No more overclocking on Nvidia mobile GPUs

UPDATE FEB. 23rd: New vBIOS clockblock


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UPDATE FEB. 19TH: https://forums.geforce.com/default/...king-with-347-09-347-25/post/4466443/#4466443




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ORIGINAL POST:

So it's confirmed. Our worst fears have been realized. Source



Not only is what Nvidia has done unethical and petty, it may even be illegal: ASUS GPU Tweak for Laptops




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Parallel discussion thread at T|I

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NOW IS THE TIME FOR ACTION!
We need to take a stand and send a strong, clear message to Nvidia that we will not take this lying down. I suggest making our voices heard across many channels of communication. I know we are all extremely upset by this, but please try to be polite and respectful!

Petition
Sign this petition started by our very own @iaTa

Twitter
Use the hashtag #WTFnvidia! Tweet this out:

Tweet Nvidia's various Twitter handles: @nvidia @NVIDIA_UK @NVIDIAGeForce @nvidiacc @ManuelGuzman

Tweet Roy@AMD, who is known to take shots at Nvidia every now and then for their [poor decisions]

Tweet Linus Sebastian ( @LinusTech) of Linus Tech Tips, a popular and influential tech YouTuber, as well as AnandTech ( @anandtech)

Facebook
Drop a line at the Facebook page of Nvidia GeForce: https://www.facebook.com/NVIDIAGeForce

Reddit
Post in the Nvidia and Alienware subreddits

Forums
Post in the thread on the GeForce forums and in other tech forums: OCN AnandTech Guru3D HardOCP Linus Tech Tips OC3D

(Ignore the desktop trolls if you can, don't try to fight them! Present visual evidence if you feel compelled to try to persuade them to see our point of view. Maybe we can even win a few over to support us and sign the petition. But leave it at that and don't try to beat trolls at their own game. Remember, we are here to send a message to Nvidia, not to start a flame war. Don't lose our focus!)

Email/telephone
Please copy-paste this (copied verbatim from iaTa's petition):

Spoiler

On 11th February 2015 an Nvidia representative 'ManuelG' stated that GeForce equipped notebooks were not designed to support overclocking and the only reason it has been possible thus far is due to a bug in the official drivers. This supposed bug has now been fixed and consequently mobile GPU overclocking is now permanently disabled.

There are many notebooks which have been specifically designed with overclocking the CPU and GPU in mind. Some OEMs even make a point of this overclocking potential and provide customers with the necessary tools to do so (e.g. MSI/ASUS).

Many people who have already purchased and built a mobile system are incredibly disappointed by this decision, as are potential new customers who were looking to purchase a new GeForce equipped notebook.

Please reconsider and re-enable mobile GPU overclocking.

with the subject line "Re-enable overclocking on GeForce equipped notebooks" and your name signed and send it via email to each of the following Nvidia employees:

Brian Burke
GeForce Notebook & CUDA Consumer Products
[email protected]
+1 (512) 401 4385

Bryan Del Rizzo
GeForce & Consumer Desktop Products
[email protected]
+1 (408) 486 2772

Bob Sherbin
Corp. Communications (Lead)
[email protected]
+1 (408) 566-5150

Other avenues of communication
All the places where Nvidia can be found on the Web: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nv_fuo.html

If you know anyone who works for a review website or other tech publication, please contact them and ask them to spread word about this!

I will keep this post rolling with important updates as they happen.

 

What on Earth?! I definitely didn't see this one coming. It seems Nvidia is becoming more and more like Apple as every month goes by...

I'm just glad that I've been putting off driver updates for some time now. Looks like there's no reason for me to upgrade.

 

900M and Maxwell 800M owners probably saw this coming as overclocking has been disabled for them in the last 3 drivers. Although it is still shocking and outrageous nonetheless.

 

I made that thread with the crying hope that it was just a bug, but alas it appears not to be the case and is a massive blow for me. Without warning or solid reasoning Nvidia has killed overclocking on one of the best overclocking series of mobile GPUs in years. Having a thick chassis like on my G751 has now been made less relevant then ever. With the OC seen in my sig the temperatures don't go over 72c and the system is 100% stable with 10-20% boost in FPS, I'm going to loose that performance forever with no gains.

I guess this decision is much more complex than Nvidia just pulling the plug, if I had to take a educated guess people like Dell/AW and other notebook manufactures have strong armed Nvidia into doing this. Been wondering why the new AW 17 comes with a 180W PSU, it's because they knew this day was coming.

It's a sad day for mobile gaming machines, as it's just yet another reason not to get one.

