• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

GeForce GTX 970s seem to have an issue using all 4GB of VRAM, Nvidia looking into it

Status
Not open for further replies.
Any reaction besides blatant outrage and dragging nvidia through the goddamn mud is unacceptable. These fucks blatantly lied and were dishonest up until they very end when they got caught. Just disgusting shit all around. Fuck Nvidias CEO and his stupid leather jacket. How about you develop some actual integrity, you fuck.

I'm living/working in a 3rd world shithole right now and I bought a 970 here for the price of a 980, pretty much. So yeah, I'm fumin'
 

Chakvr2

Neo Member
Anyone had luck with scan.co.uk? I'm gonna request a refund when I'm back home but that'll be next week.

I sent them an email asking about their stance on it, hoping to hear back in a day (they promise a 24 hour response time but it might be bit longer with this rush).

Will post here again if I hear anything today.
 

LilJoka

Member
I sent them an email asking about their stance on it, hoping to hear back in a day (they promise a 24 hour response time but it might be bit longer with this rush).

Will post here again if I hear anything today.

You should just call them. Lot easier and no time wasting.
 
So should I hold on from buying 970?

Wait for whatever the fuck AMD is doing. There is no way the 970 doesn't come crashing down in price, either. Well, maybe not crash, but expect it to come down at least a little bit.(also, fuck supporting nvidia)

Anyway, has there been an precedent like this before? Like where a company just blatantly lies about what their product is capable of? I'm having trouble understanding why nvidia isn't in deep shit for doing this.
 

Bricky

Member
So should I hold on from buying 970?

Not if you still think it is a good card for your needs since at the end of the day nothing but the specifications have changed. If you can find it for cheap in the coming weeks thanks to this entire shitstorm then all of this ends up just giving you a better deal.

The outrage is targeted at Nvidia and from people who already bought the card (and rightfully so), but the 970 itself has no defects or anything.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Welp, got a 970 on December. I would return it and go back to my trusty 670 2gb but I sold it to a friend.

What should I do? I am quite satisfied with it, but I got it mainly for its 4gb for futureproof. I am not going to spend more money on the 980, and everytime I've got an AMD it's been a mess for me.

I only game at 1080p, but games will begin taking more vram as we get deeper into this gen. Should I keep it or should I go for a 290?


970 is still the pick of the crop in terms of bang for buck. 980 is overpriced for the extra performance you get, and the AMD cards are more power hungry and noisier for similar performance.

Even if it was only a 3.5GB card (which is isn't), I'd argue it would still be the best card for the price point.

So you're left feeling frustrated that you paid for something, and you aren't quite getting what you paid for - but that something is still the best option.

I would like something along the lines of a future discount on my next Nvidia purchase, or a rebate for my purchase, or a game code - they must get discounts on those. But I'm not returning the card, it is still a great card (just a little dirty now)
 
If anyone in the UK has bought one and feels suitably aggrieved I highly recommend reporting it to the Trading Standards.

They'll investigate nVidia for you
 

cyberheater

PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 Xbone PS4 PS4
If anyone in the UK has bought one and feels suitably aggrieved I highly recommend reporting it to the Trading Standards.

They'll investigate nVidia for you

Also worth looking at this:-

Fraudulent misrepresentation
A fraudulent misrepresentation occurs when someone makes a statement that -
they know is untrue, or,
they make without believing it is true, or,
they make recklessly

If you enter into a contract as a result of a fraudulent misrepresentation, then you can cancel the contract, claim damages, or both.
The Misrepresentation Act 1967 allows you to base your claim on negligence or on the fraud.
In addition, when a misrepresentation claim is based on negligence, the law states that the person who made the misrepresentation has to disprove the negligence.

In other words, they must prove that they had reasonable grounds to believe the statement, and that they believed the facts represented were true.

Negligent misrepresentation
This is a misrepresentation under the Misrepresentation Act 1967 where a statement is made carelessly or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth.
A negligent misrepresentation may fall under common law or under the Misrepresentation Act 1967. Financial loss may be recovered in some circumstances.

