Thursday, February 12th 2015

NVIDIA Disables GeForce GTX 900M Mobile GPU Overclocking with Driver Update

Feb 12th, 2015 07:41 Discuss (160 Comments)

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

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160 Comments on NVIDIA Disables GeForce GTX 900M Mobile GPU Overclocking with Driver Update

#76

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman

Apparently there have been too many that have killed laptops already

#77

HumanSmoke

CheeseballI really believe they did this to avoid flak with the laptop OEMs. :p They don't want a repeat of the 8600M fiasco.

More than likely. With laptop graphics, OEMs are the prime movers as evidenced by the lack of outlets catering to selling MXM modules to the consumer, and OEM directives to both vendors to rebrand their graphics line-ups if no actual new hardware is available.
If OEMs margins are threatened by return/warranty claims, they would certainly look to lock down the cause. Now, if this is indeed the case, its likely that AMD's next mobile GPU range might be similarly affected. If a 900M is cause for locking, you'd think that a Tonga derivative (or greater) might also be. At the moment I think the only OEM offering the M295X in mobile form is Alienware's (Dell) AW 15, but since they are charging a $150 premium for what is lower performance than the 970M, the numbers being sold don't make it a high risk.

Judging by the post count here, I'd have to say that between Nvidia's GTX 970 and notebook 900M series, AMD's sales figures for units sold must rival that of Bugatti's Veyron GSV

#78

Para_Franck

I had a dell XPS m1710 back in 2007. It had a top of the line nVidia mobile gpu, a gtx7950 with 512mb of memory. It ran great for about 1,5 years. Than I started to get artefacts and i felt a lot of heat underneath it. I did not know much about computing back then, I wanted to play games and have a mobile device for school (I went back to school to become an engineer after an accident left my legs paralyzed). It finally died at the 2,5 year mark. I thought it was the monitor that died, it would not display anything but a weird blueish pattern. I eventually learned that my video card had to be re-flowed. It was the thing making the underside of my laptop get so hot. Apparently DELL had cheaped out on the thermal interface between the gpu and it's cooler. I dismantled the thing a few years back to check it out. It was true, the thermal paste was all dried up. I never found a place that re-flowed gpus around here. The laptop is still in it's bag somewhere.

The conclusion of all this is that a gaming laptop is not really a viable solution, it is prone to overheating that will kill your hardware.

On topic now, I would be angry if NVidia would let me overclock for a while, and pulled it back from me a few months later. Anyways, the hardware is gonna die sooner than later. If overclocking is harmful, let the user decide if he wants to void his warranty. It is his money after all. If he wants to fiddle around, it can be useful for him and he can learn a thing or two doing it.

#79

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman

Para_FranckI had a dell XPS m1710 back in 2007. It had a top of the line nVidia mobile gpu, a gtx7950 with 512mb of memory. It ran great for about 1,5 years. Than I started to get artefacts and i felt a lot of heat underneath it. I did not know much about computing back then, I wanted to play games and have a mobile device for school (I went back to school to become an engineer after an accident left my legs paralyzed). It finally died at the 2,5 year mark. I thought it was the monitor that died, it would not display anything but a weird blueish pattern. I eventually learned that my video card had to be re-flowed. It was the thing making the underside of my laptop get so hot. Apparently DELL had cheaped out on the thermal interface between the gpu and it's cooler. I dismantled the thing a few years back to check it out. It was true, the thermal paste was all dried up. I never found a place that re-flowed gpus around here. The laptop is still in it's bag somewhere.

The conclusion of all this is that a gaming laptop is not really a viable solution, it is prone to overheating that will kill your hardware.

On topic now, I would be angry if NVidia would let me overclock for a while, and pulled it back from me a few months later. Anyways, the hardware is gonna die sooner than later. If overclocking is harmful, let the user decide if he wants to void his warranty. It is his money after all. If he wants to fiddle around, it can be useful for him and he can learn a thing or two doing it.

