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NVIDIA Discloses Full Memory Structure and Limitations of GTX 970

ThePatcher
Level 7
24,231 Views
36 REPLIES 36

sWaZi_sKunk
Level 7
What does ASUS have to state? IMHO if you have an issue with it, return/sell the card. I cant see a lagged .5gb buffer causing problems when with a 970 chances are you going to be below 3.5gb anyways. I've been following the hype and believe it's just that. The card is as stated a 4gb card, with 4gb usable vram. It was well documented that the 970 was NOT going to be the 980, as far as the price difference between the two looking at just box specs you probably wouldn't see why the 980 is so much better. Almost all the tests I have seen are people running crazy modded out games JUST TO get to that 3.5gb and over 'gimp'. That or running special tests not designed to really look at the situation but just cram data through. If you wanted to run ultra high res, and have full fledged options, well you should of got the full fledged card. The 970 REGARDLESS of this low impact technical design is still a HUGE bang/buck card. HUGE. The only people I feel have a right to be upset are those upgrading from a 780ti. Still at that point if you were a early adopter; as many of us have learned by now, the first out the gate sometimes is the first to not see the hairpin turn out of the straight-away. Even though this would be more like a slight left.
ROG2015 Back in Red&Black
NZXT.H440 ~ M7F ~ i7-4790k ~ Poseidon GTX980 ~ G-Skill 2400 16gb ~ 850Pro 256gb ~ ThermalTake 1050w DPS ~ VG248QE

unspok3n
Level 7
Yes I would like to hear ASUS's take on this situation and what their consideration is for their customers.

I'm not running "crazy mods" or utilities. I'm running two ASUS 970 Strix in SLI and my games are hitting past the 3.5GB memory allocation quite often. It was the reason I bought them; so I could run high resolution and AA at max settings with high frame rate. I purchased under the assumption this would be a working solution based off the information provided by nVidia. This is not the best price to performance due to the limitation of the memory buffer and does not work as advertised.

If nVidia put a sign saying straight road ahead and we ended up driving off a cliff would you still blame the driver? The wrong information was advertised.

sWaZi_sKunk
Level 7
It's been said TIME and TIME again that running a single high proformance card WILL yield better result then running 2 cut-down cards in SLI, why should this be any different. Just because youtube channels failed to display the technical specs, and the engineering diagrams doesn't mean nVidia was trying to scam people. When I was researching to go with 970 sli vs 980 I cam across a lot of this information and even with a just on the first lap of the race it was clear that the 970 was not FULLY enabled, not should it have been it's not a top tier card! Many benchmark elitists were scratching their head on the real world difference in HIGH RES with the two cards and maybe we see why? Among other things. Had I of not done the research I could possibly see being upset having bought this card, and then I would remember what I bought it for and still be happy. The card is a bang/buck card even with 3.5gb (if you want to say that). If I upgraded my 780ti for a extra gig then maybe I would actually be upset.

All argument aside what does Asus have to account for? If you feel betrayed the fault is nVidia's not Asus. They still took a awesome card, and made it amazing.. I would like to see someone say that their recommendation for a GTX970 today or even tomorrow is going to change.
ROG2015 Back in Red&Black
NZXT.H440 ~ M7F ~ i7-4790k ~ Poseidon GTX980 ~ G-Skill 2400 16gb ~ 850Pro 256gb ~ ThermalTake 1050w DPS ~ VG248QE

sWaZi sKunk wrote:
It's been said TIME and TIME again that running a single high proformance card WILL yield better result then running 2 cut-down cards in SLI, why should this be any different. Just because youtube channels failed to display the technical specs, and the engineering diagrams doesn't mean nVidia was trying to scam people. When I was researching to go with 970 sli vs 980 I cam across a lot of this information and even with a just on the first lap of the race it was clear that the 970 was not FULLY enabled, not should it have been it's not a top tier card! Many benchmark elitists were scratching their head on the real world difference in HIGH RES with the two cards and maybe we see why? Among other things. Had I of not done the research I could possibly see being upset having bought this card, and then I would remember what I bought it for and still be happy. The card is a bang/buck card even with 3.5gb (if you want to say that). If I upgraded my 780ti for a extra gig then maybe I would actually be upset.

