Nvidia Optimus Driver 259.47 WHQL - R2 Only

Update - The original does not support M11xR2 directly thou you can install it without any error and seems to cause your Optimus to stop working its all due to that the inf does not add support for Optimus thou the driver does support them. I have modded an inf to work with this set which you can find the entire package via the new download link on the bottom. Previous links has been remove. As usual just extract to a folder then run the set up. Remember to driver sweep before installation. In case someone start asking, this does not come with PhysX so you will have to download and manually install them yourself. Thanks


These are the latest WHQL release by Microsoft dated 21-Aug-2010. Good news is that these drivers are WHQL signed and seems like M11xR2 support has been added already. So there is no need to mod them to work on our machine. Since these are not modded drivers meaning the WHQL certification is not broken. I have tried installing them without issue just like installing any official Nvidia drivers. These are official anyway just that they are release by Microsoft rather than Nvidia.

Thou these are official drivers but still it does not come with any warranty from me/Dell/Alienware. Install them at your own will. Just to make you feel more safe these are cabs downloaded directly via Microsoft on download.windowsupdate.com

Instead of hotlinking those files directly which I dont find it right to do so. I have personally zip up the files upload them to other place for you guys to grab it. Enjoy....

Note : R1 users can install them if you wish to as well thou I state it as R2 only reason being these are not Hybrid drivers thus will break your graphics switching capability. So install at your own risk. This driver is suppose to support all Geforce series both Desktop/Laptop as well as Quadro series that has been release up till today.


http://www.zshare.net/download/7992128521835a79/

http://hotfile.com/dl/66114918/c486b59/Win_x64_259.47_Optimus_Fix.7z.html - Thanks for Skatehouse for the upload

 

Finally!

As usual, thanks for the heads up, kopicha.

 

Wow, thanks! Any official change logs aswell?

 

@All - I check the nv_whql.inf file and the Nvidia 335mGT is listed so if you have a R1 and are running DISCRETE VIDEO ONLY in bios you can utilize this driver as well. IF YOU DONT KNOW WHAT THE TERM DISCRETE MEANS, in reference to the R1, this means you probably dont have it enabled and it wont work.... Nice find Kopicha.. On the ball this morning and I still have cobwebs... Best wishes, StevenX

Also.. here's all the new cards added to this driver series.. Wonder which one the next M11x will get..????

NVIDIA_DEV.0E23.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GTS 455)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DC4.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DC5.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DC0.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GT 440)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DE1.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GT 430)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DE2.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GT 420)
NVIDIA_DEV.0E30.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470M
NVIDIA_DEV.0DD1.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DD2.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GT 445M)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DD3.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DF2.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DF0.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DF3.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DF1.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M)
NVIDIA_DEV.0DEE.01 (NVIDIA GeForce GT 415M)

 

was i the only one to get some funky issues with these drivers??

it detected a 3rd display, and created some Updatus user profile? Was clean install too...

 

@WAZZ_UP

Me too. The property says I have 2 displays connected....

 

Neither this or dell 257.30 driver work for me.
I had problem running mass effect 1.

Problem solved after I use 258.96 drivers.
Maybe it's my uninstall/install processes that went wrong.

Need more testing...

 

Does this solve the lag/spike issue with WC3?
Anyone can clarify it?

 

no idea i havent had time to test it. only look at the inf file. did try to run installation and confirm that it detect the GPU without the need of modding. So I have pack it and upload it for you guys as I am busy with some personal stuffs atm...

 

Punk Buster fix? Finally our support.

 

Not having much luck- there's the weird phantom vga connection, and it's not firing up for Team fortress 2.

In device manager it has it as listed as generic non-UPnP monitor, and it's on the 335m. The actual monitor is on the intel and no games are switching to the 335m. Uninstalling and going back to 258.96, the best drivers so far.

 

i wonder if they (microsoft or nvidia) screw up the inf when they add the support, might need to take a close look into their inf to find out. sorry guys I personally havent got much time to really experiment the driver this time before posting it. but since I saw it has added support presuming that its WHQL from Microsoft things should work well.

but i think this time it clearly show one thing. WHQL does not necessary mean its a better driver over modded ones

 

Amen to that!

Anyway no harm in trying out these new ones even if they don't work well, thanks for posting it.

 

Yeah seems odd. I heard similar reports from Asus users. I may have to take a look at the INF.

