AMD FirePro M6100 overclocking vBIOS mod (+ 8***M and R9 M*** series)

Just edited my post as you replied so I don't think you will have seen it. Do you recall if you fitted thermal pads to the memory modules on the back of your M6100?

 

For the best cooling, thermal pads should be on the rear modules too and should touch the mobo. But I can't remember that my M6100 had memory modules on the rear side - may be it's the reason why your card needs different vBIOS

In future, if you'll need some help - feel free to pm me.

 

Alienware m15x, amd firepro m6100 firegl v graphic drivers but can't play Battlefield 1 on high settings? Only in Campaign mode. It lags a lot. I have to use Radeon HD 8950 drivers to play PC games? Radeon can't change game settings? I find this card very slow. My other gtx460m seems faster? Don't understand as my firepro m6100 is Dell vendor & red in color. It's plug n play, but doesn't appear in Bios, just says shadowed? I only paid £100 for it on eBay. I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate, 8GB Ram, 500GB HDD, amd firepro m6100 2GB GDDR5. GPU clock 1075MHz, Memory clock 1375MHz, Shaders 768 Unified. I don't know why it can't play certain PC games properly & lags a lot.

What can I do to improve AMD FirePro M6100 PC gaming performance.

I'm also using 150W adapter & planning to buy a 330W.

Intel i7-720QM @ 45W
AMD FirePro M6100 @ 75W
120W

Could it be throttling because of lack of power????

 

First of all, clearly, you lack of power - you should have at least 180W+ PSU (240W+ is preferred). Your system without graphics can consume up to 100W, 460M is 50W and M6100 is 75W+. And it's also clear that M6100 is much faster than GTX 460m (at least 3 times faster). You should buy a proper PSU (I recommend you to go with 240W+) to use the full power of your upgraded laptop.

P.S. You can't play Battlefield 1 on high settings because it's entry level card and OC performance is close to RX460. High/Ultra settings flawless playing require at least 970M graphics.

 

I've purchased a 240W adapter for AMD FirePro M6100. I'm hoping that this will improve PC gaming performance!

Alienware m15x
i7-720QM
AMD FirePro M6100
8GB/500GB HDD
Windows 7 Ultimate
New 240W Adapter upgrade from 150W

My 3DMARK was under 3000, hoping the 240W adapter will change this.

 

The original vBIOS and modded one are still available. Follow the links in the first post.

 

Yes i looked through them and tried the one for tdp of 100, 1100mhz core and stock memory but the card would not post. Just like the other guy that had the same issue, its a different version of the card im guessing the video bios 015.035.000.003.044934 If you still have the one you made for this version or could make it i would be so very grateful.

 

All you're flashing is the old builds!!! The BIOS mod, that I've recently done, is still on the same place on OneDrive. If you can't find it, here is the full path:

Code:

vBIOS Mods\AMD\FOR_TEST_PURPOSE_ONLY [latest releases]\REALY, IT MIGHT BE NOT SAFE YOU KNOW\Mystery Magic\FirePro M6100 (Dell M6800) VER015.035.000.003.045435  (for those with dual sided memory)

 

I found the others you were talking about but all of them fail to flash either brick the card and i have to flash the original back on it. I know it is asking so much but could i send you a copy of my current bios and you add the advanced fan profiles, change tdp to 100 and only add a slight over clock of say 1100mhz core and default memory? My main thing i have issue with is with these dell laptops they love to throttle before ramping the fans and thats the biggest killer of performance. Thanks for all your help and your work on this it gives im sure so many hope to making these precision laptops some added life.

Here is my oem bios for my firepro M6100

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-j1XmEwE9wDbW1UQmduVW9NVjg/view?usp=sharing

 

@ dmgzd

The vBIOS mods here based on absolutely the same vBIOS as you provided:

Code:

vBIOS Mods\AMD\Mystery Magic\FirePro M6100 (Dell M6800) VER015.035.000.003.044934

 

Hi, i'm trying to install FirePro W6170m/M6100 from HP Zbook G2 to my DELL M6600.
Should I flash original BIOS from DELL or modded "Mystery Magic" or leave HP BIOS?
Thank you.

