The Official MSI GT60/70 970m/980m Upgrade Thread

You meant you can't play any games right? You weren't talking about stereoscopic 3D right?

 

Yes, it's always intel hd 4000 who is always doing the 3d apps. Strange, the nb reads the 970m, installed the drivers successfully, and I can see the nvidia control panel with the 3d nvidia logo playing on it, but 970m cannot play 3d..and No, its not stereoscopic 3d...

Last night I reformat and made a fresh install of windows 8.1 this time. and my 2nd hardrive got 2 partitions in it. the 2nd partition is not showing up only the 1st one but it reads the total size of the 2nd hard drive. the hard drive is just beside the 970m.. dunno what is happening to my nb.. I better check physically the gpu and the hard drive.....

If the problem still persist this week i think i better go to msi center and have them check it out... btw.. I'll post a video later when i get home on what happened before this problem occurred...

If the gpu got problem the nb won't read it right? last time I played on it it's normal, then when i exit the game then the windows screen starts flashing as if something got stuck on the keyboard and I can't move anything on the windows but cursor mouse moves..

When i did a fresh install at that time those flashing on screen and abnormalities on windows which i thought was a virus went away...


anyways later i post the video.

 

Have you gone to Nvidia Control Center and just select Nvidia as always being used?

 

yes did that.... Is this normal for fresh install windows?

Downloading latest drivers for win 8.1

 

It's finally working now again. The NB doesn't like the msi vbios... reverted back to clevo and it's working... Downgraded to win7 and with modded inf drivers... For now i'm going to sleep and hopefully i have time to document my experience with what happened to my nb lol

 

@Omega glad to hear that! Sorry it's taken me so long to respond but I've been busy with work and on the road. Shame to hear the MSI vBios isn't playig nice for you but the Clevo bios work fine. They worked fine for me too, just now I'm able to install without the modded drivers. As long as the card works and is functioning great who cares? I'm still hoping for an unlocked VBios soon. The thing is a beast. I can click it to +135core and +400mem in BF4 Ultra settings and was perfectly stable and temps still very cool in the 60s. I honestly think it could do +200 or more on stock voltages.

 

It took me several days to check and counter check on what happened to my nb.. I thought the 970 got damaged too but i know it's not cos it's running smoothly and i'm not doing anything on it... Plus the hardware is showing up on the Device Manager... When i updated the OS to windows 8.1 and all drivers are updated including the nvidia and ask for a reboot, then after the boot screen logo of windows, it goes black screen but i can see a vague mouse cursor on the lower side... Then you told me that when you updated the vbios to msi without updating yet your bios, crazy things started to show up.. I reverted back to the original vbios... then tested the wei score and all is history again.....

It's good that it's normal now, if not then my wife is going to kill me for not sleeping beside her on time every night lol

 

Upgraded to 980M, I have not modified my bios nor vbios, just installed latest unmodified NVIDIA drivers 344.80, so far I played Last Light Redux and Crysis 3, Last Light works fine but there's something wrong going on with Crysis 3. The frame rates drops under 20 FPS and the GPU usage rarely goes above 40% on high (not highest) settings... I found this topic on NVIDIA forum: https://forums.geforce.com/default/...-gathering-low-gpu-load-and-other-issues-/28/

Gotta check the performance with Far Cry 4 later, anyone here encounter similar problems with games?

Another strange issue is that Steelseries Engine is not detecting my keyboard anymore, so I can't turn the lights on :/

 

Hi guys,
while waiting to get my 970m, I sold my old 770m, so I'm running on the chipset. The problem is that when I turn on the laptop, the fan is always on turbo mode, and I can't deactivate it ! I checked the temps, everything is under 50°... Is it bad or something ?

 

try to uninstall the unmodified driver and install the modified driver with moified inf file like talon did ( though i don't know personally how is that done ) , and play the games again
crysis 3 shouldn't drop below 45 FPS on ultra everything even on 8x msaa

 

INF drivers did not help me, FC4 and C3 are still unplayable, just look at FPS and GPU usage on those screenshots, its ridiculous

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5580626/0/Crysis3 2014-12-13 23-33-50-13.bmp
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5580626/0/FarCry4 2014-12-13 23-07-47-77.bmp

Metro runs fine: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5580626/0/metro 2014-12-13 23-30-45-78.bmp

SS from GPU-Z:

 

ScoorpY

Do you have the latest GPUz? Bandwidth there is not posting your 980ms bandwidth etc...

aside from modifying or putting the nv_dispi.inf

you also need a modified NVMIi.inf for your mxm gpu to be recognized by your nb...

