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

That is the way it should be, but it can range to up to 10 degrees especially with 6990s

I am thinking about using IC Diamond-24 as it is cheaper and you can get a lot in a tube....how does this compare to X23?

 

I use hwinfo64. Temps for everything are about the same. Nothing goes over 70 or so with my cooling pad.

I have no idea why the issue for the cards is gone. I did try reseeding and that didn't fix it the first time. I did the BIOS reset and was able to reinstall / uninstall the driver on the slave. Since I put the new driver on it, I haven't had a single issue. I hope it stays this way

Also, not that I'm unhappy with my cooling pad or anything, but can I actually put bigger / quieter fans in it to make it even cooler / quieter?

Also, the only reason I used throttlestop for logging is because Hwinfo64 frequently doesn't monitor my CPU temps properly. The readings freeze. The GPU readings keep moving, but CPU just sit there.

 

Ah sweet, just wanted to make sure

You can definitely put different fans in the cooler, I think Greywolf has already done so!

 

Yeah, I put in some Antec fans to add a little color to them. I know for a fact you can purchase better/quieter fans. I know Katalin_2003 put in some (I can' recall the brand, but I'm sure he can tell you) that are super quiet, but also cost more then the cooling pad itself.

My Antec definitely aren't quieter, but I do like the Blue LED's to add a little bling.

 

I want some bling bling... But the circut board where my wall plug, plugs into my Cryo LX broke, so now it's just a notebook stand

Spoiler

<-------DR650SE

 

hahaha Great picture!

 

LOL!

Bugger about it breaking, shouldn't be that hard to bypass it and put in a variable resistor or something.

 

finally it looks like its easy to break and its not just me. Mine broke as well but i got a replacement circuit board from NZXT

 

What kind of fans would actually be "better"? Link? I mean, it can only accommodate 3 fans of the size that are already in there, right? I understand getting the exact same size fans that have LED's and whatnot, but how can the same size fan be "better" or even quieter?

 

Better bearings, blade size, RPM ect. Though I never looked into it so I can't say which fans.

 

Here's an older thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acc...-nzxt-cryo-lx-notebook-cooler-dell-m1730.html

Pretty much covers how to mod the cooler, add fans, types of fans to buy, etc.

Pretty good information in there.

 

What did you do? I don't want any LED's, but I want to get the coolest / quietest fans I can.

 

I went with the antec LED Tri-cool (Blue) for the LEDs. Katalin put in some quieter fans (although can't recall what type he used). My Antec's aren't any quieter (not sure if they are cooler). I know you can easily spend upwards of 20+ per fan for some of the best out there. My Antec's were only about $9 a piece.

 

All I can discern from that upgrade thread is that the fans are 120mm, which helps.

How hard are they to install and get the wiring done? I don't mind paying 20 a fan if they're really great. Any ideas?

EDIT: According to this, there are power concerns as well: http://forum.notebookreview.com/acc...x-notebook-cooler-dell-m1730.html#post5054082

Maybe I should just keep what I have lol. Its working fine. I'm just concerned by that post saying that they're ty and will eventually go out. That and I've already started to hear a slight clicking noise occasionally.

EDIT 2: I searched for 120mm case fans on newegg and came up with this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc= There are so many different types of voltages and power connector options, I honestly have no clue.

 

Well folks, looks like that slave card just won't stop causing issues. I just logged into skyrim and noticed artifacting. I logged into SC2 and had the same thing. These tiny little boxes. Screenshots won't show them, but I got a picture with my phone camera. Does anyone have a clue what is going on? Maybe this thing has a bad connector? I already reseeded it. Maybe its time to see if they'll send me a new one? The artifacting is only present with crossfire enabled.

EDIT: This is the only component that I haven't repasted since the tech put too much on. I'm going to repaste it. Is there a proper way to clean the golden chips that connect into the slot? I want to make sure they're clean and making a proper connection. Also, can I spray the slot with aerosol?

EDIT 2: Here's what the paste on this card looks like. Could this be my issue? Again, I want to know if I should aerosol the slot, as well as clean the golden connectors. Thermal paste shouldn't have prevented it from making a connection the other day, so I want to fix all the issues at once if they're there.

EDIT 3: I repasted, but because I didn't get a response / don't know the appropriate protocol, I didn't touch the golden connectors or aerosol the slot. I'm still getting artifacting. Does anyone have another idea for me?

