7970m in a M15x....Why yes

ssj92 & King of Interns, thank you very much for the extremely quick reply! I really appreciate the direct links since I wasn't sure if the official AMD site would work or I would get a customized version as the answer to the question. I just wanted it to be clear for me and any others who later stumble upon this awesome thread. Also, very excited to see your running Win8, ssj92, and not having any issues :thumbsup: Been playing FFXIV at the moment and can't wait for the official relaunch!

 

Ok, finally decided to make the GPU upgrade from my 5850 after a lot of forum scrolling!

I believe that this is the 7970 that is compattable with the m15x (pretty much plug and play):
AMD MSI 7970M 2GB for Alienware m17x m18x MSI 16F1 1761 16F2 upgrade monkey | eBay

If someone could confirm if thats the case that would be great!

I have a 128 GB SSD and a drive caddy incomming also to replace my unwell dvd drive.

Should make a hell of a difference when they are both installed!

I saw a post on here somewhere but i am having trouble finding it. Can someone surgest the best copper shims and paste to use as i would rather not do any grinding if possible?

Thanks in advance

 

I recommend to buy only a dell card. Whether it be OEM,QS or ES it doesn't matter however the card WILL work if it is dell. If it isn't it is likely to give you a headache. EG, no native fan control, enduro vbios issue, no sound on HDMI out etc.

I really urge you to look around therefore for dell cards only.

 

Ok thanks, i will keep back until i find a Dell card. So far no luck. Found 1 on Ebay in the US but i would like to find 1 in the UK or around to compair prices.

Any ideas on shops that actually stock them?

*edit*
I have phoned the Dell upgrade line and they are looking to see if they have 1.

The only other place i have found that seems to stock them is:
http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/SP/HD7970.html

Im guessing these are 3rd party cards also.

 

keep on eye on nbr marketplace too.

 

I confirm the card does work on m15x 940xm if it is a Dell card. Like King of Interns said the BIOS will be configured properly and pretty much makes it plug and play. I had to grind my Xplate sockets to get contact with the GPU and it peaks at 78C on games, like FFXIV, without tweaking the voltage on stock settings. If you have read this thread completely then you should have all the info you need for install. You can use a shim but make sure it is the right size and it is as pure copper as you can get without air melded in it. I would recommend grinding the sockets so you get full heat transfer from the GPU to the heatsink. I am not sure what your going to be running on you m15x but it will help keep the temps down.

 

Hi all,
I have been working on my upgrade from 260m to 7970m for the last week. Reading through forums I was able to install Part Number 747M2 with new Fujipoly Premium System Builder Thermal Pad, Arctic Silver 5, grinding the Xplate sockets for heatsink/gpu contact and utilizing the foil MOD for the fan/heatsink. I am running stock 850c/1200m and 1.0V. The problem is I am still having heat issues when I try to run FFXIV or the WEI. The temp is peaking above 85C! It does seem to want to stay around 75C on average but the peaks will shut things down. I thought I would try and flash the BIOS to under volt the card to get it in line. I followed the instructions and flashed the BIOS. When I flash the MODvBIOS from svl7 for .975v & .95v with the correct checksums it had the same OLD/NEW values for everything. I test each flash and the voltage did not adjust. It still caps at 1.0V and same heating issues. Also none of the clocking/voltage adjusting programs allow for a decrease in voltage either. It seems like the settings are locked and I am left with GPU that runs hot... Does anyone have the same issues or any ideas on how to solve the problem? Thanks ahead of time for advice! b(~_^)d d-(^_^)-b (b^_^)b
Display device : AMD Radeon HD 7970M
Display driver : Catalyst 13.2
BIOS : 015.017.000.001
Alienware M15x | Intel i7 940XM | 1080p | AMD 7970M | Windows 8 Pro |

 

I have a similar issue with my 6990m where I altered bios to 1.0v but hwinfo shows max volts at 1.05.

Install ATI tray tools and under the overclock menu you can set voltages there. 1.0v is actually 1000 though so be careful with that.


Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk HD

 

Looks like I made some progress on the temps by flashing again and it did lower the voltage to .975v but it won't flash the .95v... MSI & ATI clocking tools will not unlock voltage but I did lower the core clock to 800 and memory to 1000. With these adjustments and the ones I mentioned above I can finally pass WEI (peak temp 74C) and FFXIV (peak temp 80C). I wish I could somehow get my game peak temp down to at least 75C or maybe 78C. If I run the game for long periods it peaks into lower 80C. My system shut down at 85C due to the high heat. Anyone have a brilliant suggestion for getting it down further? Thanks

 

Ashram are you using RBE? Were you able to use the GPU register button to edit the voltages? These are greyed out on both the dell bios and my stock (clevo) bios.
Many guides say not to edit voltages on the main screen.

