ATI FireGL V5200 with 256MB in Thinkpad T60

I have heard that this card is the business version of the X1600. That being said, can it play games? If so, how well can it play games - similar to the X1600?
I know that this card is not designed for games, but the Thinkpad T60 has everything I need in a laptop, with the exception of this card. But if it can play games well, than I will be purchasing pretty soon. I know that this card is not Radeon, so it may not be supported by many games. But if a card is not supported by a game, does that mean that it can not play the game? Please let me know. Thanks a lot!

 

yes it can play games...but not like the X1600. but it will fly in CAD programs!!!!

 

But if a game does not support this card, can it still play the game?

 

its meant for CAD Drawings...Seriously ,its like an Indy Car ..But for games , well the performance it would not be that great.....But you could still play games. Its optimized for OpenGL and CAD programs like AutoCAD..But for gaming , I am not too sure

 

It can still play games, although you may run into compatability issues with certain ones and they might refuse to run. Performance won't be to the level of a traditional X1600, but not that far off. Try to get a regular Radeon/GeForce card for gaming - the HP nc8430 is worth a look.

 

i definetely want the thinkpad. would it make more sense to go with the X1400 card since that most likely won't run into compatibility issues? Also, is it possible to install X1600 drivers on the FireGL Card, turning it into a X1600 so that it won't have any compatibility issues?

 

i um dont think thats possible...because the card its self is a FireGL....so

 

There used to be ways of turning a radeon into its firegl counterpart, but never the otherway around.

 

So in terms of gaming, what would be the better card to purchase, the X1400 or the FireGL V5200?

 

I wanted to ask the same exact question.

edit: assuming cost is no object

 

We recently bought T60p at work (not for me). It's specs are similar to this system, http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=926871.

We did run into lot of problems with the video drivers/settings Lenovo provided. One of the 3D intensive OpenGL-based apps I use did rendering at only 1fps (that's 1 as in one)!!! even after all the new bios and video driver updates. I finally got it to work properly after uninstalling the previous driver and then doing the installation of the latest drivers from Lenovo.

One other thing, I did try to install the Unified FireGL driver from ATI but couldn't because it didn't recognize the card. So, you are pretty much stuck with what Lenovo provides for the video drivers (which I think comes with drivers for 3D Max/VIZ), and may not be able to use anything from ATI.

Other than that, I do like the overall performance of the system...and the screen is amazing, it's way better than the hp2035 I use!
I haven't tried playing games on it though.

 

Could you try and run HL2 on it?

 

I'm not able to run WoW on a T60p with 2GB RAM and the ATI Mobility FireGL V5200. I've tried the following drivers:

Lenovo Catalyst 5.12/5.13/6.1 based 12/20/2005 - 8.204.0.0 - Bench: 1508
Ran WoW for an hour, crashes with any shaders enabled. No unsupported errors in event log.


Lenovo Catalyst Unknown 9/13/06 - Direct3D 6.14.10.0431 - 8.293.1.0 - Bench: 1591
Played WoW for 2 hours in old world and EotS just fine, crash every few minutes in
Shadowmoon Valley though. No unsupported errors in event log.


Omega Drivers Catalyst 7.1 based 12/16/06 - 8.33.0.0 - 6.14.10.6660 - Bench: 1608
Crashes frequently in WoW. Unsupported errors in event log.

ATI Catalyst Mobile 7.4 3/14/07 - 8.360.0.0 - 6.14.10.6683 - Bench: 1612, 1609
Crash after a few minutes in Org. Unsupported errors in event log.

ATI Catalyst Modded 7.4 3/14/07 - 8.360.0.0 - 6.14.10.6683 - Bench: 1614
Crash after a few minutes in Org. Unsupported errors in event log.

ATI/AMD FireGL Drivers - Won't install, mod tool doesn't support, drivers not made for mobility.

The game looks really great on this laptop and the performance is pretty good (40-60 FPS). The problem is just that it will lock up randomly. Then I have to power off the machine and reboot. This obviously makes the game unplayable for me.