The Official MSI GT60/70 970m/980m Upgrade Thread

Ok, #1 take it easy, no need to freak out ok?
2. Uninstall all NVIDIA programs from your programs and features in Windows.
3. Download and Install "Driver Fusion," the free one works just fine, no need to buy it unless you wanna support.
Open driver fusion and Navigate to Maintenance, Driver Family, then select NVIDIA. On the bottom left click delete. Once it's finished it will ask you to restart.
4. Download the latest NVIDIA graphics driver from the NVIDIA website. Ensure you select laptop/980m and NOT desktop/980.
5. Install and restart.
6. Check the device manager to ensure to correctly reads the graphics card name.
7. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, FLASH OR ATTEMPT TO MOD THE VBIOS.
8. CPUz will incorrectly read 4GB. It does so with mine. That does not matter. It read 4GB on my 880m as well, pay no attention.
9. Ensure it is plugged into a power source, if you have this option in the picture, let us know whether the light is on and what color it is... If it's white then it is using the 980m if it isn't on or its a different color, then it is using the Intel graphics or something is wrong. If it is not on, click the button, it will prompt you to reset, and you will "hopefully" be booted into the 980m side of the house.

9. After you perform these steps firestrike it and you will see that it reads 8GB on the specifications screen

 

Eh guys... I've got a question....Is an Intel SSD 750 compatible with our MSI GT60 and Will it fit in the nb? thanks

 

I am experiencing some issues. First, I will note that this comment is post-success of installing 970m w/modded drivers. Since then I flashed mob bios and vbios w/clevo vbios. My problem occurred when I reinstalled Windows 8. The reason for a fresh install was due to a boot loop that frequently gave the message, "Preparing Automatic Repair". I believe this was caused by flashing the wrong mob bios. I, then flashed the right bios, which allowed me to reset my pc. Everything seemed to be okay but my system restarts every so often w/ a BSOD that has an error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (NDIS.SYS) and another one I received was DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOlATION. I am seriously considering downgrading to Windows 7. Does anyone know of a solution for this issue, or is downgrading my only option?

 

Uninstall and reinstall your antivirus and firewalls. See if that works, if it doesn't try uninstalling then reinstalling your wifi and lan drivers WITH YOUR ANTIVIRUS/FIREWALL DISBLED. Let us know if that works out for you. Or better yet.. Uninstall Av/firewall/lan/wifi then reinstall in this order, Lan/wifi/AV/firewall. If it doesn't work try a new AV/firewall program

 

what driver and inf should I use for Windows 7?

 

I didn't see your post until after I installed windows 7. Thanks for the advice though.

 

So is it working ok now then after re-install?

 

just download the most recent nvidia game ready driver. you can mod the inf yourself. Its really easy. See the attached pdf

 

thanks kevin , floyd for replying and trying to help me
when i noticed nothing is going well . i risked and installed the latest bios from msi for my laptop . automatically the drivers recognized the card and the system too . but games wouldn't recognize the card or play properly
so i removed nvidia drivers completelty as floyd said
and then , everything was A-perfect . games ran smoothly . so i wanted to check my actual VRAM , which is the last problem
my own sure way of knowing my vram exactly is ( middle earth : shadow of mordor ) when the game runs and you get in the settings , the game shows what card are you using and how much of vram does it have
i was really happy when i saw this :


yet still cpu-z reads my vram as 4 gb . i ignored it and downloaded hwinfo
the weird thing is that when my 980m is not in use due to my laptop configuration ( the powerful gpu only kicks in when is demanded , otherwise the intel is the one is working all the time ) hwinfo shows my vram 4 gb only . when i open nvidia control panel or a game or any application that uses my 980m , hwinfo automatically shows my vram as 8 gb!
weird

 

So glad it worked out for you! Now you need to firestrike it give us some benchmarks. Also, how are your temps when gaming?

 

unfortunately i don't have firestrick . i can't afford to buy the advanced version of 3DMARK right now and i found a free version that is 1.5 gb of size , when i downloaded and ran firestrick and tried to get results online , it gave me an error and demanded me to buy the advanced version
i always game when i fire up the fan to 4000+ rpm . my GPU never goes above 70 - 72 and thats for the really power-hungry games like crysis 3 . i never exceeded 66 Celsius when i played far cry 4
my cpu is the same . but it sometimes reached 78 Celsius
i bought arctic silver 5 thinking that it would improve my temps . but nothing . in fact , my cpu on idle is on 47-50 Celsius ! i thought it was because of the bad pasting job msi did ( it was really terrible when i openned up my laptop ) but when i repasted my self upon installing the card , it's the same !
i suspect the fan . it buzzes a little bit like a different buzz than when i first bought the laptop . cpu never went above 37 Celsius on idle when i 1st bought the laptop

 

on10w

Nice score.

