ATI 6950 Unlocked to 6970 Texture fill rate?

[J.D]

ok well, I increased the voltage to 1.175 using the MSI After burner version you reccommended and upped the clocks to 880/1375 and within about 45 seconds I was artifacting

This is the first card I've heard about struggling to run at 6970 levels. I've heard of people's cards showing up with irreversible memory damage but that's been down to using the 6970 BIOS, Also I've only seen a few posts about that at most.

Are you flashing in DOS or are you using W1zzards script to flash in Windows like me?.

It's just with the strange behaviour of not accepting the flash until you used the 6970 BIOS and then flashed back, I'm wondering if something went wrong.

Could you try the 6970 BIOS again for one quick bench and go to 880/1375 and see if the artifacts appear?. I'm only wanting to see if the voltage actually applied. I said in my last post I didn't apply the voltage as I'm already at 1.175v so I'm not 100% that it works. If you put the 6970 BIOS in and there is no artifacts then maybe the voltage wasn't applying.

running 880/1325 stable as a rock, didn't even have to touch voltages

Yeah and that's what I've been seeing with most cards. Can hit 880-900 at 1.100v and between 920-975 at 1.175.

Hmm return under distance selling regulation act?.

I would if I had it. Everyone else getting to 6970 clocks apart from me!!!. Never lol. If I couldn't DSR it, I'd return to stock and sell it.

It's a shame as well as I've been reading nothing but good things and nearly all were performing pretty much equally.

 

[Hady]

ok il do that as soon as I get back quick break to get some food from mcdonalds lol! 1:15am

I flahsed using Winflasher and not the script, I will use the script when I change to the 6970 bios again, gimme 15 min il be back

 

[J.D]

ok il do that as soon as I get back quick break to get some food from mcdonalds lol! 1:15am

I flahsed using Winflasher and not the script, I will use the script when I change to the 6970 bios again, gimme 15 min il be back

lol NP, I'm going to have a game of S&D Call of Duty 4 so I'll keep alt+tabbing to check the forum when I die early .

Bon appetit.

 

[Hady]

Ok so I used to script to switch to a 6970 BIOS changed my clocks to 880/1375 and went to run furmark than booom froze up on me, I have just switched back to 6950 Bios with the increased shaders and 840/1325 man this sucks balls. Any other ideas buddy?

 

[J.D]

I'm sorry to hear it's not going well.

Because you're still getting the problems when you used MSI Afterburner I don't even know if this is working but if this has happened with the 6970 BIOS then it seems it could just be the card.

These guys have powercolour and don't seem to be having problems just like every other brand I've seen. It's a strange one.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18305731&postcount=865

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18376527&postcount=900

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18395097&postcount=915

Well since you're back to the 6950 unlocked BIOS, are you still at 20% in Power Control Settings in the CCC control panel?. If yes, then put it back to 0%. up the clocks in Afterburner again to 1.175 and check for artifacts. What are you using to test btw?. Also what is your PSU model and wattage?.

 

[Hady]

I'm sorry to hear it's not going well.

Because you're still getting the problems when you used MSI Afterburner I don't even know if this is working but if this has happened with the 6970 BIOS then it seems it could just be the card.

These guys have powercolour and don't seem to be having problems just like every other brand I've seen. It's a strange one.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18305731&postcount=865

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18376527&postcount=900

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18395097&postcount=915

Well since you're back to the 6950 unlocked BIOS, are you still at 20% in Power Control Settings in the CCC control panel?. If yes, then put it back to 0%. up the clocks in Afterburner again to 1.175 and check for artifacts. What are you using to test btw?. Also what is your PSU model and wattage?.

Im not needing to use anything to test the artifacting happens very quickly at my desktop but I normally use 3d furmark. I have a Toughpower 1200w PSU and Power Control settings are at 0%. I will try upping the voltage again in msi after burner and see wht happens

 

[J.D]

Well I doubt the PSU is the problem. 1200watt .

If at 1.175v you get artifacts then try putting it up to 1.200 and see what happens. You can go al the way up to 1.300v but keep the fan up and watch the temps. If the card starts stabilizing with higher voltages then it's looking like a poor clocker. The three links above are powercolours but I've not heard of any problems with that specific brand so I'm really confused.

I wish I could get my hands on it to see myself as it's hard to help with just words when I've not experienced it or read about it. I've not been much help . Sorry.

I hope with higher voltages you will see something change so to let us know what is going on.

 

[MikeHiow]

I have a Powercolour card and have 900/1350 at 1.15v with the unlocked bios.

