C90s...back to stock driver again

Went back to stock driver, temps went back up from 70 (169 driver) to 78 (with belkin cooler both ways), ran supreme commander for a while, gpu peaked at 91. Anyone tried overclocking 169 driver with my config? I had it overclocked to 500/750 with 169 driver and it seem to run supreme commander smooth, but I didn't check it with 3dmark because I don't have it installed.

Ken, if you're reading, have you had any luck with 169 driver overclocking or found out from asus what "it" is with the stock driver re performance gains?

 

hey just wondering whats your stock driver?

 

wait, the 169.01 driver was smooth? when I installed it, Portal ran like crap, even overclocked ( 560/760 ). I have an almost identical set up, except I have 3gb of ram and a 160gb HD. I'll have to give it another go if I missed something...

 

Threw in the 169.01 ran 3Dmark...no big gain actually a bit lower than with my ol original driver disc. Ran Crysis nothing better there even. Went back to the driver disc version, mostly because I've been very happy with it. 169.01 did OC though for what it's worth.

 

Oh so there are drivers out now that work with the card? are they asus released or whql? or just random luck that they dont drop performance like the 163s?

 

If it works for others it doesnt mean it will work for you 100% but if you did mess something up it was probably in the uninstall/install process.

Make sure to do a complete removal of the old drivers first and do a system reboot, then install the new drivers in safe mode, then reboot again.

This is the only sure fire way for a perfect install.

 

If you're unaware of it: there exists a small program called DriverCleanerPro, will remove video card drivers remnants thoroughly from the system (registry keys, DLLs etc.)

 

I did all that except install in safe mode...but if people aren't getting any performance gains I'll just stay stock.

 

I'm using the one that came on the MXM CD. It's xxx117....I believe it's the same one on the Asus site. What the heck, it's a great performing driver, but gamers typically like to upgrade their video drivers, it's in the blood

Hollywood...you didn't take a big performance hit with 169's?

 

101.17 was really weak compared to 156.xx for the desktop 8600GT so it's normal wanting them (it was barely stronger than a 7600GT, now it's equal to a 7800GTX)

 

In XP I have the original driver for the 512mb card and it works perfect with the 256mb card. So I would guess its probably the same driver that comes with the new GDDR3 card.

The 163.75 in vista works perfect with the 512mb card and better than stock, but cuts the score/performance of the 256mb card in half.

So the question I was asking tho is the new driver the 169.01 works for both again right but has all the supposed fixes for games like bioshock and the orange box implimented from previous drivers?

 

update: 2500 points 3dmark so its just like all the other drivers for me, it wont work with the GDDR3 card correctly.

However I noticed one big difference. The clocks idle at 168 core 100 memory when they are not needed instead of 450/700 all the time, this has given a significant temp drop for idle in windows.

I have not seen this happen with any other drivers in the past.

The temps from my 3dmark06 run looked a good bit lower too, but with 2500 points I know the clocks boosted up to where they were supposed to be during the run. (I saw them jump up as I started 3dmark before it went fullscreen)

 

^ Yeah, just check your rivatuner. My gpu is idle at 63-64 right now beceause its clocked at 168/100. It also had the low power 2d of 275/200.

 

Im still messing with the GDDR3 card, trying to find the issue with it and decide if I want it or the 512 DDR2 card. Since new drivers work with the DDR2 card you have a significat advantage also I think that extra memory will come in handy for stuff like crysis and hellgate london.

I just uninstalled the turbo vga drivers and running 3dmark in normal mode with a 530mhz core and no issues yet.

I have to repeat several test with higher core speeds untill I find an issue, then try the different cpu modes to see what effects it.

I could have been the turbogear enhanced vga drivers for all I know. I dont know what they do as they are supposed to overclock the gpu some, but when I uninstalled them and rebooted my speeds stayed the same at 450mhz core 700mhz memory.

