970m M15x!

I used the 1 mm ones for the mem........like i told in the other treat :laugh: as well. 7 kw :thumbsup: but i also have a o,5 mm x 100 x 100 under the gtx970, make sure they cant move when the heatsink is on the Gpu.

 

I bought my 970 from rjtech and it came with a heat sink with pre cut pads attached. I just transferred it over to the m15x heat sink and no issues were had.

 

It's nice to see gtx 970m working on m15x . May be I should pull the trigger for my m17x r2 .
This is the best gpu upgrade for the $ you pay.
+1 for OP for giving it a shot.
Btw is this a dell card ?

 

It's a clevo. I'm considering getting a m17x r4. I believe others have installed the 980m with no issues but I'd like to try it. The 920xm has a bit of trouble keeping up. A 3920xm sounds pretty good.

 

Thanks for letting me know .
But your benchmarks doesnt show much of a gpu bottleneck , so I don think its worth to go for m17x r4 because the performance increase is going to be minimal whech compared your oc'd 920xm with 3920xm .

 

The performance gain could actually be considerable. Mileage varies but the 920xm or the stock vbios is not allowing full gpu usage in some games. It's slight but it can be noticeable. Even at 3.6 ghz the 920 struggles to keep up with the 970m it seems and that's at stock clocks but once again it may just be the vbios at this time. Plus the m17x would just be in addition to my laptop arsenal not a replacement for a system. I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to tech.

 

Oh and the display port works perfectly with the 970m. I got audio and screen mirroring with no problems just in case anyone wanted to know.

 

Why don't you try DSR (dynamic super resolution) in nvidia control panel to run games at 1440p and downscale to 1080p. Its suppose to make images looks amazing. That should bring the 970M inline with the 920xm, making CPU less of a bottleneck as GPU has to work harder.

 

I'll look into it. Do i need to disable any ingame settings or anything like that? Or does it work in conjunction?

 

Set it in the driver settings/Nvidia control panel and it makes the game think you have a 1440p monitor. It's suppose to be amazing!

 

Yea sometimes it's a huge improvement ,
It depends man.
May be a dell vbios would be perfect for your card .

Won't it reduce the fps due to more load ?

 

If the CPU is bottlenecking the GPU then fps should stay the same if GPU load is increased until GPU load exceeds CPU bottleneck.

 

Hey Fatboy, you sure DSR works on mobile? Though it hadn't be enabled yet?

 

No idea! I've got an AMD card

 

I've got stock cooling and I'm considering a 970m/980m or a 7970m.

Would I require to perform a cooling mod like koi did? I'd really hate to do that as I'd have to lug around two giant fans with the whole system looking kinda ugly :S

I'm also wondering if my CPU would be a massive bottleneck as Nehalem mobile quads are generally pretty bad from my perspective. It's a 740QM.

Would I be better off "upgrading" to a 640m? It's a dual core, but the clock speeds and HT are super nice.

 

a 640m would not help in the case of a bottleneck for your gpu. HT is not better than more cores but it's not really the cores that are holding the cpu back it's the architecture. A 970m requires no special cooling. It has a TDP of 80 watts I believe and does not get very hot. But like any gpu it can heat up under stressful situations. I've been looking into getting a 940xm. It wouldn't really make a difference as it's basically the exact same as my 920xm. I'll make you a good deal on my 920 and go pick up a 940 if you need an extreme quad core cpu. Otherwise I can highly recommend the 970m it performs very well and should very much so exceed your expectations.

 

Hmm?

How much would you sell it for? I'm quite interested

Also, The 970m is only 80w!?!

That's 5 less than my 5850m!

Hooray! No cooling mods!! *flails arms around*

 

I bought it for $220. So just shoot me a pm we can talk about it.

 

I have a 940xm and have yet to reap any rewards of it's "extra features" compared to a 940xm. I could run 4 cores @27x stable at one point but something changed and I occasionally get BSOD now. Possibly higher binned than 920xm but not sure.

 

iam selling a 920xm on ebay at the moment. If it doesn't sell I can shoot you a PM.

 

Is yours the one on ebay for $220?

Eeepo is offering to sell his to me for $180 and I'm pretty sure I'm going to take it once I get the cash.

 

Actually it is for sale at 115 pounds (180 dollars) starting bid at the moment.

