M17x R2 7970m CrossfireX Ultimate Installation and Tweaking Guide

Congrats sangemaru!!!

Your scores really show what difference quality power makes My donor cable is in the country so hopefully I get it soon and have some free time this weekend to perform the mod. Also if you can, try to get the Fujipoly pads as they are really flexible and can be rolled flatter if you need them thinner.

I managed a +-13150 GPU score on 3Dmark11 with 950/1400 clocks and 0.975v so 13500 is definitely within reach for 7970M Crossfire.

AlienHack and flingin. your temps are crazy for those TDP and multi's, I hit 95c when I try to game on 24x across all cores and 90 TDP. I'm hoping a repaste and retention mod will help.

 

Sounds good I'm curious what results you'll get with the extra power. Some things to keep in mind:

On my 240W PSU, the chip used was a DS2501 memory in a TO-92 package, nothing at all resembling imsolidstate's instructions and located on the reverse side of the board near IC134. U208 did not exist on my board. This basically means that you'll need someone with a multimeter checking the signal trace from the ID wire to see where it goes, and able to read product schematics to figure out the pinout of the chip in case you run into anything exotic.

 

Thanks for the tips! :thumbsup:

The PSU that you pulled the chip from, was it a Flextronics or Delta? I have a multimeter so I'll try to trace the ID line if PCB ends up looking different.

 

Delta, black PCB.

 

The id-chip is easily recognizable.
It's a 3 pin EEPROM with 2 legs connected to each other which is strange.
Using a multimeter is a quick solution.

It might be an idea to post pictures of the chips used in various adapters.(brand/wattage/type)

 

I'll post pics when I get them from my friend.

 

I had the same chip. Swapping two DS2501's. In my 240 it was IC134. In the 330 it was a simular chip.
All i did today was cutting out the 330W chip and replacing it with the 240 chip. No lane cuts and no shorting.
My "theory" surrounding this is that there are other components also included in the DS2501 and thats why the lanes had to be cut. Also suspect after reading Imsolidsates guide that the extra line is to compensate for the lane he cut.

How much power i can drain still remains to be seen. But now i use my 330, no beebs in startup, and it charges the battery when the battery has been drained.
Will read a bit more from imsolidstates page and see if there are reason to believe that this will not give me the 330W.

To make it easier for me, I cut out the 330 W original ID chip with a small cutter not having to remove the cover on one side, just soldering out the remaining pins.
I also soldered the chip on back of the board instead of the position it had originally to make it easier to mount since the cover is above the holes. Remember to turn the chip if u do to make the pins correct.

 

The two legs connected to each other aren't too strange, they're both basically GND pins. What is important is cutting the signal trace reporting into the comparator and soldering it to ground also.

 

is there a 4gb 7970m and would it work on crossfire with a 2gb version?

 

There's no 4GB version, unfortunately.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-940 Processor,Alienware

Making steps to those 10K+ scores

 

impressive

 

Great score! You are reaching my max which was 9995

also considering what you tech friend told you about the 240w psu raising temps as cpu and gpus try to keep the current, now you are making me think about going fir the mod although as I have said I dont seem to practically need it. But having even lower temps than my current low ones sounds interesting. ..

 

I'd definitely advise everyone to do the mod. The threat of component degradation is something I wouldn't take lightly. I try to avoid heat wherever possible.

 

AMD Catalyst
^ win7 64bit driver.

13.10 beta is out. its mostly for crossfire users and it improves on rome 2!!!

 

On my way of ordering GPU for crossfire. Just have to find a suitable card.
Have to have this.
Will play a bit with my CPU for fun while waiting to see how high i can make it run.

Seems my repasting has worked wonders for temperatures on CPU and GPU.
Also did a slight job on transfer between fan and heatsink to make all air go the right way.

Can easily run below 70 deg C for first benchmark test without elevating the laptop.
On my new cooling pad i can run low 60's.

