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

[ED209]

If you are serious about getting a refund and getting no joy, and you paid with either debit card or credit card you can ignore retailer and go directly to your card provider.

I've successfully done this in the past with a debit card (First Direct) but you have to remember card chargebacks are not enshrined in law and are down to the card provider.

WHICH INFO CHARGEBACK

However anything over £100 on Credit Card is subject to Section 75 rules and you are protected by law:

WHICH INFO SECTION 75

i paid via paypal, would i still be able to do anything like that?

 

[Twirlywoos]

Was that supposed to be helpful?

It was

But yeah, was using phone (3g connection ) and getting the relevant quotes and links is too much of a pita on android.

 

[OldFatherTime]

i paid via paypal, would i still be able to do anything like that?

Yes! Even easier.

Paypal Buyer Protection

If an eligible item that you’ve bought online doesn’t arrive, or doesn’t match the seller’s description, our Buyer Protection will reimburse you for the full amount of the item plus postage and packaging costs. Buyer Protection covers all your online purchases, on eBay or on any other website, when you use PayPal.

 

[Jinjur_v2]

There's 1, maybe 2, some games tested are a mess on any card, but its convenient to blame it on the 970, infact my toaster this morning wouldnt hold the bread down, I should text my mate and blame that on his 970 too.

THAT

Is irrelevant.

Nobody is looking for a cash-cow here.....I don't understand your angle bud.

This might not affect everyone now......but it could in the future if we stick with the hardware.

I know you don't really care with your lush, shiney 980 setup.....i am happy for you. but there are some here who are not affected by performance but by the fact that they bought something that was not as advertised that has both the potential to affect them going forwards and will most certainly affect the resale value.

So, what's the problem with that?

if I refund my card......I don't know what i would replace it with, honestly......and I wouldn't be gaming on the back of that for a while...no drama......but I do enjoy my gaming.....its the only reason my rig was built....nothing else on it, just games.

Yes, the 970 was amazing when I bought it and still plays games how I want on my current setup....but if the specs affect me 4K/SLI'ing going forwards due to this incorrect reporting of card configuration.....then yes, I will be returning it....reluctantly with no replacement that whet's my appetite.....but i will.

So, how do I benefit from that?

J

 

[Locky]

It is a 256 card, but because the ram is chopped up your 3.5 is 224 and the rest is 32, so... lol.

Yes I see. But IMO still only a 224bit card at best as the rest is a waste of time and unusable.

 

[Rangerjr1]

THAT

Is irrelevant.

Nobody is looking for a cash-cow here.....I don't understand your angle bud.

This might not affect everyone now......but it could in the future if we stick with the hardware.

I know you don't really care with your lush, shiney 980 setup.....i am happy for you. but there are some here who are not affected by performance but by the fact that they bought something that was not as advertised that has both the potential to affect them going forwards and will most certainly affect the resale value.

So, what's the problem with that?

if I refund my card......I don't know what i would replace it with, honestly......and I wouldn't be gaming on the back of that for a while...no drama......but I do enjoy my gaming.....its the only reason my rig was built....nothing else on it, just games.

Yes, the 970 was amazing when I bought it and still plays games how I want on my current setup....but if the specs affect me 4K/SLI'ing going forwards due to this incorrect reporting of card configuration.....then yes, I will be returning it....reluctantly with no replacement that whet's my appetite.....but i will.

So, how do I benefit from that?

J

Get secondhand 780s or 290s, same performance at 1080 (unless the 970 run out of RAM) and higher performance in more demanding situations

 

[Rangerjr1]

Yes I see. But IMO still only a 224bit card at best as the rest is a waste of time and unusable.

Couldnt agree more.

 

[Jinjur_v2]

Get secondhand 780s or 290s, same performance at 1080 (unless the 970 run out of RAM) and higher performance in more demanding situations

I know bud....I will prolly have to make that call.

I DID try (TRY!) and play BF4 using onboard........I will never recover from that.

 

[ChrisD.]

This is hilarious.

970 last year applauded for being an amazing card. Most 'which GPU' threads were answered with 970.

Now people who have no clue want refunds, even if not many at all notice any issues.

 

[AtreuS]

This is hilarious.

970 last year applauded for being an amazing card. Most 'which GPU' threads were answered with 970.

Now people who have no clue want refunds, even if not many at all notice any issues.

We will next year when games want the full 4gb for max settings.

You seem to be happy to be sold something under false pretense.. many dont.

 

[Jinjur_v2]

This is hilarious.

970 last year applauded for being an amazing card. Most 'which GPU' threads were answered with 970.

Now people who have no clue want refunds, even if not many at all notice any issues.

How hilarious?

How no clue?

 

[Twirlywoos]

Well, I have gone and bought 3 x 290x 8gb cards.

Will keep watching this though, as I would like to be able to return my 970's for refund.

