NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Dell Forums › Dell Legacy (single-core notebooks) › Finally got the MR9800 XPS!
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Finally got the MR9800 XPS!

post #1 of 52
8/16/04 at 2:34pm
Thread Starter 
I cant beleive it! It finally arrived this past friday!

Well, enough with the exasperation and to the meat of the topic. I have some mixed thoughts concerning the MR9800. Out of the box, the drivers that were included were the 9700 (which did not work btw), the system defaulted to its VGA adapter and resolution was at 640x480. I contacted Dell support and they dont have any drivers for it! I searched the web and found some third party drivers that work.

Immediately i ran 3dmark03 Pro, and went from my previous score of 3370 to a fantastic 5256 with 2AA and 4aniso on. I noticed a great improvement when playing FFXI where there were over 50players present, casting spells, etc. I am waiting to get a copy of FarCry so I can post some results here.

If you plan to get this upgrade I highly recommend it. However dont count on dell support for awhile until they get thier act together.
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 52
8/16/04 at 3:19pm

I should be getting mine today

What drivers did you use for your new graphics card? What site should I go to to find the drivers and what did you use? As much detail as possible would be greatly appreciated. Thank You

Phillip
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 52
8/16/04 at 3:30pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by phildds
What drivers did you use for your new graphics card? What site should I go to to find the drivers and what did you use? As much detail as possible would be greatly appreciated. Thank You

Phillip
I found them on www.station-drivers.com/page/atidriv.htm under catalyst 4.7

However I just got the new drivers from Dell's support site a few min ago and I am running new benchmarks from 3dmark03 pro as we speak.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 52
8/16/04 at 3:50pm
Did you install yourself? How did that go?
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 52
8/16/04 at 4:04pm
he ordered an XPS with the 9800 if i understand what he said correctly
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 52
8/16/04 at 4:05pm
How very exciting! I can't wait to get mine.
I would also like to hear about how installation went.
And what server do you play on in FFXI?

P
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 52
8/16/04 at 4:10pm
5256 with 2xAA and AF? OMG!
Can you run 3dmark again with AA and AF off please?
I'd like to see some scores which I can compare with mine.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 52
8/16/04 at 4:15pm
Still waiting for mine to arrive...its been "in transit in the US" since 05:00 Aug 12th...hoping it should hit the border today and have it in my lap by Wed or Thurs.

This is the first time I've ever recieved anything by Purolator...usually use USPS.

Mind if I ask when yours was shipped out? Might give me an idea of how efficient/fast Purolator is...

BTW gratz on your new machine

Did you have to do anything to it other than get the new drivers for the 9800?

And more benchies man....post more numbers!...
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 52
8/16/04 at 4:24pm
mine is slated to ship this thursday, it's been in production since last friday. mine is the card alone though so hopefully the order won't get cancelled like many others have
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 52
8/16/04 at 4:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nomad_03
a fantastic 5256 with 2AA and 4aniso on
what resolution did you run the 3dmark at? 1024x768?
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 52
8/16/04 at 6:22pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grishnak
5256 with 2xAA and AF? OMG!
Can you run 3dmark again with AA and AF off please?
I'd like to see some scores which I can compare with mine.

Ok, with AA off with 1x aniso (for some reason it wont take a 0) i got 6145! Truly remarkable!
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 52
8/16/04 at 6:24pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pranaearth
How very exciting! I can't wait to get mine.
I would also like to hear about how installation went.
And what server do you play on in FFXI?

P

I actually requested to have my lappie exchanged since I was within the 21 day return policy free of charge. No ther issues other than the video card driver. I literally swapped the harddrives. The 9800 driver became downloadable today 8/16.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 52
8/16/04 at 6:25pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by new_parad1gm
what resolution did you run the 3dmark at? 1024x768?
Yes at 1024x768 32bit
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 52
8/16/04 at 6:26pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pranaearth
How very exciting! I can't wait to get mine.
I would also like to hear about how installation went.
And what server do you play on in FFXI?

P
I am on the Asura server in FFXI, my name is "Preatorian"
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 52
8/16/04 at 6:37pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torment
Still waiting for mine to arrive...its been "in transit in the US" since 05:00 Aug 12th...hoping it should hit the border today and have it in my lap by Wed or Thurs.

This is the first time I've ever recieved anything by Purolator...usually use USPS.

Mind if I ask when yours was shipped out? Might give me an idea of how efficient/fast Purolator is...

BTW gratz on your new machine

Did you have to do anything to it other than get the new drivers for the 9800?

And more benchies man....post more numbers!...
Thanks man, its friggan awesome!

Did you order just the card or the entire lappie? I had an exchange performed, which btw takes priority over standard orders.

As far as transit time, it should ship tonight or tomorrow....My transit time from building to arrival was 7 business days. So if your transit time shows today, it probably arrive sooner than the UPS or fedex webpage reflects the current status (thats what happened to me).

I did have use the drivers from the dell support website since some of the pre-installed drivers were actually outdated! The system build comes with CD's that were created on January 4th 2004. Especially update the wireless-g drivers, the old ones have many bugs!
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 52
8/16/04 at 6:52pm
how are the new drivers that dell posted? are they using catalyst 4.7/8/9b? hows their performance in comparison to the omega drivers?
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 52
8/16/04 at 6:58pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by new_parad1gm
how are the new drivers that dell posted? are they using catalyst 4.7/8/9b? hows their performance in comparison to the omega drivers?
I havent used the omega drivers, though what I did use was from www.driver-station.com which were cat 4.7 drivers.

I did see an improvement (albeit just a few pts) in 3dmark03 when i used the Dell drivers.
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 52
8/16/04 at 7:00pm
I ordered the lappie July 28th, was built Aug 6th, shipped Aug 12th...and am jumpin outta my skin waitin for it to arrive lol. This is my first laptop as I usually build my own desktop systems.

BTW are those numbers with or without a fresh OS install? Reason I ask is I'm still debating whether I want to chizel my HD or just say bugger and load up the new drivers and games...

cheers
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 52
8/16/04 at 7:05pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torment
I ordered the lappie July 28th, was built Aug 6th, shipped Aug 12th...and am jumpin outta my skin waitin for it to arrive lol. This is my first laptop as I usually build my own desktop systems.

BTW are those numbers with or without a fresh OS install? Reason I ask is I'm still debating whether I want to chizel my HD or just say bugger and load up the new drivers and games...

cheers
You should have it anytime now! Congrats! The 6145 I maxed out at was with a Fresh install of XP w/ SP2 and all the drivers from the DELL website. dont use the drivers from the cd, or just use them and update accordingly. Well, if you want to dump yer HD, make sure you get the 7200 rpm drive by Hitachi, I saw a big increase with my 8600 (which had a 80gb 4200rpm HD).........12/mb to 29-31/mb performance boost!
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 52
8/17/04 at 6:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torment
I ordered the lappie July 28th, was built Aug 6th, shipped Aug 12th...and am jumpin outta my skin waitin for it to arrive lol. This is my first laptop as I usually build my own desktop systems.

BTW are those numbers with or without a fresh OS install? Reason I ask is I'm still debating whether I want to chizel my HD or just say bugger and load up the new drivers and games...

cheers

hey, are you in Canada or the USA? I ordered mine on July 28th too. And it also shipped on Aug 12th! Crap thing is when i check the dell.ca site, they're saying the eta is aug 23-27. FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Dell Forums › Dell Legacy (single-core notebooks) › Finally got the MR9800 XPS!