Nvidia re-blocked Overclocking silently in the latest drivers for the 900M series graphics card

[bcredeur97]

Still trying to understand why someone would overclock a mobile GPU. Even if it has enough thermal limits, overclocking also means more power consumption, which does matter with battery devices

more power consumption also means more load on the AC adapter as well. I have heard of people burning them out!

[as96]

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Free performance my ass, you might get 2-3% out of it. Not worth the extra heat.

 

Really? I think the 6970m overclocks well though. 3*c higher while I get 5fps increase in many games....

 

The 900m might be a shit overclocker who knows? 

[mattebad]

All of you saying that overclocking a laptop gpu can be dangerous are partially true. If you are overclocking on something like an ultrabook or slim laptop then you WILL damage your hardware from overheating problems and maybe even overvoltage if you were dumb enough to do that. This isn't the case as most of these laptops have gpu's that are below mid-range cards that generally can't be overclocked much anyway. However, the people who are complaining about this are people like me who actually paid for a laptop that can overclock because it has good cooling. I paid $1400 for my laptop last year because I'm at school and it's easier carrying a bulky laptop around than having to worry about leaving my desktop in my dorm and possibly having it fucked up. This makes no sense whatsoever, maxwell runs even cooler than my kepler 870m so I have no idea why they would disable overclocking on there more power efficient and cooler running cards. Not to mention that most people who have 960-980m's in their laptops are the ones who paid $1000+ for their laptop. If Nvidia feels so strongly about disabling overclocking because of potential damage to their cards, why not disable overclocking on the lower end as those are the ones that can't handle it/generally don't have the cooling for overclocking. It really isn't that hard a concept Nvidia

[Raudi_]

Why would you OC a laptop? They run hot as hell anyway.

My m17x would beg to differ the CPU hits about 55-65c and the GPU's hit around 66-68C underload.

[cesrai]

I don't think OC should be enabled on laptops.

But in my personal experience OCing the R7 240 got me like 5-10FPS in tomb raider.

[GoodBytes]

I don't get people saying "you can't or should not overclock a mobile GPU". First of all, the processor should handle being under 98C degree continuously. Yes it is not ideal, but the system should handle it. If it breaks, then it is a manufacture fault or poor engineering. Simple as that. It is not a problem on the desktop, why it would be on a laptop. If you reach 100C the system overheating protection will start and the system will turn off. That is your problem.

If you have a laptop with a great cooling solution (something YOU DO HAVE, on a well build, well designed, laptop (which tend to cost more, but if you are cheap, than the blame is on you for cheeping out for the specs)), your mobile GPU should be at reasonable temperatures, and if you have room to overclock it, and push the temps closer to the emergency shutdown system, then well good, if you don't mind the risk.

Voltage control is something you can't do in any case on a mobile GPU. To my knowledge Nvidia has never allowed it, and manufactures never put component for it (mind you, I didn't experience every laptop with an Nvidia GPU ever made. So sorry if there was that 1-2 laptop where the manufacture implement such ability).

My old laptop I could near double the GPU clock speed passing my Quadro NVS 160M (GeForce 9300m but with 256Mb of dedicated memory instead of system shared) to a performance close to a 9500m which is massively faster. No voltage control, max temp with Furmark 97C. The laptop was with a far more hot CPU than what we have today (Core 2 Duo), it is from 2008, 14inch. Single fan. And the bottom was not burning hot, just warm, due to the good cooling it had (business class system)

[asim1999]

Why would you OC a laptop? They run hot as hell anyway.

Some laptop GPUs run at 50-70 celcius on high-end gaming laptops (Asus, MSI, Clevo) so why not take a chance if headroom is there?

[TwistedDictator]

I don't get people saying "you can't or should not overclock a mobile GPU". First of all, the processor should handle being under 98C degree continuously. Yes it is not ideal, but the system should handle it. If it breaks, then it is a manufacture fault or poor engineering. Simple as that. It is not a problem on the desktop, why it would be on a laptop. If you reach 100C the system overheating protection will start and the system will turn off. That is your problem.

If you have a laptop with a great cooling solution (something YOU DO HAVE, on a well build, well designed, laptop (which tend to cost more, but if you are cheap, than the blame is on you for cheeping out for the specs)), your mobile GPU should be at reasonable temperatures, and if you have room to overclock it, and push the temps closer to the emergency shutdown system, then well good, if you don't mind the risk.

