M17x R2 7970m CrossfireX Ultimate Installation and Tweaking Guide

It was a GTX 580M also it had the same issue, thermal shutdown when playing farcry 4 .
I dont think I have small thermal pads, im using the blue thermal pad that came with my gtx 970m .
il redo the thermal paste and report back.
thanks.

Edit: the heat sink was taken from a gtx 285M , do you know what mods should I do ?
I read op but I don't have 0.5mm thermal pads so instead of pads can I use thermal paste?

 

Try to flatten the thermal pads is they are soft using a rolling pin or whatever you think might work. That would be the ideal solution.

But yeah many members have used thermal paste for the vRAM as well. Use about a grain of rice size for each RAM chip and try to use a thick thermal paste if you have it. You don't want the paste to cause a mess. Avoid Artic Silver 5 if you can as it's capacitive.

 

I am not sure, but if you're having problems with both cards maybe try putting new thermal past on the CPU. That was my problem and it fixed it.

 

cpu temps are at normal range but gpu.
Bad thing happened to my heat sink.
I was thinking the heat pipes were making bad contact with die so I baked the heat sink, unfortunately the fins got separated from heat pipes. I was in a big effort to join them back but it doesn't happen.
I have a m18x AMD heatsink il cut fins to the shape of this fins and fit it tomorrow.
Il keep you guys posted, if you have a better idea to modify a 3 pipe heat sink please let me know.

 

Mate, if your fins got demolished then you need a new heatsink, even if you glue some fins with thermal glue all this $h%t will not be able to cool properly,

Post a photo of how the damage looks, but if it is bad, you need new heatsink and believe me it will work out cheaper to cut the cost now and get proper thing than to fix holes in the old one.....post a photo bro


PS Do you guys know if anybody wants to buy brand new RGB LED screen ?
I have one for sale on NBR marketplace

 

Hey mate, seems like they got demolished.
Il upload some pictures later since I'm now cutting fins off the m18x r1 heatsink.
Man that thermal glue between the heatpipes and fins are sh*t.

Il see the results after this modded heatsink.
It's a PITA when cutting the fins , lol.

 

So I done goofed. About a week ago my brother insisted I play Battlefront with him, installed it, but was forced to update to latest drivers. All seemed to go well, wasn't experiencing any real issues. Until a couple days later. Now it's BSOD after BSOD, tons of variety in which one.

I had done a restore point prior to upgrading drivers, and assuming that was the issue I decided to restore to that point. Everything was fine for a day or two, and after shutting down and moving to another location it has begun acting up again.

Best i can figure there is an issue with one of my SSDs or the drivers for multiple items have just gotten corrupted. I'm think about reformatting and doing a reinstall of everything, but if anyone has other ideas I'd love to hear them.

On a second note has anyone with the 1 card mod successfully upgraded to windows 10 yet?

 

You could try "sfc /scannow" from an elevated command prompt to repair any corrupt OS files.


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Hi guys.
Ive been gone a while.
Not used my R2 a while and lost my login credentials.
Got it fixed no though.

Was making a popo on my VBIOS not uploading what i used before downloading "new" VBIOS:

Have a GPU hang on BF4 and wanted to try to increase voltages slightly to fix it, but no success.
Still hangs but now it also stutters as i remember it did before i lowered voltages.

Need to investigate what VBIOS i used in the end so that i get good performance plus sound in HDMI.

Any1 remembering if any of the VBIOS'es from Clevo giving the overdrive option in Catalyst?

 

pm me or upload your vbios , il enable OD for you.

edit: status update on my R2.
my heatsink go bombarded also my m18x heatsink go f*uped.
I'm without my R2 until ebay ships me a new m18x and a m17x r2 heatsink.
if you see my heatsink you will know how good im in modding.

 

I found the clevo 019 version stock voltage and with OD for my dell cards, so im fine, thx anyways. This actually gives me sound on HDMI also. Give u a PM if i find i have to use another version of VBIOS modified.

Tried every solution to fix my BF that get DXGI device hung message crashing the game. Someone suggested increasing memory voltage for GPU and since i did undervolted cards i am now trying stock voltage to see if it works.

