Dell i9200 / ATI MR9700 / ATI Catalyst v5.3 Updated

Dragon9200

Newbie to DriverHeaven forums , been surfing on www.i9200forums.com and caught a link to this website. I just recently formatted my Dell Inspiron 9200 with a fresh copy of WinXP Professional (SP2). Had gotten information online from various websites to update my video card drivers. Though Dell had a recent upgrade driver out with a fix for Half Life 2, I opted for ATI Catalysts instead of the infamous bugs in "Omega" drivers. Before installation of WinXP Pro, I had WinXP Home with 256MB of Ram... Very insuffient running the program, many freezes before the game even started. I learned about latest ATI catalyst drivers and learned about the DH v2.2 to patch software file to be mobility compatible. After doing so, I've noticed not much of a problem running Half Life 2 at it's max performance with widescreen 1920x1200 format. Wondering if the default settings on my ATI Catalysts v5.3 are correct, as follows:

>ATi Catalyst Control Center (v1.1.1879.40231)

>View (Graphics Setting)

>Displays Manager

- Selected Display: Default LCD (Single)
- Desktop Area: 1920x1200
- Color Quality: High (32-bit)
- Refresh Rate: 60Hz
- Rotation: Standard Landscape

>Display Options

- 3D Refresh Rate Override: Disabled
- Display Detection Option: Detect whenever CATALYST Control Center is opened
- Display Management Options: (Unchecked) Force TV detection
- For displays of limited resolution capabilities: List only those modes supported by all displays

>Notebook Panel Properties

- Panel Information:
* Max Resolution: 1920x1200
* Max Refresh Rate: 60Hz
- Panel Settings: Scale Image - full panel size

>3D

- Standard Settings: (Checked) Use custom settings
- Anti-Aliasing: (Checked) Let the application decide
- Anisotropic Filtering: (Checked) Let the application decide
- Catalyst A.I.: (Unchecked) Disable Catalyst A.I. (Standard)
- Mipmap Detail Level: Mipmap Detail Level (High Quality)
- Truform: Performance (Always Off)
- Smart Shader Effects: Please select the SMARTSHADER Effect (None)
- No Preview:
* Smoothvision 2.1 Anti-Aliasing: (Checked) Let app decide
* Smoothvision 2.1 Anisotropic Filtering: (Checked) Let app decide
* Catalyst A.I.: (Unchecked) Disable Catalyst A.I. (Standard)
* Mipmap Detail Level: Quality
- API Specific:
* Direct3D Settings:
~(Unchecked) Enable geometry instancing
~(Checked) Support DXT texture formats
~(Checked) Alternate pixel center
* OpenGL Settings:
~(Checked) Triple buffering
~(Unchecked) Force 24-bit Z-buffer depth

>Color

- Color Correction Images: (default)
- Color Adjustments: (default)

>Video

- Standard Settings: (default)
- Overlay/VideoVision: (default)
- Theater Mode: (default)

>PowerPlay

- PowerPlay Settings: (Checked) Enabled PowerPlay to adjust graphics
- Low Battery Settings: 10%

>SmartGart

- AGP Settings:
* AGP Speed: 4x
* Fast Write: On
* AGP Write: On
* AGP Read: On
- PCI Settings:
* PCI Write: On
* PCI Read: On

>VPU Recover Settings

- (Checked) Enable VPU Recover
- (Checked) Prepare an Error Report

>Help

>System Software

- Windows Version: 5.1.2600
- DirectX Version: 4.09.00.0904
- Hardware Acceleration Setting: N/A
- Driver Caps Item Number: N/A

>System Hardware

- CPU Type: Intel Pentium M 1.8GHz
- CPU Speed: 1794MHz
- IRQ Table: N/A
- BIOS Version: N/A
- BIOS Date: 02/01/05
- RDTSC/MMX/SSE/3DNOW/SSE2: N/A
- North Bridge Chipset Vendor ID: 8086
- North Bridge Chipset Device ID: 3340
- North Bridge Chipset Revision: N/A
- North Bridge Chipset Drivers Version: N/A
- North Bridge Chipset Drivers Date: N/A
- South Bridge Chipset Vendor ID: 8086
- South Bridge Chipset Device ID: 3341
- South Bridge Chipset Revision: N/A
- South Bridge Chipset Drivers Version: N/A
- South Bridge Chipset Drivers Date: N/A
- Presence of Dual CPU: No
- System RAM Amount: 1,279MB

>Graphics Software

- Driver Packaging Version: 8.111-050222a-021277C-ATI
- Catalyst Version: 05.3
- Provider: ATI Technologies Inc.
- 2D Driver Version: 6.14.10.0295
- 2D Driver File Path: System\CurrentControlSet\Control\...
- Direct3D Version: 6.14.10.0295
- OpenGL Version: 6.14.10.4955
- Catalyst Control Center Version: 1.1.1879.40231

>Radeon Mobility 9700

- Graphics Card Manufacturer: Powered By ATI
- Graphics Chipset: Radeon Mobility 9700
- Device ID: 4E50
- Vendor: 1002
- Subsystem ID: 2002
- Subsystem Vendor ID: 1028
- Bus Type: AGP
- Current Bus Setting: AGP 4x
- BIOS Version: 008.016M.077.03
- BIOS Part Number: 113-G0124-100
- BIOS Date: 2004/10/22
- Memory Size: 128MB
- Memory Type: DDR SGRAM / SDRAM
- Core Clock: 446MHz
- Memory Clock: 263MHz
- Primary Display: Yes

Does these setting look correct to other Dell Inspiron 9200 owners? Thanks in advance for the advice and suggestions before hand!

Zardon

Hello welcome to the forums.

Ok firstly, maybe im being dumb here but have you a problem with performance? you say you havent had a problem running at 1920x1200 which is mighty impressive especially considering you have everything on max and catalyst AI turned off.

What frame rates are you recording with fraps?

Dragon9200

I've been updating my system and tweaking all night... Yes, it's finally a dream that my laptop isn't lagging through the whole game as it did before. I thank DH.net for their programs, easy to follow guides, and very informing forums about ATI video cards. I haven't benchmarked this game yet, still in the final tweaking stages. If someone can help me out on which software to determine the specs, I will not hesistate to post up my i9200 specs.

"Before installation of WinXP Pro, I had WinXP Home with 256MB of Ram... Very insuffient running the program, many freezes before the game even started."

But not anymore... Such a dream machine to me... To each their own!