M17x R3 intergrated grpahics / switchable not wokring

Hi everyone,

My config is in the signature at bottom.

I have a problem with my M17xR3, I currently have AMD drivers but the intel switchable graphics isnt working. I remember using M18X drivers a while back as they could be used with M17xR3.

Problem recently is I get a drop in FPS in online games previously where there had been no issue and now I cant switch from integrated to AMD to resolve this (restart graphics)

P.S When i right click the desktop and select graphic properties or configure switchable graphics nothing will open. Also FN +F7 will not work.

Please can someone point me in the direction to the correct drivers and a guide to installing these?

Thanks, help is always appreciated

Zeggy

 

What are the graphics settings in your BIOS. Does your AMD card show up in there?

 

Thanks for the reply.

BIOS -
Intergrated graphics - Intel Sandy Bridge
Discrete graphics 1 - ATI GFX

I think what i need to do is uninstall AMD Drivers, Intel Driver, OSD and CCC and driver clean in safe mode then reinstall everything in the correct order of

1) AMD Driver
2) Intel Drivers
3) CCC
4) OSD

I have had a look on Dell's M17x R3 driver page and see all the links are dead...

So could I use the drivers on the M17xR4 driver page for all the above instead?

P.S can anyone point me in the direction of the latest AMD driver for 6970M please?

 

Hang on their cowboy! That's not the right order. Gimme a minute and I will find the link for you and give you the correct order.

EDIT: The stock Dell AMD 6970m package: http://www.dell.com/support/drivers...riverId=R309894&osCode=W764&fileId=2731118662

And, finally, OSD: http://www.dell.com/support/drivers...?driverId=PDP1D&osCode=W764&fileId=2947306610

Catalyst Control Center will install with the Dell AMD Catalyst package. The correct order you want to go in is:


1. AMD 6970m Catalyst Package
2. Alienware OSD

I tested both links myself and they all downloaded. When uninstalling your current drivers (after uninstalling them from the Programs Manager), make sure to go into device manager and select the AMD 6970m card under display adapters (may have to come back and do this several times). Then right-click and select 'uninstall' and make sure to check the box labeled "Delete the driver software for this device" and click OK. Then restart. Make sure you do this until the GPU is listed as a standard VGA adapter under the device manager. This means windows can't find anymore AMD drivers so it defaults to a standard driver. Now try reinstalling everything. According to this thread ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html) the AMD package should contain the Intel Integrated Graphics driver. So that is one less thing you need to worry about.

 

xD lol thanks

 

See the above post.

 

Right so i have installed everything following your instructions (many thanks for those) and on device manager it shows both AMD and intel display drivers correctly.

I use Zombie Panic Source to see the FPS in and out to see if the graphics card is working - before it would get 300 FPS easy when working correctly. I have just checked and it seems to be struggling to get over 150 fps at times.

Also I note previously when i had switchable graphics working the OSD would pop up bottom right at system log-in to say if the system was in intel or HD graphics mode - that's not happening after still (I have made sure i put OSD as Admin)

Also pressing FN +F7 is still an issue...a message shows "switchable graphics key detected, press yes to enable or no to cancel" but nothing happens after? ...any ideas?

 

Hit Fn+F7, then if the system does not shut down, shut it down. Once the system is completely off, power on again. See if that switches to the other GPU (I'm not sure which GPU your system currently is running).

 

I can only assume its stuck on intergrated graphics as Im getting terrible lag when gaming.

I have tried FN+ F7 and manual restart, doesnt seem to make any difference

Perhaps the version of OSD is incorrect?

 

Go into your BIOS and disable your iGPU. Then restart and see if your R3 will boot to the discrete card. If it doesn't, then there is something else going on with your AMD card.

 

Hi Radji,

I tried the installing the driver process again just before I was going to try the bios method and it seems to have worked...

After installing the AMD Dell Stock driver for M18x and the OSD you provided, I made sure I closed all applications then selected FN + F7 and the screen enabled me to change to Intel HD settings.. now I have the Intel (R) HD Icon at the bottom right of my task bar (see attached image).

Do i need to install AMD drviers over these stock drivers now or is that it (lol) ?

P.S ++REP for getting me this far and for your kind help ^^

 

You're more than welcome...but no, if you plan to use the Intel iGPU, then you should not update with the latest AMD Catalyst Package. It does not play well with switchable graphics. I know some users have had success updating their 6970m drivers, but those people disabled the iGPU so the system would use the discrete card all the time. But once you update the drivers, you can't go back to the Intel iGPU or you will kill your windows install. Look around in the 6970m/6990m threads to see if anyone has made any headway with updating to the latest AMD drivers without disabling the Intel iGPU.

 

Hum..I would like to update to new drivers but when i go to the AMD official site and download the mobility auto detect installer and after running it i get " AMD Catalyst mobility cannot be downloaded due to incompatible hardware/software. The version of your graphics adapter is not supported"

Any suggestions?

