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my m5550's gfx card

post #1 of 30
8/15/06 at 4:16pm
Thread Starter 
Hey guys, I have another question. Well as most of your know they goofed up my order and gave me a processor upgrade... is it possible my gfx card too? I dont know much about these things but while I was here http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest checking out the latest games I can play with recomended (not minimum) I was suprised the constant message was: Congratulations, your system will ROCK this product! Wish we had a system that hot you lucky dog. (this one was for BF2!).

So.. I looked and I didnt think it possible because of my processor and gfx card. However, my gfx card is always max green and the only thing holding me back on any game are processore RECOMENDING 3ghz (my core duo estimates 2.74) but i can still run on minimum processor.

Anywho, what im getting to... the gfx setting shows: Video RAM: Required - 128 MB , You have - 512.0 MB <--- this is an example, for Oblivion

I ordered the 128mb x1400 ATI Radeon... the 128MB is the RAM for the gfx card? Under my Alienware PC information icon on my desktop it says the adapter RAM for my card is:

Caption: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
Adapter RAM: 512MB
DriverVersion: 6.14.10.6601

Why doesnt it say 128mb or is that something completely differnt? I might just be dreaming haha. But someone please figure this out for me. I didnt even know the x1400 had 512mb and theres not even an option for that on the m5550.

If this is dumb im sorry... I always look way too into things but if they mesed up my processor for the good, you never know! Right now its showing that I can basically play any game with max settings with only my processor holding me back but I can still run on minimum processor settings

Help! lol
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post #2 of 30
8/15/06 at 6:26pm
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php shows everything about your laptop
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post #3 of 30
8/15/06 at 7:03pm
Thread Starter 
thanks but I dont really want to download too much right now... can anyone help with what I gave for info?
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post #4 of 30
8/15/06 at 8:23pm
Wow, 512m huh?

I'm pretty sure it's the software from that site that must be referring to the wrong card. The x1400 doesn't come with 512m, no card that will work with the m5550 does. That would be pretty cool though, huh...

I think Alienware bumped you to the 1.83 due to lack of inventory on the slower processor. If they were out of your video card, they might bump that up too, but not to a 512m card. The only mobile 512m card out now is the 7900gtx I think, and that wouldn't work in the m5550 due to power and heat requirements.

cpuid is a very well known simple program that identifies all your hardware, you should feel safe downloading and running that for accurate information.

The site you listed I've never seen before, and it tried to load something onto my machine when I went there. You can check add/remove programs to see if it loaded something on your system and remove it if it's listed.

You can also go to the device manager to see what your hardware is somewhat. Click Start > Control Panel > performance and maintenance > System > Hardware tab > device manager, then click on display adapters and it should tell you what card you have. Probably won't talk about onboard memory though... The x1400 only comes in the 128m variety though I think.
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post #5 of 30
8/16/06 at 12:28am
Thread Starter 
I just went to my control panel to check that out but it didnt show the MB of my card. I never had a problem with that site before either... but what concerned me about my gfx card like I said is that under "My Alienware PC information" it says adapter ram: 512mb and that site said 512MB so why would it be saying that?
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post #6 of 30
8/16/06 at 12:33am
ok i could be wrong but could it be the card taking system ram and adding it to it's 128mb?
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post #7 of 30
8/16/06 at 12:37am
Thread Starter 
System ram for me is 1gb
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post #8 of 30
8/16/06 at 1:00am
I'm thinking Turbocache.... even though you have 1 gig installed, under system in control panel how much does it show?
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post #9 of 30
8/16/06 at 1:04am
Thread Starter 
1.00 GB of RAM
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post #10 of 30
8/16/06 at 1:20am
Got me stumped.

The only thing I can think of is some older video chips used to reserve some of the system memory to use as video memory. Maybe that is what is happening here. I'm sure a 512m vid card would be very expensive...
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post #11 of 30
8/16/06 at 1:22am
Thread Starter 
Well thats the thing, I didnt think it possible to have a 512mb card but my stats page that alienware has on my desktop says 512 and so doesnt that site, it just blows my mind. I guess ill have to download that program to see
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post #12 of 30
8/16/06 at 1:29am
Thread Starter 
Please analyze. This is from PC Wizard:

