[GUIDE] Installing and Overclocking the AMD Mobility 7970 in the M17x R3,an illustrated guide

Just got a hold of a second 7970M (don't ask ). Not sure if I want to just try and sell it, or if I want to install it in my R3 and see if it's a better card then the one already in. If I do, and it turns out to be worse, I'm stuck without any paste to repaste the good one. Anyone know a good place in the UK that sells thermal paste?

 

watercooling.co.uk failing that maplins if you have one local but choice is limited and they are overpriced

 

well.. didn't work for me still on 0/0
but no need to be hasty, still playing everything on max so far with stock-clocks

 

it works for me dude, so it should work for others Clevo users as well.


made a few runs at 950/1350 at default voltage.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3720QM Processor,CLEVO P170EM score: P6516 3DMarks

 

what drivers are you on?
did you reset all the afterburner and registry settings first and configured them again?

 

Im using the default drivers provided with the clevo DVD 8.951.6.0. All i had to do is the following: launch FutureMark benchmark, the launch MSI Afterburner, and i was able to see the correct clocks 850/1200, and change the values.

Of course u have to do everything is written here to OC using MSI AB, but i didn t have to re-do that again.

Have u tried this? is it working for u? It must work, we have same notebook, so reinstall DVD drivers, and do the procedure again. Let me know.

 

hm, what futuremark are you using? i have 3Dmark11 but i can'T find a real "FutureMark" benchmark ;-)

 

Yeah sorry launch 3dmark 2011, then MSI afterburner and u should be' able to oc.....Let me know

 

hm, not working atm but i have to swith back to the clevo drivers first. i'm on 12.6 right now (although i've heard people OCed with 12.6)

 

is there a place I can download the drivers? (still looking) also where is the guru3d package?(also looking, links would be great) If it worked for you, Id like to give it a try. Also using the 170EM btw.

Edit- Im getting to the point where I can OC it but it wont stick, MSI goes back to zero, and the clocks register at below stock clocks. Im using the 12.5 modded right now, no other issues, I just want more from the card at this point. Thanks.

 

@redkulaid: have u tried running benchmarks after uve altered the clocks? it could just be that once the gpu isnt stressed anymore it goes back to idle clocks and ur system switches to the IGP. but that doesnt mean that ur OC clocks arent implemented during load id just try and see if ur benchmark results have improved at all, thats the best indicator for ur OC efforts working or not.

 

Well, with some work, I got it to work, sorta.

My System- 170EM with 3820 i7, 7970m, 16gb 1600mhz, 120gb intel 520

Few tests, 3D Mark11

#1 P5998 Stock Clocks
#2 P6604 860/1400
#3 P6574 975/1450 This was with BF3 up in the background

Now, my question is, and I notice this via hwinfo64, that my clocks with a game on screen are 950/1400, but when I run the test(close the game) it reads 860/1400. Does having a game open affect the score by chance? (can it) Also, why would it clock down to 860/1400 under load from the benchmark test, but in game read 950/1400 while im in game?(any way to fix it, or just let it go, its at what i want it to be at for games)

Edit- Ive also noticed before I overclocked the 7970, that when in hwinfo64, that I either can not read the amd card, or when I do, with nothing open, the clocks were really low(thats not my concern). Now, it reads 860/1400 no matter what, and 950/1400 while in a game(tabbed out goes back down). Just throwing that out there for any info that would help the clock stick for the benchmark without having a game open in the background

 

well first of all, when u run benchmarks never leave any other application or programs running, especially not 3D demanding games

that said, the detection issue is most probably connected to enduro: when there is no load on ur dGPU the clocks are not detected, when there is some load but in idle it will show u the clocks but only the powersaving/idle ones. with an OC, the idle clocks probably got OCed as well, thus putting a load onto the 7970M which in turn lets it be discoverable in the monitors at any time. putting a load on it like with 3DMark lets it jump up to the regular OC clocks again.

just my 2c

 

I understand in game out game and Enduro, but even Oc to 950/1400, the bench showed it at 860/1400. I just thought it odd that it did that.

