Problem with 8600m stuttering/slowdown found

Well, i still get stutter with 174.16 without the sleepfix, can anybody give me a link to the 174.16 whql?

 

The drivers wont change if you get stutter or not.. the performance of them will just alter the degree of which you will notice it. Until the bios is fixed the stutter will stay, no matter driver.

 

Sometimes I have the stuttering when reading a video (low res divx). Choosing Maximum Performance in RMClock profile management seems to fix the problem (but there's a good chance you already tried that...).

 

@thomas

hey man! I've had some insane trouble with my FPS i WoW lately. I don't know if it's the new patch. I've used 174.12 for a while and it performed very good! until resently.

Sleep fix did work really well too for a while. But as it is now it doesn't matter. As soon as the computer gets hot it starts stutter like hell.

btw.. ppl complain a lot about fans etc. For me the fan could gladly be running at 100% all the time, I dont bother. Is there any way of forcing it so spin all the time? Could that make it cooler?

 

Im running with 174.74 with sleepfix, and things kinda work... as good as it can right now.

Zepto, any status on this issue or bios updates?!?

 

Although this is not really the best option for a lot of people, I've been playing around with drivers for my GPU to see what sort of performance and temperatures I get with different ones. My idea was to start with the oldest I can find and then increase them through the range offered by Zepto's ftp to see what happens. The oldest I could get my hands on were 101.08 from the CD that came with my laptop. I was amazed at the outcome. These drivers have dropped my max temp to 88C with NO performance degradation in World in Conflict!! In fact the performance is actually better with these drivers than any of the later ones either the "Official" Zepto ones or any from LaptopVideo2go's website. I have sent an email to Zepto asking them to give me some sort of insight into why this is the case. I will post my reply when I get one. It shouldn't be that the newer drivers are a backwards step, moreover they should be better, more optimized and run as cool if not cooler than the ones released ages ago.

 

thats quite wierd, you shure you have the same performance? Or do the driver run on a lower res that the new ones (not supporting highest resolutions)?

 

The gfx driver supplied on the disk that came with my 6224, has been to one that gives me the best 3dmark scores, and still if.
However, it doesn't live up to that in actual gaming imho.

 

We all know that the 3dmark score has nothing to do with hours of gaming performance and stability, smoothness and so on. : )

 

I know, but yes I do get the same performance, slightly better when a nuke goes off. It doesn't even stutter any more. I've just been playing World In Conflict online for the last 3 hrs with no problems what so ever. My temps are still running at around 88-90C and my resolution is still the same as yesterday when I was running the 174.16 drivers (medium settings on 1440*900). I'm confused as to why these drivers are better for my laptop, I eagerly await a comment from Zepto on this.

 

I hate 3d mark it is more of a "mines better than yours" test than real life gaming experience. It doesn't run for anywhere near long enough as the graphics card gets chance to cool slightly between individual tests. I always recommend people test graphics cards and systems using the game they want to run to find out how good or bad their system is. Not 3d mark.

 

Which driver is it? As I said mine came with 101.08. I wonder what nVidia did to the drivers to "improve" them on the later ones over these.

 

have u tested on other games?

 

Command and Conquer 3, all of the Warhammer series, Worms Armageddon Empire Earth series and Tomb Raider Anniversary. So I guess thats a yes

 

Haha! Yeah! So true. It's funny that like 75% of all ppl are refering to benchmarking scores when asked for performance of gaming.

 

I'm pretty sure it was 101.19 for xp... will have to check when I get home
But as I said earlier, it didn't live up to the numbers in actual use.
It's quite interesting though.

 

does it work with CoD4? I'll see if I can test that soon

 

As promised the reply from Zepto.
Dear
Depending on what games you play and what software you use its not always that important to use the newest drivers. The higher version is mostly used for gaming and are utilized for the new games on the market but will also lead to a higer temperature.

Best regards
Peter Frank
Supporter
Not really an answer I my opinion. I would of expected more details as to what the changes in the drivers are. Oh well looks like I am going to stick with these for the time being (trying new drivers as and when they come out of course).

