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

Hi Atol,

Speaking specifically of the HDMI connecter (for connecting to your TV/audio reciever). The internal speakers as well as the headphone jack and external computer speakers will work just fine regardless of the card you use.

I'm running dual Eurocom 6970s, as well as a creative USB Sounds Blaster X-fi with head phones and everything works flawlessly. I also run on my internal speakers just fine as well (and have directly attached my headset to the headset connector on the laptop as well).

So all of those sound options will not be a problem at all for you.

 

Been having some issues with mine of late driver issues, loads of throttling an I seem to spend more time trying different setting an formatting etc than I get gaming lately, going to try fiddling some more with throttlestop and VGA bios so I got reading a bit again, an I can't help but think my problems are power related..... Which fetches me to the question

Has anybody tried the 330w R3 power mod? I've seen somebody has done it and has it working but has anyone here given it a go? I'm reluctant to do the 2 psu method as I like my R2 to be mobile


Failing this I may give in and go for a single 7000 series card

 

Whats the r3 power mod?
I found a guy that was able to put the ID chip from 240 psu into the 330w psu and working great.
he has a guide but it seems to complicated for me id pay $$ to anyone that could do it for me lol ofc me supplying everything.

guide...i should of prob posted this seprate since its pretty epic work
330 Watt power supply for Alienware M17x » imsolidstate

 

so does Display port and VGA work if you put in 7970s or 680s? Is the only performance and compatibility issues is HDMI is dead? Has 680s been tried?


shoot just realized what PCIe does the m17x R2 use? In xFire/SLI does it go 2 X8? Also would 7970 xfire or 680 SLI max out data throughput?

 

im running a Dell 6990m in my m17x r2 and i wanted to know if theres a correct vbios i can use, which will automate the fan control.

thanks

 

don't use use standard dell drivers and the regular vbios? I thought only the 7970 has an issue

 

a the moment im running the latest catalyst 12.11 drivers.

just want to know if theres anyway getting around using hwinfo to control fans??

also can the standard 240w psu for a M17x R2 handle 2 6990m in crossfire ??

 

depends. if you got an XM chip and do folding at home than no. TI forum has a guide on how to do load balanced two 240w PSU

 

With dell cards there is no way that I'm aware of to get around fan control with hwinfo. As far as running dual 6990s there are a few people running this even with an xm chip and a standard power supply. That being said not all power supplies are created equal and you should definitely undervolt each card and do no over-clocking. Again it'll depend on the application you are running and how much power it is pulling. But it can be done. I will say that my 6970s have been flawless running 6990 clocks so was a great purchase for me.

 

Hey, I've got a lower-end Alienware M17X R2 (my dad's old one ), and I'm thinking of upgrading the video card on it some time eventually. Right now it's got just a single 1GB Radeon HD5870M, and I would like to upgrade to something where I can actually run Borderlands 1 on the highest detail settings at 1440x900, while keeping the ability to send audio over the HDMI port. Any reccomendations?

Here are my current full specs:

Alienware M17x R2
2.53GHz Core i5 540-M
single 1GB Radeon HD5870M
6GB DDR3 RAM
Seagate ST9250410AS 250GB 7200RPM
1440x900 display

 

6990 or 680m will be best and a huge improvement. Also u need to get an XM chip that CPU will kill Ur fps in games

 

What if I just upgrade the GPU and leave my current CPU? I'm not that hardcore of a gamer, my current CPU works fine for most things, and money is kinda tight for me, though like I said I just want to be able to run the first Borderlands (NOT Borderlands 2, as I don't own it) with nicer settings.

 

than a 6990 or something will be good enough. I don't know if a 720qm would be any better for gaming but if it is i'll sell you mine for like 50 bucks

BTW i am no expert. Check ebay and this forum for prices and check notebookcheck.net for performance and find your best band for your buck

BTW a second 5870 might be best but i don't know. A dual 5870 is ~60-70% of a 7970 i think

 

A 7970 might be a better investment. Will run quite a bit faster then a single 6990 and is just as easy an upgrade. Something else to consider.

 

he said he need HDMI with audio though. Also you probably can get a 6990 for half the price. If money is tight thats a better bet. he is running on 1440x900 or whatever so games really don't need a good GPU at that res

 

What Thermal Pads are better to use? 1mm or 0.5 mm without removing the C-Clips

 

You lose HDMI capability with the 6900 series GPUs in the R2. Not sure where this was overlooked but the 7970M would be the best upgrade you can get in this regard. Also, 1mm pads seem to be the best option.


