New 6950. Questions about unlocking.

[de8212]

I have the XFX 2GB 6950 and I've read about unlocking/overclocking/shares/etc to 6970 levels.

I read through this article and am confused. From what I understand I would be better off unlocking the shaders and then overclocking instead of actually flashing a 6970 BIOS to my card. Is this true?

The article above mentions unlocking the shaders by flashing to the 6970 BIOS.

So what is the best method?

 

[terry107]

Unlock the shaders by flashing the bios already on your card. Follow the instructions in this post.

I did it just last week on an MSI 6950 and it worked like a charm.

 

[RussianSensation]

Alternatively, there is a BIOS from PowerColor that has 880mhz GPU clocks, 1.175V for the GPU, and stock HD6950 memory.

You can find it here in Post #2 from Halk.

 

[de8212]

Thanks to both of you for the quick responses.

I'll look over both links a little more closely when I'm at home. In general, what is the difference in the 2? Is it just higher clocks on the 2nd?

 

[DrBoss]

The bios profile linked by Russian maintains the stock memory clocks, which is important (but not absolutely necessary) if you want the card to stay alive for a long time.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Which Xfx model do you have? There's a A and a C model. Reference and non reference. The reference card will have a Amd mark on the Pci-e slot of it. The non reference models can't be unlocked to last I heard. Maybe someone can refresh us.

 

[de8212]

Thanks Dr. Boss.

Pie - I have the reference model here.

 

[terry107]

Thanks to both of you for the quick responses.

I'll look over both links a little more closely when I'm at home. In general, what is the difference in the 2? Is it just higher clocks on the 2nd?

The clocks can be adjusted either way (mine is running at 900/1400). The important thing is to not mess with the memory voltage. The 6970 uses different memory that can handle higher voltage. People flashing their 6950s using a 6970 bios (as opposed to just unlocking the shaders) were having problems because the 6950's memory couldn't handle the increased voltage.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Thanks Dr. Boss.

Pie - I have the reference model here.

Yeah use the shader unlock. Don't destroy your card with wrongly modded voltages. They edit the wrong table entries in the bios aswell. So shader is the way to go.

 

[Arkadrel]

Alternatively, there is a BIOS from PowerColor that has 880mhz GPU clocks, 1.175V for the GPU, and stock HD6950 memory (voltage).

You can find it here in Post #2 from Halk.

^ best way to go about it.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I read through this article and am confused. From what I understand I would be better off unlocking the shaders and then overclocking instead of actually flashing a 6970 BIOS to my card. Is this true?

This is the safest and most conservative way. You can then figure out the limits of your card using Afterburner or some such
then flash an appropriate OCed BIOS (like the one Russian posted) to lock the values in.

 

[Tempered81]

Just flashed my 6950 to an 'unlocked 6950 bios'. Did it this way to prevent unhealthy voltages and timings on the memory that come with the 6970 bios.

Working great. Using afterburner I'm maxing out at 1005/1400 @ 1.300 vcore.

 

[SolMiester]

I thought there wasnt much of a gain from the risk of flashing...maybe 2-3%, where an OC to stock BIOS has little risk and much better performance increase 10-15%

 

[Mezzanine]

Working great. Using afterburner I'm maxing out at 1005/1400 @ 1.300 vcore.

Nice, are you using aftermarket cooling?

 

[SickBeast]

OP you've got to be very careful with the memory voltage. You can fry your card if you run it at the same voltage as a 6970.

 

[Bartman39]

I thought there wasnt much of a gain from the risk of flashing...maybe 2-3%, where an OC to stock BIOS has little risk and much better performance increase 10-15%

Not really the case... But with the OC it really shines just remember shader unlocking does not mess with the memory timings which are what kills the cards... OC`ing the core and memory alone helps but those extra shaders are the real key...

Just to let the OP know I run that same exact card uh well 2 of them and both unlocked super easy and made a big difference and when OC`d they get busy in a real quick way...:thumbsup:

 

[SolMiester]

You might want to check that Bartman.....I have seen a number of posts confirming, BIOS unlock %= just 3%, whereas OC %>15%....

 

[badb0y]

It's like 3% in synthetics but in actual games it's more but still very miniscule, maybe 5% or so.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

I have the XFX 2GB 6950 and I've read about unlocking/overclocking/shares/etc to 6970 levels.

I read through this article and am confused. From what I understand I would be better off unlocking the shaders and then overclocking instead of actually flashing a 6970 BIOS to my card. Is this true?

The article above mentions unlocking the shaders by flashing to the 6970 BIOS.

So what is the best method?

a reference card you need. To see if its a reference one just look at the Pci-e slot of the card. There should be Amd on there

 

[de8212]

So I followed the directions here. Everything seemed to go well.

I have 1536 Unified Shaders now. Set up fan control in Trixx as well.

Guess that's it for now. Not really worried about overclocking yet. Haven't even tried any games on my new system.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Skurge]

You might want to check that Bartman.....I have seen a number of posts confirming, BIOS unlock %= just 3%, whereas OC %>15%....

Nothing wrong with getting 5% extra performance for free added to that 15% OC is there?