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Perfectly Functional GTX 970 Cards Being Returned Over Memory Controversy

Uh... if anyone here is selling off their GTX970s, you got one potential buyer, which is me haha~! IMO, I dun care what you guys say coz I'm a gamer who's comfortable with a few things like:
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.
 
You wont see much 970`s on Ebay because most cards will be returned. But cards have dropped in price at the retailer in the EU (GTX 980 - £40 and GTX 970 - £20) , some cards BNIB GTX 970 are going £60 cheaper already.

buggalugs said:
wow, its incredible that even after this debacle, and even Nvidia themselves admitting it is a huge problem that is going to cost them financially, there are still a handful of the same guys here saying theres no problem, its all a beat up etc.

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 aBUMGATEbout spec`s, in an industry where spec`s 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.
Click to expand...

I agree, but this isn't the first time nVidia have been caught lying to their customers and review sites http://www.ngohq.com/news/22789-amd-unlike-nvidia-we-have-full-support-for-directx-11-1-a.html OR http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/nvidia-kepler-not-fully-compliant-with-directx-11-1.html (Remember BumpGate?) So why wouldn't nvidia try again as they have got away with it many times before. BTW its not easy to get away with false specifications, especially when its DX11.1, RAM, BUS Width and ROPS etc. But they did because of the unconditional blind biased/fanboy backing they get.

What surprises me most is AT/TR and others using water cannon on angry protesters. And It took over 4 months for this to come out and Tech Sites did not catch this error/lie, it was actually frustrated GTX 970 users. Tech sites were actually deleting threads in fear of Nvidia backlash. Why do you think, not ONE site have tested GTX 970 SLI yet (for this 3.5GB/Bandwidth flaw)? I bet most sites have done the testing but everyone is waiting for someone to go first (The power of Nvidia). Had this been AMD, Nvidia would be the first to a TEST (Remember FCAT?)

Do people think Nvidia will stop and think next time before deceiving? Ha think again http://wccftech.com/nvidia-gsync-mobility-confirmed-require-dedicated-module-raises-questions/
 
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Eagleye said:
You wont see much 970`s on Ebay because most cards will be returned. But cards have dropped in price at the retailer in the EU (GTX 980 - £40 and GTX 970 - £20) , some cards BNIB GTX 970 are going £60 cheaper already.



I agree, but this isn't the first time nVidia have been caught lying to their customers and review sites http://www.ngohq.com/news/22789-amd-unlike-nvidia-we-have-full-support-for-directx-11-1-a.html OR http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/nvidia-kepler-not-fully-compliant-with-directx-11-1.html (Remember BumpGate?) So why wouldn't nvidia try again as they have got away with it many times before. BTW its not easy to get away with false specifications, especially when its DX11.1, RAM, BUS Width and ROPS etc. But they did because of the unconditional blind biased/fanboy backing they get.

What surprises me most is AT/TR and others using water cannon on angry protesters. And It took over 4 months for this to come out and Tech Sites did not catch this error/lie, it was actually frustrated GTX 970 users. Tech sites were actually deleting threads in fear of Nvidia backlash. Why do you think, not ONE site have tested GTX 970 SLI yet (for this 3.5GB/Bandwidth flaw)? I bet most sites have done the testing but everyone is waiting for someone to go first (The power of Nvidia). Had this been AMD, Nvidia would be the first to a TEST (Remember FCAT?)

Do people think Nvidia will stop and think next time before deceiving? Ha think again http://wccftech.com/nvidia-gsync-mobility-confirmed-require-dedicated-module-raises-questions/
Click to expand...

There isn't a great conspiracy by NVIDIA. There never has been.
AMD's failures in every single market they have ever been in are due to their own ineptitude and lack of business sense (not technical). ATi is from 1985, NVIDIA from 1993, and they didn't have a mass market chip (not counting NV1) until NV5 in 1997/98. NVIDIA's CEO was once an AMD employee, and after having left the company now commands a firm that is significantly more lucrative, asset rich and with a larger market share in the market barring x86 CPUs.

