Nvidia GTX 970 problems: This isn't acceptable.

[jsfitz54]

these threads serve no purpose other then to give people a place to troll flame or generally vent
-thats fine but this stuff belongs on GN
also ENB doesn't know what hes talking about ..
!requestinglock

Who are you? The Gestapo.

 

[OneMoar]

Who are you? The Gestapo.

I work directly under willhelm frick

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Who are you? The Gestapo.

he likes to think so.

 

[qubit]

The card HAS 64 rops (all of which are enabled, 56 of which are active, the last 8 are idle), it HAS 4GB on the card, i think the reduction in the L2 cache is where the problem really lies. .

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8931/nvidia-publishes-statement-on-geforce-gtx-970-memory-allocation

This won't happen now if the kitguru link posted above is anything to go by:
http://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-working-on-driver-update-to-address-gtx-970-issues/

What I thought was interesting is Boris Vorontsov (or how ever way you say his last name) developer for ENBseries graphics enhancement, made a comment on the regard as well on his facebook page, and basically said, that this "issue" is actually fairly normal for modern day GPUs.

Hes Russian so his english is a little off.

Whats going to be really funny, is that 970s will still probably sell well, its only the enthusiasts like us that will know this problem. The standard joe does not usually search google about this sort of stuff before he buys a new GPU. they just read a few of the newegg/amazon/other retailer user reviews, and look up a few benchmarks and boom.

Also onemoar and fluff were not denying that it was false advertising. They were saying that the amount of rant threads that have been blowing up these forums isn't going to change much, if anything.

So the card doesn't have 4GB after all and NVIDIA are lying about it using system RAM for the last 512MB, which is impacting performance. Oh shit NVIDIA, you've really done it this time. If this is really true, then this is outright fraud and a lawsuit would stick. Yes, they'd probably buy their way out of it, but the point is that the lawsuit couldn't just be waived away and it will cost them money whether they settle or get found guilty in court.

Either way their reputation is in tatters if this is true.

Keep up the pressure people and keep these threads coming.

 

[mouacyk]

ok but is the 980 with the same settings & maybe reduced clockspeed showing the same signs when nearing 4gb?

i also recently got a 660... it's 2gb 192bit, so it has a similar uneven memory arrangement that i guess i should investigate

It's spelled out already that the 660's (GK106) also had segmented VRAM. Using the last 0.5GB will cause all of the VRAM bandwidth to tank to 48GB/s rather than maintain the 144GB/s in specifications. Here's the analysis done by Anandtech.

I'm doing my own research on my SLI 660's as well.

So the card doesn't have 4GB after all and NVIDIA are lying about it using system RAM for the last 512MB, which is impacting performance. Oh shit NVIDIA, you've really done it this time. If this is really true, then this is outright fraud and a lawsuit would stick. Yes, they'd probably buy their way out of it, but the point is that the lawsuit couldn't just be waived away and it will cost them money whether they settle or get found guilty in court.

Either way their reputation is in tatters if this is true.

Keep up the pressure people and keep these threads coming.

Oh, the GTX 970 definitely has the 4GB as advertised. The finer new details are actually that the 4GB memory cannot peak at the advertised 224GB/s in a pure read or write operation. Only through a mix of read+write operations is it able to reach that peak advertised bandwidth. The dissatisfaction among customers is that the GTX 970 was marketed to have the same "memory subsystem" as the 980, only with 3 less SMM's. Given that marketing, the GTX 980 can do its full 224GB/s in a pure read or write operation. This begs the contradiction that the two cards do not have the same memory subsystem.

 

[R-T-B]

Get one now....so you have a claim to the settlement fund down the line.


Agreed. Others have said that the R290x is a viable option now. Maybe......if you have another 120W to spare and happen to be deaf(prior to hearing the R290x cooler scream away).

Third party coolers are actually pretty quiet. As for reference cooler, not touching that with a 10ft pole.

 

[xorbe]

hi GoldenTiger

 

[erocker]

!requestinglock

Denied.

If you don't want to take part in the conversation, don't. Move along.

 

[GhostRyder]

The simplest answer if your not satisfied with the card is to return it since that is what many others are doing at this time. If you are completely unhappy with NVidia then you should buy some 290X's and call it a day since they are cheaper than the 970 right now, otherwise buy a pair of GTX 980's and you will get the performance you wanted from the beginning. Really its a big issue with them lying on this front but I do not think they will hand out any vouchers for anything other than possibly a free game or something and a full refund.

 

[Xzibit]

The simplest answer if your not satisfied with the card is to return it since that is what many others are doing at this time. If you are completely unhappy with NVidia then you should buy some 290X's and call it a day since they are cheaper than the 970 right now, otherwise buy a pair of GTX 980's and you will get the performance you wanted from the beginning. Really its a big issue with them lying on this front but I do not think they will hand out any vouchers for anything other than possibly a free game or something and a full refund.

Don't forget free imaginary money from Free-To-Play games

Free 2 Play Bundle

 

[Steevo]

Denied.

