Nvidia’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has posted an open letter on his company’s blog addressing concerns over the GTX 970.

Nvidia and its add-in-board partners have faced a rough month because of the GTX 970 and its lack of advertised memory. Initially, in late January, Nvidia denied any problems with the card, however a few days later the company issued another press statement acknowledging it didn’t communicate specifications correctly and offered a driver update.

“We invented a new memory architecture in Maxwell. This new capability was created so that reduced-configurations of Maxwell can have a larger framebuffer – i.e., so that GTX 970 is not limited to 3GB, and can have an additional 1GB. GTX 970 is a 4GB card,” Huang wrote. “However, the upper 512MB of the additional 1GB is segmented and has reduced bandwidth. This is a good design because we were able to add an additional 1GB for GTX 970 and our software engineers can keep less frequently used data in the 512MB segment.”

Huang blamed a lack of proper communication with the press and reviewers for the confusion.

“Instead of being excited that we invented a way to increase memory of the GTX 970 from 3GB to 4GB, some were disappointed that we didn’t better describe the segmented nature of the architecture for that last 1GB of memory,” he wrote.

“This new feature of Maxwell should have been clearly detailed from the beginning.”

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Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is under fire for incorrectly listing the specs of the GTX 970, and while the manufacturer has announced that it will provide a way for users to return the card to those looking to do so, that does not seem to extend to a majority of Nvidia’s partners around the globe.

Major retailers such as Amazon and NewEgg are offering refunds to any user looking to return the GTX 970, but in countries like India, customers are left to fend for themselves as retailers are refusing to process returns.

The issue with the GTX 970 is that Nvidia implemented a new memory segmentation in the card, which meant that the 4GB available memory was sectioned into a 3.5GB segment and a 512MB segment. The memory controllers in the 3.5GB segment have direct access to the L2 cache, and deliver an advertised bandwidth of 196GB/s, but the last 512MB has to interface with another memory controller to access the cache, leading to a drastic reduction in bandwidth to 28GB/s.

The situation is more pronounced when a user has the two or more GTX 970 cards in SLI, with a noticeable decrease in framerates when gaming at higher resolutions. Indian hardware site HardwareBBQ posted a conversation between a user facing such issues with the GTX 970 in SLI, and his failed attempts to get a refund for the card. The conversation starts off with the user talking to an Nvidia engineer on the GeForce forums, after which he is redirected to talk to the card vendor directly to initiate the refund process (which in this case is Zotac India).

However, the e-mail communique results in the technical manager for Zotac India, Swarn Singh, refusing to provide a refund as the GTX 970 was delivered “as it is written on the box with all specification.” The user was redirected to contact Nvidia, with Singh stating that a refund would be entertained only if the card suffered from any warranty-related issues. A discussion with an Nvidia engineer based out of India by the name of Rajaram also fails to yield any results, with the engineer stating that it is not “possible to suffer lag (microstutters) when the FPS is high” on the GTX 970.

Zotac India’s stubbornness in acknowledging an issue exists with the GTX 970 is alarming, considering that the brand is one of several vendors processing returns on a global level. The situation is exacerbated when taken into account the fact that video cards often carry a markup of 30 to 35% in the country.

Furthermore, Nvidia claimed that it would assist users that were unable to claim a return for their GTX 970, but the conversations with retailers and discussions on message boards in India show that the chip manufacturer is not offering a solution to users who purchased the card in the country.

With card vendors like Zotac directing users back to Nvidia and the chip vendor not providing any recourse regarding the issue, Indian users are largely left in the cold when it comes to dealing with returns or refunds for the beleaguered GTX 970.

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At CES, MSI (TPE: 2377) announced that it had sold 100 million Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) video cards. To commemorate the milestone, the vendor is launching limited edition GTX 970 and GTX 960 with a bright green color scheme that matches Nvidia’s logo.

Both cards feature MSI’s Twin Frozr V design, and come with technologies such as Zero Frozr – which aims to eliminate noise by disabling the fans when not under load. There’s also dual 100mm Torx fans, as well as a custom backplate that is designed to improve structural rigidity. Along with the green color scheme, MSi has stated that it will include a “gift for dedicated MSI fans” with each video card that is included in the box.

