To those who have purchased a GTX 970 video card between the following dates (9/1/2014-8/24/2016) are eligible for a $30 payout due to claims of the card using less memory than advertised ie: 3.5GB as opposed to 4GB. 970M is not eligible (IIRC) but if you bought a new pre-built with this card, that is still eligible.

If you are a U.S. resident and you purchased one or more GeForce GTX 970 graphics processing unit ('GTX 970') devices in the U.S. from the Defendants, the AIC Partners ("AIC Partners" is defined in the Settlement Agreement as "Gigabyte, ASUS, EVGA, InnoVISION Multimedia Limited, Micro-Star International Co., Ltd., Manli Technology Group Ltd., Palit Microsystems Ltd., PC Partner Group Ltd., PNY Technologies Inc. and ZOTAC International (MCO) Ltd. or their subsidiaries, divisions or affiliates") or their authorized retailers between September 1, 2014 and August 24, 2016, other than for purposes of resale or distribution, you have a right to know about a proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit and your options.

If you are eligible, you may submit a claim for $30 cash for each qualifying GTX 970 device purchased in the U.S. between September 1, 2014 and August 24, 2016. There is no limit on the number of claims you can submit, subject to providing appropriate Proof of Purchase as described below.

NATURE OF THE SETTLEMENT

This lawsuit claimed that Defendants sold GeForce GTX 970 graphics processing units to consumers based on inaccurate or misleading information regarding the GTX 970's specifications, performance, and capabilities. Defendants deny that they did anything wrong. The Court has not made any ruling on the factual allegations in the lawsuit. For more information regarding the litigation, you can download a copy of the Settlement Agreement and Long-Form Notice by clicking on the document below.

NVIDIA has denied any wrongdoing but has agreed to this payout. You may submit a claim with multiple cards as long as they all qualify.

Go to this link and submit a claim/to see if you are eligible.

Edit: I am unaware of any cards proven to run slower than others. I haven't had any issues personally with my card.

The process is easy and quick. You do not need any receipts or complicated proof of purchase. Simple device ID is sufficient.

I submitted this to my cousin who purchased a 970 last year, thanks for the heads up.

Thanks for the heads up

I'll have to take a look into this. I did buy a 970 during that time period, so I guess I may qualify.

@chaser324: Yeah as long as you have something like the device ID, not even a receipt, you should be fine.

Sweet, $30!

Oh... U.S. residents only. :(

Thanks, was super simple.

@dgtlty: What they mean is you are also eligible if you are outside the U.S. but bought it from a U.S. retailer.

I saw this posted on Anandtech earlier too. I just bought a 970 back in March so this works for me. I paid $350 at the time so this works out to about 9% back.

Thanks, Got an email from Newegg a few months back and totally forgot. I bought mine specifically for TW3, and couldn't even finish it due to CTD, or all out lockups. Accompanied by a sound that came from my speakers I can only describe as hell spawn trying to force open a portal, and dig straight into my brain.

@beardandcompany: That's not what the FAQ page says on that shady website. Is this thing even legit?

@dgtlty: I read the FAQ and that is what I deduced from it, I could be wrong but it seems to specify buying it from a U.S. retailer.

And yeah, the site is terrible but legit. Any class action lawsuit like this has a similar looking site, though. It's not built to look nice.

Edit: I don't see why if you did buy it in the U.S. but live outside, just provide a U.S. address if you have one available to you like a relative.

I guess Canada doesn't qualify...

Thanks for the heads up duder!

Just to clarify for people who don't know the specifics, the 970 does technically have 4GB of RAM on it, but the last 512MB of that is very low-performing such that it is misleading to advertise it as 4GB without any caveats.

The 970 has eight active 512MB memory chips on it; however, one of those chips has its L2 cache (and accompanying link to what's called the "crossbar," basically the connection through which data is transferred to the chip) disabled, and has to be accessed through the L2 cache of the other chip in its partition (the 970 has 4 partitions of two 512MB chips each on it). To accommodate this design, the 970 only stores data in the 7 fully functional chips until it fills them to capacity (which usually won't happen, mind you), then starts placing data in the last chip. Until that point, data is split up and transferred on the 7 normal chips through their respective lanes simultaneously, but all data stored past 3.5GB has to be pushed single-file through one lane into that last 512MB chip, making it far slower (though it's supposed to be still faster than having to offload data into system RAM).