GTX 970/980 Bad cards?!

[ibex333]

Why are people buying these cards? I got a GTX 970 and it has been nothing but trouble.

The DVI port refuses to work, if more than one monitor is hooked up to the system. Since there's only one DVI port, the 2nd monitor must be hooked up to either HDMI or Display Port.

As soon as that is done, DVI stops functioning. It works during bootup, but as soon as Windows loads, DVI dies.

I read countless forum posts, did many google searches, and still nothing helps. I tried playing with BIOS settings, I tried updating drivers and checking Windows options.

Again, no change whatsoever. I am certain there was no mistake during installation. Been building computers for years. So either the card is bad, or requires some very specific settings.

My google searches revealed countless other people having similar issues with GTX 970 and 980 models. Why then, do people continue buying them? For single monitor use only?!


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487088&cm_re=gtx_970-_-14-487-088-_-Product

This is the card I have. It's complete garbage. Not only does it have a spotty DVI port, but it's performance gains over cheaper AMD offerings is questionable.

For example, many have been trumpeting about how Nvidia cards are superior to AMD in Fallout 4. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was running Fallout 4 on Ultra with my dual 270X's with constant 60 fps except for places where I am on high rise buildings where fps dips to low 20's...

Well, once I swapped my Crossfire setup in favor of GTX 970, these same high rise places now dip into TEENS! On top of this, some other places which are not even elevated now dip below 60 fps as well! What gives?! This is absolutely infuriating.

I didn't have much time to run many benchmarks but yes, in Metro 2033 the GTX 970 does offer a good 15-20+ fps gain on my Crossfire cards, as well as 3D Mark Firestrike, where it does significantly better. Yet real world gaming performance is really not as good as many claim it is for them.

I had nasty frame dips in World of Warships too, yet my Crossfire setup does just fine with WoW.

 

[Charlie98]

I'm running an EVGA SSC in my GAME rig, which is very, very similar to yours... I don't have those problems at all, but I'm only running one monitor on HDMI. My DESK GTX760 is running 2 monitors (HDMI, DVI) and I don't have any of those problems.

If it has a defective DVI port, RMA it...

 

[Flapdrol1337]

If the card is bad you should return it.

Could check in another machine or with a bootable linux usb stick to make sure it's not software.

 

[stahlhart]

It's obvious that OP is not looking for any technical assistance. Moving to general Video forum.
-- stahlhart

 

[96Firebird]

What drivers are you using? I've never had a problem with DVI + HDMI dual monitor support on my 970, maybe you should RMA your card...

 

[Beer4Me]

Obvious troll is obvious.

 

[amenx]

I find the logic of 'hey this happened to me, therefore it applies universally' quite funny in the field of personal computing/hardware.

 

[Tweak155]

My 970gtx drives my 4k monitor to my satisfaction. Granted I don't need all the eye candy, I haven't had issues with it working though.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Useless thread is useless.

Whether you have a bad card (DVI port not working, etc..) or you just don't know how to configure your rig. (You removed AMD cards and did you fully uninstalled the drivers , DDU ? )

Sorry but Maxwell are not bad cards. (No I don't like the 3.5GB + 0.5 GB of the GTX 970 but it doesn't make them a bad card)

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I find the logic of 'hey this happened to me, therefore it applies universally' quite funny in the field of personal computing/hardware.

It's funny in most fields. As Morbo would put it; "STATISTICS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY."

 

[Erithan13]

I find the logic of 'hey this happened to me, therefore it applies universally' quite funny in the field of personal computing/hardware.