Went to 12.7 drivers to test that out, and 3d mark11 wont finish, keeps having errors, so back to 12.5 modded it is.

 

are 12.7 official for the 7970m?

 

is there any difference between 12.5 Cleco and 12.5 modded? Since no other drivers seems to work for me, i didn tread uch about new UNofficial drivers.......


when there will be a new set of official drivers for our little beast?

PS im so happy that without overvolting this card can OC so good

 

I dont know off hand. Its the drivers Slick has in his first post, they have been good to me. 12.7 Seemed fine at first, but I got BSOD a few times, and went back to what worked.

I might try 12.7 again, and run 3dmark11 again. Im still getting 860/1400 with the 12.5, even though its set to 950/1400(shows in games etc)

 

^ it only shows as 860...you're actually at 950.

It is a glitch in afterburner. how you test it (for your own sanity) is you set the clock at 860...run a bench. Then set it to 950. Run a bench again. Your marks will be significantly higher

 

3dmark11 shows it at 860 in the test, Msi/hwinfo64 shows it at 950. Im getting ~6600 in 3dmark, so not to bad I guess. Figures it was glitch, here ive been trying for hours to figure out what, why, and all that for nothing. Performance wise seems to be fine, I kinda want to go more, but I think ill settle with this for now. Thanks for the help

 

6600? you are definitely at 950. You can definitely do more...i bet you can go to 980+

Congrats on the nice OC

 

when will trixx support overclocking the 7970m I cant stand afterburner... cant control the fans even!

 

you can control the fans via HWINFO64. But as far as trixx goes, who knows?

 

Silly rabbit, Trixx are for kids....

Sorry, couldn't resist it

 

lol

Thanks slick, once again. Just found it. As far as the max setting (RPM) I can do for the fans? what is it? I kind of got spooked by the warning message about knowing what you are doing

I dont mind the sound and want the fans to be at 100% after 65c - any risks associated with this? can I set it too high and something will brake?

Unlike trix this uses RPM as oppesed to % so what should I consider maximum fan speed?

 

Top speed for the R3 fans is 4300 RPM. Most people use 4500 as max setting in the profile.

​

 

Everytime I boot up my laptop, I get an error saying "kdbsync.exe has stopped working." Anyone else get this error?

Edit: Reinstalled drivers. Seemed to fix the problem

 

Perfect thanks!.
Will i run into any issues if i set it at 4500rpm at 60c? Could the fans fail?

 

No issues. You almost never hear of fan failure in the R3, but even if it increases the risk to some degree, fans are cheap and GPU's and CPU's are not, so it seems like a reasonable bet.

 

Been running custom fans since March and haven't had any issues. When I game, I have max fans going at 65C and I rarely go above that. Only when I play FFXIV does it go to 70C. But that was on my 580M. Haven't had much time to play it with my new baby.

 

dude have u been able to OC then? if it can help, don t ask me why, but in order to be able to OC u have to start first 3dmark11, then launch MSI afterburner, otherwise u won t be able to OC....


let us know if u can make it dude

 

sorry mate, what is this app that lets you control fans speed? i would like to try it if possible, ty.

 

HWiNFO

10char

 

sorry, i installed HWINFO, but didn t find anyway to change Fans speed, where should i look at?

 

At the bottom of the Sensors page, there is a small fan icon in between the Reset button and the Logging Start button. Click on that and it will open up the fan configuration screen. If you click on Custom Auto, it will bring up the fan profile configuration window.

 

There seems to be no icon where u said it should be....

Imageshack - 33357514.jpg

do i have to configure it in anyway?

 

I don't know. It has always just been there for me. Maybe try reinstalling it.

​

 

could it be that i have a Clevo and not an Alienware?

 

Well, HWINFO64 is not Alienware specific; it works on lots of other laptops, but not sure about Clevo. The fan facility had not been added at the time I last had a Clevo/Sager 8760? You might check in the Clevo forum or wait until one of our Clevo users chimes in. Sorry I can't help.

