At present, Intel only competes with AMD and NVIDIA in the mid-range segment. In fact, the blues produce the Arc A770 and A750, competing with the RX 6600 and RTX 3060. If up until now Intel has been a (re)newcomer to this very closed environment, with its Battlemage series, things could be about to change. So much so, that NVIDIA, comfortably seated on its throne as supreme leader in the graphics card sector, is beginning to threaten its partners.
Beware, however, that a pinch of salt is clearly in order!
NVIDIA, a whiff of the GeForce Partner Program…
For those who don’t remember, the GeForce Partner Program was an initiative designed to strengthen collaboration between the Greens and their partners. Roughly speaking, brands subscribing to the program benefited from significant advantages. For example, access to lower-priced or higher-quality chips. In return, brands had to reserve their entire most popular ranges for NVIDIA. That’s why we saw the emergence of Asus AREZ and MSI Mech. New series that even the most neophyte of users had never heard of, making sales difficult.
Clearly, in the face of Battlemage, NVIDIA is once again showing its fangs. We learn from PRO High-Tech (Russian), via telegram, that the chameleon is threatening to cut its partners off if they accept deals with Intel. Basically, the greens are threatening to stop working with the brand in question and would halt shipments of GPUs.
The only worry is that Intel is currently looking for first-rate partners for its next-generation board. We can imagine that Asus, Gigabyte or MSI have been contacted. If NVIDIA’s position is confirmed, then these brands are unlikely to offer Intel GPUs.
While all this may seem plausible in view of the brand’s past actions, bear in mind that these are rumours. What’s more, given the stakes involved, it’s unlikely that any company will speak out publicly on the subject.
