Mr. Fox's GeForce 344.75 Desktop Driver Mod for 780M, 880M and 980M Mobile GPUs

I will forever consider that they are. I'm telling you straight, the AMOUNT of desktop users who believe mobile cards are crap/can't be overclocked/etc and then further the amount of them who will make a fuss when you try to prove them wrong? Yeah. I don't think (and I said this before) that nVidia wants mobile and desktop on the same playing field. I don't know how well AMD cards OC in the mobile field, but considering how the 8970M heatsink even surpasses the 880M heatsink for our Clevo models... yeah. I think they have other issues limiting their potential.

 

Yeah, if there's a Nobel Prize to be handed out on these forums for getting your nose pressed right against the grindstone and erasing a few layers of skin in the name of progress, Mr. Fox wins the title belt over and over again. I can point to at least ten things I didn't know about my unit(s) until Mr. Fox pointed them out either as a drive-by in the forums, or something specifically said to me. Thanks for sharing the information, man. I'd give you more rep power, but the forums say I've got to spread some love around elsewhere first, so consider this your holiday wreath from our household.

Cheers, brother!

 

Thanks for the compliments. I am going to put your response in the thread related to the driver you are pleased with.

You are too kind. Thank you. As far as the rep points go, it's the thought that counts.

 

I think my peak benchmarking clocks were in the 1220/1750 region in the end with the 780m.

 

Silly question as you didn't write it on the thread's title but I have to ask ^^! Can I use this mod driver with 680M's graphic card? I am very curious about it

PS: As always awesome job Mr.Fox

 

Not the way I did it. If I mod it to include 680M you probably can.

Edit: Download the mod, then use the files in this zip to replace the ones in the mod and see if it works.

View attachment 680M Desktop Mod.zip

 

I might have missed it but where did you order them from? Ebay, Alienware?
gonna keep reading and see if you got the results you were hoping!!!

 

They are available on eBay, but for a higher price. It would be better if get them from HIDevolution, RJ Tech or PowerNotebooks.

Results are posted here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-r2-dual-980m-sli-upgrade-98.html#post9870809

...and here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...enchmark-thread-part-3-a-161.html#post9870798

 

Thanks just checked all 3!

All caught up as well!

 

Well I finally could run Fire strike without a crash with this driver. Amazing results.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,Alienware M18xR2

With stock clocks

 

Mr. Fox are you willing to add a 970m into the mix? I'd love to rock these desktop drivers that are supposedly giving great gains.

 

Sure, I would be glad to add it, just let me know the hardware ID for your GPU from Device Manager. I will have to add it to the nv_disp.inf and mod (as in mess up) whatever INF file your MSI laptop normally uses.

 

Odd enough I was able to install your driver from what you uploaded, and it didn't require me to disable driver signature?

 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2 <--- note, there is NO SLI. so, do not think this is a low score. Its actually pretty decent. I would for sure, be in top 10 if I did this with SLI (for similiar hardware, i.e same videocard)

Other then Johnkzssss with a 3940xm or some other guy with a no name pc, I have the highest single 880M gtx with 3rd gen i7 score (no SLI) . Oddly, I know I tested months ago with my 17x-r4 and beat my score without this new driver, so I imagine using the m17x-r4 with this would yeild at least 6,000 (usually about 10-15%faster on that laptop for some odd reason, which I have no idea why)

Oh, also, this is stock speeds.

Oddly, ive also had this laptop available for sale for less then 2000$ for over a year and still no one wants it, but they are willing to pay more for less performance. wtvr.

 

If that is the case, you may not see any benefit from using this modded driver. It installed using the stock INF file for your MSI laptop and probably won't be any different than an unmodded driver package. Essentially, it is not modded in your case. Had I altered the INF that applies to your laptop to make it unusable and updated the nv_disp.inf file to include your hardware ID the installation would have failed with Windows 8 or newer OS with DSE disabled.

 

This is using my desktop driver mod with 980M SLI...

 

Mr fox can you update the drivers to 347.09 and mod them please? Thanks in advance my friend and a big hug

 

Mr. Fox, If I mod Desktop's 347.09 for 650M will it give performance boost? Or it is just for top chips like 680M, 780M, 880M and 980M?

And on a side note to just sumz up. Did it really happened that those enthusiasts who bought laptops with TOP GPUs for thousands $ and who figured that new drivers artificially lower the performance... did it really happend that they never actually tried Desktop drivers with modded... words which sound like "ejection" ? If so then bummer.

