GeForce GTX 970 | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Fri, 08 Apr 2016 11:23:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png GeForce GTX 970 | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Gladiator Apocalypse Mid-Tower Gaming PC Review https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/gaming-rig/orestis-bastounis/aria-gladiator-apocalypse-mid-tower-gaming-pc-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/gaming-rig/orestis-bastounis/aria-gladiator-apocalypse-mid-tower-gaming-pc-review/#comments Thu, 07 Apr 2016 09:39:07 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=287618 The Gladiator Apocalypse has a quad-core Skylake processor with a 3.2GHz Turbo Clock, 8GB of memory and a GeForce GTX 970, and costs just £750. While that’s a purely mid-range specification, it’s more than enough to enjoy PC games at high detail settings at 1080p resolution. Good news, folks. Around the world, gaming has never …

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The Gladiator Apocalypse has a quad-core Skylake processor with a 3.2GHz Turbo Clock, 8GB of memory and a GeForce GTX 970, and costs just £750. While that’s a purely mid-range specification, it’s more than enough to enjoy PC games at high detail settings at 1080p resolution.

Good news, folks. Around the world, gaming has never been more popular, and in particular, PC gaming is on the upsurge, attracting a new type of audience who once would not have even considered another option beyond the latest games consoles.

But unfortunately, while the PC gaming audience may have changed, the cost of a PC that can run the latest games is still significantly higher than consoles. Sure, a £299 entry-level desktop system will get you by with Word documents and Facebook, but not 1080p 60fps frame rates in really demanding titles.

We all know how much a really high-end system can cost, with custom-built water-cooling kits and top-end video cards such as the AMD Fury X or Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan. The bulk of sales are in the mid range though, where PCs have the rendering grunt to get by in most games, but without the major bells and whistles that add so much to the cost, such as gaming at 4K resolution, and so on.

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It’s these users that Gladiator is targeting with its Apocalypse Gaming PC, a £749.99 system configured to appeal to people whose budget simply cannot stretch to a really high-end PC, regardless of the performance it offers.

The main guts of the system are an Intel Core i5 processor, based on the most up-to-date Skylake architecture, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, which is one of the most popular video cards around, and 8GB of memory.

A reasonable specification that’s enough for most games, but interestingly, Gladiator has managed to squeeze a few extras into the budget, the most notable of which is an attractive AeroCool Aero 800 case with some funky blue lighting into this budget, rather than trying to save money by using a cheap, standard black tower without any discernible features, as some manufacturers might do.

System Configuration:
Case: AeroCool Aero 800 Windows Midi Tower (blue lighting)
CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz base clock (3.2GHz Turbo) (4 cores, 4 threads)
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo
Memory: 8GB 3000MHz Corsair Vengeance DDR4
Motherboard: Asus Z170-E
GPU: Asus Strix Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 4GB
Storage 1: 1TB Seagate SATA III Hard Disk
Storage 2: none
PSU: 600w AeroCool Integrator 80+ 85% Eff Power Supply
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit

Price £749.99 BUY HERE

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Nvidia: Sales of high-end GeForce GTX GPUs are increasing https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-sales-of-high-end-geforce-gtx-gpus-are-increasing/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-sales-of-high-end-geforce-gtx-gpus-are-increasing/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2015 01:33:03 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=266810 It is not a secret that sales of discrete graphics processing units for personal computers are decreasing. In the second quarter of the year shipments of graphics cards for desktop computers dropped to the minimum level in many years. Despite of this, shipments of graphics cards used by gamers are increasing, according to Jeff Fisher, …

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It is not a secret that sales of discrete graphics processing units for personal computers are decreasing. In the second quarter of the year shipments of graphics cards for desktop computers dropped to the minimum level in many years. Despite of this, shipments of graphics cards used by gamers are increasing, according to Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of GeForce business unit at Nvidia Corp.

One of the key reasons why sales of low-end graphics processing units are getting lower is increasing performance of graphics processors integrated into modern central processing units. Ten years ago, integrated graphics processors were incapable of delivering decent performance even in casual games, but today they offer fine frame-rates in a lot of games. As a result, people no longer need low-end graphics cards for desktop computers.

However, more and more people are buying GeForce GTX GPUs to play video games, according to Jeff Fisher, who spoke with Japanese 4Gamer.net web-site. Mr. Fisher claims that new-generation game consoles do not threat sales of discrete graphics adapters, but actually help to popularize games and GeForce GPUs.

nvidia_geforce_gtx_titan_x

Several years ago, Nvidia’s top-of-the-range gaming graphics adapters cost $499. The recommended price of the GeForce GTX 980 was $549, the GeForce GTX 980 Ti costs $649 and the GeForce GTX Titan X is priced at $999. Mr. Fisher denies that Nvidia’s graphics processors are getting more expensive with each generation and claims that Titan series is not aimed at gamers, but enthusiasts of high-performance computing.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Nvidia has managed to capture over 80 per cent of the world’s GPU market, which is why the company can enjoy increasing sales of its products. By contrast, its arch-rival AMD is struggling to increase sales of its Radeon R9 graphics cards for gamers.

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Sales of desktop graphics cards hit 10-year low in Q2 2015 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/sales-of-desktop-graphics-cards-hit-10-year-low-in-q2-2015/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/sales-of-desktop-graphics-cards-hit-10-year-low-in-q2-2015/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2015 21:20:49 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=264714 Sales of graphics cards for desktop PCs decreased once again in the second quarter of 2015, according to data from Jon Peddie Research. Market share of Advanced Micro Devices also hit a new low during the quarter. Shipments of discrete graphics adapters for desktops dropped to 9.4 million units in Q2 2015, which is minimum …

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Sales of graphics cards for desktop PCs decreased once again in the second quarter of 2015, according to data from Jon Peddie Research. Market share of Advanced Micro Devices also hit a new low during the quarter.

Shipments of discrete graphics adapters for desktops dropped to 9.4 million units in Q2 2015, which is minimum amount in more than ten years. According to JPR, sales of graphics cards dropped 16.81 per cent compared to the previous quarter, whereas sales of desktop PCs decreased 14.77 per cent. The attach rate of add-in graphics boards (AIBs) to desktop PCs has declined from a high of 63 per cent in Q1 2008 to 37 per cent this quarter. Average sales of graphics cards have been around 15 million units per quarter in the recent years, but declined sharply in 2014.

nvidia_geforce_gtx_980_1

Nvidia continued its dominance in the market of desktop discrete graphics cards. Market share of the company increased to 81.9 per cent, an all-time high. By contrast, sales of AMD Radeon graphics adapters decreased to a minimum in more than 10 years. The share of AMD dropped to 18 per cent in Q2 2015, which is the lowest share that AMD had in history. The highest share of desktop discrete market that AMD ever had was 55.5 per cent back in Q3 2004, according to Jon Peddie Research. AMD shipped around 35 per cent or desktop discrete graphics processing units in the last four years. AMD’s share began to contract sharply after Nvidia introduced its GeForce GTX 970 and 980 graphics cards in Q3 2014. In about a year AMD lost 20 per cent of market share it controls.

jpr_aib_q2_2015

 

Note: Some numbers are estimates.

JPR claims that while the market of desktop AIBs is shrinking, sales of expensive graphics cards used by gamers are increasing.

“However, in spite of the overall decline, somewhat due to tablets and embedded graphics, the PC gaming momentum continues to build and is the bright spot in the AIB market,” said Jon Peddie, the head of JPR.

jpr_aib_q2_2015_shares

AMD’s quarter-to-quarter total desktop graphics cards unit shipments decreased 33.3 per cent. Nvidia’s quarter-to-quarter unit shipments decreased 12 per cent.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It is noteworthy that AMD is losing market share despite the fact that it has rather competitive graphics processing units. Further improvements of integrated graphics processors will decrease sales of add-in graphics boards.

