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

Can anyone walk me through upgrading my GT70 2PE 1461US GTX880M to GTX970M? Please? I'd very much appreciate it,
I read through the guide briefly but I'd like someone to carefully guide me through it.

 

Hi, this is for all ms-16f2 owners.
Upgrading to gtx970m is as simple as possible...plug and play.

1. I updated BIOS and EC taken from msi homepage:
http://pl.msi.com/support/nb/GT680.html#down-bios
http://pl.msi.com/support/nb/GT680.html#down-firmware

2. Bought gtx970m from: http://gaming.nexoc.de/de/contact.html
... simply write what you need. Very nice people there .

3. Bought heatsink designed for gtx 970/980m from here: http://m.ebay.de/itm/261920890248
no need to modify although the price is high.

4. Simply exchanged my GPU and heatsink and restarted computer. At this point, laptop didn't recognise my new GPU
but it booted to windows.

5. I downloaded "Display Driver Uninstaller" from here:
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
and latest drivers from Nvidia: http://www.nvidia.pl/Download/index.aspx?lang=pl

6. "Display Driver Uninstaller" uninstalled all my NVIDIA drivers.
Then I installed new drivers from nvidia again.
At this poin my laptop recognised my new gpu and it runs flawlessly.
NO NEED TO PLAY WITH vBIOS. (GPU is Clevo)

Many thanks to You all!!!

 

until my thermal paste and pads arrive , there's something i've asked for before and i will ask for now again
the stupid 180w power lock on the laptop , how the hell can i remove it ?
my battery is drained ( almost ) and my laptop only lasts around 20 minutes ob battery because i never take it out . because i need it always on to pump power over the 180w of the charger for hybrid power to kick in . we need to find a way that connects a higher power adapter like 240w one so we don't need the stupid hybrid power . or else even if i bought a new battery , it will become useless after a while .
so any one , got any idea ? a modified / unlocked ec firmware or something ?

 

3dmark score: 9069 fire strike standard (1st place on same system)

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5259478


MSI GT60 0ND
Microsoft Windows 8.1
MSI MegaBook GT6 (MS-16F3)
Chipset Intel Panther Point HM77, Intel Ivy Bridge
System Memory 8083 MB (DDR3-1600 DDR3 SDRAM)
Intel Core i7-3630QM (2400-3200 Mhz)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M 8GB
BIOS E16F3IMS.51X (unlocked)
vBIOS Version 84.04.22.00.0A (unlocked)

 

I'd like to know the same.

Even I bought an aftermarket battery and haven't any trouble at all. After 2 hours of gaming, the battery is drained max at about 90% of total charge (GT60 2OD 980m). The wear level hasn't changed since almost half year. With the original battery, I've got about 80% wear level in less than year and a half, but was all my fault cause I charged and discharged my laptop almost twice a day

 

Twice a day would quickly wear it down yes!

 

Typical battery life is about 500 cycles, more or less depending how it's being charged/discharged.
The main purpose of buying this gaming system is make life enjoyable, although we all want to see the battery to last forever which would not happen, so let's try not to worry about "how to prolong battery life 101" and just use it naturally as it goes.
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

 

I think what you referring to is the haswell model which you've enlightened me for that and thanks for that kevin.. The 16f3 which is the ivy bridge does not have nos features in it.

I have an ivy bridge msi gt60 (16f3). Original adapter is 180 watts. Upgraded to 240watts dell adapter and got a huge difference compared to 180 watts. I'm planning to go 330watts if the need arises cos I think a 970m card plus a mobile extreme cpu needs a 330 watts to tweak both gpu and cpu

 

This problem will only happen if your battery is dead and doesn't retain charge because I always use turbo boost while gaming and my each game session almost last for more than 2 hours. So, I would recommend replacing the battery instead of playing with how many watts should you provide to your laptop.

 

Is it after over clocking?

 

which after market battery did you buy?

