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

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

www.techpowerup.com

Class actions charged against NVIDIA and ATI (now AMD) reveal that the two companies may have staged a competition over the past half-a-decade or so. A judge read out an email which suggested price fixing was rife in the graphics card market. That follows a class action of 51 different plaintiffs, now combined into one, and across different legal jurisdictions, alleging cartel behaviour not only in graphics chips, but flat panels and CRTs too.

In other words, NVIDIA and ATI may have been fixing prices of their products for a while now, it is believed that they held secret meetings to discuss staged competition, chart out prices, timings of product launches among other things. These pseudo-competitions staged provided improved sales among other things. A PDF File available to us at this point shows that the two indulged in conspiracy to mutually benefit from staged competition, so as to:

* Fix, stabilize, and maintain prices of products in the US Market.
* Artificial inflation of product prices.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Want a real conspiracy ? Here ya go...

ATI and NVIDIA have been Fixing prices for years , to make YOUR graphic cards more expensive.

Secret meetings, covert plans .. its all here.

Enjoy

www.techpowerup.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

So what, same thing the car makers do, same thing movie places do, same thing underwear places do..

Only diffrence is these guys got busted..

Besides if your stupid enough to pay 500 bucks for a video card thats going to drop to 200 bucks in 6 months.. Then fine be stupid... everyone one knows tech drops in price... worse than cars do..

I dont care wtf they do as long as the tech rolls cheaper in the end to be able to play some games..

This is coming from a gamer sometimes.

reply to post by ThichHeaded


So what?.. Because everyone does this it makes it ok?

Thats why they all get away with it because no one cares!

If it was all run correctly the consumer ... 'us' should get a much cheaper end product.

i hope they force them to lower prices for people , however the legal bill these 2 companies will get slapped with may prohibit the lowering as the customer must pay for everything eventually .. even the fines.

It's also a known fact that nVidia to this date have only used some 15% of all the patents they bought from 3Dfx during the takeover...so...

Eighter, there is not enough power in todays cards or ....they are just playing the waiting game

I previously thought this impossible, even though I knew that my graphics card was not really worth $550 USD. This is troubling, starred and flagged.


edit;
Is there going to be a way for the public to get in on this suit, as there was in the Airborne FAKE cold remedy suit?

[edit on 7-16-2008 by forsakenwayfarer]

Considering for the most part, a video card is nothing more than a co-processor , ram, and a video interface... it kinda makes you scratch your head and wonder why you're paying up to $600 for the card sometimes. (Higher end.)

... I've even seen some that are valued near $1000.

The problem here is, nobody else is really in the game but these two companies. Kinda makes me wish Trident was still in the game.


With two companies having total ownership of the market... it's only a matter of time before they find it's in their best interest to over-charge the customers together.

However, the fact that there were only two companies really in the game... this should have sent up a few red flags to law firms to start watching them closely.
... maybe that's what happened. But it's certainly taken them a while, considering how long they've been increasing the prices.

Most of us wander around with eyes closed, this couldnt possibly happen to us?

These people must have our best interest at heart?

Yeah right. Proof on a world level .. Probably 80-90% of the people reading this post have been effected by this issue in some capacity.

You have been ripped off . on purpose by 2 other groups of human beings interested in one thing MONEY.

I wonder what go's on on the country level or even the world level? i am sure we have no idea.

I would love to get half of my money back.. I bought a couple of cards, only 2, that 6 months after the 2nd one it droped over a 150 dollars..

Hmm.. I dont see this as that surprising or that big of a deal.

So they overcharged for video cards? if its their product are they not allowed to set a price if the public is willing to pay it? I blame the consumer for paying the ridiculous prices instead of waiting the one or two months until its half the price.

Think of all the other things that are overpriced, its no different, bottled water for 75$?

But people pay for it, and they have other options - they dont force you to buy a high end card. 99% of users dont need that 500$ card.

So its a crime for someone to charge $15000 for a TV if someone is willing to buy it? As long as they provide normal priced video cards as well, and of course the newest ones always have a high markup, then I dont see a problem really.

I paid 150$ for my video card 3 years ago and only now am i thinking about upgrading. Thats quite a bit of time, and I play games - CS:Source, Crysis, EverQuest 2, - and have been fine.

