Does the GTX 970 VRAM Issue Still Matter?

- I've heard complaints from numerous people in regards to the 3.5GB + 0.5GB VRAM issue. What exactly is it? Is it noticeable? Should you even consider a 970 given its "problem?" Find out in this video!

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[fishywtf]

good stuff man. revisting old topics in a different perspective

[EricBirge]

Id love to see a video about the R9 390 now. I choose the 390 over the 970 and dont regret it at all. Great video as always.

[alexthesniper]

This is the reason why the 390 is better performing in general

[CptnBeard]

So this explains a lot. I have 2 970FTWs OC'd with 3x 1080p 144hz monitors in portrait. With a resolution of 3240x 1920, it's takes quite a hit on the Vram. While running the Division on high settings, I can get an FPS of around 80-100, depending on the environment (snow/wind/#of NPCs and players). The Vram usage is almost always 100% locked at 4096MB. At random times, it'll studder, skip and lag like crazy, making any encounter in the Dark Zone near death.
Now my question is, do I wait for Pascal and Artic Islands, or do I pull the trigger and get a 980TI or Fury X?

[seanwilson]

The 3.5gbs was never an issue for anyone. From the beginning the only way you could cause problems is by playing games at settings the card can't keep up with anyway.

[golling]

I was able to play at 4k 60 fps with my old 970 on GTA V (medium settings) and it looks way better than 1080p with ultra settings. Also I managed to get the 970 for about 140 USD so I think it was worth it.

[Rexperto]

I would be very afraid to play with a GTX 970 in 2020/2021. Now modern AAA can easily max out that 3.5 GB buffer

[mrpositronia]

Even though I have a GTX 980ti, I think that most of the people who will be purchasing 970s will most likely not even know the difference. They just want to get on with playing the games, rather than splitting hairs.

[mikehunt]

Is it possible that gta5 had already addressed the vram issue by this point? Like by perhaps allowing the full 4gb to be used but only storing certain things in the slower section with smaller effect on performance

[Tobias]

Which boom arm are you using for that yeti? :)

[Luke-]

GTX 970 wasnt made for 4K gaming. 1080p is the max i would go. I love my card, best card i've owned.

[ChannelerMG]

I Concur Exactly with the results here! ~ I decided to pick up a new card after the holidays and did extensive research into both GTX970 vs R9 390 and ultimately purchased a GTX970 FTW+ over the 390. In Most comparisons the cards are equal with each having advantages in certain games ~ Not one card blows the other away! Even with the extra 8GB ram the 390 is only equal to the 970 Most of the time! ~

I play all of my games on ultra settings with mods and texture packs at 1080p on my 55" HDTV and the 970 is rock solid even in games using the full 4GB! The other issue is that NEITHER of these cards is worth a damn at 4K, so that extra "future-proofing" 8GB on the 390 is nullified if thats what anyone is thinking! Both GPU's will max out to a slideshow WAY before that 8GB on the 390 ever becomes useful, so think about that ! ~ You wanna game in 4K these ain't the cards! ~ 2K is doable on both with settings adjustments ~

Ultimately after seeing the cards generally perform equally the deciding factor was drivers! See, my previous two cards were both Team RED! And after getting several Day 1 games and having them broken for weeks waiting on proper drivers i was over it! ~ Now things may change with DirectX 12 we'll see. But i have Ashes of the Singularity and for all the hype about Team Red having an advantage it plays great on my GTX970 with most settings maxed! ~ I dunno....

[QuartzTech]

Awesome work man, your quality is on point

[PorscheTT]

Do you think it's possible to desolder the 500MB GDDR3 off the 970 and replace it with a GDDR5 from another card?

[fz]

Just a question:
When nvidia claimed the slowest chunk of VRAM was still 4x speed of System RAM... does it still apply to Haswell x99 quadchannel?.
I mean, i saw some reviews with last 500mb of the Nvidia strugling to keep 50GB/s. My system memory is over 50GB/s (5820k quad 2400mhz). So... maybe something is lost in translation but it's safe to assume DDR4 systems are faster than this last chunk.

[m.haiderhussain]

which cpu you were using during this test?

[Tomekkkk]

Is it the same problem with MSI GTX 970 gaming (GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD)? I think it has full 4GB of GDDR5.

[EscanthonX]

Hello gtx 970 users! I'm thinking of buying one of these cards for a close friend at $140 and I had a question. Is there some kind of tweak or bios mod that will allow the card to report and use ONLY the 3.5gb high speed ram? If that 512mb slow vram is only as fast s regular ram, I'd rather the thing see the 3.5gb as its only memory resource.

[brotalnia]

Cool channel man, you should have more subscribers.

[Teixas]

so is this an issue on the boardpartners cards or is it just a issue steming from the reference cards?