Intel X3100 users rejoice! It's finally here! New Pre-Beta Drivers

Hey guys... just found something that can explain the better Windows 7 performance... well, here in my work computer I got a GeForce 8600GT card with 512MB of memory... and in windows 7 properties it shows:

Total Available Graphics Memory: 1791 MB (too much eh?)
Dedicated Video Memory: 512MB (ok...)
System Video Memory: 0 MB (what is this)
Shared System Memory: 1279 MB (again, isn't that too much)

Maybe Windows 7 is sharing more "system memory" than Vista???

How it handle this system memory in Vista and Windows 7?

I'm without my laptop right now so I can't test.

 

Haha thanks for the info
Lets hope Microsoft doesn't delay the public beta xD

Well the X3100 IGP has a cap on system memory at 384mb shared, so I don't think it's the shared memory solution? Correct me if I'm wrong

 

Display adapter type Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family (Prerelease WDDM 1.1 Driver)
Total available graphics memory 358 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 0 MB
Dedicated system memory 64 MB
Shared system memory 294 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.15.10.1620
Primary monitor resolution 1280x800
DirectX version DirectX 10

This is what i get with my x3100

 

He just said it was with the 8600.

Exactly what might have happened is that unlike Vista which required a high-end system to run it(the overhead wouldn't be as much), in Windows 7 it was basically solved. Overhead in lower-end systems are higher than on higher-end systems and that might be why Vista performs especially bad on X3100.

And it seems that in less demanding games the performance is more related to how rest of the system handles the graphics driver rather than GPU itself.

 

Well, first impressions with Windows 7...

I've only installed Need for Speed Undercover and...

The performance is really better (haven't measured fps yet, but it think about 5-10fps better depending on how crowded/full of buildings is the area and my freezing problems ARE GONE! YE-HAAAAAA! )

I will test with other games... It is a surprise from MS... about the system, even for a Beta, it is really a polished product... I'm loving it.

 

Does anyone did a comparison between x3100's performance under XP and under win7? I agree that Vista have some overhead that affect the x3100, but I think that what we are seeing here is more than that.

Have anyone tested left4dead or cod5 under win7 (and x3100)? If they see the performance gain other games see, I think I'll install Windows 7 as soon as i can.

 

Well, the comparision I've made with NFS Undercover is based on my XP SP3 Lite that I had before... it was a very clean and light XP install...

 

WAIT YOU WERE RUNNING XP AND THE PERFORMANCE ALSO INCREASED??
HOLY ****

I NEED WINDOWS 7!!

 

I've been doing some research in the web about WDDM 1.1. Among the many improvements in window manegement (aka aero), it appears that Microsoft have done some serious work improving video memory management and usage for 3d applications... and we all know that memory bandwith is one of the main problems of any integrated graphics solution. So, to add up, it sounds very interesting.

There are, however, some bad news. In another great Microsoft marketing move, apparentely WDDM 1.1 will never be backported to Vista (not in SP2, probably, not ever), just in the same way DX10 will never be backported to XP. In other words, Microsoft have a nice, already totally functional, improvement that we, the x3100 users, need like water. But we'll have to wait until late 2009 and pay a licence for a new operative system, only to get a simple fix that should be implemented in Vista.

I thinking in give the Windows 7 Beta a try, but I still have some fears. Does anyone who installed Windows 7 had a problem with drivers (audio, wifi, etc)? How legal is to install a Windows 7 beta without beeing a official beta tester of Microsoft? Do you need to do any kind of "activation"?

 

I'd be very appreciated if any1 give me some more inf on x3100 performance on Win7 compared to XP ( Not Vista)

 

Well, I'm using Windows 7 on my Acer (5920-6690) and I had no problems with drivers, I just downloaded some Vista SP1 drivers for some specific things... I use all WDDM default drivers for video, audio, wifi, etc... it detects everything important, the only thing I needed to instal was the card reader drivers, etc... It even detected the webcam as an Acer one... I was impressed.

One more thing I needed to instal was the Synaptics trackpad utility that let me use the aditional media buttons of my Acer and the Launch Manager to show on screen information like volume, wifi on and off, these stuff... I installed Vista drivers and programs for these and they worked perfectly...

I noticed that if I try to install some of Vista drivers, it give me incompatibility messages, for some intel drivers and Realtek HD Audio drivers (the only thing I miss is my Dolby Audio control panel... )

Yesterday I played NFS Undercover for about 2 hours without problems... In XP it freezed after 5 minutes of play or in one specific part of the game... well... I was thinking that I had temperature problems, but after this... it's the drivers... Go work Intel, please!!!

About the activation, yes, you have to activate in 30 days... it's enough for a try... there are always other methods, but we can't talk about them here...

