***M18x - NVIDIA SLI (Driver Questions, Performance, Problems) Discussion Thread***

I have done 3 benchmarks and I get the same results as to the generic gpu's where it is not recognized as Nvidia.
The drivers don't seem right, and the video memory should be 4000 and not 2000

Please help as to what is going wrong

 

The rubbish software is what you using futuremark and it is outdated ..
It never showed properly hardware info what I got
This soft is just to show you some marks that is it..
I really would not rely on this it is just money rip..

 

Nothing looks "wrong" in your picture. The score seems right. It's unfortunate that FutureMark do not add new cards very quickly - that's why your gpu's are not recognised. I am sure that this will change when FM add new gpu's.

The driver info listed is a version number so it wont show as 301.42 etc so that's ok.

The vRam on each of your 675m's is 2048mb and as such, FM shows the vRam for one card - it tells you further up that you are using two cards.

All in all, nothing to worry about, afaik.

 

Sgt.DeeTrix - welcome to NBR. We're glad you joined our community. Congratulations on your new beast... very nice config.

Post a link to your benchmark in the Futuremark support forums. My 7970M were not recognized. I posted a link showing an example, then got a speedy reply from a moderator. It was fixed within 48 hours. They need to add your GPU to their database so it is recognized.

On any multi-GPU setup only the RAM on one GPU is used. This applies to CrossFire and SLI. The most usable vRAM you will have is the capacity of one GPU. So, 2GB showing for your setup is appropriate. Therefore, the more vRAM you have per GPU, the better.

 

New Bios update is out A05

It has updates for ATI Crossover,

Just letting you know

 

Im running 296.10 on my 580s, what are the best drivers right now?

 

I'm still using the same - the 3xx.xx drivers didnt seem up to the job as far as I am concerned. Fox will tell you that the 295 drivers are better for benching....all round though, I think its 296.10 whql that are the best right now. YMMV.

 

TY brother Jones

 

Has anyone tried out the new beta driver?

Drivers | GeForce

 

im currently on them with no issues

 

Availability is unknown and may vary with demand, but here are the part numbers. (Pricing may also vary by locale and demand, so you'll need to call for a quote.)

• 5H5NC GeForce GTX 680m
• Y3WC7 Right Heatsink GeForce GTX 680m
• JW8P7 Left Heatsink GeForce GTX 680m
• 3MHHT NVIDIA GPU support plate
• GDMRG Nvidia SLI Cable
• P0DG8 Graphic Card Fan Master Left
• XHW5W Graphic Card Fan Slave Right

​

Thanks to MonnieRock for the new GPU part numbers.

 

Glad I could help the community.

Monnie

 

i wonder if no one bought a card right when it came out if we could effectively drive the prices down lol

 

Probably not much chance of people not buying them. Unless they turn out to be as flaky and as much of a pain to get working properly as the 7970M has been, they'll probably sell like hotcakes.

 

Interesting. I'm gonna see if I can get some pricing info on the parts....thanks for the info Mr. Fox & MonnieRock! +rep to you both.

 

did you said hotcakes? i don't think so. do you remember what dell used to charge for the 580M in SLI?

 

Well, they do seem to be selling like hotcakes in the US - shows on the configurator that configuring with 680m SLI "may delay your order"...........

 

As soon as people figure out that 7970M is a huge roll of the dice I anticipate they'll not be able to manufacture enough NVIDIA GTX 680M GPUs to keep up with the demand. It's pretty sad to see another round of AMD failures. So, history repeats itself, LOL. Deja vu with issues I had with the 6900M Series.

 

^^ I meand to upgrade to the 680M in sli^^

 

I did too, bro. I edited my post so it would be more clear what I meant.

 

I don't know brother Fox but do you think that upgrading the R1 will be a good moved? Sorry for go off topic.

 

That's OK. I don't think it is off-topic, bro. That's a legitimate question and it fits OK in this thread.

I think it is a fine move to upgrade the R1. Unless the R2 has features that you really want, it is going to be less expensive to buy the GTX 680M SLI parts for the upgrade. This is especially true if you have an R1 set up exactly as you want it and only want a more powerful GPU configuration.

If I had an extra $4,000+ I would just buy a new M18x R2 with an XM CPU, 680M SLI, SSD RAID0, etc. I plan to get at least another year or two out of this M18x R1 before I buy a new Alienware M18x R_ as a replacement. I can just about promise that there will be no AMD components in my systems going forward. I don't use the word "never" very often and I will not do so now, but I will just leave it as being rather unlikely. Hopefully, NVIDIA will keep up the good work so there is a better alternative available.

 

Yeah, you right Brother Fox!!! I'll keep my r1 on till next year when dell release the R3.

 

That's what I intend to do also - unless I can somehow upgrade the gpu's to 680m's without sirens going off that I am robbing the bank to do so...

 

Haha that's a good one Steve!!!

 

What a timely topic! I JUST pulled the trigger on an R2 with dual 680M earlier today. I figure that I can sell the R1 (in the sig, but with 8GB 1600Mhz RAM and 2x500GB HDD) for around $2500, based on what I'm seeing on eBay, and when I cost estimated it out, it'd wind up costing as much - if not more - to upgrade the GPUs and the service (have one year left on my existing rig, but picking up a 3 year contract on the new one).

What's funny is that I just upgraded my existing GPUs from AMD 6970 to Nvidia 580M last night and saw a pretty dramatic performance boost. I can only imagine what the new machine is going to bring

 

Evil Mike, you should see roughly double the FPS with 680Ms in SLI vs. the 580/675 SLI.

