New Nvidia 301.24 drivers Beta

Here we go. New features such as FXAA should be added:
NVIDIA DRIVERS 301.24 BETA

 

Noticing a 2-3 frame increase in Skyrim at first glance.

At my testing location I went from 44-45 to 46-47

 

Anyone try these out yet? If so, how they looking?

 

Very cool. I'm tempted to try these.

 

I didn't look seriously but it looks indeed better in BF3 with nvidia FXAA rather than 4xMSAA, also adaptive v-sync is nice feature (you can cut it half refresh rate too )

 

Not sure if anyone else was having this issue, but I noticed that if I started Mass Effect 3 or Skyrim (haven't tried any other games yet) with MSI Afterburner already running I would only get 10-12fps. If I shut down MSI Afterburner I would get 40-43 fps, then restart it with the game still running and it would go up to 47-50 fps. Tried this a couple of times with the same result. As long as I start it after the game is already running it seems to work fine.

 

It's overvolting 0.92 volts (GPU-Z Nvidia Inspector). I have Widezu's regular Mod Rom with stock clocks.

 

Anyone came up with a modded inf for R1 280M SLI?

 

Not sure if I want to bother updating to this yet...

 

How you install these on R1? the modded .inf from Laptopvideo2go.com doesn't work. In fact these drivers doesn't come with nv_disp.inf .. So the .inf to modd has to be other.

 

Edit the nvdm.inf file,

Under [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.0] add...
%NVIDIA_DEV.060A.02A1.1028% = Section011, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_060A&SUBSYS_02A11028

Under [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1] add...
%NVIDIA_DEV.060A.02A1.1028% = Section012, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_060A&SUBSYS_02A11028

Under [Strings] add...
NVIDIA_DEV.060A.02A1.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M "

Or try the one I attached (only add the 280Ms, won't work with cards that don't work with the default drivers).

Side note to this, I don't use the 9400M (disabled), so haven't checked whether that will work or not.

 

One question, how you made this?? I want to add the 9400M too, so I guess I need to add the lines for the 9400M

 

I found a card in the drivers very close to the 280M (in this case the 285M), duplicated the lines and altered the device id and subsystem strings. There are actually other 280Ms from other vendors (clevo etc...) in other .inf files, I could potentially of used one of those.

i.e. the 285M line is this...
%NVIDIA_DEV.060F.043A.1028% = Section011, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_060F&SUBSYS_043A1028

which I converted to this...
%NVIDIA_DEV.060A.02A1.1028% = Section011, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_060A&SUBSYS_02A11028

The nvdm.inf file does have 9400M in there:
NVIDIA_DEV.0862.0271.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G"
NVIDIA_DEV.0866.0271.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G "
NVIDIA_DEV.0866.02BA.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G "

If one of those isn't the M17X R1's 9400M, could duplicate one of those to match. If you're using the third line you could find every line that has 0666.02BA.1028, duplicate the line and alter it to your device id and sub-system.

i.e. you would need to duplicate this line under [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.0]
%NVIDIA_DEV.0866.02BA.1028% = Section033, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0866&SUBSYS_02BA1028

this line under [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1]
%NVIDIA_DEV.0866.02BA.1028% = Section034, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0866&SUBSYS_02BA1028

and this line under [Strings]
NVIDIA_DEV.0866.02BA.1028 = "NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G "

and change the device IDs and subsystem strings at the start and end of the lines.

i.e. is your device id is 1111 and your subsys is 22222222 then the first line would be...
%NVIDIA_DEV.1111.2222.2222% = Section033, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1111&SUBSYS_22222222

If you need to locate your device id and subsystem strings for your 9400M, do to Device Manager, open Display Adapters, double-click on the 9400M, go to the Details tab, choose Hardware Ids in the Property Dropdown and it will usually all be listed on the first line.

 

Thanks for the explanation, I did what you said, and the Drivers installed well, even the 9400M drivers installed well, the problem is, Hybrid SLI isn't working.. anybody knows if Hybrid SLI is supported with these drivers?

 

@Tyranus..
can you post the modded inf here?

 

Sure, but I don't know, why Hybrid SLI isn't working, I'll back to older drivers.

View attachment nvdm.inf.zip

 

Well spotted!
That will account for the slight increase in temps I am seeing, and probably something to do with the power throttle not happening in my current games anymore (with a mild OC in Batman AC, Mass effect3). Except AC Revelations, that power throttles straight away with this driver and gradually gets up to 72C where it BSOD's

 

tyranus, if it helps... I flashed my cards back to 280m's and to install the new drivers properly i had to use both modded inf's, the nvdm and nvwi to get everything to install properly... I wasnt impressed with the performance and flashed back to 285m's... with the 285m's i only needed the nvwi to install the drivers... I even modded the 280m's rom file to match the clocks from your 285m rom file and the performance definitely isnt the same... the hybrid sli worked on my r1 with the 280m's, but as i dont ever use the 9400 i get better use from my rig with the 285m's

 

I've been using these drivers for a day now, and I can report that they work very well. I got about a 7-10 FPS boost over the already amazing previous drivers. Very cool!

 

@Tyranus...I seem to remember reading a post somewhere that indicated NONE of the newer NVIDIA drivers were supporting hybrid SLI...not sure tho!

 

nvwi??? What modd need to be done to that file? What happened if you only used the nvdm.inf?

