A Real conspiracy! ATI (AMD) and NVIDIA Fix Prices in the US, Class Action Slapped Against them

I don't think it's staged competition, since Nvidia has been mopping the floor with ATi for the past 5 or so years. The REAL conspiracy is in the CPU sector where Intel is being anti-competitive and ruining AMD by slashing into their margins with artificially low prices. I do believe that is illegal, but of course here in the U.S. we are for and by the Corporations...at least the ones that are big enough to fight for themselves.

Aside from the ridiculous prices on today's latest GPU's I find nothing wrong with fixed pricing from Nvidia and ATI, It would be adverse for one or the other to seriously undercut each others prices, but if they come out with comparable spec'd GPU's and price them accordingly comparable, where's the harm?

Originally posted by porschedrifter
You gotta be smart when buying GPU's I pity those sorry souls that rushed out and got the $600+ 8800GTX ULTRA or the 9800GX2 when first release, they are totally not needed and a waste of money

I play all the latest games like Crysis, COD4, GRID etc... with no probs all maxed out at 1280x1024

Actually if you run at high resolutions they are needed. Many people use 24" to 30", and the gts won't cut it for those resolutions. I could switch to that resolution and get twice the framerate.. I can see if you use a 17"-22" display, you could get away with a gts, although those people will still be getting higher, smoother, more stable framerates, and their video card will go further than the gts, especially with more demanding games which are coming out.

reply to post by porschedrifter


They are not fixing the price , they are artificially inflating it for personal gain, this is manipulating the market and gaining from it.. this is a criminal offence and is not OK.

reply to post by yellowcard


Ati were the top dog back when the 9800s were out, but that wasnt 5 years ago more like 3

Now that Ati have released the 4000 series Im curious to see where things will go. Considering how cheep the card is and how well it preforms compared to all the other cards out there.

-fm

Originally posted by Freezer

Originally posted by porschedrifter
You gotta be smart when buying GPU's I pity those sorry souls that rushed out and got the $600+ 8800GTX ULTRA or the 9800GX2 when first release, they are totally not needed and a waste of money

I play all the latest games like Crysis, COD4, GRID etc... with no probs all maxed out at 1280x1024

Actually if you run at high resolutions they are needed. Many people use 24" to 30", and the gts won't cut it for those resolutions. I could switch to that resolution and get twice the framerate.. I can see if you use a 17"-22" display, you could get away with a gts, although those people will still be getting higher, smoother, more stable framerates, and their video card will go further than the gts, especially with more demanding games which are coming out.

Inches have nothing to do with resolution, you can have 1200DPI on a 15 inch screen and run at a higher resolution than a 21". I'm about to order an Alienware m15x with a GeForce 8800M GTX and though I want the price to be cheaper, I'm sure it will be worth it

WOW

I knew there was a problem with spending a couple of hundred dollars for a halfway decent video card. Man..........that pisses me off. This whole time I could have had a better video card if it wasn't for their greed.

Give a poor gamer a break!

All I got to say is that I better be able to afford a cheaper better Video Card (From Nvidia of course) before the US and or Global economy collapses. And a new Flat Panel too!

[edit on 7/16/08 by housegroove23]

Originally posted by funky monk
reply to post by yellowcard

 

Ati were the top dog back when the 9800s were out, but that wasnt 5 years ago more like 3

Now that Ati have released the 4000 series Im curious to see where things will go. Considering how cheep the card is and how well it preforms compared to all the other cards out there.

-fm

Yeah, you're right, the Geforce FX series was a disaster, I believe that was 2004 though, so it's close enough 4 years...whatever. How about Nvidia has been mopping the floor with ATi since the 6 series GeForce. THe 4 series Geforce was amazing as well, I remember having my Geforce ti4600. Then I remember when the 6600GT budget card was launched, I was at the launch even at Quakecon that year, it was awesome. I miss those days, I've been around the gaming/nerd block a few times

[edit on 16-7-2008 by yellowcard]

reply to post by yellowcard


Yes, you are correct, I was talking about the typical monitor. I have seen a 23" monitor that displays 3000+ costing $10,000. I was just pointing out that the higher resolution you want to run, the better the video card you need.

Those alienwares are nice, I aways liked their cases, as they are curved in 3 dimensions, although they are very expensive. With a 8800m that things gonna put out some serious heat.

This really upsets me. I hope they get nailed big time, maybe then a 3rd competitor can come into play and take a part of the market. I wouldn't mind if they had an awful penalty, like paying back all the revenues they earned from sales for however long this happened. And if they go bust, whoopsies, that'll teach them and other companies not to partake in this sort of thing. It is absolutly vital in this economy to have competition, and when there isn't people get screwed.

I don't want to go off topic but looking at the stock market, I swear it looks like something (perhaps the PPT) is keeping the market up higher than what it should be. These sort of manipulations are completely unfair and steal money from the consumers. Normally companies need to be invovative and be slaves to the open market and competitiion, but with these things happening, we become slaves to them. The burden of staying competitive is sloughed off and the burden is given to consumers.