The GTX 970 is based on the GM204 GPU and has a core clock of 1,140 MHz with a boost clock of 1,279 MHz. There’s 4GB GDDR5 video memory clocked at 7.0 GHz, and connectivity includes DL-DVI-D, DL-DVI-I, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2.

MSI’s limited edition GTX 960 has the GM206 GPU, which features a much smaller die size aimed at maximizing energy efficiency. The card’s core clock is 1,216 MHz, with boost clock at 1,279 MHz. Video memory is at 2GB, and connectivity is in the form of DL-DVI-I, HDMI and 3x DisplayPort 1.2.

These aren’t the first limited edition GTX 900 series cards MSI has launched, as the vendor introduced the golden GTX 970 in November 2014. As is often the case with such editions, the 100 million commemorative editions of the GTX 970 and GTX 960 will likely command a premium over the standard cards.

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AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) is rumored to announce its next-generation video cards sometime later this quarter, but until such time the vendor is intent on making the best of its main rival’s woes. It has reduced prices of the R9 290X, which is now being offered for under $300.

Following Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) troubles over the GTX 970 VRAM allocation issue, AMD’s head of global technical marketing Robert Hallock tweeted an image highlighting the fact that with AMD, “4 GB means 4 GB.”

pic.twitter.com/DYOR0MhrtM

— Robert Hallock (@Thracks) January 28, 2015

The snide remark was over the memory allocation controversy Nvidia found itself in with the GTX 970 after it was discovered that users were unable to access the entire 4GB memory. To differentiate the GTX 970 from the high-end GTX 980, Nvidia lowered the L2 cache and segmented the memory differently. Limiting the cache led to the memory being segmented into two chunks, with the 3.5GB portion able to access the cache directly, and the 512Mb section having to interlace with another memory controller to access the cache. This interweaving meant that the last 512MB was slower than the rest of the VRAM, and that both segments could not be read simultaneously, effectively limiting the memory to 3.5GB.

This understandably frustrated a lot of customers, who for all intents thought that the GTX 970 was able to access the entire 4GB memory. Nvidia did its best to clarify the situation, providing benchmarks to suggest that there wasn’t a marked difference in framerates, but the fact that the vendor did not communicate the limitations before selling the card drew the ire of several users.

AMD is now cashing in on the debacle by pricing the R9 290X lower than the GTX 970. The R9 290X, which is still one of the fastest single-card solutions available in the market, features a 512-bit wide memory bus (unlike the 256-bit wide memory interface of the GTX 970), and can deliver a bandwidth of 320 GB/s, while the GTX 970 maxes out at 196 GB/s. With the same card selling for twice as much for most of last year, it is certainly an effective marketing move by AMD.

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After issuing a statement talking about the differences between the GTX 980 and GTX 970 over the weekend, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is now clarifying where the problem originated in terms of the VRAM allocation issues faced by several owners of the GTX 970.

Error in communication

The issue arose when Nvidia’s technical marketing team — which sent out reviewer’s guides to members of the press — was unaware of the changes in the Maxwell architecture, mainly the ability to individually disable ROPs. This meant that the actual ROP count, which was 56, was miscommunicated as 64. The L2 cache was also stated as being 2MB, when in fact it was 1.75MB.

The difference in ROP count is not due to the fact that they are unavailable, but because they are not used due to limitations with the crossbar. The crossbar – which essentially routes data from the processing clusters to the memory controller – utilizes the L2 cache. The GTX 970 features eight memory controllers of 32-bit bus width each, with each controller allocated a certain segment of the cache for access to the crossbar. By limiting the L2 cache to 1.75MB, Nvidia had to disable access to the cache for one controller, instead routing it to a neighboring memory controller’s cache, making it slower for that controller to access the crossbar.

To then facilitate usage of the entire 4GB VRAM, Nvidia sectioned the memory into two parts, with 3.5GB comprised of memory controllers that had direct access to the L2 cache, and a 512MB segment that had to interface with another memory controller to access the cache. The way Nvidia segmented the VRAM meant that a program could only access one section of the VRAM at a time; meaning that a game could either access the 3.5GB block or the 512MB block, but not both simultaneously. In a scenario when both segments are being read simultaneously, there would be a noticeable decline in performance. This is what led to the abnormal results users noticed in situations where the entire 4GB memory was being accessed.

