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

Could make a huge difference, exactly what your describing with the temps sky rocketing. It's actually pretty simple to take the M18x apart, I can have everything taken apart, repasted, and put back together again easily in 30 mins and that is taking my time.

Mr. Fox has a video on how to take it apart. I'll see if I can find and post the link, if not just a simple look on youtube will show you how.

Here is the video I was referring to.

Mr Fox Awesome tear down vid

 

There is an index to quite a few useful post linked in the right side of my signature. In case you need it again later, that's one of the links in the index.

 

So I haven't gotten to opening up my beast but I set HWinfo64 to force the fans on high since like I said when playing games, I wasn't hearing the fans turning on high while playing games. So with the fans on high, I was able to play GTAIV without any issues on high settings for as long as I wanted. When I quit the game, I noticed that the high temp for the GPU was 97 degrees Celsius. I believe that to be very high if I am not mistaken. Idle is around 50-55 degrees.

 

Whoa... yes, 97°C for a GPU is out of control, whether overclocked or not. You need to get those bad boys repasted right away.

 

So would you recommend purchasing the thermal pads from dell, Contacting Dell using my warranty service to see if they will send me them, or using a thermal compound like I did on the CPU?

 

I was sent 2x 580s to replace failed 6990s in my M18x. I tried cleaning out the ATI software on my machine and installed the two 580s. But I received many BSODs no matter what NVIDIA software I installed.
So I did an entire reinstall from scratch and get to the point where I should install the drivers. I installed the intel HD drivers and rebooted and installed the drivers from Dell's site for the 580s. The installation seemded to go just fine, no error messages, etc.
but
No matter what I do now, I get one card coming up fine but I get an exclamation point in Device manager on the other card (on PCI Bus 7) with the message "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)

I can't seem to get both cards working together.
GPU-Z reports and recognizes both cards. I have downloaded the Vbios from their website site and ran it on both cards. Didn't seem to make a difference.

Any ideas?


Update: I just downloaded and installed the 306.97 drivers and the installation went fine. This time both cards were recognized and fine in device manager. I enabled SLI in the menu and ran furmark. It started to crash within 5 seconds and it lost the screen (LCD went blank) at 7 seconds, rebooted in about 3 seconds more.
If I run furmark without the SLI enabled and it ran through the 15 minute burn in test fine. I am guessing it is a bum card?

 

Well, as you have done a OS re-install, you shouldnt have any driver conflicts, you are ok with vBios and Dell drivers so the only other thing I would imagine is hardware. A couple of threads you may very well find useful are below as it sounds like your card is shorting out on the backplate:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/671269-serial-bsods-580s-way-out.html & [Guide] Curing Shorted Support Plate - GTX 580M (Error Code 43 - Revision FF error)

 

Thanks for your help. That looks like it might be my problem. One of my cards is reporting Revision FF in GUP-Z. I will read all about it now.
Thanks!!!!

 

No problem. If that's the case and you are showing FF, your secondary gpu is shorting out on the back plate and you need to either (1) get Dell to send you another or (2) fix it yourself.

 

You can do it, Larry! It's not a difficult thing to fix. Steve gave you some perfect resources.

@steviejones133 +1 Bro

 

Indeed! Gave him +1 rep for helping an awesome guy out.

I opened the lappy back up and found the backplate for the primary card was revision 0B, but the backplate for the secondary card, the one giving me issues, is 0A. I called Dell and asked that they send me another backplate. They tried to talk me out of it, wanting to go over driver levels, but I told them my machine was already in pieces. I asked that they send out another backplate and they are doing so. He did say that he doesn't know what Rev it will be cause they supposedly don't have a different part number for each...

Either way, I will wait to receive it tomorrow. If it's the same, I will just do the electrical tape thing.

Just another FYI-Once I downloaded the 306.97 drivers GPU-Z is showing the card at A1 not FF anymore, it still crashes when attempting to use it, but the Revision has changed, and Device manager is also showing everything as normal.

 

Hmmm... that's not good that new drivers fixed (or masked) the FF thing because it could make identifying that issue more difficult. It has always been fairly easy to spot because of the revision FF error. Thank you for the heads up on that.

 

Just to give a quick update....
I received the replacement backplate from AW yesterday. It was the same revision. I could see the metal contact areas exposed. So I never bothered to use it.
Instead I took the existing backplate off my secondary card and installed two small squares of electrical tape between the metal post and the sticky barrier, making sure to cover the contact points listed in the thread Steviejones gave me. Put it all back together and am running Furmark now. No more issues!!!

I did just want to verify again that with the 306.97 driver version installed, the FF was gone from the GPU-Z identifier screen so it might be an issue in the future.

thanks again for all of your help!

 

OUTSTANDING! I knew you could do it, Larry... on the scale of one to awesome!

 

Indeed, great news Larry - glad you got it sorted out too!

 

glad everything worked out for you larry. Those are great news!!

