How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[Cold Storm]

No. Crossfire can not be done with a card of a different series/chip.

 

[Mastroz]

Tried this with my 6950's... Both of them Sapphire and now working as 6970's..
Benchmark results confirm much improvement...

Cheers

Works great? no problesm?

 

[B1gD4ddy]

Thx Cold Storm

 

[Cold Storm]

Thx Cold Storm

happy to do.

Welcome to TPU

Glad to see a lot of people signing up due to this article W1zzard!

 

[ranom]

I've run Furmark on my 6970ed card but it did hang up on me the first try. Seems the cooler wasnt working hard enough and overheated, temps went above 93degs when it hung up. After cranking up the fan to 55% via ATI overdrive, Furmark bench is running without a problem. Temps are around 72-73degC, PowerTune is set to 0%.

Ive checked the RPM/fan% on my 6950, and it was like 24%=1080rpm 27%=1150rpm 33%=1660rpm 38%=1970rpm 43%=2320rpm 48%=2670rpm 53%=3010rpm.

 

[Mastroz]

how do you flash the bios if you have 2 cards in crossfire??

 

[Mastroz]

the top right, is that both cards? or just 1 listed there??

 

[zolkorn]

Hello W1zzard, well you know when ATI RBE will support for 6900 bios now need to change for scale of OC

 

[taemun]

For those really worried about the PCIe power plug difference - you could go and buy a 2x4 pin Molex Mini-Fit Jr plug and swap them over.

I don't imagine it'd be terribly easy to get all six pins hot enough to pull at the same time, but that doesn't make it impossible

What I'm more interested in: has anyone modded PowerTune to get to more than 20%?

 

[TAViX]

I didn't know you can CrossFire a 6970 with a 6870! ... Or can't you?

 

[Yidaki]

I will try my Sapphire HD6950 on the second of january. Hopefully it will clock fine too. I will also mount a water block

 

[easyrider]

There seems to be some scaremongering going on with regards to the 8 pin and 6 pin power connectors of the 6970 and the fact the 6950 has 2 x 6 pin connectors.

Is it true that 8 pin just provided extra earths and not additional volts?

 

[taemun]

easyrider: yes, very true. The 2x4 8-circuit PCIe plug has 5x ground and 3x +12V.

That said, I'm sure that the engineers involved had a good reason to do that. The spec allows for 4A through the bronze connectors for 22AWG plug size (which PCIe is). 4A*12V = 48W per pin. Three pins gives you 144W, which is probably fudged to your 150W.

 

[easyrider]

easyrider: yes, very true. The 2x4 8-circuit PCIe plug has 5x ground and 3x +12V.

That said, I'm sure that the engineers involved had a good reason to do that. The spec allows for 4A through the bronze connectors for 22AWG plug size (which PCIe is). 4A*12V = 48W per pin. Three pins gives you 144W, which is probably fudged to your 150W.

So can you see it being an issue?

 

[taemun]

easyrider: as per page 7 of http://www.pcisig.com/developers/ma...c_id=dd9f797639898b8d0afdd46401cbd27839f35ccd

I think it's just there as way of telling the graphics card that the power supply doesn't expect more than 75W draw on the 6p cable, versus the 150W draw from the 8p.

If your 8p cable is a 6p+2p convertible like the vast majority, then you can be assured that the conductors, cabling and stuff in the power supply is rated to supply the extra current.

 

[easyrider]

Mine is an Enermax Liberty 620w with 2 x 6 pin PCI-e connectors...

 

[taemun]

Mine is an Enermax Liberty 620w with 2 x 6 pin PCI-e connectors...

Well then it wasn't designed with 12.5A loads (12.5A * 12V = 150W) on those connectors. It will probably work fine. Just be aware of the +12V currents allowed on the two rails of that unit - you don't want more than 22A on one rail.
http://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=301&image=enermax_liberty_label_lrg

 

[easyrider]

Having said that its modular. whats the difference in using a molex and 8 pin adaptor the cards come with?

6970 users are not all running PSU'swith 8pin connectors as standard.

 

[EwX]

Damn you AMD ,i was sure about waiting for/getting GTX560,but now i got confused over HD6950 unlocking...
I still wait for GTX560 tests, but this HD6950 with unlocking looks tempting choice

 

[taemun]

I haven't played with a 6970 - so didn't know it came with a 2x (?3x) Molex -> 8p cable. That seems quite pointless. Someone buying a 6970 almost certainly has a power supply with two 6p cables - and you'd be better off faking that second sense pin than using Molex plugs at all.

Bottom line with anything here: it depends on the power supply. Units with shitty small gauge wiring will not appreciate the extra current draw. Your Enermax should be ok.

 

[kAljo]

I'm experiencing a problem with the FLASH. I downloaded the extra "pack", started the batch-file and got smth like "Succeeded" -> OK. Restarts my comp but still got 1408.

Any1 experiencing the same problem? Got a PowerColor.

 

[W1zzard]

I'm experiencing a problem with the FLASH. I downloaded the extra "pack", started the batch-file and got smth like "Succeeded" -> OK. Restarts my comp but still got 1408.

Any1 experiencing the same problem? Got a PowerColor.

you got only 1 ati card installed? anythign you saw during the flash? switch set to the 1 position?

 

[ranom]

I think I also found one more typo in the batch file, this time in the flash_back_to_6950.bat.
if exist backup.bin ( atiwinflash -f -p 0 orig.bin
should probably be
if exist backup.bin (atiwinflash -f -p 0 backup.bin
not a big problem because it'll just flash to a generic HD6950, but for those who want to return to their original they should just fix that line and should be ok

 

[W1zzard]

I think I also found one more typo in the batch file, this time in the flash_back_to_6950.bat.
if exist backup.bin ( atiwinflash -f -p 0 orig.bin
should probably be
if exist backup.bin (atiwinflash -f -p 0 backup.bin
not a big problem because it'll just flash to a generic HD6950, but for those who want to return to their original they should just fix that line and should be ok

yep. copy and paste error... fixed and uploaded

 

[Cold Storm]

I didn't know you can CrossFire a 6970 with a 6870! ... Or can't you?

Most likely you won't be able to since they are of different chips. The 6870 is "bart" while the 6970 is "cayman"... But, even the ati/amd website isn't updated with the new 6 series crossfireX chart.


But, if you really do want to get the cards working.. hydra chip motherboards will run nvidia and ati together, crossfire/sli any card.. Just that its t0o new of a tech to really work right..