Thursday, February 12th 2015
NVIDIA Disables GeForce GTX 900M Mobile GPU Overclocking with Driver Update
With GeForce R347 drivers (version 347.29), NVIDIA disabled overclocking on its GeForce GTX 900M series mobile GPUs. Buyers of new notebooks, and using older drivers, with the chips fell under the impression that like their desktop counterparts, the GTX 900M series support overclocking, until they updated their drivers to 347.29, to find that their overclocks were wiped back to reference clocks, and overclocking using third-party tools was disabled.
When angry users took to the official GeForce forums to report the bug, NVIDIA explained that overclocking on the GTX 900M series was enabled by accident, and has since been disabled with the recent driver updates. This explanation was met by angry reactions by users who argued that they should be allowed to use the hardware as they want, even if it voids their warranties. Historically, overclocking was allowed on NVIDIA GPUs.
Source:
NVIDIA GeForce Forums
When angry users took to the official GeForce forums to report the bug, NVIDIA explained that overclocking on the GTX 900M series was enabled by accident, and has since been disabled with the recent driver updates. This explanation was met by angry reactions by users who argued that they should be allowed to use the hardware as they want, even if it voids their warranties. Historically, overclocking was allowed on NVIDIA GPUs.
160 Comments on NVIDIA Disables GeForce GTX 900M Mobile GPU Overclocking with Driver Update
or is that not what this is saying?
I have a GTX770M and not even overclock this one yet.
If they really want to cook their GPU, let them.
The answer is not much. Outta the box, you reach near-maximum potential. With overclocking you won't gain much anyway. Far from desktop GPU potential.
With the power and temperature sensing that's implemented in modern hardware it is almost impossible to damage a GPU, especially a mobile one, by overclocking. If you hit a thermal limit the card will slow itself down instantly, Nvidia is really good at this. They seem to have learnt some things since their Fermi (aka Thermi) generation.
The GPUs used on mobile graphic cards are identical with the parts used on desktop SKUs, they can easily handle the load. If the thermal envelope of the system doesn't allow it it will simply throttle, and if there is enough headroom... well it will perform like a champ. No harm done.
Here's a 970m in a system that's more than 5 years old. Overclocked by about 50% on the core...
You see the potential of this card. Probably Nvidia really just wants an easier way to sell rebranded hardware. If they don't allow overclocking you'll be forced to buy the same hardware again in order to get the increased performance. That just means that the thermal design of your system is not able to handle it, it doesn't mean that overclocking is a bad idea in general.
Look at it this way, if Nvidia did the same thing on desktop parts, you'd all be furious... some people are notebook enthusiasts, and for them this is like a slap in the face. I have to disagree. As long as you have a solid mobile system you can get insane overclocks with no issues at all, see above.
This... I guess you can call it an accident that you could overclock to begin with?
But I personally always thought you could, hell I can with my now like 4 years old ATI graphics based laptop.
Taking something away from the people like that is terrible and should be labeled as criminal imo.
How many people OC their laptop GPU anyway? We're on a tech site so there may be a few that do but I never have and I've never known anyone that does. I don't look for ways to create more heat and shorten the battery life for a few more FPS.
While its not the most feasible thing and certainly something that only a small margin would do or even could do with thermal restraints and such, its still a feature that was there that is being taken away which is sure to make the masses mad. Though personally I would not consider overclocking a mobile GPU at least much because it can cause heat issues among other things to my machine.
Regardless, I don't think NV should be disabling OCing like that. When I OC my devices I am well aware of the risks and am willing to live with them. If people screw up NV doesnt have to replace them.
If they had disabled it from the start, and this information leaked, then probably this article would've been called: Nvidia intentionally disabling OC on mobile GPU. Catch my drift? Not so sure about that. I mean, if people mess up their laptop what usually happens is: Oh no mr. Salesman, I have done nothing wrong. I was typing on my Powerpoint and all of a sudden my laptop melted. While the reality should be something like: I was trying to get a few extra FPS using a 3rd party OC-tool and then the card hit it's termal limits, which the layout of this laptop wasn't inteded to and my laptop speakers melted. Can I get a new one for free?