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

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Wereroku

Member
Why not just come out with a legit GTX 970 version and then let people get free upgrades to it?

Because a legit 970 would be a 980. They are not going to give 970 owners a free upgrade to a 980. Basically the 970's are just cut down 980's and this whole situation just reaffirms it.
 
I had a galaxy gtx 780 that worked perfectly fine but I upgraded to a 970 SPECIFICALLY because it was advertised as a 4GB card. This is y i am pissed. Also, I have no doubts whatsoever that in the next two years we will see a ton of games that push well over 3.5 GB requirments for Ultra textures.

Same here. I feel I made the jump too soon but I always justified it because of the 4GB.

If this VRAM allocation had been divulged from the beginning then tech sites could have reported on possible issues and we could have made an informed purchasing decision knowing of this, however technically minded a buyer might be/not be.

I am not playing a VRAM juggling game to keep the card under 3.5GB or risk frame time issues and stuttering.
 
Nice of the Nvidia rep on Guru forums yesterday saying otherwise. :/

He also mentioned that Nvidia would assist in any way they can for people returning their cards. That doesn't seem to be happening now as well... jesus.

Yep, total backpedal. I was ready to forgive Nvidia after reading that original response, but their backpedal and complete dismissal of the issue on all their channels now has me on full Anti-Nvidia crusade.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
is there anyway for them to do a recall, refurb the current 970's to be just 3.5gb cards? Use a firmware update to basically disable that slow 500mb section?

Is there a custom firmware that could be written to disable that 500mb section? What would be better for performance, disabling it or living with it?
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
If youa re running at 1440p or with SLI,it does pretty drastically affect your card's ability to scale based upon your previous expectations. That 500mb increase from 3.5 to 4.0 is enough to fit the framebuffer increase from 1080p to 1440p.

Depends on your rig a nd resolution how much this matters. SLI users at higher res are more affected by this than people with 1080p single card.
And that is me. 1440p/120hz and downsampling. I'm directly affected with SLI 970's. It's a problem for the enthusiast or anyone who wants what was properly advertised.
 

pestul

Member
is there anyway for them to do a recall, refurb the current 970's to be just 3.5gb cards? Use a firmware update to basically disable that slow 500mb section?

Is there a custom firmware that could be written to disable that 500mb section? What would be better for performance, disabling it or living with it?
Well, they should be able to do something with it theoretically. I doubt disabling it would even take a firmware upgrade or even much trouble at the driver level.

They probably just have to modify the current setting that makes the card try its damnedest to stay at 3.5GB usage to one that flags it to never go over 3.5GB. I hope they can use it for desktop composition in windowed mode.
 

pestul

Member
Watching that hilarious video again. I'm not good with languages, but I love the part where he says 'g-piono' during the 'they didn't have anything to compete even with the 970' part. Fits so well..
 

heringer

Member
If youa re running at 1440p or with SLI,it does pretty drastically affect your card's ability to scale based upon your previous expectations. That 500mb increase from 3.5 to 4.0 is enough to fit the framebuffer increase from 1080p to 1440p.

Depends on your rig a nd resolution how much this matters. SLI users at higher res are more affected by this than people with 1080p single card.
There are exceptions for every rule, and I'm sure to some people this whole thing will have a bigger impact (mostly SLI users), but overall I believe most of the refund intentions are knee jerk reactions.

I had a galaxy gtx 780 that worked perfectly fine but I upgraded to a 970 SPECIFICALLY because it was advertised as a 4GB card. This is y i am pissed. Also, I have no doubts whatsoever that in the next two years we will see a ton of games that push well over 3.5 GB requirments for Ultra textures.

Aside from the fact that upgrading a 780 to a 970 doesn't strike me as a smart move (all due respect, you do what you want with your money) if you are looking for future proofing, if you are right and in the next two years we will see "a ton of games that push well over 3.5 GB requirements for Ultra textures", then ops, I guess suddenly the 980 will have a problem too. Like I said, 4 GB isn't a magic number, and if a "ton of games" will push well over 3.5 you can bet that a lot of them will push over 4 GB too. See how it goes? Suddenly the 980 isn't future proofed either. I mean, if some games are already pushing 980's 4 GB to it's limits, like some people are saying, every PC gamer should start getting worried right about now.

