Meet Vince Lucido aka KingPiN

0

There are some personalities with an amazing profile who inspire sympathy without knowing them. Vince Lucido is one of them. Overclocking enthusiasts know who Vince is and what he is capable of when it comes to pushing the performance of a card or CPU. But Vince is also a real designer, behind several products.

Let’s warm up the buckets with two torches

We were able to chat with him and for once not just about some overclocking tips but about his daily life.

Interview with KingPin: EVGA, the future of overclocking and product design

OCC: Vince, it’s easy to think that you just clock all day, but what is a real day for you?

Vince: In my early days in Taiwan, yeah it was daily extreme overclocking while also starting to learn the fundamentals of good VGA and mobo design. EVGA was going through a transition back then and there were the typical growing pains associated with a brand new and often revolving RD at the start. There was also the marketing aspect of XOC and a solid overall team effort to create and build upon strong branding in overclocking, 3dmarking, and gaming with EVGA graphics cards and motherboards. Most days were long, and I was always benching and testing some version of 3dmark for what has seemed like forever. Dream job actually if you are into 3d benching like I was always. Lately, I am shifting focus more on internal projects workflow efficiency, hardware / software design integration, and supporting and working directly with a new team of other dedicated and talented overclocked from around the world to achieve their best results on EVGA gear. I am also focusing more of my efforts on helping others and bringing up new guys that can represent EVGA well. Some guys have the will and can develop the talent, they just need some tools and a chance to compete with the big guys. That can really be time-consuming as well though lol dealing with their mishaps, hardware requirements, and general issues. I’ts all good though, I truly like supporting and helping others. While I do miss benching really hard, it is also fun to support and live vicariously through the efforts of others and see them succeed and be recognized for their outstanding efforts. I’m always a huge fan and spectator of extreme overclocking at the highest levels.

Part of the components that carry the “KPE” flu

OCC: We all know that you have a strong link with the EVGA brand, what is the product that has marked you the most in the last few years or the one that gave you the most pleasure to design?

Vince: I didn’t realize it was so obvious. It’s really hard to say, I have a connection with every project I have been fortunate to be involved with. All the KP cards, all the Dark boards. Each one of those is special to me and sort of like a timeline snapshot of the progression of design and engineering levels of our past teams which have not been the same for every single product and have changed and evolved throughout the 12-13 years into where we are at today. Super hard for me to pick a favorite, but I am quite happy with how the whole project of 3090KP turned out, especially completely without Tinbo. It was a big challenge for sure. We still have some more cool things coming in 2021 though.

Lots of testing before the final product arrives

OCC: A lot of people buy KPE products, but they don’t overclock, how do you consider this?

Vince: EVGA sells many thousands KP cards every generation which are actually purpose built for extreme overclocking right, but it’s mostly gamers, WC enthusiasts, and even builders grabbing up most of the supply. I could see how it could be frustrating for some serious extreme overclocked who want a KP card for ln2 benching or records runs, but simply can’t get it. The demand every gen from mainstream enthusiasts has gotten heavier, especially on last few generations of kp cards. Most enthusiasts understand by now what they are getting with one. The value that is in them lies within the engineering efforts and features we integrate into them for OC. I realized some time ago that only designing the card for XOC and nothing else didn’t make much sense. I wanted it to be as well-rounded of a product as possible, so I’ve kept a focus on achieving the best level of daily use type performance too + the ln2 use. The card should be a higher level experience for everyone IMO, not just with a ln2 pot. That will never change. This does increase the main stream demand of an already limited edition card by even more. This generation I specifically tried to help and support as many guys as I could that wanted to do XOC, especially the first time guys. No offense to any OG’s, but they are usually most fun to work with. Some work out and some don’t ofc :), but still worth the effort.

RELATED STORY
The next Intel Battlemage graphics cards on the run?
Vince Lucido
The waterblock for the RTX 3090 KP card

OCC: Let’s talk about graphics cards, at this time, is it still easy to develop a card with all the constraints imposed by NVIDIA? Should we expect uniform performance and only aesthetic differences in the future?

Vince: NVIDIA will always be big brother here haha and set the guide posts on what is ultimately possible or not each generation. It is their rules ultimately. However it goes without saying that the more time and effort our team spends in beta testing and early design in addition to every step of testing along the way, goes far in making sure you got it right. On older generations NV gpus, there was more wiggle room for what we could or couldn’t do. Now on modern day cards, the different vendor designs are a bit more repetitive yah, especially on NON-XOC specific entries. I wouldn’t say for my card though anything has really changed in terms of how we approach every card since the very beginning. This gen there was a greater focus even beyond just the physical card design or the many RTX records its already achieved, I also worked hard behind the scenes to keep everyone on the team constantly synced for a seamless and dialed workflow project management. This was the fastest KP card to market of all of them as a result.

Vince Lucido
The first KingPiN bucket

OCC: Buying KPE graphics cards and motherboards has become almost impossible in Europe, do you know if the situation will change positively in 2021? Many of us do not understand this situation which seems to be “letting Europe down”.

Vince: The situation in the EU is tough for these products in particular. The demand there also has picked up a lot in recent years and the fact that the DARK motherboards and kingpin video cards are limited edition to being with + crazy demand already in USA alone which is enough to wipe out typical supply each gen, does not help for you guys. I get asked all the time, almost daily for assistance with getting EU folks hands on this gear like hydro copper water blocks and retail cards and mobos. I try to do what I can for people and hope for better availability/priority of these products abroad in future for EU EVGA fans. I will push for you. 2020 was such a crazy year and 2021 is proving MORE messy for manufacturing on supply side of things on many products I make both through KPC and EVGA. Have to get through it to the other side.

Vince Lucido
This is what happens when you bench 4 GPUs at the same time

OCC: How do you see the future of PC overclocking?

Vince: The future of PC overclocking looks bright. I see more people getting into extreme overclocking these days based on metrics like container, grease, and extreme related product sales at KPC, social media participation in XOC, and also based on interactions with people on the cards and boards for support. It is also being featured more on larger following social media channels as of late, exposing more and more people to it. This year has really been nuts in terms of XOC participation by the general enthusiast community. in my opinion. Especially with 3090KP, seemed like a lot this gen is doing GPU OC. Both new and experienced guys. I will continue to push it and be involved with the many different aspects of extreme overclocking through my efforts at KPC and also at EVGA.

OCC: Thanks for your time, Vince, and for all the information that will delight the overclocking.com community !