amd dual graphics driver strange behaviour?

Hey There, here's my specs

asus x53tk
a6-3400m w/6520g apu
4gb DDR3
dedicated 7670m 1gb GDDR3 gpu


Something I've noticed with the drivers I'm using (12.6 reference drivers) is;
if under Gaming > AMD radeon dual graphics, dual gpu is disabled and under Power > Switchable graphics an application is assigned a 'high performance' power profile, the discrete gpu is still used, ie. dual graphics.

It also had a dramatic impact when I ran metro 2033... metro was set a high performance power profile and dual graphics was enabled but I had huge amounts of stuttering making it unplayable. I disabled the dual graphics option and bobs yer uncle, smooth as you like with everything on full settings except advanced dof and tesselation.

I have noticed though the games singularity, prince of persia and blur benefits when the dual graphics option is enabled and they are put on a high performance profile.


In conclusion;
if a game is assigned a high performance profile and dual gpu option is disabled = dual gpu
and if a game is under a high performance profile and dual gpu is enabled = dual gpu

but the performance from both these combinations of driver options differ completely and detrimentally in some games.

wonder what other ppls thoughts were about this?

kind regards
Alex

EDIT: metro 2033 utilizes 100% of the APU while dual graphics is enabled... dGPU stays at 50% and performance is very choppy.
with option off, dGPU utilized near 100% with APU at 20% They need to sort these drivers out or the options or something, its confusing to know what to set everything at.

 

Silly question but..do you have CAPs installed?
Last beta CAP1 12.7 improves a lot of titles in crossfire, my be worth a try.

 

"High performance" means that the dedicated GPU (7670m) is being used. Just because the dedicated GPU is being used doesn't mean that the integrated GPU is also being used (so it's not dual graphics).

So how it goes is like this:
if a game is assigned a high performance profile and dual gpu option is disabled = discrete GPU only
and if a game is under a high performance profile and dual gpu is enabled = dual gpu (discrete and integrated GPU)

The reason you weren't getting stuttering in Metro after disabling dual graphics is because you were running the game on the dedicated GPU only.

 

I dont think thats a silly question at all, just I thought that was more for desktop crossfire with two similiar performing cards...? but I'll look them out, thanks

ah, ok... ah wait, it has to be using both still, as GPU-Z and HWINFO both show that the APU and GPU have been used after gaming from the load % with these settings (dual graphics disabled + high performance) so both are definitely still used.

I was going to say maybe the % load was from the CPU, seeing as the APU is supposed to take some processing off the CPU as well being on the same chip and all, but after every game I play the APU is at 100% load I wouldnt think it would take that much load off the CPU...?

I'll try the CAPS profiles and see what happens...

regards Alex

 

Are you looking at the max clocks? The APU might spike to the max frequency for like half a second and then go back down to idle. Use a program to record GPU utilization for the whole time you're gaming. Or use MSI afterburner to monitor your GPU usage while you're gaming.

 

it seems to be quite difficult to monitor the APU, MSI afterburner doesnt know its there.

with the option disabled, after playing blur, HWINFO says its 100% load APU, with the GPU at 67% and GPU-Z says the APU is at 0% but using half a gig dedicated video memory. whether this is confusing the 7670m memory or something else I dont know.

The readings are also the same with the option enabled, seems like its not reading it properly


this is a pic of the dual enabled option, once disabled the red arrow disappears leaving the APU arrow. makin me think its the only APU working...


I have no idea really...

regards Alex

EDIT: doesnt matter what the option is, GPU-Z reports stock clocks for the APU (power saving) I dont think I'll work this out

 

The 512mb is memory reserved for the iGPU, so it'll always be there. If you really want, you can hook up an external monitor and open a monitoring program on it and check your clocks using the other screen. I have a llano dv6z-6100 so I'm sure that high performance with dual graphics disabled is just the dGPU, but if you want to confirm for yourself you can do that.

 

I used amd system monitor which shows everthing while I was playing prince of persia.

The APU only uses about 20% at most where as the dedicated GPU is at 100% most of the time with the option enabled.

with the option disabled the APU peaks at 30% usage with the dedicated GPU still, most of the time, at 100%

I think more of the processing gets put onto the APU but both cards still get used whatever option is chosen, also my CPU temps went up two degrees more, I'm thinking because the APU was used more and being on the same chip and all...

so both still get used whatever option, for me its more of a compatibility option than anything else and my CPU runs a bit hotter than my GPU so I'll want to use my GPU as much as I can unless I'm playing metro then I 'turn off' dual graphics

regards Alex

edit: I found out why metro has such a problem with dual graphics enabled... the weaker APU is handed all the work with the dGPU only at 50% load, turn the option off and it reverts to the normal loads of 100% dGPU and 20-30% APU very strange behaviour