What is Digg?105 Comments
- Sandkat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+63You can charge whatever you want for your widgets, but you can't conspire with your only competitor to keep the price of widgets artifcially inflated. That's illegal.
- sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+59Once they're finished beating Nvidia like a baby seal I'd like for them to wipe that club off and pound paypal with it.
- consonance, on 10/12/2007, -0/+58No, it's REALLY called "oligopolistic collusion," which is illegal in the United States.
- sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -10/+67Yeah, I'm running SLI'ed lawyers, it's badass.
- sooperdooper, on 10/12/2007, -1/+54Nature "supplied" you with a brain, I "demand" that you use it.
- ZenMojo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+53That's not surprising at all. They gouge the high-end PC consumer market because the bottom is dropping out, and PC gamers consider it a badge of honor to shovel out mountains of cash.
Which is an interesting revelation considering the cost of a new CPU compared to a graphics card or even the cost of memory.
EDIT: Just as I suspected, apparently ATI is also involved in this same scam, ATTA. - Arkonnan, on 10/12/2007, -11/+57Like Scottylist, I don't actually have a reply to your comment. I'm just posting here to see my comment at the top of the page.
/lame - kerplunk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+41I am very happy this came out. Video cards are way too expensive.
- elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+37Doesn't AMD own ATI?
- Cougaboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31The point is that you can sell your widgets for as much as you want, but when you and your competitor agree not to compete in prices to keep the prices artificially high, you're doing something illegal.
Edit: beat to it. - ROFISH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31But what if Widgets Inc. and WidgMakers have 95% of the Widget market and both secretly agree to price their $10 widget for $100. The consumer is the one getting screwed while both Widget makers are profiting big time.
EDIT: Twice beated. - limitbreakerx, on 10/12/2007, -11/+38$600 gets you the new nVIDIA 8800 GTX.
$600 also gets a Xbox 360 plus a handful of games.
Console gaming is looking more and more attractive. - Yage2006, on 10/12/2007, -3/+29About time the DOJ does something I like :)
- coopaq, on 10/12/2007, -3/+21The nvidia 8800gtx is newer than the xbox 360's graphics chip and a heck of a lot faster.
The x360 chip is about the same as ATI's X1900XT.
When any games developers decide they will release something for the pc that the nvidia 8800gtx can chew on (besides Oblivion) let me know.
So yeah... I went with the x360 this time.
Gears was neat. BF2 x360 sucks.
Looks like most games will be released for x360, ps3, wii next year.
PC games postponed until Vista comes out. bleh. - LordofShadows, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Prices of my last 3 gfx cards:
~$150 Voodoo Banshee
~$200 Voodoo 5500
~$300 Fx5900u
Price for high end now?
$600... hmm... - Rikkochet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17You sure can. You just can't go to the competition and say "let's charge $10 per widget, mmkay"?
THAT is price fixing. - ZenMojo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18It's really called "oligopoly."
- xelloss, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18That would be sweet if the prices for the card came down. It should really be 200-250 bucks for a top end card.
- kingfoot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18when it came out, i was damn proud to be able to own the x1800xt and have the best card on the market for 10 days it was top...
- Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Specifically, anticompetitive trade practices, including collusion to fix prices, is illegal in the US, as it should be. Capitalism would collapse (and almost has) without the government keeping things competitive. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, libertarian economists.
- blapierre, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Capitalism has nothing to do with maximizing profit. It ONLY has to do with completely voluntary exchanges. A market with price fixing is not completely voluntary.
- questionable, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14The fact that they can regulate interstate commerce in the Constitution?
What if they started to cartelize with cars? With electricity? They aren't necessary, are they? But would you like that? - maus56, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13That $600 card is now down to $630 at Newegg.
- mathchemist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Having a market in which prices are fixed by all sellers isn't free; its a repressive market that abuses the consumer's ability to choose among competition.
- pogfreak, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15"It should really be 200-250 bucks for a top end card."
lol solid argument. I wish everything was priced like that. - kortiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13be ready to get your ass digg-kicked, my friend
- randomc0de, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12@Lyph4
I dug you up because people need to know why you're wrong.
That might be true - if we had a "free" market. We don't. Taxes, in any way, shape or form, make a non-free market. The government forces you to pay them, you're not free to choose. Patents stop your freedom to produce an item using technology a competitor patented. Copyrights do the same but for ideas. Environmental regulations stop you from dumping waste into a public stream.
Ask any economist in the world today. They might argue the finer points on how much the government should influence the market, but every single one will agree that the market alone cannot solve every problem. Go take an economics course and come back when you're educated. - GeneralSun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I actually didn't. Did you? But this is great news. :D
- ssmith2k3, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Oligopoly is legal. Tacit collusion is not.
- limitbreakerx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10@trer
I'm sorry, but the way you're comparing Communism to capitalism shows that you think capitalism is a form of government, which it is not. The US operates as a (form of) Democracy. Yes, capitalism is all about making money, but democracy reflects the will of the people. People don't want to get screwed over by artificially high prices, thus we have the anti-trust laws. I guess you can say anti-trust laws are democratic in nature. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11that was my next thought. I really love my 9600xt since i started college and wanted to upgrade this year to a top-end card. But the prices are ridiculous! Forget SLI or crossfire, i can not afford a single card.. Now I can wait for a whole system upgrade since my P4 is feeling outdated with multicores having a great performance increase.
