E450 apu, underperforming.

[thekillerlama]

I got a laptop ( asus 1215B) which sports an E450 apu from the Brazos line. Looking at reviews they say it can easily handle 1080P content. That is one of the reasons I bought the laptop. However, in my experience it can't even run 720P from Youtube.
Using the task manager, I can see that it is maxed out at 100 percent during the streaming.
I got the latest drivers, and i just can't see what i'm missing. Any tips?

Other important facts: windows 7, amd 6320,
Edit: The cpu is running at 1600mhz, which is what its supposed to do. Very often with laptops you can see power-saving features which makes it under-perform.

 

[RGone]

I am going to guess this would do far better in the laptop forum section. Just about anything we do with a cpu is done from bios and most laptop bioses will not allow any adjustment.

 

[thekillerlama]

I am going to guess this would do far better in the laptop forum section. Just about anything we do with a cpu is done from bios and most laptop bioses will not allow any adjustment.

You are probably right. A laptop with a fully fledged bios would be nice for a change though

 

[visiblegorilla]

How many SODIMMS you got in that beast?

 

[thekillerlama]

How many SODIMMS you got in that beast?

The beast has got 2x2Gb SODIMMS Seems to be plenty for streaming 720P youtube videos.

 

[thekillerlama]

For those interested: http://laptoping.com/amd-e-450-amd-radeon-hd-6320-review-with-benchmarks.html
Quote from a review at mobilityupdate : "Overall, AMD E450 is an amazing chipset offering great performance. A notebook with this APU is perfect for viewing media and office work. Like E350, it has no problems in handling full HD video (YouTube and locally stored)."

 

[visiblegorilla]

You see where I was going with that. Well, 720P is considered "full HD" I guess, so that's, um, "accurate." I'm not familiar with the E series architecture I must confess, I assume the RAM you have is not horribly crippling and maiming your bandwidth beyond reason?

EDIT: OK, wait, I read that article you posted, for several seconds, and I have determined in my wisdom that you need 1333MHz RAM and a screen that supports at least 1080 lines of resolution to view 1080 video. You're at least totally busted on the screen resolution part unless you're using an external display. Also, I made up the other part about the RAM, but you should at least feel sad if CPU-Z doesn't tell you that you have 1333MHz RAM.

 

[thekillerlama]

1080P is considered full hd, 720P however is not and should be far less taxing for the cpu. My bandwidth is not the problem, files stored locally is also terribly choppy.
I am really running out of possibilities here. Considering buying windows 8 to se if its a problem with the Os. Thanks for helping me btw!

 

[visiblegorilla]

Okay, here we go. "The E-450 is good for Web, e-mail, light work in office suites, and fully supports 1080p video playback thanks to the UVD3..." and Wikipedia says about that: "UVD currently only supports DXVA (DirectX Video Acceleration) API specification for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 platforms to allow video decoding to be hardware accelerated, thus the media player software also has to support DXVA to be able to utilize UVD hardware acceleration."

So at least make sure your player is compatible. I know I'm having issues with all that jazz on the Trinity right now, it's a software problem, so maybe check your drivers/runtimes/etc. Seems like you should be able to do it hassle-free, it's gotta be the UVD screwing up, cause even that netbook in the article had 1066MHz RAM (and I know that's really not going to make the difference here, but still).

So if your drivers and crap are all up to date, try various media players (VLC, Media Player Classic...) I really like "Media Player Classic Homecinema x64 Edition," if your OS is 64-bit of course. Pretty cool having 64-bit video decoding.

 

[thekillerlama]

Media player classic works flawlessly with 1080p content! Thanks you!
I am guessing youtube with chrome doesn't utilise the UVD, what do you think?
Edit: Youtube works with internett explorer and not with Chrome.

 

[RGone]

@ not in- visiblegorilla, you done good man. Really good.

RGone...ster.

 

[thekillerlama]

@ not in- visiblegorilla, you done good man. Really good.

RGone...ster.

I agree, you're awesome, thanks again!