If you don't want to take part in the conversation, don't. Move along.

Speaking ill of Waifu Nvidia is a locking and banning offense doncha know?

 

[Frick]

I just like it when people suffer for what I consider silly reasons, so I hope Nvidia will do more bad things and courts will decide in their favour for no good reason.

 

[RejZoR]

nvidia isn't gonna refund anything or offer vouchers for 980's you are dreaming
crying false adverting isn't gonna get you or anybody else anyware
can we stop making threads about this now ....

It's absolutely hilarious when customers that got screwed over should just STFU, because you said so. Fact is, NVIDIA lied and they well knew it. They made this bus/memory hack and hoped no one would find out about it. People are experiencing actual annoyances with the cards because of it and you have the balls to say they should just stop complaining. Dude, when was the last time you've done areality check?

 

[purplekaycee]

have been told that this card is quite good for high graphics gaming . games like the witcher 2 &3 would run without any problems.
hope i would not be making a mistake by paying for it?

 

[xfia]

in my opinion you would be.. sapphire makes a beast 290(x)

 

[R-T-B]

No, it's still quite a good card. You'd be right to be slightly irritated they say "4GBs of ram" when it's really more of 3.5GBs, but that's all. It's still an excellent card.

You'll get fanboys from both sides of course, but fact is it's still an excellent card and not worth a reorder.

 

[purplekaycee]

as long as it plays all games conviniently in high resolution.

 

[RejZoR]

as long as it plays all games conviniently in high resolution.

You forgot to add "for now". Talk to us in 6 months time with new games... If people are already experiencing issues in a small scale, what do you think it will happen when more demanding games arrive? That things will somehow magically improve? Riiiiight...

 

[R-T-B]

You forgot to add "for now". Talk to us in 6 months time with new games... If people are already experiencing issues in a small scale, what do you think it will happen when more demanding games arrive? That things will somehow magically improve? Riiiiight...

This is the story of upgrades dude, it's nothing new.

 

[xfia]

its whole design is flawed.. seeing the data right in front of you and needing to ask if you should buy it borders on insanity.

Its like buying a 500 horsepower mustang that has a computer that will slow you down to 50mph if you reach 120mph.

 

[R-T-B]

its whole design is flawed.. seeing the data right in front of you and needing to ask if you should buy it borders on insanity.

Its like buying a 500 horsepower mustang that has a computer that will slow you down to 50mph if you reach 120mph.

I've yet to see any conclusive data supporting the idea that this stuttering is caused by accessing the additional ram, and not simply hitting that GPUs limit.

That said, even if it WAS caused by that, that should be a simple software fix. Either way I wouldn't reorder over it.

 

[xfia]

This is the story of upgrades dude, it's nothing new.

perhaps your missing how horribly it will age since the segments cant be accessed simultaneously. makes it 10x worse than the way vram would spill over onto system ram on a proper gpu.

 

[R-T-B]

perhaps your missing how horribly it will age since the segments cant be accessed simultaneously. makes it 10x worse than the way vram would spill over onto system ram on a proper gpu.

and how is that conceptually not something that can be corrected?

Furthermore, where is this so called proof? You REALLY think 512MBs of ram running slower than the rest is going to make a humongous difference? I don't see it, honestly, and I'm not a fanboy. Look at my build: I'm bleeding AMD red right now. I'd be happy to pick one of these up if I had money.

PS: That partition of "slow" ram is still likely much faster than the DDR3 it will overflow into.

 

[RCoon]

The most amusing crime here is the fact I have one, thousands of people (some who don't even own one) are complaining about this very clear and factually represented defect, returning their cards for some obscure purpose, and yet for some reason I don't care in the slightest.

I know that my card is crippled, I know that if I spontaneously decide to use DSR to go from 1440p up to ultra mega super HD and then scale it down again that my card will literally soil itself and make a smutty stuttery gooey mess inside its poor little gimped memory units.

And yet, still, for some unknown reason, I don't care.

My processor looks down from its lofty 1150 socket on high, stares down at the 970 below and teases it for all it's disabled parts, fully functioning but worthless parts. Sometimes I try to calm him down, but then some random internet person who's probably not evening running a dedicated GPU of any kind signs up to some forum and starts laughing at how all these 970's are incapable of running at ultra mega big-baller HD through the use of DSR, doesn't bother looking at graphs and tests done to make comparative performance figures and actual performance, but carries on making multiple threads about something which has news articles with comments sections and already existing 100 page threads on countless forums.

Then I realise, I don't use DSR, I'm not buying 4K any time soon, have yet to pass a 4GB requirement, and my card was as cheap as dirt. If it was sold with a puzzling 3.5GB of VRAM, I'd still buy it. Maybe I'm just a terrible idea of a customer, maybe I should be more self entitled, and perhaps I should take up arms with the militia. But frankly, I can't be bothered.

 

[RejZoR]

This is the story of upgrades dude, it's nothing new.

The reason for upgrade shouldn't be a flawed product that you paid full price you know...