Mobility Radeon 5870 tested in my D900F!

Its been a long time since I posted anything constructive, but today I have the opportunity to share this with you, thanks to MXM-upgrade, who were kind enough to send me a mobility 5870 to play with .

First when I opened up my laptop and removed the back panel, fan and heatsink that were on top of the GTX 280m, I compared the two cards and I noticed the Mobility 5870 is bigger and rather different from the GTX 280m, so besides having to add some thermal pads, the major problem is that the card is just so different that the heatsink somehow ends up higher and you can not close the back of the laptop! (unless I were to cut up the heatsink, but i really dont want to do it since i cant keep this card and ill have to put back in my GTX 280m)



The Mobility Radeon 5870


GTX 280m (top) compared to the Mobility Radeon 5870 (bottom)
Sorry about the picture quality, I was doing this in the evening and the lighting was bad...


So I improvised and ran the laptop without the bottom (I lifted the back on some wooden blocks). Immediatly after turning it on all fans went to full blast.. I didnt feel comfortable hearing that noise, probably something overheating. I went to check the bios after it turned on and it recognised it as HD 5800 series.
After that I decided to go into windows to see what I could find there. I installed the latest catalyst drivers and rebooted (of course I wiped all nvidia drivers before). After the reboot, I checked HWMonitor if it could read the temps but becouse i forgot to download the latest version as someone pointed out to me i got nothing - realised that only after i already put the gtx 280m back in and i didnt feel like trying again at the time.

After that I turned down the machine and took it back apart and it was blazing hot (I burnt my finger touching the heatsink), so i suspect if I had it on any longer the card just might have burned..
So from all this I would conclude that the use of the Mobility Radeon 5870 in the Clevo D900F will probably not be possible without a heatsink modification.

Thanks again goes to MXM-upgrade for providing the card!

UPDATE:
I got the new heatpads and paste, so I though Id give it another try, to make sure what was the cause of the overheating, and if I could fix it do the benchmarks I intended.
I placed the new pads I ordered on the entire heatsink to see what exactly made contact and what did not. I then made these pictures to show you what I found (sorry, they were made with my phone since I forgot the camera at home, but they should be enough to see the problems).
As you will see from these photos, Id have to remove parts of the heatsink to ensure proper contact of the memory chips (the only thing making proper contact with enough thermal paste is the core), so unless I can get a new spare heatsink to cut up I wont be able to properly test this card, since it would surely overheat.



On the GTX 280m the screw holes for the mounting of the heatsink are much lower, making it possible for the memory chips to get in contact with the heatpads on the heatsink.


On the Mobility 5870 the screw holes are higher, so Id have to put in thicker heatpads to make the memory chips contact the heatsink, so the cooling would still probably be sufficient, but not the best (still would have to correct the other problem first to make this possible).



Placement of the chips on the GTX 280m - the heatsink is made to cool this card the best it possibly could.


Placement on the Mobility 5870 - these chips are exactly where the hightened parts on the heatsink are soldered, so this raises the whole heatsink away from the card, making it impossible to cool the memory chips.



The lifted parts are soldered onto the heatsink to ensure perfect cooling for the GTX 280m, but are in the way for the Mobility 5870 - if you removed these you could properly cool the Mobility 5870.

 

Your comments are as always so insightful..

 

Wait, does this mean 5870 will work in a M570TU?

Also, pics too small...brb positioning hubble telescope

 

No, it will certainly not.
The first reason is that this card is mxm 3.0 and the M570TU is mxm 2.1.

 

But you would think the 5870 runs cooler than the gtx280

 

Wait let me understand something.

The ram is 1/8 taller on the 5870 than the 280M and you could not get the rear pannel to close with the heatsink on? Something dosent sound right.

There are screws that you can wrench down "obviously without cracking the board" that will pull the card down closer.

 

Its just a little higher, but enough that you cant close the back.
The card must be "wrenched down" as far as it goes anyway, you cant force it lower.

And yes, if i could get everything working properly i think it would run cooler than the 260m or 280m.

 

Great! I have a couple of these for sale! Just click the "Get it NOW!!" pic...

 

I would heartly agree with you. Soviet's response seems like spam. But.....

Did you really burn your finger? You touched the heatsink? LOL.

Haha, its funny... too bad you couldn't get the temperatures. However, I think a few 5870's have that problem... try using another program.

 

Can you run 3dmark vantage with the card installed? Would like to see the benchmark score difference between the GTX280M from the same system.

