mw86 Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Also notice the micro-stuttering and faint bit of jerkiness with the 7970M? The 680M is noticeably smoother.My 7970M CF setup did a fairly decent job of gaming, too. Not much complaint there on my part, to be honest about it. A few games (like Skyrim) balked at the 7970M, but there are almost always some tweaks that will fix what doesn't do right. Although, I must say that my gaming experience overall was better with the 580M SLI setup I had before them. The image sharpness, color quality and smoothness was better with 580M SLI, and it is likewise better with 680M SLI.What did you do with your last 7970m setup? Sink it in the ocean with concrete and chains? In the end the tweaks you mention we have to do never help my system stabilize. My 580m setup was busted from a bad install from tech so I actually havent had a smooth experience as of yet. My system is under warranty but hasnt helped me get support my bios still is like this from 7970m crash. Ill post pics today as im fed up and i already spoke to reps which havent answered back in over month heading to. Like mr fox said i think a whole batch of cards is not working right yet others run fine.Plus rep mr Fox when i canParanoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 here it is up until less than a month ago my system wouldn't work at all. After trying drivers 12.4-12.8 whql,beta and modded I would test in multiple games with system full stock because they were giving me such trouble. One day after a crash and having to turn system off It wouldn't boot. So I tried a few times to no avail just constant beep sound and black. when it did show something it was a screen of black with yellow text and I only remember one of the words there was MXM. still not working so I finally got the system to come back after I pulled the cmos battery and reset it will full power drain. I finally got it to boot but wouldn't start windows. I entered bios and the following pics are what I saw. I reset to raid even though no raid array was used and so on and it finally booted. The probs just got worse from there. so for almost two months it wouldn't be stable on desktop, surfing attempting games nothing. I just recently came back to the system and decided to reset the cmos memory more than once and now I can atleast boot without constant issues. So i loaded latest 12.9 beta driver and again pretty bad in most. So im on the 7900mod 12.9 beta and its been atleast playing a handful of games which it wouldn't do at all before. I was in contact with two reps here and after recieving my service tag has not sent me one responce. I asked for a quick resolution since I haven't had my system dependable for a LONG time. So here is the pics I sent and you guys can take a guess. 7970m are nightmares. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnksss Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 @mw86 - yikes! That's insane, man. Maybe if you could read Chinese you might be able to reset that cryptic mess. That's just crazy, and I don't understand why you are not getting any help from Alienware Support. Can you find this screen by chance? Hopefully, a screen shot (attached) showing something you can identify as familiar can help you identify the location to change the language back to English. Knowing your technical aptitude, I am sure you have already tried a blind flash at least a couple of times by now. That situation really sucks, Brother mw86. Edit: have you tried switching to IGFX, removing the AMD GPUs and everything except for one SODIMM and then blind flashing? Maybe something bizarre is keeping the flash from erasing (protecting) and re-writing whatever information has been corrupted. I have noticed the InsydeH20 BIOS has some strange behavior at times. It seems to "remember" things it should not. Now and then I am unable to reset BIOS defaults because doing so causing the BIOS to freeze upon saving. When that happens, saving default setting without closing and/or pressing F10 to save and exit will not work and the system halts. When that happens, I have to pull the CMOS battery to clear whatever information is not correct, then the system functions normally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Awesome runs John thanks for posting those 680m is Kepler in a lappy Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 @mw86 - yikes! That's insane, man. Maybe if you could read Chinese you might be able to reset that cryptic mess. That's just crazy, and I don't understand why you are not getting any help from Alienware Support.Can you find this screen by chance? Hopefully, a screen shot (attached) showing something you can identify as familiar can help you identify the location to change the language back to English. Knowing your technical aptitude, I am sure you have already tried a blind flash at least a couple of times by now. That situation really sucks, Brother mw86. Edit: have you tried switching to IGFX, removing the AMD GPUs and everything except for one SODIMM and then blind flashing? Maybe something bizarre is keeping the flash from erasing (protecting) and re-writing whatever information has been corrupted. I have noticed the InsydeH20 BIOS has some strange behavior at times. It seems to "remember" things