M17x R2 7970m CrossfireX Ultimate Installation and Tweaking Guide

Hmmmm not very far from your results after stopping all but HWinfo.
Using it with high update time and manual fans full speed from the start.

I see that you have higher clock than i have at 25X.

Temps stopping at CPU: 78 GPU: 2*63

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

It is odd that it says that I have 3 gig of VRAM only.
Anyone know why?

EDIT:
With 26X clock to get your clockspeed w/turbo
Temp : 79 and 2*64
About same test results.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/1609113

 

I'm running a crossfire setup with dell cards.
What's the best vbios I can flash?
I will try to update when make a complete run with 3dmark11

 

Try running stock or slight OC in 3DMark11 on the dell VBIOS.
Watch carefully for lagging and fast drops to half speed in the first test.
This was aparent for me from slightly below stock clocks and up both with undervolt, stock and overvolt.

Now i have stock VBIOS from Nospheratu's signature, a Clevo one: (under about me)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/member.php?u=350714

For you it might not be needed, since this probably is giving up on my HDMI, but i dont care using it mostly with the fantastic original screen.
If i want to use HDMI its only a flash away, but i dont see the need right now, needing the speed for BF4 more.

My lagging is gone and i can OC quite heavily if i want to in overdrive.
I will be going to the slight undervolted VBIOS and slight OC in overdrive.

 

To add to comparisons, i checked how a system (M18x R2) with 3940XM performs comparing to our R2s with 920XM

With same 7970m cards and almost same OC level on GPU

Take a look.

Result

3940Xm was clocked at 4.4 GHZ, so 1GHz Higher than our 920XM !....and the Graphics Score was almost the same as mine.

Who else thinks 920XM is bottlenecking 7970m CF ?

Applause

 

Awesome,
Will the clevo vbios make the fans work automatic also?

 

I use HWinfo, always and i run fans manually if playing.

Someone else not using HWinfo can tell you how to do it.

 

Ive got more to give, but without BIOS OC that i know i also can do 5% and 75mA that will increase performance a bit more:

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

I can also tweak my GPU's.

Temps ending at 79 (CPU) and 2*64 (gpu), all voltages stock.
27X CPU.

EDIT:
Well i just had to try to beat the M18. I didnt today, but its close.

OC'ing a bit more heavy, even BIOS 5% and 75mV
Clocks on GPU u can see.
Temps ending lower for GPU than before: (56 deg)
CPU is 87.
Glad i have the cooling pad.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/1609763

 

voltage on cards ?

this week i will try 1.05 voltage and 1000/1400

 

I'm not sure if this has already been covered or not, but I just bought a Clevo 7970m from a forum member here and installed it in my R2.

It works perfectly. The only problem is that at idle, on the desktop, the gpu is pinned to 100% usage. I've tried every vbios I've been able to find and a myriad of different drivers to no avail. Any ideas anyone?

 

I don't want to jinx it, but I think 13.6 beta 6 fixed it. . . . . blarg

Nope. Didn't fix it.

EDIT: Ok so if I uninstall and reinstall the video drivers without restarting the computer, everything will be fine. I'm able to use the gpu to it's full potential and it will idle at a normal usage. However, I can't get CCC to open without restarting.

And once I restart, the idle usage immediately sticks again at 100% and the only way to get it back down is to reinstall the drivers without restarting. HELP!

EDIT: Figured out if I disable and then enable the card in device manager on boot the problem goes away until next boot. This means I don't have to reinstall the drivers on every boot. Only have to write a script to disable and then enable the card on startup.

Getting closer. . . . Anyone else had this problem?

 

Search the registry and disable all entries of "EnableULPS" by changing the value to 0. It's covered in sangemaru's guide on the first post. Normally this happens with the secondary card so if you're running a single card it just shows how messed up AMD's power saving implementation is.

Congrats on the card!

 

Awesome score man!

I get +- 5700 Firestrike... weird. Must be something I'm doing wrong

 

That is a really good score. Awesome job. As far as graphics power, you're right there neck and neck. That AC adapter mod is working fantastic. I am really excited for you. The M17xR2 never ceases to amaze me.

