Ask GN 32: Samsung v. Micron VRAM? Why Do Bottlenecks Happen?

This week's Ask GN looks at component bottlenecking (e.g. "why does a CPU bottleneck a GPU?"), Micron vs. Samsung memory, reviewer life, and more.

0:55 - foreign's gaming tech: "Steve, a new question concerning high-performance cards on low resolutions, where you see a performance ceiling. We saw this in your Titan XP review and you talked about this on TGW with Joker as well. Could you explain why a Titan XP and a 1080 have the same performance at 1080p, i.e. why even a 6950x may be a bottleneck in this situation??"

4:38 - ryanrazer1: "Hey Steve, i have a question. Would you consider putting gtx 1070 Micron VRAM issue out there? None of youtubers says anything about it, whereas forums are filled with posts. Every review on YT has a Samsung version of memory. Could you do a comparison of gtx 1070 with samsung vs micron memory (people report stuttering, checker-boarding and BSODs).?"

7:50 - Alex Gray: "Hi Steve! You've mentioned in previous videos that the 18" MSI laptops are the same design as Fangbooks. Are MSI buying in Fangbooks and upping the spec, are Fangbooks specced-down MSI machines, or are they just using an identical third-party chassis? tl;dr what's the relationship between MSI and Fangbook and are there similar examples out there.?"

9:12 - Brand New Tracks: "Do you get bored of reviewing products Steve? I mean like does it get stale until you get the next latest and greatest product??"

10:55 - Wijkert: "Hi Steve, a while ago the pump of my 980Ti hybrid broke down. After fiddling with the card, the pump started working again, but at roughly 50% speed. At first I wanted to rma the card, but it has worked fine since and actually appreciate the reduction in noise. The temps under full load have gone up from 45-50C to 60-65C at 20C ambient, but it is completely inaudible. How can this happen and would you advice rma'ing anyway before the warranty runs out? When it comes to EVGA's hybrid cooler, you must be most knowledgeable person outside EVGA/Asetek, so you seem the right guy to ask.?"

12:00 - FamousKiller: "Hey Steve how do you test your gpu overclocks? Is valley enough? I have read everywhere on the internet(and you have said that too) that that`s a synthetic benchmark and that it`s not a real world scenario meaning that some overclocks will "pass" from the benchmark and be unstable in games...How do you test your gpu overclocks??"

13:15 - Josh Orenberg: "Big question for ya for next ask gn - you guys always say there is no such thing as a good or bad company only a good or bad product. Is there variance in quality/lifespan of a product like mobo/video card/memory for different manufacturers or are all the players pretty much on a level playing field? (I could care less about small overclocking differences) How about for different products from the same company? Can you trust all Asus Strix video cards or EVGA sc acx or any lineup from any company for any products (ie mobo/video card/memory) to have similar build quality/lifespan among their lineup components? Is it even possible to make a accurate estimate of probable lifespan of each product type? Anything else to know for comparison shopping between brands for the mentioned components? Is the safest route to go with products you guys recommend in your pc builds or is it okay to just buy products from reputable companies??"

16:00 - standuporshutup: "I'm amazed this channel isn't bigger after seeing that subscribe count (just joined the ranks). But others of somewhat similar quality (albeit less in terms of test methodology) advance quickyly. Hopefully the sub helps. Btw Steve, what do you personally think about the NX??"

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[ProfessorSlash]

From what I've read is that the problem with the Micron memory is that the VRMs deliver the voltage slightly slower than the ramp up in the frequency, leading to high frequencies with low voltage.
This can be seen because the issue is usually seen when switching from windows to a full screen application, but isn't visible when running the same application in windowed mode.
If you get your hands on a card with Micron, you could easily try that out, unless you know how to read the vBIOS to search for that. Should be hard to find though.

[Razor]

For many games, there will often be only 1-2 threads responsible for feeding data to the GPU, thus in many cases, even additional cores will not help. Your only option in those cases, is to simply overclock the CPU. You can use process explorer to see the threads that a game is actually using.

[mrcrunch]

I have been avoiding the bios update for my 1070 but decided to try after watching this. My 1070 has Micron vram and the overclock was terrible. Before the bios update I maxed at a 200mhz+(8200mhz) oc and had to prevent the gpu from boosting past 1964mhz to make it stable. Allowing the gpu to go above that would either cause artifacts or a driver crash. Dropping the gpu way down I could get it around +230mhz(8230mhz). The bios update made a huge difference. After the gpu would settle down around 2025mhz I could reach around 700mhz(8700mhz) oc stable with no artifacting. Anything above that is an immediate crash. It still net me around a 5% fps increase in heaven benchmark. Not sure atm what if any effects it had on gaming though.

[MegaHooterville]

Well TY for bringing up the GTX 1070 vram issue.
No word from the other YOU TUBE big
I can't figure out why the silence.

