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

Ive installed both the modded drivers after a clean uninstall of old drivers and they run for a couple mins and then i get a black screen?
Would u suggest anything else??

Im gonna do a clean install and try the 12.6 drivers.

I hope my gpu is defective. Is there a way to tell??

 

Will this work on Sager/Clevo models? I followed the steps but it didnt unlock the sliders. Im just using the stock drivers from Clevo.

 

Well I'm guessing my 7970m I just got in the mail 2 days ago is defective. No driver works for it. When I start a game or benchmark the screen goes blank. I did slickdudes guide and even enabled the intel card back. Nothing works.

Would anyone like to add any other solutions I should try, cuz I'm assuming its defective and going to send it back??

 

The last thing I could suggest is find someone to download a custom vbios for your version of the 7970m that has a mild overclock. If that cannot get your clocks locked higher, as least during games, then I guess you will have to declare it defective.

The black screen could also be that the voltage being applied to your card is not strong enough. I hear 1.075 volts was a sweet spot for some people also having black screens during gaming. You might also have this issue. Here is a link to some dell brand bioses (and here are flashing instructions). Sorry to the original poster of the link for not giving credit, but I forgot who you were.

 

I'm assuming its dead! It wont even launch under PEG vid config in bios. Gives me 6 beeps on start up. I turn on the intel gpu and loads up and the 7970m isnt even recognized under device manager. What a waste of time.....

 

That's EXACTLY what happened to mine... 6 beeps, then I somehow managed to get it to work but as soon as a game is launched and clocks go to 850/1200 it black screens. Then I kept getting 6 beeps till I just I gave up. :/

You should not need an overvolted vbios, and as long as the card is 101% stable at 850, the card is (technically) not defective.

Also is there a difference between brightness on the 12.7 beta from AMD and the 12.7 beta 7900 mod from benchmark3d?
I vaguely remember that on the first mod drivers I was stuck on 100% brightness, but seems to be 75% now.. Hmmm.

 

geo so mine is dead, correct?

I got a dim screen regardless on the driver. If the 7970m recognized it then it would dim. then when i would go to launch a game it would go to a black screen and have to do a force reset.

 

yes this will work...all people overvclocking 7970's regardless if it's in clevo's/sagers, MSI or Alienware on this forum are using this method. read my comments to jonnycat below

Sorry to hear that your card is defective. I assume you contacted eurocom and you are getting another?

welcome johnnycat! You are using the 12.7 mod beta's? They should overclock. I'm on the 12.7's and everythign works fine.

Where there usually is a problem is clerical issues...meaning, the msiAfterburner.cfg file wasn't editted properly or it was saved as a .TXT file instead of a .CFG

Double check everything in your msiAfterburner directory...make sure there are no duplicate files and the file saved as a .cfg and NOT .txt. Double check that you editted the file and registry correctly

Also, some have said that MSI Afterburner 2.2.2 doesn't let them overclock at all...so go back to 2.2.0 or 2.2.1

Aside from the constant throttling, why was it a mistake going to the Nvidia 580? I'm just curious

The one thing about the 680m is the price is out of control outrageous......but I can say this, the 7970m is a beastly card. i don't think anyone really NEEDS to go 680m. I haven't cancelled my order yet, but from the looks of things, it will be late august until i can get a card. I refuse to pay those ridiculous retail prices

PS...go with the 12.7 beta mod drivers...they are the best so far with respect to brightness issues

 

A new bios wont help you with the dim issue, but will gain you a nice "free" performance boost with added stability.

 

The dim issue is definitely caused by the driver... I was messing with overclocks and I got an 'AMD Display Driver has stopped working' message and my screen went max brightness, then the driver reinitialized and brightness went down again. My new card seems to overclock just as well as my previous one on stock voltage, 970 core on Max Payne 3, but I have lowered it to 950 because the card maxes the game just fine. So smooth and the temps are in the 61-63C range... this stock Dell paste is amazing :O

I also tried 12.5 -> 12.7 and screen brightness is locked at the same value for me on all of them, so I am sticking with 12.7 beta mod because they seem to be the best for gaming, as mentioned throughout this thread.

