Question for Any X205 SLI owners...

Hey, quick question... trying to get the whole SLI thing figured out... was messing around the Nvidia SLIzone and was gonna join the forum over there to get some other info for the SLI and best settings for games, and ran across this... It's the Nvidia Club SLI; what intrigued me was it does a quick test of your system to see if you have SLI enabled and working... and for some reason it says I don't? Not sure why... drivers, or hardware... just curious, would anybody else mind clicking the link and seeing what it tells you? I don't even really care about actually qualifying for the club, but was curious if SLI isn't setup right on my machine somehow.

http://www.slizone.com/content/slizone/clubsli.html

Using a X205-SLi1 with 163.75 drivers, and to the best of my knowlegde SLI enabled in the Nvidia control panel. Thanks!

 

In follow up, Steam just did a hardware survey, and found only one video card and no SLI or Crossfire Enabled... is that normal? Both do show up under Device manager and SLI is clicked to be enabled in the Nvidia control panel

 

SLIGuy and I have noticed something interesting and would like to confirm it with the rest of the community. For some reason, when we run the IT Lab program "Can my system run it?" and under the Personalization option of the control panel, our graphics memory is listed as 256 MB instead of 512. Does anyone else have this problem?

 

I've seen it show up on a couple of screens as 256 before, I think it has something to do with each chip having 256 for a total of 512 when you combine them... and a lot of info programs don't recognize the second GPU. For instance, Rivatuner recognizes the adapter as "128bit G84 with 256MB DDR3", which would be one of the two.

 

True, but did would you do me a favor? Check and see if yours registers as 128. Thanks.

 

128 what? Bits on the bus? Or VRAM? I've got 512MB VRAM just like you, the sli just has a different screen, and a T7250 CPU, and 120GB drives.... same video though

I was implying in my last post that even though I've got 512MB VRAM, Rivatuner and many other info screens read it as only having, like you said, 256.

 

Ok when I look at the details in Vista in Display Properties it says that I have 256mb of Dedicated/Discrete VRam and 767mb of Shared System Memory. for a total of 1023mb of Video Memory. Now...if I am taking 767mb of system memory for Video thats not cool. If I only have 256mb on the card, that ALSO is not cool. At this point how do I confirm that I have 512mb of memory onboard this card/these cards.

 

I spoke with a Toshiba Technician (level 2 support) that has just informed me that the X205-Sli1 is not a 512mb Display adapter, but rather a 256mb Display adapter.....shrug...thats not what the spec sheets say.

 

Not a 512MB Display Adapter eh? Umm, my palm rest sticker and every other stat sheet I can find on it says it in plain view, Nvidia SLI Dual GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB VRAM... I can only assume the Tech you talked to was mistaken, or else Toshiba is in for some problems here.... I still can't help but think it's something to do with the two 8600's, with each only having 256, but totaling 512MB when using both in SLI mode.... of course from what I do read it is two GPU's on one actual card... so, here's to those that are smarter than us in the ways of SLI?

 

Due to a confidentiality agreement that I have signed with Toshiba at this time I am unable to expand on the points that you have pointed out. I can only say that if you have any doubts about whether or not your Sli1 has a 512mb as advertised or if their was a mistake in the advertising and marketing and its infact a 256mb adapter then you might need to check into this further with Toshiba. Sorry I cannot be of more direct assistance.

Thanks,

 

I looked where you were lookin in the display properties, and I still cant help but think it's simply that's the main GPU, on PCIbus9, and is an 8600M GT with 256MB.... but, you've also got listed in the display properties under device manager TWO 8600M GT Display adapters, the second being on PCI bus 10, which I can only assume has 256MB as well... so, when you are actually using both in SLI mode you would have 512MB of VRAM to use, but under normal apps that only use one GPU (like windows desktop), you'll only have 256 to use.... this is how I believe it works, but, I could be completely wrong.... but, until we get somebody more familair with SLI in desktops or something to respond, I wouldn't freak out yet....

 

Umm, so that post just confused me... are you reviewing a unit or something they gave you and that's why you can't talk? Or did you just buy one and all the sudden this confidentiality agreement appeared when you questioned them as to the missing VRAM that fell out of yours? I've been researching several laptops for a couple months and bought this one almost exclusively based on the video chip setup it had.... if it's not in fact as advertised, then there's gonna be some problems... eh hem Curious?

