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

Stealth I've been trying to catch up on this thread and this idea interests me. With this mod are you able to only use the 330w adapter or do you still need to use a 240w adapter for the ID wire? Can you explain how this works or if you have already point me to the post? I do not want to splice AC adapters together so if I can use a 330w adapter alone that would be perfect. Thanks

@aarpcard....thanks for the info. +1. I was hoping the AlienFX would give me 5 watts or so, especially since one of the recent BF3 updates has edited my profile so that it is constantly flashing during gameplay. I figured there wasn't a way to cool the AC adapter, but I thought if there was a way one of you would have found it.

 

OK!

Finally got my USB stick in the post this morning (wife and/or kiddie must have eaten the old one) as well as my i7 920XM

Anyway - flashed the 5870M VBIOS's with stock clocks and new voltages of 1.15, verified through GPU-Z by extracting VBIOS's and using RBE to see what the voltage was set at (1.15 up from 1.05).

Now that the voltages are in order, I wanted to ask what the best way to ascertain stable clocks would be? I recalled once upon a time I used ATI TOOL for something like this, but I couldn't get that to work a few days back. Or is it as simple as increase clocks a little, game, see if any artefacts occur/check heat, rinse and repeat as required? Best to start with core clocks then move on to memory? I have DR's clocks as a guide to what to expect to get at.

Thanks A LOT as always guys!

 

Can't wait to hear how it goes. Should be a nice improvement. Keep an eye on temps and let us know how it goes!

 

Hey DR!

OK! So I used your previous posts in which you stated the clocks you achieved on your 5870s as a starting point, by which I mean I left the memory at stock 1000 and whacked up the core straight to 900 and went from there.

I ran the 3DMark11 Full Experience to bench/stress and then used HWiNFO64 to monitor the temps in real time using the LCD display of my Logitech G13 gamepad.

So, with the voltage @1.15V, I found the following for the stated core/memory clocks (MHz);

900/1000 >>> 80oC max >>> P4893
900/1100 >>> 82oC max >>> P4957
900/1150 >>> 84oC max >>> P4985
900/1200 >>> 84oC max >>> P5013

I didn't want to push any further without consulting you guys first. I'm not sure how good a stress test the full 3DMark11 experience is, although both GPUs held at 100% usage for a fair while during (certainly I don't always see that gaming!).

And... I saw no visible artefacts/tearing on screen.

Do you guys think I can push this any further? (what's the worst that can happen? System crash or total card mess up?) Upping the core frequency seems to make a much bigger impact on the score I noticed (cf to the score in my sig @800/1100).

OK! Thanks DR and co! I need to make a move now before the banks close ... ...

 

The worst that will happen is the display drivers will crash and they system will freeze causing a reboot. Nothing will get damaged. But yea the core freq is what wi impact the score the most. Now your best bet is just to game with the new settings, and if you get freezing or anything, just dial it back.

 

With this mod are you able to only use the 330w adapter? YES
Do you still need to use a 240w adapter for the ID wire? only if you want to change brightness or charge battery
Can you explain how this works? The psu tells itself to stay at max output

directions here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...0-your-m17x-r2-single-gpu-crossfirex-445.html

I do not want to splice AC adapters together so if I can use a 330w adapter alone that would be perfect. Yes you can use it alone



PS ive tried opening both psu's to see if the ID chip could be switched like 4 months ago but the PSU's are totally different : (. The slim 240 has everything mini but it could be possible with the non slim 240.

 

Awesome! Thanks and +1. I'm getting a quote for a 330w adapter now. Once I get it I'll let everyone know.

About the battery, is it necessary to remove it from the system when using the 330w adapter? Will it kill the battery or just not charge it if installed?

 

It will shut your laptop off/not charge : /

 

Yea, that's exactly what happened @900/1200 with Metro2033 - temps seemed fine so that's good I guess.

Well, hopefully 900/1150 will work, or 900/1100 - I don't wanna drop that 900 after seeing how much it makes a diff!

WISH ME LUCK!

 

Nice, yea other games may be fine at those settings. Metro is really demanding.

