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

ok in 3dmark gpu temp is 45-51 max
same with cpu but results are much lower the yours example's right now fire strike show's 6676 so every time results are so different and iam sure is something wrong with this gpu. any idea what i should do next?

 

i have download evga for gpu temp test and this what i found :
first gpu card temp go up to 90 and second gpu temp is 67 . this gpu temperatures are when i play bf4 on ultra settings.

 

You definitely need to check things out. Clean things out and do a re-paste.

 

iam noobish so will need some help step by step what to do first . Fans are clean already will look at gpu if is enough paste there
then what next

 

Here is a link of Mr Fox's tear down video.
Its pretty simply if you follow it step by step. Make sure you have some Thermal Paste and Cleaner before you start otherwise you'll be wasting your time.
Additionally you may want some kind of plastic prying tool if your fingers can't get in the tight spots. Lastly make sure you d-static yourself each time before you touch the innards of your machine.
Perhaps familiarize yourself with the teardown video and the process first so you're sure you are prepared.

 

:| bit to much to do lol i was watching video and i dont want to damage anything really ... will have to find another way . I still have warranty on it so i may call dell alienware enginer to get this sorted? they should help with this?

 

Fair enough buddy. Definitely give them a call then. They'll get you up and running again.

 

just to make sure will give u example what is my problem. I play BF4 on M17x R4 single 7970m and on high settings i have average 50 fps
but on m18x r2 7970 crossfire i have to play on medium so i get fps 150-75 but if i use high settings then i recive 120-50 on ultra 70-30 and i seen video's when guys playes bf4 on ultra same machine as mine and they get easy over 50 on ultra stable fps not like my one. basicly i have fps 120 for a while then i get fast drop to 50 or even 30 for 2 sec then go back to 120 but is really unplayable

 

Yep, One of your GPU's at 90 is far too high for sustained gaming.

 

1 more thing please look at 2 pic of gpu1 and gpu2 is it looks for u wrong ? sorry for so many question's iam really nobish with hardware ...

 

Xavier, it seems you have a problem with a simple solution. Your primary GPU is overheating and throttling.

How did you "clean" the system? Sometimes people try to do this by blowing air into the vents and this is not an effective solution. If you tried to do it without opening things up, then it may still be fixable without repasting. Pull the bottom cover out and remove the screws from the fans. Lift out each fan and examine the heat sink radiators. They may be blocked by lint and dust. Use a vacuum cleaner to suck all of the debris out of the radiators and fans. It takes very little dust and lint to cause overheating. If you need to, use a cheap paint brush or even an old toothbrush to gently dislodge any crusted over stuff that is stuck to the parts. When you clean the fans, hold the blade to keep it from spinning up at high RPM as this is not good for the fans. If you don't have a vacuum cleaner you can use compressed air. Do this for all three heat sinks and fans.

If you already did the cleaning in this thorough manner, you will need to repaste the GPU. May as well do both GPUs and the CPU while it is apart. This kind of ordinary maintenance is probably not going to be covered by warranty. There's nothing to warranty if cleaning or repasting is needed because there is no defect that needs to be addressed by Dell/Alienware.

 

Thanks for reply Mr. Fox . Yes i did clean radiators already i just worried to do by myself repaste gpu's and cpu just dont want too damage anything :/ . heat sink radiator's are clean i use vacuum cleaner

 

Thanks for reply Mr. Fox . I remove back cover then i remove all fans and clean them using vacuum cleaner everything put back on place but i am worried to repaste the GPU and CPU by myself just dont want damage anything.... . What temp should be max when playing games?

 

Well, in that case unless the primary GPU fan has stopped working you will need to repaste to fix that problem.

Your GPUs should seldom exceed 80°C benching or gaming.

Repasting is not difficult if you have average technical skills, but doing it the first time can be very stressful and intimidating for anyone. If you are accident prone and frequently break things then maybe paying someone with experience working on the M18x to do it for you is a better option.

