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

I'd say that setup for $821 is a great deal, considering that is pretty much maxed. It will DEFINITELY play newer games great, and the 1080p screen is a must have upgrade.

 

Anyone else have the A8-3500m? It's supposed to be clocked at 1.5ghz and be able to scale up to 2.4ghz under single and dual core applications. To test this, I ran a CPU meter and tested it with SuperPi. SuperPi is a strictly single core application.

It pegged the one core to 100% utilization and it never exceeded 1.5ghz clockspeed.

Also, for anyone who didn't know, the CPU throttles down to 800mhz under low utilization like Office software or general web browsing. Obviously, this is good for saving battery and power in general. Initially, I was under the impression that 1.5ghz was the minimum clockspeed and 2.4ghz would be max.

 

Would anyone know how the maxed out dv6tz would handle SC2 at 1080 resolution? I just returned my dv6t for a couple of issues...thinking of picking up one of these puppies... Thanks.

 

It handles it well on ultra with 1366x768 but I don't think its going to play well on ultra at 1080. Maybe medium

 

Here's a benchmark from the OEM AMD Laptop that they sent out to various websites to test. It uses the AMD 3500M, so the maxed out DV6 will perform a good amount better.

This particular test case has the A8-3500M, 4GB of RAM, and is only running the 6620g/6630m dual graphics. The 6750 in this HP model is much better as well. I'd say the game is going to be a good experience in SC2 at max details, 1080p. SC2 is abnormally CPU heavy for a game, so the processor upgrade in the HP will have a big impact.

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

 

What would the AMD A8-3530MX be equal to in single threaded applications compared to intel's processors. I'd jump all over this deal but I feel like the price is cheap because the processor sucks...(AMD processors are not a friend in my area)

And does a amd gpu with this processor allow it to play a game/application that it normally couldn't alone?

 

I can't give any info on the 3530MX, but it should show some gains when people start benchmarking because it has a higher TDP and higher turbo frequency.

Also, the GPU that is built on the same die as the CPU is the reason why the processor lacks in the raw CPU power. The majority of games will depend more on the GPU than CPU.

An Intel Sandy Bridge equipped laptop with it's integrated graphics will get trashed by the A8 in gaming, but in terms of various processing tasks like media encoding, the Intel will do it much faster.

So, either you get a platform that performs heavy computing slowly, or your get one that does the computing faster, but can't play modern games very well at all.

You can get both of those things if you pay a whole lot more and sacrifice power usage...

 

The 2.4GHz is the Turbo Core speed, similar to Intel's Turbo Boost in that it is supposed to be able to have one core at that speed when the other 3 aren't in use. As you have seen it rarely, if ever, works. Personally, mine has gone to 2.4GHz a few times but the most it has maintained it is for a few seconds. According to AMD System Monitor, though, even when running something single-threaded, such as SuperPI, all 4 cores are under about 25% load on average for me. Maybe it is because these APUs are new and the support behind them isn't there yet so a BIOS update could fix the problem. Fact is, right now, the turbo speed, at least on the A8-3500M, seems to be little more than useless. Based on what AMD has said about Turbo Core, it should be able to sustain one core at 2.4GHz all day. It isn't.

Others, as well as myself, are hoping that the 45W APU's will allow for more headroom for turbo. But the problem is that even the 35W APU's should be enough to keep one core at the turbo speed continuously and it isn't. As of right now, assuming better turbo on the 45W APUs, the A6-3410MX is a better buy than the A8-3500M if you plan on pairing it with discrete graphics anyway.

On a side note, someone payed me back a couple hundred dollars that I never expected to see again so I have decided to get the A8-3530MX from HP. I am going to be returning this tomorrow so I am not gonna do a full review but I will post a mini one with battery life, heat, noise, screen, build quality, general experience, etc. tomorrow before I return it.

 

Well, I bought it and will give a review when it arrives, sometime in mid-July (hopefully earlier).

I probably have an August plane rides coming up, so I will give it a battery torture test to see how long it lasts....

 

If it's not too much of a bother, could you post temps after some stress testing? Thanks.

