It looks like some online retailers are offering up either partial refunds or full refunds (with return) for those users that complain about the implications of the GeForce GTX 970 memory issue. On January 25th NVIDIA came clean about the true memory architecture of the GTX 970 which included changes to specifications around L2 cache and ROP count in addition to the division of the 4GB of memory into two distinct memory pools. Some users have complained about performance issues in heavy memory-depedent gaming scenarios even though my own testing has been less than conclusive.
Initially there was a demand for a recall or some kind of compensation from NVIDIA regarding the issue but that has fallen flat. What appears to be working (for some people) is going to the retailer directly. A thread on reddit.com's Hardware sub-reddit shows quite a few users were able to convince Amazon to issue 20-30% price refunds for their trouble. Even Newegg has been spotted offering either a full refund with return after the typical return window or a 20% credit through gift cards.
To be fair, some users are seeing their requests denied:
"After going back and forth for the past hour I manage to escalated my partial refund to a supervisor who promptly declined it."
"Are you serious? NewEgg told me to go complain to the vendor."
So, while we can debate the necessity or vadidity of these types of full or partial refunds from a moral ground, the truth is that this is happening. I'm very curious to hear what NVIDIA's internal thinking is on this matter and if it will impact relationships between NVIDIA, it's add-in card partners and the online retailers themselves. Who ends up paying the final costs is still up in the air I would bet.
Our discussion on the original GTX 970 Issue – Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more!
What do you think? Is this just some buyers taking advantage of the situation for their own gain? Warranted requests from gamers that were taken advantage of? Leave me your thoughts in the comments!
Further reading on this issue:
Overclockers.co.uk are also
Overclockers.co.uk are also accepting refunds for the below brands and have been since the issue came alight.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=27557332&postcount=5028
this definitely works. I
this definitely works. I tried to tell you guys yesterday on twitter so maybe it would make it to the live show but oh well I am glad your readers are getting an opportunity to see this.
I spends $1,000’s at amazon and I am also a prime member. I also told the person in chat that I use the card for professional work. I did not have to escalate to a supervisor and the whole process was about 20 minutes. It was painless on my side.
they gave me 20% refund. I promptly repaid their support by spending that $75 plus some more.
this more or less kills newegg for me now. This type of support merits my purchasing power.
Probably Nvidia pays the
Probably Nvidia pays the bill. But they can’t come out and say so in public. And even if they answer to a question from you, they will probably say that it wasn’t their idea, that the card works as advertised and that they can’t stop retailers from offering refunds. They are free to do it if they feel they should. Probably they will also add that the percentage of people returning their cards are far less than the percentage of those who don’t bother.
My brother just got his RMA
My brother just got his RMA refund today for both his 970s through EVGA and newegg. Great to see the e-retailers turning around on this issue.
Nvidia’s channel partners
Nvidia’s channel partners stepping up for the partial refunds, I wonder how many of them earned a handy profit during the AMD bitcoin/coin mining craze, But their customers sure are not happy with Nvidia. These online retailers probably have these costs factored in to their overall pricing so they can afford the discounts when things go wrong, maybe even a little trade up extras, if the customer wants to switch to the red team, and return the G(imped)TX 970 for Store credit.
Its not surprising that
Its not surprising that Newegg declines a partial refund and Amazon gave the guy 20%. If you complain enough to Amazon they will bend over backwards for you.
>Newegg
Finally.
“It’s over,
>Newegg
Finally.
“It’s over, noVideo is finished.” (c) FIX3R
I can confirm that Newegg is
I can confirm that Newegg is doing it too. I got a full refund on a card that i purchased on November 4, 2015.
Purchased in November, 2015?
Purchased in November, 2015? You and I should talk.
Yes November 2015. So you
Yes November 2015. So you returned it before you got it. Oh yea thats right it possible with amazon yesterday shipping.look it up on YouTube its awesome
Oxymoron = I actually like
Oxymoron = I actually like the product/I’d prefer a 30% refund and keep the card
I’m 100% in favour of the full refund and return offer (it’s was disgraceful retailers dragged their feet for so long) but I have to laugh at the chancers acting just as almost as bad as Nvidia trying to scam a percentage back and keeping the card they are so obviously upset about*
*To be fair Amazon did give them that option and I’ve no idea if they classed them as a high spending frequent customer so it was chalked down to good will on their side.
I like the card as well, and
I like the card as well, and I am one of the people that requested and received the 20% discount from Newegg. It isn’t about trying to scam the retailer and just get some money in my pocket. For me it’s entirely about principle. My hope is seriously that any retailers offering partial refunds will pursue and receive compensation for any losses they incur. I am totally aware that Nvidia is solely responsible for this whole controversy, and I want the weight of it to fall squarely on their shoulders. In the meantime while Nvidia is dragging their feet, some retailers are stepping up to the plate, and earning loyal customers in the process.
