x-fire HD 6950 Bios flash

[Wazz-1]

I have a HIS 6950 IceQX 2GB and a HIS 6950 IceQX Plus 2GB, the IceQX Plus on its own will clock to 950/1425 and idles @ 400Mhz, the IceQX will only clock to 850/1375 and idles @ 200Mhz on its own, in x-fire both cards are clocked to 840/1375 any more and BSOD, both idle same as above.
Would it help flashing the bios so both are the same as the higher clocking card?
If not i am happy with the 840/1375 as it eats everything a play, but would it be worth flashing the other way so both cards idle the same?
Hope i've made sense

 

[pgi947]

Have you tried a voltage bump on the IceQX? 850/1375 is pretty disappointing, thats only 10mhz or so over CCC limits.

 

[Wazz-1]

Yup 1.2v still no joy, the IceQX Plus hits 950 core on 1.172, just wondered if a bios flash would help or is it all down to the chip?

 

[pgi947]

I would say its down to the chip in that case, have you tried to dial back the memory and just increase the core speed? When I had 6950's I found the memory didn't clock very well at all. Perhaps try them both at something like 890/1300 ?

 

[Wazz-1]

Will try tonight, i might flash the bios anyways see what i get!

 

[Wazz-1]

Well after a bit of messing about i managed to flash both cards to a new bios and now both cards clock to 925MHz/1421MHz stable after a few hours gaming BF3 & Shogun 2, i'm now a very happy bunny

and a quick run in Heaven

 

[shawsy109]

you flashed your 6950 iceq to a 6970? I have a 6950 and was lead to believe that they wont unlock to 6970?

Hmm, what kind of temps are you getting? which method did you use to flash the 6950?

I have the 6950 that has the same cooler as the iceq 6970, is that the one you have? or the other kind?

 

[Davedree]

no the shaders are 1408, they are still 6950's.

Waz thats a nice heaven result. Kind of gets me thinking about getting hold of another 6950 trying to unlock it/just to have a muck around with cf to see if its really as much hassle as people make out.

 

[shawsy109]

no the shaders are 1408, they are still 6950's.

Waz thats a nice heaven result. Kind of gets me thinking about getting hold of another 6950 trying to unlock it/just to have a muck around with cf to see if its really as much hassle as people make out.

ahh i should have spotted that, 1536 is the 6970 shader count.

Im thinking the same for CF fun. be cheaper than buying a 670 or 2 lol. But the CF scare stories put me off.

 

[Wazz-1]

you flashed your 6950 iceq to a 6970? I have a 6950 and was lead to believe that they wont unlock to 6970?
Hmm, what kind of temps are you getting? which method did you use to flash the 6950?

I have the 6950 that has the same cooler as the iceq 6970, is that the one you have? or the other kind?

Nope still a 6950 altho i did flash with a 6970 bios but it kept crashing also no shader unlock so i flashed back to a 6950

Temps are highest running Heaven 70c on the hottest card.

I have both, the iceq x and the iceq x plus with the big cooler. The reason i did the flash was because the iceq x plus would clock to 950/1420 no problem but the iceq x would only clock to 850/1375 any more and it would crash. The idea was to flash the iceq x plus bios on to the iceq x to see if it would help overclocking it but it would not take the bios (subsystem id mismatch) but after a bit of messing about i got another bios from [URL="http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?page=1&architecture=ATI&manufacturer=HIS&model=HD+6950&interface=PCI-E&memSize=2048"http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...D+6950&interface=PCI-E&memSize=2048]Here[/URL]
I flashed both my cards with the command prompt, flashing in windows with winflash i just got the "could not erase rom" error. Loads of info and a full package download on Techpowerup site.

 

[Wazz-1]

no the shaders are 1408, they are still 6950's.

Waz thats a nice heaven result. Kind of gets me thinking about getting hold of another 6950 trying to unlock it/just to have a muck around with cf to see if its really as much hassle as people make out.

This is my first cf setup but all is good, i did notice a bit of micro stutter in BF3 but Vsync( i play 1920/1080 @ 60Hz) seems to sort that out all the other games i play seem fine just really good fps all maxed out, i think its just waiting for drivers/bad drivers and such that gets people annoyed. I just fitted the other card downloaded the caps and it all worked fine, the only messing about was because i wanted both cards to clock the same.

