Aw m18x R2 Dual 980m SLI upgrade!!

I think n=1 was right when he was saying a 330W power brick can actually deliver 330W, and the power efficiency calculation is done as he outlined in his earlier post (post #294) - this was what I found out when I read about the subject years ago.

 

Alright we need to rule things out then.

First, the dvd I used. The part number on the dvd is: W2X98 It's windows 7 ultimate sp1 64-bit. As long as the dvd/iso you're using has an efi folder, it should work.

Second, in the bios, you already seem to have the proper settings. UEFI, legacy rom disabled, fast boot disabled, secure boot disabled.

Third, I'm using the a10 unlocked bios, don't think that will affect anything.

Fourth, I used my 680m sli set-up to install, this shouldn't really matter, but I guess it's best to use the dedicated gpu for installation.

Fifth, I had a previous windows 8 installation. I used the dvd to click delete on the partition so there were no partitions left on the drive. I then clicked next and let windows install.

A previous windows 7 install on the drive is probably another reason the installation won't go past starting windows. So if anyone has spare drives, hdd or ssd, doesn't matter. Format it so it's completely clean, make sure no other drives with a windows 7 install are present and then try booting up the installer.

 

I'm really confused about what everyone is discussing. Is Cloudfire having some misunderstanding about PSU efficiency and what power draw at the wall means?

 

derp nvm

 

Yeah. He's saying that 330W is all you'd pull from the wall with a 330W brick, and that the efficiency factor is then added, so the system can only get say... 330W * 0.85 (on 85% efficiency). We're saying that it will draw as much from the wall as needed to deliver 330W of actual power to the system.

 

389W should be possible at the wall with a 85% efficient 330w power supply.

 

Im saying that the PSU can deliver 330W in total. That the PSU lose say 10% from that 330W rating and then having 300W left. What other people are saying is that the 10% loss is gathered from the outlet (AC side) and that the 330W rating is for the computer alone.
But while writing this I think Im overthinking this and not realizing that a 330W PSU is a 330W PSU.

lol nevermind me guys. Im going to bed and n=1 and the rest was obviously right. Sorry

 

The rating is the power the brick will deliver to the system. The efficiency is what percentage of the power from the wall will be delivered to the system.

Total power = Power delivered to system + Power lost in brick

Power delivered to system = Total power - power lost in brick

Power delivered to system / total power = efficiency.

 

No worries. It's a common misunderstanding. A good way to think about it all is to look at the back of your brick. For example, here is a 330W one:

Spoiler

The output listed on the back of your PSU is the amount of power it's guaranteed to deliver to your PC. Voltage x current = power. In the case of this brick, it's rated for up to 19.5V x 16.9A = 330W into your PC.

The PSU is an AC to DC converter. It takes high-voltage AC power from the wall and converts it to low-voltage DC power which is safe for your PC. Some power is lost during the conversion process and given off as heat. The more efficient a PSU is, the less AC power it needs to draw at the wall to produce the same amount of DC power, hence less power lost as heat, hence runs cooler.

Edit: LOL ninja'd by Meaker.

 

I GOT IT!

Mr Fox and friends I just tried booting 7 on my girlfriends 17 since I don't have my m18x with me and it was also getting stuck at starting windows.

Here's what I did. First go to the bios and turn the boot setting to uefi. Now turn off fast boot and secure boot. Then turn ON legacy option rom.

The next step is important. Insert your dvd/usb and press f12 to open up the boot selection device. Make sure to select the dvd/usb under UEFI boot and not legacy boot! This will boot the windows 7 install in uefi mode.

Now let windows install. Once it has completed 100% you may go back to the bios and disable legacy option rom. You should end up with a true uefi windows 7 install at the end. I think this may have been how I also installed on my m18x in uefi but I don't exactly remember, I'd have to try it out.

See if this allows the 980M to work.

 

Wasnt the 150W PSU from the M15x able to deliver more what it was specified? I remember many people reporting close to 180W.

