*The Offical MSI GX60 Owners Lounge*

I am trying to install windows 8.1 on my GX under uefi mode and i can not achive that.
I made a bootable usb with the Rufus program in gpt format to run on uefi but it do not start in any way.
I have usb priority on the boot menu and the bios recognize the usb pen.
But when booting it say "no media present"
Looks like the usb boot only work on legacy mode.
I need any trick to boot usb on uefi mode??
what other aways to make boot on uefi??
i hope someone can help me.
Thanks

 

You've changed in UEFI bios option?
Make sure you have this option UEFI enable

 

Yes that setting was ok.
I found the problem!! Finally !

So, the image i was using to make a usb bootable with rufus was bigger than 4gb and every time i tryed,i needed to choose nfts partition and looks like gx do not boot from nfts usb...
I make a download of a smaller windows image and chosed uefi gpt fat32...... and it worked!!

Now i finally could use the msi enabler to unlock bios hidden options because it just run on uefi mode.

Just let me wait for my 5750m es to start overclocking!

I see in some french forums people who overclocked the 5750m es up to 4ghz

 

Demo work for me stable 60 fps max settings on gx60 1-AC apu A10 4600m , no OC , no PS Check . CCC - 13.4 . Does the full version have different requirements?

 

Would you people recommend a seller refurbished GX60 (stock) or a new barebone 16F4 w/ 770m that takes 4th gen quads?

 

Get the intel machine you will be much happier . I own a GX60 and replaced it with a Clevo i7-3720qm and a HD8970m 4gb. It does everything better and on the games I have been playing it averages 10-15 fps more per game . Example Assetto Corsa 44fps max with a A8 ES @ 3.7mhz Intel is over 60fps average at stock clocks All the graphics setting were the same .

 

Hey folks,

Just like I promised I post my tutorial (still in progress) about upgrading to A-10 5750m ES and overclocking it.
This tutorial is written with an assumption, that people with no technical skills with notebooks will want to use it aswell.

Reason for this tutorial.

I myself am an avid gamer.
When GX Series was first announced, I though like many others that this will be a true mobile gaming solution, that does not rely on the best components on the market, but instead is well designed and optimized to run games much better than it's hardware specification would suggest - and what is also important - for a good price.

Unfortunately... this was not the case and not long after the first generation of GX laptops hit the market people started noticing the lackluster peformance in many games spite the very (and still) powerful 7970m/8970m GPU inside.
First blame came towards bad Enduro optimalization, but test and research confirmed that the CPU is the culprit.
In a general schematic - GX Series is a odd and bold attempt from MSI at combining top-tier GPU with a weak/cheap CPU from AMD.

A-10 is the top mobile CPU series from AMD, but compared to Intel solutions it falls way behind todays standards.

Many have tried and all failed when it came to bypassing the turbo mode of the stock A-10s in order to overclock this CPU.
This was a letdown since due to the effective internal cooling in GX there is a lot of thermal room for overclocking of the CPU witch is unavailable on stock A-10s.


Luckly the ES (Engineering Sample) version of A-10 CPU became quite widely available on the internet auctions for purchase.
This made it possible to finally boost the overall performance of any laptop from GX series, because the GPU is used in a noticeably larger % after overclocking the ES.
The GPU gets more information from a faster CPU to process - so all-in-all the bottleneck effect caused by the CPU on the GPU is mitigated by a noticable percent.

A lot of folks who want to upgrade their GX do not have the proper know-how or are too confused what to do to install their ES and overclock it.
I searched, but I couldn't find any well written tutorial on the internet, that covers this entire procedure, so I decided to make such tutorial for open use.


1) First thing you need to do is changing the stock A-10 to ES, so you have to take the lower lid off to access the components of GX and cooling.
If this is your first time taking of the lower lid you might notice it is a bit difficult or you may feel like the lid will break into pieces due to using rather big force to pull it off.

The trick I used was using the top of a flat screwdriver and sliding it under the first clamp and gently prying the lid up until the first clamp of the lid went off. You can do the same thing, also don't be scared to use a little force when prying the clamps, as long as you do this with patience you should be fine.

2) Inside the GX you will notice that the cooling is divided into 2 parts.
One part is devoted to the CPU and the other one is devoted to the GPU, so unless you want to repaste your GPU aswell (7970m/8970m/x290M) you do not need to take off the GPU cooling.

