Sapphire 6950 Toxic Edition in stock @ Newegg

MendeZ said:
well this kinda sucks.. should I rma it or is there not much of a difference between the 6970 and 6950? how do i check if it cant be unlocked for sure
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I"m not sure, but there is definitely something odd about your card. Whether it unlocks or not there is one variable that shouldn't change and for some strange reason on your card it has. 1 bios is a fail safe and can't be overwritten and one can/should be writable to. That variable is different on your unique card because according to your testing neither of the 2 bioses is writable. That's either a hardware issue or user error. If you satisfied that you have done enough to rule out the latter I'd RMA it. There is absolutely no reason at all why at least one of the 2 bioses shouldn't overwrite.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
I"m not sure, but there is definitely something odd about your card. Whether it unlocks or not there is one variable that shouldn't change and for some strange reason on your card it has. 1 bios is a fail safe and can't be overwritten and one can/should be writable to. That variable is different on your unique card because according to your testing neither of the 2 bioses is writable. That's either a hardware issue or user error. If you satisfied that you have done enough to rule out the latter I'd RMA it. There is absolutely no reason at all why at least one of the 2 bioses shouldn't overwrite.
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using winflash I get that cannot write over rom or w.e on each bios, so I do what they tell me to and try to flash using cmd, win flash will start doing it and disappear half way through on one of the bios, on the other it will still give the cannot erase rom. So I am kinda lost on what to do.
 
MendeZ said:
using winflash I get that cannot write over rom or w.e on each bios, so I do what they tell me to and try to flash using cmd, win flash will start doing it and disappear half way through on one of the bios, on the other it will still give the cannot erase rom. So I am kinda lost on what to do.
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Okay, how about this then, just simply back up the original bios in the second (unlocked position) and then opening up that bios in RBE. (Radeon Bios editor) Once opened go to the additional features tab on the top right. See if the 6950 --> 6970 shader section si checked off to the 6970 shader count. IF it is checked off use gpu-z to see if the card is showing 1408 or 1536 shaders. If it's showing 1408 your GPU is not unlock-able so no need to worry about flashing the bios in the first place. I'm just curious what that bios says.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Okay, how about this then, just simply back up the original bios in the second (unlocked position) and then opening up that bios in RBE. (Radeon Bios editor) Once opened go to the additional features tab on the top right. See if the 6950 --> 6970 shader section si checked off to the 6970 shader count. IF it is checked off use gpu-z to see if the card is showing 1408 or 1536 shaders. If it's showing 1408 your GPU is not unlock-able so no need to worry about flashing the bios in the first place. I'm just curious what that bios says.
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It was not checked off, 6950 was checked :( I guess this means I got an unlockable one... fml
 
MendeZ said:
It was not checked off, 6950 was checked :( I guess this means I got an unlockable one... fml
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Okay, shut down, flip the switch and do the same thing again. There are 2 different bioses flashed to that card, one for each position. Back up the second bios and check to see if it's checked off.

This is where the bios flashing comes in. If you back up the second bios and it IS checked off then this is your secondary writable bios. The other one is the fail safe bios even though you thought it was the other way around. You may have been trying to overwrite the bios that isn't overwritable. Remember 1 bios will have that checked off and one will not. It comes from sapphire just like that.

Check using gpu-z again and if it says 1408 shaders then that means your gpu is not unlockable.

If for some strange reason the second bios is also showing that it's not checked off, you need to figure out which is the writable bios. Hardocp says it's the right position. So if the card is laying flat on your desk with the fan facing you it is the right side or the side closest to the fan on the card. What you should be able to do is open that same bios you backed up from the card when it was in that position using RBE (radeon bios editor) Go to the additional features and add a check there. Then you can save that newly modded bios to your system using RBE by naming it something else.

There is no reason (zero) why that bios shouldn't flash to your card. Use RBE acquire/flash, click search and when it finds your card add a check to the box that says force flash, say yes to continue after getting the ugly warning, click flash bios and say yes to any warnings etc.. and let it flash. Keep in mind this is the same bios the card has with a minor modification. Again Zero reason why this shouldn't flash to the card unless the bios switch is in the wrong position. One of those positions is writable one isn't. It's supposed to be that cut and dry and that simple. Not that anything in hardware ever is as simple as it's supposed to be :p
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Okay, shut down, flip the switch and do the same thing again. There are 2 different bioses flashed to that card, one for each position. Back up the second bios and check to see if it's checked off.

This is where the bios flashing comes in. If you back up the second bios and it IS checked off then this is your secondary writable bios. The other one is the fail safe bios even though you thought it was the other way around. You may have been trying to overwrite the bios that isn't overwritable. Remember 1 bios will have that checked off and one will not. It comes from sapphire just like that.

Check using gpu-z again and if it says 1408 shaders then that means your gpu is not unlockable.

If for some strange reason the second bios is also showing that it's not checked off, you need to figure out which is the writable bios. Hardocp says it's the right position. So if the card is laying flat on your desk with the fan facing you it is the right side or the side closest to the fan on the card. What you should be able to do is open that same bios you backed up from the card when it was in that position using RBE (radeon bios editor) Go to the additional features and add a check there. Then you can save that newly modded bios to your system using RBE by naming it something else.