Good for you, sir. You made
Good for you, sir. You made the world a better place.
Unfortunately, your principle is laughable in Asian. But fortunately, people can’t refund products in Asia. Heheh.
Since it’s the principle that
Since it’s the principle that matters to you, how exactly did Nvidia do anything morally wrong? On their site, the specs were correct, and the card performs as promised. Do you really think that the tech/review sites cared if they had 100% accurate information, or that they likely uploaded any rumour or perceived truth as it came to appease their followers? This isn’t Nvidia’s fault, and they shouldn’t give back a dime. As far as complaining goes, that’s subject to the manager you get and how willing they are to just give you what you want to get you out of their hair.
Wtf.
There site clearly lied.
Wtf.
There site clearly lied. You have no idea.
Go to change.Org and view the petition. There is a screen grab of nvidias site before they changed it. Omg deluded fanboy. Its true live is blind.
Nvidia themselves have
Nvidia themselves have admitted the specs were incorrect. I didn’t accuse them of doing this intentionally, or anything morally wrong. It’s very possible the incorrect information was simply an error. However, whether it was an accident, or intentional, the actual specs compared to the published specs do degrade performance at a certain level. When running sli at resolutions 1440 and above, frame times suffer, leading to jittery performance/inconsistent frame rates. These are generally the only scenarios where a user will tap into the slower VRAM, leading to this issue. It is for this reason Nvidia should be held accountable. As far as principle goes, Nvidia is acting like this isn’t a problem. When they’re saying things like “The card performs as designed”, to me that’s they’re way of trying to conceal the real issue. Of course it performs as designed….anything ever designed performs as it is designed. The issue is how it was advertised, and what we as consumer thought we were buying.
Superbiiz.com is not offering
Superbiiz.com is not offering partial refunds or accepting returns.
I was able to get a 20%
I was able to get a 20% refund from Newegg. It took some effort, but in the end it was worth the $140 I got back on my two cards combined. If anyone is interested in reading about my efforts to get it, it can be seen at http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/311977-amazon-and-newegg-issuing-20-refunds-for-some-gtx-970-purchases/page-5
I was able to get a 30%
I was able to get a 30% refund on my GTX 970 purchase from Amazon because I was within the 30 day return window! So happy with their CS!
lol partial refund
lol partial refund
I never liked Newegg from the
I never liked Newegg from the first time I ordered from them and the midget that broke the hookers back was when they took the PS4’s and bundled them for 1k$ or more.
They tried to have a company take one of my comments down before but the company(sent me email) wouldn’t do so.
so I keep thinking about
so I keep thinking about this, I get the refund idea, “If ya dont want it give it back and get a refund” is fair and clean. This whole paying you to keep a gpu you actually like? the only posible word is “American”.
Vote for liars, make lying reporters superstars, create false education to teach children lies, lie to your self about the dangers of your life style, have an extortionist medical system and call it the “Best In the world”, in fact constantly call yourself #1 when every statistic shows that you are only #1 at consumption and waste, that’s all fine, that’s all just the way of the world.
BUT someone fails to mention the exact nature of their new memory architecture? “FUCK YOU, PAY ME! Oh and it’s not about the money, it’s bout the principle.”
No hate on anyone, not bitching out any other comment or anyone in particular, this is just sooooooooooo American.
Oh, and that hot coffee you gave me? It didn’t have any warnings about the fact it was hot. Hope you have a good layer.
And preemptively on any “The
And preemptively on any “The retailers did this voluntarily” Nothing a corporation does is out of kindness, it is to maximize profits. The legal team sits down with marketing and decide it’s cheaper than a lawsuit AND worth the good will.
what is your country???
what is your country???
Oh please. I don’t owe any
Oh please. I don’t owe any corporation anything, especially when they flat out lie about their product. The card performs well and I would rather not go about the hassle of returning it so I took my partial refund.
It’s not about the principle, it’s about Nvidia lying to their customers for months about specs that the 970 didn’t have. If they hadn’t lied, this wouldn’t be an issue, but they did (and knowingly so) so they deserve anything that happens to them at this point. So, yeah, I’ll take my money, thanks.
And you’re suchhhhhhhhh a
And you’re suchhhhhhhhh a douchey fucker
well the coffee case was
well the coffee case was overturned in the court of appeals so there is that.
the fun thing is to bash americans but not state what great country you are part of.
the question is, is what nvidia did for 5 months correct and fair?
i do not think so. they should have advertised the card correctly as that is how I make purchasing decisions.
