Keep or refund the Nvidia GTX 970? (Keeping it)

[MadManCK]

I just watched a video of HWI where they explained a lot and also have done some tests.

According to them there are no performance issues in games. And the 970 is still just 15% slower than the 980 in most games. They also test everything on extreme resolutions like 3x1080p and 4K setups.

According to them there is no real reason to get another card. It is just the dishonesty and the twisting of Nvidia that can lead to unsatisfied customers.

The basic chip design can also not be changed with a Bios update. There can be some driver optimizations, that's it.



According to this scheme you can see that they disabled a bit more than advertised. The memory bus is actually working with 224 bit and not 256, even if the 256 are there. This also explains why the overall RAM performance is a bit slower than the 980. So the achillesheel is the disabled L2 cluster. That was never advertised. And is the source of this whole discussion.

[Beardroid91]

Yes, maybe I'm overreacting here, because to honest the last 3 month's have been epic, as for gaming.

Plus if Radeon's next cards will be as good as seem, then I can do something about it when they hit the marked.

Because my gtx 970 have done everything I have asked it to flawlessly, it's only the news of it's limitations that hit hard and made me throw it under the bus.

Besides who's to say the Radeon's will be as stable in games as the gtx 970, when cards like Mad's gtx 780 Ti keep crashing in the crew

So I'll bite the bullet and keep the gtx 970, I have the best version of it anyway

[MadManCK]

Lol, those game freezes with overlays are not related to the GTX780Ti IMHO. More players are suffering from it.
The Crew does not like overlays very much.

If the GTX970 does its work like it should, you can hold onto it until something else and more appealing hits the market.

It is more about the dishonesty and trying to cover-up from Nvidia than the Cards actual performance

[Alvin]

Aww shizz mate. Next time i need to see for a page 2. XD Great choice of keeping it nevertheless. Still putting another one on SLI would make a better choice. XD
Just ask for a refund and probably wait for the 390s.
Better do it now coz probably the prices are gonna go down hell lotta faster.
Your move no mattter what tho. This what i would do lol.

[Beardroid91]

SLI'ing the GTX 970 is bad idea, it starts stuttering and lagging bad

I still not 100% if i would keep it, because if Nvidia releases a GTX 970 with 8 GB, then i would be pissed, and Nvidia is rumored to do just that, and the R9 390 is also only RED option, as the 290 is to power hungry for me to consider it an option.

And Gigabyte's support doesn't seem to want to give a clear answer on a refund. They gave the Nvidia PR statement for downplaying the cards issues, claiming it works as it should, which is a big fat lie, which i told them too, with a bunch of benchmarks proven the issues

The R9 290X with 8 GB could also an option, but i just want my money out of this deal and wait for a better card to come out in the near future

[Beardroid91]

This is the Gigabyte support message i in return when i asked about a refund .. they say nothing about a refund at all

Are you refunding the Nvidia GTX 970 series cards, due to its revealed hardware limitations of its claimed specifications, which it was sold falsely under for months?

The 56 ROPs vs the claimed 64 ROPs, and only 3,5 GB out of its 4 GB of vram is working correctly at the same speed, that is major problem for me, as i feel cheated as a customer.

The card is not future prof at all, which i was hoping it would be at that price point!

What can you guys do about it?

Dear XX

Thank you for your kindly mail and inquiry. With the recent GeForce GTX 970 VRAM issue that has drawn concerns in this week, we would like to make the following clarifications:

1. All GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 series graphics cards available on the market are equipped with a total of 4GB of dedicated graphics memory, which is consistent with the specifications stated on both GIGABYTE and NVIDIA websites.

2. To optimize memory traffic under the new NVIDIA MAXWELL GTX 970 GPU configuration, the 4GB graphics memory is segmented into a 3.5GB section and a 0.5GB section, and the memory capacity can still be utilized up to 4GB as specified.

3. Gaming performance is not directly associated with how memory is segmented, rather depending on game quality settings and display resolutions. It all comes down to GPU computing capability between GTX 980 and GTX 970 that makes the difference in performance. (Please see the comparison chart below)



Regards,
GIGABYTE

You did not answer my main question about a refund! Will or will you not refund it, if i send it to you through my retailer here in Denmark.

And the specifications of it does matter and they're WRONG, Nvidia even admitted that, so no way around that, Nvidia cheated with the spec's, so don't use Nvidia answer.

1. It has 3,5 gb fast vram and 0,5 gb slow vram, that is 4 GB vram yes, BUT it's not all running at 224 GB/s, so that's false marketing.

2. Yes i know about the 2 pools of vram, when those two work together it provokes lag heavy FPS drop, even stuttering!

3. You see that is where your wrong, a card with the 64 ROPs and 2 MB L2 cache and 4 GB in one pool would be able handle it games much better.

So in all fairness i feel cheated by Nvidia, and now you too for downplaying the issues, and had i known the true spec's i would not have upgraded from my old Radeon HD 7950

Look at this benchmark score of my own GTX 970 G1 Gaming, you see the issues here !?

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Owh man the lies, they have to tell themselves...

[MadManCK]

Nvidia blames the marketing division for not correctly displaying the info.
But they never advertise with how many L2 cache etc. is active, lol.

It seems that this man



Is doing a limbo dance right now.

[Beardroid91]

I filed a RMA and have desided to see if i can get a refund from my retailer, which i'm pretty confident i will, then i start looking for a new card in the mean time

Also just got bought my old XFX Radeon HD 6870 back from a friend. I have stripped it of it's refernce cooler and nearly ready to put my Corsair H75 cpu cooler with my NZXT Kraken G10 kit, and then the overclocking can begin

Anyone got an idea of the ballpack OC my old HD 6870 can handle? Might need to do some research about it

But either way won't care much if it breaks, its a 4-5 year old card it'll be interesting, besides only payed like 15 euros to get it back, and i had sold it to him for 30 euros
__

Btw. the card is XFX's golden days so it had a pretty beefy cooler on it, and a nice and thick aluminium pcb cool plate on, heat shouldn't be a big problem

Not kiding it had a 6 lumb of copper with fins on, i guess copper was cheaper back then lol

[Bez]

Can't help you with the over clocking but I think you've done the right thing trying to get a refund as you are never going to be happy with that card now.
I only hope they decide to do the right thing and pay up as these things can drag on a long time especially if they decide to dispute the claim.

[Beardroid91]

@Bez
Some says they got refunds from Gigabyte on the Geforce forum, owner of as brand have own shared experience thread

And i'm going through my retailer, and not Gigabyte directly, so i'm confident i'll see my money or atleast store credit
__

About to clean the old thermal past of my of HD 6870, it in a sorry state all dried out, didn't even stick to the fingers xD