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Thanks for this. I recently made the upgrade from 5850 to a 7970. I was directed to this forum from NBR as they speak highly of it :)

Welcome to Tech Inferno brotha!

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Some quick update - I'm using AMD 13.4 right now and seem like everything is smooth! From what i found, DP also getting better with 13.4 (Previous drivers - sometimes crashing)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello all! :D

I'm new to the Tech Inferno forums, but I've been lurking on this thread for quite some time now. I'm running the stock W7, 820QM, 6GB DDR3 with the GTX 260M and an SSD and I'm using the A09 bios. I'm definitely going to grab the 7970m from mxmupgrade in the very near future (love how they linked to this thread for a guide), I just had a couple quick questions before doing so. It was mentioned previously in here that the mxm cards come with the backplate for the 7970m, so all I will need to do is grind down the backplate and possibly ask for screws, right? Stupid question, but will sandpaper do it? Do I need to flash the vbios of this card, or is using hwinfo enough? I don't necessarily use the display port, so that's a non-issue for me.

Also, I wanted to say thank you to svl7 and everyone else who has answered questions in this thread! As a noob upgrader, it really eases my mind to have this knowledge beforehand. I printed the thread out in my office so I'm all set when I take my computer apart. >:D

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Hi, welcome to T|I!

You won't need to flash the vbios if you get the card from mxm-upgrade, I think there's the option to get it already flashed.

I can't really remember whether you get a backplate with the card, but in any case it would not be compatible with the M15x heatsink screws... so you will either have to get a Dell 7970m / 69x0m backplate or different screws. Sandpaper most likely won't do the job, just grab a small metal file this will work well.

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What would be considered acceptable gpu temperatures whilst gaming? I'm running undervolted and still temperatures can sneak up to 80 degrees.

I get thermal shutdowns at 85 degrees. No idea why....

Did you try to control the fans by using the HWINFO? Mine usually below 80 degrees on Very High Settings or Ultra Settings (Depends on games)

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Did you try to control the fans by using the HWINFO? Mine usually below 80 degrees on Very High Settings or Ultra Settings (Depends on games)

Good idea but I just assumed fans would ramp up to maximum eventually and stabilise temperatures. Also going to try re-pasting and cleaning heatsink.

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Never heard about that... a while ago I tried all vbios on a card and didn't get a brick, but with some versions the screens stayed black so I had to blind flash to get it back working.

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Just wanted to update:

I ordered my card from MXMUpgrade and installed it last night; it was actually a really easy install and the card's been performing well so far! MXM was great and gave me thermal paste as specified on their website and sent me the screws for the 7970 that I requested as well (not sure if they were included by default, so I asked for them just to be sure). Shipping from Belgium only took 5 business days.

The only problem I ran into (not sure if this is specific to those upgrading from the 260m) was the W shaped locking washers that held the screws from the heatsink to the GTX260. I ended up using two metal nail files to carefully pry them off, but it took my friend and I about five minutes just for those four little annoying washers. Having a proper tool to remove them would have made it much easier, so if anyone here is thinking about upgrading from the 260M, make sure you're ready to deal with that before you start taking your computer apart.

Other than that and the aforementioned filing of the screw holes, it really was plug and play. I'm on AMD 13.4 as recommended by Genetics earlier in the thread. Using HWinfo for fan control, and even with everything on ultra I'm sitting at around 70C (not overclocking the card). Worth every penny, it really is a world of difference from the 260M. :)

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Good idea but I just assumed fans would ramp up to maximum eventually and stabilise temperatures. Also going to try re-pasting and cleaning heatsink.

Indeed. That is the idea why I'm using HWINFO. It is more nice if you have good a notebook cooler to stabilise the temp. Last week i tried Arma 3 (Beta version released by them) and max the graphics performance. No shutdown, performed very well on said game and the temp is below 80c. I'm waiting for BF4 to test the performance for 7970m attached on my 'ancient' m15x :65:

- - - Updated - - -

Just wanted to update:

I ordered my card from MXMUpgrade and installed it last night; it was actually a really easy install and the card's been performing well so far! MXM was great and gave me thermal paste as specified on their website and sent me the screws for the 7970 that I requested as well (not sure if they were included by default, so I asked for them just to be sure). Shipping from Belgium only took 5 business days.

The only problem I ran into (not sure if this is specific to those upgrading from the 260m) was the W shaped locking washers that held the screws from the heatsink to the GTX260. I ended up using two metal nail files to carefully pry them off, but it took my friend and I about five minutes just for those four little annoying washers. Having a proper tool to remove them would have made it much easier, so if anyone here is thinking about upgrading from the 260M, make sure you're ready to deal with that before you start taking your computer apart.

Other than that and the aforementioned filing of the screw holes, it really was plug and play. I'm on AMD 13.4 as recommended by Genetics earlier in the thread. Using HWinfo for fan control, and even with everything on ultra I'm sitting at around 70C (not overclocking the card). Worth every penny, it really is a world of difference from the 260M. :)

Enjoy your games bro! :14_002:

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I see that many have underclocked the 7970M with a VBIOS to 0.975 v.

From what I understand, this is because there are problems of power between the 920XM overclocked and 7970M.

If my m15x is equipped with a 820QM,Can I flash a VBIOS 1.100v to push the 7970M at higher frequencies without problems?

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I see that many have underclocked the 7970M with a VBIOS to 0.975 v.

From what I understand, this is because there are problems of power between the 920XM overclocked and 7970M.

If my m15x is equipped with a 820QM,Can I flash a VBIOS 1.100v to push the 7970M at higher frequencies without problems?

used to have a undervolted vbios with 0.975v.

right now i'm using a vbios @ 1.000v without any problems with a 840qm.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Hi, looking to grab a 7970m today/tomorrow. my 6990m broke down yesterday out of nowhere. It has white lines on post/bios and will run either on safe mode or on vga drivers. No proper AMD drivers.My local guy has an 7970m directly pulled from an m17x r4 which he says is uefi enabled. I have no idea what that uefi is and I'm not quite up to par when it comes to understanding how the tech works in detail.TL;DR will that card from an m17x r4 work on my m15x without much work? ergo plug and play?thanks

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