So, for the purpose of the CPU upgrade we concentrate only on the CPU cooling.
First you should unscrew the cooling fan witch is in the down-left corner of the case, it has only 1 screw (do not unscrew the tiny screws on the fan, because those do not hold the fan to the motherboard).
After you unscrew the fan, unplug the power cable from the motherboard that powers the fan (try to do this carefully).

3) Now you need to unscrew the CPU cooling and gently take it off.

IMPORTANT
When taking off the CPU cooling, try not to damage the thermal pads (they look like white "Play-Doh")
For example, here is a random picture of a thermal pad:


Once you take off the cooling you will see the CPU, but first you need to unscrew it's locking mechanism, for this you need a flat screwdriver.



Unscrew the CPU, by using a little force in the direction depicted on the mechanism.
Now you can take out the CPU and place your A-10 5750m ES inside. Make sure you are inserting the CPU in the right direction (just take picture of how your stock A-10 was put in to know in witch direction the triangle on the ES edge should point). This is all to make sure you don't damage the pins of the ES ! M'kay?
Now lock-in the inserted ES with a flat screwdriver.

4) Apply thermal paste on your ES, the rule here is - the more does not mean better - so apply a small graing of paste at the center of the ES (make sure you don't push the syringe too firmly or you will shoot a lot of thermal paste at your GX's innards)

You can use things like old credit card/membership card ect. to spread the thermal paste evenly at the entire glossy center of the ES, so that it not visible and covered with a thin layer of paste.

5) Place the cooling back, so carefully position the entire part so that thermal pads are back at their original place and the ES is covered, by screwing in the cooler.

I would advise to first screw in the area covering the ES, then the rest, but this is just my liking to make sure the copper cooler part evenly spreads the thermal paste.

Put back the fan, screw it in, and plug it again to the motherboard.
Now place back the lower lid and set it into its lamps back, screw it in firmly.

6) Now you shoud run your GX again.
You will notice, that the system now behaves as if there was no CCC driver at all - this is normal since CCC configured itself for a stock A-10, not ES.

Download the "Display Driver Uninstaller" from Guru3D and newest CCC drivers to have them ready on your desktop.
Use DDU to completely wipe off all AMD drivers of your system.
For this run the program and when it asks you to reboot in safe mode - click yes.
After restart the DDU will ask you automaticly what to uninstall - select AMD drivers and click "complete clean-up".

Now install the CCC drivers and reboot.

Your desktop should be normal again.

7) Now is the best part of ES - overclocking.
The first thing I want to point out is that overclocking of ES is a thing of experimenting and trial/error method.
Ways of OCing the ES are a result of scrutiny I did along with many other GX users on other forum.

If you have Windows 7 as your system - I would stick with the PSCheck method.
If you have Windows 8/8.1 as your system - You will have to use AMDOverDrive, because PSCheck does not work on these system (it crashes at start).

8) First thing however should be the upgrade of your BIOS to Hitman Edition ( only if you have the GX60-1AC with A-10 4600m).
This is not obligatory, but should improve stability, since A-10 5750m ES is Richland and GX60-1AC uses Trinity BIOS.

Here is a set of upgrade files to GX Hitman Edition for those with GX60-1AC. (WARNING - these BIOS files are for Windows 7 users only!)
http://www.speedyshare.com/nw9Yy/set-files-for-upgrade-to-GX-BIOS-Hitman-Edition.rar

This contains all you need for upgrade along with a proper modded flash.bat that will skip the ROMID check (otherwise BIOS will not upgrade due to failed ROMID check)

AFTER you create a proper pendrive for BIOS upgrade with installed environment (use the guide in the GX series BIOS download section on the official MSi website, this is a legible easy guide on how to create such a pendrive with this environment and it also has the files needed for that ready for download) drag all the files from the Hitman BIOS package above to the pendrive.
Now you need to restart and enter BIOS (F10 in my case, press it right after notebook starts to bootup) and select your pendrive to boot up first in the boot order menu in BIOS.
Save and exit with restarting of the notebook once again.
Your pendrive should start to bootup. Now just like in the guide from MSi site type in commands to lead up to FLASH.BAT on your pendrive.

Your BIOS should now upgrade - do not turn off the notebook in any case durning this process.

After the BIOS is fully upgraded boot up again. Enter the BIOS to loadup default factory settings, save and exit.

