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

Hey guys, so have been going through quite a bit of issues regarding the RMA of my second card, so I'm almost to the point of throwing in the towel (I think, maybe I'm just tired). Anyway, wanted to get some thoughts from a few folks as to next steps, remember this might change I think I just need to get some advice.

So the options I see at the moment are :

1) buy another 6970 or send my 6970's to someone who is currently running them to see if we can narrow down if one of the cards is truly bad or something else is going on. I know that in another system both cards and cables are detected, but crossfire is not...I also know that flashing the bios to other card bios's don't work either, still no crossfire.

So the possibility is that either the card that I sent wasn't the broken one (given the state of the connector I'd be suprised but it's possible). So if someone is running a set of 6970's and could swap one of mine in at a time then we could clearly figure out which card is the problem and then proceed from there.

2) Keep a single 6970, and overclock it. I currently have 4870's in a crossfire configuration running stock speeds. Would a single 6970 overclocked still be faster then dual 4870's? I think aarpcards test shows that the 4870's are still faster, so wanted to confirm, don't want to degrade myself unnecessarily

3) Sell one or both 6970's as single (non crossfireable) cards, unless I can indeed verify that one or both are crossfire capable and functional. I'd never sell them to anyone as being crossfire capable, unless I knew 100%. Plus I know there are folks who are looking for single 6970 configurations.

Just some thoughts, anyone who might have some input on the above would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the long post.

 

That sucks, I would definately like to get it working if at all possible. Is Phektan able to help at all? I know he kinda got the boot from Clevo so I don't know how it affects things. But at this point I'd just send them back and try again for another. I'd hate to see you lose more money over it. You've already spent a ton of time on the project.

Because Phektan lost his relationship with Clevo, is the only reason I'm not going to do any dice benching on my cards. They are too expensive to just ruin. I would guess that if I killed them he wouldn't be able to RMA them

 

Spoiler

Grey, I thought you found somebody to send the cards to and test them.
I would gladly help you but we live too far from eachother but I'm sure somebody here would do it.

Don't let go, buddy, you'll succeed.

 

Thanks Katalin I appreciate that!

Yeah he tested the cards with the same results that I had, that one or both of the crossfire connectors was damaged. Unfortunately we didn't have access to another set of 6970's to confirm. Once we noticed the "damage" to the connector on the master card, it seemed to make sense so that was the card I sent in for RMA. In hindsight (which unfortunately is always 20/20) I should have just sent both cards in, would have had a better chance of success.

What I'd like to do is narrow it down to one or the other (Clevo is telling me the master works fine, but I'd like to test the results in a bit more controlled environment). If it turns out that it's the secondary card, then I could always send it in for RMA, or sell it as a single card and purchase another 6970. I guess it's possible that both of my crossfire cables for whatever reason just don't work with the 6970s (they both work with the 4870's so I just think that odds of neither working with the 6970's and both working with the 4870s to be rare).

I guess I'll find out more tonight

Appreciate all the help and support guys!

 

So yeah, it woul be nice to have somebody with a confirmed working CF 6970 to test your cards. Do a mix with his cards and CF ribbon :/

 

I'd be willing to help, Grey. I'm a bit far away - NYC, but at least in the same country. If you'd be comfortable sending me the cards for testing, I'd be glad to do it.

(Do keep in mind I'm not using clevo cards though.)

 

Hi aarpcard,

I really appreciate the offer and may take you up on it once I get my other card back. I figure if you're okay with it, that I could send you both cards and both cables, and you can let me know how it goes. Anyway I'll PM you when I have all parts in hand and go from there.

Thanks again for the offer!

 

I'd be fine with that. Just let me know if/when you'd be ready to send them and we'll figure it out. I have 2 CFX cables here too. One from a M17x and one from an M18x. I think the M17x cable is dead though . . . (won't work with my 6970's. haven't tested it with my 4870's.)

I also have a SLI cable lol - a lot of use that is.

 

That's great of you aarpcard, finally we'll be able to solve this mistery..
Hang in there, Grey

 

Thanks guys..I'm doing my best

 

That did the trick. Looks like a bad card. BOOOOO! Oh well. Looks like I'm back in the waiting line. Thanks Kenny. Repya when I can.