 

[BeepBeep2]

Media player classic works flawlessly with 1080p content! Thanks you!
I am guessing youtube with chrome doesn't utilise the UVD, what do you think?
Edit: Youtube works with internett explorer and not with Chrome.

Then it is an issue with the flash plugin in Chrome.

Are you using the Pepper API version or the Standalone?

 

[thekillerlama]

Then it is an issue with the flash plugin in Chrome.

Are you using the Pepper API version or the Standalone?

I believe i am using the PepperFlash plugin.
Edit: I am not entirely sure If i answered your question I have the standard flash plugin for chrome.

 

[visiblegorilla]

A search of Adobe's Flash website for "UVD" produced no results. But I did find this in the comment thread of an article from way back in 2009:

http://experts.windows.com/frms/windows_entertainment_and_connected_home/f/115/p/81727/406584.aspx

Win 7 64

I ran Legend of the Seeker in 720P pop out window, maximized on a 42" westinghouse 1080P monitor set to it's native resolution.

Before 10.1 flash player update.
CPU load was running about 75-89% load.
UVD status = Idle
Playback was smooth with ever so slight jitter. I think the jitter was introduced by our work network as when I ran this same clip at a friends house, there was no noticable jitter.

After flash 10.1 update
CPU load dropped to 55-65%
UVD status = Busy
Playback was smooth. Did not notice any jitter but did not check image as I was more interested in CPU load and UVD status.

FYI, if the internet tv application overwrites the 10.1 beta flash if you install "internet tv" in 7MC after flash 10.1. I really like 10.1 on my system, since Hulu Desktop and other flash-based apps run much smoother...E5200 on nvidia9300.

To remedy, I uninstalled the activeX and plugin through windows and ran the flash uninstaller (http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html) then installed 10.1 again. Good to go.

I don't pretend to know how all these application layers get virtualized through DirectX to use UVD on the GPU (or is it the CPU?). But it CAN be done with Flash, since 2009 at least.

For kicks, why don't you try Waterfox (http://www.waterfoxproject.org/download.php) with 64-bit Flash and 64-bit Java. Or you can do like me and run Waterfox Portable (http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/Internet/Browsers/Waterfox-Portable.shtml) off a RAMDisk (you can use the freeware one from http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk). Fastest internet experience you can have, IMHO.

EDIT: For any 32-bit users, you can run plain-ol 32-bit Firefox Portable off a RAMDisk too. But you'll have to find it yourself, because you're using a 32-bit OS and no one cares about you

 

[BeepBeep2]

I believe i am using the PepperFlash plugin.
Edit: I am not entirely sure If i answered your question I have the standard flash plugin for chrome.

Try uninstalling that one (PepperFlash) and using the standalone instead.

 

[DarthGrantius]

Try uninstalling that one (PepperFlash) and using the standalone instead.

I think the built in Chrome one doesn't have HWA?

 

[thekillerlama]

I will definetly test out waterfox, visible gorilla But first I need you guys' opinion on a discovery i made. Monitoring the cpu frequensy using cpuz I noticed that, when charging, the multiplier wouldn't change. Meaning it was stuck at 800mhz. My first thought would be that some powersaving feature was having a fit. I set it to high performance and dug into the catalyst control center to see if I found any settings that could make this happen. No luck. Still stuck at 800mhz. Turned off cool and quiet as well as CI6, neither made any difference.
Once its done charging, it would increase again to 1600mhz.

Have any of you guys any pointers?
Media player classic, is great btw. Also, I can download subtitles directly from the program which is great!

 

[BeepBeep2]

Lower frequency during charging means faster charge times.

It shouldn't happen that way though...sounds like there's an issue, and if you disabled all the power saving features, then I wouldn't know what to tell you.

 

[visiblegorilla]

There are two different settings in power options: "Plugged In" and "On Battery." Check AMD Fusion control center if you've got it. Also check windows advanced power options, "show settings that are not currently visible." I guarantee you it's there somewhere under "Plugged In." "Maximum CPU State: 50%" Or "Max CPU Clock: 800MHz"