 

i reckon the best places to find fixes for nvidia drivers are actually in laptopvideo2go where they have the changelogs

 

I cannot see any changelogs on laptopvideo2go. Am I missing something?

 

some drivers have "issues resolved" etc. not sure if the version we have does

 

andy, do you have cod4 or ut (demos for both count as well) ?

 

nope, sorry.

 

No probs,

On lv2go it says 101.08 are Compal release or MSI. If I am not mistaken some of the laptops by Zepto are re branded Compal's no?



EDIT: It seems that 101.08 (whql ones) were the first driver of the series to have support for 8600M GT/8400M GS/8400M G

 

Hey guy!

I've been looking for my Znote driver CD, found it like 30 minutes ago.

Vista 64 VGA driver has version 101.19 on my CD. Installed it and now I'm playing WoW. I'll report again after 4-5 hours of gaming.

 

Correct, but that's only the 3XXX series

 

Okey, I've been playing for some hours now. Not even 1 FPS drop yet. It's so cool! I gues these drivers don't make the computer hot. And I can feel that cause the keyboard isn't litterally burning anymore.

I have a nice 60 FPS when questing. Drops down to 40 sometimes when you have alot of detailed forrests around you. But the thing is. Even if the FPS droppes to 40 sometimes I dont feel it at all, allmost. The game really feels smooth... haha funny I say that, but that how it is. I guess older driver is better with older games. I'll keep playing with 101.19 during the weekend.

Thoma, you should test it too!

 

Haha, I was just reading this and thought... hmmm... but then again, it would be VERY sad if we had to go 1 year back in drivers to be able to do anything.

However, I will test this for vista 64bit

*Edit*
Can someone upload the 101.19 for vista 64bit? I dont have my cd or anything like it.

*edit2*
Another thought, is all the so called "great" performance with or without sleepfix ?

 

why dont you use 101.19 from lv2go, it will have more resolutions than zepto ones?

or try the 101.08 from lv2g0, its the one andy tried and on lv2go it has zepto inf's as well as modded ones


I think andy mentioned it was without sleepfix

 

the reason why old drivers (101.19) seem to work like a charm is cause the sleepfix is already applied right after startup (max temp for GPU is at 110C).

all drivers after 101.19 (xp!!, dont know the exact vista versions), have a max temp for GPU of 95C. With "sleepfix" you can push the max temp. for the GPU to 110C.
imho thats why some of you guys believe that 101.19drivers work better. apply "sleepfix" to the newer ones (above 101.19) before you compare.

 

Without sleep fix, I can cold boot straight into windows and enjoy trouble free gaming using 101.08 drivers.

 

Sorry to piss on your parade. But I have been trying the "sleepfix" on all of the drivers as well as trying without it. No joy on them, and yes I did this before making the statement that these drivers are better for MY notebook.
How did you prove the max temp theory? Any evidence that this is actually causing the stuttering problem, So far I have seen nothing that actually proves what causes the stuttering.

 

Still, someone upload the 101.19 for vista 64bit !! so the rest of us can test them

 

What games do you have andy?

 

C&C3, World In Conflict, Tomb Raider Anniversary, Warhammer 40K-All of them. LOTR BFME 1 and 2 + rise of the witch king, all of the total war series. Star Trek Legacy. and quite a few others. I mainly play RTS type games, first person shooters make me feel sick if I play too long.

 

WiC performs better ( not in terms of no stuttering, just better performance) on 101.08 as compared to 174.16?

**** if that's the case will have to give em a go, will dl from lv2go as I want all the resolutions

@ Thomas, im uploading them from my zepto cd, dont know why you want ones from zepto where as lv2go has more resolutions.

 

In my case. Yes. It performs better. One thing to note is that the drivers from 174.20 onwards do not work very well for my laptop, with or without sleepfix they all seem to drop to default 2D clocks when gaming for a couple of mins.
It is strange to think that the first driver to support my laptop's GPU is also the best for my laptop.

 

ok my theory is that we have different cooling setups in our zeptos or,
most of people reporting about stuttering have bad assembled heatpipes.

