M17xR3 & 6990M - Latest drivers?

Guys - I couldn't see a simple answer to this, so..

What are the latest Mobility drivers that will work with the 6990M/Intel switchable graphics on the M17xR3?

Thanks
Chez

 

also which ones are working for win 8 ?

 

The best drivers, up-to-date for 6990m are, 8.97-120418a. Install them over your official Dell drivers.

 

The Intel Graphics will have different drivers than the AMD 6990m drivers. For the Intel drivers, you can check out the Intel driver update site. That has been reliable for me in the past with updating Intel drivers. Intel® Driver Update Utility

The AMD drivers are more tricky. Many people have been reporting a failure to update the Catalyst drivers, and ones that do get the newer drivers installed are occasionally having hang-up and BSOD issues. Officially AMD's newer Catalyst updates will do not support notebooks with switchable graphics (it says so on the drivers and downloads page) but if sherrypizza has gotten an updated Catalyst version installed and running stable, then those drivers will be better than the stock Dell drivers for the 6990m.

So sherrypizza...which version of Catalyst are you running? 8.97 if I remember is Catalyst 12.6 or 12.7 beta, yes? Did you have to do anything special to get them to install other than make sure the R3's graphics were switched to the 6990m?

 

Hi there,

i currently have the 12.3 (March 2012) cats installed for my 6990m and want to go to 12.8.

i have a SSD as my primary drive and it says system restore is disabled and i dont want to try to install any drivers until i can get restore to work. how do i enable it? i have tried almost everything.

can you please link me to the latest drivers that work for the 6990m please?

Thanks.

 

The 12.8 drivers will NOT work with the 6990m. Many owners, myself included, can confirm this. I've personally not been able to get the 12.6 drivers to install without a blue screen either, but some have managed just fine. Try the 12.6 drivers, and if it won't work then the 12.4 ones will for sure. Good luck!

12.6 drivers:
Download AMD Catalyst Mobility Display Driver 12.6 for Vista64/Windows 7 x64 Driver for Windows Vista64 / Windows 7 x64 - Softpedia

12.4 drivers:
Download AMD Catalyst Mobility Display Driver 12.4 for Vista64/Windows 7 x64 Driver for Windows Vista64 / Windows 7 x64 - Softpedia

 

First of all, if you install intel graphics separately from intel website, you will get White Screen of Death after installing AMD drivers, so Official dell drivers are recommended. Now I've installed official Dell drivers and then 8.97 18th April AMD drivers over them. For CCC, i chose latest AMD drivers, custom install them without selecting display drivers. Here is screenshot for reference. Since 18th April drivers are the best so far in every benchmark, even better than latest catalyst in most of games and I haven't encountered any problem in any game so far with these drivers including Transformers Fall of Cybertron, Sleeping Dogs, Dark Souls etc

 

I have tried 12.6, they worked fine with my 6990m, but I reverted back to 18th April because of the better performance they delivered.

 

Good to know if I am asked about the Intel Switchable graphics. So right now you have the 12.4 display drivers along with 12.6 Catalyst Control Center, yes?

 

UPDATE!

Great news!

I disabled the IGP in the A08 modded bios, then installed the official 12.8 cats from AMD first try, no issues what so ever! i installed them straight over the 12.3 cats i had that were released March this year.

Not sure if i was lucky or potentially found a workaround. Just thought i would let you all know.

 

turning off the integrated graphics was a known workaround but some people want to be able to switch to save power.

 

And these will allow me to keep graphics switching?

If so, awesome, thanks

 

Ofcourse, I don't play games all the time as I take it with me at my work, so I use intel graphics when I'm not gaming etc.

 

12.4 display driver but Catalyst Control Center is from 12.8.

 

Thanks, that worked perfectly.

I too like to switch to the Intel graphics when travelling/working - it still amazes me just how long the laptop lasts on battery considering the power it has!

 

By the way, the drivers I'm using, are the modded version of 18th April. Here is the link.

AMD Catalyst 8.97 18 April – 7900 MOD – BenchmarK3D