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

i wonder if following one of the thread here on the board, we may be able to undervolt the cards in order to give more room for cpu overclock, untill a fix for the m18x PSU will arrive (if it will arrive).

How far you can go with cpu OC leaving the cards at stock?

 

As soon as the 6990's arrive the market will be flooded with 6970M's for cheap. It's a good time to be an r2 owner.

 

Won't be surprised if the 6990M ends up working in the R2, but that'll depend on if they're available for the Clevo X7200.

 

Ichime, with both cards at stock frequency, are you able to overclock the cpu without tripping the PSU? and by how much?

 

from my experience the cpu (920xm) can be overclocked to 3.4ghz without watching the R2 switching off when in games. The situation in benchmarks is even worse. Just turbo mode on, without further overclocking. At least thats for me. The R2 power adapter cant hold the power during overclocking. When everything in stock no issue at all. I believe something like that happens to him too.

 

May have been answered before, but can the m18x's 320w PSU be adapted to work with an r2?

 

Currently no, the bios doesn't recognize it. I think however based on what I've read in the thread is that even if the bios can be modified to make it work, there is some question as to whether the power supply could cause other issues (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). So right now it looks like we can run everything stock with no overclocking until either those crafty bios engineers or the electrical engineers on this board can come up with another solution.

 

Mmmm i still have my 840qm. When i receive the cards i may as well give it a try to see if with a non XM cpu, the cards can be oveclocked.

 

Probably can since its a 45w vs. 55w and you won't be increasing TDP with throttle stop.

 

I'll be trying the same thing with the 820qm.

 

That combo will certainly leave you some GPU OC room

 

One question that i have for those who already installed the 6970's.

I've noticed from the picture, that the original heatsink from clevo comes with a lot of thermal pads for the electronics around the memory. Do you re use also those pads or did you left the card just with memory pads?

 

i used thermal pads-paste only for the places that also 5870s do have one. So not all clevo pads. I dont think its needed.

 

This might be true. Look at it this way: you risk doing more bad than good transfering heat from memory chips, GPU die etc. to parts that don't need cooling.

 

Ichime,

One question I have looking over your procedure (which is fantastic). Regarding cutting the cable wrapping, is it obvious from the cable where you can cut into the wrapping while avoiding accidentally cutting the wires themselves (looking at the picture, I see where I "should" cut it)? This might be a bit more obvious when I open it up and physically look at the cable, but was curious if you have any suggestions based on your experience of doing this.

Thanks again for the guide!

 

x2 on this, and also aristotelhs did you arrange the cf cable the same way as ichime did or did you find another way?

Sorry guys for the tons of questions, but being the first on trying this your experiece has a lot of value for us.

thank you in advance

 

i just carefully removed the tape from crossfire cable at the point where i should to (just to let the crossfire cables move freely ) So i did it as ichime did it. Just didnt use any knife or something sharp. just used my fingers to partly remove the tape surrounding the crossfire cable.

 

Awesome, appreciate the feedback. Thanks!

 

Yeah, don't cut into the wrapping before peeling it off. I started at the junction where it started to curve and used my nails to cut into the plastic (kinda like when you're trying to unroll a roll of tape). The plastic is pretty much two lines of tape sandwiched on the blue mini-cables.

 

A question to the guys who have made the upgrade:

Im wondering if anybody is getting the same phenomenon Ive been getting, after installing the amd drivers the M17xR2 recognizes a nonexistent VGA device which can be found under monitors in the device manager as well as display resolution settings.

It is a minor peeve but I'd like to see if its a common symptom or if its just me.

Btw, good job on the guide!

 

Think that is due to the 6970s supporting 3 outputs vs the 2 of the 5870s and older cards (for eyefinity)

 

Scook9, i was thinking that with the 3 output (hdmi, vga & display) the 5870's have support for 3 monitor eyefinity.. isn't so?

 

Sweet! Just got half of my order today! (1 of the 2 cards) Gonna install now. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

Great!

I'm waiting for them to be shipped

Looking forward for your findings

 

The laptop may not be able to do it, but the cards can do it if they were in a laptop that was capable. The driver is just reporting on the cards capabilities, not the laptops

 

Awesome! Can't wait to see your results

 

The R2 can do Eyefinity with 5870's OSD was the issue with not allowing more than 2 monitors.
it has been shown on youtube.

YouTube - ‪Alienware M17xR2 Proof of ATI Eyefinity with Bezel Compensation‬‏

YouTube - ‪Eyefinity on M17xR2‬‏

 

My 6970m didn't come with a backplate - so I have to take it them off of my 4870's. What's the best way to remove it. They are stuck on quite well and I don't want to damage the card.

 

Take the C clips off and the backplate should come right off. Ichime has instructions on how to take it off on the OP.

 

Looking over the tear down pictures provided in the instructions you may need to gently pry the heatsink off the processor (if it's stuck do to the GPU paste).

Not certain where in the process you are stuck, but just another suggestion.

Definitely share your experience going through it though as it will help all of us out who are still in the planning stages.

Hope things are progressing nicely for you.

 

My 6970m didn't come with a backplate - not the heatsink, but the metal bracket on the back of the mxm board into which the heatsink screws into.

http://www.eeshops.com/images1/Lapt...VGA-Graphics-Card-N10P-GE-A2-+-HeatSink_1.jpg

^The X-shaped sliver metal piece like on this card here.

