[Guide] Installing AMD Radeon Mobility 6970 / 6990 in your M17x R2 (Single GPU and CrossfireX)

[Douse]

Strange, from memory I thought HDMI only utilised one of the cards....

When I would hook up my tv to the laptop, only one card would get hot...

EDIT:: Ok, nevermind. For some reason I was under the impression that when using HDMI it only used one card......just did a test and you were right. It does work fine on HDMI.

[thenzfarmer]

I will post a vid tonight (in about 13 hours - long days at work) of BF3 gameplay. the video quality will be quite average but the fps will be shown on screen.
It will be single player though as the connection is terrible here.

[airborn334]

Thanks alot farmer in the description can you list the settings?

[ichime]

In regards to the Audio over HDMI issue, I only tested it from the HDMI port. The only fix to getting audio over HDMI is via using the Dell VBIOS (the one that causes BSOD/Freezes when sleeping or shutting down). HOWEVER, I didn't realize back then that the R2 also has a DisplayPort (right next to the HDMI port) and therefore did NOT test to see if sound was working from the DisplayPort instead.

If you're interested and still have the 6970M or 6990M setup (single or CF), you can test this yourself. If your monitor has a HDMI port, just use a DP-to-HDMI cable or adapter. If it happens to work, then it's a moot point with no audio-over-hdmi since DisplayPort IMO is a much better technology (i.e. DP doesn't have a resolution/bandwidth cap, meaning that we don't have to wait for HDMI 1.5 or something when a monitor with a resolution higher than 2560x1600 comes out).

[airborn334]

+rep if that works!

[Greywolf22]

Thanks Ichime!

I think someone (aarpcard maybe?) tested the display port and sound DOES work over the display port.

Its lost somewhere in this massive thread, but maybe he can comment (if it was someone else I apologize, I know one of the regulars posted that it works)

[DR650SE]

Thanks Ichime!

I think someone (aarpcard maybe?) tested the display port and sound DOES work over the display port.

Its lost somewhere in this massive thread, but maybe he can comment (if it was someone else I apologize, I know one of the regulars posted that it works)

General throught was that it was because he was using a Dell card as the master GPU.

[ichime]

Well, if someone has a monitor that has DisplayPort or has a DP-to-HDMI cable and can test it and report back, that would be great. I really hope that audio-over-DP ends up working as it's definitely the trend for future notebooks. Hell, even the Elitebook I got my dad axed HDMI for a DP.

[Greywolf22]

Would be very interesting to find out for sure. I unfortunately don't have anything with a display port. Might look into picking up a DP-HDMI cable just for testing purposes. If anyone else can report back that would be great.

[thenzfarmer]

Guys, I found this:

DELL DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter for Dell Latitude / Alienware Laptops / OptiPlex Desktop / Precision Mobile WorkStations : Desktop Accessories | Dell

If you look at the specifications, it shows that the graphics card must support audio over HDMI.
Testing might be the only way to go.

Thanks alot farmer in the description can you list the settings?

Yes I will, note the image quality is quite average but should be satisfactory for our purposes

Edit: I was getting a stable 60fps with vsync last night on high settings so expect to be amazed! Of course that was in single player...