 

I've got M6100 from HP Zbook 17 G2 (it's called W6170M) and already installed it in my DELL Precision M6600.
It came from china in very good condition with original HP bios. My M6600 started with this W6170M but picture was available only on external monitor connected through VGA cable. OK, that was enough to flash another original bios from DELL vga (from valuxin collection).
W6170M card works with any DELL bios.... BUT - it works only in Linux. Windows has some errors, so I need HELP from anybody here ))
Please HELP me!
1. Linus works fine with any DELL bios and MM v.1 bios.
2. Windows 7 - reboots after AMD display driver installation with BSOD (with all original DELL bios and MM v.1 except 015.035.000.003.045435).
3. Windows 8.1 and 10 - crashes with BSOD by AMD display driver installation (with all original DELL bios and MM v.1 except 015.035.000.003.045435).
In all cases GPU-Z (without installed AMD display driver) don't shows memory size (shows 0). With 015.035.000.003.045435 GPU-Z shows 2048 MB memory.
In all cases W6170M card detected by GPU-Z like R9 m280X and it is not possible to install any FirePro M6100 driver manually.

You will say - keep this bios 015.035.000.003.045435 and go with piece ))))
But with this version 015.035.000.003.045435 my VGA card can not proper use VGA cooler. It passes built-in bios test and works fine only if i start HWINFO64 sensors.. In all other cases VGA cooler works by 2600 rpm and even if GPU over 85 deg it rotates same 2600 rpm.

So.. please help me with this trouble!

 

Do you have "AMD FirePro Advanced Settings" menu? If you do, it doesn't matter that it's recognized as R9-M280X, it would work as FirePro. Manual fan control is a known "feature" after GPU upgrade.

 

no, i don't have any AMD driver settings at all (crimson v.16.12.1)..

what do I need to control GPU fan manually?

 

I can not install any FirePro M6100 display driver (even manually), only Crimson edition 16.12.1 for R9 m280X

 

HWInfo should work, there's a fan icon when you switch to sensors.

 

HWInfo fan control works only with RESPIN option (with minimal timeout 100).
Maybe another software for GPU fan control?

(MSI Afterbunber dosn't work with GPU fan)

 

MM bios mod (v. for double-sided memory) for M6800 model - NO Crashes but Dislpay flickers.

yes - this mod made from 015.035.000.003.045435 version.

 

valuxin, did you try to fix your old M6100 GPU with vBIOS chip replace or perhaps flashing vBIOS with programmer + clips? I know that Nvidia cards have very low vBIOS chip so it's impossible to use clips but perhaps AMD card is better?
P.S. blacksmoke, it isn't about your problem but do you see a frame rate limit option in Global profile or app profile on the latest drivers? Thanks.

 

no, i don't see this option.. i'll pin here some pics under spoiler

Spoiler

 

Just wanted to say thank you valuxin, i revisited trying to flash one of your bios for my precision M6600's firepro m6100. The issue was with the version of my card its bios was for the M6800. So after flashing your bios for the m6800 it worked, performance is so much better and the card is not throttling near as much. Though the fans still do not spin up to 100% which i would love it if they would. Last i would like to ask have you ever modded the bios for a Quadro 5000m? I have one in my older precision m6500 and haven't had any luck doing so myself.

 

valuxin, i recently upgraded my Precision M6600 to an R9 m290x aka HD 8970m. It works great with quite a bit more performance than the M6100, the issue i am having is one you fixed with your bios tweaks. The fan does not show at all no percentages nor can you control via MSI afterburner like you could with your M6100 bios. Not as important but power limit percentage isn't adjustable. I wish i knew how to modify the bios files, i have many different mobile gpus and would love to help the community like you are doing. Anyways could you take a look at the bios of this card and see if you can modify it? Thanks!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-j1XmEwE9wDQjJNRFhTVDg4U0k/view?usp=sharing

 

99% of mobile cards can't be flashed without de-soldering using clips. But i see no reason to do so - software method is just enough for any situations. When my M6100 failed with my vBIOS mod and laptop couldn't boot with the card - I'd just shorted pin 1 and pin 8 of the vBIOS chip so that it could the POST and reflash it with Atiflash.

