The GeForce 8x00 thing, mainly 8600, was entirely NVIDIA's responsibility, but admitting fault could potentially have bankrupted the company in remedies, so they admitted as little as possible. NVIDIA's customers were then placed uncomfortably between a rock and the end-user, so there were many under the table deals,
This was further aggravated when that Charlie guy at the Inquirer wouldn't let it rest. Personally I Loved the article where he chopped up a shipping MacBook to prove the bad chips were still on the market. Pretty hard to ignore that evidence, eh NVIDIA? (I also loved ribbing my ex-coworkers still at NVIDIA, hiding behind their NDAs...)