*HP dv6z AMD Llano (6XXX series) Owners Lounge*

That seems like a good price since I think newegg is an extra $10, unless there's a code I don't know about.

 

I bought the dv6z with the a6-3400m and upgraded to the 512mb graphics, it shipped today!

 

*facepalm* - the 512 mb graphics are barely an upgrade cause the 6490m blows! it's only like 20% better than integrated!

get the 1 GB!

 

Doesn't look like I am going to get it today. Tracking info still hasn't updated since "In transit" yesterday in Anchorage. I guess it got there after the flight to Memphis so they are holding it. Now I am worried about getting it before the weekend. In theory it should still be in Jacksonville by early tomorrow so I will try and pick it up if it isn't delivered.

 

That sucks, and not good news. I'm really hoping to get mine within the return window of my Sager so I can compare them and return the one that doesn't meet my needs the best.

 

For what it's worth, I just bought a c50 based system last night (as a kitchen computer). the c/e series CPUs are kind of baby versions of these A series ones.

It's pokey, but I'm impressed that it seems totally stable, and AMD's normal drivers installed on it just fine. SURELY that means the A series will in an upcoming driver update too (though I'll still feel better once someone's actually done it with next month's drivers or whatever!)

Seems like AMD's really gotten their act together compared with the last time I tried an AMD system...and I'm impressed by all the design wins they've gotten...it's starting to feel like AMD stuff's almost as ubiquitous as Intel.

 

See, the problem with drivers isn't with the IGP itself. That works flawlessly. Its with the Dual Graphics and switching. There are very low gains when Dual Graphics is used.

 

Yeah, hybrid crossfire needs a lot of work it seems. In theory it should have impressive performane, but it doesn't.

 

If it can get to the point where it is 35% faster than a 6750M, I'll get one, as that will be the equivalent of a 4/560M.

 

This. I'm not sure there is a significant performance difference between the on-chip 6520g and the 6490M.

The combination only makes sense if hybrid crossfire works, but it still needs driver updates right now. And who knows if they'll work it out before Trinity comes.

At least with the 1gb 6750M, you have a decent switching option (although there might be issues there, but I don't think so). On chip gpu when you want to conserve power, temperature and/or battery; 6750M when gaming on the adapter. That makes more sense, which is why that is what I did.

 

I really hope they get Crossfire working on this. Or at minimum overclock the 6750.

@novaguy - sounds like you have a DV6z. If so you can you see if you can overclock the 6750m GPU?

 

Mine just left Anchorage about an hour ago. It just sat there for almost 24 hours. Hopefully it really gets moving tonight or I might be waiting until Monday-Tuesday

 

I would have upgraded to the a8 but I was on a budget. And also a reason why I didn't upgrade the graphics to 1gb, i wish i could have but i couldn't. With my configuration i walked away paying 620 something 670 with tax, and ill be receiving the 30 dollars bill me later credit, so 640 is after its all said and done.

 

Also, @abaddon4180 my laptop made it through anchorage also, it says it is "in transit" now.

 

It really did get moving last night, it is currently at the local FedEX facility. Hopefully that changes to "On Vehicle for Delivery" soon.

Edit: On vehicle for delivery!

 

Abaddon, I'm a little jealous! Looking forward to your benchmarks and thoughts on it.

 

Just looked at my delay page and now it says that it will be built by the 25th. Does this count as a second delay. If so, how do I go about getting compensation. I'm getting on my last nerve with them. They won't inform me on anything except when they add more time to the delay. I hope this is the last delay...I have been waiting almost a month now with not even a peep from them on what's holding it up.

 

I'd like to know where you found an 8GB module for $250. All I've been able to find is an 8GB Samsung module for the low, low price of $760.

 

That's odd. Mine with the same specs changed from the 28th to the 25th. Hoping I have it by next weekend. I would consider yours a second delay. I would call them, vent at them for the second delay and ask for some sort of compensation. Threaten to cancel, ask to speak with a supervisor.

