Why does my AMD Athlon II X4 630 seem slow to start applications?

[doive1231]

Hi.

Something is puzzling me about my Athlon II X4 630. When I start applications such as the Sisoft Sandra installer and other .exe files, this processor seems to "lag" ie it takes some time for it to start, the mouse icon changes to a ring etc, whilst my former Intel C2D 2.13Ghz seems to start installers much quicker. When the progress bar is onscreen then it is obvious that the Athlon II is much quicker than my C2d but it's just when I first click the .exe file. Is this normal? Has anyone else noticed this or is it just my perception? I should have timed the whole process.

I am running Windows 7 32-bit with 2Gb DDR3 1333Mhz memory and have experienced this on both an ASUS M4A785TD-V Evo mobo and an MSI 785GM-E51 so I don't think it's the mobo.

Thanks.

 

[hunter315]

How much ram did your C2D rig have? If it has 4GB of ram it didnt have to access the HDD for page files nearly as often. What hard drive do you have? Much of an application's lag on starting can be attributed to the slow speed of HDDs relative to the rest of the system especially when trying to find a file.

 

[doive1231]

My C2D had 2GB 667Mhz Ram and a Samsung 80Gb 2MB cache

My Athlon II X4 630 has a Samsung F3 500Gb 16mb cache

 

[Devastator_uk]

Is your hard drive set to power down when idle?

 

[enzo matrix]

Hmm. The Samsung F3 should be faster. You were using windows 7 32-bit on your other computer too right?

 

[doive1231]

Yes, Windows 7 RC

 

[doive1231]

How can I tell if the HDD is set to power down when idle?

 

[lothdk]

Control panel > Hardware > Power Management

Take a look at the settings for your current power management profile.

 

[doive1231]

OK Thanks

 

[doive1231]

I've run the ES-Tool Samsung Diagnostic and everything checks out OK with the disk. The spin up and spin down time is about 5 or 6 seconds which seems long to me but it passed OK.

Perhaps I am just being too harsh and expecting too much. Could it be the memory? I bought it off ebay and it is a branded (Hynix DDR3 1333Mhz) but perhaps it is slow. The memory passed the ES-Tool test too but I haven't done much more with it.

 

[lothdk]

You could use CPU-Z to not only check what speed you are currently running the memory at, but also what type it is as well as its SPD settings.

 

[doive1231]

Yes, thanks.

 

[moody89]

I use that processor on Win7 and I experience little to no lag for apps starting up. I do have 4GB DDR3 1333MHz though so that could be the difference (click the link in my sig for specs). Like the first replier mentioned it could be down to the HDD but then it should be faster than your previous.

I would put my money on there not being enough RAM and Windows having to to use the swap file which is a lot slower. How many apps do you have running at startup and at any one time?

 

[doive1231]

Check out the video on this page to see exactly what I mean.

http://www.golem.de/showhigh2.php?file=/1003/73484.html&wort

At 48 seconds a video file is opened and it takes more than a second to open Media Player and start playing the file. I am using an Intel Core 2 Duo (E4500) at the mo and it takes less time than that to start playing a video file. This is the "lag" that I am talking about and it doesn't seem to happen with my Intel chip although as I have stated previously, when the install programme has started etc. it is clear that the AMD chip is faster.

The video is clear evidence of the anomaly I am experiencing. I must conclude that AMD chips are slow to start applications/programmes because even AMD's six-core chip exhibits what I am saying.

 

[isamuelson]

What virus software are you using? I was running Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 and it caused long boot ups, long log ins and apps like Firefox were slow to launch (sometimes 5 seconds or more).

When I dumped it and went to Avast, my boot up, login and application launch times have been really fast now. Time to boot and login to a desktop is about 50 seconds total. Firefox launches instantly now and so do my other programs.

 

[doive1231]

Free Avast Home. Whe I first built the Athlon II 630 PC it wasn't running anti-virus and not connected to the internet.

 

[isamuelson]

How about defragging your hard drive, cleaning up old temp files, etc?


Also, when was the last time you did a clean install of the OS? In fact, when you replaced the mother board, did you reinstall the OS or just allow the drivers to update? because if you did, you really need to uninstall all drivers from your previous motherboard first, shut down, install the new motherboard and then reboot and allow Windows to find and install the new motherboard's drivers.

It might be time for a clean install.

 

[Scotteq]

What Hunter said above - My vote is that the reason it takes a few seconds to load apps is that your system is limited by Hard Drive I/O. It can help a little bit to run in AHCI mode and enable NCQ in the bios. Best done on a fresh install, but it's possible to enable that after the fact in Vista and 7 if you're comfortable altering the system registry.

 

[doive1231]

It's a new build. The video in the link shows quite clearly that AMD CPUs are crap at starting applications. I won't fall for the hype again. It's not my hard disk or anti-virus or anything else, it's the CPU, and I'll stick with Intel for now even though they're dearer.

 

[someguy7]

AMD chips are not crap starting applications

 

[isamuelson]

@doive1231

There's something else wrong. It's not the AMD. I was running an AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ before I upgraded, and application start up was slower than what I have now with my Phenom, but not that much slower. But the real issues like what you report only were occurring when I was running Kaspersky Internet Security 2010. When I switched to Avast, the problem went away. There is something else and the video link you provided is from someone we don't even know. Heck, I know some German, but who knows what the heck they're talking about. Besides, when he started a video, it started up pretty quick from what I saw.

AMDs are not crap. They may not be as fast as i7s, but they definitely are no slouches. Now, in your case, your running an Athlon II. Those ARE slower than a Phenom due to not having the third cache like the Phenom II do, but even then, they still are not crap CPUs. There is something else wrong with your set up.

As for it being a new build, you could still have a severely fragged hard drive. Did you even attempt to see if it's fragmented? Even with installing software, that can frag up a hard drive pretty quick.

 

[doive1231]

Sorry, but the evidence is there in front of your eyes.

AMD's flagship processor, the six-core Thuban is slow even starting up Media Player. I would expect Media Player to start almost immediately with such a chip. I am seeing the same results with my Athlon II 630 on the applications I start.

This is AMD at Cebit on an amazing rig. Babelfish translation:

"While in Hanover at many conditions still one screws, AMD developed its highlight for the Cebit already 2010 in a discussion area of the Green IT conditions of the federation Bitkom. For the first time the chip manufacturer shows there its 6-Kern-Prozessor " Thuban" in enterprise."

If you can't explain the video and I'm telling you it's not anti-virus or a fragged drive, then I must have a point.

 

[seogoat]

I don't speak german...

 

[isamuelson]

Well, then I wish I knew why Media Player starts playing a video for me within 3-4 seconds on my AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition whether it's overclocked or not, with or without the 4th core unlocked?

I've been using AMDs for the past 10+ years and have always been pleased with their performance.

 

[doive1231]

As soon as I started using the Athlon the lag was obvious compared to an Intel chip.

Delusion is rife on these forums.