The X1400 is a piece of junk

I got my E1505, installed the Omega drivers (chose FastWrite during install). Installed HL2 w/ CS:S. Went ingame and set most of the settings to high, i left shadows and a couple other things on medium. I have AA off, i go to play and it looks like junk, it lags when there is smoke grenades and when i am playing i can always see pixels on everything. I was really expecting more from this card.

 

Could you post a screenshot of the game? I have a Go7400 and I play CS at 1280x800 with no problems.

 

With dell's stock drivers Ican run HL2 CS:S fine...what resolution are you running it at?

 

16:10, 1280X800 i think it is...i will take a screen shot in a bit

 

might want to check what kind of processes you have going on as well. Antivirus progams can make it chug

 

I did the video stress test from Valve, got 32.82FPS

Here are a few screens of CS, as you can see, it looks like crap, not to mention the lag when i look around or there is smoke/explosions going on.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/JitsuGrappler/untitled2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/JitsuGrappler/untitled1.jpg

 

I'm pretty sure it has to do with the graphics card, my commit charge is 204M/3430M

 

It doesnt look that bad. You need some AA for sure, but that would slow it down more. Play around with the settings and youll be alright. Dont forget the x1400 isnt that powerful. Good luck.

 

You said you installed the Omega Drivers. Have you considered this as a possible source of your problem?

If I were you, I would uninstall the Omegas, install the latest Catalyst drivers and maybe tweak them a little. I can provide you with a link to tweak the Catalyst drivers if you decide to go this route.

 

Why would i install the stock drivers over Omega, wouldn't that only downgrade the card performance? Anyone know if the WarCat drivers are good for the X1400?

 

i don't think that looks like junl. You got the laptop for probaly like 1300, and it plays cs s fine. You can't really call it a piece of junk. (op: If i offended you i'm sorry, this post was not meant to offend anyone)

 

You obviously have the settings on Software and not OpenGL.

 

Not really. Many users have reported that the Omega drivers provided little or no difference over the stock Catalyst drivers. If you decide to stick with the Omegas, so be it.

And no; I will not recommend the WarCat drivers since they are known to trade image quality for performance.

 

Changed from DirectDraw to OpenGL and didn't notice to much of a difference

 

Also see - http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html

 

I got about 39fps from the same test at 1280x800 and an X1400. I assume you have too much stuff running in the background or an underclocked card. Mine is 439 / 369

 

uh oh. Now im worried since im looking at a laptop with x1400. It cannot play cs: source smoothely?

 

The X1400 should have no problem playing CS:S at maximum settings (with the exception of AA/AF). This is the first time I've seen it reported that there is trouble with it.

We'll just have to see how this turns out.

 

Here I'm in a little doubt...I can't remember what is default by the driver from Omega, but I leave the Fastwrite part at default. Can't remember if that is on or off though, I think it's off.

My x600 should be similar and I have no problems what so ever playing CS:S

 

Yeah that card should be able to do well with a game like HL2. If is likley your driver that is messing it up. Yeah performance drivers are souposed to increase performance, but there not the default, origionally designed drivers, and could cause issues. Or you might just have a ton of crap on your system, or a full hard drive thats slowing everything down. It really could be alot of things. Id just try the default driver, and do a through cleaning of your computer, including a de-frag.

 

system is newly reformatted, i posted my commit charge, i have nothing running in the background that lags the system, like i said i am pretty sure it is graphic settings. I have been trying different things in the CS menu, but it seems that whenever i turn on antialiasing or antiscopic filtering at all it begins to bring down the performance and i get graphic lag when i play the game.

I went into the advanced controls for the ATI card, and under the 3D tab, for OpenGL i have the first 3 options set to Application Preference, then the next two are High quality, then the last is Default.

 

Well what processor do you have and how much memory? If they are a good then mabey you just have a defective card. Or like I and other people said, just try another driver.

