~GX660(R) Owner's Lounge~

I think you should be fine with the stock 120W adapter. I used my stock adapter with a 920xm (55w vs 45w 840QM) and an OC 5870m.

 

I would say try my bios and see if it works for you. Its an older bios build but has worked perfectly for me since I've had the laptop. And I've had no issues with CPU/GPU upgrades.

 

Yes, i used the stock psu since now, switched to a 180w psu to afford 7970m

Inviato dal mio HTC One S con Tapatalk 2

 

You could use that PSU but don't excpect to overclock anything as it would put stress to the mosfets and loose stability on the CPU. Reboots/Crashes should be excpected..

@lordvader I saw yur videos and those are symptoms of incompatibility between the GPU vbios and the system bios.. At this point I'm stuck too.. :\
Do you know anyone with a Clevo or Alienware notebook? He can try the card in his system and in case flash it with an older vbios (even older than mine).
I'll try and look more into this.

felix

 

hi Felix, have you seen my issues? now sometimes i have same artifacts as lordvader's video but i often boot without issues, enter in windows (win 7 64bit fresh inst.), catalyst recognize the vga but this one is stuck at 2d mode, run stress test (msi kombustor) at 300/150mhz0,900v, can't switch to 3d state performance at all...

PS i posted ME firmware version some posts back

 

Thanks a lot guys,gonna get that CPU finally!

 

I m trying to find a little bit old vbios to flash then retry.
BTW:ıs backplate necessary for 7970m to put in alienware?

 

hi mate, you can find in techpowerup bios section some vbios for dell 7970m cards and a vbios collection pack on techniferno forums.
can't be sure about the need of x bracket (but i think so for alienware laptops), in my msi gx660 is no needed for sure, ciao

 

BTW we have similar kind of problems with these cards, even if we have different laptops, i saw your video and i had something very similar but less corrupted.
Things are going someway better since i flashed the bios system (i flashed also several vbioses but without solving, so i put again the original one), now image is not always artifacted, often i can enter in windows but the vga works perfectly only in 2d mode.

 

@felix3650
Unfortunately it's too hard to find an Alienware user in Turkey 'cause Dell don't sell Alienware in Turkey ..damn....
And thanks mate....
@fantabrothe
Thanks for the advise...i got the site and gonna get the oldest one flashed to card....will report back...

 

@fantabrothe is your laptop a GX660 or R? My laptop was originally a MSI GX660 (no rebrand) but I heavily upgraded it. Is it possible for you try try out my bios and check results?

 

Hi, my laptop is gx 660 non R but i'm using 30.L bios modded by meister msi, i'll pleased to try yours if you can post it
What version do you use? Let me know if i have to set it on some specific way or of it works just loading optimized def. Settings,thx

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The only difference is if raid mode is selectable by the way, an unlocked bios would have that option for you to change at will.

 

Hi Meaker, any suggestion for my issues? have you experienced something similar updating a vga laptop? 7970m is now working only in 2d mode, a strange issue is that looking at gpu z info the vga changes continuously from pci 8x 2.0 to pci 8x 1.1 (it changes in a random way, even in deskop without any activity).

 

Ok I posted my version a few posts back. Its at least worth a shot trying my working bios. Can you tell me how to dump the bios for you?

 

i found this: Universal BIOS Backup Toolkit

 

Can't get that to run for some reason, and AVG reporting a virus.

 

Anyone know if the Intel SSDs have issues with this laptop? I was thinking about picking up an Intel 520 Cherryville 240gb. On Sale at newegg right now.

I know I won't be able to take advantage of the quicker sata III interface, but I can always use this drive in the future on a newer laptop, and would rather not invest in older tech.

 

Even without the quick SATA interface, the intel SSD should work. As far as I know, they work well, as they tend to be the most... reliable out of the box I guess. I use one of those with my ultra old Core 2 duo work machine. And it works!

It is amazing how popular this thread is. A testament of how awesome this MSI laptop models are.

 

he he, this thread is still alive! and we need all your skilled help for sure!

 

Anything I can help with, count me in.

I used to have a popular thread with my review back in the day it released

Right now I am at Dominican Republic but I return home in a couple of days, so I can test with my GX660R.

 

Got my new Intel SSD 520 240GB installed and working perfectly. Used the software to directly clone from my old SSD drive and it appears to be working flawlessly. Will try more programs later on though. Read/Writes improved significantly over my older F120. Thinking about picking up a second and replacing my HD in bay 2. I have 2 externals to place data like movies and whatnot on. I'd rather have the speed for games and programs.

 

The speed comes from your small file performance, adding a second drive and raiding it wont really help your speed much as it has no increase in small file speed.

 

Just as Meaker said I wouldn't bother installing a second SSD and RAID them. I've personally tried 2 Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120GB (RAID 0) in my friend's GX660 and compared them to my Samsung 840 Pro 256GB and seen NO NOTICEABLE performance increase (games, software, boot time). Just for benchmarks I get 550/535 read/write where he gets 980/550 on his.