 

Well, don't expect a miracle... its still one X3100 but things goes smoother for me...

Just to talk about one more thing regarding windows 7, the memory usage is really lower than Vista... with all my stuff installed, antivirus software (nod32) and using vista aero on, the memory usage when idle is between 480 and 520mb... for Vista it was about 650-800mb... in this area they really evolved a lot... I've made only little tweaks: turned indexing and superfetch off, as I find these things pretty useless and annoying. I'm using the games and all the stuff always with aero on... I want to test them with aero off, but the visual is so beautifull

For CS Source stress test I got 30.2 fps in 1280x800 everything on high except water reflections and no antialiasing...

Anyone had this test done to compare our results?

 

Thanks you diegorborges for your answer. I think i'll give Windows 7 a try.

I runned the CS:Source Strees test. I obtained 27.7 fps under Vista x64 with everything on high and 1280x800, including 16x anisotropic and full world water reflection. However, lowering anisotropic to 4x and water reflection to the lower level, I obtained 27.1 fps... doesn't make sense at all. Maybe some options are not supported, i guess. Do you see the same phenomena?

P.D.: My note specs are: 1.86ghz Core 2 Duo T5550 and 2gb Ram.

 

Well, I haven't tried with these options on... I'll try them tonight because I left my laptop at home today ... One thing I've noticed instead of the stress test, is that the gameplay is a bit smoother... the transitions between fast and low framerates are a bit softer... maybe it's the better memory management?

Ah, just to tell, I think my CSS version is pretty old... it's 1.91 I think :S

And my specs are: 2.00ghz Core 2 Duo T7300 and 2gb RAM too...

 

I'm downloading windows 7 to test it out. I will post benchmarks and images to show that if w7 is really a life saver for x3100. I only hope that It would solve my problem for carbon, only getting 6 fps avg.!!!

 

Well, I downloaded and installed Windows 7 Ultimate build 7000. I tested some games, and these are my results:

COD2: I recorded a timedemo in Toujone map and used it to do a benchmark. Using directx7 renderer, and a 1024x768 resolution (trilinear filtering, automatic textures, any other things off or low): 31.8 fps in Vista, 27.5 in Win7. Using directx9 renderer and 640x480 (trilinear filtering, automatic textures, any other things off or low): 33.1 fps in Vista, 30.2 in Win7. In Call of Duty 2, Windows 7 performs worst than Windows Vista.

COD4: Again, I recorded a timedemo in Bloc map and used it to do a benchmark. 640x480, everything low and using a custom mpconfig.cfg: 22.3 fps in Vista, 22.8 fps in Win 7. Despite the tie in the numbers, somehow Call of Duty 4 feels "smoother" on Windows 7 than on Windows Vista.

COD5: I couldn't find a way of recording a timedemo in this game. Instead I used Fraps and tried to see how were the fps in same areas of the same map (I tested Roundhouse). The difference in fps were within experimental error, but again, Windows 7 feels somehow "smother".

CS Source: I ran the Stress test. In Vista it scored 27.9 fps, in Win 7 it scored 25.5. Windows Vista wins this one.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009: I couldn't find a way of doing a proper benchmark on this game. Using fps the numbers are similar, but under Windows 7 the frames are more consistent with less drops. However, under Windows 7, the game didn't let me choose any other resolution that 640x480 and low quiality, while on Vista I can play it with 800x600 and medium quality. The reason seems to be that in Win7, the game detects 64mb of video memory and under Vista it detects 128mb.

Left4Dead: This game was my bigger disappointment. While under Vista it is barely playable disabling hardware shaders on the registry, under Win7 this tricks don't work anymore. The game is no playable no matter what I tried. Maybe the drivers that came with Win7 doesn't allow to disable the hardware shaders (this may explain the low 3DMark scores under Win7 too).

Windows Experience Index: I know this is the worst benchmark ever, but I tested just as a curiosity. In Vista I get 3.4 for Aero and 3.5 for gaming graphics. In Win7 I get 3.5 for Aero and 4.9 (!) for gaming graphics. Another proof that this benchmark sucks.

Overall, I am a bit disappointed. Windows 7 seems like a faster and more efficient OS than Vista, and this is a great think considering that this is just a beta. But, at least in my case and with the games I tested, is far from being the miracle the x3100 needs.

P.D.: The drivers I have on Windows 7 are version 8.15.10.1590, dated 28/10/2008.

 

Hmmm... nice tests nicocarbone... what I feel generally is that things go on smoother for all games... The framerates for me in CS Source were almost the same in XP and 7. But in 7 things goes smoother... and well, I run it in 1280x800... but, As I said, my version is old, 1.9 I think...

