AMD Crossfire M17x General Discussion Thread

Also, mxmupgrade should be able to sell you just a CF or SLI cable. I asked them about it a while ago. And are CF/SLI cables different from each other?

 

ya the xfire cable slides in and is a different shape. while the sli cable has a clip like attachment to it.

 

Even SLi cables for the m17x are a bit different(plug), the one for the GTX 280Ms and GTX 285Ms.

 

MXM-upgrade will not sell a seperate cable (at least they couldn't sell me one), i've tried
I ended up buying a complete package (master and slave card + cable), just for the cable and selling the 2 cards separate again.
Also trying to get the cable from computer shops specialized in notebook parts is a no go, you will not be able to obtain one.
They also appear on ebay very, very, very rarely.

Xfire and SLI cables are not the same.

To the topic starter, also do not forget the right side fan which you will need if you didn't have a 2nd card before (The part number for this is F605N).

 

that's not good to hear. I'm gonna have to hound out mxmupgrade again . . . maybe their policies changed. I'm going to have to find an SLI cable for when I get the GTX 470m's . . . .

EDIT:

http://ztronics.com/en/m17x-ripley-edition.html

I found that site. They have in stock SLI cables for the older alienwares . . . i hope its just a matter of looking around.

Edit: (Sorry for all the edits)

http://www.pchub.com/uph/laptop/72-63262-16955/Various_Item_Dell_Alienware_M17x.html

Seems like you can buy a Crossfire cable here for the M17x. No luck yet on SLI.

 

Check ebay USA oftenly, i see SLI mobile cables alot regularly then crossfire cables (as in they seem to be easier to get).

THe link provided for the crossfire cables looks good though, i didn't know that one. I'd snag one quickly if i was the topic starter!!

 

Fans are easy to find and Dell would sell those without you buying the card

 

Guys, are these results consistent with the results you are seeing with your AMD HD5870 CrossFireX systems?

 

Found some tweaks to share... see this permalink.

 

That's a good one, i had also nosed around on MXM-upgrade. indeed they don't have specific Alienware MXM parts as replied to me in an email. so try the link above.

Another (off topic) thing i like to mention: MXM-ugrade has already got 6970 cards that should fit in our M17x R2's (Kris of MXM-Upgrade listed a price of 475 euro's though)

 

I've installed the new ccc 11.3software suite (8.831.2.0.). I had 8.763-100810a-104118C-Dell, A01, which came with the computer and also the new vbios. I got blue screen when maxed out graphics on games, but only when cfx is enabled.
Then, lowering the graphics to 8MLAA and not 16, will let me play the games with cfx wich i find strange? The games I got problem with is retailed games like AVP, sacred2 and the witcher. Games I've bought through steam, all runs well with cfx, but i don't think that's the issue. These games are Half-life2, section8, Crysis2 and Left4dead.

The problem was the same with both the new and old ati-display drivers acording to cfx.
Disabling cfx, and no problem/blue screen on max graphics.
blue screen tells me it's a fail with ati-display driver, and close game\programs and automaticaly boots up in normal mode. Then W7 detects the message and seeks for solution, telling me that 'ATI display driver has stopped working properly'. There's only one 5870 card showing under device manager and ccc hasn't got the cfx option. Then i boot up again and both cards are showing and ccc has enabled cfx option!

I read that microsoft, saying that W7 want have any good support for sli/cfx??? hope the sources are wrong. Anyway many people seems to have problem with cfx, but I wonder if there is the ccc because it's strange that i can run on middel\high settings on the games and not the highest!

I uinstalled, used cclean, and installed the new ati drivers(11.3+cap) so it's done correctly, and games runs much smoother.

Here's my ccc setup:

-STANDARD 3D SETTINGS: ccc overrides my 3d setting in games

-MIPMAPPING: 3/4 towards performance= performans

-ENABLED CFX: yes, it's enabled

-ANTI-ALIASING: Let the application control anti-aliasing

-ANTI-ALIASING MODE: Performance(Multi-sample AA)

-ANISOTROPIC FILTERING: Use application settings(allows 3d application to enable\disable anisotropic filtering)

 

Intalled 'Service Pack 1' for W7, and it solved my crossfire issue with 5870m!!
Now i can run games at max without getting blue screen telling me there is wrong with ATI display driver!! , currently running 11.3 ccc