And another.. 7970m in M17x R2..Installation with photos

Hmm, there migth be a small problem, if the card have enduro enabled, it may cause some conflicts ( and most likely will be a PAIN IN THE @$$) , this is also why i am getting 7970m again instead of 8970m.

Please ask Upgradeyourlaptop (Eurocom) on ebay about how much it would be for KIT 7970m, so scrap what i said about 8970m, get 7970m.

Also, because 8970m is 50MHz higher clocked, it may draw more power, where in R2 with CF 7970m you are already looking to save every Watt to run stable while gaming.

THink about it

 

yes thats something to think about. I wonder why none has tried them yet on R2. What will be a real pain will be to send them back if they dont work.

 

Sorry flingin, I disagree. All my cards have been enduro-enabled, and I've used them in three separate machines (MSI GX660, Clevo P150EM - enduro and m17x-R2). Two out of three don't support enduro and they worked just fine without it. The reason non-enduro cards existed was back in the days when enduro was a piece of trash, it got bios-disabled to not cause conflicts with machines that didn't implement it well. Enduro should not be an issue on an 8970m card.
Similarly, one should expect improvements in fab process and asic quality this far down the production line, and every single newer 7970m I've ever used has always performed better than older cards I've used. I expect 8970m's to be able to run even lower voltages at those stock clocks.
What I do expect to be problematic would be UEFI-implmentations. I have no idea if 8970m's also have the issue of 022-vbios-released 7970m's, but unless you know for sure they can boot in a non-UEFI-supporting machine, don't get 8970m's. If they do, I'd personally go for it, although price is also a factor.
If you can get 2 cards for 500$, there's absolutely no reason whatsoever to get them for 600$ (since they're ultimately the same cards, and the 8970m's don't have the same kind of bios development and support already available to 7970m's).
I assume nobody tried them in R2's simply because they're so late to the upgrade party. Most people wouldn't mess with something they weren't sure worked, which in the case of the m17x-R2, except for a handful of guys on TechInferno, and also a couple of guys here before our new 7970m Crossfire thread opened up, was simply left behind and unconsidered because people assumed they'd get throttling, shutdowns and wouldn't be able to get returns on their investment.
That being said, there's still a chance that 8970m's won't work, and you'd have to go through the pains of returning them.

I remember back when they were launched, there were troubles getting them to work in any machine. People had tried a few back then and hadn't managed until the MSI machine came out.

 

These newer GPU cards are very anti backward compatible with older systems.
Me no like

 

Yes that is what i am afraid of the most, since this are same cards (with sligtly modified Vbios), shy should anybody pay more anyways ?

Another factor is 4GB memory on each, wich doubles 7970m memory = more Watts required = R2 Will Not Like it

@sangemaru - bro You are probably right with enduro hand s down

I would still go for 7970m just because of $$$

 

Regarding the power consumption, as far as I understand the design of the MXM cards, the cards pull power directly from the PSU, and convert the voltage themselves. The R2 wouldn't care Besides, with 330W mod who cares. Moar POWAH. Still, there's absolutely no point to doing it other than having the newest bling or unless you actually have apps putting that vram to use.

 

what if they were sold at the same price? i think the best thing to do is to wait. If someone wants to try. But if 4GB cards demand more watts then i guess that answers all.

 

Not the same price for sure....

 

you are right 8970s were offered to me for 25 USD more

 

Hello guys. Today i got and installed two HD8970s on M17X R2. However even though they seem to work in crossfire i am not sure if everything works ok. How to test if they do?

Thus i am not sure if both gpu fans are controlled properly. Thus i dont get some sensors on GPUz and HWinfo. I saved vbios with gpuz but dont know how to view or edit. i post some screenshots. Your help is really needed.

 

Congrats Aristotelhs2060!!!

It appears you have CLEVO cards, I'm assuming from the vBIOS you posted. Firstly you will want to disable ULPS as I see your second card running in 3D clocks/volts. See sangemaru's instructions in the first post of this thread if you're not sure.