However it is based in the UK and if it doesn't sell it will go back to Japan with me. I guess you are in the states meaning eepo's chip might be cheaper on the shipping for you.

 

So're your happy with milk's 920xm? How is overvolting going?

 

Not great. The laptop does not like the chip at +200mv. Unfortunately +100mv doesn't work on the 920xm as far as I know.

At +200mv I can run at over 4.2ghz all cores but get random BSOD's pretty quickly. The voltage is simply too high on the chip. I am looking maybe at watercooling but I might just give up on the whole overvolting shenanigan....gotmilk's 920xm can run 3.6ghz on 3-4 threads all day even in prime 95 and 3.72ghz on 1-2 cores. That is an improvement over the previous chip so I don't completely lose out.

Anyways let's see. I don't give up easily...hehe

 

Can't you do something inbetween 100 and 200 mV? What about 200mV at 4Ghz or slightly less?
Does your throttlestop look like this? I can't go higher than x26 on four cores anymore. I have previously run benchmarks and done some gaming on x27 on four cores but that crashes now.
I'm using 100/80 and x26 four cores. What are you using for x27?

 

I have C1E ticked and more data. Otherwise it is the same.

Honestly though it depends from chip to chip. My other 920xm that I am struggling to sell ran only .3.2ghz across all cores stable in prime 95. Also it ran at a lower voltage than my current one.

Your chip might simply top out at 26x, It isn't a bad clock afterall without a voltmod.

+200mv pushes my chip to nearly 1.45V which is the rated maximum. It runs a good +80mv higher than my previous 920xm. That chip was ok with +200mv with no bluescreen although it didn't OC as well. I guess the M15x cpu voltage circuits do have their limits. Somewhere around 1.4V!

I have tried other VIDs but nothing works. VID 3 is ineffective to give me +100 and the other vids which are next to not above or below the VSS when grounded do not allow me to even POST. The pin doesn't seem to connect properly. So basically it seems I can only use +200 and nothing else.

Sucks really. It is possible apparently with basic soldering skills to create a mod whereby the voltage can be freely controlled but I have no idea in how to implement it nor do I have any skill with a soldering iron nor experience.

Anyways the holy grail I think would be watercooling on the cpu with detachable fittings this would mean minimal modding required to the access panel too. While for the gpu a modern card like the 970M enables cool operation with stock cooling. As mike recently demonstrated the cpu running at 24x after 10 mins in Prime 95 ran in the 50sC. Very impressive. This mod combined with a proper voltage control mod for the cpu would bring the M15x to new levels! 4ghz would be easily attainable at sustainable cool temperatures.

 

I think you got lucky with your first 920xm in that it ran stock at such a low voltage, thus was able to overvolt well. Now you have a higher voltage one at stock which overclocks better but doesn't overvolt as well. You can't expect all 920xm's to overvolt so well I think. Just shows you the tolerances that Intel deems acceptable in their binning process. I would be interested to see what voltage my 940xm runs at in comparison and how it would fair when overvolted.
I wouldn't lose confidence in your abilities what with: the KOI cooling mod, only the second person ever to overvolt 920xm in M15x and the PSU mod that stops throttling in M15x! You just need really steady fingers to solder.

Agreed GTX 970M running nice and cool with pretty epic gaming performance at 1080p is really exciting but I'm not going to even consider it until actual Dell cards become available or svl7 releases a tweaked BIOS for the Clevo cards. He seems to be taking his sweet time this time round. Where would we be without him and you!

 

Fatboy, my 970M runs perfectly at stock out of the box.. No throttling or any issues... Unlocked vBIOS is only for those who need to OC for benchmarks but it's not needed for games at all... I have a Clevo vBIOS somemore..

 

What 3D Mark 11 score can you get? You should be able to beat 10k easily. Svl7 achieved 10k+ with a GTX 880M and the 970M is slightly faster at stock so....

 

As far as i am reading there wil never be a gtx 970m special made for Alienware or Dell they are going on fixed solderd GPU from now, not sure if that bios wil work than. And agree with Tom as well gtx 970m runs very cool and good (did need to overclock my CPU tho.

 

Wait, What? Alienware is going to stop using MXM?! That's terrible news.

