BFG Leaving The Graphics Card Industry?

[happy medium]

my BFG 7800gs was a fine card.

 

[esoxmagnum]

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.

Yes, as a matter of fact, Walmart does care that their suppliers stay healthy and viable. While Walmart cares more about their profitability than a suppliers, and they do squeeze many pennies from them, they also know that they don't manufacture most of what they sell -- thus the supplier is a critical piece of their business model and profits. If they squeezed everyone down to razor thin margins that are not sustainable, then eventually Walmart would not have much to sell.

I understand the rubber spatula example is for illustrative purposes. However, most of Walmart's business is done with the likes of Sony, P&G, Mars, Nestle, Marks&Spencer, General Mills, PepsiCo, Unilever, Clorox, etc. I equate these heavy weights more with BFG in the nV situation. If Walmart was excessively unreasonable with any of them, they would look to siphon business away from WM--potentially go as far as cutting-off Walmart shipments.

So, I don't see this nV/BFG situation as a non-essential spatula supplier issue as I do a potentially unsettling and dangerous trend if nV does not provide the opportunity for their partners to succeed.

 

[ZimZum]

I understand the rubber spatula example is for illustrative purposes. However, most of Walmart's business is done with the likes of Sony, P&G, Mars, Nestle, Marks&Spencer, General Mills, PepsiCo, Unilever, Clorox, etc. I equate these heavy weights more with BFG in the nV situation. If Walmart was excessively unreasonable with any of them, they would look to siphon business away from WM--potentially go as far as cutting-off Walmart shipments.

LOL, no. Walmart is the 700lb gorilla. Manufacturers beg, borrow and steal to get their products on Walmart's shelves. Not the other way around.

 

[JSt0rm]

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

Sorry bro. We all can tell you care about your work and any of these other companies would be lucky to have you.

 

[thilanliyan]

They should have hired happy_medium for marketing purposes...might have sold more cards.

 

[killster1]

wow i still have a few bfg cards with lifetime warranty i guess its not my lifetime but the companies? Should i try and break the card now for a rma?! hehe i always hoped id get a better card in return but the card wont die.. (8800gts)

nm says in article they will still rma.. thats good.

 

[taltamir]

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

nvidia's 3 best partners were XFX, eVGA, and BFG...
it is down to 1 out of the 3.
this is terrible for nvidia.

wow i still have a few bfg cards with lifetime warranty i guess its not my lifetime but the companies? Should i try and break the card now for a rma?! hehe i always hoped id get a better card in return but the card wont die.. (8800gts)

nm says in article they will still rma.. thats good.

they say they will honor warrenties on those cards. which is EXTREMELY unusual.
Lifetime of the company is a given... but in this case the companies are not under, they just no longer wish to sell the latest offerings from nvidia (or maybe not allowed to, there are conflicting claims). as long as the company itself exists though, it is legally obligated to meet its warranty claims. But as soon as it shuts down, your warranty is nothing, its gone.

 

[3DVagabond]

they say they will honor warrenties on those cards. which is EXTREMELY unusual.
Lifetime of the company is a given... but in this case the companies are not under, they just no longer wish to sell the latest offerings from nvidia (or maybe not allowed to, there are conflicting claims). as long as the company itself exists though, it is legally obligated to meet its warranty claims. But as soon as it shuts down, your warranty is nothing, its gone.

Typically, lifetime warranties are underwritten by an insurance company or, rarely, a bond is posted and are still honored if the company goes out of business. The trick is knowing who to get a hold of after the company you bought it from is gone.

 

[3DVagabond]

LOL, no. Walmart is the 700lb gorilla. Manufacturers beg, borrow and steal to get their products on Walmart's shelves. Not the other way around.

Ain't that the truth. +1 for having a clue on how it really works.

As far as Walmart giving a fat rats behind about the profitability of their suppliers goes, they don't. They care about their suppliers about as much as we do whether or not Walmart made a profit on the last thing we bought from them.

 

[Shmee]

Wow. I this really stinks, I have had several BFG cards, and my dad even has a 285 from them. I will miss there great cards.

And GL to zap, getting laid off always sucks, especially when you are working for a great company that must be awesome to work for, like BFG. I am sure you would do great at EVGA btw. I am sure there are hundreds if not thousands of forum posters that could be used as references

On a side note, here is to there luck in the PSU market. They made some pretty good midrange PSU's, MB they will expand there and make some kickass PSU's, and one will be my next one!

 

[one30eight]

I remember unboxing my BFG 6800OC, one of the best cards I have owned. They also got my money on an 8800gt. I think we will see them again, only in a shade that is a little more..... red. I hope so anyways.

 

[Hauk]

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

That sucks. Good luck to you man.

 

[novasatori]

Yes, as a matter of fact, Walmart does care that their suppliers stay healthy and viable. While Walmart cares more about their profitability than a suppliers, and they do squeeze many pennies from them, they also know that they don't manufacture most of what they sell -- thus the supplier is a critical piece of their business model and profits. If they squeezed everyone down to razor thin margins that are not sustainable, then eventually Walmart would not have much to sell.

I understand the rubber spatula example is for illustrative purposes. However, most of Walmart's business is done with the likes of Sony, P&G, Mars, Nestle, Marks&Spencer, General Mills, PepsiCo, Unilever, Clorox, etc. I equate these heavy weights more with BFG in the nV situation. If Walmart was excessively unreasonable with any of them, they would look to siphon business away from WM--potentially go as far as cutting-off Walmart shipments.

