May 22, 2018 @ 03:39 AM 1,000
[UPDATE] No, ASUS Isn't Killing Its Exclusive Radeon GPU Brand
Jason Evangelho , Contributor
News and reviews from the crossroads of PC gaming & consumer hardware
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
As a result of Nvidia's GeForce Partner Program, AMD gained two exclusive Radeon brands in the form of MSI's Mech 2 series and the Asus Arez lineup. Today various tech websites are reporting that Asus is yanking its Arez brand from existence before it sees the light of day.
ASUS
ASUS AREZ lineup
The Twitter account for the new AREZ GPUs quietly announced the news with a short statement: "#ASUS #AREZ is coming to an end, #ROG is here to stay."
Except Asus isn't announcing anything.
The Twitter account being referenced by multiple major tech sites is fake. But where's the proof? Ignoring the fact that it's not a verified account and has a very low follower count, it just so happens that the logos used on this @ASUS_AREZ Twitter account were created by WCCFTech.com before Asus revealed the official Arez branding. The logo fonts are completely different. Take a look at the Twitter account's header logo versus the official one:
Asus / WCCFTech
Top: Official AREZ font. Bottom: Fake font being used on "ASUS_AREZ" Twitter account
It also uses a Batman font, so there's that...
The Arez brand was designed to effectively replace the Republic of Gamers brand for Radeon GPUs, and in name only. For example, Asus ROG Strix simply becomes Asus Arez Strix. The specifications, cooling designs and other aspects of the cards seem to remain intact.
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Still, the theoretical cancellation of the Arez brand could have proven a minor victory for AMD, especially in light of their recent "Freedom of Choice" campaign which railed against the alleged anti-choice, anti-competitive nature of Nvidia's GeForce Partner Program.
As it stands though, this is absolutely fake news. I can't imagine a marketing department devoting the funding and resources toward developing a new global gaming brand, then pulling the plug simply because Nvidia backed out of its program.
As far as we know, Asus will still launch a wide assortment of Polaris-powered Radeon cards under the Arez name. A poorly-conceived fake Twitter account doesn't change that.
UPDATE: An Asus spokesperson has officially rebuked the fake Twitter account in question in a response to PC World's Brad Chacos.
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