[*Unresolved* Issue] Alienware M18x: GTX 580M SLI DPC Latency Problems

Yep, I'm thinking to call dell to get my 6990M back, Not too sure about it. Lol

 

If you do any real video/audio editing > decoding/encoding for the ipad 2 with a 580M SLI(enabled) M18x, you'd be pulling out your hair by now during playback.

 

oh wel i don't do that, i gess i'm ok.

 

So is this thing affecting everyone or is it just some laptops with 580m's in SLI? The reason I ask is because if its everyone then dell should have done something about it like they did with their previous laptops. Didn't the same thing happen with the m17x r2?

 

Yes, Dell did some things on the M17x R1 to help, but it is a common NVIDIA issue. If you visit the NVIDIA forums, you will see that customers with various brands of computers are experiencing the DPC latency problem.

The average user is not going to be aware the problem is present. It primarily shows up with issues in audio/video editing. Normal use and gaming doesn't seem to be affected. In fact, if you open NVIDIA CP and go to the page with the rotating logo, load a youtube video, or run a benchmark like Vantage or 3DMark11 in a windowed mode, you can watch as the DPC latency goes away. Something about it is only problematic when the GPUs are idle or under low load conditions.

 

When I get back to my M18x I'll post a video of what effects the latency has on high profile video editing after the editing during video playback.



Sent from my iPad 2

 

Based on what I have seen on NVIDIA forums, the problem is also present on more than just the 580M cards. My bet would be that it is an NVIDIA driver bug that has gone un-fixed for WAY too long.

 

The funny thing is Dell knows what's wrong and how to correct it since their old drivers don't exhibit the dpc latency problem. I think its time for another Team Green conference call. I'll post a video showing the latency problems effect on sli enabled high profile video editing tomorrow. I'm to tired now.....

 

I thought with the fermi platform nv fixe this DPC latency problem., but not they dind't...

 

With the old Dell drivers it is fixed. There's something not being done to every other driver causing dpc latency.

http://i.imgur.com/BQqIe.jpg

This pic shows a few very high latency spikes. The same latency causes artifacts during decoding/encoding.

If I run Steam & Origin in the background the latency is a lot less. This only happens with high profile 1080P encoding. Disabling SLI corrects this problem. I had to shorten the file because the file size was over 300mbs by the time the action began. On the Dell drivers this problem does not occur. if you look at the video thumbnail below you can see the artifacts.
I removed the video clip with thumbnail showing the artifacts caused by dpc latecy because of forum rules and Youtube's flagging of my video within seconds after uploading because of copyright laws.

 

Video's been blocked Bro

 

Strange I can play it. Try it again.
Aww....man you're right. It must be still in my cache. It is blocked I guess I need to borrow my significant others HDC-HS700K camera capable of 1080P 60 FPS and encode another video. I really wanted to show commercial video. Not home video.

This is soooo annoying. In this pic I haven't even started the editing.
http://i.imgur.com/VT4iP.png

 

Aha I see, well then I guess I will be fine with it. Usually Foxreal (A/V editor I use) can only use one gpu so I can disable SLI during its use. And as you said in your average usage its not noticeable. Thanks for the explanation I was really worried about this but now its fine

 

Yup. Disabling SLI hides the problem. Using a program than is optimzed for Nvidia SLI/Cuda(Badaboom/DVDFab) will make short work of the editing process. I'm serious Badaboom/DVDFab is amazingly fast and accurate with SLI/Cuda, but for some reason every driver except the Dell driver has a problem with DPC latency that affects the encoding process. This latency can also effect high kbps audio editing. The good thing is that Dell is aware of this problem and knows what to change in order to fix this. It's just the lack of info that makes this waiting for a response difficult. After we resolve this last problem the M18x 580M SLI configuration will be second to none in all aspects.

 

this is ridiculous come on dell...

 

You know what dell is going to say right only use GPU drivers directly from dell

 

Not this time....lol. Besides the fact that their drivers are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo old for SLI, I find every branch of Dell recommending Nvidia drivers these days. A SLI/Crossfire system is dependent on up to date drivers. For awhile I tried the Dell drivers because I found myself doing a lot of high profile video editing. Using the old Dell drivers render SLI useless for today's games. BF3, Rage, Crysis 2 and so many games are unplayable on those old drivers. I wonder if they'll tell us what's the difference between Dells driver that fixes the latency?...or just put out a up to date driver.

 

Yes skyGunner, I have done all driver test and can see the difference. Totally agree with you.

 

Hopefully we'll get some info this week

 

I hope, I hope.

 

I thought the problem was solved with the 290 beta drivers from NVIDIA, no?

I can't use them because the DisplayPort doesn't work.

 

Nah mate. I'm running 290.53 beta and they still suffer from high latency. 290.36 do too, as do Dell's beta 285.62 - The only one that doesnt is Dell's ageing 269.03 driver which doesnt have latency issues but is obviously lacking in performance.

