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

Congrats, how much did you get them for?

 

Awesome news Malignant! Hope it all goes well!

 

Congrats and good luck¡ hopefully all is well.

 

+1 on this. What was the grand total? And I may have missed this earlier in the thread, but why did all of the folks that DR650 and others bought their cards from quit selling them?

 

It was $920 plus $20 for shipping

 

my quote was $950 + $60 for shipping, for a pair of 6970's. I just can't get my head around that amount....... few weeks ago it was $640

 

@Turbod read phaketan's feedback thread and you'll see the reason

Sad that I didn't jump on them while they were there.

@Malignant thanks

Cheers

 

Ok got both cards installed, do I need to do any driver re-installation? Also how do I make sure I have 6990s and not 6970s? I haven't tested them out yet, seems to be working though, I'm typing on it right now. Apparently crossfire is working too, it is enabled.

 

6990s have 1120 unified shaders per card. Clocks of 715/900. Also stickers with the code name Blackcomb XTX. The 6970 has 960 unified shaders per card and is code named Black Comb XT.

 

Uh please tell me in hwinfo your clevo cards say "ati blackcomb xt/pro [DELL]"

 

I don't think I got dell cards though because it came with x7200 heatsinks/fan assembly.

 

I only tested battlefield bad company 2 so far. Runs very smoothly on highest settings except hbao is off. My fans run at 100% it seems (in game not all the time so I guess I do have clevo cards) and the highest temp the primary card has reached is 88 and the second around 70, should I be concerned? Oh and it seems to average around 235 watts while playing bc2.

 

Look in GPU-Z and see how many shaders it lists for you cards. As DR650 mentioned, the 6990 has more than the 6970.

 

Yeah I got 1120, I tried out dead island and it runs like near the pool area in the first chapter. Can anyone else confirm? This is on balanced and high, doesn't make a difference for me.

 

Um wow temps reached 98 degrees on the primary card when trying without crossfire in dead island.

 

Running a single card is more taxing than CF for whatever reason, but you shouldn't be hitting those temperatures. You said the cards came with the 7200 heatsinks? Was there maybe an issue when you swapped over the sinks?

 

Also what paste are you using on the chip and are you using new thermal pads on the memory? When I ran 3dmark11 and 3dvantage on a single 6970 the max my temps read was 71C. 6990's would generate more heat however...DR650 how high of temps are you recording while doing your benching?

 

Ok apparently I didn't tighten the heatsink down enough. I repasted anyways and now my max playing dead island is 77c. I am using IC diamond by the way. Has anyone with 6970s or 6990s tried dead island because it runs terribly for me. I don't have fraps on but it looks like i get a constant 15 to 30 fps. I get better framerates while running a single card too and it only consumes around 190w max in crossfire and around 170w with single which is weird. What a buggy crappy console port.

 

Ok it's a little buggy, clocks on the primary still at 700/900 even after I exited dead island so the fans are whirring away.

edit: ok thats wierd, the clocks dropped as soon as I closed firefox, I was gonna reboot.

 

Here is my first vantage run, everything stock on 11.7.

 

Uh anyone know how to update drivers? Catalyst mobility won't install because it doesn't detect any compatible hardware.

 

So I also got my 6970s today. installed already and pretty sure I need to repaste 1 GPU as it is idling 60 temp. But my biggest concern is I can't get the res to go 1920 x 1200. Highest it will go is 1600 x 1200. Can anyone tell me how to fix this? These are supposedly Clevo cards from Mythlogic. Do I need to flash the vbios?

 

@Ghost_AWP, Go into ccc/desktop management/desktop properties try adjusting the screen resolution there, if that's no good re-install drivers, also temps with gpu load will confirm if you need to repaste

@Malignant I had to to re-install windows before any drivers would install when I first put my 6990s in and make sure your using the modded drivers, although I would try removing your current drivers and cleaning the system with driver sweeper and ccleaner and try updating again before re-installing windows, I'm not sure why your drivers wouldn't be updating if the cards are working fine (vantage score is the same as mine)
A driver update and latest caps are the first thing to try to improve performance in dead island

 

dead island is trash lol.. I get 40 fps with crossfire enabled and 90 fps with just a single card.. wth ?

 

I had this same issue with NFS Shift 2. Worked buttery-smooth with one card and was trash with CF enabled. A Catalyst Application Profile (CAP) fixed that though. You're on the most updated drivers and CAP, right? This is also one reason why I intend to run just one 6990M, honestly. CF and SLI are still too buggy.

 

I have the latest cap but I haven't tried uninstalling/installing drivers yet. I don't want to uninstall then be stuck with drivers not installing anyway. I'm fine with current drivers.

