HP ENVY 14 - GPU Clock and Undervoltage POLL

Many Envy 14 users are reporting that their ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5650 GPU's are locked at 450 Mhz and suspect the GPU's are undervolted at 0.90V. According to official ATi specifications, this clock rating is the absolute minimum available for the GPU. These specifications are available at:

ATI Mobility Radeon? HD 5650 GPU Specifications

It is worthy to note that similar notebook offerings featuring the same GPU, such as the HP DV6tSE and Acer 4820TG, are clocked at 550 Mhz. This performance lies at the middle of the range established by ATi. Additionally, these other laptops are positioned at lower price points than the Envy 14.

The purpose of this poll is to collect feedback on the matter. Reactions of Envy 14 owners are particularly relevant, but the poll includes options for other HP customers.

 

er what is the actual poll?

 

By the way, I'm not convinced that it's actually undervolted per se. Someone reported that it's running at 0.9V which is the same as the dv6tse. Just something to keep in mind although I'd wait for confirmation from a better method than the sidebar gadget. Anyways that would be very unfortunate because it would mean they actually are "discount" 5650s.

 

I apologize; I took a bit of time attempting to create an unbiased and valid poll.

The poll is now up.

 

I was able to overclock it to 550/850 so i am sort of happy with it.

 

I'd prefer that people respond based on the manufacturer's settings. This is because of the variability in user success while overclocking. While some users may achieve significant overclocks (such as yourself), others aren't even capable of insignificant overclocks.

Regardless of that matter, I'm not convinced it's reasonable to require users to overclock to achieve those performance levels.

 

What did you use to check the voltage of the GPU??

 

Here's a link to how someone checked:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/499931-envy-14-gaming-lounge-56.html#post6512338

Admittedly, we may need to hold out for a 100% concrete verification of the undervoltage speculation. However, the GPU underclock information has been corroborated by several users.

 

Yea mine wont overclock beyond 500/800, and even then it crashes sometimes during games.... HP needs to fix this

 

Can they really fix anything now? if its locked at 450 then they would need a recall

 

they just need a bios update don't they?

 

Well its possible but i thought when its locked its only fixable by hand (taking it apart etc)

 

I have an on going open ticket with HP CS regarding this issue (at least in regards to the 450/800).

So far I've been through the usual "have you tried this" from HP CS outsourced team.

Currently have sent my request to be sent to a higher tier that has more contact with the HP design team to see if any more legit info can be found.

I say the more people to write in on this issue the better. This probably won't get the attention it needs until CS says "We have a lot of people e-mailing in about the Envy 14 clock core speed".

 

I would pay hp 100$ extra for the envy 14 with a better 5650. Not some crappy 5650 that has a power of 330m.
I paid premium price for not so premium components.
HP where else did you cut corners on the envy 14?
The worst thing about the GPU issue is that HP has a better 5650 gpu(dv6tse 5650) and decided not to put it in the premium envy 14.

 

Folks,

If you are dissatisfied with the sub-par performance of the Envy 14's GPU, I recommend notifying HP. They need to be aware this is not an isolated issue. Feel free to contact email support, add your polite sentiments to this blog post, or call the Customer Resolution Line:

Online Support: https://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/email?product=4252394&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&lang=en&cc=us
Blog: The Plastiki Docks Down Undah - The Next Bench
Phone: (888)-227-8451

I believe the most likely outcome for us would be a software update for the voltage. Another possible outcome may be a hardware revision in the coming months that utilizes higher quality graphics units.

Let's give HP a chance to resolve things.

Thanks.

 

Update:

I contacted a senior HP executive and just received a response. He forwarded my message to the notebook team and advised to "stay tuned."

I assume we'll have a response soon and will update with additional information as it becomes available.

 

This IS very disappointing. I was wondering why even at the lowest settings BC2 was getting constantly below 30 and even 20 fps.

 

^ :O That's awesome, congrats!
As for to the topic, I voted other because, while I don't NEED the super high performance, per se, and can play my current games at very acceptable framerates at nice visual settings, any power boost is good, I would imagine
So while I'm not up in arms about it, I can certainly understand why a few of you might be.

