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

It appears that Kenny is successfully running the 6990's with a stock 920xm on a single 240 psu.

Power draw is up to 260/270 even with undervolted cards, which may be having an impact on overall performance.

Kenny, do you feel the cards are being held back?

 

Now I'm using an external monitor to lower the power consumption further
Retesting undervolt, currently testing 1.05v using trixx, as for some reason vbios flash (atiwinflash and radeon bios editor) didn't change the voltage, also disabled ulps
Was using the Crysis benchmark tool for testing as I can set it to do 10 loops or something and get back to studying
I ran the Crysis benchmark again and also Battlefield bad company 2, metro 2033 and crysis 2

Crysis, average 35-40 fps (+50 fps is expected performance) with dips and spikes of 25-65 fps matching power consumption (no more drops to 10 fps)
Max crossfire load is at 90% and 100% (from hwinfo) per card, power consumption 160-220w
Settings
1920x1080, VH settings, dx10, 64bit, no AA
Edit: one card get 30fps average (is working perfectly)

Battlefield bad company 2 benchmark on the opening campaign scene with fraps, average 100 fps
Crossfire load 99.9%, power consumption steady 200-235w (independant from fps)
Settings
1920x1080 highest setting HBAO on 8xAF 4xAA

Metro 2033 benchmark average 46 fps (34.5 fps with dof)
Crossfire load 99%, power consumption 200-240w (independant from fps)
Settingd
1920x1080, Dx11, VH Quality, AAA, AF4X

Crysis 2 Adrenilin benchmark tool, average 45 and 65 fps (3 different maps averaged)
Crossfire load 99%, power consumption 200-260w
Settings
1920x1080, DX9/Dx11, Ultra, 4XAA, Edge AA, Normal textures/High res textures
crysis 2 doesnt like 1.05v much (blue screen and crashing) so I had to run it on 1.1v (stock voltage)
(to be clear I did 2 bench runs dx11+hi res and dx9+norm res)

All settings (crysis 2 I'm not sure what they actually benchmarked was probably dx9 and normal textures ) the same as notebookcheck so they are compareable
sorry should have done this earlyer rather then giving a false impression of how well the 6990m were working based on crysis not working properly.
Hopefully I didnt get any one as worried as I got myself!

Side note I check the efficiency rating of my psu (flectronics) the rating was v which means it has an average minimum efficiency of 87% and is rated to draw a max of 275w from the wall
No I dont feel they are being held back but they are on the edge of what the psu is capable of

 

Thanks guys, there is currently some question as to whether my RMA's are actually 6970's or 6990's...so trying to decide what I should do. My biggest concern would be to keep the 6990's and not have some method of providing additional power (of course if aarpcard or someone is able to produce something that can be purchased, then that concern may not be a valid one). Also considering whether or not Stealths 330w work around would be effective as well.

I guess it's like you guys, in the sense it's between going by the knowns with the 6970's and the unknowns (which thanks to all of you are being tested now) on the 6990s.

I should know one way or the other either today or tomorrow...as my cards should be delivered soon, so will know exactly what I have.

Thanks again for the info.

 

Wow! Great summary Kenny! I am very impressed at those results, especially since you have a single PSU hooked up.

Although, I still think a second PSU is a good thing so we can open up those 920xm's as well

 

Guys, take a look at this:
R2 with CF 5870 also throttling in Crysis 2, must be the game.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/606444-m17x-r2-throttling-dual-5870s.html

 

lol Crysis 2 ran like crap on my laptop for some reason. Couldnt run crossfire cause of the flickering.

Personally I think it is a poorly made game.

 

Its strange because my 5870s performed really well in crysis

 

Crysis or Crysis 2?

 

Mine with Crysis 2 ran ok with CF but had the flickering at first till better drivers came out. I'm going to wait till other people get the 6970's before I order mine

 

The 6970's are running fine atm, it is the 6990s that is still being tested..

I ran Crysis 2 when it first came out so they may have fixed a lot of the issues by now

 

Crysis (not 2) it performed better then a single 6990

 

With delivery courier WASHINGTON - RONALD REAGAN NATIONAL, DC - USA 08:48

Ohhh yeaaaa! Can't wait to get home now! I'll be able to see if I got the 6990's or 6970's. I think there is some confusion my and Greywolfs orders. They may have been mixed up over at Clevo. But, now I get to mess with my system again besides, I had a terrible paste job on my 5870's. Seeing 100*C in Vantage

 

Congrats DR650! I should be getting mine today (or tomorrow) as well...just landed in Phoenix so I'm assuming that they'll be on their way today. Let me know which cards you get and I'll let you know which ones I get and I guess we'll sort it out from there

 

Sounds like a plan. Mine should be at my Apt soon since they were already with the delivery courier at 9am. Glad my wife is at home. Definately keep us posted as well. Can't wait to start tinkering and testing

 

Meh! DR. Grey i feel your excitement for the incoming cards

I'm really curious to see what you two got there

 

Ok just got a call from the DHL courier, so should have it in a few hours.

