Best Flashable 6950?

[sofyanator]

Okay so im planning on buying a 6950 and flashing it to a 6970. I will also crossfire it in the future and add a lower end gtx ( 550 450 gts 420 etc) card for physx. If you have ever seen the hardwarecanucks "round up" where they will take all the brands for a card and compare them through benchmarks, pricing, clockspeeds, temps, power consumption, etc in nifty little graphs and paragraphs. Unfortunately there isnt one up yet for this card, so does any one have a link or two of the same thing on a different site so i can compare the brands and make my picks, thanks!

 

[bystander]

I know you've probably read a bit about flashing these cards, but you should know that a fair amount of these cards are damaged as a result. It's not usually a problem with the GPU, but the video ram that is not able to handle the 6970 timings a great deal of the time.

There is another method to get the performance of a 6970 (or very close to it) with far less risk to damaging your card. One way is to alter your existing bios so it unlocks the shaders of the GPU, but leaves the voltages and timings the same as the 6950. You can then over clock the GPU core to 6970 speeds fairly safe.

As far as I can tell, and have seen all the 2GB cards can do this. The only advantage to the reference card, is that they have a bios switch with the default stock bios in one of two bios. This makes it so that if the bios flash failed and bricked your card, the bios switch can help you recover. (You should still be able to reflash the card if it failed by booting up on a 2nd card).

I'd definitely advise against flashing the bios with a 6970 bios. I'd highly recommend you alter the existing bios to unlock the shaders only, then OC it after.

 

[sofyanator]

I know you've probably read a bit about flashing these cards, but you should know that a fair amount of these cards are damaged as a result. It's not usually a problem with the GPU, but the video ram that is not able to handle the 6970 timings a great deal of the time.

There is another method to get the performance of a 6970 (or very close to it) with far less risk to damaging your card. One way is to alter your existing bios so it unlocks the shaders of the GPU, but leaves the voltages and timings the same as the 6950. You can then over clock the GPU core to 6970 speeds fairly safe.

As far as I can tell, and have seen all the 2GB cards can do this. The only advantage to the reference card, is that they have a bios switch with the default stock bios in one of two bios. This makes it so that if the bios flash failed and bricked your card, the bios switch can help you recover. (You should still be able to reflash the card if it failed by booting up on a 2nd card).

I'd definitely advise against flashing the bios with a 6970 bios. I'd highly recommend you alter the existing bios to unlock the shaders only, then OC it after.

Thanks for the help, i am aware of the memory problem that causes problems with video intensive apps but what about the new flash that only involves unlocking the shaders? Also what would you recomend as the best reference card for this job that is still on the market, has nice cooling, and great overclocking abbilities? (PLEASE NO ASUS card as it is WAY to big to crossfire and fit in my case with 2 other cards...thanks

 

[bystander]

The reference cards are big. I was able to unlock the shaders on a MSI Twin Frozr II, which was not a reference card. But it does not have the backup bios. If something went wrong, I would have had to do a bios flash after booting from a different card. (although if I only unlock the shaders, the card isn't like going to have problems due to it unless I played a game, making reverting back fairly easy).

I'm not sure what to recommend to you, if you want only a reference card, as your requirements are for a smaller than reference card. The MSI Twin Frozr's are smaller, btw.

 

[Carc369]

I know you've probably read a bit about flashing these cards, but you should know that a fair amount of these cards are damaged as a result. It's not usually a problem with the GPU, but the video ram that is not able to handle the 6970 timings a great deal of the time.

There is another method to get the performance of a 6970 (or very close to it) with far less risk to damaging your card. One way is to alter your existing bios so it unlocks the shaders of the GPU, but leaves the voltages and timings the same as the 6950. You can then over clock the GPU core to 6970 speeds fairly safe.

As far as I can tell, and have seen all the 2GB cards can do this. The only advantage to the reference card, is that they have a bios switch with the default stock bios in one of two bios. This makes it so that if the bios flash failed and bricked your card, the bios switch can help you recover. (You should still be able to reflash the card if it failed by booting up on a 2nd card).

I'd definitely advise against flashing the bios with a 6970 bios. I'd highly recommend you alter the existing bios to unlock the shaders only, then OC it after.

That's bs imo.

