[GUIDE - R1, R2]Installing and diagnosis of HD5870m[Single and CrossfireX][Overclocking TBA, BF3 Optimization comming!]

Hello, forum!

Introduction;

I've seen that a lot of people these days in this forums has had problems with installing, and in general, getting the HD5870 card to work properly, either in their M17x R1 or M17x R2, with the single card or in a Crossfire setup.

Therefore, i would like to participate to the forum with my experiences and tips, after dealing with these cards for hours after hours, trying to get peoples opinions on how to make them work right, and what the perfectly proper functioning install of these cards, is.

DISCLAIMER; I DO NOT TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR SYSTEM. IF ANY DAMAGE IS ACHIEVED, ITS YOUR PROBLEM, AND YOU'RE AWARE THAT IT MIGHT VOID YOUR ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE PLAN WITH DELL, AS WELL AS YOUR WARRANTY, EVEN THOUGH I PERSONALLY DON' THINK IT WILL!

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STEP 1. INSTALLATION PROCESS​

Ok, so first of all, we're going to go over the installation procedure, for both one-card setup's and CrossfireX configuration. We're taking an starting point in the fact that you have NO graphics drivers installed at this point, and that you have whiped out all excess driver files with CCleaner and Drivesweeper, that you can download by clicking the links that i've provided. The CCleaner is downloadable from Piriform's website, and the DriveSweeper URL is provided by my own file-server. (Guru3D, the originall owner / distributor of the DriveSweeper software, currently don't provide any download links for the software, so i uploaded it to my server.)

Installation-process : Single Card (5870m)​

1. Make sure that your 5870 card is connected to your MASTER SLOT in your M17x, same procedure for both the R1 and the R2.

2. Install the newest, official driver from ATI's website. At the time when this guide is written, that would be THIS driver. (Win 7 - 64 BIT)(Download and install. Follow the on-screen instructions that the installer will give you.)

3. Once installation is finished, reboot your system when the installer asks you to.

4. Install the newest Application Profiles for your system,(Even though you don't have Crossfire!) at the time that this guide is written, that would be THIS install-package. (Download and run the installer. Follow the on-screen instructions that the installer will give you.)

5. Once installation is finished, the installer will prompt you to reboot your system. Do so!

6. Your system should be all good to go. If you wish to overclock or check that your card is running properly, please scroll further down in this guide, as i will include an guide to check to see if your card is utilized properly and later, overclocking.

Installation-process : CrossfireX setup ( DUAL 5870m's)​

To enable utilization of both the cards in your M17x system, you will have to install your cards in a slightly other way. The reason for this is because the newest drivers from ATI, don't localize / allow / Enable Crossfire to be run on the system. Anyhow, this guide will show you how to obtain full utilization, as well as enabling of the Crossfire X feature of running two 5870m cards in your system. ALL steps apply to both the R1 and R2!


1. Make sure that both your 5870m cards are connected to their respective slots on the motherboard.

2. Make sure that the Crossfire-Cable / contact that is supposed to go between the two cards, are connected properly. (VITAL to get the Crossfire-support to be enabled.)

3. Start of, by installing THIS driver-package on your system. (This is the original driver that is supplied by DELL. Don't worry, we will apply the newer drivers afterwards!) Follow the on-screen instruction and install the package. When prompted to reboot your system, DO SO!

4. When rebooted, you should be prompted to open Catalyst Control Center in Advanced view. Do so, and check under the "performance" or "crossfireX" tab to see if you have the option to enable or disable Crossfire X. If you have this, the installation-process was successful. ENABLE Crossfire and press "APPLY" to save the settings. Your screen should now go dark for about 5 seconds, while the drivers activate the crossfire function on your system.

5. Ok, CrossfireX running. Now, we're going to take the newest available driver from ATI, and install it OVER the drivers that you currently have. Thats right, install OVER; do not uninstall the drivers that you currently have! Leave them as they are, and install the new driver-package.
At the time that this guide is written, THIS would be the newest drivers available for your system. (Win7-64bit)

6.Follow the on-screen instructions provided by the installer-package, and install the drivers. After installing, you will NOT be prompted to restart your system, but do this ANYHOW. Reboot!