One thing you can try is to install Vista latest drivers in 7... I think you can do that...and see if things go better...

 

I run CS:Source in 1280x800 too. It is an old version also, but I am not sure which version number is (in fact, I never updated the game).

I'll try install Vista latest drivers on Windows 7 as you say. I'll post as soon as I have the results.

 

I tried Vista drivers (7.15.10.1609) on Windows 7. Here are the updates of the previous benchmarks on Win7 with the Vista drivers:

COD2: directx9 640x480, 33.8 fps; directx7 1024x768, 32.2 fps. The results show a clear improvement over the default win7 drivers, and are slightly better than under Vista.

COD4: 22.7 fps. Almost no difference here.

COD5: Again, no difference.

CS Source: 27.2 fps. Much better than with default drivers, still a bit lower than Vista.

PES2009: It now detects 128mb of RAM as it does in Vista. At 800x600 and medium is a bit smoother than under Vista, very playable.

Left4Dead: Great improvments. Now disabling vertex shaders works as it did under Vista. I don't konw how to run a benchmark on this game, but again, it feels smother under Win7.

Windows Experience Index: now the graphics scores are 3.4 for Aero and only 3.1 for gaming graphics. The test takes much longer with default drivers than with Vista's ones, it seems that some functions are not tested, maybe not supported, with the Vista drivers.

To sum up, diegorborges idea was a success. However, AFAIK, with Vista drivers WDDM 1.1 is not supported and Win7 falls back to a WDDM 1.0 compatibility mode. Even this way there is a small performance difference in favor of Win7. Maybe when Intel develop official drivers for Win7 we may get the better from the two worlds.

One more thing: I've heard that Microsoft will release a public beta of Win7 tomorrow. Does anyone knows the build number of this beta?

 

wow, nicocarbone, you had a full day testing eh?

Well, what I can say is that I'm downloading the latest Vista drivers (you said that you used 7.15.10.1609, but at Intel website I only found 7.15.10.160 8 ...

I will install it and do some tests again here too... well, the x3100 in windows 7 performs better just because the OS is faster, manage the system resources and processor better too and well, as we know our integrated video adapter is processor based then we can understand that only the system evolved and not Intel drivers, right? We gained some little performance but yeah, we only will see the light if intel work on some better drivers for Win 7.

nicocarbone, thanks for doing all these tests...

 

Yeah, It was a nice testing day. I actually enjoy testing new tecnology and trying to tweak "untweakable" things .

About the drivers, yes the version is 7.15.10.1608, it was a typo. And I totally agree with you about your theory. I hope Intel invest some resources in developing a good driver that takes advantage of Windows 7 enhancements.

 

I just ran a stress test in Win 7 -- 1280x800 everything on high...no VYSYNC and i got 42.89 FPS

In Vista I got 28.27 FPS

 

Nice bench... How do you do to achieve this kind of performance?? What is the version of the video driver you got? (You can see it in the Device Manager). Are you using Win7 build 7000? Did you use anisotropic, hdr and full water reflections?

 

Good one... it was really a marvelous bench... just one thing I want to add: my CS version is very old I think... It doesn't show HDR option... strange :S

 

I am using the default WDDM 1.1 Pre Release Beta drivers and i used Bilinear, HDR and Full water reflections. yes Win7 build 7000.

 

I'm downloading the official beta release, I have a x3100. Would post results and thought about game performance, very soon.

 

Using last vista intel drivers.

Call Of Duty 2; Framerates have increased a lot in DirectX 9 & 7 modes.
NHL 2008: I didn't notice any difference.

No difference in OpenGL games. (Doom3)

All my games are not working, I need to reinstall some of them. WOuld post more tomorrow.

 

Sorry guys that it took me so long to post my results but here it is
NFS CARBON 1024X768 the last one is 800x600
ALL OF THE DETAILS TURNED OFF
http://i40.tinypic.com/27yd4ew.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/2vacyv9.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/10dy3qg.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/2nu4nc4.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/16c0xzq.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/r0vwc1.jpg
AND FOR MY WIN7 piCture!
http://i43.tinypic.com/mifbis.jpg

Its seems that games do run better WIn7 But i would still prefer my old XP
I will switch back to xp till i finish carbon!!
YAY!

 

Are you using Intel Vista drivers or the one included in Windows 7?

 

NOP, the orginal drivers
btw anyone knows where i could download the drivers for windows 7, they said that the vista drivers work on windows 7 but i get the "os not supported" error

 

I installed Windows 7, and while generally pleasantly surprised by its performance, I am unable to play Pro Evolution Soccer 9. It appears that I do not have sufficient VRAM -- only 64 mb when 128 mb is needed to play the game. Is there any way of increasing the VRAM? Thank you.

