You are paying an extra $160 for a sicker, yes a sticker! Two of the exact same graphics cards, made by the exact same manufacturer, in the exact same factory are priced $160 apart. The only difference between the two is that one has an AREZ stick on it and the other has an ROG sticker on it. This is all caused by NVIDIA’s GeForce Partner Program, which we will get into a second. The cards in question are the ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX Vega 64 (STRIX-RXVEGA64-O8G-GAMING) which is priced at $589.99 and the AREZ Strix Radeon RX Vega 64 (AREZ RXVEGA64-O8G-GAMING) which is priced at $749.99.
When NVIDIA announced it’s GeForce Partner Program it was met with backlash from consumers as it basically told AIC (add-in card) to keep their well-established gaming hardware brands (ROG, AORUS, MSI Gaming) exclusive to GeForce GTX graphics cards, forcing them to re-brand their AMD Radeon products. While NVIDIA eventually cancelled its GeForce Partner Program it was too late as both ASUS and MSI has already created new gaming brands for AMD products. ASUS’s AREZ brand is AMD-only, but seems to be ripping customers off as the AREZ card holds a $160 premium over the exact same ROG card.
