GPU upgrade advice for m17x r2

As some of you know I bought an m17x r2 for a good price recently with these specs:

I7 920xm
4870m cf
4gb ram
2x 300gb HDD
1900x1200

After testing the system everything seemed to work great but am wanting a bit of a GPU performance boost and would also like to move up to dx11. Also noticed while running unigene heaven and valley that red dots are showing up on screen so I'm not sure how long these 4870's will last.

I'm not wanting to put a lot of money into this so I'm looking at either a single 6990m or a 7970m. I priced 6990m from $180 to $250 on eBay and $309 to $350 on the 7970m.

Is it worth the extra $100 to go toward the 7970m? I know the 7970m beats the 6990m on notebookcheck but I understand these are not always tested with same configs so I'm hoping someone will chime in that have tested both with a 720xm.

Thanks

Edit: also seen a pair on eBay for $320 but may be a waste if they don't work. Selling for parts or not working but description says they are supposed to be new and work. Thoughts?

 

Hi,

I've recently learned that I know less that I thought about the R2 , so with a pinch of salt, and until an owner chimes in...

I read that the 7970m is one of the best options for the R2 on a bang-for-buck return. Apparently all you need to mess with is the fan control as it does not work correctly?

For x-fire I have no idea but the PSU might well need upgrading. The R2 was only rated for 2x75w cards .

Good luck

 

Its tough finding a 7970m because according to the 7970m installation guide thread I need either a clevo or a certain dell vbios version. If a p/n is the same on 2 cards will it also have the same vbios version?

 

Can't be sure I'm afraid. Often resellers will load whatever OEM vbios you ask for. You might only need the vbios for overclocking purposes? Maybe a PM to Ferris23 who kindly advised me on some of the r2 quirks? He is running a 7970m in an R2.

Good luck

 

Thanks. I was hoping to get a decent price on a 7970m but if I get one I may just have to get one from upgrademonkey or get a 6990m which I know will work

 

They should know excatly what you need, and the performance on the 7970m is still up there with the top AMD's so as long as there are no driver issues I would strongly consider it, although I copped out myself for ease and went for an 'approved' GPU .

 

Messaged a Chinese seller about a 7970m p/n 747m2 and they replied with


Dear jimbo312,

Hello, thank you for your interest in our products, the video card can be well compatible with M17X R2, please rest assured to buy, thank you.

- lc8723


Is it likely this Chinese seller knows what he is talking about?

 

Yes, but understand he might not be mentioning the fact that it needs a vbios flash, in which case the card might not work until done. So with that i would search for a 7970m that came with a AW system that way you know it should be good to go.

 

So will I not be able to flash the card with the m17x r2 or would it have to be done in another system that is already compatible?

 

You do have a dual system so it is possible, but can be hit or miss from what i have read in the past. I am sure if you search the forums you can find the thread that was created talking about how to flash the Vbios using the slave port. If i find it ill post it.

 

That's one for the magic 8-ball! China does not have a good reputation for customer service but if they are a regular ebay seller they might be knowledgeable.

Edit: If they have a 'no returns' policy like I have seen some card resellers do, then it needs to be as cheap as chips for the risk...

The problem as I understand it is that the R2 does not have an iGPU so if the card does not output you cannot see what you are doing. You might find that running it on the original with the new card in the second socket you can direct a flash to the new card. I would expect this to work but like I said, laptops are a weird animal, if you 'aint actually done it on a specific model then you're in the lap of the gods .

 

Well looking at the sellers feedback he has 1 out of 15 negative in last month and 1 out of 210 in the last 12 months. It just takes sooooo long for them to ship from China to Oklahoma.

Hoping I can find one of these with the xbracket for $325-350. I'll have to research and see how successful others are at flashing a card in the 2nd GPU slot.

 

Guess it's down to cost then. The x-bracket, although desirable, can be reused if your going AMD to AMD, thermal efficiency might be a little compromised but not enough to cause damage. It just needs careful monitoring to begin with.

I don't believe you will be in the situation of needing to use the second socket to flash as I'm sure I would have read about that. I was told by an R2 owner it was plug and go, but of course I don't know what vbios he has.

I have seen single card machine owners asking R2 owners to assist by flashing their (unusable) card in an R2's slave slot.

 

At this point I'm actually considering bidding on 6990m attached to an m18x heatsink. Starting bid $180 buy now for $250. I hate to be out $400 on a 7970m that I can't be for sure if I can get it to work or not.

 

I Know exactly how you feel. I did not want to loose 3D (which I find an awesome game enhancement!) and have to mess with drivers for a little more HP. Play safe with larger amounts of cash!

Maybe someone else, an R2/7970m owner, can give you advice on compatibility...

I an a sure as I can be that it will work fine, it's just how much work is involved getting there .

 

Its not gonna be my main gamer because I have a desktop with 3770k and gtx 770 for that. Bought mainly for a media centerb/casual gamer so I don't need top of the line graphics so I think the 6990m is gonna be the way to go for me right now. Thinking bout putting a blu ray drive in it since my current optical drive is bad and also plan on tearing it all down, sanding the outer shell and painting it just don't know what colors I'm gonna go with yet.

 

Ah, if you have another gaming rig then that is definitely the way to go

Pimp it out, haha, and of course post pics

 

So for the 7970m in the R2.

There are two type of Vbios, one who work straight forward and an other for newer laptop with Uefi and stuff. The uefi vbios should be the 15.022 BUT there are some 0.22 who work directly and some who don't. The older vbios version work. You can see the vbios on a little sticker on the back of the card.

I have bought mine with an 0.22 and it work nice, imediatly flash it for an 0.975v bios, the slv7's one. I have first tryed to put it in the slave slot and boot with my hd4870m in master slot. That was not working, no screen and no boot. With the 7970m in master slot, it work like it was made for.

A little thing, don't forget to add some spacer on the heatsink screw. The OEM screw are a bit long and do not provide enought pressure on the gpu die. You have to unmount the spacers already in place and mount them back betwenn screw head and heatsink, very easy with a little screwdriver.

 

After all screws and components are taken on of the housing.... Is the plastic glued to the metal?

 

My laptop is an Alienware 18 mate not an R2 and I have Dual Radeons R9 M290X Crossfire

 

Oops sorry, kinda got confused somewhere along the line, must have been someone else - sorry again

 

I'm thinking about just taking the grills out and masking the plastic off. Painting the housing metallic blue leaving the plastic on bottom that has the intake spots black and painting all the grills yellow. What do you guys think about those colors? Think masking off is sufficient or should I try to separate the metal from the plastic?

 

Yep, a black glue if i remember right. Why would you unmount it ? If you want to paint it, a guy on this forum had already done that, he had glue them back with windscreen glue.

Edit : For the colour it's your choice Personnaly i love viper green, i think you should separate them, you will have some crack if you don't. Not sure about that.