M17x R2 8970M Crossfire Upgrade

Excellent

 

I have bios A10, i7 920xm 6gbram ddr3. 240 psu delta, rgb led 1920x1200 display and Windows 10. Can you help with this?

 

I have Clevo HD 8970M right now for sell in the sale thread. Only 3 Left if you guys are looking for some. ....

 

try disassembling your gpu, after disassembled remove the battery to the motherboard and the battery left the power button pressed for about 30 seconds, then install the gpu and put the battery of the moterboard and battery, turn on the power and turn on. Was there any type of interruption in the update of your bios?

 

send me the link

 

I just updated my r2, a hd 8970m only, I would like to know what is the temperature range you experience in cf, what is the trick to keep cool today since starting a game the card goes up from 80c to 87c in games and out of load is maintained at 37c

Thanks for the post, it helped me a lot!

 

Temp max around 79-80C, I run undervolted with a voltage of 0.975V and elevate the back of the computer for better airflow. Usually temps are in the 75-76 range. 87 is too high.

 

@Raidriar hello there..im having a msi r9 m290x which i have bought from a friend who messed up its VBIOS while flashing and tried to unsolder it and accidently broke 2 legs of the VBIOS chip ..i would like to know if you know the part number of that vbios chip or can help me with that? would be appreciated..thanks

 

greetings I am in the process of creating a dual psu 240 watts, you would recommend that bios that you published in your hd 8970m to use them 100%

 

without cpu overclock yes

no idea sorry

 

just want some opinions from you guys, especially those who are running M17xR2 using crossfire 2x8970M 4GB clevo gpu.

I am now running M17xR2 with i7 940XM (3.5GHz 75W TDP) paired with a single clevo amd 8970M 4GB (925MHz/1350MHz @ 0.975V). I noticed if i overclock the GPU to 1000MHz/1400MHz @ 1.025V, my original 240W PSU (both flextronics and delta) would trip and shut down in certain games/condition. So i got a power meter and confirmed that running at the system at those settings would occasionally draw up to 240W before the PSU shut down.

so I decided to mod an adapter for M17xR2 using the excellent guide posted by @Nospheratu and i'm going to use it on 330W alienware PSU. Since i now have the additional power headroom, i was thinking, is it worth to go for crossfire 8970M 4GB? Having two 8970M crossfire would theoretically yield roughly the performance of single GTX1060 that's assuming if crossfire works and is supported.

so what do you guys and current owners think? is this worth pursuing or am i better off just saving the money for something else?

 

I am currently new to this of the dual HD8970m, but I can tell you the performance of dual HD8970m is bestial, besides that in certain games that do not demand many requirements work in a cooler way than dual individual, I am currently using a 240watt psu what I have not experienced the total power for fear of damaging my cards, in a few days I will make a dual 240watt psu to prove everything to its fullest, then I'll tell you if it's worth it or not.

You could tell me how the temperatures go with those Over clocks.

 

Personally I think the money would be better invested elsewhere. We're already stuck on the 17.3.3 drivers so that we're able to adjust brightness. AMD support isn't that great for our 8970M/7970M mod and even less so for Crossfire. If you intend to use the machine with Windows 7 and older games, that is March 2017 and further back, I would would say it's sort of justifiable. Generally, newer games that run fine on Crossfire usually can run fine one one of our cards.

That said, leaving the secondary slot empty does trigger my OCD and makes me think of the machine as incomplete

As you mentioned though, you rather save the money for something else or if you're itching to spend some of it, get some dbrand palmrest skins for the 17 R4, and maybe some heatsink's for your NVMe drive/s

 

temperature is absolutely fine even with 1000MHz overclock @ 1.025V. Max temp i get playing games for an hour or two is just under 80C. room temperature is about 22-23C. the only problem i faced is power usage exceeding 240W once in a while if the CPU is overclocked and TDP set too high.

 

I already have installed the dual psu 240watts with my dual hd8970m, after flashing the vbios of the smart cards to the bios that is in the beginning of the topic, I could have better stability and better temperatures, I feel completely satisfied with the performance, the only thing what bothers me is not being able to update the drivers, they generate blue screen problems, and others do not show image, then everything else perfect.

