AMD A8-3850 APU with Radeon HD 6550D increase power (Memory, Clocks)
I have set up my own PC - not so much experience at all with this stuff - and I am facing now some problems with gaming. Benchmarks told me that most of the games ( actually Borderlands 2 ) should run straight well. But when I am playing the game it lags, even on 1024x768 with all graphic requirements low. I've installed the drivers but it didn't change anything. So I am wondering whats wrong. Why my experience differs so much from the benchmarks.
I've installed CPU-Z and that's the output:
CPU-Z TXT Report
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Binaries
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CPU-Z version 1.63.0
Processors
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Number of processors 1
Number of threads 4
APICs
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Processor 0
-- Core 0
-- Thread 0 0
-- Core 1
-- Thread 0 1
-- Core 2
-- Thread 0 2
-- Core 3
-- Thread 0 3
Timers
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ACPI timer 3.580 MHz
HPET timer 14.318 MHz
Perf timer 2.827 MHz
Sys timer 1.000 KHz
Processors Information
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Processor 1 ID = 0
Number of cores 4 (max 4)
Number of threads 4 (max 4)
Name AMD A8-3850
Codename Llano
Specification AMD A8-3850 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics
Package Socket FM1 (905)
CPUID F.1.0
Extended CPUID 12.1
Brand ID 21
Core Stepping LN1-B0
Technology 32 nm
TDP Limit 111 Watts
Core Speed 2894.8 MHz
Multiplier x FSB 29.0 x 99.8 MHz
Stock frequency 2900 MHz
Instructions sets MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, x86-64, AMD-V
L1 Data cache 4 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 4 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 4 x 1024 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
Min FID 8.0x
VID range 0.450 V - 1.412 V
# of P-States 8
P-State FID 0xD - VID 0x0B - IDD 19 (29.00x - 1.412 V)
P-State FID 0xA - VID 0x0E - IDD 17 (26.00x - 1.375 V)
P-State FID 0x7 - VID 0x12 - IDD 15 (23.00x - 1.325 V)
P-State FID 0x4 - VID 0x16 - IDD 13 (20.00x - 1.275 V)
P-State FID 0x10B - VID 0x1A - IDD 12 (18.00x - 1.225 V)
P-State FID 0x20C - VID 0x1F - IDD 9 (14.00x - 1.162 V)
P-State FID 0x206 - VID 0x24 - IDD 7 (11.00x - 1.100 V)
P-State FID 0x308 - VID 0x2A - IDD 6 (8.00x - 1.025 V)
Package Type 0x2
Model 51
String 1 0x5
String 2 0x1
Page 0x0
TDC Limit 76 Amps
Boosted P-States 0
Max non-turbo ratio 29.00x
Max turbo ratio 29.00x
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 0
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 1
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 2
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 3
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 4
Thread dumps
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CPU Thread 0
APIC ID 0
Topology Processor ID 0, Core ID 0, Thread ID 0
Type 02040000h
Max CPUID level 00000006h
Max CPUID ext. level 8000001Bh
Cache descriptor Level 1, I, 64 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 1, D, 64 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 2, U, 1 MB, 1 thread(s)
CPU Thread 1
APIC ID 1
Topology Processor ID 0, Core ID 1, Thread ID 0
Type 02040000h
Max CPUID level 00000006h
Max CPUID ext. level 8000001Bh
Cache descriptor Level 1, I, 64 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 1, D, 64 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 2, U, 1 MB, 1 thread(s)
CPU Thread 2
APIC ID 2
Topology Processor ID 0, Core ID 2, Thread ID 0
Type 02040000h
Max CPUID level 00000006h
Max CPUID ext. level 8000001Bh
Cache descriptor Level 1, I, 64 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 1, D, 64 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 2, U, 1 MB, 1 thread(s)
CPU Thread 3
APIC ID 3
Topology Processor ID 0, Core ID 3, Thread ID 0
Type 02040000h
Max CPUID level 00000006h
Max CPUID ext. level 8000001Bh
Cache descriptor Level 1, I, 64 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 1, D, 64 KB, 1 thread(s)
Cache descriptor Level 2, U, 1 MB, 1 thread(s)
Chipset
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Northbridge AMD K12 Bridge rev. 00
Southbridge AMD A55/A60M rev. 11
Graphic Interface PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width x0
PCI-E Max Link Width x0
Memory Type DDR3
Memory Size 8192 MBytes
Memory Frequency 532.4 MHz (3:16)
CAS# latency (CL) 7.0
RAS# to CAS# delay (tRCD) 7
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 7
Cycle Time (tRAS) 20
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 27
Memory SPD
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DIMM # 1
SMBus address 0x50
Memory type DDR3
Module format UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID) G.Skill (7F7F7F7FCD000000)
Size 8192 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC3-10700 (667 MHz)
Part number F3-10666CL9-8GBXL
Number of banks 8
Nominal Voltage 1.50 Volts
EPP no
XMP no
AMP no
JEDEC timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency
JEDEC #1 5.0-5-5-14-19 @ 380 MHz
JEDEC #2 6.0-6-6-17-23 @ 457 MHz
JEDEC #3 7.0-7-7-20-27 @ 533 MHz
JEDEC #4 8.0-8-8-22-30 @ 609 MHz
JEDEC #5 9.0-9-9-25-34 @ 685 MHz
JEDEC #6 10.0-10-10-28-38 @ 761 MHz
DIMM # 1
Monitoring
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Mainboard Model A75M-HVS (0x00000218 - 0x009CE752)
DMI
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DMI BIOS
vendor American Megatrends Inc.
