NVIDIA Settles Class-Action Lawsuit Over GTX 970 Memory

[btarunr]

NVIDIA settled in a 2015 class-action lawsuit against it, for misrepresenting the amount of memory on GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards. The company has agreed to pay every buyer of the card USD $30 (per card), and also cover the legal fees of the class, amounting to $1.3 million. The company, however, did not specify how much money it has set aside for the payout, and whether it will compensate only those buyers who constitute the class (i.e. buyers in the U.S., since that's as far as the court's jurisdiction can reach), or the thousands of GTX 970 buyers worldwide.

"The settlement is fair and reasonable and falls within the range of possible approval," attorneys for the proposed Class said in the filing. "It is the product of extended arms-length negotiations between experienced attorneys familiar with the legal and factual issues of this case and all settlement class members are treated fairly under the terms of the settlement." The class alleged that NVIDIA falsified the amount of memory a GeForce GTX 970 GPU can really use, when an investigation found that it could only address 3.5 GB of it properly. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang apologized to buyers about the issue and promised that it would never happen again.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

If NVIDIA is smart, it will compensate US buyers $30 USD, and to people outside the US, it will voluntarily give away a Steam game key to a AAA game as compensation. If it doesn't do that, people outside the US will start class-actions of their own, and maybe the courts will set a higher compensation than $30/buyer. I bet EU regulators will order NVIDIA to give everyone $329.

 

[bug]

If NVIDIA is smart, it will compensate US buyers $30 USD, and to people outside the US, it will voluntarily give away a Steam game key to a AAA game as compensation. If it doesn't do that, people outside the US will start class-actions of their own, and maybe the courts will set a higher compensation than $30/buyer. I bet EU regulators will order NVIDIA to give everyone $329.

I think it's much more difficult to start a class action in EU that it is in the US (in some EU countries, class action is not even available). And even then, this action was settled, there's no guaranteed win.

Edit: I'm not sure what the poll is about. It's like people complaining they bought a car having a V8 engine, but 2 cylinders are smaller than the others. First, equal cylinder sizes (memory inferface bus width) is not a given, it's just they way it's usually (always?) implemented. Second, you didn't buy the car for each cylinder's individual performance, but for the overall performance. Third, you actually got 8 cylinders (4GB VRAM). The only good thing coming out of the whole debacle is that it (hopefully) prevents atypical memory configurations from becoming the norm.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

If NVIDIA is smart, it will compensate US buyers $30 USD, and to people outside the US, it will voluntarily give away a Steam game key to a AAA game as compensation. If it doesn't do that, people outside the US will start class-actions of their own, and maybe the courts will set a higher compensation than $30/buyer. I bet EU regulators will order NVIDIA to give everyone $329.

I am in favor of keeping US and EU lawsuits like this separate, despite the extra legal fees for Nvidia.

 

[Melvis]

Thats around $40 Aussie dollars, yes please!

 

[Jborg]

Where do I get my 30 dollars? I haz a feeling by the time I get it it wont even be worth the time tho.

" NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang apologized to buyers about the issue and promised that it would never happen again. "

LUL. Right.

 

[warrior420]

I'm not sure what the poll is about. It's like people complaining they bought a car having a V8 engine, but 2 cylinders are smaller than the others. First, equal cylinder sizes (memory inferface bus width) is not a given, it's just they way it's usually (always?) implemented. Second, you didn't buy the car for each cylinder's individual performance, but for the overall performance. Third, you actually got 8 cylinders (4GB VRAM). The only good thing coming out of the whole debacle is that it (hopefully) prevents atypical memory configurations from becoming the norm.

First of all, how dare you try to defend Nvidia. This was settled in court showing the crippled card had an issue, and the people won. Why would you argue against a courts findings? Just face the facts that these cards where/are a sham that everyone had high expectations for, and Nvidia is a highly disingenuous company for going out of their way to put out a product that has issues. Shame on Nvidia. They knew what they did from the start. It proves they have no care about proper innovation and their customers.

Since the findings came out on the internet a while ago, I have vowed to never buy an Nvidia product ever again.

