m17xr2 GPU upgrade

Hi all,

My 8 year old clevo 7970m gpu died in the m17xr2. (pixelatted vertical lines and 3d locks up)

What would be the best card to buy today?
I read that clevo cards gives native fan control whilst other brands have no fan control.
So do i buy:

clevo 7970m again?
clevo 8970m?
or clevo 680m?

 

If my knowledge of the subject is still up to date, the Clevo 8970m is still the best option for the card.

 

Thanks mate for the quick reply.
Would this item be the one?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...earchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

 

I cant view it but if I am permitted to drag another member out of retirement one more time @Raidriar may be able to point you in a better direction.

 

Yes it will work but you must flash my modded VBIOS or non-enduro clevo vBIOS

 

Thank you @Raidriar
Just purchased! Yay
Q/
Will it load up to windows desktop when first installed or will I have to do a blind flash when it arrives? No worries found answer
M17x R2 8970M Crossfire Upgrade

Also where can I get the modded vbios ?
A/ in same thread lol



Kudos.

 

One last question to the gurus.

Regarding the flash of vbios on 8970m has anyone used this adapter with a desktop pc to flash the vbios on 8970m? That is, would it work?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/273228344893

Just a tad worried with the blind flash and prefer to do it on my old desktop pc winxp and pci adapter.

Tia.

 

If you are able to still use but just with lines and no 3d, why not use atiflash in DOS with one GPU in primary slot and one in secondary slot?

Unless this isn;t possible?

 

I have the 4870m in there now; the 7970m won't post into windows anymore; its dead.
I could do that method you state, thanks, never thought about it doing the flash that way.


We will see what actually happens when it arrives and whether the clevo vbios on it works.

 

isn't GTX 680M a better upgrade than HD8970 ?

 

Not really. Clevo 8970M gives native fan control by onboard EC, no such GTX 680M exists. 8970M still receives driver updates from AMD, 680M/kepler stopped long time ago.

 

@Raidriar ,

What score will one get in 3dmark 11 if going crossfire with 8970m?

And do modern pc games support the crossfire or is it a dead duck walking ?

Tia

 

In theory 8970M appears to be faster:
https://technical.city/en/video/Radeon-HD-8970M-vs-GeForce-GTX-680M
Other benchmark sites seem to tell the same story. The 680M is just slightly faster than HD7970M.
You can see some advantages and disadvantages to both. Hard to say, in my experience the GTX was much more expensive and/or much harder to come by than any AMD card of that generation. However native CUDA and better driver support (AMD so far was damn sketchy) can be in favour of the GTX, maybe someone with SLI of that card can shine some light on how it performs.

 

I have tested both single 680M and single 8970M, the 8970M did a better job.

 

China deliveries delayed due to Corona.
In 3 days no delivery =refund

Time to think..

 

USA or Europe? I've got a spare Dell 7970M with CLEVO V1.1 vBIOS if you want, Poland, so shipping to US would be quite expensive. Or, if you want, I have a local listing for two 8970M for about 200EUR each, CLEVO if I recall correctly. PM me if you want them.

EDIT: just checked them, they are actually from Dell, no Xfire connectors. One is 799PLN, the other 899PLN. There are also new CLEVO cards of that model, local, not from China, for 1500PLN, so around 375€

 

just ordered mine last week + 940xm
Delivered to parent's place this week...

 

Mine should be here soon.
Can't wait to install it.

 

I read there, that they managed to install a gtx 980M in the M17X-R2, who knows about that?

 

Yeah, the guy went around 6bit/8bit display issues but switching the LVDS cable and panel from Dell XPS if I remember right, and was able to run all kinds of Maxwell cards, M5000M, and so on. The deal is losing LED-RGB screen, and that hurts...

 

Not without extensive modification and you will lose ability to use RGBLED display only 6bit WLED panels will work. Not worth it IMO, you can get M18x for no hassle if you want to use 980M with 6 bit display

 

A question - is it possible to use the RGBLED display with the benefits of modern drivers? A friend of mine is interested in this machine, because the display is 100% Adobe Palette, and he does video editing, but with the drivers I've got the DaVinci Resolve Studio simply shuts down when forces to do anything. Is it possible to utilize the multi GPU potential with it in any way without resorting to ancient drivers?

 

8970m single card has no problem using latest AMD driver. Crossfire config is limited to 17.3.3

 

I know the question was mangled elsewhere dozens of times, but looking at benchmarks the efficiency boost is only 6% between 7980M and 8970M, at least from looking at the benchmarks. The 3DMark result you've uploaded a while back, the one around 12000pts was from CF? How well does it perform with just one? Can it exceed 9000?

