Building a gaming PC

[GuyNwah]

The problem is not so much getting 3.5 GB usable VRAM when the card was promoted as having 4. It's performance falling apart when software hits that limit.

It's like buying an airplane that's advertised as having a 40,000 foot ceiling and a flight control manager that is programmed to keep it under 40,000 feet. But then the actual ceiling is somewhere around 35,000 feet, the flight control manager still allows climb to 40,000, and you end up perfecting your stall recovery skills.

 

[eskiMoe]

Really anxious to see how Nvidia will respond to this. I doubt any driver/bios tinkering will help with the issue and if they refuse refunds/card exchanges they're going to eliminate a lot of loyal customers and probably have a lawsuit in their hands.

 

[Luxorek]

Mine's on its way to MSI, RMA'd for a different issue. I hope they will take this into account and find a suitable solution.

I have MSI GTX 970 too. May I ask what was the issue?

Edit I've noticed in MSI Afterburner that the most demanding game I have, which is AC:Unity played at maximum settings is only ever able to use 3266MB of my GPU's RAM , never more. I thought this was weird given that the card was apparently equipped with 4GB VRAM, but given my lack of computer know-how I never paid much attention to it - I guess I just thought 970 is even more powerful that everyone said and doesn't need to use more : ] Heh.

Damn.

 

[GuyNwah]

I have MSI GTX 970 too. May I ask what was the issue?

Edit I've noticed in MSI Afterburner that the most demanding game I have, which is AC:Unity played at maximum settings is only ever able to use 3266MB of my GPU's RAM , never more. I thought this was weird given that the card was apparently equipped with 4GB VRAM, but given my lack of computer know-how I never paid much attention to it - I guess I just thought 970 is even more powerful that everyone said and doesn't need to use more : ] Heh.

Damn.

That's about it. Depending on the manifestation of the problem in different applications and tests, either you won't get memory above 3.5GB or whatever the limit is, or you'll get the memory but performance will be degraded severely.

At least one nVidia engineer knows about the problem, but there has been no official acknowledgement, and the just-released 347.25 does not mention it in the release notes.

 

[eskiMoe]

I would carefully read the terms and conditions of any future driver update before installing them. Nvidia might have added lines such as "By installing this software the user promises to withhold any legal actions against Nvidia corporation blah blah blah.." like Ubisoft did with the AC:U "freebies".

EDIT:

Just sent a rather aggressive email to the store I bought the cards from. Explained the issue, provided them with the links to different threads about it, attached a picture from the VRAM test and accused them of false advertising (even if isn't really their fault tbh) and demanded a full refund or exchanging my 970s for a couple of GTX 980s.

And now we play the waiting game..

 

[Tar-Aellin]

I have set up a system recently and i am getting blackouts for 3-4 seconds randomly. It is not constant, once in a day, sometimes not even happening but it kind of worried me. Could it be a driver related issue? What could it be related to?

Specs(which are newly bought ones):
proc: Intel i5 - 4460
mobo: MSI Z97 PC Mate
gpu: MSI GTX 970
psu: Corsair CX600 Bronze 80 Plus
ram: GSkill 2x4gb 1866 Mhz
hdd: WD Black 500gb (the only old one, 5 and a half years old)

 

[Scholdarr.452]

I have set up a system recently and i am getting blackouts for 3-4 seconds randomly. It is not constant, once in a day, sometimes not even happening but it kind of worried me. Could it be a driver related issue? What could it be related to?

Specs(which are newly bought ones):
proc: Intel i5 - 4460
mobo: MSI Z97 PC Mate
gpu: MSI GTX 970
psu: Corsair CX600 Bronze 80 Plus
ram: GSkill 2x4gb 1866 Mhz
hdd: WD Black 500gb (the only old one, 5 and a half years old)

How do you connect your GPU to your monitor? It could be a cable/connection/monitor issue.

 

[volsung]

I have MSI GTX 970 too. May I ask what was the issue?

GPU issues started as occassional weird behavior in games, specially under Wasteland 2 (which I interpreted as a driver crash). Experienced a few complete system shutdowns, unrelated to temperature (less than 65º C all the time). Started playing Age of Wonders 3 late in December and the computer would simply shutdown after a few minutes. Stopped playing it thinking it was my PSU. Played other things including the complimentary Far Cry 4, which worked OK but showed some weird flickering in January, along with more shutdowns.

Took the computer to a technician I know, to diagnose the PSU and video card. After installing my new PSU, the computer would turn on but there would be no video signal at all. We mixed and matched parts and everything but the GPU worked.

So my RMA request was based on artifacts, flickering, complete shutdowns and lack of video signal. Quite a list actually. And now it seems all freaking 970's have this memory allocation issue.

