Nvidia promises to re-enable overclocking for Maxwell-based laptop graphics

As we have reported on Monday, Nvidia has recently disabled overclocking for laptop GPUs based on Maxwell architecture, claiming that it was "never intended" and that by removing this option, the company is actually protecting the customers' laptops from potential negative effects such as overheating. The list of the affected GPUs included all existing 900M models (GTX 980M, 970M and 965M) and two 800M models (GTX 850M and 860M's Maxwell version). ForceWare 347.09 was the driver update responsible for this change, making ForceWare 344.75 the last version to support overclocking.

However, many users were unhappy with this development, reporting a decrease in gaming performance and rightfully pointing out that disabling this feature for everyone isn't the right way to handle the matter. Some customers immediately declared that they'll be switching to AMD graphics cards in the future, some said they'll stick with ForceWare 344.75, some resorted to crude language and wishing all sorts of misfortunes upon Nvidia, and some even started a petition on Change.org. Evidently, their combined effort paid off, getting the message through: Nvidia's representative PeterS, who is employed by the company in Santa Clara and thus can be trusted to deliver accurate information, replied on the GeForce forum stating that a driver update expected next month will re-enable GPU overclocking for the affected laptops. Users wishing to get the overclocking capability back without delay were advised to revert to ForceWare 344.75 for now.

Though everyone is satisfied with this resolution, we can't help but notice that Nvidia hasn't issued an actual apology to Maxwell-based laptop owners so far, treating the entire matter as simply a case of a removed feature that some users asked to be brought back. While essentially that's exactly what happened, removing such important features without asking for user feedback prior to the change is an easy way to upset customers and diminish their loyalty to the brand, already shaken by the recent GTX 970 controversy. Perhaps honestly admitting the mistake would be better for the company's image at this point.

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