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NVIDIA officially states they cut overclocking from mobile GPU's... :(


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Well it's well within their right to vbios block new cards and leave the overclocking in the drivers so that those who bought before the lock are still getting what they paid for. That's jacked up that they did that though. Hopefully they don't add additional security to prevent flashing custom vbioses as a next step! I think I'm going team red next time.

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Is it within the right of your auto manufacturer of choice to tell you how fast you can drive your car, or block you from exceeding the speed limit? Hell no! Of course not. This is NVIDIA taking liberty where it's not theirs to take. They have absolutely no right to control what end users do, and if they were smart they would leave this anti-customer treachery up to idiotic OEMs that hate their customers. Other than stupid gamer-children that don't know any better, and those that don't care, this demonstration of poor judgment could turn out be a fatal error for their brand if they leave it this way. No self-respecting enthusiast is going to buy a pile of crap NVIDIA GPU that can't be overclocked unless there is a mod to circumvent it. The ability exists for flash protection cancer to be implemented à la Alienware 2012.

Conspiracy aside, they may have implemented that vBIOS before making the announcement about blocking, then changing their mind after the public outcry against it. They can discontinue using a cancer-infected vBIOS just as quickly and easily as they started using one. I'd recommend waiting and watching as @Prema has suggested. This could be a fluke/false alarm.

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Is it within the right of your auto manufacturer of choice to tell you how fast you can drive your car, or block you from exceeding the speed limit? Hell no! Of course not. This is NVIDIA taking liberty where it's not theirs to take. They have absolutely no right to control what end users do, and if they were smart they would leave this anti-customer treachery up to idiotic OEMs that hate their customers. Other than stupid gamer-children that don't know any better, and those that don't care, this demonstration of poor judgment could turn out be a fatal error for their brand if they leave it this way. No self-respecting enthusiast is going to buy a pile of crap NVIDIA GPU that can't be overclocked unless there is a mod to circumvent it. The ability exists for flash protection cancer to be implemented à la Alienware 2012.

Conspiracy aside, they may have implemented that vBIOS before making the announcement about blocking, then changing their mind after the public outcry against it. They can discontinue using a cancer-infected vBIOS just as quickly and easily as they started using one. I'd recommend waiting and watching as @Prema has suggested. This could be a fluke/false alarm.

At this point, I honestly hope so. For a rep to come out and say they listened to us, then have this happen would be VERY serious sneaking and lying.

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Is it within the right of your auto manufacturer of choice to tell you how fast you can drive your car, or block you from exceeding the speed limit? Hell no! Of course not. This is NVIDIA taking liberty where it's not theirs to take. They have absolutely no right to control what end users do, and if they were smart they would leave this anti-customer treachery up to idiotic OEMs that hate their customers. Other than stupid gamer-children that don't know any better, and those that don't care, this demonstration of poor judgment could turn out be a fatal error for their brand if they leave it this way. No self-respecting enthusiast is going to buy a pile of crap NVIDIA GPU that can't be overclocked unless there is a mod to circumvent it. The ability exists for flash protection cancer to be implemented à la Alienware 2012.

Conspiracy aside, they may have implemented that vBIOS before making the announcement about blocking, then changing their mind after the public outcry against it. They can discontinue using a cancer-infected vBIOS just as quickly and easily as they started using one. I'd recommend waiting and watching as @Prema has suggested. This could be a fluke/false alarm.

Sadly no false alarm Units with the locked vbios already shipped a while ago... all of the new Alienware 2015r2 models with the 970m in them are locked from overclocking regardless of the driver used and I guarantee this Bios is the reason why. I have a longer series of posts on the 17r2 benchmark thread at NBR explaining all the testing I did to confirm this. Sevel other users have confirmed my results at this point and the only possible explanation is a bios level lock.

Tried to get The AW reps in over there to give me a response on my finding but they just gave me the run aroud/straight up lied. Was told by AWporras that the 970m in the 17r2 could be Overclocked but only when the laptop was attached to the graphics AMp (no just think about that for a minute who would buy a 300$ graphics amp with no card in it to allow thie mobile gpu to OC.) notihing but a web of lies from Nvidia and dell alike.

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@Prema it can be circumvented right? Also to the guy that has a lock, what happens if you force flash an older vbios? As long as you can do that then you're good. Just hope nvidia doesn't make it impossible in newer releases. The timing of nvidia doing all this honestly makes no sense because they've dominated notebook gpu's for three years so they could have done the vbios lock much earlier. Crappy Dell side, I've no reason to think Clevo would ask nvidia for a vbios lock for their mxm cards.

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Sadly no false alarm Units with the locked vbios already shipped a while ago... all of the new Alienware 2015r2 models with the 970m in them are locked from overclocking regardless of the driver used and I guarantee this Bios is the reason why. I have a longer series of posts on the 17r2 benchmark thread at NBR explaining all the testing I did to confirm this. Sevel other users have confirmed my results at this point and the only possible explanation is a bios level lock.

