Upgrading GPU, probably destroyed my current one

Hello everyone,

I have been looking to replace my GPU for a while now so today I decided to look for some good ones. After alot of research I came to the conclusion that the Radeon HD 7970m is a pretty good card for the money. But since I have a Nvidia 460m in my laptop at the moment I thought that might give trouble so I wanted to take a look at my heatsink and heatpads etc. Screwed open my laptop took a look at it took some pictures etc etc, placed it back in screwed it back up, powered on the laptop.

8 beeps.

Because I changed something in my BIOS it would always use the GPU to display everything (set something to PEG) so now it wouldn't boot. Took out the card, booted up again changed it back to SG. Put back the card.

Now my pc doesn't recognize the Nvidia card anymore so I am assuming I somehow managed to destroy the card. While this does give me a good reason to buy a new GPU I am still a little bummed.


Now for my actual questions:

Did I really destroy my 460m somehow or am I doing something wrong?

Is the 7970m really a good card?

Where on planet earth can I find the correct heatsink for the 7970m as most people keep saying I can't use the 460m one.

Do I need anything else to be able to upgrade to the 7970m?


I found this guide to help me install the card: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-mobility-7970-m17x-r3-illustrated-guide.html
I found this ebay seller for a pretty cheap card: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wholesale-A...789?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item2c80e18abd


Thanks in advance!

PS. in case something is not clear enough I can probably explain more if needed, just ask

 

It's likely a dead GPU, especially if the BIOS isn't recognizing it. That's a pretty good sign.

I'd recommend you get a 680M. The 7970M has a rough history.

 

Alright, fair enough.

680m is alot more expensive though. I'll think about it

If anyone knows about the heatsink for the 7970m that would be great

 

P/N YHP1P Genuine OEM Dell Alienware M17X R3 Graphics Card Heatsink P N YHP1P AT0FJ0060C0 | eBay

 

It might be my untrained eye, but that looks exactly the same as my 460m heatsink?

Oh and they wont ship internationally, I live in The Netherlands

EDIT: I looked at the part number, it seems to have a different part number to some other heatsinks so it seems the "YHP1P" is the one for AMD cards.

Thanks

EDIT 2: any clue how I might have killed my GPU? I didn't really do anything else to the card than I did a while ago when looking inside my laptop.

 

The 7970M is about $450. I'm sure for another $50, you can get this 680M: NVIDIA GeForce Dell GTX 680M 2GB DDR5 for MSI Clevo Alienware Upgrademonkey | eBay

It's definitely worth another $50 over the 7970M.

 

I found a 7970m for $390 at Wholesale Alienware AMD HD Dell 7970M 2GB GDDR5 M15X M17x M18x Dell 216 0836036 | eBay

Unfortunately I am a rather poor student so this money is really worth keeping (or I can't eat for like 2 weeks )

What exactly is the reason you are so much more positive about the 680m? I have had lots of trouble with my Nvidia 460m (driver related blue screens and stuff) so I thought I'd look into AMD, see how they go, since I am going to need modded drivers anyway.

Thanks for the help it's is much appreciated

 

Alright this is so weird! while I was checking for the part number on my current GPU heatsink I pulled out the GPU one more time.

Restarted my laptop and after a while I got a bluescreen with the message Driver power state failure. I've been having these for ages untill I put it on PEG in the bios.
so I got into the bios put it back on PEG, AND IT ACTUALLY BOOTED.

Seems like my 460m is not destroyed after all

For the first time ever I am happy too see that blue screen!

However, this does not mean I stop looking for a new GPU

 

The 460M is a fermi nvidia card come on, thy are KNOWN to have blue screens over heating, and overvoltage problems.. Funny thing is you want a 7970M that had driver issues forever and a half until now .. I'm not sure you know what you are talking about. The 680M is a damn nice card compared to the hot (runs hot on load and idle) 7970m.