I'm waiting on a dell 330w Power adaptor to arrive, I'm seeing this laptop configuration shutting off my 240w adaptor when playing games that use high CPU & GPU usage. Guess having the 55w TDP 2960xm coupled with the 980m is pulling too much juice!

Can anyone confirm the TDP of the 980m? I'm reading it's 122w on some sites and 100w on others.

 

Does anyone here has metro : last light ? the game ?
can anyone post the benchmark results on veryhigh everything with SSAA ?
i am getting around 30-35 FPS only . i find that strange
also in some scenes in battlefield 4 ( scene of the extraction point building the very first mission with all these buildlings and birds ) it gets around 30 on max everything
please tell me what's up because on notebookreview FPS guide on 980m , the games are way higher on FPS on those settings . BF4 is 65 FPS on the same settings as mine

 

Your temps are better than mine, I would leave it alone. With the fan boost fully on I am hitting 77 when playing Diablo III and I haven't even ran Crysis yet. Your temps are lower than most people I have seen so I wouldn't mess with it. Nvidia's recommended operating temperature is 80C to 85C if I remember correctly so you are good to go. I actually score higher benchmarks when my temp gets higher. I get 8100's when running 3d mark from a cold start. But if I warm it up to 80C prior to running it with furmark then I get scores in the 8400's. Sometimes I wonder whether its a good idea to keep the temps in the 70's.

 

Try deleting your preference file from your game folder or do a clean install of the game. People often have trouble playing their old games after upgrading to a new card. Basically the preference file tells the game what your video card is capable of handling, but is usually only made the first time you start your game. So for instance, if you had an older card that was only capable of DX9 then the preference file would have something like this. DX11 = no, or DX10 = 2. This means that the game will not even try and enable a higher directx profile because the preference file says your card can't handle it. So, try that and also Open Geforce experience and optimize the game prior to playing it and see if that helps.

 

I'm so proud to be owning Talon's MSI GT60 now with his upgrade to the 970M from the stock 780.

I own a celebrity's laptop, LOL.

 

LOL easy now, I wouldn't go that far. I'm glad the laptop is serving you well, and I am glad this thread took off like it did. It allowed so many MSI laptops with MXM slots to be upgraded and be gaming beasts once again. This thread shows why NBR is such a great community of laptop users and what we can achieve when we share our collective knowledge. Its a shame I don't currently have a laptop, but at the moment I just couldn't justify owning one, at least not a DTR laptop.

I've been searching for those vBIOS you requested, but now I can't seem to find which USB drive I placed them on. In any case, the MSI 6GB vBIOS is available on the first post, and both PREMA and SVL7 vBIOS are downloadable. The stock Clevo vBIOS is the version I shipped the laptop with, so be sure to make a backup of that with GPU-Z!

Sorry just been very busy with work lately, and just stop in now and then to check the thread for any updates. Since I no longer have my MSI laptops I can't test anything anymore. I hope one of you will take the lead, and when the 10XXM series are released go ahead and get them installed!

 

Oh there should be people carrying on you took over from us 7970m/780m posters.

Things will get a little trickier now no new heatsinks will be available for future cards (though anything maxwell based should not change shape).

 

Guys , i got an irrelevant problem but i don't know who to ask
in all reviews of the card , the 980m never hit below 60+ FPS on battlefield 4 , on ultra everything
i am now getting around 30 and 20 FPS !
that's definitely some low frame rate
so what would the problem be ? there's other complaints about battlefield 4 getting low FPS and people talking that the solution is modifying the XMP profile .which i don't know how to get access to on the laptop
any suggestions anyone ?


EDIT : i figured what was wrong . it's the damn FRAPS .it makes a huge drop in the framerate
when i activated the FPS counter via shadowplay , everything went smooth

 

Was FRAPS capturing video? Or just measuring the fps? Usually it will reduce a few fps but not like 50% off.

 

BF4 stresses the cpu a lot and in an intense map could lower the fps quite a bit if you active flaps due to the cpu being loaded so much.

 

Okay guys, I finally placed my order. A gtx 970m 6gb should arrive at my place next Monday.
Before its arrival, I want to make sure I am prepared for the job.
And that is where I really need you guys' help. Many thanks in advance.
I intend to keep running Win 7 64bit. I am not looking to overclock anything, just want to make everything works and my laptop is game-able again (the 675m fried).

1) My laptop is an iBUYPOWER CZ-17. Its BIOS Version is E1762II1.300 and EC Version 1762EG62 Ver4.01.
Can I flash it with the MSI 1762 BIOS E1762IMS.51X and EC T24 provided by itzzent from techinferno, and call it good?

