New Dell Drivers

I recently got my dell e1705 laptop, complete with a nvidia 7900gs graphics card. It hasn't preformed as well as I had expected for gaming, and I suspect Vista to be the root of this problem. I am confident that once the new drivers come out, it will be better.
I read today on nvidias web site that they don't distribute the drivers for the mobile GPUs. So I am stuck waiting for dell to update their drivers.
Does anyone know how often dell updates their drivers.

Also, I have seen a nvidia toolbar for laptops that I cannot find on my laptop (powermizer, other graphics settings, etc.). Is that because it is not supported by vista yet.

I am very close to just going back to XP.

 

Unfortunately it's not Vista entirely it's the fact that Nvidia wasn't prepared for it's release. They are way behind in terms of decent working drivers for Vista at this time. When an update is available I'm sure you will be able to find it on: Nvidias website, Dells website, or Microsoft update. Any one of those three should have it.

 

I just ordered a 1705 with the 7900 GS. I was wondering the same thing. I am tempted to go get XP now so I have it when my computer arrives.

Beside gaming, how is the performance with Vista?

 

http://laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?drivers

 

The performance is sluggish in comparison, it works but you can't use your card to it's full potential yet.

Iceman's suggestion is a good temp fix for the problem using third party drivers.

 

They're not really third-party drivers. They are the official drivers from nVidia, with their INF files modified so that they can be used on laptop chipset as well as desktop chipsets. They're originally designed just for desktops, and trying to install on a laptop wouldn't work.

That site is a god-send for those laptop users with powerful nVidia chipsets like the 7900 GS. Make sure you download the 93.81 drivers, as they are the latest XP drivers for every nVidia card except the 8800 series, and they are the most stable of the bunch.

But, the whole thing with Vista is more trouble than it's worth, at the moment. Honestly, even if you own Vista, it's good to just let it sit and develop so that it becomes more stable. I plan to hold off until at least SP1 comes out, at which point it should be OK to run and nVidia drivers should be fixed by then.

 

From third parties such as laptopvideo2go

 

Well, they themselves are a third-party, of course.

The drivers they're using, though, are first-party. Not like Omega Drivers (which I find are better for ATI cards, but I prefer official for nVidia cards. Go figure.).

 

You got me there Viper

 

I dont know about that, Omega drivers aren't made from scratch, they are simply modified versions of existing drivers, like LV2GO, only more heavily optimized. Technically speaking any modified drivers other than that of a card or machine MFG would be considered third party.

 

Ah, whatever you wanna call it, LV2G is the best place for nVidia drivers. No doubt about that.

 

The last time I tried LaptopVideo2Go on my E1705 it didn't play well with Steam based games. I got a very interesting DX8 Vertices error. Determined it to be the driver causing the issue and reverted back to the stock Dell ones.

First time it happened my screen res went to 320x200 @ 4-bit color. Uninstalling the monitor entries then having it detect new hardware fixed it. Just had to manually set the correct resolution and bit depth.

Second time it happened my screen res went to 320x200 @ 1-bit color (yes black and white). Uninstalling the monitor entries did nothing. Windows complained that the drivers were corrupted and had fallen back to some generic driver. I reinstalled the nvidia drivers on top of themselved and did not reboot. I was able to restore the resolution and bit depth after that.

So.... just be careful when using 3rd party drivers on laptops.

Oh and Omega drivers are like the laptopvideo2go ones only they optimize them for desktops. Also they have ATI's backing. The guy beta tests the drivers before they get to us. Nvidia had a small fit with him releasing 3rd party drivers. I think it had to do with the fact that the Nvidia logo was still in the release so he had to modify it to show that he released them and that Nvidia did not support them.