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

[PayneUK]

No more or less than I expected from the first statement on this topic from NVidia, my main concern is that if they genuinely feel there is no issue then they are most likely not going to try and fix anything.

If we’re lucky this is just them trying to buy a bit of time to look into it further, work on a resolution and resolve whatever issue may be there.

At the end of the day no matter how many tests are done it ultimately come's down to NVidia saying definitively one way or another. From my experience and what I’ve read so far I feel there is an issue, what I don’t know yet is what I’m going to do or how long I’m going to wait to base my decision on NVidia.

 

[Legend]

Or users could be trying to run a game/settings that needs more than 4gb which would make a 980 perform badly as well.

More testing needs to be done in a more scientific way than it has been done so far.

I thought, and correct me if I'm wrong, but those people could see it was using north of 3.5 but less than 4? I know some of the legit benchmarks showed that anyway. Of course more testing and analysis is required, but for now I'm not buying Nvidia's response. It's like they're saying "no problem here folks, move along"... yet I don't think we'd have a 23-page thread about this if 970 users had encountered zero "performance ramifications." Time will tell how this plays out, but it feels a bit like a runaway train at the moment.

 

[triss]

I am on the verge of calling 'Nvidia plant' to anyone who takes this line of rhetoric... it's such a ridiculous thing to say, and TOTALLY beside the point.

What would be ridiculous would be trying to put others with a differing option to your own in a certain camp .

People can have many different reasons for what they think, doesnt make them right/wrong or in a certain camp

 

[Legend]

What would be ridiculous would be trying to put others with a differing option to your own in a certain camp .

People can have many different reasons for what they think, doesnt make them right/wrong or in a certain camp

It's not an opinion... it makes no difference if Nvidia "told no lies"... of course they didn't. But if ANY product doesn't perform as it should, regardless of cause, that is the fault of the manufacturer, and in such cases you are entitled to a refund or repair of said product. This applies to microwaves, cars, phones, and anything else you care to mention. The 'honesty' of the manufacturer does not come in to it... although it could obviously only make matters worse if dishonesty was involved.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I was having a play through on Battlefield 4 last night, everything on ultra with frame rates hovering between 80-120. With everything running silky smooth and temps in the high 60s, a question niggled at me... What exactly is the "problem" with these cards!

Seriously, if you were to fill in the RMA form right now, what would you put on it as the reason for return?

 

[Mei]

It's not an opinion... it makes no difference if Nvidia "told no lies"... of course they didn't. But if ANY product doesn't perform as it should, regardless of cause, that is the fault of the manufacturer, and in such cases you are entitled to a refund or repair of said product. This applies to microwaves, cars, phones, and anything else you care to mention. The 'honesty' of the manufacturer does not come in to it... although it could obviously only make matters worse if dishonesty was involved.

well nvidia are saying its part of the design not a fault and it only has a negative impact of about 3% compared to the 980 design
PCP are backing them up on that as far as i see, saying its a cost saving measure but understandable, which isnt great if people are having bigger problems

its up to them users to prove they have bigger problems i guess!

 

[james.miller]

I don't think we'd have a 23-page thread about this if 970 users had encountered zero "performance ramifications." Time will tell how this plays out, but it feels a bit like a runaway train at the moment.

Really Legend? and what has your contribution been to this 23 pages then? and of these 23 pages, how many people have managed to replicate these issues in gaming?

 

[whyscotty]

Or users could be trying to run a game/settings that needs more than 4gb which would make a 980 perform badly as well.
.

^^^
This

 

[Kronos]

What are would like to know is, is the consensus that it is OK to spend 300 quid on a the 970 and not be concerned about this issue?

 

[snips86x]

What are would like to know is, is the consensus that it is OK to spend 300 quid on a the 970 and not be concerned about this issue?

I would personally wait to see what happens.

 

[zpaf]

Now I can understand the difference.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/call_of_duty_advanced_warfare_vga_graphics_performance_benchmark_review,7.html

 

[Squink]

I'm reminded of when Apple released the iphone4. There was a little join on the side of the body and if you held the phone there while making a call the signal dropped off. It was easy to replicate and was widely reported at the time.

I don't recall Apple ever admitting liability, though they did go so far as to suggest people were holding the phone incorrectly. In the end they allowed all iphone4 purchasers to claim a free rubber bumper (rrp £25, cost to manufacture about 30p) to cover up the offending area that they denied existed in the first place.

So if there's corporate consistency, expect a series of denials from nvidia, followed by suggestions for users to turn the settings down, followed by a free game for all 970 purchasers along the lines of Jet Set Willy remastered, the original MS DOS Day of the Tentacle or Quake 1.

Then the nvidia proponents of the board will resurface, claiming there was never a problem in the first place but praising their response to unfounded rumours and accusations and attempting to undermine the complainers for trying to bamboozle a big cuddly company nvidia like a country bumpkin at a fayre.

 

[The Running Man]

The way i read nvidia reply is yes they segment the ram due to the last 500mb being slower.

it can be used and they hope it's not completely detrimental to gaming performance but you don't get the full bandwidth for all 4gb due to them cutting off smx's.

If you did they would have no need to segment.

 

[Silent_Scone]

There isn't even that much of a performance difference to be fair. If a 970 can run AC:U with DSR at UHD resolutions with Ultra settings then I would go as far as saying it's almost a complete non issue.

Doesn't help people are looking at 980 performance, seeing the 970 is performing below ground there and putting 2+2 together and getting 6. Why they've neglected to divulge this information and choose this config is another matter though. Cost primarily I would think on available chips.

 

[Buckster]

The way i read nvidia reply is yes they segment the ram due to the last 500mb being slower.

it can be used and they hope it's not completely detrimental to gaming performance but you don't get the full bandwidth for all 4gb due to them cutting off smx's.

If you did they would have no need to segment.

what do the specs say though - 4gb @ 224gb/second ?

not sure where the formal specs for the 970 are

 

[Mei]

yes its cost
the same reason they use smaller bus than AMD and use compression instead
they get a big boner on profit margins

 

[ICDP]

Dear oh dear, AMD R9 290X throttle problems = Nvidia fans on a rampage about AMD and shoddy quality. It is priceless to see the same folk on here defending Nvidia's quality control and corner cutting.

I wasn't happy when AMD cut corners with that horrible reference cooler on the R9 290/X cards. I would not be happy if I bought a GTX970 only to find Nvidia cut some corners "because it only affects some games".

 

[james.miller]

How would you have done it, ICDP?

 

[Rangerjr1]

Dear oh dear, AMD R9 290X throttle problems = Nvidia fans on a rampage about AMD and shoddy quality. It is priceless to see the same folk on here defending Nvidia's quality control and corner cutting.

I wasn't happy when AMD cut corners with that horrible reference cooler on the R9 290/X cards. I would not be happy if I bought a GTX970 only to find Nvidia cut some corners "because it only affects some games".

It is not a PROBLEM, its a FEATURE. Go into the driver, and you can specify at which point (be it temps or fan noise) it should throttle. Its USER DEFINED. Any other regarding MSIAB is because of MSIAB, not AMD.

.....................

 

[ICDP]

It is not a PROBLEM, its a FEATURE. Go into the driver, and you can specify at which point (be it temps or fan noise) it should throttle. Its USER DEFINED. Any other regarding MSIAB is because of MSIAB, not AMD.

.....................

I'm referring to the fact that some throttled far more than others, even when tested in the same PC. Or what about the black screen of death due to poor VRAM in quite a number of R9 290/X.

Regardless we are going off topic. This is more about how hypocritical some people can be.