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Nvidia: China is shifting to high-end GPUs https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-china-is-shifting-to-high-end-gpus/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-china-is-shifting-to-high-end-gpus/#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2015 23:20:00 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=262849 Chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp. explained this week the reason why a number of graphics cards makers this year refocused their marketing efforts to higher-end graphics adapters. Apparently, China, one of the world’s largest markets, is shifting to higher-end GPUs, which is generally a good news for both Nvidia and its rival Advanced Micro …

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Chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp. explained this week the reason why a number of graphics cards makers this year refocused their marketing efforts to higher-end graphics adapters. Apparently, China, one of the world’s largest markets, is shifting to higher-end GPUs, which is generally a good news for both Nvidia and its rival Advanced Micro Devices.

“We are also seeing a shift to higher end GPUs in China,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia, on the company’s earnings conference call with investors and financial analysts. “Some of that probably has to do with the dramatic change in improvement in production value of games in China.”

NVIDIA_GeForce_GTX_900series_KeyVisual_HD_003

Historically, China consumed cheap personal computers with poor configurations and with low-end or even integrated graphics adapters. In the recent years, the situation began to change and today there are loads of high-end systems sold in the world’s most populated country. Another reason why Chinese gamers now buy higher-end hardware is because locally-made games demand more performance and better GPUs.

“There was a time when the Chinese games were enjoyed and fun, [but] the production values were not very good,” explained Mr. Huang. “But now if you take a look at the Tencent games, the production value are absolutely phenomenal. They are beautiful. They are artistic and in those cases require a lot more GPU capability.”

TitanX_Stylized_02

Yet another reason why Chinese gamers are shifting to higher-end GPUs could be shrinking difference between low-end GPUs and integrated graphics processors. Today, one may have decent gaming experience on a system powered by a moderate central processing unit with a good graphics core inside. In a bid to have a radically better experience, an advanced graphics card will be needed.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Increasing demand for higher-end graphics adapters is a good news for everyone serving that market, including AMD, Nvidia and makers of graphics cards. What remains to be seen is whether bolstering demand in China will affect prices of GPUs. At the end, great demand increases prices. But on the other hand, as GPUs are getting more complex, creators of such chips need more money to develop and design their products.

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Nvidia strengthens positions as market of graphics cards shrinks https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-strengthens-positions-as-market-of-graphics-cards-shrinks/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-strengthens-positions-as-market-of-graphics-cards-shrinks/#comments Wed, 27 May 2015 02:19:01 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=251306 Nvidia Corp. has managed to increase its share in the market of standalone graphics cards for personal computers, according to Jon Peddie Research. The market of graphics adapters for desktops in Q1 2015 decreased again to a new low in years, which is an alarming sign for developers of graphics processing units and makers of …

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Nvidia Corp. has managed to increase its share in the market of standalone graphics cards for personal computers, according to Jon Peddie Research. The market of graphics adapters for desktops in Q1 2015 decreased again to a new low in years, which is an alarming sign for developers of graphics processing units and makers of graphics boards.

Shipments of graphics cards in the first quarter of 2015 decreased to 11.3 million units, an 8.79 per cent drop quarter over quarter. On a year-to-year basis, JPR found that total AIB shipments during the quarter fell 19.41 per cent, which is more than desktop PCs, which sales fell 6.52 per cent.

artwork_graphics_cards

As expected, sales and market share of Advanced Micro Devices’ Radeon graphics cards declined in the first quarter as the company and its partners were trying to sell-off inventory that had been shipped earlier. AMD’s quarter-to-quarter total desktop graphics cards shipments decreased by whopping 14.6 per cent. By contrast, Nvidia managed to increase its market share to 77.5 per cent in Q1 2015, a record high for the company in the recent years. Nonetheless, since the market was generally weak, sales of Nvidia GeForce graphics cards for desktops also dropped by 7 per cent sequentially.

jpr_q1_2015_aibs

According to analysts from Jon Peddie Research, shipments drop of add-in graphics cards is seasonally understandable and everything could have been worse. Still, the overall trend is not good for discrete desktop graphics adapters: the attach rate of graphics boards to desktop PCs has declined from a high of 63 per cent in Q1 2008 to 37 per cent in Q1 2015. Nevertheless, gamers continue to buy expensive graphics cards to enjoy the latest titles.

“However, in spite of the overall decline, somewhat due to tablets and embedded graphics, the PC gaming momentum continues to build and is the bright spot in the AIB market,” said Jon Peddie, the head of JPR.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Given the lack of any announcements from AMD in the second quarter of 2015, do not expect many changes in shipments or rankings in Q2 as well. Nvidia will continue dominating the market of discrete desktop graphic cards this quarter and only sometimes in Q3 2013 AMD will finally be able to boost its sales.

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Nvidia increases lead over AMD share as shipments of GPUs drop – JPR https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-increases-market-lead-over-amd-share-as-shipments-of-graphics-cards-drop/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-increases-market-lead-over-amd-share-as-shipments-of-graphics-cards-drop/#comments Wed, 25 Feb 2015 20:37:13 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=237616 As expected, Nvidia Corp. managed to increase its desktop GPU market share lead over Advanced Micro Devices in the fourth quarter of 2014 as a result of successful launch of its GeForce GTX 970/980 “Maxwell” products as well as because of AMD’s continued troubles in the channel. Declines of AMD Radeon sales are even more …

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As expected, Nvidia Corp. managed to increase its desktop GPU market share lead over Advanced Micro Devices in the fourth quarter of 2014 as a result of successful launch of its GeForce GTX 970/980 “Maxwell” products as well as because of AMD’s continued troubles in the channel. Declines of AMD Radeon sales are even more alarming because the market of desktop add-in-boards was down significantly last quarter, according to Jon Peddie Research.

Total AIB shipments decreased by 0.68 per cent sequentially to 12.4 million units from the previous quarter, which was not that bad. Unfortunately, on a year-to-year basis, JPR found that total AIB shipments during the quarter fell whopping 17.52 per cent. According to Jon Peddie Research, the market behaved according to past years with regard to seasonality, nothing was unexpected, which indicates that the market of add-in graphics cards in general is shrinking.

artwork_graphics_cards

AMD’s quarter-to-quarter total desktop graphics adapters unit shipments decreased 16 per cent in Q4 2014 and the company’s share dropped to 24 per cent, which is a minimal figure in many years. By contrast, Nvidia’s quarter-to-quarter unit shipments increased 5.5 per cent and the company continues to hold a dominant market share position at 76 per cent.

jpr_aib_mkt_shares_q4_2014

Jon Peddie Research claims that the market of graphics adapters stabilized in the Q4 2014 and did not decline significantly from the prior quarter, however, year-over-year drops indicate that more and more customers prefer integrated graphics adapters, which is a bad news for AMD, Nvidia and 48 suppliers of graphics adapters. The attach rate of discrete graphics adapters to desktop PCs has declined from a high of 63 per cent in Q1 2008 to 36 per cent in Q4 2014.

jpr_aib_attach_rate

But while the popularity of standalone desktop graphics adapters is declining, gamers continue to buy expensive graphics cards to play the latest titles. As a result, GPU suppliers continue to invest in development of new graphics processors.

“The gaming PC segment, where higher-end GPUs are used, was a bright spot in the market in the quarter,” said Jon Peddie, the head of JPR. “Nvidia’s Maxwell GPUs continued to show strong sales, lifting the ASPs for the discrete GPU market.”

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While shipments of AMD were down significantly in the quarter despite of numerous price-cuts and other actions, they did not fall dramatically, which is a good news. Unfortunately, we still have no idea when AMD’s share starts to rebound. Obviously, it is hardly good for the market, when Nvidia outsells AMD three to one on the market of discrete desktop GPUs.

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Nvidia CEO addresses GeForce GTX 970 scandal in a letter to customers https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-ceo-addresses-geforce-gtx-970-scandal-in-open-letter-to-customers/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-ceo-addresses-geforce-gtx-970-scandal-in-open-letter-to-customers/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2015 23:54:36 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=237359 Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp. on Tuesday wrote an open letter to the company’s customers covering the recent GeForce GTX 970 controversy. The head of the GPU developer admitted that the company failed to communicate how memory sub-system works on the GeForce GTX 970, but said that the graphics card should still …

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Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp. on Tuesday wrote an open letter to the company’s customers covering the recent GeForce GTX 970 controversy. The head of the GPU developer admitted that the company failed to communicate how memory sub-system works on the GeForce GTX 970, but said that the graphics card should still be considered as a “4GB” adapter. He promised not to make the same mistake again.

