ATI Mobility with THINKPAD

TheRetroFox · Sep 11, 2007, 12:10 AM

Hi all. I recently received an IBM Thinkpad R51 1830 AHU

The video card it contains is an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000

Don't know if its IGP or not, but it currently only has 32mb of memory... This SUCKS in general.

The system itself only has 512 Ram, but I will soon upgrade that.

Many have said that it IS possible for me to increase the video memory through BIOS- but this thinkpad's BIOS is VERY limited and offers no option of that nature. Is there a 3rd party ap that allows me to edit this? I have also heard of increasing the AGP Apeture, but no support for this in the BIOS, either. Is there any way to make this card faster?

I have also tried OMEGA drivers. This question is seperate, but what exactly are softmods- could I softmod my 9000 to a higher model?

Thanks for all the help.

Dyre Straits · Sep 11, 2007, 08:13 AM

Greetings and welcome to DriverHeaven!

First of all, any ATI card model prior to the 95xx is no longer supported by ATI's newer drivers since 6.11. That was the last 'legacy' driver created for the older model cards.

Secondly, the only way the BIOS 'increases' the video memory in this situation is to delegate some of the SYSTEM RAM to the video. So, essentially, you're 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'. So, if the BIOS does allow for any settings of this nature, the only way to accomplish it is by adding more SYSTEM RAM and then increasing the amount of the RAM to be used for graphics. ATI calls this, HyperThreading.

You cannot physically increase the amount of the VRAM (Video RAM.)

TheRetroFox · Sep 11, 2007, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dyre Straits

Greetings and welcome to DriverHeaven!

First of all, any ATI card model prior to the 95xx is no longer supported by ATI's newer drivers since 6.11. That was the last 'legacy' driver created for the older model cards.

Secondly, the only way the BIOS 'increases' the video memory in this situation is to delegate some of the SYSTEM RAM to the video. So, essentially, you're 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'. So, if the BIOS does allow for any settings of this nature, the only way to accomplish it is by adding more SYSTEM RAM and then increasing the amount of the RAM to be used for graphics. ATI calls this, HyperThreading.

You cannot physically increase the amount of the VRAM (Video RAM.)

Thanks for the welcome and the help.

As I said before, the BIOS is very limited- so there are no options to share system RAM- can this be done through a 3rd party app?

Also, what is SoftModding in the Omega drivers?

TheRetroFox · Sep 12, 2007, 03:43 AM

Yet another new problem has emerged

As I am using Windows XP Media Center Edition- it is quite dissapointing to realise that the drivers I'm using are INCOMPATIBLE- It seems to be able to play the videos IN media center, but the message in the beginning "Your video card or drivers are not compatible with MCE 2005" is quite annoying... anyone got any ideas or fixes there?...

TheRetroFox · Sep 14, 2007, 03:13 AM

Ok- thanks to the WONDERFUL Omega Drivers, I have gotten Media Center to work. Only one more problem- the memory- I have heard on various sites that even if you have the dedicated memory version of the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 (mine is the 32mb version) that you should be able to share system memory with it. I have a gig of system memory, so I am willing to share some with the video card. The problem is, I CANT. The BIOS of this THINKPAD is so limited- no agp aperture settings, no video memory settings- NOTHING... Is there anyway to do this without BIOS? Are there any apps which let me do so?

Thanks so much.

Sep 11, 2007, 12:10 AM	#1
TheRetroFox DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	ATI Mobility with THINKPAD Hi all. I recently received an IBM Thinkpad R51 1830 AHU The video card it contains is an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 Don't know if its IGP or not, but it currently only has 32mb of memory... This SUCKS in general. The system itself only has 512 Ram, but I will soon upgrade that. Many have said that it IS possible for me to increase the video memory through BIOS- but this thinkpad's BIOS is VERY limited and offers no option of that nature. Is there a 3rd party ap that allows me to edit this? I have also heard of increasing the AGP Apeture, but no support for this in the BIOS, either. Is there any way to make this card faster? I have also tried OMEGA drivers. This question is seperate, but what exactly are softmods- could I softmod my 9000 to a higher model? Thanks for all the help.

Sep 12, 2007, 03:43 AM	Thread Starter #4
TheRetroFox DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	Yet another new problem has emerged As I am using Windows XP Media Center Edition- it is quite dissapointing to realise that the drivers I'm using are INCOMPATIBLE- It seems to be able to play the videos IN media center, but the message in the beginning "Your video card or drivers are not compatible with MCE 2005" is quite annoying... anyone got any ideas or fixes there?...

Sep 14, 2007, 03:13 AM	Thread Starter #5
TheRetroFox DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	Ok- thanks to the WONDERFUL Omega Drivers, I have gotten Media Center to work. Only one more problem- the memory- I have heard on various sites that even if you have the dedicated memory version of the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 (mine is the 32mb version) that you should be able to share system memory with it. I have a gig of system memory, so I am willing to share some with the video card. The problem is, I CANT. The BIOS of this THINKPAD is so limited- no agp aperture settings, no video memory settings- NOTHING... Is there anyway to do this without BIOS? Are there any apps which let me do so? Thanks so much.