M17xR3 6970m to GTX 780m upgrade, experience and advice welcome....

[BDogg464]

Hello all, 

Im new to this forum so please bear with me here. As the title says im upgrading my M17xR3 from a dead 6970m to a 780m. Have not purchased the video card yet, but will be doing so thursday. So in preparation of that, i wanted to make a post on here asking for all experience, advice, and any tricks or problems people have experienced doing this upgrade themselves. All help and advice is welcome.

My current system is a M17xR3, gpu 6970m, cpu 2860qm, screen is 1920x1080. I still love my computer and it has been a solid workhorse for the past 4-5 years. I have run this 6970m overclocked to 820/1100 and actually surprised it lasted 5 years like this. I think the final nail in the coffin was upgrading to windows 10 and trying to install new drivers. I think i mistakenly tried to install the wrong drivers, trying to get the most current after new windows install.

But anywho i still want to keep my computer and just upgrade the gpu. I have done a lot of research and seems the easiest upgrade would be to go to a 780m as anything higher then that tends to be very problematic. As long as it out performs the 6970 the way i had it overclocked i will be happy. So a few questions reguarding this matter

 

Is this a major jump in performance or will i not notice to much difference?

Any major problems or things to look out for in this upgrade, what not to do, what to make sure to do?

What is the best thermal paste to use these days? 

Where can i get the thermal pads i need for the 780m?

will i need custom video drivers to make this work? Where do i get them?

Do i have to disable the integrated graphics for this to work?

what all do i need to make this switch from the 6970m? do i need a whole new heatsink, or just the xbracket?

Is the 780m safe to overclock at all, anyone done so at a stable overclock.

And basically anything you think a noob should know about this before i dive in?

 

All help, advice, experience, mess-ups, are welcome. looking to go into this with some pre-learned knowledge and hopefully it will all turn out o.k.

 

 

 

 

[BDogg464]

Just to add a few extra details. Im not a complete noob, just not a expert. I've repaired laptops, laptop screens, changed cpu, video cards, built towers and such. So i have a good general knowledge.

 

In preparation of doing this, i completely removed the bad 6970m. Did a total clean re-install of windows with the 6970m out of the machine. Got windows back to the way i want it. Programs installed, everything working, all drivers good. Did not install any drivers for the dedicated gpu only the on-board Intel hd 3000 so i can use the computer untill i get the new video card.

[turbocat]

780m is the better card, but depending on your gaming preferences, I went from a 6970m to a 7970m and the leap was massive.

 

Easiest install ever, same thermal pads, brackets pretty much plug and play. Decent prices on ebay too,

 

Just thought id share.

 

 

[BDogg464]

I hear ya, kinda wanted to see what the other side was like (nividia vs amd)

Always was a hassle messing with those amd drivers...  lol.

But ended up purchasing a Gtx 780m 4gb card. Also got the whole parts setup i need from the same place. 100w heatsink, x bracket, thermal pads, thermal paste(shin Etsu G751) x brackets screws

Now that i have procured everything i need, the question is about drivers. 

I have a m17xr3 using a Gtx 780m

I know im going to have to use custom drivers. So my question is, where do i get such drivers? Can i edit any stock driver myself to work correctly in my setup?

Im sure there is probly a couple people on here who mod drivers and such, is there also a reliable guide to do so?

 

M17xR3 - Windows 10 - 64Bit - 2860qm - GTX 780m - Kingston HyperX Savage 480gb -16gb kingston HyperX 1866MHz ram (set  to 1600MHz) 

 

And if anyone wants to link me or send me in the right direction of what driver they are using specifically in their M17xR3 with a GTX 780m that would be awesome!

Edited May 4, 2016 by BDogg464

[Klem]

11 hours ago, BDogg464 said:

I hear ya, kinda wanted to see what the other side was like (nividia vs amd)

Always was a hassle messing with those amd drivers...  lol.

But ended up purchasing a Gtx 780m 4gb card. Also got the whole parts setup i need from the same place. 100w heatsink, x bracket, thermal pads, thermal paste(shin Etsu G751) x brackets screws

Now that i have procured everything i need, the question is about drivers. 

I have a m17xr3 using a Gtx 780m

I know im going to have to use custom drivers. So my question is, where do i get such drivers? Can i edit any stock driver myself to work correctly in my setup?

Im sure there is probly a couple people on here who mod drivers and such, is there also a reliable guide to do so?

For NVIDIA drivers modification you can read this thread: 

Also, if you have some questions about NVIDIA drivers modification, you can ask moderator J95

He is a guru in drivers modification.

[BDogg464]

If i choose to flash the vbios of the 780m- anyone have a good suggestion of what i should use? i usually just oc with afterburner, but looks like i should avoid it with type of setup in win 10. 

I like the idea of the vbios flash that sets the base clock limits higher and unlockes the oc capabilites of the card on the bios level. Probly not going to mess around with any significant oc to where im increasing voltage, but i have very limited knowledge on the vbios flashing....

[sirana]

Just follow svl7's awesome guide.

 

[BDogg464]

Well i have made it to the next step....  My GPU has shipped out. Now just the mailman waiting game. Will keep informed of delivery and post when i start installation. Hopefully i won't have to pull on the knowledge of this community to much due to problems getting it to run.... Thanks everyone for the help/advice so far.

