Unlock your ATI 6950 to a 6970 Thread

pingu666 · 23 Sep 2011 at 08:05

been playing around with my card abit, and i *think* ive got a 6950 with unlocked shaders bios on at the moment.

Its watercooled and the temp goes up to about 49c on the gpu under load

962core seemed ok but has now gone abit iffy after i tried uping the rams speed to 1404.

oddly even though ive put the voltage up to 1300mv in afterburner, it seems to max out at 1.175? in the graph, and in kombustor where it gives it as vddc or whatever

I set the power thing to +20% too

would it be worth me swapping bioses ?

Slackjaw190 · 1 Oct 2011 at 01:24

Bradmax57 said:
you never know you might be lucky.......

Well I think I am.

All I have done is changed the bios switch to position 2 and booted and hey presto, 1536 shaders

. Good old Sapphire have done me proud again.....

Before

After

Think I was lucky and had a Cayman chip instead of the Antilles. Ive heard that only 30% of the card I have (sapphire 6950 dual fan) unlock.

Right time to Oc to 6970 speeds

and then to see what I can do with the cpu.

JamesM · 2 Oct 2011 at 16:34

How did you do it?

I also have a dual fan Sapphire and it just doesn't seem to want to flash.

KNiVES · 2 Oct 2011 at 16:41

JamesM said:
How did you do it?

I also have a dual fan Sapphire and it just doesn't seem to want to flash.

It has to be the TOXIC edition I think.

JamesM · 2 Oct 2011 at 16:43

oh well

fowler002 · 2 Oct 2011 at 16:45

Slackjaw190 said:
Well I think I am.

All I have done is changed the bios switch to position 2 and booted and hey presto, 1536 shaders . Good old Sapphire have done me proud again.....

Think I was lucky and had a Cayman chip instead of the Antilles. Ive heard that only 30% of the card I have (sapphire 6950 dual fan) unlock.

Right time to Oc to 6970 speeds and then to see what I can do with the cpu.

the only one that unlocks by flicking the switch and no flashing of the bios is the sapphire toxic.

old gamer · 2 Oct 2011 at 17:01

I think the powercolor pcs+ also does

KNiVES · 2 Oct 2011 at 19:01

One thing I do have to wonder, if 6950>6970s are virtually identical in performance to 6970s, then how come they run just fine on 2x6-pin connectors when actual 6970s require 1x8 and 1x6-pin connectors?

Lum · 2 Oct 2011 at 19:06

If you want to build reliable equipment, it's common to overspec things like power supplies and other components, to take into account manufacturing variances since no two components are truly identical.

For example if you designed a board that was right on the limit of the capabilities of it's components you'd see a 50% failure rate (possibly more!) as some of those components would be slightly under performing and would cause problems.

It's more cost effective to go for higher spec components than you need than to throw away 50% of your boards.

Slackjaw190 · 3 Oct 2011 at 19:40

fowler002 said:
the only one that unlocks by flicking the switch and no flashing of the bios is the sapphire toxic.

No I have the dual fan version (nice and quiet).

While the toxic is almost guaranteed to unlock by swtiching the bios only a small percentage of the dual fan cards are. Guess I got lucky. All I did was flick the switch, I didnt flash any bios. However there is a youtube video of someone claiming to flash their dual fan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIV_gQEWqPs also there's this guide for unlocking dual fan versions http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151456&highlight=SAPPHIRE+100312-3SR+Radeon

A quick question though, when I upped he clocks to 6970 speed (880/1375) using Sapphire Trixx the card passed Heaven, 3D mark benchmarks and half and hour of Furmark no probs. However it kept on locking up in games. Is this the norm? I've upped the voltage slightly to 1.11 and all seems fine.....

Lynx · 9 Oct 2011 at 14:50

Hmm seems like from what I'm reading I've missed out. I was interested in doing this when I first heard about it but I've been waiting to build my new system until BF3 release gets closer.

Was looking at flashing a MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III. Do the cards have some sort of serial number on them so you have a better idea if they're older models that can be flashed, rather than the newer ones that can't?

witpig · 10 Oct 2011 at 17:35

Trixx or Powertune?

Hi, sorry to hijack your thread but my question is pretty closely related to what you are discussing so thought I'd give it a go.

Can you just use Sapphire's Trixx utility to overclock or do you need to use it in conjunction with powertune?

I'm running an overclocked Sapphire HD6950 Toxic edition which has the nifty little bios switch flicked so I now have the 1536 shaders. I am currently running along quite happily at 950MHz GPU clock, 1390MHz memory clock with voltage increased to 1.25v

I'm only asking because even though all is well I keep reading about how you need to use powertune to compensate for the error-correction that will stop you obtaining peak performance and can cause games to misbehave. I originally used powertune along with Trixx, but on each Windows startup powertune would reset the memory clock back to zero.

Surely if it is overclocked it is overclocked no matter what method is used? (Yes I'm completely new to this!)

Advice appreciated

Heffer23 · 10 Oct 2011 at 19:55

Lynx said:
Was looking at flashing a MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III. Do the cards have some sort of serial number on them so you have a better idea if they're older models that can be flashed, rather than the newer ones that can't?

Hi,
Can someone answer this one... I also am looking at this card & would love to know if its flashable (sounds weird.... & made up - the word flashable not the OP)

Cheers in advance if someone can answer

hedgey · 10 Oct 2011 at 20:03

the toxic is even more expensive than a 6970. ergo just buy a 6970.

blackice8r · 10 Oct 2011 at 22:00

guys...quick question

would this card: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-274-SP

overclock to 6970?

I found the same card, on a competitor sire, with 220£ , "Toxic" and the manufacture's part nr is the same, same specs in the description, AND it comes with Deus Ex

so if you could answer my question it would be great...I know this won't be 100%, but it seems to have high chances with the Toxic version...and at 220£ it's a steal.

or, would this one overclock? : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-128-MS&tool=3

Some ppl in the reviews say yes, but which one are higher chances of overclocking? The Toxic?

Lynx · 10 Oct 2011 at 22:30

Heffer23 said:
Hi,
Can someone answer this one... I also am looking at this card & would love to know if its flashable (sounds weird.... & made up - the word flashable not the OP)

Cheers in advance if someone can answer

Yes I can assure you I'm not made up, at least I think I'm real

But yeah I'd still like to know about the potential serial no. identification and such.

@blackice8 I think most people say pretty much the Sapphire TOXIC ed is the only card that has any chance of being able to be flashed to a 6970, unless you're lucky and get a really old build of the other card.

With the TOXIC as it already has it installed as a dual BIOS, its just a case of flicking a switch on the card if I'm not mistaken? Its not always guaranteed to work though.

Slackjaw190 · 10 Oct 2011 at 22:43

From what I understand the Toxic Version should unlock to 6970 just by flicking the bios switch.

With the MSI 6950 OC Twin FrozR III so do, some dont. It is down to luck. It looks like it has a bios switch but I think you have to flash it yourself unlike the Toxic. Little harm in trying however if it has a bios switch

hedgey · 10 Oct 2011 at 23:14

Decided I want a 6950. Which to get?

Heffer23 · 11 Oct 2011 at 00:03

I was going to get the R6970 lightning, now I'm confused too...
MSi Frozr 2gb 6950 looks humazin & so much cheaper

What do I do???

delpy8 · 12 Oct 2011 at 18:55

Hi forum

Anyone know if I could still buy a 6950 that will unlock to a 6970 or am I too late

Cheers