Radeon Dual Graphics Still Hot Air?

$hawn

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Hi,

I have a laptop with a A10-5750M and a discrete HD 8670M. However, I see absolutely NO difference in the FPS I get in games with dual graphics enabled or disabled in CCC. I'm using the latest stable Catalyst 13.9 drivers.

Initially I though I was being CPU limited in Crysis3, but then on checking with a less CPU demanding game, like TC HAWX2, I still see no improvement.

Also, has AMD fixed the runt frames issue with Dual Graphics, or is that problem still there for Mobility Radeon products?

 
There should be a technical framerate increase in dual graphics with the latest drivers, but frame pacing for dual graphics is still awful, so those extra fps don't matter.

AMD seems to be focusing on the new crossfire implementation with the 290/290x dual graphics users(and possibly even original crossfire) look like they're getting left out in the cold.
 
Well, I can speak from experience, the CPU cores on the APU's are simply too weak to keep up with dual graphics. I had an A10-5800K paired with an HD 6670, and that was on a desktop, where the parts are even more powerful. Have you tried playing a singleplayer only title? Bioshock Infinite is a great way to tell if you are being bottlenecked by the CPU, because Bioshock should use your GPU almost exclusively. And just in case, here are the latest graphics drivers. Make sure you do a clean install. You want the 13.11 beta, updated 12/3/13.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+7+-+64
 

$hawn

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@expl0itfinder Yes, I was playing Crysis3 in single player mode!

You maybe right, the CPU could be the real bottleneck. I shall run a couple of tests today by limiting the CPU clock speed in CCC's power options, and see what happens.

However, just to let you know, I even tested with the older ATi Tool benchmark, and the results were the same!! Agreed this is an antique GPU benchmark, but still, I get 240 fps using the integrated 8650G alone, 345fps using the discrete 8670M alone, but still the same 345fps with Dual Graphics enabled. :(

It would be really pathetic is AMD is making a fool out of it's mobile APU users :(

As for the Beta drivers, I would prefer to stay away from them, not really interested in playing with unfinished stuff. I believe the current beta drivers would be released as stable just before Christmas anyway, so that's really not a long wait for me.

 
Well the only real risk with using a beta driver is the chance that something may not work properly. And since it already isn't working properly, I would say the beta drivers are worth a shot. As for the benchmark, the fact that it is old will contribute to multi-GPU support. It probably isn't coded to support dual graphics, but you should still see SOME benefit in games.
 

$hawn

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This is just to help anyone else who could end up in the same boat in the future, with regards to generic drivers.

Today I chatted with the HP support assistant, regarding whether I could install the generic drivers directly from AMD on my HP laptop. She said that the generic drivers "should ideally work fine".

So I decided to give it a shot, and downloaded the latest 14.4 WHQL drivers, and installed it. The catalyst software and drivers installed smoothly without any problems. I didn't even uninstall the old HP drivers before installing the AMD ones.
Now I have support for Mantle as well as OpenCL 4.4. Couldn't be happier :)

PS:- I've now got an additional software installed along with the drivers called 'AMD Quick Stream'. It seems to be throttling my bandwidth for non streaming applications. Gonna get rid of it now.

Dual Graphics STILL doesn't work. AMD just outright lied to all its customers!! In Crysis3, my performance actually DECREASES with dual graphics on.