M17x R2 7970m CrossfireX Ultimate Installation and Tweaking Guide

It's not the downgrading that caused bricking, specifically it was the case that a batch of UEFI-only cards got bricked when flashed with non-uefi vbioses. Those specific cards should not have been able to boot in the machine in the first place, so if your machine can boot the cards, then most likely they can be flashed, although I'd only do so in rare cases - such as being unable to get undervolt/overclocking functionality through overdrive/afterburner (usually you can).
The trouble was knowing that a card is compatible BEFORE ordering it, and specifically the fact that one wouldn't want to order a card, find that it doesn't boot, try to flash it, brick it, and then be unable to return it.

 

That's good to know. With the number of posts in this thread, would you consider editing one of your early posts to include this information?

If I am understanding what you have said, does that mean there's little risk of bricking a newer card by flashing a different vBIOS? Or is it better to use the afterburner / overdrive method?

Thanks for your work on this, by the way.

 

Was done with great pleasure. I'd say there's little risk of bricking a newer card, but I wouldn't flash a different vbios myself, to be honest. This is because the performance and stability of these cards has steadily increased with newer vbios versions, so for example, if one owns a card with the 023 vbios, I wouldn't really recommend downgrading to 022 or below. Using a stock vbios with afterburner/overdrive would be the recommended method unless you can't get voltages/clocks to stick, in which case I'd flash the unlocked 022 vbioses in the first post... but keep in mind there is ALWAYS a risk in flashing.

 

Even if you brick a card cant you just chuck the bricked card in the second mxm slot with a working card in slot 1 and reflash card 2

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If a card gets bricked, it can be repaired by reflashing the original bios... the problem is that might be possible only through the use of a hardware programmer.

 

Ow cool.. ive bricked cards before snd done them in the second slot

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Been offline with the subject for quiet a while, how does 7970m CF compares to single 980m gtx ?

From what is sen they just about ...the same ?

And another question, how much i could take for 2x7970m with heat sinks and CF cable ?

Thinking about parting my R2 as well

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It think 980M is superior, add in the fact that it doesn't suffer from the Multi-GPU problems and it's clearly the better way to go.

From what I've seen a 7970M goes for about $250 - $300 these days. Bundle deal I'm not quite certain, I've also been out of the loop for a while as well.

I'm also thinking about parting with the R2, and the only reason is because of the RSOD's I'm getting with CrossFire and Windows 10. Another factor that's making me think about letting go is that the support for CrossFire is dwindling. AMD's Crimson drivers are absolutely horrible with CrossFire. There are numerous complaints on their support forums and no acknowledgement. Logging bug reports seems to be a futile exercise.

I still love this machine and if by some miracle my issues are resolved I would continue using it but it's showing it's age now. I was considering getting another laptop with a 980M or the "desktop" GTX 980 but there's nothing on the market that I like and all of them have the 16:9 aspect ratio screens

 

My m18x with crossfired 7970m vs asus g750 with single 980m
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/7284276/fs/7305430


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Thank you for your replies bros

Ok so the last thing is....is it worth selling for £800/$1100 ?

I always had some spare cash so adding few £ ang getting new machine would not be a problem. Also thinking about a desktop.....maybe. and for £800 i can get skylake i5 machine with 980 Ti

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I would hope you'd get at least that for it

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If you can get that much for it, my advice is to thank the system for serving as long as it could, and then go out and have some fun, heh. My recommend is to get any machine running the GTX-980 (not 980m).
I'd love to get my hands on a MSI GT80 with two of those 980 desktop cards SLI'd.
Here's what one GTX980 in the ASUS GX700 water-cooled can do. (unfortunately i got voltage locked at 1.15v and couldn't push past 1370MHz core and 7100MHz memory) due to power throttling.
I regret not having that baby on hand long enough to really see what that oversized noise-machine can do.
Fire Strike Ultra result.
Fire Strike 1.1 result.
I'd be giddy with excitement playing with hardware like this if I got time to really enjoy it. ASUS really went to town on the GX700's raw specs.

