Up until last week I had a Radeon 7500 in my Inspiron 8100. I stuck with Dell's original drivers for the MR7500 despite ATi releasing new Catalyst drivers all the while. The ATi Catalyst drivers are all well and good for ATi video cards for desktop machines, but need modification to work in laptops. That's where OmegaCorner steps in. They mod the latest release Catalyst drivers for you so they work on laptops as well as desktops. Meanwhile Dell doesn't upgrade their video drivers... I believe their last MR7500 drivers for i8100 was back in June 2002.
Admittedly, I didn't use the Omega drivers as they didn't let me play Grand Prix 4. Now I've got a Quadro4, so those driver issues no longer bother me!
Cheers,
- D.Com - Sydney, AUSTRALIA
--- Inspiron 8100 --- Intel Pentium III-M 1GHz (Tualatin) 512MB PC133 SDRAM 15" UltraSharp UXGA+ (1600x1200) IBM Display Panel 64MB nVidia Quadro4 700 GoGL (Dell 42.57 drivers + Pieter's INF) IBM TravelStar 20GB 4200rpm Disk Drive 16x/10x/24x Sony CRX-810E DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive Cisco Aironet 350 Series 802.11b WLAN PCMCIA adapter Microsoft Windows XP Pro + SP1 Grand Prix 4 + GPxPatch 3.70 Dell Inspiron 8100 BIOS A14
Thanks. What is the difference between Dell Radeon 7500 drviers and one's on Omega Corner?
Oh, the swap worked perfectly, at least so far. Removed heat sink, removed a few ribbon cables, pulled it out, put in new 32MB 7500, put on a tad bit of thermal compound, put heat sink back on, and booted fine.
Schaki: At the moment, I've stuck to Dell's 42.57 drivers and used Pieter's corresponding INF. I'd like to try the new v60 ForceWare though...
elam: Yes, both Schaki and I had 64MB MR7500 video cards - they were available for the i8100. I doubt you could use a 64MB MR7500, as your i4150 probably a different form factor to our i8100s (right, peoples?). At any rate, I also doubt any BIOS released for the i4150 would recognize a video aperture size of 64MB. I'd say getting the 32MB MR7500 for i4150 is your best upgrade path.
Cheers,
- D.Com - Sydney, AUSTRALIA
--- Inspiron 8100 --- Intel Pentium III-M 1GHz (Tualatin) 512MB PC133 SDRAM 15" UltraSharp UXGA+ (1600x1200) IBM Display Panel 64MB nVidia Quadro4 700 GoGL (Dell 42.57 drivers + Pieter's INF) IBM TravelStar 20GB 4200rpm Disk Drive 16x/10x/24x Sony CRX-810E DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive Cisco Aironet 350 Series 802.11b WLAN PCMCIA adapter Microsoft Windows XP Pro + SP1 Grand Prix 4 + GPxPatch 3.70 Dell Inspiron 8100 BIOS A14
Is there a performance increase for using Omega drivers? I just ran 3dMark 2001 and I got a very very slight dip in performance over the stock drivers.
Ummm...Have you done the video card swap yet? If you haven't, you can ask me. Some company on eBay is selling them at a very generous price ($60), and I got one to replace the 16MB unit on my machine. Anyways, the replacement is simple. Simply shut down Windows, unplug the power cord from the machine, take out the battery, lift the keyboard, unplug the LCD connectors (CAREFULLY!) and then unscrew the board that looks like your board, directly in the middle. Remind me to furnish some pics. Anyways, lift the card up slowly but firmly, and you should see the slot. It's a simple push-the-replacement-in, screw in, and reboot operation. Make sure that you shut down Windows XP completely first, and check the VRAM count on the BIOS screen to confirm successful update. If you have experience opening up the Inspirons it's a simple 15 minute procedure. You won't even need new drivers to get it to work, nor new video BIOS.
The Inspiron 4150s can only take the 4150 board, and NOT the 8x00 series boards. You are currently limited to the Radeon M7c with 32MB of VRAM on the 4150 boards...Although I wonder if I can solder new VRAM in to boost it to 64, or figure out whether certain boards are only using a part of their VRAM complements, and not all of it. Not sure.
