NVIDIA GTX 680M Thread - M18x R2 and M18x R1 Upgrade Discussion

Ok, I am planning on taking on this upgrade to my M18X R1 (currently with 6970M Crossfire). I am new to this. Once I have the card physically installed, is it *required* to flash the vbios and update the .inf, or is that only for overclocking purposes? I may eventually get to that point, but initially just want it to work Otherwise, would i just install the latest Nvidia drivers (assuming I have cleaned out the AMD drivers before I started)? Thanks a lot for the help.

 

On a lark, I looked up 680gtx on ebay and found this. What do you guys think? Deal or no deal? It's only a 2gb card but I don't see myself ever using my m18x beyond 1080p anyway since my desktop 590gtx is hooked up to my Dell 3011 so I always use that for any work that requires 1080+ resolutions anyway. Linkie to eBay auction

 

Ok so I re ordered the r1 ... my reseller gave me a small discount for my troubles and added in next day delivery for free ... I actually have it in the room next to me already LOL ... ordered it like 15 hours ago!!!

I am still hoping to hear some measured temp differences between the 2 and 3 pipe cpu cooler ... wondering if it is worth waiting to order and install the 3 pipe cooler or just go ahead and do it with the dual pipe today ...?

sweet

 

If you're not planning to do a lot of CPU overclocking just go ahead with the 2-pipe heat sink and things will be fine. It was not until the M18x R2 was released that the 3-pipe was even available. You can always order a 3-pipe later on, but you might be waiting a long time for people to post measured temp differences. I'm not sure that anyone bothered with recording before and after temps. Having a 3-pipe can mean the difference between completing a benchmark or thermal shutdown if you are overclocked far enough. That should be reason enough if that fits your intended use scenario.

 

Got it, though I do not run benchmarks I like the max overclock I can get with somewhat reasonable voltage ... for work and gaming ... I will just use the dual pipe heatsink now and order a triple whenever , maybe even this week and then see how that works for me

heck with the cash I saved from getting the r1 that is almost half a second 680m hehehe and I want as much cpu OC as I can get for sli

thanks for the response!

 

Hey guys,

Have been following this thread with interest. Currently own an M18x R1 with the 460M's in SLI. I was just wondering if it was possible to upgrade to the 680M SLI with my motherboard?

 

Absolutely is possible. The 680M is totally compatible with the M18x R1. If you get Clevo cards you will need to take some extra steps to use the IGFX, but for most of us that rarely every use IGFX this is pretty much irrelevant. (You have to switch to IGFX in the BIOS manually instead of using FN+F7 with Clevo GPUs.)

Slim... http://www.eurocom.com/ - click the link for "Upgrade Center" and then click " Get an Upgrade Quotation"

 

Switching the graphics manually in BIOS hmmm ... on my first m18xr1 I was unable to use the integrated and when fn f7 did not work and the BIOS showed the IGFX or rather did not show it I assumed there was something wrong with my MB ... though the thing is when I put back in the original CPU and 560m reset and even reflashed the BIOS I did not seem to have access to the IGFX as the BIOS was not detecting it ... I REALLY hope that will not be the case here with my new one ...

 

Which option in the BIOS allows you to change between dGPU/iGPU ?

 

Sorry for the low resolution phone camera photo, but it works fine to show the answer... change PEG to SG, press F10 and reboot. You'll be running on the IGFX, but the discreet GPUs will be visible in Device Manager. You can install their drivers this way, but cannot use them for gaming, etc. Booting from a DOS thumb drive, this trick will usually work to correct a failed vBIOS flash. (Same principle as using an integrated or legacy PCI video card in a desktop as the primary display adapter to re-flash an AGP or PCI-e GPU.)



Caution... using any settings except for PEG or SG may render your system unbootable with the other settings that are available.

 

Two more days until my cards arrive. Fox I am not sure if its yours or not but I will be following an hour long YouTube video of a 7970 installation. I think it's by you. Would those steps suffice for an nvidia installation or will something differ?

Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32eTtv6QRnc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

That's the one.


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Yes, it's me. It's basically the same thing with another brand of GPU. I'm very excited about seeing how your Clevo 680M SLI runs in the R1!!!

Want to trade your 680M SLI for my 7970M CF with a custom paint job? (JK - wouldn't expect you ever want to downgrade the GPUs for nothing but a pretty paint job.)