 

Well the RSOD issue on Windows 10 is finally resolved for me and I'm sure a lot of other users as well, including desktop CrossFire users

Not quite sure what they did but with the 16.5.2 / 16.5.2.1 there's no red screen in sight. The change log makes no mention of any fix that seems applicable but I'm just happy I don't have to dual boot to troubleshoot in 10.

So it seems the R2 is going to keep me company for a little while longer. It's gets a bit confusing with the new 17's second revision referred to the R2 as well (but we all know which was the original)

 

Not many of us left. That being said I'm still a w7 guy

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Hi, I found a 7970m with 022vbios , the seller said the card was confirmed working in m17x R3 , I checked that M17x R3 did not support UEFI , so can I assume this card would also work on M17x R2 ?

 

Yup, it should work, though inquire into their refund policy.

 

Hi,

currently I've got m17x r2 with one 7970m and I want to add a second 7970m (I've already bought it).


1. Is one PSU 240 is enough to launch 920xm and 2x7970m and to upload vbios to second card?

2. What will happen if I plug 330W power adapter directly to the laptop? Will it work or burn?

3. I've noticed site where it's written that PSU 330W (m18x) suits with m17xr2

Is is it false or I have to do mod “Dell 330W Power Adapter Mod for the M17X” ? Is there any easier way?

4. Now I have one 7970m Clevo 1.1 hibernate , sleep and fans are ok. Can I put Clevo 1.2 into slave slot?

 

Hey,

1. You will be able to run it for a short term but you might need to undervolt and will eventually kill your 240w.

2. My understanding is it will just run at 240w.

3. The m18x is what you want but you will need to do the Id chip mod from over at Tech inferno

4. Can answer.... I think it's OK but don't quote me

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Hello. I tried a used 7970m on my R2 and it fails post and the LED blink. Does this mean the 7970m is dead? Or is there another way to test this GPU?

 

Probably GPU is dead, or 7970M has enduro vBIOS flashed instead of dGPU only vBIOS flashed.

 

Before I try baking the GPU. Is there a way to blind flash a vbios? since I get the blinking LED and I am failing post I am not sure how I could possibly do it. Any suggestions welcome

 

I am unaware of a blind flash procedure on the M15x or M17x R2

 

From reading some of this thread it looks like I might have a newer Dell VBIOS which is not compatible and there is no way to downgrade on this system. I would really like to be able to test this card to sell it, any ideas?

 

Would a 7970m be plug and play and faster than a gtx580m in an M17x-r2? Looking to upgrade my GPUs and going with a single card before braving crossfire/sli. Anyone have an install of a single 7970m?

 

Hi ,

Is white screen a common problem with RGB LCD and 7970m in M17x R2 ?
My external monitor works fine but i get white screen on main laptop display

 

Bear with me as this is going to be long Unedited copy paste post for above, or the impatient ones short Answer is yes

Here it Goes -->

1. Hi ,
   
   Is white screen a common problem with RGB LCD and 7970m in M17x R2 ?
   My external monitor works fine but i get white screen on main laptop display
   
   
   
2. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   Unfortunately I am running the v1.2's and don't have any first hand experience with the CLEVO v1.1's. Fortunately, a fellow member, TR2N is running the v.1.1 CLEVO 7970M in his M17x R2 so he would be your best bet to provide you with accurate information (he also experienced the white screen problem). PM him for details on his vBIOS and configuration.
   
   I'm sorry I couldn't have been of more help.
   
   Nos
   
   
   
3. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   Thanks Nospheratu , I will contact TR2N also i had a question what if i get a Non RGB screen, will it still be a problem, i mostly use external monitor but i just need my laptop screen working for now so that i can login to Oracle Linux 5 which does not unfortunately work on external monitor until in login into it with my credentials
   
   
   
4. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   I don't know for certain if it will work, as I can't recall anyone who's experienced the white screen issue who's swapped out the RGB screen with the CCFL version.
   