 

Hi . Iam going to IT service and they will repaste gpu's and cpu aswell . Hope this will help. Thanks

 

Good news! Glad to hear that they are willing to do that for you. Be sure to use a good paste like IC Diamond or Liquid Metal Ultra (they probably will not use the latter) if you can. They might dispatch new heat sinks which will already have the TIM and pads, which is great for video cards. Then no paste will be needed.

 

Hi . I just was on phone with IT service in area. They can repaste gpu and cpu but if they doo the job for me my laptop will not lose dell warranty? i still have warranty on it but i dont want to loose it. temp jumping from 60-99 all the time please look at pic

 

Nothing like that voids your warranty. Unlike some other brands, you can change whatever parts you want and do your own maintenance and repairs with Dell/Alienware and it does not void your warranty. Any aftermarket items you install, or any user-induced cause to it by performing maintenance or mods is not covered under warranty. But, you still have the warranty that covers defects in materials or workmanship on Dell's part.

 

u are Star Mr. Fox thanks iam going to IT Service right get this sorted

 

they have paste like this:
Xilence Silver Tim Thermal Grease/Paste/Silicone/Compound
Artcic Silver V
IC Diamond 7 Carat
with one should be the best for GPu 7970m and CPU i7 ?
they have those in stock and can do repaste my GPU's and CPU tomorrow just need some advice please

 

If that's the selection on offer id go IC7

 

ok thanks. ill choose this one then

 

Hi one and last question ... how about this one i found it today in one shop in my area Antec Formula 7 Nano Diamond Thermal Compound is it better then IC Diamond 7 Carat asking as i would like to do best choice on this one i can choose in my area ...

 

I agree with TBoneSan... Go with IC Diamond. Since you are having to pay someone to do this, stick with something we know works well. The Antec stuff might be fine, but I don't know anyone that uses it and I would hate to see you have to pay to get this redone again in a few months if it doesn't hold up well.

 

Hi. I pick up my beast today from IT Service . GPU's and CPU's was repasted using IC Diamond. Just testing now and all looks fine lol . temp on gaming stay stable arround 70 and 66 on second. Thanks again for help )))))))))))

 

Great news, Xavier! Glad all systems are go now.

 

Hello, Guys. Can anyone advice me good and stable drivers for M18x R1 a05 with 7970m crossfire Win7 64 bit? I have all kind of random temperature rises to 85 degrees and graphical artifacts in Skyrim and other games ?
Maybe i need to flash modded vbios ? My fans are clean and i just did repaste...

 

hi


I recently purchased a M18x r2 with a cross of 7970M ( M18X R2 NEBULA RED

I7-3610QM
Carte graphique: HD 7970M x2
RAM : 6GB
Ecran: 1920x1080, 18.4 ''
SSD : 128 GB samsung 830
HDD: 500 BG
Windows 7 64 bits sp1
everything is up to date )





Here's a 3d mark11 , AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,Alienware M18xR2 , so in theory the laptop runs well


but in practice, in games, I met two very big problems:

_ Perf doubtful with a single 7970M, for example in Tomb raider I not exceed 30 fps (sync off) being in 1080p with medium-high options ...

_ More, crossfire enabled, in game, the second game card is not used ( according to evga precision x / msi Effective burner), 0% utilization and fps do not move ...



So to summarize, very low fps with a 7970M and in crossfire mode the second card is not used in game, yet benchs (see 3DMark11) suggest that the config running well


any idea?

the laptop is under warranty, i think i will have to call dell this week








Thank you!

 

I would try a different set of drivers. You 3D Mark 11 scores look about right for those clocks. When I had 7970m CF I could run Tomb Raid Max setting with Tress FX's on and keep 60fps. AA might have been 2-4 though.

 

so i just tried the old 13.9


nothing changed


with one card on Tomb raider i only got like 28-30 fps ( 1080p, medium-high options, ssao turned off ) so its bad
and with crossfire ON, the second card is still not running

...

 

Are other games having the same problems? If they are, its possible that is a driver problem but the graphics card/crossfire cable may also need re-seating

 

back

so i have done a clear cmos and the problem look to be gone ( sorry my english sucks, i am french )



With one card AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,Alienware M18xR2
With two cards AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,Alienware M18xR2

So seem to be good


BUT

in game, if i put the Cross ON, i gain nearly nothing ( like 2-5 fps ) Oo
i can see with evga precisionX or msi afterburner that my second card is used by there is not much diffrence with one or two cards ...



any idea ?
someone told me to go found profil Cap on the AMD website but can find them



ty !

