AMD Phenom X4 9550

[thescreensavers]

My friend had a serous FPS issue, thinking it was the GPU since it kept running at 100C temps we replaced that and got a new case with better airflow.


Well now its still having the same stupid issue. I made him run Super PI, its suppose to get 28sec on 1M calculation his took 1minute and 9 seconds. I also looked up and people easly get 10k + scores in 3dmark with his CPU but he cant break 6k, he just also got a ATI HD 4780 gpu which can easily do 13k.


What seems to be wrong with his CPU, its running cool at 37C, his ram is also in dual channel mode.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Any other tests you guys did? What games is he playing and what kind of performance in those games is he getting? What were the individual scores for his 3Dmark Score (I assume this is 3DMark06). 6k is really low for his hardware. I get 9k with mine.

 

[thescreensavers]

According to a sissoft test he is only getting 16.4 dhrystone test when he is suppose to get a 32.39 in that test according to tomshardware test.


He plays wow and it gets down to 5fps with his 9800gt which we thought was the problem he said he got 100 fps before like nothing now never. with the ATI card he got 1k more on 3dmark06, I can remotely connect to his comp. What other tests should I run?

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Well you should first verify it's running at the proper clock speed during his tests.

I'd probably have him clear and update the BIOS, and then turn off Cool 'N Quiet. Although you can do each of these 3 things one at a time, step by step.

 

[thescreensavers]

Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
Well you should first verify it's running at the proper clock speed during his tests.

I'd probably have him clear and update the BIOS, and then turn off Cool 'N Quiet. Although you can do each of these 3 things one at a time, step by step.

I just tried to make him turn off CnQ and he could not find the setting for it.


I can make him to a bios update also, but that might be hard for him to do. I am going to also uninstall the cpu driver and have vista reinstall it and run 3dmark Vantage and see what his score is.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Well those scores sound so low I think the processor is not running at full frequency. Seems like it's running at half-speed or slower.

 

[thescreensavers]

Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
Well those scores sound so low I think the processor is not running at full frequency. Seems like it's running at half-speed or slower.

yea, he just received a 3720 score in Vantage for his CPU Here is the 3dmark Vantage link

My laptop with a Mobile Core 2 T9300 got 4928. His should be more.


Edit: I just set his comp to High Performance mode, it was on power save but I don't know if that will fix it. Since I never seen a performance hit that bad even in power save modes we will see rerunning 3dmark 06 atm

Edit2: nope still crap I think he needs to RMA his CPU or just buy a 9600 is 99 bucks so idk what he is going to do.

Edit3: yes the cpu is running at 2.2 ghz during the tests

 

[thescreensavers]

Resetting Bios right now, going to look for a bios update.

 

[thescreensavers]

No bios update, he has a

HP Pavilion a6650f which he upgraded the PSU and Case and GPU (ATI 4870).

Here is his full specification list, http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr...ang=en&product=3794769

It also doesn't seem there is any "Cool N Quiet" option in his bios. I dont know why.

 

[Arkaign]

Ouch!

Does he have a spare drive to do a test clean install on? That only takes like 20 minutes these days. That's not a bad cpu. Anyone around who can test his cpu in another board? If it's the board, it would probably be a nice upgrade to go to a 790X or something like that. Major brand boards suck 99% of the time

 

[thescreensavers]

^^Maybe and No, I was going to make him try the Ubuntu Live CD and get some cpu benchmarking program in linux to see if its the OS.


So he either needs to send the whole comp to HP or rma the cpu to AMD, but he doesn't have a case for the cpu so I dont think AMD is an option. Or he might just buy a new cpu. But If the mobo is some how bad that would be annoying.

 

[Yukmouth]

Very odd issue for sure.

1.) Maybe one or more of the cores failed ..., 2.) Maybe cool & quiet is not working correctly. Dose CPU ID show all four cores working?

I'd run AMD OverDrive on his system and see if you can't get a better look. A stress test or two might tell you something.

My guess would be that motherboard, I've never been fond of pre-built PC motherboards; they're limiting in so many ways. Good temps could very well mean one of the cores is not even running, also.

Are his driver version's all up to date, and, when did he start noticing a problem?

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: thescreensavers

Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
Well those scores sound so low I think the processor is not running at full frequency. Seems like it's running at half-speed or slower.

yea, he just received a 3720 score in Vantage for his CPU Here is the 3dmark Vantage link

My laptop with a Mobile Core 2 T9300 got 4928. His should be more.


Edit: I just set his comp to High Performance mode, it was on power save but I don't know if that will fix it. Since I never seen a performance hit that bad even in power save modes we will see rerunning 3dmark 06 atm

Edit2: nope still crap I think he needs to RMA his CPU or just buy a 9600 is 99 bucks so idk what he is going to do.

Edit3: yes the cpu is running at 2.2 ghz during the tests

Don't buy a 9600 cpu. In fact, I'd go with a phenom II if anything (the triple core phenom IIs are around $100 and are probably faster anyhow due to higher clock speed). If you do go with phenom 1, make sure it ends in 50, ie 9650. The ones that end in 00 have a bug that really hurts performance.