MS-16F3 GTX970m need nvcvn.inf for 344.80

ask J95 about this one. he'll help you asap.

 

Sc00pY for some reason you CPU is using too much resources i can play crysis 3 without problem but my cpu is far from your cpu % usage.

Also i wanna thank felix3650 he give me a MSI 980m vBIOS and it works wonderfully good on my card! no need to use the modded driver anymore! really thx man !

The link to the vBIOS: https://mega.co.nz/#!qEkGGTxJ!xb9HRTYEQshZUh7mLPwbSmboTFGTly8Np-ANlAML_lA
Please be aware you can dmg your vga if the bios is incorrect to your card, i was lucky this one worked great. Take care

 

what is your laptop name now ? since there's no laptop with msi gt70 with 980m .
talon's laptop's reads msi gt70 2qe now . what's yours ?
also , can you tell me how to flash the vbios and if the bios also needs to be flashed to certain version ?

 

Hello mates i have a gtx970m 6gb(clevo version).
And i need the MSI VBIOS GT72 DOMINATOR version.
I see a lot of people using that vbios without a problem and specially without modded drivers...
Thanks mates.

 

Thanatospy

What's the difference between NVMIi.inf and nv_dispi.inf that you modified?..

- Will this modified NVMIi.inf (MSI inf) be enough to run the nvidia installer without modifying the the nv_dispi.inf that you first linked? or both should be modified?

- And nv_dispi.inf can put to the upcoming nvidia drivers or must put only the tags to the new nv_dispi that comes with the latest version of nvidia driver?

 

We should wait Talon for that

No problem mate

I should thank someone else for that too

 

Standby Felix.. Incoming.

MSI 970m 6GB vBIOS

This is the version I am using on my laptop. Doesn't require me to install modded drivers anymore, and everything works perfectly. Its from a GT72, but Optimus works perfectly as well. It did require me to use MSI latest BIOS version to not get a black screen after post. After I flashed my BIOS everything worked great. Also I had to update the vBios using windows NVflash version. Make sure you don't have your driver installed when flashing. Even backing up the BIOS with the driver installed caused it to crash!

 

So let make it straight u flash the bios throu windows nv flash right,not from Dos ?

 

I had to use the windows version as the DOS version of nvflash would not recognize my card. Maybe they've released and update recently?

 

Thanks @talon

 

can you give me the version of the win nvflash you used to flash the card?thanks in advance!!!!

 

I used Nvflash 5.190

 

Hi. Great thread and a lot of helpful people here.

After reading through this thread I couldn't resist. I'm about to upgrade my GT70 based Medion Erazer from GTX780M to GTX980M - I just ordered the card (originally meant for alienware/clevo).
What I'm planning to do is: Use the dremel - plugin the card and flash it to the vbios found a few posts above this.
Can someone confirm that the mod is needed for GTX980M also ?

Medion is selling this Laptop with GTX980M now so I wouldn't assume any big issues. However reading through this thread in fast forward mode I'm not sure if I should try to find a newer MSI Bios for my machine first (because Medion builds good and cheap machines but support is really crappy - so trying to find a compatible MSI bios will be most probably easier compared to try to find a Medion Bios...)
So what do you think - is upgrading the BIOS (as in laptops bios not as in nvidia vbios) a must ?

Any other good advise I might not have seen ?

That VBIOS... I've a few things I'd like to check...
This is for an 8GB card - isn't it ?
Next question would be - the machine you use it with - does it support optimus or the "new" hardware switch (which seems to prevent some hazzles but also seems to be step back actually) ?

Finally:
I checked the pictures (thank you very much for providing them) and found that some of the voltage regulators seem to be uncovered now (according to my knowledge the small black ICs are the volatage regulators, not the big greys...). Especially if you plan to overclock you should do something to get those cooled... Any thoughts about that ?

 

It doesn't get recognised because the BIOS first POSTs through the iGPU. Then the dGPU gets initialised and disabled again. The next step is booting any HDD, flash drive and/or DVD/CD (and this is the part where we use NVFLASH).
Under Windows the dGPU is reported by the OS and so its easily accessible. Under DOS NVFLASH needs to support the Optimus implementation of MSI's BIOS (enable the dGPU and keep it active for the whole vBIOS flashing).