[BDogg464]

o.k. so what programs do i need to use to monitor, apply overclocks whenever i choose to go that far. I have seen comments here and there about not using msi afterburner or precision programs.  Im using windows 10 by the way.  I usually always use msi afterburner, if not for overclocking - always for in game info monitor (fps, core clock, temp, etc. )

 

So with the setup im using. what's the best programs to use in windows 10, using a m17xr3 (1920x1080screen) with a 780m to overclock - and display temps, fps, and etc. in game?

any links and specific names or versions would be greatly appreciated.

 

also what benchmark program would be best to test the card out after install to check for throttling and correct performance? 3dmark? heaven? valley? 

Edited May 14, 2016 by BDogg464

[BDogg464]

alright, so it's out for delivery! So here in the next few hours i will have my new gpu in hand and overwhelmed with what to do first. Will be looking over guides and setting up little work area.   Will be very excited to see how this goes

Edited May 24, 2016 by BDogg464

[BDogg464]

Fantastic.   O.k. guys so up and running!!!!!!!!!   YES!    was a few hiccups along the way but mabey a 2 hour ordeal overall. Any newbie type people doing this, i can almost bet you will make a few mistakes...

Biggest thing i can try to pass on here is the actuall layout of what to do when. For making the sound work this is crucial, was'nt really emphasized on the guides i read.

 

This is just a very rough layout here:

-Get rid of all old drivers for old card. remove card (at this point i would load into windows and make sure everythings working if you have integrated graphics)

-reboot into bios, disable audio, set peg, cut off igd etc.

-This is the important part......    

-install new graphics card when booting up this time go into bios and re-enable audio at this point. (if you don't do it now it's not going to work right) 

-Once in windows install idt audio drivers

-Then install graphics drivers    i followed the method below. Although i could not get J95's driver edit method to work, instead i downloaded the driver from upgrade your laptop and used that one. worked flawlessly 

 

(even though is says (Win8/8.1) exact same method for me in windows 10)

           

-This is J95's instructions here

j95 quote:

 

2) Once in windows disable driver signing (Win8/8.1) 

.1 -Open command prompt (Admin) windows key + X

.2 -Type "bcdedit /set {current} testsigning yes" (without quotes) enter.

.3 -"The operation concluded successfully"

.4 -Type exit> reboot.

3) Driver installation.

Download GeForce 347.52 WHQL

.1 Extract driver using 7-Zip/winrar. Right click extract to "3xx.xx-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql"

.2 -Display.Driver folder -> copy/overwrite nv_dispi.inf

.3 -Extracted 3xx.xx-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international\ run setup.exe

.4 -Select custom install -> check clean install option.

.5 -Reboot.

nv_dispi.inf (unzip) nv_dispi.inf_v347.52.zip

4) Exit test mode

.1 -Command prompt (Admin).

.2 -Type "bcdedit /set {current} testsigning no" enter.

.3 -Type exit -> reboot.

 

end quote:

 

-I ended up having to take the card in and out quite a few times before i realized the correct steps.   

if the audio is enabled after the nvidia drivers are installed you will get the solid color screen on reboot.

if you boot up with audio off and install nividia drivers, you can't install idt after because it's disabled.

if you have onboard graphics enabled and new card in, it will not boot and just beep at you.

If you don't do the disable driver signing with the command prompt, it will not work either.

 

Edited May 14, 2016 by BDogg464

[BDogg464]

Only question i have right now is, what is a good fps monitor program i can use (i usually use the fps monitors in the overclock programs i use "afterburner" evga precision" but have heard not to use those with the 780m setup in the m17xr3   any help? or is this bullshit?

[BDogg464]

not sure what's normal here but the core clock when under load from a game goes up to CORE: 849.2 and the memory clock goes up to MEMORY: 1248.7  is this normal clock speeds underload?

[BDogg464]

ok so downloaded a free 3dmark benchmark and ran it,   its just a basic edition so i just ran it as is. It was a firestrike benchmark here's the screenshots of the results.

 

Is this good? Bad? Normal??    just trying to make sure this card is running how it's suppose to. 

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2016 by BDogg464
edit

[BDogg464]

[Zoldago]

I never benchmarked a 780M in a R3 with firestrike, but i knew a guy that installed a 970M in an R4 (1 or 2 weeks ago) and he got something around 6300 pts in firestrike.

So i think your 5000 pts are ok.

[BDogg464]

Now i just got to read up on flashing to the unlocked vbios. Not that im really gonna do heavy overclocking or anything. But hell since i have a custom install with a unlocked bios, and a card that's not suppose to be in my R3. I might as well have an unlocked card also.........

 

Everything seems to be running Great so far. Spent all night playing the new Doom release. It doesn't disappoint!

 

small temp report:

 

highest temp I saw on benchmark and playing doom was 65 degrees stock and 69-70 degrees with a mild overclock (+100/+185)

Edited May 15, 2016 by BDogg464

[BDogg464]

just flashed my vbios and all went well... will show a benchmark difference soon

 

[BDogg464]

This is before and after bios flash slv's from this site no changes only vbios is different. I did'nt expect to see to much or any from simply flashing to an unlocked bios and not changing anything. But still looks like it changes the behavior for the better. 

 

So what are people setting these things to with their overclock settings? 

I know nothing about this card and just kinda been messing around with it. +100/+185 makes a nice stable improvement for me over the stock clocks. Hav'nt messed with any voltages know to little. Don't know what people have been tweeking that to or anything. I see alot about people undervolting these.

[BDogg464]

So can anyone share or link me to what people are using for stable overclocks, overvolts, or undervolts?

 

Cant seem to find any actual numbers listed anywhere. Just trying to get an outline of whats doable