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

Finally nVidia did it.. Will try them tomorrow. Thanks my friend.

 

Well overclocking was always there for your 880Ms.. It only bought it back for Maxwell GPUs... How are the drivers anyways? People seem to be saying that they increase performance by quite a bit especially when Ocing..

 

just checked them at stock, 3dm11 p bossted by 300 points whereas firestrike is as before with 345.20. havent checked with oc yet

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Well for me they increased the performance. Tested Battlefield 4 all in ultra and 1080p and i got a raise of almost 20 fps constant. Running the game at 125 fps now in a 64 people server .

 

+20fps is pretty serious....

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

In the test range the boost was around 35fps. Yeh I'm amazed with it..

 

Not surprising.. D2 ultima or octiceps was saying that each time NVIDIA releases a driver for a new battlefield game, for the previous one performance goes up by 20% at least

 

Well I haven't been able to mod this driver, it seems like I'm doing something wrong because I can't install it in my M18x :/.

 

Go on techinferno and ask @j95 to do it for you lol ... You are modding the nvdmi file right?

 

Yes that's exactly what I'm trying to modify and it detects the computer, but it just doesn't install. I got installation failed :/

 

Are you disabling driver signature verification? Because if you aren't that is the problem..

 

Nice one joluke.. That might be the reason why driver install is failing each time!

 

Yes I am, but I never get the pop up to install a non trusted driver. Do theres definitely something I'm not doing.

 

how exactly are you disabling driver signature enforcement? doing so just by using the respective command line aint gonna cut it, u have to reboot the system for advanced startup options and then select 7 for disabling DSE

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

That's how I'm doing it. I'm sure that I'm missing something when doing the mod

 

Duplicate post , sorry

 

HELP PLEASE!

I am having a strange issue also. I have been using mod 344,75 drivers for months with no problem. Then my computer locked up and upon reboot the NVidia drivers were gone. No NVidia control panel or anything. So I repeated the process of reinstalling Mr. Fox's mod 344.75 drivers again. Everything went smooth, got the drivers not certified message, selected install anyways. install was successful. Prompted to restart, so I restart and once again no NVidia drivers installed upon reboot. No nvidia control panel, NVidia inspector wont launch. In device manager it shows the 980m under video devices and the intel video card(optimus). I downloaded the new 345.20 mod driver, same thing, I get through the install and upon reboot no drivers present. I have successfully reinstalled drivers a number of times before if I run into some occasional crash and upon reboot they always work.

Not sure what to do next. I have followed all the advice on this forum and the frustrating part is it worked in the past. Another weird thing is after crash my restore points were missing, so I cant even go back to a time when things worked. Probably just a coincidence, but the lock up occured when launching the new Dragon Age Inquisition DLC..

Quick System Specs
Alienware 17
switched out my 780m to 980m months ago when Mr. Fox released the drivers and it was successful
ran ddd driver cleanup
disabled certified driver requirements at startup

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions

 

RE: previous post. I am running Win7.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions

 

Duplicate again..I'm a newb

 

@Shatter - That's a really odd problem you have going on. Not sure why your system has suddenly developed instability. If you have Automatic Windows Updates enabled, that may explain why your System Restore Points are gone and why you suddenly have a new problem. Over the years, I have experienced a plethora of problems caused by Windows Updates. Some of them are applied indiscriminately on systems they should not even apply to.

More than a year ago I took control of the situation and completely disabled the ability for Windows to download, apply or even tell me about new updates. Windows has a really nasty habit of forgetting Control Panel settings for Windows Updates and doing it's own thing when you least expect it, so I completely disable it using Group Policy Editor. When I do apply updates, I do so manually, if and when I actually choose to do so, and all of my goofy and unexplained stability problems with Windows have completely disappeared.

At this point I would recommend removing any Windows Updates within a date a month or two before your problems began. Some Windows Updates cannot be removed once installed. If uninstalling Windows Updates does not work, a clean Windows installation may be needed. If that does not work, you probably have a hardware problem. If I were a betting man, I would bet your hardware is fine and a rogue Windows Update is the cause.

 

I recently downloaded the most recent driver (347.88) from GeForce.com if I understand the mod, I am supposed to open the download with Microsoft Notepad to read/edit the .inf files. Is this correct? When I right click the download it doesn't give me that option. I'm unsure what the next step is at this point. I know it must be something pretty obvious cause its not mentioned in any other posts that i have read. I plan to upgrade 780m SLI.
Thanks in advance.

 

You have to use Winrar to extract the driver or you just left click on it and let it run.. The installer will fail however the extraceted driver will be available.. Just take note of where you have extracted it..

 

Mr. Fox, what is the difference of your Desktop Driver Mods Mobile to Nvidia Desktop Drivers?
Can you tell me which Driver they recommend, 344.75 Desktop Driver Mod or 345.20 Desktop Desktop Mod. I use AW18 with 880m SLI

 

The desktop and mobile series have a couple of differences like SLI being switchable without reboot as default.

 

Why can't Nvidia make drivers that sli can be switchable without reboot for laptops ?