 

[jaggerwild]

First of all, how dare you try to defend Nvidia. This was settled in court showing the crippled card had an issue, and the people won. Why would you argue against a courts findings? Just face the facts that these cards where/are a sham that everyone had high expectations for, and Nvidia is a highly disingenuous company for going out of their way to put out a product that has issues. Shame on Nvidia. They knew what they did from the start. It proves they have no care about proper innovation and their customers.

Since the findings came out on the internet a while ago, I have vowed to never buy an Nvidia product ever again.

Do you even own a computer? If so why haven't you filled out "Your System Spec's"?

@the OP, this all brings a song to heart(TRUE COLORS). But Nvidia is a COMPANY and as such (especially in today's economy)lets face if you have worked for a CORP you do things you would not normally do............

 

[Nucleoprotein]

NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang apologized to buyers about the issue and promised that it would never happen again.

But it happen already, 1070 has 64 ROP in spec but can only use 48 per cycle... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_10_Series and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#cite_note-49)

 

[jaggerwild]

That's not what the lawsuit was about, at least your name isn't myhairb@llsake

 

[bug]

First of all, how dare you try to defend Nvidia. This was settled in court showing the crippled card had an issue, and the people won. Why would you argue against a courts findings? Just face the facts that these cards where/are a sham that everyone had high expectations for, and Nvidia is a highly disingenuous company for going out of their way to put out a product that has issues. Shame on Nvidia. They knew what they did from the start. It proves they have no care about proper innovation and their customers.

Since the findings came out on the internet a while ago, I have vowed to never buy an Nvidia product ever again.

Well, you don't even seem to understand what a settlement is, so it's pointless to argue further.

Plus, I'm not defending Nvidia, as I have stated, I wouldn't want to see widespread usage of the solution they chose for the GTX 970. At the same time, I'm not arguing in favour of protection against stupidity either: the card has been benchmarked all over the place, no one can claim they thought they were buying something and got something else instead. More to the point, I go to TPU, I can see the MSI 970 does 42.9fps in Alien Isolation at 4k. That's what I get off the shelf, regardless of how those 42.9fps are delivered.

But it happen already, 1070 has 64 ROP in spec but can only use 48 per cycle... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_10_Series and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#cite_note-49)

From your own link:

The card has all of the ROPs of GTX 1080 and 80% of the memory bandwidth, however what it doesn’t have is GP104’s 4th GPC. Home of the Raster Engine responsible for rasterization, GTX 1070 can only setup 48 pixels/clock to begin with, despite the fact that the ROPs can accept 64 pixels. As a result it takes a significant hit here, delivering 77% of GTX 1080’s pixel throughput. With all of that said, the fact that in-game performance is closer than this is a reminder to the fact that while pixel throughput is an important part of game performance, it’s often not the bottleneck.

 

[truth teller]

they _lied_ about the rop count (only 56 instead of the advertised 64) and the l2 cache size (only 1.7mb instead of advertised 2mb) which are worse issues than the 0.5gb slow memory interface/partition (those fake numbers were writen on the boxes of the cards and their documentation for christ sake!), and yet their "apology" never mentioned any of these issues. im not surprised if a similar "trick" happens in the future, that company is used to throw dirt into consumers eyes and calling it innovation.

and like btarunr said, maybe this can be extended worldwide with a free game or discount towards new hardware acquisition (they now sell card direct to customer so it would kinda make sense for user upgrading from a 970 in the near future).

 

[Cybrnook2002]

Would be nice if this could be followed, and info on how to claim the $30 per card once directions are made available. I know we went through a handful of 970's (and still have some in use).

 

[the54thvoid]

they _lied_ about the rop count (only 56 instead of the advertised 64) and the l2 cache size (only 1.7mb instead of advertised 2mb) which are worse issues than the 0.5gb slow memory interface/partition (those fake numbers were writen on the boxes of the cards

Are these technical specs actually listed to the consumers? I'm not sure if they are or are not and that is an important point. They certainly (despite 970's obvious goodiness) deserve this as the card didn't have 'fully functional' as construed on the box Memory. I wont defend that - if the box says 4Gb you expect 4Gb of memory working at the same rate, not partitions within that bracket at slower speeds.