 

I am in no way evaluating anything for Toshiba. I can say that I owned a Sli1, but not anymore. I have agreed to keep confidential the nature of the agreement I have with Toshiba. I believe I am within my personal rights to say that I did have an issue with the Sli1 and that is the reason I no longer have it.

 

hmm, interesting.... well thanks for the info, apparently ya worked something out and congrats on that I suppose. curious to see what anybody else adds to this... I've always assumed it was simply what I was saying about having two cards yada. made sense in my head ha

So, somebody that has played with other SLI setups, please share what ya know.... how'd the VRAM show up?

 

Im sure that if there is anything out of the ordinary with your Sli1 and it is brought to Toshiba's attention they will do what is right and take care of the matter expeditiously.

 

This is a VERY strange thread, I just about 2 hours ago spent over an hour on the phone with Toshiba's tech support and re this same issue. Every system info app and test I've run says that I have 256mb vram with 767mb shared system ram. The tech I was on the phone with had me check from various screens and he could not come up with an explanation, I felt that he was stalling to get me to give up and get off the phone(which I did) but... tommorow I am going to call again and be a little more persistent, because at this moment my vista score for graphics is THE SAME as my ASUS G2S-A1 Makes me wonder hmmmm?

 

Wow, sounds like I'll have to contact Toshiba.

 

Yeah, I talked to them a bit earlier, right after my last previous post... got to tech support level 2, stumped him, and will supposedly be getting a call tomorrow from tech level 3, as they were already closed for the evening... i'll let ya know what they say... still not totally convinced there is even a problem here honestly, but was curious what Toshiba had to say about it, and thus far they haven't got an answer. Will post tomorrow with the results, they don't get back in till 8:00AM pacific time.


As a side note, ya gotta love the Toshiba music they play while you're on hold ha

 

Ok, was doing a little checking around, and ran across this from the SLI Zone FAQ Forum over at nvidia....

Q: Doesn't adding a second card in SLI double my VRAM?
A: This is a very common misconception. When two video cards are in SLI, both memory subsystems are concurrently utilized but are not combined or treated as a single volume. The two GPUs are drawing the same resources to draw the frame, so if their VRAM subsystems were combined the cards would have to communicate back and forth across the SLI bridge/PCI-Express bus to access required information. That would amount to tremendous latency, or in other words, major performance reductions. When the GPUs require a new bit of information, say a texture, that data is loaded to both card's memory at the same time since they're both rendering the same scene.

Not sure, but it seems to me like that is saying that if you have 2 cards with 256MB each, they technically wouldn't show up as 512MB, they would each have their own 256MB to use and would effectively have 512MB total, but might explain why it doesn't show up as having 512MB total in windows and info that shows just one card.... does that make any sense?

Or, I could be completely wrong and Toshiba just dropped the ball.... but, I really struggle to see that being the case; just seems like a misunderstanding of how SLI works. But, I'll sure see what Toshiba says and pass it along.

 

I have a sli desktop setup and in the advanced display adapter properties it only lists one of the 2 video cards in both Xp and Vista (I have a dual boot setup) my setup is 2 x 8800GTX's in sli and it shows only one card's properties with dedicated memory of 768 MB, so in your sli1 setup if you see 8600MGT and 256 MB then you have 2 cards with dedicated 256 MB each and a combined 512 MB when running them in sli mode between the 2 cards. I hope this helps clear this issue up for everyone.

 

Install a software called Everest .... it will give you DETAILED information about your cards...

 

Got a link or anything for that program? Thanks

 

Ok, that's what I was thinking, so even with 2 dedicated cards in a desktop, it still shows only one cards VRAM.... that makes sense, just couldn't figure out where SLIGuy and his confidentiality aggreement came out of no where. Thanks for responding jesse

 

It came from the fact that when I spoke to Toshiba about some video issues that I found with the Sli1, and was then told by the level 3 guys @ Toshiba that the Sli1 was not a 512mb system but rather a 256mb system. I appologize if I have confused anyone. Im sure if I was legally allowed to speak openly and freely about this it would be clearer. I was simply stating that if you are having a video concern or issue with the Sli1 you might want to consider talking with Toshiba about it.

 

Yea, SLI does not double your your vram. Your stuck with the same ram as when you had 1 card.

 

Yep. I went and talked to my dealer today. They said that you have 2 cards with a total of 512 MB, but I doubt they know that you really don't. Toshiba was a misrepresenting this, I guess.

