They are not all created equal. Built a machine for my son's friend using an MSI GTX 970. Crisp, clean, no temporal dithering. No eyestrain. Just pure awesome.

Rebuilt my own desktop - finally giving up on my venerable GTX670 - with a Zotac GTX970. It's ... not horrible but hard to look at. Not instant headache like an AMD would be but not great. It could just be that my old monitors (2011-era LED HP 23") are not up to the task of dealing with the new card. Or maybe Zotac just isn't as great as MSI. The Zotac literature says they use some kind of "4k on a 1080 display" technology which sounds suspiciously like dithering, so that might be at play as well. Not sure if that's a Zotac thing or an nVidia thing but it sounds terrible.

I'm trading the Zotac in for a (much better) EVGA GTX970. I went with the 970 because the new 10x0 architecture doesn't have Temporal Dithering turned off by default (and we don't have an nVidia version of "ditherig").

Thoughts? I've never had issues with these monitors (the pair of HP's) before, but I could always swap for a Dell or two until I find just the right thing to buy.

  • JTL replied to this.
    4 days later

    Hi - I'm struggling with a 1070 and haven't found any evidence of anyone else having problems with the 10 series. vs my old 970 which is A-OK. I cannot nail down the problem unfortunately.

    Where have you seen information about "because the new 10x0 architecture doesn't have Temporal Dithering turned off by default (and we don't have an nVidia version of "ditherig")."??

    • JTL replied to this.

      AgentX20 For all I know he could be basing "because the new 10x0 architecture doesn't have Temporal Dithering turned off by default (and we don't have an nVidia version of "ditherig" off of your post.

      Yep the thought occurred to me but I thought I'd ask in case there was some other info out there I'd not seen.

      • JTL replied to this.

        The EVGA is also temporal dithering. I can actually see the flicker. It could be ... I don't know. I read in this forum that the 10x0 series was bad. Could have been your post. I'm switching back to the 670... My eyes hurt. Bad.

        I'm going to have to repurchase a 670. Ugh.

        Popped in a 730 I had laying around. Instantly better. I wonder if they changed something halfway through the run of 970's?

        • JTL replied to this.

          Gurm It's certainly possible.

          If you found two 970's of the exact same model (Might not be a requirement but I wouldn't risk it) you could try backing up and flashing/comparing the firmware between the two 🙂

          • Gurm replied to this.

            So... after a few false starts due to the motherboard drivers being lousy... I'm running the EVGA 970 SSC+

            JTL Yeah, I have only found one that works well and it's an MSI 970, a pricey one compared to most (it's the XTreme Gaming model, like $300). I might pick one up just to see if that is a cure, because the extra $100 could be worth it for long term happiness.

            So I'm ok temporarily using the 730. My old card was a 670 SC+ which was insanely fast for 2012. The 8 series was mobile only, which means if I can't use the 9 series I can always drop back to the 7 series. This is complicated, however, because I know I can use SOME 9 series cards, the 950 for example was ok but not any faster than a good 7 series or even the 670.

            I could easily sell this 970 SSC I'm using now and pick up a 780Ti and not lose any money on the transaction. Or I could suck it up, drop all the way back to the 670 (re-purchase it from whence I sold it), and call it a day.

            It's frustrating because I simply assumed all nVidia cards were not terrible. But this is my first foray into 9x0, and it's not been pretty.

            Thoughts?

            My thoughts are we must buy and test current cards to see if they work.
            Maybe newer cards have hardware features that some older cards don't have? I'd compare the whole feature set. Although cards with the same number should have the same features...
            If there's no spec difference, it could mean different manufacturers use different output methods. Maybe there's hope that they use them consistently in all their cards.
            The GeForce 730 you can use, is it from MSI, too?

              KM No. The 730 is EVGA. So was my 670 SC+.

              KM I agree. I wish I had more disposable income to play around. I might convince my son's friend to lend me his MSI (in exchange for my higher-clocked EVGA) as a test. But that doesn't prove anything, it might only be that individual card that is ok.

              The thing that is very concerning is that we're looking at a substantive change in output within a single card generation.

              AgentX20 has a 970 that he says is ok... wonder what brand/model it is?

              My 970 is a Gigabyte G1 Gaming edition. No problems at all with it, but then the first and ONLY video card I've had (non-screen) problems with is my Gigabyte G1 Gaming 1070 card.

              It's a mighty expensive exercise buying video cards and monitors and having to sell them second hand. Here in New Zealand store return policies don't really support "'cause it gives me headaches" although I was lucky in the case of my former Acer XB271 IPS monitor (flicker free, low blue etc but still gave me headaches) that I managed to return for near full purchase price.

              I'm still stuck not knowing if ALL Nvidia 1070/1080 cards are unusable by me.

              • Gurm replied to this.

                AgentX20 I'm guessing it's "all", since I'm finding that 970's are in the "some" category but 6x0 and 7x0 cards are in the "none". Which sucks for you (and me).

                I'm currently investigating if the OS or Motherboard drivers have any bearing on this. They SHOULDN'T. but since the cables and monitors are the same...

                KM My thoughts are we must buy and test current cards to see if they work.

                Unfortunately, at some point someone has to buy expensive equipment and see if it works.
                The best way is to have companies / people who do this for a living (reviewing hardware) review to see if it's bad or not.

                Problem is, we've yet to determine what reliably causes the issue. PWM, Dithering are big candidates as well as others. But then what causes the dithering? Motherboard? Graphics unit? Montitor? Some of the above?

                There have been some ideas already that haven't really panned out so I'm interested in hearing any ideas that I could setup / host.

                In any case, The GeForce GTX 750Ti works well for me (dithering disabled under linux) with a 8-bit monitor 🙂

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