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

Yes I know one of the one of the guys returned a pair of cards cant remember who though

 

Hi Stealth,

Yes they include a 6 month warranty

I had to RMA my 6970's do to a bad crossfire connecter and I know DR650 had to RMA his as well

 

so far I have run the crysis benchmark power consumption max 260w
but the gpus are only at 95% and my overclocked 5870s got the same score as they did about 35fps, disabling aa (from x8) give about 1 extra average fps
I'm thinking that this is a driver related issue? as temps are great and power isn't out of control, any one else got ideas?

@steath55 try a re-install of windows and use the modified drives that's how i got it to work

 

I assume that everyone has looked here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/601148-6990m-crossfire-guide.html

It is a little dated but definitely gives some more things to try.

There is also http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6990M.57308.0.html which gives some 'Benches' for the 6990m. I say 'Benches' because it isn't actually using a 6990m in a laptop, but a Desktop running a 6870 clocked at the same speed as a 6990m...

@Stealth, Kenny IS using the pads on the voltage regulators. When you did for a short while, did you get any crashing?

 

thanks Douse I've now got 11.8 and the cap, no real difference though will play around with radeon pro a bit later
and notebookcheck have got actual 6990m bench's now which helps

 

Well my second power supply arrived today!

Ordered my project box as well as two massive low VF Schottky 500amp, 30v diode

I figure if the voltage drop is around 500mv during high load, it will be much, much less than that when only passing 15-20 amps.

 

has anyone done actual gameplay on crysis warhead or dirt3....with 6990's on r2?

 

Hi Stealth, I have crysis warhead but only getting the 6970 cards. I can run a test on them when I receive the cards (hopefully by Friday, or early next week).

 

I tried warhead gameplay just then 30-55fps sometimes with large random fps drops (10 fps or lower), the first crysis seems to be under performing a little bit as well

Just wondering people with 6970m cfx how does your performance compare with the bench's on notebookcheck?

 

It's most likely the lack of headroom from the PSU.

 

Ok so the psu is on its limit and the quality of power is below average and not quiet enough, ie psu is most likely throttling the performance not drivers or cpu?

@ douse and aarpcard, were did you source your big diodes, online?

 

I should have my cards in by the end of this week or early next week and will run Crysis and warhead and see how it performs on those games and report back.

 

i reset my laptop got 11.4 mod driver on seems good so far...i can use overdrive on CC now. waiting on games to finish downloading

 

I used these diodes http://www.ebay.com/itm/180660945877?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

I'm still tweaking the design. I'll upload pictures and schematics when I'm done.

 

Looking forward to it!

Glad to hear it! Hopefully you will have better luck in Crysis.

 

ooooops.....double post fail

 

Kenny, why don't you try to undervolt the cards? it may give you more psu availability.

my 6970's are running stock clocks @0.96V rock solid. I can up them to 735/1050 even with that voltage. I believe that also the 6990 can run so low on voltage. May be worth a try

 

I was able to run crysis warhead for a whole 1 second more then the usual 2 in gameplay before my laptop blacked out .

 

The fact that it is tripping the whole laptop would indicate that there may be something wrong with your hardware.

I know you are reluctant, but maybe re-apply the thermal pads (assuming that you have taken them out) to the voltage regs and see how you go.

Failing that throw back in your 5870's and see if the problem persists.

 

i set crysis to the lowest possible settings also..it just kills my laptop..
When i try to open crysis with CF disabled my graphic driver stops working screen goes black and stuff reappears but its super laggy while trying to move mouse i just have to shut laptop by force because i cant do anything

 

555，The genius “pkhetan” can't accecpt my order of 6970M's crossfire,because Clevo haven‘t stock。Do someone want to update 6970m cfx
to 6990m cfx or gtx580 sli,I will bay 6970m's from him,like ichime sold.

 

ummm What?

 

Ok undervolted to 0.97v everything still good haven't tried to go lower... yet
Benchmarks have barely changed, (expected)
Crysis still has performance drop outs, although less often and the performance is better
Its definitely the Psu throttling, good performance = 270w power draw, bad performance = 160w power draw
Which is strange I would have thought the psu trips not throttles
So just waiting on second psu to unleash the beast

Sorry to hear that Stealth I almost feel bad considering how smooth my cards went in compared to yours
Is crysis the only game that shuts down?
Maybe try having only one card installed at a time see if you can narrow the problems to one card or the motherboard if the you 5870s now have the same problem

 

Kenny, this is what I was experiencing doing power draw tests in Furmark. The power consumption would consistantly drop every couple of seconds when too much power was used (above 250 watts), and this had a noticable impact on fps.

I am thinking (and hoping) that this is the PSU not being able to sustain the high power draw, and not some power management built in to the laptop...

 

Once I get my 6970's in the mail, I'll give warhead a shot as well. It may be that the 6990's are just pulling that much more power that it's causing problems. Hopefully between what Douse is working on and Aarpcards adapter you guys can sort out a way to provide more power to the laptop to provide better, cleaner power.

That being said, I don't think I'd even attempt to overclock the 6990's, and would adjust the voltage as Kenny did.

 

These PSUs can go as high as 290W, 250W is still on the safe side.

 

i get those fps drops in crysis dx11 at extreme and ultra. do you think its because of power drain or its just the game? gpus and cpu not overclocked.

 

Yeah they may peak at around 290 (I have seem mine go to 280), but it isn't sustainable and the power fluctuates. I saw it happen on my adapter over 250 watts, and when i dropped the power consumption to 249 watts it immediately stopped fluctuating.

It appears that the same thing is happening with Kenny's too. FYI, I have a Delta adapter, not a Flextronics.

