What should i do next after install radeon HD 7970M into alienware m17xr2?

Hi guys.
i jz bought this new graphic card Ati Radeon HD 7970M.What should i do next?kinda newbie in this kinda thing.hope u guys can show step by step.
Thanks. :thumbsup:

 

No such thing as an ATI Radeon 7970M, The ATI branding was stripped off along time ago, It is the AMD HD 7970M and once installed if your powersupply is adequate and the cooling system is good enough, AND your using an unlocked bios, You turn it on.

 

If all your drivers are installed and it's showing up correctly (I use the 13.1 drivers for my 6970's), then you could install and run 3DVantage and 3DMark11 and do some benchmarking....or play your favorite game and see how things look.

Would be curious to see your benchmark scores.

If you have just installed the card, then make sure you apply the thermal paste to the GPU and the thermal pads to the memory make sure everything is securely in place and then power it on.

Either way, have fun and enjoy!

 

Ok, let me add a few questions here, since my 7970m arrives friday.
Since i am currently running a 6970m ( which i believe draws more power than 7970m), it is safe to assume i do not need a diff psu ( power supply unit)?
Second, since the 6970 and 7970 are both amd... D i need to uninstall drivers and reinstall( most likrely)? Or is if fully plug and play, jsut switch cards and the radeon drivers/ app adjust themselves?
Finally.. I need an unlocked bios? I didnt need to go through that with the 6970... If. Require to do it now.. Which bios s needed?
Thanks in advance

 

Hi Ricard,

Take this for what it's worth, since I'm only running 6970s and upgraded from 4870 cards. However will share my experiences which might help with your 7970
upgrade (others feel free to chime in who have done this)

1)You should NOT need a new PSU...assuming your running the 240W one and the
6970M draws more power, you should be perfectly fine there

2) You probably will not need to uninstall and reinstall your drivers, since it uses the same driver for both cards. Some may disagree, but I found even when upgrading from 4870->6970 I didn't have to reinstall my driver.

Not sure about question number 3, but I'm sure lots of folks out there can help with that piece.

Enjoy!

 

I just upgraded to a 7970m.

The regular m17x-r2 240watt cpu is sufficient, even with overclocking cpu/gpu. It's when you add a 2nd 7970m that you need to worry about the PSU (which won't be sufficient in that case)
I would definitely re-install the drivers to avoid any issues.

You don't need an unlocked bios. I run on regular A09 dell bios. You only need the unlocked bios if you want to play with some settings in the bios which you normally can't access (mainly some overclocking stuff also for the cpu).
If you didn't buy a Eurocom card, then there might be some v-bios flashing involved, but I don't have experience with that. The Eurocom card is plug and play basically.

For installing the card, what you do is:
- open up your alienware, get to the gpu, remove the old gpu+heat sink
- in case you bought the bare 7970m card, you will need to remove the heat sink from your current card, and use it on your new card. Do not forget to decently apply the thermal paste, and all the thermal pads you should. Also make sure you have the right x-bracket. If you bought your card from Eurocom, they have a great little manual for all this, and also supply all the stuff you need. In my experience this step is the most important one, if you up the thermal pads or thermal paste, you will have serious heat issues and possibly thermal shutdowns. Also note, you need to apply more thermal pads to the card then your current one has. I found the placing of the thermal pads the hardest part, if you misplace one it might overlap another one, causing the heat sink to not fully make contact on certain parts and you will get higher temps.
Also, I upgraded from a 4870, I had to change the screws from the heat sink as they didn't fit (screws are supplied in the Eurocom kit in case you have it). I'm not sure if this applies to your current heat-sink card upgrade.
- plug it in
- boot up, remove all drivers for you rcurrent card, use driver sweeper, reboot to safe mode, use driver sweeper again in safe mode.
- boot up, install catalyst and latest drivers (13.1)
- reboot, and check device manager if it recognizes the card
- Before you even consider taking it for a ride, install HWInfo64 and monitor if your fans spin as they should. There's some difference here, some people have no problems, others have to manually control the fans.
- run a benchmark, and monitor your temps. Here you will also see if you applied the thermal paste correctly.
- I used Furmark for a couple of minutes to check the temperaturs and fans, after a couple of minutes you will see a steady highest temperature, this should be somewhere around 75 degrees (lower is always better of course) at max.

