Late last month, Gainward was reported to have started offering graphics cards based on AMD's latest graphics processors. Based on this and on the fact that Intel was said to be in the final stages of completing the Larrabee project, a rumor has begun to spread. Apparently, two of NVIDIA's best partners are considering or have already decided to leave the Santa Clara graphics manufacturer.

Back when we brought the news about Gainward, we pointed out that this graphics card manufacturer was an exclusive NVIDIA partner. Nevertheless, that changed when AMD introduced the new HD 4000-series of cards which, despite not being as fast as NVIDIA's latest GeForce lineup, are the next best thing, at a much better price. This also seems to be the reason why Gainward has decided to extend its offer and jump on the AMD bandwagon.

In doing so, Gainward has set the stage for yet another rumor concerning NVIDIA. Apparently, two of the company's best board partners, EVGA and XFX, have decided to leave the green company. This means that these two graphics card manufacturers will no longer release cards based on GeForce GPUs. The rumor might also be based on the fact that both manufacturers offered reimbursement plans for the latest GT200-series cards, from which we could infer that working with NVIDIA is no longer profitable.

What is more interesting is that neither of the two aforementioned manufacturers is believed to have left NVIDIA for AMD, which only leaves more room for speculation. Apparently, the upcoming cards of EVGA and XFX will be based on Intel's highly anticipated Larrabee card. Somehow, this could go further than pure speculation, and right into the realm of possibility, as word in the industry has it that Intel is currently looking for partners for its upcoming graphics chip.

However, for the time being, neither EVGA nor XFX have officially expressed their intentions to leave NVIDIA. But, if the rumors do turn out to be true sometime in the coming months, then this will certainly turn into a considerable downside for the (yet) leading graphics card manufacturer.