It can't possibly take 4 months for them to "figure out" their error. This was deliberate; they had it coming.

These companies know that far too many knowledgeable individuals pour over specs and data constantly for this to be an absolutely deliberate case. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there was a lack of communication between engineering and marketing about a redesign they did to increase yields or something along those lines.

Nonetheless, it doesn't excuse them. I can only hope they and their consumers get what they deserve.

They probably lied about the specs to give people more reasons to buy their card over the r9 290x. I'm sure the engineering department would have seen the card and packaging long before it went on sale to the general consumer and raise a red flag. Nvidia could have done a press release before the card went on sale to shed light on this problem long before it blew up into something this big. Also the funny thing is that it is still being sold as a 4GB card today.