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970's having performance issues using 4GB Vram - Nvidia investigating

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Soldato
Joined
14 Oct 2003
Posts
13,431
Location
South Derbyshire
On the box it says 4GB/256bit data bus.... which is not quite correct. Any normal user would read that as being a full 256bit data bus over the whole 4GB and that's why the product is mislabeled. Even the advert on the ocuk page said 256bit bus... not the true bus information.

Been saying this for a while and no one seems to get it.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Jan 2009
Posts
6,416
nVidia said they were going to make special drivers to fix this issue, but then retracted that statement. That's pants, they should do something to help. They need to take a leaf out of OCUK's book.
 
OcUK Staff
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
38,231
Location
OcUK HQ
Hi there


I now have a final update on all brands:

YES BRANDS! (Supporting OcUK)

OcUK Brand: We support these ourselves as customer is king.
KFA2 (Formerly Galax): Supporting OcUK to keep our cost minimal.
Inno3D: Supporting OcUK to keep our cost minimal.
EVGA: Supporting OcUK to keep our cost minimal and offering step up for customers contacting them directly.
Asus: No decision but their support in past has being legendary so we are confident they will have our backs.
Zotac: Looking into it but want to support but need final decision to come form big boss, looking good though!
Palit: Now supporting OcUK with our returns! :)
MSI: MSI are covering OcUK for all our returns! :)

NO BRANDS! (Refusing to support as still waiting for a decision)

- Gigabyte: Will not accept returns yet, but have not come to a final decision. As such OcUK shall still take them back and cover all the cost ourselves should Gigabyte decide not to support.




I am really hopeful the NO brands decisions next week will be to support us and I am sure they will as Gigabyte are a great company.

In short OcUK will now accept returns on all brands should you be unhappy with your purchase, the window for returning a 970 is between now and end of February.

I must inform customers that 970 performance is absolutely mind blowing and is the best all round performance card sub £300, the only faster single GPU card is the 980, but cost a lot more and the extra performance does not justify the extra cost. This makes the 970 still the performance bargain at sub £300! The stuttering some customers are experiencing, some customers are not experiencing or are also experiencing on other GPU's, so this does mean that issues some are experiencing are simply down to drivers/system configuration, so do try different drivers and updates first. Then some games simply run poor on all GPU platforms. So please bear in mind as 970 is the card everyone was raving about only a week ago, nothing has changed, it is still the same awesome product it was previously and still is. But if you are truly unhappy then please contact OcUK returns in regards to your 970 purchase (all brands).

Here are some performance stats:

• There is no issue with the 970 product, this is by design from NVIDIA in the 970 GPU
• There is a $220 delta in the price of the 970 vs. the 980
• There is only a 3% performance delta of the 970 vs. the 980
• If Direct Customer has an irate customer that wants to return the board, let the customer return it.

In order to try and assist further we have included some performance data below so that you can see actual testing results between the GTX 970 and the GTX 980.

Shadows of Mordor: GTX 980 GTX970
<3.5GB settings: 2688x1512 Very High 72FPS 60FPS
>3.5GB settings: 3456x1944 Very High 55FPS (24%) 45FPS (-25%)
Relative performance difference: 1%

Battlefield 4:
<3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 2xMSAA 36FS 30FPS
>3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 135% res. 19FPS (-47%) 15FPS (-50%)
Relative performance difference: 3%

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare:
<3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 FSMAA T2x, SS off 82FPS 71FPS
>3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 FSMAA T2x, SS on 48FPS (-41%) 40FPS (-44%)

As you can see above the relative performance difference varies from 1% in Shadows of Mordor, to 3% in Battlefield 4 or Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The performance differences between a 970 and 980 in the above examples remain a constant 15-19%, regardless of memory usage.

I hope that the above information helps clarify the performance from the GTX 970.

OcUK & Caseking believes customer is King!

OcUK believes the customer is king and this is why we are offering this to ONLY our customers on all brands even though some of the brands have not yet made decisions.

I hope this will go a long way in securing in peoples minds that OcUK has changed since several years ago when it comes to customer service and now we truly are the best in the industry and without a doubt the Kings of graphics card. We offer the largest range, we have the most exclusives and our prices are competitive if not the best. You then get so much more with OcUK also, these forums with staff around the clock monitoring and helping out and our legendary customer service.

We are not a faceless company and the customer truly is King in our opinion!

