M15x & 6970M / 6990M - What you need to know - upgrading, problems, solutions

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Very nice, svl7. Thanks. +Rep when allowed.

 

Very nice indeed!! Great job on this! (+Rep when allowed)

 

Nice! I can rep so +rep! Shame I'm an nvidia boy for my work
Edit: No I can't but +rep when allowed!

 

Great job!!! i will be upgrading to this card in the future and only because someone like you has been the Guinea pig,i would never have done this first and taken the risk with my beloved m15X +rep and + rep again..Thank you man!!!

 

Ahh, just what i was thinking. Great ! + Rep

 

i just wanted to post earlier on the main thread if you could summarise the whole job in another thread but it seems you`ve taken care of it . GG

 

Thanks a lot guys, I hope it will help all the people who want to power up their M15x!

 

This definitely nice to know!

I plan on getting a Dell 6970 but there's quite a bit of games and other priorities i have to take care of =(

 

Thanks! +rep!

 

Is there anyway to keep the 6970m in 3d clock. I think that the only way to keep mine from throttling.

 

Hi!

So pairing the 6970m with a 720/740m is less risky compared to pairing it with extreme processors like the 920/940m due to power consumption?

So I can Oc the 6970m more because the 720/740m doesnt need the same power consumption like the 920/940m?

Thanks.

 

It's only riskier if you're greedy. Run a lower TDP setting for your gaming profile and there shouldn't be any problems.

 

Easier maybe, as opposed to less risky. The greater power available from the extreme processors requires more thought and judgment, and probably more knowledge, when coupled with the 6970m to achieve the best results. Remember that Throttlestop can be used to downclock as well as overclock. You can turn a 920xm into a 720/740qm if that results in the greatest performance. It's just a matter of understanding and managing the power available for the greatest benefit. P15,000+ in Vantage in a M15x proves the value of the transplant. Extraordinary performance boost.

 

You can force the high clocks with modding the vbios. Change the 2d clocks to 3d clocks. But that's not something you really want, because of the heat for example.
There must be a different way to get this working. You already tried clean installing the CCC and drivers, right?

The Rev explained it perfectly.
Whether you can overclock the card more than I depends on your card... mine seems to take no higher clocks than about 830-840MHz core, higher clocks will result in a driver crash after a while. It's not a power issue that's limiting the overclockability of my card, I guess I already got to the limits of my card.

 

So what sort of mods have u set on throttle stop to accommodate for the 920xm and 6970 to work properly (if any?)
Good info +rep

 

I'm currently using msi afterburner to overclocked and it seem to solve my throttling issue. I even get to overclocked my CPU to x25 on all four core. I can run bfb2 now at a average of 90+ fps. . @ slv7, it be great if we can run the fan control in the back ground. It kinda annoying having it on the desktop all the time.

 

No mod needed, the only problem with the 6970m and an extreme processor is when you overclock both quite hard an run a combined benchmark test (like the last one in 3dMark11) or generally spoken if you have a very high load on both GPU and CPU while having both overclocked. This will draw more power than the PSU can deliver.

The overclocked 920xm alone can draw more power than my 6970m... (that's with extreme TDP settings above 100, I only do this for benching hunting some scores...) So far it hasn't been a problem at all in real life use, as long as the CPU is at stock settings.

I think even a 22-23x across all cores and a TDP of about 80 will work for daily use, although I haven't tested this a lot yet. Actually I don't need to overclock the CPU for gaming and I definitely don't need to overclock the 6970m for gaming...

With stock settings there is definitely no issue with the power draw, even with an extreme processor.

Great to hear this!! I don't overclock my GPU for gaming, not necessary
Yeah, this would be great, I'll contact Mumak anyway because of some bugs. He already mentioned a couple of weeks ago that he thinks about redesigning the fan control, you can check out the discussion thread about it, the link can be found in Mumaks signature.

Edit: I'm also looking into a hardware mod for the fan control, though I have no idea whether it will work... but in case of success I'll let you know. May take some time though as I'm pretty busy.

 

Koo let me know if you need any help.

 

dttran, the reason you're weren't throttling is not because you used Afterburner, but because the stock TDP limits the power available to the CPU to about 62W (65W in practical application), which results in sufficient remaining power being available to support the 6970m, even when o/c'ed. Your CPU was set to 25x flat, but was running nowhere near that level because of the TDP limit. Which is a good thing, as you saw. If you understand what just happened and why, you will be on the road to understanding how to extract the maximum performance from your M15x. Otherwise, you're just going to end up with a frustrating mess.

 

As The Rev said, x25 at stock TDP/TDC does not really work... Such a high multi generates uses a lot of power under load and creates a lot of heat. You need to apply the TDP value if you really want to run your CPU at such a high overclock.

But keep in mind that gaming uses both CPU and GPU. Depending on the game it is possible that you run into power issues when overclocking the GPU and pushing the CPU to 25x across all cores... The CPU alon uses an insanely high amount of power at this level when the load is near 100%... even more power than the GPU as far as I've seen.

I recommend getting something to watch your power draw before trying to push CPU and GPU together that hard.

It will work in 3dMark vantage as there's no combined load... but the CPU alone uses about 160W during the last CPU test when pushing it to 25x.

 

Thank for the tip, I will do some further testing with longer game section an see how that come out.