9) Both GX60-1AC and Hitman GX60 users will have locked up BIOS. If you want to unlock the BIOS to have further access to turbo mode on the ES, you need to unlock the BIOS with another set of files.

http://www.speedyshare.com/qrDEJ/unlocking-BIOS-GT60-GX60.rar

Go to BIOS and enable booting up the pendrive with UEFI mode ON, just search in the BIOS around Tabs to find this option.

After reboot the pendrive will ask you with a warning whether you want to use this unlock files - select/type "yes".
Bootup once again - when you enter BIOS you SHOULD notice that there is a LOT of new Tabs and options within them now. Your BIOS is unlocked now!

10) Now I will present overcloking to Win7 users.
You do not need to turn off the turbo mode in the BIOS. As a matter of fact, you never have to mess with it, because with the PSCheck (witch as Win7 user you will be using) route you will always be manually turning off the turbo mode at a given step everytime your GX60 boots up again.

First, you will have to download PSCHeck 3.4.1 (newest version). The program is not being updated anymore and links to download it are hard to find, but I did that part for you folks too:

PSCheck download link: http://www.overclockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/PST_3_4_1.zip

The use of the program can seem difficult for many people, but the truth is with a ready .cfg file you won't need to do anything.
The .cfg files below are tested configuration schemes that work with given frequencies (proper voltage for every given frequency, so that the ES won't occasionally give BSODs).
Download these files and backup them right away - you will be using these files from now on to get OC on A-10 5750m ES with no problems everytime you boot up you GX.

PSCheck OC configuration files: http://www.speedyshare.com/F3nP2/GX60-ES-OC.rar

Now all you need to do is install PSCheck (I suggest an easy directory, like C:\PSCheck\
Place your .cfg files in a folder of your choice, but I suggest either your desktop or PSCheck native folder.

Now start PSCheck, then click "open" (folder icon) at the top of the program window and finally select .cfg file you will to run, so either 3.6 Ghz or 3.7 Ghz version.

Right after you do that PSCheck will... crash - this is normal !


The OC however is still not in effect, to make it work you must manually disable turbo mode of the ES.
The best way to do this is through a simple, but useful program called AmdMsrTweaker.
You can download it here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?285742-AmdMsrTweaker-New-Versions

After you download it, install it in a given folder - I suggest a folder named "Turbo", so you get C:\Turbo
Now run cmd (use windows search in start panel to find the cmd.exe). You should make a shortcut to cmd, so that everytime you need it, it will be available from desktop.

Now - after you used PSCheck in the way described above - you should open AmdMsrTweaker in CMD.
If you did as I told you and placed AmdMsrTweaker in C:\Turbo, you should be doing this:



Otherwise, at the 1st and 2nd cmd line you must point the drive letter in first line and folder with AmdMsrTweaker inside in the second line.

And that's it!
Your A-10 5750m ES should now be overclocked!

To test, if the OC is in effect, run Cinebench 11.5 and see what score you get.
If your score is around 2.85 pts for 3.6 Ghz .cfg file or around 3.00 pts for 3.7 .cfg file - you have successfully overclocked your A-10 5750m ES !

The overclock will stay in effect all the time untill you turn off your GX60.
After starting up GX60 again - follow this simple scheme:

1) run PScheck
2) open prefered .cfg rile in PSCheck
3) PSCheck will crash, wait about 2-3 seconds before you close it manually
4) run CMD and type
- "cd c:\"
- "cd turbo"
- "amdmsrtweaker turbo=0"

11) Guide for Win8 users.

When it comes to Win8 PSCheck has issues, but you can run it if you set it to run in compatibility mode (thanks for the info consolero4ever !)

To do this make the program run as executable software administrator.
Right click on the icon of PSCheck, then "Properties", then go to the "Compatibility" tab and check "Run this program as an administrator" and apply.
You should be able to run the program run, proceed as depicted above for Win7 users.

If you still cannot run PSCheck, then your best bet would be AMDOverDrive.

In this method you will have to disable both turbo mode and Powernow feature in BIOS.
Since now you do have unlocked BIOS that won't be a problem, just venture through tabs in BIOS untill you find proper options.

When looking for turbo mode in BIOS search for subsection in the general CPU configuration settings that has following options:



Now change the CPB from Auto to Disabled so that now it shows:



Now your turbo mode for A-10 5750m ES is permanently turned off until you turn it on again in BIOS.

Next you also need to disable Powernow in BIOS. Look for it and switch it off.

