M17X R1 5870M - can I use new AMD drivers?

Hello, well I currently have an M17X R1 with an upgraded AMD 5870M (it used to have NVidia 260M's in SLI). I just have one card in there now, not Crossfire. Since this card was not offered in the R1, but the R2 model, I am currently using the Dell R2 drivers for the 5870M.

The problem with these drivers is that they are horribly out of date, they are using CCC 10.8, which is from 2010... so I have the nice raw power of the card but poor optimization for newer games. I have tried installing new drivrs off AMD's website, but that always fails saying that my card can only use specific drivers from Dell.

I have been told to try out this method in the link, but it did not bring me good results. The card would only show up as a "5800 series with 756mb memory" - and the performance was worse than with the Dell drivers.
*GUIDE* Proper AMD/ATI Driver Install - Alienware Arena Forums

So, is there any way possible to get a stable driver update? I really love my M17X and I really don't want to part with it... but sadly if I can't get a driver update then I will have too =(

 

Newest ATI drivers you don't run into the BSOD issues with updating CCC. Update away.

 

I did try updating to the newest drivers offered by AMD/ATI, but an error message pops up saying that my card can only use custom drivers offered by the laptop maker. I will post screenshots tomorrow when I have time.

 

I have just installed the newest drivers off AMD's website, and i have got a failed install, here are screenshots:



As you can see on the last picture, it shows that I now have a "5800 series with 757mb memory" - with Dell drivers it was a 5870 with 4GB memory.

Does anyone please know of a way to install new drivers properly that will fully utilize my card? I really don't want to be stuck using 3 year old graphics drivers...

******EDIT******

Ok, so this first install with the new drivers was just an install OVER the old Dell 5870 drivers. I have just completed a fresh install by deleting and cleaning out all the old AMD/ATI and then installing these new drivers. Unfortunately, still same result, failed install error message with "5800 series 757mb memory." Just want to make it clear that I have installed the drivers both ways.

 

Try an older package like the 13.1 to see if that helps.

 

I've used 13.4 with no issues on my R2, been using the official Catalyst drivers and CCC for years now.

 

Hmmm, did you flash the vBios of your 5870's to the newest version? I think that may be the problem because I have not done that yet.

 

Nope mine are stock Dell vBios.

 

Give this a try.

 

Ok, i have tried this method, with installing the Dell drivers first, and then installing 11.1, and that seemed to work.

I have also tried 13.1, but that gave a constant blue screen upon startup so that was useless. The newest I have tried was 13.9, and the result of that was seen in the pictures I have posted. I am now going to try 13.4 and see if that works.

On a side note, I have also flashed my vBios to the newest version that allows AMD drivers to be installed straight from their website, but evidently that does not work for me, maybe because this is a M17X R1 and not a R2... I'll post the final results soon.

**************EDIT*******************

Ahh, the 13.1 drivers have really screwed me over. Whenever i run the discrete card I get a blue screen, I have even fully cleaned out all of the AMD drivers. I am currently running off the NVidia 9400 integrated chip, and I have tried fixing the problem in safe mode and such, nothing. Looks like I'm going to have to reinstall Windows 7 to start fresh again... after that I'll try the 13.4 drivers and see if I get any sort of luck. This really sucks, I wish Dell did not make custom drivers for these cards and just let us use the drivers straight from AMD/NVidia =(

 

The BSOD is the issue with Dell's CCC. Adunno if it's the fact you have an R1 and that is conflicting with your installation as your has an Nvidia chipset, I didn't even know R1 came with 5870M option, I thought it was only 4870M.

 

The R1 never came with the 5870, only the 4870 and Nvidia 200 series, but the most powerfull card that the R1 can handle is the 5870, so I bought that card when I started getting issues with my 260M SLI cards a while back. I really haven't had issues with the Dell drivers, but recent games such as ARMA 3 and Metro Last Light can only run smoothly on low settings. What I'm hoping for is that newer drivers will give me a bit of a performance boost.

 

What does the Error log during install show?
Couldnt see it.

 

Here are screenshots of the error log I got for CCC 13.9:


However, I think I know what the culprit is, during my download of CCC 13.4, I checked the system requirement, and I need Win7 SP1! I always turn windows update off because I find it annoying having to wait for the computer to update when I turn it on, so I never had SP1!


Downloading and installing SP1 right now, I believe this will solve the issue as I have the card flashed with tested and working custom vBios. After SP1 is installed I'll try CCC 13.4, I'll update soon.

 

Ok, so I think I have finally installed working drivers. Windows 7 SP1 unfortunately did not solve the BSOD issue for 13.1 and 13.4, as seen here:

I was so happy once I seen 13.4 install without issue, until I restarted and....

BSOD

13.9.... well, same old:


However, I downloaded CCC 13.11 Beta V1 from here: AMD Catalyst 13.11 BETA1 (13.200.16.0 September 26) Download
And, successful install without BSOD! W000T finally! But, there is 1 issue that I am worried about, both in CCC and DXDIAG my card shows up as a "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series" and not a 5870 like it did with the Dell drivers. In CCC it does show the correct specs and all, just not the name:


I am just wondering, is this normal at all in the M17X R2, or is it because this card is in a R1?

Well, I believe this is the final solution for a M17X R1 with a 5870M, for future reference to anyone else who might get the same problem as I did, here is the link to the post about the vBios update: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/734549-should-i-buy-m17x-r2-5.html
Page 4 of the above post also has the overclock rates that were tested in CCC with this card!

Thanks everyone in this thread and in the others who helped me out with this, really appreciate it! I hope to hear feadback on whether the "5800 series" name is normal or not, in the meantime I'm going to see if this improves my gaming performance.

*****EDIT*****
The 5870 is running stable at these clocks: 850/1150 - compare that to the stock clocks of 700/1000 haha
View attachment 103819

I have really only tested Shadow Warrior so far, and the results are great. During fights with loads of monsters on screen, the FPS rarely drops below 30, and average 40+ when not in a fight on high settings. Before fights were constantly in the low 20's, so this is great!