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

I've had this laptop since June, even if you tweak it in the first days... with more time comes more curiosity and you continue tweaking it , this laptop (dv6 6110sg) has been one of my most interesting and funny purchases in years. (Although disassemble can become a pain)

 

Hey Rmac, if you try the 12.1 drivers on top of your new bios, take a moment and re run one of your fast (2200 plus) 3dmark11 runs using your original settings, with the new bios and drivers. That should tell us pretty quick whether there's a meaningful improvement in 3d11 performance attributable directly to the bios/driver improvements. If the *new* stuff is in fact any better, you should get a discernible bump in your score while using the same timings you had before.

seer

 

Ok,
Trinity update...
First, a production sample desktop trinity chip has now been compared directly to a production desktop A8.
drumroll...

the combo of the *new* trin equiv to the a8, WITH the new 7000 based igpu
topped the a8 by right around 30 Percent across several benchmarks, including notably Vantage.
HOWEVER ....
when the same discrete gpu was added to each system and the comparo run again....
the trin kicked the a8 down the road by right at a 50 percent increase in 3dmark11.
AND,
trin clearly overclocks better than llano more to come.
oh, there is some thought being given to kicking the launch day up

seer

 

Will do seer. One problem though.

After running msi afterburner (need to get my 800/1000 clocks), every game I try on high performance is black (no video). If I remember correctly there was something I needed to disable..... I cant recall the name.

UPDATE: NVM found it. It is ULPS I need to disable. lol

Also @ seer
Man you need to get one of those "test chips" and try throwing it in a dv6z. lol

 

In this case what matters is being able to force an application to use the high performance card.

 

Well then you'd want to set it to high performance in the switchable graphics settings and disable dual graphics in its application profile.

What I was getting at was that it's possible to set a program to just 6620g, just 6750m or both but it's not a simple as selecting which one and setting that to the program. It's a combination of switchable graphics and dual graphics application profile settings.

And has anyone else been playing with the 12.1 drivers? I'm interested to see what everyone else thinks.

 

Also, would you mind running it with reccomended, AFR Friendly and Optimize 1x1?
I plan on doing this when I'm done with class for the day and seeing which is best (for 3dmark11 at least)

And do the application profiles now mean we can have crossfire in dx9 if we force it? I plan on trying that too. I've been reading about people on the desktop side of things forcing crossfire in Skyrim with AFR Friendly mode. I know it's a different case with us and dual graphics but I'm hopeful...

 

Seer, thanks for that. So the new controller is probably more flexible in matching the interleave, or elsewise preventing wasted effort...

 

I will post some tests tonight, but I need to study for my last final exam. lol.

Ill post 3d11 and 3d06. My current records for 3d06 and 3d11 are:

3D06 11631 F.21 bios and 11.11C gpu drivers
3d11 2228 F.18 bios and 11.6a drivers

 

You know what...? Does anyone have a PCMark 7 score set for their overclocked DV6z?

AnandTech - The AMD Llano Notebook Review: Competing in the Mobile Market

This got me to thinking. The Llano scores represented in above link are for stock A8-3500m with either 6620G or 6630M graphics. And I do rather suspect a 2.2/2.6 A8-35xx with 6750M would bump against i7+nvidia scores listed on the same chart.

...holy blow, forty bucks for score breakdowns is one thing. But a thousand for automation and charting? I'd hate to be a review site....

Windows 7 Benchmark test

 

Huge props on this thread. Very informative. I've read most of the almost 400 pages. Thank you all.

I have the HP Pavilion dv6 6135dx (A8-3500m, 6620g and 6750)

I've alot rattling around in my head. I do have a few very basic questions.

I've OC'd the CPU with K10stat with decent results (2600 @ around 1.2voltage) and put it in the task scheduler and the profile seems to be running fine. I wanted to do a preliminary 3Dmark06 basic benchmark before I started OCing the GPU. On the results page, it seems to list the CPU frequency at 1500, instead of the 2600 that I'd expect, and every score is low compared to the ones posted here. K10stat is running and seems to be holding the OC effectively. Is there something I've forgotten?

