Considering Rick is fairly restricted as to what he can say I think he should be commended for coming on the forum.
I agree that the performance is the same as at launch but that's not exactly the issue.
Regardless, Nvidia has acknowledged they've made a mistake (these things happen) and hopefully they can come up with some sort of proposal (Refund / Exchange for another card without loss / games?) for disatisfied 970 owners.
If errors happen we need to understand why and make sure it does not happen again.
From the Nvidia website
"Frame Capture Analysis Tool (FCAT)
GPU performance is often calculated by running benchmark games and recording the average Frames Per Second (FPS) using FRAPS or a similar tool. Unfortunately, many significant performance implications can be missed by using this traditional method. What we have found is that the data reported by FRAPs does not match what you see on screen and feel in the game so, in 2011, NVIDIA engineers began work on a way to examine GPU performance in far greater detail.
These efforts resulted in the Frame Capture Analysis Tool, referred to as FCAT for short. Measuring performance as it’s delivered on a monitor, FCAT identifies dropped frames, runt frames, micro-stuttering, and other problems that reduce the visible smoothness of the action on-screen, even when running at sixty frames per second and above as reported by FRAPS. This in-depth examination of performance has enabled us to fine-tune our graphics hardware while in development, resulting in a GeForce® GTX 600 Series of graphics cards, powered by NVIDIA Kepler™ architecture, that produces a smoother gaming experience than any previous NVIDIA GPU.
To show you FCAT and to explain its inner workings, Tom Petersen, FCAT’s creator, put together the following video that cuts through the technical jargon to detail the real-world benefits of FCAT for PC gamers:"
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/fcat/technology
They have the knowledge Tom Petersen created the FCAT software they can easily test and confirm issues from users. Using under 3.5GB VRAM and 3.5GB+ but less than 4GB.
It's cherry picking clearly to cover any legal costs.
Nvidias 3% is based off this I guess ?
GPU performance is often calculated by running benchmark games and recording the average Frames Per Second (FPS) using FRAPS or a similar tool. Unfortunately, many significant performance implications can be missed ?????????