All argument aside what does Asus have to account for? If you feel betrayed the fault is nVidia's not Asus. They still took a awesome card, and made it amazing.. I would like to see someone say that their recommendation for a GTX970 today or even tomorrow is going to change.


Regardless of single card performance, SLI is a supported model. The 970 SLI setup soundly beats on a single 980 for the same price so wasting money isn't something I take lightly, even if others blindly throw money around. And if system builders have the technical know how to utilize SLI properly it becomes even less of an issue. How a gamer or enthusiast wouldn't consider VRAM into their equations when building a system is beyond me. It's as critical as the rest of the system.

What's worse is people accepting this as an OK practice. And go so far as to defend it because it doesn't affect them since it wasn't their time or money. nVidia had released the cards months ago and said NOTHING concerning the specs and more importantly the VRAM limitations until it was tested. This is most certainly nVidia's fault. It might be a little confusing and hard to understand, but the reason people are asking about the manufactures response is 1) they are the ones who sold the boards to consumers, and 2) many 970s had exclusive designs by the manufactures as opposed to the 980.

Even if it is a great card, I would have purchased one instead of two and waited for the 8GB variants considering I came from a 4GB 770 GTX or kept my old card until I found cards worth spending my money on.

I guess people would be fine buying an i7-4790k processor to be told months later, after the PC community attempts to figure out why their CPU isn't acting as expected, that hyper-threading only works on one core. It's ok because it still allows the PC to post, right?

X-ROG
Level 15
Not an official statement, just perspective: ASUS makes products with all chip partners, which makes us pretty unique. We always try to build on the underlying technology to offer something unique and better than reference, be it motherboards (core unlocking/hidden feature unlocking like OC Socket) or GPU (MARS/ARES/Matrix/0dB fan tech etc) or whatever. The GTX 970 event is a silicon-level consideration, which is why Nvidia is making the detailed statement alone. How the product is labelled whether it's a brand name (GTX/GT/GTS/Titan/ or Intel Z97 or AMD Radeon... etc) or with regards to silicon-level specs; there are always partner guidelines which we follow.

sWaZi_sKunk
Level 7
Like going to Shelby and saying that the Ford dealer told you all mustangs had 3 cup holders, but when you put 2 extra large MC-Donald cups in them the middle one only holds a red bull.

Not trying to troll but am I the only one that feels like most people circling the 970 memory-buffer are just looking for a hand out? Should nVidia start giving out game codes? Let you turn in your cards for 980's? Even if you get your money back, for your money you aren't going to get a better product then the Strix 970, I'd bet my chair on it.

Let me ask you this, before you read the headlines, did you like your card? I've seen tons of guys running these things saying that they are gaming without hassle at all.
ROG2015 Back in Red&Black
NZXT.H440 ~ M7F ~ i7-4790k ~ Poseidon GTX980 ~ G-Skill 2400 16gb ~ 850Pro 256gb ~ ThermalTake 1050w DPS ~ VG248QE

apramey
Level 7
Ok correct me if I am wrong.. when PCI bus is a bottleneck and the last 0.5GB memory pool is 4x faster than PCI bus why is this even a matter of concern? Even if its as fast as the initial 3.5GB, PCI bus is a bottleneck as I understand..Am I missing something here?

You're missing one key critical point:

People just love their drama.

Mandeep148
Level 7
Asus have worst customer support, I think refund is impossible for them.
My next card will be by EVGA, because it have best support,
Its officiall, evga providing refunds if gtx 970 customers are unhappy..
I will never buy Asus..
I'm not even getting able to play when games reach more than 3.5gb, we got scammed..
Those are not helping, be ready for destruction because internet social is big power.