Poll: ALL 6950 and 6970 Owners, What's the current status of your card?

[badb0y]

I have my BIOS modded with 6970, I will wait to see results before I change my bios to just unlocked shaders.

[dom99]

Hmm the stats look like there is only 1/14 cards with 6970 bios problems. I am going to wait and see what happens then I might change from the 6950 unlocked bios to the 6970.

[wmblalock]

Originally Posted by dom99

Hmm the stats look like there is only 1/14 cards with 6970 bios problems. I am going to wait and see what happens then I might change from the 6950 unlocked bios to the 6970.

That's true, but if you look over at my original poll here, you will see 12 6950 cards that WERE killed by the 6970 bios. Why they haven't voted here, I'm not sure, maybe they just didn't feel like voting again since they already did there.

techPowerUp! Forums - View Poll Results

So between the polls thats 26 cards and 13 have died, that's 50% failure.. I wouldn't risk it when you can do the same exact thing with the 6950 modded bios and then use Afterburner to up the voltage and clock speeds while leaving the correct memory voltage and timings.

[LAN_deRf_HA]

This needs significantly more votes before we go throwing around failure rate figures.

[wmblalock]

Originally Posted by LAN_deRf_HA

This needs significantly more votes before we go throwing around failure rate figures.

That is true, I was just throwing out there the results we have so far and by no means say that they are official or indicative of all 6900 owners. So far this poll makes it looks like only one card has had problems when in fact there are 12 more at least reported on the previous poll.

[manofthem]

So for those who had permanent damage or a fried card, how long did it take from the time of flashing to when the problems arose?

And I wonder if any brands were worse than others or more likely to have a problem. That would make for a good poll.

[f0d]

Originally Posted by wmblalock

That's true, but if you look over at my original poll here, you will see 12 6950 cards that WERE killed by the 6970 bios. Why they haven't voted here, I'm not sure, maybe they just didn't feel like voting again since they already did there.

techPowerUp! Forums - View Poll Results

So between the polls thats 26 cards and 13 have died, that's 50% failure.. I wouldn't risk it when you can do the same exact thing with the 6950 modded bios and then use Afterburner to up the voltage and clock speeds while leaving the correct memory voltage and timings.

mine was one of those "killed card" votes from the other poll and i changed it this time to "My 6950 flashed with a 6970 bios has no problems after 1 week" because what i thought was a busted card was nothing else but driver/game engine bugs
there was a few other people that had the same problem of thinking their card was dead but it was just driver/game engine bugs

[horik]

Originally Posted by f0d

mine was one of those "killed card" votes from the other poll and i changed it this time to "My 6950 flashed with a 6970 bios has no problems after 1 week" because what i thought was a busted card was nothing else but driver/game engine bugs
there was a few other people that had the same problem of thinking their card was dead but it was just driver/game engine bugs

I think "killed card" means a card that shows no signal at all.

[badb0y]

CHeck my post below.

[Gijs007]

Sapphire 6950 flashed to 6970 system was running 2 weeks just fine, had a lan party the first week.
did see small ammount of artifacts but this was prob cause I was overclocking my card above its limits.
however im now using a stock 6950 bios with unlocked shaders, just to be sure.
im going to edit it in RBE and see if I can get 6970 stock speeds, except for the voltage and timings.

[wmblalock]

Originally Posted by horik

I think "killed card" means a card that shows no signal at all.

"killed card", "defective card", "artifacting card", "card with errors", "damaged card", whatever you want to call it, its all the same really, just a card that isn't working properly.

[f0d]

Originally Posted by wmblalock

"killed card", "defective card", "artifacting card", "card with errors", "damaged card", whatever you want to call it, its all the same really, just a card that isn't working properly.

yep its all the same imo
my 6969 (is that what we should call the 6950 with a 6970 bios?!?) is still going without a problem if i ignore all the driver bugs

[Wijkert]

Originally Posted by wmblalock

So far this poll makes it looks like only one card has had problems when in fact there are 12 more at least reported on the previous poll.

I think a lot of people including myself voted for the 'permanent damage' option, because they thought there card was damaged. They were just seeing the effects of rather crapy drivers/software(game and benchmarks). This time around they changed their votes to a more fitting option.

