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Nvidia is “the GPU cartel” according to former head of AMD Radeon

Scott Herkelman has shared some choice words about Nvidia, but also has some praise for the company's level of innovation and GPUs.

Scott Herkelman, former head of AMD Radeon, holding an RX 7900 GPU

It is no secret that Nvidia enjoys a much larger share of the graphics card space compared to AMD, with the number of GeForce models more than doubling that of Radeon in GPU section in the Steam Hardware Survey. Naturally, this position gives the green team much more control over how the space operates, leading to some alleged strongarmed business practices according to a former rival.

Despite concerted attempts by AMD to gain more of a foothold, there is still considerable work to be done before it finds itself confidently producing the best graphics cards on the market. This is true across all the verticals that GPUs prove valuable, be it in the gaming or AI sectors, and it’s in the latter that allegations surrounding Nvidia and its conduct have emerged.

Responding to claims of purposeful shipping delays by Nvidia, published in the Wall Street Journal, (thanks, Tom’s Hardware), former AMD senior vice president and Radeon general manager Scott Herkelmen shared their thoughts on the matter.

“This happens more than you expect,” Herkelman claims via a post on X (formerly Twitter). “Nvidia does this with DC customers, OEMs, AIBs, press, and resellers. They learned from GPP to not put it into writing. They just don’t ship after a customer has ordered. They are the GPU cartel and they control all supply.”

While Herkelman damns Nvidia with one hand, they shared praise for the teams working at the company with the other. They concede that the green team’s “level of innovation and products are easily the best”, making for quite the compliment given their previous rivalry. However, they are quick to clarify “the tactics [Nvidia] use don’t just hurt their “competitors”, it stifles innovation and choice.”

To learn more about the latest graphics cards, check out our RTX 4080 Super review. We also have all the details on AMD’s latest pixel pusher, the RX 7900 GRE and will have full review coverage coming soon.