The Great Laptop Swindle?

Around 2 years ago, I was introduced to the wonders of the Dell Precision M90.  Quite a famous machine in its day, largely because there was a much publicised story about Michael Dell running Ubuntu on his own M90.

Let me be the first to confirm.  It does run Ubuntu very well, and for the most part, it’s no slouch on XP either.  The problem you were probably anticipating, is support for its graphics card – an nVidia Quadro FX 1500M.

To texture this emerging backdrop, the primary reason I bought the M90 was for solid, reliable development.  A laptop designed for engineering – it’s a sturdy box for any developer.

Still, there are the evenings.  All work and no play makes Paul a dull and unhappy boy.

I value graphics highly on any machine.  I don’t think that there is a PC I’ve yet owned that hasn’t been asked to play a demanding game at a demanding resolution.  That said, laptops are not ideal gaming machines. I knew this going in. 

What I didn’t expect was a complete lack of driver support for the built-in nVidia Quadro FX 1500M after early 2007.

nVidia have washed their hands of the card.  Goodness knows why, as it cannot be that different from the Quadro FX 1500 ( note, no M ) or the Quadro FX 1600M ( it’s one hundred louder! ).  Any search on their site for a fresh driver redirects you to your OEM.

     The manufacturer of this system requires that you download the driver for your GPU from their support site.

The GeForce M series and GeForce Go series notebook GPUs use drivers that have been customized by the notebook manufacturers to support hot key functions, power management functions, lid close and suspend/resume behavior. NVIDIA has worked with some notebook manufacturers to provide notebook-specific driver updates, however, most notebook driver updates must come from the notebook manufacturer. Additionally, the desktop GeForce graphics drivers will not install on Geforce M series and Quadro M series notebook GPU's.

 

Back on Dell’s site, you’re told that your driver is “up-to-date”, even though two years have elapsed and Valve’s Steam service is imploring you to upgrade your graphics drivers.

Desktop users buying laptops know the score.  We accept that we’re locked into relative solid-state hardware as soon as we splash the cash.  We know we’re probably not going to be able to run Crysis, and that we’ll be stung again in a few years. 

Manufacturers know this too, but should at least commit to providing driver updates for hardware we cannot change.  You’ll get your money eventually, Michael Dell – but in the meantime – at least allow us to get full use out of your products.

Fortunately, I am not the only one that thinks this.  Over at LaptopVideo2Go, I managed to snaffle not only a spanky new set of drivers, but also a modified INF file to tell my computer that these drivers are ok to use.

And guess what?  Everything’s working great, and I’ve seen a considerable jump in frame-rate on Counter-Strike Source.

So tell me Dell and HP.  Is the 1500M really that different from the 1500 and 1600M, or are you just trying to cannibalise your existing market and whip up your sting cycle?  And nVidia?  Is this card so different that your unified driver package can’t handle it, or are you just rolling over in bed for the big boys?