I installed the 11.10 driver package directly from AMD. The Device Manger now reports the display adapters as 6620G and 6500/6700 series. It does not name the 6750 specifically. I have not touched a single setting in the CCC.

Should I install the 12.1 package from AMD now? Then get started with MSI Afterburner?

Turn off Crossfire? Then start making profiles for each app by assigning them as power saving or performance?

 

Howdy! Long-time reader (like every single page of this beast of a thread and just about every single review and analysis of the Llano) and first-time poster.

I'm waiting for my dv6-6135dx to arrive today. I've already ordered a 4GB RAM module to replace the 2GB and a 120GB Agility 3 SSD, as well as a USB Bluetooth button, and wireless mouse and keyboard.

(You know...at it's original retail purchase price, and even with the available retail discounts when it was new...it wasn't that much of a bargain given the competition. But $500 online refurb'ed? It's a steal. But it might be an even better deal when you consider the future of software written to leverage the APU...which I'll talk about in a bit.)

No plans on o'clocking, BIOS mods, or WLAN card replacements in the near future...though I'm no stranger to all of it (after thirty years of IT). I just want to see what my personal satisfaction level through ordinary use rates(after the hardware upgrades and 12.1 drivers.)

Interestingly enough, I found some information on performance for the Llano...basically, why it only SEEMS lackluster when it comes to CPU intensive tasks. The bottom line concensus from professionals is that software isn't utilizing it properly...yet. (Given that I'm from the asychronous, parallel world of mainframes, I had a lot of hopes for AMD. Synchronous and serial tech isn't faster...it's just smaller and cheaper, but it looks like PC times are finally changing. Clock speeds aren't everything in a world leaning towards efficiency.)

One article talked about how Windows 7 doesn't thread Llano properly, a problem they say will be fixed in Windows 8. I can't see why this wouldn't be a substantial improvement, and it's not that Microsoft favors Intel...it's just that Llano is late to the game for current OS development. (Apparently, there are quite a few "big names" courting AMD at the moment, and it appears they know AMD is onto something.)

Also...the GPU was designed to parallel process information when it's not used for graphic-intensive purposes...and again, software isn't yet written to take advantage of this...so, of course an i3 or i5, leveraging almost twice as many transistors dedicated for the job, would have an edge in current OSes, applications, and games. (We KNOW the Llano APU, when utilized works GREAT for graphics, so it stands to reason that when driven properly, it would tackle CPU-intensive tasks just as well, in conjunction with the CPU-reserved chip.)

Consequently, from my perspective, the Llano looks to be a winner for the future...but, according to reviews and your posts, you're loving the graphic performance in the present...and if you're happy, then I am sure I will be too. (I'm not one to be bothered by nagging thoughts of possibly not getting the best absolute performance, and especially if it risks the laptop's longevity. And while I am personally "anti-benchmarking" [for reasons I won't get into], I don't hold that against any of you who go nuts over it. After all, I gain a lot of insight from y'all...and have already. So thanks!)

I travel for work a lot, so it's going to serve as my main machine and my HTPC (for hotel flat screens) and it's replacing the HP HDX 18" Intel dual-core (P8700) laptop I currently own. It's a real to lug around, gets hot, and doesn't handle multiple taks really well....consequently, once I'm up and running on the new machine, it's going to eBay.

(Gasp) And after twenty years of web and work-only use, I might just play a game!

So...anyway...Just wanted to say "Hi," "Thanks," and you've drafted me into the Llano enthusiasts' club. Your posts influenced me a lot on my decision, which I already feel good about...even without the new laptop in my hot little hands.

 

Hey guys..... I was gonna post my 3d11 scores now.... but I cant get crossfire to sync up -_-. Same old spiky 6620 problem.

Guess I better wipe and reinstall -_-

Also, I am having the same problem as HT when it comes to my fan control. It does not kick the fan it at all until way high temps

Im switching back to my musho 800-1000 until it gets sorted out.