Go and read the Misrepresentation Act 1967 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/7

nVidia have admitted the engineering team knew of the specifications, yet the PR team published incorrect specifications (and continue to do so..), so this is not covered by the Innocent Misrepresentation, but instead of the 2 types of misrepresentation i listed above. This is atleast true for the UK, there is probably one for your country and one for the EU as well.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...figure-it-out-and-get-it-done-now-/?offset=62
 

nasanu

Banned
Buy a card based off benchmarks which include performance with large texture packs. Happily use the card and be pleased with it, put your PC specs in your signature and tell people about your GPU any chance you get. Find out down the road that a technical aspect of the card architecture you don't understand is a little different from previous descriptions of the architecture you don't understand. Demand a refund because the card is now trash even though it performs identically to the benchmarks that so impressed you enough to buy the card in the first place.
 
I don't think returning the card is worth the time spent returning it if the card is still perfectly good, to be honest. I know you guys are probably rather angry about this kind of thing, and yeah, the memory stuff could really use better explanation, but the performance of the cards don't change a bit at all, no?
 

ISee

Member
Buy a card based off benchmarks which include performance with large texture packs. Happily use the card and be pleased with it, put your PC specs in your signature and tell people about your GPU any chance you get. Find out down the road that a technical aspect of the card architecture you don't understand is a little different from previous descriptions of the architecture you don't understand. Demand a refund because the card is now trash even though it performs identically to the benchmarks that so impressed you enough to buy the card in the first place.

Or you could go to the internet, visit a gaming related forum, click on a thread you do not seem to care and then insult the people in that thread.

/Classic
 
Buy a card based off benchmarks which include performance with large texture packs. Happily use the card and be pleased with it, put your PC specs in your signature and tell people about your GPU any chance you get. Find out down the road that a technical aspect of the card architecture you don't understand is a little different from previous descriptions of the architecture you don't understand. Demand a refund because the card is now trash even though it performs identically to the benchmarks that so impressed you enough to buy the card in the first place.

I wouldn't have bought into the card if I thought any of the 4GB was problematic. I bought into it for the reason of it having 4GB of VRAM that I also assumed was created and performed equally. We were not given a chance to make an informed decision.

It is causing no problems today (I don't have a lot of new games to test) but the shelf life of the card could be diminished a lot sooner because of this allocation of memory. At 1080p.
 

solarus

Member
I don't think returning the card is worth the time spent returning it if the card is still perfectly good, to be honest. I know you guys are probably rather angry about this kind of thing, and yeah, the memory stuff could really use better explanation, but the performance of the cards don't change a bit at all, no?

I want 4GB of fast VRAM, end of, that's what I paid for.
I wouldn't have bought into the card if I thought any of the 4GB was problematic. I bought into it for the reason of it having 4GB of VRAM that I also assumed was created and performed equally. We were not given a chance to make an informed decision.

It is causing no problems today (I don't have a lot of new games to test) but the shelf life of the card could be diminished a lot sooner because of this allocation of memory. At 1080p.
Exactly, in fact I am 100% definite of the slow 500mb being a limiting factor for future next gen games even at 1080p at the settings I would like to play. This is an expensive card.
 

nib95

Banned
Buy a card based off benchmarks which include performance with large texture packs. Happily use the card and be pleased with it, put your PC specs in your signature and tell people about your GPU any chance you get. Find out down the road that a technical aspect of the card architecture you don't understand is a little different from previous descriptions of the architecture you don't understand. Demand a refund because the card is now trash even though it performs identically to the benchmarks that so impressed you enough to buy the card in the first place.

I'd argue that the kind of people posting on these forums that bought these cards, do actually understand the issue at hand, and it's potential implications to gaming performance. Not that it should have any relevance to people being able to demand to have, what was advertised when sold to them.
 
Buy a card based off benchmarks which include performance with large texture packs. Happily use the card and be pleased with it, put your PC specs in your signature and tell people about your GPU any chance you get. Find out down the road that a technical aspect of the card architecture you don't understand is a little different from previous descriptions of the architecture you don't understand. Demand a refund because the card is now trash even though it performs identically to the benchmarks that so impressed you enough to buy the card in the first place.