On another note, lets post both vBIOSes on the first page as a reference for future upgraders

970m:
https://mega.co.nz/#!LVdGQTZa!z3Ub1nthzmbJj3yvo7Mh9-YVH9JTkbPIY4Q03qydm9o

980m:
https://mega.co.nz/#!qEkGGTxJ!xb9HRTYEQshZUh7mLPwbSmboTFGTly8Np-ANlAML_lA

Yes it has been dumped from a GT72 980m 8GB card. Every GT60/GT70 model uses Optimus as a means of GPU switching (BIOS call switch) as opposed to the GT72 in which the LCD is not hard-wired the iGPU but gets its input from physical muxers connected to both GPUs (hardware switches are the reason it needs a restart).
Regarding the thermal pads: you could put (with a bit of care) some additional thermal pads a top of the originals for the SMDs not covered by the heatsink. Its not the best implementation I know but at least its better than none

 

Thank you very much for your reply. I just ordered some 5mm thermal pads to cover those.I do not think I will need 5mm but those are quite flexible so it will do. However I'm wondering if those aren't just "placebo"s.
Looking at the 400 W/(m · K) copper can spread of heat the 5W/(mK) of those thermal pads seem like utter crap (and the 5W are already mid to better class - there are also 2,5W pads out there).
As the thickness plays a big role here I'm wondering if trying to get some copper pads and use thermal glue might and be the better idea.

The problem is - I would need to know the exact dimensions to cover. Especially the thickness / height - does someone have an idea ?

 

Ofcourse copper is more thermally conductive than a chemically enhanced thermal pad (its electrons move more freely). However the thermal pad is more flexible and adapts better to both surfaces. IMHO don't bother with copper shims as it won't make much of a difference anyway. These systems use active air cooling and the amount of heat they have to move is small compared to more complex industrial systems, where copper shims are used normally. The hottest parts of a GPU are the core, the RAM chips and the VRMs. Thermal pads and thermal paste is sufficient on cooling those (unless there's current leakage from some bad component or a incorrectly designed GPU architecture).
Also Maxwell does have some nice energy efficiency

 

The VRMs are exactly my concern as I'm under the impression that the small ones are the ones that heat up - not the big grey blocks (those are not even covered with a thermal pad if I remember it right form last time).
The VRMs won't receive much airflow and even less if I decide to use the thermal pads - plus - those are the ones that are known to overheat. I remember threads from people with (defective) desktop cards that did not extra heatsinks on theirs when putting an non stock cooler on their cards (gtx 7xx series).
Oh well. On the other hand I just googled air... Air has 0,0262W/(m*K) that makes the thermal pads looking better again

 

My problems with low FPS and GPU usage somehow fixed by itself. To sum up, upgrade to 980M on GT70 went successful without modifying drivers, bios, vbios, etc.

3DMark score:

I'm just little worried about the temps, in demanding games it goes up to 88 degrees without cooling boost but I'm getting new thermal paste this week and try to reduce it.

 

As you can see on the pic I attached, the colored components are: voltage regulators (RED) filtering capacitors (GREEN) high current inductors (BLUE).
Of the three the blue ones are the hottest (they go up in the 80s of Ahmperes). If you leave them uncovered , overheating is 100% guaranteed (they can even melt internally in extreme cases).
Do put thermal pads over ALL of them (colored parts in the pic) and you should be ok.
BTW thats a pic comparing the 980m vs the 780m

 

Well 88° without turbofan aren't that bad (if you did an average pasting job ).
With a more careful paste job and a better thermal paste things should improve.
My 780m goes up to 93° on really demanding games like Crysis 3 or Watchdogs on default fan profile.
Try installing davepearson's fan control and set the fans to 70-80% for a good cooling and reasonable noise levels.

 

Thank you very much for your patience and help.
So it's the blue ones that get really hot... I always thought i't's the red ones... Ok.. Fine... I've ordered and found all I need and now I'm just impatiently waiting for the card...

