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

Bonjour · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:30

I'll criticise either company if they're being nobs.

I'm guessing if you post similar comments about AMD, it's 'criticising' rather than 'trolling'.

RavenXXX2 · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:31

Please ignore the inflammatory comments of attention seeking trolls, let's not stoke the flames and just stay on OT.

james.miller · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:33

I guess the power circuitry isn't up to it so nvidia disabled overclocking. I cant think of any other reason why they'd want to disable overclocking on their fastest mobile part

Harlequin · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:39

james.miller said:
I guess the power circuitry isn't up to it so nvidia disabled overclocking. I cant think of any other reason why they'd want to disable overclocking on their fastest mobile part

huh? power circuitry is outside of the chip and from the IHV - if they put 16 power phases and water cooling it would still be disabled.

J.D · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:39

james.miller said:
I guess the power circuitry isn't up to it so nvidia disabled overclocking. I cant think of any other reason why they'd want to disable overclocking on their fastest mobile part

It's not new from Nvidia though. There was a stink up between Nvidia and MSI because they had to remove voltage control on MSI Lightnings (680s). Gregster had these cards also as and had to use the original BIOS and a special version of Afterburner as well as Artmoney to get these extra volts.

After Nvidia stepped in and put their foot down, MSI released a new BIOS that took away the ability to obtain these volts through software. From a certain point then all Lightnings came with the new tamed BIOS.

We assumed it was for longevity reasons due to failures from heat but I don't think we ever found out why Nvidia done this.

EDIT: Why was my last post removed?. I asked if overclocking being disabled with Nvidia for mobile GPUs was a good thing?. Like as hinting towards staying on topic?. :confused:

james.miller · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:43

Harlequin said:
huh? power circuitry is outside of the chip and from the IHV - if they put 16 power phases and water cooling it would still be disabled.

Of course its outside of the ic. Mobile gpus are just chips you plug in to a board you know, they are daughter boards with their own vrms/ram etc.. Like I said, if nVidia thought the power delivery wasn't up to the job, that would be one reason for them to disable overclocking.

~>Dg<~ · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:46

the funny thing is AMD did this also by drivers before

so funny

RavenXXX2 · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:48

This is mawell their most power efficient chip to date, power delivery is not the issue here.

We all know how good kepler/maxwell is at controlling/monitoring power usage and temps.

russell664 · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:49

Indeed it will... Not!

james.miller · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:50

Efficiency is irrelevant if the power delivery is only enough for stock clocks. You're assuming they designed the mobile boards with plenty in reserve - you don't know that.

J.D · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:50

RavenXXX2 said:
This is mawell their most power efficient chip to date, power delivery is not the issue here.

We all know how good kepler/maxwell is at controlling/monitoring power usage and temps.

I think I've read Kaap say that 4x980s can produce some heat though so 2x980M sandwiched in a tight space might not keep the same standard for cooling as SLI 980s in a desktop case.

Harlequin · 13 Feb 2015 at 10:55

J.D said:
I think I've read Kaap say that 4x980s can produce some heat though so 2x980M sandwiched in a tight space might not keep the same standard for cooling as SLI 980s in a desktop case.

even 1 x 980m is barred from overclocking

btw this has been in the drivers for 2 older versions as well - since lat year

RavenXXX2 · 13 Feb 2015 at 11:00

980m is an enthusiast class GPU, it ships in expensive gaming laptops that should be engineered to cope with excess heat and high power draw hence Asus advertising their 980m laptops as overclockable.

I think we are pass the point of giving the Nvidia the benefit of the doubt.

J.D · 13 Feb 2015 at 11:15

Harlequin said:
even 1 x 980m is barred from overclocking

btw this has been in the drivers for 2 older versions as well - since lat year

Yeah I know, for some reason I was fixated on Meakers laptop above when typing that

.

It does remind me of the Kepler GPU incident though.

RavenXXX2 said:
980m is an enthusiast class GPU, it ships in expensive gaming laptops that should be engineered to cope with excess heat and high power draw hence Asus advertising their 980m laptops as overclockable.

I think we are pass the point of giving the Nvidia the benefit of the doubt.

I agree. I'm just trying to think of anything logical for removing the ability to overclock. This is the second time in two years I've read about Nvidia going against the enthusiast and I'm curious as to why. The only things I can think of is accelerated degradation due to heat/voltages compared to normal usage.

layte · 13 Feb 2015 at 13:07

james.miller said:
I guess the power circuitry isn't up to it so nvidia disabled overclocking. I cant think of any other reason why they'd want to disable overclocking on their fastest mobile part

If I had to guess, I'd say their major OEM's have requested it after getting sick and tired of replacing GPU's fried by idiots not realising that mobile parts are under extreme thermal and power constraints.

Gregster · 13 Feb 2015 at 13:13

Anyone who knows what they are doing would just OC from the BIOS surely? Maybe better that some people are not able to OC for obvious reasons.

RavenXXX2 · 13 Feb 2015 at 13:18

You can't adjust the voltage just clocks, what harm are you going to do when you have the drivers throttling the GPU if it overheats or draws too much power.

So why disable overclocking when there are safe guards already in place.

Bonjour · 13 Feb 2015 at 13:20

layte said:
If I had to guess, I'd say their major OEM's have requested it after getting sick and tired of replacing GPU's fried by idiots not realising that mobile parts are under extreme thermal and power constraints.

To be fair, you're probably right. Like I said originally, there's no way I'd personally want to OC a laptop. They generally have enough trouble keeping cool anyway.

J.D · 13 Feb 2015 at 13:24

Gregster said:
Anyone who knows what they are doing would just OC from the BIOS surely? Maybe better that some people are not able to OC for obvious reasons.

Although it's hard to brick a GPU BIOS, in the rare instance it happened, you would have to have access to a laptop with a M-PCI slot. Otherwise, I agree with the first part. The second part, well we were all born without the ability to walk my friend.

RavenXXX2 · 13 Feb 2015 at 13:33

Bonjour said:
To be fair, you're probably right. Like I said originally, there's no way I'd personally want to OC a laptop. They generally have enough trouble keeping cool anyway.

To my knowledge they aint sticking 980m's in your average dell laptop chassis.