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

For the most part true, although with my 6970m undervolted to 1.0v, after about 2-3 hours of playing The Witcher 2 the highest temp I saw was the MEMIO at just over 80degrees. The other temps were in the mid 70's. Before the undervolt I was seeing much higher temperatures.

 

edited post #954

 

I have undervolted to 1.0v, and used liquid metal instead. The tep when gaming is always 70-80 when room tep is 26 ℃.

 

guys i tried ICD 7 and my full load temps are 8-9 degrees lower.for 91-92 in crysis 2 now im at 82-83 stock clock without undervolt!!!my room temp is 30!!thats great news!!!best paste ever!!!

 

After many harassments with the Dell/Alienware service centre about selling me the 6970m they still refused. So I got my friend that owns a company and has a "small business" account with Dell to ask them to sell him one. After telling them it was for personal use with M17x and agreeing to Dell's terms and conditions of sale, he was given a quotation. That is how i'm getting mine.

 

That's the way to go.

 

Is it better than MX-4 paste?

 

Yes it really is better results anything between 3C to 10C more efficient!

 

Yet I had issues where the paste was discolouring my copper contacts...

 

hello all..
im a newbie here.. i have a question,, is 55c in idle is acceptable or need to change the thermal paste?

 

This depends on the ambient temperature. If your room is about 26-30°C, 55°C is possible... a bit warm, but still ok. If your ambient temps is lower I'd repaste it.

 

ohh..ok thanks btw.. how to know the cpu is throthling?

 

Your CPU shouldn't throttle at all, but if you want to be 100% sure of it get throttlestop, make sure it's turned to "off", make a logfile while playing a game or doing something CPU intense, and post it here as attachement.

 

this is the log while im playing crysis 2..
how is it?

 

There's no issue when I look at the pics... you can upload the whole file here as attachement if you want, then I can check the whole file.

Just click on "Go advance" below the text box and then "Manage Attachements"

 

lol.. ok.. new to this stuff hha

 

The clocks are perfectly fine, no throttling, and the CPU has enough headroom for the game, so you don't get bottlenecked by it.

Only thing you could do is reapplying the paste on the CPU, 57°C idling is rather hot for this CPU.

 

gpu or cpu?
my CPU on idle is under 40C..never reach 70 whn playing games..
the 57C is GPU.

 

and thanks for everything.
a few question.
anything i can change in the throttlestop for gaming purpose..
doesnt really understand the function..

 

Well with your processor, no, just have the 2 check boxes ticked and the Multi on turbo and you are set

 

ohh..ok thanks for the help..
what the function for BD PROCHOT?
EIST? need to tick also?
and the TDP and TDC?
no need to change? sorry for the noob question,

 

Keep EIST ticked. All you need.

 

oh.. thanks for everything btw.

 

Ah, yes... sorry. You're right, I mixed up GPU and CPU.

 

lol.. nvermind that.
can i know which version of catalyst driver.. should i stick with?

 

Hello,
I would like to ask some noob questions before upgrading to the 6970m.

Firstly, does the retention bracket ship together with the Dell 6970m card?

Secondly,I would like to ask if is it okay to run the 6970m and the 940XM processor together at stock settings?

Thirdly, if I were to use an Alienware M17x power supply instead, will it be supported by the bios and is able to charge batteries?

Thank you in advance.

 

No. You have to use the one on your existing card.

Yes, no problem at all. And you can even overclock either or both so long as you avoid the extremes.

The M17x 240W PSU is not supported by the M15x BIOS, but it will be recognized, and it works very well; however, you will need to disable the AC Adapter Warnings in the BIOS to prevent an on-screen warning about the unsupported PSU.

 

my 6970m runs at around 85c when gaming.. suddenly it shuts down and i wasnt able to boot into windows, its stuck on alienhead.. when its cooled down i then am able to log in.. whats wrong?

 

I had alot of shutdowns with my 6970m. I tried everything and looked in the totaly wrong places.

It was my RAM sticks that overheated. So i tried using only 2gb stick and it worked wonders. And then i later put in all my rams again AND padded them with thermal pads. now it never shuts down on me.

Before that i tried changing CPU, GPU, PSU. Repasted about 10 times and nothing helped.

So try changing ram sticks to see if it helps.

 

ok i will try that out thanks.. didnt even suspctd that it was the ram

 

Tell us if it works better after experimenting with the rams.

 

K had my first shut down last night while playing Crysis 2. It's not because of my gpu but it my power brick. That thing was burning hot, I could literally cook an egg on there if I want it too. When the shut down occurred, the blue ring went out as well. I had to unplug for like 5 minute to let it cool down before the blue ring went back on. This happen during i playing crysis 2 for an 1 hour half. I had my 940xm running at 24 all core and 86/76 TDP/TDC. Also slightly overclocked gpu. I'll be ordering the 240watt power supply today. Pretty should that should fix the problem.

 

Yeah if the blue light goes out it definately is the PSU.

 

You do realise that it's your motherboard that limits the power supply, not just the adapter right?

 

I think he knows.
He said that the shutdown was because the psu overheated, and the 240w psu has a lot more headroom before it overheats

 

Yea the 240 psu will run alot cooler so the overheated problem should be solved.

 

I'm interested in buying this card, but i'm in Australia, just wondering what is the best way for me to buy this card ?

 

ebay, mxm-upgrade, pkethan from this forum, aikimox also from this forum... tons of possibilities and Dell of course, if you're lucky

 

is it still necessary to use hwinfo for fancontrol with the 6970m?

 

Only with the non-Dell cards, but you don't notice a difference, it's completely automatic. You can set up a fan look-up table and it starts automatically each time you boot, minimized.

I once thought about making a mod to have a hardware-bound fan control, but since HWiNFO32 is capable to do it completely automated this isn't on the top of my to-do list anymore, especially since most people won't do such a mod.

 

i tried pasting thermal pads on both sides of the ram and it seems to run longer without shutting down but still does..

 

yes but some adapters (like my 150w) would trigger an overload and cut out completely (blue ring on the power adapter turns off as well, have to re-plug into wall), with the 240w i'm running fine. if the motherboard itself overloads, it just throttles back, not turn off completely (at least i've never had it since).

 

The mobo partially limits the power draw. I was able to overvolt the CPU and use up to 220W with the 240W PSU, the 150W PSU shut down immediately when it hit about 190-200W.
But the GPU was still limited, when the 920xm used 200W+ the GPU got throttled down...
So the 240W PSU can help in certain cases (though no one else here overvolts the CPU... )

 

Hi guys, I'm also interested in buying this card
do you think this
ATI Mobility Radeon? HD 6970m GPU MXM 3.0 Type B | eBay
would work?

 

@gunner yes but make sure you get the card without the soldered in heat sink mounts.

 

that's the one i have.
you have to do a little modding for it to work.
see the screw mounts soldered onto the 4 mounting holes... you need to remove or drill through them to fit the back X plate.
if drilling or soldering your card makes you squeamish, stay away.

 

Damn, that means I'm staying away. I don't have access to drilling tools.
Thanks for the tip

 

I think you should contact the seller first because I bought the same from them and dont have to do any drill work.

 

I hope so cause right know I'm living in a dorm so getting those kind of tools would be difficult.
I'm still thinking between getting the card or getting a vaio z for class

 

[OFFTOPIC] I'm back to the forum after my adventure on the Alienware Backpacking Challenge, thank you all for your support, check out my signature and please help me on the final voting. Thanks!

I'm glad that you eventually sorted the issue. I didn't get any shutdown anymore but I'll definitely try that too!