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

kitch9 · 23 Jan 2015 at 11:38

EDIT BY GIBBO: OcUK & Caseking Decision, read post 5028!!
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=27557332&postcount=5028

http://www.overclock.net/t/1535502/gtx-970s-can-only-use-3-5gb-of-4gb-vram-issue/170#post_23443729

Hmm, this looks concerning. It appears performance of the 970 nosedives inexplicably when using over 3.5gb of VRam (Bandwidth drops to 20GB/s!) and causes major performance issues.

I was just about to pull the trigger on two, might give it a while to see how this pans out.

opethdisciple · 23 Jan 2015 at 11:41

In the Nvidia control panel my 970 reports as 4096MB on 64bit Win 8.1.

kitch9 · 23 Jan 2015 at 11:46

opethdisciple said:
In the Nvidia control panel my 970 reports as 4096MB on 64bit Win 8.1.

Yes it will. This is not an amount problem but a speed problem above 3.5gb.

Allegedly, I don't have one to run the tests that are being run.

opethdisciple · 23 Jan 2015 at 11:49

kitch9 said:
Yes it will. This is not an amount problem but a speed problem above 3.5gb.

Allegedly, I don't have one to run the tests that are being run.

Has this actually been recognised by Nvidia yet or is it just here say?

Stanners · 23 Jan 2015 at 11:51

Yes they are looking into it.

(Apparently)

LoadsaMoney · 23 Jan 2015 at 11:52

Theres a big thread on their official forums about this too.

Think this is the one :- https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/781982/geforce-drivers/nvidia-geforce-gtx-900-series-feedback-gathering-low-gpu-load-and-other-issues-/1/

tommybhoy · 23 Jan 2015 at 12:09

kitch9 said:
Hmm, this looks concerning.

You are a brave laddie, could have posted this a few weeks back, but it would have been deemed a cardinal sin.

LoadsaMoney said:
Theres a big thread on their official forums about this too.

Think this is the one :- https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/781982/geforce-drivers/nvidia-geforce-gtx-900-series-feedback-gathering-low-gpu-load-and-other-issues-/1/

Hopefully the Nvidia forum won't be hacked

and Nvidia don't go full stealth mode on the matter.

Lets hope the 970 can get back to maintaining it's performance advantage over the 290 again when they fix it.

eyetrip · 23 Jan 2015 at 12:17

Was thinking of buying a third, but guess better hold off.

Sounds like could be hardware? Was hoping could be easily fixed in driver...

skaif · 23 Jan 2015 at 12:42

Does this affect all 970's??

snips86x · 23 Jan 2015 at 12:45

skaif said:
Does this affect all 970's??

yes!

Makes me glad I've not bought on yet, but still no need to replace my 290 yet!

roozor · 23 Jan 2015 at 12:48

This is not cool. Just ran that NAI test and mine starts to lower the bandwith at 3.2gb

and it's basically dead at 3.6gb

Legend · 23 Jan 2015 at 12:51

I see a mass lawsuit in the making. How can they advertise and sell a 4GB GPU if it isn't utilising that?? This is the definition of a false claim, and 12.5% (at least) drop in claimed memory performance. That's terrible!

VincentHanna · 23 Jan 2015 at 12:51

Doesn't affect the 980?

shankly1985 · 23 Jan 2015 at 12:51

Not good at all.. Bad drivers again from Nvidia or is this Hardware issue?

PayneUK · 23 Jan 2015 at 12:57

I do wonder what the implications would be if this was a hardware issue, depending on the problem if this card cannot fulfill its feature set...

Would the card having but being unable to use 4gb of memory be considered being miss-sold or 'not as advertised'. I mean the memory is a pretty important feature, you would assume that if it states a maximum memory it would be able to use it*.

* to a satisfactory level over 3.5gb.

David Bisset · 23 Jan 2015 at 13:02

VincentHanna said:
Doesn't affect the 980?

Looks like the 980 is fine - makes it worse for the 970 in some ways as it suggests the testing method isn't inherently broken, making it more likely an actual problem with the 970.

snips86x · 23 Jan 2015 at 13:04

Legend said:
I see a mass lawsuit in the making. How can they advertise and sell a 4GB GPU if it isn't utilising that?? This is the definition of a false claim, and 12.5% (at least) drop in claimed memory performance. That's terrible!

Yes!

Wonder if they kept it quiet hoping that no game would use that amount of VRAM.....until Watch Dogs was released of course

shankly1985 said:
Not good at all.. Bad drivers again from Nvidia or is this Hardware issue?

Apparently its hardware not driver related!

shankly1985 · 23 Jan 2015 at 13:09

snips86x said:
Yes!

Wonder if they kept it quiet hoping that no game would use that amount of VRAM.....until Watch Dogs was released of course

Apparently its hardware not driver related!

That would be false advertising then would it not..

snips86x · 23 Jan 2015 at 13:12

shankly1985 said:
That would be false advertising then would it not..

Of course it would be but that doesn't stop them from keeping it hush!

flopper · 23 Jan 2015 at 13:13

are the investigating the Nvidia whining err coil whine 970 also?