M15x & 6970M / 6990M - What you need to know - upgrading, problems, solutions

Weird... what vbios do you have atm? I'm back to the original.
My GPU fan settings are:

0°C - 2000RPM
40°C - 2500RPM
60°C - 3500RPM
75°C - 5000RPM

I haven't tested a lot, but so far it really works fine for me.

 

Hey svl are you still using the 150w brick with that CPU and GPU combo?

 

That's normal, same here. If I remember correctly all beta versions from Mumak are like this. Which vbios do you use?

Yes, works fine so far. I don't overclock while gaming atm. You can find some numbers about the power draw while gaming on the first page. Some games use up to about 150W, but it works without throttling.

During benching I draw even more watts sometime, the PSU is pretty tough. I'd like to try a 240W, but it's not quite cheap, especially since it probably won't help a lot. According to some reports by Inap and other 240W users you can't draw more than about 180W, even with the bigger PSU. I guess it's hardware limited on the mobo. Some parts like DC/DC converters are rated for a certain power level and I'm pretty sure it's restricted so you don't easily blow up the mobo.

 

I see, So do you OC your GPU at all while gaming? I may get me one of them and I always like to get optimal clocks.

 

No, atm I don't overclock at all while gaming, there's no need Max settings ftw, lol. And you can still reduce AA a bit if you need more frames. I should try some games with OC just to see how much more power it draws.

 

I'm using A09 bios right now.

 

No, I meant the Vbios, the bios of the GPU... do you still have the standard on it?

Make sure you set the GPU1 Fan, not GPU2...
I just started some games to test whether the fans speed up and it works great for me... weird that it's not working for you.

 

How I check what vbios I have? Yea it not working with the gpu but the cpu work great.

 

GPU-Z... I'm curious whether it's really the same card as I have or not. It seems your diodes aren't correctly read by HWinfo32.

Can you post a GPU-Z screenshot or post the BIOS version and Device ID (to be found with GPU-Z, graphics card tab)?

 

Yea here it is. It read the temperature find on the sensor status but when I click on the drop down menu and pick the third one as you said nothing happen. Does your all said ATI GPU [#0]ATI RADEON HD 6970M (BLACKOMB XT/PRO ?
http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/11/05/09/e7.png

 

Hmm, seems to be identical. Yeah, I can't read the whole stuff either... it's to long. I can see ""ATI RADEON HD 6970M (BLACKOMB XT/P" ... the diode name doesn't even show up cause the text is too long for the window. But I'm sure it the third is the MemIO.
None of the diode worked for you? I have no idea, really. I recommend contacting Mumak, you'll find the link to the discussion thread on the previous page.

Well, you can try a power drain, just in case... it's kind of a panacea, but I don't think it helps in this case.

 

K did the power drain and it still doesn't work. Does your said ATI GPU [#0] in front of it?

 

Ok. Yes, sry... "ATI GPU [#0] ATI RADEON HD 6970M (BLACKOMB XT/P" and that's all that's readable in the fan control look-up table menu , too much text, too small window.

 

Did you still have your old hwinfo32 install? I delete it and just run the beta by itself? Does it matter which ATI driver you using? I'm running on the 11.5 right now.

 

After discussing with Numak got it to work now. I was setting the wrong value in the lock up table.

 

I updated the first post some new info about the latest HWinfo32 build and a screenshot.

Mumak found some bugs in build 1245 and has already fixed it and released build 1246. It also improves the GUI of the automatic fan control table. The text should now be completely readable.

More information can be found here.

 

It work great with the new build now .

 

Can you just run the fan table from start up?

 

You can run hwinfo32 at start up but once it open you need to open the fan control and then it will automaticly control the fan. If you hibernate or sleep the fan still work automatically. You now can minimize it so it basically having a dell 6970m now.

 

Minimize to tray or taskbar? I'm super anal when it comes to this kind of thing.

On another note, the issue with the bracket sitting directly on resisters, does that apply to the Dell cards as well?

 

Yes it minimize to the taskbar, so you don't have to leave it on your desktop all the time now. Yes it apply to the dell card as well.

 

So basically it's been decided that it's safe enough to leave it like that?

 

One of the awkward aspects is that while you can minimize the fan applet to the corner of the screen (not the taskbar), you cannot minimize the Sensor screen while the fan app is open, minimized or not. So you're stuck with the HWiNFO32 window when the fan control is active. At least, I haven't found a way around it. But the app itself works very well now.

 

Yeah, there's an insulating rubber on the x-plate, it works fine. It's only a bit disturbing when you see it for the first time...
If you don't have insulating stuff on the plate just use some PVC tape or anything that isn't conductive and cover the back of the plate.

I asked both, Kris from MXM-upgrade and Aikimox, neither of them have the back plates... only the cards. Also it seems that it doesn't come with the Dell card as well, but this is not necessarily true for all regions.

Mumak released another build yesterday, you can now click on "minimize all" and all windows are gone, pretty cool, makes the program almost perfect.

I'll ask Mumak about an autostart function... maybe he can tweak something.

