Auto-updating software and drivers have been around for ages by now, quite often with pretty lousy security. A lot of companies even require you to register your hardware to use all features - NVidia, for example, but AFAIK Razer does, too. Oculus comes to mind as well. Wacom even tracks you from within their driver [0] and I won't even go into the insanity that AV software does.
They might theoretically be on the hook for damages they introduce, but in reality, there's already a ton of services running on every device that can compromise you if the infrastructure behind it is hacked. EVGA wouldn't even be a worthwhile target.
And, as mentioned above, NVidia already has the necessary infrastructure in place. So the effective cost for doing this would be close to zero.
> which might not even work, given that hackers are really good at bypassing DRM solutions anyway.
Hackers are, yes. But the price you fetch for a card will go down massively if you need high technical skills to run it.
Would you purchase an Evga card if you knew they could disable it remotely? How about if you’re an OEM and you’re bundling video cards, would you risk the hit to your brand?
From the pov of the end user this is an anti feature. It makes the product worse.
I don't disagree that this is an anti-feature. My point is, companies get away with far worse and people probably wouldn't stop buying EVGA because of it. In fact, they obviously don't, as the NVidia driver already has that capability. Windows does, too.
So the answer to
> How about if you’re an OEM and you’re bundling video cards, would you risk the hit to your brand?
is clearly yes, as has been shown in the last years. Hell, we have cars that can be disabled remotely. Nearly nobody cares about about them creating a capability you could reasonably assume they already had. You and I might, but most consumers care about FPS - and getting a card at all - much more.
They might theoretically be on the hook for damages they introduce, but in reality, there's already a ton of services running on every device that can compromise you if the infrastructure behind it is hacked. EVGA wouldn't even be a worthwhile target.
And, as mentioned above, NVidia already has the necessary infrastructure in place. So the effective cost for doing this would be close to zero.
> which might not even work, given that hackers are really good at bypassing DRM solutions anyway.
Hackers are, yes. But the price you fetch for a card will go down massively if you need high technical skills to run it.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22247292