This leads to a correction in the bandwidth on offer as well, as the GTX 970 cannot deliver 224GB/s due to the slower 512MB memory segment. At best, the 3.5GB section clocked at 7.00 GHz can attain a bandwidth of 196 GB/s.

Nvidia failed to catch the error during the review of the document, which was then disbursed to the press. In the ensuing months, the manufacturer did not notice any issues, as the engineering teams believed that the technical marketing team knew about the changes introduced in the Maxwell architecture. It was not until users started highlighting the VRAM allocation issues that the technical marketing team went back to the reviewer’s guide to check the specifications of the card.

Doing the right thing

While Nvidia was quick to clarify the issue once it was discovered, several users are demanding refunds for what they claim to be is “false advertising.” At this stage, it looks like there is no mention as to how Nvidia will handle the returns, but the vendor is claiming that it will assist users in getting refunds from retailers in situations where they’ve crossed the standard return time window.

For its part, Nvidia has mentioned that it will be rolling out a driver update that will “tune what’s allocated where in memory to further improve performance.” That doesn’t mean that the card itself will not get any faster, seeing as how the memory segmentation is done at the hardware level, but at least Nvidia will be looking to clarify that in a better way to users. The vendor is still stating that the GTX 970 is the best value for money card in the mid-tier segment, and while there’s hardly anyone who would question that statement, it is entirely possible several users would be reticent in buying the card following this debacle.

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After several users found that the GTX 970 was running into severe framerate issues after crossing 3.5GB VRAM in intensive games, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has released a statement mentioning that the card itself is not at fault.

The issue arose out of the fact that the GTX 970 is different from the GTX 980, which uses a fully unlocked GM204 Maxwell GPU with four GPCs. Each GPC contains four Streaming Multiprocessor (SM) units, each in turn housing 128 CUDA cores. The GTX 980, then has 16 SMs and 2,048 CUDA cores. To differentiate the card from the high-end GTX 980, Nvidia disabled a few clusters in the GTX 970, which houses 13 SMs and 1,664 CUDA cores. Along with the decrease in tessellation units, Nvidia lowered the TDP of the card from 165W on the GTX 980 to 145W on the GTX 970.

In doing so, it has been found that the GTX 970 — which features 4GB GDDR5 memory (same as the GTX 980) — is unplayable during high VRAM usage. In games like Shadow of Mordor, Watch Dogs and other recent titles, gamers have found that while the GTX 980 was able to utilize 4GB VRAM, the GTX 970 failed to cross 3.5GB. In situations where the card does have to access the last 500 to 700MB of memory, users noted that the performance was taking a significant hit, with DRAM bandwidth going from 150GB/s to as low as 20GB/s:

Going beyond 3.5GB vram usage in games like Hitman Absolution, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare severely degrades the performance, as if the last 512mb is actually being swapped from the RAM.

In certain scenarios, such as when gaming at 5K resolutions with 8xMSAA, the GTX 970 does indeed seem to be utilizing all of its VRAM, but once again, the framerates were being affected.

Here’s the statement Nvidia provided to the press in full:

The GeForce GTX 970 is equipped with 4GB of dedicated graphics memory.  However the 970 has a different configuration of SMs than the 980, and fewer crossbar resources to the memory system. To optimally manage memory traffic in this configuration, we segment graphics memory into a 3.5GB section and a 0.5GB section.  The GPU has higher priority access to the 3.5GB section.  When a game needs less than 3.5GB of video memory per draw command then it will only access the first partition, and 3^rd party applications that measure memory usage will report 3.5GB of memory in use on GTX 970, but may report more for GTX 980 if there is more memory used by other commands.  When a game requires more than 3.5GB of memory then we use both segments.

We understand there have been some questions about how the GTX 970 will perform when it accesses the 0.5GB memory segment.  The best way to test that is to look at game performance.  Compare a GTX 980 to a 970 on a game that uses less than 3.5GB.  Then turn up the settings so the game needs more than 3.5GB and compare 980 and 970 performance again.

