Hey guys, I just changed my setup a little bit in effort to make everything work as smoothly and easily as possible, so I figured I would update you guys. I also have a question to ask at the end.
I have my 6950 using it's own bios, except modded to enable all shaders. I had been using Afterburner, with unofficial overclocking enabled, to control the clocks, voltage, and fan speed. The problem I had with that setup was that by enabling "unofficial overclocking" (to increase overclock limits), Afterburner would disable Powerplay and also functionality of the Power Control Slider in CCC. By disabling Powerplay, the video card would run at full 3D voltage / clocks all the time. I did not like this, as it seems like necessary stress on the card. Yes, you can set 2D and 3D profiles in Afterburner, but I found a bug where Afterburner goes back to the cards default fan curve every time it automatically changes back and forth between the 2D and 3D profiles. So, that's no good. With that said, I set out to find another, simple, single software solution... here is what I came up with.
I have since gotten rid of Afterburner and now use only Trixx 3.02 beta to control the card. The advantage to this is that Trixx, by default, has unlocked high overclock limits, BUT it does NOT disable Powerplay, or the functionality of the Power Control Slider in CCC. So I can now overclock as I want, but the card will still idle down when in 2D mode. Trixx also properly works a custom fan curve. The only down side I can find is that Trixx doesn't yet support voltage control for our cards. But that is ok, now I just use RBE to adjust my core voltage. I honestly think this is the best setup for our cards, and the only thing that could make it any more perfect would be for Trixx to enable voltage control for our cards.
So, for people who are new to modding your 6950 and have questions, here is a summary of the best / easiest way to mod and overclock your 6950 as I see it. I will post back later if I find anything better. The consensus seems to be that this method is less risky and better for your card's longevity than just flashing a 6970 bios to your card.
1. Save your cards bios using GPUz to your desktop:
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
2. Use this script to modify YOUR exact bios and enable all shaders:
http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
3. Use this script to flash this modified bios to your card with your card's bios selection switch on '1':
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html
4. Download and install Trixx 3.02 beta:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S71ZJ4SW
5. In Trixx, immediatly go to the 'fan control' screen and click 'custom', then setup a custom fan curve that keeps your card at least around 40*-45* idle and 80* or less at full load.
I have my curve setup with 35% fan speed up until 70*, then a constant slope up from there to 100% fan at 100*.
6. Use Trixx to overclock as you wish, If you want to up your voltage for more overclocking, download and use RBE until Trixx enables voltage control:
http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/
If using RBE to up the core voltage, you may have to adjust VID3 or VID4, some cards use VID3 for 3D core voltage, and others use VID4 for 3D core voltage. See which one generates more heat and higher overclocks with increased voltage.
This setup is good because it uses YOUR EXACT bios, which eliminates any issues that could possibly occur by using a modded bios from someone else's card or from a card of a different manufacturer such as different memory, timings, or anything else for that matter.
This brings me to my question, which I will post in a separate post in a few minutes..