The GF4 4200go (NV28) is a great card, and in a lot of DX8.1 games and apps it actually outperforms the FX5650 (NV31). However, the NV31 offers DX9 support and the newer drivers seemed to fix up a lot of the problems it was having compared to its ATI brethren.
However, I must warn you that if you decide on the NV31 it was not designed for the i8500, but the i8600. Most users whom have gotten it to work had to underclock it and keep the fans on all the time using i8kfanGUI to combat the heat (otherwise it would shut down after a few minutes use). I tried this myself and found that the NV28 was better than the NV31 after this underclocking by a long shot, not to mention that any small advantage I would have gotten was offset by the price, so I sent it back and kept my NV28.
However I remember reading that one user on this board got it to work without underclocking by putting thermal compound (like Arctic Silver) on both the CPU and GPU and placing a foam divider between them to stop heat bleeding through from the CPU, as well as keeping the fans on with i8kfanGUI. This seems awfully convoluted and silly just to get a card working that is not too much better than the 4200go in the first place.
So I suggest that the NV28 is the better option out of the two. But I would recommend waiting a little bit longer, as people will start recieving their 128MB Mobilty Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo's (M10) from Dell spare parts and trying them in the i8500 from the end of this month. It is possible that this upgrade may work, and if so is a much better option than both the NV28 and NV31, so keep an eye out on these forums for word f the success/ failure of this upgrade. If it turns out a no go then go for the NV28. Cheers.
The Nvidia 5650 scores indeed only little better in DX8 than the 4200. Mine gives arround 11400 3Dmark2001SE points.
In DX 9 the 5650 should score a lot better (mine has 2800 3D marks in 3dmark2003build340)
It is however a very hot card indeed. In my 8600 it gets up to 90 °C hot. This does not cause any unstability issues however. If the 8500 has a slightly less performant cooling system it will indeed cause the card to overheat. This can however be solved by installing the modified 52 or 53 drivers from nvidia who have build in overheat protection. When the gpu reaches 95 °C it throtles down the GPU.
If other 8500 users have heat issues with this card I would go for the 4200 as well. The radeon 9600 is also not an option as it produces as much heat as the nvidia
If the 8500 has a slightly less performant cooling system it will indeed cause the card to overheat.
8500 has identical to 8500 "cooling system", in fact they are absolutely alike except used chipset and cpu. The problem with 5650 was that i8500 BIOS shut the system down, because critical temperature threshold setttings are different from 8600.
8500 has identical to 8500 "cooling system", in fact they are absolutely alike except used chipset and cpu. The problem with 5650 was that i8500 BIOS shut the system down, because critical temperature threshold setttings are different from 8600.
This is 100% correct. The i8500 BIOS is set to shut down the system if the GPU reaches a certain temperature (lets say, 80deg celcius for example). This never caused a problem because the NV28 and M9 that shipped with the system never get this hot without overclocking. However, the NV31 does reach this and then some, so the BIOS would shut off the system when it was working. To combat this in the i8600 BIOS Dell just raised the cutoff temperature so it worked with no problem.
This could be a problem with the M10 as well, as most people whom have it report temperatures in the same area as those with the NV31...... So we are all hoping for a BIOS update for the i8500 from Dell.
But if this heat is persistent and no new BIOS is forthcoming, it doesn't mean the end of the issue. It could still be used if proper cooling methods were in place such as a cooling pad, i8kfanGUI to control the fans, some arctic silver maybe, etc, etc.
My GPU sometimes gets to 90 °C with all fans at absolute maximum. The artic silver and cooling pad may help to get it some degrees lower. Has anybody an idea what the shutdown temp for the 8500 is? If it is only some ° it might work. But anything more than 5°C will be difficult.
As the GPU has the motherboard underneath it on one site and its heatsink on top on the other side I even doubt the efficiëncy of a coolpad as the underside of the laptop usually remains very cool. But if some ° do the trick it is worth a try.
I doubt dell will issue a bios update for this as they do not support video card upgrades and the nvidia 5650 or radeon 9600 are not supported for the 8500. I guess however some smart guy out there will eventualy post a "hacked" bios as the only thing you need to do is change one integer value!
sakor1
2.2K Posts
0
January 20th, 2004 02:00
The GF4 4200go (NV28) is a great card, and in a lot of DX8.1 games and apps it actually outperforms the FX5650 (NV31). However, the NV31 offers DX9 support and the newer drivers seemed to fix up a lot of the problems it was having compared to its ATI brethren.
However, I must warn you that if you decide on the NV31 it was not designed for the i8500, but the i8600. Most users whom have gotten it to work had to underclock it and keep the fans on all the time using i8kfanGUI to combat the heat (otherwise it would shut down after a few minutes use). I tried this myself and found that the NV28 was better than the NV31 after this underclocking by a long shot, not to mention that any small advantage I would have gotten was offset by the price, so I sent it back and kept my NV28.
However I remember reading that one user on this board got it to work without underclocking by putting thermal compound (like Arctic Silver) on both the CPU and GPU and placing a foam divider between them to stop heat bleeding through from the CPU, as well as keeping the fans on with i8kfanGUI. This seems awfully convoluted and silly just to get a card working that is not too much better than the 4200go in the first place.
So I suggest that the NV28 is the better option out of the two. But I would recommend waiting a little bit longer, as people will start recieving their 128MB Mobilty Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo's (M10) from Dell spare parts and trying them in the i8500 from the end of this month. It is possible that this upgrade may work, and if so is a much better option than both the NV28 and NV31, so keep an eye out on these forums for word f the success/ failure of this upgrade. If it turns out a no go then go for the NV28. Cheers.
stu
godim
507 Posts
0
January 20th, 2004 10:00
The Nvidia 5650 scores indeed only little better in DX8 than the 4200. Mine gives arround 11400 3Dmark2001SE points.
In DX 9 the 5650 should score a lot better (mine has 2800 3D marks in 3dmark2003build340)
It is however a very hot card indeed. In my 8600 it gets up to 90 °C hot. This does not cause any unstability issues however. If the 8500 has a slightly less performant cooling system it will indeed cause the card to overheat. This can however be solved by installing the modified 52 or 53 drivers from nvidia who have build in overheat protection. When the gpu reaches 95 °C it throtles down the GPU.
If other 8500 users have heat issues with this card I would go for the 4200 as well. The radeon 9600 is also not an option as it produces as much heat as the nvidia
Andrew WOT
194 Posts
0
January 20th, 2004 16:00
sakor1
2.2K Posts
0
January 21st, 2004 02:00
stu
godim
507 Posts
0
January 21st, 2004 14:00
My GPU sometimes gets to 90 °C with all fans at absolute maximum. The artic silver and cooling pad may help to get it some degrees lower. Has anybody an idea what the shutdown temp for the 8500 is? If it is only some ° it might work. But anything more than 5°C will be difficult.
As the GPU has the motherboard underneath it on one site and its heatsink on top on the other side I even doubt the efficiëncy of a coolpad as the underside of the laptop usually remains very cool. But if some ° do the trick it is worth a try.
I doubt dell will issue a bios update for this as they do not support video card upgrades and the nvidia 5650 or radeon 9600 are not supported for the 8500. I guess however some smart guy out there will eventualy post a "hacked" bios as the only thing you need to do is change one integer value!