[Guide] Installing AMD Radeon Mobility 6970 / 6990 in your M17x R2 (Single GPU and CrossfireX)

Thanks man! I feel that luck might be with me this time! The Eurocom 6970 with the SLAVE vbios posts and boots in the master slot!!! Still gotta test the Dell 6970

EDIT: The M18x 6970m ALSO posts and boots in the master slot with the SLAVE bios!

They do not post together. I still get the same problem detailed in my much earlier posts. I think it's time to start the flashing game.

EDIT: OH MY GOD! THEY DO BOOT TOGETHER!! With the Eurocom card in the master and the M18x in the slave, they wouldn't boot. I swapped the configuration and they boot! And they both have the x7200 slave bios. Why on earth did this happen?

 

I'm soooo happy for you, buddy!!

Different physical architecture, maybe.

 

Congratulations man! And ouch 300$ for the MOBO is just wow! Alienware is expensive alright. Good thing to know now, I think your config should be Included in the guide as well with specs of which vbios are in with them.

 

Ok so I flashed the bios from Cpt..and it looks to be the same bios that shipped with my cards. Plugged in the cable and its still telling me the cable is not connected (even though I was very careful to make sure it was plug in securely on both sides). I would suspect my cable although I've tested it on my 4870's and it works fine, so I'm thinking the problem might simply be one of the cards crossfire connectors is bad (unfortunately don't know how to verify this). I did order another crossfire cable to be safe, but I just tested mine last night and it was working fine with the other cards.

I also tried the Dell bios..again which flashed successfully but shows the same results in CCC (verify that you cable is plugged in to both connectors)

Is there anything I could be missing? Any place besides GPU-Z and the Catalyst Control center that might tell me if the cards are able to talk to each other? Anything that I might have to enable elsewhere? I'm seriously at a loss right now.

 

Thanks! I get the feeling I'm pretty close. It boots into windows, but it's not stable at all. Major artifacts and BSOD's. I'm thinking it's because both cards have the slave vbios. Gonna flash the M18x card to the master vbios.

 

:Crossing my fingers for you::

 

OK here's another update.

Flashing the M18x 6970 to the x7200 master bios did not work. . . . still had the same severe instability in windows. Most times it would crash even before I logged in.

However . . . Flashing both cards back to their respective M18x vbios's did work! It's stable when running windows and crossfire works. I first tried my M17x R2 crossfire cable and it didn't work. Then I tried my M18x crossfire cable and it did work! Sometimes I had to reseat my M17x R2 CFX cable when using my 4870's to get it to connect properly, so I think it might just be a bad cable - but nevertheless CFX works.

Now, I am still experiencing some issues however. The fans are stuck on 100% or near 100% it seems and I can't shut down the computer without crashing. Games seem to run fine, but I haven't tested many.

Basically it's exactly what ichime said would happen with the M18x vbios - however, the x7200 vbios are completely unstable.

I'm gonna try the vbios's CptXabaras uploaded, and if those don't work, I'm going to try and see if I can get the system to boot with the Eurocom card as the master and see if I have any more luck with the X7200 vbios's.

Getting so so close!

 

Greywolf, now you have the same VBIOS as Cpt and "supposedly" the same cards as hem, but not the same driver I think, what driver Cpt uses? and also did you try to use the Clevo X7200 drivers : ftp://ftp.clevo.com.tw/X7200/VGA/AMD.zip

 

Hi Pkhetan,

I used the same driver that cpt used as well, but I'll gladly give the clevo drivers a shot.

Nothing to lose at this point.

Will let you know.

 

CptXabaras, your vbios's helped solve a lot of problems. Everything works perfectly now, except the fans remain at 100%. Other than that everything is working perfectly.

Greywolf22, I'm beginning to think that one of the cards has a bad CF port. Hopefully that's not the case though

 

Hi aarpcard,

my thoughts exactly.

Glad your's is working now...what a relief that must be. Sorry you had to get a motherboard in the whole
process though

 

Did you arrived to finish installing the same Cpt drivers, or it didn't let you continue?

 

It is a big relief lol. I was pretty sullen for the past few days. Hopefully I can sell my 4870's and make up for the cost of the motherboard.

