Last year, Nvidia released the GTX 970 and the GTX 980, two high end GPUs for gaming PCs for killer prices that ended up doing very well- and promptly found themselves embroiled in a controversy, due to some misrepresentation in their marketing.

The misrepresentation had to do with the GTX 970, which they had claimed at 4GB of VRAM, when it does not- well, not exactly, anyway. The memory on the card was split into 3.5GB and 0.5GB, which Nvidia claimed had no impact on performance, but which users were reporting as untrue in their experience. Moreover, it was also discovered by PC Perspective that the 970 had a smaller L2 cache, as well as fewer render output processors than Nvidia had originally claimed.

Put together, this led to a class action lawsuit against Nvidia for false and misleading advertising- which they now seem to have settled. As per the settlement (via Gamespot), Nvidia won’t accept any liability, which is actually a big win for them. They will, however, have to pay $30 to each customer of the GTX 970 who can furnish a valid proof of purchase by December 21. More details on this will be sent out on October 23, and the Court will first have to approve the settlement on August 24- but as of right now, it seems that GTX 970 owners may find their wallets a bit more flush over the next few months.

As is the case with so many Ubisoft games these days, The Division will be bundled with high end Nvidia GeForce GPUs. Starting today, you can purchase an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or above, or a laptop with a GeForce GTX 970M or above, and you’ll receive a free copy of the game.

The PC version of The Division promises to be the best one- and Nvidia GameWorks will apparently make it even better, with GameWorks adding contact hardening, realistic soft shadows that progressively soften as the distance from the casting object increases- just like shadows act and behave in the real world. It’s a small thing, but small things like these are essential in building up the atmosphere of a game, and adding to its immersion.

The Division is due out on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and of course, PC, on March 4. Players can check it out before then with the open beta, which starts tomorrow.

We already knew VR will be a demanding proposition- after all, generating a high fidelity image like that would require some serious muscle power. At CES today, Nvidia announced the GeForce GTX VR Ready program, designed to allow consumers to “instantly identify VR capable PCs, notebooks and add-in cards through a GeForce GTX VR Ready badge.” The minimum threshold to be able to run VR? A GTX 970, apparently.

“For customers, navigating an emerging technology like VR can be daunting,” said Jason Paul, general manager of emerging technologies at Nvidia. “We’re working with trusted partners worldwide to simplify the buying process with a GeForce GTX VR Ready badge that will let customers quickly identify PCs or add-in cards that are capable of handling the demands of VR.”

The minimum specs you would need alongside a GTX 970 are:

• a PC with USB 3.0 support
• CPU: Intel Core i5- 4590 equivalent or greater CPU
• 8GB+ RAM of Memory/RAM
• 2x USB 3.0 ports and HDMI 1.3
• Windows

If you are running a laptop, you will need a GTX 980 at minimum. These specs will ensure your computer has the power required to be able to push two high resolution images at 90 frames per second, or higher.

I imagine most people serious about PC gaming – the people who would be interested in VR in the first place – already have high end graphics cards and well specc’d machines, so they don’t need to worry about this. Still, though, it’s good to have some benchmarks.

Getting the latest major AAA PC release for free when you get a high end Nvidia graphics card is a long running tradition, and it will continue into this summer as well- possibly two of the biggest games of the year will be free for you on PC if you purchase an Nvidia GTX 970 or GTX 980. The witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Batman: Arkham Knight will be made available to you for free upon purchase of Nvidia’s flagship graphic cards.

To be clear, you get both games for free, as long as you purchase one of those cards. So that’s actually a very good deal, and should compel those of you who have been waiting on upgrading to do so now.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launches later this month, while Batman: Arkham Knight launches next month. Both games are available on PS4 and Xbox One in addition to PC, but are enhanced on PC by Nvidia GameWorks, providing increased fidelity, realism, and immersion.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information.

The sage of the GTX 970, which apparently was falsely marketed, and featured lower specs than what Nvidia had claimed it would have, continues. The latest development? A statement issued by Nvidia in which they admit that the upper 512MB of the additional GB of VRAm that the card offers does in fact have lower bandwidth.

“We invented a new memory architecture in Maxwell. This new capability was created so that reduced-configurations of Maxwell can have a larger framebuffer – i.e., so that GTX 970 is not limited to 3GB, and can have an additional 1GB,” Nvidia said.

“GTX 970 is a 4GB card. However, the upper 512MB of the additional 1GB is segmented and has reduced bandwidth. This is a good design because we were able to add an additional 1GB for GTX 970 and our software engineers can keep less frequently used data in the 512MB segment,” they said.

Nvidia claims that it never intended to mislead anybody, and that the entire confusion comes from miscommunication between their engineers and their marketing team, and also between the company and external reviewers.

Nvidia promised that this would never happen again. “We won’t let this happen again. We’ll do a better job next time.”

Hopefully they do, although I would be lying if I said that at least as far as some people were concerned, Nvidia may have permanently damaged consumer trust.

Nvidia probably never imagined that the GTX 970 would cause such a headache for them- but the graphics card, which had less usable VRAM than was advertised, has been nothing but a mire of PR disasters and entanglements for them.

The newest development for them in the saga? A class action lawsuit, initiated by one Andrew Ostrowski, who bought two of these babies, and found that the performance that they delivered did not match up to the performance that had been promised- which, it turns out, was a correct supposition, and owes itself entirely to the way that the RAM cache on the graphics card is split.

The suit alleges that Nvidia “engaged in a scheme to mislead consumers nationwide about the characteristics, qualities and benefits of the GTX 970,” and they sort of have a point, especially given that these technical specs were released even to the press at large.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt, because we will have more for you on this story as it develops.