***M18x - AMD Crossfire (Driver Questions, Performance, Problems) Discussion Thread***

What bios is it running on?

Make sure to update to A05.

 

yes i a running on bios A05 and the new AMD Dell driver for the gpus

 

What you will find is that although there is a 10c difference at times, as soon as one card hits 65c, it will kick in the fan and cool it...the other gpu in the meantime will have had no fan so it will creep up to 65c....the fan then kicks in. It will go like this in cycles if you have a browser open with flash. If you open up two instances of gpu-z (one for each card using the drop down at the bottom of gpu-z) you can monitor temps and literally see this behaviour. I guarantee you that one will hit mid 60's while the other is cool as a cucumber.....fans will kick to cool and the other card will do the same....cycling like this.

If you leave the system completely at idle with nothing open, temps should be alot closer together....thats my experience anyway.

This is normal behaviour.

Also, dont rely on gpu-z to give you accurate fan readings - it doesnt work. Your better off using your ears and maybe putting your hand at the rear of each gpu exhaust to check for activity.

 

Now, what about that 'state-of-the-art' reliable technology in a top of the line machine!

 

Methinks it's gpu-z that's being doubted here rather than the laptop.
There's little more top of the line than the human senses!

 

Oh believe me: still there is nothing comparable to human senses (and mind)... We are trying hard, but still...

 

I hear what your saying but actually when i run benchmark tests the graphics cards will hit around 70-80*C and the one that is hotter, i put my hand on the back of the laptop and it isnt spinning fast, the main fain will be blasting, and the bad fan will just be chillin at idle it wont speed up at all

 

Hey guys never mind about the fans, i got everything squared away. newb mistake they just werent running long enough for them to spin the other fan on yet. everything is working just fine. just was worried about frying a graphics card, just was taking precaution to not harm my new machine.

Thanks for everyones help! and stevie GPU-Z does suck with giving fan speed. said it was stuck at 30% the whole time even though clearly the were running at over 75% speed

 

Hi Mike... glad it's all working correctly. I was worried for you for a little bit.

The fault is not with GPU-Z... it is just the messenger, reporting what it is told. The fans in a laptop are basically operating like system fans. The MXM modules don't have fan sensors or controller build into them. The fans are controlled by the BIOS/EC and the information being feed to GPU-Z to regurgitate is not accurate.

 

Any one in the uk can confirm they can successfully download a05 and new ati beta drivers frm dell? I just get 404 not found.

 

Trying getting to them from the UK site... the other links are for servers in the US and you may have a bad connection from where you are. There might also be a block on your IP for some odd reason.

Dell Drivers and Downloads (UK): Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United Kingdom]

AMD Drivers: Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United Kingdom]

BIOS Update: Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United Kingdom]

Hope this helps, buddy.

 

Nope still doesnt work. Other downloads from the drivers site do work though. Just not these two new ones.

I've download 11.10 from the ATI site as I'm not sure what the dell driver offers anyway, as brightness control isnt there...thanks DimScreen!

Bios, I guess I don't need it, I'm still on A02

 

Inoton - if I were you I would stay on A02 if you are not having issues that A05 was designed to fix. A04 and A05 BIOS updates have issues with high DPC latency, at least with NVIDIA 580M. I don't know if that is an issue with AMD GPUs or not.

 

I'm having a strange issue with w7 Experiance score, I'm getting 5.3 for Aero, and 6.3 for gaming.

I'm pretty sure I was getting around 7.6 before I did a clean install, just installed an SSD.

I've tested in game performance, which is fine, and ran Heaven dx11 benched 59.3 fps at the default settings, so I'm sure there running fine.

And idea's ?

 

You could try updating DirectX if you havent done so already - might make a difference. personally, I think WEI is completely inaccruate most of the time, as long as your system is running and playing things fine, I wouldnt worry too much.

 

I'd tried to tell my self that, but It's a little annoying when I just installed an SSD

 

It is set to high performance, right? and not balanced? - I know exactly what you mean...its not a reliable test, thats why I dont like it much.

 

Yep, its set to high performance, having issues with the SSD also now, its dropped into 3gb's transfer rate

 

The WEI score fluctuates wildly with different AMD driver versions. I have experienced this myself more than once. If you do a clean driver removal with DriverSweeper and CCleaner's registry tool and reinstall them, it may correct the errors in WEI.

The drop from SATA 6.0GB/s to 3.0GB/s seems to be a trend with OCZ SSD drives. It's probably yet another Sandforce bug. As it is off topic here, please participate in the discussion on this thread, which is covering that issue:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-sata-iii-speeds-dropping-sata-ii-speeds.html

 

I have a slight brightness problem with my M18x. I usually have my brightness to around 20%, but everytime I reboot, and my windows boots up, my brightness is automatically set to 100%. When I check the brightness settings, the arrow is on 20% still :\. Does anyone know what driver(s) I have to install to fix this problem?

 

What driver are u currently using? And did u try using dimscreen? It gives u brightness control, if ur driver messed it up

 

I usually use Driver Genius to update any old drivers. My question is, which driver do I need to fix/update so this brightness problem goes away

 

As YellowApple pointed out, you can use the DimScreen app to dim your screen if it's too bright. I assume your system has AMD video and brightness controls have been problematic with Catalyst packages after 11.8. If using DimScreen is not something that works for you, you'll need to go back to using CCC 11.8.

 

I have 11.9 installed and no problems with brightness control.

 

New AMD Driver:

AnandTech - AMD Releases Catalyst 12.1 Preview ? Custom Application Profiles, HD3D CrossFire, & More

Found them here:

download from Guru3D.com

 

here are my problems of my M18x with AMD 6990M CF --
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/631739-m18x-amd-6990m-cf-nothing-but-trouble.html

Totally not happy with this laptop and I am passing their 21 days return period.
arrrgggggg...