They arent built as heavy as my xps gen 1 was.

That thing had 3 fans in it. 1 for cpu. 1 for gpu and 1 for chassis. All blower type. Never overheated on me.

#80

HumanSmoke

Para_FranckOn topic now, I would be angry if NVidia would let me overclock for a while, and pulled it back from me a few months later.

A case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Asus' ROG boards were full of people screaming about the G750JM's BSOD problems (Asus clocks the GPU at 640MHz, which is an 18.5% OC as standard). Reverting the clockspeed back to its vendor setting (540MHz) seems to have cured the behaviour. Allow overclocking and you have users screaming blue murder about stability issues, or disable overclocking and have people screaming about a violation of their civil rights!

#81

TheinsanegamerN

Para_FranckI had a dell XPS m1710 back in 2007. It had a top of the line nVidia mobile gpu, a gtx7950 with 512mb of memory. It ran great for about 1,5 years. Than I started to get artefacts and i felt a lot of heat underneath it. I did not know much about computing back then, I wanted to play games and have a mobile device for school (I went back to school to become an engineer after an accident left my legs paralyzed). It finally died at the 2,5 year mark. I thought it was the monitor that died, it would not display anything but a weird blueish pattern. I eventually learned that my video card had to be re-flowed. It was the thing making the underside of my laptop get so hot. Apparently DELL had cheaped out on the thermal interface between the gpu and it's cooler. I dismantled the thing a few years back to check it out. It was true, the thermal paste was all dried up. I never found a place that re-flowed gpus around here. The laptop is still in it's bag somewhere.

The conclusion of all this is that a gaming laptop is not really a viable solution, it is prone to overheating that will kill your hardware.

On topic now, I would be angry if NVidia would let me overclock for a while, and pulled it back from me a few months later. Anyways, the hardware is gonna die sooner than later. If overclocking is harmful, let the user decide if he wants to void his warranty. It is his money after all. If he wants to fiddle around, it can be useful for him and he can learn a thing or two doing it.

If your gaming laptop overheats, then it's a shit laptop. good laptops do not cook themselves like that, dell cheaped out and it killed the machine. A good clevo wont do that. And besides, that era of mobile gpus had BGA solder problems, which killed a LOT of mobile gpus. that does not make gaming laptops less viable.

#82

AsRock

TPU addict

BUCK NASTYC'mon Nvidia. Why would you create more drama on top of what is already happening???

Apparently they seem to like selling some thing that isn't.

#83

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

TheinsanegamerNIf your gaming laptop overheats, then it's a shit laptop.

At this point, with the thermal throttling built into the GPUs and CPUs now, there should be no way even a cheap laptop should be overheating.

If you overclock the GPU, worst case is it hits the thermal limit and downclocks itself anyway. So nVidia's claim is entirely bull...

#84

Fluffmeister

Sadly I think it all boils down to the lack of competition in the mobile GPU market.

#85

Steevo

I love all the Nvidia loyal fanbois in this thread, "Oh my mobile GPU is good enough the way that God intended it" "God told me to not do it, so its a sin" all of you make me feel good that the spirit of pushing hardware for the sake of trying it hasn't died and we don't just buy consoles and dells to play games and surf the web, oh wait.......

#86

Fluffmeister

Sort of... I'm just glad they make loads of money, the AMD fanbois tears are a bonus.

#87

Cheeseball

Not a Potato

newtekie1If you overclock the GPU, worst case is it hits the thermal limit and downclocks itself anyway. So nVidia's claim is entirely bull...

I really think it's because of pressure from the OEMs (probably Dell, HP and Toshiba since they were the ones hit hard by the class-action lawsuit before).

We all know that (a) it is the customer's choice to void their warranties and that (b) the GPU will downclock to prevent overheating, but I don't think the manufacturers will even risk allowing their names to be tarnished just because a few enthusiasts want to boost the speed of their desktop replacement. Overclocking is technically pushing the ideal performance outside manufacturer (NVIDIA and the OEMs) specifications.

