[nz3777]

Hello once again Ocn I just purchased a Msi Radeon 6950 2gb gpu and iam curious what this whole bios switch ordeal is,If I switch it i will get 6970 shaders unlocked? Is there something else I need to do other then moving the switch over? This is for the refrence card model any help or tips are very much appricated...

 

[halfeatenwaffles]

The switch unlocks the shaders, so you don't need to flash the bios or anything like that to get that accomplished.

IF you want to clock the card like a 6970 then you can flash or just crank it up with TRIXX. That's my understanding of the whole thing.

I love these reference 6950s!

 

[nz3777]

Oh yeah its a beast! Iam gonna give it a shot see what happens,thank u for the feedback much appricated.i think ill be staying with refrence cards from now on

 

[Bielijbog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by halfeatenwaffles

The switch unlocks the shaders, so you don't need to flash the bios or anything like that to get that accomplished.

IF you want to clock the card like a 6970 then you can flash or just crank it up with TRIXX. That's my understanding of the whole thing.

I love these reference 6950s!

IIRC, you do have to flash to unlock the shaders, by default, both bios are stock, one is just a fallback.

You can try it without flashing, I believe after unlock it was 1532? I can't totally remember.

 

[dklic6]

I didn't have an msi, but I had sapphires with dual bios switches. If I remember you could flash bios 1 or 2 and if it went wrong you could switch it back to the default config on the bios position you didn't flash.

 

[Bielijbog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dklic6

I didn't have an msi, but I had sapphires with dual bios switches. If I remember you could flash bios 1 or 2 and if it went wrong you could switch it back to the default config on the bios position you didn't flash.

Yep, you still had to flash to unlock the shaders though right? I had XFX, but I did it a year ago.

Here's a tutorial:
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

Here's some BIOS choices, doesn't really matter what you pick:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?page=1&architecture=&manufacturer=&model=HD+6970&interface=&memSize=0

 

[nz3777]

Ok I bought the card from another ocn member he said he already flashed the card does that mean i DONT need to flash it again or I do? He said he shipped it on default bios number 1 to shut off my computer flip the switch to setting 2 then check gpu-z to make sure all 1536 shaders are unlocked...(or something similar) and i can run it at 6970 speeds which are 880mhz core and 1330 memory with fan set at least 50 % .....What do u guys think?

 

[Bielijbog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nz3777

Ok I bought the card from another ocn member he said he already flashed the card does that mean i DONT need to flash it again or I do? He said he shipped it on default bios number 1 to shut off my computer flip the switch to setting 2 then check gpu-z to make sure all 1536 shaders are unlocked...(or something similar) and i can run it at 6970 speeds which are 880mhz core and 1330 memory with fan set at least 50 % .....What do u guys think?

If it's already flashed, you do not have to reflash it, just switch the bios. If you want higher clocks you can just OC through Afterburner or whatever your preference is.

 

[nz3777]

Well thats great beacuse if i had to flash it myself id probbly mess something up lol. Ok just flip the switch and start overclocking....Thank you:thumb:

 

[nz3777]

Holly cow I switch the bios and my clocks went up from 800 to 875 mhz and memory went from 1200mhz to 1375 mhz! I wonder how high this thing can clock-Thanks everyone for helping me out,ive never owned such a high end card before so i wasnt sure what i needed to do.

 

[Hattifnatten]

The real performance-gain comes from the unlocked shaders, not the clock-speed

 

[nz3777]

Whats the diffrence between the 2 like 150 shaders or so? I can defanetly see and feel a diffrence in my games so I cant wait to grab another 1 of these bad boys!

 

[Bielijbog]

1408 > 1536
So it's about a 9% increase in shaders. Can't say what the performance improvement is though.

 

[nz3777]

It feels alot more smooth now that iam on 6970 bios,games seem to stay steady at 60fps at 1900x1080 according to frapps 60 and dosent move even i love it! lol.When its on 6950 bios its up and down 54-60fps,not a major diffrence but u can feel it for sure the performance gain! At least i think so anyway....

 

[nz3777]

Ok here is the Gpu-z validation or whatever they call it-my appologies for not knowing the correct lingo lol- can u guys let me know if iam successful?

 

[nz3777]

Btw iam curios if anyone knows whats the best catalyst to use for this perticular card-which 1 will yield me the best results from overclocking? Damm it sure feels good going from a Radeon 6570 crossfire to this monster lol,iam working on grabbing another 1 of these babys for crossfire! I think my 6570s had 480 shaders lol

 

[Bielijbog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nz3777

Btw iam curios if anyone knows whats the best catalyst to use for this perticular card-which 1 will yield me the best results from overclocking? Damm it sure feels good going from a Radeon 6570 crossfire to this monster lol,iam working on grabbing another 1 of these babys for crossfire! I think my 6570s had 480 shaders lol

Yep, your shaders are unlocked. You should be fine running the most recent drivers&&catalyst.

 

[nz3777]

Oh great thats good to hear i though i wasnt gonna be able to do it- thanks so much!~ What i meant about the drivers was amd usualy just focus on the newer cards to improve there performance iam pretty sure they arent worried about the 6000 series

 

[Bielijbog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nz3777

Oh great thats good to hear i though i wasnt gonna be able to do it- thanks so much!~ What i meant about the drivers was amd usualy just focus on the newer cards to improve there performance iam pretty sure they arent worried about the 6000 series

You're right that they are focusing on the 7xxx series, but there may still be updates for the 6xxx's too. Either way, the newer drivers will work just fine provided you're on Windows.