it should not. Now and then I am unable to reset BIOS defaults because doing so causing the BIOS to freeze upon saving. When that happens, saving default setting without closing and/or pressing F10 to save and exit will not work and the system halts. When that happens, I have to pull the CMOS battery to clear whatever information is not correct, then the system functions normally. Well there good and bad. Bad is its set to English yes English. I had reset the bios defaults and cmos battery reset many times. I flashed stock bios as you see not unlocked still persists. Flashed A04 and that didn't fix so went back to A05. So the good news is all that was in windows using normal windows flash method. So could you please link me to blind flash directions including anything needed for usb for our M18xR1. Thank you. Now would you suggest still going to igp taking the video cards out and one ram stick before i attempt the blind flash or is there less i could do and still safely try the blind flash. Id be ecstatic if this will fix it. Edit: mr fox look at the pics and you see random text everywhere. I remember nvapi and efi randomly in those pics. Its all gibbrish not even in Chinese... Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 @mw86 - here is a link to instructions for the M18x R1 blind flash. (I believe it is exactly the same process as M18x R2 blind flash except for a different file name.) Blind BIOS Recovery process for all M18x R1 in case of corrupt BIOSI would try it with everything installed first. I have never removed parts for a blind flash, but if doing it the normal way does not fix the issue, I would not rule that out as an option. Have to get that corrected, for sure. It might be something as simple as a bad block that is not getting erased and re-written. I hope this works for you. It made me sick to see that, and it makes me wonder if this has not been a cause of some of your GPU functionality problems. Looking forward to hearing if it works.Edit: all you need is one file, correctly named, and a USB thumb drive. It does not need to be bootable. It can contain nothing except for the FD file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 @mw86 - here is a link to instructions for the M18x R1 blind flash. (I believe it is exactly the same process as M18x R2 blind flash except for a different file name.) Blind BIOS Recovery process for all M18x R1 in case of corrupt BIOSI would try it with everything installed first. I have never removed parts for a blind flash, but if doing it the normal way does not fix the issue, I would not rule that out as an option. Have to get that corrected, for sure. It might be something as simple as a bad block that is not getting erased and re-written. I hope this works for you. It made me sick to see that, and it makes me wonder if this has not been a cause of some of your GPU functionality problems. Looking forward to hearing if it works.Edit: all you need is one file, correctly named, and a USB thumb drive. It does not need to be bootable. It can contain nothing except for the FD file.It all worked Mr. Fox thank you so much! Thats been a headache I don't want to go through again. Atleast now its more noted that that sort of corruption can be fixed by a blind flash. To prep I left everything as is even still booted as dedicated cards... and all I did was take my 2133mhz ram out and popped in 1066mhz ram in and did the procedure but I reset the defaults again as I have before but again to be safe. Well it worked and I know something was seriously messed before and not now because my Asset Tag in the bios didn't even show up before. Notice in my pics above i posted that "Assest Tag" doesn't even exist in that bios mess I pictured. Thank you so much Mr.Fox. If Alienware hasn't seen issues like that before it should be noted the fix. Sucks that such a bad driver crash from AMD broken driver chain they had caused such an issue in the first place. finally after months its good to see the normal bios again. I'll have to see if any gpu operations are any more stable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 It all worked Mr. Fox thank you so much! WOOT! That's awesome news, buddy. I am super happy for you, Brother MW. All I did was give you the link. Credit goes to bar-code and you. I hope this resolves other issues for you also.The InsydeH20 BIOS has some redeeming qualities, but it seems to have an issue of getting corrupted easily. I have found it to need a reset now and then, and sometimes the only way that works is by a blind flash. Clearing the CMOS by pulling the coin cell is needed every once in a while on my M18x, but I think XTU might be contributing to that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 WOOT! That's awesome news, buddy. I am super happy for you, Brother MW. All I did was give you the link. Credit goes to bar-code and you. I hope this resolves other issues for you also.The InsydeH20 BIOS has some redeeming qualities, but it seems to have an issue of getting corrupted easily. I have found it to need a reset now and then, and sometimes the only way that works is by a blind flash. Clearing the CMOS by pulling the coin cell is needed every once in a while on my M18x, but I think XTU might be contributing to that. I dont have xtu in my system