Upgrade from Radeon 5850 - £200-240 budget

=XDC=FluphyBunny · 24 May 2011 at 14:58

Mr Krugga said:
...The MSI guy also claims that it unlocks to the 6970 so that should tell you the real value of this bargain

Thought only reference rev. 1's unlocked?

Mr Krugga · 24 May 2011 at 15:01

stuartw_b said:
Thought only reference rev. 1's unlocked?

It really depends on the GPU you get with your graphics card, a bit of lottery really.

Titchy · 24 May 2011 at 15:30

Keep us posted, i was looking at getting 2 of these myself , i will be keen to hear how you get on with the unlocking and clocking !

Mr Krugga · 24 May 2011 at 16:51

Uploading new pictures in 15 min.

Downloading Catalyst 11.5a now, CAP2 and the new Afterburner Beta.

Jasonst888 · 24 May 2011 at 16:59

Does that 6950 have the dual bios? if not flashing it can be hazardous, if your not really sure what your doing anyway.... :confused:

Mr Krugga · 24 May 2011 at 18:14

Jasonst888 said:
Does that 6950 have the dual bios? if not flashing it can be hazardous, if your not really sure what your doing anyway....

It does have a BIOS switch, yes.

Mr Krugga · 24 May 2011 at 18:27

More pictures:

Mr Krugga · 24 May 2011 at 18:29

http://imgur.com/a/XWCzL

Imgur album with all images.

Don't ask me why they're rotated.

Jasonst888 · 24 May 2011 at 21:23

Will you flash it then? What sort of idle temps you getting?

Mr Krugga · 24 May 2011 at 21:55

Jasonst888 said:
Will you flash it then? What sort of idle temps you getting?

Already flashed and it didn't unlock any shaders.

It did, however, unlock the overclocking limits so I have virtually no limits when it comes to that (besides the cooling, that is).

I'm not too bothered with that since unlocking the shaders gains only 3-5% according to MSI and as low as 2% according to some users.

Most of the potential comes from overclocking and that's what I'm aiming at right now.

In a relatively warm room and 3 fans in my case (as seen on the pictures), all set on low so I don't have to hear them, the card idles at 35c with default fan profile (silent in idle).

I will be getting some more fans to cool down the card further but I can tell you that it maxes out at 60c in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Will try more games later on this week as ACB is obviously not a very demanding game.

I'm clocking the memory first and am at 1375MHz atm (from 1300MHz).

Marine-RX179 · 24 May 2011 at 21:59

By the way, have you got a fan on the side panel of your 690II?

Mr Krugga · 24 May 2011 at 22:10

Marine-RX179 said:
By the way, have you got a fan on the side panel of your 690II?

Yes, sucking the cold air in. Only the stock front intake and back exhaust fans besides it.

A Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000 rpm put down to 1000 rpm.

It's a bit on the noisy side but as soon as I get that Zalman MFC1 installed, it should be kept both cool and quiet.

I'm very noise-sensitive, any case fans above 800 rpm become mildly disrupting and above 1200 rpm - annoying. Default R5850 cooler was too noisy to cope with, even at stock.

I can't imagine using a GTX 480

EdwardTeach · 24 May 2011 at 22:16

Mr Krugga said:
Bah, nothing short of what I would advice to anyone

I know how to use Anandtech Bench tool, I even posted it on this Forum almost a year ago

I also expect the card to depreciate in price but still want to have something that will hold the most value out of the lot in 6 months.

Thanks for the suggestions, doesn't seem like anything is of any great interest to me.

I'll have a look for a good deal on the 6950 that can be flashed to a 6970.

There were some deals on GTX480s close to £180 not long ago.

HD6870s in Crossfire look like an option too, if I can find them relatively cheap.

EDIT:

Radeon 6870 x2 - £260
GeForce GTX570 - £230
Radeon 6870 x2 - £230
GeForce GTX480 - £200
Radeon 6950 2GB - £190
Radeon 6950 1GB - £170

How do I find out which 6950s unlock to 6970s?

If you are considering 6870 cf, why not look at 5850 cf, I should think it is better.

Mr Krugga · 24 May 2011 at 22:40

EdwardTeach said:
If you are considering 6870 cf, why not look at 5850 cf, I should think it is better.

It is not better than 6870CF and I'm not considering Crossfire any more.

The upgrade to the 6950 only cost me £50 so I can't complain, really.

After that I will probably jump onto the next gen by the end of the year but for now, it should be a decent card to keep me going.

Jasonst888 · 24 May 2011 at 22:40

Did you try the full bios flash? It should unlock the shaders as well if you do, thats not the prob, some cards cant handle it and have probs once done but they all can do it? mines flashed, not overclocked running at 1375mhz and 880mhz without any overclocking other than the flash. Did you follow all the instructions when flashing there are really good step by step guides online.

Mr Krugga · 24 May 2011 at 22:57

Jasonst888 said:
Did you try the full bios flash? It should unlock the shaders as well if you do, thats not the prob, some cards cant handle it and have probs once done but they all can do it? mines flashed, not overclocked running at 1375mhz and 880mhz without any overclocking other than the flash. Did you follow all the instructions when flashing there are really good step by step guides online.

Oh dear...

Marine-RX179 · 24 May 2011 at 23:10

Mr Krugga said:
Yes, sucking the cold air in. Only the stock front intake and back exhaust fans besides it.

The reason I asked is because until couple days ago, I have always had the fan on the side panel as intake; I've change the fan from intake to exhaust as experiment, and the GPU temp dropped by a few degrees under load.

I think the reason for this is because of how graphic cards with "dump heat into case" type cooler, getting rid of the heat in the case around the graphic card area is actually more efficent at lowering the GPU temp than bringing in cool air. You could try swapping it around and compare the temp before and after.

P.S. I do have a fan at bottom middle as extra air-intake, and another fan on the drive cage blow toward the graphic card from front to rear.

Mr Krugga · 24 May 2011 at 23:13

Marine-RX179 said:
The reason I asked is because until couple days ago, I have always had the fan on the side panel as intake; I've change the fan from intake to exhaust, but GPU temp dropped by a few degrees.

I think the reason for this is because of how graphic cards with "dump heat into case" type cooler, getting rid of the heat in the case around the graphic card area is actually more efficent at lowering the GPU temp than bringing in cool air blowing the heat all over the place. You could try swapping it around and compare the temp before and after.

P.S. I do have a fan at bottom middle as extra air-intake, and another fan on the drive cage blow toward the graphic card from front to rear.

Got 4 Antec Tri-Cool on offer today so I'll hook them up to the fan controller and see how much I can drop the temps

I guess I could try one intake fan by the graphics card and one exhaust just above it. Would be interesting to see how that works.

Mr Krugga · 25 May 2011 at 00:51

Settled on 900/1375 at stock voltages for now.

925/1375 crashed and overclocking memory to 1400 throttles back.

Will try to get to 1GHz this weekend, for now it stays at these clocks.

Jasonst888 · 25 May 2011 at 07:57

Stock voltages...im impressed, most people recommend bumping it up to +20% to insure it gets enough power to run at 6970 clocks...but then again in standard use the card is unlikely to draw enough power to require the increase...but its nice to know its there!
You should be able to really push it once you have increased the voltage a little,what you using to overclock it? Afterburner?