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  1. Hi, last Friday the Videocard (AMD Radeon HD 7970M) died. So i Bought a new one (HD8970M). Wednesday it arrieved. i installed it. Installed newest AMD driver. seems to Work. So I started Playing some WoW. After an half Hour I recognized that its getting really hot because the GPU Fan didn't move. Tried new BIOS (A12) other Driver. Unistalled all Drives via Display driver Uninstaller. than i found that with HWInfo I can Set Fans Manual (works well). But now there is no way i get the Graphiccard working again. in BIOS it says "Discrete Graphic: Not detected". I removed the GPU and reinstalled it. bootet -> BIOS says "discrete Graphic: ATI GFX" -> reboot to Windows -> no Graphic card in System manager (except Intelhd4000) AMD driver says: no AMD installed. Reboot -> bios -> "Discrete Graphic: Not detected". Retried all of this with no AMD driver installed. in Systemmanager there is "Standard-VGA-device) -> installed driver -> no graphic driver installed. (tried another BIOS A11) same issues Please are there some hints? i would try the Unlocked BIOS but i can't download it right now because of Pre-Promotion
  2. HI, I'm trying to get my egpu going on windows (for the time being I don't care about OS X), and I can't barely get started. Akitio + Evga 1070 I read many guides but I still don't get it. Right off the bat the Thunderbolt or Basic Display Adaptor doesn't even show up on Windows Device Manager. I think I read somewhere that Windows needs to boot with the Intel graphics not the AMD and in order for that to happen I need to mess with the EFI to make sure the Windows boots with the Intel and not AMD? If that is the case, i couldn't find any instructions on how to do that properly. I really appreciate any input or help! Thanks
  3. Hi all, I'm looking to sell a PE4L V2.1b (Expresscard Version) and GTX750. I have used them both reliably on my Thinkpad X230t, achieving x1.2Opt and able to run pretty much any game decently well, for the past year without any issues. This setup works great as a portable setup since the GTX750 doesn't require external power. I recently bought a desktop so I have no further need for them. Here is a link to the graphics card. I'm looking to sell the PE4L for $60 (got it for $70) and the GTX750 for $70 (got it for $90) or $120 for both, with a flat rate of $5 for shipping. Here's a picture of my previous setup that I was running off the eGPU. If you have any questions or want more pictures of the parts, please PM me! Thanks!
  4. Guessing who will be the first company to include the nVidia Pascal 1080 and AMD Polaris GPU's inside their Laptops: 1- 2- 3- 4-
  5. NVIDIA announced it's newest Pascal based GTX 1060 today that is expected to go on sale July 19th for $250 and $300 for the Founder's Edition. The GTX 1060 will feature 1280 CUDA cores, 6 GB DDR5 memory with a boost clock of 1.7 GHz which NVIDIA claims can easily overclock to 2 GHz. In addition, NVIDIA claims the 1060 is on average 15% faster and over 75% more power efficient than the closest competitive product at stock speeds which would be the AMD RX 480. The following is their PR release: Media: View full article
  6. AMD's new RX 480 $200 graphics card is out and delivers GTX 970/R390 performance as promised. However, there are some conflicting reports of the new Polaris GPU drawing more power from the PCI-e slot than it is rated. According to Tom's Hardware, the RX 480 draws 86 watts peak from the motherboard's PCI-e slot although the official ceiling is 75 watts. After Tom's Hardware published their report, other websites such as PCPer followed up with their own testing and reported similar findings: Additionally, there are some users that reported potential issues with their motherboards that arose after using the RX 480 in their systems: Keep in mind both of those reports do not 100% confirm the problem is the RX 480 but given the reported issues with it's power draw and these users boards experiencing problems after installing an RX 480, there is a strong possibility that it is the cause. There is a reddit thread in r/AMD on this topic and AMD's Robert Hallock has issued the following response: We're awaiting AMD's full official response which should hopefully be coming soon. UPDATE: TechPowerUp contacted AMD and received the following official response: View full article
  7. Ok so I do I lot of work on Rhino 3D, Sketchup and too Revit. I also use Maxwell and sometimes VRay for rendering. My current 15" Macbook pro with Iris pro graphics really sucks for this. When I move models around they get laggy and often freeze and crash. I do expect rendering to always take a while. Should I go with the Thunder2 and a GTX 970 with a PSU or would I be fine with the built in AMD R9 m370X of the higher priced macbook. The GTX kills it on benchmarks however the GTX requires a PSU and its hard to take around.... Thanks!