 

That is true having the 2 cards does not double your video memory at all, as the 2 cards only use the memory of both cards combined when running 3d games that support sli mode, otherwise you only use one card and it's 256MB of memory when running normal windows applications.

 

Well, been talking with Tech Level 3 (supposedly the engineers, but not sure in reality) on and off at Toshiba, and that's exactly the case... he was pulling up parts sheets and suppliers, and VGA1 and VGA 2 each have 256MB's of VRAM supplied by Samsung.... Initially he didn't even know it had two gpu's and was confused, and I just let him reach his own conclusion and he told me it was a 256 system and was simply a mistake on Toshiba's part, and didn't really have a suggestion for me at that point other than he recommended trying to take it back if i wasn't happy, which I was underimpressed with ha. So, then somebody else over there figured out it does have two GPU's, and that must be what it means when it says 512, they are just adding both to together to total 512..... kept talking, and then explained how all this SLI stuff worked, and that in reality I only had a useful 256 since each card uses the VRAM for the same textures etc, and he responded he needs to do some more research. Was a really nice guy, and I realize this is kind of an out of the ordinary tech question, but am curious where Toshiba stands on this issue... At this point they are researching it further, he was very interested in the apps that show it has 256 etc, and he supposedly is getting his supervisor to check it out and call me back on Monday.

So, more than likely Toshiba is gonna call it 512MB because it has two 256MB modules, and send me on my way... they might not, maybe they'll suprise me, but not expecting it. I'll keep you guys updated though when I talk to em on Monday. Still is a good system though, especially for the $$$

Of course, he wasn't impressed with how saying this system had 512MB of VRAM was like saying my Core 2 Duo is a 4.0GHZ since it had two 2.0ghz cores, and why they didn't advertise it as such ha

 

not sure what all this talk about mis representation is but here are two links that clearly show its not 1gig of memory.
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satel...5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1194714174&sr=8-3
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?seg=HHO&poid=394294

767MB total: 512MB DDR3 discrete memory + up to 255MB shared memory w/NVIDIA®TurboCache™ technology
>.> Its kind of confusing and I can see how some could be mixed up. A total is just that though. If you look at any other site if they are talking about the cards individually they will not give you a total on how much ram is used. If they are talking about a combined amount of ram its given a total. Another example of a total value can be seen here
Notice the top left description with a total amount of 1024MB for the cards in sli. Like I said though its bad wording but still legit =/

 

This thread is getting interesting and better since We are clarifying doubts on the SLI setup for new people like me. Thanks...

 

right, i understand exactly what you're sayin bwhxeon, what peaked my interest was the sudden nondisclosure talk that SLIguy came up with about reaching an aggreement with Toshiba and no longer owning a SLI1 and how they made it "right" out of the blue... granted, for all i know he may not even exist in real life (and SLIguy, if all you say is true, sweet, I'm not saying it's not so and I don't mean anything bad towards ya), but he got me very curious. I can see how from a techincal standpoint, when you add 256+256 on each card, you get the 512, even if in reality it's only 256 when you go to actually play a game. I just am curious how Toshiba responds as much as anything, I was always the kid that asked all the questions and drove everyone nuts ha. It does say on the sticker under my left palm though that I've got Dual (meaning two of the following in my opinion) Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB VRAM. And every program out there tells me I've only got 256. So, there's my story to them, and they can't get an answer together. Interesting stuff


On a side note, I do love the machine though, great laptop for the $$$ if ya wanna play all the new games coming out... COD4 on this thing is unbelievable, GREAT game with gorgeous graphics.

 

Hi,

To all X205SLI1 owners, how do you like your laptop? I am worried Vista and dual 8600mgt will have gaming issues with stock drivers. Any thoughts/comments? Does anyone have screens of games such as oblivion, cyrsis, far cry, doom, etc-any graphic intensive games. I will configure it wil t7250, 2gb ram, dual 8600mgt. I am looking for a laptop which will play most games high setting and smooth game play (care less about FRAPS,FPS, high resolution) Will this SLI laptop do so with most games wihtout driver conflicts from stock/manufaturer? Also--one other question. On the toshiba website, the users manual says there is lead on the wires and wash hands after handling. What is this about? Is this on other notebooks? I have Vaio-never seen this warning. Thanks to all-great forum and website

 

Unfortunatly only other way I can explain it, is how I knew 100% sure its not 512mb per card. the answer is very simple, a 512mb ddr3 8600m gt does not exist. Unfortunatly you can blame that on nvidia for trying to market turbo cacheing on these cards.