 

They can, but they choose not to.

 

Anyone tried the new hotfix 350.05 drivers from nvidia?

Got them from: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3647/~/geforce-hotfix-driver-350.05

I installed them and so far they are stable

 

Greetings Mr Fox, from everything I have read you are the person to check with before doing something stupid to ones rig.
I have a M17R4 (circa 2013) i7 2.70MHz, Crucial MX200 SSD (x2),factory SATA's one failed bad sector,GTX 675M (that has just recently blown the hell up). Games of any kind gets me right to Blue Screen of Death. So trying to upgrade GPU, loving the idea of the GTX 980m (and found driver on dells website)from http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=7XY5T WN64_344.88. Well bottom line, before I drop 850 on GPU hoping not making huge error. Hoping for response in next day or two I miss my games..... hope I described all well enough. I know just enough to be dangerous.

 

Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you asked before spending the money. That's really smart. Yes, your M17xR4 and the M18xR2, Alienware 17 and 18 can use 980M, and it appears @Prema has finally found the secret to fix the throttling issues both of those machines have suffered with trying to run 980M. The drivers for the 15 and 17R2 from Dell's web site may not work. Aftermarket GPU upgrade configurations that were never sold by and not supported by Dell/Alienware generally require a simple INF mod because there is no matching hardware ID in the stock driver INF.

The Maxwell GPUs will not work in the M18xR1 and I am almost certain they will not work in the M17xR3 at all. The problem is some sort of conflict with the non-UEFI InsydeH20 BIOS that is in the Sandy Bridge beasts. Maxwell fails to post with VGA boot and requires GOP due to something unusual in the BIOS. I tried single and dual 980M in the M18xR1 and could not get it to function. This problem does not seem to affect older systems that use a non-UEFI AMI/Aptio or Phoenix Legacy BIOS, only Alienwares with InsydeH20.

 

I also downloaded your mod (344.75 mod v2.0.07z) but now seeing its for Desktop not laptop.
As I said I know enough to do something stupid. based on what I am reading on your reply I can not use the driver I found on Dell.com. Honestly im unsure what then where to find drivers or how to adjust INF (not even sure what that is but I sure could investigate).

 

No worries... lots of help around here. This desktop driver is for modded laptops and you can use it, or the one over here (which I recommend over 344.75) will work for 980M in your M17xR4. Once you get your new GPU, you can learn how to mod the INF, or use one already modded. @j95 does this as a service to the community also. He has a 350.12 driver mod that will work great for you, and probably even better than mine. There is a 980M throttling problem that has to be fixed with a vBIOS mod from @Prema and @j95's 350.12 driver mod is also designed to help fix that problem. This driver and the other one I modded do not have any special tweak to address the 980M throttling that occurs with that GPU installed in an Alienware laptop.

The driver downloaded from Dell won't work because the hardware ID for 980M installed in any Alienware laptop before the new BGA models is not present. The driver will not recognize the GPU due to the missing hardware ID strings. This is why an INF mod is required.

 

Hey Mr Fox, first off I want to say how thankful I am for your hard work. According to the reviews the others posted, I eventually wanted to test the driver out given that the drivers from nVidia are rubbish. But I can't seem to get it to work. It's refusing to install. I disabled driver signature enforcement and ran DDU but no luck. Could you help me out. I got an AW18 with 880m sli. Also, do you think if the 880m performs at its true potential, it could match the gtx 980m?

 

You're welcome. Helping won't be a problem. This is probably a simple issue of missing a step somewhere along the way. Otherwise, the driver will install and work fine. After you have 5 posts and overnight processing takes place, we can communicate offline if we need to.

Did you try installing this driver mod already? Mr. Fox's GeForce 345.20 Desktop Driver Mod for Alienware and Clevo Mobile GPUs

If not, read the opening post and give that one a try.

 

Thanks a lot, Mr Fox. Actually, i used the driver zip file with everything included. Maybe I should try downloading them separately? I did download the 345.20 modded driver but to no avail. Still the same error. When should I disable the DSE. I did it before running DDU. I just want to be able to experience the true power that my 880ms have to offer. Also, I've been overclocking my gpus too. I can't seem to max them out, that is +135MHz on both cards maybe because I have a 330 PSU. I normally have them sitting at 65, 70 MHz which is more than enough to deliver good benchmark results but when running 3dmark, they were fluctuating like crazy even dipping to 700MHz which is weird. My max graphics score was 12,500, is it good?

 

You don't need to disable DSE before running DDU. That does not accomplish anthing and this is probably why the driver is not installing. DSE is not disabled when it needs to be. You MUST do it before Windows 8 logon, using the advanced boot menu. You access that menu using F8 before Windows logon exactly same as Windows 7, but you need to enable the Legacy menu to use F8 with Windows 8. You can do it after Windows 8 loads and reboot to get the advanced menu, but that's just a lot of wasted time and pointless rigmarole for no good reason... one more great example of Micro$haft going out of their way to decrease their OS functionality in favor or a dumbed-down UI for retards. I'll take a dated-looking black screen with white text that actually works over a baby nursery colored pastel screen with huge ugly tiles any day of the week, LOL.

