Firepower Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 We have a new Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q706 that comes with dual NVidia 9800M GTS SLI GPUs. The laptop came with Vista but since it sucks so bad we put XP on it. We've been able to get pretty much everything installed and working except the graphics. Toshiba's website only has a Vista video driver and NVidia doesn't even list the 9800M GTS. We've tried the "180.48" driver from here. It does install and shows up in Device Manager as 2 entries for "NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS [Dox Optimised 180.84]" but it's obvious things aren't working correctly---moving a window does the "slow move refresh" that you see when you first install windows with the standard VGA driver.... There's also a "yellow question mark" entry in Device Manager still for "Video Controller (VGA Compatible)" that is probably the third onboard NVidia GeForce 9400M G. Does anyone have any ideas? It is REALLY FRUSTRATING that NVidia makes this and doesn't even list it as an option for a driver on their website! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFKirb Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 (edited) We have a new Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q706 that comes with dual NVidia 9800M GTS SLI GPUs. The laptop came with Vista but since it sucks so bad we put XP on it. We've been able to get pretty much everything installed and working except the graphics. Toshiba's website only has a Vista video driver and NVidia doesn't even list the 9800M GTS. We've tried the "180.48" driver from here. It does install and shows up in Device Manager as 2 entries for "NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS [Dox Optimised 180.84]" but it's obvious things aren't working correctly---moving a window does the "slow move refresh" that you see when you first install windows with the standard VGA driver.... There's also a "yellow question mark" entry in Device Manager still for "Video Controller (VGA Compatible)" that is probably the third onboard NVidia GeForce 9400M G. Does anyone have any ideas? It is REALLY FRUSTRATING that NVidia makes this and doesn't even list it as an option for a driver on their website! I've have this same laptop and am having similar issues with it. Having done everything up to and including wiping the HDD and re-installing, I have come to some conclusions. (1) Nvidia does not directly support discrete graphics cards. Unlike with desktop cards, they don't release reference drivers. That's why you won't find drivers for 9800m GTS on their site. You either have to go with Toshiba's drivers or drivers from Laptopvideo2go. They mod desktop drivers to work with laptop cards, but they aren't official drivers. (2) This laptop (or for that matter any system with >3 GB of RAM) needs a 64 bit OS. There are inherent limitations to a 32 bit OS, one of those is the upward limit on the amount of RAM it can address. This number also includes dedicated video RAM. Quite simply, a 32 bit OS can't manage all the RAM that a X305-Q706 has. There is 64 bit XP, but I don't think you're gaining anything by using it instead of Vista 64. (3) Directx 10 is Vista only. If you do a little googling, you will see pretty quickly that directx10 is superior to directx 9, at least under the conditions they use in side by side comparisons. Why force yourself to use directx9 with XP? (4) Finally, I think a lot of the Vista-hating is overblown. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't in any hurry to go get a system with it, but I knew it was coming at some time. Most of the annoying crap that vista does is easily bypassed or turned off. Aesthetically, I much prefer Aero to any theme in XP. Here's my recommendation: wipe XP x86 (32bit) of the system (or at least dual boot) and install Vista 64. I received my X305-Q706 and absentmindedly clicked 32 bit vista, thinking that it had inherently better compatibility. BIG mistake, seeing how Toshiba failed to ship my laptop with a f*cking recovery disk. 32bit Vista has the same limitations as far as RAM is concerned that 32 bit XP does. You might be able to see 4GB of RAM under My Computer properties, but I guarantee you that you're essentially crippling your system. Let me have Toshiba elaborate (quoted from the Toshiba Detailed Specs .pdf found here: X305-Q706 detailed specs ) "The Qosmio® X305 with nVIDIA SLI® graphics ships with a 64-bit version of the Windows Vista® operating system. If you should elect to recover your system to a 32-bit version from the recovery media or from your hard disk drive, note that over 2GB of your computer?s system memory will not be accessible due to use of the main system memory by the graphics system for graphics performance and limitations of the 32-bit operating system." Eat a slice of humble pie like I did, and install x64 Vista. I would have done it already but I'm waiting for the recovery disk they're shipping to me. Edited December 14, 2008 by RFKirb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wook Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 i agree with RFKirb. Vista hating is over rated. It always happens when a new OS comes out. To be honest my old XPS 1530 ran slightly better using XP (not noticable). But my newer laptop runs better with vista than XP. So, if i were you i would go back to vista. SP2 will be out in a month or so, and then you will have a laptop that you can take full advantage of. Plus SP2 will have a few tweaks for gaming especially A lot of functions with my G70s just wont work with XP, plus disk management is waaaaaaaaay faster when copying files using vista. 20% -ish. You question about the 3 GPU's. XP does not support SLI and an additional on board GPU. So good luck getting it to run as it was ment to. even SP3 does not have a fix for this. vista 64 bit would be your best option. I find it runs games faster than vista 32 and also faster than XP 32. Vista 32 does have a patch to recognise 4gb or more of ram... but it still doesnt use the ram. its just a change in the display of how much you have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galdere Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 Use the "have disk" method of installation in device manager for the 9400m. It is a power saving alternative when you dont need the full capability of the two SLi cards. That should solve the graphical problems, but you will then have to test if the switching between the one more basic and two powerful cards actually works when required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 You guys are wrong. I have a Gateway 7805u w/Geforce9800m GTS 1gb DDR3, and 4gb DDR3 ram Vista64bit. Games like Counter Strike Source, Drift City, or any other 32bit games, runs slower, with slower frames per second. These games ran faster on my Inspiron 13" Windows XP Geforce8400m with only 3gb ram DDR2. Despite the slower laptop, the 32bit games ran faster and smoother on it. Vista 64bit will run 32bit games, but in a shell, like na emulation, its not native, therefore slower. Whereas 32bit games in general run faster on WinXP. If you don't believe me, check em out urself. I only recommend Vista64bit if you are running some 64bit games & softwares, otherwise, 3gb ram is enough. Trust me on that. Recently, i just bought myself the new Dell XPS 1340 with Core2Duo 2.6Ghz, 6gb DDR3, Geforce 9500m, Vista 64bit. Same thing. 32bit games like Counter Strike Source and Drift City, and even WOW, ran slower on the Vista64bit, than in my old inspiron w/inferior specs. The Key is this, when running 32bit games, WinXP is best. Trust me on that, or regret urself later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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