Reborn in 2011, 985 missing from two copies

Chapter 724: Chasing NVIDIA and killing him, leaving no chance for survival!
Nvidia's vice president's lips twitched: "Chairman, didn't you say that Xingyi Semiconductor isn't ignorant of the market, but that our market tactics target our users, while their market tactics target Nvidia?"

Old Huang's lips twitched: "..."

Hemp egg!

You really said that yourself!

"Ahem, but times have changed. Now, Xingyi Semiconductor wants to hone its knife skills and cut our GTX 960 Ti, but it's too late!"

"Wang Yi's swordsmanship is far inferior to mine; he still needs to practice for another twenty years!"

With these words, Lao Huang was full of confidence, feeling that Nvidia was back on track!

Soon after, Nvidia issued a statement:
The GTX 960 Ti has a clear advantage over the RTX 960, but its performance is not yet fully realized due to ongoing driver optimization. With subsequent driver updates, the GTX 960 Ti's performance will be significantly improved.

This news excited many netizens:

"What does this mean? The GTX 960 Ti can be continuously upgraded? That's amazing?"

"It seems so. After all, the GTX 960 Ti uses the same chip as the GTX 970, but it's locked by the algorithm. It will be released gradually later."

"Haha, doesn't that mean the GTX 960 Ti is a scalable graphics card? That's interesting, it has unlimited potential!"

"It is indeed a scaleable graphics card. Although there is a problem with the memory, it can keep growing and even reach the level of the GTX 970. Moreover, it only costs 2199, so it is still very worthwhile to buy."

"It's unlikely to reach the performance of the GTX 970. After all, if it were that powerful, how would Nvidia sell the GTX 970? They would definitely lock some of its performance to differentiate it."

"Yes, but releasing just a little more power will be enough. If it truly reaches 115% of the performance of the Starry Sky RTX 960, then the GTX 960 Ti will be an absolute steal!"

"This is very likely, and it's worth buying."

"With its upgradable performance, the GTX 960 ti has gone from being a blacklisted card to a redlisted card, so it's worth buying."

As expected, the statement was very effective.

In the following days, sales of the GTX 960 ti, which had been sluggish, rebounded strongly.

The sales of the Starry RTX 960 2G version are still quite good, but the sales of the 4G version have been impacted by the GTX 960 ti, and have declined noticeably.

Given a choice between two products with performance limitations (one with locked-in performance and the other with slightly better performance and potential for improvement), most consumers would choose the latter.

Old Huang was thrilled: "Now the initiative is back on our side. Let's see how Wang Yi retaliates. I bet he'll be furious, hahaha."

"That's for sure. Our GTX 960 Ti's ability to be upgraded in performance completely overwhelmed the Xingyi RTX 960! Currently, the GTX 960 Ti is at the top of the sales charts on major e-commerce platforms, while the Xingyi RTX 960 has dropped to fourth place, and is about to fall out of the top five!"

"That's more like it. I bet Wang Yi is pacing around in circles with anxiety."

But it was completely different from what Lao Huang had imagined.

Xingyi Technology remained calm, and Wang Yi was not in a hurry at all.

There was no other reason than that this was exactly what Wang Yi had anticipated, and Xingyi Technology had already prepared various contingency plans.

Even now that the storm has truly broken out, he remains completely unfazed and at ease.

Soon after, Starry Semiconductor released a statement: "Starry RTX 960 ti performance has been significantly boosted, 4GB high-speed video memory ensures no performance issues, and it will be available soon!"

It also included a picture of the Starry RTX 960 Ti in mass production!
The news caused a sensation across the internet.

Old Huang was even more on high alert:

"Damn it! Starry Sky Technology actually has a Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti, and it's already in mass production and will be on the market soon!"

"How could this be?"

"Oh no, this is a huge problem!"

"With the arrival of the Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti, who will still buy our GTX 960 Ti?"

Old Huang was extremely worried and couldn't help but look at the online comments, becoming more and more alarmed as he read.

"They're at it again! The Nvidia GTX 960 Ti was just released, and now the Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti is here. Great, excellent, consumers are in luck!"

"Given Chairman Wang's track record, the Starry RTX 960 Ti will undoubtedly have stronger performance, and it will feature 4.0 high-speed memory, unlike the GTX 960 Ti which flopped. The price will probably be similar."

"Then who would still buy a GTX 960 Ti? Everyone has to wait for the Starry RTX 960 Ti!"

"Exactly! The GTX 960 Ti with 3.5GB of VRAM and the Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti with 4.0GB of VRAM—need I say more? We'll definitely wait for the Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti!"

"The Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti is already in mass production and is estimated to be available next month. We have to wait for the Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti!"

