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ASUS Strix 1070 ALL Using Micron Memory ICs?

GamerSX
Level 7
Hello ROG,

I have tested 4 ASUS Strix 1070 cards so far, 3 OC and 1 non-OC, two purchased in July with Samsung memory ICs and two purchased during the past two weeks with Micron memory ICs with the following observations:

1- The cards with the Samsung memory are generally faster and more stable, have no problem overclocking to a minimum of 9000Mhz and a max of 9400Mhz while maintaining stability.

2- Cards with Samsung memory have more stable and higher core overclock that does not throttle by much under load, the two Samsung cards i tested remain at 2088Mhz and 2075Mhz core respectively after an hour of gaming and does not seem to power-throttle beyond that.

3- The two cards with Micron memory reach a max of 8400Mhz memory before starting to display artifacts and potentially crash the system with BSOD, loss of video signal or checkerboard artifacts

4- Also the cards with the Micron memory power-throttle under load to 1999Mhz and 1975Mhz, so it looks like Micron memory ICs are drawing more power away from the GPU than their Samsung counterparts do resulting in power-throttling issues.

5- One of the Micron cards is producing a very loud coil vibration noise (AKA Coilwhine) as load/power varies


Max Firestrike score achieved with a Micron card is 15,400 and max Firestike with Samsung card was as high as 16,200 on the same system, resulting in around 4-5 FPS difference and a smoother gaming experience putting these two (supposedly identical cards) in different performance categories

My questions:

1- Have anyone else had similar observation?

2- Most importantly, did ASUS totally stopped producing 1070 Strix cards with Samsung memory lately? more importantly, did anyone manage to buy a 1070 Strix card that has Samsung memory during the past few weeks? and if so what are the performance and OC results?
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Nate152
Moderator
Hi GameSX

It seems there must have been a shortage of Samsung memory as to why they used Micron memory on the later ones. I was reading the same thing that the Micron memory doesn't overclock as well as the Samsung memory.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/4upfxo/for_new_gtx_1070_owners_out_there_out_of/

Nate152 wrote:
Hi GameSX

It seems there must have been a shortage of Samsung memory as to why they used Micron memory on the later ones. I was reading the same thing that the Micron memory doesn't overclock as well as the Samsung memory.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/4upfxo/for_new_gtx_1070_owners_out_there_out_of/


Thanks for your response, may i know if you are a volunteer moderator or if you actually work at ASUS? in other words do you have more insights into the manufacturing circumstances more than we, the average customer know?

The thing is, the problem with Micron memory is not only the OC potential, but Micron memory controller, BIOS microcode and Nvidia drivers handling of cards with Micron ICs pretty much messes up the card's performance characteristics experiences by 1st batch buyers and all review samples in circulation.

even without any overclocking, performance is not stable with Micron memory, i experience flickering artifacts in ROT Tomb Raider with the Micron card, power throttling to as low as 1895Mhz while the Samsung cards remain at near 2000Mhz out of the box.

It looks like the Micron controller is messing up the power management of the card, and affects core performance and overclockability as well.

Until recently, the highest end cards from MSI (Gaming Z), Gigabyte (Xtreme Gaming) and EVFA (FTW) were all using Samsung ICs which is the original specification, i also think that all Founder's Edition 1070s are still using Samsung ... but lately all Partner cards have switched to Micron and since then performance dipped, and cards are artifacting and crashing all over the place.

Also when Samsung cards crash, they "soft-crash" meaning that "display adopter stops working and has recovered" type of crash, but Micron cards crash with BSDO, or loss of video signal, so that is even more change in the way these cards perform, they feel like two cards from different generations.

The real question is, will ASUS (or anyone else) ever start producing cards with Samsung memory again anytime soon? or will all 1070s use Micron memory from now on?

and if all will continue to use Micron, is there any expected BIOS/Drivers updates targeted to fix Micron memory controller stability issues talked about here and in the following thread:

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/963768/geforce-drivers/gtx-1070-memory-vrm-driver-or-bios-b...

I also think that for transparency sake, all reviews done on the 1070's with Samsung memory should be re-done with recent batches with Micron memory because performance differences are quite huge and will change all charts produced by reviewers so far

I hope that an ASUS tech. would have the opportunity to comments on this thread to shed more light on the situation.

EK_Luc
Level 7
I'm experiencing the same situation here. I bought my first 1070 Strix OC a few months ago and I recently bought a second 1070 Strix OC. The first one with Samsung memory and the second one with Micron memory.

