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

I don't know guys, I honestly don't think Skyrim looks (graphic wise) that great.

When I do get it looking good, the 5870's can't really handle it.

 

Awesome DR650! Can't wait to see the pics! What to do now? You're running out of mods you can do to your R2 (or are you out??)

 

Baja,

Yeah it ran pretty well with crossfire enabled, but there was the occasional hitching as I moved. I disabled crossfire and my FPS went up by 5-10 and the hitching stopped completely.

I'm running 10.10, that might have something to do with it.

By the way, I lent my old old old HP DV8500 laptop to a friend. It has built in graphics and is running Skyrim smoothly on low settings. Graphics are still on par with Oblivion and he is running fine on a 5+ year old laptop.

Mr Fox - Thank you sir, enjoy the game.

 

Armin, Yeah, sounds like they did a good job with the compatibility for Skyrim with older rigs, of course for all the eye candy you need the newer GPUs but it sure is nice how good it looks on high for my 4870s which are by today standards "dated"

Douse, that is interesting on your 5870s, are you running it in high, ultra or mix of both? I will try to take a few screenshots later and post them for reference as to how it looks on my 4870s at 1920-1200 high settings, and keeping 35 to 45 FPS...

 

Here is a couple of screenshots, 4870's Xfire at 1920-1200, 35 to 45 FPS

Spoiler

One more

I did get it ti run on ultra but some parts were just too choppy, but smooth as butter on high...

 

I think I'm pretty much tapped out. I was going to paint these silver parts, but the silver looks so good. I may browse the auto shop around here and see what kinda paint they have. I'm just worried any paint I do will be easily chipped. And I wouldn't want that. But silver R2 with Red LEDs looks pretty awesome. This machine is so differant from the stock system I bought lol.

Stock. i5 520M, 5870's, internal blu-ray, 250GB HDD, 4GB 1066MHz, Black. Now the system is whats in my sig After replacing with the silver, I fell in love with the system all over again. Looks very business classy, the black and silver.

 

Baja's screenshots are a mirror of my quality and I'm running on just one 4870. What kind of graphical issues are you having Douse?

 

Welcome in the club

+rep for the silver chasis i always though that it look a lot more hitech than red or black

 

I don't disagree with the observation. The screen shots look very good, but I wouldn't go as far as saying great. It's similar on console. Images don't have as much depth as one might expect. Seems they might have done a slightly better job with AA to round off some of the sharp edges, too. That does not mean it's not an awesome game and a blast to play, though.

 

On an interesting note, my screenshots showed up mutch bigger than the original resolution of my monitor which is 1920 by 1200, this enlargement made the images not look as good as they look on my monitor, check the link below to another screen, hopefully at 1920 by 1200, my apologies for the giant screenshots on prior post and my thanks to Mr Fox for his help...
http://i.imgur.com/1Khap.jpg

 

Glad to assist. Images are almost always better on the original display than they are in a screen capture. That one does have a little more depth. Thank you for sharing it.

 

Well, mine looks the same.

I guess I expected more of a game with all the hype that it was. It seems like they held back on the graphics to make it more console friendly.

It looks almost the same as oblivion\shimmering isles and those games were released over 4 years ago..

Environment definitely gets my thumbs up, but even that looks held back in some way. Characters certainly look shoddy imo with textures overlap, shadow flickering etc.

I guess it comes down to an expectation thing. I think the environment and characters look better and more realistic in BF3.

My opinion may change when I get the 6990's in and get to really crank it up

EDIT:: For example here is video of Oblivion modded. Yes it is also running at a high res, but we shouldn't have to 'tinker' with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEUM1isW2iQ, also http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j73/cmar001/ScreenShot0.jpg

 

Hey guys,

For those who are interested, I've uploaded the .009 Clevo bios below:

View attachment 6970_undervolt.zip

These have been undervolted to .96 and have been stable so far on my system. They also have allowed me to upgrade the drivers directly from the AMD website (so don't need to use the modded desktop drivers to use them)

Again, the standard caveats apply. Flash at your own risk, make sure you know what you are doing, etc.

I haven't tried HDMI yet, to see if that's been fixed (but I doubt it). And these were the latest as of about 2 months ago. It's possible that an even later firmware level has been released.

 

hi all. i have just buyed 6970m from ebay seller'' upgradeyourlaptop.
I told them i want panther 2.0 card with cf cable.
My m17x r2 will gain some power then

I will have no fan/sleep/resume issues etc with it right ?

My question is, i have dell driver installed and new AMD driver on it (catalyst 11.9)
Can i just put 6970m as it is and it will work ?
or i need to reinstall drivers/flash the vbios(if yes then witch vbios should i use)

i'm on A07 bios

CHEERS

 

Cool Thanks.


