GoKawiil
Tech News
Former EVGA product manager Brendon Ray Hedrick published an account describing how Nvidia's 2016 Founders Edition cards put it in direct competition with board partners like EVGA. He also says Nvidia required partners to sell at least one model at the announced MSRP even at a loss, threatening reduced chip allocations for those who didn't comply, forcing EVGA to offer loss-leading cards alongside pricier premium versions.
Former EVGA product manager Brendon Ray Hedrick, who worked there from 2016-2019, described how Nvidia's Founders Edition cards forced EVGA to keep a money-losing 'loss leader' model at Nvidia's advertised price to preserve chip allocations. He said profit had to come from pricier custom cards, but as Nvidia's own designs and clock management improved, the performance edge of those premium cards shrank while the cheap models sold out fast. Hedrick also described learning specs alongside the public and Nvidia tracing leaks via colored dots on retailer images.