As for the dual 5870Ms vs single 6990M debate... the 6990M is just as fast as two 5870Ms. So it's kinda meh to crossfire when there's a GPU that performs just as well on it's own. Also, grab a 6970M if you can. They're dirt cheap at the moment and offer a solid 60% boost over the previous gen. I almost max out every game I own. The select few titles that can't be maxed are the same as with most machines.

 

Hdmi issue has been fixed. Read OP.

 

HDMI not working is no problem for me. I got a 6970m from the R3 , so I'm wondering now which vbios should I use?I suppose it will boot in win7 with its own vbios, but the fans wont be on auto? What cards and vBioses do you use im your R2's

 

should say in OP so read through it

 

Long story short - my R2's 4870m broke down so i decided to change it with something more powerful. At first I thought about 7970, but then a cheap 6970m from a R3 came up and i decided to give it a go. So while I'm waiting for the card to arrive I decided to do some research and read all the guides and stuff about 6900 series in R2. But the info in OP seems a bit outdated and unfortunately I don't have the time to read the whole 500+ pages of one of the guides. So here I have some questions that I hope you -good people can answer.


1) The card I bought is from R3 system , so I guess it has dell vbios. Will I get picture with this bios and will the fans be on auto or always on high speed? I've read that with dell vbios there are no auto fans, but maybe there is an updated info.
2) Which is the best vBios for this card in R2? What does and does not work with it?
3) Since my laptop isn't working now I am unable to uninstall the previous drivers.Will this cause a problem and if yes what should I do? Safemode immediately after 6970 install and remove drivers in safemode?
4) Which drivers should I install?
5) Is there anything special I should be aware of? I'm experienced with desktop stuff , but really a noob concerning alienware laptops.

 

Got my new 7970M installed in my R2.
Running like clockwork, easy install with Eurocom for Alienware.

 

Trome71, at you the Dell or Clevo card.
displayport works for you?

 

Not yet tried the displayport.
HDMI should not work?
I got the dell upgrade kit.

 

The HDMI port at least work both sound and video.

 

for 7970? what drivers?

 

At first i installed the drivers i got with the card, and then i updated to AMD Catalyst 12.11 (9.010.0) Enduro Performance Driver from the link in a thread below.

Havent tampered with resolution, just plugged the TV in the HDMI port and got sound and desktop picture directely and just ran a webpage with sound to verify it.

I don't however have crossfire if that affects things.

 

No one? Also, how can I modify the 4870 bracket to fit the 6970 (pictures or link )? The 6970 has its own bracket but as far as I have read I need to get some new screws, which I don't know where to buy from in Germany...any info would be welcome

 

check ebay and see if there is something similar to a radio shack in Germany. Sorry i don't own an R2 so i can't help you

 

Use the 0.5mm to start with. If the pads don't make good enough contact, you can add an additional pad on top of the first to bring the thickness to 1.0mm.

The Dell VBIOS should have no issues with the display, but your fan control will not work. You will need to use HWinfo to set a fan profile.

The guide at the beginning of this thread is what we all go off of. It explains the different cards and VBIOS and the effects one has on the other.

Definitely try and safemode to remove the older AMD drivers.

Follow the guide and check the last pages of the thread for updated drivers info.

Check eBay for the bracket and screws if you need them. Best place is upgradeyourlaptop's eBay store. It's really Eurocom in disguise. The screws for the x-brackets should all be the same. But make sure to use the 6970m x-bracket. Don't try and modify the 4780m's bracket, no matter what, it just won't fit right.

 

Thank you for the reply! Also I have read in the OP, that it is possible to resolve the fan issue with the DELL card, by flashing it with clevo vBios and somewhat alternating motherboard BIOS.Any info on how exactly is this done, what do I need to change in the bios or where is the alternated bios available?

 

I have an M17x R2 and I have upgraded it to an Nvidia 680M. What steps do you have to run through to get the drivers to install in Windows 8?

 

Installed a 6990m and its throttling like mad...cant get over 55% gpu use...drivers 12.10, card is from R3, with original vbios,works on 1.1v when under load, installed into my R2...R2 is with 620m CPU btw, so i think there is no way it cant get enough power...any sugestions

 

Is CPU bottleneck?

 

Hey guys, haven't been here in a while. I'm thinking about getting a display with a 2560 by 1440 resolution. Since I'm using Clevo cards, there is no native display port signal through the display port itself on the laptop. As you all know it's simply a HDMI passthrough. Is there anyway I would be able to output 2560 by 1440 to the monitor from my laptop?

