Tamara Burns  |  July 27, 2016

Category: Consumer News

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Nvidia internet pageGraphics card manufacturer Nvidia agreed to a preliminary settlement that will resolve claims in a group of proposed class action lawsuits that center around allegations that the company misled consumers about the performance and storage capabilities of its product.

Nvidia says it will pay each buyer of the graphics card $30 and will pay an additional $1.3 million in attorneys’ fees, according to settlement documents.

The overall settlement amount was not publicly disclosed within court papers, however Nvidia agreed to pay all consumers who purchased the GTX 970 graphics card and indicated there would not be a cap on the total amount it would pay consumers.

“The settlement is fair and reasonable and falls within the range of possible approval,” attorneys for the proposed Class said in the filing. “It is the product of extended arms-length negotiations between experienced attorneys familiar with the legal and factual issues of this case and all settlement class members are treated fairly under the terms of the settlement.”

The initial proposed class action lawsuit in a series of lawsuits against Nvidia was filed in February 2015 and alleged that the company engaged in false advertising, deceptive business practice, unlawful is practices and violated California’s business law for unfair business practices.

The initial claim accused Nvidia of having a graphics card that operated on 3.5 GB but was advertised as operating with a full 4 GB of video access memory, plus another .5 GB that was separated from the rest of the memory.

Another proposed class action lawsuit in the series was filed the following month and also alleged similar claims about the gigabyte amounts and separation, saying the product was falsely advertised and negligently represented.

The recent settlement with Nvidia includes a total of 15 consumer class action lawsuits that were consolidated in Northern California as well is a pending action in San Diego, according to court documents.

In addition to the size of video access memory and its setup, the consumers also accused Nvidia of having 64 render output processors rather than the 56 that were advertised and of having smaller specialized memory cache than advertised.

The consumers claimed that overall, Nvidia omitted information that was important for buyers to understand as they made their purchases, causing potential Class Members to purchase products with lower functionality and capabilities than what was advertised.

Nvidia denied all allegations of wrongdoing, and both parties entered into the settlement and agreed upon the terms, believing them to be in the best interests of all parties involved.

Nvidia graphics cards cost approximately $350 and the anticipated $30 payout was calculated to represent a portion of the cost of the storage and performance capabilities the consumers thought they were obtaining in the purchase of the product, according to the proposed settlement.

Instructions on how to file a claim for the Nvidia class action settlement were not immediately available. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also “Follow” this case using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.

The consumers are represented by Alan M. Mansfield of Whatley Kallas LLP and L. Timothy Fisher and Neal J. Deckant of Bursor & Fisher LLP.

The Nvidia Graphics Card False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Nvidia GTX 970 Graphics Chip Litigation, Case No. 4:15-cv-00760, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: The Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card class action settlement is now open! Click here to file a claim!

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74 thoughts onNvidia Settles Graphics Card False Advertising Class Action

  1. Top Class Actions says:

    UPDATE: The Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card class action settlement is now open! Click here to file a claim!

  2. WhoaMan says:

    When will I actually be able to file a claim? It’s been a long while.

    1. Joe says:

      december 21st, not lying, case has to go through a couple more hearings, then lawyers get their money, then consumers get their gift cards.

  3. Winston Grey says:

    For everyone who is wondering the case is appearing again before judge Phyllis J. Hamilton in the Northern California District Court on Wednesday, Aug 24 2016. Case: 4:15-cv-00760-PJH – In Re : Nvidia GTX 970 Graphics Chip Litigation, Motion for Settlement

    So an actual system for getting refunds will “most likely” be set up after this date. (This is my own thought on this).

    If you want to find things related to the case use the case number (4:15-cv-00760-PJH)

    1. Peter J says:

      Yeah, there was an article online that said by the 28th, refunds will be available.

  4. Ebenezer says:

    I fully agree
    It should be replaced with 4gb model

  5. Fasta says:

    When I bought the 970 card, I bought it for the top end performance not the low end. When I purchased mine I already had another NVIDIA 4GB DDR5 128 bit. Although the 970 is superior to what I had(hence the high price I paid) I am looking for that edge advantage at the top. Now I feel cheated, shortchanged and cannot achieve that extra top performance and want to replace it now(is garbage to me now). As applications, games, movies, VR etc. gets more demanding the 970 is not going to cut it and it and will stop being relevant sooner, I wanted that to be later rather than sooner.

    Partial refund:
    I don’t think the evaluation per megabyte is right and correct. If I never got what I supposed to due to false advertising, then simply either a full refund or an upgrade to what is equal is due.

    Comments:
    What I say to NVIDIA is; except your error gracefully, give consumers a chance and take back the 970. Offer to replace them with a higher model or give a 50% to 100% refunds so they can buy another one of your higher model cards. Or be a sore looser and loose market share and leave the bad taste in our mouths so we can bad mouth you from now on. I’m sure $30.00 and the garbage card will leave me with bad taste in my mouth.

  6. Al says:

    $30 is an insult, in my opinion. The missing 500MB is 12.5% of the adevertised 4GB. I paid $350 for my 970, I should get at least $43.75, or 12.5% of $350.

    However,to truly make it right, I believe nVIDIA should have to give everyone who purchased a 970 what they paid for; a GPU that meets the advertised specifications.

    Or, better yet, a GTX1070.

    Also, when someone applies for the $30, what do you happens to the personally identifiable information I am sure will be required for those persons to submit? Can you say Data Mining?

    nVIDIA makes a good product, to be sure. But does that entitle them to be total scumbags? Apparently so..

  7. Xyz says:

    Most people are asking for the rebate on retailers such as Amazon. Does anyone have update on it?

  8. Joe says:

    Nvidia will try to be lowkey about this, hopefully this website can tell us how to claim it. Nvidia got what they deserved.

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