GeForce Go6150 in Vista

[graybandit]

Hey all -

I'm not really sure where to post this, so I thought I would put it here for now.

It seems that recently HP/Compaq has been releasing a large amount of laptops with the integrated Nvidia GeForce Go 6150 chipset. While this is an IGP, and uses shared system memory instead of having built-in VRAM, it actually is a decent little budget performer and can actually run modern games, albeit on low or lowest settings.

However, the stock drivers included with HP and Compaq laptops really suck for anything other than just basic use of the laptop. So, that is where LaptopVideo2Go usually comes in, as a great resource for drivers. However, sadly, the Go 6150 seems to have issue with many of the most up to date drivers, or so it would seem.

If you read how to install drivers from here, most of them require the use of a modified INF file provided by LV2G, and with only minimal research you can easily discover how to install drivers using the 'Have disk' method in both XP and Vista. Most people do not seem to be having a problem with this so much as they have a problem with the drivers themselves not functioning, or functioning poorly.

Before this goes any further, here are my system specs:

Compaq F557US 1280x800

1.8ghz Mobile AMD Sempron 3500+ CPU

1.5gb system RAM (1.4gb available as the GPU reserves 128mb for it's use)

100gb HD

GeForce Go 6150 w/ 128 mb RAM (set in BIOS)

This is pretty much as low-end as you can go with recent HP/Compaq laptops, as almost all of them now come with a dual-core CPU of some sort, so any results i get below should be at LEAST matched with a dual-core system, and hopefully beaten soundly.

Most of the driver problems I have found lie in the fact that all the 160 series drivers i have tried DO NOT work with the 6150. Another board member has noted having a modified custom INF makes them work, but I have not tried this. However, ALL the 155 series drivers I have tried (with LV2G inf's or native installs) have worked just fine.

Currently, the best driver I have found and used for the Go 6150 is the 156.87 (see http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....showtopic=16659 or even more likely MS update). These drivers install natively on the Go 6150, no need for a modified INF, and have WHQL certification, so the whole process should be smooth to do. You're more than welcome to try more modern driver sets, but I recommend these for stability and compatibility so far.

[EDIT] REMEMBER: to use these drivers from LV2G, use the 'original' INF included in the download (as a zip file in the directory), or you may get the black screen on boot.[/EDIT]

If you have installed a 160 series driver and your laptop boots to a black screen, don't freak out, simply boot into safe mode and use Device Manager to roll back to your previous driver version. Then you should be able to install a compatible driver, without the need for a system wipe or anything drastic.

As a demonstration of how the Go 6150 can perform with the 156.87 series drivers, here are a few FPS benchmarks obtained from modern games (mostly freely available demo versions) using FRAPS (also freely available).

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare DEMO

Settings:

640x480, 2x AA (Game detected settings for everything else)

FPS: Min 9, Max 18, Avg ~15

Actually looks and plays better than it sounds. Framerate *is* low, but very playable. More of a proof-of-concept anyways.

Battlefield 2 DEMO

Settings:

800x600, all settings low except textures (medium)

FPS: Min 28, Max 41, Avg ~33

Probably would work higher, but I play it at LAN's and need a fast reaction. Works smooth and plays perfectly.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars DEMO

Settings:

640x480, all settings low except lighting (normal) [system autodetected]

FPS: Min 13, Max 30, Avg ~17

FPS varies widely, when a lot of bots were around it would drop into the low range, when less were you'd get very nice ones. Overall runs great and looks decent.

I've also run Unreal Tournament 3, Command & Conquer 3, and Portal on here with similar results. Sadly, this little thing can't really touch Crysis (to be expected, it crashed after the intro movie). However, all things considered it runs great with the 156.87 drivers.

Please post any driver recommendations you have for the 6150, and any other tips/tricks for using it to it's full potential. I have tried Nvidia Scaling in the NV control panel, which locks games to native scaling and puts black bars on the sides of the screen. Looks a little funky at first, but overall performance is pretty nice visually.

I will try to answer any questions as well, but I am not by any means some guru, I just have done a lot of testing.

Also, if anyone could obtain and post a link to the rumored 160 series custom INF for the 6150 (or just attach to this post), I would be more than willing to try it out and post my experiences.

Ryan

Edited January 12, 2008 by graybandit

[guryon]

:) :) :P FINALLY! I have been combing this site for months trying to find someone with an even comparable problem and it seemed that whenever I'd mention it in a thread people would look at me like a pink elephant(wtf mate?). I cannot express in words the relief I feel finally having someone experience the same problem. Thank you bandit for describing the problem so clearly and concisely.

[desibrainiac]

Yea I have been having the same problem also, yet, when i used the drivers that you suggested in the original post, I got the "boot to black screen of death". It also wouldn't update automatically as in i had to use a hacked .inf

[desibrainiac]

ok im going to stick my foot in my mouth....I just noticed the "original .inf" zip file in the main download...I just used those .inf's and it worked like a charm....kudos

[graybandit]

ok im going to stick my foot in my mouth....I just noticed the "original .inf" zip file in the main download...I just used those .inf's and it worked like a charm....kudos

Glad it worked for you, sorry I forgot to mention that. I'll edit my post to reflect that little bit.

