1070 GTX Micron Memory Global Issues - GPU firmware update needed

I'm testing as we speak, I am not able to replicate it 100%. 3D mode works sometimes with +600, but it also crashes some other times so it's not completely reliable. I'm not entirely sure what else the manucaturers put into their bios fix, maybe they also altered the memory timings?

 

It seems that I am not the only one who discovered it, I just found this with a quick google search https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/53o8v2/gtx_1070_micron_vrm_firmware_issueupdates/

"I own the PALIT Jetstream 1070 (micron memory) and I have the same issue.I can do +300 from desktop and about +750 while in 3d mode.

Anything higher than about +400 from desktop and i get the checkers screen that leads to system restart."

 

Oops

 

@hmscott you read it first then

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

I'm looking at HWInfo, and it only shows the onboard GPU. The GPU is listed in the device manager without an exclamation mark, and I can open up the nvidia control panel. How do you get HWInfo to see the 1070? I'd like to know if I have the good ram or bad ram!

 

Open GPUZ, it's written on the main screen.

 

It looks like GPU-Z is a separate installer. I got it, and it shows Micron. I can't win with this laptop. Every issue so far, I have;(

 

Use fn f7 to toggle the igpu off and let gpuz properly detect the nvidia card

 

looks like this problem is not only with the GTX 1070

GTX 1080 also has micron vram, one user @SoldierRBT (MSI GT73VR 6RF) already complaining, even on stock setting, no OC, the green sparkles in the video.....



I also own the same laptop, on stock setting no green artifacts / shuttering / screen blinking but screen flickering during loading screens (benchmark test or games loading) only right side of screen...but if OC GPU vram above 200Mhz, seeing green artifacts (circles, sparkles, squares) during benchmark fire strike

Also notice that if GPU fan running at full speed 5000RPM and OC GPU vram @ 350Mhz, butter smooth fire strike benchmark test, no artifacts.

So, is this issue only with GTX 1070 with micron vram or GTX 1080 with micron vram will also be affected...?

 

I don't think it's the same issue as far as I know. The 1070 GTX firmware which was released by all major card manufacturers is fixing the voltage timing of the bios of GDDR5 memory, but GDDR5X should not be affected by that because nvidia's 1080 card was originally designed to run on GDDR5X from micron (as they have a monopoly). On the 1070, it affected basically almost all micron vram cards, in one way or another because the original design was based on samsung vram.

In fact micron users on the 1070 GTX were able to reach +600 or higher after the vbios update. If you don't update the vbios, you don't see green artifacts during the test, but instead everything instantly crashes with a huge checker board or BSOD because the vram didn't get the correct amount of voltage fast enough.

 

Hey Guys, i called Dell France today, they will get to the root what i tell them about Micron experience.

Moreover, i tweet to @ DellVousAide (Dellhelpyou) and they answered me that an update should come soon. ( But there is no date )

It sounds good

 

That's good news, although they didn't always keep their promises in the past Let's hope that they will come up with a new vbios quickly because it only took a few days for the other manufacturers to fix this back in September/October 2016.

 

so I can assume that with GTX1080 if having problem of green artifacts / screen blinking / different colors flicker not because of micron vram but actually a faulty GPU or dying GPU...?

need to be sure before I go after MSI gun blazing....

 

Yea I would say that it's very likely your gpu is faulty/dying, you should exchange it under warranty.

 

Just a small update for people who see artefacts even with stock clocks on the 1070 with micron memory (either while gaming or on desktop in non-optimus mode): try to underclock your gpu to see if it fixes it, and make you to complain to Alienware for a new micron memory vBios release

 

This particular issue has to do with the different vBIOS settings required for Micron DDR5 memory vs. other memory used on the 1070.

The Micron DDR5x memory is compatible with the same vBIOS settings as used with other DDR5x memory.

The 1080 uses DDR5x so it's not the same problem. The symptoms of failure may be similar in many kinds of GPU / VRAM failures, but in this case are unrelated to the differing spec issue with Micron DDR5 1070 combination.

 

I was sent this response 10-15 minutes ago regarding the Micron memory problem.
"
I believe our engineering department and Nvidia already released a solution for that issue. You need to do a clean installation of the Nvidia driver using version 378.49 from the Nvidia website."

