M15x and 7970m...no grinding or copper shims needed!

After a monumental wait for my 7970m to arrive, I finally got round to installing it today. I had trouble previously with a clevo 6990m and the x-bracket that came with it.
My M15x heatsink (from gtx 260m) basically had the short stubby screws with the C clip on to hold them in place. On newer x-brackets including the one that came with my clevo these short screws didn't go in far enough and so pressure on the die was very light meaning very high temperatures.

I tried removing the C clips but they are still too stubby. I've read about grinding down the x-bracket or using a copper shim but both aren't really properly solutions and probably lead to overheating problems.
After a quick trip to a hardware store I bought some screws that fit into the AMD x-bracket perfectly and are longer than the stubby ones.

Used these with the x-bracket from my 6990m to install 7970m and it worked perfectly! After playing Bioshock infinite on ultra for over an hour my temperatures didn't get about 74 degrees!!!
Extremely impressive! No one should grind anything down or use any sort of shim when installing 7970m.

Hope this helps

 

What CPU are you running ?

 

Look at the colourful signature
i7 940xm OCed to 3.2 Ghz

 

At last somebody sees the light. I have been saying this all along lol and I run 950/1450 all the time (vbios OC)

 

Oh should have opened my eyes before posting, lol

I have a spare 7970 and a m15x with 940xm and busted 260m. Will try it during weekend and see what it does. Only reason, I haven't done this is because of throttling I keep hearing/reading about and not having correct x-plate for 7970/m15x combo (screws too long).

Did you had to do any underclocking/undervolting to get it working fine ?

Thanks

 

No modifications to card yet. I'm running the OCed cpu and gpu at stock but I will flash the gfx card to higher clocks soon. At stock the 7970m is performing well with no throttling and very nice temperatures.
The throttling only occurs with hefty overclocks on both components but can be bypassed by warming up the circuits using the rendering tool on gpu-z.

I'd definitely get that 7970m in your M15x if you can get it to fit. You can buy AMD x-brackets separately but they are stupidly priced for a small piece of metal.

 

I am not planning to overclock at all. Just 940xm and 7970 is more than enough for me. Will buy some screws and see how we go. Maybe I can find some in my screw pile labelled dell

 

What thermal pads are you guys using for 7970 in m15x ?

 

I use Phobya Thermal pad Ultra 5W/mk 1mm on the VRAM and 5W/mk 0.5mm on the other chips under the heatpipe.
Perfect fit and work very well. Slightly stretchy and adhesive.

 

So I spent last 2hrs trying different screws, I went through a bowl full of screws from different laptops, none was right, not even one. Either too long/too thick/too small/too thin/too weak(wifi card screws). Finally glanced over and looked at the name plate and low and behold, bloody perfect fit, not too tight to fit heat sink on 7970 with default bracket but just tight enough.

Worse part was removing old screws from heat sink without causing damage to heat sink but nothing decent pliers cannot handle

Now we wait for the thermal pads, will place the order for phobia pads today. Which size to get though 0.5/1.0/1.5 ? Also m17xr4 has a decent chunk of thermal pad underneath the gpu, should I do the same with m15x? What size again as m17xr4 seems to have 2.0mm underneath 7970m.

Edit: Also are 7W/mk any better, or not soft enough ?

 

I didn't put any underneath and I listed the sizes I used above.

 

So after following you guys, I gave in the craving, installed 7970m to replace faulty (massively artifacting) 260m. I wasn't able to find correct size thermal pads so called the local dell tech directly and since he did over 20 services for me and I was super nice to him, he offered to give me complete thermal pad kit for 7970m as long as I can pick it up from him. I was stoked, got him a case of beer and picked up thermal pads

Took me 20 minutes to clean the heat sink and install 7970m and upgraded CPU to 940xm at the same time.

At first gpu was artifacting and I thought I broke the gpu but turns out, using thermal pad under the card was making it artifact.

So far so good except two issues, it's taking super long to install windows to Samsung p830 and laptop refuses to let me use any mouse. No trackpad and no use mice (tried 4 USB mice).

Once I get trackpad/mouse working, I will stress test to run in the gpu :d

 

Got the card working and all of the drivers installed, except USB not working at all, looks like io board is dead and just placed an order for one on eBay, hopefully it will be here in few days.

Till then no stress testing at all.

 

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully the board will fix it for you.

 

Now I think palm rest will also need replacing, palm rest shows in device manager as a USB mouse but no movement and no lights on trackpad.

 

Hello all,

Have been looking at these m15x and 7970m threads for a while now.
And I would like to know if the old 260m X-bracket will fit the 7970m.(I'm willing to a little modification to it)
Greets

 

No unfortunately it doesn't. There are too many capacitors on the back of the 7970m. If you did squeeze it on it would probably damage these capacitors or something else important.
You'd need to find an AMD backplate. There are a few 7970m's for sale in the marketplace at the moment and some may come with a backplate if you ask.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/com...ecision-alienware-msi-uefi-laptops-uk-eu.html - This one is in Europe and has the backplate included.
He does ship internationally and is well trusted for selling components on this forum.

Alternatively if you've already bought the card pau1ow is selling the backplates separately here http://forum.notebookreview.com/com...7-fs-dell-alienware-x-plates-ati-hd7970m.html

 

Okay,

Thank you for the information.
I purchased one card and I am waiting for it to arrive.
It's not clear if it has a bracket.