 

I'm following this because that is the BIG question I have too

 

Well did a normal cpu loop 550core 700mem no issues.

So now trying in overclock cpu mode 550core 700mem no issues yet except the jet turbine sound during the cpu test (the gpu is definitly hotter due to the cpu heat, maybe thats all the difference I show about 5c cooler max temps on normal cpu mode vs overclock mode)

So here is the deal, overclock cpu mode gives about 200-300 points more in 3dmark vs normal cpu mode but it looks like its causing lower gpu clocks. Thus we need to find the balance point on where is it better to have lower gpu clocks with a higher cpu speed or vice versa? (t may depend on the game alot, newer games are using more cpu power so I think its best to run with overclock mode on, also it boost your system memory speeds)

Then I may just have needed to uninstall the turbo gear vga stuff all along aswell. So if all goes well, I may install some new drivers again and see if thats what was breaking the GDDR3 card with new drivers (but I think thats been tried already by others)

I like the 169.01s for the clock scaling feature tho its a nice way to lower idle temps and probably get some extra battery life.

So far the best scores were 500 core 800 memory giving me over 4700 3dmark06 points with the old stock drivers. If I was running new drivers that would be over the 5000 point probably.

Now with the core up to 550 and memory at 700 I just got 4500 points, so its getting close.

Trying the 550/800 overclock cpu mode crashed just now... (was hopeing that would give me over 5000 I think thats my goal)

So trying a 550/750 run now.

For everyday clocks I think I would just run 500/700. I am just having abit of fun right now.

 

Updating.

550/750 overclock cpu mode gave me screen artifacts that I had to reset to get rid of.

Trying again with normal cpu mode and so far no problems. I anticipate about 300 points loss from overclock into normal cpu mode and maybe only 200 points better at 550/750 vs my 500/800 run in overclock mode.

So I guess my score will be 4700ish again...

Going to try for 575/800 next

Update 2:

I severly confirmed Forerunners theory about the cpu mode effecting clocks for the gpu.

I crashed much higher than 500 core in overclock mode 550 was unheard of.

but with normal cpu mode I just ran 575 core 800 memory fine.

The bad thing? only about 4500 points in 3dmark. So without the cpu power to back it up having a screaming gpu doesnt do much good, atleast not for 3dmark. (its a complication of cpu scores and gpu scores) so trying the 575/800 again in "gaming' mode and so far so good.

The question now is obviously is it heat? or is it a system issue?

Well I am testing for that next. Im about to go setup.

"super mega ultra cooling pad 2000" that some may remember from the past. It should keep my temps so low that it may as well be idle and try the 575/800 in overclock mode (if it passes this test in game mode) and if it fails I will try the 550/800.

I still have a pretty crapy install of the card since I am reusing some AS5 and have not replaced the stock TIM yet, so if its a temps problem I may be able to get by with my stock cooler and mod after I re-install the card better.

575/800 gaming mode worked fine under my regular cooler but was only 4600 3dmark, still short of the 4700ish I got easy with a overclock mode 500 core 750mem combo.

I setup the super cooling pad and everything is super cool under 50c for cpu and almost 70c max load for the gpu... but I got almost an instant crash at 575/800 in overclock mode... blue screen at that.

 

Important:

hey guys I found that turbogear must have done something the enhanced vga drivers I mean.

I took them out and did all those above test.

Just for the sake of things for a baseline I wanted to do my 4700 point test again of overclock mode at 500/800 and I only got like 4500 this time.

So it magically added like 2000 points for me? This is very strange.

So anyways going to swich up to 169.01 again with no turbogear vga stuff and see if that conflicts with the new drivers and is the cause of the loss of performance. (if its magically adding 2000 points its doing something) if it fixes it thats great news.

If not I will swich back to stock again and reinstall the enhanced turbogear vga stuff and do the 500/800 test yet again and see if it goes back up to 4700.