 

Ha ha, thanks Cpt..that makes 3 of us

 

sooooo jealous.

 

Hey Douse,

Any idea when you should be receiving yours? Did you get everything sorted out?

 

Nah, its BS.

My bank is currently investigating what has gone on with the transfer. Nothing like not knowing where your money is at....

 

Oh man,

Sorry to hear that...good luck to you. Hope they get it sorted out soon.

 

Hey guys, so got my cards. Can someone refresh my memory on how to tell (physically) if the cards are 6970s or 6990s?

My sticker says ATI Blackcomb XT V2.2 2G
6-77-X720L-D02-A

Does that help? I'll send Pkhetan a message as well to see if he can verify.

Just trying to make sure before I install them (especially if these are for DR)

 

6970s (10char)

 

Awesome Ichime!! Thanks!!

So DR650, that means your cards "should" be correct.

Lets hope these work this time, I'll know after work

 

Greywolf22 your cards are correct 6970M
DR650 what are labels in your cards?
still there is cards to land to UK and to Chile

 

Just checked the DHL tracking site and my wife signed for my cards this afternoon. Will update when I get home from work. Thanks Pkhetan. Quick shipping I may add.

 

yeah super fast shipping...Cards left Tuesday night, and arrived Thursday morning.

 

Exactly, ours must have made the trip together

 

Congrats to you guys and I'm still on the fence concerning the 6990's. I would really love to just use a 330w psu and have everything be fine and dandy but I guess it won't be that easy. Did you guys just take the heatsinks from your 5870's? Would suck if I had to send it in to depot again and take apart the cards.

 

Yeah just used the alienware heat sinks. Originally I had considered ordering a second set of heat sinks just for this but in the end decided it was just as easy to repaste the old cards if needed.

 

I got 6970s. Thought that might be the case. Now the question. Do I stick with 6970s that i know work with the 240 psu no problem, or try for 6990s which have potential power issues??

 

Oh man, seriously?? Ughhh Sorry to hear that

 

Well...interesting, I installed the cards and again get the "no crossfire cable detected"

I have another crossfire cable to try (both have been working fine in my system with the 4870's).

One question...does the modded bios have anything to do with this? Has anyone tried to install the 6970's in a non modded bios? Just wondering if something has been unlocked

I have a hard time believing that the cards could be bad...they clearly aren't new cards that were sent to me (at least they don't look new)...but I'd think they'd check these. Anyway, going to try the other crossfire cable and see if it makes a difference. I have no idea what else might be going on.

*EDIT* I've double checked everything, and the cable is snug, it is the original cable that I've been using so I"m going to try my new crossfire cable to see if it makes a difference

*UPDATE* Ok so I tried the new cable...both are confirmed working...and still no luck. Am I missing something? The cables are plugged in correctly and completely. Cards are both detected seperately (but can't communicate across the link). I'm out of ideas and not sure where to go with this anymore. GPU-Z says crossfire disabled, when I go into ATI catalyst it says that both cards are detected but no crossfire cable is detected. Is there something else I'm missing? Some other way to identify the problem? I'm completely at a loss at this point

 

Try flashing the vbios if you Havent. And the cakes work on 5870s right? Maybe try installing the drivers. Or even flash the modded bios. Sorry to hear that.

 

Yeah tried flashing the vbios..no dice same problem. Both cables work on my 4870's...so not the problem there either. Just reinstalled the drivers..same problem.

It's almost as though I'm missing something. I'm going to try to flash to the modded bios and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks DR650 for the help though.

*EDIT* Installed the modded bios...no luck. Attempting to reinstall the video drivers but not expecting a change. I'm at a loss, how is it possible to have this happen twice unless I'm doing something wrong, but I have absolutely no clue. I reseated the cable, I've verified that it's plugged in securely...and I have no clue what else to try. I can try to reinstall windows, but had no luck with this. Is there any other way to test this aside from CCC or GPU-Z? Any tool that I can run in a dos prompt to confirm it? Any other thoughts?

 

Hey guys,

Sorry for the multiple posts.

Quick question...what's the performance difference between an overclocked 6970 (single) vs two 4870 x crossfire (overclocked?)

Is there a difference? Is it going to be faster? (aside from DX11 support which I know is in the 6970 and not the 4870)

 

6970 is better the then 4870CF in performance, compatibility (CF) and power usage
Something is a bit strange at notebookcheck they now rate the 580m sli highest yet is beaten in almost every benchmark by 6990m cfx?

