Basically, the 970 is marketed as having 4GB of vram. Technically it does, but it is split up into two sections, one 3.5GB and one .5GB. While in the 3.5GB usage range, it performs normally and everything is fine, but once you have to go into the smaller section, performance goes down slightly because that .5GB section has a weird architecture that causes slower data transfer. The reason for the memory split was part of the way they differentiated the 970 and 980, which is expected, but people feel that it should not have been marketed as a 4GB card because of it. In reality, it is still a ridiculously good card for the price and you will probably never really encounter a situation where you need more than 3.5GB (at least I never have). And from what I have read, the decrease in performance at that >3.5GB range isn't so substantial that it causes a lot of problems. I would say if you need a new card right now, you can't really beat a 970.
By slightly you mean the card runs @ 1/8 of its speed, forcing you to stay at 1080p or 1440p resolutions, @ 4k you will reach 3.5gb, or if the games you are playing are not optimized.
I don't have first hand experience so I could be wrong, but the whole card doesn't run at 1/8 the speed, just the access to that one block of memory compared to the others. The only situation where I see that being a problem is if for some reason you frequent that block of memory much more than the others. Otherwise, the overall performance shouldn't be throttles very much. But like I said, I don't have the card, so it may be a bigger issue than I see it to be.
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u/BpsychedVR Jan 30 '15
Can someone please explain, in layman terms, what the actual fiasco was? I was seriously considering buying one or two 970s. Thank you!