Mr. Fox's GeForce 345.20 Desktop Driver Mod for Alienware and Clevo Mobile GPUs

Have adoubt here @Mr. Fox I've seen this post of yours multiple times and wanted to ask this, we are disabling all those in Ncp because we can tweak the in game GFX options so there will be maximum FPS to performance and quality ratio right ? & If we keep those options (quality, etc etc..) they will override the in game gfx settings and cause some FPS / quality / performance drops ?

Thanks !!

 

Yes, that's pretty much it. I don't like my GPUs overriding what my in-game settings are. Bear in mind this is the Global settings tab. Any game optimized profiles for settings and SLI will take control unless you manually override them. Most of the time that is fine. I generally let NVIDIA profiles have a chance first and tweak them if I am not happy with the end result. For example, sometimes setting SLI mode to AFR1 or AFR2 in the game-specific profile is necessary even though NVIDIA supposedly knew what was best (but actually did not).

 

Global Settings

Anisotropic filtering: 16x
Antialiasing - Gamma correction: Off
Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA): On
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias: Clamp
Texture filtering - Quality: High quality

These are the settings I've changed from default.

 

Hi Mr.Fox,

I can not thank you enough to bring this drivers to the common people

Did a clean win 8.1 install with this drivers to discover that payday2 doesn't drop frames anymore

But now about to play gta v... and having some texture issues at the moment.

If not this set of drivers which other would you recommend me for that game?

Best!

 

Have you tried installing this driver without GeForce Experience, then downloading the latest version and installing it as a standalone and letting it update to the latest game optimization profiles? If not, try that and see how it goes. I am still using this driver because anything newer causes crazy throttling with my 780M SLI. I don't own or play GTA V or Witcher 3, so I am not able to provide any advice specific to those games other than the above.

 

Remember, the latest ain't always the greatest when it comes to drivers. Can I get a volunteer for someone in the San Diego area to pay a visit NVIDIA HQ and slap them around a little bit? Have a look at these quotes and screen shots.

 

Yep.. very true what you're saying about nvidia..

About gta v, I've tried GeForce Experience but its not really a performance issue (although could run faster of course) it's more a "texture" issue... But now I'm very concerned if updating my drivers will bring me the old throttles back again. So I rather keep it with 345.20 till you can mod another driver for us... the 880m owners (#nvidia victims)

 

Use Google translate This is the future. It does not look bright. Amd begin now and block overclocking of VRAM on the new desktop graphics card. What next??? All overclocking of graphics card for gaming laptops will surely be removed gradually. A frightening future for us oc enthusiasts . Written by Sweden's largest online magazine about computers and hardware.
http://www.sweclockers.com/nyhet/20734-amd-sparrar-overklockning-av-hbm-minnet-med-radeon-fiji

 

Actually Nvidia HQ is in Santa Clara, CA, about 30 min from me. I'd be happy to oblige, as long as I am absolved of the legal responsibility of my actions or I am compensated handsomely.

 

Oh, yeah. LOL, that's a long drive for a San Diegan. I've got some biker friends in San Jose that I can reach out to.

 

New drivers today Nvidia 353.30

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/86506/en-us

 

Here is a thread to discuss how messed up the 353.30 drivers are. It's not a happy story.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/geforce-drivers-353-30.777681/page-2#post-10030745

 

Fox, how is this driver for SLI in AW 18 systems, for 980M/970M ? (If you know)

 

I don't know, Brother @woodzstack and I don't use the 18 much any more. I've never tried any GPU upgrades in it because of the locked-down BIOS and power-handling limitations it has. It's a great gaming machine, but not a benching beast so I have minimal interest in it. I may try to do some motherboard modding at some point to fix those impediments, because it would be a real beast if it were unleashed to run wild and free. My 4930MX is a fantastic overclocker as long as GPUs are stealing watts from it's artificially limited power supply. But, for now it's mostly a gorgeous web browser.

