Underclocking a reference AMD 6950 (2gb)

Number_25

Number_25

Number_25

Soldato
Joined
23 Dec 2010
Posts
3,483
Hey people of Overclockers UK!

Today I am going to be underclocking a reference AMD Radeon 6950, I've been wanting to do this for quite a while but I have only now got enough courage to do it.

Here is the card's specs before the underclocking..

188727_1467029376316_1851014193_855268_2749571_n.jpg


But before I show the underclocking I'm going to have a small review on the card first.

I bought this card about a month ago for a princely £235.99, the most I've spent on a card since I bought a nVidia Geforce 8800GTX in 2006. When I unpacked it I was shown a box design, this started to worry me a fair bit because you need good ventilation on the board to underclock it. Below is a picture of the cards reference design.

amd_radeon_hd_6950_1gb_01_thumb.jpg


This card though is an absolute beast, playing Crysis on Very High at 1920x1080 with a benchmarked FPS of about 40-45. Other games it can max out on 1920x1080 include DiRT 2, SHIFT 2 and HAWX. The temperature rarely exceeds 60*C, which is amazing for a card of box-design.

Now its time for the underclocking!

For this I will be using MSI's Afterbruner software, one of the best underclocking software out there at the moment. I was worried that the GPU may exceed its maximum temperature so I decided to manually turn the fan onto 100%. It was quite a racket to be fair but I didn't want to blow such a nice card!

Below is a picture of the Underclocking results and some of the benchmarks it managed to stand.

217034_1485816965994_1851014193_879498_7532438_n.jpg


Crysis 1 - 1920x1080 - V. High - Av. 5-14 FPS (40-45*C)
HAWX 2 - 1920X1080 - Highest - Av. 6-19 FPS (45-49*C)
Crysis 2 - 1920X1080 - Hardcore - Av. 9-13 FPS (39-42*C)

So overall this card is underclockable, even though it has the box-reference design!
 
I hoped I wasn't missing something earlier so didn't want to be the first to post with a WTF comment :p

Basically, you've killed performance, dropped bandwidth dramatically and lost all your performance, why, god knows.

If you want less power draw, buy a lower power card. A card designed for lower power would likely use both less power at idle AND at full speed than a 6950 underclocked would be using, so its just daft any which way you think about it.

As for clocks, clocks effect power consumption significantly less than voltage, and you can't turn down the voltage THAT much, theres a threshold for stability where the voltage can't drop below. You can't run 1Ghz at 1.3v, 1.1v stock at 800Mhz, and 0.1v at 51Mhz, you won't go below around 0.85/0.9v without it becoming unstable.

Either way, well done, you bought a £200 card for far over market value, then you turned it into a £70 card, wooooo.


I do assume its "supposed" to be funny, for some reason.
 
you all forgot to mention that by turning the fan up to 100% he has also turned it into a hairdryer :(

the op's post makes no sense and it is intended to get responses i feel.
 
Well I found it useful :) I've got a little profile created for when I play older games like Medieval Total War (which bizarrely works perfectly again now with the new ati drivers.) Nice to have the card running more quietly when I don't need all the power.
 
For a moment I was replacing the word "underclock" with "overclock", but then as I read on realized it was not OP's typing skills that have undergone!
 
I sense a troll... i ahve heard of underclocking the card 5-10% so it runs much cooler but i have never heard of ramming the card up to 100% fan to do so or the fact the shape of the card would matter. I have to admit i thought he meant overclock it for most of his post
 
I think this is priceless. Winding us all up and done with a smile.

Bravo sir - respect.
 
The funniest thing is it's not even that good an underclock, only 500/650.

I had my HD4890 running at 240/250 in full 3D mode.

Haven't fiddled with my HD6950 as it idles all by itself at 150/250.
 
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