DRIVER SETTINGS FOR QUADRO FX 2500M "for gaming"

[whiteashcm1]

Hello everybody, just took ownership of a refurb precision m90 on dell's refurb outlet website.. got this jewel for 1480.00.. this laptop is a powerhouse by all means and does game very well so dont buy into all the B/S that you cant game with a quadro.. thats B/S!!! my questions are of the quadro's control panel under performance and quality settings.. there is a setting for "maximize texture memory" the default setting is off. should i have this turned on??? and if so what does this setting do exactly?? 2nd setting is "texture color depth" default setting is "use desktop color depth" the other two setting are always use 16bpp or always use 32bpp. what setting should i use on this option?? lastly the 3rd setting is "unified back/depth buffer" should this be on or off?? default setting is on. oh, one more buffer-flipping mode, default setting is auto-select. should i leave this setting as is or change it to "use block transfer"?? sorry if i bore you guys but i dont know what these settings do or what to have them set at for gaming.. not very familiar with the quadro's settings. any help appreciated..

[Michaelx]

Hi, I checked my settings and they´re similar to yours... I´ve seen that you´re using a modified driver couple of questions:

Why do you still stick with 84.63? There´re newer ones available ...

In addition any issues with the driver you´re using ??? Like doesn´t go into sleep mode or not able to get back to work?

Would be great to know, cause I´m still using the original dell 84.29 driver but would like to upgrade... But my concern is, that there´s something no longer working (like Standby and revoking)...

[whiteashcm1]

Hi, I checked my settings and they´re similar to yours... I´ve seen that you´re using a modified driver couple of questions:

Why do you still stick with 84.63? There´re newer ones available ...

In addition any issues with the driver you´re using ??? Like doesn´t go into sleep mode or not able to get back to work?

Would be great to know, cause I´m still using the original dell 84.29 driver but would like to upgrade... But my concern is, that there´s something no longer working (like Standby and revoking)...

i like the performance of the 84.63 driver and i dont have any issues with stanby mode.. this is the latest driver on nvidia's website for there mobile geforce go series.. the quadro 2500m is a G71 gpu, so basically its a 7900gtx with additional features for design and rendering.. alot of people think the quadro is a totally different gpu but its not, it still a G71.. that is why i use the 84.63. its the latest for the go series and i like to game, so this driver does help in the gaming dept.. there are alot of 90's series drivers out there and eventually i would like to try them. i play Doom 3 at max res. 1600x1200 on ultra settings and this game plays smooth as silk.. i laugh when i see people replying in forums that you cant game with a quadro.. well i'll tell you what, that quadro will do everything the 7900gtx will do and more like CAD and design.. do you have any issues with the colors on your screen or contrast??? when i game it just seems like the colors are off just a bit.. do you have any answers for my origional questions??

Edited October 28, 2006 by whiteashcm1

[Guest LoleitorMAX]

Hello, my name is Manuel. Dell Precision M90 Quadro FX 2500M. I am driver's for dell website, but i need a new drivers. Where i can found it? more thanks

[whiteashcm1]

Hello, my name is Manuel. Dell Precision M90 Quadro FX 2500M. I am driver's for dell website, but i need a new drivers. Where i can found it? more thanks

hello, i tried a couple of 90 series drivers and the performance and image quality was so so.. i then tried the 91.33 driver with modded inf and i have been using them ever since.. the benchmarks and image quality are excellent with no hardware issues.. these are keepers for me. the only problem is you only can access the new contol panel and cannot swith to the old one. i fixed this by going in to the control panel registry entries and changing all values to #2 instead of 3 and there you go, you can switch to old control panel. if you like the newer style there is no reason to change the registry.. thought i would let you guys know..

[Guest Chris]

hello, i tried a couple of 90 series drivers and the performance and image quality was so so.. i then tried the 91.33 driver with modded inf and i have been using them ever since.. the benchmarks and image quality are excellent with no hardware issues.. these are keepers for me. the only problem is you only can access the new contol panel and cannot swith to the old one. i fixed this by going in to the control panel registry entries and changing all values to #2 instead of 3 and there you go, you can switch to old control panel. if you like the newer style there is no reason to change the registry.. thought i would let you guys know..

hello there. I just got a dell precision M90 with the nvidia quadro fx 2500m and the games also run very smooth. You are using a different/modded driver, does it makes a big difference? honestly I'm clueless as to how to modd the drivers. The only thing I have been able to do is via the device manager update the driver and select the one for the geforce 7900gx... but I did not notice any difference. Do I have to overclock the card do see a difference?

[mobilenvidia]

I add some special tweaks to my modded INF just for Quadro's:

[Quadro_Tweaks]HKR,, OGL_AALineGamma, %REG_DWORD%, 0x23

HKR,, OGL_EnableOverlaySupport, %REG_DWORD%, 0x1

HKR,, OGL_EnableSingleBackDepthBuffer,%REG_DWORD%, 0x1

HKR,, OGL_MultisampleCompatibility, %REG_DWORD%, 0x1

These should get the most from your Quadro, as they are not enabled by default.