I'd be really happy if it was confined only to computing forums, as it is this sort of thing is absolutely endemic in every interest/hobby I've ever seen. The standard experience for new people on most of the forums I'm on is this this:

'Hey I'm new to this, can you recommend a product for a beginner?'
'Yeah sure here's a few suggestions'
'Don't get X, I had one and it broke'
'Nonsense. You can't take your single anecdote of that failing as proof the brand has problems. Besides, I've had X for 10 years and it's never broke so that shows how good they are' (I've genuinely seen people state this with seemingly zero self-awareness of the contradiction)
'Nah you should get Y, my mate's friends daughters mechanic swears by them and he's better informed than all of you put together'
'Ah I bet you're just a paid shill posting that sort of pro-X anti-Y propaganda all day, don't listen to him! Buy product Z and stick it to the man!'
'Here's a whole bunch of professional and consumer reviews showing product Y has severe quality control or design problems, furthermore here's a link to an article showing the company is being litigated against because of it, as a result I recommend you steer clear and get this instead, look here's another bunch of proper reviews from people who know what they're doing showing this product is objectively superior'
'Appeal to authority fallacy noted, ignore that post...'

....yeah I'm sure this sounds familiar to many of you.

 

[therealnickdanger]

The DVI port refuses to work, if more than one monitor is hooked up to the system. Since there's only one DVI port, the 2nd monitor must be hooked up to either HDMI or Display Port.

As soon as that is done, DVI stops functioning. It works during bootup, but as soon as Windows loads, DVI dies.

I read countless forum posts, did many google searches, and still nothing helps. I tried playing with BIOS settings, I tried updating drivers and checking Windows options.

Again, no change whatsoever. I am certain there was no mistake during installation. Been building computers for years. So either the card is bad, or requires some very specific settings.

My google searches revealed countless other people having similar issues with GTX 970 and 980 models. Why then, do people continue buying them? For single monitor use only?!


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487088&cm_re=gtx_970-_-14-487-088-_-Product

This is the card I have. It's complete garbage. Not only does it have a spotty DVI port, but it's performance gains over cheaper AMD offerings is questionable.

For example, many have been trumpeting about how Nvidia cards are superior to AMD in Fallout 4. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was running Fallout 4 on Ultra with my dual 270X's with constant 60 fps except for places where I am on high rise buildings where fps dips to low 20's...

Well, once I swapped my Crossfire setup in favor of GTX 970, these same high rise places now dip into TEENS! On top of this, some other places which are not even elevated now dip below 60 fps as well! What gives?! This is absolutely infuriating.

I didn't have much time to run many benchmarks but yes, in Metro 2033 the GTX 970 does offer a good 15-20+ fps gain on my Crossfire cards, as well as 3D Mark Firestrike, where it does significantly better. Yet real world gaming performance is really not as good as many claim it is for them.

I had nasty frame dips in World of Warships too, yet my Crossfire setup does just fine with WoW.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what your problem is.

1. You bought the wrong GTX 970 as it only has one DVI port instead of two when you really needed two (mine has two).
2. You bought a GTX 970 even though your 270X CF setup was just fine.

Simple solution:

1. Reinstall 270X CF setup.

 

[ibex333]

Obvious troll is obvious.

Unbelievable... How am I a troll? I am having very real issues with my card and I made this post hoping someone could say something I don't know.

Useless thread is useless.

Whether you have a bad card (DVI port not working, etc..) or you just don't know how to configure your rig. (You removed AMD cards and did you fully uninstalled the drivers , DDU ? )

Sorry but Maxwell are not bad cards. (No I don't like the 3.5GB + 0.5 GB of the GTX 970 but it doesn't make them a bad card)

Well, how is it useless? Maybe someone has the same problem and they were able to resolve.

It's obvious that OP is not looking for any technical assistance. Moving to general Video forum.
-- stahlhart

Not obvious to me... I wanted to vent as well as hopefully get some help if someone knows how to help.

 

[MrTeal]

Unbelievable... How am I a troll? I am having very real issues with my card and I made this post hoping someone could say something I don't know.



Well, how is it useless? Maybe someone has the same problem and they were able to resolve.





Not obvious to me... I wanted to vent as well as hopefully get some help if someone knows how to help.

Maybe because you titled it saying the 980 and 970 are bad cars, and the only questions you actually asked were these?
"Why are people buying these cards?"
"Why then, do people continue buying them? For single monitor use only?!"
"On top of this, some other places which are not even elevated now dip below 60 fps as well! What gives?!"

 

[Kenmitch]

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what your problem is.