 

Weird move. The last time Nvidia's mobile GPUs were dying because of poor cooling/overclocking in a notebook was when Core2Duo/GeForce 8600M GT were in Dell XPS M1530 laptop, and that was aeons ago.
I was seriously considering GTX980M upgrade for my Clevo, now I will wait for AMD cards, I guess...

 

Yep, no more Nvidia GPUs for me anymore either, mobile or desktop. Screw them.

 

I feel like our expectations for AMD and their new stuff (Zen, 300 series) get higher all the time because of crap like this. Come on Team Red, we're counting on you.

 

Technically overclocking can be done through VBIOS modding and re-flashing, but how to determine stable clocks, if software OCing is disabled?

 

And what happens when your silicon inevitably degrades and all of a sudden you can't boot into Windows or at all one day, what then? Not to mention the increased likelihood of bricking your card with all the BIOS flashing.

 

Sure thing, there are drawbacks, but I take my chances anyway. Proper research and preparation reduce risks. Moderate overclocking also limits silicon degradation.

 

Hahaha, so I suppose we can expect the 1xxx Nvidia series(next gen after 9xx) will be just rebranded and overclocked 9xx series.

 

Very disappointed to read this... I was still secretly hoping it was a bug in the last batch of drivers, but this confirms our fears.

Gotta ask though, will there not be a software work around for this too at some point?

EDIT: While a different topic, same Nvidia logic applies and I just love this clip....

 

A surprise move from Nvidia! You would think to keep buyers happy they would give us the tools to play! I mean lets face it, with the money thats spent on their higher end cards, its not going to be your average muppet thats doing the buying! And overclocking has been around for many years, why the sudden clamp down? I dont think Nvidia are going to make any friends from this, they seem to be forgetting about the enthusiasts that buy their high end top spec gear!

Looks like I'm staying on the 344.80's for a while then!

Mick

 

Really bummed about this, hopefully someone comes up with a software mod for the drivers to re-enable. I wonder if this will negatively affect things like the "SHIFT" software that come in MSI machines.

 

I think with all the cr@p that intel is doing nowadays and "getting away with it" nVidia is thinking "Why shouldn't we try the same!"

 

well i guess its time we "hack" these drivers to allow overclocking. This will also be my last nvidia card because of this...i mean whats next? no more OC on the desktop cards either? This is rediculous, these aren't consoles.

 

green team does nothing for notebook users!!no dsr still no mantle support which is open source no good drivers for a year.They know by disabling overclock people will need sooner to upgrade or buy a new notebook

 

Returned my AW 18. I'm done with laptops. Goodbye everyone.

 

serious or joking? lol

 

Dead. Serious. Not spending 5K to be limited when it's already 1/3 the performance of a desktop.

 

Perfect time for opportunistic AMD ad campaign featuring (nonexistent) R9 m380x laptop

"4GB means 4GB. And you can overclock it too."

 

I agree! AMD...this is your chance to come out with an R9 390M and smoke the competition....the advertisements are clear to me...." the R9 390M.....oh and we let you overclock it too"

 

ManuelG in 2016: "Unfortunately GeForce desktop cards are no longer designed to support overclocking. By overclocking a desktop, a user risks serious damage to the system that could result in non-functional systems, reduced desktop life or many other effects. Our intent was not to remove features from GeForce desktops, but rather to safeguard systems from operating outside design limits."

 

What?
Since when does Nvidia get to decide what I want to do with my own hardware? If anyone except us should get a word, its the OEMs that should be able to have a word based on their notebook design which they know a ton better than Nvidia that just manufacture the freaking chip.

The solution should be simple: Enable overclocking on desktop and mobile with ALL DRIVERS from Nvidia, let the OEMs issue out their own sub version of the driver with overclocking disabled if they dont want overclocking for some reason.

My god this makes me mad and deeply disappointed of Nvidia.
I made my voice heard in that thread. I suggest people here does as well. They cant be serious

 

The OEM could disable overclocking in the BIOS, but that is assuming they are competent enough to do that. By the way many things have gone in the past, that may be asking too much of them.

 

Yes, BIOS block would be a way too. That way neither they or Nvidia dont need to fiddle with drivers.

Its a little drastic though, because that would greatly remove modders and people ability to remove this overclock block if they feel sure that their notebook can handle a bit of overclock.
I dont get this move from Nvidia at all. If the user want to risk to kill the GPU with overclocking (which it wont anyway due to built in protection), its the user that will need to buy a new GPU to replace the dead one.
Second, if the warranty does cover a dead GPU, its the OEM that should decide if they want users overclocking or not. What the hell does Nvidia got to do with this?

 

How about no restrictions in BIOS or drivers?

 

Exactly, maybe the OEM intended their notebook design to support overclocking, or they could even be installing 980M in small form factor desktop!