And please quit the accusations of mobile rebranding, especially since AMD's M290X is basically Pitcairn's HD 8970M which is HD 7970M, which is a downclocked desktop HD 7870/R9 270(X) since 2012. :P

M295X seems great, but can only be found in the 5K iMac, which is apparently having overheating issues despite being in a bigger AIO system.

#88

xfia

newtekie1I don't know that 4k would be good, the 980m is weaker than the GTX970 desktop parts. But 980m SLI would definitely do great at 1440p.

I think so too but there is also 4k laptops with a lot less gpu.. like I think seen one with a 860m

#89

Steevo

FluffmeisterSort of... I'm just glad they make loads of money, the AMD fanbois tears are a bonus.

Im only crying about the complete shit Intel 4600 GPU in my laptop, I loved my APU, especially when I gave it 25% more Mega Hurts at the same voltage for free, the extra battery life being able to drop the clocks and voltage for each state was just icing on the cooler when it lasted 10 hours doing normal work.

#90

GhostRyder

newtekie1At this point, with the thermal throttling built into the GPUs and CPUs now, there should be no way even a cheap laptop should be overheating.

If you overclock the GPU, worst case is it hits the thermal limit and downclocks itself anyway. So nVidia's claim is entirely bull...

Exactly, even when overclocking the GPU will throttle well before its going to burn up on top of the fact overclocking does not yield severely higher temps unless you start playing with voltage.

FluffmeisterSort of... I'm just glad they make loads of money, the AMD fanbois tears are a bonus.

Man, just say yes and marry NVidia already to make it official.

xfiaI think so too but there is also 4k laptops with a lot less gpu.. like I think seen one with a 860m

Yea, those are very pointless for the most part unless your doing it strictly for the screen real-estate and maybe some video/picture work.

CheeseballM295X seems great, but can only be found in the 5K iMac, which is apparently having overheating issues despite being in a bigger AIO system.

2 things, 1 the whole iMac is having temp issues from what I've seen including the CPU and GPU which is apparent by the fact they put a very pitiful cooling system inside. Does not matter the size as the device itself is pretty much without decent airflow. Linus Tech Tips for instance saw throttling on the CPU constantly when heavy stressing it. Next the R9 M295X is also available in Alienware currently but only a few select models.

The problem is that this does not make much sense to be blocked by their reasoning. The voltage is not unlocked on these models (Unless I missed something short of modded bios) so overclocking in even bad scenarios would cause the system to hang forcing a reboot. Not to mention that with thermal limits the GPU is going to throttle miles before it kills itself from heat including an eventual shutdown if temps cannot be stopped from rising. Don't see this problem as an end all on the mobile GPU's but seems unnecessary.

#91

Steevo

CheeseballI really think it's because of pressure from the OEMs (probably Dell, HP and Toshiba since they were the ones hit hard by the class-action lawsuit before).

We all know that (a) it is the customer's choice to void their warranties and that (b) the GPU will downclock to prevent overheating, but I don't think the manufacturers will even risk allowing their names to be tarnished just because a few enthusiasts want to boost the speed of their desktop replacement. Overclocking is technically pushing the ideal performance outside manufacturer (NVIDIA and the OEMs) specifications.

And please quit the accusations of mobile rebranding, especially since AMD's M290X is basically Pitcairn's HD 8970M which is HD 7970M, which is a downclocked desktop HD 7870/R9 270(X) since 2012. :p

M295X seems great, but can only be found in the 5K iMac, which is apparently having overheating issues despite being in a bigger AIO system.

GTX480

#92

Mr. Fox

Man, some of the ignorant comments by people that know absolutely nothing about how outstanding the right kind of laptop overclocks the CPU and GPU is amazing to me. I had no idea there were this many uninformed morons out there. Pay attention... visit HWBOT.org a little more often. Comments to the effect that there are no laptops capable of handling overclocking is reflection of pure ignorance.