Have a great weekend and those who are 100% returning cards please don't all ring or email at once and give it some real thought if an RMA is what you really wish to do because as I say this issue is blown hugely out of proportion, the 970 is still simply epic and will remain the great card it is.

Over and out!

H'onwards
H'upwards


Gibbo


P.S. To make it clear OcUK & Caseking will accept all brands back if you truly are unhappy, our companies are the best in customer service throughout UK/Europe, we are no.1 !!!! :)

P.S.2 To return a card you must contact RMA department first and then post the card back to us or bring it in person, but you must obtain an RMA first!
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
13 Feb 2004
Posts
5,240
Location
Sealed in my Sarcophagus.
Been saying this for a while and no one seems to get it.

Exactly.... if the facts HAD been put out it would have influenced wether i got the 970 or the 980... i could easily afford either BUT i decided i didnt need the extra grunt just needed the 4GB. I am planning on going to a bigger monitor and SLI next year so for me it DOES matter what i have for now.

Had i known the true specs i would have gotten a 980Msi knowing i had the 4GB full speed for the next couple of years. Now all this has happened i am really considering getting a refund ( if that is what ocuk will do for us MSI owners ) and wating for the new AMD lineup and getting something with 8GB as it seems in the past few months games are getting even more greedy. I have an HD7770 in a box i can live with for a while :eek:

EDIT. Just posted as gibbo posted.... ocuk yet again win for customer service... THATS why we buy from you guys! XX
 
Associate
Joined
22 Oct 2012
Posts
1,413
Location
The Moon
And you know that for a fact because you work for nvidia or a board partner?

I do not, but I am a hardware reviewer, and spoke to various retailers, customers and seen Nvidia's response on forums, twitter and other public media. Apart from OCUK, most retailers are just dismissing the issue and you will not get a refund. If Nvidia were taking an active role to fund any of this, do you think Gibbo would have to push the vendors this hard?
 
Associate
Joined
21 Nov 2014
Posts
417
Location
Newcastle Upon Tyne
I would be very very surprised, given the number of retailers and board partners who are stepping in to accept returns, if nvidia are doing absolutely nothing for their part in supporting this.

*snip*.


It is very possible NVidia are doing something behind the scenes to help out, but quite frankly they no longer deserve the benefit of the doubt. Plus it would be far too good a PR opportunity to turn down if they were.

A statement of 'we don't believe in refunds for these cards, BUT if a retailer makes their own decision on this we will help support them'

That way they are sticking to the party line, making a commitment that could mean anything from financial support to sending Gibbo a bunch of flowers and gaining some confidence back from consumers.

So no, without proof it’s very easy for me to believe NVidia are doing the sum total of nothing.
 
Associate
Joined
25 Jan 2012
Posts
295
Hi there


I now have a final update on all brands:

NO BRANDS! (Refusing to support or make a decision this week)

- Gigabyte: Will not accept returns, but have not come to a final decision. As such OcUK shall still take them back and cover all the cost ourselves.
- MSI: Want to still think about it and decide next week. OcUK is fed up of waiting and as such will take back cards now and we shall cover the cost ourselves.


Gibbo

Oh giga & msi :mad:

Looks like Galax and EVGA from now on
 
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Soldato
Joined
28 Oct 2011
Posts
8,405
Can't say fairer than that from OCUK. Well done. Contemptible behavior from Nvidia and some partners. Basically 'We've conned you, but we don't care'.If only they hadn't mis-sold 970's in the first place and cheaped out on .5 of a GB of VRAM...so much greed and contempt for their customers.

Was it really worth it?

I don't think so.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
22 Oct 2012
Posts
1,413
Location
The Moon
Hi there


I now have a final update on all brands:

YES BRANDS! (Supporting OcUK)

OcUK Brand: We support these ourselves as customer is king.
KFA2 (Formerly Galax): Supporting OcUK to keep our cost minimal.
Inno3D: Supporting OcUK to keep our cost minimal.
EVGA: Supporting OcUK to keep our cost minimal and offering step up for customers contacting them directly.
Asus: No decision but their support in past has being legendary so we are confident they will have our backs.
Zotac: Looking into it but want to support but need final decision to come form big boss, looking good though!
Palit: Now supporting OcUK with our returns! :)
MSI: MSI are covering OcUK for all our returns! :)

NO BRANDS! (Refusing to support as still waiting for a decision)

- Gigabyte: Will not accept returns yet, but have not come to a final decision. As such OcUK shall still take them back and cover all the cost ourselves should Gigabyte decide not to support.