There is no reason (zero) why that bios shouldn't flash to your card. Use RBE acquire/flash, click search and when it finds your card add a check to the box that says force flash, say yes to continue after getting the ugly warning, click flash bios and say yes to any warnings etc.. and let it flash. Keep in mind this is the same bios the card has with a minor modification. Again Zero reason why this shouldn't flash to the card unless the bios switch is in the wrong position. One of those positions is writable one isn't. It's supposed to be that cut and dry and that simple. Not that anything in hardware ever is as simple as it's supposed to be :p
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okay so both bios have 6950 checked not 6950 > 6970 shaders checked, when i try to flash with rbe it gives me this error even with force flash on, I think it was wrong adaptor or something selected, even though there is only one adaptor for the graphics card.

also since you seem to have 2 of these? What should I overclock them to for bf3? I don't really know how to test this stuff so as long as its stable would be fine with me
 
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MendeZ said:
okay so both bios have 6950 checked not 6950 > 6970 shaders checked, when i try to flash with rbe it gives me this error even with force flash on, I think it was wrong adaptor or something selected, even though there is only one adaptor for the graphics card.

also since you seem to have 2 of these? What should I overclock them to for bf3? I don't really know how to test this stuff so as long as its stable would be fine with me
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That's strange and inconsistent with a sapphire toxic. The toxic is supposed to have a bios with 1408 shaders and one with 1536 shaders. Also one of the 2 bioses should be flashable so nothing is consistent. I'd send the card back if I were you. However remembering your situation it took forever for you to receive that card in the mail. See if they can send you one first then allow you to send the first one back after.

Also I have 2 unlocked 6950s but they are not the sapphire toxic model. They are reference cards. For battlefield I'd aim for as high a gpu clock as you can get stable. I play at 965mhz and 1415 on my vram all day. I get pretty good performance in the open beta but not as good as I would have liked. However, I'm using eyefinity @ 3240x1920. I'll see how the retail release performs after AMD releases their official drivers for battlefield 3. I think ultimately I'm going to have to setting for post process AA on deferred AA off and Ambient Occlusion disabled to get performance I'll be happy with. A compromise I'm willing to make to enjoy the game in eyfinity.
 
FYI, regarding my Toxic's OC, I overclocked it and got 955/1420. I've yet to continue pushing it further, just did a rough OC with 15 minutes of Furmark stability check. I haven't done any game stability tests yet.

As for temperatures, I'm getting ~73C at 50% fan (getting quite loud at 50% fan speed) during Furmark's burn in, so I'm expecting ~65C at 40% fan in gaming. Pretty decent

Sorry to hear about your difficulties, MendeZ. :(
 
I would love to get one of these cards to test out, but I would hate to be one that didn't get an unlocked one, plus the fan noise is an issue.
 
Rhyick said:
FYI, regarding my Toxic's OC, I overclocked it and got 955/1420. I've yet to continue pushing it further, just did a rough OC with 15 minutes of Furmark stability check. I haven't done any game stability tests yet.

As for temperatures, I'm getting ~73C at 50% fan (getting quite loud at 50% fan speed) during Furmark's burn in, so I'm expecting ~65C at 40% fan in gaming. Pretty decent

Sorry to hear about your difficulties, MendeZ. :(
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is it safe to overclock the memory? I currently have mine overclocked to 915 but I dont want to go higher in case it blows up :(
 
MendeZ said:
is it safe to overclock the memory? I currently have mine overclocked to 915 but I dont want to go higher in case it blows up :(
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915 would be the core. Yes, both core and memory are safe. I wouldn't go over 1500 on the memory though.
 
i just got my toxic in yesterday from newegg. before installing it i flipped the bios switch to position 2 which is closer to the fan then booted windows installed 11.10 cats and checking with gpuz i have the 1536 shaders. i always thought sapphire made cheap stuff but this card is quality.
 
rhexis said:
i just got my toxic in yesterday from newegg. before installing it i flipped the bios switch to position 2 which is closer to the fan then booted windows installed 11.10 cats and checking with gpuz i have the 1536 shaders. i always thought sapphire made cheap stuff but this card is quality.
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Now that is consistent with what I've read about this card. No flashing required. Flip the switch to the right and BAM! 1536 shaders... Enjoy ;)
 
MendeZ said:
I am sad, why did I get the bumb card
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Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Send that mofo back mendez!! :)

Again I know you waited what felt like forever for it but ask for them to send you one ahead of time and newegg might do it for you. Newegg in the US is very friendly and I hope newgg.ca is the same.

BTW I hope i'm right, I seem to remember you ordered from newegg.ca
 
So... I do have somewhat of a hiccup. I ordered from Newegg on 10/12, which is in line with the rebate (link). But, on the link that you are supposed to go to on 4myrebate, it only lists it as ending purchases on 9/30 instead of 10/15 as in the pdf. Because of this, their system doesn't let me submit my rebate!

Did anyone else run into the same problem? What did you do? Call Newegg/Sapphire? :p
 
just wanted to confirm that my 6950 dirt 3 edition ordered off of newegg unlocked by just flipping the bios switch to the 2nd slot.. 1536 unified!
 
does anyone know if a corsair hx650 would be enough to run two 6950s crossfired? im also running a 2500k oc to 4.5.
 
Depends on the voltage to your CPU. You probably could get away with that, but it is pushing it somewhat!
 
So I overclocked my toxic to 950/1350 and noticed some artifacting in bf3, or at least I think it was, I was getting these green blue squares popping up in the bottom right and random like black boxes at times, turned my overclock off and its gone, hopefully i didnt damage this bumb card
 
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