Edit: The vbios wouldn't have anything to do with that would it? The vbios wouldn't cause this error because the cards swapped sides would it?

 

I doubt it, I ran my slave 5870 in the master slot and it worked fine (my master card died) what happened did it have the flashing light and a black screen?

 

Yup. Got the flashing light code that indicates (thanks to DR) that it is the video card. Wouldn't POST after that. Same as when I had it in the 2nd spot.

 

Hey Ghost

Sorry to hear that, hope you are able to get a speedy replacement.

 

Is it me, or have there been a whole slew of bad 6xxx cards since this whole thing started?

 

Me too. Hope you can get yours up and running as well.

Could be. Nothing looks wrong with the card either. It just doesn't POST. At least I know it's not me.

 

It does seem that way...lots of people appear to be having trouble with faulty cards.

 

Hi all.

Sorry but two questions here,

1. Whats the best cpu to go for when upgrading a M17x r2, Fitted now is a 620m.

2. And sorry this is going over old ground. Has anyone found were we can buys 2x 6970s that will work with the M17xrs without fan speed issues. I note some people have purchased 2X ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 6970m GPU MXM 3.0 Type B from ebay, but theres not reports of the results.

Again, the same applies to RJtech.com cards.

So if you have purchased these, can you please post the results, for us lessa mortals, who are looking to upgrade our beasts.

Thanks
Al

 

To be honest the 620m is already a great CPU for gaming, however if you want to be future proof and show off to your friend (mostly this), you can upgrade to a 920xm quad core and easily overclock it to about 3,2Ghz on all four cores.

 

The ones on ebay are from eurocom I'm pretty sure they don't have fan issues (its the dell cards that defiantly do) they are a rebrand from clevo and so a vbios flash to clevo vbios will fix the issues (if any)

And yeh the 620m is a good gaming cpu due to its high clocks how ever I'm not sure if it will bottle because its a dual core DR650SE is probably the best person to comment of this has he has a whole heap of cpus (from memory)
none of the quad cores (720/740qm, 820/840qm, 920/940xm) will bottleneck a set of 6970s unless its a heavily cpu dependent game but whether they will make a worthwhile difference I don't know

 

Love the new picture Kenny!

 

For upgradeing, the best CPU you can move to is the 920XM/940XM. Both are the same when used with throttlestop. They are great because they can turbo on all four cores. Specifically for gaming, the 620M is a great chip because lots of games, older games anyhow, are optimized for dual cores, and the 620M has high clock rates. I don't think it will bottle neck anything, and if it does, it won't be noticeable. You'd only notice it in synthetic benchmarks where more CPU offers a better score. But in real world gaming, the 620M will do just fine with no issues. If you do decide to upgrade, and want to sell the 620M, let me know, I'd be interested in benchmarking with it.

As far as where to buy, I can't comment, since I already got my cards from Phektan who doesn't sell anymore.

 

Hi, thanks, please keep the info coming.

As for the Graphic cards, Im on the hunt, so to speak, The cash is ready, just wish id purchased earlier.

Ive dropped emails to the ebay firm and another, plus called Clevo(uk).

 

Mythlogic sells Clevo 6970s and 6990s. 2 6970s will cost just under a grand. They got the cards to me in 1 week. Much more expensive than private sellers, but they do include a year warranty, which I'll be using to return my one bad card. Feel like I should be getting commission for the amount of times I have pimped them on this thread.

 

HI.. just found these also, now they say Not crossfire, but did i read they can be updated ?

AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6970M GPU MXM 3.0B Graphics Card

 

They are out of stock.

 

Hi Ghost.

Do you have an email address, a contact at Mythlogic,

Im from the UK

 

Try their website. MYTHLOGIC :: Computers | Service | Support. They have online chat and I think there is an email address there too. I used chat to purchase mine. They may be able to ship to UK. It is a small US based company.

 

How much for 2x 6990Ms again? From Mythlogic?
RJtechs were $980 for 2. Anybody tested out RJtechs yet? Or have a pair on the way?

Cheers.

 

Didn't get the pricing on the 6990. I think Turbo might have bought a single from them. Not sure.

 

I think someone bought from RJTech??

EDIT:: It was Trulyfatal

 

I, ok, so ive found cards. from Mythlogic, there sending me a quote.