I am really hopeful the NO brands decisions next week will be to support us and I am sure they will as Gigabyte are a great company.

In short OcUK will now accept returns on all brands should you be unhappy with your purchase, the window for returning a 970 is between now and end of February.

I must inform customers that 970 performance is absolutely mind blowing and is the best all round performance card sub £300, the only faster single GPU card is the 980, but cost a lot more and the extra performance does not justify the extra cost. This makes the 970 still the performance bargain at sub £300! The stuttering some customers are experiencing, some customers are not experiencing or are also experiencing on other GPU's, so this does mean that issues some are experiencing are simply down to drivers/system configuration, so do try different drivers and updates first. Then some games simply run poor on all GPU platforms. So please bear in mind as 970 is the card everyone was raving about only a week ago, nothing has changed, it is still the same awesome product it was previously and still is. But if you are truly unhappy then please contact OcUK returns in regards to your 970 purchase (all brands).

Here are some performance stats:
BUT guys before just saying here have your money back you should be talking the customer through the following to try and prevent the refund in the first place:
• There is no issue with the 970 product, this is by design from NVIDIA in the 970 GPU
• There is a $220 delta in the price of the 970 vs. the 980
• There is only a 3% performance delta of the 970 vs. the 980
• If Direct Customer has an irate customer that wants to return the board, let the customer return it.

In order to try and assist further we have included some performance data below so that you can see actual testing results between the GTX 970 and the GTX 980.

Shadows of Mordor: GTX 980 GTX970
<3.5GB settings: 2688x1512 Very High 72FPS 60FPS
>3.5GB settings: 3456x1944 Very High 55FPS (24%) 45FPS (-25%)
Relative performance difference: 1%

Battlefield 4:
<3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 2xMSAA 36FS 30FPS
>3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 135% res. 19FPS (-47%) 15FPS (-50%)
Relative performance difference: 3%

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare:
<3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 FSMAA T2x, SS off 82FPS 71FPS
>3.5GB settings: 3840x2160 FSMAA T2x, SS on 48FPS (-41%) 40FPS (-44%)

As you can see above the relative performance difference varies from 1% in Shadows of Mordor, to 3% in Battlefield 4 or Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The performance differences between a 970 and 980 in the above examples remain a constant 15-19%, regardless of memory usage.

I hope that the above information helps clarify the performance from the GTX 970. Please let us know if you do want to continue with a step-up on your product for the higher performing GTX 980 card, and we'll get that option opened up for you.


OcUK & Caseking believes customer is King!

OcUK believes the customer is king and this is why we are offering this to ONLY our customers on all brands even though some of the brands have not yet made decisions.

I hope this will go a long way in securing in peoples minds that OcUK has changed since several years ago when it comes to customer service and now we truly are the best in the industry and without a doubt the Kings of graphics card. We offer the largest range, we have the most exclusives and our prices are competitive if not the best. You then get so much more with OcUK also, these forums with staff around the clock monitoring and helping out and our legendary customer service.

We are not a faceless company and the customer truly is King in our opinion!

Have a great weekend and those who are 100% returning cards please don't all ring or email at once and give it some real thought if an RMA is what you really wish to do because as I say this issue is blown hugely out of proportion, the 970 is still simply epic and will remain the great card it is.

Over and out!

H'onwards
H'upwards


Gibbo


P.S. To make it clear OcUK & Caseking will accept all brands back if you truly are unhappy, our companies are the best in customer service throughout UK/Europe, we are no.1 !!!! :)

P.S.2 To return a card you must contact RMA department first and then post the card back to us or bring it in person, but you must obtain an RMA first!

Kudos Gibbo, lots of respect for you and OCUK there.
 
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Soldato
Joined
7 Oct 2003
Posts
5,686
Location
Nottingham
I've been living in a cave and only just heard about this last night! I've skimmed through this huge thread and get the general gist.

While I've not noticed any problems gaming on my MSI 970 at 1080p I'm not happy about the card being inherently gimped and had I have known this at time of purchase no way would I have touched it. I plan on a new higher resolution monitor in the future and who knows what demands games will make further down the line. I'm guessing second hand value on these will plummet as well, so when it comes to upgrading you won't get much back :(

I came from a 7970 and will probably return the 970 in favour of another AMD card but what about the bundled games that came with these cards, does this effect the return?
 
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