Refunds on Nvidia’s GTX 970

[LongBlade]

Nvidia and their hardware partners have remained mum about the furor buzzing around the GeForce GTX 970, but it looks like at least some disgruntled customers are receiving refunds for their graphics cards, courtesy of point-of-sale e-tailers like Amazon and Newegg.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Nvidia was also slapped with a class action lawsuit alleging false advertising of the GTX 970's capabilities late last week.

A quick catch-up: Nvidia's GTX 970 launched to universal acclaim for its stunning blend of power efficiency, pure performance, and a (comparatively cheap) $330 starting price point. In fact, the GTX 970 was so competitive that AMD was immediately forced to shave hundreds of dollars off its flagship Radeon graphics cards.

But gamers soon started noticing something amiss. Whenever the 4GB GTX 970 inched past 3.5GB of memory use, games began stuttering in certain scenarios. Nvidia was eventually forced to admit that the card actually uses a—let's say unconventional—memory design that splits the memory into two pools: A full-speed 3.5GB segment and a far slower 512MB segment. More concerning, Nvidia also revealed that the GTX 970 technical specifications sent to reviewers were incorrect and exaggerated due to an internal communications error. These facts came to light four month's after the card's launch.

source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2887142/amazon-newegg-apparently-offering-refunds-due-to-nvidia-gtx-970-memory-issue.html

[Huw the Poo]

Wow.  Did they really expect to get away with that?  Most people buying that card are going to be the kind who will benchmark the shit out of them.

[endfire79]

I'll stick with the GTX 750 Ti :)

[Asid]

SHOCKING interview with Nvidia engineer about the 970 fiasco

Hitler Reacts To The GTX 970 Being 3.5GB + .5GB
http://youtu.be/tNGi06cq_pQ

Language warning!

[Jarhead0331]

Sad thing is, its still a great card. Stupid to have let something like this happen.

[Toonces]

I'll stick with the GTX 750 Ti :)

GTX 560Ti FTW!

[Nefaro]

Sad thing is, its still a great card. Stupid to have let something like this happen.

Agreed.

Spending the extra time to hobble one of your product's performance, to make your higher-priced models continue to sell, is pretty shady stuff.

I'm glad some of the owners called them on this.  Hopefully it will make them think twice about doing it in the future.

[Asid]

Nvidia tried to disable overclocking of laptop GPU's but there was a backlash...

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/nvidia-enables-laptop-overclocking-again-after-critique.html

[endfire79]

Overclocking a laptop GPU - this is risky.  I understand on a desktop type rig or box , but a laptop?  Small tight area, not very good cooling - how much performance increase can a user get and at what cost? 

It sounds like Nvidia at least listens to their customer base's responses and criticisms and allowed the feature again. 

[JasonPratt]

I'll stick with the GTX 750 Ti :)

GTX 560Ti FTW!

{checking The Presence} {over a year since I bought it so I've forgotten what's under the hood}

GTX 690 SLI. Whew?  :-\

[sandman2575]

Overclocking a laptop GPU - this is risky.  I understand on a desktop type rig or box , but a laptop?  Small tight area, not very good cooling - how much performance increase can a user get and at what cost? 

Exactly. Risk frying your $2K gaming laptop for the benefit of an extra 3-4FPS. Unwise.

The whole gtx970 thing seems like such a tempest in a teapot to me.

EDIT -- Jason you have 690 sli??  Isn't the 690 already a dual-gpu card?  Are you powering a NORAD array of 4K monitors with that?   :o

[Jarhead0331]

The whole gtx970 thing seems like such a tempest in a teapot to me.

I agree. It seems like a great card for the price. I'm still thinking about buying one.

[republic]

I keep thinking I want to upgrade my GTX 660, but nothing really runs slow.  :\

I remember when in the 90's when a few months could make your computer worthless...now I'm a couple years into a build and everything is fine.

[Asid]

Exactly. Risk frying your $2K gaming laptop for the benefit of an extra 3-4FPS. Unwise.

It is about choice.

The whole gtx970 thing seems like such a tempest in a teapot to me.

It is about being misled

Regards

[sandman2575]

Not saying Nvidia didn't screw up, they clearly did. But the reaction from gamers seems a tad out of proportion to the crime.

But I admit I'm an inveterate "Team Green"-er, so I have a little bias...