I had to drop the OC because I was having BSOD all the time. I wish I could have got a second one with Samsung memory. 😞

Zaveur
Level 7
Strange thing for me, I have Maximus VIII Hero and a ROG STRIX-GTX1070-8G-GAMING. In BIOS my my ROG STRIX-GTX1070-8G-GAMING reports Samsung memory BUT with GPU Z 1.10 and 1.11 it say Micron... Whats up with this?
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Zaveur wrote:
Strange thing for me, I have Maximus VIII Hero and a ROG STRIX-GTX1070-8G-GAMING. In BIOS my my ROG STRIX-GTX1070-8G-GAMING reports Samsung memory BUT with GPU Z 1.10 and 1.11 it say Micron... Whats up with this?
59510

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Very interesting observation, i just checked mine, having the same exact card installed, in my BIOS it says Samsung as well, while in GPU-Z it says Micron ...

I think what is happening is that Samsung Memory is the ORIGINAL specification provided by Nvidia for the GTX 1070, so the string "Samsung" is a fixed string in either the vBIOS of the card originally supplied by Nvidia or the ASUS Motherboard's BIOS that the motherboard just display without doing any actual IC identification test.

Also if you check the BIOS description for the versions that came with the Micron cards in TechPowerUp BIOS database

For the non-OC version https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/185349/asus-gtx1070-8192-160711

And the OC-Version https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/185940/asus-gtx1070-8192-160711-2

You will find that:

Memory Support
GDDR5, Samsung
GDDR5, Micron

The motherboard displays "Samsung" by default regardless of the actual ICs used as Micron was only supposed to be used as an alternative but is not the original specification.

GPU-Z on the other hand seems to have an actual memory detection engine that is able to identify memory type properly and therefore GPU-Z is the correct one

I can also confirm that the card i have which is identical to yours (even though it displays Samsung in BIOS) has Micron memory because of its behavior, Micron crashes after a black/flickering artifacts with a white checkerboard pattern that leads to loss of video signal or a BSOD and then a restart after memory dump.

Samsung memory crashes with red and green flashing artifacts without any system crashes, you just get "Display Driver Stopped Responding and Has Recovered" error and the display adapter keeps recovering and crashing until you lower the memory frequency.

So you actually have Micron memory and the BIOS is just displaying standard dummy text based on original specification!

Which is even more reason that ASUS should tell us why they changed to Micron from Nvidia's Samsung original specification, and why the change has not been publicly announced? also cards with Micron memory should be clearly marked on the retail packaging so we would know what type of quality and performance level we are buying before committing to a purchase, since memory type is part of the cards' specifications just like the GPU type, clock frequencies or cooler type!

GamerSX wrote:
Very interesting observation, i just checked mine, having the same exact card installed, in my BIOS it says Samsung as well, while in GPU-Z it says Micron ...

I think what is happening is that Samsung Memory is the ORIGINAL specification provided by Nvidia for the GTX 1070, so the string "Samsung" is a fixed string in either the vBIOS of the card originally supplied by Nvidia or the ASUS Motherboard's BIOS that the motherboard just display without doing any actual IC identification test.

Also if you check the BIOS description for the versions that came with the Micron cards in TechPowerUp BIOS database

For the non-OC version https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/185349/asus-gtx1070-8192-160711

And the OC-Version https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/185940/asus-gtx1070-8192-160711-2

You will find that:

Memory Support
GDDR5, Samsung
GDDR5, Micron

The motherboard displays "Samsung" by default regardless of the actual ICs used as Micron was only supposed to be used as an alternative but is not the original specification.

GPU-Z on the other hand seems to have an actual memory detection engine that is able to identify memory type properly and therefore GPU-Z is the correct one

I can also confirm that the card i have which is identical to yours (even though it displays Samsung in BIOS) has Micron memory because of its behavior, Micron crashes after a black/flickering artifacts with a white checkerboard pattern that leads to loss of video signal or a BSOD and then a restart after memory dump.

Samsung memory crashes with red and green flashing artifacts without any system crashes, you just get "Display Driver Stopped Responding and Has Recovered" error and the display adapter keeps recovering and crashing until you lower the memory frequency.

So you actually have Micron memory and the BIOS is just displaying standard dummy text based on original specification!

Which is even more reason that ASUS should tell us why they changed to Micron from Nvidia's Samsung original specification, and why the change has not been publicly announced? also cards with Micron memory should be clearly marked on the retail packaging so we would know what type of quality and performance level we are buying before committing to a purchase, since memory type is part of the cards' specifications just like the GPU type, clock frequencies or cooler type!


Well im picky when building pcs so I Went back to the store with my 1070 with micron memory and swapped it out and now I have Samsung memory :cool:
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The serial with samsung memory where i live is 108xxx at the end and check nr around 85xx whilst Micron is006xxx and check nr 5450, can you check yours?

Great, how did you manage to get one with Samsung? is that an old or new batch? any idea when did the store get it in stock?

