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    M17x R1 - 5870 Crossfire running...

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Dannyboy2609, Sep 11, 2011.

  1. Dannyboy2609

    Dannyboy2609 Notebook Guru

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    The WORLD's FIRST M17x R1 with the HD5870M Crossfire
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Here's the benchmark where I overthrown Scook's record :D
    [​IMG]

    Uploaded with ImageShack.us

    Now back to the good part. How ? Right, fellas ?
    First , NO hardmod involved , and these card I've been using is all from Dell ( m17x R2)
    I had the R1 with the Qx9300 and GTX280M SLI as usual
    And this is what I did,
    - I remove all of the Nvidia driver , remove the card , and boot back into bios , to make sure that the Intergrated Graphic is ENABLED, and the Hybrid Graphic is DISABLED
    - I grab one HD5870M ( bios Flashed ) from a M17x R2 with ONE HD5870M , and put it into mine R1 , and go to bios to reverse the setting , and restart.
    - From then, I boot into windows and Install the driver normally ( From Dell as well , didn't have time to test with the one from ATI ) , and there you have your first HD5870M
    - Next , I grab the 2nd HD5870M from a M17X R2 with the CROSSFIRE HD5870M ( Bios Flashed as well ) .
    - You'll find it weird ! But notice this , when I put the CROSSFIRE HD5870M into the chassis , the system wouldn't just turn on. What even weirder was the MASTER Card which refused to run in my R1, completely run normal in the M17x R2 with ONE HD5870M . Weird, Right ?
    - And there you have it , I put the 2nd Card into the chassis , booted , enabled Crossfire , claim my 1st place :D

    And this is what I thought what had happen . You guys all know the ATI Crossfire runs with one card as MASTER and the other one as SLAVE right . But Nvidia SLI is equal , 2 Cards are the same. Which make me thought that if we put the a completely SINGLE ATI card to run with another one . The MCP chipset ( from Nvidia ) would be able to recognise them as equal and Tada , Crossfire FTW R1

    This is not over yet, gentlemen . Next stop , HD6970M Crossfire FTW

    Just in case everyone didn't notice , my screen is the RGB LED ( 2nd gen. with the Truelife display ) as well =))

    Updating Problem : Getting BSODs after resume from sleep , looking for solutions


    Original discussion on this subject can be found here (for informational purposes):
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/481411-m17x-r1-hd-5870-install-success.html
     
  2. TurbodTalon

    TurbodTalon Notebook Virtuoso

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    As in the 5870Ms working in an R1? Do you plan on posting any benchmarks. I would love to see them. That's good stuff. I'd resize your image though, or link it. Forum guidelines don't allow anything this big.
     
  3. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    Whaaat? That would be awesome but a few questions:

    What vBIOS?
    What drivers?
    And what about fans?

    Thanks
     
  4. Thatoe

    Thatoe Notebook Evangelist

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    Wow... If there's no hardmod involved, i'm getting one.
    ----
    Wait a minute. You have two of them running in R1?
     
  5. EtownsFinest

    EtownsFinest Notebook Deity

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    Wow :eek: Very nice. Details please +rep
     
  6. Dannyboy2609

    Dannyboy2609 Notebook Guru

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    I updated all the answer you guys would need , if there are more questions ( and Applause ) please don't hesitate to throw them at me . I need it guys :D
     
  7. Dannyboy2609

    Dannyboy2609 Notebook Guru

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    Yes , man . TWO of them
     
  8. Thatoe

    Thatoe Notebook Evangelist

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    So you basically have an R2 without the i7.
    I didn't quite understand how you got the second card working.
    I don't need the RGB LED but I could use an upgrade from my 260's sli.
    Can anyone comment on if a single 5870 is better than 260 sli or not?
    What about the power supply? Are you using the one that it originally came with?
    And I'm assuming you're on Bios A07.
    Sorry for asking a lot of questions.
    +rep btw.
     
  9. Dannyboy2609

    Dannyboy2609 Notebook Guru

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    Yes Thatoe, I am using the original 240W PSU
    If you want my opinion, I think you should get a upgrade , because the HD5870M is quite closed to th GTX260M and but has the advantage of the Dx11 , and it's less power hungry than 2 GTX260M . But you know that the reason I made this test was to check if one HD5870M can run perfectly in the R1 or not . That could only means I can go even higher , so I suggest you get a HD6970M , or 6990 ( if possible ) . About the PSU , you don't have to worry because you can always put another one to use simutaneously 2 PSU to relieve each PSU's Stress. You can find the guide in the HD6970M CF in R2 topic . Have fun and good luck !
     
