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I tried the bios that Spudsdude had, and I still need to set the power to +13 to keep it from throttling in furmark, so I am going to assume the bios is the same as the one that came with my card.Yes, sapphire has indeed kept their promise on flashing the new cards they shipped out with the new bios. I have also flashed my cards with this bios and it's more stable than a standard 6950 bios. The only thing sapphire is falling short on is supplying this bios to the few people who were affected by the first batch. When my buddy called them the other day they acted like the bios didn't exist. He asked them to ask their other techs and the engineering department and they basically told him that there is no bios to send him. Anyway he was upset and his poor 550 watt psu that was on it's knees in his setup was pretty sad too. Thanks to Spudsdude he now has the updated bios flashed on his card. He and his psu couldn't be happier
Spudsdude
++++REP!
I RMA'd the card hopefully the next one has a better fan and it unlocks 1536 shaders
I was posting this in another thread, but I've read through this thread and have the same problem with not being able to unlock my 6950. First time I tried I got the completion method after forcing a flash in the command prompt, but then it didn't load with any drivers and only has 700 something shaders. I dl'd the drivers and it wen't back to 1408.
Can someone link me to a successful bios version that is newer than the ones given on techpowerup at this link, http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...ufacturer=&model=HD+6970&interface=&memSize=0
I used the most recent Sapphire release (the one from march) and I'm still stuck at original shader count.
The second bios on this card is already a unlocked bios, if your still showing 1408 shaders it's because your shaders are laser blocked.
Back up your bios using RBE
Load that bios in RBE
Make sure it says 6950 for the device id under vendor id/device id
Go to the last tab in the upper right and make sure 6950->6970 shaders is checked off.
It should be, and if so, then your not going to be able to unlock your gpu. Remember it's luck of the draw with these gpus as some are unlockable and others aren't.
Sigh, was able to confirm I got a dud. Saved bios from both bios 1 and 2,
2 was 6950, 1 was 6960-6970 unlock checked.
Both bios were from 8/16/11. I get the feeling though from the condition of the box, this might have been opened. Isn't new toxic supposed to be sealed in a anti static bag ? Not just hanging out hlaf way with no sticker or tape on the seal ?
Just curious
Hey guys - Can somone explain how to check whether I need to do the 20% power deal as described in the review?
I installed the card, installed the bios, and voila, unlocked shaders. I didn't even flip the switch, but maybe it was already flipped on the 6970 position. Anyways, I'm not sure if I need to do the 20% power or not? Thanks in advance for any help.
I was wondering the same thing. Anyone?
run furmark, extreme burn in mode
if the gpu speed varies (from 880mhz to something slower), you have the old bios
if it does not, your good to go
The change in power, as I understand it, attempts to keep the card within the tdp power level you have set, so if you increase the +20% it won't throttle the card if it's power use is at it's rated +20% of the max.
i.e. setting it to +20% won't harm anything, but the card isn't going to slow down to save on power usage. It doesn't cause it to use more power then it's rated at, it just won't throttle the card if you hit that mark.
the issue is the older bios would throttle the card at stock speeds (no overclocking by you) to a slower value
if you wanted to save on power you could cause the card to throttle automatically by -20% when fully loaded.. which with this card would just be silly
I was posting this in another thread, but I've read through this thread and have the same problem with not being able to unlock my 6950. First time I tried I got the completion method after forcing a flash in the command prompt, but then it didn't load with any drivers and only has 700 something shaders. I dl'd the drivers and it wen't back to 1408.
Can someone link me to a successful bios version that is newer than the ones given on techpowerup at this link, http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...ufacturer=&model=HD+6970&interface=&memSize=0
I used the most recent Sapphire release (the one from march) and I'm still stuck at original shader count.
My cards came with the updated bios (about a month ago) so I would say it's a safe bet the new ones also have it on there.
One of the first things I did is submit it to techpowerup's site (vga bios area), it still never appeared there.
Here's the bios on rapidshare, mod's if this is against the rules please remove the link.
https://rapidshare.com/files/4045339177/6950_toxic_2gb_unlocked_bios.rar
MD5 of the bios is included in the file.
The MD5 Hash is as follows
7a0a79a46b18f1cb0522142c671fda4b Cayman.bin
i got mine last thurs. mine came clocked at 880. flipped the switch and it was unlocked. set it to 900/1375 and its been running great. the only time i have seen it down clock is running the furmark torture test. in games like bf3 it never down clocks. max load temp is 72-73c with the default fan profile.
anyoneAnyone know if the original unlocked reference 6950 bios will fly on these cards?
anyone
Looks like Newegg has discontinued the TOXIC HD 6950 in their inventory too...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102951
got mine on 10/26 and it seems the power tune issue still exists. unlocked, overclocked to 960/1375mhz with 1.200v on trixx. Is that a high voltage for those speeds? I feel like I've been seeing a lot of people able to do those speeds just at stock voltage.