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

Hi all.
Could you please answer me how is this card(m6100) in gaming(dell m6600)? I mean modern game like a doom, battlefield 1, wither 3 and other. Is it big difference between stock and changed bios.
What bios and driver is better for gaming?
I read rhis topic, but i don't find any gaming benchmark.
Please share this experience. Thank you.
Sorry for my English

 

Few days ago I tested m6100 in dell m6600. And it was not good. In rise of tomb raider benchmark on middle preset shows me average below 20fps. But in this review
https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-FirePro-M6100.104947.0.html
this gpu is overpowered. Why? The gpu, that i tasted was the same in specs.
Is it depend on CPU or platform? Or gpu bios? Please explain me this.

 

Check temperatures and core clocks. Also kill hairworks. Since you have sandy bridge cpu make sure you kill shadows, or at least set em low.

Sent from my Moto G Play using Tapatalk

 

Why shadows make games unplayable?

 

Temperature was about 71C degrees and cores abour 1050mhz. Looks fine but sad

 

Does it better to bye m6100 i5-2520m than radeon 8850m with i7-4500U for gaming?

 

I doubt. You can buy 2760QM for 50$ and upgrade with it (99% of success) or use even less for a budget i7 like a 2670QM/2630QM.
It's possible that your CPU is a bottleneck in Rise of the Tomb Rider but pay attention that Tomb Rider game is not the same as Rise.... First one is 2013 game and second one is 2015.
You can find out if that is a CPU bottleneck by lowering video settings. If difference is not very big then most likely it's CPU and AMD cards have somewhat higher standards for CPU than Nvidia cards.

 

I don't know if you still read this thread or not, but I'm just curious about whether you did anything to your Radeon R9 M290X before installing it to your Precision M6600, or if it it was literally just replace and reboot (I have an AMD Firepro M6100 right now).
I could find very little to be helpful enough but how exactly does one flash the vBIOS of what is supposed to be an incompatible card to match that of the M6600?
Normal BIOS flashing I have done, but not this.

 

Nope i got one that came from a alienware, put it in and it booted right up, i would advise using speedfan to keep an eye out for fan speed as well temps. My M6600 does have a overheating issue however my M6700 after 30min will ramp the fans and will be fine for gaming before 30min it will overheat and shut off. If you change yours out use the best thermal compound possible what i use is Thermal Grizzly.

 

Also, is it an M290x that you have? or an 8970m? From what I've read, the m290x has 4GB of VRAM, whilst the others have 2. Regarding temperatures, I have no intentions of overclocking, I idle at ,mid 30s-mid 40sand under stress higher 50s. Don't know if that was the case for you too with a graphics card that isn't the m290x.
is there something about a different heatsink/mounting cast that I heard somewhere in these forums that I can't quite recall?

 

I've been reading the thread for quite some time now. And since now my Firepro M8900 died on me I'm definitely looking forward for an R9 M290x to fit in my M6600. I've been carefully following the thread and have understood that the R9 is definitely a Plug n Play in M6600 but with recent Bios update the fans do not match the exact speeds to limit the temp raise. The questions that I have are which Bios version you had before everything was working fine? I currently am running on A16. Also, would the X brackets from M8900 fit directly or I need something else for that? Also, as said by Lee in the above post I don't intend to overclock the card at all and would use its stock speeds. Alternatively, if M290x worked should it be possible that 8970m would work as well? Have you given it a try?

 

Delete this post please. I found the correct thread and moved it. Thank you.

 

@dmgzd I need some help if possible. Please tell me that you mentioned in an earlier post that one needs to match the correct edp / lvd with the card which can also be flashed. My 8970m is not showing any display in M6600 just a flash of light and then nothing. Can you please tell me anything that I can do with this. Im attaching the images of the card for reference.

 

Perhaps since this card is not "supposed" to be compatible with the M6600, you have to download the m8970 drivers prior to the installation, in contrast to the m6100 which is labeled by the manufacturers as compatible as of BIOS A15.
So maybe you'll have to use basic windows graphics display while you uninstall your old graphics card drivers, and install the 8970, then plug it the new card?
Just thought.

 

Well Thanks for the headsup.. The black screen was a thermal trip of sort in which when the Card becomes too hot it loses display. I was able to get through that ..had a fresh new windows. Installed all the drivers and my card was up and running. Although the card was running fine it always stays in the Ultra Low Power State having the Core clocked at 300 and Memory at 150. Also, the fans just refuse to cope with the temps ..they never spin. This is definitely something related to the vBios, Drivers incompatibility..I'll have a look at the any other thing I find.

