AMD Radeon HD 6950 Can be Unlocked to HD 6970

[turbobeta]

Cold artifacts are still artifacts. Instability is still instability.

 

[Digital Dissent]

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.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

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.

 

[Digital Dissent]

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.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

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

 

[Digital Dissent]

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.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

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

 

[fullinfusion]

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...

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

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

 

[fullinfusion]

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

 

[Digital Dissent]

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.

 

[Digital Dissent]

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...

 

[pantherx12]

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

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

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

 

[turbobeta]

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.

 

[bladerunner_tr]

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.

 

[MarcusTaz]

Flashed my XFX and having no issues...

 

[fullinfusion]

Flashed my XFX and having no issues...

You use the Sapphire Bios?

 

[Retrodrift]

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

 

[Digital Dissent]

I am so not explaining this one.

 

[TheGuruStud]

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.

 

[MarcusTaz]

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...

 

[CDdude55]

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.

 

[TheGuruStud]

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.

 

[MarcusTaz]

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...