Video Performance : HP Pavilion Dv5t with NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS

Hi All,

I believe this is an issue with a lot of other Dv5t owners here, the problem of having non-optimal /under par performance of Nvidia Graphics accelerator 9200/9600 used with Windows Vista.

I have done some troubleshooting myself, but yet to find a working solution.

My configuration is :

Pavilion Dv5t CTO Notebook.
15.4" diagonal WSXGA+ LCD.
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P7350 (2.0GHz)
Current Running Resolution 1680 x 1050.
3GB system RAM.
NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS with 256 MB of RAM.
Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit.

The degraded performance I am talking about is not specifically for games and 3D applications. Nor is playing games and running 3D rendering my primary purpose. The various benchmarks and tests mentioned at this site maybe more directed towards running specific games and other applications.

I am more concerned about the overall feel and response time of Windows Vista with Aero interface enabled. It is very sluggish and choppy. The general scrolling in Internet Explorer / Firefox / Directory Opus is slow and screen update lags the speed of the mouse cursor on the scroll bar. ( if you put the mouse cursor on any scroll bar and drag it eitherways).

There is an issue around on the internet about the firefox web page scrolling becoming choppy. But its a generic issue and not specific to this notebook only. I did try the trick mentioned for this issue but this does not fix the choppy page scrolling in Firefox, let alone the windows UI behavior is the same.

Looks like this video card surprisingly is not able to cope with the full eye-candy enabled version of Windows Vista Aero Glass. How much more powerful video card does it needs.?

I did conclude this because if i change the Windows Vista theme to Vista Basic (non-aero) then everything becomes fine and desktop and applications look more responsive. The page scrolling becomes smooth and quick.

However i did pay for this laptop and Windows Vista, to run it in the full Aero mode, to enjoy all the desktop effects and customizations, not to run it in a outdated UI interface. It disappoints here then.

I have tried checking the video drivers from 3 sources , to see if the drivers can fix this issue. But none of these seem to fix the issue.

1. HP Support Website (sp39709.exe)
2. Nvidia website (Drivers version 179.28)
3. LaptopVideo2Go (Forceware modded INF drivers ver 180.79)
4. Also tried running NVTweak (to see if Nvidia can be overclocked, no use however)
5. Also tried updating DirectX (is it used in Windows Vista Aero Screen Rendering? dont know)

Now can anyone facing similar issues guide me to a working solution to fix this choppy display behaviour of Windows Vista with Aero Glass interface. Which version of video drivers do resolve it, because some people have been trying with drivers ver 17x.xx .

Also please guide if this video card can be overclocked, how to do it and does overclocking only effects the games/application performance or it does also speed up the Windows GUI interface?

Thank you for reading through the long post. Hope to have some useful input from everyone.

Regards,
AlterEgo.

 

Download GPU-z to monitor yor core shader and mmory clocks. I have a 9600 in my dv5, but ill have a look when I get home later. i do know that my card can be overclocked, not sure about the 9200, but check this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=328025
To be perfectly honest though, you shouldnt need to overclcock to provide a smooth aero experience. Also, what power plan are you using? Hp recommended, Power Svaer or High Performance?

Also, download HWMonitor and check your temps... there shouldnt be an issue, but you never know...

Regards
lukext

 

Well,

I have changed the power plans to both Saver and High Performance, but they dont seem to make any difference.

HWmonitor, in case of temperature cannot be a problem, since this performance is not degraded after long usage hours. It is the same if I start a totally cold laptop even in winters with lower temperatures.

Surprisingly it some times starts behaving smooth If I change the vista theme to Basic (no aero animations) and then after working for sometime change back to Vista Aero. For some strange reason the Aero starts behaving perfectly normal and smooth , but this is an odd way anyways and doesn't work always.

Any other ideas are welcome.

Regards.

 

Try updating your BIOS to the lastest one. Then if that doesn't work, maybe try a "clean" install of Vista.

Make sure you download all the drivers first and back those up on a CD or Thumbdrive.

I have a friend who has the 9200m gs and his runs fine on his dv5t even on "powersaver" mode, it's still smooth and silky. Also has the 1680x1050 screen rez.

He's using the official Nvidia driver from their website. I would try the clean install for sure, then install all drivers and see if that works.

If not, then maybe there are issues with your graphics card.

 

Thanks,

It is a clean install. Just did with the Vista ultimate DVD. Then tried official NVidia drivers first. Then the others to see any difference. Usually my laptop is always plugged in, so have moved the battery settings to high performance.

Have already updated BIOS from F.02a to F.11 as given on the HP website.

Please ask your friend is he using full aero UI mode with all animations and customizations. Then ask him to open long web pages or word documents and try scrolling up and down and see the responsiveness of the screen update in both Vista Aero and Vista Basic mode.

Would be useful to hear from his performance. Also ask how much Video Card memory and system memory he has.

Thanks and Regards.

 

He has the same model as you do, a dv5t and 256mb nvidia geforce 9200m gs.

There's no slow down when scrolling if that's what you mean.

He is running full aero ui and with all animations. Even on battery it still runs smooth.

 

any other ideas? i have choppy problems too

 

ive got no problems like this. strange.

 

This is a problem spread across.

have a look at this thread

http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/146443-laggy-scrolling-vista.html

I am still unable to find a solution for it else than disabling Windows Vista Aero theme and switching to Vista Basic theme after which everything strangely starts behaving normally.

Thanks.

 

Same problem with me, I just downgraded to driver version 7.15.11.7597. Aero has jumped to 3.5, not a significant improvement, however.

I've been told it's because of GDDR2

I wonder if modifying vBios can solve the problem. But so far, I could not make a vBios dump.

Notebook:
dv6-1045ee
Intel P8600 @2.4mhz
3Gb Ram
nVidia gForce 9200M GS W/512m RAM, GDDR2