m15x: 8800M GTX display driver update

I am only getting 10800 in 3dmark 06 with my current setup. What do you think could be holding it back??

 

Are you sure SLi is enabled? I get scores in the 9700's with only one 8800 card.

 

yeah I have SLI enabled.

 

I don't know what the problem is. You might want to take a look at the Dell forums at notebookreview, CSHawkey. They will be able to help you much more than I can.

 

I also had some problem with with SLI in my m1730. I've got the 8800M SLI card with the X9000 cpu.

SLI didnt work properly. But I think i figure out the problem.

I installed some drivers, 167.51 and 174.82 To test it out, but SLI was just not working.,

the performance was just ridiculous. So after research and almost getting crazy... i did this.....,


1. Disable AgeiaPhysx Card. (go to Device Manager, just disable, you dont have to uninstall)

2. Install drivers. (175.16 or 175.12 I recommend)

3. Restart Machine

4. Enable SLI (Nvidia control panel)... and Restart again.

5. SLI SHOULD BE WORKING GREAT! AFTER THAT.

6. If you see that performance is what you expected , then you can Enable AgeiaPhysx again. (and test SLI again).

8. Should be just fine by now. (SLI + Ageiaphysx).

9. Im getting 55 fps - 60 fps. at the beggining of 3dmark06 test. Without SLI enabled, you get 25 - 28 fps.

10. If SLI, stops to work again (it shouldn't though)... but just do the same thing.. Disable AgeiaPhysx. Enable SLI. RESTART, done.


Conclusion.....

AgeiaPhysx Card must be creating some conflict, since it uses a Pci Express port... same type of port as the video cards.

Im just guessing about the conflict, due my own experimentation. But it finally fixed my problem using the 175.12 Drivers (Forceware). I've put the average scores from Notebookforum for comparison.


AquaMark 145,564 (avg: 153,102)
3Dmark01: 42259
3Dmark03: 47857
3DMark05: 21181 (avg: 21,042)
3Dmark06 : 14165 (avg: 13,879)

3DMark Vantage: P6495 (avg:7878)
cpu: 9197 (Oced at 3.4Ghz) (avg: 8229)
gpu: 5935 (stock) (avg: 7939)


So I can say now.... the Machine is great.


I hope this will help many, who are frustated with the performance of SLI Setups on DELL laptops M1730.

good luck to all.

 

Any news regarding new 8800GTX drivers? Which ones are the best to go now? Should we keep original drivers for now?

 

New ones just up on Laptopvideo2go.com
175.75
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18720

 

Have you tried these out newfie?

 

Ha ha. Sabapathy, my M15x has been returned to the mothership. Waiting on scotty to beam me down a new one.

So to answer your question. No I have not Sab. Hopefully some one can give these a try and see how they work.

 

some people are using them. it will give you a slightly lower 3dmark score (only about 200 points less) but when your video card is idle it will now downclock the card so you have lower idle temperatures. when you play a game the card will jump back to the original clocks.

EDIT: i cannot confirm this though since i only read on the forums that, that is how the driver is working for them. since im in the same boat as newfie, i can confirm this when my m15x is operational again. I have the video card that will fix my comp but i did not get the heat sink and fan yet so my m15x cant play games. its so painful seeing a fully functional 8800 unable to go into my laptop yet

 

Oh boy! - Sorry abt that. Hope you get your laptop soon.

Exiled - Sorry to hear abt your laptop as well.

I have been having my share of problems but they havent escalated to the point where I have to send it back in for repairs. Anyways, I will try to install these drivers and give you an update. I installed some of the intermediate versions on laptopvideo2go and none of them worked as well as stock. If anyone else has tried these would really appreciate 3dmark scores.

 

So in other words what drver does every one have now and where do i download?

 

Just use the ones that are in your Hive. They are the most stable for now, JB.

 

you should try 175.63. i think impressive has them installed. you only lose 200-300 points in 3dmark but when the 8800 is idle the card will downclock. when you play games the card will go back to full clocks. this helps with idle temperatures. if you dont like them you can just go to my hive and download the stock driver and reinstall the stock ones.

 

I think you might be right because when i play Age of Conan it runs really well on high settings but when i play a little bit of dota in WC3 it runs like ****. But when I'm playing WC3 my gpu temps are like 55-60c

So i think they stay downclocked when i play because the games really old.

BTW: I'm really bad at explaining things so sorry if you don't understand

 

yea that sounds like the driver is working fine. since wc3 is a pretty old game, the game probably would not stress the gpu as much so the gpu thinks you wont need the full power. if this problem does bother you, you can revert back to the stock drivers by downloading them from myhive.

 

I would but the stock drivers don't work with Age of Conan.
They're "unstable" and I get some error that kicks me out of the game

It's a love hate relationship

 

Wait for some patches to be released for AoC. It's a relatively new game and likely has a few bugs still to work out...