Serial numbers i have seen start with G6 , G7 and G8 probably reflecting batch or run numbers, G6 being June/July cards, G7 being August cards and G8 being September cards (that is an assumption based on the cards i have handled)

So lets see what i have:

1- Samsung Serial starts with G6 purchased middle of July, retailer had it in stock on 7-7-2016 ... serial ends with (after the letters) 129XXX with check number 35XX

2- Samsung Serial starts with G7 purchased beginning of August, serial ends with 029XXX with check number 99XX (that was a golden sample top performing card 2113Mhz Core and 9400Mhz memory without any issues it ran a little hot around 71c under load and PCB was bent a little)

3- Micron Serial starts with G8 purchased end of August, serials ends with 143XXX with check number 27XX

4- Micron Serial starts with G7 purchased one week ago, serial ends with 200XXX with check number 40XX (That one has very loud coil vibration noise or Coilwhine and is going back to store!)

You had a Micron that started with 006XXX? that is pretty strange because that is supposed to be even an earlier production that my two Samsung samples (when did you purchase that one?), and then now you have a 108XXX sample, that looks to be produced before my two 143XXX and 200XXX Microns, so looks like that was produced right before they switched to Micron, you are lucky 🙂

So from these 6 data points we have, production patterns seems to have went from Micron -> to Samsung -> to Micron again?

or it might just be random, sometimes they use Samsung and some other times they use Micron? or so it has been in the past? now around probably their 130,000 unit they switched exclusively to Micron moving forward?

Check numbers appear to be totally random, what is that check number is for anyways? do you have an idea?

GamerSX wrote:
Great, how did you manage to get one with Samsung? is that an old or new batch? any idea when did the store get it in stock?

Serial numbers i have seen start with G6 , G7 and G8 probably reflecting batch or run numbers, G6 being June/July cards, G7 being August cards and G8 being September cards (that is an assumption based on the cards i have handled)

So lets see what i have:

1- Samsung Serial starts with G6 purchased middle of July, retailer had it in stock on 7-7-2016 ... serial ends with (after the letters) 129XXX with check number 35XX

2- Samsung Serial starts with G7 purchased beginning of August, serial ends with 029XXX with check number 99XX (that was a golden sample top performing card 2113Mhz Core and 9400Mhz memory without any issues it ran a little hot around 71c under load and PCB was bent a little)

3- Micron Serial starts with G8 purchased end of August, serials ends with 143XXX with check number 27XX

4- Micron Serial starts with G7 purchased one week ago, serial ends with 200XXX with check number 40XX (That one has very loud coil vibration noise or Coilwhine and is going back to store!)

You had a Micron that started with 006XXX? that is pretty strange because that is supposed to be even an earlier production that my two Samsung samples (when did you purchase that one?), and then now you have a 108XXX sample, that looks to be produced before my two 143XXX and 200XXX Microns, so looks like that was produced right before they switched to Micron, you are lucky 🙂

So from these 6 data points we have, production patterns seems to have went from Micron -> to Samsung -> to Micron again?

or it might just be random, sometimes they use Samsung and some other times they use Micron? or so it has been in the past? now around probably their 130,000 unit they switched exclusively to Micron moving forward?

Check numbers appear to be totally random, what is that check number is for anyways? do you have an idea?


Hi again 🙂
Well my Micron that i returned was a G9 and they had a G7 so thats how I have Samung mem card 🙂 G7 with 108xxx, maybe this is just a lotteri and what country..
One note, micron card were running stock (game mode) at 72c load but the new and probably and old batch they had in stock, new card runs at 66 full load. Nothing changed in my pc.

No idea about that check nr though..

Zaveur wrote:
Hi again 🙂
Well my Micron that i returned was a G9 and they had a G7 so thats how I have Samung mem card 🙂 G7 with 108xxx, maybe this is just a lotteri and what country..
One note, micron card were running stock (game mode) at 72c load but the new and probably and old batch they had in stock, new card runs at 66 full load. Nothing changed in my pc.

No idea about that check nr though..


When did you buy the G9? was it recently like one or two weeks ago? looks like when they switched to the G9 run they reset the serials back to 000001 and start the count over ..

Regarding temps i noticed that Strix cards run from 65c to 71c probably depending on the way of the thermal paste application, thermal paste type or just cooler installation, on stock settings it should never exceed 69-70c if it is working properly and case is well ventilated

Also Micron memory ICs seem to draw more power and produce more heat than their Samsung counterparts to maintain its frequency, resulting in the card getting a little bit hotter and power-throttle a little bit more than cards with Samsung, that is just an observations from the cards i tested and might not be 100% accurate.

Anyways, congratulations for your Samsung GPU, enjoy your purchase and the premium part you have got, you got your money's worth, i hope i can achieve the same goal i just don't know how 🙂

and with the information we shared among one another regarding serial numbers it does not look like there is a sure way to identify cards with Samsung memory, makes things even harder, i am not sure how this misery will conclude for me and other dissatisfied Micron card owners 🙂

What is your memory OC limit on the Samsung card by the way?