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

Pardon me for trying to help someone.

well congratulations, you have a smoking clean XP install.
get back to us in a few weeks once the creeping death has settled in

most if not all vista issues are config related, or gfx drivers under performing compared to XP equivalents, I'm much happier with vista's security, and it's performance on my nvidia box is now on par with or in some scenarios better than XP.

 

Sorry I didn't notice your thread several posts back. Indeed if you are running Vista but disabling all visual enhancements so that it looks like win98 then a huge part of the advantage of vista is gone!

I have an X61s with the X3100, 1.4GHz, 2GB, and Vista Premium.
I also have an X60s with GMA950, 1.6GHz, 1GB, WinXP Pro.

I far prefer the X61s with Vista. In my subjective experience it runs no less smooth or slower than my X60s with XP Pro. However, I think it looks better and is more intuitive to use than XP in day-to-day use. The only thing I can think of that is not better in Vista in my experience is large/multiple file copying which takes longer than it should. Apparently this will be fixed in SP1.

I have only disabled indexing on vista. However, I only did that last week after having used vista with indexing on for the last several months. I very rarely use the search feature because like any user with half a brain I keep my files in a well-managed folder structure.

I guess the best we can do is agree that my subjective "reality" and yours are different! I far prefer vista.

 

Oh, don't get me wrong. I wish I could run Vista - I just can't!

Once I buy my 2 x 2 Gig Ram (4 total) I should be fine. Maybe I'll get another 2 Gig high speed (60x) flash drive for ready boost just so I'll have all my bases covered....lol.

I was really just venting about Vista specs giving people the impression 1 Gig will fly, when it will not. It is a handsome OS. Just doesn't work very well when 90% of the ram is zapped on a clean boot vs 10% with XP. THAT is why it is so much faster (and the better x3100 drivers for games with XP as well.)

I format every 2 or 3 months anyways. I just made an awesome automated install disk with nlite that will make it really simple and efficient.

I run Suse 10.3 as my primary OS and just use windows for Photoshop when I need it and games, so I have no issues waxing the install the second I see a performance hit.

As for Vista being more secure....um......ya .......it uses me as the damn computer to figure out if it should let things run or not. Of course it is going to be smarter!

 

Actually, human senses' response time differ from person to person, and they are more sensitive than you perceive . Say you compare two computers, one is a clean install OS with good hardware, and the other is a used one that had a person with not too much experience/knowledge with computers. The actual time measured between the two may be in milliseconds, but some people will feel the difference. If the difference between two is in couple of hundred milliseconds, the computer will feel REALLY slow.

It may feel subjective, but human brain/senses are much more capable than what average person perceives(or even perhaps what the researchers/scientists think) .

 

I wasn't going to go down this path but you are definitely on to something here.

I am quite sure I can tell the difference between a 30ms ping with BF2 with a tower sniper homing in on my location and a 180ms ping time. A mere 150 milliseconds is a lifetime in the computer age!

 

i used to be a very serious quake player, the difference between 10ms and 30 is a (players) lifetime

 

Gosh CMON INTEL!! RELEASE NEW DRIVERS ALREADY (please)!!!! Been following this thread for a long time and anticipating decent vista performance. My patience draws thin!

 

Seriously I second that neo-cortex. The latest version of the drivers now are buggy and do not support fullscreen..I tried Halo 2 with the new drivers and it definetely made for some performance increase......Until it FROZE so i couldn't really tell how much the drivers helped..So I just went back to my old drivers that run Halo2 OK but definetely could be alot better..I cannot wait for a NEW release to come out with all issues resolved..Intel's really making me wish I had a dedicated card..

 

I give up. Its clear Intel is never going to fix these drivers. Driver development has clearly be halted.

 

So the drivers for Vista in the first post are 15.6 (released 9/2/2007)

I found a link for 15.6.1 drivers here (released 9/18/2007)

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...00&DwnldID=14580&strOSs=&OSFullName=&lang=eng

How are the two different? And why isn't the first post updated to the newer edition of the vista 32-bit driver?

