Is the AMD 6470m gpu in my laptop useless? need help

kebbz

Honorable
Jul 27, 2012
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Hey guys im having quite a problem here.

I got a hp pavilion G4 - 1204ax notebook equipped with Dual Graphics.

Here's the specs.
Amd A8-3500m 1.5 - 2.4ghz
6640G2 (6620g + 6470m)
8gb ram.

So, my problem is, Dual Graphics. aka Crossfire.

I only have 2 dx 11 games which are Battlefield bad company 2 and Battlefield 3.
I am getting insane microstuttering with Crossfire enabled. No matter what i do, its there.
Reinstalling and updating drivers from all methods never worked for me.

Running both games with only the 6620g, i am getting liquid smooth 40+ fps at 1024x600 resolution.

Running Crossfire enabled, the fraps fps reading is getting 44+ fps. But the gameplay feels like 18-20. :|

I also can't get games to run using the Discreet card alone.

Is my 6470m useless????? anyone fixed this microstuttering?
 

airanp

Honorable
Aug 8, 2012
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10,660


It's not useless. There should be an option in the CCC to specify which graphics you want to use when playing certain games. But you also have to realize that BF 3 isn't going to get much better running on the 6470m.
 

chrisk44

Honorable
May 23, 2013
5
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10,510
Hello,

I have a samsung laptop with 6520g (on-board with a6-3420m) and the 6470m you have... I have been looking into that and the answer is no, the 6470m gpu is not useless. It is actually pretty good, if you get it working... Windows use the integrated graphics card (a.k.a 6520g or in your case 6620g) and deactivate the 6470m until you need it (which means that it will be activated ONLY if you run a software or game which is too heavy for the on-board graphics). The problem here is that AMD Vision or AMD Catalyst (since you have an A8 you probably have AMD Vision Engine installed that came with the driver) does not always recognise that you are running a heavy game (even if you have set the game to "High performance graphics or something similar from switchable graphics) and leave you with the 6520g. Of course some games that support crossfire can use both of them which results to pretty good performance (for example I can run Call of Duty Black Ops 2 in medium settings really good), but then there are some other games (for example Grand Theft Auto IV which is the worst computer port ever) that cannot utilize both of them, and AMD Vision does not recognise that is needs the high performance graphics card so you just have to deal with the on-board. That's actually my big problem with my laptop.

There is no way to deactivate the on-board (for example, from Device Manager) and leave the other one because when you deactivate one of them, the other gets deactivated as well. Also you can't select from AMD Vision Engine which gpu you want to be the main one and which you want to be the secondary.
I haven't managed to find a solution around here either, but it seems that the only way to get the secondary gpu working, is to play a game that supports crossfire... :/

The only thing that might work for you is disabling the ULPS Technology. The ULPS (Ultra-Low Power Supply) is a technology (mostly in laptops) that, when you have multiple graphics cards, will keep the secondary deactivated (6470m) and leave you with the on-board, which will save you energy and extend your battery life. Since the 6470m is constantly completely deactivated there is no way your game will "see" it, so it will not use it and stay with the on-board. There is a way to disable the ULPS through the registry, and I think it is the only one. There might be a software that does this for you but a good way to do it is through the registry.

BE CAREFUL HERE!!!
Changing anything in the registry without knowing exactly what you are doing can cause your system to become unstable and even or even completely broken. The chances of damaging hardware are really low but there is a possibility that you will need to reinstall windows if you do something wrong. I have no responsibility on whatever happens to your system. I have tried it only on MY computer and worked fine, but I cannot guarrantee that it will work on yours as well. If you don't know anything about the windows registry and you believe you may damage your computer, STOP HERE.

To deactivate ULPS you just have to open registry, search for "EnableUlps" value and change its data from "1" to "0". There are going to be 2 "EnableUlps" values in different keys of the registry. The one key is "0000" for the one gpu and the other one is "0001" for the other gpu. You only have to change the one for the 6470m since the other one never gets deactivated, but there is no harm disabling the ulps for both of them. Now, if you change this/these value(s) and you reboot your system, both of your GPUs will be activated. The 6470m will not be utilised by windows, it will just be idle (running at 100Mhz). But now, with the 6470m activated (now, any software will find it and will be able to give you details about it, where before, it couldn't) there is a possibility that your game will find it and utilize it, thus enabling crossfire, and it will give you the best performance and graphics your computer can give you.

If you have ulps deactivated and both of your GPUs are activated and running, you will consume more energy and your computer will probably produce more heat. There is not chance it will damage your hardware, but when computers get very hot, they "slow down" a bit so no damage will be caused. If you find that this works for you, you can re-activate ULPS whenever you are not playing a game by doing the same process and changing the data for each "enableulps" value from "0" to "1" and rebooting your system.
You can also create a .bat file to change the values for you so you won't have to find them in registry every time...

Let me know if this solution works for you...