EDIT 4: I've tried everything I know. I reflashed them back to factory VBIOS - didn't work. I did a clean wipe of all drivers and reinstalled the drivers - didn't work. The only thing I HAVENT done is swap the master with the slave slots. That would require me to repaste both cards, again, and if it didn't fix it, it would even be a bigger waste of time.

 

I get those artifact's on my secondary monitor in HWINFO32 only when playing Skyrim.

Since it was intermittent and only appeared during Skyrim regardless of temperatures (would happen immediately when loading the game) I just ignored it. However it was easier to do so as I was not getting them in game.

I think it is driver related, perhaps try different ones and see how you go.

BTW there was too much paste on that card, less is more. And I know that the IC method is to have a big blob in the middle but I think that should only apply to square dies. I would be running a line down the middle to get an appropriate spread over a rectangular die.

Also, have you put pads on the back of the cards? I know some people (myself included) have done it, but I don't know if it actually does anything though...

 

Here is my NZXT mod. Thanks to Greywolf for help.


http://i.imgur.com/MFMU8.jpg
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/1434/02112011003.jpg
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/3601/02112011004.jpg
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4983/02112011007.jpg
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/2103/02112011008.jpg
http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/206/02112011010.jpg

 

The artifacting is occurring in every game.

What do you mean by pads? I have thermal pads on them.

 

Some folks put small pieces of thermal pads on the larger black chips on the bottom of the card. I did this initially, but didn't see any improvement in temps. The 6990s might benefit more from this, although I don't know if that will help with the artificating or not.

Did the artifacting just start? You could try to go back to stock clocks (vs overclocking 5%) to see if it makes any difference. I do suspect however that the card might be the problem (based on the other issues you've had with it) unfortunately.

 

Well his CPU is at 5% OC, not the cards, but I havn't placed any pads on those chips on my 6990s either, and havn't had issues. Maybe wonky drivers?

Are your temps still good? Your issues are really strange

 

The stuff JUST started last night so I can't imagine its the drivers. I'm trying to get eurocom to replace it but they're trying to solve the issues instead. Not sure what they can even do.

 

Lets us know how it goes. I know Turbo had a problem with one of his cards and he had good luck with Eurocom replacing it.

 

IntenseIGFX, Sorry to hear that you are still having issues.

It's strange....I just played about 6 hours of Skyrim and had no artifacts on my secondary screen despite having to alt tab out and back in at every loading point. I have changed nothing, which leads me to believe it is software related.

And your CPU FSB is clocked down now?

I have also had issues with AMD overdrive (despite never accessing it in CCC) so it may be a good idea to go in to overdrive in the CCC, activate it and then make sure it is deactivated.

Have you tried different drivers?

 

Hi, guys
Im new here and just changed 6970M CF. May I ask why my screen always shows black when I play games and run 3D mark?
Im so confused.....dont know how to deal with that

 

They're sending me a new card and a new crossfire cable.

Is it possible to take the crossfire cable out of the master card without removing the heatsink? If so, I may just replace the card and the cable so that I don't have to open another time if the new video card doesn't fix it. I just don't want to removed the heatsink on my master card if I can prevent it.

Also, I can't imagine its driver related when it was working one day and not working the next. I also had issues with the card even being recognized by atiflash for a while, so the only thing I can discern is that its either the xfire cable or the card.

Also, for some reason (with crossfire turned off and on before this issue happened and even with the 5870's) starcraft 2 performs BETTER at Ultra than it does @ high / medium. On medium / high the game plays like crap, actually but is smooth on ultra. Odd, ey?

 

Hi Jackson,

Can you give us a little more detail? Does the screen only go to black when you are playing games or run 3dmark and you can see windows and such fine? Are both cards showing up and is crossfire showing enabled? What version of the driver are you using?

Welcome to the board. The guys here are really helpful, so if you can just give us a bit more details we'll try to help you out

 

EDIT: As for SC2, that's not uncommon. It's an issue with the game and/or drivers - it's not a hardware problem. There are several games that I've experienced doing this including SR2, Crysis 2, GTA IV and a few others.

Did you try reverting your cpu back to stock clocks?

The 5% overclock is a 5% overclock on the FSB - not a direct overclock on the cpu. This means it overclocks everything by 5% - your fsb, cpu, ram, chipset - and in turn your PCI-e interface (see the relevance of that?).

