sli in 9260

i am planning on getting a np9260, and i was wondering if it was worth getting dual 7950GTX at the moment. do games utilise it enough? and would playing in 1920x1200 be laggy? someone please xplain

 

my current build has a single gtx and it runs wonderfully. I think Dual is nice but its overkill at the moment. Just download the optimized NGO drivers and see those FPS fly with a single one.

 

sweet you just saved me 500 bucks, thanks dude, ill get the second card later if i need it

 

Glad to head the NGO drivers are working out for you after all midnitdragoon.

 

i remember with maxed settings and res Prey was a little slow in some areas...now it doesnt happen. Also in Fear i can play it with maxed out setting with little to no slowdowns. i remember when i first got prey it ran full on lower res now it runs full on a higher one so im happy.

 

You should be able to play most games with a single Go7950GTX at WUXGA. However the latest ones with a lot of shadows/shading will slow down a bit . . . in my opinion you are better off with the 1680x1050 display with a single card.

 

yeh but the thing is i was planning on upgrading later when i actually need it, so atm i guess im okay, and theres a chance the 9260 will be able to use 8 series geforce...but my main concern is if i would be okay with 1 atm, and if that answer is yes, then im happy...

thanks guys

 

NGO ?!! where can I download those optimized drivers

 

I'm assuming these drivers are the ones that can be found on the Nvidia site.

 

Well you could google "ngo drivers nvidia" and find http://www.ngohq.com/ or you just sit and wait until someone does it for you

 

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't know that other drivers outside of the OEM site were reliable.

 

Microsoft has issued a hotfix for the SLI problem and there are now 64-Bit SLI Drivers for Vista.

I pulled the NGO drivers off my system. After numerous games I was getting some bad tearing.

 

thats strange do you use SLI? The games i run have no problems and work wonderfully. But then again im running under a single Video Card.

 

It SOOOO figures that I just ordered my 9260 with XP.
Ahh well, all Vista does without DX10 is make stuff look perty while being incompatible with everything.

 

Right, I have 2x7950GTX's in SLI. With the NGO drivers I was getting visable tearing and some crashes in some games. I have gone back to the 94.22 drivers and have no problems. I'll try out other drivers just those are a bit unstable for me.

 

Did you have vertical sync enabled Wu Jen? It might be the case that it was disabled by default in the NGO drivers and enabled by default on the other drivers you're using. Not sure about those stability problems though. It is possible that the NGO drivers are a bit behind, and SLI has become considerably better in recent drivers if I understand correctly.

 

Thanks, Sorry to be lazy

 

I had V-Synch disabled. In Windows XP when I would open web pages the screens brightness would flicker. It wasn't just games. It just wasn't the driver for me

 

I have the SLi setup. I used the 2.15822 driver [and tried the earlier 1.15822b]. They run fast but, I have hashing of sound at saves and horizontal tearing towards the bottom of the screen. And then the BSOD.

I loaded the next older 2.9792, and it has been running fine. Gives great speeds in Oblivion and doesn't run the temps up on the GPU.

The 94.22 drivers would be .9422 in the NGO world. The 2.9792 is based on the 97.92 driver series, and it would appear to be a newer Driver series. Try it out, it's not hard to load and then pull off if you had an issue. I've used it [nvodngov29792.exe]for over a week now and haven't had a problem. It gives a nice FPS boost.

It runs Oblivion outdoors at 30 to 40+, 60+ in dungeons, and 30 to 40+ in cities at 1600x1200 resolution. No sound hash or screen tears or BSOD. I haven't seen a downside as yet. And it quits back to Windows without errors.

 

One question,

These drivers work on Vista x86 (32 bits) or not? If not, what should use according to you experience?

Thanks in advance,

Trance
PS: I only have Vista 32 bit

 

The Drivers that I mention are for XP 32 bit. The NGO site has Vista Drivers also. If you look around the NGO Forum, you get feedback on the rev level and general capabilities of these Drivers. But if there are issues, I doubt most users write in about it. They probably just pull the Drivers off their Systems.

I have gone back to the Clevo Drivers by the way. The NGO Drivers would crash from time to time dropping to XP in 4 bit mode. I could not find a quick way back to 32 bit display mode. I ended up shutting a down and restarting, as just a reboot did not always reset to 32 bit.

It is a shame, as these Drivers are faster and feel more efficient. However they also generated errors, which I have not had with the original, slower, Drivers.

 

Thats wierd those NGO drivers worked preety well with me. Its more stable and i have had far less game crashes than before. I think this is partly due to raising everything max and also have max res. I guess the D900C cant run fear with max ares and max settings although it runs without a hiccup if i lower the res to lets say 1200. If i go to the 1600 area i risk getting a BSOD with irql_less than equal to or some crap like that.

 

It is very important IMO to use the *stable* NGO drivers. Using the *latest* unstable drivers is not the best idea. I've only encountered one blue-screen, and I was probably doing something bad in GPU memory.

 

I'm using the NGO 2.9792 drivers now with no problems in XP.

 

For those waiting on DX10, this is interesting reading:

http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/601172/consoles-holding-back-pc-graphics-says-epic-boss.html

Basically, Epic feels that consoles drive the demand for what features that games will have. The VP states that they have little interest in writing DX10 games for the PC until the next level of consoles are released and support this higher level of graphics. It makes economic sense, assuming that the lion share of games purchased are for consoles.

