A10 5800K low video performance

Vox

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Greetings,

I recently bought a system mainly for gaming. My new specs are:
- A10 5800K APU
- Asrock FM2A85X Extreme4
- 2x4GB 2400Mhz Kingston hyperX ram

My old system was:
- AMD Phenom II 565 BE
- Gigabyte GA-MA78GM S2H mobo
- Gigabyte GeForce 9600 GT 1MB VGA
- Kingston 2x2GB DDR2 ram

None of the above were overclocked.

My main problem is with my new specs I get equal or even lower results in both 3Dmark06, Vantage and Heaven benchmarks. Actually the 3DMarks report my CPU way better that the Phenom one but I got way lower GPU performance aswell.

I read somewhere that APU's GPU performance is all about RAM speed so overclocking the rams could grant some speed increase but I just cant get my rams to be overclocked in the UEFI. There are 2 profiles, for 2133 and for 2400 MHz. If I set any of those and save bios it seems all ok but on the next start there is no any speed increase. This is my CPU-Z info when I use the 2400 profile: http://i.imgur.com/QwfoiYw.jpg

While the new Sisoft Sandra reports it still working on 1333 which is the default speed of the mobo.

I was able to increase the GPU memory from the default 512 MB to 1GB or above that I don't know if it helps or not. Also GPU-Z reports some values like bandwidth etc. lower than other 5800Ks: http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/13/03/10/ev9.png

Would you please tell me what options I have to increase my gameing performance.


 

jayw1

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The 9600 GT will surely be better than the A10's integrated GPU, but not an A10 + 6670. Not even close. What games do you play? That combo will get around 40 fps on Battlefield 3 at medium settings.
 

steddora

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Even with the GREAT advances with the APU integrated graphics chips; there's just too many downsides to it. The biggest problem, you've already stated; the ram. The ram is just SO far away from the GPU itself and getting access to it compared to a dedicated card is an unreal difference. Along with these issues, you're also dealing with the fact that it's sitting on the CPU itself. While access to the CPU is probably easier for the APU, a dedicated card isn't going to bring less performance. The APU you're using compared to a 9600GT just isn't fair. While the APU will handle newer technology through the software, it isn't dedicated with it's own ram. However, the 9600GT may have a higher pixel and fill rate; the APU may be able to beat it with the new tech.

Either way, if you're looking to game as for now; just get a good dedicated card and be happy. You won't see IGPU's pulling framerates near the top of the field for quite some time. They have become quite potent and more than enough for daily computing; but as for high end performance, they just can't handle the pressur.
 

Vox

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My second biggest problem is the frame drop / skipping / micro stuttering.
It was an ever existent problem in my old config and thought I could get rid of it by replacing the whole config. But unfortunately its still exists in every game I play with my new config now. Imagine you're driving a car on a straight road and the environment you soon leave behind on the sides of the screen jiggles / stutter as you passes all the time. Its like twice in every 5 sec or so, its not fixed, varied randomly but its so consistent all the time.

I'm really lost in finding out what could cause this since I relpaced my mobo, CPU, VGA and ram already and it still persist. Somewhere I read that sometimes monitors can do this if they connected to the PC via the common VGA port but my monitor (LG Flatron W1934S) does not have any HDMI or DVI connector.

Any idea?
 

Chris Moncrieff

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Make sure that your RAM is set up in dual channel! You have four RAM slots on that board, make sure that RAM modules are placed correctly for dual channel to function. It is likely you are running on single channel.

I get amazing 3D performance from my A10-5800K
 

Vox

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I got my ram dual-channeled in slots A1-B1 but I also tried to move to the other pair to find out if a memory bank is damaged. Dual channel is working however I can't get them working on 2400 MHz at all (black screen - no boot) not even 2133 (windows black blinks occur often). These are predefined profiles but not working. The first stable clock is 1866...