So what fan issues do i have with these options, 6990m or 6970m will i have to flash either, or are they just plug and play, so to speak.

 

No fan issues as long as they are Clevo. I think only the Dell cards have fan issues based on Aarpcard's experience. You shouldn't need to flash the vbios if they are Clevo cards. I did anyways, because I had problems with mine. Ask for a CF cable as well. It is flimsy (not wrapped in plastic) but it will flex and fit better than the M17X cable. Plug the CF cable into the right card before you put the heatsink on. Otherwise, you will have problems get ting it on there tight. Follow Ichime's post on the first page and you will minimize your risk for problems during the installation.

The biggest issues with these cards are the power draw. But if you don't have an Extreme CPU you should be fine. Even with extreme CPU, you may be OK as long as stock clocks or mild OC is used. Hope I summarized the 150 pages of this thread correctly. LOL.

 

Yep, the power, is why i can decide on the 6970 over the 6990.

im also doing a cpu upgrade. 940xm.

i never over clock things

Al

 

Hey Ghost, do you know if mythlogic sells the crossfire cables separately (or maybe AI. if you can find out). I've already got two, but would be good to know if they sell them individually and for how much.

 

Greywolf, hi. and yes they do. $20 they just quoted me.

 

Nice AI +1 rep. Thanks for that

 

Guys, there is one down side to this, having read alot of the posts, More members seem to have problems, than stable working machines.

Greywolf, Ghost as example.

 

Well other than high temps (high 80's to low 90's on primary @ 90% utilization) my 6990s work perfectly fine. I haven't tried crysis but I have played mafiaII, which runs super smoothly compared to 5870s, deus ex runs great, bfbc2 and dead island finally runs decently anyway. I guess the real test would be crysis but I don't want to end up tripping since I'm still using the stock 240w psu.

The crossfire cable that came with the cards look too short for our machines though.

 

My 6970m's work fine, aside from the 100% fans . . . but that's not really a problem others should have so long as they don't use Dell cards. I kinda guinea pigged myself with that.

Using a 480 watt PSU too.

 

ATI 6970M : $455 ($875 for 2)
ATI 6990M : $546 ($1048 for 2)
Crossfire Cable : $20

thats the up todate prices.

 

Yup. $20 CF cable can be bought separate. I'm having them add one when I pickup my replacement card. The CF cable is kinda flimsy as there is no plastic protection for the individual wires, which I don't like. But that is why it is easier to flex into position in the R2. I find that the Clevo CF cable I got is the perfect size for the R2. I was able to dress it out nice and tape it to the casing so it was out of the way. No sure how you would fit the R2 CF cable in the right card with the screw hole in the casing in the way. I do want to find some way of wrapping the CF cable so the individual wires don't get damaged. If any of you want a picture of the cable, let me know and I can provide one when I get off work in a few hours.

 

I don't know what to do anymore about the temps, just did a vantage run and here are the temps. I used IC7 and put a dot of it on both gpus, the second card is perfect heat wise. I already re-pasted the first card 3 times. I'm not sure where the shaders are but 106 is wack. I might have to try credit card method and use some mx2.

 

The credit card method is a must. Without it you will almost certainty not get even die coverage of the thermal paste.

Anyhow, the shaders on my Eurocom card read high. 106.5C under heavy load. On the dell card they peak at around 90C. Do you experience throttling in games or Furmark by chance, Malignant?

 

I agree with aarpcard...credit card or spread method (I use a plastic baggy and spread it with my finger) to get even coverage on the GPU. Seems to do the trick.

 

Has anyone tried a retention mod or re-visiting the thermal pads being used with the 6900 cards?

 

Do you guys put extra thermal pads/paste on any of the other parts? I only used 2 thermal pads on each card (pasted GPUs). Each pad went over the 4 chips of memory (I think that was memory). My one working card shows decent temps during 3DMark11 which never get over 79C.

 

I only used thermal pads on the memory and my temps got to around 81C or so max. At least on the single card run

 

I haven't experienced throttling in any games yet but my last futuremark run resulted in a score of 15000 when before I managed a 20k score.

 

I'm using the retention mod on my 6990M as soon as it gets here. The mod served me well on my 5870Ms, and the cards are the same dimensions.