Best performance drivers for ATI 4670 Mobility for XPS 16

Hey guys I've been browsing the forums for awhile for the XPS 16.
Since I don't have the throtlling problem (Thank god because of the new bios and 130 watt adapter)... I'm wondering what the best drivers are for the ATI Mobility graphics..

To be honest, I'm not getting good framerates at all..

I'm using the mobility drivers straight from ATI...

Now I see 3 options..
1. From dell
2. From ATI Striaght
3. Desktop ATI Modded

which one of these are the best drivers?
are there any other suggestions for even better ones than the ones i listed?

thanks

 

use straight from ati 10.4.

 

I use the ones from Dell, as posted in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...driver-softwae-updates-studio-xps-1645-a.html

Also, could you quantify your statement about not getting good framerates with a benchmark or some examples? Might help to gauge if there is a problem or not.

 

I am guessing you have overclocked the GPU already? I have been getting good frame rates out of my overclocked 4670 using ATI drivers

 

Oh no I don't overclock (especially on notebooks).

Well I tried Metro 2033, i get very low framerates using all low settings.
Same with Bad Company 2, and I also tried STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (latest with no mods) and I can only run it smoothly with static lighting. If I use the full dynamic lighting, it kills everything.

(I'm running on 1280x720 resolutions). StarCraft 2 Beta also runs only around 20-25 fps on medium lighting (everything else high)

 

If I remember, I'll try out STALKER later on my laptop and let you know how it goes. I played it briefly a few weeks back, but can't recall exactly how smooth it was.

 

ok. thanks a lot.

 

Alright, just loaded up STALKER. Full res (1920x1080), high detail, and full dynamic lighting. No AA, but I cranked up the lighting distance. Ran smooth and I would happily play it at the frame rate I was having. Power mode in Windows was set to Dell (normally I would set to High Performance for gaming), I had Chrome and Acrobat reader running in the background, but not much else.

 

I'm running Starcraft 2 beta with ~60fps when there's not much action going on (70 when not looking at Zerg Creep) with the following settings:

1920*1080
Texture: Ultra
Post Process: Medium
Reflections: Off (kills frame rate on some maps if On)
Effects: Ultra
Shaders: medium (this is most important setting)
Lighting: low (locked from shader setting)
Shadows: Medium (also important, and not too visually different than Ultra)
Terrain: High
The last 4 settings: As high as they go

The lighting setting is directly dependent on shader settings (in SC2 beta). If the shaders are on high, putting the lighting setting on low or ultra will not change your frame rate. I don't really care for bonus blinking lights, so I'm happy with my settings above.

I should add: I have i720QM, but Starcraft 2 beta only uses 2 cores, so your processor is probably even better.

 

what drivers are you guys using?

*thanks gpig for your settings.

RacingGun, i put everything at the highest but i put lowest for antialiasing and grass density at 1280x720.

update: ok on Win7 power, i changed from Balanced to Maximum performance...
lol with the settings at highest + lowest for antialiasing and grass density at 1280x720 im getting 60fps!! (I'm using modded desktop drivers) i thought i was using Simple Lighting but I restarted just to make sure... im still running at 60fps with full dynamic lighting lol..

omg... I am SOOO HAPPY right now you guys have no idea. I thought that performance was locked, but when I changed it to highest performance in power, my Source FPS Rating (highest no AA at 1024x768) jumped from 119 to 200. I can run STALKER fine now... THANK YOU

 

10.6 drivers is what you want the beta drivers rock, they increase graphic performance so well.

 

Linky please?

 

Hehehe, glad we were able to help and that you figured that out! This machine is pretty awesome, so I was surprised when your performance wasn't as good as expected.

 

is this actually true?

 

Guys, I run strags.com which has all these ATI Mobility Radeon HD drivers. Basically for Dell, they have their own recent release which is version 8.721 and that's what I'd use for now. If you want to give CATALYST 10.5 or 10.6 beta a try have a look at strags.com but I'd personally stick with Dell's release (even over ATI's). The link to download 'em is in this thread (works for all Dell laptops): http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...driver-softwae-updates-studio-xps-1645-a.html

 

I've tried the latest drivers from strags.com, but always come back to the latest Dell drivers (as linked to in gaah's post). They seem more stable for the S-XPS 16 and I've never had issues with performance. Everything works well when using them, no crashes or other problems.

