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

yes, we have to find a way of getting at that reference clock rate on the mobile platform.

seer

 

So I see that the DV6z is $599 on the HP website right now. Are you saying it was $650 a few days ago? I can't remember what it used to be. Thanks a lot.

 

yes

seer

 

45 minutes of starcraft 2 on medium setting i got a max of 71*c, seeing that i propped up the back about an inch and got between 64-66*C

 

Did I miss something or are some of you able to overclock the GPU? If so (and I missed the post) could someone post up what software they're using to do so?

Btw I've been running with a 2200mhz P0 clock for a week now and everything is super stable

 

anyone know if the a6-3400m is overclock-able?

 

I think you have to update the BIOS and disable CF and then you can OC. Someone is using MSI afterburner right now but I'm fairly certain that other programs can work as well.

 

Ditto on this. Same as what I heard. I also heard the results described as 'pleasing' LOL whatever the hell that means

seer

 

Anyone want to test the new Linux driver that apparently enables full manual switching on the dv6z?

If you're running Ubuntu (install or LiveCD/LiveUSB)...

mkdir ~/amd
cd ~/amd
wget http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-11-7-x86.x86_64.run
sudo ./ati-driver-installer-11-7-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

 

yes. Use K10stat.

 

I can't seem to figure out how to update the BIOS. HP Support Assistant was showing an 'x' beside the update. I tried booting into system diagnostics and running the update from there, and it would complain 'failed to load image.' I did a minimal system recovery and ran all the updates again. Now, HP Support Assistant is showing a check mark beside the BIOS update and system diagnostics says 'no update found' when i try to run it. However, the version still shows up as F.1C released on 5/12/2011. Is that the latest?

 

I just checked on the website and it only seems to list one BIOS file but it's F.1D. Try downloading from the HP website and see how it goes?

 

Thanks. That worked this time. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong before reformatting, though.

 

Wow, my laptop is in Memphis TN already. It went straight from Shanghai, CN to Memphis. I thought they usually went through Alaska. Hopefully it clears customs and possibly receive it on Monday! ?

 

I picked up battlefield bc2 this evening and tried it on my dv6-6135. The graphics look good on medium and high. I can't tell the difference really. I think this laptop will handle most of the newer games just fine?

 

Can somebody with the dv6z tell me if the graphics card uses an MXM slot?

 

It doesn't and you'll only find one a dedicated gaming or workstation notebook

 

Same here...although mine has a few thousand extra miles to go before I get it...

 

My findings about GPU-OC so far:
It only works with MSI Afterburner 2.1 or Beta 2.2 (other tools like Sapphire Trixx oder EVGA Precision or ATI...Tools didn´t work), you have to enable OC for AMD/ATI in the .ini-File.
I installed BIOS F.1D as direct download from the HP-Supportpage.
I got it only to work with Catalyst 11.6 and the default HP driver, but it also works with crossfire enabled. Newer drivers->freeze+bluescreen. For OC I need to start GPU-Z and assign the 6750 / high performance. If there is no active application with high performance setting, OC doesn´t work. Then the clocksettings for the GPU and RAM are automatically set back to default.

 

Ok, so you're 'priming' with gpu-z designated as a high performance app, then once that is running your overclock will kick in, corrrect? That same kind of priming or 'trigger' was required on some earlier o'clocks so not all that unusual. Can I assume that once you have that sorted out, you can put the sequence in your start folder and automate it? or is that once you've designated gpu-z as your performance trigger, you only need to start it then begin your clocking?

Lastly, does your version of MSI's utility allow for setting voltage on the 6750? or strictly limited to core/memory clocks?

Hope you're seeing some material gains shouldn't be too hard to get to around 850-60 core and 950-75 mem. That speed in a dv6t would get you around 13,560 or so on 3dmark06. Allowing for the llano cpu score will drop you back tho, but still good gaming
Seer
Ok, I thought about it and if you guys are going to run off overclocking the 9750, let me give you the good news. Not only can you clock it up past 6770 levels, you can also UNDERVOLT it at the same time and actually run cooler than stock. Now how sweet is that

For you guys that haven't done this before, the same card is in the Mac Pro and i'm going to refer you to a very good article on how to do it. For us its basically the same cept using the MSI utility (which HAS to have overclocking enabled in the config file as 7words has already pointed out. Anyway, here's the link:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1142028

Now a couple of warnings. WATCH YOUR TEMPS!!! while i suspect our better ventilation will favor us over what the Mac Pro guys can do, I can't yet vouch for it myself so be careful. Note how they seem to find that you really don't need to go as high as you CAN go to get very good returns, i.e. from stock to a comfortable overclock got them a plus 9 fps, which based on the 32fps they started with, is what, about 28 percent increase in real world gaming fps? Not too shabby Also, if you try upping the voltage note that on their cards, 1.1 would make the card VERY unstable so try not to go over 1.05 or so, unless you go *very slowly and very carefully*.
Lastly, leave yourself some wiggle room on the temps, and if you get bad numbers, you might consider going in and reapplying some better thermal paste. These are mass produced boxes and every now and then some assembler is going to screw it up. You'll know it if your temps are immediately out of line with the numbers you see there.