U guys doing the mods for cooling? Nice. Im still using my heatspring on the CPU and one GPU and it works like crazy.

Edit: The one with heatspring and the CPU seems to be better over time.
The primary GPU that had paste did apx 10deg higher than the heatspring one, about 1.5 year after last pastejob.
Since i couldnt fint rest of my heatspring ( ) i repasted my primarycard using my precious GC Extreme paste that also gives fantastic cooling. (my opinion its better than the diamond. Ive tried both and read multiple tests. )

 

I just installed two 7970m Dell cards (stock vbios from a m18x r2) in my m17x r2 running Windows 10 with no problems (other than external displays), and they are working great. Although the only problem I have is that I am not able to use HDMI or VGA or display port to DVI. The only external monitor hookup I am able to do is with display-port to HDMI. I am trying to hook up a 120hz external monitor using display port to DVI-D on my monitor but the monitor is not recognizing a signal from the laptop. Anyone have any suggestions for what I should do or has anyone successfully hooked up a 120hz / 144hz or 1440p / 4k monitor using your display-port?

 

So I modded my m17x r2 years ago to keep life in it (16GB ram, i7 920 if i'm not mistaken) and now i'm trying once again to keep it fresh (love that rgb-led). I purchased a 7970m that was from an alienware m18x r2, and am looking forward to installing it when it arrives. I have A10 unlocked bios from the previous mods...and other than that, I have done nothing else, and am worried about vBios vs bios. Any tips anyone can give would be appreciated. Thanks!

EDIT: More importantly, i'm worried the stock vbios this 7970m card has will not work. Can anyone confirm this from an alienware m18x r2? I keep reading clevo's and eurocoms are the way to go, but it just wasn't an option at the time.

 

My 7970m cards are from a m18x r2 and its plug and play.

 

That's what I like to hear! Very cool. The seller says the card is coming with the x-bracket as well (most people say 7970m and 5870 had different ones), so that was definitely a bonus.

Did you driver wipe before installing the newer cards? People keep talking about white screens and burning out their rgb's. Also, even though you said plug and play, I just have to ask...do you use HWiNFO to manage your fans? Or are those working well?

In your post above you mentioned HDMI not working at all? Is that still the case?

 

I didn't do a driver sweep. I am running Windows 10. Also I am using Hwinfo. I am running just the current AMD driver 15.10. I am not sure about the screen burning out.

 

Hmmm, sounds good to me! Guess ill just have to put the card in when I get it, and see how it rolls out. Thanks for taking the time to answer STJOHN!

 

@STJOHN777, thanks for the Windows 10 feedback. Can you please post a screenprint of GPU-Z for both graphics cards so that we know what vBIOS versions you are currently running?

Can you also please confirm that you are not experiencing any RSOD's when running 3Dmark Firestrike or any games in crossfire? Thanks.

 

So nearly perfect news! Swapped out my 5870 with a single 7970m Dell brand card, and it was literally plug and play. (Alienware m17x R2) It appears to work fine, it found the appropriate drivers through Windows 7 and everything so far seems good. However, I had HWiNFO running just in case, and I couldn't help but notice my GPU fan is running at 1rpm...not good right? Physically checked, and oh yeah it's hot, so I just turned the machine off.

I've heard others using he HWiNFO program to control the fans, but I can't seem to figure it out. Can anyone point me to a tutorial they would recommend? Also, what is a good RPM for the GPU fan to be at?

 

Max rpm for the fans are 4500. The Laptop will automatically turn off when the graphics cards reach about 84C.

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So here's my current stats on HWiNFO...I noticed the GPU1 fan speed appears to be running, but what is the GPU Fan running at 1RPM after the thermal? What temps should I really be watching? I went in to control the fan speeds, and there's CPU1, GPU1, GPU2, cpu 1 and gpu 1 are regulating themselves no problem, but the GPU2 is at 1...but I think this is only if I had crossfire going? Screenshot below, please verify this is looking okay. Thermal diode was jumping to 80 degrees C when I started a game.

http://s1204.photobucket.com/user/haisuru/media/Capture_zpsvfct5qoh.png.html

 

In HWiNFO, what's the difference between GPU1 (which is in RPMs) and GPU Fan (also in RPMs)? Right now, my PC is showing GPU1 at good RPM speeds, but GPU Fan is at 1, but I can't seem to modify the GPU Fan speeds, unless it's somewhere else?

