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Wait to buy an nVidia GTX970 Graphics card. Big Problems!
11 years ago
General
So I built myself a nice new custom computer... And then it began to drive me crazy! I could not get games like the Batman Arkham series, or texture modded Skyrim, or Far Cry 3 & 4 to run smoothly without lowering settings below what an older 760 card could run on ultra! After going through 3 different GTX970 4GB cards from Asus and EVGA that either had weird stuttering in games at 1080p the second they hit 3.4GB of usage, or stuttering AND massive coil whine and fan noise (like an angry hornet's nest)... I thought, something is weird here with the reference card (original design) at this point.
Well lo and behold nVidia screwed the pooch on the GTX970, selling it as a 4GB graphics card with the same rops and processing of a GTX980 (the 980 being over $250 more than the 970) when in all reality it had absolutely LESS of everything they said it had, less rops, less VRAM only 3.4GB is recognizable by games (they have a lesser speed 500mb section that causes the stutter and even black screen hard reset crashing).
I even tested it for myself between an older 4gb gtx760 and the 3 970s I tried out. DXDIAG 64 Saw 4096MB available (on board usable) VRAM on the 760 while it only saw 3367MB on the 970! What this means is that while the processing power of the 970 is 10-15% better (on paper) than the 760, the moment the 970 asks for 100% it only gets 7/8ths of that and the old 760 then blasts right past it.
nVidia then admitted multiple times that they were working on a fix, just to turn around a few days later and say they are not only NOT making a fix but that they NEVER will and then continued to do terrible damage control telling people that "1080p games would run fine and NEVER have a problem with the VRAM" and that "it's only a 1-3% difference between the 970 and 980 cards." Even when me and others are sitting at our computers with actual proof they are bullshitting.
Needless to say, if you are thinking of buying ANY of the gtx970 graphics cards, DON'T!
Supposedly nVidia is going to have some interesting Q1 releases to compete with this $300 AMD 8GB graphics card everyone seems to know is coming out but has no info on. So I would say I'll wait for the 8GB 970 if it is priced competitively that is "supposed" to come out in March or April before upgrading, because an 8GB 970 would make this computer future proof for quite a few years.. But only if all 8GB are usable. Likely the "next" next gen consoles will be coming out by the time I would need or want to upgrade.
This is the first time in YEARS I have actually thought of going back to AMD, but I really don't need a buggy, incompatible, mess of a room heater in my computer. The last AMD I had fused into the socket and would cause the lights to dim in the house... I think it might have been trying to time travel.
Well lo and behold nVidia screwed the pooch on the GTX970, selling it as a 4GB graphics card with the same rops and processing of a GTX980 (the 980 being over $250 more than the 970) when in all reality it had absolutely LESS of everything they said it had, less rops, less VRAM only 3.4GB is recognizable by games (they have a lesser speed 500mb section that causes the stutter and even black screen hard reset crashing).
I even tested it for myself between an older 4gb gtx760 and the 3 970s I tried out. DXDIAG 64 Saw 4096MB available (on board usable) VRAM on the 760 while it only saw 3367MB on the 970! What this means is that while the processing power of the 970 is 10-15% better (on paper) than the 760, the moment the 970 asks for 100% it only gets 7/8ths of that and the old 760 then blasts right past it.
nVidia then admitted multiple times that they were working on a fix, just to turn around a few days later and say they are not only NOT making a fix but that they NEVER will and then continued to do terrible damage control telling people that "1080p games would run fine and NEVER have a problem with the VRAM" and that "it's only a 1-3% difference between the 970 and 980 cards." Even when me and others are sitting at our computers with actual proof they are bullshitting.
Needless to say, if you are thinking of buying ANY of the gtx970 graphics cards, DON'T!
Supposedly nVidia is going to have some interesting Q1 releases to compete with this $300 AMD 8GB graphics card everyone seems to know is coming out but has no info on. So I would say I'll wait for the 8GB 970 if it is priced competitively that is "supposed" to come out in March or April before upgrading, because an 8GB 970 would make this computer future proof for quite a few years.. But only if all 8GB are usable. Likely the "next" next gen consoles will be coming out by the time I would need or want to upgrade.
This is the first time in YEARS I have actually thought of going back to AMD, but I really don't need a buggy, incompatible, mess of a room heater in my computer. The last AMD I had fused into the socket and would cause the lights to dim in the house... I think it might have been trying to time travel.
What sucks is the 970 is a really good card for the money and in theory... Up till it needs over 3.4GB of VRAM, then it turns into the worst I've seen in years, I've even been seeing artifacts which I have not seen for years in games.
One for one, nVidia has been punching AMD in the balls for years so it is funny to see all the AMD guys going "OMG see! You aren't gods anymore and screwed up, we are now the best!" As they roast marshmallows over their AMD cards.
Likely what nVidia will do is quietly phase out the current 970s for whatever the biggest best thing they are "supposedly" releasing in the next few months is, because the threat of false advertising class action lawsuits are very real for them right now, but a full recall would bring even more unwanted attention to them. From what I've heard through my various tech tendrils they are just going to release a driver that officially unoffically turns the advertised 4GB 970s into 3.5GB cards by either disabling the 500MB slower VRAM completely or trying to load all the drivers and "behind the scenes processing" (someone from nVidia actually called it that) into said 500MB section so games will run smoother while essentially just being 3.5GB. Though that kind of screws over anyone that wants to game above 1080p and that supposed 10-15% improvement over the series or two below them will essentially vanish and be more like 5-10% at most.