 

I hate to be that guy, but there's absolutely no difference between desktop and notebook drivers except for the .inf files Mr. Fox edited, which determine which GPUs the driver package can be installed on. People have been converting desktop drivers to laptop drivers and vice-versa for years. Thinking there's some massive performance boost to be had from installing a desktop package on notebooks via modded INF is snake oil, just like people who think there's a massive image quality improvement in games from installing Quadro drivers on GeForce cards.

I challenge anyone to prove me wrong. Compare your results from the 344.75 notebook driver vs. this modded desktop driver.

 

You're short-sighted sometimes, bro. Yes, of course the drivers are the same. What the installer does to your registry and added-on features are different between desktop and notebook drivers, and even brands of notebooks vary on the installation routine. On-the-fly-SLI is one example of a legitimate mod. That's not snake oil and you're kidding yourself if you think all of the registry settings are the same for every NVIDIA GPU installation and changes to those registry keys have no effect on GPU behavior. This is why I recommended using DDU in Safe Mode with the option to replace graphics card. But, if you want to call the people whose machines are working better now after many months of poor performance liars, be my guest.

If you installed these drivers on the Lenovo, there is no mod. It used the stock INF, so it was an ordinary notebook installation routine for Lenovo.

 

This offer is still out there.

 

I'd do that but feel lazy to install 3DMark and then uninstall
BTW: Fox did not just added card's IDs to the inf file as we typically do or at least not entirely.

 

That's right, James D. In fact, this mod includes adding mobile GPU hardware ID to the NV_DISPI.INF and intentionally screwing up code in the laptop code for the INF file normally used by your specific brand of laptop. Anyone can do this mod, and if you already know how to do INF mods you can probably spot what I did in just few minutes if you know where to look.

Open the NV_DISPI.INF and look at the GPUs I have in there. They are easy to spot because I deleted all of the hardware IDs for desktop GPUs in the "NVIDIA_SetA_Device" sections to make the file easier to deal with. There is no brand specific code and I used registry information for desktop GTX 980. Then look in the NVDMI.INF (normall used by Alienware) and the NVCVI.INF (normally used by Clevo). I used the Find/Replace feature in Notepad to intentionally screw up the hardware ID for the GPUs I included in the NV_DISPI.INF. For example, for 780M I replaced all 119F characters with F911. The .DLL and .SYS files are not modded, but the registry keys the driver installs (or does not install) are different than what happens with the stock driver configuration. Apparently, there is enough different to improve behavior for the better. Seems 880M user benefit most.

They already did, bro... even though they did not need to feel compelled to justify their personal observations. Maybe you missed the posts of the 880M owners that already mentioned their systems finally act right for the first time ever. I also got a couple of private messages from 880M owners as well, thanking me for giving them a gift of 880M cards that don't massively malfunction. Whatever the case may be, it looks like doing this tweak made something "unbroken" for those 880M owners.

This was not something I carefully planned, it was just a random "All right, I wonder what will happen if I do this" experiment that turned out OK. I am guessing something with the registry, maybe an added or omitted file from the driver installation routine. All it takes is one wrong string of code or instruction to cause problems without any alteration of the actual driver .DLL and .SYS files. If you look at the code in the INF files, it can change a lot of things which can have a good or bad effect on system behavior.

We already agree that the NVIDIA puppetmasters are doing naughty things with drivers, so the "challenge" for someone to prove they are having a better experience is kind of puzzling. LOL, are you really that bored?

 

Haven't had time yet to read thru most of this thread. So anyone besides 880M owners benefit much from this modded driver?

 

mikecacho posted his M17xR4 980M benchmarks improved with this tweaked driver and his system behavior improved. He was using a modded mobility version before installing this tweaked version.

 

Where? Was he comparing this modded 344.75 desktop driver to unmodded 344.75 notebook driver?

 

Mr. Fox waiting for your reply please

 

Okay Mr. Fox, it worked all right. I used advanced startup to install and it's fine. SLI turning on/off works without a PC restart. So that's a nice benefit; wish I didn't need to restart the PC to get it to install though, haha.

 

Very interesting. Subscribed . Finally the 880M SLI is working as designed?

