Hardware What are my options at boosting an integrated GPU?

[JCCG1989]

Hello, I come here hoping to get some light in how to extract all the possible juice from an integrated GPU. To add context, I have a HP laptop and I use it mostly for work, however I still enjoy some games in it and hoping to buy Monster Hunter World when it comes to PC. My laptop can run easily games like TES:Skyrim, League of Legends, Southpark The Stick of Truth BUT I encountered problems running games like Alien Isolation (sloppy but very playable), Starcraft II (Actually playing it in the lowest specifications) and Dark Souls (unplayable even in lowes settings). So now I'm asking for a procedure to enhace my laptop performance to enjoy a little bit of my games:

Current relevant specifications:

Processor:
AMD A9-9410 RADEON R5, 5 COMPUTE CORES 2C+3G 800MHZ Clock

GPU
AMD Radeon(TM) R5 Graphics 933MHZ Clock
1.87 Gbps Memory Bit Rate
14 GByte/s
Total Memory Bandwidth

RAM:
12GB DDR4 512MB cache

I did read a procedure including íncreasing the physican RAM the iGPU can use but I wanted to ask you first,

Thank you in advance.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

You can't really juice an internal GPU... if you could, video cards would be much cheaper. Get a dedicated card. Don't have to spend several hundred dollars to get a decent one. Just don't expect Ultra 60fps.

 

[JCCG1989]

You can't really juice an internal GPU... if you could, video cards would be much cheaper. Get a dedicated card. Don't have to spend several hundred dollars to get a decent one. Just don't expect Ultra 60fps.

Well, I'm not expecting my iGPU to become a monster, just any for I can improve the actual performance. Do you think is a good idea to buy a dedicated GPU for a laptop?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I mean, you could THEORETICALLY overclock it with Afterburner, as well as assigning it as much memory as possible in the BIOS. I'd HIGHLY recommend getting an RX 550 or GT 1030 at that point, though

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Do you think is a good idea to buy a dedicated GPU for a laptop?

I mean, I've heard pros and cons. I'm not sure I'd recommend it (at least without doing research on it first) but your only other options are getting a regular desktop PC and taking it to work with you or buying a beefier laptop that already has a video card. Either way, it's gonna cost you.

I haven't done any research on overclocking an integrated GPU, so I don't know if @TotalInsanity4 's idea is a good one, but if something were to go wrong you'd be SOL because a CPU's internal graphics is the last line of defense against a busted graphics card, but if you bust that you have a brick on your hands.

 

[JCCG1989]

I mean, I've heard pros and cons. I'm not sure I'd recommend it (at least without doing research on it first) but your only other options are getting a regular desktop PC and taking it to work with you or buying a beefier laptop that already has a video card. Either way, it's gonna cost you.

I haven't done any research on overclocking an integrated GPU, so I don't know if @TotalInsanity4 's idea is a good one, but if something were to go wrong you'd be SOL because a CPU's internal graphics is the last line of defense against a busted graphics card, but if you bust that you have a brick on your hands.

I don't want to sound like an asshole and I'm grateful of your time to answer but why would you give an advice in this topic when you have never researched in the topic. I know I have limits and that for a complete experience I need an actual capable computer, I was asking about this specific topic.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I haven't done any research on overclocking an integrated GPU, so I don't know if @TotalInsanity4 's idea is a good one, but if something were to go wrong you'd be SOL because a CPU's internal graphics is the last line of defense against a busted graphics card, but if you bust that you have a brick on your hands.

I know it's possible, RandomGamingInHD did a video on it. I definitely wouldn't recommend it under normal circumstances though

@JCCG1989 do you know if your laptop has a Thunderbolt or ExpressCard port on it? And if not, would you potentially be willing to sacrifice wifi?

 

[JCCG1989]

I know it's possible, RandomGamingInHD did a video on it. I definitely wouldn't recommend it under normal circumstances though

@JCCG1989 do you know if your laptop has a Thunderbolt or ExpressCard port on it? And if not, would you potentially be willing to sacrifice wifi?

No about the wifi, I'm searching about those ports. Why?

 

[Pedeadstrian]

I don't want to sound like an asshole and I'm grateful of your time to answer but why would you give an advice in this topic when you have never researched in the topic. I know I have limits and that for a complete experience I need an actual capable computer, I was asking about this specific topic.

I don't want to sound like an asshole but why would you make a thread about a topic when any information someone here would give you would already be a Google search away? I'm sorry I don't have a phD in integrated gpu overclocking.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

No about the wifi, I'm searching about those ports. Why?

Because thunderbolt and ExpressCard slots can both be taken advantage of use a PCIe adapter so you can use an external graphics card. The miniPCI slot for wifi can be, too, but clearly thats an inferior option

 

[JCCG1989]

I don't want to sound like an asshole but why would you make a thread about a topic when any information someone here would give you would already be a Google search away? I'm sorry I don't have a phD in integrated gpu overclocking.

For the same reason everybody asking something in this site does: pairing information with people with more experience and know if said procedures are secure at all. As any capable forum user I already did a research myself but that does not give me the experience or all the info that must be covered, hence, I'm here. Now can you anser my question? why?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Because thunderbolt and ExpressCard slots can both be taken advantage of use a PCIe adapter so you can use an external graphics card. The miniPCI slot for wifi can be, too, but clearly thats an inferior option

Sadly my pc does not even got USB-C ports... I'll try the video you mentioned before.