General Information :
Manufacturer : ATI Technologies Inc (Uniwill Computer Corp)
Model : MOBILITY RADEON X1400
Bus Type : PCI-Express
Total Memory : 512 MB
Texture Memory : 373 MB
Processor : ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (0x7145)
Converter : Internal DAC(400MHz)
Refresh Rate (min/max) : 60/60 Hz
GPU Information :
Number of GPU : 1
Codename : RV515
GPU Frequency : 445.5 MHz - [initial : 450 MHz]
Memory Frequency GPU : 342 MHz - [initial : 350 MHz]
Texels : 1800 MTexels/s
DirectX Support : 9.0c
Video Bios Information :
Date : 03/22/06
ID : BK-ATI VER009.012.001.009.019324
General Features :
Width : 336 mm
Height : 210 mm
Pixel per inch : 96x96 dpi
bits per pixel : 32
Colour Bits/Planes : 1
Brushes : 4294967295
Pens : 4294967295
Markers : 0
Device Fonts : 0
Device Colours : 4294967295
Clip Output to Rectangle : Yes
Hardware Acceleration : Yes
Blend and Shade Capabilities :
GradientFill Rectangle : No
GradientFill Traingle : No
Per Pixel AlphaBlend : Yes
Premultiplied Alpha : No
Raster Capabilities :
Banding : No
Transfer Bitmaps : Yes
Bitmap >64 KB : Yes
Fonts larger than 64 K : Yes
DIBs : Yes
DIBTODEV : Yes
Flood Fills : Yes
Scaling : No
StretchBlt : Yes
StretchDIB : Yes
Curves Capabilities :
Chord Arcs : Yes
Circles : Yes
Elipses : Yes
Interiors : Yes
Pie Wedges : Yes
Rounded Rectangles : Yes
Styled Borders : Yes
Wide Borders : Yes
Wide, Styled Borders : Yes
Lines Capabilities :
Interiors : Yes
Markers : Yes
Polylines : Yes
Polymarkers : Yes
Styled : Yes
Wide : Yes
Wide, Styled : Yes
Polygonal Capabilities :
Interiors : Yes
Alternate Fill Polygons : Yes
Winding Fill Polygons : Yes
Rectangles : Yes
Scan Lines : Yes
Styled Borders : Yes
Wide Borders : Yes
Wide, Styled Borders : Yes
Text Capabilities :
Stroke Precision : Yes
Stroke Clip Precision : Yes
90° Character Rotation : No
Any Angle Character Rotation : No
Independant X-Y Scaling : No
Double Weighted Characters : No
Italic : No
Underline : Yes
Strikeout : Yes
Raster Fonts : Yes
Vector Fonts : Yes
Color Management Capabilities :
CMYK : No
Gamma Ramp : Yes
ICM Device : No

I just copied and pasted everything for info about the video card so you can see what you need to see. Please, solve this!
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post #13 of 30
8/16/06 at 1:48am
hmmmm..... well how well does the card work? if it's that good then who cares how it happened!
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post #14 of 30
8/16/06 at 1:52am
Thread Starter 
Well thats the thing, also under PC Wizard it says : Graphics Card: 2 and since when I hover over the ATI logo at the bottom and it says 0 degrees im wondering whats up with that. (though someone told me that I might just not have a temp reader on it, but then why would it say 0? to me the whole temp thing should be absent)

Is it even possible for me to have a 512mb gfx card in here? Everything is showing 512mb... except my receipt that says 128mb but thats hte only thing so I cant call alienware to find out whats up or else I will have to pay or send it back to have a downgrade.

My lappy is VERY hot all the time. Even when im not gaming. I need more opinions on this lol.
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post #15 of 30
8/16/06 at 9:57am
I don't think a 512mb X1400 exists, and unless it is using hypertransport to borrow from system memory (which I thought was limited to 256 for your card) I'm stumped. That's just bloody odd. But as long as it works like one, enjoy it! The high heat may be a bit of a concern though.

Regarding the temp being at zero, that could be a flawed sensor.
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post #16 of 30
8/16/06 at 12:21pm
Thread Starter 
I didnt think it existed either, but I really need to know exactly what my card is so I'm buying games that it can handle, or so I dont hold back when I can handle them fine. I don't want to call Alienware cuz if they messed up again (since the reciept says 128mb) then Id have to pay for it or send it back in.

Someone else who had the m5550 with the ATI x1400 card, please check this out! Id like to compare. If yours says it too then that would be interesting, and if it doesnt then that would be really interesting lol.
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post #17 of 30
8/16/06 at 2:24pm
i m debating on the ati x1400 and nvidia 7600... how is the performace and benchmark of the x1400? i think the 512 suppose to be 256 with hypermemory... but it should show 256 not 512ram.
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post #18 of 30
8/16/06 at 2:45pm
Thread Starter 
I dont know how to do benchmarking, i honestly dont even know what it means but for my card, AW showed on my laptop this:

III. Burn-In/Benchmarks[IMG]file:///C:/WINDOWS/system32/Alienware/hr.gif[/IMG]Doom 3[IMG]file:///C:/WINDOWS/system32/Alienware/hr.gif[/IMG]
  • Doom 3: 70.4 fps
[IMG]file:///C:/WINDOWS/system32/Alienware/hr.gif[/IMG]3DMark 2005[IMG]file:///C:/WINDOWS/system32/Alienware/hr.gif[/IMG]
  • Game Tests
    • 3DMark Score: 1,698.00 3DMarks
    • GT1 - Return To Proxycon: 7.89 FPS
    • GT2 - Firefly Forest: 5.47 FPS
    • GT3 - Canyon Flight: 7.26 FPS
  • CPU Tests
    • CPU Score: 4,967.00 CPUMarks
    • CPU Test 1: 2.69 FPS
    • CPU Test 2: 4.08 FPS
And man, im still soo confused about my card. I e-mailed Alienware support to ask about it though. I don't dare call them lol.

Im about to load in Quake 4, ill let you know how good that runs in my review. Halo runs flawlessly though on max settings, but thats an older game.
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post #19 of 30
8/16/06 at 3:05pm
The card is using hyperthreading to to get to 512mb ram. Basically you have a 128mb video card and then it uses 384mb of system memory *when it can* to boost performance. Many cards do this now. The x1600 does it as well if you buy a Sager NP5750.

I'm 99% sure that is what is happening here. It will report 512mb, but 384 of that comes from your system ram. You should get another gig of ram when you can. It will greatly enhance your performance I think.
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post #20 of 30
8/16/06 at 4:00pm
Have you tried Dxdiag in Windows XP?
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