Please, please let the prices fall! - hobbers, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Sure, but even a $200 video card will play pretty much any game out there. Maybe not at 1600 x 1200 with 32 bit color, 4x AA, and 8x AF (or whatever all those max settings are). But I'm pretty sure a 360 or PS3 would choke on those settings too.
I had a blast playing the Wii, but you just can't beat the modularity of a PC with an all-in-one console box. Even with the same computer I've had for 3 years, all I need to do is swap out the graphics card and I'm set to play the latest games. - jkmuller, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Personally I'm glad that there are protections against companies that collude to inflate prices. Why are people so eager to defend companies that rip them off?
I find it funny that you mentioned supply in demand because the exact reason this kind of activity is illegal is because the companies involved are rigging the price of their products rather than allowing the market to determine a price. I agree that if people didn't think their products were worth it they wouldn't buy them, but thats not the point, try reading it again. - jer2eydevil88, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Paypal has a big bad daddy (eBay) thats legal juggernaut would be more interesting to watch squirm under pressure from our government.
Why aren't there more articles bashing Paypal on Digg? Its obvious they have few fans, if any. - dignation, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5It is true that video cards are a small market, but would you just blow it off if all the gas stations got together and agreed to set prices at $8.00 a gallon?
- NanoStuff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"$600 gets you the new nVIDIA 8800 GTX.
$600 also gets a Xbox 360 plus a handful of games."
$220 gets you a 7900GT, games at a lower cost than that of consoles, plus a crapload of quality freeware games, oh and get this, the ability to use a MOUSE. You know that thing that allows you to selectively choose where you want to shoot and quickly locate objects on a 'plane'? Yea, that. - Morsetlis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5There's another person who needs to take Econ 101 before spouting their big mouth.
- questionable, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4sooperdooper: Because there's an incentive to cheat. By producing one more unit, your marginal revenue increases too quickly to ignore.
- DigitalDud, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3And yet "hardcore gamers" gladly shovel out the money for their high-end cards.
- Yashu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I see nobody has mentioned the forced obsolescence of the AGP slot. Notice that both companies make motherboard chipsets... they both benefit from you having to buy a new motherboard to get the latest graphics.
AGP8X bandwidth would not be a limiting factor to even the latest video cards.
I think this is a bigger crime then general inflating prices. Having to pay an extra 100 dollars beats the hell out of having to replace your motherboard (and possibly also your RAM and CPU)
Both ATI and Nvidia posses a bridge chip that can easily convert any PCIe GPU to work on AGP.
The GPU manufacturers see gamers as walking dollar signs... and the forced upgrade to PCIe means they make money from your new motherboard, and on SLI... (why buy one when you can buy two for twice the price!) - Kriz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The graphics card is usually the most expensive part in a gaming PC. If this is true, then it would explain why prices have been skyrocketing.
What really sucks is that ATI and Nvidia are the only two choices if you're buying parts specifically for PC gaming. Here's hoping the Department of Justice can actually find something conclusive, and that it has a positive effect on the market. - wtf00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2heh - I'm a gamer but I would never spend so much on video card I rather wait until it drops.. because really only those with extra cash laying around get those expensive ass high end card.
- Lane, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5who didnt see this comming?
- PhantomZmoove, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I am glad you brought that up. I am suffering right now from the forced PCIe upgrade. I got so tired of trying to find AGP cards that I just gave up and upgraded. (MB ram and CPU...to get a newer video card) Plus the price for AGP cards of the same model PCIe were getting to be too much. Back when I went from PCI to AGP I noticed an instant difference, I'm still not seeing AGP being maxed out yet, and PCIe offering anything extra. SLI? Yeah, like I'm going to buy two cards, you guys are already forcing me to buy all this other crap. So I'll pass on that.
- blackkbot, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6I thought you shot yourself in the foot. You stab people in the back. I've never heard of the term stabbing yourself in the foot. I must say "People in glass houses sink ships."
- ComputerGuru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Last I checked, that $600 graphics card's performance will only cost you $150 in 6 months."
You're telling me the 7800GTX costs 150 now? WHERE?! - duzytata, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4So in order for a game to be worth playing it requires expensive next generation GPUs to play? A game does not need to be all shiny and fancy to be good...
- OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The 512MB Sapphire x1950 Pro AGP is due out within days. This card proves everything the PCIe pushers claimed about AGP being unable to handle the newest cards was a lie.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=326860
But now they're overcharging $50 for it, compared to the PCIe version.
What's really holding back AGP boards is the CPU. Bandwidth-wise, for 1280x1024 and lower, AGP has enough bandwidth. They don't want to have two standards so they're trying to kill it off--and sell you a bunch of new crap you don't really need in the process. - InfamousX241, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2When I first read this I thought it was about fixed pricing of MDMA... that would also be nice.
- Luis911, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2are you talking about the feces market??
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