***ENVY 14 Gaming Lounge***

I think I might OC my card then. I'm running SC2 at 1080p with medium settings and can't seem to stay above 30 for an entire mission. This is perplexing especially because I have the i7 720qm processor, as RTS games seem more CPU intensive than GPU, and tons of people on the board are getting far better performance in games than myself.

 

My HD201's sound great. Maybe you've got something configured wrong in Windows?

 

Thank u so much @brendrt451 u answered my questions really well

 

Does anyone play older games like counterstrike on the envy14... these new drivers seem to do more harm then good for me. my fps varies from 40-100 on a 10+ year old game!

What drivers would you recommend I use, thanks.

 

Gah ignore I was on powersaver /brainfart.

 

I don't think anyone else is running it at 1080P though.

 

Hello, everyone. I have a lot of doubt on the choice between i5 580 or i7 740QM. If someone could give me a clear view or clue of choice, that will really be helpful.

On the one hand, many people said that i7 740QM will perform better especially during mult threaded. For example, during Starcraft 2 gaming, when there is a lot of units or doing 4 vs 4 party, i7 740QM will make the game running very nice, but a i5 580 will not be able to do it. But the downside is the battery which is about 2 hours only. Also we don't have the integrated graphic card.

On the other hand, other people told me that i5 580 is nice choice, because it is cheaper and allows me to save autonomy. It offers better performance when we don't have too much calcul or task to do. Also I don't know what about do the hyper turbo mode which active 2 virtual cores work. I never use it.

I read a lot in this topic, and I still cannot make my decision. What about GPU overclocking when we have these 2 CPU? It seems that i7 version allows a higher overclocking than the i5 one. Do the 2 virtual cores of the i5 580 bring some improvement face to i7?

So right now I am a little confused, so if you can help me to decide which one should I take, that will be really nice. Thank you in advance,

 

I'd go with the i5, mostly for the battery life reasons and the integrated GPU. For me, mobility and performance should be balanced, and the i5 seems to be the best choice for that decision.

Keep in mind you can overclock the i5 if you're finding you need more power from it. The i5 has 4 threads (2 cores + 2 "virtual" cores) with hyperthreading, so multi-threaded applications still utilize the i5 very well.

 

But "they" say you need an i7 to play SC2 optimally. If you'd be satisfied with 2hours battery, I'd get the i7-740qm, and just underclock/undervolt accordingly. You shouldn't have much trouble doing so. Else, you can wait to see if they release anything better (read: Sandy Bridge).

 

I'm sure the same or similar questions have already been answered several times but it's hard to sort through 192 pages to find it. I just bought an ENVY 14 with a 1600x900 resolution and i5-580M processor. What are the optimal settings I should use for playing Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft?

 

I play most games in 1280-768 with medium to low details/shaders no problems.
I tend to prefer smoother gameplay @60+ FPS over prettier @40- FPS.

However, I recommend you get a good notebook cooler if you plan to game for a while.
You can also overclock the GPU w/o temperature increase up to 550 / 800 using AMD GPU Clock for 5870 and the latest ATI drivers.

halkyon > how do you overclock the i5 ? The bios doesnt allow it and I could not find softwares that can do that yet.

 

Use SetFSB.

 

Does the freeware version of setFSB handle the i5's FSB ? Are there any instructions on how to do that with the envy 14 ? thanks

 

I'm planning on ordering a i5 version of the 14 but I just want to make sure if I'll be able to run games like Starcraft 2 on ULTRA (High Settings) without any lag and such.?

Also will all the i5 version run it just fine or should i get the higher model i5?

 

The CPU(i3/i5/i7) isn't nearly as relevant as the GPU(ATI Radeon) when it comes to gaming.

 

if you want to run new games on ultra, then the envy 14 is NOT for you.
You'll need a desktop or a larger laptop for that.

On the other hand, it should run well in low and medium.

 

I'm 99% sure that SC2 doesn't use more than 2 cores anyway, and you'll benefit more from the higher clock speed than more cores. I'd go for the i5 580M for gaming. But to be honest, the i5s are already beastly CPUs, and the GPU is more likely to be the bottleneck in most cases. And SC2 looks great at even medium (although you can probably run it on high, but I keep it on medium to avoid any framerate drops).