7. Open up catalyst control center, and check if you still have the CrossfireX option, and check the box to enable the Crossfire-abillity if you didn't allready do that in the earlier step.

8. Ok! So now, we're running crossfire-X with the 5870's on the newest drivers by ATI. The last thing to do, is to install the newest Catalyst Application Profile, to assure good performance in Crossfire-mode for most new games. This include Rage, Battlefield 3, and later on, games like Skyrim.

9. Install the newest Catalyst Application Profile. At the time that this guide is written, that would be THIS install-package. (Download and run the installer. Follow the on-screen instructions that the installer will give you.)

10. When installation is done, it will prompt you to reboot your system. Do so!

11.Ok, so now, everything should be updated to the newest drivers
and settings, with Crossfire X running! To assure that Crossfire X is running, open up the Catalyst Control Center and check under the Performance tab, it should give you the ability to enable and disable crossfire-X. If you have this option available for you, this means that the installation-process has gone smoothly. Now, scroll further down in this guide to check and assure yourself that the Crossfire ability of your system, is properly utilized!

STEP 2. Utilization check / performance check!​

OK, so now that you've either successfully installed your single card, or crossfire-setup and its running with the newest drivers and settings, we're going to double-check that your cards are working properly.
There is two applications that we will need for this.

1. HWINFO64 (Click to download) to see how much your cards are utilized during test, and what temperatures they're running at.

2. FurMark (click to download) to put your card / cards under pressure, and see what performance they give out.


Ok, so, first of all, we're going to set-up HWINFO64 to monitor the temperatures and utilization of your card / cards, properly, and then, we're going to set-up FurMark to properly stress-test your card / cards.

HWINFO64 - Installation and start up-guide​

hint: HWInfo64 can be used to display virtually ALL information about your PC, uncheck the "Sensors only" box to view the complete software on start-up.


1. Download the newest version of HWinfo64 that is available. By the time that this guide is written, that would be THIS version. (The software will tell you after installation if there is an update, and asks you if you would like to update or not.)

2. Run the installation-package, and follow the on-screen information to properly install it.

3. when installed, start up the software, you should be prompted by a box looking like THIS. Check the "sensors only" box and hit RUN. you should then be met by a loading bar which is currently obtaining information about your sensors. When that is done (takes about 25 secs), the software will hide and only show on your start-bar, like THIS

4. Double-click the icon that i've marked around with red, and you should then get the application window up. It should look something like THIS

5. Ok, so for now, HWinfo64 is currently properly set-up and ready to read what utilization and temperatures your PC will put out, when FurMark puts it through it's paces.


Moving on, now we're going to set up FurMark!

FurMark - Installation and startup-guide​

hint: Furmark can be used to stress-test virtually ANY graphic processing unit out there!


1. Install Furmark, follow the on-screen instructions that the installer gives you. By the time that this guide is written, THIS would be the newest version of FurMark.

2. After installation, start up the software. You should be met by a screen looking like THIS.

3. Take a look at the screenshot that i posted in step 2. APPLY the same settings to your FurMark, this will make sure that both your cards are stressed properly with an heavy task, but do not start FurMark yet!

Furmark And HWinfo64 - Checking for performance​

Ok, so now that we have both Furmark ready to start, as well as HWinfo64 ready to monitor the performance and temperatures, we're going to start FurMark and see what happens!


1. Start the stress-test (FurMark) by pressing "BURN-IN TEST".

2. Now, a new screen should pop up, with a doughnut-shaped circle that is moving around in the image.

3. If step 2 occurred, that means that FurMark is currently running and stressing your cards. Your system might become a bit UN-responsive, never mind, its supposed to be like that!

4. Go back to HWinfo64, and check the readings that HWinfo64 is showing you.I've marked the interesting values for your cards in THIS screenshot.