The only options I have are CPU #1, GPU #1, GPU #2. Suggestions?

 

STJOHN: Did you buy all new thermal pads when you did the swap? If so, what kind would you recommend? My PC is running fine while idle, everything works, but it just gets too hot when I play a game, and I think maybe my old pads and some cheapo paste isn't helping the situation. Any recommendations in that department would be appreciated.

EDIT: Also, did you have to double up the pads for the chips around the GPU chip? I noticed their not tightly sealed, just kind of sitting on it.

 

1 mm pads should be OK 1.5mm will be too thick, thermal paste.....ONLY IC DIAMOND, any other paste is utter $¥!+.

You need a retention mod to get higher pressure on the GPU DIE ...


Any more questions ?

Pm me if you like

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When I try Firestrike in crossfire my temps for my second card gets up to 85C then it shuts down. FIXED Now the max they go is 80C thanks to this guide. All I did was the duck-tape mod.
http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m17x-aw-17/13-m17x-r2-cooling-mod-ashtefere.html

My stock Firestrike score http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/9155643?

I was having a problem with Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor not working in Crossfire, but i created a profile for the game in AMD Catalys Control Center, and it works alright now ( the menu will go crazy on me), but in game it works good at ultra/high.

 

I would love to PM you, but i only have 7 posts I was thinking about getting these thermal pads, what do you think? http://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-Therma...id=1446694394&sr=1-1&keywords=1mm+thermal+pad

As for IC diamond paste...this? http://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Cooling-Diamond-Carat-Compound/dp/B0042IEVD8
Any opinions on Arctic Silver?

I think the only "gap" or lack of pressure is on the outside chips that use the thermal pads, you don't think 1.5mm would help bridge that gap? I'm not really certain what to do with a retention mod to be honest.

Thanks for the help!

 

I keep reading all these horror stories about using IC Diamond paste. Abrasive, "etchings" are some words being thrown around. Oh well, I've read the majority of this thread, and if there's one thing I'm sure of, flingin ain't messing around here.

 

Thanks for the feedback @STJOHN777

Would you mind saving copy of your vBIOS and uploading it here? You can grab the latest version of GPU-Z here. Open it up and select "Not now" when prompted whether you would like to install. Then just click on the icon highlighted in red below and "Save to file".



I'm trying to troubleshoot the red screen issues I'm experiencing Windows 10 and I'd really appreciate a copy to try on my machine.

@haisuru, regarding thermal pads for the vRAM and my experiences with the 5870M heatsinks. It takes slightly less than 1mm (I'm using a flat 0.5mm piece that covers four chips and then four tiny 0.5mm pieces stacked directly above the chips). Since I'm using Fujipoly premium pads its very soft so when the heatsink is screwed down the smaller stacked pieces offer less resistance and are compressed a bit. If you have a harder thermal pad 0.5mm should work, just make sure they are making contact with the heatsink after screwing it down. Just sitting on top like you mentioned is fine. A little trick I use is shining my cellphones flash from the other side to see if any light shines through between the heatsink and the thermal pad.

Another thing worth mentioning is that if you are using pads on the inductors (grey square plastic thingys that are part of the VRM) use 0.5mm that has been flattened to avoid the heatsink lifting up. Priority here is optimum GPU core contact as flingin mentioned. This is all specific to the 5870M heatsink as that's what I have. If you are unsure try running without pads on the inductors and see if your temps improve. You wont damage your cards as I know Alienhack has never used them and I did the same for a while.

Another excellent paste to use if you're a bit wary about ICD is Gelid's GC Extreme as Trome71 has mentioned.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write that out Nospheratu! I went ahead and purchased the ICD7 stuff after reading more of the reviews on it, it sounds like even if there's a small chance it will degrade the chip, it will be a long time before that happens, and everyone has mentioned how amazing the temps are compared to others. Right now, i'm just trying to keep this old dinosaur breathing so I can play some games that right now are a bit choppy (Witcher 3, Ark, and maybe Fallout 4??).

