K53TA.. The best deal ever... could be!

Just for curiosity.

In my diablo you can only choose between high or low in some video options

I will try to configure that AMD center to get a better performance on D3

 

while i was looking for overclock tools for Trinity, I found pscheck.
I can't believe I never knew about this tool. It has so many options, and seems to work much better than k10stat. Bulldozer users have been using it.
It's a tool made by amd.

pschk341.zip

very easy to use, and has built-in command line options to load saved settings. Makes k10stat seem rudimentary.
read its help file for more options.

 

Since i wasn't sure how the game will behave under my rig, i asked a friend to give me a Starter Edition code to see how the game runs under my K53TA.

I only overclocked the CPU @2.3GHz and i can tell you that the game runs smooth and nice @the laptop's native resolution 1366x768 with default settings

Still i haven't got an answer to my question : Should i buy another stick of 4GB RAM ? I mean the GPU has dedicated memory or it uses the RAM?

Off-topic : What's with the 2nd gen APU's? I hope there will be an ASUS K53TA 2nd gen also.

Thank you

 

cant find how to set transition value ? up/down threshold for load, seems like doesnt do clock control though

 

there's a transition settings tab under cpu settings.
dunno if that's the one. Check out the help file.

But anyhow, you can save all settings into multiple .pcx files.
you can delete all p states and save that to another pcx file, and that should run cpu at 1 speed only.

the other way for clock control is to set High Performance in Windows control panel power options, then in pscheck, just use the up and down arrows under each core. That will lock the pstate to any clock you want.

Under tools menu, uncheck "restore pstates....", and pc will keep OC clocks even after pscheck exits.
You have to tweak all settings, then save pcx file, to keep the 'restore' option unchecked, or else it will come back next time you use pscheck.

command line "pscheck -load yourOCsetting.pcx -run 1000 -quit"
loads saved settings, then self closes, while OC clocks stay.
You can also save shortcut to startup folder and run on startup.

This is sweet. I find it much less buggy than k10stat, and so many options.


I also noticed an interesting bug after installing PScheck and rebooting. It makes turbo boost more aggressive. Turbo actually works. You don't even have to run pscheck. It's just there. Most likely it installed some background driver.
Monitoring HWinfo64, I see that under single core load, the stock cpu is more often running at 2.3ghz than 1.4ghz.
Under full quad load, it will behave normally and stick to 1.4ghz so it won't overheat.

Even with my 2.0/2.6 boost, agressive turbo still works. When running single core test, it will stick more often at 2.6 than 2.0 !! Back when I used k10stat, turbo rarely ever worked for more than a split second.

In cinebench 11.5, stock single core gets 0.57, multicore scores 1.72, which makes the multiplier just 3.01x.
Disabling turbo would have made it closer to 4x multi, and single core would have scored only 0.44.

At 2.0/2.6 with the boost "bug", single core gets 0.67.
Previously, I pinned cpu at 2.3ghz/no turbo, and got 0.68 single core score.
So this shows that turbo was working half the time, and averaging 2.3 ghz

This is the way it seems to work in anandtech review benchmarks. I don't know why turbo boost never seemed to work since I bought this.

 

Hi Link626, After reading too much on this post i ordered Asus X53TA, Same Specs as K53TA with different model in india. and will get delivery tomorrow, I need some info regarding its usage, Can i use the latest AMD display drivers 12.4 with K10stat or Pschk341 without BIOS Mod 212 ? I don't want to modify BIOS for dGpu. Dynamic Gpu is good for me. Neither i want to overclock my dGpu. What i want is only CPU overclocking that too upto 2.0Ghz or maximum 2.2Ghz. Another thing that i want to know is , can i use this processor for Virtualization, i mean using Vmware workstation and running 2 or 3 VM's parallely. What about linux, is Linux installation supportable on this laptop. and I can't get Dual channel RAM for laptop here in india. what if i use two 4Gb DIMMS(Total 8GB) of same brand with same frequency and CAS. Would it run on DUAL channel or not. and Last question is , Is it possible to add the SLIC 2.1 in BIOS mod 212 with only switchable graphics ON,as here in india i will get my laptop without windows installed. Please reply me for these queries and sorry if any english mistake.

