***ENVY 14 Gaming Lounge***

Hi, firstly, is there anyway to navigate the gaming lounge without reading all 180 pages? Also I am running Envy with 420 i5 you all know the video card 4 gbs of ram and 7200 rpm drive 1600by900. When I play steam demo of Mafia 2 the benchmark tells me I need to lower all my settings even when they are on low. Also it seems to run a little worse then when I first installed in when I just got my envy. Same thing with Fallout New Vegas it has begun to slow down and act badly. I really want to play BFBC2 but right know the outlook looks pretty bleak even though apparently everyone and their mothers are running BC2 on the envy 14.

 

Bro I finished Mafia 2 on max settings with OK resolution and shadows on med. It looked amazing!

Edit: So i what I mean is lower the resolution but up the graphics

 

Well when I run benchmarks on the lowest setting at 1280 by something resolution the in game benchmark gives me a D ranking. And I'm actually running the 450. I even overclocked the 4850 to 5000 mhz with afterburner.

 

would there be any difference between the 5650 for dual core processors and the 5650 for quad core processors?? can someone post some gaming results?

 

there the same cards just one has the support for a quad-core proccesor.

There isn't that much difference in my opinion, BUT of course you will get better performance in some games due to the i7. For example RTS (for me) seem to run faster on a machine with a higher processor. It may sound stupid saying that haha, since its kind of obvious.

I'd stick with the i5 though more battery life, and switchable graphics to boot!

 

Hey, I have the same problem with all valve games. Left 4 dead 2 is the worst for crashing. I overclocked only to 500 and I get verticle green lines.

 

Hey where did everyone get their msi afterburner. I don't remember where mine is from but when I use it, it crashes my computer after playing a while. It seems not to when I'm not overclocking. It's probably because I downloaded one that is for another video card. On MSI.com it doesn't have the 5650, can someone please send me the link.

 

Last I remember I don't have crashing in L4D or 2. Also I never overclocked.

Updated to 10.12 but finals, no time to play.

 

anybody updated to the latest catalyst control center? AMD says that they have completely redesigned it but i still get same old crappy control center after update

 

yeah I see no change, interface wise *shrugs*

there's a few changes here and there on how it shows you the settings in the 3d tab but...well, besides that

 

Where do you guys find all your software updates. Everytime I look at the manufacturers websites they don't have it. Like I can't find the update for ccc. I also found out though that I had msi afterburner 1.6.1, is that the right one? I also found 2.0? is that one better?

 

L4D crashes me now too

 

mmm. I finally installed MSI Afterburner. I underclocked from 450 to 430 and didn't crash in L4D my second go. I also ramped up the fan speed, I hit 77-78 C underclocked and with a faster fan...

 

wait, MSI afterburner let you change the fan speed? I wasn't ever able to :O

 

are you sure the fans are on? i'm letting the fan auto and i've never gotten higher than 71C on the 5650 in either my i5-580m or i7-740qm, and that includes over clocking to 550/1040mhz and playing sc2, lotro, and black ops at the same time on the highest settings.

on top of that, i really dont think you can adjust fan speed in msi afterburner.

 

I got the same question, is it possible to control fan speed with the program above?

 

can someone give me some gaming results? preferably 1600x900 res

 

Um well, I changed the Automatic algorithm. I made the fan speed romp up quicker, made it reach 85% instead of 80% or whatever at a lower temperature. I have no idea if my lower/stabler temperatures were a result of the underclock, the fan speed adjustment, or both. Maybe Afterburner didn't change the fanspeed, but only the core clock then.

In any case I'm highly disappointed that my system crashes seem to be the result of a sh*t ATI/AMD chip which can't even meet the spec of 450mhz. Neither Borderlands, L4D, or CSS crash anymore with the underclock to 430mhz. Haven't played anything else since other than Audiosurf.

 

since your 5650 won't operate properly at HP's specified speed, why don't you send it back to HP and have them fix it? i.e. replace it

 

is it possible to upgrade the envy 14 video memory???

 

Anything is possible with the proper amount of time/money/resources.

Effectively, the answer is no.

 

What are some ways of making the hp envy 14 better in the graphics department?

 

You can overclock the video card if you want, but there's not much else that I can think of. You can always turn the resolution down to 720 and see a noticeable increase in FPS and it should still look pretty.

 

need a FTP link to the new ATI drivers please thanks!


2.0 just relinked my thread without letting me get help.. cause he thinks i dont know what im talking about..its not in the offical envy 14 thread..

 

haha. well I posted it in the owner's lounge after his post.

stop by there (well I posted a link to the nbr post that has 'em)

 

Came across this recently

Nvidia is out of most Apple notebooks in 2011


If it's true that HP contracts for amd gpus for lower cost then it normally sells them, maybe even at a loss, then it makes sense hp would get stuck with lower binned gpus.

 

1) Because my underclock isn't changing any of my games from "Playable" to "Unplayable" (and some super intense games didn't crash my system at 450mhz...)
2) Radiance screen
3) college student on winter recess, which makes shipping problematic - and then of course I need it.

 

I believe you can find all the drivers on HP's website, I think this includes ati. Otherwise there is a tool on the AMD/ATI website that lets you check for new drivers.

 

Yes i have played crysis, SC2, BFBC2, and many other graphically intense games comfortably.

