Modded 197.16 Hybrid Graphics Driver for UL30/50/80VT

[Nautis]

Ok package up for testing.
EDIT:NEVERMIND>

Make sure to sign them after installing.

[o8x8]

Nautis, I made a fresh 32-bit win7 on ul30vt, installed 2104 intel driver, then installed 189.42 with your inf, and I can see nvidia optimus demo watermark on screen when watching a downloaded youtube 1080p mp4 through media player. Also power usage can drop to about 11 watt which means gpu is off.
Looks promising!

[Nautis]

Nautis, I made a fresh 32-bit win7 on ul30vt, installed 2104 intel driver, then installed 189.42 with your inf, and I can see nvidia optimus demo watermark on screen when watching a downloaded youtube 1080p mp4 through media player. Also power usage can drop to about 11 watt which means gpu is off.
Looks promising!

So when nothing is using the nvidia gpu it drops to 11watts? Do you still see the nvidia part in device manager when its powered down?

[o8x8]

So when nothing is using the nvidia gpu it drops to 11watts? Do you still see the nvidia part in device manager when its powered down?

Device manager still shows Nvidia there, but power consumption is same as gpu is off.
List of things will trigger the watermark:
3dmark06 (3446 for 1280x768)
media player playing 1080p mp4
crystal mark d2d

things not able use nvidia:
windows experience index
cinebench r10 opengl
crystal mark gdi, open gl
gpu cap view (can only run open gl 2.x)

[Nautis]

Device manager still shows Nvidia there, but power consumption is same as gpu is off.
List of things will trigger the watermark:
3dmark06 (3446 for 1280x768)
media player playing 1080p mp4
crystal mark d2d

things not able use nvidia:
windows experience index
cinebench r10 opengl
crystal mark gdi, open gl
gpu cap view (can only run open gl 2.x)

you can always use the profile editor or rightclick the icon before running those programs to use the discrete gpu.

From the whitepaper:

By recognizing designated classes, the Optimus Routing Layer can help determine when the GPU can be utilized to improve rendering performance. Specifically, it sends a signal to power-on the GPU when it finds the following three call types:
* DX Calls: Any 3D game engine or DirectX application will trigger these calls
* DXVA Calls: Video playback will trigger these calls (DXVA = DirectX Video Acceleration)
* CUDA Calls: CUDA applications will trigger these calls

So no detection for OpenGL. Seems odd to me.

[tasmonkey]

I want to upgrade but is it worth the trouble?

I'm pretty tech savvy and I have played with modded graphic card driver before but this new hybrid graphic card drivers are scary me a bit..

[Nautis]

I want to upgrade but is it worth the trouble?

I'm pretty tech savvy and I have played with modded graphic card driver before but this new hybrid graphic card drivers are scary me a bit..

What is scary Tas?

EDIT:Editing in an explanation on Hybrid Graphics drivers.

The Hybrid Graphics drivers are basically standard Intel and Nvidia drivers. There is really only one file that is different and that is the nvbridge_int.kmd. As far as I know the existing nvbridge.kmd is for Hybrid SLI (two nvidia gpus) and nvbridge_int.kmd is for Hybrid Graphics (intel + nvidia gpus). The rest of the magic is done in the INF. (SIDE EDIT: Two files actually because there is a uninstall file that includes entries for the intel drivers)

This is new:

[Section###]
AddReg = nv_HelperGUID_AddReg

[nv_HelperGUID_AddReg]
HKLM, "System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NVLDDMKM", NVIDIAHelperGUID, %REG_SZ%, {9A516B97-E7C1-451B-9165-C5035994A3F5}
HKLM, "System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NVLDDMKM", SecondaryHelperGUID, %REG_SZ%, {6C4BE3D5-831A-42ED-AA62-2AEB34C8CBA4}

This has been changed:

[nv_commonBase_addreg__##]
HKR,,UserModeDriverGUID,%REG_SZ%,"{5F507F20-AEB0-4C37-A10C-FFBDF3269C76}"

