No more overclocking on Nvidia mobile GPUs

This is also why I'm not getting rid of my current laptops, and probably won't be buying any for awhile anyhow. The 980M for me personally was to be a 2 year keep at least, if not longer if I can hold out and nvidia doesn't try to clockblock me. I'm a stickler for computer upgrades and stuff, but I have other things I need to spend my money on for now, so yeah. But I am watching this as if I was going to buy again, because, will I never know when I'll be in the market again, and being in the know is a good thing. So far, I don't care what AMD has out, if I HAD to buy tomorrow I would go AMD gpu. If anything to make a statement. Heck, my AMD 8970M was still good enough, I just drooled over the 980M and had the cash at the time so figured why not. So yeah, I will for sure be holding out until Q2, probably even longer as my original plan. Which incidentally yes, I was one of the ones who bought the GT72 because of the overclocking capabilities thanks to the better cooling.
Yes I do agree though AMD needs to get off their butts and get working, this would be a perfect time to be 'our saviors' and announce a mobile card that can trounce the 980M, AND state that they will never clockblock their users no matter what. I know it's a big wish, but still.

Spread the word is all I can say. If enough people got scared that they might get a blocked gpu if they bought new and didn't buy, it might show nvidia.

 

Half on the 13. Like the 970m on the 15/17 R2, Broadwell 13's can only overclock the memory on the "860m" (it's really a 960m), something I could have done since the memory slider in Nvidia Inspector was movable.
Haswell 13's have the GTX 860m and can overclock just fine, which is what made me confused initially as to why I couldn't overclock my core (makes it worse that I can't upload my vBIOS).
Wouldn't be easier to say that all gaming notebooks sold next month with a 900m GPU are affected?

 

We don't know this for sure

 

Exactly! Clevos vBIOS changelog usually looks like this:

"Supplier's recommendation."

 

I have contacted three large German tech sites (CHIP, Notebookcheck, Computerbase) and updated them on the current situation concerning the clock-block vBios. Let´s hope theyre gonna run this!

also great to know that Jarred from anandtech is investigating overclocking on the P75xZM, his timing couldnt have been better!

 

honestly though, at this point I'm not sure if what we are doing will be effective in the long run. sure we can probably get OC back this back to its good old 135mhz, but limiting the vbios really shows that nvidia is willing to do anything to take away OC.

even if we got it back, what's next? you may get less than 135mhz of headroom, or what's even worse is that the newest drivers will make your OC'd card go unstable as hell even if you have an unlocked vbios. they can give you crashes on the driver level, or even beyond that and that's something you really can't argue about can you?(people can easily claim that it was because of crappy silicon or typical bs like what this is why you don't OC) there is a certain point that the argument for both sides goes gray, and what it seems to me is that nvidia is really just testing waters how much effort they have to put in to reach that gray zone.

 

anything is better than doing nothing...

 

They couldn't do that as you could just roll back your driver and prove they were making it unstable.

 

then they would probably argue something like: yeah, we increased gpu usage with the new driver, thats why it needs more power and thus is more unstable at ILLEGAL overclocks

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

blah definitely not buying a new machine now. Guess I'll deck out my r3 and call it good till someone releases something decent and isn't gimped out of the box....

 

Ok..so here goes nothing(please don't bash me very hard)

As long as they don't put any measure in place for a user to prevent flashing a vBios and any block in the drivers that would prevent running said modified vBios... isn't this just a warranty proof thing.

I mean anyone OC is supposedly forgoing warranty by disclaimer anyway so it shouldn't be a major inconvenience to just flash an unlocked vBios.

I'm guessing this is just their way of saying..."We won't repair your broken hardware due to OC"

 

Some truth in that perhaps, I see what you're saying, although I don't think we should have to resort to flashing a modified vBIOS (or any vBIOS) just to overclock by a small amount like the +135Mhz that was possible before.

 

Well...yeah...somewhat.

I'm on the fence on this one.

I mean the idea itself(depending on if they implement the abovementioned blocks or not) is not that prepostorous....

They could even come out with their own unlocked vBios and a special utility to flash it but basically saying...once you do this you revoke your warranty.

The actual problem is the fact that they did this in a sneaky underhanded way with lies and false declarations.

If they just came out and said..."OC at your own risk" and provided a simple way to do this while finding a way to make sure you can't claim warranty it's my opinion they wouldn't be in for the ****storm that's coming their way now.

