New XFX HD6950 2GB user first impressions…

Talking about gpu temps. Some years back I had a 8400gs running 90 degrees. I was a worried coz I know around 120 degrees thermal throttle kicks in. So I went to the nvidia forums asking if its normal for the card to run so hot. So I got a few people asking about the regular thing ventilation if I oc it etc etc. Suddenly a nvidia mod pops up and say NVIDIA GPUs CAN WITHSTAND TEMPERATURES UP TO 600 DEGREES.

So I left the forum took the card out and threw it in the in case of emergency box.
 
As has been said before, the only "unlock-able" 6950 cards were/are reference models and those are disappearing as sales progress. That and the card has to be the 2GB model.

I have not kept an eye on how BIOS flashing and OCs are going, but most reports are positive.

As for drivers, it seems the AMD drivers are quite good and always have been, excepting some problems with Crossfire, which seem at this point to be very well solved.
My only problems ever with AMD drivers were with Crossfire, but that was a while ago.:D
 
Spooony said:
Talking about gpu temps. Some years back I had a 8400gs running 90 degrees. I was a worried coz I know around 120 degrees thermal throttle kicks in. So I went to the nvidia forums asking if its normal for the card to run so hot. So I got a few people asking about the regular thing ventilation if I oc it etc etc. Suddenly a nvidia mod pops up and say NVIDIA GPUs CAN WITHSTAND TEMPERATURES UP TO 600 DEGREES.

So I left the forum took the card out and threw it in the in case of emergency box.
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I think someone was playing a joke. GPUs might be able to withstand 600 degrees fahrenheit when not switched off, for a very limited time, 1 minute or two. No PCB, let alone a graphics card, will survive 600C for any length of time. Never mind when the card is running most GPUs (especially geforces, moreso than radeons) will start to encounter stability problems over a certain threshold, and this worsens with age. Once you have a 2/3 year old card, the worse ones (geforce 8/9 in particular) will start to become unstable around the 85-90C mark.
 
amd7674 said:
LOL ;) Excellent we'll be able to share the glory or pain together :D
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this is how close the HIS came to not fitting ;)

2011-03-11155430.jpg
 
ATI drivers are not bad holy fuck where do people keep getting this from! Maybe 5 or 6 years ago!
 
To be fair, they are. It's just simply a case of 'they aren't much worse than nvidia drivers', so it's a moot point.

Nice tight fit picture. Closest I ever game was a 4870X2 in my old NZXT:

 
Not to hijack but just go and pay like 30 to 50 more and get a 70 and it will smoke this card.
 
Well, if by 10% you mean smoke. I own 6970s too, so I'm not exactly going to slate them too much, but given that 6950s can still unlock to 6970 specification, and 6970s are only 10% faster to begin with, that statement's pretty flaky.
 
I hate those type of graphic cards, they sound like jet engines about to take off :eek:
 
tangoseal said:
Not to hijack but just go and pay like 30 to 50 more and get a 70 and it will smoke this card.
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Or I can just save my 30-50 bux and unlock the shaders and re-bios it to a 6970 2gig ;)


This guy is pretty quiet too -- at least I don't hear it above the 2krpm 120x12mm fan on my hsf. That might change once the antec h20 goes on.
 
Will a 6950 2GB unlocked and then OC'ed after unlock perform better than an nVidia GTX 570 O'C'ed on a 1920 by 1080 resolution?
 
Depends on the game really. It should perform slightly better overall as the GTX570s don't seem to overclock very well.
 
I've heard a lot about people unlocking a 6950 to 6970 bios but I have not heard of people overclocking them once they've unlocked. Do people just not do it? Are people advised not to overclock after the unlock?
 
Maverick1337 said:
I've heard a lot about people unlocking a 6950 to 6970 bios but I have not heard of people overclocking them once they've unlocked. Do people just not do it? Are people advised not to overclock after the unlock?
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No, they are overclocking them also. You can get 6970 performance out of your reference 6950 with almost no problem. I was told to avoid Bios flashing to the 6970 and just use a shader unlock so the RAM values stay the same.


OP, I also went through about 4 or 5 cards this past month and returned for various reasons. My EVGA GTX570 took a dump on me 2 weeks into owning it with an OC that was on stock voltage. I ended up with an MSI 6970 and Arctic Xtreme Plus cooler. 39C idle and 58C max temps in a case that has VERY little airflow. Guess I am sticking with ATI... again :)
 
I flashed to a 6970 bios and then overclocked it from there. After a few days I was getting random freezing in games and on the desktop, so I flashed a unlocked 6950 bios and overclocked to 6970 stock clocks and everything is fine now.
 
