New Dell 1730 Dual 8800GTX beast

lay-z-boy · 17 Jul 2008 at 02:25

How are you guys overclocking, ntune?

rivatuner didn't bode well for me.

L33 · 17 Jul 2008 at 12:54

I'm using Nvidia System Tools 6.02 (link!). Rivatuner for whatever reason fails to apply the clock speeds at startup, and nTune v5.x causes a BSODs when opening the nvidia control panel with later driver versions (on Vista x64, it may work fine on x86!).

lay-z-boy · 17 Jul 2008 at 14:14

L33 said:
I'm using Nvidia System Tools 6.02 (link!). Rivatuner for whatever reason fails to apply the clock speeds at startup, and nTune v5.x causes a BSODs when opening the nvidia control panel with later driver versions (on Vista x64, it may work fine on x86!).

Thanks a bunch!

Sniper123 · 17 Jul 2008 at 16:41

I give up with software overclocking, mostly ATI tool ect either didn't work or detected 2D clocks...

In the end I modded my bios and set my own clocks

lay-z-boy · 17 Jul 2008 at 19:26

Sniper123 said:
I give up with software overclocking, mostly ATI tool ect either didn't work or detected 2D clocks...

In the end I modded my bios and set my own clocks

I did that with the 7950gtx on my old m1710, the card died after a while (faulty batch). I had a hard job explaining to dell why it wasn't running the stock bios.

L33 · 17 Jul 2008 at 23:02

lay-z-boy said:
Thanks a bunch!

You're most welcome

Let us know how you get on!
Forgot to say in my post, its worth downloading a trial version of Everest if you've not got it already, as it can display a ton of customisable information on the M1730's G15-type display, useful for all sorts of things but most importantly, the gpu/cpu temps in game when trying out new overclocks

lay-z-boy · 18 Jul 2008 at 14:10

Yeah, I've been a long time user of Everest ultimate edition.

On the clocking frontier I've set it to 600/1400/900. I've not seen any problems yet but I don't know how hard I can push them on stock voltage.

However I have noticed a recent problem where I get graphical glitches on an external screen, namely my dell 2407.
Started happening before any overclocking too

OCdude · 20 Jul 2008 at 13:00

More info on the new nVIDIA 9 series mobile chips: http://translate.google.com/transla...usiast-gamers.html&sl=it&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

matt1 · 21 Jul 2008 at 13:45

Is there any word when Dell might start selling the 9 series chips? I've noticed some other retailers doing the 9600M GT GPU, but nothing more powerful yet.

L33 · 21 Jul 2008 at 14:14

matt1 said:
Is there any word when Dell might start selling the 9 series chips? I've noticed some other retailers doing the 9600M GT GPU, but nothing more powerful yet.

No word from Dell yet, but Toshiba are putting the 9700m GTS in their new 17"... http://explore.toshiba.com/laptops/qosmio/X305
The 9700m GTS is not an 8800m GTX beater though.

matt1 · 24 Jul 2008 at 00:29

More news on the 9 series GPUs.

http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/6044...w-geforce-9-series-laptop-graphics-cards.html

L33 · 30 Jul 2008 at 13:54

This is not available via Dell's site yet, but I have a copy of the A07 BIOS for the M1730. Unfortunately I don't have a changelog, but I've been running it on my system for a few weeks and have had no problems at all. Apparenly it adds support for up to 8Gb of ram in 2x4Gb configuration amongst other stuff...

Download here: M1730 A07

lay-z-boy · 30 Jul 2008 at 14:53

L33 said:
This is not available via Dell's site yet, but I have a copy of the A07 BIOS for the M1730. Unfortunately I don't have a changelog, but I've been running it on my system for a few weeks and have had no problems at all. Apparenly it adds support for up to 8Gb of ram in 2x4Gb configuration amongst other stuff...

Download here: M1730 A07

According to this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_chipsets#Mobile_Chipsets
and the intel site, 8GB isn't possible though, it clearly is as dell offer 8 gigs on their m6300 which seems to be a hardware updated w/s version of the m1710.

A search of the internets only brings up your post on NBR where some paranoid n00b thinks you're posting viruses :rolleyes:

Emlyn_Dewar · 30 Jul 2008 at 16:17

lol at that forum, classic paranoia!

L33 · 30 Jul 2008 at 17:46

lol, typical response I suppose :S
The BIOS came from a CD that a dell technician left with me, the only reason I posted about the 8Gb thing was because that is the only description of the BIOS in the text file, there is no changelog as such.

pacegod · 1 Aug 2008 at 09:45

I got my M1730 a few weeks ago, and it came with bios A09. Which i can't see on dell site either, so no idea what it changed.

edit. its now up on dells drivers site:
Fixes/Enhancements
------------------
1. Added enhancement for PPU card.

Senture · 1 Aug 2008 at 12:20

Just flashed my M1730 to the A09 BIOS. It notes the PPU enhancements so thought I'd fire up UT3 and try the PhysX maps out, seeing a small boost to frame rates (3-7fps)

L33 · 1 Aug 2008 at 17:29

Do any other owners happen to have a copy of a Doom 3 engined game (Prey, Doom 3 or Quake 4) that they could try? I'm unable to play any of the above on my system

my post in the games forum

lay-z-boy · 1 Aug 2008 at 19:14

I have prey and Q4, will give them a shot.

What driver version you tried so far?
Running the latest DirectX redist?
Latest audio drivers + open al?
etc.

L33 · 1 Aug 2008 at 19:19

Cheers

I've tried about 10 or so versions of the nvidia driver, from 167.55 (or whatever is on the dell site) right upto the very latest 177.79 beta. I'll download the latest DirectX and openAL and give those a try, cheers! Audio drivers are latest ones from Dells site, as I had no joy getting a more recent version from the manufacturer.

Thanks for the advice