Worried about the 7800's intial performance...

Hey, I'm going to order an i9400 with the 256mb Nvidia go 7800. However on these forums I have read that it comes horribly underclocked and was wondering if it could run games such as Oblivion on good detail (without being overclocked!)

Is it worth buying, or do you have to overlock it once you get it..to get decent framerates, because I havent overlocked anything before and I normally tend to stay away from such stuff.

 

be wary of the 40 day delay that it is advertising. and yeah it will run Oblivion

 

I don't think you'll need to overclock it to play the latest games at decent fps & graphics because some users have just updated the driver to get the most out of it. You should not have any problem playing the latest games at high settings.

 

even if you cant. observe the following argument
1. dell underclock's their graphics cards to below their intended speeds
2. overclocking is defined as increasing the speed of the core and/or memory past intended speeds
3. increasing the clock to intended speeds would be necessary to get reasonable performance from the 7800
4. you should at least overclock it to what the intended speed is.

k so i couldve just said 4, and thats not an argument, but even if you don't overclock you should be fine, and get the omega drivers. i highly recommend them.

 

Override the Dell drivers and install Nvidia ones (don't install Omega drivers - they're screwy for some reason with the 7800). With the 84.20 Beta driver and the GPU OCed, I get about 6000 on 3DMark05

 

edit: i highly recommend omega unless you have a 7800 which has issues with the omega drivers. probably check the forums first to find out omega compatibility...

 

Thanks for your help guys!

@kidA

I know what you mean by bringing up to its intended speed, but then thing is I heard all this bad stuff abt overlocking such as burning ur chip and stuff...so I just dont want to fiddle with it since I really have no expertise in such issues.

Also, the Dell does not come with the Nvidia drivers? So you have to download the latest 7800 Go drivers? Do you untilstally any Dell drivers before you do that?

Finally, I keep hearing that there is some Nvidia tool that is OC freindly....What exactly is it?

Thx for your help!

 

i don't know about the nvidia tool since ive always been ati loyal...

as to overclocking, the problems arise when you get passed recommended limits. for me personally, i mildly overclock and a few times i have set off the security features (when trying to push limits) and my screen has gone black but after restarting im back to OCing but i still maintain that there's nothing wrong or unsafe with running it at what it should be at. but as always, be careful with whatever you do and don't come crying if you mess things up. i won't and neither should anyone else. either way i don't think you'll have issues with the 7800 overclocking or not

yes you do have to get the nvidia drivers because dell has their own (rather ghey). alot of people recommend not only uninstalling the dell drivers first (hardware properties) but also using a program such as Driver Cleaner Pro which is freeware you can just google to get. then after restarting again after cleaning everything up, installing the new drivers. this is probably the best way to go since it gives you a completely fresh start and avoids any problems that could occur from overlap. hope that helps.

 

thx a lot it did!

Now all I have to do is order the i9400, gonna do tht sometime next week!

 

I actually haven't tried using the Nvidia utility yet. Instead, I use Rivatuner, as it has preset warning levels on what the GPU can and cannot handle in terms of OCing.

 

Exactly what kidA (great album btw) said. I wouldn't be too scared to overclock if you do decide you would like to someday. I overclocked for the first time about a month ago and it was painless and actually a lot of fun. When doing such things its better just to err on the side of caution and that doesn't seem like a very difficult thing to do when the thing your modding cost $1,500 plus.

 

Alot of people have touched on the different aspects, if you want it from E1705 owner (same as 9400)

I play Battlefield 2 and Fear, GRAPHICS CARD KILLERS!

The 7800 Stock will handle BF2 at high settings (few, and I mean VERY VERY FEW, hiccups)

Stock it will play FEAR at medium with no problems at all

I went through the process of getting DELL's ****py ass drivers off my system and installed Xtreme G Drivers

SIDE NOTE
(Read the instructions the first time you install their drivers it explains very well how to properly remove dell's drivers dnd reinstall theirs, after the first time you just have to download and install drivers, so it's fine after going through the process)

Their drivers are absolutely sweet!

Also I read on the forums about how dell underclock's their video cards, this is absolutely TRUE!

Stock- 280/600 Clock settings (Ridiculous!)

My overclcok (and as everyone tells you don't use mine as a reference slowly increase to make sure your system will work fine with the increase)
362/880
After Overclock(or rather clock Normalization)

BF2 Cranked up all the way Flawless smooth graphics with No hiccups
E.g.(Sniper Scope Tracking someone 300m away through Artillery Strikes Smoooooothe!)

FEAR Cranked up Resolution and Settings Smooothe (Video Test 89% at 60 FPS+)

SO IN CONCLUSION

This card is a fricken BEAST! Yes it will play Morrowind Easily, As long as you let the restraints that Dell puts on the 7800 off.

- Remove Dell Drivers
- Install New Drivers ( I recommend TweaksRUs.com's Xtreme G)
- Incremental Overclock
- Watch the Beauty that is your New 7800

Have Fun with it !

-Jrunk

P.S. Anyone in these forums will tell you the best thing you can buy aftermarket that will increase your performance is 2 Gigs of Ram, I did it and you will notice the increase immediately! Get the least amount of RAM possible frome Dell (theirs suck) and go to Newegg and grab 2 Gigs of Transcend or OCZ (thats what I have and it is soooooo nice)!

 

How high can you safely get it? Also it seems like most drivers would only let you OC it to ~390 MHz... which actually is still a little underclocked. Is that really the case?

Also... what kind of 3Dmark 05 and 06 scores can you get with it overclocked that high?

 

Fredrick, I merged your thread with this one - now the answer you seek is right above you.

Chaz

 

Where? I dont see where anyone says what the maximum OC is.

 

Doesn't that help you, though? Regardless, let's try to keep the information condensed into this thread, thanks.

 

woah thanks so much for the info guys...just want to get some info before i order this laptop. Un-installing dell drivers, is it as simple as going to the control panel and add/remove programs and removing them?

Secondly, there are a lot of driver suggestions floating around here..which drivers are actually the best ( or is there such a thing?)

Do nvidia give their drivers for the mobile versions of cards? or should i use some other ones like..Xtreme G..

thx a lot!

 

dda:

As far as what drivers are the best, everyone's opinion is going to be different, if youre asking my opinion, I love the Xtreme G Forcware Mobile Drivers.

Nvidia does offer Mobile Drivers but the Xtreme G are tweaked for gaming so they are often better.(Again I'm Biased towards them so try others and make youre decision on whats best)

As for cleaning off the drivers:

Now I am not quite sure but Dell Systems have the drivers built into the restore or registry or something so you can't just Add/Remove the drivers and have the new drivers work.
Therefore go through the process that TweaksRUs.com has layed out because it is very thorough and makes sure that you don't run into errors on down the road.

Using my Vocabulary word for the day

It would Behoove you to follow the directions for clearing out your Dell Drivers and putting on whatever drivers you want be it Nvidia's or TweaksRUs' Xtreme G Drivers.

Hope that helps

-Dunc