# AMD Radeon HD 6950 Can be Unlocked to HD 6970



## W1zzard (Dec 26, 2010)

Looks like Santa brought an extra present for us hardware enthusiasts this year. Thanks to a less secure locking method AMD's new Radeon HD 6950 can be unlocked to a full blown HD 6970 with a few mouse clicks.

As detailed in our article, you can safely perform the flashing process from within Windows. In case something goes wrong it is easier than ever to recover the card thanks to AMD's new Dual-BIOS feature.

We tested the unlock on three HD 6950 cards: one AMD engineering sample, one HIS media sample and one ASUS retail card. All of them unlocked perfectly and run at HD 6970 speeds now. More success reports are compiled into a table at the end of the modding article.





*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## crazyeyesreaper (Dec 26, 2010)

damn it w1zzard... i already paid for 2x 6970s im using now where the hell were you a week ago god damn it..... 

oh well thanks for bringing it to are attention will definetly help some ppl save a bit of money


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## Tatty_One (Dec 26, 2010)

This is fantastic news.... gonna buy me a HD 6950 now!!!


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## jlewis02 (Dec 26, 2010)

Very nice hope they are still like that when I upgrade.
Yea after I buy a second 5850 this pops up.


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## HTC (Dec 26, 2010)

It seems the "AMD's better deal" just got better ...

EDIT

Do all the flashed cards support 6970 stock clocks?


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## PhysXerror (Dec 26, 2010)

Haha, Oh this sucks so bad for people that have already got their 6970's


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## cyriene (Dec 26, 2010)

I have an xfx 6950 on the way, hope it can unlock as well....

I was going to wait until nvidia's next card comes out to lower prices to get a second, but now I may just go ahead and buy another just incase they change this in a later revision.


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## robmagee (Dec 26, 2010)

I can confirm this works, all my proof is on XS posted under bodkin


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## buggalugs (Dec 26, 2010)

this changes things, im glad i waited.


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## v12dock (Dec 26, 2010)

Awesome find!


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## 95Viper (Dec 26, 2010)

Thanks, W1zzard!
Got a Gigabyte 6950 on the way, if, the UPS man can get though the snow.
Hopefully, I'll see it tomorrow or the next day.
I will have to try this out...


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## Mistral (Dec 26, 2010)

W1zzard, is this a late Christmas or an early New Year present?

Have a 6950 Powercolor here and I'm so going to try this.


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## PopcornMachine (Dec 26, 2010)

Wow.  I have a Sapphire 6950.  Going to read your article thoroughly before trying.


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## Hayder_Master (Dec 26, 2010)

guys quick pick up thous first samples before they locked it


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## the54thvoid (Dec 26, 2010)

Is this not a bit shit?  I mean as in shipping units that are 'software' crippled and can be 'fixed'?  It's great for the guys with 6950's but it surely must leave a sour taste in the mouth for 6970 owners who paid what, 50-80 quid more?  I guess hardware fusing is more expensive so BIOS mod.......

HOLD THE BOAT....

Is this what the delay was all about?  CD at S/A had an article about 6970 stocks being higher than expected and 6950 stocks being very low.  Was the delay caused by the last minute BIOS fiddlings to make more 6950's out of the 6970 cards?

Plausible?


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## W1zzard (Dec 26, 2010)

the54thvoid said:


> I guess hardware fusing is more expensive so BIOS mod.......



both costs nothing.

configuring the bios is like 3 mouse clicks for amd, i doubt that's the reason for the delay


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## damric (Dec 26, 2010)

Doht! I just bought a 6850, as it seemed like best bang for buck 6000 series. I wonder if it would unlock to 6870?


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## cyriene (Dec 26, 2010)

I'm excited to try this out. Hopefully amazon ships these quickly. This will be my first crossfire setup as well. Now I have to decide which water blocks I want to use.


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## Swamp Monster (Dec 26, 2010)

thanks W1zzard, another good reason to buy HD 6950. This is why I love TPU


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## Breit (Dec 26, 2010)

I just came around to see this thread and it made me launch GPU-Z just to compare your shot to my ASUS 6970. Now I'm wondering if it is a bug of some kind or if the 'real' 6970 actually has more shaders available than the modded 6950.

here is what GPU-Z gives me on a retail ASUS 6970:
Edit: Validation is here.


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

Breit said:


> I just came around to see this thread and it made me launch GPU-Z just to compare your shot to my ASUS 6970. Now I'm wondering if it is a bug of some kind or if the 'real' 6970 actually has more shaders available than the modded 6950.
> 
> here is what GPU-Z gives me on a retail ASUS 6970:
> Edit: Validation is here.



you have an old gpuz version ..

grab this one: 
 [GPU-Z Test Build] Support for AMD Radeon HD 6950...

thanks. fixed the link in the article and will release a new official build in the next few days


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## Breit (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> you have an old gpuz version ..
> 
> grab this one:
> [GPU-Z Test Build] Support for AMD Radeon HD 6950...
> ...



It seems to work fine now, thanks for the fast reply! New validation comes here.


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## trt740 (Dec 27, 2010)

well this is very good news


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## toyo (Dec 27, 2010)

In your face, AMD... (man I hardly believe they didn't know about this possibility before launch)


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## dnihilist (Dec 27, 2010)

Anybody run tests on power consumption? Any problems with power draw as 6950 only has 2x6 and not 1x6/8?


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## TheGuruStud (Dec 27, 2010)

dnihilist said:


> Anybody run tests on power consumption? Any problems with power draw as 6950 only has 2x6 and not 1x6/8?



8 pin doesn't add power.


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## dnihilist (Dec 27, 2010)

TheGuruStud said:


> 8 pin doesn't add power.



ok thnx

My theory is that MAD knew of this already and since the positioning of 6970 is in no-man's land, the free advertizing generated from this "feature" would sell more than enough 6950's to cover caniballized 6970 sales.


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## trt740 (Dec 27, 2010)

toyo said:


> In your face, AMD... (man I hardly believe they didn't know about this possibility before launch)



Well now you have it do you really think they didn't? I mean they know the W1zzards of the world are out there.


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## TheGuruStud (Dec 27, 2010)

dnihilist said:


> ok thnx
> 
> My theory is that MAD knew of this already and since the positioning of 6970 is in no-man's land, the free advertizing generated from this "feature" would sell more than enough 6950's to cover caniballized 6970 sales.



That's exactly what I think. Just like unlocking the duals and tricores. It's working. I'm sitting on amazon's checkout page....  


And I bought one. I'm so ashamed. It's like I paid a prostitute for the gratification. 

Sapphire's on amazon is $292.50, btw. I wish I could hold out till the 3rd party coolers are available, but I guess I don't want to risk AMD actually fusing them.


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## Vrgn86 (Dec 27, 2010)

Would this card perform on par with a GTX 295, or better.


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## jlewis02 (Dec 27, 2010)

It will perform better


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## dnihilist (Dec 27, 2010)

TheGuruStud said:


> That's exactly what I think. Just like unlocking the duals and tricores. It's working. I'm sitting on amazon's checkout page....
> 
> 
> And I bought one. I'm so ashamed. It's like I paid a prostitute for the gratification.
> ...



Heading out to get one now, nothing wrong about getting the most bang for your buck.

The dual-bios is starting to make sense, no point getting your noob 6950 customers bricking their cards performing their "free" upgrade.


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## TheGuruStud (Dec 27, 2010)

dnihilist said:


> Heading out to get one now, nothing wrong about getting the most bang for your buck.
> 
> The dual-bios is starting to make sense, no point getting your noob 6950 customers bricking their cards performing their "free" upgrade.



Yeah  I was wondering why they implemented the feature. I loved it before this, but it definitely makes sense and makes me even happier. 

Go Green Team!  Or is it Team Green?


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## KainXS (Dec 27, 2010)

well this makes the 6970 worth it to me now, get a 6950 flash to 6970 

thats some incredible performance per dollar


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Dec 27, 2010)

Have these flashed cards been stability tested? Because most 6950s reviewed don't seem to hit 880 on stock volts, and isn't the 6950 vid higher to begin with?


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## PaNiC (Dec 27, 2010)

thank you AMD for taking $200 away from me


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## DigitalUK (Dec 27, 2010)

man this sucks, i was going to buy the 6950 but spent the extra ,just put my system together again after installing my nice new 6970 and first thing i see 6950 unlocked. i thought the cores were different on the 6950 and 6970


also is there a reason mine is showing 1600 shaders.


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## buggalugs (Dec 27, 2010)

You gotta use the new GPUZ to read the 69xx cards properly


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## Salsoolo (Dec 27, 2010)

was eyeing a 6870. definitely getting a 6950 in two weeks on extra monies 
hope it works with me


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## DigitalUK (Dec 27, 2010)

that is the latest version 0.4.9, its gonna make 6950's sell like hot cakes.


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## buggalugs (Dec 27, 2010)

DigitalUK said:


> that is the latest version 0.4.9, its gonna make 6950's sell like hot cakes.



Theres a newer one for these cards

 [GPU-Z Test Build] Support for AMD Radeon HD 6950...


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## DigitalUK (Dec 27, 2010)

thanks buggalugs didnt know that, everything reading properly now and bandwidth showing what it should.


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## Rebelstar (Dec 27, 2010)

I wonder if AMD will close this way to unlock in the next 6950 revisions probably and only first 6950's are possible to unlock.


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## buggalugs (Dec 27, 2010)

...... this is a nice Christmas present if you own a 6950 but i wouldnt be too upset if i already had a 6970. The best binned chips probably went into the 6970.



Rebelstar said:


> I wonder if AMD will close this way to unlock in the next 6950 revisions probably and only first 6950's are possible to unlock.



Dont think so. I think they do it on purpose, same with their unlocking of cores on their CPUs. AMD are too smart to let this happen by accident.


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## KainXS (Dec 27, 2010)

it might be why they did the dual bios anyway. . . . . . 

took to fast to figure this out


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## dir_d (Dec 27, 2010)

Performance is the same even with two different architectures? Why did AMD switch to 4-Way? Was it a test run like the 40nm 4770?


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## crazyeyesreaper (Dec 27, 2010)

no so much the same i can tell you in games like crysis warhead dual 5800 to dual 6900 was nearly double the performance it really depends on the game

Metro 2033 
Alien Vs Predator 

both scale and are far faster on the new cards by a landslide just DX9 and DX10 there on par or 20% faster *usually* but there are weird situations

example Bad Company 2 regular multiplayer xfire scaling is 18% Bad Company 2 Vietnam multiplayer scaling for me is around 82-85% and at those frame rates its about 35-40fps more then my 5850 oc xfire setup was

to be blunt theres far more games out there then the 5-10 you see in reviews and the games that need the xtra performance the 6900s do there share of improving


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## Rebelstar (Dec 27, 2010)

buggalugs said:


> .
> Dont think so. I think they do it on purpose, same with their unlocking of cores on their CPUs. AMD are too smart to let this happen by accident.



Well, then I think we'll see OUT OF STOCK message for 6950 at newegg very soon


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## wolf (Dec 27, 2010)

This makes the 6950 a hec of a lot more tempting, gahhh, if only the GTX560 were out already to make my decision easyer.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Dec 27, 2010)

come on wolf we both know the 560 will just be a new 470

580 replaced 480 took a step up
570 = 480
560 = 470
550 = 460

so on and etc


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## wolf (Dec 27, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> come on wolf we both know the 560 will just be a new 470
> 
> 580 replaced 480 took a step up
> 570 = 480
> ...



yes but pricing and overclockability of the tweaked chip are unknown, we can make performance estimates for for enthusiasts like us that isnt the whole picture.

also I have to stick to a 500w PSU budget nowadays.


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## HXL492 (Dec 27, 2010)

Imagine online retailers taking advantage of this and go "get your 6950's today and unlock them to 6970's!!"

Then imagine AMD's reaction "WTF?!!?!"


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## crazyeyesreaper (Dec 27, 2010)

amd wont care and heres why 6970 xfire = gtx 580 sli

6950 is $300 vs 6970 at $370 save $140 for the same performance after you bios flash with a 2nd bios in case you screw up 

it steals Nvidias gtx 500 series thunder as you can basically get $750 6970 xfire performance if you wish for $600 or gtx 580 sli performance at nearly $300 cheaper 

and in single card terms you get $370 performance for $300 making the GTX 570 out of place 

9/10 later batches of the gpus will be properly locked my guess is this only works on the initial batches so get them while you can


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## my_name_is_earl (Dec 27, 2010)

Thank you for posting this. I immediately purchase an hd6950. I've wanted the 6970 for some time but it's pricey. This is hawt news.


