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

[Surveyor]

by then I will have my free delivery so will make it slightly cheaper getting my parts from OCUK

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[Vimes]

This is what I've been wondering myself. As you say, stuttering, inconsistencies, etc, "could" be down to other factors, system setup, drivers, different gpu manufacturer, old windows installation, etc, not just the 970 Vram issues. I reckon a 970 will struggle at 1440 regardless when compared to a full fat 4gb card, but that card (4gb) could also struggle a bit, its a question of how much, and how far you'd have to reduce the settings to get decent gameplay. Until people here who have side graded and gone for a 290x with 4gb, we won't know. I personally think that at 1080, the 970 is the best choice around atm when looking at bang for buck.

Depending on which AAA title that you play, and the settings etc applied, when I moved from a 1080p to finally the 1440p I have found that the 970 GTX copes really well.

I have a 970 & 980 here at the moment and just been comparing them and tbh I'm seeing very little difference at 1440p. Most of the time when the 970 gets a bit stutteey the 980 is as well. The 970 shows 3.5gb v-ram usuage in Mordor and the 980 is at 4Gb but it runs fine with both cards.

Tbh at 1440p or below unless you use monitoring tools and benchmarks I would say you would be hard pushed to tell them apart.

That is what I would hope that I would read. Thanks for posting.
When I am using Afterburner to show on-screen GPU memory usage does that mean if I had a 980GTX I could in the right circumstances show all 4GB of memory allocated against that of what I typically see as being around 3.5GB max for my GTX 970...?
A couple of posts up you can see in spolier tags the memory allocation of the GPU from a screengrab whilst playing Dying Light. Note also the 98% GPU usage.

 

[Legend]

Just don't know if I should grab an OCUK or Strix card now. Was wishing I would be able to grab a B-grade stock one with the standard warranty, shame.

If you're keeping it for the foreseeable future, best to buy new. I would say it's not worth the risk buying a B-grade, as if anything goes wrong after three months you have a VERY expensive paper weight. Monitors and GPUs are probably the riskiest things to buy B-Grade IMO.

 

[Rangerjr1]

Oh don't get me wrong, I have 2 970s and I'm 50/50 about sending them back since I've been experiencing horrible stuttering. Even with a recorded high fps, it doesn't feel smooth. I'm just waiting to see what 290x owners say, and try a few games out.

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

 

[pieman109]

I game on a GTX980 refernce on a G-Sync swift @1440p and don't see any issues.

Trouble is, thats a faster card with the full 4gb Vram available than a 970 with gimped vram, so a true comparison isn't really feasible.

 

[Rangerjr1]

I game on a GTX980 refernce on a G-Sync swift @1440p and don't see any issues.

Good for you, no one was expecting anything else with a 980.

 

[pieman109]

Depending on which AAA title that you play, and the settings etc applied, when I moved from a 1080p to finally the 1440p I have found that the 970 GTX copes really well.




That is what I would hope that I would read. Thanks for posting.
When I am using Afterburner to show on-screen GPU memory usage does that mean if I had a 980GTX I could in the right circumstances show all 4GB of memory allocated against that of what I typically see as being around 3.5GB max for my GTX 970...?
A couple of posts up you can see in spolier tags the memory allocation of the GPU from a screengrab whilst playing Dying Light. Note also the 98% GPU usage.

Some useful info there. As long as the 970 works fine at 1440, even if I have to drop a few settings to achieve decent gamplay, I'll be happy.

 

[SuperG]

but Nvidia do promote 4K and Dynamic Super Resolution as a 970 features, still do on their own websites and videos...

I think that's probably how people got the idea (informed or not) that the 970 is entering upon next-gen 4K gaming.

When my friend got his card, he nagged me to buy nothing else but the 970 because it was future-proof and be amazing with a 1440p monitor.

My hope is to finally be able to play a game on ultra settings (something I've never been able to do) on at least 1080p especially with the upcoming GTA V.

However it saddens me to see that people anticipate the 970 will not be adequate for Witcher 3 with similar settings.

 

[Mei]

Oh don't get me wrong, I have 2 970s and I'm 50/50 about sending them back since I've been experiencing horrible stuttering. Even with a recorded high fps, it doesn't feel smooth. I'm just waiting to see what 290x owners say, and try a few games out.

some of this stuff will be fixed by drivers but how long are ppl expected to wait, its like nvidia's own driver team didnt know about the split vram, which is bizarre

 

[Divine Pain]

Apologies if this has already been answered but whats going to happen to the returned cards?

Will they come back on sale as refurb units? I still think theyre good cards despite all thats happened.

 

[jwilliamson47]

Overclockers has a beautiful 4K Dell monitor overdue which might tempt me in the near future. Is 4k a big improvement from 1440p?

 

[Rangerjr1]

I think that's probably how people got the idea (informed or not) that the 970 is entering upon next-gen 4K gaming.

When my friend got his card, he nagged me to buy nothing else but the 970 because it was future-proof and be amazing with a 1440p monitor.

My hope is to finally be able to play a game on ultra settings (something I've never been able to do) on at least 1080p especially with the upcoming GTA V.

However it saddens me to see that people anticipate the 970 will not be adequate for Witcher 3 with similar settings.

So get a 980 or a 290x instead.

 

[SuperG]

So get a 980 or a 290x instead.

The 980 is so friggity fraggity expensive!! And, the performance is only 1-3% better. SLI is out of question since I just don't have that kind of money.

 

[Rangerjr1]

The 980 is so friggity fraggity expensive!!

Get the 290x then

 

[Surveyor]

Apologies if this has already been answered but whats going to happen to the returned cards?

Will they come back on sale as refurb units? I still think theyre good cards despite all thats happened.

I don't see it happening and why:

1. The cards performance and all the awards it won still stands. It's the same fantastic product everyone was raving about and recommending.
2. NVIDIA won't change the price so the new price will remain and they are still flying off the shelf.
3. It's still vastly cheaper than a 980 and is close in performance, less than 10% on average yet a 980 cost 50% more.
4. There will not be an influx in B-grade as OcUK has negotiated good support with it's partners to return the returned cards for brand new replacement or credits, OcUK only needs to cover customers shipping and it's own shipping cost and it's own brand cards. So any B-grade due to this will be small numbers and b-grade deductions will be inline with other B-grade items. If Gigabyte do decide not to look after OcUK then OcUK will foot the bill by making a loss on them in b-grade by selling them for around £230ish which would be typically b-grade price and the OcUK 970 will be around £250 in b-grade.
5. Other etailors still have their head in the sand and are refusing RMAs, only OcUK and Caseking have taken action of their own backs and put the customer first as we believe customer is king.


So the new price won't change and as such second hand prices also won't change, the card only becomes worth less if they cost less to buy new and the new price won't be changing.

 

[SuperG]

And, B-grade will only come with 90-day warranty.

 

[setter]

And, B-grade will only come with 90-day warranty.

Correct yes, as with any b grade product in ocuk's sales lines.

 

[jwilliamson47]

I don't know why people are dismissing the 290x, it's a fantastic card.

 

[Legend]

The 980 is so friggity fraggity expensive!! And, the performance is only 1-3% better. SLI is out of question since I just don't have that kind of money.

That's not true lol, if it was no one would ever buy a 980! It's more like 15-20%, but the price difference is 35% minimum (based on the two reference designs).

 

[SuperG]

That's not true lol, if it was no one would ever buy a 980! It's more like 15-20%, but the price difference is 35% minimum (based on the two reference designs).

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/