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    16F2 with 7970M first impressions (with pics and benches).

    Discussion in 'MSI' started by Meaker@Sager, Jun 9, 2012.

  1. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    But at the utter limit of what the motherboard can supply. If you fully overclock it at stock volts (for me at least) it will trip the motherboard and shut off the system.

    I think it's the total draw (tested with 150W and 180W bricks with the same results) causing the issue as disabling two CPU cores reduced the restarting but obviously is not the best when you want to use the system.

    This may be a limitation of the 560M version, 570M versions came with different power components so may be up to the task.

    However with a slight (1.05v to 1.025v) undervolt I have gone from stock speeds of 850/1200 to 940/1575 which is a nice level of performance to have.

    Some pics:

    [​IMG]

    GPU power rework + pads for back of gfx cards.

    [​IMG]

    Pic of it all installed.

    [​IMG]

    Pic of modified 5870 heatsink.

    [​IMG]

    Pic of the card

    [​IMG]

    985/1575 at stock volts, note that it's not quite stable at these settings (will shut off under peak load).

    I think I have zeroed in on 940/1575 1.025v for 24/7.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 9, 2012
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  2. Tanyrhiew

    Tanyrhiew Notebook Guru

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    Makes me feel better about my expertise with a dremel ;-)

    Pics and thread for GX660/Gt663/MS-16F1 to follow once I receive my card (Tuesday hopefully).
     
    Tanyrhiew, Jun 9, 2012
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  3. pau1ow

    pau1ow Notebook Deity

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    Someone is really making you happy guys :p

    By the looks of it, Meaker got a good card but what about Tanyrhiew ? I guess we'll figure in a very short time.

    For the shutdowns, I got only one when I tried to play BF3 @ 1000/1500 - perfect cruising clocks are 965/1500 but I suppose it's vary from a card to another.

    I also use a 220w adapter but that shouldnt matter, should it?

    Oh and that's really weird because when I measure the power consumption with my power meter, I draw much less than my GTX580M heavily o/c...but with the latter, i never had any shutdowns.

    Good luck Tanyr
     
    pau1ow, Jun 9, 2012
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  4. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    Idle of 39C is good enough for me :p
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 9, 2012
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  5. Tanyrhiew

    Tanyrhiew Notebook Guru

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    The power re-work is the mxm power mod that was needed for the for the 580m? Wondering if thats the cause of the shut down?

    Interesting you use pads underneath the board unlike pau1ow. What thickness of pad did you use?

    Nice temp/scores and card.

    Certainly looking forward to getting mine!
     
    Tanyrhiew, Jun 10, 2012
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  6. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    Pau1ow has the same issue, we have been PMing ideas, but nothing is working yet.

    I had 2mm pads, but I think you actually need to stack them.

    If you get pads the size of mine, cut them in half and make sure they sit above the line of capacitors below the voltage controller since they are taller than the chip and might stop good contact. Also doubled up for the other small chip towards the left side (as you look at the back).
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 10, 2012
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  7. pau1ow

    pau1ow Notebook Deity

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    I actually use the black backplate that came originally with the MSI GX and a large thermal pad at the back of the GPU.

    I updated the pads layout I'm using and I got excellent temps with it if that could help:
    [​IMG]
     
    pau1ow, Jun 10, 2012
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  8. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    I ground mine to be able to use 0.5mm pads.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 10, 2012
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  9. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    Meaker@Sager, Jun 10, 2012
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  10. Tanyrhiew

    Tanyrhiew Notebook Guru

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    Now your just showing off!

    Edit: pau1ow just pm'ed me to say my card has been dispatched. Good job thermal pads were waiting for me at work today.

    Feel like a kid before X'mas.
     
    Tanyrhiew, Jun 11, 2012
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  11. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    I'll be very interested to see if you run into the same board power issues as us. Stock is fine but it's holding back pushing it.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 11, 2012
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  12. Tanyrhiew

    Tanyrhiew Notebook Guru

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    Will be interesting with the 920XM though I've tested that to find out how high I push it without increasing the power:

    wprime 32M tests with multiplier of 27/26/25/25 with TDP/TDC of 55/47 and it ran the tests with no throttling.
     