I didn't want to get 290s, but I wasn't giving Nvidia more money for a 980, and I just want my system up and running. I have so little time for gaming, I want to just have my system set up and ready, not having to worry about chaning things for the next 1.5+ years.

The 380 is out in March, I know if we wait for every imminent gpu release we'll be stalling upgrading forever but the 380 looks mighty good.

 

[ChrisD.]

We will next year when games want the full 4gb for max settings.

You seem to be happy to be sold something under false pretense.. many dont.

Who said I have a 970?

I have two 290X's. You know, those terrible cards, the ones where people said the 970 would be a better choice.

 

[OldFatherTime]

This is hilarious.

970 last year applauded for being an amazing card. Most 'which GPU' threads were answered with 970.

Now people who have no clue want refunds, even if not many at all notice any issues.

Ha Ha, yeah man everyone's laughing. It's really funny. Just can't stop giggling.

 

[Rangerjr1]

This is hilarious.

970 last year applauded for being an amazing card. Most 'which GPU' threads were answered with 970.

Now people who have no clue want refunds, even if not many at all notice any issues.

People have said that they have noticed stuttering before all this, and yet the which gpu threads were all answered with 970. Just goes to show that the 970 used to have (USED TO) a die hard crew of fanboys that wouldnt even admit to them selves that the card had flaws, so much for "we care about performance not specs and numbers" am I right? . Its not like the issues just came a long with this thread.

We know nothing? Enlighten us pal, share your superior knowledge with us.

 

[~>Dg<~]

Can someone answer the question of how many games this affects now? And does this affect games at 1920*1080 resolution, or do most games only use 3.5GB+ of VRAM above that?

you'll be fine at 1080

 

[ChrisD.]

People have said that they have noticed stuttering before all this, and yet the which gpu threads were all answered with 970. Just goes it show that the 970 used to have (USED TO) a die hard crew of fanboys that wouldnt even admit to them selves that the card had flaws, so much for "we care about performance not specs and numbers" am I right? . Its not like the issues just came a long with this thread.

We know nothing? Enlighten us pal, share your superior knowledge with us.

That's what I'm talking about. The fact that a few die hard fan boys can really end up selling a (now seen to be sub standard) product over arguably better products.

Most of the PR for these companies is free, on boards such as this. Now it's back firing, as bad press seems to hit home harder.

 

[SS-89]

Who said I have a 970?

I have two 290X's. You know, those terrible cards, the ones where people said the 970 would be a better choice.

The jokes on me, I went from Tri-fire 290x's to a single 980 to SLI 970's.

I wish I could go back in time to a point where I had either of the previous setups. I struggle to enjoy playing any of my games at 1440p+ due to the frame dropping and stutter. I never even contemplated VRAM being the issue when Afterburner showed less than 4gb usage.

Best case, Nvidia right their mistake and offer an step up/refund through retailers. Or I'm stuck with it and just have to take the hit when I sell and move on to another card.

 

[MOOGLEYS]

Dying light on my 970 with 4770k stutters and drops under 30fps at 1080p max settings. On my 980m laptop it is smoother and rarely drops under 40fps. The 980M indicates up to 4Gb V-ram usage. The 970 does not go above 3.6gb indicated.

The desktop 970 should perform as well as the 980M if not better. Something is not right with the 970 tbh...

 

[Baboonanza]

Not sure if this is posted already but TechPowerUp have a good explanation of what's going on in the 970:

The L2 cache itself is segmented, and isn't a monolithic slab of SRAM. Each of the eight memory controllers on the GM204 is ideally tied to its segment of the L2 cache. Also tied to these segments are segments of ROPs. With NVIDIA reducing the L2 cache amount by disabling one such segment. Its component memory controller is instead rerouted to the cache segment of a neighbouring memory controller. Access to the crossbar for that memory controller is hence slower. To make sure there are no issues caused to the interleaving of these memory controllers, adding up to the big memory amount figure that the driver can address, NVIDIA partitioned the 4 GB of memory to two segments. The first is 3.5 GB large, and is made up of memory controllers with access to their own segments of the L2; the second segment is 512 MB in size, and is tied to that memory controller which is rerouted.

The way this partitioning works, is that the 3.5 GB partition can't be read while the 512 MB one is being read. Only to an app that's actively using the entire 4 GB of memory, there will be a drop in performance, because the two segments aren't being read at the same time. The GPU is either addressing the 3.5 GB segment, or the 512 MB one. Hence, there's a drop in performance to be expected, again, for apps that use up the entire 4 GB of memory.

http://www.techpowerup.com/209339/gtx-970-memory-drama-plot-thickens-nvidia-has-to-revise-specs.html

So basically using the last half GB of RAM is slower if the other 3.5GB is being accessed at the same time (and vice-versa) due to their slightly odd decision to disbale part of the L2 cache. Also Nvidia have knowingly or unknowingly published incorrect specs.