Following a flood of complaints, false advertising claims, and the beginnings of a class-action lawsuit, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has issued an official statement on the GeForce GTX 970.
The last few weeks have been tough for Nvidia. PC Gamers are waving their fingers at the video card company over marketing promises regarding the GeForce GTX 970. Until yesterday, Nvidia's response has been a combination of silence and defensiveness, but Huang's blog changes that.
Though, it might be a stretch to call this an apology. It's more like an explanation. Here's a snippet:
"We invented a new memory architecture in Maxwell. This new capability was created so that reduced-configurations of Maxwell can have a larger framebuffer – i.e., so that GTX 970 is not limited to 3GB, and can have an additional 1GB.GTX 970 is a 4GB card. However, the upper 512MB of the additional 1GB is segmented and has reduced bandwidth. This is a good design because we were able to add an additional 1GB for GTX 970 and our software engineers can keep less frequently used data in the 512MB segment."
Huang acknowledged that a miscommunication happened between developers and the marketing team, which resulted in a miscommunication with customers. The promise of a budget-friendly 4GB video card was exciting. But after discovering the card performs more like a 3GB unit, many gamers were upset.
And even though the words "sorry" or "apology" never appear in the post, Huang did promise that Nvidia would "do a better job next time."
Huang's blog is definitely a step in the right direction, but commenters quickly pointed out that the CEO never mentioned rebates. For many, this is evidence of Nvidia's disregard for its customers. Admitting fault while simultaneously avoiding reimbursment feels like a brush off.
Retailers like Newegg and Amazon have already started working with customers on restitution, but smaller companies often can't afford to hand money back without the promise of reimbursement. So, Nvidia's lack of willingness to accept the financial responsibility for this mix-up is frustrating for many.
However, many customers may choose to let the issue go. The GeForce GTX 970 is one of the most powerful cards in its class. Even with the wonky memory issues, it’s a prime investment.
But gamers also enjoy a good, solid revolt. So, the GeForce GTX 970 might continue to be controversial for quite some time.
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