After the memory allocation issue and the revelation that the GTX 970 wasn’t quite the card it was sold as, NVidia’s got a lot to do to rebuild its image. It’s not being helped a lot right now, because there’s a new issue, and it’s a big enough one that there’s now an internet petition. Nvidia has blocked off the ability to overclock its mobile GPU’s.
It’s not a new thing; the last trio of driver updates for the mobile GPUs have cordoned off the ability to take the company’s 800 and 900 Maxwell based chips beyond their specification. Nvidia’s has officially confirmed the lock, and as a result, people are pissed.
“Unfortunately GeForce notebooks were not designed to support overclocking. Overclocking is by no means a trivial feature, and depends on thoughtful design of thermal, electrical, and other considerations. By overclocking a notebook, a user risks serious damage to the system that could result in non-functional systems, reduced notebook life, or many other effects,’” the company said on the GeForce forums.
The ability to overclock should never have been there in the first place they say, adding that it was a bug that enabled laptops fitted with their newest mobile chips to be taken to levels they were never designed for.
“There was a bug introduced into our drivers which enabled some systems to overclock. This was fixed in a recent update. Our intent was not to remove features from GeForce notebooks, but rather to safeguard systems from operating outside design limits.”
The Maxwell based chips have quite a bit of headroom thanks to a relatively low TDP so they’re ripe for overclocking – but I have to agree with Nvidia here. There’s far too much risk involved with such small, enclosed spaces as you’d find in laptops; especially when they’re not designed for extra heat. It will, of course, differ from manufacturer to manufacturer and you’d probably find that some laptops would overclock just fine. Is it worth that risk?
Last Updated: February 13, 2015
Ghost In The Rift
February 13, 2015 at 13:03
Thats it, brb, gonna get some fries.
Blood Emperor Trevor
February 13, 2015 at 13:06
GeForce? More like GEFARCE! #amirite #greenmob #redsquadron
FoxOneZA
February 13, 2015 at 13:39
Flames thrown!
Tosh "Did he just say that?"
February 13, 2015 at 13:40
Had to come from AMD. All those flames.
FoxOneZA
February 13, 2015 at 13:41
Hawt Hardware!
Lord Chaos
February 13, 2015 at 14:08
And this is where I’m fine. Lagging behind on GPU for long, hopefully not much longer, but you cannot beat an AMP APU
Blood Emperor Trevor
February 13, 2015 at 13:48
Who, me? I have no idea what you’re talking about. O_O
Ghost In The Rift
February 13, 2015 at 13:12
If someone does it and you f up your Laptop please send me the pics of how your Laptop melted..:-)
Hammersteyn
February 13, 2015 at 13:17
No Jason in the header, or is there, or isn’t there?
Blood Emperor Trevor
February 13, 2015 at 13:21
Top left corner, oh wait… that’s the Nvidia logo. 😀
Hammersteyn
February 13, 2015 at 13:32
bwahahaha
Gavin Mannion
February 13, 2015 at 13:38
It is there… some amazing work by Geoff on this one
Tosh "Did he just say that?"
February 13, 2015 at 13:47
@hammersteyn:disqus See attached.
Hammersteyn
February 13, 2015 at 13:56
O_O jeez louise
Ottokie
February 13, 2015 at 13:49
Bottom left corner, damn that was a hard one. Good work Geoff 😛
Tosh "Did he just say that?"
February 13, 2015 at 13:53
2 minutes after I post the picture. Convenient. 😛
Ottokie
February 13, 2015 at 13:55
In my defense I had not reloaded the page yet.
Refresh for defense XD
Tosh "Did he just say that?"
February 13, 2015 at 13:59
haha fine, you may pass 😀
Ottokie
February 13, 2015 at 14:05
Awww jiss
Blood Emperor Trevor
February 13, 2015 at 13:51
Is it on one of the chips? Because that’s blasphemy, only religious icons are supposed to appear on food stuffs.
Hammersteyn
February 13, 2015 at 13:56
WOW!
Andre Gabriel Coetzee
February 13, 2015 at 13:20
I understand both sides on this one. It`s definitely a huge risk but a lot of people would prefer that the choice still be theirs. Some might one day like to mod it, and overclock it for some extra fps boosts. Being told what you can and cannot do with a product you bought and rightfully own is frustrating.
Tosh "Did he just say that?"
February 13, 2015 at 13:23
It seems like everyone just wants to rage about something.
Go home internet, you need sleep.
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa223/munky0621/fuck-2.jpg
Ghost In The Rift
February 13, 2015 at 13:29
0_o i really really don’t like that face.
Admiral Chief
February 13, 2015 at 14:02
Go team RED
Ceyber, The Metal Rabbit
February 13, 2015 at 15:21
You devious, negative-space-loving bastard. Well done.
Cakefish
February 13, 2015 at 20:10
My laptop is perfectly capable of handling the extra heat from overclocking – is 72°C at 99% GPU load overclocked really that bad? I think not! Furious at NVIDIA for taking this stupid decision. I know the risks, I am willing to take them – I don’t need NVIDIA ‘parenting’ me on my own purchase.
Guest
February 15, 2015 at 12:31
Hi guys you can find cheaper Steam games on g2a u can also earn money selling games and use earned money to buy them: g2a.com/r/store-deals hope help! 🙂
Lothy
February 16, 2015 at 07:37
As much as I would like to throw poo at the green goblin, I tend to agree with this. When I buy I laptop I don’t buy it with the idea of overclocking.