Sapphire HD6950 Toxic Question

NoOther

NoOther

Supreme [H]ardness
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May 14, 2008
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I have 2 of these cards now and am having a problem figuring out how to set the BIOS to the 6970 version. I can't find any documentation on it. Where on the card do you make that switch? Also, has anyone tried to do 5x1 eyefinity with these cards yet and if so, do I need 4 Active mini-DP to DVI converters?
 
Haha, no....

It's a tiny switch on the edge of the PCB...you'll need to use your fingernail to switch it
 
Sweet, I knew I was missing something, I looked all over the darn thing for it. None of the documentation that came with the card even showed it. At first I thought it was the big coin dial thing on the top... So far the card has worked great without the 6970 BIOS. But if I am going to try the 5x1, I believe I may need that extra boost.
 
NoOther said:
...I believe I may need that extra boost.
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A word of warning - I had the chance to test a friend's Sapphire 6950 Toxic recently and I found that when I switched from the default BIOS to the unlocked BIOS I actually LOST performance.

The reason was that unlike the default BIOS, the unlocked BIOS came with the GPU frequency set at the default 800MHz.

If you decide to use the unlocked BIOS be sure to check and make sure your card didn't revert back to the default reference speed of 800MHz. If it did, you may find that you need to manually set the clock speed higher in order to not lose performance.

I should say that the memory speed did not change from BIOS to BIOS so you're good to go there. Also, when I manually set the GPU speed back to 880MHz using TriXX with the unlocked BIOS the card was still stable and very fast. :D
 
andocser said:
A word of warning - I had the chance to test a friend's Sapphire 6950 Toxic recently and I found that when I switched from the default BIOS to the unlocked BIOS I actually LOST performance.

The reason was that unlike the default BIOS, the unlocked BIOS came with the GPU frequency set at the default 800MHz.

If you decide to use the unlocked BIOS be sure to check and make sure your card didn't revert back to the default reference speed of 800MHz. If it did, you may find that you need to manually set the clock speed higher in order to not lose performance.

I should say that the memory speed did not change from BIOS to BIOS so you're good to go there. Also, when I manually set the GPU speed back to 880MHz using TriXX with the unlocked BIOS the card was still stable and very fast. :D
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Thanks for the heads up on that. I have several applications to overclock my cards. I haven't worked much with OC'ing and Crossfire, but have lots of experience with SLI and overclocking. I always had to finesse my OC's when using SLI, have you found that to be the case with crossfire? For instance with my dual 8800GTXs I could overclock them individually an extra 120Mhz or so stably, but in SLI, they would only be stable with a 60Mhz overclock (these were over the factory overclock). With my 460s, I had a similar case where I could only overclock them half as much in SLI compared to individually. Still the overall performance boost from the SLI was much more than the single overclock provided. I still figure if I can have both 6950s running on the 6970 BIOS at 880, that should be enough to handle the 5x1 eyefinity (9600x1200) setup for most of the current games (minus skyrim apparently). The question remains though at what cost to overall graphics performance. Most of the time I figure I would just run a 3x1 setup though.
 
I always had to finesse my OC's when using SLI, have you found that to be the case with crossfire?
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I'm not sure. I'm actually in the same boat as you - I've overclocked video cards in SLI but never in Crossfire.

I can tell you, though, that the Toxic runs hot compared to other 6950s with a dual-fan cooling solution like Sapphire's 6950 Dirt 3 edition. My educated guess is that you'll find your limiting factor is how well you're able to keep your cards cool if you choose to overclock.
 
andocser said:
I'm not sure. I'm actually in the same boat as you - I've overclocked video cards in SLI but never in Crossfire.

I can tell you, though, that the Toxic runs hot compared to other 6950s with a dual-fan cooling solution like Sapphire's 6950 Dirt 3 edition. My educated guess is that you'll find your limiting factor is how well you're able to keep your cards cool if you choose to overclock.
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That is interesting, my current Toxic card actually runs cooler than my 460GTX and cooling I have extensive experience with. Currently I will have both in my Antec Skeleton case which thus far, has provided pretty decent cooling for an open case. If I do notice it getting too hot, I will just go back to getting watercooling blocks for the cards. I don't plan on trying to OC it more than the 880 though.
 
catalyst6 said:
You better be trolling, as either you edited your post or another post above was deleted that suggested using a flathead screwdriver to turn that little plastic nob thing on top of the card.
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Hrm, I didn't see anyone suggest that except me in my original post as a funny aside. I edited it out originally then commented about it later.
 
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