 

According to HWINFO forms, it s not possible to control fan speed with Clevo

 

What setting are people using for the 7970m coming from eurocom?

 

Hey, this guide was written before Dell released drivers for the 7970m, but now that drivers have been released, how does that change the steps in the original guide? Also while installing shouldn't we apply a thermal paste (diamond) on the video card before restarting the system? Thanks any help would be appreciated.

 

i will be updating the guide once the official whql drivers are released

and yes, i do mention putting on thermal paste..look at the pic

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk 2

 

SlickDude80,

I just wanted to say thanks for the guide. I repasted my new M17x R4 with PK-1 and oveclocked the card to 900/1400 with no problems. Been playing Diablo 3 and SWTOR with around 65 C max and was around 70 C running FurMark. I may bump it up and run it a little more but everything seems to be running extremely smooth.

 

oh yes you do mention it srry my mistake, anyways thanks for the detailed guide!

 

Hey Guys, glad that the guide is of use

forr d3 and swtor, you don't really need to overclock more than that. At stock, I'm already getting 100fps on D3 @ 1080p maxxed and swtor is probably running at about 70-80fps maxxed

So no need for more of an overclock.

 

Not sure if this has been discussed, but has anyone gotten a random black screen with white and red lines? It tends to happen randomly after I do an overclock then reset it back to stock clocks. It's only happened a few times. I'm hoping it's a driver issue.

Also, anyone playing FFXIV with this card? I haven't noticed any real difference in performance between this card and my old 580M. Perhaps FFXIV is more CPU bound than I originally thought.

 

Does having the unlocked bios or downloading the beta drivers for 7900m series void the warranty with dell? Do we also need to "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" in the boot screen.(if it does I guess now we could just use the dell drivers for 7970m as they have been released).

 

Wow wow wow, I'm using the 7900mod drivers. I installed the gpu today using a 6870m heatsink/bracket with some thermal pads I order off of Frozencpu. I used Shin Etsu Microsi x23-7783d, 50-53c with three monitors. I ran BF3 on Ultra Preset 35-50fps outside 40-70fps inside stock, and I kept an amazing 60c during load. I'm so happy. Everything is so buttery.

During the first few mins of the install my temps were anywhere between 49c-61c with a single monitor. With 3 monitors, I've generally been 49c-50c with a few slow gains to 53c. Can anybody explain that?

a08 mod bios - m17x r3 - 7970m mod drivers - stock clocks -dell oem card

During a 900/1400 overclock, my bf3 was running well at 50fps and then it dropped to 19-22fps until I restored stock settings. HWInfo and Msi Afterburner were only reporting that I was at 63C up from my usual 60C. Should I be worried?

 

One quick question if you do not mind SlickDude80, do we still have to install the mod bios and disable the integrated GPU from the system in order to have the 7970m enabled or the new driver from AMD solved the issue with the 'Enduro'.

Unfortunately I cannot try it as I have not yet received my 7970m.

Thank you...

 

SkyLineLvr, how much of an overclock are you doing and does this happen everytime you do an overclock? or does it happen only if you push it too high?

I've never had to "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" with any drivers (and i've tried every beta available up to this point).

Usually with dell, if something comes up, they will want you to reset your system back to stock configuration before they will help you, but in the case of drivers and unlocked bios, i don't think they will care. Its not our fault that dell rarely updates the video card drivers. You can't be expected to have ancient drivers on your machine...so i don't think it will matter much to them

Sounds like you ran into a power problem...try throttlestop 5.0. Congratz on the new card

With the way that Enduro is working right now, i'd definitely keep the integrated disabled. One quick look at the Clevo forums or Software and Gaming and vid card forum will show the majority of complaints on 7970m have been from Clevo owners who do not have the ability to kill enduro

With 7970m, i got almost 3 hrs on the weekend on my deck surfing the net and doing light tasks...with Integrated, i normally get 4hrs. Its not that big a deal to me