 

This is what I could manage with a single 8970M. be aware this is on 17.3.3, performance will probably be better on newer driver.

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/13746543

 

Well my 8970m has arrived and hope to install this weekend.

Will install first and boot up to hopefully hear Windows boot up sound in background.

If successful, I will then blind flash with raidriar vbios in msdos.

Wish me luck.

 

All done.

Installed but had to do a blind flash on the 8970m.
Happy days.

 

System is great and games are running much more smoothly than before with 7970m.
Here is my 3dmark 11 score
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/13884013

 

Enjoy th upgrade this is likely as good as it gets for M17x R2

 

I have several different screens from the m17x r2, one clevo gtx 980m 8gb, I would like to know the specific steps to make the mod to be compatible with the gtx 980m on my old m17x r2

 

Consult @Baddemichl

 

Hopefully you guys could do the consultation here? I believe most of us would like to learn the process of this kind of upgrade

 

@TR2N Does your 8970m overheat or suddenly shut down as we have seen with the 7970m from Dell?

 

Hey mate,
The 8970m is a beast.
No issues whatsoever.
Great gpu and solid engineering. Just flash the non-enduro vbios.

 

Do you have any links to how to flash the "non-enduro vbios"?.

 

Simply flash a non enduro dump into the card. Google Atiflash guide and you should be dandy, either Techpowerup or Techinferno guide is comprehensive and easy to follow. As for the vBIOS dump, either ask around here or use TechPowerUp vBIOS library, it's extensive and you may find something useful.

Alternatively, get a CH341A or compatible flasher with SOIC-8 clamp and do it l33t-h4XX0R way. This way, if you brick it, you can unbrick it with a different vBIOS dump. Costs a few bucks and opens a new avenue when it comes to firmware flashing.

 

Alrighty then. Ordered a Clevo 8970m for $200. Hopefully that will take my fear away form that magic 85 C border that kills my fun.

I was so close to buy a more new machne... but that sadness hit me. I really love my bulky R2 system. Great piece of machine and that screen and the keyboard man. Just cannot see any reason to depart with it if I can just smack a more stable card in it with more or less the same performance.

Thanks for the help and advice!

 

@TR2N @MrMogwai Will a 240W power supple adapter be fine? I use a i7 920XM CPU as well.

Update. Never mind. 7970m and 8970m are both a 100W card. I have always been able to use the 240W power brick with the Dell 7970m card without any issues (as long as it would stay under those 85 C).

 

Just do it...

Should be fine and no problem with the 8970m.
It is only when you go Crossfire that you will need more juice.

You will need the non-enduro vbios and do a blind flash.
Post any issues here.

Good luck.

 

so far so good. Installed the 8970M Clevo card and that works. However, 3d marks says I have no DX11 card and... if I go for the newest AMD RADEON drivers it will give me a gray screen of death af a minutes time being at Windows 10 desktop. If I roll back to windows drivers in safe mode I can load the machine up again without any gray screen of death. However, no DX 11 cards detected in 3dMarks.... Weird... Trying to find out exactly what it could be.

I have also tried the Crimson 17.3.3 drivers... same issues with black screen a minute after being loading into Windows 10 Desktop. Odd....

 

@Dwarf King did you end up fixing your issue? if Yes, how ? thanks for the reply

 

@tomx sadly my 8970m would suddenly go all gray screen and shut down the machine on win 10. On win 7 it would flicker screen after a while and if I tried Linux Mint it would go gray and shut down after a while. I returned to my 7970m and found out that I could set the power settings to Battery Safe mode and then it would hardly ever reach 64-70 Celsius degrees and still offer a hell lot better performance than my former ATI Radeon 5870 mobility card could. Even played Witcher 3 well on low to medium settings. Now..... then the fun began. Out of nowhere my laptop would not charge the battery or.... allow an power from my power brick at all. I did:

• a power drain but no success.
• bought a new power brick but no success.
• Bought a new onboard DC jack for the motherboard but it turned out to be incorrect size even though the seller claimed it was the right onboard dc jack stick.
• Got a solder machine.... it only went up to 450 Celsius.... and the solder remover could therefore not do much anyway....

Anyway... I had taken the machine all apart.... now I was assembling it together again and....

now I got the two beeps... fixed the ram.... beeps gone and....

now I got the scroll and caps flashing and black screen... tried to reset the dlc cable... no luck...

now I am going to reseat the GPU card as well since it has happen that it happened before that it would not be plugged in properly in that slot.