Oh yeah. Parts numbers for those who likes to Google for alternate sources:
Inspiron 4150/C640 Video card, M7c, 16MB: 5P128
Inspiron 4150/C640 Video card, M7c, 32MB: 5P154, 5P155
The cards should work on any Inspiron 4150, with any LCD setup.
Anyways, as for benchmarks, you should see about a 300 point gain in 3DMarkSE'01 by going from a 16 to a 32MB card. That should be the Radeon M7C's extra memory channel being opened up helping you. The M7C core is still slightly slower than the M7 standard in the i8x00 machines due to the fact that it cotains NO memory inside the die, and in 16MB configurations, suffer from a 64 Bit memory channel with 64 Bit memory used. In 32MB configurations you get the 128 Bit memory channel, but still 64 Bit memory. The setting is semi-anemic by today's standards, but that extra 16MB will help out when it comes to playing N64 games in emulation, like Conker's Bad Fur Day, Full quality mode in RTCW/Jedi Knights 2, or Homeworld 2, which needs a good amount of VRAM. Hell, UT2004 will definitely run on that setup. Just don't expect a gaming miracle.
You then have the liberty to overclock the Radeon M7's clock to around 290 and the memory to around 400. 270 will be healthy, and 290 will be the max. You should be able to get 3500 3DMarks2001SE points on that 290/400 oc setting. If you want to push it further, don't. 295 and above will get you serious artifacts.
Oh, and as for the Omega Driver thing...Don't use Omega on the i4150s. It improves visual quality slightly, trading off speed. Stick with the latest Dell drivers and install Rage3D Tweak instead. It's far more useful when it comes to tuning for performance. It can even do the aforementioned overclocking.
Yeah, I've done the video swap already. I got it off eBay for under $40. Anyways, the swap worked perfectly. The only thing different I did was I put three drops of thermal compound on the three pads on the "heat sink". What do you think of that? I hope I didn't screw anything up.
And yeah, I notice about a 300 point gain on 3DMark2001 going from 16MB to 32MB.
What do you mean by "295 and above will get you serious artifacts", the artifacts part.
Oh, the 295? That's the MHz setting for running the GPU. The stock Radeon M7c GPUs run at 229 with a 300MHz memory, and underclocks under battery power to conserve energy. However, the M7cs are quite generous in how much you can push that GPU. Like I said, you can get away with overclocking that GPU past 270MHz to get quite a boost performance. For example, my 16MB card used to get around 2495 3DMarks'01 on the stock 229/300 GPU/Memory clock setting. After an overclock to 292/400, I can get around 3100. I mean, I won't be insane enough to sustain it, but that's a 600 point gain. On the 32MB configuration I start with 2850 on stock and can get around 3550 with that 292/400 setting. You will have some 2D artifacting at that oc, but nothing permanent will result.
The arctic silver? Hmm...I don't think that will help much, since it's still the same components acting as a heatsink for it. (Mostly the keyboard and the rest of the frame). It might help if you drop that laptop on top of a fan cooler. Anyways, keep in mind that in modern gaming, the CPU/Memory/HDD speed matters more, and in laptop gaming, a slow HDD really manifests itself during swaps and such.
schaki
128 Posts
0
May 6th, 2004 05:00
Begin to download drivers from www.omegacorners.com
U can get big problem with the card if u not have a UXGA lcd, but in this way i should work i think.
elam101083
12 Posts
0
May 6th, 2004 13:00
Hi,
omegacorners.com (and omegadrivers.com) aren't working? Why wouldn't a 32MB work with a non-XGA LCD?
Thanks.
schaki
128 Posts
0
May 6th, 2004 15:00
- D.Com -
34 Posts
0
May 7th, 2004 03:00
Up until last week I had a Radeon 7500 in my Inspiron 8100. I stuck with Dell's original drivers for the MR7500 despite ATi releasing new Catalyst drivers all the while. The ATi Catalyst drivers are all well and good for ATi video cards for desktop machines, but need modification to work in laptops. That's where OmegaCorner steps in. They mod the latest release Catalyst drivers for you so they work on laptops as well as desktops. Meanwhile Dell doesn't upgrade their video drivers... I believe their last MR7500 drivers for i8100 was back in June 2002.
Admittedly, I didn't use the Omega drivers as they didn't let me play Grand Prix 4. Now I've got a Quadro4, so those driver issues no longer bother me!