Is artifacting the only issue? What games are you experiencing artifacting in?

There is a thread about this issue over on techpowerup. Some were found to be driver/game bugs, others claim permanent damage resulting from running the 6970 bios (hence the appearance of the 6950 unlocked bios). I do hope it is not the latter for you.

Does it artifact at stock 6950 clocks?

 

[Hady]

I have a Powercolour card and have 900/1350 at 1.15v with the unlocked bios.

Is artifacting the only issue? What games are you experiencing artifacting in?

There is a thread about this issue over on techpowerup. Some were found to be driver/game bugs, others claim permanent damage resulting from running the 6970 bios (hence the appearance of the 6950 unlocked bios). I do hope it is not the latter for you.

Does it artifact at stock 6950 clocks?

No m8 the card runs fine at stock clock and its also fine running unlocked shaders at 840/1325 anything above that and it goes **** up. I am currently using a modified version of my own BIOS (6950).

Also I have tried upping the voltage all the way to 1.275 and no change in stability, the card artifacts/crashes as soon as I try to try a 3d intensive application or the screen just goes funny in windows almost as if my screen has been split in 2.

Looks like this one is going back tbh.

 

[Hady]

Well I doubt the PSU is the problem. 1200watt .

If at 1.175v you get artifacts then try putting it up to 1.200 and see what happens. You can go al the way up to 1.300v but keep the fan up and watch the temps. If the card starts stabilizing with higher voltages then it's looking like a poor clocker. The three links above are powercolours but I've not heard of any problems with that specific brand so I'm really confused.

I wish I could get my hands on it to see myself as it's hard to help with just words when I've not experienced it or read about it. I've not been much help . Sorry.

I hope with higher voltages you will see something change so to let us know what is going on.

Well the higher voltages did nothing unfortunatley m8 but thanks a lot for your effort, Im not sure what else we could try. I think Im going to send it back first thing monday morning and order a Saphire one, what do you think ?.

 

[MikeHiow]

Can you try upping the gpu and memory clocks individually? I suspect the issue is memory rather than the GPU.

 

[Hady]

Sure Il give that a go, Il go up in increments of 10

 

[J.D]

This is puzzling me. So it runs fine at 6950 clocks with and without the shader unlock?.

If so, this is what is bugging me. Any overclock at all and then you're experiencing problems. It doesn't seem right. Can you try 2 different 6 pin connectors from your PSU to the card by any chance?. Also have you got a friend with a decent PSU so you can test if it's anything PSU related?.

What graphics card did you have previous to this?. If Nvidia, have you ran Driver Sweeper and removed all traces of the old files?.

Also a shot in the dark would be to create a 10-20gb partition and install a fresh copy of Windows to see if that helps anything. Also a re-seat of the card would be worth a try.

If you were getting a small overclock then I'd say it's a bad clocker even though I've not heard of anything similar, but getting no overclock seems like something is wrong somewhere.

You could try with your CPU at stock, and memory if overclocked.

 

[Hady]

This is puzzling me. So it runs fine at 6950 clocks with and without the shader unlock?.

If so, this is what is bugging me. Any overclock at all and then you're experiencing problems. It doesn't seem right. Can you try 2 different 6 pin connectors from your PSU to the card by any chance?. Also have you got a friend with a decent PSU so you can test if it's anything PSU related?.

What graphics card did you have previous to this?. If Nvidia, have you ran Driver Sweeper and removed all traces of the old files?.

Also a shot in the dark would be to create a 10-20gb partition and install a fresh copy of Windows to see if that helps anything. Also a re-seat of the card would be worth a try.

If you were getting a small overclock then I'd say it's a bad clocker even though I've not heard of anything similar, but getting no overclock seems like something is wrong somewhere.

You could try with your CPU at stock, and memory if overclocked.

Ok regarding the PSU unfortunatley no all my friends have crappy pc's so a good PSU from one of them is out the question.

I have just switched back to my original un modded BIOS

Im going to run some test quickly to make sure it runs fine on the original BIOS. Will update shortly.

Also I will try and re seat the GPU and use 2 other 6 pin's. I had a GTX 280 prior to this but have reformatted since then.

 

[Hady]

Ok well I have just run 3DMARK 11 and got a result I would expect, So yes the card runs fine using both locked and unlocked shaders! >.<.

 

[J.D]

Ok regarding the PSU unfortunatley no all my friends have crappy pc's so a good PSU from one of them is out the question.

I have just switched back to my original un modded BIOS

Im going to run some test quickly to make sure it runs fine on the original BIOS. Will update shortly.