I came from CF 7950’s (r9 280) OC’d to 1200MHZ on the core. those two cards have equal processing power to the gtx 970. I just wanted another gig of GDDR. I was maxing out those cards at 1440p in games like rome 2 total war and a few of the new titles. now I get a new card and I start gaming and I notice that the card just stops at 3.5GDDR usage.
I did not want to spend the amount of money that I did for 0.5GDDR increase. Now I went through about 5 7950’s trying to find a pair that would run at higher temps and maintain that 1200MHz core clock. I sold those cards and I am not going through the hassle of trying to find that combo again.
So I cannot really just give the card back for a refund as I have nothing to replace them with. I would have just waited for AMD’s next offering if I knew what I know now. So a partial refund is a fair option as it takes the financial hurt away from my purchase and now I have no complaints.
and please stop bashing other peoples countries as it does nothing productive. We are a very large country and it is very difficult to provide great services across that size of land mass. If you want to talk about our education then talk about harvard, princeton, yale, uc berkley, cornell, or even just compare your country to state university system of new york (new york has over 60 state universities, these are publicially funded). If you want to talk about health services then you would be hard pressed to find a better hospital anywhere in the world that is better than the mayo clinic.
In america we do have the best of the best in just about any category it is just an unfortunate reality that at our size we just cannot provide those type of services to everybody but if you are smart and you work hard there are infinite possibilities.
we went to the moon, we invented computers, the internet, cell phones, email, video games, chemo therapy, gps, leds, lasers, microwave ovens, assembly lines, traffic lights, first massive highway system, carbon dating.
we have come to the aide of other countries when in need. we are not as bad as you have presumed.
remember what mom said growing up, if you do not have anything nice to say then do not say anything at all. make your mom proud.
Pure Comedy Gold 🙂
“we
Pure Comedy Gold 🙂
“we invented computers” I had no idea Charles Babbage & later Alan Turing happened to be Amuricans.
I absolutely agree that
I absolutely agree that others were well involved in the process and way to pick up on that one thing, you could have mentioned Konrad Zuse and the z1 also (the first programmable computer). I don’t thing Babbage actually ever made the “analytical engine”.
what I was more referring to is the IBM and apple computers. these were the first of what would be considered PC’s. the world would not be the same place if it were not for these companies and others like microsoft and intel.
You can throw others like the MITS Altair into this if you wanted.
maybe you are right and all of earth’s lives would be better if n. america was never ransacked by the europeans.
Your Mom also told you to be
Your Mom also told you to be honest…
NASA was largely comprised of Canadians when you went to the moon.
You did not invent computers, that was England. You did not invent personal computers, that was Italy.
The internet was created by a Swede, the world wide web was the American contribution. The world wide web runs ON the internet and was not even the first global use of the internet.
You are correct about cell phones, which today are responsible for a lot of distraction and lack of productivity when they were invented for convenience and to save time. A 20 minute text conversation can be had by voice in less then 5% of that time.
You are correct about email, which is responsible for the majority of bandwidth usage globally and was the primary proliferation pathway for viral infections, fraud and identity theft for many years after it went public.
You are correct about video games, which I enjoy, thanks for that.
Chemotherapy was invented by a German dating back to the early 1900’s and involves treating illness or disease with chemicals. The term does not exclusively apply to cancer treatment, as you would have people believe, to suit your pro-american agenda, and it’s usefulness against cancer was discovered by accident, when some allied mustard gas containers erupted in a German air raid. This is about as far removed from actively inventing it as you can get.
You are correct about GPS, which US citizens seem equally inept at using as the maps that came before it. 😉
I could go on but I’m already tired of pointing out the fallacies in your post, which have been done ad nauseum elsewhere on the www.
It’s unbelievable that the smallish group of U.S. citizens that still thinks the way you do does not understand why you are not respected or liked in most places around the world.
My girlfriend and her cousin went to the Netherlands, proudly displaying the Canadian flag on their packs, and were spit on and accused of being Americans hiding behind another nation’s flag. They’re dutch cousin had to step in and set things straight as it was getting ugly. My girlfriend didn’t understand this until they met some actual Americans wearing Canadian flag patches that asked them if they were really Americans.
Please stop pissing in the community pool and save it for the one in your own backyard.
and what country are you
and what country are you from???
your country spits on people
your country spits on people and you think Americans are bad???
Well here’s what my mom
Well here’s what my mom actually taught me, “Ignoring the truth because they make you look bad isn’t good for anyone”
The American system has been bastardized through corrupt ruling practices to a point where it is unfairly in favor of the rich, and even tho most Americans are fully aware of that fact there is still a over-whelming belief that with hard work anyone can reach the top. That’s not optimistic, it’s delusional. Beyond that defending a nation with how well the elite live is a waste of time, a nation can only be understood by how it treats its poorest class.