 

For some reason, newegg decide to ship my replacement from NJ.

I feel that if it arrive 2 early, i gonna fail my finals.

Edit : it actually going to arrive today 11/15 and it is shipped on 11/14..........( Toke me 6 day to ship to CA)
Studying vs OC/tweaking is torning me apart (the thought only, IDK what I will do when the box is in front of my face)

 

I've been testing the results of my new thermal paste (Artic cooling MX-2). My overclock settings are now completely stable at:

B0: 23/1/1.2000 2600
P0: 20/1/1.1250 2400
P1: 30/2/1.1250 2300
P2: 28/2/0.0750 2200
P3: 24/2/0.0500 2000
P4: 29/3/1.0000 1500
P5: 23/3/0.9750 1300
P6: 16/4/0.7000 800

Max Temperature reached with prime95 blend and MSI Kombuster running for 2.5 hours in 70F room was 82C. Average high temperatures were between 79-81C at the top. GPU is overclocked to 750/850, haven't tested higher than that yet. I found that the thermal paste does not lower temperatures under load or idle, but allowed much more stability for me to further underclock. The system feels much more rock solid now, highly recommended.

I may very well try the custom bios with the extra features, its not a huge difference from my current GPU overclock. The 12.1 driver seems like a huge update. Great, things are really coming together!

 

Well, I haven't even gotten to the OCing stuff, but upon installing the new drivers.. I'm not sure if it's a slight crack in the screen or what, but there's this tiny line on the upper portion of the screen, maybe an inch long? Annoying enough to notice.

I'm going to see if it's a driver issue or such, but I hope I don't have to send it back in. Got it from Tiger direct, but I think at this point (got it shortly over 2 weeks ago but really only started playing with it last night at 1:00 AM) I might have to send it to HP, I think? Or SquareTrade

 

a picture would always help...

 

Ah, it was more venting on my part. I did try to take a picture, but it doesn't show up on it at all.

 

with a cellphone camera?

 

Canon digital camera.

 

Good results. Except for a true test, run Prime95 with Large FFT. It will generate most heat and stress your CPU the most. Blend mainly tests the RAM.

 

Quick question (apologies, since it's been answered so many times over..) about K10Stat:

B0 Refers to the Turbo State and P0 refers to the regular clock speed (i.e. what I'd want to raise to 2.4 ghz): What exactly do the other P-States represent? I know they're clocked incrementally lower with each progression, but I was just curious. Also..exactly what point does the turbo serve?

I always hesitate to post here since I feel like a bit of an idiot, but I like to learn.

 

each P-state represents a possible state for the processor. States are determined by 1) which performance mode you are in and 2) the current load on the machine.

For example, in high performance, you are essentially locked in p0 with the occasional b0. But in HP recommended it changes depending on load, and in power saver it tires to keep in the lowest p-state possible to maximize battery (but will go about mid-level if needed).

Hope this clears up some confusion. You can learn the patterns by running k-stat 10 set to auto, and try different power modes.

Oh and about the turbo function : It allows all 4 cores to be set at a higher speed if certain temperature restrictions are met. It is not very effective stock because it uses a ridiculous voltage (way too high) which spikes temperatures faster than the fan can keep up with (mostly because the stock fan setting is FAR too mild), causing the cpu to very quickly throttle down to p0. (At least that is my hypothesis)

 

That actually makes quite a bit of sense, thank you.

As a follow up..

I think there's a function in Kstat that allows you to (potentially) lock it into the p0 state. So a lot of the tweaking we're (ideally) doing with K-10 is finding a stable P0 state for it to run at stably, then gradually reduce the other P-states so that if for whatever reason, it wants to maximize battery, it goes to the lower p-states without sacrificing too much performance? Taken from the earlier post in this page:

So if for whatever reason, power saver decides it wants to kick it down to P4, the clock speed would go down to 1.5 ghz (the stock speed) and not sacrifice too much performance?

