The GTX 970 was intended to be NVIDIA's graphics horsepower product without carrying a large price tag like the GTX 980. However, PC gamers looking to save themselves a few extra dollars ended up costing themselves a lot more when a bug plaguing the GTX 970 GPU resulted in performance dips after their games started utilizing more than 3.2 GB of video memory.
According to KitGuru, NVIDIA has admitted that it had published incorrect hardware specifications of the GeForce GTX 970. The company overlooked the detail and only addressed the issue when gamers started reporting the problem concerning performance issues on high video memory consumption.
The company has promised to roll out a solution in the form of a new driver update. The new driver update is expected to fix memory allocation problems on the GeForce GTX 970, which will result in stable gaming performance in games that utilize the entire video buffer of the GTX 970.
It was initially reported that the company's GeForce GTX 970 graphics card was unable to access all four gigabytes of onboard memory at full speed (4096 megabytes to be exact). The maximum amount that could be utilized was 3.5 GB, although gamers reported that they started experiencing issues after crossing the 3.2 GB limit. The remaining 512 video memory is currently suffering from maximum bandwidth issues.
Meanwhile, AMD, NVIDIA's only rival in the desktop and laptop GPU market, has reportedly taken advantage of the situation by slashing the price of its current flagship GPU, the R9 290X to a retail price of $299 for the 4 GB variant.
NVIDIA has not stated the exact date as to when the custom driver update for the GTX 970 will be released, but less video-intensive games have reportedly been running without performance issues for gamers.