The backplate is stickytaped onto the 4870m's. I was able to remove it - a bit more easily than I expected, but never the less I got it off and transferred it to the 6970m. (I used a plastic flathead screwdriver.)

After that the installation was easy. The heatsink fit perfectly. Put it all together and turned the computer on. Booted ok, got into windows fine. I ran gpu-z and it was only showing 480 shaders though. Reinstalling the video drivers fixed this.

It runs hot on idle - 65C. I did a quick furmark to make sure the clocks and fan speeds were correct, and they were perfect! No tweaking needed.

Here's the thing though. I bought my card(s) from Eurocom. And they have the Eurocom version of the X7200 vbios. I'm going to try and overclock to see if there is a 730mhz limit, and if there is I'll try ichime's X7200 bios.

I haven't done any gaming tests, so I'm not sure how it performs yet or what the heat is like. I'll report back. In furmark after a minute it was at 85C.

Keep in mind, this is only a single 6970m. My second card has not arrived yet.

 

Hi aarpcard

Thanks for the clarification and the picture

If you don't mind me asking, what sort of thermal paste did you use?

 

I used AS5. It runs hot on idle, but so far gaming temps aren't too bad. 80C max in Grid. Going to try more soon. Keep in mind everything is stock clocked as of right now.

 

3D mark 06 score of 16500
3D mark 11 score of P3200

Hasn't hit above 84C in any games I've tried so far. Runs on battery fine, hibernate and sleep work fine, and so far no stability issues. Next step is to overclock.

Can't believe it was nothing but a plug and play job.

 

AARPCard you just got one 6970?

 

I ordered 2, but they shipped separately, and only 1 has arrived so far.

 

Another update. Max stable clocks seem to be: 835mhz core and 1000mhz mem. The memory chips are not hynix, so that probably explains the mearly average OC ability on them. I just hope my second card will be able to match this one.

3D mark scores with the OC are P3611 for 3D mark 11 and 16321 for 3D mark 06.

I was a bit wary buying Eurocom cards, but they turned out to be amazing! I haven't touched the stock Eurocom vbios, and not only has there been ZERO compatibility issues, but no limit on the OC as well! (Plus I only paid $410 per card!)

 

Not too shabby for a single card. Almost as good as 5870 in CFX, in fact. Should be interesting to compare with your score after the second card is added and CFX enabled.

What is your Vantage score? I would be interested in seeing the comparison with single 6970 versus 6970 CFX on the R2. Can you run Vantage for us?

 

Hi,
just got these cards installed in my R2, Everything went as planned except i can't get crossfire working. In ccc it says that the cable isn't correctly connected however ive double checked and everything looks ok. The only thing i can think of is maybe the cable is damaged, but again ive checked and it does look ok. Ive reinstalled the drivers and checked that i have the right vbios. So it looks like i need a new cable, unless ive missed something. Does anybody know how to go about sourcing a new one? Tried Dell and i just seem to be going round in circles with them.

Other than that awesome guide!

 

Have you double checked (opening up the laptop) that the cable is properly connected? maybe a picture of the modification you made can help to understand how bad it is (if it is any bad of course)

 

I'd try reseating the cables. Many times crossfire hasn't worked for me, and I've had to reseat the cable to fix it.

Also another update:

With some tweaking the max stable clocks now seem to be 845mhz core, 1000mhz mem.

3D mark Vantage score of P13888(gpu) & P13369(whole system) [On par with a GTX 580m!]
3D mark 11 score of P3687
3D mark 06 score of 16443

 

Yes I cracked it open again, everything looks fine, the mod of the cable and installing the cards is dead easy the only thing i can think of is, as i put the slave card back in its damaged the cable a touch on the connector, but i've checked and everything looks good. Run out of time today, i'm gonna have a mess around again tomorrow. Thanks for the reply's though guys i'll keep you updated.

 

Sorry to hear about the problems you are experiencing with crossfire. I hope it's simply a matter of reseating the cable or something similiar.

I would be curious how to go about getting an "extra" crossfire cable myself...not necessarily now, but in the event that I need to replace it in the future. Is going through Dell our only option? Or are there folks who can resource these cables? I know we can look to ebay or post on the WTB forum, but curious what options there are for acquiring an extra cable.

 

Which VBIOS did you use?

 

Yeah i was thinking the same thing but i checked your gpuz on the first page, they are the same as yours. I got my cards from Pkhetan (great service btw).
Just been messing around and uninstalled both cards from device manager and let the system redetect them, but it fails to install the second card properly ( i just get a failed message) i think this might be the problem.

 

Just a question...are the cards marked as to which is the primary and which is the secondary? does it matter?

 

yeah they are marked, i think it does matter.

 

6990m CrossfireX?

 

Does GPU-Z say if CF is enabled or disabled?

Other than that, GPU-Z won't really say much because the only difference between the X7200 VBIOS and the P150 VBIOS is the disabling of crossfire even with the cable connected. If the cards you ordered from Pkhetan didn't come with the X7200 heatsinks and X7200 Crossfire cable (don't worry, you won't be needing that cable), then you probably have the P150hm VBIOS installed and would need to reflash to the X7200 or the VBIOS provided in the guide. You'll have to do this for BOTH cards.

Doesn't matter, at least from my testing (Slave VBIOS can still post in primary slot).

 

Looks my cards arrived. Going to try and install them but have too much going on right now. Can't wait though.