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

greywolf please upload the vbios that clevo sent you. i mean the official one. for som reason the modded one is not right file size.

 

Turbod, one other thing.

Did the fans default to 100% and you needed hwinfo to bring them to idle?

 

Well, am I glad I didn't get time to try that bios file last night I'll wait till Greywolf checks it out.
Thanks Aristotelhs +rep Looks like you've saved me from some trouble.

@Ghost - I didnt know you could create VMs with Player. I'll check it out.
I had no problems with the 4870's or the 5870's just the 6970's. If you've seen issues with drivers and VPC already then is likely nothing to worry too much about. I was interested to see if the new BIOS fixed it. Player sounds like a better option tho.

 

Sorry guys, that's what I get for not looking at my main machine. Hope you all are ok and didn't try it.

To be fair, that is the package that they sent me, not the modded one. Although I've had so many vbios's flying around that it might not be the complete package.

I'm far more organized on my home machine, this has been my in-between so it's possible it was a different or older version.

When I get home I'll save off the one I'm using and upload it then.

Sorry again

 

I had all kinds of driver issues with 5870s and VPC and Virtual Server 2005. Not many crashes, just ran flaky. USB support was bad too. VMWare added the ability to create VMs not long ago in VMPlayer. Not sure which version started this, but it is within the last 6 months or so. Check it out. By far the best free solution out there. Workstation is cool too, but if you don't want to spend $150 per license, Player is for you.

 

Thanks Ghost! Great info on VMPlayer.

 

Okay I mentioned in a post several days ago I have 2 M17XR2's, one of which I really don't need. The notebook is in excellent condition - is there some place on this Web site I can advertise this for sale? I can then use the proceeds to buy at least one of these GPU's to upgrade the notebook I am keeping.

 

So where can I buy a pair of 6970's?

 

Sure, even here, the NBR marketplace:
Notebooks and Desktops for Sale
Don't forget the rules though
Marketplace FAQ, Rules and Guidelines

Good luck.

Look for upgradeyourlaptop on e.bay.

Cheers

 

Look for upgradeyourlaptop on e.bay.

Cheers[/QUOTE]

So should I get two of these.. ATI Mobility Radeon? HD 6970m GPU MXM 3.0 Type B | eBay without the posts or two of these with the posts? ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6970m GPU MXM 3.0 Type B w/ Soldered Posts | eBay ??

Thanks for your help
helm

 

Matt: I asked Greywolf the same question.

His advice was to purchase the cards with the posts already done. Costs a little more money but it makes adding the cards easier.

 

Excellent!

Thanks

 

Armin, I also have the 4870 Crossfire on my R2 as you did, did you install a single 6970 on yours or a Crossfire setup? if only a single, how is the performance in gaming vs the Crossfire 4870s? I am considering a single 6990 for my R2, will this be a worthy improvement over my 4870s?
Thanks for help on this.

 

Hey Baja,

I have a single 6970 on order. It arrives on 11/14.

After looking at benchmarking sites (take with a grain of salt) the performance of a single 6970m versus CF 4870m is about 210% faster.

I am planning to order a second card next month, I just wanted one right away for Skyrim.

 

Thanks for that quick reply Armin.
Yeah, same exact thing here, I want all the eye candy on Skyrim, heck, we all excited about Skyrim here at home, my 14 year old daughter, my 17 year old son, we all hardcore gamers here
I might do the same thing and order one card first and upgrade to Crossfire later.
What is the opinion on a single 6990? I would imagine if a single 6970 has such huge jump in performance over Xfire 4870s, the single 6990 must kick some major ! My main concern is with the power supply, but if I am understanding what being said here is that as long as I dont overclock the card I should be fine right? also I dont have the extreme CPU...

 

You have the same concerns as me: I thought about getting a couple of 6990's rather than 6970's, but the heat and power needs got me to scale back a little.

I have the 940xm processor so I'm already pulling more power, and I have not yet seen a BIOS which allows the r3 power supply to be used in the r2.

Everything I have read says that we should be able to play Skyrim on ultra with one not-overclocked 6970. Hopefully that will be true = )

 

A single 6990 will be fine in terms of power consumption.

It only starts becoming a problem when you run two 6990's and you are overclocking an extreme processor.

This results in throttling and worse case scenario your PSU will trip. People have successfully run dual 6990s with an extreme processor on a 240 watt adapter. I think even some got away with a mild overclock, however this would depend on the game in question and how much it is raping your system... either way this was achieved by undervolting the 6990's a little.

Personally, I believe games don't need much of a CPU overclock and running an extreme processor at stock will suffice.

@Armin, I hope that is true about Skyrim! The only way we are going to know is tomorrow and I wont have my cards by then

 

So, it appears my mates in Aus are playing Skyrim! However, none of them use a laptop :|

Anyone here played it with 6970's/6990's?

 

Ok so with a single 6990 I am cool with my 240 watt power brick, that leaves me with one question, does the 6990 from the ebay seller goes is pretty much plug and play? no bios flas needed?
Oh and yeah, tomorrow the big day for Skyrim

 

I did the preorder and predownload with steam. As soon as it is released i'll see how it runs on 6970's

 

How much better is the M17R2 with crossfire 6870's than with 5870's?

 

Cause Metro 2033 barely runs at 1920x1200 with 920xm and 5870x2's with all the settings up, would 6870s fix that?

 

Bajacapt: Not sure, someone who has bought one from upgradeyourlaptop would be better to answer this.

Woot CptX! No sleep for you for a while

Sucks about the timing with BF3. Going to be SOOO torn

 

Baja,

I also spoke with Grey about this topic. It seems regardless of crossfire or not, you will want to flash the bios in the 6970.

