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
You guys are completely wrong, and I seriously gotta question your motivations and your morals really...It doesn't matter which team you like, when someone does something wrong , they should be criticised so it wont happen again.
Its is a commercial disaster to be caught out being dishonest about specs, in an industry where specs are an important selling point of these cards.
The big question is why it took Nvidia 3 months and post Christmas sales to admit to this problem?? Then they only admitted it after it was reported by tech sites. Its bad form. Nvidia need a kick in the shins to stop them pulling this crap again.
But however sound the facts are, the army of nvidia evangelists will whitewash them. Seems to be some sort of overprotection.
rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?56998-NVIDIA-Discloses-Full-Memory-Structure-and-Limitations-of-GTX-970&p=471750&viewfull=1#post471750
is hilarious.
There had to be one
It's the way it's meant to be gimped
That video XD
On a more to the point note, I think it is insane that NV would resort to fake marketing they clearly did not need it for the GTX 970 to be a success or the 980 for that matter.
Get of your high-horse mate. It just funny, and I'm having a laugh.
I would be laughing just as hard at an AMD cock-up of these proportions.
Simply truth is that there is already a fantastic number of 970 owners virtually waving their GPUs in Nvidia's face. You just have to look at the Nvidia forums.
It's pretty funny.
IMO this whole thingy overreacted to much...
Its like there asking for it.
Then buyers keep getting told different things.
PCWorld - Nvidia clarifies: No specific GTX 970 driver to improve memory allocation performance planned
If the card is truly working as intended. There should be no problem running maxed out at 2560x1600 or SLI 4k. Why would there be any need to tell a user to limit there setting in 1440p or 1080p.
1.) I'm not some crazy "gamer" who thinks that a single GTX970 can handle games on 1600p & above with shitload of mods.
2.) I don't look at those synthetic numbers or whatnots & say "this card is bugged, not gonna use it" crap.
3.) It's meant to combat games on 1080p & 1440p at Max settings MINUS the mods on games like Skyrim.
4.) You pay is what you get. Never expect much from a $350 card when you're pushing it excessively.
5.) Lastly; 4K gaming is useless. Why pay so much for 4 times the resolution of 1080p when graphic quality isn't even 4 times better? Best you spend a little more for a card that's design for handling 4K at High setitngs.
Lesson here is that no matter what you spout, those who are happy with it knows their VGA cards better than anyone. I dun care if there's 3.5GB of "usable" VRAM, 56 actively running ROPs or eats ~250W peaked power consumption, it's still the best 1080p killer card money can buy. Best part is, I dun even need to change to a more expensive one when I game comfortably on a massive 60-inch FHD LED TV at my living room.