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6950 Owners report in

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How is your 6950?

  • Stock 6950

  • 6950 with 6970 BIOS, no problems

  • 6950 with 6970 BIOS, with problems

  • 6950 with just unlocked shaders, no problems

  • 6950 with just unlocked shaders, with problems

Results are only viewable after voting.
What would be my choice? Since I have a custom bios from Powercolor with the cores already unlocked and the core OCed to 880MHz. It's the PCS++ model. No problems by the way, and no comparison with stock settings since it came from the factory unlocked.

edit:
Memory remains at 6950 stock
 
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I installed mine for about one week and still have 10.11(out of the box). I need time to bench the games, see what's what with the 11.4 and aaaaafter that I'll unlock it.

Not very happy with the temps though, it idles at 43C and reaches 80c after several hours in Metro. I wonder how much hotter it'll get once I OC it!
 
Drivenbyvoltage said:
I installed mine for about one week and still have 10.11(out of the box). I need time to bench the games, see what's what with the 11.4 and aaaaafter that I'll unlock it.

Not very happy with the temps though, it idles at 43C and reaches 80c after several hours in Metro. I wonder how much hotter it'll get once I OC it!
Click to expand...

Get Afterburner and set up a custom fan profile. The idle fan speed is unnecessarily low.
 
I flashed my XFX6950 with a 6970 bios and didn't have any issues but decided to revert back to a shader unlocked 6950 bios with a voltage bump to be on the safe side.

It's been running 940/1400 at 1.175 without any issues, not sure if it would go higher but i'd need better cooling to find out.
 
WhoBeDaPlaya said:
2x Sapphire 6950s @ 6970, no worries.
Good thing I got that $50 1kW modular BFG PSU a few months back. Had to mod it to improve 12V3 and 12V4 ripple, but that wasn't a problem.

bfg_ex1000_modded.jpg
Click to expand...

That's bad-ass... I've never seen anyone mod their PSU before. Did you just add extra caps to the +12v rails?
 
I jumped on the flashing wagon really early and unlocked both my cards with an ASUS 6970 bios. I didn't have issues until I started doing DC while using my computer. My cards would be 100% stable, except for when I was using the computer opening and closing windows. After playing with voltage and core speed I realized it could be the more aggressive memory timings of the 6970 bios. Editing a stock 6950 bios to unlock shaders and then using a registry trick to increase the CCC OC limits, I'm sitting happily at 970mhz core at 1.24v no problems.

Word to the wise. If you have a flashable 6950, do so by editing the bios of the card to unlock the shaders, don't just throw a 6970 bios on there, you might have issues with memory timings.
 
Drivenbyvoltage said:
Nope! Just the one. Maybe I just got a bad card, we'll see about that. I could keep my CF 4870 at 28-31C and 37-41C respectively range at idle.

I got an itch to remove the cover and the heat sink, but it'll mean bye bye warranty here. For the time being I'm just using it normally.
Click to expand...

Your fan is at 45% and youre at 43C at idle?

What are your idle clocks?

The temps ok, its not like the card is going to suffer. 45% fan is quite very loud. I'd have thrown mine out the window if it idled at that.

Just to be clear this is a reference 6950 we are talking about?
 
250/150 idle clocks.

It's really not that loud, for me at least. The card is Gigabyte reference.
 
Hi everyone,
I just bought a MSI reference 6950 & flashed it to 6970 after editing the bios of the card to unlock the shaders. Running now 24x7@900,1400.
I don,t know how to increase voltages as msi afterburner does not allow modded cards to change voltages. I game at approx.67-73 degrees celsius with a custom fan profile vide afterburner.
3dmark 11(p) 5280.
Any advise would be appreciated.
---------------------------------------------
My rig-Intel i5 750 cpu @3.36ghz, P55A UD-3R gigabyte mobo, Gskill DDR3-1600 ram 4x2gb , MSI-6950 to 6970 graphic card, thermalright ultima90 cpu cooler with 120mm scythe fan, seasonic SS620watts bronze psu, coolermaster Haf-X cabinet, seagate 7200.12 1TB, WD green 2TB.
 
badb0y said:
I backed myself down to 6950 with unlocked shaders.
Click to expand...
Hi, I unlocked my 6950's shaders but my afterburner showed a max of 840core which forced me to use a saphire 6970 bios. How does one go to a core 1000 on a 6950. Also how do I increase voltages as msi afterburner refuses to make any voltage changes for modded cards. My 3d mark vantage p score is 19113 with 20925gpu score. Is this standard or less at 900/1400 without voltage changes. Thanks
 
rneogi said:
Hi everyone,
I just bought a MSI reference 6950 & flashed it to 6970 after editing the bios of the card to unlock the shaders. Running now 24x7@900,1400.
I don,t know how to increase voltages as msi afterburner does not allow modded cards to change voltages. I game at approx.67-73 degrees celsius with a custom fan profile vide afterburner.
3dmark 11(p) 5280.
Any advise would be appreciated.
---------------------------------------------
My rig-Intel i5 750 cpu @3.36ghz, P55A UD-3R gigabyte mobo, Gskill DDR3-1600 ram 4x2gb , MSI-6950 to 6970 graphic card, thermalright ultima90 cpu cooler with 120mm scythe fan, seasonic SS620watts bronze psu, coolermaster Haf-X cabinet, seagate 7200.12 1TB, WD green 2TB.
Click to expand...

Why did you bump this old thread instead of making your own?
 
It was originally my plan to unlock and overclock, but considering the performance i am getting at of the two MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III's, i don't see the point. The factory overclock on these cards is plenty.
 
rneogi said:
Hi, I unlocked my 6950's shaders but my afterburner showed a max of 840core which forced me to use a saphire 6970 bios. How does one go to a core 1000 on a 6950. Also how do I increase voltages as msi afterburner refuses to make any voltage changes for modded cards. My 3d mark vantage p score is 19113 with 20925gpu score. Is this standard or less at 900/1400 without voltage changes. Thanks
Click to expand...

You have to enable unofficial overclocking in Afterburner. Follow the instructions here. By doing this, you can revert back to your stock bios, unlock the shaders, then overclock. That should keep your card's memory from blowing out.
 
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Joseph F said:
That's bad-ass... I've never seen anyone mod their PSU before. Did you just add extra caps to the +12v rails?
Click to expand...
Whoops, a little late in reading this :S

Yup, added caps to the 12v3 and 12v4 rails for better voltage regulation. It was a bit lacking in the original design (see middle of page) and BFG added two small caps in the revised design.

I went a little overboard though 😛 Has been running fine for the last few months.
 
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