 

but how would you prove for sure that it was their new driver making it unstable instead of other factors?
to prove a yes or no is easy, but to prove how one driver gives off more stable OC than another requires a lot more. like I said, nvidia doesn't need to prove you wrong, they just need a spot that makes both sides's argument applicable.
the driver thing is only an example, they probably can think of other ways to tip you off the OC boat, but again, like I said, nvidia is just testing waters to see how much more effort they got to put in for that to happen

 

if you're on stock voltage though you shouldn't have a problem with blowing up your card due to "overclocking". If your card gets to hot it thermal throttles. Its not like the old AMD CPU's that didn't have the thermal throttles and would burn a hole through both the mobo and the table.

CPU Burns - Intel vs. AMD

 

aaaah, good ol´ days

 

I know that already.

I think that the real reason is actually:"if they don't want to buy a new GPU let's atleast void the warranty"

But since they need to package it in a politically correct way, that's what they could say

 

While i see all your concerns and disgruntled situations. So far only the Clevo's and Alienware laptops have been confirmed to be affected. These two brands never explicitly stated that overclocking was by default a feature that was used to "sell" the laptop to customers. Nvidia probably acted upon this and blocked it on those brands first. In a legal sense we as customers cannot dispute nvidia's actions right now as illegal.
I would keep my eyes peeled for cases where the g751 or the gt72 get affected by this. Then nvidia can be hit with another lawsuit as those laptops were explicitly advertized to have overclocking as a default OEM feature given to customers. The prior driverblock actually hindered down the advertized performance of msi's gt72 sport mode, and as such can have legal ground to stand upon for a dispute case.
So far we have no leg to stand on so to speak against nvidia in this case.

 

This is moot, as some places (notably ASUS) advertise overclocking via their own proprietary software. Locked vBIOS = false claim = ruining selling point.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and claim it should be as unlocked as a desktop users' is. But at the least, the current vBIOS setups (non-OC blocked ones) with no voltage adjustments and limited core OC capabilities are set in such a way that the cards cannot actually be broken by overclocking. You don't overvolt, you don't break it. You don't undervolt, you don't strain it. You don't overheat it no matter what you do. It's already in a failsafe manner.

And I'm happily parading around with my modded vBIOS'd 780Ms which are still under warranty =D. Yes, I asked Mythlogic. They're fine with it.

 

^this x999999999, so far the isolated cases have only been in clevo's and alienwares which had no advertized "default" oc feature which doesnt give us legal ground to stand on. But the moment asus or msi or any other "advertized oc" brand gets suddenly gimped. Its time for another lawsuit on nvidia's hands as it would be downright illegal.

 

I cannot fathom why Clevo would want to restrict overclocking on their machines. Sure, I can understand Dell/Alienware, but not Clevo, which I have always perceived to have some of the most open hardware and be the most enthusiast friendly.

 

So we have someone on OCN claiming insider knowledge...

Thoughts?

Basically guy started talking about how nVidia is locking down the drivers due to a spontaneous wave of THOUSANDS of RMAs, and when I pressed him for a credible source that's all I got.

Source

 

Seeing all this, I just want to cling to my current drivers... It is just quite convenient to be able to overclock via software rather than flashing vbios. This whole thing is quite a mess right now. I wonder how things will settle...

 

I read some of his other posts too. Does anbody even believe this dufus?

 

If nvidia's locking down chips because they melt when you OC them - they are making ****ty quality chips and we should stop buying them.

 

Guy is talking crap. I'm 10000% sure. It's pretty blood hard to kill a GPU with heat with Maxwell's heating downclock, and if voltage is locked at stock, then people are broke to all hell. I have never seen Kepler mobile chips have mass return waves. usually they LIVE and not die. And any way to kill a GPU without adjusting voltage and only adjusting core would be done at stock clocks, as heat downclocks it at the higher end. This guy obviously doesn't know anything, or is talking about notebooks with ridiculously poor design and low end chips that people went crazy with... somehow. And I STILL can't see it happening.

 

Well go ahead and tell it to him then lol, I'm done wasting my time on that guy.

 

You wasted too much time on him. It's like trying to convince someone the world is round. Some people are just hopeless. They're not worth the time better spent on others who might actually be persuaded one way or another. And I love how he can't debate anyone without passive-aggressively insulting and name-calling.

The sad part is how much stupidity he must've spread around to other people judging by his post count and rep. And you wonder why I stay away from OCN.

 

We are lucky here that troll posts are usually deleted when reported, it's already happened in this thread. Despite complaints of restricting free speech this is the only place the trolls try once and move on.

Anyone that frequents the NV forums can see how an unregulated forum operates. You can even swear and it stays there. The trolls have a wild time spreading their stupid ideas just to provoke a reaction. Weird way of getting your jollies but whatever, they exist and must be ignored.

My 5c

 

Yeah, won't name any names but the GeForce forum is the biggest joke of a board I've ever seen

 

Inflation really is going up now a days. I remember the good old days when it just used to be .
My 2 cents.