Furmark And HWinfo64 - Understanding the values - Aftermath​

Ok, so now that HWinfo64 is reading your temperature and the utilization percentage of each of your cards, what you would like to see is an constant utilization of both your cards. By this, i mean that both cards should be running at about 97-99% utilization all the time, when FurMark is running. Any drops, or lower utilization than that, COULD indicate an potential problem with your cards.

Another thing that is worth doing as well, is to let FurMark run for an good 10 minutes or longer, and see what temperatures that your cards are running at. Mine never usually go over 72 C*, even when I've overclocked them, and i personally see an performance drop if my cards ever pass 85 C*.


So, if your temps are never over 85 C*, and the utilization shows you a stable utilization of both cards at about 97-99% utilization constantly, this means that you have properly installed all drivers, and that your cards are in a healthy state!


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Hope this guide will become handy for someone. If it did help you, please support me with an rep-point. If you'd like to see an guide for anything else, M17x related, please tell me, and I'll try to get it up!


I will also update this guide with an guide on how to overclock single and Crossfire cards, both through updating the vBIOS (Bios for the card / cards) and through an Windows-software, aswell as an Battlefield 3 optimization guide!




Best regards,
- Scott.

 

Nice job. +rep

 

WOW...with an effort like that , you deserve some rep

 

repped ftw

nice guide

 

Good.. rep. added

 

Sweet man, thanks so much for this guide Scott! I only just received my M17xR2 so this will be extremely valuable to me. +Rep

 

Thanks guys!

Wish you an good experience with your new system, Rypac!

- Scott.

 

I tried to follow your tutorial but every time I try to uninstall the old drivers I get a bluescreen and I am then only able to reboot in safemode.

 

Well, what does the Bluescreen say? I need some more information to be able to help you.
Try to uninstall the driver in safe-mode, and then restart in normal mode

- Scott.

 

Master GPU is at 100% utlization, slave is at 98%. Temps after 15mins are sitting at 85-86degrees Celcius and it claims my fans are at 30%, but it hasnt really changed from that at all.


My battery says current load is 100% at 88.6Wh, is this correct?

Thanks.

 

That seems correct, yes. Maybe a bit hot, but nothing dangerous.
The fan-monitor isn't working, as long as you can hear that your fans spin up, then you're all in check.

-Scott.

 

Looking forward to see your BF3 optimization guide.

Currently running the game at these settings with rig in sig.

Resolution: 1920x1200
Brightness: 50%
Vertical sync: OFF
Field of View: 70
Motion Blur Amount: 50%

Graphics Quality: CUSTOM
Texture Quality: ULTRA
Shadow Quality: MEDIUM
Effects Quality: HIGH
Mesh Quality: HIGH
Terrain Quality: HIGH
Terrain Decoration: HIGH
Antialiasing Deferred: OFF
Antialiasing Post: HIGH
Motion Blur: ON
Anisotropic Filter: 2X
Ambient Occlusion: OFF

I run smoothly at these settings. Occasionally when going from scoped view and out there is a minor hitch/stutter, but if I disable Crossfire it no longer happens and game still runs smooth.

 

Don't get too excited! There isn't actually that much tweaking possible to do with BF3, unfortunately, because DICE has blocked out a load of commands and abillities to make it more fair. But, there is a couple of things..

I will finish it tomorrow at night, i think.

- Scott.

 

What a good job giving back to the community plus rep

 

Not trying to jack your thread but found a really good tweak and description guide at the following link.

Guides: Battlefield 3 Tweak Guide - GeForce

It is more for Nvidia but still has some good information

 

This guide is what I'm looking for .
+1 thx

 

Thanks Scott, loving it so far!

Looking forward to your BF3 optimization guide.

 

Nice, +rep

Also looking forward the optim part!

 

Do you know where I could find second 5870m with cable , heatsink and fan?

 

NBR Marketplace is probably the best place.

 

Hi, Aldam!
First of all, i would suggest you to check the NoteBookReview marketplace and see if therse any.

Else, i would suggest you to call DELL. Even though it might don't (if you're running R1) support your system, they will sell you the parts that you are looking for. (But it might cost you an arm and a leg, and you will get no warranty for those parts, aswell as the fact that you will have to install it yourself. Don't forget the crossfire-cable)


Edit: seems like the BF3 guide has to wait a bit. My teachers just found out that they're going to give me 5 tonnas of homework to do by the end of the week.. Darn it.
- Scott.

