Well all brands are effected since the problem is either nvidia drivers or the GPU core. Those are the same for everyone regardless of the GPU brand.
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GeForce GTX 970s seem to have an issue using all 4GB of VRAM, Nvidia looking into it
- Thread starter Naked Snake
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Well all brands are effected since the problem is either nvidia drivers or the GPU core. Those are the same for everyone regardless of the GPU brand.
Not yet but I see the original response from nVidia is from 12th Jan 2015.
Any really reliable way to test this?
I tried playing Mordor again just now after beating it with 30+ hours playtime and no major issues. It feels...the same. I get the occasional hitch but they feel like the odd stutter that Ive come to expect in open world titles when an area has to load real quick.
I maintain 60FPS until one of these quick, half second stutters drops me down to 54FPS but it shoots right back up and remains stable again. MSI AB shows my VRAM usage being 3500MB+ pretty regularly as well.
I tried playing Mordor again just now after beating it with 30+ hours playtime and no major issues. It feels...the same. I get the occasional hitch but they feel like the odd stutter that Ive come to expect in open world titles when an area has to load real quick.
I maintain 60FPS until one of these quick, half second stutters drops me down to 54FPS but it shoots right back up and remains stable again. MSI AB shows my VRAM usage being 3500MB+ pretty regularly as well.
Wicked Sushi
Neo Member
What card would you all suggest purchasing, if not a GTX 970? I was all ready to buy one within the next few weeks, so I can play Evolve and GTAV, but now I'm discouraged. Anyone else planned getting this card and maybe looked at other alternatives? I'm not particularly up-to-date on GPUs.
So far I've had two NVIDIA graphics cards and while they worked excellent when I got them, I got sort of screwed by both. 8800GT got shot while playing Team Fortress 2, while my current 560Ti has to run on a year old drivers because new ones are too glitchy. Glad I saw this thread!
So far I've had two NVIDIA graphics cards and while they worked excellent when I got them, I got sort of screwed by both. 8800GT got shot while playing Team Fortress 2, while my current 560Ti has to run on a year old drivers because new ones are too glitchy. Glad I saw this thread!
Kelli Lemondrop
Banned
i reccomend an AMD R9 290, you can find them for $240 - 250 (assuming US),they perform 10% worse than the GTX970, at a significant cost savings, it handles every game ive thrown at it on max settings @ 1080p no problem, best value for the dollar in gaming right now.
longdi
Banned
custom R9 290? They are very bang for bucks now.
While it uses more power but they are quiet. Hit up some overclock and they will fine.
Coilwhine isn't an issue with Nvidia. It's an issue with the vendor of the card. Cheap or expensive cards can get coilwhine, it's not something you can 100% prevent from happening.
The only reason I bought an GTX 970, was for GTAV. Observing the reqs, I see the game looks optimized, but the VRAM will help with hella mods. I own the MSI GTX 970 4G, and it's by far the best $350 I've spent. I easily hit +60 fps on all games(some without AA like AC:Unity, and Watch Dogs). It's the best bang for the buck!
jowell24
Member
Had a similar result to you, only my stuttering occurs at 8x MSAA
Unity on everything max settings but shadows (low) and AA (FXAA), uses just up to 3.6GB VRAM which yields around 60fps for me.
However when I set the AA straight from FXAA to 8x MSAA the VRAM hits max usage at 4GB and my frame rate tanks to ~10 fps. So basically unplayable.
I exited to desktop and reloaded the game once more, only this time I started with FXAA and moved up the anti aliasing in steps of 2x, 4x and finally 8x MSAA. As per usual 60 fps with FXAA, and then;
43fps with 2x MSAA (3.6GB VRAM)
30fps with 4x MSAA (3.6GB VRAM)
23fps with 8x MSAA (4.0GB VRAM)
Card maintained ~98% GPU load during the changing of anti-aliasing settings.
Odd that my card acted differently under these two circumstances.