 

Hey Slangtong, sorry to hear your troubles. Despite the hit or miss issues with the 7970m, I would like to give my 5 cents in favor of the 7970m. I have had little issues with mine. I upgraded my m17xR2 5870m crossfire to a Eurocom (Ebay seller Upgradeyourlaptop) 7970m back in October 2012 and have not regretted it. I do have to agree that driver support is not as good as Nvidia, but I feel my purchase was well worth the upgrade. The rough history I think the others are referring to are regarding variability in quality, leading to dead cards overtime (please correct me if I am wrong). This may also be confounded by lots of folks improperly flashing the vbios.

I have been able to play and enjoy BF4 and crysis 3, although not maxed at ultra settings. I have to use HWinfo 64 for fan control but that is not a big issue as it is simple to use. Other 7970m models (clevo, I believe) will function normally without software. The Eurocom 7970m version also shuts down at 85 C, so you will need to do a good job applying thermal paste. It does overclock decently well.I wouldn't recommend overvolting...I had too many thermal shut downs.

I believe you will be happy with the performance gain from the 7970m.

With that said I have to agree with J Dre. If I could go back in time, I would have gotten the 680m. Since money is an issue, the reliability of the 680m may be a better option.

 

If I knew what I was doing I wouldn't be asking here for help..? the reason I picked the 7970m is because it was a lot cheaper and the stories I read on the internet said they where fine. Only untill I posted here I got some people saying that the 680m is alot better.

I am pretty sure I will be happy with the 7970m, I don't need to play all the newest games on max, but my 460m can barely run bf 4 on the lowest settings (and with barely I mean not even a stable 30 fps)

I just ordered a 7970m, I really appreciate the help. I am sure the 680m would've been a better pick but I am a bit of a stubborn person and not sure if its worth the extra 110-150 Dollars.

Thanks everyone!

 

Well again if money is the only concern.. Then you should be okay just what I meant is AMD cards are always a bit more difficult to maintain you pay for this difference. But good luck on the install and be sure to ask about anything you need help with.

 

There are a lot of people with the 7970M who run into absolutely no problems. But, there are many more people with problems that own the 7970M as opposed to those that own the 680M. And, the 680M can be overclocked to 780M performance levels with an unlocked vBIOS.

You can take a shot and go for the 7970M. You may not run into any issues, but you'll be shooting in the dark with that card. May hit a problem, may not. I honestly can't remember the last time I heard of a 680M in an Alienware failing. That card is a beast.

 

Alright now I understand better.

I am not really that great with all the overclocking. I only use the MSI afterburner on my current 460m a little to make it faster so it can atleast run bf3 (still have some frame drops). If I don't need to overclock the 7970m and still be able to run all my games on decent settings it's all fine by me. If I wanted to play everything maxed I should've bought a desktop

 

Hit it right on the mark. +1. (won't let me give rep, since you are the last person I have repped)

 

With overclocking the 7970m (while getting screechingly hot) can run a lot of things on max.

 

Alright it came in a the mail yesterday, installed it and everything is working fine. Only problem I seem to have is my screen brightness seems to be alot lower than it was with the nvidia card. Although the brightness setting is on 100%

I find this to be really annoying as I often play in well lit areas.

Anyone know if this is normal or that it is fixable?

 

The driver issues on the 7970 are long gone, they had during the start especially for crossfire. When buying a card now, dont listen to the ones living on old intel. It hasnt been valid for the 7970M in over 1 year.

From what i read in here the driver issues on many of the latest releases for Nvidia has been troublesome for 780 and 880 cards with endless threads about tips and tricks to get out of problems and reverting back to older drivers.
Besides mantle (that doesnt work for my 7970crossfire but work if i run single card) i have always installed beta drivers, and not had one single driver related problem still running crossfire playing BF4 hard since release date.