I'm going to try a complete cleanup of the CPU/GPU chips, so I bought some ArctiClean kit, some 2 part cleaner that seems to be popular. I think with all this new thermal compound/pads and cleaner it should clear some stuff up. That cellphone light trick sounds good, and I will be doing that when it arrives

Even right now, I'm so far happy with the install. I read a lot of horror stories in this thread from other users, so I'm feeling fortunate. The only issues I have are the GPU temps, which will be resolved with the new thermal kit coming (I hope), and I have now noticed that when hooked up to HDMI, there is some tearing when a video is playing. I did upgrade my drivers, so I may restore back to what it was before (since it seemed to work great before). We'll see how that goes when I get home from work. Thanks!

 

ICD7 is the best thermal paste out there period.
Set it and forget it...
Yes it may scratch the shiny glossy CPU/GPU surface but what it does is work and work brilliantly for many years.
Hairsuru make sure you read this guide on how to apply.
Good luck

 

Thanks for the guide TR2N. Looks pretty straight forward, except I haven't looked at my CPU in a few years. The guide mentions Intel tends to have a certain type of size, so maybe i'll have to find a mm ruler when I go to it. Paste should arrive today, so I'm just staring at the tracking progress until it arrives, can't wait!

As a side note, i rolled back my system to my original 5870 catalyst drivers (which accepted my 7970m upon install) and the tearing in my HDMI is gone. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", right?

 

So i seem to have it managed now. I had to use HWiNFO to manage the GPU fan, it makes me wonder if I need to do this for the CPU fan as well? It's running at a default 2500 most times. What do most of you guys run at? I did a little mod to the heatsink for good contact, and right now it sits around 73 degress C during game load. brings the fan up to 4000 rpm when playing, which seems fine.

What i'd like to know is: what are other people getting temp wise on both their CPU/GPU when idle and when under load?

 

On 7970m about 65-74C under heavy load.
Cpu about 55-60C under load.

 

Thanks! Under heavy load mine always hovers around 74 degrees Celsius, but I've been cranking game graphics up to high and then it starts to rise past 80. How are you keeping your tempsite so steady? Idid the retention mod too make sure the heat sink is sitting well on the gpu, but the actual chip is recessed into this area, so I think the heat sink sits on the fenced area instead of the chip itself.

I would like to try the duct mod, using tape to make the fan blow air out the baffles, but I don't understand it.

 

You will find some games push (load) more the gpu than others.
I also tilt the notebook at the back(under the screen with some 2cm stand to allow better air flow). This is done on both my notebooks in my sig.

Good luck.

 

So i've got some thinner thermal pads and a repaste i'm going to do after work today. With the c-ring/washer mod to the heat sink, it makes it so I don't need the thicker thermal pads (1mm) over the memory chips of the GPU, and is in fact, causing the GPU die not to get the perfect seal it needs. I think putting .5mm thermal pads on will help with that. But just in case it doesn't, I found this neat little gadget that I thought i'd share with others. It's a vacuum cooler that you attach to the GPU or CPU fan and based on the reviews, can be amazing for any heating issues. Check it out!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XKU47Y2?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

It shows up tomorrow, i'll check it out and let you know how it works.

 

Greetings,

I am planning on doing this upgrade for myself for Xmas, but I'd like to ask a couple of questions before I start moving forward.

I have pretty much an unaltered M17xR2, so I'd like to know the following:

First, what is the best processor I can get for my $$$. I am not interested in overclocking, and I don't really want to alter the computer with super extra cooling or anything like that. Just want to get the best processor I can pop in the machine.

In the opening post it says the computer supports 16GB RAM, but I keep seeing specs saying that it only supports 8GB. Can someone confirm 16GB, and if so, can you tell me exactly what sticks you are using?

Finally, about the GPU's. It seems that a Clevo card is what I should be going with. How do I identify them, where do I buy them, etc?

I've done some minor hardware stuff before, but this is a new experience for me, so I'm looking forward to working with you guys to do the job right.

Have a great day!

