Gaming on a T61p (ATI FireGl 5250)

[rattlehead]

I am thinking of purchasing another Thinkpad sometime soon and I am wondering how well the ATI FireGL 5250 does with gaming. I know this is not exactly what this chip is intended for, but I would think being based on the x1600 GPU chip it should be able to handle quite nicely. Anyone here have any issues, problems, opinions on this? Am I better off getting the ATI x1400 and the 15 inch flexview screen? I really wish that screen was avalible in a 14.1 inch

[testthings]

I think V5250 or something like that still gets poor perofrmance on some serious 3Dgame, such as Company of Heroes.
So don't put too much hope on it or else you will be disappointed.

[Unil_Lausanne]

I think v5000 series is a professional graphics applied for 3D designing not for 3D game. Although it could handle many games, it still performances worse than G6800 mobile on 3D game conditions.

[rattlehead]

So the T60 with the x1400 graphics card upgrade is better for a gaming laptop?

[perry_78]

FireGL cards are (or at least used to be) essentially "normal" cards with modified drivers, so I'd put my money on the GL being better than a x1400, which runs with that retarded hypermemory.

[bert]

There is no significant difference between the FireGL series GPUs and the regular ones. It is just a marketing trick to get the professional users to pay more than the home users. So the drivers are slightly different. Some OpenGL functionality in the professional drivers is disabled in the regular ones. That hurts the CAD users but makes no difference when playing games. So it is never a disadvantage to get the FireGL version. It may just be unnecessarily expensive if all you are going to do is play games.

[rattlehead]

Thanks to everyone who posted. However, I am really more confused now then before. Some say they will work with no real issues, some say they won't will work well at all. How may users here actually use their T61p for gaming? How well does this work?

[rattlehead]

T60p (sorry)

[Kamika007z]

I recommend getting it with the V5250

Also to bert: I agree with you. There are slightly altered registers that the drivers look for in order to install the optimized OpenGL code for CAD-based work. My friends and I run www.laptopvideo2go.com and we can alter drivers for almost any nVidia GPU to work as a Quadro card (that's the nVidia CAD card, just like the FireGL is to ATi CAD-based cards.) Plus they jack up the price another 200 bucks

[foodle]

I'm not sure why there's so much concern about the T60p and gaming. I'm running WoW on the machine at full resolution (1600x1200) with most options turned to high or nearly so. I get about 50fps in town/instances and about 30fps in the open. If you're a framerate obsessive or play very high-speed twitch FPS games, then you might have to drop the resolution or features, but the T60p is a fine gaming platform.

Using the Lenovo drivers, BTW.

[perry_78]

The x1400 on the regular t60 isnt too shabby either, HL2 runs nicely at 1400*1050 with settings at medium, and trillinear filtering.

*and a second display attached with itunes running in the background

[rattlehead]

The x1400 seems like the way to go. If for no other reason but its only way to get a IPS screen. I wish they had IPS on the 14 inch. All things considered, I am leaning to the ASUS. Thanks everyone for the feedback.

[Kamika007z]

I'm on the V5200 and most of my settings in HL2 and CS:S are set to high.

[Proteus]

FYI..the FireGL 5250 is an upgrade over the 5200, as its based on the x1700, not the x1600. Differences include native H.264 decode, and slightly better 3D performance. The M66 chip uses strained silicon, so should have better overclock potential (for those of us who overclock laptop video..works pretty well on a thinkpad!)

[darrenf]

The V5200 is an x1600, pure and simple. If the V5250 is an x1700, all the better. The chip is underclocked as compared with its desktop equivalent, but still a much faster choice than the x1400 (which is a good card too).

bert and perry_78 are right that the "professional" designation refers to OpenGL driver functionality and nothing more. It's the same chip as its gaming cousin.

The V5200 runs everything I've thrown at it without fail. I would be more concerned about the display (washed out colors on standard TFT because of hardware color depth, ghosting on some or all FlexViews, 60Hz max refresh, slow to fill the video buffer without vsync) than the video chip.

perry_78, he V5200 uses HyperMemory. Does the V5250 not?

