Seems all the early 1070s were shipped with the better, higher overhead Samsung VRAM. It appears there has been a shortage of it and AIBs switched to the inferior Micron VRAM that causes artifacting with small OCs and even at stock 8000mhz in some cases. Nvidia has acknowledged the issue and will provide a new BIOS base for AIBs to provide to their customers for those with the Micron cards.
Not sure how accurate this users assessment of the situation may be, but interesting nonetheless (aside from the hyperbole):
Now I was aware of this earlier but not the potential scale of the problem it may turn out to be. Have a 1070 on the way and thought it may be a lottery buy with some Samsungs and others Micron. But now appears that virtually all new 1070s shipped within last couple months or so are Micron (FE versions still use Samsung). What worries me are a few users who reported no problems with the Micron but then finding artifacting a few weeks later (checkerboard patterns, crashes) and possibly dying cards.
Anyone with Micron vram based 1070s? How are you all doing?
Not sure how accurate this users assessment of the situation may be, but interesting nonetheless (aside from the hyperbole):
I am pretty convinced that i have this Micron GTX 1070 memory issue figured out with the aid of Micron's GDDR5 datasheet found here https://www.micron.com/products/data...b-595ce11150c4
Micron graphics memory in general is not terrible, but it is a 2nd-tier manufacturer after Samsung, since Samsung GDDR5 has always had a higher quality and headroom across the different generations.
I am talking specifically about Micron's GDDR5 which has a maximum data rate of 8.0 Gb/s
According to its datasheet found here https://www.micron.com/products/data...b-595ce11150c4
Micron GDDR5 operate at data rates of 6.0 Gb/s, 7.0 Gb/s, 8.0 Gb/s (MAX)
8.0 Gb/s being the maximum rated for this memory which could explain why there is no headroom left because at stock settings the memory is already pushed to its limit.
If the same Micron GDDR5 chips were used on a 7 Gb/s rated GPU it would have been great, very stable and would have an amazing OC headroom left ..
The way they have used these Micron GDDR5 modules is bad and makes it of a much lower quality standards than Samsung's GDDR5 which appear to support up to 9 Gb/s and so it has that great headroom and stability ..
This cheaping out on components is not a good thing, you could cheap out on coolers, chokes, power phases, or any other GPU component, it will still operate at stock settings but will provide an overall lower quality and performance.
If you imagine that the highest binned GTX 1070 cards like the MSI Gaming Z, EVGA FTW, Asus Strix OC, Zotac AMP! Extreme, Gigabyte Xtreme, have all switched to Micron's lower quality chips when on other parts of the cards they are using premium components you will realize this whole thing must be orchestrated by NVIDIA as a direct design change to downgrade the GTX 1070 ..
When you also know that in previous generations (700 and 900 series) top binned cards were all using Samsung, you will realize that AIBs had no control over this because it is Nvidia who ordered them to do so.
Also when you think about the amount of vagueness, shadiness and secrecy surrounding this decision, and the fact that Nvidia and all its partners refuse to give any information about the switch, you will know how messed up this situation is.
I also predict that no fix will ever be provided because it is meant to be and stay this way, that the GTX 1070 has been downgraded and capped at a max 8Ghz memory for business and financial reasons, and it is manipulative that this has been done after review samples were sent out, if they have done this from the very beginning, reactions would have been very different.
It looks like Samsung's GDDR5 memory was of a much higher quality and headroom than Nvidia liked them to be, to position the GTX 1070 in a certain performance category compared to its GTX 1080 and other products in its lineup, so they have downgraded the card to cap its memory performance for business reasons, but can't publicly announce what they have done.
Also Founder's Edition cards look to be drying up in my market, and all what will be left of the GTX 1070 till the end of the generation is AIB cards with the downgraded Micron GDDR5 with a max data rate of 8 Gb/s
I am very much convinced that this analysis with the aid of Micron's GDDR5 datasheet is pretty accurate and reflects what actually happened behind the scenes.
Also when the card is already selling way above its MSRP and since now its performance has been downgraded it should have least come down to its MSRP level to reflect the cheaper, lower quality memory chips now being used
Downgrading the card's performance while still keeping it way above its MSRP after review samples have been sent out with better quality components and staying in total silence and denial about the situation, makes this unacceptable from a consumer stand-point and i predict the GTX 1070 prices will start coming down to reflect its new value proposition and lower demand after this move.
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthre...ron-Memory-ICs&p=610029&viewfull=1#post610029
Now I was aware of this earlier but not the potential scale of the problem it may turn out to be. Have a 1070 on the way and thought it may be a lottery buy with some Samsungs and others Micron. But now appears that virtually all new 1070s shipped within last couple months or so are Micron (FE versions still use Samsung). What worries me are a few users who reported no problems with the Micron but then finding artifacting a few weeks later (checkerboard patterns, crashes) and possibly dying cards.
Anyone with Micron vram based 1070s? How are you all doing?