Chronicle of an AMD APU Budget Machine Project

[frozentundra123456]

Just one question

Why the GPU memory matter?
I have amd sapphire 7770 with 1Gb of ram playing in 1920 x 1080 resolution monitor,
Is it OK ?

You should be fine. You need a lot of graphics memory to load the textures or whatever at high resolutions and image quality, but the 7770 is probably not fast enough to use more than 1gb. Actually I am running at 1080p with a 1gb 7770 and it will run everything, but for more demanding games I have to turn down some settings, especially AA.

 

[borgonzola]

How do you allocate system RAM to the GPU? I have the same motherboard and APU as you, and I can't for the life of me figure out where the setting is; it doesn't seem to be an option in the BIOS.

 

[tornadobox]

How do you allocate system RAM to the GPU? I have the same motherboard and APU as you, and I can't for the life of me figure out where the setting is; it doesn't seem to be an option in the BIOS.

In the BIOS, go to Settings > Advanced > Integrated Graphics Configuration > Integrated Graphics Devices and select Dual Graphics (yes, counter-intuitive). This opens up Integrated Grahpics Share Memory where you can allocate 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, or 2GB.

 

[Centauri]

Nevermind

 

[borgonzola]

Ah, so that's where it was hiding. Thanks.

 

[bomuaz]

You should be fine. You need a lot of graphics memory to load the textures or whatever at high resolutions and image quality, but the 7770 is probably not fast enough to use more than 1gb. Actually I am running at 1080p with a 1gb 7770 and it will run everything, but for more demanding games I have to turn down some settings, especially AA.

can you explain this to me more
the 7770 is probably not fast enough to use more than 1gb

is it mean in high end graphics cards i need more than 1 gb because it can run high games or it depend on which game you play with what resolutions ?!!

 

[SPBHM]

can you explain this to me more
the 7770 is probably not fast enough to use more than 1gb

is it mean in high end graphics cards i need more than 1 gb because it can run high games or it depend on which game you play with what resolutions ?!!

if you use higher settings (resolution, MSAA), the games will tend to use more memory, since your GPU/memory is not as fast as let's say a 7950, you might not be able to use these higher settings (with acceptable framerate) for other reasons and not memory size, so it's a lesser problem, if you look here, even with a faster card and high settings 2GB is not necessary in most or many games even in 1080p,

you should also consider size vs speed (bandwidth) for the memory... slower but with higher size, normally is a bad decision,

 

[bomuaz]

i see that, it just important like 15% i guess

thanks for help

 

[tornadobox]

Updated with a start at consolidating pictures, and a more detailed fan vs. fan graph depicting noise level delta as well, along with CPU-z and GPU-z readouts at stock APU settings.

 

[bomuaz]

I tried to build like your project but I came with around 450$ I tried every where
Amazon , newegg..etc and that without the water cooling system!! ..

 

[tornadobox]

I tried to build like your project but I came with around 450$ I tried every where
Amazon , newegg..etc and that without the water cooling system!! ..

For the same components I listed (same part numbers)? Are you in the USA?

 

[bomuaz]

For the same components I listed (same part numbers)? Are you in the USA?

No

 

[tornadobox]

No

That's probably why

 

[nature1ders]

The Cougar fans make the chirping noise if they are PWM, you never buy those dude! PWM fans suck

 

[tornadobox]

The Cougar fans make the chirping noise if they are PWM, you never buy those dude! PWM fans suck

I haven't noticed any strange noises from the Cougar fan, and I see nothing wrong with PWM fans.

 

[tornadobox]

Messing with voltages to stabilize OC'd system performance, right now the max I'm getting is 105MHz FSB without crashing.

Increasing the FSB to 106 (even when going back to the default GPU Clock and lowering the multiplier to 39 yielding in a lower overall GHz output than my 'stable' 105 x 42) crashes the system.

I think I might have some room for a CPU-NB Voltage increase, since if I remember correctly it used to be tied in to the CPU Core Voltage (which I currently have at 1.499500v) back in the day. However, I'm not totally sure if increasing the CPU-NB Voltage above 1.35v is safe, so if anyone knows, please chime in!

 

[tornadobox]

Updated the original post with the first of the overclocked benchmarks (3DMark11). An increase of 240 points, I think that's pretty decent!

 

[zootedd]

Just one question

Why the GPU memory matter?
I have amd sapphire 7770 with 1Gb of ram playing in 1920 x 1080 resolution monitor,
Is it OK ?

Yeah, I don't think the 7770 would benefit too much from 2gb anyhow. Especially if you are not using demanding aa settings.

 

[georgec84]

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

 

[tornadobox]

Tweaked a bit more, got the RAM to run @ 2133MHz, increased the 3DMark11 score (+254 points from stock), and updated with some OC gaming benchmarks.