AMD's Scott Herkelman Claims NVIDIA GPP Unfairly Punishes OEMs By Withholding GPU Allocations

For the most part, the blog post, which was written by AMD's Scott Herkelman, tried to get its point across by not leveling too many specific accusations against NVIDIA. In fact, NVIDIA wasn't even called out by name, but we all knew exactly who Herkelman was talking about. 

However, that was a corporate-backed post that was representing the company via its official website. Herkelman took to Twitter to expound further on the subject, and he dug the knife in a little deeper. Herkelman still didn't call NVIDIA out by name, but his commentary was still rather biting:

Many of you told me how our competition tries to use funding and allocation to restrict or block your ability to market and sell Radeon based products in the manner you and your customers desire.  I want to let you know that your voices have been heard and that I welcome any others who have encountered similar experiences to reach out to me. Together we can work to ensure that we give gamers what they truly deserve -- freedom of choice.

The claims made by Kyle Bennett when the controversy surrounding the NVIDIA GPP first broke are also seemingly confirmed by Herkelman. As we previously reported, GPP allegedly requires that OEMs dedicate specific gaming brands solely to NVIDIA GPUs. For example, ASUS ROG can't sell both NVIDIA- and AMD- branded graphics cards (as it has in the past). Instead, if a company is signed up for GPP (which ASUS apparently is in this case), it must create a separate brand just for AMD-based graphics cards. That is exactly what happened with the formation of ASUS' new AREZ brand, which Radeon RX 500 and Radeon RX Vega families of graphics cards.

Herkelman's brief commentary also acknowledges another aspect of Bennett's reporting: that NVIDIA is using cash and inventory allocations as a way to rope OEMs into agreeing to GPP terms. OEMs and AIB partners that refuse to agree to GPP terms may find themselves getting the cold shoulder from NVIDIA when they are in most need of GPU shipments (like during the Back to School and Christmas shopping rushes).

Interestingly, AMD is becoming increasingly vocal about the NVIDIA GPP and its side effects. As for NVIDIA, it has remained mum on the controversy and it is likely that it will stay silent -- at least publicly.