 

Same happen to me but I had em to give me replacement , first m18x was dead pixel , 2nd m18x was defected speaker , 3rd m18x was gpu problem. This the 4th , it was having some gpu issue too... but I swap over and re-paste, everything works fine now.

 

Lol... My god... I feel like I will be following your foot steps except they won't replace it for me cus I got it refurbish. When I purchased this laptop, the sales told me it is as good as new. I guess not !!! Even with your brand new one, you have to went thru all these replacements. Scary...

I always recommend Dell to my family and friends because my company is Dell shop and I am the one who handle all these and never have problem with Dell service and equipments.
dunno what happened to their alienware M18x with AMD 6990m CF line.

 

No clue with amd & dell , but my previous m17x-R2 works fine , also my warranty counts during those 21days(almost a month) while I'm having defective laptop...I've tried to contact dell rep , they can't return my 1 month warranty.

 

The problems seem to be more the fault of AMD than Dell in my opinion. The company (AMD) seems to be having issues and producing good gaming graphics/drivers does not seem to be a high enough priority for them right now.

 

Soon enough , there will be only Green

 

True. Funnily enough, I was talking to my rep today and he was trying to get me to buy a new Aurora R4 Desktop....I went along with him for a bit, let him spec up a system BUT there was no option for Nvidia gpu's......so there may be a little bit of life left in the old red yet....

 

Gosh, I sure hope this never happens. AMD/ATI has had a long history of producing good video cards and I hope they're just in a slump. Without competition to motivate greatness, we could see things slide with NVIDIA and everyone might end up in a bad way. Competition and free-enterprise is always a good thing in business.

 

I called to return it for full refund, but they insist their 21 days return rule. But, I told them I don't get to use the first Full 21 days since it has been service twice, one onsite and one service depot plus the time i waited for repair. I did ask for return when it is going back for repair the first time, but the tech insist they will re-certified everything which make it passing 21 days. arrggggg I shouldn't listen to him.
Now, all they can do is replacing parts after parts.
suck !!!

 

Direct link to the 11.12 drivers: http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mobile/11-12_mobility_vista_win7_32-64_ccc.exe

 

What is the concensus, use the new Dell 8.902 driver or the ATI 11.12

 

I guess it is the final of the beta driver?

From AMD Press Release

The AMD Catalyst™ software suite 11.12 contains the following:
AMD display driver version 8.92

 

The Dell version is getting good reports of being smoother operating than the reference version. No brightness control, but better in all other aspects it seems.

 

I'd be gutted if AMD gave up graphics. Their hardware is fantastic, and historically over the last 15 years better than others. It is their driver team that is shambles. When ATI release a good driver it really makes them shine through.
As for drivers. Loving 12.1 on my desktop. Really want one with brightness for the m18x, dim screen doesn't really reduce backing light, just adjusts the colour of pixels to a darker shade, not the same thing at all!

 

Hi,

A tech came and replaced both my 560m's with 6970's. Great upgrade im sure. They show up at 6900 series in windows and catalyst.

Is there anything i should do or check? i'm using Dell's latest driver and Crossfire is enabled. So at least the cards were installed correctly.

 

Not sure what you're asking. If they seem to be working, there's nothing to do but enjoy them really. Just make sure you test the hell out of them to make sure they won't fail down the road. I would read up on the recent ATI threads just to get up to date on the driver woes we've been having recently. The Dell drivers to seem to be best right now though, so stick with them.

If you're asking whether or not they're really 6970s, fear not since if they aren't, they're 6990s!

 

im sure they are 6970's but aw tech didnt connect the fan for the right one. i thought something was up and called aw. the tech was not helpful. he said everything was normal but turned out the fan wasnt connected. I reconnected but the system has had 2 spontaneous "off" events. I'm now concerned that while the CF is working the one card may have overheated and caused damage to something else which is causing the new spontaneous shutting off of the laptop.

i didnt realize the amd cards had so many issues. I just need a working m18x thats reliable.

 

SO what drivers is a person supposed to run? I cant get the Dell drivers anywhere. Just 404 at every single Dell site. .

 

You should be able to download 'em simply by using Dell Download Manager instead of downloading via your internet browser. Give it a go, you might be suprised!

 

Here are some benchmarks to help you chose:

I am using 12.1 preview, directly from AMD, and they work great. The Dell Beta drivers also work great (I can initiate the Dell download, using chrome, directly from dell.com/support, no errors for me).

 

Hi all! I installed the new Dell driver for 6970 and I saw with GPU-Z that one of my card at idle is constantly at 250 mhz Core clock and 900 mhz Memory clock. So this card is at 55C while my second is at 45C.

With previous driver (11.10 from amd) it was at 100/150 mhz.

Anyone can help me?

 

Are you using an external monitor? - clocks whilst using an external tend to be a bit higher on the primary gpu - temps sound kinda normal too....one should cool down and then the other wshould creep up before it then cooling back down. Normal behaviour, afaik.

 

Yes I am.

I just unplugged it and it goes back to 100/150.

Thank you stevie!

 

No probs. I noticed the same when using my U2410 when I had AMD cards. Temps were aslo similar to yours also when using the external monitor, so completely fine!.

 

Having a major issue that I am not sure about.

Was playing BF3 with 60 fps constantly with the Dell driver. Out of the blue some stuttering started whcih made the game unplayable. So I ran 3dV and my score was down from 23k to 11k!.

After many reboots and reinstalls same problem.

I then clean installed the 12.1 drivers. The stuttering seems to be gone in BF3 but the fps is down to 10-12 and the 3dV score is still 11k.

I'm wondering if one of my cards is bust?

Any ideas? How can I diagnose if the cards are working correctly?

Thanks in advance