FireGL v5200 -> x1600 : How to?

On loan from Lenovo, I got my hands on a T60p notebook, and the first thing I wanted to do was install the Catalyst drivers (the x1600 drivers, to overwrite the graphics card identification from the FireGL to the Radeon) on the machine. (Side note: I noticed that it currently has the Catalyst Control Center v1.2.2)

I ran a test on the machine, to see what games I can play as-is, ( http://www.srtest.com/referrer/srtest). Apparently, based on the test, this machine can't run WoW , as it failed on the graphics card test (bunk.) Obviously the card is capable of it, although it may need to go through the re-imaging with the x1600 drivers.

I'm looking for insight/feedback on :

a) How do I overwrite the v5200 drivers with the x1600? I thought it would be as simple as D/L'ing the Catalyst executable from the ATI site, however it fails when I attempt this. Also tried to use the Windows 'Update driver' function, although it will not locate another driver different than the v5200, even when pointing to the directory I unzipped the x1600 catalyst files.

b) Should I even attempt to re-image this card as a x1600? Is the value worth the trouble?

As soon as I get these details worked out, I'll give a full review of the machine when running it through the gauntlet for those interested. Thanks in advance.

 

if this is a loaner, then i wouldnt even do anything to the card...if this IS your card, then you would most likely have to reflash the bios of the card, unlock pipes, etc...also, this WILL void your warrenty, and if done wrong can cause problems within the system..i am not familiar with your specific card, and i am not even sure you are able to do it on that particular card....best bet, post it in the ibm/lenovo forum, and google it..

hope this helps,

pb,out.

 

Download Omega Drivers. Try them and see. You may need to uninstall the current driver manually (revert to standard VGA).

I will be interested to know how it went, so please post here to keep us updated.

 

a simple reinstall of the drivers will not change the card. if your card has pipes that arent being used, and are used in an x1600, then you would need the x1600 BIOS, and a utility to change the pipes around...it isnt that easy, and you could cause problems in your system if done wrong..also, as i mentioned before it viods the warrenty.

pb,out.

 

The cards have the same number of pipes and none are disabled, as far as I know.

 

even if that is the case, he may need a BIOS from an x1600...having seen quite a few desktop GPU unlocked, they always used the newer cards BIOS, then they used the drivers. im not sure if the notebook line of GPUs are different, but it should be.

pb,out.

 

Maybe it's not needed to make the card look like X1600 to perform like X1600... As long as it runs the games fine, does it matter if Windows sees it as Radeon or FireGL?

In any case, I'm very interested in the outcome of this.

 

that could be the case, but i would assume that games will not detect it as a x1600, and would see it as a v5200 and assume it is a work card, and will not work properly.

by having the x1600 BIOS, you would force the computer to see it as a x1600, and it will pass the minimum requirements check (like WoW..it wont let you install it unless you PASS the minimum requirements). i would also like to know the outcome of this..keep us posted please.

pb,out.

 

Hey folks - Thanks for the great feedback. The comments made are in line with a bios flash that I performed on my desktop Radeon 9800 Pro, using the XT drivers. As the Radeon cards (not sure how any of the other manufacturers handle this element) use one set of drivers (Catalyst) as the prime driver installation method, I've never been presented with the ability to select the card drivers I want to install. The Catalyst control center has always auto detected the card for me. In the case of my 9800 Pro, the re flashing of the BIOS did the trick, and it made quite the difference.

Nevertheless, I powered on the Thinkpad 60p last night, and I ran a couple of tests. First off , let me say that the Thinkpad looks AMAZING. I cranked up the brightness setting in the BIOS, ran Windows at the native resolution of 1600x1200, and ****. Very impressed. As I havent had prior experience with XPS or Alienware machines, or any of the more recent midrange to power heavy laptops, I dont have much to compare it to (comparing it to an HP Compaq nc6220 and a Thinkpad T42p). Suffice it to say, it looked and ran very nice. On to the tests....

1) I ran 3dmark on the laptop, and recieved a score of 6049. This result was slightly lower than that of my AMD64, 1gb mem, 256mb 9800xt 3dmark score, so I would consider that a success.

2) I installed WoW shortly after this, which by the way, came up with a warning right off the bat saying that my processor didnt meet the minimum requirements for the game. I found this rather strange, seeing as how the Core Duo (Centrino) seemed like it should be more than enough to run the game just fine.

After getting through the install and D/L'ing the patches (which was somewhat frustrating due to the wireless tools getting a little wonky on me) I started up WoW, and ... wow. Initially, I copied over all my settings from my desktop to get a baseline of this laptop vs the desktop. I had to turn down a few of the settings to have the game run like glass, and was still very pleased with the resulting game play and graphics. Hot stuff....

An hour into the game, the laptop was still running relatively cool (little heat up, but to be expected from a machine like this, and a game like that) and noticed the power cable wasn't plugged in! So yeah, the game was running a little slower compared to the desktop, but without the power cable plugged in the Thinkpads by default (as I would assume most laptops do) sacrifices some of its speed to compensate for battery life.

Once I plugged the guy in, it was time to crank the settings back up to where I had them before (mid-high lvl settings) running at 1600x1200 (desktop resolution).

I will post again after some extended tests, but so far, great results.

 

Hey Inverted mate

First I want to congratulate with in my eyes world's best laptop. My brother has an IBM...it is rocksolid...really with everything. I am very impressed by the 3d mark score! Good job...

And one thing with WoW...that your CPU doesnt meet is bull****...Do you know that an T2500 Core Duo is as good as an AMD X2 4400+ with games?! So dont listen to that... Just give it a try with settings max!!!

Charlie da Silva from Peru

 

On a side note, I hate cra ppy games that attempt to decide for me whether the game can be run, based on hardware they know. Like I've had games complain that the Pentium M CPU cannot run the game, because it was detected as a 600MHz CPU (due to speedstepping) and the game had a min 1GHz requirement.

 

Yeah, upon seeing the error, I had a grin on my face ... knowing it would be more than enough to take the game on.

I'll try the game on jacked up settings tonight. Final review of the machine vs. WoW coming tomorrow.

Seeing as how many of the folks that ordered these laptops are still waiting for them, does anyone want me to run this thing through other tests? The more I can help the community, and further identify to myself that buying this thing will eventually be the right move (post loaner date), the better.

 

Update : Had WoW cranked last night to full settings with the 60p. Worked pretty darn well for a non-gaming machine. Had some hiccups in MC and IF (for those that don't know, very cluttered areas in-game, with a high level of action happening at all times). There was some tearing on the screen when moving through zones at a high rate of speed (mount or flight) but it definitely didn't outweight the positives.

The screen clarity, incredible resolution, and superb brightness make playing this game (I'll test more soon) a blast. I want to get my hands on Oblivion to run that through the paces... almost worth buying just to see how it runs on this fella.

Any suggestions for further tests (S/W downloads?) to grind out the reality of the capabilities would be appreciated.

Game on!

 

3DMark is a good synthetic benchmark, might try 3DMark05 and 3DMark06. It's not as good as benchmarking a game, but still gives a decent indicator of performance.

Chaz

 

Inverted, then you didn't touch drivers/bois/etc. to play WoW, did ya?

can we install omega drivers to T60p?

 

So what are the exact steps for getting a T60p with a FireGL V5200 running WoW?

I've tried the default 2005 drivers, the ATI 2007 drivers, the omega drivers (based on Catalyst 7.1), and the ATI Raedon drivers (Catalyst 7.4) so far. They've all resulted in 2-5m of game time in WoW followed by a machine hang. I have to power down the machine and restart it to get it running again.