Nvidia Driver Purposely Disables Overclocking GTX 900M Series GPUs

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Nvidia confirms it doesn't want you overclocking its GTX 900M GPUs

To overclock or not to overclock -- it's a question every enthusiast wonders at some point or another. The primary advantage to overclocking is a free performance boost, provided you don't fry anything in the process. And of course the downsides are the various risks, from instability to cooking your components. It's those downsides that prompted Nvidia to take away the ability to overclock (or underclock) GeForce GTX 900M Series GPUs through a recent driver update.
The revelation came when users discovered they could no longer overclock their GTX 900M GPUs after installing Nvidia's GeForce R347.29 driver release. Miffed and perplexed, they sought an explanation on Nvidia's forums, only to have their worst fears confirmed.
A few pages in, a customer care agent for Nvidia had this to say:
"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," Nvidia said. "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.
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."
This is actually a restriction that's been present in the last three driver updates, though this is the first time that Nvidia confirmed it's an intentional restriction.
It will be interesting to see if Nvidia holds firm on this stance. On one hand, the company is right, there are risks to overclocking, and it's especially tricky in laptops with limited cooling potential. But on the other hand, Nvidia is treating its performance oriented customers as being reckless and not particularly savvy. And maybe some are, but the consensus among those who've replied to Nvidia's post is that they should be allowed to weigh the risks and choose for themselves whether or not to overclock.
"This is just outrageous behavior. Not even a word that this was 'by design' following months of complaints. I have just ordered an Sli 980m enthusiast machine. Now I find you blocked overclocking deliberately. I am so mad I cannot even comment any more without resorting to bad language," a user responded.
Another person chimed in that they own a notebook with a desktop processor and when overclocking, the system scores 9,503 in Fire Strike. At stock, it scores 8,470.
"That's a pretty decent difference. My GPU temps don't go past 80C and my processor doesn't go past 60C. There should at least be an exception to hybrids like mine. Otherwise, I guess this is the last driver I'm going to be updating to. I didn't pay all that money just to be restricted. Ya'll wanna gimp, then how about lowering that price," the user added.
You can check out the thread for more angry responses, and then let us know what you think about all this in the comments section below.
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