Cheers,
- D.Com -
Sydney, AUSTRALIA
--- Inspiron 8100 ---
Intel Pentium III-M 1GHz (Tualatin)
512MB PC133 SDRAM
15" UltraSharp UXGA+ (1600x1200) IBM Display Panel
64MB nVidia Quadro4 700 GoGL (Dell 42.57 drivers + Pieter's INF)
IBM TravelStar 20GB 4200rpm Disk Drive
16x/10x/24x Sony CRX-810E DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
Cisco Aironet 350 Series 802.11b WLAN PCMCIA adapter
Microsoft Windows XP Pro + SP1
Grand Prix 4 + GPxPatch 3.70
Dell Inspiron 8100 BIOS A14
- D.Com -
34 Posts
0
May 7th, 2004 03:00
www.omegacorner.com is the URL you're after
Cheers,
- D.Com -
Sydney, AUSTRALIA
--- Inspiron 8100 ---
Intel Pentium III-M 1GHz (Tualatin)
512MB PC133 SDRAM
15" UltraSharp UXGA+ (1600x1200) IBM Display Panel
64MB nVidia Quadro4 700 GoGL (Dell 42.57 drivers + Pieter's INF)
IBM TravelStar 20GB 4200rpm Disk Drive
16x/10x/24x Sony CRX-810E DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
Cisco Aironet 350 Series 802.11b WLAN PCMCIA adapter
Microsoft Windows XP Pro + SP1
Grand Prix 4 + GPxPatch 3.70
Dell Inspiron 8100 BIOS A14
elam101083
12 Posts
0
May 7th, 2004 03:00
Thanks. What is the difference between Dell Radeon 7500 drviers and one's on Omega Corner?
Oh, the swap worked perfectly, at least so far. Removed heat sink, removed a few ribbon cables, pulled it out, put in new 32MB 7500, put on a tad bit of thermal compound, put heat sink back on, and booted fine.
elam101083
12 Posts
0
May 7th, 2004 05:00
schaki
128 Posts
0
May 7th, 2004 05:00
Interesting, I played Grand prix 4 when i had the Radeon 7500 64mb and omegadrivers, there was no problem for me.
Now i have the Quadro 4 700 like you, what drivers are u using?. I will when i have the time upgrade from53.03/30.
elam101083
12 Posts
0
May 7th, 2004 05:00
I see. Thanks. For the record, I just checked Dell's drivers for 7500 and they released one February 2004 (I think).
--Eric
- D.Com -
34 Posts
0
May 7th, 2004 06:00
Schaki: At the moment, I've stuck to Dell's 42.57 drivers and used Pieter's corresponding INF. I'd like to try the new v60 ForceWare though...
elam: Yes, both Schaki and I had 64MB MR7500 video cards - they were available for the i8100. I doubt you could use a 64MB MR7500, as your i4150 probably a different form factor to our i8100s (right, peoples?). At any rate, I also doubt any BIOS released for the i4150 would recognize a video aperture size of 64MB. I'd say getting the 32MB MR7500 for i4150 is your best upgrade path.
Cheers,
- D.Com -
Sydney, AUSTRALIA
--- Inspiron 8100 ---
Intel Pentium III-M 1GHz (Tualatin)
512MB PC133 SDRAM
15" UltraSharp UXGA+ (1600x1200) IBM Display Panel
64MB nVidia Quadro4 700 GoGL (Dell 42.57 drivers + Pieter's INF)
IBM TravelStar 20GB 4200rpm Disk Drive
16x/10x/24x Sony CRX-810E DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
Cisco Aironet 350 Series 802.11b WLAN PCMCIA adapter
Microsoft Windows XP Pro + SP1
Grand Prix 4 + GPxPatch 3.70
Dell Inspiron 8100 BIOS A14
elam101083
12 Posts
0
May 8th, 2004 14:00
Is there a performance increase for using Omega drivers? I just ran 3dMark 2001 and I got a very very slight dip in performance over the stock drivers.
kkwan42
15 Posts
0
May 18th, 2004 20:00
Ummm...Have you done the video card swap yet? If you haven't, you can ask me. Some company on eBay is selling them at a very generous price ($60), and I got one to replace the 16MB unit on my machine. Anyways, the replacement is simple. Simply shut down Windows, unplug the power cord from the machine, take out the battery, lift the keyboard, unplug the LCD connectors (CAREFULLY!) and then unscrew the board that looks like your board, directly in the middle. Remind me to furnish some pics. Anyways, lift the card up slowly but firmly, and you should see the slot. It's a simple push-the-replacement-in, screw in, and reboot operation. Make sure that you shut down Windows XP completely first, and check the VRAM count on the BIOS screen to confirm successful update. If you have experience opening up the Inspirons it's a simple 15 minute procedure. You won't even need new drivers to get it to work, nor new video BIOS.
