Nvidia Verde Notebook Driver 258.96 BETA - Discussion relating to 11xR2

Nvidia have updated their Verde Notebook Drivers with the latest WHQL which you may download from the link below (Updated Link)

NVIDIA DRIVERS 258.96 WHQL

Unfortunately for some reason either they forget to add the M11x string again or did they intentionally leave it out. Anyway for those who feel adventurous and would want to try it out on your M11xR2 you may use this inf that I have modified for adding M11x support. No additional things has been change from the original inf except for adding support for M11x base on what Nautis have guided previously from the last beta.

View attachment nvdm.zip

Please do take note that thou I have personally tested the file to work however this does not come with any warranty or support. I wont be responsible if this blow up your system So use it at your own risk!


Lastly thanks again to Nautis for sharing the inf modding. Kudos to Nautis as I take no credit for the modification done.


Update 20-07-2010

I have updated the link to the new official WHQL release on the 20-07-2010. Also the modded inf have been updated for those who are interested. Please note that this has the same version number just with WHQL validation. However with modded inf it will break the WHQL validation which will indicate the drivers unsigned again just like the previous RC release. most files seems the same compared to previous RC so unlikely there is any change except the exe package seems a lil bigger than previous. For those interested may try updating which might not be necessary. Remember the usual disclaimer, Do it at your OWN RISK!


How to install
-------------

1. Download and save both the Nvidia drivers and the inf file I posted above to your desktop.

2. Download and install Guru3D - Driver Sweeper (Setup) download from Guru3D.com

3. Go to your control panel click on uninstall programs. Look for for Nvidia and remove anything that is from Nvidia eg. Drivers/PhysX/Control Panel

4. Reboot the machine and press F8 for boot option, boot your Win7 into Safe mode then run Driver Sweeper, check on all Nvidia items then run Clean to clean up your systems from all Nvidia related files and registry. Once done reboot machine again.

5. After booting back into windows run the Nvidia drivers you save on your desktop. It will extract the files and setup will launch automatically once done. You will receive No Hardware Found error just click ok and set up will close.

6. Extract my modded inf file to this folder "C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\258.96\WinVista_Win7_64\International\Display" ( Important)

7. Open your windows explorer and go to C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\258.96\WinVista_Win7_64\International\ and run the Setup.exe

8. Nvidia installer should come up again but this time it should be able to detect your hardware and will start installing, during the installation it will prompt you that the drivers have not been verify, make sure you click on "Install Anyway" option to allow the installation to completed else installation will fail. ( Important)

9 Reboot as instructed after installation complete and you should have the new working drivers on your cool M11xR2

 

Thanks for this,

Just installed which went fine, seems Nvidia have ironed out some optimus issues to do with profiles at least, though after a quick test I've noticed that fps has dropped a little.

Will run some 3dmarks see how it pans out.

 

i actually had gains in most aspect. at stock i got 6.9k for 3dmark. wow gain about 10-20% fps. ME2 runs a lot smoother. Splinter Cell works better now. Except for FF14 I dont see much improvements. L4D2 also seems better too. I didnt run fraps but just the feel of the smoothness in gameplay

 

I'm going to test it out. I hope this will give me 8k score. Thanks for sharing +rep.

 

bench or beta?

 

Ok, the issues i was having was down to powermizer kicking in, and now that's fixed here's what 3dmark06 showed.

258.96 Drivers - 6897
Dell's 257.30 - 6854

So a very slight increase, but every little helps. Plus some Optimus issues are ironed out

 

Havent done anything related to numbers but I can say that Risen works now as well as Just Cause 2. Both of which refused to run until I installed this driver.

Still get booted from BC2 for multiple 3D devices.

 

this will work with the i5 processors right? Has anyone tested this on wow yet?

 

yes it will work on i5

they look and does the same as the earlier 258.69 which is awesome!

physX is auto, preferred gpu is auto and you can enable a nvidia gpu notification in your taskbar just like the tool people has been using for a bit now. All in the driver.

highly recommended.

 

I don't understand why Dell does not just push the Nvidia drivers out and make them official (of course so the drivers would work with the M11X without having to be modified).

Nvidia has put out 2 new 'official' drivers and we still only have Dell beta drivers.

 

Because Dell can't qualify and support them quick enough. Welcome to a big company that actually has to (attempt) to support their products.

We have beta drivers because if the Dell drones in tech support can't point complaining customers to something that at least works, their return rates will skyrocket. They'll called beta because Dell can't be bothered to support them.

This is the main reason why (imo) no one should be even considering a R1. The drivers for the R1 can ONLY come from Dell. The R2 drivers can come directly from nVidia. In another year, there will be no more R1 drivers, but r2 owners will still be getting weekly updates from nVidia even if they do require a slight inf tweak.

Consider it a litmus test, you must be at least XXXX much of a geek in order to properly use your m11x.