   
   
5. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   I have ordered no RGB screen , we will know as soon as i get it
   
   
   
6. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   CCFL non RGB works like a charm, no white screen issue any more, now i will try to get my other 7970m working in crossfire n alone, someone it stopped working 6 months ago n i never got to fix it
   
   Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk
   
   
   
7. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   That's great news 5HT! Well done! You should add this information to a thread to help others.
   
   
8. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   Yes i will make it a thread after a few more test, i am currently trying to get my other clevo 7970m v1.1 to work, i will first try to flash it with vbios from the card which is working, its called Thames.rom and i got vbios from TR2N too who has v1.1 card and he sent me surprising Thames.rom vbios too, i dont know if its just the names which are same or something else is different too until i check them each one through flash
   
   
9. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   GPU Shark is a very useful tool to determine current loaded vBIOS and the different performance states and voltages for each card in Detail view. I've found that v0.6.6 works the best for my setup.
   
   http://www.geeks3d.com/downloads/201209/GPUShark-0.6.6.exe
   
   You could also use HxD Hex editor's comparison function to see if there's any differences between the vBIOS files.
   
   
   Nospheratu, Jun 3, 2017 Report
   Reply
10. 
    5HT Notebook Guru
    
    i used and HxD hex editor file comparison utility and here is what i found, both rom's are different, the one which i already have is vBios 15.022 and the one which TRON gave is 15.017 of sv17 , i flashed the one which tron gave but still no luck, flash was successful but windows wont move further after Initial windows boot screen and machine will restart, same happens with 15.022, it use to work with 15.022 like 6 months ago, card shows up under device manager in safe mode though, i am not sure if card is bad or i have wrong vbios, I did a clean reinstall of AMD drivers too after DDU but no luck

 

Continued..

Nospheratu Notebook Deity

1. What driver are you using? Try an older driver version. I'm currently on 17.3.3 as newer drivers give me BSOD. There are numerous issues with the new drivers and older hardware.
   
   Here's a list of previous drivers for Windows 7 x64
   
   I also have a few CLEVO vBIOS's that I've tested and work on my v1.2 cards. If you want to try them out you can download them here.
   
   
   
2. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   I was using latest Driver , I will try using 17.3.3 and then go to even older ones like 16.2, I will try out your vBioS's too and then try to Bake the card in an oven as suggested by TRON as last effort
   
   
   Reply
3. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   I also have a few CLEVO vBIOS's that I've tested and work on my v1.2 cards. If you want to try them out you can download them here.
   The Link you sent are of Desktop Drivers, are they same for Laptop ?
   
   
   
4. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   Once you click on the driver you want to download it will take you to the driver specific page where you can view the release notes and compatibility but all of them should be compatible with laptop GPU's.
   
   
   
5. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   Thanks, I tried drivers 17.3.3 with all vbios's you gave + vbios from Tron and the Vbios i had on my working v1.1 card but no luck, windows wouldn't even start past windows screen only black screen
   then i tried same with driver's of version's 16 & 13 no luck there too, same result as with version 17 drivers, then i tried with driver 12.6, i got this-->
   vbios 15.017 = works, windows boot up past login like normal, i launch gpu-z to for temp which shows 31 C doesn't go higher goes down to 29 C n back again, but then after a couple of minutes , i get black screen , laptop unresponsive, so hard shutdown by holding off button
   vbios 15.024 of P270 = same as above
   vbios 15.024 of P370 = same as above
   vbios 15.019 = BSOD
   vbios 15.021 = BSOD
   vbios 15.022 (from the card which works) = works longer than others but ends up similarly
   
   Sticker on the card mentions vbios 15.024
   
   I dont know if baking it would fix it , not sure whether i should try it or try other vbios
   
   
   
6. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   Damn... that's a lot of work you put into it man.
   