 

Wu Jen, please post here if the 2.9792 drivers develop an issue.

I was oc on video due to the lower performance of my E6700. Additionally, I ran the 1600x1200 res because I like the look of the 1.3 ratio resolutions. Maybe the oc coupled with the high screen rate opens Driver issues. I do miss the the FPS rate bump from the 2.9792 Driver.

I now work with the original Driver and at 1600x1200 res. It is slower, but I haven't had the crashes back to 4 bit res.

 

Sorry, but how do I enable SLI with NGO 2.9792 drivers?

The original drivers would ask me if I wanted to enable it right after the driver was installed (a dialog box appeared).

But this ones didn't and I cannot find it in the control panel. Please help.

Trance

 

Working from memory here, if you use Coolbits, then right click on Screen, pick properties, then settings, then advanced, then pick GeForce Go 7950 GTX, the window that pops allows you to access the SLI, as well as overclocking. If you are using RivaTuner and go into System Tweaks, it dumps the Coolbits stuff. It seemed like the Driver set up did not make nice with RivaTuner.

 

Thx Alan but I could not find the option to enable SLI with those driver (NGO 2.9792) even after installing coolbits (registry install). Neither can I find it in RivaTuner. Went back to 6.14.10.9422 and it is right there in the control panel.

By the way my 3DMark06 score is if 9015 (1280x1024) with a E6700 CPU and SLI GPU.

I believe one can do better with different drivers. Any suggestions from you experts?

Thanks

Trance

 

I use the PRO [purchased version]. Cpu result is in the 2200 range
and hit 2300 number with the newest NGO Driver. The X6800 hit 2500 range.
Using standard Driver - and accepting only good - nonhashed - resulted.
*The Deep Freeze test is where I experience graphic issues and stopped/rejected the test.*
3d Mark06 at 9072 with 628/721 setting only laptop fan at normal speed.
3d Mark06 at 9541 with 629/721 setting fans on full.
3d Mark06 at 9665 with 634/722 setting fans on full.
3d Mark06 at 9670 with 640/721 setting fans on full.
3d Mark06 at 9702 with 624/775 setting fans on full.
New NGO Drivers installed
3d Mark06 at 9770 with 624/800 setting
Highest score hit was 9808, with newest NGO and 624/810 setting. Ran at night for a cooling advantage.

It seems that exceeding 625 on core limits memory tweak to about 720.
Setting core at 624 allows me to hit 810 on the memory side. Actually played Oblivion with core at 624 and memory at 775. Using a two Laptop Coolers and two extra TT portable fans [total 6 external fans] and with the weather here in the 70's, the GPU stayed cool [about 35c to 42c max running outdoors]. Using sneak mode keeps FPS 30+ [outdoors for Oblivion] and keeps the temps down.

Now the temps are in the 80's here, so I stick with 625 core and 735 memory. Gives the game a boost until I can get a reasonably priced X6800.

Hope that helps. Haven't gotten into other games as yet since I got this laptop. Oh, 1600x1200 resolution is where I stay now. I like the graphics and detail, and the FPS are good. Wasn't much slower than 1400x1050, and the detail is noticeably better. [The NGO Driver did not have 1400x1050 available] so I started with 1600x1200 with that Driver [2.9792 version].

The Clevo Driver is noticeably slower than the NGO, but just makes the 1600x1200 playable. I'm sure that a cpu upgrade would finish the job just fine...

 

You did the 3DMark test in which resolution Alan? 1280x1024?

I played Call Of Duty 2 at max specs. I mean max spec really including 1900x1200. The FPS varies from 40 to 65 FPS (very fluid). This with standard drivers. I know COD is not that demanding but is what my work mates play online.

Can you please give me a detailed explation of what you do to enable SLI with NGO drivers, I mean step by step. Screenshots would be usefull. I simply can't find it. In fact my FPS were lower in COD with the NGO drivers, haven't done a 3DMark test. Sorry, but I'm such a noob geek

Trance
PS: I'm not sure if I'll overclock. I don't have an extenal cooler and it is summer here (30+ ºC, 86 ºF), so for the time being I'll not do it. With fans in max while playing COD the GPU reaches 62 ºC (143.6 ºF).

 

I ran 3d Mark06 for comparison numbers, therefore I used all the default settings.

I am no longer running any NGO Drivers. The newest Driver caused sound issues in Oblivion, ran hotter than the Clevo Drivers and crashed ugly - not always just a reboot to fix. The 2.9792 Driver ran a little slower, showed the oc on memory as 2x the setting [700 shows as 1.4], but did not have issues with sound. However when it crashed, it often dropped the System to 4 bit setting. I could not always get back to 32 bit without a complete shut down and then restart. I cannot recommend these Drivers as stable enough for this Laptop in SLI. I don't think that the support for 7950 GTX was well written for the SLI option.

 

I have to say, I settled on laptop2go drivers for my notebook. I'm using forceware 163.15 in XP SP2 and it is solid. NGO just isn't up to par on the latest notebooks. I think they might not be releasing drivers until their legal dispute with NVidia is ended. Shikata ga nai.

 

Bazald, do you have SLI? If so, how the mentioned drivers allow one to enable SLI?

By the way, I'm looking dor SLI capable drivers for Windows Vista (32bits). Anyone know were to get them?

Trance