 

What do you mean by huge difference? Like under normal scenario, when we use turbo boost then it takes around 40-50 watts (if i am correct) from the battery and in total become around 220 watts. How come adding 20-30 more watts would make a difference. Are you talking about over clocking capability?

 

I am using 0.3 mm copper heat sinks on GPU (980m) memory and it is working great. Well there is no way of knowing the memory temperature but it seems less throttling and more stable frames even on my newly upgraded FHD to 3K screen in my GT60 dominator.

 

I have the GT70 OND and have the 180w charger. We have been having pretty high temp here the past week and the PS shuts-down due to it overheating. Is there a 240w powersupply that is compatible with my PC? If so, I figure that it can probably handle a power draw of 180W without overheating.

 

I totally agree with you. I love my lappy and use it everyday at work and play games (usually at night, but maybe sometimes I play some Doom or Final Fantasy at office but shhh ). Without discharging so often my actual battery, I think it will last for years

I bought this one on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/9cell-7800m...663R-GT660R-/270939998674?hash=item3f154849d2

The original battery had about 80,000 mWh of designed capacity, this one only has 74,000mWh and I wasn't happy about it at first. Even seller gave me a partial refund when I complained because of this, but true is that I've had no problems at all, hybrid power works flawlessly (even OCing my 980m) and wear level is the same since I've bought it (4%).

When I had the 80% wear level on my past battery (about 22,000mWh at full charge capacity) , the GPU (780m) and CPU (4700mq) throttled a lot, this because hybrid power couldn't get enough punch to "feed" the system and because of this I had terrible framerates in almost every game I played.

 

I want to get the 330 watt adapter for my MSI Gt60 for overclocking. I have one question before I go ahead and get one. Every time I try to overclock my GTX 980M, the driver crashes. Can someone tell me why this is happening? Is this a diver problem? Or is it the lack of watts from the 180 watt adapter I’m currently using?

 

follow the video, there a cheaper heatsink for 79 dollars, thats if you cant handle a dremel drill for 20mins
update your bios and firmware
buy or mod your heat sink and it will be plug and play

 

whats is your GPU temperature like on heavy gaming?

 

What vbios are you using and what clocks have you tried?

 

I am running a certain vbios from prema mod which overclocks the GPU by default to 1202. If I add anything above +80 the driver will crash. I want to go way passed +80 because when I overclock less than +80 it seems like there is no difference in performance and my 3D Mark 11 score is lower like about 7500 when I do the small overclock compared to about 9100 when I leave it at the default clock. Due to the driver always crashing, I’m starting to believe there is something in the driver deliberately done by NVidia to prevent overclocking; but I might be wrong. When I used to overclock the original GPU the laptop came with (GTX 675MX), the drivers never crashed when I did a +135 overclock with the stock vbios. I really want to get this 330 watt adapter but it would be pointless if the driver keeps on crashing

 

Be careful though, if there's no cap on power draw the DC jack and/or power-related electronics can become over-burdened and fail, and the consequence can be severe.
This is like serious overclocking on the CPU/GPU where failure can sometimes happen, the DC jack may be designed to withstand a power draw of 200W and MSI capped it at 180W, and if you somehow can cause the system to draw more than that specification something may bound to happen. Just a friendly reminder.

 

My GPU maxes out at about 84°C. CPU reaches 88°C after two hours of playing, but this only happens with GTA V. Any other game rises up temps as much (not even Witcher 3). I repasted with gelid extreme and got this temps, which were about 90-95°C before.

 

I think if you test BF hardline you will get same temps

 

i am not comfortable with that type of Temps, I am only want to gaming on my laptop but make my self a cup of tea. I will be scared of frying my mother baord

 

AC adapter may not solve the problem because power consumprion can be limited by EC, but try 230W or 330W and let us know if it solved a problem.