 

Anyone willing to try the diff versions and see how they compare with benchmarks?

 

u should just use always the latest driver from ati, that's always the best.
dell updates drivers on their site like once a year, the drivers there are usually obsolete.
the latest driver is catalyst 10.4, display driver 8.723.

 

That's true about the website, but there are newer releases that work on Dell's FTP. For comparison Dell's latest is only two builds below CATALYST 10.4. There's probably little difference that would matter in such a minor change.

 

omm.. by ati, the newer is always the better. btw there's a huge difference between 10.4 and any other older drivers, because 10.4 enables full DXVA support (L5.1) so u can play many videos gpu-accelerated that u couldn't before.

 

Well like I said, basically they probably already had that feature in a build by 8.721 which is the version Dell has out. CATALYST 10.3 was version 8.712 (or 8.710?) and ATI didn't indicate which build they added that in.

 

u can try it but since 8.723 is newer, there's really no point of using 8.721.

 

That isn't true. The build number is higher, but the Dell package is customized and might actually have fixes and features not included in ATI's. It's not very likely there were even any major changes from 8.721 -> 8.723 that would effect our systems, since most changes are usually very specific that don't affect everyone, unless it's a major feature enhancement.

 

"the Dell package is customized"
"have fixes and features not included in ATI's"

omm.. any source about these infos? because for me it sounds like bs..
i don't think ati would do customized drivers for all the manufacturers, it's not necessary, there's no any point of doing so..

 

Source: ATI (AMD)
http://www2.ati.com/relnotes/Catalyst_104_release_notes.pdf

"AMD Mobility Product Support
Catalyst Mobility is a notebook reference graphics driver for with limited support for
system vendor specific features. Support is available for Windows Vista and Windows 7
to be used at your own risk.
The Installation Verification Software will prevent driver download on certain notebook
products. This is to protect against the installing of drivers that may disable features or
functionality provided by the system manufacturer. If unacceptable behavior is
experienced using Catalyst Mobility it is recommended to revert back to the driver
provided by your system vendor for your specific platform. Please contact your system
vendor for the most recent drivers for your notebook."

Basically Dell does their own customization. ALL MAJOR LAPTOP MANUFACTURERS DO THIS.

 

well, talking about it is one thing, and doing it is another.
just mention a single customization in which the "dell-driver" is better than the official ati. what could they customize anyway? all mobile gpus work the same way, it's vendor doesn't matter.
i'm pretty sure it's mostly bs too. u will be better with a newer, up-to-date driver.

 

Are they releasing drivers for the 3000 series yet?

 

I'm sorry, but I haven't tried the driver from ATI yet so I have nothing to compare against, as I have only been a Dell owner for 2 months... However, I have no reason to not believe the graphics card manufacturer. For example, on my Lenovo, the Lenovo specific graphics card driver provides:
1. Brightness controls that work
2. Application specific profiles (CAD and otherwise)
3. Hotkeys (such as rotating the screen)
4. Better color profile

 

the first 3 are present in normal catalyst for sure since long time (brightness control, application profiles, hotkeys), and probably the 4th one is too, it's just not too obvious what u meant with the "better" word: better than what? and why would need lenovo laptops more graphic option than others? why would any manufacturer's laptop need customized driver?

 

1. Actually the brightness control didn't work on my Lenovo without using their own Lenovo driver. Was a known issue.
2. Lenovo Provided about 15 more Application Profiles than the default.
3. I'm don't mean the ability to make your own hotkeys, I mean actual pre-defined hotkeys.
4. Better looking than the default.

They weren't kidding when they said "consult your laptop manufacturer."

 

1. then u probably wasn't using the latest catalyst. changing the brightness should work, if it wasn't working on a catalyst because of some bug it was probably fixed in the next release
2-3-4: thats pretty unlikely. so again: you probably just wasn't using the latest catalyst. predefined hotkeys is not really a point anyway, you can always define any keys the way u want..
better looking.. pff. even if it was true.. at what cost? older driver means games running slower, more bugs present, worse gpu-accelerated video-playback support, etc, etc.