Maverick1337 said:
Why is it necessary to have the RAM values stay the same?
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AFAIK, using an HD 6970 BIOS to unlock and HD 6950 card will increase the RAM voltage and will kill your card, the RAM used on the HD 6970 is faster and uses more power than the one used on the HD 6950.
 
evolucion8 said:
AFAIK, using an HD 6970 BIOS to unlock and HD 6950 card will increase the RAM voltage and will kill your card, the RAM used on the HD 6970 is faster and uses more power than the one used on the HD 6950.
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This is what I was told as well. I'm sure ram timings are another concern.
 
Unsurper said:
I hate those type of graphic cards, they sound like jet engines about to take off :eek:
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With a custom profile, it is not too bad. There are always 3rd party cooling solutions.

samuelmorris said:
The memory on 6970s is different to on 6950s. Running at 6970 speeds doesn't always work, and can actually damage it.
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+1

Copyright said:
OP, I also went through about 4 or 5 cards this past month and returned for various reasons. My EVGA GTX570 took a dump on me 2 weeks into owning it with an OC that was on stock voltage. I ended up with an MSI 6970 and Arctic Xtreme Plus cooler. 39C idle and 58C max temps in a case that has VERY little airflow. Guess I am sticking with ATI... again :)
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How is noise with Arctic Xtreme Plus? Did you buy vram/mosfet pack as well?

BTW... I haven't played with o/c this weekend.. I did game little bit though :D
 
Noise is amazing with the Arctic Xtreme Plus. I run a custom fan curve that pushes the fan a little harder then the stock profile. 40% at idle and I cant even hear it at all. It gets up to about 60% when im gaming and its still quiet but you can start to kinda hear it at that point. It's nothing compared to how loud the stock cooler is. Not even remotely close. I did get the VR001 pack with VRM heatsinks and RAM. My VRM's run in the mid 70s under load. What kinda sux is that a glue is used to hold the VRM coolers and RAM coolers in place. So for those companies that let us modify our cards it's kinda hard to return them to stock if its even possible. Overall it's been a great purchase. The rest of my case fans are all Arctic cooling FDB PWM fans daisy chained so the system at idle is almost dead silent.
 
Copyright said:
Noise is amazing with the Arctic Xtreme Plus. I run a custom fan curve that pushes the fan a little harder then the stock profile. 40% at idle and I cant even hear it at all. It gets up to about 60% when im gaming and its still quiet but you can start to kinda hear it at that point. It's nothing compared to how loud the stock cooler is. Not even remotely close. I did get the VR001 pack with VRM heatsinks and RAM. My VRM's run in the mid 70s under load. What kinda sux is that a glue is used to hold the VRM coolers and RAM coolers in place. So for those companies that let us modify our cards it's kinda hard to return them to stock if its even possible. Overall it's been a great purchase. The rest of my case fans are all Arctic cooling FDB PWM fans daisy chained so the system at idle is almost dead silent.
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Excellent ;) Was it difficult to install it?

Once I get my MIR from XFX ($30) I might consider buying AXP with VR001. Too be honest at the moment with stock HSF and custom fan profile I do not find noise level too bad. However it would be nice to improve it. Wow are you saying the MSI glued the sinks or VR001 uses glue to its sinks? In either way I would use Sekisui 5760 double sided Thermal Tape :). I bought the 50ft spool several years ago and I still use it for any modding/overclocking project.
 
The noise can be reduced to a very tolerable level with the right fan profile, while still keeping temps in check. With the fan on 100% it made my TJ-07 reverberate like mad. Was not enjoyable at all.

Anyone know what the deal is with the stickers over the screws on the cooler mount on the XFX? It'd be pretty lame if you had to void your warranty just to maintain (i.e clear out dust) your video card.
 
nvmc said:
The noise can be reduced to a very tolerable level with the right fan profile, while still keeping temps in check. With the fan on 100% it made my TJ-07 reverberate like mad. Was not enjoyable at all.

Anyone know what the deal is with the stickers over the screws on the cooler mount on the XFX? It'd be pretty lame if you had to void your warranty just to maintain (i.e clear out dust) your video card.
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Apparently void stickers apply only to non-North American market. If you live in Canada or US you should be ok to remove them.
 
Already broke them to install a waterblock. And I don't live in NA. Oh well.
 
amd7674 said:
Excellent ;) Was it difficult to install it?

