OFFICIAL POLL: WHAT CAUSED YOUR FLASHED 6950 PERMANENT DAMAGE?

[thepunkerguy]

I created a poll here: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=2155471
For you guys who have permanent damage to your 6950 cards after flashing them or modding your bios. If you guys could vote in over there, maybe we can start to find out the root cause of what's killing these cards. If I had to guess, I think it's the high memory speeds, or possibly some sort of memory timings in the 6970 bios. Thanks guys, and I know I linked to another forum, so don't flame me, It just seems more beneficial to have one big poll.

- Mike

 

[studioman22]

Yeah, real smart... Save $70 and waste $300 when your 6950 goes. Overclocking is bad enough, but flashing one GPU firmware with another...?

Idiotic. I said it before and will say it again. The problems will become more evident over the next months as cards start to fail.

If you are adventurous and rich enough to do this, there is a price to pay. So pay up and go buy another card. And oh, spend the extra 70 bucks this time and get the real thing, will ya? Sheesh.

 

[thepunkerguy]

Lol, yes, some fail, but many do not. Also, I don't remember this failure rate with the 9500>9700pro mode from years back. I think this one is turning out to be the fault of the memory though, so if people keep their memory timings/speeds/voltage at 9650 specs they should be just fine with the mod. Also, for all it's not about saving the $70, its about the thrill of overclocking/tweaking/getting more than what you paid for. Not to mention, it really isn't costing anyone money except the video card manufacturer if you really want to get down to it because if these cards are damaged then you can still flash them back to the stock bios and get them RMAed through the manufacturer with no evidence that this mod was ever done. Maybe that's not "ethical" or "proper", but it's not like anyone is really throwing away $300+ as you suggest

 

[bystander]

Why isn't there a "it caused no damage" option in the poll. Wouldn't it be cool to see both see how many are having troubles?

 

[hunter315]

Lol, yes, some fail, but many do not. Also, I don't remember this failure rate with the 9500>9700pro mode from years back. I think this one is turning out to be the fault of the memory though, so if people keep their memory timings/speeds/voltage at 9650 specs they should be just fine with the mod. Also, for all it's not about saving the $70, its about the thrill of overclocking/tweaking/getting more than what you paid for. Not to mention, it really isn't costing anyone money except the video card manufacturer if you really want to get down to it because if these cards are damaged then you can still flash them back to the stock bios and get them RMAed through the manufacturer with no evidence that this mod was ever done. Maybe that's not "ethical" or "proper", but it's not like anyone is really throwing away $300+ as you suggest

Its neither ethical nor proper, its being that asshole that makes them put in a way to keep track of BIOS flashing and costing us $25 more per card, if you screw up you card, i really wish there was a way for them to see if and tell you to suck it up and buy another one if you want to use it outside of the intended usage.

 

[studioman22]

Not to mention, it really isn't costing anyone money except the video card manufacturer if you really want to get down to it because if these cards are damaged then you can still flash them back to the stock bios and get them RMAed through the manufacturer with no evidence that this mod was ever done. Maybe that's not "ethical" or "proper", but it's not like anyone is really throwing away $300+ as you suggest

Yeah, and guess who that costs more for in the long run? Both you and ME. It means more RMA's, more customer service, and less profit for the manufacturer. How long do you expect them to continue to honor warranties when they find out what people are doing? It hurts us all the way around. I like fun and adventure too, but man, this is just wrong to make THEM pay for it when YOU are operating it out of its design spec. Be a fricken man and anti up the extra 70 if you HAVE to have a 6970. My God. :lol:

 

[thepunkerguy]

Oh, I know where your coming from, hence why it said it wasn't right.
I just explained that because I don't think its right how you posted above basically attacking everyone who mods their 6950 for the fun of it. I could buy the fastest card in the world and still I would try to tweak it to it's limits just for fun. It's not a money thing with many. I could buy any card I want, I just like the fun of modding stuff and for you to put people down for that was pretty insulting. Just sayin!

 

[jerreece]

I agree with studioman22 on this. And I'm sure there's a reason certain boards are turned into 6950's. They didn't perform as well, or whatever. It's like CPU chip binning. Some AMD chips were made into X3's because one of the cores didn't test well, or didn't work. Some folks got lucky and the 4th core worked out fine. Others found out why the 4th core got disabled.

Either buy the real card, or just OverClock it like you'd normally do. Accept the associated risk, and realize that changing the BIOS may brick the card in and of itself, even if you're not trying to turn it into a 6970.

 

[studioman22]

I agree with studioman22 on this. And I'm sure there's a reason certain boards are turned into 6950's. They didn't perform as well, or whatever. It's like CPU chip binning. Some AMD chips were made into X3's because one of the cores didn't test well, or didn't work. Some folks got lucky and the 4th core worked out fine. Others found out why the 4th core got disabled.

Either buy the real card, or just OverClock it like you'd normally do. Accept the associated risk, and realize that changing the BIOS may brick the card in and of itself, even if you're not trying to turn it into a 6970.

Well, I don't mean to be insulting or anything, and actually the poll in itself is a reasonable idea to help pin down the causes.

But why bother when the cause in the first place was FLASHING A CARD WITH THE WRONG BIOS?

The problem is what they are trying to DO with the card, not the card itself. I wonder how many of these hardware pushers are CSS 150+ FPS over-the-toppers? :lol:

Heck I didn't want to pay $ 530.00 for an EVGA GTX 580 SC either. But I did figuring they OC'd the thing (mildly), stress tested it, and are backing it with a lifetime warranty. Yeah, I might bump it up to 820 MHz or so in the future. But first I am going to enjoy for a long time to come all the FAT that I just paid for so I wouldn't have to resort to this kind of desperation to get a few more FPS.

Still waiting on my little beast to arrive- UPS couldn't deliver cause I am snowed in.

 

[17seconds]

The 6950 and 6970 use different types of memory.

 

[Digital Dissent]

Nothing, it never failed.