dv6t-61XX / dv7t-61XX Switchable Graphics Discussion

Ask EzerchE, he managed to do it to his dv6t-6020. Even way before the bios fix.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/7644435-post881.html

 

Is that truly dynamic or is there flickering between applications?

 

He said there's no flickering on dynamic.

His settings were persistent after restart.
It is the same dynamic mode as the 6100.

He actually put an effort to get dynamic mode.

 

I ended up restoring my computer to an earlier point for another reason and when I tried Cinebench again I was getting over 49fps. With an overclock of 850/900 I had 53.34fps!

 

Yea I get the flickering when it changes from battery to AC adapter so I just made it use the 6770 all the time. Not the best thing for battery but sometimes I will be using adobe on battery. Unless if I kept it in dynamic mode it would switch the gpu for me?

 

may i know what is the highest overclock setting if 6770m 1gb and 3dmark vantage score?
thanks!

 

Read the following thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...9746-overclocking-radeon-6770m-dv6t-61xx.html

 

Ok now that the graphics may be working (need to check photoshop)... Please post up if you have any issues and then lets all go to hp.com and review it after the bios changes.. I think it is only fair to review it after they did work quickly for us.

 

Even they fixed it, in my opinion, the current review is pretty much well deserved since it took customer initiative and effort to get HP to admit a problem after a couple of months has passed.

If another major problem arise, how long you think HP would admit and try to fix it.

It is quite possible they eventually remove the fix since your bios revision numbering has a temp numbering system.

 

why would they remove the fix? what do they gain from that?

 

No idea ... they sometime accidentally remove stuff.
Based of my experience with HP bios updates, I seen it occur more often more with letters in the revision than the number only version.

In either case, it still takes customer initiative to bring it back.

 

Well we can reupload it here

 

They don't take down the downloads of their bios.

What I meant was that they sometimes remove features or fixes when they release a new version.

That one in the number system, they call it an accident, the other a temp if they feel like it.

 

That is a pretty extraordinary claim. The letters and numbers in the BIOS name are merely hexadecimal version numbers (e.g. "17" means 23 and "1A" means 26). I would be extremely surprised if there was a statistical correlation between the name and whether or not they revert things.

 

It is an extraordinary claim.

It just one of those weird patterns I noticed with the 4 HP computers I have over for almost 9 years.

Why the heck I still get HP? ... Price. Even though I get screwed in the hardware driver support.

 

So im curious to know that since the new F.1A bios is out i wonder if new graphics drivers are in the works, sure would be nice.

 

I'm wondering that myself, as I've noticed that while the F.1A drivers obviously fix the fixed / dynamic situation, vsync DOES NOT appear to work in any game I've tried (Half Life 2: Lost Coast, Batman AA, Portal 2, Starcraft 2...). For the latter, I've tried both in-game options and forcing it via the CCC. If anybody has any ideas / wants to know, I'm using the stock ATI drivers from HP.

 

D3DOverride can get rid of the tearing on my 60xx, but I'm not sure if thats because its successfully enabling vsync, or if its because I'm als forcing triple buffering.

 

AMD's John Bridgman, a longtime member of their Linux team, has said that OEMs are being forced to use implement a BIOS switch for muxless laptops if they want to XP or Linux to run on them. Said switch must at the very least permit IGP-only.

Hopefully Lenovo and Dell got the message.

P.S. Wish I had read the message on July 6th when I received it from him. Would've made the wait for a BIOS far less nerve-wracking.

 

Anyone having issues with harder to read text in games? I'm on 11.5b F1A bios

 

Anyone noticed this high-pitch noise from the board? (CPU, I guess?)
I never had this problem before but eversince I updated this new firmware, this CPU whining is killing my ears. I just can't concentrate on my work. I have tried disabling USB power save mode but no change.
I love the fixed graphic card setting but this high-pitch noise is driving me crazy...

 

I have not noticed such a noise, then again I am getting older. CRT(s) and florescent lighting among other things used to drive me bat crap insane when I was in school. I hate the whine, buzz or hum of such things.