  8. TweakTown just released a new story claiming that NVIDIA rather than AMD will be the one powering Nintendo's new NX console which is scheduled for release in early 2017. More specifically, it was rumored that AMD's new Polaris in combination with an x86 CPU or part of an APU was the brains behind the new NX. Instead, the rumor is that the NX will be utilizing an NVIDIA Tegra SoC that uses the newest Pascal architecture. To add a little more salt to the rumor, Emily Rogers, an online journalist that has supposedly been privy to this sort of information in the past, is now stating the NX is not powered by an x86 architecture but rather a custom design that utilizes "modern chips". She doesn't specify what those "modern chips" are but if you take what TweakTown claims in addition to what she said and Nintendo's history of not chasing after the most powerful hardware, there's some plausibility to all of this. I guess we'll find out soon enough if Nintendo did choose to go with NVIDIA this time around and if so, expect a nice boost to NVIDIA stock if all this turns out to be true. View full article
  9. NVIDIA's Pascal is on it's way and should be available sometime in June based on current leaks. One of the first GPUs may be a full GDDR5x GP104 based GeForce 1080 GPU and we will almost assuredly have mobile variants shortly thereafter. AMD hasn't given us nearly as much information on Polaris except their performance/watt demo a few months ago but we're fairly certain it is priming for release as well. With the new generation of GPUs quickly approaching, do you plan to upgrade to either of them upon release? Why or why not?
  10. Laptop:Lenovo Z40-75 Prosessor: AMD A10-7300 RAM: 8GB Integrated GPU: AMD R6 M255DX (DUAL GPU) EGPU tool: EXP GDC v8.0 (NGFF version) EGPU: PowerColor HD 6570 Problem: EXP GDC v8.0 not working when plugged with NGFF to HDMI cable( without lightning ) with proper installation. But when I'm using mini PCIExpress to HDMI cable it work well on my ASUS laptop
  11. Hi, I have a Macbook Pro Retina 13" (Late 2013) with: - Haswell i5 4258U - 8 GB DDR3-1600 - Iris 5100 iGPU - 256 GB SSD - Thunderbolt 2 I built an eGPU using the Akitio Thunder2 PCIe Box, I tested it with an EVGA GTX 750 Ti SC and it was working perfectly. The card was PCIe powered using a 120W PSU (12V, 10A). All I need is a graphics card powered only by PCI-Express slot. I was thinking about a GTX 950 LP (new models which draw 75W directly from PCIe). In your opinion which one is better? - ASUS GTX950-2G (will it fit in the Akitio?) - ASUS MINI-GTX950-2G - MSI GTX 950 OCV2 - EVGA GTX 950 SC Alternatives: - ASUS Strix GTX 750 Ti with 4GB GDDR5, which will allow games like COD BO3 to run high-res textures, but has less CUDA Cores than GTX 950; - Wait for Nvidia Pascal/AMD Polaris mid-range GPUs
  12. According to KitGuru, AMD is preparing to cut the price of the air-cooled AMD R9 Radeon Fury in the coming weeks much like it did with the R9 Nano earlier this month. There's no word on how much the price cut will be but KitGuru claims that it should be more price competitive with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980. If you're wondering about the Fury X, it doesn't seem like there is any information on that but it is possible. If you're in the market for a top end 28nm graphics card, it would probably be worth holding off to see how much of a price drop the Fury gets as it is already faster than a stock 980 in most cases and a price cut will make it an even more attractive option. With AMD's next generation Polaris GPUs due out in the middle of 2016, there is still plenty of life left in 28nm GPUs. R9 FURY X R9 FURY GPU ARCHITECTURE 28nm 28nm API SUPPORT DirectX® 12, Mantle, OpenGL® 4.5, Vulkan™, OpenCL™ 2.0 DirectX® 12, Mantle, OpenGL® 4.5, Vulkan™, OpenCL™ 2.0 HIGH-BANDWIDTH