Once I get my MIR from XFX ($30) I might consider buying AXP with VR001. Too be honest at the moment with stock HSF and custom fan profile I do not find noise level too bad. However it would be nice to improve it. Wow are you saying the MSI glued the sinks or VR001 uses glue to its sinks? In either way I would use Sekisui 5760 double sided Thermal Tape :). I bought the 50ft spool several years ago and I still use it for any modding/overclocking project.
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Not difficult really. The glue is a bit of a pain to apply as it likes to leave strings when you pull the tube away. I spent a lot of time prepping everything that was getting a sink. I used ArctiClean 2 part prepper which helped a lot. That and like 30 Q-tips. The VRM's are tiny and you have to pay special attention to those. Also something you want to look at is the RAM sinks that are on the side area. Get the sinks as close to the little resistors as you can. Mine were almost dry and the main heatsink ran into the ram sinks when I tried to fit it on the card. I was able to slide them but you don't want to slide to far or you will short out the resistors. I also used some 4-40 1/2" screws\bolts and plastic washers to install the stock back plate back on the card to give it some rigidity. Plugging the power up is a bit of a pain. Removing the power is even worse. Overall its worth it. Temps and noise are so great I would do it again.
 
Thanks for sharing... It looks sounds like a nice 3rd party HSF :) I'll take closer look at the card when I will change TIM on the GPU...

Copyright said:
Not difficult really. The glue is a bit of a pain to apply as it likes to leave strings when you pull the tube away. I spent a lot of time prepping everything that was getting a sink. I used ArctiClean 2 part prepper which helped a lot. That and like 30 Q-tips. The VRM's are tiny and you have to pay special attention to those. Also something you want to look at is the RAM sinks that are on the side area. Get the sinks as close to the little resistors as you can. Mine were almost dry and the main heatsink ran into the ram sinks when I tried to fit it on the card. I was able to slide them but you don't want to slide to far or you will short out the resistors. I also used some 4-40 1/2" screws\bolts and plastic washers to install the stock back plate back on the card to give it some rigidity. Plugging the power up is a bit of a pain. Removing the power is even worse. Overall its worth it. Temps and noise are so great I would do it again.
Click to expand...
 
Why is my score only in the 5000 range? Could it be because I have SpeedStep turned on?
 
Copyright said:
Do you only have one card? I'm getting 5948 with a single 6970 overclocked.
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One card, overclocked to 6970 speeds, get ~5400. Is 9XXX reserved for the crossfire/SLI crowd?

May also be because I have speedstep enabled...
 
nvmc said:
The noise can be reduced to a very tolerable level with the right fan profile, while still keeping temps in check. With the fan on 100% it made my TJ-07 reverberate like mad. Was not enjoyable at all.

Anyone know what the deal is with the stickers over the screws on the cooler mount on the XFX? It'd be pretty lame if you had to void your warranty just to maintain (i.e clear out dust) your video card.
Click to expand...

My unlocked Sapphire 6950 is really quiet using the auto profile. I can hardly hear it spin up when I enter a game. It's a bit quieter than the GTX260 that it replaced.

Maybe it's because I am stuck at 840/1325 on the default voltage?
 
Bankie said:
My unlocked Sapphire 6950 is really quiet using the auto profile. I can hardly hear it spin up when I enter a game. It's a bit quieter than the GTX260 that it replaced.

Maybe it's because I am stuck at 840/1325 on the default voltage?
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The default fan ramp is very slow. I think it only hits 37% at 80C.
 
I'm more an ATi/AMD fan than NV, even though I've owned both for many years. Quite honestly, I've always had better luck with ATi drivers than NV drivers; your mileage may vary.

My most recent acquisition was an MSI 6950 that flashed to 6970 without issue. The card has given me even more, overclocking on the core to 960MHz and ~1390MHz RAM. I couldn't be happier with my purchase, and the MSI Afterburner, while having some issues and not supporting the 69xx series cards until version 2.1, was a pain, but I'm OK with that.

Afterburner has done a wonderful job creating profiles that have allowed me to determine fan and overclocking profiles. I've found a nice balance of temp/speed/performance that I like...albeit with some extra time involved in getting there.

I'm not in the least bit unhappy with the card, and have had zero driver issues. My only gripe was that Afterburner was not officially supporting the 69xx series cards at release, and that has since been rectified.

Best of luck, and I'm sure you'll enjoy your new card.
 
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