Erm as for the 580M, it never throttled for me, but it was not faster than the 6990M (despite all the benchmarks) and consequently not worth paying for.

 

the stock dell paste they use on GPU's now is absolutely amazing. you are seeing this first hand

I understand what you are saying about the additional cost and i would agree with you. similarly to the 6990 vs 580 situation...i see the same situation with the 7970m vs 680m situation. In both generations, the nvidia card got the best bench numbers, however, gaming wise, it was the same with some favoring amd and some nvidia...the rest is all hype

 

Thanks for the reply Slick! The issue ended up being a simple one...needed a reboot. I did follow your guide exactly...and there is no instruction to reboot after making changes to the registry and msiafterburner.cfg Is this normal that it should need a reboot after the changes are made? Thanks again!

 

Ok guys, I found a temporary brightness fix for all, atleast until we will have a proper driver.

So, the only way to have it at full brightness is to enable both the cards (integrated and dedicated) and have them run at the same time...

So:

1. Remove your old driver and install the mod from here http://download.benchmark3d.com/AMD...AMD_Catalyst_12.7_Beta_win7_32-64-7900-MOD.7z (many of you are using this driver already);

2. Go to bios and enable the integrated GPU also set the display as SG;

3. Save and load windows;

4. You will notice that now you are in the integrated display. Go to device manager and under the display adapter you will have the 7900 MOD - AMD Radeon HD 7970M. Right click on it / Enable;

5. Your screen will flicker few times. No worries. Close everything and right click on your desktop / screen resolution;

6. You will notice two screens. Select with the mouse the second display and make sure you have market 'Make this my main display'. Hit apply and you are good to go.

I played few games after that and they run perfect.

Enjoy it!

Please note: Me or notebookreview.com, take no responsibility if you break your mobo.

Also, if you wanna be on Intel GPU you can always go back to device manager and disable AMD 7970M...

 

I have a bad history with enabling/disabling the iGPU with Radeon cards wherein the laptop would not even go past post, hanging at a black screen with faint pops from the speakers, so I will avoid that.. I really want my brightness back, this is getting really annoying. You can see the dimness set in when you're at the Welcome screen and see a brief flash :/

 

Im with r3. I able to get full brigthness when enabling back the igp. So far i able to clock at 950/1500. Played full day with COH2, about 5 hrs with diablo3 and few hours with bf3. So far i not sure i get what is the problem with enduro or with the igp enabling. The card works great. On what game this enduro will caused problem when igp is enable?

 

I guess what GeoCake is trying to say, that it creates a 'confusion' with the system and there are more chances on 'damaging' something while the IGP is enabled. Because really speaking enduro I do not think it works on R3 and both the cards are actually enabled and working in the same time.

If you start some 3D application or game which does not recognize your AMD card, then you are in a bigger chance of messing something up... Just a thought.

 

Exactly, which prove both card working in the same time? My experiences is, its the same when i have the 6990m, i still able to select which gpu to use on high performance = 7970m. During game, only 7970 m is working following this profile. During benchmark, also same. I had try using my r3 with igp disable, no different with its enabled. Guess i need to have the full brightness to enjoy my game..

 

Yeah but your IGP is on and working (That’s how your brightness screen is at 100%). Go to screen resolution and you will see 2 screens. Which means that both are enabled. If for some reason your second screen is not recognized by an application, then you are in a soup and troubles will pop up.

The switch with your 6990m is another story. Because the driver was ‘allowing’ you to turn one card off while you were using the second one.

 

No. only one card is activated using the configure switchable graphics.
I said exactly same as when using the 6990m. im using the 12.7 beta.. not sure other revision driver.
When I switch to low performance, the hwinfo now will show the intel hd3000.

I only see one screen on screen resolution.