 

Then its done.
A happy owner of a 017 VBIOS to pair up with my 021 and upgrade both with the 022 as you have described.
Going to check the mail every day now..........................

 

Haha, good luck. We await you to the darkside.

 

does the crossfire configuration work with the 021 bios?
ive had the 022 bios working on a single card with no problems
but on crossfire it messes things up?

 

We have cookies...

anyone of you guys carring to do the mod for me? I will post the 2 psus to your address and pay for postal back to me of the moded psu

 

No, it shouldn't matter. You should be able to use any vbios on any card to run crossfire, so long as that vbios also works with the card solo.

 

impressed by the physics scores you guys have.
With my single GPU i cant seem to get close to thoose 7000 you guys get.

Not sure i can get past 6500 no matter how i tweak due to temp.

 

@Trome71: Is your 330W PSU modded according to imsolidstate's newer instructions (sorry if you've already mentioned, my head is a bit fuzzy right now). If it's properly modded, then you may want to look into a replacement heatsink (but try to see if it has any leaks beforehand), or a retention mod on the heatsink screws, or just replacing your thermal interface with something high-quality like Prolimatech PK-(1/2/3), Noctua NT-H1, or Tuniq TX-(2/3/4).

If by any chance you haven't done the revised version of imsolidstate's mod, there's a fairly decent chance your CPU may not be receiving enough power and you're having temp issues because of that.
Still, 6500 is a decent score, so you may not have any psu issues but simply need better paste and more core contact.

 

Dont think i have to do the enitre mod, since i had the same ID chip as the 330W supply. Swapped them and it seems to work perfectly.

Quite sure the components surrounding the same chip is there to make sure it works as the chip is intended and there are other components on the boards between the surface mounted one and the SOT to cope for the different type of component between the two different type of 240 ID chips.

Still i only have one GPU and should not encouter PSU issues yet.


I run with 3% BIOS overclock +75mv and 27 times multiplier and 120 W in throtlestop when benchmarking.
Get to around 81deg after test. Can of course go slightly higher but not much. GPU runs to about 71deg.
My core clocks runs a bit over 3700 doing this, no blue screen. (got that at 28 X )
The paste i use is the best i could find after tests done in 2013. GELID GC extreme.
Do some more tests when new GPU is in place.
Could also be less work for the CPU when adding a GPU reducing the load?

 

Whoa!! Trom the 27x and 28x multies you mention are not easy to come by!! Do you mean that you use these multies on all 4 cores? Thats amazing!

 

You absolutely have to do the entire PSU mod. Though the chips are identical, the interrogation method is different (the 240W ID system on the m17x-R2 is designed to parasitically power the chip, whereas the system on the m18x is different, powering the chip from the PSU, and then lowering the bus signal). You'll need to reopen the PSU and cut the trace and perform the solders as shown on imsolidstate's latest instruction page, otherwise when you install the second card you'll run into serious issues.
This is already evident through the fact that you're running such extreme settings (27/28 are pretty big) without matching our scores. This indicates that your CPU is seriously throttling. What are your temps with those settings under a benchmark run?

What is the maximum multiplier and TDP you can reach and sustain with temps maxing out at around 94-95C?

With your CPU achieving values like that, it would be a shame to cripple it due to lack of power. Trust me, re-do the mod

 

All cores get the same 27 or 28 yes.
Can try again tomorrow with higher TDP to see if i can do 28 on all cores but temp could then be an issue.
Using 120 today during a test temps 81 degC, but are using extra coolingpad.



If i get problems now from low power from PSU, the mod will not be enough.
Adding GPU is adding more than the difference between the two PSU's. :-( (240 to 330 is 10W below the 100W extra of the GPU)

Havent got the chance to do the PSU mod in a few days, since i have to do this at work to get the solder station.
Perhaps its the throttling that makes me able to OC so heavily without the extreeme temperatures due to throttling reducing load. :-(

 

Can you check with throttlestop what the actual multies are? I cant beleive that all your cores do run at 28x multy

 

As mentioned, think i have to tweak a bit to do 28. I got bluescreen trying earlier today, but at that point i had 82W TDP.
There will be a few days before i receive the GPU meaning i have some time to play with CPU.

