What do you think of nVidia locking down voltage?

[zaydq]

Arguing semantics and being an apologist doesn't fix the problem.

Unfortunately this is a sentiment I see on a lot of boards now. Kids (or people who act like kids) read about Afterburner, change a few sliders, and now consider themselves "enthusiasts." Unfortunately they're the same people who probably fry GPU's and try to RMA. They're also the people that don't have a worthwhile opinion in threads like these. It would be odd if we went full 360 and had to go back to soldering to overvolt GPUs, but hey, exclusivity has its perks too.

And I like the analogy. It's the same as "car buffs" that buy a brand new "sports car" and now consider themselves enthusiasts but couldn't change an intake manifold to save their lives.

I used that example because OC guy seems to have the characteristics of a folly in Computer overclocking and cars with his shelby gt500

 

[Mem]

Does not bother me at all,you can understand Nvidia's point ie too many noobs overclocking video cards with wrong voltage and bang!.... they RMA the card,Nvidia have a right to do this IMHO,end of the day their cards are designed to run at certain voltages,leaving this to noobs is a recipe for disaster since too many abuse it.

You have options ie go with a different company or buy an overclocked card that comes with warranty.

 

[badb0y]

It bothers me a lot, in the future I might not even consider nVidia anymore if this stance continues.

 

[Siberian]

I have a good feeling that the people most upset by this are the people who already don't support NVIDIA.

 

[sephiroth9878]

I think that locking the voltage is okay in some cases but when people want to overclock like myself its quite unnecessary.

 

[Goresplattered]

how about instead of neutering a group of customers you implement a system where in order to unlock voltage adjustments for your card you have to register the damn thing and then void your rma warranty

Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[badb0y]

I have a good feeling that the people most upset by this are the people who already don't support NVIDIA.

Ahh no, people who don't support nVidia don't buy nVidia cards so they couldn't care less what nVidia does with their cards.

 

[Majcric]

This is not necessarily true, there are pro AMD users pitching in just to fuel the fire.

Let's deep-six the commentary on other posters please
-ViRGE

 

[MrK6]

I have a good feeling that the people most upset by this are the people who already don't support NVIDIA.

This is not necessarily true, there are pro AMD users pitching in just to fuel the fire.

I find it interesting that new users/low post counts quickly find these types of threads and so vehemently try to derail it into an "NVIDIA vs. AMD" argument. Very interesting indeed...

I find it interesting that existing users still think it's okay to threadcrap...
-ViRGE

Mod callout comment removed. Take some time off to consider how you're going to change your posting habits here.
admin allisolm

 

[SlowSpyder]

So far 4/5 people are pissed off about this.

Hopefully nVidia will read this and take note. Keysplayr please point this thread out to nVidia.

Nvidia gets away with doing what they want, they have in the past they will again here. A lot of people will say that Nvidia has rubbed them the wrong way, that they will not purchase Nvidia again, etc. But the truth is when the GTX780/770 releases, many of these same people will have their credit cards out. Nvidia knows this, too.

 

[blackened23]

I have a good feeling that the people most upset by this are the people who already don't support NVIDIA.

OCN has been discussing it too, and there's plenty of people on both sides who are either indifferent or dislike it. Anyway, here's my question: where do you get the idea that you have to agree and support every decision of a company that you like? That is not the case.

I like MSI video cards but if they did something contrary to what I like, I would not support them. I have bought MSI lightning cards for several generations now, and am using SLI 680 lightnings which I love. However, if MSI in the future releases a lightning card that skimps out on the extra features, I would not buy it - I would not support the change. If I can use an analogy, one of my favorite bands in the past was old metallica - yet when they released the load album I hated it. After that point, I did not agree with their new direction and stopped attending their live shows. I still love tool (the band), yet if they release a blues album I would immediately stop being a fan.

Basically, you don't have to agree with everything and anything a company does, even if you are a fan. Does this change preclude me from purchasing future nvidia products? Of course not, if they make something good I will buy it. Yet I certainly hope that this voltage lockdown is not an indication of things to come....I enjoy overclocking, and have for many years. While you can still overclock without additional voltage (and I can clock fairly high on my lightnings without over voltage), voltage will generally always give you more MHz if you apply it properly. I seriously doubt Ivy Bridge and SB users would clock nearly as well if they used stock voltages....

 

[bononos]

So, are you trying to belittle SickBeast because he owns an AMD card and is carrying on in an nVidia thread? If not, sorry then, I'm still not getting you're meaning.

No, just stating where he's coming from.

 

[SickBeast]

Yeah it sounds a lot better than just allowing everyone to bump up the voltage. What drove the OP to create this thread was his dissatisfaction stemming from a purchase based on a of a special sample 7850.

Well, that was a piss off but I was at least able to work around it with a BIOS flash. I could live with that if that's all it took for the nVidia cards.

I created this thread because I am an enthusiast and I love overclocking. nVidia doing this just kills the entire hobby for me.

 

[SickBeast]

how about instead of neutering a group of customers you implement a system where in order to unlock voltage adjustments for your card you have to register the damn thing and then void your rma warranty

Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

That's an interesting idea. I would probably go for that.