I have 3 flashed 6950 cards with the 6970 bios and none of them have failed or showed any signs of failure (shut downs, artifacting, etc). I'm quoting from personal experience vs you quoting from what you've read.

1 Powercolor, 1 HIS, 1 XFX and all are reference models.

 

[sofyanator]

That's bs imo.

I have 3 flashed 6950 cards with the 6970 bios and none of them have failed or showed any signs of failure (shut downs, artifacting, etc). I'm quoting from personal experience vs you quoting from what you've read.

1 Powercolor, 1 HIS, 1 XFX and all are reference models.

Which of those did you have the best peformance with? And where can i buy one as i have found it a little difficult as ati has seemed to have noticed the flashing loophole and was quick to take off most of ther models from the market? Thanks again

 

[bystander]

That's bs imo.

I have 3 flashed 6950 cards with the 6970 bios and none of them have failed or showed any signs of failure (shut downs, artifacting, etc). I'm quoting from personal experience vs you quoting from what you've read.

1 Powercolor, 1 HIS, 1 XFX and all are reference models.

I have person experience with success too. That doesn't mean others have not had cards go bad as a result of flashing. And if you do unlock the shaders, then proceed to OC to 6970 clocks, you get the same performance, the only difference is that you do it with 6950 voltages and timings. It just seems to be the safe way to go.

The problem isn't that the GPU fries, the problems people are having is the memory going bad within a few days to a few weeks of flashing.

 

[sofyanator]

okay i will but what card do you reccomend and where to i get it? If you look on newegg all the old flashable cards a deactivated, where do i buy a reference on (with the tumbler fan, red stripes, black, etc) as i cant seem to find a dual bios version ?

 

[chchom22]

yea i wanted a twin frozr as well, but those arent flashable anymore

i too am looking for recommendations on a flashable 6950, thinking about an his since my local store has one

 

[sofyanator]

ur store is?

 

[bystander]

yea i wanted a twin frozr as well, but those arent flashable anymore

i too am looking for recommendations on a flashable 6950, thinking about an his since my local store has one

I personally unlocked the shaders on the MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II. Again, I'm still not sure the risk if things didn't unlock well, but I assume I can still flash it back to the original bios, as long as I can boot from a 2nd card (this is the risk part, as these don't have a dual bios).

Part of the problem is he can't fit a reference design in his case, and it's only the reference design that has the dual bios. Although the bios flash, or shader method doesn't "require" a reference design, it takes away a safety net (dual bios).

I'm not sure what to recommend.

 

[chchom22]

ur store is?

microcenter

 

[j2j663]

I would guess that they have stopped shipping the reference models of the 6950. Tired of 6970 sales bitting the dust probably. I don't know why you are harping over which brand of reference card to go with at the description is in the name ... reference aka they are all the same except for the color of the shell which is brand specific. So unless you are looking to show off someone's logo on the inside of your case I would just pick up any reference model you can find that is left. I would try newegg, tigerdirect, amazon and probably even ebay at this point in time.

Hope you can find what you are looking for.

 

[Carc369]

Which of those did you have the best peformance with? And where can i buy one as i have found it a little difficult as ati has seemed to have noticed the flashing loophole and was quick to take off most of ther models from the market? Thanks again

Idk if they've hardlocked the bios or if its that's just a rumor tbh. I bought mine back in January. All of them provide the same performance. The one I like the most is XFX because of the double lifetime limited warranty. That warranty allows for a so much easier resale.

 

[Carc369]

microcenter

Microcenter is a rip off. Newegg is definitely the way to go. Only thing I've gotten cheap from microcenter was my i7-930 for about $200 last year. It was some kind of deal to get people to come into the store. Everything was more expensive and the base price didn't include tax.

 

[Carc369]

I personally unlocked the shaders on the MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II. Again, I'm still not sure the risk if things didn't unlock well, but I assume I can still flash it back to the original bios, as long as I can boot from a 2nd card (this is the risk part, as these don't have a dual bios).

Part of the problem is he can't fit a reference design in his case, and it's only the reference design that has the dual bios. Although the bios flash, or shader method doesn't "require" a reference design, it takes away a safety net (dual bios).

I'm not sure what to recommend.