Originally posted by porschedrifter
Aside from the ridiculous prices on today's latest GPU's I find nothing wrong with fixed pricing from Nvidia and ATI, It would be adverse for one or the other to seriously undercut each others prices, but if they come out with comparable spec'd GPU's and price them accordingly comparable, where's the harm?

You have no idea how a free market is supposed to work. You WANT them to undercut each other, and yes it would "hurt" the other company, but guess who it helps? The consumer. Lets say all the grocery stores in your state agreed to increase prices 100% and no one was allowed to undercut the price, even though they are making a rediculous profit. Consumers have no choice but to pay or starve, all because there were some nasty agreements made behind close doors.



[edit on 16-7-2008 by ghaleon12]

Originally posted by Freezer
reply to post by yellowcard

 

Yes, you are correct, I was talking about the typical monitor. I have seen a 23" monitor that displays 3000+ costing $10,000. I was just pointing out that the higher resolution you want to run, the better the video card you need.

Those alienwares are nice, I aways liked their cases, as they are curved in 3 dimensions, although they are very expensive. With a 8800m that things gonna put out some serious heat.

I usually build my own, but you can't really build your own laptop. I have a few Alienware desktop chassis, only one of which came with an actual purchase from Alienware, which was pre-nerdom. Now I figure I'll get one of their laptops, it should be sweet, and taking a 8800m on the road should be fun, a lot easier for LANing, even with a gear grip it's a pain in the butt to have a LAN party.

Well go figure! I always thought it was kind of odd how the price of the new video cards were almost worth more than the actual motherboard itself.

This is even true for laptops. Many of the laptops i disassemble, the video cards are the second most expensive part on the laptop. Motherboard, video card, then the LCD SCREENS.

never made much sense, Now i wonder if AMD might be doing the same thing with INTEL for their CPUs/Processors. HMMM

reply to post by yellowcard


Wouldn't it be sweet if we could build our own laptops..
I built my own desktop as well, as its a whole lot cheaper, and you get to pick all the components. Most don't want to learn how to do it, even though its actually really easy, and will perform a lot better. You just have to build 1 and you'll never buy a prebuilt again.

I always wanted to play at a lan, the ping must be great, plus no hacks..

Most things are ridiculously priced, and rates are oddly configured simply to make money. That is why even with cheaper things, such as music, that there is illegal downloading. Distributors do not like illegal downloading because it takes money out of their over stuffed pockets. I say screw’em, the customer is always right, and if millions are resorting to illegal thievery on the internet then you are marketing your prices too high.

May this first step lead to many more in holding people accountable and re-working the system. Hopefully in the market common sense will begin to rule over non-stop greed.

reply to post by Freezer


That sounds fascinating and fun; I’d like to give it a whirl some time. Perhaps someone should create a business geared toward work shops for people to learn how to build their own computers? Unless those already exist, not sure, I can be a bit technologically challenged, except when it comes to Microsoft Word, thank god.

[edit on 16-7-2008 by rapinbatsisaltherage]

I believe this is the very first conspiracy I have ever seen on ATS that was real or had enough evidence for it to make it seem likely. Star and flagged.

this is hilarious


all of my "gaming" buddies who used to mock me for using pentium compatible motherboards and chipsets sets because "pentium is evil"

now they have no pedestal to stand on


Excellent find

S&F

Just the fact that they've been price-gouging for a number of years is bad enough...Also consider that they intentionally time the next-in-line products to come out on the market after they've gouged from the current product. Just as car companies do, they make use of "planned obsolesence" to the greatest extent that they can get away with..

Just as Microsoft is notorious for "reverse incompatibility," the idea that newer software isn't compatible with older versions. Also, not long ago, Microsoft got tired of trying to dodge charges of "monopoly" in the courts: I think the key lawsuit that became "the last straw" for Microsoft happened in Des Moines, Iowa a few months ago. After a good ten years of playing dodgeball in court, they've announced that they're finally going to release the source codes...I haven't heard anything about that yet, though.

I can believe it. The cost of cards has gone up a stupid high amount over the last 5 years. From 500 to 600 bucks for the top end card. Which is more than a system board, memory, and processor.

I can only hope I am due some recompenses for all the ati and nvidia cards I bought.

Originally posted by ghostlandseller
Well go figure! I always thought it was kind of odd how the price of the new video cards were almost worth more than the actual motherboard itself.

This is even true for laptops. Many of the laptops i disassemble, the video cards are the second most expensive part on the laptop. Motherboard, video card, then the LCD SCREENS.

never made much sense, Now i wonder if AMD might be doing the same thing with INTEL for their CPUs/Processors. HMMM

Most graphics cards do cost more than the motherboard...the only important thing on the motherboard is the chipset really. With a graphics card you're paying for the memory, the GPU and the card itself...personally I'd expect it to cost more. With a motherboard there is no RAM and CPU already in...now if you add those in then the who mainboard with RAM and CPU will probably cost equal or more than the Graphic card.