Check your score with others, I would recommend using 3dmark11. If you're GPU (note, GPU score, not the overall P-score) score is in the 6xxx then it runs as it should. Congrats

In my case, when benching I found out high temperaturs and an occasional thermal shutdown. Then found out the fans didn't auto spin as they should. Repasted the GPU, manually control the fans, and it's been running like a dream ever since. I can't stress the fans and temperature enough though, it's better to double check this and spend half an hour more before being able to let it loose on a game and see the power, then to rush stuff and screwing up your card.

 

Awesome, ill definitely monitor the temps. I had been runing GPUz with an add on (lcdisreal) to display my card temps on a G13 gaming pad... I heard that i can do the same thing with Hwinfo and another add on, so ill look into it.
My urrent monitors on the 6970 run at around (40-46) on iddle, and up all teh way to like 78 whne playing bf3 and some other games i am playing. There is a game I will start beta testing today (sorry, the NDA does not even allow me to mention the game), but I cant wait to compare the game with both cards. Thanks again, and will report friday/weekend after my isntall.
If everything goes fine, i mgiht even sell my current 6970.. (wonder how much those sell for now a days... $75?).
Anyways, thanks ahain

 

1) how exactly to apply the thermal pad and the thermal paste?how big and thick should i apply the thermal pad and where should i put it on the graphic card and as for the thermal paste how much should i apply?

2) Can i use the old heatsink i used with 5870 crossfire with the new 7970M? Which side left or right in alienware m17xr2 should i install the 7970M graphic card?

3) Can i do 7970M crossfire in alienware m17xr2? will the powersupply sufficient?i've seen some people successfully done this.

4) How to do the vbios flashing?and what kind of bios should i use for this 7970M gc?

5) I heard that HDMI port might be not working after swapping with 7970M in alienware m17xr2?is that true?Is there something I should know other than this?how about the fan speed problem?

 

1> will dig up the picture for the thermal pads, there's a movie also on youtube for the entire process
2> yes. Left side
3> yes you can, but PSU is not sufficient for a crossfire setup. You will need a heavier PSU, which is a project on itself, there's some topics on that here on the forum, but it's currently quite the hastle.
4> if you get a Eurocom card, you won't need to do any vbios flashing.
5>HDMI works for me (EUrocom card). Fans didn't work as they should, i manually control them with HWiNFO64 (which i did anyway)

 

1) Okay i got this one.
2) Do i use different screw for 7970M bracket or i can jz use the old screw from the 5870 bracket?
3) I'll try asking this with other thread
4) How do i know mine comes with Eurocom card?if not,what should i do to do vbios flashing?
5) How do u control the fan using HWiNFO64?

Sorry too many question.Kinda newbie in this kinda thing.
Thanks~

 

1) Ok. Please note, that some chips are lower on the pcb then others, this is where you use the thicker thermal pads.
2) different screws, the one from the 5870 heat sink won't fit your new x-bracket.
3) I'll try asking this with other thread
4) Where did you order your card? If you bought it from Eurocom, it's a eurocom card (or their ebay user, upgradeyourlaptop). Else it's likely not.
5) Install HWiNFO, make it autostart at windows boot.Go to HWiNFO Fan Control, and put in the fan numbers you'd like to use at the temperatures you want.

 

Ok, so my card should arrive today. i was testing a little with hwinfo, and got my external lcd thingy to display cdp and gpu tempts and fan rpm. What i have seen with my curren t set up (which handles fans automatically) is that at:
66c = 1950 to 1978 rpm
70c = 2500
71c = 3200
79c = 3900

I was wondering if this sounds ok.. sicne it seems i might have to manually control fans once i isntall my new 7970 card.
Also, is there a config in hwinfo where I can tell it something like "if the sensor reaches XXC then rev up fan to XXXXRpm? or is it a manual thing where i have to put the rpms to a number before playing a game or running an app?

 

Yes you can config this.

