I agree with subrok007. My Vostro 1400 specs is as in my signature.

NFS Pro Street -> Highest setting (playable; video stuttering but not so frequent during high polygon count)
Crysis -> Medium setting (playable; video stuttering but not so frequent during high polygon count; movie sequence lags but tolerable)

Dell stock Nvidia driver from Dell support site: Nvidia Forceware 156.83
Temperature sensor during Crysis: 60~70ºC (Not a problem yet)

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 19 2008, 10:23 PM

Yes, I am playing Crysis right now. I am at "Recovery" chapter stage. Cool! I feel like a soldier in a real environment, although virtually.

I will try Assassin's Creed once I've finished playing Crysis.

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 19 2008, 11:08 PM

Yeah, yeah, dude...but, please don't spoil my fun...heheheh I will post screenshots later.

From Nvidia document:

I play Crysis at medium setting 1280 x 768 with my Vostro 1400. I use Crysis's auto-detect mode to come at this setting. I enjoy this mode so much.

I've tried 1280x800 (widescreen mode) but it is lagging a little bit. The reason is that at this resolution, I need:
1280 x 800 X 32-bits colors X 8-bits pixel order = 262144000 bits = 250 MiB (IEC unit ) = 262 MB (SI unit).
My Nvidia 8400M GS has 128MB dedicated memory + 128MB shared memory (due to system-controlled TurboCache) = 256 MB (SI unit).
In this case, it needs to page in and page out from hard disk virtual memory for that extra 6 MB which causing the lag.

I have no serious lag issue at 1280 x 768 because it uses 252 MB or 240MiB memory which is within that allocated total 256 MB video memory. Of course, small lag due to read/write performance coming from:
1) hard disk virtual memory for game file loading
2) read/write performance of my system memory
3) read/write performance of my hard disk
4) other factors not related to hard-disk and system memory.

It takes about 800MB of system memory to run this game. The temperature sensor evolves around 50 to 70ºC.

Note: my calculation is wrong above (please ignore!)

video memory = horizontal x vertical x color-depth / ( 8 x 1024 x 1024)

1024 x 768 x 32 / ( 8 x 1024 x 1024 ) = 3 MiB only

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 25 2008, 09:13 PM


Attached thumbnail(s)

Please ignore my calculation on total video memory used. I calculated it wrongly.

But, I think it will be an interesting subject which I want to study. I have a background in games programming.

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 25 2008, 09:25 PM

No luck for Vista users: Microsoft has total control on how GPU should use shared memory for Turbo-cached GPUs.
From Forceware Release Notes document:


For 8400M GS, it is not possible to disable Turbocache feature for certain Forceware drivers. Like myself, my Forceware driver 156.83 does not have that necessary registry key to allow Turbocache on/off setting "RMDisableRenderToSysmem". Even if Rivatuner creates the key, most likely my driver will not translate it to something useful.

Besides laptopvideo2go's drivers which have a quite clumsy installation step (modded INF file), there is an alternative. You can visit the following guide which provides a standard installer:
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread206050.html

I have tried Forceware 174.31 from www.notebookforums.com:
I use the tweaked performance installation. The Shader entry is now enabled to 800 MHz. Gamewise, it looks better on graphics side. But, it increases the GPU temperature to beyond 70ºC. I do experience temperature around 90ºC.

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 26 2008, 10:55 AM

In Windows XP, it always run in DirectX 9 mode since that is the only DirectX version available to Windows XP. You can't get the full performance of DirectX 10 mode of your GPU even it states that it can support DirectX 10 if you don't have ways to access the Directx 10 functionalities under Windows XP with just DirectX 9 drivers.

Nevertheless, there is not much difference graphics-wise between DX9 and DX10 for the Crysis game. You can read such reviews on Internet. Most likely, you will read such things:
1) "for your eyes only; I can't see the difference"
2) "running Crysis in Windows XP is faster than in Windows Vista"
3) "I can set much higher settings for Crysis in Windows XP, but I cannot do that in Windows Vista...what with Nvidia 8800 blah blah GPU??"

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 26 2008, 09:40 PM

I haven't finished my Crysis game yet. So, I can't comment on Assassin's Creed, which it will my next game after Crysis.

Any screenshot of your problem?

Please try Crysis' auto-detect feature in the Options menu. And, tell us what Crysis has determined for your system.



I use Nvidia Forceware 174.31 driver (www.notebookforums.com)

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 27 2008, 10:03 PM

Yes, I can. There's no issue, in fact. Kapow, pow the enemies. I like to sneak and snipe them...hehe

Yesterday (Saturday), I played for more than 10 hours with the temperature in between 80-90ºC.

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread206050.html

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread213911.html

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 27 2008, 10:19 PM

Please read the given links and enjoy!

Yes, it's true. But, I like the one appears on the notebookforums.com better (the NBF MobileForce version) since you don't need to worry anymore about the separate modded INF. It is all sorted out by the 174.31 installer. Just choose with mode you want in the installer (with performance or without).

---

Added on April 27, 2008, 11:05 pmOne thing you need to be clear is your CPU, besides your concern on the Nvidia driver for Nvidia M series GPU.

For example: mine is C2D T7250, which in a way, is better than subrok007's C2D T54xx.

Another thing is my harddisk speed 7200 RPM contributes to a better access speed for virtual memory allocated by Windows. A portion of virtual memory may be used inside a game. Not everything is running totally on the system memory or video memory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_memory

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 27 2008, 11:10 PM

Yes, I am using Nvidia Forceware 174.31 NBF MobileForce version (from notebookforums.com). Are you using Windows Vista? Mine is Windows XP, though.

Try to disable Vista's SuperFetch feature. That feature tries to be smart by analyzing your habit of doing things with your system and it allocates memory according to your usage.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-...tml?tag=nl.e040

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/software/vistas...-you-234109.php

http://tiredblogger.wordpress.com/2007/03/...per-for-gaming/



SuperFetch is not suitable for gaming due to inconsistent memory access patterns employed in games.

This post has been edited by eclectice: Apr 27 2008, 11:56 PM

It is possible that your Nvidia driver installation is not so clean (registry problems, etc.) which it ends up with mixed up core Nvidia driver versions and references. You should not have different core Nvidia driver versions and references mixed up. Otherwise, you will end up like what you have been experiencing just now.

I have installed Nvidia drivers from Dell (stock Nvidia drivers) and from notebookforum.com (NBF MobileForce version). And, I have no problem with both sources.
1) 156.83 - Dell Vostro 1400 stock driver (better temperature signature since it disables the Shader clock)
2) 174.31 - NBF MobileForce driver (have two installation modes: one mode for performance, another one for non-performance)

That's how it is supposed to function. If not, you have another option: System Restore. Always create a restore point before installing any new driver.

This post has been edited by eclectice: May 4 2008, 10:20 PM

What about the System Information under Nvidia Control Panel? What does it show? Hopefully, if you have no problem installing another game next time, then you should stay like this.

---

Added on May 5, 2008, 2:16 amFor those tasks, it is not required to enable the Shader clock. You should stay with the Dell Nvidia stock driver for your laptop model that disables the Shader clock.

If you use NBF MobileForce version: yes, the average temperature will be around 60ºC due to presence of the Shader clock.

This post has been edited by eclectice: May 5 2008, 02:19 AM