ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI considering new AMD-based gaming brands

DigiTimes heard from its sources that Taiwanese video card makers are adjusting their business strategies in response to NVIDIA's controversial GeForce Partner Program (GPP). Basically, it's believed that partners get extra incentives from NVIDIA, but only if they exclusively use NVIDIA GPUs for their gaming brands.

Industry sources told the paper that ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI are caught in a dilemma as they have long sustained partnerships with AMD. One way to tackle the issue may be to launch new gaming brands based on AMD GPUs.

Industry sources said the three Taiwan brands have reportedly adjusted their new product development roadmaps, and they may also launch new gaming brands based on AMD's GPU platform.

Without commenting on the possible impact from GPP, MSI chairman Joseph Hsu said the market demand for graphic cards will continue to expand robustly for mining and gaming uses. And as Nvidia is slated to release its new-generation GPU architecture soon, Hsu said he is optimistic about MSI's graphic card shipments for 2018.

First-tier players reportedly reduced orders for AMD GPUs. However, ASRock just entered the video card market as an AMD-only brand and unexpectedly managed to secure enough GPU supply from AMD to address both the gaming and mining markets.