Originally posted by: Pete
Originally posted by: ForceCalibur
THe system you refer to (RMA), whatever that is, has nothing to do with the how the market works, and it does nothing to affect pricing.
On what planet does a product recall not affect a company's bottom line, and thus future pricing strategies?
RMA = Return Merchandise Authorization, BTW (= by the way ).
Overclocking does NOT void your warranty. Both NVidia nad ATI have no problems with people overclocking. THe overclockability of a card is in a marketing aspect of the cards itself.
Wrong. OCing constitutes running your card out of spec, which most manufacturers do not support. ATi doesn't support OCing tools for their cards, hence they don't support OCing beyond the card's preset limits. A company like Gainward or Sapphire may promote their card's OCability by including OCing software, in which case it would appear OCing is encouraged, though they tend to only guarantee a certain level of OC (getting higher than that is the luck of the draw, and not a valid cause for RMA).
Im well aware of what RMA is. The fact is, if you have any knowledge of Economics at all, Pricing is affected by a variety of factors. Most noticeably, supply and demand, marginal costs, revenues, total costs, etc etc. The Warranty is COVERED by the firms Costs. They do a best estimate of what its going to cost them to supply the warranty for however many years, and it factors into the price. Either way, the cost of a card is miniscule, and the process of RMA (like rebates actually) discourages many people from going through the process. Its complicated marketing, but if you think that people who actually USE a service provided by the manufacturs will drive prices up, you are DEAD WRONG.
Overclocking constitutes running your card out of spec, yes. So? Whats your point? Is there manufactures can do about it? No. First of all, there is NO WAY YOU CAN DAMAGE YOUR CARD VIA CAREFUL OVERCLOCKING. You will either lock up, freeze up, or notice graphic abnormalities (and if your sensible, you'll downclock it). There are saftey measures cards employ that prevent them from dying like that.
You don't think ATI or Nvidia know that Overclockers are a niche market that makes them ALOT of money? Why do you think Nvidia is keeping with the releasing of dual molex 6800 Ultras. Why do you think ATI employs Overdrive on their 9800XTs. Companies like Gainward's Golden Samples, Albatron, target their marketing at overclockers. Tons of advertisements, press releases etc etc claiming how their cores and mems are hand picked to operate at certain frequencies beyond stock.