Second your sensors if I'm not mistaken exactly the same as mine (I'm not posting from my laptop atm to verify). Check HWinfo again, the GPU fan RPM sensors are located with the CPU fan RPM sensor. You should see them turn on and off depending on your CPU temp at idle. 55C CPU temp is the trip point for them to spin up.

edit: my bad, thought this was another thread Check this 7970M crossfire thread for the ULPS instructions.

 

I really look forward to you benching your setup Aristotelhs2060

 

ok i run 3DMARK 11 1.05 using default settings and default clocks for i7920xm and hd8970s. Machine turned off twice. Then reduced the maximum clocks (from catalyst) to GPU clock : 850mz (default is 900mhz) and memory clock to 1200mhz (default is 1250mhz). Finally i got my results without shutdown.

Here are my results. Are they any good? I havent dealt with benchmarks for long so i actually didnt do any tweaks instead of closing some autostart programs. Does crossfire work? thats what i care about the most..


What does this disable ULPS do? what will i gain from this?

yes they are clevo. In package there were also a crossfire cable (which i use now, not the M17X one that is actually same length but its a little bit difficult to install) and two ICS diamond thermal pastes and pads for each GPU. I posted gpuz screenshots before. So are they working ok? i mean the sensors. because i remember on 6970s i had more readings. Also how to edit vbios saved? RBE doesnt open it. Maybe i ll want to try reduce the maximum voltages a little bit.

 

That's actually an excellent result considering you are running your CPU stock and the cards underclocked :thumbsup: You should actually try the Catalyst 13.10 betas as they are optimised to Crossfire setups with frame pacing technology which will give you a smoother gameplay experience.

Setting EnableULPS to 0 in the registry disables AMD's buggy powersaving technique. With the current drivers its actually worse than previous iterations and causes the second card to get stuck in 3D mode which is evident in your clocks and voltage.

 

Ok i used ulpscontrol app to disable ULPS. I hope it helps because it seems that one of cards finds it difficult to reduce temps and fan keep spinning fast for long. i use 13.9 drivers now. maybe i ll try 13.10 beta later.

SO you say crossfire works properly? Would like to know how to edit vbios file i posted.

Anyway on win7 x64 i got 7.9 on windows performance for gpu related benchmarks.thats the maximum i think! Maybe i ll reinstall windows 8 later.

 

After using the disable ULPS utility and rebooting you should see both cards idling at 300 core, 150 memory clocks with 0.875 volts. Your temps should be lower as well.

It seems to be working properly and as you say the fan is spinning fast for the higher temps indicates you have auto fan control. What are your max GPU temps after a 3Dmark run?

Unfortunately there are no utilities to edit the CLEVO 8970M vBIOS files that I'm aware of. The only way would be to hexedit but you would have to know what you're doing or you could brick the card. Your 3D voltage is lower at 1025v than the CLEVO 7970M's which is 1050v though. If I have some time I'll have a look at it.

 

you would have to ask @slv7 for a vbios mod, congrats on 8970m cards rocking


so sad that you can't really wake those cards up because of power limitations (240W PSU)

 

where is this guy? can you give him the vbios file i posted?
Yes we reached the limit of M17X R2 now on. And i have two power adapters but dont know how to do the 480W adapter. No electrician at all

Ok it seems that i had to manually edit the two enableulps registries. One of my gpus was stuck to 900mhz. thats the reason for the noise. Now its a silent beast. My temps now under idle are 40C for both!

 

i run 3DMARK 11 once again. Again stock CPU clocks (i7 920xm) but now less downclocked with GPU clock at 875mhz (Default 900mhz) and Memory clock at 1220mhz (1250mhz) (they may go more close to defaults but its under test)

Here are my results

As you can see maximum temps were 77C and 79C! This means that shutdowns (with default gpu clocks) could be only due to power draw

 

type in google search:

BIOS / VBIOS modification request thread (svl7)

Yep, nice, cannot wait until 20nm.....

Limit ? Oh no, I think R2s life will be extended by couple more years....after we install 20nm GPUs in it....and then 10nm...

Lol i think we will go to the grave together....

