A couple of Noob questions for my new X7200

I received yesterday from Malibal my new x7200. Ill post impressions in a couple of weeks of the entire process, but now Im in my tweeking mode as I try to find anything wrong.

Anyway, this is my first time running SLI so I have a few questions:

1) The only game I loaded right now is Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I have everything at the highest settings and my FPS is between 60-63. I've had some crashing problems with the game, may be related to Mods that were made before my GPU and Processor were out, turning off the mods seems to help including clearing any graphical glitches. I haven't tried turning off the 1 GPU to see what happens, but is there a easy way in general to test that both are working properly? What program do you recommend for free that monitors both while in game that would allow you to see that?

UPDATE: Turning off one GPU showed no difference in FPS, hovering around 60. Going to download AgeofConan online since that is very GPU and Processor heavy on the highest settings.

2) In the Nvidia Control Panel, I couldn't find any functions like I did with my single Nvidia GTX280 that allows me to force graphic options in games, like forcing the antiliasing. Its like they are just missing. So I went to go upload the drivers and I got this:

"NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M (x2) 268.49 The manufacturer of this system requires that you download the driver for your GPU from their support site.

The GeForce M series and GeForce Go series notebook GPUs use drivers that have been customized by the notebook manufacturers to support hot key functions, power management functions, lid close and suspend/resume behavior. NVIDIA has worked with some notebook manufacturers to provide notebook-specific driver updates, however, most notebook driver updates must come from the notebook manufacturer. Additionally, the desktop GeForce graphics drivers will not install on Geforce M series and Quadro M series notebook GPU's."

Do I really have to wait for the manufacturer to install new drivers? Who would that be, Malibal? Sager? Clevo? I mean, the drivers at Nvidia's site are already at 275.33

3) Do I have to do anything regarding Motherboard Drivers at Nvidia's download site? I never have before, so I was just curious.

I could open a ticket to ask these questions, but I thought I'd try here first.

Thanks!

 

You can't be a noob if you have a Nine X7200~!

 

Are you suggesting that I return it? lol

 

I'm saying is a noob wouldn't spent that amount of money for the best gaming notebook on the planet!

Most noob play console games or free online games, cause they are NOOBS~

You my friend is what I like to call "Hardcore"!

 

LOL thanks Cheesy. Now I just need my questions answered, though I continue to explore on my own.

 

Oh yes you definitely need answer!

 

To install the latest graphics drivers look here http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/564375-atmosks-nvidia-clevo-support-modded-infs.html

 

Thank you, I may try this if I can't figure out a more formal route. I went to the following Clevo download area and when I click on the more updated drivers, it gives me an error saying "550 /X7200/VGA/GTX580_64.zip: No such file or directory." The link is here--> CLEVO - Download

 

I'll have a link for you in 5-10 minutes, I'm going to make you a zip of the latest drivers with the inf already modded for you

 

Well, google is helping me. Found one called Nvdia Inspector for monoring GPUs. They both seem active while playing Oblivion, but it doesn't seem to affect FPS, not that it matters when it is already playing at 60fps. Maybe that game just doesnt support the 580M in SLI. The temperatures got up to about 63 on both, GPU ultilization about 53% on both, what concerns me is that the Fan Utilization showed 100% on the first GPU and Zero while monitoring the 2nd. Maybe a limitation of Inspector, but I just hope I dont have a broken fan :-0.

 

You can always watch temps. If the temps aren't completely out of kilter, then the fan monitoring software just isn't working correctly. It sounds like that's the case if both are getting to 63C.

SLI is tricky because not every game supports it. Some will run better with it disabled (mostly older titles).

For new drivers, Nvidia is slow to update the site with drivers that support Clevo driver ID's, so the modded INF just adds in that line- otherwise it's not mucking around with the drivers at all.

 

I'll try answering your first question:

Do you have something like "V-sync" turned on in your video options? What V-sync does is forces the card to output at the frame rate of your monitor, which (if you didn't get a 3D-Vision monitor) is 60Hz, or 60fps. I'd try turning it off just to see what frame rate you can really pull off, but some games are a bit less choppy with that option on

 

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service
Theres the newest drivers with the mod already made

 

You're awesome.....thanks so much. Going to try this later as I was tinkering until 5:40am lol and I need some sleep.

1) Do I have to uninstall the originals or just execute these after I run them?
2) If Nvidia comes out later with a newer one that Clevo certifies, would these have to be uninstalled since they would not be modded?

 

You should just be able to install right over it, and the same when nvidia releases a new one that supports it alright

 

Thanks for responding, in Oblivion, there is no Vsync option. Im playing at 1920x1080, Antiliasing 8x, HDR off, Bloom On, everything else at max. Im not forcing any options in the Nvidia control panel because all of those options are missing with the current driver I have.

 

Everything you stated logically makes sense. I need to do more testing, I only tested the GPUs for like a couple of minutes lol. Im going to download now 20GB of Age of Conan Online. That will be a much better test . I think for me in just these last 24hrs I think I made a good decision not to wait to buy a new laptop a few months from now even though better GPUs or processors may be out. My reasoning is that the games I am waiting for (SKyrim and SWTOR) will not support anything newer in time and hopefully the 580Ms in SLI for both games wont be an issue since they are both currently in testing phases, enough time to update drivers accordingly.

 

keithian, how is the Nine? It looks like an amazing machine. Is the price tag worth it? What's your configuration like? Do you think the stock configuration is worth it?