RW

 

The 920XM CPU would be ideal. Even if you're not planning to overclock you can use ThrottleStop to set 940XM multipliers so that it runs at the same speed. If you are patient you can pick up 940XM for the same price as a 920XM on ebay and then you wont need to run ThrottleStop. Keep in mind though that you need the extra boost ThrottleStop gives us with regards to increased TDP/TDC if you want higher minimum framerates. I'm not running any cooling mods apart from Indium Heatspring (good quality paste will also be fine) and lifting the back end of the laptop off the table as @TR2N has mentioned. I have also adjusted the CPU heatsink screws while running a CPU stress test to ensure I get the best temps possible across all cores.

Hopefully someone who is running 16gb will provide further advice but from what I can recall the Corsair Vengeance or Kingston HyperX sticks have been confirmed to work.

I wouldn't advise CLEVO cards at this point as I that's the cards I'm running and I am experiencing constant reproducible RSOD's in Windows 10 with certain games and Crossfire enabled. I also experience reproducible BSOD's in Windows 7/8.1 under certain circumstances with Crossfire. Dell cards do not seem to have this issue. Even if you still wanted the CLEVO cards, they are very difficult to find.

 

Nospheratu at defaults clocks I once saw the differences between 840qm and 920xm were 1 or 2 fps.
However knowing the xm series can overclock then the differences are much wider.

I did notice with Fallout 4 that the cpu is in more use so would have loved the addition of a 920xm. But then again I have completed the game on this setup so its a moot point right now.

 

Yeah there's hardly any difference between the chips normally. The nice thing about the XM's in our machines are that Dell defaults the TDP/TDC to 62/62 on our machines as opposed to Intel's default of 55/47. So there's slightly better performance out of the box without any tweaks. With tweaks as you mentioned its a mental case

There's no need to "overclock" in the traditional sense when we can adjust the TDP/TDC and that's only possible with the XM's and ThrottleStop. I've also tested a few games with my machine with the CPU stock in the early days of this mod and the differences are mainly noticed with minimum framerate. I think I posted some results in this thread actually. I'll try to find them.

Edit: Here's the post with the intel stock vs increased TDP/TDC results.

 

What drivers are u guys using right now on the 7970m's ?

 

First off, big thanks to the community. I've done a lot of lurking and crawling through the forums and over the last year I've managed to bring my rig up date. I am going to reach out for some assistance in the final stretch, so again a big thank you in advance.

M17xR2
Windows 7 Ultimate
Intel Core i7-940XM
16 GB Ram
500 GB SSD
2x Dell AMD 7970M
A10 BIOS
Dell 240 (or is it 250?) Watt power supply (1 year old). I have an additional power supply received yesterday of the same manufacture. They do not say Delta / Flextronics, only Dell part number FWCRC.

A few days ago I received a pair of 7970m's from a M18 and successfully mounted them into crossfire configuration. Ran driver sweeper, and mounted the cards no problem. I reused thermal pads and feel like I have good conductivity. The cards I purchased were complete pulls from a working M18, so I ended up with M18 heat sinks, thermal pads and a crossfire cable. Their configurations are as follows:

Drivers are both 15.300.1025.0, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., dated 11/17/2015.

GPU 0 (Left hand)
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 7970M (WIMBLEDON XT) [DELL]
BIOS - 015.021.000.000.00000

GPU 1 (Right Hand)
ATI/AMD Radeon HD 7970M (WIMBLEDON XT) [DELL]
BIOS - 015.022.000.001.000000

Idle temps are ~46C for GPU 0 and ~30C for GPU 1. They will exceed 70C under load, but seem to only reach around 72C max. HWINFO custom profile manages the fan speeds.

Processor and cards are not overclocked. I have BIOS defaults set for the processor with Turbo enabled, and default frequency as well.

I have used regedit to disable ULPS and the Bios setting for USB charging is also disabled.

So, here's my problems:

1) The system ran stable with only the left hand card installed. Ran Unigine Valley on max settings at around 30 FPS, no thermal shutdown. Ran Skyrim with heavy texture mods at max settings around 60 FPS as well. After I installed the second card, Unigine Valley ran at 60 FPS for 45 seconds and then BSOD. Skyrim stutters and frame drops constantly as well. I had one instance of artifacting with Skyrim that went away after a reboot. The system seems stable enough with both cards installed provided I don't push it too hard.

