A faulty 260M card and Ram chip on a new M17X?

Hi everyone,

So I just got my m17x and there are a couple of problems I haven't been able to figure out searching through the thousands of posts on the m17x.

I ordered it with the quad q9000, dual 260 video cards, and standard 4gb ram, and am using Vista 32-bit.

The problem is that even though I've ordered it with the dual 260 it only seems to recognize one card. I'm not sure if one card is faulty or if Dell made an error and shipped it with only one card or not.

On the "My PC information" it only shows a single card with 1024mb graphics ram:



When I check the display settings:



or when checking display adapter it shows just one card with 1024mb dedicated video ram:



This all has me confused because on the device manager it seems to show the two 260 cards:



Are one of the cards recognized but not working or is this normal?
My previous computer was an m1730 and it was much more obvious detecting whether it was one or two video cards, but I've read a post that stated the new hybrid graphics means sli can exist between one dedicated card and the integrated 9400, so having sli doesn't necessarily mean I have two 260 cards. (They system is sli enabled)

On a somewhat related note, even though the bios reads 4gb of 1066mhz ram, actually benchmarking or applications only reads one ram 2 gb ram chip being used. (I realize 32-bit Windows only limits 3gb of ram but here, only one ram chip, 2gb, is recognized)

Example:


It only shows as 1789 mb's of Ram! I tried a software called "performance test" and it also only reads one video card at 1024 mb and about 2 gigs of ddr3 ram.

Is this a related problem?
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Device Manager is showing two cards, you've probably got SLI disabled. Both cards are only used when the program requires them.
Look in Control Panel -> System (right under your WEI score) to see how much Ram is being reported to Windows, it should be around 3GB.

 

I was under the impression that 32bit systems could only address 4GB of space. That wasnt a big deal when the largest video card was 512MB as it still allowed for about 3.2GB or RAM.

But with a 4GB max addressable space there just no way to address the system and 4GB of RAM and 2GB worth of GPU's.

I might be wrong here but i bet everything would be seen and fixed if you went over to a x64 system

 

Thanks for the reply. I am aware that 32 bit only reads about 3 gigs of ram, but you'll notice in the pic that it's only reading 1789 mb of ram. It only seems to be using one 2gig ram chip. I wasn't able to get a screen shot when doing the performance test, but while benchmarking it reads as "1024 mb video ram" and "2024 mb ram". Only on the bios it shows 4 gb ram, but once I enter the OS it shows as 1789. Also, sli has been enabled, with the "boost performance" on, but the device manager is the only place where I can verify 2 video cards.

 

Sorry, i think i didnt explain it clearly. A 32bit system can only address 4GB worth of space... in that space is your system profile, your GPU RAM and your system RAM.

Your system is trying to juggle around 6.5GB of space that is requesting to be addressed and its "picking" what it assumes it needs.

I really think in a 64bit system you wouldnt have a single issue, i could be wrong though i havent used 32bit systems in like 5 years.

 

Oh I see what you mean. I guess that would explain why less than 2gb of system ram is being used if the dual video cards account for 2 gigs.

Looks like I need to use a 64 bit system. I'll have to dual boot because a couple of my work related software only run on 32 bit.

 

Yah, the device manager is picking them all up, looks like your video cards are fine. If you want to do a test, disable your hybrid SLI in the bios (turn integrated graphics and hybrid graphics to 'disabled'). Save changes and restart windows. Once you log in, an Nvidia window should pop up and say 'you have an sli-capable system, do you wish to enable sli now?' or something like that (mine does). That will get your SLI running 24/7 without having to switch between 'Power Save" and "Boost Performance" so you can see if both cards are running correctly. If they are, then switch things back in the bios and restart again.

You can also install a program called NST (Nvidia System Tools: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.02.html) that Moo was pimping and I had installed at one point. I believe it has an app included called Nvidia Monitor that shows the temps and clocks of your cards. if I remember correctly, if SLI is enabled and working using "Boost Performance" it will show 2 video cards side by side in the monitor carousel menu (you'll know it when you see it), and only one if using "Power Save". Sorry, I don't have more info on NST, it has been a few months since I used it and I am on my much less cool work machine

 

Thanks for the info. I'm quite sure now that it does have the dual 260's, it just wasn't very obvious and kind of hard to tell. I've read that dual vid cards only show a 0% to 40% performance increase and that seems to be the case. I wish Alienware offered a single 280 graphic card option which probably would have been cheaper and showed better results over a dual 260.