Tried to get The AW reps in over there to give me a response on my finding but they just gave me the run aroud/straight up lied. Was told by AWporras that the 970m in the 17r2 could be Overclocked but only when the laptop was attached to the graphics AMp (no just think about that for a minute who would buy a 300$ graphics amp with no card in it to allow thie mobile gpu to OC.) notihing but a web of lies from Nvidia and dell alike.

Farce...Pied Piper of Hamelin Santa Clara ♫ ♬

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@Prema it can be circumvented right? Also to the guy that has a lock, what happens if you force flash an older vbios? As long as you can do that then you're good. Just hope nvidia doesn't make it impossible in newer releases. The timing of nvidia doing all this honestly makes no sense because they've dominated notebook gpu's for three years so they could have done the vbios lock much earlier.

As mentioned flashing of older vBIOS or Mods (via hacked NVFLASH) is no problem.

The real problem would begin with "future" cards or models where no older vBIOS exist and/or once they start blocking the use of mods via driver integrity checks...

Crappy Dell side, I've no reason to think Clevo would ask nvidia for a vbios lock for their mxm cards.

Exactly!

Clevos vBIOS changelog usually looks like this:

"Supplier's recommendation."

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As mentioned flashing of older vBIOS or Mods (via hacked NVFLASH) is no problem.

The real problem would begin with "future" cards or models where no older vBIOS exist and/or once they start blocking the use of mods via driver integrity checks...

NVFLASH was developed by NVIDIA themselves correct? When's the last time they updated it? Since you mentioned a hacked nvflash, I'm wondering how long until it simply doesn't work any longer regardless of being hacked to do so. Thinking long term like Pascal where there's a big architectural change.

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NVFLASH is constantly updated, but they stopped giving out a DOS versions to OEMs since GTX9xx series and also blocked the flashing of unsigned (modded) vBIOS.

Even now modded Notebook & Desktop GTX9 vBIOS can be written via hacked NVFLASH versions only!

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NVFLASH is constantly updated, but they stopped giving out a DOS versions to OEMs since GTX9xx series and also blocked the flashing of unsigned (modded) vBIOS.

Even now modded Notebook & Desktop GTX9 vBIOS can be written via hacked NVFLASH versions only!

Interesting, so what has to be done to bypass the signing requirement in nvflash? It's disappointing that they are blocking unsigned vbios although I can kinda understand the drop in support for the DOS version since not many people will bother with that if the Windows version works reliably.

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Is it within the right of your auto manufacturer of choice to tell you how fast you can drive your car, or block you from exceeding the speed limit? Hell no! Of course not. This is NVIDIA taking liberty where it's not theirs to take. They have absolutely no right to control what end users do, and if they were smart they would leave this anti-customer treachery up to idiotic OEMs that hate their customers. Other than stupid gamer-children that don't know any better, and those that don't care, this demonstration of poor judgment could turn out be a fatal error for their brand if they leave it this way. No self-respecting enthusiast is going to buy a pile of crap NVIDIA GPU that can't be overclocked unless there is a mod to circumvent it. The ability exists for flash protection cancer to be implemented à la Alienware 2012.

Conspiracy aside, they may have implemented that vBIOS before making the announcement about blocking, then changing their mind after the public outcry against it. They can discontinue using a cancer-infected vBIOS just as quickly and easily as they started using one. I'd recommend waiting and watching as @Prema has suggested. This could be a fluke/false alarm.

Its up to the OEMs if they want overclocking or not. Like it or not, nVidia has covered their asses here on the legal front is all I'm saying, not that I support the decision itself. But I can tell you that Dell is the most likely culprit behind this mess. All of the other OEMs besides Clevo actually advertise overclocking for their machines and likely will leave their bioses unlocked (MSI, ASUS, and Gigabyte for example, no idea what Clevo would do, probably just use what nVidia gives them).

Your car analogy is a perfect example... My Focus had a limit of 140MPH until they updated the computer and locked it at 125. I shouldn't have been driving those speeds anyway but when I inquired about it, they said it was never meant to go faster than 125 before being throttled. Gave me some garbage about street legal cars and said if I hack the computer my 5 year warranty would be void with no refund of the last 4 years I didn't get to use.

My V6 Fusion had a 120 cap from the factory.

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We have the imbeciles at Micro$haft Mafia to that for all of this signature FILTH... evil bastards. I almost wish they would go belly up and leave us with nothing but Linux. (As much as I would actually hate that, I truly hate what they are doing to screw us and help themselves. They really are crooks in every sense of the word.)

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Its getting bad. Windows 10 doesn't look all that fantastic either besides the price (free) and directx 12.

But good luck getting SLI to work properly on Linux - last time I tried I was told it is not supported on notebooks and its hard enough to enable on a desktop.

Really it's apple and ms. Linux fills a small niche but it's not good enough for gamers.