You're so cool and above it all, dude. I wish i had your attitude. :D :D :D
 

LilJoka

Member
I don't think returning the card is worth the time spent returning it if the card is still perfectly good, to be honest. I know you guys are probably rather angry about this kind of thing, and yeah, the memory stuff could really use better explanation, but the performance of the cards don't change a bit at all, no?

If the performance didn't change we wouldn't know about this.

It all started when people noticed the card would try not to go over 3.5gb and when I did the performance suffered.

2 weeks later nvidia confirm the segmented VRAM and ROP and L2 cache mis print.
 

wazoo

Member
970 is fine now.

SLI gamers that want more power now may be hurt, but as a mono-GPU guy (and this card fits in a mini-ITX, which is amazing), I am happy.

Pascal is the next step. Future proofing means nothing in PC gaming, enjoy what you have now, and rethink later about the upgrade.
 

potam

Banned
Buy a card based off benchmarks which include performance with large texture packs. Happily use the card and be pleased with it, put your PC specs in your signature and tell people about your GPU any chance you get. Find out down the road that a technical aspect of the card architecture you don't understand is a little different from previous descriptions of the architecture you don't understand. Demand a refund because the card is now trash even though it performs identically to the benchmarks that so impressed you enough to buy the card in the first place.

fuck right off
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
I want 4GB of fast VRAM, end of, that's what I paid for.

4GB actually concerned me enough to consider waiting for variants with more or the next generation.
The current situation just makes me want a class-action suit to happen yesterday.
 
970 is still the pick of the crop in terms of bang for buck. 980 is overpriced for the extra performance you get, and the AMD cards are more power hungry and noisier for similar performance.

Even if it was only a 3.5GB card (which is isn't), I'd argue it would still be the best card for the price point.

So you're left feeling frustrated that you paid for something, and you aren't quite getting what you paid for - but that something is still the best option.

I would like something along the lines of a future discount on my next Nvidia purchase, or a rebate for my purchase, or a game code - they must get discounts on those. But I'm not returning the card, it is still a great card (just a little dirty now)

I see, thanks a lot for the answers guys.

Actually, I was pretty happy with my 670 2gb, and my 970 is a major upgrade. I will hold onto it until my next gpu, i have no problem with lowering assets in order to maintain 60fps for future games.

I still think it performs quite well for its price, although Nvidia deserves the uprage.

Once again, thank you guys.
 

ISee

Member
970 is fine now.

SLI gamers that want more power now may be hurt, but as a mono-GPU guy (and this card fits in a mini-ITX, which is amazing), I am happy.

Pascal is the next step. Future proofing means nothing in PC gaming, enjoy what you have now, and rethink later about the upgrade.

Yes and no. Of course there is no future proofing in PC gaming and rightfull so and yes the 970 is still a good card, performance wise. But with the 'release specs' NVIDIA suggested that the 970 and the 980 are much more closer to each other then they are in reality. So I would have made another decision in the first place.
 

Marlenus

Member
Overclockers UK are giving refunds.

I'm sending back my 2 970s I got in October. I'll wait for the next wave of cards and see what they're like.

Probably going back to AMD after this.

Only on certain brands and it still puts them in breach of the SOGA if they do not extend that to all vendors.

The card is described / advertised in such a way as to make people believe it has a standard memory configuration. There is nothing to suggest that this memory configuration is non standard and there is nothing to suggest that it actually causes performance issues when getting close to the VRAM limit yet both of those statements are true. By UK law that is misleading advertising and as such anybody in the UK who wants a refund should get one through their retailer. It is then up to the retailer to recoup costs from their suppliers.

If you live in the UK and your retailer is refusing to give you a refund contact trading standards. If you feel really strongly about the issue then you can go to your bank or CC company and ask them to do a chargeback. If you do that though you need to provide the retailer with details of when you are available so they can arrange collection of the product.

I still think the 970 is a very good card though and cannot fathom why NV would bother to hide this quirk of the memory system as it would not of stopped it from being a great card that sold really well. It may have even spurred some users to go for the 980 to get the standard 4GB ram config.
 