Here’s an example of some performance data:

GTX980	GTX970
Shadows of Mordor
<3.5GB setting = 2688×1512 Very High	72fps	60fps
>3.5GB setting = 3456×1944	55fps (-24%)	45fps (-25%)
Battlefield 4
<3.5GB setting = 3840×2160 2xMSAA	36fps	30fps
>3.5GB setting = 3840×2160 135% res	19fps (-47%)	15fps (-50%)
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
<3.5GB setting = 3840×2160 FSMAA T2x Supersampling off	82fps	71fps
>3.5GB setting = 3840×2160 FSMAA T2x Supersampling on	48fps (-41%)	40fps (-44%)

 

On GTX 980, Shadows of Mordor drops about 24% on GTX 980 and 25% on GTX 970, a 1% difference.  On Battlefield 4, the drop is 47% on GTX 980 and 50% on GTX 970, a 3% difference.  On CoD: AW, the drop is 41% on GTX 980 and 44% on GTX 970, a 3% difference.  As you can see, there is very little change in the performance of the GTX 970 relative to GTX 980 on these games when it is using the 0.5GB segment.

While Nvidia’s statement focuses on the numbers, it does not highlight why several users were having issues when accessing more than 3.5GB VRAM. At this stage, it is unclear if this is an issue that can be solved by issuing new drivers, or whether the problems are due to a design flaw with the card itself. We’ll share further details as and when we have them.

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Galax has brought out its own addition to add to the growing lineup of small form factor GTX 970s.  The new GTX 970 Black Edition is only 19cm long and packs as much power as a standard sized GTX 970.

Today Galax (aka Galaxy) announced a brand new videocard in its GTX 970 lineup, the GTX 970 Black Edition.  The card is meant to be a small form factor that will be compact enough to fit in many small form factor(SSF) cases.  The card is only 19cm long and has a very nice custom cooler employing twin 80mm fans sitting atop a aluminum fins fed by three heat-pipes.  The card come factory overclocked with a base clock of 1126MHz and a boost clock of 1266MHz.  Galax decided to leave the memory alone as it is running the standard 7GHz memory clock.  The card will be available very shortly for about €320 from a variety of retailers and etailers.

The Nvidia GTX 970 is currently the “it” card of the moment as it is quite frankly the model that provides the best price to performance ratio.  The GTX 970s have been in a constant state of in-stock and out of stock from various sellers due to the popularity.  This has created a lot of frustration for consumers who are wanting to upgrade only to find that it is constantly out of stock, and it becomes a game of check the store for availability.  The fact is that these cards are so powerful and so energy efficient that to be able to build a small form factor build with one of these new cards would be just as powerful as a full sized system.  The small form factor builds are becoming increasingly popular amount enthusiast and with the Intel X99 motherboards coming out in mATX sizes users can now create powerful rigs that take only a fraction of the space as they used to while being more powerful.

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Since the September launch of Maxwell for high-end, we’ve seen Nvidia launch the GeForce GTX 980 as well as the GTX 970 and their accompanying mobile bretheren, the GeForce GTX 980M and GTX 970M. Now that Nvidia’s high-end GPU has had roughly a month of sales, we want to take a look at how well they’re doing and exactly why they are doing so well or so poorly. The GTX 980 is going for anywhere between $549 and $599 and the GTX 970 is selling for anywhere between $329 and $409.

We first decided to talk to some retailers, specifically some etailers across the globe. From our conversations with them they had indicated that they are essentially selling as many GTX 980s and GTX 970s as they possibly can and that when the cards had initially launched, they had difficulty keeping them in stock. Now, if we look at the stock situation for the GTX 980 and GTX 970 now, it appears to be better. A quick stock check of GTX 980 and GTX 970s on Newegg shows a fairly good amount of cards in stock, while some others are still out of stock or on order. If you look on Amazon, you can actually see that other than the ‘budget’ cards like the GTX 750 Ti, 8400GS and HD5450, the rest of the top 10 cards on Amazon are all GTX 980s and 970s, mostly being 970s. Do keep in mind that Amazon’s numbers are a rolling total, rather than a weekly or monthly figure meaning that the relatively new GTX 970s are already selling like crazy.