MEMORY (HBM) Yes Yes PCI EXPRESS® VERSION 3.0 3.0 VIRTUAL SUPER RESOLUTION (VSR) Yes Yes AMD FREESYNC™ TECHNOLOGY Yes Yes AMD LIQUIDVR™ TECHNOLOGY Yes Yes 4K RESOLUTION SUPPORT Yes Yes FRAME RATE TARGET CONTROL (FRTC) Yes Yes DDMA AUDIO Yes Yes HDMI (WITH 4K, STEREO 3D, DEEP COLOR & X.V.COLOR™) Yes Yes AMD POWERTUNE TECHNOLOGY Yes Yes AMD ZEROCORE POWER TECHNOLOGY Yes Yes AMD TRUEAUDIO TECHNOLOGY Yes Yes AMD EYEFINITY TECHNOLOGY (MAXIMUM DISPLAYS) Up to 6 displays with DisplayPort MST hub Up to 6 displays with DisplayPort MST hub AMD HD3D TECHNOLOGY Yes Yes VIDEO CODEC ENGINE (VCE) (WITH H.264, MPEG-4 ASP, MPEG-2, VC-1 & BLU-RAY 3D) Yes Yes GPU CLOCK SPEED Up to 1050 MHz Up to 1000 MHz MEMORY BANDWIDTH 512 GB/s 512 GB/s MEMORY INTERFACE 4096-bit HBM 4096-bit HBM MEMORY AMOUNT 4GB HBM 4GB HBM STREAM PROCESSING UNITS 4096 (64 Compute Units) 3584 (56 Compute Units) REQUIRED POWER SUPPLY CONNECTORS 2x 8-pin 2x 8-pin AMD CROSSFIRE™ SUPPORT (MAXIMUM NUMBER OF GPUS AND CROSSFIRE BRIDGE INTERCONNECT REQUIRED) 4, no 4, no FORM FACTOR Full height, dual slot, liquid-cooled Full height, dual slot View full article
  13. We all love drama between technology companies and the latest deliciousness comes courtesy of AMD. They have a 4 minute video on YouTube that questions whether or not SYSmark is a reliable, objective benchmark to use when evaluating performance between different systems. AMD's video opens with John Hampton, Director Computer Client Products, talking about how it is very important in choosing the right benchmark when evaluating a purchase because if you choose the wrong one , you can end up overpaying for technology or getting a lesser performing PC. To emphasize his point, he indirectly mentions Volkswagen's diesel debacle and uses the latter case as an example of how even established organizations can be misleading. We are then introduced to Tony Salinas, an AMD Engineering Manager, who runs through a couple tests in SYSmark using two notebooks, one that has an Intel i5 CPU and the other with an AMD FX CPU. SYSmark returns a score of 987 for the Intel system and 659 for the AMD one which is a delta of 50%. AMD notes that this is misleading and not reflective of real life performance. To prove this, they run a different benchmark called PCMark 8 on both systems and the results show the Intel i5 system scoring 4199 and the AMD equipped one 3908 which is a delta of 7%. AMD says this is a far more realistic indicator of true performance as PCMark 8 tests the CPU, GPU and video subcomponents rather than emphasizing the CPU like SYSmark does. And just to drive the point home some more, AMD created their own in-house test using Microsoft Office Suite where they run a custom script on both notebooks and then measure the start and end of a task with a time stamp to gauge performance. Their in-house test shows the Intel system completing the task in approximately 61 seconds while the AMD based one finished it in roughly 64 seconds which is a delta of 6-7%. As AMD's results line up with those found with PCMark 8, they contend that PCMark 8 is a more fair and balanced indicator of overall performance while SYSmark is not and therefore should be discarded by any potential customers as a tool for evaluating a purchase. Intel system using AMD in-house test: Test completed in ~61 seconds. AMD system using AMD in-house test: Test completed in ~64 seconds. They also take the time to remind us that the FTC has required SYSmark published benchmarks to contain fine print that notes their benchmark may only be optimized for Intel. Of course, this may have something to do with the fact that AMD resigned from BAPco consortium. Finally, AMD notes that a transparent benchmark should meet very specific criteria which includes being realistic, unbiased, objective and transparent, all of which SYSmark is not apparently. While it's fun to see these types of videos from AMD, they also highlight the fact that the company is facing an uphill battle on all fronts, whether it's CPU or GPU, and 2016 may be the year that makes or breaks them. View full article