Lain

Member
I wouldn't have bought into the card if I thought any of the 4GB was problematic. I bought into it for the reason of it having 4GB of VRAM that I also assumed was created and performed equally. We were not given a chance to make an informed decision.

It is causing no problems today (I don't have a lot of new games to test) but the shelf life of the card could be diminished a lot sooner because of this allocation of memory. At 1080p.

Same here. Had I known then what I know now, I wouldn't have opted for the 970, I would have spent a bit more and went for the 980.
 
I want 4GB of fast VRAM, end of, that's what I paid for.

I understand, but at least it's not hitting the system RAM, no?

If the performance didn't change we wouldn't know about this.

It all started when people noticed the card would try not to go over 3.5gb and when I did the performance suffered.

2 weeks later nvidia confirm the segmented VRAM and ROP and L2 cache mis print.

"Suffered" is perhaps a strange choice in word if practical performance differences are likely to be minimal and any benchmarks done when the card is released is still likely to be valid today.

The video RAM segmentation is disappointing, yes, but I think I only care about what a card can do for me right now, and the card certainly satisfies that judging from what I have seen.

Just my two cents.
 
I understand, but at least it's not hitting the system RAM, no?



The video RAM segmentation is disappointing, yes, but I think I only care about what a card can do for me right now, and the card certainly satisfies that judging from what I have seen.

Just my two cents.

The customers should ALWAYS have all the information made available to them so they can make an informed choice.

Regardless of the benchmarks.

A decision making supply of information was glossed over by nVidia PR.

nVidia NEED to be pressed over this.

I was considering a 970 myself for the 4GB VRAM and "future proofing"
But budget restricted me and opted for an older GPU for now.

If I had bought one though I'd be in the camp of 'a bit miffed'

I am looking at this as an opportunity for a cheap 970 though!
 
Any reaction besides blatant outrage and dragging nvidia through the goddamn mud is unacceptable. These fucks blatantly lied and were dishonest up until they very end when they got caught. Just disgusting shit all around. Fuck Nvidias CEO and his stupid leather jacket. How about you develop some actual integrity, you fuck.

c20447790fac4ad9999b16024a368617.jpg
 

potam

Banned
Nvidia apologists are asking us to thank Nvidia for taking a steak-flavored shit in our mouths instead of giving us the steaks we ordered.
 

Mr Swine

Banned
I got my 970 and the performance compared to my old 670 is like night and day! But still lying to us I really hope they compensate us with a free game
 
Same here. Had I known then what I know now, I wouldn't have opted for the 970, I would have spent a bit more and went for the 980.

You would have spent $200 more for .5 more gb of VRAM? I'm assuming you got the 970 because of the marginal performance difference between the two, which hasn't changed, but now your mind is changed over a number which has no affect on the benchmarks everyone was raving about a month ago?

nnsns.gif
 
The customers should ALWAYS have all the information made available to them so they can make an informed choice.

Regardless of the benchmarks.

A decision making supply of information was glossed over by nVidia PR.

nVidia NEED to be pressed over this.

I was considering a 970 myself for the 4GB VRAM and "future proofing"
But budget restricted me and opted for an older GPU for now.

If I had bought one though I'd be in the camp of 'a bit miffed'

I am looking at this as an opportunity for a cheap 970 though!

Sounds like a good position to take. I'm more of a practical person, so I tend to rely more on their actual performance, so, to me, this video RAM talk is pretty much just "nothing", though I'm sure that many peeps will disagree with me.

(I think if I had a desktop and/or am planning to build one, I'd have bought a 970, memory issues or not.)
 
GIF me a reply as to this logic.

The benchmarks sold everyone on the card. Those benchmarks haven't changed. The .5 gb thing is a perception game and is utterly meaningless, it's the same card it was when it launched that everyone raved about. The "but I want it to be good in the future" argument doesn't hold any water if it's killing every game out right now -

stone-cold.gif
 
The benchmarks sold everyone on the card. Those benchmarks haven't changed. The .5 gb thing is a perception game and is utterly meaningless, it's the same card it was when it launched that everyone raved about. The "but I want it to be good in the future" argument doesn't hold any water -

stone-cold.gif

Mmm. Future proofing can only get you so far when you can't exactly predict with perfect accuracy.

