FirePro w7170m, testing install in Precision M6600

Get a backup of your current vBIOS before attempting a flash (never know if it might make it actually worse ).

Oh, also I guess I should mention, if you physically remove the GPU from your system and boot up with no GPU card installed, it can actually boot and run the internal display and VGA port off of the Intel iGPU. (Another way to test the display panel/cable, a little less hassle than putting another AMD GPU back in.)

 

Hahaha, thats a good point... But I wanted to run a test anyway with Extreme and ExtremeHD presets on Unigine Valley for posterity. But, I'll have to put the 390x back in to pull the vbios out with gpuz, because I didn't see this before swapping to the m6100!

 

Display panel works fine with the m6100, so the w7170m I have is outputting eDP. That is a bummer, BUT at least my panel is fine! Now I just gotta figure out what I need to do to flash on a new vbios!

 

OK so, I guess its kinda a big deal to make a .bat for the desktop to flash the original vbios back in case it wont output after flashing, to make it easy to blind flash it back. Trying to figure out how to get the .bat sorted out and then i can clear the desktop of icons and try out a different vbios!

 

Good luck with the vbios but personally I wouldn't tempt fate, at least the card does work and it is a solid card performing around the same as a m4000m.

 

I haven't set up for a .bat recovery blind flash restore though, so I haven't done it yet! I can't consider this a success unless I can get it running LVDS and outputting to the standard panel. Only place I have found the M295x/M390x (same GPU, the Amethyst XL) are in Alienware laptops and they are soldered in. I don't know how it works with a vbios from a soldered board laptop, I don't even know if they can be pulled and actually work on a MXM module. My gut tells me it won't work because of the difference in layout between a soldered GPU and an MXM GPU, but I don't really know for sure.

So my only real lead right now is the AMD-driver for the w7170m found on techpowerup's database.

EDIT: I did put it back in the system and pull the rom for the current vbios! So I have that juuuuust in case.

 

OK. Some time this AM to do this, so it's flash day. Fingers crossed, because the search for an M295x/M390x vbios turned up nothing.

Wish I could figure out what language the rom is written in, get a vbios editor, and try to mess with it myself!

I'll update depending on my findings.

 

None initialized the laptop panel, so with all 3 (AMD, Dell, and stock) it still outputs via eDP.

@Aaron44126 the 8gb vbios you linked says its for a w7170m but its actually for a desktop card called the Barco MXRT-7600. It is still the same Tonga chip, but a cut-down version of it with ~1700 shaders (running at 920mhz) instead of the ~2000 of the w7170m (running at 720mhz). It also has 8gb memory on the same bus width, but a higher tdp of 100w VS 75w. It's very confusing because the desktop version of the 7600 is a 150w tdp card. I don't wanna brick my gpu but I kinda wanna try it out, because it is obviously some kind of custom vbios.

EDIT: Totally wrong subsystem, it wouldn't flash with the weird bios. Oh well! For the M6600, I have done everything that I know to do, with my levels of knowledge. I would consider this a failed experiment, and I'll try to get my money back on the card!

 

Wait so it doesn't even function with switchable graphics on? Surely it can use iGP to display and use dGPU for more intense stuff?

 

Maybe I'm failing the knowledge check, but I don't know how to get the M6600 working with that kind of pass-through mode enabled!