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I only raided mine because I got two big SSDs haha. With my GX660R I really didn't see the point of my 256GB raid 0 setup after a while. A single HDD does the trick!

 

I just sold my GX660R to a friend. I am going to miss this laptop so much... It has been the best experenice I have had, all in all, with laptops since 2001.

more than 2 years old and still kicking butt!

 

oh yea man, one of the very best that can be had

 

I finally got my i7-840QM. Works fine in games,but I'm bit confused when it comes to benchmarks. I did run 3DMark13 and physics score's really bad. One guy with i7-720QM managed to get 3046 physics score at Cloud Gate while I got only 699. So my question's what am I doing wrong?

 

I dont know, but I would start with, why didnt you just got 920xm or 940xm at the first place... ?


Its hard to call, maybe youre settings are some how wrong for the benchmark... or maybe his 720qm runs with nvidia GPU combined which bumps score so much, and youre running ATI card... I have no idea other than that

 

Nah,his combo is i7-720Qm and ATi 5850HD with only GDDR3. I don't know, maybe because his laptop came with these specifications? I just changed the CPU and that's all, did nothing to it. Checked clocks via ThrottleStop and it looks all good. I feel the improvement in games,but 3dmark benchmarks of CPU are only about 5-10% better than my old scores with i5-460M. Do I have to set something at BIOS? HT is enabled which should be or not?.. I bought 840QM because of the price and because I'm not going to upgrade my GPU.. Just look at this test from 3DMark11. I achieved P2374 with my old i5-460M and now I'm stcuk with score P1459. It doesn't make any sense.. http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6514005

 

Here was my HD5850 mobility + Q9200 mobile result for comparison:

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Extreme CPU @ 2.40GHz,Acer JM70 score: P2137 3DMarks

Looks like you are getting major CPU throttle.

 

But what can cause it? I'm running plugged in all the time and my battery isn't discharging. Even temperatures aren't high, so I think I didn't spoiled pasting. And as I said,I see improvements in games, but benchmarks are just really really bad. My GX660 is a non-R version, so could there be a problem with BIOS or anything?

 

R and non-R have a single bios option changed between them, that's the only difference.....

Your notebook should never draw off both the AC and the battery at the same time anyway.

Check your CPU temps and use something like XTU to monitor its behavior.

 

So I did 10 minute stress test with XTU. CPU temps were 70°C max, 0% throttling. During those 10 minutes there were like 7-9 CPU utilization drops from 100% to 93-95%. Then I tried 3Dmark11 again. During physics test (the 1st increase on the picture where the white line is) CPU utilization wasn't 100% anytime,only in range of 85 to 96%. Temps were around 60°C, 0% throttling. And the last, combined test, is loading like 5 minutes,because it stucks at 85%, no idea why...

 

Your CPU seems to be working more than fine, very nice temps. I wonder what could be the issue? If in games you are doing fine, then it isn't much of a problem, maybe the issue lies in the bench files.

 

Your cpu is working normally vavron.
A cpu usage offset of +/- 20% is normal, especially on quad cores. I notice that too sometimes with my 2630qm. Very good temps too I go as high as 80°C with mine under stress. Your only problem should be throttling (which you report 0% on both cases and that is great). In that case just use throttlestop

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@ryzeki

How do you find yourself with the 16f3 ?
Is it THAT much different from the Branded one?

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So it looks like the problem really is in those benchmarks,interesting. Can someone maybe test them? I use benchmarks downloaded via Steam,but I don't think it really matters.. Anyway, thanks for help guys,I really appreciate it!:thumbsup:

 

Ah, occasionally yes, try getting them straight from futuremark.com.

The 16F3 is only really different in the casing.

 

You were right Meaker! I've downloaded 3DMark from their website and everything works as it should! Damn that steam...Here're my scores, 3DM2013 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 840 @ 1.87GHz,Micro-Star International MS-16F1 and 3DM11 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 840 @ 1.87GHz,Micro-Star International MS-16F1 score: P2474 3DMarks

 

Thanks for the info
Does the barebone have the capslock and numlock leds like the retail?

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Glad to find it was just the bench. I have had the same problem before, which is why, if everything else is working right, the fault tends to be on the software in particular

I have the barebones version of the GT70, so it's a bit different However the barebones version of the 16F3 looks similar as GX660R as far as I remember.

 

The 16F3 barebones have different styling depending on model.



is the latest



Is the old style.

 

Thanks Meaker

Prefer the new design over the old (just like my old gx660)
Brings back memories

 

Well it has a darker material on the palm rest and a backlit keyboard but other than that very similar yes.

 

And a Nvidia GPU. Are these out now?
I like to have a lot of options when deciding my new laptop

 

Yes the top picture is out now, of course with haswell coming soon there will be a refresh.

 

Would the price change that much compared to this generation?
If it's just 100$ more than for me it's ok
I'll wait. If it's more I'll be getting this generation and be done with

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Pricing will be revealed at launch

 

If you don't need a machine right now, wait for the haswell refresh. Otherwise, you should definitely get one