Anyway... damn that dc jack ****.

I have now ordered a second hand Motherboard from Germany for around 217 Euros and then I will try with that.

If that works out I will still have a solid working machine with the 7970m Dell card forced to underperformed so it does not shut down when it reach 85 Celsius degrees.

I even broke my backlit in the keyboard and had to buy a new Nordic keyboard as well.

Damn I love Ebay

 

ok, keep us posted please ^^

 

After removing the new keyboard my machine would once agaiin take in ac power....

I reseated the dlc cable at least 4 times before the screen would work again.

Alienware m17x R2 now up and running again with my 7970m. Only problem left now is how I get a new keyboard with backlit that does not prevent my laptop from running on a power brick. I mean that was a show stopper for me....

So the answer will be that for me the 8970m upgrade di not work. The 7970m though is working pretty decent for now.

 

Repasted the 7970m and putted some new Thermal Pads on the v-rams and set the power settings to maximum performance when plugged in for the AMD card under advanced settings. Smacked the machine up on a Cooler master pad and did the following benchmarks:

• Skydiver. ---- score 8381 - max temp 71 Celsius degrees (this test is really the most optimal one to use for this old machine.)
• Fire Strike Extreme. Score 2393 - Max temp 85 no shutdown at all I mean WHAAAT!?
• Fire Strike Score 4894 (leaves it above an office laptop and below a gaming laptop 2020) - Max temp 78 no shutdowns at all
• Time Spy lacking as hell but it went all through. Score 1449 - Max temp 73.

Next step will be to stress test the system with Fire Strike and Skydiver to see if those temps eventually will climb up to 85 plus and shut down the system.

So I would say it is up and running at its max now. For serious gaming or any hard particle stuff in and game engine like UE4 I would say setting the performance settings for medium would be best overall. Not bad for a machine with a 10 years old CPU(i7 920XM) and a GPU from 2013 (7970m).

Once again it can be my trusted work horse and even act as a bullet proof vest from the back when on the run

The 8970 I have given up on since that Clevo card I got must have been a lemon. Nonetheless the 7970m is still decent and that is on windows 10 and it could even lack/hack through a DX 12 benchmark test without shutting down.

 

Hey all,
I purchased a M17x R2 not long ago with a 680m on Win7. Previous owner told me that he purchased the 680m from a company called Eurocom. Card came with the driver support from Eurocom as well. I knew I was going to upgrade to Win10 soon and PO told me that if Id reach out to Eurocom they would assist with the drivers. Well long story short I upgraded to Win10 and cannot get in touch with anyone from Eurocom to get help with drivers. Not sure if anyone knows of this company or if they are even around still? I guess my main question would be, is there a Win10 modded driver out there or am I stuck needing to revert back to Win7?
Another idea I have is trying to go for the 8970. I found a fairly cheap one on ebay that I am considering and curious if I will need to jump through as many hoops to get it to work as I need with the 680 and or is it even worth it. I read the earlier threats and test show that over all 8970 is however, given since I already have the 680m should I "upgrade" to the 8970?

P.S. I am not a IT guru but have decent DIY skills. If guided properly I should be able to sort this out so, if any can assist Id appreciate it.
Thanks in advance

 

You will need to mod your own driver but it isn't too hard if you follow a good guide and I can help walk you through it if you need. Have a read through this detailed guide and then feel free to ask any questions. It can be tricky the first time, especially with the older cards as there is a few extra steps to take compared to the newer cards.

https://null-src.com/posts/nvidia-notebook-driver-inf-mod/post.php

Support for the 600 series cards ended some time ago so if you go to the Nvidia website and look for the 680M driver it will be the 425.31 driver. Technically you can mod the latest driver as well but since it isn't optimised for the older cards then it may not be worth it. It could possibly even work worse than the 425 driver.

 

Ill get to work on this guide and update. Thanks so much Maxware!

 

Anytime. One thing to remember is when you download and install the driver directly from Nvidia and it fails, don't close it because you have to go into your C: drive and copy/paste the Nvidia folder. Once you've made the copy then you can close the failed installer and the original NVIDIA folder should disappear and you'll have NVIDIA - Copy to mod.

 

Greetings I recommend you go for the clevo version of the hd 8970M, you just connect it and look for the drivers on the amd page, you must look for the heat sink and the screws that go with that mount.....You can also think about updating to the new nvida which I have no idea if they are compatible