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

well then Eurocom clevo cards have full fan control then

 

well then Eurocom clevo cards have full fan control then

edit: sorry for double post, phone told me it didn't work the first time

 

wonder why the same seller sent you a clevo for your R2 and a Dell for my R2.

Either way 100% happy with my purchase

 

the feeling is mutual here, when i order my second card i'm gonna have to request a clevo

 

Sorry it took me so long to come back.

First, I am getting 1485 points on the FurMark 1080 bench on stock clocks. So the RJBios isn't inhibiting my performance. I think I will keep with it.

I'll be glad to answer any questions about if my card is an offical dell card if they tell me what program to use.

I do get decent framerates all around, but Witcher 2 still doesn't like ATI. Occasionally I get a frame that is all black, especially during scripted events. Otherwise no major issues.

 

I'm actually playing the witcher 2, around half way onto act 2. I've never experienced black frame, nor other issues. I'm on 12.8 with 12.8 CAP2 (finger crossed, i hope it goes like that untill the end )

If you have the original Vbios of the card, opening it with RBE should tell you also the brand.

 

Hrm...RBE wont open any of the bioses I have, including the original. It always says "CheckValid" failed.

 

yeah RBE doesn't work with the 7970m as of yet, I'm pretty sure i read in the forum somewhere that the guy who makes it said he isn't going to make it compatible with the 7970m but don't quote me on that

oh and i encountered a problem with OCing and managed to overcome it so i thought I'd share in case this happens to somebody else. I was getting extremely poor performance from my card at stock settings, i was barely pulling off 30 fps in LoL. It turns out that if you have Afterburner set to "overclock at start up" the clock speeds of your card cannot reach stock settings and reside at lower clocks,150/300 is my best guess.

also i noticed in GPU-Z today that it says my card subvendor is dell but i do not recall seeing a P/N sticker when i was installing my card. If it is dell then that reopens our discussion on why brook's card has HDMI and bad fan control and vice versa for mine

 

Hey Brooks93, How recently did you purchase your 7970m? Was it the kit? I am going to get one soon, and am glad the HDMI is functional for you. I have been watching Eurocoms page, and it seems that they may have changed the 7970m Alienware kit. Several weeks ago it stated no HDMI with working fans (the issue with clevo versions). Now it mentions only using HWinFo for fan control. Perhaps they are using an actual Dell card or modded the vbios? Would have to ask Eurocom to know for sure. Anyways let me know. I will email eurocom and let you guys know.

 

I ordered the kit on 8-21-12

 

i ordered my kit on the 5/9/12 <---- UK format

 

Eurocom got back to me. This is what they said: "This is an original AMD DELL HD7970M card with Alienware VBIOS so all ports work including HDMI." That's good new.

So i guess that older kit versions may have been a clevo version.

 

i thought that too until i saw the subvendor dell thing

Although it doesnt really bother me as I can move this card over to secondary when I get my second card and have te best of both worlds


edit: bought crysis 2 as it was on offer today and it auto detected itself to ultra settings with everything set on ultra, i checked the temps and they were in the 90's :O not even benchmarks have ran that hot for me

 

hottest I have seen mine is on sleeping dog. high settings with texture pack it got to 82. 1900x1200 res

 

yeh every other game is fine, just seems to be crysis 2

 

Try running The witcher 2 for about 1 hour. For me is the game that heat up my cards most. It is almost as running fulltime furmark .

 

I agree on the Witcher 2 - brutal game for card heat! Skyrim is an icicle by comparison. That is why I am surprised that so many are trying to overclock the card. The m7970 may idle really well, but the right game at full power can tip around 80 really easily, no matter how good the paste job is.

 

surprisingly furmark doesn't actually get my GPU that hot, max it reaches its ever reached has been 84 even with a extremely high OC. what PSU do you have for those 6970's?

 

I ordered the eurocom 7970m. It will ship tomorrow. I will use HwinFo for fan control but have not used it for that before. I did some reading (mostly techinferno and NBR) this morning about setting it up.