 

^
He couldn't even get his D900F to recognize the MR5870....

I'm starting to get the feeling most people in the forum can't even read beyond the 1st grade level.

This thread is SO EPIC. Posting in epic thread =] This thread is almost as epic as the alienware thread where one owner swapped out his GPU and literally crammed a newer incompatible card and broke it.

 

Please unless you have somthing to say or are expereinced on this subject please leave before some one gives you a little hammer time

 

I am currently waiting to get a new delivery of thermal paste and pads since i ran out. The bios actualy seams to recognise it, but as mxm-upgrade pointed out to me, something must be overheating, causing the fans to go to full speed, so i will try again and make sure everything has proper contact with the heatsink (i did check this time already, but i might have missed something). If that works and the fans dont go to full blast right away again, i will certainly run all benchies i have prepared.

 

If the BIOS does reconize it but does not have correct fan tables and/or thermal profiles then it could cause it to read it incorrectly and the BIOS automatically goes into safe mode and turns them on.

If it works it works. Just may need to work out the kinks

 

Whell, since i have the card here ill give it another try, and if the fans still go to full blast, even after i am sure every little chip is cooled properly, i will be able to say for sure if its the fan tables or my failure before.

 

HellCry,

Good to hear. Keep us informed if the card works out. I may be ordering mine as well if it does.

 

Even if your where to modify your current heatsink, the HD5870, which runs hotter then the 280M, will not make proper contact with the heatsink and will overheat no matter what thermal paste you use. We tried and where not happy with the results!

With the HD5970's we received for the W860/W870 we received replacement heatsinks which do a much better job in those units. Unfortunately we have yet to get new heatsinks for the D900F or the X8100.

Hope this is helpful!

Thanks

 

Er, wait, you have hd5 970's?

 

I think he meant 5 870, but if not then please do inform us.

 

I think there is no MR HD5970 (yet). ATI could use the thermal budget it has to bring out an overclocked 2GB version of the MR HD5870 to kill the GTX 480M, however, bringing out the single most powerful card was never the objective of ATI and they did great with this philosophy - just bring out very good cards for a very good price, they don't need to be extreme for an extreme price, so a MR HD5970 would be against ATI's business plan.

 

Maybe you didn't try hard enough to mod the HS
But of course you don't even need to, just order the new ones from Sager.

 

Whell im still going to try, if nothing else to at least get it stable enough to do the benchies i intended to do, so i can give the users a clear comparison between the GTX 280m and the Mobility 5870.
But if there is a new heatsink for the D900F especially for the Mobility 5870 id love to get my hands on that!

 

Got the heatpads and paste today, posted update.

 

So can't you just remove the lifted parts some how for it to work.

 

I would have to cut them off (it isnt a removable part, but soldered on), but if im not happy with how the 5870 performs, or if the performance gain just isnt enough to justify the cost (i have to pay 400€ if i keep the card) i cant go back to the 280m, since ill ruin the heatsink for that card.

 

for my case, when i upgraded from my gtx280m to hd5870, i have to use the new heatsink that came with it.

so if you are currently using gtx280m and want to upgrade to hd5870m, make sure it come with the new heatsink, you cant use the heatsink that come with the gtx280m, it is too short.

 

here is some pics to compare

gtx280m on top of 5870m

broader n shorter, while 5870m being slimmer n longer.


heatsink comparison

 

Sorry about the typo earlier...The HD5870 not the HD5970...

Well, our R&D team has put some work into getting the HD5870 to work in the D900F and it looks like they have succeeded. It took some major modification of the heatsink and thermal pads and the use of some top grade thermal paste but it has been testing for 18 hours straight now and is running well within the specs.

Now this is running the D900F with the Intel i7-980X Extreme processor and the HD5870 so really maxed out and the temps all look good!

We are going to do a little more testing just to be 100% sure and then we will probably be able to setup an upgrade kit where a knowledgeable user could buy the card, modified heatsink, thermal pads and some High end thermal paste for a reasonable price and install it yourself. For those who are not really savvy with this we could also offer to make the changes in house here in Ottawa.

I will keep you updated on the progress.

Thanks

 

What a great info John, you deserve +rep

 

That isnt a D900F you have.. There arent any heatsinks for D900F for the 5870 since it officially isnt supported.

 

Can you post how you moded the heatsink (some photos) and screenies of the temps and some benchmarks than? And can you tell us the price for the card and for the heatsink?

