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

hmmm what was it again? there was a keyboard shortcut to that, Fn+F7 i think? restart required and enduro is switched off, thus ure 100% on the dGPU

oh and btw, heres a nice notebookcheck review of the R4 sporting the 7970M. worrisome thing tho: with enduro enabled u lose a big chunk of fps! so better to switch it off via Fn+F7 when gaming/benching!

cheers

 

Awesome thanks... I've read about that short cut but it seems the results were mixed... but I'll give it a go right now... cheers!!

EDIT: Much better! a quick Novabench shows an improvement from 1066 to 1422! That's a 34% increase... 8)

 

If I repaste the 7970M in my R4, do I have to do anything special other than remove the heatsink, repaste, and replace? Will the thermal pads be messed up if I take off the heatsink?

 

nah, all good,no worries thermal pads can be reused without any problem so ure good to go!

btw holy crap! 34% difference without enduro?!?!? that is just wrong.... at least it worked tho

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2

 

Great, thanks +rep

It's not running hot or anything - maxing out at 70C during games. But let's see if I can get it any lower.

 

Here's an excellent and comprehensive Guide to repasting both GPU and CPU, with illustrations. It was written for the R3, but applies equally to the R4 and will walk you through the process with minimum fuss. http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/561599-m17x-r3-cpu-gpu-re-pasting-guide-w-pics.html. Also, a useful video: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/569484-m17x-r3-6970m-re-pasting-video-guide.html.

 

Enduro is completely wacked right now. Shut it off for max performance regardless of platform. Maybe things get better when drivers mature.

 

Hi SlickDude
I have followed your guide for overlocking the 7970M but the core is stucked at 860mhz and can't be higher. i have set it to 1000 but the monitor shows always 860. do you know why?

 

That's a bug in MSI Afterburner. Mine does the same...but when i load the GPU, the mhz goes up to what it is suppose to.

Try this: run a 3dmark11 at stock clocks. Then run another overclocked. You should see a large difference in score. This is how you can tell if the overclock is working.

 

Dear SlickDude
You are completely right. I got intially P5500 with my CPU 2760QM and now at 950/1350 I got P6030.
According to you which overlocking Frequence will be best for this card?

 

try 980/1450...have fun

 

YES SIR! Well Noted

 

awesome bro serioesly awesome guide
the overclocking part really helped me !

now tell some stuffs
i overclocked my 7970M
u will find it here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/561350-official-alienware-m17x-benchmark-thread-part-4-a-303.html#post8552034

 

will it have any fan or audio problem if I install eurocom 7970m? Or the eurocom 7970m doesn't has any difference with dell's? Thank you.

 

Thnx bro! Hope you are having fun with it

what do the guys from eurocom (upgradeyourlaptop) say? From what i gather, most, if not all 7970's in Alienwares are currently dell cards. There is a delay on Clevo cards because there is a manufacturing snafu with the clevo cards. I wouldn't install those cards until they fix the issues.

but assuming they fix their problems, and using the clevo 6990's as an example, they should install and work fine. I think you could flash a dell vbios on it too.

But, the guys at Eurocom are suppose to be testing on Alienware so why not shoot them a quick email and update this thread with the info

 

as far as ive read upgradeyoulaptop said the clevo cards worked fine on the alienwares with the exception of the obligatory hwinfo manual fan control u lucky b a s t a r d s haha

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2

 

jaybee, i heard that the 7970m is a no go for the HM's...so i guess your only route is the 680m when it comes out?

 

*sigh*

well, theres still some hope. prema and svl7 for one, with their mad bios-hack skills are trying some avenues to get them to work in our beloved HM machines. eurocom and mythlogic have also already declared their support in trying to make it happen.

as for the 680M: my hopes arent that high concerning compatibility, since AMD cards are supposed to lack some kinda implemented MXM structure software base that Nvidia cards have, which makes more tweaks n hacks necessary to get it to work on unsupported machines

ah well, in any case, ill wait at least till haswell or maybe even the next "tock" after that till i sell my machine im a bit icky about buying laptops during a "tick" besides, i just LOVE this beast! best computer ive ever had, seriously *goes to bed falling asleep while gently stroking his HM beauty*

cheers

 

LOL...and i thought i was the only one that did that

(kidding...kind of hahahahaha)

 

were both LA - laptoholics anonymous

 

man, god forbid your wife shouldn't find these threads

 

damn grazzt! just saw ure getting a new 7970M! lets hear the details

 

LOL...these threads are waay too geeky for her to even bother with lol

Looks like someone is getting a replacement. Looks like perma smile is gonna be coming back, right grazzt?

 

holy perma smile will take over hopefully I am ordering a heatsink right away!

 

Hey Guys - need some help here.