 

I've done this before 980M v334.80 & my 780M v337.88 (@1300+ challenge). 980 desktop sections, GPU ID only Going to test clevo 980m in alienware m17x R4, m18x R2, AW17 - Page 65
Desktop entries, full IDs due to "Invalid results/GPU" concern Going to test clevo 980m in alienware m17x R4, m18x R2, AW17 - Page 66
Explained "v344.80 Introduced many specific fixes 980/970, nvidia only mentions/admits a few.. nv_dispi.inf,(2) desktop 980/970 entries (single & SLI)" . Going to test clevo 980m in alienware m17x R4, m18x R2, AW17 - Page 69

v344.75 is better for OCing than v344.80, I've been using nv_dispi.inf for a while v337.88 and v344.80 since I couldn't update drivers due the Blank screen bug LGD02C5 120Hz/780M. This works and I know exactly why it does... glitch/ 'bug' hopefully the discussion will end here (not likely) or It will be killed sooner than expected, like nvidia always did before.

 

Yes, with your mod, and my usual clocks, I'm getting nearly 980M GTX performance out of 880M GTX's. Maybe 5-10% LESS PERFORMANCE. But considering the cost for a 880M vs a 980M and then considering my 880M works in windows 7. If I stick my 880M in my m17x-r4 Its nearly on par, compared to the scores people are loading/showing. So, either My system is faster in some othe rregard and makes up for slower video or the 880M are now almost as fast as the 980M, now having a closer gap to the 980M then they do the the 780M. For me this is gold, like, why the hasn't nVidia done this??? Where on earth did they sell out, why would they intentionally cripple these cards so much ? Was it cause AMD had a lack of competition to offer ?

 

<s>Well, there's something about this driver though. My overlay software is broken for it; it doesn't show the GPU stuff. It just reads "empty". Maybe I'll try a restart and see if it works again.</s>

Edit: Restart fixed it. Must have happened when I turned on/off SLI.

 

Well I couldn't run Fire Strike or 3D Mark 11 with 344.75 because they just keep crashing. Tried multiple installs and multiple OS clean installs, nothing fixed it so I just gave up. Now I can run both of them, so there's definitely something different there.

EDIT: Oops forgot to say that I have a 780m

 

@Mr. Fox

So is it safe to say if these drivers installed the same for me as they did for Talon, I wouldn't see any benefit from these drivers either? Unless I gave you the Hardware ID from the Device Manager for my card? I installed them on the MSI in my signature. I was curious if I could squeeze out any more performance on the 780m.

 

People, do you have Optimus enabled and working? Looks like it wasn't even installed for me LOL. Can't force nvidia GPU to work.

 

If you just installed it without messing up the INF that MSI normally uses, I doubt you would see any difference. Open the INF MSI normally uses and mess up the hardware ID for your system (example, change 119F to F911 using Find/Replace) then run DDU in Safe Mode... reinstall from scratch.

 

well no oc im hitting just under 20k gpu score with this driver.. 19892 gpu score.. so theres some thing.. 3dmark 11

 

A couple of people were asking for this...

 

I'll give that a go in the morning. Thank you, sir.

 

I can tell you desktop 980 SLI isn't supported properly either on the desktop side because I also get a black screen unless I disable SLI.

 

What I find interesting is mr.Fox was right, and it might even take a year to fix the crippled state of 880M GTX's but , he confidently cited that its happened to other cards and their drivers too. But, he fixed it, himself, is only even funnier. However, this option only comes now too, when the card is no longer the best available. Seems the same thing happened to the 780M, and the 680M's too, around the same time though, just when they were being replaced, so this is so convincing a pattern that it has to be done deliberately, by nVidia. I think they are severely limiting new hardware potential.

They literally have a monopoly at this point. Kind of like what everyone was fearing about MS years ago. We at this point are being dictated by nVidia. Display technology is literally what most improvements were born of, for computers. Its the first line of interaction both ways, what we see, usually. If they are working together with Intel, then, we could be facing 5-10 years of crap never improving, performance wise, while they sit on technology they have innovated and keep boxed in a warehouse or locked away somehow.

This of ford motors, when they finally hit the spot they could do anything they wanted with thier engines and control the market. They bought up all competition, all prototypes that were better, and never released them, and continued to use thier signature engines for 40-50-60 years. even today, they are still only unveiling technology and innovation that they have had lying around for 50 years.
They're new eco friendlymotors even, all effecient and such is only a slightly high compression, and slightly advanced timing, instead of getting near 9.1:1 compression say form a 3.0 v6 now they're going 2.0 L with like 12-13.x:1 compression. This was done 50 years ago. Its really nothing special. Course now, you can NOT put a turbo on that, cause it will explode but wait - someone managed a prototype for that two near the end of 70's... then it disapeared and was catagorised as being bought by GM or something..