[wmblalock]

Originally Posted by Wijkert

I think a lot of people including myself voted for the 'permanent damage' option, because they thought there card was damaged. They were just seeing the effects of rather crapy drivers/software(game and benchmarks). This time around they changed their votes to a more fitting option.

That is possible.

[Holyfire]

Checked - My 6950 flashed with a 6970 bios has no problems after 3 weeks
But after reading thread about Damaged cards reflashed my card with shader unlock only.
I have HIS card - before it was flashed with 6970 ASUS bios (no problems at 890/1375).

[ale86cuba]

Originally Posted by wmblalock

There are two options

1. Flash the 6970 bios to your 6950 card which unlocks the extra shaders, ups the default clock speeds and clock speed limits, ups the core voltage, and theoretically changes the memory timings and voltage to that of a 6970. Some have problems and many argue this is bad because the 6950 uses a lesser speed/quality memory that cannot hold up over time when put under the voltage/timings/speed of the 6970 bios.

2. Modify your 6950 bios, or flash a modified 6950 bios where everything in the bios is stock 6950 EXCEPT for unlocking the extra shaders. This is the safest because you retain 6950 voltages, mem timings, speeds, etc.

Can you direct me to where I can do option 2? Because Ive already done 1 but I rather go the safer way now that I see some ppl are having problems. I did it about two to three weeks ago and played for a bit(maybe 10hrs total) no problems. However the pc has been running everyday for regular pc use. Thanks.

[wmblalock]

Originally Posted by ale86cuba

Can you direct me to where I can do option 2? Because Ive already done 1 but I rather go the safer way now that I see some ppl are having problems. I did it about two to three weeks ago and played for a bit(maybe 10hrs total) no problems. However the pc has been running everyday for regular pc use. Thanks.

Check out my post here: How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

[PopcornMachine]

I have tried both 6970 and 6950 unlocked bios on my HD 6950 and not had any problems.

I bought mine the night they came out because I had been waiting a long time for the right deal, and determined the 6950 was it. More powerful than a 5850 and 2GB of ram were the main selling points.

Another intriguing feature was the backup bios, but it was not until the 6970 flashing was discovered that I thought about using it. Can't say for sure I would have tried it if not for that.

Still realized I was taking a risk, though. And fortunately it worked fine. To tell the truth though, I prefer it as a 6950. It runs cooler and quieter that way, and is powerful enough for my current needs. Nice to have for benchmarking though.

Anyway, I paid for a 6950 and I am very happy with my purchase.

[smakked]

NO issue at all , i have flashed 12 cards so far for mates all powercolors and all working fine no issues at all

[yogurt_21]

poll shows 3 failures out of 50 that's 6% shoot even if the cards would have become defective on their own without flashing that's awesome for amd.

this also to me seems like there is no widespread issue.

[tecnoworld]

bios modded to 6950 with unlocked shaders, no problems after about 15 days. I'd like to know who had problems with this kind of mod (1 in this poll).

[badb0y]

I retract my prior statement about my card dying. A word of advice check your 6-pin connectors before you start pulling your hair . All is good reverted to 6950 with 1536 shaders at 900/1300 stable tested with MSI Komuster and OCCT.

[wmblalock]

Originally Posted by yogurt_21

poll shows 3 failures out of 50 that's 6% shoot even if the cards would have become defective on their own without flashing that's awesome for amd.

this also to me seems like there is no widespread issue.

Like I said, there were 12 dead cards on my previous poll and a guy who runs a computer shop just had to RMA 17 6950s that customers had flashed with 6970 bioses... add that to your percentage and it seems like an issue to me.

[manofthem]

Has anyone experienced any lock ups or shut downs? I was trying to OC earlier, and the power just she off alltogether.

Then later on i tried 930/1400 and ran 3DMark11. It got an error so I went back to 920/1400 which was working fine before. It downclocked but then I got a total lock up, had to do a hard restart.

Anyone else get something like that?

[ctn]

I still haven't seen any screenshots of the failures yet. The ones I've seen were due to driver issues.