   In my opinion baking the card is a bit extreme especially since we know that the v1.1 isn't the most compatible of cards. It could work perfectly fine in a CLEVO laptop and by baking it incorrectly you risk the chance of damaging a working card. Besides this doesn't seem to be an idle candidate for baking.
   
   If you haven't already try disabling ULPS after the driver install before restarting the machine.
   
   
   
   
7. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   yea spent almost my entire sunday doing this,
   Also does it matter to Disable ULPS if i just use one card, cos all the things i did was just with one card in primary slot , i am not using crossfirex , let me know
   
   
   
8. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   Disabling ULPS usually helps with CrossFire issues but I thought you were trying to get the second card to work in CrossFire! So you have one v1.1 card that works, but the second v1.1 doesn't work in the primary slot even with the same vBIOS and driver that you're using with the working card? That's really weird, now the baking makes a bit more sense.
   
   Have you tried the weird card in the secondary slot with the working in the primary? Do you get the same results?
   
   
9. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   Yes, the non working card was my secondary card, all was working fine until one day i started getting huge stutters and fps drops on more digging i found out that my secondary card was not working correctly, so i focused on fixing it alone as primary
   Also my working card works with any driver, no issues with it
   
   
   
10. 
    5HT Notebook Guru
    
    One more thing except 12.6 and version 17.x.x Drivers none other Driver versions i tried would list Video Driver to install after Hardware detection part of Installation
    

 

continued..

Nospheratu Notebook Deity

1. Oh noes... TR2N is most likely right with the baking then. Identical hardware and vBIOS yet different results isn't a good sign.
   
   Are the cards identical though? Are the stickers on both cards with version numbers etc both the same?
   
   Where did you buy the cards from? Any chance of an exchange with another?
   
   
2. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   I Bought both the cards from NBR member like a year ago, he use to live nearby locally and has moved now,
   The stickers on the cards both mention AMD WIMBLEDON v1.1 2G but bios sticker on working card mentions : vBios: BR42768.008 & on Non-working card it mentions vBios : 015.024.000.001
   
   
   
3. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   5HT said: ↑
   One more thing except 12.6 and version 17.x.x Drivers none other Driver versions i tried would list Video Driver to install after Hardware detection part of Installation
   Can you try checking if the Hardware ID under Device Manager->Your GPU->Properties->Details->Hardware Ids (from the drop down list) for the faulty card is the same as the working card? The driver install inf matches up with this Hardware ID.
   
   
   
4. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   Nospheratu said: ↑
   Can you try checking if the Hardware ID under Device Manager->Your GPU->Properties->Details->Hardware Ids (from the drop down list) for the faulty card is the same as the working card? The driver install inf matches up with this Hardware ID.
   
   Here is the Hardware ID image , they have same ID
   
   Also i was thinking, would a dell card in secondary slot work in crossfire with 1.1 clevo or would v1.2 work or do i have to get v1.1 only
   
   Attached Files:
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5. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   That should mean that the other drivers apart from 12.6 and 17.x.x does not list the video driver to install with the working card either? Did you download the drivers from the previous drivers link I posted earlier?
   
   You can make sure that the driver is compatible by checking in your C:\AMD\<Driver Version Folder>\Packages\Drivers\Display\WT6A_INF\ folder after the driver extracts for the inf file. There might be multiple inf files for Windows 7, 8 and 10. Search within the file/s for your Hardware ID, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6800
   
   If theres no occurance of that Hardware ID that means the driver is not catering for the 7970M.
   
   I'm not sure but I do remember a few members here ran different versions of cards. I cant remember their usernames but I think TR2N was one of them.
   
   
6. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   Yes you are correct, they donot list driver for working card too, yes i downloaded from the link you posted
   I checked for Versions 15 , 14 too, there the HID is listed
   
   I will check with TR2N
   
   Now how do i make this conversation as thread for members to view it and get benefited by it ?
   
   
   
7. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   Well you don't have to start a new thread, you can update the below thread with what works with your v1.1 card. So if anyone installs a v1.1 card they know what vBIOS and version to use that works on our machines. You can basically outline your experiences and what you did including replacing the screen with the part number etc.
   
