X205 sli3 with 256 dedicated Vram wtf??

Hey everyone, I just bought an X200 satelite that was suppose to have 512 dedicated Vram and when i went to advanced video settings it showed that i only have 256! I would like to know what exactly is wrong with my laptop because nobody i ask is giving me a straight answer, toshiba i now trying to tell me (after i dropped 3000 on it) that this is what the system cmoes with, when it CLEARLY states on they're webside that they are offering a 512. I need to know what the hell is going on because this is rediculous, if im going to pay that kinda moneyi dont wanna hve to deal with this bull****...

 

You have 2 8600gt's, 256 each, this has come up before on the forum. A laptop with 1024 vram with 2 512s will show only 512. Kinda the same as your core 2-duo, it has two 2.2ghz cores that split the work load, your gpu's are splitting the graphics work between them. Run 3DMark06 with your rig, I can bet your score is not going to be the score of a rig with just 256vram.

 

Yeah, if you want some interesting reading on the topic, we had this huge debate and thread a few weeks back, search for it.... I personally dealt with Toshiba on the matter, and it's all in that post.... check it out, good reading... but, bottom line, as snowsurfer said, you've got 2 8600mGT GPU's with 256MB VRAM each. And while this only shows up and work as a 256MB machine, that's how SLI works..... Technically, Toshiba is both right and wrong depending on how you want to look at it, but there is in fact 512MB's in there, just split between the two cards.

 

So basicly what your saying is i bought a 256 machine because thats all its going to run as? I guess i'll be bringing this back... I just did the 3dmark 06 btw and i only got 3938 and i see others getting massive scores double mine.. I really wanted a gaming laptop, what the heck should i do??

Edit: And also, does this mean that the less expensive version of this laptop, the one WITHOUT SLI and a 512 card alone is Better??

 

Do you have SLI enabled in the Nvidia control panel?

 

Yes I do, man this really sucks, i have to go on course for 3 months on the 14th, i would really like to get this resolved before i go.

 

Return it and buy a Dell M1730, it's $2,700 for dual 8700M GTs. If you didn't need it for the the 14th, I'd say wait for the Alienware m17x.

 

Hey man, try this (then run 3DMark06 again and see what you get):

1. Control Panel => System and Maintenance => System => Advanced System Settings (Left side or just the System Properties Dialog)

2. Advanced Tab = > Performance (Settings Btn) => Advanced Tab => Change...

3. Uncheck "Automatically Manage...." and Select Custom Size. Set it to Init. = 200, Max = 10000

 

I've been "tweaking" my x205 all day and i tried what micheal said and only got 3926 on my score. Does anyone know anything i can do? I've installed the driver from laptop2go site or whatever its called and everything, the only thing i haven't done yet is overclock. Is it possibl i didnt install the right driver update? Also, during the 3dmark 06 on the video with the shooting robots, the computer gets like fps, does always happen or what???

 

Just return it and buy something else, maybe the Dell M1730?

 

1-Did you re-enable SLI after you installed the new drivers? Because it does revert back.

2-Check your hardware devices, just too see if the computer is recognising both cards. Or DL some freeware like GPU-Z.

3-The "Shooting Robots", the 3rd and 4th tests of the 3DMark06, are testing the CPU alone. The 3rd is a single-threaded test and the 4th is a multi-threaded test. Your FPS won't get above 1 most likely.

 

Man maybe you're having the same problem as me... I got a Sli1 and (don't know why yet) sometimes it gets the sli performance and sometimes it doesn't... I think its bios related... All i do is, when i turn it on, i run 3dmark06 and if at the very beggining of the test im getting 25~30 fps i cancel it and restart the pc... I do this everytime till i get in the test around 48~55 fps at the first part and let it run the whole test...

It's like sometimes the pc can't start the sli, and sometimes can, that's why i think its bios related (i updated it to the 1.90 version )... Try that several times to see if it is the same problem... I get from 4000 score with the thing working wrong to 7400 score when it works good (and 8000 with overclock )...

In games i can tell you, there's a HUGE difference, and when it works, this thing ROCKS!!! Cod4, ProStreet, UT3, Bioshock, all run perfect with everything high at 1280x854 resolution

Btw, download everest and check there if it recognizes the 2 cards, or like square said, gpu-z (for me, this have always said sli disabled, but it does show the 2 cards)

And in video settings it will always say 256 vram because windows only uses 1 card... But trust me, and trust every sli owner here, you're getting 512 vram (256 each card) and the performance will be better than that of the single 8700m gt models

 

I had no idea that sli was taken off when you install updates, I did another install of the 1.67 release for vista 32X and enable SLI but im still only getting 6313. How can i get it up to 7400 like you?? i dont wanna overclock right yet because i would like to get it to 7000 at least.. Thanks for everyones help so far though.

 

Well it is nice to see that your SLi is in working order. I'm using the 169.09 drivers. I've read that the 169.25 are also very good. When you up your drivers to one to one of these or another 169.XX, I think you should see a score over 7100 at stock speeds if you are running the default 1280*854 .

 

Can anyone with the same computer as mine let me know (an x205) let me know what i should set my Rivatuner to to get maximum performance? I just dont wanna mess everything up.

 

There is no one right overclock, it matters on a game by game basis. Just let rivatuner run while you play the game and keep an eye on the temps, they can be posted in a corner of a screen the same way that FRAPS posts FPS. I'd go for 15min to a 1/2 hour to test each game and be concerned with anything over 80c. I'd definitely go to shut things down when I see it at 85c.

As for an OC, my lowest saved profile is 565/1130/837.

 

Well for overclocking use rivaturner but test it with atitool... There you can check any errors with a new frecuency... It's just test and error... Once you start getting errors with the atitool test, lower the values and test again... Stay in safe values... For me, stable performance is at 540/1313/800... I know my memory top is 845, but since with 800 im getting almost 8k in 3dmark, im good with that...

About the temps... Well for me is always around 85 when playing, even with no overclock... Remember, this thing have 2 cards, so it will run hotter that the x205-s9359 or s9349... As long as you don't reach mid 90's you're ok

 

hey i didnt do the overclocking thing but i just went out and bought The Witcher today and its running like crap, I had to lower everything down to medium and its still lagging.. im assuming this isn't normal? or is this a higher end game? I have the optimum requirments but its still looks like junk

 

I didn't get The Witcher yet. The game is supposed to be very CPU dependant and single threaded. The requirements are like a 2.8GHz P4. I asked at G'faqs and got a reply that it was running good on a intel 2.2GHz laptop, whichever one that is.

It is a more or less very new game. Google about it, about tweaking it in the ini. file. Maybe you can add more threads like you can with Oblivion's ini.

 

Download the Witcher patch.

 

Yeah i downloaded the patch, its running better now. thanks. Lol im feelin a little crappy now after buying this notebook cuz when i bought it they told me i was going to be able to play new games for quite a while. Oh btw what the heck is a thread?? and how do you add more threads? I'm pretty interested in speeding up oblivion as well.

 

A new thread is just a subject you post, to do this just go to a topic in the forum (Toshiba, for instance) at the top of the list of posts upper left is a box that says ""new thread" click it and you can post whatever is on your mind. Oblivion is a great game, I've been playing it forever, try this site, http://www.tesnexus.com lots of cool Oblivion stuff, go to the file search and click go, tons of mods and download content that can keep this game going forever. I like the new spells you can download. Also click the FAQ section on this forum, it will tell you how to use the forum properly.