That NVIDIA employees would message this when we see examples of those same employees overclocking their own laptops and posting benchmark scores with them is outright hypocrisy.

Wake up dummies and stop making troll comments. There are more extreme laptop overclockers out there than one might realize, and TONS of casual laptop overclockers. Some of these machines are engineered and advertised to support it. I love tearing up gamer-boy desktops with my amazing extreme overclocked laptops with fully unlocked Extreme processors and SLI that overclock like a banshee and still run nice and cool.

What NVIDIA did here is unethical and potentially illegal. If they do not reconsider, there will be a reckoning. Remember the "Bumpgate" Class Action? Get ready to rumble.

#93

Loafy

GorbazTheDragonI used to use an MSi GT60 with a GTX670m, when I played BF3 I had to overclock the GPU to get stable 60+ fps./QUOTE]

My G75VW with a GTX 660m 2gb Never needed to be overclocked for BF3 to stay VSync'd at 60 Fps.

If you feel the need to overclock should have spent the money on a tower.

#94

Mr. Fox

If you feel the need to overclock, you should have spent the money on a real laptop and stopped buying cheap garbage laptops with second rate CPU and GPU and poor cooling systems.

People that think only desktops are decent overclocking machines are flat-out ignorant and don't have a clue what is out there. They should stop exposing their ignorance, because it is not very becoming to flaunt that weakness to the public. Show some respect for yourself and say nothing, because that lack of knowledge is a glaring defect.

#95

Captain_Tom

FluffmeisterGood catch... I did assume you were a bit of a Nazi. But then it's also knowing the difference between giving a shit or not. :p

Nice Gif though, I'll nick it and use as required.

Unless the driver update yields suitable performance gains that flat out overclocking just can't deliver.

Haha yeah I'm sure Nvidia's next set of "Wonder Drivers" will give us another massive 2% boost lol. Unless they can deliver 20-30% performance across the bored it is a definite downgrade.

#96

Captain_Tom

newtekie1At this point, with the thermal throttling built into the GPUs and CPUs now, there should be no way even a cheap laptop should be overheating.

If you overclock the GPU, worst case is it hits the thermal limit and downclocks itself anyway. So nVidia's claim is entirely bull...

Exactly.

#97

Prima.Vera

Para_FranckI had a dell XPS m1710 back in 2007. It had a top of the line nVidia mobile gpu, a gtx7950 with 512mb of memory. It ran great for about 1,5 years. Than I started to get artefacts and i felt a lot of heat underneath it. I did not know much about computing back then, I wanted to play games and have a mobile device for school (I went back to school to become an engineer after an accident left my legs paralyzed). It finally died at the 2,5 year mark. I thought it was the monitor that died, it would not display anything but a weird blueish pattern. I eventually learned that my video card had to be re-flowed. It was the thing making the underside of my laptop get so hot. Apparently DELL had cheaped out on the thermal interface between the gpu and it's cooler. I dismantled the thing a few years back to check it out. It was true, the thermal paste was all dried up. I never found a place that re-flowed gpus around here. The laptop is still in it's bag somewhere.

The conclusion of all this is that a gaming laptop is not really a viable solution, it is prone to overheating that will kill your hardware.

On topic now, I would be angry if NVidia would let me overclock for a while, and pulled it back from me a few months later. Anyways, the hardware is gonna die sooner than later. If overclocking is harmful, let the user decide if he wants to void his warranty. It is his money after all. If he wants to fiddle around, it can be useful for him and he can learn a thing or two doing it.

