M11x R1 Hybrid/Optimus Driver

eh? There isn't any newer driver that works miracles for the 335/R1 combo. Pretty sure if Asus has a manually switchable intel+nvidia combo their drivers will be "old".

 

Miracles? 295 release: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...vidia-295-51-drivers-released-discussion.html

Anyone going to try this with R1 optimus?

 

I've tried a few times and I can't get this to work at all on my system. Are there different chipsets within the R1 family that might not be supported? I think mine was probably one of the last production runs.

I'd really like to install the last custom hybrid driver that was created, 260.99, but the link has been deleted from the old thread, does anyone know where I'd be able to download it from? Thanks!

 

The "hybrid" in this thread was not a release. It was a ref to how to install 285 drivers and retain switching. Not sure if limited to just one driver version.

The download from the first posts using 285 version is a merging of optimus tech with R1 hardware. Switching is automated. Able to run latest intel drivers with this setup.

The official drivers from Dell are 197 & 263. What is 260.99?

Because there are two different methods being using with different outcomes the topic gets confusing - especially (in my mind) the optimus for R1 is a mix of things also - a hybrid! lol.

So what are you trying to install? The 285 optimus method or switchable? What drivers are you using currently and what do you hope to gain? If its performance only it is likely a waste of time.

 

I've tried installing the "Optimus" style driver in this thread and it doesn't seem to work. The computer doesnt seem to recognise either graphics adapter.

If I try doing the trick where you install the Dell switchable drivers, and then install the newer Nvidia driver over the top of that, it works and is switchable until I reboot a few times, afterwhich I get constant bluescreens.

The previous incarnation of this thread featured a custom switchable driver created by the same person as this new Optimus style driver, I think, and it was numbered 260.99, but since the thread was closed the OP has been edited and the link to this driver has been removed.

Really I just want to be able to use my laptop with the latest, or at least reasonably contemporary, drivers without having to run it in super hot, low battery, high graphics mode all the time.

 

The 263s are as new as it gets for "proper" drivers but some folks had trouble with them. They worked for me BUT I had trouble installing - required running setup as admin (right click).

Unless you are solving a particular issue the 197s were pretty good.

 

i'm using 263 but i can not unistall them
I can not try newest drivers

but what abount THIS discussion ? http://www.notebookforums.com/t/238202/cant-install-new-driver-for-nivida-for-m11x-r1

 

Depends on if you want switchable...

Is there any particular reason you want different drivers? For most things the older driver is ok

 

I use the m11x primarily to play, but I wish also try the new drivers.
But i can not unistall the 263.08, If I uninstall them from the control panel nothing happens

 

If wanting to try new drivers then you don't want this thread. This thread is about two things:
-modified 285 driver that removes manual switching and sets the R1 to behave like R2/R3 via optimus
-methods to use later drivers and retain switching - works at varied levels of success and might be too buggy just for trying newer drivers.

If I were you, change the BIOS to discreet and install whatever latest driver you want. This will allow you to test newer drivers properly. Newer drivers have a "clean install" option. Give it a try.

 

I wonder if we could merge the Optimus tech in the modded 285 with the new 295 drivers? I paly a lot of Skyrim and the preformance increases would be great to have.

 

Good evening,

I recently finished updating the inf files for the 295.73 drivers and I thought I'd share.

I did step 1 on post 1, then installed these drivers and it appears to work just like when installing the 285.38.

Here's the link for the drivers, let me know how it works out for you. I'm newb at this and just modified the inf based off of RigelKent's 285.38 and a guide I found earlier in the day.

295.73 Optimus Beta

 

I'm scared to try! lol. Any takers?

If you do please document:
what works NOW and what does not. If unsure, test pls.
what is improved by newer driver compared to 285 in optimus config
-games?
-desktop?
-stability?
-overclock?
-volt mod?

 

I actually managed to get these to install, which is quite exciting, but the system doesnt switch to the gpu at all. I uninstalled these and tried the drivers from the OP which installed as well, for the first time! But again, the system wont switch to the GPU. It always says NVidia GPU activity: none. Even when selecting the GPU in the Nvidia settings for either the default or per-application it still wont kick in. Any ideas?