 

Nvidia throwing its hat into this year's race.

 

I just don't get the reasoning... they totally must not understand their market and who actually cares about their products. Only enthusiasts give a crap about this stuff, just ask my wife or work colleagues what GPU is in their computer and wait for the blank stare. NVIDIA just gave all of us that care a huge FU.

I've been overclocking my systems one way or another since my 386/486 days with jumpers or DIP switches on the motherboard. I understand if an OEM wants it blocked in a prebuilt system, but at least we know that before we buy and can shop elsewhere. This is different. NVIDIA can suck an egg.

 

i wonder if this is because they grown too big and have very little competition from AMD?

We are basically forced to choose between overclock OR new drivers with better game optimizations with this stance.

 

I am absolutely sure enthusiasts will be providing modified overclockable drivers. Of course, they will lag behind official in updates, but who cares?

 

Overclocking seems to be overrated.
The cooling in most laptops is barely adequate to keep stock clock hardware at 'reasonable' levels. As such, and overclocking gains would be marginal at best, and not really worth it for the most part.
If the issue was gaining a few FPS in some games that would improve frame smoothness, that might be justifiable... but more often than not, this is not the case. The hardware is either just right or not powerful enough to keep up.
Another problem stems from lack of optimizations from developers. Large system requirements to run various programs and games on maximum are often not justified, and are only put there to spur people into upgrading their systems and spend more money. Arguably, proper software optimization would definitely eliminate most of these issues.

Still, I have to admit that this might be a good indication for AMD if people care that much about overclocking - provided that AMD delivers.

 

What if you play new games and need the latest driver profiles, e.g. for SLI?

Get outta here. I get almost 50% performance increase from overclocking my Y500. That's like a whole 'nother tier of GPU.

 

People were overclocking the 860M maxwell to meet 780M performance. RIP

 

yeah i was one of the first to get an 860m on this forum and i was surpassing 780m stock levels. I guess nvidia hated that. "hey some guy bought a 1100 dollar laptop and is getting 780m performance, lets stop that from happening!"

 

BS. Even on the new cards, I remember HTWingNut overclocking his 970m past a 980m at stock. You may not overclock your cards and that's fine but don't pretend no benefit stems from it.

 

Then this person better become enthusiastic enough to fix the issue and share the solution with community,.. or grow patience. =\

No, it's not. =/

 

NVIDIA & Intel are pushing everyone to the thin and light market. Now it's all BGA and no overclocking. All the benefits of having a bigger machine are slowly going away.

 

And so my worst fears are realised D:

Exactly. Add the fact that full MFAA support is locked to the 347.xx branch and later. Only a matter of time before another genuinely useful feature is added into a future driver. And then there's always the possibility of a game-breaking driver incompatibility that will require a driver update for that swanky new AAA release. 344.75 can't last forever, its useful lifespan is limited for those that wish to play the latest and greatest titles in 2015...

Despite losing the silicon lottery this time around, I am saddened by this news, as I was still able to see some nice boosts from my very modest overclock (1250/1310). How much life can I squeeze out of 344.75 before I cave?

I've been overclocking my mobile GPUs since the days of the ATI 5650 - which just so happened to be my very first dedicated GPU. Shame those days will be over soon...

 

If you could have lived with a desktop this whole time, notebooks aren't for you.

 

I suggest that everyone petition to get desktop overclocking blocked too. After all, desktop systems are also at risk of serious damage to the system that could result in non-functional systems, reduced GPU life, or many other effects. I see it as NVIDIA's duty to safeguard all those desktop users out there, just as they have been kind enough to safeguard all of us notebook users. Remember that overclocking is by no means a trivial feature! I'm sure NVIDIA value their desktop customers just as much as they do their notebook customers, so will have no qualms whatsoever in quickly protecting desktops users from potential harm.

 

nVidia's on a roll lately, a very, very bad roll.

I would actually sign that petition, because sometimes the only way to effect change is if affects the desktop guys as well. And if you piss off enough of the desktop guys you're done.

But yeah I am done with nVidia (and mult-GPU setups as well).

 

I have a low performance $1k notebook. And LAN-ing will be dealt with some other way.

 

Just because you can live with something doesn't mean it's convenient.

 

You know that would never happen. OC competitons, 3D Mark marketing, reviews, and overclock models like the Kingpin edition. nVIDIA would always be #2 to AMD.

 

Do you think they are feeling bold on the mobile side because AMD is not competitive?

 

I still believe one of their partners requested it, one of their BIG partners. Since nVIDIA doesn't take the hit on broken cards, it doesn't make sense for them to ruin customer relations like this.