 

[GameSystem]

I have an AMD A8 on a 3 year old hp laptop. I used MSI Afterburner and was able to successfully overclock it.
I pirated FF 13-2 and was able to get it to 15 FPS on occasions. It mostly hovered around 8-12. When Charging (not when fully charged), it tended to perform better. I don't know why. The computer got very hot. I don't recommend it, but it's possible.

 

[MaverickWellington]

All these people telling you to theoretically overclock it are being silly geese who shouldn't be giving input here, as overclocking laptop hardware is ridiculous and unless you've got a modified cooling set up (and no, some USB fan or putting ice under it does not count) you shouldn't try that.

What kind of ports do you have? If you have a thunderbolt 3 port, grab yourself one of these https://www.amazon.com/Sonnet-Break...TF8&qid=1515628281&sr=1-8&keywords=Razer+Core

External GPU ports are basically your best option, because everything else is dangerous, or expensive. Keep in mind too that a lot of games may run like shit regardless of how strong your PC is because they're poorly optimized. Capcom's had a great history with optimization (DMC4 will run on almost anything these days for example) but it's dropped the ball a bit with recent ports like DMC4SE. If these options are too much for you, it may be best to just focus on software optimizations (low graphics configs, for example) and calling it a day. Like I said, overclocking is dangerous, and will fuck your shit up, and unless you have specifically made a cooling system to cover for the extra heat (and that's not mentioning the extra power required, which will wear your battery down) don't bother with it. It's a terrible, incredibly dangerous idea.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

for the record, when I say modified cooling, I'm talking crazy shit, like making a desktop enclosure for the computer and giving it dedicated fans, or even water cooling systems, but you seem like someone who isn't a hobbyist for that stuff, so I can really only warn you that it's dangerous as fuck.

 

[JCCG1989]

All these people telling you to theoretically overclock it are being silly geese who shouldn't be giving input here, as overclocking laptop hardware is ridiculous and unless you've got a modified cooling set up (and no, some USB fan or putting ice under it does not count) you shouldn't try that.

What kind of ports do you have? If you have a thunderbolt 3 port, grab yourself one of these https://www.amazon.com/Sonnet-Break...TF8&qid=1515628281&sr=1-8&keywords=Razer+Core

External GPU ports are basically your best option, because everything else is dangerous, or expensive. Keep in mind too that a lot of games may run like shit regardless of how strong your PC is because they're poorly optimized. Capcom's had a great history with optimization (DMC4 will run on almost anything these days for example) but it's dropped the ball a bit with recent ports like DMC4SE. If these options are too much for you, it may be best to just focus on software optimizations (low graphics configs, for example) and calling it a day. Like I said, overclocking is dangerous, and will fuck your shit up, and unless you have specifically made a cooling system to cover for the extra heat (and that's not mentioning the extra power required, which will wear your battery down) don't bother with it. It's a terrible, incredibly dangerous idea.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

for the record, when I say modified cooling, I'm talking crazy shit, like making a desktop enclosure for the computer and giving it dedicated fans, or even water cooling systems, but you seem like someone who isn't a hobbyist for that stuff, so I can really only warn you that it's dangerous as fuck.

Very nice. Don't worry, I know what it takes to overclock the GPU and the risk does not worth it. I'm learning about the thunderbolt interface and seems my best option but seems my laptop does not even have USB-C ports.

 

[MaverickWellington]

There might be converters out there somewhere but there'd be such diminishing returns that it wouldn't be worth the money you spend on it. I think at this point you're just gonna have to upgrade eventually.

Hell a cheap PS4 might do, if you can find a used one somewhere.

 

[JCCG1989]

There might be converters out there somewhere but there'd be such diminishing returns that it wouldn't be worth the money you spend on it. I think at this point you're just gonna have to upgrade eventually.

Hell a cheap PS4 might do, if you can find a used one somewhere.

Seems so... Problem is that PS4 has no Starcraft haha, my every day game... Hey, thank you for your time.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Just for a bit of context, so I can do a bit of digging for you; what's your laptop model number?

 

[gnmmarechal]

No about the wifi, I'm searching about those ports. Why?

There are adapters that allow you to remove your wireless module and get a graphics card to work with your laptop. I've done this in the past, it's neat, but not exactly portable.

 

[Originality]

A quick and dirty google search tells me that an i5 at 3.2Ghz quad-core and a R7 260X is the minimum specs needed to run it. There’s no chance your dual-core A9-9410 APU will be able to. It may be able to hit 3.5Ghz at peak, but it’s around 30-40% weaker than minimum spec (educated guess).

So the options are either getting a new laptop/desktop, or getting a PS4/Xbox One.

 

[JCCG1989]

A quick and dirty google search tells me that an i5 at 3.2Ghz quad-core and a R7 260X is the minimum specs needed to run it. There’s no chance your dual-core A9-9410 APU will be able to. It may be able to hit 3.5Ghz at peak, but it’s around 30-40% weaker than minimum spec (educated guess).

So the options are either getting a new laptop/desktop, or getting a PS4/Xbox One.

Yeah, thank you. Not intended to play MH in my actual hardware, just trying to improve a bit the games I already play.