MSI GT683DX(R)/MS-16F2 AMD RADEON HD 6990M Succeed!

Yeah someone else will have to chime in and figure out where the package is located on that machine.

Im not sure if it is those 3 VRMs located near the CPU.

Mine dont have any padding etc on them and no matter how hard i crank on my 2920 even up to 4.3 ghz the package temp always remains the same or similar a few degrees from the CPU temp.

 

Is that just the light catching that top right inductor?

No the mods are to fit the capacitor at the top left of the card (remember when looking at the heatsink you reverse where it would be on the card.

Then all the components get covered.

 

No the top right inductor looks the same on my card and the 2 others i have seen where it gets hot then changes color(or a portion of it) i think is what your asking him.

 

Wow they are driving that inductor hard :/

 

Yeah i remember the first time i opened up my new machine and saw that i thought man it looks burnt lol but then i called a friend who has the same card and he said his looks like that as well. Now after seeing a total of 4 of the same cards including an ES one they were all the same so i just said eh i guess thats just how it is.

I know they get hot but also what ever metal they use probably discolors very fast ..

I think if we had the ability to monitor all the temps on these different chips we might not even turn our computers on .

 

about the 6990M, i think i got it as stable as it can be with my current set up and thermal paste. I overclocked it to 820/1200 for testing and the max temp it reach is 90/91/90.5, running Vantage along with Witcher, TF2, Deus Ex and Crysis 2. So thats that.

AMD Radeon HD 6970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2860QM Processor,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-16F2 score: P16724 3DMarks

About the inductor, Quadzilla already answered that and yeah at first when I noticed it I feared I may have blow it up and thus causing it to burn out like that then I look back at the pic I took and yeah, it was that way already and Quadzilla confirmed its not a problem so phew .

And the CPU package thing...I think I messed up big time guys . The reason it got so high like that was because one of the screws keeping the heatsink in place was broke. The screw holder or base (I dont know how to call it) of the screw #1 got detached from the mainboard maybe as a result of I twisted it too hard so the heatsink doesnt fully contact with the CPU.

Now I did a temporary fix as to put a small object above the heatsink just big enough to reach the outer cover and use it to push the other side of the heatsink into the CPU. It did work and the CPU package temp varies from the 4 core about 2-3*C.

I'm not sure if that will be good in the long term, what do you guys think? and is there anything I can do to fix that screw holder, get it attched to the mainboard again? I still got that bug in windows that keep the multiplier way over the top, though the temp is now bearable.

Im thinking worst case scenario Im gonna get a barebone MS16F2 or M1761 for more cooling space and backlight keyboard but I dont know, should I do that?

 

Id say get that 17inch one i know i had my eyes on it before i got this R3..

As for getting that screw fixed there might be someone local to you that could handle that kind of job. I would say RMA it but you hacked apart the heatsink and since you might have broke it yourself over tightnening it well people have different views on right and wrong so i wont get into that debate over what should be covered from a warranty...

It sounds like you have a temporary fix for the CPU and its working as it should but its always hard to predict or give solid advice on those types of fixes. It might be good for the life of notebook or maybe not ..

The GPU temps are stiil WAYYY to high for my liking so i hope you can get that solved but i just dont know what the pads are really going to give compared to what you have now.

You really need to maybe put some more effort on figuring out what is still lifting that heatsink up higher on the core. Maybe there is noting more that can be done though..


Looks like you edited one of your temps so MAX is 90 ?. Do you have a cooler underneath ? i only prop up the back end of my machine to get good airflow and nothing more .

 

shoot! I mistyped that, its 90/91/90.5 and on 820/1200, I have since set it back to 800/1150. But yeah, I'm just recycling what I have in hand right now. When the stuff I ordered arrive I will surely trim the heatsink a bit further and put in thermal pad instead of paste on VRAM as well as a blanket pad underneath it.

Here is a summary from HWinfo:

 

Sounds good and for the moment until you can get some better temps DON'T OVERCLOCK .

Youll have time to do that later . And you want to not kill the card prematurely so you can do that later .

Also in the future i think if your temps remain somewhat high even after repasting and padding you should seriously consider undervolting the card . You should be able to drop it 6-8 degrees from what you have now.

I know you want to see some big numbers and i dont blame you at all so maybe once you get rid of the overclocking itch and you just want to run the card stock all the time id undervolt then for 24/7 use.

My last R3 i had i was undervolting the 6970m all the time and when i had that M15x recently with the 6990m in it i did the same and the temps improved pretty drastically .

 

reverted back to 715/900 now

 

on a second thought I dont think I need a new barebone just yet, tried to apply a bit more pressure on it and the CPU package temp now is nearly the same as the first core.

 

Yeah you just need to always keep an eye on that temp i guess is the main issue but since you probably monitor you temps alot like i do then it wont be an issue.