 

Hi, Mr. Fox. I have one question about the fan control on my AW 17X R6(2014). I have configured HWINFO64 as your instructed and can separately control the two fans. But it seems that I cannot maximize the RPM of the GPU fan. The max value now is 3400rpm, while in auto mode it can reach maximum 3700rpm. Is there any way that I can accelerate the GPU fan further? I have tried to enable EC support, then I can accelerate CPU fan to 5200rpm,but I cannot control GPU fan with EC support enabled. Thank you in advance.

 

17X R6? You mean the 17 R2 with BGA CPU/GPU? I cannot provide any kind of support or advice specific to the new systems. In general terms, EC support being enabled causes a variety of issues, including crazy DPC latency, so I would not recommend doing that. Manual fan control had serious issues with the 17 and 18 until Alienware released a BIOS update that allowed HWiNFO64 to communicate properly. They probably blocked it like they did on the 17 and 18, so you may never be able to have good results with manual fan controls unless they fix it in the BIOS like they did for the 17 and 18.

 

Sorry, I mean M17X(2014 version) with 880m. Sorry for causing confusion. I have updated the bios so I can manually control two fans separately with HWINFO64 and speedfan. However, I just cannot push GPU fan beyond 3400rpm. Is there any way to further accelerate GPU fan? Thank you!

 

Short answer is "no" you cannot. You might be able to with EC support enabled, but that will cause problems. Dell crippled the fans on the 18 as well. They run slower than the fan manufacturer intended them to and, consequentially, the cooling system is less effective than it can/should be. In their infinite wisdom, it appears someone on the design team, or maybe everyone, decided customers would appreciate quiet fans more than a machine that works at its best. They don't know us very well any more.

 

Thank you for your answer! It seems that changing a more powerful fan(like the M14 R2 fan) may make a difference. Anyway, Clevo gives more options to us. I may have to change Clevo for my next laptop.

 

Do it !!

 

Yeah, since AW seems to lose upgradability from current 2015 model.

 

Not just upgradability, It's like they abandoned the whole user base that helped them to achieve this position, It's no more and Dell also know that.

Spoiler

Most of us thought after the new refresh they would release a patch to BIOS fixing all the potential issues (They wont fix those NVRAM sys bios / EC fantables despite the years long petitions and pleading them in AMA-Reddit everything went down the drain, but c'mon A Maxwell GOP UEFI patch atleast for the Haswell and Ivy lineups would have been a boon to us..)

I'm myself waiting for that P7xxZM/ P377SM-A SLI successor machine

 

is it ok to update geforce experience after install or do not for best performance?
I also had an increased 3dmark score on a machine running same hardware before and after install of driver
went from newest cursed 353. to this.
was 4228 3d mark (single 680m) to 4308(single 680m) just using this driver, probably the lowest score in the thread but good to show it can help many configs.
Thanks Mr Fox!

 

No harm in using GeForce Experience. It never hurts anything for me. I love Shadowplay and the game profile updates are helpful. I generally use my own game settings rather than GFE optimal settings, but even those work fine if you want to use them.

Just remember to turn off Shadowplay when you don't need to use it. I also disable streaming because I have no use for it.

 

thanks, updated experience only, disabled streaming.
Now I patiently wait for my sli parts, cracking this one open only once this year.

 

If you go with manual mode for shadow play it won't eat any fps and you can still atleast record if you need.

 

I only use manual mode. It does a great job. I turn it off also when I am not recording.

 

Hey Mr.Fox,

What are the enhancement you did to these drivers? What is the Difference between the dell drivers and yours?

I feel stupid for asking.... Thank you though

 

Its written somewhere, I forget where he wrote it. Otherwise I'd linky...

So, yeah " @Mr. Fox, WHY HAZ YOU DONE YOU DRIVER!"

 

Hello people!
I'm in a big trouble I suppose... I had to install the newer drivers 353.30 to play a little of gta V with a friend. But now as I'm not playing that much I want to go back to my old 345.20 Desktop drivers.

The problem is that within this last month some new windows 8.1 update might have been installed that doesn't aloud me to "disable driver signature enforcement".