Ok did the test 169.01 no vga turbo drivers 500/800 3dmark06 2800 points. thats 300 points higher than with them installed before. If 300 points is just flux or actully meaningfull is up to you but it didnt fix the problem. So that means back to stock drivers.....

But I have done a crap load of testing and driver changes tonight and probably made my c90 cry from all the overclocking. So probably done for tonight and will work on it more tomarrow.

 

Interesting test ViciousXUSMC!

Hope you complete them and report for us the best configuration for you. I got kinda lost with all different things you've done

 

I got so caught up trying to break 5000 points that I didnt really notice that 4700 points is quite an improvement from 3200 that I was getting stock with the DDR2 card.

I dont think I have the know how to figure out why new drivers break the GDDR3 card.

So its a gamble, better performance but possible game compatability issues in the future when the stock drivers need updated or take a hit with the DDR2 card in performance but be safe with any driver you want.

Since the C90 Ships with the GDDR3 card now as the default I think its only a matter of time before somebody fixes it tho.

So really the only test I have left now is to see how well the 512mb card does in hellgate london when the game comes out in a few days. Its a very very big memory hog so I want to see if the extra memory helps over the faster speed of the 256mb GDDR3 card.

As for the best config the best score of 4750ish was 500 core 800 memory in overclock mode with the stock drivers in vista with turbo gear vga installed.

2nd best was 575 core 800memory in game mode with no turbogear vga installed pulling 4600 points.

In once setting the cpu got the points, in the other the gpu got the points so in an actual game enviroment depending on the game the performance woudl be higher with one or the other but not always the same.

The DDR2 card overclocks pretty good for most people if you can get 500 core and 600 memory I think it was that I used. Your pretty close to the stock GDDR3 cards performance and still running cooler temps.

 

Did anybody try to contact asus and ask where the performance boost is coming from on the stock drivers?


Can somebody compare the differences between the asus stock driver with the non-asus driver of the same version in terms of inf, version of each dll, etc.

Maybe the files that are different can be tested with the latest drivers to explain the performance differences.

Just my .02 cents.

 

Thats kind of what I want to do but dont know how to do it exactly.

First I just wanted to take the INF from the stock and apply it to a new driver. Easy if it came from laptopvideo2go since they have the file in pieces all extracted but the stock driver is just an installer I dont think it has the inf seperated from it, or rather I should say there is a INF but its not named the same so I dont know if its the same file or can be applied the same way.

Instead of nvdisp.inf its asussetup.inf and I dont see a nvdisp.inf in there.

 

The inf files are just normal text files. Maybe you can compare the 2 inf files and find out what is in the asus version that may be causing the performance difference and mod the differences on the nv4disp inf of the latest driver. That is if the only difference is the inf file.

Not sure if my suggestion will void warranty. If you do not want to do it thats fine.

 

If the stock driver is just an installer, maybe you can try opening up the installer using winzip to see if it shows you the pieces.

 

It has several files just not the same ones. I was wrong about the asus install inf its a INI my eyes didnt catch that first time. I am used to my 37" screen at home, so much easier to read.

I dont see any equivilant to the inf file. Plus for installing it there is the Nvidia install, and the Asus install in the same folder. I guess it doesnt matter wich you use. I always use the nvidia one tho.

You can easily see the same things I see, I just downloaded the driver from the asus site a few hours ago, and the 169.01 driver from laptopvideo2go.

 

Crap! tried the 169.04 which wasn't so hot, but now my OC ability is locked out, I don't even see it down stepping in power saving mode. UNinstalled, ran driver cleaner pro, reinstalled the OEM and still no OC. It wasn't broke and I shouldn't have tried to fix it. Any ideas?


*** I'm afraid my c90 is becoming self aware because somehow it fixed it self..lucky me but better watch my back*****

 

It's the C90s AI chip....be careful out there!