  10. frozenarcticguy

    frozenarcticguy Notebook Deity

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    Thanks Danny, now you just made it more enticing to sell my 5870's to get the 6970's :D
     
  11. Thatoe

    Thatoe Notebook Evangelist

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    I'll buy them. :)
     
  12. frozenarcticguy

    frozenarcticguy Notebook Deity

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    Your not helping Thatoe, I'll have to see what my funds are like and how much to sell the cards for
     
  13. reborn2003

    reborn2003 THE CHIEF!

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    WoW its actually working now!

    Congrats man!

    Cheers. :)
     
  14. tyranus7

    tyranus7 Notebook Evangelist

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    Amazing !

    I think the power supply will be more than enough for a couple of 5870, because as you said they are less power hungry than the GTX 280M. I have a question, how are the fans working? are they working well?

    Another question, the heatsink is the same you used for the GTX 280M, or is a different one?

    The 6870m, are considerable cheaper than any other "similar" option from nvidia (half of price!) so I have faith that if the Crossfire 5870 worked, probably the 6970 will work too ! :D
     
  15. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    The fans is the one thing I'm curious about. Some 6970's from other vendors will keep the fans 100% maxed 100% of the time due to vbios issues. I'm wondering if the 5870's have the same issue in the R1. Any comment Dannyboy?

    P.S. Calling you danny boy makes me feel like your granny!
     
  16. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    The power supply is enough as the M17x R2 uses the same one, be it Flextronix or Delta and also the R2 runs the 6970 fine.

    The M17x and M17x R2 heatsinks are exactly the same, tyranus.


    lol :D
     
  17. Dannyboy2609

    Dannyboy2609 Notebook Guru

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    The Fans are working Flawlessly for me granny DR650SE :D
    [​IMG]

    Uploaded with ImageShack.us
    Again , these card are from Dell , with Vbios Flashed :D
    I uploaded another try in the benchmark thread , hope you guys can check it out . My time zone is GMT +7 so it's kinda like 3 in the morning for me now :(
     
  18. tyranus7

    tyranus7 Notebook Evangelist

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    How did you get to flash the video cards, before installing them?? You said you flashed the card #1 as if it were a single cards, right? and the card #2 was flashed as if it were in a crossfire configuration...

    Do you have a R2 only to flash your cards? If so this will make extremly dificult to R1 user to upgrade to 5870 CF... :confused: I mean is there must be a way to flash using the same R1.
     
  19. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    With the M17x is even easier, it has the integrated graphics so we don't even need to blind flash if it was the case.
    But I guess Danny is reffering to the vBIOS Dell released for these cards at one point, right?
     
  20. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    Just install them into the master slot one at a time and boot using ATIflash and flash one then install the next AMD flash that. Easy peasy.
     
  21. Thatoe

    Thatoe Notebook Evangelist

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    found them for $300 on ebay from a good seller.
    Is it a good price or should I wait for someone from NBR to sell? :p
     
  22. frozenarcticguy

    frozenarcticguy Notebook Deity

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    That sounds like a good deal, go for it. I won't be able to get my new cards till next month
     
  23. tyranus7

    tyranus7 Notebook Evangelist

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    What cards you found for $300?
     
  24. frozenarcticguy

    frozenarcticguy Notebook Deity

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    I'm thinking he got the 5870's since that's what he wanted
     
  25. tyranus7

    tyranus7 Notebook Evangelist

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    Oh yeas, those are for $300 on ebay, but the 6970m is about $430 but I don't know if they are compatible... :confused: I am sure they are not even Dell
     
  26. Dannyboy2609

    Dannyboy2609 Notebook Guru

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    Well , at my place , we have a club call Alienware Club where all the guys who own an Alienware System gather , BTW my nickname overthere is Seal :D . They would kindly lend me their R2 just for the purpose of Flashing Vbios only , but I am pretty sure that one HD5870M would work flawlessly in R1 , about the other one , you can do as Katalin and DR650SE said. Put it into the main slot , flash it , and move it to the 2nd slot . :D
     
  27. tyranus7

    tyranus7 Notebook Evangelist

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    Please do not make me read anything in the website of your club :D ... I can't wait to see what you can do when you get a 6970m, that would be a hell of an upgrade :D
     
  28. Dannyboy2609

    Dannyboy2609 Notebook Guru

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    Well I just want to introduce , and I doubt that you understand what language it's in anyway :D
    BTW , Switching to ATI is like a miracle to the R1, with the old GTX280M SLi , I had live with the Latency Issue because there was no way to fix it completely , at one point , there's still broken sound when playing music , video , surfing webs ,..etc . But now , look at this
    [​IMG]

    Uploaded with ImageShack.us
     
  29. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    There were also the 4870 for the M17x but who cares now :D
    Also latency issues were fixed later on.
     