In other words every time I want to install Mr.Fox 345.20 Desktop drivers I get a failure sign.

I could do it before with a fresh win 8.1 install. I used to press "SHIFT" + restart to get to the full menu. But now that its gone with only 3 options to restart, use usb key, or turn off system.
I've tried many other methods to disable driver signature enforcement (as I believe that its the problem) without any luck.

Any idea..keeping this "newer" drivers its horrible. I am aware I own a system and a video cards that tents to throttle but I could manage to get steady 100/120 fps in Payday2 (per example) and now only between 35 or 40fps.

Any idea in how to fix this would be much appreciated..

Thank you!

 

Windows Updates have been notorious for ruining the performance and functionality of my systems and I have that disabled on every computer. As a result, I have a trouble-free experience 99.9% of the time.

Open an Admin command prompt and type: bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy

If you see a message that the command was successfully applie, reboot and after your BIOS splash screen begin spamming the F8 key until you see the Windows Boot Menu, then select the option to disable driver signature enforcement.

 

Dear Mr.'Legendary' Fox..

Not only you gave us a solution to a company that doesn't care about previous video cards generations but also you are giving the proper post-service guidance.
I confirm that I could disable driver signature enforcement with this method and could install our beloved 345.20 Desktop drivers once again

THANK YOU!

I can't wait for a new release of your mod drivers!

ps: you don't worry at all for ANY of the windows update files to be not installed after a fresh/new win 8.1 install?

 

Glad to help, buddy. Thanks for the nice compliments.

Oh yeah, Windows Updates can bring about all kinds of problems. Funny you should ask about this. I just posted some comments in two places on this page in another sub-forum.

As soon as NVIDIA releases a driver worthy of being modded, I will provide one. Nothing they have released since 345.20 is any good, so that's why I have not provided one yet. I have tested every driver since this one and they are all throttle-causing for my 780M SLI, and some cause weird issues with instability, black screens, and other nonsense on both my 780M SLI and 980M SLI systems.

 

I think NVIDIA has borken something with SLI on purpose... Most of the drivers (I have 353.00, haven't updated since June since I was going all around the East Coast of the US in June) have worked fine with my single card...

Oh BTW, the US was awesome.. So want to live there lol.. However I need to learn to drive first lol

 

Come back soon, Brother @TomJGX

Maybe something with the new Windows 10 smartphone OS architecture screws up SLI and the evolution of drivers to suit the new mess is causing problems, whether intended or consequential.

 

Thank you for those links. From now on I'll definitely implement your policy of " Service Packs and critical security updates" install only, in my next win 8.1 installation regarding windows update.

About the video drivers, for what you are saying, and NOT taking into account notebook ones, there's not a single "desktop" driver working properly after 345.20 "Desktop"?

And does somebody knows why they broke the version order back in February? I mean I don't understand this in the middle of 347.88 and 347.52 versions:

GeForce Game Ready Driver WHQL 347.88 March 17, 2015
GeForce 341.44 Driver WHQL 341.44 February 24, 2015
GeForce Game Ready Driver WHQL 345.20 February 24, 2015
GeForce Game Ready Driver WHQL 347.52 February 10, 2015

 

Yeah, that was some weirdness with driver versions in February. I think something relevant happened there with driver version number sequence that we don't understand at a technical level that is causing the 780M SLI throttling. It's like NVIDIA got demon-possessed in February and all hell broke loose. The numbering sequence got thrown out of whack while the demons were was taking control of their hosts.

Yes, all of the desktop drivers are messed up the same as notebook drivers. I test both on each new release. They behave identically. I think the only significant differences are things like differences in registry keys, but the actual DLL and SYS driver files seem to be the same.

 

hahah you made me laugh
yep seems they got demon-doomed...or they just want us to buy new Maxwell or whatever new video card they'l launch before xmass.

 

Yeah, nVidia has been getting much worse in terms of quality over the years. There was a time, when you never had an issue. Now there seems to be much larger issues all the time. I do not quite get it either.

