Dell m290x in M15x

Heya, i just bought an m290x from raidriar (Thanks bud!) and so far it's incredible how much cooler it runs compared to my 5850m. Two things though,

1. The fans are constantly at full blast. I'm currently using hwinfo to keep them under control but i was under the assumption that Dell cards didn't need this done. Do the fans need to be manually controlled regardless of whether it's a Dell card or not?

2. Whenever i try to play anything the clocks bounce between 450 / 1250 and 300 - 150 constantly. I even fiddled vbios and made sure the clocks were set to 850 - 1250 but it's still never reaches that. Anyone got any ideas on how to fix this?

I'm about to just start installing different drivers to see if that fixes anything.

 

Use HWiNFo64 to control fans. Try to read this article - https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...fighting-the-heat-in-alienware-notebooks-r50/

 

I already have hwinfo setup. My issue is that I thought the Dell branded version of this card was plug and play did not require me to setup a custom table for the fan.

 

I have it two of those cards on my M18X-R2 ( Still waiting for CF cable to arrive ). The fans aren't working either. I have to use the same software to keep the cards cool.

 

Damn, i was hoping it would work like my old 5850m. Oh well. That doesn't bother me so much as the clocks not running the way they should.

 

For some reason this does not apply to the m290x even though it's a Dell card. This is why I went with a less powerful 7970m. I really wanted native fan control. I think Gofspar bought one of those cards. May want to ask him what he's doing with his.

 

Thanks Kosti, I wish i knew about that. If i would have known about that i would have went for a 7970 as well =/
The good news is that I was finally able to get the clocks working by flashing a 8970 bios that i found from here

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/hopefully-a-new-vbios-for-my-amd-radeon-8970m.202555/

The only thing i've noticed now is that the gpu load never went above 30%. i'm barely seeing a difference in performance between this and my 5850m. The only upside is the temps are significantly lower. I don't go above 62c during games. I'm just really hoping this is something i can fix

 

What is your stock GPU Clock and Memory on your R9 M290x ?

 

I currently have it set to 900/1250 at .975

 

So you down clock your GPU Clock ?

and btw , Here is the latest R9 M290X driver from AW 18.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...tails?productCode=alienware-18&driverId=83G9K

do DDU first , reboot and install this driver , reboot , and then go to device manager , find gpu , right click update driver by choosing " Browse my computer for driver software : , choose path to installed directory , update and reboot

 

I'll look on there to see if i find anything for Win7. The driver says it's for Win 10 on the site. I think i'll just try and overclock it and see if i can squeeze more gpu load/ performance. The reason i'm running 900/1250 is cause i thought that was the default since both the stock bios and the one i downloaded have it set to 900/1250.

 

Stock clock is 950/1250. Also I have Win 7 x64 OS installed and I installed that driver fine. Windows Experience bump from 7.5 to 7.9 after I installed the driver i linked. Good Night ..

 

Are you using a 210w adaptor or 330w pin modded?

Your issue sounds like typical clock throttle. By pulling the pin or using the 330w adaptor you dont get any throttle.

Best to keep original 150w as it is a buy a 210w adaptor. Thats works throttle free without any mods.

Pretty sure 950mhz is an OC right? 7970M ran 850mhz stock. 8970M ran a 50mhz bump at 900mhz while m290x is a rebranded 8970M with possibly better binning.

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Do you have MSI afterburner? Try setting the unofficial overclocking mode to Without PowerPlay Support, then set the overclock to the stock clocks and see if that changes anything.

When I modified the vbios in my AMD card, the performance clocks would not change, but I could force them in MSI afterburner.

The only problem if this does actually work is that MSI Afterburner will force the card to run at those clocks all the time, except when you click 'reset'.

 

Stock is 950/1250 ..both of my cards are the same.

Here is an OC vs stock 3DMARK11.

 

Ah wow didnt know that! At what voltage is 990mhz stable?

I have to say not bad at all. Definitely a cut above the 680M if it clocks over 1ghz easily and at low voltage

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Voltage @ 1.075

I was able to have it run at 1075/1295

 

Still having that low load thing. Regardless of whether i use this new bios i flashed, install the previously linked drivers or if i use MSI AB, the load is always around 25%-30%. The clocks stay stable and doesn't throttle anymore but the load is never at 100%.

I'm just going to have to buy a 240w brick i guess. I'm just wondering if it's because of my 150w or if i'm bottlenecking the card with a 820qm.

 

I'm getting my m15x with i7-840QM deliver this coming tuesday. It will have the 150W PSU. I'll throw one of my R9 m290X in it and benchmark for you.

 

Do NOT buy the 240W brick.

Build quality is inferior AND the low load/throttling with still occur. Please listen and get the 210W PSU.

The low load/throttling problem is well documented. The M15x internally cuts power to the gpu if it thinks it is getting close to it's power limits (around 170-180W).

