Nvidia clockblock: vBIOS (unblocked in 353.00)

I wrote in a comment on that article, I think it would be useful for anybody that feels that NVidia is out of order for implementing these locked down vBIOS to also comment on that article (at the link above) - lots of comments on that page would show just how much support we have - it's a high profile article! (especially as notebookcheck.net English website doesn't often get many comments (but lots of readers), then lots of comments on that article would really be sticking out like a sore thumb!)

 

So if possible, can you use your half-Germanic influence to notify 3DCenter to run this story?

 

I left a comment as well.

 

Added mine too!

 

sure, i can look into it

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

This thread escalated quickly! I couldn't ever personally give up on gaming entirely, I enjoy this hobby too much to stop completely. Too much nostalgia for video games from my childhood

What's so special about this 'Kool-Aid' stuff anyhow? I see it being referenced often by Americans. It's some sort of energy drink by my understanding.

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added my 2c to the article´s comment section

also preparing an email for 3DCenter now...

 

It's what the "cool" kids drink. Oh yeah.

 

3DCenter is informed

 

I think the Nvidia may have started lower binning for 980m on those with vbios lock. I have instability in Crysis 3 with 175/250 OC. I see much better OC on systems that didn't have the vbios lock. Will be interested if others with vbios locked at arrival have same. Or I just had bad luck. At stock its a beast already.

 

I think your just unlucky.. Ask @Cakefish, his 980M is even worse... Luckily my 970M is quite good.. +400 core and almost +600 memory it can do.. I need a bigger PSU and that OC might even work in games lol...

 

As @octiceps mentions, it is a beverage that children love. It is not an energy drink, just a nutrition-free sugar high. But, there is more to it than that. The expression references the tragedy that occurred in Jonestown, where "Reverend" Jim Jones used Kool-Aid tainted with poison to kill the members of his cult. As blind followers, they drank up, knowing it would lead to their death. They believed his lies. In a like manner, we have blind followers that drink the tainted Kool-Aid with the new garbage tech and believe it's awesome even though it is trash.

It's a sarcastic way of expressing contempt for these imbeciles. They are a major part of our problem because they contribute to the success of trash technology (like low-TDP BGA turd CPUs and BGA-mounted GPUs) by purchasing it. Intel and NVIDIA cannot sell filth if nobody is willing to drink the Kool-Aid.

 

thx for the history lesson fox, i knew the expression and its meaning but wasnt aware of the background it was based on

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LOL... no problem. Now it is probably more obvious why I like to use that expression.

 

Yep. I might as well christen it Lemon. We're talking around +110 for the maximum stable clocks on the VRAM in Unigine and FireStrike. Though it is a most curious Lemon indeed, as it in every actual game I've thrown at it, it appears to manage +200 on the VRAM just fine with no artifacts (I need to test this more, but am unsure why there is such a discrepancy between Unigine and other game engines). Very strange. Still, with my P35X v3's 980M managing +500 VRAM and more with ease, it's still a lemon by comparison.

Same! I have heard of both Kool-Aid and the crazy Jones cult thing, but never knew of their connection. Now all those references make sense!

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Take your pick:

 

Just to confirm, the Alienware 17 R2 laptops are locked even for the 980m? And you can't flash the vBios to allow overclocking?

 

There was someone said that gtx970m was blocked for overclocking in AW 15 ..

 

I know the 970m is, I'm just not sure if the 980m is. I think it is.

 

Ask Mr Fox .. He tested AW 17 with gtx980m ..

 

Well at least when Mr Fox tested the 980M AW17 with 4980HQ, it wasn't locked...

 

Since there is so much "chemistry" flowing in this thread, a couple of fitting videos to share.

This is for the BGA jokebook gamers... calm down. There is help out there.


And for the end users that blindly buy stuff only because it is new and, therefore, " has
to be good"... Remember, things are not always as sweet as they first appear to be.

 

Ok guys I just ran a quick test on my half functional laptop (with 980m):

Aw17R2 BIOS version: 84.04.29.00.14
Nvidia Driver: 344.73

Can overclock core AND memory using nvidia inspector. Functions as normal overclocking would. Tried +135 mHz on both memory and core.

So good news to people with that bios version or older.

 

As soon as someone figures out a way to dump and flash the vBIOS on the Alienware 15 and 17, whatever kind of nonsense might be going on with the clock-blocked vBIOS may become irrelevant at the end user level. It will still be just as objectionable and worthy of a violent fight, but with a working solution to get everyone the immediate help they need if their machine has been screwed up by a cancerous strain of the vBIOS.

 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9481177

Default Info:


Dumped vBios attached below (dumped from GPU-Z)

 

Nice. That didn't work on the one I play around with for a bit. Maybe GPU-Z was updated since then. So, if this can be flashed, those with the crippled version should be good to go. This should only be safe for the BGA 4GB version of 980M. The MXM 8GB GPUs need a totally different vBIOS. If your Alienware came from the factory with Windows 8.1 and UEFI turned on in the BIOS, you will need to do a clean OS install with the BIOS set for Legacy (or UEFI with Legacy Option ROM/CSM enabled) because there is no version of NVFLASH that supports UEFI for Maxwell mobile at this time. Not sure if the new graphics switching getup used by Windows 8.1 (which is not NVIDIA Optimus) will interfere with flashing or not. These are uncharted waters.

 

Optimus isn't a problem Mr Fox.. I've done my vBIOS flash in Optimus mode and not a problem.. IMO, it's actually safer in Optimus when flashing in Windows as if anything goes wrong, you won't have to blind flash and you can try again..