 

The drivers are out supposed to be any day now. According to one Intel guy, the OEMs have the 15.6.2 drivers but they have display problems or something, and the 15.7 will be released to the public. 15.6 driver versions contain a bug where the game might not see the hardware T&L/VS from the drivers, essentially acting like a software mode. Of course its not like that in all games, CoD4 and World in Conflict doesn't seem to have that problem. But from user reports, lots of the games do. 15.7 will have a fix for it. For XP, 14.32 will also be released(I am hoping they fix the texture problems on BF2 and some games and inability to run World in Conflict. I am also expecting a nice performance boost on games that has image rendering issues fixed, it usually happens). I have no idea what 14.32 brings though.

They haven't stopped development but its clearly slow because unlike their main business on the CPU, the investment in graphics are pitiful.

 

15.6.1 reduces the flickering on bootup, but it introduces a problem with fullscreen apps/games. also, people are reporting slower 3d performance with 15.6.1 than 15.6 .

hopefully the next version will fix these problems.. when or if it ever comes out.

 

hey I don't work for Intel, I'm just a regular user like you guys and I have other things to do besides update posts on a forum

but anyways, I noticed sever performance decreases in 15.6.1, so I didn't bother updating the post...

 

You guys might as well give up and buy a video card. Because according to here: http://www.computerbase.de/forum/showthread.php?t=309411

15.6.1 is faster than 15.6 official drivers.

 

Oh I see...that makes sense

 

IntelUser that's great news about the 15.7 drivers coming out anyday..I really hope it's true and I hope they are quality drivers with no problems..where did you hear this from??

 

They are from an Intel guy. He doesn't work for G965/GM965 development but he says he's a hardware guy of some sort anyway. I guess they can see somethings ahead of regular people like us. 15.7's major bug fix is 15.6's inability for some games to recognize hardware T&L/VS. Simply, 15.6 has a bug where it tells the games it has hardware T&L/VS, but the bug doesn't let it. It doesn't happen in all games, but seems to be true with most. No report is same thing as no support.

 

mostly at this point I'd be happy if they just fixed the automatic panel scaling so i can disable Intel hotkeys again, and not have to manually swap rez back to the lcd native after running lower rez games

 

15.7 where are you !$)(*&%!~)~(@)*&!$)(*&$

 

the link for 15.6 drivers (on the first post) now says that the download is no longer available. Only the newer 15.6.1 drivers are available I guess?

I wonder if this is any indication that they are preparing to post a new release...

 

The 15.6 drivers are still available here:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Fil... Business, 32-bit version&lang=eng&sType=prev

 

15.7 for Vista came out today: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/fil...dows+Vista*+32&lang=eng&strOSs=164&submit=Go!

and guess what... NO HW TnL fix!! LOL! All my games are still running at half the fps i get with same settings under XP. Its time for a lawsuit...

 

the main page for the x3100 hasn't been updated, the link you gave is for a desktop board, not sure about trying these with my laptop... think I'll try waiting a little bit, maybe I'll diff the files.

 

I found that link in another thread. I don't think it matters that it is for a desktop board. That single driver is for a LOT of different chipsets:

Intel(R) 945G Express Chipset
* Intel(R) 945GZ Express Chipset
* Intel(R) 946GZ Express Chipset
* Intel(R) G33 Express Chipset
* Intel(R) G35 Express Chipset
* Intel(R) G965 Express Chipset
* Intel(R) Q33 Express Chipset
* Intel(R) Q35 Express Chipset
* Intel(R) Q963 Express Chipset
* Intel(R) Q965 Express Chipset
* Mobile Intel(R) 940GML Express Chipset
* Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset
* Mobile Intel(R) 945GME Express Chipset
* Mobile Intel(R) 945GMS Express Chipset
* Mobile Intel(R) GL960 Express Chipset
* Mobile Intel(R) GLE960 Express Chipset
* Mobile Intel(R) GM965 Express Chipset
* Mobile Intel(R) GME965 Express Chipset

 

Strangely, Hellgate has become playable. Games like UFO afterlight and Europa 3 still don't launch and give error messages about shaders however. Some of my games even have WORSE performance than 15.6, such as Civ 4.

*edit* I was mistaken, Hellgate is NOT any faster under 15.7 than 15.6.