 

Chris Moncrieff

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See here what CPU-Z and GPU-Z are reading about my set up

http://imgur.com/g1xMtNC

I would suggest that you try getting the 1866 profile to stick, as it seems to be defaulting to 1333. If your BIOS has a reset button, just try tapping that, booting back into your BIOS and retrying your settings. Something appears to be unstable. Moreover I would suggest once you get the RAM in order to try bringing up your northbridge frequency.

In regards to the geforce 9600, your 7660D should out perform that. I play all my games on high without any issues: Dead Space 2 &3, Skyrim, Far Cry 3, Dirt 3, just to name a few. Passmark has been criticized a lot as a benchmark, but it is a fast and convenient reference here.

GeForce 9600 GT Score:759
My Computer (7660D @ 800MHz & 2133RAM) Score:1037
 

Vox

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should this be my problem? Check my GPU-Z above, my bandwidth and memory speed is way lower than yours. But how can I increase them?
Also, the OpenCL is unchecked for me.
 

Chris Moncrieff

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You can see on your CPU-Z readout that your XMP profiles are not sticking in the BIOS. As the RAM is DDR3 (Double Data Rate) you can see your effective frequency is 665.5x2=1331MHz! also the timings of 9-9-9-25 are indicative of 1333MHz as well.

I suspect that the XMP overclock profiles to bring the RAM up to 2133MHz or 2400MHz are unstable, and the BIOS is not loading them on boot, therefore it is picking up the default of 1333MHz.

Based on your available XMP profiles I suggest trying to boot with 1866MHz, 11-11-11-27 timings @ 1.6v
Also, if you can bring your CPU-NB frequency up from 1800MHz to 2100MHz (probably at 1.35v) both these settings should help bring up your bandwidth.

Once you have established a stable baseline to work with then you can start looking at how to increase your RAM speed up to the advertised specs. Personally, I purchased 2133MHz RAM which turned out to be extremely unstable with the XMP profile and needed to bump up the voltage to 1.74v (beyond 1.75v will fry it) to achieve anything stable from it. After a lot of research on the topic I discovered it is very common in the industry for producers to advertise overclocked 1600MHz RAM as 2133MHz. So a lot of the time when you are purchasing 2133MHz RAM you are really just buying pre-overclocked 1600MHz. As you will find with electronic components, no two pieces are the same and therefore the pre-loaded XMP profiles my not be effective for overclocking your modules to the factory advertised speeds and you need to take things into your own hands.

You'll want to enable OpenCL as well if it is not enabled.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/399183
 

Vox

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Thanks to your advices, I've managed to change my RAM defaults.
Running on 1866 is pretty stable. I've tried to get my 2400 MHz rams (Kingston KHX24C11T2K2/8X) working on 2133 MHz and Windows just started to blink: in every 2-3 minutes I got a blink where creen goes black for a 1-2 sec. I have tried to increase voltage up to 1.72 but no changes yet, and wanted to ask you if I can go up to 1.74 safely -- because I don't have a good cooling.
 

Chris Moncrieff

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Any 1.5v rated DDR3 DIMMs should be safe through to 1.75v. But adding more voltage isn't always the solution. If you have already increased your CPU-NB frequency and the RAM is not cooperating, I would suggest taking note of one of the XMP profiles and making a few changes to the timings. The timings of 14-14-14-30 would be a good place to start with the 2400MHz frequency. If you can load the 2400MHz XMP profile and then just change the CAS latency (CL) to 14 it might do the trick to get it booting.

If you look around on the web you can find people pushing RAM voltages up to 2v, but that would not be safe on a 24/7 setup because the RAM can quickly degrade at those voltages.

You can see here: http://i.imgur.com/Rn1gZmq.gif my RAM is not rated anything close to 2400MHz, yet a stable balance can be achieved by loosening the timings to give it a bit more slack. However, there are also performance consequences to be had with such loose timings. Although, as you can see the bandwidth increases, the access times to the RAM also increase.
 

