have i wasted my money? amd a6 graphics

[ezroller]

I recommend maybe overclocking the CPU side of the APU as well, I have an A8 laptop with discrete graphics in "dual graphics mode" (it's what they call hybrid crossfire with their APUs) and found the CPU was holding the GPU grunt back by quite a bit.

Also, what's your RAM speed?

ive set the cpu clock speed to 2200mhz using the built in amd vision control center. almost all the settings are set to full using the gaming preset, then i pushed the other settings up a notch to full.

ive now got 16ghz ddr3 ram, pc world checked what my original ram was and it was 12800 1333mhz so i bought another 2x 4g of them.

so now im all ram'd up im going to order the amd radion 6570 and use the crossfire thing to link them, ill probably post here if i have any problems!

would it still be possible to clock the discreet card as well and will the built in amd vision control center let me do that or am i better off using a 3rd party program??

thanks for all the help guys, its cleared a few things up, hopefully now i can start gettin the most from my pc

 

[Craterloads]

Makes no difference whether it's an AMD or nVidia card, the reason it's not made a big difference is that the GT620 is a fairly slow budget card. For a big improvement OP needs to be budgeting at least £150 IMO. GTX660 or a 2gb 7850/7870 would be my choice.

Dont be daft, OP could quite easily pick up a 2nd hand GTX 460, for around £50, which would be light years ahead of the IGP.

Even something like a 5770, 6770 would be much superior.

 

[ezroller]

another quick thing, since removing the gpu, the screen occaisonally blacks out, only for a split second but mainly when opening new windows or playing games as if its trying to refresh itself or something? i uninstalled the drivers and nvidia software that had been put on with the new card?

also had a few problems with the resolutions and colours on games, they dont seem to run as well as with the gt620 installed at all, a bit jerky and blotchy looking??

hoping this will go away with the radion 6570

 

[jamiehavok]

another quick thing, since removing the gpu, the screen occaisonally blacks out, only for a split second but mainly when opening new windows or playing games as if its trying to refresh itself or something? i uninstalled the drivers and nvidia software that had been put on with the new card?

also had a few problems with the resolutions and colours on games, they dont seem to run as well as with the gt620 installed at all, a bit jerky and blotchy looking??

hoping this will go away with the radion 6570

the 6570 will be a bit better i think as it will crossfire with your apu but that's game dependant. For a real improvement you need a faster card like a 6770 or 7770 or above. The 2nd number in the model number is the major performance number - 5 and 6 are too low for dedicated radeon cards for serious gaming - you need at least a 7. Vram means next to nothing these days. You can have really bad 1gb cards as you have found out - and really good ones.

 

[Orcvader]

ive now got 16ghz ddr3 ram, *purple shirt people* checked what my original ram was and it was 12800 1333mhz so i bought another 2x 4g of them.

16gb 1333mhz RAM will not give any improvements from 8gb 1333mhz RAM. It would've been better if you bought a 2x4gb 1600mhz+ kit instead to help the APU performance.

 

[blowa fuse]

another quick thing, since removing the gpu, the screen occaisonally blacks out, only for a split second but mainly when opening new windows or playing games as if its trying to refresh itself or something? i uninstalled the drivers and nvidia software that had been put on with the new card?

also had a few problems with the resolutions and colours on games, they dont seem to run as well as with the gt620 installed at all, a bit jerky and blotchy looking??

hoping this will go away with the radion 6570

After u removed the nvidia drivers did u reinstall amd drivers? if not may be idea to do that

 

[ezroller]

16gb 1333mhz RAM will not give any improvements from 8gb 1333mhz RAM. It would've been better if you bought a 2x4gb 1600mhz+ kit instead to help the APU performance.

great so another wasted purchase! as you can see im still very green when it comes to this!

i was under the impression tho that your meant to match whatever ram you have already when adding more? so its better to replace whats already in there with better spec stuff? i edit video and have found slightly better speeds when rendering and it seems to be draining less memory.

well im on a budget and dont run the most demanding games so going to go with the 6570 crossfire route, then build a proper gaming rig in a year when ive actually learned what im doing and dont need to post here at every step!

 

[ezroller]

After u removed the nvidia drivers did u reinstall amd drivers? if not may be idea to do that

theres no disks or anything with the pc, i guess just go to the amd site and get them from there? on my work pc atm so cant remember what model igpu it is,

probably explains why counterstrike GO seemed to run a bit glitchy and the colours and res seemed off,

cheers

 

[Orcvader]

great so another wasted purchase! as you can see im still very green when it comes to this!

i was under the impression tho that your meant to match whatever ram you have already when adding more? so its better to replace whats already in there with better spec stuff? i edit video and have found slightly better speeds when rendering and it seems to be draining less memory.

well im on a budget and dont run the most demanding games so going to go with the 6570 crossfire route, then build a proper gaming rig in a year when ive actually learned what im doing and dont need to post here at every step!

