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

Log your clocks with GPU-Z while you play. Sounds like your card is throttling, probably because of power draw. I'm still working on fixing that.

 

Will do, but that seems odd, power draw only effects certain games? With Skyrim I don't get this problem and L4D2 I'm completely fine. Is it only with SC2?

 

It depends how much the CPU is doing, power draw is dynamic. If you want to test, load prime95 on your CPU and start a windowed game of anything. Watch what happens to your clocks.

I temporarily fixed mine by making a gaming profile that's 16/17/19/19, so far that hasn't throttled for anything but Prime + OCCT.

 

can you explain the gaming profile and how I can try that?

 

There are four throttlestop profiles you can use. Just set up of them to 62TDP (stock) and those turbo settings.

It may not work for your chip though, you need to test it. The best way is to load the CPU with Prime95, then run one 3DMark test at a lower resolution (to keep power draw down) and see if the clocks change.

 

So, i have found out that flashing the 6970m vbois to fix the Audio through DP not only does that, but also enables the m15x to use both DP/VGA on 2 monitors side by side.

 

Hey off topic, but Allawi, how is your 6970M doing OCed at 750 and 1050? I OCed mine to 800 and 1000 and got shutdowns in BF3....

 

it was actually doing pretty well but i lowered it to 750/975 just because id rather not have it exceed 80 degrees. For shutdowns, try undervolting the card using ATI Tray Tools.

 

What should I under volt to? I'm a noob when it comes to this, and you think bumping clocks to 750 and 975 would increase performance enough to where it's worth it?

 

Well, 750/975 is just my ideal clocks.. i have yet to experience any problems with them and i run at about 70 degrees 75 at most with them.

I have it undervolted to 1.05 v.

 

This is probably a dumb question but just to keep myself on track, in BF3 or games in general medium settings will run lower temps than high settings..?

Edit: Crashed at 665/900 0.95V with tessellation off and Catalyst AI Surface Optimization off. Didn't run a log but my highest temp was GPU Shader at around 80-82 according to GPU-Z (on my external monitor, so had them side by side).

After repasting with the line method, my Shader temp is higher than MemIO temp by about 1-3C o.o

 

Do you run BF3? And if so what settings are you running and what FPS are you getting? Thanks.

 

Ran BF3 again to get a log; I did crash again.

 

It's really peculiar, it's never from overheating from the GPU, the game just crashes. Or sometimes my PC shuts down.

 

If GPU-Z could read the voltage, that would help a lot.

 

What program can record/log voltages? :/ I'd be happy to take a log down if you know one.

@Kazalor, that's what happens for me except I don't get shutdowns. I get crashes where I have to manually power off.

 

I don't know, I'm going to look into it. I don't think HWM can do logging. I'm still emotionally distraught after finishing ME3, I need some time to get motivated by things again.

 

^^^^ lmao, you took it pretty hard.....

 

Hello everyone. Some of you may remember me as I asked a lot of questions regarding the 6990m upgrade. Well I successfully did the upgrade, but now when I am connecting an external monitor (2560x1400p) the 2560x1440 monitor does not respond whatsoever. After some tinkering with the drivers I decided that it couldn't hurt to throw my 5730m back into my system. I was rather worried when after installing the 5730m the monitor immediately recognized, and everything worked. I am wondering if the display-port needs a driver in order to run with the new graphics card. Also the monitor is a dual link dvi monitor so I am using a display port to dual link dvi adapter, but I don't believe that this is what is causing the issue considering it works just fine with the 5730m

Here are my specs

16gb ram,500gb HDD,radeon 6990/5730m,i7 740qm, rest really isnt important...

I am very anxious to get this monitor up and running with my 6990m so please reply.

 

I'm guessing you have a Clevo card, you need to flash the Dell vBIOS to it for that to work. There is a small amount of risk in doing that, but most of us have flashed our cards several times.

 

I know that this is a dumb question... but exactly how do you flash the vbios? ... excuse my nooblyness please.

Also what settings do I need to edit while flashing my bios.

 

Second post, all you need.

 

I'll be following your results, I want to move to a 30" for my main display.

 

spidert622, did you buy the 6990m from table21 here thru the marketplace?

 

Yes I did... Why is this a problem?

 

no that means you have a dell card and not a clevo

have you ever hooked up any external monitor to your 6990m in the past?

 

No I havn't I am starting to get worried now...

Do you know why it wouldn't be working?

 

If it's a Dell card, it should be. Maybe it has trouble with DP > DL-DVI output.

 

What drivers are everyone using? I have the newest 12.3 but cant help but think its not as good as previous ones. Any suggestions?

 

Open Hardware Monitor - CPU Temperature, Fan Speed and Voltages in a Free Software Gadget I found this; it doesn't log the GPU voltage but it displays it. I'm thinking I could have it open on my external monitor while I game to see what happens.

 

I found a short in the cheap dual link dvi cable that came with the monitor so I will be replacing that today, but I think it is likely a software issue because the 5730m is working "ok". Every so often the screen flashes black for 1/2 a second and sometimes after that weird grey horizontal lines flash across the screen. This continues until I restart or unplug the monitor and then plug it back in. This issue has happened to many people but I am not sure how to resolve it.

I will be calling dell, and asking them to replace my display port. If that's not the problem then I guess I will have to replace the display port to dual link dvi adapter. I am betting that the issue lies somewhere in software, but there's an off chance that maybe I my just getting a short in connection.

