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

jwilliamson47 · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:00

Gibbo said:
It's the game not the cards, it run like a sack of spuds on most cards, seems very hit and miss, some people with no issues and others it's like a slide show.

Yeah, I'm not relying on that for my testing

Trying a few others games around the 3000-4000mb quota. The amount of crappy AAA ports we get on PC now is so infuriating.

Kaapstad · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:01

Gibbo said:
Yes OcUK and Caseking are happy to give refunds, most competitors are still refusing however from user comments about competitors on NVIDIA forums.

How are the 8gb Sapphire 290Xs selling at the moment.

colinmcr · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:03

Gibbo said:
Yes OcUK and Caseking are happy to give refunds, most competitors are still refusing however from user comments about competitors on NVIDIA forums.

Thanks Gibbo, as I bought two back on 19th Sept from yourselves. How long do I have to return them as I'm currently abroad and won't be back in UK until 20th Feb?

JediFragger · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:05

colinmcr said:
Thanks Gibbo, as I bought two back on 19th Sept from yourselves. How long do I have to return them as I'm currently abroad and won't be back in UK until 20th Feb?

You'll have till the end of Feb m8

colinmcr · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:06

ok maybe I better post something to customer service thread then.

Gibbo · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:07

Kaapstad said:
How are the 8gb Sapphire 290Xs selling at the moment.

Nearly all gone!

I am trying to get a killer deal on 8GB 290X, awaiting feedback next week, but would be nice to hit £299 on the 8GB 290X, so will see what Monday brings.

Kelt · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:09

Have to say, I think Gibbo, OCUK and Caseking have gone above and beyond their call of duty in this matter. Very well done.

jwilliamson47 · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:09

Gibbo said:
Nearly all gone!

I am trying to get a killer deal on 8GB 290X, awaiting feedback next week, but would be nice to hit £299 on the 8GB 290X, so will see what Monday brings.

Oh now I'm really interested in that

JediFragger · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:10

Gibbo said:
Nearly all gone!

I am trying to get a killer deal on 8GB 290X, awaiting feedback next week, but would be nice to hit £299 on the 8GB 290X, so will see what Monday brings.

TGReaper · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:13

I bet AMD wish they had something to release right now they would make a killing. Personally I am gutted about the whole situation but top marks to OCUK for the best customer service on the web!

Kaapstad · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:13

jwilliamson47 said:
Oh now I'm really interested in that

290Xs are really nice cards and very solid reliable and fast @2160p.

colinmcr · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:14

Kelt said:
Have to say, I think Gibbo, OCUK and Caseking have gone above and beyond their call of duty in this matter. Very well done.

Agree with you there mate, great stuff from OcUK team. The only time I've not ordered was because I was saving on postage, but its actions like this over the Nvida cards makes me rethink the couple of quid I save in postage.

jwilliamson47 · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:15

Kaapstad said:
290Xs are really nice cards and very solid reliable and fast @2160p.

Yep, if I return my 970s, (going to do a lot of tests this weekend) then I'll probably go for the 290x 8gb in crossfire. I considered the 295x2 but it's not really 8GB VRAM

Kaapstad · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:16

TGReaper said:
I bet AMD wish they had something to release right now they would make a killing. Personally I am gutted about the whole situation but top marks to OCUK for the best customer service on the web!

They already have it

The 290X is the fastest card @4k but does not get the credit it deserves.

Legend · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:17

Gibbo said:
Nearly all gone!

I am trying to get a killer deal on 8GB 290X, awaiting feedback next week, but would be nice to hit £299 on the 8GB 290X, so will see what Monday brings.

How does it genuinely compare to the 970 though, @ 1440p+ going forwards? You are still singing the 970's praises (and it is by no means a bad card I agree), so is the 290X actually a good option, really? I've been told you need x2 of them to actually get the benefit of 8GB, but my PSU/case wouldn't like that. Plus lots of moaning about excess heat. I never recall reading a review of the 970 that said the 290X was even worth considering as an alternative, but now suddenly they seem to be in favour?! Is it a knee jerk reaction?

JediFragger · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:22

The 290X didn't stop being a great card because the 970/980's were released, they're still a great option tbh (esp the 8GB variants)

:cool:

Gibbo · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:25

Legend said:
How does it genuinely compare to the 970 though, @ 1440p+ going forwards? You are still singing the 970's praises (and it is by no means a bad card I agree), so is the 290X actually a good option, really? I've been told you need x2 of them to actually get the benefit of 8GB, but my PSU/case wouldn't like that. Plus lots of moaning about excess heat. I never recall reading a review of the 970 that said the 290X was even worth considering as an alternative, but now suddenly they seem to be in favour?! Is it a knee jerk reaction?

As previously said 970 is super but not recommended for 4k.

290X 8GB is a very viable solution for 4k, especially 2-3 of them, enough GPU horsepower and you won't run out of memory, any resolution below won't be an issue.

970 does not have enough memory for 4k or horsepower and even though the 980 is better it's still going to run out of memory at 4k resolution, maybe even 1440P in some games.

At 1440P or lower single card the 970 is faster gaming card and cost less, the 290X might edge it in a few games but on the whole the 970 is ahead.

But higher resolutions enjoy the 290X 512-bit bandwidth and 8GB memory.

Kaapstad · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:25

Legend said:
How does it genuinely compare to the 970 though, @ 1440p+ going forwards? You are still singing the 970's praises (and it is by no means a bad card I agree), so is the 290X actually a good option, really? I've been told you need x2 of them to actually get the benefit of 8GB, but my PSU/case wouldn't like that. Plus lots of moaning about excess heat. I never recall reading a review of the 970 that said the 290X was even worth considering as an alternative, but now suddenly they seem to be in favour?! Is it a knee jerk reaction?

290Xs do produce more heat than a 970 but providing you have good air flow it is not a problem.

If you think you are running out of memory on a 970, then with an 8gb 290X there is no chance of this happening again.

To get the most out of an 8gb 290X @2160p you need 2 or more yes but from what I can make out this is not the problem 970 owners are unhappy about.

8gb is fantastic for future proofing too as I think that most next gen cards won't even have that much memory.

Gibbo · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:28

Kaapstad said:
290Xs do produce more heat than a 970 but providing you have good air flow it is not a problem.

If you think you are running out of memory on a 970, then with an 8gb 290X there is no chance of this happening again.

To get the most out of an 8gb 290X @2160p you need 2 or more yes but from what I can make out this is not the problem 970 owners are unhappy about.

8gb is fantastic for future proofing too as I think that most next gen cards won't even have that much memory.

If I was building a dream PC it would have three 290X 8GB in it with a 3440x1440 monitor, nuff said, enough horsepower and enough VRAM to never run out.

But remember this AMD crossfire works far better on X79/X99 platform as it's silky smooth, but on Z97 it can suffer from stutter, something Freesync might remedy though.

jwilliamson47 · 30 Jan 2015 at 21:29

Gibbo said:
If I was building a dream PC it would have three 290X 8GB in it with a 3440x1440 monitor, nuff said, enough horsepower and enough VRAM to never run out.

But remember this AMD crossfire works far better on X79/X99 platform as it's silky smooth, but on Z97 it can suffer from stutter, something Freesync might remedy though.

Glad I'm not paying your electricity bill