AMD Radeon HD 6950 to HD 6970 Mod

Neon01 said:
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.
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How much of a performance boost for just unlocking the shaders? I have 2x 6950's myself.

CCC allows a minor overclock then right? Shouldn't that help on top of the shader unlock?
 
There is a small performance boost from unlocking. It's about the same boost as OCing to max CCC limits.

Here is a decent step-by-step for eliminating the CCC OC limits and running at higher voltage, even in CF, which doesn't work right with Afterburner. Only detail I'm not sure on (and I've asked in the thread) is whether the BIOS the OP has listed includes a voltage bump or whether the voltage bump comes from using Smart doctor:

http://www.overclock.net/ati/923129-hd-6950-810-1250-mhz-shader.html

To be honest though, the performance boost from a high OC is not impressive. You'll notice a distinct lack of "my FPS went up by 20%!!!" posts and screenshots.
 
So wouldn't a minor OC plus flashing the shaders create a nice "hey my FPS went up!" instead of just one or the other or am I missing something?
 
arachn1d said:
So wouldn't a minor OC plus flashing the shaders create a nice "hey my FPS went up!" instead of just one or the other or am I missing something?
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^This is all I was looking for when pursuing the mod and that's exactly what I got.

A 20% boost would be hard to come by out of this mod. As it is the performance delta between the stock 6950 and 6970 is around 10%. Held back by it's memory speed, the best an unlocked 6950 can hope to acheive is a 10-15% gain. Having unlocked my card and overclocked it modestly, I haven't yet felt the speed increase, but that's mostly due to the card already having enough power to crank out every game I play smoothly.

A day might come when another 5% will be the difference between no AA and 2x, but for now I'm happy knowing I'm getting a little something extra.
 
It's actually more the result of architecture efficiency. I could get 15 to 20% more FPS out of my GTX 470s when I heavily overvolted and OC'd them on water because Fermi first-gen was very powerful tech constrained by very shitty thermals.

With Cayman it looks like AMD has already nailed the efficiency.

In other words it's not exactly a big problem to have. Just a little disappointing for OC and WCing fanatics.
 
Matrices said:
Here is a decent step-by-step for eliminating the CCC OC limits and running at higher voltage, even in CF, which doesn't work right with Afterburner. Only detail I'm not sure on (and I've asked in the thread) is whether the BIOS the OP has listed includes a voltage bump or whether the voltage bump comes from using Smart doctor:

http://www.overclock.net/ati/923129-hd-6950-810-1250-mhz-shader.html

To be honest though, the performance boost from a high OC is not impressive. You'll notice a distinct lack of "my FPS went up by 20%!!!" posts and screenshots.
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Flashed this BIOS to my XFX 6950s that were previously running a 6950 unlocked BIOS. CCC limits went up as advertised; this is the first time (as far as I know) that I've heard of anyone being able to overclock 6950 CF past the CCC limits without screwing with ULPS, etc. Memory seems to max out around 1350 (will clock higher but performance goes down at 1375), and I haven't taken the cores past 900 yet. Running the Heaven benchmark (1900x1200 4xAA 16xAF) at 900/1350 nets about a 4% performance increase vs. 840/1325/1536 shaders.

I will probably take the cores up higher eventually, but the top card is already hitting 90 degrees C at load (its airflow is somewhat blocked since it's sitting right next to the second card).
 
thefrick said:
Flashed this BIOS to my XFX 6950s that were previously running a 6950 unlocked BIOS. CCC limits went up as advertised; this is the first time (as far as I know) that I've heard of anyone being able to overclock 6950 CF past the CCC limits without screwing with ULPS, etc. Memory seems to max out around 1350 (will clock higher but performance goes down at 1375), and I haven't taken the cores past 900 yet. Running the Heaven benchmark (1900x1200 4xAA 16xAF) at 900/1350 nets about a 4% performance increase vs. 840/1325/1536 shaders.

I will probably take the cores up higher eventually, but the top card is already hitting 90 degrees C at load (its airflow is somewhat blocked since it's sitting right next to the second card).
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I have same exact setup. Two XFX 6950's.

How much of a percent increase did the shader unlock give you? Would you advise just doing the shader unlock or shader unlock + overclock?

My top card is hitting 80 C currently at load.
 
arachn1d said:
I have same exact setup. Two XFX 6950's.

How much of a percent increase did the shader unlock give you? Would you advise just doing the shader unlock or shader unlock + overclock?

My top card is hitting 80 C currently at load.
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The shader unlock alone was about a 3-5% performance increase at 1900x1200 + AA/AF. Clocking the core and memory to 6970 speeds nets another 5-6% performance, which seems in-line with the general sentiment that a 6970 is about 10% faster than a 6950.
 
erebus720 said:
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.
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I think even in a few months you'll be able to find a 2GB 6950 that you can unlock but it won't be quite as easy as it is now. I wouldn't be surprised if AMD continued to offer the 2GB but started to force vendors to disable the option to flash it to a 6970.