I think I am going to use the custom-auto for GPU fan1 ( which should control both), and use the settings below. From there I will just play around with speeds until get the right temps.
Temp----Target Fan Speed
0----0
40----2000
50----2500
60----3000
70----4000
80----4000

Is this a decent start or do I have this completely wrong? Any advice?

 

I'm using the stock 240W PSU. Never had the PSU tripping on me or any other power related problem. Looks like with 775/[email protected] i found the sweet spot for me, they run really cool and stable and i love the performances

 

Some time around October I might be getting a second 7970m and didn't want to change the PSUso I've been asking a few people however it seems the iPhone 5 is also about to come out soon

Edit: those hwinfo fan speeds are fine. Knowing me I'd put the 40 and 50 slots slightly lower

 

Thanks man. Now I just have to wait. Est arrival date is 9/17.

 

Odd, how I ordered mine on 8-15-12 and I may have a clevo card.....my fans work fine although I haven't tested the HDMI yet since I don't have a device that uses it.

Edit: gpu-z also shows my 7970m as a dell?

 

Ok my 920xm came today and I installed and tested it and it works good. So I then put my 7970 back in after putting new better thermal pads on it and new paste. Idel temps are ok but all my fans are now stuck at about 2500. I even tried HWinof64 and it does not seem to be able to change the fan speed either. Any ideas?




EDIT: I was able to get HWINFO to control the fans but I think I'm still doing that wrong. Can someone point me to a tutorial on how to use it to control your fans so it is always running.

Also Rednijia, if I flash your bios will it make my fan work while loosing HDMI? I do not care about the HDMI output, the fans working would be better.

 

Hey guys, Just wondering does your HDMI audio works with the 7970m? Read a post here some time ago with someone saying their 7970m's HDMI audio works. Currently considering an upgrade of either 680m or 7970m here

 

Eurocom told me that the 7970m R2 kit has functional HDMI . Fan control will need to be managed by Hwinfo. I recently ordered mine, but it will not arrive till early next week. Another member , Brooks93 , stated functional HDMI video and audio, and display port.

As soon as I get mine and install it, I will post.

 

Does someone have a good tutorial on how to setup HWINFO for fan control on our M17x R2 computers?

 

Hi brlowe, here is what you need to do for HWInfo to work.

1. Make sure you downloaded the right version (32 or 64 bit).

2. Install and run. Select options. Choose to run sensors at startup.

3. You now have 3 windows open: Summary, Sensors, and the "large" program window. Now click on the little fan icon at the bottom of the sensor window to open the fan window.

4. In the fan window, select the "Custom Auto" button. In this window select "CPU #0 Digital Thermal Sensor" in the first list. In the second list, select "Max Core". Hit Ok.
4b. RE-OPEN the CPU "Custom Auto" button for the CPU. You can now set custom fan speeds. If you tried to before the values would not save. I personally have the speed set to 1500 up till 50 degrees. That keeps it quiet in the office. Gaming will require more aggressive fan settings.

5. Back in the fan window, select the "Custom Auto" button for GPU1. In this window select "ATI GPU #0 Radeon 7970" in the first list. In the second list, select "GPU Thermal Sensor". Hit Ok.
5b. RE-OPEN the GPU#0 "Custom Auto" button. set custom fan speeds like you did before. I personally have the speed set to 1500 up till 50 degrees. The card stays very cool.

6. Back in the fan window, select the "Custom Auto" button for GPU2. In this window select "CPU #0 Digital Thermal Sensor" in the first list. In the second list, select "Max Core". Hit Ok.
4b. RE-OPEN the CPU "Custom Auto" button for the CPU. You can now set custom fan speeds. I personally have the speed set to 1500 up till 50 degrees. If you dont set custom speeds it will be the loudest fan while idling.

7. now all "Custom Auto" status should be green and active. DO NOT CLOSE ANY WINDOW! Every window must stay open, even the fan one. If you close it the system defaults to 2500 again. You must use the minimize all button.

Thats it. Should be working now. Good luck.