 

I used a modified BIOS svl7 created and posted on Tech l Inferno and others had tested. It took my GPU down from 1.0v to .975v but the .95v file did not work. I did not use RBE but I will look into it. I did read that some people are unable to use the tool due to later stock BIOS versions on later parts from dell for my 7970m.

EDIT: Update, try turbo boost at the top right touch bar. When I had my Nvidia 260m it would always cause bad performance, but try it with the 7970. I noticed it lowers the voltage on the 7970 further and lowering temps greatly. If I keep turbo boost on I think I will need to now overclock the core and memory to get better performance from the 7970 since the lowered voltage lags its performance. I will have to test this further

New EDIT: New update! I have figured it out... svl7's BIOS work fine but I now know why it didn't result in a complete flash right after. Do exactly as he has posted but you must uninstall all drivers from your m15x and then go to Device Manager and uninstall the card. Then reinstall drivers and reset. You will then experience the flash as intended... Who knew right!?! Hope this helps anyone else who might have over looked these steps. The new lowered .95v flashed BIOS has fixed all heat issues. Card is working fine and all the little extras I did to try and get it cooler keep the temps efficient. :thumbsup:

 

Is the bracket of the 5850 compatible with the 7970? I've read that it both works fine and that it needs to be hacked down. Thanks!

 

Hey. I used svl7s bios program to mod my vbios as well, but I just had to flash them and it was instantly implemented... weird. Enigwolf, I think I have been using the bracket from my 5870m. Im pretty sure anything with the same size screw holes as the previous x bracket will work. My 7970m came with a different x bracket and included the new screws to use it, but i was too lazy to remove the old screws from my heat sink because they are stuck on with these little "c" things. So I stuck on the old x bracket, and it works.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-flashing-vbios-may-work-other-gpus-also.html

 

I recommend 875/1400 at 0.975V on the 7970M. Dead stable, cool and powerful to boot (the extra bandwidth especially helps out)

 

King of interns you are using a dell 7970m right? I bought mine from eurocom I think it cannot handle as high of voltage and clocks as yours lol. I just wanted to check people always put out rumors that the dell ones are superior. Currently im running it at 1v and 875/1350 I was previously using 1.025v and getting throttling but im not sure if that was for some other reason, with this setup it never throttles now.

And while im posting in this thread... I just want reccomend against ANYBODY getting a 7970m with a 720qm or weaker cpu unless they are crazy OCing the cpu cus when i had the 720qm it was always bottlenecking my 7970m but now the 920xm complements it very nicely, as many have said before.

 

IT seems up to 1V is the sweet spot. I got great performance per watt up to 900/1450 at 1V. Beyond that clockspeed the voltage quickly increased. When I have a moment I am going to set it back to those clocks and voltage and leave it there until/if I upgrade in 6 months time or so. Although as there isn't much difference in performance BUT credible reduction in heat at 0.975V at 875mhz I might just go for that. I will try 900/1450 again first. I think that is the max I will ever try with the 7970M.

Here is to hoping the next true gen card will be more efficient.

 

I can also recommend 875/1400 @ 0.975 v
Runs so smooth and cool!

Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk HD

 

I have a 740qm, how could you tell your cpu was bottlenecking your card?

 

Overclocking your gpu wouldn't improve benchmarks or gaming performance if your CPU is bottlenecking it.

 

what benchmark were you running to check the performance and by how much were you overclocking by? i'll check later to see if i have an issue.

tested and i think i should be okay

at .975v 850/1200 i got 4078 and
at .975v 875/1250 i got 4203

 

So, I have gone through about half of this thread, but wondering if we have a link to a supplier that sells this card and the appropriate bracket. Hate to spend any more on this laptop, but my 5850 is dying and can't justify Haswell/780m yet with the limited options out there.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

Web shops such as upgrademonkey or upgradeyourlaptop are found on eBay but are hugely overpriced.
I bought my 7970m from the marketplace here on NBR from a trusted member. Might be your best option to wait for another one to be listed for sale.

 

It's good advice, and I appreciate the feedback fatboyslimerr, but I really need to get this taken care of before I have a hard failure. I did a little trade-off assessment and decided it is probably just time to retire this PC and pick up a new one. I will hold onto it and repair it when I can get my hands on a cheap card through the marketplace, I'd like to hand it down to my kids as it is plenty powerful enough for them still.

 

can you please reply my pm? i've been sending you msges from a week ago without any reply..
i have paid you $2500 2 months ago and i still have not receive the laptop dude.
please reply me asap and let me know whats going on!!
thanks!