 

[AnandThenMan]

I never thought I'd see the day where so called enthusiasts are defending the inability to overclock.

 

[SickBeast]

Why upset? Do you own one?

I am strongly against it, but the only people that should be rightly 'upset' are those who bought a SKU and lost functionality to OC/over-volt as promised.

Definitely a bad move on NV's part.

I just think it's a slippery slope. I love nVidia products. I prefer their driver interface and I generally find their drivers to be far superior to what AMD offers. The voltage lockdown could be a step toward a total lockdown of the base clock.

I just really hope they don't do this to the GTX 780. If they do we are all doomed to an extent. AMD will be the only option.

Basically this pisses me off because it limits me to AMD if I want to overclock.

 

[SirPauly]

Imho,

This is more-so a continuation of the information on nVidia with manual volt adjustments over 1.175. Obviously, they don't like it and if this bothers some strongly simply vote with one's wallet.

Personally desired to have volt adjustments and purchased a nVidia sku that offered the flexible ability from MSI -- believed the higher quality components and sku were worth a modest premium.

My beef is more about choice and AIB differentiation choice -- hopefully nVidia and AIB's can reach some agreement that continues to bring more AIB differentiation flexibility. IT has to be tough on the AIB's, over-clocking enthusiasts and nVidia owners that may demand the best nVidia sku an AIB can offer.

Will be interesting to see how the market reacts to this.

 

[blackened23]

Imho,

This is more-so a continuation of the information on nVidia with manual volt adjustments over 1.175. Obviously, they don't like it and if this bothers some strongly simply vote with one's wallet.

Personally desired to have volt adjustments and purchased a nVidia sku that offered the flexible ability from MSI -- believed the higher quality components and sku were worth a modest premium.

My beef is more about choice and AIB differentiation choice -- hopefully nVidia and AIB's can reach some agreement that continues to bring more AIB differentiation flexibility. IT has to be tough on the AIB's, over-clocking enthusiasts and nVidia owners that may demand the best nVidia sku an AIB can offer.

Will be interesting to see how the market reacts to this.

Yeah, I agree somewhat. I think nvidia should allow manufacturers some leeway in their aftermarket boards. I think cards such as the MSI lightning, Asus DC2 are all much more versatile in terms of handling additional voltage than a reference design. I recognize that a ref card is not the best candidate for over voltage, if nvidia wants to lock that down, cool. But some additional flexibility for aftermarket cards doesn't seem unreasonable - the cards do after all have substantially better cooling and VRM components.

From what I understand, nvidia has to approve aftermarket designs anyway? That's why i'm really confused as to why nvidia backtracked and suddenly forced EVGA and MSI to reverse course - both of their designs were approved initially (from what I understand) . If they could allow them more flexibility, such as 100mV higher than reference design I think that would be great. The cards as mentioned have components well capable of handling the higher voltage.

 

[zaydq]

Yeah, I agree somewhat. I think nvidia should allow manufacturers some leeway in their aftermarket boards. I think cards such as the MSI lightning, Asus DC2 are all much more versatile in terms of handling additional voltage than a reference design. I recognize that a ref card is not the best candidate for over voltage, if nvidia wants to lock that down, cool. But some additional flexibility for aftermarket cards doesn't seem unreasonable - the cards do after all have substantially better cooling and VRM components.

From what I understand, nvidia has to approve aftermarket designs anyway? That's why i'm really confused as to why nvidia backtracked and suddenly forced EVGA and MSI to reverse course - both of their designs were approved initially (from what I understand) . If they could allow them more flexibility, such as 100mV higher than reference design I think that would be great. The cards as mentioned have components well capable of handling the higher voltage.

Basically Evga QQ'd because MSI did it their way and Evga thought it was against the rules (hence why they made Evbot). After Evga complained and Nvidia spanked MSI, MSI complained about Evbot and now we're at null.

 

[blackened23]

Is it confirmed to have been EVGA? I read that there were complaints from 2 companies regarding fairness

 

[SickBeast]

So what, MSI has better engineers and the guts to pull something like this off and it's no longer fair? Perhaps these other companies need to start thinking outside the box like MSI did.

Beyond that, nVidia can blame whoever they want, but they created this entire situation and they had the final say. They could have decided to unlock the voltage across the board but they didn't.

 

[zaydq]

Is it confirmed to have been EVGA? I read that there were complaints from 2 companies regarding fairness

Simply theorizing.

 

[OCGuy]

So far 4/5 people are pissed off about this.

Can we get an update on the percentage?

 

[Majcric]

If I recall correctly wasn't Bvidia complaining about voltage tweaks both before/after the aftermarket enthusiast cards were released. If this is/were true it seems that Nvidia is still to blame and not their so-called premium vendors EVGA, MSI, ASUS, etc. In other words, this seems to have been an issue from the get go with Nvidia rather than card vendors getting greedy with each other which resulted to locked voltages.

 

[Kalessian]

I never thought I'd see the day where so called enthusiasts are defending the inability to overclock.

Agreed.

As an unpopular aside position, I felt similarly about intel when they moved to SB and switched to AMD immediately. I may do the same with vid cards (previously used nV for linux drivers and physx)