The Inspiron 4150s can only take the 4150 board, and NOT the 8x00 series boards. You are currently limited to the Radeon M7c with 32MB of VRAM on the 4150 boards...Although I wonder if I can solder new VRAM in to boost it to 64, or figure out whether certain boards are only using a part of their VRAM complements, and not all of it. Not sure.
Oh yeah. Parts numbers for those who likes to Google for alternate sources:
Inspiron 4150/C640 Video card, M7c, 16MB: 5P128
Inspiron 4150/C640 Video card, M7c, 32MB: 5P154, 5P155
The cards should work on any Inspiron 4150, with any LCD setup.
Anyways, as for benchmarks, you should see about a 300 point gain in 3DMarkSE'01 by going from a 16 to a 32MB card. That should be the Radeon M7C's extra memory channel being opened up helping you. The M7C core is still slightly slower than the M7 standard in the i8x00 machines due to the fact that it cotains NO memory inside the die, and in 16MB configurations, suffer from a 64 Bit memory channel with 64 Bit memory used. In 32MB configurations you get the 128 Bit memory channel, but still 64 Bit memory. The setting is semi-anemic by today's standards, but that extra 16MB will help out when it comes to playing N64 games in emulation, like Conker's Bad Fur Day, Full quality mode in RTCW/Jedi Knights 2, or Homeworld 2, which needs a good amount of VRAM. Hell, UT2004 will definitely run on that setup. Just don't expect a gaming miracle.
You then have the liberty to overclock the Radeon M7's clock to around 290 and the memory to around 400. 270 will be healthy, and 290 will be the max. You should be able to get 3500 3DMarks2001SE points on that 290/400 oc setting. If you want to push it further, don't. 295 and above will get you serious artifacts.
Oh, and as for the Omega Driver thing...Don't use Omega on the i4150s. It improves visual quality slightly, trading off speed. Stick with the latest Dell drivers and install Rage3D Tweak instead. It's far more useful when it comes to tuning for performance. It can even do the aforementioned overclocking.
Message Edited by kkwan42 on 05-18-2004 04:52 PM
Message Edited by kkwan42 on 05-18-2004 04:57 PM
elam101083
12 Posts
0
May 18th, 2004 22:00
Yeah, I've done the video swap already. I got it off eBay for under $40. Anyways, the swap worked perfectly. The only thing different I did was I put three drops of thermal compound on the three pads on the "heat sink". What do you think of that? I hope I didn't screw anything up.
And yeah, I notice about a 300 point gain on 3DMark2001 going from 16MB to 32MB.
What do you mean by "295 and above will get you serious artifacts", the artifacts part.
Thanks,
--Eric
kkwan42
15 Posts
0
May 20th, 2004 13:00
Oh, the 295? That's the MHz setting for running the GPU. The stock Radeon M7c GPUs run at 229 with a 300MHz memory, and underclocks under battery power to conserve energy. However, the M7cs are quite generous in how much you can push that GPU. Like I said, you can get away with overclocking that GPU past 270MHz to get quite a boost performance. For example, my 16MB card used to get around 2495 3DMarks'01 on the stock 229/300 GPU/Memory clock setting. After an overclock to 292/400, I can get around 3100. I mean, I won't be insane enough to sustain it, but that's a 600 point gain. On the 32MB configuration I start with 2850 on stock and can get around 3550 with that 292/400 setting. You will have some 2D artifacting at that oc, but nothing permanent will result.
The arctic silver? Hmm...I don't think that will help much, since it's still the same components acting as a heatsink for it. (Mostly the keyboard and the rest of the frame). It might help if you drop that laptop on top of a fan cooler. Anyways, keep in mind that in modern gaming, the CPU/Memory/HDD speed matters more, and in laptop gaming, a slow HDD really manifests itself during swaps and such.