PS - To all, I have had my computer crash with a blue screen without text, with thin black lines making a pattern. This happened while web browsing. Has anyone else had this problem and needed to disable graphics acceleration?

 

Thank you Rsgeiger,
I have the fans working now. Is there a way to make the auto start when turning the computer on. It seems like I have to click on the fan on the sensor window for the fan control to start. If I close the fan control window the fans stop working also. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

 

That is normal. You MUST keep all windows open, including the fan window. Then use the minimize all button. As far as starting when the computer starts, all I can suggest is to drag/add the HWInfo shortcut to the Startup folder in the Programs list (there is a website somewhere that says how to do this). You will still have to manually open the fan window after the programs restarts each time.

 

or right click on the HWinfo icon in tray, select configure and then...

 

I did try that, but it didnt work for me. Most likely because I work in a protected user account (i.e. not administrator).

 

I tried those settings also and it did not help. I just have it pinned to the startbar and single click it.
So I have the fans set right now but have a couple of questions.
How fast can I run those fans at the 80c setting?
Are high 70c temps ok?
My idle temsp after 2 hours are CPU 44c with the fan at 2700 and GPU 35c with the fan at 1500.
My temps will hit high 70's to low 80's during games but my top fan speep is set for 4000 at 70c and 4500 at 80c.
Is this ok?

 

I keep my fans so that at 65 Degrees they will go full speed, rather than 78 degrees on the gpu's and 75 degrees on the CPU.

My temperatures are great in this way. Anyway high 70's low 80's are acceptable temperatures, you should start to worry, above 90's

 

Mine is set the exact same way.

 

Hello guys, I'm new here and pretty noobish in changing laptop parts. However i have Alienware m17xR2 ( 720QM, 6Gb Ram, Radeom 4970m) and I want to upgrade GPU with ATI HD7970 - Type B - 2GB (i'm not sure can i advertise the web page which offers it). I asked resseler if HDMI works and he said video only, but i read on this forum some of you managed to make HDMI work fully with fan control managed by hwInfo. I can choose between Clevo and Dell VBIos. So basically i want to know which one to choose to make HDMI work fully. Is it possible (in future) that flashing vBIOS will make it work on any 7970m because i also read that not all the cards are phisically same (or i understood something wrong)?

 

message Upgradeyourlaptop (Eurocom) on ebay and ask them if they have a card in stock with working HDMI and tell them that you wish to install it into an m17x R2. the only problem with this card will be that you'll need to control the fans with HWinfo 32/64 but once you've set it up, its as simple as clicking it to startup. GL with your upgrade

 

Thank you Theredninja for the answer. I did contact Eurocom, but since i live in Europe(Croatia) i accidentaly found an EU reseller (mxm-upgrade.com) which is better option for me(taxes,shipping period, price...). That's why I want to know is flashing/reflashing bios (when that vBIOS comes) can make HDMI work and are all the 7970 phisycally the same (if they are logical conclusion is that flashing vBIOS would help).

 

Ok I played guild wars 2 yesterday for a couple hours and my temps were in the high 60's to low 70's so I'm happy with that. That was at full screen 1900x1200 with high settings. I forgot to check what my fps were. Maybe today I will check.

 

Hey guys,I'm thinking about grabbing a 7970M for a Clevo P170EM. So the card is a Clevo.

Am I'm correct in assuming that this is just like the 6900 series cards? Fans work like stock with a Clevo Card, but there is no HDMI Audio. Dell cards = HWInfo fan control, and HDMI Audio. Correct?

Reason I ask is because I don't care about HDMI Audio. I use Verizon Media manager to stream to my T.V. and I'd rather not have fans blaring all the time. Thanks guys. Been a while since I paid attention to these threads.

Also, has anyone successfully undervolted the cards? Crossfire in the R2?

 

Finally received my card and installed it. HDMI video and audio are working. I used the eurocom driver initially, then changed to CCC 12.8. Works well. Temps in BF3 are mid 70s (77 c max) with Hwinfo fan control.

 

Hi batfuse!

Which vbios to use?

 

Im using the stock eurocom vbios my card came with.