Guess I'll be buying Clevo laptops from now on.. Or will I? The m15x seems futureproof from graphics cards, but the CPU is the main bottleneck here. I might get an m18x soon as that has some pretty powerful cpus and has dual mxm slots.

 

I can give you a firestrike score with 3940XM @ 4.2GHz on 4 cores plus 970M with +135 core and +400 memory which is 7407: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M17xR4

Can't do more till prema makes an unlocked vBIOS for me..

Yup looks like that way although nothing's confirmed.. CPU is definetly BGA...

 

I really, really have a thing in for BGA. I absolutely dread it.

You can't just replace the part as it's soldered to the board. That means no upgrades or replacements, and once it dies, it dies, unless you've got the money to get it reballed, or if you're a soldering wizard. This is an absolute ridiculous direction that Alienware is taking. Some people only buy Alienware because of the upgradebility they have. I'm just hoping that Asus and Clevo don't do the same.

 

Asus have already gone the BGA route and G751 is pretty much full BGA... Clevo are doing both BGA and PGA (using laptop CPU's for now and will be using desktop CPU's increasingly from the P751ZM).. So Clevo it will be next..

 

s***! I wasn't aware that the new Asus laptops were BGA garbage! I'm really quite sad now.

So it's likely that MXM will be discontinued soon and the world will go full BGA? This is a world that I do not wish to live in..

 

MSI still use MXM modules and so do Clevo... I don't think it will be discontinued but it may die out in 2-3 years..

 

I couldn't care less for msi. I don't like them. Edgy designs, Apple like fanbase, and they're overpriced.

 

My my we are pessimistic aren't we !?

With each new generation MXM gpu's are closing the gap with desktop gpu's. Not in price but certainly with performance.

In 2-3 years performance might be so similar between the platforms that desktop's will simply become obsolete. This hopefully will guarantee a niche DTR market which will retain replaceable gpu's and cpu's.

 

That's actually true king! I can't believe I never thought of that before..

The 980m is as fast if not faster than a desktop 7870 I believe. They are indeed catching up, and as you were saying laptops will eventually make desktops obsolete. I do hope MXM continues to be used, I'd be heartbroken if that wasn't the case. BGA sucks

 

It is faster than a desktop 680 GTX lol waaay faster than a 7870! 980M apparently 40% faster than 880M. So I guess it is about 20-25% faster stock for stock faster than the GTX 680.

It might evolve to a new form factor though due to the introduction of HBM memory etc. Size of the card and power requirements might necessitate it. Hopefully there will be a BGA/PGA alternative!

 

I just checked this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGSajLEWkuI

And holy f***..

This is truly amazing. It's flatout beating the desktop 680 and is almost beating the desktop 780..

 

What's your firestrike score? You've got an extreme proc right?

 

Here's my firestrike score with a 3940XM and a +135 core and +400 memory (memory clock only increases to 200MHz over boost so in effect + 200)...

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M17xR4

I'm trying to make Prema release a unlocked vBIOS for the 970M and I will share it once he does it and we can see how far the M15x can go

 

Here is my firestrike score. Stock and OC. Yes I have an extreme cpu.

Stock


OC

 

Max stable OC I've done on 344.75 is +300 core and +600 memory (+300 on boost memory clock) with power target on 130% and 1.056V..

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M17xR4

I've pretty much reached the limit however, I think there is a few MHz that can be inked out with a little tweaking and hopefully a better driver then 344.75..

 

Guys, isn't this a Dell MXM 3.0 970M card? It says that in the description.

Nvidia GTX 970M 6GB Upgrade KIT FOR Alienware 17 AND M17X R4 | eBay

 

My bad, it doesn't say Dell anywhere so it's probably the clevo version, same as yours.

You both mentioned that you had some throttling issues? How is that going? Can you also post some benchmarks?

 

I'm not having any throttling issues anymore and that is a benchmark.

 

Hi mate,

You want to get this directly from the Hide website.. Contact the rep on Ebay who is named Ted and get a quote from them. They will reduce by $20 if you insist so do try.. Order through the website and make sure you tell them that you require everything in the kit and they will deliver it properly to you..

 

Isn't this what you were looking for?

NVIDIA Maxwell VBIOS mods - 900m series overclocking versions

Have any of you tested it? It seems to run smooth and unlock quite a lot of features.