If you watch AdoredTV's videos, you will see that in the past when AMD did in fact perform better, they still did not outsell Nvidia.
Back in the days of the 4870, AMD had the superior card, but it did not sell better than the GTX 260.
Lately, AMD has battled though. I hope they return to true competition next year with New Vega and Navi.
They didn't outsell Nvidia but they sold better overall than the years they were not or less competitive.
The thing is Nvidia was quick to drop prices and bring new cards to the market which made the price of Nvidia's cards price to performance pretty much in line with AMDs with cards like the gtx 260 core 216 and the gtx 275. Nvidia has a brand advantage that allows them to outsell the competition when things are close, that is without a question. But it's no reason for AMD to play the pity card because that will only end things in failure because it essentially means giving up.
Marketshare shifts don't happen overnight and if AMD continually made better cards with better stronger price to performance consistently like the gtx 4870 and initially 5870, they might be past the 50 percent marketshare point. AMD needs to build up it's brand value by consistently making good cards that beat Nvidia so it can be considered the premium brand. AMD was gaining marketshare during this period which mean't it's effort was increasing sales and revenue.
Achieving 45% marketshare during 2010 is a victory for AMD. It took better products to do it, but it showed AMD was making inroads towards profitability and marketshare vs the 30 percent marketshare during the worst part of the gtx 8800 generation.
Successful companies don't give up on a segment because they are not outselling the competition because their products are better for a couple lifecycles. They continue to build better products than the competition so their brand is built up and they will eventually outsell the competition when public perception shifts to favor them.
Giving up because your product don't outsell the competition is a weak excuse that will steer a company or person for that matter towards failure. Playing the pity card doesn't work with consumers and the narrative Adoredtv always trys to play for AMD. AMD graphic division was largely the most profitable part for the company for the last 7 years compared to the CPU division, so it wasn't like AMD was cutting off a malignant part of the company and should give up on it.
I remember oggling 4870s and 280s in MaximumPC magazines. So crazy how hot cards of these generations got with their laughable coolers and ~300W power consumption. But I also remember nobody cared, such a jump in performance with these cards.
EDIT:
Also, with more evidence of this GPP program coming out I can see it IS indeed in effect in some form.
The scenario that really worries/depresses me is if AMD releases a really great card next generation and someone is unable to get a custom version with a top tier flagship cooler from AIBs because they're limited to NV cards.
Branding is one thing but if the same cooler and features aren't available at an equivalent performance level to NV branded coolers (power phases, pcb and bios tweaks, heatsink efficiency), that sucks for everyone.
It would holistically diminish Personal Computing from a hobbyist/enthusiast perspective to the obvious further narrowing of consumer choice in tech/computing. All the while frustrating both NV/AMD loyalists, potentially alienating more and more enthusiasts from the hobby and building all together when variety becomes a thing of the past.
When one company wins, no one does.
GPP although a problem for AMD, is something that AMD will have to creatively because legally, Nvidia can do it because there is not enough in terms of bribery where Nvidia is preventing AIB from selling AMD products. Moves that target marketing are pretty loose. So constructively what can AMD do about it and what action can they take is something we should discuss?
I think the best thing AMD can do is create an attractive program for AIB's by highlighting the strength of their reference PCB and the weakness of Nvidia's.
AMD reference PCB are head and shoulders above Nvidia's consistently being able to handle 2 or 3 times the current. During the rx 480 generation, only a couple gaming cards were better than reference with the cards coming from sapphire, gigabyte and power color coming short and sometimes drastically.
I think AMD should be highlighting this fact. How?
If I was doing such a launch, I would pump as much current as possible into an AMD and Nvidia card and see which one would burst into flames first. Considering AMD power delivery system, it would undoubtedly win. Make a video of lots of Nvidia cards bursting into flames while AMD cards behaved normally to Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture and ask the hypothetical question, which card was built for gamers and overclockers?
AMD could call this advantage whatever prestige brand it wants, overclocking certified, elite spec, Radeon black certified. And sell the reference design as something special and still allow some customization by partners through the cooler.
While at the same time selling a barebones PCB which meets the standards of Nividia's reference design and sell it as the basic low cost model. This would demonstrate that the premium you pay for Nvidia is not really worth anything in terms of hardware quality.
What this would do is streamline the reference designs, cut cost for AIB for engineering, which would be better spent on marketing and centralize the partnership in marketing betweeen AIB's and partners so that partners have a very real reason to use AMD reference designs. That being AMD reference designs are top notch and have practical advantages over Nvidia ones. It also cast a negative light on Nvidia's cheap designs in a constructive matter because it highlights their own strengths while cast a negative light on their competition in a constructive way.