 

Awesome thanks man. And lol you answered your own question, it's not a matter of downgrade I just prefer nvidia over amd. Thanks for the awesome ad informative video. I'll update this thread once I get this stuff installed.


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Ah, I am on the stock A05 BIOS instead of the unlocked one which is probably why I don't have half as many options as you have.
Thanks

 

That's easy enough to remedy. The unlocked BIOS is exactly the same BIOS as the M18x R1 A05, just with hidden menus exposed.

 

mobiousblack are you getting 680m Sli? Can you share the 3Dmark11 score ? I saw some people get around 8000 with just one single 680 in the R1. It means it's more powerful then 2 of my 6990m's. I'm exited.

By the way, can I have the link where you got from Clevo ?

 

Brother Rain... have a look at this here... 3DMark11 12001 and this... Vantage 39479

 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M; 4GB DDR5;1344 CUDA; MXM 3.0b ALIENWARE UPGRADE KIT | eBay

Thats where I got the cards from.

 

Check out the new Sig boys, its done!

I would like to give out a HUGE thank you to brother fox, for without your video I wouldn't have been able to do what I did today.

The most annoying parts were removing the front panel under the keyboard, that top center area was a *****. Also a few of the screws in the I sockets weren't coming out so I had to use tweezers.

Other than that all seems well and done. Here is a screenshot of gpu-z, HWInfo, and Nvidia Control Panel.



I have yet to play any games, will do very soon but now I need to rest lol.

 

Congrats! I ordered mine from the same place, but they made a mistake on shipping, so I have to wait a week (sent it ground and not expedited). They are being cool about it and seeing if FedEx can address, or will refund the difference. I only ordered 1 at this time, but now rethinking that since I have to wait anyway . . .

 

Thanks, I had to wait around a week as well. International shipping to France. I am glad everything went smoothly man I was so worried I would mess something up lol.

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Did You Have To Mod The Bios Or The Card Just Was Plug And Play?

 

All I did was uninstall my 580m's from device manager and reset the bios by unplugging the battery during the new card installation. Thats it, no bios modding or anything. But if I am not mistaken you do need to mod the bios to overclock.

 

BIG NEWS

As many of you have been reading, IGP does not work when a clevo card is installed. I can prove that it does with no modding required. Mine works just fine, FN+F7, didn't edit anything or do anything. Now it could be one of two things.

Either the drivers I am using somehow work with FN+F7, or that you need two cards in SLI for it to work out of box. I am not sure which it is, but I am just glad it works lol.

 

Can't wait to see your benchmarks mobiousblack ! mouhaha finally someone with Clevo 680Ms SLI ! Congratz! + rep!

 

Most probably, it's the same case with GTX560M on R1. It has to be SLI'ed to get the IGP working. Whereby, single GTX560 config, the IGP won't be recognized.

 

That's most likely it. Thanks for the input.

 

EDIT2, Latest Update: This driver from laptopvideo2go works

http://files.laptopvideo2go.com/Dox/geforce305.68.3-modded.exe

What driver is everyone using for this? I've just finished the install but can't install the stock drivers from Nvidia. I'm about to try the laptopvideo2go drivers. BTW: I'm running 2x 2gb cards (likely Dell / equivalent pulls).

EDIT for additional info: In Device Manager, both cards show up as generic VGA but error 10 also appears on the secondary card - which according to Google is:

Code 10

If the device has a FailReasonString value in its hardware key, that string is displayed as the error message. The driver or enumerator puts this registry string value there. If there is no FailReasonString in the hardware key, you receive the following error message:

This device cannot start. (Code 10)

Recommended resolutions

Here are some things that you can try to resolve this problem.

Update the driver

In the device Properties dialog box, click the Driver tab, and then click Update Driver to start the Hardware Update Wizard. Follow the instructions to update the driver.

You may be prompted to provide the path of the driver. Windows may have the driver built-in, or may still have the driver files installed from the last time that you set up the device. If you are asked for the driver and you do not have it, you can try to download the latest driver from the hardware vendor’s Web site.

 

Pretty excited. Have ordered 2 680M's and 2 Crucial M4 256GB SSD's for the M18x R1. Cant wait to get them from Canada.

Mr Fox, is there anything that I can do in preparation for putting the new cards in, other than watch your Youtube Tear Down Video.

Cheers

 

Nope, just when you get the cards uninstall your previous cards from device manager and go ahead and replace them. Be sure to follow Mr.fox's tear down as that was immensely helpful for me. After you take it apart once it's quite easy to put back together and also taking it apart a second time is a breeze.