 

 

 

The heat goes to other places to the components not only the GPU e.g. VRM’s. So if I overclock my GPU and break it it’s the manufactures fault? Poor Engineering?

What is a “great” cooling solution on a laptop? Dual fans coming out the laptop? Maybe a slight overclock (no point) you can get away but it’s not wise to overclock at “emergency shutdown system”, it’s not wise as I said you can mess up other components.

 

Even your boss has the same opionion (correct my if I'm wrong).

 

Remember not all laptops are designed the same way, it all depends on how they placed the components on the board. There is so much things to consider.

I think it’s silly to overclock a laptop but end of the day users still should have the option.

 

I would write more but theirs no point, members on here would just agree to what ever you reply too lol

[Yoinkerman]

If I decide my cooling is good enough, leave it up to me to overclock. It should be my choice.

[Mr.Jackson]

The heat goes to other places to the components not only the GPU e.g. VRM’s. So if I overclock my GPU and break it it’s the manufactures fault? Poor Engineering?

What is a “great” cooling solution on a laptop? Dual fans coming out the laptop? Maybe a slight overclock (no point) you can get away but it’s not wise to overclock at “emergency shutdown system”, it’s not wise as I said you can mess up other components.

 

Even your boss has the same opionion (correct my if I'm wrong).

 

Remember not all laptops are designed the same way, it all depends on how they placed the components on the board. There is so much things to consider.

I think it’s silly to overclock a laptop but end of the day users still should have the option.

 

I would write more but theirs no point, members on here would just agree to what ever you reply too lol

Laptop manufacturers spend a lot of money on cooling solutions for expensive laptops. Razer, Asus, etc. obviously those engineers at those companies have no idea what they are doing. Overclocking a laptop! pfffffT!

 

/s.

[mattebad]

I don't get people saying "you can't or should not overclock a mobile GPU". First of all, the processor should handle being under 98C degree continuously. Yes it is not ideal, but the system should handle it. If it breaks, then it is a manufacture fault or poor engineering. Simple as that. It is not a problem on the desktop, why it would be on a laptop. If you reach 100C the system overheating protection will start and the system will turn off. That is your problem.

If you have a laptop with a great cooling solution (something YOU DO HAVE, on a well build, well designed, laptop (which tend to cost more, but if you are cheap, than the blame is on you for cheeping out for the specs)), your mobile GPU should be at reasonable temperatures, and if you have room to overclock it, and push the temps closer to the emergency shutdown system, then well good, if you don't mind the risk.

Voltage control is something you can't do in any case on a mobile GPU. To my knowledge Nvidia has never allowed it, and manufactures never put component for it (mind you, I didn't experience every laptop with an Nvidia GPU ever made. So sorry if there was that 1-2 laptop where the manufacture implement such ability).

My old laptop I could near double the GPU clock speed passing my Quadro NVS 160M (GeForce 9300m but with 256Mb of dedicated memory instead of system shared) to a performance close to a 9500m which is massively faster. No voltage control, max temp with Furmark 97C. The laptop was with a far more hot CPU than what we have today (Core 2 Duo), it is from 2008, 14inch. Single fan. And the bottom was not burning hot, just warm, due to the good cooling it had (business class system)

I agree with you that we the consumer should have the choice to overclock on systems that can actually handle it, hence why I said overclocking should be disabled on lower end systems such as those with gpu's below the 950/850m series as they generally are unable to overclock a lot anyway as they are mostly in ultra thin laptops. The upper end 850+/950+ should be able to overclock as they generally have the headroom to do so with the exception of ultra-thin gaming laptops such as Razer's and Gigabyte's.

 

I don't agree with how you say that if you overclock to your thermal limit that your cpu or gpu will be fine. In the short term maybe, long term, 1- 1.5 years from then your parts are fucked. The thermal limit is there for a reason as usually when you hit anything at or above 90C, you will start to see problems, maybe crashes while gaming, artifacts, and slowdown from thermal throttling. So no, I advise against overclocking to your absolute thermal limit as that is dumb and the parts weren't meant to be operated continuously at that thermal limit, it is mainly the max temperature it can operate at before throttling itself back to cool down and prevent any damage to the parts.

 

Voltage control is something that is normally disabled but can be worked around by flashing your vbios or flashing your bios to a custom one. I absolutely recommend against this unless you have absolute knowledge about what you are about to do and how to do it. Both of these methods may brick your system if there is one misstep and is generally not worth it unless you are knowledgeable about the benefits and why it is done.

