M6000 (7870M) GPU thread

Performance scale of this card while overclocked is impressive! What temperatures on longterm load?

 

I run it slightly lower when I play games (clocks of 980/1300 - the extra 20mhz core clock can be a bit unstable), but the first day of using Arctic Silver 5 it hit 73 degrees max. Now I have yet to see it go over 70 degrees, which is much better than my original 260M, and an improvement on my 5850M (although my 5850M was half as powerful as this and ran hotter).

 

That is a great score. The vram OC really shows that the core is bandwidth starved! Can you push vram further?

Perhaps play around a bit and see if vram can reach a bit more to break 3000 points you are getting 40% the performance of my stock 980M!

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You can try to use VBIOS edit tool for cards on GCN architecture. Might help to rise OC limits and to tune voltage on the core. I've found this tool a couple month ago when i was planning to buy m6000 instead of k4000m.

 

For the last hour I've been trying to get hgigher overclocking limits to work, and as far as I can tell the limit of the card is what MSI afterburner allows you to select with the Extended Overclocking Limits option (1040/1300).

If you modify the clocks above this, every time you open the benchmark it will crash. If you run the benchmark with MSI afterburner on and the unofficial overclock option set to Disabled, or without MSI afterburner running (i.e. default), it will crash the benchmark.

If you run the benchmark with MSI afterburner set to With PowerPlay Support, it will report that it is running at any overclock you set it to (you could set it to 2000/2500 if you wanted), but will actually only run at default clocks. When I run Fire Strike in this mode, it will give me a score of 1993, which is 1000 less than I should get.

If you run MSI afterburner set to Without PowerPlay disabled, and have clocks set higher than the Extended limits of MSI Afterburner (higher than 1040/1300), it will crash the benchmark.

I tested this by changing the clocks to 1041/1301, and it crashed the benchmark.

Therefore, the only option we really have is to change voltage. I changed mine from 1.125 to 1.175, and this keeps it steady at 1040/1300. When I get time I'll fiddle around with the exact voltage, but the optimal vbios modification with these programs is to change nothing except VDDC on the standard 800/1000mhz state.

Here's my final Fire Strike score unless I get things sorted out with the vbios:

 

impressive overclock mate,if i could figure out how to volt mod (or read into it) i might to get it at 1000mhz stable

Have not even looked to try the memory higher than 1100. Will when i get some down time tho. Otherwise

Some starcraft 2 online for me

EDIT

Had a quick look, i presume i enable votage control in msi afterburner, then up it slightly, up the clocks and benchmark.

Might have a go at it shortly. Vbios mod sounds promising to get the most out of this card permanently . Seems like my highest temp is around 70

 

In an hour or so I'll post some screenshots on what to do, so hopefully that will help you out

 

sweet im savy enough to build pcs and install windows, but overclocking im very very new at lol

 

In order to do this overclock you'll need:

MSI Afterburner
ATIwinflash ( https://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2531/atiflash-2-71/)
GPU-Z ( https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/)
VBE ( http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/)

Firstly, you'll want to set your settings in MSI Afterburner to these (Specifically the AMD Compatibility Properties):



Next, open up GPU-Z. You will need to dump the vbios to a .rom file, so click on the arrow button just above the box in this screenshot:



You can save the file with whatever name you want, but make sure to save it twice, so that you have an original back-up. Once you've saved the rom file, open up VBE7 and select 'open', then navigate to the PowerPlay settings and change the number in te drop down box like in the image below:



Mine was set at default to 1125, and I find that 1175 is stable. So add 50 to whatever your default is. ou can always try to lower it later. Once you've done that, save the file to a new rom file, or if you have made sure you have a back-up already, overwrite. Then, open up ATIwinflash, select 'Load Image' with the modified vbios, then select Program. A screen will pop up to show progress, and when it successfully completes, you will need to restart your laptop.



Once you've restarted, open up MSI Afterburner, Set the clocks to 1040/1300, and run a benchmark to make sure it's stable. If it isn't stable you may need to increase the voltage slightly. Hope this helps.

 

dude awesome. Im so gonna have a crack at that tomorrow. Get it nice and over volted. 1040MHZ. yes please

 

This thread has me itching to purchase another m6000. Wish I hadn't cracked the first one. This card must have gotten really popular in the last month or so because the prices for these cards have gone up on e-bay. The guy I bought my first card from now raised the price by over 20 Euros. He must be watching these threads .

 

Still $74.30 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-AMD...629314?hash=item3aba3c7c42:g:~VMAAOSwL7VWhNuV

 

I didn't see that one. Sadly he doesn't ship to my country.

 

unlucky mate some on the bay for 60 bucks

 

Got a link?

 

60$ USD?

 

sorry fellas its £62 and ship from china

 

This one is £59 including shipping - About £5 more than I paid for mine a month ago.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-For-Del...915785?hash=item4af4ef7d49:g:g2cAAOSwf-VWXm5N

 

There always will be cheaper items because sellers from China may on purpose create listings with higher prices and limited amount listing on lower. So you would run faster to buy cheaper "till you can".