Open a command prompt with administrator rights, enter the command below, then reboot. Press F8 immediate after the BIOS splash screen, before Windows begins to load. This will bring up the advanced menu, and from there select "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" and then the driver should install fine if all other steps were followed correctly.

Code:

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy

 

Lol ohhh well, it's Microsoft so nothing new here. Thanks a lot Mr Fox, gonna give it a try once I am free. So i just need to run DDU then right when it's booting up disable DSE? Am gonna reply back to you when am done. By the way, am using windows 8.1 but am pretty sure it should be the same thing so Would you recommend this or your newer 345,20?

 

If you have no older driver installed you can skip DDU. If you already ran DDU, no need to use it again. It's merely a cleanup tool and not necessarily even required. Using it before installing new drivers sometimes avoid issues with leftover crud.

Windows 8 and 8.1 are the same OS and their behavior is the same. 8.1 and 8.1 Update 1 are just patched versions of Windows 8, not a new OS, just as Windows 7 SP1 is a patched version of Windows 7. I assume everyone is on 8.1.1 at this point, but the instructions are the same. I do recommend going with my 345.20 mod, but either one will work great for 880M. The 345.20 has an extra tweak for Cuda encoding.

 

Okay, I'll try the 345.20 then. Thanks a lot Mr Fox, will get back to you once I install the driver

 

Hey Mr Fox, all went well. The driver installed successfully but I noticed that my 3dmark results are lower than when I was using the latest nVidia drivers by 1500 points. Any ideas on why is that so?

 

Good deal... glad it worked out.

As far as the score goes, that might not be conclusive without more information to draw from. A difference of 1500 points on what part (graphics, physics or combined test) and on which benchmark program is the difference appearing? I ask because that is not a huge variance (within the margin of error, for sure,) and something completely unrelated to the driver might be causing a difference. A new Windows Update, newly installed program or a background service running now that wasn't the last time can affect scores to that extent or greater. I have seen that amount difference running the same benchmark test 2 or 3 times in a row without changing any settings or drivers.

Can you post links to previous and current results so we can have a look?

 

Yeah Actually I ran 3dmark and the graphics scores were 11055 compared to 12500. The combined and physics scores are nearly identical. I tried to overclock my gpus but they just wouldn't run at the desired frequency, instead they run at their base clock. Also I noticed that the Cuda box is uncheck is gpu-z. Maybe that's the problem?

 

Check NVIDIA Control Panel and make sure PhysX is NOT set to use CPU. That can cause that box to be unchecked in GPU-Z and it can affect benchmark scores.

If you are running a stock vBIOS, you might want to consider the svl7 vBIOS because the stock BIOS really sucks for overclocking. The modded vBIOS kills GPU Boost and lets you have more control over the GPU behavior.

While in NVIDIA Control Panel, set it up to force using the Global settings, turn off "Adaptive performance" and change all settings to favor performance over quality. See both images below.

[parsehtml]<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="750" frameborder="0" src="//imgur.com/a/lOrF9/embed"></iframe>[/parsehtml]

 

Thanks a lot Mr Fox. Actually, I was able to fix the cuda scores or should I say it fixed itself I am definitely going to go through the two steps you mentioned above. But I don't know if I am ready to install a custom vBIOS now considering the newbie that I am I heard that people bricked their cards in the process? What should I do if I accidentaly brick my cards? Also, does it really help with benchmarks?

 

Hi,
Better check these stickies for more info on getting max thoughput from your UX
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...hreads-and-posts-see-post-1-for-index.651352/

3rd one helps you with un-bricking our AW17 R1 / AW18's.

 

Thanks Ashtrix. Am definitely going to check the link you gave me. I'll have to study more about flashing stuff before actually flashing a new vBIOS. Am such a newbie Do you have a modified vBIOS for your 860m too or are you rocking the stock one?

 

A vBIOS flash tbh is fairly simple for Kepler, It used to be otherway around for Maxwell 9xx Series but it also has simplified now, here have a look @T|I and try the AW18 sub-forum, people have 880M SLI machines with custom vBIOS there...

Spoiler: Here, this should help for 880Ms

Check the above thread for more info on your driver UX

 

Thanks a lot Ashtrix, I've seen people getting massive scores with the 880ms nearly on par with the 980ms. Maybe with a little overclock tweak as well as a new vBIOS, I'll be able to squeeze out the same amount of power. I am just disappointed that nVidia screwed the 880ms that much. It's a wonderful gpu with a little tweak here and there.

 

Hey Ashtrix, could you give me a couple of hints on how to actually flash a vBIOS. I have absolutely no idea

 

Hey Mr Fox, do you what percentage difference there is between 2 gtx 980ms and 2 gtx 880ms in actual game performance (and benchmarks too). Thanks

 

Use Search button in http://www.3dmark.com/search
There you can compare your best 3Dmark scores with other laptops with dual gtx980m.
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/2402025/fs/4760525