[killtothis]

If I decide my cooling is good enough, leave it up to me to overclock. It should be my choice.

 

No disrespect to you intended at all, but that's part of the problem Nvidia will be facing. A lot of people will probably think that their cooling is adequate when it may not be, causing hardware damage which results in warranty claims. So from their point of view the safest option for them financially is to eliminate potential user created issues. 

[GoodBytes]

I don't agree with how you say that if you overclock to your thermal limit that your cpu or gpu will be fine. In the short term maybe, long term, 1- 1.5 years from then your parts are fucked. The thermal limit is there for a reason as usually when you hit anything at or above 90C, you will start to see problems, maybe crashes while gaming, artifacts, and slowdown from thermal throttling. So no, I advise against overclocking to your absolute thermal limit as that is dumb and the parts weren't meant to be operated continuously at that thermal limit, it is mainly the max temperature it can operate at before throttling itself back to cool down and prevent any damage to the parts.

My old laptop is than 7 years old, and still being used today. GPU was overclocked 7 years ago. Keep in mind that I don't overclock my GPU all the time, even if I am browsing through folder. Only when gaming.

 

Voltage control is something that is normally disabled but can be worked around by flashing your vbios or flashing your bios to a custom one. I absolutely recommend against this unless you have absolute knowledge about what you are about to do and how to do it. Both of these methods may brick your system if there is one misstep and is generally not worth it unless you are knowledgeable about the benefits and why it is done.

You can flash the vbios even if Nvidia blocks overclocking. Now you are asking trouble, as manufacture usually don't expect this to happen, and the components used MIGHT not support the extra voltage.

[Snickerzz]

they should just shove a giant warning message in the users face saying laptops aren't designed to be OCed when they install geforce experience but let them still do it if they want to

[Victorious Secret]

Still trying to understand why someone would overclock a mobile GPU. Even if it has enough thermal limits, overclocking also means more power consumption, which does matter with battery devices

 

Because blowing your power delivery on a laptop is fun! Or god forbid sparking off your power brick. 

[mattebad]

My old laptop is than 7 years old, and still being used today. GPU was overclocked 7 years ago. Keep in mind that I don't overclock my GPU all the time, even if I am browsing through folder. Only when gaming.

 

You can flash the vbios even if Nvidia blocks overclocking. Now you are asking trouble, as manufacture usually don't expect this to happen, and the components used MIGHT not support the extra voltage.

That still doesn't matter, maybe the older cards have a higher thermal operating temperature than kepler and maxwell do but that doesn't mean that it is good for the card. And it doesn't matter if it is just overclocked while gaming, that is when it is under heavy load. And I'm not sure if optimus was on laptops 7 years ago so if it wasn't then that means that your gpu is being used all the time no matter what. You may have the holy grail of silicone if what you are saying is true, or you just don't play games that often or run those that aren't demanding.

 

Like I said, if you flash the vbios and you brick your card because the bios was incompatible with it that is your problem as you should never flash a bios unless you know what you are doing. I'm pretty sure most modern graphics cards can support more voltage as long as there is enough power being run to it, and nowadays it is near impossible to destroy a gpu from overvolting unless you somehow disable all the safeguards in place, some of which are hardware and others are software (driver crashes, resetting clocks to stock)

[mattebad]

Because blowing your power delivery on a laptop is fun! Or god forbid sparking off your power brick. 

First off, you can't game on battery on stock as it is, never mind an overclocked card.

Second, is that even posssible, can you actually blow your power brick from overclocking. I'm genuinely interested in knowing if that's possible because I would guess that there would be some safeguards to prevent that from happening.

[GoodBytes]

That still doesn't matter, maybe the older cards have a higher thermal operating temperature than kepler and maxwell do but that doesn't mean that it is good for the card. And it doesn't matter if it is just overclocked while gaming, that is when it is under heavy load. And I'm not sure if optimus was on laptops 7 years ago so if it wasn't then that means that your gpu is being used all the time no matter what. You may have the holy grail of silicone if what you are saying is true, or you just don't play games that often or run those that aren't demanding.

 

Like I said, if you flash the vbios and you brick your card because the bios was incompatible with it that is your problem as you should never flash a bios unless you know what you are doing. I'm pretty sure most modern graphics cards can support more voltage as long as there is enough power being run to it, and nowadays it is near impossible to destroy a gpu from overvolting unless you somehow disable all the safeguards in place, some of which are hardware and others are software (driver crashes, resetting clocks to stock)

My laptop doesn't have Nvidia Optimus. The system was an Intel chipset where the Intel integrated graphics was not there.