The windows update drivers are unique. They contain a ton of stuff including the nvbridge_int.kmd required for hybrid graphics, both control panels, debugging files and more. Something to remember is that while the INF may be setup to support the Nvidia GPU it may not be properly setup to support it with Optimus. I assume this is the case with the INF here. (I haven't taken a look at it yet.) The only Nvidia drivers officially setup to support Optimus are the Verde drivers. The rest may have all of the proper files and basic hardware id strings for the GPU but not for Optimus. For example: We know the Hardware ID for the M11xR2 in the INF is PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0CAF&SUBSYS_04651028 the nv_disp.inf file probably has something like PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0CAF (note the subsystem id is missing). With the subsystem id left off of the end of the hardware id string it makes it apply to all GeForce GT 330M GPUs. The subsystem id 04651028 locks it down to the M11xR2.

So if you have been paying attention we get:
Vendor ID: 10DE = NVIDIA
Device ID: 0CAF = GeForce GT 330M GPU
Subsystem ID: 04651028 = M11xR2

Note: You can always download the 259.39 driver package I posted, copy over the INFs open NVDM.inf and copy over the following lines from nv_disp.inf:

[Version]
DriverVer = 0#/##/2010, 8.17.12.5947

[nv_coinstaller_copyfiles]
nvcod####.dll,nvcod.dll,,0x00004000

[nv_commonCoinstaller_addreg]
HKR,"Uninstall",CoInstaller,%REG_SZ%,"nvcod####.dll"
HKR,, CoInstallers32, %REG_MULTI_SZ%, "nvcod####.dll,NVCoInstaller"

NOTE: I am at work and do not have my laptop in front of me so I cant tell you the exact lines (what goes in place of all those #s.)

 

Does this driver fixes the PB fix or not?

 

fixed driver coming in shortly. apparently what happen here is this driver does have Optimus support. However Microsoft seems to have done badly on the inf. So I had the mod the inf to make it work properly. Had done some brief test L4D2 work nicely. So is Global Agenda. Just Cause 2 is fine too. Benching SC2 while typing this. Seems like SC2 has quite a bit of improvements in this driver. Anyway will be packing the drivers and upload them later. I cant just post the inf as the files need renaming as well. So I had to repack the whole driver set. Sorry about the inconvenience.

 

No way...

 

Well as I said above unless the INF includes PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0CAF&SUBSYS_04651028 it wasn't really meant for the M11xR2. This driver is actually for HP/Compaq and isn't really a Verde driver. Proper Optimus support needs to be added to the INF. Also Microsoft doesn't handle the INFs they just post what Nvidia submits to them after WHQL testing.

Still waiting on Nvidia to release new drivers. Hoping they will include Verde with M11xR2 support.

With that said, mods will always be needed to enable Optimus for the M11xR2 for certain drivers, such as is the case with this driver.

It may be best to use a program like Beyond Compare or WinMerge compare your last modded driver INF in the new driver and make appropriate changes. This way your previous INF acts somewhat as a template. In many cases the only differences will be the lines I noted above. The Windows Update INFs usually exclude the Subsystem ID to go for universal coverage of GPU models.

 

I did a compare already I havent really seen much changes since the last 259.xx release as compared to this one. So I have use my previous template to support this set of driver. So far couple of Optimus test all have been running fine.

To the rest.... Please redownload if you wish to try out this driver for your games. New link updated via the first page.

 

Yeah not too many changes.

I have uncovered another setting for Optimus. It has something to do with setting which GPU OpenGL applications run on. Not sure if this one is even worth enabling.

 

Well these drivers do not fix the PB issue...

But they do fix the Mafia full screen issue

I'm going to stick with them for now and see how they do.

 

Bummer dude that sucks.

 

lol just when i've finished mafia 2 -.-

just waiting for a pb fix...

 

here is another mirror link:

Hotfile.com: One click file hosting: Win_x64 259.47_Optimus Fix.7z

all credit goes to kopicha for adding the fixes.

 

it fixed the fullscreen issue with mafia 2!!!

 

Did you get a significant fps boost after changing to fullscreen?

 

yes, I am getting now between 34 and 45 fps while driving down the sidewalk full speed and knocking people and poles out.. which is what i will be doing the most in this game anyway

the settings in the game are set to medium and cpu is overclocked to 160, gpu is untouched.

 

Running stock CPU and GPU, I can get the game to run over 30 FPS with medium and PHYSx off.

