HELP!! What Happened to My Graphics Performance?

See my Envy 14 configuration in my signature below.

Since I'm still in my 21 day free look period, I decided to test the gaming performance of the machine. Over the weekend I installed Crysis (the first, original one) because I know how demanding that game is on a system. Right after installing it, the game actually ran quite well, on native resolution on High quality settings. In fact, I was surprised and impressed at how well it ran.

And then...meh.

Yesterday I went to play the game and I couldn't even get the game to play smooth on a reduced resolution 1280 x 720 on LOW quality settings!! I even tried with and without the laptop plugged in (restarting the game). If I didn't know better, it acted like it was running on the Intel Graphics instead of the Radeon graphics. Except that I had configured (in BIOS) to have the graphics switch manually and had set them to run on the Radeon Processor. I don't know, maybe I was hallucinating (or am now), but I could swear I had it set to Radeon.

Anyway, so then I thought maybe it was because I had BIOS configured to manually switch that performance dropped off the face of the earth. So I restarted and set the BIOS back to dynamic and tried again. Same result. Of course, now I notice that Power Play (how you allow the driver to switch to the Radeon processor as needed, apparently) was turned off. I also noticed that the Radeon display adapter didn't appear in Device Manager. So I just turned Power Play back on and now the Radeon now appears in Device Manager.


The only other thing that changed between the weekend and the gaming was that I installed Norton Internet Security, but I turned EVERYthing off (including Firewall and Anti-Virus protection) before starting. I even installed the 1.2 Crysis patch thinking that it might help, but, alas, it did not.

:: SIGH ::

Any ideas? Is it possible that I entered into the Twilight Zone last night? Could it be that the setting the switchable graphics to manual in BIOS could cause a drop in performance? Is it possible that I have problem with my Radeon card? Should I just repeat the test tonight and see if I have the same problem (checking to make sure that Radeon appears in Device Manager before I start)?

 

I forgot to mention that I also turned of HP's Cool Sense, too, thinking that maybe it was throttling the CPU/GPU. That didn't help, either.

 

I don't have an Envy 14 but a couple things to ensure are correct are:

1. Do a factory reset on your BIOS config to ensure its back to all of the defaults.

2. Update your BIOS to the latest release; it has fixes for throttling.

3. Ensure your Radeon is functioning and the current active adapter. It should be listed in your device manager. Then check in the CCC to ensure its the current active GPU.

4. If you think Norton might be a problem, I'd remove it and just install MSE for now. You can go back later once you narrow down the issue.

5. Check the Windows rating to ensure it's in the "7's" (or thereabouts).

6. Make sure your HP drivers are up to date. Make sure you DIDN'T install a Radeon driver from MS Update.

7. Check to make sure your CPU isn't throttling. I use OpenHardwareMonitor and Core Damage but there are a lot of other packages that do the same thing.

Good luck.

 

well if it WASN'T switchable graphics acting up it might of been powerplay on the radeon gpu acting up which was an issue with the envy 14 1000 series (not the version you have).


basically powerplay gets locked at "battery level" gpu clocks and you have to turn it off, hit apply, and then turn it back on to fix the problem.

This happens anytime you unplug the computer for the envy 14 1000 series.


Powerplay settings are located in the catalyst control center. Also I wouldn't just turn powerplay off because on the offchance you're on the radeon gpu and on battery you'll be draining it pretty fast.

 

OK. I even though I just received my Envy, I went ahead in Help & Support and downloaded and installed every suggested item (BIOS was not explicitly one of those items). Then I restarted.

Using Windows Assessment (limited as that test is) as a measure, either that or some other coincidence/act of God seems to have rectified the issue (pending a re-test tonight). Prior to the update, my windows assessment was initially a 3.4 due to poor Aero score (yeah, I was flabbergasted to see that score), and then a 5.9 after I tweaked a setting in Catalyst to force high performance all the time.

After the update, the Assessment score was 6.7 with Aero and Gaming tied for the lowest score. That's pretty good...and consistent with my initial, positive weekend gaming experience.

And then things get interesting...

