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

Well in computer years I'm like Yoda-old. It's just funny that all the stuff that used to be a pain isn't anymore. Here I was looking everywhere for specific video drivers and what I needed was actually *gasp* on the manufacturer's website.

Should I even bother with crossfire at the moment? I really want this dual graphics setup to shine, but so far it's running Deus Ex like crap.

 

got rid of the shinny black bezel, drove me crazy with its tinny little scratches. took the bezel off and sprayed it with kraylon fusion white and tape off the computer for the back. thought i would share.

 

Just install the crossfire profiles and it helps with most games.

 

Game came out today, so I'm guessing it won't help.

 

I don't see why the profiles would really help, given that they seem to be for specific games, not for overall/universal functionality. But I guess it's useful when it targets the game you wish to play.

 

Sorry for this noob question, but was running at your same state and getting freezes and blue screens, does that mean I am running it too high of speeds for my specific computer or my voltage can be off? 2.533 sounds soooo goooood!!!

 

Crossfire profiles are game specific but they also improve crossfire performance in general as well. AMD are on top of new release games and usually get profiles out within a few days before or after release.

Deus Ex Human Revolution is included in the latest profiles on 8/21: http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/pages/crossfirex-app-profiles.aspx
" New profiles added to this release:
- Deus Ex: Human Resolution – Improves CrossFire performance for DirectX 11 version of game"

I just installed Deus Ex and ran in Crossfire and it runs fine. At first, like most games I've noticed, it can stutter or skip until it gets everything loaded into video RAM (I'm assuming), then it's pretty smooth. 1366x768 medium detail is 50fps. I will try without Crossfire, probably will be a solid 40 then, which is still nice if crossfire is acting up.

Every machine is different, you have to test at each speed and voltage. If you're getting blue screens that means your voltages are probably too low for that speed. It took me hours to optimize this profile. But once done, it's done. You have to put the time in to make sure it's stable. I run Prime95 Large FFT's for ten minutes, and if I don't get a failure, I bump down to the next voltage until I get a failure or a blue screen or a lockup, then I bump the voltage up a notch and then test with Prime95 + Kombustor to stress for stability at max stress and heat. Lather, rinse, repeat for every voltage. You can make an educated guess at the voltage though. Usually once I get it stable, I still bump voltage up another notch at each P-state just as a safety factor. I do this because before I've thought I was stable, then after playing a game for 30 minutes or so the system just locks up, CTD, or blue screens. Since I've taken this approach it's been rock solid (knock on wood).

2.533 is a stretch, and it's only my B0 speed which is boost speed. I can run fixed at that but temps reach 90C, which is risking damage to the CPU if it goes any higher.

 

It runs well on the 6650, but when I turn on crossfire, not only does it stutter, but I have texture and lighting glitches all over the place. I must have made a mistake somewhere in my driver installation.

I got my chipset driver from Asus' site, the CCC and profiles from AMD's site. I thought the drivers on Asus were the 11.8, but maybe I was mistaken.

 

Hi guys. First things first: this laptop is awesome, best laptop you can buy today in terms of performance/$, especially for gaming.

This is my third Asus (had a G60JX and G73JH, vastly more powerful than this but also more expensive) and I had an Alienware M17x R3 6970m...

Yet this laptop still pleases me to no end. Love the overclocking, love AMD's efficiency, and the Crossfire with IGP/dGPU is genius. I've been wanting a 15.6" like this for a while.

Now, here's a question for my fellow overclockers:

After adjusting voltages in K10Stat, I've been stress testing my P0... @ 2.1, 2.2 Ghz and 2.3 Ghz, stress testing via Prime95 Large FFT's is going fine...

Except after 2-5 minutes, consistently, every time, core #3 fails the test. Even though the temps are anywhere from 72-77c depending on voltage, core #3 keeps failing. IntelBurnTest has no problems with core #3, but Prime95 just errors it out every time.

Is it safe to assume my 3rd core is probably faulty (at least when overclocked) and I should go exchange the laptop? Just bought it today and I'd rather be safe than sorry, and get one that has decent O/C capabilities.

 

haha damn. modded it already. I would have just painted the bezel matte black. not white out the whole thing.

does it scratch ?

 

I just don't get this. The GPU drivers are driving me nuts, no pun intended. I have my voltages all set in K10STAT and OC'd the 6650 to 700/1000. Fine.