Now you boot up your GX and open up AMDOverDrive, in there you can manually set both frequencies and voltages for the CPU.
From trial and error, we have deducted that stable voltages for A10 5750m ES are:

~1.23V @ 3.6 Ghz
~1.24-5V @ 3.7 Ghz
~1.26V @ 3.8 Ghz

French users claim to use these voltages:

1.188V @ 3.3Ghz and 3.4GHz
1.238v @ 3.8Ghz
1.269V @ 3.9GHz
1,294v @ 4GHz
1,314v @ 4.2Ghz

The vaules may vary, because all CPUs are different and so are ESs, you will eventually get to know realtime capabilities of your ES once you test it long enough.

Set given frequencies and voltages and then run a test in Prime95 to see if acceptable temperatures/stability/frequencies are there.
AMDOverDrive allows you to experiment, so do it and post your discoveries/conclustions here on the forum for others


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Troubleshooting


1) My GX60 freezes almost everytime I turn it off when I used overclocking.

This is normal and acts as a side effect of using an non retail CPU and overclocking it.
Your system will boot up with no problems after this, so when a freeze happens just press and hold the power button until your GX forcefully powers off.
After you boot up GX it will simply ask if it should run in safe mode. Just select normal mode as if nothing happened.
I will continue to update this guide soon ! so be patinet, I'll answer all questions

2) My GX60 does not run faster even when I did everything step-by-step in the tutorial (PSCheck method)

From time to time A-10 5750m ES will not speed up to 3.6/3.7 ghz even when everything was done exactly as above in the tutorial.
In order to measure, if the frequences are as expected use AMDOverDrive after you turned off the turbo in CMD.
You have to use the standalone version of AMDOverDrive ( not the one in CCC panel !)
Do not do/set/change anything in AMDOverDrive, just go straightforward to the "CPU Status" Tab and see if target frequencies are indeed met in real time.
So in the "Frequency" line all 4 cores should view around 3600 mhz or 3700 mhz.

If they do not meet target frequency, then keep AMDOverDrive open and open up CMD, then use AmdMsrTweaker again by turning the turbo back on this time, so in the 3rd line you type amdmsrtweaker turbo=1.

After few seconds turn the turbo off again (so use amdmsrtweaker turbo=0) and see if the frequencies are finally as they should, if not - rinse and repeat until they do.
If nothing helps, reboot GX and set OC again, then see in AMDOverDrive, if frequencies are correct.

3) The temperatures I get on my A-10 5750m ES are way too high. Why do others have lower temperatures with the same frequency and voltage?

This is normal when you paste a new CPU.
The thermal paste needs some time until it starts cooling as good as it can.
Usually this can take up to 2 weeks of using the notebook until you start getting lower temperatures.

Also a cooling pad is very helpful as it can take a few degrees off.

As long as you do not exceed 90 'C on your ES, you should be fine.

[UPDATE - 7th November 2014]

One of the forum members has created a script, that should make it even easier to overclock A-10 5750m ES, thanks goes to consolero4ever.

Below I paste his message:

"I created a script ".bat" that simplifies the whole process of using overclock with "amdmsrtweeker+setpci",(you dont need pscheck,overdrive or baredit), which allows you to:

1. overclock (put your multiplier and voltage and it will do it by yourself)
2. Remove the overclock (restore factory settings to restart or shut down without problems or bsods)
3. To lock to 3.2ghz (for standard processors or "ES")
4. Remove lock 3.2ghz
5. Change TSC to HPET to correct overclock errors with transparencys in windows 7 if you have it.
6. Disable or restoration of ULPs in windows registry.

All this is well explained and with a simple "menu", is a lot easy to use, try it, it is very convenient. It have all you need to overclock with the best method and in only 2 clicks.

Spanish version:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_...ew?usp=sharing

English version (thanks to PornFlakes for his translation and to leeloyd for his knowlege):

https://mega.co.nz/#!QZAQRYhI!EqQjJd...JOJA-g_E5VEDZ8

Just unzip, copy the "overclock" folder in the root of c: and copy the shortcut on the desktop. Enjoy it, if you are happy using it, do a comment here."




---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All thanks goes not only to me, but rather numerous people from a polish forum, who all together along with me were figuring out step by step how to squeeze as much as possible out of GX.

Special thanks to (all people from www.nhl.pl forum site):

- LisuPoland (PolishGamer)
- consolero4ever
- musli64
- Mullrof
- Grafinowy
- waldeksik
- nowiutki
- Knight
- and many other fine polish forum members who chipped-in their ideas about utilization of GX series.


