Graphics Card Comparison

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Colonel O'Neill · #31 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sun May 01, 2011 3:04 pm

If you need more detailed instructions, let me know. The manual install process is a bit uncooperative at times.

I'm going to go bump the overclock thread soon with 11.4 game FPSes, including both stock and overclock speeds.

hunterman223 · #32 Post by **hunterman223** » Sun May 01, 2011 3:35 pm

Sounds good. I should manage, been through the manual install process more times than countable on dozens if systems. Just knew to the switchable graphics scene. It's a very good concept.

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Colonel O'Neill · #33 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sun May 01, 2011 3:40 pm

Heh. Sometimes it throws a curveball and goes "driver is not for your version of Windows", but I haven't seen it recently.

I'm going to try the 11.4 Catalyst desktop drivers to see if they're faster. Installing the 11.4 Mobility driver consistently produces system freezing/BSoDs for me, but the driver always seems to install properly; Device Manager shows 8.841.

I much prefer the manual switching over Optimus; don't want it to accidentally trigger or not trigger.

hunterman223 · #34 Post by **hunterman223** » Sun May 01, 2011 5:21 pm

Are the BSODs a repetitive thin or is it just when installing? Let me know how the desktop drivers go and if they're any better.

Optimus does seem to be very finicky at the moment, what with all the posts saying it is very difficult to manually switch back and forth and not fully supported by games and 3d apps.

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Colonel O'Neill · #35 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sun May 01, 2011 6:08 pm

The desktop driver doesn't seem to be any faster. No BSoDs during usage or gaming so far, so it looks restricted to the installation. The desktop version (doesn't seem to need any modding) installs fine; the mobility one seems to cause BSoDs. My system has been acting up for the past few months, but have been too lazy to reinstall.

hunterman223 · #36 Post by **hunterman223** » Mon May 02, 2011 4:16 am

Thanks. Just to clarify, the mobility driver does cause BSODs besides during installation? If so I'll hold off on installing it for now.

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Colonel O'Neill · #37 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Mon May 02, 2011 10:13 am

I meant it doesn't BSoD during usage. Only happens during installation. The desktop one seems to work all around anyway.

hunterman223 · #38 Post by **hunterman223** » Mon May 02, 2011 10:22 am

Which one would you recommend that I use?

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Colonel O'Neill · #39 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Mon May 02, 2011 10:55 am

I'd go with the desktop one. Any mobility battery savings are pointless with the Intel card. I also realized I was running the desktop drivers on my X100e too, so it seems fine.

hunterman223 · #40 Post by **hunterman223** » Mon May 02, 2011 11:22 am

Thanks, I'll update when I have the machine.

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Colonel O'Neill · #41 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Tue May 03, 2011 12:58 pm

Blah. Might want to hold off on installing the 11.4 drivers. They seem to cause Dead Space 2 to glitch on shadows.

hunterman223 · #42 Post by **hunterman223** » Tue May 03, 2011 2:05 pm

Hmm. Maybe I should wait for the stable release. As you can see I from my games list I won't really be left in gaming withdrawal or anything.

Thanks for all your help.

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Colonel O'Neill · #43 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Tue May 03, 2011 2:54 pm

Heh. It is the 11.4 stable release. 11.4 RC2 has the issue too, but 11.3 doesn't.

No other games seem to be affected. Yet to try Crysis 1, but Crysis 2 worked fine with 11.4 RC2.

I have a new 64-bit install sitting on another partition; I'll see if it still happens there.

hunterman223 · #44 Post by **hunterman223** » Tue May 03, 2011 4:08 pm

Interesting. I wonder if it would effect me then? My guess is no, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

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Colonel O'Neill · #45 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Wed May 04, 2011 1:55 am

Highly doubt it'd be an issue. Out of all the stuff I have, I only see the issue on Dead Space 2. If it does end up being a problem, rolling back to 11.3 works.

hunterman223 · #46 Post by **hunterman223** » Wed May 04, 2011 2:11 am

Okay, sounds good. Hurry up, USPS!

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Colonel O'Neill · #47 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Thu May 05, 2011 6:18 pm

Just a quick update: 11.5 preview doesn't have issues with Dead Space 2.

hunterman223 · #48 Post by **hunterman223** » Fri May 06, 2011 2:21 am

That's great. Any performance boost from 11.4?

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Colonel O'Neill · #49 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Fri May 06, 2011 2:48 am

Not significantly. Going from 11.2 to 11.4 was a massive performance increase.

hunterman223 · #50 Post by **hunterman223** » Fri May 06, 2011 9:15 am

Thanks for the update. The T400 should hopefully get here early next week so I'll try it out then.