I guess I'm just saying that if you guys think you won't have any future proof with the 970, then the same can be said about a 4 GB 970 and even a 980, speaking in terms of VRAM. The difference just isn't big enough to put one in the "not future proofed" category and the other in the "future proofed" category.
 

Costia

Member
Why not just come out with a legit GTX 970 version and then let people get free upgrades to it?

A legit version of a 970 would be the 980.
They didn't do the segmentation just to piss people off, that's how a cut version of a 980 operates.
The problem is they forgot to mention this in their marketing campaign.


Looks like NVIDIA is not only getting away with this but actually making a profit from people buying the 980 instead. meh.
 
is there anyway for them to do a recall, refurb the current 970's to be just 3.5gb cards? Use a firmware update to basically disable that slow 500mb section?

Is there a custom firmware that could be written to disable that 500mb section? What would be better for performance, disabling it or living with it?

highly doubt it. at the end of the day, if you dont want to experience the issue you'll need to grab the 980
 

hoserx

Member
highly doubt it. at the end of the day, if you dont want to experience the issue you'll need to grab the 980

and that's why 970 users need to be compensated somehow, as they were not aware of this need when looking at the initial (false) specifications of the cards.
 
I've been reading a tad lower but way hotter and higher power usage right? That's what I read...

I think it depends on the game/settings. In roughly half the cases the 970 comes out slightly ahead, in the other half of cases the 290X comes on top.

You're right about the heat/power/noise, but some people don't care about that or have ways to mitigate it.
 
Really sucks for G-Sync buyers who won't have a choice but to stick with Nvidia.

I'll probably be looking at AMD's way more seriously on my next card. Clearly, the days of the 8800GT value are gone.
 
I really wish there was one open source solution for both G-sync and Freesync...

There is. It is Freesync's solution, VESA Adaptive Sync. A tech that has existed in Laptops for a long time and is becoming a PC monitor standard.

It's just that Nvidia will probably not use it so they can make more money off of proprietary monitors. Nvidia cards can work with Adaptive Sync, but the drivers will stop it.
 

diaspora

Member
There is. It is Freesync's solution, VESA Adaptive Sync. A tech that has existed in Laptops for a long time and is becoming a PC monitor standard.

It's just that Nvidia will probably not use it so they can make more money off of proprietary monitors. Nvidia cards can work with Adaptive Sync, but the drivers will stop it.
Sorry, what? They work by default but are stopped by the drivers? How is that even possible?
 

hodgy100

Member
Sorry, what? They work by default but are stopped by the drivers? How is that even possible?

he's saying freesync is technically compatible with all graphics cards, but it requires drivers to be updated to support it. Nvidia probably will refuse to support it because they would rather sell you their proprietary hardware in monitors.
 
There is. It is Freesync's solution, VESA Adaptive Sync. A tech that has existed in Laptops for a long time and is becoming a PC monitor standard.

It's just that Nvidia will probably not use it so they can make more money off of proprietary monitors. Nvidia cards can work with Adaptive Sync, but the drivers will stop it.

So if a monitor has DisplayPort 1.2a at least, it will have VESA?
 
Well..
Good news on eu gamers..
Dunno how much us customers are covered, but eu...
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/consumer-marketing/unfair-trade/false-advertising/index_en.htm
This for starter, but i'm in car, else i' dlink the exact link for regulation..
As a result i invite 970 owners to consult their 970s' manifacturers..
Explain it calmly, citing eu regulations for false advertisiment and ask firmly either a full refund, a discount or an upgrade program..
If you, like me, can be bothered to strongarm via lawyer it would be quite funny..
I contacted gigabyte on tuesday and they tried to weasel out by linking the comparison by nvidia, and i explained again that i don't overly care about statistics but rather about the specification.. I bought a card with certain specification (some of those even on manual//available online from the manifacturer site) not with different ones.. And added that either my claim is met or i'll go through legal means.
They answered that they will recontact me next week..