    Tanyrhiew, Jun 11, 2012
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  13. Heihachi_1337

    Heihachi_1337 Notebook Deity

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    Okay, dumb question Meaker, and you may have posted the reason somewhere else, but on your GPU heatsink, I am seeing 2 heatpipes and a channel for the third, where is the 3rd heatpipe? Did the heatsink not have it or was there a reason you removed it?

    Great work getting that card to work in your system. Very interesting information you posted about the voltage though. I do believe the GTX-570M and 580M mainboards were setup to allow higher voltage to support those cards. I will have to double check on that though.
     
    Heihachi_1337, Jun 12, 2012
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  14. Uliena

    Uliena Notebook Enthusiast

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    This makes me want to get my dusty GX660 out of closet and have a little dremel time or can I just use higher thermal pads instead?
     
    Uliena, Jun 12, 2012
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  15. pau1ow

    pau1ow Notebook Deity

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    No you need to dremel this thing, otherwise the GPU will simply not fit.
     
    pau1ow, Jun 12, 2012
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  16. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    There were two heatsinks in the GX660, one with two heatpipes, one with three. The one with three is slightly better but I could not get one.

    However I was quite busy yesterday and decided to try a new project.

    I decided to make a dell type heatsink.

    I took my old GTX560M heatsink and used my dremel to flaten the entire power section. I then used stacked heatpads on all of the power circuitry to ensure even and correct contact all round.

    I still get identical problems though with the heatpipe instead of the little copper heatsinks I am a little lighter and a tad bit cooler.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 12, 2012
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  17. pau1ow

    pau1ow Notebook Deity

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    Pics or it never happen.
     
    pau1ow, Jun 12, 2012
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  18. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    I'm not taking it to bits now, but its just a (relatively) flat surface.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 12, 2012
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  19. Tanyrhiew

    Tanyrhiew Notebook Guru

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    Delivered, installed and working.

    Idle at 37 deg and running the 12.5 mod driver (8.97-120418a-7900-MOD-W7-W8-Vista-x32-x64).

    Ran 3dmark11 at stock GPU clocks with the 920XM overclocked (28/26/25/25 55TDP/47TDC) and had a fright at the power draw during the combined test - 190Watts. Only have a 150watt PSU so will need a 180watt I think. Drew between 120-130 during the rest of the tests.

    Score was P5440

    Max temp at end of test was 73degC on the GPU and 89degC on the CPU.

    Have not signed up with 3dmark yet but here is the link to the score:

    AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel(R) Core(TM) CPU X 920 @ 2.00GHz,MEDION X681X score: P5440 3DMarks

    Need to get used to the ATI way of doing things again - the last Radeon I had was a 9800pro. Things have moved on it seems :D

    Cheers Pau1ow - thanks for putting up with a seemingly endless stream of PM's!
     
    Tanyrhiew, Jun 12, 2012
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  20. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    Hey man, is your psu a delta? I think they are awesome. During the metro benchmark i saw 170w total draw at 940/1575. The ram eats an extra 10-15w compared to stock (1,25w extra per chip)
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 12, 2012
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  21. Tanyrhiew

    Tanyrhiew Notebook Guru

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    Yes its a Delta: ADP-150NB D
     
    Tanyrhiew, Jun 12, 2012
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  22. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    Those little bricks are awesome :D
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 12, 2012
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  23. Tanyrhiew

    Tanyrhiew Notebook Guru

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    So it seems :).

    The 7970m doesn't seem half bad either :-D
     
    Tanyrhiew, Jun 12, 2012
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  24. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    [​IMG]

    Half way re-doing the pads.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 12, 2012
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  25. Tanyrhiew

    Tanyrhiew Notebook Guru

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    Alternative caption:

    Addicted to Dremel (also a little known Robert Palmer song).
     
    Tanyrhiew, Jun 13, 2012
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  26. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    Heh, not really, I suck and i'd rather do it another way.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 13, 2012
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  27. Tanyrhiew

    Tanyrhiew Notebook Guru

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    Why do you think I haven't posted any pics of my heatsink mod?

    I had to do some more grinding last night after trying the card for size and realising that I was a mm out in a couple of places.
     
    Tanyrhiew, Jun 13, 2012
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  28. pau1ow

    pau1ow Notebook Deity

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    lool let's bench that thing matey!
     
    pau1ow, Jun 13, 2012
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  29. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    I need to find a 570M mobo :/
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 13, 2012
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