So I'm playing COD4 maxed out at native res getting a decent 45-60fps in heavy combat. After thirty or so minutes I BSOD. So I up my P0 voltage which was 1.0875 for 2.4ghz. Upped it to 1.100 to be safe.

Round 2, again I BSOD in COD4. This time I'm thinking it might be my BO state which was 2.8GHz @ 1.2875 (original voltage was 1.3375 for BO factory settings) So i bring it down to 2.667GHz.

I'm playing again, and all of a sudden BSOD. so I lower it to [email protected].

This time not 3 minutes in and I get a BSOD. IS GOING ON!?!

I'm pretty sure my GPU OC is reasonable and my temps never exceed 79C during gameplay. I'm using stock ASUS drivers (8.861) and stock catalyst suite. Crossfire off, and COD4 set to high performance. Would any of my other P states be throwing this off? As in could my P1 state be the undervolting problem? would COD4 even drop to P1 during gameplay? Either way I'm using FurMark and Prime to help find the problem, otherwise, I'm blaming the BSODs on ty drivers...

 

My third core also fails within seconds...it may be Prime95.. (All testing done with In-Set LARGE Mode)

EDIT: 4th core after like 1min. just 1 and 2 now..

EDIT2: Seems that the voltages cause the cores to fail. Locked in a default volt and GHz and test was flawless...However, when i upped the Ghz and the voltage, Core 3 is always the first to go...

EDIT3: It seems that anything over 2.3ghz at ANY voltage causes Core 3 to fail instantly...

EDIT4: Core 3 DEFINITELY has some kind of lockout, anything over 2.3ghz causes it to immediately fail in PRIME95. 2.3Ghz @ 1.0875v is where all cores will be stable for me. Any voltage under that will cause Core 3 to fail and any GHz increase, even with voltage increase, will cause Core 3 to fail instantly...

EDIT5:Even if I set my BO over 2.3ghz Core 3 will fail. so for example, BO=2.533 and PO=2.1Ghz, Core 3 will still fail upon start...

 

AMD_Swole, I believe the problem is that you going way over the limit on power consumption. The temps might look okay, but the APU is probably being way overstressed.

Balance the overclocking with undervolting to keep the processor cores in check. I use a power meter to measure how much power is used for 2 vs. 3 vs. 4 cores.

Tune P0 with stable undervolt before testing B0. B0 quite a bit trickier to test. My hunch is that the higher P0 is, the lower B0 will be. Finding the right balance to maximize performance with respect to the number of cores in use is a challenge. Or just turn turbo off.

Good luck!

 

Joe_Dude, no matter what I do, I cannot overclock pass 2.3GHz or Core 3, in Prime, will fail instantly. In IntelBurn, all my speeds/voltages check out fine! But in Prime, it's a completely different story. Core 3 seems to be the weak core. I can throw 2,4ghz/1.1v at prime and cores 1, 2 and 4 will go for HOURS, but 3 will fail instantly. I'm trying to find voltages that will work with Prime, but undervolting seems to become extremely difficult. For example, so far with all 4 cores passing I've got: 2100Ghz @1.03ghz, [email protected], and [email protected]. Barely undervolting compared to IntelBurn where I could do 5 intense runs with [email protected] still the problem remains, anything over 2.3ghz and core 3 will instantly fail in Prime..ALWAYS! Also, how can I turn Turbo off? maybe that has something to do with me not being able to go over 2.3ghz without a fail on core 3?

 

After rigorous testing with Prime95, the CPU can be overclocked passed 2.3ghz in Prime, however the voltages needed becomes rediculous and temps hit the 90's within seconds...

 

Here's a secret tip for Deus Ex: HR on Crossfire: turn on triple buffering. Fixed all of my flickering issues.

The game does kinda perform weird in Crossfire though... I wonder if I could increase performance by getting another stick of RAM so it's running in dual channel, which should benefit the Integrated GPU greatly.

 

I think this may be a glitch with Prime. I'm going to suggest this: use IntelBurnTest, but instead of doing standard, do Maximum. If it passes, you should be good.

I too can hit 2.3 Ghz and it works fine in Intel, but dies instantly in Prime95 (in terms of core #3).

I'm going to try 2.4 or 2.5 Ghz and see if IntelBurnTest handles it. The higher you go, the crazier you have to get with the voltage... to me, it's better to run @ 2.4 Ghz with 1.1v than at 2.53 ghz with 1.2+ voltage and insane temps.

