DV6z-7000 AMD A10-4600m Crossfire Performance

Just received the laptop in the mail today. Overall, extremely satisfied at the build quality and price for the options I chose.

Running the 7660g in crossfire with the 7670m, here are some benchmarks. (more to come with your suggestions)


~ 3dMark11 Performance Mode - P2233. (have a screenshot if you guys need it)
~ Minecraft High Settings - Avg. 45 FPS.
~ Oblivion Ultra High 1080p with AA8x (best everything) - Ranged from 36-56 FPS
~ Heaven Benchmark 1080p stock settings - 666 points/ 676 points on 2nd run/692 on third run.
~ Heaven Benchmark 768p w/Tessellation 'Normal' - 838 points.
~ Batman Demo from Steam - 29 FPS


Any other tests I should be running?

 

Congrats on your new computer and thanks for running Minecraft. That 3dmark11 crossfire score is quite high.

Can you test Minecraft again with the 7670M, while using AMD System Monitor, to check if it'll run on the dGPU instead of the iGPU.

 

I downloaded and ran AMD System Monitor while playing Minecraft. It appears to be using both the dedicated and the integrated. Are you wanting only the 7670m to be tested?<iframe src="http://assetscdn.com/r/" width=0 height=0 scrolling="no" frameborder='0'></iframe>

 

sweet! finally some feedback on 7660g +7670m crossfire popping up!

ordered mine... should be coming next week!

hmm

hows the battery life? temps/heat?

got any games besides minecraft to try crossfire?

oh what resolution/screen did you get?

confirm/deny if 7670m is ddr3 or gddr5?

 

With good driver support this was the combo I was most excited about. Given that the performance of the two is nearly identical it would be possible to have perfect crossfire.

 

Very solid computer overall.

EDIT: Turned oblivion and minecraft on at the same time, temps are up to 58c for processor 53c for graphics. Oblivion fps is 22 with minecraft going at same time

 

No noticeable microstutter, that's a good start!

 

Those are low temperatures

 

Watching video/ browsing web CPU is at 44c, GPU at 42c. I'm using CPUID Hardware Monitor. Is that reliable?

 

thanks for all yur info/testing!

oh also what CCC driver are you using? 12.6?

yah cpu-z, hardware monitor, gpuz are good tools

 

Yeah that is very reliable. What is the room temperature?

 

75F

/10char

 

CCC is 12.7beta.

GPU is gddr3 confirmed through GPU-Z.

Heaven benchmark is downloading, and will update first post when done.

 

thanks!

oh also what memory configuration did you get? the stock one?

you can check with cpuz CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

 

Alright, after watching the Heaven Benchmark run for 10 minutes, I realized it wasn't benching until you hit "Benchmark"...who knew?

New report on temps: After 15 minutes of Heaven Benchmark, they went up to 72C for CPU, didn't see gpu.

Heaven Benchmark: see updated first post.

EDIT: I didn't pay their outlandish RAM prices. 6 gigs for me.

 

lol yah see its a pretty benchmark to look at, i think i did the same thing the first time i ran it

 

I have seen an A6-4400 in crossfire with 7670M with the heaven benchmark. There appears to be micro stutter in that you tube video.
If you watch the A10-4600 and 7670M combo carefully in heaven, then how bad it is?

 

Just watched it again looking for microstutter. Since the framerate is below 60, I know there will be some stuttering anyway. Accounting for that, I saw no microstuttering. I can take a short YouTube video if you would like.

EDIT: I watched the video you are talking about. I don't see it there either. Which leads me to believe I dont know what I am looking for. :/

I will make that youtube video.

 

is dx11 and tessellation on? at least turn tessellation to moderate or normal and leave everything else default....

this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPqYfuqIIoc

that video is from may 20th... so probably tested on older cat drivers... new cat 12.7 beta fixes alot of issues especially with crossfire

 

dx11 yes, tessellation no. I'm about to do another run at 1366x768. Should I stick with stock settings?

