Mobility 9600 64MB non-IBM Drivers

[fbrdphreak]

Has anyone been using the Omega or Mobility-modded Catalyst drivers? From a random review on the Mobility Radeon 9700 I was reading, apparently the stock clock of the Mobility 9600 is 350/200. Everest says my core clock is 320MHz (when "Graphic Device Management" isn't enabled of course). I have two concerns:
(1) Will using a non-IBM driver stop it from underclocking when on battery/2D mode? My primary concern is battery life when out & about, so if I get 3D perf at the cost of batt life, I'd rather not.
(2) Has anyone had any luck @ OCing the GPU and/or memory?

Thanks in advance

[dash7540]

Since the Catalyst 4.11/4.12 beta/final came out, I've been messing around with the Omega drivers and Patje's mobility-modded Catalysts to see if there were some performance gains (and indeed there were, especially with Half-Life 2).

To answer your questions;

1) Using a non-IBM driver should not stop it from underclocking. I've tried it with the Omegas and Powerplay seemed to work fine. I've also used the modded Catalysts, but got some different results: When I used the Catalyst Control Center, Powerplay did not work since it detected my ThinkPad as plugged in although in reality it was running on battery power; I then switched to the regular ATI control panel and Powerplay now seems to work (that is detecting differences as being plugged in or running on battery power.)

2) For overclocking I've been using ATI Tool (or if you have the Omegas you can use Radlinker) and for the most part works very well. If you want to overclock, you should also have some sort of temperature monitor (such as MobileMeter) so you don't fry anything in the process. (And going back to the Powerplay issue, you can use ATI Tool to check if your GPU has actually been underclocked.)

BTW, I thought the stock clock of the MR9600 was 300/300? This is according to Tomshardware though. I guess it would depend on who you ask.

Anyways I hopes this helps answer your questions.

[fbrdphreak]

Thanks, I think I'll play with that tomorrow.

[darrenf]

BTW, the Omega drivers caused my TP to draw about 2-4 watts more power than the IBM drivers. That cut my battery life by 30-40%!!

Thankfully I was able to install the stock 4.12 drivers modded by Patje the power consumption is now right back where it was with the IBM driver AND I have the speed in HL2. Yea!

I've switched from RadLinker to ATI Tray Tool for overclocking and now my machine overclocks whenever it goes into 3D mode and downshifts when I return to the desktop. Very sweet.

-darren

[fbrdphreak]

I definitely like ATI Tool the best for OCing, but that's a surprise that the Omega's killed your batt life. I just got the system cleaned of the IBM drivers and will be using the Omega's soon. When the batt charges, I'll report my batt life. And later I'll try modding the official 4.12's. thanks for the info!

[kaplanfx]

Is there a tool I could use to manually underclock the 9600 mobility? I'd like to get it as low as possible when im on batt power. I'm using the catalyst drivers with patje's mod.

Edit: I just checked with CHC and they already go down to 112/112 when on batt power, but I have heard of people putting them down to 108/108 when on batt power. Will there even be a noteable change in power savings with a 4mhz jump?

-kaplanfx

[fbrdphreak]

Check out our Advanced Battery Optimization Guide

[daeojkim]

I have been using omega drivers from the beginning. I don't think it is the latest version, but I have not experienced loss in battery life. I still get 3.5 to 4 hours on 6 cell.

[kaplanfx]

Check out our Advanced Battery Optimization Guide

Thank Ye, I love your site and I never even knew about it until I came here but its now bookmarked.

-kaplanfx