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They gimped consumer GPU cards because crypto miners were buying them all and their core gamer market was being priced out. Making dedicated mining cards was ac

by rcme 3y ago

They gimped consumer GPU cards because crypto miners were buying them all and their core gamer market was being priced out. Making dedicated mining cards was actually trying to do less for crypto, not more.

blitzar 3y ago
crypto miners were buying them all because nvidia were selling directly to crypto miners entire production runs of cards
tinco 3y ago
I've heard someone say they did that because randomly this new type of buyer affected their sales tremendously and they had zero insight into how that market behaved. By establishing separate product lines and sales channels they could in theory better distinguish between their products doing good because of competitive gaming performance, or random fluctuations in the crypto market. That way an investor/shareholder could more accurately price the stock. I have no idea if they were successful at achieving that goal, just thought it was interesting that market differentiation wouldn't just be useful for marketing but also for corporate accounting. They would even risk alienating the crypto market and possibly lose revenue, if it would mean they'd get a better handle on what they were selling to whom.
- rcme 3y ago
  I’m sure market segmentation was part of the decision. I talked to a high up person at Nvidia about their general strategy around gaming. Nvidia sells graphics cards by having the absolute best graphics performance for gaming. This isn’t purely about raw compute power. There are lots of graphics extensions and features available to game developers on Nvidia that aren’t available elsewhere. If game developers use these extensions, they get a better looking game when played on Nvidia hardware. This comes with a cost, however; it’s more work to use these extra rendering features when developing a game. If gamers can’t buy Nvidia GPUs, then there isn’t a reason for game developers to use Nvidia’s proprietary features. If game developers don’t use the proprietary features, then games don’t look that much better on an Nvidia card. This makes Nvidia a less desirable choice for gamers.
gymbeaux 3y ago
If Nvidia did something that sounds pro-consumer in any way, it’s not because they give a damn about consumers, it’s because it coincidentally made good business sense also
rcxdude 3y ago
No, it was trying to stop their sales from being destroyed whenever a crypto crash happened and all the mining GPUs wound up in a firesale. So they made hardware that would guaranteed become e-waste in a few years instead.

by rcme 3y ago

blitzar 3y ago

crypto miners were buying them all because nvidia were selling directly to crypto miners entire production runs of cards

tinco 3y ago

I've heard someone say they did that because randomly this new type of buyer affected their sales tremendously and they had zero insight into how that market behaved. By establishing separate product lines and sales channels they could in theory better distinguish between their products doing good because of competitive gaming performance, or random fluctuations in the crypto market. That way an investor/shareholder could more accurately price the stock. I have no idea if they were successful at achieving that goal, just thought it was interesting that market differentiation wouldn't just be useful for marketing but also for corporate accounting. They would even risk alienating the crypto market and possibly lose revenue, if it would mean they'd get a better handle on what they were selling to whom.

rcme 3y ago
I’m sure market segmentation was part of the decision. I talked to a high up person at Nvidia about their general strategy around gaming. Nvidia sells graphics cards by having the absolute best graphics performance for gaming. This isn’t purely about raw compute power. There are lots of graphics extensions and features available to game developers on Nvidia that aren’t available elsewhere. If game developers use these extensions, they get a better looking game when played on Nvidia hardware. This comes with a cost, however; it’s more work to use these extra rendering features when developing a game. If gamers can’t buy Nvidia GPUs, then there isn’t a reason for game developers to use Nvidia’s proprietary features. If game developers don’t use the proprietary features, then games don’t look that much better on an Nvidia card. This makes Nvidia a less desirable choice for gamers.

gymbeaux 3y ago

If Nvidia did something that sounds pro-consumer in any way, it’s not because they give a damn about consumers, it’s because it coincidentally made good business sense also

rcxdude 3y ago

No, it was trying to stop their sales from being destroyed whenever a crypto crash happened and all the mining GPUs wound up in a firesale. So they made hardware that would guaranteed become e-waste in a few years instead.