I think my situsation is not same as yours. what card are u using? Im using clevo card i think that i purchase from upgradeyour laptop.

during my card installation time, it just like swapping the card, im not even removing the old driver.

maybe the vbios of this card different?

 

That's great. You are lucky. I am on a Dell card, but if I enable the AMD card from device manager, both of them stay on... Probably is a diferent vbios you have on your card.

 

Hope i am right. I could only see one screen identified as 1 when i click resolution.

How about others that also have the same card as mine (clevo) and install inside r3? Are you guys in the same page as me?

 

Hi guys... So, I was thinking how daddyz can have his GPU working with the combination FN+F7, maybe a different vbios, maybe his system is different, didn't make any sense.

Many of you here mentioned that this works for you but nobody explained how (maybe didn't know why).

I started all over (after sitting all day with the IGP switched off and bugged about the dimming issue), removed the AMD driver and INTEL driver from device manager (yes, nobody mentioned this about the intel driver to be removed; ofcourse can only be removed after having both the GPU's enabled from bios and set to SG as mentioned by the owner of this thread).

So, I enabled them, loaded windows, disabled wifi (you must be disconnected from internet), removed both the drivers (AMD and Intel - graphic), restarted and then both found as standard graphic adapters.

First I installed the AMD driver from here http://www2.ati.com/driverS/hotfix/radeon-hotfix/amd_radeon_8.981.2.1_hotfix_win7.exe (link taken from the alienware m18x forum mentioned by Mr. Fox);

Restarted the system, enabled the wifi, connected to the internet and loaded windows update. Ofcourse will find out an update for the Intel 3000 IGP. Let it update and restart the system.

Once you are back in business, you will find that your FN+F7 function works and you can switch back and forth with your desired GPU.

The bug was that we already had installed the intel graphic driver which it should have been removed and installed last.

This issue is because we do not have a proper driver to take care of all those small things, in the end why would anybody do it unless there is a must for all...

I guess Dell driver would have helped if both the cards are recognized by their driver (mod inf), but unfortunately we will have to go with this mod. Atleast for me it works and believe me, I have tried it with 2 AMD cards in the same system.

 

Great Juliant. i want to help before but i dont know why it works in the 1st place..


Great this dimmer issue now resolved and now we can concentrate on oc this beast card

 

That's really interesting Juliant, thanks for the heads up. If no better hacks are found, I'll try this once I get back from vacation in 4 weeks.

 

Thanks guys, I am back. So I was 'playing' with diferent drivers this morning and I could not get it work anymore. Probably I messed it up by installing so many versions of drivers. Atleast we all know that this issue is based on a driver issue.

I recommend all of you that have this issue sorted out, to make a full backup. Most probably you will have alot of troubles if you keep messing (like I did ) with the drivers.

I am sure I can sort it out...

Updates: You must make sure you uninstall all previous drivers properly (driver sweeper is out and now is called driver fusion); < with this program you have to uninstalled both the drivers (AMD and Intel) and then reinstall them both one by one (please make sure you install the intel driver from the windows update, only with this one works properly). If you do not remove the drivers properly you will face alot of troubles: computer when wake up from sleep screen is completely black, the switch FN+F7 swich does not work, you may see 2 screens instead of 1, the AMD card is stuck after driver installation in 2D mode (those are the issues I found so far). ^ I have mentioned earlier a link for AMD driver, that is the best which works without any issues so far. I played DiRT Showdown, Batman Arkam City, Crysis 2 (all maxed out), so far and are very smooth (no overclocking).

 

For those with similar experience, don't ask me how I know but try to do this or get someone who know how (we have one here in NBR): remove the vBIOS chip and flash the stock vBIOS will likely make your card work again.

 

I had similar issues when I first tried replacing my old 460m with my current 6990m. The computer wouldn't recognize it at all. I ended up getting a new mobo since dell fried my first one and when I put the 6990m in in the computer recognized it fine. I never have figured out what happened. Is there any possible way to try the card in another system?