 

Delivered.

(And 3000 posts)

 

Just to let you know: I have been eagerly awaiting your tests and thoughts on your laptop for several days now! I ordered a dv6t quad around five days ago, but if the dv6z tests well, I will order it instead and return the dv6t. Any insight you can give is much appreciated!

Anybody else who has this system and wishes to test it out and give potential buyers like myself some insight would be much appreciated.

 

Nice. Let's see what the MX Llano can do with the latest drivers.

 

Two things I said I was gonna do first,

1) The Passmark results aren't faked. I got a score of 4844 even though it was running at 2.6GHz only half of the time.

2) AMD's drivers don't install directly downloaded. Just tried 11.6 and got an error message.

I am downloading other benchmarks and my games from Stream right now. You guys can expect a full review with 3dMark, Cinebench and my games (BC2, Metro, Borderlands, a few others) sometime early next week.

 

So it seems Llano is doing something in hardware that greatly augments its Passmark score relative to its K10.5 kin. I wonder what it is though.

Regarding the drivers: try the "hotfix" ones; they generally install no matter what (though I suppose that may give you some problems with the asymmetric CrossFire).

 

That is a good point. The hotfix ones do say they added support for the A8/A6 series products. Trying right now

 

abaddon4180, thanks so much for running these benches and evalutions, especially Bad Company 2. As thanks, just pretend I'm a scantily clad hot girl and am hugging you right now.

I hope results are promising. I was tempted to change my mind and go with DV6t, but I have faith in AMD (and the $150 difference)!

 

Thanks for checking! I sure hope next month's drivers work...

It has a better divider, right? I don't know if that matters...

Dumb question, what are the hotfix ones and where are they? Like "in between" drivers that fix issues?

Hmm...a 25% off HP with an A8 sounds...like a pretty nifty deal.

 

Installing the 11.6b drivers right now and it seems to be working. I guess the regular 11.6 drivers might just not support Llano. If 11.6b works I assume that anything later on will install fine as well.

 

They're too frequent and regular for that, but nominally, yes. Their main advantage is that they will work with anything -- you can even install them with a FirePro card and it will behave like a Radeon. There is no technical reason AMD's drivers shouldn't work with switchable graphics (whether with Sandy Bridge or with Llano), it just isn't tested by anyone so the regular drivers have a check that says you can't do it (otherwise people who don't know what they're doing would install them and complain if something goes wrong).

 

GREAT! Thanks again! Let us know if it seems to cause any issues or anything...

But:

AMD Catalyst? 11.6b Hotfix: Provides AMD Catalyst driver support for A8 ? AMD Radeon? HD 6550D and A6 ? AMD Radeon HD 6530D series of products. Resolves blue screen, screen flicker at idle and corrupt mouse pointer issues.

That really does make it sound like they only reason these products aren't supported is they're too new.

Yay to AMD for getting this right-I was seriously looking at Intel based systems until I discovered you can't install normal drivers thanks to the switching with the Intel video. Between having actually supported parts + the competitive prices, AMD seems to have something here!

 

I am planning to buy a laptop and I am considering dv6z as one of my option. I was originally planning on the dv6t quad edition but I have read some reviews about switchable graphics issues.

Does the dv6z QE AMD have switchable graphics issues too?

I have attached the doc I made that compares the dv6z that I want with Dell 15 xps.

EDIT: The prices on the attachment are discounted after application of coupons =)

 

Both have the switchable graphics issue, as far as I know. The 2630QM performs a lot better than the Llano, according to benchmarks and the 6770m (that the dv6tqe has) it's better than the graphic cards that the Llano brings...

 

My DV6-6110sg arrived today. GPU-Z only shows GDDR3 for the 6750, hopefully this is just a bug.

