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

[ICEx21]

I just did a google search for Drangon Age Inquisition and seems you are not alone. nVidia and AMD having stuttering issues and memory leaks with Mantle. I would look to the game bud. I do feel at times that we can be swayed to thinking it is something and we look to that to solve it.

What happens when you set everything to low in the settings?

Gregster I've still got my 290 and testing that out with Dragon Age I can definitely confirm it's not the game.

At the same settings there's absolutely no stuttering with a single 290 on DX and mantle where as if I go to the exact same area with the same settings on a single 970 I get stuttering that's very very noticeable, I've tested this out with the other 970 as well just in case it was 1 card being faulty.
Anyway it was the same result an absolute Stutterfest.

 

[Gregster]

If the card can handle all the shaders but running the textures a notch up causes issues...

Then what as that'll be related to this BS memory issue and not the core running out of puff.

I don't have a crystal ball but if the game can handle the shaders (whatever that means) but running the textures up a notch causes issues... Don't notch up the textures then? Who said you have to have the settings maxed out in every game?

 

[Squink]

But as I said B4, once your cards starts to struggle you turn settings down or upgrade.

So let's say you bought a 4gb card that you thought had 4gb of full speed memory. But in fact the card only has 3.5gb of fast memory and in certain circumstances it can choke when a game goes past 3.5gb usage. Now let's also consider a situation in 12 months time where a game comes out that you've been waiting to play for ages. It's got the best graphics you've ever seen. You load it up, set all the sliders to "ultra" and because this causes it to go to 3.7gb and stutters constantly you think it's fair for the person who thought they were buying a card with an unadulterated 4gb VRAM to have to turn the settings down or buy a new card? You really think that's an acceptable outcome?

 

[LambChop]

People who buy dedicated graphic cards are the same who research these kind of things, so the majority of 970s owners should now be aware.

I would actually be surprised if Nvidia isn't forced to accept the cards back, this situation is false advertising 101.
I bought the cards for The Witcher 3, If I had known it had "only" 3.5gb I would have probably got two 980s, which would've been even better for Nvidia...

The 970 doesnt have 3.5GB

 

[Gregster]

Gregster I've still got my 290 and testing that out with Dragon Age I can definitely confirm it's not the game.

At the same settings there's absolutely no stuttering with a single 290 on DX and mantle where as if I go to the exact same area with the same settings on a single 970 I get stuttering that's very very noticeable, I've tested this out with the other 970 as well just in case it was 1 card being faulty.
Anyway it was the same result an absolute Stutterfest.

Badly optimised for nVidia? The memory isn't being read correctly on the 970s in this particular game and needs patching in at driver level from nVidia? Sorry bud, I don't know but if it plays well on the 290, I would look to nVidia as the fault in this particular game.

 

[eyetrip]

I just did a google search for Drangon Age Inquisition and seems you are not alone. nVidia and AMD having stuttering issues and memory leaks with Mantle. I would look to the game bud. I do feel at times that we can be swayed to thinking it is something and we look to that to solve it.

What happens when you set everything to low in the settings?

Look to the game - can't be because of the memory config....

Obviously, if I drop the settings enough, I can get it acceptable.

 

[The Running Man]

The 970 doesnt have 3.5GB

It has 3.5gb effective and 512mb non 3ffective cache in essence

 

[LambChop]

It has 3.5gb effective and 512mb non 3ffective cache in essence

So it has 4GB then

 

[alex_123_fra]

What about the senior IT buyer at a company who's on the verge of buying 5000 cards? Who might be wavering between nvidia or AMD cards and might just be put off by issues like this appearing? After all, if a company can lie to everyone about 1 card, perhaps there are issues with other cards as well.

NVidia relies on its reputation to pump out cards with a markup over AMD's offerings. You can't buy back your reputation easily when word gets out that you're flogging a product that isn't as advertised.

Senior IT buyers who might utilise the cards? Not really going to happen, not at those volumes. They'd buy titans or quadro/firepro cards for serious work. If you are talking about retailers buying volume? This will not make even the slightest dent. Nvidia sells well and will continue to do so and laugh (at us) going forward. Things like this are simply minor bumps.

People who buy dedicated graphic cards are the same who research these kind of things, so the majority of 970s owners should now be aware.

I would actually be surprised if Nvidia isn't forced to accept the cards back, this situation is false advertising 101.
I bought the cards for The Witcher 3, If I had known it had "only" 3.5gb I would have probably got two 980s, which would've been even better for Nvidia...

Like I said, I'd be pleasantly surprised if they had to refund people. The risk for them in terms of their overall business is low. Most people who use computers with dedicated graphics are not most people who own GTX970s or who look at/research forum boards. Most people buy ready made systems and just use them to game, work etc. They won't care about this and it won't even be on their radar (especially if all the stuff they do on their PCs works - which it will do as they are mostly on 1080p or 1440p).