 

Hello everyone. I've got k53ta which I have ordered from USA (living myself currently in Scotland). Basically I was buying it just to have a normal working laptop with ability to play sometimes games (although I haven't played any except for Heroes 3).

I was interested if Diablo 3 will be normally working on it? It's the amd-a6 3400m with radeon HD 1.4 ghz. As it is said on a laptop it's a HD 6720g2 crossfire I've got although some programms show it as 6500m. I'm going to tell honestly that I'm not very good with comptures so I have never done any changes in BIOS. I have read that some people get 2.3ghz (turbo?) and saying that it is ok and graphic card supports everything. I just do not want to spend 40 pounds on a game which will not work for me after.

If something can be improved can you please explain in a simpliest way possible (screenshots prefered) and could you please answer if I can go and buy Diablo without worries?

 

Thanks Link626 for sharing that well informed post on pschk341. Have you noticed any real world benchmark improvements in games? When I get the time later, I'll try to figure out how to use this new program. I assume you disable K10stat while using psch341 so the 2 programs don't interfere with each other. Hopefully I won't have to do too much relearning what I've already learned from k10stat.

But it's a real pleasure to keep finding out new ways to tweaking this thing.

 

Out of the box you should be able to run Diably 3. If you want to overclock (turn the processor up so that it is faster) then there is a youtube video that shows you how. Read some posts back, someone linked the video.

 

If the current processor speed is enough, I would rather leave it like this. I'm afraid to mess it up :/. Hope the graphic card will not let me down. Thank you for your reply!

 

The video card is probably the strongest part of this laptop... you should be all set there.

 

Like others have asked, does it help with gaming?
Also wouldn't it make you run hot if the boost was stuck on?

If you update your graphics driver from here:
AMD Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

(look up tutorials if you don't know how to update your Display Driver)

After that is all installed and ready after you do the restarting and such, right click on your desktop and then click 'Configure Switchable Graphics' and make sure 'Show a pop-up warning for unassigned applications' is UNCHECKED as it's very annoying.

Then Browse for the file of the game you want to play. For example, if you are playing Battlefield 3 you will find BF3.exe and then once you see it in the list make sure the button on the right says 'High Performance' (this will enable the good graphics card for the game)

I would highly recommend learning how to overclock your CPU as it's not that hard and is safe as long as you know what #'s to use and if you use safe voltages. The voltage for the CPU on stock is very high and will make your pc get hot faster as well so it will be hitting 2 birds with 1 stone if you overclock and undervolt. There are already guides for overclocking the cpu currently so it's made easy. Stay near 2-2.3ghz though if you really want to be safe.

 

here is video posted by me

tutorial simple way to cpu n gpu overclock undervolt asus x53ta amd a6 3400m - YouTube

do use 64 bit win 7 os

 

any 1 ever replace the wireless card on this thing, tried 6200 and 5100 both struck when trying to restart after windows completely shut down~~

 

Yeah, just don't use an Intel card. Otherwise, have somebody edit the bios to remove the restriction.

 

well, it is not retricted, it just annoyance it get haha.
It can shut down , boot up , get online perfectly.

 

It is, in fact, a restriction. Intel cards are whitelisted in the bios. I currently use an Intel card anyway, I just don't bother with rebooting.

I'll look into having the already modded K53 bios get modded to include removing the WLAN whitelist.

 

If you update your graphics driver from here:
AMD Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

once I go to switchable graphic it tells me that no drivers are installed, then after some lagging it does appear in tray. Once i click there I can access some settings but i do not get to choose anything except for turning off wi-fi radio (which I accidently did turn off, and spent after that about 30 minutes to turn it on as it was constantly turning off).