 

the nvidia control panel will not work unless card is active. Ditto for the hdmi/dp ports.

 

This is due to the video card being always on (both).

When you are using the intel drivers, the nVidia card drops to extremely low clock rates to conserve power (lower then normally without the "Hybrid" setup)

If you grab a copy of EVGA's Precision utility, you'll see the chipset drops to a lower clock rate then you can even set with the utility, which should lower power consumption considerably.

Once you start up a game, they clock back up and start processing using the nVidia card.

Personally, this works for me. I've underclocked video cards before to try to save on power consumption and heat, but they always wind up generating as much if not more heat because they're having to run at 100% to keep up with something they would have had to only run at 15-25% for. The hybrid setup bypasses that by declocking the nVidia card and using the lower-power consuming Intel chipset at normal clock rates.

Just my 2 cents.

On another note, I apologize for not taking more detailed info on performance, battery life, etc. I will do that and come back with results. I'm new to providing things for the community, so I apologize for not providing that info.

*edit*
On a side note, I've played the following games without blue screen and with decent performance (on default graphics + AA)....
World of Warcraft (Cataclysm)
Deus Ex : Human Revolution (noticeable improvement!)
Star Trek Online

I know this isn't the magical extreme some are looking for, but I will test and provide!

 

Dominous,

Uninstalled all existing drivers via device manager (I was using the old "RigelKent?" ones which still allowed switching.

Installed intels (from this threads first post), Reboot and installed yours and they seem to work perfectly.
Switches onto 335m under load. (Proven on OptimusTools_64bit & EVGA clocks)
Just set up profiles via optimus so its not running for silly things like youtube etc to save battery.

And yes the 335 does downclock to around 135mhz on idle.
The R1 does consume 13W while typing this using wifi as opposed to the 9W/10W before but its a small price to pay.

Interestingly i disabled the 335 in device manager in a vain hope that it would be a quick and easy way of saving more power and it jumped to 18W!!

Just watch out for the Nvidia auto updater as it tries to ruin everything for you!

hoggy

 

Thanks for the update, Hoggy!

Everyone,
I have yet to be able to run the tests I promised due to my wife being days away from giving birth to my first. I will continue and post my findings. The first thing I plan to do before that is modify the inf of the latest drivers, load those, and run a quick test before I post those. Then I'll run performance tests using those.

 

Been playing around a bit with these drivers and I can get the 335 to kick in by selecting it as the preferred chip in the driver settings but this sometimes causes the system to hang when trying to run a game. Oddly, even with the integrated chip selected, the system runs pretty hot, around 50 degrees and the battery life clocks in at 2 hours. Is this right?

 

Something off in your case. As for temps if that is GPU temp its quite ok if Nvidia isnt doing anything... selecting GPU pref is not proof.

As I type this Im in the lower 40s on both CPU/GPU. When external screens are connected my GPU is approx 45-55 while working.

I get nearly 3hrs, certainly more than 2 and my batt wear is 19% or so.

 

Question: why would you use optimus and not hybrid ? better use discrete than optimus - why do I say that ?

When using optimus, the Intel does most of the job except high 2D and all 3D when nvidia kicks in with high performance, however when using Intel the nvidia is still powered on lowest graphic freq[if it would be disabled, that would be perfect, but it isn't], meaning you're using both Intel and low nvidia

When using hybrid, you may choose one of them at a time which means the other one will be entirely disabled [this is the way it's done!], so this is perfect, battery or performance

When using discrete, the Intel is disabled and the nvidia clocks up and down automatically to your needs, so no interests in running optimus

I get the same battery life when using optimus vs discrete, but better performance when discrete, so yes... however hybrid was the best choice but the y Dell suspeded the suport for a premium laptop so go for Discrete or Hybrid

 

Something about your install must have been wrong or broken. When I was running the modified drivers for optimus on the R1 I was getting 5+ hours when not running any 3d tasks, nearly as good as on switchable mode 263 drivers.