1. You bought the wrong GTX 970 as it only has one DVI port instead of two when you really needed two (mine has two).
2. You bought a GTX 970 even though your 270X CF setup was just fine.

Simple solution:

1. Reinstall 270X CF setup.

Sounds like the only really helpful post in the thread to me.

 

[FFL]

I hear, EVGA has great warranty and service. Why don't you tell them about your issues? Changes are you get a quick replacement...
Or, if possible, just return it, get your money back and buy another card.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I have that exact card, but to be honest I never use the DVI port. You should call EVGA they have been awesome to me about issues in the past.

 

[Innokentij]

Should try imac. It just works.

 

[xorbe]

nothing but trouble

My Kepler card (Titan) was rock solid, but my Maxwell cards (evga 960 and nvidia Titan X) both give me problems, and I even tried another evga-branded Titan X with the same results. It's the stupid first-gen Maxwell cards, something is wrong imo. The 960 problem is just a crap boost/voltage table issue that I mostly fixed myself by adding voltage in the mid-range w/custom rom. The newer 960 silicon rev doesn't seem to glitch and crash like 970 / Titan X cards. Can't wait to dump them for whatever the x70 part is in the next Pascal generation. The only reason I kept Titan X was the speed increase was a serious boost for 2560 despite occasional CTDs. We've beat this to death over at the geforce forum -- no amount of underclocking or extra voltage helps (cpu / ram / gpu / vram), or extra psu headroom. And reverting to a Kepler card makes all the issues go away instantly.

nasty frame dips

hopefully get some help if someone knows how to help

For gaming performance issues, try these:
1) Change "adaptive perf" to "prefer max" (nv control panel)
2) Change min cpu state to 100% (windows power control panel)

These keep the CPU and GPU spun up, instead of trying to downclock whenever they can. Crossfire setup leans harder on the CPU than a single 970, so Crossfire is more likely to keep the CPU active and ready.

 

[tweakboy]

Yes very bad. del this junk post

 

[Leyawiin]

Currently own an MSI GTX 970 Gaming 100 ME. Its the best GPU I've ever owned. Quiet fan, cool, no coil whine and have had no issues with the 3.5/.5 VRAM design. As far as Fallout 4 goes I use an i7-4790k and a 1920x1200 monitor and my FPS has never dropped below 40 FPS on Ultra (that's looking west from Croup Manor through the trees). Most of the time its nailed @ 60 FPS. I know its nothing you want to hear but you can't generalize all cards because your particular system is having issues. You have probably tried the usual DDU cleaning and as xorbe said trying running windows at high performance and the display driver at maximum performance. As far as connection options go that's on you to research before you buy if you intend to use more than one monitor. Many (mine include) have two DVI.

 

[master_shake_]

what if you adapt one of the other connections to a dvi port?

 

[Mezzanine]

Unbelievable... How am I a troll? I am having very real issues with my card and I made this post hoping someone could say something I don't know.

Maybe stop whining and RMA your defective card?

The 970 is a huge seller but all brands and models have duds.

 

[ultima_trev]

I don't know why you'd want to "upgrade" from crossfired R9 270s to a GTX 970. Unless you just wanted to ditch the sketchy driver optimizations of the multi-GPU way of things. I would also ask;

Why Nvidia?
Was your experience with the AMD cards that bad?
Why EVGA?

I personally never liked EVGA products, always overpriced in recent years and I've seen a lot, and I mean A LOT of negative reviews for their more recent products. They might have been considered a halo of quality at one point in time but I'd say the Gigabyte G1 or MSI Gaming series graphics cards trump them in quality... BY FAR.

Also, unless my power supply was anemic (<650 watts), I would have gone (and did, evidently) for an R9 390 or 390X.

 

[sandorski]

Every Manufacturer occasionally ships a Card with issues. If you get one, you contact them and if their Customer Service is ok, they replace your Card with something that works.

It's as annoying as hell to get a bad product, but try not to just generalize your experience to everyone else. If all 970/980 Cards had the same issue, there would be a huge thread about it with hundreds of people complaining and links to other forums with hundreds more complaining.