 

82W TDP is nowhere near enough to sustain even 25x without overvolt under max load. The higher the temps go, the lower multis will drop. You would have to go to 85+ TDP (even 90+) to reach 6800-7000 physics score, regardless of the multiplier you set.

I hope my Crossfire cable is failing on me... i've been having some really bad troubles with the second card dropping clocks and dragging the first card with it.... Swapped cards around, no change.
I'll see if i can pick up an original cable, what i'm using now is a butchered one...

 

when i was getting 6970m from Eurocom, they included CF cable for free.....lucky i am

but that was back in the days when you just had to nicely ask.....now you have to pay $$

Half of my alienware in built on Eurocom parts....Eurocom FTW


Thinking of getting CF 7970m as well....just that PSU mod thing is throwing me away.....

 

Here u go alienhack.
Ive done a 28X for you. This time only 075 overvoltage, no BIOS OC.
Not very impressed by the physics this time either. Will really see how it helps doing the extra PSU modding later.
On the other hand, the trends show full CPU during last time of test. (physics part, above 3700, but would expect about 3850 on 28 and didnt reach that.)
I can also see that i have 100W max. Perhaps a sign of the power issues.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-940 Processor,Alienware

 

PSU Mod is easy-peasy. Really, it's very easy to do with a soldering iron, flux, and some wire.
Dunno if it would necessarily be worth it vs an OC'd 780m... the 780m is slower, but probably more stable (although my machine was perfectly stable until I ran into some hdd corruption then everything went downhill).

Yea, that score is 22x-23x level. Even if they show full CPU, that doesn't tell you anything, really, since you're still getting massively throttled for sure. I don't understand what you're refering to by 100W max. Is that the TDP you have set up?

 

Did try 28X and 5% oc but think temp got to me in the last test. The CPU effect got to about 108W before shutting down. Apx 3900 MHz on all cores.

But here is my 28 and 3% BIOS Oc and 75mV.



Also my 3d test
AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-940 Processor,Alienware

Getting to about 105 W.

Isnt TDP the highest alowed effect on the CPU setting in throtlestop? Ive set it way higher than the CPU can go.

And HW info showing how high it really goes during tests?

And isnt 24 times the original turbo speed? Giving you apx 3200 MHz on the cores?

 

25x is default for 940XM. (3.33GHz).
So long as your CPU can be cooled down enough to stay under ~95-97C, feel free raising that TDP.
The principle is like this: With a lower TDP setting, your CPU will push the multis as far as it can before detecting too much heat output, a point at which it will begin to scale multiplier up and down while under heavy load to fit into the TDP footprint. Increasing the TDP allows the CPU to maintain higher multipliers for a longer period of time, with the drawback of it being possible for your CPU to get too hot and reach TjMax, at which point it begins active throttling (not just downscaling multis). Even a single core reaching 99C is a signal for you to either improve your cooling or lower TDP.

You should not raise voltage in bios unless your cooling is so formidable that you can reach the highest stable multiplier (usually 26x on a 940xm) and maintain it at a point where raising TDP no longer raises performance. It's only when you maxed out the available multis and TDP settings and increasing them makes your system unstable, that you should then consider to give it a slight overvolt bump and increase multis and TDP some more. Unless some retention mods are in play, you're most likely never going to be able to cool the CPU enough to justify overvolting.

That final score you posted is pretty interesting. Not impressive on the physics score itself, but it doesn't have to be. What everyone should be aiming for is as high a combined score as possible. I recommend you write down the settings you used for that run (and share them with us of course ) so that you have a good baseline to be tweaking upwards from.

By the way, I now get what you meant by reaching 103-108W. The intel Platform Controller Hub (PCH) is a separate device that bares no importance on your OC attempts in the current environment. Ignore that.