 

According to this

Notebookcheck: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650

I should be getting probably around 40 fps on low since their tested res is lower than the e14 res. But from what I'm getting, its pretty much half of that which is VERY disappointing.

5 days left before its too late to rma this thing (when does the 21 days start to count? Day of receiving or day of shipment?). And I will RMA if this does not get solved.

 

I am playing napoleon total war on high and I am getting 19fps. HP is putting low grade 5650 in premium envy 14.

 

Day of receiving

 

Also, has anyone noticed the DDR3 VRAM (as opposed to GDDR3)? I could've sworn I saw HP advertise this laptop has 1GB of GDDR3 VRAM.

 

I have to say I'm disappointed HP put a 450MHz 5650 in the Envy 14, while putting a 550MHz 5650 in the DV6t SE.

It's not false advertising, but it's overall disappointing.

 

False advertising?

 

well yeah hp is sleazy that isnt news to me. all i really cared about was being able to play sc2 flawlessly and i remember many saying how this laptop could run it on ultra without any problems and now im hearing it can only handle medium...could this be why?

 

Yes this is the reason. SC2 won't play smooth on high.
Right now I can't even play napoleon total war on high because I am getting 19fps.

 

does it play FLAWLESSLY on medium? because if so, I suppose I can deal. but nonetheless, this is very disappointing.

 

I will know 100% on the 27 when the game comes out.
Beta might be different.

 

It doesn't play flawless on medium. It feels sluggish. And thats early game. With larger battles in mid to endgame... or a zerg assault you can bet it'll lag. At least thats beta. Maybe it'll be better with final release.

 

yeah ill definitely stress this laptop when SC2 comes out. hopefully it will run much better on retail than beta.

man thats terrible. if this laptop cant handle SC2 on medium without any issues then its going back point blank.

i actually went to a site that is suppose to tell you whether or not your computer/laptop can handle the game and it failed for sc2 beta stating that the gpu was the issue. but then it listed you need at least blah blah gpu to run this game and it was a much lower model than the one envy 14 comes with.

 

Are you sure it wasn't referring to a desktop card?

For example, a desktop HD 5850 is a massive performance improvement over a Mobility 5850.

The Mobility 5650 is a mid-range mobile video card. You can't expect it to play everything on max.

 

Happy to announce that I too am sitting pretty with a 550/850 overclock.

I haven't even tried to go over, and under full load (furmark) my gpu gets to about 73 degrees

 

We payed a for a premium notebook and we get the lowest possible version of the 5650...

 

Hm I am not sure about that and I lost the link but you may be on to something.

Yeah I know its a mid-range and im not expecting to play everything on max but SC2 is not suppose to be a very demanding game I expect this laptop to be able to handle it on medium settings without any issues.

 

Normal 5650 It should equate to a 4670 or a 9600GT in desktop, which should be able to max source games with max AA and AF at over 60 fps. However with the 5650, at everything max it keeps at 30-40 fps. So thats when I discovered something is wrong and went to BC2 which is unplayable even on low. So then I came back to this forum and discover the card is underclocked and became quite angry =[

 

Maybe it's the games I'm playing (Wow, TF2, Borderlands, Dragon age) but I have been very very pleased with my Envy's gaming performance, I get 40+fps on medium-high on all of the aforementioned games.

Can anyone suggest a middle of the road game that brings this laptop to it's knees?

 

HP gave us the lowest grade 5650 and gave a better grade 5650 to dv6tse. Envy 14 is not a premium laptop.

 

I really hope you guys can get a meaningful solution to this. It sucks to pay so much for something and later find out it's not what you expected.

 

My 5650 crashes above 525/800
If hp wouldn't crew us we would be getting 550/800 stock without overclocking.
The dv6tse is getting 550/800 stock

 

Try Battlefield Bad Company 2.

 

very disappointing!

 

I have an Envy 14 on order and I didn't read about this until after I make the decision to purchase one. If I had to guess, I'd suspect two main motives for HP utilizing, as we presume, the cheapest product they could tag as a mobility 5650.

The main one is cost, and it would take a lot of hard evidence to convince me otherwise. If HP can save themselves $20 or $15 or $10 or even $3.99 without having to advertise as a different product, what reason do they have not to? Sure, a few customers will complain, but the majority of their sales aren't to people who care as much as readers of these forums about performance.