 

Guys, can anyone explain what "pulled from a wall" mean? And what is "not pulled from a wall".
Thank you in advance.

 

It's the amount of power your PSU gets from the wall socket, typically measured using something like this:

 

Thank you for the explanation and picture.

 

Peter disable driver signing digital !
restart and see SLI

 

What's wrong Peter? Not a native English speaker. I read things going on here but couldn't understand what the problem is now for you.

 

Not sure. Most people flash both cards at the same time. Also not sure if you flash one card and reboot and it corrupts everything else. So to speak.

I think you guys are not really understanding how the AW psu works. Those calculated numbers sound fine and all, but are not close to what the psu can put out.
A 330W psu can push a max watt of around 442W to 454W before shut off. This is a verified fact. Why? Because they are RMS rated not max watt rated. And we have had 2 330W psu's pushing 600W on a good day.(M18xR2) Where the AW18 wont even come close. And since I don't have that machine I can't say for 100 percent sure that the power issue can't be overcomed.

I think he is saying it doesn't work after he tries to run a 3d bench while in sli. (speculation of course)

 

Mr. Fox said if you try using more than 330W with his home-made converter box, it doesn't work. I can't remember if it shuts off, but the board rejects beyond 330W of power I believe. So the AW18 is limited badly like that.

 

If I remember right there are limitations even using the full 330 watt.

 

We are talking about two different things.
The psu is able to run up to around 442W max watts if given the opportunity, but the AW will not run to much more above the 330W and not pass 400W (speculation because I've never personally tested it). The board shuts down. As to what it will do with a single card....Have no clue. It should be able to run full speed. Technically speaking.

 

Well if you're talking about that; 980Ms appear to use less similar or less power than 680Ms, which means it's not easy to max a 330W PSU (even with haswell and its power "optimizations"). Can't say for sure if they'll hold a massive overclock like what's done with 3940XM & 780M SLI machines though of course. HTWingnut was able to OC the 980Ms by about 135 on core and 800 effective on memory with the P377SM-A, and the power draw didn't go more than 3 or 4 watts higher than stock 880M SLI with the same CPU, so... yeah. Should be okay for a nice healthy amount of juice, limited more by the voltage fluctuations of the cards in SLI than how much power a 330W brick would give.

Of course I'm just speculating, but from what's available now I think they're good as far as power drain goes.

 

When working. The AW18 is perfectly capable of running these cards or any other cards on a stock psu. And they have a decent amount of room to work with, but with the power limits imposed, it's impossible to gage what the system could really do.

Best to see what they come up with next, because the AW18 is broken. even getting the 980M's to work you are going to be mad since you are only using part of it's full potential. There is a bit more to all of this, but since I don't have a machine to be experimenting on i'll just wait to see what dell does in the end....Unless this is the end.

 

The graphic score of AW17 with single 980m is about 15% lower than that of m18x R2 with single 980m.
It used to be about 4-5% with 780m or 880m.
The gap has got bigger.
Any one idea?

 

Do an on screen display where you can see the clocks and power draw. This is a pretty quick way to see what is going on in real time.
Use this to match up with your previous runs with your 780m's.

 

I have tested my Alienware 17 with 240W power supply in skywalker 3DMark test. During the test showed my power meter 251 watts. Skywalker test uses more watts than the usual firestrike.

 

Probably because of the CPU. For some reason Skydiver (not Skywalker :laugh seems to tax the CPU more than any other test in 3DMark, with the physics test in Skydiver being the most taxing.

 

You must remember that I use Google translate. It will change everything I write, because it hates Norwegian ..

Edit: Should not Skydiver test be a test for weaker hardware? :laugh:

 

It's supposed to for the GPU anyway.

 

As long as you are not wasting time with phone benchmark software almost anything respectable works to get a baseline comparison on performance. The nice thing about synthetic benchmarks with preset options is the level playing field it creates. It doesn't need to be Fire Strike Extreme, and it doesn't need to bring a system to its knees to give a nice comparison of performance between machine A versus machine B.

