The bullet has been bitten [2nd 6950]

413x · 15 Feb 2011 at 23:25

damn, i was reluctant but ive bought the asus 2gb 6950 card

hopefully it should allow everything produced for a while to run smoothly maxed out,

and if it turns out to be not worth it, at least it helps heat my room lol

a few questions .. maybe stupid

- running 2 monitors, do i plug both into one card, one in to each or does it not matter?
- is it a good idea to underpower these in CCC to save some heat? obviously the full power will not be needed for games to run smooth
-any other matters i should be aware of? [new to multi gpu]
- maybe i should flash the bios, but use bios setting 2 until i need the extra?

Shayper · 15 Feb 2011 at 23:41

Hi again Al4x

1. Plug them both into the 1st card, shouldn't really matter but it's nice to make sure.
2. You could do, but these cards run pretty cool anyway so I wouldn't bother

3. There may be some issues with some games (google is your friend - for these just disable Xfire in the CCC)
4. Might as well just flash it with the unlock extra shaders, won't affect anything apart from performance. This way you will have a 1337 pwnage setup that looks pretty sweet in benchies. Besides, for any games that will need two cards at high settings you may as well have the extra grunt

413x · 15 Feb 2011 at 23:49

ok thanks for the help, im not too fused with benches lol, tho i may run a few! im just hoping this setup lasts a while.. its £410 of GPU [sounds more than 2x 200s lol]

so plug them into one card?

long as there isnt an issue with crysis and metro thats the main thing

its a tad scary how much my pc setup is worth.. £1000 in monitors, over £1000 in the tower, then all the peripherals! this forum has a lot to answer for, i also blame the moniotr for the second gpu!

one more thing, id like to say thanks to the community and the forum hosts [hence buying this form here] its helped a lot since ive been a member

good people here, not obsessed with benchmarks and putting others down

el Kuarlos · 16 Feb 2011 at 00:08

I ve found mine undervolts quite happily to 1.05, anything below and you get very infrequent crashes at 840/1325, maybe saves a few degrees not much, you might as well flash right away, it shouldnt decrease the longevity of the cards if you flash with a shader mod not a 6970 bios.

413x · 16 Feb 2011 at 00:11

i may have to reflash the first then thats running a 6970 bios, and also opens another question.. is it definite better to run a modded 6950 than a 6970?

tommybhoy · 16 Feb 2011 at 00:18

al4x said:
so plug them into one card?

Shayper not saying your wrong as I don't know the first thing about xfire, but I was wondering if you plug a monitor into each card, would the clocks not be lower when sitting on the dektop? This might not be an issue to al4x but I was just wondering.

al4x said:
good people here, not obsessed with benchmarks and putting others down

I used to like you lol

! I'm toying with the idea of getting another one myself, but then come christmas I'l just want the new one again!

tommybhoy · 16 Feb 2011 at 00:22

al4x said:
is it definite better to run a modded 6950 than a 6970?

I was wondering that myself too, don't get me wrong mines fine with the 70 bios, no issues at all it runs very, very cool with the AC 5870 extreme cooler on it, but I would get the lower clocks when idle on the desktop.

Final8y · 16 Feb 2011 at 00:26

In Crossfire mode both monitors must be plunged to the same card.

tommybhoy · 16 Feb 2011 at 00:31

Final8y said:
In Crossfire mode both monitors must be plunged to the same card.

Do you know if they clock down as if it's a single monitor, or do they have a higher clock because dual monitors are being used the same way as a single card would do it?

Shayper · 16 Feb 2011 at 00:55

tommybhoy said:
Do you know if they clock down as if it's a single monitor, or do they have a higher clock because dual monitors are being used the same way as a single card would do it?

No matter how many cards you run, it will still ramp up the clocks if you are using 1 monitor

And Al4x? I spent 360 quid on 3x22"! How on earth have you spent over... oh wait ultrasharps

.