I've decided on a DV6, just not sure whether to get the z or t model.

 

How much are you going to spend?

>$750 - Intel

<$750 - AMD

Roughly...aint no way to dance around the fact that AMD llano's are a) not even AMD's best CPU offering and b) AMD's actual best offering cant hold a candle to Sandy Bridge

 

Well, in terms of performance per clock, Llano is AMD's best mobile offering as it does beat Danube by about 6-12%. You might be able to make the argument that the highest Danube processors will still be faster than the highest mobile Llano but that is not necessarily the case. Even with turbo similar to the 35W A8-3500M, the higher A8's should be faster in single threaded performance and close in multi-threaded to the highest Danube's. With turbo that works like we expected, they will definitely be faster in single threaded and could win in multi-threaded. Not to mention the battery life difference. My N9xx dv6z got an average of 3h10m, this version gets about 5h.

 

Go for dv6z.

If you regularly perform heavy CPU tasks such as encoding/decoding file formats then go for Intel.

All else, AMD llano should be more than sufficient for everyday computing and games.

 

Well, I'm going to study CS/ECE in college... So I might actually need the CPU performance, especially for compiling stuff.

I'm just trying to balance out heat/battery life/performance/price right now, and both AMD and Intel seem like viable options.

If only AMD had better dual graphics drivers... Then the decision would be a lot easier.

 

Hey everyone, I ordered a maxed out model on Sunday and it will supposedly be here on July 7th. The specs are as follows:

• dark umber
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• AMD Quad-Core A8-3530MX Accelerated Processor (2.6GHz/1.9GHz, 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
• No Additional Office Software
• No additional security software
• 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• 15.6" diagonal Full HD HP Anti-glare LED Display (1920 x 1080)
• FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
• 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R)
• Standard Keyboard
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Total came to $826 before tax. When it arrives I would be glad to test it out and report back. I have a few games and I can run any of the free benchmarks available. If anyone would like to make any requests I will do my best to report back after it arrives.

 

I want that so bad. It's so tempting with the coupons, but the drivers just aren't there.

 

This or the i5-2410 dual is what I want. It would be great if you could test out starcraft 2. And let me know your own opinion of the processor speed. Only thing holding me back from this one is I'm not sure if the i5 or Llano will be more beneficial to me.

 

I returned a dv6tqe before this because I wasn't comfortable with intel/amd driver situation. I am a lot more comfortable with this one because the cpu(apu) and gpu are from the same manufacturer. Less chance of something not getting done because of legal or other reasons.

 

Same boat.. Gotta choose the i5-2410 or the A8-3830MX.

I wanna try out the AMD solution but I'm afraid the extra 10tdp will mean worse battery life and more heat.

 

R3d, take this with a grain of salt but your the comp sci programs you will be compiling in college will not need the computation power of modern cpus. I have seen students using their netbooks to complete assignments.

 

but compsci is fun when you have 100s of cuda cores on your lap

 

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Random java stuff compiles in seconds on my 3 year old C2D, so I guess it's not that big of a deal.

I am sorta worried about it bottlenecking some games though. I wonder how well it'll handle Battlefield 3...

Edit: @LLStarks- Haha that'd be nice, but both models have AMD gpus so sadly there'll be no cuda cores for me.

 

For BF3, I'd say it barely will play minimum settings without the quad core. The quad core will bring you closer to medium but the 6770 might be the bottleneck there, since a 6850 is estimated for recommended requirements. But then again, BF3 is as demanding as they get nowadays...

 

I don't think the processor will affect the graphical settings... The CPU will have to calculate the same AI/physics regardless of whether it's on low or medium, no?

Argh! I hope Anandtech or some website does an in depth review soon!

 

Mis-worded, I'm sorry . I meant it's recommended that you have a quad core. Yes it has no correlation with the graphical settings.

 

This is exactly one of the reasons one might go with the dv6z even though the dv6t with the i5-2410/6770 is the same price. HP releases updated drivers maybe once every couple of months, less once the laptop has been out for a while, while AMD releases a new Catalyst much more often. You will always be able to install AMD's drivers on the dv6z but they even say in the release notes that they are not compatible with notebooks with Intel switchable graphics.