  14. Version 1.0.0

    5 downloads

    AMDs professional mobile GPUs (FirePro M Series) use the same hardware as their gaming equivalent (Mobility Radeon HD Series) The difference lies in the VBIOS and in the specialized driver. This allows to simply change a 6970m into a FirePro M8900 by simply flashing the appropriate VBIOS and installing the corresponding driver: (UPDATE: This also works with the 6990m, see the update at the end of the post) The advantage of the FirePro card lies in the better CAD and DCC performance, optimized OpenGL support, OpenCL features and AMD Eyefinity technology. In short: The card gets optimized for professional applications instead of games. A 6970m is very well capable of CAD work and a M8900 can still play games, but their performance is optimized for other tasks, and this can make quite a difference. A game uses a GPU differently than CAD software. For example you don't need a high frame rate when designing something with CAD software, but it's crucial that the rendering of your work is accurate and detailed. So if you have a 6970m and need to use professional software once in a while you might want to give this a try. I haven't installed any CAD software on my system at the moment, but the driver seems to work properly, haven't seen any issues so far.The procedure doesn't take long, you only need to flash the VBIOS, uninstall your gaming driver and install the professional one. You can use the M8900 driver of the Dell Precision M6600 workstation, you'll find it at the Dell drivers page. Maybe you find a more recent driver on the AMD homepage. Here are some screenshots of the Catalyst Pro Control Center, you'll probably notice some features which aren't available with the Radeon HD cards: I've done this with my Sapphire 6970m, it'll definitely work with the Dell 6970m as well and it's save to assume that this is true for the Clevo/Eurocom version too. Since there are some changes in hardware IDs you'll need to force the flash. NOTE: This should work just as well when your system has a FirePro M8900 and you want to optimize the gaming performance - simply flash the 6970m VBIOS and install the regular driver and you're done. The Dell 6970m VBIOS can be found in this post. Also a big thanks to @Star Forge for providing the VBIOS of the FirePro M8900!! Here's a 3dMark Vantage run with after applying the soft mod to the 6970m, everything at stock, also in the CPCC. Not too bad imo, same pretty much the same as the stock run I did when I got the 6970m in April. Would be interesting to see some gaming comparisions... but I haven't installed any games atm. EDIT: For M17x r3 users: You need to modify the driver, otherwise it won't install here the instruction, a big thanks goes to @devillucifer for investigating this problem and finding a solution. When I come around to do so I'll post a link to a modified driver so you don't have to modify them yourself. Detailed guide for flashing the VBIOS: UPDATE: This also works with the 6990m. Note that the M8900 VBIOS has the same clock speeds as the 6970m, so the 6990m is actually underclocked with this VBIOS. You can easily overclock it with software or modify the clocks of the VBIOS before flashing, so that you're back at 6990m speeds. But even at standard clocks the 6990m performs better than the M8900 or 6970m, the card has 120 additional shaders which will bring a little performance boost as you can see in the screenshot below, I about 1000 points more on the GPU score compared to the 6970m flashed with the M8900 VBIOS (at the same clocks).