Thanks to ichime and everyone else who helped out - I'm gonna rep everybody as much as I can. I just played Dirt 3 for about 15 minutes with no hiccups. Max everything at 1200p and a constant 60 fps with vysnc on. After I put my laptop completely back together and make it neater I'll run some benchies and stuff.

Greywolf, don't give up, we'll eventually get you up and running. Now, that my problems are for the most part resolved I can look deeper into yours and see if I can think of anything.

 

Hi Pkhetan,

I was able to flash Cpt. bios on both cards successfully (bios version was the same as mine, I flashed the primary and secondary successfully), and installed the same AMD driver that cpt is using. This is all on a fresh install of windows (just wiped my drive and installed it again this morning)

Both cards show up fine, but it states that the cable is not connected.

I've also tried the Dell bios on both cards (master and slave) it flashed fine and came up in windows, same problem stating that the cable is not connected.

I think that there is probably a problem with one of the crossfire ports on one of the cards, thats the only thing I can think of at this point, because both cards have been in both master and slave with the same results, and both have had the primary and secondary bios flashed to them (respective of their slots), and the cable has been verified to work with my 4870's that I re-installed yesterday as a test.

Unless I'm missing something

 

Yes i think it's time to do RMA.
and the Clevo drivers, did you tried them?

 

Hi Mohamad,

I did...still no luck

Same issue doesn't detect the cable

 

OK, never mind, I need the date code stickers (normally yellow color) on the both cards and your address, name, telephone again in order to initiate the RMA procedure.

 

Hi Pkhetan,

Thanks I'll grab that stuff for you and e-mail it.

Thanks for all your help, you're awesome!

 

Glad it helped

Greywolf, sorry that it went this way for you, but you will get you new cards anyway.

Meanwhile i can report that the cards are working perfectly. Benched @820/1000, temps didn't get above 75 *C. I keep them at stock for gaming, really they don't need any OC.

Anyway for those interested, i'm keeping the 920xm@ 133x18 on the 4 cores, 24x for dual and single core apps. TDP @75w and benched with both cards @820/1000 without PSU problem

 

Awesome CptXabaras sounds great!

Enjoy

 

Benchmarks with a 825mhz on the core and 950mhz on the mem.

Vantage: P18715
Vantage Gpu: 22691
3D mark 11: 6182

 

That is amazing with an 820QM!!

You should try OC your 820 with Set FSB. Probably could hit close to 20k, and it is really easy + you wouldn't have to change voltages for the CPU with a slight OC.

 

I'm already using setfsb. Those runs were done at 1.93ghz. Tomorrow, I'll try to redo them at 2.12ghz - if it's stable with the new cards - gotta overvolt lol.

 

Awesome runs aarpcard! I'm impressed!

Well, my 6970's are all boxed up and ready to be returned...here's to a speedy replacement.

Thanks for all the help guys, enjoy your cards and let the next batch of installations begin

 

This is awesome, I will be doing this mod sometime for sure.

 

Fans @ 100 percent could be due to the Dell 6970M card. At first, I thought the fan issues were all in the VBIOS, but now I'm starting to think it's something else that different between the Eurocom/Clevo and Dell cards...

 

Well 4870's are reinstalled, crossfire is working well...so that gives me confidence that it is indeed one of the crossfire connectors on one of the two cards. Now to wait for the replacements

 

Sorry to hear about that. I hope you get good cards this time.

 

Good Luck Greywolf!

I am interested in how your new cards go as this will be the deciding factor for me as to whether i go for it and buy two 6970m's....

I am hoping that nothing has changed with the cards...maybe a new version?

 

Hi guys,

Thanks...yeah I don't think the card revision was the problem (since I think cpt had the same bios as my cards), I think I just got unlucky on one of the crossfire ports.

I'll definitely keep everyone posted though.

 

Yes, I've locked through Cpt Bios .bin files and it seems that they are also .009

@ Cpt :
by the way, what was your card hardware revision :
the stickers : "ATI Blackcomb XT V ?" and "6-77-X720L-D ?"

 

I didn't take note of that, sorry, on strange thing is that gpu-z show them as Dell cards..