   M17x R2 7970m CrossfireX Ultimate Installation and Tweaking Guide
   
   If AMD's previous driver list don't cater for our cards, even if the release notes say they do, it's going to be tough finding older drivers as most other sites only cater for desktop drivers
   
   
   
8. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   Thats a good idea, Also about AMD's Drivers we can get old drivers from Guru3d website but still it will sux that the Main company itself wont have legacy drivers
   I was thinking to try my Dell 770M card in m17x R2, i have two of them from my AW18 which has now one single 980M, if i can get single 770M to work then maybe i will try to put one single 980M using a modded 3 pipe heatsink, since now i dont have a RGB screen i think it should work with proper drivers in place, one question though does m17x r2 must absolutely require a graphics card to work ?
   
   
   
9. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   I think there were quite a few issues trying to get a 980M to work on non UEFI machines like ours. Search for "M17X R2 980M" I'm sure you'll get some good information. I don't think anyone was able to get it to work properly though
   
   Yes, we have to have a dedicated graphics card installed. Unlike the M17X R1 we don't have an integrated GPU. I think that's a good thing though as a lot of users have issues with AMD's Enduro or nVIDIA's Optimus.
   
   
   
   
10. 
    5HT Notebook Guru
    
    I am trying to first get single 770m installed on it and make it work, do you know what drivers should i try ?
    
    Well , i tried 770m latest drivers from Nivida website and it wont detect Hradware, now i will try driver from eurocom website
    http://downloads.eurocom.com/support/drivers/upgradeyourlaptop/Alienware/
    
    

 

continued ..
5HT Notebook Guru

1. Ok with 770M only external screen works, laptop screen remains black, is there something missing ? if only somehow i can get 770m to work on it then i can go for 980m too
   
   
   
2. 5HT Notebook Guru
   
   Got back to 7970m and oracle linux 5, trying to find away to install drivers on it , Linux is 64 Bit, close to my OL5 is RHEL5
   
   
   
3. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   I think I remember vaguely that you have to disable the onboard audio in the BIOS to get the screen to work with the 770M.... but now that I think about it that sounds odd, I'll try to find the thread with the information.
   
   
   
4. 
   Nospheratu Notebook Deity
   
   Found it, see here.
   
   
   
5. 
   5HT Notebook Guru
   
   Nospheratu said: ↑
   Found it, see here.
   Tried that but didnt help

Will post and edit more as time permits

 

Have a Clevo 7970m with my M17x R2 (see sig)
Still running beautifully after all these years.

heheheh

 

Plus,

Very happy today gentleman!!
I purchased pci express card to have USB3 support on my m17xR2.. THe USB2 ports are too slow...

What's old again is now new again
I love the 1900x1200 RGB LED and the 7970m is doing very very well. All I want maybe is another 7970m in crossfire maybe Xmas time and the m17xR2 will live forever..

 

Just what I am thinking...
Do I go with a 7970m in crossfire with poor driver support and issues
or
upgrade?

 

I would say upgrade, in my experience the driver support from AMD for GCN 1.0 let alone CrossFire is getting frustrating now. I love tinkering and resolving issues but I'm getting to the point where I'm hitting brick walls since the drivers aren't working for me.

My current issues are...
1. Instant hard reset / reboot with DirectX12 multi GPU when trying to use any driver newer than 16.8.3. (Disabled Crossfire and secondary card in device manager allows use DirectX12 apps/games with a single card). This is ironic since DX12 mGPU is the one thing that could keep us going, one 7970M runs amazingly well in DX12 for such an old card. I think this is a Windows 10 issue though as older drivers that used to work don't for some reason now.
2. Random "THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER" Bluescreen even when idle on the Windows desktop. The last driver that works is 17.3.3. My gut feeling is that it's related to power management, more specifically, Wattman.
3. Brightness Control on my machine is disabled with drivers 17.4.1, 17.6.1 and 17.6.2. The KMD_EnableBrightnessInterface2 registry fix does not work with these drivers.