 

Gents !!

I have installed 7970 in my Alienware R2 yesterday night using the guide from Eurocom.
It's a Dell card purchased from Eurocom lads.

There is few items I have noticed during moving the heatsink from old ATI 4870 card to 7970m card.

1.
First of all, if all blue rubbers are installed as recommended, I noticed that the PCB is warping when the heatsink is tightened to it. Here I did not use huge force as I found this when I was in the half way of securing the heatsink (maybe the heatsink for my old ATI is different than for the other ATI models).
I would then recommend do not tight this heatsink fully and observe the PCB (across the edge).
The main reason is that the new mounting screws (in the kit from Eurocom) for heatsink/bracket are different. There is no "C" clip that will stop this crew to be fully fastened and warp the PCB.

Additionally in my case I noticed that using just one layer of this blue rubber on the memory chips and then securing the heatsink, this heatsink is not touching the blue rubber/vram at all.
I kind of manage this situation by cutting them to the proper thickness.

Issues after installation:
2. Can someone suggest a way to solve fan control as they are now stuck on 25%.
I don't want to use HWinfo and prefer to have an automatic control so is there are vbios version that I could use here.
3. When benchmarking this card in 3dmark Vantage my laptop suddenly is switched off and I think this could be related to overheating this card as of low fan speed (25%). Temperature is 80C only.
4. I can’t use HWinfo right now as each time I start this program, my screen is turning black (off). I then need to press and hold power button to get it working again.

As I have old system now, I would then re-install first and then try on the fresh one. Hopefully here I can resolve problems in point 2,3 & 4.
Weird is that the ATI driver (I think 12.8 – latest one) cannot recognize this card, but CPUZ is showing that this is Dell 7970m model. I am using Eurocom driver at the moment.

Thanks in advance for your input here ....

 

I think my card is clevo as before a certain date the cards eurocom sold had working fans but no hdmi. And as for the undervolting i Would also like to know because I may be getting CF or the new iPhone

And as for the guy who is having the 25% fans speed unfortunately there is no way currently to get rid of that other than getting a clevo version of the card and your hwk go isn't working because it's outdated, I had the same problem early on. Gl man

 

Gents,

As Theredninja mentioned, Clevo cards have no issue with fan control.
I have Dell version and this card require HWinfo to kick the fan as otherwise the temparature is increasing above 85C causing laptop to shut down immediately.

With Dell card there is no issue with HDMI with video & audio (just verified) but have no cable to check with VGA port.

Can someone look my temperatures as in idle I have 33-37C on the GPU, in BF3 after 2h gaming in ultra I have 77C and when benchmarked this temperature increases above 86C even fan speed in on full. My card can't handle the temp above 86 and laptop is turning off.

By looking the temperatures stated here by other users I think mine are very high, Therefore I think I did something wrong during the assembly this card in my R2.

Thanks,
Andy

 

How much thermal paste did you use? you may want to redo your paste job.

use a small (but really small) quantity of paste in the middle of the core, and let the heatsink spread it, don't manually spread it across the core.

 

I did spread IC paste a bit because when I removed the heatsink first time (to check that paste was squeezed all over the core) I found that the excessive paste was extracted around the core-base. Unfortunately I did not remove the excessive paste from the core.
I think you could be right I have applied a way too much.

Will do paste redo today I check temps again. Let you know guys when it is done.

Now need to go shopping for new mouse for BF3 I think will pick from Razzer (optic sensor family).

 

If properly applied the thermal paste shouldn't be found all around the core. Just put a small dot in the middle of the core. as per quantity imagine the size of a grain of rice or little bit less.

As per the mouse, as a owner i can recommend you the RAT7

Edit: i've found a picture on the net that should give you an idea of how much paste has to be applied. It is taken from a CPU heatsink, the quantity for our gpu's can be even less.

 

GPU cleaned and repasted. Now max 80C after few hours gaming with fan on full speed.
Still higher than some other users but without system crashing

So far happy with repasting job and overall card performance (beast).

Thanks for help lads...