NVIDIA v301.40 BEST 3XX DRIVER

Best color reproduction with M17X R3 3D

Tested: Metro 2033, Arkham City

Applications: Premiere Pro CS5.5, AE CS5.5, OpenGL Cinebench 11.5 scored 47.64.

Download link: Drivers | drivers for mobile cards and laptops | laptopvideo2go.com

New 3XX drivers clean install guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/659378-nvidia-drivers-clean-install.html

 

Not the best if you lose brightness control though.

 

In game brightness control is the same with all 3xx drivers.

 

Not in game brightness control. Actual screen brightness control as in Fn+F4 and Fn+F5. That basic functionality is lost when using modded nvidia drivers which is a deal killer for me.

 

Fn+F4 and Fn+F5 work fine.

 

Gonna give this a try. Just picked up FFXIV and would like to see if this will give me some extra FPS.

 

Yup +Rep

Just tried this out and got an immediate +10FPS in Batman Arkham City at stock clocks.

I rolled back from the official 3xx beta as soon as I saw the overvolt and an increase in temps, so never really tested it but just in this game this one it runs a few C cooler as well

Now for Assasins Creed Revelations, my other fav 3D game. Curiously that game benefits from a mild overclock but actually runs cooler when in 3D - lets see how this driver performs....

 

I can confirm that Brightness control works for me as well and this driver is churning out fps like crazy.

 

I tried out all the 3xx drivers and this is the only one that doesn't crash with Adobe applications, i hope Nvidia won't mess it up

 

I didn't notice any difference after installing these drivers, but I haven't really had a chance to mess around with any of the settings yet.

 

Good infos, sorry for being pessimistic earlier, reports of decent functionality suggest good things +rep

 

Hello,

Have any of you tried this driver with starcraft 2?

Thanks,

timurStas

 

Yeah, a lot of fixes in the last few only to introduce new problems

I'm hoping this one goes WHQL (finally!)

 

Going to try this modded driver today. Hopefully, it will do better with GPU OC. The unmodded NVIDIA version has TDR problems if OC'd as much as I normally OC for benchmarks.

 

Well we know it's going to get a real test out when the big boys hit it

Good luck Mr Fox! Any driver that visually improves a game I am playing at the time gets my vote...

 

Well, thank you for the kind words. I'm just an ordinary guy that likes having fun.

I'll do more testing in games this evening, but I like what I'm seeing so far with Vantage FPS. I don't have access to AC and don't feel like downclocking my CPU, so I am not running the full benchmark right now. (CPU will have thermal shutdown at the current clock speeds in Vantage CPU tests without the help of AC.) I will not need to lower the clock speeds on the CPU for game testing.

Spoiler

And, yes, brightness control is working for me also.

 

I look forward to your results. You could always try my 'frozen pea' mod:

 

Ha ha... that's interesting. I've not seen that trick before. Does it actually work, or does the bag block air flow too much?

 

The bag is a perfect fit between the intakes and I have two wood blocks velcro'd to the table to raise the whole unit about 25mm. It does mask the small vent but I went with it assuming that with that whole area of the base being chilled it would not do any damage.

It did give me an extra 30 mins or so gaming when I was having bad throttling issues. I never went to the next level of rotating 2 bags

I was a hardcore overclocker a couple of years ago having built a 2x295 quad sli +9600 dedicated phsyx with 1200W multi rail PSU n watercooling on proc, NB/SB, Voltage regulators, and both 295's! At that point I figured I had an OCD problem so stay away from benchmark SW on my alienware

The purists will tell you that I am risking condensation but at the time I was desperate to actually get some decent gaming time in!

Forgot to add, there is the little problem of 'the peas are all frozen in one lump, do you know why?', 'Dunno dear...'

 

Still doing more testing, but these drivers are looking pretty solid so far. Actually gained a few FPS.

Arkham Asylum (Very High)

Arkham City (Extreme)


(Both Batman benches are on highest graphics settings available for everything, same as in previous runs... see here for comparison and detail on settings.)

 

Installed this driver and for some reason all games ran at about 3-11fps uninstalled and installed nvidia beta driver solved everything.

 

It's a different build so it's meant for the newer cards.

you should post those pictures on Dell's forums, movie making solutions

 

Yeah, 'what I needed to do to use my new expensive AP laptop!'

Shame cos I really love it when it works, which is 'not-a-lot' Right now if I hit 72C on the GPU the whole machine locks up and it makes a loud buzzing sound - this driver is helping it though as my temps have dropped quite a bit.

Time for another call to India....

Worked fine for me (well not exactly smooth but not any real problems on the install)
The Dell one IS only for the 6xx cards but this one seems to have most of the M chipsets covered.

Thanks, nice to see it works for others. At last I can play BAC in DX11 with all the settings (except tesstlation which is on the medium setting) maxed out.

