I cant say im suprised

[Acanthus]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5177

The allegations involve price fixing in the performance sector, i wouldnt be suprised at all if this was going on.

 

[rise]

i wouldn't be surprised if the allegations are true but i think the doj would have a tough time proving it.

 

[Matt2]

I hope they nail both companies and set some kind of price ceiling for products.

Wishful thinking, but tis the season!

 

[Woofmeister]

Well, I'm very suprised. Both companies are fierce competitors and their prices for their respective cards in each segment of the market are often pretty far apart. Besides, Intel has over half of the graphics market with their onboard graphics solutions so it's hard to believe that AMD/ATI and Nvidia are price fixing in their small segment of the market when Intel could come in and undercut both companies if it wanted to.

More than likely this is simply housekeeping relating to the proposed AMD/ATI merger and dailytech is confused.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
Well, I'm very suprised. Both companies are fierce competitors and their prices for their respective cards in each segment of the market are often pretty far apart. Besides, Intel has over half of the graphics market with their onboard graphics solutions so it's hard to believe that AMD/ATI and Nvidia are price fixing in their small segment of the market when Intel could come in and undercut both companies if it wanted to.

More than likely this is simply housekeeping relating to the proposed AMD/ATI merger and dailytech is confused.

Uh, $1 integrated graphics isnt where the artificially high pricing is.

Its the performance segment.

 

[nitromullet]

So, if the DoJ does actually find them guilty of price fixing, what would that mean to us? Would they refund our money or would the DoJ slap them with a fine that they would shift to us by increasing their prices?

 

[Fistandantilis]

does that mean that I can get some sort of rebate on the 1900XT I bought?

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
So, if the DoJ does actually find them guilty of price fixing, what would that mean to us? Would they refund our money or would the DoJ slap them with a fine that they would shift to us by increasing their prices?

Usually its a massive fine. As in the hundreds of millions of dollars range.

Ask the memory makers

 

[imported_thefonz]

The only problem with a massive fine would be that no consumer would see any of the money back in their pockets, it would most likely go to the government, and pay for other "necessary" things such as a 450 billion dollar defense budget.

I'm honestly not surprised, 650 for a 8800gtx? it probably costs them $100-200 to make the card.

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: thefonz

I'm honestly not surprised, 650 for a 8800gtx? it probably costs them $100-200 to make the card.

R&D probably costs ATI/nvidia billions of dollars for each new card generation. that's where most of the cost is coming from, assuming they arent inflating prices

 

[BassBomb]

instead of a fine, they should just cap the top prices to something reasonable like 400 USD

 

[Zap]

IMO the "fault" lies in the consumer, for being willing to pay ever higher amounts because they've convinced themselves they need it.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
instead of a fine, they should just cap the top prices to something reasonable like 400 USD

all you would see is a 'performance cap'

and less power-hungry cards

no way!

 

[TanisHalfElven]

so amd and intell are free to charge 1000+ for their top end product that cost less to make than a single 8800gtx and the 8800gtx at 650 is too expensive.
sheesh

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: BassBomb
instead of a fine, they should just cap the top prices to something reasonable like 400 USD

all you would see is a 'performance cap'

and less power-hungry cards

no way!

not really, it would just reaffirm the focus onto better cards -> not like truncate off the high end

compress it.. removing confusing cards

 

[Woofmeister]

The story has been picked up by multiple sources so I stand corrected--it is an antitrust probe of Nvidia and AMD/AIT in the high-end graphics segment.

Still doesn't make any sense to me on the merits, but maybe DOJ knows something we don't. Maybe some kind of spillover from the SRAM chip inquiry announced in October.

How ironic for AMD to attempt to acqire AIT and then be caught up in allegations of anti-competitive behavior after all those years complaining about Intel!

 

[ronnn]

I'm not surprised either. Easy money has a certain allure.

 

[BoberFett]

Next up, price fixing of high performance Italian exotic cars. :roll:

 

[manuelku]

not really surprised by it, seeing these are the only 2 companies making high performance graphics chipsets. It wasn't like the old times when there are s3, matrox, rendition, 3dfx, powervr.... (well, some still exist but already lost a huge part of their market shares)

 

[Saldrin]

I'm not impressed.