So, I don't see this nV/BFG situation as a non-essential spatula supplier issue as I do a potentially unsettling and dangerous trend if nV does not provide the opportunity for their partners to succeed.

Good laugh, but no. Walmart doesn't care at all about their suppliers, ask any of the people from the ones they put out of business in America.

 

[SlowSpyder]

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?

XFX announced this a while back, maybe 1-2 months ago? They said that they are going to continue to offer both AMD GPU based and Nvidia GPU based parts, but for the high end it'll just be AMD. XFX then announced a limited edition 850MHz 5970... it seemed to be somewhat of a statement to me. From one of Nvidia's more renowned partners to building custom AMD based ultra-highend parts and avoiding Nvidia's high end altogether.

http://www.techspot.com/news/38408-xfx-will-not-offer-fermibased-graphics-cards-at-launch.html

Rumors are (not sure how accurate) that Nvidia is/was forcing their partners to buy Fermi bundles, for every GTX480 you had to buy a certain amount of low end cards or something along those lines. I cannot find any articles right now, but it was something like for every Fermi a partner bought they had to also purchase 20 GT220's, or something similar. Again, I have no idea how accurate that is, or if something like that is common practice in the HW industry.

Charlie posted some rough math on his site in a past article stating that the margins on Fermi are very thin and that this was going to happen to some partners if I recall correctly. Just another area he was way off regarding Fermi. I think Nvidia's timing just wasn't too good with dropping/slowing down GTX2xx production and Fermi being pretty late. For a while there Nvidia's partners just didn't have much to offer above the GTS250 that was competitive with AMD's parts. Then you throw a less than booming economy for what is essentially a luxury item in to the mix.

Sorry to hear Zap, good luck.

 

[nemesismk2]

That is bad news about BFG leaving the graphics card industry. Really liked the OC versions of their video cards.

 

[VirtualLarry]

This explains the cheap 6600GT and 8800GT video cards from BFG on newegg in the last few months.

 

[yh125d]

Sorry zap, that sucks. I've already been laid off once in this economy and it's no fun at all


Jonny, would I be right to assume your job should be safe (considering you probably work in the PSU division)? What about our other BFG employees?

 

[taltamir]

Typically, lifetime warranties are underwritten by an insurance company or, rarely, a bond is posted and are still honored if the company goes out of business. The trick is knowing who to get a hold of after the company you bought it from is gone.

actually, typically "lifetime warranties" has small prints that states "lifetime means expected lifetime of the product, which is X years"... the longest I have seen was 6 years, typical is 2-3 years, shortest I have seen was 6 months.

 

[at80eighty]

aw that sucks, Zap - good luck with everything man!

 

[lopri]

 

[kalrith]

My 6600GT was a BFG.

RIP

 

[blckgrffn]

Sorry to hear about that, Zap.

My 7800GT was a BFG bought day one for $345 from Dell and it was the video card I have used the longest along with the 9500 Pro from back in the day. Still working somewhere for all I know...

 

[Axon]

Props to one of the best. My BFG 8800 GT OC was maybe the best card I've ever owned. RIP.

 

[esoxmagnum]

Ain't that the truth. +1 for having a clue on how it really works.

As far as Walmart giving a fat rats behind about the profitability of their suppliers goes, they don't. They care about their suppliers about as much as we do whether or not Walmart made a profit on the last thing we bought from them.

Important things first, Zap, I am sorry to hear about your situation. My advice is to keep up your network of advocates, for they are the ones who will help you onto your next career. However, you should also do your best to enjoy this time of transition, as you probably won't have another period like this until you hang up your spikes for good and retire.

Now, re: Walmart. A few here claim to know "how it really works." I have been a supplier to Walmart for the past sixteen years, so I will give you my first hand account. Walmart has told me directly that they need me to be profitable. Their expectation is that I will reinvest some of this profit into improving efficiencies in the supply chain, innovating our products and hiring great people. By doing this, we form a tighter partnership with Walmart --> they buy more of our products --> we make more profit --> ...and the cycle perpetuates itself.

So, I know first hand how it works. Is Walmart tough? Yes. Does Walmart use their size for leverage? Yes. Is Walmart fair? Yes. Does Walmart care about their supplier base? Yes.

Some businesses have a narrow economic moat which makes it easy for Walmart to switch suppliers. If you are one of these, then you might feel as though Walmart is unfair and all they care about is price. Companies with little to differentiate themselves from competition have to compete on price, so Walmart will go to the supplier providing the best value -- good product at the lowest price. However, companies that do differentiate/innovate and build equity with the ultimate consumer definitely have leverage with Walmart--because Walmart values innovation because Walmart's customer values innovation.

To bring this back to BFG and nV. BFG built a large and loyal base of consumers. They innovated with things like Lifetime warranties, 24/7 phone support and OC'd boards out of the box. However, I feel that nV placed no value or support in BFG building its brand. Subsequently, nV lost one of their premier suppliers. Unless, nV changes their approach, then how many more will follow BFG?

 

[taltamir]

What happened to zap? he lost his job? is this related to BFG?

Zap, my condolences. Loosing your job at this economy is rough. My best wishes on finding another job.