Poor Video Performance?

Hey guys, I come to you with a question. I just need to verify my sanity by asking you how your Studio XPS 1640 with a [email protected] and the 4670 ATI graphics card performs in general. I was playing Left4Dead and now I have the Left4Dead2 demo installed, and it just seems a little glitchy with both of them. I am running it at 1080p and graphics mostly on high, aside from shading and AA is off I believe, but it is still glitchy. The way the game recommends it to be run with my computer's specs is maxed out, however, its far too jerky and slow. Is there something stupid I may be doing wrong? Also, a friend with the studio 15 and a smaller cpu and the lower gpu seems to run it better, albeit on lower settings, but it just seems smoother. All the help is greatly appreciated! Thanks guys!

 

Did you install the latest driver and Catalyst CC?

 

I run L4D 2 Demo in 1920x1080 with 8xMSAA and 16x AF very high shaders and everything else high even vertical sync is on triple buffered and i get 40-60 FPS with fraps running I Used to have that problem till i reapplied my thermal paste and undervolted also am using modded drivers.... my specs are in sig and ill take a screen shot of settings and actual frames in game, but the 4670 plays it completely maxed out with high frames

 

I do have the latest driver, I believe, and I have CCC but don't like it at all, is there a way to improve performance through there? I already did the thermal paste and I thought undervolting lowered performance? I know my way around electronics but I am new to the pc gaming world, so talk to me like I'm stupid please haha. I would love to be able to have awesome performance but I also don't want to risk breaking anything. Also, I noticed you have a better processor, could that make that much of a difference? Thanks for all of your fast responses.

 

Also, is there any way for me to run a test or something so I can tell you what values I get and you can tell me how they compare to mine and what I can do to better them? If so where can I download the software for it?

 

Ok CCC is useless and a resource hog IMO so i dont use it, but you should be able to check your settings through it, I also have another SXPS 16 with a T9800 and a 3670 i undervolted my T9800 to a decrease of .150 volts total from stock and it ran at a max temp of 68-70'c are you using the dell drivers?? or the modded ones for your gpu?? im using the modded ones but what are your temps when you play also? use GPU-z to get those rund a 3dmark06 score at the stock values , and give me your cpu temps after a stress test like orthos (use small ffts test in orthos more direct to CPU for 15 mins)using HW monitor to record temps.

and undervolt it after using the undervolting guide no - all + cooler temps increase cpu life and reduces heat in the environment i noticed even my southbridge runs a little cooler with an undervolt not much maybe 5- 10 degrees, also lower voltages do not hinder performance that is why its step by step so you can find that point where it does hinder performance and set it two values higher to put a decent space between for stability


Just post all your results and i'll get back to you but i'm pretty sure its the same issue i've havd as well as others have had which what ive told you worked for me and if i can get a vid or something of gameplay and settings i will send it to you or post on youtube (just incase your skeptical )


but again here is how i troubleshooted

1) checked drivers and switched between drivers
2) checked temps for CPU and GPU using HWmonitor and GPU-Z
a) iif CPU is running hot my t9800 was running at under load98'c before i undervoltd and reapplied thermal paste
b) if GPU is hot mine was idle at 58-60'c reapply thermal paste now idles at 40-41'c

3) run benchmarks 3dmark06/05 and run orthos to stress gpu

EDIT* CPU's are not going to make that much a difference mine is only .13 ghz faster honestly negligible in gaming

 

I just got done running 3dmark06 and took a screenshot of my results... looks rather low though, but I don't know.

I also did a stress test on my GPU and here is the screenshot


Also, I am using the dell drivers for my card, should I used the modified ones? If so, where do I find them?

Here are my HWMonitor Stats after running Orthos for about 7 and a half minutes

 

Ya you should try those what are you GpU idle temps? 3dmark06 looks a little low but almost in range im going to run it and see what i get to compare

 

I apologize for this, but I edited my last post right as you responded, so if you look up there I added my cpu stress test. And where do I find those drivers? I will post my idle temps in a moment.

 

Here ya go! Idle temps and everything!

 

Ya those were the temps i had on my other SXPS actually even higher 97'c was my max after ten minutes you can download drivers here http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

and mobility modder here http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php

but all in all i would say an undervolt is in order and you might wanna check your thermal paste application ive included pics of my 3DMark06 score i scored a little over 400 points more than you

 

Another thing I noticed is that 3dmark06 didn't recognize my video card... something wrong there? Or does it just not recognize it?

