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Cards being damaged by the 6950->6970 bios flash

Wreckage

Wreckage

Banned
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138287

I pulled this out of the AMD drivers thread so as not to drag it off topic any further.

Here is where we left off. Discussing the possibility of a power issue. (Others have mentioned it may have to do with the memory).

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=31231092&postcount=198

Let's just assemble the facts

* The 6970 has an 8-pin + 6-pin connector
* The 6-pin connector is designed to handle 75W, while the 8-pin 150W
* The 6970 uses more power than a 6950
* Several 6950 users have damaged their cards with the bios hack
* Several users who have not damaged their cards have complained of other issues (artifacting, or zero success with the flash).


So it's clear that a.)There is risk in using the bios hack and b.) The 6970 is engineered different than the 6950.
Click to expand...

If your card has been damaged or if you have some insight into the issue, please enlighten us. :thumbsup:
 
The only thing worse than frying your card is all the unfounded RMAs this is going to cause. I'd be real weary at buying a 6950 from Newegg. Who knows what you might end up getting. I don't think they sell all their returns as "open box." I bet that they resell a lot of these returns. Anyway, if someone kills their card from a flash, that's there problem. I just dont want to end up with it.
 
I think flashing a 6950, as fun as may sound like in theory, is just a dumb idea considering that overclocked 6950's can equal 6970's in performance. If it just so happens that yields are so good at the very beginning of it's manufacturing product life AMD had to purposely cripple non-defective, fully functional 6970 cores that could have operated within their TDP goals, then AMD engineers horribly underestimated both their own design and TSMC's abilities to produce good yields.
 
This is why I have advised against flashing in several threads...you get a bigger performance increase from the clocks rather than the shaders. But to each his own.
 
Outrage said:
Ppl that dont even own a 6950 card voted in that poll.... just take a look at the users claiming to have damaged there cards.

Another poll on that site, in this one ppl with working flashes also posts, probably some guys that dont own a 6950 voted in this one also.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138511
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That's why I just put up a public poll here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2142567. There's obviously a lot of misinformation and FUD being spread around, so let's get to the bottom of it with some solid data.
 
People cheaped out and bought a cheaper card, and tried to change the BIOS to that of a more expensive card it wasn't designed/certified as, then it broke. I'm shocked and appalled.
 
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Outrage said:
Ppl that dont even own a 6950 card voted in that poll.... just take a look at the users claiming to have damaged there cards.

Another poll on that site, in this one ppl with working flashes also posts, probably some guys that dont own a 6950 voted in this one also.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138511
Click to expand...
It will also happen with the poll that MrK6 started. People will sign up just to vote so as to skew the results.

There is a definite danger in flashing the HD 6950 to HD 6970. It is a risk that each user takes with a rather expensive card. If you brick it with the BIOS flashed to 6970, your RMA will be denied (of course only the morally bankrupt would do this anyway, but the RMA centers are warned to watch out for these cards).

It is up to each individual user to be aware of the risk, assess it and then decide for themselves. What i did to minimize the risk of a bad BIOS flash was to overclock my HD 6950 to HD 6970 plus speeds to see if it could handle it for a few weeks before i attempted it.

That is my advice. Don't rush into it. Know your card. The HD 6950 is not designed to run as a HD 6970 (period!)

Good luck to the guys who flash it (including me). i even run my former HD 6950 in HD 6970 CrossFire (with the former 6950 in the top slot, of course)

i am also going to try something different; i am going to flash my HD6970 into HD 6950 😛
Anyway, i have a lot of writing to do. My Part One of CF vs SLi is done and i am making the charts for it.
 
happy medium said:
Like I said in the other thread , I don't think most will debate that they will unlock, but its what they do after they unlock thats important.
Click to expand...


Do all sandy bridge CPUs hit 5.2GHz? or just the 1-2% lucky overclockers?

The fact that you can unlock extra shaders, reguardless of how much overclocking headroom that leaves, should be pure win.

if TPU says 97% unlock... thats probably a more accurate answear than we ll get here from doing poles. (where nvidia guys for fun will give bad votes, people without cards will vote ect, plus on tech forums, theres probably more people that look in that have issues than people without, ect ect)
 
Arkadrel said:
The fact that you can unlock extra shaders, reguardless of how much overclocking headroom that leaves, should be pure win.
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No its not a pure win. Have you seen the performance increase a shader unlock gives you vs a 6950 overclocked? The only way to say a unlock is truly successfull is you can overclock it after the unlock, stable and without artifacting for more than a week. Thats my point and this seems to be where the problem is.
 
MrK6 said:
So you're saying that any video card rendering errors signify permanent damage to a video card, it's beyond repair, and therefore "bricked." 🙄
Click to expand...
No, that is a lame attempt at a strawman argument that you are setting up for him.
:thumbsdown:

This is the actual quote:
If your card is damaged, you can't do anything with a brick.
Click to expand...
 
MrK6 said:
So you're saying that any video card rendering errors signify permanent damage to a video card, it's beyond repair, and therefore "bricked." 🙄
Click to expand...

Read the very first link on this page. It specifically discusses cards being damaged.

