  We study five-dimensional black holes obtained by compactifying M theory on
Calabi-Yau threefolds. Recent progress in solving topological string theory on
compact, one-parameter models allows us to test numerically various conjectures
about these black holes. We give convincing evidence that a microscopic
description based on Gopakumar-Vafa invariants accounts correctly for their
macroscopic entropy, and we check that highly nontrivial cancellations -which
seem necessary to resolve the so-called entropy enigma in the OSV conjecture-
do in fact occur. We also study analytically small 5d black holes obtained by
wrapping M2 branes in the fiber of K3 fibrations. By using heterotic/type II
duality we obtain exact formulae for the microscopic degeneracies in various
geometries, and we compute their asymptotic expansion for large charges.
