8970M Install Problem, any help appreciated!

Hey Guys!

I'm having a bit of trouble with my 8970M install, overall the card is working fine, except for 2 fairly large issues:

Running FurMark, the GPU hits the thermal shutoff within 5 or so minutes, idle temps are 31-34c. Running the Tomb Raider benchark it takes about 2 or 3 passes before it reaches the thermal shutdown. Normal browsing is absolutely fine, even light gaming it's fine. When the GPU's running full tilt (100%) it overheats and shuts down.

When the GPU is in the system, both the GPU and CPU fans run full tilt all the time. I've isolated this down to the GPU, once I put in the factory GTX 240M everything quieted down substantially and fan throttling ended up working as intended. Any ideas what's going on here?

Here's what I've tried:
Updated BIOS from Eepro to use the .975 clocks at 900c/1250m BIOS ( from this thread)
Quadruple (at minimum) checked heat-sink contact, modified the X Bracket to ensure good contact.
Cleaned the GPU heatsink, airflow seems all good.
Updated the BIOS to A09.
Completely re-installed Windows 7 and installed all proper drivers.

Not sure if it matters or not, but I'm running the 240W Power Adapter

 

The 8970m is the same as the R9 m290x afaik. That card is known for not working with native fan control in the M15X. You're gonna have to use HWinfo to control the fan.

I would not be using Furmark as a test. It puts way too much stress on the card and other components; stress that you'll never experience in gaming or any other 3D intense task in real life.

My 460m GTX would do the same thing with Furmark. It would run for around 5 minutes, then the machine would shut off. Odd thing is my temperatures would stay in the 70s when the shutoff occurred. This would only happen with Furmark. The card worked perfectly and stayed cool during hours and hours of gaming. I decided to just stop using Furmark.

Edit: What are your temps during gaming? If you want to get an idea of how hot the card will get without using Furmark, you can download 3DMark06 from Futuremark's website and use the key they provide to unlock the program and make it a full version. Then in the "Tests" menu, deselect the CPU tests and in the "Settings" menu under the "Repeat & Loop" section, make the tests run in a continuous loop for say 3-5 times. I know this benchmark is old, but running it in a loop like this will somewhat mimic a gaming scenario and will give you a good idea of how hot your GPU will get.

 

Hey Kosti, thank's so much for the info! That makes me feel much better about not being a card issue. Good to know about Furmark, I use it for Desktop stress testing, so figured it'd be good for Laptops as well, good to know! Does the 970 or 980M exhibit the same problem? Really just picked up the 8970M as a tie over until the new nvidia cards come out, hoping they drive the prices of the 9x0M down a bit or are compatible with our laptops.

Shame about the native fan control, but good to know I'm not the only one having the issue, I'll set up a HWinfo profile then and let it roll then. Right now I'm running 3DMark on a 6 loop test to see how it does, Idle temps are still great (31-34c), so we'll see how it does.

I'll give you an update when the test is done, but good to know I'm not losing my mind here!

 

Quick update, look's like it passes 3DMark 2006 with 6 loops without an issue! Topped out at 76c, although looks like it averaged out more to 71-73c.

 

Mid 70s is good. You may also want to remove the bottom panel while gaming. Lots of guys do this combined with a good stock cooler or cooler modded with 12V fans and get good results. Cool air being pushed directly on the heatsinks should result in a significant drop in temps.

 

Only so much. There is a limit to what blowing air over the heatsinks can achieve. I've been sticking vram heatsinks to the radiators and having fans flow on that instead...

 

Vram heatsinks make a big difference to temps particularly on the gpu but the annoying thing is you cant close the bottom of the machine up anymore as they jut out too far.

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

I'm working on modding my Notepal U3. Just ordered 3 EK Vardar 2200rpm fans. They'll be powered by a 12V 12W adapter. I modded my bottom panel too. I cut out some big sections of plastic and replaced it with some metal mesh from a cheap ten dollar cooler I had. I'll let you guys know how it turns out with pics.

I also have a Rosewill cooler (Newegg) that I modded with 12V fans. I'm not using it anymore but when I was using it without the bottom tray, my temps went way down at load, but at the expense of a lot of noise. Can't recall how much but I think it was at least 5-7C lower with the fans at full blast blowing cool air directly on the heatsinks. I wonder how effective it would be to slap on a bunch of copper shims to the heatsinks? That should give enough clearance to be able to still use the tray.