e1505/x1400 bench? - Page 3

ok the true-life is HIGHLY reflective. When you are out in the sun, good luck seeing much on the screen.
BUUUT......when you are in your room, or in class, or in any areas where the light is just normal to dim, the true-life screen looks amazing. It adds a high level of contrast and it makes the screen look really sharp. its much nicer to look at.

The only problem is if your going to use your laptop ALL the time outside, i would not recommend a true life screen.

I agree, the Truelife screen is amazing, much more brilliant than the regular matte screens. But, if you know you're going to be using it outside much I wouldn't get it, it'll be a PIYA. But, if you never really use your laptop outside(like me) and you want a clearer, sharper, more vivid picture then go for the Truelife. It really is a fantastic screen. THe only time I ever really see my reflection in the screen is when it's black(not on), the screen saver is on(mostly black) or I'm really concentrating on seeing my reflection. Once there is something on the screen though you won't see your reflection at all.



I'm finally going to format my hd tomorrow so once i do that and get everyhint reinstalled I will run benchmarks again and see how much of a difference it makes. I'm hoping for 2200 in 3Dmark05 and 1,000 in 06.

ati x1400

Hello,
I just got my Inspiron 6400 with the ati mobility x1400 inside. I'm thinking of overclocking it, but still don't know if it's worth it... You guys that already did, could give me some tips? It's your notebook after OC overheated? Would OC work with Catalyst 6.2 or should I try with Omega drivers? Is Powerstrip really working?

I scored 942 with 3DMark 06 and 1785 in 3DMark 05... Just optimizing performance with Catalyst. But I hope I can squeeze something more from the x1400

Mins isn't any warmer after the OC, though I haven't actually tested the temps yet. It doesn't really get that warm during gaming, the fan keeps it pretty cool. On the other hand though it does get warmer than my I6000, but not by a whole lot. It's still plenty comfy to keep in your lap, it won't burn you or anything. I'd like to see if there is some way to up the vcore a little on the gpu to get a higher OC out of it, but I'm not sure if there are any programs out there that will do that for the x1400.

By the way, how can I test temperatures on x1400? It doesn't semm to have any sensor. At least EVEREST doesn't get any result...
Camride you should explain us how did you oc your x1400 ...

Yeah...a little walkthrough would be very helpful...cos to be honest when it comes to overclocking I havn't got a clue....and I dont wanna melt anything ! Apart from the extra bit of heat, isnt overclocking a GPU or CPU bad for it ? Doesn't it wear out quicker or sumthin - or are they designed to cope with a little bit extra ?

For OCing my x1400 I just used Powerstrip and 3DMark05. Since Powerstrip doesn't have a utility to check the integrity of the OC I had to use 3DMark05 to stress the x1400 to see if any artifacts showed up. It's best to find the max OC for the memory first, then the core, since the memory impacts the game performance more(it seems like anyway, not sure if that's 100% true). Anyway, here is my procedure for finding max OC:

Bump up the mem speed initially by 25Mhz(to 425Mhz), run 3DMark05 for 3 minutes or so. No artifacts, I ESC out of 3DMk and go back to Powerstrip and bump it up another 10Mhz. Go back into 3DMark and run it for another 3 minutes, if no artifacts then back to Powerstip and so on. I keep doing that until I find artifacts. Once I get artifacts I back it down 10Mhz and run the entire 3DMark05 bench and make sure it's stable. Then move to the core, while keeping the memory OC'd. Start the core at 50Mhz higher than stock(480Mhz), since it typically OC's higher than the memory. Test the initial OC in 3Dmark05 for 3 minutes. No artifacts, back to Powerstrip and up it by 10Mhz. Keep doing that until you find artifacts, then back it down 10Mhz and run 3Dmark05 all the way through. Make sure it's stable. Then I bump both core and memory up 5Mhz and bench again. Stable? If yes then bump them both up another 5Mhz. Keep benching until you lock it up or get artifacts.

That's generally how I do it. I can usually find a higher OC that way. Also, if you don't know what artifacts are from the core and what are from the memory it's easy to tell. Core artifacts will show up as little white dots, can be a little harder to spot if there are only a few, but if you look closely you should be able to see them. Memory artifacts are jagged lines, usually black, across the screen, really easy to see. That way if you're bumping up both the core and the memory you can tell which one is maxed out then stop bumping that one up anymore and move on with the other.

For those of you that aren't able to move the memory up at all, I'd be asking Dell for a new card. You should be able to OC the meory at least 20-30Mhz without a problem. Typically the memory won't OC as much as the core, but you should be able to get some more out of it than stock. If 1-3Mhz bump in memory speed is causing lock-ups, then your card is barely stable at stock speed and I would highly recommend pushing for a new card. Becuase that means that gaming on that card is eventually going to lead to artifacts at stock speeds, which is not acceptable IMO. Get it replaced and try to OC the new card, I'm willing to bet you'll have much better luck.

