Asus Smacks Gigabyte with a Lawsuit

Earlier this month Tom’s Hardware reported on Gigabyte’s claim about Asus’s energy efficiently features being a blatant lie to consumers. Since then, the two giants have had a very public and on-going spat. However, Asus is now taking this battle into the next round by slinging a lawsuit against Gigabyte and reporting them to the Fair Trade Commission of Taiwan. Asus claims its rival, “Gigabyte, without a full understanding of ASUS’ engineering design and methods, has made false accusations against ASUS motherboards’ EPU features.”

Asus also detailed Gigabyte’s use of misleading photographs of blown capacitors in presentations that led the audiences to believe the product was from Asus to support allegations of sub-par component quality from Asus. However, Asus claims the photographs were taken from a graphics card that is manufactured by a completely different vendor. Asus described its rival’s actions as indecent and “outside the realm of decent competition.”

“While it is common to have competition among companies, the use of the above mentioned methods are defamatory and condemnable. ASUS deeply resents Gigabyte’s action(s)…ASUS takes pride in its innovations, which are measured against the highest standards in the industry at all stages of operation - from project development, engineering, manufacturing to service. Through a combination of the best quality-controlled components and processes, ASUS delivers state-of-the art technology breakthroughs to meet customers’ needs. Every breakthrough is the result of huge R&D engineering efforts.”

As of last week Gigabyte stood by its allegations and was eagerly waiting for Asus to provide more details about the company’s EPU performance. Asus has now launched an official website regarding EPU engineering data on its motherboards. While the new site does provide more in depth information regarding the company’s EPU, it does not however provide any detailed performance or testing data. It’s a slight disappointment in the fact that a lot of users were hoping to see some empirical evidence that would disprove Gigabyte’s claims.

Its ironic that just less than two years ago Asus and Gigabyte were holding each other’s hand in a joint venture to manufacture components. It just goes to show the intense competitive market that these two giants are in now. No details of compensation were mentioned, but more information should unfold as this drama is far from over.

  • 1971Rhino
    Well this should be interesting..... I wonder if Giga(bite me)will spend the money to fight, and try to beat the law suit, or just pay for damages in a settlement with one of those disappointing "for an undisclosed amount" type of things.

    I'm not a fanboy of either side. My last build is an EVGA 790i Ultra and my previous machines have been MSI or Epox, but I'm still interested in the outcome. Gigabyte and ASUS seem to be the most popular MoBo makers here at Tom's.
    Reply
  • lzhnasa
    i think Asus is just trying to distract people so that they can get more time on the EPU test and to fix that problem. Go Gigabyte!
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  • njalterio
    It's pretty irritating to see people display such brand name loyalty to a company that they owe nothing. Particularly "Izhnasa", yes I am calling you out. Why do you support Gigabyte so much? What have they done for you?

    Regardless of whether Gigabyte's allegations are true or not, the way Gigabyte presented themselves while making the claims was very unprofessional. When working with computers I want to know the technical details of my parts, and not the marketing slander that seems to be spewing from Gigabyte. It's unfortunate that there is yet another lawsuit out there, but I can't help but feel Gigabyte was asking for this one.
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  • mr roboto
    I say we let it play out before making any final determinations. Of course fanboys of either side need not apply since their minds have already been made up. Go honesty! Or something like that.
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  • kiwi_chuck
    I think if it goes either way it's good for the customer. If ASUS has such problems, they will now be trying to fix them. Plus ASUS may try to undercut Gigabyte to take away sales as a slap in the face for their remarks. I was a long time ASUS customer who has switched to Gigabyte recently because I've been reading about so many problems with new ASUS motherboards. I switched because the computer users were complaining so much, not because the companys were fighting amongst themselves. ASUS was my favorite, but I don't feel I owe them anything if there products aren't the top notch parts that I used to buy from them.
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  • LkS
    Woah wait a minute.. the motherboard manufacturers have fanboys?! I mean come on get a life. I can kind of understand with ATI and Nvidia but this is like developing an emotional attachment to a washing machine brand... unless.. No! There cant be washing machine fanboys as well!
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  • z_dori
    the "site" explaining EPU is just a nice PowerPoint Presentation.
    it's a shame that both leading companies behave that way & not focusing on leading the market for better solutions.


    still it would be nice to see benches of the EPU & not explaining.
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  • Cham
    How can you trust a company that cannot even afford someone who can spell properly? Or afford a simple spell checker? Look at the second last slide in the xxx/epu/ slide show. What is "Output Vltage". Is this also how they program their software?

    Additionally, graphs only make sense when they have values with them. A slope looks good, but what does it mean in technical terms? Look, I have a very steep slope. It is from 1000 to 999....
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  • lopopo
    Asus kudos on the Sim City 3000 like presentation. The colors and buttons took me back.
    Reply
  • pcgamer12
    Go Gigabyte! Boo Asus!
    Reply