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

[james.miller]

What do you want us to say? We run 3.5-4GB RAM usage without the problems that 970 owners describe, when you have 60FPS it looks like FPS because the frametimes arent garbage. The only thing you gotta watch out for (which im ****ing sick of hearing about btw) is the TDP. Besides, if it was me... Id rather deal with a slightly hotter card than a card that cant run 1080p let alone 1440 lol

games that run poorly on a 970 will run poorly on a 290x. its not suddenly some useless card at 1080p - the the 970's are still faster and no, nobody cares about the overclock on your card when its so far out of the norm.

The exception is, of course, sli. but we know that; the point is stop trying to tell people the 970 is suddenly a useless card when it's not. not even close.

 

[Rangerjr1]

games that run poorly on a 970 will run poorly on a 290x. its not suddenly some useless card at 1080p - the the 970's are still faster and no, nobody cares about the overclock on your card when its so far out of the norm.

The exception is, of course, sli. but we know that; the point is stop trying to tell people the 970 is suddenly a useless card when it's not. not even close.

So you're saying that im having 970-ish issues in Arma 3 as well

 

[Kipz]

Whats any opinion on the Zotac Amp! 980? Im going to watercool it so will it have headroom to push it?

 

[Bailey]

Guys

I have had a ton of requests for this already so to anyone querying it here is the info:

On our system if an item is over 28 days old when creating an RMA we only have the option to select a "replacement"

When the RMA is created a note is made in the details to refund it so please do NOT worry.

All my returns staff know this and all RMA's will be processed as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Cheers

Bailey

 

[The Running Man]

Oh, I was just going with this:

"On GTX 980, Shadows of Mordor drops about 24% on GTX 980 and 25% on GTX 970, a 1% difference. On Battlefield 4, the drop is 47% on GTX 980 and 50% on GTX 970, a 3% difference. On CoD: AW, the drop is 41% on GTX 980 and 44% on GTX 970, a 3% difference. As you can see, there is very little change in the performance of the GTX 970 relative to GTX 980 on these games when it is using the 0.5GB segment.”

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/why-nvidias-gtx-970-slows-down-using-more-than-35gb-vram/

You are mis interpreting the info. The chart is designed to show a uniformity in performance reduction of the 980 vs the 970 not that they perform the same..

The real story on those charts is that the 980 is 20% faster than a 970 @ <3.5gb, on average and is between 21-24% faster when using more than 3.5gb.

 

[Rykane]

Is there any word on when the MSI 980 (non-reference cooler) cards will be in stock again?

 

[Gibbo]

Guys

I have had a ton of requests for this already so to anyone querying it here is the info:

On our system if an item is over 28 days old when creating an RMA we only have the option to select a "replacement"

When the RMA is created a note is made in the details to refund it so please do NOT worry.

All my returns staff know this and all RMA's will be processed as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Cheers

Bailey

 

[Gibbo]

Is there any word on when the MSI 980 (non-reference cooler) cards will be in stock again?

1-2 weeks.

 

[Dash RipRock]

Oh, I was just going with this:

"On GTX 980, Shadows of Mordor drops about 24% on GTX 980 and 25% on GTX 970, a 1% difference. On Battlefield 4, the drop is 47% on GTX 980 and 50% on GTX 970, a 3% difference. On CoD: AW, the drop is 41% on GTX 980 and 44% on GTX 970, a 3% difference. As you can see, there is very little change in the performance of the GTX 970 relative to GTX 980 on these games when it is using the 0.5GB segment.”

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/why-nvidias-gtx-970-slows-down-using-more-than-35gb-vram/

Its talking about how much more additionally the performance drops,so if we assume that the 980 is 15% quicker in a given game and we increase settings to use more than 3.5 gb of vram the 980 will lose a certain percentage of performance and the 970 will lose 1 to 3% MORE than the 980 would (so basically between 16-18% slower after changing settings).

Of course thats if you believe nvidias results BUT the framerates arent the problem....its the frame timings and resultant stutter that is the issue.

 

[Bonjour]

The irony is, it was Nvidia that educated us as to how we should focus more on frame timings rather than raw FPS.

