[Newegg] MSI GTX 970 4GD5T OC = $314

[RussianSensation]

MSI GTX 970 4GD5T OC GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support G-SYNC Support Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-833-_-Product


$330 - $10 MSI rebate (expires Feb 28) - $10 MSI prepaid card + $3.99 shipping = $314

 

[DesiPower]

So what's up with the memory interface of these cards? I noticed that they went to 384 then 512 then dropped back to 256. Does it have no major impact on the performance? AMD's latest and greatest are coming with 512...

 

[master_shake_]

So what's up with the memory interface of these cards? I noticed that they went to 384 then 512 then dropped back to 256. Does it have no major impact on the performance? AMD's latest and greatest are coming with 512...

its 224bit now.

and there is some evidence that when the card nears the 3.5-4 mark it stutters quite badly.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It's a great card for current games, but the RAM is 3.5 MB + 512 MB, where use of the 512 can cause lag spikes or stutters.

It's not an issue with current games at 1080p. I'm concerned that in a couple of years nvidia might stop putting effort into supporting it, then some games in 2017 might try to use all 4 GB instead of just the safe 3.5 GB. I use cards for several years (still using my GTX 680) so that would affect me.

I'm in the minority on this, but I wouldn't buy the card unless nv adds a way to disable the bad 512 and make it act as just a 3.5 GB card so game engines only use the safe RAM. That feature might never be needed, but the card's off my shopping list without it.

There are arguments for and against needing the feature here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2418737

 

[funboy6942]

If it matters to anyone, I am running mine with a amd 8 core at 4.0ghz, oc'd the 970 to 1430ghz and I can play so far Ryse Son of Rome with all they Eye candy turned up with no lag or stutter. And when I test it with the Heaven benchmark it says my card is running at 1634ghz and my mem is at 5003, damn thing is a beast.....

 

[skipsneeky2]

its 224bit now.

and there is some evidence that when the card nears the 3.5-4 mark it stutters quite badly.

Already had Titanfall at 1080p stutter,lock up then crash when memory hit over 3.5gb on my 970.Luckily that game looks nearly as good on Very High as it does on Insane and memory usage may hit 3gb on a bad day with those settings+4x MSAA.

Luckily the rest of my games peak at worst in the 2200mb range like BF4,i do got a backlog of new 2014-2015 games i intend on buying so we will see what happens.🙂