 

or, tweak the setting manually to look nice but keep performance.

this is my version - rename it to variables.txt and replace your variables.txt with this one instead, you'll get the ultra looks while keeping 40+fps on 1366x768 (probably around 30ish on 1600x900)

 

Hi guys,

Just wanted to hear from some Envy 14 owners on how you feel this laptop handles long gaming sessions. Probably 3 hours at a stretch, but usually nothing too intensive if I play for that long, just stuff like League of Legends or Heroes of Newerth.

I'm considering getting the Radiance 1600x900 screen, and there's really only a few things that I want this laptop to be able to run:

Starcraft 2
HoN
DotA 2

Obviously, DotA 2 specs are up in the air but I figure that they won't be too much higher than SC2 to play on medium.

What I'm really worried about is the heat though. My old laptop was a clevo m860tu with a 9800M GT in it, and while it was awesome for gaming, the reason it died was the GPU, so I want to avoid repeats. I'm also cutting back on the gaming, which is why I'm looking at less powerful cards.

 

it handles my game very well on low/medium (left 4 dead, killing floor, etc..) at over 60 FPS.

If you plan to game for more than 30 mins, i strongly suggest you get a good laptop cooler.... it will really extend the life of your laptop.

 

I got an Envy 14 a few weeks ago for christmas and I have noticed that during some games (metro 2033, Borderlands and TF2) that the screen will suddenly go black and the computer has to be rebooted. Before the game crashes, the fps is fine and it doesn't seem to matter what settings it's on.

Other games work fine.

Could this be overheating? And if so, how can I fix it?

 

If its overheating a good cooling pad will help tremendously if you play for long intervals.

 

That's a good idea, but since it's still pretty new, I'll probably try to get it fiexed/replaced by HP. Although I might invest in a cooling pad in the future.

 

The cooling system is actually pretty decent. When playing Crysis at High (1280x720) with an overclocked GPU (525/875) the CPU temp didn't go over 60°C (140°F) and the GPU stayed under 70°C (158°F). If you're at stock clocks, it should be even lower. The air blowing from the vents is quite warm, too, so you know it's doing a good job getting that heat out of there.

This varies between builds, though. I've heard of some Envy 14's reaching the 90°C mark.

 

Does this thing play SC2 (on HIGH or ULTRA) when the GPU/CPU are overclocked?

 

Couldn't tell you, as I don't actually own SC2

 

if you want to play new games on high/ ultra, buy a desktop or a +15.6" laptop with a strong graphic card (5850, 5870, 460m , 470m...)
Otherwise, stick to medium or even low.

 

What are our favorite cooling pads for the Envy 14?

On my old dv5t, I was playing WoW:C for several hours in demanding raid situations without a cooling pad with no issues; I did jack up the back "feet" to allow more airflow, but it sounds like maintaining the Envy 14 longterm may necessitate more care. Any recommendations for (external):

a) the best very portable / light / least battery draining cooling solution
b) the best overall cooling unit

Many thanks

 

is there still really no way to use atis latest drivers with the envy14s switchable graphics?

the fact that the last GPU drivers that work with switchable drivers came out at launch in august is pretty absurd.

is there anyways to use ATIs latest drivers and still be able to switch graphics?

 

You have to download the entire mobility package; the web install won't work.

Keep in mind; any driver after the 10.8 version will break the brightness keys function.

 

i actually just noticed that there are drivers dated 12-03 on hps site. i swear those werent there just a week or two ago when i checked.

whiteonline..are you referring to the catalyst suite? will the switchable graphics still work with the latest version (aside from the brightness)?

 

Yes. The mobility cat suite (about 71MB); you just install over the HP package and you will retain switchable graphics.

 

does anyone know how well the envy can run mass effect 2?

 

You should be able to play it on max settings, my friend has the alienware m11x and he said he can play maxed out

 

I'm playing SC2 on high graphics settings and it runs fine, with an i7 720qm, 8gb ram, and 5650 graphics. I tried it on ultra and it runs but is a little bit jittery sometimes. Occasionally when you play some UMS games with massive amounts of units (like desertstrike) you're going to need to turn the graphics down a bit though. To be honest I'm not noticing a huge difference in the graphics settings of SC2, I don't find that the units are that much better looking on the higher settings.

 

I've only played it on low on my dinodesktop, and it looks fine lolz, but would like to get high or ultra since it's 2011 and it's a blizzard game, AND without worries of fps issues (like broodwar). I've seen ultra on my cousin's desktop, and it looks great.