version P1.80
date 05/26/2012
ROM size 4096 KB
DMI System Information
manufacturer To Be Filled By O.E.M.
product To Be Filled By O.E.M.
version To Be Filled By O.E.M.
serial To Be Filled By O.E.M.
UUID {03000200-0400-0500-0006-000700080009}
DMI Baseboard
vendor ASRock
model A75M-HVS
revision unknown
serial unknown
DMI System Enclosure
manufacturer To Be Filled By O.E.M.
chassis type Desktop
chassis serial To Be Filled By O.E.M.
DMI Extension Slot
designation PCI1
type PCI
width 32 bits
populated yes
DMI Extension Slot
designation PCIE2
type A5
populated yes
DMI Extension Slot
designation PCIE3
type A5
populated yes
DMI OEM Strings
string[0] To Be Filled By O.E.M.
DMI Physical Memory Array
location Motherboard
usage System Memory
correction None
max capacity 8192 MBytes
max# of devices 2
DMI Memory Device
designation A1_DIMM0
format DIMM
type unknown
total width 64 bits
data width 64 bits
size 8192 MBytes
DMI Memory Device
designation A1_DIMM1
format DIMM
type unknown
data width 64 bits
DMI Processor
manufacturer AMD
model AMD A8-3850 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics
clock speed 2900.0 MHz
FSB speed 100.0 MHz
multiplier 29.0x
Graphics
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Number of adapters 1
Graphic APIs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
API ATI I/O
API ADL SDK
Display Adapters
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Display adapter 0
Name AMD Radeon HD 6550D
Codename Sumo
Technology 32 nm
Memory size 512 MB
PCI device bus 0 (0x0), device 1 (0x1), function 0 (0x0)
Vendor ID 0x1002 (0x1849)
Model ID 0x9640 (0x9640)
Performance Level 0
Core clock 282.4 MHz
Memory clock 533.0 MHz
Performance Level 1
Core clock 1800.0 MHz
Memory clock 533.0 MHz
Win32_VideoController AdapterRAM = 0x20000000 (536870912)
Software
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Windows Version Microsoft Windows 7 (6.1) Home Premium Edition 64-bit (Build 7600)
DirectX Version 11.0
So, is it possible that I can raise the settings? Especially the GPU? I heard that I can increase the GPU Memory to 4GB. But how can I do that? In the bios settings, I didn't find a solution for this.
M. Hirn
Hennes1 Answer
According to this, the AMD Radeon HD 6550D supports a maximum of 1024 MiB shared memory. However, your particular motherboard only supports 512 MiB shared memory (source).1
The GPU frequency of the AMD A8-3850 (unlike the A8-3870K) is locked and cannot be tweaked.
The benchmarks I found that claimed that some (certainly not most) recent games are playable were taken using (1024 MiB) DDR3-1866 memory. You are using DDR3-1333 memory, which is almost 30% slower. Although the CPU itself can barely benefit from the speed increase, even DDR3-1866 memory is rather slow for a GPU if you compare it to the GDDR5 memory used in dedicated graphics cards.
So, to take full advantage of your GPU would require buying a new motherboard and faster memory. A dedicated graphics card will probably come cheaper and achieve better results.
1 For reference, you can tweak the amount of shared memory in Advanced → North Bridge Configuration → Shared Memory in the BIOS.
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