 

I can't seem to be getting this to work. I unistalled both the iGPU and 7970M drivers. When I try to install the 7970M drivers, after it reboots it says something like this driver is not compatible with the graphics card, please install the correct driver. I have tried the FN+F7, but it doesn't seem to do anything. I have tried to install the AMD drivers first, then the HD3000 drivers, nothing (screen wont go above 1280x1024). I tried the other way with the HD3000 drivers then the AMD drivers, but still the same thing.

Edit: The the pop-up says "No AMD graphics driver is installed, or the AMD driver is not functioning properly. Please install the AMD driver appropriate for your AMD hardware." I have tried the hotfixed version posted earlier, the official 12.7 betas, and the official Dell drivers. They all say this.

 

try install the intel hd first than reboot than the amd driver. what card are u having?

 

Already tried, and as I have mentioned above, 7970M (plus it's stated in my sig)

Edit: I think I kinda got it working now. It is showing 2 screens when I go into the Screen Resolution tab. If I try to make the 7970M screen (#2) to display the desktop only, I get a black screen. If I try to make the HD3000 screen (#1) to display the desktop only, I get a white screen. If I try to disable the HD3000 under device manager, I get a black screen. Not sure how to get this working properly.

 

So has anyone gotten this to work on the R3? I'm stuck having 2 monitors, even though I don't have an extra monitor set up. One monitor is for the 7970M and the other is for the HD3000 igpu.

 

Hi skylinelvr, i am had install it at R3 and I do not have issues somehow. Just now i tried to uninstall the amd and 7970m from device manager (offcourse after full image backup) left only intel hd graphics family and restart the pc. Immidiately aftter restart, windows recognized the 7970m and start uploading the driver. After that i run 12.7 beta and thats it..

Im not sure why the card did not detected by your r3. Which 7970m you have (clevo or oem dell)?

I relly think the card vbios ia the culprit why your card did not detected. Even during the 1st bootup after i install the 7970m, i not even uninstall the previous aMd driver and its work straight away.

 

I think for the course of these modding threads dealing with m7970 cards, each person needs to declare up front what card and bios they are using:

m7970(Dell)(BIOS=Stock)
m7970(Clevo)(BIOS=EurocomCopy+Overclock)
m7970(Eurocom)(BIOS=unknown/from NBR member)

 

I have :

7970m bought from upgrade your laptop. I think it is clevo cards.
However, i cant upload the vbious using gpuz. Any other tools to downlod the vbios from this card?

OC stable at 950/1500.

 

When you say enabled them did you set the IGP to enabled or auto?

 

PHP:

I'm not sure why you think my 7970M isn't getting recognized. I never stated that. What I have been saying is that I can't get the switching to work properly. When I press fn+f7 it brings up the pop-up, but when I press yes nothing happens. I thought it tells you to restart. Also, it seems that both cards are recognized at the same time. When I right click on the desktop it allows me adjust settings for both graphics cards. Except instead of listing AMD catalyst on the top, it has configure graphics (or something like that) and adjust switching settings. Also, the major issue is that I now have 2 monitors displayed when I open up the change resolution window. It shows my main desktop on monitor 2 (which is listed as the 7970M under properties) and monitor 1 (which is listed as HD3000) as an extended desktop. When I choose to show desktop only on monitor 2, it just black screens. When I try the same for monitor 1, it white screens. I'm not able to get one monitor set up and allowing switching to work properly.

My 7970M is a Dell card.

 

ashley-aitch - doesn't really matter, can be enabled or auto. I keep it enabled just in case anything strange comes up.

SkylineLvr - I had the same issue as you, only for me did recognize the second screen (display 2) and I could switch in between them to make the 7970m as a default screen without having the issue of being 'black'.

However, first time it took me about 30 minutes to remove completely the AMD driver. There is a lot of stuff remaining behind even after you make a driver removal. You have to go to the registry and remove entries manually. You could also try a clean installation, though that's a long procedure...

