How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[fullinfusion]

Originally Posted by w00tie

Well its a bit too late right now, but i'll eventually give a shot tomorrow. I'll PM you for the right file if your ok with that.

do you run crossfire ?

next week I'll be.

Yes and do pm me for added x-fire info with these cards if you need.

[jmcslob]

I have a Sapphire with the BLACK PCB and it unlocked

Ive run Heaven, Furmark, played games and everything I have and it's 100% stable but I'm not sure if my system can even stress this card

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by fullinfusion

Way are so many flashing these cards to the full unlock? there's only a few 6950's out there that can hold up to the added memory voltage. I guess Im one of the guys that cant afford killing this gpu just for 1-2 fps in a game or bench

For the time being just use unlocked shaders only, It's the safest atm. Wait for more info to be released and use google or what have you and search and read all the problems out there.

I would hate to burn up my card and have to pay for a new one. Warranty will likely not cover if it gets damaged from a higher bios flash. I'm back to the shaders only bios. I think the other w00tie guy just is trying to find out what will work and what won't.

So when it gets flashed to a 6970, what gets changed with the memory other than the 1375MHz?

[w00tie]

Well GPU clock goes to 880Mhz & memory clock to 1375Mhz instead of (800/1250).
Fact is that both 6950 and 6970 seems to be just the same but the memory chip used on both cards are different.
For me with everything unlocked, it was working yesterday but today after 5 mins of gaming i got my pc to freeze.. So i flashed back the shaders only bios using fullinfusion method and i had no freeze anymore. I'm using similar card in crossfire.
Normally i could increase the memory voltage in order to get the memory stable but at this point i had to used another mod bios and its quite late today so I eventually do that tomorrow.

[jmcslob]

TBH I'm flashing back myself..I may try the modded bios but for now I don't need either one

[manofthem]

But what I'm saying is: If the only change is increasing memory clock to 1375, then it would be the same as OCing the normal 6950 to a memory clock of 1375. Right? Or are there additional changes that make the 6970 bios dangerous?

Either way, I've noticed there is little difference in benchmarks scores when the memory goes much past the 1375 mark, atleast at a low gpu OC around 900-910.

[fullinfusion]

Originally Posted by manofthem

I would hate to burn up my card and have to pay for a new one. Warranty will likely not cover if it gets damaged from a higher bios flash. I'm back to the shaders only bios. I think the other w00tie guy just is trying to find out what will work and what won't.

So when it gets flashed to a 6970, what gets changed with the memory other than the 1375MHz?

Voltage and memory timings... these DDR5 memory chips are so sensitive to voltage.... unless your lucky enough to have the R0C Memory chip's on board that sucker is a 6970 -minus- the two extra ground wires on the 8 pined plug... Until you take the card apart and check the numbers on the chips your playing Russian Roulette with killing your card.

[fullinfusion]

Sorry to doble post but Crazyeyes and myself ran Mark11 Xtreme mode. He runs an X4 and cpu and me a X6.

He also has two identicle 6970's in X-fire... Me a single 6950.

Crazy turned off X-fire and asked me to down clock my cpu to mach his system.

I did and all I did was run unlocked shaders only bios and matched his stock 6970 clocks....
The numbers were bang on even except I was a bit higher in the combined score due to the 2 extra cores.

Im going to ask him if he wants to run the same bench, but I'll run the regular 6950 locked shader bios to really see the difference.... I betcha it works out to be the same numbers..

I'll update after I get the results with pix

[jmcslob]

Originally Posted by fullinfusion

Blah Blah Blah blah blah blah Blah bloop blop blah blah

Do you think you could repost your modded bios or a link to the post so I don't have to look through 70-odd pages for it

[fullinfusion]

Originally Posted by jmcslob

Do you think you could repost your modded bios or a link to the post so I don't have to look through 70-odd pages for it

HIS Modded shader only unlocked only Bios? SURE CLICKY

[fullinfusion]

Ok just mached a run...

Mine 6950 locked shaders...



Crazy's True 6970....

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by fullinfusion

Ok just mached a run...

Mine 6950 locked shaders...

http://img.techpowerup.org/110205/2.png

Crazy's True 6970....

http://img.techpowerup.org/110205/1650.png

Very nice, The scores are close, though your CPU score was still higher. I'd love to be able to afford 2 6970's!!!

[manofthem]

So i've been messing with my card again. This is what I've come to so far:
Modded shader 6950 bios@1.175 via RBE.
910/1425 via Trixx w/ custom fan curve.

What do you guys think? Do you think the memory will be okay at that speed or should I drop it down lower? It's been stable in Heaven, 3DMark11, and Furmark benches, and it's been fine in game. Who knows how long though, right...

[danc]

Originally Posted by fullinfusion

Ok just mached a run...