2) Talon states that "after update to MSI latest system BIOS, I am able to use any vBIOS version currently available to MXM cards and still have fully plug and play, no requirement for modded drivers."
Also:
"MSI 1762 (GT70 Ivy Bridge) --970m Tested and Working
System BIOS Version: 51x
EC Version: Unknown
GTX 970m 6GB Clevo vBios: 84.04.22.00.11
Windows 7 x64
Modded INF Nvidia Drivers"
Dose it mean that I do not have to flash the vBIOS?
Should I still try to install the latest official Nvidia driver, or should I just go straight to install the modded one?
And what are the benefits and drawbacks form using a Modded INF Nvidia Driver, any update and gaming compatibility issues?

Once again, thank you very much.

 

no it wasn't capturing video just the FPS counter . but it was slowing the hell outta the game .when i turned it off it went smoothly

 

after playing different games i noticed that hybrid power ability has been reduced
meaning that this ability used to kick in after the laptop is charged up to 30% .now it kicks in after the laptop get to 50%
my battery is kinda drained . and it affects the game dramatically . when the hybrid power is off i am dropped from 60 fps to 30 fps
so i want to ask 2 questions
1 - what if i got a more powerful adapter ? would it pump up more power enough to make the card goes smoothly without the need of hybrid power ability feature ? or would it harm the MB since it isn't configured to this kind of power setup ?
2 - from where can i get an authentic original new MSI gt70 battery ? i googled and looked up amazon and ebay , i found similar batteries but not an original MSI one

 

You quoted the relevant bit yourself, update the system bios and it becomes vbios agnostic and won't care which vbios you end up with.

 

Yup, I didn't think FRAPS could have reduced performance by half, so it was the battery.
MSI's design will only permit the system to drain at 180W (due to EC firmware programming) from the port thus using 220W or 300W will not help at all.
Unless the EC firmware can be opened up to permit a higher current draw from the jack otherwise it will not be possible.
In order to get the original battery, it's best to contact MSI directly for a replacement, with the way power boost work it may reduce battery life at faster rate than normal usage.

 

Thank you for replying me, Meaker. I guess my exact questions would be:
itzzent's files are for MSI, but mine is an ibuypower. are the files, both BIOS and EC, compatible with my laptop?
And I would be very grateful if you can tell me something about what I asked regarding modded INF.
Thanks a lot.

 

Just wanted to update on the 980m in the GT780 (MS-1761).

Got the 330w power supply up and running and it seems to have solved the power issues I was experiencing with the 240w power supply. I think my 2960xm is contributing to the issue due to it's higher TDP but I seem to have found stabillty now.

Got 12005 in 3d Mark 11 with a +150mhz on the core, stock memory

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9668543

I will try more overclocking soon, just been doing stability and temperature testing on BF4, with a custom fan profile I can hold around 75-80°C which is around 75-80% fan speed on both cpu and gpu.

I am going to do a repaste of both when I recieve my SHIN ETSU X23-7783D, I'm not convinced I've done the best paste job this time round.

 

I almost crapped myself when I saw your score... Then I saw that it was 3d Mark 11. Can you firestrike that for us? I'd like to know what you get.

 

Yeah sure thing will get that done when I get home today, I was going to do it yesterday but had to walk the dog and totally forgot when I got home.

 

oh no , with BF4 it was FRAPS . i googled it and found that FRAPS causes that
other games works with FRAPS just fine.just BF4
so how can i open up my EC firmware and remove the limit ? and even so , would it harm my MB ?
also i live in a country that doesn't have MSI represebtative in it . how can i contact them easily ? all the ways of contact in their website can't work for me or just too slow
all i need is an online website that sells original MSI battery

 

Is there an unlocked vbios wich doesn't need modded drivers btw ?

 

Sorry for the late reply, but yes everything is working great now. I do like the speed of Windows 7 on an ssd compared to 8. What was weird was after installing windows 7, I didn't modify anything. I downloaded the Nvidia driver and installed it without having to disable driver enforcement signature. I stress to any of you that want to keep windows 8 and if you disable system protection to save space, then make a backup image of your os. <(I made a rookie mistake and didn't do this) I flat out deleted every partition out of sheer frustration. I am sure I didn't have to go overboard but that is that. I will just wait for all of the bugs to be worked out for Windows 10. One question though: First, I know that the Windows 8 key is on the mob and since I deleted every partition, I wouldn't expect the key to be affected, but is it possible to re-install Windows 8 by using a disc? (I really don't mind either way but I am just curious)

 

Well if your key is gone, your going to have some trouble there... It's not on the bottom of your computer? If it is, yes you can install it with a disc.

Edit:
Wait I just reread your post and you said you do have it and it is on the mob? You mean MB? Or did it autocorrect to mob for bottom?

 

8782 Firestrike with +200 on the core, stock memory

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6593233

 

You got me beat by 300. I wish I was able to upgrade the processor in mine, but it soldered...

