6950->6970 Flash Success Rates - With Poll

[bargetrav]

I voted, my 6950 unlocked with 6970 bios, also OC'd to 925core/1410mem, running 2 months stable now almost.

 

[Wanevinger]

Thats the funny thing. I know its not the psu because when i installed and tested my rig it was at eye level and when i flashed and heard the sound i stuck my head inside my machine partially and it is in fact my video card.

 

[lyang238]

Voted, Asus HD6950 unlocked shaders only @ 920/1450. Sits at 40 idle 60 c load with 45% fan.

 

[KIAman]

XFX 6950 flashed with ASUS 6970 and OC'd to 950/1350 @ 1.2v stable 24x7 so far.

FYI, my GPU makes a slight squeal when running the ATI artifact tool but not when playing games.

 

[brencat]

Voted, Asus HD6950 unlocked shaders only @ 920/1450. Sits at 40 idle 60 c load with 45% fan.

What voltage you using for this OC?

 

[badb0y]

XFX 6950 flashed with ASUS 6970 and OC'd to 950/1350 @ 1.2v stable 24x7 so far.

FYI, my GPU makes a slight squeal when running the ATI artifact tool but not when playing games.

Look at the FPS in ATi Tool, it should be well over a thousand which causes the noise for some reason.

 

[KIAman]

Look at the FPS in ATi Tool, it should be well over a thousand which causes the noise for some reason.

The FPS is like 2800. I don't care about the noise because it doesn't make it while playing games, only the FPS tool and artifact tool.

 

[Tim]

I did the shader only unlock to my Sapphire 6950, and left the voltage at the 6950 stock voltage. Great Success! I also have the card mildly over-clocked to the Overdrive limits (840/1325) The card is rock solid through testing, no strange noise issues.

I feel better and better about this purchase every day that I own the card!

 

[trexpesto]

I did the shader only unlock to my Sapphire 6950, and left the voltage at the 6950 stock voltage. Great Success! I also have the card mildly over-clocked to the Overdrive limits (840/1325) The card is rock solid through testing, no strange noise issues.

I feel better and better about this purchase every day that I own the card!

What steps did you use? I have tried the switch, the wizzard script errors out, trie RBE and atiwinflash, also atiflash and some old versions, but it's not working. I am on the Catalyst 11 - is that wrong? Maybe bump up the volts in Trixx?

Crap old thread so sorry.

 

[Shmee]

mine were both flashed with my own bios, just unlocked shaders. both were successful.

 

[lehtv]

The success rate overall looks to be about 80%, not bad. But this info isn't particularly useful if there are big differences between models

 

[MobiusPizza]

I believe it is safer to flash using a modified 6950 BIOS to unlock shader, rather than using a 6970 BIOS, and overclock core manually leaving out the memory. The 6950 uses lower bin memory and may not handle the extra frequency or voltage stress a 6970 BIOS may apply.

 

[Arkadrel]

The success rate overall looks to be about 80%, not bad. But this info isn't particularly useful if there are big differences between models

success:
~46% flashed a 6950 -> 6970 using a modified 6950 BIOS
~22% flashed 2x 6950's -> 2x 6970's w/ modified 6950 BIOS
~27% flashed a 6950 -> 6970 using a 6970 BIOS
~19% flashed 2x 6950's -> 2x 6970's using a 6970 BIOS


Dude111 it seems tried everything, and nothing worked for him (and supposedly some worked for him as well?). But hes in all 3 "no success" poles, so he makes up 3 times as much as the others people that voted.

He also voted yes, to a success so either hes trolling or... anyways pole is not flawless.

out of 8 votes not working, he has 3 of them ( ~37,5%)
If you disreguard him as a troll.... *actual* fail rate is around 14% from this pole.


Which is not far, from first claims of ~90% success.

 

[RussianSensation]

Which is not far, from first claims of ~90% success.

Our pool doesn't have a large enough sample size to be very relevant.

Looking at the larger sample size at TechPowerup, the HD6950 2GB flashing success rate is extremely high, much higher than 90%.

This # would probably be reduced as AMD board partners eventually removed the physical BIOS switch which made many reluctant to outright flash the BIOS without a backup.

Still, even now users are reporting successful flashing with MSI TwinFrozr III (still has a bios switch), and the Sapphire Dirt 3 Edition (which I think also has a bios switch).

 

[apoppin]

I believe it is safer to flash using a modified 6950 BIOS to unlock shader, rather than using a 6970 BIOS, and overclock core manually leaving out the memory. The 6950 uses lower bin memory and may not handle the extra frequency or voltage stress a 6970 BIOS may apply.

If you brick your card with a non-factory BIOS installed, you are out of luck with warranty service anyway.

That said, my reference HD 6950 flashed-to-HD 6970 has been going strong since before it was released - and it often goes into a CrossFire and Tri-Fire configuration. Just don't overclock the memory any further! And you can underclock it also.
:whiste:

 

[cmdrdredd]

I believe it is safer to flash using a modified 6950 BIOS to unlock shader, rather than using a 6970 BIOS, and overclock core manually leaving out the memory. The 6950 uses lower bin memory and may not handle the extra frequency or voltage stress a 6970 BIOS may apply.

I notice that my 6950 (unlocked from factory) won't go past 1350 without errors on the memory. Core is sitting at 890 now (sig says 900 but I adjusted down because there was no real world difference except heat output).

 

[Makaveli]

I have a first revision sapphire card, been running it for months now unlocked.

I used wizzard tool to just unlock the shaders on my bios and msi afterburner to push it to 6970 vcore and 900/1325 clocks.

Had no issues at all i've also replaced the stock cooler!

 

[saratoga172]

I unlocked it with the 6970 bios just to say I did, then about 2 weeks later set it back to stock when I realized nothing taxed the card in it's natural 6950 state.

Didn't notice increased temps. Card still runs great today and is at it's stock 6950 state.

Might do the bios flash again in the future to see how it effects games...even though there isn't really a need to. Might just save it for the future.