 

It just doesnt recognize it mine is not recognized either see pic not sure why my 3670 is detected but not my 4670 but my girl has my other laptop right now so i cant look at that just using the one in my sig right now but your 3dmark06 score should be just behind mine and are you going to try undervolting? i think you should and post your temps also get a notebook cooler to do gaming i am using a cryo LX and its awesome but even without it i can still game no prob just will get hotter quicker but if you do the undervolt you will notice a huge difference also your GPU temps are a little high you should try re-applying thermal paste what type are you using ill post temps of mine after a stress on it

 

here are my temps as well as another 3dmark06 score

 

Ok, now that we have all the baseline stuff done, I finished the driver mod and now how do I get my performance up? I am still running under yours and I do want to undervolt (where is the guide) but is there a way to improve performance?

 

these things alone will improve your performance the undervolting guide is here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

looks to be your laptop is running hot less heat will increase your performance to where you will be getting scores closer to mine also are you running vista? or 7?

my scores in vista were a little lower like 6500-6600's cant remember but it has improved in 7 i think once you get those temps down tho you will be fine

 

I am running windows 7 and the rmclock utility that you need to run will not run... so I don't know how to go about fixing that

 

ok you have to updae the Sys64.dll file there is a link in the guide but i will supply you with it here http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=24096&d=1221194853 just replace in your Rmclock program folder and it will run

 

here are some more numbers to compare it to lemme know your results

 

Crap.... this doesn't look good. I underclocked it until it crashed like it said, running the stress tests in-between. Then, once it rebooted, the tests look like this even running at the default settings!




and here are my settings

 

there did you followed the guide exactly and its running worse?

hmmmm.... did you change it to mobile in the advanced setup page?ok, so you replaced your thermal paste right? check its application?
there must be something you misse( because i've never had temps get worse , i have done it on it on 4 intel laptops including a T9800, T9900, T9300, and a T5250 and 1 amd AMD athlon 64x2 lappYfrom undervolting

Try it again and look at the thermal paste application ill PM you my MSN if you would like me to go thru it with you

 

Everything is fine, those screenshots are when it is not undervolted at all. What I meant is that if you look at the clock speed of the cpu, it steps down and back up during the test... I don't remember it doing this before I attempted to undervolt. Once I undervolted to the point my computer reset, the settings were all set back to default automatically so that it would not fail again. I then ran a stress test (while they were at default) and this is what it looked like... the processor clock speed will not stay at full power. Am I doing something wrong? I don't remember it looking like this before I attempted the undervolt

Let me correct myself: I apologize for my stupidity, I interpreted the graph of the core's clock speed as a graph of both cores, but it is only a graph of the clock speed and throttle speed... What exactly is the throttle speed?

 

man forget the underclock......that's NOT the main problem, (the CPU have good cooling system and everything)......

.....the main problem is

1. 4670 produce a bit more heat the usual, (why ?? because SXPS use only one fan (right over the CPU)
and because 4670 use more power(W) then ex, 3670......(simple math: more power(W) = more heat)

2. some PC seems have weak thermal paste

tip 1.
look inside your PC (its very easy) and see if its a lot of dust on your heatsink & fan, etc)...if so, clean it.

if that doesn't help...........

solution 1.
buy a notebook cooler

solution 2.
(the hard way and (sometimes) the bad way (you can loose your warranty)....replace the old thermal paste


edit......and because some 4670 rigs gets quite hot the video card downclock itself to 3D low (state 2)...(it reach its threshold limit (in some point) and there by you loose some power during games).
when you play games your video card should run in state 1 all time (which means 3D high)

 

thats your opinion but there are several others that will tell you that Undervolting will reduce heat including me ive done it on 5 laptops and make your CPU last longer but im not here to argue with you + your running a P series which is on a 25W TDP not the 45W TDP that he and I have Also State #2 is where you want your GPU at when gaming state 2 is the 3D High state on the 4670 atleast that is according to Everest


@Zswickliffe go back to your highest multiplier and set it to two values higher than when you got your BSOD then run a stress test with it and make sure the auto adjust intermediate states is unticked and
cpu throttling is how much power is taken up by the cpu when in standby mode. so basically lets say the CPU doesnt need all its poweer the throttle will be down slightly like in 2d gaming less CPU intensive than 3d gaming mines wont throttle to 100% either unless i am doing something really CPU intensive, but if you look at my pics when i was running orthos you will see that my CPU's throttle was lower than my Clock


so just set it two VIDS higher from the one that gave ou a BSOD in my case it was .950V i raised it two to .975V and stress it for 45 mins using small ffts you shouldnt get a bsod or error then click the auto adjust intermediate states when your done and post those temps im sure you will notice the improvement I promise you i've done the same things to my T9800


but as today is my B-day i will be on later or tomorrow to check up on this

 

Thank you so much for all your help! An I wish you a happy birthday! Not that KSMB doesn't have good points, but he is misunderstanding the whole point of this. I have already applied thermal paste and done the drivers, I have a cooling stand on the way, and now I want to undervolt. There is no discussion whether I should or not, only trying to make sure I do it right.