 

I hope it's a glitch in Prime, but it still doesn't explain why I'm getting BSODs after playing COD4 for 45min...temps under 80C and P0 is [email protected]s no sense! and my GPU is 700/1000, but runs fine in Kombustor and stuff...

 

try lowering your core on the gpu to 670 and see if that solves any issues.. i would have the same thing running at 700. it seems 650-670 is a good stable area for the HD 6650

also ive never had any of the issues that you are dealing with in regards to the 3rd core always failing while overclocking. you might have gotten a faulty unit.. i can overclock all the way up to 3ghz in p0 state stable.. heat is the only real issue at those kind of speeds. i accidentally hit 100c once with it while testing 3ghz with to high a voltage(1.35v) in cinebench and the unit shut down.. thank god for the built in safety switch. i later lowered the voltages down quite a bit and the temps were much better however still not really suited for p0 state but perfect for a b0 state that only kicks in now and then. with gaming though 2.6ghz p0 seems to be a sweet area to be at. yeah in prime it gets a little hot but in real world gaming it doesn't go past the low 80C. however ive settled with 2.3ghz p0 for my everyday stuff as i can run at this speed while still undervolting

 

I've been perusing the forums lately as it's time for my next big purchase, and this thread / this deal have driven me to finally register. What a machine for the price! I would've assumed this was a bait-and-switch scam if it wasn't being sold at a usually-robs-you-blind-but-gives-you-the-goods retailer. Is this still the best deal on a notebook at this price point? I'm tempted to go pick one up right now.

 

Guys, sounds like you're just running and gunning. Baby steps. Like I said it took me HOURS (like 6+) to get my clocks and voltages rock solid. Choose to either overclock your CPU or GPU first. Then give each a LONG burn-in to see how it fares BEFORE you try to run them both together. I was getting lots of BSOD's at first, but that's because I wasn't doing it systematically, just plugging and running. My GPU can only go to 650/1000 while gaming where 665/1050 are stable in benches.

You need to tune ALL your P-states, not just P0. And test each state with both Prime95+Kumbustor running simultaneously for at least ten minutes. Because if your CPU hits one of those other P-states while under stress it will cause a BSOD or app crash, hang, or reboot. If you really want to just test your P0 state then best to set each lower P-state down one notch of voltage (0.125V), this is a pretty safe bet, and you can tune each lower P-state as you find time.

Once you fix your P0 fairly high (like 2.1GHz+), B0 is really no longer in play because the conditions to allow for boost are pretty much non-existent. I did find that once you approach the max design speed (2.3GHz) you cannot use that for P0, you need to set ALL P0 states to that higher clock in order for it to work, otherwise it will throttle the CPU to lower P-states once the temps rise from 70C+. Just create another K10stat profile setting all P0 states to that higher clock and run that before you game.

My third core (or Core #2 numbering 0-3) is also the weak one, which requires bumping the voltage, but that's the way it is, not all cores are created equal, as much as we'd like them to be.

Baby steps. I didn't do it all in one sitting either. I did little by little, tested a little, gamed with it, then adjusted the next P-state, etc.

I also noticed that games that are very CPU heavy (like Bad Company 2 and Starcraft 2), it may be best to turn off crossfire because running with the iGPU steals resources from the CPU, even if CPU is at 100%, which is counterproductive.

 

Do any other notebooks compare to this one at this price point? Still can't believe what a steal this is.

 

No other notebooks come close.

If you want a higher res screen (1080p), blu-ray, faster CPU & GPU, and longer battery life, another $300 will get you a DV6z.

 

so then we don't have "faulty" cores as in I should exchange for a new one? And how are you guys finding stable OC's on the GPU? Kombuster just plays some furry stuff and i see temps and fps...should i let it run longer?

 

Guys, no offense, but you do realize being able to run the A6-3400M @ 2.3 P0 is just plain nuts.

It's probably close to double the maximum TDP for the APU. I on purposely kept power usage *under* stock. IMHO, >2 GHz P0 is really having your cake and eating it too.

 

My core 3 is acting up as well. I can pass Intel Burn Test easily with out going over 80C. As soon as I fire up Prime 95 for more than a few minutes, I get a failure in core 3. I assumed it was because I've never used K10Stat before and I was doing something wrong. Does locking the P-states help when testing the lower P-states?