Now they churn out a load of raw a FPS figures to try and quel concerns around stutter on one of their cards.

 

[SS-89]

Guys

I have had a ton of requests for this already so to anyone querying it here is the info:

On our system if an item is over 28 days old when creating an RMA we only have the option to select a "replacement"

When the RMA is created a note is made in the details to refund it so please do NOT worry.

All my returns staff know this and all RMA's will be processed as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Cheers

Bailey

Will vouch for this I took the long drive up to the shop early this morning and the refund couldn't have been any simpler for my gigabyte g1 970s.

Thanks bailey and Gibbo top service! Now to get my cards installed.

 

[nacho_man1]

Regardless of overall performance i am looking to and have ordered the 980 version. I am sure my 970 has the fan issue. Either way i know i am getting a better card and a card that i know will be working the way as advertised .. well unless someone finds something about 980s

 

[humbug]

games that run poorly on a 970 will run poorly on a 290x. its not suddenly some useless card at 1080p - the the 970's are still faster and no, nobody cares about the overclock on your card when its so far out of the norm.

The exception is, of course, sli. but we know that; the point is stop trying to tell people the 970 is suddenly a useless card when it's not. not even close.

Not really, the 970's run fine unless they actually need that extra 0.5GB of buffer. The 290's will run the buffer full and still be smooth.

i received my 290x lightening edition from ocuk today

i took out my 970s and put this single card in, fully maxed out all the settings at 1440p

guess what? the game is much smoother on my single 290x, no flickering, no stuttering, no random 3 sec slow mo freezes and then back to full speed. then i checked the memory usage and it was around 3700-3800, so this is probs why my 970s were tanking

dont get me wrong im not getting a solid 60fps more like 30-40 but the game is so much more enjoyable

i will test it on a single 970 as well to see if it was an sli problem but so far this 290x feels very nice

Nvidia and their PR partners are in full damage control mode, you can't ignore what users are experiencing not matter how much Nvidia and their PR machine deny there is a problem when that 0.5GB needs to be used.

 

[Rykane]

1-2 weeks.

OK thanks Gibbo, I was about to buy one but seems they just went out of stock.

 

[james.miller]

Not really, the 970's run fine unless they actually need that extra 0.5GB of buffer. The 290's will run the buffer full and still be smooth.

the only evidence, if you can call it that, of that happening on single cards so far are some frame time results running games at 11fps......

its just not the issue on a single card that it is on sli.

 

[Dash RipRock]

The irony is, it was Nvidia that educated us as to how we should focus more on frame timings rather than raw FPS.

Now they churn out a load of raw a FPS figures to try and quel concerns around stutter on one of their cards.

Yep i suppose this could be the most perfect description of "irony" one could possibly hope to find ,must admit i do tend to prefer nvidia cards but its hard to defend them on this.Not the end of the world but i too find it very difficult to accept that they "forgot" to inform people of this split memory.

 

[Gibbo]

OK thanks Gibbo, I was about to buy one but seems they just went out of stock.

It's a good card but my money would be on a reference card and you'd have some change too. Other great cards are the Asus Strix and KFA also!

 

[humbug]

the only evidence, if you can call it that, of that happening on single cards so far are some frame time results running games at 11fps......

its just not the issue on a single card that it is on sli.

Even if it is only on SLI, it still makes it a 3.5GB card unless you don't mind it stuttering and hitching.

The 290's do not do that.

 

[james.miller]

Even if it is only on SLI, it still makes it a 3.5GB card unless you don't mind it stuttering and hitching.

The 290's do not do that.

sorry but that wasnt the discussion. we're talking about the card being useless for 1080p - it isnt.

 

[Flakey]

Quick question, for anyone that knows the answer.

In terms of warranty, after the first year who covers Asus cards? (year 2 and 3)
I've narrowed down my future 980 choice to either: KFA2 SOC, MSI gaming or Asus strix.
(AMD is not an option due to the heat it dumps out sadly).

I've heard a lot of nice things about the Strix but their lack of responsiveness for warranty bugs me. (Touch would you never need to use it though!).

Thanks in advance.