on the extreme high end)
    Reply
  • mac_angel
    God, I hope it's not Gigabyte. Such an absolutely Horrible company. I'd hate to tack my name onto them
    Reply
  • blacknemesist
    All terrible choices for different reasons : Asus KP might burn your house down, MSI will just price at a point no one will dare to touch it, Gigabyte will not make the card gain the value it could.
    Reply
  • rluker5
    Eximo said:
    I vote ASRock, they only do AMD as well, but have just launched their first Intel card.
    Nvidia and AMD overclocking are both pretty well established. Intel's is rudimentary at best. Not that people respect Intel graphics cards much, but a Lucido tuned one might be able to run 20% faster than it's nearest (Intel) competition. Especially if it came with some decent OC software tied to it's models.

    He'd be a big fish in a little pond.
    Reply
  • bolweval
    mac_angel said:
    God, I hope it's not Gigabyte. Such an absolutely Horrible company. I'd hate to tack my name onto them

    Agreed!

    Is it just me or do high end Gigabyte video cards look like an engorged tick?
    Reply