This lines up with what we’ve been hearing from our retailer friends who have all said that the GTX 970 is their best selling graphics card and that in many cases people are buying two of them at a time because of their relatively inexpensive price of $329. Two GTX 970s in SLI is going to be a lot more powerful than a single GTX 980 and only at a $100 price premium, if that. The retailers we spoke with also indicated that they had double digit SLI sales (dual 970) and it continues to be the best selling card that they have in their inventory. Some retailers even said, if they had more cards available to them, they’d probably sell even more.

In addition to retailers, we also polled a few system builders anonymously. In their case, we saw essentially the same behavior with the GTX 970 being the most popular card that they sold and the GTX 980 coming in second after it. Considering the $220 price difference, that doesn’t seem that far fetched. All system builders also indicated that the release of these cards, like many graphics card launches, helped boost sales significantly the the point where they could actually measure the difference in demand.

The really big factor here in all of this is that Nvidia has had an incredibly strong launch and has sold more cards than we’re actually able to count. What’s more interesting was that one of the retailers pointed us to a fairly thoughtful point, we haven’t officially broken into the holiday buying season yet and they believe that Nvidia’s graphics card sales are going to skyrocket during the holiday season. And considering how dominant the GTX 980 is in benchmarks, they suspect that many GTX 980 buyers are going to wait until the holiday season when they’ve been able to save up more money or get their holiday bonuses. The GTX 980 is a more expensive card, which is what’s partially keeping it from being as successful as the GTX 970. That’s primarily because the GTX 970 is 30% cheaper and only about 10-20% slower than the GTX 980, the more affordable card will always sell better than the highest end card if it delivers a good value, which the GTX 970 undeniably is.

So, we’ll be looking towards this holiday season to see exactly how well Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 do, but if early sales figures are any indication they are going to do extremely well and have a fantastic quarter.

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Who says the Mini-ITX form factor can’t be used for gaming? Gigabyte (TPE: 2376)  unveiled this week its new GTX 970 card, and the card designed for miniaturized computers packs some serious processing power — more than enough for most gamers.

The Mini-ITX GTX 970 comes factory overclocked with a base clock of 1076 MHz and a boost clock of 1216 MHz. With a TDP of 145W, it’s powered by a single 8-pin PCI-Express power connector.

As far as cooling goes, Gigabyte includes its own WindForce 3X cooler. The “3X” does not denote three fans, but rather three heat pipes. Benchmarks provided by Gigabyte (these have not been independently verified) show that the the WindForce cooler is able to keep the card at a comfortable 62 degrees while running the Metro: Last Light benchmark.  In comparison, a reference card running the same benchmark would come in at 76 degrees.

Pricing for the card starts at $329.99 with availability slated to begin in November.

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Recently, there was a lot of buzz about the fact that AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) had been adjusting its Radeon graphics card pricing due to competition from Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 980 and 970.

Bright Side of News* ran a story about it, saying that it appeared as though AMD had been cutting the prices of its GPUs in order to be competitive with Nvidia. However, recently, AMD’s own Chief Gaming Scientist Richard Huddy refuted these claims that AMD had been cutting the prices of GPUs and that any price cuts that had been occurring were at the add-in-board partners’ own decision and behest and the company had no part in it.

However, today, AMD’s own official AMD Gaming Twitter account stated the following tweet:

We want to bring affordable graphics to all, so we're running a channel promotion on our AMD Radeon R9 290 & R9 290X! http://t.co/CtV3HusPP1

— AMDGaming (@AMDGaming) October 14, 2014

As you can tell, it clearly states that AMD is “running a channel promotion on its R9 290 and 290X” and then proceeds to link to a PC Perspective article about Newegg’s new prices on AMD graphics cards. So, either things have drastically changed in the past week, or the company is simply trying to confuse us about what its actual intentions are. The company is also going to be reporting  earnings for 3Q 2014 on Thursday and the expectation is that it will perform along expectations, even though Intel beat expectations today and AMD’s share price got a nice 2% bump from Intel’s bellwether reputation for the PC industry as a whole.