 

Greywolf,
Where did you get your cards?

 

Hi brlowe,

I actually ordered form pkhetan (so direct from Clevo)

Not sure why I'm the only one experiencing this problem...it leads me to believe that it's something else in the system (motherboard maybe)? I honestly don't know where else it could be

 

Greywolf have you tried swapping the cards around could be a master/slave issue? or a bad crossfire port?

 

Hi Kenny,

Thanks that's next on my list of things to try (swapping the master/slave around). I'm a bit concerned that this is my second set of cards with the exact same issues. The first set I chalked it up to a bad crossfire port (because I had 2 crossfire cables, tested them both, and the both worked...plus my 4870's are working just fine in crossfire). So my initial thought is that these cards also have a bad crossfire port (unfortunately I only have two cards, so I can't narrow down which one might have the problem). I just wonder if my luck could be so bad that I get two sets of cards with bad crossfire ports. I'm not ruling it out, as the cards arrived and don't appear to be new, but refurbished (which is fine, but could mean that they didn't test the crossfire connectors). I have tried different vbioses on the cards...stock, the ones provided by ichime in the tutorial, and the stock ones that cpt used on his cards. So I think I've narrowed out that piece.

Both cards seem to work fine individually. The temps are great, they are both identified correctly, the only piece is that the crossfire cable is listed as "not connected"...so both cards individually seem to be fine, but connected they just won't communicate.

 

I want to order some 6970's from pkhetan also but read on another thread that he cannot get any more. I have sent a PM but no reply yet. I have already got my extra heatsinks and a crossfire cable so the cards were next. I guess I will wait and see what he says.

 

@ Greywolf: Can you try resetting your CMOS (full power drain) ?

 

GreyWolf, i'm really sorry ti hear about your trouble with this cards.

Only thing it comes to my mind is giving you a copy of my cards bios.. I know is not much, and maybe has nothing to do with the problem, but if you want to give it a try, just let me know and i'll send it to you..

 

Thanks Cpt! Appreciate that, but I still have a copy of your card bios from last time It's actually the current bios that I'm running on the cards now. No luck...

Katalin thanks for the advice, and yup I did that already too (removed the CMOS and did a complete battery drain)..wiped the bios settings, so I know it completely cleared it out.

I also tried booting into windows with just the primary card installed, verified the driver worked, and then powered off, installed the secondary card, booted up and it saw the secondary card, but still gave the same message about the crossfire cable.

It's strange that it's the exact problem from last time and only impacts the 6970s...the 4870's boot just fine into crossfire

The only other thing I can possibly think of is something with the motherboard. I have one of the original r2's...with the 4870's before the 5870's were available...does anyone know if there was a second revision of the motherboard used and if so where I could find that (or compare against anyone else)?

I've done fresh install of windows, different drivers, different crossfire cables, different vbios, complete power drain, both catalyst and GPU-Z both report that crossfire is disabled...claiming the cable isn't plugged in or not plugged in correctly.

I'm assuming that the cable is keyed so that it'll only plug in one direction so don't believe I've got in inserted incorrectly...I've also verified that the cable is plugged in securely and completely on both ends.

I even upgraded to the modded A10 unlocked bios today just to see if that was playing any sort of role.

I'm at a complete loss at this point...is there anything else that anyone can think of that I'm missing?? It seems unusual that both sets of cards could have the same issue, and if it's not the cards or the crossfire cable, then what other part(s) could play into this? The motherboard only? I just really have no idea where to go next.

 

The motherboards on the R2s are all the same, only thing they changed was the touchpad design(some were touching the screen) and a another model of RGB LED panel.

I'm so sorry to hear the bad news. Do you live close to somebody that has the 6970 cards to completely rule out everything else.

Also maybe you already thought about it but a fresh install of Windows might be worth it

 

Hi Katalin, yeah fresh install has the same problem...sigh.

I am currently working with someone on the forums to send my cards too so they can give them a try and see if they work in their system.

At least that way I can rule out the cards...if the cards turn out to be the problem again then I'll need to pursue another RMA...if the cards turn out to not be the problem...then...I dunno what I'll do

 

If they appear to work in another system, CF included, assuming the motherboard is fine my next step would be a Crisis recovery(yes, even though your BIOS chip is not bricked) to make sure the BIOS gets flashed properly.

If this also fails if the cards turn out to work in another R2 with your cable, then idk what to say anymore :/

Hopefully the cards are bad and your system is fine.

 

Hi.

Was the crossfire cable of the 4870's the same as the one for the 5870's?

 

Yes, same fan and heatsink too.