Running GPU-Z to see the parameters of ATI Radeon HD 4570 Mobile video card available in Acer Aspire 3D notebook something very interesting has caught my attention. As you can see in the video the memory of the VGA should be 800MHz (1600MHz DDR) and even when under load (FurMark running in the background) the video memory still runs at just 500MHz (1000MHz DDR). Now this might not seem to be that much of a problem at first, but when you think about it… this is 600 megahertz lower effective frequency for the memory and the 4570 video card is not that powerful, so actually we have a very serious issue here and you can blame it all on ATI and their shitty mobile video drivers and graphics hardware!
There is a kind of a solution to this problem, but it is just a kind of temporary workaround and not something that will solve the issue permanently. I’m talking about disabling the PowerPlay function from ATI Catalyst Control Center in order to get the maximum performance and the VGA memory running at 1600MHz instead of 1000MHz. The problem is that when you disable the PowerPlay you actually disable the power management and the video card will run at its maximum frequencies with or without load. This of course can significantly reduce the run time of a laptop when you are using it on a battery, but won’t make much of a difference when the power adapter is plugged in (besides the laptop using more energy and getting hotter). So you’ll have to disable the PowerPlay every time you need top performance for a while and then re-enable it when you are back to working in 2D and not requiring too much performance from the VGA.
I don’t know about you, but I’m very disappointed from ATI this time. And you should have in mind that I’m talking about a major issue that is not related to a single model or laptop vendor, but to every laptop with such GPU and maybe even other video card models!