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## Over_Lord (Dec 27, 2010)

So where are we now??? A 290$ card (HD6950) which performs at par with a GTX570 (350$) card because it can be unlocked risk-free to a 370$ card(HD6970)


Well, guess AMD launched this card to say.. "Merry Christmas"


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## wolf (Dec 27, 2010)

thunderising said:


> So where are we now??? A 290$ card (HD6950) which performs at par with a GTX570 (350$) card because it can be unlocked risk-free to a 370$ card(HD6970)
> 
> 
> Well, guess AMD launched this card to say.. "Merry Christmas"



its more like the 6970 that performs on par (or as good as) with a GTX570, and the 6950 is pitted against the GTX470, taken from AMD themselves. these are literally the cards they were released to compete against, and they do.

and I doubt AMD purposely made the 6950 unlockable, and just waited for us to find out as an added bonus. how would that help them sell their more expensive 6970 model (for more profit, the aim of any company)

don't get me wrong this is fantastic for the enthusiast community, just look at it the right way. also take into consideration 95+% of GTX570's can overclock to GTX580 performance if not beyond, something the 6970's even have trouble doing.

this makes the choice of enthusiast card even the more intruiging for me, as I'm in the budget of 200-300 Euro's and a card in the next two months. right now its looking to be GTX570, 6950 or GTX560, depending on reviews rounding up all 3 when the 560 lands.


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## Frosty (Dec 27, 2010)

wolf said:


> its more like the 6970 that performs on par (or as good as) with a GTX570, and the 6950 is pitted against the GTX470, taken from AMD themselves. these are literally the cards they were released to compete against, and they do.
> 
> and I doubt AMD purposely made the 6950 unlockable, and just waited for us to find out as an added bonus. how would that help them sell their more expensive 6970 model (for more profit, the aim of any company)
> 
> ...



I was under the impression that the 6950/70s still have software locked voltage. If that is the case, in theory, with voltage support the 6970 should be able to reach much higher clocks than we have seen thus far.


Oh, and hey everyone! This is my first post on TPU. I'm actually an avid OCN user but figured I should join TPU and share the enjoyment of this news on the 6950. 

I just placed an order for two 6950s because of this thread....let's hope they unlock. I'll post results when I get them.


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## wolf (Dec 27, 2010)

Frosty said:


> I was under the impression that the 6950/70s still have software locked voltage. If that is the case, in theory, with voltage support the 6970 should be able to reach much higher clocks than we have seen thus far.
> 
> 
> Oh, and hey everyone! This is my first post on TPU. I'm actually an avid OCN user but figured I should join TPU and share the enjoyment of this news on the 6950.
> ...



ahh thanks, something I overlooked, voltage support will bring yet more interestingness to the table with the 6900's. fantastic time to be interested by gfx cards IMO.

well welcome to TPU Frosty, I hope you stay with us many enjoyable years, TPU has so much to offer you.


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## Anusha (Dec 27, 2010)

even then, in Japan, i can get a HD5870 for less than 20k yen, while the 6950 is way over 30k. (btw, 6970 is around 42k. that's almost $500 yikes!)  funny how the GTX480 can be had for half the price of a GTX580 (just 26.5k yen!!!)

guess i should wait for a while for the prices to fall.


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## Frosty (Dec 27, 2010)

wolf said:


> ahh thanks, something I overlooked, voltage support will bring yet more interestingness to the table with the 6900's. fantastic time to be interested by gfx cards IMO.
> 
> well welcome to TPU Frosty, I hope you stay with us many enjoyable years, TPU has so much to offer you.



Thanks for the welcoming Wolf. 


As for the 6900 series, I can't see the clocks getting _too_ high (considering they're already high at stock) but hopefully added voltage will provide some extra headroom and maybe we'll see some 1 GHz+ core clocks out of these cards.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Dec 27, 2010)

true wolf but dual cards 6970s = 580s and on an AMD cpu 6970 is faster then a 580

red machine on the forums here has the same system as me but has a 580 gtx my 6970 is faster in all benchs we compared head to head

on Intel its a different story but still dual card 6900 = dual 580s thats just fact in most cases or when 580win its not enough to actually pay $300 for  if you get my meaning total price to performance


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## Frosty (Dec 27, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> true wolf but dual cards 6970s = 580s and on an AMD cpu 6970 is faster then a 580
> 
> red machine on the forums here has the same system as me but has a 580 gtx my 6970 is faster in all benchs we compared head to head
> 
> on Intel its a different story but still dual card 6900 = dual 580s thats just fact in most cases or when 580win its not enough to actually pay $300 for  if you get my meaning total price to performance



I don't mean to intervene but the 6970 will usually pull ahead in high resolution situations. Otherwise, the GTX 580 almost always performs better when it comes to lower resolutions.

What res were you benching at?


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## 1nf3rn0x (Dec 27, 2010)

Well, I guess this is similar to Nvidia. As some of there GTX 465 models can unlock to a GTX 470. It's amazing how these huge companies who spend hundred of millions of dollars to produce this technology can't even see a design flaw, while us, ordinary pc people notice it and make the most of it.

Thanks Nvidia and AMD, 
Sincerely us from TPU.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Dec 27, 2010)

1680x1050 my 6970 stock beats his 580 stock on the same CPU and RAM at the same speeds

dual card wise 6970s = 580 
6950s = 570 sli or 480 sli

single card wise 6950 is slower then a 570 while a 6970 is slightly faster but far slower then a 580

when it comes to an Intel system


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## Frosty (Dec 27, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> 1680x1050 my 6970 stock beats his 580 stock on the same CPU and RAM at the same speeds
> 
> dual card wise 6970s = 580
> 6950s = 570 sli or 480 sli
> ...



Yeah, my Phenom II x4 955 @ 3.8 GHz bottlenecked my 5850 crossfire and 470 SLI quite a bit. Benching at 1680x1050 most likely leaves a hefty load on the CPU, so those high-end GPUs may not be stretching their legs. 

As you said, I guess that's why the 580 is faster on Intel based systems.


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## boogerlad (Dec 27, 2010)

Ｉs there any chance of unlocking a 6850 --> 6870? Ａny guinea pigs ＸＤ


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## 15th Warlock (Dec 27, 2010)

This is excellent news  indeed, AMD bringing so much performance at such a low price, with or without their consent, this opens the possibility of lower prices for nVidia's high end cards, as, at such price to performance ratio, the HD6950 truly is on a class of its own, and nothing available currently from the green team comes even close to its value. 

As I said, excellent news for everybody!


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## hv43082 (Dec 27, 2010)

Any benchmarks for 6970 in Xfire at 2560x1600?


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## crazyeyesreaper (Dec 27, 2010)

and an tech did in there review they compared 6900 xfire vs 580 sli etc etc


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## Hayder_Master (Dec 27, 2010)

nice Christmas gift from w1zzard


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## buggalugs (Dec 27, 2010)

wolf said:


> and I doubt AMD purposely made the 6950 unlockable, and just waited for us to find out as an added bonus. how would that help them sell their more expensive 6970 model (for more profit, the aim of any company)


 
 Selling cards at a lower price is better than not selling cards at all. The general opinion of the 6950-6970 performance was a little underwhelming, Many reviews are saying the 570 is a better buy. People who were thinking about getting a 570 or 560 will be drawn back to an amd card.  

The vast majority of gaming graphic card sales are in the 6950 price bracket so if they lose a few 6970 sales its not going to affect them too much. Not many people other than a small enthusiast community know about or want to flash their cards anyway but the positive buzz online means they will sell more amd cards.

 AMD have a history with this kind of thing,  look at the response in this thread and elsewhere, they're going to sell like hotcakes. 

Anyway its just an opinion, but if its not the case their must be some engineer at AMD getting his ass kicked right now. lol


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## Tensa Zangetsu (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard You are the man!!!!!

Now to get a 6950


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## afw (Dec 27, 2010)

So we can have 2 BIOSs ... one of 6950 and anthr of 6970 ... and can switch between the two ... ??? ...  6950 looks very tempting now ... hmmmm ....


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## Nirutbs (Dec 27, 2010)

copied but didn't not give any credit


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## Wrigleyvillain (Dec 27, 2010)

Wow this is sweet. Didn't think stuff like this happened anymore...



cyriene said:


> I'm excited to try this out. Hopefully amazon ships these quickly. This will be my first crossfire setup as well. Now I have to decide which water blocks I want to use.



Instead of blocks you could buy another 24" display cause I dunno why you need 2x6950 (make that 6970 it would seem safe to say) with just one...



damric said:


> Doht! I just bought a 6850, as it seemed like best bang for buck 6000 series. I wonder if it would unlock to 6870?



Yeah don't think so. But unless you are playing above 1920x1200 you are just fine and you are damn correct on best bang for buck. I got 2x6850 on the way for aforementioned res for $310 shipped AR and with the fantastic scaling even that's gonna be more power than I really need.

Hopefully they don't lock this out in the future cause 6950 definitely just got more attractive no matter what! Can't wait til they're closer to $200 now.


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## Ross211 (Dec 27, 2010)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Wow this is sweet. Didn't think stuff like this happened anymore...



Exactly what I was thinking.  I thought ATI / Nvidia started preventing this by doing laser cuts on the card.  I remember BIOS flashing my old mighty Sapphire 9800 Pro to 9800 XT - I was a lucky one and got the R360 core.

This article makes me think of this one I read... hey wait, it's here at TPU 

Interview: Alex 'Unwinder' / RivaTuner



> The hobby of soft-modding GPUs turned into an obsession. Alex and his friends had tackled several softmod projects over the years, and in January of 2003 he would make an unlikely friend because of it. At the time, ATI had been working on the 9500-9700 Radeon series and one of their product producing partners, afraid to sell the new 9500 Non-Pro model because it could be unlocked to the 9700 series, contacted Alex about the issue. “I immediately started investigating 9500 modding. So I guess it was a planned leak for them, aimed to boost sales of the 9500 Non-Pro.” Alex and his team announced that they were working on a closed beta for the modded 9500 drives, but it turns out that somebody beat them to it. “I was really mad, thinking that some of my testers ignored the NDA and leaked the script. So I contacted the author of the modded driver and as you can guess, W1z was that man.” W1zzard, who was living in Germany, had completed the mod all by himself, starting a strong professional relationship between the two software developers.
> 
> While the modding community has grown, according to Alex it peaked in 2004 with the release of GeForce 6800 series. Then, it was easy to unlock pixel and vertex pipelines with the NVStrap driver, but now ATI and NVIDIA are using advanced locking technologies making soft-mods nearly impossible in modern display adapters. Alex says, “Soft-mods mean lost money for both ATI and NVIDIA, and they are definitely not stupid and never make the same mistake twice.” This could lead to the eventual death of the soft-mod community but there is a bright side. “GPUs have a lot of undocumented areas, which vendors are trying to hide from end users. So we will always have something new to explore.” In the end however, Alex believes that soft-modding benefits both ATI and NVIDIA. “People like a free performance boost and whether ATI and NVIDIA like it or not, the mods help them to promote their products.”


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## HXL492 (Dec 27, 2010)

@crazyeyesreaper
I can see what you're thinking, but AMD just killed off the 6970 and I'm sure they won't be happy about this


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## dj-electric (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard you are the man... HD6950 is unlockable. this is nuts!


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## HammerON (Dec 27, 2010)

If I didnt't have 2 GTX 470's under water I would buy two 6950's in a heartbeat!!!
This is freak'n awesome


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## alwayssts (Dec 27, 2010)

the54thvoid said:


> Is this not a bit shit?  I mean as in shipping units that are 'software' crippled and can be 'fixed'?  It's great for the guys with 6950's but it surely must leave a sour taste in the mouth for 6970 owners who paid what, 50-80 quid more?  I guess hardware fusing is more expensive so BIOS mod.......
> 
> HOLD THE BOAT....
> 
> ...



There were always two ways to look at that (if it was true).  One just became less pessimistic, and more realistic.

1.  Cayman yields were great, and most dies qualified to have all shaders enabled.
2.  Cayman yields were terrible, and units were disabled on both parts.  6950 BECAME 6970 (Or at least shader specs drifted downward; perhaps revisioned more than once) allowing greater allocation to 6970.

The mill, and reality, points to number 2.  

Our Chinese/Taiwanese friends supposedly 'in-the-know' mentioned long before the 6900 series release that it had (according to Googlnese) been "melted down" and changes had been made reducing shader count (From 1920 to 1792 IIRC, but I may remember wrong).  I don't know exactly what was meant by that, but there was likely something to it.  This is on top of reporting from a different source Cayman was taped out at least twice, the last time a pretty short time before launch (late Q3).  TechEYE also ran a post (from 'inside-Taiwan sources') on Nov 7th  indicating yields were in single digits and AMD was in a scurry to get SOMETHING out to compete because enough fully-functioning dies were not going to make it for a Q4 launch.  So there's the hear-say.

Then there's facts.  Not only was Cayman delayed, reinforcing yield rumors, but when you start looking at performance for 6950/6970 relative to Barts things get ugly. I don't know how any other conclusion could be reached other than this compromise satiated their need for yield, performance above Barts, if only barely, and the realization these two products were the only two they would be able to harvest dies for.  It's hard to believe 6950 was planned to be only 10% faster than 6870, and the two 6900-series products 10% apart.  We all know the standard gap between products (~15%), and this ain't that on multiple levels.  Also note not only is 6970 the first part in eons from ATi with an unorthodox clockspeed (They HAD to release something comparable to GTX570, yields be damned) but that this core was architected after they knew their direct competition (512sp Fermi, ~750mhz).  When a mid-range GTX560 (upclocked, mind you, to unexpectedly compete with 6950) is coming that will destroy not only Cayman's intended MSRP, but put pressure on AMD's whole $200-400 stack when AMD typically prides themselves on efficiency, you know something had to have gone terribly wrong.

