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

one of my gpus has died..... I think,
I was playing BF3 and I got these lines appearing on my screen kinda like tearing only with a cream colored line, then i got worse with a cream checker pattern over the whole screen and finally a the computer crashed, when I restarted the amd driver was corrupted, so I reinstalled the driver but I got no crossfire, then it wouldn't start properly lights but no screen (windows didn't even load) after a reseat of gpus and cfx cable its started (both 6990s were visible in device manger), then it wouldn't start again so I tested the secondary gpu by itself in the primary slot, no difference...... currently working with only the primary gpu.
my question is how dead is secondary gpu? would baking help it or does it sound like a totally different fatal problem?

 

update with my Eurocom card and isntallation:

Good news, they have agreed to restock the gpu that died. So from now on, i will rockwith only one 6990m. I know that in comparison with my previous dual 5870's this is a marginal upgrade (some would even say its a downgrade), but with so many games that have issues with XFIRE (like skyrim), I think its still a good upgrade.
Thanks again to everyone for all the support

 

Awesome to hear they will replace it. Fingers crossed the next card has no issues and you can rock on happily. Mine have been pegged at 100% utilization for almost 2 straight months folding and so far so good! I hope I have no issues, as I got them straight from Clevo and have no warranty.

@Kenny, that sucks man! I'm not sure what it could be. Sounds like when I killed my 5870. I don't know how that could have happend out of the blue.

 

Sounds like it is dead. Were you logging HWInfo? You could check your temps if you did. I have started doing this everytime I play BF3 just in case my card dies. When my second cards all died, the computer would always recognize them in Device Manager. AMD drivers just wouldn't load or OS would hang at splash screen.

Not sure if baking will help. Never tried it. But from what I read, it is only a temporary fix as solder will eventually break again. You could give it a shot, but I wouldn't be too hopeful. Sorry dude. Sucks when this happens.

Why is it always the second card that bricks? I notice that my second card is always hotter than the primary. Is the secondary card used more?

God to hear Ricard. I rolled with 1 x 6990 for awhile and it wasn't bad. I would say it is comparable to CF 5870s but with no CF problems.

 

@ Douse & DR650SE :

What driver do you use for 6990M Crossfire ?

Do you have a link to download it ?

Thank you

 

Sucks to hear it Kenny It doesn't sound good that is for sure. I wonder what the go is with the secondary cards being more prone to sudden death.

What temps did your cards average at?

Baking will only help depending on what actually failed on the card...if it was something to do with the processor, maybe. It probably won't help if it was the memory..... But you have nothing to lose!

Ghost, my secondary card is also a lot hotter then my primary and I did the same modifications on the heatsink. Don't know why. I am considering doing a re-paste and seeing how I go.

I might also start logging HWINFO32 just to be safe. Does anyone know roughly how big the log files get??

@Ricard, that is awesome news mate!!! So are they providing a refund or are they replacing it?

@Gloops, just using the 12.2 preview drivers. When I upgraded from 12.1 preview I did a full driver sweep prior to installation. Haven't noticed any real issues aside from a couple of BF3 crashes when alt tabbing and browsing firefox

 

refund. and to be honest, that was what i was hoping for. after SOOO MANY secondary cards, I am content with only one 6990m. Its too bad I cant sell my original 5870's... sicne theya re my backup if the 6990 fails.. and I still have one year of warranty left

 

Good news Ricard...glad that they are going to make things right. I guess another option would be to purchase a 6970 and run in crossfire with a 6990 and a single 6970.

Kenny sorry to hear what happened. It seems that the 6990's are more apt to fail then the 6970s? I wonder if it has to do with the additional heat? or maybe pulling more watts? or is it simply that more folks are running 6990's now instead of 6970s?

very strange

 

@Douse...My HWinfo log is about 2.5MB over the past 2 days. I only start it before running BF3 and stop it once I'm done. I use the same file each time I start it so it keeps adding to the file. You can delete it and start a new log each time to save space.

I don't think the second card issues has anything to do with pasting. I think there is either worse cooling on that side or the card is actually being utilized more during gaming. I can check HWinfo to see if the latter is possible. But my second card has always been hotter than the primary during gaming. It is also the one that seems to fail more often for people so I'm guessing it is a cooling thing specific to that side.