 

i am not registered there and i dont have the rules to ask him to. if someone could send him the vbios please do it. I upload the vbios here again. One is from gpuz and one from ati winflash. Thanks

 

Long live alienware m17xr2
The king is alive and well

Kudos to Aristotle for the beta testing and write up of results.
Ps- how much collateral damage did the two cards do to your wallet? Curious...

 

I installed win8 x64 and I get an 8.0 on graphics on windows experience index!

I run 3Dmark 11and it looks like it run on default 8970s clocks, as i can see from hwinfo sensors (even though i changed it in amd overdrive to 870 and 1220). This is using 13.9 drivers

But using 13.10 drivers i got this crap score (second screenshot). Dont know whats wrong. I saw bad performance in some games too before i run benchmark

 

That's weird. Not sure what would do that maybe clock speeds are very low?

 

As i can see from hwinfo, sensor clocks were ok. Have to see others test them too

 

How this working for you Aristotelhs2060.

You get them fans running?

And is HDMI working for the 8970 cards?

 

Havent tried HDMI but as its clevo card audio through hdmi shouldnt work. Only video. Maybe i ll try later. Fans seem to work properly without help, as all clevo cards do on M17X R2. I even have lower than 40 degrees during idle so its sooo quiet.

Damn my secondary gpu has gonne faulty. I got a memory issue during gameplay and since then crossfire stopped working. Then i got issue with crossfire cable in ati catalyst. Tried two different ones and still the same. Then tried secondary as primary and bios couldnt boot. The primary one works ok though. Obviously secondary gone faulty. Dont know why. I am waiting for RMA for secondary gpu now. I never overclocked at all. Even downclocked! And keyboard lighting stopped working so have to get a new one. This happened the same way before with 6970s. Maybe its because of M17X R2 motherboard itself? But they were working ok for a few days till this memory issue.

Even single HD8970 scores around 6700 on 3DMARK 11

 

Sorry to hear that you have problems bro, i know what you are feeling.....

I on the other hand have some weird stuff going on as well with my CF 7970m that i just finished assembling in my R2

downclock/undervolt the cards and set my XM ccpu to 15 multiplier i get PSU shutdown after a while. The blue LED on the end of PSU cable turns off, and i have to re-connect it in order to get it working again..

Already bought 330Watt psu and going for a MOD !

Hope you get your cards sorted bro !

Peace !

 

You have GPU memory issue ?
I have mainboard memory issue. Cant seem to find one of the RAMS at times in BIOS.
In GPUZ there are different messages. First I often get errormessage during start of GPUZ, then i at times get 8 gigs single channel, sometimes 8 gigs dual channel, always same setup, dont even touch the RAM between the two different scenarios.
Also lost the light in the power button hinge cover, only thing working is the power button.
And my GPU died mid game too, never to be friends with me again.
And i do have 1 PSU 240W that can power my computer AND i have one 330W that also does the trick, so im not sure its a PSU issue for me at least. Still have probs with the memory and the light while back to 1 GPU regardless of PSU, so something "got it".

 

when i got the memory issue machine didnt turn off. So its not the power. I could even complete benchmarks with those settings. Never run a game without being sre i wont get turn off. Thus i have to say that during benchmarks when i used too many mhz (but never overclocked just close to defaults) i was getting low scores. Then if i turned them back (to a level i used to have nice score) then the score was low again. Had to turn off-power drain to get nice scores again.

 

In case you haven't yet happened to browse through, have a look at the first post of the link in my sig for some advice regarding the crossfire of 7970m cards (and 8970m should apply too for anything other than vbios). There's been quite a few contributions from the guys that got these cards to work, useful knowledge. You don't have to do the 2x 240W mod to use the full power of the machine, if your 240W PSU isn't cutting it, get a 330W one from the m18x's and switch the id chips as per imsolidstate's intructions at 330W power supply for M17x update » imsolidstate.
You'll either need electronics experience and tools, or a friend or company nearby that can do it for you. It takes all of half an hour max (90% of it being the disassembly / reassembly).