 

Been reading through this thread but I seem to be lost on how to OC the GTX680 SLI properly. Tried using this guy which bumped up clocks from 719 to 819, but afterburner still has no effect on the core.

Is there a vbios for the 680 out there that allows afterburner to work as it should? There doesn't seem to be any other vbios over at techinferno right now for download. I've tried to locate a 900MHz vbios for the 680 but cannot find it. Can somebody please point me in the right direction? Thx!

 

the 900 mhz vbios is located here NVIDIA Kepler VBIOS mods - Overclocking Editions, modified clocks, voltage tweaks - Page 3

If you don't have an account with them you need to create and have 5 quality post before you can download.

And as far as any of the toold to OC, with the semi-unlocked vbios, the tool will show 0, meaning that what ever the core/memory clocks are set it at at "0" above/below. With the 900mhz vbios you can OC the core 135mhz over 900. so it will adjust 135 on the tool. Same goes with the memory, but the memory is unlocked completly.

 

Thanks for that info. I'll try to dl those files whenever I hit 5 posts. One other thing I wanted to find out about - I've read the M18x BIOS is what is locking down the core clocks on the GPU. I recently tried to update from A05 to A08 but lost my sound, forcing me to go back down to A07. Can anybody here confirm if A07 or A08 work with afterburner to change core clocks on a stock/modified vbios?

 

The system BIOS does not lock the core clocks on 680M. The stock vBIOS does that at the video card regardless of which brand of video card or what system has 680M. It affects all Alienware, MSI and Clevo unless you flash a modified vBIOS to the video card(s) that unlocks the core.

 

OK. I was under the impression the system bios had something to do with it. Thanks for clarifying. I'll try to locate a modified vbios to see if that helps!

 

Has anyone heard any rumors about Dell releases unlocked vbios in the furture?

Didn't they do that with the 580m's last year?

 

I don't remember the 580M ever being locked on the core or memory. There was a throttle problem, but that was remedied by way of a software tweak or an optional vBIOS mod.

 

I have a question. Is there a difference between the 75W heatsinks and the 100W heatsinks? I ask cause I had the 560's and than upgraded to the 580's and didn't even notice till I was on the look out for some better thermal pads and noticed two different ones on EBay.

 

Well, there are different part numbers for the 560m/580m heatsinks if you check over on one of Mr. Fox's posts: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...e-problems-discussion-thread.html#post8126703 - I can't say wether there is actually a major difference or not but I imagine there would be something that makes them gpu specific, otherwise it seems pointless to have two different part numbers for the same hardware, right? - I've never seen a 560m heatsink to compare but with the higher rating, I imagine the 560m ones may not be sufficient to keep the 580m's as cool as they could be.

 

Does anyone happen to know why all of a sudden I'm getting an error message when I try to game or bench? It gives me Windows has recovered from an Nvidea graphics driver issue.

 

You can try to reinstall the driver and see if that helps in anyway. Also, check if you are using any 'cleaning' software (Something like tuneup), sometime they mess up windows files and then the system will start acting funny...

 

I just ordered myself the correct ones...so we'll see if there is a difference.

It's a temp related issue that I'm experiancing. Hopefully this will be resolved in two weeks when the proper sinks arrive with the correct thermal pads.

 

I'd like to report I have finally managed to upgrade my M18x R1 with 680m SLI after much time and trouble. One of the 680m I received was faulty. This was replaced by the seller and everything is working now. I originally ran with AMD 6990m crossfire so much of the effort involved was to locate all the parts needed to run these 680m cards. This included left and right Nvidia 100W gpu heatsinks, 2 mounting brackets, SLI cable. Since I had to swap the cards around to test I had to remove, remount the GPU brackets and heatsinks so in the end I ended up replacing the heatpads that came with the heatsinks as well.
Would like to say my efforts have been worthwhile and I am enjoying lower gpu temps, higher fps and finally a smooth display when playing WoW with no stuttering. I think this will be the last gpu upgrade I will perform on the R1 unless something substantial and compatible arrives in the next year or so anyway

 

Congrats with the upgrade.

 

Well I upgraded to the 306.96 drivers and the same problem continue. When sli is enabled I can't start laptop hooked to a external monitor with out a bsod. If I start the laptop then plug in the hdmi after its booted up it works fine. Any one have any ideas other then staying with the stock dell drivers?

 

Have you tried the 310.33 drivers? I was having some SLI issues with drivers prior to these, and with the 310.33's the issues are gone.

 

Nope. I'll give it a shot today.

 

Opinions needed. I don't know what hard drive should I go with...I'm thinking of going with 256GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s the rest of the specs are:

Processor:
3rd Gen Intel Core i7-3740QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0) or
3rd Gen Intel Core i7-3840QM (8MB Cache, up to 3.8GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)

Memory: 16GB (4 X 4GB) Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz

GPU: Dual 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M - SLI Enabled or
Dual 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M - SLI Enabled

Original plan was to go with 675M, but I started to look at 680M performance and it got my attention, so I haven't decided between those 2 But the real headache is the hard drive...performance is important, but so is the cost balance with it. I know the 16GB mem could be 8 or 12 GB, but I'm fine with it as it is.