If you see these settings elsewhere then they have been stolen from here :)

[Guest Chris]

I add some special tweaks to my modded INF just for Quadro's:

These should get the most from your Quadro, as they are not enabled by default.

If you see these settings elsewhere then they have been stolen from here :)

Hey, thanks for the info. Me being an complete ignorant about modding the card and card features in general, can I ask you a couple of questions? a) what will these settings do? :) How do I enable these settings!! :-)

Thanks man..!

[mobilenvidia]

I could tell you but then there would be a funeral :)

These tweaks are in ALL my modded INFs by default and Quadro's only have access to them.

So just grab a driver and it's modded INF, install and you away.

[Guest posmaker]

I could tell you but then there would be a funeral :)

These tweaks are in ALL my modded INFs by default and Quadro's only have access to them.

So just grab a driver and it's modded INF, install and you away.

I have arrived at here by chance looking for a solution to a problem with my fx2500 quadro and I guess may be somebody could help me out.

The point is that my M90 with the FX2500 does not refresh well the text on the floating windows of Windows. When I move a explorer window all the text inside (file names, or menus) become blurry and bold and they recover the normal thickness when I release the window. I have tried with different text size and the problem persist, instead with lower resolutions is gone. Also when I work with two monitors connected (laptop monitor and Sony E400) the problem is only in the laptop one. As soon as I move the windows to the second monitor the text stabilizes. The monitor in the laptop is the WUXGA. I have just installed the 91.33 drivers and nothing new. Dell technical support sucks so I´m going nuts. Anybody with similar problem, is my monitor spoiled?

Thank you very much in advance

Cheers

Edu

[Guest Petrutz]

I have the same problem. Running a windows xp 64 bit. Apart of that the performance when drawing 2D rectangles is very poor. Any ideas?!

I have arrived at here by chance looking for a solution to a problem with my fx2500 quadro and I guess may be somebody could help me out.

The point is that my M90 with the FX2500 does not refresh well the text on the floating windows of Windows. When I move a explorer window all the text inside (file names, or menus) become blurry and bold and they recover the normal thickness when I release the window. I have tried with different text size and the problem persist, instead with lower resolutions is gone. Also when I work with two monitors connected (laptop monitor and Sony E400) the problem is only in the laptop one. As soon as I move the windows to the second monitor the text stabilizes. The monitor in the laptop is the WUXGA. I have just installed the 91.33 drivers and nothing new. Dell technical support sucks so I´m going nuts. Anybody with similar problem, is my monitor spoiled?

Thank you very much in advance

Cheers

Edu

[Guest the dude]

Where did you find the 91.33 drivers for the quadro fx 2500m. I've been having problems with mine.

[Guest Hoss-Style]

If you plan on using the Dell Precision M90 laptop with the Nvidia Quadro FX 2500M for gaming (or any laptop with the Nvidia Quadro FX 2500M for gaming) I suggest using the Nvidia Geforce Go 7900 GTX version 84.63 drivers instead of the official Dell Nvidia Quadro FX drivers. Both the Quadro FX 2500M and the Geforce Go 7900GTX are based on the same exact G71 GPU. The only real difference is that the Quadro FX card has a few additional features geared toward CAD design processing. The drivers for the Quadro FX cards are not designed for gaming and therefore don't properly render 3D gaming graphical textures as well as the card is capable of. For example, in Call of Duty 4 many of the textures will appear black with the standard Quadro FX 2500M drivers regardless of resolution or or graphic settings.

1. Get the Nvidia Geforce Go 7900GTX version 84.63 drivers: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_mobile_84.63.html

2. Right click the downloaded EXE and extract the contents into an empty directory

3. In Windows XP (I'm not yet a fan a Vista) go into device manager and right click your Quadro FX 2500M card under Display Adapters and select "Update Driver".

4. Select "No" to the connect to Windows update service prompt.

5. Select "Install from a list or specific location."

6. Select "Don't search. I will choose a driver to install."

7. Select "Have Disk" and browse to the directory where you extracted the 7900GTX drivers. Select the .inf and click "Open". Then click OK.

8. Next through the rest of the prompts until it completes the installation. It should ask you to reboot the computer at the end.

Once rebooted your graphics card will appear as the Nvidia Geforce Go 7900 GTX in device manager. You will now be ready to game!

