ATI has been hitting Nvidia hard with its 4000-series big guns like the Radeon HD 4870 X2, and they're starting to feel it, with ATI successfully clawing away marketshare from Nvidia. Which has Nvidia skurred. So, sources say, Nvidia's readying a barrage of price cuts to keep the territory loss to a minimum. If it pans out, we should be in for some sweet deals—last time Nvidia played hard ball with ATI, they threw bricks, cutting their top-end graphics cards by $US200 just a month out the gate, and let loose its GeForce 9800 GTX for around $US200 as well. It could be a Merry Christmas after all. [Digitimes via Maximum PC]

Read More »

Really Nvidia, what the hell? After steadfastly arguing that its defective graphics cards were limited to notebooks only—they've even sent me a lovely email or two reiterating that claim—HP has just confirmed that 38 different desktop models are plagued with faulty Nvidia graphics cards.

Read More »

It seems like the stars are aligning for that rumoured MacBook intro event on October 14. Nvidia, which was supposed to launch their MCP7A chipset on September 30, has announced the chipset will actually be available right after the alleged Apple event. Apparently, the new chipset--which is rumoured to be part of the new MacBooks--bests Intel's own G45 in the graphics and audio department.

Read More »

A major cause of frustration in the Nvidia notebook GPU fiasco--where "significant quantities" of notebook graphics cards are packaged with "weak" materials leading them to overheat and fail at a "higher-than-normal rate"--is that Nvidia is declining to identify exactly which chips are bad, as the WSJ notes today. So you've gotta find out from your notebook maker if you're possibly stuck with a time bomb. Dell is extending its limited warranties by a year to deal with the issue in the following notebooks:

Read More »

The extent of the problems plaguing Nvidia's graphics cards is still controversial, though the company has confirmed that "weak" materials have caused "higher-than-normal" fail rates in certain mobile GPUs, which appear to be the G84 and G86-based graphics cards. The Inquirer said those issues extended to the desktop as well, which Nvidia denied. Interestingly, VR-Zone is reporting that Nvidia has issued a product change notification to customers that they're changing the underfill material for their desktop G86 chips from Namics 8439-1 to Hitachi 3730. Could mean nothing, but since their original problems stemmed from "weak" materials, it stands out. Is there a non-conspiratorial reason they would do this? [VR-Zone]

Read More »

Last month, the Inquirer made the shocking accusation that every Nvidia graphics card with the G84 and G86 chipsets were bad (every 8-series card up to the 8800 basically). Nvidia said that's crap, but the Inquirer said it was all a big cover up. Now the Inquirer is reporting that "four board partners are seeing G92 and G94 chips going bad in the field at high rates." That would mean all of the GeForce 8800 GT, GTS and GS desktop cards, the mobile 8800s, and most of the 9600 and 9800 series graphics cards are defective.

Read More »

Took a little longer than I expected, but Nvidia has come around to denying that basically every GeForce 8400-8700 graphics card powered by the G84 and G86 chipset is a flawed, ticking timebomb, waiting to die from overheating issues. They say that the problem affects "only a very small percentage of the notebook chips that have shipped" and that "the problem depends on a combination of environmental conditions, configuration, and usage model."

Read More »

Nvidia's top end GeForce GTX 260 and 280 graphics cards--whose power borders on sorcery--launched for US$399 and US$650, respectively, less than a month ago. But pressure from ATI has driven Nvidia to already cut the price, hard. The GTX 280 is now only US$399, while the GTX 260 is US$299, the same price as ATI's HD 4870. Good to see ATI back in the fight. Anyone already buy this and feel hosed though? Competition is a lovely thing. [CNET]

Read More »

Those overheating Nvidia laptop graphics cards that are dying en masse? The Inquirer is reporting that "all the G84 and G86 parts are bad. Period. No exceptions," on mobile and desktop. Those chipsets are in pretty much every GeForce 8-series graphics card below the 8800s (here's a complete list of cards and chipsets). Notably, that means every MacBook Pro since the Santa Rosa update has the bad cards, which fail at a "higher-than-normal" rate.

Read More »

Apparently some previous-gen Nvidia graphics cards that shipped in "significant quantities" of notebooks are defective, built and packaged with "weak" materials that are leading to them to overheat and fail at a "higher-than-normal" rate. Enough are bad that Nvidia is taking a US$150-US$200 million hit on its earnings for the quarter. Do you have one of these cards?

Read More »