If anything, the flashing ability would likely indicate 6950 was not planned to have 1408 shaders from the get-go, or the dies WOULD be locked down from TSMC.  What if 6950 was planned to have 1536sp?  To me, and I may stand alone, that makes a TON more sense.

_*The plot thickens...*_


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## DarkOCean (Dec 27, 2010)

Now i want the 6950 even more.


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## claylomax (Dec 27, 2010)

"The dual BIOS feature is just an added convenience for easier recovery, it is not a requirement for this kind of modding, nor is it evidence that AMD has planned their cards with unlocking in mind"  Why I find this a bit funny?


----------



## Over_Lord (Dec 27, 2010)

alwayssts said:


> There were always two ways to look at that (if it was true).  One just became less pessimistic, and more realistic.
> 
> 1.  Cayman yields were great, and most dies qualified to have all shaders enabled.
> 2.  Cayman yields were terrible, and units were disabled on both parts.  6950 BECAME 6970 (Or at least shader specs drifted downward; perhaps revisioned more than once) allowing greater allocation to 6970.
> ...




The GTX560 at 300$ price tag would hit AMD in the gut very bad.


----------



## DarkOCean (Dec 27, 2010)

The GTX560 at 300$ price tag would hit AMD in the gut very bad.[/QUOTE]

300 $ for 48 more shaders and 1 tess unit vs gtx 460 is quite not worth it in my opinion.The increase in shaders is the same with that of the 9800gtx vs 8800gt (~14%)wich u can easily compensate with overclock.
But 14% moree shaders doesn't mean the performance increase is linear in reality the shaders barely make a difference but the clocks affect performance more.


----------



## H82LUZ73 (Dec 27, 2010)

So i guess and I`m thinking that the 6990 might just be a single gpu based card .Also the 6970`s might flash to them. The 6990 might be the full blown 1920 shader model that we all thought the 6970 was.

So now here is my problem do i buy 2 6950 or 2 6970


----------



## gumpty (Dec 27, 2010)

Wow.

Now this changes the bang-for-buck, big time. If I've done my sums correctly, this now puts the 6950 as better bang for buck than a 6870 as well.

(I used this to calculate)


----------



## Tatty_One (Dec 27, 2010)

wolf said:


> ahh thanks, something I overlooked, voltage support will bring yet more interestingness to the table with the 6900's. fantastic time to be interested by gfx cards IMO.
> 
> well welcome to TPU Frosty, I hope you stay with us many enjoyable years, TPU has so much to offer you.



maybe the Asus cards still come with their excellent Volatge tweak software, I am going for the Asus in any case.


----------



## the54thvoid (Dec 27, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> a 6970 is ... far slower then a 580
> 
> when it comes to an Intel system



Thank god i've got an i7... 

I think next year's 28nm shrink will be very 'soap opera'.

Can't wait!


----------



## Tatty_One (Dec 27, 2010)

Just checked, the Asus cards do come with their voltage tweak software so no worries on overclocking headroom there!


----------



## Stavrus (Dec 27, 2010)

TheGuruStud said:


> 8 pin doesn't add power.



I'm worried about the power consumption as well from bringing the 6950 up to 6970 speeds. According to the chart in the article, both the 6950+20% and the 6970+20% are achieving the same speeds, but the 6970+20% is drawing an additional 25W from the power supply that (from my understanding) can only come from the extra 75W provided by the 8-pin connection on the 6970. What is this extra 25W being used for? Will the 6950, running at 6970 speeds, hit a bottleneck in power consumption from not having the extra 75W supplied by the 8-pin connection?


----------



## badsykes (Dec 27, 2010)

Sapphire 6950 unlocked succesefully here.
There was glitch that ended:
At the Physics first test in 3dmark11 i ended up with black screen and the mouse cursor and freezed there.The pc didn't freezed completly so pressing space throw me back to desktop and i got an error from 3dm11 saying something unexpectly occured..
I raised the powertune glider to +20% and after this i run again two times the 3dmark11 bench and everything was fine..
From many bechies i saw that 6970 overclocked further gives very little performance improvement..With this unlocked card i hited the sweetest deal..


----------



## roast (Dec 27, 2010)

Excellent! Was planning on getting a 6950. 
Does this increase/decrease overclocking potential at all?


----------



## dj-electric (Dec 27, 2010)

Overall ur getting better performance so it really doesn't matter


----------



## meran (Dec 27, 2010)

wow very nice


----------



## bear jesus (Dec 27, 2010)

Stavrus said:


> Will the 6950, running at 6970 speeds, hit a bottleneck in power consumption from not having the extra 75W supplied by the 8-pin connection?



The 8 pin pci-e power connector just has two more ground wires, a 6 pin pci-e power connector is not limited to 75w, the official spec is 75w but how much can be drawn is down to the PSU and that will almost always be more than the official spec as long as it's within the max output of the PSU on the 12v rail.


----------



## VulkanBros (Dec 27, 2010)

That is just great - was going to buy the 6970 instead of my GTX480 "toaster" .... now I can save some bugs and save on my electrical bill as well  ..... mann that´s what I call a Christmas gift


----------



## wolf (Dec 27, 2010)

Tatty_One said:


> Just checked, the Asus cards do come with their voltage tweak software so no worries on overclocking headroom there!



sicknuts, 1ghz+ here we come!


----------



## KainXS (Dec 27, 2010)

so wiz do you think AMD did this on purpose

. . . . cause it looks that way


----------



## Charismaman (Dec 27, 2010)

just did a 36 step bios upgrade that makes Dos 6.0  into Windows 3.0!    PC is super fast now.  cannot wait to multi-task and then-------VGA with full 16 colors. Fantastic, thanks for posting the code.


----------



## Over_Lord (Dec 27, 2010)

Charismaman said:


> just did a 36 step bios upgrade that makes Dos 6.0  into Windows 3.0!    PC is super fast now.  cannot wait to multi-task and then-------VGA with full 16 colors. Fantastic, thanks for posting the code.



hmm, this would pretty much put a halt to sales of HD6970 and GTX570 is every HD6950 is unlockable.


----------



## horik (Dec 27, 2010)

Succes here with my sapphire 6950,first i tried to load the 6970 bios with winflash but did not work,then i tried with the command lines in cmd but did not work,then i downloaded your update pack and here you can see,1536 shaders and 880 mhz Gpu /1375 mhz memory. Thx W1zzard 
Now the strange thing is that i have no way to change voltages in CCC or in Trixx...


----------



## minos (Dec 27, 2010)

*XFX to ASUS*

Hi guys 
Can I go from a XFX 6950 bios to a ASUS 6970 bios?
Or can I only unlock when I use XFX/Sapphire bios?


----------



## damric (Dec 27, 2010)

Keep in mind that 6950 cards have lower binned memory chips than 6970, not rated quite as fast. This may cause artifact problems for some people unlocking and running memory at 6970 speeds. Easy fix is to reduce memory speed.


----------



## theJesus (Dec 27, 2010)

Sweet way to save 60~70 bucks.


----------



## ZeppMan217 (Dec 27, 2010)

Might cause all kinds of artifacts in 3D. Neat lottery, though.


----------



## entropy13 (Dec 27, 2010)

theJesus said:


> Sweet way to save 60~70 bucks.



Jesus saves.


----------



## microtrash (Dec 27, 2010)

damric said:


> Keep in mind that 6950 cards have lower binned memory chips than 6970, not rated quite as fast. This may cause artifact problems for some people unlocking and running memory at 6970 speeds. Easy fix is to reduce memory speed.



This is my question ! Do someone had problem with memory speed ? Because 6950 card have 1250mhz memory ships (and run at 1250mhz) while 6970 card have 1500mhz memory chips (and run at 1375mhz).

Also, what about overclocker that can't reach the 6970 880mhz core speed with their 6950 ? Can we still unlock the card to 6970 speed ?


----------



## horik (Dec 27, 2010)

i have run the card for 3 hours now,i have run Unigine heaven 2 times,played 1 hour of BC2,all at stock speeds,had no problems,the card runs at 84 celsius at full load,before bios change at about 80 degrees.


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Dec 27, 2010)

damric said:


> Keep in mind that 6950 cards have lower binned memory chips than 6970, not rated quite as fast. This may cause artifact problems for some people unlocking and running memory at 6970 speeds. Easy fix is to reduce memory speed.



I haven't seen this. Typically I've seen completely even distribution performance wise, sometimes the 6950 memory even clocks higher than on 6970s, and vice versa. Usually about the same. Now the core I question, they seem just as capable as 6970 cores just not as voltage efficient, so I suspect some of these unlocks will be unstable until we get wide spread voltage control with afterburner.


----------



## entropy13 (Dec 27, 2010)

horik said:


> i have run the card for 3 hours now,i have run Unigine heaven 2 times,played 1 hour of BC2,all at stock speeds,had no problems,the card runs at 84 celsius at full load,before bios change at about 80 degrees.



The slight temperature difference is quite understandable, considering the clocks differences, and that's why there are also slight differences in the reference 6950 and 6970 coolers.


----------



## Kenshai (Dec 27, 2010)

damric said:


> Keep in mind that 6950 cards have lower binned memory chips than 6970, not rated quite as fast. This may cause artifact problems for some people unlocking and running memory at 6970 speeds. Easy fix is to reduce memory speed.



Actually if it's like the 5 series cards it won't artifact because the card will auto correct, it would just show a performance decrease. 



> Overclocking the memory on these cards is quite different from any other card so far. Normally you'd expect rendering errors or crashes, but not with these cards. Thanks to the new error correction algorithm in the memory controller, every memory error is just retransmitted until everything is fine. So once you exceed the "stable" clock frequency, memory errors will appear more often, get retransmitted, but the rendered output will still look perfectly fine. The only difference is that performance drops, the further you increase the clocks, the lower the performance gets. As a result a normal "artifact scanning" approach to memory overclocking on the HD 5800 Series will not work. You have to manually increase the clocks and observe the framerate until you find the point where performance drops.


Source


----------



## bigboi86 (Dec 27, 2010)

Wow so this flash actually opens up the shaders and everything? 

I've been waiting for a graphics card that you can flash like the 9800SE or the x800 GTO2.

Hell even the old Nvidia 6800 vanilla could be unlocked to a 6800GT/Ultra.

I just got a 6850 though, I'm pretty happy with it. It overclocks like a BEAST.


----------



## turbobeta (Dec 27, 2010)

Any luck with Gigabyte yet?

I'm thinking about buying this card GIGABYTE GV-R695D5-2GD-B Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bi... and would like to know if anyone has had luck with it yet.


----------



## bigboi86 (Dec 27, 2010)

Does anyone know if the 6800 series has the auto correcting thing on the memory controller? I really don't like the idea of it. I use artifacting to tell when I have gone too far.


----------



## bear jesus (Dec 27, 2010)

bigboi86 said:


> Does anyone know if the 6800 series has the auto correcting thing on the memory controller? I really don't like the idea of it. I use artifacting to tell when I have gone too far.



It does, i have been using atitool to be able to see when the fps drops due to unstable memory speeds.


----------



## bigboi86 (Dec 27, 2010)

bear jesus said:


> It does, i have been using atitool to be able to see when the fps drops due to unstable memory speeds.



Ah, thanks. This kind of sucks though, no wonder I haven't seen any memory errors. 

Now instead of clocking and looking for errors, I have to clock and see if the framerates drop, which to me, is less reliable than looking for graphical errors(artifacts).

Right now mine is running 850mhz core/1020mhz memory, stock voltage, fan manually set to 70%(I don't mind the noise). Runs great, I haven't the need to overclock it further yet. 

HIS kind of has a shitty stock cooler. It reminds me of a zalman VF900. 










A little cooler under a huge shroud lol. I don't think it cools the ram off, either.

I should have done more research before I got it, but it's a great card other than the puny cooler. 

Sorry for the thread derail, please continue.


----------



## VulkanBros (Dec 27, 2010)

turbobeta said:


> Any luck with Gigabyte yet?
> 
> I'm thinking about buying this card GIGABYTE GV-R695D5-2GD-B Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bi... and would like to know if anyone has had luck with it yet.



I have just purchased exact the same card...I sure hope it can be unlocked. 
The downside right now is, that I will not get it before january the 4th......
I could have  purchased the ASUS card - but that would have cost me 32$ extra......
So lets cross our fingers


----------



## CDdude55 (Dec 27, 2010)

Awesomeness!

Might grab one in the future and try some unlocking.


----------



## mtosev (Dec 27, 2010)

Cool. more bang for your money


----------



## badsykes (Dec 27, 2010)

Next step... Accelero Extreme plus but the problem is when the memory kits will be available and i should try other sets of memory kits..The memory dimension should be standard.The only problem is the VRM cooling...


