Unlock your ATI 6950 to a 6970 Thread

[J.D]

Oh sorry I got confused, I thought the thing overclocks it also to +20%. So If I just unlock shaders, I'm not increasing voltages or anything? And unlocking shaders will giv eme a significant performance increase?

You would get an increase but it's better to use a little extra voltage for to push it a little higher. It's easy using MSI AfterBurner and also in RadeonBiosEditor (RBE).

Start at the beginning of the thread and read through it so you have an understanding of what's going on, risks, rewards and the history. It's really easy to do though and I have never flashed my GPU BIOS before I flashed my 6950. So after you've unlocked your shaders (if you choose to do so that is), then upping the voltage so it matches the 6970 at least for more overclocking headroom is a must as you'd hit a wall with 6950 voltages before the 6970. I use RBE to set my voltages but have also used MSI AfterBurner. I just prefer using RBE. Each to their own .

As I said though, do a lot of reading first. It makes the flash easy as you see people's mistakes and then it makes it less likely for you to do so. Plus it will answer a lot of questions you may have regarding safe voltages, safe temps, pros and cons. It should all be in here.

After you know the basics and then run into a problem that you can't find an answer for in this thread, either post in here or make a thread and we'll help you out.

 

[ElliottJames]

You would get an increase but it's better to use a little extra voltage for to push it a little higher. It's easy using MSI AfterBurner and also in RadeonBiosEditor (RBE).

Start at the beginning of the thread and read through it so you have an understanding of what's going on, risks, rewards and the history. It's really easy to do though and I have never flashed my GPU BIOS before I flashed my 6950. So after you've unlocked your shaders (if you choose to do so that is), then upping the voltage so it matches the 6970 at least for more overclocking headroom is a must as you'd hit a wall with 6950 voltages before the 6970. I use RBE to set my voltages but have also used MSI AfterBurner. I just prefer using RBE. Each to their own .

As I said though, do a lot of reading first. It makes the flash easy as you see people's mistakes and then it makes it less likely for you to do so. Plus it will answer a lot of questions you may have regarding safe voltages, safe temps, pros and cons. It should all be in here.

After you know the basics and then run into a problem that you can't find an answer for in this thread, either post in here or make a thread and we'll help you out.

Hey J.D thanks again.

So from what I understand I have two options to improve performance on the card I'm getting, Dual fan Sapphire one

Unlock shaders - can be done with a simple slide

Then from what I understand IF I want to OC the card to the 6970 speeds, so 880mhz 1375 ect, I need to change the voltage also?

But lets say I only want to unlock shaders, I don't need to mess with voltage? (read it on a forum I'm on now so hopefully i'm right)

 

[J.D]

Hey J.D thanks again.

So from what I understand I have two options to improve performance on the card I'm getting, Dual fan Sapphire one

Unlock shaders - can be done with a simple slide

Then from what I understand IF I want to OC the card to the 6970 speeds, so 880mhz 1375 ect, I need to change the voltage also?

But lets say I only want to unlock shaders, I don't need to mess with voltage? (read it on a forum I'm on now so hopefully i'm right)

If you don't want to overclock and just have the unlocked shaders then it should be perfect to switch it and go. I don't know if in turn that gives you the 6970 voltage but presumably so if it's done on Sapphire's side. That would mean you could push it further than 880/1375 if you desired to do so. I think the card would be fine even on stock 6950 volts to hit 880/1375 but if not, you can get around that.

In short, "Yer sorted"

 

[ElliottJames]

Thanks mate, I might OC it to 6970 speeds but not sure, I think I should be fine as it has 2 profiles incase one goes wrong

 

[J.D]

Thanks mate, I might OC it to 6970 speeds but not sure, I think I should be fine as it has 2 profiles incase one goes wrong

Most welcome mate. I can't guarantee it will hit 880/1375 on stock 6950 volts. Just on average it has, so in turn you have a greater chance but for adding a little volts from 1.1 to 1.175/1.2v it should hit 880-960Mhz on the core, again, it could turn out to be a lemon of a card and make me out to be clueless but I hope not.

I had never flashed a GPU before I done this 6950 and I followed it pretty easily and unlocked it, then learned about the card and the software people were using. It then all seemed pretty straight forward. Kinda sad as I like fiddling with my toys . So don't worry about overclocking, that's simple .

When is your card arriving?.

 

[ElliottJames]

Arrives tomorrow mate. All will be fitted by wed.

I'm moving from a nvidia card sO what should I do before I turn of the pc remove current gpu and put in the ati one, like remove all nvidia drivers? Turn off install new put bios switch to 2? Then boot up install drivers them I'm set to go? Should I boot up and install drivers first then turn of and unlock shaders or does it not matter?

 

[J.D]

Oh nice. I hope you've got some good games ready amigo?.

Yes just remove all instances of Nvidia as long as you've not got anything else relying on Nvidia software in your system. I use Driver Sweeper 1.0 for these things and while I've never had one problem using this software, others have, so I'll warn you for their problems .

