Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, *Part 3*

Yes the comspec I have set the swithch to /low.

Well set the options on High in the game, mine is always set to High even if I change the options in the video menu.

 

Just throwing out...

Yesterday I fount out the temperatures of my 2nd GPU core is about 10ºC higher than the 1st core. This happens all the time. Even when gaming the temperature reaches 82ºC while the 1st core stays at 71ºC.

Is this normal or is there something wrong? The temperatures aren't that disturbing high.

I never looked at it so fanatically till I changed the Logitech display settings with Ultimate Everest. Well, I guess I have to open it again and control the cooling paste. Nice job for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

 

looks awesome, maybe i should buy that game

btw Magnus72, can you maybe write a tutorial about nhancer, i have it installed, but i don't seem to be able to get better results out of games than i get with the standard nvidia control panel, also I noticed that it doesn't really work well with steam, i have to manually activate a specific profile before it gets active (which is pretty annoying), do you perhaps know a trick or solution so they start automatically?
And finally, can you perhaps make a thread with all your nhancer profiles and tips about the games you have tweaked for the M1730, that would be really RAD ! Thanks

 

Yes I will have to write up and prepare for a Tweak thread for the XPS M1730.

 

Magnus72 - I tried your GTA IV tweak files on my son's desktop pc which still has the game installed and they made the game run very smooth, ha had been looking for a way to make the game run smoothly so I told him to try your tweaked files and they did the trick. Next I will reinstall the game and used them on my M1730.

 

+ 1 rep for you.
You're the man Magnus!!! What should we do without engineers like you.

 

Hey thanks for the rep point ernstig01

Glad the tweak helps more people run the game smoothly. I am very happy with the performance now.

 

So i just got off the phone with dell and i got most of the specs of my replacement m17x they told me

4870 mobility x2 in crossfire

Intel® Core™ i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)

4gb ddr3 ram

So far im happy, i dont know what screen im getting or what drive im getting but since i had a blueray and its the R2 model im expeting the 1920x1200 one, ill have a full order on the site soon. Can't wait to actually play bad company 2 that i bought last month.

Edit: maybe magnus' tweak will make it run better for me too, though i not sure what to expect with the machine im getting since gta4 was such a random performing game.

 

Hi there Mangus,

Just reinstalled GTA IV so i could give your tweaks a test and unfortunately i didnt have such good results. I've also noticed the every few seconds the game freezes and goes jerky. I think it my be the CPU that is causing these problems. Anyway I was wondering if anyone could help with my dilema !!!

Heres the benchmark results :

Statistics
Average FPS: 32.75
Duration: 37.46 sec
CPU Usage: 94%
System memory usage: 81%
Video memory usage: 96%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1200 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: High
View Distance: 1
Detail Distance: 29

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Home Premium
Service Pack 2
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX
Video Driver version: 197.16
Audio Adapter: Speakers / Headphones (SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.50GHz

File ID: Benchmark.cli

Regards Jim

 

what drivers are you using benson?

The small stuttering that occurs, go into commandline.txt and change Availablevidmem to 1.5 instead of 1.4 that I think it is now.

Also the stuttering probably has to do with SLI and that our GPU´s is 512MB and running on High Textures. Though I don´t have too much stuttering.

 

I have the same with AvP 3; if i use texture high (which is only recomended for 512mb+ cards) i have random stutters when the game streams textures from normal mem to vid mem ( actually the beast has pretty slow system mem, because on my desktop which also has a 512mb card i dont have it, but the desktop has 8gb of 1066mhz ram and a very high overclocked frontside bus)

So I guess it is normal if you push a game above the recommended specs

 

Im currently using the WHQL ones 197.16.

Ill try the avail mem and see if that works

Regards Jim

 

Well i tried increasing available memory to 1.5 and unfortunately it didnt make any difference

 

Hmm could be the chipset drivers too.

 

I tried installing these but i didnt have to force them to install. I downloaded these and just ran the program so im now not sure if i did it right?

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18053&lang=eng

Regards Jim

 

Hmm i dont think so, I had to force install them otherwise the devices just used the ones that came with windows7

 

How did you force install them Psyloid? From Device Manager and uninstall the ones already installed?

MIne are currently 8.3.1.1005 for DRAM & PCI Express Port

Regards Jim

 

Yes you actually see if the setup.exe installs the chipset drivers or not. If it installs they show a list of installed components. If it just says finished they don´t install. So that´s why I always force install them.