If I paid the same 150$ now for a video card, I could expect to not need one for a long time.

Simple solution - dont pay the ridiculous prices.

it would be one thing if the prices were just the way they are due to competition and high development costs. but apparently the prices are a result of cooperation between the 2 graphics card giants. this is basically a monopoly, which causes prices to stagnate or rise, and it also causes a low amount in innovation.

regardless of whether or not it's a "big deal" or if you care, it's a big deal because these two were acting illegally and taking advantage of customers.

While I am suprised by this, my opinion is this: ATi cards are pieces of s*** and nVidia is the way to go. I bought my card for cheap at $90 brandnew, happy with what I have.
But as some people have already said, other companies in other industries have been doing this for years. It's all about making money, that economics for you, rarely ever about actually making the customer happy. I could go on for some more time about this, but it's hardly worth it.

all i know is they both just released new high end cards and that made the previous upper mid-range and upper range drop drastically. the card i paid over $200 for not 6 months ago is now available for $129. GREAT card too. not seeing what the problem is as long as the consumer isn't getting gouged. yeah the latest and greatest comes at a premium but that has little to do with price fixing. take intel's "extreme" line of cpu's for example. they run a cool $1,000 easy and the only thing that makes them better is an unlocked multiplier. AMD had those too (FX and Black series) for far less.

my opinion is this: ATi cards are pieces of s***

based on what? i've tried several of each over the years. in the early days nvidia was obviously the way to go, but these days i don't see how you can say one is better than the other. i have a 7800 GT and 8600 GTS - both great cards. i also have a radeon 1950xtx and 3870 - both great cards. yes i have a few machines in my house. =)

the comment about only using 15% of the 3dfx patents seems moot since it's all old tech anyway. the 15% they're using was probably the only stuff worth using. you know, unless you want to go back to using GLide. =)

[edit on 16-7-2008 by an0maly33]

Yeah and? Intel has been trying to illegally shut down AMD too.. No one is honest

www.dailytech.com...

www.tgdaily.com...

www.theinquirer.net...

www.dvhardware.net...

www.engadget.com...

www.law.com...

D'oh!

Sorry, double post!

[edit on 16-7-2008 by Frontkjemper]

Great catch Quantum!

I know some have been price fixing things like LCD tv's, but never have I thought that Nvidia would do something like that.

Oh well, hopefully this means cheaper graphic cards for us. I've been thinking about a 9200sli rig.

Originally posted by ThichHeaded
Besides if your stupid enough to pay 500 bucks for a video card thats going to drop to 200 bucks in 6 months.. Then fine be stupid... everyone one knows tech drops in price... worse than cars do..

By that logic why not wait 4 years till it cost $50? I bought the 8800gtx cause it was the only card which could run 2560x1600 with max settings without lagging. If you want to play the latest games at the highest settings you need the latest hardware. Sure you can play it 6 months later, but some choose to play it now cause they can afford it, doesn't make them stupid...Are you gonna buy the ps2 now that its dirt cheap when there is the ps3? Did I get ripped on my gtx? Sure, but I don't regret buying it, as its the best card I've ever used, and I've got a lot out of it. I did however get a great deal on my monitor which used to sell for $2200..I paid $1100 and that was after waiting 3 years...Most products are dirt cheap to manufacture, take a dvd for example. Think it cost anywhere near $15-20 to make a piece of plastic with dots in it?

[edit on 16-7-2008 by Freezer]

reply to post by an0maly33


My opinion is based on the not so nice experiences I have had with ATi cards. I never have gotten too fond of them.

I actually went from the Nvidia 7600 to the 7950 and then finally settled on the 8800gts.. bought it when it was about $360 or so... Haven't been happier. I've had it for about 2 years and it hasn't given me a problem with any game yet. Now that the prices dropped i'll probably pick another one up and do sli with them.

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

I remember a few year back, ATI stock was worth a little, and then they got the rights to make the hardware for the Xbox 360, and in the matter of a year, their stock price had quadrupled...

Now this...


I wonder if Congress will investigate this... nah, probaly just keep talking to baseball players about steriods...