 

Well here are my benchmarks, i still dont know if there sumthing wrong with my cards.. Since i can't even overclock it with overdrive or trixx will give me straight BSOD when open up a game.





http://oi43.tinypic.com/2v85yfm.jpg
http://oi42.tinypic.com/ngvn6h.jpg
http://oi40.tinypic.com/246jgy8.jpg

 

The benches look good to me. The numbers are what I think you would expect with dual 6990's. Not sure what might be going on.

 

@ Douse & DR650SE :

What driver do you use for 6990M Crossfire ?

Do you have a link to download it ?

 

guys i need help!
i have a dell 5870m in my r2 and i want to upgrade to crossfire system
since i think 5870m cross is stronger than a single 6990m and way cheaper since i already have a 5870m.I want to use it till 7990m comes out and till it will become compatible with my r2.

so the problem is i dont have any experience with crossfire.
i heard the 5870 must be crossfire compatible to work with a second card
if not you must flash both cards to make them work together.

I dont know if this is true and i dont know if the second card must be from dell too.

 

its just in front of youre nose man..A little searching on the forum can never hurt now can it ?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/641055-amd-catalyst-12-2-preview-driver-released.html

Yeah the benches aint that terrible right.. I really wonder what could be the problem seriously.. I just hope it aint hardware related.. wich i mean i did a bad job at the thermal paste/pads.. i simply dont know

 

Well it wasnt totally out of the blue, it had happened a few times were the computer would just crash only a short while into playing games (crysis) along with a psu trip, or just bad crossfire performance.
I did a few things like reseating the cards, used 0.5m thermal pads and replaced the crossfire cable seems as though it was just that card on the way out now.

 

Benchies look spot on to me. I can barely squeak out P6400 in 11 with my cards at 830mhz and my cpu at 2.12ghz. I do wish I had a 920xm lol. Can't wait to finally buy one.

Don't confuse your scores as being low when compared to the people in the benchmark thread pulling P7000+ . . . . that's because they're mostly running their cpu's well in excess of 3.0ghz which really inflates the scores. I'm assuming everything on your cpu is stock right?

And just checking. ULPS is turned off in Trixx right? And you restarted the comp after applying the change? Having ULPS on will cause an instant BSOD in a dual card setup.

And what are your voltages at? Stock? To get those scores, your cards are definitely clocking up normally. You can log gpu-z to see for yourself.

I think your only problem then is not being able to OC right? I know you've probably said this in prior posts, but have you:

-Tried upping the 3D Performance clock in the vbios and flashing it?
-Turned off ULPS in Trixx?
-Tried OC'ing using Rivatuner? (You're going to have to edit several poweruser tags to get it to read the 69XX cards correctly.)
-Tried disabling CFX and only overclocking one card at a time in Trixx?

The only other thing I can think of is if you are running at stock voltages, then you might be running out of power.

 

Yes, but I asked that to have the best driver and not necessarily the last

 

In this case 12.2 is the best (at least in my experience). I've been running it since release and it's been fantastic.

 

Thank you for your return greywolf22

 

Hey Gloops, sorry you must have missed my reply to you a couple of pages back.

Greywolf is correct, 12.2's are working pretty awesome. Make sure you use the latest CAP's

@TrulyFatal, those benches look really good! Better then mine stock, that's for sure!

You mentioned that you were having problems in BF3? or was this before the format?

 

Yes the benches doesnt look that bad indeed.. and yes correctly cpu is stock except the 5 % bios overclock afcource.. My Volts are set at 0.96V

so far i only tried Trixx and Overdrive in CCC..and i also dit not yet tried overclocking with Crossfire Disabled..

I tried overclocking through Vbios, and GPU-Z gave me weirds stats
Default clock: 800Mhz Memory 1000Mhz
Gpu Clock: 715Mhz Memory 900Mhz
Thats weird cause it should be the opposite...

so yeah i really need some more investigation to do about it.

After Format.. i dont have the Crashes/Shutdowns/BSOD's/ anymore wich is good
When i play crysis i can run smoothly But only on High everything above that will give me also throttle/lagg !
and ive almost tried everyone voltage from 0.96 to 1v its just the same basically

 

Change your GPU voltage to 1.05v and if that solves it, it's a voltage issue. Some cards simply cant hang at .96v . From there you can start to back it off and maybe run 1.0v.