 

^Exactly
10chars

 

Ahh OK. That sucks

 

Seems NVIDIA and Dell are either not paying attention or not letting us know what they are doing to resolve this. Ultimately, it falls on NVIDIA to fix their drivers, but Dell should have some pull at NVIDIA. That, or Dell can help us fix it as they did with the now obsolete (269.03) Dell recommended driver. The Dell 269.03 driver is too old to provide good performance with the latest games. It would be fine for business type use... it's a no go for gaming.

 

what happen with bill from dell, did he give up on us?

 

That's not like Bill. There may be too many balls in the air to avoid dropping a few. Closing out a business year and the storm of business initiatives and new projects introduced at the start of a new year is always a real pleasure in corporate America.

I'm sure we will hear something before long. Waiting just sucks.

That ManuelG guy from NVIDIA forums has never acknowledged my post or message to him requesting information on NVIDIA's plan to address this problem.

 

the SLi system is great. But that DPC latency thing sucks.

 

As more people get past the initial wow factor of 580M SLI with games, I believe more users will run into this problem. I also believe that this problem causes some low level glitches/artifacts in game. For the most part the latency subsides while playing graphic intense games. But this is NOT always the case. I have seen instances of high latency while playing BF3, MW3, EDF, Rage and Crysis 2.

 

Runtime Error Code: 50209

 

It also causes video glitches/artifacts in video editing in addition to annoying audio pops/clipping or unwanted DJ robo sounds.

 

thanm that is cocono. my brother skygunner27.
I just going to wait for the M18XR2 and Order with the new AMD GPU that I heart is coming soon. any one intersted in M18X?

 

.....stick around brother and tough it out with us we're almost there.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. .<< there

 

Hi guys.

I have pointed this thread out to appropriate parties within Dell. I will post back when I can with any details I can. I still need to read the entire thread before I say or ask much TBH, but out of curiosity, do any of the issues you know of so far happen with a clean install of the Dell validated Nvidia drivers off our site?

 

They don't happen with the Dell suggested driver (2.6#), but that driver is too old and SLI support is terrible. The issue is present with all of the newer drivers, both from Dell, and NVIDIA, including the latest 2.9# NVIDIA beta drivers.

 

Got it. Thanks! I'll get to reading now and catch up.

 

Sentinel196 is correct. The only driver that is free of DPC Latency is Dell's NVIDIA 269.03 driver. Which is SUPER old and unsuitable for Q3/Q4's 2011+ games. Every other driver suffers from serious latency.
Thank You, Bill.

 

Running 290.53 beta drivers. Chart went red in under 10 seconds.

I believe we need to make it clear to Nvidia that, if they wish to maintain the credibility of these so-called "Verde" For-the-life-of-your-GPU drivers, that it will NOT be acceptable for said drivers to essentially BREAK the audio experience of our laptops, more specifically, to ruin the DPC latency. Am I missing something?


Graph

Spoiler

Results (Text)

Spoiler

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines belonging to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. Also one or more ISR routines belonging to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:03:52 (h:mm:ss)


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
System Information
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name: NEOSIS-PC
OS version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2960XM CPU @ 2.70GHz
Logical processors: 8
RAM: 8570875904 total
VM: 2147352576, free: 1923260416


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed: 2691 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 2208 MHz

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED KERNEL TIMER LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Highest measured kernel timer latency (µs): 14005.2324


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED SMIs AND CPU STALLS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Highest measured SMI routine or CPU stall (µs) 19.2410


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 12392.2519
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 290.53 , NVIDIA Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.1637
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: rspLLL64.sys - Resplendence Latency Monitoring and Auxiliary Kernel Library, Resplendence Software Projects Sp.

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.5191

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 675907
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 2299
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 42
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 2
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 1081.5328
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.5280
Driver with highest ISR total time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.1451

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 326314
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 29
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 5
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Process with highest pagefault count: none

Total number of hard pagefaults 4
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 3
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 4705.4425
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.3000
TODO: Number of processes hit: 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 ISR count: 326348
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time: 1081.5328
CPU 0 ISR total execution time: 2697189.3913
CPU 0 DPC count: 632264
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time: 12392.2519
CPU 0 DPC total execution time: 9364263.6365
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 ISR count: 0
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time: 0.0000
CPU 1 ISR total execution time: 0.0000
CPU 1 DPC count: 0
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time: 0.0000
CPU 1 DPC total execution time: 0.0000
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 ISR count: 0
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time: 0.0000
CPU 2 ISR total execution time: 0.0000
CPU 2 DPC count: 8224
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time: 32.4433
CPU 2 DPC total execution time: 48928.3496
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 ISR count: 0
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time: 0.0000
CPU 3 ISR total execution time: 0.0000
CPU 3 DPC count: 0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time: 0.0000
CPU 3 DPC total execution time: 0.0000
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 ISR count: 0
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time: 0.0000
CPU 4 ISR total execution time: 0.0000
CPU 4 DPC count: 12963
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time: 73.1780
CPU 4 DPC total execution time: 80942.9524
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 ISR count: 0
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time: 0.0000
CPU 5 ISR total execution time: 0.0000
CPU 5 DPC count: 0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time: 0.0000
CPU 5 DPC total execution time: 0.0000
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 ISR count: 0
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time: 0.0000
CPU 6 ISR total execution time: 0.0000
CPU 6 DPC count: 19949
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time: 36.4530
CPU 6 DPC total execution time: 142271.9327
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 ISR count: 0
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time: 0.0000
CPU 7 ISR total execution time: 0.0000
CPU 7 DPC count: 4858
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time: 15.3363
CPU 7 DPC total execution time: 12747.2017
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Official BETA NVIDIA 290.53 Display Driver Feedback Thread For NVIDIA Geforce Desktop/Notebook/ION GPUs - NVIDIA Forums - Page 28