I actually find the less taxing benchmarks like Sky Diver more entertaining because it's not a slide show. In fact, if you're not paying attention, Fire Strike is a bad benchmark to rely upon because it is almost exclusively a GPU benchmark. You can have a pretty pathetic machine that is blessed with a decent GPU that achieves nice Fire Strike overall scores. The physics score is kind of pushed off to the side and ignored, with minimal impact on the overall score.

 

Upgrand Bios ?

 

One of those boring bencmark tests that are made are pcmark7. This benchmark test I have not used in over a year. It gives an ok score on every PC.

 

Maybe the intent is that nobody has to feel bad for having a machine that is a joke. Just give everyone a good score, LOL. Seems like the way public schools work in America. Little Johnny gets to advance to the next grade for just showing up and being a good boy. It doesn't matter that he never actually learned anything. After all, we don't want him to have a complex about not being the sharpest tool in the shed or feel bad about not trying hard enough. Just lower the bar and everyone gets to be a winner. Yay!

 

Even small laptops with a disgusting soldered processor can get a very very good score in pcmark7, if they have a good ssd. :laugh:

 

Yeah, everyone knows that a "good SSD" is more important than CPU, GPU, RAM, storage capacity, display resolution or build quality. Right?

 

Well extreme is not a slide show for some of us

 

Funny story actually. I noticed for one of the subtests in PCMark7 my desktop was performing worse than my Clevo. I was like how in the world and eventually I tracked it down to a missing Win7 update for the Windows Imaging Component, causing me to lose 50% of the performance in the image manipulation subtest.

But yeah otherwise PCMark7 isn't of much use besides establishing a baseline. It's good for quickly rooting out any issues and to see if your system is performing as it should.

 

Well Ultra sure is for about 98 percent of you. The other 2 percent being desktop owners with 3 or more high end desktop cards.:thumbsup:

 

LOL, I was using a colorful explanation to make a point. Fire Strike Extreme isn't a slide show for most respectable dual-GPU systems. But, yeah... to John's point, Fire Strike Ultra might as well be a GAF ViewMaster... ha ha. Anyone remember those, or am I just older than dirt?

 

I believe console developers call it a "cinematic experience"

 

ol i dont know why you dont understand. Actually there are few issues with SLI, as there is no option to enable SLI in N. control panel. Second, when system is on Auto (fan profile) single graphics card throttle at 72C. Third, i've tried last three WHQL Nvidia driver but no SLI option in control panel. Which driver version you were using, while testing dual 980M.

Thanks for tip, unfortunately it didnt work.

 

I used the 75 version. The lastest one.

 

i did try latest .75 version, unfortunately there is no SLI option. Whenever i do reset cable, i can see SLI option on next restart. now when i try to enable it, black screen. i got to do force restart. Im goin to receive new SLI cable by tomorrow.

 

Probably another bug in relation to 980M cards in M18xR2, considering your sli cable was probably working fine before you installed the 980M's?

 

While waiting for the new SLI cable, why dont you try re-installing windows?
So.. does it work good as single 980m?

 

Could someone tell me if 3D will work on an external screen connected by displayport dual link, thanks.

 

What are the chances to get 980m sli on M18x R1 machines? So far I see UEFI with non legacy needed with Win 8.1, does the R1 support this or will I be forced to a Sager laptop?

Incidentally do the 980m support gsync from the external displayport? I know Nvidia doesn't list it officially but was looking to get a gsync monitor.

 

Well people, nvidia support says this: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/787696/geforce-900-series/does-gtx-970m-and-980m-support-3d-vision-/

 

Je ne sais pas. Google could be your friend or I'm sure someone else who has an R1 can chime in.

 

The 980M handles G-Sync/3dvision etc just fine

 

I'll test it tomorrow with a mini display port/DVI dual link active adapter and my Asus 3D monitor.