I wouldn't worry about that. The cooling system on this seems like it could handle 10W more pretty easily. I haven't seen mine go past 66C even after consecutive runs of IntelBurn Test, Cinebench and 3dMark. Besides, the i5-2410M may have a 35W TDP but because of Turbo Boost it exceeds it often and, according to tests, is consuming closer to 45-50W continuously under load.

Battery life shouldn't be too different when doing normal web-surfing, as it isn't for the 35W i5-2410m and 45W i7-2630qm. Power gating for both is companies is good enough that the max TDP doesn't really effect the light-medium load battery life. The A8-3500M gets around 5h and I would imagine the A8-3530MX might get slightly worse but not much.

 

BF3 is heavily CPU dependent and I really recommend if you want maximum gaming performance to go with Intel.

A lot of the benchmarks where the llano could potentially do better are stored replay benchmarks, in other words in the CPU is largely inactive. In actual games, this is not the case, the CPU works a fair amount. I would definitely go for the i5-2400m.

The llano like I said before is a budget solution IMO. You save money while not losing too much performance.

Also a quad-core is NOT necessary to game, contrary to popular belief. Games are usually predominantly single threaded, and Turbo boost works pretty messed up in that it will put 4 cores to half-usage instead of turbo boosting 2 cores.

 

Keep in mind that when developers recommend a quad-core, they generally mean the desktop variety or something equivalent. If your quad-core is worse than modern dual-cores, it's not going to help you very much.

 

Here is my quick, little review before I go up to Best Buy and return it before work.

Build Quality

I would rate it at least on-par with the best consumer notebooks available and in the range of business-class laptops and Macs. There is no flex anywhere on the keyboard and the lid itself feels incredibly solid. Even heavy pressure on the lid causes no screen distortion.

How good it looks is entirely an opinion but, in my opinion, it is one of the best looking notebooks around. I used to think I preferred silver/gray notebooks because of fingerprints but the materials used on it seem to be all but fingerprint resistant I can only see them showing up on the lid and palmrests if your hands are really greasy. The only qualm I do have about the design is that the bezel around the screen is again made using glossy plastic like last-gen. It has a little curvature to it, though, so even in direct and bright light it is hard to see smudges.

Screen and Speakers

I know many of the users here hate 1366x768 resolution, especially on a big screen, but, resolution aside, this has a well above average display. Colors are bright and vivid, brightness is higher than any notebook that I have used extensively and viewing angles, especially horizontally, are great.

I am not much of an audiophile, if I can hear the words without straining it is good enough for me, so I can't comment much on the speakers. The speakers are definitely loud with what I would rate as good quality. I haven't played around with the Beats software.

Keyboard and Touchpad

As I said earlier, there is no flex on the keyboard. I have to push down almost as hard as I can before I even notice a slight bend. You will never notice flex when typing.

The experience of typing is top-notch as well. HP has been using the same keyboard design for a few generations now with good reason--if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The keys are firm but provide good feedback and the spacing feels perfect to me. One problem that myself, and many others, have is the lack of a backlit keyboard option.

Instead of giving us said backlit keyboard, HP has given us a backlight around the touchpad. I find it to be all but useless as, even in a dark room, it is not hard to tell where the touchpad is. It might be nice if it illuminated the keyboard a little but it doesn't. Use of touchpad isn't bad. The buttons provide a louder than average click but other than that I don't have any problems.

Heat and Noise

Under light to moderate use this is one of the coolest and quietest notebooks I have used, and that includes my dm1z. With HP Coolsense set to the quietest setting and the computer idling or when I am web surfing, the dv6 is actually cooler and quieter than the dm1z. Under heavy usage the back left vent gets a little warm, again on the quietest setting, but I just change HP Coolsense to the coolest setting and I can comfortably use it on my lap. Even on the coolest setting the noise isn't loud compared to the last-gen dv6.