 

Hey all,

The card arrived. Without bracket
So I ordered a bracket.
And now I have to wait again.

 

At least you have the card nearly ready to go. You may need some new screws if your heat sink has the C-clip screws attached to the heat sink.
I have given information on this in the first post of this thread.

 

Great news here guys

Does anyone know if the X bracket for the 5850 would fit a 7970?

 

I currently have a grinded down 460m x clamp on my 7970m but i would love to get the proper 7970m x clamp, finding awkward screws can be difficult where i live. Any idea what size screws these are and what they are called so I can ring a few places?

 

I think 5850m x-bracket will fit 7970m. About 83% certain

 

Thanks, 83% is a good %!

 

No idea the name or size but the guy in the hardware store I went to said they were American threaded (as I live in UK) if that helps. I can take a picture as I have some spares.

 

hey everyone,

just a quick update, today i picked up the neccesery x-bracket.
and during my lunchbreak i installed the card and drivers.
this card is amazing! worth every dime.
this afternoon i did a short bench and got around P5500 with 3dmark11(stock settings)
greets

 

I think I should get one myself as I've just got my hands on another m15x even though its broken (needs new mboard) but I have a spare mboard and move my 2GB 660GTX into that rig making room for a new 7970m.

 

batfinks the 7970m is a great choice. I'm currently running my undervolted and it still performs very well!
After a KoI style cooling mod I intend to run it at at least 950/1400 @1.05v which it is more than capable of.
You won't be disappointed!

 

Thanks, can you just measure the length of the screws you have. the Size of the screw that it takes is a M2 screw, I have found some 3mm long in my local hardware store, Can you let me know how long yours are?

 

this may help this is where i bought my for the 6990m and the 580m they should work with the 7990m

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VGA-heatsink-screws-matched-set-of-4-2-bonus-/120868733812

 

Fatboyslimmer, what driver you use in 7970m m15x ?
I have issues when i put 7970m in my m15x, i got random shut down..

I got amd 7970m with X Backplate with it..

When i try play dota 2 then shut down randomly

*edit

I using driver amd catalyst 13.6 mobility beta

 

I'm also using 13.6. It sounds like your shutdowns, whilst random, could be temperature related.
Get some software that can monitor gpu temperatures such as HWinfo or MSI afterburner (this can display fps whilst in-game!) or even the gpu meter windows widget.

Might be a good idea to undervolt the card as well. 0.975v works very well for me. I can send you the BIOS I'm using if you need it.

 

Ok i'll do it tomorrow. My laptop shut down when i launch game like dota 2,r.e6 , tomb raider..

Any possibility that screws from backplate too long/high make can't hit heatsink properly make my m15x shutdown random?

Sorry but i dont understand much your post 1 because my english suck.. Can you help me with photo if you dont mind? That would be helpfull

 

Yes El Dolay it could be there isn't enough pressure on the graphics card and temperatures and shooting up when launching 3D applications.

Undervolting card requires you to flash the BIOS. Read here.

Download BIOS versions here.

Not sure what picture I could post unfortunately. Good luck!

 

Same happened to me. I had random shut downs when I launched some games. Undervolting the card to 0.95V solved everything. I might try 0.975 like fatboyslimerr. But you'll need to flash the bios with the proper file. Svl7 uploaded on techinferno some modded vbios on the techinferno forum.
Or you might just ask some members to send you their vbios.
Makes me ask, fatboyslimerr could you send me your 7970m vbios so i could test if 0.975V 875/1400 works on m M15X ?
Thanks

 

Sure I'll try and send it in a PM otherwise please PM me your email address.

 

I'm planning to buy the 6990M and do you think this screws will fit perfectly with the x-bracket? I really don't want to grind the x-bracket or use the copper shim method... My heatsink is the one from Nvidia GTX 260M. Also, if it's no problem for fatboysslimerr, can you take a picture of the screws and give a detailed specification of them (lengths, threads, type,etc)? Sorry if I'm asking too much :|

Thanks

 

Here you go, approximately 5mm long. One on the right. One on the left is the original screw with C-clip that I had to remove as the threading wasn't long enough.

 

Thanks that should be a great help, how difficult was it to get the those c clips off?

 

Extremely difficult to remove C-clips unless you do it in the right direction. Try to aim so that they would ping away effectively. If you have something thin enough, get inside the little grooves.

 

You think 0.5mm would work on the VRAM?

 

I managed to get them off without too much trouble, I used M2 x 3mm screws and they worked perfectly and would almost say the provide the best fit because it guarantees small pressure on the dye before you start tightening them. I have also measured the screw that come out of the heatsink and they are 5mm so if you can get your hand on either M2 x 3mm, M2 x 4mm or M2 x 5mm they should all work. Also i was not using any sort of shim.

 

My new 7970, X plate and SSD arrived today XD!

Tomorrow I try it all out. Going to be a hell of an upgrade in total. Any final tips?

 

Use Catalyst 13.6 Beta drivers and try not to apply too much thermal paste as it all squeezes off the chip and doesn't work as well!

Are you going to clone your HDD to your SSD? This process can take a long time depending on the amount of data. Could be easier to start again if you don't mind clean installing windows.

 

Fresh install, going to start it today. Just upgraded my M11x to a SSD and the install was fast enough.

 

Hi all...do i know where to by those proper long screws for bracket

 

I used these http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=160933135998

 

4 mm ones fit perfectly