Now that that is done, I started from scratch again because I feel as though my last data was inaccurate. Here are screenshots of my last successful and not so successful test:

Successful Settings



Unsuccessful Settings

 

And here is the Error Message I recieved:


And here is what was in the Stress.txt File:

2:Execution halted.

Type: Small FFTs - stress CPU Min: 8 Max: 8 InPlace: Yes Mem: 8 Time: 15
CPU: 2934MHz FSB: 1066MHz [1173MHz x 2.5 est.]
11/11/2009 12:34 PM
Launching 2 threads...
2:Using CPU #1
2:Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer.
2 ress Stop to end this test.
1:Using CPU #0
1:Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer.
1 ress Stop to end this test.
2:Test 1, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M135169 using 8K FFT length.
1:Test 1, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M172031 using 8K FFT length.
2:Test 2, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M172031 using 8K FFT length.
1:Test 2, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M163839 using 8K FFT length.
2:Test 3, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M163839 using 8K FFT length.
1:Test 3, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M159745 using 8K FFT length.
2:Test 4, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M159745 using 8K FFT length.
1:Test 4, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M157695 using 8K FFT length.
2:Test 5, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M157695 using 8K FFT length.
1:Test 5, 800000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M155649 using 8K FFT length.
2:FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
2:Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
2:Torture Test ran 7 minutes 26 seconds - 1 errors, 0 warnings.
2:Execution halted.

 

**Just as a side note, do you realize how much the exhaust vent being covered by the screen really effects the temperatures? 7'C is what I'm reading... thats sort of unacceptable. I know it doesn't technically hurt anything and all that stuff, but they could have done something a little differently and saved the consumers a few warm laps. Thats just the way I look at it.

 

And I just got my scores back from 3dmarks.... Its not pretty haha. It went down in rating:

 

Do you have the 4-slot vent or the 5 slot vent with the little piece on the bottom? if not call dell tell them you would like it that is what i have and there are two or three open slots on the bottom now when the screen is opened so it has been improved




Thanx, HAha i've been drinking all day hit the 1/4 of a century mark today.... , but back to the topic ummm good to see your temps are down thats a good 23'c drop should help with you batt life as well those temps are similar to my t9800 as I am using that lappy here to write this... now on to the graphics ok this is what i did cuz i remember i got similar scores to you i used driver sweeper deleted everyhting ati then let win 7 install the drivers tried using those they were ok but modded drivers were better

then did it again and installed modded drivers now what you should do is try the win/7 ATI drivers and then the modded ones using driver sweeper in between ,ohh try L4D 2 see what that gets you on the settings you had then see if it will play maxed out try it on the diff drivers cuz now heat shouldnt be a problem and if the problem persists it could just be a bad GPU and it might have to be replaced, but try all the drivers now I remember after my undervolt i had better performance but noticed that there was some room for improvement and then i checked my thermal paste and reapplied it and then played with all my drivers then had it set up on vista 64 then i did a clean install deleted all partitions and did a quick format and installed 7 then did my undervolt again but you dont have to do all those stress tests again just try the one you had already in your case1.000v and stress that once if you want i didnt and install modded drivers and this is what i get now consistently at 1280x1024 is in the 6700's

 

I am talking to dell as I type this to get the new cover, however, I am cleaning the drivers now and I will re-install the new ones once I have a chance to reboot. Which drivers would you recommend? The ones from ati or the ones from driver heaven? The ones from driver heaven are not as new as the ones from ATI. What exactly is the purpose of having modded drivers?

 

the point of modded drivers is to install a desktop driver on a notebook which unlocks the clock speed which OEM's usually are downclock for whatever reasons, but you get better drivers also since they are written by ATI. and mobility modder makes it so that it can recognize your GPU

 

I downloaded the 9.9, but when you say it unlocks the clock speed, does that mean that I can overclock my videocard? Or is it still locked for customization? BTW, I just played left4dead and it is a lot better, however, I had to turn down the shader and turn AA off for it to be glitch-free.

 

sorry the 9.9 are for Beta i didnt realize that when i posted and you posted while i was editing try those out, but use the 9.10 ones they are better i believe... and no its still locked for customization but Some OEMS underclock them from stock these drivers set them back to stock and are just better written and im glad i could help told you that it would make your performance better

 

Let me know after everything is said and done test your fps with fraps and do 3Dmark 06 with diff drivers once you find that sweet spot you will appreciate it And I know it sucks but it took me a clean install of 7 and undervolt with modded drivers

lemme know how everything is