I'm not excusing Nvidia or anything, they have lied and should have been honest about things.
But the 970 is a 4GB card it has 3.5GB VRAM and a separate, but slower 500MB of VRAM. Regardless of specs and what they said it had and what it actually has, the performance is still the same today as it was last week.
The real question is does the 500MB lower speed VRAM actually affect the performance of the card and if so by how much?
The way the 970 works is it will use the 3.5GB first and when it goes over the 3.5GB it will access the other 500MB which is slower. So what we need to find out is when the 500MB is accessed, does it actually have an impact on the performance and how big of a problem is it?
There has been no proper testing done yet, so I'll wait to see what places like Pcper and Anand have to say once they have done some proper testing and confirm how much of an impact this actually has before drawing a proper conclusion.
Doesn't change the fact Nvidia lied though, I have a 970 myself so it directly impacts me.