When the hacked optimus works, they work great on an R1.

 

I'll echo mephiska on that. If you have trouble, skip them.

I'm digging 3 screens... with option for 4th

 

If someone posts or explains every .inf modded from which directory, I'll make a script/windows program that will automatically patch the latest nvidia drivers to fit optimus for Alienware M11x R1 - I expect a response from someone who did it, tried and worked for version > 29x.xx
-please post the .inf moded to which directory or tell what code have modded in what .inf - I can check/parse/replace, this should be helpfull

 

Not sure if this happened for everyone, but when i was using Hybrid once the switch was made back to the intel chip e.g
Intel>Nvidia>intel
The nvidia card never really turned off again. This left me with exactly the same battery life as i have now with the optimus drivers.
Did this happen with yours or was it just me?

Hoggy

 

@hoggyhoggy, the problem described by you using the official Dell driver for hybrid is well known and that sometimes happen thanks to the great Dell programmers. The official drivers [nvidia moded by Dell] are not everywhere safe, I have some programming skill and it's come to my knowledge that most programmers don't use safe check procedure, so are Dell, in one word: newbies; their support proved what I'm saying: they solved one of the R1 problem [sleep>wake = nvidia hdmi subsys reset > which leads to reinstall] by disabling the PCI root [I do this too for sleep to be ok], but this is a workaround, not a solution provided by one of the most famous brands...
To be honest I'm quite dissapointed by Dell [had a few laptops until now, used to change 4-5laptops/year] and I always had problems with Dell... if they provide a bios update with solution to problem we run to... that will help us; the only help which raised my heart is thanks to notebookreview and it's great users involved in pinmoding, bios moding, etc, which lead to squizing the performance out of this poor Dell product - they call this premium ? very disappointing
I made myself triple boot with windows7/osx lion/ubuntu on my M11x R1 to run everything I need and a HTC Mozart for everywhere connectivity, so I can get along with the tech... Dell, Dell Dell... wake up for all of us, the fools who paid big bucks for your only-on-paper support

Atention: Switchable doesn't mean Integrated, but means both running without the posibility to switch to dedicated [using up-to-date drivers]
Re: Forget R1 users ? - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

 

I hear ya but if Dell is not meeting your standard who is? Other than that I really hope you guys stop derailing the topic.

 

Yeah, as much as I really appreciate all the effort going into churning out these optimus drivers (substantially better than the alternatives, regardless of their quirks!) I gotta say I would be happier with switchable, just because it seems like less of a headache to get it installed properly.

Gonna have another crack at installing the latest optimus this week. Are there any things I should look out for to make sure it installs properly? Any programs or apps I should disable or uninstall? I'm already using Driver Sweeper between uninstalling and reinstalling drivers.

 

Skipjack,
The only thing I did was Uninstall everything from device manager, reboot (should just run up on the basic vga windows driver), then install the intel driver (from 1st page) reboot again, install the optimus drivers (page 17) then reboot again. Make sure you check the "clean install" button in the nvidia drivers.
I had a problem with the Physx part as it caused it to hang so i unticked that part and installed later.
I didnt disable anything (Security essentials was still running)
This worked for me anyway.
Ive noticed a few people have been having trouble installing so im not sure if im lucky or there are different revisions of the R1. Mines a very early one!

GNandGS - Apologies if i was bending the topic, was just trying to state that in my circumstances (i only use this thing for gaming) i didn't get any real battery life benefit from the hybrid (switchable) to the optimus (newer drivers). But thats probably just how i use mine. I'll bear these things in mind next time before i post.

Hoggy

 

No worries here hog. I think it would be good though to keep track of what is what and where for this thread. Discussing optimus for R1 then different optimus... then hybrid gets confusing.

Optimus style for R1:
Intel portion, still page 1
Nvidia portion, page 1 and page 17 (diff versions)

Hybrid (newer drivers, but still switchable) for R1:
Specific driver version combo, page _____
Using latest driver, self packaged home brew, page _____

Hybrid (OEM) switchable for R1:
dell support site. Currently ver 263.08, A02

Did I get that right?