 

So I've read every post here and looked everywhere else and I'm still having trouble. I have yet to get any game to run well in crossfire. They all run at least 15% slower and stutter a bit. I'm not sure if it's my drivers, or if it's because I have my CPU cores overclocked and it's taking all the power as mentioned above.

So far two people have mentioned getting Deus Ex:HR working well under crossfire and that's one of the games I'm testing (other two are Alice: MR and Crysis 2). So either my settings are wrong or I'm missing something completely.

I installed the AMD chipset driver from Asus' support site, the CCC and crossfire profiles from AMD's site and I have nothing else running besides Fraps to check framerate and K10Stat.

 

honestly my dude, keep the 11.6 drivers from the Asus Chipset, (should be v8.861) and get the official 11.8 software from AMD (NOT THE DRIVERS THOUGH) and disable crossfire and set to high performance. I'm hitting 60-70fps maxing out DX9 games such as Source and COD4. They need to fix it. Only real improvement with the Crossfire can be seen in BF2, which I don't play. Otherwise, the system I have (2.4ghz, 700/1000GPU, 8gb dual channel) can beat most comparable stock $700 computers, and I didn't even game before this. For $450, this is a blessing from the laptop gods.

 

It could be a glitch in Prime, because IntelBurn passes 5 tests easy, but Core 3 seems to be a problem with everyone in PRIME., specially since the other cores perform absolutely fine throughout the rest of the PRIME testing...

 

I don't think it's a glitch, could just be a result of the manufacturing process. Prime95 runs the CPU harder than most apps. You can try OCCT as well, it fails on me too when Prime95 fails. Albeit I haven't spent much time using it. That's why it's best to run multiple benches, because one may pass and the other not. When I was done with a stable Prime + Kombustor run, I ran IntelBurnTest just to make sure, at least on my P0, P6, and B0 states.

Yes, when testing the lower P-states, click on each core to lock those speeds. Use HWinfo to confirm the speeds.

 

Ahh big question answered. The Asus drivers are 11.6, so my crossfire profiles probably aren't working because I have those plus the 11.8 CCC and profiles. I'm fine with running on just the 6650, but some people seem to be getting solid performance out of the crossfire, so just wondering how?
I can't even find where to get the 11.8 drivers, AMD seems to only have the desktop A-series drivers on their website.

 

ATI Radeon? Video Card Drivers

These should work.

 

I uninstalled all the drivers software before I installed 11.8. And then I needed to use the Mobility Version.

Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!
There is the link to the mobility version. I linked it a few pages back as well.

Hope this helps!

 

i went to bestbuy yesterday, and they wanted $550 for a prepped K53TA haha.
stupid bestbuy services.


you guys who are having core3 errors...... how about testing JUST that core while idling the other 3 ?

 

It's not an issue. There will always be one core that is weaker than the others. The manufacturing process is most likely responsible for core 3 being the weakest.

 

In regards to the micro-stuttering, does forcing vsync + triple buffering prevent it?

AFAIK, DirectX triple buffering needs ATI Tray Tools or RadeonPro to enable.

 

Thanks HTWingNut and LightofHonor89, I'll try updating the drivers tonight. I only heard of laptop dual graphics a month ago and I'm dying to see it actually work.
In fact I bought this laptop pretty much just on how stoked I am on the concept of a $450 laptop that runs DX11 on two cores. My aging upgraded G50VT still beats the tar out of it in raw framerates, but isn't DX11 compatible.

 

nope, its solid. yeah i was going to do flat black but decided to make it look stormtrooperish at the last minute. looks good and hides dust.

 

Wow, this thread exploded with posts. My sister will be using a external monitor. However, I may swap out the screen at a later time. That great new that the 6650m is better than the 5730m. Was planning to get a MSI MS-1675-ID1 Barebone until I saw this.

Anyone have any idea when the notebook will be available online (newegg, amazon, etc)?

 

I recommend using the 11.8 display drivers, actually. Those + 11.8 CAP2 are giving me 40-60 FPS in Deus Ex HR in ACrossFire with Shadows Normal, Post Processing On, FXAA Low and Tesselation on in DirectX 11.

Also, if you want better Crossfire performance, get two sticks of DDR3 1600 RAM so it runs in dual channel AND has more bandwidth. I got some CL 9 A-Data 2x 4GB DDR3 1600 Mhz RAM from Newegg for $57; Llano REALLY needs dual channel and 1600 mhz RAM to perform at its best, and it does give a big performance boost.