 

@Mwaldron - I dont agree with part of your post. The nvidia 335mGT is a standard mobile release. It can utilize most any of the 3xx series drivers with a simple INF mod. The drivers may not be specifically made for the 335 but as many owners on here know they work well. This is the case for many notebook owners with nvidia cards. You may lose the ability to switch between discrete and integrated but the higher powered nvidia 335mGT will have driver support for years to come... Again so there is no misunderstanding the 335mGT will have driver support for years to come. This may or may not include "switchable" graphics... That is up to Dell

StevenX

 

Actually, unless I'm mistaken, we have the beta driver available from Dell because Brian requested something from nvidia to help with some of the problems we were having with the original drivers. Those beta drivers beat the snot out of the drivers that shipped with the R2. I'm fairly certain there's a post here about that, but I'm really not in the mood to search it up.

 

Question is, will Optimus really be a core technology for Nvidia in the future? I am not sure we'll get optimal support for the Optimus in the long run. As far as I know, you cannot use standard 335M drivers. It has to support Optimus, simply because how Optimus works - copying data to the PCI Express bus, outputting the image through the integrated card.

 

Not getting anyluck with stability on Fallout 3 with this driver. Everything else is grand. Is there a driver that does make fallout 3 stable?

 

they should be able to detect it.

 

So there is an inf mod that allows the current nVidia drivers to work on the m11xR1? That's pretty cool I was unaware of that and happily stand corrected. I must have confused the r1 with the switchable graphics on the Sony.

That's awesome, and Brian is certainly a valuable resource and advocate, but Dell doesn't jump just because he says so. He's the squeaky wheel that they used to gauge the issue, and respond. I'm certainly glad we have him, Thanks Brian!

 

benchmark.

 

Read the official release notes you will find that Optimus is supported in all current 25x.xx release

 

Sadly as far as my usability is concerned the only good drivers available right now are the 189.* until the Bad Company 2 problem is fixed.

 

That's not my point. I know it is supported in the new 25x.xx drivers. I am more thinking about the long term support for the technology: rendering on the discrete, copying frames and routing through the integrated graphics. Nvidia can no longer just care about their graphics cards, they have to care about how it communicates with another card - the integrated one. For example, bear in mind that Nvidia has no plans to support this on Linux.

 

True, they could drop support, but you have the same issue with the R1 and it's even more tenuous since it's involves special drivers also and has already been replaced by Optimus.

 

Does nvidia still kick in using IE while watching flash?

Thanks.

 

its part of their technology. so far i dont really see them dropping any of their tech unless its obsolete. as far as Optimus goes, this is a 2 way thing. so yes what you say is correct Nvidia no longer only need to care of their hardware but what I can say is as a usual practice from Nvidia they will identify if issue is from their hardware or its from intel. They can and will only fix up to the point where its related to Nvidia (I seen this portion happening before from Nvidia). However anything beyond that would not be within their responsibility or control since they dont own those product. That is more like a question to Intel rather than Nvidia if Intel will update their drivers accordingly in future to support Optimus

 

Hybrid graphics on the R1 isn't a big problem. You can chose to only use discrete graphics in the BIOS. If the BIOS also can be updated to provide the option to chose only the integrated one, there really is no problem. Ideally, I hope it could be like this for the R1;

1) Integrated only. The OS will only see the Intel card.
2) Discrete only. The OS will only see the Nvidia card.
3) Both integrated and discrete. The OS will see both cards. Needs special driver to switch between them in the OS. As long as Dell provides updates, no problem.

For the R2, you will never have the chance of this flexibility.

I also think that the graphics solutions will change in the future. Nvidia might want to pursue a technology where they provide their own low power integrated card, together with a discrete one. Or, Intel decides to change something.

 

If you are using Flash 10.1 technically Nvidia will kicking. This is part of the feature implemented some time back on the Adobe Flash acceleration. So this is not a bug. It gives no reason for them to make Optimus system an exception. If you want this to be exemted you probably need to specify it in the application list to indicate the default use to intel. However I dont know if by trying to override this way will work or not since you are trying to override something that is part of a "feature" as this is neither a bug/issue to begin with.

 

Exactly. So what if Intel decides to not care? Intel will care about their card, Nvidia about their card. Whose responsibility is it to care about the combined solution - that the communicate as they should together? There is definitely additional complexity involved here, which I think Nvidia will try to avoid in the future if they can. Optimus might be a transition technology.

 

I can confirm that these drivers are BY FAR the best for starcraft II so far! its so great!

 

Hmn Flash using firefox doesn't make the nvidia kick in though.

 

unless there is a new technology popping up. example intel come up with their own discrete gpu solution which come on par with nvidia's solution. and they come up with their own switchable solution. Probably thats when Intel might ignore Nvidia's Optimus. This is purely business. Anything can be possible so I am not doubting your thoughts. No one can foresee what future lies ahead especially given today's technologies are moving really fast. But as for now Optimus is looking great. It just keep improving (except Dell/AW have not been very up to their game) over time. I believe with the implementation of Optimus both Nvidia and Intel do have something in line but just not seen by us consumer on the outside. Look at it this way, Optimus so far has only been implemented on Intel's 2010 line of I-Core models. so not only optimus is something new in Nvidia, so its the processor from Intel that integrate the HD graphics engine. I dont think your concerns need to be worry about too much for now. Just enjoy your game

This is just pure business to them at the end of day. Things need 2 hands to clap. The tecnology is already there, if OEM manufacturers support them as well as us consumers. With the given market I am sure they wont let business opportunity slip. When there is market for it and got expanded eventually support will improve too since additional effort will be require to make the whole thing worthwhile.

