There is an easy solution to gaining 15+ fps on all games with 1520.

The inspiron 1520 is a powerhouse machine with a relatively lower class graphics card. This means that the framerates are being limited entirely by the graphics card. With only slight overclocks 10+ fps gains will be present in all games, making all today's games playable on maximum settings instead of low or medium like the stock card plays on default. If any of you have ever researched overclocking you would know that it's a fairly safe and easy thing to do. There are no immediate risks involved if done correctly, and in this case
it would be entirely worth the venture.

One of the members on this forum temporarily overclocked his GPU on the 1520 to match the DDR3 graphics card on the G1S. The improvements he saw in 3dmark were phenomenal and matched the g1s's performance. He didn't post any game screenshots, but it can be inferred that a 15-25 fps gain would come easy from such an overclock. Such a gain in framerate is worth the small risk of overclocking, especially if the laptops are under warranty.

Don't believe me?: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=143415

The main reason people are afraid to overclock their GPU is the fact that laptops are almost always running hot without tampering with any of the parts. The 1520 may be the first laptop where overclocking won't add significant heat due to its fantastic heat disipation. Will overclocking shorten the laptop's lifespan by a year or two? It's hard to tell, but with an extended warranty it shouldn't matter. Unfortunately for me I don't have more than a year's warranty so I'm going to start off slow (like all overclockers should) and work my way up.

If we work together we may be able to have a safely clocked gaming laptop with all the frills of today's newest games at maximum settings with peace of mind.

 

Gah, guess i'll have to be the guinea pig.

 

not all ram chips are created equal.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=147055

I beat that guy's 3dmark06 score.

 

I was the one that did that overclock and by the way its looking right now, I believe that the 8600gt can be overclocked some more. We just need better drivers. I don't believe heat is the issue since the card barely tops out at 71*C.

I remember I used the 158 drivers and I can only top out my ram at 450mhz but then I used the 165 and now I can top it out at 520ish with the core at 630.

Keep in mind that the artifacting doesn't happen until 625ish/515ish and crashes happening at past that.

So I purely believe this is a driver issue and that the 8600gt can be pushed further.

With that being said, saying that 8600gt will play the newest games with maximum setting is pushing it a little. It does make a huge difference in making something unplayable to playable. Just don't expect to max out AA and Aniso

EDIT: Nice Osserpse, I'm assuming that's in XP? hehe.

I still want to hear from the guy that got his oc to 680/555 cuz that's just pushing it to the max, I believe he couldn't do the standard resolution since his screen is only 1440x900.

 

I'm thinking it's a voltage issue since the temperatures never seem to go above 70 for me and I'm getting artifacts with the core over 600. I'm pretty sure if we ever start modding the bios of the 8600m gt, we could bump up the core voltage a bit and get some very juicy overclocks.

 

Question: if you overclock your graphics card and it breaks, then is the warranty void?

 

No. Dell wouldn't know why it failed.

 

Actually yes they would. They don't have to prove it to void your warranty. OP you really ought to put in a disclaimer, saying overclocking voids your warranty on both CPUs and GPUs. Not to mention what you said was 100% unethical

 

And how would they know? It's all software.

If OCing 'kills' your hardware, you'll still be covered. They can't tell if you did or did not, unless you've flashed a new vga bios with higher voltage/clock speeds. Even then, you're probably still going to be covered before they know what's wrong.

So you'd be fine.

 

Its very easy to test, and both Intel and AMD have Black Boxes that can check this. I've overclocked for over 5 yrs, and have seen people send it overclocked CPUs, that showed no physical damage to only have they returned due to overclocking. Its unethical to return a part that you broke.

 

that you accidentally broke. keep in mind, nobody tries to break their laptop on purpose.

 

not that i'm defending them, i'm just really sick and tired of people rubbing morals against people. i'm sure if you did something stupid to your laptop, ie put in ur backpack and had it crushed or something, you would send it back if you had accidental care. what's the difference between something stupid like that and overclocking?

 

actually if you had accidental care, i would think that to be still covered.

Can someone PLEASE post a how to on oc'ing the 1520. I can never get the clocks to stick. They always just revert back. I am dying to see what i can make it do, but no one will help.

 

overclocking is deliberate. Maybe people keep saying it because its Immoral

 

you can easily upgrade the core to 650, but be careful with the memory.

 

unless you flash the bios on the GPU, software overclocks(ntune, rivatuner etc) are suppose to revert back with each restart.

 

you're right. but say you put your laptop in harms way, putting a glass of water next to it. i can argue it was deliberate. putting it say near the edge of the table. that's also deliberate. like i said, the only immoral people here are people who overclock to break their computer. pushing as much juice as possible is not.

 

No, but that's indirect.

I'd say frying hardware in your computer due to excessive overclocking/overvolting would be on the same level as taking your computer and throwing it on the ground. Direct, deliberate action.

 

you're assuming that an overclocker is thinking "I want to fry my computer today, let's see how far I can push it."

i'm assuming an overclocker is thinking "i want to see how far I can push this system safely."

direct maybe, but deliberate is a no.

 

They may be able to check it (and I really doubt they can), but they won't act on it. You'll still be covered for damage caused by overclocking, end of story.

 

LOL, if you think that overclocking is unethical I'd hate to see what else you consider as such. How about a company falsely advertising a graphics card? (Dell and the geforce ddr2 card) I consider myself to have good morals and don't pirate, steal, kill, etc, but I DO overclock. Many card manufacturers even promote overclocking or overclock their cards themselves. Dell even has a forum dedicated to overclocking discussions.

I don't want this thread to turn into a battle of morals. Unless you have any information to add concerning overclocking the 1520's gpu don't post plz.

 

if you read anything I wrote, I did not say overclocking is unethical, i said plainly that I do, I was saying that something your RMA that you broke knowingly through overclocking is immorral. You want to know about ocing GPUs? I can give you plently of info mainly the GPU is generation enough heat without being overclocked. the cooling is not that good to begin with, so gains will be minimal at best.

 

The majority of heat gain from overclocking comes from the application of higher voltages, not necessary from faster clock speeds. Hence the fact that everyone who overclocks their 8600m GT in the 1520 say that they only get around 2-5c higher temps. But then again, the latest line of Inspirons seem very good at dissipating heat.

Also, I get quite decent performance gains when overclocking my 8600m GT.

 

What drivers, OS, and software did you use? ^

 

NGO's 158.22, Windows XP, Rivatuner.

 

Hopefully a similar vista driver will come out soon because most of the people with 1520s are running Vista.