M15X ATI HD 5850 performance issues

Hey guys

My specs are as follows

Processor: Core I7 Q740
Ram: 4 GB DDR3
Graphics: ATI HD 5850
Hard Disk: 250GB 7200rpm
Screen Res: 1600x900
OS: Windows 7 64 bit

I have installed the latest CCC drivers from the following URL

ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

My trouble is my graphics card seems to stuttering. Using IE9, I can only get around 58fps with 20 fish in the following URL

FishIE Tank

It crawls down to around 10fps with 1000 fish. I tried the same website with Firefox 4 and the performance is even worse. HD movies on VLC player (MKV format) also stutter.

Do you think the graphics drivers are causing the problem? I have a clean install of windows and no extra software running in the background. I also have my laptop set to high performance.

Any help or advice is much appreciated.

Thanks

 

one thing i noticed with the fish thingy is that the clocks don't go up, its using idle clocks, i'm sure if you run an oc program to get 3d clock it will run much better.

 

Update:

Upgrading my bios from A08 to A09 seems to have made performance a little better. Is this even possible? Also what tool do you guys recommend for OC?

Thanks

 

amd clock tools is one of the easiest to use:

Download AMD GPU Clock Tool v0.9.26.0 For HD 5870 | techPowerUp

 

Thanks a bunch. I downloaded the AMD GPU clock tool. I am not interested in pushing my graphics card to the limit. Do you know what I can set the engine clock and memory clock values to have an appreciable boost in graphics performance while still safely remaining stable? The defaults seem to be 99.99 for engine clock and 150 for memory clock.

Thanks again

 

the default is your idle clocks. your stock 3d clocks are 625/1000. you can prolly go 750/1000 but check your temps when doing so.

 

You have to be using IE9. With a 5850m running at stock clocks (625/1000), the FishIE deal runs at 60fps, regardless of whether it's using 1 fish or 1,000 fish. It's barely using the card at all. Runs like crap in Chrome.

 

Thats interesting. I am using IE 9 and I get 60 fps for 20 fish. However, I only max out at 25 fps when I use 1000 fish. Do you think I should do a clean reinstall of my graphic drivers? I double checked to make sure I am not running in stealth mode which often seems to be the culprit with alienware machines

 

for some reason the fish thing would not take me to 3d clock, i stay on idle clocks.

 

This is new to me. I suspect it's an IE9 setting. You might reinstall IE9, using the most recent build. I doubt it has anything to do with your drivers unless you're having problems in other applications. On further examination, FishIE Tank appears to be driven by Java. Download and install the most recent version of Java and see if that helps. java.com: Java + You.

@Inap: It mostly runs at 3d clocks on mine, but jumps around some, cycling through idle clocks (100/150) and also video clocks (500/1000). I'm guessing there's not enough load to keep it at 3d clocks all of the time, but who knows? How did we get into IE9 java apps? LOL.

 

hahha just messing around. i never use ie anyways. as always your AWESOME!

 

Figured, I'd post an update. The issue with the fish tank test has not yet been resolved. Installing Java and reinstalling display drivers did not fix the problem and IE 9 maxes out at 25 FPS for 1000 fish. However my original problem with VLC stuttering on HD videos has been resolved. I will keep you guys updated if I find anything else.

 

Try using a program like HWinfo32 to measure the graphics card clock speed while in the game. If your clocks aren't jumping to video or stock mode then that's why your fps is bad... it's like trying to run wprime while in "power saver" vs "high performance"... right now your 5850 is in "power saver" mode to stay cool/conserve energy while idling.

 

Thanks to everyone who helped me. I finally got it working. Here is what I did

1) Overclocked ATI HD 5850 to 750/1050 using CCC. I did not need ATI GPU tool since CCC allowed me to do this using overdrive in performance options. After doing this FPS still remained at 25.

2) Suspecting that my graphics card may not be the bottleneck, I tried running the windows experience index. WEI showed a low score of 4.7 for my processor which is a Core I7 Q740

3) I disabled Intel speed step, turned off core parking and enabled turbo mode but did not see any difference in the fish tank benchmark or windows experience index.

4) As a last resort, I downloaded Throttlestop and set the mutiplier to "turbo". Reran the fish tank benchmark and now I get 60 FPS for 1000 fish! Windows experience index also gives me 7.1 for my CPU.

In conclusion, it looks like IE 9 uses a combination of processor and graphics card for the fish tank test. My processor was the component holding back my scores. Do you have any ideas as to why the processor was performing poorly without Throttlestop?

 

stealth mode enabled?

 

It was because EIST (Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology) was disabled, which locks a Core i mobile processor into Low Frequency Mode (9x or 1.2GHz for the 920xm; not sure about the 740QM). I can duplicate your experience in the FishIE Tank demo exactly by simply unchecking EIST in ThrottleStop. EIST must be enabled in the BIOS (its default setting) and in TStop if active (also the default setting). Don't mess with EIST.

Congrats on finding the solution.

 

Bingo! Enabling EIST solved my processor issues. This is contrary to the description in the Bios which says disable EIST to improve performance.