Mine GPU don't wanna go stable more than 1198Mhz.
But MSI vBIOS getting double performance in Combined Tests (video and physics).

vBIOS Version 84.04.22.00.12 (Clevo):
3dmark scores: 6500-6600 fire strike standard

vBIOS Version 84.04.22.00.0A (MSI)
3dmark scores: 8592 fire strike standard

vBIOS Version 84.04.22.00.0A (MSI unlocked)
OC mGPU +160Mhz (1198Mhz): 9069 fire strike standard
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5259478

 

Where did you get the MSI unlocked vbios?

 

From Svet from MSI.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?board=51.0

He provided me with unlocked BIOS for my motherboard, couple of versions of EC, and unlocked optimized vBIOS.

He tells that problem of drivers crashes unlikely can be solved by AC adapter, but if somebody can try - I would really give it a shot.

But for now I am satisfied enough without OC.

 

Note: If I lower CPU multiplier - I can get couple more Mhz of stable GPU overclock, but not much to make a noticeable difference.

 

Well, with 780m everything was about 5°C higher LOL.

If you want cooler temps, you can use turbo fan, lower CPU Voltage Offset, disable Intel Speedstep or simply avoid any OC.

 

I already knew this form svet. I got my unlocked system bios from him too and he told me the same thing that he told you that that “the problem of the drivers crashing is unlikely to be solved by a more powerful AC adapter”. He also told me that the EC firmware he gave me would allow more power to be drawn from a bigger adapter. As for the vbios I think I will stick with the one from prema mod as my score on fire strike seems to be higher than yours without me overclocking the GPU. I pushed 9203 on my last test. I’m also satisfied with the performance of the GPU for now but I was pursuing this 330 watt adapter thing for the future when this GTX 980M will be declining and I would want to overclock it instead of replacing it with a new GPU. So for now, the 330 watt thing is just curiosity not a necessity. For now I won’t be purchasing a more powerful adapter, I just wanted confirmation of it being able to work with my laptop so I’ll be sure of what to do in the future when the GTX 980M will no longer be sufficient to push games on high to ultra settings at respectable FPS

 

I modded a slim 240W dell unit when I was using my 16F3.

 

Modding stuff you have is a good opportunity to learn other things.

 

Fire strike score very much depend on CPU which processing all the physics in Physics Test and Combined Test.

Mine is just 3630QM and 9069 - is higher score for now uploaded online on same system (click: number of GPU - 1)


1.What is your CPU?
2.Can you upload your vBIOS?

 

So? 240w adapter solving problem of driver crashes on overclocked mGPU? (also have 16F3)

 

Well mine is not registered online as I did not create a 3D mark 11 account. I can happily create one and knock you out of that first place. If this is what you’re looking for, then the fire strike / 3D mark 11 war can begin. My CPU is 3840 QM which I overclocked to 3.9 GHZ on 3 and 4 cores, 4.0 GHZ on 2 cores, and 4.1 GHZ on single core. I could overclock it a bit more but I decided to leave it like this. My vbios is unlocked from prema mod and my GPU is MSI. As for the more powerful PSU, I won’t be trying it any time soon. I want it for the future, not for now.

 

By the way, you said you have a 16f3. Have you ever tried to get the steel series keyboard to dance with the audio? I’ve tried it on mine but with no success

 

I installed last version of Steel Series, but it says "Plug in SteelSeries device to get started". So, no luck either.

1. I'm not here for competition with your 3840QM)))) I'm sure you have a higher score.
My 3630qm is 2.4-3.2 Ghz, and I'm not thinking to upgrade it, because it's enough for games.

2.Can you upload your vBIOS or give a link where you got it?
You say 1202Mhz is your default, but mine just crashes drivers higher than 1198Mhz (without boost)

3. If you ever upgrade AC adapter - let me know if it solves a driver crash problem.

 

If you give me a way to send it to you I'll do it. I don't know how to upload stuff on here

 

Try this link below. I think it contains the program to flash the card too

 

ok. thank you. will try and reply results.

