NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 and the 3.5GB memory issue

[Chuckazulu]

In light of the 3.5GB memory issue, do you think this will affect the card's performance significantly or it's not much of a big deal and average users will not notice the fault?

 

[nikoli707]

name "other" card in comparison? there is non except the 780 or 290 which is roughly equal to the 970. obviously the 970 is slightly better, but not by a large enough margin to notice in most games.

still the 970 is a great card for its price, though you can get 290s for quite a bit less. 290s will not overclock, run hot, and consume a little more power, but i dont think they are a bad choice at all for the average user.

otherwise i dont think the vram issue is that big of a deal.

 

[Rit_86]

The difference will be noticeable only if you game on a resolution higher than 1080p / multi monitor setup, in certain peak demand situations and thus the average user will not notice the issue.
That said however, it is an unforgivable fault from Nvidia's part as the consumer is paying for the full fast 4gb and not a "faster" 3.5gb and a "slower" 0.5gb.
Also keep in mind that 2880p and 4k monitors are becoming more and more common and thus anyone planning to keep the 970 for a long term and buying a higher res monitor later will notice the issue.

 

[junkeymonkey]

if the memory issue is across the board with the 970 you would feel the cards tested had this issue also , so all the bench tests you see should hold true still..

to me the 970 overall looks like junk always some issue some how some where-- and luck of the draw with them is more important then ever with one

then remember the 970 is made of parts that don't cut it for a 980 and then hand me dowm to make the 970

 

[DRL14]

The vram issue is a basically marketing a 3.5 GB card as a 4 GB card, probably intentionally. If I had known about the lower memory I would have bought a r9 290. So yes nvidia has caused AMD to lose sales by misrepresentation which is a very dishonest thing to do. I am therefore never buying from nvidia again and I hope all those who bought the gtx 970 will not let this issue rest.

 

[Chuckazulu]

Its really disappointing and totally misleading but @junkeymonkey is probably right that if the issue affects every card then the bench tests still stand and that's not too bad IMO.

Anyway i was planning to get the card but I started having second thoughts. Considering this could still be the best price to performance card, i think I'll still go for it. Thanks for the help guys