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

Yeah the cards i got came with a cable and heatsinks, im fairly confident they have the right VBOIS, the cards came in 2 boxes marked primary and the other slave. Uninstalled everything, cracked open the m17x again to have a triple check and everything looks sound. Powered back up and as before device manager doesn't install vga drivers for the second card. Hmmmmmmmm do you think this might be the problem? I read somewhere else on here that it might be i think
Thanks for the reply anyways, im sure i'll solve it sooner or later...........

Edit: sorry didn't see that GPUZ states crossfire is disabled

Double Edit: How do i check which VBIOS is installed on each card, does it not say on gpuz or can you not tell the difference? I all else fails i'll try a reflash when i get the chance

 

Go ahead and break my 3d11 record, sell the cards and go for the 6990Ms once they come out for the X7200

Hmm, yeah that might be the problem. So the 2nd card doesn't appear as a 6900M series/6970M under device manager? You can try to swap the cards to see if that helps, or check the MXM connector to make sure that they're no scratches or markings on the card's MXM interface.

 

I am waiting myself to see what 6990m prices turn out to be by themselves. My 6970s just started feeling all inadequate

 

In GPU-Z you have the drop down list, switch between cards to see if it shows you the same vBIOS version!

 

Looks to be ~$500ish. Also, I wonder if there's any chance of unlocking 6970m's to 6990m's.

 

If those 6970m ES cards(1120 shaders) were actually 6990m then it's a no go. Svl7 did flashed his 6970 with that vBIOS and turned his card into a brick.
But don't worry he managed to reprogram the eeprom and the GPU is back to life

Hopefully the ES 6970 is not a 6990 and the flash will be a success!

 

How so Scook?

 

I can be totally wrong about this, but wasn't the improvement marginal between the 6970 and 6990? similar to the 4870 ---> 5870 route?

since the 6970 is based on a 6850 and the 6990 is based on a 6870 can't be that drastic of a difference.

 

Probably, there aren't any solid benchmarks out there yet, but i understand him, just look at his title - every bit counts

 

I just found this from anandtech apparently its about a 23% improvement:

AnandTech - AMD Raises the Mobile Performance Bar with Radeon HD 6990M

 

That is a 23% theoretical improvement. I think there will be a more than appreciable boost though. And I am definitely peeved since I have barely had my M18x and the better cards are already out.

 

Hi guys, Stupid noob question of the day: just about to reflash my cards to make sure that the have the right VBOIS, made a bootable USB stick as instructed in the first post. As this is my first time in DOS how on earth do i type something in italics when in DOS mode??

 

You don't need to type italic, just type the commands
Good luck.

 

just following the guide on the first page quote: Once you are in DOS mode, type in the following command in italics "cd 6970m "

sorry this is new to me never flashed a card before, if its not i just get Invalid directory. Thanks though!

 

as soon as i fixed the flickering issue i had with my 5870s i dont need a 23% boost (if so). The only thing i want now is support for m18x power charger and hdmi sound fix.

Also as this is a R2 thread, overclocking abilities with 6990s will be also limited if there wont be m18x charger support.

 

The "cd 6970m" command is basically instructing DOS to change directory(cd) to the 6970m directory(folder).

The Invalid directory response you're getting is because DOS cannot find the 6970m directory in the current path you're in. Make sure that the directory does exist on your usb flash drive.

I think you're at the step where you're looking for the folder with atiflash.exe and the file to flash so make sure you change directory to whichever folder you placed those files in.

 

Ah right the penny drops! Thanks!! +1

 

I feel ya, I may think about selling my 6970s and trying the 6990s. Hopefully it'll work. But I may get a chance to install the 6970s tonight. Switch May all depend on price. I may also wait to see if the 6990s are compatible.

You stated earlier that the 6970s are starting to feel inadequate, where are they coming up short?

 

Finally started playing Crysis 2

lol

 

did you try with patch 1.9, dx11 and high tesselation packs? performance is crap right?

 

Not yet, just stock/fresh CD install with max settings was too much for them. The new stuff will just be harsh lol

 

For those who have replaced the thermal pads on both of their GPU's I'm considering ordering the Fujipoly 1/4 Sheet - 150 x 100 x 1.0mm. Is a single 1/4 sheet enough to cover the ram on BOTH cards? Or do I need more then one? Trying to get my head around how much I should order.

Thanks!