“Some of you are disappointed that we didn’t clearly describe the segmented memory of GeForce GTX 970 when we launched it,” wrote Mr. Huang. “We invented a new memory architecture in Maxwell. This new capability was created so that reduced-configurations of Maxwell can have a larger framebuffer. […] GTX 970 is a 4GB card. However, the upper 512MB of the additional 1GB is segmented and has reduced bandwidth.”

Although Mr. Huang admitted that the GeForce GTX 970’s memory sub-system works rather oddly, he did not reveal why the company incorrectly stated the amount of raster operations pipelines (64 instead of 56) and level-two cache size (2048KB instead of 1792KB).

nvidia_geforce_gtx_titan_z_huang

“Unfortunately, we failed to communicate this internally to our marketing team, and externally to reviewers at launch,” Mr. Huang acknowledged.

This is the not the first time Nvidia admits is mistake and blames poor communication within the company for the incorrect advertising. However, Nvidia offers no compensation to customers, who bought the GeForce GTX 970 based on specifications of the product.

Last week an end-user sued Nvidia for incorrect advertising and demanded a refund from the company.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While it is good to see that Nvidia’s chief executive officer takes the GeForce GTX 970 issue very seriously, he did not reveal anything new and did not propose anything to owners of the graphics cards. While it is obvious that the GeForce GTX 970 is a great performer for the money, it is clear that many people are disappointed with the fact that they did not get what they paid for (and some even report about issues like micro-stuttering, which is a clear driver problem) and providing them some kind of a compensation would be a good step. It is unknown why Nvidia does not want to give anything back to its customers in this case.

The full text of Jen-Hsun Huang’s letter reads as follows:

Hey everyone,

Some of you are disappointed that we didn’t clearly describe the segmented memory of GeForce GTX 970 when we launched it. I can see why, so let me address it.

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. 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.

Unfortunately, we failed to communicate this internally to our marketing team, and externally to reviewers at launch.

Since then, Jonah Alben, our senior vice president of hardware engineering, provided a technical description of the design, which was captured well by several editors. Here’s one example from The Tech Report.

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.

This is understandable. But, let me be clear: Our only intention was to create the best GPU for you. We wanted GTX 970 to have 4GB of memory, as games are using more memory than ever.

The 4GB of memory on GTX 970 is used and useful to achieve the performance you are enjoying. And as ever, our engineers will continue to enhance game performance that you can regularly download using GeForce Experience.

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

We won’t let this happen again. We’ll do a better job next time.

Jen-Hsun

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Nvidia slammed with class-action lawsuit over GeForce GTX 970 specifications https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-slammed-with-class-action-lawsuit-over-geforce-gtx-970-specifications/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-slammed-with-class-action-lawsuit-over-geforce-gtx-970-specifications/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2015 02:47:09 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=236873 While only a small fraction of GeForce GTX 970 owners plan to return their graphics cards to stores following a scandal with the product's specs, there are still quite a lot of people, who got upset not only because the company originally published incorrect specifications, but because it decided to remain silent even after the …

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While only a small fraction of GeForce GTX 970 owners plan to return their graphics cards to stores following a scandal with the product's specs, there are still quite a lot of people, who got upset not only because the company originally published incorrect specifications, but because it decided to remain silent even after the mistake was uncovered. Apparently, those people have decided to take Nvidia Corp. to court because of it.

Andrew Ostrowski, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, this week filled a class-action suit against Nvidia in the U.S. district court for the northern district of California. The complaint accuses Nvidia and Gigabyte Technology of misleading advertising, unfair business practices, unlawful business practices, and deceptive business practices. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial as well as disgorgement, restitution, injunctive relief and all the other damages and reliefs permitted under California law.

nvidia_geforce_gtx_970_980_pcb_assembly_970

Back in January it was discovered that Nvidia incorrectly declared the amount of raster operations pipelines (ROPs), actual memory bandwidth, capacity of L2 cache and the amount of high-speed onboard memory for its GeForce GTX 970 graphics adapter. Instead of 64 ROPs, the GPU features only 56 ROPs; actual usable memory bandwidth at present is less than 224GB/s; the L2 size is 1792KB, not 2048KB; and the amount of memory should be indicated as 3.5GB + 0.5GB because only 3.5GB can be accessed with maximum data-rate due to limitations of the cut-down GM204 architecture of the GeForce GTX 970.

“The defendants engaged in a scheme to mislead consumers nationwide about the characteristics, qualities and benefits of the GTX 970 by stating that the GTX 970 provides a true 4GB of VRAM, 64 ROPs, and 2048 KB of L2 cache capacity, when in fact it does not,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants’ marketing of the GTX 970 was intended to and did create the perception among purchasers that the product was, in fact, able to conform with the specifications as advertised.”

GTX_970_Style

Nvidia has admitted that it incorrectly stated specifications of the GeForce GTX 970. The company said that all performance limitations associated with the specs cannot be cured with a driver update. However, the GPU developer did not promise any compensation to owners of such graphics cards. Moreover, Nvidia unofficially wants to distance itself from the scandal, according to a media report. By contrast, numerous retailers and graphics cards makers accept returns of the GeForce GTX 970 graphics adapters or provide partial refunds to their owners. Only between 1 and 5 per cent of owners have so far returned their GTX 970 add-in-boards.

Since the lawsuit is a class action one, it may be joined by other people, who believe that Nvidia and Gigabyte deceived them with the GeForce GTX 970 specifications.

Nvidia declined to comment on the lawsuit, reports PCWorld web-site. Gigabyte did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Usually proceedings like this one last for years, hence, do not expect any results any time soon. In fact, one of the reasons why the lawsuit was filled was the fact that Nvidia decided admit its mistakes, but offered nothing back to gamers. Keeping in mind that mobile Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics processor is also affected by the same memory and ROP issues as the GeForce GTX 970, expect notebook gamers to slam Nvidia too…

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MSI offers cashback with purchase of mainboards and graphics cards https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/msi-offers-cashback-with-purchase-of-selected-mainboards-and-graphics-cards/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/msi-offers-cashback-with-purchase-of-selected-mainboards-and-graphics-cards/#respond Tue, 17 Feb 2015 03:25:48 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=235951 In a bid to strengthen its positions on the market of mainboards and graphics cards, MicroStar International initiated a new cashback promo campaign. Those, who purchase a combination of MSI mainboards with graphics cards will be eligible to get part of their money back from the manufacturer. From now on and until the 13th of …

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In a bid to strengthen its positions on the market of mainboards and graphics cards, MicroStar International initiated a new cashback promo campaign. Those, who purchase a combination of MSI mainboards with graphics cards will be eligible to get part of their money back from the manufacturer.

From now on and until the 13th of March, 2015, MSI proposes cashback to end-users who buy a selected MSI mainboard combined with a MSI graphics card at official MSI resellers. Some of the eligible products are MSI’s mainboards based on the Intel X99 core-logic, the MSI Z97 Gaming family, the Z97S SLI Krait Edition and selected H97 models. Combined with a purchase of one of MSI’s GeForce GTX 960 or GTX 970 graphics cards, or MSI’s high performance Radeon R9 290 or R9 270X cards, end users can receive cashback adding up to more than €40.

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The promotion is effective in 20 countries in Europe, including France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, UK, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Austria, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey.

Numerous resellers in the U.K. are promoting MSI’s offer, including Box, CCL, Dabs, eBuyer, Novatech, OCUK, Scan & YOYOTech.

More details about the program are available at a special web-site.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It makes a great sense for MSI to sell bundles consisting of mainboards and graphics cards. Many people upgrade mainboards, CPUs and graphics cards at once, therefore, selling a bundle maximizes MSI’s revenue per customer, an important metric these days.