 

oooof! was reading up on the temp thread for the 6990m (hot potato) and my temps seem to mirror that of op's in furmark; ridiculously hot haha. ran gpuz last night during a sc2 session and primary temp peeked at 76c, while slave only reached 67. sitting idle right now at 50c and 38 for slave, not sure if these are normal readings but would like feedback before i go into trying to under volt and all that.

as always i took the advice i got a few pages back and looked into learning how-to-flash. i remember i flashed my 5870's but that was nearly a year ago so i definitely needed a refresher course. looking at fraps while playing various games i see a constant and drastic dip in frame rates every 5-10 minutes of game play. gpuz states my vbios as BR40794.004 for both cards, was wondering if this is the correct vbios and if this could just be a driver problem? many thanks in advance

 

Yea 900/1150 seems fine. Although temps did hit 90oC (I still remember when I used to hit 115oC with stock clocks and Dell's awesome paste job!). I may dial it back to 900/1100 just to be safe - that extra 100 on the core seems to making a significant diff as is so I'm happy. Thanks again DR for all your help.

ASIDE - Metro2033 vsync/lack of is really annoying. I've never had the screen tear so much in any game, nor noticed so much mouse lag when you do vysnc through ini's (which ignore vsync after 15mins of playing anyway!). I think it's worth putting up with the screen tear just for a more responsive mouse, and ofc seeing the diff the OC makes... I squealed with glee when I hit 80fps (max, not sustained!) @high, AAA, x16AF, DX11 without DoF and Tess (so really I guess that's DX10?), SMAA injector (really smoothes things out with minimal fps hit).

THANKS AGAIN DR! See you tomorrow when I try and plug the 920XM in and ThrottleStop it

 

Nice, glad the results were worth it. Keep us posted on the 920XM

 

LOL awesomely ty news bro, so i flashed new vbios (thanks again buddy) but modded it to under-volt cards at .96v before i flashed. also took my old vbios using gpuz and saved it for sh!ts'n giggles... long story short dos stated both new and old vbios' as one and the same, so all i ended up doing was changing the voltage haha. sadly though all i accomplished was BSOD once i loaded up witcher 2... any suggestions, i'm all ears and eternally grateful. in RBE i used the noobwizard for the voltage, set both overclock and under-clock fields to .96v and confirmed the change using gpuz opon start up post flash. also, earlier today i was running A09 Bios and was running 09 since i installed my cards, everything was stable and the only problem was the frame rate damage in games. now as a precaution i installed the modded A10 Bios and have been experiencing some weird reactions from my cards both pre and post flash, mainly an issue with IE where my card fans rev up, pages take too long or don't load at all, and IE eventually crashes. at first i thought it was a heating issue, thought the new cards were overheating so i took a look in gpuz but all temps are stable/the same as what i was reading in A09. it even got to the point where my r2 froze and i got a message stating my video device had crashed but has now recovered. sorry for the long post

 

Force flash the vbios. Try 1.0v

Sent from my Samsung Captivate/ICS using Tapatalk 2

 

not gonna lie man, i lost you at force. but i'm trying two things atm, fresh driver install then 1.0v, but before i do i just need a quickie; 1.0v for both over and underclock?

edit: so ended up doing a couple of things, first went from .96v to 1.0 this time though no bsod; good right? nope didn't work, still got game crashes. then decided to just use the vbios as is, which was 1.1 over and .90 under, this is what my stock vbios was set as and as one could imagine i'm still experiencing drastic drops in frames. not sure what to do next as it seems i'm back to square one

 

So confirmed that 7970m's in crossfire work? I want to upgrade from the 5870's I got. Was gonna go for 6990's, but if the 7970m or 7990m's(when released) will work I will wait.

 

They ought to work and yup you should wait. 7970M = more powerful and more efficient than even the 6990M.

 

Anyone on here with the 6990's play SC2 @ high settings? Just trying to get a feel for how other people with the same config perform. I play on high settings with vsync and I stay @ a smooth 60 until I have a few bases populated or am in large combat. In between a bunch of bases all working together I'll drop down to 50 or so and I'll drop down to 45 or so in large combat. Sometimes lower. Even though 45/50 should be smooth they're just not. The game runs so much smoother on low settings but I can't stand the way it looks.

Anyone have any insight?

EDIT: Also, would performance be better on windowed (full screen without borders) or just standard full screen? I think i may be having better luck with windowed.