Also there is a difference between the 965m.inf and 965g.inf installs in performance I have seen in some of the chipset drivers

 

Hi Magnus,

I tried to force install them but it doesnt seem to work with the have disk method. The screen flashes but afterwards it still says I have 8.3.1.1005 installed

Regards Jim

 

benson it should be correct
try different installs and run 3D Mark 06 each time

 

Hey Magnus,

Well I uninstalled my Gfx drivers and Chipset drivers and install the ones i downloaded. (worked fine this time installing them from setup.exe) It looks like it supposed to say version 8.3.1.1005. Reinstalled 197.16 drivers and the latest GTAIV patch. Still no difference unfortunately The only way I can get rid of the sturring is to delete the commandline.txt file in the games folder you made. I still get rubbish frame rates though.

regards Jim

 

Do you have any CPU brereton, X9000?

 

Or a working 9800M GTX?

 

I was curious to find out what kind of upgrades i can buy to increase gameing performance for the xps. I know i can fit an x9000, but what about ram upgrades and a SSD?

 

Graphics cards are fried that's why it died

I do have a brand new mother board with the Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz, powersupply, 1080p screen, blu-ray player, keyboard, fan system, ram

 

It can take up to 8GB of RAM and any 2.5" SSD. SSD is not system-specific. Well, I lied, a little - some apple computers won't work with certain SSD's. But SSD's are made into the HDD form factor of yester year so it's good to go.

 

NVidia has released a new version of System Tools v 6.06. Just thought I'd give a heads up. Haven's tested it myself yet...will wait until the next GPU Drivers release.

Upgrading to SSD will not not increase gaming performance fps-wise. It will lower loading times and make the whole OS experience more snappy, but that's about it.

 

Are there any differences bewteen ram type/spec. I have the basic stock dell ram, but would putting in kingston or cosair ram make a difference?

 

Getting Kingston HyperX memory will give you an increase of 1-2 fps in some games. However, you will hardly notice it.

 

Posts of items for sale need to be made in the NBR Marketplace. Please review the stickies in the Marketplace sub forum prior to posting.

Thanks.

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Has anyone tried the 197.31 NV Beta driver Dell recently released? The INF supports the 8800M GTX/9800M GTX.

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=391153

 

If you want to get all the performance possible out of this rig, this is a way to go.
I'm still considering to get myself a K650M. If it's worth the money is a second question...

 

wondering M1730 compatible to T9800 or not?

 

Sorry any 1066Mhz FSB processors will not work in the M1730. Your best option is an T9500 or an X9000.

On a lighter note, just wanted to share with you guys, something I shot with my camera lately and with my beloved M1730. Enjoy!

 

Awesome pics SomeFormOFhuman. What camera you have?

 

EOS 7D coupled with a 24-70mm f2.8 lens, tripod setup. I'm a photography freak too!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/_stefano_/

 

please read this, theres no words for this thing that happened to me today
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=6165251#post6165251

btw, nice pictures someformofhuman, i digg that

 

Hi guys hope you're doing alright.
I have been having some strange graphic issues with some games with my 9800m GTX, when I have bright red or bright orange color displayed within a video game, the area around it shows distorted lines. I have seen this for metro 2033 subtitles for example I have distorted orange horizontal lines appearing.
I'll post pictures soon.
Capturing a video using fraps shows no problems, that's weird.
The distorted lines are almost non existent on an external display.

 

I guess screen pics will help best or just with a camera of the screen.

 

I have uploaded a video from my phone on youtube :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HohS3-L--Mc

 

Since not in FRAPS video... maybe a screen issue? Just guessing BTW, haven't had this problem myself.

As per any prob, take loads of pic's, vid's.... you'll need when dealing with Dell later.

 

Did you try reinstalling drivers? Also try turning SLI on/off. You mentioned that these lines are not as noticeable on the external monitor. So, I take it this means that these distortions are still present on the external monitor, right?

 

Thats is right.
I'm not at home right now but do you think turning the sli on off would change something?

 

I think DDT5 might be thinking that the problem could be with second GPU card, or the connection to the second. Also its easy to test!

 

Looks like the start of a failing card... might want to contact Dell Support and have them troubleshoot if you are still in warranty. Hope it works out.

 

Just like 72hundred said, I was thinking that it could be the second GPU failing. Agree with BatBoy, you should contact support and ask for a replacement GPU.

 

Yep, maybe again a victim of the infamous failing GPU...
We, M1730 owners, are a dying breed.

 

True. But at least those with problems get decent replacements. And as of yesterday AW m17x got an option of ATI 5870 and CF 5870. Can't wait to see what these cards are capable of.

 

I'm really happy atm guys - I managed to sell my old T7700/Single 8700M GT M1730 in my sig for £900, and just bought the following M1730 on ebay for £840 total:
X9000
4GB RAM
8800M GTX SLi
500GB HDD
Blu-Ray RW Drive

 

Haha! Brilliant - I like those economics! Hope it all works out for you.

 

Yeah It should all be fine - it's from a reputable seller with 707 100% positive feedback. The best thing is, I only paid £400 for my old M1730 on ebay, so even better economics