Well played on the crossfire though, but please reflash with just shader unlocks, as the full 6970 wrecks the memory on the cards. I can't wait to get my second 6950, might be a while though

Final8y · 16 Feb 2011 at 00:58

Shayper said:
No matter how many cards you run, it will still ramp up the clocks if you are using 1 monitor

And Al4x? I spent 360 quid on 3x22"! How on earth have you spent over... oh wait ultrasharps .

Well played on the crossfire though, but please reflash with just shader unlocks, as the full 6970 wrecks the memory on the cards. I can't wait to get my second 6950, might be a while though

If your using more than 1 monitor it will have higher idle clocks, on a single monitor it will have lower idle clocks.

tommybhoy · 16 Feb 2011 at 00:59

Shayper said:
No matter how many cards you run, it will still ramp up the clocks if you are using 1 monitor

Thanks for clearing that up.

Shayper said:
but please reflash with just shader unlocks, as the full 6970 wrecks the memory on the cards.

Mines is running fine as stated above, do you mean if you flash 50>70 straight away and you might bork the card, or over time?

Shayper · 16 Feb 2011 at 01:26

tommybhoy said:
Mines is running fine as stated above, do you mean if you flash 50>70 straight away and you might bork the card, or over time?

Over time mate, apparently a lot of people have been getting Vram related errors, and these people have all flashed with 6970 bios (the one that changes the memory timings)

Seems that the 6950 ram chips just aren't as high spec as the 6970 ones

tommybhoy · 16 Feb 2011 at 01:39

Shayper said:
Over time mate, apparently a lot of people have been getting Vram related errors, and these people have all flashed with 6970 bios (the one that changes the memory timings)

Seems that the 6950 ram chips just aren't as high spec as the 6970 ones

So if I use the wizzards batch file and swapped 70 bios with the unlocked shaders 50 bios that would be it unlocked to full shaders without me having to revert back to my original bios and starting again?
If yes, can you point me to the unlocked shader bios that I can use with the batch file, as I would be more comfortable doing it that way?
Thanks for the info mate

.

Shayper · 16 Feb 2011 at 01:44

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8FHEMTE0

Bing

A whole unlock thingy with the ASUS bios, gives you extra voltage for free, a tiny OC and unlocked shaders. Perfect?

And it's no worries, happy to help

tommybhoy · 16 Feb 2011 at 01:49

Thanks Shayper, will have a look and let you know how I get on.
Oh, and will it still work if I just put the asus bios into wizzards batch file?

Shayper · 16 Feb 2011 at 01:55

tommybhoy said:
Thanks Shayper, will have a look and let you know how I get on.
Oh, and will it still work if I just put the asus bios into wizzards batch file?

I believe so, but FYI that zip file has a very similar batch file which I believe does the same thing

tommybhoy · 16 Feb 2011 at 02:06

Shayper said:
I believe so, but FYI that zip file has a very similar batch file which I believe does the same thing

Ok will have a look then, thanks again and goodnight. Sometimes I just hate OC's forums because it stops my playing my games

. I should really be in bed instead of trawling this pesky place

. Yet again about 4 hrs sleep for me tonight lol.

Shayper · 16 Feb 2011 at 03:40

tommybhoy said:
Ok will have a look then, thanks again and goodnight. Sometimes I just hate OC's forums because it stops my playing my games. I should really be in bed instead of trawling this pesky place. Yet again about 4 hrs sleep for me tonight lol.

Haha it's the same for me, although I'm a student so I'm supposed to be up at these godforsaken hours. Fine tuning a 4.4ghz overclock is a chore though

tommybhoy · 16 Feb 2011 at 22:07

Right flashed to unlocked asus bios from the zip you gave me, but smartdoctor doesn't unlock the higher clocks for me. I followed the instructions to the letter. After uninstall of smartdoctor and launching ccc, top clock available is 840. Any ideas as to why the limit is not higher? I have had Afterburner 7.2 beta installed from before I did the unlock 50 bios flash. I don't know if this has anything to do with the problem.