I have a 6224w with a t7100 CPU. The GPU hits 110C after about 3-5min Crysis benchmark (with sleepfix), and then GPU throttling starts.
I normally let it run 3 loops,
first loop: warming up caching and stuff == bad average fps
second loop: everthings cached and runs "good" untill GPU hits 110C and starts throttling. It usually happens during second loop. but still second loop produces best avg. fps
third loop: GPU throttling all the time == worst avg fps

TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 1500, Recorded Time: 44.62s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 78.29s, Average FPS: 19.16
Min FPS: 3.96 at frame 196, Max FPS: 25.21 at frame 99
Average Tri/Sec: 12543398, Tri/Frame: 654713
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: 1.10
!TimeDemo Run 1 Finished.
Play Time: 76.94s, Average FPS: 19.50
Min FPS: 3.96 at frame 196, Max FPS: 26.33 at frame 107
Average Tri/Sec: 12793565, Tri/Frame: 656241
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: 1.10
!TimeDemo Run 2 Finished.
Play Time: 93.79s, Average FPS: 15.99
Min FPS: 3.96 at frame 196, Max FPS: 26.33 at frame 107
Average Tri/Sec: 10446779, Tri/Frame: 653225
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: 1.10
TimeDemo Play Ended, (3 Runs Performed)

how many of you guys can confirm such behavior? maybe some1 could creat another thread with votings...
i know keule doesnt have this problems, his gpu never reaches 95C he told me.

so i prolly got a bad headpipe applied or something like that.
Besides that my book works ok, no BSOD sofar or shutdowns, just little bad dpc-latency.
Anyway looks like i gotta send my book in for service soon.

 

Thomas, vista 101.19 from Zepto CD


http://www.sendspace.com/file/poz875

 

i can confirm that behaviour, i got nearly the same in my laptop, however i reapplied the cooling paste and now it only goes to 100deg

 

thanks blackbird!

I was going to try the ones from laptopvideo, but I wanted to be sure it wasnt only the zepto drivers with zepto inf and all? Zeptos drivers sucks when it comes to usability, since 45% of all the resolutions are missing, wtf is up with that?

Anyway, 101.19 from lv2go should do the trick just aswell as zeptos ? andy?

 

well my CPU is reaching MAX 65 degrees at heavyload now, due to decreasing the volt to 0.9875Volt all over. (note that cpues have different volts where they wont go lower, so dont expect all to go this low).

 

lv2o 101.19 shouldnt be any diff, they also have more resolutions.

you can however dl the zepto ones and replace the inf from the one at lv2go

 

that's wrong, I told you that I don't get such high Temperatures in newer games like cod4, crysis, WIC or similar (all time max(as far as i can report) in crysis was 91°C in a ways to warm room^^)
in older games like medieval2, cod2 or civ4 my GPU already reached 103°C (but WITHOUT sleepfix)

 

This is basically the same way as I test my drivers, I am using the benchmark tool in WiC though.
My GPU never hits more than 92C now, using the 101.08 drivers.
I have been through the following steps to try and resolve the stuttering and heat issue I have with my notebook:
Played with different settings-lower resolution (1024*768-doesn't look too good, doesn't make that much of a difference)
Removed, cleaned, refitted GPU heatpipe. I also found way too much AS5 applied to the heatpipe.(Before I did this I had temps up to 108C-115C after my temps droped to 95C-96C max)
Changed drivers a lot. When I first got the notebook I installed 156.54 from Zepto ftp, since then I have been through all of the drivers posted on lv2go website (174.12 & 174.16 seem to be the best as far as temps are concerned with any of the newer drivers.)
Tried RMclock, lower CPU temps may reduce temp in laptop and therefore reduce temp around GPU. (No difference here. CPU temp down a bit but no real difference in GPU temp.)
Just for the hell of it I tried the 101.08 from the CD that came with my Znote. This is where I am at now, Happier with a performing notebook that I can use with no ill side affects. Angry that I have had to resort to very very old drivers that shows to me that evolution of a graphics card driver does not necessarily mean improvement in graphics card driver.

 

I take it you are using RMClock to drop the voltage VID?

 

indeed I am.

 

So do you use 101.08 or 101.19 ??

 

101.08. The reference to 101.19 came from someone else.

 

tom, let us know how they work and which games tested