6950 to 6970 flash thread

[C-N]

How about increasing the overdrive limits on a 6950 bios? That way you can keep voltage adjustment in AB, clock past 840 without disabling idle downclocking, and keep all the 6950 memory settings.
I tried using RBE to put the OD signature from a 6970 into a 6950 BIOS, had to force flash it, and then Catalyst didn't detect my card. No big deal with the BIOS switch and all, but no success either. Anyone else have any bright ideas?

If you change the sig you have to re install the video drivers. Rbe warns you about it

[nvmc]

I thought that was only if you were using the sig from a different series card.
Either way, I'll give it another go and report back. It'd be nice to have voltage adjustment, unlocked shaders and idle downclocking all working.

[C-N]

I thought that was only if you were using the sig from a different series card.
Either way, I'll give it another go and report back. It'd be nice to have voltage adjustment, unlocked shaders and idle downclocking all working.

It all work fine using wizards 6950 shader unlock & afterburner.

[fl0w3n]

Anyone know reports on yield success for the 69xx series?

I'm assuming since out of the 471 reported flashes on TPU that 97% were successful, that 6950's are not harvested 6970's?

[nvmc]

It all work fine using wizards 6950 shader unlock & afterburner.

Sure they all work, but not if you want more than 840MHz core. Then you have to enable unofficial overclocking in AB, which is apparently incompatible with the idle downclocking feature in Catalyst.

[C-N]

Sure they all work, but not if you want more than 840MHz core. Then you have to enable unofficial overclocking in AB, which is apparently incompatible with the idle downclocking feature in Catalyst.

Is this something I'm unaware of? With AB beta 7 & the latest official one power play works fine & my card idles low 30oC so its working for me or are you talking about something else?

[VIP3R]

Is this something I'm unaware of? With AB beta 7 & the latest official one power play works fine & my card idles low 30oC so its working for me or are you talking about something else?

Works for me also using 2.1.0 final was testing the core at 1050 earlier today with the unofficial overclocking enabled.

I had problems with the cards not downclocking when using beta 6

[hazardous]

Just flashed my powercolor 6950 successfully! Loving it.

[RatusNatus]

Are there still no unlocked BIOSes with higher overdrive and voltage limits?

You dont need a new bios to OC and change the voltage.

There is a nice unlocked bios with same memory volts, clocks and timmings. The memory is the weak point. Its somewhere here at XS but i cant find it right now.

[fl0w3n]

You dont need a new bios to OC and change the voltage.

There is a nice unlocked bios with same memory volts, clocks and timmings. The memory is the weak point. Its somewhere here at XS but i cant find it right now.

Can you elaborate more on the memory being weak point?

[zalbard]

You dont need a new bios to OC and change the voltage.

There is a nice unlocked bios with same memory volts, clocks and timmings. The memory is the weak point. Its somewhere here at XS but i cant find it right now.

I have native 6970s. I want to go past 1.35V vGPU and increase overdrive limits without resorting to unofficial overclocking.
Hopefully MSI 6970 Lightning BIOS is going to work on reference cards. Will have far limits for everything and adjustable vMem and VDDCI then.

[EniGmA1987]

Can you elaborate more on the memory being weak point?

Quite a few people who unlock their 6970 get small artifact errors due to the memory timings being different on the 6970 bios compared to the 6950.

That is just a theory though as far as I know there is no proof. And I didnt come up with the theory. Mine works perfectly fine with no problems. flashed to 6970 bios and overclocked to 1415MHz at stock voltage for mem.

[fl0w3n]

Quite a few people who unlock their 6970 get small artifact errors due to the memory timings being different on the 6970 bios compared to the 6950.

That is just a theory though as far as I know there is no proof. And I didnt come up with the theory. Mine works perfectly fine with no problems. flashed to 6970 bios and overclocked to 1415MHz at stock voltage for mem.

Interesting, so the memory chips used are actually different between the two cards?

To clarify, are you saying the 6950 memory isn't capable of running the 6970 timings that get flashed to it via the bios?

OR

Are you saying that the 6950 keeps its memory timings and when the 6970 clocks are applied it gets slightly buggy?

I'm assuming there is no way to alter the memory timings manually...

[InCredible]

i havent had any trouble with my flash but im using 6970 bios and memory is at 1450 no issues..stock volts. so maybe for some it's an issue and others it isn't. Diamond card here.