Now if the DoJ looked into the nations 4 cable companies... or it is 3 now... and asked why prices are close to $200 a month especially including the subpar internet, I would be impressed.

How many millions of people paying at least $100 a month and we *still* can't get upgraded lines in the good ol' USA? Come on now.

TW took over adelphia in my area and has done nothing but cut channels, and increase my bill. Less product, more money? At least nvidia and ati offer more for what you pay. Yeah, they are expensive, but I feel the gains the consumer gets are worth it. We don't have to buy a top of the line card as it comes out. But TV and internet are pretty important, at least to me. I wonder what the reasoning is the DoJ looks at them and turns a blind eye at the others.

 

[manuelku]

Originally posted by: Saldrin
I'm not impressed.

Now if the DoJ looked into the nations 4 cable companies... or it is 3 now... and asked why prices are close to $200 a month especially including the subpar internet, I would be impressed.

How many millions of people paying at least $100 a month and we *still* can't get upgraded lines in the good ol' USA? Come on now.

TW took over adelphia in my area and has done nothing but cut channels, and increase my bill. Less product, more money? At least nvidia and ati offer more for what you pay. Yeah, they are expensive, but I feel the gains the consumer gets are worth it. We don't have to buy a top of the line card as it comes out. But TV and internet are pretty important, at least to me. I wonder what the reasoning is the DoJ looks at them and turns a blind eye at the others.

I am not quite sure about your problem but I am paying $12.99 a month for DSL and I am pretty impressed by it. I get about 1.4 for 1.5mb service. I don't watch TV that much so having cable or not doesn't really bother me. I would say Internet is more important than TV, at least in the age with IPTV.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
The story has been picked up by multiple sources so I stand corrected--it is an antitrust probe of Nvidia and AMD/AIT in the high-end graphics segment.

Still doesn't make any sense to me on the merits, but maybe DOJ knows something we don't. Maybe some kind of spillover from the SRAM chip inquiry announced in October.

How ironic for AMD to attempt to acqire AIT and then be caught up in allegations of anti-competitive behavior after all those years complaining about Intel!

It's probably something related to SLI and Crossfire platform lockin. Maybe they will finally allow me to do Crossfire on my NF4 SLI board.

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
The story has been picked up by multiple sources so I stand corrected--it is an antitrust probe of Nvidia and AMD/AIT in the high-end graphics segment.

Still doesn't make any sense to me on the merits, but maybe DOJ knows something we don't. Maybe some kind of spillover from the SRAM chip inquiry announced in October.

How ironic for AMD to attempt to acqire AIT and then be caught up in allegations of anti-competitive behavior after all those years complaining about Intel!

It's probably something related to SLI and Crossfire platform lockin. Maybe they will finally allow me to do Crossfire on my NF4 SLI board.

That was my first thought when I heard about it too. SLI and Crossfire chipsets and lack of cross compatibility.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: schneiderguy

Originally posted by: thefonz

I'm honestly not surprised, 650 for a 8800gtx? it probably costs them $100-200 to make the card.

R&D probably costs ATI/nvidia billions of dollars for each new card generation. that's where most of the cost is coming from, assuming they arent inflating prices

They reuse the same designs for multiple generations, only tweaking the same technology. When they toss out huge number like "$400 million for G80" they are including employees wages that would be included in the cost anyway. Its not like they only pay the engineering teams when they are on a next gen project.

Im not saying they dont spend buttloads of money on R&D, but dont think nvidia isnt making a killing out there.

 

[Machine350]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5177

The allegations involve price fixing in the performance sector, i wouldnt be suprised at all if this was going on.

Am I missing something?!?! Where in that article does it say anything about price fixing?!?!?

As a matter of fact....direct quote from article -- "The DOJ has not made any specific allegations against AMD, ATI, or NVIDIA. Both AMD and NVIDIA said that they intend to cooperate with the DOJ in its investigations."