BFG Tech Announces Exit From Graphics Card Category

[Greebo]

If the games arent getting made ( at least in far lower quantities) people wont buy new graphics cards... I think we can expect to see more companies doing the same within the next 12 months.

Still a big market. Haven't ATI shipped 3 million 5 series cards and Nvidia 400,000 Fermi cards (although that includes Tesla cards so who many gtx470/480 is unkown

I think the fact that BFG were only getting a one year warranty from Nvidia and the delays and short supply was the final nail for BFG. WHen your market for the last 6 months is basically a fraction of 400,000 cards sold in total and you have to stand the extra 9 years warranty, it doesn't make economic sense.

 

[drunkenmaster]

I'm not sure they've shipped many Tesla cards, though its possible, they've announced lots of servers that CAN have them in.

I think the large boost in shipped Fermi's is likely a large portion of 465gtx's in there, heavily cut down parts, they would likely have started shipping to be put on pcb's now. Unlike the first cards which Nvidia basically makes on their own pcb's and ships them out, 465gtx's will be no reference boards, send the chips and the AIB's do what they want with them. So 480gtx is premade and needs a sticker and a box and goes in and leaves the AIB's in days, the 465gtx's will take a heck of a lot longer to turn around as they'll turn up as chips and need actually building into a card and testing.


Game sales haven't hurt GPU sales, AT ALL.

Last year there were just as many, if not more game sales, and over the recession period we had some games that sold ridiculous numbers come out, and game sales dropped massively, hugely, by the millions for all companies involved, because of the recession.

AAA Pc titles have been a tad sparse in the past couple months but gpu sales are 100% up on the same quarter last year.

 

[Rimsy]

Still a big market. Haven't ATI shipped 3 million 5 series cards and Nvidia 400,000 Fermi cards (although that includes Tesla cards so who many gtx470/480 is unkown

Bit of a pointless comparison given the 5 series have had several months headstart on Fermi but 5/5 for rampant ati e-peening nonetheless

Try looking up some sales figures for 9700 or gti5800 and compare. Graphics card sales aren't what they were and will only get worse given the relative lack of material being produced to make use of them

 

[KillBoY_UK]

bugger look like I have no hope of a RMA now of my faulty GTX 280

 

[RavenXXX2]

BFG has said they will honor all warranties.

 

[bobert50]

 

[Razor Time]

What a massive shame.

 

[Speed]

It amazes how few people actually read the OP. No doubt on the next page someone will moan about losing the warranty and someone will correct them! lol

On the cycle goes...

 

[Greebo]

Bit of a pointless comparison given the 5 series have had several months headstart on Fermi but 5/5 for rampant ati e-peening nonetheless

Try looking up some sales figures for 9700 or gti5800 and compare. Graphics card sales aren't what they were and will only get worse given the relative lack of material being produced to make use of them

I object to the ATI epeen, I was just using sales figures for both for their latest cards to show the gpu market is still strong.

I was interested so checked and was surprised how wrong you were. ATI when they had 42% of the market and a directx 9 card at least 4 months in advance of Nvidia sold one million 9700 cards in the first 4 months and had a party to celebrate.

http://www.flipcode.com/archives/ATI_Mojo_Day_2002_San_Francisco.shtml

In comparison ATI shipped 3 million 5 series cards in the same period so 3 times the sale (granted that's two cards and not one but lets say it's 50/50 so it's 1.5 million each).

I fail to see the point you are making except proving me right that the pc graphics markets is still a huge market,

I stand by my point that BFG have had little Nvidia cards to sell for 6 months plus if you wanted to sell Fermi cards you needed to take a shed load of gtx 275/285 cards to get your orders and you still have the one year warranty issue.

Throw in the fact that bfg seems to have had to replace a shed load of 3 year old Nvidia cards which have started failing and people "playing" the game and delibrately breaking their cards to get free upgrades, I can see why they have pulled out.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Fermi has smeg all to do with BFG's demise, its been the lack of profitable cards for sale for the past 2 years thats screwed them. The last time anything that BFG sold at a decent profit was the 260-280gtx, but ONLY on launch, once those cards were pushed down to £150(the 260gtx) at that stage there was next to no profit. BFG aren't a big player with OEM's and selling high end and performance/mid range cards was their thing, since the 260gtx price crashed Nvidia haven't had a huge profit on the high end for a heck of a long time.

If Fermi wasn't out it shouldn't have mattered, if AMD hadn't brought out the 5770 they'd still be selling 4890's and 4870's at a very good profit. Nvidia SHOULD have been selling millions of high profit 260gtx's for the past 6 months(and the last 2 years) but simply haven't been able to because they were too big and cost to much and had to compete with a FAR cheaper card.

Fermi lack of profit now wouldn't be a problem.... again IF they were selling tonnes of 260gtx's, this is why AMD never had a problem, Nvidia had the 8800gtx out but AMD were selling millions upon millions of x1950pro's at a decent profit each at the same time.

 

[MameFX]

Abused RMA by customers.(if i break my 8800 and send it back i get a 280gtx as a replacement)

 

[JoyPadJedi]

Just RMA'd my 3.5yr old 8800 GTX OC today - died the other day!

This news is a shame really - their warranty offerings have always given me that extra piece of mind about my £400+ investments over the years! Saying that, never had an Nv card last over 3 years...!

Spending £££ on graphics now just got a bit more risky imo