The RSOD issues you quoted me on were resolved (after a year of posting of AMD's support forums) so I am able to run CrossFire on Windows 10 on DirectX11 now. That said, I can't really place all the blame on AMD. Firstly we're running unsupported cards on this machine and add the fact that Windows 10 has so many issues on its own makes it difficult to troubleshoot. I've had to block the HardwareID's for Windows driver updates for these cards in group policy editor as Windows Update keeps trying to push driver 17.1.1 which results in BSOD's mentioned in point 2 above. Windows 7 might be better but I wanted DX12 mGPU since our CPU's need all the help it can get at this point.

After a slideshow in ROTTR (The Lost City) I've ordered a 17 R4 from the Dell Outlet (They've got some good discount codes valid until the 10th of July 2017). I am aware of all the issues surrounding the machine (there's a lot of issues , mostly thermal related) and I don't like the fact that it's a BGA soldered laptop but from my upgrade experience with my M17X R2 I've come to realise unsupported GPU upgrades come with their own issues. I've considered going with another brand but I need the Dell warranty especially since it's international.

 

Nospheratu,

Thanks for replying.
Totally agree with you.

I am suprised though. My7970m and 840QM can run new games quite well.

So in reality, a laptop from 2010 with updated 2012 gpu (7970m)has done superbly well all things considered.

The fact i am getting the pci express card for usb3 support, is long overdue as i use the laptop for transferring files and usb2 is just painful.

Aside from this, very very happy with this laptop and will continue to game with it. The screen is one quality that helps with gaming and desktop duality. If there was a new laptop with this resolution i would be sold.

Long live the m17xR2 owners

PS - i can play rottr very well on my7970m . Great game. Running Win 7 Pro

 

Yeah, don't get me wrong the 7970M is still impressive, especially considering it's a 5 year old card. I am able to play Rise of the Tomb Raider and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided smoothly in DX12 with a single card with a mix of medium to low settings(mostly medium). On DX11 with Crossfire I can push this to medium to high settings (mostly high). "Smoothly" refers to around 35-60fps depending on the map I'm playing. Its still an awesome laptop with the 7970M upgrade. I also have a soft spot for it as it's very unique in its design and I still think its the best machine that came out of the Dell/Alienware acquisition.

Just an additional bit of info for those of you outside the US and thinking about purchasing from Dell USA. In short, don't do it since the verification processes they have in place will have you pulling your hair out. You cannot use an international credit card on their site as their system eventually blocks it and your order will be cancelled with no notification. Their verification process also has a shipping address ban list of companies that provide freight forwarding services which could also get your order cancelled.

Rather order from Dell USA through HIDevolution who provide an assisted purchase service for international buyers.

 

I have sold my R2 almost a year ago, and build a desktop. R2 was never moved around and I feel if I would take it for a trip I could easily brake something. It was free of any kind off issues, games worked in CF when a game had CF support. No BSODs at all. It was 1 year ago and I took £800 for it. Desktop cost was £800 for 1080ti amp extreme alone. £700 for PG348Q 34 ULTRA WIDE monitor, 5820k @4.6Ghz and,x99 strix amd 32gb of ram, phantex enthoo evolv atx TG for the case. In total around £2500 was blown away. As for laptops I will only buy one that has a decent cpu and put in ssd in, something cheap for the trips and holidays away. Sad to let the R2 go but change was med for better so......that's it. Shame that the mxm format was not standarized properly and stayed like this. I feel mxm cards are made of sub par silicon and parts because they break out of nothing where desktop gpu will live forever