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Nvidia will not admit guilt of the GeForce GTX 970 scandal https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-will-not-admit-guilt-of-the-geforce-gtx-970-scandal/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-will-not-admit-guilt-of-the-geforce-gtx-970-scandal/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:27:34 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=234821 Although Nvidia Corp.’s partners will clearly suffer financial losses because of the scandal with incorrect specifications of the GeForce GTX 970, the designer of graphics processing units does not plan to admit its mistake at all costs, according to a media report. Even though return rates of the GeForce GTX 970 are very low, Nvidia …

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Although Nvidia Corp.’s partners will clearly suffer financial losses because of the scandal with incorrect specifications of the GeForce GTX 970, the designer of graphics processing units does not plan to admit its mistake at all costs, according to a media report.

Even though return rates of the GeForce GTX 970 are very low, Nvidia does not want to take responsibility for incorrect specifications and memory allocation issues. The company officially claims that the GeForce GTX 970 was designed this way and that its performance is rather high despite of the fact that it has 56 raster operations pipelines, 224-bit memory bus and 3.5GB of memory.

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Nvidia has not apologized to its customers for incorrect specifications and does not want to admit any guilt because this will give its partners an opportunity to ask for material compensation, reports Heise.de. Profit margins of graphics cards makers are pretty low, which means that for them even 1 – 5 per cent return rate could result in losses.

Since Nvidia does not want to admit its guilt, it is now illogical to expect any kind of compensation to the end-users.

Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While performance of the GeForce GTX 970 is pretty high and is very good for the money, Nvidia’s behaviour and arrogance greatly damages the company’s reputation.

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Return rate of GeForce GTX 970 after memory scandal is below 5% https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/return-rate-of-geforce-gtx-970-after-memory-allocation-scandal-is-below-5/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/return-rate-of-geforce-gtx-970-after-memory-allocation-scandal-is-below-5/#comments Fri, 06 Feb 2015 05:11:54 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=234345 Although the buzz in various forums and social networks about memory allocation issues of Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce GTX 970 is fairly loud, the amount of customers wishing to return their graphics cards to stores or manufacturers is fairly low. According to various sources polled by KitGuru, the actual return rate of the GeForce GTX is …

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Although the buzz in various forums and social networks about memory allocation issues of Nvidia Corp.’s GeForce GTX 970 is fairly loud, the amount of customers wishing to return their graphics cards to stores or manufacturers is fairly low. According to various sources polled by KitGuru, the actual return rate of the GeForce GTX is below 5 per cent. The low return rate of the GTX 970 is good for Nvidia, its partners and the market

“I have heard as many as 5 per cent of the buyers are demanding a refund from the AIB suppliers,” said Jon Peddie, the principal analyst at Jon Peddie Research.

nvidia_geforce_gtx_970_1

While retailers and add-in-card vendors do not want to share a lot of details about the amount of customers wishing to return their graphics cards following the scandal with incorrect specifications and inability to use more than 3.5GB/s of memory, they also confirmed that the amount of returned GeForce GTX 970 is very low. According to some estimates, the return rate of the GTX 970 because of the aforementioned issues is between one and two percent.

The returned GeForce GTX 970 will not vanish into thin air and will reappear on the market. Suppliers of graphics cards who voluntarily decided to accept returns will get them back, test them, ensure that they work properly and then will either market them again as new. They could also somehow rebrand the returned GeForce GTX 970 graphics boards. Those graphics cards that will not be accepted by manufacturers will be re-conditioned by retailers and will be sold with a discount. In short, all returned GeForce GTX 970 will shortly be available with 5% – 10% – 20% price reduction.

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Nobody knows for sure how many GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards have been sold so far, but even at 5 per cent return rate the amount of the boards set to return to the market will barely be significant. Still, it will have certain impact on the market.

“Let’s assume Nvidia sold 2.5 million of [GeForce GTX 970 cards], and 5 per cent are returned, that is 125 thousand add-in-boards (AIBs),” said Mr. Peddie. “Is that a lot when the total AIB market is going to be about 53 million in 2015? […] I suppose if 125 thousand GTX 970 turn up at half price then that is going to have some impact on AMD and Nvidia’s sales, but only for a short time, one quarter max.”

In reality, it is highly likely that the amount of GeForce GTX 970 set to be returned by the end-users because of the controversy will be a lot less than 100 thousand units. 100 thousand unhappy customers can create a lot of negative noise all over the Internet, but they will hardly have a significant impact on the market.

Last week Overclockers UK and Caseking.de – two leading European online stores from the U.K. and Germany – said that they would accept all GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards from all suppliers back if certain customers are unhappy. The window for returning a GeForce GTX 970 is between now and end of February.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While it is unlikely that the returns of the GeForce GTX 970 graphics boards will have a significant impact on the market, it will still cause some negative effects. As a result, it is completely unclear why Nvidia decided not to react on the situation anyhow or settle with the end-users.

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Multiple graphics cards vendors accept returns of GeForce GTX 970 adapters https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/multiple-graphics-cards-vendors-accept-returns-of-geforce-gtx-970-adapters/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/multiple-graphics-cards-vendors-accept-returns-of-geforce-gtx-970-adapters/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2015 05:01:13 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=233825 Although Nvidia Corp. still have not made any decisions about how to handle the situation with GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards and their incorrect specifications, a number of graphics cards suppliers now accept returns of such adapters, at least, in the U.K. and Germany. In the recent weeks it was discovered and then confirmed that …

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Although Nvidia Corp. still have not made any decisions about how to handle the situation with GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards and their incorrect specifications, a number of graphics cards suppliers now accept returns of such adapters, at least, in the U.K. and Germany.

In the recent weeks it was discovered and then confirmed that Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card cannot use more than 3.5GB of its onboard memory at full speed and that it features lower amount of raster operations pipelines (ROPs) (56 instead of 64) than Nvidia initially advertised as well as cut-down L2 cache. As a result, a lot of end-users got so disappointed that decided to return their graphics adapters. Unfortunately, Nvidia officially has not made any announcements regarding returns or compensations to owners of the GeForce GTX 970, which is why at present all the returns are handled by retailers and graphics cards suppliers.

Overclockers UK and Caseking.de – two leading European online stores from the U.K. and Germany – said that they would accept all GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards from all suppliers back if certain customers are unhappy. The window for returning a GeForce GTX 970 is between now and end of February.

nvidia_geforce_gtx_970_980_pcb_assembly_970

Andrew “Gibbo” Gibson, purchasing manager at Overclockers UK, said that multiple graphics cards makers decided to support OcUK in terms of accepting returns. In particular, EVGA, Inno3D, KFA2 (formerly Galax), MicroStar International, Palit Microsystems and Zotac have officially confirmed plans to take the graphics cards back. Asustek Computer has not formally confirmed the intention, but the company has supported returns in the past. Gigabyte Technology does not support returns of GeForce GTX 970 graphics adapters, but could change its mind eventually.

Nvidia and Gigabyte did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Nvidia’s partners have sold hundreds of thousands of GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards in the recent months. If one third of the GeForce GTX 970 owners decide to return their adapters, this will clearly hurt manufacturers financially. To avoid such problems (remember that companies like EVGA, Inno3D, KFA2 and Palit exclusively sell Nvidia GeForce graphics adapters), Nvidia will need to settle with the end-users. Unfortunately, so far Nvidia has not made any statements on the matter.

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AMD to offer special discounts to owners of GeForce GTX 970 https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/amd-to-offer-special-discounts-to-owners-of-geforce-gtx-970/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/amd-to-offer-special-discounts-to-owners-of-geforce-gtx-970/#comments Sat, 31 Jan 2015 03:32:39 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=233361 Advanced Micro Devices said this week that it would provide special discounts to owners of the GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards. It is not surprising that AMD is trying to capitalize on the scandal with incorrect specifications of the GTX 970. Unfortunately, AMD did not provide any exact details on the matter. “Anyone returning their …

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Advanced Micro Devices said this week that it would provide special discounts to owners of the GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards. It is not surprising that AMD is trying to capitalize on the scandal with incorrect specifications of the GTX 970. Unfortunately, AMD did not provide any exact details on the matter.

“Anyone returning their GTX970 and wanting a great deal on a Radeon with a full 4GB please let us know,” said Roy Taylor, corporate vice president of global channel sales at AMD, in a Twitter post.