So have fun and good luck. and remember, those numbers are strictly on the basis of the 6750 o'clock, THEY don't have 'dual graphics' and an overclocked apu to play with

"Go Thou and do Likewise"

Seer

 

How is the fan noise on these laptops?
Loud under full load or gaming? My last HP sounded like a blow drier!

 

The A8 3500 version I got to fool around with at BEST BUY, including running some bench's was probably the quietest performance laptop I've heard. I was more than surprised. With just general looking around inside the box, running some of the bloatware etc., I couldn't hear the fan at all.

OH, got my shipping notice and tracking numbers on my box just a few minutes ago Won't be long now can't wait to see what numbers I can wring out of one of these.

Seer

EDIT: HEY!!! if you are jumping on at the end of this thread, jump back a page and take a look at my post citing a mac site where they have spent some time overclocking their 6750's. Some good info there and I suspect that we can do better

 

just got my tracking numbers today as well and i only ordered it a few days ago. here are my stats

dv6z Quad Ed
• dark umber
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• AMD Quad-Core A8-3510MX Accelerated Processor (2.5GHz/1.8GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
• 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD Dual Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
• FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 640GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 5.5 hours of battery life +++
• 15.6" diagonal Full HD HP Anti-glare LED Display (1920 x 1080)
• FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner

all for $774.. thats with taxes and shipping... not a bad deal at all if you ask me. thats like getting a CPU, HD and 1080p Screen upgrade for only $20 over the price of the best buy version that i originally was going to get lol. how can you beat that!

cant wait to get it and start OC'ing so i can post up some numbers

 

What is a few days ago, error?

 

I'm thinking of buying the dv6z A8-3510MX later today, can someone please tell me how it runs crysis 2 (dx 11 fps high med and low, and dx 10) also has anyone updated to catalyst 11.7 or tried 11.8 beta (which is supposed to boost crysis 2 10% in dx 11)

Also has anyone seeing turboboost improvements after the bios update?

 

i ordered it on Monday i feel bad for some of you guys that have been waiting like a month to get yours

 

Mine is on the truck and out for delivery .

 

Dang. HP is really pushing notebooks out quickly. Someone in the order status thread got theirs shipped after 4 days. Hopefully the A8-3510mx/base one I ordered for my brother gets out just as quickly

 

Crysis 2 test with the A83500M did 17 FPS High DX 11, which is pretty bad, anyone know how much more to expect from the A8-3530mx? At this point im considering waiting till trinity since crysis 2 is pretty cpu heavy and llano is pretty shabby from what I have being reading.

 

17fps on the iGPU? That's pretty good actually.

 

One thing SOLO all of those official tests have the llano running at 1.5, 1.6, 1.8 etc. Pretty big difference from that to 2.6. Easy to tell, what are the dv6t guys with the i7's and the 6770 getting?

seer

edit, the other thing is that looks like crossfire wasn't working. directx 9 score where WE KNOW xfire isn't workign should not be anywhere near DX11 where we know its supposed to be working LOL.

 

I thought it was from crossfire 6755g? I've seen good results in Crysis 2 from a 6750m but it's running on SB i5. I read that the assymetric crossfire actually does worse than just the 6750m. If you can run the game on only 6750m one may get better performance. Now the problem is the shabby CPU barely competes with an SB i3, and in a heavy CPU dependent game like Crysis 2, llano doesn't appear to be up to par.

 

What happened to llano's turbo boost? Anyone know if the bios update fixes it?

 

At 2.6ghz it should be on par with an i3-2310 single threaded and 18% faster than an i5-2410 multi threaded (according to Cinebench, at least). I don't know where you're getting that Crysis is CPU dependent, but it really isn't. Take a look at this link, the CPU should not be the bottleneck.

Dual graphics drivers are pretty poor right now so that's likely the culprit if performance is low. Where did you get the numbers for the fps?

 

well, something is definitely wrong. a stock 6750 can pull 38fps and a 6770 40 something, but we can overclock our 6750's to substantially higher than 6770 speeds. Since we can also "turbo' all four cores to at least 2.6ghz, increase our igp speeds by 12-14 percent by using faster memory, plus whatever we can get out of crossfire...we *should* be able to hammer the dv6t's score once the drivers get sorted out. I for one, am not too worried.
seer
AND, once I figure out how to bump the base clock... it should really be a *no contest*. Forget *high* settings, we'll see what we can get on *Ultra*.

