[deaddodo]

I don't even understand why binning non-defect cards is dubious.

It's like the logic people have on /r/pcmasterrace is that if they didn't bin, they would just release all 4090s at 4080 prices. No, there would just be less 4080s for people to buy. No chip maker is going to sell their chips at sub-market rates just because they engineered them to/have a fab that can produce them at very low defect rates.

Now, Nvidia certainly has done dubious things. They've hurt their partners (EVGA, you're missed), and skyrocketing the baseline GPU prices is scummy as hell. But binning isn't anything I necessarily consider dubious.

[revnode]

> No, there would just be less 4080s for people to buy.

Sure, and more 4090s at a lower price.

[giantrobot]

Nvidia wouldn't leave money on the table dropping the price of the 4090. There would just be more supply of 4090s at the same price. A card manufacturer selling them below MSRP would get immediately sanctioned by Nvidia.

[revnode]

Even a monopolist is constrained by supply and demand. If they could sell everything they make as a 4090 without trashing their margins, they would. The fact that 4080, 4070, 4060 lines exist means they can't.

[deaddodo]

Right. And the fact that a BMW 2-series exists means that BMW can't sell all the 7-series' that they want.

They're cutting down 4090s into 4080s to fulfill a demand for a cheaper chip, while still supplying their premium option. Your fanciful world concept of things being sold for no/minimum margins is just that: fanciful.