MSI GTX970 4G Twin Frozr with 347.25 WHQL drivers installed
Wicked Sushi
Neo Member
Thanks to you both! I haven't heard of the card before, will definitely have to look into it more. The price is tempting and 10% performance difference doesn't sound too much.
I probably won't play in 4k for a few years and it's rare that I install mods, but I am concerned about 3.5GB VRAM not being future proof enough. Minimum 60FPS at 1920x1080 is the most important thing for me. If it turns out a driver update can relatively fix this issue or they release a new version of the card, might just grab one after all.
Buy a 970.
EVGA allows customers to step up 970's to a 980 via an upgrade program if done within 90 days of purchase. The customer pays the difference. It's a cool program.
Teletraan1
Banned
Glad I am holding out for 5.5GB cards.
Naked Snake
Member
I see what you did there.
This is an option I've been thinking about using if this mess doesn't get sorted out.
My card is running great and I haven't had any problems but just that I paid for a 4 gig card and I'm not getting one bothers me.
Catrollinginthewind
Banned
I ordered a 970 because i'm using a GTX 275 on with a 4790k and need an upgrade before Metal Gear Solid 5 is coming out. Looks like i'm going to be returning this card. Lol, at people think Nvidia is actually looking into this when this shit was on paper when the card was being made. Looking into it actually means what bullshit lie they can come up with.
Luftwaffle
Neo Member
I have an MSI GTX 970 and I tested using the same method some people tested on that Reddit thread, using that Space Engine game. Anyway after a while my VRAM usage did go up to 4 GB. I also tried playing Shadow of Mordor with Ultra textures but it capped out at around 3500 mb, same with Far Cry 4.
Catrollinginthewind
Banned
The 980 does not have this problem.
I just bought a 970 FTW+ last week. I'll wait a while to see how things shake out, but I may end up doing this. It's a hell of a card, otherwise. =/
the 980 seems to be good. no issues reported.
i've had a chance to break in the 970 and man, is it ever a nice upgrade. it's too bad that there's this issue with the card. i've tried to push it as hard as i can, but without using any special tool i haven't been able to get it to crack ~3300MB for any more than a second or so. the absolute max it popped up to was 3538 as reported in MSI Afterburner and it immediately dropped back down. i have a week to take a back no questions asked, so we'll see what nvidia comes up with in that time. it's hard to imagine they're gonna stay mum on the topic, as big as it is, affecting one of their most hyped cards that i can think of since maybe the geforce 2 gts.
So everyone who bought the 970 is screwed? The only game I've played with it that was demanding was Shadow of Modor and that game stutterd like crazy, but I just blamed the game and not the gpu. Another game I tried not too long ago was DMC3 super sampled to 4k and it also ran like total shit basically unplayable but again I blamed the game since it was a terrible port and not the gpu. The only reason I bought the 970 was because it was 4gb. I don't even want this card if it isn't, I bought this garbage in September and two to.
Gaz Pwnage
Member
I love my 970, it is an absolute monster but this is completely unacceptable.
So your card is able to hit the advertised 4GB VRAM like all GTX 980s can?
jfoul
Member
I'm handling this thing the same way. I got the EVGA FTW+ today to replace my Gigabyte G1, and I'll just step up to a 980 if need be. The FTW+ is an awesome card. It's better than the ASUS Strix and Gigabyte G1 I've owned.
You know, it's kinda funny, but after more than 500 posts I still don't exactly know what "this problem" is.
I think this topic is really interesting, and I admit that there's a nerd part of me that worries on the behalf of my 970. But, why are SOME people making so much drama over this when it appears there's a lot of theory, but not much anything else.
Is there a real world tangible game example/video out there yet?
For people who are considering not buying the 970:
I tested a lot of games and they really worked great on that card.
The 3,5gb assign problem did make any game unplayable or dropped from 60fps.
This is a problem, but unless you're doing extremely high resolutions on very demanding games (which is for a single card too much) than you're going to be fine with a 970.
But still, it's important that Nvidia reacts quickly and solve this problem.
I tested a lot of games and they really worked great on that card.
The 3,5gb assign problem did make any game unplayable or dropped from 60fps.