I am working on uninstalling and installing this driver to test it. I don't have much hope for a driver update fixing a memory bug, but I'll let everyone know.

 

I think it would be in the form of a vBIOS update, not a driver update.

 

That's what I think too, but I am gonna try it anyway. I mean, I'd hope they wouldn't lie

 

They might not know the mechanism of delivery, but know they intend to fix it.

 

Oddly it seems like Nvidias 378.49 doesn't even want to install, and I am using the correct x64/W10. However Dell has a driver on their website for the 15R3 and 17R4 which mentions Kabylake support but nothing under "fixes"

 

Sometimes Nvidia has multiple threads of development going, and a driver can get released as a Hotfix or WHQL without support for a new laptop GPU (ID not baked in), and another driver can release closely in time and work fine (it's got the ID baked in).

And, Nvidia has been known to do a build on a later driver without one the "include" files copied over and misses a whole lot of GPU id's (or it's a downrev include file).

You have a new laptop GPU and Nvidia needs to bake in the ID (again).

 

NV drivers have been wonky for almost everybody lately.

 

Well, currently running 378.94 on the Kabylake and its doing better than the 6700HQ Samsung memory in Heaven. Before the Samsung was doing WAY better, like the Micron was running @ GTX 1060 speeds. I'm glad I didn't doubt the guy.

It seemed like the 378.49 didn't want to install with no Nvidia drivers. I used DDU, installed the Dell GPU driver with a clean installation. Then I installed the 378.49 with a clean installation.
6700HQ + Samsung : Max 86.1fps, score = 2168

7700HQ + Micron : Max 89.2fps, score = 2246

Just did one test as I'm tired but that is good enough for me

 

There's a hotfix release newer than 378.49:

Announcing GeForce Hotfix Driver 378.57
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...vers/announcing-geforce-hotfix-driver-378-57/

There's a Reddit thread that says to use the 378.57 hotfix release if you run Minecraft:

Don't install Nvidia GPU Driver Version 378.49! It stops Minecraft from loading properly.
https://www.reddit.com/r/feedthebea...t_install_nvidia_gpu_driver_version_37849_it/

GeForce Hot Fix driver version 378.57
https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/5revls/geforce_hot_fix_driver_version_37857/

Here is the Nvidia and Reddit forum thread's for 378.49:

Official 378.49 Game Ready WHQL Display Driver Feedback Thread (Released 1/24/16)
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...lay-driver-feedback-thread-released-1-24-16-/

Driver 378.49 FAQ/Discussion Thread
https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/5pwfnh/driver_37849_faqdiscussion_thread/

 

I just tried it, it slightly improved general performance but it doesn't fix the vram voltage issue It should be a vbios release indeed instead of a driver release. This driver only fixes Kaby Lake bugs imo.

 

No any vbios modification have been done. I'll call them today one more time.

Each one who is touch by the problem, finally each micron user should call Dell on their own country...

 

How can I check the voltage? Are you talking about the GPU voltage or VRAM voltage? Well in heaven I would be getting fps of like 60 meanwhile the Samsung was getting 80. Or in some spots the Micron would get 100 and the Samsung 140. But after updating to that driver version, the micron beat the Samsung in the whole benchmark. I tried to constantly look back and forth and it seemed like the micron consistently had better FPS everywhere

 

The issue has to do with how quickly the vram is getting enough voltage when it switches the 3D mode in fact. It's a problem of voltage timing, not voltage amount What happens is that the wrong timing creates artifacts or crashes very quickly when overclocking the memory (sometimes even at stock clocks). It's the reason why micron memory can only overclock up to 200-300MHz usually while Samsung memory goes up to +700 or more on mosts cards. The vbios upgrade corrects the bug.

I believe that your issue was mainly related to the lack of proper Kaby Lake support in the previous driver.

 

Well the driver here is I believe the same version that shipped with the laptop. Idk if they'd ship a laptop without a working driver, but I am new to laptops.
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...nware-15-laptop&languageCode=en&categoryId=VI

Basically I received the laptop and my 1070 performed like a 1060, then I managed to get the 387.49 installed with the steps I mentioned a few posts back and now it seemed to be working fine (at least in Heaven). Is there anything else to test? Idk how to test that, I know the voltage is what determines the clocks. So I'm guessing with it receiving the voltage slow, the clocks move slowly and just crashes whatever game/program? I guess there isn't much to view in GPU-Z.