Though for what you spent on those 2 SSDs you could have bought that 17inch barebone or maybe 2 of them .

 

yeah I do check them very often, ever since the G60Vx I used to own was like a oven itself. Btw last HWinfo ss for the day XD



Although I like the barebone very much, the blank back cover, aluminum finish, backlit keyboard, somewhat better cooling but the size is a bit too much for me, both weight and dimension. If ever MSI release a 15.6" version which have all above features, I'd get it in a heartbeat.

Also I'm thinking of putting my GTX 570M up for sale maybe here or ebay. Just posted a price check thread in the marketplace, how much do you think I can sell it for?

 

Id say $300-350 off the top of my head ..

It really depends because we dont know what its compatible with ..

We should assume anything that can handle a 560-580 could use it but i remember reading MSI people that had the 560 models needed a new Heatsink and new PSU so things can get costly for that upgrade.

M15x-M17xR3 with lower end cards might be able to use it but again its going to be hard to tell someone to do there homework so they know it works when only MSI sells that card .

If you were close by i would throw it in my machine to see if it ran but yeah ...


Oh yeah your temps are looking mucho better . Congrats . With how even your GPU temps are i would just leave it alone and not bother with maybe ruining a good thing.

 

Well I am not sure they can go smaller and keep the second HDD.

 

I dont know man yesterday i opened their pics size by size to compare and most of the main components mainboard, hdd, cpu and gpu are almost the same, save for the GT780 have a small little plug at the right down corner for the keyboard lighting. And some ridiculously large space gap on touchpad and on the left of the top left hdd bay, that turned me off and shy away from a 17".

Someone posted 350+ for my GTX 570M and hes willing to buy it, not sure what to reply

 

Sell it if you need to but if you do not need to then hold on to it for awhile.

 

Wait are you talking about the 683 or 780? If the 780 then the only reason it's the size it is is due to the screen.

They saved money by sharing the same motherboard/heatsinks, if they had a new design it could have included a 3rd HDD or a second heatsink/gfx card.

 

What an interesting thread so far. I want to upgrade to an HD6990m, any idea where to obtain one and how much will it cost? 450? 500? Also it seems that my HD5870m heatsink is better suited for the HD6990m?

I'm going to mass upgrade my machine in the upcoming months, changing LCD, HDD, CPU, GPU, PSU all. the last thing I will upgrade will be the GPU but I want to get an idea on the price.

LCD already changed, and SSDs will be ordered soon.

 

Yeah as I said, the 5870M heatsink makes contact with the VRMs on the 6990.

I have actually found a very cheap 5870 (£100) so I have that on the way and hope to try again with that.

 

you meant to keep it as a back up in case the 6990M failed?

theres quite a few in the marketplace. I see one now for $450. Despite the price difference, i think mine its worth it with so much support from Quadzilla . Yeah you may not need to modify the heatsink as much as I did. I was looking for that heatsink before the card arrive but theres none for sale .

Please keep us posted with your work.

 

Yeah i actually did mean keep it as a back up but its one of those things where if you dont sell it now you might regret it later when its value drops.

As for the guy selling 6990s i think he has a few M18x with no warranties he is parting out so i would not be surprised if he was selling for less to move stuff faster. Makes sense when you have a quantity of something .

There are 6990s selling for almost $800 on Ebay and some of those people are members here so my price was more then reasonable i would say Plus my support was worth more then $50 .

 

exactly! and yeah I I do sell the GTX 570M right now it will be sort of monopoly and could probably sell it for a little more than its worth

Say theres a new AMD driver preview 3 came out yesterday specifically for RAGE, did you try it out yet?

 

If it were me, I would sell the 570m ASAP as well because the price will inevitably go down as time passes. Good job on the project Dragon, I hope to do a similar upgrade when I can find the funds to get a 580m or 6990m.

 

I did not try the new driver because the 2d and Direct 3d portion were the same exact as the version 2 preview so the only thing that changed was the Open GL driver which you can download separately and that was more or less mainly to address RAGE which i tried it on and saw no difference as the game ran fine already .

Generally i do install the newest drivers out of habit but i always check out what they exactly changed first and in this instance it was virtually nothing.

 

nice .

 

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-16F2 score: P3075 3DMarks

 

Just curious, is that 5800 even an upgrade from the 560m?

 

Well at stock it's an even match, but the 5870 overclocks and overvolts much more easily.

 

Was it pretty straight forward to install it with the 560M heatsink? There's a 6970M 1gb on eBay very cheap...might pull the trigger.
And Wow your 5870M is almost equivalent to a 6970M@stock

edit: lol @Hewlet Packard 5870M

 

I have a heatsink from a GX660 Not sure why it says HP....

 

Wow!!
So, you have modded vbios?(looking at your stock clocks) Anyway, congrats with this little upgrade.