 

I went back to re-download winvista_1561 from http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2576 to use beyond compare on the contents.

anyone else notice that if you get the zip version it contains :

21/09/2007 08:25 122,946 vbios_945g.zip
21/09/2007 08:25 112,891 vbios_945gm.zip
21/09/2007 08:25 125,146 vbios_g35.zip
21/09/2007 08:26 124,125 vbios_g965.zip
21/09/2007 08:25 113,739 vbios_gm965.zip

vbios_gm965.zip contains :
28/08/2007 09:49 351,423 crl_1533.bsf
28/08/2007 09:49 65,536 crl_1533.dat
28/08/2007 09:49 63,919 crl_1533.exe

the .dat is a new bios, the bsf is a script in plain text
i can only assume the EXE is an installer, I don't intend torisk my machine by trying it in case it doesn't have sufficient system checks and warnings before doing something irreversible, as there is no readme.


EDIT: Whoops, just found an old post on this in this very thread by atwixtor, I'd even replied, I never noticed he had actually mentioned EXE's!

 

ok, I figured I'd give them a shot, panel scaling is fixed on my laptop now at least.

the video bios update app is a dos mode updater only, and will require a boot disk, I still don't fancy being the first person to try it though

 

aha, finally, the video BIOS mystery is fully solved : http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-003938.htm

"The VBIOS must be combined with the system BIOS by the system or motherboard manufacturer before it can be flashed.

End users should contact their system or motherboard manufacturer for a system BIOS update. This system BIOS update may also contain an updated VBIOS.

System BIOS updates for Intel® Desktop Boards

A reference VBIOS and VBIOS TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) program is included in the ZIP format graphics drivers. These files are intended only for developers of products based on these chipsets.

To use the TSR VBIOS, the ZIP format graphics drivers must be unzipped to a folder on the hard disk (eg. C:\INTEL), the VBIOS ZIP file must be extracted to a folder on the hard disk (eg. C:\INTEL\VBIOS), and a line (eg. C:\INTEL\VBIOS\d81x2553) must be added to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file that runs the TSR at startup. Please note that this TSR will not work with operating systems that do not support TSRs, such as Windows* XP, 2000, Me, or NT*."

 

After reading that link, I still don't understand this 'bios' issue. Can you explain it as simply as possible? Does it only effect desktop users?

 

It appears as if the BIOS are for desktop users only, I can't find the one for notebook based boards.

 

Also noxxle99, the update is definitely for Intel Desktop based boards, its highly unlikely that it will work with mobile boards.

 

StarScream4Ever the Video BIOS's provided are for several chipsets including the GM965 mentioned in my post which IS the mobile version.

The question of many was how to upload it to their hardware now that it's been provided, and what the mystery EXE was actually for (flashing was the presumption).

It had been stated before that only a system BIOS update could update the video BIOS but no-one had included official sources so it came across as merely a theory from the uninformed, especially as that didn't actually explain the included video BIOS files.

The EXE turns out to be a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) application for temporarily loading the video BIOS for developer testing purposes only, it cannot flash the video BIOS hardware, and it is not XP or Vista compatible.

So the sad truth is we really are stuck waiting for official system BIOS updates from our laptop providers or motherboard manufacturers. (unless someone wants to find a way to mod a system BIOS themselves to flash and void their warranty)

And for once finally a link to the official statement on such, so people can rest easy instead of feeling short changed due to lack of full information

 

I dont understand. Why do we need a bios update? What will that do for us that a driver will not??????

 

What do you mean it won't work? I just installed it. The intel driver package contains files for many different chipset versions.

*edit* also, the readme in the 15.7 desktop driver package explicitly says its also for mobile chipsets.

 

Put in the simplest terms, many items of hardware have compiled software controlling their basic functionality on a chip on board, this software often called a BIOS or firmware depending on it's exact task. it is much lower level than a driver, and provides more immediate and important basic functionality to the part. They were cleverly made upgradable in recent years so new functionality, bug fixes, speed improvements could be easily added after the part had left the factory.

one example would be with the geforce range of cards, the clock speeds of te memory and gpu are controlled by the cards bios first, and can be modified within those limits by the driver later. the number of active pipelines on some cards can be modified in the bios.

with a part such as the x3100 which seems to have been released prematurely, significant advances in functionality that simply cannot be provided by a simple driver update, could in theory be waiting on a new Video BIOS, and the fact that several video BIOS versions have been released, does show that they are at the very least working on improving it.

