Disable GTX 970 Turtle Memory

[UaVaj]

any way to completely disable that super slow 0.5gb of vram yet?

 

[master_shake_]

turn down details and resolution.

stay at 1080p.

or sell the card.

 

[3DVagabond]

I believe the way the drivers allocate memory that most of the .5GB is being allocated to windows functions where it has no effect on performance rather than the actual rendering.

 

[dark zero]

Actually is selling the card and getting the 980. 970 is not a suitable option now... and yeah... there must be an option to show up only the real capacity.

 

[RockinZ28]

Keep your vram usage under 3.4gb is what I do. Above that and it's stutter city, complete bs for a card advertised as 4gb.

 

[xorbe]

It's a lame situation, since it's totally possible for them to provide a way to disable the last 0.5 GB.

 

[showb1z]

I encountered the same conundrum. But I discovered a pretty foolproof way to unlock an additional 4.5GB of VRAM:

1. Sell GTX970
2. Buy R9 390
3. ???
4. Profit

Yeah ok, it's not such a great plan anymore. But when I did it last year I even made a profit and got a faster card that should last longer as well.
Oh and I got that fuzzy feeling inside for at least making a token gesture against Nvidia's bullshit.

 

[amenx]

Even if you could disable the slower .5gb segment you would not want to. It is slower than the 3.5gb portion, sure. But its still about 4 times faster than system ram so would do better with it than without it.

http://www.pcgamer.com/why-nvidias-gtx-970-slows-down-using-more-than-35gb-vram/

 

[xthetenth]

Even if you could disable the slower .5gb segment you would not want to. It is slower than the 3.5gb portion, sure. But its still about 4 times faster than system ram so would do better with it than without it.

http://www.pcgamer.com/why-nvidias-gtx-970-slows-down-using-more-than-35gb-vram/

Trick is it slows down the other 3.5 GB, so there's some edge cases where it might not be worth it.

 

[amenx]

Trick is it slows down the other 3.5 GB, so there's some edge cases where it might not be worth it.

No reviewers have actually reproduced this. Only anecdotal 'evidence' from gamers who push the cards past what they're capable of even if it had the full 4gb vram.

Most crippling vram heavy game thrown at it by a reviewer trying to reproduce the issue:

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-geforce-gtx-970-vram-stress-test.html

 

[poofyhairguy]

Trick is it slows down the other 3.5 GB

Does it really? How so?

The only issue I can see is if the card is telling the game "I have 4GB of VRAM" so the game balloons to use that for caching or something and hits the .5 piece when it otherwise wouldn't. From what I understand Nvidia goes out of its way in the driver to keep that from happening, which means the issue is mitigated.

With that said maybe being able to turn off the .5 piece will be helpful down the road when Maxwell is no longer Nvidia's priority and whatever team is today fixing the 970 in the driver has moved onto newer cards.

 

[UaVaj]

buddy have a 970 right now. need more gpu performance for wow's new ssaa. want to add another 970.

only if this 0.5gb of turtle vram could be disabled.

 

[xthetenth]

Does it really? How so?

The only issue I can see is if the card is telling the game "I have 4GB of VRAM" so the game balloons to use that for caching or something and hits the .5 piece when it otherwise wouldn't. From what I understand Nvidia goes out of its way in the driver to keep that from happening, which means the issue is mitigated.

With that said maybe being able to turn off the .5 piece will be helpful down the road when Maxwell is no longer Nvidia's priority and whatever team is today fixing the 970 in the driver has moved onto newer cards.

It can access the 3.5 or the .5 in a given cycle. So accesses to the .5 come at the expense of those to the 3.5. We haven't seen it in practice, thus the edge cases comment.

 

[LTC8K6]

buddy have a 970 right now. need more gpu performance for wow's new ssaa. want to add another 970.

only if this 0.5gb of turtle vram could be disabled.

I don't think it makes any sense to add another 970 at this time, though.

Single card is the way to go.

You should wait a few months and see what's coming up, and where prices go.

 

[tweakboy]

Wait for the 1000 GTX