- Monday, 16 November 2009
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The noblest of all dogs is the hot dog. It feeds the hand that bites it - Hot Dog Restaurant
Nvidia stiffs the channel over 9500/9600s
IN A HUMOROUS turn, Nvidia seems to be watching its finances rather closely for a change, much to the detriment of its partners. This latest backhand is over the 9500/9600 price drop a few weeks ago.
You may recall, when the 4850 came out, Nvidia pre-announced the 9800+ and took $70 or so off the top of the older 9800 part, but magnanimously price protected the channel. Just to make sure they weren't seen as too soft and fuzzy, they retroactively stopped MDF funding for that quarter as a thank you. It didn't make a difference, they still posted a huge loss for Q2.
A few weeks ago, they did the same thing on the 9500 and 9600, those parts took an overnight $20 or so price hit when the 4650/4670s came out. The humor is that Nvidia didn't price protect the channel. "We just devalued your inventory by almost 20 per cent, have this pen with our logo on it, and a widget with LEDs in our corporate colors". Since a few of the board partners are already teetering on the edge, won't this make thing happier?
If you stop and think about it, the volume on ~$100 parts is much greater than on $250+ parts, and the margins are much thinner. This latest drop will have a much greater total drop in inventory value than the 9800 cuts, and there is no safety net this time.
To make matters even funnier, the 9800 line has a lot more margin built in. Anyone want to make an informed estimate as to the bill of materials and assembly costs of the 9500 and 9600? Think those parts are profitable anymore? Think the 65nm -> 55nm shrink will save $20 per GPU getting them back on the profit train? Please note, the 4500 line hasn't launched yet either, but it w ill.
The cuts were obviously made to keep NV in OEM systems and on shelves this holiday season, but the price is pretty steep. It will be interesting to see if this whole strategy of losing money on each unit, but making it up in volume supports the Q2 investor call promises of getting back on financial track.
Call me a skeptic, but... µ
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Charles (Chucky) just flames NVIDIA at every chance he gets. He must be the world's number one ATI fanboy
Charles (Chucky) doesn't allow the FLAME AUTHOR mode underneath his article. The email gets bounced back. I don't think any author of the inquirer should be allowed to publish anything if they bounce back FLAME AUTHOR emails
Well, maybe it's time to stop beating a truly dead horse, and switch our attention, graphics-wise, to the upcoming battles between Intel and DAMMIT.

I don't see much in the future for the green machine. No buyers in a position to bung it on, except those that have money and no interest (Intel, anyone?)
I for one appreciate investigative journalism - Some conclusions may be off the mark, but he is the only person telling us what is going on behind the smoke and mirrors

go Charlie, ignore the haters and keep us rational people inormed….
Thanks for the good article. I liked the info and how it was presented.
The bloodletting at NV is far from over. Hey guess what? You can get a Palit Radeon HD 3850 SUPER over at tigerdirect.com for $79.99 with rebate? Know what you can get from NV for that? A Gefore 9400. My Radeon HD 3850 wipes the floor with that.... LOL!!!!

No comment from the NV fanboys? 
I have an XFX 8800GT but my box has not exploded yet. Am I safe? Should I buy fire insurance?
...that nVidia chips can generate strangelets and micro black holes, possibly sucking in your PC and desk in or turning them into grey goo.

Don't say I didn't warn you!
Hello Charlie,

I've appreciated reading your articles for a long time now. But I have to wonder if you are perhaps making something of nothing in this one. My point being that all companies that sell products will experience this when they have to cut prices due to competition. I would imagine that the exact same thing happens to the distributors and retailers when AMD and Intel cut the prices on their CPU's. They get left holding the bag. I don't suspect this is anything unique to Nvidia. Don't get me wrong. I'm not the least bit impressed with Nvidia's current defective products problem and especially their lack of taking full responsibility for it. Rest assured I won't be buying Nvidia next time around. But sometimes it can be a little to easy to read to much into something.
are just a hoot. The more they cry foul, gnash their teeth and spread FUD, the more the article has to have been right.

Case in point : "Chucky doesn't allow flame author". Gosh, when I click on the link, it works fine.

But frankly, I wouldn't mind if he did block the Flame Author link - I prefer getting a chuckle or two out of the knee-jerk crowd, if they flame him directly, I'll be missing my chuckles.

And we all (well, some of us) know just how important it is to laugh every day.