BFG Leaving The Graphics Card Industry?

[Quiksilver]

TPU

HardOCP

Hmmm....

Well some threads ago people were asking what happened to all the BFG cards; well there is your answer.

 

[SunnyD]

So nvidia dropped them and they couldn't get favorable supplier/support from ATI? That's my guess.

 

[thilanliyan]

Wow. Maybe they can restart their GPU line and sell both ATI and nV cards someday.

@SunnyD
Did nV actually drop them? I thought they were one of the premier partners like eVGA and XFX?

 

[Skurge]

Wow. Maybe they can restart their GPU line and sell both ATI and nV cards someday.

@SunnyD
Did nV actually drop them? I thought they were one of the premier partners like eVGA and XFX?

AMD already have a crap load of partners. Sapphire, HIS, asus, gigabyte, club3d, diamond, visiontek, MSI, powercolor , biostar and XFX

I don't think they want anymore.

 

[SunnyD]

Wow. Maybe they can restart their GPU line and sell both ATI and nV cards someday.

@SunnyD
Did nV actually drop them? I thought they were one of the premier partners like eVGA and XFX?

I can't answer that, other than pointing to rumor and speculation that ran rampant over the last year that nvidia was "purging" it's vendors, pruning it down to a couple top tier retail vendors.

 

[v8envy]

Not surprising. BFG's business model revolves around providing a premium customer experience (through a better than industry average warranty, native language tech support, etc). It's pretty hard to maintain a margin thick enough to support that by selling nothing but low end (G92, 40nm G2xx) and a trickle of high end parts.

The margins aren't there for the first, and volume isn't there for the second -- the halo effect of the high end parts won't significantly increase revenues from the entry level, in other words. People shopping for budget parts are not going to put a big value on brand in terms of absolute dollars. While brand may be worth a $20 premium on a $200 part it's a lot harder to charge a $20 premium on a $50 part.

Plenty of people (including myself) predicted this when NV dried up their midrange and enthusiast SKUs fall of last year.

PSUs are an even more competitive market than GPUs. I wonder if BFG will be around long enough to get back in the game after Fermi II shows.

 

[yh125d]

More blood on the hands of NV. In addition, of course, to the thousands of penguins and polar bears due to the massive increase of polar ice melt the last 6 weeks since fermi release



/hyperbole

 

[Scali]

Not surprising. BFG's business model revolves around providing a premium customer experience (through a better than industry average warranty, native language tech support, etc). It's pretty hard to maintain a margin thick enough to support that by selling nothing but low end (G92, 40nm G2xx) and a trickle of high end parts.

BFGTech also has (or I should say: had, I suppose) a budget-brand though: http://www.3dfuzion.com/
I once bought a GeForce 7600GT from them.

 

[v8envy]

Do we know the budget division is also closing its doors? Nothing stops budget division from cranking out the low end stuff -- they're not offering any of the expensive value add. This is just the BFG sticker no longer showing up on cards. Their budget division should still be fine, and I'm sure NV would love to sell the 40nm low end parts to anyone willing to buy them.

If you look at the conference call details, NV cited a 17% increase in inventory. Since that's probably NOT Fermi parts (selling those as fast as they're made according to NV) and the 200b parts were EOLed I assume that's a mountain of obsolete (DX10), low end gear NV would love for someone to buy.

 

[Stoneburner]

This is somehow jonnyguru's fault

 

[Sylvanas]

Wow this is bad news, first Abit and now BFG. It seems as if something strange is going on with Nvidia and it's partners. XFX got out a while ago and they're doing fine now with AMD (probably the only brand to offer double warranty for the red team). I'm sure Fermi's delay of 6months didn't help their situation either.

 

[taltamir]

TPU

HardOCP

Hmmm....

Well some threads ago people were asking what happened to all the BFG cards; well there is your answer.

whoa... this is a double shock for me because not only have I found that BFG is calling it quits, the TPU link has a commend saying that XFX is not selling fermi!
Anyone has an article about the XFX thing? Any other companies bailed on nvidia?

 

[Dark Shroud]

Nice job Nvidia.

/s

 

[happy medium]

Last I checked Nvidia had 14 partners ,I guess there down to 12 now. Oh well only the strong survived the resession.

 

[Skurge]

Well BFG and XFX are not exactly the ones to loose are they. There are much worse partners to loose.

 

[zerocool84]

Last I checked Nvidia had 14 partners ,I guess there down to 12 now. Oh well only the strong survived the resession.

It'd be different if they actually tried to sell Fermi but they didn't.

 

[jonnyGURU]

This is somehow jonnyguru's fault

And I accept full responsibility for my actions.

 

[esoxmagnum]

Here is a question for someone on the inside at nVidia or a partner of nV...

...does nVidia prioritize helping their partners (BFG, Asus, EVGA, MSI, etc.) build a profitable business? I know nV innovates fairly well, but does their business model allow for reasonable profits throughout the supply chain? Only with profitable (healthy) partners, can a business prosper over time. If nV squeezes their partner's ability to make profit, then more of our favorites will go the way of BFG.

 

[MentalIlness]

So how many vendors does this leave Nvidia with ?

EVGA
XFX
Sparkle
Galaxy
Zotac
PNY
Palit
ECS
Biostar
ASUS
Jaton
MSI

Is that all of them ?

 

[Idontcare]

Here is a question for someone on the inside at nVidia or a partner of nV...

...does nVidia prioritize helping their partners (BFG, Asus, EVGA, MSI, etc.) build a profitable business? I know nV innovates fairly well, but does their business model allow for reasonable profits throughout the supply chain? Only with profitable (healthy) partners, can a business prosper over time. If nV squeezes their partner's ability to make profit, then more of our favorites will go the way of BFG.

One word: Walmart.

Do you think Walmart cares about the gross margins of their Spatula supplier in China? Do you think Walmart's customers care about the gross margins of the Spatula supplier in China? Walmart's shareholders?

Why did BFG leave graphics/Nvidia? Do you blame NV for margin erosion or do you blame the customers for not throwing their money at BFG versus the other NV GPU suppliers?

Bottom line is that whatever product and value BFG was bringing to the table it wasn't enough to bring the customers to the same table...NV is clearly selling product to its partners, and not all of those partners are exiting the business...so it would appear the world is prepared to get along just fine with one less Spatula manufacturer.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Had one experience with BFG regarding a 7900GT, and based on that single experience I'll say good riddance.

 

[zerocool84]

Had one experience with BFG regarding a 7900GT, and based on that single experience I'll say good riddance.

Sucks for you but BFG was a top Nvidia partner and had good customer support.

 

[Corporate Thug]

wonder if Zap can add any thoughts. BFG is top notch in my book.

 

[ronnn]

BFG was the big partner around here a few years ago. Soon it will be microsoftintel corp ruling the world.

 

[Zap]

wonder if Zap can add any thoughts.

My only thought right now is that I have a hell of a lot more free time on my hands. :\