[PARTON]

I've had my 6950 for two weeks and flashed it on the first day.

I've read what seems like a million posts on this, and I guess I missed all the negative stuff about flashing to the 6970 bios when I decided to flash my msi card.

I've had no problems. I even had a fan control anomaly between ccc and afterburner where I played shift for ~15 minutes with NO FAN. I exited the game and

the GPU was over 100c. It never even hiccuped.

So, should I flash back to the 6950 bios, or are some people simply freaking out?

How long has the 6950 been out? Is there no one who has run the 6970 bios for any real amount of time?

 

[____]

The problem is that people who flash to a 6970 think that it's actually a 6970, and then try to OC it as such.

 

[WizrdSleevz]

Many people say it'll mess up your card in the future but many say otherwise. it hasnt been out long enough to prove that itll mess the card up in the future. Just to be safe I unlocked my shaders and just OC'ed it manully.

EDIT: many have flashed their cards and never had issues but some have and failed. I guess it depends on if you know what your doing too. There is 2 bios on the card so even if you fail you can still flash it back.

 

[Awaz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ____;13026385
The problem is that people who flash to a 6970 think that it's actually a 6970, and then try to OC it as such.

I have to believe this probably the potential problem. But just to be on the safe side, I just unlocked the shaders with the 6950 BIOS itself. The memory voltage and timing did not change. I then OCed my card to my liking.

 

[PARTON]

What's the difference in memory voltage from the ref 6950 to the ref 6970?

 

[PvtHudson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PARTON;13026420
What's the difference in memory voltage from the ref 6950 to the ref 6970?

0.1v

 

[Kick]

The ram on the 6970 is binned and are rated higher than the one for the 6950, as such, the timings and voltages are different,

if u want to unlock, unlock shaders only and use a program to overclock to 6970 speeds or w/e

better to be safe than sorry.

 

[PARTON]

How is +0.1v going to damage a chip?

 

[UsedPaperclip]

I flashed both of my 5850s a couple months after I got them over a year ago. My first card worked fine and I had no problems. When I flashed my second one (same card) it killed it. I just restored the original bios and sent it back to sapphire and I got a replacement. When I need it, I keep mine at 890/1190 which is a major overclock. Like I said, it was over a year ago and they are still going strong. I would do what F-U-B-A-R and I did and just flash it with an unlocked bios and do the clocks manually. That way when you don't need the horsepower you can set it back to stock.

 

[PvtHudson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PARTON;13026491
How is +0.1v going to damage a chip?

People claim the timings are different but there is 0 evidence supporting that.

This unproven rumor has been going on ever since the TechPowerUp article came out. There were cases on their forums of around 17 or so cards failing down the line a few months later. Of course, without a proper controlled experiment you can't tell if it was due to the 6970 bios flash or whether the card itself was just faulty.

No one really knows and no one really cares to find out.

 

[Kick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PvtHudson;13026566
People claim the timings are different but there is 0 evidence supporting that.

This unproven rumor has been going on ever since the TechPowerUp article came out. There were cases on their forums of around 17 or so cards failing down the line a few months later. Of course, without a proper controlled experiment you can't tell if it was due to the 6970 bios flash or whether the card itself was just faulty.

No one really knows and no one really cares to find out.

It is more likely due to the 6970 flash.

I do not remember seeing anyone with problems straight off with the unlock shader bios in comparison with the 6970 flash.

 

[Artikbot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ____;13026385
The problem is that people who flash to a 6970 think that it's actually a 6970, and then try to OC it as such.

THIS!!

People forget about the reason that the shaders they enable are labeled as "unstable", and overclocking them can cause major card failure.

Overclocking? Stick to 6950. Stock settings, yet got the guts? Flash.

 

[Kick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Artikbot;13026828
THIS!!

People forget about the reason that the shaders they enable are labeled as "unstable", and overclocking them can cause major card failure.

Overclocking? Stick to 6950. Stock settings, yet got the guts? Flash.

not likely. you're now assuming ALL 6950's are just unstable 6970's. that isnt the case, as AMD has displayed a lot of what they do is just take a perfectly fine 6970 and software lock some shaders off of it for 6950's to meet demands.

just like what AMD did with the whole unlocking cores thing.

im at unlock shaders, 1.19v @976core.
i just put a random voltages and random core, been stable, but lazy to go higher.

 

[Artikbot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kick;13026881
not likely. you're now assuming ALL 6950's are just unstable 6970's.

You have to assume the worst scenario by default.

You get one with functioning shaders? Cool beans, unlock it. But by default, you should assume that they're defective.

 

[Kick]

you're right, but it's not like im the only one with shaders working fine. there're plenty, so assuming that the shaders are defective now is wrong- plus, reference 6950's arent as easy to get like they used to be.

 

[lyang238]

I got mine with just unlocked shaders @ 900/1450 stock volts running like a champ.

 

[Eskanasi]

I hate to say this, but it's not like overclocking them even makes that much of a difference in frames... Unlocking I can understand, then overclocking it to the stock 6970 speeds, sure, but why bother to go higher if it can run everything fine at 60 fps? there's no point...

 

[JedixJarf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PARTON;13026491
How is +0.1v going to damage a chip?

lol its not.

 

[Kick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eskanasi;13027181
I hate to say this, but it's not like overclocking them even makes that much of a difference in frames... Unlocking I can understand, then overclocking it to the stock 6970 speeds, sure, but why bother to go higher if it can run everything fine at 60 fps? there's no point...

That;s not the point. There's more to using a gpu than games. there're programs that take advantage of the processing powers of gpu's and then there are benchmarks.

Cant forget that, some people here just grab cards to oc, bench, and then resell.

 

[PvtHudson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kick;13027046
you're right, but it's not like im the only one with shaders working fine. there're plenty, so assuming that the shaders are defective now is wrong- plus, reference 6950's arent as easy to get like they used to be.

Exactly.

If we take a look at the original TPU article, the success rate is enormously high:
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
Quote:

Originally Posted by Eskanasi;13027181
I hate to say this, but it's not like overclocking them even makes that much of a difference in frames... Unlocking I can understand, then overclocking it to the stock 6970 speeds, sure, but why bother to go higher if it can run everything fine at 60 fps? there's no point...

Actually the unlocked shaders don't give as much of a performance boost as higher clocks:
http://www.overclock.net/ati/946615-stock-vs-unlocked-hd-6950-a.html

Which is why it's best to not only unlock them but OC them as well.