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

Does anyone know how BF3 runs with a 3620qm and dual gtx680s (latest drivers)? I tried it out on ultra and half the time its plays smooth but then fps drops out of no where for around 5 seconds then fps shoots back up to 60 with triple buffering on. Before this I tried out a 7970 xfire system with 3840qm and it ran smoothly on ultra the entire time. I am wondering whether the cpu is the culprit or not or bad cards.

 

It could be a combination of things. Stock 680M SLI you should see an average about 90 FPS, max about 145 FPS and minimum in the mid to upper 40's. BF3 FPS performance is nearly identical with stock 680M SLI and stock 7970M CF clock speeds, but it plays smoother and looks better with the 680M SLI. The 3620QM is not that powerful. It is possible the 3840QM system you played with has the CPU to thank for the difference. If you are running a stock NVIDIA vBIOS, that could be part of the issue. What settings are you using in the NVIDIA Control Panel?

 

Hi,

I just got my m18x R2 with 680m SLI config, Windows 8.

When I try using the HDMI out for my external Monitor, the Alienware Screen goes blank and I hear a Windows Sound but the Monitor shows up the message "No Signal".

When I use the miniDVI-HDMI Connector the Monitor works just fine. However when I start a Game sometimes the external Screen stays blank until I unplug and then reinsert the miniDVI Adapter.

I already installed the latest nvidia drivers.

Many thanks in advanced.

 

Have you tried a different HDMI lead? - sometimes, the HDMI out port of the M18x is unusually deep and can cause connection problems. A quick *possible* fix is to trim some of the plastic off the HDMI plug itself to expose more of the metal connector - that way, it goes in further and can help with connection problems.

 

I will give this a go when I am at home, I have enough HDMI cables flying about.

Is HDMI a good option for external Monitors or would it be better to get a miniDVI-DVI adapter?

 

Do you mean MiniDP to DVI or Dual Link DVI?

It really depends on what inputs you have on your monitor and what resolution your monitor is capable of. I prefer MiniDP to DP, but not all monitors have DisplayPort - I like the smaller MiniDP plug vs. the larger HDMI plug, too. Also, not all versions of HDMI offer full support/have enough bandwidth to support high resolutions like 2560x1600. Unless you are running anything over 1920x1200, HDMI is fine.

What monitor is it?

 

Yes you are right - sorry about the confussion i meant the miniDP Port. I have an Acer GD245HQbid (120Hz 3D, not really intrested in the 3d funktionality).

I fear I may need a miniDP to Dual Link DVI adapter (since it is a 3D Screen)?

 

Yes, I you are quite correct. As your monitor doesn't have a DP in, to get 120hz for FPS purposes, you would need to use dual link DVI. There is no HDMI to Dual Link DVI solution that I am aware of, and therefore, MiniDP to Dual Link DVI would be the way to go to ensure you are getting 120hz @ 1080p. HDMI 1.4 (high speed HDMI) claims to have the bandwidth to support it, but in reality, many people who have tried to achieve this have failed - probably due to the equipment outputting/receiving the signal not having the outputs/inputs that fully support HDMI 1.4.

You could try a High Speed HDMI cable but I have a sneaky feeling it wont offer you 120hz @1080p and that you would need the active adapter - http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/630931-m18x-3d-capable-hdmi-cable.html

 

Have you checked the temperatures? The cards could be down-clocking if they get too hot making you loose FPS for a few seconds while they "cool down".

 

Just tried it again after installing bf3 again (returned from depot) and msi afterburner for OSD. The first card reaches around 68c but WOW the second card reaches around 95c for some reason. They replaced the motherboard so something is definitely up with the second card. Do I need to get it replaced by dell or take a look at it myself?

 

I'd get in and repaste the secondary, if you want to, because those kinda temps are causing the card to downclock - the result being your sporadic drop in FPS. Obviously, if you are not comfortable doing so, and you are in warranty, I'd get Dell to sort it for you....

 

Wow unbelievable, just look at this picture below. This is after taking off the heatsink without any alterations of my own, notice the black screws which aren't OEM to the card/heatsink assembly, the silver one is with the plastic washer. Plus it was missing a screw that holds the card into the motherboard. Should I have them replace it? I'm not even sure the depot did this but I have to assume they did since it is refurbished and this was when I first received it from the outlet because BF3 was acting the same way.

 

WOW - that's crazy coconuts right there! - Where's the thermal paste LOL - there isn't ANY - no wonder it was getting hot, I'm actually suprised that it hasn't fried the card up completely. The botch job with the torn thermal pad (?) and the wrong screws is again not acceptable if done by Dell. Someone needs their knuckles rapping.....badly. Also, where the square thermal pad is next to your red circle, there should be an identical one the other side to cover the other component.