Try turning off the speakers and see if those are producing the sound. It could also be the power "brick," hold it up to your ear and listen. If it is either of those try plugging the power into a surge protection power strip with power conditioning; there may be noise in the line. I have a power "brick" for an LCD monitor that makes a gawd awful high pitched buzz.

 

lol lol thats too weird! so in the cycle of releases, the first 25 are good and statistically the next 6 are to be avoided, but then the cycle starts over and you'll have a stretch of 25 good ones again! :rolleyes2:

on the statistical front, four computers over 9 years won't provide enough data to show a trend or establish such a sequence, but anecdotally I gotta acknowledge what you report is quite amusing.

 

I'm really hoping you guys are still checking up on this thread, I don't want to have missed it. I just purchased a HP DV7-6135dx. It's a 5 year old laptop replacement and I'm loving it but its been an adventure. At first I had the hardest time getting the computer up to date in terms of drivers for the ati card. And even now when I disable the ATI card through device manager it my computer messes up. (Low res, warning that no drivers are installed.)

I believe the high performance is working but not all the time. I can run Left for Dead 2 on highest settings and get about 30-40 fps but I can't run minecraft. I get about 10-20 fps in minecraft. Its come to my attention its open gl. Are there any fixes yet? And also, I tried binding the high performance function in CCC to my keyboard but it doesnt recognize my ATI card, it isnt in the drop down. Help?

tldr: Minecraft wont run higher than 20 fps because of OpenGL, help?

If there are no fixes to it, would you recommend switching to this laptop:

Lenovo - Laptop / Intel® Core™ i7 Processor / 15.6" Display / 6GB Memory / 750GB Hard Drive - Black - 08622KU

, I need to know if I should just return this thing. I really would miss the screen and fingerprint reader though.

 

There is a known issue with OpenGL running on our system when it's in "dynamic mode" where even if you are using high performance on something like Minecraft, it will still use the intel HD 3000.

The fix is this BIOS update: HP Notebook System BIOS Update (Intel Processors) HP Pavilion dv7t-6100 CTO Quad Edition Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English) .

Download and run that. Then when it restarts, go into your BIOS and find the setting to switch from dynamic to fixed mode. This will keep either your radeon 6770m or intel HD 3000 on at all times (you switch between them with a second of flickering in CCC). This allows openGL programs to run on the radeon 6770m.

 

So in the new mode we switch through the CCC? So it would require a CCC update too?

 

Yes to the first question, no to the second. When you right click the desktop then choose configure switchable graphics, it now gives you the option to switch between the intel gpu and the radeon gpu instead of choosing high performance or power saver etc

 

Hello, everybody, I am a recent dv6-6100 owner (produced in mid-July) and I found this thread through the HP product review page.

When I made it to the end of the thread, the new BIOS update had already been released, so good news for everyone involved. Basically, in my case, I would prefer to have the Dynamic mode On by default, and only switch to Fixed for OpenGL stuff.

However, I must say that my experience with the new BIOS fix and the switching was not the same as Dark Rider's (I'm on HP drivers, 8.830.6):

After switching from Dynamic to Fixed and back to Dynamic again, the CCC app settings were gone, and all my apps defaulted to "not Assigned" values.

Also, and this is rather serious, during one of my switches to Dynamic, the Display drivers actually got messed up or even corrupt: Native resolutions were gone, and I lost access to the CCC and Switchable Graphics options, almost as if the AMD drivers were not installed. However,the Device Manager reported driver conflict in the iGPU, not in the dGPU. After an hour or so, I reverted to Fixed and everything was back to normal, but when I tried to go back to Dynamic again, the issues came back, so I had to uninstall the drivers, do a clean sweap, and reinstall from SWSetup.

Any ideas as to why this could have happened? How was everybody else's experience with this update?

 

I booted in Fixed Mode one time, figured that the laptop had gotten too hot before I had reached the desktop (because the AC adapter was plugged in, it didn't turn on with Intel graphics), then went back to Dynamic.