"I've already returned my GTX 960 Ti and am now waiting for the Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti. I still prefer the 4GB VRAM."

“Returning the GTX 960 ti and getting one free is only a matter of half a month, I can afford to wait.”

……

What are you afraid of?

The official announcement of the Starry RTX 960 Ti was like a bombshell, directly overshadowing the GTX 960 Ti and becoming a trending topic, generating global buzz even before its release.

In addition, the GTX 960 Ti suffers from a memory issue, while the Starry RTX 960 Ti does not have this problem and offers significantly improved performance, naturally outperforming the GTX 960 Ti and becoming the best choice.

Moreover, it's already in mass production and will be available next month; consumers can wait for it.

I promptly returned the GTX 960 ti and am now holding onto my cash to buy the Starry RTX 960 ti.

Seeing this, Old Huang's face turned ashen:

"Sure enough, as soon as the Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti was officially announced, our GTX 960 Ti flopped. Sales plummeted and returns surged several times over!"

"Reality, it's so damn real!"

"Fake!"

Other high-ranking officials also turned pale:

"Xingyi Semiconductor has gone too far; they're practically beating us up!"

"Starry Sky's RTX 960 was dominating our GTX 960, causing our GTX 960 sales to plummet, forcing us to launch the GTX 960 Ti. Then Starry Sky Technology quickly withdrew from the Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti, continuing to dominate our GTX 960 Ti!"

"They're leaving absolutely no way out!"

"The key is that Xingyi Semiconductor acted too quickly. We thought Xingyi Semiconductor was not prepared at all, and the Xingyi RTX 960 Ti would not be available for at least two or three months."

"It seems that their Starry RTX 960 Ti was already in preparation long ago. Our GTX 960 Ti had just been launched when their Starry RTX 960 Ti was already in mass production and would be available for sale in at most half a month!"

“Every step Nvidia takes has been anticipated by Starry Semiconductor, which has made advance preparations and launched a strong counterattack, resulting in dismal sales and severe losses for us!”

"It's true! Xingyi Technology anticipated and targeted every step we took. This is terrifying. I almost suspected there was a traitor within our ranks!"

"The most crucial thing is that the situation has changed now. The Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti hasn't even been released yet, it's just been officially announced, and our GTX 960 Ti sales have already plummeted. Once it's released, the consequences will be unimaginable!"

"Especially since the other side is making a fuss about our memory issue, saying that we crashed while they didn't, the GTX 960 ti is at a disadvantage in this respect."

"Sigh, the generation that crashes and burns, the influence extends to future generations!"

Huang was also very distressed: "The memory issue is not going to be resolved. The GTX 960 Ti can't be said to be a complete failure, but it can't be a huge hit either. It can only be sold slowly."

"Yes, smooth sales would be the best-case scenario. The key is to completely resolve the VRAM issue. If the VRAM malfunctions, our sales will suffer. This applies to both the GTX 960 Ti and the GTX 970!"

Old Huang nodded: "That's right, let's sell the GTX 960 Ti slowly, and sell out the remaining 300 million defective GTX 970 GPU chips. Then we'll have to wait and see about the perfect GTX 970!"

"Fortunately, our GTX 970, which won't crash, will be released next month, and then we can turn the tide."

In the days that followed, news about the Starry Sky RTX 960 ti was released every now and then to keep the buzz going.

Many users who originally planned to buy the GTX 960 ti were attracted and are now waiting for the Starry RTX 960 ti to be released.

This caused sales of the GTX 960 ti to plummet, with consecutive drops in price.

The Starry Night RTX 960 Ti was officially launched on April 5th!

It's also a Starry Night RTX 970 with a locked and downgraded clock speed, but its performance is still 10% better than the current GTX 960 Ti, with a full-power 4GHz, and it's priced at 2199!

Higher performance, still full-fledged 4G without any issues, and the same price!
As expected, the GTX 960 ti was doomed, with dismal sales.

Meanwhile, the Starry Sky RTX 960 ti sold like hotcakes!
Faced with this situation, Lao Huang was helpless and could only watch helplessly.

A single memory issue rendered the GTX 960 Ti unusable.

In response, Nvidia headquarters convened another high-level meeting:
"Chairman, the GTX 960 Ti has no advantage over the Starry RTX 960 Ti and simply won't sell. The only way we can sell it is by unlocking some of the crippled performance through algorithms and completely surpassing the Starry RTX 960 Ti!"

Old Huang shook his head: "It's not very meaningful."

"The Starry RTX 960 Ti is also a modified Starry RTX 970. It also uses an algorithm to lock down some performance, but it can be further released to continuously improve performance."