 

I know that was one of the issues. The auto-detect will not work correctly if you have the Intel iGPU still enabled in the BIOS. Look at the bottom of the 12.8 Catalyst release notes: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalystSoftwareSuiteVersion128ReleaseNotes.aspx

It does state:

The following notebooks are not compatible with this release:

• Any notebook launched after this driver release.
• Switchable Graphics enabled notebooks.
• Toshiba notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these. notebooks)
• Sony VAIO notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
• Panasonic notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)

 

Well doing a bit of reading and it seems the only way to disable it is to run an unlocked bios.

I also read that 12.6 AMD drivers are fine and will run without having to disable the IGPU by some long process.

Is there a link for the 12.6 download by any chance?

 

Here is the 12.6 Catalyst package: Previous AMD Catalyst

 

Thanks Radji,

I got the download from AMD Catalyst 12.6 WHQL – BenchmarK3D (same one isnt it?)

I installed this and it indeed recognised the switchable graphics, I restart and right clicked the desktop and it confirmed "current graphic processing unit: high performance gpu"

When loading zombie panic to see the difference it should make Generally I can see the improvement but still there is a drop in FPS to as low as 16/17 where there are too many items / zombies / explosions.. which shouldn't be the case.

Could it be a case of the graphics card throttling ?

 

Possibly. There is a VBIOS fail safe that throttles the GPU when it hits a certain temp. I know some Nvidia cards were set very low at 78C, but I believe the AMD cards were set higher. You should check your AMD card temps (especially while gaming) and see how high it gets. If it hits a certain temp and then just sits there with little or no temperature change, then that may be the throttling temp. Someone else had a throttling issue, and it turned out to be a temp issue caused by a dirty heatsink: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/656264-m17x-r3-6970m-throttling.html

 

I downloaded the Catalyst from Dell website and use the Update feature to update to the newest version. It actually worked out well because I couldn't find the right firmware ( I found it before on AMD website but just couldn't find it again ). Just something you can always try although I know not many people rely on Dell's driver.

 

So I opened up my M17xR3 and yep both heat skins were mega dirty and I spend a good 45 mins in total cleaning these and the fans.

I tried to check if this has made any difference to the performance issue with FPS and it make no real difference (i.e no consistent fps over 200)

How can i check if my graphics card is dead or still working...seems to me it might be gone.

 

Benchmark it. It should perform reasonably well. That, and the fact if you currently are switched to it right now and aren't getting any random freezes or BSODs, that's a good indicator your GPU is still functioning.

 

These are the results -
Version: 1.0.3.0
SystemInfo Version: 4.12
10/15/12 12:09:58 AM

Score
P3189 3DMarks
Graphics Score
2896
Physics Score
7135
Combined Score
2983
PC Health Check

Your PC is performing properly.

Graphics Card
AMD Radeon HD 6970M / 6990M
Vendor
Dell Computer Corporation
# of cards
1
SLI / CrossFire
Off
Memory
2048 MB
Core clock
100 MHz
Memory clock
150 MHz
Driver name
Driver version
8.902.0.0
Driver status
Not FM Approved

Graphics Card (Secondary)
Processor

Processor
Intel Core i7-2820QM Processor
Processor clock
3090 MHz
Physical / logical processors
1 / 8
# of cores
4

General

Operating system
64-bit Windows 7 (6.1.7601)
Motherboard
Alienware M17xR3
Memory
16384 MB
Module 1
4096 MB Micron Technology 9 @ 667 MHz
Module 2
4096 MB Micron Technology 9 @ 667 MHz
Module 3
4096 MB Micron Technology 9 @ 667 MHz
Module 4
4096 MB Micron Technology 9 @ 667 MHz
Hard drive model
640GB M17X_RAID0

Detailed scores

3DMark Score
P3189
Graphics Score
2896
Physics Score
7135
Combined Score
2983
Graphics Test 1
13.4 FPS
Graphics Test 2
13.9 FPS
Graphics Test 3
17.99 FPS
Graphics Test 4
8.66 FPS
Physics Test
22.65 FPS
Combined Test
13.88 FPS

Settings

Default settings used
Yes
Edition
Basic
Screen Width
1280
Screen Height
720
Msaa Sample Count
1
Texture Filtering Mode
Trilinear
Max Af Anisotropy
1
Tessellation Detail
5
Max Tessellation Factor
10
ShadowMapSize
5
Shadow Cascade Count
4
Surface Shadow Sample Count
16
Volumetric Illumination Quality
5
Ambient Occlusion Quality
5
Depth Of Field Quality
5
Enable Window Mode
Off
Enable Vertical Sync
Off
Enable Triple Buffering
Off
Enable Wireframe
Off
Color Saturation
100%

 

Might be something limiting the AMD GPU. I know it's performing satisfactorily. That is evident by it's decent benchmark scores. See I know that your card is still firing on most cylinders because it wouldn't bench at all if it was dead or dying. My 5870m will not bench at all, and it will occasionally freeze upon startup or if I stress the GPU significantly. Now, I'm no game expert, but I would consider being able to run a game at 200 fps with no lags (consistency) to be pretty good. But again, I'm no game expert. One thing to consider is maybe its not GPU, but the game itself or some other element in the system that is causing the game to lag at levels above 200 fps.

 

Any other ideas/suggestions anyone?

Bit stuck...might have to call dell while im still under warranty.