 

If I see some poor noobie getting a bunch of BS from one of their regular trolls I pm the poster suggesting they post over here in NBR ' for a different opinion'. That way you can help without any interference. If they don't post then they get what they deserve, I've done my bit to try and help someone .

 

So... Which driver is the best one to use right now? I OC'd the 980M and my Firestrike score is underwhelming 8023. So... guessing drivers I'm using blows chunks.

 

Mine is working great on 344.75 and I'm playing a lot of games so I'm a little nervous of introducing a problem. I'll try it when NV answer why today they released 345.20. Earlier V than the current 347.53 .

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/82580/en-us

Edit, maybe it's an interim unlocked one for one of their weird reasons? (DSR and +135mhz limit?)

 

That's why I say free speech is a sham - free speech allows the trolls to fester; the haters to hate, the rioters to make chaos, and general pandemonium to occur.

Silence is golden.

 

That is what I'm using

 

The pen is mightier than the sword, and so follows the keyboard.

Free speech is a requirement for a free society. Deleting offensive posts that break the posting rules of the board is a small price to pay.

I applaud Nvidia for having the restraint to allow even the most offensive post to remain. Nvidia may do dumb stuff, just like the rest of us, but for the most part Nvidia is a good citizen.

Deleting whatever breaks the board rules is fair. Censoring rude language would be acceptable if it is part of the rules of the board. It is up to the participant to decide whether they will join, and after that to stay, given the limitations of the OP's rules.

And, even though I don't agree with it, limiting OC by default via vBIOS isn't a dumb thing, it's just not a happy thing. I don't think Nvidia needs to do it, I think the already built in OC limitations + protections built in the hardware / firmware / driver give plenty of protection.

We don't see many GPU's gone bad reported in the forums here and elsewhere, I see far more bricked vBIOS/BIOS flash attempts than I do GPU's dead from limited OC'ing (Zero).

There doesn't seem to be a good reason to do this now. I wonder what the motivation is? A vendor with a bad cooling design causing unusually high failure rates?, but why not just provide a specific vendor their own custom vBIOS? It really doesn't make sense.

 

Guess you need to wait out the next driver to see if NV are true to their word. Not worth messing with it right now IMO.

Edit: My machine came with 344.24 and that worked fine so it might be worth it?

 

Was using slv7 vbios, flashed with PREMA and re-run the benchmark.

 

We can talk more about this off-topic. I live in an extremely wealthy Southeast Asian island country (you should be able to guess which), where, yes, freedom of speech is restricted. No one complains and it's pretty quiet here. We don't talk much but work gets done and we move on. I can't unfortunately say the same thing about places elsewhere where there exists unrestricted freedom of speech (the one and only U.S. of A).

 

Any chance you could link me those (orPM). I've spent a long time over in techinferno trying to find both and any info on what they do.

Thanks.

 

9950 is my 3DMark score with PREMA vBIOS. 215 core, 375 memory. It didn't melt.

Use PREMA's, since it is specific to Clevo.

http://forum.techinferno.com/clevo/3119-[bios-vbios-mods]-prema-mod-stock.html#post54056

Register and you'll see the download links. Follow the instructions.
- Be sure to uninstall your drivers before trying to flash. His instructions are easy.

 

Or, just get it directly from Prema's web site. https://biosmods.wordpress.com/mxm-vbios/

 

Is that compatible with the 8gb 980m on the p35x v3? Im not sure since the gpu is not an mxm module but rather a non upgradeable part.

Sent from my GT-I9300

 

that vbios mod is specifically for mxm cards, do NOT use it on soldered gpus!

 

Where would i be able to find a vbios compatible with my (not yet received) laptop? Im sorry if im asking for the obvious here, but I'm just orienting as i have only ordered the laptop. Plus, having a link dropped in this thread might be helpful as well!

Sent from my GT-I9300

 

What the Hell, 3 different drivers released yesterday, time to read the release notes?!

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/82707/en-uk
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/82886/en-uk
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/download/driverResults.aspx/82642/en-uk

 

if i remember correctly, the modded vbios for soldered gpus is part of the modded system bios package best to ask prema though.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

I can only guess since I haven't seen anything from NV. These are OEM approved versions and NV HAS taken on responsibility for laptop drivers rather than just referring you back to your OEM. A great plus for the box-shifters, sell it and forget it? Probably why they want to lock down the latest cards, to keep the problems to a minimum. Just look how many posts at NV desktop drivers are clock related.

EDIT: NV are just ignoring the confusion this is causing. Passive aggressive or what .

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...-driver-feedback-thread/post/4470883/#4470883