----------



## HD4870 (Dec 27, 2010)

Look here :

http://www.arabhardware.net/forum/showthread.php?t=210457

I've unlocked 2 Cards : Asus HD6950 and Sapphire HD6950


----------



## VulkanBros (Dec 27, 2010)

eehhhh....sorry my arab is not so good..... .. but I see the numbers....and that is what counts


----------



## TheGuruStud (Dec 27, 2010)

VulkanBros said:


> eehhhh....sorry my arab is not so good..... .. but I see the numbers....and that is what counts



Arabic? All I saw was scribbles.


----------



## Dave65 (Dec 27, 2010)

HD4870 said:


> Look here :
> 
> http://www.arabhardware.net/forum/showthread.php?t=210457
> 
> I've unlocked 2 Cards : Asus HD6950 and Sapphire HD6950



Damn near as fast as a 580


----------



## PaNiC (Dec 27, 2010)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> I haven't seen this. Typically I've seen completely even distribution performance wise, sometimes the 6950 memory even clocks higher than on 6970s, and vice versa. Usually about the same. Now the core I question, they seem just as capable as 6970 cores just not as voltage efficient, so I suspect some of these unlocks will be unstable until we get wide spread voltage control with afterburner.



Going by the review on TPU 6950 ram is rated at 1250mhz and 6970 is rated at 1500mhz
and the max you can overclock to atm is only 1450mhz


----------



## kramsinister (Dec 28, 2010)

Freaking awesome!!!! Thanks a lot wizz! just flashed my Sapphire 6950 to 6970 bios and it worked! 







[/IMG]


----------



## fritoking (Dec 28, 2010)

*Unlocking  6950  article on Maximumpc......*

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/amd_radeon_hd_6950_reportedly_shipping_unlockable_shaders

just thought it was pretty cool they  posted it and gave props to TPU


----------



## GSquadron (Dec 28, 2010)

This means that none will buy 6970 anymore....
Also the prices are going to get crappy


----------



## a_ump (Dec 28, 2010)

AMD i garantee will fix this. either that, or what i think they'll do will happen. HD 6970/6950 wasn't their origional release. It wouldn't surprise me if they did have a 1920SPU chip, the real HD 6970, and the HD 6950 will be phased out, or start coming standard with the 1536SPU's. 

Be a banging idea for AMD to surprise nvidia and have a card up their sleeve incase shit gets deep for em.


----------



## alexsubri (Dec 28, 2010)

Great Scott! I'll buy the xfx xxx 6850 if I can flash it with the 6990 in xfire


----------



## vvulture (Dec 28, 2010)

toyo said:


> In your face, AMD... (man I hardly believe they didn't know about this possibility before launch)



Dude, AMD were well aware of this...  its a marketing stunt which seems like will work very well in their favour. Trust me, they're smarter than you or me.
You should be saying thank you instead...


----------



## Patjuh (Dec 28, 2010)

Well I just ordered my 6950 yesterday expecting it to hit 6970 bios 

I really think AMD chose to software-limit the 6950 instead of lasercut it so that de 6950 will boost AMD sells. However I do think the new 6950's in production will be lasercut.


----------



## New-Bee (Dec 28, 2010)

Hi,
W!zzard, I allready wrote you yesterday that in unlocked my Sapphire 6950.
Now I have a "problem":
At +10%PT I get the best results in Crysis Warhead (PCGH Benchscene).
With +20% I loose a lot of Frames.
Can I see somewhere if my GPU runs into the Limit? 

I hope you can understand it

New-Bee


----------



## pantherx12 (Dec 28, 2010)

New-Bee said:


> Hi,
> W!zzard, I allready wrote you yesterday that in unlocked my Sapphire 6950.
> Now I have a "problem":
> At +10%PT I get the best results in Crysis Warhead (PCGH Benchscene).
> ...



It sounds like your PSU can't handle the output when set to the full +20% just keep it at +10 : ]


----------



## New-Bee (Dec 28, 2010)

pantherx12 said:


> It sounds like your PSU can't handle the output when set to the full +20% just keep it at +10 : ]



ok thx...
It's a beQuiet Dark Power P6 600W. Do you think it's to old? It's not my PSU and I want to buy a new one. If I buy this one :http://gh.de/a583752.html
 will it work with +20%?


----------



## pantherx12 (Dec 28, 2010)

Hmmm well I may have to take that back, that PSU should be able to run things fine.

Good brand as well.


----------



## New-Bee (Dec 28, 2010)

It could be that the PSU is a little bit wracked. I tried a 4870 CF and it didnt work (a lot of arifacts) but with a 450W bequiet it was finde.
I'll try it again with the new PSU.
Thanks


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Dec 28, 2010)

The sapphire version sold out on amazon, now it's been replaced by one with a red pcb. Would be interesting if this new one doesn't unlock. There wouldn't have been time for it to be a reaction to this unlocking craze.


----------



## Completely Bonkers (Dec 28, 2010)

I think everyone wanting to do this will be good for at least 30 days, and probably longer.  IF AMD decided to change approach, then first, factories in Asia need to modify the production process. Then they need to ship them here. Then old stocks in stores need to run out.


----------



## microtrash (Dec 28, 2010)

I've tried with my card, a sapphire 6950 and it worked well. Thx !!


----------



## bear jesus (Dec 28, 2010)

I have to say i really don't understand why so many assume that AMD will start fully disabling the future chips, with having unlockable CPU's for so long now i would expect AMD to know about the GPU unlocking and just be glad it helps sway people towards their product due to great value.

Depending on the core AMD has single cores that unlock to dual cores, dual cores that unlock to triple or quads and triple core's that unlock to quads, do people expect AMD to stop that as well?

I'm really tempted to get a 6950 and unlock it once i have the cash but depending on the overall success rate other people have in the near future i could be willing to go for a 6970 but either way I'm in no major hurry due to my 6870 doing so well with most games.


----------



## chinook (Dec 29, 2010)

I've succesfully unlocked a Sapphire 6950. Got it up to speed to match the 6970 speeds but i'm hearing this strange buzzing sound from the card when it is under load. I checked the cooler but it is not the one that's making the noise. Any ideas on this ? Anyone else experienced something similar ?


----------



## dnihilist (Dec 29, 2010)

chinook said:


> I've succesfully unlocked a Sapphire 6950. Got it up to speed to match the 6970 speeds but i'm hearing this strange buzzing sound from the card when it is under load. I checked the cooler but it is not the one that's making the noise. Any ideas on this ? Anyone else experienced something similar ?



Yes, I hear it on my modded HIS 6950 as well.  Mine more a high pitched electronic whine.


----------



## dnihilist (Dec 29, 2010)

horik said:


> Succes here with my sapphire 6950,first i tried to load the 6970 bios with winflash but did not work,then i tried with the command lines in cmd but did not work,then i downloaded your update pack and here you can see,1536 shaders and 880 mhz Gpu /1375 mhz memory. Thx W1zzard
> Now the strange thing is that i have no way to change voltages in CCC or in Trixx...



Are you in XP or Windoze 7?


----------



## DanishDevil (Dec 29, 2010)

A lot of higher end nvidia cards do that. It's probably normal for a card under heavy stress, and since you're running an 8+6pin card on a 6+6pin, that's why it's whining.


----------



## TheGuruStud (Dec 29, 2010)

From what I've read it's a coil vibrating. I initially had this problem with my 1st 4890, but it magically went away. But do these vid cards even have any coils on them?


----------



## chinook (Dec 29, 2010)

I'm on windows 7 64 bit. Thought about it being from coil vibration, but i still think it's not normal. And it was making the noise before i flashed it, also. I returned the card and i'm waiting for a new one. Hopefully it will not make the same noise, as it was very annoying and quite audible, even higher pitched than everything else inside / outside the case (7 vents).


----------



## Rule-R (Dec 29, 2010)

chinook said:


> I'm on windows 7 64 bit. Thought about it being from coil vibration, but i still think it's not normal. And it was making the noise before i flashed it, also. I returned the card and i'm waiting for a new one. Hopefully it will not make the same noise, as it was very annoying and quite audible, even higher pitched than everything else inside / outside the case (7 vents).



Hmm, doesnt flashing void the warrenty?


----------



## chinook (Dec 29, 2010)

I don't know.. i used a sapphire bios.. does it?


----------



## Tatty_One (Dec 29, 2010)

chinook said:


> I don't know.. i used a sapphire bios.. does it?



yes it does, however if you re-flashed to the 6950 Bios you will have no worries.


----------



## chinook (Dec 29, 2010)

Yes, i did reflash the original bios back. I hope it will have the same black pcb, as i've heard that new boards are selling with red pcb. I might have misread that though..


----------



## horik (Dec 29, 2010)

dnihilist said:


> Are you in XP or Windoze 7?



win 7


----------



## razr21 (Dec 29, 2010)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102914

Debating on this card......thoughts?

I want something that will definitely flash to a 6970..


----------



## CDdude55 (Dec 29, 2010)

razr21 said:


> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102914
> 
> Debating on this card......thoughts?
> 
> I want something that will definitely flash to a 6970..



I say grab it!!

We have already seen W1zzards preview of his 6950 unlocking endeavors and how easy it is to get it going as a 6970 no matter the brand., so i say go for it.


----------



## fullinfusion (Dec 29, 2010)

Gee, I see alot changed in the 3 days I was away. I nearly shit me pants when I seen this.
Im glad I waited.

Thanks Wiz


----------



## HD4870 (Dec 29, 2010)

Does the procedure void the warranty ?


----------



## TurdFergasun (Dec 29, 2010)

yup, but if you have a problem and you've backed up your stock vga bios like you should have, it shouldn't be issue re flashing to the stock bios to maintain the warranty before rma'ing.


----------



## buggalugs (Dec 30, 2010)

HD4870 said:


> Does the procedure void the warranty ?



I've never been knocked back for warranty service on overclocked and bios flashed cards. As others have said reload the stock bios before you RMA though.


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Dec 30, 2010)

Everyone always says just change the bios back. It seems to me if you're going to rma your card it probably isn't functional.


----------



## Mr.Bigglesworth (Dec 30, 2010)

I have an unlocked 6950 and ran a series of Far Cry 2 Benches.  I repeated these benches after switching to my second bios.  I had some interesting results.

ASUS EAH6950 Power +20% 

Far Cry 2 
    * Level Ranch Small
    * high-quality DX10 mode
    * 8x AA (Anti-aliasing)
    * 16x AF (Anisotropic Filtering)
    * 1600x1200
    * 6 Loop Average

Bios 1 Unlocked

810/1250: 87.53
810/1375: 89.54
880/1250: 91.83
880/1375: 94.35

Bios 2 Locked(Stock)

810/1250: 87.82
810/1375: 91.29
880/1250: 90.96
880/1375: 95.16 (I ran an additional 6 loops @ 95.15)

Curios results.  Does the card stay unlocked?  Did the second bios some how copy the unlocked bios?  As an auto backup perhaps? Aliens?

That memory sure was acting goofy...


----------



## buggalugs (Dec 30, 2010)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> Everyone always says just change the bios back. It seems to me if you're going to rma your card it probably isn't functional.



Its rare the card doesnt work at all in 2D, usually its artifacting or crashing in 3D, anyway this card has a locked default bios so its a non issue.


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Dec 30, 2010)

Huh? I've never encountered that outside of overclocking, my client cards always work or fail, no in between. I also don't get what you mean about the locked bios, they'll still be able to tell if the other bios was messed with.


----------



## 3volvedcombat (Dec 30, 2010)

Mr.Bigglesworth said:


> I have an unlocked 6950 and ran a series of Far Cry 2 Benches.  I repeated these benches after switching to my second bios.  I had some interesting results.
> 
> ASUS EAH6950 Power +20%
> 
> ...



Simple theory. 

Farcry 2 uses physx from nvidia, so the Green cards get really nice performance from this game because all the physics is run of the gpu's massive growing amount of cores. 

I think you have a potential bottle neck with your CPU because, the Far cry 2 bench is demanding a shit load from your cpu, making a bottle neck essentially for your HD 6950. Because all the physics is being run on your processor. 

So your HD 6950 locked or unlocked, is ganna have same performance numbers, because of a bottle neck, which it most seems like. 

It could be something else, But thats what i think is going on.


----------



## Benetanegia (Dec 30, 2010)

3volvedcombat said:


> Simple theory.
> 
> Farcry 2 uses physx from nvidia, so the Green cards get really nice performance from this game because all the physics is run of the gpu's massive growing amount of cores.
> 
> ...



Farcry 2 does not use PhysX...
it uses Havok running off the CPU.


----------



## TurdFergasun (Dec 30, 2010)

perhaps at 1600x1200 you're cpu limited anyway, try 2560x1440 or at least 1920x1200 with some heavier aa at the driver level. or run metro 2033.


----------



## Mr.Bigglesworth (Dec 30, 2010)

I don't really think the cpu is the bottleneck in this case.  While it's noting great, it's an i5 750 @4.1 with 8gb of ddr3 1600. 16x AF is being forced via CCC.

Ran a quick series of 3D Mark 11 Performance runs before work. I only had time to run 1 loop on each setting, but, the results were a bit more encouraging.