often but yes all of the above same here with the resetting bios via coin cell. Barcode was gracious of posting it. I was lucky to have the said file to place on usb because the normal bios file from dell doesn't expose that. It was the paramec.fd file. I happened to have a copy stored from when i was using hexeditor to adjust bios options beyond the unlocked bios. I was happy I kept all those sort of files on a external drive. Best part is no mother board problems. I have not needed to do a blind flash before, so I was hesitant to do one just on a whim without knowing it would help. Im glad to have it back to normal. Since I am curious what level does a 680m Sli overclock game in as full graphic options possible in modern titles stable, score in 3dmark11 and Vantage. We already see the beast 680m is so I was wondering the gaming overclock level. Like 920core 2400vram 680m sli score in 3dm11 and Vantage? Its clear 680m can bench like a champ Im wondering if the AMD offering 7970m crossfire Overclock can score similar in the ranges they are gaming capable... Do you know what I mean? 680M like mentioned above each score of 680m vs 7970m scores higher in favor of 680m. Im glad to have my system working. For now im just going to game and enjoy it. Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnksss Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Just adding some numbers here...Dell 680m's 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted October 18, 2012 Founder Share Posted October 18, 2012 Very nice runs @johnksss I can't wait till I get my new 680s in the mail next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnksss Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Thanks.And I can understand that, fully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2920XM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P12907 3DMarks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnksss Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 score: P13383 3DMarks 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 You guys are madmen! Nice runs from both of you John and Mr. FOX. @Brian i hope you get your cards soon. What did you do with your 7970m's? Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Just grabbed Sleeping Dogs at 50% off on Steam today.<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/8858/sleepingdogsr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/8858/sleepingdogsr.jpg" alt="Sleeping Dogs Benchmark" width="500" border="0"/></a> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Just grabbed Sleeping Dogs at 50% off on Steam today.<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/8858/sleepingdogsr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/8858/sleepingdogsr.jpg" alt="Sleeping Dogs Benchmark" width="500" border="0"/></a>Congrats! It would be awesome if you left us a post on your experience with it in the proper thread of course but would be glad to hear you first impressions. Paranoid Galaxy S3 on Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnksss Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Did Brian get his cards yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted October 24, 2012 Founder Share Posted October 24, 2012 Did Brian get his cards yet? @johnksss yep they came in today. Just finished compiling the 7970M Xfire results with the new Catalyst 12.11 beta driver - AMD stepped it up with these because they finally outclass the 680M SLI in BF3 and other titles. Review will be up later this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 @Brian - check the graphs again. I updated the BF3 results with the new NVIDIA driver this evening and it's darn near a tie on BF3. But, yeah, AMD did good with the new driver. It's sad it took them so long to get into the game. Should be interesting to see what NVIDIA does next now, LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted October 24, 2012 Founder Share Posted October 24, 2012 @Brian - check the graphs again. I updated the BF3 results with the new NVIDIA driver this evening and it's darn near a tie on BF3. But, yeah, AMD did good with the new driver. It's sad it took them so long to get into the game. Should be interesting to see what NVIDIA does next now, LOL. [MENTION=119]Mr. Fox[/MENTION] I'll give it a look now. BTW nVidia's new GTX 680MX just got announced..ugh talk about shit luck for me! Just paid all that money for 2 new cards only for them to be obsolete right away. Might ask the vendor if I can return them. BTW the 680MX is a full desktop core! Fucking amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnksss Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Oh wow! So I see. Wonder when that's going to hit the streets?Side note:And considering how thin that imac is....Double wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted October 29, 2012 Founder Share Posted October 29, 2012 Ok finally getting started with some real OC'ing after I figured out the physics score issue. Anyway here's core @ 902 and memory at stock: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnksss Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 Getting it dialed in i see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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