If you want cooler GPU Temps try this !

I know all the trepidation regarding high nvidia GPU temps and the reported failure rate of these chips.

I have a Vostro 1500 and a 1700. I was using Dell's 174.31 drivers but along with that I was seeing both GPU's idle at 47c and maxing out at 58c.

Now how's this for a discovery !

I recently reinstalled Windows Vista and for some unknown reason I decided to try Microsoft's recommended nvidia drivers part of Windows Update. After using these drivers my idle temps dropped by a whopping 10c

So now with Microsoft's recommended nvidia drivers my idle temps are a cool 37c and peak at 49c. I thought maybe it was a fluke so I reinstalled Vista along with Microsoft's recommended drivers on my Vostro 1700 and got the same results.

So if you guys are worried about high CPU temps give Microsoft's recommended drivers a try. You'll have to either do a fresh install or uninstall your existing drivers from your laptop and all registry entries before Microsoft's recommended drivers show up in Windows Update.

Please note this applies to Vista as I have not tried it yet in Windows XP.

 

What are the drivers that they recommend?
1**.**???

 

Driver date is 10/4/2007

Driver version 7.15.11.5669

 

I believe that's 156.669.

 

yeah that's 156.69

 

I have been putting off installing this update for a while and after your post I installed it to see if there were any temperature differences. There was a good bit of difference because now my 1720 idles at 44 degrees Celsius compared to 51 degrees Celsius before this driver. However, one strange thing is that RivaTuner says this new video driver is not supported. Did you get the same message after you installed this driver?

 

I believe those drivers are the ones known to report 10c lower than actual values.

 

+1 for that, known issue for certain driver revisions

drivers wont decrease ur temp unless they make ur GPU work less

 

So then what exactly does a driver update do? If there aren't improvements in performance what is the need in updating?

 

I tend to disagree.

Here's why. Prior to the Microsoft drivers my laptop over all was running warmer. The GPU was in the 47c range, Chipset around 44c, CPU 42-43c. After the Microsoft drivers across the board the laptop is running much cooler. Chipset is around 38c, CPU 39c, GPU 38c. The HDD has always run fairly cool around 33-35c.

Here's the key. The air coming out of my laptop is now cooler as well since I run I8kfanGUI in slow mode.

 

I think that's what's happening here. My ROP Domain clock is running at 182.25 mhz, Shader clock is at 364.50 mhz, and my memory clock is at 100 mhz.

But you know i'm cool with that no pun intended as I use this laptop for basic stuff like surfing the web etc. I don't plan on playing any games on it. If it prolongs the life of my Vostro 1500 it's all good.

 

That is nothing special in that driver set, that is just Nvidia's PowerMizer present in mainly all drivers that downclocks when you don't need it. I have tried the drivers that report 10C lower and it is exactly 10C lower. All my other temps are the same and the temp of the air coming out is exactly the same. There have been many reports of the 156 series drivers reporting exactly 10C lower than normal. My GPU downclocks too with all Nvidia drivers when I am just browsing in online.

 

Hm, at laptopvideo2go, the 156.69 drivers are only for vista. I will have to try windows update for my xp 1500 and see what version comes up.