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

Yup. Lower clock speeds definitely help with the temps. I've already at stock gpu clocks, beat my overclocked 5870 run at over 1GHz one the 5870 core. And thats at stock! only upping the cpu TDP a tad.

 

i'm about to buy 2 of them for mine, but my system is only with 720qm, I don't know which one should be upgrade first, I can't afford both of them at the same time

720 -> 920xm
or 5870M CF -> 6970M CF

do you have any advice?

 

I just upgraded my 720Qm -> 920xm a couple of weeks ago. I did see a bit of a difference, but personally I think you'll get more bang for your buck upgrading the video cards first. Granted I'm also coming from a 4870 crossfire, so I can't comment on how big an increase you'll see from the 5870's to the 6970's.

Although I can say, after opening it up and swapping out the CPU, the upgrade bug bit me hard, so now I've got my 6970's on the way, and decided to upgrade to the Intel Ultimate N card too.

Just my 2 cents

 

i'm seriously considering to throw my 840QM in instead of the 920xm when i'll do the swap. So i should be able to push the 6970's a little bit more. I'm sure the 840 won't bottleneck them.

At least until support for the 330W PSU will be available (if it will ever be available..)

 

I would go for the XM first, in the same boat as you! From what I have come to understand the 720qm holds back the 5870's and there is a significant increase with the 920xm which is why I ordered one first. Then I will jump into the 6970's.

 

Decisions Decisions ....it's good to be an R2 owner

 

it seems no one would ever have 720qm+6970M combo

so maybe jump to xm first and then save up for...6990Ms ) ( that's I really hope it would work then...)

 

I just moved from an R2 with a 720QM to a M18x. If I were in your shoes, I would go with the 920XM CPU. The 6970M CFX does perform better than the 5870 CFX, but I think you'd get more bang for the buck with the faster CPU if you can only afford to go for one of the two. The 720QM CPU is definitely a bottleneck.

 

yeah, I decided to go for xm first, then save up for 6970M or 6990M
I make an oder tmrr, can't wait...

btw congrats to your new beast

 

ichime, do you think there would be any complications using a Eurocom master 6970m and a Dell M18x 6970m as the slave if they were flashed to the proper vbios's you provided?

 

i dont think there should be any issue but keep in mind that microdifferences in voltage between the two cards could cause flickering in games but this is something that could be caused even randomly as on my dell 5870s which were ok for long time

 

Ok, well I just cancelled my order for my second 6970m and bought the M18x one I found instead. It was $50 cheaper and I don't have to deal with Canada's horrible post system.

If anybody else thinks there might be an issue - or no issues - let me know

 

Hi everyone,
I have been reading all the post on forums about 6970m since it came out and really happy that it works on the M17x-R2. I have been saving up for one now and hopefully will be able to get one for my M17x-R2 in the next month or so. But before I do spend all this money on a 6970m I have a few questions which I hope some people can help me with on here. Firstly a bit of background to the questions:
I have bought a basic M17x-R2 a while back (M520 processor, 1 x 4870m, upgraded the ram to 8GB DDR3, also got a Vertex 2 100 GB HDD, and normal dvd drive, 2nd hdd bay is empty on my laptop as I use an external HDD for storage, USB 3.0 card). Basically I use my laptop as a desktop all the time with a 23" full HD monitor, keyboard and mouse and USB sound blaster for music, the reason I got a laptop is I'm a student and I move home at end of semester and need a computer I can move about allot.
Currently I have problems with some games skipping frames such as GTA IV and Test Drive Unlimited 2 regardless of graphics settings (i think i read somewhere it was just a bug with the 4870m and those games). As well as Battlefield Bad Company 2 doesn't quite run on full settings. I haven't bought any more games as it is really annoying buying a game and then finding out my computer has bugs with it, or finding out it cant run the game.
Basically my question is if I get the 6970m I would not be able to afford it in crossfire for some time, so I was just wondering what the real world results are in gaming on 1920x1080 and what games it can and cant run, I dont mind if the graphics are not full just would like it to run on full resolution with decent settings. Everyone posts benchmarks but they are useless to me as I just want to know if I can play all the games out at the moment. Finally will I need to get a new processor with this graphics card to run all the new games.
I appologise for the really long post and you probs did not need to know all that to answer my question, but from reading loads of forums I see that usually you end up with the answer you are looking for first time if you give lots of detail with the question..

Thanks,
Warren

 

I think you will not have any issues with them, because those two 6970m are both manufactured in the same place. I think Eurocom and Dell bought them from the same place.So don't worry.

 

I have several questions.First is about Crysis 2+DX11+High res. pack,how much fps in 6970m crossfire(no overclock)+920xm(maybe a little bit overclock).I saw the answer for my question but only for one 6970m.And the second one,what is about M18X's 330W AC adapter.Can someone adopt the m17x r2's BIOS for it?And I think that within the weak 6970m will cost for about 25% less.