I haven't fully test a game on mine but is there something I can respond to this guy with, that will help out others that are still affected?

 

Dell should normally be aware of the issue by now as it is also affecting their desktop cards. The question is whether they are going to bother fixing the issue with a new vbios on the laptops

 

I see. Well, if I were anyone with those setups, I would give them 1-2 months MAX. Then I would get my money back or something way better that actually works to deal with the wasted time lol. They shouldn't be dragging their feet that's messed up

 

I'm waiting from thursday for the call of a French tech supervisor. He should already have called me...

About Micron problem they aren't serious at all !

There is now a month that i'm trying to find out a solution to have a vbios update

 

If nothing move, i'll ask a refund or a unit replacement with samsung memory

 

Have you taken to twitter?

I made a comment here: https://twitter.com/ZERO_ibis/status/829296795591311362

Hopefully more will chime in and we can pressure for a fix.

 

Yes i did too...

 

So, I had my motherboard replaced today and my 1070 is neither Samsung nor Micron... the memory modules are SK Hynix. Wonder if they have stopped using the Micron ones now? Anyway my Unigine Heaven score went up from 2222 (Micron) to 2259 (SK Hynix). Marginal, but an increase.

 

Thank you for the info !
Yes base clocks are OK. It's mainly when you're OC memory

 

Why this stuff happens only on x70 or xx70 models only?

 

"The Micron memory issue doesn't live on the KBL notebooks and on the SKL notebooks its not affected on default clocks"

So the issue only exists for people who have Skylake notebooks and who are overclocking. I assume this means that if you have an issue on stock speeds you need to return and on Kaby Lake it is not possible to have the issue as those are either using Samsung memory or have the vbios fix on them from factory and there will be no vbios update to the old skylake models.

 

Thank you zeroibis ! Where did you find that ?

 

I can confirm that my Kaby Lake system with the 1070 came with Samsung memory. Looks like they've addressed it with a hardware update. Sad that their solution to the problem with affected systems seems to be "don't overclock it".

 

It was the response to the tweet I sent and linked to earlier in the thread about what they were doing about the micron issue.

 

Ty, i saw the tweet, but not the answers

 

So basically they're too lazy to release a new vbios, and they openly admit that if you got micron memory you're screwed and stuck at stock speeds. Nice mentality, especially since all the other manufacturers have already admitted that crashes can also happen at stock speeds.

 

Well in all fairness, they don't say anywhere that these laptops are built to overclock the GPU. dGPU's advertise different BIOS and overclocking potentials with higher quality chokes, cooling, stock clocks, VRM, etc. Yeah, it sucks. But they aren't exactly the bad guys here. To fix it would make them good guys, but for the laptop to perform 10)% out of the box, that's what you bought and your opinion should be based on it. Just undervolt your GPU, get some lower temps and longer battery life.

 

The thing is that it has been proven that even at stock clocks you can get crashes with micron memory. In fact, I had two myself already without any gpu overclock at all (random checkerboard artifacts while gaming). That's the reason why all the major manufacturers have released a vbios fix, except for Dell. I'm not going to underclock a card below stock on a laptop which costs close to 3000$. I don't think you can undervolt you gpu by the way, since Dell has blocked all voltage modifications (modifying the slider does nothing for me).

 

Oh I said something about "if it works perfectly". Wasn't saying you should tolerate a broken laptop when I sure didn't haha.

 

Hello,

I just had the call of a french technical representative, i tell him all what we know today about micron problems, and what they shoud do.

I think that he understood pretty well what i was talking about.

To back up the problem to a higher level in order to make things move, he asked me to send him for tomorrow(14/02) all what we have (screenshot, videos and minidump)

So : more you give me to send him, more evidence we have, and better are the chance to have a new vbios

I really count on your reports


Have a nice evening


Nico

 

Please guys i would like to send the email tomorrow morning, yet i only have my screenshots and @Mechanized Menace video...

I'm waiting for your ( bsod screenshot, videos and or screenshot of artefact)

Thank you