Dzzope
Well-known member
Do you supposed NVIDIA did this on purpose though under pressure from the aftermarket companies? Perhaps the aftermarkets didn't like NVIDIA selling reference models cheaper in the past? But it was an even start for all the companies before wasn't it because they all had the reference version to sell first, NVIDIA didn't sell direct.
They still don't sell direct.
What they do is set the specification that the board partners HAVE to use. And probably some restriction on how many to make of the founders edition.
What they are doing is allowing the board partners to come up with their own "reference" edition.. like the few options for blower designs we have seen on some of the cheapest nvidia cards of late (think palit and msi had blower design and old style boxy plastic shroud)
But with using vapor chambers and such it should actually give a good option on a blower design.. Though it is too much of a premium without RGB lighting and such.