M17xR3 Owners - **Driver Updates**

When you say everything, you mean all the drivers or just the GPU drivers?

 

gpu drivers.....jsut do the quick ati uninstall from the control pannel and remove all ATI stuff

 

Has anyone seen significant performance increases with new drivers?

 

im not sure as to the improvments but i can tell you that you will loose the ability to control brightness through the FN keys and some of us lose the ability to use certian external monitors....this is a deal breaker for me.

 

guys....i have been trying to uninstall the 11.6 CC because my GTA4...(which for the first time in my life have seen it in all it's "glory" at 19*10..t.hanks to all who advised the 6970) is stuttering really bad

I have checked i am running in full power mode
no compromises..etc etc..
but i noticed this since the 11.6+CAP2,


so how do i go about uninstalling this....and the reason i ask this is...i do not want to loose ATI/intel switching....(which incidentally isn't working...so i cannot switch....) please explain....

PS tried searching through google...but i guess couldnt find the right combo of words for the last 03 days

 

go back about 4 posts in this thread and i explained how

 

Re-Install the OSD software after the drivers .. I know someone that fixed this issue by doing this.

 

Nevermind I stand corrected. I installed 11.5b and I too cannot adjust the brightness via the Fn keys. The OSD does display but it doesnt do anything.

To whoever has used 11.5 and their brightness still works please post which driver they used. Was it modded ?

 

i had also problem with stuttering in GTA4, solution was latest patch for this game.

 

I updated the driver to the one on the alienware website for my m17x which they gave me after I put in the service tag. I just got a BSoD and its about the ati driver from the log I pulled so should I try updating to the m18x one for the 6970 which you put up in the first post of this thread or what should I do?
Thank you.

 

that was already applied at the installation of the game.....i still think it works better with 11.5B, what about you AC

 

i am using stock drivers. however, patch was not applied automatically during installation for me, had to download it and install manually (i think it was 1.0.7.0)

 

So - is the ONLY issue with installing 11.6 that you lose the FN brightness controls? Or are people still having an issue with external monitors?

I run two external monitors via the HDMI and mini-DisplayPort, I don't want to lose that ability...

 

i cant use an external...the picture that shows up on the other screen is halfway down the monitor and you can adjust it enough....if you adjust too much, boom BSOD..... i am using the m18x drivers atm with no issues as well as the m18x OSD drivers.

 

Hi guys, I have alienware m17x r3 with AMD 6970M and when I play crysis 2 I can not play smoothly on extreme settings feeling some lag. is that normal for 6970M?

 

Some lag? Without having FRAPS on to tell me my current fps, I can game quite comfortably on 1080p, VERY HIGH (aka EXTREME in C2), AA off. IIRC, FRAPS will show around 20-25fps, which is fine for singleplayer.

Maybe you have Powerplay ticked off, or you're on power saver mode? Please describe what "some lag" means.

 

Not exactly butter smooth but 6970m performs well for a single card against Crysis 2 extreme. See sig.

 

Man, good stuff Thx!

 

update: my system in my sig....

11.6 allows me to use external monitor whereas every other version except stock did not.....still cant use FN to contol brightness though.....

 

Generally speaking is it safe to install new drivers direct from nvidia for the 580m on an m17x as they are released?

 

i am sorry but is everyone with the 6970 installing mobility or normal Catalysts...since this is my first exposure to an ATI GPU....i am not sure if AMD-ATI drivers makes unified drivers for desktop and mobile units?

 

Anyone try the 580m drivers Dell put up yesterday using a 460m?

 

The Dell Driver is an outdated version - 269.03. The latest WHQL for mobile GPU's is 275.50 and the the latest beta is 280.19. I'm waiting for LaptopVideo2Go to produce an INF for the 280 series driver set.

 

Would you post the link here when you get it? I hope it works with 3D.

 

v275.50 Windows 7/Vista 64bit | OEM Mobile - LaptopVideo2Go Forums

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/598790-280-19-beta-drivers-out.html

If you are using Optimus (460M/580M with 60Hz LCD panel), I would NOT recommend fiddling around with these drivers.