 

For the $$$ I think it's a GREAT laptop.... You can beat the performance, but it takes a decent bit more money to be noticeably faster. I'm running COD4 at 1440x900 with high settings and it's beautiful and smooth. All the HL/TF2 stuff is killer on it, Bioshock demo runs good on high, FSX runs at high settings, world in conflict at med/high at 1440x900, and Crysis demo with med/some high at 1440x900 is totally smooth and gorgeous. Did reinstall Doom 3 from back in the day, and it runs perfect, all settings maxed, looks great. I am using updated drivers though... never really tried the stock ones too much, curious why you are dead set on using the stock Toshiba ones, especially if you want good performance in newer games? Thats a big part of what updated drivers are for, tweaking newer game performance. But anyway, search for my other posts, I've done quite a bit of talking about the SLi1, prolly more than I should ha, but I've been really happy with it.

And not sure about the lead warning, I actually haven't even unwrapped the manual from it's shrinkwrap ha, but I can't see it being any different than any other laptop out there.... atleast it hasn't killed ME yet

good luck!

 

What I was told by a Tohiba "Engineer" was that the Sli1 is 2 128mb cards for a total of 256mb. That is not what is advertised. So when I saw the Sli3 was only showing 256mb of RAM I was concerned it had the same issue. It sounds like the Sli3 is correct from what everyone has said. Glad to have some feedback on that. The issue with the Sli3 was merely a question. The issue with the Sli1 is based totally on what Toshiba told me.

 

I would bet money that the SLi3 is the same card with the same issue, based on my tests with many differnt utilities, and the fact that they both share the same hardware base with the only REAL difference being processor speed, screen res.,hard drive size and Vista ultimate.

 

Hmm, that's wierd... according to the engineer I talked to, he pulled the parts lists and it showed Samsung 256 MB Modules on VGA 1 and 2, for a total of 2, which is what my SLi1 seems to show... windows sees it as a 256MB Geforce 8600mGT. So your's showed 128Mb in appilcations that tell ya info or in the windows display properties where it tells you your display adapter info? Very odd

I wasn't doubting that I didn't have 512 total if you added both together, just only had a usuable 256 with the way SLI uses each for the same thing thing... that's very suprising the guy you talked to only seemed to see it as 128 per card on your SLi1, that's not what they were telling me or what I can detect on my SLi1

 

Funny thing is, there is only one vga card in these with 2 GPUs on it

 

I just got one of these at Best Buy 3 hours ago and love it, I already took the T7700 of my 9349 and swaped it with the T7250 on the Sli1 and gave the 9349 to my son so he can play some games and now I have a faster cpu than the sli3, the only other difference between the 2 was Vista Home Premium versus Vista Ultimate and since I had the T7700 on the 9349 I did not see a justification for getting the sli3. I am running this on XP and it is fast!!!!!, time to keep palying Gears of War , Call of Duty 4, and Bioshock kids!!!!! .

I just noticed on everest ultimate the 2 video cards are sandwitched so close together that they idle at about 60c and when I play any game for a while they go up to 78c, this is after removing the and goop they use and replacing it with Arctic silver 5 , I put it on the cpu, both gpu's, the video card memory, and north bridge chip as well, before doing this both gpu's idled at about 65c and the cpu was at 56c and now it is at 46c this is a T7700 as I removed the T7250 and put it in my 9349 so my oldest son could play games on that laptop and he is very happy. Hey but at least all my games (Bisoshock, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4, Orange Box, and FEAR) play very fast and smooth at 1400x900 with all settings maxxed and AA set to 2x and AF set to 4x.

 

Ha, i hear ya jesse! Props for popping apart a new outta the box SLi1! So, quick question, are there in fact two cards or is it just one board with two GPU's on it? And I'm assuming you didn't benchmark before, but i'd sure be curious how much faster the 7700 is... Maybe when you get a chance, run 3dmark06 with default settings at 1280x854 with the upgraded CPU... here are some numbers I was getting with a stock SLi1. Haven't tried with the latest drivers yet, but will try and update later.

