Well, end of the day, the 970 is still faster than the 780 and R9 290. This is a fact that won't changed, even if a game takes up more than 3.5GB of VRAM. The latest AMD Omega driver did close the gap a little bit and if there are mroe games making use of Mantle in the near future, we could potentially see the 290 to come quite close to the 970 and probably even equalling it in a VRAM intensive game.

Best case scenario is not to buy anything right now. Prices has increased (I just got another MSI 970 for SLI for RM1430 so that's still a decent deal considering the MSI 970 released at RM1.5k a few months ago).

Note: The 970 will indeed start to drop frames like crazy if VRAM allocation goes above 3.5GB. You don't even have to try a game, just open up Kombuster and run the 4GB VRAM stress test then compare it with the 3GB, the frames are nearly double on the latter.

On another side note, I think this is why Nvidia didn't push for 3GB of VRAM on the 960. That puny 128bit bus would have bottlenecked like crazy.

No. The 960 will have issues using 4GB of VRAM even if it's using only 4 modules. Problem isn't how many VRAM chips are on the board, is how the allocation is done.
That's honestly a stupid build. Spend more than 10k but no custom WC setup and use cheapo CLC?
Using a laser sensor mouse? M50x as a headphone just because..?

Don't worry. nVidia will flash your GTX970 bios to enable all SMM. Your GTX970 will become GTX980. 

Pay for GTX970. Get GTX980. 

On another note, anyone with issues with DP giving out "no signal" to the monitor? I need to reset the damn thing every time in order to view anything at all. HDMI is not b****ing though. Anyway, only happen on startup.

Holy macaroni... that's one whole big pile of text to read... 
okay... basically I'm screwed with the damn DP now. Will try and uninstall GeForce Experience and see if it helps or not.
Anyway, thanks for the link. 

This. +100000000000

If they actually came clean in the first place, the 970 would still have sell over a million units in 2 months. I mean, despite the fact the 970 has a gimped 0.5GB of VRAM, it is still undeniably the best $350/RM1.1-1.5k in a very, very, long time.

I think most people without bottomless pockets can agree with me if I say the 980 is great, but it isn't $220/RM500-RM700 better than the 970. Hard to deny that fact.

stuttering issue really put me off and shit even happen at nvidia optimize game like dying light.
If this ram fiasco causing it I really want a refund

getting 120 fps ++ but stuttering intermittently zzz

Probably they hope nobody knows except those in the forum or reading tech news.
Its hardware issue. They already said not going to fix it because it is design as such. To nVidia, it is not a bug. And yes, it cannot be corrected by software, driver or BIOS.

The outcome of this is that your card is effectively 3.5GB.

nVidia has been a shady company since then I guess... lol

and ofcourse bumpgate and others..

Not as shady as nVidia.

1) well, at least it is broken promise. Your AMD card is still the same spec when you bought it.
2) I'm not sure.
3) Well, your AMD still same spec
4) probably bug or something.

GTX970 issue involved spec changes. Imagine the TV you bought is written 4K AMOLED. But its actually Pentile AMOLED. 

wah, you really sui... 

But ok la. Some people say they still very very happy.

eh, if 8 months died, you can't RMA 8800gts meh?

my gpu seldom die on me. But my sapphire HD5850 HMDI dead after 1 year. 

i aint a fanboy bro u can keep on doing what fanbois do 

anyone using Display Port to their monitors? seems like my U2515H doesnt show BIOS everytime i reboot PC

but my 2nd monitor with DVI have no issues

Lately, the GTX970 values for a few brand has increased a bit. From these few brands below, which one would you pick? why? Just need an input on the subject since I am not so IT savvy.

Gainward GTX970 Phantom 4GB - RM1249   (2 years warranty)
Leadtek GTX 970 Hurricane 4GB - RM1299   (3 years warranty)
Palit GTX970 Jetstream 4GB - RM1299         (3 years warranty)

any ideas how directx12 multi gpu using different brands e.g. nvidia and amd is going to play out ?

Now i think opengl, mantle or both are also saying they can do just as much.

does that mean for those of us not wanting to spend much on gsync monitor, but still want to use a nvidia card, will end up using nvidia + ati in some sort of multigpu setup.

But sounds as if, then the ATI card will have to be the primary if wanting use the freesync i suspect 
Seems like things are going to get pretty complicated