Improving the Go 6200 Performance For the Vaio S380

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Sony Vaio S380, 32 MB of video memory is dedicated, while 96 MB is shared. I have added 512 MB to the existing 512 MB the laptop came with hoping I would get a better gaming experience. Albeit, I knew this machine wouldn't hold up against the ultra high-end machines on the market (and gaming wasn't the sole reason why I purchased this machine), but I thought at least I'd be able to play games like "Max Payne", "Ghost Recon" and perhaps "Brothers in Arms" to name a few. But, much to my chagrin the only game I can play without any choppiness is the "Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear" series. So, I am beginning to think that perhaps if I remove the 512 MB module and replace it with a 1 GB module, that may solve the problem and at least allow me to play "Ghost Recon", which for those of you who aren't gamers, is an older game based on an older graphics engine (which originally lead me to believe it would hold up on this machine, much like "Rogue Spear" does).

My question is, do you think having 1512 MB will significantly bring about a difference and allow me to play many of the games I want to play on this machine? That is, taking into consideration 96 MB is shared.

PS: Do not send any messages to my e-mail on my profile. Send all messages to [email protected] (remove the letters in caps).

 

More memory wont solve the problem beyond what you have added. It has to do with the GPU's capability and the SPEED of the memory to interface with the GPU. If it is using onboard memory, then the speed is less -and the bandwidth is also less. "GDD3" memory that is on dedicated graphics cards -and ships with laptops with dedicated VRAM is much faster, and has more bandwidth to feed the graphics processor.

Things you can try:
Try and see if there are any BIOS updates for the laptop that enable "turbocache" feature on 6200's -if it isnt already enabled. Enables more efficient use of the shared and dedicated VRAM.

*Update your nVidia drivers
*Install the latest game patches/updates.
*Investigate overclocking options for the GPU while you are gaming. Then reset to regular speeds when just doing 2D stuff (ie try coolbits reg hack).
*Check the in-game settings for graphics options. Drop the quality a few notches. Tweak in-game as well as in the nvidia driver settings to drop image quality to gain performance.

 

Installing the 1 gig stick might actually drop performance since you would no longer be able to use dual channel as you would have different size RAM sticks. I'm kind of surprised that you can't play Max Payne though. It is the first one right? I was able to play that on my gateway desktop I think 1.2 Ghz with Intel's integrated memory, and it ran pretty well. Perhaps your problem may be do to overheating as I can't see why having a more powerful cpu, more RAM, and a better gpu wouldn't give you better gameplay. Though I had my setting set pretty low.

 

I was able to play "Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne", but up to a certain point when the graphics and sound went all funky on me. I suppose the system couldn't handle all of the data for that particular scene. At first I thought it was a fluke, so I tried again two times and ran into the same problem. So, I chalked it up as the machine not being able to handle the game any further.

 

Everything is updated. I know that this machine cannot handle a game with all of the settings on high, so I always turn them down. However, that still doesn't help for the newer games, and I'm not surprised.

I've already checked the BIOS. I'm very limited as to what I can change, and anything having to do with the GPU isn't one of the things I can change. So, I downloaded Rivatuner; a program which I have installed on my desktop. It works great, but I know I must be very careful using it on my laptop, since cooling is a huge issue. I could also give the program you suggested a try. Thank you for your help.

 

So, I downloaded the nVidia Coolbits Forceware registry hack. It has been extracted to the registry. Now what do I do?

 

Go to your display properties in control panel, click on the Settings tab and then click on the Advanced button at the bottom of the window. You'll be presented with the NVidia Go 6200 Properties window, select the GeForce Go 6200 Tab and you'll notice that in the pop-up menu you now have Clock Frequency Settings listed as an option - click on this and then click the Manual overclocking radio button on the right. Next accept the Terms and Conditions by scrolling to the bottom and clicking "I accept".

In the Settings pull-down under Manual overclocking select Performance (3D), now you can click on the Detect Optimal Frequencies button to have NVidia's drivers select "optimal" clock rates. It should return values something like 330MHz for the Core speed and 660MHz for the Memory speed, the detected memory speed is usually pretty much optimal but the detected Core speed is still very conservative - I run my S460 at a stable core speed of 395MHz (I run the memory at 660 MHz as 668MHz was the highest I could go).

Also make sure you have only essential background processes and Windows services starting when you logon on as the amount of resources being used at startup can make a big difference to game performance. A good measure is the size of your Pagefile Usage at startup (shown in Task Manager), you should aim for it being no more than 200MB once you've logged into Windows.

The main difference however will be achieved by the overclocking using Coolbits, if you run 3DMark 2001SE you should now score around 10,000 3DMarks and in 3DMark '03 you should get around 3,000 3DMarks. This should enable you to play Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty no probs, and even Far Cry and Doom 3 with lowest settings.

 

Well, I don't want to dissappoint you, but the GeForce Go6200 is a low end card. In order to run games properly, they should be on lower settings.

To solve your problems, try my advice.

Put all the settiings as low as they go in your game.
Then, go up from there. Increase the settings in small increments, and see how far you can go before it slows down.

Considering that you are playing on a GeForce 6200, I strongly suggest keeping the shadows on Low or OFF, and they are the hardest things to do for a video card. Also, keep the Antiailasing and Antistrophic Filtering off, as they slow down the video card more than anything. Also, keep shader effects on Medium or Low also, as the GeForce6200 only has a small number of pixel and vertex pipelines.

Have fun.

 

Well, I have the core clock frequency set to 360, and the memory clock frequency set to 704.

 

Just upgrading to nVidia's latest Forceware driver (Ver 77.72) gives a good performance jump. But you may have already done that with Coolbits (I'm not familiar with it).

Also, make sure your CPU is in "performance" mode where it won't throttle down. And I've heard upgrading to 1GB RAM can make a big improvement for some games (won't help video performance, but can help speeding up other tasks), but I doubt going above that will make a huge difference.

Another discussion about tweeking a Sony and Go 6200 card can be found here

 

Yes, I have it in "Performance 3D" mode. I also have 1024 GB of memory. I'm pullin' over 50 frames per second with 640 x 400 x 32 @ 60 Hz screen resolution in "Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis". A step higher and my system lags like crazy.