Before posting here I have yesterday tried to install new drivers which I guess were not installed successfull What should I do to fix this....?

 

Do you guys know where I can get my hands on one of these! I've looked everywhere...

 

Any word on whether Diablo 3 runs better with just the 6650 in fixed mode?

Or does crossfire actually provide a benefit with this one?

 

I've been playing Diablo 3 on max setting and with anti-aliasing in 1080 in crossfire mode with good performance. P0 2.3GHz and B0 2.8GHz... getting around 45 fps on average. Good enough for me. This game looks awesome on a 40inch

 

Just making sure so I'm going to ask these questions.

After you downloaded that file and ran it, you then installed the drivers and then restarted your laptop? If not then do so. Have the file go to your Downloads folder so you can re-run the application if needed at any given time just incase, the name should be "12-4_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc"

First try downloading the latest Chipset.
- Go here:
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=K53TA&p=3&s=295
- Select Windows 7 64bit
- Go the chipset and open the category up
- Download the file on the top by clicking 'Global' Version V8.903.0.0000
- Extract the file, then run the setup file
- Uninstall your current drivers with that
- Restart
- Open that program and install the drivers
- Restart
- See if everything is working now...

If you want the newest drivers (highly recommended) then
- Re-Open the 12.4 installer
- Click Install Express, Do not uninstall (this will be overlapping the latest chipset you installed)
- Restart
- See if it works

 

Ahhhh well...

I'm getting 50-60 fps on Diablo. All high except for shadows which is on low.

It drops to 20-30 fps in large fights though..... for some reason....

pffft.....

 

Okay... switched back to dual mode. Game seems to have a higher fps off of both cards. Crossfire actually working? Blasphemy.

It'd be nice if someone could confirm this. I don't know if I'm just going crazy.

Side Note: Diablo also seems pretty well optimized regarding processor usage. Temps have never touched higher than 72 degrees. OCed to 2.6 BO right now. Plays pretty smoothly. 45-60 fps. Dropped to 25-30 once when a ton was on screen.

 

My d3 lags a little on dual mode. What drivers are you using?

And nice temps... my comp gets to near 80s, and that's with processor set to 1200 mhz / 0.8 V, not sure what's wrong...

 

Is it just all drivers to unistall or I need to select specific ones? Or that programm is going to install all them back? Sorry for such stupid questions.

 

I do get slight stuttering sometimes. Not sure if it's the servers or the crossfire. Pretty much impossible to tell. I'll try single card again later.

As for temps.... I dunno it kinda freaked me out. I was expected it to go over 80 easily. Which I'm not comfortable with considering Diablo is a game you play for many hours straight. But it sat at 72.... only jumping to 76 when I upped the BO to 2.8 at a 1.2 voltage. Weirdly low....

Using 12.1 Catalyst.

 

If anyone is wondering where you can find one of these laptops, I just got mine from a site called CheetahDeals.com. I bought it new at $450! Its still out of stock on Newegg as far as I know. Also, Is it all right if I paste the link to CheetahDeals? If anyone wants it, that is...

 

Ok it's definite. Crossfire mode improves frame rate by a good 15-20 fps.

I'm playing at 50-60 fps with everything maxed. This is the native 1388x768 resolution.

Hit 79 degrees once. Mostly 76-77 in intense areas.

Love this laptop

 

I just had my cousin order it for me from the CD site so it will take some weeks to reach me here in Asia. That particular model is ASUS K53TA-A1 with 6GB RAM (single channel) and 500GB / 7200RPM HDD. These are the only two differences I found in this model and the one that was previously available at BB.

I just hope I get a flawless unit

 

which drivers are you using?

I have 12.4. When did crossfire, fps numbers looks good, but i have alot of micro stuttering. With that it feels like 20 fps at times.

I tried to install cap files and that helped micro stuttering alot.
But fps still jumps alot, i may have average like 50, but at random times to goes bellow 20.