If I were you I'd boot with how it arrives and install it. Run GPU-z to make sure it's at 1408 shaders, run a few benchmarks (Heaven 3dMark etc) then power down your machine, flick the switch, install the drivers again lol and then check GPUz again and run the benchmarks. Also if you've got the patience you can bench at 800Mhz with 1408 and 1536 Shaders and also at 880Mhz with 1408/1536 shaders. Just so you can see for yourself the difference. Also try some games. This is only if you're interested. I sat for hours fiddling .

You could just flick the switch the first boot but where is the fun in that?.

 

[ElliottJames]

Okay mate thanks again

So I'll driver sweep demolish nvidia drivers
Install gpu
Boot on
Install drivers
Check CPU z and do benchmarks
Boot down
Bios 2 unlock shaders
Check benchmarks
Be happy
Then use frizz to change 880mhz/1375 and test on games for stability
Hopefully won't need to modify voltage for them speeds as I heard Rhys what kills the card

 

[J.D]

Okay mate thanks again

So I'll driver sweep demolish nvidia drivers
Install gpu
Boot on
Install drivers
Check CPU z and do benchmarks
Boot down
Bios 2 unlock shaders
Check benchmarks
Be happy
Then use frizz to change 880mhz/1375 and test on games for stability
Hopefully won't need to modify voltage for them speeds as I heard Rhys what kills the card

Do it any way that suits you best mate as what I did was fairly time consuming, I'm just listing what I done but remember I didn't have the dual BIOS switch but I'm glad I didn't for the fun of learning. But the removal of the Nvidia drivers is a must.

You could always test using games which means you get to have some fun at the same time .

I've been running at 1.2 or 1.225v a few weeks short of a year and I game at 900-950Mhz game dependant, Memory from 1400-1500Mhz. Overclocking life expectancy is usually exaggerated IMO. An X2 3800 I had @ 2.8Ghz, well I bought it from an American and that lasted me nearly 2 years. I then gave it to my mother for 2 years (still overclocked). I then went and bought an i3 system in January and used it for 3 months, bought an i7 and gave my mum the i3 setup. That X2 is still purring away happily in a friends machine as his PC died so I donated my mum's old bits to get him going again. That's just one example, I've never had anything die on me due to overclocking, I've lost a motherboard and 1 stick of RAM before I bought a surge protector but that was just a painful lesson as it was my washing machine partly blowing up that started the chain reaction. So yeah, the overclocking and life expectancy horror stories doesn't really reflect on my own experience. Heck, I've still got working 3700+ San Diego CPU's that I used to overclock before the X2 3800 .

Just stay safe and dont push what others deem as safe when it comes to voltages (don't go over 1.3v but recommend 1.175v or 1.2v if you do). As I said, just read a lot before your card comes. It'll help familiarize you to your new toy.

 

[ElliottJames]

2second job

 

[J.D]

2second job

Haha nice one mate. Have you tried any games yet and what do you think of the card so far?.

 

[ElliottJames]

Its amazing yeah handling SWTOR maxed settings @ 80-130fps

Other games like COD4 maxed out 250 fps

I've got it in the wrong PCI-E slot at the mo @ PCI-1.1 x4 as you can see from the screeny

Apparently that is affecting my performance a lot, the guy's coming to change it to the top slot tomorrow, will it increase performance significantly?

 

[J.D]

Its amazing yeah handling SWTOR maxed settings @ 80-130fps

Other games like COD4 maxed out 250 fps

I've got it in the wrong PCI-E slot at the mo @ PCI-1.1 x4 as you can see from the screeny

Apparently that is affecting my performance a lot, the guy's coming to change it to the top slot tomorrow, will it increase performance significantly?

I'm really happy for you mate .

Well as you're really enjoying your card then you won't feel it but it would help a little if your card was was pushing to it's max potential and needed that little boost. So don't worry about the performance gain.

You could save the guy the need to travel for to change the card as it's quick to do. If you can't do it yourself, isn't there a friend/relative close to you that could do it with your guidance?.

 

[ElliottJames]

Unfortunately mate there's no-one in my family intellectually good with computers. Only paying him £5 to do it and his like a 2minute walk down the road. Now I'm considering two things;

Buying a new mobo to support better speeds - £70-90
Buying a 800-900 PSU to support an extra card - £80 limit
Buying a new Sapphire 6950 2gb (Same SKU model) So I can just unlock shaders within seconds

Or on the last part, buy a second hand one for around £130-150 then going crossfire

How easy is crossfire to setup? As I heard crossfire is eating anything now with the new drivers

 

[ElliottJames]

 

[cobrax]

JUst gave my 6950 2GB GDDR5 Dirt3 Edition a shot at Flashing. Had to use the command promped workaround to get it to flash. But after a flash, it will not boot.
Ive heard somewere that this card has problems with flashing? Is that right? Is there a workaround or another BIOS that can be used?

 

[ElliottJames]

Cobrax what's the SKU code? Im sure yours is the same of mine with the bios switch.

 

[cobrax]

SKU #11188 - 05

is that like a batch number or something?

Also ive noticed that after the flash a window popped up with a report of some tipe, and it sayed that my old Device ID was 1002 - 6719, and the new Device ID is 1002 - 6718. But every screen shot ive seen people posting are all 1002 - 6719.

 

[ElliottJames]

Is it the SKU 11188-05-20g? or 50g

 

[cobrax]

Checked on box and it sais its a 50G