Did Dell send me the wrong GPU?

I just got my M17xR3 earlier this week and it's been pretty good, but something is tripping an alarm in my head.

I first thought some things were fishy when I saw the GPU was running at 65 degrees celcius on idle, so I decided to look into the GPU a bit more. Both the Catalyst control center and the DirectX diagnostic tool say my graphics chipset is AMD Radeon HD 6900M Series and that the chip type/ device ID is 6720. I ordered the 6990M, thought, so I thought that would show up somewhere.

I'm not great with computers, and I am new to the world of gaming laptops so I thought you fine people could tell me whether I'm paranoid or rightfully suspicious.

 

download "GPU-Z" and run it. It should tell you the exact card you have.

 

Unless I am going crazy someone posted a thread almost exactly the same as this a few days ago regarding a 6990 showing up as a 6970 lol.

 

It's just a driver issue, many users have an actual 6990m but there is not a single place on or in the Computer that states it is one. Just says 6900M Series or 6970m lol.

 

Alright, I tried the GPU-Z and it says that the name is 6900M series, the GPU is Blackcomb, and the device id is 1002-6720.

So this is just a naming issue? The actual functionality is perfectly fine? That's a relief, and also rather strange. I wonder why is says I have such a different card though.

Oh well, thanks everyone.

 

Clocks and shaders are higher then the 6970m.

Shaders for the 6990m are 1120 if I'm correct.

 

Hmm mine is also showing as 6900m Series and its showing that 6720, but im running Bad company 2 everything on max with constant 40-60 fps and Crysis 2 on Gamer settins, still didnt update to DX11 with 40-60fps also.

 

This has been asked quite a few times here. 6990m has a stock 715 core speed and 900 mhz memory speed. If you have these stock clocks you have 6990m.

 

Takes time for GPU-Z to update their database is my best guess. Mine also shows 6970... :s

 

Just remember, device id and hardware id in the device manager is not the model of your card, that's a hardware identifier solely for driver installation and it varies based on the make of your card. My 6870 shows up as a 68A8 as my device id. It also shows up as a 6800M Series. This is very common for AMD cards, the drivers are written for the entire line, so one driver will run a whole series of cards, thus the reason for it being called '6800M Series' or '6900M Series' in your device manager.

You'd be more correct in checking, as was mentioned, with CPU-Z or GPU-Z, but also as was mentioned, it can take them a little bit to update their tool databases.

 

Oh, ok then. Thanks for the correction. I thought device id was something it very much wasn't then.

Now about the card running at 65 degrees celcius on idle. Is that too high, or is it to be expected considering the usual temperature of 26-30 degrees around where I am. The cpu runs about 50 degrees and I am not using any form of cooling pad.

 

That is normal for the standard AMD GPU (Unfortunately Dell does not use a very high quality paste and pads). If you repaste it and replace the pads you will probably reduce very well the temps. Mine after the whole process of repasting the GPU with MX-4 and changing the pads, I get 53-54 at idle... If I browse the internet or some music probably 2-3 degrees higher.

I recommend this only if you have some experience. There should be some threads here on how you can repaste the GPU. You can search on google ' notebookreview.com repaste gpu for m17x r3' or something similar...

 

Make sure the temps do not go very high, probably above 90... There are lots of softwares able to keep track of the temperature, both CPU and GPU (including the memory for the GPU).

 

I am most certainly not experienced, but I will at the very least research repasting and replacing the pads. Won't doing that void the warranty, however?

 

People the device ids for the 6970m and the 6990m are exactly the same, hence why they are mistaken to all be 6970ms. To check for sure, download GPU-Z and check the number of shaders. if you have 1120, its a 6990m.

 

Dont worry, you have the 6990m, i had the same question here== http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/596922-i-have-6990m-cfx-already-but.html

 

Ahhh all of the sudden the newest version of gpuz says that my 6990m only has 896 shaders. what gives? the previous version showed 1120. any thoughts?

 

I'm seeing the same thing. Looks like it might be a bug... The Texture Fill Rate is also showing incorrectly.

 

Does AMD/ATI have a program to ID what you have?

 

its a bug. It will probably be cleared up shortly

 

I hope the nvidia one is all correct at least...right guys?

 

Maybe, but the author is describing it as a feature. From the revision history for v0.5.5: "Fixed shader count detection for Blackcomb (mobile AMD Cayman)", suggesting at least that prior versions read the number of shaders incorrectly. In any event, it requires some clarification from AMD and TechPowerUp.