Legendary GPU overclocker Kingpin might be making a comeback to GPU manufacturing after EVGA abandoned its GPU manufacturing partnership with Nvidia. Gamers Nexus reports that the Taiwanese overclocker is in talks with PNY to build extreme overclocking-capable graphics cards with the Nvidia AIB partner.
Nothing is set in stone, but it looks like there is a very good chance Kingpin will be working with the PNY team in the not-too-distant future. Kingpin himself has said that Kingpin-branded cards have a very good chance of coming back. The overclocker appears to be excited to be working with PNY, and he already has a PNY RTX 4090 XLR8 on his own personal test bench that he is testing along with PNY's overclocking software to get a lay of the land.
Kingpin reveals that PNY is eager to enter the overclocking space. This makes sense — PNY is known primarily for its OEM and professional graphics cards and has (so far) not been known for building renowned overclocking or enthusiast-focused graphics cards. A partnership with Kingpin would represent PNY's first foray into the extreme overclocking scene.
There's a lot of incentive for Kingpin to join PNY. The overclocker revealed that partnering with existing competitors in the extreme overclocking space, such as Galax and Asus, wasn't really an option — claiming there would be "too many cooks in the kitchen" if he joined up with one of those companies. With PNY, Kingpin has a clean slate to steer the company's enthusiast/extreme overclocking scene in the direction he wants.
Kingpin also confirmed that he previously talked with MSI about joining its overclocking scene, but that MSI wasn't keenly interested in building extreme overclocking cards.
It's exciting to see a potential Kingpin comeback to reignite the extreme overclocking scene. Since he left EVGA (as a result of EVGA's departure from the GPU manufacturing business), there hasn't really been any serious competition in the extreme overclocking scene — mainly due to Nvidia's recent heavy restrictions on AIB partner cards. Kingpin confirmed that this is still a problem, and that none of the company's current AIB partners are seriously focusing on extreme overclocking — or even enthusiast-focused cards — in the same way EVGA did.
PNY's eagerness to enter the overclocking scene and Kingpin's excitement about working with PNY makes a potential partnership seem very likely. If the timing lines up right, Kingpin could have a Kingpin-branded card ready with the RTX 50 series — which is rumored to arrive at the tail end of 2024.