I need some support from you guys at the NVIDIA forum. If you want this fixed, please join me and making your voice heard and post your DPC latency screen shots. Please use the link above post your request for an update on NVIDIA's progress to fix this issue and send a PM to ManuelG. I'm tired of seeing him ignore posts and PM with questions about DPC latency. If he is an NVIDIA rep, then he needs to represent his company.

We need to literally bombard NVIDIA with this or we can absolutely count on the fact that they will never fix it. It will be just like the last Class Action suit where they pretend the NVIDIA defect did not exist.

This is the sort of childish idiocy we can expect...

 

Thank you Fox, for taking the time to combat this problem at the source outside of NBR. We'll probably have to continue relying on Dell to resolve this problem. Nvidia probably wants to sweep this under the rug and continue business as normal. For what it's worth I will also create a user name and post there. I want to know that I did everything possible to help get this resolved.

 

Ditto. Registered and posted. Also sent a PM to ManuelG asking for some input as to what resolution may be offered

 

We tested three M18x with Nvidia GTX580m SLI in our lab. Below are the results -
Dell driver 269.30: DPC latency NOT present
Dell driver 285.62: DPC latency present
NVIDIA Beta driver 290.53: DPC latency present

We are going to push Nvidia on this one. For now, our recommendation is to use our 269.30.

 

Outstanding! Your lab confirmed exactly what we reported in this thread. Thank you for taking up the cause for us. +1 Rep

We agree that it is NVIDIA that needs to be pressured to correct it.

Do you know if Dell tweaked something with the 269.30 driver to fix the DPC latency? If so, it would be nice to know (if Dell will allow disclosure) if it is something we end users could do to fix any of the current NVIDIA reference drivers.

 

That is great news that you managed to replicate the latency problem - thanks for your efforts again Chris ! +1rep from me too! - lets just hope that Dell will be able to "lean" on Nvidia to address this problem fairly quickly.

Side note: I still have had no reply from ManuelG after the PM I sent to him asking for his input & still no public acknowledgement from him after ANY of our posts over on the Nvidia Forums Thread.

 

That is a great, news brother DellchrisM. Ecellent excellent...

 

Thank you, Chris. You guys are dead on with your results. We appreciate the update.

Has anyone had a chance to look at the "Prototype Test Only. NVIDIA Confidential." Error Message?

 

Yay progress

 

Do you know if Dell tweaked something with the 269.30 driver to fix the DPC latency? If so, it would be nice to know (if Dell will allow disclosure) if it is something we end users could do to fix any of the current NVIDIA reference drivers.
* Email sent asking.

Has anyone had a chance to look at the "Prototype Test Only. NVIDIA Confidential." Error Message?
* Engineering is convinced that the culprit is the Nvidia beta drivers. They told me, "You must remove all Nvidia beta drivers using Driver Cleaner or Driver Sweeper. Load our Dell WHQL driver, then run the vbios .06 again. Then, the "Prototype Test Only. NVIDIA Confidential" error should no longer appear.". If you have done this, let me know so I can tell them that it is not working as they thought.

 

That's a very good question.

In regards to the prototype error, I'm pretty sure I had this problem on 269.03. For the team I will give it another shot on 269.03. Hopefully I won't have to swap SSD's to fix the problem again
Good thing it's the weekend. I remember 269.03 being worse than the beta drivers. On the beta drivers it's a gamble when the message will rear it's ugly head. On 269.03 it happens everytime.

Sorry to troll on this thread.

I installed the A01269.03 R308308.exe driver. As soon as I loaded up Sonic Generations in 3D, the "Prototype Error" showed up. After that I tried Crysis 2. Same "Prototype Error" showed up. I restarted and tried Crysis 2. Same error. Luckily, I didn't get stuck in a permanent loop of the error message after disabling 3D this time. Please let engineering know that both Dell video drivers along with the latest Dell VBIOS still produce the problem.

 

Thi is a good experience, about drivers from NV that I thought was the best.