But if you start going down the path of examining tech specs not released to consumers then I deserve a rebate for both my ATI crossfire configs as they never ran as I expected. I'm not talking about game support but the specific stuttering issue that meant a lot of my 5850 and 7970 crossfire gaming was worse than single card. I genuinely expected smoother game play but I did not get that. ATI must have known what they were selling surely (after all, they fixed wit with XDMA)- so let's talk compensation on that.
This isn't an Nvidia fan boy position (as stated - they deserve the fines and settlement for the 970 issue) rather an educated position on "how far do you want to take the major players specs and slide info"? The RX480 didn't quite seem to deliver on performance/watt as suggested by their presentations either (unless we trawl through the precise conditions that must be met to meet that perf increase) - do we sue?

Who's more likely to shaft you? Right now - probably Nvidia because they can afford to. AMD can't afford to make big PR mistakes, they need to play safe but rest assured in the past they have shafted you. Where's @HumanSmoke? He's a factoid on the dubious history of each brand.

 

[bug]

The RX480 didn't quite seem to deliver on performance/watt as suggested by their presentations either (unless we trawl through the precise conditions that must be met to meet that perf increase) - do we sue?

And it's not a 150W part as advertised. Do we sue for that, too?

 

[$ReaPeR$]

First of all, how dare you try to defend Nvidia. This was settled in court showing the crippled card had an issue, and the people won. Why would you argue against a courts findings? Just face the facts that these cards where/are a sham that everyone had high expectations for, and Nvidia is a highly disingenuous company for going out of their way to put out a product that has issues. Shame on Nvidia. They knew what they did from the start. It proves they have no care about proper innovation and their customers.

Since the findings came out on the internet a while ago, I have vowed to never buy an Nvidia product ever again.

mate, obvious nvidia fanboy is obvious.. regardless though, people should vote with their wallet, which they dont, because they dont care, they care more for how they will be perceived by their social circle, and there nvidia=bigger epenis. i dont bother anymore.. its pointless. stupidity is invincible after all. we are talking about a company that has 80% of the market, yet still uses shady tactics, and most people dont give a flying f@ck.. yet they will bitch about how amd doesnt compete.. there is no hope for the human race.. 30$ LOL

 

[rhythmeister]

And it's not a 150W part as advertised. Do we sue for that, too?

That issue has been addressed though AND the green team (of which I'm now part of) had a so I large issue with the last generation cards spiking above stated power draw figures. Everyone's at it, don't worry!

 

[bug]

That issue has been addressed though AND the green team (of which I'm now part of) had a so I large issue with the last generation cards spiking above stated power draw figures. Everyone's at it, don't worry!

Addressed, yes. Power draw from the socket was limited to 75W, but the card can still draw more than 75W from the PCIe connector (and does so by default). So it's still a card that uses over 150W, being sold as a 150W card.

 

[the54thvoid]

mate, obvious nvidia fanboy is obvious.. regardless though, people should vote with their wallet, which they dont, because they dont care, they care more for how they will be perceived by their social circle, and there nvidia=bigger epenis. i dont bother anymore.. its pointless. stupidity is invincible after all. we are talking about a company that has 80% of the market, yet still uses shady tactics, and most people dont give a flying f@ck.. yet they will bitch about how amd doesnt compete.. there is no hope for the human race.. 30$ LOL

C'mon dude. You offend many people that buy Nvidia simply because their top end is faster. Why do you equate that with epeen? If I want to buy the fastest gfx card in a generation, I will (if i want to shell out for it). It doesn't make me a fanboy of whatever brand I buy and it doesn't make me a cock waving technotwat. It's attitudes that you display (somehow without even noticing ) that are the epitome of a fanboy. When you simply slag off someone because of what they buy because it's not your choice - THEY are the fanboy? Seriously?
So, I should not buy a GTX 1080 because the Fury X is slower? WTF? (FTR, I'm sticking with my 980ti because I'm still on W7). And I really must not buy a GTX1070 because it's cheaper than Fury X and in most circumstances, faster?