This is a problem, but unless you're doing extremely high resolutions on very demanding games (which is for a single card too much) than you're going to be fine with a 970.
But still, it's important that Nvidia reacts quickly and solve this problem.
I think perhaps you explained "the problem" to me. So; the card is using up to 3.5GB Ram just fine, and games somehow knows through the drivers they are not supposed to spend more, so in a normal scenario people won't notice anyway. But if you override this in some way, using the "borked" part of the Ram, games could potentially start to show signs of slow down?
This will not affect me in the slightest (I'm buying a new GPU for OR CV1 anyway), the GPU is exactly as fast as it was yesterday.
But I can understand that some people are concerned that they perhaps didn't exactly buy a 4GB card..
There are already games that run fine at 60fps with a single GTX 970, but also use 3.5GB+ of VRAM even at 1080p. Shadow of Mordor did that, Evolve does that.
yea the problem isn't so much if it affects you today necessarily but what the affect will be in a year or two from now when these cards are actually getting pushed to their limits regularly. i didn't spend 400CDN on a 3.xGB gfx card, i bought a 4GB card and expect to have that available.
that said, since i bought the card, i've been testing it extensively to try to duplicate this issue and i cannot. i don't know if it's a limitation of the software i'm using or my rig but i can, according to the MSI overclock tool reporting into Afterburner, load up the card to 3950+MB load and run the benchmarks (1080p, 8xAA) @ 50fps. there is some slight fluctuation between 49-55fps as the little logo rotates but nothing as dramatic as reported. i can't get far cry 4 to break the 3200~MB mark even at ultra+nvida special settings @ 1080p. unfortunately, i don't have shadow of mordor to test with but i'm going to try downsampling next to see if i can break the 3200MB barrier and then see what the effect is.
as far as i can tell, the only consistent reproduction of the issue has been that vram tester. is it possible that the tester itself is at fault? is there any other reproducable issue that can be tracked against most/all 970's? i would think the benchmarking mem load test would expose it, but not so much.
And I didn't experience anything in either of those two games.
well there IS 4GB of memory on the card. the issue is what happens when the last 5-700MB or so is used. it was first suggested that the bandwidth was being limited due to the fact that the 970's, by design, have less smm units that the big brother 980. whether or not that's true is up in the air still.
That's what I'm making out of all this. The RAM itself isn't borked though, it's that performance tanks when that part is being used. So it has something to do with the way it gets accessed. Maybe they cut out more than just a few SMM units.
i think you're being a little obtuse and unhelpful. when you're in game, does your card ever utilize more than 3.5GB? and if it does, does it suffer any performance degradation at that point?
I know, Evolve really did use the full potential of the card.
And stopped at 3,5GB.
But it still was 60fps stable on 1080p, Ultra settings and standard AA.
I really hate something like that expecially if this is the best bang for the buck card and this is really something Nvidia should be more open about it.
Lightning Count
Member
The new PC I just had built has a GTX970.
GTX 970 can use 4gb but the bandwith is so crap that performance tanks horribly.
I can push my VRAM usage to 4gb in Unity (max settings + 4xMSAA) but it runs at 8-15fps.
What's your point with regard to this thread?
PjotrStroganov
Member
Well, all I can do is wait for things to unravel. I hope for a recall or at least a hardware reissue that can be swapped under warranty.
motohellogoto
Neo Member
YianGaruga
Banned
I hope everyone gets a free 980 only because of the cheap "broken" 970s that will flood the market because of it. I need an upgrade.
elementalsin
Member
just did my step up to FTW+... now I'm concerned.. probably should have just gone to the 980 :/
Prophet Steve
Member
Yes people, all your GTX 970 purchases are completely shit now.
Jesus, I am not saying ignore the issue, it should be looked into. But it is still a very well performing card and I wouldn't have purchased any other one.
Jesus, I am not saying ignore the issue, it should be looked into. But it is still a very well performing card and I wouldn't have purchased any other one.
motohellogoto
Neo Member
The point is we all paid for a 4gb card and not a 3.5 gb one.
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