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New 6950. Questions about unlocking.

D

de8212

Diamond Member
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?
 
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.
 
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 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.
 
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 said:
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?
Click to expand...

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.
 
de8212 said:
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?
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
 
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%
 
SolMiester said:
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%
Click to expand...

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:
 
You might want to check that Bartman.....I have seen a number of posts confirming, BIOS unlock %= just 3%, whereas OC %>15%....
 
de8212 said:
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?
Click to expand...

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
 
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.
 
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