M15x + ATI 5870 (MOD)

would you mind taking a picture of what "perfectly seated" would be exactly?

 

wouldn't do any good, i think. i had to reseat it like 2-3 times before it was good. i push it all the way in then pulled it out like .5mm then locked it down. if you get the red then oull just the top part out just a bit more. sorry its kind of hard to discribe, but its gonna take trial and error.

 

I'll try it again after I try to get my powerbutton / Touchstrip LED's working again.

 

here is a pic.

 

Thanks for the pic, card looks just like that Motherboard will be here tomorrow I'll try it once I get it.

 

With all this talk about getting the Clevo cards working I was playing with one of mine and it seems to be working now. I actually covered the bottom of the card with a .5mm layer of thermal pad. I figured the card comes with "the can" that I would put something underneath to protect it. So far so good.

 

sound interesting, notice any difference in temps or anything.

 

Yes some have done this. Also, many have carefully removed the metal casing off of the card and installed it as a bare card and have had excellent results for months now (since March and April anyway). You notice I said CAREFULLY REMOVE the casing...

 

Yep. Didn't notice they are back in stock.

Btw, can anyone confirm if this is the same pad with the ones Dell use on AW machines?

Removed the metal casing off of the card... which part is it?

Do you have a link?

 

The only pic I have at the moment. The metal backing that you see in the pic does come off.

 

hey babyhemi... when you going to get start selling some SSDs lol

I want one

 

I'll be next in line!

 

Isn't he already selling them.

 

No.

It has to come off to fit in the M15x.

 

I don't know what brand Dell uses but your link it to thermal tape not pads.

 

Really? Link please I don't see anything about that in his sig .. nor the NBR marketplace

 

He was selling the 160GB Intel G2 drives for a while but I think he is out at the moment

 

oh ok thanks... how much was he asking?

 

was going between $420 and $400 but this discussion should be done outside this thread to keep it on topic

 

Mandrake did you cover the entire bottom of the card minus the connector pins?

babyhemi, thanks for the replacement, haven't got it 100% functioning yet, but hopefully will once the new motherboard comes. Thanks for the help.

 

Correct...Still working but idling about 5c - 10c more than previously. I'm also using IC diamond on the card and that could be the issue as well.



BTW, it is under-volted to 1.05v now just like the AW cards.

 

yea i re-flashed my AW 5870m back to stock vbios...700/100 still rips through games... so i don't see why i need to oc it... plus it runs a lil cooler

 

OC'ing for gaming will just shorten the life span.

 

thats true, but have you ever owned a gpu for more than 3 years? heck at this rate i change mine every 6 months

 

Agreed, a 5 % increase in a game that gets 40 fps will become 42fps....woohoo - and that will need something like a 20% overclock

Overclocking only makes appreciable differences in benchmarks really

 

hmmm i wouldn't say that.

a 20% increase in clocks with my GTX 260m, got me averaging an additional 5-10 fps in farcry 2 using the same graphic settings. So thats pretty significant. But at the same time, i got only like 2-3 fps more in crysis. so It really depends on the game your playing and how it taxes the gpu, as every game uses the gpu's resources a little diffrently.

 

Far Cry is regularly a high fps game, so although the gain is a high number, the actual effect is not very profound

And I was not citing any specific game but giving an example. The Crysis result is a better example of what I was saying (and kind of the game I had in mind )

 

yea but you're right though . In general, and with MOST games, the increase in clocks/heat/voltage is not worth the relatively small increase in fps. Sorry i was nit-picking

 

also performance can also go down with the added heat.

 

What's the highest clock for 5850 guys?

 

Is it possible to flash the clevo mobility 5870 VBios with the Alienware mobility 5870 VBios?

 

that is a confusing statement....which vbios do you want to put on which card?

 

i think he means he wants to flash his Clevo GPU with the Dell vbios... am i right?

 

@Jstarnino: You're right.

 

I don't think that's been tried. We did flash the MSI bios on the Clevo card.

 

didn't flashing the Clevo on the Dell brick cards?

I dunno...but i wouldn't try the other way around either...

But you can always be our Guinea Doc. ... just don't say we didnt warn you

 

Yeah I wouldn't try flashing a different vbios on the Alienware cards, just different settings.

 

What kind of improvement takes the Bios from MSI?

 

basically... from what i remember... the Clevo's bios is better

 

It allowed ATI overdrive to work.

 

I have read that the alienware VBIOS support the ATI powerplay, which regulates the clock frequencies automatically.

The MSI VBios too? Does the Sound work over the display port with the MSI VBios?

 

I don't know if anyone did any in-depth testing.

 

i got my m15x yesterday and have already flashed the GPU to the 5870 right now on stock i have 750/1050 @ 1.15 and during benching i can bump it up safely to 865/1050. I have tried higher but it crashes or the screen goes all light blue not BSOD. I have ran before and after flashing GPU benchmarks of GTA IV on all HIGH and 16x and there is a 6FPS upgrade from flashing to the higher clocks well worth it in my opinion makes a game that can be crap and make it enjoyable on all high setting. Temps are around 50-55 on the regular usage and during benching i get about 67-76.

Best score on 3dmarks was 13131 on m15x and my m11x i7 gets 8102.

Before flashing

Statistics
Average FPS: 38.42
Duration: 37.66 sec
CPU Usage: 31%
System memory usage: 46%
Video memory usage: 64%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: Off
Reflection Resolution: High
Water Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x16
Night Shadows: Off
View Distance: 20
Detail Distance: 10

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Video Adapter: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.29
Audio Adapter: Speakers / Headphones (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz

File ID: Benchmark.cli

After flashing

Statistics
Average FPS: 44.18
Duration: 37.53 sec
CPU Usage: 32%
System memory usage: 41%
Video memory usage: 64%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: Off
Reflection Resolution: High
Water Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x16
Night Shadows: Off
View Distance: 20
Detail Distance: 10

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Video Adapter: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.29
Audio Adapter: Speakers / Headphones (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz

File ID: Benchmark.cli

 

The only thing i've done with the MSI bios is some stability tests and such. The Clevo bios is FAR more stable although being a little hotter.

I'm currently on the MSI bios only because at the moment i can run all my games smoothly on stock and because my temps are also lower. Also, it also downclocks with power play whenever i'm on the battery which is nice. I wanted to try doing some benches but i can't seem to pull clocks higher than 865-850 (With clevo at 1.15v) without crashing.

 

ok I retired installing the card on the new replacement motherboard, HUZZAH! It works! I boot into windows, granted the video drivers weren't installed but it did boot up properly. I didn't have the thermal paste installed correctly just what was left over from the 260m run off on the heatsink and the vram thermal pads, temps when I checked with GPU-Z were 85-90C! running at 700/1000. Is that normal?! Will installing the ATI drivers bring down the temps?

 

no those temps are way to high, what are the temps for all 3 sensors at idle???

 

I didn't stick around and check, shut it off, and started applying all of the thermal pads and paste. I've got everything installed now, going to boot in and check. I only see 1 temp sensor listed in GPU-Z

 

oh maybe you won't see all temps until you install the driver. but i'm guessing its the vram temps it gaving you. but it still a little high.

 

Download AMD GPU Clock Tools if it doesn't show all three. When you run that click the thermal sensors tab and pick start. It'll show you three different sensors. The middle, if i remember correctly, should be your ram.

The first i think is the Die... As for the third.... no idea, lol.

 

ok got it up and running

Clocks in AMD Clock tool are:

50C
53C
54C
VDDC: 1.0500V
Clocks are at 200/300mhz

good? bad?

edit:

After letting it idle down a bit:
49c
52c
53c