I just ran the 3DMark06 with the old bios and the new bios(now it is possible to overclock the 5750 GPU with MSI Afterburner):

The Score changed from 7646 to 8144 (no crossfire enabled):

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - AMD A6-3410MX APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics,Hewlett-Packard 358D score: 8144 3DMarks

 

I guess there are issues right now with the drivers using both GPUs simultaneously, though that will HOPEFULLY get fixed, and of course it's all made by AMD, and supported by AMD.

At worst, the integrated GPU is about 900 billion times better than Intel's video (I mean it by itself is already pretty much a standard mid range part).

The Intel + AMD systems on the other hand won't be fixed. You're stuck relying on hacks, or HP or whatever to provide drivers, which is far less than ideal, and why I won't consider one.

 

The problem is that 6770m is alone a decent amount better than the 6750m, so if they don't get Crossfire working, then GPU performance suffers in either case on the DV6z. But if they DO get crossfire working, then the AMD should outpace the 6770m by a decent amount, maybe even close to GTX 460m performance. I just can't imagine AMD letting this slide though. It's supposed to be their flagship technology at the moment. And it doesn't work at all. Even if the machine performs decently for me, if there's no evidence of it being fixed within my 21 days return, I'll just return the machine. Maybe if more people do that then it might get HP's attention and throw it at AMD to get it fixed.

 

Most people buying the DV6TQE do not expect it to work with both cards simultaneously...they want the intel card for low-bat consumption and the 6770m for gaming...as long as the 6770M activates, they will be happy...Besides, there are some CPU intensive programs that are benefited by the Intel 2630QM since it outperforms the Llanos

 

I'm not talking about using both simultaneously, I'm talking about using the AMD chip correctly AT ALL. It has no driver support, it's not really a supported configuration. Yes, hacks, using HP outdated drivers, whatever...fine for some, not for me.

Completely moot point how much better Sandy Bridge may be if I can't keep unhacked current AMD drivers on there for my GPU.

 

It has gotta be a bug because the 6750m is only available with GDDR5. The overclocking is exciting news. With overclocking and better Crossfire this could be a great combo

 

Another run: 780Mhz GPU, 946Mhz Memory Clock: 8313

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - AMD A6-3410MX APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics,Hewlett-Packard 358D score: 8313 3DMarks

 

For the record, 11.6a/b did not actually install properly. But, I PM'ed kinetik and he says that he is running the 11.7 preview that was leaked a few weeks ago. I think it is safe to assume that from 11.7 onward it will be as simple as downloading the drivers.

@7words - Care to try 3dMark11?

 

Okay, well that's good! Thanks yet again!

I was super pleased that 11.6 installed silky smooth on my new c50 system.

 

I am just installing the preview driver, then I try another run 3dm06 and 3dm11 (also with crossfire)

 

So Crossfire is working? Also looks like DirectX 9 support is still not optimized, seems 3DMark06 should be higher.

 

it looks like that it is possible to overclock the CPU with the latest version of K10Stat. See attachment...

 

Ooooooohhhh. That looks awesome. Possible to force full turbo? If so, I'm getting one.

 

That would be sweet but K10Stat didn't work for Danube overclocking, just for undervolting. If you get it to work let me know. I am about to go to my little brother's birthday party so no more benchmarks from me until tomorrow, maybe late tonight.

 

You are saying that the people using their DV6TQE are using hacked or outdated drivers to make their graphics card work? That's not what i've read...The only issue with that laptop has been the Switchable graphic stuff...which yeah, it's worst because of the intel-amd combo but if they fix it, it will be better than the dv6z..or not?

 

Anybody willing to try K10stat on their DV6z?

 

Yep. AMD's drivers don't work on it.

I was going to buy one (or an Envy) until I learned that.

 

No. We use either official drivers from HP (which are a couple of months old) or drivers from AMD which are not restricted. The only issue is that you have to install HP's drivers first to get the switchable graphics to work and subsequent AMD drivers go on top of that.