Maxwell Lite A Little Too Light?
admin | February 4th, 2015 - 6:21 amWhat we have done, in essence, is to isolate the eighth drive, keep it linked to the array via the seventh and designate it as an additional reserve of cache which the host system will only employ when the rest of the array has been fully populated. The seventh drive can then perform to its optimum level and in parallel to the remaining six whilst no storage space is sacrificed.
The Irked: Very clever. So I guess this explains the stuttering
Nvidia Minion: Stuttering?
The Provoked: That right, whenever memory occupancy breeches that three and a half gig boundary, we get a damned slide show.
Nvidia Minion: That’s odd, none of our tests manifested such a symptom, it’s not possible. You see, The last portion of RAM might be slower, but its addressed far less often and even when it is, it’s never in big chucks for prolonged periods, certainly not long enough to induce stuttering. We’re talking factions of a second. The performance penalty is all but negligible because the determent is subsumed into and aggregated across the whole interface.
The Aggrieved. Then how do you explain the symptoms in Shadow of Mordor.
Nvidia Minion: We’ve carried out our own tests, we’ve compared the 970 with the 980 in several games, including Mordor. We forced specific scenarios to ensure both the primary and auxiliary memory banks were accessed and others to exploit the primary bank alone. We conducted multiple iterations of benchmarks for each condition.
Considering the 970s three missing SMMs, the performance discrepancy we recorded was firmly in line with what you’d expect. The results have been published, feel free to review them. We didn’t observe any or stuttering over and above what is typical when you choose to run the latest, most demanding titles at high resolutions and with armfuls of optical pic n mix.
The Offended. The fact remains, that if those ROPs and cache had been left active, as you insisted they were when we all made our purchases then, under certain circumstances, no matter how small or insignificant you might feel they are, the performance of this card would have been higher.
Nvidia Minion. There’s no evidence I’ve seen to suggest that, the three SMMs are this card’s only hindrance and their absence has been known from day one.
The Mislead: There is firm evidence, look at the results for Nai’s CUDA benchmark, clearly demonstrating the last portion of RAM is sub-par.
Nvidia Minion: Indeed, we openly admitted as such, but neither the RAM nor that particular benchmark, which is actually a diagnostic utility, has any bearing on real world performance.
The Deceived: And what about our collective experiences in games? Major degradation and choppiness that corresponds exactly to when that upper partition of RAM is called into service.
Nvidia Minion: Again, we’ve been unable to replicate those declines. I do wonder if perhaps you’re expecting a little too much. Seriously, ask yourself, would you really be applying settings as high as you are, or testing quite as vigorously if you hadn’t known about this memory anomaly?
The Apoplectic. Stop dancing around the issue. What if you hadn’t mentioned the disabled streaming processors but had informed us about the ROPs, cache and memory? Would things have been any different? Would you have admitted your folly and apologized for flagrant deceit and opportunism.
Nvidia Minion: That’s a little harsh, it was a misunderstanding between our engineering and technical PR divisions, these things happen.
The Upset: Perhaps you should have connected them with a “BUDDY INTERFACE”.
Nvidia Minion: For what it’s worth, I’m sorry if you feel offended mislead, or exploited it was absolutely not our intention. There’s nothing sinister or premeditated about this. We’ll republish the official spec since it was inaccurate but in terms of value and performance you’ve still got exactly what you invested in.
The Irritated: Fine, so next time I buy a Rolex that turns out to be a counterfeit I should shut up and be happy, correct?
Nvidia Minion. That’s not the same thing. Materially, the counterfeit would be completely different from what you presumed you were purchasing.
The Manipulated. But performance would be exactly the same.
Nvidia Minion. You don’t buy Rolex’s merely to tell the time, they’re a fashion statement. A counterfeit would never afford the wearer the same status.
The Ired: Assuming his friends or acquaintances were discerning enough to tell the difference. What if we were sold Ruby that turned out to be Garnet, or Emerald that turned out to be Peridot or diamond that turned out to be Moissanite, all convincing enough to fool everybody except jewellers, whom I never wanted to impress to begin with. What if I purchased tickets for a Rolling Stones concert and was instead rewarded with a 100% authentic Rolling Stones tribute act? Should I solicit a refund?
Nvidia Minion: I’m no legal expert sir, I can’t participate in a hypothetical. Now if you’ll excuse me, I really must go, the master commands my presence. If you’re still not satisfied, you can always take it up with your place of purchase.
The Annoyed: Shame, things were just getting interesting.
Nvidia Minion: I know. Just bad luck isn’t it. Work always gets in the way of life. Oh, by the way. Expect a new driver very soon.
The Disgusted. Don’t worry, we shall. Expect a class action. Farewell for now. Oh! and best of luck against Samsung and all your official vendors who’ll be seeking recompense once they’ve negotiated an avalanche of returns from the e-tailers you suggested we complain to. You know how these things work. Leave your troubles on the doorstep, and they’ll break in through the windows.
AMD Fanatics. And to think of the flaming we suffered for the Hawaii’s fan and throttle shenanigans.
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