 

Yep, I have them instaled and running. I like lower temps and since I don't play Crisis I leave these on. Since I got my m15x I rarely go here, is there any important changes going on? Something like new bios

 

Any word from Sogarth lately? on what is the best driver and what we should all be using?

 

I can't wait for new drivers from AW. Since this is the only source we can get a proper driver from, am I correct? Its been along time since the 8800GTX has been out, you would think AW would spend some time going over the newest drivers form Nvidia and make them compatible with our 15x's. I am hoping a new driver would help out with the frame rate of Crysis a little bit.
-j.b.

 

is 175.63 still the best driver?

 

I was pretty happy with 175.63. Still had some issues with FFXI and my 3d mark suffered 10%, but it was working ok with COnan. Now with he Jun 9th update of COnan I get 8 fps where I was getting 30. Frustrating but I think this time its the Funcom team screwing things up. Just wish ALienware would come out with a driver specifically tweaked for our machines. Ill try the stock again with Conan, but I doubt it will improve things.

 

Hi,from where I can download 175.63 driver?

 

im still getting about 30 with aoc, prob depends on the area
the one quest about level 45, when theres this room with mist, that killed me, lik 8-9 fps >.>

 

Hey guys,

This is my first post on this forum and looking around thought I should share things I've done with my m15x regarding my 8800m gtx which is overclocked to: core clock = 525mhz, memory clock = 810mhz, shader clock 1300mhz. With this overclock, temperatures are around 85c - 90c.

As for drivers I'm currently using the stock drivers from Alienware (165.32). I did try the newer ones found at laptopvideo2go but I wasn't able to set my own clock frequencies. On top of that I reflashed my bios with the x32 that Alienware supplied but is still in beta stages (correct me if I'm wrong)? The program I'm using to set clock frequencies and other miscellaneous setting is Rivatuner. I try to stay away from the nvidia control panel.

I'm in the process of making a laptop cooler directly mounted to the intake ports on the bottom of the m15x so that I can test higher clock frequencies without worry of frying the gpu. In the case of if I do fry my gpu, I will just have to buy another replacement and continue on with testing, lol.

I'm not at home but at work at the moment but when I do get home I can put up some screen shots of the settings and hopefully some videos of games which I stated to show proof for those that are skeptical about my post.

Now for the goodies: (games)
I play an assortment of games and I'll post video settings accordingly to each game I state.

====cs-source, hl2-deathmatch, hl2-episode 1 & 2:====
resolution: 1920x1200 ratio 16:10
video settings set to highest
antialiasing = none
anisotropic filtering = trilinear
***note***
this video setup is the auto detect setup. I can run aa & af at max with no problems but chose to leave them at this setup only because there isn't really any visual enhancement with them set to max that I can tell.

====Call of Duty 4====
resolution 1280x768
everthing on max
***note***
to play with resolution set to 1920x1200, I use the optimize setting then turn aa & af all the way down. This setting doesn't look as nice.

====Bioshock====
resolution 1280x768
everthing set to on
***note***
to play with resolution set to 1920x1200, I set the first slider to low and the third slider to med. I have to confirm this setting. But with this setting you don't get the lighting and all the eye goodies.

====Assassins Creed====
resolution 1280x768
everthing set to max
vsync = off
***note***
to play with resolution set to 1920x1200, I set everything to 2.

====America's Army====
resolution 1920x1200
everything set to max
vsync = off

====Frontlines: Fuel of War====
resolution 1280x768
everything set to max
***note***
to play with resolution set to 1920x1200, I set mostly everything to med and some on low. I have to get back to you with my actual settings.

====Crysis====
resolution 1280x768
everything set to high
antialiasing = off
***note***
to play with resolution set to 1920x1200, I used the system.cfg tweak which can be found online if you google "crysis tweaks". This setting isn't as nice.

I play other games but I can't remember off the top of my head what the settings are.

I'll write up more when I get home and possibly get some videos and screen shots crunched up and uploaded for you guys.

 

Those are good news Jeremy.

Will you be kind enough of posting the temps measured with RivaTuner on the following thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=257737 ?
That would be very helpful. Preferentially, if you could make a screenshoot while playing Crysis (beach scenarios seemed to be the more demanding for me) with graphs... that would really be good for all of the M15x owners.

Cheers and good OCing.

 

@milcs

Sure thing bud, I'll try to collect some information tonight. BTW, where do I find that Thermo program that suppose to come with my m15x. I noticed on some post people had them and I'm curious as to why I don't have it.

 

You can download it from www.laptopvideo2go.com

 

Go to "start." and just scroll down the list of programs, it should be in there.

 

Hello guys,

@ jeremy

listen, how can you OC your 8800M ? I´m trying since i got the m15x (1 1/2 month ago) to unlock the Bios?!?! My 8800M never kump over the 81° mark ... so there is more than 10° open, for OC!