What an abortion.....

 

So I guess I better just have them replace it, I do not want this 'abortion' in my expensive machine. Here I thought buying from the outlet was a good idea.

To add to the hilarity, one of the plastic washers was stuck in the green thermal pad, if you look above the heatsink where the gpu would be you can see this piece of plastic.

 

Oh yeah....I can just make that out now, looking closer. Really, that is an appalling job of anyone assembling a video card and heatsink. I think Stevie Wonder coulda done a better job.....

I'd be on the dog'n'bone to Dell and get them to send you a new card/heatsink and you will assemble it yourself. I imagine if you reach out to one of the AW reps here, they could assist.

 

Well too late now, they are replacing the motherboard (again), the LCD (again) and video card. At first they said they were sending a technician but mentioned the depot again (yuck) so I'm not sure if a tech is coming or not. The motherboard was originally replaced because of the SPDIF issue but on the new motherboard the little white tab that holds the HDD cable in place broke off, I have it in place with the broken tab but barely. The LCD was replaced because it had some debris under the screen in the bottom middle and will be replaced because the depot screwed up and 1 of 3 wires that make up the antenna is missing an end piece. Then there's the sloppy bad job on the 2nd graphics card, no thermal paste? REALLY? What a hassle. If they screw up again I'm gonna ask for a brand new replacement.

 

The person that worked on your machine needs to be beaten severely with a mace club and thrown in a dumpster to bleed out.

Seriously though... that's grounds for termination in my book. That's kind of incompetence is definitely intolerable.

 

That's unbelievable :S gotta get on that ASAP.

 

hi guys,

can anyone recommend a good driver cleaner?

DL the new driver when playing Tomb Raider, and ever since, keep getting black screen at random times.. I know nvidia is not suppose to have problems with updating driver, but seems I am this time..


any help, much appreciated

 

Driver Fusion and then get premium to unlock all the features. They come in handy.

Driver Fusion - The Complete Driver Solution

 

This is kind of a stupid question - I noticesd that some games Run in SLI Mode and others just on a Single Card.

Has this got to do with the Nvidia Driver Game Profile, is there anything I can or should do?

 

Some games/titles have not been optimized to run or take advantage of sli or crossfire configurations, unfortunately.

 

Stevie is correct,some also are still bottlenecked by cpu's not optimized for multiple core cpus so your gpu wont reach full potential,like having a new 680 gtx sli with a dual core amd then run same game on a core I7 all being equal otherwise the bottleneck occurs.Sli can still have the dreaded micro stutter,as opposed to a single gpu,I still love sli.Some games just arent optimized for sli or multi core cpus,even with that being normal in 2013.???? Game Devs??

Hey Stevie my Bro,How have you been? It's been a long time.I'll PM you soon.

 

Doin' just fine, buddy - hope you are too!, catch you soon, eh?

 

Yeah Stevie,its been a while but all good thanks. How are those 680's in your R1? I was thinking of 680 sli you & I have about the exact same system,I have to fix my signature.The 830s are awesome,and 2960xm also,just need to get 680 sli.I havent been on here in a year,LOL is Bill B still around? He left me a pm some months back,just curious,thanks,and I'll catch ya soon Stevie.

 

The 680m's are flyin! - great upgrade to do. Yeah, Bill is still on the forum but not as a Dell guy, he left that role for pastures new....his username is now Dolemite65.

 

Thanks Stevie! I figured he left along with a few of our friends there,pc biz is getting tough.I was getting 680's but may sell my 2nd r1 for the new haswel & 7 series gpu's from Nvidia, although those flyin 680's are sooo tempting!
Thanks again buddy for your opinion,I'll speak to ya soon and enjoy your rig,I see your specs its a monster.good talkin to ya bud.

 

Right, so I've got an awesome set of 680's At the moment - and I've heard and seen of the enormous gains through bios flashes
I've flashed things in the past before, be it a wii, ps3, and laptops in the past.

However my last attempt was on a M14X, which didn't work out too great.... I ended up having to get a whole motherboard replacement and was without a computer for 4-5 days, despite assuring that I had done it properly (many people ended up bricking with SLV'S M14X bios) which is why I'm pretty hesitant on flashing at the moment.

Currently, I'm on stock bios with a 135 mghz overclock on core and 500 on the memory.

Have there been horror stories with the 680s and flashing? Should I go for it? If so, which BIOS inparticular? I'm after the most raw performance gain possible.

 

I sent you a PM with links to VBIOS and a detailed guide that shows how to flash your cards safely. If you have any questions or need further help just PM me back.

 

Hello i am Also very interested in doing the flash on my sli 680's. Could you please help me out as well?