I didn't lose my application settings.

 

so does this change the game with Linux?

edit: What is up with all the screen tearing???

 

Marventus, I have been leaving mine in Fixed-mode to take advantage of the ability to OC. However, after reading your post went back into dynamic and it still recalled my application settings. They don't necessarily show up in the list, unless they were recent additions. However, it doesn't prompt me when I go to run them, and they show "high performance" by default when I run them. Are you getting the prompt for applications/games you've already assigned previously or are they just not showing in the list? If it's the later, it's probably not a problem. Try running them and see if they report the right mode.

 

Thanks for your reply, Dark Rider.

In my case, it was apps I had already run in Dynamic that were showing as unassigned. Since you and NeoTheOne are reporting that CCC does save settings, I'll give it one more try see what happens.

I can confirm higher temperatures in Fixed mode too after the BIOS update, and increased fan activity as a consequence (even on the iGPU).

I haven't experienced any screen tearing, but I am having very annoying video and audio stuttering in certain apps, such as Crysis 2 (debriefing maps) in Dynamic mode, which didn't use to occur before the update. I did not check this in Fixed though.

 

Are you running the HP graphics drivers package ending in .2000 or one of the unofficially supported 11.5b, 11.6, or 11.7 AMD catalyst releases? I noticed some issues with the non-HP packages. 11.5b was the least buggy, but I still had some issues with DirectX 11 that I don't get with the HP drivers, so I reverted back. The added stability was more important than the minor performance gains offered by the other packages.

 

I'm running the .1000 version, 8.830.6.1000 that is. I'll try the .2000s and see what happens. I believe the HP release is sp53025 for the Radeon, correct?

 

is my memory clock showing up in hwinfo and gpu-z as ~263ghz because its DDR5? msi afterburn is set to overclock it to 975mhz but it shows up in gpu-z and hwinfo as 263

 

mine does the same, it shows as 216 ghz but in afterburner it shows the correct clock. This is in fixed mode btw.

 

alright, just making sure. furmark does show 975mhz and my benchmarks have been close to others so I wasn't too worried.

 

Hello guys, I just received my custom dv7t 3 days ago. So far I am happy with it, but the graphics have caused too many problems.

First is the whole switchable graphics fiasco. I managed to get it fixed, so I guessed it would be all right.

But then I ran into the same problem dwalk1989 and chinedooo have. That is, both GPU-Z and Sapphire Trixx show 216 mhz memory clock. However, FurMark, Afterburner and GPU Shark do show 800 mhz. I just wonder what is the actual memory clock the 6770M is running on?

Also, the 6770M can't seem to reach a constant temperature. After I ran FurMark for 4 minutes, it reached 80 Celcius. What on earth is wrong with my GPU?

 

Understanding RAM Timings | Hardware Secrets

GDDR5 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I've noticed an issue arise since updating to the new BIOS. Minecraft seems to cause my computer to hang after about three minutes of play. And by hang, I mean my system locks up, stops registering everything save a CTRL+ALT+DELETE/end process. This doesn't happen only in Minecraft, either. Fallout 3 seems to also not want to play for more than five minutes.

EDIT: Seems to only happen on the 6770M. (in fixed mode, of course)

 

some aftermarket/free tools are not showing the correct data, for some reason, and I believe FurMark is correct. Glad to know that your graphics issues have been fixed -- the only thing left is to understand the information reported by these tools.

The fact that Furmark makes your temps rise like that is convincing evidence that the GPU is working at full tilt.

FurMark is a very severe stress test and 80C is well within the operating limits of the GPU. After insuring that your cooling system is not compromised (blow out the vents, place laptop on hard surface, room temp 72F, reasonable RH ~60%) run Furmark until your GPU reaches 98C. It would be interesting to see if your temps stabilize at some temp lower than 98, or (if not) to note how long it takes to reach 98C. Just keep in mind that the GPU is specified by the mfg to run at 100C (absolute maximum). While we don't want to run at 100C for any length of time, short spikes up to this temp are fine, and I would only get concerned if your temps want to stay near 100C during normal game play. I don't believe the notebook is designed to withstand a sustained stress test as severe as Furmark.