Running clean install of windows from teh dell disks on an R4 with only the 7970m (intel4000/enduro is disabled using the fn F7 ) - edited the .cfg file of Afterburner as instructed, edited the registry as instructed, but not able to overclock.

I noticed that my registry is much shorter with only thre entries 000, 001, and 002 - and the 001 entry doesn't have the enableUPS option ( although 000 and 002 do )

Will post screen shots of the registry in a second but not sure where to go from here. The editing of the Afterburner .cfg seemed easy enough but in case I had a typo I cut and pasted the "I fully understand and accept " nonsense after typing it out the first time - didn't work either.

Even without overclocking I am having perma-smile as this is my first alienware ( did try to by an m11x refurb from Dell outlet but they shipped it with a dead motherboard so I promptly returned it ) and am really impressed by what this puppy can do.

Thanks

 

hooker, can you double check that your cfg file saved. Post a screen shot of your file where you editted it

 

But I noticed that it was saved as a txt file ( said .cfg but in properties it said txt file)



And when I changed that...



Really big smiles!

Thanks! Really was easy! Great guide.

 

Thnx. Glad you got that figured out

 

Hi SlickDude80, any idea on when AMD will release the new official driver for 7970m?

 

Congrats on the new card bro!! hope everything goes smoothly this time.

 

Very informative thread slickdude, I'm sure it helped a lot of people
Keep it up

 

i think the 12.5s will support 7970m. I'm currently using the beta

Thnx bro!

 

Seems AMD just released another beta driver-12.6, not 12.5 WHQL...
going to test to see if any improvement has been made.

 

i don't know if the official 12.6 beta suppports AMD 7970m

but this modded one should:

AMD Catalyst 12.6 BETA – 7900 MOD – BenchmarK3D

 

it doesn't. I have to force install using device manager.

 

Thank you bro! I'll test that : )

have tested, both the official and modified version don't support 7970m in M15x as well...

 

anybody ordered the 7970m kits from Dell yet?

747M2 AMD Wimbledon XT 7970m - $560.xx

8DG8P AMD Wimbledon XT 7970m Kit (Video card 747M2 + Support Plate 3PVGK)
- $315.xx


Why are they telling me the 8DG8P Wimbledon XT is only 300?!?! Im so confused.

 

What's the max temp a GPU should run at to consider ''safe''?
Trying to run Furmark but at 900/1250 the gpu shot up to 72c.

A big part of that is because I don't have a proper space for the laptop, and the vents are pretty much blocked.
Because it's on a table with soft cloth blocking the exhaust vents.

Also should I run FurMark at native 1080p res or use 1280x?

 

72 is pretty safe. I think 70c is the norm for Furmark on the 7970m.

I have two cards that run at 90C during some games and they've been with me for a year and a half now.

 

Hi SlickDude
Does this new driver works for 17R3? As said by lthuiyi it didn't work for 15x
Thanks in advance.

 

I had the modded 12.6 beta installed but removed it because 3dmark scores went down.

So i'm back to the 12.5 betas modded for 7970m

These ones:
AMD Catalyst 8.97 18 April – 7900 MOD – BenchmarK3D

so yes they do work in the R3

Arai, you dont want soft cloths blocking the intake vents. Lift up the back of the laptop with something. I use bottlecaps on eitherside

 

Same here. I am back on 12.5 beta, too. Neither the modded nor the AMD 12.6 beta works properly for me. Like long2905, I had to do a force install through Device Manager. My screen flashed at least 10 times. My performance dropped measurably and CrossFire functionality was impaired using 12.6 beta.

 

Makes 3 then, tried it but didn't like what I was seeing.
Back to the trusty ol' 12.5, best driver so far for the 7970m...IMO.
+1 rep slick

 

im having issues getting my core clock higher then 900, its showing 860 in the afterburner monitor window, while my memory will show the correct clock settings, how are you guys installing those beta drivers, did you uninstall the old driver then install the beta ? any help would be great

 

guys, just wanted to share these WONDERFUL news with you:

starting to turn into a happy camper baby! yeeehaw!

special thanks goes to everyone who helped the HM petition to get sager/clevo to move their butts

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2

 

This is very encouraging! At least they are looking into it

 

You folks with 7970M might want to check out the driver info I posted to see how it works with your beasts.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...roblems-discussion-thread-62.html#post8582240

 

Thnks Mr Fox! I will give it a run later

 

Hey guys, can anyone tell me for certain if I can install a 7970m Eurocom card into my Alienware m17x R3? Will I have fan control issues? I am getting ready to join the waiting list over at Eurocom for a 7970m (rep said they will be shipping late June)... They quoted me $575... Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

 

i'm hesistant to say yes to that because Eurocom took such a long time "testing" their cards in an Alienware m17x. Did they tell you that it would work or not. Maybe you can flash it with a Dell Vbios so the fans will work, but i would ask them the question first