 

If anything, I still think it's cpu related. Have you messed around with throttlestop?

 

Raising TDP / TDC actually makes it worse for whatever reason. Maybe too much power draw? I never see my watt o meter read past 200. I sent this PM to Dan:

Has anyone yet figured out a way to get rid of the power throttling? I remember Greywolf saying that he put thicker pads under the CPU heatsink where it touches the power thingy. The only game I have issues with is SC2. If I try raising the TDP/TDC in throttlestop the FPS actually gets lower. Maybe thats because its requesting too much power and throttling. I raised them to 80. I really don't want to have to play the game on low settings and on high settings the game gets laggy in large combat. I just wanted to drop in and see if there were any new developments.

I forgot what number I need to look out for on my watt meter. Is it 220 or something? I remember that I need to keep the machine from draining X amount of power. What is that number? I haven't seen it go above 200.

 

i have the same thing man, i play alot of 4v4, game begins, 60fps, 15 minutes in game with almost everybody 200/200 and i feel like somebody is chopping my brain, this doesnt mean 920xm can't handle the game as other players may have wooden pc's and this may be their fault. Until you see a message ''your pc is slowing down the game, try to lower the gfx settings bla bla bla'' then this is propably caused by other players, or, i am not right, and 920xm is not good enough on 3.4ghz on all cores in SC2....

and i have single 6970m

tdp/tdc 90/80 - to avoid throttling at all costs, cpu temp after 3h SC2 max 70'C

 

I can't raise my TDP / TDC because the 6990's draw too much power already. Any more power draw and I'll be power throttling. I just need to build a killer desktop.

 

but this is not a challange !!!

be able to score 9000 in 3dmark 11 on a desktop, 1000$
to be able to achieve this in a 2yr old laptop - priceless

 

If you're using the 240 watt PSU, then you should be looking for numbers ranging from 240-260.

If it never goes above 200, then you're not having a throttling problem related to power. . . .

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a side note . . .

I've been experimenting with the 920xm I just got.

If I throw the TDP too high on the cpu, the breakers in my PSU's cut off. It happens consistently after about 15 minutes of playing any game that is both cpu and gpu intensive.

In Metro 2033, I was pulling a consistent 334 watts for about 20 minutes before the breakers cut - both at the same time. Happened several times in a row. Even though the pull is so high, I don't see any throttling.

This got me thinking about how the breakers trip. The individual load isn't more than 170 watts on each PSU - therefore there is no reason for them to trip.

It's almost like the computer is sending a signal to the PSU's that is causing them to trip. But I don't think that's how it works - the ID cable is polarized. Really strange. Just kinda typing aloud . . .

If I turn down the TDP, I don't have an issue.

 

Alright... since I've been unsuccessful in my own threads... I'll ask this here...

Any fix for a machine that doesn't turn on after activating suspended mode? I got Makwu's R2 in a recent sale and was tinkering around when I activated that and now it doesn't respond at all.

It's got the 6970M as it's GPU and he said that it doesn't take very well to suspended mode... >.< Figures...

 

So, this is probably a stupid question (yes i tried search) but what are the part numbers for the 6990's that you guy are using to put XFIRE 6990's in your M17X2's? I tried looking around (458 pages is a lot to look through) and search didn't yield anything positive.

Currently, I just bought a second 5870 card, but I suspect either something is wrong with my laptop, or there simply isn't enough power to drive it. In several of the games (BF3 for instance) the machine maxes out at about 30 FPS dropping to between 10 and 15FPS on LOW with EVERYTHING turned down. I've even done a clean install of windows and messed around with a bunch of the settings in RadeonPro but nothing seems to have helped. Other games like World of Warcraft and a few others are fine. If anyone has any nuggets of information, that'd be great. I'm really thinking of going for the 6990's or the 7970's. Part numbers for either would be SWEET!

Thanks!

 

Sounds like your crossfire is not working. This could be from not installing caps or could be loose crossfire connection. I would download GPU-Z to see if crossfire. Enabled.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

 

It's enabled, shows so, just seems to perfrom like crap and it works even worse about 1/2 the time when i boot up. If i reboot the performance goes up to "normal" as described above.

 

Sorry Glidin, I cant be of much assistance

I think the Clevo cards had issues with suspend mode. For starters I dont use suspend but when I did, it was fine for me. However I have an ES card so my results will be different.

