GeForce GTX 970

Harrison

it seems that the release date of my VBIOS is the same than yours. Or is this the release of the graphics card itself?

AgentX20

Harrison Or is this the release of the graphics card itself?

It's the chip version release date.

AgentX20

Harrison it seems that the release date of my VBIOS is the same than yours.

Interestingly you have Elpida RAM, which I understand was used in later versions of 970 cards. What brand/model of card have you got?

Harrison

AgentX20

MSI

or do you need more information about brand?

hpst

AgentX20 Interestingly you have Elpida RAM, which I understand was used in later versions of 970 cards. What brand/model of card have you got?

What could RAM brand possibly have to do with any of this?

JimK

AgentX20
Do you (or anyone else) know if the Elpida memory chip is considered safe for strain symptoms or not?
Thank you very much…

AgentX20

Harrison MSI

or do you need more information about brand?

I was just curious about what brand card you had as much of the recent chatter has been about Gigabyte cards.

JTL

hpst I personally think it's a red herring and VBIOS is the issue.

I'll go through my notes and the VBIOS table to see if I can spot some patterns later.

AgentX20

hpst What could RAM brand possibly have to do with any of this?

Hard to say, except both my 'good' Gigabyte G1 Gaming 970 cards are I believe Hynix RAM models. My 'bad' 970 (in a box) that is supposedly the same card with the same board revision, but different RAM and thus VBIOS, is Samsung memory, and that card does appear to have some subtle cooling differences, perhaps suggesting a variation in 1.0 version boards.

My reading about graphics chip models and especially the 970 suggested that Elpida RAM, as mentioned above with a 'good' card, was typically used on late model 970s. This is contrary to our theory that older 970s are the safe ones, and why I was interested in the make of card in question.

diop

AgentX20 AFAIK the VBIOS controls clock/fan speeds etc as well, so if your card has slightly different cooling then presumably a different version was written specifically for it.

Would anybody be prepared to update their good 970 VBIOS or try to downgrade a bad card, if an older VBIOS is available? Probably the latter 😉 but would be interested to know if a 'downgrade' makes any difference.

Also, does anybody know if Nvidia/OEM's release a changelog for VBIOS?

JTL

diop Would anybody be prepared to update their good 970 VBIOS or try to downgrade a bad card, if an older VBIOS is available? Probably the latter 😉 but would be interested to know if a 'downgrade' makes any difference.

I'd only recommend the latter. No worries really damaging a "bad" card, vs the risk of damaging or permanently inducing issues with a rare "good" card.

diop Also, does anybody know if Nvidia/OEM's release a changelog for VBIOS?

Not that I know of

AgentX20

I might be able to downgrade my bad card, but it's much harder to know which BIOS versions are which as the Gigabyte card page no longer lists the various versions (and which RAM they go with).

Sunspark

AgentX20 If you know the page you're looking for, does archive.org have a snapshot of it?

Harrison

Sunspark

Yeah. It seems that a downgrade isn't quite easy.
So far I have to read in correctly before I can start my downgrade project.

AgentX20

Just reporting in re my 'good' 970 on the latest Win 10 and with the latest Nvidia drivers...

I feel like I'm experiencing an increased amount of low level eye strain, during activities (video playback, a few games, browser) that were previously OK. It's hard to quantify but I'm tempted to try some older video drivers in the hope that eases things.

AgentX20

An older video driver hasn't helped... out of the blue my 'good' home Windows 10 setup has gone 'bad' and I'm getting nasty headaches. I'm NOT happy.

Gurm

AgentX20 well, I don't think your vBIOS suddenly updated itself, so you ought to be able to return to a known-good config even if it means a reformat.

AgentX20

JimK Do you (or anyone else) know if the Elpida memory chip is considered safe for strain symptoms or not?
Thank you very much…

No idea sorry.

My formerly "good" 970s don't work for me now and I've no idea why…

JimK

degen Which 970 do you have?
Please everyone give characteristics of your cards!
Which company? Which memory Chip? Not all 970, 1660 etc etc etc are the same!!!
Thank you…

Jack

AgentX20 You originally had a 4790k/ASUS Z97 DELUXE motherboard with a Gigabyte G1 Gaming 970 with no strain at all right? Then replaced it with ASUS Z97 DELUXE motherboard but there was always a low level strain right?

I've found that the EVGA Z390 Dark and both EVGA Z490 Dark motherboard have a low level strain no matter what card is used with some BIOS versions being better than others, i didnt realize this until i picked up a EVGA SR-3 which has the same exact BIOS interface/design except it had zero low level strain of the Z390Dark/Z490Dark. Im starting to suspect motherboards loaded with too many I/O features such as onboard Wifi are causing some type of interference.

So far i have tested other workstation based systems based on the same socket as the SR-3 such as the HP Z6 G4 and Dell T7820 (both can run Windows 7 so great for testing also) and ive been able to put together some excellent strain free systems on Windows 10 1809 LTSC, 2021 LTSC and Voidlinux(havent tested Win 11). At this point i would only recommend workstation chipset motherboards with barebones/minimal I/O. The Dell T5820's and HP Z4 G4's based on socket 2066 are dirt cheap and have a minimal I/O. I'm starting to suspect aside from the GPU dithering issue that there is some quality control/interference issues with the I/O on many consumer motherboards.

randomboolean

Jack great find and i wouldn't be surprised if it’s true for everyone else. What graphic cards works for you eye strain free?

AgentX20

Jack AgentX20 You originally had a 4790k/ASUS Z97 DELUXE motherboard with a Gigabyte G1 Gaming 970 with no strain at all right? Then replaced it with ASUS Z97 DELUXE motherboard but there was always a low level strain right?

I had a Gigabyte Z97 board that worked pretty well with my 970 card, in that I was able to get a working setup and even when that went bad I was able to revert to something good. Then that mobo cooked itself and my SSD so I replaced it with another Z97 board, thinking something similar would reduce the chances of problems… something I'd seen with a couple of more modern replacement builds that wouldn't work and both went to the kids.

I managed to get the Z97 working for a good while until I foolishly tried a modern Nvidia driver. Since then I've been unable to get a working 'good' setup. Same CPU, same GPU, same memory, same mobo chipset, same monitor. Worse still my kids had my spare 970 cards and they're the same now in that I can't get a working setup. They of course have had new drivers run on them.

My theory is that these newer drivers changed something fundamental on the GPUs, so that even old Windows 10 builds are no longer safe havens. It could also be the mobo and my past experience with newer CPUs, mobos and the same GPU suggests there could be something to the motherboard theory…

JimK

Jack Jack which Motherboard do you suggest for a strain-free experience?
I am currently using MSI MPG B550. Not terrible, but not good either.
I would love to hear some suggestions! Thank you…

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