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hunterman223 · #51 Post by **hunterman223** » Fri May 06, 2011 1:31 pm

Forgot to ask: Does 11.5 cause a BSOD during installation?

Colonel O'Neill · #52 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Fri May 06, 2011 1:39 pm

That it doesn't.

hunterman223 · #53 Post by **hunterman223** » Fri May 06, 2011 1:50 pm

Colonel O'Neill wrote:That it doesn't.

Cool, I'll download that one then. Sometimes it's better to be on the cutting edge.

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hunterman223 · #54 Post by **hunterman223** » Thu May 12, 2011 12:59 pm

Update: Got the T400 yesterday, and everything is up and running with 11.5. Everything's great, my WinSAT scores before overclocking were 4.8 desktop / 5.7 gaming.

I am now overclocked with the same setup and clocks as you, 850/899. I haven't done much for stability testing, just playing Burnout Paradise and running WinSAT. My new scores are 5.0/5.9, and I'll have some detailed FPS tests done later. Using fraps I notices 40-50fps on low before overclocking, with medium being barely playable at 20-30fps. After overclocking I am getting 50-60fps on low and 40-50fps on medium depending on the scene, so definitely a major improvement. I am also using GPUtool with two different profiles set up like you mentioned, and it works great.

I'm really impressed! I wasn't expecting that much of a boost, or for it to be so easy.

I'll update later with some more detailed benchmarks.

hunterman223 · #55 Post by **hunterman223** » Thu May 12, 2011 1:46 pm

Update: Interesting. Not as big of a difference as I previously mentioned, but somehow enough to go from barely playable to fully playable on medium, and smooth as butter on low. Here are the details:

Burnout Paradise Stock - Medium Quality

Frames Time (ms) Min Max Avg
1771 60000 22 36 29.517

Burnout Paradise Stock - Low Quality

Frames Time (ms) Min Max Avg
2851 60000 40 55 47.517

Burnout Paradise OC'd - Medium Quality

Frames Time (ms) Min Max Avg
2121 60000 21 45 35.35

Burnout Paradise OC'd - Low Quality

Frames Time (ms) Min Max Avg
3114 60000 44 61 51.9

As you can see, interesting results. I suppose to be taken with a pinch of salt due to different scenes, etc. It is definitely a great improvement either way, benchmarks or not. I'll have to give some other games a try.

Colonel O'Neill · #56 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Fri May 13, 2011 3:41 pm

Nice! Free performance!

May want to watch out when the temperatures start rising; it glitches more often if I run something intensive and forget to crank the fan up to 4500RPM.

hunterman223 · #57 Post by **hunterman223** » Fri May 13, 2011 4:57 pm

Colonel O'Neill wrote:Nice! Free performance!

May want to watch out when the temperatures start rising; it glitches more often if I run something intensive and forget to crank the fan up to 4500RPM.

Yeah, definitely impressive!

I've been watching the temps with Everest, and haven't seen anything too high yet. I'll update if I find out anything else.

OT: Just something I noticed, WD Scorpio Black is definitely noisy, and hot. Another reason I am shooting for an SSD, the spinning and whirring is all you hear due to the whisper silent fan... Definitely happy with my new T400, and I see quite a bit of potential with a few upgrades.

Colonel O'Neill · #58 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Fri May 13, 2011 7:52 pm

The 500GB Scorpio Black doesn't make any noise at all for me except the slight whooshing under normal usage, nor does it go above room temperature on the palmrest. O.o

Which defragger do you use?

The 320GB Scorpio Black I had for a while got quite warm, but the 500GB one doesn't.

hunterman223 · #59 Post by **hunterman223** » Sat May 14, 2011 3:55 am

Strange. Mine is also the 500GB, WD5000BEKT. It can definitely be heard spinning from a few feet away. It's not crazy loud, but it's louder than I expected. It does get quite warm as well if I frequently open and close things or move around files. I have been using Auslogics Disk Defrag for quite a while and I run it regularly.

I'll put some temps up later. How warm does yours run?

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Colonel O'Neill · #60 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sat May 14, 2011 4:00 am

Yep, I have the WD5000BEKT as well. The spinning noise is indeed evident in a silent room. Under normal usage, it ranges from 36 to 40C according to HWMonitor. During defrags, it usually goes between 39 and 41C. The palmrest stays more or less ambient temperature. The 320GB I used to have warmed it up significantly; HWMonitor would report up to 48C.

IIRC, Auslogics doesn't move old files to the inside of the drive but rather only moves system files to the outer rim. Not the best algorithm, though. I've been using UltimateDefrag for the past while and it keeps file accesses almost exclusively within the outer tracks. Doing accesses on the inner portion, one can hear light seek noise and the temperatures go up. It is paid, but I suppose some scripting with MyDefrag would also get the job done.