Joseps

sorry, this was intended for the 6690/6670 thread. There's a copy in place so please delete

Fighting against the many card throttle problems i've found in mx15, first with my oc 5850 and now with the 6990, some tricks that helped with it: - upgrading or downgrading drivers. No version worked flawless, but some worked fine with stealth trick (see below) - on drivers energy menu, changin to performance profile atiplay settings. Same thing, not real fix itself but to help stealth trick. - the good one: entering and leaving the stealth mode. With 5850 this fixed all problems, returning always clocks to full 3d speed. - starting Ati Tray tools. With 6990 stealth fix is no longer working (need to try other drivers, but i'm too busy gaming), yesterday gpu remained stuck at 400Mhz and that was the only way to fix it. (Can't remember if needed to press "apply" on hardware->overclock with the default speeds to make it work) I always use to check if all is ok at full speed Atitool with 3d view box open (not installed, just an old version without low level drivers). Opens fast and forces card to 3d mode showing current fps: 1.050/500fps on 5850 overclocked full/stealth 1.700/1000 on 6990 In a second you know if card is at full speed or fix is needed with no need to enter game or look at afterburner/gpu-z current speed. This loads faster and requires no clicks to enter 3d. For me is the easiest and faster way to check speed previous to enter gaming. Said all that, I've never had problems with mem speed, so not sure if it will fix your problem. Hope it helps, good luck --- some additional info regarding the 6690. Power consumption of my system: i5 M560 / 8Gb / 256 Samsung 840Pro + 750Gb Barracuda + 6690 std clocks/vcc No 3D load - 45 to 70watts 3Dmark vantage/MOH full - 125-135watts 3Dmark vantage and other test on stealth speed: 100watts (while solving the gpu throttling at 400MHz). At this speed were 7200 3dmarks, not bad at all. So theres room even at stock voltages to a safe i7 upgrade. Nice. Key point: Not even a single crash or bsod during many hours gaming by now. Works hot hot hot but stable as hell. Next chapter: undervolting tests and checking if some modding in bottom cover could improve air flow (peak temps around 95C seems too high for this season). Will inform.

Better late than never, some suggestions: - Moving OS to a SSD is by far the most noticeable improvement i've made in my own m15x. Even the cheapest are great, and investing to a medium size 120-240Gb is not too painful. I've tested OCZ Agility3 120, Samsung 830 128 and now a Samsung 840pro 256 (this one expensive) with great results. 840 non-pro seems to run very well being much cheaper, but not tested on my own alienware. Lack of space because ssd? easy and cheap fix: buying a HD caddy and removing the DVD to place a second hd. SATA 2nd Hard Drive HDD SSD caddy for Dell Alienware M14X M14Z M15X M17X M18X | eBay If you barely use dvd is a great improvement. I've placed a cheap 750Gb 2nd disk to store garbage, but i always move current playing games to ssd, loading times are fantastic. Downside: you must disassemble almost every piece of the notebook to reach the dvd. Regarding other upgrades, I went from i3 to a i5 560M long time ago, but now a i7 is a much affordable option. I'm looking for a 820 or 840qm, (120-140€ at ebay) cause XM's are too expensive, but can't assure worth the money from my current cpu, from a i7 i'll consider it or even a i7 620 or 640 (pointing cheap) Graphic card i've been on a 5850 with some oc , and today moved to a 6990M. Not deep tested, but first impressions is that has twice the fps than the older one, and sadly a lot more heat. If is stable may be an affordable option for a short-medium shot, thinking long term may be too slow. Mine found at 140€ on ebay, but was selled as 6970 (yup!) Hope it helps, good luck upgrading

wow!, fantastic thread, helped a lot fitting my new 6990M (bought as 6970 on ebay and.. surprise!, gpu-z showing 1120 shaders and higher clocks, yep, hard to believe) If i may, two question for svl7 regarding the "heatpipe hammer fix"... Are the board picture ok? green spot points to lower area coil, but hammered heatpipe seems to be in the same area when the heatsink is upside down. When turned in place don't seems to match... may be the green spot was misplaced in the picture? And the second one: Did this problem happen always? I'm using a M17x R3 6990M (i guess, no label but vbios dell for sure) and my original 5850 mobility heatsink and backplate. Ask this because looking at the marked green coil I didn't see the heatpipe being close, but if graphic is wrong may be the upper one could lead to problems, I didn't checked that particular spot for touching. First test shows temps 56C idle and 85C full load (furmark, buf after reading complete post I promise not use it again). Anyway, thanks for the guide, great work