  15. Version 1.0.0

    96 downloads

    Did some tests with the VBIOS of the AMD 7970m, here's what I've got so far: - Overvolting: So far no success, when I increase the 3d voltage the card simply stays at the 2d profile. Fixed that Be aware that overvolting should only be done by experienced users and can seriously harm your GPU, shorten the life of its components and lead to unsuspected effects and / or system instability. I take no responsibility for any possible damages. Overvolting has been tested by me and @widezu69 (thanks!). It works, but can lead to instability, you need to find your limit. The M15x doesn't handle it well. I noticed similar behaviour as with my overvolted 6970m, drops in clocks, instability etc. At 1.15V even immediate crash at GPU load. The M17x R3 seems to handle it a bit better, there's probably more headroom in the voltage supply circuits which are providing the voltage for the GPU. I was able to run some vantage tests at 1Ghz with a 0.05V overvolt, my previous core clock limit was at about 950Mhz... so it definitely works. Different systems will behave in different ways, only way to find it out is to test it. Don't do it if you lack overclock experience. - Undervolting: Only did some quick tests, but it seems to work. The driver crashed all the time at clocks which normally worked fine. And at more sane clocks the card worked as expected. - Update: Yes, works very well - Core / memory clocks: Works fine so far, I only tested the 3d settings, but I assume it also works for the other clock profiles. In the GPU-Z screenshot you can see the changed clocks: There's quite a bit of work behind this, so just in case you want to buy me a beer... Here's a list of what the package contains. The names are pretty self-explanatory. "uv" for undervolt, "ov" for overvolt, clocks are "core-memory" Keep in mind that you need to rename the files before flashing due to the 8 character file name limit in DOS. Modified clocks: Dell7970m-900-1250.ROM Dell7970m-925-1300.ROM Dell7970m-940-1350.ROM Dell7970m-940-1400.ROM Dell7970m-950-1350.ROM Dell7970m-950-1400.ROM Undervolted: Dell7970m-uv-0950v.ROM Dell7970m-uv-0975v.ROM Dell7970m-uv-1000v.ROM Overvolted: Dell7970m-ov-1125v.ROM Dell7970m-ov-1150v.ROM Overvolted & modified clocks: Dell7970m-900-1300-ov1075v.ROM Dell7970m-900-1300-ov1100v.ROM Dell7970m-950-1400-ov1100v.ROM All files are based on the OEM Dell 7970m VBIOS. Instructions: For flashing refer to this guide: There's a list with the checksums of all files included in the VBIOS package, I highly recommend to check the integrity of the file before flashing it. This can easily be done with ATIflash, if you don't know how please check the guide linked above. And as always, flash on your own risk, you are responsible for your system and the changes you make on it. Feel free to ask questions, feedback is welcome as well!