 

Ok, here's what I did...

I looked at the difference between the original non-modified driver and the beta driver listed in this post.... for both versions 285.38 AND 295.73...

There were only 3 files that were different:

- nvct.inf inside the Display.Driver folder was edited

- nvdm.inf inside the Display.Driver folder was edited

- easyUpdatusAPIU.dll file was added to the Display.Optimus folder


The differences between the files in 285.38 were slight, but the differences in the 295.73 version were significant. I decided to implement the differences that were in the 295.73 version into the newest 296.10 version and so...

296.10-Optimus-Blackjackel's Beta driver is born.

I specified my name in it because I haven't tested it yet and it may not work, and if it dosen't I don't want there being confusion between my version and a different version.

I just need to find a free file hosting site to post this, mediafire won't let me upload it because it needs to be less than 200mb, sucky thing is it's 200.3mb and it's compressed with 7zip ultra, i dont think i can get this smaller than 200...

 

yousendit
OR
HFS ~ HTTP File Server <-- works great

Once I get it I can slap a copy on my server. Rather not setup ftp accounts.

 

I tested it and it wouldn't install, says incompatible hardware. I even went back only edited a single file, the nvct.inf, there were NO differences between the original non-modified regulra nvct.inf and the optimus nvct.inf except for the date in the file so I tried using the nvct.inf and just change the date and not modify ANYTHING else and it wouldn't install... very strange.

Sorry for getting peoples hopes up, i tried.

 

Override with the hacked .inf and check [the nvidia part 296.10 ok, don't know what version of intel works right]
Index of /~vlad.ichimescu/MOD/alienwarem11x/Windows/Display.Driver

 

Finally got a chance to try 4 screens. Its temporary so excuse the ridiculous size and arrangement.

Have NOT tried other versions of optimus yet

 

Isn't that awesome? It makes me miss the VGA port on the R1. But I only ran it with 4 screens for one day, just to play around.

 

Hello I install Intel 2413 more 295.73 Optimus Beta but when the computer 30 minutes doing nothing, freezes and I can only turn it off from the power button

sorry for my English
thank you very much

 

Anyone else's HDMI port not working with these drivers?

RigelKent, any news on Hybrid drivers?

 

Any ideas why this driver makes my laptop freeze at idle?

 

No idea but be sure to state which driver you are actually using.

 

Followed the procedure and installed the integrated drivers from the main page and then the Hybrid drivers from page 17 (295).

Quick question - the auto switching appears to work great and I enabled that notification icon which tells me the state of the nVidia gpu which is auto enabling and disabling properly for now.

Running on the integrated graphics only it looks like a full charge is going to last a little under 3 hours. Is that because of the trickling nvidia gpu running in the background? I like this setup but between class and home, the extra battery life from the 263 drivers really came in handy.

Also I experimented around with using those Intel drivers from the first page and official nvidia drivers (296 something) and noticed that the integrated graphics were on in switchable mode but whenever I clicked the nvidia control panel it said I wasn't connected to an nvidia gpu. Switching to discrete mode in BIOS allowed the nvidia drivers to work which was fine. The problem again though was the battery life hit. Even when it said the GPU was disabled, I was only looking at about 3 hours of battery life.

For me personally, I don't mind the lack of optimus. In fact, I'm not above having to go into BIOS every time I want to switch graphics cards. Is there any solution that I could use? It seems the optimus drivers are doing what they're supposed to but the battery hit is just too much. Or am I crazy?

 

Nah, not crazy. This sort of mod will appeal to diff folks for various reasons. I'm digging multiple displays.

What batt life did you have before the install and what is your batt wear now?

 

Was looking at about 4.5 to 5 hours on pure integrated graphics on 263. Dropped down to between 2.5 to 3 with the Optimus. Just over my acceptable limit. I did manage to install 296.1 over 263 without doing a clean install and keeping it on discrete in BIOS. When I re-enabled switchable, it worked, albeit suspiciously at times.