[Guest eric]

Hoss-Style, thanks for the fix but I a have a question for you, Is there any problem using this

setup when u want to run Max CAD and Maya and other 3d apps? any performance degrade?

i use my M90 for my 3D work but also like to play on it too, have had no problems until i

tried running Gears of War now windows is busting my balls every time i try and launch it.

im going to try your fix will post back with my results to help any one else running into this jam.

thanks, Eric

[Guest eric]

hey all, seems to solve the gears of war driver problem but my card is showing up as a 7800 and not 7900 is there an issue with that and if so where did i F@#$ up at any help would be awesome thanks, Eric

[Guest eric]

alright here is an update i solved the driver issue so it says i have 7900 gtx in properties but when i call nvidia graphics info it still saying 2500m all my 3D apps seem to still run without a performance drop. As for gears of war this game is F#$%ed up every where i go people are reporting problems looks like microshaft has pulled our pants down once again.

[Nick Gordon]

Hello everyone,

I'm a newcomer both to this forum and to computers generally.

I've got a M90 also and have no probs in running games like Half Life 2, Counter Strike etc.

However, when I log on to Steam I now get a message telling me my graphics driver is out of date but that's not what I'm told when I check with both the Dell and Nvidia sites.Both sites say the driver is up to date. Up to now I've ignored the message and there are no problems with Steam games.

I installed Gears of War and now get a message telling me to update the driver to 163.44 which, I think, is for the Ge Force Series.

What do you think - Should I update?

Any comments, advice etc would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks.

Nick Gordon.

[Guest sweeny todd]

I managed to get Gears running fine on my M90 with a Core Duo 2.0ghz and fx2500m, however Unreal Tournament 3 gives me the blue screen of death. Maybe ill try the 7900gtx drivers, as long as it doesnt affect the performance of Maya...

Hope Age of Conan works on this machine or im going to cry :)

Does anyone know if the M90's can have the graphics card updated to DX10 i.e. replacing it with a 1600 or something?

thx,

J

[Guest Guest - Steve]

This is some really great info!!

I have a real quick question. I am using a Dell M90 also but with the fx 3500M card. I am very much into gaming, but have no idea what driver to get other than the original dell driver. Does the 84.63 driver support the 3500M or do I need to download a different one? Thanks in advance!

[Guest Haz]

Hey guys, just got an 9400 from eBay! for £400ish, it had the 2500M. I wanted to use this for gaming specifically so i first tried out one of my games i had on my shelf (Timeshift) and i got loads of random triangles everywhere! and an extremely laggy loading screen so i sorted this out by going to the Nvidia site and getting the most recent driver they had (Forceware 179.**) I think and I unzipped it to my documents (I am using Vista ultimate unfortunately) so i went to update the driver:

1. In device manager, go on NVIDIA Quadro fx2500m
   
2. Then navigate to the driver tab and click on update driver
   
3. Next, click Browse my computer for driver software.
   
4. Then click on Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer
   
5. After this, go on have disk
   
6. Navigate to where you unzipped your files
   
7. Finally, click on 7900GTX (What the 2500m is based on)
   
8. Restart the computer and it should work fine
   

This worked fine and all the random triangles on the screen dissapeared and the frame and load rate increased significantly! Hope this helps you guys!

[Mushu]

Using the unmodded desktop drivers will work fine. Only some mobile options like PowerMizer might not work on some laptops.

[Guest Skola]

If you plan on using the Dell Precision M90 laptop with the Nvidia Quadro FX 2500M for gaming (or any laptop with the Nvidia Quadro FX 2500M for gaming) I suggest using the Nvidia Geforce Go 7900 GTX version 84.63 drivers instead of the official Dell Nvidia Quadro FX drivers. Both the Quadro FX 2500M and the Geforce Go 7900GTX are based on the same exact G71 GPU. The only real difference is that the Quadro FX card has a few additional features geared toward CAD design processing. The drivers for the Quadro FX cards are not designed for gaming and therefore don't properly render 3D gaming graphical textures as well as the card is capable of. For example, in Call of Duty 4 many of the textures will appear black with the standard Quadro FX 2500M drivers regardless of resolution or or graphic settings.

1. Get the Nvidia Geforce Go 7900GTX version 84.63 drivers: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_mobile_84.63.html

2. Right click the downloaded EXE and extract the contents into an empty directory

3. In Windows XP (I'm not yet a fan a Vista) go into device manager and right click your Quadro FX 2500M card under Display Adapters and select "Update Driver".

4. Select "No" to the connect to Windows update service prompt.

5. Select "Install from a list or specific location."

6. Select "Don't search. I will choose a driver to install."

7. Select "Have Disk" and browse to the directory where you extracted the 7900GTX drivers. Select the .inf and click "Open". Then click OK.

8. Next through the rest of the prompts until it completes the installation. It should ask you to reboot the computer at the end.

Once rebooted your graphics card will appear as the Nvidia Geforce Go 7900 GTX in device manager. You will now be ready to game!

YOU ARE A ###### GENIOUS

MAN

I LOVE YOU (NO HOMO)

I have been having black texture issues on cod4 since install cod5.

cod5 is crap so i wanted to play 4 again, but have been getting black textures.

after a day of googling i found this advice - installed the driver just like you said and it works

not only that, but it looks better than it did when it worked before