Speaking of which, some computers turn on the fix for the bug (which hurts performance) even on the **50 cpus. It's possibly it's enabled on the HP computer. The fix doesn't effect phenom IIs, but I think AMD overdrive can disable the fix in windows.
Though I hear Windows Vista service pack 1 also automatically applies the fix. Geez, it might just be better avoiding phenom I entirely.

 

[Pelu]

yeah avoid phenom one is so crap, better go Athlon II lol!

Anyway sometimes the computer capacitors in the boards get screw up due to aging, this hurts performance and temperature....

 

[LoneNinja]

I down clocked my Phenom 9850 to 2.2Ghz and this is what 3dmark06 gave me paired with a 3650.

3DMark Score 4788
SM 2.0 Score 1618
SM 3.0 Score 1976
CPU Score 3057

 

[thescreensavers]

I ran CPU-Z I dont think I cought anything. When I did a stress stest cores 2-4 were all at 50% and the first core was just in limbo. ill try cpuID. His current mobo can only support

* Socket: AM2+
* Supports the following processors:
o Phenom with Quad Core technology (AM2+) up to 9600 (up to 95 watt)
o Athlon 64 X2 with Dual Core technology X2 up to 5600+ (up to 89 watt)
o Athlon 64 less than 4000+
o Sempron less than 3800+


And yea, I dont think Cool N Quiet is a Menu item in his bios, he sent me pics of his bios and it was not there.

Also I tried AMD Overdrive but it fails because it cannot detect something, I dont remember the specific error.

 

[Yukmouth]

Have him run Prime 95. That program tests each core individually and will keep testing on the remaining reduced cores if one craps out. Running slow on a Phenom but still running sounds like a core issue, to me.

You'll be able to see which, if any, core is giving you an issue with Prime95. The four core process monitor screens are a big help. Overdrive might not boot due to hp bios restriction's, I was wondering myself if that would be the case.

 

[thescreensavers]

ok so prime 95 + CPU ID?


Ill have him do that

 

[thescreensavers]

OK I started a Prime95 test I did both the Small and Large FFT tests

So far all 4 cores finished the first step at the same time, and Windows Task manager shows 100% utilization on all cores

hmm while running the tests "http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=673979" CPU-Z shows only 1.1 ghz instead of 2.4

Screen shot

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Mmm, yeah. I'd say somehow CnQ is messing up his performance. And actually the 9550 runs at 2.2 GHz, and in it's lowest state when CnQ is enabled it runs at half speed, which would be 1.1 GHz.

You said "When I did a stress stest cores 2-4 were all at 50% and the first core was just in limbo. ill try cpuID. His current mobo can only support", but what stress test were you using? All cores, assuming the test is threaded for four cores, should have been at 100%. To me this sounds like the Windows thread handling problem with CnQ as noted by Anandtech's Phenom II review

And upgrading the processor probably also means upgrading the motherboard. I really doubt that HP board will support a Phenom II; in fact I'm pretty sure it won't, especially without a BIOS update and considering it's probably physically incapable of doing so. And you know, if he's going to upgrade the motherboard, then most likely he can still use the Phenom 9550 as hopefully he can adjust the settings (CnQ) to fix the performance issues.

But hopefully we can find some other fix for this solution. A reformat is probably in order, along with a clearing of the CMOS (if he can).

 

[thescreensavers]

Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
Mmm, yeah. I'd say somehow CnQ is messing up his performance. And actually the 9550 runs at 2.2 GHz, and in it's lowest state when CnQ is enabled it runs at half speed, which would be 1.1 GHz.

You said "When I did a stress stest cores 2-4 were all at 50% and the first core was just in limbo. ill try cpuID. His current mobo can only support", but what stress test were you using? .

I dont even remember any more, prim95 is a proper 4 threaded stress testing app and all 4 were at 100%.

I am going to make him get Ubuntu and just run the live CD and see if his cpu hits 2.2ghz in ubuntu. If it does then we know its vista.

 

[Yukmouth]

Odd issue for sure, maybe something was modified within the bios unbeknownst to the user.

I would try resetting his bios to ensure everything is set to default. There should definitely be a cmos jumper on his motherboard.

I've never seen CPU-Z report anything but the peak frequency of a CPU, either. The effects of C&Q should not show up in this app I don't believe.

 

[spinejam]

The cpu multi is only 5.5 according to cpuz. imo, the solution is most likely in the bios settings.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: spinejam
The cpu multi is only 5.5 according to cpuz. imo, the solution is most likely in the bios settings.

That would mean it is running in a reduced power state.

I'm just going to throw this out there but that Asus GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 motherboard has been used for years by HP.

There are two issues: 1) That motherboard/chipset existed years before the Phenom hit the market and the mobo architecture is crippled with K10. The arch essentially reaches back to the nForce2 days and the Athlon XP, being subsequently 'tweaked' for HT, DDR2, Gigabit Ethernet, PCIe, etc; so

2) HP had to modify and recreate a BIOS because of K10. Since the design has been used for so many years (the nForce4-based '6150' motherboard goes back to 2005), and has been in use by HP for maybe 3 years for AM2 procs, so ...

they can't publicly release a BIOS for this model - or provide updates - because all the previous HP "Asus GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 motherboard" owners would be able to update their old HPs to use the original Phenom (instead of the original AM2 procs).

And that would be bad for HP business

 

[exar333]

"Why not junk the AMD setup and get an Intel rig?"

I couldn't resist....:evil: