danExclusive
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2008
- Messages
- 67
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
AMD Radeon HD 6950 to HD 6970 Mod
- Thread starter HardOCP News
- Start date
Yes.
VDDC_VT1556_Defaults = 9A 5C 9B 80
Thanks
. I only unlocked the shaders on mine and then overclocked manually so I didn't have to use that tweak. Sitting happily at 930/1400 I'm using the unofficial overclocking = 1 edit. But in addition, I checked the box in the program settings that says something like "unlock voltage control". I thought both were required in order to actually control voltage. My cards are flashed with the unlocked shaders on a 6950 bios, not the 6970 bios.
It sounds like I've done exactly what you have, no?
The difference is that you are running CF.
"Unofficial" overclocking and overvolting in CF mode is fucked, period.
It's pretty retarded, but here's the lowdown:
In CF mode, using Afterburner, only one of your cards will overvolt correctly.
If you are using unofficial OC+CF, you will be permanently stuck at 3D clocks and max volts.
And that is the "good" part - I couldn't even manage that and constantly BSODed until I removed all the ULPS entries in the registry.
So basically, if you are running 6950CF w/o the 6970 BIOS flash you cannot get beyond the 840/1325 ceiling because of incompetence or cockblocking in firmware and Afterburner.
The "good" news is that it doesn't actually matter, because the overclocking on these cards doesn't do shit. It's pretty sad, maybe like 5% performance gain. My 470s gave me 20% boost with heavy OC.
"Unofficial" overclocking and overvolting in CF mode is fucked, period.
It's pretty retarded, but here's the lowdown:
In CF mode, using Afterburner, only one of your cards will overvolt correctly.
If you are using unofficial OC+CF, you will be permanently stuck at 3D clocks and max volts.
And that is the "good" part - I couldn't even manage that and constantly BSODed until I removed all the ULPS entries in the registry.
So basically, if you are running 6950CF w/o the 6970 BIOS flash you cannot get beyond the 840/1325 ceiling because of incompetence or cockblocking in firmware and Afterburner.
The "good" news is that it doesn't actually matter, because the overclocking on these cards doesn't do shit. It's pretty sad, maybe like 5% performance gain. My 470s gave me 20% boost with heavy OC.
Thanks for explaining it. So I guess my best move is just to uninstall MSI, overclock to max 840/1325 with Overdrive in CCC, then reinstall MSI just to get the diagnostic info. Sound reasonable?
Matrices, are you the guy who posted about that in the TechPowerUp forums? Whoever it was sure exposed the girly side of Unwinder (the RivaTuner/Afterbuner dev). I've never seen a guy get so pissy about a bug report
Heh, I noted the aforementioned problems matter-of-factly on Guru3D.com's Afterburner section, where Unwider frequently reads and responds. He completely lost his composure and it was quite embarrassing to be honest. I'd seen in the past that he gets very catty and sensitive about the simplest inquiries (I don't know why he even taxes himself with answering every single repeat question), but when I asked about out the various issues with his software in CF mode, he launched into a couple tirades and then vowed never to return to the forums.
:shrug:
I don't know whether the low OC ceiling AMD placed on the 6950s is unusual on the AMD side, or whether Unwinder was sloppy in removing that ceiling, but I'd never had problems with Nvidia cards not being able to (theoretically) reach ridiculous clocks in previous Afterburner/Precision/Rivatuner.
Either way, Afterburner's CF implementation is sloppy even if you don't enable unofficial OC, because (a) only 1 card overvolts and (b) the cards aren't even labeled right, i.e., GPU1 is actually GPU2 and vice versa.
I even tried using RBE to adjust the voltage and clock limits in the BIOS and flash it, but it resulted in an unbootable system no matter how I tried to go about.
Last edited:
Yup, that's what I did. I also put Powertuner to 20% but I don't know if that's even needed at those clocks. Still, can't hurt and I have the PSU to push it so no big deal.
I thought I had the crossfire thing licked but couldn't figure out why my benches were actually getting worse than the 840/1325 stock volts results. In an ill fated attempt to rectify it I uninstalled/reinstalled 10.12a since I hadn't after unlocking shaders and got constant GSOD every time AB kicked in. Once again I had to back the cpu to stock so I had a moment to get into AB to kill it. Then I had to fix the cfg file back to standard, reboot and now back to my OC on cpu but plain vanilla on cards.
