[Reviews/Benchmarks] Sapphire 6950 Toxic 2GB Overclocking & Unlocked

BUGS & FIXES
(1) If you're getting low FPS or stuttering in game make sure you have Power Tune set to 20% or higher on the slider, you can find it in the Catalyst Control Centre > AMD Overdrive > Power Control Settings. (This is a problem with all HD6000 and GTX500 cards, not sure how to fix the GTX500 but it should be in Nvidia Control Panel)

(2) Catalyst Control Centre conflicts with any custom fan profiles you set in Sapphire Trixx, to get around this problem follow the steps below in order:

-set Trixx to open when windows starts
-set Power Control Settings to atleast 20% (because you may have difficulty accessing AMD Overdrive after following these steps)
-disable Catalyst Control Centre in startup
-restart computer
-open Catalyst Control Centre (this must be done everytime you restart)
-select custom fan profile in Trixx (this must be done everytime you restart)
-you must keep Trixx open, you can minimize it but do not close it (clicking "X" in Trixx closes it, unlike CCC and MSIAfterburner)


*thanks "Blameless" for this solution

(3) Power Tune resets to 0% when using MSIAfterburner, you can resolve this by forcing constant voltage in Afterburner.

(4) No voltage control in MSIAfterburner, currently no solution.




NEWS & UPDATES

August 30/2011 - Reviewers at HardOCP have contacted Sapphire and they have confirmed that Sapphire will be releasing a BIOS update for the 6950 Toxic that should fix the PowerTune issue that limits the power draw leading to slower performance. Currently the only way to resolve this is to enable OverDrive in Catalyst Control Centre and manually set it to 20% or higher. You could also edit the BIOS yourself to get around this.




Professional Reviews

(1) HardOCP = Editors Choice Enthusiast Gold Award
(2) OverclockersClub = OCC Gold
(3) Kit Guru = Must Have
(4) HEXUS = 3/5
(5) motherboards.org = Editor's Choice
(6) PureOC = Great Hardware
(7) XbitLabs.com = Editor's Choice
(8) TweakTown.com = MUST HAVE Editor's Choice
(9) HardwareHeaven.com = Performance Award



Table of Contents:
(1). My Comments
(2). 6950 Toxic Dual BIOS Download
(3). Testing Method, System Specs, CPU-Z & GPU-Z
(4). 3DMark11
(5). Unigine Heaven
(6). FurMark
(7). Bad Company 2
(8). Acoustics & Conclusion



(1). My Comments

This is my first review/benchmark, so be kind..

I hope someone finds these benchmarks useful if they are thinking about picking up a 6950 or 6970.



(2). Original Stock 6950 Toxic Dual BIOS Download

Zipped Download Here ---> Stock 6950 Toxic dual BIOS (100312TXSR) 81k .zip file

Inside you will find 2 .bin files which are the original BIOS that came with the card, the 6950 Toxic BIOS and the pre-installed 6970 BIOS. I have uploaded these to TechPowerUp, but it isn't up yet. Use these at your own risk, I take no responsibility for any damage that maybe the result of using anything I have provided here. [Just a disclaimer, I have no malicious intent, I triple checked that I didn't mix up the BIOS when I was saving them.]



(3). Testing Method, System Specs, CPU-Z & GPU-Z

-All benchmarks were run on stock GPU voltages (1.175V)
-Ambient room temperature fluctuated from 25C to 28C
-Benchmarks took place in my room over the course of several days

System Specs:
i7-860 3.5GHz @ 1.2V Hperthreading disabled
Asus P7P55D Pro
Sapphire 6950 Toxic 2GB Stock Voltage (1.175)
2x4GB G.Skill Sniper 1600 9-9-9-24 @1.5V
60GB Corsair Force3 SSD & 1TB WD Black
Corsair HX850
CM690 II Advanced
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit








(4). 3DMark11


Edited by OrangeBunnies - 11/22/11 at 7:32pm

(5). Unigine Heaven







(6). FurMark

Notes:
The temperatures were getting a bit too high for my liking, so I switched from auto to 55% constant, I really don't want to blow up my shiny new card.

At 950/1425 I noticed some glitching 5 minutes into the test, the furry donut flashed a wire frame for a second and then went back to normal and continued uninterrupted for an hour. All other tests in Furmark were 5 minute runs.

I manage to run at 950/1450 for an hour before it crashed.








(7). Bad Company 2

I used the single player mission "Cold War" from the start to when you call in an airstrike to blow up the enemy tank, it's about a 10 minute run through. I tried using 950/1425, the highest stable clocks I found while stress testing, unfortunately it crashes to desktop giving me the "Error, windows has recovered from a GPU crash". Then again, BC2 isn't exactly the most reliable game to test on. The min FPS drops a lot due to freezing, most likely caused by the fact that my game is installed on a different HDD than my OS, and of course the game changes every time I ran through it.

Temperature: 78C-79C for all runs





(8). Acoustics & Conclusion

The highest stable clock speeds on stock voltage(1.175V) I could get were 950/1425. Anything higher on either BIOS would crash in either Furmark, Unigine Heaven or 3DMark11.


Acoustics
All tests were done subjectively sitting about 100cm away from the case which is raised 50cm off the ground. I found that the fan is generally quieter than the reference 69xx coolers, 40% on the reference coolers was about the same noise level of 50% on the Toxic cooler.

My Case Setup:
1x Scythe KQ01-BK-3.5 "KAZE Q" Fan Controller

Stock CM690 II Advanced fans (2x140mm, 1x120mm)
1x 120mm Blade Master (Hyper212 stock fan)
1x 120mm Scythe GT AR-15 (fan controller)
2x 140mm Therm alright TY-140
1x 140mm HX850 PSU

6950 Toxic Fan Speed
25% to 35% - Inaudible compared to my other fans

40% - Bearable, will not notice while gaming, similar noise level as 120mm Blade Master @ max rpm (Hyper212 stock fan)

50% - 60% - Noticeably Loud even when gaming

>60% - Sounds like a jet, far to loud for constant use





Edited by OrangeBunnies - 8/30/11 at 6:56am

6950 Toxic vs. 6970 Blue PCB (100311-2SR)

It turns out that the two PCBs are almost identical, except the 6970 PCB is missing a driver and something I cannot identify. However, you will be happy to know that it has not hindered overclocking performance. Each card was run separately (not in crossfire) through the same benchmarks in my review with the same setup with the exception of the higher CPU clocks I used this time (3.8GHz vs. 3.5GHz).

6970 (100311-2SR) - 950/1500 @ 1.175V
6950 Toxic - 950/1450 @ 1.175V

In crossfire however, I get screen tearing and splitting @ 950/1450 in Heaven's benchmark and Battlefield 3 and it crashes in furmark.





Edited by OrangeBunnies - 11/5/11 at 7:55am

reserved 3

lol, sniping my review are we?

Fixed.
Edited by OrangeBunnies - 8/25/11 at 3:31pm