In the past pushing my FSB too high has resulted in artifacts in applications. Also, undervolting my 4870's too far resulted in similar artifacts to what you're experiencing.

Revert the 5% OC back to normal and see if you still have problems. Reinstall the drivers. I'm not sure if you have, but put the cards back on their stock voltages.

I think it's a little bit hasty to assume bad cards at this point and try to get Eurocom to send replacements if ALL of the above points haven't been addressed.

 

Yes, the screen only go to black when I was playing games or run 3Dmark, through the resolution is changed to 1920@1200, cuz I am using Eurocome cards.
The Crossfire is working, and when it finished running 3D MARKs, it was back to work.....

Is there something I need adjust in the CCC?

 

Try disabling CFX and see if you get the problem still.

Which drivers are you using?

Does the screen turn off? Or does it simply display the color black WITH the backlight being on?

Normal desktop usage is fine?

Are you able to watch HW accelerated videos with no difficulty?

What are your power settings? Both in windows and CCC?

Is your resolution and refresh rate + color bit rate set correctly in CCC?

 

I'll try the 5% OC revert, but I should be able to run the cards @ .96v with the 5% OC (other people are sucessfully doing it). Also, it was working one second, and wasn't the next. In addition to the problem I was having with the card not being identified, I have to assume hardware.

I tried putting the card back to stock voltages, as well as reinstalling the drivers. Both didn't solve the issue.

If reverting the 5% OC does fix the issue, what does that mean? Why is the issue only present with crossfire enabled?

They already sent me a new card and I'll have it tomorrow. They also sent me a new crossfire cable. Is it safe to try and remove the crossfire cable on the master with the heatsink still attached? I don't want to remove the heatsink on the master if I dont have to.

Thanks for the insight, AARP. But you see what I'm saying, correct? Running the cards @ .96V with the 5% OC should work just fine, but it isn't. It WAS working one second, then the next it wasnt, and the issue only happens with crossfire enabled, meaning the same card that wouldn't be identified by the computer for a while was now acting up again. While the card WAS working fine with the 5% OC (for about a day) I noticed a performance increase in my gaming. Everything felt a little zippier. I'd like to keep that 5%, especially since my temps are fine with it.

Thoughts? I'll go try to remove the 5% now and see what happens. Also, the DDR3 Voltage in the BIOS is set to 1.5. I can set it to 1.6 and 1.7. Is 1.5 correct for the 5%?

EDIT: Also, a few times I've started the computer (since the artifacting started happening ) the mouse was skipping around some. It wasn't appearing in one place, then the next, but you could tell it wasn't smoothly moving from point a to point b. I tried the touchpad and the same thing happened. Crossfire wasn't enabled when I was experiencing that problem. I restarted and it was okay, but its happened twice now.

Any ideas?

 

What are you power settings?

 

? What do you mean? How do I tell?

Also, after removing the 5% OC, the first time my machine booted up, I didn't have the ability to crossfire. I could see the second card in the device manager and there was a yellow triangle over the icon. It read 6990 Radeon, though.

Second time I booted up, my mouse was doing that lagging thing and crossfire was an option, but blue screened when I tried to initiate it. The blue screen error is attached

EDIT: This mouse issue is starting to worry me. It'll skip a bit and then freeze and catch up.

EDIT 2: Logitech setpoint had updated and I don't use a logitech mouse anymore. Right as the program uninstalled the mouse started working again. Odd.

EDIT 3: Finally got xfire to enable without blue screening and without the 5% OC. Still artifacting. I think its time to put a new card in when it comes in tomorrow.

EDIT 4: Guess I was wrong about the mouse issue. I rebooted with the 5% OC and the mouse came back (even with the 5% OC sometimes I'd boot and it'd be fine). I tried loading up a youtube video while the mouse was doing that and the youtube video is stuttering like nutts too. If I load into safe mode there's no issue. Could the bad slave card be contributing to that, even though crossfire isn't enabled?

 

I do see what you're saying, and I agree, logically it makes sense. However the one thing I've learned from going through this upgrade process and watching/helping others in this topic is that two systems are never alike. They could be configured identically, and you could put identical cards in them, but the chances are both systems will experience unique bugs. Just because others have pulled it off doesn't guarantee anyone else will be able to. This is way out of range of Alienware's warranty, and results have not been consistent. The overall trend has been great success, but nearly everyone has experienced their own fair share of unique bugs (most of which have been solved).

