8600m gt FPS drop each time i play!

I'm new here an have a problem. I have a dell Vostro 1500 running XP with 8600m gt that has been capable of running games very well. However i recently installed a driver from laptopvideo2go.com (v174 driver), and now when i play C&C3 on high settings (AA low) FPS are around the 25 mark. Before the driver update i was very stable at above 30FPS.

Because of the drop i went back to my old driver and performance is still worse. 3DMark06 gave the new driver a much better rating than the old one, but it seems to of worsened the performance.

Why is there this decrease in performance? can anyone suggest a better driver, and how can i get my old driver back to its prime?

 

Hey sorry to hear you've been having problems. Did you follow the FAQ guide on laptopvideo2go.com - it gives a step-by-step on how to correctly install your drivers. I can't remember what it actually says, but I think it's good practice to start Windows in safe mode - uninstall your old driver - do a CCleaner sweep to try and remove bad registry info etc. - and then reboot in safe mode and install the new driver. That should allow you to "start afresh" with any driver you now want to try.

As for the best driver to use - I was hoping for some discussion too! I've got Acer 5920G 8600m GT 256mb DDR2 and have been on the 169.04 drivers for what seems like an eternity lol. Thinking about trying some newer drivers - perhaps the 174 series but I don't really know what the difference / advantage is compared to the 169.xx series. Can anyone shed some light?

My 3dmark06 score with stock speeds and 169.04 driver is 3442. A lot of people with the same laptop can crank that to over 4000 (but I don't overclock). So maybe this 3dmark06 score is a little low, and FPS isn't always as good as I was hoping on Source games, but I've had no real problems with the 169.04 drivers so I recommend you try those - at least until somebody can tell us which drivers are better! What's the verdict on 174.31?

 

I use 167.62 , the only stable for me and performances a good enough.

 

Well on 3DMark06 it gives me around 3900, where as the old driver was around 3300 ( i think). Still, i can't understand the drop in framefrates!

 

You mean you were using 174.31? Or just another 174.xx series? The massive difference in 3dmark06 scores is interesting ... Maybe you should just try and do a clean install? Of course, you are on XP so I'm not really sure if there are specific compatibility problems... You would also be using different drivers to me!

 

www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/
There is a DELL specific driver, or get the one with 40 ODMs and OEMS (just look on the 174.x page).

 

Yeah sorry i was using 174.74. maybe i'll try cleaning then install, and see what happens.

 

174.82 appear to be good anyone tested? Clevo drivers...run on anything with modded inf

 

I am running them right now, but I have a Clevo so that might explain why I`m seing the best results so far.
I`ll switch to 174.93 tomorrow though

 

Where can you get an INF for the 174.93???? i want em rep for anyone who can get me working 174.93 for my vostro w00t!