[Guest Robert]

hail !

i have hp pavilion dv 6262eu with 2x1.6GHz , 1GB ram and geforce 6150 , windows xp

right now i am using official nvidia forceware drivers 162.18

call of duty 4 runs in 640x480 without any details just fine

crisis has few frames per sec and The Witcher have at least 15 frames (both with the lowest resolution and low details)

best regards

[graybandit]

i have hp pavilion dv 6262eu with 2x1.6GHz , 1GB ram and geforce 6150 , windows xp

right now i am using official nvidia forceware drivers 162.18

Interesting! Did you get them here or on Nvidia's site? I do note that you are using XP. I have installed XP on mine before, but it is a huge headache with the Microsoft UAA drivers and whatnot you have to get specially from HP, and in the end XP really hasn't proven to be much of a boost for me at all, so I stuck with Vista. Not totally sure if the OS has anything to do with whether or not the 6150 can take 160 series drivers, but i am willing to try.

call of duty 4 runs in 640x480 without any details just fine

crisis has few frames per sec and The Witcher have at least 15 frames (both with the lowest resolution and low details)

Ah, good. I should think that with a dual core games would run at least a little better, but still not spectacularly.

[Guest Robert]

hail

yes I have them from nvidia site

i had vista on my hp for ... two days :) but i've switched to xp

at the beggining i had no sound at all, after two days it was ok

i've even chat online with hp helpdesk for that reason but they didn't help me

and it's all because i run that UAA driver from setup.exe , after that installer is showing error message that he didn't found hardware

i've installed drivers through device menager and i've shown path to *.inf file

i think it was Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for HD Audio VERSION 1.00 Rev. A driver or B, i'm not sure

every single driver for my pavilion i have downloaded from official nvidia or hp sites

cheers

[Winter]

Can you control PowerMizer with this drivers (156.87)? I've got a HP laptop with GeForce Go 6100 and can't do anything, also the performance is worse than in XP - about 50%!

My configuration:

Sempron 3400+

2 GB DDR2 RAM

GeForce Go 6100

80 GB HDD

I couldn't install the drivers with setup, it didn't recognize my graphics, so I used the modified inf. Works, but my control panel has 2-3 functions to set, in XP I could control PowerMizer, SmartDimmer and many other functions.

[graybandit]

Can you control PowerMizer with this drivers (156.87)? I've got a HP laptop with GeForce Go 6100 and can't do anything, also the performance is worse than in XP - about 50%!

My configuration:

Sempron 3400+

2 GB DDR2 RAM

GeForce Go 6100

80 GB HDD

I couldn't install the drivers with setup, it didn't recognize my graphics, so I used the modified inf. Works, but my control panel has 2-3 functions to set, in XP I could control PowerMizer, SmartDimmer and many other functions.

Hey -

No, no powermizer settings in these drivers and vista. However, most of what you want is actually available in Vista's power manager, you can even set the display to dim automatically on battery, etc.

However, most Vista drivers so far do not have Powermizer in my experience.

I am sorry you have worse performance in Vista, mine has actually been better. That varies from notebook to notebook, I know, so that kinda sucks for you.

Best of luck. Anyone else recommend drivers with Powermizer?

Ryan

[graybandit]

Hey All -

Just an update: I tried out the 167.58 drivers for Vista 32bit, and they work great on my Go 6150.

Still no Powermizer in Vista (it is available in XP with a different laptop and this driver set however), but everything else works well.

Any questions feel free to ask.

Ryan

[aaronph]

Hi there. I recently bought a HP Pavillion TX1209 notebook, which have 1gb ram, AMD Turion 64x2 1.9GHz, 160gb HD and GeForce Go 6150 at 128mb vram. I tried running Witcher, but cant seem to get the game to run, even at lowest resolution and lowest setting. I had FIFA 2008 running at lowest setting but still get crappy slow framerates. I wouldn't want to think of games like Call of Duty 4 or BF2 etc if I already have problems with FIFA 08. I updated the driver to 167.58, but I don't see any improvements. I know this notebook aint for heavy gaming, but I found out ppl have actually used this vid card n play some great games (with low settings) :) I just wanna max out the capabilities of this vid card.. so any help would be much appreciated!

[im in your closet]

i must have a special magic go 6150 because i get way better performance than what some people say it will get.

in half life 2 episode 2:

models on high

textures on very high

resolution 1024x768

anisotropic 2x

no antialiasing

no hdr

[aaronph]

Guys, I decided to give the 174.xx driver series a try, and the decision paid off. I'm now using 174.60 and can run FIFA at the highest resolution and settings with high framerates! I suggest u guys give it a try too :)

Edited March 22, 2008 by aaronph