 

[Gregster]

So let's say you bought a 4gb card that you thought had 4gb of full speed memory. But in fact the card only has 3.5gb of fast memory and in certain circumstances it can choke when a game goes past 3.5gb usage. Now let's also consider a situation in 12 months time where a game comes out that you've been waiting to play for ages. It's got the best graphics you've ever seen. You load it up, set all the sliders to "ultra" and because this causes it to go to 3.7gb and stutters constantly you think it's fair for the person who thought they were buying a card with an unadulterated 4gb VRAM to have to turn the settings down or buy a new card? You really think that's an acceptable outcome?

Or wait for nVidia to patch it into the drivers? Many games get released nowadays that have issues galore and require patches/drivers. Your scenario is no different.

 

[The Running Man]

So it has 4GB then

It has 4gb but it cant access all 4gb at the same speed or at the same time if that's what yoi mean, yes

 

[P0tenc]

Just got a mail back from MSI:

"Hi Christo,

You would need to RMA to your place of purchase if you wish to return the card. This would be the resellers decision.​

Kind Regards,

Tom."

Looks like MSI don't want to take responsibility, understandably so. Responsibility should rest squarely on Nvidias shoulders. I will see what the retailer says. But if no one takes responsibility things are getting serious!

 

[The Running Man]

A nice analogy is this.

you buy a car with a v6 engine. Except the engine can only ever run as a V5 or a v1 and never as a v6 and when it runs as a v1 it gets lumpy and as a v5 never delivers the numbers it should as a v6?

 

[P0tenc]

Gregster I've still got my 290 and testing that out with Dragon Age I can definitely confirm it's not the game.

At the same settings there's absolutely no stuttering with a single 290 on DX and mantle where as if I go to the exact same area with the same settings on a single 970 I get stuttering that's very very noticeable, I've tested this out with the other 970 as well just in case it was 1 card being faulty.
Anyway it was the same result an absolute Stutterfest.

This could be a case of Nvidia heuristics failing. This should be expected as it can never be 100% accurate, or it could simply be something else.

 

[snips86x]

A nice analogy is this.

you buy a car with a v6 engine. Except the engine can only ever run as a V5 or a v1 and never as a v6 and when it runs as a v1 it gets lumpy and as a v5 never delivers the numbers it should as a v6?

haha - I guess that's one way of looking at is

False advertisement will get them into trouble, they've got some making up to do!

 

[Squink]

Senior IT buyers who might utilise the cards? Not really going to happen, not at those volumes. They'd buy titans or quadro/firepro cards for serious work. If you are talking about retailers buying volume? This will not make even the slightest dent. Nvidia sells well and will continue to do so and laugh (at us) going forward. Things like this are simply minor bumps.

I'm not necessarily referring to people putting gaming 970s in office machines, but the knock-on effect across the range as nVidia's reputation is damaged. This IS getting widely reported across what is admittedly niche news outlets. While I agree that it won't be more than a minor bump, you might still find that heads roll if year on year growth drops from say 8pc to 4pc or generally fails to meet expectations.

 

[ICEx21]

This could be a case of Nvidia heuristics failing. This should be expected as it can never be 100% accurate, or it could simply be something else.

But the fact it's only happening once it goes over a certain amount of VRAM (not even maxing it out) surely points out that's where the cause lies?
Not just in this game but SoM and BF4 for me as well and as buggy as they are FC 3 after testing yesterday and FC4 along with Ass Creed.

 

[LambChop]

I would be extremely surprised if the people up in arms about this actually have any of the issues described in the 1 or 2 games mentioned previously or actually even own the games. Also as a side note, its about time developers start to optimize their games better and not think.... oh, 4/8gb vram, lets use the lot. Also the 5.5gb on the ps4 has a lot to answer for, console ports issue anyone ?

 

[Gregster]

I'm not necessarily referring to people putting gaming 970s in office machines, but the knock-on effect across the range as nVidia's reputation is damaged. This IS getting widely reported across what is admittedly niche news outlets. While I agree that it won't be more than a minor bump, you might still find that heads roll if year on year growth drops from say 8pc to 4pc or generally fails to meet expectations.

Just out of curiosity, what card do you own?

 

[ICEx21]

I would be extremely surprised if the people up in arms about this actually have any of the issues described in the 1 or 2 games mentioned previously or actually even own the games. Also as a side note, its about time developers start to optimize their games better and not think.... oh, 4/8gb vram, lets use the lot. Also the 5.5gb on the ps4 has a lot to answer for, console ports issue anyone ?

I'm not sure if you're referring to me but I do own said games and I can assure you I've been having these issues before this thread had even started (I've posted about it a few times in other threads on this forum).

Totally agree with you on the developers bit though.