 

If any of you R3 owners with AMD GPUs are having issues with Aero crashing, please take a look at this post. I would appreciate feedback on the documents and any testing you're willing to do to stop the problem on your system. This was with M18x systems in mind, but a few R3 owners have posted they are having the same problem.

Windows 7 Aero Crash Cure (AMD GPU CrossFireX) - Downloadable Instructions

 

my M17x runs fine with the 280 drivers

 

Are the 11.4 drivers still the ones with the best overall performance or is anything better yet?

 

Thanks. The 280's are working great on my R3 3D/460.

 

Same here, 280 drivers works great on my R3, no BSOD's at startup.

 

Yesterday I installed the new official dell 8.851.2, A02 driver over the old ones (Radeon HD 6970); when the installation was completed I got immediately a BSOD (ati drivers related). When I rebooted the power of my 6970 was the same as an integrated graphics (20 fps on cod black ops). I tried to rollback the drivers, then uninstalled everything (clean and not clean), reinstalled the original and new dell ati version but always with no luck. This morning I formatted through alienrespawn and everything's working fine now. I don't understand why it happened. Then the brighness key doesn't work for me too (bios AO6, but I receveid the notebook 2 weeks ago).

 

if you are experiencing low framerates on 6970, try to go to the power play option in the radeon configuration and disable / enable it. This might solve the problem and make sure you are on "maximum performance" while plugged in.

 

Thanks hteng, I'll try it next time I'll experience similar problem

 

Are there any recommendations for the 460M 60Hz Optimus, or are we still stuck with 266.08?

 

There is a nVidia modified 280.26 driver especially for Dell/Alienware from the nvidia.forums and linked on this forum. I believe it is under a 580 driver thread in the last day or two. PM me if you cannot find it.

 

Dr. J, thanks for the heads-up. I think I found what you were talking about in this thread. Please let me know if it was another one you are thinking of.

I installed it, and my initial impressions are very positive. Serious improvements over 266.08. I detailed more in the thread above.

Thanks again.

 

im about to recieve an m17x with a 6990 in there, how far behind are the dell drivers vs the ati ones ?

and can i just install the ati drivers instead of the dell ones ?

 

They are both the same as far as I can tell, 11.7. I did notice that I had to go download the AMD drivers to get Catalyst Control Center though. Either should work.

 

I don't even get the ati drivers updates. What's the improvement over the stock ones? I don't notice any diff..

 

Im ordering today, Im just wondering if the 1600x900 screen is of high quality or if there is much of a difference with the 1920x1080 screen?

I dont mind losing a bit of res if the actual quality of screens are not much different.

 

Get the best screen possible, no brainer.

 

is it just me or does the dell ati drivers not got the ati overdrive tools build into its catalyst or is this just the ati mobile stuff ?

 

Not sure what overdrive does, but I don't see it in mine.

 

it be under the performance section it allows for overclocking.

although there are better tools i supose to overclock it be fun to just play with that untill i get around installin more shizzle ehe

 

You need to do some small registry tweaks to enable it. I don't recall the keys off the top of my head. You'll also need to flash your vBIOS to allow any significant overclocking.

Or, you can just use something like Trixx and not do any of that.

 

Trixx is just software mod, right? And it resets back to stock settings when I reboot, right?

 

Yes it does that by default, but you can have Trixx run at startup and load a saved clock setting if you wish, just like CCC Overdrive. I think that CCC Overdrive works by interacting with the vBIOS to adjust the clock rates in real time within defiined limits in the vBIOS, which is why you need to modify those values to make it useful. With Trixx, no flashing is necessary for essentially the same result (unless you want to lower voltage or anything like that).

 

Tried the nVidia 280.26 drivers w/ modified inf. They installed but aero would be disabled whenever I exited a 3D app (TMT or a game). Uninstalled and went back to the 279.x Dell drivers.

 

Bagongolo,

I did the same thing but I never hit a BSOD. I describe the symptoms in a different thread specific to issues with the recent driver update here. FWIW, the graphics driver is the only update I performed -- all of my other drivers were from the initial release.

heatpipe

 

guys any idea how to enable the overclocking panel in the 6970's 11.8 CCC when installed over the Dell's A02driver