What I'm getting at here, is that there's no conspiracy by any company that beats AMD. There need not be, as AMD does this themselves. Freesync is a better technology than G-Sync with none of the technical limitations that G-sync has, yet it took me using both monitors from a monitor vendor behind closed doors for me to appreciate that. AMD did nothing to promote Freesync and will probably fail at promoting it when the monitors are on the market.

The hatred towards NVIDIA is that which every company faces that leads in it's particular field. We cheered for NVIDIA, when 3Dfx, Matrox, S3, etc were the 500lbs Gorillas in the 3D accelerator market. Now, it seems NVIDIA can never do right and they are the devil incarnate. By merely making money where their direct competitor is instant on losing it.

For enthusiasts we seem to be very emotional about how we relate to information and selective in what we take data and information to mean. The GTX 970 is a snafu of note. However what that has to do with the company lying to customers repeatedly is something else. For instance the DX11 issue, isn't an issue. you can simply look it up with Microsoft themselves and they will tell you about the various levels of DX11 compliance that exist, from INTEL IGP to AMD GPUs. It seems blind emotion to whom we perceive to be the victim/ underdog clouds rudimentary reasoning.

NVIDIA doesn't pay tech sites, NVIDIA doesn't advertise on tech sites, their partners do.
 
Oh my god, this is the best one yet:
 
Actually returning GTX 970 and paying more for GTX 980 is the worst outcome one can imagine for customers (why people even do it?). Basically what you say with such action is that you got screwed without vaseline, you liked it and you want to pay more to the one who screwed you over in the first place.
 
I'll be happy to buy up some of those 970s too!
 
Yeah, I'd pick one up for myself! I mean, they still are, and always where, great cards, that perform just as as good as the ones reviewed. This is just PR and Marketing crap. It would be much better than my actual 7850 2GB
 
My two R9-280X OC GPUs in Crossfire are both 3GB Cards.
They're pushing my 4K ACER screen playing Toxikk @ 3840 X 2160 and it's nice and smooth. I'm not running all of the eye candy at max, but more than halfway up.

It would only be better with a pair of 970s.
I remember being wowed by reviews when the 970's came out. I still am.
 
Petey Plane said:
This is all absurd. As if suddenly, the cards perform worse than they did 2 weeks ago and all previous benchmarks are invalid. Can't wait for the market to get flooded with sub $200, refurbished and barely-used 970s. May finally upgrade from my 670.
Click to expand...

Sure the GTX 970 is still the same card (benchmark wise), that we bought after seeing the very first reviews.
Although, Nvidia, MSI, EVGA, Asus, etc. mislead us with the whole 3.5GB+512MB issue, I don't think it was an egregious lie. It was more of a mis-truth than anything. After all, it is 4GB of total RAM, it just doesn't function as we would expect a full 4GB to function (as with GTX 980). On this matter, I can see the manufacturer's/board partner's/retailer's/your point.

HOWEVER...the following specifications prove a lie that can not be explained away with Marketing terms or benchmarks:
Advertised ROPs: 64
Actual ROPS: 56
Advertised L2 Cache: 2MB
Actual L2 Cache: 1.75MB

This is false advertising. This is the lie.
Then when you add on the mis-truth of:
Advertised VRAM: 4GB
Actual VRAM: 3.5GB+(much slower)512MB

This is why I am angry, and I do not understand why any user would defend Nvidia/board partner's/retailer's for this.

buggalugs said:
wow, its incredible that even after this debacle, and even Nvidia themselves admitting it is a huge problem that is going to cost them financially, there are still a handful of the same guys here saying theres no problem, its all a beat up etc.

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.
Click to expand...

Agreed!
 
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I'm not defending them on this. It sucks for those that it matters to, the ones that bought them not knowing about this.

But I have to say that the performance is fine by me,.......especially if the prices get better.

I was gonna buy a few of them anyways. Even if I can't get a few of them for less, I'll still consider them, but only after I see what AMD releases in the next few months.
 
deceptive tactics are a no no.
 