I am surprised the overall benchmarks are so close with the physics score being miles apart (almost 3500 points lower with the 920XM) and the 3940XM running almost 1GHz faster. That is very puzzling. Maybe it is something about the way Fire Strike is calculated that largely ignores CPU performance.

Have you compared 3DMark11 and Vantage to see how that works out? If the 920XM is bottlenecking the GPU it does not show much in Fire Strike at all, but it might in 3DMark11 and/or Vantage.

 

I have done 1,05 and i know i can go higher on clocks on GPU for this test to beat the 8K mark.

I also can perhaps go higher on CPU to but not much.

The newer 3DMark physics tests are a bit different than the 3DMark 11 tests.
This time i have apx same score as you when CPU has same clockspeed.
I 3DMark11 i can go very high and still stay behind your scores.

As The Fox says to, the CPU is also weighted different. Mine is 2500 lower than the M18 and the 920/1320 makes me score apx same as the M18.

 

In 3DMark 11 we can "easily" go above 15K graphics score. Not much bottleneck there.
CPU slower though.

Funny how his slower pysics and graphics score still result in higher combined score.

 

Thanks man! It didn't work though. I changed all the EnableULPS and EnableULPS_NA entries to 0 in the registry. There were about 20 of them. No change on the idle usage. Is there any other way to disable ULPS? Using Trixx didn't work. So far the only thing that works is the script I wrote to disable and enable the gpu on startup. =/

 

@aarpcard: what vbioses are you running?

 

Jesus, i think something is wrong in your Registry, you should only have about 2 entries :/ lol ?

 

I think he might be running the Dell vBIOS from svl7's modpack as that's what reborn2003 sold the card with.

@aarpcard Try the CLEVO vBIOS in my sig. Backup your current vBIOS before you do.

I also have about 20 entries Too many driver installs with all these beta's

 

I used to always have between 14 and 21 EnableULPS DWORD entries in the registry with 6970M, 6990M and 7970M.

 

Same.

Regarding those bench scores you guys put up:

So, if I'm getting this right: 3DMark Firestrike has our 3-generations old cpu's at 1GHz back at something like 25% lower performance than extreme overclocked haswell, is that right? And no difference in the combined test?

That's pretty nice.

 

Lol i have changed 2 and it is all working as intended

 

@aarpcard: when switching between drivers do you use the Amd Express Uninstall utility? What OS are you using?

 

I've tried literally all the vbios's i can find. I've tried every bios on the techpowerup site. I've tried the vbios and I've tried all the vbios's in the mod pack (the ones with modded voltages, clocks etc) - is this the same as the ones in your sig Nospheratu? Eitherway, for some reason, my Tech Inferno account won't let me access your download page. Probable because I've barely used it . . .

Right now I'm at work so I can't tell you specifically which vbios I'm using, but I'll let you know as soon as I get home and continue troubleshooting.

To remove the drivers, I'm uninstalling using the uninstaller provided with the driver installation setup and then booting into safemode and running driversweeper to remove any straggling files.

 

All the VBIOS versions you have tried have probably been DELL ones. Nospheratu has CLEVO VBIOS in his signatures.
Nospheratu could probably help you out. Dont wanna be the one giving away his pride and joy.
All of the dell ones gave me a hard time.

Now for other news.
Just had to beat the M18 for this. Will probably be beaten by another M17 guy later? But highest for now i guess??

Have passed the 8K mark.

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

Maximum turbo core clock: 3 929 MHz during test.

75mV OV in BIOS.
GPU did not want to play nicely on 950 / 1350 so had to reduce to 1325.

 

I know for a fact I've tried at least 2 Clevo vbios's - the one on the techpowerup site, and the Clevo vbios that has been modified to not fry the RGB screens - I don't have a RGB screen. Neither has worked. =/ (I was also under the impression that the 7970m vbios's with the modded voltages and clocks - can't be more specific b/c I'm at work and most sites are blocked - done by the same person who documented the 240 watt ID chip swap into the 330 watt PSU I believe, were Clevo vbios's)

Nospheratu, I know it's asking a lot, but is it possible for you to send me the vbios's you have linked in your sig by some means outside of Tech inferno? PM me and I'll send you my email if you'd like.