What i use is 2000rpm for everything below 40 degrees, and then 4000rpm for everything above

I made you a screenshot of my settings (it's a bit overkill to have them at 4000rpm from 40 already, but I like my system as cool as possible )


And how you get here, is:
- Open HWiNFO64 (or 32)
- go to Monitor -> Sensor Status
- all the way at the bottom, click the little Fan Icon, between 'Reset min/max' and 'Logging Start'
- For GPU1 you select 'Set Manual' and then you can fill in what you want
- If you have a GPU2 fan (like me), I still have that cool the same as GPU1 fan, it's just that little bit extra cooling which is always nice to have. I believe 4000rpm is the max for the fans, but I use 4500 in case they can spin just a little faster ^^

A little extra piece of advise, I did the airflow mod for the card, which is 10 seconds of work, and does make a little difference for your temperatures (basically some heat resistant tape to let the air flow better through the card).

Also note, you have to autostart hwinfo64 at bootup (via task scheduler to avoid having to click yes every startup), and open up hwinfo all the way to the temperatures (like you did with the steps above), else it won't use those settings (you wont have to fill in all the above as its still there, you just have to open it and then you can minimize it again).

It's always nice to have some reference, so:
The temperatures I get with the above, is about 30 degrees idle, and around 70-71-72 degrees max with full load (peak temperature during 3dmark Vantage or 3dmark11, or during a long gaming session with a heavy game).

 

Any idea where I can find the manual on the 7970 upgrade for the m17xr2? did not come with my kid, and I want to make sure I got the pad placement accurately
I forgot to mention my card was purchased through Eurocom

 

here ya go: http://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j...G4oZKMO42GWv4zIC90VJb-Q&bvm=bv.41867550,d.d2k

docfile with the instructions (credits to Eurocom)

 

Awesome, thanks for the document... but unfortunately it does not include the image of the pad placement

 

here ya go

note that the big large chunks are thin pads, and the chips that are a bit lower on the pcb in height use thicker pads (so it all evens out to 1 surface for cooling)

 

Thank you sir... I was figuring out by checking other diagrams from the eurocom videos and by looking at my current cards placement.... Luckily you posted that, cause i had one pad missplaced... I owe you one

 

You're welcome.
I ed up first time applying the heat sink, it's somewhat tricky when you place the sink on it, sometimes one of those thicker thermal pads (which are usually for very small chips and thus don't really stick that good) deplaces a bit when placing the heat sink, and then it overlaps another one etcetc.

 

Hey everybody, I AM GLAD TO REPORT EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE WORKING PERFECTLY
I will monitor further, sicne in the past, my 6970 install became a nightmare... but for this one, I jsut replaced cards, and the machine picked up the card with no need to reinstall drivers.
In addition, my hardware info temperatures are crazy low... i used to be at low 40's but now iti seem to be hovering at 29 to 3 while i type this. (Nm, then it kind of went up to 40's LOL)

Will later try a few rounds of hawken, bf3 and far cry 3, and report how it performs. I know the next thing would be to try benchmarks... but i am afraid that stressing the card too much may brack something (thats how my januay 2012 ordeal started ).

Anyways,
Thanks again

Also, fans seem to eb spinning good on their own. ill monitor also as i play a game to see if they rev up on their own

 

Ok, played a litle hawken, and temp went up to 70, but the fan never reved up above the original 2570 rpm... so I guess I have to set up th fans

One mroe thing, I created the autostart task... but i was wondering, do I need to add any arguments for it to start, or jsut adding it with no arguments is enough?

Thanks again

 

Just add without arguments (and make sure you check 'run with highest privileges).

You have the same I have, need to run the fans manually

 

Ok, so i ran into my first bit of problem. After the second test, i shut down my machine for a couple of hours... And now when i try to boot it up, my screen is kind of psychedelic white.. Tried restarting and got the same thing... Any ideas, i dont even see bios or anything

Was able to restart after trying to boot several times with an external monitor... Very confused

 

Ok, everytng works fine. left machine overnight, watched some videos, ran some programs, browsed the web amnd played some farcry 3 and skyrim... performance is amaizing.
YET, I AM AFRAID OF TURNING OF THE MACHINE FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME. I tested a quicl restart amnd no problems, but last night (as per my post) I started having that fading white lcd screen at boot up... and was only able to boot the machine once i got an external monitor to hook up... afterwards, it worked fine again.
Anybody knows what could be causing this? (again, it only hapepend once... but took several boot attempts to fix.