 

Please can someone post some gaming results of just cause 2, black ops, nfs hot pursuit, gta 4, mafia 2 at a 900p resolution

 

Just cause can run at 720 pretty well, for some reason I don't like shadows in games so more FPS for me!

martin96 you can google ati radeon 5650 and check out notebook review, they should give you a good overview of the power of this card. Black ops runs well on high, just cause on medium I think not sure about the others, but mafia 2 is pretty intensive.

 

I ran mafia 2 maxed out at 900p. Black Ops I cant recall but I ran it pretty well I know. NFS Hot Pursuit i can run maxed out also.

 

Did changing the automatic algorithm in afterburner actually change anything? I was under the impression that MSI afterburner couldn't actually change the fanspeed in the ENVY 14

 

So I ordered my Envy 14 with the cheapest i7. What kind of gaming performance can I expect? Hoping to be able to max out the likes of Dragon Age, World of Warcraft, and Starcraft 2, albeit at high settings.

 

Question for the i5 folks;
What are your CPU temps while gaming? Mine hits 80C (460m) playing BFBC2 Vietnam (GPU 68C oc'd@550/800).

 

I've tried Dragon age, but I need to get SC2 (missed out on so many games because of my old laptop.)

Im on an i5 520 Im getting a steady 30 - 40 FPS (Dragon Age)

Graphics on very high
texture on high
1600x900 res
and x8 AA



I've just finished all the treaties time to head off for the landsmeet, Is there anything I should do before I go back to the Arl?

 

has anyone tried assassin's creed 2 on the envy 14?

debating getting it while it's on sale

 

Great! If you're getting that kind of performance with an i5 I can't wait to see what the i7 will bring to the table.

 

nothing. i used both the i5-580m and the i7-740qm. i7-740qm is about 4fps slower than i5-580m (26fps vs 30 fps) in starcraft 2 in ultra.

 

CPU performance is actually better on the QM models as I play 4vs4 quite often and I maintain my 27 fps in ultra whereas on the dual core model it was a crawl slideshow fest.

 

have you tried an envy with i5? i have tried both, and the i5 consistantly beats the i7 by 10-20% in starcraft 2.

on a side note, the i7 does do better if i have sc2, lotro, guild wars, dragon age, chrome, etc. open at the same time. sc2 is still around low 20's in fps. whereas on the i5, you can see the fps drop after you open the 3rd game or so.

but then again, when would you be playing 4 games and browse the internet at the same time?

 

I did try I had the i5 previous to the i7 and although I enjoy 3 hours of battery (no sure how people are racking up the 4+ hours without turning everything off or down) but the i5 was only useful in 1vs1 or single player mode as far as performance goes whereas the the i7 840qm I have now is able to handle SC2 without issue on larger team games. Oddly enough the i7 720qm I have with the geforce 260gtx on my alienware m15x is slower than both likely due to non SSD

I was however able to OC the videocard higher on the i5 model but not enough to make a difference. I am not advocating the i7 840qm as its insanely expensive but it just so happened that HP lost my Envy 15 which I had maxed out and they offered ENVY14

Envy 15 i7 820qm Radeon 5830, intel dual SSD 320GB = Smooth SC2 Play with 6-8 players
Envy 14 i5 560 (highest at the time) Radeon 5650, Samsung 256GB SSD = Smooth SC2 Play if less than 6-8 players otherwise slideshow at 8 players involved with or without conflict
Envy 14 i7 840qm Radeon 5650, Samsung 256GB SSD = Pretty much the same fluid play as the Envy 15 since I dont have to run it at 1920x1080 and almost never chopping on 4vs4, 8player FFA play like the i5 has issues with.

http://www.techspot.com/review/305-starcraft2-performance/page13.html Good example of i5 vs i7 performance
remember even with the fastest i5 (i580) you are still only getting sub 3ghz dual core performance and only 3mb of cache vs 8mb of cache and 2.4-2.8ghz dual core TM on the i840qm those 5mb of cache will make a world of difference on those large battles in SC2 and video/audio encoding

 

well, 840qm vs i5-5xx is obv not in the same league. i was talking more about the 720qm/740qm vs the high i5s, at least those are within $200 of each other. =P

no doubt 840qm can deliver since it not only has more cores, but also can turbo to similar clockrates for dual cores.

 

What kind of performance are people getting with Civilization 5?

 

if i were to hook up the envy 14 to a 1080p monitor, with the res at 1080p...what kind of settings on games like nfs hot pursuit, black ops, and starcraft 2 would i be able to play on at 30fps? pleeeaaase help me

 

I could play it on highest settings in 1600x900 on my lap

 

I noticed that worked on mine for ac2 but it was a bit iffy at times (stuttery)

not sure if that's due to the hdd needing to be defragged or what.

 

Could be. I have an SSD and didnt notice any issues after playing through the whole game.

 

yeah I'm gonna blame a fragmented hdd (need to clean it up some and defrag sometime)

then I'll try it again

 

Sorry to take this off topic but what is defragging and fragging a HDD? I've heard the term a few times and wondered what it is.

Also is it common for people to have some keyboard flex on the E14, its strong on the right side but loses strength around the L/: keys.

I'm going out to westfield on monday so I'll pick up some games that are on sale. Looking at AC2 and SC2

thanks