[CoInst.AddReg]
;HKR,, CoInstallers32, %REG_MULTI_SZ%, "igfxCoIn_v1994.dll, CoDeviceInstall"

[CoInst.CopyFiles]
;igfxCoIn_v1994.dll,igxpco64.dll,,0x00000010

[igfx_SoftwareCommonSettings]
HKR,, UserModeDriverGUID,%REG_SZ%,"{5F507F20-AEB0-4C37-A10C-FFBDF3269C76}"

[igfx_Service_Inst]
ServiceType    = 1               ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType      = 3               ; SERVICE_DEMAND_START
ErrorControl   = 0               ; SERVICE_ERROR_IGNORE
LoadOrderGroup = Video
ServiceBinary  = %12%\nvlddmkm.sys

In the standard drivers those entries are:

[nv_commonBase_addreg__##]
HKR,,UserModeDriverGUID,%REG_SZ%,"{9A516B97-E7C1-451B-9165-C5035994A3F5}"

[CoInst.AddReg]
HKR,, CoInstallers32, %REG_MULTI_SZ%, "igfxCoIn_v1994.dll, CoDeviceInstall"

[CoInst.CopyFiles]
igfxCoIn_v1994.dll,igxpco64.dll,,0x00000010

[igfx_SoftwareCommonSettings]
HKR,, UserModeDriverGUID,%REG_SZ%,"{6C4BE3D5-831A-42ED-AA62-2AEB34C8CBA4}"

[igfx_Service_Inst]
ServiceType    = 1               ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType      = 3               ; SERVICE_DEMAND_START
ErrorControl   = 0               ; SERVICE_ERROR_IGNORE
LoadOrderGroup = Video
ServiceBinary  = %12%\igdkmd64.sys

Now if you have been paying attention you will will have noticed that the standard GUIDs are now calling whatever is attached to the HelperGUID (most likely all the Hybrid Graphics voodoo) and the HelperGUID has the original IDs. You will also have noticed that the Intel drivers call nvlddmkm.sys rather than their original igdkmd64.sys. The Intel coinstaller dlls have also been disabled.

And that is the basics to Hybrid Graphics drivers in a nutshell. There are of course extra settings specific to the different notebooks these are just the changes specific to Hybrid Graphics.

So what is scary? The benefits are the same as using any unofficial newer driver really. My test drivers are TEST drivers though. Not even sure if they work. The ones in my sig should work fine along with the optimus stuff I posted.

[sedlo]

How do you measure the power consumption?
I mean how can you confirm Nvidia is being switched off?

Device manager still shows Nvidia there, but power consumption is same as gpu is off.
List of things will trigger the watermark:
3dmark06 (3446 for 1280x768)
media player playing 1080p mp4
crystal mark d2d

things not able use nvidia:
windows experience index
cinebench r10 opengl
crystal mark gdi, open gl
gpu cap view (can only run open gl 2.x)

[o8x8]

How do you measure the power consumption?
I mean how can you confirm Nvidia is being switched off?

When you running on battery and using tools like this one http://batterycare.net/en/index.html it will show the battery drain rate. With old hybrid driver and you force gpu on, the drain rate should be >= 15w
with gpu off, it's <= 11w for idling cpu.

Optimus driver is only useful if it can provide on demand gpu, provide long battery life when gpu is not needed, no watermark, and sleep/hibernation working. Having the boost key to switch between forced gpu on/off/on-demand will be even better. So we still have more work ahead...

[oji-sama]

Well. I have your v2 version installed (which seem to be working quite well actually[*]), and I can add one more benefit for using them. CoreAVC can use CUDA with these drivers.

Now I'm just wondering whether or not to install the drivers again with new v3 inf..

[* Explorer.exe has crashed a few times (once or twice every two days or so), and I don't remember it doing that previously. However, I also updated all the drivers from asus-webpage, and I'm running in Turbo33 as well, so I'm not blaming your drivers quite yet.]