 

No, there's nothing wrong. I have a E1505 + x1400 as well and AA/AF/HDR/Bloom absolutely KILLS my system in Half Life 2. I played through the game at 1200x800 and was able to keep a respectable 40 fps with settings on high, but this is settings on high without AA/AF etc. Had to keep shadows on low-medium.

The x1400 is great for WoW, but not so good on real cutting edge games. I find it runs games a bit worse than my old 9800 Pro (desktop).

 

Ya the only way i can play it without any lag is with AA/AF off and with Shadows off. Good to hear it's not just me.

 

Yeah but HL2 isnt a cutting edge game, it was released in 04. If your talking about EP1 then yeah thats newer.

Heres how I see it. Im getting an M1210. Small screen, and a 7400, which is extreamly close to the X1400. Im not expecting to have AA/AF on HL2, EP1/2/3. Its a 1280x800 resolution, and on a 12 inch screen. Im not even going to be able to notice much of a difference if AA is on at that level. HDR is a must, and If my desktop AGP 4x 6200 can top out HL2 without AA/AF/HDR, then my go 7400 ill be getting soon sure as **** well be able to let me turn HDR on with a small increase in resolution (Im playing at 1024x768 or something). Especially if that 7400 has a 2.16 core duo and 2gb ram to back it up. Im expecting no less than full specs, HDR on HL2, just minus the AA/AF because I wont need it at that screen size.

 

I can see a very big difference from having AA/AF on, to having them off.

 

I dont mean performance wise, I mean visually. And if you do mean visual, then you have a 15.4 inch screen, while I only have a 12.1, there is a difference.

 

Only high-end cards will be able to display all the good stuff. Just cuz the card's not high-end, doesn't mean its junk. If you're a serious gamer, you really shouldn't have picked up a comp. with an x1400...

 

cs:source sucks, load up 1.6 and play a real game.

 

You're misleading everyone here jeff in fairness. Your card is a budget card and it can play Half Life 2/CS S fine, provided you turn off AA and AF...

The way the thread is phrased made me think you cannot run the game at all, when in fact you seem to be able to run it fine without AA or AF enabled....

I ran Counter Strike Source at 25-45fps at 1024x768, with options on medium on an x200 shared card, which is light years behind your card, and I can run it at 1024x768 with options on high apart from AA, AF or shadows on my current 6400 turbocache, which is also inferior to your card.

Don't expect too much from your card when it comes to advanced graphical effects - you get what you pay for, and in this case you have only paid for a cheap card.

 

Usually you wouldn't want to use the stock over Omega, but part of troubleshooting is simplifiying the issue. If you go back to Catalyst drivers and the problem goes away you know that the issue has something to do with the Omega drivers.

If that's the case it could mean you need to change some setting on the Omega or there may be some incompatability issue.

Yes, I do understand that Omega drivers are supposed to be compatible with every Raedeon card.

 

BTW, you can't even use the regular catalyst drivers (downloaded from ATI) with the x1400. Last time I tried, they don't recognize the mobile cards. So the only way to get the latest drivers is to use Omega.

Anyway, yes, the x1400 is a "mainstream" card for laptops which translates into "low end" in comparison to desktop gaming. I wasn't really expecting more, but next time I am definately shelling out the dough for a x1600 or equivalent.

 

I belive the latest Mobility Catalyst 6.6 drivers support the ATI Mobility Radeon X1000 series.

 

Not necessarily - ATI drivers for laptops are always a quagmire.

If you go to ATI's Mobility drivers - https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=19546 (following the links for Notebooks with ATI graphics for Catalyst 6.6) they show a compatibility tool, but no driver download, and refer you to the manufacturers site.

If you go to Dell, they don't show an ATI driver for the E1505, but they do for the E1705 - http://support.dell.com/support/dow...=1&vercnt=3&formatcnt=1&libid=6&fileid=160722 (but it is from April, and doesn't reference the Catalyst revision number).

If you go to ATI and follow the motherboards with ATI graphics link - you get to the https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1699 page and can download a full driver, but I don't know if this will work on the laptop.

