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

You got the wrong person dude! I hope that it would workout somehow, at least we can get the graphics bang out of it, I use head phones so it doesn't matter to me that much, it would be nice to have it though.

 

Update: 24 days, still running strong. Still working on the HDMI audio issue. I tried forcing the RealteK audio drivers to install (the soundcard ATi uses on the chip), but the sound quality is worse than AM and it doesn't respond to volume control (very low). So the only way to get it to work as if it was a Dell VBIOS is to make it think it was a Dell VBIOS or something like that. If anyone is good with hex editing or know someone who is, let me know.

 

have you tried connecting multiple external devices and express card at the same time. Does it have enough power supply for all of them with the 6970s?

 

Pretty awesome stuff. I was wondering myself about getting a R3 or a R2. However, browsing the outlet i see several configurations and i have some questions about getting one for modding it to Xfired 6970s:

1. Can I get the i7-920 with its scorching 130w TDP or should i stick to the mobile cpus?
2. Anyone knows how hard is to get a 1920x1200 screen to replace a 900p screen in case i can't get the higher resolution one?

Thanks and props to ichime for the guide!

 

1) no you cant. R2 is using socket PGA-988 and the i7-920 (Desktop) 130w TDP is using socket LGA-1366. You can use an i7 920xm/940xm (Laptop) 55w TDP cpu though.

2) You need to get a screenbundle with the edge to edge glass and all, as the screen is glued to the edge to edge glass which makes it almost impossible to part from the glass.

 

Actually, some of the outlet configurations show this:

Code:

Processor: Intel Core i7-920 Processor (8MB L3 Cache, 1MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz) 
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 
Alienware M17x R2 Laptop

But I see your point, the 55w cpus are the ones to go with since the i7-920 is a desktop CPU in a laptop chassis. I'll go with the 1200p configurations.

Thanks for the answer.

EDIT: LOL it is the 920XM, not the desktop cpu

 

i received my 6970s today.

I am going to try in a while

 

Great stuff!
Don't hurry up, take your time with every move.
Let us know how it was after you're done.

 

Awesome stuffs man! Congrats!

Pretty great journey for you in the R2 ey.
From 4870s to 5870s and now 6970s oles!

Let us know your initial thoughts and how it all goes.

Cheers.

 

Thank you guys. yes a nice journey as you said! You forgot to say i went from R1 to R2 (free replacement due to issues with R1). So the journey lasts 2 years already.

They are working flawlessly guys. i did all the steps (well i didnt follow them all exactly as posted). All working as posted by inchime. Thus i dont have the flickering issue i had with 5870s. I knew it was gpu issue.

Time to change my signature.

 

Brilliant stuffs.

What are you going to try out 1st?


Cheers.

 

i already tried cod w2 (no its not demanding but had the flickering issue with the 5870s, something i wanted to check first- now such issue now). I plan to try the most demanding games like crysis 2 with the new dx11 and high tesselation support (patch 1.9).

I used the wholy new thermal paste from clevo heatsinks by the way and the MX-3 for the amd core.

 

Awesome. Are you running everything at stock clocks? What did you use to install the heatsink? i mean wich thermal paste/pads. How are your temperatures? I'm curious, i'll have shortly the same config as yours and would like to know a little more about what i should expect

 

well about the temps please let me try them for a while first. i followed the steps on first post. I didnt overclock anything yet and am curious if i will ever need to . amd overdrive from cc works anyway so would be easy

 

Nice to see that the thermal pads from the clevo heatsink can be used. I was planning to do the same since it's a little hard for me to get thermal pads... I have also 4 siringe of Shinetzu + AS5 that i was planning to use respectively for v-ram and core

 

i dont know if ichime had the same issue but wih amd overdrive installed i get a blue screen during windows boot. dont know if it has anything to do with 6970s.

Of course you can. Some things are universal even the size of the thermal pads. From my previous experience i dont recommend AS5.. The difficult part of the whole story was to remove the c clips from clevo 6970s (it was easy to take the ones from dell 5870s though ) as they were really hard stucked and i was afraid to force to avoid damage on 6970s. Just to let you all know the screws from DELL HEATSINKS CANT BE inserted in clevo cclips so you have to replace them with dell cclips (i took them from 5870s). Of course Dell crossfire cable from 5870s works with 6970s but slight modification is needed, as the place of crossfire inputs is a little different placed from the 5870s ones. Finally i made it but i was not sure till the end.