 

i assume that the onboard graphic card 9400m must be disabled? what will happen if you have it on ? :O

 

The on-board graphics should and must at all time be disabled when running the Crossfire 5870 setup, at least in the M17x R1.

What will happen, i'm not sure, but i will guess a load of BSODs, aswell as the fact that your graphics card (5870's) will not be recognized, nor working in Windows. (So you won't be able to use them, nor will you be able to install the drivers for it.)

Edit: Ok, so i tested with the hybrid graphics on, and then the 5870's get switched off, and the system runs on the chipset.. Although, you get an error about Catalyst Control Center not finding any graphics cards. Everything else works fine.. (but the performance is significantly worse.)
- Scott

 

Hi there,

I was wondering if this would work for my m17xR2 with dual 4870 cards, I get a similar message as this user http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-not-allowing-me-install-graphic-drivers.html

When I uninstall the dell driver and install an ati driver, it has installtion successful but windows shows me only 1 video card has a driver, should I try install the new ati driver over the top of the dell one?

Thanks.

 

I followed all the steps and the software installed 8.911.0.0 for the single 5870 graphics driver. Is this right driver?

I ran the test and this is what I came up with:

[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]

 

What a great guide. I am dumping my old crossfire setup and I am eager to get my dual 5870's installed properly! I've checked the current VBIOS of each 5870 card and they are 012.020.000 000 029. 037460

Do I need to run the VBIOS update Dell has made available?

I'm gonna try going through this guide while I hope for an educated answer! I'll let you guys know what happens...

Thanks all.

joe

 

Hello, Joe, latest Dell vBIOS version should show this:

012.020.000.027.037640

Cheers

 

Thanks katalin. Updating VBIOS next. Having no luck getting the drivers to instal yet....

Ready for help again. VBIOS updated successfully. All ATI drivers and Catalyst wiped out. But,

I can't get the first driver package to install correctly. After installation, I get a "could not load file or assembly MOM Implementation error". If I believe AMD (not sure I do) I have a .net framework error. I will look into correcting that now....

 

I just want to get my 5870s working!!!

OK. this is officially driving me crazy. I reinstalled Win 7 yesterday (used the update windows method). The .net framework errors are now gone.

I have updated all system drivers, the MOBO and VBIOSs'. I removed all traces of ATI Catalyst with CCleaner and Driver Sweeper.

I am now getting a new error upon startup "Error 0000" which seems related to the FF sensor. When I run msconfig and disable the FF, the error goes away. I removed and reinstalled, same error. disabled again, I suppose i can live with that but,

The ATI drivers will not install at all, I get the MOM Implementation error as well as the CLI Implementation errors during install and startup now.... and anytime I attempt to run Catalyst.

Can anyone offer advice on this ati driver situation?

Here's the install log from Catalyst installation (After installation, the program states there were warnings during install):

Catalyst™ Install Manager
Installation Report
12/20/11 12:42:53
Hardware information

Name
Manufacturer ATI Technologies Inc
Device ID 0x68a0
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x000000
Revision ID 0x00
Subsystem ID 0x043a
Subsystem vendor ID 0x1028
Other hardware

Existing packages
HDMI/DP Audio Driver
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable
Packages for install
Catalyst Control Center
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 2010.0810.2122.36491
Size: 150 Mbytes
ATI Catalyst Install Manager
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 3.0.786.0
Size: 20 Mbytes
ATI Display Driver
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 8.763.0.0000
Size: 90 Mbytes
HDMI/DP Audio Driver
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 7.11.0.7708
Size: 1 Mbytes

Other detected devices

Manufacturer ATI Technologies Inc
Device ID 0x68a0
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x000000
Revision ID 0x00
Subsystem ID 0x043a
Subsystem vendor ID 0x1028

Manufacturer ATI Technologies Inc
Device ID 0xaa58
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x000000
Revision ID 0x00
Subsystem ID 0x043a
Subsystem vendor ID 0x1028

Error messages (Left Blank)

 

Hello, Joe, to make sure you have the right vBIOS on both graphic cards, open GPU-Z and check under BIOS version, then select your second card from the bottom drop down list and check its version too.