 

Some time ago I had 5010m in my HP 8760w and I see no reason in overclocking it coz it was hot like hell in stock. I've even managed to burn my skin a little while playing on my knees xD So the answer is nope. And even for today this task isn't so easy and absolutely hex based.

 

Since it have been a thousands of years when I was doing serious mods for AMD cards - it'll take lots of free time to do a proper mod for this card. At least, I've done a light mod with some useful things:

• Core is clocked from 950 to 1000Mhz, core voltage upped from 1.175 to 1.2
• TDP upped from 81W to 100W, unlocked software TDP override up to 150W
• Unlocked software overclocking with max freqs of 1500Mhz for core and 2000Mhz for memory

 

Thanks, what utility do you use to do the editing? Before i flash this one were you able to see anything over having fan control? As you know these high end mobile cards already run hot and without any control over the fan i cant make a custom fan profile. Attached is a screen shot of what info i get over the fan now.

 

Valuxin, did you see my previous post. I have tried to find some tool to look into the bios. I guess Hex editor is the only thing that works?

 

Valuxin I applied the bios you made and was pretty nice. First I went with 50% on power and score went down so moved to 20% and got 200 points higher. Oh and your tweak made amd overdrive available so really cool, however i can not overclock nor under-clock at all the screen starts to tear and shake on the 2d desktop the second after i hit apply. I really wish there was a way you could show me how you edit these bios files would be awesome to learn. As for temps highest i seen was 82c fan ramps up but still cant control it no see the percentage. You do awesome work and i can understand a master wanting to keep their secrets, if that is the case i would be willing to pay you for some help on making a custom bios for this R9M290x in order to play nicer with my Precision M6600. But thank you for what you made it gives me something to look at and enjoy. Attached is the new Performance Test by Passmark.

 

Valuxin, is there a way to share info how exactly can be edited bios of m6100? I'm kind of looking for oposite, I need to downvolt and downclock the card to reduce the heat it produces and the noise of the fan.
So I'm in the search for an editor for quite a while and it seems there aren't any...
I'm up for hex editing if its the only oportunity left in my case to find the lowest border I can hit and still run a couple of simple games at decent framerate.

 

@dmgzd Nice to see you find my mod useful. The fan control thing is very complicated. You can't control fans on Precision M*600 and M*700 series though fan table modification in vBIOS (just to mention, there is no fan table originally in vBIOS). But you can control your fans manually with some keys combinations. Don't know all the details, but I was able to set my fans in low noise mode on my Precision M4600 HTPC system. Here're the combinations that could affect fans:

• Fn + Shift + Z should reset fan controller settings
• Fn + Shift + other letters (like Q W E R T A S D F X C) allow you to spinup or spindown the fans and save the configs.

Probably, if you have asked me to make a complex mod for R9 M290X a year ago I might accept your offer, but for today I'm not so interested in AMD mods (until I'll get my Polaris card) and it would take so much spare time with high risks of bad mod version. For example, to make final mod for M6100 I've made and flashed nearly 100 vBIOSes before that Doing remote mods on hardware that I don't own isn't an easy task

@Mak8 Yeah, I'm using Hex to do this mods. It's not that easy and bit complex to edit values other than freqs. I'm not gonna make any tutorial about the modding any time soon, sorry Downclocking and undervolting MXM 3.0b type card is not the best decision. Yeah, it's possible and I could help to the mod if I have the hardware for that. I suggest you to buy some MXM 3.0a type card - they run quiet and cool even under heavy load on 17 inch machines and capable to have the performance even higher than M6100 could have (for example, Quadro M2000M). If you are interested, I have up for sale some handsome 3.0a type cards with nice performance: M2000M 4Gb, K2100M 2Gb, FirePro W5170M 2Gb.

 

Valuxin could you at least tell me how you are editing and what tools you use? Also with your M6100 bios mod i was able to control the gpu fan on my M6600. I like the mod you made for my M290x however could you please look into 2 things for me. One being its sluggish to hit 1000mhz and stays at 900mhz for a few minutes then ramps up. It's not due to heat as doing a stress test max temp is 82c and stays at 1000mhz. The next is i can not alter the frequency at all if i try and underclock or overclock my screen starts jumping and tearing. I didnt have much money to spare this month however i did want to say thanks, in saying check your paypal.