Earlier this week it was confirmed by Nvidia that it had incorrectly stated specifications of its GeForce GTX 970 graphics card. Due to architectural limitations of the GM204-200 graphics processing unit used on the graphics adapter, the graphics solution cannot use more than 3.5GB of onboard memory at full speed. As a result, in certain cases performance of the GeForce GTX 970 drops.

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Many owners of Nvidia GeForce GTX 970-based graphics cards now want to return their adapters to stores because of incorrect specifications. Since Nvidia has not yet announced any plans to settle the dispute with angry GTX 970 owners, annoyed clients will naturally return their adapters to retailers and/or accept discounts on Radeon R9 290 or R9 290X graphics cards from AMD once it announces an appropriate campaign officially.

Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It will be very interesting to learn what exactly AMD will offer to owners of Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards.

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Nvidia: We will not boost GeForce GTX 970 performance with drivers https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-we-will-not-boost-geforce-gtx-970-performance-with-drivers/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-we-will-not-boost-geforce-gtx-970-performance-with-drivers/#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2015 00:00:16 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=233214 Nvidia Corp. on Thursday retracted its promise to improve performance of the GeForce GTX 970 using new drivers. According to the company, one of its representatives made an incorrect statement and there is no new driver with a fix for the graphics card incoming. As discovered by numerous enthusiasts and confirmed by Nvidia earlier this week, …

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Nvidia Corp. on Thursday retracted its promise to improve performance of the GeForce GTX 970 using new drivers. According to the company, one of its representatives made an incorrect statement and there is no new driver with a fix for the graphics card incoming.

As discovered by numerous enthusiasts and confirmed by Nvidia earlier this week, the GeForce GTX 970 graphics card cannot access all four gigabytes of onboard memory at full speed. Due to limitations of the cut-down GM204 graphics processor used on the model GTX 970, only 3.5GB of memory can be accessed with maximum bandwidth, whereas 512MB pool can be accessed at considerably lower speed, which results in performance degradations in certain cases.

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On Wednesday it was reported that Nvidia was working on a special driver that would improve performance of the GeForce GTX 970 in certain situations. Unfortunately, while Nvidia is constantly working on new drivers, the company is not working on a special driver that will fix the issue when the GeForce GTX 970 cannot use more than 3.5GB efficiently.

“[Performance improvement plan] is not something we have officially said,” a spokesperson for Nvidia said in an emailed statement.

The GM204-200 graphics processor used for the GeForce GTX 970 lacks a part of level-two cache as well as features only 56 raster operations pipelines (even though initially Nvidia declared 64 ROPs and full 2MB L2 cache). Due to nature of the Maxwell architecture, 512MB of 4GB onboard memory cannot be accessed at full speed because of such configuration. As a result, Nvidia’s abilities to fix the 3.5GB GeForce GTX 970 memory issue with drivers are limited.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Looks like the memory allocation issue of the GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards is not a bug, but rather a feature. As a result, expect new graphics adapters to change specifications of the product on boxes. Besides, Nvidia could reconsider pricing of the GeForce GTX 970 and even provide a compensation for owners in order not to fuel the scandal.

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Nvidia vows to boost GeForce GTX 970 performance with driver update https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-vows-to-boost-geforce-gtx-970-performance-with-driver-update/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-vows-to-boost-geforce-gtx-970-performance-with-driver-update/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2015 23:46:00 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=233047 FOLLOW UP: Nvidia: We will not boost GeForce GTX 970 performance with drivers. Nvidia Corp. admitted early this week that it initially published wrong specifications of the GeForce GTX 970 and did not correct its mistake until recently after numerous people reported issues regarding usage of onboard memory. The company promised to fix memory allocation problems on …

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FOLLOW UP: Nvidia: We will not boost GeForce GTX 970 performance with drivers.

Nvidia Corp. admitted early this week that it initially published wrong specifications of the GeForce GTX 970 and did not correct its mistake until recently after numerous people reported issues regarding usage of onboard memory. The company promised to fix memory allocation problems on the GeForce GTX 970 using a new driver update, which will boost performance of the graphics board.

As reported, Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 970 graphics card cannot access all four gigabyte of onboard memory at full speed. Only 3.5GB of memory can be accessed with maximum bandwidth due to limitations of the cut-down GM204 architecture of the GeForce GTX 970; 512MB of memory are accessed at much lower speed, which could result in limited performance when the graphics sub-system is forced to use all four gigabytes of memory.

While limitations is nothing new on the market of graphics adapters, Nvidia incorrectly declared amount of raster operations pipelines (ROPs), actual memory bandwidth and the amount of high-speed onboard memory. Instead of 64 ROPs, the GPU features only 56 ROPs, actual usable memory bandwidth at present is less than 224GB/s and the amount of memory should be indicated as 3.5GB + 0.5GB. Nvidia admits it misrepresented specifications of the GeForce GTX 970.

“I totally get why so many people are upset,” said Peter S, a moderator over at Nvidia forums. “We messed up some of the stats on the reviewer kit and we didn't properly explain the memory architecture. I realize a lot of you guys rely on product reviews to make purchase decisions and we let you down.”

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While Nvidia did misstate specifications of the GeForce GTX 970, the graphics solution performs very well in the vast majority of cases. The graphics adapter does not show its maximum potential in select situations and Nvidia promises to improve performance of the graphics adapter in new drivers.

“We are working on a driver update that will tune what's allocated where in memory to further improve performance,” said the representative for Nvidia.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Since poor performance of 512MB of memory on the GeForce GTX 970 seems to be a hardware limitation, it will be very interesting to see how significantly Nvidia manages to improve performance of the graphics solution using a driver update.

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Nvidia updates specifications of GeForce GTX 970 following scandal https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-updates-specifications-of-geforce-gtx-970-following-a-scandal/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-updates-specifications-of-geforce-gtx-970-following-a-scandal/#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2015 08:54:41 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=232602 After numerous reports claiming that Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card cannot use more than 3.5GB of onboard memory, Nvidia Corp. updated the official specs of the graphics solution. Apparently, the difference between the GeForce GTX 970 and 980 is more significant than Nvidia originally said. According to a report by PCPerspective, which cites Jonah …

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After numerous reports claiming that Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card cannot use more than 3.5GB of onboard memory, Nvidia Corp. updated the official specs of the graphics solution. Apparently, the difference between the GeForce GTX 970 and 980 is more significant than Nvidia originally said.

According to a report by PCPerspective, which cites Jonah Alben, senior vice president of GPU engineering at Nvidia, the GeForce GTX 970 features 56 raster operating pipelines (ROPs) and 1792KB L2 cache, not 64 ROPs and 2MB of cache, as previously reported. In a GeForce GTX 980, each block of L2/ROPs directly communicate through a 32-bit portion of the GM204 memory interface and then to a 512MB section of on-board memory. Since the model GTX 970 lacks part of L2 and ROPs, it cannot effectively use 512MB of 4096MB of onboard GDDR5 memory.

While the GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards do carry 4096MB of memory, it is divided into two pools: one pool is 3.5GB, whereas the second one is 0.5GB. The larger, primary pool is given priority and is then accessed in the expected pattern. Since the majority of games do not need more than 3.5GB of memory, no problems occur with the GTX 970. However, in cases when over 3.5GB of memory is required, things get much worse. The 0.5GB of memory in the second pool on the GTX 970 cards is slower than the 3.5GB of memory, but is faster than system memory accessed using the PCI Express bus. As a result, performance may degrade when the 0.5GB pool is used.

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According to Nvidia, the rather tricky memory sub-system of the GeForce GTX 970 does not negatively affect performance of the board in the majority of cases. While there might be specific instances where performance drops are more severe because of this memory hierarchy design, in the vast majority of cases everything should be fine.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It is completely unclear why Nvidia decided to advertise 64 ROPs and 4GB of memory for the GeForce GTX 970. The scandal with incorrect specifications clearly affects Nvidia’s reputation in a negative way.