 

lol WEIRD.. Put Crossfire out ,Start Crysis 2 wont even pass the commercials and everything just freezes !

i want to grab a shotgun seriously

 

Up your GPU voltage. Probably not stable at .96v...

 

^^^ Agreed.

My cards were horrible at that voltage.

Remember how we explained that it is a matter of trial and error until you find out what undervolt is stable for you?

None of these values are set in stone. Everyone's cards are different.

Plus, don't even think of overclocking whilst at such a low undervolt! That is not going to work well at all.....

 

Took my stock voltages back and flashed the cards higher.. now look what you see wrong in the screenshot

Crysis 2 Runs Smoother when stock voltages but shutdowns after 5 Minutes

 

Flash these. Off my clevo 6990s.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r2-single-gpu-crossfirex-185.html#post7976087

 

thats what i did mate !

 

Hey guys, i'm just wondering here if i am supposed to use the stock heatsink for the 5870 or am i supposed to use a bigger heatsink? Apparently i've been having a little bit of heat issue even after repasting and it usually goes up till 90+ after extensive gaming.

P.S: Currently using single 6990m on stock clocks

 

Hey Billyxq,

You use the stock heatsink with the cards (only ones that will fit in an R2). However some folks have had to file it down to make better contact with the die (aarpcard and Douse I know have both done this).

What size pads are you using? What sort of paste are you using? Have you tightened the heat sink down enough (but not too much)?

Undervolting your card a bit will help as well.

Just some thoughts.

 

I'm currently using the stock pads that dell provide as i am unable to acquire them at my location. As for the paste, im using coolermaster thermal compound. As for the heat sink, yes i have tightened it down enough.

 

look in hwinfo32 at the specific temps. If the shader is excessively high compared to the other temps, then you're going to need to file down the magnesium around the copper slug and/or the magnesium just above the voltage regulator. A dremel works nicely.

 

the thought of filing down my heat sink scared the crap outta me

I've already ordered IC Diamond 7 thermal compound and .5mm thermal pads to replace the stock pads that i have. Currently using coolermaster's paste and looking to get at least 80 degree from running intensive games (Curently 90+ degree from 10-15 min of Kingdom of Amalur Gameplay).

would it be sufficient to lower my temps while active to atleast 80 degree celcius?

 

Same problem two weeks ago. The 240W power brick can't handle the power draw required to run Crysis 2 at Ultra.

Either lower the settings

or

Downclock your CPU

or

Find a stable Undervolt (1.02 works fine for me)

or

Blame the game and leave your laptop alone lol.

 

I haven't had any troubles running Crysis 2 on Ultra...that being said I'm also running 6970's and my voltages are at .96. So I guess it just shows how close we are to the edge with the 240W power supplies.

 

@Greywolf22, aarpcard

Are there any guides to filing the heat sink? Chances are that i will not proceed with that method because i am not good with power tools. However would the additional 0.5mm thermal pad and ic Diamond 7 be sufficient?

 

The problem is that stock voltages are to much! And 0.96 is too little for you. You need to find what is right for you.

Flash the card to 1.0v

See how you go. If it crashes when loading games etc, then it is too low. If it shutdowns, then it is too high.

This has already been explained a couple of times now.

Try 1.0v and get back to us.

 

How do to downgrade the voltage ?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/search.php

here i found the link

and like i already said.. ive tried every voltage....
And still got problems with rage and BF3 and im pretty sure it aint related with voltages

sumthing is pretty wrong im telling you can, how you else explain me how overclocking in Vbios flash gives me these weird results in GPU-Z ?

 

Hey Gloops,

You need to modify the BIOS for each of the graphic cards.

At stock, they will operate at 1.1 volts during 3D clocks. The problem is that the 6990's in crossfire draw more then the standard 240watt PSU can handle.
So the trick is to find a stable undervolt for your cards. This allows your system to draw less power, without impacting performance (crashes etc)
Some users can successfully run the cards at 0.96v, but it varies from card to card. I personally was not happy with system stability until my cards were running at 1.02.
Some people can run them at 1v.

In order to change the voltage you need to use two applications. Atiflash and RBE (Radeon Bios Editor). There is a guide at the beginning of this thread, but I can quickly go over it for you.

You first need to save the BIOS from each video card. Therefore you need to make a boot disk from a flash drive (or CD if you want). Copy Atiflash to it
Boot to it. Type in atiflash -i to give you information on your adapters.

They will be designated a 0 and a 1.