 

Douse, what are the part numbers for the cards that you used? Also, where did you purchase them?

 

Hey PWn3R,

Most of us purchased our 6970's/6990's through upgradeyourlaptop
on e-bay. They are the e-bay store for Eurocom. So I'd begin your search there...I've heard that they will be (or are) selling 7970's through their ebay store as well, so worth contacting them for availability and prices.

Also make sure you purchase a retention brack (X-Bracket) and screws from them as well for the cards, as the 5870 x-brackets and screws will NOT fit.

Also make sure they include a crossfire cable as well...note that some crossfire cables that work on the 4870/5870 will NOT work with a 6970 or 6990. If you buy two cards from them they should throw in the crossfire cable for free.

Here's a link http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Radeon-...294?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item19d05645ce

Good luck!

 

Greywolf, THANK YOU! I appreciate you taking the time to reply. Based on my current setup, I suspect the second card I bought previously might have a problem. I wanted to make sure that I don't have any issues. My only other question is, currently I've got a 150W power adapter that came with the laptop, and I see that others have posted about 200W+ versions. Do I need a beefier one to run the 6990's?

Once again, I truly appreciate you taking time to reply.

 

Hi PWn3R

If you truly have a 150W power adapter, then it might be the adapter (not the secondary card) that's the problem.

The first thing I'd invest in is a 240W adapter (make certain you get an official one for your laptop, or it may not work). Any dual video card setup will need one..and you'll definitely need one to upgrade to a 6970/90 or 7970 setup.

Most likely you are experiencing throttling due to the lack of power in your power adapter, so definitely look into getting that replaced.

I'm not certain the best place to get these (I know e-bay has some or potentially the board), just make sure you get an official one so that the bios recognizes it.

We're here to help, so if you have any other questions please let us know.

Good luck to you!

 

Its 7.7A (Which by my math, unless I fail) is 150W at 19.5V.

 

My system will pull over 150w easy. Get a 240w adaptor!

Sent from my Samsung Captivate/ICS using Tapatalk 2

 

Already on it's way with overnight shipping from Amazon.

 

Good news! Let us know how it goes!

 

I just pulled the trigger on two 6990's with all the extra stuff (forgot the screws :|) so this thing should be screaming very soon. Have any of you done the cooling mods that are suggested for these cards?

 

No cooling mods, other then repasting and getting new thermal pads (some folks use .5, but I think 1.0 is what folks are mostly using).

If you ordered the brackets from upgradeyourlaptop (or anywhere else I suppose) then hopefully they'll include the screws. If not there are a couple of places on e-bay you can order them from. I can get you the size if you need it.

 

I have 2 questions:
1/ I have a 240W PSU for my current setup. If I go for 6990M Xfire will the power be sufficient or do I have to modify anything else?

2/ I see that the use of HWInfo is necessary. Does it mean I need to run the program every time the computer is turned on to be able to dissipate the heat generated by those cards? Would the new thermal paste and pads be sufficient though?

Thank you,

Looks like the 7970 made it way to the R3 already. Hopefully two of them will fit inside the R2 chassis. But what about the heat, and power?

 

Hey Guys. So I bought a Dell 330w AC adapter. Received it yesterday. Before I cut it open and spliced it, I figured I'd plug it in and see if it worked. I was under the impression that it wouldn't power on the laptop because it would detect an invalid AC adapter. I removed the battery to be certain and plugged the 330w adapter in. And my laptop powered on, threw no errors and is now working off of the 330w adapter. Is this right? I thought this would not work. I haven't tried any gaming because I'm at work. I'm going to see if I can run a 3Dmark11 test to see what power it is drawing. I'll post the results.

 

Nice, Ghost!
Do you have the adapter warnings in BIOS enabled?

It would be nice to see if it'll provide as much power as the motherboard allows even if that means no battery charging.

Have a great day at work, mate.

 

Don't remember if I have warnings enabled or not. Will check on this. Had to verify that it is actually a 330w adapter. The part number is XM3C3 Model DA330PM111. Doesn't say wattage anywhere but I would assume the 330 in the model number means wattage. Searching part number online verifies 330 watts. Connected it to Killawatt meter. Derp! Don't have 3Dmark11 installed or downloaded. I reloaded my rig 2 days ago. Downloading now. T1 connection = slow. Going to take a few minutes.