So like i said above I am not worrying too much with concerns you raise. Cuz as far as I have see myself so far. It's indeed improving over time shows that things has been done be it from Nvidia or Intel we dont know. But they definitely did do something that ppl might not have been aware of

One actual example I can show is here http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-r2-nvidia-optimus-issues-33.html#post6458731

In the past when Optimus just started application cant see the GT335M but only Intel thou it may kick in after application starts. But some still does not kick in that we had to add them manually to the list to work. But look at that screenshot I posted, it has already gone to the point where application actually starts to see our GT335M rather than Intel. This already shows a very good start that its starting to show what Optimus is meant to work like. Also try reading the Nvidia drivers help file about Optimus you will notice that it now also support updating of profile to ensure driver is capturing the right things about how Optimus should work. All these are just looking better. with all these going on I am more positive rather than being negative with all those worries.

 

Is the flash from your firefox 10.1? also if you notice from this new driver, firefox is now listed in the application list. it can be default with intel or nvidia if that answer your question or clear your doubts

 

this sounds good to me. 2 more weeks before it hit shelves cant wait!

 

Idk if its just me but i was able to overclock my gpu a little higher with this driver. Because of that i was able to reach 8k 3dmark score. Finally a driver that works.

 

Going to install the driver right now and test it out, Do i first uninstall the nvidia drivers that are on right now? than install the new ones? better yet could someone please give me a step by step tutorial on it haha.

 

Better fps across the board here on BFBC2 and TF2.

Incidentally I have lodged a support ticket with punkbuster about the BFBC2 m11xr2 kicking issue, I'll do a thread if anything comes of it.

 

Try this for Fallout 3. Go to Documents\My Games\Fallout3 and edit FALLOUT.INI

Find the line:
bUseThreadedAI=0

change it to:
bUseThreadedAI=1

and add the following line right after this one:
iNumHWThreads=2


FO3 kept freezing every few minutes until I made the above changes. Since the edits, I played about 20 minutes without a crash and moved on to other games to try. I got this from the Steam forums.

Stain

 

Download and install Guru3D - Driver Sweeper (Setup) download from Guru3D.com

Launch your uninstall programs in Control Panel and remove all Nvidia related items eg, PhysX, Drivers, Control Panel

Reboot your laptop and press F8 for boot option and boot into Safe Mode

Launch Driver Sweeper and check on all Nvidia items and run clean to clean out all Nvidia items then reboot back into Windows and install the new drivers

You are done!

 

what do i do with the file in the zip?

 

replace the orignal nvdm.inf file from the folder that Nvdia extract the driver files to.

 

Dude, thank you so much. I played for an hour straight until it finally crashed out. Still not perfect but a much more stable than before.

 

No problem. I'm glad to hear it worked (or at least worked better). It seemed like the problem is not related to laptop video drivers at all, it is actually related to some sort of "leak" that occurs when there are too many cores being used and the fix limits the number of cores the game will use. Sorry for the sketchy explanation. I only skimmed the forum and jumped to the solution.

 

Excellent post. I believe this fixed an issue I was having with the unofficial FFXI windower.

Great to see a lot of updates from NVIDIA.

 

Just did 25m VOA on wow fps is the same

 

Just wondering if it's normal for the nvidia tray icon to be gone after this dirver update? I had the icon w/ dell's beta drivers, but it's gone now.

 

did you do a driver sweep / clean to get rid of old files and registry before installing them? And I think you can enable / disable under the nvidia control panel too.

 

Yes it's normal. You can re-enable to display the tray icon via nvidia's control panel. It's just not check by default. And this icon is the same icon as the last beta nvidia posted. It will show if your gpu is currenly being use by your running app much like the gpu state viewer that nautis posted before.

 

Mate so you over come the gfx switching problem you mentioned already? Btw what's your system spec? Let me see if I can help you on your wow settings. Also assuming if you are running one of the wotlk random heroric dungeons, were you even able to keep the game at an avg of 40-60fps?

 

Thanks for the answer, and rep+ for both. Well seems like I have to wait a bit to rep thomas

I like the new tray icon that shows nvidia gpu activity!!

 

Thanks for the rep! And yes me too love the new icon. Good to see that Optimus is getting some love from Nvidia althou they did not mention much in their release notes

One more thing, try to read the drivers help file and look up for Optimus related topic. You will find quite a bit of information on how much the drivers have change in terms of Optimus support. Eg. Uodating of game profile, The auto switch for GPU state and etcs...

 

Yah I fixed the problem I had selected nvidia high processing instead of the global setting nvidia high processor so that was why it wasn't being used. I have the I5 and 4gb of ram.