Getting the most of of a M1530

I just bought a Dell M1530

Intel Core 2 Duo processor 2.2 Ghz
256 MB INVIDIA GeForce 8600 M GT Video Card
2 gigs of DDR2 SDRAM

What can I do to get the most out of it for playing games such as: Oblivion, COD4, The Witcher, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, ect.

How well will these games run on this machine?

 

u can update the drivers and overclock if u want. the games u listed will play very well on the sytem. settings such as medium but mostly high on a decent resolution

 

What drivers do I update to and how? Also is there a tutorial for overclocking a GPU?

 

I´m waiting for mine too, can anyone point to a guide for overclocking (for noobs).
Also who can post some safe clock speeds for the ddr3 version of the 8600m GT? I have seen a lot of scores for the ddr2 but none for the ddr3.

 

u can update your drivers from laptopvideo2go.com. they also have a guide on how to do it there. remember to use the modded inf. as for overclocking u can use a program like riva tuner and overclock the frequencies.remember do this at your own risk

 

Did you overclock yours? if so what speeds gave you stable performance?

 

its pretty simple ill tell u how to do it:
1. open rivatuner
2. go to the main tab and choose customize in the driver settings bar
3. choose system settings
4. bars should appear u can use these to overclock the card.
hope this helps. as for safe settings it a matter of trial and error. set configs. and run games and if they are stable and dont crash then the overclock is safe

 

i havnt myself as i think the preformance from the card is good enough

 

thx. I can´t wait for my 1530. How's yours with the temps?

 

they are pretty good. if u overclock remember to check the temperatures and not let them get over 80-85 degrees celcius.

 

The gddr3 version of the card (the one in the m1530) overclocks VERY well. I would recommend tweaking it at least a little to boost performance.

 

my advice is that when u receive the pc dont overclock it out of the box but play games first and if your dissatisfied with the preformace then do it

 

I might overclock it in the future when I get crysis, COD4 and the witcher. As for as soon as it arrives I`ll just be playing fear and Half life 2. I'm definitely getting the witcher but I might not need to overclock for that.

 

u wont need to do it for COD 4 either or even crysis if u are happy to play it at medium settings

 

Also, realize that overclocking isn't going to allow you to play games you couldn't otherwise play or make the difference between being able to run on low and high, but it can give you a few extra frames per second which can make a difference if something is barely playable (I'm looking at you, Crysis).

 

Here is a good guide for overclocking.
Tim

 

Is the 256 version of the 6800m GT ddr2 or ddr3 and what is the performance difference between the two?

 

I think you meant the 8600M GT. And the difference is that the GDDR3 card is better than the DDR2 card. However, if you overclock your graphics cards like I do, you can beat a GDDR3 card with a DDR2 one.

 

Does anybody have screenshots of COD4 and/or Oblivion on a similarly configured m1530?


Also what drivers should I download, what are the best in terms of performance?

 

u should download 169.04
as they have been the best for me

 

Yes, but remember you have to revert to earlier (15x.xx version?) driver versions to software overclock otherwise you have to do a BIOS mod.