Definitely noticed a performance boost in The Witcher 2. Got a hard pixelated lockup during Unreal Tournament 3 though. Gonna mess with it more over the weekend and report in.

 

I get about the same batt run but I have 18% wear indicated

 

Yes the biggest issue with the optimus driver is the hit to the battery life, the main gain is being able to use the latest drivers.

After swapping out my mobo which fixed by 335 issue I have found the gains to me were offset by the reduction in battery life so have decided to roll back to the normal driver package. This is my main work unit so battery life for me is pretty important. I don't remember the last time I really gamed - just to busy really.

 

Normally I'd agree with rolling back but I recently bought a new monitor and just got on summer break so gaming is gonna be big for me again.

If you don't mind having to reset more often, the compromise offered by a user at this link:

Forget R1 users ? - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

is pretty good. I think my freezing was actually related to the 1520 wireless card (which I just replaced today flawlessly). Definitely squeezing a couple more FPS out of The Witcher 2 and no crashes during UT3. This might be a minor thing too but AlienFX got enabled for a few more of my games like Magic the Gathering and Dungeon Siege 3.

I think you can switch like once or twice and then have to reset to make it work again but when running on Intel, I do get more like 4-5 hours of battery. My battery is also two years old though so I'm sure it's worn down. Basically the only downside is that you don't get the fancy new Intel interface which I think I can live without. If anything else goes horribly wrong I'll let you guys know. Glad to see there are still R1 users out there who are helping us keep up.

Shame on you Dell.

 

There are not enough benefits to keeping bleeding edge drivers. If there are 100 updates you might get 5 that apply to us with noticed improvement. Consider for each improvement in app A there might be a downside for app B!

So what I'm saying is the "shame on Dell" bit is misplaced. If there is a driver update lacking for switchable systems then its for ALL not just Dell. Ask yourself why that is... I suspect $ vs stability. Could be issues not worth solving from their POV.

I would NOT be shocked though to see an update sometime or a breakthrough by enthusiast (that is more stable).

I was thinking my batt life before optimus was about the same chalking it up to batt wear. Maybe I have a false memory of that. Dunno. Not going back though!

 

What I don't understand though is why it's almost as simple as literally installing one set on top of the other? Surely that must imply that making the new bit switchable isn't too difficult?

And though I don't play BF3 myself, aren't R1 users essentially being precluded from a game that the m11x is fully capable of playing?

On a more morbid note though I'm pretty sure my freezes are something more serious. Thought it was the 1520 card but I replaced that and it still freezes. I rolled back to the 263 drivers using driver sweeper and safe mode and all of that good stuff but I still get freezing while the laptop is idling and at least a couple of times during games. Tried moving power management mode up to high performance too. Running out of ideas - running diagnostics mode as I type this up.

At least I think it has to do with idling, when in use it seems to hold out for a bit longer at least. My accidental warranty is 3 days expired. Am I just SOL? I feel like the 1520 card is the most well documented freezing issue for the m11x. Ah well - I might have to move it to a different forum to keep it on track.

If the hybrid can somehow up the battery life, I'd be happy to switch back. Virtually no difference between 296.1 and 295. I'm just grateful there's still a community at all.

 

There are enough issues with older OEM proper drivers that actually had nvidia support. I know folks keep claiming how simple it all is (Dell forum) but apparently it isn't.

After that its a numbers game (pun!). How many folks that will actually benefit from a driver upgrade that must have switchable still using an R1 have made noise? How many of the Sony chaps? If you google "switchable" though you get optimus systems mixed in so hard to tell but I'll bet its a low %

 

I had freezes BTW but not all were from NIC. Some vid, some nic(?), maybe some random. I put in the intel 6200 and it was TERRIBLE. BAD. BLEH. The 1520 was waaaay better. Now using killer 1102

I did notice (at least with optimus) that I have a lot less issues if launching a game with projector only mode enabled.

For daily desktop use I rarely have any issue. Blue moon rare. Games are more common but it could be marginal RAM, marginal CPU oc, marginal GPU memory etc. Hard to prove.