Duuude, got the same laptop with the same gpu. Got even the same gpu issues. :) Fixed those like 10 times in the row with the oven trick :))))

#98

aliminvte

Para_FranckI had a dell XPS m1710 back in 2007. It had a top of the line nVidia mobile gpu, a gtx7950 with 512mb of memory. It ran great for about 1,5 years. Than I started to get artefacts and i felt a lot of heat underneath it. I did not know much about computing back then, I wanted to play games and have a mobile device for school (I went back to school to become an engineer after an accident left my legs paralyzed). It finally died at the 2,5 year mark. I thought it was the monitor that died, it would not display anything but a weird blueish pattern. I eventually learned that my video card had to be re-flowed. It was the thing making the underside of my laptop get so hot. Apparently DELL had cheaped out on the thermal interface between the gpu and it's cooler. I dismantled the thing a few years back to check it out. It was true, the thermal paste was all dried up. I never found a place that re-flowed gpus around here. The laptop is still in it's bag somewhere.

The conclusion of all this is that a gaming laptop is not really a viable solution, it is prone to overheating that will kill your hardware.

On topic now, I would be angry if NVidia would let me overclock for a while, and pulled it back from me a few months later. Anyways, the hardware is gonna die sooner than later. If overclocking is harmful, let the user decide if he wants to void his warranty. It is his money after all. If he wants to fiddle around, it can be useful for him and he can learn a thing or two doing it.

So I wanted to comment on your experience with the m1710. I had one too and if you actually looked it up you would have seen that your GPU was built with cheap solder by nvidia, the company in question here, and they were sued in 2008 for something like $11 million. I actually received my money back for my m1710 even though it was was almost 2 years old (got it in 2006). So please don't think your experience is what happens with all gaming notebooks.

I now have 2 alienware 17 series laptops that are both fully capable of being overclocked, let alone running at stock speeds. We pay good money for the hardware and should be able to do what we want with it. I'm sick of reading this garbage about entitlement. Yeah, we just spent $700+ on a video card, of course we want to have fun with it! Not everyone has these gaming notebooks to game first. A lot of people have them to tweak, mod and benchmark. Gaming comes second to these enthusiasts.

People replying here really need to stop being so ignorant. Overclocked mobile GPUs can see performance boosts as high as %20+ from overclocking and over volting, without going to extreme temperatures. You think you're cool bc you built a desktop and think gaming laptops are useless? Well I've got a desktop for home too, but I also like to game when I'm away from home, at a friend's, at a lan, etc. And I want power when I'm mobile. I'm paying for it so what's the problem? , well I was... Not anymore nvidia.

#99

aliminvte

Prima.VeraDuuude, got the same laptop with the same gpu. Got even the same gpu issues. :) Fixed those like 10 times in the row with the oven trick :))))

"the oven trick", which was heating your GPU up until you reballed your board. This issue occurred because your GPU was cheaply made by nvidia and they were sued for millions of dollars because of this. If you contacted dell about it, you would have received a full refund. I had the same laptop and called dell about the issues, quoting the nvidia lawsuit regarding the cheaply soldered GPUs. They quickly gave me a full refund for my laptop even though it was 2 years old. You could have got your money back, instead of reballing the GPU.

#100

aliminvte

TheinsanegamerNIf your gaming laptop overheats, then it's a shit laptop. good laptops do not cook themselves like that, dell cheaped out and it killed the machine. A good clevo wont do that. And besides, that era of mobile gpus had BGA solder problems, which killed a LOT of mobile gpus. that does not make gaming laptops less viable.

In the particular comment you are replying to, the m1710 was equipped with a poorly soldered nvidia GPU (7950) in which they were sued for. I was an m1710 owner and I called dell about my video card issue. They refunded me my money even though it was 2 years old bc of the fact that those GPUs were known to fail (bc nvidia cheaped out). We're those shit laptops? No. I still have an m1710 running amazing with a repaired 7950gtx that I gave to my dad. He loves it and it works great to this day (9 years old!). Either way, people need to understand that laptops are fully capable of overclocking without problems with overheating. I've been doing it for years, so all you children (not who I'm replying to) need to realize you're making yourself look really dumb with your "there's no such thing as gaming laptops" comments.

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NVIDIA Disables GeForce GTX 900M Mobile GPU Overclocking with Driver Update

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