As I understand, Apple underclocks or undervolts(?) components in their laptops in order to make them viable without fans. When I last looked at the Apple website, I don't recall seeing anything that suggested that their product offered reduced performance compared to similarly equipped PC's in exchange for the benefit of not having a fan. I'm not saying I like it, agree with it, or would do it myself, I'm just saying that I can understand why HP would do such a thing.

As a sidenote, cost doesn't explain why HP uses the quicker version in the standard product line. Perhaps the cheaper version of the card wasn't available when those computers were designed? If they are revised without a major overhauled, it wouldn't be out of the question for them to ship, unannounced, with the slower card if this were the case. When I worked at an HP assembly facility several years ago, computers were internally revised, especially motherboards, without changes being advertised to the public.

Otherwise, HP could have made such a decision in order to lower the power consumption, and more likely, heat output of the Envy 14. I've read that heat and power consumption were complaints against the Envy 15. I don't know, but it's a possibility that this was a motive.

Regardless, I would have preferred knowing. I recall seeing a Dell computer advertised as containing a certain graphics card, but it had an extra letter at the end of the name. It took a lot of research, but eventually I learned that it was a specially designed dell version of a popular and powerful graphics card. The Dell version was considerably slower. Needless to say, I'm not a fan of that company either.

HP has lost some respect as far as I'm concerned. Unless I absolutely love this computer, I'll return it and cite this as one of the reasons. Chances are that I'll keep it, but will out of spite look at a different company for my next notebook purchase.

Best case, it was undervolted for heat/power reasons and we'll learn how to properly volt it. I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

Here's my take:

- The Envy 14 already runs nice and cool, so there's no real reason to undervolt/underclock for heat reasons. At typical stock speed and voltage, it should still be plenty cool.
- With switchable graphics and AMD's power management, power shouldn't be an issue here. Since most people will have the 5650 turned off when unplugged (and many users will even switch it off on outlet power except when it's needed), the idea that there's a power advantage of undervolting is dubious at best.
- If the E14's were configured with bottom-of-the-barrel 5650's to shave a bit off the price, that's just bad business. As has been said many times before, this is the premium line, it should run like a premium laptop. The fact that the Envy 14's non-premium cousin, the DV6T, has a more powerful variant of the 5650 should be absolutely unacceptable.

Bottom line: The Envy 14 is a terrific laptop, and seems to handle most games at native resolution and decent details on its low-clock 5650, but as a "premium" product, that isn't enough. There is no reason that a premium laptop should be slower than a similarly-configured non-premium - we understand that "premium" refers to much more than performance, but a premium laptop ought to deliver at least standard performance for its components.

 

BFBC2 is running flawlessly for me!

32 man servers, 900p/medium to high settings but shadows low. I get fps fo 35-60.
This is with the stock 10.3 drivers, I am now running 10.6 drivers and get even better performance and no slow loading times.

To Happy, have you tried it in Dx9, 10 or 11? Do you have shadows up high? There must be a reason for your low fps

 

I dunno if I can change the DX but everything is on low including 1 MSAA and low shadows. I have no idea how you can get that high of an fps. Whats the link to the new drivers?

 

Are you sure you're running at 900p? At 1600x900, DX11, and medium settings, I'd be satisfied with those frame rates.

 

dunno what you guys are talking about but it should play SC2 on medium (with shadows put to low) fine.


I got around 80 fps in phase 1 when I was messing around with it.


I got 50-70ish fps on high with shadows set on low with high and the card OCed to 550/800. (I dont think you can se shadows on low anymore if the shaders are at high so ehhh)


so...*shrugs*

 

Can I ask you HOW did you get the newer drivers? I would also love to update my drivers but the official ATI drivers does not support switchable graphics.

 

you get them through magic and sunshi...


ok no. you get them through installing the alpha drivers. waiting at the black screen for 5 minutes to make sure things finish, power cycling, and then installing the 10.6 release drivers (but the download on amd's website won't work since they won't give you the drivers themselves, just the CCC)


https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/920...mobile/10-6_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe 10.6 release with the drivers and the CCC

http://strags.com/ 10.6 alpha

 

You are lucky I can't oc my crappy 5650 over 525/800