Bios 1 Unlocked

810/1250: P4854
880/1375: P5254

Bios 2 Locked(Stock)

810/1250: P4531
880/1375: P4902

While this is a limited test set, we can see about a 7% increase from locked to unlocked @ 810/1250 & again 7% @ 880/1375 going from unlocked to locked. This small set shows about a 16% increase from a stock 6950 to a Pseudo 6970.  Overclocking gained about 8%.  shall we call it a 6960?

Clock for clock we are only seeing a 7% difference between the 6950 & 6970 in my morning test....  Makes me curious to see what happens with further driver improvements.

Side Note:  I looked 6950 vs 6970 3D Mark 11 "P"results from half a dozen review sites and the difference was always 10.5-11% between the two cards.


----------



## Tatty_One (Dec 30, 2010)

Mr.Bigglesworth said:


> I don't really think the cpu is the bottleneck in this case.  While it's noting great, it's an i5 750 @4.1 with 8gb of ddr3 1600. 16x AF is being forced via CCC.
> 
> Ran a quick series of 3D Mark 11 Performance runs before work. I only had time to run 1 loop on each setting, but, the results were a bit more encouraging.
> 
> ...



Try 880/1250, maybe you are getting memory errors at those higher (6970) speeds...... she may be faster then.

Also, anyone know if default voltage for 3D clocks is the same on both cards/Bios???


----------



## MarcusTaz (Dec 30, 2010)

anyone have any luck with and XFX?


----------



## pantherx12 (Dec 30, 2010)

Mr.Bigglesworth said:


> I don't really think the cpu is the bottleneck in this case.  While it's noting great, it's an i5 750 @4.1 with 8gb of ddr3 1600. 16x AF is being forced via CCC.
> 
> Ran a quick series of 3D Mark 11 Performance runs before work. I only had time to run 1 loop on each setting, but, the results were a bit more encouraging.
> 
> ...




Could you try powertune at +10%?

I've seen a few people get downclocked when they enable powertune to 20+ on these unlocked 6950s.

( I think even though you get a 6970 bios the cards max power draw doesn't change, I think the card "knows" it's plugged into 2 6 pins rather than 6+6+2 and due to powertune will not draw more than 225w and as you can see here http://tpucdn.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/images/power_maximum.gif 6970s can draw more than that.)


----------



## Patjuh (Dec 30, 2010)

It still has 6 6 plugs so there should be a limit I guess...


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 30, 2010)

people need to stop thinking of the pcie power specification as a limit like a brick wall

it's like the pci-sig puts a sign on the highway that says "maximum speed 120 km/h"

nothing bad happens when you go 125 km/h or 130 .. or more


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Dec 30, 2010)

> PowerColor	23	21	1	0



Seems one is unaccounted for. Can we get the specifics on the failures? Was it solved by downclocking back to 6950 speeds or is it a problem with the unlocked shaders?


----------



## razr21 (Dec 30, 2010)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102914

Can I find this Sapphire cheaper anywhere else, or does anyone have any coupons I can use? Seems like this is the cheapest that I am finding.


Oh well, I should just be happy it's going to unlock and not worry about the price, right?


----------



## TheGuruStud (Dec 30, 2010)

razr21 said:


> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102914
> 
> Can I find this Sapphire cheaper anywhere else, or does anyone have any coupons I can use? Seems like this is the cheapest that I am finding.
> 
> ...



It was 292 on amazon (big difference, I know lol), but amazon's prices fluctuate rapidly b/c they're always trying to rip ppl off based on stock levels (even if they don't run out).

They were charging 450 for the 6970 at launch.


----------



## horik (Dec 30, 2010)

After changing the bios,i cant find a way to OC the card more than 50 mhz,the screen just freezes when i run tests,so im stuck at the stock speeds of an 6970...any ideas¿


----------



## TheGuruStud (Dec 30, 2010)

horik said:


> After changing the bios,i cant find a way to OC the card more than 50 mhz,the screen just freezes when i run tests,so im stuck at the stock speeds of an 6970...any ideas¿



More voltage required, I guess. Might just be a bad chip. And did you do the +20%?


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Dec 30, 2010)

TheGuruStud said:


> It was 292 on amazon (big difference, I know lol), but amazon's prices fluctuate rapidly b/c they're always trying to rip ppl off based on stock levels (even if they don't run out).
> 
> They were charging 450 for the 6970 at launch.



They sold out of the black pcb sapphire, the one on there now is different.



horik said:


> After changing the bios,i cant find a way to OC the card more than 50 mhz,the screen just freezes when i run tests,so im stuck at the stock speeds of an 6970...any ideas¿



You probably need more volts, either use smartdoctor and an asus bios or wait for afterburner support some time next week (probably in a beta release).


----------



## horik (Dec 30, 2010)

TheGuruStud said:


> More voltage required, I guess. Might just be a bad chip. And did you do the +20%?



Yes i tried 10% and 20% but no luck,i think more volts are needed.


----------



## TheGuruStud (Dec 30, 2010)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> They sold out of the black pcb sapphire, the one on there now is different.



But what would be the difference aside from color? It doesn't matter any to me.


----------



## voro12 (Dec 30, 2010)

If you overclock the GPU to, lets say, 1000MHz, do you have to follow up with the memory too? Or is it possible to run it with 1000/1350?


----------



## Mr.Bigglesworth (Dec 30, 2010)

There is no specific ratio in regards to OCing GPU & memory that I am aware of.  If you smell smoke, power down.  I am sure there is an optimal balance out there, but, nothing set in stone.


----------



## TheGuruStud (Dec 30, 2010)

Mr.Bigglesworth said:


> There is no specific ratio in regards to OCing GPU & memory.  If you smell smoke, power down.



But if the GPU is bandwidth starved he would need higher memclock otherwise 1gz would be pointless.


----------



## voro12 (Dec 30, 2010)

But it can´t damage the GPU, right?


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Dec 30, 2010)

TheGuruStud said:


> But what would be the difference aside from color? It doesn't matter any to me.



Don't know if that's the only dif. or not. If it's later it might have a different component model number here or there. They do get some leeway part wise while still calling it reference. For instance reference 470s can have different IHS heights. Found that out when looking into the icy vision, fits msi cards easy but not evga.


----------



## TheGuruStud (Dec 30, 2010)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> Don't know if that's the only dif. or not. If it's later it might have a different component model number here or there. They do get some leeway part wise while still calling it reference. For instance reference 470s can have different IHS heights. Found that out when looking into the icy vision, fits msi cards easy but not evga.



Well, I wonder which PCB mine is. It hasn't arrived yet. Amazon sucks at shipping.


----------



## Mr.Bigglesworth (Dec 30, 2010)

TheGuruStud said:


> But if the GPU is bandwidth starved he would need higher memclock otherwise 1gz would be pointless.



I file that under diminishing returns 

That said. I don't think you will over saturate the bus with one of these cards.


----------



## pantherx12 (Dec 30, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> people need to stop thinking of the pcie power specification as a limit like a brick wall
> 
> it's like the pci-sig puts a sign on the highway that says "maximum speed 120 km/h"
> 
> nothing bad happens when you go 125 km/h or 130 .. or more



No but powertune adds a wall doesn't it? you even state so in your first post.


----------



## MarcusTaz (Dec 31, 2010)

MarcusTaz said:


> anyone have any luck with and XFX?






> The Sapphire one I linked to will work on all reference design cards from any vendor.



ok i admit i am a n00b...


----------



## athenaesword (Dec 31, 2010)

haha the 6970 guys are probably feeling really screwed now


----------



## turbobeta (Dec 31, 2010)

*UPDATE, After further testing, this post is incorrect. See* this post for an update.

I can confirm that the Gigabyte Radeon HD6950 GV-R695D5-2GD-B upgrades with no issues.

Flashed with the Gigabyte HD6970 bios  (taken from this website), the card has run stable while gaming for 4 hours, with no artifacts at default clocks of 880mhz core / 1375mhz memory with the 20% power control enabled.

The card I have: GIGABYTE GV-R695D5-2GD-B Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bi...
The bios I used: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/88934/Gigabyte.HD6970.2048.101124.html


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## PaNiC (Dec 31, 2010)

athenaesword said:


> haha the 6970 guys are probably feeling really screwed now



yes i am but i think this shows just how bad the 6970 is if amd were this desperate
EDIT: i got 2 of em so i got DP'ed


----------



## bear jesus (Dec 31, 2010)

If i was a 6970 owner how unhappy i would be mainly depends on overclocking as the 6970 has memory chips specified to run at 1500MHz/6GHz effective and the 6950 has memory chips specified to run at 1250MHz/5GHz effective.

If the higher rated memory chips clock better then personally i would accept the extra cost as the cost of having GDDR5 that's rated to run 1GHz faster than the 6950's memory chips.


----------



## PaNiC (Dec 31, 2010)

bear jesus said:


> If i was a 6970 owner how unhappy i would be mainly depends on overclocking as the 6970 has memory chips specified to run at 1500MHz/6GHz effective and the 6950 has memory chips specified to run at 1250MHz/5GHz effective.
> 
> If the higher rated memory chips clock better then personally i would accept the extra cost as the cost of having GDDR5 that's rated to run 1GHz faster than the 6950's memory chips.



So what saying is? I got raped by amd hard and i should accept it. Sorry but this is scam from amd ripping fans like me off, who dispite the bad reviews still went out payed for these cards only to find out $100 cheaper card can do the same thing.


----------



## athenaesword (Dec 31, 2010)

PaNiC said:


> So what saying is? I got raped by amd hard and i should accept it. Sorry but this is scam from amd ripping fans like me off, who dispite the bad reviews still went out payed for these cards only to find out $100 cheaper card can do the same thing.



haha chill out. this's afterall an exploit, not something AMD announced after release of the cards.


----------



## DigitalUK (Dec 31, 2010)

its early days, i felt abit ripped off at first but intel/amd can release a cpu and you overclock to the next model up or unlock from 2 core to 4 core etc and some people just got really lucky. im really glad i got the 6970 as bear jesus said its got higher rated memory, power etc. plus i wouldnt be surprised if we dont see afew 6950's going pop after flashing to 6970 as some are reporting high pitch cap squeeling and artifacts (the last bit could need abit of voltage tho)


----------



## PaNiC (Dec 31, 2010)

athenaesword said:


> haha chill out. this's afterall an exploit, not something AMD announced after release of the cards.



you really believe that? the whole 5000 and 6800 series were lock outside of bios and the 6900 series which has poor profromace, runs very hot and is loud as all f*ck are magically bios lock.
Its just scam by amd of indirectly cutting prices due to the crappiness of there cards 
EDIT: also fitted with risk free dual bios


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## DigitalUK (Dec 31, 2010)

give it a month im sure we will all be thinking different on this, theres alot more performance to be had out of these cards plus the overclocking headroom. you can set the max overclock on ccc to 950 core and 1450 on memory with no extra voltage and no real noticable heat difference.


----------



## bear jesus (Dec 31, 2010)

PaNiC said:


> So what saying is? I got raped by amd hard and i should accept it. Sorry but this is scam from amd ripping fans like me off, who dispite the bad reviews still went out payed for these cards only to find out $100 cheaper card can do the same thing.



 No, what i was saying is that the extra cost mean faster rated memory chips, if the difference between memory rated for 5GHz and 6GHz and a couple 12v ground wires means nothing to you then that's fair enough but there has been many cards over the years that have been able to be hard or soft modded into the higher end version and as with all of those* even if the success rate is high it does not guarantee that it will work*, the same applies to core unlocking on CPU's and also overclocking.

Personally i like the idea of paying a little more and getting a guarantee that it will work at 6970 speeds along with the extra pair of ground wires and memory rated to run 1GHz faster effective, if you think those things mean it's a rip off that's your opinion but it's not as if they are the exact same cards with a price difference as there are things that make the 6970 better than the 6950.

What would make you more unhappy, knowing its possible to take the 6950 and flash it so then buying one that was not stable after being flashed or buying a 6970 and knowing it will be 100% stable and the fact you paid a little more for that guarantee and higher binned chips?


----------



## horik (Dec 31, 2010)

In 3dmark vantage i got 19776 points with 6950 stock speed,changed bios to 6970 stock and got 19001 points with 0% on power control and 19083 with power control on 20%


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## wahdangun (Dec 31, 2010)

horik said:


> In 3dmark vantage i got 19776 points with 6950 stock speed,changed bios to 6970 stock and got 19001 points with 0% on power control and 19083 with power control on 20%



try to underclock your memory  frequency


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## MarcusTaz (Dec 31, 2010)

horik said:


> In 3dmark vantage i got 19776 points with 6950 stock speed,changed bios to 6970 stock and got 19001 points with 0% on power control and 19083 with power control on 20%



Hope I do not run into this problem...


