4650 slow performance in Flash Games

[keplenk]

Hi everyone,

I just recently purchased a low profile 4650 - brand is Asus EAH4650 1Gb DDR2 Pcie from Newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121340&cm_re=4650-_-14-121-340-_-ProductHi all,

I originally had a Nvidia 7300LE 64MB Pcie and I just decided to get this because it was cheap.

My operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit. As soon as I got the card, I replaced my old 7300LE then right of the bat, I ran Call of Duty 5 and it was awesome. I tried playing 1080p videos and it was really nice.

I then played bejeweled blitz in facebook (flash game) using mozilla firefox (latest) then I noticed when the jewels fall, it was not smooth. Sometimes it pauses for half a second then suddenly it just resumes in like a fast-forward mode. It is like choppy. The game was still playable though. But sometimes it is irritating because of the pause - go - pause - go. The game UNO also has this slow thing happening - not as bad as the Bejeweled one.

I then decided to update my video card driver. I went to ATI and downloaded the 9.10 catalyst combo and installed it properly. Restarted and ran bejewelwed blitz but it was still having problems.

So I tried other browsers like IE, Opera, Chrome but they all have the same problem.

While running bejeweled blitz, I opened task manager and noticed that my cpu is running at around 50-60%.

I was puzzled why this was happening, so I decided to replug my old 7300LE back and I did not have the slow problem in bejeweled blitz. The game ran smooth, not like the 4650.

I ran task manager with the 7300LE connected and it is also 50-60%. So I don't think that it was a cpu issue.

I then replugged my 4650 back and decided to use my spare sata hdd and use it to have a fresh install of Win7. Right after installing, Win7 automatically downloaded the ATI drivers thru Windows update. I installed Adobe flash for IE then ran bejeweled. It was still choppy. I updated the driver and it was still the same. But this time CPU usage is 10-20% while playing (still 4650). Replugged 7300LE and it was back to smooth performance in the game.

I also tried to reformat one more time, but this time 64bit Home premium. It was still the same.

Anybody has a clue why my 4650 is having problems with flash games? I really don't think it is something else since my nvidia card which is a million times crappier than my 4650 works excellent in flash games.

Again, Call of Duty 5 runs excellent in my 4650. I also tried Need for Speed Pro Street and it was really great. I can even max out details without any problems.

My full specs:

Processor: E5200 2.5Ghz (stock)
Mobo: G31M-ES2L rev 1.x F10 bios
Memory: Crucial 4gb ddr2 800 - dual channel mode
HDD: 1x 250gb 7200rmp Seagate
ODD: DVDRW 20x

Please Help.

Thank you.

 

[enzo matrix]

This doesn't really answer your question with regards to the 4650 but still.

Adobe Flash's GPU acceleration is horrible. I've found little to no difference with GPU acceleration disable and enabled- sometimes better performance with it disabled.

This article also states that for GPU acceleration to work, the programmers have to manually enable it in their code.
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/15710

To get smooth performance with your 4650, try disabling GPU acceleration and just use your CPU:
Right click on a flash thing>> make sure the first tab is selected>> uncheck the box that says "enable hardware acceleration"

 

[keplenk]

Thanks enzo. That actually kinda worked. I say kinda because it had a great improvement over the Enabled hardware acceleration but it was not smooth as my 7300LE when plugged in. Do you maybe have an idea why the poor performance is only happening in the ATI card? I read somewhere that the new iMacs where having problems with the 4670 in flash games. I don't know if this is related or what but it would be awesome if someone could explain this weird issue. I remembered reading an issue about flash before, but since I never had this problem before, I didn't mind .. it was just after upgrading that it made me concerned. Should I take into consideration that this "could" be a faulty card?

BTW, this is the first time I bought an ATI card. Please forgive me as I have little information on how ATI performs.

 

[keplenk]

Update:

I updated to 10.1 Adobe flash (the beta), it is now smooth.

 

[enzo matrix]

Update:

I updated to 10.1 Adobe flash (the beta), it is now smooth.

Thanks for mentioning it. I think I'll update too.

 

[Tingman]

The new 9.11 Catalyst driver will accelerate the 10.1 Adobe flash beta even more.