Would have loved to give them a few calls already today but this week i had plenty of meetings in eu agency of market regulation to attend so i could only scrap some time to mail them...
 
So uh...Which 980 do I order? The way Nvidia is handling this means I think my 970 is indeed going back.

I hear a lot of good things about EVGA service and customer support. I've heard good things about MSI cards and I've had great personal experience with ASUS cards. If you end up going with EVGA, you may want to wait until they release the 980 K|NGP|N.
 
I remember when I first got my 970 back in November and went to Can You Run it? And all the diagnostics said that my GPU had 3.5 GB instead of 4GB. Why was this not picked up earlier?

But uh, on my rig I have had no noticeable performance issues so I see no reason to get another card. I got 100% on Ground Zeroes with the highest possible graphics settings. And also completed FC4 and SRIV, also with the highest settings and no issues. I am currently playing Shadow of Mordor with the upgraded texture pack, with no issues. So maybe there are some problems I'm not aware of, or that other people are having, but I see no reason to upgrade now.
 
people pissed off at nvidia so they are returning their cards and buying... a more expensive nvidia card.

what?!

If my card goes back I am going back to my trusty 670 and seeing what the rest of the year brings with gpu announcements.

I am not rewarding them with another purchase at this time.
 
It's going to be very interesting how the mid range GPU market looks in the summer when I upgrade my 7850. It would be nice to see more competition and a noticeable drop in overall prices.
 

b0bbyJ03

Member
There are exceptions for every rule, and I'm sure to some people this whole thing will have a bigger impact (mostly SLI users), but overall I believe most of the refund intentions are knee jerk reactions.



Aside from the fact that upgrading a 780 to a 970 doesn't strike me as a smart move (all due respect, you do what you want with your money) if you are looking for future proofing, if you are right and in the next two years we will see "a ton of games that push well over 3.5 GB requirements for Ultra textures", then ops, I guess suddenly the 980 will have a problem too. Like I said, 4 GB isn't a magic number, and if a "ton of games" will push well over 3.5 you can bet that a lot of them will push over 4 GB too. See how it goes? Suddenly the 980 isn't future proofed either. I mean, if some games are already pushing 980's 4 GB to it's limits, like some people are saying, every PC gamer should start getting worried right about now.

I guess I'm just saying that if you guys think you won't have any future proof with the 970, then the same can be said about a 4 GB 970 and even a 980, speaking in terms of VRAM. The difference just isn't big enough to put one in the "not future proofed" category and the other in the "future proofed" category.

First off, I sold my card for exactly the same amount the 970 cost me. since it was a galaxy HOF edition i was able to get good money for it. so I don't see what is not smart about that considering I did not lose anything but time. Im not kidding when i say that I only paid for shipping on the new card. I went through the trouble of putting it on ebay and being without a card for a few weeks while i waited for the new one. also, my other card had no coil whine, and the new one does. Either way, none of this really matters because at the end of the day its all about principle. relashionships are based of trust no? just cause your girlfriend is great in bed doesn't mean your just gonna say "well its ok that she lied to me about seeing another dude, she still treats me great and performs just as good as she did last week" would you? I'm sure some would, but I'm not one of them.
 

heringer

Member
First off, I sold my card for exactly the same amount the 970 since it was a galaxy HOF edition i was able to get good money for it. I not kidding when i say that I only paid for shipping on the new card. Either way, I went through the trouble of putting it on ebay and being without a card for a few weeks while i waited for the new one. also, my other card had no coil whine, and the new one does. Either way, none of this really matters because at the end of the day its all about principle. relashionships are based of trust no? just cause your girlfriend is great in bed doesn't mean your just gonna say "well its ok that she lied to me about seeing another dude, she still treats me the great and performs just as good as she did last week" would you? I'm sure some would, but I'm not one of them.

Well, there you go. I did say in my original post that I totally understand if you are doing it out of principle.

People who ask for a refund and then proceed to buy a 980 probably aren't doing it out of principle though.
 
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