 

[eskiMoe]

AMD must be happy at the moment. Nvidia struggling right before the launch of their next GPU lineup.

 

[sidspyker]

I think we have the same CPU (Phenom II X6 1090T) and I managed to OC to 3.7 GHz with all 6 cores using 1.425 v, and it has been stable for years. Recently tried increasing it to 3.8 and 1.475 v. and it didn't work quite as well. I think my motherboard has some voltage issues.

Also I use a Thermaltake Contac 30 heatsink with one 120mm fan and temperatures never go above 55º. I had no idea what I was doing but this CPU seems to overclock easily.

Yeah same CPU alright., I disabled the 2 cores just to try and see if it made a difference. Well the difference I have noticed so far is that the system generally performs faster than with 6 cores and the lower TDP is nice. I tried 3.8Ghz and it crashed after an hour of Prime95. 3.6Ghz has been running for 16 hours as we speak, here's hoping it makes the full 24. screw it, it's a very minor OC anyway, let me try and be more aggressive.

As for the GTX970 yeah I'm pretty bummed out, here's hoping they can do something about it. THEY HAVE TO.

---------- Updated at 11:08 AM ----------

I have a feeling this new test of mine is going to fail hard

 

[DuranA.111]

Well seems Nvidia screwed up big time with the 900 series.

I was looking to purchase a card in the series but I suppose I will not be doing so. That said I am wondering which of the companies making Nvidia is the best pick? I would like to know who has the best fans ( in terms of heat and noise reduction ) and overall performance?

 

[eskiMoe]

As for the GTX970 yeah I'm pretty bummed out, here's hoping they can do something about it. THEY HAVE TO.

Well it doesn't look good tbh. If it's a hardware problem then what can they do?

At this point I just hope zee germans will refund my 970s..

 

[sidspyker]

If it's a hardware problem then what can they do?

Call back?
Replace it?
SOMETHING to avoid lawsuits?

Moving on, screw that last test, I wasn't comfortable with the temperatures and it wasn't 'acting' stable, applications were crashing, browser extensions were crashing.

Dialled it down a bit.
CPU 3.7GHz@1.425v, Northbridge 3GHz(everyone says AMD loves NB OC) but instead of making the HT Link match that, I've kept that at 2GHz, that seems to have stabilized it so far.

 

[GuyNwah]

Well seems Nvidia screwed up big time with the 900 series.

I was looking to purchase a card in the series but I suppose I will not be doing so. That said I am wondering which of the companies making Nvidia is the best pick? I would like to know who has the best fans ( in terms of heat and noise reduction ) and overall performance?

The 900 series is not defective; that's FUD. The 970 is the only card subject to the problem. The 980 performs all the way up to the full 4GB VRAM. Nothing wrong with the 980.

Even though EVGA has long been nVidia's flagship manufacturer, and they still have the best warranties and customer support going, other manufacturers have better cooling implementations that run quieter and cooler. Gigabyte G1 and MSI 4G models are the best of these. ASUS, Palit, and Zotac are not far behind, though I really dislike Zotac support. With any high-end card, you should make sure it will fit your case; the Gigabyte is 312mm long.

 

[eskiMoe]

Call back?
Replace it?
SOMETHING to avoid lawsuits?

My guess?

They try to shift the blame somehow. Or just ignore the issue altogether.

 

[sidspyker]

Yeah, the Gigabyte one is LOOOOOOOOOOOONG

 

[GuyNwah]

My guess?

They try to shift the blame somehow. Or just ignore the issue altogether.

nVidia got blindsided by this (doesn't make it not their fault, but you have to understand that they were unprepared for it) and isn't going to make any substantive comment until they at least understand the problem. Nobody should expect them to make matters even worse by making uninformed guesses in public as to what is wrong, and when and how they will fix it. Patience is not only a virtue but a necessity when you buy leading-edge products.

 

[sidspyker]

http://techreport.com/news/27721/nvidia-admits-explains-geforce-gtx-970-memory-allocation-issue

 

[eskiMoe]

http://techreport.com/news/27721/nvidia-admits-explains-geforce-gtx-970-memory-allocation-issue

Love the first (and only) comment on the article:

"Does this mean that 8 GB 970's won't happen?"

lmao.

But this is pretty much how I imagined Nvidia to respond. Ignore the issue and call it a "feature".

At this point I guess there's no chance of getting a refund or exchanging the cards. Unless your lucky with your retailer.

 

[sidspyker]

Honestly seeing the results in the Guru3D thread, it's not something specific to the 970, people with cards from older architectures 5, 6, 7 whatever showed similar results, now I don't know what to make of it.