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

[InnocentCriminal]

I had better results with an official XFX 6970 BIOS than I have with a modded 6950 BIOS. Tempted to go back to the 6970 BIOS as 900MHz core was fine but I can't hit 900MHz even with similar volts applied.

:/

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by InnocentCriminal

I had better results with an official XFX 6970 BIOS than I have with a modded 6950 BIOS. Tempted to go back to the 6970 BIOS as 900MHz core was fine but I can't hit 900MHz even with similar volts applied.

:/

Strange, I think I even got my XFX from the same supplier as you, as you know I have done the shader only mod, although I have bumped up the voltage in RBE with a flash to just 1.15V and even on the reference fan profile I am now able to run stable at 900mhz on just those volts (albeit anything above that does crash at some point).

[InnocentCriminal]

I'm seem to get a lot more artefacts with the shader unlocked BIOS than I do with the 6970. I'll put everything to the test when I can.

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by Tatty_One

Strange, I think I even got my XFX from the same supplier as you, as you know I have done the shader only mod, although I have bumped up the voltage in RBE with a flash to just 1.15V and even on the reference fan profile I am now able to run stable at 900mhz on just those volts (albeit anything above that does crash at some point).

I've gotten the same clocks, 900@1.15v, but used MSI AB to do it, not rbe. It ran solid and steady. And I think I got up to 930@1.18v using AB but that's as far I could push it.

Now I'm on 6970 bios at 900/1425 without problems, but i may switch back.

[alexsubri]

I plan on buying a pair of 6970 2gb in crossfire. My PSU is 750watt XFIRE Ready so it shouldn't be a problem.

The 6990 is taking forever

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by alexsubri

I plan on buying a pair of 6970 2gb in crossfire. My PSU is 750watt XFIRE Ready so it shouldn't be a problem.

The 6990 is taking forever

You sure your PSU can handle that? My 730W had only 1 6-pin and 1 8-pin power connector. It was crossfire ready, and it ran my 2 5770's fine, but it wouldn't do 2 6950's or 6970's. That's why I just got a 1000W PSU to run xfire.

[george.double.u]

first i wanna say "hello" to all members of the techpowerup forum!

2 x 6970 = 2 x 250 W = 500 W

500 W + 150 W (cpu, even with OC) + 50 W (board + peripherals) = 700 W

---> your 750W psu shouldn`t be a problem, if it`s not a cheap low-budget-model with a weak 12v-lane.

[deathman20]

Originally Posted by alexsubri

I plan on buying a pair of 6970 2gb in crossfire. My PSU is 750watt XFIRE Ready so it shouldn't be a problem.

The 6990 is taking forever

THAT should handle it no problem.. my setup (below) at outlet uses less than 300W fully loaded. Sig is a wee bit outdated

i7 920 @ 4.2Ghz w/ HT off 1.275V
6Gigs of ram @ 1.6V
2x 80Gig Intel G2 SSD in Raid 0
1x 640Gig WD Black
7x 120mm fans
1x 80mm fan
6950 running 900/1400 @ 1.1V (its using the 6950 bios but unlocked)

Mines on a Silverstone 750W PSU that is 5 years old. All this is being run though a UPS system and has multiple other things (monitor + router gear) attached to it that I took out of the power totals.

Now that is full bore in games, ~100% of the cores being used and 100% load on the GPU.

So you should have PLENTY of room to expand on a 700W+ PSU... oh and the difference between 1.1 to 1.175V was less than 20W (closer to 15 if not mistaken) under load.

[WhiteNoise]

XFX 6950 flashed with XFX 6970 bios. 2 weeks and perfection.

[Intelman]

Were these driver bugs and errors related to 11.1a?

[boomstik360]

6950 flashed to 6970, 950 core 1400mem flawless.

[zhadlp]

sapphire hd6950, unlocked since purchased more than a month ago, stable, never tried to OC it further, runs games flawlessly...

[Intelman]

I'd like to report any issues I had were infact attributed to temperature. Surprised the default fan algorithm doesn't do a good job. I used Afterburner and set the fan to go 90% at 70 degrees. I can now even overclock well.

[inferKNOX]

Ok, while I work my way through this thread, I thought I'd post the route I took (just last night).
From reading the various comments all over, I decided that messing with the memory is too volatile so I'll avoid doing so.
I opted to mod my original BIOS (saved from the card itself using GPU-Z 0.5.1) to have unlocked shaders only using the modder made by rui0317 & w1zzard here.
I tried pushing the clocks up to 850MHz on the core with stock V, but then backed it down to the original 810MHz to see that if there's errors, it's the unlock, not the OC. I will keep it that way for 2 weeks.