This tutorial will be finished and then constantly updated, so PM me with any questions you might have about this upgrade for GX series.

 

Great guide LisuPoland !! Try to post the gains in games as well of before and after. God bless

 

Glad I can be of help!

 

Hello everyone,
I got this laptop a few months ago and I am satisfied for the price I paid. However, I am unable to find a proper sleeve or something that can protect it while not at home. I had bought a sleeve from HP (16") that almost fit, but I just couldnt quite get it in to close the zippers, too bad I didnt check the measurements before... until now I didnt need it either though, but now university starts and I think it'd be good to have something when taking it there almost every day. The 395 x 267 x 55mm specifications seem to be rather unusual, especially the thickness and I dont really want to get a 17-18" which leaves a lot of space on some sides.
So, any advice? What do you use to protect this (or other MSI laptop of similar dimensions) when taking it with you?

 

yo tengo mochila targus xl, es muy buena. Comprada en Amazon

 

applause for LisuPoland for the great guide on overclocking ES: Thumbsup:

 

LisuPoland post some figures of games of before & after. Secondly what is the net advantage of an overclocked ES of 5750M to a turbo-locked (bar-edit, pscheck) OEM 5750M.

 

An overlocked A-10 5750m ES running on 3.7 Ghz provides 15% (or bigger) raw boost over a poperly turbo-locked stock A-10 5750m running on 3.2 Ghz.

In games however, the gain from having an ES feels even bigger as the dGPU really appreciates any CPU additional power it can get.

All-in-all this is a great upgrade to the point, that even the newest GX60 Destroyer falls behind my GX60-1AC now (first model of the GX series), because GX60 Destroyer still only has a stock A-10 5750m that bottlenecks it's R290M.

The raw 3DMark scores MSi posts are a load of crap since they do not show the actual performance in-game - it's just an averaged summary of components witch misleads unexperienced customers.


As for the before/after posts, I did not bother with making them, but I can post some screenshots from demanding areas in games with FPS showed by on-screen display.

As a quick note - Borderlands 2 runs a lot better now, before on A-10 4600m it used to dip to 25-30, FPS, now it is a stable 40 FPS or more.
Shadow of Mordor runs suprisingly WELL - I get nearly constant 99% GPU usage in open areas and on ultra settings 35-43 FPS are stable.

 

Well I guess the hard work and wait paid off. Great work and find by the way. Please try Ryse, BF4, Crysis 3 and other demanding games and post your results. Also post your temperatures on idle & load.

 

Nice tutorial. I would like to add: for win 7, 8, 8.1 can be used AMD Overdrive + baredite only. It is the best way to overclock your notebook. It works always fine and gives the best control over CPU voltage and multiplier. Just use always windows in lagecy mode. It works fine and i don't see any advantages uefi over lagecy mode. But it has been forgotten: Whatever you do the cpu is designed to work at 35W. If you want to achieve the best results in overclocking you have to use baredite, to make you cpu work on its limits. Othewise the cpu will drop its frequency at 60-65 degrees Celsius. By using baredite you can force it to keep max frequency for all cores up to 95-100 degrees, it is the max. working temperature of richland. At 105 degree there can be already seen some instabilities. It will of course reduce life expectancy of your cpu, but not that much to worry about. Prime95 is really a bad choice to check the stability of an overclocked notebook. There is no game that can load cpu as much as prime95 does. With Prime95 you can rich 100 degrees already at 4.1 Ghz. But in real world applications it can work fine at 4,5+ Ghz.

Anyway i decided to sell my MSI GX60 on Ebay. It is powerfull enough after overclocking for gaming but not as strong as intel core i7 haswell with 8 threads and i need it for programming and compilation not for gaming and the only way to do it more or less compfortable is to use top intel/nvidia combination. I add some pictures on ebay to show how far it can go after overclocking with cooling system modification i made. It is a real gaming machine but not a workstation. All overclocking has been made with AMD Overdrive + Baredite to avoid TDP limitation. Very good cooling modification for the laptop with a heatsink from MSI GT60 and additional heatsinks for GPU and CPU and 100% unlocked BIOS. Now the laptop is perfectly optimized for gaming, but for workstation level is anyway not powerfull enough.The best stable result is 4,7 Ghz.

