Optimizing HP Pavilion w/ Hexa Core

[JEJoll]

I recently bought this laptop with the following specs:

HP Pavilion 15.6" Laptop
Hexa-Core Processor - Actually a Quad-Core (AMD A8-6410 I think. Hard to find info.) with the following graphics:
AMD Radeon R7 M260
AMD Radeon(TM) R5 Graphics
12 GB RAM
1 TB HDD

Windows 8.1 x64
1366x768 Max Resolution

Let me know if there is any other information you need.

I find that this laptop is running more slowly than my last laptop which had identical specs, except that it had 8 GB RAM and no graphics.

In particular, watching videos and playing games online (even flash games) is laggy and playing games locally is also VERY slow.

I'm assuming this has something to do with the current AMD Catalyst configuration, but I'm not great with hardware anyway, so I could be completely wrong. I can't imagine that a computer with better specs would run more slowly unless there was some configuration issue.

Can someone help me optimize this laptop?

I've gone through the power settings and said to optimize everything I could find, but this hasn't seemed to help. I also looked at the AMD Catalyst Control center but wasn't really sure how to use it. I didn't want to break anything so I just left it.

I did notice that I can't change the Switchable Graphics Application Settings in the Catalyst Control for certain applications (such as chrome) and they seem to be stuck on power saving:

so I'm assuming that would explain the lag when using chrome.

I don't really know where to go from here, but it seems like the laptop has great potential based on its specs.

Can anybody help? Thanks in advance.

 

[planesman22]

I recommend using 360 Total Security for diagnosing your laptop performance.

First install it here, is completely free: http/www.360totalsecurity.com/en/

Then do a full check for general optimization.

Then, under virus scan, use a full scan to check for viruses and malwares just in case, a full scan would take a bit depending on HDD speed.

After that, go into Speed up and click manual. Go through each section religiously since this will dictate everything from services that are hidden to applications on start ups. This step is tedious but it is the most important one. You must hover each item very carefully for if you disable a wrong item, windows might simply not function. Don't worry, 360 does a excellent job explaining what each do and the ones recommended ON is the ones you shouldn't disable.

 

[rgd1101]

If you read the spec, it does said it 4 cpu cores with 2 gpu cores.
2GHz HP hexa-core processor delivers the power of 6 cores: 4 processor cores for tasks and 2 graphics cores for vivid graphics and a smoother browsing experience

 

[Im Spartacus]

Try this link.

http/blog.notsocasual.com/fix-flash-lag-chrome/