AMD/ATI and nVidia news

[CharlieChomper]

I have been meaning to post more articles more frequently, but for the past week or so I have been not been feeling very well and low on spoons, so haven't been able to.

This actually affects people in the US, but it's something both companies may have engaged in elsewhere. At the very least, it only further has added to their recent round of legal issues (along with Intel) that they are being investigated for related to the current state of the graphics/video card industry (which is almost ironic in light of the fact that the current discussion within the industry over the future of the GPU--in laymen's terms, think of it as the video card's processor).

The article actually deals with a something of an industry "dirty secret" that neither nVidia or AMD/ATI (largely when it was still just ATI) were actually the first companies to engage in or get caught doing within the industry, nor were they the first component manufacturers to engage in such a practice for their particular type of component either.

That "secret" is that the two companies were caught engaging in the illegal practice of "price fixing" their offerings between 2002 up through last year and even collaborating together on it.

Unfortunately, as it was brought about as part of a lawsuit and because it was settled out of court versus being brought to trial, the matter apparently ends there without any further investigation or attempts at a definite end to the matter.

nVidia has already been ordered to pay $850,000US (581,816.50Euros/5,643,065 SEK) into a special fund, with AMD/ATI expected to match that amount (however, it is still in dispute as to whether or not that will be definite in AMD's case). However, the amount may change as it is subject to court approval still.

With both companies being in their current respective states, that is a substantial amount of money involved. However, I may have to leave an explanation of why for another thread as there is some backstory to it involved.

[Felicity]

Seems the "dirty secret" is now going to probably cost them anyway.

Felicity

[xmasqueen]

Ok so what does this mean for those of us that have AMD. I've always had an AMD processor and a nVidia card and this computer was just updated around March of this year.

[CharlieChomper]

In this instance, it doesn't apply to owners of AMD processors (CPUs). It only really applies to people who own ATI video/graphics cards as ATI was collaborating with nVidia on this scheme with the video/graphics card market.

AMD was brought into it because they now own ATI (and this appears to have continued since then, with ATI still being in the "thick" of it versus AMD being directly involved). Owners of AMD processors/CPUs are in the clear as far as this is concerned.

Adding to the confusion is that ATI as a name is slowly being replaced with the possibility of being dropped in favor of just AMD (in fact, it's already started happening with the newer video/graphics cards and chipsets in just reference as well as slowly being adopted more within the industry to refer to what had been ATI and then AMD/ATI following the merger).

If your nVidia card was purchased this year, it means it was after the practice may have stopped (as they knew they were under investigation and the lawsuit was brought on last year), so this doesn't affect you directly.

Both companies had claimed they were "price fixing" their cards in an attempt to supposedly "stabilize prices" versus allowing the market to decide, when in reality, it was hurting consumers to say nothing of being a reminder of why the practice is illegal.

Hopefully, neither company opts to go the same route as the DDR RAM manufacturers when they were caught in the act of doing this and attempt to pass along the settlement costs to their customers. Neither component manufacturing industry (DDR RAM and video/graphics cards) were alone in this as there have been a few other component manufacturers (for their respective bit of hardware) who have likewise been caught engaging in this, just as there are currently suspicions in place of other types of components where this may be happening.

Unfortunately, as none of the lawsuits were ever actually brought to trial and were instead settled out of court, the investigations into the companies ended there as well and it never really ended the practice or sent out or even acted as a warning to the rest of the industry. Instead, companies have either gotten better at hiding the fact that they're doing this (in case they do get caught) or think that all it means is that they can just throw money "at the problem" and it automatically goes away for them and that's the end of it.

Regardless, neither company is really on "solid footing" right now, but that's a bit of a topic unto itself.

[xmasqueen]

Ok thanks CC, that's good to know that I'm ok.