Nvidia uses boot-chain security to prohibit third-party drivers from using their GPUs - if you don't use Nvidia's own power-management blob, the card will lock

Nvidia uses boot-chain security to prohibit third-party drivers from using their GPUs - if you don't use Nvidia's own power-management blob, the card will lock itself to the lowest thermal bucket and highest fan speed until you reset it. It's arguably why they're able to segment their GPUs by application so effectively.