If someone doesn't want their 970, I'll trade you my 480 for it in a heartbeat! You lucky bastards......
 
RONIN021 said:
Check this out
http://videocardz.com/54826/pcperspective-mobile-g-sync-confirmed-g-sync-module-unneeded
G-Sync does not require any special module to work.... WTF!!!
I think AMD should make another FIXER video...... :D
Click to expand...

The sooner they dump the G-Sync module the better. Which they don't even make, its an Altera ARM design. They always made it sound like they design it from the ground up.

I suspect we will see and hear an announcement before March when Adaptive-Sync monitors start to go on sale. So they can say look we work with both, which will be the smart move to do. Knowing Nvidia they might just delay support until they clear current G-sync module stock.

It will be much better for the customer to go out and buy a Adaptive-Sync monitor and not have to worry about being locked into a specific gpu.
 
Nvidia should have been more cautious with the advertising about the GTX 970. I just couldn't believe that a huge company such as Nvidia could have slipped through this just like that. But it seems none of the reviews of these cards have properly tested the entire 4 GB memory on these GTX 970...
On the other hand, the price point was good, even if the GTX 970 was a 3.5 GB card. I mean if the GTX 970 was a true 4GB (incl. specs of ROPs, bandwith etc.) the price tag would have been much closer to that of a GTX 980. Perhaps the GTX 970ti is in the make in the near future?

Anyway, I do have a GTX 970 myself. I have returned two GTX 970s (Gigabyte GTX 970 ITX and Asus GTX 970 Strix because of terrible coil whine) before the GTX 970 G1 Gaming I got now. Perhaps God wanted to warn me? I can say I don't like a video card with a limitation such as 3.5 GB fast videoram, but with additional 0.5 GB slow videomemory (which sounds more like a Level3 onboard cache), while it was advertised as a GTX 970 with blazing fast 4 GB DDR5. Perhaps I won't buy another Nvidia card in the near future, certainly not for SLI (was planning to). Also, I don't like this since it affects the resale value of my GTX 970 considerably.
 
Xzibit said:
The sooner they dump the G-Sync module the better. Which they don't even make, its an Altera ARM design. They always made it sound like they design it from the ground up.

I suspect we will see and hear an announcement before March when Adaptive-Sync monitors start to go on sale. So they can say look we work with both, which will be the smart move to do. Knowing Nvidia they might just delay support until they clear current G-sync module stock.

It will be much better for the customer to go out and buy a Adaptive-Sync monitor and not have to worry about being locked into a specific gpu.
Click to expand...

Things i don't understand is why NVIDIA with big financial resources do something like that
indeed Greedy Company is a suitable title......:shadedshu:
 
RONIN021 said:
Things i don't understand is why NVIDIA with big financial resources do something like that
indeed Greedy Company is a suitable title......:shadedshu:
Click to expand...
Why do you think they have big financial resources, certainly not by being honest and generous. I am honest and generous and I don't have big financial resources, nor will I ever have it.
 
Yah know, if some car manufacturer had advertised a new model as getting X mpg and it turned out to be 1/8 short of advertising, or and engine that is 1/8 smaller than advertised there'd probably be a class action lawsuit. It's funny to see how stupid the gamer/fanboy mentality is, and how adults treat straight up false advertising as 'no big deal' because 'you don't need that much memory anyways'

However Nvidia cultivated this mindshare, it's standing the test of time. kudos
 
Heck, if nVidia had been more, humm, creative, they could have spin the 0.5GB partition as some sort of cache. They might have sold it as "GTX 970 224bit 3.5GB GDDR5 with 512MB of hyper cache technology" or something like that. :)
 
TRWOV said:
Heck, if nVidia had been more, humm, creative, they could have spin the 0.5GB partition as some sort of cache. They might have sold it as "GTX 970 224bit 3.5GB GDDR5 with 512MB of hyper cache technology" or something like that. :)
Click to expand...
I sure one of them read that and said to himself: Why didn't I think of that, this is genius!
 
