6 ms·

Reversing NvAPI to Programmatically Overclock Nvidia GPUs

124 points by cubicfur 11y ago

warcode 11y ago
NVIDIA Inspector and GPU-Z both have simple, clean UIs and have been all I've needed in my GPU overclocking and custom bios adventures.
- creshal 11y ago
  Neither is open source though, as far as I know.
  - kcbanner 11y ago
    It seems that any implementation would need to use the closed source NvAPI.
Fede_V 11y ago
I wonder why nvidia refuses to release their public API unless you sign an NDA. Are they just worried people will buy cheaper cards and overclock them?
- lbotos 11y ago
  Isn't that what already happens? I've done it a few times in my life.
  - timboslice 11y ago
    I was looking at the GTX 980 but settled on a GTX 970. It overclocks pretty well and I put the money I saved into a new SSD :)
- creshal 11y ago
  > Are they just worried people will buy cheaper cards and overclock them? Then they wouldn't hand out the API to people writing OC tools. It's probably just standard corporate paranoia.
- kcbanner 11y ago
  They are probably worried about people physically damaging their hardware.
infinity0 11y ago
Only partially relevant to the subject, but note that this tool still requires the nvidia proprietary drivers to work. https://secure.freedesktop.org/~cbrill/dri-log/dri-devel-2015-08-10.log https://secure.freedesktop.org/~cbrill/dri-log/dri-devel-201... <mupuf> and we already had this information because nvidia-settings is open source :) The subject post is about reversing the application/driver interface; to get reclocking working on the FOSS nouveau driver would require reversing the driver/hardware interface. Background: currently newer nvidia cards boot up at a very low clock speed (~0.1x normal speed) and require the driver to reclock it. But nvidia isn't releasing the docs on how to do this. [0] http://www.x.org/wiki/Events/XDC2014/XDC2014SplietREclock/ http://www.x.org/wiki/Events/XDC2014/XDC2014SplietREclock/ [1] http://nouveau.spliet.org/evoc.html http://nouveau.spliet.org/evoc.html [2] https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvkm/subdev/fb https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-st... [3] https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvkm/subdev/clk https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-st...
castratikron 11y ago
Cool
- castratikron 11y ago
  I actually thought this was really cool. I could have chosen better wording.
rubbingalcohol 11y ago
This is great reverse engineering, and awesome the author put up the source code, but I wonder if Nvidia will try to take it down on "copyright claims"? Either way I've saved a copy of the article for later use. The author is right that the existing "approved" overclocking tools are garbage.
- timboslice 11y ago
  MSI Afterburner runs pretty well. Not sure if it is "approved" or not, but I'd assume so as MSI is an Nvidia partner.
  - rubbingalcohol 11y ago
    I've found that simply having Afterburner installed would cause bluescreens on my Maxwell card, even if no settings were altered. Although many people are blaming TDR issues in Nvidia's recent drivers, so who knows. Either way, Afterburner is a hog, has terrible UI and plenty of unneeded features (for me :). Other similar apps, like EVGA Precision appear to be re-skins of the exact same codebase.
- rancur 11y ago
  they can try, but you're allowed to reverse engineer. Which is why DMCA was written...
irascible 11y ago
Well done sir.
rancur 11y ago
this is fantastic
dkersten 11y ago
It probably serves as a convenient layer for not breaking the API across updates and also for obfuscating the entry points where the goods are to be found. It sounds like its actually just the QueryInterface from COM[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_Object_Model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_Object_Model
kistaro 11y ago
Not everyone buying those graphics cards is a 14yo xXX_l33thaxor1ny0ma|\/|4_XXx who wants dragons and giant robots on their packaging. I'm a professional software engineer and I want dragons and giant robots on my packaging. :( (writing backends for web services that will never see the light of day outside where I work, of course, so I don't even have any packaging to make a branding argument about.) Spot on about the UI, though. I just want my command line tools to have dragons and giant robots on their packaging.
shade23 11y ago
Am i the only one who is fascinated by the choice of: -the website name -the about section -the contact email id ?
- balls2you 11y ago
  No. I noticed it too. In the license he revealed his possibly real name and email id, but tried to be anonymous in the blog by using an ID looking like a Bitcoin address. Or maybe he just wants you to send him more Bitcoin for the code.