 

idk about any of you other guys, but I'm experiencing alot of heat issues with the 6970M+940XM combo. If it also helps, I have 8GB of Ram and the N1103, but I've been buying external fans and cooling pads to combat this, but still to no avail. I repasted, which seemed to help, but in the process of OCing my chip to prevent thermal throttling. Anyone else experiencing this?

 

bottom line is that if you cant keep temps to the desired levels you shouldn't OC, unless you dont mind damaging your hardware.....
have you tried better paste(IC Diamond), better pads (fujipoly/phobya), with your combo you should also get a 240watt psu

 

Did you do the heatsink mod?

 

Still having annoying issues with my external display (with 5730m), but my dad is reluctant to help me re-install the 6990m back into my system, so looks like I will be waiting until tomorrow.

 

Hi everyone, i'm doing an excel table to determine in what conditions shootdown my M15x . It´s no finished but I have uploaded for your disposition, specially for KumquatWrath as I promised.

http://i.minus.com/1332377150/HpUEW86VtYX5pFB68vXVIg/d2UrHZ5bfwH3M.xlsx

 

That's interesting, thanks a lot by the way for testing it . I wonder if this would open up any new possibilities for shutdowns or not?

So Crysis gave you shutdowns huh o.o

 

have you tried undervolting your gpu??

 

Yes, I think shutdowns are caused by some factor like consumptions + drivers + some games characteristics. For example in the case of crysis, if I play on low settings is probably I haven´t shutdowns but when select very medium, or high settings the shutdown occurs. Also, Did you know this?:

• 6970m Engineering Sample from MXM-upgrade.com (Please note that MXM-upgrade.com is currently selling OEM 6970Ms): Originally had display issues with the original VBIOS. This was rectified by reflashing the card to the VBIOS used in the M17x-R3 6970M. Also found out that this specific ES chip had 1120 shaders vs. the 960 shaders the original 6970M is supposed to have. Nonetheless, functionality was no different than the 960 shader (except for increased performance). While flashed, the system fans did NOT respond to temperature and was stuck on one speed. Also, the system would crash when shutting down, in sleep mode, in hibernation mode, or when unplugged from the PSU. from here: [Guide] Installing AMD Radeon Mobility 6970 / 6990 in your M17x R2 (Single GPU and CrossfireX)

If this is right, are the same specifications that 6990m http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6990M.57308.0.html


On the other hand, I can´t run ati tray tools when laptop starts, it say me "can not connect to low level driver. Please reinstall ATI Tray Tools under administration rights with UAC dissabled", i´ve reinstalled under administration right already but still appears that message, What is UAC? any idea?

Dell knew the shutdown problems: Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United Kingdom]

For the M18x
Improve AMD graphics fan algorithm to fix system shutdown issue.

 

Phobos you have to disable your antivirus for it to work. Took me forever to realize that haha..

 

OK so I have re-installed my radeon 6990m into my M15x unfortunately the monitor acts as though it receives no input... just like before. I am using 12.2 drivers. I also bought the 6990m from table21, and I believe that the card he sold was a dell card.

While I used my 5730m the monitor recognized just fine, and everything worked. Please help me guys I have been trying to get this monitor to work for 3 days now, and I am really stuck.

Is there something that I missed that I have to do in order to use an external monitor with the new graphics card?

Please Please PLEASE respond I am very worried that there is something wrong with my M15x or worse my 6990m.

Also it isn't the monitor so don't suggest it is... because it worked just fine with the 5730m so I really don't think that is the problem

Edit: Also the monitor is a 2560x1440p monitor, and it's only input is dual link dvi. Therefore I have a display port to dual; link dvi adapter. The adapter is also not the problem because it is an active adapter (capable of 2560x1600).

 

monitor is conected by displayport or vga connector? with 6970m video through displayport doesn´t work, I have similar configuration and only works through VGA

 

It's connected by display-port... you have to be kidding me I spent $500 on a monitor that isn't even compatible with VGA... I also can't return the monitor as it is from Korea.... so basically I have a 27" monitor a keyboard and a bunch of other useless peripherals... all because of this. I am so disappointed.

WOOHOO there goes my yearly gaming upgrades budget...

Can I get a VGA to dual link DVI adapter, and still run the monitor at 2560x1440p I don't believe you can, but I can always hope.

 

I sorry to hear you having problems. That resolution is more than vga can give, vga can move 1920x1200px max. Maybe you got luck calling dell to buy an 5850m, but it will be expensive.

 

Can someone else please confirm this before I sell my M15x and make my own desktop because I am sick of these problems.

It's not that I don't trust you, but I need to make sure that this is the issue.

 

Haha, don´t worry, no problem

 

Something I just thought of: Has anyone with shutdowns tried locking the CPU to Core0 and Core2 only for the game?

 

Nope, I can do that tomorrow though. What is the purpose? Also, how would I do that... hehe x.x

 

Add /C start /affinity 5 to the target line of your shortcut.

ie: C:\Games\Crysis2\bin32\Crysis2.exe /C start /affinity 5

The affinity 5 setting should use only Core 0 and 2.

 

What's the purpose of only running two cores?

Alright, so I input that code but now whenever I click on my BF3 shortcut, it takes me to the Single-player mode instead of opening up Origin and going to the Battlelog site. Does this matter, as in can I enter Battlefield 3 through the website and get the affinity stuff running still?