We won't however know what is going on until release notes for the video BIOS's are discovered (that are hopefully detailed), or a System BIOS update is released containing one of the new video BIOS's and tests with various drivers sets are performed.

it's unlikely (especially as performance is far greater in XP anyway) but in theory large portions of the T&L issues we're all having, the developers could be adamant are fixed, simply as they are using the latest video bios's released (for developer testing only) with the new drivers, but we are all stuck on the original stock BIOS that our hardware left manufacturing with, until our manufacturer deems a new Video BIOS is important enough (and stable enough) for the majority of their customers to include it in the next System BIOS update.
As an enthusiast I find the inability to test available updates infuriating, this will become more so when my laptop manufacturer stops providing System BIOS updates as the model is no-longer top of the range, but Video BIOS updates may still come from Intel as their chipset may still be being improved upon for many years.

I'd replied to StarScream thinking he meant the BIOS was for desktop boards, if you meant te drivers, then though they've appeared on the desktop board page first, they are for the GM965 also, as stated in the release notes included in the download (that noxxle99 posted the relevant section of earlier), both he and I are running them with no modifications on laptop systems.

 

And here I was, giddy like a little girl with the release of 15.7 =(

 

I'm drinking til I pass out tonight.

*edit*
I'll probably install XP in the morning

 

My examples were just in theory, almost certainly anything that is working in XP currently, should be entirely possible in Vista if they sort their dratted drivers out.

I'm just frustrated that there have been several Video BIOS updates and we can't install them.

 

Or more specifically, Intel Desktop Board users .

 

Scroll far down for IGP benchmarks between GF 7150 and X3000.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/mainboard/biostar-tf7150u-m7-gf7150.html

X3000 is slower on low settings but much faster on high.

 

Anyways. Now the new drivers are out and hardware T&L is stll not enabled, what driver is the best? Is it still the 15.44 ones?

 

Neo-cortex, I think that TnL is enabled. Its just that the card does not have the power to run games with decent frame rates with HW shaders. I've tested a ton of games, and most of them run nearly twice as fast in software mode. The driver seems to support TnL because some of the games that i've tried will not launch without TnL support.

 

That would makee sense if not for the XP results

 

So which drivers are giving the best FPS in XP?

 

Guys, I have found the solution to lagging on Age of Empires III. You told me how it lags when ships are there and its a slideshow when they are firing at each other?? Well the solution is:

Enable Hardware T&L/Vertex Shader. I have just tried it. With software mode, which is the default, the MAX frames per second may be lower, but it doesn't drop when ships are there, or when firing. I get more than 10 frames per second with my two ships firing+1 enemy ship firing+3-4 enemy fishing boats all on the screen, at 1024x768 everything High. With software T&L/Vertex Shader, I drop to less than 3-4 frames per second. Changing the settings to all low won't change your situation much. What hardware T&L allows you to do is enjoy the highest settings without dropping frames too much. I guess Age of Empires III does use shaders.

One of Noxxle's posts will tell you how to disable the hardware T&L. Well, he'll also tell you which is the setting for hardware T&L(0 for hardare, 1 for software).

 

I've noticed lots of texture issues in aoe3 with Vista too. Everything is super bright as well. (in HW mode)

 

The new 15.7 drivers for Notebook just came out.

The thing i noticed is that they fixed the resolution issue.

 

They have been out for a week now. You just had to download them from a different location on the intel site.

 

just an FYI, I unpacked the EXE of the release of the 15.7 from the desktop motherboard support page noxxle99 had found that used the 965 chipset, and the zip (exe link is broken and gives the zip too) from the general page for the 965 range graphics and memory controller (x3000/x3100) ( http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/intelg965/ )
and did a binary compare on the contents, they are 100% identical, no additional files in either, no changes in any file contents.
so no reason to reinstall if you grabbed 15.7 earlier.

It's annoying the right drivers get uploaded in stupid places a week earlier than the main support page and people are only lucky to find them

 

Strange... after installing the new driver for Vista I can't even launch any games. WTF!