 

Wow thats an even bigger achievement. Great work guys!

 

Thank you LisuPoland and thanks to all your friends that countributed to you do that great tutorial !!
I will made use of it when receive my ES


I know that for a lot of people that has buyed this laptop the gx series do not reached their expectatives(most because the idea that it comes with 7970m and even better) and you can get a better pc if you go for intel but not necessarily for the sames prices.
So, i need to say that i think the GX is a good price/benefits laptop and on its range price (i payed 920€ for mine) we can not find better solution on intel. When i buyed mine gx (1year and half ago) i think that the best intel setup for the same range price was a i7 paired with a gtx 750 and i think it is not necessarily better. Even now we keep to see that. Do you people agree with me??
Thanks again.

 

Hi guys,

My old MSI gx640 is dying after 4 years of great service and its time to find myself a replacement. I was delighted to see that the current iteration - the gx60 - won the notebookreview editors choice award and that i can get it on ebay for an extremely reasonable £900. It seemed like an no-brainer until i saw gaming benchmarks on youtube and realized that according to most reviewers this laptop can barley play games at a higher fps then my 4 year old one, even despite its extremely powerful GPU. Then i came here and while i cant read all 200 pages the sense im getting is that alot of people seem dissapointed by the performance. Is this true ? Is my money better spent elsewhere ?

If i get one it will be a 3CC Destroyer. Is the performance in that case ALOT better or just marginally so ?

 

There is almost no difference between 7970m/8970m/R290m. There are only small differences in GPU/RAM clock, that can be eliminated by using msi afterburner to overclock GPU. Thay all have the same chips and gddr5 ram. To overclock the cpu you need an es cpu. It is all just marketing. Between 8970 and R290m are no differences at all. Just another name. By overclocking CPU you can bring it to the intel core i5 4200h level. It is enough for comfortable gameplay for today. 3CC Destroyer is just a market name. There are no differences in performance.

 

The big difference is the 8970m and R9 290mx were both offered with 4gb memory . I own a 8970m with 4gb and found it useful in some newer games with large textures . Other than that the 7970m is a capable card that can play a lot of games at high settings . The biggest problem is the CPU in GX series if you can find a ES chip it does lessen the problem .

IMO I would avoid the GX unless it is very cheap . You would be better served getting a IVY bridge based laptop if a Haswell is to expensive . I replaced mine as it was just to slow for me .

Here is a benchmark comparing the two . The AMD A8 ES chip was @ 3.7ghz and the i7 was at 2.6ghz
Result

 

Actually r9 290m can have 4 gb gddr5, but most of them have only 2 gb. 4gb is more like an exception. 3.7 Ghz are really not that much for richland, it is even below desktop trinity. The real performance boost can be seen at 4.0-4.1 Ghz. At 4.3-4.4 there is no difference between richland and intel core i5m haswell in the most apps. The reason AMD decided make their cpu at max. 2.5-3.5 Ghz is a really much heat and power consumption over 3.5 Ghz and the most AMD laptops are designed for office or multimedia and they have very weak cand cheap cooling system. I had to spend over 120 usd even to get msi gx cooling system more or less acceptable for high cpu clocks. But haswell with 8 threads is much better.
GX60/70 is the best laptop with 4 threads CPU on the market, if you use an es version of cpu. That is why i decided to sell it on ebay. It great for gaming, but such things like compilation and huge video editing is much better with haswell 8 threads and qsinc. But the price for such laptops is really high. MSI GX is more like budget gaming notebook. It has all you need, but anyway not that good as intel versions msi gt.

 

The problem I had was that my ES would not run over 3.7 . It would boot at 3.9 but would BSOD . I choose to leave it at 3.7 as it was stable. But after buying a i7(IVY) with a 8970m and getting much higher frame rates , some times as high 15-20fps more it is hard to recommend a GX series , ES or not .

 

The only reason richland would't boot at 3,9 is too low voltage. There no richland es that can't boot even at 4.4 Ghz. Higher yes, there can be problems if one have some old versions. Ivy i7 is of course better, because it has 8 threads, richland has only 4. Don't forget, it is 4 thread CPU and it must be compared to core i5 not to core i7, but it can be compared to core i7u. But the GPU ist the best for that price range. And the both components are extremely important for a smooth gameplay. Without a powerfull gpu there will be no smooth gameplay even with 16 threads cpu.