 

New bios 214 is released!

Don't know what is changed, gonna flash it now!!

 

let us know what changed (odds are its nothing you can really tell/feel)

 

Hey everyone, I've had this laptop for a while and I'm glad to say i like it. Now I just flashed my bios to the modded 212 and updated my drivers to 12.1 from 11.12 and set it to dedicated gpu. The results seemed great until my games started freezing and getting artifacts and such.

I thought the problem was my overclock, my gpu was running 700/1000 so i brought it down to stock but it still happens. I haven't touched the cpu overclock yet but im running it at 2.1 ghz. So far the games that i have played are Bf3 and Saints Row The Third. After the downclock Bf3 ran for maybe 10-15 minutes then crashed. saints row crashes about after 2 either way.
Has anyone ever experienced this before?

 

I'm using 12.1 drivers. Most stable for me. Plus I can't OC the gpu with 12.4....

 

-I wouldn't be surprised if nothing new is noticed in Bios 214 but anyone let us know what they find....

-12.1 has been fine for me as well, but I did experience those BSOD crashes on BF3 in 11.12 drivers when using Bios Mod. So it's possible your 12.1 drivers didn't install properly. Also I don't usually play most games in Fixed mode unless I play Rage or some other openGL game. So just keep playing your games on Dynamic mode, and mostly use single gpu instead of dual graphics so you don't get micro stutter in games.

Really good find! It's the only place we can get it "BRAND NEW" for a good price ($450+free ship+tax). I updated the WIKI with the deal.
Update: It's out of stock again, so maybe it goes in & out of stock all the time.
This is probably the only laptop in the $400 range I'd consider buying right now, if you're in a rush & can't wait for deals on Ivybridge or Trinity. This laptop should be able to hold it's own against the better competition for at least another year. After that it'll be a good backup work&internet browsing computer with gaming at low/med settings.

 

I just sent my pc in for an RMA because my GPU was doing the EXACT same thing. It was fine for a while and yes I reset to default clock speeds and it was still doing it anyways. Either you and I both got a crappy card or that modded Bios is a death trap waiting to happen. I didn't try using the normal bios before shipping in my pc... honestly should have done that.... That's word for word what happened to me so I dunno.. Although I had my gpu at 680/1000 because it would Give me a bluescreen on a test for artifacts if i put it at even 690 (never showed artifacts on the test though... strange right?). Either way .. even if i didn't check the 6650m with normal bios before i sent it in, i did however reflash the bios to stock. I'll stay away from mods now just in case.

I did notice a few artifacts a while ago though on my desktop but that was 1 time. That same few artifacts were showing up whenever I tried running a game but I'm not sure if it was defective or modded gpu or both( when the gpu started not to work recently). I was using Dynamic with the modded bios and i didn't notice any problems on fixed mode with the modded bios when I overclocked but I recently switched to dynamic like i said because i heard fixed was having issues with the newer drivers.

Was busy and couldn't reply... yes it installs everything you need.

 

Flashed it and works great. But as always, i don't feel or see any differents

Too bad they don't add a changelog or something!

 

Do you use ASUS live update? I mean do you do all updates that it offers? I want to do overclocking but to be honest I'm afraid to do it, even though there are videos which show everything. If I leave it at 1.4ghz will it be enough to play diablo?

 

Its such an waste to not overlock this CPU.
Diablo is very well playable at 2 GHz, didnt tested below.

Dont be afraid, U just CANT break anything, until you smash it on the floor.

 

Well.. I manually got the updates of what I thought might be somewhat useful instead of using live update. Live update is a pretty crappy program and so i uninstalled it.

If you overclock the P0 state of your CPU to 2.0ghz and change the voltage to 1.0250 it will be safer than regular because you will get less heat while gaming. I have mine at 1.0 voltage because my CPU can for sure handle it and it saves me a lot of heat. For example I could play Bf3 with 85C+ but if I were to lower the voltage it would be around 71C. 99% of other games aren't as demanding and only put me in the 60's. 1.0250 is a 100% safe voltage for sure as well.

