[cstaats]

Hey all,

I noticed about 2 weeks ago that nVidia had finally released GT 335M drivers on their website. I had been checking and since the Dell drivers that come on the M11x are 188.xx, I was hoping for something newer to help speed up performance a bit. First-gen drivers from nVidia are notoriously slow compared to the second and third revisions.

Anyway, I downloaded the 197.16 drivers and installed them. Install went fine, but after a reboot the display was in low-res VGA mode. When I checked Device Manager, it showed the 335M as being installed fine, but there was a yellow "!" on the Intel card. Pressing Fn-F6 for the BinaryGFX did nothing. I played around with it a bit and finally put the Dell drivers back on. Everything worked fine.

A couple of days later I got to thinking about the problem and decided to set the BIOS to Discrete and then install the 197.16 drivers. It worked like a champ. So to get the performance bump of the 197.16 driver set (which was stated to increase Left4Dead performance by 30%) you need to set the BIOS to Discrete and leave it there until Dell gets around to releasing a BinaryGFX-compatible driver. The 188.xx drivers are quite slow compared to the 197.16. I've seen noticeable frame rate increases in pretty much every game I've tried. (Borderlands, L4D2, Lead and Gold, L4D)

So if you are like me and tend to plug in everywhere you use the laptop, Discrete mode isn't a problem. But I did not find a way to get the 197.16 working while still using Switchable mode.

Cheers,
Charlie

[Clintre]

Because of the way it works between the Intel and nVidia video the drivers that Dell puts out are custom specific to this setup. Unless someone does some reverse engineering on the changes that they did in the custom versions you are going to have to choose between the ability to switch between the two modes or just using the discreet and getting the ability to use the latest drivers from nVidia.

[cstaats]

Originally Posted by Clintre

Because of the way it works between the Intel and nVidia video the drivers that Dell puts out are custom specific to this setup. Unless someone does some reverse engineering on the changes that they did in the custom versions you are going to have to choose between the ability to switch between the two modes or just using the discreet and getting the ability to use the latest drivers from nVidia.

I figured as much. Like I said I am almost always plugged in, so the Discrete mode is worth it to me for the boost in performance. I'm hoping that Dell puts out a new driver soon though. It is good to have the 6-hour battery option when I need it.

Cheers,
Charlie

[Dunhamzzz]

Yeah, this is one of the things that is putting me off a purchase, and a little bit of me also wants to wait for the next revision!

[tchariya]

I've been holding off to because of the various QC issues and the video driver issue.

Tho...knowing that Best Buy has these now..and at $899 for models that price at $1K or so......I don't know how long I can hold off.

[cstaats]

Originally Posted by tchariya

I've been holding off to because of the various QC issues and the video driver issue.

Tho...knowing that Best Buy has these now..and at $899 for models that price at $1K or so......I don't know how long I can hold off.

I pulled the trigger realizing what this unit is and is not capable of. I had the unique experience of having an Inspiron 11z for several months with the Pentium SU4100 in it. I ran that sucker hard - gaming while listening to music and having several tabs open on Firefox while recoding an 1100-page PDF in the background with GhostScript. It handled all that beautifully. I know there are limitations, but the problem is even if you do get a ULV i3 or i5, you are still dealing with 10w TDP CPUs that are limited by design for the sake of power. If a 10w TDP CPU, Core2, Pentium Dual-Core, or even an i5 could run at the level of a 65w+ desktop CPU, we would have seen tons of machines of the same form factor as the M11x. The truth is that ULVs are limited in performance no matter which way you slice it. I pulled the trigger on my M11x because a) I was able to get the better CPU, 4GB RAM, a 250GB 7200RPM HD, and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and still be under budget, and b) the form factor is perfect for me. The more I use mine, the more I am satisfied with it as a primary laptop.

Alienware hit this one out of the park IMO. And mine is working perfectly. It's a great unit.

Cheers,
Charlie

[ciro]

just seen 197.12, P03 beta driver available to download, hope this helps

[cstaats]

Originally Posted by ciro

just seen 197.12, P03 beta driver available to download, hope this helps

Well dangit, you beat me to it. I snagged those drivers yesterday.

I had an issue after uninstalling the 188 stock drivers when I installed the 197 beta. Apparently it installed the drivers, but not all of the nVidia control panel stuff. It also hard rebooted my M11x. When the system came back up, I installed the 197s again and then it was OK. What is weird is that I cannot use the switchable graphics. When I try to switch them with Fn+F6, it does nothing.

Buyer beware, they work with switchable mode on in the BIOS, but it doesn't look like the switch actually works.

I'll investigate further and let ya'll know if I find anything.

Cheers,
Charlie

[tchariya]

Originally Posted by cstaats

Well dangit, you beat me to it. I snagged those drivers yesterday.

I had an issue after uninstalling the 188 stock drivers when I installed the 197 beta. Apparently it installed the drivers, but not all of the nVidia control panel stuff. It also hard rebooted my M11x. When the system came back up, I installed the 197s again and then it was OK. What is weird is that I cannot use the switchable graphics. When I try to switch them with Fn+F6, it does nothing.

Buyer beware, they work with switchable mode on in the BIOS, but it doesn't look like the switch actually works.

I'll investigate further and let ya'll know if I find anything.

Cheers,
Charlie

I downloaded the Dell Beta drivers for the vid card. It is software switchable with the icon tray icon as well as the fn-f6.

I used this thread to uninstall, clean old drivers, install beta drivers.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alie...s-drivers.html

[cstaats]

Originally Posted by tchariya

I downloaded the Dell Beta drivers for the vid card. It is software switchable with the icon tray icon as well as the fn-f6.

I used this thread to uninstall, clean old drivers, install beta drivers.

M11x graphics drivers

Yep, for some reason now it works. It's like it took another reboot for it to work with the switcher app properly.

All good now! I tried out the Risen demo yesterday, and @ 1366x768, it runs really, really well.

Thanks for the info Tchariya

Cheers,
Charlie