 

Holy crap! /faint

 

Gonna try and see if I can get some pricing for these Today - just want to make sure my "shopping list" is correct. Are the gpu fans a necessity? - I'm just wondering if there is any difference between them and the ones we have right now.....I wasnt aware that the system fan actually varied with gpu, so if it doesnt (which I would assume is the case) it's pointless buying 'em!

5H5NC GeForce GTX 680m (two of the these, obviously for SLI)
Y3WC7 Right Heatsink GeForce GTX 680m (one of these)
JW8P7 Left Heatsink GeForce GTX 680m (one of these)
3MHHT NVIDIA GPU support plate (two of these)
GDMRG Nvidia SLI Cable (one of these)
P0DG8 Graphic Card Fan Master Left (one of these) - really needed?
XHW5W Graphic Card Fan Slave Right (one of these) - really needed?

 

There should be no need for the fans. I believe they are universal. Your list looks good to me.

 

Cheers, Bro.

Seems (as expected) the parts arent available to purchase as an upgrade yet. Was told a couple of months.....I guess its time to wait, something I am good at doing anyway!

 

for the r1 or the r2?

 

That's got to be one of the quotes of the year with a nod to the wife!

 

I am running into weird issues and I'm wondering if it has to do with the SLI cable. Things seemed to be working great for a few days, then BAM! BSOD caused by nvlddmkm.sys (VIDEO_TDR_ERROR). Anyway, did some research which led me to a post on the Dell forums about the cable being installed "upside down" so I popped open my machine and sure enough, I had installed it backward, or so I think. The ribbon has a small L and R, and they were connected to the opposite GPUs (L was on the right GPU (if you're facing the laptop) and vice versa). I turned it around and reconnected everything, but I'm wondering if that even matters.

Also, does anyone have a high-rez picture showing their 580M cards with the SLI cable exposed? I'd like to compare what I did to a "known good" config.

Also, I checked my temps and they seem okay 50s-to-low 60s idle, mid-to-high 70s when benchmarking using Uniengine Heaven.

 

Sorry to be "that guy" but does anyone have a response to my question? I'd really like to know that my SLI cable is configured correctly.

Thanks!

I think I found the issue - the cable has a small tear in it. eBay, here I come. Could definitely still use some high rez pics showing the proper install for the cable if you have them handy

 

I cannot post of photo of that for you. But, now that you have switched the end of the cable to match left and right you should be good to go, Mike. I don't know that it is directional in function. I thought it was only for proper fit, but I could be wrong. It is working better now?

 

No, I had to disable SLI because of the tear in the SLI cable - I believe it was caused when I tried to install the cable the correct way and bent it too far. At least, I figure that's what is causing the really weird issues when SLI is enabled. I ordered a new cable on eBay that should be here at the beginning of next week. I was surprised that there weren't instructions on Dell's support site for proper cable installation. Oh well...live and learn I guess.

 

This doesn't really help you right now but if you go watch Mr. Fox's m18x teardown video, you can pause and see the SLI cable orientation for when the replacement part comes in.

I am having similar issues that I have been trying to sort out myself. I'll have to check my SLI cable for rips / breaks on my next teardown. Thanks for the idea!

 

Good thought DVS. I actually did that when I originally installed the cards, but apparently wasn't paying close enough attention. Oh well I may look at other teardown vids too, now that I think about it. I found a seller on eBay (blue32701) who's selling M18x SLI cables for like $40 including shipping. Mine should be here between tomorrow and next Tuesday - I'll let you know if it's legit.

 

I am not sure where to post this, but is anything mentioned about 680m SLI compatibility in m18x R1 ?

 

I think the "official" Dell stance would be that it hasnt been "validated" for the R1.....just like the 7970m's havent been validated for use in the R1. Thinking about it logically, it wouldnt be a good move for Dell to say "sure, they work fine...go ahead and upgrade" when they would lose out on sales of new R2's.....it's laughable really as these machines are supposedly "user upgradeable" but when it comes down to actually doing it, getting support from Dell in doing so is like trying to find rocking horse poo.

 

well, would the cards at least work in an R1 similar to 7970m, or not be recognized like in m17x r3?

 

I'd like to think they would work like the 7970m in the R1 - that's just bad drivers that are the issue for that scenario. I guess to be 100% sure, someone needs to try it out and see what gives.....

It seems that part success has been had in the 17x r3 with 680m....I'm not quite sure if they can get 3d working right now but worth a read.... http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/672230-m17x-r3-680m-compatability-11.html

 

I had my gpu's replaced yesterday, now one of them will not come out of x4, anyone have any idea why?

 

What do you mean by "will not come out of x4" bro? I'm not sure what the issue is that you are describing.

 

PCI x4?

10char

 

Here is an image

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/1696/58931058.jpg

The top part is 2 gadgets. The bottom is the screen in gpu-z to turn on both gpu's...

For some reason pci-express bus is running at the wrong speed.

 

Hmm, I see now. Thank you. If that problem began with the GPU installation, it would seem the one GPU is no good. Try re-seating that one in its PCI-e slot and if that does not correct the problem, they should replace it.

 

would running like this harm the cards in any way? I have to get another tech out to fix a problem the second tech messed up on(didn't put it back togher right.) I really don't want to take it apart if I don't have to being someone should be out in the next 4 or 5 days...

sadly I have 3 finals due on saturday and I don't want to take it apart and mess it up...

edit:

with gpu-z the buss interface keeps switching from 1.1x16@x8 1.1 to 2.0...I thought it might be a driver issue so I tried the last 4 sets and that doesn't do anything...

 

This part is totally normal and by design. It only changes to 2.0 under load. This is the same with AMD and NVIDIA GPUs with the M18x R1 and R2 and it is not a cause for concern. It also does not relate to the other problem you are having. The one that is remaining stuck at lower speeds is the problem.