Aristo, I believe so. Is it a consistent dip in fps every 2-3 seconds?

EDIT:: I am waiting on my diodes to come so when I do I will push it past 250 watts total draw and see if we still have this fluctuation. I may have to purchase a second watt meter to get a reading on individual PSU draw as well..

 

It may just be the game...I did a quick search and there are other posts regarding frame drops in crysis. That's not to say that it isn't related to power/cpu issue, but Crysis has never been known for it's stability.

 

i would say every around 8 seconds or so but mainly on areas with landscapes rather than caves or such places. its really annoying. no such issues without dx11 even on ultra settings

 

OH yea! OH yea! It's yur befday, get busy! Get some, Get Some!

My 6990's Shipped Although there is a little confusion as to whether or not they shipped the right cards

Now I need to double my efforts to find a 330W PSU, and than figure out somone to do some desoldering and soldering of the ID eprom. Hopefully if I can ID it (no clue what I'm looking for) I can have the chip on the 240W adaptor desoldered and than resoldered in place on the 330W adaptor. Thus a nice working single PSU

 

Are you saying you'll buy 6990's from pkhetan and trade them with someone for 6970's? Is that is what you're saying, I might possibly be interested.

 

Ok, so I have hooked up my second power supply.

I have confirmed that the same thing happens, but I don't seem to get as big drops as Kenny mentioned, but as soon as I go above 250 watts (by increasing my screen brightness) my power draw bounces between 220/230 and 250+.

This causes my FPS in Furmark to drop from a constant 34 fps to 28 fps.

I cant think of anything else it would be, as it can't be the CPU throttling, as all I have done is increased screen brightness.

As soon as it is set to 249/250 it sits solid at 34 fps.

 

Quick question, are we sure that the 330W PSU won't provide too much power to the board and cause other issues? Just curious if that is what caused Stealths connector to fry...or do we think it was something else? Guess I'm a bit concerned about going this route vs the route that aarpcard is taking.

 

Grats! Hope you can find the ID chip

Greywolf, theoretically no. It shouldn't cause any issues. You will only draw as much power as your require. However, if for some reason stealth's system DID draw too much power, the same thing can potentially happen with the two 240 watt psu's

 

Nah, draw from the PSU will only be what is required by the computer. For example, if you managed to hook up a 1000watt PSU to the laptop, there wouldn't be any problems at all if the computer only drew a max of 300+/- watts.

I think something else happened. Something must have accidentally gotten shorted out when he opened the laptop. Furthermore, that connector doesn't carry any high current. It's all 0-5v data voltage for the i/o and 1amp total for the usb ports. That board is separated from the MXM slot circuits and the power distribution circuits, so it's highly unlikely that that connector would have fried without something else frying in the computer as well, if the problem was related to too much draw from the PSU. Something else must have happened.

 

Ok..cool that makes me feel a bit better. So realistically doing the hot-wire method should still be a viable option.

Hmmm decisions decisions....

Still think I prefer the dual 240W solution myself, but interested to see how DR650's method goes.

 

ill let you guys know if its a card problem or just the thing i found on board that might be the answer to my problems im going to reinstall my 5870's

 

Hot wire method works perfectly...imo

 

Can you post a photo of the PCB when you get it, DR?
Thanks

@Douse I only tested on Flextronix adapters.

 

Ok, Here's the final revision. Everything is working like a charm. Here's two pictures.







The LED's are not needed as a part of the working design, but they are helpful - I might get around to putting them on mine - but I find for the most part, the LED's on the ends of the cables of the PSU are fine.

All that's left to do is put it in some kind of a box. I'm not sure at this point if it's doable for me to manufacture a few and sell them to people. I'm going to look into it more, and see if it's possible.

 

Great work aarpcard!

Stupid question, because I can't see it on the circuit diagram, the blue ID cable is just connected from both PSU's right?

 

yeah, they're just spliced together and you can throw the 16 amp fuse in there too if you want.

I was getting some BSOD's when having both gpu's overclocked and my cpu overclocked, and so far it seems as if this fixed it.

 

Excellent work aarpcard...very impressive indeed

 

Thanks! lol. One thing I should point out is that for the two diodes, you should use a chip that has two diodes on 1 die. I found that when using just two separate diodes (even the new ones), the current draw would favor one or the other due to their specifications not being exactly identical and the draw from the PSU's would not be balanced. Having the two diodes on 1 die is the key to this working.

 

Awesome stuff, I have a few different types of diodes on the way so I am going to play around as well..

How hot does the diode\heatsink get? Would a fan benefit the situation?

 

It gets hot - almost too hot to touch, but I measured the temps and they're peaking at ~60C which is well within the thermal limit of 140C. I'd measure the heat on your chip under full load and see how close it is to their limit and then determine if they need a fan.

When the laptop is on idle though, they just get a tad warm.

 

Ok fair enough, I have a fan that I have available for it so I am going to use it. Probably going to power it externally cause I am lazy.

 

@ fellows who encounter Crysis issues, assuming it's not the game, have you tried running an external monitor and closing the laptop lid? This should give you an extra 10W or so.

 

Ok, lots of awesome stuff going on...one question I have however, assuming no overclocking of the CPU or GPU's, do we think the 240W power supply would be sufficient for every day gaming with the 6990s? I guess I'm a bit confused with the results that some of the folks are reporting.

Currently I have a separate USB powered hub running all my usb devices, but I am running dual HDD's.

Obviously extra over head would be preferred, and something to work towards but what sort of day to day gaming problems would we expect (aside from Crysis...as right now that seems to be a heavy hitter).

Any thoughts?