Stop being silly with comments about Nvidia and epeen. I could argue the same about any gamer that has bought a Radeon Pro Duo (or a Titan Z). It is absolute nonsense to tell people to buy a slower card if they want to buy the faster card (or the quieter, etc). Yes, there are fanboys but aim your guns at them directly and don't make stupid and sweeping generalisations about peoples buying choices.

And social circle? Are you completely delusional? Why would my social circle influence my gfx choice? Most of my friends don't even know what the inside of a PC looks like, let alone what brand is inside it.

Yeah, so stop making infantile, fanboy call outs, when they simply shine a giant fanboy light on your own head.

 

[rtwjunkie]

First of all, how dare you try to defend Nvidia. This was settled in court showing the crippled card had an issue, and the people won. Why would you argue against a courts findings? Just face the facts that these cards where/are a sham that everyone had high expectations for, and Nvidia is a highly disingenuous company for going out of their way to put out a product that has issues. Shame on Nvidia. They knew what they did from the start. It proves they have no care about proper innovation and their customers.

Since the findings came out on the internet a while ago, I have vowed to never buy an Nvidia product ever again.

Dude, get real. This is about a video card. What lives were hurt? Is this a major problem, like faulty natural gas lines, or brakes on a car that don't work? No, it's a video card, a luxury item. Yes, NVIDIA was wrong, but don't try to make it out like they slaughtered thousands of innocent lives.

And for the record, the 970 performed equally as well after the news as it did before. And it surely didn't stop the record sales of it after the memory news either....people still thronged to it. Why? Because it was a damned good card, as anyone who ever ACTUALLY owned one knows.

 

[Vayra86]

I am in favor of keeping US and EU lawsuits like this separate, despite the extra legal fees for Nvidia.

As an EU citizen, fully in agreement with that.

 

[Aquinus]

And for the record, the 970 performed equally as well after the news as it did before. And it surely didn't stop the record sales of it after the memory news either....people still thronged to it. Why? Because it was a damned good card, as anyone who ever ACTUALLY owned one knows.

...but will the 970 have less longevity as a result? More games are using more and more VRAM and I'm sure the issue will become more apparent as that becomes the case for more games. Just because it wasn't an issue then and isn't quite an issue now, doesn't mean it won't be an issue in a year. As I said in another thread about VRAM that is semi-related:

VRAM capacity is one of those things that doesn't matter until you don't have enough of it.

In other words, if you're not using that much, it won't be a problem.

 

[rtwjunkie]

...but will the 970 have less longevity as a result? More games are using more and more VRAM and I'm sure the issue will become more apparent as that becomes the case for more games. Just because it wasn't an issue then and isn't quite an issue now, doesn't mean it won't be an issue in a year. As I said in another thread about VRAM that is semi-related:

In other words, if you're not using that much, it won't be a problem.

Well the thing is, the card is already two years old. It's a mid-grade card. The realistic lifecycle that most people I am aware of with mid-tier cards is 2-3 years. As fast as GPU technology changes and advances, it's pointless to buy a card because of what you think you might need two to 3 years from now. Invariably, that guess will end up wrong.

 

[Aquinus]

Well the thing is, the card is already two years old. It's a mid-grade card. The realistic lifecycle that most people I am aware of with mid-tier cards is 2-3 years. As fast as GPU technology changes and advances, it's pointless to buy a card because of what you think you might need two to 3 years from now. Invariably, that guess will end up wrong.

You say that but, I had my first 6870 for 6 years and got a second one for CFX when one wasn't enough after 3 years.

 

[Jism]

Class action lawsuits seems only possible in USA or Canada or whatever. Not for europe. If anyone remembers the VW diesel scandal, it settled for billions of dollars in USA and buyers, but we in Europe get no compensation at all. They'd simply reflash your car's ECU to match the CO2 and thats it.

So yes, lawsuit is good, makes Nvidia think twice about putting false advertisement about their cards. AMD camp is cheering now.