 

I think you looking for a profile CAP was good advice. These are for CF configurations. I can't link you since I'm writing from my phone but keep looking because they shouldn't be hard to find. Perhaps goodle search rather than searching internally from the AMD driver page.

 

still cant find this famous Profil CAP with google

with CF on , on METRO LL i got like 10 fps more ...

 

They used to release CAP profiles but I am not aware of any recent ones (my google search only pulls up CAP for CCC 13.4 and 13.5), this site also seems to say there are no CAP's for the latest set of drivers. Correct me if I am wrong.

When you installed the 13.9 drivers did you properly clean the drivers with driver sweeper and ccleaner? sometimes just doing a clean install of the same drivers can fix a problem.

 

yes, cleaned it with driver fusion ( driver sweeper ) in safe mode. i am on 13.9 . had blue screen with 13.12 sometimes when switching to crossfire


so on tomb raider and the withcher 2 got like ridiculous gain of fps ( like 2-5 more *-* )


but

batman arkham origins , ultra settings ( except physx )

7970m ==> ~ 55 fps
7970m x2 ==> ~ 80 fps

F1 2013 , ultra settings

7970m ==> ~ 80 fps
7970m x2 ==> ~ 120 fps


guess is better than nothing



multi gpu is pretty new for me, thought i just had to enable crossfire to see my fps double up



maybe i should go for a m18x ( or clevo ) with 680m X2 ? :/

 

Not sure why you've having trouble with both those titles. I'd put it down to drivers as those used to work great for me.

 

yea, think the same

since i know the laptop and hardware are working well, guess i just have to pray for proper drivers updates now ... :/


ty a lot for answers

 

I don't believe FPS will double up, because the video cards also use resources to sync with each other, of course a better performance is to be expected but not exactly double.

 

ofc, i never expected to have double fps all the time, supposed to be 50%-100%

but man, i cant even reach 50% more, that ridiculous

if i cant fixe this i will go on sli :/

 

Your results from F1 2013 and Batman seem correct. Historically CF has better* scaling than SLI. Don't expect that SLI will give better scaling. Just some friendly advice.

 

thats why u got 2x780m ?

 

Just saying, don't expect your games to scale better moving to 680m SLI like you mentioned because you might be disappointed if that is your primary reason.
I moved to 780m SLI because it was a substantial bump in performance and I found a cheap set I couldn't pass on.

 

was joking man ^^

new card coming soon, i am goona wait a bit for the 780m price to go down , then i will maybe change


btw, another bench



@ BF3 ultra setting 1080p

7970m X1 ===> ~ 55 fps
7970m X2 ===> ~ 115 fps

thats pretty good and card are stock




thanks again everyone and ty TBoneSan as well ^^ ( just found your thread about hdmi in with ps3 no sound bug etc..., that helped me out a lot today )

 

780m should work well thanks for sharing the bench results.

 

All good buddy. Glad to have helped

 

I have a M18x r2 with 7970 xfire. I wanted to overclocked the GPUs since I got this laptop about 7 months ago.

Does anyone know what program or progress to use that allows me to overclock with 7970m xfire.

 

Hi, has anyone with amd gpus played with mantle yet? Reading up on it before I give it a shot

 

What kinda of FPS you guys with fire 7970's getting in bf4?

 

Hi everyone, hoping you could help with a problem I am having with my drivers.

I have M18xR2 with 7970ms in crossfire, my problem is that whenever i get past Catalyst Mobility version 13.9, one of my video cards then shows as a 'disabled adapter' and no longer works in crossfire (the option doesn't show in CCC).

Has anyone come across this before? I found one post on this thread with the same problem that unfortunately got no replies, other posts online also have given me no answers to my problem.

Each time I install i have done a clean install and have used CCleaner with no avail.

Thanks for any help in advance

Matty