 

Thanks for the updated drivers I will install them after work

 

Are they working well with optimus?

 

Can someone please point me in the direction of the latest drivers that actually work with BFBC2/Punkbuster?

 

Thanks Skatehouse, added to the front page

 

it doesnt seems to yet. I did have a brief test yesterday while uploading the driver with BFBC2 online but still get kicked. I wasnt kicked with the multi d3d device error thou. Which makes me think why. I believe its more like PB needs update rather than Nvidia needs to do anything for their drivers

The best driver that work with most game with decent performance yet no issue with BFBC2 still remains as 189.79 for now.

 

Anyone tried this with SC2 yet? I did a brief test while doing driver testing. To me seems like there is a slight improvement too. I didnt go deep into the game since I had to test a couple of games which is a pretty time consuming process...

 

The 189 drivers are the only ones that work. However, those drivers will pretty much cause half of your games not to work.

Transformers: WFC and Mafia 2 being two current examples.

This PB issue is by far the biggest problem with the M11x and is really getting frustrating.

I contacted Even Balance about it and they got back to me and pretty much said that there's nothing they can do and it's Nvidia and Alienware's problem. I wrote them back and said it's attitudes like that, that has the masses flocking to trouble free consoles and drop P.C. gaming. And since they're not needed on consoles, perhaps they need to rethink their attitude if they want to stay in business and come up with a fix. The Frakkers.

I can smell another refresh coming so this M11x is going to the wife (Actually they're replacing the entire unit as the tech accidentally stripped a screw inside the case, but I'm not mad at him. He's a really cool guy and he's the one that arranged for me to get a complete replacement)

But this PB issue is really steering me away from Optimus as it seems to affect all Optimus systems and not just the M11x.

If they can't get this fixed soon, the R3 of the M11x better have a stronger GPU AND a higher quality panel or I'm going to look into something else.

I really love this machine. It seems to be great at doing everything but play games. That's not fair, it does play games. And when it does, it's great. I guess I should say - play games "headache free"

If it's not certain drivers working on some games and not others it's PB not working at all.

Combine that with the fact that Dell software is something like 5 updates behind Nvidia and that many users couldn't update if we didn't have the likes of Kopicha and Nautis or we'd be Frakked outta luck, it's really starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth for Dell/Alienware. I've never bought or built a system that made you have to go through their brand/mfr. to get regular driver updates.

Ridiculous. Really.

While others have had problems with the Asus G73, it's been nothing but smiles for me. And my experience with that machine has me looking hard at what Asus is going to answer the M11x with, as you know they're going to be coming with something.

And for all the ATI/NVidia fanboys, let me make something clear - GPU companies suck. Both of them. If it's not ATI having 5870m that runs too hot or has shoddy ram or a Vbios that causes constant GSOD's (admittedly that part could/needs to be fixed by Asus) - to Nvidia releasing Optimus to major bugs, and not have patches coming out to push their new technology of "switchable graphics" - they both suck. And when you think about it, I'd guestimate that 90% of all issues people have on PC's whether it be a notebook or desktop ALWAYS goes back to Nvidia or ATI (I guess now AMD)

But my frustrations really lie with Dell also for locking the end user out from configuring or modifying the hardware that they bought. Very Apple of you Dell. I wonder who took that practice from whom?

Come on Alienware and Nvidia - Fix this freaking PB issue!!!

 

@Thx - not dissing you at all.. i feel the same way about vid companies. It's not until you try several different versions of a driver and it's very obvious that SOMETHING STRANGE IS AFOOT AT THE CIRCLE K! how can one driver be so good and the next one, same series have issues. In the R2 case, all it takes is one quick update to allow PB on newer drivers and loads of users would be happier. Again I agree. Nvidia has many more released, but less quality.. ATI has fewer releases with more quality. Which one is better... who knows.. not me. To sum up, were all on the quest to get more support, more quality and more fps. Video companies, hop on the bandwagon and get this chucwagon going! Best wishes, StevenX

 

I submitted a ticket to Evenbalance figuring that the more people that send them, the more this issue gets their attention.

I just hope they fix it. And if they don't, the Battlefield series lost a loyal customer.

 

The thoughts in the last few posts is why I am sending back the Alienware for the 5870 in a custom built PowerPro I 7:22

Yes, I will use battery but I play plugged in most of the time.