Vox

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I have those blinks on 2133 not 2400. Now I changed back to 1866 MHz (where it was stable) but I left CPU-NB freq on 2200 and CPU on x44.
Some blinks still exists but they're rare. Should I raise the Voltage of NB, since its on the stock 1.15v
 

Chris Moncrieff

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The CPU North Bridge is the communication link between the IGPU, RAM, and PCI; by upping the frequency you are aiding in the faster communication between these components. If you are not experiencing any instability with the CPU-NB then I shouldn't think there would be any need to raise the voltage. I needed to raise my CPU-NB voltage to 1.35v to achieve 2200MHz.

Since you are considering keeping the 1866MHz RAM frequency, you might consider tightening your timings to something like 9-11-9-27 so that your CPU/IGPU can have faster access to your RAM with lower latency.

You might also consider going to the AMD website and grabbing the latest Beta Catalyst Control Drivers for the APU. That might help some with the flickering you are experiencing. http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx
 

Vox

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Hey Chris,

Many thanks for your suggestions and advices!
I'm updated to the beta Catalyst from your link and that flickering is still exists. I think its because the OC-ing not software and because its instable.
Anyway, after some testing I got my config working stable on 1866Mhz (9-11-9-27) and NB freq: 2000 MHz now. I'm not sure if I can OC any more without better cooling.

- I found "GFX Engine Clock" in the UEFI where I can set the MHz of it. Is that anything good to change?
- I've tried AMD OverDrive's "Scan" option to find out the most stable OC values but it freezes my comp all the time..
- Increasing the ram used by the IGP from 512MB to 1GB changes anything? I see you have not modified that part.

Thank you for your help!
 

Chris Moncrieff

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Have you checked your system temps? The CPU temp can get out of control very quickly on the A10 especially with any overclocking. I had to toss the stock HSF for a much larger one just to keep my temps down at a mild OC. One thing thats good to know is that the AM3+ HSF's seem to fit well. I went with this HSF (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200014), its nothing fancy but it gets the job done well, and unless you are going to do something crazy with your CPU there is no need to invest in water cooling.

You may try lowering your CPU multiplier to x42 and seeing if the issue persists. It may be heat related. Your CPU could be throttling down because of reaching max temps.

Try something like this http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html to keep an eye on your CPU temps. It has been said that 72C is the max safe temp for the A10. I was reading up to 132C before a BIOS update which read the sensor correctly, and before that update I was getting some artifacts on the screen (maybe like what you're experiencing?).


As for the GFX Engine Clock in the UEFI, it is just what you would think, the iGPU core clock. 800MHz is the stock frequency, but you can at least run it at 844MHz for a bit of a performance increase. Many people are able to run the iGPU in excess of 1GHz, but I am not that fortunate with mine. Go ahead and try some other frequencies, if you set it too high and it is unstable the worst that can happen is the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) which really isn't as bad as it sounds. You may be able to load very high frequencies on the GFX Engine Clock, but then find that if fails with a BSOD about 10min into gaming.

I never bothered modifying the RAM dedicated to the iGPU as it is also dynamically allocated up to 2GB as needed.
 

andre_888

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I had frame drops until I went from Windows 8 to Windows 7 - The NB frequency was dropping with the Windows 8 drivers(Chipset and Catalyst) or the more recent Windows 7 drivers.

As for the RAM and NB frequency, it is true the higher the better, but do not push the iGPU or CPU so far that everything will throttle.
Until I reverted to Windows 7 with older drivers, I would get random crashes and drops in the frame rate.
 

mixstyler

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I have A10-5800 and the same motherboard.
The same problem for instability work on increased memory was solved!!!!!!

My OCZ memory must be working on 2133 8-9-8-30 timings, but it doesnt!!! It is not stable timings for this APU!!!!
Do not load any profiles for memory, try to set manually memory speed to 2133 or 2400 and TIMINGS use in AUTO !!! It will work!!! Let the ALU use working timings for him!!! Don't forgot to set memo voltage manually! And by happy!
 

Vox

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Hey again,

I still have the monitor "blinking" problem even if I set 2133 manually and leave timings on auto. The monitor just turns off for a single second once randomly in every 10 min or so.