Laptop Performance Questions

Kartoffee · September 2, 2017

This is pretty simple honestly. My laptop isn't a gaming laptop. It's just a bulky 15" laptop with AMD hardware. I'm not talking Ryzen, I have an AMD FX 9800P. It also has some weird thing going on with the GPU. I'm no tech freak, but I don't know what exactly it is. It advertises crossfire, with R8 M445 DX, and "R7". I doubt it has two GPU's, especially with such elusive naming.

In Heroes of the Storm on low graphics, a fairly undemanding MOBA, I get anywhere from 5-20 fps. Overwatch is even worse. Solidworks is near inoperable under any regular load (which is quite demanding, but I need a laptop capable of it). It is staying cool enough that I don't think it's throttling, though the deck does get mildly hot. This is only odd since I was doing fine in games until a few months ago.

I keep everything on low graphics, using the stock Windows "Performance" power mode, always charging. Chrome (or literally anything) in the background just kills all performance. I know that AMD is a bit of a poor choice in CPU, but benchmarks online put it right in the middle of Intel i5's. I have a couple questions: What are the possible bottlenecks? Would upgrading to an SSD help noticeably? I have 16GB of RAM, 4GB VRAM. How is a couple tabs in Chrome such a bottleneck? What can I do to get better framerate?

I'm sure there has been a lot of stuff like this on the forum, but just curious as to what happened to stop my laptop up. This is my first real laptop, and it honestly was the worst money I've spent. It has a touchscreen, but the shoddy LCD has a plastic screen with a fat and deep bezel, making the touchscreen useless. The fit and finish reminds me of Harbor Freight tools, including the loose ports for everything except HDMI. All my cables are taped in. The trackpad clicks jam, there is no trackpad disable hotkey, brightness control is backwards, the backlight barely illuminates, and it cost me $630... Originally $780. If I return it, any compelling options below $650?

Thanks for any help.

Shiv78 · September 2, 2017

6 minutes ago, Kartoffee said:

The trackpad clicks jam, there is no trackpad disable hotkey, brightness control is backwards, the backlight barely illuminates, and it cost me $630... Originally $780. If I return it, any compelling options below $650?

RETURN IT that is far too much for those specs

this should be somewhat better, not a quad core but at least a somewhat usable GPU

http://deals.dell.com/work/productdetail/j08?prg=1&VEN1=12383016-8289237-40ed16c2-4fc5-4ed2-a066-37d05d5614f0&dgc=BF&DGSeg=BSD&cid=198376&lid=45675&acd=12309198376456750&VEN3=813703872768457212

for a bit more

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-15-6-Inch-Quad-Core-i5-6300HQ-Processor/dp/B015PYYDMQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504325553&sr=8-1&keywords=960m

bit more than that, a Y520 or Dell Inspiron Gaming with a quad-core and 1050(Ti)

Imglidinhere · September 2, 2017

59 minutes ago, Shiv78 said:

snip

Agreed.

1 hour ago, Kartoffee said:

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If it's possible to swing the extra cash, go with the Inspiron 7559 in the second link. I own it. It's a phenomenal laptop. ^___^

Kartoffee · September 2, 2017

Honestly, I really should return it. Maybe a bit of background would help. My mother insisted that it be bought from Costco because reasons... That limited my pool down to basically just laptops that appeal to old people. Touchscreens on every laptop, mostly 2 in 1's, and nearly no dedicated graphics. This was the only one I could find with dedicated graphics, and it was only available online.

I'd like to go for the 7559 as mentioned above. My budget is kind of tight, as I'm going in debt for this. Is there anything I can do in the meantime though to improve my laptop's performance? I need at the very least to be able to use Solidworks over the next few weeks, which was running fine until a few months ago.

Pendragon · September 3, 2017

23 hours ago, Kartoffee said:

as I'm going in debt for this

dont buy it then. use the school lab. you shouldn't take on debt for convience items. i'm sure the school has computer labs for the heavy workload.

Stagea · September 4, 2017

On 9/3/2017 at 2:38 AM, Kartoffee said:

Honestly, I really should return it. Maybe a bit of background would help. My mother insisted that it be bought from Costco because reasons... That limited my pool down to basically just laptops that appeal to old people. Touchscreens on every laptop, mostly 2 in 1's, and nearly no dedicated graphics. This was the only one I could find with dedicated graphics, and it was only available online.

I'd like to go for the 7559 as mentioned above. My budget is kind of tight, as I'm going in debt for this. Is there anything I can do in the meantime though to improve my laptop's performance? I need at the very least to be able to use Solidworks over the next few weeks, which was running fine until a few months ago.

That notebook runs in hybrid crossfire mode, so yes it has two GPUs. It utilizes one built into the APU and one discrete GPU. Some games work well with that setup, but many don't. Using the built-in GPU of the APU also makes the package hit thermal and power limits sooner (which can result in throttled clock rates for the CPU cores). Try playing with the crossfire setting to see if it can fix your problem.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/How-to-Configure-AMD-CrossFire-Using-AMD-Radeon-Settings.aspx

As for Solidworks, it needs quite a bit of CPU muscle. Check if Radeon ProRender will support your GPU:

https://pro.radeon.com/en-us/radeon-prorender-for-blender-and-solidworks-now-available/

If it does, it might be able to offload some work from your CPU (and speed things up a bit).