The NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 GPU Review

[eleo]

Originally Posted by joeljkp

On another note, I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 with a 64MB Go5200. How do I find out if mine has the proper clock speeds and such?

If you'd like me to do some tests on my machine, lemme know.

Thanks.

I have the same laptop and was wondering the same thing after this article. To find the clock speed, you have to edit your registry as follows:

REGEDIT

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NvTweak]
CoolBits=dword:00000003

That is, add a Dword called Coolbits and set the hex value at 3.

Once you reboot, go into the Advanced tab of the Display settings, and under the nvidia tab, there will be a new option called clock settings or something (can't remember the name right now, but you'll find it).

After doing this, I found that Dell has done exactly the same as Toshiba. So far though, I've only managed to stably run it at 265 clock and 530 memory. Crashes at 290 and 580, but haven't tried anything in between.

I'm looking forward to Adrian's follow up review and also your own setting-modification experience.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by joeljkp

What a crappy review. Come on, at least you could compare different GPUs with the same specs. Comparing a crippled Go5200 with a fully-capable Mobility 9000 does nothing to say which is a better chip.

Hello joeljkp,

To be honest, it would wrong be to say that the Go5200 in the Toshiba Satellite M30 was "crippled". I said it was "underclocked", not crippled.

You see, NVIDIA may set the rated clock speeds for their GPUs but it is ENTIRELY up to the card manufacturer or, in this case, the notebook manufacturer to set the desired clock speeds.

That's why you see some manufacturers overclocking the GPUs or use faster memory, thus allowing a higher memory clock speed. There are also those who underclock. These would be notebook manufacturers like Toshiba.

It could be to reduce power requirements or the thermal output. But whatever the reasons, clock speeds are ENTIRELY up to the manufacturer, NOT NVIDIA.

That is why I tested the Go5200 as is. Even with AGP sidebanding disabled. That is the right thing to do. Clocking the Go5200 to match NVIDIA's recommendations would not be fair.

For those interested in finding out if clocking the Go5200 higher will make the GPU more competitive against its competitors, well, I have already said I would be writing up a separate article on that. I will try to speed it up and post it as soon as I can.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by joeljkp

On another note, I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 with a 64MB Go5200. How do I find out if mine has the proper clock speeds and such?

If you'd like me to do some tests on my machine, lemme know.

Thanks.

Hello joeljkp,

That would be great!

You can use RivaTuner to find out what clock speed your GPU is running at, as well as overclock it. Or you can use the Coolbits hack that eleo recommended.

If possible, please benchmark your system using 3DMark03, Aquamark3, Unreal Tournament 2003 and Comanche 4 Demo. All using the NVIDIA Rev. 52.16 driver, of course.

If possible, please see if you can tell us your default clock speeds (and the GPU's scores at those speeds) as well as your maximum core and memory clock speeds (and their benchmark scores).

Thanks!

[joeljkp]

Sure, I'll try. WinXP isn't my default OS (I'm a Linux guy), and I'm a busy college student, so don't expect it today or anything. I'll give it a shot, though.

Thanks for the info and the nice challenge

[joeljkp]

Hmm, the latest drivers from Dell are 45.85. How do I get NVIDIA's reference drivers to work?

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by joeljkp

Hmm, the latest drivers from Dell are 45.85. How do I get NVIDIA's reference drivers to work?

Hello joeljkp,

Just download the Rev. 52.16 drivers from http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k__52.16.html.

Then uninstall the Dell drivers and install the Rev. 52.16 drivers.

[joeljkp]

Yeah, I tried that, but NVIDIA's driver's won't "take". I tried forcing Windows to look in c:\NVIDIA\WinXP2000\52.16, too, but it said it couldn't find any drivers for my device.

I thought the reference drivers didn't work for mobile GPUs?

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by joeljkp

Yeah, I tried that, but NVIDIA's driver's won't "take". I tried forcing Windows to look in c:\NVIDIA\WinXP2000\52.16, too, but it said it couldn't find any drivers for my device.

I thought the reference drivers didn't work for mobile GPUs?

Okay, when Windows XP asks you for the driver, you should select the choice of choosing the device driver manually. Only then search for the driver in c:\NVIDIA\WinXP2000\52.16.

Alternatively, there is an easier method. Just go to that directory and double-click the Setup.exe file.

[joeljkp]

Setup.exe did nothing. It went through the process, but didn't load a driver. Yes, I rebooted.

After I tried that, I did the above 'search for drivers in folder' option.

I also tried 'find driver manually', then 'Have disk...' and pointed to the 52.16 .inf file, but there was no GeForce FX Go5200 listed. There were several 5200s, but no Go5200.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by joeljkp

Setup.exe did nothing. It went through the process, but didn't load a driver. Yes, I rebooted.

After I tried that, I did the above 'search for drivers in folder' option.

I also tried 'find driver manually', then 'Have disk...' and pointed to the 52.16 .inf file, but there was no GeForce FX Go5200 listed. There were several 5200s, but no Go5200.

It should work if you just select the GeForce FX 5200. Funny, the NVIDIA driver should work with your GPU.

But if it doesn't work, I guess you will have to test using the Dell driver.