 

EvilDigit, i no longer use any of my workstation laptop as i move on to an alienware 17 R4, i still have my old laptop workstations laying around somewhere. I gave up with the constant issues of overheating and unpredictable fans the most stable one was the M6700, but was random on when the fans would start working sometimes 5-10min after booting then other times could be almost an hour. Once the fans started working i used speedfan to keep an eye on their rpm and even having fan profiles setup in speedfan i dont think it did much on controlling the fans. As for your flashing issue i cant see any of your pictures that you posted but i did run into a issue similar to what your describing i have two different model r9 m290x cards both work in my m6700 but only one works in my m6600. On that i did not have to flash either one of them to get them to work. A tip for helping with temperatures it's what helped my M6700, using liquid metal thermal paste from thermal grizzly be sure to use super 33+ electrical tape around your gpu and or cpu before applying and use as little as possible on the die as well heat-sink where the die touches. Using that was between 10-20c reduction in temps when the fans decided to work that is. In windows valuxin made a great utility for controlling the fans or having speedfan control them however you have to run windows in test mode for it to work the link to it is some where on this site. Sorry for the late response the email account that i use for this site is one for junk mail and in saying i do not pay attention to it. If you are still needing help i will try to keep an eye out for your response. Also if you are wanting a R9 m290x that work in a M6600 i have one going up on ebay here soon. I have a few benchmarks that i can share using the above thermal paste i was able to get very good scores with great temperatures.

 

Can someone please edit this bios for the M5100 and add the option to increase the voltage up to 1.225v? I believe valuxin did a mod for another user's m5100 but that vbios was incompatible with my M5100.

I tried editing via hex and even comparing differences between the versions valuxin posted but this is just way over my head and I have no idea what I'm doing.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/possible-gpu-upgrade-for-precision-m4600.772547/page-29

 

I wanted to give a shout out of thanks to dmgzd and valuxin for blazing the way to fixing and improving my m6600 with replacing my failed NVIDIA Quadro 5010m to an AMD Radeon m290x (functioning as an HD8970m).

Thankfully, my system fit all of the criteria to make it work smoothly:
- I didn't upgrade to A16 BIOS. I was still at A15.
- My system wasn't completely bricked as I was able to switch to Win10 low-rez mode to download and install the Radeon drivers.
- I was able to find on ebay the "green board" m290x for under $300
- The x-bracket from the Quadro needed to be removed and modified with 2 bend joggles on each leg to properly fit the hole pattern in the m290x. The original x-bracket on the m290x will not work.
- I used IC Diamond thermal paste on the CPU and GPU upon reassembly.

Following the instructions, I installed the Dell fan utility and Speedfan. After disabling BIOS fan control within the utility, the CPU fan whirred up from 0 to ~2500rpm. Once completing the temp curve graphs for the GPU in Speedfan, the gpu fan kicked on as well. My CPU temps are around 42-50c and my GPU is at 35c nominal and 52c max for gaming (Diablo III) and CAD modeling (CATIA v5).

I admit the fans do get loud when the graphics are needed and sleep mode is no longer functional.. Outside of that, I have no complaints. My system works really well without issue.

For anyone else trying to do this, keep in mind.... Until some genius creates a clever device driver or BIOS mod to allow the m290x play nice with the fans in your Dell m6600, you have to run the fan utility and disable the BIOS fan control then start Speedfan every time at startup of your computer session! Your fans won't spin otherwise.

Best of luck!

 

Thank you dmgzd. I thought you were never going to look this way ever again. But its too late I guess. I had my M6600 running fine with the 8970m until I flashed a corrupt Clevo vBios and now the system doesn't posts at all. No Num locks no Caps lock nothing. I've tried many things but to no avail. Can you suggest me anything?

Thank you again for your information.

 

Is it possible to do this ti an hp zbook 17? i have the m6100 amd card aswell..im scared it only is for the dell but would be amazing to flash it on to the zbook i really wana be able to oc the card :x

 

Hi, two quick questions:

Im wondering which version to use in the precision m6700? Does it need its own vbios or is it compatible with one of these?

and,
my vbios has UEFI checked in gpu z, but my laptop is booting in legacy mode. I guess i dont really understand how this works, will this create problems if I have to reflash to the original vbios?

 

So I used the m6600 mystery magic vbios 1150@1650, flashed in windows with command prompt. Works great on my m6700. Fan control is definitely an issue, the bios will let the card get into the 90s without turning on the fans, but HWinfo is working just fine to control them.

The only other issue: for some reason i have serious throttling at 70 C, only after the game or benchmark has been open for a while. The only way to fix it is to keep the gpu under 70, which is actually possible with hwinfo fan control. The fans do get loud, but I doubt i can get it any cooler with a repaste. Im thinking about creating some kind of device like a cooling pad to see if i can keep the fans from having to go full blast.

