X205-SLI1 8600m gt Drivers

well i just posted about not having any trouble playing current games with my sli1 while still using the 169.09 drivers. But i was wondering what drivers people here with x205's are using.

just post what you are using and if you play games what games. i really am into the saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it", but i do lose a couple of frames every now and then in huge RvR fights during warhammer online.

so what are you folks using?

 

Stock drivers

coz i'm a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" person too!

And just noticed, Toshiba released new drivers on 09/04/08! Version 7.15.11.7605 downloading now and gunna install when i get home.

 

Ok, i came home and installed the drivers i said above this post.

The GPU temperatures have dropped by around 3 degrees C each (SLi remember)

BUT

The games seem a bit choppy at times in fast movement, i'll have to try playing games later on again, just incase it was a windows update or something happening in the background which I didnt notice at the time.

 

175.63 for several months now

 

I unzipped the Toshiba official drivers before installing, folder name is 176.05, so Toshiba 'new' stock driver is newer than 175.63

 

tony. i will check toshiba's site for the 'new' drivers. did you have any luck identifying the reason for the dropped frames?

thanks for the info.

 

Before my x205 sli1 got stolen I was running Toshiba's 176.05 drivers they gave me 73xx in 3dm6 but prior to that I was using 175.19 which gave me 7575 in 3dm6 which was the highest I scored. I think I was getting the best performance in game using 175.19 but even 176.05 is just as good just because of the default resolution settings in 3dm6 basic ver.

The drivers I tried on my x205 sli1 in order of highest scoring in 3dm6

1. 175.19 (although benchmarked at 1280x 720) using the forerunners .inf
7575 3dm6 score

2. 176.05 (1280x 800)
73xx 3dm6

3 176.26 (windows update)
73xx

4 177.79 (1280x 800)
73xx

5 174.31 (1280x 800)
72xx

6 174.74
72xx

7 stock toshiba x205 sli1 drivers
6982 3dm6

 

thanks for the info jacob. any results for the native resolution?

i actually run my games and native resolution and try to max the settings. playing warhammer i only drop a frame or two every now and again. annoying but livable.

 

Oh the 1280x800 and other resolutions I posted are what 3dmark06 basic version would default to when I would benchmark or test those drivers. I had no control over it. I guess it was because of the modded inf that were installed with those drivers. In game though I would use native res 1440x900 and you at least can tell you have better performance coming from your sli rig and video cards using the benchmarks as reference also going from stock drivers to 174.31 was significant because I couldn't use native res and get smooth gameplay graphics in c0d4 but when I updated my vid drivers I could. again from 174.31 and up, you tap into the potential of the vid cards and sli setup for the x205 sli1 anyway. and the 176.x are for specifically for mobile gpus.

 

The thing is, for newest games you need newer drivers... For example, the 169.09 work perfect for old games like COD4, but if you wanna play Assasins Creed or lets say, GRID, you need newer drivers... ANd so on... When Far Cry 2 hit the shelves, a new driver will come out few days after the release, and it will give a boost over old drivers... Just think in Crysis and how the performance got better with newer drivers...

 

i would tend to agree with you jose.

except loading the newest drivers for our sli-1 gave me consistent bsod's. i am currently running 176.19 with forerunner's .inf and have not had a bsod yet. keeping fingers crossed.

what operating system are you using?

 

176.05 doesn't seem to be available for XP (from laptop video to go), so I'm jumping to 179.13 to try.

 

this was the driver that gave me constant bsod's playing warhammer.

 

good thing I don't play that game...... benchmarks soon

 

OK, 8227 in 3dmark06. Unfortunately, I can't find my notes from previous benchmarks, but seems to be in the same ballpark..

I'll play some games and see if I see any problems. I didn't have any issues with the old drivers however, so going back isn't a problem for me. May also drop back to 178.13 or 177.98 if problems arise, as those are whql certified (whatever that means)

 

just an update if anyone cares...I haven't been gaming much lately, but 179.13 has been stable so far, even overclocked with ATITools.