 

Sure, I PMed you the guide.

NOTE: In my post above I mentioned that flashing the VBIOS is a fairly "safe" procedure if you follow all steps. However, do remember that even though this procedure relatively simple and straightforward and several in this community have been using it quite successfully you do it at your own risk. Tampering with hardware always involves a certain risk. Just so you know.

 

I think that you should post the links here so others can benefit from that information too.

 

Are you someone who needs help with the flashing VBIOS too or did you just wanted to share what was in your mind the moment you posted your reply? In the latter case, I actually decided to reply to those who needed such info via PM since the topic has already been plenty covered here and because the links I sent with the VBIOS aren't hosted in our forum.

Below you'll find a few links that discuss 680m vbios flashing in our forum:

Best vBios for GTX 680M - Stock Voltage + OV

GTX 680M review - Stock VBIOS vs Saltius/SVL VBIOS

Request 680M vbios

Need advice overclocking 680m

Unlocked GTX 680m bios mirrors

about flashing my 680m sli bios for overclocking!

Which Nvflash version to use for GTX 680M?

 

Hi,
anyone playing the Company of Heores 2 Open Beta?
I am a little bit disappointed that the performance on an M18X R2 with Raid SSD, 16GB RAM und 680M SLI is rather poor - I mean in the Performance test of the game on Max settings I only get between 18-40fps rating and you can see frame rate drops in some sequences.
Shouldn't this Rig not seroulsly own such a game as the graphics are really good for a strategy game but not awesome as a Witcher 2 or Crysis3 and so on.
Any experience or advise?
Many thanks

 

What you are experiencing is crappy work by game developers and not a problem with the M18x. There's not much you can do until the game developer straightens out the mess, but don't hold your breath on that. It may never happen.

If you haven't already done so, try creating a profile in the NVIDIA Control Panel and tell the game to use Alternate Frame Rendering 1, or Alternate Frame Rendering 2 (test both methods to see if one is better) instead of "NVIDIA Recommended" as the SLI Rendering Mode. That sometimes helps, but if the game code is really sloppy the results won't be great no matter what you try.

 

Ok feared so - will try your tipp but it is really annoying owning a 5000 Euro Powerhouse and than developers are so stupid....

 

I agree about the second part of your comment, but we can't blame really hardware for the mistakes of software developers. Regardless, it certainly can be very annoying and frustrating. There are a few game franchises that have been screwed up for multiple generations and probably will never be fixed... especially if people keep buying them. One such example is the Final Fantasy franchise... no SLI/CF support. Another... Need for Speed franchise... vsync cannot be disabled, so FPS is the same on average hardware as it is on high end hardware, single GPU or dual-GPU makes no difference. It sucks, but as long as money keeps pouring in, they'll have no compelling reason to fix it.

 

I agree but often you can't know if the programming is crappy - eg. I have COH 1 and it works perfectly fine and smooth and COH2 (at least the Beta) which is not a huge leap in graphics has serious performance issues.
I for my part eg. will boycott XboxOne - in my opinion this "console" may not have any success or for gamers like me, the future will be DRM remote controlled - and this is something I can't except.

Your opinion on the future of my above configuration - how long will it last or be enough to handle all the new NextGen games?? I mean if already games like COH2 have problems I fear that the new Total War: Rome 2 will have performance issues not to speak of Battlefield 4 or other new games like Destiny and Titanfall??

 

Nathan, your M18x R2 with 680M SLI already exceeds the recommended system requirements of all PC games and it exceeds the minimum system requirements by a ton. You should be able to get another 1.5 to 2 years of great gaming with those specs... maybe even longer. There could be a random exception here or there, but you don't "need" to upgrade to have an outstanding gaming machine. There are plenty of so-called gaming systems with the newly released tech that are nowhere even remotely close to that powerful.

I agree with you about the Xbox One. It's truly a shame the direction Microsoft is headed. Windows 8 was a first step in the direction of not caring about what customers want, and now this garbage with the Xbox One is just over the top and unacceptable. I don't think a boycott will be necessary. When many people hear that they will be required to have a live internet connection and cannot share, rent or buy used game disks, I think most won't want to have anything to do with it. It's beyond stupid. I hate console gaming and don't normally care about it, but there is clearly a disconnect between what Microsoft customers want and what Microsoft thinks they should have. It is very crApple-ish and should not be tolerated.

 

I'm really having no luck with this system, sigh =\ So it looks like something is up as no settings have changed and my GPU score averages have dropped for no apparent reason, could I get some clues on where to start troubleshooting this? Thank you.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M18xR2 score: P9315 3DMarks What I'm hitting around now, I've even had one run return an 8900. Temps are stable at 68C-70C.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M18xR2 score: P11047 3DMarks Where I was just a couple of days ago, I did drop the OC on the cpu a little bit but that shouldn't explain the huge drop in GPU performance.

