dv8000 video card tweaks?

Hey guys,

I just recently purchased a HP Pavilion dv8000 laptop w/ a 17" screen. Love it...except the graphics card won't play ANY decent game. I was told if I update my firmware it might help. Does any1 have any suggestions on how I could tweak it to play some half-way decent games? I can't play anything it's so choppy!

Thanks,

Dan

 

About all you can do is cut the resolution back. 800x600 usually works, you might be able to do a bit better. The Radeon 200M is one of the best GPUs in its class (I'd give the new GeForce 6150 a slight edge) but it's just not designed for serious gaming. Sorry.

 

so you think call of duty 2 is out of the question?

 

Yeah the ATI Video card isn't much of a gamer... you need the dv8000t for a good gaming laptop.

 

a friend told me if I had a PCI-Express slot, I would be able to put a new video card in the laptop...does any1 know if that is possible with my model laptop (dv8135nr)? I called HP and they aren't being very helpful right now

 

He must be thinking of a MXM slot or ATI's equivalent and no, you don't have one.

The Go 7400 is hardly a gaming GPU either, what with its 64-bit memory bus and all, though it is better than the Radeon 200M. You want at least a Go 7600 or an ATI X1600.

 

Brian,

I am able to play every new game on the market at medium setting with no issues “games: BF2, Oblivion, AOE3, BFME2, AOM, COD2, Ghost Recon, Fear, CnC ZH, CSS, HL2 you name it she plays it”. So I would call it a proper gamer card. About 20 times better then the ATI 200X

Both my dv8000t's Love all games!

 

At what resolution?

20x? C'mon.

 

I am running the games at the following:

BF2 - 1280 x 1024 - medium across the board no AA at 85%
BFME2 - 1280 x 1024 - medium and some High
Oblivion 1280 x 1024 - No AA and No HDR
HL2 - 1280 X 1024 - mostly medium and some high
CnC ZH - 1440 x 900 - High
BFME1 - 1280 x 1024 - High
FEAR - 1280 x 1024 - medium
AOM - 1440 x 900 - High
AOE3 - 1280 x 1024 - Medium and some high low shadows

Not so shabby for a 7400, I play games all the time and if the performace wasn't to par I would have sent it back. It may not be a high end gamer, but it plays all new games on the market.

 

Nice! That's a lot better than I though it would do.

I still want at least a 7600 whenever HP rolls out a Turion X2 replacement for the dv8000z. You hear me HP? (Yeah, right, sigh...)

I loaded up UT2004 Demo today and... ugh. It's playable at 800x600, barely. I had played it on a desktop with the shared memory version of the Radeon 200 (Shuttle box with an Athlon 64 3000+) and I could swear it was smoother. The graphics look good, it's just the framerate that's lousy. I didn't try cutting the detail back. Granted I only have a ML32 (low-end Turion) but geeze. Aquamark averaged a bit over 12fps (1024x768 res). I've got 2GB of PC3200 RAM so no problems there.

 

The dv8000t, now, has the "256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7600" option, as listed on costco.com.

http://www.costco.com/CTO/HPConfigurator.aspx?Prodid=10029570&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=&model=EX177AV

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=55821

 

Well just thought i would let you guys know, but my first dv8000t when i recieved it, I had only 1 gig of ram in it, and of course the go 7400, which ran like **** because some of the earlier dv8000's were showing up as using 512 ram instead of 256. Anyway to get on to my point. I returned the first one and got a new one with everything the same except 2 gigs of ram, and the card now shows as 256 memory. And now when i play BF2 i had everything on high and 4x AA, and 100% clip plane, It ran perfectly , no glitching at all. I think they must have reflashed the bios, becuase bf2 actually runs at all settings high and 4x AA on my go 7400.

But anywho, my new dv8000t will be here soon with the new go 7600