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Asus’ GeForce GTX 970 with 10-phase VRM won’t make it to Europe, U.S. https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/asusteks-geforce-gtx-970-with-10-phase-vrm-will-not-be-available-in-europe-u-s/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/asusteks-geforce-gtx-970-with-10-phase-vrm-will-not-be-available-in-europe-u-s/#comments Fri, 16 Jan 2015 01:42:29 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=230867 Asustek Computer on Thursday said that its Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight graphics cards will not be available outside China. Although the graphics adapter is a potential bestseller thanks to its great design and overclocking capabilities, the company will keep it exclusive for the Chinese market. “The Dragon Knight GTX 970 card is a limited …

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Asustek Computer on Thursday said that its Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight graphics cards will not be available outside China. Although the graphics adapter is a potential bestseller thanks to its great design and overclocking capabilities, the company will keep it exclusive for the Chinese market.

“The Dragon Knight GTX 970 card is a limited run product only for the Chinese market, it will not be released widely and will not come to the U.K.,” said Gareth Ogden, a spokesman for Asustek Computer. “They do this fairly often in the Chinese markets as the market economics and channels are different to E.U. and North America.”

The Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight features significantly increased GPU clock-rate as well as substantial overclocking potential thanks to its 10-phase voltage regulation module (VRM), two auxiliary PCIe power connectors (one 8-pin and one 6-pin) as well as a modified DirectCU II cooling system with two different 10cm fans. The graphics card used printed-circuit board that Asus originally developed for its premium Asus Strix GTX 980 product, which has won multiple awards, including a Must Have award from KitGuru.

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It is highly likely that the Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight was developed specifically for Chinese New Year that is celebrated on the 19th of February, 2015. For enthusiasts of high-performance PCs the graphics card will become a great gift.

Asus positions its GTX 970 Dragon Knight below its premium Republic of Gamers (ROG) series of products, but above its default graphics solutions. Unfortunately, at present Asustek does not offer GeForce GTX 970-based solutions for overclockers, but wants them to buy fully-fledged Asus Strix GTX 980 or Asus ROG Matrix Platinum GeForce GTX 980 graphics boards with 10-phase and 14-phase voltage regulator modules (VRMs), respectively. Still, there are a number of interesting graphics cards based on the GeForce GTX 970 available today. One of the most promising GTX 970 solutions is clearly Overclockers UK’s reference GeForce GTX 970 that uses PCB and cooler that Nvidia developed for the GeForce GTX 980.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While officially Asustek’s GTX 970 Dragon Knight will be available only in China, it should be possible to get one such graphics cards on Internet auctions or using Chinese online stores, just in case you have just fell in love with this product…

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Asustek readies GeForce GTX 970 graphics card with 10-phase VRM https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/asustek-readies-geforce-gtx-970-graphics-card-with-10-phase-vrm/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/asustek-readies-geforce-gtx-970-graphics-card-with-10-phase-vrm/#comments Tue, 13 Jan 2015 20:22:36 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=230385 After Nvidia let all of its partners to develop their own designs for graphics cards based on its GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 graphics processing units, the majority of manufacturers designed advanced printed-circuit boards for the latter and low-cost PCBs for the former. Asustek Computer decided to reverse the trend and introduce a …

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After Nvidia let all of its partners to develop their own designs for graphics cards based on its GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 graphics processing units, the majority of manufacturers designed advanced printed-circuit boards for the latter and low-cost PCBs for the former. Asustek Computer decided to reverse the trend and introduce a GeForce GTX 970 featuring a sophisticated PCB and a high-end cooling system.

Asustek Computer has developed Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight graphics card, which promises to be one of the best GeForce GTX 970 graphics adapters on the market. The board is based on the PCB used for the Asus Strix GTX 980 product, which is one of the most advanced GM204 graphics cards on the market. The Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight features 10-phase voltage regulation module (VRM), two auxiliary PCIe power connectors (one 8-pin and one 6-pin) as well as a modified DirectCU II cooling system with two different 10cm fans.

asus_geforce_gtx_970_dragon

The Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight features base GPU clock-rate of 1253MHz (1355MHz maximum) as well as effective 7GHz GDDR5 frequency, reports Expreview. The card with its altered cooler and a backplate weighs around 1.11 kilograms.

The manufacturer positions its GTX 970 Dragon Knight below its premium Republic of Gamers (ROG) series of products, but above its default graphics solutions. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether the Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight graphics card will be available anywhere outside mainland China and Taiwan. From time to time companies like Asustek introduce exclusive solutions for local markets.

asus_geforce_gtx_970_dragon_1

10-phase VRM will enable great overclocking potential for the GPU, something, which could make the Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight the world’s highest-performing GeForce GTX 970-based graphics adapter.

Price of the Asus GTX 970 Dragon Knight remains unclear, but do not expect to be affordable since the graphics card is truly exclusive.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: If the “Dragon Knight” graphics card reaches European, U.K. and U.S. markets, it could end up as one of the most interesting GeForce GTX 970 graphics solutions available thanks to advanced PCB design, quiet cooling system and potentially great overclocking potential.

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GeForce GTX 970/980 8GB graphics cards are still in plans https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/geforce-gtx-970980-8gb-graphics-cards-are-still-in-plans/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/geforce-gtx-970980-8gb-graphics-cards-are-still-in-plans/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:31:17 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=229634 The first rumours about 8GB versions of GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980 graphics cards emerged sometime in October, 2014. However, none of such graphics adapters showed up last year. Apparently, add-in-boards with 8GB of GDDR5 memory are still in plans, however, their availability will depend on supply of high-performance 8Gb GDDR5 chips. While the …

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The first rumours about 8GB versions of GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980 graphics cards emerged sometime in October, 2014. However, none of such graphics adapters showed up last year. Apparently, add-in-boards with 8GB of GDDR5 memory are still in plans, however, their availability will depend on supply of high-performance 8Gb GDDR5 chips.

While the partners of Advanced Micro Devices initiated shipments of 8GB versions of AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics cards last year, they all used 16 4Gb GDDR5 memory chips to build them. For some reason, Nvidia and its allies chose not to follow their competitors and use 4Gb GDDR5 devices to build 8GB graphics cards, but decided to wait till Samsung releases its new 8Gb memory ICs [integrated circuits].

NVIDIA_GeForce_GTX_900series_KeyVisual_HD_003

According to Chinese VR-Zone web-site, who managed to obtain an excerpt from a Samsung’s document, the world’s largest maker of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) will start to sample 8Gb GDDR5 memory devices in the first quarter of 2015. The new 8Gb memory ICs will operate at various data-rates up to 8MT/s, therefore, will be able to address all possible graphics solutions.

Once Samsung begins mass production of 8Gb GDDR5 memory chips, Nvidia’s partners will be able to introduce GeForce GTX 970/980 graphics cards with 8GB of onboard memory.

samsung_gddr5_plans

While 8GB of GDDR5 DRAM is excessive for the vast majority of applications today, some games actually take advantage of such massive amount of memory. Moreover, 8GB of memory will be usable if you plan to play new titles in ultra-high-definition resolutions.

Based on unofficial information, Nvidia is on-track to introduce new premium graphics cards based on the code-named GM200 graphics processing unit this quarter. Many of the new GM200-based graphics cards will feature 6GB of memory (since the GM200 has 384-bit memory bus), whereas others could, at least theoretically, sport whopping 12GB of memory onboard thanks to 8Gb memory devices.

Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Keeping in mind that AMD is expected to roll-out its next-generation high-end Radeon graphics products with only 4GB of memory, it will be interesting to see how such cards will compete against Nvidia’s top-of-the-range solutions with 6GB or 12GB on-board. On the one hand, AMD’s new-generation graphics board will feature HBM memory with up to 640GB/s bandwidth (Nvidia’s GM200-powered AIBs will feature 336GB/s – 384GB/s of bandwidth). On the other hand, it will feature only up to 4GB of DRAM on-board…

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SK Hynix begins to mass-produce 8GHz GDDR5 memory https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/sk-hynix-begins-to-mass-produce-8ghz-gddr5-memory/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/sk-hynix-begins-to-mass-produce-8ghz-gddr5-memory/#respond Sat, 22 Nov 2014 02:50:42 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=222976 SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest makers of dynamic random access memory, has initiated mass production of GDDR5 memory that can operate at 8Gb/s data-rate. The new memory chips are already available for graphics cards manufacturers and will be installed on new graphics adapters. The new GDDR5 memory chips from SK Hynix feature 4Gb capacity …

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SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest makers of dynamic random access memory, has initiated mass production of GDDR5 memory that can operate at 8Gb/s data-rate. The new memory chips are already available for graphics cards manufacturers and will be installed on new graphics adapters.

