Basic Question About Drivers

I'm not really sure if this is the right forum to put this in, so sorry if I've made a mistake, but here goes:

I'm not so knowledgable about video cards and drivers; to me, they're just the magic things that make the pretty pictures work. Which has worked fine for me so far (normally I don't play anything more graphically intense than Nethack), but with 1.9.1, I was advised to update my drivers. I downloaded and installed Omega drivers version 1.6693, since I thought that was the newest driver that would work on my machine, but I read this thread and now I'm not so sure. And I'm pretty far in over my head. Particularly since I've got a laptop and I'm under the impression that not every driver will work on it due to that, and there's nothing I can do to change that.

So can anyone point me to newer drivers that should work on my machine, or are the Omega drivers my best bet? Is there any other software I should update? I don't like to ask -- it feels a little like asking you all to do my homework for me -- but I'm just totally lost.

Thanks!

My system (yes, I know, it's not very good):

Dell Inspiron 5150 (it's a notebook)
CPU: 0.18 micron Intel Pentium 4 (3189 Mhz)
Memory: 768 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
OpenGL Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL Renderer: GeForce FX Go5200/AGP/SSE2 (32 MB)
OpenGL Version: 1.5.2
Currently using Omega Driver 1.6693, Performance version

Don't use the Omega drivers for nVidias, Omega discountinued it (last version was based on version 66.93). The only thing Omega does now is optimize ATI drivers. Instead use the NGO drivers. Goto NGOHq.com and download the latest NGO Optimized nVidia driver (currently 1.8456, based off the new nVidia Forceware 84.56). Be sure to unintall the Omegas & your old OEM drivers and clean up after them using Driver Cleaner Pro then install the NGO driver. Also once done it might be helpful to use the special tools that come with the NGO drivers (PCI Latency Tool & nHancer) to further tweak your drivers for better performance.

Found another option and most likely a better one: the XTreme-G drivers. They make mobile and desktop versions, I've ran a 3dmark2k3 benchmark and gain 200 points over the NGO drivers.

Okay, thanks. I was just going to post and say that the NGOHq ones hadn't worked on my computer. I'd gotten an error saying they couldn't find hardware that would work, which is the same thing that happens when I try to install the drivers straight from NVIDIA.

To get the NGO Drivers to work you have to edit an ini file and insert a shed load of extra code.

They don't come with Laptop support built in. A search of the NGO forum will bring up a thread with all the extra lines you need to insert.

Not very user friendly but I did get them to work, then my motherboard got fried. I now have a new laptoip with a Radion x600 in it so I can't really help more than that.

good luck in your hunt

http://fredfred.net/skriker/index.php/geforce-fx-go5200-with-latest-forceware-drivers/

Tips on how to get the newest Forceware drivers straight from nvidia to install onto a Dell 5150 that i use also.