 

I don't have the X7200, but as someone who does have an SLI setup, I can tell you that it is wise to disable SLI for older games. Why? The biggest reason is that some games (such as Oblivion) have a permanently locked frame rate cap of 60. Multiple GPU setups strive for maximum frame rates, which means it obviously hungers for more than 60 fps. The result can be graphical oddities or crashes like you are reporting. Source based games (Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, etc.) do not suffer from these problems, despite the engine's age.

Keep your drivers up to date for a long time as well, as new cards in SLI (the 580m for example) will always be updated and tweaked by Nvidia until it has been perfected, which can take months or even over a year.

Keep your X7200 well maintained and taken care of, and it shall take care of you as well. Enjoy!

 

Hi Proudclad, to be honest, I'm not ready to answer this, I need more time just to get everything working as its taking me two days to get things I normally don't need to worry about up to speck (and I'm not done yet) and downloading the games and tweeking them as well has been time consuming. I promise to provide my complete opinion from the time I decided to buy this to the point where I am testing games both old and new.

 

Thanks for your response, one issue I see is that this is the first computer where I just can't go to the Nvidia site, download the latest drivers and install and that it came with such outdated drivers that games like Age of COnan, a few years old, run unstable and warn you upon opening the game that you need to update the drivers, then when you go to do that, you get a warning from Nivdia's site that for this manufacturer, you must go to their website for the drivers. Then you go to Clevo's website, newer drivers are listed, but when you click on the link it doesn't work, then I need someone in this thread to mod the drivers for me since Im not technical enough I guess just to get them to work, which as of this morning is still an issue. More detail to follow in my next response.

 

OK, Im sorry, I need your help, I can even call you if need be lol. Anyway, I installed the drivers at the link you provided. One thing I noticed upon install that one of the files said that the target has more updated files than the source, do you want to over-ride it or not. Now logically I felt like saying no, but instead I assumed that the new drivers need to completely over-ride the older ones so I said yes. Unfortunately I stupidly didn't write down which file. Anyway, after I installed did, I loaded Age of Conan which is a pretty good test and should run games in SLI. Putting everything at max at Direct 10, I noticed that in the city of 'Old Tarntia" or whatever it is called that my FPS was hovering between 26-40 with some dips to 2-12 FPS at random times. Now that game has always had issues since release, but when I was running Nvidia Inspector, there was no activity on the 2nd GPU.

Sooooo, I went into the Nvidia Control Panel and looked under 3D settings for the Set SLI option...it wasn't even listed. I went into the help search in the Nvidia Control Panel and it says:

1) From the NVIDIA Control Panel navigation tree pane, under 3D Settings, select Set SLI configuration.

2) From the menu bar, click 3D Settings, then click the drop-down menu item Show SLI Visual Indicator.

They are not listed. Now I know the drivers are updated because I see the new version in the About Nvidia part and when I try to update them further it says they are already up to date.

Another thing I noticed is that for Nvidia Inspector, there is no way to uninstall it, at least not easily. It doesn't show up in the COntrol Panel uninstall list, it doesn't appear in the Start Up Programs, its just some utility that attaches to the drivers I guess and allows you to monitor things and to select profiles for all the games it has listed. I should have read about it before I installed it but everyone seems to love it. Its probably just my own incompetence. Not sure if that is affecting anything.

Anyway, debating if Im going to need to do a restore or not, but any direction would be appreciated. I could show you a screen print of the control panel, but not sure how to do that here lol.

 

Actually, I apologize. I found a small error in the driver set I gave you. Stand by for a corrected one

 

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

Theres the fixed driver

 

No need to apologize. Should I uninstall the drivers completely by going to uninstall in the control panel and then loading the ones you just provided?

 

Just load the new ones on top of it

 

Unfortunately, that didn't work either. When I open up the Nvidia Control Panel, under 3D settings, the option to "Set SLI" and PhysX configuration is still missing. It only shows PhysX without the "Set SLI". When I monitored the GPU with Nvidia Inspector, it was totally inactive with no way to activate it via the Nvidia control panel. On that note, I restored my system from before I uploaded any drivers or the Nvidia Inspector. The restore was successful and though I am back on the original outdated drivers, the option to Set SLI is back.

I think Im going address this with Malibal 24/7 support. They should be able to help me update my drivers and show me how I can tell that the 2nd GPU is functioning properly once the drivers are updated.

I'm also wondering if Im over-reacting considering my test was Age of Conan online which is not the most optimized code to begin with. I just wish I could figure out a good way to test my GPUs without having to buy the Witcher 2 lol.

 

Hope you get this all figured out on your new machine.

Sorry I don't have any advice on this particular problem, but you may want to peruse/post to this thread - http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...3-clevo-x7200-sager-np7280-owners-lounge.html

I'm not sure I've seen anyone mention the game you're using and some of us don't even game, but the thread is a good resource for issues regarding the x7200.

Good Luck.

 

Thank you. What I'm finding is that most of these 'problems' are so far being created by myself. I now realize over the last 3 days I need to better educate myself with regard to the limitations of SLI on a brand new graphics card, better educate myself regarding forcing options on the Nvdia Control Panel, do a little research on a game by game basis because each acts so differently from card to card and how they react to SLI versus one GPU (especially online games), that just one or two settings per game can cause a huge difference, and to be more patient regarding releases of drivers. I figured out with Oblivion by forcing options on the control panel and enabling SLI via the Control Panel profile that my FPS has drastically increased despite really pumping up all of the settings in that profile like Antiliasing, etc. I need to tinker more before drawing conclusions. A lesson learn for me . That is why I'm glad I held off posting a review of a system I have only had for a couple of days. I need to wait a few weeks as my knowledge continues to grow.