I'll try anything at this point in time because nothing has worked so far. The script makes the computer usable as it only adds about 3 seconds to the boot up time and then everything is good to go from there so if I can't find some other fix it's not the end of the world.

My suspicion is that I'll have this problem until I buy and install a 2nd 7970m in CFX.

 

@aarpcard, PM your mail address and I'll mail you the vBIOS pack. Or you could make 5 quality posts on T|I and downloads will unlock.

@Trome71, That's a mental score man!

 

Yes. Highest for now until I come back from work

Challange accepted

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

and you were the one i was thinking about.
Not sure this voltage can get me much higher in gpu speed but since i still operate in the high 50's i can go higher on voltage and then clockspeed. But it will be ok for now.

 

Hey aarpcard, I have reborns other 7970m and its running with my m17xr2. Just had to flash it with the forced clevo vbois both stock and the 0.975 undervoltage work well. I hope this solves your problem. Nospheratu helped with mine too. He's the man!

 

Glad to hear it works! Did you experience the max idle usage before you flashed to one of Nospheratu's vbios's too?

 

HAHA !

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-950 Processor,Alienware 014M8C

Now Hold on, where is my 1000 Points missing in Physics Score LOL ?

Me VS Throme71

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/1138021/fs/1136295

Had no throttling at all...i think small glitch might caused this,

@Throme71 what TRL did you set for this test ? I had 26/26/26/28 105/90 TDP/TDC +150mV

 

LOL Was expecting closer CPU. (revenge of my CPU in this test getting back the almost 1000 you beat me on the 3DMark11 physics)

I did 115/100 TDP/TDC. (HWinfo running full time fans, and showing max 105w)
75mV 5% BIOS plus 4 times 28X

What was your GPU voltage?

 

GPU voltage stock 1.05V
CPU +150mV in BIOS + 5%

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You beat my score GPU wise. I cannot do that with 1.05.

CPU= i had 28 on all cores, you had on one.

 

Actually I bought it from the guy who bought it from reborn2003. He Flashed it for a different brand. That being said I never that issue

 

So I went to buy my second clevo 7970m from Eurocom today and they are sold out and aren't getting more as they switched to the 8970m. Does anyone know where I can get a Clevo card that will work on my m17xr2? I was real excited for crossfire. Thanks in advance

 

Upgrademonkey on EBAY will have.

 

Just did new test for you flingin.

Same GPU voltage. A bit more clock, and more easy on the CPU to be a bit kind to it.
No BIOS OC/OV. 28X T-stop. Same TDP/TDC.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/1617297

 

The vbios's I got from Nospheratu didn't work. Oh well, I'll just have to live with it I think. Gonna have to focus on sourcing another 7970m for CFX now!

I am able to get to a stable 1ghz on the overvolted vbios though!

 

Sad face

Good luck

 

Is there a certain clevo card that works in our machines. Their description confuse me.

 

I just got a kit from Eurocom. 2 same cards. Works plug and play and overclocks like crazy....

Also. What frustrates me is that new 3dmark. Test lasts forever because all those demos
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I tried eurocom and there sold out and are not getting more as they switched to the 8970m. So I'm looking for a single clevo from. Upgrade monkey. But I haven't found them too helpful in selecting the right one.

 

Not true about eurocom. They have 7970m listed on ebay....

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I talked to the sales guy personally today who said they were sold out. Do you have that link?

 

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-950 Processor,Alienware 014M8C

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111210029757?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

I think you talked to the wrong person bro


BTW it is only listed as for clevo only. You can ask them to flash the card with correct vbios.


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http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/1617851

More than GHz Edition 7970M

 

Is there a vbios I should ask for? The other thing upgrading from a 5870m in crossfire I guess i need to ask for a bracket and screws?