Just double checking, did you uninstall the video drivers before you installed the 6990's? An entire range of bugs have appeared from people not doing that. Some people got it working fine without reinstalling, but others had messed up shader counts, the inability to get CFX working, BSOD's etc.

Try that if you haven't already, but yeah it's looking to me like it's most likely a bad second card.

 

Greywolf told me not to uninstall before adding the new cards. When I put them in the first time, my resolution was crap so I just installed the 11.10 drivers on top of the old ones that were in the machine. That got them working fine.

Since I started having issues, I did a clean uninstall of the drivers and reinstalled. Didn't fix it.

What do you think is the deal with this stuttering issue? Its not just the mouse its everything. It was doing it, then I rebooted and its fine now. Could that have to do with a bad video card, even though crossfire isn't enabled?

EDIT: Its not fine as in it stopped doing it. It keeps doing it. Sometimes I boot its there, other times its not. (stuttering issue)

I just want to badly for everything to work. I've opened up this computer now more times than I can count and I'm worried that every time I pull those little brackets to get the ribbons in / out of they get closer to breaking. I just want to get everything working with the 5% OC like it should. If you all think I should just forget about the 5% OC, I can do that too, but I'm not sure if that's whats even causing the stuttering. I honestly have no idea considering that one boot it works, the next it doesn't.

EDIT 2: I think there's an issue with the 5% OC. I turned it OFF and my performance is BETTER in sc2. I don't know what else could fix it - I already took out that battery to reset the BIOS. Is the 5% OC really that beneficial for in game performance? DR56SE has both cards @ .96v and the 5% with no issues, so I'm trying to figure out why the 5% causes issues. Any ideas?

EDIT 3: Nvm, I don't think the performance is better without it. I did a game against AI in SC2 and it was fine, but the second I went into multiplayer I lost 10FPS. I thought that it was better without the 5% because I went against the AI to check settings (trying to tinker with settings on one video card but SC2 is retarded with these drivers. I can't even play on low without choppyness. Its either ultra or its choppy, and without my dual vid cards, its choppy on ultra)

Sorry, I know there's a lot to address here, but I need to figure out of that stuttering (mouse / windows / youtube) is because of the 5% or the bad card, even though xfire was disabled.

 

Hey, are these the only two games you have issues with (i.e. Skyrim and SCII)? Have you tried running them with HWinfo or whatever elese monitoring program you have closed?
I used to run GPU-Z when gaming with xFire enabled and that caused micro stuttering like you wouldn't believe. As a fps fan, it was just unplayable!

Edit 1: Also, that skipping thing with the mouse, have you reinstalled Synaptics and checked your Ram? As I was building my desktop, I didn t push one Ram stick in far enough and it would cause freezes and crashes every 3-10 hours. Won't cost you anything to check I would also do a clean install before deeming the cards faulty - that's my opinion.


Also gents (don'tknow if their are any ladies on this thread), as I am going to be installing the xfire 6990 in a week's time, what benchmarking comparison would you want me to do to compare it to the 5870s. Vantage and Metro 2033...? I will attach a wattmeter (or whatever you call it) to the end of the power cable to compare power consumptions at idle, load, single gpu, crossfire...
Let me know what you'd rather

 

I've been playing Crysis 2 and Deus Ex HR lately...would love to see what perf gains you get. Since you mentioned it already above, Skyrim (yes please), and what about Rage?

I know Rage seems to inherently have PC perf issues so that may not be a wise choice.

Oh and maybe Witcher 2??
Sorry, late night stream of consciousness thinking

 

IntenseIGFX, as Aarpcard and myself have mentioned a 5% CPU overclock does have an effect on the whole system including the GPU's

I can't run a 5% overclock on my machine for some reason as it makes it unstable, whilst lots of other people can. I think my RAM just can't handle it and causes me problems. However I can clock the bejeebus out of the CPU using Throttlestop.

As for the stuttering issue, welcome to the world of crossfire

It just happens, especially with new cards. A lot of games are not or are hastily designed for crossfire. I know that SC2 was a reknown game to be horrible for crossfire performance and there are other games as well such as Fall Out 3: New Vegas (shudders) and dont get me started on Black Ops when that came out...