Then you need to save the bios for each one with a command such as:

atiflash -s 0 6990a.rom

and also

atiflash -s 1 6990b.rom

This will create your two default BIOS files. 6990a.rom for the primary and 6990b.rom for the secondary.
When editing these, always save to new files so you keep these unedited ones always on hand.

Load windows and use RBE to edit the voltages for any clocks that are 715/900. This may be confusing at first, but I would recommend starting your undervolt at 1 volt. Therefore any voltages over 1 volt, just change to 1 volt!

Save them using a suitable naming convention (remembering not to overwrite the existing ones).

Now you need to update the cards with the new BIOS using atiflash again.

Place them on your thumb drive

Boot to Dos

To flash the first card (the '0' indicates the primary card):

Atiflash -p 0 'primaryeditedBIOS.rom'

To flash the second card (the '1' indicates the secondary card):

Atiflash -p 1 'secondaryeditedBIOS.rom'

Annnnd VOILA!

You may need to use a -f switch to force it, but I never had too. Just make sure you have the latest version of Atiflash.
So yeah, crash course in atiflash and RBE
Did I miss anything guys?

Sorry, but I don't think you have mentioned that you have tried other voltages besides stock and 0.96.

Also, why are you overclocking when you should be focusing on getting your cards running right?

Basically overclocking is out of the question for you as you don't have the PSU for it and any undervolts will drastically limit how much you can overclock.

especially at 800/1000!!!!!!!

Also, overclocking is going to draw more power causing you more issues!!!

When your volts are stock AND your cards are normally clocked does BF3 still crash for you? What happens when you disable crossfire?

And I will mention that overdrive caused me no end of headaches with my overclocking! I am pretty sure other people have also had problems with overdrive overriding their vBIOS overclocks.

 

Thank you VERY MUCH Douse !!! =D

It's very well explained, I will not be any problem if I am taken to undervolt my cards.

I'll let you know if I have problem with voltage... but I don't want lol

 

No problem Don't be shy to ask if you have any questions whilst your are doing it.

I think a few pages back I explained the different profiles in RBE and how it works.

Here it is: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r2-single-gpu-crossfirex-396.html#post8301390

Ghost, did you have any luck with your BF3 lag issues since trying it over Ethernet?

 

Thank you

I've seen the voltage of my 5870s , on RBE the Clock Info 00 is : 1.1 V

It's the same as the 6990s... thus we should not have problem...

 

Yup, exactly the same

 

Ditto.

800/1000 on the stock PSU is not happening. You might be looking for too much. If the cards are fine at stock voltages and stock clocks, then everything else is probably a power issue - either too little voltage or too much and the PSU can't handle it.

If you want to OC you're cards you are going to need the 330watt PSU or the 480watt PSU.

Stock clocks and stock voltages on a 6990+6970 CFX setup with a 240watt PSU throttles like crazy (and crysis goes bonkers). Plugging in my second PSU solved everything. You're pushing too much with no headroom.

Honestly the temperatures don't matter as long as they aren't pushing the thermal limits. 90C sounds like it's hot, but it really isn't considering the thermal limit is 110-115C. If they are 90C steady, I wouldn't worry too much. If they are 90C and rising, then I would worry.

Did you check your shader temps in hwinfo32? This is key. If the shader temps are much higher than the other temps (and pushing 105C), then you WILL need to file your heatsinks. No way around it. That indicates uneven die contact.

But you haven't answered that question . . . so no one knows if you need to file or not. If it is uneven die contact, new paste and pads won't help. If it's a paste/pad issue then they could fix your problem.

 

While playing darkness 2, my shader temps got up till 95 degree while the rest stays at 80+, gpu usage was approximately 50+% while playing it. Not sure if this info is enough so i'll do more testing later when i'm back from class.

 

did you get crossfire working with it?

 

Im running on single 6990m atm

 

How is it? Looks like it is a major console port so I didn't bother with it.

 

The new cell shaded graphics looks awesome and the same can be said bout thr gameplay. Unfortunately campaign's shorter than the first one tho. Gonna try multiplayer soon as my friends grab a copy.

Edit: Game runs flawlessly without a single issue on my single 6990m. Don't know if crossfire has any issues with it but i doubt anyone would even need 2 6970/6990's to run it. Heck, i think even a single 5870 is sufficient to run this game smoothly maxed