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Hey guys I have a noob question: How much of a performance boost would I get upgrading from a pair of 6990's in crossfire to a single GTX 680M?

 

Right, so another stupid question coming your way. Have just received the package from Canada today. Very excited.

Upon opening, I have discovered that both SSD's are in mSATA form. This was a little surprising to me, but the question now is, can I simply add these two SSD's in and keep both old HDD's or are they a straight replacement. I haven't opened the M18x yet, as I am backing up files from the old HDD.

EDIT. I have done a little research on this forum and have almost come to the conclusion that these are the wrong drives.

I was hoping to replace the GPU's and SSD's together while I had it open but I guess I will have to wait.

Also, will the heatsinks off the old 460M's be sufficient for the new 680M's. I have read that the 580M's suffice, but no word on the 460M's.

Thanks heaps for the help already.

Ben

 

You would not be losing anything. One GTX 680M (or one 7970M) is roughly the equivalent, maybe slightly more than 6990M CF and very similar to the performance of 580M SLI. So, twice the performance in dual GPU or equivalent with one.

The mSATA drive fits in an mSATA slot, not the HDD caddy.

580M heat sinks are the same part as 680M heat sink. The 460M heat sinks might fit physically, but probably will not cool the GPU effectively.

 

So i've noticed an "Alienware upgrade kit" with 4GB680m's on Ebay ,but as far as i'm aware the m18x R2 only supports the 2gb models..has anyone tried this upgrade on their unit?

I know already that with the m18x R1 upgrading to 680m causes fn+f7 to not work, but for right now i'm looking for results on the m18x R2.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M; 4GB DDR5;1344 CUDA; MXM 3.0b ALIENWARE UPGRADE KIT | eBay

 

FYI I think if seller lists and specifies as supported I may believe they know what they are talking about... and I quote from the listing link you posted yourself:

I think it should work too ...

BR

 

but the m18 r1 (as listed) loses the fn+f7 function (according to users here)

i just want to know if anyone here has tried the upgrade, and if so, have they had any draw backs? Nothing against laptopupgrade , I would just feel better with clarification from more than one source..

 

Knowing that those are Clevo cards you may experience some issues like the one you described yourself that FN+F7 do not switch to the iGPU. Basically this could happen in the R2, knowing that is more or less about the same system (except chipset, cpu and the GPU port is now PCI-E 3.0 but still is running at about more or less the same speed as PCI-E 2.0). You can ask them about this issue, they may have already tried in an R2. I do not think anyone with an R2 has gone for those cards. Most of people who got the R2 have the ATi 7970m or 680m in their systems (very few have the 675m) and there is no point to go for this upgrade.

 

There are a few on this board that are already testing these cards in their R2's. I think they are in the nvidia thread or the benchmark thread.

 

Hmm... there is already a thread right next to this one in the list that is specifically for 680M discussion. Why the new thread to ask a question?

Edit: I merged the threads. Look here and you will find it has already been done with 100% success. And, the FN+F7 works fine. With an M18x you need both GPUs installed for graphics switching to work. You'll find that it worked fine with the upgrade done by mobiousblack. He has 4GB Clevo cards and they are working fine.

So, nothing to hold you back... would be awesome to see another fantastic 680M SLI system in use. And, I have no doubt that mobiousblack can answer more questions for you, if you have more.

I look forward to seeing your results.

 

Thats the ebay seller I ordered from, it is infact Eurocom who is selling these GPUs. FN+F7 works as long as you have two cards in the system as Mr. Fox says, your question related to the R2 and I assume it should be the same there as it is with the R1.

Also like Mr. Fox says, I will be more than happy to answer any questions related to those cards.

 

BTW for those wondering, 680M SLI will throttle when overclocked after a certain (marginal) overclock, so keep that in mind. Personally, I'm not going to opt for another 680M, its not worth the small gain in performance over a single 680M in games. Synthetics show a bigger jump than actual games so the money can be better spent elsewhere (e.g. 512 gb SSD).

 

I think applying the same fix I did with the 580m's should fix that, by changing the P0 and PX clocks with Nvidia Inspector shouldn't it? (I put x because I don't recall the number).

Anyways 2 680m's are rocking the latest games atm, I don't think I need to overclock anything.