Anyways, Fox, i think it's time we move the current desktop driver versions to 353.17 or so. That version works decently well from my experience, in all cases. (or majority)

 

All drivers after this one cause severe throttling on 780M SLI, so I'm not going to mod them.
Now I have other issues to sort out... Windows 10 Upgrade Warning for Alienware Owners

 

Could use some help with debugging an issue. Doesn't look like a driver issue, but hopefully someone has an idea what's going on and how to fix it. I tried the 345.20 modded drivers on an Alienware 860m, and to avoid reposting, here's the thread link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/gtx-970-gtx-980m-in-m17x-r2.762937/page-17#post-10064455 . Long story short: Put a 4GB 860m in a Failienware M17xR2 and it now fails to boot. With or without the modded drivers, I'm getting the same result. Hopefully I just borked something software wise that can be fixed. Never tried a vBIOS mod, but I will consider it if there's a high chance of it fixing this problem.

 

It appears that there is some level of compatibility problem, most likely with the vBIOS, although there could also be an issue with the system BIOS not allowing it to work properly.

If that is a Maxwell 860M that may also have something to do with it. While Maxwell works OK in some machines in Legacy BIOS, it appears they are designed primarily to work in a UEFI environment. The M17xR3 and Alienware 18 won't even POST with a Maxwell GPU installed... 8 beeps, no POST. M17xR4, M18xR2, Alienware 17 and 18 will only work in discrete graphics mode with BIOS set to UEFI without Legacy/CSM support.

 

Form all I'm seeing, it could be a vBIOS thing since others are getting their stock BIOS M17xR2s working with the 860M. Any custom vBIOSes that you could recommend that are compatible with your 345.20 drivers?

 

Not that I know of. Might check with @Prema to see if he has something for 860M.

 

Still waiting on Prema, probably has something to do with that vacation thing. I am unfortunately heading off to college soon, so I won't have as much time to tweak and experiment. It seems as if Prema does more Clevo mods than Failienware ones, so would it be safest to wait for a reply or search elsewhere? I'd like to have a laptop I can bring out to the lobby again for college dorm funtimes.

On another note, how is this driver handling on Windows 10? I'm on the fence about "upgrading".

 

Running these drivers after the nvidia ones killed my lcd. Everything seems good/stable so far.
3dmark 11 results with 880m and svl7 vbios.

stock clocks
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10203829

+70/500 stock voltage
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10203860

+130/500 +.050 mv
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10203907

Wish alienware didn't cripple the gpu fan on the 17r1 to 1/2 speed so I could push it some more. Haven't tried pushing the ram harder. Not sure how safe overclocking the ram is.

 

Download the portable version of HWiNFO64, extract it to where you want it and follow along with the images for the settings options in this album to set it up.

You can use it for manual fan control. It will help a great deal. The stock fan tables are really messed up... always have been. Not sure why they never fixed it. Alienware 18 is the same way.

[parsehtml]<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="750" frameborder="0" src="//imgur.com/a/UYC3s/embed"></iframe>[/parsehtml]

 

Hwinfo only let's me spin the gpu fan to 3400 rpm manually. The only thing it would do is slightly delay the heat up as it hits full speed at 70 degrees on its own.

Not sure how much the u3 cooler would help over my Thermaltake massive 23

 

Cooler will help a tiny bit, but not enough to matter if you're already too hot. Looks like a reapplication of a good thermal paste like IC Diamond or Liquid Ultra is the only viable solution. Then using HWiNFO64 and a nice cooler like U3 or TT Massive 23 (cannot recommend the other options) will actually be of some benefit. A stock notebook cooler is never going to be an actual thermal solution. It's an aid only, useful where a tiny improvement matters. If you do a mod like this one or this one it helps more, but again... not a massive change in temps, and not enough help to fix a machine needs a repaste.

 

Just

Just re pasted with gelid extreme yesterday, didn't like how thick ic7 was with the low clamping force laptop heatsinks. Should probably switch to liquid ultra, but the stupid fan limitations are the biggest hold back. Seems like running mid 80's C on the +70/500 oc on stock voltage is as hard as I can push it.