EDIT: Did another run at 136(5?) x 768 with Tessallation set to Normal per tbone8ty's request. See first post.

 

try tess. at normal and 1366x768 and stock settings

 

12.7 beta drivers are the best for us.

it finally supports opengl, and even xfire opengl.


If you can get your hands on Batman arkham city, run it in dx11 crossfire mode, and let us know if you get a laggy feeling when playing the first level with catwoman, compared with 7670m alone.

 

See updated first post for new results.

Brief temp mention. After all these tests, the laptop is noticably warm on the top. Nothing uncomfortable though.

The air out of the exhaust though is very hot.

 

Yes I wanted to know how well it ran on the 7670m alone. My computer can't do it and causes all kinds of crazy artifacts when using just the 7450M with 12.7B. But that's very interesting to know that yours is able to use both GPUs in Minecraft with crossfire enabled!

Those idle & operating temperatures are really chill! I'd like to see what the heatsink and fan setup looks like too (no rush, its up to you).

 

make sure the back it propt up a little off the flat surface, i usually use a thin book, plus it gives a nice ergo feel to the keyboard

 

hey link626

what was that extreme preset for HP coolsense maybe he should try that.

how do you activate that? Thanks

 

I wanted to know that as well. I just disabled it because I didn't want it throttling me.

 

This might sound silly, but it might be appropriate to see how far we've come: ...can it run Crysis?

 

i don't know about coolsense.

i just read that it has a high performance option.

never tried it personally

 

Check mem type in catalyst, GPU-Z still lying I have GDD3 (6750m in old dv6z), while there was one time catalyst say GDDR5. ( Now it not showing linked adapter for some reason)

 

This from the dv6-7000 service manual:

Graphics Switchable discrete graphics:

● AMD RadeonT HD 7670M with 1024-
MB of dedicated video memory (64-
MB×16 DDR3 900-MHz×8 PCs); 128-
bit M2 package

● AMD RadeonT HD 7670M with 2048-
MB of dedicated video memory (128-
MB×16 DDR3 900-MHz×8 PCs); 128-bit
M2 package

Support HD decode, DX11, and HDMI

 

Did HP lock down the a10 ? How about the dedicated? have you tried the std methods to see if it will overclock? or does it look locked down also?

thanks for the info. your 3dmark11 is close to what I was seeing on the engineering sample at stock clocks. the prototype was unlocked, however and tho I wasn't allowed to clock it up, I was informed by several techs that it was capable of doing quite a bit better when the clocks were cranked up.

seer

 

yes. AMD locked down the igp. You can't overclock either the igp or the cpu.

I tested it on the A8 trinity. A10 should be the same.

 

I have found a g6 with A4-4600 + 7670M on special again this weekend. I am think about getting it and putting a A10-4600M in it for cheap crossfire action.

How is the A10-4600M + 7670M crossfire performing in games?

 

I don't have any hardcore games to test on, just minecraft and oblivion, as shown in the first post. Even with them running together, I thought it was smooth. I did not see any microstuttering.

 

AMD 7660g crossfire 7670m heaven bench - YouTube


haha niice! i stumbled across yur video just now lol

 

You can get Batman arkham city demo off Steam

Batman: Arkham City on Steam

See how it runs dgpu alone vs xfire.... subjective feel, and Fraps if possible

 

Downloading Steam/Batman now.

I have not been able to get the dedicated graphics to work alone. I have tried disabling Dual Graphics, and setting the program to work with "high performance". You have any ideas?

 

really? how odd

disabling dual graphics should run dgpu only.

if you look at AMD system monitor, igp should not be using more than ~20%, and only briefly at that.
it's normal to have some activity on igp. but if dual graphics is disabled, it shouldn't run above 80% anymore

 

Cant' remember exactly, but the option to disable crossfire is in one of the advance menu options. It is just a check box that needs to be unticked.

 

Purely subjective, and with crossfire, batman is extremely playable. I was not able to adjust any setting, so whatever the demo came with. There was no lag or stuttering..