I'll have a great day at work IF I don't have to cut this AC adapter up!

 

Hi Ghost,

I had a feeling this would be the case, as grounding the ID cable shouldn't be much different from cutting it or having a different signal.

I would love to see how this goes running a 3D app.

Your brightness controls will also not work.

 

AC adapter warnings were disabled in the BIOS. Enabling this will give you a BIOS warning for unsupported Non-Dell adapter at boot. I disabled it again because it is annoying.

Brightness controls do not work as Douse said.

Ran 3DMark11. Scored P5783. Catalyst v12.4. Temps remained high 70s with 2nd card shader maxing 79. This with no cooler but propped up on battery which was not installed. Highest power draw was 227w. Was hoping to surpass 240 and sustain it but I think this is due to my cards being undervolted at 1.01.

Going to try and reset clocks to stock later on and see what the draw is then. Probably do some gaming on it later to really push it. BF3 has crashed on me before due to overdraw so it should be a good test.

My question....Why is it working for me without any AC adapter mod? Will it not provide over 240w regardless of what my card clocks are set too? I guess I will find that out for sure later.

 

Pretty much, I was always skeptical of the ID grounding technique as it did not make sense to me.

I have brought it up before, but I don't think people were testing it properly.

As long as you do not have your battery plugged in and you are happy to have your brightness controls disbaled, then a 330 watt should work imo...

 

Ugggg! Crashes during 3DMark11. Cards at stock voltages with 330w adapter. Killawatt shows the adapter gets to 230 during the tests and then computer crashes. Have to unplug power and plug back in to reset.

Looks like the Mobo might be the problem. I'm guessing cutting the ID wire won't help. Why does 2 x240 watt adapters work but 1 x 330 watt adapter doesn't? Am I missing something?

Edit: Well I guess it's time to cut the ID wire and ground it. I'll try that tomorrow and see what happens.

Edit 2: Hilarious. Undervolting back to 1.01 and using the 240w adapter gets me 260 watts at times in BF3. But I couldn't go over 230 with the 330 adapter in 3DMark11.

Lately my cards have been heating up. Getting into the high 80s low 90s. Is it necessary to repaste often to ensure cards are running cool? I haven't had high temps since I pasted these.

 

Interesting results.

Were you having the exact same problem before?

The reason why 2 x 240 watts work better is because the laptop thinks there is a 240 watt adapter plugged like normal, but in fact the load is shared between the two.

Therefore, it allows the battery to charge and brightness controls to work.

If your cards are getting that hot with the undervolt I would be concerned about the temps running at stock. Perhaps this is causing the crashing?

I do not think it is the mobo, there are still lots of other things it could be.

You can ground the ID cable and give it a shot.

What temp do your cards hit when they are at stock voltages? Have you tried the 3DMark test with the 330 watt adapter and your cards undervolted?

 

@Douse

Were you having the exact same problem before? If before you mean with undervolted cards on the 240 watt adapter then yes but not as bad. My system would shutdown rarely during intense BF3 maps.

The reason why 2 x 240 watts work better is because the laptop thinks there is a 240 watt adapter plugged like normal, but in fact the load is shared between the two. This makes sense. But makes me wonder how grounding that wire in a 330watt adapter will do the same thing.

If your cards are getting that hot with the undervolt I would be concerned about the temps running at stock. Perhaps this is causing the crashing? I really don't think so. I've been monitoring my temps consistently since I installed these cards and even in BF3 they've never gone above mid 80s until now.

What temp do your cards hit when they are at stock voltages? I couldn't see my temps while using 3DMark and I didn't think to log them so I'm not sure. The laptop was not hot to the touch. I've found that 3DMark11 doesn't bring my cards to the same high temps that BF3 does.

Have you tried the 3DMark test with the 330 watt adapter and your cards undervolted? No but that is a good idea. I will try that. Edit: I did try this. This was my first 3DMark11 test. No problems but never drew over 227 watts.

I did message TheWiz to see if he was still working on the R2 BIOS. But with all the new laptops out now I doubt there is any more BIOS modding for the R2 in store.