Also I will try and re seat the GPU and use 2 other 6 pin's. I had a GTX 280 prior to this but have reformatted since then.

Ach it was worth a shot regarding using another PSU.

I hope the test goes well and that something maybe changes with some of the things you're about to try. I wish you stayed in Edinburgh, I'd be round in the morning with my 6950 .

Ok well I have just run 3DMARK 11 and got a result I would expect, So yes the card runs fine using both locked and unlocked shaders! >.<.

This is why I think it's so strange. One bit of overclocking then everything goes freaky. I really wish I could get my hands on it and test it for you.

Well I hope trying some various things like the re-seat etc might do something as I feel this might not be to do with the card just because it won't overclock at all but will allow the shaders to be unlocked. Too peculiar to put down as a poor clocker yet.

 

[J.D]

Well the higher voltages did nothing unfortunatley m8 but thanks a lot for your effort, Im not sure what else we could try. I think Im going to send it back first thing monday morning and order a Saphire one, what do you think ?.

I think you should read through this thread http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=137136 and make that decision. As I think it's something other than the card just being a poor clocker due to the ways it's reacting to any overclock at all so because of that I don't want to recommend anything as I'd feel terrible if you got another card and the same thing happened. Yes, we'd know it's something to do with your PC but then it would be a matter of finding what is wrong and hopefully being able to fix it.

Have you tried a CMOS reset?. I'd try this when changing the 6 pins over and the re-seat though.

 

[Hady]

Ach it was worth a shot regarding using another PSU.

I hope the test goes well and that something maybe changes with some of the things you're about to try. I wish you stayed in Edinburgh, I'd be round in the morning with my 6950 .



This is why I think it's so strange. One bit of overclocking then everything goes freaky. I really wish I could get my hands on it and test it for you.

Well I hope trying some various things like the re-seat etc might do something as I feel this might not be to do with the card just because it won't overclock at all but will allow the shaders to be unlocked. Too peculiar to put down as a poor clocker yet.

Really apprecciate the time and effort you have put in to helping me (I wish I lived in Edinburgh too )

Im going to have to try the re seat and power connecters first thing tommorow morning Im getting very tired and dont want to make silly mistakes especially when taking components out etc. Please follow my thread I will post again tommorow as soon as I have tried the things you mentioned.

 

[Hady]

I think you should read through this thread http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=137136 and make that decision. As I think it's something other than the card just being a poor clocker due to the ways it's reacting to any overclock at all so because of that I don't want to recommend anything as I'd feel terrible if you got another card and the same thing happened. Yes, we'd know it's something to do with your PC but then it would be a matter of finding what is wrong and hopefully being able to fix it.

Have you tried a CMOS reset?. I'd try this when changing the 6 pins over and the re-seat though.

Sometimes I try to turn my PC on and it tries to turn on then fails just as it gets power, I then have to turn it off by the mains wait a few seconds and try again, this can happen once and then work or sometimes 6-7-8-9 times in a row this also happened with my prior build which consisted of:
Asus Striker II eXtreme
QX9650
DDR3 4GB (cnt remember timings)

the only component I have salvaged from that build is this toughpower PSU (reason i bought such a big PSU is becauseI had x2 9800 GX'S ).

Think I may have a faulty PSU? (how comes my CPU OC works then?)

Sorry for all the questions again thanks for answering.

 

[J.D]

Really apprecciate the time and effort you have put in to helping me (I wish I lived in Edinburgh too )

Im going to have to try the re seat and power connecters first thing tommorow morning Im getting very tired and dont want to make silly mistakes especially when taking components out etc. Please follow my thread I will post again tommorow as soon as I have tried the things you mentioned.

It's no problem at all. I just wish I could have helped more but there's always tomorrow, well, after a sleep I mean lol.

I'll catch up with your thread when I get up and see how you've got on.

Sometimes I try to turn my PC on and it tries to turn on then fails just as it gets power, I then have to turn it off by the mains wait a few seconds and try again, this can happen once and then work or sometimes 6-7-8-9 times in a row this also happened with my prior build which consisted of:
Asus Striker II eXtreme
QX9650
DDR3 4GB (cnt remember timings)

the only component I have salvaged from that build is this toughpower PSU (reason i bought such a big PSU is becauseI had x2 9800 GX'S ).

Think I may have a faulty PSU? (how comes my CPU OC works then?)

Sorry for all the questions again thanks for answering.

It's possible it's PSU related and I say this due to the strange issue with the slightest overclock bringing forth artifacts and freezes. I can't say this for sure but as the CPU is less of a load then it might not affect the PSU the same way the GPU does.