I am going to post some pics from Phketan -Clevo gpus package (with all that they came with) as i took some pics for him to use

What i can say for now is that the feeling of upgrading a current gaming laptop is better than spending so much money for a new one...especially when this laptop is the R2 wth its amazing stuff. Windows experience index for graphics raised from 7.3 (5870s) to 7.6 (6970s) but this doesnt say so much does it?

 

Great, thanks for the info and for the picture of the card package

Why not AS5? poor performance or any other problem?

Also i think i share the same fealing as far as upgrade is concerned. I don't need to change the whole laptop for a new one as the M18 for example. Talking the truth i don't really "need" the 2 6970 at all (but i want them badly )

+rep!

 

Well because its has electrical conductivity. If you are careful enough you wont have any chance of getting issues. Other than that its a good thermal paste. I think this was one of the reasons i had some cpu issues on R1. i needed them because of the flickering issue i had with 5870s so an upgrade at the same time was a bargain too

here are some screenshots of my M17X R2 with 6970s

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/837/m17xr26970s.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/36/m17xr26970sb.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/37/m17xr26970sc.jpg/

click to view in full size

and package pics (i made them for Phketan so its actually the package i received)

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

 

Congratz on the 6970's man! Let's hope they give you relatively few problems.

I just bought a single 6970 today! Going to buy the second when I get my next paycheck. Can't wait to try it out!

 

do the 6970's make noise under load as the 5870's? (the coil like sound, audible close to the side vents)

 

First off, congrats with your upgrade!

Secondly, I had the same problem with AMD Overdrive giving me BSOD. I think it's really meant for AMD CPUs anyways so you're better off using the overdrive in CCC. Let us know how everything goes as far as gaming, temps, etc.

 

What is the "overdrive in CCC" you are referring to? Is that only a feature enabled on the 6970, as I do not see that in CCC with my 5870 CFX? Maybe a screenshot showing everyone would be helpful.

I also had a question that I meant to ask when you first posted your awesome tutorial. (This may be something you want to update on that step-by-step, as it was not clear to me when reading it.) Are you using thermal pads and paste in the exact same spot? If so, are you putting paste on both sides of the pad? Is this necessary as a cushion to prevent damage to the die, or just to take up too much air space? I only ask because it has typically been an either/or thing rather than using both, with generally better results from paste than pads.

 

Here is my first 3DMARK11 score with 920xm turbo mode on (no further overclock) and default 6970s clocks. No tweaking just clocks some services

Imageshack - 3dmark11920xm6970sdefau.jpg

Dont know if its any good as i dont occupy with benchmarks. Jut post it for you all that want to check.

Thus i didnt manage to run whole 3DMARK 11 with high or low 6970s overclock. I thought the cpu ghz was the issue but i finally found its the 6970s clocks settings.

 

Nice stock run man! You beat ichimes stock run of 5661 Imageshack - m17xr26970mcfx3d11.jpg bench scores and pic on this guides front page.

ichime also did a OC run and scored a very nice 6495 in 3d mark 11.
Imageshack - m17xr26970mcfx3d1182010.jpg
Perhaps something for you to try and reach lol!

Enjoy your new gaming goodness champ.

Cheers.

 

I use thermal pads for where the memory banks line up and thermal paste for the die. Ideally you want the heatsink and the die to be close to eachother as possible so any kind of cushioning would increase that distance and thus make it less effective when cooling the cards.

That's about correct for a stock run (around the same as what I got with recent drivers).

That's before I knew how 3dmark 11 works. I already broke the 7K mark pretty easily (should be listed in the first few pages of the M17x benchmark thread Part 4). I'm sure he can get a similar or better score than I did.

 

Thats awesome, Congrats on the upgrade Aristotelhs2060. What are your impression of the cards? Mine should be in soon, and I'm looking forward to trying them out. Won't be soon that I can really test them out since I'm so busy at the moment. Have you done any gaming? What did you think?

 

Ah true true that. Woops Sorry how did I miss your epic 7k + score tsk tsk how bad of me.

Man that is pretty darn awesome ey. A 7k + Score in 3d mark 11 on a R2. Brilliant stuffs.

Ichime man its time to try out the 6990 or for an even different track the 580M LOL! Forget about the 470M lol
Geee I would sure luv to get my hands on a couple of 580Ms.....especially since their worth like an arm and a leg.

Cheers.

 

There you go DR 7k+ in 3d mark 06....a nice initial score for you to chase and surpass
That is when your new GPUs arrive and if you have time

I'm interested to see how you go in 3d mark 06.
Some guy got 32k+ on the M18x now!!!
.....and I thought surpassing 30k was quite an effort last time.