Leaving it at 1.4 might make diablo 3 playable but i don't know for sure and like the other guy said it's a waste not to overclock the cpu. A simple and safe overclock to 2.0 will give you double the performance.

 

Hi abaddon, i need your help regarding my Laptop Ram upgradation. I bought X53TA (identical to K53TA in india) just 2 days ago. It comes with samsung 2gb ram with 667 clock speed(I/O Frequency) and CL9. Now i want to upgrade it to 8gb and i want to run my memory modules in DUAL CHANNEL MODE. so could you please tell me that if i install 2 modules of same speed and Brand, then would it run in dual channel mode or not. I have choosen 3 brands to choose from. here are the links and their info is given also.

CORSAIR:
Corsair DDR3 4 GB Laptop RAM (CMSO4GX3M1A1333C9) | Ram | Flipkart.com
GSKILL:
G.Skill SQ DDR3 4 GB (1 x 4 GB) Laptop RAM (F3-10666CL9S-4GBSQ) | Ram | Flipkart.com
TRANSCEND:
Transcend DDR3 4 GB Laptop RAM (JM1333KSN-4G) | Ram | Flipkart.com

Corsair is what i am interested in. please check it and let me know which one is good for me. and one more thing i checked my processor benchmark in passmark software with stock setting and it gave cpu mark of just 2063 with power4gear set in high performance mode. tell me what went wrong.

 

Go with the Gskill 10666 RAM. RAM doesn't have to be the same brand to run in dual-channel. As long as they run at the same frequency, it works fine.

 

For some reason even though mine are identical besides brand I don't get the dual channel, either that or the program checking it is wrong.

 

Wow, Diablo plays SO much better with crossfire enabled. Without crossfire I can't even play without it lagging and stuttering; with crossfire I pretty much get constant 60 fps and its smooth as butter, but when big mobs come, it obviously drops, but its still smooth. Crossfire actually works, pretty awesome if you ask me, been waiting for a game to actually utilize crossfire for a while now.

 

damn catalyst 12.4.

I found another bug with it.

the vision control center that comes with it causes bsod or garbled screen freeze if you OC the cpu, and then lose electricity, then get electricity back.

Also freezes if you OC, and in battery mode, you change power option to High performance.


edit: Turns out you have to run CCC as admin once, and turn on all the power control stuff inside CCC.
Seems to solve the freeze/bsod. Will test some more to see if workaround works







btw, meet the successor to our K53TA - Asus K55dr/15/a8-4500/4gb/500gb/win7hpre - K55DR-SX055V

.

 

redid the thermal paste

HUGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE decrease in temps holy

used the arctic mx-2, hopefully nothing happens in the long run

 

hoping you quantify the Hugeeeeee

 

Thanks for further testing out that driver. It makes me wonder how bad 12.5 will be ..I sure hope we see a phenomenally perfect driver in the future atleast to the levels of 11.11, 11.12, or 12.1 .

Nice successor to our laptop. That laptop sports a new Trinity A8 4500m APU + 7670m graphics, 2 usb3.0, bluetooth, chicklet kb, & blue/silver finish. But everything else is pretty standard like 1366x768, 500gb 5400rpm hdd, DVDR drive, 3.5hr battery >> K55dr/15/a8-4500/4gb/500gb/win7hpre
I wonder if BB will come out with a plastic brown Trinity A8 4500m version (same build as ours) later this year for $450?(if so then it would be the true successor to this)

 

I sure hope they get a better driver because 12.1 always gave me an annoying graphical glitch every once in a while. It would be horizontal line at the top of my screen that would flicker every once in a while. Not sure why but it only happened while using that driver.

Still like 12.4 more than 12.1 because of that small issue. I just hope the next few drivers support our gfx cards.