@ flingin

No issues with those cards, thats what I'm running.
You do need to flash the bios on the GPU to the one in the OP for stability.

P.

 

Greywolf - still out on the road? Curious how the 6990M CrossFire is gaming for you, bro.

 

Hey Mr. Fox,

Just got home on Friday. Haven't had a lot of a chance to play, but will say that Crysis 2 on Ultra DX11 is super smooth!!

I've been playing Skyrim, but picked it up first on 360 (bigger TV), but will eventually pick it up on PC as well.

Glad to finally have crossfire working and can't wait to have some more time to put it through the paces.

 

Awesome! Excited for you. I trust the hoops you had to jump through to make this happen will have been worth the effort.

 

Alright, Eurocom 6990M is in an working perfectly (for now). It is the one with the green PCB, x7200 VBIOS flashed to it when I got it. Just installed it and was up and running.

I am curious as to how you other folks are installing your 6970 and 6990s with no heatsink modifications. I had to file down the sections around the copper plate on the sink where the square box around the GPU die is, or else the sink sits on the little box instead of the GPU die. Also, the regulator on the card that is in the corner where the two rows of VRAM come together is too tall, I also had to file that spot down so that the heatsink sits squarely on the card. None of you guys have had to do this?

 

NICE! Congrats. Seems the Eurocom cards are the bomb for M17x R2 upgrades. Can you posts some thumbnails or links to pics of the heat sink mods you are speaking of?

 

The regulator fits just right, i've put a hint of thermal paste there also, just in case .

I haven't performed any modification to the heatsink to make it fit. What temperatures are you getting with the mod you have done?

 

Hey Turbo,

I bought the cards with the posts soldered on per a recommendation by Ichime, and my temps have been perfect. I don't know if the soldered on posts sit a bit better or if they are different cards (so maybe the metal square doesn't sit up as high).

Can't explain it any other way, but would be curious to see what other folks are doing.

 

Quick question TurboD, did you have to flash the 6990? or was it just as is and running?
Thanks!

 

Ok, I have found that I have to tab out and back in to Skyrim for it to run nicely. I need to do this ever time I get a slow down....usually after loading a new section.

However it runs smooth on Ultra High with additional settings enabled

Maaaaaaybe it does look pretty good

Baja, how did you take a screenshot?

 

No, I didn't have to do anything at all. It just ran. I got the version without the soldered posts for the heatsink. So in order to use the 6990M X-bracket, I had to go to the hardware store and get screws that would fit the bracket. I also did some modifications to the heatsink so that it would sit perfectly flat on the card. Others are reporting that this is not necessary though.

 

For the screenshots I used FRAPS.
Glad Skyrim graphics growing on ya

It sounds like you work paid off, I am also getting ready here to order a 6990m from the ebay guy. Glad to find out that the card is pretty much plug and play besides the bracket/sink mods you did to it, thanks info on that

 

ok, what about soldered posts?
do you have them or not and did you had to modify/leap the heatsink ?, will 5870m bottom bracket fit to 6970m ?
i got one without posts, is it bad ?

 

Soldered posts seem to be ideal, just for ease of use. The 6990 they sent me came with the X-bracket, so I had to go to the hardware store and buy a few screws. Soldered posts would be perfect, as long as they came with the screws.

DO NOT use the 5870 X-bracket. It is not the same size in the middle as the actual 6990 X-bracket is. You would be creating pressure on some of the components on the bottom of the card. One thing you can do if you absolutely have no other choice is to cut the ends off of the 5870 X-bracket and just use them to anchor the heatsink to the card.

The 6970 and 6990 are both hot cards, and they're expensive. There is no reason to cut corners on the install. Make sure you use premium thermal paste and pads too. You'll need some 1mm and some .5mm thermal pads for a solid installation. I am more cautious than most though.

 

Yes, if you purchase them from Eurocom with the posts, just ask for the screws and they'll include them for free.

 

why this was NEVER mentioned in the guide ?
LOL
installing this is a real PAIN IN THE A... IS IT ?

I started to think is it worth it now.

And i will not cut my 5870m bracket simply becouse i have extended my warranty recently....FAIL

 

No, it is not a difficult installation. The card was not meant to go in the R2, so there are going to be a few growing pains.

Nobody is forcing you to upgrade man.

 

I think that's the main "physical" difference between installing Clevo cards vs Eurocom cards. The Clevo cards come with the X-bracket the Eurocom's didn't initially. Although it sounds as though the 6990's from Eurocom may include the X-brackets (based on Turbo's 6990).