 

Guys,

I am thinking about getting a 6970M 1GB. Do you think it will perform much better than my 460M 1.5GB OCed ? Is it really worthy ?

Then do you think I will have to do the same mod as dragon did with my gtx460m heatsink ? Or it won't be even compatible. What about the TDP, this 6970M has only 1GB, maybe it is a bit lesser than the 100W (is it rly 100W?)

Just worried about its performance and the possible installation in my 16f2..

 

Power consumption will be slightly less, but not massive due to there being the same number of chips.

Same heatsink issues, 460M and 560M heatsinks are the same.

 

Are you going to keep your 5870M installed ? It performs better than the 560M O/C

 

I am going to keep it yes, i've updated my sig with my 24/7 (bios flashed) clocks.

The Vcore is 1.15v, temps are good, I can't take the voltage any higher.

 

okay so another update from me.

Yesterday I received the thermal pad and IC Diamond 24 (finally!) though the 2mm "blanket" pad have yet to arrive. I did the usual routine, clear out the paste, put in cleaner-purifier, remove the paste from the VRAM and put in pad instead. The same goes for the CPU. Btw my temporary fix for it has been great, the CPU package temp is the same as Core 2 temp now.

Here are pics I took of the heatsink and the card with thermal pads on.

heatsink as you can see the two place I trimmed quite clearly. The one on top right is kind of mandatory for the top VRAM to touch the heatsink. The one in the left is just me being careful, for the transistor to get in contact better.


and on the card itself, some small block I think wont get in contact with the heatsink but doesnt hurt to put pad on them...right? right?


and yeah after that I tested with 3dmark with same result as before but tried to close down a few process i have running and Throttlestop launched, i managed to get the cpu score to reach 19446, maybe after I do a fresh windows install (again) I will run 3d mark before installing the rest of my stuff and see how it goes.

The temp is also great too, GPU never reach pass 80*C on all 3 sensors (on stock clock obviously) and the CPU temp max is 85*C (yes even on CPU package).

On tuesday I installed the new preview 3 driver and just install it over the preview 2 I already have installed and seems like it messed up a few of my games somehow. I can play RAGE fine 60FPS max settings, same goes for Deus Ex (50-60FPS) and Team Fortress 2 (60FPS Vsync). But on Dead Island and Witcher 2 the game will run for a few second then froze and restart again with texture pop in etc. if i switch to desktop I can see the warning driver have crashed and recovered. Searching on google they said I need to uninstall in safe mode, driver sweeper then install again. Tried that with no luck.

Btw about that multiplier stuck issue I got, asked it in the software session and a guy helped me figured it out. Turn out it was the Mamba mouse configurator which use up like 13 "CPU" according to task manager. All is well and good now though I need to use throttle stop to keep the multiplier at place when gaming or benchmarking.

Yeah thats about it, anything else I forgot to meantion please do remind me or I will remember and add later on.

 

AMD Radeon HD 6970M / 6990M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2860QM Processor,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-16F2 score: P14604 3DMarks

my said score

to be fair the 5870M is AMD/ATI's best card in the last generation unlike 560M which is midrange.

yeah, AMD's vbios can modded very easily.

6970m is far better in terms of performance, it is on the same level as an NV 485m.

 

Things are looking good Dragon and those new pads sure look spiffy .

It is great you got the whole thing sorted out rather quickly and can now enjoy
the power of the card .

 

Hmm reading around on the gx780 thread i think i know why my bios report my system as GT680R. It couldnt detect 570M anymore so the only logical option left is GT680 instead of GT683DXR. If only i could modify that string somehow to make it look something entirely different

 

Lol, does it really matter though?

 

Of course not but being a bit OCD as i am it kinda bugs me

 

Well DXR is not really fitting.

It should be more GX683UR.

 

can you care to explain how that name come to be?

 

Guys,

As I just replaced my CPU, I took a picture of what was in my MS16-F2 and it looks like I have the same heatsink as the 570M one. (see picture below).

Does it mean I could possibly upgrade to a better card like a 6990M with some mods as dragon did ? (and upgrade the PSU too I suppose)

@Meaker Does your 560M heatsink look like mine ?

 

We need to see the underside of it

 

All the heatsinks across the 68x and 78x range are the same on the top. It's the core contact area and VRM posts that are different under the heatsink.

GX (because AMD GPU machines start with GX) 683 (model) U (ultra, where as DX stands for deluxe) R (raid)

 

nice, I think i will ask Xonar if thats possible, rep'd

Also, I believe we have a winner

AMD Radeon HD 6970M / 6990M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2860QM Processor,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-16F2 score: P15004 3DMarks

edit: it seems I have given out rep alot in the past 24 hours, I will try to rep back later

 

okay I will take it out when re-pasting my 460M and will check !! thx

@Dragon you haven't overclocked your 6990m yet ? I'm surprised !