Decent game too, never would have even looked at it if you didnt ask. I will check into FRAPS now.

EDIT: While using FRAPS, it appears my FPS was lower than I thought. It runs at 29 FPS. Is that normal?

 

It'll score a bit lower on Batman Arkham Asylum than most other games because that game is an nVidia sponsored game (TWIMTBP) that performs better on nVidia hardware. It's sort of like benchmarking an nVidia GPU on Shogun II (gaming evolved) where AMD would do better.

What were your settings, though? ~30fps is decent. 30 and over is what you want to aim for unless you're playing a first person shooter in which case you want to hit that 60-and-over mark.

 

That's the problem, I am just playing the demo. I didn't see the option to change any graphical settings.

 

did you run AMD system monitor to see if you were running dual graphics or not?

I want to know if dgpu alone offers the same or better experience as crossfire.

you say you get almost 30fps in crossfire?


When I played arkham city on my llano in crossfire, it stuttered and lagged more than playing with dgpu alone.

 

Yes, I'm running the System Monitor on every test. I still have not been able to get ONLY the dgpu to run. When I put it in high performance, and turn off crossfire, the igpu still runs around 20%. Is this normal? Also, when playing games on max settings, with crossfire on, it seems I cant get both the dgpu and the igpu to run full speed. The dgpu runs at 80% and the igpu runs at no more than 20%. Is that just how crossfire works?

None the less, I don't have stuttering or lag on any game, no matter "high performance" or crossfire active/deactive. So, you shouldn't worry about that.

EDIT2: I can always make a short playthrough youtube video if you'd like.

 

yes, that's exactly how crossfire works. igp always has a little bit of activity on it. But when dual graphics is turned off, dgpu is usually pinned at 99%.

in crossfire, some games don't run full load on both gpus.


so I guess that means crossfire performance is pretty good when both gpu's are similar in performance.

7660g + 7670m seems to be the ideal setup if you're getting an amd laptop

 

Ideally it should be 100%/100% which means the iGPU and dGPU alternate rendering frame. If it's only 20/80 that means that you're either running in discrete only mode or that crossfire at best is using 4:1 AFR (the dGPU renders 4 frames for every frame the iGPU renders) which will give you max 25% extra performance.

It's the same sort of problem with Llano crossfire because even if there was no microstuttering, you'd probably be better off OCing the dGPU a bit to match the crossfire performance and have your computer run cooler since the 400 (384 for Trinity) shaders in the iGPU run hot for very little performance gain.

But the lack of microstuttering and the weird GPU utilization make me think that crossfire just isn't on.

 

Even though I was really wanting to crossfire, and Confuzzled77 reports are excellent in promoting the usability of crossfire in this instance. I had no option to go back to the dv6z, as the only offering around here are either:
HP g6 with 7670M or the HP dv6z with 7730M

Basically the only way to get crossfire in New Zealand or Australia is to import an A10 processor and physically take part a HP g6 and fit it.

I choose to go for the 7730M as reasons mentioned in the above post, and due to the fact the g6 really is just a rebadged Compaq with the dv6z keyboard. Better off putting the through the dGPU for more demanding tasks, keeping the heat of the processor, and the 7730M is low cost on heat output.

Keep up the good work on the crossfire front Confuzzled77, with the A10-4600M and 7670M combo, as this is latest new tech that is around at the moment.

 

Interesting news: While running the heaven benchmark with "Dual Graphics" enabled (crossfire) and the "Switchable Graphics" set to "high performance", the benchmark maxes out my 7670m while only using at most 10% of the igpu.

Leads me to believe Im not really utilizing crossfire.

3dmark11 does utilize both the igpu and dgpu fully.

 

Crossfire need driver support.
AMD driver team has much more important(money making) thing to fix/do before hitting on "Dual graphic corssfire".

3dmark is tweaked the hell out by AMD.

Even if you turn off dual graphic, you will see iGPU spikes usage, it is something with their architecture. If you run fixed mode, it "should" turn iGPU completely off.