I'm really hoping the finished AB version gets this right. I had no issues with my 5770's in x-fire for the past year and just "assumed" this would be the case now.
On a side note: Yea, unwinder became pretty unwound. Too bad since he did so much for free but he really couldn't just ignore some of the crap.
I'm really hoping the finished AB version gets this right. I had no issues with my 5770's in x-fire for the past year and just "assumed" this would be the case now.
On a side note: Yea, unwinder became pretty unwound. Too bad since he did so much for free but he really couldn't just ignore some of the crap.
false alarm , cpu fan died it seems. Replaced it and now it seems rock solid with furmark for an hour. So i should be good
Quick question: I noticed last night that my unlocked 6950 @ 930/1400 1.2V started artifacting slightly during Warhead. I'm at school right now so I can't play with it, but in such a case is the proper course of action to decrease core clock, decrease shader clock, decrease voltage, or increase voltage?
samuelmorris
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2010
- Messages
- 5,506
Memory clock speed. It's usually memory that causes artifacts. An overclocked core will normally just crash.
I'm planning on getting a second 6950 and flashing both, what is the optimal thing to do for two 6950s in cf?
I just don't want dead cards
I don't mind cranking the fans to 100% - I game with headphones on
Is that about all we can do?
I just don't want dead cards
I don't mind cranking the fans to 100% - I game with headphones on
Is that about all we can do?
I'm planning on getting a second 6950 and flashing both, what is the optimal thing to do for two 6950s in cf?
I just don't want dead cards
I don't mind cranking the fans to 100% - I game with headphones on
Believe me, even closed headphones won't eliminate the noise created by these fans at 100%, unless you have them pretty loud. 100% on even one of mine was truly frightening. It is LOUD.
As for what the optimal thing to do is, I just leave my primary with the fan at 40% and my temps never get unreasonably high. The secondary I leave on auto and it doesn't even get as hot as the first. 40% is still pretty quiet too - just a bit louder than all of my case fans.
It seems so at the moment. I doubt the new Catalyst drivers (released today I think) would do anything for us in that regard. If you really want to overclock higher, you just have to install the 6970 FW. I ran it for awhile problem free, but I decided to be safe and switch back to the shader-unlocked 6950 FW. The difference in performance is pretty negligible from 880 to 840. Maybe I would have seen a bigger drop if I had overclocked higher than 880, but I thought I was pushing it as it was.
I'm about to pull trigger on HD6950, plan is to unlock shaders in 6950fw and o/c to 840/1325 using ccc.
Is PowerColor good buy (cheapest in my area to buy) or should I pay $20-$30 for XFX or perhaps should I look for something else?
I've been nvidia fan for the the last 5 years, my last card was X850XT (I think)
Thanks for any help...
Is PowerColor good buy (cheapest in my area to buy) or should I pay $20-$30 for XFX or perhaps should I look for something else?
I've been nvidia fan for the the last 5 years, my last card was X850XT (I think)
Thanks for any help...
RadioActiveLobster
Gawd
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2010
- Messages
- 1,008
This is at least fixed in the Beta 5 version. I'm using CF with Afterburner to monitor temps/load and they are labled correctly for both GPUs
EDIT: Ignore me, just realized I'm one beta version behind.
Last edited:
My single card is at 40% currently and isn't an issue for me as of yet.
I turn up the headphones pretty loud.
I think ill do the same, unlock shaders and oc to 840/1325 in ccc.
Now the question do I get two xfx cards, or my current xfx and a his card.
I turn up the headphones pretty loud.
I think ill do the same, unlock shaders and oc to 840/1325 in ccc.
Now the question do I get two xfx cards, or my current xfx and a his card.
Emission
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2005
- Messages
- 4,420
I looked. The PCBs are nearly identical save for the power connectors and a few miscellaneous SMT capacitors next to the power circuitry.