  30. tyranus7

    tyranus7 Notebook Evangelist

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    Yeah, the dpc latency issue is related to the video drivers, I think. I still get some yellow peaks:

    [​IMG]

    But the sounds is good most of the time.
     
  31. Dannyboy2609

    Dannyboy2609 Notebook Guru

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    Yeah , I always tried with the Yahoo Messenger Buzzer. Just leave the system idle for a while , and buzz some guys , the first buzz always sounds like being distorted compare to those later , that's the proof for the DPC Latency

    Just when I thought there's completely no problem , then it happens. Do R2 guys with the HD5870M CF has the trouble getting the system to Sleep/Hibernate . Well , I am having it right now, a resume from sleep/ hibernate would definitely cause my system either a freeze or BSOD . Any idea guys, because I absolutly can't flash my bios to A10 :D
     
  32. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    So it's the cards' fault.
     
  33. Q-PaTrIcK

    Q-PaTrIcK Newbie

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    @Dannyboy

    Is it possible to do the procedure with two cards which come from a Crossfire System ?
    I guess it should be no problem, when both cards get bios flashed ?
     
  34. Dannyboy2609

    Dannyboy2609 Notebook Guru

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    As long as you can get 1 card running in the main slot and the driver fully installed , I think there is no problem with the other one at all .
     
  35. Q-PaTrIcK

    Q-PaTrIcK Newbie

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    Thanks.

    - I remove all of the Nvidia driver , remove the card , and boot back into bios , to make sure that the Intergrated Graphic is ENABLED, and the Hybrid Graphic is DISABLED
    ok
    - I grab one HD5870M ( bios Flashed ) from a M17x R2 with ONE HD5870M , and put it into mine R1 , and go to bios to reverse the setting , and restart.
    ok
    - From then, I boot into windows and Install the driver normally ( From Dell as well , didn't have time to test with the one from ATI ) , and there you have your first HD5870M
    ok
    - Next , I grab the 2nd HD5870M from a M17X R2 with the CROSSFIRE HD5870M ( Bios Flashed as well ) .
    ok
    - You'll find it weird ! But notice this , when I put the CROSSFIRE HD5870M into the chassis main(left) slot or second(right) slot ? , the system wouldn't just turn on. What even weirder was the MASTER Card which refused to run in my R1 I thought the Master Card is working after step 3 ?, completely run normal in the M17x R2 with ONE HD5870M . Weird, Right ?

    - And there you have it , I put the 2nd Card into the chassis , booted , enabled Crossfire , claim my 1st place
     
  36. djhuydx

    djhuydx Notebook Consultant

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    some one had that problem before with old vbios and old driver, but now I don't think there would be any BSOD from sleep/hibernate with new vbios in R2 :)

    So try to flash them with another vbios version, maybe it would help!

    btw congrats to your 5870Ms :D
     
  37. tyranus7

    tyranus7 Notebook Evangelist

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    I think he meant if he just try to installing the crossfire without follow the steps above.
     
  38. Q-PaTrIcK

    Q-PaTrIcK Newbie

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    Hm ok, but I have another question because maybe I´m going to get some 5870s for my R1.

    In reply #18 the guy said, that the second card gets flashed as CF Card ?
    But I think dannyboy said in post #1, that the cards should be "equal", so i think both should get flahed as Master Cards, right ?
     
  39. Q-PaTrIcK

    Q-PaTrIcK Newbie

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    no more comments here ?
    Danny ?
     
  40. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    You should be good either way. As far as I know the 5870 vbios is the exact same. In my R2 I would edit one vbios and flash it to both cards and it always worked, so going master/master should be ok. If not it's easy enough to flash the slave seperately.
     