 

Have a look here, this will give you an idea of what the 6970 is capable of, I think the 6970 will be twice the speed of your 4870

As far as upgrading the CPU goes, you should be fine with just the one 6970 but that would be your next upgrade before you get another 6970, upgrading the cpu will help bump up your minimum frame rate and/or power a second 6970

You could try updating your graphic drivers to the latest version and see if that improves the 4870 performance otherwise I'm not sure as I'm unfamiliar with the 4870

From what I hear the guys with m18x are getting 20-40fps every thing maxed out, I'd assume we'd get something similar?
Concerning the 330w PSU a bios mod should make it compatible, although I'm not 100% sure, if any one can make it work it will be TheWiz, the other possibility is a hardware mod, which involves swapping a small chip thing between the PCU's, either ways it not working... Yet

 

Interesting problems with the 4870's. I've had mine for about a year and a half and can't say I've run into any problems running games (Crysis, Witcher, WoW, Dawn of War II, Starcraft, etc). That being said, mine are running in a crossfire configuration, and I was running a 720QM most of that time. Recently upgraded to a 920XM which definitely showed an improvement, and now just waiting on my 6970's to arrive. Once they do, I'll do some testing and post my results on "newer" games. Witcher 2, Crysis 2, etc.

Overall though, I agree with what the others are saying...a single 6970 should provide quite a big boost over a single 4870, and then upgrading to
a bit better processor would be the next investment I'd consider.

As others have also said, making sure your graphic drivers and CAP's are up-to-date is one of the most important things you can do if you are running into problems with games (of course verifying all the games are patched as well)

 

i am really waiting for new amd driver and the new caps to see if they gonna improve performance on crysis 2 and dx11. Now its crap

 

@ kenny27 & Greywolf22 Thanks for the quick responses to my questions pretty impressed my questions were answered so quickly.
Well I think that im pretty happy now to invest in a 6970m and next ill be saving up for a processor.
Incredibly happy with my m17x-r2 before this I was always a desktop man and said to everyone laptops were crap, but this has proved me wrong. The biggest problem for me is it is so expensive to upgrade my laptop, I do miss that in a desktop, so much cheaper to upgrade....
Sorry to ask another question so quickly, but from what I can see you can get a 6970 from MXM-upgrade or on ebay all the way from canada (with no returns) or from dell for the m18x. Anyone know what the cheapest way and most reliable would be from the UK?

Thanks again,
Warren

 

Hi, I think the cheapest way will from the user pkhetan, he has the cheapiest 6970m.Wait for about a week and 6970m will be cheaper, beleive me. Here is his thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/computer-components/584965-fs-6970m-brand-new-free-heatsink-6.html

 

I also waiting this drivers and caps.Maybe within a half month amd will release it?!

 

I agree, pkhetan has fantastic prices, is really great to work with and definitely keeps you updated as the order progresses. I highly recommend him (waiting for my 2 cards to be sent from Clevo currently...can't wait to receive them)

 

Any time Warren glad to help! As far as a processor goes, I ordered mine from Laptop Monkey on e-bay. Super fast shipping, great prices, and he's in the UK so you'd get it next day. Just something to consider when you are in the market for a CPU upgrade.

Upgrade bite is just as strong upgrading a laptop as it is a desktop (albeit a lot more expensive)...I know I started with just a processor upgrade and have since bought new video cards, an intel 6300 and some new Hard drives.

 

@ Greywolf22 & kongrad Thanks again or the quick replies and pretty helpfull answers, really looking forward to this upgrade now. Now I know where to get it from and how well it should work now all I have to do is wait till I have the money, wish I had more paitence.... but will definately be worth the wait, then also gonna have to save up for more games as well..

Just another thought, I know that the M17x-r2 only has sata II hdd ports but has anyone (or know of anyone) that has had a raid 0 config with 2 SSD drives on a M17x-R2 as I know that an SSD has been one of the most noticeable upgrade I have done on a pc, and was wondering if it will actually get twice the throughput in real life performance? or will there be other bottlenecks stopping this from happening?

Also on a random side note as I am probs going to be using this site allot and hopefully soon enough ill be knowledgeable enough to maybe ans some questions.. how does everyone get all the specs of their pc's at the bottom of their posts? (hope this isnt answered somewhere else on the site as I know ppl get pissed off about ppl asking stuff that is already there..)

Thanks once again for the help,
Warren

 

Hi Warren,

If you look at the top of the forum you should see User CP, click on that and then click Edit Signature, and experiment from there. As you can see people do it in all different ways, so just pick whatever works best! Looking forward to seeing how your upgrade progress.

 

Hey guys, question

Is the AMD Crossfire cable and the SLI interconnect cable the same cable? In other words does it have the same connectors and are they interchangeable? I always assumed they were not, but was curious if you can use an Alienware SLI interconnect cable with crossfire cards.

 

They are different and can't be interchanged.

 

Thanks aarpcard!

 

I can't wait to have them my cards should ship on 26th of july due to Clevo shortage. mmm maybe they will run out of 6970's and ship 6990 instead ... but this is just my imagination

@warren

i'm getting them from pkhetan, as somebody said, great guy and excelent prices. If you get'em with him you wont be disappointed

 

Eurocom have added the 6990s to there upgrade list and its only $5 more then the 6970

 

Really cool price.It would be great to have in future 6990's in our m17x r2.

