UPDATED:
Looks like we were taken in by a hoax. ASUS reached out to press outlets after publication stating that they would indeed be continuing with the ASUS AREZ brand going forward, irrespective of any change in policy by NVIDIA. It turns out that the @ASUS_AREZ Twitter account was fake, and has subsequently been smote from on high by the Twitter ban-hammer.
Given the GPP update from NVIDIA, a change from ASUS with regards to the AREZ rebranding of cards built around AMD Radeon GPUs did make a lot of sense. Nonetheless it was incorrect, and for that we apologise. In the interests of transparency the previous version of this story remains below.
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Farewell AREZ, we hardly knew thee.
Well, so much for that rebranding exercise. ASUS have announced that their premium enthusiast Republic of Gamers brand will be retaining AMD Radeon GPUs for the foreseeable future, rather than move to one newly created for the purpose.
In April ASUS announced the creation of the ASUS AREZ brand, a new identity for AMD Radeon GPUs. However this was at the time viewed as a creation borne out of necessity. NVIDIA were flexing their not inconsiderable muscles, and the GeForce Partner Program was believed to restrict the gaming brands of GeForce Partners (including major component AIBs such as ASUS, MSI and GIGABYTE) to GeForce GPUs only. Punishments for not signing up were rumoured to range from a withdrawal of direct marketing support to reduced GPU stock allocation, all of which would be extremely damaging due to NVIDIA's dominant market share.
Of course the reasoning behind the move was never officially confirmed. Exact details regarding GPP were buried in confidential contracts, and that remains the case even after NVIDIA's cancellation of the program earlier this month.
ASUS's sudden reversal was quietly announced on the @ASUS_AREZ Twitter account. It's unlikely that AREZ-branded AMD Radeon GPUs will make it to sales channel despite their May arrival dates, but they would certainly make for a rare collectors item. One also wonders just how much this whole palava has cost ASUS; these exercises rarely come cheap. Hopefully they didn't order too many of those AREZ fan stickers.
SOURCE: via Twitter