----------



## TotalChaos (Dec 31, 2010)

the thing is not all 6950 cards can perform up to 6970 standards, the fact that the majority seem to do well is just good luck for us end users


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Dec 31, 2010)

Is the artifacting in AtiTool a pretty much universal problem? It seems like most if not all people that have run it at XS have had artifacting that they didn't have with the stock 6950 bios. I don't see the artifacts if I use the older scaning method or lower the core clock to like 500. I've heard similar reports with 6870 although it worked fine for me. If anyone has a real 6970 Sapphire and wants to run ATITool that would be great. The artifacting that I saw with Super Meat Boy is also far worse than I saw with the stock bios and my 6870. Gpu Tool, OCCT, and other games seem to be fine though.


----------



## MarcusTaz (Dec 31, 2010)

well I hope I get lucky... Just ordered an XFX 6950...


----------



## Tatty_One (Dec 31, 2010)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> Is the artifacting in AtiTool a pretty much universal problem? It seems like most if not all people that have run it at XS have had artifacting that they didn't have with the stock 6950 bios. I don't see the artifacts if I use the older scaning method or lower the core clock to like 500. I've heard similar reports with 6870 although it worked fine for me. If anyone has a real 6970 Sapphire and wants to run ATITool that would be great. The artifacting that I saw with Super Meat Boy is also far worse than I saw with the stock bios and my 6870. Gpu Tool, OCCT, and other games seem to be fine though.



It could be a number of things....... is it the same rated memory on both models, is it the same rated memory voltage and GPU 3D voltage in each of the Bioses, it may be something as simple as loostening memory timings or lowering memory clocks or just increasing the GPU voltage a little, although it sounds to me that some are getting memory throttling which could cause the slowdowns described.


----------



## DigitalUK (Dec 31, 2010)

i did a 20minute run with occt when the card was first installed. 82c load  fan at 36% (???) no artifacts , i did go to install ati tray tools but it made my system bluescreen on startup which i have never seen my system do ever except for when my memory went faulty.


----------



## DigitalUK (Dec 31, 2010)

ok thought i would test ATi tool, very strange i have the real HIS HD6970. if i run scan for artifacts strange lines etc straight away. i think  this is a problem with ati tool and not the cards. ive run this afew times i let the card heat up with 3D view then scanned. i also let the card cool down and run again.

looks perfect on 3D View.






scanning for artifacts straight away (hot or cold)





like i said i really dont think this is a problem with the cards but a compatible problem. as you can see no errors are reported, ati tool gives off a bing every few seconds.


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Dec 31, 2010)

Thank you, I've been hoping that someone with a real 6970 would run AtiTool.


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Dec 31, 2010)

My friend unlocked his but had to drop the clock speeds. Hopefully that afterburner beta comes soon. Don't know if unwinder even got the card yet.


----------



## PaNiC (Jan 1, 2011)

bear jesus said:


> No, what i was saying is that the extra cost mean faster rated memory chips, if the difference between memory rated for 5GHz and 6GHz and a couple 12v ground wires means nothing to you then that's fair enough but there has been many cards over the years that have been able to be hard or soft modded into the higher end version and as with all of those* even if the success rate is high it does not guarantee that it will work*, the same applies to core unlocking on CPU's and also overclocking.
> 
> Personally i like the idea of paying a little more and getting a guarantee that it will work at 6970 speeds along with the extra pair of ground wires and memory rated to run 1GHz faster effective, if you think those things mean it's a rip off that's your opinion but it's not as if they are the exact same cards with a price difference as there are things that make the 6970 better than the 6950.
> 
> What would make you more unhappy, knowing its possible to take the 6950 and flash it so then buying one that was not stable after being flashed or buying a 6970 and knowing it will be 100% stable and the fact you paid a little more for that guarantee and higher binned chips?



little more? $100 pre card!! thats %33 more.
the unstable rate is 2 out of 140 and i'm sure not everyone that it work for would have emailed.
now i find out that the components used on my card are left over junk amd had from 5000 series.
MAKE IT STOP!! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!!


----------



## DigitalUK (Jan 1, 2011)

left over junk???


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 1, 2011)

DigitalUK said:


> left over junk???



Ignore him and let him troll the other thread. This one actually has some good info in it like your Atitool post.


----------



## erocker (Jan 1, 2011)

ATi tool doesn't support the 5 and 6 series, of course it's screwing up. Hopefully you aren't ruining your card running it.


----------



## DigitalUK (Jan 1, 2011)

no im not running it but it looks like some are using ati tool as a proof of stabilty in these cards, just wanted to show it wasnt.


----------



## PaNiC (Jan 1, 2011)

DigitalUK said:


> left over junk???



Volterra digital PWM were used in 5800 and 5900 series. so yeah left over junk
 AMD Revising Radeon HD 6900 Series PCB


----------



## TheGuruStud (Jan 1, 2011)

I got the black PCB Sapphire. Flashed and seems to be working great. Running cool, too. Much cooler than what the reviews were showing.

Nvm, powertune isn't in the 10.12a drivers...


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 1, 2011)

erocker said:


> ATi tool doesn't support the 5 and 6 series, of course it's screwing up. Hopefully you aren't ruining your card running it.


 Just using it to scan for artifacts? 


PaNiC said:


> Volterra digital PWM were used in 5800 and 5900 series. so yeah left over junk
> AMD Revising Radeon HD 6900 Series PCB



If they are the same vrms as the 5xxx series where are the readings in gpu-z?



> The Radeon HD 6900 Series are the first graphics cards to use the Volterra VT1556. It offers extensive voltage control and monitoring via I2C. At this time no software supports this controller yet, but I am sure this will change in the weeks to come.


TPU review
Go troll somewhere else.


----------



## PaNiC (Jan 1, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> Just using it to scan for artifacts?
> 
> 
> If they are the same vrms as the 5xxx series where are the readings in gpu-z?
> ...



i take that back. slightly new junk then that which was used in the 5xxx series.
i did say "Volterra digital PWM" i didnt give out a model number. we still didnt get the top shelf gear


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 1, 2011)

PaNiC said:


> i take that back. slightly new junk then that which was used in the 5xxx series.
> i did say "Volterra digital PWM" i didnt give out a model number. we still didnt get the top shelf gear



What testing have you done to back those statements up? It just goes to show that you have no clue what you are talking about. ATI is switching over to the TI vrms because they are cheaper not better. Although if these vrms run as hot as the old volterras I'll be a little disappointed. I doubt that they will but we'll see.


----------



## DigitalUK (Jan 1, 2011)

its not junk its exspensive, they want a cheaper way and probably more to the truth stop the 6950 to 6970 modding.


----------



## PaNiC (Jan 1, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> What testing have you done to back those statements up? It just goes to show that you have no clue what you are talking about. ATI is switching over to the TI vrms because they are cheaper not better. Although if these vrms run as hot as the old volterras I'll be a little disappointed. I doubt that they will but we'll see.



AMD the opportunity to redesign the PCB to make use of the more cost-effective yet *high-performance VRM* circuitry

 AMD Revising Radeon HD 6900 Series PCB


----------



## DigitalUK (Jan 1, 2011)

your point being, it doesnt say the current PMW is not high performance, its to reasure future customers that even tho the cards are cheaper(using cheaper components) you wont lose out on performance. the current PMW is fully adjustable by software as soon as software is realeased to support them.


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Jan 1, 2011)

For my friend's flash I just swapped the "unlock" file with a renamed asus bios and ran the batch file. Gpuz says it worked, but smart doctor complained about not being able to find the card or something. All we did was restart the pc twice to let the drivers sort themselves out. Is there anything wrong with flashing it like that and or do you need to completely uninstall the drivers?


----------



## PaNiC (Jan 1, 2011)

DigitalUK said:


> your point being, it doesnt say the current PMW is not high performance, its to reasure future customers that even tho the cards are cheaper(using cheaper components) you wont lose out on performance. the current PMW is fully adjustable by software as soon as software is realeased to support them.


if amd were willing to delay and almost miss out on xmas shop period for the DrMos then im sure that its better.


----------



## TheGuruStud (Jan 1, 2011)

Question....

If I don't buy another 6950/70 before they change the VRM stuff, would I be able to successfully change the voltage on xfire'd cards?


----------



## PaNiC (Jan 1, 2011)

TheGuruStud said:


> Question....
> 
> If I don't buy another 6950/70 before they change the VRM stuff, would I be able to successfully change the voltage on xfire'd card?



yeah but you mite have to wait for a new version of your software choice to come out
eg. afterburner


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 1, 2011)

PaNiC said:


> if amd were willing to delay and almost miss out on xmas shop period for the DrMos then im sure that its better.



You think that AMD put them on the mid range (Barts) because they are better? Why do you think that you can't adjust the core voltage on GTX285? Nvidia switched to a cheaper vrm.

They had a last minute shortage on the vrms. Thats why 6850 and 6870 were out of stock every where for the longest time.

Why do you feel the need to derail this thread with your bs? Should we start a new thread about the vrm change? Every post in your post history is you trolling some AMD thread.


----------



## PaNiC (Jan 1, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> You think that AMD put them on the mid range (Barts) because they are better? Why do you think that you can't adjust the core voltage on GTX285? Nvidia switched to a cheaper vrm.
> 
> They had a last minute shortage on the vrms. Thats why 6850 and 6870 were out of stock every where for the longest time.
> 
> Why do you feel the need to derail this thread with your bs? Should we start a new thread about the vrm change? Every post in your post history is you trolling some AMD thread.



you lost me here.
Barts uses chil vrm not texas industry or volterra.
nvidia didnt rip me off amd did and fan boys like you that try justify it.
haha i was trolling due to the fact that btarunr post misinformed junk on the front page of this site and then called me misinformed. rofl. the whole tpu froum said i dont know what i was on about and everything i said was spot on
evan on that bulldozer theard i was bloodcrazz on my mates account read the bit about the amd fx
 AMD Details Bulldozer Processor Architecture
TPU Forum got skooled by some random


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 1, 2011)

PaNiC said:


> you lost me here.
> Barts uses chil vrm not texas industry or volterra.
> nvidia didnt rip me off amd did and fan boys like you that try justify it.
> haha i was trolling due to the fact that btarunr post misinformed junk on the front page of this site and then called me misinformed. rofl. the whole tpu froum said i dont know about i was talking about but i was spot on and the whole forum got skooled
> ...



I'm sorry much like with yourself in the past I was mistaken there. 

I'm a huge fanboy. I had a GTX280 for two years, I loved that card. I owned a Nvidia card before that too. I'm not going to bitch and moan about stuff that probably won't make a difference at the end of the day. Did Nvidia "rip off" GTX470 owners with GTX465? Did Nvidia "rip off" GTX285 and GTX260 users who couldn't even adjust the core voltage? I don't look at either company as any better than the other.

I really don't care about some hearsay. Once Bulldozer is actually released and I can look at some benchmarks I'll worry about it. I just don't care enough to try and make sense of your incoherent post or to check your link. Capitalization and punctuation helps btw.


----------



## HammerON (Jan 1, 2011)

The topic of this thread is 6950 Can be Unlocked to HD 6970...

Take your conversation somewhere else please


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## TheGuruStud (Jan 1, 2011)

Is gpu-z correctly reporting voltage?

It says I'm always at .9

I assume it's not right b/c there's no way I could run 3D clocks at that voltage.
Wait a sec, when I was changing CCC settings it did spike to 1.175....


----------



## largon (Jan 1, 2011)

PaNiC said:


> i take that back. slightly new junk then that which was used in the 5xxx series.


And series X1800, X1900, HD2900, HD4800, plus the already mentioned HD5800, HD5900. AMD has been using Volterra VRM parts for years. 





> i did say "Volterra digital PWM" i didnt give out a model number. we still didnt get the top shelf gear


Durrr... 
Volterra VT1000 series VRMs are simply the best you can get. Also they're the most expensive you can get.


----------



## largon (Jan 1, 2011)

PaNiC said:


> msi uses uPI for hawk and lighting cards i would have to say thats the best due to been able to control memory voltage as well


Eh? What exactly makes it the best? Software controlled VID? No matter Volterra and many other vendors' parts do the same and much more. 
µPI semi only makes the phase controller. The VRMs are plain-jane regular n-channel mosfets from a random manufacturer. I wonder what makes such a generic combination the best, in your opinion? 

Volterra makes the whole package; phases controller and the VRMs. 
Volterra parts have few downsides: 
1. high operating temperature due to CSP packaging, BGA interface has high thermal resistance
2. physically fragile, again due to CSP packaging 
3. comparably high price


----------



## jimmyz (Jan 1, 2011)

PaNiC said:


> msi uses uPI for hawk and lighting cards i would have to say thats the best due to been able to control memory voltage as well



Sorry Gonna have to side with Largon here, the Volterra chips seen recently are top shelf parts the ones you mention are well below. Don't confuse one vendors implementation of the features to mean the chip is better. The manual voltage read points for example, since it can't display voltage in software...so... it can change the voltage but can't tell you what it set it to... nice chip 

Volterra makes top grade stuff Chil is great as well. However the software people out there are not exploiting all of the features of these chips simply because the RMA rate would go through the roof.


----------



## PaNiC (Jan 1, 2011)

largon said:


> Eh? What exactly makes it the best? Software controlled VID? No matter Volterra and many other vendors' parts do the same and much more.
> µPI semi only makes the phase controller. The VRMs are plain-jane regular n-channel mosfets from a random manufacturer. I wonder what makes such a generic combination the best, in your opinion?
> 
> Volterra makes the whole package; phases controller and the VRMs.
> ...



evan if it is better which i think it is, amd will always use all in one sultion on reference borads they leave that to borad partners to decide on combinations


----------



## sliderider (Jan 1, 2011)

*What about the power consumption?*

How can it unlock to 6970 when the 6970 requires an 8 pin and a 6 pin and the 6950 only requires 2 6 pin? Wouldn't it be short the required voltage to run like a 6970?


----------



## sliderider (Jan 1, 2011)

PhysXerror said:


> Haha, Oh this sucks so bad for people that have already got their 6970's



Sucks even worse for those who already got their GTX570/580's.


----------



## PaNiC (Jan 1, 2011)

sliderider said:


> Sucks even worse for those who already got their GTX570/580's.


i would trade my 2 6970 for 1 gtx 580 and evan with the unlock 570 is a better card


----------



## sliderider (Jan 1, 2011)

damric said:


> Doht! I just bought a 6850, as it seemed like best bang for buck 6000 series. I wonder if it would unlock to 6870?



I just bought a Sapphire 6870 because I managed to find a really good price on it. $210 after $20 MIR. 6950 and GTX570 still fit the power profile of my PSU, though, and have been in my mind as possible future upgrades later on as prices fall. This news definitely boots GTX570 off my list of future upgrades now unless the 28nm cards from either company blow the doors off of them for the same money.


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## Swamp Monster (Jan 1, 2011)

sliderider said:


> How can it unlock to 6970 when the 6970 requires an 8 pin and a 6 pin and the 6950 only requires 2 6 pin? Wouldn't it be short the required voltage to run like a 6970?



It wouldn't be short of voltage, because voltage is the same on all connectors. Only difference between two connectors is extra ground pins, that allows more amperage, but it's nothing big, so no worries.


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## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 1, 2011)

sliderider said:


> How can it unlock to 6970 when the 6970 requires an 8 pin and a 6 pin and the 6950 only requires 2 6 pin? Wouldn't it be short the required voltage to run like a 6970?



Most power supples like mine only use a couple of jumpers from the existing six pin anyways.


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## Swamp Monster (Jan 1, 2011)

+1
Already forgot that I have 6pin-to-8pin too


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## turbobeta (Jan 2, 2011)

UPDATE ON MY GIGABYTE 6950 >>> 6970:

*FAIL:* At speeds 875mhz core / 1350mhz memory and higher, I get memory artifacts in Borderlands, and WoW Cataclysm crashes at the login screen. All other benchmarks, Unigine Heaven, FFXIV bench, FFXI bench, work fine.

*PASS:* At speeds of 870mhz core / 1345mhz memory and below, Borderlands, WoW Cataclysm, Unigine Heaven, FFXIV, and FFXI function properly.

*ERATTA:* For safety and stability's sake, I'm running my card 3 ticks down from last known failure, so my final clocks are 860mhz core / 1335mhz memory.

The card I have: GIGABYTE GV-R695D5-2GD-B Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bi...
The bios I used: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/88934/Gigabyte.HD6970.2048.101124.html


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## gumpty (Jan 4, 2011)

Ordered a XFX 6850 yesterday before the bloody UK tax increase. Should be here some time this week.
So shortly there'll be a barely used 6870 for sale.


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## MarcusTaz (Jan 4, 2011)

turbobeta said:


> UPDATE ON MY GIGABYTE 6950 >>> 6970:
> 
> *FAIL:* At speeds 875mhz core / 1350mhz memory and higher, I get memory artifacts in Borderlands, and WoW Cataclysm crashes at the login screen. All other benchmarks, Unigine Heaven, FFXIV bench, FFXI bench, work fine.
> 
> ...



bummer... is anyone else having these issues reaching 6970 speeds?


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## Tatty_One (Jan 4, 2011)

MarcusTaz said:


> bummer... is anyone else having these issues reaching 6970 speeds?



I have asked the question a couple of times, someone might be in a position to answer now..... is the default stock 3D voltage in each of the 2 cards the same?  or is the 6970 3D+ extra volts higher because if it is, that may be the answer.


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## Retrodrift (Jan 4, 2011)

After Linus' excellent review (as usual) of the bios flash i ordered the 6950 from NCIX to replace a hard to replace 8800gt sc. Reading through this forum and google this process seems to be really stable. One user on this site talked about the RAM chips differing in quality between the 50 & 70 (TC2 vs RoC). 

1) Besides the 8 pin connector on the 70 are these the only 2 things that differ 70 from 50?

2) As fun as it is to mod our stuff out, is the 11+% performance gain worth the risk or are the 2 really the same card as stated here?


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## gumpty (Jan 4, 2011)

Retrodrift said:


> As fun as it is to mod our stuff out, is the 11 % performance gain worth the risk or are the 2 really the same card as stated here?



Normally I probably wouldn't have gone for something like this because of that risk, but the added safety of the back-up BIOS switch has made me take the plunge - I've got a 6950 on the way.


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## trt740 (Jan 4, 2011)

Anyone with a 6950 when flashed to a 6970 is this card loud under load.


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## vvulture (Jan 5, 2011)

Would anyone here be able to speculate as to when we could expect an updated RBE with 69xx support ?

Getting very itchy here...   lol


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## jimmyz (Jan 5, 2011)

vvulture said:


> Would anyone here be able to speculate as to when we could expect an updated RBE with 69xx support ?
> 
> Getting very itchy here...   lol



I have been working with Baggzlash to get it working. He will have progress very soon, like by friday I am betting.


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## vvulture (Jan 5, 2011)

Awesome !  Good to hear.


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## trt740 (Jan 5, 2011)

trt740 said:


> Anyone with a 6950 when flashed to a 6970 is this card loud under load.



anyone?


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## PopcornMachine (Jan 5, 2011)

trt740 said:


> anyone?



Depends on your overclock and fan settings.  But yes, mine gets very loud at > 50% whether or not I'm using the 6970 bios.


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## horik (Jan 5, 2011)

trt740 said:


> Anyone with a 6950 when flashed to a 6970 is this card loud under load.


compared to my old HD4890 i can tell you the 6950 is more silent,but strange thing is that at full load temps go arround 87 degrees but the fan speed is under 40%.


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## PopcornMachine (Jan 5, 2011)

horik said:


> compared to my old HD4890 i can tell you the 6950 is more silent,but strange thing is that at full load temps go arround 87 degrees but the fan speed is under 40%.



You can adjust that to increase fan speed so that it won't reach those temps, but at the cost of being a bit louder.

87C is too high for my tastes.


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## gumpty (Jan 5, 2011)

trt740 said:


> Anyone with a 6950 when flashed to a 6970 is this card loud under load.



Given that they seem to be pretty much the same card, and that it would be using the 6970 bios, I'd guess it'd be pretty much the same as the 6970 in terms of noise.

My 6870 is loud. It annoys me. I'm not anticipating that the 6950 I have on the way will be any better.


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## PopcornMachine (Jan 5, 2011)

I have an idea on how to improve these default coolers, but it would require me taking my card apart. 

The heatsink itself is very good.  It's the paddle wheel fan that is the problem.

My thought is to remove that fan while leaving the heatsink in place, and put a 120 fan at the rear blowing down the length of the card, using shroud of some sort to funnel the air to the heatsink.

This would be both quieter and I think cooler. 

My worry is getting the cooler back together in case I'm wrong!


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## trt740 (Jan 5, 2011)

thx


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## dj-electric (Jan 5, 2011)

PopcornMachine said:


> I have an idea on how to improve these default coolers, but it would require me taking my card apart.
> 
> The heatsink itself is very good.  It's the paddle wheel fan that is the problem.
> 
> ...



Well... it might improve overall temps but IDK about disassembling the fan. and add the fact that the card is gonna take 2.5 slots and not 2.


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## PopcornMachine (Jan 5, 2011)

Dj-ElectriC said:


> Well... it might improve overall temps but IDK about disassembling the fan. and add the fact that the card is gonna take 2.5 slots and not 2.



Yeah, uh, I didn't say it was a perfect plan.


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## DanishDevil (Jan 5, 2011)

W1zz's reviews say that the 6870 is louder than the 6970 and the 6950, so I'm hoping that my flashed 6950 is going to be a bit quieter than this card. Not that the 6870 is a very loud card. If you're really sensitive to fan noise, it can be a both bothersome if doing something quietly without headphones on. I'll let you guys know how they compare later this week.


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## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 6, 2011)

DanishDevil said:


> W1zz's reviews say that the 6870 is louder than the 6970 and the 6950, so I'm hoping that my flashed 6950 is going to be a bit quieter than this card. Not that the 6870 is a very loud card. If you're really sensitive to fan noise, it can be a both bothersome if doing something quietly without headphones on. I'll let you guys know how they compare later this week.



IT's not especially if you want reasonable temps. I have noticed that 40% fan speed is louder on the 6870 than on the 6950 but I never needed that much with the 6870. That isn't the case with the 6950 flashed with a 6970 bios.


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## TheGuruStud (Jan 6, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> IT's not especially if you want reasonable temps. I have noticed that 40% fan speed is louder on the 6870 than on the 6950 but I never needed that much with the 6870. That isn't the case with the 6950 flashed with a 6970 bios.



I hit a max of mid 70s at around 41-42% fan (controlled with MSI Afterburner). That's with BC2 pretty much maxing the card out (such a disastrously optimized game).


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 6, 2011)

Well +1 to the mix here. Just unlocked my gigabyte 6950 into a 6970. It took some work mind you. Had to go through dos prompt, and then got some artifacts that have since gone away, after I raised the tdp, lowered it, and then reinstalled the drivers. I am now at +2% tdp, and have my clocks at 900 core and 1390 memory. Yes, thats OVERCLOCKED. I also had some slowdowns in crysis and assassins creed before I reinstalled the drivers...so Im guessing its a good idea for anyone who flashes to kick the drivers and reinstall them. So far its fully stable and Im getting fairly good results across the board, including 3dmark (not as high as I had hoped but thats likely due to a minor bottleneck somewhere) and unigine heaven. I can post them up if anyone is interested. Temps top at about 75C. Oh! This is my first post in the forums..so hi!


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## turbobeta (Jan 6, 2011)

Thoughts: You're almost guaranteed to take your $300 6950, and turn it into an equivalent of a 6960, or a 6965. The chances of you turning your 6950 into a perfectly stable, flawless $370 6970? Slim.

More thoughts: I think if more people tested thier oc's/mods throughly, they'd notice instability as well. I don't think this is a manufacture specific issue. I think 99.9% of the 6950 gpus out there can do full shaders at 800mhz, but most can't do full shaders at 880. Also, these 6950 cards are built with slower ram chips as well based on the info we've seen from the ram product numbers. Expecting your ram to go from 1250 to 1375 is unrealistic.

Conclusion: Buyer be educated, buyer beware. Go into this knowing that if you have a reference card, you're getting a great deal. Have realistic expectations.


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 6, 2011)

Well what do you suggest for proper testing to verify if its stable?


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## turbobeta (Jan 6, 2011)

Digital Dissent said:


> Well what do you suggest for proper testing to verify if its stable?



I really wish I had the answer to that. Most people say Furmark, but I've used Furmark stably for hours, only to have Borderlands throw artifacts, and WoW crash on startup. I don't think there really is a good tool or testing methodology out there at the moment.


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 6, 2011)

turbobeta said:


> I really wish I had the answer to that. Most people say Furmark, but I've used Furmark stably for hours, only to have Borderlands throw artifacts, and WoW crash on startup. I don't think there really is a good tool or testing methodology out there at the moment.



I cant really think of anything either except extended testing on various games.


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 6, 2011)

I am seeing pixel artifacts that appear at boot on the windows loading screen, and then vanish after it has started up (they were around once windows had loaded when I first flashed). Has anyone else encountered this and what might cause it? I have set the tdp to 0%, the core clock to 840 and the memory to 1375, the lowest.


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## sirbaili (Jan 6, 2011)

I have 2 sapphire HD6950 cards - at first I flashed them with Asus EAH6970 bios - one of them was giving me artifacts at Bad company 2. Also I did'nt like increased temperatures/].
I had to set for Asus HD6950 bios that unlocks shader cores - Asus Smart doctor recognizes them also not like HD6970 bios. I increased Vcore to 1.170 on both cards and had 940Mhz stable withb 1300 Mhz memory.
That's te way to go for those with artifacting cards.


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 6, 2011)

I think Im just going to return it since I still have time to do so. I might get a 6970 because I want the option to do eyefinity and crossfire. Thing is amd hasnt released any 6900 series linux drivers, which I find very annoying. Im very close to just going ahead and getting a gtx 570 for this very reason, even though I wont be able to sli it on my current psu due to it being 750w rather than 850... Honestly I love all this stuff and Id like to experiment with the voltages and bios's more but it voids warranty and no one knows yet how long these cards will last the way we are pushing them...so if its not working perfectly now I think its best for me (I cant afford to blow this thing and have to buy something else in a few months) to just buy a straight up 6970 and have done with it.


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 6, 2011)

An interesting note is that when the card heats up it no longer artifacts, even on restart. Its only on cold (literally cold) boot that it artifacts. I wonder if I used a 6970 bios from anyone other than gigabyte if it would work better? I think for my uses a reflash to 6850 is the best idea though.


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## fullinfusion (Jan 6, 2011)

Digital Dissent said:


> An interesting note is that when the card heats up it no longer artifacts, even on restart. Its only on cold (literally cold) boot that it artifacts. I wonder if I used a 6970 bios from anyone other than gigabyte if it would work better? I think for my uses a reflash to 6850 is the best idea though.


Sapphire bios works the best imo.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 7, 2011)

Hurray i can post again!!!!!!

more on topic

i wonder if anyone as tested the performance difference between 6950 ram speeds and 6970 speeds on there cards after flashing to see if theres a performance gain or loss since if the rams clocked to high the gpus will just work around it but at a penalty to performance.


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## turbobeta (Jan 7, 2011)

Cold artifacts are still artifacts. Instability is still instability.


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 7, 2011)

I am aware. Thats why I think Im going to get a gtx 570. The current drivers are just too abysmal its really rather mind blowing.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 7, 2011)

really drivers are that bad for you? hmm must be i got magical cards cause i havent hit a single snag yet running my actual 6970s hmm interesting what exactly is wrong with the drivers.


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 7, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> really drivers are that bad for you? hmm must be i got magical cards cause i havent hit a single snag yet running my actual 6970s hmm interesting what exactly is wrong with the drivers.



Currently Im getting really bad performance in il2 sturmovik. Its a very old game that was perfect on the 4890 and should have no trouble running on this, even so I get slowdowns and graphical errors. Worse still is a total lack of linux drivers. I know they will get better but I dont really feel like waiting, I already did that with the 4890 (which is an amazing card but took far too long to reach maturity) but it takes too long. Nvidia already has linux drivers out. Im past the point of fanboyness now. At this point its between the 570 and 6970 but the 570 has the drivers I need and its cheaper.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 7, 2011)

well if you run linux thats half the reason i run it on a few older machines for the family around here but otherwise i wont touch it with a 10 foot pole for gaming. I have no issues but im running Windows 7.  To be honest it comes with the territory tho each company has ups and downs. Linux isnt AMDs strong suit. never was for that matter. Then again i expect that

apple commands what is it 9% of the market linux 1% and microsoft makes up the other 90% in terms of OS usage


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 7, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> well if you run linux thats half the reason i run it on a few older machines for the family around here but otherwise i wont touch it with a 10 foot pole for gaming. I have no issues but im running Windows 7.  To be honest it comes with the territory tho each company has ups and downs. Linux isnt AMDs strong suit. never was for that matter. Then again i expect that
> 
> apple commands what is it 9% of the market linux 1% and microsoft makes up the other 90% in terms of OS usage



Good point. I like both companies, Ive owned gpu's from both as well. I love linux but not for gaming. 100% of my gaming takes place on windows, but even so you still need a driver to even run linux in proper resolution on any given graphics card, and amd isnt offering that yet. At this point idk. I only have a 750w psu so I might get a 6970 so I can crossfire...really depends... They are both good.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 7, 2011)

well i can say right now on windows i wont go nvidia

sorry shogun total war,, medieval total war wont run on nvidia cards after the 7000 series and alot of the older ancient games i have dont like there hardware from the dx10 era either. so im kinda forced to stick with ATI to keep playing the classics i have. which really sucks that said ive had 0 issues on 64bit windows with the cards the only game that screws up is GTA IV but thats more of an over glorified benchmark for me so no big loss as its rockstars fault no amds do to the mem restrictions going haywire over the amd gpu having 2gb of ram


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## fullinfusion (Jan 7, 2011)

IMO the 6950 flashed to a 6970.... Im starting to think it's a hit and miss on certian 6970's for opening up the shaders.... im thinking a 6950 is just that, a 6950 with problems that is stable....

After all the problems I've seen flashing to turn a great gpu into a wanna be monster 6970....

There must be a reason why amd have the two different gpu's.... one is true, and the other is a dud!!!! not all, but alot.

I think I'm going to invest a few extra dollars and get whats tried and true..... 6970!!!

I have better things to do than flash a mite be gpu that fails 

I wanna game and not mess with bios flashes that mite work...


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 7, 2011)

yea keep telling yourself that brad just as i do cause that $140 saved seems mighty handy right now lol


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## fullinfusion (Jan 7, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> yea keep telling yourself that brad just as i do cause that $140 saved seems mighty handy right now lol


Yeah but really,,, I read so many issues flashing the 6950 to a 6970 

Im lazy bro lol


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 7, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> yea keep telling yourself that brad just as i do cause that $140 saved seems mighty handy right now lol



That 70 I saved isnt helping me at all. Im gonna have to return this since the flashing didnt work so he does have a point actually. If your lucky its awesome. If not then forget it.


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 7, 2011)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> well i can say right now on windows i wont go nvidia
> 
> sorry shogun total war,, medieval total war wont run on nvidia cards after the 7000 series and alot of the older ancient games i have dont like there hardware from the dx10 era either. so im kinda forced to stick with ATI to keep playing the classics i have. which really sucks that said ive had 0 issues on 64bit windows with the cards the only game that screws up is GTA IV but thats more of an over glorified benchmark for me so no big loss as its rockstars fault no amds do to the mem restrictions going haywire over the amd gpu having 2gb of ram



Do you have any info on where I can check how well a gtx 570 will run older games? Its "il2 sturmovik 1946". I dont expect any problems but you never know...


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## pantherx12 (Jan 7, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Yeah but really,,, I read so many issues flashing the 6950 to a 6970
> 
> Im lazy bro lol



Flash goes wrong switch to other bios, deal with reflashing other one later


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jan 7, 2011)

well i have 2x 6970s thats $140+ that $140 could allow me to buy an entire water cooling kit and if i sold my FRIO even more so  but yea overall im happy but kinda wish id had gone 6950 due to crossfire performance the 6970s arent faster in a $140 sense but overall i paid for it and i got what i paid for so cant complain really now i just have to wait for bulldozer cpus so i can go tri fire


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## turbobeta (Jan 8, 2011)

UPDATE:

Gigabyte HD6950 with 6970 bios, unstable at 865/1335. Weird random infrequent crashing going in and out of games, like alt tabbing.

Replaced with the alternate method, of using a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders, instead of using a 6970 bios. (The alternate method supposedly is friendlier on the gpu and ram, because of voltages.) So far I am stable with no weird artifacts or alt tab crashes for 3 days at 840/1325. Once an updated version of MSI Afterburner, and an updated version of catalyst (11.01 would be nice!) release, I will try for higher clocks again.


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## bladerunner_tr (Jan 8, 2011)

dudes, gddr5 ram used at 6950 are 5000 mhz , but 6970 has got 6000 mhz, check hynix , so, there is a problem, or will be. im having some artifacts seldomly. GPU is ok but ram is not.


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## MarcusTaz (Jan 8, 2011)

Flashed my XFX and having no issues...



```

```


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## fullinfusion (Jan 8, 2011)

MarcusTaz said:


> Flashed my XFX and having no issues...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You use the Sapphire Bios?


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## Retrodrift (Jan 10, 2011)

just received 6950. 

Received the 'unable to unlock rom' notice after atiwinflash attemp,

Followed W1zzard's steps to do it through CMD, Typed "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0'' and received error message: atiwinflash is not recog as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

note: i have a usb 3.0 adapter card in my second pci-e slot


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## Digital Dissent (Jan 11, 2011)

I am so not explaining this one.


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## TheGuruStud (Jan 11, 2011)

Digital Dissent said:


> I am so not explaining this one.










I had better luck with the Asus bios as far as stability is concerned compared to the sapphire.
I was freezing in game at 900 mhz (1375 ram), but flashed to asus and the problem went away.


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## MarcusTaz (Jan 12, 2011)

Correct me if I am wrong, people are trying to match 6970 clocks and was not the purpose of this mod to just unlock the Shadders? I mean I read nothing of W1zzard saying you could or should try and match 6970 clocks as well. Am I wrong or did I miss something. Of course I am not against trying to squeeze every bit out of a card, just want to know if I should bother. In terms of frame rates I mean really are those few extra clocks going to make any real difference in everyday gaming? Benchmarks sure it is fun to see what you hit but I cannot see it making any differnce in games. Heck BC2 Nam or just BC2 looks and plays the same with my 6950(70) as it did with my 5850... I still suck, lol... Heck I thought if I got a 6950 and modded it I would just plain kick ass an pwn and sadly I still suck... Damn all this money and I still cannot hit the side of a barn, LMFAO...


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## CDdude55 (Jan 12, 2011)

MarcusTaz said:


> Correct me if I am wrong, people are trying to match 6970 clocks and was not the purpose of this mod to just unlock the Shadders? I mean I read nothing of W1zzard saying you could or should try and match 6970 clocks as well. Am I wrong or did I miss something. Of course I am not against trying to squeeze every bit out of a card, just want to know if I should bother. In terms of frame rates I mean really are those few extra clocks going to make any real difference in everyday gaming? Benchmarks sure it is fun to see what you hit but I cannot see it making any differnce in games. Heck BC2 Nam or just BC2 looks and plays the same with my 6950(70) as it did with my 5850... I still suck, lol... Heck I thought if I got a 6950 and modded it I would just plain kick ass an pwn and sadly I still suck... Damn all this money and I still cannot hit the side of a barn, LMFAO...



I don't understand what you're saying, yes the purpose of the 6950 unlocking is to gain access to the extra shaders that are found on the 6970 cards. But you don't need W1zz to tell you to if you should try overclocking the cards. Most people will unlock the cards and naturally try and push the clock speed up to or over 6970 speeds. It's about getting the best performance for your dollar.

Whether or not overclocking is worth it depends on the person, games usually do see a frame increase depending on how far you take the overclock. Now of course whether or not the frame difference is noticeable depends. If at first you're getting an average framerate of 50 and your overclock takes you to 60 frames, then yes, generally you won't see a difference, but if you're originally getting 25 frames and your overclock gets you to 38 frames, then it definitely is worth it in that particular game.

And sucking in games has nothing to do with computer performance lol, not unless you're using an ancient system and you're lagging in everything you play.


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## TheGuruStud (Jan 13, 2011)

CDdude55 said:


> And sucking in games has nothing to do with computer performance lol, not unless you're using an ancient system and you're lagging in everything you play.



But more perf makes your e-peen bigger and you feel better about yourself.


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## MarcusTaz (Jan 13, 2011)

TheGuruStud said:


> But more perf makes your e-peen bigger and you feel better about yourself.




Yea what he said, lol...

I was joking guess my lol'l did not give that away??? The facts are in most games going from a 6950 to a 6970, who is really going to notice... I sure can't...


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## CDdude55 (Jan 13, 2011)

TheGuruStud said:


> But more perf makes your e-peen bigger and you feel better about yourself.



LOL 

True



MarcusTaz said:


> Yea what he said, lol...
> 
> I was joking guess my lol'l did not give that away??? The facts are in most games going from a 6950 to a 6970, who is really going to notice... I sure can't...



It can be hard to decipher whether or not someone is joking on the interwebs.

I agree with that, besides a bit fewer shaders and lower clock speeds on the 6950, they're not very different cards.


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## cgn37vet (Feb 6, 2011)

*6950 flash had mixed results . Advice ?*

After moving from XP# to 7 Pro I was able to flash my XFX HD6950. After a minute or 2 at stock speeds artifacting would begin ending in possibly distortion or maybe even the desktop sliding 2/3 to the right . Reduced clocks didn't seem to help . Current rig X38 Maximus Formula/Q9550/4gb OCZ Reaper/40gb SSD/2 x 500Seagate 7200.11/2 x seagate 7200.12 /xfi xtremegamer audio .I discovered these flaws using Kombustor . Any suggestions? And how is it possible to push gpu and hi perf memory clocks over thr limits 840/1250 clocks . I've seen it done elsewhere (OCC) but I cannot find a method can someone please provide some direction . I'm thinking of pushing the card in this fashion rather than the flash . Thank You


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## MarcusTaz (Feb 7, 2011)

cgn37vet said:


> After moving from XP# to 7 Pro I was able to flash my XFX HD6950. After a minute or 2 at stock speeds artifacting would begin ending in possibly distortion or maybe even the desktop sliding 2/3 to the right . Reduced clocks didn't seem to help . Current rig X38 Maximus Formula/Q9550/4gb OCZ Reaper/40gb SSD/2 x 500Seagate 7200.11/2 x seagate 7200.12 /xfi xtremegamer audio .I discovered these flaws using Kombustor . Any suggestions? And how is it possible to push gpu and hi perf memory clocks over thr limits 840/1250 clocks . I've seen it done elsewhere (OCC) but I cannot find a method can someone please provide some direction . I'm thinking of pushing the card in this fashion rather than the flash . Thank You



Read this thread your answers are there;

 How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...


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