[amateurwizard]

Do you trim you rockin' locks or do you use sheer power of will to stop hair growth

[MsHUGSaLOT]

I Think the issue with Micron/Samsung RAM on GTX 1070s is thermal throtteling on the ones with Micron RAM even when running at stock speeds. Or at least stock speeds of AIO boards that usually do a slight OC over the "FE" speeds. It's like they simply traded Micron for Samsung ram and didn't do any tests to see if it worked right.

[Madmax]

Can you do a review about Fans ? like 120-140mm fans based on vfm, m3 airflow and noise ?

[tlita]

Now people will finally realize that back in the day of R9 200 series and their artifacting, since it was pretty often, had not to do with AMD themselves. It was manufacturers fault like Asus, Sapphire XFX or more specifically Hynix and Elpida, since all them had those memory chips. I still have Asus DC2TOP 280X with a custom vBIOS downlocked to 1300MHz(from 1600) for memory and it's running fine. ASIC quality is also extremely low - 53.5%, for which I can blame Asus, it's their job to test the silicons I would say, before implementing it to the full finished custom PCB.
Great video Steve, as always "Ask" series are very, very informative and perhaps unique. :)
P.S. Ending is golden :D

[ArnaudG]

Hey Steve, first of all thank you for all the content you publish, there really is no better place to stay informed about CPU/GPU tech IMO than your channel/website. Onto the question now:

Do you consider the AMD Fury X to be a good card for smooth gameplay overall as of today?

My question stems from the fact that on many of your GPU reviews (Titan XP in mind), the 0.1% low fps is much lower on several occasions for the Fury X when compared to other AMD/Nvidia cards. Since I am considering getting this GPU with a Freesync screen (3440x1440), do you think this will be a problem for overall gameplay fluidity ?

Thanks again for your work, really helpful for us consumers.

[TechWeLove]

In a sense, by not advertising whether its Samsung, or Micron memory, companies are lying, misrepresenting their products, just like Nvidia with the 970 Faulty 3.5GB/4GB memory.

[krzych]

Question about minimal safe operating temperatures for a PC, I mean ambient. Aside from HDDs that have very hard time working in below zero ambient temperature, is it safe to use PC in something like -10 C ambient temp? Assuming that this temp is stable and that PC will never be colder than ambient = no condensation, are there any components on motherboard, GPU pcb and etc that can be damaged by using them below 0 C ambient temperature? How about fans, especially GPU fans? Also can keeping PC in room with temperature dependent on outside temperature (so you get for example -10 C during the coldest part of winter and 30C during the hottest part of a summer) affect lifespan somehow? I mean by the way some materials are affected by temperature changes, they can stretch for example.

[MachinamasProduction]

What is your opinion on higher resolution gaming as well as curved and ultrawide displays? Do you think they are worth the cost?

[terryparkes]

I have a 1070 with Micron Memory, have not seen any artifacting or BSOD. I have applied a mild overclock, am running it water-cooled and the temperature has never gone above 37 Degrees C.

[michaelthedad]

Lol here in 2019, it's so interesting to see where the channel and technology has come

[tamzidjayed]

What are the alternatives for isopropyl alcohol for cleaning thermal paste? Can isopropyl alcohol be used for other stuff accept this? What "%" isopropyl alcohol is ideal for cleaning purposes? And, can't I just lick of the thermal paste if there's no other way? Also, can I use spit or dog saliva as thermal compound?

[shadow]

What are your thoughts on the Microsoft VR headset? The starting price of $300 should make it accessible for a lot more people. Do you think this can compete with price vs performance against the Vive and Rift?

[RepsUp]

Hello Steve,
Why do AMD reference cards run hotter than NVIDIA reference cards? even though they both use the same blower style cooling system?

[cryohellinc]

Hi Steve! Upcoming 10nm manufacturing process Intel CPU's, what to expect from them? Will we finally see a significant performance increase, or yet again slow and steeeeaaaddy evolution as in previous years?

[doctordoom]

I have a question pertaining to an ECS Z97I-Drone motherboard. While using the integrated GPU, the test bench system I built worked smoothly with 8gb of DDR3 and a G3258, at least in the bios as I've yet to install an OS. Upon installation of a ASUS GTX 960 4gb STRIX, the motherboard ceased to function. I removed said card, tried the iGPU, nothing. Replaced the Corsair 500w PSU with an EVGA 750W unit, nothing. Tried 4 different sticks of ram in dual and single channel mode. I think it's safe to say that the board is dead, however, even though no power seems to be reaching the board, the Northbridge heatsink is incredibly hot to the touch when attempting to jump the system on. What do you think the issue was? (I'm going to RMA to either the vendor or ECS directly in hopes of a repair/replacement).

[MrLink-dkyn]

Steve: have you heard of random popping sounds in windows 10 machines? I swaped the processor and sound card and still hears these sounds randomly while seing some YT or hearing music. Same mobo thou... The problem does kind of go away for a while after a reboot but, comes back after the computer is on for more than a day.