To be able to OC beyond the 6950 CCC limits, I used MSI Afterburner 2.1.0 beta 7 & followed the instructions of the OP in this thread.
(I only removed the limits because Afterburner now allows them to be removed whilst still maintaining PowerPlay profiles.)
I set my fan curve to be 25% @ 50°C, up to 80% @ 80°C and have so far had temps stay under 70°C.

What I now wonder is, assuming all goes well for the next 2 weeks with unlocked shaders, is it worth trying to bump the GPU to 880MHz like the 6970... and if so, does the GPU need the voltage also bumped from 1.1V to 1.175mV as is in the 6970?
If the voltage needs the bump, is it safe for the power regulation circuitry of the 6950?

I have a very limited budget ATM, so these considerations are crucial for me as I can't afford to mess up the card. It's safety is my first priority with regards to this sort of modding/OCing.

[Wijkert]

Originally Posted by inferKNOX

What I now wonder is, assuming all goes well for the next 2 weeks with unlocked shaders, is it worth trying to bump the GPU to 880MHz like the 6970... and if so, does the GPU need the voltage also bumped from 1.1V to 1.175mV as is in the 6970?
If the voltage needs the bump, is it safe for the power regulation circuitry of the 6950?

I have a very limited budget ATM, so these considerations are crucial for me as I can't afford to mess up the card. It's safety is my first priority with regards to this sort of modding/OCing.

There is no need to create a custom profile when running at stock speeds. Only when upping the volts beyond 1.175 a custom fanprofile is worth it imo. For 880 mhz you need about 1.125 volts. It will run on 1.110 but heavy games will make the drivers crash. After about 900 mhz you will see some deminishing returns, but I have a feeling you won't even go there. Upping powerplay to 12% or 20% is useless. Only in furmark (and not in any other bechmark) you will get a higher score with a higher powerplay setting.

[inferKNOX]

Originally Posted by Wijkert

There is no need to create a custom profile when running at stock speeds. Only when upping the volts beyond 1.175 a custom fanprofile is worth it imo. For 880 mhz you need about 1.125 volts. It will run on 1.110 but heavy games will make the drivers crash. After about 900 mhz you will see some deminishing returns, but I have a feeling you won't even go there. Upping powerplay to 12% or 20% is useless. Only in furmark (and not in any other bechmark) you will get a higher score with a higher powerplay setting.

Well the fan profile is because the card runs a bit warmer than my old faithful 5850. It's really just to make sure everything is the way I want it, as opposed to there being a problem.
Thanks for giving me an idea of what to expect as I move up the freq ladder.
Do you think the VRMs would be comfortable handling higher voltages long term?

I generally had/have 900MHz as the speed I don't feel a need to push beyond, so you're right that I won't go farther, so if 880MHz is a breeze, I'll aim for 900MHz at most.
The PowerPlay I was referring to is how the card downclocks when idle, not the +20%, -20% power throttling. I don't see myself adjusting the throttling unless really necessary.

As for benchmarks... if it passes Heaven, I'm happy, no need to push the card too hard, after all, I'm going to use it for gaming, encoding, decoding, etc, not critical or life-dependent tasks that would require me to test reliability on a unrealistic level.

[Wijkert]

Originally Posted by inferKNOX

Do you think the VRMs would be comfortable handling higher voltages long term?

Maybe not, but the only way for you to up the voltage of your mem is flashing it to a 6970 bios (from 1.5 to 1.6). Upping the voltage to the gpu won’t effect the mem, if that is what you mean.

Originally Posted by inferKNOX

The PowerPlay I was referring to is how the card downclocks when idle, not the +20%, -20% power throttling. I don't see myself adjusting the throttling unless really necessary.

Ah ok. And you are right, adjusting power throttling is almost useless.

Originally Posted by inferKNOX

As for benchmarks... if it passes Heaven, I'm happy, no need to push the card too hard, after all, I'm going to use it for gaming, encoding, decoding, etc, not critical or life-dependent tasks that would require me to test reliability on a unrealistic level.

Wow, so you did’t even bought the card to play games with?

[inferKNOX]

Originally Posted by Wijkert

Maybe not, but the only way for you to up the voltage of your mem is flashing it to a 6970 bios (from 1.5 to 1.6). Upping the voltage to the gpu won’t effect the mem, if that is what you mean.

