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Unlock your ATI 6950 to a 6970 Thread

Jamous said:
Hmm, been reading around and there's stories of flashed 6950's failing, not sure if its just the "normal" amount of faulty cards or if its just due to the flashing. Story goes that its the memory at fault, doesn't like the voltage and clocks.
Now my Powercolor card flashed to Powercolor 6970 has been running fine, no probs at all, but in light of this I've "downgraded" to the 6950 bios with unlocked shaders and will see how that performs until more info comes out on the failing flashed 6950's

Edit- is there a way to reduce the memory speed when using the 6970 bios? CCC has a min of std 6970 @ 1375Mhz.
Click to expand...

Yes, use AfterBurner and you can reduce the memory further but I'd advise strongly about using the 6970 BIOS.

I think it's the memory timings that is causing this as there is a difference between the memory on the 6950 and 6970. That's why most people are just using the 6950 BIOS and unlocking the shaders. I'd advise anyone to not use the 6970 BIOS and if they do so they do it at their own risk.

My memory didn't like the 6970 BIOS and as soon as I seen artifacts I went straight back to the 6950 BIOS and will never use it again. I'm just glad I was cautious.

gareth170 said:
maybe psu?
Click to expand...

It turned out to be really bad overclocking memory mate :(. First I've seen that's not been able to hit 1375 with the 6950 BIOS.
 
Thanks for that, I'm now running an unlocked version of my own cards 6950 bios now. I was thinking of running the 6970 bios and downclocking the memory to 6950 speed, but that'll still leave the 6970 voltage applied.
So the thing to do I guess is to leave the 6950 bios with the lower voltage (1.1?) and leave the memory at stock 1250 MHz and clock the core to hopefully 6970 speeds?

I also notice it downclocks to 450MHZ @1.00v but memory still stays at 1250MHz. IIRC I'm sure the memory downclocked too when I had the 6970 bios in place. I also though it went much lower than that too, down to 250MHz iirc. Thoughts?
 
I wonder if it's possible to modify the 6950 bios to unlock the shaders and run 6970 timings? Would be the best of both worlds.
 
Jamous said:
Thanks for that, I'm now running an unlocked version of my own cards 6950 bios now. I was thinking of running the 6970 bios and downclocking the memory to 6950 speed, but that'll still leave the 6970 voltage applied.
So the thing to do I guess is to leave the 6950 bios with the lower voltage (1.1?) and leave the memory at stock 1250 MHz and clock the core to hopefully 6970 speeds?

I also notice it downclocks to 450MHZ @1.00v but memory still stays at 1250MHz. IIRC I'm sure the memory downclocked too when I had the 6970 bios in place. I also though it went much lower than that too, down to 250MHz iirc. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

That could be because of two things: a) You have 2 screens running, or b) you are forcing voltage through Afterburner.

If it's to do with the two screens then I'm not sure if there is a fix for that. I only use one screen.

If it's Afterburner then you need to uncheck "force constant voltage" and then restart MSI Afterburner. Now you should uninstall your drivers and then install them again, possibly just installing the set over the old set would be fine but I usually go with a clean install. It's up to you if this is your problem.

You can volt it to 1.175v over the 1.100v which should give you a higher clock although it's not guaranteed as I've just found recently. The majority do clock well though :).

Do a bit of reading through the threads if you want to push a bit further and post back if you need any help.

mglover070588 said:
Anyone with an unlocked bios with upped voltages yet - Using RBE 1.27?

I haven't used RBE as I am (shamefully) worried about doing something wrong :p.
Click to expand...

Yes. From 1.100v stock BIOS to 1.175 unlocked stock BIOS and up to 1.225 (1000Mhz core) all in RBE.

mglover070588 said:
It is an unlocked 6950 bios (my HIS 6950 once had green lines on screen when using +20% on the 6970 bios).

I am using afterburner but I would rather a volt-modded bios than using software :).
Click to expand...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18288158&postcount=4

Follow this post here and see if this helps you. I was showing someone how to surpass 1.175v for their true 6970 as they wanted to try and overclock further.

One thing before you try it though!!!. Where I say to look for 1175 in the "GPU Registers", look for 1100 instead and change this value to 1175 or whatever voltage you want to apply. I have a HIS card also so the screenshots in my post link is the same card as yours and the same "vid3" will be the one to change for your voltage.

(Warning, changing anything else like clock speeds or fan profiles will end up in the BIOS you save, booting with a black screen but this is recoverable easily)
 
Hey J.D could you help me as well? I unlocked the bios and have the higher amount of shaders - 1536, how do you get it so afterburner lets you overclock it? At the moment it only lets me go up to 840 and the voltage is blanked out. Have I missed something?

Thanks
 
J.D said:
That could be because of two things: a) You have 2 screens running, or b) you are forcing voltage through Afterburner.

If it's to do with the two screens then I'm not sure if there is a fix for that. I only use one screen.

If it's Afterburner then you need to uncheck "force constant voltage" and then restart MSI Afterburner. Now you should uninstall your drivers and then install them again, possibly just installing the set over the old set would be fine but I usually go with a clean install. It's up to you if this is your problem.

You can volt it to 1.175v over the 1.100v which should give you a higher clock although it's not guaranteed as I've just found recently. The majority do clock well though :).

Do a bit of reading through the threads if you want to push a bit further and post back if you need any help.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, I've learned a lot from thread like this one here.
I'm running 1 screen at 1920 x 1200 ( though it is also connected via HDMI to my AV amp) and only have CCC installed, no Afterburner, trixx or rbe etc installed
Basically I'm on the modded original 690 bios adn I'd like to see it running at 6970 speeds, maybe not memory thoguh for longevity of the card.
I'm wondering if upgrading from my 5870 was a wise choice or not lol.
 
Last edited:
J.D said:
(Warning, changing anything else like clock speeds or fan profiles will end up in the BIOS you save, booting with a black screen but this is recoverable easily)
Click to expand...

So you cannot even change clock speeds in RBE?

I was hoping to get rid of AB at some point and modify my BIOS with my overclock.

Is there a reason why nothing except Registers works? Is there a fix being worked on?
 
I flashed mine again (HIS 2GB), changed to an ASUS BIOS with unlocked shaders, and then installed Smart Doctor to increase Overdrive limits. Once you have removed the limit you can remove Smart Doctor. Currently running at 900/1300 on stock voltage.

Few extra FPS in most games and I haven't noticed any increase in temperature or fan noise. Games are a bit smoother, though that might just be me imagining they are :). The campaign map in Napoleon definitely moves better.

Haven't tried to go any higher than 900 yet on the overclocks.
 
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