Just because I couldn't help myself, I proceeded to keep re-scoring the system after changing several settings in both BIOS and in Catalyst. The results still have me puzzled. The highest score was that initial 6.7 (with the BIOS set to Fixed Switchable Graphics and configured in Catalyst to the Radeon GPU). Every other test and configuration resulted in a score of 6.3 (until I reverted the configuration to match the first test). Here is a list of what I changed but still got the same 6.3 assessment score:

• Fixed Mode: Set to Intel GPU (Power Play on)
• Fixed Mode: Set to Intel GPU (Power Play off)
• Dynamic Mode: Power Play on (Maximize Performance)
• Dynamic Mode: Power Play on (Maximize Battery Performance)
• Dynamic Mode: Power Play off

==>Each of these tests were performed with Cool Sense turned OFF.

What has me confused is what do these stupid settings do if they have no impact on the assessment? I even went out of my way to ensure that the Windows applet that performs the assessment was set to the green battery conservation setting vs. the red high performance setting. I also don't understand how the Intel GPU could possibly manage a rating of 6.3. I mean, it's the best "integrated" GPU they've ever come out with, but NO WAY! If that assessment is to be trusted, where did the 3.4 and 5.9 assessments come from?

I'll re-do the gaming test tonight to see what happens, I guess...

 

You might be on to something there. It's completely possible that hidden in the massive list of windows updates I had to do during my initial setup or at some later point included a Radeon update. Perhaps that driver caused PowerPlay to get "stuck" just like it used to on the prior series? Then, when I ran the HP applet to get and install all available updates, it reverted the driver back to what it should have been - and resolved the issues (except for the puzzling Intel GPU results).

 

The most up to date bios is often not available through the HP Support Wizard tool. I found on my Envy 17 that I had to download the latest drivers direct from HP's webpage and install manually if I wanted the most up to date software. The files probably and eventually make their way to the tool, but I guess it takes a few weeks before the masses see it.

Good luck. Hope its fixed!

 

yeah. I think pretty much any radeon updates break powerplay on the envy 14.

'course the upsides tends to be better (newer games that require newer drivers working. some fps boost here or there on other ones).

 

Well, I just finished re-doing my gaming performance test tonight with Crysis (original), and it went much better time (though I couldn't get one of the objectives to "complete"). Played it at native resolution on "High" settings and other than maybe a total of 10 frames, it never skipped a beat.

Of course, being me, I combined this test with a test of the battery slice. I mean, what better test could there be for a battery than to play a demanding game on battery? Anyway, I played for exactly one hour (60 minutes) and the extended battery was down to 7% (as far as it goes before switching to the main battery) and the main battery was down to 64% (for a "net" battery result of 35% by Microsoft battery math). Pretty good, considering the test.

I figure that's pretty good.

I am still curious about why the Intel GPU didn't score lower, though, but maybe I should just count my blessings that if it's stuck, it's stuck on the better GPU, right?

 

I wish there was a way that we could warn people to not install the silly driver update from Windows Update. Can we sticky a thread or something with that? I think that's something that even many advanced users wouldn't know... I just happened to from previous experience, so I was lucky.

I also wonder if there's a way to tell Microsoft that the driver is poopy.

 

I completely agree. I'm a fairly advanced user and I didn't know (because I'm new to the HP Envy).

 

Oh the fact that I knew had nothing to do with having an Envy... in fact, I'm almost as new as you (July). I was just lucky I guess

 

Since I probably have the Radeon driver suggested by Windows Update, do you think it would do any good to install the original driver(s) from HP on top of those drivers? I'm thinking that might just fix the "getting stuck in one mode" issue.

Thoughts?

 

Along those line, I'd try it. Reboot between each step... reboot, uninstall, reboot, install original driver, reboot. But you probably know that already.

 

uninstall the driver from windows update. then install latest driver from HP. then install Catalyst 11.9 from this thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/582545-drivers-ati-5650-6630-hp-envy-14-a.html

then enjoy!

 

OK. I uninstalled the Windows Update Radeon driver, rebooted, installed the 11.9 driver from the above link, and rebooted again.

Initially, everything seemed fine, including being able to manually switch the graphics mode. However, I just tried to use Catalyst to manually switch from the Dedicated (performance) graphics to the Intel (integrated) graphics while on battery, but it refused to switch when I selected the "Power Saving GPU" button.

Is it normal for Catalyst to not even respond to a request to switch when on battery?

UPDATE: My bad! I had Winddows Explorer open; it would just ignore my clicks until Catalyst was the only open window.