 

I have no leads on the drivers yet for the GDDR3 card, I PMed Ice-Tea the guy who specializes in MXM cards and runs a business selling them and no reply from him in about 4 or 5 days even tho he has been online. Ken said he would bark up Asus's tree and see what he can find out for us. However my demo time with the card is almost over so I have to choose soon.

Hellgate London is running great with the 512 DDR2 card at 500/500 (fans stay on constantly so that game must really push the cpu) but the game is so random with whats going on I dont know how to get a really consistant test for fps between the cards, that and I am so busy playing it I have not taken the time to change drivers/cards again.

 

I already asked Asus, they'll have to get the answer from headquarter in Taiwan, I am thinking it might have something to do with VGA BIOS.

 

I was just thinking to get back to stcok drivers also when i spotted a new thread from another forum with supposely the new G92 Drivers....worked on my c90s and allowed me to overclock my 8600m GT 512MB DDR2

links:
Vista 32bit:
ftp://61.172.177.245/phk/167.26%20Vista.rar

XP 32 bit:
ftp://61.172.177.245/phk/167.26.rar

Passwords for these files is: sbp2mm

I had to replace a modified INF for the actual INF in these directorys....i have installed the drivers to winXP and here are my results, with overclock 500/500



temperature as soon as the test ended was 83º degrees, pretty low i think....

once i had never achieved these results....these drivers were a pretty simple way to allow me to have overclock and have these 3dMark06 scores on my C90s ( i overclocked it using turbogear also to overclocking mode), if anyone decides to try, dont forget to rename the file to .inf

 

Freelance....you are using XP with the DDR2 card, right?

 

Are those drivers for the gddr3 version.. because if they were that would be awesome

 

theZoid that's right....why do you ask?

 

do these drivers work with ddr3?! has anyone tried?

Edit:
Sgt. Hollywood i had the same problem... i had to reformat vista...

 

Ouch, a reformat for a driver issue, I'm glad my sys smartened up and protected itself from a wipe down.

 

yeah it sucked... installed those new drivers and whatever i did i could not go back to the original drivers...

if anyone tries these drivers with the ddr3 version and it works let me know if it works with overclock

 

Those of us with my configuration have much different issues with drivers. We're looking for something that works besides stock drivers that don't kill us on performance.

 

I tried to test performance today for the GDDR3 card in hellgate london.

I found two big flaws with the stock drivers.

1.) You can not have aspect scaling with the stock drivers everything will stretch to fit the screen.

2.) It would not let me have any ingame resolutions that were 16:10 except the full 1680x1050 so no 1200x800 to compare it to my DDR2 benchmarks.

I have to say that it looks like the DDR2 card was equal from what little bit of fraps I had on with the GDDR3 card and if we dont find a fix soon I will opt to keep the DDR2 card. Besides the driver issues, its cheaper and runs cooler too.

 

Yeah, if you already have the DDR2 card it's no biggie I think in the real world, unless maybe you are a tweakmeister, which many of us are . I am though very interested in stability so I will take a hard look at an ATI when and if it comes out. Ken says it will.

 

Ah ha, interesting. Look forward to the answer to that one. Ken, if you can teach us how to use newer drivers, and not lose performance, you will be our hero

 

dooooo it ken doooo it

 

Is there any way i can play bioshock with the stock drivers? Everytime i launch the game the beggning movie plays of him looking at the wallet on the plane. Then it shows the logo and the game crashes.

 

There is a post here where Ken at Gentech says the Stock Drivers work with Bioshock.

 

still dosent explain why it crashes right after the logo... my friend had the problem he had to update his drivers and it worked. Has anyone gotten it to work?

 

I haven't played Bioshock yet, so I'll have to follow along here as I've got the stock drivers and am looking at the game currently :/

 

It sucks because we really have a good video card but no support for it. My 8600m gt 256mb video card scores 4600 points in 3d mark which is what my neighbor scores on his go 7900gtx 512mb. Yet i cant even start the game. I really want some answers

 

I would ask Ken at Gentech to see what his experience was.