Looking to increase performance - Laptop Envy 3040NR

NerdyPastry

Estimable
Sep 11, 2014
2
0
4,510
Hello Everybody! This is a very good forum! It really is full of good and helpful content.
I came about through googling on how to over clock my GPU and at the end of it I came out a bit more knowledgeable...I think:D. If I knew what I was doing I wouldn't be asking question here!
So - my story.
I have an old laptop - Envy 15 3040nr , some specs . A nice quad core i7-2670QM, a horrid Radeon HD 7690M and a bunch of other details. Was just playing oldies for a while and doing stuff for about an year and a half, then windows started acting crazy so I had to reinstall. After that I figured I could try the fabled over-clocking, as I want to move to something more dynamic - Fire Fall or something similar (I am not crazy about maxing out, but want good FPS). Was going back and forth installing and reinstalling drivers, checking programs, sweeping registries, ended up with no active GPU for a while, fixed it, OCd it - got a good performance out of Sanctum 2(love that game), but then it got unstable, blah blah blah... I am sure you guys know the story.
So at the moment my fresh reinstall (love HP for that recovery btw) is in need of a fresh reinstall again from all the experimenting that I've done.
Some questions.
Would it be possible to play something modern at 1080p, AA enabled, lowish settings with good competitive game play FPS? I wont be able to max out anything but still would like good gameplay.
Is OC needed at all and is it possible when the thing has two GPUs? - it has dynamic and fixed settings in the BIOS. I imagine if I wanted to OC my Radeon it should be in fixed mode, but then again, I don't really know much.
Are there any modern drivers or later version of CCC I can use for the GPU? - I installed a bunch, but they definitely dint work. Everything I am left with is the manufacturer's original driver, which will be there after reinstall.
Any way to safely OC the GPU? - MSI afterburner has been naughty with me. It was cranking up the GPU to its max at startup, so I just got rid of it.
Does it make a difference when I enhance the visuals through CCC rather than the game itself? Does it affect stability?
How many drivers I should install after the next reinstall? - i found a forum with list of specific latest drivers for the Envy 15 series and have every installable one for my laptop. They haven't increased my performance whatsoever... but it sure sounded nice at the time.
Any tips on increasing performance for gaming on this machine?
Sorry for the long story and thank you for your time. I hope I posted this thread in the right spot?
Cheers.
 
Solution
Well you can overclock a laptop, is it recommend? No. Will it void your warranty? Most likely. What I would recommend doing first is to do a clean format of Windows and remove any problem drivers - that usually clears up a lot of common issues associated with laptops. I usually remove all the bloatware that comes with any laptop I buy.

g-unit1111

Distinguished
Moderator
Well you can overclock a laptop, is it recommend? No. Will it void your warranty? Most likely. What I would recommend doing first is to do a clean format of Windows and remove any problem drivers - that usually clears up a lot of common issues associated with laptops. I usually remove all the bloatware that comes with any laptop I buy.
 
Solution

NerdyPastry

Estimable
Sep 11, 2014
2
0
4,510
Thanks. I am planning of doing a clean wipe anyway and the thing with this one is that it has its own recovery image. So i can pretty much roll back any time. And i certainly wouldn't tell the difference between bloatware and useful stuff. Sounds like you can pretty much do whatever you wanted with any machine you buy... I can't :D. And certainly would not spend the time doing so. Well I guess I will just roll as it is then.