Using 310m driver with nvs 3100m. 30%+ Improvement.

All,

If you are trying to play Starcraft 2 and are disappointed with the 3100m video card on your T410, T410s or any other thinkpad that uses the the 3100m video card, use 310m's driver. It gave me a 30%+ improvement in fps. It also solved the laggy issue. The game when from non playable to very playable.

Driver name: 266.58_notebook_winvista_win7_64bit_international_whql

Starcraft at 1400x900 with medium setting and high texture (512mb):
with 3100m driver:
22 fps at main menu screen.
29 fps in 1v1 at start.

with 310m driver:
30 fps at main menu screen.
40 fps in 1v1 at start.

 

I've tried the new 266 drivers for mine as well, but I got BSOD with my heavy overclock of the stock lenovo driver .. so did not bother to lower speeds and actually test for speed benefits.

glad it worked for you though

 

Can You tell exactly how did You manage to install the 310m drivers (there are many on the list for 310m)? After selecting one I get the message: "The driver selected for this device does not support this version of Windows". My system is Windows 7 64bit. I downloaded the drivers from the link that You have posted.

 

You could try doing this (see link). It should probably work, but while I'll take credit for any success, I'll deny responsibility for any mayhem, cats and dogs living together, etc. should they result.

You'll probably need a program like 7Zip to extract the files from nVidia's .EXE to a folder for this. http://www.7-zip.org

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/576608-x220-starcraft-2-a-2.html#post7467154

 

Its been a awhile. Here is what I recall, on Nvidia's site there are 2 versions of the driver. One of them did not work and the other worked. 1 version is in the workstation class section and the other one is in the consumer class section. I think I ran it with xp compatibility to get it to install with zero issue.

 

laptopvideo2go.com typically has all the version of the nvidia drivers with modded .ini files to allow them to install. That's your best source for newer drivers.

 

Thanks for info. However this doesn't work either. I've downloaded this driver
, extracted it, replaced the inf file. Then selected the inf in device manager (device manager->graphic card properties->driver->update driver->browse...->let me pick). Then I see only the NVS 3100m driver ( image). To see more I deselect the "show compatible hardware" and select the Geforce 310m driver ( image). The problem is that there are many of them and non of them work (well that's can be not true but I've tried like 15 of them...) - " The driver selected for this device does not support this version of windows".

 

When you get to that list of drivers, click the "have disk" button and navigate to the downloaded driver location, then select the modded .inf. See if that works.

 

I've done this already - stupidly forgot to mention this in my last post:/.

 

Make sure you're using the right version for your architecture.

 

I'm pretty sure that the drivers that I've posted are correct (I can install the NVS 3100m from it without problems). My system is Win7 64bit with SP1. My laptop is T410 with Geforce NVS 3100M 256MB. It's the early version without Optimus technology.

 

Maybe try using the NVidia Mobility Modder on stock drivers?

 

Wait.... you said you can install them for the 3100m?

I'm going to guess here, but I think the OP installed the 310 drivers just to get newer ones, I don't think it's ideal to have an incorrect driver installed. If you can get the newer version of the driver to install correctly for your 3100m I'd think that'd be best. Simply having newer drivers should give you a performance boost. I wouldn't install drivers for a different card personally without expecting reliability issues.

 

That's true. Tough that I should select 310m driver and force the system to install it - dummy me . Thanks for help guys. I will try to install old drivers then new and make some performance tests for each one.