APU- Help in Windows 8

[oozz77]

I have had my A8-5500 for many months now running great, but recently in Windows 8 it has dropped performance in 2 specific bench programs I use.

One is Geekbench 2 and MaxxMem.

In Geekbench 2, my scores have dropped from nearly 6,000 down to 4,500 and it looks like the "multi-core" tests are the most affected!!

Is it possible that Windows 8 has "borked" the thread scheduler during a crash or something, as I was reading somewhere that you had to email Microsoft to get a scheduler patch for Bulldozer/Trinity.

I have looked at everything in the Bios and nothing has changed, but I have also noticed that where once it always started benches at 3,500mhz and went up to 3,700mhz, it doesn't appear to "turbo core" as high also!! Heat isn't an issue!

Are their any settings in the Bios that I could enable/disable that may also make a difference? My mobo is the Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H.

P.S. Also just noticed that under "task manager" under "processes", it is showing my CPU usage at 37% and the main process taking most of this 37% is "system" followed by 2% "task manager"!! This seems a bit high as in the past my CPU usage was always below 10%; so is this figure of 37% unusually high?

[oozz77]

From looking at a few of my "sensor" programs, Hardware Info 32 version 4.15, shows the activity of all 4 cores, but it looks to me like the "boost" above the stock 3,200mhz views all the cores working up to 3,500mhz, but only core # 0 and core # 1 seem to boost all the way up to 3,700mhz!!

Could this be part of the 2 "module design" only allowing one module to boost all the way to max 3,700mhz, or has something gone wrong with the scheduler?

[caveman-jim]

Scheduler is a red herring, Windows 8 has a better one that was available through patches for win 7/server 2008 r2.

[oozz77]

Scheduler is a red herring,

This was only a thing that I could think of that "may" have gone wrong.

I can't understand what else could cause such a performance drop!

Any other tests around that could compare my A8-5500 to others?

Is it possible Geekbench 2 has some how degraded performance through registry entries gone wrong?

I want my old A8-5500 performance back or at least try another bench program to determine it's performance against others!!

[Dr. Zhivago]

Geekbench sucks. Look to other benchmarks for actual performance comparisons.

Go to www.anandtech.com/Bench

[oozz77]

I finally painstakingly got to the bottom of the problem.

Now this "may" only apply to non "K" model "locked" APU's!

Like most of us, we all like tweaking and that's why I got a new mobo and ram for my APU.

I have had it tweaked/overclocked to some degree even though it is a locked APU.

So I did countless tests overclocked BLCK, or GPU or Ram and each time both CPU usage was high and benchmarks low (except for MaxMemm)!

Each time I set it back to "stock", CPU usage would drop to less than 4% and benchmarks went back up!!!

So it seems that the non K versions of the APU may just not sync well with overclocking and the windows system? That's all I can put it down too!!

The only last thing I haven't tried is under-clocking the 32x multiplier when I increase the BLCK and in turn the memory and GPU, as it just may be that the A8-5500 don't clock well at all above the maximum boost of 3,700mhz.

I may try this side of overclocking tomorrow just to see.

[caveman-jim]

Ah, this reminds me of overclocking Llano. When you overclock the CPU you use up all the thermal budget for power management which slows down the GPU.

[noko]

Win8 fresh install, HDTV hookup using HDMI, A8 3870 and a HD6670, official 13.4 drivers.

When I go into Dirt 3 the pixel format changes and makes the image shrink, colors off and letters blurry. Same for Batman Arkham City. Turned off Steam Overlay, made custom HDTV 1080P, tried profiles with game exe no difference.

Go to window mode game looks great except not full screen plus appears fps is lower.

How do I get the pixel format settings (Full RGB) to stick in full screen?

[caveman-jim]

what overscan setting do you have?

[Dr. Zhivago]

You have to set the individual resolutions at the Desktop and then set scaling options for each resolution. You might also need to turn on GPU scaling.

Hope this helps.

[oozz77]

Hi noko,

You have had an APU for as long as I have, so has this issue only raised itself since the fresh install of Windows8?

Did you have Windows8 previously without this problem?

With my Full HD TV setup, I have had to set "overscan to +10% and also applied the My Digital Plat Panel in CCC to RGB 4.4.4. Pixel Format PC Standard (Full RGB), so not sure if this will help or not!!

[noko]

what overscan setting do you have?

None as far as I know. I can go full screen in Dirt 3 with my customized resolution of 1898 x 1068, it will cover the whole monitor but if I flip between full screen and windowed there is a big difference in colors plus it looks like in full screen some of the effects are not there or less like sun flare. At 1080p full screen Dirt 3 does not fill the full screen and looks even worst like my desktop is if the pixel format is not selected to full rgb.

Now Dead Island has no issue going to full screen and looks great.

[noko]

You have to set the individual resolutions at the Desktop and then set scaling options for each resolution. You might also need to turn on GPU scaling.

Hope this helps.

The scaling option bar is greyed out. I removed the force HDTV 1080P and there is still no option to use the scaling bar. Turned on GPU scaling and off no difference, only option I have is scale image to full panel size the other two options are greyed out.

Dual Graphics works and seems to be working good as a note.

[noko]

Hi noko,

You have had an APU for as long as I have, so has this issue only raised itself since the fresh install of Windows8?

Did you have Windows8 previously without this problem?

With my Full HD TV setup, I have had to set "overscan to +10% and also applied the My Digital Plat Panel in CCC to RGB 4.4.4. Pixel Format PC Standard (Full RGB), so not sure if this will help or not!!

Well this is the Llano apu which sat mostly in the box while my other APU is in the Commodore 64. I am figuring this is mostly related to my monitor which I can switch out tomorrow to test out, maybe try several different cables as well. Dead Island plays great though so a little bit confusing on the other two games is all.

[noko]

Thanks for all the responses and help so far as a note everyone. Eventually I will post some pics of new box. It is rather cool looking.

[noko]

Quick Update, Dirt 3 will play normal using 1600x900 resolution, colors are right, full screen. Have not had a chance to switch out monitors yet, been loading software, upgraded the APU HSF to a FX8120 HSF which cools way better but has a terrible whine.