7970M 120Hz - Replace GPU - Complaint

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nipplepie

Bronze Level Poster
Hello I have sent the following email to PCS regarding my Vortex 3 I purchased a few months back.

Hello

I have being having issues with the 7970M. It has great performance but it has being so much trouble to get... to even find out what the official drivers are. I have a ASUS VG236 3D Monitor, capable of 120Hz. The monitor is Nvidia 3D Vision Ready. But should be able to run at 120Hz with any card that is capable of 120Hz (right?). I want to play games at 120Hz refresh rate. I do not care about the 3D gaming.

I tried to get help in the following topics below. PLEASE do read up on them.

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?20497-7970m-drivers

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=448&threadid=162195&enterthread=y

From the topic bellow I saw:

"It is a paradox because the AMD card must to fed through the Intel HD Graphics regardless of whether it is on or not. The way it is wired, it goes to the LVDS port only. The 120Hz screen uses the eDP port which from the way that the mobo is wired, can only be driven by an nvidia card as when it is configured. The reason is that the Intel Integrated Graphics cannot push signal through a eDP port and the AMD card cannot be utilised without the Intel GPU an therefore is limited to 60Hz."

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/665477-7970m-120hz.html

So does that mean if I want to play games at 120Hz I need an Nvidia graphics card? Even thought I have the newest AMD card out... If so would I be able to get PCSpecilists to upgrade the card for me and how much would it cost and how would it work? I only want to upgrade to Nvidia if it will defiantly make me able to game at 120Hz on my external monitor.

Kind Regards,
Nikolay Zhelev
Click to expand...

All they replied was that the 7970M wasn't compatable with 3D Vision, only Nvidia cards are. Duh. That wasn't my question. I want to know weather the card is capable of running games at 120Hz. Will a future driver enable that? They also said that they do not have any spare Nvidia cards.

My questions are:
Is it true that the 7970M can not run at 120Hz at all? Or do I need a Monitor that is meant for AMD Radeon cards, instead of Nvidia?

If I really need a Nvidia card to make this happen. Can PCS really not get it replaced if I pay them? If not, where can I go to get it replaced? I thought the 7970M was soldered on, so how will that work?

Thurder with this driver I have installed at the moment from the thread in my Quote, I get like ingame skipping. Like it doesn't fps drop, but it skips a few frams sometimes, feeling really choppy. I play CS:GO competitively, so I just can not have that!

I would appreciate support, help from PCS and anyone else that knows what they are talking about :)

Thanks in advance!
 
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N

nipplepie

Bronze Level Poster
I am also getting BSOD when I restart, then works fine when I turn off and on. Also I am getting light screen tearing in every game. Please someone help me.
 
PaulH

PaulH

Bright Spark
Hello,

I have just read the email reply you have recieved through email and I can only apologise, I have asked and the email was simply misread - we do not aim to give bad support but on this occasion it was a very bad answer and for that I do apologise.

Sadly with the AMD cards such as the 7970m in the Vortex chassis they card itself sits in an MXM expansion slot so the card can be changed, it is not soldered in - With the AMD the MXM interface does not go directly to the screen, it is passed through the Intel CPU - the display is controlled from the 2 VGA output pins on the CPU instead of using a MUX to take dual signals from the MXM and the CPU port - Because of this the limiting factor in these chassis means it cannot run at 120hz as far as we are aware - but it will be checked for you and I will post results shortly (im going to build a laptop and see if i can get it to work)

Screen tearing normally occurs when the graphics card is not outputting the same frame rate as the refresh rate it is set to - sometimes by enabling v-sync this can be remedied, it might be worth seeing if this is an option in the game you are playing in the menu.

Dont forget to get 120hz you have to be using the dual link DVI!

Will update this when i have built a laptop up to test properly.
 
N

nipplepie

Bronze Level Poster
Thank you very much for explaining this to me. I have a dual-link DVI. I heard that HDMI 1.4 can also carry 120Hz signal. Will that also work with the Votrex 3 and ASUS VG236?

I haven't experience screen tearing like this before. I play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitively, so having high fps and not using V-Sync (gives mouse lag) is more important to me than having a bit of screen tearing. But I can tell that it's just not normal, even if I am playing a game at constant fps_max 181 on a 60Hz screen, it shouldn't be this bad. I think if I find a way to run at 120Hz that will be fixed.

Also from what I understand, it is possible to get the 7970M replaced as it's not soldered. Can PCS do this for me? If not, can you please recodment a reliable company that could? (I live in Southampton@Home & Canterbury@Uni if that helps with suggesting a company.)

Thank you so much for explaining, helping and testing if what I want is possible. If the 7970M can not run at 120Hz, please test if a Nvidia card could so I know that replacing my GPU will defiantly work.
 
N

nipplepie

Bronze Level Poster
Also, I just got a reply on this thread, and won't be a bad idea to share this information with you: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=34296308#post34296308

Is the Vortex 3 DisplayPort only a Single-link DVI? Am I connecting a dual-link DVI cable to a single-link port? That's why it's not working? If I buy a HDMI 1.4 calbe will that work with the Vortex 3's HDMI port (or does it need to have a HDMI 1.4 Port on the laptop as well?) and the ASUS VG236 HDMI port?
 
PaulH

PaulH

Bright Spark
Displayport to DVI "may" work and I can try and test this for you however you will not get HDMI to do 120hz as the VG236 monitor can only do 3d / 120hz through the DVI ;)

You could get the card replaced and we could change it for you when we have some spare GTX680 cards back into stock, sadly, the way the MXM card works on all the Vortex laptops is the same, it channels through the CPU at all times so even changing the card will not let you use 120hz - Its possible on the Vortex Elite as this has 2 x Nvidia cards and the internals are different.

The screen tearing will be that bad as you are rendering frames too fast for the display to keep up sadly - as you said, if you can somehow manage to get 120hz through a hack or workaround this will improve the tearing no end.

What I can do for you however is send you a free DP to DVI convertor that we have here to try, if it works fantastic, if it doesn't - you have your answer - :)

feel free to PM me your O/N and we can arrange something for you.
 
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