This is what I picked up, and I highly recommend it for anyone running the K53TA or ANY Llano-based mobile chipset. Its pretty much the best DDR 3 1600 mhz laptop RAM you can buy: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211566

 

At my Best Buy, they didn't have any non lame- Geek Squad 'prepped' K53TA's, so I convinced the girl to give me the prepped one for normal price. Ask them to and they'll do it, because they'd rather have the sale than try to get an extra $100 out of you.

Deus Ex HR has built-in triple buffering; if you want to prevent micro-stuttering, run in windowed mode. Some games have 'full screen windowed mode', which is perfect.

 

Ok, so now I have the 11.8 drivers, CAP2s and I've tried with the same settings you are running, as well as turning off the DX11 effects. Is still bounces between 40 and 25 fps with constant stuttering.

I have my 6650 at stock clocks and my p0 at 2200, where the hell am I going wrong?

How did you set DX to windowed? Did you find the exe in your Steam directory and modify it? It's not a setting in the menu.

 

What are your temps? If temps approach 80C then it can downclock. use the built-in OSD from MSI Afterburner and HWInfo to check CPU core speeds. Turn off crossfire and see if that helps, if so then you know it's a crossfire problem.

 

Best Buy no longer lists this model as available for shipping on it's website. ASUS - Laptop / AMD A-Series Processor / 15.6" Display / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive - Brown Suit - K53TA-BBR6

 

It has always been "available in stores only" or "ship to store" that I can remember.

My store shows them as "ship to store in 3 to 5 days" but when I was in there today there were five of them sitting right there.

 

Ok, here's what you need to do:

Make SURE you have 11.8 drivers. Go to Catalyst Control Center, then go to Information ---> Software, then check your driver versions.

If it says that, you have the wrong versions. For some reason the 11.8's won't force install over the Asus drivers. What you need are the following drivers, these are the ONLY 11.8 finals I could find that ACTUALLY update our 6550m and 6650m chipsets! Even the official AMD drivers won't update! Why? Because every other 11.8 driver doesn't actually have the 6500m and 6600m series in the INF's as a compatible GPU, so Windows can't even let you force install them because it simply isn't a compatible driver. HOWEVER, this one is!

Note: I virus-scanned these files with several anti-virii and anti-malware programs before using them and they're clean.

Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!

After installing these, this is what your CCC info should say:

Make sure you have the CAP2 11.8's.


Also, here's the settings you want for Deus Ex: HR

Crossfire ON (in Catalyst Control Center)
DirectX 11 Mode ON
Shadows Normal
Post-processing ON
Triple Buffering OFF/ON (toggle this on and off once if it starts to flicker)
VSync OFF
Antialiasing - Edge AA ON
Everything else off

Best FPS comes from having DX11 mode on and Crossfire on.

 

Okay I do indeed have the right drivers and the profiles downloaded. What cpu volt/clock settings are you running? Someone mentioned that if the CPU cores were using too much power the 6520 would suffer.

 

Here's a post to links of 11.8 Mobility Drivers directly from AMD's servers:

AMD Catalyst 11.8 WHQL (8.881 July 28) - Download & Discussion - Guru3D.com Forums

 

If you want max 65xx iGPU power, get dual channel 1600 Mhz DDR3 first, especially the stuff I linked above. That'll give a good 20-30% boost to performance for that GPU.

That being said... seems kind of hard to quantify what will affect the 6550 integrated thus far, as I don't know of any way to measure its usage and whether the CPU is stealing power from it or not.

I have P0 stably running at 2.2 Ghz with a voltage of 1.05. Might be able to go even lower than that. I have to crank the voltage up to 1.075 to hit 2.3 Ghz or above, and that just increases the temps drastically. Until I repaste the CPU/GPU, it's not worth overclocking that high yet.

I can make you a screenshot if you want to try my voltage settings, I based them off several users in this thread (including Wingnut) and they're stable so far, but YMMV.

So far 2.2 Ghz @ 1.05v has no problems in stress testing or gameplay.

Now I've figured out that 11.8's don't play so well with overclocking (at least via Trixx), despite having ULPS disabled. Gotta work on how to fix that. Was running 670/1020 on the 6650m with no stability issues.

 

Those won't work on our cards, even if you force install them. They don't have 6500m or 6650m series in the INF files. The ones I found that are up on Multiupload do work.

Even the file size of those are wrong... I can explain further if necessary.