 

what .inf are you using?

 

the one on laptopvideo2go

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/infs/175series/17913/nvar.inf

 

Yes, it was just updates happening in the background (McAfee).

 

Laptopvideo2 has the best drivers.

 

I just reinstalled Vista and Nvidia drivers 180.43. Default setup turns PhysX on, and turns Sli off. I turned PhysX off, and Sli on. Hardly anything supports PhysX, and from what I've read in Maximum PC etc, you lose more overall by enabling PhysX (and thus losing the graphics power of Sli).

Just wondering if anyone else is trying this. Haven't actually reinstalled any games yet!

 

btw, just found ATITools .27, so I can overclock in Vista. For some reason, I didn't realize it was available for Vista.

cheers

 

maybe. maybe not. certain ones consistently gave me bsod's. and yes i was using the correct .inf's.

user beware and make sure you know what you are doing.

 

So I moved back to Vista over the weekend, and decided to benchmark (big mistake)

3dmark06

XP around 8400
Vista 180.43 driver 7184 (aero off, all settings to performance, etc)
Vista Dox 178.24 7193

So now I have to decide if Vista is worth a 15% graphics performance hit!!

 

i am surprised that you don't dual boot. i have xp on one drive and vista on the other. i use both as they are set up the same (programs, settings, etc) but i game on the xp drive and use the vista drive when i feel like it. for some reason multimedia is handled better on vista. at least for my preferences.

 

what .inf are you using?

 

for the 180 driver, I used the laptopvideotogo driver, for Dox's driver, I tried both the standard and optional inf's. No difference in performance.

I don't have no interest in dual booting. All of my programs work in both, so I like having a single operating system. I do clean installs every few months anyway, so swapping back and forth is just part of the game.

 

thanks for the .inf info.

as far as dual booting goes, as you stated win xp performs better with games so that is my primary reason for doing it. and vista handles multimedia better. so depending on what i am doing depends on which drive i boot.

 

FYI.

i went from the stock 2 gigs of ram to 3 gigs and my gaming performance has improved immensely when booting my vista drive. i am considering deleting the xp os. but i may keep it just to be safe in a disaster recovery situation.

 

I'm suprised you had that much of a drop in Vista performance, as on mine once I figured out my cpu throttling problem, and actually got the CPU running at full speed, any performance difference was negligable between the 2 (XP and Vista).

3DMark06 wise both give 8-9K depending on GPU overclock. Game wise I'm getting the same framerates, Crysis, FSX, Grid, COD4, TF2, etc, all perform as well with vista as while I had XP running. Still using 179.13 drivers, haven't upgraded to the newest yet.

Personally, I just prefer Vista... looks better, power management works better for me. But that's just me and I did run XP for a good 6 months on my X205, but just felt it was time to go back. SP1 does seem to have helped, as it wasn't out before I switched to XP.

Just my $.02, and I do agree about the dual boot with both, that didn't make a whole lot of sense for me either.

EDIT: Did forget to mention, my biggest reason for going back to XP was that Manhunt wasn't Vista compatible, and I wanted to play it and was annoyed... but, now that and any other game I've tried have been updated to work just fine in Vista, and have since run great, so that's why I went back ultimately.

 

solo:

help me understand what you mean by cpu throttling issue.......

 

Dox's Custom 180.43

SLI1 stock cpu, XP, GPU clocks 470/1175/850

3dm06 8206 @1280x854

 

gammite, he had another post in which his machine was "throttling" the cpu, as if it were in low power mode, or overheating. I think he had to install an overclocking utility to force it to maintain the proper cpu speed.

I tried one of Dox's drivers, but every time I rebooted the resolution went back to 1024x768 (mine is native 1680x1050).

 

He probably used RMClock to force his CPU into the highest power state.

-J.B.