So, whatever, what Im saying is, its quite evident nVidia has strategically placed itself ahead of any competition, and now will sit on its lazy like some royalty I won't mention names of, and do squat all in terms of hard work and give us what they could be giving us./rage_end

 

nVIDIA is probably the most greedy company I've ever known as of late.

They released the GTX 880M 8GB that has had problems for a long time and their response is "we'll look into it".

They released the Titan at $1000, which is great for nVIDIA fans that wanted compute power, only to release 780 and 780 Ti (which sold out yesterday at $377) later

GTX 680 and GTX 980 shoulda been renamed to GTX 675 and GTX 975, as they were sold as $500-$600 cards, when really they were destroyed by enhanced cards on the same architecture (GTX 780/Ti and GTX 980 Ti/TITAN 2 (this never happens)

TITAN Z was released at $3000 (LOL) when AMD had a Black Friday sale of their 295x2 at $674

If AMD had better drivers when it came to multigpu I would definitely be using them.

 

Not that I disagree with the gist of your post, but to be fair the 780 and 780Ti's launch price were much higher than $377. The 780 used a much bigger die than 680 so the increase in performance is purely due to more horsepower available on tap rather than some ingenious technical innovation. The same thing will happen to 980 but for the same reason.

But I'd still say Intel is worse than nVidia when it comes to greed and anti-competition.

 

They held an inflated price because Maxwell was delayed twice. The lowest price I ever saw TITAN was at $1000. It never went down. Even now it's still $1000.

Yes and nVIDIA is releasing and pricing their smaller die GPUs at enthusiast level pricing. I'm not sure how this is disagreeing?

Intel is bad with their socket types/pin counts

 

It's not fair to compare the post-Maxwell prices of 780 and 780Ti with Titan, because the 780 and 780Ti were priced much higher than $377 at launch. In any case it's moot since the Titan was and always will be a halo card, and the price on these products never go down for that reason. The Titan Z actually did drop in price to $1500 after Maxwell launched, presumably to clear stock since nVidia must not have been selling many at $3000.

As for Intel, well just google "intel anti competitive practices". Then have a look at these charts and see just how little we've progressed from Sandy Bridge to Haswell.

 

The 780 Ti even before maxwell was hovering around or under $500 with MIR, while the TITAN never received any cuts that I've seen. It doesn't need to be 377, but the TITAN is ridiculously overpriced and no there's no argument out of it. nVIDIA is greedy, and that's the point.

It being a halo card is a moot point. There were tons of angry Titan owners.

I don't see it for $1500, there's one that's $1599.99 open box at newegg though.

I'm aware of the performance differences, or lack thereof in Intel's 3 year window to release something better, but AMD hasn't done anything better.

 

Even with Maxwell out most 780 Ti are still going for more than $500. The going price for 780 Ti before Maxwell was around $600-650. You were probably thinking of the 780.

The Titan not receiving price cuts even after Maxwell's release has everything to do with it being positioned as a halo product. The Titan only appears ridiculously overpriced now because it has not received any price cuts while better products have been released.

The original Titan owners have nothing to be angry about, they enjoyed near full GK110 performance earlier than anybody else. The 6GB of vram will also give it a longer service life compared to the 780 and 780 Ti with only 3GB of vram, which has proven to be an issue with recent AAA games. And with how games are being optimized these days, the vram requirement is only going to get worse and worse.

You don't see $1500 Titan Z's because they're all sold out. The day the price dropped to $1500 all the Titan Z's on Newegg got cleared out LOL

 

I have a question a bit off topic and for that I apologize up front. I'm new to the group and would like to first say hello and Happy Holidays to all .
My question is if there is anyone listening who happens to know if the CPU Heatsink Tubing of the AW m18x R1 will work with the AW m17x R4? I read somewhere that it was suggested as a cpu mod upgrade.....

 

Total off-topic and you could have open a topic for that.. Has nothing to do with the mod..

 

Just tried this out on my Alienware 17 with 880m, and didnt really see any huge boost to performance.

Barely a 1% increase which could just be down differences between each benchmark (Only ran 1 before and 1 after), both stock.

Removed Display Drivers in Safe Mode, disabled the driver signature thingy and had no problems installing, so I'm pretty sure nothing went wrong there (?).

Isnt it supposed to increase stock performance too? Or is it just when OC'ing the benefits show?