I would stop using SC2 as a test because of the known problems, and also Skyrim because AMD hasn't even released a CAP to address the crossfire problems. I get CRAZY stuttering in Skyrim (screen rolls like an old TV) which only occur when I look at certain lit environments.

I remember when BC2 came out and it was a absolute NIGHTMARE with the 5870m's in crossfire....stuttering, texture shakes, crashes, poor Xfire performance etc etc.

Thenzfarmer also raises a good point regarding the monitoring applications causing issues, as these are known to cause microstuttering as well.

When you get your new card, leave everything at stock. CPU, GPU voltages, RAM voltage and leave it like that for a while until you are happy with the set up.

Then when you start tweaking you will know what causes issues. This is exactly what I am doing at the moment as I too am having troubles in particular games. And to be honest, the cards running at stock voltages with the CPU at stock is more the enough at the moment. Once better drivers are released (and i get the cards running a little cooler) will then start messing with clocks again.

I don't remember if you mentioned that dropping the CPU overclock to stock made a difference? I know you said there was perhaps a performance difference but did it help with the artificats?

 

douse wich driver set are you runing now?

Yesterday i uninstalled the 11.12 beta and went back to 11.10 whql, installed 11.9 CAP4, copied the atiumdag.dll on skyrim folder and the game run in crossfire. the only issue is that water trails (when you cross a river for example) stutter, but just the water trail ones leave behind him. The rest works without a problem

 

Hi, everyone!

It seems, the "search thread" function isn't working!?
My Question (because it's impossible to read thru all 304 pages before christmas ):

I bought a "ATI HD 6990M 2GB Video Card for P170HM" for my m17x R2
via:
Laptop Video Cards :: ATI HD 6990M 2GB Video Card for P170HM - R&J Technology, Clevo Barebone Notebook kits, Laptop and desktop system builder

If I'm not mistaken, that's the card, which works properly in the m17x R2, except the "audio over HDMI" - issue, correct?

Is there a mod/fix/update available by now, to make it work?
As I mentioned, unfortunately I can't search the thread :-/

Thanks!


EDIT: Very, very nice guide!!! - I wasn't able, to install my card yet, because it'll be waiting for me when I arrive at home this afternoon - but I'm quite confident, to get it done without any complications, following this great guide! Thank you!

 

Rolled back from the 11.12's? I thought the 11.12's were causing BSOD's?

After a lot of mucking around I have got it running on 11.9 with 11.11 CAP 2. 11.10 did work for a while and then just stopped..

I have had a look at the atiumdag.dll fix, copied it in to the Skyrim folder and I couldnt see much of an improvement. Is there meant to be an existing one that it overwrites? Because I couldn't see one..

Skyrim runs fine, except for stuttering but that only happens in certain conditions (not that often really, say when I am standing in a fire blast from a dragon), and that I have to alt tab out and back in after every loading sequence otherwise GPU usage on both cards sits at at around 20%

Just waiting on new drivers and CAPs

 

The stuttering occurs before I even start a game. When it happens, its the mouse in windows, it's moving objects around the desktop, it's YouTube videos, it's everything.

Removing the 5% doesn't get rid of the artifacting. What I've been trying to ask several times now is: could a faulty GPU, even with crossfire disabled, cause that kind of windows stuttering (before I even get into a game). Again it doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes I boot with it, I reboot and it's gone. It may have to do with the 5% OC, because I can't remember if it ever shows up with the OC disabled. I may just leave it off. Does it really improve ingame performance that much (if at all?) I thought it did before but it could be me just assuming. With just one video card enabled and the 5% OC on / off I couldn't tell any difference in SC2.

Also, that artifacting (when xfire is enabled) occurs in EVERY game. I've tried TF2, arkham asylum, mw 3, and a bunch of others.

 

Ok, interesting

Is the stuttering kind of like when you have a fresh install of windows and there are no drivers installed with the video card? So when you say, drag a window around, it is almost like a slow refresh rate?

As for your query, sure I suppose it is possible, all sorts of strange things can happen with a faulty GPU. However imo, if crossfire is disabled and using 2D clocks in windows then I would think that a faulty 2nd video card would have no impact at all. This really sounds more and more like drivers to me.

