Consumer fraud class action cases can involve virtually anything that can be sold. Because manufacturers can violate the trust of consumers and the law in a endless number of ways. A class action lawsuit was filed last week against graphics card maker Nvidia over false advertising claims made in the sale of its graphics card, the GTX 970.
The class action lawsuit alleges that Nvidia altered the actual specifications of the GTX 970 from what it advertised and what it supplied to testing and review sites when it launched the card last September.
It was advertised as having 4GB of high speed GDDR5 RAM, when it actually has two segments of RAM and the second segment runs at 80 percent of the advertised speed. It also was found to have a smaller number of Render Output Units and a smaller L2 RAM cache.
While this may sound trivial, and the company claimed it would hardly noticeable to most users, this is not what they advertised and within the video gaming market, graphic card specs are extremely important and would be seen by most as fraud.
For those who think this a minor issue, the GTX 970 is priced in the mid-$300 range and many purchasers may equip their computers with three of these cards to maximize their gaming capability. For those unfamiliar with video games, the industry has equaled Hollywood in revenue, with some games like Call of Duty:Black Ops 2 topping $1 billion in sales within 15 days of its release.
Because of the importance in specifications, the revelations caused an uproar among gamers. More than 9,000 have signed petitions asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.
One has to wonder what a company like Nvidia was thinking to engage in conduct that recklessly damages their own reputation.
Arstechnica.com, “Nvidia hit with class-action lawsuit over graphics card RAM issues,” Kyle Orland, February 23, 2015