 

@dmgzd First of all, thanks a lot for your donation and seems like I have no choice to make a bit more of modifications Here's a new mod for your R9 M290X:

• Core clocked to 925Mhz, Memory clock remains the same
• Voltage upped from 1.175 to 1.2
• OverDrive is on and have the following max values: 1050Mhz for core, 1500Mhz for memory, 20% for TDP
• Default TDP upped from 81W to 100W
• Added Fan table with following settings: 0% till 40c, 100% at 75c.

Try this one. I hope it'll work fine for you. Also, there is a thing that might affect in bad way to software overclocking. MSI AfterBurner creates a table in regestry with freqs, TDPs and so on. Before flashing the mod I'm highly recommend you to remove AfterBurner, clean the registry with CCleaner and install it again. Also, there is a risk, that this mod will not run on your system and you'll have to do a blind reflash.

P.S. I'm using Hex editor only for modifications (Hex Editor Neo is my favorite). As I said earlier, there is so much of complicated things and like Prema, I don't willing to share my secrets any time soon

 

First i want to say thanks, I am not using afterburner since your first mod enabled amd overdrive. But i flashed this one and got no display on internal or external monitors. Luckly my laptop booted and i was able to rdp into it and flash the bios back to your previous mod. I appreciate the time and effort you have put into this i will get the hex editor you are using and do a side by side comparison of the two mods. Totally up to you but if you could send some screenshots of what areas you edit for different functions that would be awesome. I would love to learn and help the community out just as you do.

 

I noticed this change on the third line could you tell me a bit about it?

 

I just ran into a bigger problem, i had a thermal trip on a reboot and could not get any display. Looking into it i noticed that all the edited bios's are missing the uefi. So i had to flash the original bios back.

 

@dmgzd Sad to hear you have no success with last mod. It's nice that you could recover Just found nice article here which describes mostly what I'm doing (but I had no such nice tools for the moment).

This spot is CRC (checksum) value. After doing mods you have to fill it with appropriate value.

While doing alpha mods I always disable UEFI mode so that could not affect to the result. You could enable it by setting 0000023d value to 00 (80 to disable it).

I'll try to do some more mods, but it'll take some time.

 

Thanks for the tips, it actually helped me with my hp zbook 17 g1. Not finished with it yet, my old M6100 from my dell isn't playing nice. As for my precision m6600 dont worry about creating a bios i appreciate all that you have done, really the only thing i wanted to do is adjust fan speed. However with the default firmware max temperature that i have seen is 81c to me that's still a bit hot but i guess not that bad. I wasn't even planning on using the r9 m290x in my dell i got it for the zbook. However seems the zbook is even worse on temperatures even after buying the full copper heatsink. I didn't like using hybrid graphics with amd, nvidia is great at switching amd not so much. Again valuxin thanks.

 

Valuxin - is it possible to use your method of modifying video bios enabling use with Dell M6600 laptops on other cards? There are so many cards that just won't work in the M6600 that could, but don't seem to have some vbios flag set.

It would be awesome for M6600 users if you could share this info.

For example, I used to own a GTX 765M card, but the laptop refused to boot into windows because it wasn't blessed by Dell.

Thanks!

 

It's not about vBIOS mod at all. I've deeply investigated into this problem not so long ago and the problem is in extremely bad engineered ACPI table of the system BIOS. Idk why Dell didn't fix it during 16 BIOS updates, but this garbage in ACPI table don't allow us to use any nvidia cards based on Kepler and higher. As for AMD, any cards will work fine, but Embedded controller can't read GPU temps and, due to this, don't control GPU fan. Kepler and newer card are working under Linux with ACPI off (what leads too no power control features - freqs on GPU and CPU stay the same all the time). I see no hope that Dell will fix it any time soon (probably never) and the only thing that might help is to find some smart BIOS engineer and try to solve the problem.

The funniest thing is that my 9 years old Core 2 Duo Acer laptop works without any problems with M2000M and GTX 965m... HP Elitebook workstations have no problem either.

