Windows Aero Scores & performace tuning.

[fgl0153]

HI all!

New to Win7 came here from XP 32bit and am trying to get a better understanding of WEI.
This was a good build and I have no stability issues. I eliminated aero theme and use windows 7 basic instead.
What starts me down this road is the seemingly low AERO score (4.5). I'm admittedly not intouch with this stuff
as I once was and perhaps this configuration cannot yield any better WEI numbers. Also DX10 is installed not DX11
which I can use. I'd like to return to playing some FPS games. Any opinions or suggestions appreciated.

Have a helluvaday!!!


BASICS
Homegrown FM1 socket
Windows 7 (64Bit)
AMD A6-3500 APU
ATI Radeon 6530d
3 Cores
Gigabyte A75M-D2H MOBO
4 GIGs RAm
HDD (2)
SATA 1 500 GB 2 Partitions
SATA 2 320 GB 1 Partition
No Cooling issues
Nothing overclocked
HDMI output to Toshiba 46" LED Flat panel TV.

WEI:
Processor AMD A6-3500 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 6.3
Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB .................................................5.9
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6530D ....................................4.5 <------- My Base Score
Gaming graphics 2046 MB Total available graphics memory 6.1
Primary hard disk 30GB Free (65GB Total)....................... 5.9

 

[kajabla]

As you can see, the AMD APUs have terrible integrated GPUs. If you want to get into FPS gaming, you'll need a discrete graphics card.

 

[davec80]

The AMD APUs have awesome integrated graphics. They will blow away anything short of a mid-range dedicated graphics card! For high FPS gaming, you might want a discrete graphics card. But that has nothing to do with the performance of the GPUs integrated into the AMD APUs!

To the original poster:
If you haven't already,
1) First, reinstall the CHIPSET drivers for your motherboard. Download them from the web site of the manufacturer of your motherboard.
2) Second, go to www.amd.com and download the latest graphics drivers for your APU. When you search for drivers, select desktop graphics, then somewhere along the line it will give you the option to auto-detect and install the correct driver. The CORRECT driver is one for an A6-3600, which is not intuitive I know. But let AMD's program auto-detect and download the proper driver.

To the original poster: I am 100% certain your low WEI score is a driver problem. I've got a similar build with a Gigabyte mainboard, A6-3500 APU. My WEI is 5.6. My lowest score on WEI is disk performance. This low disk performance score is probably because I'm booting a desktop PC with a 5400 RPM notebook hard drive (because I had a spare). Anyway, Aero graphics score was 5.9 and gaming graphics was 6.5.

A75 chipset Gigabyte mainboard
A6-3500 APU
4GB (2 X 2GB) Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 RAM
Windows 7 64-bit Professional
OCZ ModXStream 500W power supply
Monitor is a LG HDTV at the moment (HDMI)
Western Digital 250GB NOTEBOOK hard drive 5400RPM
WEI 5.6, being held back by low hard disk score...

 

[fgl0153]

Best answer selected by fgl0153.

 

[fgl0153]

Horseshit. The AMD APUs have awesome integrated graphics. They will blow away anything short of a mid-range dedicated graphics card! For high FPS gaming, you might want a discrete graphics card. But that has nothing to do with the performance of the GPUs integrated into the AMD APUs!

To the original poster:
If you haven't already,
1) First, reinstall the CHIPSET drivers for your motherboard. Download them from the web site of the manufacturer of your motherboard.
2) Second, go to www.amd.com and download the latest graphics drivers for your APU. When you search for drivers, select desktop graphics, then somewhere along the line it will give you the option to auto-detect and install the correct driver. The CORRECT driver is one for an A6-3600, which is not intuitive I know. But let AMD's program auto-detect and download the proper driver.

To the original poster: I am 100% certain your low WEI score is a driver problem. I've got a similar build with a Gigabyte mainboard, A6-3500 APU. My WEI is 5.6. My lowest score on WEI is disk performance. This low disk performance score is probably because I'm booting a desktop PC with a 5400 RPM notebook hard drive (because I had a spare). Anyway, Aero graphics score was 5.9 and gaming graphics was 6.5.

A75 chipset Gigabyte mainboard
A6-3500 APU
4GB (2 X 2GB) Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 RAM
Windows 7 64-bit Professional
OCZ ModXStream 500W power supply
Monitor is a LG HDTV at the moment (HDMI)
Western Digital 250GB NOTEBOOK hard drive 5400RPM
WEI 5.6, being held back by low hard disk score...

DAVEC80,

I believe you are right on the money. I've pretty much done what you've stated on the AMD side last week. AMD confirmed catalyst A6-3600. I notice an improvement already. Still waiting for gigabyte to fix their file download issue for the Mobo drivers. Chipset drivers. I have already done the other including realtek which also remedied the issues there. My bios was at release F1 and the current is F5 so I got that done as well. There were many references in F4 pertaining to these very AMD issues. So things have improved greatly but aren't where I'd like them to be yet. I may have to remove Vonage and get a router and I'm considering the discrete card. Power supply up'd to 600W since the fan in the old one became noisy and might as well have been off.

I appeciate your taking the time to reply and I appreciate all ressponses. Been coming here for years using it as a reference. First time I ever posted and glad I did.

Many Happy Returns

Frank