  16. Intel's Gregory Bryant, vice president and general manager of Intel’s desktop clients platform, has gone on record during a speech at the J.P. Morgan forum saying that the company's IGP (integrated graphics processor) called Iris and Iris Pro are fast enough for casual and mainstream gamers and that they would no longer need a discrete graphics solution. That statement in itself does not sound unreasonable or outlandish as Intel IGP performance has steadily increased over the years and eaten into AMD and NVIDIA's low end share. However, Mr. Bryant also stated that Iris and Iris Pro can outperform 80% of discrete graphics chips , “We have improved graphics 30 times what they were five years ago,” but admits that Intel has done a poor job communicating the benefits of integrated graphics. According to Steam's hardware survey, as of December 2015, Intel currently holds 18.66% of the overall share with 54.61% going to NVIDIA and 26.23% to AMD. This market share is virtually unchanged from December 2014 where Intel had a share of 18.88% so it seems they do have some work to do if they want to increase their appeal to gamers. Unlike NVIDIA, AMD manufactures APUs that compete with Intel's IPG solutions but with the release of Iris 6200 pro, Intel has taken a significant lead over AMD and has even approached NVIDIA's discrete GeForce GTX 750 performance at the entry level. With AMD Zen APUs possibly being released in 2017, it may give the firm the opportunity to finally take back the low end APU performance from Intel. Source: PC World View full article
  17. Well today seems to be an AMD filled news day as we also have information courtesy of HardOCP that AMD has lowered the price of it's small form factor Radeon R9 Nano from $649 to a more reasonable $499. A lot of initial apprehension about this card was because of its asking price and now with the new price drop, it has become a very compelling upgrade compared to the competition. AMD's next generation Polaris is still months away so if you're in the market for a new SFF build, the Nano is the perfect fit. View full article
  18. A poster named 'iLeakStuff' on overclock forum found shipping information for the new AMD Polaris GPU based on information he obtained from Zauba. Supposedly there are 2 new GPU families with a total of 4 new GPUs based on the part numbers. The destination seems to be Hyderabad, India where AMD has an R&D facility. Polaris is AMD's next generation high performance GPU architecture that promises to bring 2x perf/watt improvements thanks to architectural improvements and the use of 14nm FinFET technology. We have copied the information iLeakStuff posted and made it available here: View full article
  19. AMD has just released Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.1 Hotfix Driver that includes a lot of resolved issues for games like Fallout 4, Elite Dangerous, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Star Wars: Battlefront, Just Cause 3, Assassins Creed Syndicate and DiRT Rally. The AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.1 Hotfix Driver can be downloaded from the following link: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.1 Hotfix Driver for Windows® 10, Windows 8.1 & Windows 7 64-bit Release notes with resolved and known issues: View full article
  20. AMD has just e-mailed the press release (found at the end of this article) for it's new next generation 14nm FinFET GPU architecture called Polaris. In addition, AMD has produced a new video in which Raja Koduri, SVP and Chief Architect of AMD's Radeon Technology Group, and others from AMD, discuss Polaris and also give us a demonstration of it with 2x perf/watt gains vs "a comparable GPU from the competition". Earlier VideoCardz leaked some Polaris slides that are now confirmed as being accurate so we've included them here: A lot of this information isn't a big surprise to those that follow the GPU industry closely but at least now we have official confirmation from AMD. The following is their official press release: EDIT: Article corrected for errors 1/4/16 View full article
  21. IMPORTANT: The 6970m is not officially supported by Dell. Upgrading to this card may void your warranty. The 6970m is a powerful card, it will draw more power and produce more heat. This card can significantly improve the performance of your system, however, the long-term effects of running this card in a M15x are currently unknown, but it works great so far. Cards that are known to work: The card Dell uses in the M17x R3: This has only been tested for a short while so far, but it seems to work perfectly fine. Credits go to Rogue-OP and iloveb00bs, the first guys who tried to put a 6970m in a M15x. -DP/HDMI works, confirmed by Strigae, fan control works It seems you need to install the M17x R3 drivers first before you can get the official AMD drivers. I guess installing for example the modded 11.4 will work as well. Dell Part nr. is: V9XKH.Good luck when ordering one from Dell, depending