 

Little beast of a card. for the price of it even with it a little dearer you cant get that performance ratio for the money

 

Just had a look at 6970M & 6990M benchmarks. The M6000 when overclocked to 1040/1300 is 10% faster than an overclocked 6990M, and 25% faster than an overclocked 6970M. 6970Ms sell for around £160 on eBay, whereas at times you can get the M6000 for £50-£60.

Recommended upgrade for anyone still using a 260M/5850M/460M and who doesn't want to spend a lot to increase performance.

 

Even better lol. Im very happy with it

 

$49 - GTX 260M (1GB GDDR3) is the cheapest card for m15x, if not count 240m and another low-end MXM 3.0 Type-A cards.
$69-79 - Mobility HD 5850 (1GB GDDR5).

$90 - GTX 460M (1.5GB GDDR5).
$126 - HD 6970M (2GB GDDR5) / FirePro M8900 (2GB GDDR5).

$190-200 - HD 6990M (2GB GDDR5) pretty hot card, forget to get high OC on m15x.

$63-69 - FirePro M4000 (1GB GDDR5).

$75-82 - FirePro M6000 (2GB GDDR5). Yes, in terms price/performance - M6000 is a leader. And even overclocked M6000 hit around 70C on load (SIC!). There is no reason to buy something else for M15x, or just somebody willing to buy the cheapest card as possible =/

 

Wehl strictly for gaming 970M particularly a good deal on second hand has even better price performance ratio. Just at a higher price entry point.

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Tbh I paid £160 for my 680M and I'd rather spend that extra bit more (£100) to get approximately double performance than m6000. Price-to-performance always gets worst the more performance you add.
I heard rumours that Nvidia will be launching mobile Pascal first which might do interesting things to the price of 970Ms. Imo a 970M for £220-240 is a fine prospect!

 

I mean if you wanna get budget card - m6000 is the wise way to go with.
If you can spend more money, than used 680m/970m will be better choice.

 

Yeah I wouldn't disagree with that. Once mobile pascal launches I'm sure the current gen will drop a bit.

For me, the main portion of my budget for gaming/computers goes to my desktop, so getting decent upgrades on the cheap is nice. Just to eke out a little bit more (or in this case, double).

I was going to add the caveat to my previous post that the M6000 isn't geared towards 'modern' gaming. But the few games I keep on my laptop just for portability run pretty nicely.

In reality it's just nice to have more options available. I'd love to be able to drop £300 on my laptop graphics card (plus a couple of hundred more to do some refurbishment, and another £100 for the CPU), but for me it's better spent on my desktop rig. What I needed when I bought the M15x was portable power, what I need now is power, and it doesn't need to be portable.

That said, one thing I do love about the M15x is the really wide compatibility it has with cards. Granted, there are quite a few issues with certain combinations, but at least we still have the choice.

If you don't want to spend a lot, and are still using the default cards the M15x was sold with, then the M6000 is a good option. If you want serious performance and can spend a bit more, there are better options (680M, 7970M, 970M etc) .

 

That is smart thinking. I aint got a desktop so this is it for me.

You are right about there being some issues with certain combinations particulary very powerful gpus like 880M and 980M that push the motherboard mxm vrms to the limit and beyond.

Although I also believe the issues I had have their root in shoddy drivers from Ngreedia. They havent released a decent driver in about a year. Pretty shocking.

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IMO, Card has good performance/price ratio but at least half of this is just because cards worth 10 dollars are being tried to sell for 60$. Cards worth up to 40$ - for 100. And cards worth 100 being sold for 150 and it's called a bargain because otherwise they are sitting as BuyItNow listings for 200+$.

Why this happening? Because Ngreedia rather let its card become dust in warehouses than start selling outdated MXM cards. Not saying AMD is so much better.

I think old laptops after reaching some period like 5 years should get anniversary support of new BIOS with some new GPU support and it's components sale from manufacturer. That would show how they care and not much to loose, 5 years old laptops are 5 years old no matter what you do.

 

Love the idea but it would never never happen for the same reasons no modern gaming laptop (with the exception of Clevo) has the same level of upgradablity and compatibility as the m15x. Because we're all still using a 6 year old laptop and we haven't gone out and bought a new one! No more money for Dell!

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shame we dont have someone who could write some nice custom drivers, i mind using dox ones back in the day . good modded drivers those were. polished nvidias crap attempt at the time

 

anyone else getting black screen issues at all ?

Occasionally im closing the laptop over and when i reopen im getting a black screen.

I havent done the volt mod altho i might today im thinkng its unstable. Also noticed during gaming at 980 /1100 the game would crash or the drivers would crash. So i pulled it back to 950/1100 and seems golden. I can play my starcraft with no issues.

but this black screen crap is annoying

 

It's always good to lessen overclocking on 20-30 MHz from the peak stable overclocking because that peak can lower with time.

 

well i lifted it this afternoon and again black screen. So i though why not do the bios voltage mod and try the 1040mhz / 1300mhz.