2) The laptop doesn't always boot properly. It seems to start up, enter hibernation (never displays the alienhead), start up again, hibernate, etc. I have to disconnect power and battery, then it boots fine. If the media disc drive ever clicks on, it will boot no problem.

3) Laptop screen has an issue where is smears colors. I replaced it once already a year ago. Problem returned in a few months. I only mention it as a possible symptom of some other underlying problem. Back then the I had an i5 and single 5870m and the smaller PSU.

What are the best things I can do to insure long term stability for this rig while maximizing performance. I intent to create a dual power supply mod in the very near future. Any ideas on what could remedy my current problems? I would like to flash the best all around vbios to the cards, but have been unable to locate those files. I flashed my old 5870s last Spring, no issues and fixed some serious stability problems I was having.

Thank you again to all the pioneers who did the heavy lifting for people like me.

 

I'd repaste your 0 card idle should be around 30 .- 33 . Your running too high there. Then run gpu - z and have it track your temps when running a game or bench. I think it's getting to high

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I would also try modding or flashing a vBIOS with lower 3D voltage (0.975v) as the BSOD when pushing the cards harder could be lack of power. Not all PSU's are able to work beyond their designed specs and your 240W PSU could be holding your cards back.

Rather than doing a dual PSU mod I would advise getting the single 330W and doing the ID chip mod.

Regarding your boot issues, try disconnecting your optical disc drive and see if it makes any difference. It could be an intermittent fault on the drive thats causing the problem.

Also use DDU for driver cleaning.

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So uh, sry for the late reply. Let's see:
- vbioses - yes you should try them, though it would be nice to know what vbios your card has on.
- yeah, we determined at one point that the PSU is important to stability and temps - or more importantly, the PSU mod (because 240W PSU's or lower WILL degrade under the strain over time);
- the advantage of the 330W mod over the dual PSU is that it is less likely to degrade over time under the strain, as well as easier to set-up, since the dual-psu mod used to be pretty hardcore and expensive to pull off;
- um, did you fix the boot issues?
- Yea, that DDU.

Cheers, and Happy New Year.

 

VBios Versions are different for the two cards. The seller had added the second to his rig later, so they are not a factory matched pair. I kept the orientation he used for consistency.
The left hand is 015.021.000.000.00000
The right hand is 015.022.000.001.000000
Given that the right hand is a higher revision, I am concerned about downflashing and bricking it. I've downloaded the package from tech inferno, but have not attempted a flash yet. Is it safer to switch directly to 015.022.etc revisions for both rather than trying them all? These are Dell cards, so I suppose I should be happy the second one is recognized and functional due to it being higher revision.

Sound over HDMI works, but games crash if not run in windowed mode, or there is flickering when output to a TV. No problem with external monitors or the built in monitor. Refresh rates and output resolutions are compliant with the manufacturer's specs for the TV. My big question is why does the laptop perform better with only one card versus two, although I suspect it is power related.

Would the ID chip from a 150 W PSU be suitable to transplant into a 330 Watt system / dongle mod? All guides seem to use the 240 watt chip, but never state the 150 as unacceptable.

Thanks for the info regarding advantage / disadvantage of PSU.

I've been unable to replicate the boot problem, so no progress there. I will disconnect the optical drive the next time it manifests and see.

Thanks for the help.

 

Yup I would check the vbios for both cards and also the PSU.

Good luck.

 

Has anyone done this lately. Is it imperative that you still use a clevo 7970m?? Does it matter which version of the clevo card ie 1.0 or 1.1.. why does putting the older vbios brick the cards cant you just unbrick by chucking the bricked card in the second mxm slot and reflashing ?? Thanks in advance for the info

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I used Dell cards from an Alienware M18. This was around three months ago. If you can tell what vBIOS is on the card that will make your purchasing easier, although I installed cards with different vBIOS and its working well so far (015.021.000.000.00000, primary slot and 015.022.000.001.000000, slave slot). I can't give you the exact part numbers to look for. I can tell you that these cards do not operate the fans automagically and require HWInfo to run them. You'll want the upgraded power supply, otherwise you'll get better performance with just a single card.

I am curious as well about why downgrading causes bricking, and the fear of this is the reason I've yet to flash different vBIOS to mine.