 

The new machines don't use NVIDIA Optimus. Microsoft has its own new flavor of hybrid graphics switching on the new machines. It's slightly different and might present an impediment. (If so, the impediment may be by design and intent.)

In addition to that, your superior M17xR4 and the Alienware 17r1 has an improved Alienware variation of Optimus that bypasses the IGFX, which can also change things.

 

So UEFI systems without Optimus can't flash the VBIOS? I could flash my 980M no trouble with Prema's modded VBIOS on my UEFI installation of Windows 8.1.

 

i think fox was just referring to alienware systems...

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lol Microsoft have what? What is it called?

 

Clockblocktimus

 

LOOOOL!

You don't know how much I'd pay to get ahold of some of those.

 

1. It's a bit weird now that you mention this. On my AW13, using DDU cliams that the laptop has Enduro or an AMD switchable solution (given that I use the R9 285). But if what you say is true, then why did DDU think Enduro is in my laptop? I'm guessing the same could be said on an AMD AW15 with a GA that has a GTX 780/970/980/you get the point.
What you say might make sense given that PhysX seems to default to the CPU all the time, even if you set the Nvidia GPU to be the PhysX computer. Everytime I would disable the iGPU, the screen would either disappear (onboard dGPU) or work in a low-state form (external GPU), in which no GPU can be "detected" until you enable the iGPU (or in the external GPU's case, either GPU).
2. You mean the inclusion of the MUX in those laptops?

 

@Game7a1 - Alienware versions had Optimus (until the latest release with the 2015 BGA models) bypassing routing through the Intel HD Graphics and functioned independently of the IGFX. This offered some distinct advantages for power users and enthusiasts. Most laptops with Optimus and Enduro route the discrete graphics through the Intel HD Graphics for display output, which creates some issues. Alienware owners with single GPU Optimus laptops used to be able to disable it and run in true discrete mode. Unfortunately, not any more. I don't recall exactly what it is named, but it's something like Microsoft hybrid graphics.

 

We are certainly doomed...

 

I fail to see how disabling the 9xx card in device manager like us with Clevo machines wouldn't work. I use pure UEFI and Prema's hacked Nvflash worked perfectly. I'm assuming that the vbios is built into the system BIOS with BGA though? If that's the case... Wouldn't try.

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NotebookCheck's article was updated today - apparently Nvidia told them they aren't and won't be responsible for what OEMs do with the laptops

 

So drivers = Nvidia, vBIOS = OEMs? Grab your pitchforks and torches, guess who we're going after next.

Edit: Let's wait for official statements from Clevo, MSI, and Alienware first.

 

But do we believe nVidia? If their reference vBIOS locks it out, is it even possible for OEM's to unlock it? Whee, this ride is fun.

 

Get your pointer fingers out, everyone. Let's play the blame game!

 

Well, 345.20 seems solid enough if you don't have a screwed up vBIOS. This might interest some of you folks.

Mr. Fox's GeForce 345.20 Desktop Driver Mod for Alienware and Clevo Mobile GPUs

 

What about us that have sli rigs and a 980m gpu goes out down the road but you still have warranty. They replace gpu with new one that has the jacked up vbios and then your screwed for overclocking. I have the sagar with dual 980m's and I'm not currently overclocking because there's really no need to now with 60hz screen unless I'm benchmarking. But I was counting on overclocking my gpus later on so I could extend the longevity of my purchase. But if I ever have to replace one of my gpus for a new one with jacked up vbios that would really &#$!=÷!#/#%=$!.

 

I know I created a thread in the Hardware subforum for this, but might as well share it here:

Skylake motherboard spotted at Embedded Word 2015

Should be exciting news right? Nope.

I don't like that 45W TDP one bit. Perhaps Intel pulled some efficiency magic with Skylake, but I take that as a sign that unlocked MX/XM chips will no longer be offered. So horde/treasure those chips while you still can...

 

Not sure how many of a $1000 CPU you can afford to horde...

 

http://gamenab.net/2015/02/26/open-geforce-drivers-part-2/

 

Small price to pay for something is going extinct as we type.

But seriously you can't even buy older (non-Haswell) XM chips outside of eBay now. Amazon used to carry some 4930MX @ $749 but they're gone. 3920XM could be had for less than $400, or if you don't want to risk it you could always pay $600 and get it from Upgrademonkey.

 

Now that just made my day...LOL

Exactly! Suddenly no one wants to take responsibility. Also not the smartest move to point the finger at your own OEM/customer after things go south...

I have yet to see a single Mobile Maxwell vBIOS from any OEM dated later than early December that still has OC-enabled.

Two little updates regarding #maxNOTwell

http://forum.techinferno.com/genera...t-overclocking-mobile-gpus-17.html#post124860

http://forum.techinferno.com/clevo/8296-gtx-970-980m-overclocking-thread-9.html#post124918

 

Honestly at this point I refuse to believe nVidia anymore.

There's lies, damned lies, statistics, and then there's nVidia.

 

Well spotted, I'll be tuning into that notebookcheck.net article a few times a day now to see if they have further updates. Really excellent that notebookcheck.net are being so proactive on this, and really trying to get to the bottom of the reasons behind the vBIOS overclock blocking - kudos to them!

EDIT: Will be interesting to see what the OEMs say to notebookcheck.net on this. It does look like the vBIOS lock downs have been due to the OEMs, ultimately in their best interest to revert their vBIOS back to the overclockable version, especially if their laptops have good cooling capabilities.