 

Well crap, I was playing dead island and temps rose up to 102c using just the primary card, no crossfire. I already re-pasted and it idles around 50.

 

Is there a significant difference between any of the temperatures of the card that is overheating? The thickness of the thermal pads you used is correct?

 

Still at 1600x1200. I reinstalled both cards, repasted, reloaded the OS, still cannot get 1920x1200. Guess I can try a vbios flash. Going to try a vbios flash. Wasn't this an issue with Eurocom cards? I bought Clevo cards but maybe I got Eurocom instead?

Also, repasted using IC Diamond. Main GPU idle temps are 64 C. Seems high to me. Pasting using IC Diamond was a pain. I did warm the paste before but it was still difficult to spread. Maybe I didn't do it right. Anyone have any suggestions for IC Diamond pasting?

 

Since you're still troubleshooting, just use some easy to spread AS5 or something. If the problem persists after that, you can rule out the TIM.

 

I simply put a dot of it, maybe more like a log then placed the heatsink on it.

 

Uggg. Still no 1920x1200. Reflashed vbios according to page 1 of this thread. Then reinstalled drivers. Still stuck at 1600x1200. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Firefox uses HTML 5 which exports a lot of the visuals animations used in the browser to the gpu. That's why your clocks stayed up. Same thing happens to me.

 

Fixed it. Derp! For some reason Windows defaulted to 2 displays on the LCD forcing the 1600x1200 limit. So far so good. Need to run some benches.

 

Glad you got it running Ghost, hope you enjoy!

 

Thanks. I'm trying to enjoy it. Had a BSOD during 3DMark 11 first test. Gonna try another after Windows Updates finish to see if it continues.

 

Awesome news Ghost (about it working, not about the bsod).

 

Glad to see that you got your system running, Sir.

I'm getting a single 6990M from Mythlogic. I'm sure after that I'll get the 'bug' and start selling organs to buy a second card.

 

Cool. If you do get a second one later, get the CF cable from them as well. It's what I used instead of the R2 cable. It is not wrapped in plastic and tape so it can be bent much easier than the R2 cable.

6970s update. My second run of 3dmark 11 crashed to. This time on the first graphics test. Got locked screen and sound began repeating. Powered down the laptop and for the next few minutes was unable to reboot. Got a Num lock solid with the Caps and Scroll lock indicators blinking. Tried to find codes in the manual but was unable to find them. After a few minutes, was able to boot back into OS. Anyone know what this error code combination means?

 

Have you messed with the memory at all?

 

Looks like it is a video card problem shown by your graphic. It's pretty consistent now. Can't get into the OS. Something else that was odd...My CPU only showed 1 core in Task Manager and HWInfo. Going to try and reseat the cards.

 

I noticed that in your signature you're having A09 bios version. Might this be key to the problem?

 

Actually, no. I updated to A10 after the OS reinstallation. Just never updated sig. Was waiting for the final update to include the 6970s. No joy yet.

 

Hey guys,

do you think the 7XXXm series do also fit in R2. When, is there a release date.

I only have a 4870 and want to play BF3.

Greets from Germany

@TurbodTalon: can you please send me an Email when you sell one of your 6990´s.([email protected])

 

OK. The only way my laptop will boot and perform stable is by removing the right card (if you are looking at the keyboard and typing). I have also removed the CF cable (I didn't want it dangling around in there and possibly shorting out). Laptop is running stable right now. But I'm not interested in running single GPU forever. I think the card I removed is bad. Is there a way to test the card? Or do you just assume it was bad because the computer is stable without it?

 

It is possible that they will be compatible with the R2, but we will have to wait and see, I have heard that they will start releasing then end of this or start of next year although there is no official release date (that I know of)

You can test it by putting it in the left gpu slot (by itself) you will probably get flashing lights again if there is something wrong with the card

 

Thanks Kenny. I will try this when I get a moment. Can you test the cards without putting the heat sync on? Or is this a bad idea? Taking apart and repasting is a nuisance. Especially just to test one card. I wish I had 2 more heat syncs.

 

It's a bad idea, it will shut down the laptop because it will get way to hot way to quick with nowhere for the heat to disapate.

 

That's what I thought. I'll have to wait till I get home from work then. Thanks

 

The thing with my system, and it happened when i first put my system together a while back, but recently started happening again is when I turn the system on, the first five seconds it sounds like a something buzzing. I can't tell if it's a transister or not, could be the fan grinding, but I doubt it because after a few sec, it stops. I might have to take the system apart and look at all connections. It is just annoying the crap out of me. Started lastnight after I put the system back together from a day of benching.