 

Yeah, would be nice to see it. I seriously doubt that any reseller would risk modding the HS or any other components coming from Clevo. That would probably require licensing ($$$) and additional paperwork with Clevo. Doing so regardless may be completely illegal. I have yet to see the agreement package that comes from Sager and verify if there's a room for such mods (other than replacing the paste and pads) in Clevo's policy.

 

The heatsink is definetely large (long) enough - its even longer than the 5870, and there is alot of room for an even bigger card, but as i said, some parts of the heatsink are in the way..

 

I'd take it to a machinist maybe and have it done. Then just sell your old card on ebay.

 

I dont know if i will be able to keep the card, so i cant cut up my original heatsink. Im waiting for a spare one that i will cut up.

 

I'll see what I can do! Not sure about the cost yet they are still working that. I personally don't know what they did so am not terribly helpful on that note right now.

Thanks

 

WHHAAAAAAAT????? Illegal to modify a heatsink????


I agree if you took out your heatsink or any other part of your system and did a bunch of modifications and melted/destroyed your unit that your reseller might void your warranty.
I can tell you that we have fully tested the heatsink mods and everything looks great. This is the same as any other mod that has been done by 50% of the people on this board. You could have your warranty voided by over clocking your CPU or Video card! I would not recommend you do mods unless you are willing to take a chance on voiding your warranty or are out of warranty

Eurocom customer will not have to worry about that if we do the mods or they get the kit from us.

Thanks

 

What he is saying may be correct.. its one thing for us - the end users to modify something, since were only using it and not selling it on, we are basically free to do whatever we want with out machines, all we can loose is the warranty by doing it.
But for you it might be different, since the heatsink design (and everything else) is the property of Clevo and im not sure if you can just modify it and than sell that as your own without premission from that company. Perhaps you should just check with them to be on the safe side.

Would be really great if you could provide some photos and screenshots if youre done though.. would love to see them, and it would make it easyer for me to finish what i started

 

As HellCry has mentioned

It is one thing for a end user to mod on their own, vs. a reseller modding something pre-sales to the end user.

Are we forgetting that there are these logos printed on the unit? FCC / CE / UL / etc. logo each is linked to a tested certification.

When you modded anything will change the spec and safety of the unit that was originally tested as. Which makes it illegal unless you resubmit the unit for testing and get a new tested and passed certifications.

 

That's exactly my point!
I think the guys at Eurocom either create stories or totally oblivious to the trap they might find themselves in some day.
If you modify a heatsink, you must certify it before selling to people.

posted by Tenchi:
When you modded anything will change the spec and safety of the unit that was originally tested as. Which makes it illegal unless you resubmit the unit for testing and get a new tested and passed certifications.

True. And that would cost both money and time. And by that time the card would go extinct

 

I do not see why, a seller could not sell its own mods. Some are doing it. Of course that would me that the store would be the only responsible for the warranties. Individual owners will just loose the warranties, the stores will just have there own risk added to the modded units and handles the warranty in their own way (probably add a risk tax on top of the units).

 

Becouse its the patent - the intelectual property of Clevo and cannot just be moded and sold by someone without their permission. Simple as that. (unless they turn a blind eye to these things)

 

Don't a lot of resellers mod cases, etc. any way. People mod car engines all the time and sell it as custom. So I don't know, as long as they are willing to back up their work why would it be an issue.

 

The bottom line is simple guys... We warranty our units...Not Clevo. If we where to make a change and for some reason this caused early failure or damage, we are on the hook for it. This is why we are testing this setup so well. If we took one of the modified parts and tried to get the manufacturer to cover it under our reseller warranty we would be out of luck. Again, this is why we have an R&D team and this is why we fully test before marketing.

Most of the certifications you see on the bottom of every notebook has to do with electronic interference and electronic signals produced b y electronic equipment. This has nothing to do with us modifying a heatsink.

Thanks

 

Whell good for the D900F than, since the owners really deserve to get an option to upgrade to a DX11 capable card (perhaps gtx 480m later ).
Cant wait to see some of those screenies.. If i get the heatsink soon i just might beat you to it though

 

Any way good luck with it.

 

So John, i see you are already offering it on your site, so would you be willing to show us what has been done to the heatsink (some photos and screenshots of temperatures and gpu-z)?

 

+1

I would like to see some proof that this product is working safe and sound!

 

Update: sent the card back today, so i will not be able to do any more testing.