So got the programs edited the file and flashed. But then i started having issues. Afterburner would no long over clock. Like i would change the values. And it would show in gpz. But when running valley it would lock at 800/1000. Not the values i had set.

Rebooted ad tried a few times and no go.

So i know i shouldn't have but i just reloaded the edit software and just fires performance 3 on the bios file to 1040/1300 and saved and flashed it.

Cool not it benched at the new settings. Went through it flawless. Max temp it hit was around 76 degrees.

But near the end of my journey something weird happened. Every benchmark came back higher than the previous one. Like it should

Bar 1. I noticed during switching benchmark for 3d mark when it was running i glanced at gpuz and noticed yet again the clocks were 800/1000

And the 3d mark score came back lower than the previous one bar fire strike.

Any ideas on why this is happening. Im going to mod the bios file again and fire it back to 1000/1250 i think. And run it like that ll the time.

 

Stephen, are you running Windows 10? I was having the same black screen issues with my 460M GTX on W10, not on W7 though.

 

yeah actually iam. Just updated to the latest crimson driver a few days ago. Updated to see if it fixed the issue. Every time i upgrade the driver i have to do a regedit to regain brightness control. Very odd

 

Are the latest drivers WHQL? The last time I installed a non-WHQL AMD driver on my system, aero stopped working. I'd use WHQL drivers. Sometimes it's better to use older, more stable drivers. Same goes for the OS on the M15X. Win7 is stable and I honestly can't find any advantage in using W10.

 

Yeah it's the latest AMD crimson 16.2 ones not the beta one that was out a little bit ago.

Been doing it since crimson I recon but even after a fresh install and going back to 15.12 ?? Possibly not working so no idea.

I just like Windows 10 , like to be up to date and a few games I got cheap are on Windows store like my copy of tomb raider not that it works great on the laptop anyway but still.

No scrolling anymore with the touchpad since windows update either, uninstalling and installing the driver I had before didn't work either.

With small things like that it's showing its age

Looking for a pcie card for flush USB 3 ports just now

 

The expresscard I got sits fairly flush, but does stick out a bit (~1mm). I have two M15Xs and it's the same on both. I got this one:

 

Stephen, I have the not-actually-overclocking problem when I set the overclocking method to 'With PowerPlay support', so you could check that to see if that's what the problem is.

It'd be awesome to get a Prema BIOS mod or something, but since this is such an old laptop now (and still kicking) I can't see it happening.

Haven't had any real problems with the M15x on Windows 10. I have some power problems due to my battery being dead and my 150W isn't recognised anymore. The Infrared sensor driver just doesn't work, which is fine because I never used that feature. YMMV of course.

I have that expresscard, and it has a few issues. The first is that the DC input you see there has to come from an external power source, otherwise is just refuses to power the second port. The first port works fine though. The driver also comes on a mini-disc (i.e. half-size disc), so if it doesn't install correctly automatically you will have to download the drivers from the internet. The other problem is that if you're not careful and use too much force, you can eject the expresscard when you insert a usb device.

However, it is useful to have.

 

well i ordered 2 of those usb 3 cards, one for me and the father. hopefully they go ok, only be used for usb mouse support and usb 3 falsh drive, which dont need as much power as the hard drives thankfully.

A friend also dropped me off some memory free of charge tonight (6x kingston 8gb ddr3 sodimm sticks) And i now have 16gb of ram. Only thing im missing is a decent gpu and and psu and im golden.

So i think next month ill get the power adapter in place. If i have the money ill get a 7970m as well, my dad dosent use his that much, and defo not for gaming, But im giving him 16gbs of the ddr3 and the usb express card, and he will buy the m6000 off me for £40 , so thats money towards the 7970m and its a step up from 260m he has if he ever wants to actually play anything. As well as the lower tdp and heat .

 

If you are going to plug in an external hard drive, you may need to use the included power cable that comes with those cards. Just plug the cord in to one of the laptop's native USB ports and it should be enough to power the external drive. A mouse or thumb drive won't need extra power, but some external mechanical drives will.

 

Have anyone bought this on ebay? Is this guy a good seller? I'm going to upgrade my M15x from GTX 460M to FirePro M6000 since it's going to die soon
LINK

 

yeah its a good deal mate. there great little cards.

Yeah i think my usb drive will be ok without the power adapter, bit crap it cant power it properly right enough

 

thanks, but what I wanna know is that if the seller a good guy or bad guy

 

Look at the feedback. It's hit or miss with most of these sellers. But e-bay has a pretty good buyer protection policy if anything goes wrong.

 

thank you, bro. I was afraid that the feedback are mostly fake, though.

 

ive only had a few issues on ebay never with power sellers or high feedback ones. A few disputes on condition for used items but other than that no real issues so far.

Fingers Crossed

 

thanks for your comment i'll buy myself a M6000 from Ebay soon. Hope I won't recieve a brick instead of GPU though

 

Still having black screen issues on windows 10 on this thing. Didnt before, i presume it as a driver issue but it been cleared and reinstalled a dozen times, sleep and hibernate settings changed and so forth.

Only think i have tried is putting it back to stock clocks.