Cheers.

 

3DMark06 I don't think I can surpass, Mainly because it's so CPU Dependant and the 2920XM seems to be head and shoulders above the 920/940XM. So I'm not even sure I can beat my 23K with it, but you know I'll try. I was looking at ichimes score in 3DMark11, and comparing my 6.3K run to his 7K run, and my CPU score is quite a bit better, and if I can match and even surpass his GPU score, I think I might be close to about 7.5k-7.8K range. Well see though! Once I get moved and the wedding is over Vantage will be interesting though.

 

Awesome guide guys, I'm about to pull the trigger on a pair of these myself. Have you noticed any problems so far with any of the games you've been running? Odd flickering or other problems that weren't encountered with the 5870's? Also I don't plan to be doing any sort of overclocking so is there any concern with the power draws of the cards (I know you stated above that it seems there is plenty of overhead, just asking about your personal experience)

Really awesome, I was hoping to upgrade my aging 4870's and this looks to be the perfect solution.

 

3dmark11 always stucks with 6970s at 820/1050. Maybe i have to do something special but i dont want to spend so much time.

In real life gaming is very smooth. On some games i may or may not have some lags every 10 secs or so. Dont know why and if its related to 6970s.

 

Aristotelhs, DR, how long does the cards take to arrive to your home since they were sent? I will be sending the money for them today to pkhetan, and i'll be home the 21st.. i would really like to find the cards already home when i'll be back

 

you can discuss this with Phketan. He really rocks. He also predicted exactly the day of arrival. The cards needed 6 days to arrive since he sent payment to Clevo

 

here is another run . This time 3dmark06 ( i know its cpu based)

920xm at 3.45 ghz 6970s at 750/1000mhz

Imageshack - 3dmark06347501000.jpg

i may try 3dmark vantage later


ichime did you try crysis 2 with dx11 and high tesselation? i am really getting too low fps.

 

Very cool guys, anyone doing any game benchmarks? Just curious how they stack up

 

Hey guys,

I know this is the age old question...but what method did you guys use to apply thermal paste to the GPU die?

 

i use my drivers license to get an even coat maybe 0.5mm thick on the entire gpu die. Find it works best.

 

Awesome thanks for the tip!

 

I only have the multiplayer demo. I'm not really sold yet on buying the retail version.

 

thats what we all do i think. at least thats what i did.

well i tried crysis 2 benchmark with dx11 and ultra settings + high textures (available on patch 1.9). The results are really depressing. Even its made for nvidia gpus or we should wait the new ati drivers-profiles for dx11 of crysis 2 (dx11 support was added just on patch 1.9 released just before a few days). But i saw that even latest high end desktop gpus have around 22 fps on those settings.

I never said i bought the game..


After 24 hours with 6970s i can say they are really cool playing every game (except crysis 2 dx11) smoothly. Thus the power from R2 power adapter is not enough. My R2 switched off already 2 times when i overclocked both 6970s and the 920xm. So if you decide to overclock 6970s really forget cpu overclock at least till a bios mod for M18X adapter support is released (hope it will)

 

Well guys,

Just ordered my 6970's so I'll be able to give Crysis 2 a try once I get them installed. Among other games. I'm pretty excited!

 

Ok good to know, I don't plan to overclock my GPU's at all (and can even bump down my CPU overclock to stock if need be).

 

Ahhh, "too much horsepower" is always a good thing, if there is such a thing. It applies to vehicles and computers. Having to throttle back to keep from blowing something up feels good.

 

Haha..okay, you have a valid point.

I'm just trying not to blow it up before I get a chance to play something on it

 

Well it looks like my cards finally shipped. Here's to hoping the make a quick trip to their new adopted father.

 

Awesome DR650SE

Looking forward to your results as well

 

Kind of like the good ol' days when "too much power" meant massive amounts of V8 torque, problems keeping the front tires on the ground, twisting off the ends of your axles and busting u-joints. Those were great problems to have back then, and they still are today. It's that same insatiable lust for power that attracts us to these awesome Alienware machines. There are very few laptops made with equal capabilities.

 

lol That's true for sure, but it can all be fixed by doubling up on your psu.

 

Yeah I'd definitely be interested in what you can come up with on this front.

 

I really wonder how i got something like that faster than you do Anyway the more people that buy them, the easier it will be to find solutions on various issues.