 

according to some forums a new driver should be released to fix poor performance with cf 6970s and crysis 2 dx11. This game affords nvidia anyway. so overclocking wont do anything

 

My cards should ship next monday... i can't wait to have them! I will never rep Ichime enough for what he has achieved

 

Mine too, I hope

 

Trying to flash the right bios and atiflash is giving me an error "can't find adaptor" Any ideas? Yed Vantage and HWInfo is showing 100% GPU utilization and giving me GPU scores around 18-19K.

 

Hmm, should be higher. Have you tried RBE + Winflash?

EDIT: With turbo boost off, the GPU score would be around 18-19K. Turbo boost on should give you a GPU score of about 20-21K

 

I might try winflash, that worked on my locked 5870s. But that requires me swapping the slave to the master slot so it may have to wait.

 

DR why you want to flash the cards? from my understanding clevo card bios works out of the box on the R2

And another thing... it may be a dumb question, bear with me ....

The 2 clevo cards came as a main/slave cards? or it doesn't matter? if they come as a main/slave... wich one is the main? how do i identify them?

 

My single 6970 with all settings maxed + DX11 + High res textures gets ~20-25fps in 1080p. (With the 845mhz OC). Hopefully the second 6970 will double that when I get it.

 

The vbios Doeat work out of the box. I just want to make sure i can flash them for benchmarking. So i need to flash first through winphlash when i get time. Also to answer your other question, both cards have the exact same vbios so it doesn't matter. Either can be slave or main. The only thing is the computer will use the obey ib the left slot as master. But the cards are not specific to which is which. They are identical. So that should make easier. Doesn't matter which card goes where.

 

So I've only pastime for a few vantage runs. The cards at stock clocks I've gotten 21k gpu score. I also ran with a cpu TDP of 72w. I need to readjustment my cpu heatsink screws. My over all score is about P20500. I've seen my psu pull just over 270w :Eek: The cards are beasts.

 

How's the power consumption when the parts are all stock? Do they tend to stay closer in line with the 240W psu?

 

Yea. Power consumption should be fine. I only slightly upper the cpu power draw. I think 270+w was the combined test in 3DMark11.

 

Thank you for the info DR

 

Great thanks!

 

No problem. And to be perfectly honest, When swapping the cards ib I was working on a time crunch. I didn't modded thru crossfire cable. The thing is the crossfire cable for the X7200 is way to short and the m17x crossfire cable is too long. I just taped the slack down. It works. Isn't pretty but it works. I just tapped the slack down with electrical tape. This way for warranty purposes it looks untouched just bent and folded a bit. So really swap it's plug and play. When you boot just install the 6970s drivers over whatever you got. I only had 11.6 drivers downloaded so that's what I used to save time and test.

 

Ahh good to know, thats the piece that I've been most concerned with. I'm sure once I open it up again and start to do it it'll all seem pretty clear, guess it's just the anxiety of seeing pictures without physically taking it apart.

 

This is exactly what i was thinking, if just folding the cf cable to make it of the proper lenght was enough. Thanks for the confirm

but you had to mod the slave card end of the cf cable? or just fold the black tape to make it fit?

 

Yea. Definitely. My cable is kinda folded and kinked which Im sure isn't great but it works

 

I share the exact same fealing about it DR confirmation that folding the cable can be done, kind of make me feel better xD

 

CptXabaras, sounds like you and I are on the same page with this upgrade

 

Yup

My cards should ship next monday... i really cannot wait for them and i'm trying to collect all the info in order to be ready for the installation

 

Perfect setup for Dry Ice

BTW: Kind of off-topic, but here's a hypothetical for nVidia fans: Would you rather see a GTX 560M work or a GTX 470M work (single and SLi)?

 

Between the two I'd say the 470M.

 

Here is a stock GPU clock run that I did last night. I havn't gotten around to overclocking till I can get the cards flashed. I'll probably have to do them one by one in the master slot with winflash first, then I should be able to through atiflash in dos. But here it is. Only thing I changed was put the CPU TDP at 74W.


Vantage: 20593
CPU: 17538
GPU: 21862 Stock GPU Clocks.

Also check out the GPU temps. These things run very cool. If only I could up there voltage and use a 330w PSU.

 

Stock GPU clocks, CPU at 140MHz FSB with a 74w TDP.

3DMark11: 6400

 

Nice! Really surprised at how cool the cards seem to run. Great stock speeds and CPU overclock.

 

Nope. Didn't mod a single thing. Just plug, tape and then play.

 

it's even cooler then 5870M, that's great