Also, i'm thinking of flashing the cards @1.05V instead of 1.1. At stock clock it should work and improve both temperatures and reduce a little the power draw.

I've flashed my 5870's in the past, booting with an usb key and using atiflash. Is it safe to do so with the 6970's? or should i use another method?

 

So i did it, flashed the cards at 1.05V (680/900) down from 1.1V and at 1V instead of 1.05 when running at 500/900. I did a vantage run without problems. I'll be testing it a bit, also rising frequencies and see how it goes. I may as well undervolt them even further if they show up being stable. What a nice pair of cards really

Edit: benched with cards at 750/1000 without problems. Jumped at 805/1000 and it crashed during the first graphic test in 3dmark11.

Definetly this cards can run stock at even 1V. I should give it a try

Also tested without PSU problems with 85W tdp and 24x133 on 4 cores. Cannot see any problem

 

Awesome tests CptXabaras!

 

Hey guys, so one thing I did want to share about my experience going through the process was the removal of the c-clips on the heatsync retaining bracket. Those little guys can be a real pain to remove (as ichime stated in his excellent guide), but I found the perfect tool for the job.

I ended up using a small pair of scissors that are very thin and curved on the end (I believe they can be purchased at any convenience/drug store). it allowed me to easily pry them away with little effort.

Just a tip for those who might struggle getting them off.

 

Greywolf - did you get the problem sorted? Was it a bad CFX cable?

That's a good idea on the curved-tip scissors. Thanks for sharing it. +1 rep.

 

Hi Mr. Fox

Actually I think the problem is a bad crossfire connector on one of the cards...so currently in the RMA process. Put my 4870's back in last night, with the crossfire cable and they connected up just fine. So once I get the new cards I'll give it another go

 

Cards seems to run just fine 700/[email protected]!

i'll play some hours of wow now. let see how it goes

edit: @ 1.0V runs wihtout any problems.

750/1000 crashes during vantage @1.0V

I believe that 1.0V is the safe limit for undervolting this cards, it won't grant great margin as far as OC goes, but thermals are wonderfull and power draw is reduced. And this cards a part from benchmark, doesn't need to be OC at all

 

CptXabaras
with 85W tdp and 24x133 on 4 cores and 700/[email protected] on 6970m do you have problems with PSU in vantage,3DMark2011?And try to run the game which will use big potential out of CPU and GPU. Thanks.

 

run fine both benchmarks, i've been playing the las hours: wow, masseffect2, crysis 2 , fear3.

I have no means to measure how much W i'm pulling out from the laptop, but so far no problem.

 

I am unsure if this has been covered, but do you guys think the 6990m's will be compatible with the m17xr2? Or will they be drawing to much power....

 

They should be fine although no one has tried yet (I plan on being a Guinea pig in a few wks tho) just your overclocking will be even more limited

 

Until they figure out how to use the newer ac adapter

 

They are compatible - just ask ichime with his ES 6990. Power is another question. Dual 6970's run close to the PSU's limit. Dual 6990's might trip it under heavy load. But you should be able to use two 240watt psu's in parallel

If you're interested, go back into this topic and read some of the posts - I outlined a whole thing on the power problem.

 

CptXabaras

Thanks for answer.Can you please write on which settings you were playing Crysis 2.I think it was with high res. pack and DX11.Was it luggish?Thanks.

 

Yeah i have read through it all, however alot is still, at this stage, speculation :|

Have you attempted to run the power adapters in parallel?

 

pkhetan has goon price on 6990's.If someone could try them on m17x r2?Maybe within a month we will know the truth. And aarpcard, can you please explain a little bit about two 240watt psu's in parallel,please?Thanks.

 

Not yet because I haven't run into any power draw limitations with only 1 PSU. When I get a 920xm or 940xm, I'll probably pick up a second PSU and try it out if I have power problems.

Personally I would be extremely surprised if parallel PSU's didn't work. Coming from an electrical standpoint, everything is sound. And the bios will still only recognize it as a 240watt PSU so there won't be any problems there.

 

Characters

 

Do you think BIOS would detect something amiss, considering that it has a cry about the 330 watt psu?

And the adapter would just a cable that both power packs plug in too, yeah?