But that’s not actually important. Technological achievement does not belong to a country, nor to any single individual, modern technology is the achievement of human development as a whole, the slow progression that started with the mastering of fire and simple tools. No individual can build a space-station from raw ore and sand.
It would be hard to deny that the mayo clinic is the best in the world. It would be impossible to deny that the mayo clinic charges exclusionary rates so it’s only purpose is to extend the lives of the highest class.
The simple fact is, and this is the saddest part, you can not dismiss a negative by arguing a conceived positive.
I’m happy for you, as an individual that you got some monetary satisfaction as an apology for the false(ish) advertising even though that money didn’t come from the guilty party it came from an inocent re-seller in a calculated PR move. However that’s not why I am bothering to respond.
The fact is that the thing the rest of the world hates so much about America is the refusal of criticism. If I criticize the american system you are right there with the “Here’s how fucking awesome we are!!!” The world already knows the best parts of the US, but it the US aware of it’s worst parts?
And as far as my country of origin? Why is that Important. Why would you assume that I’m not an American? Is it simply that Americans love America? Real Americans never say anything bad about ‘merica? Some people within the borders understand the utter hopelessness of the modern american dream. The fact is I live about an hour from your border, but I was a Reagan youth, I cheered for Hulkamania, I dreamed the american dream, I cried in kindergarten, just like all the other kids, when teacher told us Canadians cant be the President of the United States. I’ve also lived long enough to see what has become of your country as a whole, and just keep hearing you shouting your greatness as it crumbles around you. A but melo-dramatic but I just caught a wave and went with it.
Also, you should be aware that some of the things you credited to America was kinda NAZI stuff, stolen Nazi scientists and well, before you are so proud of IBM you should know it’s histor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_during_World_War_II
Really guys? A pisssing match
Really guys? A pisssing match over countries? I don’t think we are anymore proud than the Chinese but despite what they do to their citizens they get a free pass? I mean I’d probably hate Anerica if I lived in the Middle East but at least I might have a reason. The rest of you are nuts, but have the right to an opinion. I’m just floored here, and honestly the American that took the bait you should have just let them have their hate, politicians run this country in some corrupt way we try to change but can’t find a way out of short of a good old fashioned bloody revolution because they all lie. Forigners cheered our choice of Obama and I can see that honeymoon is over but he lied to us and I’m not sure how we could have known that. Alternatively we could have elected the “other guy” and things would still be the same. If you guys think our Empire (yes that’s what it is now) is falling then just enjoy the show and don’t make yourselves sound like jerks. We do some cool things and we do some shitty things, I suppose everyone else is perfect though. Corporations only care about money so yeah if they lied about specs they should get the only punishment they might take seriously, of course this will just be a little dent in profits this quarter. Resume your bashing or talk about technology… I just thought the hate a nation thing was off track and uncalled for.
Oh captain my captain … Q_Q
Oh captain my captain … Q_Q
It seems for some people
It seems for some people principles have a $ value.
As far as principles having a
As far as principles having a dollar value, it’s not about putting money in my pocket, but penalizing Nvidia for what they’ve done. Sure, we could all just say, “Now Nvidia, you know you shouldn’t have done this. Now don’t you do it again!” For them to take it seriously, they need more than just a talking to and slap on the wrist.
I just read this article,
I just read this article, browsed the comments, contacted amazon by online chat, and had a full refund label in 15 minutes. I ordered mine initially October 9th, and the window for return expired November 10th. I did not moan and complain, i just stated that the product was misrepresented to me and asked what options I had, and that is what was offered.
Full refund is what you
Full refund is what you should expect.
Buy AMD you wont regret it
I just spoke with newegg and
I just spoke with newegg and they are refunding my GTX 970 that I bought from them last September. Now is the best time to refund it folks.
This is what I said: “Hi Cody. I bought the MSI GTX 970 4GB that has the 3.5GB VRAM issue that was mislabeled/lied to by nvidia. I would like a refund or at least a partial refund as I have seen people who have this issue online have successfully gotten them with your company. I’ve been having issues with the card at higher resolutions due to nvidia misinforming about the product. I’ve contacted MSI and they referred me to contact nvidia about this. I contacted nvidia, and they asked me to contact your company about this problem.”
within minutes the man set up the RMA for me.
Does anyone know if this is
Does anyone know if this is happening with 960s also? Im too broke for a 970 so that’s my next best option.
Nothing wrong with the 960.
Nothing wrong with the 960. Especially in SLi, it does what it says it will do. 1080p gaming.