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

I am not having any issues with the card. It runs just fine. 9.3K GPU in Vantage with an 800/1100 OC. It is funny, the 6970 I had runs Crysis Warhead a full 10fps faster than this 5870 at 1920x1200 on Enthusiast settings. Those 6xxx cards are indeed beasts.

 

Cool man that is good to hear.
Yeh those 6970M GPUs are indeed beasts. Quite good prices out there too for them atm.

Cheers.

 

Anyone play BF3 yet with an R2/6900 series cards? Just trying to see how it runs. Going to pick up the game tonight.

 

Just bought BF3. Going to install today and start playing tonight. I'll throw up some FPS stats once I get it going.

 

it runs very well. constantly over 45 fps (on max settings, vsync off). thus using the 11.9 drivers. 11.10 drivers are supposed to improve performance on bf3 even more

 

There's a CAP for BF3 already. 11.9 CAP 3

 

this is the app profiles i am using for days now. however i believe that the driver makes the difference

 

6990m Arrived today Really happy with it playing BF2 full graphics perfectly however the temps are slightly worrying as it hit a high of 92 degrees C on the shader, im not sure if I put everything on properly I know its allot to ask but does anyone have any pics of the thermal pads when put on a 6990m? So I can see if everything is on right.

Thanks again,
Warren Thomas

 

Also will it damage my card if I run games at this temp?

 

Warren, is that 6990M in an R2? If it is, you shouldn't be hitting that temp unless you are running a pretty serious overclock. Both of my 6xxx series cards had the metal square around the GPU die that was ever so slightly keeping the heatsink from making full contact with the die. You're basically going through your thermal paste exclusively, there is no actual metal-to-metal contact. It is extremely close though.

The method you used to apply your paste is pretty negligible. I have noticed that putting the rice grain-sized blob in the middle of the GPU die and letting the heatsink spread it has its drawbacks. I have seen this method cause the thermal paste to not completely spread over the whole die. Put a blob on your GPU die, then put a plastic bag on your hand and lightly spread the thermal paste over the entire die with your finger. Whatever is not needed will be squished out the sides when you apply tension to the heatsink.

You also need to make sure that you are using the correct thickness of thermal pads on the RAM chips. It is .5mm I believe.

Now, if you happen to not be talking about an R2, disregard all of this.

 

Argggg.....disappointing. BF3 looks phenomenal. But my 6990s only get between 38 and 45 FPS with settings on auto. Which is basically Ultra texture detail and high everything else. Will try with all settings on Ultra once my rig cools. Second card hit mid 80s to low 90s. 3DMark11 never got it anywhere close to that hot. BTW, still at stock voltage. Using 11.9 with CAP3. Game is pretty sweet though.

 

Not sure on FPS but I'm having fun with the game. My temps are not getting over 79*C with the undervolt Thats on the multiplayer maps.

Agghhh. But my game keeps shutting down!

 

Haven't experienced a shutdown, but I have only played campaign. Multiplayer often has more problems. Are you running 11.9? Or are you using modded desktop drivers?

 

11.9 CAP 3. And the system isn't shutting down, it's the game itself. Just abruptly quits once in a while.

 

Sounds like driver issues. Same thing happened with BFBC2 till they released a few CAPs. I'll try MP and see if I get the same thing.

Edit: Although, if my K/D ratio takes a beating, I'm totally blaming you for putting a noob in the field.

 

Hahaha, I'm getting destroyed lol. I'm crashing to the desktop.

 

No crashes to the desktop. Played 3 rounds for about 1 hour. 3 kills 7 deaths. man this game is rough. Playing on the previously mentioned settings with Vsync on I was able to maintain 50 - 60 FPS during multiplayer. Don't remember which maps I played but they were HUGE! All you noobs listen close....Get on a turret and shoot any aircraft that flies by. I only got one infantry kill. Lot of pros out there. DR, try dropping your settings to high to see if that helps. I moved AF down to 4x. My FPS improved to 60 after that. Game still looks great. I still suck at MP. But it is fun.

