Unlock your ATI 6950 to a 6970 Thread

Thallium · 11 Apr 2011 at 20:46

Ye thinking they will go more,they are just a starting point. plus if they are tried and tested it might start other ppl on this forum to grow a pair and try it

MOOGLEYS · 12 Apr 2011 at 22:40

Anyone know why in GTA Episodes I get Green stars flashing all over the screen and texture curruption but in furmark, Heaven and Crysis it is perfectly fine. 6950 shader unlock bios and 6970 clocks.. ?

easyrider · 13 Apr 2011 at 13:13

MOOGLEYS said:
Anyone know why in GTA Episodes I get Green stars flashing all over the screen and texture curruption but in furmark, Heaven and Crysis it is perfectly fine. 6950 shader unlock bios and 6970 clocks.. ?

Just flash it back?

You say in another thread that unlocking the shaders is not worth it?

So why do it?

My benchies show different findings

MOOGLEYS · 13 Apr 2011 at 13:20

easyrider said:
Just flash it back?

You say in another thread that unlocking the shaders is not worth it?

So why do it?

My benchies show different findings

Its not the card everthing else is fine. Its just that one game but thanks for the input.

Your benfits will be from running the card at higher clocks rather than the extra shaders I imagine. I did test with stock clocks shaders unlocked and locked and there was little difference and no noticeable difference in game.
Increasing the clocks made a greater noticeable difference with either locked shaders or unlocked.

It seems other review sites get the same results as me -

So, is it worth the risk? In my opinion, No. Others may see a 1-3fps increase differently.
Like we've seen with the GTX 580 vs GTX 480 and now with the 6950/70, at the same clocks the extra shaders offer minimal performance boost. Once the core and memory clocks are increased, the user will achieve similar 6970 performance with a stock 6950.

There's more than one way to get to 6970 performance with your 6950 and the best way is to simply overclock it. Don't read into 3DMark11 results, in actual gameplay it's all a wash.

Jayster · 13 Apr 2011 at 19:06

MOOGLEYS said:
Its not the card everthing else is fine. Its just that one game but thanks for the input.

Your benfits will be from running the card at higher clocks rather than the extra shaders I imagine. I did test with stock clocks shaders unlocked and locked and there was little difference and no noticeable difference in game.
Increasing the clocks made a greater noticeable difference with either locked shaders or unlocked.

It seems other review sites get the same results as me -

Or unlock and overclock?

Thallium · 14 Apr 2011 at 19:41

How can you tell what revison your card is ?

Jayster · 14 Apr 2011 at 22:52

Thallium said:
How can you tell what revison your card is ?

If you bought it from OCUK and it was revision 1 it would have said in the specs that its revision 1 and unlockable.

Muzza1875 · 15 Apr 2011 at 10:32

Can this card be unlocked?
I have just bought it, but think i might of made a mistake and should have bought the 2gb one.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-028-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Muzza1875 · 15 Apr 2011 at 17:20

anyone?

MOOGLEYS · 15 Apr 2011 at 17:24

Muzza1875 said:
anyone?

Some of the 1gb cards can be unlocked you would need to google the model and see what comes up. I wouldn't worry too much if it cannot unlock as it does not really make much of a difference. You will see more gains by increasing the core and memory clocks..

Muzza1875 · 15 Apr 2011 at 18:13

Thanks for the reply mate, yea i done a few Google searches and couldn't find much about this specific card.I only bought it because it was like 80 pound cheaper then the rest of the 6950's for sale @ overclockers.
No worries tho whats done is done, will just increase the clocks like you said.

Thanks

ViRuS2k · 15 Apr 2011 at 22:57

Got 2x asus 6950 OC 2gb cards arriving tommorow refrence design hope there modifiable

MOOGLEYS · 15 Apr 2011 at 23:00

ViRuS2k said:
Got 2x asus 6950 OC 2gb cards arriving tommorow refrence design hope there modifiable

My Asus did but the xfx one I got did not...

Thallium · 16 Apr 2011 at 11:08

Right went and got the 2 6950s yesterday, Didnt get the Asus ones they were ver 1.1 and above so i picked up two XFX cards.

Got them home run a test @ stock all was well, then the fun started

no matter what i did i couldnt get them stable with the sapphire bios so thought it was the cards.What i did was just unlock the shaders that was fine and would over clock past stock 6970 settings.
Anyway long story short 7 bios flash later i have found a rock solid bios from XFX

So if anyone is having problems try this
XFX bios

Muzza1875 · 16 Apr 2011 at 12:45

Thallium said:
Right went and got the 2 6950s yesterday, Didnt get the Asus ones they were ver 1.1 and above so i picked up two XFX cards.

Got them home run a test @ stock all was well, then the fun started no matter what i did i couldnt get them stable with the sapphire bios so thought it was the cards.What i did was just unlock the shaders that was fine and would over clock past stock 6970 settings.
Anyway long story short 7 bios flash later i have found a rock solid bios from XFX

So if anyone is having problems try this
XFX bios

Thanks for the link, will use this if i run into trouble when mine arrives on monday

Thallium · 16 Apr 2011 at 13:19

Update:
Just done a 4 hour stability test (my Son on Crysis2 and Heaven on a loop) Fans set to 65% Hot as hell in our house and temps are 53c/54c.

Thanks AMD for saving me £££s

The only thing is i still dont get very good FPS, anything from 35FPS to 50FPS @5760x1080 Think thats on Gamer settings.

ViRuS2k · 16 Apr 2011 at 21:35

Success.

-----------------------------------------------

Though dam these cards are HOT.
and it doesn't help when there is like 3mm of space between the things how the hell is air ment to get into them, how could ATI release cards with no holes in the back like they did for the 5970 to get air...

apart from that these cards in XF are wicked sick pieces of hardware.
FAST AS HELL

even though the flashes went perfect and no errors in the games i have tryed

CRYSIS WARHEAD
CRYSIS II
DRAGONS AGE ORIGINS II
COD4

im wishing that i just flashed my original bios, i have been hearing of nightmares about people frying there memory cause the 6970 cards are ment to have tighter timings and more voltage and better memory chips, could be a problem though i dont want to take the risk should i flash back to shader unlocked versions only ?

Number_25 · 18 Apr 2011 at 12:50

Even a thicko like me can do it xD

Muzza1875 · 19 Apr 2011 at 21:42

I'm an idiot, i am the biggest noob in NATO!
I bought a non referenced card and assumed it still had the switch to flick if anything goes wrong.I never checked!
So i jumped straight into flashing it without doing any research and followed the guide on tech power.It all went Pete tong and after waiting in front of a black screen for 10 mins i reset my PC which i know was really stupid and should have waited.
I then got blue screen before i got the chance to boot into windows.I then booted into safe mode and uninstalled drivers.I then restarted and managed to boot into windows with on board graphics i then re flashed with the backup of original bios i saved just before.
Please guys before you flash check where your switch is and make a backup, i very nearly chucked 200 pound down the drain.

postmanfw · 19 Apr 2011 at 22:16

ViRuS2k said:
Though dam these cards are HOT.

My top one runs about 12c hotter due to lack of air

Was more but i wedged the cards apart slightly and you could here the fan noise change and the flow increase out the rear

58c is fine though plenty of overclocking headroom...though i notice your cards were running very hard during that shot?

edit: just noticed fan speed...80%? ouch!! I keep mine at 39%