-darren

[perry_78]

I was under the impression that the 256mb does not use hypermemory, but don't quote me on that one

[darrenf]

Since the V5200 has 256M of physical and uses HyperMemory to get to 512, I would assume that the same would apply to the V5250 if it has 256M as well. Don't worry.

HyperMemory isn't bad. It won't start using system RAM for textures until VRAM is expended, so if 256M meets your needs, HyperMemory won't come into the equation. It will let you run games that would otherwise be unusable, though.

-darren

[Guy Named Bob]

Hi all,

I'm new to these forums. I'm considering getting a Z61p with the FireGL V5200. I do not do much CAD work and would like to do some gaming from time-to-time. Would it be possible to force the Catalyst drivers to run the FireGL V5200 as a Radeon X1600? Anyone make a modified driver to do this?

Thx!

[Teerex]

Thanks to everyone who posted. However, I am really more confused now then before. Some say they will work with no real issues, some say they won't will work well at all. How may users here actually use their T61p for gaming? How well does this work?

Hi Rattler,

I use my T60p for playing counter strike source, and it works really well ; )


Rex

[liquidous]

so can you modify our t60p firegl drivers to act nicer than they would come as stock? (for gamers?)

I recommend getting it with the V5250

Also to bert: I agree with you. There are slightly altered registers that the drivers look for in order to install the optimized OpenGL code for CAD-based work. My friends and I run www.laptopvideo2go.com and we can alter drivers for almost any nVidia GPU to work as a Quadro card (that's the nVidia CAD card, just like the FireGL is to ATi CAD-based cards.) Plus they jack up the price another 200 bucks

[iatacs19]

The T60p should have the best peformance in the whole thinkpad line when it comes to games, even with the regular FireGL drivers. The reason is that the hardware/GPU is superior to the X1300/x1400.

Radeon X1300/X1400:
- 4 pixel shader processors
- 2 vertex shader processors
- 128-bit 4-channel DDR1/DDR2/GDDR3 memory interface

FireGL V5250
- 12 pixel shader processors
- 5 vertex shader processors
- 256-bit 4-channel DDR1/DDR2/GDDR3 memory interface

From the specs alone the FireGL should be substantially faster than any Radeon in the Thinkpad line. Drivers can be optimized for games, but a driver cannot make a physically inferior product outperform a better part.

Reference:

FireGL
http://www.atitech.ca/products/mobility ... specs.html

Radeon
http://www.atitech.ca/products/mobility ... specs.html

[Kel Ghu]

V5250 i no better than V5200 for gaming. It will maybe be clocked slightly higher, but that's it. It has the exact same 3D features. You can get the same performance by overclocking your V5200, but it's useless because you won't notice any real difference.

[Esben]

FireGL V5250
- 12 pixel shader processors
- 5 vertex shader processors
- 256-bit 4-channel DDR1/DDR2/GDDR3 memory interface

Reference:

FireGL
http://www.atitech.ca/products/mobility ... specs.html

Actually ATI lists:
Technology Features:
- Twelve pixel shader processors
- Five vertex shader processors
- 128-bit 4-channel DDR/DDR2/GDDR3/GDDR4 memory interface

Can anyone post their clock speeds GPU/memory of the V5200 and the V5250?
Also if it's overclockable, how much it can be increased, and the performance increase.

I've had great success overclocking my R9600, and the wattage (heat) of the system is still lower with the overclocked R9600 + undervolted CPU, than stock. Overclocking the GPU makes it use about 3 W more at peak, while undervolting the CPU saves 12 W.

[Outrigger]

I highly doubt you would notice a difference using 5200 vs. 5250 in real world apps and not just running benchmarks unless thats what floats your boat. thats like saying you can tell the difference between driving 60mph vs. 62mph.

[iatacs19]

I agree that V5200/V5250 are essentially the same thing.

I was trying to point out that when you compare the FireGL V5200/5250 vs. X1300/X1400 it is a much more powerful GPU. There is no real discernible difference between X1300/X1400 or V5200/5250 except for clock speed, should still be based on the same silicon.