Edit: Out of curiosity I decided to bump up each GPU clock by 100mhz, a simple everyday overclock for some folk, no throttling was present after leaving the gpu's under load for a few minutes. So maybe under major overclocking there is throttling, but I experienced nothing with a 100mhz overclock.

 

does system see complete 8GB GDDR5 memory (2x4GB per each GPU) , have you tried any graphics design / heavy memory load processing softwares to employ most of your Graphics RAM?
Interested to know
Im getting my M18X in max 2weeks, ordered today finally, will be just 2x7970m but me too thinking of CLEVO gtx680m in SLI

Thanks

 

Optimization aside, 2 GPUs are still much better than one in my view. Personally, I wouldn't want anything less. Even a severely overclocked M17x R3/R4 or an M18x with one 7970M or one 680M cannot achieve benchmark scores that equal the scores that the dual-GPU M18x is capable of. And, we know that with vBIOS tweaks and maturing drivers, things are only going to get better with time... just like the 580M SLI throttling issue that was circumvented. If only playing today's most demanding games, nobody needs more than one 680M or 7970M for those games to be very playable. But, for those that still want the most power and plenty of performance overhead for the future, there is no substitute for the horsepower a SLI or CF system affords.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...8x-benchmark-thread-part-2-a.html#post8158870

M18XR1/R2 OVERALL 3D

3DMARK11

#	USER	VER	CPU	CARD	LINK	SCORE	GPU	PHYSX	COMBINED	GT1 FPS	GT2 FPS	GT3 FPS	GT4 FPS	CLOCKS
1	Riri-Fifi	R2	3920XM_QS	HD7970M	LINK	P12717	13794	11064	9343	56.28	65.34	88.20	44.88	1050/1620
2	tecrp1	R2	3920XM	GTX680M	LINK	P12594	14082	10759	8199	65.31	64.22	86.94	43.58	1174/1350
3	Postal Painmaker	R2	3920XM	GTX680M	LINK	P12432	13972	10801	7771	64.93	63.95	85.80	43.20	1174/1225
4	Grimy1	R2	3920XM	HD7970M	LINK	P11883	12615	10874	9172	51.52	60.19	79.48	41.11	950/1470
5	Speedy Gonzales	R2	3720QM	HD7970M	LINK	P11868	13423	9404	8046	55.73	63.91	84.61	43.24	CLOCKS
6	PimpFinger	R2	3920XM	HD7970M	LINK	P11565	12859	9522	8074	51.35	60.63	83.22	42.44	1000/1500
7	Mr Fox	R1	2920XM_QS	HD7970M	LINK	P11563	12676	9704	8292	52.30	61.11	79.79	40.73	1000/1400
8	DumbDumb	R1	2960XM	HD7970M	LINK	P11451	12161	10444	8859					950/1350
9	Sketch	R1	3720QM	HD7970M	LINK	P11413	12375	9945	8383	51.92	58.73	77.56	39.74	950/1350
10	Slowbot	R2	3920XM	GTX680M	LINK	10002	11130	8877	6373					719/1900

VANTAGE

#	USER	VER	CPU	CARD	LINK	SCORE	GPU	CPU	GT1 FPS	GT2 FPS	CPU1 OPS	CPU2 OPS	CLOCKS
1	RiRi-FiFi	R2	3920XM_QS	HD7970M	LINK	P40667	45213	31244	140.52	124.07	4296.87	42.08	1035/1500
2	Postal Painmaker	R2	3920XM	GTX680M	LINK	P40563	45320	30848	132.63	132.88	4267.33	40.92	1150/1205
3	DumbDumb	R1	2960XM	HD7970M	LINK	P38262	39714	31279	124.63	107.74	4357.06	40.74	997/1353
4	Grimy1	R2	3920XM	HD7970M	LINK	P38089	41798	30083	130.87	113.71	4148.14	40.24	950/1470
5	Mr Fox	R1	2920XM_QS	HD7970M	LINK	P37870	41145	30571	128.24	112.54	4284.82	39.15	1000/1350
6	Reborn2003	R1	2920XM_ES	HD7970M	LINK	P35589	39013	28173	120.70	107.63	3942.62	36.24	980/1380
7	Tanderson	R2	3920XM	HD7970M	LINK	P34016	38286	25488	118.00	106.09	3506.42	34.30	950/1400
8	Speedy Gonzales	R2	3720QM	HD7970M	LINK	P33978	38051	25719	117.27	105.44	3522.12	35.01	949/1400
9	5150Joker	R1	2920XM	GTX680M	LINK	P33252	35626	27713	103.96	104.76	3621.24	37.08	719/900
10	5150Joker	R1	2920XM	GTX680M/1	LINK	P28826	30258	25242	92.21	84.93	3491.46	33.49	1132/1275

Even 580M SLI is slightly better than a single 7970M or 680M. Here were my 580M SLI benchmark scores...