 

Yep mine are shipping on the 26th as well (and I was also thinking they might ship some 6990's instead )

 

Hahahaha......I'm just laughing on my self now. I was looking at the 6970s and now the 6990s are out!

I'm glad I didn't have the cash to shell out at the 6970s at the time or I would have a crying baby face about right now!

Now the champs who made the custom A10 bios for the R2 if they could just get that big prize out to upgrade our range of power adapters usability like they said for the M18X, this will make the R2 a powerful beast, like the nano suit from crysis 2!!

Let all the M18X users get mad at us R2 users ROFL

 

I don't see that happening. The screen is not that big of an issue to most people and I personally enjoy my 4.5 hours battery life

That being said, I see no reason why the 6990m wont work in the M17x R2

 

What he said... i would like also to have some more battery life along with the performances.

I'm ok with the upgrade to 6970, and still hoping that the 330W psu will be useable on the R2.

M18x will be next, but i honestly prefer to wait for the R2 version of it

 

I agree, the 6970's are still a huge leap from my 4870's and to be honest even if I could buy the 6990's I'd be a bit hesitant to be the first guinea pig to attempt them.

That being said, I think the 6970's should hold me for awhile, and I imagine the next time I'm ready to upgrade I'll probably be looking at a whole new system.

(that's not to say if they shipped me 6990's by mistake, that I wouldn't try them and post the results or offered a sweet upgrade deal...5 bucks extra would make me jump at the chance)

 

Warren, can you send me email or put your email here? I can't PM you.
BTY thank you guys for the compliments here, I was more than happy to read that
About 6990M, Clevo still doesn't have them. Eurocom's 6990M are not Clevo cards.

 

It should work alright, but with more juice and overclocking options will make it a beast of a setup. I didn't know the M18X was packing that much battery life, Impressive!! I can see myself upgrading my R2 with one of those 6000 series mobile cards, I just bought my R2 and by the end of the year I will go after the M18X R2 and hand down my M17X R2 to my younger brother. But I hope they don't screw the M18X R2 like they did with the M17 R3.

 

I believe ichime's 6970m with 1120 shaders did work in the M17x R2. So I would be extremely surprised if the 6990m didn't work.

For CFX, either the 330 watt PSU or Dual 240watt PSU's will be a must though.

I'm still wondering if it's possible to flash 6970m's to 6990m's. They do have the same physical hardware. Once someone gets their hands on a legit 6990m vbios, it'd be something to look into.

 

It'll post most likely and get into Windows. I've tested 4 different cards in the M17x-R2 and I'm sure it'll post. The problem is full compatibility such as the shutdown/battery issue and fan control. This is why we need the Clevo version of the 6990M (or at least its VBIOS) because Clevo somehow managed to fix both problems when installing their 6970M in the R2.

 

How realistic is it that flashing a 6970 with a 6990 vbios would work? Are they physically the same?

 

Not likely at all. They are the same core logic and original chip but once binned, odds are that they laser cut the excess shaders off the die. This is not like the 5850 and 5870 that really were identical except for clocks, the actual core is different here.

Of course.....saying all that....the desktop 6950 2GB often can be unlocked into a full fledged 6970.....so maybe AMD got lazy here as well?

 

It be nice. But Im sure your right.

Of topic: headed back from a recon in VA. Going to be in Stafford VA Looks like a decent place.

 

Thank you for all that you do for the community and helping us to get our hands on these awesome cards! I know I truly appreciate all that you do and for the awesome communication!

 

Just got my tracking number for my 6970's

 

hey off topic but i've just installed my 920xm but my computer hasn't booted, it seems like just main gpu card's fan works and it stuck there, i took it apart again, check everything for making sure nothing is wrong, then again, it did not boot, i'm stuck there! anyone know why? thanks advance!

 

Hey djhuydx,

Does the keyboard light up and the fans blast away or just one side of the fans blow?

I sometimes get that. Try doing a complete power drain. Remove the battery and CMOS battery. Hold down the power button for 30 secs to 1 min. Try this a few times.
Mine took ages to get back running after it decided not to post anything on the screen. It's been fine since though. It can happen sometimes. Mine used to happen when I messed with the bios and did some OC.

Try setting everything in the bios back to default as well. Then sort of work from there.

Also perhaps try to re-seat the CPU and heat sink.

Good Luck man!

Cheers.

 

yeah exactly like that, i used the bios mod so maybe it is the problem, but i dont know how to set it back normal while i cant access inside, try to do what's you suggest right now, thank you so much!

 

Keep trying man!
It literally took me 30 mins to get back to normal and loading back into windows last time I had the same issue.

Most times I can get back in within 5 mins but the last time it happened to me it was the worst. Would not load or boot properly for so so long. It really was annoying.

Good Luck!

 

Also make sure that you "locked" the CPU by turning the screw that locks it in place when seating your chip.