 

The link above should work. let me know if it doesn't. I noticed that the clock speed on this vbios constantly stay at 1202 and will down-clock when necessary but not go higher 1202 or 1203. It's like the extra boost doesn't work on this vbios. But at 1202, it's overclocked anyway

 

its work. is it nvidia gtx 980m 8gb? right?

 

Yes, for GTX 980M 8 GB. I wouldn't mess you up and give you the wrong file. You might need to use a different program to flash it if the included one doesn't work. Other than that you should be fine. I swear I've flashed this 980M over 30 times trying different vbios and nothing never went wrong. Remember I never claimed that this vbios would send your score up the road, I gave it to you because you wanted it. who knows, there might or might not be an improvement. If not, you can always go back to our present vbios. And yes, when I do decide to get the 330 watt adapter, I will let you know how that goes. Assuming that a bigger adapter would work, I would surely prefer to spend about $120 on one and overclock instead of spending hundreds one the next gen GPU

 

Thank you, I'm know it's relatively safe.

One thing that is not advisable - it's doing clean install of nvidia drivers in windows 8.1 with MSI vBIOS - screen goes black and device manager can't see 980m at all (may be only on my 16f3 - I dont know).
Once system recovery helped, but second time I had no recovery point and had to put my old 675mx to install the drivers.

By the way: which driver versions everybody use?
On latest official 353.30 all applications including nvidia control panel just crashes all the time, so I forced to use 353.06 or 353.12.

 

I'm on 353.30 and I haven't got any crash or TDR (upgraded from 780m to 980m). The only issue I had is that Batman Arkham Knight doesn't start, it stays in a black screen and crashes when I close the application.

 

I just tried this vBIOS - and as I expected:

1. 1202(03) is not stable for my system and eventually crashes driver.
And if it is not:
2. Physics and Combined tests (related to CPU performance) has much lower FPS, thus lower scores (fire strike: 7800 VS 9069 on MSI vBIOS). I don't know - same was with Clevo vBIOS (6600) - may be just a matter of bios-level-compatibility of GPU and CPU.

3. With original vBIOS from MSI (link on first page of this thread) it already has more performance and stability, and with this MSI vBIOS unlocked by Svet it's working stable on 1198-1286 Mhz (boost) and showing best results.
So, I suggest you give it a try!

 

Thanks for the info. Can you send me your unlocked MSI Vbios? Just click on the upload a file link on the right bottom of the page to upload it. Thank you

 

For some strange reason the GTX 980M in my MSI 16f3 does not work with any vbios except those from the prema mod website but I'm willing to give your a try. Post it with the program you used to flash it too

 

I'm not sure how to proceed.)
Svet says that all his modded BIOS'es for private use only and not to share.
I understand him and his work, considering donation can be really small (how much you want to pay).
but also I know that it will work on your, or may be any, GPU.)

I suggest you try MSI official vBIOS first. If it's work good - you can write to Svet to unlock it, or to me asking to break a promise and share.)))))

MSI official vBIOS is in 1st page and here is a link again: MSI 980m 8GB vBIOS.
It will lock your overclocking to +135Mhz limit, but even with +135Mhz it is already 1173-1262(boost) Mhz.

And without any OC on GPU or CPU this vBIOS gives me way more stability and performance in 3dmark and games.

What do you mean "does not work"? Can you see video adapter in device manager?
What Windows version are you using?

 

Ok I understand. I'm not going to force you to do something that you don't want to do. I just wouldn't want to pay him to do this when I just paid him the other day to unlock my system bios. Had I known he dealt with vbios also, I would have asked him to do so at the same time he unlocked my system bios. Anyway I have no problem paying him to do it for me. It's just that I wasn't aware that he didn't want anybody sharing. I totally understand

The MSI original bios simply doesn't work with my card. It will take too long to explain this and I hate typing. To make a long story short, The card does show up in device manager but optimus never works. It was only when I used prema mod clevo vbios everything worked like it should.