Should I RMA my GTX 970?

[U6b36ef]

Dear TH folks, please can I have your opinion on this?

My 970 hit RAM-gate while playing Shadow of Mordor. It clocked down because of the slow RAM, and when affected was unplayable. other games soon may start to hit RAM-gate too. I am worried Serious Sam 4 will, because The Talos principle uses 3.3GB. Crysis 3 used up to 3.3GB.

I did not know of RAM-gate when I got the card as I have had it some time. Otherwise I doubt I would have bought the 970.

Secondly, I noticed the card makes a screechy noise when the frame rate gets too high. I discovered this recently because I read that v-sync causes input lag. I tried turning off v-sync and my frame rates shot up e.g. when in pause menus on games.

I do not know if it is coil whine. I searched for coil whine on youtube. I wrote to Asus and they told me if I don't think it's coil whine I should return it.

Having said that some people return their cards even with coil whine. However I can stop mine making a noise by using v-sync, whatever the cause is.

Anyway I contacted the retailer that sold me the card and they offered me a return. Please do you think I should return it and maybe buy a GTX 980. I do not want another 970 that suffers RAM-gate for sure.

I can't make up my mind if I am being mean. I have had the card almost exactly a year, and can just return it in warranty. What do people think please.

I am not sure.

 

[U6b36ef]

who'd you buy from? did you buy it before or after the ramgate story broke?

Amazon.co.uk

I bought it last November long before RAM-gate.

I just ran the first 3D Mark after just having installed the Asus Strix GTX 980. It was silent. I was surprised. I am unbelievably happy.

The screechy sort of noise that was on my 970 is gone 99.5%. I could just faintly hear it when I put my ear inside the case next to the card. With the 970 is was audible while gaming with the case closed. With the 970, 3D Mark was noisy quite a bit of the way through. It sounded like a fizzing sort of noise mixed with a not too loud screech.

It seems to run quieter on the fans too. However I can't be sure of that and I should test it by manually setting the fans.

 

[13thmonkey]

who'd you buy from? did you buy it before or after the ramgate story broke?

Amazon.co.uk

I bought it last November long before RAM-gate.

I just ran the first 3D Mark after just having installed the Asus Strix GTX 980. It was silent. I was surprised. I am unbelievably happy.

The screechy sort of noise that was on my 970 is gone 99.5%. I could just faintly hear it when I put my ear inside the case next to the card. With the 970 is was audible while gaming with the case closed. With the 970, 3D Mark was noisy quite a bit of the way through. It sounded like a fizzing sort of noise mixed with a not too loud screech.

It seems to run quieter on the fans too. However I can't be sure of that and I should test it by manually setting the fans.

it will depend on the voltage solution of the card, i've got one of the overclockers.co.uk 970's with the high end blower on it, very quiet, very nice.

 

[dudeman509]

who'd you buy from? did you buy it before or after the ramgate story broke?

Amazon.co.uk

I bought it last November long before RAM-gate.

I just ran the first 3D Mark after just having installed the Asus Strix GTX 980. It was silent. I was surprised. I am unbelievably happy.

The screechy sort of noise that was on my 970 is gone 99.5%. I could just faintly hear it when I put my ear inside the case next to the card. With the 970 is was audible while gaming with the case closed. With the 970, 3D Mark was noisy quite a bit of the way through. It sounded like a fizzing sort of noise mixed with a not too loud screech.

It seems to run quieter on the fans too. However I can't be sure of that and I should test it by manually setting the fans.

Just tried 3DMark on mine. It's pretty quiet honestly - I really have to put my head right next to the card (Zotac 970 AMP) in the back of the computer to hear a slight screeching noise.

I have heard "coil whine" when alt-tabbing out of a game loading screen or something of the like. That's audible from monitor-level.

 

[U6b36ef]

It sounds like 13th monkey and dudeman509 got good cards. Really good cards. I have now. I am going to keep my fingers crossed it lasts and doesn't break down mysteriously for no reason.

I was playing Warhammer Vermintide tonight and that pulled 3.65GB video RAM. It might not be long before 4GB is out of date haha.

Also I left GPU-Z running while I was playing about tonight. The 980 fans got up to 47%, but I can't recall hearing them. That's with my case fans on 5V, (out 5v, 7v, and 12v settings.) Whereas my 970 was audible at 47%.

It cost £100 more that the 970 but it was worth it. I was vaguely looking at the MSI 980 Ti, which I think would have fit my case. However with me having a hassle free card, I have no regrets.

 

[U6b36ef]

I kept meaning to come back for ages to say that the GTX980 is still being fantastic. Just the best graphics card ever. It still has a new card smell when it gets heated up, like and oily smell, and I even love that. It's that smell it has when it comes out of the box new.

I am playing The Witcher 3 at the moment. It is capable of maxing everything and running 33-60fps in 1080p. However I discovered Geralt looks better without hairworks and hairworks AA, so I switched that off. Now I get about 43-60 fps, and can even run it in 1440p DSR.

I barely hear it when it's under max stress in The Witcher 3, and when the card fans get over 50%. If I put my PC case fans on, the card fan won't go over 45%, and are still silent.

I remember back to when I had an Asus V9950 GeForce FX5900 Ultra 256. It played Doom 3 maxed out. I love this card more though. A lot more.