 

You'd be severely mistaken in thinking that ATI's drivers are more suitable for the XPS than the ones by DELL.

ATI's graphics driver's are like templates, like generic drivers that apply to a mass range of graphic cards in an infinite combination of ram, cpus, power supplies, speeds, configurations. The dell graphics drivers however are the ATI driver template modeled and tweaked specifically for Dell, not just that but they're specifically modeled for the XPS. Basically, they are designed very specifically for your computer.

Now I dont know about you but im not a programmer so im going to choose to install driver's made by someone whose one job is to make DELL drivers rather than download a very generic untweaked version just because it's "newer"

having said my opinion on the matter...here are the facts. I have the dell drivers and my friend who has the exact same specs down to thesame benchmark numbers has the ones from ATI installed (as of last night)....today we ran some comparative tests and his results are slightly lower than mine now...so there's a decrease in graphics performance when not using dell's graphics drivers...

but anyways its your laptop do what you want with it..

 

u're under-/misinformed in several things. i'm not going to explain everything. i spent lot of time on several forums dealing with this topic on higher levels and so after my best knowledge:
-ATI's graphics driver's are NOT like templates. ATI designs ALL Ati products including the one in your desktop and Ati makes ALL drivers for them. Dell has nothing to do with it, they just put in your laptop the complete GPU made by Ati and update the drivers on their page like once a year (and they're getting these drivers from Ati, they don't make them, it's noone's job in the world to "make ati drivers for dells") and provide support for it. It's always Ati, who designs, makes these cards and makes the drivers from them, so it's always the best to get the latest driver from them, directly.
a graphic driver is TOTALLY independent from whatever ram, cpus, power supplies, speeds, configurations you have, so you CAN'T customize it for a single system config or anything. a graphic driver is ONLY for the graphic card (wow, what a surprise) which is made by Ati, so Ati knows it the best, and it's always Ati's job to make drivers for them. Even if u download a driver from Dell or any manufacturers site, it's made by Ati.

 

You should learn when to give up. A good point would have been when I linked you to the ATI release notes saying to use the laptop manufacturer's drivers.

Since I'm bored, and you say no one's job is to customize drivers for specific laptops, here's the official response:
Dell ATI Drivers vs Official ATI Drivers? - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

 

I like the last comment of that link... "I cannot discuss that data." WHAT?! haha, that is funny..

 

you are obviously wrong on many arguments, so i'm not the one who should know when to give up, lol.
yeah, the official response says what they should say. of course, they customize it, etc. its basically all bs, probably they say that to keep their customers. probably all they do is test it if it works fine, and maybe they set 1-2 things (like predefined hotkeys which is you could set anyway so its not a real benefit) and they call it customization, but it's really far from that. well, you can call it customization, but i'm pretty sure that even if they change some settings, the base of the driver remains untouched, so there's no real optimization for dell computers, no real change, forget this bs.

why the hell do u think they don't tell anything about what they change exactly, hm? don't be naive. even ati can't optimize their drivers properly who designs these cards, it sound pretty likely that dell does it who only puts these cards to their computers.

 

Sorry, you're wrong.

 

Someone told him that already.................

 

And? It needed to be reiterated.

 

Look at the comment right above yours man... the first four words are "you are obviously wrong"

-Needed to be reiterated? OK BUDDY!!!!!!!!

 

I'm glad to see you agree with me.

 

Sorry buddy, but you're the one who is pretty off here. Dell wouldn't spend millions in designing a laptop only to ignore making driver's for it that optimize its configuration.

ATI's driver's are customized for every laptop. This is a fact. That is why when something goes wrong with driver's you dont contact ATI you contact your laptop manufacturer.

Notice how many "probably"s you used. "they probably say that..." "probably all they do it test it" "its basically all bs"

Sorry dude, keep your conspiracy theories and personal opinions out of this forum. They do optimize the ati drivers and yes they do that by testing it and modifying it accordingly.