Thanks again everyone.

 

Madcow199 - are you running a stock vBIOS? Your CPU is working fine, but your GPU scores are not much better than a single 680M. Something definitely needs to be tweaked. It should be tweakable.

Run ThrottleStop and manually drop your CPU clock speed to 2.9GHz on 4 CPU cores and see what the results on tests 1 through 4 look like. Let us know if there is a big jump in performance. You can run one test at a time or all 4 graphics test by choosing options on the "Advanced" tab. Be sure everything else is set to "Performance" mode.

 

I'm still running a stock vBIOS, and no kidding the system is now pulling down ~10600 routinely, I have no idea what was happening last night. All of a sudden it just got very sluggish, and this morning it started working normally again. I don't even know where to start checking what was wrong as it's just within 5% of my 'normal' scores now.

 

Just a thought, but maybe you had some background processes eating up stuff. Maybe an anti-virus auto scan or something....

 

It certainly wasn't that, had nothing open except for 3dmark and AlienFX/etc, it was even utilizing 98% of the cards, I truly don't know what was going on as it wasn't a fluke and I could repeat it after restarts, if it happens again I'll probably be sending this one back to Dell =x

 

Did you try what I suggested?

 

Fox, thanks again for your help, running ThrottleStop at 2.9GHZ actually boosted my gpu score up, I didn't even OC the cards in this instance but GPU score is higher than usual.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M18xR2 score: P10334 3DMarks

 

I thought that might be the case. Your GPUs and CPU are competing for power with the 330W AC adapter. If you were overclocking the GPU, (depending on how much,) you might even experience a power deprivation shutdown.

My 15k+ 3DMark11 score is with tests 1 through 4 with the CPU running at 2.8GHz. I don't push the CPU to 4.6GHz or higher until the Physics and Combined tests because that is where the CPU is needed.

And, the really good thing is your 10k+ score with stock GPU settings is 100% normal and right in line with what one should expect.

3DMark11: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M SLI benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2 score: P15115 3DMarks

 

Ah, I see, well I'm glad I'm right in the ballpark for what's expected again, just tried your trick with 2.9Ghz for 1-4 and 4.2Ghz for the final two tests and was able to pull in 11k, looks like the next step is new vBIOS which I've been holding off on, think I still want to play around on stock Bios to see what I can pull out of it. Thank you!

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M18xR2 score: P11035 3DMarks

 

Is there a way in the NVIDIA Control Panel for me to turn off one of the cards or disable SLI without resorting to the on-board graphics?

I have one 3D modeling/presentation program (Lumion 3.2) that isn't programmed to take advantage of SLI.
It seems as if I'm actually going to be penalized performance-wise for having it on my soon to be delivered M18x R2. I just figured I'd ask now so I can hit the ground running (hopefully) when my laptop arrives.

The following is a note from the programers of Lumion …

MULTIPLE GRAPHICS CARDS (SLI) AND CARDS WITH MORE THAN 1 GPU
Graphics cards with 2 GPUs split up the on-board memory in two: one memory chunk for each GPU. All 3D models and textures are mirrored in each memory chunk in order to speed up rendering, so that each GPU can render a frame independently of the other GPU. Applications have to be programmed to take advantage of this rendering technique. The developers of Lumion have followed these programming guidelines but unfortunately multiple graphics cards (SLI) or a graphics card with more than 1 GPU such as the Nvidia GTX 690 will not give you a performance boost in Lumion. In addition, Lumion will only be able to use half of the on-board memory (RAM) of cards with multiple GPUs. For those reasons, we recommend buying the fastest graphics card with a single GPU and as much on-board memory as you can afford.

thanks in advance

EDIT: Ok I did a few quick searches and it seems that I can disable SLI through the NVIDIA Control Panel or advanced display settings.

 

Finally got around to getting a new vBIOS and the improvements are pretty great. I can't really go past +235/350 on the GPU without stability issues and I have the CPU at 4.5Ghz for now, I'd like to break 13300 and may be able to later tonight.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M18xR2 score: P13222 3DMarks

*EDIT*

Looks like I did it and with my CPU clocked at 4.1Ghz, i'll hunt a higher score a little later tonight! (I heard a rattling in my system, opened up and discovered two loose screws by my GPU's that the wonderful tech must have lost in my system)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M18xR2 score: P13372 3DMarks

*EDIT 2*

Getting too late now but did some further testing, highest stable score I've gotten is at +210/315 on GPU and 4.4Ghz, I'll mess around tomorrow to see if I can get any further.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M18xR2 score: P13639 3DMarks