 

You won't need any. This laptop cools fantastically, as long as you don't mind the fan noise once in a while. As long as you're not overclocking it to like 600/950 or working in 40C conditions it'll pretty much never overheat.

 

I'm waiting on my Envy 14 w/ Radiance to arrive and although I'm not really a gamer, I had a question. Has anyone tried X-Plane 9 on an Envy 14 yet. I flew for the airlines for 5 years and haven't touched a flight sim in at least as long. When you do it every day for a living, believe me, the last thing you want to do is to pretend to do it on your days off. That said, since I'm out of the industry now, I thought it might be fun to mess around with again. It looks like combat sims have gone buy the wayside (i.e. Falcon 4.0, F/A-18, Jane Combat Sim, etc.) and all that seems to pop up when I run searches for current stuff is X-Plane 9. Kind of sad because I really liked those campaign oriented combat sims.

When I ordered my Envy, the only non-standard performance specs I optioned were the Radiance display and 6GB RAM. I'm not buying it as a gaming machine but it would be a nice little bonus if it happened to have the chops for X-Plane. Does the Envy have enough oomph to run X-Plane and provide a decent user experience?

Also, I still have my old Saitek X36 USB joystick and thrust lever. Anybody know whether they will work with X-Plane or Windows 7 at all for that matter?

Thanks!!

 

@crjwingman

I don't own either of these (X-Plane or Envy 14), but it looks like the Envy 14 will do just fine:
System Requirements - X-Plane.com

 

@crjwingman

Check out LOMAC Flaming Cliffs 2. Great campaign and multiplayer simulator. You need the original Lock On to install the Flaming Cliffs 2 add on. Works great on my Envy, attached to a 24" LCD.
Also, check out KA-50 Black Shark (heli sim) by the same developers (Digital Combat Simulations)

Not sure about your stick -- I'm using my ages-old MS Sidewinder FFB stick without issue in W7; so I think you should be fine.

 

Has anyone noticed a 30 FPS stable frame rate in the Envy's 5650 performance? My framerate is exactly the same even when overclocked to 700/850 or 550/850.

 

Are you playing a game that has their FPS Maximum locked at 30 FPS? Some games has their FPS locked at 30 FPS. That is why more performance in this case is negligible. Try playing a game that doesn't do that. There are lots of games that has the FPS Maximum pretty much unlocked and you will see at least a 5-15% performance boost for the core OC.

 

My friends computer with the GT 425M performs flawlessly at 60 FPS. From what I know the 5650 is superior to the GT 425M. Something just isn't making sense here.

 

Could use a bit of help. I got into the rift beta, and am running the game @ medium settings and can not touch anything over 15fps. I am not sure if there are some updated drivers that I am not finding, or if I need to be overclocking to get any better results.

Currently running on the modified 10.10 or so below:

Driver Packaging Version 8.782.1-101104a-108069E
Catalyst™ Version 10.10
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1081
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0792
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.10244
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2010.1105.19.41785


If anyone can help out with what else I can do to eek out some more FPS without running the game on low settings, plz do tell

Thanks a bunch!

Edit: I do see that 11.1 drivers are out, but do we need some kind of modified version to run them on the envy. Sorry again to be a pain. If someone could drop a link to the 11.1 for my rig, I would be in your debt. Thx again.

 

Upate. Found an 11.1 update and installed it.

Now seeing this:

Driver Packaging Version 8.812-110104a-111990C-ATI
Catalyst Version 10.10
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1114
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 7.14.10.0806
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.10428
Catalyst Control Center Version 2011.0104.2155.39304


Edit: After new drivers are installed, I am still rocking about 18 fps at best. Darn.

 

11.1 sucks - use the 11.1a hotfix.
download the mobility mod.
AMD Catalyst 11.1a Hotfix (8.82.2) Win7 x86/x64 - Guru3D.com Forums

 

Just downloaded and installed the mobility mod. Will report back in a bit. Thanks sir.


Edit: Small improvements. Running medium settings has gotten me to about 22-24 fps more consistently.

 

Have magicka running on this thing, game is a complete blast to play with friends.

 

that's not a small improvement, going from 15fps to 24fps is a 60% increase 0_o

 

Meh. Still not very playable. For some reason, if I turn with the keyboard, all is fine. If I try to turn with the mouse, the game gets bad video lag and moves my character weird ways.