Para_Franck said:
Why do you think they have big financial resources, certainly not by being honest and generous. I am honest and generous and I don't have big financial resources, nor will I ever have it.
Click to expand...
Why you think they don't have...?
The company in every generation of video cards sell more than AMD cards and i'm sure they spend less money for making GPU, I mean seriously 128bit memory interface in GTX series is quite JOKE!!!
 
Regenweald said:
Yah know, if some car manufacturer had advertised a new model as getting X mpg and it turned out to be 1/8 short of advertising, or and engine that is 1/8 smaller than advertised there'd probably be a class action lawsuit. It's funny to see how stupid the gamer/fanboy mentality is, and how adults treat straight up false advertising as 'no big deal' because 'you don't need that much memory anyways'

However Nvidia cultivated this mindshare, it's standing the test of time. kudos
Click to expand...

You mean like this.

USATODAY - Hyundai, Kia pay $100M fine over gas mileage claims
 
RONIN021 said:
Why you think they don't have...?
The company in every generation of video cards sell more than AMD cards and i'm sure they spend less money for making GPU, I mean seriously 128bit memory interface in GTX series is quite JOKE!!!
Click to expand...

My bad, my english is not as good as I thought. There is probably a missing coma in there. It was supposed to be more like: How do you think they make big money, certainly not by being honest and generous.....

You get the picture. And I am NOT saying the other ones are not doing the same thing, they are. I don't have an example on hand, but you know how it is...

I am not a fanboy, of any sort, I just don't express myself as clearly as I should.
 
I dont know one friend or read about those that new the 970 had or didnt have "64 ROP and 2mb 2 cache"

So now the cats out of the bag and duh OMG they lied to us I want my money back. Reading how people just bought the 970 in Jan.. they had NO CLUE. But now.. Nvidia lied to them and they want there money back lol.

All the review sites.. yep in on it. Theres just no way to test for this kind of thing so you gotta take whats written lol

This false advertisement is not on my box or in any paper in the box. Oh not saying its not true it is. Ask anyone right now with out going to the INTERNET. Where did you read this? How did you find out? Strange how others should'nt lie yet its ok if we do. Some..some never new about it never bought the card because of it now tons of them jumping on that wagon. Yeah your the smart one. For me there are more important things going on in this world ..awful things that I care about. What should have been said that was not.. I dont care. I can not expect anything for something I never new was. I'd be just as guilty.

Come on :) you can sing it.. heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend how ... thanks Speedwagon.
 
Airjarhead said:
Sure the GTX 970 is still the same card (benchmark wise), that we bought after seeing the very first reviews.
Although, Nvidia, MSI, EVGA, Asus, etc. mislead us with the whole 3.5GB+512MB issue, I don't think it was an egregious lie. It was more of a mis-truth than anything. After all, it is 4GB of total RAM, it just doesn't function as we would expect a full 4GB to function (as with GTX 980). On this matter, I can see the manufacturer's/board partner's/retailer's/your point.

HOWEVER...the following specifications prove a lie that can not be explained away with Marketing terms or benchmarks:
Advertised ROPs: 64
Actual ROPS: 56
Advertised L2 Cache: 2MB
Actual L2 Cache: 1.75MB

This is false advertising. This is the lie.
Then when you add on the mis-truth of:
Advertised VRAM: 4GB
Actual VRAM: 3.5GB+(much slower)512MB

This is why I am angry, and I do not understand why any user would defend Nvidia/board partner's/retailer's for this.



Agreed!
Click to expand...
I wonder when in the process the AIB's found out and why they didn't say anything... oh wait, I know why, because they fear what NIVIDIA will do to them. Just like they quiver when we suggest to them to let AIB's have free reign on their power limits... they won't budge and are afraid to budge. NVIDIA can be a bully in that respect.

Retailers have no clue and should not be a part of this conversation. I would bet the AIB's were handed down specs, and didn't figure it out until they started testing for their own non reference solutions...

Still, its 4GB total. But the last 512MB run slow. Still the performance is what it is. And unless you game higher than 1440p or run heavily modded games, you won't hit 3.5GB+ of ram use in the overwhelming majority of titles at 1080p.
 
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