The new GDDR5 memory chips from SK Hynix feature 4Gb capacity (organized as 128M*32) and come in industry-standard 170-ball grid array package. The memory ICs that can operate at 8GHz effective clock-rate are marked as H5GQ4H24AJR-R4C. The new memory devices require 1.55V voltage, which is the highest voltage for GDDR5 components at present.

The GDDR5 memory ICs with 8Gb/s data-rate from SK Hynix will likely be used on graphics cards based on Nvidia Corp.’s upcoming code-named GM200 graphics processing units in order to provide the high-performance graphics chip maximum possible memory bandwidth.

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Memory chips from SK Hynix. Image for illustrative purposes only.

It is also likely that at least some makers of graphics adapters will install the 8GHz GDDR5 chips on current-generation graphics boards based on the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 graphics processors in order to maximize their performance (thanks to 256GB/s memory bandwidth, a 14.2 per cent increase compared to Nvidia’s reference design that uses 7010MHz memory) and differentiate from competitors.

Current generation AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics cards feature 512-bit memory bus, which ensures that the GPU gets enough memory bandwidth (320GB/s) even with 5GHz GDDR5 memory.

Next generation AMD Radeon R9 390X “Fiji XT” graphics cards will reportedly use SK Hynix’s high-bandwidth (HBM) DRAM compliant with the JESD235 standard that will provide over 600GB/s of bandwidth to the graphics processing unit.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Keeping in mind that renowned overclockers can push even “standard” 7GHz GDDR5 memory ICs to 9GHz on GeForce GTX 980 graphics cards with the help of liquid nitrogen, imagine what kind of effective frequencies we will see from SK Hynix’s 8GHz GDDR5 chips…

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Nvidia earns record revenues thanks to booming sales of… everything https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-earns-record-revenues-thanks-to-booming-sales-of-everything/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-earns-record-revenues-thanks-to-booming-sales-of-everything/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2014 03:39:34 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=220773 Nvidia Corp. on Thursday reported its financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal 2015, which ended on the 26th of October, 2014. The company earned record revenue in a single quarter thanks to increased sales of all of its products, including all types of graphics processing units as well as Tegra system-on-chips. Nvidia’s …

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Nvidia Corp. on Thursday reported its financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal 2015, which ended on the 26th of October, 2014. The company earned record revenue in a single quarter thanks to increased sales of all of its products, including all types of graphics processing units as well as Tegra system-on-chips.

Nvidia’s revenue for the Q3 FY2015 totaled $1.225 billion, up 16 per cent from $1.05 billion a year earlier and up 11 per cent from $1.10 billion the previous quarter. Nvidia’s net income for the quarter was $173 million, operating expenses were around $463 million, whereas gross margin was 55.2 per cent. Revenue for the first three quarters of fiscal 2015 was a record $3.43 billion, up 15 per cent from $2.99 billion a year earlier.

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Sales of Nvidia GPUs in Q3 2015 were up 11 per cent sequentially and 13 per cent year-over-year. According to Colette Kress, chief financial officer of Nvidia, The GPU business grew due to the launch of the new GeForce GTX 900-series “Maxwell” products and the seasonal increase in demand for consumer PCs. In addition, Nvidia’s datacenter platform revenue increased as a result of continued strength in GPU acceleration opportunities. The company claims that during the quarter it signed “large” contracts with cloud service providers and government customers.

Sales of Nvidia Tegra application processors for mobile, consumer and automotive applications were up 6 per cent quarter-over-quarter as well as 51 per cent year-over-year. Ms. Kress claims that Tegra sales were led by automobile infotainment systems, mobile devices, embedded systems, and the onset of Shield tablet sales. Automobile infotainment system revenue nearly doubled year over year.

nvidia_q3_fy2015_revenue

“Nvidia’s focus on creating visual computing platforms for datacenter, mobile and PC drove record revenue this quarter,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of Nvidia. “Growth drivers have kicked in for us on several fronts. High-performance computing, virtualization and web service providers have created demand for our GPU-accelerated datacenter platforms. Automakers are using Tegra to help reinvent the driving experience. And our new Maxwell architecture is a giant leap forward that has triggered a major upgrade cycle by PC gamers.”

For the Q4 FY2015 the company expects revenue of around $1.2 billion, operating expenses of approximately $470 million and gross margin of about 55.2 per cent.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Unfortunately, Nvidia does not provide a detailed revenue split and it is unclear how significantly the launch of the GeForce GTX 970/980 and the GeForce GTX 970M/980M affected the company’s sales. Keeping in mind that there were no major announcements regarding Tesla or Quadro products (even though Nvidia mentions certain design wins now), it looks like gaming GPUs based on the Maxwell architecture indeed drove Nvidia’s revenue to the record levels

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Nvidia to bundle a free Ubisoft game with GeForce GTX graphics cards https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-to-bundle-a-free-ubisoft-game-with-geforce-gtx-graphics-cards/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-to-bundle-a-free-ubisoft-game-with-geforce-gtx-graphics-cards/#comments Tue, 04 Nov 2014 13:59:46 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=220166 Nvidia Corp. on Tuesday said it has partnered with Ubisoft and will provide a video game of choice for free to those, who buy new GeForce GTX 780- and 900-series graphics cards from eligible suppliers and retailers. The new “Pick Your Path” promotion will attract even more attention to Nvidia’s latest graphics adapters among gamers. …

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Nvidia Corp. on Tuesday said it has partnered with Ubisoft and will provide a video game of choice for free to those, who buy new GeForce GTX 780- and 900-series graphics cards from eligible suppliers and retailers. The new “Pick Your Path” promotion will attract even more attention to Nvidia’s latest graphics adapters among gamers.

Nvidia’s “Pick Your Path” bundle entitles anyone who buys a GeForce GTX 980, a GeForce GTX 970, a GeForce GTX 780 or a GeForce GTX 780 Ti graphics card (as well as certain notebooks featuring GeForce GTX 970M/980M graphics adapters) to pick up a bundled game from a choice of The Crew, Far Cry 4 or Assassin's Creed Unity.

nvidia_pick_your_path

The three video games from Ubisoft are not only highly-anticipated titles that are going to become best-sellers in the coming months, but are also among the first games that use a selection of Nvidia-exclusive graphics processing technologies, such as Nvidia Godrays, Nvidia HairWorks, Nvidia TXAA [temporal antialiasing], Nvidia PCSS [percentage-closer soft shadows] and so on.

“Nvidia has worked hard, hand-in-hand with our development teams, to help provide the best experience for our PC players,” said Jean-Francois St.Amour, lead graphics programmer at Ubisoft Montreal. “Their support and insight is even more important now, as we make a big technological leap into the next-generation of Assassin's Creed games.”

NVIDIA_GeForce_GTX_900series_KeyVisual_HD_003

It is interesting to note that Nvidia provides free games not only with the latest-generation GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 graphics cards based on the GM204 graphics processing units featuring second-generation “Maxwell” architecture, but also with previous-generation graphics boards. The GeForce GTX 780 and GTX 780 Ti graphics adapters are based on the code-named GK110 GPUs featuring “Kepler” architecture. The fact that Nvidia continues to promote its previous-gen solutions indicates that the company has no immediate plans to retire the GeForce GTX 780-series graphics boards. At the same time, it is noteworthy that Nvidia will not provide any benefits to those, who buy GeForce GTX Titan or GeForce GTX Titan Z top-of-the-range offerings.

Please note that terms and conditions of the “Pick Your Path” promotion may vary depending on country and region.

You can get Nvidia GeForce GTX 970/980 graphics cards with “Pick Your Path” bundle at Overclockers UK.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Free video games is something that is always good for gamers. Keeping in mind that the three titles from Ubisoft are among the highest-anticipated games of this fall, offering them for free will bring a lot of new customers to Nvidia. While the true fans of Far Cry or Assassin’s Creed will probably buy limited edition/gold edition flavours of the titles, there are a lot of gamers who will be quite satisfied with default versions of the games that are expected to bring computer graphics to the next level. Moreover, even if you plan to buy advanced versions of the FC4 or the ACU, The Crew looks to be a game worth checking out!