In my case the drivers installed well with the nvdm.inf only, but Hybrid SLI didn't worked at all.

I think the 285M has a little higher voltage, maybe that's why they perfom better than the 280M.

Well Hybrid SLI works fine on the 285.62 and the 29x.xx.. and even Nvidia states that Hybrid SLI should work:

Hybrid SLI I know has no support on Intel chipsets.

 

I've run into the same problem. The drivers offer some excellent features such as FXAA -- really takes gaming visuals on older cards to another level with very minor performance drops. Unfortunately, I just can't hack my way into getting Hybrid SLI to work. It would be great if someone could figure out a way to capitalise on these new features with the 300 series drivers, without the loss Hybrid SLI.

I didn't know that to be a fact, but if that's the case, then an argument could be made for observing more stability in performance.

 

When i only used the nvdm file after i flashed back, the install wouldnt start, i got an error before the install could start. If I only used the nvwi file, the install would start and go through a couple of minutes then fail with no error, it would just say install failed. So I had to use both modded inf's to get the install to work properly.
As far as what is added to the nvwi inf, I pulled it from the LV2GO forum and updated the driver version. I tried to find the list of all added video cards, but cant seem to find the list at laptopvideo2go.com but i know there is a readme somewhere, just have to find it.

 

You sure you got Hybrid SLI to work properly? You seems to be the only one around who got Hybrid SLI to work.

Could you please post the link of the forum where you found the modded nvwi.inf? and post the modded nvwi.inf. Thanks.

 

yeah, i uploaded the inf's to my 4shared here is the links to download both..
nvwi
nvdm

Hope it works for you, it did seem to allow hybrid sli for me, i had it enabled in bios, and i had all three cards show up in my nvidia control panel with the 280's in sli, and i had the tray icon showing the boost performance mode, although i never tried switching to the 9400, because i never use it, but it did seem to be operating properly.

i believe the modded inf's originally came from here... LV2GO 310 inf
I do know the 9400 is listed in the inf file, if you open it and look through.....
but this may be a newer inf than the one i modified for my use also...
I actually think this is the original that i used and updated the driver version in the inf... LV2GO 295 inf

 

Can't download from 4shared, they ask me to log in, could you upload those files to a free server? You could upload the files to this site (if you zip the files first).

About the links you gave me from LV2GO, the first .inf is the nv_disp.inf which seems to not be used on these drivers and the second .inf belongs to the 295.73 drivers. It works for the 301.24 too?

UPDATE: definitely, can't get Hybrid SLI to work, tried, all modd inf from LV2GO, renamed the nv_disp.inf to nvdm.inf, drivers installed well, but again Hybrid SLI, didn't work. It's a shame because I was looking for something like the new vsync

 

what is hybrid sli?

 

Is a feature of the M17x R1, where you can swich/turn off, the discrete video cards, and use the IGP only on the fly, using the keys fn+f7.

 

I haven't been able to use hybrid-sli since the 295.xx driver family.

Im guessing if someone can help with this its the guys at LV2GO, but note sure if they can or if they would if asked to.

 

Hey, I've been using the 301.24 drivers for a while now, and I'm noticing some quirks ... or I should say... crashes. I frequently get notifications in my tray saying that the video driver has crashed, but recovered.

In one rare instance while playing Skyrim, I actually had the game revert to the intel graphics card while I was playing - I checked my temps and I can confirm that I wasn't being throttled, it was as if the game switched gears to the intel card on its own. I've been trying to reproduce this, but I can't seem to do it.

Other games, like Guild Wars, often produce this tray message before the game even starts. I'm not sure what's going on, but I assume it's an issue with the fact that these drivers are beta.

 

Those are called TDR errors ( more info here). Try reinstalling your drivers by doing this:
1) Go to your Programs and Features in Control Panel and uninstall all nVIDIA Drivers.
2) Reboot into safe mode and use CCleaner or DriverSweeper to get rid of all the remaining registry entries.
3) Run the install file for the drivers and choose Custom Install>Clean Installation.

 

Nvwi and nvdm were both needed the last time I upgraded, on the last driver, to get hybrid working. Katalin posted the modded inf files that time.

I know that when I just did the nvdm, hybrid did not work. With both, it started working.

 

I will try this.

Also today, I had a blue screen with the 301.24 drivers trying to start Skyrim:

Definitely a video driver crash.

 

If you'd like, zip and upload your dump file from C:\Windows\Minidump and I can analyze it for you. However it's very likely to be a video driver issue. Definitely try the clean install. Here's a more comprehensive step-by-step on how to remove all part of the driver before performing the clean install: GeForce Driver Installation Guide A guide to ensure your drivers are installed properly. After that, just run the driver install file as normal, choose custom install and check "perform clean installation".

 

anyone have a modded inf for the 260M?

 

I wish to second that.

 

Have you guys tried the one from LV2GO? Because honestly, its rather easy to find and always works for me.

I cant provide a direct link because for some reason it doesn't work. Just go to the 301.24 driver page on the laptopvideo2go site and take the modified inf from the page.

 

I do not recommend these drivers.... several of my games have gone screwy... the colors are all neon, and i have to change the graphics to low settings and change the direct-x to 9 to even get them to play....
If you havent installed these beta driver, just wait for the next release... I have already gone back to the 296.10 driver

 

I am waiting for the WHQL release as well. These are far too unstable to use for serious gaming. 296.10 are rock-solid for me.