GTX 970 VRAM Fixed?

[K0MP4CT]

I'm just curious to know if the GTX 970 3.5GB of fast VRAM has been "fixed" as in, the whole 4GB of VRAM is the same quality/speed. I'm aware older 970's will still have the issue, but are aftermarket 970's (EVGA or MSI for example) different? I hope this makes sense, it isn't really explained that well

[paradigm249]

it hasnt. and i believe it never will

[crystal6tak]

No, it's not. It's also not something the third party retailers have control over. Only Nvidia can fix this.

[Oshino Shinobu]

It would invlove a pretty big re-design of the card (or rather the GPU), which isn't something that board partners can do. AFAIK, the issue isn't with the vRAM itself, but rather how the GPU can access it. 

[minibois]

No it has not been 'fixed', it's still the same card.

I believe it as a hardware problem with the architecture/how the card is set up anyways

[K0MP4CT]

Just now, crystal6tak said:

No, it's not. It's also not something the third party retailers have control over. Only Nvidia can fix this.

That's a shame. I'm aware that Nvidia are moving forward with their cards but the 970 has always been a good option for the middle between medium and high end cards. You'd think they'd want to fix it. I guess not.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Just now, K0MP4CT said:

That's a shame. I'm aware that Nvidia are moving forward with their cards but the 970 has always been a good option for the middle between medium and high end cards. You'd think they'd want to fix it. I guess not.

Pretty sure it's a matter of money, rather than them not wanting to fix it. It's not an issue most users encounter, anyway, so maybe they don't really see it as an issue.

[don_svetlio]

Not fixed and likely never will be. People are buying it even though it's a fundamentally flawed design

[Starelementpoke]

1 minute ago, K0MP4CT said:

That's a shame. I'm aware that Nvidia are moving forward with their cards but the 970 has always been a good option for the middle between medium and high end cards. You'd think they'd want to fix it. I guess not.

Nah, they just drop the card the next time the new architecture comes out.

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, K0MP4CT said:

That's a shame. I'm aware that Nvidia are moving forward with their cards but the 970 has always been a good option for the middle between medium and high end cards. You'd think they'd want to fix it. I guess not.

If people were to vote with their wallets then Nvidia would be forced to do something about it

[Albatross]

I thought it doesn't need to be fixed anyways, because of the performance?

[AlTech]

Just now, Albatross said:

I thought it doesn't need to be fixed anyways, because of the performance?

Still has issues apparently

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, Albatross said:

I thought it doesn't need to be fixed anyways, because of the performance?

It does - games aren't getting less demanding - the issue will affect everyone at some point and it will be a pain

[AlTech]

7 minutes ago, K0MP4CT said:

That's a shame. I'm aware that Nvidia are moving forward with their cards but the 970 has always been a good option for the middle between medium and high end cards. You'd think they'd want to fix it. I guess not.

The x70 and above are high end cards.

 

the x50 and x60 cards are the "md range" cards.

[byalexandr]

They can't 'fix' it, it's a hardware limitation and was made by design. That's Nvidia's shitty ethics right there, one of the reasons I hate that card (but Nvidia makes good cards, please don't kill me).

[KemoKa]

It's a hardware issue coming from the fact that the 970 is based on a kneecapped GM204 chip. It just doesn't have the physical capability of accessing more than 3.5GB of memory at full speed.

[K0MP4CT]

5 minutes ago, byalexandr said:

They can't 'fix' it, it's a hardware limitation and was made by design. That's Nvidia's shitty ethics right there, one of the reasons I hate that card (but Nvidia makes good cards, please don't kill me).

I'm aware that it's a hardware design flaw. I just thought they could change it for the next "batch" of cards. I guess it's a bit late now.

[stealth80]

22 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

If people were to vote with their wallets then Nvidia would be forced to do something about it

Why would they need to? The card performs as it did in the release benchmarks. People don't buy according to model details, they research and buy according to results/benchmarks. The card still performs as it did, there is nothing to fix

 

Also the majority of owners have never encountered this make believe scenario lol

[don_svetlio]

Just now, stealth80 said:

Why would they need to? The card performs as it did in the release benchmarks. People don't buy according to model details, they research and buy according to results/benchmarks. The card still performs as it did, there is nothing to fix

 

Also the majority of owners have never encountered this make believe scenario lol

Give it a year - I bet ya as soon as 4GB is the minimum, my 860M will be a better GPU than a 970

[xAcid9]

9 minutes ago, K0MP4CT said:

I'm aware that it's a hardware design flaw. I just thought they could change it for the next "batch" of cards. I guess it's a bit late now.

It's a design decision instead of flaw, what flawed is how they advertised it.

The fixed version is called GTX980 btw.

[stealth80]

Just now, don_svetlio said:

Give it a year - I bet ya as soon as 4GB is the minimum, my 860M will be a better GPU than a 970

By the time 4gb is the minimum the card will be irrelevant anyway

[byalexandr]

11 minutes ago, K0MP4CT said:

I'm aware that it's a hardware design flaw. I just thought they could change it for the next "batch" of cards. I guess it's a bit late now.

They won't do that because all the people with the older cards would start bitching. That and the only way to slow down the card to that price point is by disabling that .5GB (or slowing it down for all you touchy people).