3DMark06
Toshiba X205-SLi1
1280X854

6611 stock speed 163.75 drivers
7055 stock speed 167.26 drivers
7864 625/1250/850 167.26 drivers
7981 650/1300/925 167.26 drivers
6858 stock speed 169.01 drivers
8047 650/1300/925 169.01 drivers

 

Well there are 2 cards sandwitched and bolted toghether each with it's own circuit board, memory and heat sink and heatpipe setup to keep it cool, here is a few links to some pics I took of the cards:

http://img229.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cimg0142sp8.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cimg0143kt9.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cimg0145tv9.jpg

 

Hey guys....I just starting reading this thread and it's fascinating. I only came here by way of a google search b/c while I was playing some of the nVidia demos on my 2 week old X205-SLI1, I noticed some really bad screen flicker. In fact, it just seems like the gaming performance has been good but not stellar and on this machine, I was under the impression it would be flawless. The machine has actually locked up 2x inexplicably since I got it.

Anyway, what's the latest with the 256MB vs. 512MB for the SLI1? How come no new posts in the past few days? Be77Solo - what's the latest in your conversations with Toshiba? I'm a lawyer and as one I'm very curious about this and what SLIguy was saying.

 

I haven't heard anything more, but I have an SLI3 and I am about ready to call toshiba. On Age of Empires III, the performance is pretty poor on higher settings, when it should be chewing the heck outta that game. I'll let you guys know what I find out.

 

I just purchased the Toshiba Satellite x205 and noticed that there is a little play in the four prong connector (on the laptop) where the AC adapter plugs in. I was wondering if anyone else noticed this and if a little play in the connector is normal? I did make a trip to a local CompUSA where they had three models on display with the same type of AC connector; they all felt a little loose. Is this just the way they were designed? Thank you in advance for any input.

 

Thats how they were always been.
They are not intended to be securely fastened, they have no springs or latches at all.

 

Well, last actual contact i had with them was on friday evening, the level 3 engineers are off on weekends, and mon was veterans day and i gave em the benefit of the doubt being closed.... but, suposedly they were working on it and would be in contact shortly.... doesn't look like it, apparently they're taking the lower road and hoping I disapear... guess I'll call em either tonight or tomorrow... can't say i'm up for a fight tonight though, ha long day. So, ultimately, no news, and no call back other than the one friday night to say they would be calling me back soon.... and honestly, not really sure what the problem is ultimately from a law stand point... they advertise it as a 512MB 8600mGT, but don't specifically say 512 per card, just lead it to appear that way, and I can only assume that it does have two 256MB modules. Still can't figure out where SLIguy's nondisclosure aggreement came from, wish we knew more about that deal.

 

oh wow, great pics! Ok, good to know, haven't had mine apart yet. Plan to throw in a faster CPU at some point, but curious to see what comes out next that'll fit, be it a 7800 or 7900 or something else, and either go that route or pick up a 7700 a bit cheaper then.... thanks for taking the pics though, good stuff, good to see. Also lookin at the 7200rpm drives, thinking might take one of these out, throw it in a slightly older sager i've got layin around, and get this one upgraded to one of the 7200's.

 

The 7200 rpm hard drives are next on my list too, but has anyone checked the temps on the gpu's, on mine everest reports 6oc idle and around 78c +/- 3c under load on both gpu's. On my 9349 (that my oldest son uses now) I get about 47c idle and 66c load, I am not too worried after seeing how the crammed both cards and I tell you they barely fit and it a very tight fit as I had to be extra careful when removing and reinstalling them so I would not damage anything in the process.

 

yeah, I get around the same numbers with Rivartuner.... about 55 at idle, up to mid to upper 70's at load with a decent overclock, so far haven't seen over 77C, but just installed Crysis about 15 minutes ago ha so running that with a bit of overclocking will prolly test it more than most else I've run thus far

 

hello everyone this is my first thread but i have been reading this site for a while now. im in the middest of getting ready to buy a new lap top and i fell in love with the X205 Sli series. i am in the middle of a bundle not being able to choose between the sli1 or the sli3.

i know the differences between both and i was just wondering:
-which will i get the most bang out of the buck?
-where i can buy it for very cheap? if possible.
-how is the toshiba warranty?

ive seen the sli3 for 2300 at costco and i was wondering if anybody has any experience with costco.

im sorry for so many questions but i would greatly appreciate it. thank you in advance.