Mine 6950 locked shaders...

http://img.techpowerup.org/110205/2.png

Crazy's True 6970....

http://img.techpowerup.org/110205/1650.png

Your high cpu score make up plenty for crazy's true 6970 graphics score lead.

If you downcore the x6 to x4 and same clocks, i expect your final scores to be around x1650 or so.

[dom99]

If I change the voltage in latest version of MSI afterburner, does it actually change?
In GPU-Z it still says 1.1V even if I change it to 1.175V in Afterburner, has it actually changed?

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by dom99

If I change the voltage in latest version of MSI afterburner, does it actually change?
In GPU-Z it still says 1.1V even if I change it to 1.175V in Afterburner, has it actually changed?

GPU-Z always reads a max of 1.1 if you are on a 6950 bios, even in you increase voltage. (this was edited from what I said earlier) You can tell if the voltage increased for sure if you can run a higher OC then before.

For instance, on 1.175v, you should be able to run a gpu clock of 900-910 stable. That wouldn't be possible at the default 1.1v

[dom99]

Originally Posted by manofthem

GPU-Z always reads a max of 1.1, even if you flash the 6970 bios with 1.175. You can tell if the voltage increased for sure if you can run a higher OC then before.

For instance, on 1.175v, you should be able to run a gpu clock of 900-910 stable. That wouldn't be possible at the default 1.1v

Oh right, I have mine running at 900/1375/1.175 at the moment.

Quick question, in BFBC2 I seem to be getting horizontal screen breaking sometimes. Is this normal? It seems to happen even on stock 6950 clocks

[kylzer]

Originally Posted by dom99

Oh right, I have mine running at 900/1375/1.175 at the moment.

Quick question, in BFBC2 I seem to be getting horizontal screen breaking sometimes. Is this normal? It seems to happen even on stock 6950 clocks

Enable vsync?

[hanti]

Originally Posted by manofthem

GPU-Z always reads a max of 1.1, even if you flash the 6970 bios with 1.175. .....

thats not true if u flash 6950 with 6970 bios gpu-z shows 1.175v

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by hanti

thats not true if u flash 6950 with 6970 bios gpu-z shows 1.175v

Oops, my bad. Flashing to 6970 bios does show 1.175v in GPU-Z, sorry. Already edited the other post...

[Sebascenso]

Hi to everyone,

I have a Sapphire 6950 with shaders unlocked only. I want to raise the VID using RBE to change the voltaje from 1.1v to 1.175v to try and reach 900/1375, but I don't know which VID I have to change.
If anyone could help me with this, I would really appreciate it. I don't want to start doing trial and error with the bioses.

[Stranger]

Originally Posted by manofthem

Yes I'm on stock cooler. The 56*C/58%fan was while the new CoD game, but while running Crysis temps and fans go up some more. But my case has has lots of fans, which helps keep it cool. Your gpu seems like it's high in idle though. Are you running 2 in CF?

Yep running 2 6950s with unlocked shaders in CF
Does this affect it?:P

Also for cooling i have.

5x120mm intake fans (4 at front with 4xCM Stacker bays, 1 on side panel)
2x120mm out fans(back) (one has H70 Radiator attached with a 2nd fan not counted in the list)
1x200mm out fan (top)

[VinnieM]

Originally Posted by manofthem

GPU-Z always reads a max of 1.1 if you are on a 6950 bios, even in you increase voltage. (this was edited from what I said earlier) You can tell if the voltage increased for sure if you can run a higher OC then before.

For instance, on 1.175v, you should be able to run a gpu clock of 900-910 stable. That wouldn't be possible at the default 1.1v

If you have a good card you can run 900MHz on lower voltages. My card does 900/1465 at 1.11v (too bad not 1.1v ) and it's very efficient this way. Beyond 900 it needs about 20-25mV more per 10MHz, so it gets hotter, louder and requires more power. I only have a 500Watt power supply so I'm keeping it at these speeds for the moment.

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by VinnieM

If you have a good card you can run 900MHz on lower voltages. My card does 900/1465 at 1.11v (too bad not 1.1v ) and it's very efficient this way. Beyond 900 it needs about 20-25mV more per 10MHz, so it gets hotter, louder and requires more power. I only have a 500Watt power supply so I'm keeping it at these speeds for the moment.

My XFX 6950 is running 900/1375@1.175v. Anything higher and it crashes on me. Not right away though, and it passes benches. But say an 1/1.5 hours of straight gaming, and it'll freeze on me(driver stops responding and need to reboot). Maybe I'll try reinstalling drivers...

But it's good to see someone can hit high clocks on low voltage. This will be my last xfx I buy most likely.

[dom99]

Originally Posted by kylzer

Enable vsync?

Yeh it worked, disabled V-sync in CCC and enabled it in game, thx