No, I'm asking if the resistors, etc, that deliver the voltage to the GPU will suffer over time if set to the higher voltages like 1.125V - 1.175.

Originally Posted by Wijkert

Wow, so you did’t even bought the card to play games with?

I did, re-read what I said.

[Wijkert]

Man, I need glasses! (have them already, but maybe stronger ones )

The 6950 and the 6970 have the same pcb, so maybe the same resistors as well. Even if that is not the case, I would aspect them to have a margin of maybe 10% in which they can operate above standard specs without them suffering over time.

[purecain]

@inferKNOX- you are exactly right... the power circutry is differant. dont use a 6970 bios, the pcb's are not the same(unfortunatly)...

your definatly safe using up to 1.250 for 24/7... i use 1.225 for 960mhz on 6970real...
good luck everyone...

[inferKNOX]

Wow, my card is stunning me so far. I think it may have a higher binned GPU, because I've managed so far to get it to 880MHz stable without touching the voltage at all.

In the beginning (using MSI AB) I tried giving it a 1175mV @ 880MHz (I wanted to slowly decrease the voltage from there), but couldn't get it stable. So I dropped all voltage control, then slowly upped the clock, from 810 (stock for ASUS) to 840, to 850, then to 880MHz and all clocks are Heaven stable and stable in games. With my fan profile, I stay at ~65°C max. I almost dare not, but will try see if I can get to the stock ASUS 6970 clock of 890MHz, and if there, see how much further it can indeed go.
So far I'm thrilled at how well it's going.

So for the record, no artifacts, no problems after 1 week with shaders unlocked 6950 BIOS and overclocked GPU to 880MHz on stock voltage (everything else at stock 6950 specs).

[Wijkert]

Originally Posted by inferKNOX

Wow, my card is stunning me so far. I think it may have a higher binned GPU, because I've managed so far to get it to 880MHz stable without touching the voltage at all.

In the beginning (using MSI AB) I tried giving it a 1175mV @ 880MHz (I wanted to slowly decrease the voltage from there), but couldn't get it stable. So I dropped all voltage control, then slowly upped the clock, from 810 (stock for ASUS) to 840, to 850, then to 880MHz and all clocks are Heaven stable and stable in games. With my fan profile, I stay at ~65°C max. I almost dare not, but will try see if I can get to the stock ASUS 6970 clock of 890MHz, and if there, see how much further it can indeed go.
So far I'm thrilled at how well it's going.

So for the record, no artifacts, no problems after 1 week with shaders unlocked 6950 BIOS and overclocked GPU to 880MHz on stock voltage (everything else at stock 6950 specs).

Can you specify what kind of games your are playing. Crysis and the latest total war games seem to be good stress testers for me.

[inferKNOX]

Originally Posted by Wijkert

Can you specify what kind of games your are playing. Crysis and the latest total war games seem to be good stress testers for me.

Well I tried Crysis (with 1.21 patch), but I'm by a part close to the end of the game where there seems to be a memory leak bug that eats up all my (system) RAM and brings my PC to a crawl (did the same when my 5850 was around), so I'm kind of annoyed with Crysis at the moment... maybe I'll try a reinstall when I feel like looking at it again.
I've tried it with Heaven Benchmark 2.1, Civilization V, Dawn of War 2 & Command & Conquer: Kane's Wrath.
Dawn of War 2 seems particularly good at calling out instabilities (followed by Heaven) for some reason and was the main one to cause crashes for me when I initially tried to play with the voltage.
Since my stock voltage OC'ing though, it's been rock solid.
For some reason, the Heaven Benchmark has always crashed for me everytime I exit it after a stress test, even during my 5850 days.

Edit, I think I'll just use the Crysis Benchmarking tool(s) instead of the game itself for now.

[Wijkert]

Originally Posted by inferKNOX

Edit, I think I'll just use the Crysis Benchmarking tool(s) instead of the game itself for now.

Running the Crysis benchmark is indeed a solid to test for stability. If that doesn't crash most other games won't either.

[Andrei23]

5 hours of OCCT without any errors + several runs of Heaven + 3DMark 11 show that my HIS 6950 @ 6970 (flashed) with 925/1375 @ 1175 mV is rock stable. Temps are also late-60's early-70's C (load) (37-40C) with a maximum of 45% fan speed. Games run smooth as butter with no problems at all. Defo best bang for £ ever!!