 

That's odd -- The driver should automatically allocate as much as the application requires, up to 384MB. I would check your BIOS and make sure that it's not being capped there.

 

@Rellik232
If you want Win7 drivers for your x3100, you'll have to download the Vista drivers from the Intel support website.

You can also look at: http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Home.aspx

If you write 965 in the search bar, you'll be able to download the "pre release" Windows 7 drivers, which seems to be different from the vista ones. And are WDDM 1.1 (Unlike the vista ones which are 1.0)

 

Try installing the last set of Vista drivers from the Intel website.

 

Thank you Cronos. I did update to the pre-release Windows 7 drivers, version 8.15.10.1620, and it didn't work. I am still bogged with a paltry VRAM of 64 mb. Further suggestions would be more than welcome. Thank you.

 

... Strange, maybe try to update your bios from the manufacturer of your laptop.

 

No, it´s from the Intel drivers themselves:

- Pre-release Windows 7 drivers only report 64Mb (for caution?) but they are *much* faster than Vista drivers (Windows score 3.9 vs 3.1)

At present time we have to settle with Vista drivers if we want game compatibility (which are still faster on Windows 7 than Vista!)

On PES 2009 (1280x720 Medium Quality) I got about 15-20fps (sometimes less) and now (with Vista drivers on Windows 7) I got near 25fps with some jumps. Not to mention much faster Windows experience! (2-3x faster loading/shutting down)

 

DXDIAG tell me that I have: 358 MB of Video RAM. With Win7 pre release drivers installed.

 

DXDiag tells me the same thing, which makes it all the more confusing. Further, I followed your advice Cronos, and updated the BIOS in my Acer laptop, from v. 1.34 to v.1.45.

It is time to try the latest Vista drivers, and see what happens.

 

so win7 is better than both Vista and XP for x3100 when it comes to gaming?

 

Tried the Vista drivers, and still no luck. Installing the Vista drivers has increased the VRAM from 64 mb to 128 mb but Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 will not play. When clicking the execute, error messages no longer appear, but the games hangs, with no visuals, only a black screen.

I have installed other Pro Evolution Soccer series, and error messages appear: "Pes6.exe has stopped working: Windows is checking for a solution to the problem."

The joys of trying out a new operating system...

 

My first impressions which rely on only having played Call Of Duty 2 & Half Life 2, is yes.

 

DXDIAG says I Have DirectX 11 with 358Mb of VRAM as well

 

Thanks for the info
but just out of cirousity, would it enable my brightness control. I cant seem to control my brightness on my laptop. Its just too bright and there's no controller for the graphics card. I have tried every single option in win7 to control at least contrast but no luck.

PROBLEM FIXED!
INSTALLED VISTA 32 Drivers
it loaded the controllers, now i can alteast change the brightness!

 

Have you look into the advanced panel under your Color Management tab.

There is button called:
Calibrate Display

This button will help you calibrate your monitor.

 

Left 4 Dead doesn't seems to work in Windows 7. I was curious about his performance.

Also, when using windows 7 drivers (pre release) I have 10-30% more FPS than when using the vista drivers.

 

Even so several games (with or without Vista compatibility mode) report the graphic card with only 64Mb and do not allow to run (with Windows 7 pre-installed drivers). I had no other problems whatsoever.

With Vista 32-bit drivers it behaves like on Vista but with increased speed. Nevertheless Vista drivers are still slower than original Windows 7 DX11

 

Nice to see that you guys are testing Win7... I'm pretty happy with it... Today I will test 2 more games:

Just Cause
Saints Row 2

I'll post the results here later.

See ya

 

Anyone with an x61 tablet - i just spotted I'd missed some bios updates, the last but one is relevant to this thread :

Version 7SET36WW (1.22)

* (New) Added PCI Express Power Management disabling capability in BIOS setup.
* (Fix) Boot priority order does not work on selecting AMT remote console.
* (Fix) Windows XP installation may stop responding on the way.
* (Fix) System reboot should be done for all Physical Presence I/F command execution.
* (Fix) The computer with Smart Card Reader resumes normal operation from sleep state unexpectedly.
* (Fix) The computer with RICOH CardBus Controller has slow data transfer performance.

Version 7SET35WW (1.21)

* (New) Intel Video BIOS update.

Edit: Old Video BIOS: 1436
New Video BIOS: 1668.1

 

Hi all the people in the foro

at last in simulators like T34 Vs Tiger and Silent hunter III (The Gray Wolves) for me works better in win 7 i am using vista driver 7.14.10.1437 in a 5315/celeron M 560 2.13 GHz and 3 MB ram