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

Vimes · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:28

Neil79 said:
Did you drop the item off at the post office?

Yeh my considering as well with the 290x 8GB, it looks to be slower than the 970 with just more ram, no point downgrading

Yeah just took it to the post office and got a receipt with tracking etc.

There are other reasons as to why I felt that the 290x was more of a side grade / downgrade over that of the 9980 cards. I would have enjoyed the experience overall more if AMD has something that I felt was worthy to consider.

Putting aside other peoples thoughts on "rewarding" NVidia by buying a 980 I just felt that if I was feeling compelled to change then at least I should be better off.!

Overclockers though refunded me promptly once they received my MSI 970 GTX.

Vimes · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:30

RavenXXX2 said:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1059?vs=1355

It's not slower and that's versus an overclocked 970.

lol you always quote that uber comparison - do I need to post that video again

lol

Here is the "std" 290x comparison.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1056?vs=1355

biuro74 · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:35

Very soon

Neil79 · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:35

Yeh think I'll buy a 980 GTX now, then when that arrives return the 970 GTX for a refund. Can't really be without my comp for a few days as I don't have a TV

RavenXXX2 · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:37

Vimes said:
lol you always quote that uber comparison - do I need to post that video again

lol

Here is the "std" 290x comparison.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1056?vs=1355

lol no one buys reference 290s these days so the "std" mode is irrelevant, with non-reference cooler keeping the 290 cooler and therefor it can maintain normal clocks and overlocks easily.

TheRealDeal · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:42

Vimes said:
lol you always quote that uber comparison - do I need to post that video again

lol

Here is the "std" 290x comparison.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1056?vs=1355

It's uber or go home tbh as normal mode barely has any relevance to people buying now.

Vimes · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:46

So Uber mode doesn't necessarily equate to greater noise etc, as that is what I read....?

Final8y · 9 Feb 2015 at 12:54

Vimes said:
For me a 290x 8GB I figured would run out of grunt before memory and unless I wanted to go x-Fire,.

While i think 8GB is a tad much for most users atm, 6GB would be just right, ideally you always want to run out of GPU grunt before you run out of VRAM.

Andy__C · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:01

Neil79 said:
Any recommendations in how to send the item back, courier service?

Hi Neil, if you use Parcel2go, it will organise parcel pick up from your home no different to a delivery.

It uses the usual couriers, YODEL, Hermes etc...

For the month of February, if you use the code "LABELFREE" your first order will be virtually free (£10 off, not inc tax).

Be sure to read all the options and pick the right one as some of the cheaper services are for collection points rather than door-2-door delivery.

I used it with this code on the weekend to send PC bits to my brother, seems to have worked out ok so far.

Vimes · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:01

Neil79 said:
Yeh think I'll buy a 980 GTX now, then when that arrives return the 970 GTX for a refund. Can't really be without my comp for a few days as I don't have a TV

That is what I did. Ordered the 980 for next day delivery and at the same time applied for the RMA on the 970.
The following day I swapped over the cards and then returned the 970 once the 980 showed that it was working fine with no coil whine etc.

Just to add the Andy__C and his excellent advice....

OCUK will refund your postage costs up to £12 and so the £11 option for the RM SD up to 1:00pm and £500 insurance seemed a no brainer as it was essentially free.

StrongSad · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:09

Neil79 said:
Yeh think I'll buy a 980 GTX now, then when that arrives return the 970 GTX for a refund. Can't really be without my comp for a few days as I don't have a TV

That is what I did. I applied for the RMA and once It was issued, I ordered my 980. When that arrived I swapped the cards and sent the 970 back to OCUK in box my 980 arrived in. So it was well packed in it's bubble stuff and I did not need to find a packing box.

Had the refund in my bank 3 days after the card was received back at OCUK

ubersonic · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:12

RavenXXX2 said:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1059?vs=1355

It's not slower and that's versus an overclocked 970.

Actually it's not overclocked, it's an EVGA FTW running a reference 970 BIOS.

Looking at those charts (using a 290X not a 290X uber, for fairness) I would say the 970 is a better choice for 1080p, the 290X is better for 4K and pretty much flip a coin at 1440p.

Neil79 · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:12

Grand thank you both

LackyT · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:21

I'm in a similar situation to many in this thread. I have SLI MSI 970's at 1440p. At the moment I'm tempted to RMA them while I can, but not sure I want to fork out for SLI 980's. I'm thinking just get one 980, and then maybe another later on? Or just go back to 1080p...

What have other people done?

samwise78 · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:31

LackyT said:
What have other people done?

RMA'd my 970 - bit of a knee-jerk reaction to all the VRAM FUD

Now I'm doing my best to wait for the new 390/X cards to drop - trying to resist a 980..

Tried the MSI 290X 8G, but just didn't get on with it so that went back too

Now trying to be patient and using 4790K onboard (!) :eek:

ED209 · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:32

LackyT said:
I'm in a similar situation to many in this thread. I have SLI MSI 970's at 1440p. At the moment I'm tempted to RMA them while I can, but not sure I want to fork out for SLI 980's. I'm thinking just get one 980, and then maybe another later on? Or just go back to 1080p...

What have other people done?

I am sending back my GTX 970 today\tomorrow time and I have gone back to my Radeon HD 5830 till AMD release their new cards.

that card does me on 1080p gaming for the time being with settings turned down as I don't have the extra £150 minimum for a GTX 980.

TheRealDeal · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:37

ubersonic said:
Actually it's not overclocked, it's an EVGA FTW running a reference 970 BIOS.

Looking at those charts (using a 290X not a 290X uber, for fairness) I would say the 970 is a better choice for 1080p, the 290X is better for 4K and pretty much flip a coin at 1440p.

So really the only fair comparison is uber mode or getting a 290x with a decent cooler as it would run 1000/1250 all day long. The last time i heard about uber and normal was back when the 290x released.

Vimes said:
So Uber mode doesn't necessarily equate to greater noise etc, as that is what I read....?

It up's the fan profile so yes increases noise which lets the card run at a constant 1000/1250 like every other card that does not have the reference cooler.

Electronic Punk · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:39

980 arrives tomorrow and I will then send back my 970.
Feel a little bad but really appreciate the transparency from OCUK.

ubersonic · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:41

TheRealDeal said:
The last time i heard about uber and normal was back when the 290x released.

My point was that comparing a reference 290X in uber mode performance to reference 970 performance is just the same as comparing a Tri-X or something to a reference 970, it skews it in favour of the 290X, it's better to compare the 290X in standard mode to the reference 970 performance, if you get me.

TheRealDeal · 9 Feb 2015 at 13:45

ubersonic said:
My point was that comparing a reference 290X in uber mode performance to reference 970 performance is just the same as comparing a Tri-X or something to a reference 970, it skews it in favour of the 290X, it's better to compare the 290X in standard mode to the reference 970 performance, if you get me.

Yea but the gtx970 has the Ftw cooler on it. Comparing a gtx970 with the ftw cooler against a throttling 290x in quiet mode is biased towards the gtx970. I have not heard of any throttling problems on a 290x where everything is working properly for a long time.