Or you can get the desktop ATI driver from https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=640 (but this might not install on the laptops)

However, you can try the DH mod tool ( http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/) but it doesn't list the X1400. (Worked for my older IGP 320 years ago, though).

Heck, I can't even figure out how to update the drivers for the 9200 card in my desktop rig. The 6.6 page says it does NOT support it anymore, but if you go to previous releases, none of them include links to the release notes or say what chips they do support. UPDATE: 6.5 supported it, but it's not like they take you directly to it.

UPDATE: In fairness, I can't say that Nvidia is THAT much better - On the desktop side, they at least do tell me if the current card is not supported to use this driver and provide a link to it. On the notebook side, the only link I see is for a special driver version for the Geforce GoForce 7800 GTX. If I have a GoForce 6400 or GoForce 7900GS, I am not sure where I go b/c the basic Forceware 90 drivers don't say they support any of the GoForce chips, and there product info page doesn't link to a driver either.

 

I have the same laptop as urs (Inspiron 6400) with 1GB RAM, and 256MB ATI X1400, CS Source runs really smooth I got a 35.2 fps on video stress test, and I tried throwing a smoke grenade to see if the fps goes down but every thing is normal, I my settings is at the maximum (1280x800, 6x aa, 16xap, everything high) and I got no problem. I dont why r u complaining on old games, why dont u check the new games (titan quest, oblivion, graw, hitman blood and money...etc.) those game run between 15 to 22 fps maximum which is playable but not as smooth as the older games.

 

the x1400 isnt junk, its a mid/low end card, and it performs pretty well for its class, when you installed the omegas, did you "completely" remove the old drivers? I currently have an e1505 with an x1300, and the omegas sped up older titles a little, but actually hurt performance in newer apps, for example my 3d mark 03 went up 100 points, where 3d mark 05 went down about 80, the x1400 is not a gaming beast, and it was never meant to be, it is a great performer in the mid to low spectrum, wich is exactly what the card was designed to be, thats why it sits between the x1300 and the x1600

 

I am of course not entirely sure, but before the new mobility Cat 6.6 drivers came out, I tried the Omega substitute. All games played horrible. I got an x1600 tho. As soon as I uninstalled and went back to the stock drivers, HL2 was back to running perfectly with HDR, 6xAA, 12xAF, and everything on high. I think Omega might have crappy drivers for the x1X00 series. Personal opinion - don't use Omega unless u got a desktop, and you're benchmark-obsessed. There's no other difference, and it's a third party so...

 

What drivers are you using?

 

Catalyst Mobility 6.5 and currently installing 6.6

 

If you cant fix the problem then try overclocking your GPU, that should give your x1400 some extra oomph.

 

I have the same notebook and I am trying to tweak it to run Call of Duty 2 at acceptable FPS. I have to go to 800x600 to even get 30-40 FPS (online playing at anything under 30 FPS simply sucks in COD2) and I think I may have to kill processes and overclock to get more FPS. The card is not bad but my desktop with an X700, 3.3 GHz overclock P4, and dual channel 1GB RAM simply kills this laptop as far as graphics performance which surprised me a lot (especially since the RAM is running at 333MHz, which is slower than the FSB).

What can I use to overclock my Core duo as well as the video card for more performance while gaming? I have the accidental damage warranty, I guess overclocking and killing it would be considered an "accident"

 

well a x700 is a generation behind, but a step up in the product line if that makes sense

in any case, my lappy simply kills this game, high frame rates, no lag

id think a x1400 would have no trouble with a properly optimised comp, turn off AA/AF and it should run fine, re-install the stock catalyst drivers

 

I've been playing Battlefield 2 for days with everything on max at 1024x768... the only thing turned of is shadows.

 

yep... the x1400 is an amazing card!

 

I could 2, btw, i m running a 9600XT (kinda outdated isnt it, haha)

 

I think BF2 doesn't rely as much on the GPU as it does on your RAM. With 2GB of RAM (or at least 1GB), you should be able to enjoy the game reasonably well.

 

This thread will be merged into here shortly:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=61784

EDIT: Thread merged.