 

HERE IS A TRANSCRIPT OF MY EXCHANGE WITH EVENBALANCE:

Hi,

I own an "Alienware M11x-R2" and I and several other owners have been experiencing an issue where we keep getting kicked out of games because of PB errors with the GPU and driver set.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ter-restriction-multiple-direct3d-loaded.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/508164-bf-bad-company-2-problem.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/492051-m11x-r2-nvidia-optimus-issues-29.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/462632-m11xr1-r2-gaming-discussion-thread-118.html

There are multiple threads addressing this issue with every owner of this machine. It seems that the correction lies in an update with PB.

What does it take to get this addressed and fixed?

Please address an update to handle this as it's affecting thousands of gamers and hurting the solid reputation of the software.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Cheers,
THX5334 (used my real name)

THEIR RESPONSE FROM "GLENN C" (2 weeks later I might add):
Note #2: This is an issue with the Nvidia drivers themselves, possibly in conjunction with your particular hardware. Even Balance does not allow multiple d3d9.dlls to be running when playing on a PunkBuster-enabled server. This has been the case for quite some time. I'm sorry, but this will need to be addressed by Nvidia.

I think I'm going to make a new thread about this to rally people up to spam Evenbalance with complaints until they fix it.

 

What is it about multiple Direct3D dlls that might be considered cheating anyway? I'm asking that from the viewpoint that I really have no clue what Punkbuster does beyond detecting and preventing "cheaters" from join servers that run it.

 

I opened a ticket to even balance last week, they never responded!!!

 

Well, a lot of cheats have a visual component (brighten opponents, add things to the HUD, etc.), so it could be used for that. Cheats are usually pretty resource intensive, so having the hardware acceleration direct3d provides is handy or perhaps necessary. Also, some cheats prevent things from happening to you (e.g., stop flashbang grenades from blinding you), so they have to be able to prevent or reverse directx effects, which is probably easiest through direct3d.

 

and yet Valve anti-cheat (VAC) has no problem with the R2.

 

evenbalance can suck it , they stopped responding to my ticket , never gave any kind of blame or explanation , just stopped responding

 

from what I understand (which I maybe wrong) Nvidia change the way Optimus works in a certain way. Example why do you actually see multid3d error in PB? Its because There is some call to actually trigger the GPU to be active to allow the application that you are running to see that you have that GPU in place rather than the Intel one. Those using Steam if you are using 258.96 and up, try to run the system information in your Steam and you will see that Steam actually see your GPU. The benefit of this is you can fully utilize the capability of the GPU rather than limited support. If you roll back to older drivers the 189.xx series, Steam will only see the Intel althou the GPU can still kick in when game is active. But the major drawback is you will be limited by the features. Example when Steam is able to to see your GPU, when you launch a Source game you will notice that it will prompt you telling you its running from Nvidia GT335M. On older drivers the pop up will indicate Intel HD instead. Also in the game. If Nvidia is detected you gain access to full graphics settings like 16xQMSAA as compared to on Intel HD you only have maximum of either 4 or 8xFSAA.

Imo I feel that PB needs to get themselves updated with technology rather than asking Nvidia to fix it when its not really their issue to begin with. Its just like when there is virus outbreak, those anti virus software companies need to get their act and update their program and not waiting for Microsoft to fix their windows. I think EvenBalance dont know what they are talking about being an Anti Cheat software company. Thats just how I feel

 

I have an n82jv with a gt 335m. These drivers won't enable the nvidia in any situation, except with the phantom vga monitor. Unfortunately, the 258.96's don't work for me. I'll try the kopicha's fixed version now.

 

So I can't install the modified drivers. Have disk and the setup say the drivers don't apply to my hardware, even though i have the 335m.

I'm at a loss. I can't use anything below 259 because they cause distortions. I can't use the any 259 drivers because optimus doesn't work. I wonder if the problem is that my nvidia card is broken? Maybe the only reason the 259's work is because the nvidia card is disabled? So far in my ownership of the n82jv I havent been able to use the nvidia card successfully.

 

you are in the wrong forum? this driver is modded purely for M11xR2 compatibility and not Asus n82jv

 

I'm wondering about this too. Any noticeable/confirmed fps improvements? There's a whole sticky thread on the SC2 forum with people complaining about low fps systems that fit minimum requirements and above. Maybe patch 1.1 will fix some performance issues as well.

 

So do you guys recommend this drivers over the 258.96?