But, if we adjust the voltage settings right, it shouldn't have to kick into those states? Or is it recommended to lock it at p0 (though, if you haven't done thorough testing, you risk jacking up your computer, right?)

..You answer one question and I have like 5 more, ha ha. But your explanation helped a lot, and is making this much less intimidating.

 

anyone tried ideneb hackintosh in dv6?

 

Yes there is a function in Kstat10 that allows you to lock p-states. Essentially the way you want it to be is that you test each p-state to ensure stability, although to reach a certain p-state in power saver you need to have a load demand high enough for it to decide to move up a notch. It usually does sacrifice performance at the bonus of having a much better battery life. I find mine hates leaving 800mhz and usually goes up to 1400 on battery.

You only have to really worry about voltages for 2 reasons. Heat and power consumption. When it comes to the top 2 p-states, managing heat is key... so you need to try to keep voltages reasonable (around < 1.275) and then see what kind of max clock you can get out of that.

For the lower p-states, you just want to maximize power efficiently. You can honestly use whatever speeds you feel will be adequate for power saver and then try to get the lowest voltage possible. They are much harder to test for stability however.

I just took a small chunk off each of the stock voltages.

Once you find something you are happy with, you can use fusion tweaker to permanently make these your p-values. with no need for kstat 10. Here is my setup for my 3530mx(it needs pretty high voltages):

B0: 1.2500 2900
P0: 1.1625 2600
P1: 1.0750 2200
P2: 0.9750 1600
P3: 0.9250 1400
P4: 0.8875 1200
P5: 0.8375 1000
P6: 0.7875 800

Since my cpu requires alot of juice you should have no issues running those values.

 

There should most likely be a way to run osx. My buddy did it on his Asus U36.... so if it can run on there I don't see why it cant run off of our laptops.... it will probably be a pain to setup though.

On a positive note since new macbooks run the 6750m, it should be more likely to be compatible.

 

Hmm.. ok, that makes a lot of sense, actually.

You were saying that on battery, yours tends to drop to a lower clock speed / other p-state, but in reality, any gaming I'd do would be while I was plugged in, so I shouldn't worry too much there.

Fusion tweaker would permanently alter that? That's more beneficial than making it so that Kstat runs at start-up, then? Are there any downsides (I'm going to do thorough testing and all, but can I undo the changes on fusion?)

 

As a point of curiosity, how difficult are screen upgrades for someone not particularly used to disassembling computers? Is there a good detailed guide for this anywhere? I'm just considering upgrading the screen to the 1080p ones I've seen linked a few times, and from what I can gather it should cost me less than $150 (not a bad deal, especially considering that's the main downside of the refurbished compared to custom ordering one for a few hundred more).

 

I am very interested in the screen upgrade too, if you look at my post a few back I give a link to the cheapest screen I could find. Just remember that we need a new cable. There are guides on youtube that show screen replacement.....here is a good one:
HP dv6-6000 Laptop Screen Replacement Procedure - YouTube

 

If I get one, I will replace the screen.

 

Just open-box my replacement, at least the stupid keyboard is mount right.

edit: sad , kombuster crash @ 790/800

 

12.1 first or HP first?

Cant get 12.1 to install after HP~~

 

Microsoft came out with a "performance patch" for Bulldozer processors today. Would this have any affect on the Llano's?

Quote, "The software giant admits that its operating systems are hindering Bulldozer's performance."

Click Here for article

Best,

Liquid Cool

 

Nothing to do with Llano.

 

At least you got a very high core, which actually matters most than the memory...

 

Still trying to get 12.1 on the stock hp ~~

I should be studying but owell

Stock->12.1 then CCC decide to stop working ~~ no UI show up

 

I had been actively following this thread and contributing to it, but I have now ordered an Envy 17 3D of the new generation (had a 33% off coupon on launch, HP honored even though it shouldn't have worked), so I won't be around as much to help bring you guys up to stuff on the latest indications of Trinity and such. I still wish that the Envy lineup would get an AMD APU option at some point as they are amazing.

