Asus 6950 DC II 1GB Voltage

[moreno]

Hello,
I have successfully unlocked shaders in my Asus 6950 DC II 1GB. I am able to overclock core to 880 Mhz, but no more, though temperatures are low.
I need more voltage. Since Asus DCII is not reference card, I am not able to modify voltage with MSI Afterburner, Trixx, nor RBE.
In RBE, voltage table is empty, and if I manually set the voltage to for example 1.2, I get blue screen on windows start.

So far I managed to modify voltage only with Asus SmartDoctor. With 1.2V, I can do 950 Mhz core with no problem. However, SmartDoctor is a very crap tool. Sometimes it has problems with setting voltage (it sets some random values). Even if I don't change any settings, just having SmartDoctor open, from time to time causes blue screen to my Windows 7 x64. Moreover, SmartDoctor monitoring causes stuttering... If I set monitoring interval to 5 sec, every 5 sec i get FPS drop. If I set it to 1 min, every 1 min i get FPS drop, and 1 min is the max interval you can get, and you cannnot disable monitoring.

All of that eliminates using SmartDoctor as an OC tool.

Is there any way I can change core voltage on my Asus 6950 1GB DC II ? Permanent BIOS modification is perfect, but software tool will do for me too...

 

[Over_Lord]

I have successfully unlocked shaders in my Asus 6950 DC II 1GB. I

I thought it wasn't possible on 1GB cards

 

[moreno]

It is possible with no problem at all. I just saved my current bios, used modbios script to unlock shaders and saved it again to the card.

 

[Over_Lord]

Hmm, this means every HD6950 whether 2GB or 1GB can be unlocked.

Pretty much dumps the purpose of ever buying the HD6970.

Can you give screenshots for proof please? I will post it elsewhere.

 

[moreno]

Here you are http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/220/6081.png/

 

[biohazord]

Sorry to burst your bubble but not every card can be unlocked. Some actually have the additional shaders physically cut or they just don't exist on the card.

 

[Relayer]

Sorry to burst your bubble but not every card can be unlocked. Some actually have the additional shaders physically cut or they just don't exist on the card.

Not very well worded. Every card can potentially be unlocked, whether 1GB or 2GB.

Interesting part is it gives you a truly unique card. A ~6970 w/1GB RAM.

Edit: Just looked at your screenie. Nice O/C. Especially impressed with the +6GHz on the RAM. I've seen plenty of premium 6970's get that high, but it's the 1st time I recall seeing a 6950 do it.

 

[biohazord]

Not very well worded. Every card can potentially be unlocked, whether 1GB or 2GB.

Really? Way to split hairs.

Maybe I should of said (seemingly) all reference cards can be unlocked. I only say seemingly because I can't be 100% sure. But it does seem like every reference card can be (mine unlocked just fine). By this time there are probably no more 1GB reference cards and 2GB reference cards are almost impossible to find also. So that being said, a non-reference 1GB or 2GB is quite possibly impossible to flash and/or unlock. Some cards have a single write protected BIOS. Not even the BRE method will work for those.

I just don't want people to think that every card is unlockable.

 

[LordJummy]

Not very well worded. Every card can potentially be unlocked, whether 1GB or 2GB.

Interesting part is it gives you a truly unique card. A ~6970 w/1GB RAM.

Edit: Just looked at your screenie. Nice O/C. Especially impressed with the +6GHz on the RAM. I've seen plenty of premium 6970's get that high, but it's the 1st time I recall seeing a 6950 do it.

This is not true. Not every card can potentially be unlocked. Not without physical modification of the card.

Also I wanted to note on the 6GHZ memory clock on a 6950/6970: I've tested 3 different unlocked 6950's with wide ranges of OC's. I've tested core clocks of slightly over 1100Mhz, and memory well over 1500/6000Mhz, and I can tell you with great confidence that anything over 1400Mhz on the memory is pointless and asking to fry your vram. I've killed two 6950's from the same thing.

I guarantee you that if that card isn't under full water, your VRAM will die.

 

[moreno]

memory well over 1500/6000Mhz, and I can tell you with great confidence that anything over 1400Mhz on the memory is pointless and asking to fry your vram. I've killed two 6950's from the same thing.

I guarantee you that if that card isn't under full water, your VRAM will die.

Ye sure, so how much time left to my 6950 ? Cause I have been running it with 1515 mhz on stock DCII cooller for over a month now and it works perfect.

 

[LordJummy]

Ye sure, so how much time left to my 6950 ? Cause I have been running it with 1515 mhz on stock DCII cooller for over a month now and it works perfect.

What you need to ask your self is "what performance gains do I get from clocking my memory at 1500MHz+ over 1400Mhz?". Why so combative? I'm just trying to give you a friendly tip. There's a 50/50 chance it may never have problems, but there's a 50/50 chance sometime in the (near) future you will see some little pink/green dots, maybe some shadows that don't belong, or total failure. You have the right to run your equipment however you want. I'm just telling you this from experience as I'm on my third unlocked 6950 right now.

 

[moreno]

No worries, it runs fine and cold Good luck with your 3rd 6950.

 

[LordJummy]

No worries, it runs fine and cold Good luck with your 3rd 6950.

Just to clarify things. I've still only paid for one. I intentionally bought the first two from Fry's to push them to the limit, then returned them, lol. They don't check any of the returned hardware. (hope there isn't a Fry's spy on here)

 

[jeepster50]

What you need to ask your self is "what performance gains do I get from clocking my memory at 1500MHz+ over 1400Mhz?". Why so combative? I'm just trying to give you a friendly tip. There's a 50/50 chance it may never have problems, but there's a 50/50 chance sometime in the (near) future you will see some little pink/green dots, maybe some shadows that don't belong, or total failure. You have the right to run your equipment however you want. I'm just telling you this from experience as I'm on my third unlocked 6950 right now.

I agree that there are small performance gains over 14000MHz. I run mine @ 890/1375 1.1vc stock 6950 shaders(Haven't got the balls to unlock jest yet) and enjoy a 11% performance gain, where as I've gone to 1020/1500 1.25vc and only got about 15% gain.
As-to the memory burning up, maybe not, the ASUS DCII's memory modules are better quality than the reference cards. Only time will tell.

As-to the original question, you can only use smart doc to up the voltage and then exit from program and OC in afterburner. (Your card will keep voltage settings upon Smart doc exit)
Forgot to mention in smart doc, click the settings button and activate the "overclocking range enhancement" check box. That will unlock your cards OC perimeters. Also if smart doc acts funny close all oc programs, launch smart doc, adjust voltage, exit SD and relaunch your OCer. Afterburner works great.
"Instead of the Volterra VT1556MF voltage controller found on reference boards, ASUS have opted for an SHE based one. Voltage tweaking is thus only supported through the SmartDoctor software."
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asus_hd6950_2gb_directcu_ii_review,6.html

 

[PrEzi]

Managed to unlock the shaders on Asus DirectCUII HD6950 1GB DDR5.
Feel free to use the modded BIOS :
Download it.

 

[sleepeeg3]

Has anyone else managed to get Smart Doctor working AND the 1536 shaders unlocked with the ASUS Direct CUII 6950?

Edit: Nevermind, I got it working with PrEzi's BIOS.

 

[karnak]

Not really relevant but I have had great success with Smartdoctor and my ASUS DirectCu 5850 top. 950/1200 no problem. Slight voltage bump.