EDIT: Check the boxes for Clock modulation 100% and Chipset Clock Mod 100% as well as the Set multiplier box. You're not using Throttlestop to its full strength at the moment. Be prepared for massive crashes at your multiplier and TDP settings These will force your CPU to only throttle near TjMax (i can guarantee that right now it's throttling no matter what your TDP is).

Prepare to see those temps go UP UP UP.

 

As you can see i had only max temp of 85 degC under the test. Think i have very good cooling

I had 28 times on all cores.
I had 75mV on BIOS overvoltage (and still not running to hot, but using extra cooler for this. Will do another test later without and see if i can run below 92, only slight elevated rear of pc)
I had 3% BIOS OC.

I had TDP of 130
I had TDC of 62

 

Check my last edit in the post above You need to check a few boxes if you want to push the CPU more.

 

Ill do that, but reducing the speed first

 

I'm really curious to see whether your combined score will go up or down with those boxes checked. I've been trying to understand the relationship between OC and that combined score for a while now.

 

did a 27X same setup 2 cm elevated rear of PC and still about 85deg max.
Did also a 28X with coolingpad, 3% OC in bios pluss 75mV

No real improvements really.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-940 Processor,Alienware

 

Hmm, that's quite peculiar. Can you try a run with the following settings?

Chipset clock mod checked.
Clock modulation checked.
Set Multiplier Turbo checked.
TDP 105W
TDC 65A
no OC in bios
No OV in bios
TRL set to 26x multis across all cores.

 

Just did one TS 32M test first with X30 and 1% OC and 150 mV
Just to push my clock over 4K.



Will try a 3D test to but expecting bluescreen quickly.

Will also try your settings after this benchmark.

 

Don't rely on the HwInfo reported speeds. They have a really weird monitoring method. I used to get 5+Ghz speeds reported in HwInfo.
When doing runs look for the max reported speed from within throttlestop. You'll be able to see your multipliers vary.

 

Here is the score with your settings.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-940 Processor,Alienware

Im quite sure i can get a screendump of the same numbers of throttlestop while doing 30X. Did see the 4K mark there too just have to adjust BIOS again and hope i prtscrn at the correct moment

the 4K dump in T.S
It held the 30X stable for almost the entire test.

 

That looks entirely too cool for bragging purposes
Unfortunately, 3dmark performance seems to degrade with settings like that

 

i cant even complete 3D mark with thoose settings
Ill do a lot more tests after XF and PSU mod, still waiting for the seller to ship it. :-(

 

Ive done the PSU update. I did not get any improvements/reductions.

One of the picture explaining the SOT to SOT update was perhaps wrong.

View attachment 101702

The SOT has middle pin as ID pin.
Imsolidstates ID pin is the bottom left (looking at his pic)
Connecting the top and middle pin on the SOT together would stop the floating but connecting ID and floating pin could cause other issues??

The pins needing ground is the two outside ones. (top pin beeing the "floater" bottom already is ground)

Grounding the cut lane also and it should be like the description.

 

I have the same setup you have, but I'll have to find the pictures I took of how to do it. If i remember correctly: Cut trace, ground trace, ground the two non-data pins together.

 

i didnt know that you had the 075 voltage boost on bios!! i thought it was on standard voltage.

and its very hard to go above 25-26 on all cores with standar voltages on cpu.

Anyways, your cpu looks like a great overclocker, geting to 4Ghz with 86C temps!! :thumbsup:

PS. on default voltage and with Chipset clock mod checked. & Clock modulation checked whats the max multies you can run all cores??

these are the correct settings,
Chipset clock mod checked.
Clock modulation checked. especially must allways be ticked so that you dont get throttling

great cpu!! mine does 24X multies max at standar volts and 29X with +150mV

 

Ill do some more tests for you tomorrow without BIOS voltage.
Did 26 today.

 

what is the ambient temps in Norway these days?