Thursday, January 29th 2015
Perfectly Functional GTX 970 Cards Being Returned Over Memory Controversy
In what is a major fallout of the GeForce GTX 970 memory allocation controversy, leading retailers in the EU are reporting returns of perfectly functional GTX 970 cards citing "false advertising." Heise.de reports that NVIDIA is facing a fierce blowback from retailers and customers over incorrect specs. Heise comments that the specifications "cheating could mean the greatest damage to the reputation of the company's history."
Major German PC hardware retailer Caseking.de says that retailers don't have any explanation from NVIDIA to give to their customers. A similar sentiment is being expressed by the NVIDIA add-in card partners (AICs) we spoke to. Retailers and AIC partners are on their own, for now. One AIC partner rep told us that NVIDIA has no worldwide action plan, as of now, to deal with a potential flood of returns.
In absence of every other recourse, laws in most EU member states dictate that the retailers accept returns for a full refund, if they are not able to "repair" the defect, or exchange with another unit that works as advertised (which a retailer obviously can't, in this case). Retailers' options in the matter boil down to: 1. Taking back cards from whoever isn't happy with their GTX 970 and giving them a refund; 2. compensating with something of value (eg: game-coupons, in-game currency, etc.,) and 3. Springing up a surprise, such as exchanging GTX 970 cards purchased before a set date, with a GTX 980 (if that's your idea of a "repair."). This will come at the expense of a cascading lawsuit-chain (customers suing retailers, who in-turn sue AICs, and who in-turn sue NVIDIA).
NVIDIA, on the other hand, plans to issue a driver update that will "improve" the way the chip allocates resources, but there's no word on whether it re-enables disabled components that NVIDIA wasn't honest about, the first time around. They're counting on the issue to simply blow over, because at $329, there really isn't much you can complain about the GTX 970, given how it's positioned in comparison to the GTX 980.
Major German PC hardware retailer Caseking.de says that retailers don't have any explanation from NVIDIA to give to their customers. A similar sentiment is being expressed by the NVIDIA add-in card partners (AICs) we spoke to. Retailers and AIC partners are on their own, for now. One AIC partner rep told us that NVIDIA has no worldwide action plan, as of now, to deal with a potential flood of returns.
NVIDIA, on the other hand, plans to issue a driver update that will "improve" the way the chip allocates resources, but there's no word on whether it re-enables disabled components that NVIDIA wasn't honest about, the first time around. They're counting on the issue to simply blow over, because at $329, there really isn't much you can complain about the GTX 970, given how it's positioned in comparison to the GTX 980.
172 Comments on Perfectly Functional GTX 970 Cards Being Returned Over Memory Controversy
Nvidia wins on Power... significantly... However the 290x is still faster than a 970 and costs less.
This problem has yet to be measured at SLI and Tri-SLI yet... it probably isn't a big problem performance wise but it might be.
You have to admit though, when you look at it, it is pretty damn funny. A company of this size, with the massive resources it possesses, the aggregate IQ of it's employees, the industry experience, and yet here we are watching this most ridiculous sideshow of events unfold before our eyes.
No way Nvidia is going to be able to palm this off as a misunderstanding and leave it at that. Not going to happen.
So I keep reading the news and waiting for the next gem to come from the lips of an Nvidia employee. It's better than daytime television.
I haven't knowingly bought a Sony product since 2006: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal
Not to mention, everyone is still sitting around waiting to see what Nvidia is going to do. This includes the manufacturers who are telling customers "no returns until Nvidia puts out a statement".
Further, people are really interested in this shit. Much as Nvidia might wish it to, it is not going to blow over.
And tyvm for the welcome...you eat shit for breakfast?Ahaha. I genuinely lol'd when i read that.
Anyone with a single 970 pretty much doesn't need to worry about this.
there is a real issue and parn is exactly right about the behavior. Its not a big deal to get rid of the 500mb and will fix all the horrible sli gaming.
I've never seen anyone 'eating' or 'chewing' NVIDIA fanboys around here.
If I were an owner of a SINGLE 970, I'd rather wait for some game bundle/$100 voucher off your next upgrade kind of compensations instead of returning the card without second thought.
If people are returning 970s for the misleading specs published by NV, then anyone of them with a 4th gen Core CPUs should also return the product to Intel as Haswell was advertised as having TSX support, but the feature was removed after a bug was found by the community with no compensation from Intel.