 

Great post! Very informative and helpful. I do however have a question. Where can I buy the 6970m? Can I order it from Dell Parts? If so what is the part number so when I call I can make sure I get the right part. Oh and +rep for the good work!

 

Thanks!! Hope it will help some people doing the step to this card. I don't know the Dell part nr., though if someone can tell it to me I will add it to the big post, could be really helpful.

You can call Dell and trying to get the card, but it's doubtful whether they will sell it to you since you don't have a M15x, I guess you need to be a bit lucky and have a nice rep on the phone. It will also depend on where you live... in some countries it's rather difficult to convince them sending you a card.

If you can't get a Dell card contact MXM-upgrade or Aikimox, both cards will work as described on the main post.

 

Thanks for the reply! I'll try Dell out soon and see if there willing to sell me one if not I'll try out the other two places you mentioned. Hope it's a worth while upgrade lol I'm pretty sure it's gonna be though.

 

stock perofrmance of the 6970 is amazing!!! friggin love this card and it runs so cool too. you are definitely gonna see a big difference from your 260m.

 

Can anyone confirm if audio over DP/HDMI works with the Dell 6970?

 

How much does a 6970 from Dell cost? I know it's $550 from RJtech, but that's a Clevo card and probably comes with the problems listed in the OP.

 

No one here has this card in a M15x yet... But I guess you have the best chances with the Dell card to get it working.

Afaik it's about $600 in the US, if I remember it correctly someone said it was about $950 in Sweden... it will depend on where you live, and you may be able to get the price a bit down when you're on the phone with the rep.
And you probably need a bit of luck since most reps are hesitant to sell a GPU which is not officially supported by your system... you may need to call more than once or if you know someone with a M17x r3 let him order the card.

 

Thanks. I'm in the US, so I guess $600 is what I'd be looking at. Unfortunately I don't know anyone with an M17x R3, so I may have a hard time. I can't afford one for a while anyway though

 

I keep waffling between a 6970m or upgrading my netbook to the Acer fusion model. (Which would cost half of the card for the whole system.)

I'd like to know about DP audio as well when someone gets a chance to test, as well as whether the other cards will take the Dell vBIOS like the ES versions did.

 

I will let you know about the Dell vbios as soon as I hear from Kris from mxm-upgrade (he told me that he will test it when he finds time).

 

svl7 if u get the fan control fixed i`ll buy a 6970 immediately fingers crossed

 

Had a nice, friendly discussion with a Dell sales rep tonight and was able to order a 2gb 6970m video card for $329 plus $17 for expedited shipping. Should be delivered by Friday...so we'll see what type of card we're dealing with from Dell. Double-checking right now to make sure this is a laptop card and not a desktop card.....

Edit: Just got off the phone with Dell...rep I spoke with earlier made an error and sold me a 6950m video card...so I did the victory dance a bit too soon...

 

yeah its really hard to order anything correct from them without a part number. mist rep won't even know the difference between a desktop card or a laptop card.

 

Bad thing is I gave them the exact part number. They still got it wrong. Verified the correct price from Dell for a 6970 is $569...

 

Would someone share with me the Dell part number for the 6970m? Thanks.

 

Here you go...got this direct from Dell:

V9XKH

The "Item number" for the 6970m is 320-1939 (as shown on my m17x order)

Hope that helps.

 

That's service. Thanks. +Rep.

 

Glad to assist. Here's a copy and paste directly out of my cart...so if you talk to a rep you can make sure they get it right:

Item Number Item Description
V9XKH
Card,Graphics,Advanced Micro D evices,6970M,Digipath

 

Perfect.

/10c

 

Thank you, I will include this in the OP, will be helpful.

Edit: Updated the first post with the Dell part nr.

 

Got some news, with the Dell card HDMI/DP audio is confirmed to work, a big thanks to Strigae @ Techinferno!

He needed to install the M17x R3 drivers first before being able to install the official AMD drivers. I guess installing the modded 11.4 preview instead of the R3 driver would work as well.

Edit: Updated the first post with this information.

 

Hooray! Now I just need to find somewhere to sell my kidney. I can't wait to get his card and a 920xm. Gonna have to work a lot this summer.

 

This is getting exciting. People are getting their hands on official Dell cards now... This is great news. And with all the groundwork already done (big appreciation to Svl7) this is starting to look like a very solid upgrade. Whoop, I can't wait to get home. Getting big ideas now!

 

sorry guys been crazy busy lately, its a bit late but yes i can also confirm the fan does work, it revs up and down depending on load. i made sure to test it because of the fan problems with ichime card.

things are looking great for the M15x.

 

I'm still keeping an eye on the power consume during heavy GPU/CPU work... I just reinstalled MoH, haven't played it since I had the GTX 260m... graphics look pretty nice maxed out Power draw during online multiplayer gaming is about 140-150W, (±10W measurement error) CPU and GPU stock...

Power consume really depends on the game, I'll update the first post with new numbers whenever I have some. I still have to install most of the games since I got the SSD a couple of weeks ago.

 

I'm guessing it's going to be just as difficult getting a 240W PSU from Dell as it is to get the card itself. Are you using the 150W one?

 

Yeah, I'm on the standard PSU... it can deliver up to about 180W... but anyway, the power draw is limited by the mobo or similar, when you use a 240W PSU it doesn't mean the system can draw up to 240W. But it's definitely healthier for the PSU running within the specs, rather than delivering more power than it's rated for.