 

I meant motherboard. From what I have read, I perceived that the key is somehow written, not physically but digitally...? If anyone could elaborate that would be helpful. The key is not on the bottom of the NB and from my research, if I understood correctly, the key is not on the HDD. To be honest I didn't delve too much into this subject and I should just google it but anyways, thanks to anyone that sheds any light on the key situation.

 

Jelly bean can recover your key from the OS, but if you copied over it.... We'll it's gone. As far as it being on the MB, I don't know much about that. Maybe someone a little more knowledgeable than me can chime in on this subject.

 

I just figured it out. Technically it is on the bios on uefi but there was a partition that I deleted that was named BIOS_RVY that contains the key. No worries though. I like Win 7.

 

Hey Btown, I have the exact same laptop. Have you done the upgrade? Would you mind sharing your experience? Thanks

 

Grab your latest bios and follow the procedure in the original post. Beware of heatsink differences but you can just get the latest gt60/gt70 heatsink and get it to fit yours.

 

Hmmm.. I think it's time for me to upgrade to a 3920xm too .. Btw... Your 2920xm is oem and how high it's oc speed with that 3dmark?

 

I've actually had to set the multiplier at 33x for all cores on my 2960xm as I can't get the temps to stay below 82 on cpu if I go higher, if I go to 34x temps continue to rise beyond 90 deg when playing cpu intensive games.

I had the 980m with +200 on core, no oc on memory to get that score.

 

Okay, I need some assistance. I have received another BSOD. I will try to be detailed in what I have done that has lead up to now. First I followed prep and installation with success. I downloaded and installed modified driver and inf file. I, then updated to clevo vbios and updated MOBO bios to E1763IMS.51B. This was all done on Windows 8.1. I first purchased my NB from Ebay, from a seller with a good rep. The description stated the NB was a MSI GT70 2PC Dominator. So the above bios was from the support page for that model. I noticed after flashing that in the bios my model was recognized as MSI GT70 2QD. I must say that I first flashed bios version EMS1763IMS71B, not knowing that there was a process to updating the bios. I skipped all other updates in between. This caused a boot loop that wouldn't even allow me to get to the bios, at least not the usual way by clicking delete at the MSI boot. After hours of research I found out that by clicking control/alt/delete repeatively at MSI boot screen that I was able to access the bios. I, then updated the bios to to my current version. In doing all this, I reinstalled Win 8 and was given a BSOD that said NDIS.SYS KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED. I thought that if I installed Windows 7 that my problem would be solved. My new error is Stop error 0x000000E1. Any advice towards a resolution would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think you got me mixed up, I have a 4710HQ.

 

NDIS.exe has to do with the networking. Try uninstalling all network drivers then reinstalling them and see if that helps.

Also, ALWAYS find your bios with your systems Part Number!!! I once flashed an Asus Board that had the exact same model number, but the revision was different. Brick! Fixed it with a blind flash, but that goes to show, you need to ALWAYS find your bios with the part number. Lesson learned eh? For MSI Bios, the PN is going to be the Model then a 3 digit code after. Although my laptop is a GT72 Dominator Pro-010, It is actually a GT72 Dominator Pro 2PE and the part number reads GT72-2PE-a bunch of other numbers... Your lucky it even powered on for you!

 

I will Uninstall and reinstall the Network driver. I installed my drivers with the driver disc that came with the NB. I assume that when I purchased the NB it was incorrectly described...? Since the bios states that I have an MSI GT70 2QD, I will install the Network driver that is on that sup port page. Yes, lesson is definitely well learned. One other thing, being that I have flashed my vbios with clevo and I have already updated MOBO bios, can I also download and install the MSI vbios directly from the same driver support page and flash that? I would be more interested in an unlocked vbios. Please point me in the right direction.

 

i want to remove the limit of my MB and get a more powerful adapter , so i'd use it to pump more juice to the GPU and won't be limited to the battery charged to 30%+ so i can begin playing since our laptop is using NOS hybrid power feature . and if the battery isn't participating , gaming performance drops dramatically
so i want to be independent from the battery , just plug the adapter and be ready to go
also from where can i find a new authentic original MSI gt70 battery ? i can't find one online and i need one because mine is beginning to drain .

 

I don't thing there is an unlocked 980/970m bios yet. Something to do with nvflash and if you card is working I would not flash it. You always risk a brick when you flash, and that's alot of money down the drain... Unless you can blind flash it back.

 

You need to contact the MSI reps in your region. In the U.S. we call Tom and he can hook us up, but I don't know who you would call...

Also, I found this...
http://www.uspartsdirect.com/msi-gt...=product-ads&gclid=CLvXp-zn8cQCFQmpaQodRBwAyA