Are there any unlocked vBios out there in the wild ?
SVETs tool does not (yet) support 9xx M series and might not do for quite some time. I was able to boost my 780m impressively by increasing the allowed wattage... (about 25% (!) more performance overall)

 

Hi guys, sorry I'been afk was reinstalling my laptop, i dont know why now i cant get work the 980m with the msi bios, trying a fresh windows install, and once i install the nvidia driver cant boot anymore, i cant get work both drivers together intel/nvidia, i forgot to backup my clevo vBios xD well, working here xD Can any1 with a clevo 980m 8gb bump his bios for me?

 

so you just modified the heatsink and reinstalled nvidia latest driver
that's it ? no other thing ? not even modifieng the bios once since you purchased the laptop ?
what laptop do you have ? the gt70 dominator 893 from msi or a barebone ?

 

I installed latest BIOS and EC firmware from MSI website for my laptop GT70 2PC GTX870M, after that I modified heatsink, replaced GPU, installed 344.80 drivers and was ready to play.

 

Any Chinese that can help me to get the files from this web? xD Çó´óÉñ ±¸·Ý clevo msi 970M 980M vbios - ÐÝÏйàË® - ÓÎÏ·±¾Ö®¼Ò - Powered by Discuz!

 

please provide us with your current bios and ec versions
and if you may , i am kinda noob . please put here links for bios and ec from msi website that you flashed.
and last thing . how to flash them so i would flash them too , so when my card arrives i'd be ready to plug

 

This makes me wonder if with the latest MSI system BIOS I would have been able to install unmodified drivers without having to flash the MSI vBIOS to the card. I remember my old GX660 was able to install unmodded drivers when I installed both a 6990m and 7970m. Both of those cards were Dell.

Will do! I definitely need to do a third revision to the first post as more information has become available and other users have upgraded their systems. EDIT: What is the decryption key?

Will you all do me a favor? If you've upgraded your barebones or MSI GT60/70 system with a gtx 970m or 980m please post it here again. List your exact laptop model, the GPU you upgraded to, system BIOS, EC, and vBIOS version. I want to compile a list on the first post to make it easier for other users to see if their system has shown compatibility. Thanks!

 

Model: MSI GT70 2PC

From: GTX 870M 3GB
To: GTX 980M 8GB

OS: Windows 8.1 x64

BIOS: 1736IMS 517
MSI Global - Computer, Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Motherboard, Graphics and more

EC Firmware: 1763EMS 1516
MSI Global - Computer, Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Motherboard, Graphics and more

Factory 980M 8GB vBIOS: 84.04.22.00.10
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5580626/13D7.rom

 

Nice to see those 980m running on the GT60

 

Thx Sc00rpy for submit your vBios, card working again, im looking for a bios editor for these cards, if any1 have lucky finding 1 let me know plz

 

Has anyone managed to use the 980M on a GT60 2od without the modified ini yet? got my gpu today. going to do the heatsink tomorrow

 

Hi Talon/everyone,

I've got the 970m in hand, computer opened and trying to line things up before cutting and I've noticed one physical challenge: what do I do with the x-spreader thing on the back of the card? I noticed that it is in your pictures as well, but this looks like it blocks the mounting screws of the MSI heat sink.

How do I get this off so that I can mount it using the MSI mounting points and heat sink?

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

Sorry, picture didn't attach.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

This looks like Eurocom graphics card.

 

Yes it does need to be removed.

Very carefully!! Take a small screw driver and push it through the card from the front to back one screw hole at a time. Loosen them up and then eventually it should push through. Sorry should have clarified that!

Seriously though be careful when you do it. When I was pushing it through I got a bit rushed and I actually hit the card with the screw driver. Luckily all was well, but it could have been very bad.

 

Thanks! I did manage to get it off using some stiff plastic to cut away the adhesive. That stuff was tough!

So, everything is installed now in terms of hardware, but I'm struggling to get the drivers to install. I've downloaded 3.44.80 and I think have put the modified INF in, but the driver install keeps failing. Will try an older driver, but not sure what other routes to try.

 

You guys aren't going to believe this, but I now have access to SteelSeries Engine.

I know not that big of a deal, but hahahahah this is awesome. Free features!

Since I updated my BIOS/vBios to MSI and with my 970m my system now thinks its a GT60 2QE.

 

You have to disable digital driver signing. Then it will restart when you select the option. Then go back to the install folder and run the setup again as ADMIN.

 

If anyone else needs to do it, a thin screwdriver that will fit through the GPU heatsink mounting holes is easiest to use as you can push the X-Bracket through with the least risk to the card.