Maximum PC: Sometimes the tech world can be like a geek version of a soap opera, and this is one of those times. The main characters in this case are Nvidia and the GeForce GTX 970. If you're looking for a quick summary of events, it's this: Gamers noticed a slowdown in performance when games tried to access more than 3.5GB of memory on the GTX 970. This in turn led to Nvidia explaining a new memory architecture in the GTX 970, along with clarification of specs that were different than originally reported. In light of all this, there's a petition floating around demanding a refund for anyone who purchased a GTX 970, but to really understand what's going on, a deeper explanation is necessary.
TechFrag - When GTX 970 was launched back in Sep 14, it attracted a lot of consumer base mainly because of the staggering performance it provides per dollar and the power performance ratio was immense too. Nvidia really outdid AMD with its new Maxwell technology.
Seems like Asus is on the roll. After announcing the GTX 980 20th Anniversary Gold Edition yesterday; the company’s back with another GPU that is dubbed as Asus GTX 970 Turbo. The GPU comes with a design that is quite close to the reference design and the entire shroud is white along with accents of red. As for the cooling; the card is using the blower type cooling design, the PCB itself look short.
Maximum PC: Nvidia really stepped in a pile of PR poo when it was discovered that there was an internal communication gaffe over the way the GeForce GTX 970 handles its 4GB of onboard memory and the resulting specs. In short, the GTX 970 has 56 ROPs and 1,792KB of L2 cache instead of matching the GTX 980's 64 ROPs and 2,048KB of L2 cache as originally advertised. However, Nvidia wants to make things right and has offered to help GTX 970 owners obtain a refund, if need be. Should you go that route?
1 error could be classed as a mistake but by the sound of it they have misrepresented this card on multiple issues & specs.
Has it also been found that the advertised 4gb VRAM is actually partitioned for some reason as well?
Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome card & I plan to upgrade to it. However no company no matter who they are should be allowed to misrepresent their products without being prosecuted with the full extent of the law. After all they have several departments including thousands of people that this "accident" slipped though without anyone noticing or speaking up.
Anyone in business will tell you if they are so willing to get people refunds then they know they have potentially ripped people off & are trying not to get sued.
They got discovered and they need to play nice if they want to avoid a law suit. A price drop is the right thing to do.