 

Undoubtedly Llano/Sabine can't be that far behind.

 

Any 1 touch their northbridge(iGPU) clock/Voltage ?

 

clarkkent57...

Yes, I had you in mind when I threw in that quote... .

A nod to you, I enjoyed reading your first post. Each day I've owned this little notebook, I grown to like it more and more.

Best,

Liquid Cool

 

Hey guys, just something that really makes the things look nicer without performance penalty, look in google for FXAA injector, it works wonders on both NFS Hot Pursuit 2011 and Skyrim, the picture quality is sooooo much improved with this.

 

Skyrim already has built in FXAA, and the performance hit for it is a lot less than the injector.

 

Just brick and unbrick my dv6z after doing idk what in the advanced bios~~

good thing i still have my HP_TOOLS~~ (cmos etc didnt work)

 

Seems like another little laptop looking to be upgraded!

TigerDirect has the Gateway NV55S15u AMD Quad-Core A6-3400M 15.6" Notebook Computer for a low $399.99 Free Shipping after Coupon Code: TMV51016 (Exp 12/22). Tax in FL, GA, ID, IL, NC, SD, TX. [Compare Prices]

5.7lbs; 15.6" 1366x768; AMD Quad-Core A6-3400M @ 1.4GHz; 4GB RAM; 640GB HDD; DVD burner; 802.11n + gigabit; Windows 7 Home Premium; AMD Radeon HD 6520G w/ HDMI; webcam; 6-cell battery; 1yr warranty

 

Last night, I decrapified the new beastie, and installed MS Office, Nero 10, Acronis, TotalMedia, and VLC, updating all along the way.

All that and the restore partition take up about 60GB, so the OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD I ordered should work just fine. I've got a pocketdrive for files and media. I would imagine that I can compress the drive and still have performance and increased storage.

More as this develops.

Question: For those of you who have upgraded your wireless on a dv6, which card did you upgrade to? What would be your 1) whitelist and 2) non-whitelist recommendations? (Only answer if you've upgraded or know the cards will work, please.)

 

I plan on upgrading my wireless card the same time I upgrade my screen.

If you are going to install another card, you NEED to have the whitelist removed. The whitelist blocks ALL other cards (even ones included as compatible in the manual)

As far as which card, I have seen 2 installed working on HP Dv6s:

1. Intel 6230
2. Killer N 1102

 

Any 1 had remove the faceplate from the blue way drive? How did you guys take it out?

I used to do cell phones, but now I scared to break my blue way faceplate slots -.- ( this thing is 1 day old, really dun want to break it )

edit: got it out, broke 1 of the 4 thingys owell -.-

 

but the FXAA of Skyrim made me loss a lot of the fps, and with the injector it runs as smooth as if it were not activated. The performance for me has been positive in these both games that I mentioned.

 

I bought a 64gb ssd but i think it wont cut my needs.

I was going to keep my regular harddrive for storage, remove the bluray drive and install a caddy for the ssd to have both harddrives. It would be nice to keep it even though i have absolutely no use for it. XP Then i couldn't help my inner modness and came up with the idea:
If i can find a hack or a way to install windows 7 to a usb thumb drive then i am set! I would buy this:

Newegg.com - Patriot Supersonic Magnum 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model PEF128GSMNUSB

or even the 64gb version.

My ultimate goal would be to hardwire this into the laptop. There is enough space right above the sata connectors to fit the drives pcb and then I'll run some thin gauged wires to one of the usb 3.0 ports and solder it onto the motherboard.

With a 200 read speed and 120 write spead It will not be the fastest ssd but itll be faster than any mechanical harddrive.

Any opinions?

If it ultimately fails (the only difficult part would be getting windows 7 to install and boot of usb) i can just use my 64gb ssd and get the 128 for storage and follow through. That dose not compare to a 128gb ssd system drive and having an adition 1tb in the 2.5 for data. I have a 22TB server at home(currently under repair) but for when i go away i can throw on massive ammounts of media and crap and waste on that 1tb and not give a damn.