 

Booting is one thing running stable under windows and gaming is another . I tried 1.350 and higher it made no difference . It would boot and then soon BSOD . If I left it at 3.7 @ 1.2125 volts it would run all day with no issues . Not all ES OC the same it looks like I just got a poor over clocker .

 

Try disabling powernow in bios and maybe you could up the voltage without bsod.

 

For such cases powernow must be of course disabled, besides this always set all 4 bits to 0 with baredite and use windows in legacy mode than it works fine.

 

Hi all,

I own a GX60 since last year and opened the back to check if gpu and ssd (msata) upgrades are possible. Just read in this thread that cpu can be upgraded, Thanks for that.

Is it possible to upgrade from 7970m to 780M or a much better gpu?

Many thanks in advance.

 

As far as i know you can't upgrade you gpu. It is all because they all have very specific BIOS. Even not every 7970m from another manufacture will work correctly. But you can use r9 m290 for msi gx, but it is almost the same. Besides this it will not improve performance. 7970m is power enough for every application, just without CUDA and Physx. If you want make it a little faster just use msi afterburner to overclock it.

 

So, tell how

 

Hello lisupoland , thanks for the nice tutorial ...i followed it and i have got a problem when i tried to flash bios , i did exactly what's written in your tutorial ...

but when i execute flash.bat , it says '' unable to start a secure flash session'' ...i dont know what i did wrong , i formatted the pen drive to FAT32 , made it bootable (from msi website)

and then copied your richland bios files and everytime i get the same error , do i need to do something 1st ? or is it the pendrive ..16 gb is the smallest i have and i couldn't format it to

FAT as its capacity is large.

 

MSI GX 60/70 - 3.2GHz Clock Speed - YouTube

you need the second step only after you set desirable clock speed. Just set all f0000000 bits to 0. It will prevent the frequency dropping down under load.

 

Basically setting D24F3xA8 to 30000000 and D24F3xDC to 00a75 136 will force PopDownPstate and HwPstateMaxVal at pb1 (second boost state)
But if boost states are disabled you'll run into trouble. Instead you should set them to p0.

Now let me see ... where's the PopDownPstate ... ah !
D24F3xA8 bits 31 to 29 :
000 = 1st pstate = Pb0
001 = 2nd pstate = Pb1
010 = 3rd pstate = Pb2
011 = 4th pstate = P0 That's it !

D24F3xA8 must be set to 70000000

The same goes for HwPstateMaxVal:
D24F3xDC bits 10 to 8 => 011

D24F3xDC must be set to 00a75 336

For those who want to know what they are doing with their processor : http://support.amd.com/TechDocs/42301_15h_Mod_00h-0Fh_BKDG.pdf

Edit : Good to know, D24F3 in hex become D18F3

 

Yea, I know this one, I thought somebody found the key to disable TDP limiting, this is just forcing a state to be the lowest available.

 

If you make p0 state the lowest availalbe it would be enough. Trying to disable any limitations at all will demage you cpu by riching more than 105 degree.Use Baredite and psscheck together to avoid lower frequencies than you selected. Even so it will work on its limits near 100 degrees under load. It will just drop its frequencies near 100 degrees and it is absolutely allright until you want you cpu to be dead.

 

TDP Limit can only be set with a value less or equal its reset value (35W) wich is hard-coded.
Forcing p-state is by now the only workaround.

 

Hey guys, can someone of you dump the vBIOS of your 7970m with GPU-Z? Thank you.

 

[Tuto] Flasher Sa Carte Graphique Amd Sur Gx60/70 - MSI - Portables4Gamers
follow this french forum

 

*Vishul

Hmm, this is indeed odd.

Can you post photos of the screen when you want to flash the BIOS?

 

Thanks, but it seems they are in the same boat as me. Should I understand that it is not possible to dump the vBIOS? Have you tried it with ATi flash? Sorry if it was discussed already.

Can you give me GPU-Z shot, I want to try something.

 

sorry i didnt took the pic but i solved my problem though....by using a way around..

i get that error , no matter what method i use..i.e. flash using dos menu after boot or using efi shell command and also tried by disabling secure

boot...and also it is not related to ROMID check as it was always bypassed using /X attribute , so i added the ''/GAN'' attribute in flash.bat ..its for

those who get ''unable to start a secure flash session'' ...this attribute is used to flash your bios with a modded one....