Well judging from the Techpowerup article, over 90% of the people had no problems when flashing the 6970 bios. 3 out of 3 were successes for me. I'm sure some do mess up but I believe it to be a rare occurrence. I've never flashed with a modified 6950 bios so I can't speak on that. I'm not arguing which method is better. I'm just saying flashing into a 6970 bios doesn't necessarily mean you are destroy your card.

 

[bystander]

Well judging from the Techpowerup article, over 90% of the people had no problems when flashing the 6970 bios. 3 out of 3 were successes for me. I'm sure some do mess up but I believe it to be a rare occurrence. I've never flashed with a modified 6950 bios so I can't speak on that. I'm not arguing which method is better. I'm just saying flashing into a 6970 bios doesn't necessarily mean you are destroy your card.

I don't argue that majority are successful without problems. I don't know what the actual number is, the original article only had those who were successful initially, so it's hard to say what happened a week or 2 down the road. I saw a followup thread where a lot of people came back to vote about whether their card was damaged after the initial success. There were quite a few people with damaged video ram.

My whole thought here isn't that it's not possible, but risk vs reward. The unlocked shaders result in a great reward with much lower risk. I like lower risk.

 

[chchom22]

Microcenter is a rip off. Newegg is definitely the way to go. Only thing I've gotten cheap from microcenter was my i7-930 for about $200 last year. It was some kind of deal to get people to come into the store. Everything was more expensive and the base price didn't include tax.

price match

 

[sofyanator]

will price match work with an out of stock card?

 

[rockitman]

I don't argue that majority are successful without problems. I don't know what the actual number is, the original article only had those who were successful initially, so it's hard to say what happened a week or 2 down the road. I saw a followup thread where a lot of people came back to vote about whether their card was damaged after the initial success. There were quite a few people with damaged video ram.

My whole thought here isn't that it's not possible, but risk vs reward. The unlocked shaders result in a great reward with much lower risk. I like lower risk.

So please tell us how to modify the 6950 bios to unlock the shaders!! I like your idea and might give it a go on my 2 XFX's.

 

[chchom22]

will price match work with an out of stock card?

bro its in stock, did you read my original post at all

 

[bystander]

So please tell us how to modify the 6950 bios to unlock the shaders!! I like your idea and might give it a go on my 2 XFX's.

1st, you'll want to save a copy of your existing bios. You can follow the bios flash guide steps 1, 3 and 4 to save your bios. This is just in case something doesn't work right (not all 6950 GPU's have fully function shaders). The flash instructions are here: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
Just do steps 1, 3 and 4.

Next, download this: www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
(this came from page 16 of the original flash directions thread look for W1zzard's post; http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137136&page=16)

Extract the script and copy over the original saved bios into the folder for this script. It needs to be named "original.bin"

Now run the script (it will tell you instructions) and follow the original flash instructions with the modified bios. ( http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159 ) follow steps 5 through 9 with the modified bios created with the script ( modded.bin )

 

[chchom22]

1st, you'll want to save a copy of your existing bios. You can follow the bios flash guide steps 1, 3 and 4 to save your bios. This is just in case something doesn't work right (not all 6950 GPU's have fully function shaders). The flash instructions are here: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
Just do steps 1, 3 and 4.

Next, download this: www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
(this came from page 16 of the original flash directions thread look for W1zzard's post; http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137136&page=16)

Extract the script and copy over the original saved bios into the folder for this script. It needs to be named "original.bin"

Now run the script (it will tell you instructions) and follow the original flash instructions with the modified bios. ( http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159 ) follow steps 5 through 9 with the modified bios created with the script ( modded.bin )

is this only for reference cards?

 

[rockitman]

Bystander, thanks a bunch! Man, my brain was going to explode trying to read that 100 + page thread!

I'm curious, since this procedure obviously looks to be the safer way to proceed, how come the original instruction article is not edited to state this new method? Why does every newbie who comes along thinking about boosting his 6950 card think he has to flash a 6970 bios?

Also, this newbie has to ask a stupid question:

"what is a reference card and what is a non reference card?"

 

[Carc369]

On all PCI-Express slots, AMD puts their logo on there ONLY if it is a reference design. The fan is also at the end of the card for the 6950 reference model. Also it must be 2GB. I don't believe there are 1GB reference models.