Try Dell's drivers and install reference drivers on top of them. I don't know which is a good version as i don't have these cards.

As for the Freefall sensor driver, just avoid it. It will cause more issues than it does good.

 

Sincerely appreciate your input kaitlin. Both cards are flashed, HWinfo confirms this. I am moving my questions/issues over to a thread for clean installations to see if I can get some more advice on how to proceed. I saw you were commenting there too... feel free to chime in as I struggle along!

 

I know I'm necoring a thread here but i was wondering if it matters if the 5870s are clevo cards or not will the guide posted still work?

 

Hi!

Sorry for not being able to respond and being inactive - Please email me with further questions, as i read my emails like.. 20 times a day, whilst i visit NBR like twice a week now.

Either way;

Highfly: - There should be no problems with the fact that they're Clevo cards, they should still be the same cards, as they're manufactured under the same model-number. Just make sure you have the needed heatsinks for your R1, and the SLI-cable. (I'm not sure if they're manufactured different for the Clevo's, either way you should be able to obtain one for the R1 if needed from an webpage which sells refurbished parts.)

If it doesent work, you might need to flash them with the vBIOS found on Dell's driver site, remember to flash both cards!

Keep me posted, and again, if anyone else needs help, please PM or email me. (Or let the rest of the knowledgefull-forum help you!)


I will check my thread again tomorrow and check all older posts if you guys need some help, but right now i need to get an webpage done for tomorrow.


- Scott.

 

Does anyone know of a way to check if you have 1 card or both without opening up my computer?

 

Look in Device Manager or install a program like Hwinfo and see how many cards are listed.

 

Hi I was just wondering, is it worth it to upgrade from gtx 280m sli to HD 5870 crossfire.

my specs are here

M17x R1 (DELL)
gtx 280m sli
q9000
6gb ram
1920x1200

Also can crossfire 5870's run Battlefield 3 at decent fps, and what settings could achieve what fps.

Many thanks DDDDD

 

Wish I could help with the BF3... I got the 5870's in Xfire to run very well in BFBC2 but don't own BF3 yet.

My question is to 'WHY' we install the new reference drivers 'on top' of the Dell drivers. I always thought it was standard practice to uninstall old drivers then boot to safemode and clean the remnants from the registry with cc cleaner then boot back up in VGA mode and install new drivers...

I am trying to move from the 8.763 dell drivers to the latest AMD reference drivers which are 12.4 as of today. And before I do just wanted to clarify the process.

 

Hello, Infernia, folks were recommending to install over the Dell driver because the reference driver wouldn't install on its own.

If you can perform a fresh install of the newer ones i'd say perfect. If not, you know what to do.
Whatever the result is, come back and tell us how how it went. It might help more than one

 

I just finished upgrading my 5870's from Dell's 8.763 to the latest AMD reference driver version 12.4.
I was holding my breath because I have never installed a driver over top of another.
Now results may vary but I had the Dell 8.763 driver from the site, installed for the past ~year. And also I had previously flashed my vBIOS as well.
Must say it was as easy as it gets and no hiccups or errors.

 

That's good news, congrats!

 

HI,

I have recently installed both my HD 5870's into my M17x R1, both cards do utilize 90-98% in furmark, but on Battlefield 3 one card utilizes 98% and the other only like 65%, this is on the high settings template on bf3. I know the cards only utilize the amount they need but im only getting 35-45 fps, so why dont they push themselves a bit more.

Also when I put the settings on low, I only get something like 45-50fps

Sorry one more thing, when i turn on performance overlay on bf3, my GPU is always above my CPU, but when i had my sli 280m's they were in equal with the processor, is this normal.

My M17x

C2D Q9000 OC'ed @ 2.4ghz
6GB RAM
HD 5870m Crossfire enabled

i think thats all you guys need.

Thanks in advance