EDIT: So I could not find away around the throttling, which Im still not sure is temperature based. Using the undervolted vbios (100tdp_1100@1500) , it seems to remove the problem, even above 70C. I think it was actually TDP throttling after a set amount time consuming more than 75W. So after the power draw has been over 75W for 5 minutes, it starts downclocking to the base 300 MHZ every few seconds. So far the undervolt is stable and performs very well, never gets above 72W. I think on my card it would be stable at 1150, but software OC is not working. 1200 with the undervolt is not stable during gaming. I think this issue only applies to the M6700

 

this is the same issue i ran into on my m6600

I tried every bios i could to try and run without throttling but unfortunately none but the undervolted one do. The 1188 mmv2 was more stable than v1 1150 but it still would throttle some and only added 1fps in firestrike or roughly 100pts. Seems the ideal bios to use is the 1100/1500 undervolted as it doesnt pass 75w and stays 75c or less. Its performance also seems to be pretty similar to the MM bios and i couldnt get software overclocking working on any of the MM bios which doesnt matter because it throttles alot anyway even with good temps

 

Quick update on getting overclocking running. You have to install an older version of the AMD gaming driver. I used Crimson 17.9 personally but it should just be any pre Adrenaline dinner.
AMD has picked firepro cards from overclocking in the latest drivers unfortunately.

Issues still remain largely the same, clocks are very unstable and can't get it to maintain anything above 1112mhz for extended periods unless the card stays under 75w.

 

Trying to flash this with mine, ATI flash simply states "VBIOS is not found" or something of the sort, and isn't recognized as a command in CMD

 

Im going to be buying this card soon, m6100 has the same performance as the 860m for 50 bucks.

Was going to try and allocate my funds for the w7170m but I think at this point just getting a decent GPU up and running will be fine for the time being. Then grab a WX 7100 instead of the W7170m at a later date.

@Grant B Gibson are you flashing while under PEG mode or SG?

 

I don't have an unlocked BIOS, never was able to flash it, so the iGPU is the primary, although using ATIWinFlash, it can see the HD 8950m. I believe ATIFlash overall is broken in the newest Win10 Version (1803)

As well, skip the W1710m and go for the WX, the next tier up in terms of performance

 

You should still be able to use the Fn key to swtich off to PEG mode Fn + F5. unlocked BIOS isnt required to switch back and forth.

Yeah, I wanted to get back to similar level of performance but I have other things to worry about. M6100 isnt far off the m290x and I can easily cool this chip if I can avoid the throttling woes people experience here. Maybe another vBIOS modder like Klem can take a look at it since valuxin hasnt been active in a while.

I keep a Windows 7 ISO on a flash drive so if needed Ill just run a dual boot for a bit to get the vBIOS working.

WX may have more performance but its also 10x the cost lol. That and Im selling my 120hz panel save for the eDP cable. Ill be saving that for when ever I can get my hands on the G32 screen (8-bit/120hz/Matte) to which hopefully the WX7100 will work with without too much problems.

The other thing to consider is that the W7170m is low clocked compared to the 1Ghz desktop part. It has never been vBIOS modded. The card could sit between the 970m and 980m after modding. Could be a pipe dream, but so was reaching 1Ghz on the m5100 and after @valuxin helped me out, I was at 1.1Ghz.

 

I'll try it out, how can I tell if I was successful? Would the display be shown as connected to 8950m instead of the HD 4600?

If you want to get to that level of Perf, go for the 980m, they go reallllllllllly cheap now-a-days

 

Im not interested in Nvidia GPU's. Only used it in mine since it came with the machine. I wont deny the performance I just dislike supporting Nvidia and their practices.

Correct, you will not see the HD 4600 anymore, at least that is how I recall it. It will then be a dGPU in PEG.

 

I managed to get that to work, and I even disabled and uninstalled the HD 4600 drivers. Still the same issue, I believe it to still be Win10 related, Im going to try to run a 8.1 ISO file I found.

As for not supporting their actions, I agree. They've done so much stupid stuff, and gotten away with nearly no consequences. Although sadly, until AMD releases a high end MXM or even desktop GPU directly comparable to a 1080 or even 1070, I'm sticking with Nvidia, even if AMD GPU's look much better, have better driver UI, and just plain are cheaper

 

The Vega 56 is about the same performance generally as the 1070 (pending title). Though the issue remains no MXM options. I look forward to the Acer Helios 500 w/ Ryzen 2700 and Vega 56. I could probably part ways with the Ranger if the Acer has a decent price and firmware isnt complete garbage. If I can get my hands on one at some point I would be perfectly happy with the WX7100 in the Ranger as a back up machine and then I could retire the m4600 from being my mobile plex server.