 

Valuxin, well im using the first bios mod you made for my R9 M290x i edited it for uefi and only using it for adding +25 to power. Seems to be working great. Thanks for the tip. I know this is isnt the right form for this but i see where you were working on HP Zbook's in saying how did you get past the thermal issues? With my M6100 from my dell i have it working in it however temps go between 100-107c with fan speed utility used to keep the fan at 100%. I am using the best thermal paste made thermal grizzly as well using copper adhisive tape in place of the plastic fan air director. The plastic strip that goes on top of the fan and heatsink to force the air out. That helped but only by 7c.

 

@dmgzd, I didn't use Zbooks in the past, but you problem is definitely related to heatsink incapability problem - when it does not fit the video card well. I'm 100% sure that your GPU don't have 100% contact with heatsink. That's common and obvious reason in videocard upgrade experience. Try to order another heatsink that differs from the current - it should solve the problem.

 

Hello. Just a quick question. If I buy AMD M6100 video card from Dell M6600, will it work with Dell M6800? Should I flash M6100 from M6600 with vBIOS for M6100 for M6800?

 

It will work just fine. But for better compatibility it's better to flash the vBIOS designed for M6800. But before flashing you should dump your vBIOS and clear out the board revision is in use to flash a proper vBIOS - do it with notepad.

 

Thak you. I am familiar with updating the vBIOS on graphic card, but not really with the clearing the board revision. What should I do to clear the revision?

 

Just wanted to update everyone reading this form. Dell released a new bios update. Don't do it if you are wanting to overclock your gpu. The fan profile has changed and no longer will ramp up to full speed before the bios update with speedfan my fans would ramp up to 5800rpm then after the update 3800rpm. That is on a M6600 with my M6700 it will ramp up to 4100rmp.

 

As a follow up to my previous post on bios update and fan speed for the R9 M290x. Using speed fan utility i have found a way to allow for overclocking gpu and keep safe temps on M6700. On speed fan make sure automatic fan speed is checked then click configure->Option Delta value set to 1 and enable Dell support next go to Fan Control add Fan1 and Fan2 for names set one to Pwm1 and the other Pwm2 for method max of speeds then temperatures set to the dell gpu not the ati gpu once set click ok. Quit speed fan or reboot run speed fan after reboot or exit then use gpuz render test on gpuz click sensor tab and watch temperatures and on speed fan watch your fan rpm. It should start ramping over 3k rpm around 70-77c i have seen this delay to 83c but never any higher. For M6700 seems thermal shutdown on gpu is 86c.

 

hey this a little off topic but i know valuxin is knowledgeable about dell precision's and drivers and bios modding , and i need help building a stable driver for my msi 1070 in my precision m7710 cause every driver i install crashes and reboot [video_tdr] & [video_memory_internal] blue screens. And is it possible to flash the p5000 bios to the msi 1070.

 

V aluxin, I have been working with two models of precision M6600 and M6700. Both were working with an R9 m290x, then the recent bios update. My M6700 still works fine with your modded rom the only change i have made is enabling uefi. With the M6700 i did notice its very picky with what m290x is used both cards i have are Dell cards one is a green pcb the other blue. Only the blue one would work in my M6700 while my M6600 worked with both. After the recent dell bios update on my M6600 the fans will not ramp up past 2.5k rpm then thermal trip. My M6700 will ramp fans up when the video card reaches 76-77c it never goes past 83c as the fans will ramp to 90% 4.5k rpm. I have given up on the M6600 and installed my old firepro m6100 with your rom mod MM 1188-1650 v2 and it works perfectly again fans ramp up properly and highest recorded temp during stress test was 83c then just like my M6700 fans will ramp to 90% to bring temps down. Can you think of anything in the gpu rom that either controls the fans or signals the bios to ramp the fans? If so would it be possible to offset the temp being sent to trick bios to ramp fans early? I know this takes time and i have been trying to teach myself however as stated i hit an impasse. My last thought was to mod the rom of the working firepro m6100 to use on the R9 m290x.

 

Oh i forgot to add i have also tried reverting to the previous bios with no change in fan behavior. I have also tried using a gtx 780m in my precision M6600 this gave an intel management error 207 even disabling intel management i could not get the laptop to boot with anything.