As for the 5% OC, It will barely give you any performance boost at all especially since you can overclock the CPU multipliers with throttlestop.. and the only place it may give a boost is in the RAM. It can be considered unhealthy as it overclocks everything in the computer. Which is why Dell only give you a max of 5%

 

I may just leave it off then. And the stuttering is just everything. The mouse skipps, and if it comes on, it goes away with the reboot.

With the 6990's, its really unnesscessary for me to do the overclocking of the cpu at all. I think I just wanted the 5% OC because I thought it would be beneficial to my gaming. It did raise my 3dmark 11 score about 100 points or so, but how much does that even translate to in game?

Also, is it safe to remove the crossfire cable of the main card without removing the heatsink? If so, I'm going to replace the old crossfire cable too. Just in case.



I tried uninstalling the drives but the alienware welcome screen keeps flashing. It won't let me into the desktop. Any ideas?

I can start in safe mode, but I can't get into normal. Should I put the new video card in? I didn't want to put the new one in until I knew the old drivers were fully uninstalled.

EDIT: VIA safemode I ran drivercleaner and cleaned out ATI. Still won't let me get into windows. Does that alienware welcome thing and keeps flashing back and forth between that screen. Doesn't boot into windows.

 

Been watching this thread for a while, and i think i am ready to bite the bullet and upgrade the componenet on my laptop. I got the r2 with 8 gigs ram, dual atis xfire 5800 series, and and i7 q740. I just want some advice ona few things:

1-how much would it cost to upgrade the xfire cards to 6970 or 6990. Where can I buy them And how much performance increase can i expect.

2-I also read another thread on some processor upgradei can buy from ebay froma guy named Shirley. here is the description [New Intel Core i7-920XM Processor 2.0GHz/8m/1333 ]. What is this processor exactly, and what will it allow me to do?

Finally, which of these 2 upgrades is more beneficial. My current concern is tha I get adequae, but not stellar, performance in battlefield3.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi aarpcard
I am currently using driver 11.10
I disabled the CF and it still went to black, but I accidentally changed the moniter to 1, and disabled the another display whick looked like desktop's, then everything is fine.
Thank you

 

Alright guys, everything's working now. I have the 5% OC disabled and I'm going to leave it that way. I don't think it makes enough of a difference to be worth all of the trouble it has caused and can potentially cause. The new video card / xfire cable are in and I have no artifacting issues. Temps are good, everything is perfect. I'm still using 11.10 with 11.9CAP4 profiles because they seem to work the best, but hopefully they'll come out with something new that works well for skyrim.

 

Awesome Intense!!!! Glad it's working for you

 

Hallelujah. Will await further developments.

 

1.- i bought both 6990s from eurocom (ebay account is "upgradeyourlaptop")
cost me about $950 shipped.
i personally recommend them, as they are awesome.
2.- pretty sure that the best proccessor u can put in an r2 (there might be 1 that is slightly better.)
i dont think you will see any gains by upgrading your cpu. at least not for gaming. if your benching then it might be worth it to you.

finally im running an r2 with a 820qm and 4 gigs of ram w/ 6990's and the performance is stellar. everything is on ultra w/0 msaa.
i originally started with the 4870x2 setup and was playing with a mix of med-high settings and only getting 30-45fps with some drops.
6990's are a pretty steady 60fps and they run cooler than my 4878's did.

the video cards cost more but are going to be more important for gaming performance.

i am so impressed with my upgrade im grinning while typing

 

I was noticing that the performance wasn't up to par so I ended up putting clean drivers on it and its working great now I'm not going to touch the 5% OC given that last time it screwed everything up and its practically unnecessary.

Everything is working great. Temps on the CPU and both card are great.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that the 920XM is a HUGE upgrade for performance. Having that extreme processor makes everything run substantially better, from what I understand. Even if the mega/giga hertz difference isn't huge, from what I understand having the extreme processor by itself makes an enormous difference in the way it handles tasks and the turbo / threading ect. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that having the extreme processor is one of the biggest upgrades you can get.

EDIT: Catalyst AI settings are different with the 6990 than they were with the 5870. Do you all leave all your settings on default? Do you uncheck "Enable Surface Format Optimization"? I think unchecking it may increase my performance a bit in SC2. I can't tell, though.

EDIT 2: Yea, check that, having surface format optimization off makes SC2 much smoother.