I also made a modification so that the gpu breathe better

when using it for a while I realized that the trigger of the cf of the power supply, is warmed up enough by what you put a fan. now everything perfect: D

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1POYWqNCeNkAx2WucJ3N9iPUK6vRV56XN

 

I'm looking to install an 8970M into my m17xR2, currently I have Crossfire 5870M's.

If I'm reading this correctly the heat sink I have will work but I'll need a different X-bracket and screws. Does anyone have a convenient link to where I can acquire the correct one, and possibly the right thermal pads and screws as well?

Thanks.

 

Look for Clevo 8970Ms on eBay.

 

I can find the actual GPU but they don't seem to come with the bracket usually.

 

Here buddy.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-Alienw...527516?hash=item3b21f1399c:g:0ucAAOSws2Rb5WPH

 

Okay, I'm getting pretty close to what I need to be up and running here. I bought a clevo 8970m from Ebay, and the seller flashed it with the bios from the original post. I also have the brackets on order.

My only hold up now is the screws. I looked into ordering them from metric screws with the link provided but since I'm in Canada the shipping was calculated to be 40 freaking dollars ($53 in Canadian pesos). I called them and sent them an email to see I'd I can get a cheaper shipping option but they're insistent on only shipping FedEx.

Is there another source for the screws I need? Or can I somehow reuse the screws from my 5870's?

 

Okay I just paid $65 for 4 tiny screws. If there IS a cheaper option don't even tell me.


Time to drink to forget.

 

Success!

The swap was actually far more painless than I anticipated, everything works flawlessly with the 17.3.31 driver.
Rather pleased with the performance boost i'm getting over my 5870m's, i'm able to run Doom 2016 maxed at a stable >50fps. This is with my old 720QM and 4gb of basic ram. Temps peak out at 74 degrees when the card is running at 99% load, i'm using Raidriar's undervolt vbios. Fan control works perfectly.

I'm thrilled with how this turned out, the m17xr2 is still pretty awesome in 2019!
Thanks to Raidriar and everyone who contributed to this thread.

Now the processor swap in this laptop, not so smooth. I have a 940XM I got from a reputable seller on ebay but when I swap it in the laptop doesn't want to boot or post. But I have a thread on that already, for now up and running great with my old 720QM and the Clevo 8970M.

 

Hey guys,
I've be sifting through the forums over the last couple of months to try and make an informed decision as to what graphics card to put into my m17x r2 since my 5870s died. I think I have settled on a 8970m/m290x. At the moment however, I was just wondering if it had to be a clevo card? Will either the msi or dell cards work? There are plenty around but the clevo ones seem to be a lot more expensive and the alienware ones are extremely plentiful.

Also, sorry to go a bit off topic but has anyone tried to use a m390x in the m17x r2, does it work? That's something that was mentioned in passing at some point on another thread but I haven't seen any mention of it actually done. Just want to get the best gpu I can in here without loosing the onboard sound. And honestly I'm not concerned about the CPU bottleneck at all.

 

Never mind fellas, just a bit more reading trough the forums and I think I have my answers. I've gathered that the 8970m is the best for these machines. Clevo cards offer native fan control but the others will still work with manual fan control. Will the dell cards still crossfire? Only going 1 to start with but may get another in the future. Will bios have to match on the pair?

 

I've got a theoretical (ly insane) question:
Would M17X R2 support two Quadro 4000M cards? I recently purchased an used M17X R2, and while waiting for it to arrive via mail I've been doing some research about it's it's possibilities. I am assembling a laptop for my cousin, he mostly plays stuff like Fortnite, so I was considering passing my M15X (specs shown in my tag), and make myself the M17X as my main. I've got two working Quadros. Could it in any scenario support two of those beasts?

 

Ah, alright guys this kinda all fell apart for me.

I have the 8970M working well relatively well in the computer, I was able to play a variety of games with excellent performance and no strange issues (such as Doom). However I had pretty bad issues whenever I tried to play Left 4 Dead 2 and Borderlands 2/The Pre Sequel and a couple other. I'd get frequent crashes in the game, sometimes every few minutes. I would get a "display driver has stopped responding and recovered" message on my desktop, but the game would freeze solid and i'd have to kill it from the task manager.

In the course of trouble shooting these problems I let the device crash dozens of times, and after that I started to have other issues. I'd get the same "stopped responding and recovered" message just using the desktop for the internet, along with screen flickering and some strange artifacts.

