6950 question

[KING_OF_SAND]

Can you overvolt these cards. i plan on picking up a Sapphire 6950 (reference) and applying the 6970 mod. so far i can not find any info on whether or not these cards can be overvolted without a volt mod. i would like to watercool my card but there will be no point if i can't get it to 1000+ core.

 

[Rathy_21]

well i know the asus version can as it states it has voltage tweak on the front of the box hope i helped

 

[m_ani3]

Can you overvolt these cards. i plan on picking up a Sapphire 6950 (reference) and applying the 6970 mod. so far i can not find any info on whether or not these cards can be overvolted without a volt mod. i would like to watercool my card but there will be no point if i can't get it to 1000+ core.

register at sapphire club and enter your serial no to get access to latest trixx ... and you can increase the voltage

 

[realneil]

Some of these cards require a BIOS Flash to do that. But it is possible to do.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

I read that sapphire trixx won't allow over volt on the cards. are companies no longer allowing over voting on reference cards any more?

 

[Pyr0]

the latest trixx should work, or just use the latest version of afterburner

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

it looks like msi afterburner will not allow voltage change on 6950 cards with 6970 bios.

" Added core voltage control for reference design AMD RADEON 6950 graphics cards with CHL8214 voltage regulators. Please take a not that voltage control is not supported on AMD RADEON 6950 graphics cards flashed with AMD 6970 BIOS."

This is right from the MSI afterburner site. My guess is all the overclocking software out there is the same way.

 

[Pyr0]

so don't run a 6970 bios on the card then, just unlock the shaders on the original 6950 bios

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

then i am not fully understanding this 6970 hack correctly. i was under the impression that the 6970 hack was really a 6970 bios on a 6950.

 

[SieB]

then i am not fully understanding this 6970 hack correctly. i was under the impression that the 6970 hack was really a 6970 bios on a 6950.

That's what it is, the 6950 has two BIOS so you flash the one with the 6970 BIOS so you still have the original 6950 BIOS to fall back on if it goes wrong. I think you can also back up the 6950 BIOS before flashing it with the 6970 one so if it doesn't work or it messes up you can flash it back anyway.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

That's what it is, the 6950 has two BIOS so you flash the one with the 6970 BIOS so you still have the original 6950 BIOS to fall back on if it goes wrong. I think you can also back up the 6950 BIOS before flashing it with the 6970 one so if it doesn't work or it messes up you can flash it back anyway.

yea i know that but the previous post made it seem like that it is not a bios. so if i am flashing the 6950 with 6970 bios, i wont be able to overvolt on that bios profile.

 

[SieB]

yea i know that but the previous post made it seem like that it is not a bios. so if i am flashing the 6950 with 6970 bios, i wont be able to overvolt on that bios profile.

Right, gotcha... I read on some other forums about people bricking their 6950s after flashing them and then trying to overclock so it's probably a good thing that you can't. A 6950 to a 6970 is a big enough overclock anyway.

 

[Pyr0]

i was talking about modding the 6950 bios to enable all of the shaders, keeping the 6950 clockspeeds and voltages as per normal

it still requires flashing the card, but it's safer than flashing a 6970 bios

 

[tinytomlogan]

Make sure you buy a card with a better cooler ie: not reference bacuse the coolers are utter pants.

They remind me of the Nvidia 480 & 470's

Get an MSI one if you really have to buy one.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

i was thinking about getting the sapphire 6950 because people seem to have the most success with it in terms of doing this 6950 to 6970 bios mod. also i still have my 5870 Arctic Cooler Xtreme cooler which also fits the 69xx series.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

i was talking about modding the 6950 bios to enable all of the shaders, keeping the 6950 clockspeeds and voltages as per normal

it still requires flashing the card, but it's safer than flashing a 6970 bios

were did you find that?

 

[Pyr0]

it's been around for ages m8

here's a link to a post by wizzard where he packaged it up as a script for users to try

packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.

www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

give it a try and let me know how well it works

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2137760&postcount=381

 

[tiagojcp]

I've unlocked the shaders on my 6950s (stock powercolor) and run them at 900mhz gpu + 1400mz memory with 1.170v on afterburner.

If you have any problems getting there and beyond (if you wish), just ask.

I found how to unlock the shaders on the techpower forum, reading hundreds of posts, but got all the help I needed getting afterburner to work with crossfire, right here on oc3d. So plenty of experienced people in the matter.

But never use a 6970 bios, use your cards own bios.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

it's been around for ages m8

here's a link to a post by wizzard where he packaged it up as a script for users to try

http://www.techpower...0&postcount=381

so that is the same thing that they are talking about right (http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159)? if it is then i was on it the whole time

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

so i downloaded the 6970 bios from techpowerup and it opens in notepad by default? that doest seem right.