 

@flingin - Not sure if you can buy them from Dell or not, but it's worth a shot. The sticker in the photo is attached to the bag the bracket comes in. Maybe this will help if you're not hip on using screws with nuts and washers to attach the heat sinks. If Dell will sell them, I cannot imaging them being expensive. (I obtained them in a heat sink kit for the M18x 6990M cards and the kit for each GPU heat sink is just under $25.)

You may be able to find small nylon screws with nuts and washers or some type of plastic push-pin retainer at a local hardware store if you are concerned about electrical conductivity. If nothing is suitable at a local hardware store, check with an automotive paint and body supply store as they often carry a wide array of plastic clips and fasteners for automotive use. You might find something that will work. A local computer repair store may also have some old-fashioned nylon push-in motherboard stand-offs and those may work as retainers if the length and diameter are correct. Just throwing some ideas out there, since you seem concerned. Hope they're helpful.

 

Thank you for quick response and help guyz !
I asked upgradeyourlaptop for x-bracket with screws, 25$.
Fair for me, for complete peace of mind.

By the way
This seller ROCKZZzz

 

Good deal! I would gladly pay $25 for that hardware, too. The nice and clean installation would be worth that price as opposed to improvising.

 

I agree, the Eurocom folks have been very helpful and I've had very good luck with them.

Glad you were able to get it all sorted out

 

Hold up, so it is not recommended to use the 5870 X bracket?

I am sure that this has been done in the past?

Ideally I would prefer to use the 5870 bracket as then all the screws etc will be matching.

I just had a look at the upgradeyourlaptop ones and I can see that the bracket does seem to be specifically shaped around the components on the back of the cards. Oh well, hopefully mine come with the back brackets

 

Hey Douse,

So my understanding is the 5870 bracket will not fit. You have to cut it in order to use it. At least that's my understanding.

 

It does seem that way.

Actually, I think it WILL fit but may cause incorrect pressure on components on the back as it does not follow the designed contact groove.

Oh well, will have to wait and see

Nothing like a challenge!

 

Even if the 5870 brackets would fit without modification, if they are attached in the same manner as the 6970/6990 brackets, they have a tough 3M rubberized adhesive insulator that is actually stronger than the bracket, LOL. The last time I switched out a pair of these, the thin metal bracket ended up in pretty rough shape by the time I got it off the card. Warming it up with a heat gun a bit might have helped, but I did not have access to one at the time.

 

Good News!

I have received my 6990's!

YAAY!

Only problem is that they did not come with the bracket so I am little torn about what to do with the 5870 bracket..

If I order some then I have to wait even longer.....grrrrrrr

 

I had no issue removing the bracket from the 5870's.

Leave the insulator attached (to the bracket) and cut the threaded end off each arm with a pair of cutters. Then pop these bits through the hole in the card and attach the heat sink. Worked for me

P.

 

Yeah thinking about that, but I still have warranty on my laptop

Although, I doubt the dell technician will look under the card and worst case scenario I can order a new 5870 bracket.

 

I also cannibalized the 5870 retention bracket by cutting the ends off of it. I am probably just being paranoid, but I don't like the idea of the bracket pressing on all those small components. If you have the right bracket, you'll see that it doesn't press on anything under there. My new 6990 came with retention bracket, thankfully.

 

Congrats on getting the 6990s. Can't wait to see how they work out for you. Definately a long time in the making.

 

Thanks DR650, definitely been waiting for faaaarr to long

I think I am just going to cut the retention bracket. It make sense not to have unnecessary pressure on components.

Hopefully I have enough fujiypoly lying around otherwise i might have to wait till I get my delivery from Frozencpu...

 

I have the second R2 with single 5870m. I don't know if I should buy the second 5870m or 6970m (single). I have a possibility to buy a single 6970m from Clevo.
Are there any problems with these cards - not working fan, temps etc...
Is it just plug and play or not?

 

Clevo cards are plug and play. I got my 6970s when I had them, and my 6990s direct from Clevo through a forum member who no longer sells them. The Clevo cards, with Clevo vbios are plug and play and fans work just like 5870s.

 

Hey guys,

So, one of the other folks here had the same problem I did with their crossfire not being detected and he fixed it with a crossfire cable from Eurocom. So I'm betting my clevo cards will work in crossfire with a cable from Eurocom. Granted I could test it, but my temps are too good for me to mess around with it.

Thought I'd pass that along though, so for folks who are considering dual 6970's, it might be a good idea to order a x-fire cable from Eurocom or Mythlogic (for the Panther 2.0) as a backup just in case your 4870/5870 crossfire cable(s) don't work.

Would be interested to see if there is a model number or something that differentiates the crossfire cables that work vs the one that don't (from alienware).

Very odd indeed

 

Woo Hoo Douse!!

Finally! Congrats!!!

Hope you can sort out a bracket work around and can enjoy your cards.