Makaveli@BETA
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2004
- Messages
- 2,433
Any of you think an artic cooling twin turbo pro will fit on a 6950/6970 as its the same dimensions roughly as a 5870 ?
Emission
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2005
- Messages
- 4,420
You have to take the mounting hole dimensions and surface components into consideration, but if you can get a side by side shot of the PCBs in comparison, it should give you a better idea.
If you take a look at pictures from these two articles, the PCBs look almost identical, so I would say yes it will work, assuming the mounting hole spacing is the same. I don't see why it would be different.
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/visiontek_5870/3.html - HD 5870
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Radeon-HD-6970-Gets-Pre-Launch-Teardown-PCB-Pictured-172367.shtml - HD 6970
*FMJ*Power
n00b
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2011
- Messages
- 9
Same problem here.
Is smart doctor the only way to exceed 950MHZ on the core? that's the only reason i wanted to use smart doctor.
Same problem here.
Is smart doctor the only way to exceed 950MHZ on the core? that's the only reason i wanted to use smart doctor.
maybe Afterburner?
*FMJ*Power
n00b
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2011
- Messages
- 9
nope, even the new beta doesn't allow you to exceed the cat max of 950MHz. Something that smart doctor does actually changes the max values in the CAT as well but for some reason the asus HD6970 bios on the 6950 doesn't get recognized by smart doctor.
danExclusive
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2008
- Messages
- 67
Same problem here.
Is smart doctor the only way to exceed 950MHZ on the core? that's the only reason i wanted to use smart doctor.
Yes. But I wouldn't recommend using Smart Doctor, aesthetic and efficiency sake. You can use MSI Afterburner or RBE (check, verify and confirm you're using the correct voltage variable; either VID3 or VID4).
Yes.
Don't feed incorrect information. Yes it does, long ago as well. You need to go into MSI Afterbuner's .cfg file, and modify a cvar set:
"EnableUnofficialOverclocking", change this bool variable to "1".
*FMJ*Power
n00b
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2011
- Messages
- 9
I altered the msi config file and yes i now show a full Mhz range but I also get a blue screen in afterburner if i touch the voltage where as before i could turn the slider up to 1.3 and was stable at 950Mhz. does this mean there's a problem with the VID selection? any advise on how to remedy it or will i have to create a custom bios?
Last edited:
danExclusive
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2008
- Messages
- 67
Like I said, use RBE. Otherwise, have you tried other voltages or just a vast static 1.3v bump? I've never heard of the BSOD when doing that, ever. What is the BSOD error message? Does the BSOD occur when you click "Apply" or run any 3D applications?
Makaveli@BETA
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2004
- Messages
- 2,433
Thank you.
*FMJ*Power
n00b
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2011
- Messages
- 9
It's a atikmdag.sys blue screen and it happens whenever i hit apply regardless of the voltage setting. this only happens when i have the EnableUnofficialOverclocking set to 1. these are two 6950's flashed to 6970's with the stock asus bin in-case that matters but I've tried with only one card and got the same result.
Last edited:
danExclusive
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2008
- Messages
- 67
It's not surprising. MSI do NOT support hacked BIOS's. If you want it to work and if the chip is supported, add it to the .cfg file. OTHERWISE, FLASH BACK TO THE 6950. Is there any reason why you even are using the 6970 BIOS?
*FMJ*Power
n00b
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2011
- Messages
- 9
I think you mistook witch thread your perusing.......this is the "AMD Radeon HD 6950 to HD 6970 Mod" thread...................
that's why i posted my question regarding it here which was ...................
is there anyway to exceed the overclocking range scale with a modded 6950 without using smart doctor?
Last edited:
danExclusive
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2008
- Messages
- 67
I think you mistook witch thread your perusing.......this is the "AMD Radeon HD 6950 to HD 6970 Mod" thread...................
that's why i posted my question regarding it here which was ...................
is there anyway to exceed the overclocking range scale with a modded 6950 without using smart doctor?
If you are going to be so smart about it, then don't bother. Does it matter if that's the thread title? I'm giving you better options and FACTUAL information regarding why YOU'RE encountering issues. I don't know how old you are, but probably prepubescent.