 

Get the 680s now. If money's an issue now uoucan quite easily upgrade to SSD / more RAM later. CPU/GPU whilst possible are much more difficult if youre no experienced pulling laptops apart.

RAM / SSD are cheaper from a 3rd party anyway

 

Totally agree with Brother Brick Top. Worry about the ram/SSD afterwards - get the best gpu/cpu config you can at the outset and upgrade the rest later on - SSD first, ram second.

 

he did the SLI WR?
P17000+

3920XM @ 5000MHZ

GTX 680M SLI @ 1200MHZ / 1200MHZ

¡¾Alienware M18x-R2¼«ÏÞ³¬Æµ¡¿NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI³¬Ô½GTX690ÃëɱËùÓÐÏÔ¿¨£¡_´÷¶ûAlienwareÍâÐÇÈËÂÛ̳

http://benyouhuifile.it168.com/forum/201210/23/103426k87o7pwkwb7b048w.jpg

 

UGH!!!! One of my cards is giving me a 43 code now...

Running SLI with 580's...was

 

Ugh indeed, Bro. That sounds exactly like one of your cards is shorting out on the back plate. Does GPU-z give you a revision of FF and Sli status is shown as unknow? - Have a look at the following for a possible remedy - I reckon it could well help out.

[Guide] Curing Shorted Support Plate - GTX 580M (Error Code 43 - Revision FF error)

As indicated above, you may well be able to get the revised backplate from Dell or just fix it with the method outlined in the thread above....

 

Hi guys, I will be changing my gtx660 for sli gtx675's, would the 240w power adapter be enough to run the R2 with a 3720qm ? in theory it wont be enough but I am not sure if each gpu actually runs at 100 watts or if the cpu runs at 45 watts, I have ordered a 330 w power adapter but I just want to change my video cards now, will I do damage to my system using the 240w one or will it just throttle everything back ?

 

Any dual gpu M18x requires a 330w power supply to operate correctly and I wouldn't advise skimping on the PSU and trying to use the wrong one. Dell will tell you that any machine that is either (a) configured with dual gpu's or (b) configured with an Extreme cpu or (c) configured with both dual gpu's AND an Extreme cpu requires the use of the larger 330w PSU.

 

So I got my M18R2 M680MX SLI 2 days ago and had installed two games: Black ops 2 and SLeeping dogs. Two questions guys, perhaps they were answered before.

1) I can only run Sleeping dogs at High with 30 fps. I know there has been many issues with the SLI, is there a solution now? (I tried changing the SLI bits but with no luck)
2) You guys got random game crash during black ops2? Are there any know issues?

thanks

 

Has anyone installed Windows 8 on a M18X with dual NVidia 680M?

The Dell configurator removes the option of dual 680Ms if you pick Windows 8. I guess there are no compatible drivers yet?

 

I have. There are drivers out there, the latest betas are good. Maybe give them a call about your order.

 

I've got an MSDN subscription, so I can upgrade to Windows 8 whenever I like, but I'd like to know that the drivers work first.

You haven't had any problems?

 

I have upgrade to Win 8 for 2 weeks, Everything including the 680M SLI works well. They sell M18X with Win 8 these days anyway. You can always reinstall the driver after you finish the Win 8 installation

 

They do, but if you select Win 8, the 680M SLI option is removed, so I ordered Win 7.

I had a reply from @AlienwareTech on Twitter who said that Win 8 is fine with 680M SLI, just upgrade from Win 7.

 

And to upgrade to Windows 8 it's only $15, and you can do a clean install if you prefer that over upgrading Windows 7.

 

So I've finally decided to buy an m18X, but I still have to decide between dual 7970m's or dual 680m's. So I've been reading the past few months worth of posts to the m18X nVidia SLI and m18X AMD crossfire threads. The AMD thread has all sorts of posts about problems with games running and drivers. The nVidia thread has pretty much no posts like that, instead people are posting about which vbios to use to increase their performance even more. Is it really this cut and dry? Are the 680m's that much more stable than the 7970m's? Also from what I've read it seems stock performance is somewhat the same?

Thanks for your help.

 

If you get a 7970M CrossFire setup that works properly, it's pretty sweet and comparatively inexpensive. That may or may not happen. Your observations are accurate. NVIDIA users generally burn more calories focusing on boosting performance, whereas AMD users seem to burn more calories focusing on correcting functionality issues. Some don't have any issues, and you will generally only see them posting about the fact that they don't have any issues to complain about, LOL. The latest AMD drivers solved many of the serious issues that a fair number of 7970M CrossFire owners had to put up with during their first 4 to 6 months of ownership.

If you want the best driver support, awesome performance, and fewer hassles, GTX 680M SLI is the only way to fly. In terms of raw gaming performance, there is almost no difference between 7970M CF and GTX 680M SLI. AMD has an edge only for users that are more interested in computational performance (CAD, for example) than they are gaming.