"Nvidia did this, and Starway Technology followed suit. Ultimately, they still didn't gain an advantage; instead, they further squeezed the market share of the GTX 970 series." "The GTX 960 Ti is too powerful; the GTX 970 shouldn't expect to sell well. The product line can't be messed up!"

"Chairman, if performance upgrades aren't an option, then let's wage a price war! The GTX 960 ti will be a bestseller if we lower the price to 1999!"

But as soon as the man finished speaking, Old Huang scolded him:
"Are you stupid?"

"Are you courting death by engaging in a price war with Xingyi Semiconductor?"

"Starry Sky graphics cards are self-developed and self-produced, with extremely low costs. If they really engage in a price war, they can kill Nvidia and still make a profit!"

"madness!"

Everyone fell silent, and those who had proposed a price war were trembling with fear.

Old Huang sighed: "It's not that we don't want to engage in a price war, it's that Nvidia can't compete, and we dare not!"

"If we don't engage in a price war, we can still survive. But if we do, Xingyi graphics cards can kill Nvidia! They'll crush us!"

"Anyone who brings up price wars again, get the hell out of here!"

"Nvidia has been declining and has fallen to this state because there are too many idiots in the company!"

"Fake!"

"Fake!"

For a moment, the entire conference room fell silent.

A somber atmosphere enveloped the entire conference room.

Everyone knows that the GTX 960 is useless, and the GTX 960 Ti is useless too.

Seeing the low morale, Lao Huang waved his hand and said, "It's alright. We still have the GTX 970 that won't crash, and the GTX 950 at the end of the month. They can turn the tide. We still have hope!"

Upon hearing this, everyone's expressions softened a bit.

A week later, sales of the GTX 960 Ti became even more dismal, and Nvidia couldn't sit still any longer. They directly launched the patched version of the GTX 970, which was originally scheduled to be released at the end of the month, ahead of schedule!

To boost sales, Nvidia also invested heavily in advertising.

Trending topics, online trolls, and massive global promotion!
The best-selling graphics cards are low-end, mid-range, and high-end.

With the GTX 950 not yet on the market, the low-end graphics card market is dominated by the Starry RTX 950. Nvidia's previous generation of low-end graphics cards are experiencing a complete sales slump, leaving Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, feeling helpless.

In the mid-range graphics card market, the GTX 960 was outperformed by the Starry RTX 960 due to its 128-bit memory issue. The hastily launched GTX 960 Ti was intended to turn the tide, but it also failed due to the memory issue and was suppressed by the officially announced Starry RTX 960 Ti!
Nvidia can only look on with envy in the mid-range graphics card market!

In the flagship graphics card market, the RTX 980 offers stronger performance and the added benefit of installment payment options like Alipay, leaving the Nvidia GTX 980 with little advantage.

Right now, Huang can only pin his hopes on the high-end market, hoping to turn the tide with the restored GTX 970 and fight a desperate battle.

For the repaired GTX 970, Nvidia originally wanted to redesign the reference design and release it as a dual-fan or triple-fan version to fully compete with the retail non-reference design!
Unfortunately, Starry Sky Technology was too aggressive and had too little time; Nvidia simply didn't have time to completely redesign and fully upgrade the GTX 970.

Moreover, the dismal sales of the previously problematic GTX 970 resulted in Nvidia's OEMs having a large inventory of reference design molds, fans, and PCB motherboards...

These components are all priced in the millions.

If everything is redesigned, many parts will have to be scrapped, and new orders, new molds, and new production will have to be placed. Not only will the losses be huge, but there won't be enough time.

Whether it was for the sake of time or money, Nvidia ultimately chose to bow to reality.

The repaired version of the GTX 970 still uses the reference design, mold, and configuration.

It simply replaces the problematic GPU chip in the reference GTX 970 with a reliable one, thus completely resolving the memory issue and achieving full-speed 4GB of VRAM.

It still uses the reference design and configuration, remains a single-fan version, and is still called GTX 970.

It can be said that the repaired GTX 970 looks exactly the same as the original GTX 970, and even the packaging is exactly the same.

They simply replaced the GPU chip with a reliable one, optimized the memory issue, and thus quickly launched the product, using up a huge amount of their inventory of components!
The price remains unchanged at 2399!
A solid upgrade without increasing the quantity!

Old Huang was full of confidence about this:

"Our repaired GTX 970 has resolved the memory issue, boasts a comprehensive upgrade in configuration and performance, and remains priced at 2399, which is 100 cheaper than the Starry RTX 970. It's sure to be a global bestseller, and in the high-end graphics card market, our GTX 970 will reign supreme!"