 

I guess it just wont work for me then. I have done everything that has been mentioned in this post. I have done a complete removal of all drivers. I even went into the registry and deleted everything that mentioned ATI or AMD. I've done clean installs (they don't take that long). I guess I'm left with just disabling the iGPU until another fix comes out.

 

Hi Guys, Its hard to believe that my card has gone dead!! yesterday, i tried to unistall-install the driver to simulate the procedure when I first install the card on my laptop.

however, suddenly when i disable the igp and boot , there is no display.only sound. 1st I suspect the driver issues.. but now after numerous driver installation the card will not boot if i disable the igp (meaning the card as default cannot boot the laptop?

strange right? but when i replace back to 6990m, the laptop boot normally. Sometimes there is a beep (6 times) not sure what it means. But the bottom point the card is dead? I could not believe experimenting with drivers can make the card dead?

Any ideas please let me know. n0w using the 6990m back :-(

 

Man, so many dead 7970s in this forum. Sorry for that :-( 6 beeps means problem with GPU:

Alienware Beep Codes Table | Dell

 

Yeah i couldnt believe uninstall/installing driver can make the card dead? is the card that sensitive?

just email upgradeyourlaptop to request RMA for this..

 

I know that I am having issues getting switching to work for me. You say when you disable the igpu you can hear sounds, but have no picture? Trying to get switching to work, I have had my screen go black when I try to enable just the 7970M, but I get sound. A restart fixes it for me. Perhaps it's just a setting that needs to be adjusted to get your picture back.

 

I tried boot the laptop with igp disabled it works before but not it wont boot. Not even POST windows. If i enable the igp, it can boot but after POST windows it just black screen. I think this is not a driver issue. Because why now the laptop cannot POST when igp disabled? That time the driver, etc has not been loaded yet?

I tried restarting. If i enable the igp it can boot but when installing the driver, the next rebootwill be blank screen seems no output from 7970m.

Then if i disable the igp and force it to boot windows from 7970m, it can not even get the post screen to appear.

Im still doubt it dead alsp. Maybe i tried full restore from cd and see wheter it works or not later.

update: no luck. still same symptom as before. without changing anything i replace to 6990m back and it works straight away.

i think this gpu is dead.

 

Silly question, when you switch back and forth to the IGP are you also changing from SG to PEG?! Please make sure you do that, otherwise you will end up with 'blind' bios reflash

 

Yes, when igp enable = SG , when disable = PEG.

I had give up already. The main symptom is when i disable igp and set to PEG, the laptop cannot boot at all. No beep no nothing. I think it is not a driver issue because that time no windows driver loaded yet,only post signal but maybe its hang because of the card.

For your card, if you disable igp it sure can boot to windows right?

I am regretting my self for uninstall and installing the driver, maybe it is coincident the card want to dead or is it really doing that can harm the card? Before this, the card run flwlessly.. Now im back with 6990m with the sad face...

How to know the bios is the culprit? How to blind flashing the card?

 

Yes, most probably you have some problem with the card (hardware). There is member of this forum and he is very good at 'bringing your card back'.

Also, you may try this (please note that this is just a recommendation and me or notebookreview.com are not responsible for damaging you card) http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r-your-dead-graphics-card-your-alienware.html

I had trouble with mine also and I did 'cook' the GPU. Nothing happened to it as the 6970m was perfect functionable (even after cooking it). My problem was the LCD. But I got it replaced by Dell.

 

hey guys i'm on vacation so if there are any questions addressed to me, i will definitely get to them when i get back...but will try to get to the internet when i can...i just didn't want to seem rude lol

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk 2

 

Have fun!!!

 

Hey guys, one question here. Do you need to do all the steps mentioned in this thread in order to make work 7970m purchased from Dell upgrade services in order to upgrade specifically m17x R3? Thx.

 

Enjoy the rest of it, safe travels back home and...


we all want souvenirs