With the way the APU works, the system reserves some of the memory for the inbuilt GPU for it to use. This means a possible bottleneck is the RAM speed itself. Graphics based stuff seems to love RAM speed. 1866mhz seems to be the sweet spot I've seen for the APUs.

Would also mean a less chance for the APU to slow down a discrete card if you're crossfiring with it. I'm assuming it's the 6530D that's the onboard?


And feel free to ask us questions if you do decide to build a proper gaming rig one day, we're more than happy to help .

 

[ezroller]

With the way the APU works, the system reserves some of the memory for the inbuilt GPU for it to use. This means a possible bottleneck is the RAM speed itself. Graphics based stuff seems to love RAM speed. 1866mhz seems to be the sweet spot I've seen for the APUs.

Would also mean a less chance for the APU to slow down a discrete card if you're crossfiring with it. I'm assuming it's the 6530D that's the onboard?

yes its the 6530d, ive currently got 4x 1600mhz in it. not sure what to do with the ram then, so its fine to put in ram thats quicker than the current stuff and would it be worth getting 4x 1866mhz or just 2??

also there are 2 types of the 6570 gpu, a 1g and 2g version, which would be more suitable to pair with my 6530d? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=1984

so new plan is - get amd radion 6570 gpu and link with current one, then upgrade the ram, then learn how to check it all so that i know its running fine and theres no bottle necks.

ive clocked the cpu slightly by 100mhz from 2300 to 2400, dont want to risk pushing anything higher until i know its not going to go bang, might install another fan as it only has one on the cpu and nothing to help get more air circulating around the case, we have em lying around at work so that wont cost anything,

another point is the psu is only 350w, would this be enough to handle the gpu, 4x ram and and extra fan? im starting to wish id built straight away now!!

cheers

 

[Bacon?]

350W should be enough as long as its a decent make. Whats the PSU make and model?

 

[Orcvader]

If you have the RAM set at 1600mhz you can just leave it as that. You can refund the 2x4gb kit you bought since 8gb is more than enough for gaming, as well as some light video editing.

The 1gb should be fine for the 6570, make sure you go into the BIOS and see if you can dedicate a bit more RAM to the inbuilt GPU, closer to the 1gb mark.

What CPU cooler do you have?

And as Bacon said, it depends on the brand of the PSU.

 

[ezroller]

ill check the PSU when i get home,

so 8gb is enough? probably a noob approach but if possible i wouldnt mind a bit more if it helps, the editing i do is for timelapse movies so it involves editing up to 1000 raw images in lightroom, converting them to tiff, editing them in lrtimlapse, then editing into a movie in after effects, then into premiere and i wouldnt mind shaving of some time across the board here.

i wonder if i can return the ram? its from competitor and although it came in re-closable plastic trays the cardboard packaging had to be ripped off.

and as for the ram, its about 50 quid for 2x but only an extra 25 quid for a 4x pack from overclockers, worth paying the extra?

 

[OliverDavis]

I dont think anyone has cleared this up for you. I dont mean to sound harsh, just making my self clear

Return the RAM you bough from the store (Dont mention competitors)

Buy 1886Mhz 8GB Kit from OCuk

Remove current RAM completely, do not install the 8GB along side it.

Install the 1886Mhz RAM by itself.

Buy/Install a 1GB 6570.

Go to BIOS to try to dedicated 1GB of RAM to the iGPU to match the 6570.

Open AMD Vision and pair the iGPU and 6570.

Buy a decent CPU Cooler and overclock the CPU.

Enjoy your now fairly decent gaming rig.

 

[ezroller]

I dont think anyone has cleared this up for you. I dont mean to sound harsh, just making my self clear

Return the RAM you bough from the store (Dont mention competitors)

Buy 1886Mhz 8GB Kit from OCuk

Remove current RAM completely, do not install the 8GB along side it.

Install the 1886Mhz RAM by itself.

Buy/Install a 1GB 6570.

Go to BIOS to try to dedicated 1GB of RAM to the iGPU to match the 6570.

Open AMD Vision and pair the iGPU and 6570.

Buy a decent CPU Cooler and overclock the CPU.

Enjoy your now fairly decent gaming rig.

have removed the competitors name,

ok thanks for that! ill start listening a bit more, no more questions now as well i think its all cleared up and the rest i can find elsewhere on the board...

apart from this last genral one..... anyone know the rules on returns? my mate returned the gpu in the end with my receipts exept that was all boxed up. the ram however only has the plastic cartons, i tried to open the cardboard surround carefully but it seems to be made so that you cant take it off without tearing it. thats what makes me unsure if itll be possible to return, if not then might ebay it but will lose money that way

 

[Orcvader]

Check your RAM usage when you're using After effects. If it's under 8gb, then 8gb is enough for you. If it goes over 8gb, then grab the 16gb kit.