I tried reinstalling drivers several times, with no improvement but this week things got much worse.

The laptop will POST and will get to the boot screen, but after that the screen stays black.
I'm able to get it to boot and get to the desktop in safe mode, or if I uninstall all video drivers with the AMD cleanup utility.

I've been trying to reflash the vbios.
I've been using the undervolt vbios that Raidriar provided this whole time. Flashing the videocard with the vbios I found here (i'm using the one for the Clevo P570WM) results in not getting any display output whatsoever after power up.
Returning to the undervolt vbios will allow successful startup as long as no drivers are installed.


So, three things really.

1. Does anyone have another source for the proper, unmodded vbios for the card? I've been looking and having trouble finding it
2. WHHHHHYYYYYY? Did allowing the driver to crash so many times actually cause hardware damage? If so likely the undervolt vbios contributed to the instability but is it actually possible to damage the hardware by crashing the software a ton of time?
3. Any particularly keen ideas on how I could possibly recover use of this card?


I still have my 5870m's, i'm going to have to reflash them and reinstall them in the meantime. Not thrilled about that.

 

Looks like a dying GPU, given the artifacts.
Reflowing could give you up to a couple more months of life, but its a crap shot..

 

Original vBIOS mine is based off (BR44618.001):
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/149712/clevo-hd8970m-4096-130603

No other vBIOS will work in M17x R2

 

Mate you are my hero.. I thought I had a dud card.. I bought back in july.. just used my MXM to pcie adaptor in my pc to flash your vbios onto my card and BaM! It works! I have never been so excited about old hardware lol! Didn't know only one clevo vbios works in these beasts.. haha and only days ago I ordered another 8970m to give it another go, as well as a 920xm.. Well I guess I'll have crossfire a little sooner than expected lol.. better get onto that 330w psu quick smart..

 

Ahh.. ouch.. Just checked power usage with my current setup from the wall, 720QM and single 8970M.. Mostly sitting on 280w, touching on 300w every so often just running unigine heaven on extreme preset.. That's even with your undervolted vbios.. only sits on a nice 70 degrees though, so that's nice haha. really need that 330W supply..

 

I do not think the psu 330 Watts with an 8970m hd is necessary, with the 240-watt hd is more than enough, even with extreme OC in cpu and gpu.

 

I'm currently running the 8970m at an over clock of 925/1300 and the 720QM cpu at a 5% overclock with the unlocked bios. Under load using unigine superposition I'm pulling 315 watts from the wall with the 240 watt supply.. I have a 920XM and another 8970m already on the way... pretty sure I'm going to need that extra power that the 330 watt supply will give me once they are in...

 

Any Windows 10 user having driver issues with the 8970M Clevo card? I am currently having issues. Only old WIndows 10 stock drivers do not give me a gray/black screen of death after loading to Desktop for a few minutes. Also with Win 10 stock drivers 3D Mark says I have no DX 11 card.... so it cannot run the bench marks.

I have tried the newest AMD Radeon drivers and also the older 17.3.3 drivers. Still no luck.

 

You're asking a lot from an 11 year old laptop and a 7 year old GPU in a non-factory approved set up. M17x R2 is a tired machine in 2020. It will perform its best on Windows 7.

 

So you are saying moving back to WI dows 7 would make it work.... Naah... Then I will try to go Crossfire with the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 instead. I need Windows 10 and some stability on it. Otherwise it is not worthwhile. As long as the card supports DX 11 I am fine... Bugger.... I have tried every single amd driver and even a custom install where I did not install the HDMI drivers. For some that would work.The 8970m has a nice fan control but no good driver support. The 7970m would be a fine match if it is not because it simply ends up being too hot after an hour plus. And if I do some heavy shader code or special effect stuff on it then it will quickly reach those 80+ and shut down as well. Well time to look for a more modern machine soon...

Update:
Did also test the card out in Windows 7. Only stock VGA drivers work. As soon as I installl the recommeded drivers from AMD it will go crazy just after typing in my password at the login screen. A screen with vetical stripes. Safe Mode and I see no problems. On Linux Mint 18.3 I can use it for simple tasks. After a minute in a game like Torchligth II I will see a black screen where the music is locked in a laggin loop. I simple cannot find any working drivers for this card... bugger...