Other senior executives were also in high spirits:
"That's for sure. The performance of the upgraded GTX 970 is even slightly better than the Starry RTX 970, and the price is 100 lower. Plus, with the backing of the NVIDIA brand, only a fool would choose the Starry RTX 970 over the GTX 970!"

"That's right, this time we'll definitely be able to hold our heads high, especially with the price of 2399, it's simply unbeatable!"

"The good days for Starry Sky RTX 970 are over. Next, they'll be stuck with unsold stock, hahaha."

However, just as Nvidia's top executives were in high spirits, waiting for the upgraded GTX 970 to sell like hotcakes, Starry Semiconductor immediately took action!

Moreover, it's a series of actions.

On the same day, Starry Semiconductor announced the global launch of the Starry RTX 960 Ti, which boasts performance that is 10% better than the GTX 960 Ti and close to the GTX 970, without any issues. The price is the same as the GTX 960 Ti, at 2199!

At the same price, the Starry RTX 960 Ti offered stronger performance and didn't have the memory issue. As expected, the Starry RTX 960 Ti sold out immediately, while the GTX 960 Ti became a complete slump.

Users who had been holding onto their money and waiting for the GTX 960 ti for more than half a month all felt it was worth it, that it was all worth it!

The launch of the Starry RTX 960 Ti at 2199 yuan overshadowed the GTX 970 repair version, resulting in very poor sales for the GTX 970 on its first day.

Unfortunately, due to the previous issues with the GTX 970, many users still distrust and do not approve of it, believing that there may still be issues with the memory.

But Nvidia can't say for sure about this!
Nvidia simply cannot say that the GTX 970 fixed the memory issue!

The reason is simple: if Nvidia says that the GTX 970 has fixed the memory issue, wouldn't that be tantamount to publicly admitting to the memory issue?

Doesn't that amount to admitting that the previous GTX 970 had hardware design flaws?

If this happens, consumers will take drastic measures to protect their rights, and the millions of GTX 970s already sold will have to be fully compensated and recalled!
Even Nvidia couldn't withstand such a huge loss.

Therefore, Nvidia can only call the repaired GTX 970 an optimized version at most, without mentioning the memory issue fix at all.

Even when you ask customer service, they don't dare to tell you the truth. They all say the same thing: the driver has been optimized, for fear of giving others cause for criticism.

If Nvidia doesn't make a public statement, consumers will worry that the memory issue still exists and will still be hesitant to buy.

In addition, the Starry Sky RTX 970 has strong performance, a reasonable price, and no risk of failure. It's safer to just buy the Starry Sky RTX 970, even if it's a hundred yuan more expensive.

Many more people opted for the Starry Sky RTX 960 Ti, which is 200 yuan cheaper than the GTX 970, but its performance is already very close to the GTX 970, with a maximum difference of 10%, and it won't disappoint.

This resulted in the repaired version of the GTX 970 still experiencing dismal sales.

Old Huang was both angry and helpless about this, and felt extremely frustrated.

He really wanted to say that the repaired version of the GTX 970 had fixed the memory issue and wouldn't crash anymore, so everyone should buy it!

But once it's announced, sales of the fixed GTX 970 might improve, but Nvidia will be in big trouble!

Therefore, Lao Huang could only keep it to himself and endure it.

Then, through other channels and by having others spread rumors, they let consumers know that the GTX 970 had fixed the memory issue and wouldn't crash...

However, such unofficial statements have significantly reduced credibility, especially for brands like Nvidia, which have a history of false advertising and performance fraud; even fewer people will believe them.

Old Huang was quite helpless about this.

While Lao Huang was helpless, Wang Yi showed no mercy.

The second wave of major actions has begun!

Starry Semiconductor issued another statement:

[Starry Night RTX 970 global sales surpass 800 million units! To thank our valued customers, we're offering a ¥100 discount, starting at ¥2399!]

[Starry graphics cards support a seven-day price guarantee. Users who purchase within seven days can contact the platform for a refund of the price difference!]

This news caused another uproar online:

"The Starry Sky RTX 970 has sold over eight million units! Amazing, truly amazing!"

"The first graphics card was a high-end graphics card, and it sold eight million copies in six months. That's an unbeatable achievement!"

"Good products are destined for good sales, and of course we also have to thank Nvidia for the false advertising of the GTX 970 and the memory scandal."

"Xingyi graphics cards are still the most reliable. Look at Nvidia, they either make false claims about their memory or exaggerate their performance. They never tell the truth."

"It's said that Nvidia's GTX 970 has fixed the memory gate issue and is even more powerful!"

"You believe him just because he says so? Does Nvidia have any credibility?"

(End of this chapter)