Comments on: Justice Dept. closes antitrust probe of ATI, Nvidia

After a nearly two-year investigation, regulators decide not to take action against the unit of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices or Nvidia regarding their pricing and sales practices.

[The1egend]

Of course their prices were similar! You compete in price classes! If you offer a product that is 150% the speed of your competitor's why wouldn't you price it at 200% of their product? Or if your product is approximately the same as your competitor's then why wouldn't your prices be approximately the same or a little lower? People will pay premiums for premium products and they want competitive prices for products on the same level. It's just business.

[martin1248]

Your analysis is rather simplistic. Just because pricing is similar you cannot automatically conclude it is the result of open and fair competition, no matter how many exclamation marks you use. There are plenty of cases where similar pricing is indeed caused by cartels or price fixing. So I see the investigation as a good thing for consumer protection. I'd rather have them investigate and find there is nothing going on than just assume that everyone is playing by the rules as you seem to be willing to do.

[martin1248]

Doh. This reply was intended for The1egend. Too bad there is no way to edit or move/delete posts...

[Lerianis]

I agree, martin1248. There was a big thing a few years ago where prices for RAM were high, and they investigated and found that there was criminal collusion going on between the different RAM manufacturers. As to it not being the case with ATI and NVidia.....I'm pretty sure it actually IS the case that they are colluding on prices, to be honest. Otherwise, why would there only be 5-10 bucks difference between same models, same amount of memory, etc. in the graphics markets? It just doesn't make sense, one or the other developer is going to be able to undercut other with their pricing, unless there are criminal 'lowest price' things going on.