The expectation is that AMD will need to produce some sort of a competitor for Nvidia’s GTX 980 and 970 because right now it appears as though AMD is going to have a very hard time selling its GPUs when compared to Nvidia’s if they don’t release anything competitive this quarter. In fact, there’s a very good chance that we won’t see any really new GPUs from AMD until next year. Also keep in mind that AMD’s Hawaii GPUs are essentially already a year old and need some refreshing at the high-end and if they continue to not deliver a new GPU every 12 months they are going to fall behind Nvidia. There’s no doubt that AMD’s Hawaii GPUs gave Nvidia a lot of competition and forced them to compete, but now the ball is in AMD’s court and they are going to have to deliver.

Now, if you head on over to Newegg, you can clearly see that the R9 290 and R9 290X have had its prices cut so that most R9 290’s are priced sub $299 and most R9 290Xs are priced at under $399. There are some obvious exceptions to this pricing, but the majority of cards are priced exactly where the original ‘rumor’ had them being cut. So, we’re not entirely sure where AMD’s messaging has gone, but they are doing a pretty good job of confusing consumers.

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Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is highly coveted by gamers in India, but its high-end offerings have been prohibitive in terms of price.

In a market that is inundated with budget offerings, the $900 (Rs. 54,000) asking figure for cards like the GTX 780 Ti has meant that gamers looking for a high-end solution have largely had to look to the likes of the R9 290X, which costs a full $175 (Rs. 10,500) less.

That is no longer the case with Nvidia’s latest offerings in the GeForce GTX 900 series. The GTX 980 will be available at a retail price of $750 (Rs. 46,000), with the final price set to be lower than that. Considering the amount of features it offers, the GTX 980 will be an enticing option for buyers looking to upgrade their rigs. The GTX 980 is the fastest single video card solution available now, and easily outdoes what AMD (NYSE:AMD) has to offer in the R9 290X. 

For those that are looking for a mid-tier video card, the GTX 970 is set to launch in the country for $455 (Rs. 28,000), which is great value for money. The GTX 970 in early benchmarks blew past the R9 290, and in certain cases outdid the R9 290X. While there is a market in India for cards like the GTX 980, it will be the GTX 970 that most gamers will be looking to buy. Retailer listings for the GTX 970 indicates that the reference design will be in the vicinity of $450 (Rs. 27,750), with factory overclocked editions running up to as much as $650 (Rs. 33,000).

With Maxwell, Nvidia has managed to deliver better overall gaming and computational results while utilizing lesser wattage. The low power consumption leaves a lot of room for overclocking, a fact Nvidia touched upon during the announcement of the card. The best testament of Nvidia’s pricing is the fact that AMD reduced the price of the R9 290X in other markets by a full $100, bringing the price of the card to $449. Nvidia has been the one to reduce the prices of its cards after every new AMD announcement for a while now, so it must feel have felt nice for the Santa Clara-based giant to know that AMD is now the one who has to slash prices of its cards to match Nvidia.

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Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has released a video that explains how the company used  voxel global illumination (VXGI) to debunk conspiracy theories of how the Lunar Landing never happened. Nvidia does this by addressing each individual conspiracy theory as they are presented using a real time rendering of the photos taken on the moon by the two astronauts and their craft. This was done using the only hardware capable of using VXGI, the GTX 980 using Maxwell GPU technology, which was just announced and reviewed by us yesterday.

The VXGI technology is not yet available as it must be implemented in a game engine and at this current moment has only been ported to Unreal Engine 4 for demonstration purposes. Nvidia states that this VXGI demonstration and technology will be available for testing once Epic Games and other engine developers are able to include VXGI into their game engines. As of right now, Nvidia says that it will be in Unreal Engine 4 around Q4 this year which should mean that we could see VXGI in games as soon as next year.

The whole Lunar landing debunking scene was a perfect way for Nvidia to try to commemorate the anniversary of the event as well as show off the graphical chops of the GTX 980, the company’s newest and most powerful GPU as seen in our review. Maxwell is the company’s latest GPU architecture and the GTX 980 is their fastest offering within the Maxwell family. VXGI will only work on Maxwell GPUs as of right now but there’s a chance it could see daylight in other GPUs in the future, very likely subsequent architectures.

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