Internal temperatures were impressive as well. I haven't really done any gaming on it but I have run very intensive benchmarks. IntelBurn Test, which I find gives the highest temperature you are going to see, only pushes the temperature up to 66C, which is more than safe. Other benchmarks like Cinebench(R10 and 11.5) and 3dMark (Vantage and 11) maxed out a few degrees lower than that.

Battery

I haven't had time to test the battery life all the way more than a couple of times but the results of are about what expected. For the first test I set the screen brightness at 70% and set about what I consider to be normal use; browsing, downloading, various Office tasks; until the computer hibernated at 5% remaining. This test yielded me 4 hours and 49 minutes. Then I charged up the battery, which didn't take long thanks to the huge 120W AC adapter, set the screen to 70% and reloaded the NBR main page every minute. The computer went into hibernation after 5 hours and 17 minutes.

General User Experience and Conclusion

I am not gonna post any benchmarks, as I don't have time to run them again before I have to leave, but I will give a summary of what using it actually feels like.

Doing day-to-day operations; surfing the web, watching HD movies, Office, etc; you would be hard-pressed to notice a difference between this, which is actually going to feel like the second slowest Sabine APU in day-to-day tasks, which usually don't take advantage of the 4 cores, and its Intel counterparts. I was able to browse heavy flash pages, heavy javascript pages and watch 1080p movies with no slowdown whatsoever. What I also found impressive was that even when I was running multi-threaded benchmarks that stressed all 4 cores, such as Cinebench, I was still able to browse the web with no noticeable difference.

Overall, I would definitely not hesitate to recommend this to anyone, especially given the price. It is one of the most balanced laptops around. The gaming performance is already way above the average and can only get better and the processor performance is more than enough for the vast majority of users. Throw in the good battery life, excellent thermals, excellent build quality, Bluray and good to great everything else and this is definitely a winner.

Pros:
+ Build quality
+ Beautiful design
+ Good all-around performance
+ Heat management and noise
+ Price
+ Keyboard

Cons:
- AMD processor may not perform enough for small minority of users

 

Hey Xx, or Abbadon if you have time before returning the laptop, try this to see if it helps Dual Graphics. I'm not usre if it will work, but it's what AMD told Toms hardware to do when Dual Graphics didn't work quite right.

"By default, Llano wants to be the primary output. So, when you configure your BIOS, set up Windows, and get drivers installed, AMD says use the APU’s outputs. If there’s a discrete card installed, CrossFire gets enabled automatically. At that point you have to install the latest Application Profiles patch, disable CrossFire, shut the system down, and switch over to the discrete outputs. From then on, you won’t see a video signal until Windows loads up. Enable CrossFire, reboot again, and then you should be able to use Dual Graphics. Whew."

 

Also, 11.7 Mobility Modded drivers! Hopefully, these help.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/590970-catalyst-11-7-drivers.html

 

abaddon, did you pick up the 768 or 1080 screen? Beause I was under the impression you got the 768 before you said you watched 1080p movies.

And I don't understand how the processor boosts the dedicated graphics card. For example, if it had a 6450, and therefore fell below a game's minimum requirement, would it be boosted to play it?

Confused...

 

I'm having no problems with the discrete graphics or crossfire.. This thing runs everything I've thrown at it very well.

I bought starcraft and its running great!

I'm downloading the 11.7 drivers you linked now to see if I can get an overclock going

 

Sweeeet. Crossing fingers.

 

No luck

I can move the slider in afterburner but as soon as I click accept it reverts back to stock.

 

Sucks. Try vantage? Just to see if there are any gains in performance?

 

Llano processors have a graphics card with more or less the same architecture as the Radeon 6000M series on the same die as the CPU (that's why AMD refers to them as "APUs", although Intel's Sandy Bridge implements the same idea in a much more integrated way). If you have an AMD APU and an AMD discreet card, they can work together to give you better performance in some situations. This is similar to how CrossFire works, but unlike the latter, the cards don't have to be identical.