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Overclockers UK slashes prices of GeForce GTX 970/980 cards https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/overclockers-uk-slashes-prices-of-geforce-gtx-970980-graphics-cards/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/overclockers-uk-slashes-prices-of-geforce-gtx-970980-graphics-cards/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2014 22:48:20 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=219441 Overclockers UK on Thursday slashed prices on various GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 graphics cards by Inno3D. Thanks to price-cuts, OcUK now offers the cheapest GeForce GTX 970 boards in the United Kingdom. The company is also the first to offer a GeForce GTX 980 for £399.95. “Inno3D have been winning awards left, right …

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Overclockers UK on Thursday slashed prices on various GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 graphics cards by Inno3D. Thanks to price-cuts, OcUK now offers the cheapest GeForce GTX 970 boards in the United Kingdom. The company is also the first to offer a GeForce GTX 980 for £399.95.

“Inno3D have been winning awards left, right and centre for their new 900-series cards and to celebrate Halloween I've scared myself senseless and as such I am setting a new low price-point on GeForce GTX 970 in the UK,” said Andrew “Gibbo” Gibson, a purchasing manager at Overclockers UK. “This deal is incredible and, yes, we are making practically no money by doing it. But on the upper-hand we will probably sell 1000+ units this weekend.”

nvidia_geforce_gtx_980_1

Starting today, the online store will offer the following graphics cards at discount prices (prices include VAT):

Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 980 (2048 stream processors, 128 texture units, 64 raster operations pipelines, 256-bit memory bus) and GeForce GTX 970 (1664 SPs, 104 TUs, 64 ROPs, 256-bit memory bus) graphics cards are based on the GM204 graphics processing unit powered by the second-generation Maxwell architecture that offers high performance amid moderate power consumption. The GM204 supports the latest industry-standard application programming interfaces like DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.3, OpenCL 1.1 as well as a set of Nvidia’s proprietary technologies like SLI, G-Sync, voxel global illumination (VXGI), dynamic super resolution (DSR), multi-frame sampled anti-aliasing (MFAA), CUDA, PhysX, 3D Vision and so on.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: If you are in the market for a GeForce GTX 900-series graphics card, it looks like it is time to buy, if you want one now and with a discount.

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Nvidia to reveal GeForce GTX 970/980 with 8GB of memory in November or December https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-to-reveal-geforce-gtx-970980-with-8gb-of-memory-in-november-of-december/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-to-reveal-geforce-gtx-970980-with-8gb-of-memory-in-november-of-december/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2014 17:29:32 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=219404 Nvidia Corp. and its partners plan to release graphics cards based on the company’s latest GM204 graphics processing unit with 8GB of onboard memory either in November or December. The new solutions are expected to boost demand for GeForce GTX 900-series graphics adapters. Hermitage Akihabara reports that Nvidia and and its partners among suppliers of …

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Nvidia Corp. and its partners plan to release graphics cards based on the company’s latest GM204 graphics processing unit with 8GB of onboard memory either in November or December. The new solutions are expected to boost demand for GeForce GTX 900-series graphics adapters.

Hermitage Akihabara reports that Nvidia and and its partners among suppliers of graphics cards are gearing up to launch GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 graphics cards with 8GB frame-buffers this calendar year. At present there is no exact launch dates for the novelties, but it is said that there is a plan to release such graphics boards in November or December, 2014. Right now there is no information about pricing of such graphics boards.

On Wednesday in transpired that that AMD and its partners plan to re-launch Radeon R9 290X graphics cards with 8GB of onboard GDDR5 memory in early November. If the report from the Japanese web-site is correct, then AMD’s graphics adapters with enlarged frame-buffers will have rather strong rivals.

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8GB of GDDR5 memory onboard may be useful for future games, ultra-high-definition resolutions or gaming with extreme full-scene antialiasing settings. In all other cases such frame-buffer seems to be an overkill for today. Nonetheless, many people would prefer to own a graphics board with a lot of memory, which is why AMD and Nvidia are preparing appropriate solutions.

Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It will be interesting to see how factory-overclocked 8GB versions of the GeForce GTX 980 will compare to the GeForce GTX Titan Black 6GB. While the latter has higher default graphics processing horsepower, the former has great overclockability and therefore can actually beat the former single-chip flagship graphics solution from Nvidia in ultra-high-definition resolutions where the size of frame-buffer matters.

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Recommended prices of GeForce GTX 970, 980 published https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/recommended-prices-of-geforce-gtx-970-980-published/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/recommended-prices-of-geforce-gtx-970-980-published/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2014 22:59:42 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=211944 A media report has revealed recommended prices of Nvidia Corp’s forthcoming GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 graphics cards. As expected, the large size of the code-named GM204 graphics processing unit that powers both products does not allow to make them affordable. The GeForce GTX 980 graphics board with 4GB of GDDR5 memory will …

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A media report has revealed recommended prices of Nvidia Corp’s forthcoming GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 graphics cards. As expected, the large size of the code-named GM204 graphics processing unit that powers both products does not allow to make them affordable.

The GeForce GTX 980 graphics board with 4GB of GDDR5 memory will carry recommended price tag of $599, which positions it between the GeForce GTX 780 and the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, reports 3DCenter.org. It is expected that performance of the novelty will be higher compared to the former and lower compared to the latter, given its configuration. It is expected that the GTX 980 features 2048 stream processors (SPs), 128 texture units (TUs), 64 raster operations pipelines (ROPs), 2MB L2 cache, and 256-bit memory interface.

The GeForce GTX 970 is expected to cost $399 in the U.S., which may mean that its performance will be similar to that of the GeForce GTX 770. Actual configuration of the GeForce GTX 970 GPU is unknown, but it is expected that graphics cards on its base will carry 4GB of GDDR5 memory.

nvidia_artwork

Recommended prices of the forthcoming graphics boards for Europe and the U.K. are unknown.

Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Keeping in mind that the price gap between the GeForce GTX 970 and 980 is around $200, expect a huge gap in performance as well.

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Nvidia to skip GeForce GTX 800 series, to introduce GeForce GTX 970, GTX 980 in mid-September https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-to-skip-geforce-gtx-800-series-to-introduce-geforce-gtx-970-gtx-980-in-mid-september/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-to-skip-geforce-gtx-800-series-to-introduce-geforce-gtx-970-gtx-980-in-mid-september/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2014 03:23:26 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=209448 Although it was expected that Nvidia Corp. would release its new GeForce GTX 800-series graphics cards for desktops this September and October, the company has decided to skip the GeForce 800 family for desktop PCs and jump straight to the GeForce 900 line of products. Model numbers of modern central processing units and graphics processing units have …

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Although it was expected that Nvidia Corp. would release its new GeForce GTX 800-series graphics cards for desktops this September and October, the company has decided to skip the GeForce 800 family for desktop PCs and jump straight to the GeForce 900 line of products.

Model numbers of modern central processing units and graphics processing units have been criticized criticized for years since in many cases they barely reflect performance and positioning of products and in many cases cannot even determine their generation. At present Nvidia offers high-end GeForce GTX 700-series of products for desktop computers. At the same time, the company sells GeForce GTX 800M family of products for notebooks. What is rather confusing is that both lineups – the GTX 700 and the GTX 800M – are based on similar chips powered by the Kepler architecture.

In a bid to avoid confusion with its upcoming families of graphics processing units for desktop and mobile computers, Nvidia decided to sell its products powered by the second-generation Maxwell GPUs code-named GM200, GM204 and other under the GeForce 900 moniker, reports VideoCardz.

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As a result, Nvidia is now expected to formally introduce the GeForce GTX 970 and the GeForce GTX 980 graphics cards on the 19th of September, 2014. The GeForce GTX 960 is projected to arrive sometime in October.

Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: While the idea to sell similar generation of chips under similar model numbers makes a lot of sense, it should be kept in mind that in order to complete the GeForce 900 and the GeForce 900M product lines, Nvidia will likely add old chips into new families and therefore will confuse end-users again.

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