The source, http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=137136, clearly, if you bothered to research more, you'd see that many have reverted to using the 6950 BIOS. Many will suggest that as well. Just because the old, original post was regarding the "6970" mod, does not mean other concepts can come in and be used as a "replacement" to a dud.
You ask the same questions over and over, when I have also indirectly answered. Do some research for yourself. I'm not going to bother with you anymore, you clearly like to stick to your side, so be it.
*FMJ*Power
n00b
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2011
- Messages
- 9
you need to relax a bit, I'm 34 years old if somehow my age matters to you. I followed the instructions in this thread witch told me to use a 6970 bios, I'm not being smart about anything, simply asking a question related the source post of this thread. I simply asked a question and got berated and for what? great way to welcome a new member you guys have here
, I certainly wont be back.great way to welcome a new member you guys have here
Well, welcome to the board dude. Ignore the trolls, they sometimes run rampant around here.
I am sure someone will come along who can answer your question.
Well, welcome to the board dude. Ignore the trolls, they sometimes run rampant around here.
I am sure someone will come along who can answer your question.
They run rampant but seem worse than when I was here a few years back. Don't blame him for not coming back to be honest.
Falkentyne
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2000
- Messages
- 1,868
If you use a 6950 modded to 6970, you can use clock controls by adding a special ID entry into the AB config file. But as far as vcore increases...that I can't help you with.
The best way to get past the CCC limits is to :
1) Install smartdoctor.
2) Unlock the CCC range.
3) Uninstall smartdoctor
4) Flash BIOS with RBE edited voltages.
5) Profit.
Don't know if the SD changes will stick after driver changes...
The best way to get past the CCC limits is to :
1) Install smartdoctor.
2) Unlock the CCC range.
3) Uninstall smartdoctor
4) Flash BIOS with RBE edited voltages.
5) Profit.
Don't know if the SD changes will stick after driver changes...
you need to relax a bit, I'm 34 years old if somehow my age matters to you. I followed the instructions in this thread witch told me to use a 6970 bios, I'm not being smart about anything, simply asking a question related the source post of this thread. I simply asked a question and got berated and for what? great way to welcome a new member you guys have here
I have no idea why that guy jumped on you to revert back to 6950 bios, he was out of line in a thread dedicated to that very mod, but a number of people (me included) have shied away from using the full 6970 bios in favor of a modified 6950 bios with unlocked shaders. Apparently, this, along with the higher voltage and clock settings for core and memory, are really the only differences between the 6950 and 6970 bios. So many have found that going back to the 6950 bios, unlocking and bumping the voltage, and raising the clocks can work just as well as the 6970. Part of the problem with using the 6950 with a full fledged 6970 bios is that the memory chips just aren't up to spec of the 6970 ones, so the stock memory voltage could be too high for the 6950.
A lot of people with a single 6950 have seen great success with MSI afterburner by boosting voltage slightly and increasing the clocks to 900/1350 or even higher. Sadly, for those of us with a pair of cards in crossfire, this is not yet a possibility, from what I understand. At the current time, MSI doesn't support crossfire setups very well for this card, and it will not raise clock speeds to any value higher than those available from the Catalyst Overdrive settings (max of 840/1325). So if you're using a crossfire setup, you're kind of stuck with those settings as a max for right now.
The good news is that there is a performance boost from just unlocking the shaders, but it's not that big, to be honest.
Welcome to the forum.
Any thoughts on getting a 6950 in a few months that could be unlocked?
I'm thinking I want a second card, but not sure if I REALLY need it right now.
ahh what the hell, in my cart and shipped.
anyone running two of these watercooled? Id like to put them in my loop.. Im thinking of two mcw60's or 80's and ram sinks. (I already have a mcw60)
Id rather not dump cash on WB's only to eat the cost a year from now.
Don't wanna loose out on the chance to unlock a second card.
I'm thinking I want a second card, but not sure if I REALLY need it right now.
ahh what the hell, in my cart and shipped.
anyone running two of these watercooled? Id like to put them in my loop.. Im thinking of two mcw60's or 80's and ram sinks. (I already have a mcw60)
Id rather not dump cash on WB's only to eat the cost a year from now.
Don't wanna loose out on the chance to unlock a second card.