Scan are failing to recongize the issue i am having

[koolman007]

Before I begin I would say that I am not a computer expert by any means. Considering this I bought a GTX 970 a few months ago and was quite happy with its performance compared to my old GTX 670.

My issue started when I started playing VRAM intensive games like GTA5 and Shadow of mordor and recently Batman Arkham Knight (with most recent patch). My games would start to stutter at some point while gaming which would lead to game stopping to a complete crawl with 5-10 fps. This was quite a shock to me since my current system met all the recommended requirement by those games. This is when I installed EVGA Precision X / MSi afterburner and realised that the stutter would happen when VRAM usage in-game go over 3.6/3.7gb mark. Point to note here is that game would run buttery smooth @60fps before the stutter start to happen so 'to lower my graphic setting' argument is not valid.

Like any other I started googling about the issue I was facing and found about the GTX 970 fiasco that happened beginning of this year, I was sadly late to party Hoping that Scan would already be aware of the issue and not beat the bust around when it comes to either a refund or suitable replacement I called them and was hugely disappointed by the response I got.

According to Scan this is a 'feature' of this particular card and there is nothing else they can do but replace the card with similar card. Nvidia have themselves acknowledge that the later part of VRAM (500mb) is on much slower bandwidth but Scan as a retailer are refusing to accept that fact and are adament that a replacement will fix the issue I am facing which I find to be totally ridiculous coming from a reputable hardware retailer like them.

Now it seems that my only choices are to either keep the card as a victim of false advertisement or carry to returning the card to Scan for the next three years for replacement. I hope someone here can help me sort this issue out or I am done using Scan as my main hardware supplier.

Ray

[kalniel]

You don't have a faulty card as far as I can tell. The 970 is performing exactly as it is expected to, and as you acknowledge, the performance had been very well characterised before you bought it. You've certainly had well beyond the evaluation period to check it as well.

In this instance SCAN shouldn't be liable for anything here - they haven't falsely advertised anything. Your gripe is with nVidia making a card that performs like that. Next time if you don't believe nVidia's hype then buy AMD.

[ltron]

It's unfortunate that Nvidia can lie about the specs (it wasn't just the RAM, it was the number of ROPS and amount of L2 cache which lead to this ram issue) of the 970 like this and get away with it while users are the ones who suffer. You say that the lowering the settings is not valid, but VRAM usage is dependent on the scene and the complexity at a certain point in time, so it could quite possibly be running at 60fps at one point and then stuttering the next i.e. usage changes over time. Reducing settings like anti-aliasing will reduce the maximum VRAM usage.

Here is an article by eurogamer where they tested to determine the implications of this issue, it might help you:eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-revisited

What is the native resolution of your monitor? Batman Arkham knight is still broken for many and the other two are VRAM hogs, particularly with high levels of MSAA. Unfortunately, this is the only advice I can give, but I feel for you and I can understand that you are dissatisfied; no other retailer would do anything other than what Scan did in this situation which is a shame, but Nvidia are the primary actors here, they have convinced the press and others that what they did was legitimate. I know it's not much consolation, but the performance of the 970 is still very good for the money.

[Mark@SCAN]

Hi,

Please provide your invoice number so that I get investigate the details of your complaint.

Regards

[koolman007]

Hi,

Please provide your invoice number so that I get investigate the details of your complaint.

Regards

Hi Mark,

here is my invoice no. 00[SNIPPED]

Ray

[koolman007]

Bumping to check if there are any updates on this ?

[zzkenseizz]

You don't have a faulty card as far as I can tell. The 970 is performing exactly as it is expected to, and as you acknowledge, the performance had been very well characterised before you bought it. You've certainly had well beyond the evaluation period to check it as well.

In this instance SCAN shouldn't be liable for anything here - they haven't falsely advertised anything. Your gripe is with nVidia making a card that performs like that. Next time if you don't believe nVidia's hype then buy AMD.

I agree, nVidia letting me down a lots lately, i also facing similar problem with dropt fps when playing game and there are nothing i can do about it. And the driver and software which are their suppose superior to AMD are now keep having bugs and no response from them in forum. Well, its their choice so i am out and here i go cheaper better AMD

[koolman007]

I think the retailers should take some responsibility of notifying their customers of any issue a particular product has. Amazon have been doing it, where they will put a caution on the product page about an on-going investigation.
Just because Nvidia says so doesn't really solve the problem, and its pretty clear that I am not the only one out there with this issue.

[Mick@SCAN]

koolman007,

I am sorry to hear about the problems you are having, our call center team will be in contact shortly in order to resolve your issue.

Kind regards,