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If NVIDIA does lock out vbios flashing in the future at the driver level, I don't think any kind of outrage will change their minds on that one. Plus most news sites wouldn't even care since vbios flashing is such an abstract concept to 99% of gamers out there. We could only hope the community is creative enough to find ways around it, kind of like how Jailbreak devs get around Apple's lockouts in a cat and mouse fashion every update.

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If NVIDIA does lock out vbios flashing in the future at the driver level, I don't think any kind of outrage will change their minds on that one. Plus most news sites wouldn't even care since vbios flashing is such an abstract concept to 99% of gamers out there. We could only hope the community is creative enough to find ways around it, kind of like how Jailbreak devs get around Apple's lockouts in a cat and mouse fashion every update.

There's a way around everything. I personally would get around such a block by switching to AMD. They would be killing themselves if they did that. The enthusiast market is bigger than people think, especially since they would probably roll out such a thing universally meaning the desktop users would get screwed too. Now that AMD isn't competitive, nVidia is getting what they want... Hopefully nVidia doesn't become a repeat of the AMD and Intel story... AMD came out with their Intel smashing Athlon 64 and slowed the innovation and just sat there laughing as Intel struggled to catch them... We all know how that story ended.

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I think everyone needs to chill a bit and step back. I think Nvidia are going to allow the vendors choose if we are allowed to overclock or not. I think this could be a smart move as due to some of the smaller lighter form factors overclocking of any kind is a bad idea due to poor cooling.

But guys lets wait and see how many systems are effected and where these systems come from? I'm sure these questions will be answered very shortly.

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I think everyone needs to chill a bit and step back. I think Nvidia are going to allow the vendors choose if we are allowed to overclock or not. I think this could be a smart move as due to some of the smaller lighter form factors overclocking of any kind is a bad idea due to poor cooling.

But guys lets wait and see how many systems are effected and where these systems come from? I'm sure these questions will be answered very shortly.

Its obvious it's Dell behind this. All the signs are there. 180W power supply, soldered chips, and the fact that the lockout didn't start til Dell launched the new Alienware line.

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I don't think it is obvious that they are behind it, in spite of those signs of being in a state of decline. If that were true, I doubt their head of Alienware Club Forum at Dell Community would be providing links to download drivers to help customers overclock and saying they (Alienware) were not privy to NVIDIA's plan to disable notebook overclocking. I'd be more inclined to think some of the low-budget and too-thin-and-light turd gaming Ultrabooks from Aorus, MSI and Razer OEM that struggle with thermals would be far more likely to be the source of the cancer.

Since we are exchanging conspiracy theories, I think it just as likely NVIDIA did this totally on their own because it is getting harder than ever to see a difference between MXM and PCIe desktop GPU performance and they are trying to keep a broader gap there to not look bad to their desktop fanboys. Lord knows some of them really do get all butt-hurt when their precious low-budget GeForce desktops get romped on real bad by a laptop.

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I don't think it is obvious that they are behind, in spite of those signs of being in a state of decline. If that were true, I doubt their head of Alienware Club forum at Dell Community would be providing links to drivers to help customers overclock and saying they were not privy to NVIDIA's plan to disable overclocking. Since we are exchanging conspiracy theories, I think it just as likely NVIDIA did this totally on their own because it is getting harder than ever to see a difference between MXM and PCIe desktop GPU performance and they are trying to keep a broader gap there to not look bad to their desktop fanboys that will be all butt-hurt if their desktops get romped on by a laptop.

I just find it highly suspect that the 2015 Alienware line comes and overclocking goes poof right after. I really hope that class actions start forming and anti-trust in the EU.

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Well, we both agree that NVIDIA needs to be taught a lesson. They need to stick to making hardware and leave it up to the individual OEMs to decide whether or not to gimp their laptops. Some of the too-thin-and-light turd gaming Ultrabooks may actually need to be gimped to avoid catching on fire, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world needs to be restricted by the engineering incompetence of lowest common denominator in notebook gamer-boy land.

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I think that the makers of the turd notebooks that will never perform to spec should be sued but the people that would notice these things already know if they see HQ on a processor to stay the hell away so it will never happen.

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Unfortunately everything is being dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. EA recently said their games are "too hard" so they will keep dumbing those down as well (as if they're not already awful enough). Then you have Microsoft with Windows 8 and now 10 (10 is just as atrocious) with using "apps" instead of much more functional software we already have and the ugly flat colors and wonky interface.

Now with respect to the vbios lockout, I'm hoping it's not universal among all MXM cards but if it is, then it's certainly worth mentioning in a review by some publications. The more people are made aware of this, then perhaps NVIDIA will shift gears on it like they did with the software lock.

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I was gonna buy a new laptop, But im getting to the point where this crap isn't worth trying to deal with. I'd rather just have my current slower harder hardware, than the current gimped crap being released... AMD needs to get their act together and force Nvidia's hand here.

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