 

You guys should check out the BF3 thread in the gaming section. AMD is going to release a new CAP soon. Stuttering is known even though there is a high framerate. + I am getting higher than that at similar settings just no motion blur and HBAO. 50+ FPS solid just stutters.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...ield-3-discussion-thread-312.html#post8021508

 

Still got to wait 2 days here in the UK for the release

 

Yeah i know, me too

Anyone played this with 5870's yet?

 

I dropped them to high and I think it helped. Tonight I'll need to install FRAPS to see the differances. But I think the new CAP that should be released will help even more. The good news is that I havn't had any system hard shutdowns due to PSU tripping. That definately makes these cards more than worth it Just gotta figure out what the deal is with the crashes to desktop. One min, I'm playing, the next the game just closes and It's at the desktop, no real warning signs or anything. I'll mess with it.

 

Sounds like classic BC2 issues!

 

Haha, I never really even played BC2, but Been doing some reading and there are so many factors. Read to disable turbo, uninstall CAP 3 yada yada yada. I'll have to install FRAPS tonight and play with settings myself. Apparently uninstalling CAP 3 made a big differance for some people. Well see. I uninstalled it lastnight but didn't get a chance to play. But my cards have a .96v undervolt. Temps never went beyond 79.5*C after a couple hours of multiplayer. Not too shabby.

 

Very nice, I would be lying if I said I wasnt jealous.

Hopefully the 5870's will be enough to satisfy me for the time being...

I wonder how much more i can overclock them

 

Raise the voltage you should be able to at least get 850 core, maybe even 900.

But yea, I was worried with these cards that I would get system shutdowns due to the PSU trip. I think I may try it tonight with throttle stop as well. Gotta say, the R2 may be the greatest thing ever. Soo many features to like.

 

Hrrrrm, me thinks I am going to have to try this

 

1.15v 900/1200 might work. Not really sure how well, but a good starting point.

 

LOL! Good STARTING point?!?

How about I work up to that

 

I have I am getting solid 50+ FPS High + ultra settings, but stutters like crazy though Driver and CAP support is needed.

The game has it's own FPS counter so no need for fraps in game just hit

~ key then type render.DrawFPS TRUE

 

Thanks! I'd definately rather do that than install another program. I don't like installing things to much if I have little use for them

Side note: Another thing occured to me. We can overide the tesselation in CCC. That may help gain some FPS. I'd have to test tonight. See how it looks and works out.

 

No problem man, You can also try tweaking other things through the console.

Here is a pic of all the commands found so far usually followed by a Boolean operator True/False or enable/disable.

 

For those where BF3 is not allowed to be played yet, came across this and it appears to work

<<< Go to control panel>Network Connection Centee> internet options>connections>LAN settings>Under proxy server, select "use a proxy".... and copy paste the following address:
210.107.100.251 Port: 8080
Click ok and start the activation via Origin.
then change it back

 

I have confirmed that the 5870's run the game quite well, except for the stuttering :|

Seems to be a few 'solutions' but anyone find one that actually works?

 

well i dont get any stuttering on 1900x1200 analysis. i have vsync off. if i turn it on i get this stuttering. all those in single player.

 

Aristotle, what settings and drivers are you using for multiplayer?

 

NOOOOOOO!!!! I think I fried my second card! Booted up BF3 tonight and loaded campaign. Let it sit for a second and when I came back the screen had this black pattern with thin pin stripes on it. Tried rebooting and it wouldn't get past the Windows splash screen. Uninstalled drivers and Windows booted fine. Both cards detected. Installed 11.9 and couldn't boot again. Tried 11.8 and it got past the Windows splash screen and then locked up with black screen. Opened her up and second card was scorching hot. Can try and repaste but will have to buy more supplies tomorrow.

I don't understand, my temps were fine playing MP last night. This makes 3 cards that may have died in my second slot. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Ouch! Hope that doesn't happen to me, highest temp was 83 tonight on my second shader. Though it's warmer here than it was lastnight and I was having a blast. Smooth on Ultra settings.