I can 'feel' it's a little less smooth but definitely playable and I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadnt got used to playing in DX9. Temp is a nice stable 63C

You really can see the improvement in texture depth along with all the debris floating around with Phsyx on max. Loving it - back to my roam through the streets of Arkham....

Oh yeah, for me there seems to be a law of diminishing returns on OC'ing Batman AC. After around 720 the frame rate increase is so small for the extra cycles it's not worth the extra heat

 

I tried it...its runs perfectly fine..And i wish to inform that you dont really have to uninstall your previous driver if it was a official Nvidia or Dell certified driver. I simply hit the setup icon and chose manual installation along with clean installation option which the setup process gives.

No issues with FN key leverage for brightness..

 

Is your Premiere Pro running better since installing?

 

302.59 is up

 

I know you did not ask me the question, but I'll see how Premiere Pro runs with this driver tonight. Then, I'll try 302.59 that Psychotic posted.

 

''Newer Cards" 6xx 5xx 4xx

 

Oh, sorry, I saw you were responding to a 580 user but see he also has an older AW so not sure what machine they were trying it on

 

Gonna give these a shot...

 

Yes it is with MPE on, Premiere has its own issues but this is the only 3xx driver that doesn't crash with MPE.
Always watch temps. with MPE on.

MPE good benchmarking tool? (single GPU)

 

Thanks you two, I appreciate it. I use PP for small work projects, although it is 100X better on my new system (compared to my old Inspiron) I feel like I'm not getting as much out of it as I should.

 

Premiere Pro did not give me any issues with either driver. Unfortunately, neither of these 3XX drivers overclock well enough to suit me, so I went back to my old standby driver that always does.

 

They say on the forums that they will be basing the ''next release'' on this one.

 

Sounds promising, now to decide if I risk trying the latest, latest one

 

If your not going to be clocking the daylights out of it, both of the 3XX drivers were fine for me. The newer release has some odd characters (not sure what language) in the main screen of the NVIDIA Control Panel, but did not seem to hurt anything.

 

Thanks, I'm just interested in getting the best out of my games ATM so I'll probably stick with the 301.40 until NV get a 3xx 'certified' version out.

 

Try @DellCares on twitter. My experiences with them have been wonderful, especially compared to India tech support misery.

 

Thanks! Anything to avoid calling then AGAIN. They are very polite but every time I go through the same history, same tests, and they invariably blame me for messing it up. Time to push for a replacement methinks.

Never 'twittered' b4 so a new social network that will draw me in I'm sure

 

Fortunately twitter is pretty easy to figure out. After you sign up for an account follow @DellCares. Then, in a tweet write something like "@DellCares I'm having an issue regarding my M17x R3". From there, they will likely follow you back. At that point, they will likely help you through DMs (equivalent of private messages). I would be sure to let them know the full history of what you've been going through with the system. I should also note that DMs (like normal tweets) have a fairly low character limit, so it may take a few.

Just be sure not to post your service tag or any personal info in a public tweet. Good luck, let us know how it goes!


Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

Thank you so much!!! Wish I'd hung around for your reply before I spent the last hour trying to figure it out. Never saw anything about DM,s and I was confused how anybody actually gets anything across in 120 characters, what a pain...

 

Yeah, I admit it can be confusing at first. To access your DMs click the silhouette of a person icon at the top right of the screen (if you're on the website). For you to be able to DM someone you have to be following each other.

The 120 character limit is annoying, I always put something like a ">>" at the end of my message to indicate it goes on to the next.

Hope it gets easier for you.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

Thanks again. The popularity of this medium is missing me ATM - feel like I've gone back in time to my old bullitin Board (BBS) days, just need a 9600 baud modem connection and it's 1997 again!!

 

when installing these drivers do you litterally install it like any driver you get from nvidia or do you need to do something different? also if i have my graphics card switched to just my 580 and optimus disabled will i lose the ability to see a screen when i uninstall my current drivers?

 

I've never understood the attraction to Twitter. It's more of an irritation than it is an asset to me, in large part due to the character limit.

 

I always check the "clean install" box whenever I update my drives. Same with the modded ones.

You will still see your screen even with optimus disabled. I have it disabled, and have never ran into any issues updating.

 

ok and all i have to do is download and run correct?

 

News feeds and simplicity for me. . I can keep up with info on my favorite music artists, updates, etc all in one place.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

You must download the modified INF file too, extract and replace the INF.(nvwi) in the Display.Driver folder.
Use this guide http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/659378-nvidia-drivers-clean-install.html and in the last restart hit F8 and choose disable driver signature enforcement so then windows won't pause the installation.

 

I didn't have to do any of those steps. I just downloaded the file, extracted it. Ran the exe and it did all the work. Haven't had any issues.