 

Wow not good. Looks like our r2 machines like to have issues with these cards..
I still have my 7970m working great with my machine. I use the lid to close computer and the screen has not suffered.
It's a delicate operation requiring TLC. Do what works best for you everyone.

 

im really afraid of motherboard issue rather than power issue because this happened again with 6970s. I dont plan to change motherboard. In this case i ll just stick with single gpu (issue must be with secondary gpu slot) and when it dies its the end. What makes me crazy is that when i replace with new gpu-keyboard everything works again (maybe till the issue reappears?). But i wont change them for a lfietime. this is getting too costly!

 

if Dell would put RGB LED screens an option into R4/R5 i would get a new laptop for sure.

I can't look at other laptop screens, they are just terrible.

We are trying to, as much as we can, to stay with RGB screens by constantly upgrading our R2's with new GFX, and new MXM GFX is not very expansive, it is just the problems we are encountering, and MEGA fragile MXM cards that are drawing $100 after $100 from our pockets every time something goes wrong.

 

13.11 beta driver is here.

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/amd_catalyst_13.11_betav1.exe

 

Right! maybe we should also think to stay with single gpu even though we have the option for crossfire-SLI in 17 inches

 

that is what i chosen to do, but because i was bored rather than for a need of more FPS i got my self a treat.

 

@pinoy_92 Have you tried tried the driver? I didn't download it as it looks like it doesn't have support for mobility chips.

edit: Mobility is out. Get it here.

 

Guys please help!

I got my replacement 8970 and the same issue appeared after 10 minutes of gameplay. Then i shut down and while i turned on i got the two lights flashing (caps and scroll buttons) i removed the second 8970 (which was new) and now my pc doesnt turn on with the ac adapter. It can turn on only with battery. With battery and ac adapter connected i get no adapter connected. Please help!!!!!!

by the way i have second adapater and it doesnt work too.

it seems that my keyboard also stopped working. tried a second one and worked,

Its a motherboard issue guys?

 

Did you screw the heatsink all the way down or just till the heatsink arms bow a little?

Try the power drain again or leave the machine to cool down for some time before booting again.

 

All the way down

I saw graphics lagging during crossfire before this whole issue appeared if this helps

Ok

i removed battery and ac adapter
pressed power button for 30 seconds
removed bios battery and pressed power button again
Also reflashed bios when on battery
AC adapter not recognized!

i even turned on (with battery) with disconnected bios battery cable and it booted. is this normal?

Anyway i had many issues from keyboard lights stop working, one 8970 stopped working and now a second 8970 stopped working. Now ac adapter not recognized. Is this motherboard?

 

Its possible that your adapter tripped with the excess power draw and was damaged in the process but that shouldn't have damaged the ID chip. The increased power draw could have damaged the motherboard power/ID connection too. This is all speculation though.

Firstly I would loosen those heatsink screws a little, they don't need to be tightened all the way down. You don't want your new card to get damaged especially if your heatsink did cause the damage on the corner of the previous GPU die.

The laptop can work without the BIOS battery, it just will reset to default settings on every boot. It could be the motherboard but its very difficult to tell with these symptoms.

What game were you playing?

edit: Sorry I didn't read your post correctly. If you tried your spare PSU and you're getting the same result and you can't use the adapter and battery at the same time it could very well be the motherboard.

 

ok one more question. do you think that the new card is now not even recognized as primary (caps and scroll flashing) maybe due to the motherboard and not that it has died again?

i installed the primary 8970 the same way and never had issues. The issue occured twice on secondary 8970. This may mean the end of my M17X R2

Edit: it now doesnt turn on even with battery! Its dead!

 

Well if your other 8970M is still working in the primary slot and the new one doesn't then I'm very sorry to say its most likely dead

Did you install the primary 8970M fully screwed down in the secondary slot with the secondary heatsink with no issues? The reason I ask is that your secondary heatsink could be warped in a way that's putting unnecessary pressure on the card.

Is the new card also showing the damage on the corner of the GPU die like the previous 8970M? If it is, and you didn't receive the card with that damage its fairly safe to say the secondary heatsink is causing the damage.

Even then, if the card died for whatever reason it shouldn't be killing the keyboard lights and causing power adapter issues....