I dont overclock my crossfire (due to power limitations) and my GPU's run sooo hot, 66 and 62 deg while running BF4 at 60 fps for as long as i want that is quite a bit lower than most 680M's ive read about in R-2's. (anyone seen below 75 running BF4 with heavy settings?) (running one card in mantle makes me have to remove AA and reduce my FPS slightly hitting 68 deg.)
No need overclocking when all programs I use run flawlessly max settings (including full AA) max of my screen FPS before tearing. (60)

There are sunshine stories from both vendors, there are crap storys from both vendors some feel there are more from AMD. I dont know.
Your probably not going to regret regardless. IF you use good paste heat will not be an issue using the 7970M anyways.

 

They trome71 can you tell me what you have throttlestop set up like and what voltage you have your cards at? My temps get up in the 70s and can't run those settings on bf4. Just curious how different my system is set then yours

 

So could you maybe give me a link for the drivers I should use? i'm not sure where to find them.

According to MSI Afterburner my card idles at 55 and goes 72 in BF4. This seems much hotter than your card, is this a problem? my Nvidia use to get about 70 aswell.

My only problem atm is that my brightness just seems lower than it used to be with my 460m

Thanks

 

My GPU temps will not be affected by T-stop.
I use T-stop for the CPU. 26X no OV 100TDP / 95 TDA.
My CPU is cooled by heatspring btw, (as is my GPU2. the coldest one, cause they said it couldnt be done )

My temps of course is helped by a fantray and the fact that i use the best heatpaste out there. (Gelid extreme)
Today my way higher indoor temp increased my GPU's to 70 and 65 but still its descent? I think cards have thermal shutdown at 85, so you should be safe in the 70's. Point was someone complaining about AMD temps, my guess is that its quite the same for both cards.

If your temps are a bit high, try reducing your voltage (most undervolting will run you on stock clocks and for now stock clock and crossfire runs everything. For me the undervoltage doesnt reduce temps much)

The drivers, I always use AMD beta drivers, found on AMD page.

 

Alright, I'm not to worried about the temps.

For drivers, I am on an m17xr3, so I believe I need modded drivers since mine doesn't support the 7970m.

It's working fine with my current drivers (catalyst 14.4) but still have the problem with low display brightness. I guess I'll just go live in a cave

 

Thanks trome71, knew ts wouldn't effect you gpu temp was just wondering if the CPU was holding my machine back on bf4. You run 26 on all Cores? Is that with the 940 or 920? My 920xm can't run 26 without ov and then my heat skyrockets. Think I'll looking into moving from bottle caps to a real heat tray. Thanks again

 

Ive got a 920XM and a 940XM, but the 940 has had it and is not working perfectly.
My signature has the benching with the different two. The 920 is very good, and doing a fantastic job for me.
I cant OV my CPU without getting heat issues.
The heatspring (its a metal shim-paste replacement that improves cooling if done correctly) makes me able to run the CPU this hard (my best TS 1024 is below 400s) If i dont use TS, i get drops in FPS in BF4 at times, starting TS removes the error quickly.
The tray helps me, but i should add a filter to it to reduce dust into the computer.

Do you need modded GPU drivers for the M17r3? Thought it was "cracked" BIOS that u needed like we need in the R2.

 

Hey trome 71. Just got some gc extreme in today. Figured I try something different then ic7. Do you use the spreader or a line of paste? I normally get good results with just a line down the center but I read this is a thicker paste that needs to be spread

Sent from my C6906 using Tapatalk

 

I normally use a cross.

Heat it in water (not boiling) wipe off water with paper, and then apply a thin cross towards corners. (thats why we heat it to make the line thinner)
Ricegrain also works on GPU and line on CPU no need to heat as much when using ricegrain and line.

You can also easily slightly heat (not very varm) the heatsink with water (needs to be totally dried before using) or low heat heatgun (aware of overheating.) or anything else. Especially in a cold environment.
Remember, 40-50 degrees heated should be more than enough. It should spread easier with a slight heat. Hotter could damage computer or make it flow to easily and also start to dry out the paste, the reason for normally having to re-paste in the first place.

I really really like the Gelid Extreme.

This is how it gets with spreaded paste @ apx2min
More on spreading