Update: Lenovo has released a system bios update and driver update to resolve this issue. Because of the BIOS update, the hardware ID of the graphics adapter has changed. This causes Windows to re-detect the graphics adapter on the first boot after updating the BIOS.

• BIOS 1.18 (6FET48WW) and later contain the update.
• Graphics drivers
  • 8.503.2.2-080818a-069536C-Lenovo (7YD119WW) for Windows XP
  • 8.52.4.4-080919a-069896C-Lenovo (7VD535WW) for Windows Vista

  and later contain the update.

Note: Make sure that you have updated the display driver before the BIOS update. Otherwise you will be asked for an appropriate driver for a newly found hardware device and the display may be a lower resolution than your desired resolution. If this happens your icon arragement on the desktop will be altered.

Recently it has come to Lenovo's knowledge that some users of the ThinkPad W500 were confused in seeing that the graphics adapter configuration indicated in Windows' Device Manager or Display Properties is different from the W500 product specification. Device Manager or Display Properties indicate the implemented graphics as AMD's Mobility Radeon HD3650, which might result in confusion by the user. The purpose of this tip is to describe why this occurs.

Any of the following Lenovo systems with AMD's Mobility FireGL V5700 graphics running Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Vista:

• ThinkPad W500 with Machine types 4058, 4061, 4062, 4063, 4064, 4065

The ThinkPad W500 is designed to provide users with best-class graphics performance achieved by AMD's Mobility FireGL V5700 graphics chip. The fundamental design of ThinkPad W500's graphics was based on AMD's Mobility Radeon HD3650 graphics chip. Extended graphics logic and functionality were added to activate the FireGL graphics features. Due to a limitation, the operating system is not capable of differentiating between the AMD Mobility Radeon HD3650 and the FireGL V5700 graphics chips, therefore it reports the Mobility Radeon HD3650 in Device Manager or Display Properties dialogs. The graphics chip of this model is the Mobility FireGL V5700, which gives users the benefit of FireGL functions and performance.

A user can verify FireGL functionality on their W500 by the following:

1. Right click on the Desktop, then select Graphics Properties to open AMD's Catalyst Control Center (CCC).
2. Take a look at the logo mark at the bottom-left of CCC. If it says ATI FireGL Graphics, the system has Mobility FireGL V5700 graphics (see Fig.1). If it says ATI Radeon Graphics, the system has Mobility Radeon HD3650 (see Fig.2).

Fig 1. ThinkPad W500 (with AMD's Mobility FireGL V5700)


Fig 2. ThinkPad W500 (with AMD's Mobility Radeon HD3650)

With regard to the verification of FireGL capability, running a performance benchmark program would be another approach. SPECviewperf is one of the most popular benchmark programs in the industry for rating OpenGL 3D graphics performance. For SPECviewperf, scores with FireGL graphics will be much greater than ones with non-FireGL graphics.