[VIP3R]

Interesting, so the memory chips used are actually different between the two cards?

To clarify, are you saying the 6950 memory isn't capable of running the 6970 timings that get flashed to it via the bios?

OR

Are you saying that the 6950 keeps its memory timings and when the 6970 clocks are applied it gets slightly buggy?

I'm assuming there is no way to alter the memory timings manually...

The memory chips are binned different on the two cards, some peoples cards have issues running the higher speeds and tighter timings of the 6970 bios. It's all a little hit and miss like with any overclocking.

It's possible to just unlock the shaders and keep everything else standard.

[fl0w3n]

The memory chips are binned different on the two cards, some peoples cards have issues running the higher speeds and tighter timings of the 6970 bios. It's all a little hit and miss like with any overclocking.

It's possible to just unlock the shaders and keep everything else standard.

Understood.

So the only difference between a 6970 and 6950 in AMD's eyes is the binning on memory?

[PC_User]

Just got my HIS 6950.

Which 6970 BIOS should I flash to? Do I need to use the HIS 6970 bios? If not, is a particular BIOS preferred?

[tool_462]

Just got my HIS 6950.

Which 6970 BIOS should I flash to? Do I need to use the HIS 6970 bios? If not, is a particular BIOS preferred?

Doesn't matter as long as it is a reference card BIOS. You can choose from the stock 6970 BIOS or use the 6950 BIOS with unlocked shaders with the tool available from Techpowerup.

[PC_User]

Doesn't matter as long as it is a reference card BIOS. You can choose from the stock 6970 BIOS or use the 6950 BIOS with unlocked shaders with the tool available from Techpowerup.

I'll have to take a look at the 6950 bios with unlocked shaders. I have heard that is more preferred than flashing to a 6970 bios because the latter increases the voltage and this may damage the memory.

Not sure if it is true, but I don't want to risk damaging the card.

[Rattle]

I'll have to take a look at the 6950 bios with unlocked shaders. I have heard that is more preferred than flashing to a 6970 bios because the latter increases the voltage and this may damage the memory.

Not sure if it is true, but I don't want to risk damaging the card.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...&postcount=381

heres the tool, for 24/7 operation I prefer this, then use afterburner to add core voltage.

my 6950 unlocked is good for 1.1v 900/1400 24/7 operation.... stock 6970 is 1.175 880/1375

My memory is pretty good clocking though alot of 6950 wont do 1375 or higher it seems.

[Oztopher]

Your card is pretty much identical to mine.

I was running 950/1450 the other day with 1.18v, thinking it was stable. But i was playing half life 2 with 8xaa 16xaf and about an hour into play it grey screened on me... which always used to happen if i took the memory over 1500. But now at 1450? could be because of the high memory usage due to the high aa and af i was running. I'll just keep it at a nice and cool 900/1400 with 1.10v, have had no problems what so ever in all the hours i've played at that clock.

[Rattle]

My mem seems to be happy at 1400 or so, I dont really see a benefit at even much over 1250 tbh, my core needs 1.2 for 950.

[PC_User]

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...&postcount=381

heres the tool, for 24/7 operation I prefer this, then use afterburner to add core voltage.

my 6950 unlocked is good for 1.1v 900/1400 24/7 operation.... stock 6970 is 1.175 880/1375

My memory is pretty good clocking though alot of 6950 wont do 1375 or higher it seems.

Many thanks. I'll give it a try.

Does anyone know what the "Power Control" setting is for in AMD Overdrive? It goes from -20% to +20%.

[Oztopher]

My mem seems to be happy at 1400 or so, I dont really see a benefit at even much over 1250 tbh, my core needs 1.2 for 950.

Good point, i may have to bump the core to 950 then while i leave the mem at 1400. What temps do u get at 900 and 950? and at what fan speed etc. I've got quite an aggressive fan table set in trixx, keeps temps under 65c with around 50% speed at that point. I don't want it to go over 70c as these are really sensitive to temperature in terms of voltage needed.

[Rattle]

I use afterburner fan curve profile, I see as high as 66c with some games and as low as 55c with others. fan speed 55-66%. My card runs a few degrees warmer now than it did when I bought it, time to open it up maybe if I keep it much longer.