View Poll Results: Your 6950 started having permanent damage while flashed/clocked as such:
Click to expand...
 
MrK6 said:
I'm not sure what the big deal is, since you can just switch back to the default BIOS at any reboot.
Click to expand...

Bs. For about a week I thought my 6970 flash was fine. I started getting minor artifacts in Dirt 2 but I didnt think anything of it because it only did it on the race selection screen and not in any other games. Well it got worse and worse. When I switched mine back I still had these artifacts. I have a thread on [H] about it and it happened the 2nd week after release.
 
Everyone knows the risk with overclocking and unlocking. If you don't and you still try it, thats on you.

I wonder if I should make a thread of all the exploding overclocked GTX570s. This is nothing but a flamebait thread. Everyone who flashes their card knows the only difference between a 6970 and a 6950 is the memory they use. If you don't adjust your bios to run the memory at lower speed and voltage, you have no one to blame, but yourself.

Same with running any device out of spec. All those people saying buy a 560 and overvolt and overclock it, have you looked at possible dangers and warned everyone? I don't think so. Members on this forum keep stooping to lower and lower levels.

Also a quote from bit-tech

When we asked AMD whether the 2GB version of the HD 6950 would remain on sale, we were told, 'The 2GB cards will continue to exist and offer better capabilities for things like Eyefinity gaming or upcoming titles which may use more than 1GB of memory... There are no plans for the ability for the 2GB vBIOS option to be changed.'
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Skurge said:
Everyone who flashes their card knows the only difference between a 6970 and a 6950 is the memory they use.
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Actually we don't know that. There is a possible issue of binning; and the 6+6 pin PCIe connector on the 6950 vs the 6+8-pin of the 6970.

It is not so cut and dried. And it is quite different than a simple overclock of a 570 as the example you gave.
 
Skurge said:
Also a quote from bit-tech
When we asked AMD whether the 2GB version of the HD 6950 would remain on sale, we were told, 'The 2GB cards will continue to exist and offer better capabilities for things like Eyefinity gaming or upcoming titles which may use more than 1GB of memory... There are no plans for the ability for the 2GB vBIOS option to be changed.'
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Excellent news, I've been trying to wait for the 6950 2GB to hit $240 or so but don't want to miss the unlock option.
 
Skurge said:
Everyone knows the risk with overclocking and unlocking.
Click to expand...

Apparently some people do not.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=31225096&postcount=36

MrK6 said:
Overclocking won't harm hardware,
Click to expand...

NoQuarter said:
Excellent news, I've been trying to wait for the 6950 2GB to hit $240 or so but don't want to miss the unlock option.
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4102914&cm_re=6950_2gb-_-14-102-914-_-Product

$256.99 after mail-in rebate seems pretty close.
 
apoppin said:
Actually we don't know that. There is a possible issue of binning; and the 6+6 pin PCIe connector on the 6950 vs the 6+8-pin of the 6970.

It is not so cut and dried. And it is quite different than a simple overclock of a 570 as the example you gave.
Click to expand...

Binning is a possibilty, but I doubt the lack of an 8pin would damage the card. It might cause instability, but I can't see how it would damage the card. Unless there is something Im missing.
 
I've been running my 6950 with the shaders unlocked, overclocked to 915/1375, for about a week here with no issues whatsoever. I did my research before blundering in and took every possible precaution. I used a shader-unlock mod of my VBIOS rather than just using a stock 6970 BIOS (so memory timings and voltages will definitely be correct), I made sure my PSU was up to it, and I set up a custom fan profile that keeps not just the core but the memory and VRMs below 80C in an extended worse case scenario. I still watch my temperatures every time I'm gaming or using a GPGPU-accelerated application. I haven't seen any artifacting or instability yet, but at the first sign of it, I'll quit what I'm doing and dial back.

This is common sense stuff, just like you do with any overclock or unlock. If you get reckless with it, you could pay the price.
 
I have had my 6950 flashed to 6970 for about 3 weeks and haven't had any problems since. There are people here that are just trying to run their personal agenda. Yes there are people that are going to have problems just like with running any other electronic out of spec. But why is a NVIDIA employee bringing it up? This is the reason I keep buying AMD.


There is no need to make ad hominem personal attacks on the OP.

Re: "But why is a NVIDIA employee bringing it up?"

Moderator Idontcare
 
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lowlymarine said:
I've been running my 6950 with the shaders unlocked, overclocked to 915/1375, for about a week here with no issues whatsoever. I did my research before blundering in and took every possible precaution. I used a shader-unlock mod of my VBIOS rather than just using a stock 6970 BIOS (so memory timings and voltages will definitely be correct), I made sure my PSU was up to it, and I set up a custom fan profile that keeps not just the core but the memory and VRMs below 80C in an extended worse case scenario. I still watch my temperatures every time I'm gaming or using a GPGPU-accelerated application. I haven't seen any artifacting or instability yet, but at the first sign of it, I'll quit what I'm doing and dial back.

This is common sense stuff, just like you do with any overclock or unlock. If you get reckless with it, you could pay the price.
Click to expand...

You do realize you could have just overclocked your stock 6950 and got the same if not more performance right?😕
 
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