Well then its likely a Windows 10 related irritation. I didnt have the issue before with the m5100 but that was about a year ago now. Even so PEG mode is much better for input lag. Its likely that your panel overclock reverted back to stock so you will need to re-oc the panel.

 

I never had the OC on the 8950m, but I do now.

 

Just bought the 8950m for 40 on ebay. Not bad since the equal nvidia part 860m/960m is like 100+ USD.

Look forward to pumping 100w into that card when I get it.

 

Ok the error I get with the use of ATIWinFlash is the following.

"SubsystemIDs mismatch"

@Prema @valuxin

Would a possible cause of this error be related to the platform the GPU is installed into?

Will try the dos flashing method in a moment, just had equal success with ATIWinFlash up til this card.

 

I've been having alot of issues flashing this card, but that usually means the BIOS is intended for a different GPU

 

You are right, AtiWinFlash is just broken in 1803 and that Subsystem ID means its either a different card manufacter or the vBIOS is incorrect.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

I don't get. Is DOS bootable flash drive blocked from loading? No way disable Safe boot and UEFI mode? Or DOS version is way older that winflash to the point it no more supports GPU? Otherwise who uses windows flashing software???
It took just one time when I had a glitch flashing with Winflash getting frozen screen after I hit start so I would punish myself for stupid mistake and stopped doing that for good. And that GPU wasn't bricked, just had to hard reset.

 

Winflash and DOS did not work for me in my AW 17 R1 or my Current P377SM-A

 

Grab an older ATIWinFlash on Win 10 1709 and try again. The older ATWF solved this for me.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

Will try, probably will go back to Win 8.1, thats the only bootable ISO I have RN

 

never had any issues with ATIWinFlash, even if you do you can use DOS to reflash if its doesnt work out. Which happened quite a few times when I was messing with the m5100 with Valuxin. Also worked for the W5170m but thats the same GPU jsut updated with DX12 and Vulkan support.

This was with the M4600 in Windows 10 and 7.

The m6100 vBIOS was built with Dell Precision in mind, its because of this I think it was not recognized in the Ranger.

Ranger is dead now so I cant mess with it at the moment.

 

Whats weird is that was recognized perfectly by my ranger, in BIOS and windows, albeit no fan control, and in my P377SM-A, its doesn't show correctly in BIOS but lists the vBIOS date of the GPU, and it works fine in windows

 

When I loaded the vbios in atiwinflash is does present a slight difference in name compared to what is loaded. I only checked the latest available vbios mind you, I didn't have time to check with the others as I was having problems which later resulted in my dead motherboard.

The vbios was missing a the second or third word compared to what is loaded. I assume this is why it refused to flash,and is likely why none of us have been able to flash the vbios.

 

Yeah, same thing. It could be that we have later revision M6100's that aren't compatible with the VBIOS mods which is why they have different names. As well, ATIflash has been confirmed to be broken on 1803, but I'm going try a WIN 8.1 ISO before I truly give up, as even DOS didn't work with either of my machines

 

It wont work in DOS for the same reason it doesnt work in Windows, its going to not flash due to the Subsystem ID mismatch.

Though I welcome you to show me otherwise, as it will be most useful lol

 

Not even with force flash?

Code:

 atiwinflash -f -p 0 bios.rom 

!!THIS IS DANGEROUS AND IGNORES SECURITY MEASURES!!

command is the same on DOS but filename is exe name or whatever you changed it to.

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Like mentioned before, before I had to chance to try DOS flashing I had other issues which led to my motherboard failing.

Its not that I was ignorant of the process, it was inability due to no motherboard.

 

I could use some help from some of the bright people in this thread. I was trying to create some nice, low cost, but decent gaming notebooks for some friends. I noticed that on second hand, the M6100 is a fairly priced card that is very very powerful for such a price. I also realized the HP 8740W is an AMD based device (in some models) that is also very affordable.

I installed the video card fine, I could make it fit. However, the problem is with the vbios. I flashed one of several vbios, and the card simply wouldn't display. Each time the system would post fine, as I could continue to use ATIFlash. However, it would never give a picture. On one, the screen would light up, but still no picture to be seen.

I made sure to use LVDS bios knowing I don't have a Dreamcolor monitor. Does anyone have any idea of vbios I could use to make it work? I checked the HP 8740W thread over, but nothing was there.

 

Flash an HP VBIOS, remember, there very locked down, and white list GPUs