124 points by cubicfur 11y ago

NVIDIA Inspector and GPU-Z both have simple, clean UIs and have been all I've needed in my GPU overclocking and custom bios adventures.

creshal 11y ago
Neither is open source though, as far as I know.
- kcbanner 11y ago
  It seems that any implementation would need to use the closed source NvAPI.

Fede_V 11y ago

I wonder why nvidia refuses to release their public API unless you sign an NDA. Are they just worried people will buy cheaper cards and overclock them?

lbotos 11y ago
Isn't that what already happens? I've done it a few times in my life.
- timboslice 11y ago
  I was looking at the GTX 980 but settled on a GTX 970. It overclocks pretty well and I put the money I saved into a new SSD :)
creshal 11y ago
> Are they just worried people will buy cheaper cards and overclock them? Then they wouldn't hand out the API to people writing OC tools. It's probably just standard corporate paranoia.
kcbanner 11y ago
They are probably worried about people physically damaging their hardware.

infinity0 11y ago

Only partially relevant to the subject, but note that this tool still requires the nvidia proprietary drivers to work. https://secure.freedesktop.org/~cbrill/dri-log/dri-devel-2015-08-10.log https://secure.freedesktop.org/~cbrill/dri-log/dri-devel-201... <mupuf> and we already had this information because nvidia-settings is open source :) The subject post is about reversing the application/driver interface; to get reclocking working on the FOSS nouveau driver would require reversing the driver/hardware interface. Background: currently newer nvidia cards boot up at a very low clock speed (~0.1x normal speed) and require the driver to reclock it. But nvidia isn't releasing the docs on how to do this. [0] http://www.x.org/wiki/Events/XDC2014/XDC2014SplietREclock/ http://www.x.org/wiki/Events/XDC2014/XDC2014SplietREclock/ [1] http://nouveau.spliet.org/evoc.html http://nouveau.spliet.org/evoc.html [2] https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvkm/subdev/fb https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-st... [3] https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvkm/subdev/clk https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-st...

castratikron 11y ago

Cool

castratikron 11y ago
I actually thought this was really cool. I could have chosen better wording.

rubbingalcohol 11y ago

This is great reverse engineering, and awesome the author put up the source code, but I wonder if Nvidia will try to take it down on "copyright claims"? Either way I've saved a copy of the article for later use. The author is right that the existing "approved" overclocking tools are garbage.

timboslice 11y ago
MSI Afterburner runs pretty well. Not sure if it is "approved" or not, but I'd assume so as MSI is an Nvidia partner.
- rubbingalcohol 11y ago
  I've found that simply having Afterburner installed would cause bluescreens on my Maxwell card, even if no settings were altered. Although many people are blaming TDR issues in Nvidia's recent drivers, so who knows. Either way, Afterburner is a hog, has terrible UI and plenty of unneeded features (for me :). Other similar apps, like EVGA Precision appear to be re-skins of the exact same codebase.
rancur 11y ago
they can try, but you're allowed to reverse engineer. Which is why DMCA was written...

irascible 11y ago

Well done sir.

rancur 11y ago

this is fantastic

dkersten 11y ago

It probably serves as a convenient layer for not breaking the API across updates and also for obfuscating the entry points where the goods are to be found. It sounds like its actually just the QueryInterface from COM[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_Object_Model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_Object_Model

kistaro 11y ago

Not everyone buying those graphics cards is a 14yo xXX_l33thaxor1ny0ma|\/|4_XXx who wants dragons and giant robots on their packaging. I'm a professional software engineer and I want dragons and giant robots on my packaging. :( (writing backends for web services that will never see the light of day outside where I work, of course, so I don't even have any packaging to make a branding argument about.) Spot on about the UI, though. I just want my command line tools to have dragons and giant robots on their packaging.

shade23 11y ago

Am i the only one who is fascinated by the choice of: -the website name -the about section -the contact email id ?

balls2you 11y ago
No. I noticed it too. In the license he revealed his possibly real name and email id, but tried to be anonymous in the blog by using an ID looking like a Bitcoin address. Or maybe he just wants you to send him more Bitcoin for the code.