So did they save money designing the card like this? They had to know they would get caught so i don't get it.

You probably wouldn't want an even more gimped 970 or a more expensive 970.
 

Porcile

Member
I'm not keen on upgrading as i'm not sure I have enough power for a 980. I have a Corsair 650W PSU (not great), is that enough for a 980? I was really impressed by the efficiency of the 970, hence why I went with it. That and the extra cost of the 980 didn't add up for me.
 

potam

Banned
I'm not keen on upgrading as i'm not sure I have enough power for a 980. I have a Corsair 650W PSU (not great), is that enough for a 980? I was really impressed by the efficiency of the 970, hence why I went with it. That and the extra cost of the 980 didn't add up for me.

Yeah, 650W is plenty, unless you have an ungodly OC on your CPU or a bunch of other weird shit hooked up.
 

jordyn11

Neo Member
I'm sure this has been posted before but the below excerpt of Australian Consumer Law pretty much sums up why this is a problem for people that can't seem to see the forest for the trees. Performance implications are secondary to breaches of consumer rights in the purchasing process.

"We are not required to provide a refund or replacement if you change your mind.

But you can choose a refund or exchange if an item has a major problem. This is when the item:

- has a problem that would have stopped someone buying it had they known about it
- is unsafe
- is significantly different from the sample or description
- doesn't do what we said it would do or what you asked for and cannot be easily fixed."
 
The benchmarks sold everyone on the card. Those benchmarks haven't changed. The .5 gb thing is a perception game and is utterly meaningless, it's the same card it was when it launched that everyone raved about. The "but I want it to be good in the future" argument doesn't hold any water -

stone-cold.gif

And so did 4GB of VRAM; this was a major selling point to me along with price. Which now turns out not to be 4GB as a whole but some weird and not so wonderful configuration that could have a bearing a lot sooner than expected. Edit: I am not talking of 'future proofing' for the next 5 years but if this configuration has drawbacks in the near future I am going to be a little miffed.

So did they save money designing the card like this? They had to know they would get caught so i don't get it.

Isn't the 970 cut backs to do with binning rather than deliberate removal? Manufacturing the chips is imprecise and isn't a 100% successful process and parts can often be salvaged and used on lower end versions.

I am sure someone can explain a lot more informatively or succinctly than I can.
 
Buy a card based off benchmarks which include performance with large texture packs. Happily use the card and be pleased with it, put your PC specs in your signature and tell people about your GPU any chance you get. Find out down the road that a technical aspect of the card architecture you don't understand is a little different from previous descriptions of the architecture you don't understand. Demand a refund because the card is now trash even though it performs identically to the benchmarks that so impressed you enough to buy the card in the first place.

You buy a coat. It's a state-of-the-art coat, that's advertised as having a kind of insulation that keeps you warm all the way from 50°F to -20°F. Then later, it turns out that the coat's manufacturer lied: the coat technically does have that kind of insulation, but some of the insulation is of a much crappier variety than the rest, and it doesn't trap air and keep in heat like the manufacturer obviously implied. You complain.

But your friend goes, "Hah, what's your problem? You've been wearing that coat for weeks, and it's been keeping you warm like a champ. Now you're complaining just because you heard some abstract science-y stuff that you don't even understand? All the coat's reviews say it keeps people warm just fine! Silly sheeple!"

But it's only November. Of course the coat has kept you warm so far; it hasn't gotten that cold yet! But as you get into December, the temperature is going to get much colder, and the coat isn't going to perform as advertised at the temperatures that are coming.

But when you point this out, you friend goes, "Did you seriously think a coat would always keep you warm no matter how cold it got? Permanent cold-proofing is a myth! What if it gets even colder than -20°F in January or February? Or what if we set off a new ice age? Your coat was never going to keep you cold forever, in every possible circumstance!"

You try to point out that you never expected the coat to keep you warm in every possible circumstance, forever into the future; you only expected it to perform as advertised. But your friend is too busy congratulating himself on being smarter than a sheeple like you, and he doesn't hear you.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom