***ENVY 14 Gaming Lounge***

I'm also getting horrendous FPS when playing any type of game. I recently downloaded the World of Tanks beta which was working fine until today. I installed DirectX9 SP for the game to run properly since I am running Windows 7 64 bit OS. I never had a problem of low fps on any game like E:TW or TF2 but now I am getting low FPS (3-5) on those as well. Anyone know what could be causing the problem?

AFAIK I have the updated ATi drivers (10.8)

Also when not running any games the performance still feels choppy too. I ran virus/spyware/malware checks and it came up with nothing.

 

huh. something sounds a little wrong.

two things.

1: make sure you aren't on the power saving power profile.
2: make sure you aren't getting throttled, gpu wise.

it happens sometimes when you swap from ati to intel and back or unplug and plug it back in. powerplay glitches sometimes and sticks you at 300/300 gpu clocks. you can check that with gpu-z and then running some gpu intensive thing (or flash or something with hardware acceleration). if it doesn't reach 450/799.9 (800) then it's messing up. you have to go to the catalyst control panel, click powerplay from the drop down menu on the top left, uncheck turn on powerplay, hit apply, then turn powerplay back on.

 

So complicated. Is there any way to permanently disable powerplay (like not installing CCC at all) ?

 

well you can just turn it off and that should work.


but it's not really complicated. the steps are:

1. right click on desktop, pick graphics options.
2. left click on menu thing on left of CCC, go down to powerplay, click on it.
3. tick the checkbox off for powerplay. click apply.
4. tick the checkbox back on for powerplay. click apply. make sure it's on max performance, not max power savings while plugged in.

 

Ahh.. sounds easy. Say, must one have CCC installed to be able to use switchable graphics? Or is it only for the optimization/adjustability of GPU quality?

 

you have to (have to have to have to) install the hp drivers package (CCC and all) to get switchable graphics activated.


then you can install ati 10.8 on top of it, and you keep switchable. If you only install ati 10.8, no switchable.

also CCC doesn't do much if you tell it to turn off catalyst A.I. and then...just leave it there. I mean it's used to setup resolution and stuff for secondary displays (and overscan/underscan).


I mean. it's just ati's version of the nvidia control panel. it's not like it's some sort of evil POS. slightly incompetently designed at times, sure. evil and broken...not really.

 

Cant you just grab an intel driver and install the ATI driver side-by-side? Or is switchable something that HP implements?

 

something in the hp drivers.

 

That's strange... I did what you said to do and nothing changed, my performance was still about the same. So I unplugged my laptop and plugged it back in just because I had no other options and it somehow worked. Everything is back to normal now, thanks for your help.

 

weird. well, if all else fails, reboot?

 

i have tried searching i really have, i just wanted to know the highest known 3dmark06 achieved by a envy 14 with GPU/CPU overclock or whatever it takes. Also have you guys tried throttlestop to change the TDP/TCP to maximize turbo boost? im have an m11x and it has increased my cpu score by 500 on 3dmark06 and about a 10 second decrease on wprime. with a GPU/CPU overclock and Throttlestop on this is close to the highest 3dmark06 score achieved on the m11x forums (note i have the i5 too =( )

 

hm no one? highest i found from searching was 8052 any higher?

 

I tried using throttlestop, doesnt seem like it helps.

Also, when I use throttlestop, I am unable to OC with SetFSB, so its one or the other.

With throttlestop and my 5650@ 525/960 I got 7849.

With my CPU [email protected] and my graphics card at 525/960, I got 8053.

 

Weird, are you guys getting throttling issues especially while overclocked and the CPU is reluctant to use turbo boost because it is exceeding the tdp/tcp range?

 

Anyone getting lag spikes in SC2? I know its not due to the video card because i am getting like 60 fps when it happens.

 

GPU OCed to 555/920 I get 8103. Although I will crash sometimes in games, it hasn't given me any problems in 3DMark06.

I'm not really keen on OCing my processor, since it's an i7, I'm worried about the heat it'll put out.

 

I was looking at SetFSB last night, and it looks like it supports the chipset we have, so does that mean it'll OC my i3, or are there other hoops I have to jump through to get it to work? I just did a clean install... once I get everything reinstalled and setup I might try to answer that myself by downloading it.

I would like someone else to chime in if they have experience with it though. _Thanks

 

depends on your luck. you gotta find the right pll to use and hope it works right.

some people with the i5 450m got it to work.

I can't get it to work right with the i5 520m. I can getFSB on a few pll's.

I cannot set a new FSB on those plls.

 

I wish I wasn't one of the few with the i3.. maybe someone else would have tried it already!

 

Has anybody tried playing Fallout New Vegas on the E14 yet, thinking about ordering burning a Gamestop gc on it, but wanted to see if anybody had tried it yet. It's pretty much the same reqs as FO3 which ran fine on the E14 right?

 

yeah, should run fine. though there's a lot of bugs with the game at the moment.


there's a dll you can replace one of the ones in the new vegas install with to fix the stuttering fps issues at least (but there's still some other bugs that need a patch or three)

 

I'm trying to get a grasp on how powerful the 5650 is. I understand that it's not an amazing card, but I was under the impression it was pretty capable. Will it be able to handle all current games at slightly above standard settings and at native res? I'm not a hardcore PC gamer, I own a PS3 for all of my gaming needs, but I enjoy playing an RPG on a PC over a console.

What do you guys think the life expectancy of the card is?

 

You should check notebook check's mobile gpu benchmarks list. It gives a rundown of most GPU's rough performance. 5650 is considered a "mid-range" GPU, which makes it a mainstream card, since it's in most notebooks. I'd expect it to "last" for 2-3 years, since it handles most things you throw at it on medium-high settings. If you only play SC2 like me, then it's gonna last you until SC3 comes out

 

I went through a few of the plls, and it appeared I was able to move the sliders.. but when I hit setFSB it just reverted back. One of them would lock up the PC even if I moved it one notch.. I haven't worked all the way through them yet.. hopefully at least one will do the trick.

 

yeah I gave up after a lil while since I got tired of 'em locking my pc up

 

So I'm having a lot of trouble running Team Fortress 2. Here's a summary of the problem that I sent to Valve for which I received a generic response suggesting uninstalling TF2 and then verifying the cache.

I bought the Orange Box this past Sunday and installed Portal, Episode 1, Episode 2 and the Orange Box. I had previously bought and installed Half Life 2 proper. Upon installation Portal, Episode 1 and Episode 2 all worked great.

Unfortunately Team Fortress 2 has been giving me a lot of issues.

I have a HP Envy 14
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-560M Dual Core Processor (2.66 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics [HDMI] - For Dual Core Processors
4GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

Upon clicking the 'Play' button within Steam the game started on my 1st attempt. After the short Valve logo it hung on the logo screen with the TF2 characters for ~10 minutes. At that point I went into the Task Manager and forced quit the application TF2 and the process hl2,exe. I attempted to restart TF2 from within Steam and the blue circle indicating Windows was working popped up, but the game never started. Thinking I did not actually press the 'Play' button I pressed it again and I was given an error message that 'only 1 instance of hl2,exe can be run at a time'. I went back into the Task Manager and shut down the hl2,exe process.

At this point I rebooted my computer, but was met with the same sequence. I looked for some help on some message boards and tried a couple different strategies.

1)I ran Steam as the administrator. No effect.
2)I cleaned out the C:/Program Files/Steam folder by deleting all the files except Steam.exe and the Steamapps folder. Team Fortress2 booted at this point! I proceeded to start playing the training sequence. After finishing that the game froze again while I it attempted to load a level. I force quit again and the game is no longer loading again.
3) I attempted to validate the cache and defrag the local files through the Steam app. No errors were found and this has not helped.

 

TF2 Windowed Mode No-Border

try adding to the launch options for tf2 (right click game on steam, hit properties, launch options are on the first page): -sw -noborder -novid

it sets tf2 to windowed mode but without a border. it should default to whatever resolution you have tf2 set to in your settings (so you can set it at 1336x768 to make it basically be fullscreen)

 

Well it's going to the loading screen now, but it's freezing there. :/ Thanks for help though.

This is so frustrating because I really only wanted to play the HL games (including TF2) and SC2. TF2 won't work and SC2 gives me wacky graphic artifacts no matter what resolution or settings I put it at.

 

maybe you got a bad vid card.

barring that maybe the drivers are being weird. Ever try reinstalling 'em?

biggest issue I've had with sc2 was when textures decided to show up in the wrong place (but that was more of a sc2 issue that happened sometimes in beta, and still happens rarely in live, not a graphics card issue)

 

Hello! I am new to these forums (if that makes a difference ) I just ordered my Envy 14 Beats and its in production. I was wondering, If I OCed the GPU, would it be able to handle Mafia II? Thanks to all!

 

How can I update the drivers? I'm on the 10.73 drivers, but the 10.8 I downloaded refused to install (I'm assuming because of the switchable graphics.)

 

you can't update to the 10.8 drivers since you're downloading it from the wrong source.

gotta use a direct link, not the downloader on amd's website

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/920...mobile/10-8_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe


also the 10.10 drivers exist but aren't really recommended since they break the thing that let's you increase or lower brightness on the envy 14 (it still works in intel mode, but the fn+f2/f3 keys don't work while on the ati card)

 

Hey... I just got an E14... this thing is amazing... I'm not a hardcore gamer but I do play Team Fortress couple of times a week and it runs flawlessly at 1600x900 (got a radiance) even with textures at "Very High".

Cooling is great too... cools down very fast after gaming.

I7 720 - 4GB - 1600x900 Radiance - Radeon 5650 1GB - 500 GB HDD

 

I was a little worried about the 450mhz clocked 5650 not being a let down for me, but it's performed quite nicely. I don't have time to game like I used to(reason I sold my last gaming tower I built & xbox 360).

So far I've been playing GRID and Dirt 2 maxed out at 1600x900 with no problems at all. Looks and runs great.

I've been playing the original Half Life maxed out at 1600x900, and as you'd guess (being as old as it is) it runs well.

I've also got Half Life 2 which I haven't played on the laptop yet. I used to play it on my old desktop, but I'm going to wait until I beat Half Life (never played it until now) to start playing HL2 on here.

I was going to download the Crysis demo and check it out, but haven't had the time.

 

Does anybody know if the Envy 14's graphics card and an i5 450 can handle Darksiders?

 

slightly off topic but can you save a lot building your own desktop or is it not really worth it that much ?

 

I guess you can if you shop around/wait for prices to be what you need them to be. Compare what manufacturers are offering vs. what you put together.

 

it's always worth the experience. you'll learn a lot more by building your own, and you'll get exactly what you want.

 

I could find out. I have a 520m which is the same thing when it's using 2 cores

 

Like the post said above... it's worth the experience and you get what you want... and yes you can save a lot of money that way if you do it right.

 

runs fine with vsync on for me.


at 1600x900.

There's no real options for making the graphics better or worse so *shrugs*

seems to play fine.

 

Thanks for checking for me, I have it on PS3, but after seeing some of the screen shots for PC, and because I have absolutely fallen in love with this game I was thinking about getting the PC version too. Can't wait for the sequel, this game is so much fun for me.

 

Question for ya'll with the 1600x900 resol, or those who might know:

In terms of performance, if I buy the 1366x768 version, and plug into a 1600x900 monitor, will I get same performance as you folks with the Radiance? Alternatively, will the performance on the 1366x768 version be higher than the Radiance version, due to the lower resol? I don't care too much about the brightness/reso while on the road, since I won't be gaming that much, and as long as it's bright enough to take notes or surf while sitting outside the lecture halls. At home, I would just be plugging it into my monitor anyhow.

TYIA!

 

theoretically performance should be better at 1366x768.


realistically.

yeah performance is probably better at 1366x768

 

now I didn't play that much of it (just like five minutes of the opening til the mouse and keyboard controls made me wanna go find a 360 controller to plug in and use)


anyway, seemed fine is all I can say. Probably play it some more in a day or two

 

It really grew on me. When I started I was pretty impressed with all the action, but it seemed like it would get old. The further into the game you go, the better it gets. Some people haven't liked the game, but I'm an older gamer and this one really struck a chord with me.

 

From my testing thus far, 1366x768 seems to be a real sweet spot for gaming on the Envy 14 with the BrightView display - running Unreal Tournament 3 on mine with everything maxed out results in around ~58-65 FPS, give or take - the exact same framerate range that I see on my DV6 with the 5650... so I'm thinking that perhaps the GPU core clock speed difference between the two computers (450MHz in the Envy, 550MHz in the DV6) doesn't make a huge difference in performance at this resolution... someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

How do you guys think Black Ops will play on the envy 14 without overclocking? Medium settings at least I'm hoping!

 

not getting these issues.

SSAO is off for me. So is AA and vsync.

On DX10 mode. FPS is in the 30s/40s I guesstimate.

probably could improve that if I mess with stuff.

I turned EAX off.

basic settings are high. sun settings are on medium (sun shadows/sunrays and stuff are on)

dunno why yours isn't working right. If it's a hdd thing My HDD got updated from the toshiba 320gb 7200rpm to a wd scorpio black 320gb 7200rpm ('cause my toshiba was defective).

 

Can anyone with the 1366x768 version take a screen shot of their desktop? I just wanna see how big the icons are to get an idea of it. There's a slickdeal for the E14 and with my config (i5-560m+6gbRAM+coupon or 450/460m+4gbRAM+Slice), it comes down to 850+tax=945. Super good deal, but I'd like to see the desktop on 1366x768 reso beforehand

Thanks for your assistance!