Flakey Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 Hi,Recently bought a M17x R3 off a friend, after a few weeks the 6990M gpu seems to have died (Vertical blue striped screen, followed by windows no longer booting and the card being detected as a ATI Radeon gfx in the Bios etc etc).Anyway, as I got it at a reasonable price and as much fun the HD3000 chip is for overclocking it doesn't play anything that's required of it, I thought I'd just replace the GPU.Therefore after doing quite a bit of googling (and finding here), I've come to the conclusion a 7970M would be best for my given situation and budget (circa £300).I have a few questions if no one would mind answering them:1. Do I need a new heatsink for the 7970M (considering i've just come from a 6990M)?2. Does anyone know where I can buy a 7970M from a trusted seller people can vouch for? (Preferably in the UK, don't want to get stung by UK import VAT of 20% or so).3. Do I need new thermal pads? Or can I recycle the old bits? (If so where can I get some from).The only place I've found so far seems to be: Alienware AMD HD DELL 7970M 2GB GDDR5 -for M15x, M17x , M18x ,upgrade monkey | eBayBut from the brief bit I've read about the above seller they don't seem very reliable, plus im not sure they're actually allowed to charge a restocking fee.I look forward to everyones responses!Many Thanks,Flakey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManOfKnight Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 I asked a guy selling my 8970m on ebay (so take that for what it's worth)...he said the same hsf can be used but new pads will be needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flakey Posted December 19, 2013 Author Share Posted December 19, 2013 Thanks for your reply, It's Good to know the HSF should probably work...Still no closer to finding me a reasonable supplier for a new card though, even tried contacting dell.. they sent me towards a useless approved partner. :/Anyone know if the upgrademonkey people are reasonable? Since im not really left with any other options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khenglish Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 If you're getting a 7970m and you overclock, get the clevo version of the card. It has extra capacitors which allow it to clock substantially higher than the dell version.Although I do not know if people have gotten the clevo version to run in the R3, but I know it's been done for the even older R2, so I think you'll be OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flakey Posted December 28, 2013 Author Share Posted December 28, 2013 UPDATE: For anyone concerned.I managed to get in contact with dell and get a quote/out of replacement order for a 7970m off them. There was a little resistance, they didn't seem to want to sell one to me, but I managed to convince the guy eventually. (I think he was just more worried that it might not be compatible - this was coming from a 6970m).Anyway, for anyone in the UK not wanting to take a chance with ebay or international sellers, you can get a brand new 7970m with a 90 day warranty from Dell for circa £340 (including heatsink pads etc).Card won't be here for another 10 days or so since the holidays make shipping slightly slow, however I might report back and let you know how it overclocks etc after. (At this point though I'm just after a working card).TLDR, for UK people looking for no hassle go to Dell and convince them to sell you one (contact Alienware tech support - they will persist for your service tag/make you jump through a few hoops though).Hope this will prove helpful to someone.Regards,Flakey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.