on where you live and what kind of rep you get on the phone they might not want to sell you the card as it isn’t officially available for your system. Call again in this case, or if you know someone with a M17x R3 let him order the card for you. 6970m from MXM-upgrade.com: Works great, but no fan control. The fans are constantly at a high speed, but not completely at full full speed. For now you’ll need to manually control the fans with HWinfo32. -DP/HDMI works. Sound through HDMI works when you install the Dell 6970m vbios and the M17x R3 HDMI audio driver. Here are the instructions for this. Card can now be ordered for the M15x from mxm-upgrade. Clevo (and resellers) 6970m: The card from Clevo and resellers (Eurocom etc.) works as well, but make sure you get a version of the card which has holes for the back plate! Some of these cards have the screw holes for mounting the heatsink soldered on which makes it impossible to use the Dell backplate, and since Clevo uses slightly smaller screws than Dell you can’t simply put your heatsink on such a card. Contact your dealer in advance to make sure you get a card which doesn’t have the screw holes soldered to the PCB, otherwise you’ll have to remove it (which is difficult) or use some smaller screws on the heatsink. For all these cards the heatsink of the M15x fits perfectly. No modification needed. Cards from other vendors / manufacturers may work as well. If you got a different 6970m running in your M15x let me know and I’ll upgrade the list. Things to do before swapping the cards: Download the drivers. This modded 11.5 should work, click on “MobilityMod Windows 7/Vista” in the linked thread. Also get GPU-Z for monitoring your video card and verifying it, Trixx, for under- and overclocking and in case you haven’t got a Dell card also HWinfo32 (I recommend getting it anyway since it is a great system monitoring tool) Make sure you have thermal paste, maybe some new thermal pads as well as something to clean the heatsink (e.g. isoproply alcohol) and some cloths around. I also highly recommend using a grounded ESD-mat and a wristband. Know what you’re doing. You need to partially disassemble your machine to get to the GPU. Prepare yourself thoroughly, check out my little guide. In case you need more information, there’s also the M15x service manual, as well as the teardown video. It can be helpful to write down all the steps in advance when you’re doing this for the first time. The upgrading procedure: Uninstall your GPU drivers. Make a power drain (Turn off your M15x, remove the power cord and the battery. Then press and hold down the power button (Alienhead) for about 10-20 sec. Remove your GPU. Clean your heatsink, if necessary replace the thermal pads with new ones. Make sure the 6970m has a retention bracket on the back of the GPU. If not take the one from your old GPU and put it there. Also make sure you read the section about the “retention bracket problem”. Properly insert your GPU, make sure that it sits properly. Apply the thermal paste, and attach the heatsink. Then (after reassembling your system), boot, install the drivers and reboot. Make sure the fans are running. Open GPU-Z and verify your card and the clocks. It should look more or less like this. Default 3D clocks are 680/900MHz (core/memory) and 150/100MHz when idling. Make sure PowerPlay is enabled in the Catalyst Control Center. Also make sure Stealth Mode is deactivated. Check your temperatures. Idle temps should be 40-50°C, but this also depends on your ambient temperature . While gaming or doing something similar GPU-intense the system will run significantly hotter, 70-80°C, maybe a bit higher. Note: By lifting the back of your system a bit (for example with a book) you can improve the airflow in the system. This can really help lowering the temps. The back plate problem: The retention bracket of the 6970m has a different size than the regular M15x cards (260m, 5850m etc.)When your card doesn’t come with this x-plate you need to take the one you have on your old GPU, but this one won’t fit properly. Nevertheless it works, even if it covers some resistors on the back of the card. Make sure you’re not shorting anything. Usually the back plate has an insulating black plastic pad on it, this will work. However, if your x-plate doesn’t have this pad on it, you must cover it with some thin, insulating tape. Here you can see the problem, in the first picture I marked the are which gets covered by the backplate and in the second picture the highlighted area shows where the plate should be. The space beneath the card becomes pretty tight, but it works. My advice is contacting your dealer before buying the card and asking whether he can provide the correct x-plate. (In case he tells you that you should use the one from your old card tell him it has a different size.) Power consumption: The power draw of the card is probably about 75-100W. I run this card together with an i7 920xm in my M15x and it works fine. Nevertheless you need to