Originally Posted by shawsy109
Im thinking the same for CF fun. be cheaper than buying a 670 or 2 lol.

I got my second card for £100

 

[shawsy109]

I have never flashed a card and the guide doesnt help me much lol, ive read up on it so much and still unsure how to do it. If i could find a 2nd card for cheap id give it a go, if its junk il sell em on and go 670 route.

 

[Wazz-1]

I have never flashed a card and the guide doesnt help me much lol, ive read up on it so much and still unsure how to do it. If i could find a 2nd card for cheap id give it a go, if its junk il sell em on and go 670 route.

Thats how i was a week ago.

 

[shawsy109]

Thats how i was a week ago.

Il have a good read of techpowerup guides and figure it out, i want more from this 6950.

 

[tommybhoy]

But the CF scare stories put me off.

its junk il sell em on and go 670 route.

If your running@1080p...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18386056

On air by the way, at least the top 2 are under water!

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=19041495&posted=1#post19041495

If you drop the memory(it's usually the first to break!), the core will probably go faster.



Do your homework first before you jump into CrossFire/SLI though, it can be frustrating at times if you don't know what your doing or wanting release day performance from titles, although I haven't had any problems to shout about with either.

 

[shawsy109]

If your running@1080p...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18386056

On air by the way, at least the top 2 are under water!

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=19041495&posted=1#post19041495

If you drop the memory(it's usually the first to break!), the core will probably go faster.



Do your homework first before you jump into CrossFire/SLI though, it can be frustrating at times if you don't know what your doing or wanting release day performance from titles, although I haven't had any problems to shout about with either.

Well i now have a new mobo to be able to run xfire/sli

and looking at that result it seems worth my while getting a 2nd 6950 ICEQ, they wont unlock to 6970s, but i wanna flash em to the higher clocked HIS cards but i have no idea how to flash them, ive read techpowerup guides, but im a cmd clown, never used it. and dont fully understand the guides, i need a really noob friendly version to use lol. plus ocuk stopped selling the iceq card i have :/

EDIT - thats a excellent score btw, i got 1070 with 1 card lol, i feel so puny. I want a 2nd card badly. If its not performing il sell em on and go 670 route, but i have to try it dont I? be silly not getting a 2nd 6950 for 200 quid or so and having a go.

 

[tommybhoy]

Easy way to flash is in my dropbox folder:

You flash your card at your own risk!

If you are not confident about doing it, don't flash it!

Preferably, make sure you have a dual bios switch or get loads of andrex sitting nearby!

Get the 'hd6950flash' file from here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yxcuhryb7j9dfxp/J7T3bKR1yg

Everything you need is in that rar file, (I'll leave it in the folder for a few days then it's getting deleted as I'm tired and cba making a new folder).

All you need to do is read the HD6950 Guide.txt for the instructions and also swap out the 'bios.bin' with the bios file you want to use(rename your bios file to the same and overwrite the one in the rar).

Not to be too cheeky, but if you can't flash your bios with those instructions, I would steer well clear of CrossFire.

I wouldn't be buying a £200 6950 myself, either get a cheapish one(Sapphire dual fan here@£150) or look for one second hand and save yourself a small fortune.

 

[shawsy109]

Easy way to flash is in my dropbox folder:

You flash your card at your own risk!

If you are not confident about doing it, don't flash it!

Preferably, make sure you have a dual bios switch or get loads of andrex sitting nearby!

Get the 'hd6950flash' file from here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yxcuhryb7j9dfxp/J7T3bKR1yg

Everything you need is in that rar file, (I'll leave it in the folder for a few days then it's getting deleted as I'm tired and cba making a new folder).

All you need to do is read the HD6950 Guide.txt for the instructions and also swap out the 'bios.bin' with the bios file you want to use(rename your bios file to the same and overwrite the one in the rar).

Not to be too cheeky, but if you can't flash your bios with those instructions, I would steer well clear of CrossFire.

I wouldn't be buying a £200 6950 myself, either get a cheapish one(Sapphire dual fan here@£150) or look for one second hand and save yourself a small fortune.

thanks for that dropbox mate, appreciate it. I do as the guide says up to
"atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" and it says resoucres file missing. Not really sure what do to now.

edit- moved folder to desktop, ran cmd and got the bios to unlock, tried to flash, it got halfway with the new flash, then error popped up, it said something like old bios not deleted? So i quit there before i break something.