 

i never installed primary with secondary heatsink and dont plan to if you say thats the reason

Anyway i cant understand how a heatsink can cause this. i havent seen that happen to anybody and this happened twice to me.

R2 still works with battery only.

Just to be specise when R2 first stucked it didnt turn off, it just stucked on game. i had to force shutdown. And i used the clevo crossfire cable. in fact it was difficult because the heatsink actually i not made like the dell-alienware one. I mean the second heatsink that actually obstructs it on the side that it comes out from second gpu.

 

ok while my battery still has a few minutes i run atiflash and could see both gpus. Actually R2 boots whenever it wants with both gpus on it (without crossfire cable connected to primary). When it wants it boots ok others it shows caps + scroll buttons flashing, always crossfire cable disconnected). So when i run atiflash through dos-usb it said test pass for both. I could even save default vbios of faulty 8970. I managed to get into windows (again with both gpus but without crossfire cable connected) Could see both gpus in device manager working properly. could even run gpuz to see temps of both of them till machine finally stucked again.

So i still have a hope (if i can call it like that now) that its the motherboard and not the 8970

http://i.imgur.com/s0DEPuU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ONqeve0.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/B0RCb0S.jpg

 

Thats great news! You're still in the game

I dont recommend flashing when you're unsure of your battery level, if the battery dies while flashing your card will be bricked.

The laptop doesn't recognise both of your adapters?

It seems the new card is running a different vBIOS to your primary card so the SSID mismatch is normal. I compared your original vBIOS from your primary card that you sent me and also the new vBIOS that you emailed me.

Primary Card (Original vBIOS)
- Version 015.032.000.004.044450.BR44450.007
- Built for the Clevo P570WM laptop

Secondary Card (New vBIOS you emailed me)
- Version 015.036.000.005.044618.BR44618.001
- Built for the Clevo P370SM laptop

Its normal procedure to force the flash if you are changing between different vBIOS's. The command to do so for the secondary card is...

atiflash -p -f 1 modvbios.rom

Again, you're running on battery so this is risky if your battery is low. Also, we can't be sure that this new card will like your old vBIOS, it could brick it. That said, they are both Clevo 8970M cards.

 

This seems as if u have PSU issues. You are boarderlining your 240, and if u have a modded 330 its perhaps not modded correctly.
Booting with both cards no crossfire does not drain as much power as both crossfire naturally. I see this a lot right now. Try all cards as single primary card and no card in secondary.
There is also one thing to be so very sure of. Remove all power all the time, very easy to forget once you start getting the hang of it and swap cards very quickly for testing.
Think that could have been what killed my first card, since i thought i had problems with it due to startup problems as you had.
I got the problems after installing new drivers, probably causing slightly higher power consumption moving me over the PSU limits.
The game halt i saw was like the ones i see now, but now i think issue could be power related, not gpu related. Thats why i think i have to get to work on my 330 W PSU again.

When it comes to the heatsink, I ALWAYS screw them to the bottom, but VERY carefully each screw at the time in the indicated sequence perhaps 180 deg each screw at the time.
When all are almost thight i EVEN loosen slightly too and then tighten again to be sure its not tilted.
One single to early overtightened screw can cause your heatsink to go tilted and when fastening on the other side there will be an increadible force on the die corner where u fastened the first screw.

Your battery issue could be power socket issue. It is a known problem on this alienware, they havent soldered the socket good enough. I had two different mainboards behaving the same.
Now i resoldered it and it works like a charm again. There are videos on the tube showing this issue and how to fix it.

 

NB, often the light issues and stuff are caused by all the dismounting and mounting ruining the ribbon cables.

 

i force flashed your modded vbios on secondary 8970 too. So i guess they are both for the same machine now (if it matters) . Faulty? 8970 can be seen as previously and test command using atiflash said OK for both. I could boot again with crossfire cable disconnected and again windows said both work ok (in device manager) But again caps & scroll buttons flashing when crossfire cable connected. I dont have much time left using battery. I ll have to get new motherboard as i cant use any power adapter