Referring to the GTX 970 customers as "teh innernetz" is annoying and relating it to your GTX 570 issue is not the same. This has blown up because Nvidia rushed these cards out and tried to patch up the issue with a quick fix.
They released a GTX 970 with dual 6 pin power. TONS of customers were complaining about the video cards down clocking under stress because the GPU isn't getting the power that is needed, especially the customers that spent extra on the factory overclocked versions. So they release a new version of the GTX 970 with a 8 pin and a 6 pin connector to allow more power phases to the GPU to alleviate the power throttle issue. Which are now pretty much "out of stock" from most retailers.
Now, we have people that can't fully utilize the 4GB of memory without it stuttering. It could be something to do with the new power phases... It could be something with quite a few batches of VRAM chips... or it could be something with the inductor coil whine that we are hearing so much about. That coil whine could be a sign of cheap inductors or some other poor quality counter part that is causing it. I really don't know... but I do know one thing... I have having to troubleshoot my hardware and tweak things just to get it to work as intended when I spent a considerable amount of cash to play my video games and have fun... Not to be stressed out wondering if my hardware is going to get a firmware, driver or replacement fix.
Looks like the red team just dropped prices again across the board. You can now get a Sapphire Tri-X or MSI Lightening R9 290X for $350. They are definitely taking advantage of this situation. My Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X pretty much stays at the same temps as the GTX 970's I had... and the performance is solid and drivers are too. I'm talking with my wallet now. Nvidia may be in my future... later on, but for now, they are off my spending list.
People complain about everything. There hasn't been a single video card released by NVIDIA or AMD in the past 300 years that somebody hasn't found something to complain about.
I don't fault anybody for returning their 970s and going AMD. I just think we're barely looking at a molehill here and people are getting spun up. But if a 290X works better for your needs, then by all means go ahead. I just think you shouldn't try to convince people who are otherwise satisfied that they're sitting on defective hardware unless you have some kind of reasonable proof.
In this forum -- here, on H -- we have heard people calling for class action lawsuits, product recalls (recalls are for like fatal baby cribs, guys), and congressional investigations.... all because NVIDIA made a hardware decision to segment GPU memory, even though at this time we have yet to ascertain if there is any actual relevant impact from this design.
Don't you think there could be an over-reaction here? And isn't there a concerted effort out there to fan these flames to try to turn a spark into a raging fire?