OK, I use the 175.80 WHQL Driver from laptopvideo2go, because with ths drive the games like Crysis, Grid, Bioshock are running much better as with others!

So, please tell me

edit.: And anyway, you can´t use RivaTuner for OC! Because the 8800M from AW hasgot 4 Performance Level, and RivaTuner is just able to manage 3 Levels! Correct me if I´m wrong!

edit2.: can you send me an image of your bios?

 

Sogarth,

what about drivers that have been released since 175.63 ? For instance, can the 175.80 be used without experiencing any slow down ?

To sum up, can one consider that any driver release since the 175.63 can be used on our m15x ?

Thanks !

 

So, I used nearly all from 174.xx on, and I had NO DC at all!!!

The 175.80 WHQL is the best for games, and the 175.75 is the best for 3DMark06!

 

Hello gjaegy, last week I tried the 175.80 drivers from laptopvideo2go and with the rivatuner I I noticed a downclock after the 8800gtx reach 81 degrees, I tried playing crysis and after 30 minutes playing I could notice the downclock by myself, I shold tell you that I modified the inf file in order to deactived the powermixer feture that supposed to cause the downclocking, and I got the same result... for that reason Im still using the original drivers that came from alienware.

 

markus can you explain us how did you install that drivers or anything else you did, cause for me didnt work the 175.80

 

Hmmm ... I really don´t know what some guys are doing ... I had till now at NO time any DC .... the videocard is never going over 80 ° with my notebookcooler, and I tried how hot the card can go ... and I reached 93°, but without any DC ....

 

Actualliy I didnd have any downclocking with the original drivers, just with the 175.80, so thats the reason I would like to ask you if you did something else when when you installed it, for example did you change the inf file or something like that? cause I really dont know if Im doing something wront.

 

there is a .rar file in the file, extract the inf´s into the file!

But you have to deinstall the old driver first, and very important, after you deinstalled the old driver, clean the regestry, the best way, use ccleaner!!!

 

well, I will do it as soon as I go home, then I will post again with the results, thank you very much for your help

 

Ugh I know I'm late here but if WC3 is downclocking too much you can always disable powermizer (go to the NV_DISP INF and change powermizer enable to 0 instead of 1). However this means that powermizer will not function which isn't that good if you want to carry your notebook around a lot.

 

Do this drivers work ok?
Last time when I installed drivers from this website the didnt wrok correctly.My graphic card slow down.Is everythink ok with this drivers?

 

It slows down because of the powermizer mode. The GPU automatically downclocks when the power isn't needed. And resumes when a demanding program needs it.

 

So basically what you are saying is that it works, only it switches in and out of stealth mode on it's own depending on what you are using the gpu for?

 

Ok, so for XP I am currently running 165.32 because it WORKS, from this thread it also sounds like 167.55 will work so I will try that. Is there anything higher than that which has been verified to work on XP?

If not, is it possible to mess with the bios using NiBiTor or something and then push all the levels that it downclocks to really high and then run a new driver?

I have tried 175.80 beta driver from alienware ( http://support.alienware.com/Support_Pages/Restricted_Pages/driver_downloads_processed.aspx?os=WXP&cat=2&manu=29&item=1073) but it never jumped over 300/275 or something like that for me. Has anyone else gotten that driver to work properly on XP?

 

There are new BETA 175.80 drivers available for the m15x, Parnassus. In Both flavors, XP & VISTA. Just check your HIVE, or go to the drivers&downloads section.

@Fr33- yea, but, now that AW has release the 175.80 drivers you should use them since these are modded by AW specifically for the m15x. No downclocking on my m15x with these. You don't have to worry about any registry hacks to stop downclocking...

 

To clarify -

I have already tried the 175.80 drivers on XP, and for me they did not work - the clock frequences was always stuck at 300/275. Has anyone else installed 175.80 on an m15x WITH XP and actually gotten it to run the level 4 performance (500/800) while gaming?

 

Parnassus, i have the same issue

 

Also, the clock speeds seem to be flickering while gaming even on the drivers it shipped with. If I try to turn PowerMizer off it doesn't really do anything and on next startup it is on again. Any alterations to clock speeds using nTuner doesn't seem to stick at all.

At this point I'd just like to flash the bios to always always run at 500/800 regardless of what's going on, like setting all 4 performance levels to that or something, and then install the 175.80 drivers. Can someone point me in the right direction on how to do that in the easiest/safest fashion?

 

Hmm ... I really don´t understund why so many people have problems with drivers?

ALL drivers I used in the last month were working perfect!

I think the most people here don´t know how to deinstall driver correctly, because if you just install the new driver, without delete the old one CORRECTLY ... the new driver won´t work!

Again, ALL drivers I tried were working .. and I had NO DC since I´ve got my m15x!

 

How do you install/deinstall drivers correctly, is there any good guide out there? I just deinstall it from control panel, then use DriverCleaner and then install new drivers. Should i do something more?