Beware NVidia

[happyharpy]

As many know NVidia has bought all the copyrights and technology belonging to 3dfx.
By only buying those parts of the business they do not have to be responsive to the consumer. For example: 3DFX bought STB and honored all their warranties even though many of STB cards had the NVidia chip and not the Voodoo chip.NVidia on the other hand doesn't care what chip is on the card, or that they in effect own the business that made the card, and effectively tells the consumer,yes we made money off you,but we back nothing.So with so many cards on the market now using NVidia's GPU,the question becomes which one will they buy out next only to leave their consumers stranded.I for one will not buy another card based on any of NVidia's unsupported technology (even when if it comes with a lifetime warranty,cause the life time referred to could be as short as the lifetime of a gallon of water in the desert.

[BBA]

So is there a specific instance where you were treated unfairly?

Surely your talking about cards well past their 90 day warentee period arent you? ( IE: Decrepid riva video cards that do, by the way, have a strong base of support in reference drivers from nvidia already ).

See what gets me is you are bashing the industries driving video card force...for no aparent reason.

[happyharpy]

actually the card is under warranty...but no one wants to be responsible for it.

[Dputiger]

How's this?

My Voodoo5 blew out last week.

Nvidia won't warranty it, despite their purchase of 3Dfx. 3Dfx can't warranty it.

So, let's see--I get left holding the bag.

[NDC]

That's what you get for getting a Vodoo! Ok, now that was just a joke....

That deal with Vodoo cards DOES seem like a real bunk deal... http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif Buying a competitior company and leaving the comsumer stranded like that does seem like a bunk deal...

[digital_d_17]

If you want to be really clear on what happened with nVidia and 3Dfx... nVidia bought 3Dfx's technology not the company. Admitedly, this could be viewed as a way for them to not be obligated to honor warranties, but it does work, at least legally. Anyways, that's my two cents.

-Digital D.

[Dputiger]

Oh, I know it works legally--but that doesn't make it right.

Nvidia knows 3dfx can no longer provide support. How convenient that they legally don't have too.

[Hellmund]

Well even if NVIDIA did cover the card you couldn't get another one on acount of they don't make em.Dosn't seem fair for them to give you a refund for a faulty card when they weren't the ones who made it.Correct me if I'm wrong but like digital_d_17 they don't own the company that produced and sold the card,just the patents, really I think 3DFX should have offered to recall the cards if they weren't going to honor the warranty. I know it's not fair but frankly, that's life. I don't know much about law but shouldn't the owners of 3DFX be liable to repair anything under warranty? I mean they didn't go bankrupt.

[Joel Kleppinger]

No, but if I'm not mistaken, they recalled a TON of them from the Best Buys and Circuit Cities of the world to have them destroyed.

Now if they'd have bought them back rather than destroying them, they could still offer warranty service.

[tw1112]

Actually if I can remember what my contact at Nvidia said, he said that best buy and any other retailer that stopped selling 3dfx was of their own power. They didnt want to sell something that had no warranty because they were too big of a retailer to get bad reviews like that of selling things that they cannot refund and such.

I also don't think that Nvidia should be taking care of 3dfx cards. They don't have any cards to give out for replacment and I don't believe they would have the plans and such to open a different section in their company just to fix the cards.

It really wouldn't be fair for them to replace the broken 3dfx card with one of their nvidia cards now would it?
Anyhow, this is just my opinion..

[BBA]

Sounds logical Joel...but you have to remember, 3DFX has been making poor business decisions that lead up to the sellout in the first place...why would they want to ruin a perfect ( stupid ) track record?

Nvidia did not cause 3DFX to loose it's ****...they just cleaned up on it.

And to think...I used to think 3DFX was invincible when I bought my first set of Voodoo2 cards...man those things rocked! ( in contrast to the S3 virge I had before...)

[RandomGoon]

Yeah, BBA, when I got my 2 Voodoo2's hooked up in good ol' SLI fashion I thought I was some sort of game-god. It was too sweet indeed http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Ah, Nirvanah lost...
'Goon

[Long Haired Hippie Phreek]

SO where did all of the cards go? I know that many were destroyed, but 3dFX must have had a few wearhouses somewhere, and some had to be off the assembly line when they shut it down. What happened to those? If nvidia only bought the technology, then 3dfx still has 'em, and has an obligation to replace them. If nvidia got those wearhouses and manufacturing plants, then nvidia bought more than just the technologies, and is therefore responsible to replace borken units.

...at least it seems that way to me.

PS: I saw a voodoo 5 at best buy last week, a good price, a very good price, but still not destroyed.

[ablang]

Some people here may not want to see this, but Nvidia stock is about to go up, thanks to contracts w/ key players.

For one, Nvidia is the card of choice to go into Microsoft's X-Box system.