 

In the link he used fraps to measure the fps of the opening submarine scene is Crysis 2 with an dual core i3-2310m, and says the game is graphics intensive because the difference from the SB quad i7 is 0.5 fps. IMO that is a bad way to test real gameplay performance, Crysis 2 has integrated physics which is very CPU intensive, obviously the opening cinematic is going to run differently than gameplay. Plus that's a 560m they are using with 8g of ram, I would be curious to see how the dv6z handles the game.

Also the 17fps was from a post somewhere around page 60 in this thread.

 

R3d, that link makes it about as clear as it can be. That thing is gpu bound, not cpu, and on a 560, so anything that increases our total gpu output should be directly reflected in fps gains.

seer

 

My computer got here about an hour ago, busy making the recovery discs (it came with recovery discs even though I didn't order them but I still want to make my own just to be safe). I also have the LG display to anyone who is wondering. After my discs are done and I do a minimal restore I will start with overclocking/undervolting.

 

ok, this is from the Tom's article here:

Benchmark Results: Crysis 2 : The AMD A8-3500M APU Review: Llano Is Unleashed

lets see if we can figure out what happened.

 

Anyone willing to take the plunge for testing that Linux driver I posted?

All you'll need is a blank CD or USB, an Ubuntu ISO, and about 15 minutes of your time.

 

well to start thats only testing in direct x 9 which crossfire does not work with atm. also the discrete gpu is 6630m which is obviously slower then the 6750m in our dv6z-qe

 

Their unit came with a 6630m, which is much weaker than the 6750m, and they are using the stock drivers. When they disabled Crossfire and only used the 6630m the numbers are where you would expect them to be for it. Even with the stock drivers which seem to mostly use the IGP for DX9, thus being weaker than the 6750m, the average for the 6755g2 would be higher than 17. The 6620g alone gets more than that.

 

Just noticed this on the Graphics option in Dv6z quad edition at HP online store. It seems they have already updated their site regarding the specifics of the GPU:

1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD Dual Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
Select A6 or A8 processor for AMD Radeon HD 6755G2 Dual Graphics

and this on Memory option:

8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Optimize Dual Graphics performance with balanced memory in dual channel

 

I don't know how HP does it, but they managed to further obfuscate the GPU.

 

OK, near as I can tell, regardless of what the tester's labels show, that 17fps was running on the igp. The current mobile driver defaults to igp and NOT the dedicated, when trying to run dual graphics but the target app isn't dx10 or 11.

so there.

The Tom's guys had the same problem with their desktop LLano, until they did the install dance that AMD gave them. End result being that they got it to default to the Dedicated, which did pretty well.

seer

 

So after installing catalyst 11.7, it will switch to dedicated for dx10 and 11 only, does it fix 9? Or are you talking about the AMD hd graphics driver 8.832? Target app (Crysis 2) not dx 10 or 11? How can you manually have discrete only for gaming?

 

I haven't looked at the 11.7 drivers personally, but I haven't heard anything about this default behavior being fixxed yet. Frankly I think its going to require a bios change to facilitate setting defaults, but I COULD b wrong. I also have no clear indication from AMD that absent any open revolt amongst llano purchasers, that they are going to do anything about dx9 games. 10 and especially 11 seem to be their priority, but again, i'm not in there with the driver coders to see what they're doing. As a business decision, it would be insane not to fix dx9 so that runs and 10 and 11 so that it runs better. We're talking about several of the most popular games out there. I mean what are they going to say "er uh we built this platform so you could game on an igp but we're not going to fix it so you can game on the games you want to play"..? that doesn't make a lot of sense....sooo...as a business man i'd speculate that in a rush to get llano out there in the market, they targeted dx11 performance first, then dx10..then shoved it out the door before they had a chance to do anything with dx9c. One shred of supporting evidence is that the drivers seem to work best on dx11, kindof on Dx10, and nada/zilch on dx9. hopefully someone in the tech press will get on the phone and ask amd what the hell is going on. LOL.
When the Tom's guys informed them the default behavior was azz backwards, they were surprised, but clearly stated their intention was that it default first to the dedicated card if dual graph wasn't supported as to that application...so at least someone in amd has given the matter some thought. We'll just have to wait and see. You might want to hold off on your purchase decision until the matter clears up a little more if dx9 performance is critical.

seer

 

I think it's kinda strange how AMD didn't differentiate between the 6620g+6750m and the 6520g+6750m and calls them both the 6755g2.

Wouldn't the former give better performance?

 

Seeratlas, I personally don't care for dx9, I thought you said that Crysis 2 was a dx 9 app, when they just released dx 11 support last month. I was just confused by the toms article because the 6755g lowered performance in Crysis 2, I guess they were running dx 9, why didn't they just run it in 10 or 11?

 

Well got my DV6 today! That was fast. So far so good, just getting things up to date, eliminating some crapware. I messed with K10Stat and it gave me BSOD even running at 2.6GHz. Maybe I need a refresher course.