  41. Q-PaTrIcK

    Q-PaTrIcK Newbie

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    Ok thanks.
    Is ATIflash 3.86 a good choose to do that ?
    Where can I get a suitable vbios ?

    Another question:
    I have to put both cards in the master slot to flash them. But the Problem is, that the heatsink of the slave card runs the wrong way, so I wonder if I am able to put the card in the slot with the heatsink on it ?
     
  42. max23

    max23 Notebook Enthusiast

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  43. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    You don't need the RBG screen. The Dual CCFL will work fine with the 5870s, the RGB LED screen is sought after because it's one of the best screens on the market to to its Red Green and Blue LED backlighting. Really sharp and vibrant as well as accurate color representation.

    As far as flashing the vbios, what your doing is flashing a new video bios to the eeprom on the card.

    Below are the instructions to flash the vbios. Its written as the 4870s, but the exact same steps apply to the 5870s

     
  44. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    max23, i answered in your other thread ;)

    About flashing the vBIOS, check first with GPU-Z the vBIOS that the cards are already running as this revision was released by Dell some time ago and many if not all users have done it already so there might be no need for you to do it.

    Cheers
     
  45. max23

    max23 Notebook Enthusiast

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    hmm
    it is A05 ?!
    7/30/2010

    not sure if this what you want...

    nforce 730i <--- what is this ?!

    found this info at the mainboard tap using CPI-Z
     
  46. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    No, that's your motherboard's BIOS version, we're talking about the graphics card's BIOS (video BIOS).
    You'll find that out only by plugging the cards in, with GPU-Z
     
  47. Dannyboy2609

    Dannyboy2609 Notebook Guru

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    Ok, sorry for abandon you guys for quite sometimes. I was busy with both my studying and my part-time job ( Still a youthful 20-year-old not-a-virgin college student , has to pay for my own problems , kinda hard ) . The thing is I reinstall the windows a few days ago . And there was a problem , it didn't recognize the CF config when I install the CCC anymore . I noticed there was a little bit change in the GPUz , which is only one of the card is like this PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x8 and the other is PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x8 2.0. Which means there's only one card is set at PCI-E 2.0 . That's maybe the reason why the CF wasn't recognized . So I went into the bios and disable the PCI-E gen2 ( no idea if R2 has this option or not , never own one ) . And the CF is recognized once again . However, they're still running at PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x8 not PCI-E 2.0 x16 2.0, like in the screenshots I showed. There was no way I could make it 2.0 again . Then I had to repeat the whole same procedure : Remove the 2nd card , leave the 1st one ; install the driver , make sure that it ran at 2.0 ; and install the 2nd one. Only by then I could do a 3some with them again. Thus, I think the basic problem is the R1 has some crappy North bridge chip that automatically applies some crappy setting to the system ,NOT THE VBIOS, as long as the card is from Dell , and flashed with the Dell Offical Vbios ( doesn't matter Slave or Master ) and you follow my steps . I can assure you'll have a nice R1 once again .
    Looking for source of 6970/6990s , any recommendation , guys . I luv to do experiments
     
  48. tyranus7

    tyranus7 Notebook Evangelist

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    I think both, R1 and R2 run their video cards at PCIe 2.0 @ x8... so there is no an issue there. Acording to GPU-Z one of my cards sometimes run @x16 and the other @x8.. and no problem. Finally they always go down at x8 anyway. And for recomendation I'll say go for the 6970m because they are a lot cheaper then 6990m. You can find them on eBay for a bit less than $400. But I am not sure if those have CF connector :confused:
     
  49. reborn2003

    reborn2003 THE CHIEF!

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    Hey Dannyboy,

    There looks to be a guy whom might be selling some 6900 Series GPUs on here soon.

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/wan...um/614804-pc-mxm-6970-6990-a.html#post7956954

    Also were you still interested in my M17x R2 motherboard?
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/com...sfire-5870ms-pulled-r2-crossfire-cable-6.html

    Cheers. :)
     
  50. inzelux

    inzelux Notebook Evangelist

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    Thanks for the thread, Dannyboy!

    I have some questions for you (I just bought two HD5870 with Crossfire cable)
    What BIOS flash did you use to begin with?
    - Did you flash your bios after that you removed your Nvidia Drivers?
    *** - If so, what BIOS flash did you use? (The newest one available from DELL?)

    - Did you remove the Crossfire cable from the 5870 when you first booted up with one?
    - Did you flash your bios again when you had inserted the second card?


    Thank you!
     
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