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Hello,

I finally got my hands on another clevo v1.1 , right now i have , 2 dell cards working individually, 3 clevo v 1.1 card of which one is not working,
I was able to get 2 clevo 1.1 cards in crossfire setup in win 10 to work, i will try with dell cards too, none of them worked in crossfire in windows 7 maybe i need a fresh windows 7 install, in windows 10 i am using amd 15.7.1 catalyst version but i get similar RSOD as you get on full screen for valley benchmark, havent tried any other games, tried resident evil 6 benchmark which works in full screen but takes directx 9, brightness control doesnt work, also i had got stuck thread error for driver when i first plugged in second card for crossfire in windows 10 , it had version 17.6.1 drivers already installed for previous setup of 1 single card , so i ddued and did a clean install of 15.7.1 and crossfire worked but with above issues, will update once i check if my dell cards in crossfire, i assume if they can work in win 10 they should surely work in win 7 if i do a fresh install of win 7, please let me know how u fixed RSOD's and other issues in win 10

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I'm wondering if anybody ever experienced the issue with crossfire causing windows to reboot as soon as it reaches the login screen. EVERY single driver after 15.11.1 has caused this for me, and it sucks I can't use newer drivers with 8970M crossfire.

 

did you also try this two?
"whql-win7-64bit-radeon-software-crimson-relive-17.7.2-july27"
and
"non-whql-win7-64bit-radeon-software-crimson-relive-17.9.2-sep21"

I left them on my ext. hdd because was last working for me on CF of 7970Ms on Win7x64

 

Did not work for me

 

I'm just adding this post now for posterity. I have the M17x R2, 940XM, and Clevo 8970M Crossfire. I have similar results as you have, with every driver after 17.3.3 triggering instant hard reboot in crossfire, and no brightness control in single 8970M mode in windows 7. I've contacted AMD support several times to get them to look into this, but never seemed to really matter. So as a matter of speaking, 17.3.3 is the final 100% supported driver, which I suppose isn't a bad run for a machine created in 2009-2010 with GPUs from 2012-2013. I am not having any thread stuck BSODS, but I do get BSOD on shutdown if I leave crossfire enabled (unable to send interrupt clock).

With Clevo 8970M, native fan control works for both cards. However, there is no audio over HDMI

Here is my latest bench, 240W PSU, running at 25-25-25-25 940XM, 875/1300 @ 0.95V
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/12683442

and another
940XM 25-25-25-25 @ 925/1300 crossfire (0.975V)
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/12683533

Not bad at all I think.

 

I would like to know what type of PSU you currently use and what do you recommend when updating my M17x-R2 to HD 8970m CF?
What type of card do I need and what types of vbios in both the Motherboard and the Gpu?

 

Have you tried disabling ULPS? I also BSOD on shutdown if I don’t disable ULPS on 17.3.3


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Going to try that when I go home, I left ULPS enabled because I like that it wasn't heating up/drawing power on the second card when not in use.

 

ULPS was pretty much always responsible for bsods and stuff. I might have had a script that disabled ULPS on adapter and enabled it on battey mode but my memory may be faulty

 

Can confirm, disabling ULPS stopped the BSOD on shutdown.

 

If anyone can be of assistance. I have dell 7970m from my alienware m17xr4 and want to upgrade my sons m17xr2 which has (1) 5870M Card in it. Anyone know the steps as reading all the different posts are confusing and original poster seems to have had two 7970's he installed. So with original dell 7970m I should be able to just remove old 5870m with no issues or vbios flashing? Also regarding X-Bracket of original dell 7970, will its x bracket be compatible with M17xr2? I already ordered new pads and paste!

 

if you have later model 7970m (check back of the card, if vbios sticker says 015.021 or 015.022), then that 7970m will NOT work (fail post)

 

Stick it in using the 7970m xbracket and being very careful to make sure your heatsink sits flush and you compensate for the differences with appropriate thermal padding. If it works, you're golden. Make sure to check stickers beforehand to know vbios version

 

Vbios is 015.017.000.001.042717 Thought I had the heatsink but nope just card! Must have used heatsink with my 980m I installed! So now knowing this would I have to buy a different Xbracket/Heatsink or will the original M17x R2 one work!