Putting Dual 6990's in M17x R2?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/member.php?u=233615

He has dual 6990's in his r2. I've tried PMMing him but haven't gotten a response. Does anyone know how feasible this is? Maybe something a little lower than the 6990's if necessary? It would be neat to get much better video performance out of my machine. I still have a great processor and having better video cards would really increase the longevity.

 

Here's the guide. I'm surprised you missed it

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...6970m-your-m17x-r2-single-gpu-crossfirex.html
6970 and 6990's work.

 

edit: looks like zooligan beat me to the punch

just do some reading through that forum thread and then ask any questions you have after

 

I'll give you his phone number it's.... No but really I'll call him and let you know. I know that he went to Eurocom Canada to get his cards for the Clevo model.

 

Thanks! I'm confused, though. Why install the cards if the extra heat / power will destroy your system? Also, what are the heat / power differences between the 6990's and the 6970's?

I don't know, I'd love the extra power but what I have now works great. Will the cards I have now allow me to play everything on High settings for the next 2 years?

 

It really depends on driver support, and nobody can predict the visual technologies to come for the next few years.

 

Hey man, sorry, I've been pretty busy with work and havn't had much time to answer PMs in as much detail as I've wanted.

As for obtaining my cards, I purchased them from NBR Member Phektan, who has since not been selling the cards as he can no longer get them. As far as heat and the GPUs, the heat isn't really much of a problem. I used the M17x stock heatsinks with some cheap paste and some .5mm pads. I undervolted my cards to 1.0v and down from 1.1v and the top out at 80*C, maybe 81*C in a marathon of BF3. Havn't played many other games, but they handle them with ease. You can use the 5870/4870 Crossfire cable, but that s a little long. Just peel back some of the tape to make it more flexible and it works fine. All you have to do is remove the keyboard and touch strip (w/power button) to get tht the GPUs, few screws to remove the GPUs, few more to remove the heatsink, put your old heat sink on the 6990, and pplug them back in. If you get Dell cards, they will keep your fans at 100%, all the time. Eurocom cards will work great, just need to flash them with a Clevo vbios. Clevo cards are simple plug and play.

Let me know if you have any more questions. These cards run real cool and heat isn't a problem. they can run at stock clocks, which is more than enough for 95% of the games, and they can do so undervolted down to .96v from 1.1v. When undervolted, it reduces power draw from the system, eliminates throttle. from time to time you may get slight throttle in power hog games like Metro 2033 and Crysis, but I havn't played those games so I can't say for sure. The throttling may not even be there. But other things factor into it. If you have an XM cpu, that is going to draw more power. So underclocking it may help reduce throttling. I run my CPU at stock for gaming. and overclocked when I'm doing other things. Stock for gaming is more than enough though.

+rep to Dark Loki for pointing me here. He passed on the message.

 

Thanks a lot man. I'll think about it. All I play right now are SC2 and Skyrim and both of those run fine. I may end up upgrading in a month or two. I would repaste the machine again with really nice stuff and do it then.

Is a slightly undervolted 6990 still WAY better than the 5870? If the clevo cards are plug and play should I buy them instead? Which would be the best to buy? Have you had any issues with yours? If I keep them @ .96v will they ever throttle?

How much are the cards?

EDIT: Is it possible to put a bigger power supply in the m17x r2? Could that be beneficial?

 

They may throttle with games like Crysis or Metro 2033, especially with an overclocked CPU. Undervolting the cards just reduces power draw and heat, it doesn't take away from performance. If you tried OCing the cards though, with an underclock, they would become unstable an much lower clocks than regular voltage. So 1.1v and .96v will perform at stock clocks the same. A Single 6990 is just about 15% slower than crossfire 6990s I think, Maybe just about as fast. but a single 6990 won't give you cross fire issues. Dual 6990s are just beastly.

I may repaste in the future too. I used cheap Best Buy brand Dynex thermal paste, and it's worked well. I even have two tubes of IC Diamond, which I purchased when I was out with DarkLoki this past summer.

Best Cards to Buy are Clevos if you can get them. Hard to come by though. Next best cards are Eurocom cards from "upgradeyourlaptop" on ebay. But if you get them from ebay, or NBR, be sure to ask for 8 screws to hold down the heatsink. Dell 5870 heatsink screws are a little too big.

Last cards I would get are Dell 6990s, they will keep your fans at 100% all the time, unless you use SpeedFan or HWInfo64 to override the fans. But Del cards require manual control all the time.


Also 6970s work in the system, and being that they have slower stock clocks and less shaders than a 6990, they have less power draw.

Last thing, You will lose audio over HDMI if you upgrade. For some reason the system bios has an issue with it and it doesn't work. Though it doesn't bother me, it will bother some people. Just be aware.

 

Thanks a bunch. I don't play Crysis or Metro, nor do I have any intention of it. I also don't Overclock any of my chips. I may message you again if I decide to go with it. What kind of price point would I be looking at?

 

Price point is about $410-$430 on ebay. Don't remember if you'll need the 6990s with or without posts though. If you ask in the 6970 guide thread, those guys would be able to answer better. I know a few of them have ordered from there. I know Greywolf is selling some 6970s in the NBR Marketplace, but he couldn't get his cards to work in crossfire. Never figured out if it was a cable issue or not though. But check the guide thread, those guys will point you in the right direction for cards. I havn't paid much attention since I got mine from a member, who got them straight from Clevo.