If you had a 6450M, you would actually get a huge boost from Llano because the integrated graphics is more powerful than the discreet one. With a 6750M, there is some improvement, but it is much smaller because the integrated graphics is much less powerful than the discreet one and thus doesn't add as much. Also, at the moment, this doesn't work with DX9 games at all (i.e. performance actually gets worse) and with a few others. It's going to take some time for AMD to make drivers that can fully exploit the synergy.

 

Perfect explanation, Althernai. I think that the 6770M and 6750M will get a much bigger boost once the drivers get better.

 

I meant watch 1080p on an external monitor. Can't watch 1080p on a 720p screen

 

I'm still shocked you chose the 768p screen over the 1080p with much better quality. Also another con would be how slow the processor will become 3 years later.

 

Did anyone notice that the weight of the dv6z is heavier than the dv6t? 5.78 vs 6.1 llbs. Any one know why or notice the difference( that is if you use to have a dv6t)?

 

Just ran vantage with the 11.7 driver.

Before: 5665
After: 5730

Little bump in performance

 

I didn't choose it, that is what was on the Best Buy version. Though I might not get it on my customized one, either.

I also don't plan on keeping this for 3 years. If I spend <$750 on a laptop I expect it to last 1-2 years. Current Intel processors will look slow in 3 years as well. Something becoming obsolete after 3 years is not a con.

@butthead - They had both on display at my Best Buy and I can honestly say I didn't feel any difference. And, according to my scale, the dv6-6135dx was actually just under 6lbs. Best Buy gives a measurement of 6lbs, while they give a measurement of 5.8lbs for the dv6t, so I assume they just rounded up a little. The dv6z is maybe 3 ounces heavier.

 

If 3 year old Intel CPU's were slow, you wouldn't be buying a Llano today because they're still faster than Llanos in tasks that don't use more than 2 cores

 

The Llano is launching in a time where a faster CPU does nothing for the responsiveness of regular casual usage, but it does include an integrated GPU solution that does make all previous integrated GPU attempts look slow, and THAT is why people are using it today. Not to mention that single threaded applications are all pretty much going away. No one is going to write any programs these days without optimizing for at least dual core.

 

If someone sold something with a C2D, comparable battery and comparable graphics performance for cheaper I would buy it, to be honest. But the difference between C2D and SB is going to be much smaller than the difference between SB and Skylake, or whatever Intel is currently calling it.

 

The GPU in Llano does nothing for the casual user over the GPU in Sandy Bridge either though. Casuals don't play Crysis 2.

 

I placed my order off Amazon.ca for the HP DV6-6140CA A8-3510MX with HD 6755G2, 6GB, 640GB, Altec Lansing + Dolby Home Theater, DVD Writer and 6-Cell.

Going to do a direct comparison with my bros Lenovo Y570 i3-2310M with GT 555M, 4GB, 500GB, JBL + SRS Premium, DVD Writer and 6-Cell.

I'll try and post of some benches (CPU, GPU, temps and games with Fraps) when I have both on hand in the Llano/Fushion thread but I'm not going to be doing any intensive testing and won't be taking requests (only some to very few members I respect), questions however is not a problem.

 

In rebuttal the llano from HP is targeted at a consumer who's willing to pay a premium for the ability to game. The cost-performance of a dv6z vs dv6t makes it so that many people would likely be better served by going with the dv6t albeit at a cost of a 100-200 more.

From what I've seen of llano, I don't think this is quite good enough for mainstream mobile gaming. Once trinity comes along with a bulldozer CPU, it might be a different story, though. CPUs are fairly important for gaming and in this respect llano is deficient. Plus, it comes with a 6750m.

I configured a top of the line llano for $828, and for a hundred bucks more I can get a 6770m and intel quad core processor. Sounds like a good deal to me

 

Llano/Fusion is only meant to re-introduce AMD to consumers and erase the image that AMD laptops run hot, slow and have low battery life.

AMD will regain a lot if it's market share back with Llano and Fusion this year into early next year (Netbook and Tablets included).

The real battle begins around this time next year between when Ivy Bridge and Trinity comes, that's when consumers ultimately decide who takes the bigger slice of the mobile market share (Netbook and Tablets included).