Taken from AMD's site:

Dual-link DVI with HDCP12
Max resolution: 2560x160013

DisplayPort 1.2
Max resolution: 2560x1600
Multi-Stream Transport
21.6 Gbps bandwidth

High bit-rate audio
HDMI® 1.4a with Stereoscopic 3D Frame Packing Format, Deep Color, xvYCC wide gamut support, and high bit-rate audio
Max resolution: 1920x1200

VGA
Max resolution: 2048x1536

 

unless your packing 1.3 or higher your out of luck

HDMI - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Thinking of getting the 680m to replace my CF 5870m as it is getting a bit old. Got a quote for $700 excluding shipping fee. However, is it worth getting the 680m over 7970m which cost almost $200 less?
Is the HDMI/display port still a problem for 7970m?

Read some threads about upgrading M17x R2 with 7970m and some had problems with the vBIOS ended up frying the display. While the 680m is pretty much plug and play. So I am a bit concerned choosing between those two.
Suggestions?

Thanks!

 

According to Dell the R2's HDMI Port is 1.3a compliant. Therefore the interface supports it, but will the video card output a 1440p signal over the HDMI port?

 

AMD card is nearly as fast as the 680m but the three biggest things in my eyes that you need to consider are:

1. drivers (AMD has decent drivers now so not the end of the world compared to original launch)
2. xfire/sli. Do you plan on doing that down the road? sli has the least amount of micro stutters but amd might fix that over the next year or two before you upgrade.
3. physicsx. I am surprised on the difference physics x actually makes in games. mafia 2 batman and many other games support pyshicsx and makes a huge difference in quality. So if a bunch of your games support that and you are die-hard about those games than nvidia might be for you. I personally don't have the money to shell out an extra 200-300 so i went with amd and i am happy. The pyshicsx games i'll just play later when i get a desktop. ^^

not sure sorry. All i know is what wikipedia says. It is up to manufacture of video card to maximize the ports Just like most cards today only support up to 2560x1600 even though the ports support "4k".

 

Thanks HopelesslyFaithful for the suggestions!

Too bad I ended up ordering the 680M with that ridiculous price as I wasn't patient enough. It would come in 2 days and let's see how it goes in the R2. Hopefully there won't be any problems and might considering getting the 2nd one later!

Would modded 480w PSU be hard to make?


Again, thanks so much!

 

330 Watt power supply for Alienware M17x » imsolidstate

there is this too. You can do a fairly simply 330 watt PSU ....bios mod...it is EPPD? or something. The thing that hold the firmware for the security feature. That is far easier than the 480w mod but someone on TI forum has made it. He doesn't exactly have the easiest guide to follow...more of a lack of one in my eyes. Pop over there and take a look at it. If you got a 920xm and 2 100w GPU than the 330w psu might not be enough if you plan on doing heavy overclocking and F@H. Figure +-100w for each so your already at its max.

Also personally if i was going to do the 480w PSU or maybe even a 330w PSU i would ask the guys who made those mods to make me one and pay them like 50 or 100 bucks for the work....it is simply too much work in my eyes lol. I still don't know why Dell hasn't gotten bigger PSU. the m17x should have a 330w PSU and the m18x should have a 480w PSU. For the sheer reason of the XM CPU. You can make that require 100-150w alone. I'll do a test on my G51j with the 920xm and see how many watts it uses next week after i fix my Heat-Spring test.

 

anyone wth 69xxs managed to play call of duty black ops 2 ? I aways get a black screen and then machine stucks

 

recommend a new thread for that

 

Anybody have this setup on a R2?
the cards have a TDP of 75~`100W

I am curious to know how many Watts you pull out of the wall while playing (eg:Farcry or BF3)

Instead of a 7970m i might get this set for a good deal but i have be sure that i don't have the 240W bottleneck
I am planning on buying a 920XM but i am running on a I7 620m

 

A single 7970m will beat a 6970m x2 combo by more than 20% and have less than half the power requirements and heat, as well as avoiding crossfire driver issue.
And if you're ever having trouble with future high-spec games you can stick another 7970m in.
Trust me bro... don't do it.

 

i know that much....but i can get these for €250,00....a 7970m will cost me at least 450~470

 

But there's more of a chance that your 240w PSU won't power the two GPUs properly and end up costing you more in the long run. I can't say I recommend this. That very thing happened to me and I've regretted it ever since. >_>

 

if your doing just a single gpu and cpu you will be fine but you can't support cpu and two gpus. TI forum has a mod for 480 watt psu and i posted in the past in this thread a site that has a mod for replacing the epdrom for a 330 with the 240

 

True, i saw that one, but i am not an electricien
That would be a nice option, but then i would have to spend more money on used 330w PSU and for all that money, with the difference i could buy a 7970 already that all doesn't really make allot of sense....sounds like i am gonna have to go for the 680m then since they now have a price difference of €50,00.

I saw one (new) for €450,00 excl. Shipping costs....
Twice the price but then again, twice the power.

 

huh twice the power? what do u mean?