As the heat sink is probably shared between the GPU and the processor, you can and will see temps approaching 100C when both are stressed.

 

Thank you, I am glad that it is fixed too, after all the headaches...

I ran FurMark just a few minutes ago. 1280x720, no preset, 2xMSAA, dynamic background, no burn in. I know the settings are pretty lame, but I don't want to risk anything. I got about 14 fps, and the gpu seems to stabilize at 82C after 15 minutes. Is there anything unusual?

Gonna wait a few minutes to cool down, then I'm going to try the burn in setting.

 

82C sounds pretty good esp for a gen 1 Envy 17. it probably won't be hard to reach 100c with furmark on burn-in; thats just the nature of the beast, since Furmark burn in is a very severe stress test. now then if you get close to 100C when doing normal work, then we''ve got a problem even for the 1xxx

 

Hello guys,

I am glad to report that all the issues I was experiencing with the new Bios update were fixed by updating the Radeon drivers from 8.830.6.1000 to 8.830.6.2000: App settings are remembered, stuttering in apps is gone, temperatures and fan speeds are back to normal in Fixed mode, and I'm even getting slightly better FPS and benchmarking scores (1469P to 1490P in 3DM11).
Thanks a lot for all your help, Dark Rider!

 

Err.. My lappy is a dv7t. I could only dream of Envys.

Anyway, I ran FurMark again, same settings but with burn-in turned on. Surprisingly, it stabilized at 84C after 17,18 minutes. It sometimes reached 85, but that's it. Still 13 fps.

So far I only got FurMark, trying to get some numbers from CineBench and 3DMark.

Is there a page where all the benchmarks for the 6770M are posted, so that I can compare my results? Just want to make sure that everything is working out as it should.

P/S: Cinebench 11.5, Open GL 64 bit, 47.96 fps, right where it should be.

 

My FurMark benches:
1366x768, Burn-In, No MSAA, 10 mins.

Stock Clocks:
Avg. FPS: 16
Max Temp: 80
Avg. Temp: 79
CoolSense Setting: Performance

Overclock (800/950):
Avg. FPS: 18
Max Temp: 85.5
Avg. Temp: 85
CoolSense Setting: Performance

Might try a higher memory clock. That bench ran pretty smooth.

 

Glad it worked out for you, and you're welcome! I've found the .2000 drivers to be the most stable for me as well. All games play smoothly at 1080p, and the new bios offers us the best of both worlds. Really, I like my DV7TQE as much or more than any of the custom builds I've ever done!

 

This issue hasn't been fixed for laptops with AMD processors, so I was wondering: What happens if you run a "high performance" program in the background while running a "power saving" program? Will the dGPU only run the "high performance program? Or will each program run on it's respective GPU?

 

Hey guys, I updated the bios, and updated my catalyst drivers to 11.8 preview drivers, and my CCC disappeared. Whenever I try to load it up it's giving me an error about a .dll that is missing, but required.

I read up and found out that some of the issues are because when the CCC updates, it doesn't uninstall the old version correctly. To remedy this, I used driver sweeper, removed everything related to the drivers, installed the base HP drivers with no ccc, and then installed the 11.8 preview over that with ccc and it still won't work.

How have you guys been able to get CCC to work after updating drivers? Any tips? Without CCC I can't manually switch between high performance and low performance without going into the bios... and this isn't optimal. Any tips?

 

Go into your control panel > add/remove programs > AMD uninstall utility (something like this) > change > express uninstall all ati software.

Then run your driver sweeper again. After that, restart the computer and install the stock HP drivers WITH CCC. Choose custom installation and make sure CCC is on the list of things to be downloaded. Sometimes it doesn't populate the list correctly and I have to run it again or restart the laptop.

You only remove CCC from the list if you're updating the driver.