 

Very nice. I'm thinking it's about donation time to recognize Martin's superb efforts to provide effective fan control for the M15x (and others) and for the continuing modifications and refinements to HWiNFO32 in response to user requests. The man is a dynamo; I wonder if he ever sleeps. I do not find any existing donation structure, so that could be his next addition.

 

Minimize to tray as well please. I'm being greedy, I know.

This is the main thing that's holding me back from upgrading. I know Skyrim is going to need something a bit beefier than a 5850.

 

@The Rev: Yeah, definitely... I'll contact him. I was looking for a donation button already a while ago, didn't see anything, not even on the homepage.

Edit, there's a donation button on the homepage... though it's not linked. He posted the link here.

What's exactly the tray? I don't know all the Windows stuff in English, sry.
When you click on "minimize all" in the current build the windows disappear and you can get them back with clicking on the icon in the notification area (I thought this was called system tray... dunno)

You can easily contact Mumak in the thread I linked to, he will be happy about some more feedback I guess.

 

You are right the notification area next to the clock is the tray

 

Hahaha, Mumak is my hero!! Check out this if you need auto start. I just tested it and it works perfectly for me. Buy this guy some beers!!

 

Another small item. On the last two releases (1247 and 1248), the Respin period won't accept changes. No matter what I enter, it reverts to 100ms. Earlier versions allowed changes up to 11K-13K, which I used based on the recommendations found here to reduce CPU activity for polling the fan speeds. Is this a design change or is my M15x unique in this regard?

Sent a donation. Thanks for the link.

 

No I think it is the fact that the respin was just at what intervals HWInfo would send the signal to the EC. With the automatic temperature controls, the intervals are determined by when the temps actually hit the desired mark so it's not governed by the time. My thoughts anyways.

 

Hmm, works fine for me. You have to deactive the "Custom auto" control as it doesn't use the respin value... it will check regularly the temp and adjust the speed.

Edit: What widezu69 says... I think it checks the temp every second... changing this to a higher value may save lower the CPU usage of the program a bit, but I think it works pretty nice how it is.

 

Thanks for the guidance. I was trying to use it with the Custom Auto option without really understanding its purpose.

 

Johnnyflash, it will minimize to the tray. So basically once minimize, you won't see anything on the screen. It like the program is not there.

 

So quick question after reading the OP; is the fan control issue fixed if a card bought from Aikimox or MXM-upgrade.com is flashed to the Dell VBIOS?

 

No there is still the fan issue but the audio over DP is fixed.

 

Not exactly, but fan control can now be provided by HWiNFO32 which more or less mimics native fan control, with the added benefit of an ability to customize the temp/fan speed correlations.

 

hmm, that's weird, so a 6970M pulled from an R3 doesn't have the fan issue in the M15x correct? Because I thought that the Dell version uses the same/similar board as the other 6970M types. I remember 5150joker using a 6970M from the R3 in his M17x R2 and also had fan issues.

So there could be something physically different between Dell's card and the others.

 

Yes, it is reported that native fan control works fine for the R3 6970m's in at least two cases. I think it's fair to say that no one has a clue what the differences are vis-a-vis the non-Dell cards that cause the loss of fan control or why the Dell cards work in the M15x but not the R2.

 

Dont they work at all in R2, or just the fan controll?
Would be awesome with an R2 with CF 6970

 

the r2 had fan control problems too, but otherwise it did work. only single card tested so far.

 

Yep, just talking fan control here.

 

With the new hwinfo32 build it basically turn the non Dell 6970m into a Dell 6970m. The fan can be set to auto config, where the fan will turn on accordingly to the gpu load. Autostart can also be set whenever you restart the computer you don't have to open the program for the fan to work. It will open and mininize automatically to the tray bar.

 

Will be joining this club soon. Protect your scores, because they are about to be crushed, hypothetically speaking, if I do get this card that is. But I'm an elitist so probably.

 

Yeah, like already mentioned by other members it's actually solved by Hwinfo32, witht he automatic fan control and auto start function it's a very neat solution when you can't get a Dell card.

Hehehe... I'm looking forward to this. My card seems to have it's limits at about 830MHz core, so your chances aren't bad... damn

 

Yeah I'm predicting that I'm gonna use it at 800/1100 for games and stuff. I have my CPU @ 22/22/26/27 85w/57w (lowest values to run 22 across all cores 100% Gaming is never this high). You think I will run into any problems?

 

Hmm. This will depend on the game. Some games use about 140-150W at stock settings (maxed out) with my setup, while others only consume about 120W. But if you use more GPU power you can still set your CPU a little bit back.
Like I mentioned before, I'm really happy with the stock performance of my system.

 

85TDP is a bit unnecessary for gaming/desktop use. I run 65 for gaming and 85 for photoshop/encoding. Can't notice the different between the two settings for gaming, but temps and power usage are much lower.

 

Good point, I'm gonna make a gaming profile in throttlestop anyways. So it's decided, I'm getting a 6970m. Watch out, the beaver is coming...

 

6970m: bought, benchmarks: coming. World domination: iminent