I wouldn't worry a lot about it. AMD still has the 6990 coming along which will be there flagship card when it does arrive. I think everyone worrying like crazy they won't be able to get 2GB 6950's that are unlockable in the near future is a bit blown out of proportion.

Also as a side note my XFX 6950 flashed to stock 6970 got its first overclocking session tonight. I hit 930mhz core (not messing with the memory) with 1.2 voltage going to it with nice temps (load temp of about 76C).
 
Matrices said:
Only detail I'm not sure on (and I've asked in the thread) is whether the BIOS the OP has listed includes a voltage bump or whether the voltage bump comes from using Smart doctor:

http://www.overclock.net/ati/923129-hd-6950-810-1250-mhz-shader.html
Click to expand...

The voltage is set in the bios not using SmartDoctor. I use SmartDoctor to raise the CCC limits only then I uninstall it. The CCC limits might even stay raised after flashing the card to a different bios but I have not tried it.
 
well im getting artifacts now with my xfx6950 full mod. anyone got a link tojust the shader mod?
 
p3sty said:
well im getting artifacts now with my xfx6950 full mod. anyone got a link tojust the shader mod?
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I'm not trying to be a negative nancy, but you might want to flip back to your back up bios first and make sure your card doesn't have permanent artifacting
 
thefrick said:
Flashed this BIOS to my XFX 6950s that were previously running a 6950 unlocked BIOS. CCC limits went up as advertised; this is the first time (as far as I know) that I've heard of anyone being able to overclock 6950 CF past the CCC limits without screwing with ULPS, etc. Memory seems to max out around 1350 (will clock higher but performance goes down at 1375), and I haven't taken the cores past 900 yet. Running the Heaven benchmark (1900x1200 4xAA 16xAF) at 900/1350 nets about a 4% performance increase vs. 840/1325/1536 shaders.

I will probably take the cores up higher eventually, but the top card is already hitting 90 degrees C at load (its airflow is somewhat blocked since it's sitting right next to the second card).
Click to expand...

Correct. This is the only technique that actually works properly for Crossfire 6950s stock or shader unlocked. For whatever queer reason, one of my cards is allergic to the higher core voltage even at stock clocks, so I went into RBE and undid his mod to bring the stock voltage down to normal. At least I can still squeeze 880 mhz instead of just 840 with his supplied version of SD and the Asus unlocked BIOS. I'll probably try to see if some value lower than 1.175 but higher than 1.1 volts work, when I feel like wasting time...
 
which is the technique to do this? to run the shaders unlocked but hvae the card overclocked to 6970 levels in crossfire???
 
What's the difference between running the 6970 bios and the 6950 unlocked? Or are they one in the same?

I think I'm going to give the modified asus 6950 bios a try, I like that the core voltage is bumped with ram untouched!
 
You just named the difference right there. I don't think anyone truly knows whether the mem's timings are different as well, but the mem voltage is 100mv less on 6950s.
 
So basically, the increased mem voltage of the 6970 bios could be bad for the 6950's (sometimes) slower memory chips ie such as causing artifacts.

The modified 6950 bios gives the same benefits of the 6970 bios but is more appropriate for memory voltages, especially if the chips are 6950 reference.

But some 6950 cards actually have the same mem chips as the 6970 so the 6970 bios would actually be better for higher OC potential.

In the end it's kind of a wash, some cards will be higher overclocking than others and the performance gains are going to basically be around 6970 levels either way.

I think that sums it up right?
 
Yeah, except I don't know that any 6950s use the 6970 mem chips - has anyone provided proof of that? Most, if not all, are using memory rated at lower speeds.

The bottom line is that you want to use the 6950 unlocked BIOS and follow the steps listed on page 21. No need to risk hardware or waste time with the 6970 BIOS. With the 6970 BIOS flash, more than a few people say it "worked" after 10 minutes and then they come back a few days or weeks later and say they're getting artifacts and have to reflash anyway. And a small number of them have ruined their cards.
 
My card's now running the modded 6950 BIOS and I'm at 880/1375 stable so far. I bumped up overdrive voltage to 20% just to be safe though :)
 
So the XFX cards will work with that Asus utility for unlocking the 6950?
 
What Asus utility? The utility you use is ATI Winflash. Works for any unlockable 6950.
 
Currently my hd6950 is at 900/1350mhz which seems pretty good but not extreme, if i push the memory until it artifacts, does that damage the card? How about overly clocked cores crashing?

I am using modified ASUS BIOs shaders+ 1.175 voltage and using CCC only.
 
theone1989 said:
Currently my hd6950 is at 900/1350mhz which seems pretty good but not extreme, if i push the memory until it artifacts, does that damage the card? How about overly clocked cores crashing?