Then after flashing... i used the msi enabler tool you provided to unlock the bios and since then things are running much smoother thanks to you

again

 

See people, my problem is that I simply cannot achieve stable frequency which has voltage>Pb1. I have A10-5750M ES. I disable turbo & APM and when I raise P0 voltage to something bigger than Pb1(in my case 1.1875) the cpu is unstable even at stock frequency. So my best possible clock is [email protected] because even 2 Ghz will be unstable @1.2. I dont know if Im doing something wrong so I will try every advice you give me. I can alter Pb1 voltage but Its hardcoded to not go more than 1.1875, so I tried setting it to 1.15 and then any clock will be unstable if VID>1.15.

 

It's because the APU is exceeding the 35W TDP limit. I had the same issue when oc'ing @3.6GHz with Vcore higher than 1.188V using TurionPowerControl.
As i said earlier, the only workaround is to set p0 as the security p-state which is triggered each time the TDP limit exceeds 35W. So instead of lowering the frequency to 800MHz each APU's core will stay at p0 frequency.

So basically, you disable Turbo core and APM.
P-state p0 becomes the highest p-state possible, but it's still the 4th.

1 - You force the cores to p-state p1
2 - You set p0 frequency and Vcore as you like.
3 - You force the cores to p-state p0 for changes to take effect.
4 - You lock the cores to pstate p0 to avoid the frequency drop when TDP exceed 35W using bar-edit or pciutils.

Wanna change again ?
No problemo, just unlock the cores with bar-edit or pciutils or whatever, and restart from step 1.

Want to turn back ? Easy :
1 - Unlock the cores
2 - Enable Turbo core with APM.
3 - Set p0 frequency and Vcore as they're supposed to be. Now you can reboot when you want without any issue.

Ah ! And for those who encounter troubles once they've overcloked their APU, like window manager crashing and losing transparency. The reason is the OC mess with the TSC's accuracy and by default some OS (Like win7) use it instead of HPET.
Open CMD as administrator and run : bcdedit /set useplatformclock true
And reboot to take effect.
Try your oc again, and breath ....

 

uefi can be the reason. Use lagecy mode. Use Baredite, use Psscheck(delete all pstates except pstate0 with pscheck, don't close pscheck). It must work fine. It is the easiest way if you can work only with GUI. After this there will be no problems this core frequency until you reach about 100 degrees. I riched 4,7Ghz. Of course it gets 100 degrees under load within seconds. And there is no way you can change it until you can intstall some desktop heatsink in you notebook. I used for heavy cpu load 4.2-4.4 Ghz

 

You don't really need bar-edit to lock at p-state p0 if you already used Pscheck to remove all availlable p-states but p-state p0.

 

Hey guys, just upgraded my gx60 to the 5750m ES the other day. Followed LisuPolands steps, had some issues with flashing but fixed that by adding /GAN as the other user posted. I'm a Windows 8.1 victim and so I can't use PScheck, so I had to disable powernow and CPB in my bios. My issue is that when I use overdrive to clock to the recommended voltage/frequencies as per the tutorial, or any other combination for that matter, I am getting fluctuating frequencies. For example, One split second its at 3.5 ghz, the other its at 900 mhz. And it will keep doing this until I restart my computer. It's also not throttling back and forth based on cpu usage, because even when the cpu is under heavy load it still does this. Does anyone know of a fix for this? Thank you.

 

Just follow the 4th step i wrote just above.

Just do as the video says but write "01" instead of "00" for both cells in bar-edit.

 

It worked! Thank you for that! At first I downloaded Bar Edit and I originally thought I would have no idea what to do. Fortunately I have a basic understanding of hex and memory storage and so with the video combined with what you said allowed me to do the task. 3d Mark already showed an improved fps during the physics test. Awesome!

Thanks again.

Edit: One thing I noticed is that changing bar edit locks whatever speed you had at the time. So it seems as though if you want to change speeds in overdrive you have to go back to bar edit and change the numbers back and forth.

 

don't forget about the temperature. If you set it too high the clocks will be down and you get less fps. I used anyway both Pscheck and baredite. By doing it i could rich much better results and stable results at higher temperature, near 100 degrees, at 4.3 Ghz with 3dmark06. The pictures on ebay are made with pscheck and baredite. By using only baredite the clocks weren't stable after 4.2 Ghz and with amd there are every 100 mhz important for fps.

 

Yeah I'll be spending some time finding that sweet spot. What would you say is an a max temperature for this laptop under load? Probably around 70 would you think?