Running the 210W circumnavigates this problem as the M15x doesn't recognise the adaptor. The adaptor will supply power fine to the machine but no throttle will occur as no communication happens between laptops and PSU. Also this means no charging of the battery. That is what the 150W is for.

 

I have a 210W PA7E adapter and it charges my battery.

 

What witchcraft is this!!! Is this using right-angle adapter or direct?

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With the right angle adapter and direct, it charges the battery on both my M15Xs. One is a 6cell battery and the other is a 9cell. It's the 210W PA7E, Dell part number D846D. I of course I have the center pin intact. The BIOS throws out an adapter alert, but I disabled the alert. It also shows the adapter as a 230W, although the adapter itself reads 10.8A (@19.5V) which is 210W.

I thought all these adapters charged the battery, unless the pin is yanked.

 

Well I bought a 330w from hunteroo so I'll be testing if that fixes things or not. Thanks for all the help fellas, I really appreciate it.

 

O.k. I finally got the m15x. I am having issue installing the R9 m290x. The laptop came with a 260m. So basically the x bracket for the r9 m290x tall in height where the screw goes in, thus making the heatsink barely touching the chip. Are you using any shim , or what did you guys do to make it contact correctly?

 

My 7970m has the same bracket as the R9. The screw standoffs are indeed much taller than the stock x-bracket. I used a Vernier caliper to measure the height of the stock x-bracket standoffs (I think they were 3.5-4mm in height). I then used a file to file down the standoffs for the new x-bracket until the same height was achieved. I did this slowly, measuring my progress with the caliper all along. Don't file away too much metal.

I removed the x-bracket from the 7970m before doing this. This was a bit of a chore because the double-sided tape holding it to the card was quite strong. I used a hair drier to soften the glue on the tape, then carefully pulled it off. Make sure not to damage the black insulating material that sits between the bracket and the card when doing this.

Also keep an eye on the heatpipes. On my card, one of the heatpipes was grinding down on one of the card's VRMs, hindering the heatsink's heat spreader from sitting flush with the GPU die. I had to flatten and bend the heatpipe slightly to achieve clearance from the VRM; then the heat spreader made solid contact.

I also recommend proper thermal pads for these cards. I am now using Arctic 1mm pads on the VRAM and VRMs.

I am using the stock screws with c-clips that come with the heatsink. Contact is now good and paste (Arctic MX-4) spreads evenly. Temps are around 33C idle and 65C load.


Good luck.

 

So i got my 330w (Thanks Hunteroo!) and everything seems pretty stable. The gpu load is now around 60% which I'm going to blame my cpu as a bottle neck. Either way I have th car at 975/1350 at 1.25v and under load doesn't go past 72c.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how this thing performs. I can't to get my hands on a 920xm to really see this card do some work. Right now I jury rigged some screws from the nameplate with some tiewraps to keep the heat sink in full contact. It looks like it's working ok as a temp solutions

 

There's a guy in the marketplace parting out his M17X. He has a 940xm for sale if you're interested.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/fs-m17x-r2-parts.788814/

 

That is a damn good deal for a 940XM! I was tempted by the RAM but a brand new kit of HyperX 16GB is only £9 more so....

 

****, i'm so tempted but I gotta slow down with my upgrades right now due to lack of funds =/

 

how`d you manage to get your M290x working i installed one and my comp is going herp derp now

 

What exactly is wrong? Does it boot? Is it overheating?

 

Classic throttle issue. Buy a 210W dell adaptor and pull the central pin out to solve your problems for gaming.

Keep 150W for charging battery.

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Also it is well known fact that m290x will cause fans to run at 100% only way to control is with hwinfo or change card.

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H

KOI, I got some throttling going on today for some strange reason. I already pulled the center pin. I think I read somewhere that you enable and then disable stealth mode or something like that to eliminate the throttling. Can you confirm this? It's not throttling at the moment but just wondering what you suggest.

 

Pulling out the center pin should do the trick.

Sometimes I find stealth mode is engaged but dont notice. Best way to see is to open gpu z and run the render test while checking clock speeds.

If card isnt running at full speed toggle the stealth mode on and off to get full 3d clocks.

Then game way. Keep an eye on temps of course.



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Cool, thanks. I actually found a couple of useful tools for this. Linked below:

This one toggles stealth on and off:

http://www.sharpdevel.com/2009/10/alienware-m17x-stealth-mode.html

This one runs in the taskbar. Alienware logo is green at full power and red when stealth mode is enabled. Download link on post 87.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/stealth-mode-indicator.463382/page-9#post6589020

 

If your battery doesn't work or pulled out, stealth mode newer will turn on.

 

It is good to have a UPS as backup

Neat find there kosti! May have a play around with that.

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True. I still need it connected cause I get brownouts and blackouts here all the time.

 

If you still have your M290X ArchNemesis you can check this post out!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...70m-cf-on-m18x-r1.735007/page-8#post-10555565