Like I said before though, feel free to download whatever driver you want. Judging by the type of logic you seem to have i could just rename the driver version to a number higher than the one available now and not change anything else and you would be the first to download it install it and argue that it's better.

 

all right. this is the LAST TIME i will answer such comment.
you are clearly wrong in just everything you said here. you have clearly no idea what are you talking about, you just repeat the same marketing bullsh*t you read on dell's advertising websites.
you forget one thing. i'm not here to argue with ignorant people repeating marketing bs, i'm here to help people who didn't spent hours on ati-related forums and need advice which driver to install.
and you can be pretty sure, that there's no ANY optimization by ANY manufacturers. There are thousands of various PC processors, motherboards, memories, supplies, etc. Million, billions of different PC configurations. for ALL of them you just have to install the ONE driver on ATI's page depending ONLY on your GPU (that's why it's called graphic card driver). why the hell do you think that by notebooks it's working a completely different way and you have to install other graphic drivers for every manufacturers every single configuration? you would probably install other graphic driver when you buy new rams to your laptop to have it more optimized, lol. if ignorance would hurt, you would probably scream at this point.
don't get this wrong but what you're doing is like arguing with einstein about e=mc^2 while you didn't even complete elemental school.

 

I already posted a list of changes made by a laptop manufacturer. While they are not life changing, they are optimizations.

Billions of laptop configurations? Really?

 

I can't really see anything that's possible to actually optimise with the drivers other than the clock speeds and the fan speeds (with the possible addition of core voltages if Dell are getting the better cores out of the bunch). In that sense I'd rather have the ATI drivers as Dell seem to lower the clock speeds for a lot of the time, limiting my card (lists the core clock as 400mhz instead of 680mhz), however this could just be that it's not working in its 3d profile.

So in my opinion the Dell drivers would be less optimised for what I need to do (gaming and such) as they would have probably have lower clocks (due to the lack of unuseable battery life and the heat problem, both of which are irrelevant to me as I run it on the power supply most of the time and have undervolted it, changed the thermal paste and, made a passive cooler to raise the base up an inch for extra air flow and clean the vents regularly).

If someone can actually explain to me/us about how Dell "optimise" their drivers then I'll be more convinced, but just saying "they optimise them" without any further information and then attacking anyone who questions it without any real information to back them up is silly. So unless anyone can provide any more info into how said drivers are "customised" I'll be more on the side of the stock ATI drivers.

 

I rather rely on ATI's engineers than Dells engineers but thats just me. Prove me with benchmarks that Dell is more optimized and I will believe you. Remember a manufacturer may limit features in drivers to compensate for their design hardware flaws.

 

ATI 10.4 is a good one. Dell's driver is very slow since they concern the stability most.
Metro 2033 basically kills every machine. You probably only get 50 fps with the latest desktop Fermi

 

I am with you man, lets see some proof here... wouldn't take long at all to run some tests y'all!

 

Just to clarify... I don't think Dell's driver will have better performance. I think Dell's current one will have identical performance to 10.4, but Dell's will be more stable and/or feature rich.

The ATI release notes say what they "update". For the last several revisions (9.x, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4) I didn't see any mentions of an increase of performance for any relevant 4xxx series cards. The 4670 is almost a year and a half old, it would be kind of sad if they were just releasing an update now that unlocks its full potential.

 

To be honest, I'd rather have a missing "feature" than a system crash every time I try to use that "feature" that just will never work on the system.

You're free to use whatever driver you want, but the burden of proof is on you "rebel" guys if you want to say the "newer" ATI driver is better. Here's why:

1. Upgrading is something that should only be done if it affects the user. You shouldn't upgrade something "just because." That's a waste of your time and puts an unnecessary strain, albeit light, on your hardware.

2. ATI says not to use their drivers. Why would I want to use them?

3. The official ATI release notes don't say there will be an increase in performance for the 4670. Seems convincing to me that there will NOT be a performance increase. Prove me wrong.

4. Dell says to use the Dell drivers. If I didn't trust them, I wouldn't have paid for one.