GTX 580M SLI

3DMark11: P8593 | Vantage: P32676 | 3DMark06: 32569 | 3DMark05: 39934

Screen shots are in the spoiler...

Spoiler

Compare that with a single 7970M or 680M in 3DMark11 and there's no contest...

Yes and no... Yes, the system recognizes how much memory each video card has. No... it cannot use all of the memory. That has never been the case with CrossFire or SLI. The most video memory available is the maximum memory on one GPU. The performance advantage comes from the second processor, not the memory that is not usable. It would be unusual to find anything that can use more than 2GB of vRAM anyway, so nothing is being lost by the memory that is not usuable.

 

GPUz reads each card as having 4GB memory, whether the system sees the full 8GB of graphics RAM I am unsure. I would be more than happy to tell you if it does if you tell me how to check lol.

And to answer your other question, I haven't done anything which would put heavy load on the GPU RAM.

And I definitely agree with Mr. Fox. Two gpus are better than one without a doubt. The drivers still aren't mature and upcoming games like Assassins Creed 3, Borderlands 2, FarCry 3, etc would benefit immensely from dual gpu setups without a doubt if we consider their previous iterations.

Edit: ultraGSM, I figured it out, hope this helps answer your question.

 

So, the moral of the story is... if you have a good performing system with 580M SLI or 675M SLI, your system is still a little more potent than a system with a single 680M or 7970M. If you cannot afford to buy 2 of the newer GPUs for SLI or CrossFire, there is no point in spending tons of money for slightly less performance with a single GPU.

However, if you are the owner of a M17x R3, upgrading to a single 680M or 7970M is a massive performance upgrade.

 

are some of those 680m scores achieved with a modded bios?

 

That's why I said synthetic scores. I just got done using 680M SLI for a week and can say definitively it doesn't make a huge difference in games @ stock vs an OC'd (1000+ mhz core/1150mhz+ memory) 680M. BTW that OC I listed for a single 680M should be achievable by 100% of them. Sure the 680M SLI can get an additional 100 mhz core and it will of course overpower the 680M, nobody disputes that.

However, I calculated the 680M SLI @ stock was about 30% max faster in most games vs the OC'd clocks (1037/1200 mhz) I run at 24/7. For guys into number chasing, SLI is fine, for everyday gamers, its overkill.

Also, there likely won't be any modded vbios to alleviate the throttle problem with 680M SLI. The 580M was circumvented because it was a very easy P0/P1 fix, Kepler is an entirely different animal. Nobody should get their hopes up that a future vbios or software will fix the throttling unless someone at these ODMs leaks a retail vbios that doesn't have the power throttle algorithm or someone with NDA knowledge does it.

In the future I may opt for SLI if a game demands it but right now, the 680M can play nearly every title out there @ max settings and achieve 40-60+ fps @ 1080p. For those running external displays with a higher resolution, SLI will definitely come in handy.

For the value minded gamer, 7970M Xfire is also a good alternative but AMD drivers do leave a lot to be desired.

Finally, the comparisons with 580M SLI you posted were with a massively OC'd 580M SLI vs stock 7970M. To make it more fair, the 680M OC score I got:

 

So if I understand you correctly, your saying that with SLI throttling occurs at an overclock of 1000+ MHz on the core? And why wouldn't the P0 P1 fix work with the 680's? In nvidia inspector I'm seeing different P states, I am not on my laptop right now but P0 was there, there were two other states, wouldn't changing those to upper clocks circumvent throttling like it did with the 580's?

Either way at a 100mhz increase to 820mhz there was no throttling and temps were phenomenal.


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680M SLI will throttle @ 100-135 mhz core OC + 1200 mhz+ memory. If you d/l svl7's customized vbios that allows further core OC'ing beyond the +135 mhz limit, you will get massive clock cycling and the performance drops below 680M SLI stock scores. I've verified this over and over the past week and nothing was able to resolve it. So no, a P0/P1 fix doesn't work here and nVidia inspector does nothing. Go ahead and try...