Nice guide, Camride
Too bad I am one of those who cannot oc Memory clock. But I'm still thinking it's not a stability issue, I've played for hours without problems. And then how should you explain that we cannot UNDERclock the Memory clock also?
Mmm... I'm sure there's something else. There's a number of people with the same problem...
Thanks anyway, it's going to be very useful!

If the I overclock the card too much and it locks up and I have to restart or whatever...isn't that bad for it ? And even if it doesn't do that....and It's still stable at the overclocked speed - playing a game for 3 hours with the GPU overclocked, wont that be bad for it ? Wont it cause increased wear on the components etc. I may be wrong I have no idea what Im talking about...but the way I look at it is like a tuned car...sure it goes faster....but the engine will wear out alot quicker......

a modest overclock i dont think will mess ur components up.
the life that ur losing is trivial, because by the time the video card goes out in many years u wont even own the laptop anymore =P

I tried further with ATI tool. It says change of Memory clock is not supported for this chipset ( this includes undercloking ). Maybe it's locked somehow... that means it can be unlocked . Core clock I can change, like with Powerstrip.
I got a good tool for monitoring temperatures:
http://www.mckenziedev.com/index.php
It's not fully optimized for core duo processors, that means the readings of CPU temperature are false. GPU and others seem to be ok though. It allows fan control as well

I use i8kfangui to check temperatures and all of them are TRUE. The problem comes when you want to change the fan speed yourself. The temperature monitors all work as they should

I'm having the same MEM overclocking problem as some of you guys. I'm using dell drivers though, gonna try the omega ones, see what i can find.

Yes - ATI Tool seems not to work with changing the clock on x1400 at all. If you're locking up, that's the problem.

Also, thanks for the info about what memory artifacting looks like - I had thought those black seam-lines were just shoddy modeling! Guess I must have been playing with the mem clock up a bit too high - but to be honest the black jagged lines didn't exactly have any great effect on my gaming experience - any idea if running above levels where the video card is stable is harmful?

i.e. where on the following chart does your video card start to get damaged or start, and where on the chart does it just start to deteriorate little by litte:

----
normal clock speeds
----
stabile overclock
----
unstable but sustainable overclock
----
unstable overclock that leads to crashing/lock-up, but you power down right away
----
unstable overclock that leads to crashing/lock0up, and you just let it sit there
----
waaaaay higher clock speeds than you could possibly handle
----

I assume the "danger point" starts at "unstable overclock that leads to crashing/lock-up, and you just let it sit there", but I could easily see that it could start at "unstable overclock that leads to crashing/lock-up, but you power down right away", although I hope not it's kind of unavoidable when you're trying to get optimal cock-speeds to crash to white-screen or freeze once in a while.

And I really hope there's no danger in "unstable but sustainable overclock" - better make sure you check extra hard for artifacts! And if "stabile overclock" causes detioration... well, if it did, I guess nobody would overclock, so I assume it doesn't . I wish I knew more about the architecture of video cards - why would they necessarily deteriorate over time, so that a clockspeed that's stable today might not be stable a year from now? Corrosion? Corruption? Melting?

I was able to get my new score at 530/425 or 3dmark05 2058

How did you overclock the memory? what version of powerstrip or any other thing you used?

I am using Powerstrip 3.63 Build 540.

I dunno whether anyone is going to know this, but for these 3DMARK benchmarks, are the marks weighted evenly ? Eg. is a system with a score of 1000 twice as good as a system with 500, or are the higher points harder to get than the lower ones, making a system with 1000 much more than twice as good as a system with 500 ?

Not sure how 3DMark is weighted, I've never thought about it. But I'd think that it'd be even so that a score of 1000 is twice as powerful as a 500 score and so on.

I'm using The latest Omega Drivers with Powerstrip 3.63 Build 540(like alpha202ej). I find it really odd that some of you can't even underclock the memory, there's something not right about that.

As far as damaging your card, you won't ever damage your card with just a OC because you're not changing the voltage. There's nothing physically changing in the card so it won't hurt anything. The only thing you're really risking is data loss from locking up the computer, but even that is pretty slight. Really the only time you have to worry about damaging parts is when you start messing with the voltage.

I finally finished my reinstall of Windows so I'm going to start benching here real soon. Hopefully with a clean install I should see some slightly better numbers than before. I will also try to push my OC a little further and see how I do. I will post results.

I know what is the problem!!! In the past I was able to overclock my memory. Recently I uninstalled powerstrip to test Ati Tool. I then reisntalled it and was having the same problem as many members in this forum. The problem is that many people are downloading Powerstrip 3.64 build 555. This version is what causes the memory problems. So I downloaded Powerstrip 3.63 Build 540 and it works perfectly. Hope it helps!