Unlock your ATI 6950 to a 6970 Thread

pieman109 · 29 Dec 2010 at 13:34

Ok got me second HIS 6950, tested at stock for a bit, all good. Flashed to 6970 bios and boom, pixellation all over the place! Tried increasing fan speed, temps are good, 35c idle, bombs out of any benchies I attempt to run

, so flashed back to 6950 bios and runs sweet as a nut.
So......I get from this that the memory is a prob but I can't lower the memory speed in CCC as its set to the lowest position.
All suggestions appreciated

OpenToSuggestions · 29 Dec 2010 at 13:37

pieman109 said:
Ok got me second HIS 6950, tested at stock for a bit, all good. Flashed to 6970 bios and boom, pixellation all over the place! Tried increasing fan speed, temps are good, 35c idle, bombs out of any benchies I attempt to run, so flashed back to 6950 bios and runs sweet as a nut.
So......I get from this that the memory is a prob but I can't lower the memory speed in CCC as its set to the lowest position.
All suggestions appreciated

Was the power at 0%. If I use +20% I sometimes get green pixels all over the screen

.

gareth170 · 29 Dec 2010 at 13:38

pieman109 said:
So......I get from this that the memory is a prob but I can't lower the memory speed in CCC as its set to the lowest position.
All suggestions appreciated

use Sapphire TRIXX beta

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2133259&postcount=57

or try asus 6970 bios

pieman109 · 29 Dec 2010 at 13:42

Thanks for the info guys, I'll try those suggestions when I get back from work tonight.

Fanatic · 29 Dec 2010 at 14:55

Just unlocked my HIS 6950, the flash didn't work at first, "cannot erase ROM". I downloaded his mod pack and just ran the .bat file and it worked.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html

ahenners · 29 Dec 2010 at 14:58

pieman109 said:
Ok got me second HIS 6950, tested at stock for a bit, all good. Flashed to 6970 bios and boom, pixellation all over the place! Tried increasing fan speed, temps are good, 35c idle, bombs out of any benchies I attempt to run, so flashed back to 6950 bios and runs sweet as a nut.
So......I get from this that the memory is a prob but I can't lower the memory speed in CCC as its set to the lowest position.
All suggestions appreciated

That doesn't sound too good! Which 6970 bios did you flash to? Might be worth flashing to a different one i.e. Asus, Sapphire etc from what I've read so far.

Try the power adjustment thing as well at 0%.

tommybhoy · 29 Dec 2010 at 15:01

I just bought myself the HIS 6950 (what a hypocrite I am!). I have been twitching like a madman when bios flash news broke. I will try tomorrow if it comes.

mmj_uk · 29 Dec 2010 at 15:54

lollyhayes said:
TBH I doubt this is true, this was conjecture prior to the release of the 6970. We know 2 things:
1. The 6950 & 6970 chips are both a 40nm process.

2. The 6990 is a dual Cayman.

Therefore assuming the 6970 & 6950 use the same 40nm chips, it would be impossible for there to be 1920 SP's on such small chip (the 5870 had 1600 @40nm) without:
A) A large Die size increase.
B) A TDP above 300w (card no longer supported officially with PCI-E) Big no-no...

Is it known for a fact that 6990 is a dual GPU? 6970 supposedly has 30% more transistors than 5870 which was 1600sp, maybe 6990 is the same GPU with the full 1920sp's enabled.

For the TDP limit they would just have to clock 6990 down a bit and leave it open to overclocking.

I've not really payed any attention to 6990 but it would explain the daft numbering scheme if it the same GPU.

Phoenixdancer · 29 Dec 2010 at 16:07

mmj_uk said:
Is it known for a fact that 6990 is a dual GPU? 6970 supposedly has 30% more transistors than 5870 which was 1600sp, maybe 6990 is the same GPU with the full 1920sp's enabled.

For the TDP limit they would just have to clock 6990 down a bit and leave it open to overclocking.

I've not really payed any attention to 6990 but it would explain the daft numbering scheme if it the same GPU.

it will be a dual card, they like to have he performance crown... they still have actually lol

Fanatic · 29 Dec 2010 at 18:04

Flashed mine back to a 6950.

Ran the Heaven benchmark with the 6970 BIOS but clocks down at 6950 still, and temps were higher, over 90, and there were artifacts, even in the word "Benchmarking...". I guess at 6970 clocks would have been even worse.

And at the end of that the FPS was just the same as the 6950.

Overlocked the 6950 using Catalyst, few extra FPS, no artifacts, and temps were lower.

All with the power setting at +20%

el Kuarlos · 29 Dec 2010 at 18:29

we need a wall of text from DM followed by a summery by someone the rest of can understand to shed some light on this

AHAHAHAHAHA!!! Genuis!

Getting my 6950 tomo cant wait to have a play about.

gareth170 · 29 Dec 2010 at 19:29

does anyone know if the VRM's on the 6950 are the same on the 6970?

what i'm wondering is we are flashing these card to 6970 but surely that put more stress on the vrm's which mean the vrm's be running much hotter.

Seany84 · 29 Dec 2010 at 19:37

I'm looking at buying the 2x 6950's on the overclockers main site. Could anyone tell me if my ThermalTake 750W PSU would handle these bad boys?

Specs:
Q6600 @3.00
8GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
2x Raptors RAID0
3x WD SATA @ 7200RPM

Which model would yous suggest?

Thanks

nbkpsycho · 29 Dec 2010 at 20:48

Just sold two 5870's. Going to be goin 6950 crossfire(6970). Im only buying one card atm. Which 6950 should i go for to have the best chances of flashing it or doesnt it matter?

Phinor · 29 Dec 2010 at 20:49

I'm such an idiot when it come to new hardware but I just ordered a 6950 with a flash in mind. So off to sell my 6870 then.. it served me very well, for whole two months. And I don't really need the GPU power for anything either

Sayso · 29 Dec 2010 at 20:50

*warning*

Have been getting some driver crashes with the flashed card today when trying to play Fallout vegas, have been playing BC2 happily though.

Due to crashes and increased temps have flashed back to 6950 bios until i have the card underwater and new drivers are out.

CSA · 29 Dec 2010 at 21:04

which bios are ppl recommending atm ?

opethdisciple · 29 Dec 2010 at 21:25

Sayso said:
Have been getting some driver crashes with the flashed card today when trying to play Fallout vegas, have been playing BC2 happily though.

Due to crashes and increased temps have flashed back to 6950 bios until i have the card underwater and new drivers are out.

Dont use New Vegas to test stability!

That game just loves to crash.....

Sayso · 29 Dec 2010 at 21:39

opethdisciple said:
Dont use New Vegas to test stability!

That game just loves to crash.....

Was getting lock ups in windows...and im in the mood to shoot people (in game of course

) so have reverted until i have time for further testing, the bios loading is so easy and quick its all good.

What i really want is a custom bios that unlocks the extra shaders but keeps 6950 clocks, im sure it will be along soon.

gareth170 · 29 Dec 2010 at 23:01

Sayso said:
What i really want is a custom bios that unlocks the extra shaders but keeps 6950 clocks, im sure it will be along soon.

but it could be the extra shaders that are faulty on yours.

if it freezes in windows it can't be the clocks because they idle at 250/150 in windows.