M15x with 6990M Heat Issue

Hi guys. I'm currently using a 6990M in my m15x and so far it has been a significant upgrade for me (I was using gtx 260m before). However, I always have heat issue when playing games. I've followed every single step from svl7's guide to 6990m but still I'm getting shutdown when playing games (playing dota2 can get the temp to 85++, diablo3 90++). I've tried to experiment by undervolting my gpu and the lowest I could go is at 0.97V 670/900 before the driver starts crashing when playing graphic-demanding games, but still no luck (temperature would reach 90+ when playing bioshock infinite and then the laptop would shutdown). I'm pretty sure that it's not because of a bad pasting job and I've changed my heatsink screws with the correct amd version as mentioned here, but still no luck. Can someone please help me?

P.S. I'm using i7-920xm for my CPU and using the 150W PSU (i'm pretty sure the PSU is not the problem as i've seen people using the same CPU-GPU combo as mine in the forum and no problem)

 

psu isn't the problem, the laptops thermal solution (heatsink) is rated to cool gpu upto 75w. the ati 6990m is a 100w card. so the heatsink will always have trouble cooling is effectively.
best thing you can do is undervolt the card and underclock the card also. this will reduces the temps greatly.
you could also apply newer better thermal paste, make sure you clear out the dust from the fans.

 

6990M always ran very hot for me. In the end I gave up on it and bought a 7970M which actually runs much cooler than the 6990M even when overclocked.
If you are using the correct AMD heatsink and the screws are going tight enough for pressure to be applied to the die you might want to try re-pasting as it can't make it any worse.

Also using correct thermal pads on the VRAMs is pretty important. Make sure all the black memory chips are covered with 1.0mm thermal pads and that these are squeezed up against the heatsink when you screw it down.
Other than that it might be better trying to sell 6990M and picking up something like a GTX 770M or GTX 680M which both run well in the M15x. 7970M is also a good option and you may be able to pick one up quite cheap now.

 

I've cleaned both of my fans yet still no change to the temperature. I already undervolt my card to 0.97V 670/900 yet still no luck . I've tried 3 different thermal paste (ICD 7, Noctua NT-H1, and Antec Diamond) it's still overheating... Oh, I also apply Fujipoly thermal pad everywhere on the GPU like one of NBR member (i forgot who..). The GTX 680M is still really expensive... I'm not going to go with 7970M since people have been complaining for similar heat issue and throttling. Is the GTX770M compatible with m15x? I've found a seller on ebay selling GTX770M from a clevo but im not sure if it's going to work with m15x . I'm considering buying a GTX 670MX at the moment or find a cheap GTX 675MX, any advice guys?

 

7970M works fine, pretty happy with mine considering how low the temperatures are when undervolted. Throttling only occurs when pushing the CPU close to 3 Ghz! Pretty huge overclocks.
Its great how it will just work straight away and instantly improve performance significantly, no driver modding required.

There is at least one user I know over on Tech ¦ Inferno that got a 770M to work in M15x with help from svl7 obviously. Its a good choice for sure and I believe it is very similar to a 675MX. 670MX and 675MX are both good performers and overclock well but you'll need to do a driver inf mod in order to make it work.

Clevo cards generally do work in M15x but you won't have automatic fan control (which was very irritating for me) and the displayport might not work. Always better to get a Dell card if possible.

Basically if you can pick up a 7970M for around $250-300 that is an absolute bargain and will be significantly faster than anything else at that price range.

 

Hmmm I might try to research more about the 7970M. What is your temperature when playing games @fatboyslimerr? I'm not an avid fan of overclocking CPU, I prefer to keep it at stock,so I don't think the throttling will be a problem for me . The reason I'm going for Nvidia is mainly because of their low temp when performing under heavy load, thus more stable for gaming (then again, I don't mind modding the driver). I don't benchmark that much so I don't mind getting a less powerful GPU but stable rather than super powerful but having heat issue/unstable :S. I mainly use my m15x with a monitor so I think displayport is a crucial feature for me... Does displayport work with 7970m or you need to flash the card? Do you think an overclocked 670MX can perform similarly to 6990M?

 

I agree with fatboyslimer. Sell the 6990M and pick up a newer card. Either the 675MX or 7970M if you want super cheap as in second hand parts available or the 770M which is till relatively cheap.

If your pockets are deep then get yourself a 680M. Best card in the M15x so far.

The cheapest and best upgrade on the NVidia side might be the 675MX. It is basically the same as the 770M except that is features a 256bit bus not 192 like the 770M. The 770M makes up for this by having a higher clockspeed than the 675MX. If you were to say crank the 675mx up by even a little it would be a clear winner due to the extra bandwidth.

Until Nvidia release (if they bother) a new rebranded 675MX aka 775M GTX lol the 675MX still has the potential to be NVidia;s current third most powerful card to date! 780M > 680M > 675MX > 770M

 

I'm not sure that the 675MX is cheap at all... The price is closely similar to 680M, around 500us on ebay. I'm still considering to get 670MX which is the cheaper alternative, but who knows I might find a good deal . Also another thing, @batfinks mentioned that the heatsink on m15x can only properly cool a GPU no that has TDP no more that 75w, but the 675MX tdp is 100w... Will the 675MX have heat issue again? Also the 680m has tdp of 100W, will this gpu have heat issue again if I put it in m15x?

 

whichever card you purchase if its a 100w card you can always run with both a undervolt and a underclock which will greatly reduce both heat and power consumption.

just because you are running the card whichever you choose to purchase with a undervolt and or underclock, it will not damage the card and a underclock doesn't have to be much to reduce heat and power consumption.

 

7970M @0.975v 850/1350 playing Metro last light for one hour, max temp 77, average around 75. Ambient is probably about 20.

Nice and cool for a 100w card in a laptop designed to run a 75w card

 

What kind of benefit are you getting from running an overclock on the ram? frame rate boost? how has this effected your temps?

 

Little memory boost gives better frame rates generally but particular when trying to run textures at ultra/max/highest as well as better performance using things like AA, FXAA and all that fancy resource taxing stuff. Apparently the memory speed is bottlenecking the card at stock speed so its good to give it a bit of encouragement.

Makes very little difference to temperatures I found, overclocking the core clock has a much greater impact on temps. I think you'd be fine to increase your memory clocks to 1350 or even 1400 and you won't notice any increase in temperatures but may see a cheeky few fps extra.

 

great, thanks for the info, i just bought f1 2012 in the steam sale, i'll give it a try with that and see if i notice any improvement.

 

the M15x gpu power buget is 35w and 65w, i run my 6990m slightly overclocked and it may hit 90c every now and then, im just waiting to see what new cards amd comes out with i would like to try an 8xxx series

 

The 680M runs well because it's vram runs on less voltage than the on the 7970M. This is why we can crank the memory clock up to 1400 and above without affecting temps much (power consumption yes).

It would be nice to do a small vram undervolt mod to the 7970M so that it runs more like the 680M.

I saw on the forum today that AMD is prepping 9970M for launch. Could be interesting.

 

Did they release the 8970 already?

 

Yes, hugely disappointing. Its basically the exact same as a 7970M except with 4GB DDR5 memory and a boost clock of 900 Mhz (which is done in the BIOS and so gives same performance as an OC 7970M....)
9970M should be on new volcanic islands architecture and be awesome....hopefully. Driver support on launch will be a big factor too.