I am using modified ASUS BIOs shaders+ 1.175 voltage and using CCC only.
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It's unlikely IMO but I have had that happen once before; non-artifacting card pushed until it starts artifacting only to be perma-artifacting afterwards. It wasn't even pushed to an extreme level or anything for an extended period of time, just a few seconds.

I think it was more due to shitty ram chips though; it was in the 9500 -> 9700 modding days that this happened to me IIRC with a sapphire card.
 
hmm one more thing, if crysis crashes and windows give me an option to close it, but my display driver is working (ie windows doesn't give an error message regarding display device/driver like if i set core too high and haven crashes). does that mean it's the game that crashed through no fault of mine, or that graphic card overclock is unstable?

I realise I'm being somewhat paranoid here but it's my first time overclocking.
 
Well remember that with AMD cards, memory or the core or both will "auto-correct" for errors and reduce clocks independently of user control when it would otherwise crash or artifact. So you probably need to look at the logs to see if your OC is actually working.

I've got mine at 935/1325 using 1.14v, edited in RBE. 1.175v messes up my cards.
 
Matrices said:
Well remember that with AMD cards, memory or the core or both will "auto-correct" for errors and reduce clocks independently of user control when it would otherwise crash or artifact. So you probably need to look at the logs to see if your OC is actually working.

I've got mine at 935/1325 using 1.14v, edited in RBE. 1.175v messes up my cards.
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Well I read your post on Overclock.net where I downloaded that ASUS BIOs to make my OC work.

The voltage seems ok on mine. And you did say only 1 of your card was "allergic" to the extra voltage.

I'm not sure what you mean by logs or where to find them, but as I've dialed my memory incrementally from 1325 to 1350 I have seen slight performance increases on Haven. Namely the minimum framerate seems to go up about 0.5 frames if memory is pushed about 25mhz. Score goes up about 15.
 
That's not a utility though. That's just a BIOS. The actual utility is Winflash. But yes, you need that custom Asus BIOS linked on page 21 to use Asus smart doctor, which will unlock your CCC limits.

And yeah, what you're doing re: benchmarks is an alternative to checking logs of clock speeds (which you could do by monitoring tools in GPU-Z or Afterburner), to see whether your OC is sticking.
 
I did the flash on my 6950 and now in 2D I get tons of artifacts. I'm going back to the stock bios for now..
 
zod96 said:
I did the flash on my 6950 and now in 2D I get tons of artifacts. I'm going back to the stock bios for now..
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you used the hd6970 bios instead of modified 6950?

I hope ur lucky in that ur artifacts dissappear after flashing back. i hear some people's don't.
 
Its been over a month and I just wanted to give an update.

My pure Asus 6950 > Asus 6970 bios flash seems to be flawless. When I Overvolt and OC in afterburner, the worst I get when I hit over the limits is a freeze, no artifacts.

My current rock stable clocks are 900/1400 .. Overvolting in Afterburner from 1.150 to 1.175 only produced the tiniest fraction more OC, I believe that one ran 925 rock solid, but the temps went up a significant fraction. It didn't freeze or anything, but I decided that since I intend to keep the card for a long time, I'm willing to lose 25mhz on the core to further lessen any possible heat-related degradation.

Conclusion: The extra 0.025 volts were not worth the extra 25mhz and didn't even net me an extra average frame per second.

So, the pure Asus 6950 card, flashed to the pure Asus 6970 bios off OP's site, netted a rock stable 900/1400 and I'm super happy. The bios flash & new clocks did net roughly 10% more FPS, without changing volts and using only CCC to OC.
 
Running a 6950, flashed with a modified 6950 bios.

Currently running 925/1425, with 1.175 core voltage and a semi-aggressive fan profile in afterburner (fan doesn't go above 40%, but it's louder than the stock fan profile for sure)

For what it's worth, I was running a straight 6970 bios on the card before, but decided to switch to a modified 6950 bios out of paranoia. Only difference is that with the 6970 bios, I got away with 1450 on mem rather than 1425.
 
XFX 6950 unlocked to full shaders and is OC'd at 840-1325. It was a great upgrade from 2 4850s.
 
cactus said:
XFX 6950 unlocked to full shaders and is OC'd at 840-1325. It was a great upgrade from 2 4850s.
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Have the same card, should easily do 900/1400 without hassle. I'm also flashed via my own bios with full shaders unlocked. Love the card, but my goodness the fan is loud :eek:

edit: Damn fan woke me up; I really hope I can get this to work out right, otherwise it's GTX570
 
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It's waking you up at idle? What on earth? Just force it to 20% speed. Silent, and it won't overheat [unless the clocks have bugged at 500mhz, check first, haha]
 
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