At the time, Intel integrated graphics had trouble running Aero. GPU was used all the time, but not my overclock. And not I didn't have the holy grail of silicone, others could push it even more. Based on forum results, I was very average.

Overclocking a laptop GPU is a great way to expend your laptop life in terms of being adequate for your needs. This can allow you to wait for new models. Even if your laptop has crappy cooling, where other components will be greatly affected, and only last 1 year. If it means you can wait for 1 more year for the new laptop to come out, this is great.

Nvidia is blocking overclocking because they want people to buy laptop with their GPU more frequently.

The burning GPU warranty replacement is all B.S. Why? because, GPU on mobile is nothing new. If it was a real problem, it would have been done LONG LONG LONG time before. But it is only NOW that it is an issuse? And only Nvidia? Please.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Why do people always assume the worst. They are probably doing it for safety reasons until they check out an internal problem they have found with overclocking perhaps or maybe they are trying to get some statistics on cards that are OC'd or something.

[mattebad]

I think it's more of principle. Assuming your actions are legal, a company shouldn't decide what you can and cannot with a product you bought with your own money. This is a bad move on their part, even if nVidia's intentions were benevolent.

Well, it's their product so they can decide what we can or can't do with it. Just like how we technically don't own anything, but a license to use their product. I agree it is a bad move on Nvidia's part.

My laptop doesn't have Nvidia Optimus. The system was an Intel chipset where the Intel integrated graphics was not there.

At the time, Intel integrated graphics had trouble running Aero. GPU was used all the time, but not my overclock. And not I didn't have the holy grail of silicone, others could push it even more. Based on forum results, I was very average.

Overclocking a laptop GPU is a great way to expend your laptop life in terms of being adequate for your needs. This can allow you to wait for new models. Even if your laptop has crappy cooling, where other components will be greatly affected, and only last 1 year. If it means you can wait for 1 more year for the new laptop to come out, this is great.

Nvidia is blocking overclocking because they want people to buy laptop with their GPU more frequently.

The burning GPU warranty replacement is all B.S. Why? because, GPU on mobile is nothing new. If it was a real problem, it would have been done LONG LONG LONG time before. But it is only NOW that it is an issuse? And only Nvidia? Please.

Ah, I never knew that aero gave intel troubles with their integrated gpu. I'm pretty sure that it still isn't good for your components to be running at 90+ anytime you are gaming, but with optimus I feel the effects are diminished a bit so you are right in a way. I still believe that your components should be properly cooled to ensure longevity just like any component should, laptop or dekstop.

This might be true but how many people actually buy a new laptop after a year? Most people will buy a new laptop after 3-4 years as generally that is when your components become outdated, but with the introduction of mxm slots and Asus's step up program (i think thats what it's called) you can upgrade your gpu after 2-3 years for only 500-600 dollars instead of buying a new laptop. Just like how people will upgrade their components with a desktop instead of buying all brand new components.

[Dabombinable]

It affects the 800M series as well. I've got a friend that was able to break and then re-break the Hwbot record for the fastest GTX860M, until he updated the drivers and now all of a sudden when he tries to overclock at all he gets is problems. And the card isn't dead as reverting the drivers fixed overclocking.

[Dabombinable]

Oh and BTW, the laptop is an MSI gaming laptop designed for CPU and GPU overclocking. It gets surprisingly high overclocks while remaining within thermal and power limits.

[GoodBytes]

This might be true but how many people actually buy a new laptop after a year? Most people will buy a new laptop after 3-4 years as generally that is when your components become outdated, but with the introduction of mxm slots and Asus's step up program (i think thats what it's called) you can upgrade your gpu after 2-3 years for only 500-600 dollars instead of buying a new laptop. Just like how people will upgrade their components with a desktop instead of buying all brand new components.

No no, I meant, You buy laptop that fit your needs. It's great for 3 years. Then games gets more demanding, and you waiting for a new model from a manufacture, say to get the latest AMD/Nvidia GPU, so in mean time, you take the chance to overclock your GPU to continue to play games either better or reach 30fps.

[Yoinkerman]

No disrespect to you intended at all, but that's part of the problem Nvidia will be facing. A lot of people will probably think that their cooling is adequate when it may not be, causing hardware damage which results in warranty claims. So from their point of view the safest option for them financially is to eliminate potential user created issues.

Darn?