be careful, as the PSU of the M15x is only rated 150W. When doing some 3dM11 runs with both GPU and CPU overclocked I measured about 160-170W current draw from my system during the combined test. You really need to be careful when running this card, especially when you have an extreme processor (920/940xm). Pushing both GPU and CPU can (and will) bring the PSU to its limits (and above). Some numbers about the power draw when playing games, everything on stocks: Black Ops Zombies (everything on max): ~ 130-140W Portal 2 (everything on max): ~110-125W Medal of Honor (everything on max) ~140-150W Crysis 2 (set to “Hardcore) ~ 140-150W The device I use for measuring the power draw has an accuracy of about ± 10W. Fan control: In case you have a card which makes your fans running at a high speed all the time you will need to use HWinfo32 to automatically (or if you prefer, manually) control the fan speed. It’s possible to create a fan control look-up table and let HWinfo32 automatically control the fan speed by temperature. 1. Click on the fan symbol2. Click on “Custom Auto” 3. Choose the temperature sensor diode which you want to use as reference.4. Set the desired speeds/temperatures according to your needs. Do this for both GPU and CPU, ignore GPU2 fan. I recommend using the hottest GPU diode (usually MemIO).A big thanks to Mumak, the developer of this fantastic tool. Here you can find the official Alienware fan control thread in case you find a bug or need to know more. Warning: Adjusting the fan speed can be dangerous!! Always keep an eye on your temps and never forget to adjust the values before doing something CPU or GPU intense (in case you control them manually) Possible problems and solutions: Unable to install drivers. Solution: Try a different driver. Also contact your vendor, maybe he knows a specific one that works. Idle clocks are 250/900 instead of 100/150. Solution: Check your display settings and make sure only your internal notebook monitor is selected. 250/900 are the idle clocks when you’re connected to an external monitor (or when your display settings are got messed up, probably driver related) The GPU temps are crazy high! Solution: Repaste. You probably did a bad job with the thermal paste. Also make sure your system is dust-free and that the heatsink sits properly and is making contact (also check the pads where the memory modules touch the heatsink). While idling the GPU clocks change from 2d to 3d clocks and back all couple of seconds. Solution: This behaviour can be caused by the M17x r3 6970m driver (A00). Get the latest AMD driver and you should be fine. If you have this problem with a different driver try another driver version.
  22. chidoughboy

    15.12 Crimson

    I didn't see any thread for the latest stable AMD drivers so I figured I'd chime in on my experience with them. They installed successfully and I was able to reboot but the whole system locked up after 10 min of browsing the web and I was forced to hard restart. I kept getting blue screens and was never able to load windows. I have prema v2 bios but does anyone else with an AMD mobility card have problems with this driver? I noticed AMD Overdrive is finally available for my GPU (8970M) but never had a chance to use it.
  23. AMD has allegedly delayed their upcoming flagship dual GPU based on the Fiji silicon dubbed "Gemini" to Q2 2016. Earlier this year, during an E3 livecast, Lisa Su (AMD CEO) had committed to a release date of Christmas 2015. When questioned by hardware.fr about the delay, AMD claims it has been pushed back because the HMD (head mounted display) ecosystem isn't quite ready yet and therefore they opted to hold off on Gemini's release until Q2 2016. However, this does bring into question whether Gemini will even be relevant in Q2 2016 as AMD is also scheduled to begin release of it's much anticipated next generation Greenland GPU during that time frame. Sources: Hardware.fr, TechPowerUP Edited for corrections. View full article
  24. South Korean site etnews reports that AMD's next generation Greenland GPU, scheduled to be released in Q2 2016, will be produced by both Samsung and Global Foundries using 14 nm FinFET LPP. Since both Samsung and Global Foundries share a common IP for 14 nm LPP, AMD will be in a position to leverage both of them for maximum production capacity. TSMC, which traditionally produces GPUs for AMD and it's rival NVIDIA, lost AMD's contract due to it's inability to keep up with yield and supply demands. Greenland is expected to offer 2x the energy efficiency of the current GCN architecture and is AMD's direct competitor to NVIDIA's Pascal. Source: WCCFTech This is yet another win for Samsung which has managed to steal back Apple from TSMC and will also be producing chips for Qualcomm. It will be interesting to see whether AMD being on 14nm LPP will give it any advantage over NVIDIA who reportedly will be using TSMC's 16nm FinFET+ for Pascal. View full article
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