 

exactly. It will be released at 23:00 perfect hour for a cup of coffe and some nice late night hours of playing (reminds me of the many hours spent playing D&D with friends )

 

@CPT lol, There are so many good games coming out this month. Sometimes I miss the days where I was overseas before being married. Worked and played games, and hit the gym. Thats it! Life was simple! Now I rarely get a chance to play as much as I'd want. Games coming out this month that I'm excited for are BF3, MW3, Skyrim, NFS The Run. Ahh missing the simple life

Though I never played any of the previous Elder Scrolls games, I'd like to get into Skyrim given the hype, and now I have a better gaming rig then ever and can't put it to it's full potential lol

 

The 6870M and the 5870M are basically the same card, in fact the 5870M is slightly faster. The 6970M on the other hand is about on par with a pair of Xfire 5870M, maybe 15% less. Two 6970Ms in crossfire are probably 75% faster than two 5870Ms.

 

Well, Skyrim doesnt run that well on the 5870's...

Ewww though, it feels like a console port.

 

Say it ain't so...

 

Well....I don't know.

Menu seems a bit strange...some bits allow you to use your mouse where others make you use directional keys etc.

The default key bindings in game also make it feel porty. Also the on screen menu popup thingy where you select inventory, spells etc is made for a console.

Need to give it more time, about to crank the graphics to max as I would like to see it in its glory. At the moment I am more impressed with BF3 graphics.

 

Well, it does look fairly pretty with graphics maxed out.

I think I will wait for the 6990's to give this a proper shot as it feels like a bit of a waste on the 5870's

/runs back to BF3

 

I hope it isn't too terrible. I pre-ordered it on Steam, but my rig is down for the count again. My Wife has been kind enough to let me use her Dell with a 555M GPU and 2720 CPU. Pretty doubtful that I'll be able to run it at very high settings.

 

Nah doubt it will run at high, sorry :|

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Yes it feels a bit made for console but we know the game is going to be great if it is anything like Oblivion and Shimmering Isles.

EDIT:: Actually with some tweaking you should be able to get it running ok

 

ahahaha

Yes, i'm playing Rage, MW3 and skyrim incoming tonight . My wife is being permissive with me since i've passed the last 80 days on a place we like to call "guantanamo beach"

 

I'm not really willing to sacrifice screen resolution or texture size. If my draw distance sucks and my shadows look like blobs, I'll live.

 

Thanks for the links Katalin!

 

I'm thinking of buying at first one 6970m and later the second one.
What temps (idle , gaming ) do you have?

 

I will be waiting to hear on your instal of the 6990's Douse, I still have not figure out if they need to be flashed or not, hope you can help clear that out when you receive yours. In the mean time, I just started playing Skyrim on my R2 with 4870's Xfire, it looks amazing on "High" settings, I did try the Ultra bu was a bit choppy and not playable that way, runs smooth on Hight tho and it looks amazing. I got to see it with everything maxed out in my son's PC gaming rig, it is quite a beautiful game
Good luck on the instal of the 6990s and please keep us posted.

 

Cheers Baja! I will keep you all posted, no need to worry about that

Wow runs fine on high? I wasn't overly happy with it on my 5870's!! Including on how it looked on high :|

Looked great on ultra with all the CCC settings maxed out.

As far as I am aware, it should just run with the initial firmware. If not I will need to flash them with a Dell 6990m bios. Don't forget though I am getting the ES version which are different to the eurocom\clevo.

 

Hi Guys! I've been watching... what was the verdict on Skyrim on the M17x R2? Wondering how it will (or won't) do with my R2 with the humble 4870 CrossFire. Not about to waste any money on a new release until I see and hear from the early adopters, LOL. (That includes the M18x as well.)

 

I'm running it just fine on my Wife's XPS with a 555M and 2720 CPU. Your M18x will kill it on full settings, and your M17x will with a few things dialed down, I would think.

 

I'm running it on high on my m17x-r2 with crossfire disabled on a single 4870. Smooth as silk.

It was a little choppier with crossfire enabled since there is not a specific driver or cap for it yet.

 

Thanks for the advice, from both of you. My boys have purchased it for their XBOX 360 and PS3. I don't like console gaming, but may give it a little play time on the consoles to make sure I like it before deciding to break open the piggy bank. +1 rep to both of you.

 

The game is untouchable Mr Fox. I promise you won't regret it.

 

Thanks... that level of enthusiasm is helpful in the decision making process. Both of you are in my "neighborhood" (Washington State) BTW.

 

yes indeed! I am running Skyrim on my R2 4870's xfire on high settings, runs and looks beautiful.
Once you get used to the controls on the keyboard and figure out the dual weapon/spells wielding down to second nature, just get immersed in the story and game play, awesome game!
Looking forward to investing in a single 6990m for my beloved R2, the game looks unlike in any other rig here at home due to the gorgeous RGB screen, I wont give it up till I cant upgrade anymore, and looks like that wont happen for a while

 

Armin, I am running it with 4870's Xfire enable with no problem, I got driver version 8.892.3 with Catalyst 11.9, I downloaded the driver directly from AMD back when I first was playing RAGE, a month back or so...

 

I just swapped my beloved R2 to a Lunar Silver Chasis, Damn if this isn't one sexy machine. I love how the LEDs look with the silver. I may not paint this thing after all.

 

lol, good grief. How long did that take?

P.

 

One episode of Beavis and Butthead Had to swap everything. Maybe an hour of careful work. I've taken this thing apart more than I can count.