 

Oh man, that sucks. I hope it's simply a matter that the card got too hot and when it cools down it'll resolve itself.

Did you happen to have HWINFO or GPUZ running in the background and are you able to tell how hot it got??

 

Damn man! Sorry to hear it! Hopefully it hasn't died

I cant change any video settings as when I save it crashes BF3....the game is still buggy as hell. What has happened to QA in games these days??

It is set to Auto, which I think is pretty much Ultra..

 

Douse, So your in the UK with the game installed through origin? use these settings to activate and your up and running?

 

Yessireno!

Only have to do it once and it works after that.

Although I haven't played multiplayer as I doubt the EU servers will be up yet. Could always play North America or something.

EDIT:: Battlelog appears to be down atm..so lame that you can't play the game without it

EDIT x2 : Made sure I had the correct CAP and installed cap 3 again. Running 11.9 drivers. Stuttering has gone and performance is good. Set it to high with motion blur off and vsync off. I think tecture quality is on ultra. Very happy considering I am running the 5870's...I have only played sp

 

Yeah I had HWinfo running, but when the system locked up, I couldn't see it or get to it. So have now way of knowing what the temp was. It must have been high though, because the card heatsink was hot to touch. Will have to repaste it tonight to see if I can get it working again.

What's strange is during multiplayer play Tuesday night, the temps were not higher than 75C. I noticed highest temps during single player without my Zalman plugged in. So I just thought that the cooler needed to be on. When it locked up, the cooler was running. Can't be my paste job because my 3DMark11 runs never got close to 80C. But I am experiencing the same boot problems I did when I had problems with the 6970s.

On a positive note, I did play last night in Campaign with the single 6990 and was able to keep FPS in the 40s with high settings. I also used Overdrive to change the clocks to 740/950. Maybe this helped. The game does play really smooth even with a lower FPS. No other problems with game crashing, flickering or stuttering. Just a bummer that I have to look at the second card again.

 

One more question (sorry for the double post): When a PSU trips, like some of you have had happen, what symptoms does it present and does the system come back up? Are there any special things you need to do to bring it back up? I don't think this is what happened to me because I couldn't boot without removing the second card or uninstalling the drivers. But I want to rule it out.

 

The PSU totally shuts down and the blue ring around the tip is not on anymore when the PSU trips. The PSU has to be unplugged from the wall for around 10 sec to reset.

When you were playing and the card went down, did you have the card overclocked at all? Or was it undervolted? So far I have had nothing but luck with my 6990s. I'm hoping that it stays that way. Playing multiplayer I had a high temp of 83*C lastnight, and the night before was 79*C. Though last night was a bit warmer in ambient temp, which accounted for the increase in temp. But I havn't had any throttling in BF3 so far, and have all settings on ultra and no AA.

 

No overclock or undervolt. PSU still had power indicator on so that couldn't have been it. IDK. I'll try and repaste and reinsert later to see if it will boot.

 

Being hot to touch may not mean anything, as they get pretty hot anyway.

Do you remember if the other one was also warm? You said you were in a game so I would expect them to be at around 80 degrees..

Hopefully it will be OK mate.

 

Next time in the sensors tab check Log to File that way you always have a record.

 

trying these settings, cant seem to get it to activate????

 

Not sure? Maybe they stopped it.

It definitely worked for me, and I only had to do it once and it worked without the proxy after that.

 

Hi again everyone, I have been using the thermal pads that came with the heat sink for the gpu that mythlogic supplied, I am going to order Phobya Thermal pad XT 7W/mk 0,5mm today and get new thermalpaste, any suggestions for the best one? Thinking of artic cooling mx-4. Also do you just put pads on the ram only as there are chips behind the ram that do not touch the heatsink I have put pads on them but they still dont get proper contact? Finally the hottest part is the mem io at around 88C as well as shader going at around 90C after a while, where are these located? Im guessing the mem io is the ram??

Thanks once again,
Warren