6950 Owners report in

[badb0y]

Hey, just want to get a feel of how the new 6950 owners are doing with there cards and if they unlocked them, how the card itself is running. Please vote and post here thanks.

EDIT: It has come to my attention that the 6970 indeed uses a different memory chip then the 6950. Therefore, anyone with a 6970 BIOS should consider flashing to a 6950 BIOS with the shaders unlocked. This will be the safest and least problematic route. 6950 @ 1536 shaders then overclock to 6970 clocks .

EDIT 2: Use this script to mod your own BIOS to unlocked 1536 shaders while keeping voltages and ram timings the same. http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip <---Credit to W1zzard. Simply save your BIOS, place it in the same folder as BIOS mod and run the file and follow on screen instructions.

EDIT3: 3D Mark 11 I got P5380 http://3dmark.com/3dm11/458212;jses...m11/458212?key=aES7tT32Wm730dtJ7cpWNaF8Bwu06R

 

[ALBPM]

2 Sapphire 6950 in Xfire. Using the unlocked Sapphire 6950 bios at 880/1325 with no problems.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

2x Sapphire 6950s @ 6970, no worries.
Good thing I got that $50 1kW modular BFG PSU a few months back. Had to mod it to improve 12V3 and 12V4 ripple, but that wasn't a problem.

 

[happy medium]

This poll should help you a great deal.

http://hardforum.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=7020

 

[footballrunner800]

yup just bought mine. Unlocked and overclocked to 950 with stock bios.

 

[hclarkjr]

i am big chicken so it remains how i bought it

 

[Jhatfie]

Have both a Gigabyte and Sapphire 6950. Both unlocked with the 6970 bios with no issues, however until I see more long term information on ram failing due to increased voltage, I have changed it to just unlocking the extra shaders.

 

[MTDEW]

I'm running two 6950s in crossfire.
Both flashed to 6970 bios and ran flawless. (both tested individually, then together in crossfire)

But i eventually just backed down to 6950 bios with unlocked shaders cuz of the extra heat from running two cards in crossfire.

So im not sure which way to vote.

 

[jackstar7]

Unlocked to 6970 and then started seeing some reports of memory issues, so I backed down to unlocking the shaders.

Really looking forward to 11.x drivers to see if memory clocks can come down at idle (with multi-monitors), but time will tell.

 

[badb0y]

I backed myself down to 6950 with unlocked shaders.

 

[littlezipp]

2 XFX 6950's in Crossfire with XFX 6970 bios. No issues other than heat! Water cooling setup arrives Tuesday.

 

[badb0y]

PCClark99 what kind of problems did you get?

 

[bf1035]

Sapphire 6950 w/ 6970 Asus bios(core 890 mem 1375), no issues after 2 1/2 weeks...

But, like alot of others, I went back to 6950 Sapphire bios w/ unlocked shaders @ 840 - 1325 (max CCC overclock) for now...

 

[Burpy]

XFX 6950 running at stock.

It's been smooth sailing so far. Using the 10.12 RC3 drivers without any issues.
I don't plan on unlocking my card anytime soon, stock gives me plenty of performance.

 

[badb0y]

XFX 6950 running at stock.

It's been smooth sailing so far. Using the 10.12 RC3 drivers without any issues.
I don't plan on unlocking my card anytime soon, stock gives me plenty of performance.

:thumbsup: So far it looks like a 94.5% success rate if you tried to unlock it. That's freaking awesome.

 

[Dark Shroud]

This poll needs an option, I was foolish & bought a 6970.

 

[Zargon]

runs great stock so far.

will unlock shaders in a while

 

[3DVagabond]

This poll needs an option, I was foolish & bought a 6970.

Made me LOL. Especially reading your rig in your sig. :thumbsup:

At least you know you have premium components (Well, RAM at least. So far it seams like the 6900 GPU is near 100% for yields/performance.) You have no warranty concerns either. Although, we've heard no reports of refused RMA's due to unlocking. You're safe, not foolish.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Made me LOL. Especially reading your rig in your sig. :thumbsup:

At least you know you have premium components (Well, RAM at least. So far it seams like the 6900 GPU is near 100&#37; for yields/performance.) You have no warranty concerns either. Although, we've heard no reports of refused RMA's due to unlocking. You're safe, not foolish.

I bought my HD 6970 the night they were released, my first impulse buy in years. I don't regret it and would still buy one over the HD 6950. Only this time I would have waited a few days to get the Asus model with the aluminum shroud.

I learned a long time ago its better to spend a little more upfront to buy better quality parts that will last longer. Then to buy the cheap stuff that can & will die and possibily damage other parts when they do. I have seen cheap power supplies not just die but shoot fire & smoke out of the back vent when turned on.

 

[Mezzanine]

Stock for now, will unlock and overclock it later on.

 

[badb0y]

I bought my HD 6970 the night they were released, my first impulse buy in years. I don't regret it and would still buy one over the HD 6950. Only this time I would have waited a few days to get the Asus model with the aluminum shroud.

I learned a long time ago its better to spend a little more upfront to buy better quality parts that will last longer. Then to buy the cheap stuff that can & will die and possibily damage other parts when they do. I have seen cheap power supplies not just die but shoot fire & smoke out of the back vent when turned on.

Haha, it's not that bad when you think about it. 6970 owners have better RAM and better binned GPUs (I would assume) so it's not all that bad actually.

As for the warranty, I am 99% sure they have no way of telling whether you have flashed your card or not. Just flash it back to original state before you send it back. If your GPU dies, I doubt they will try to revive to it to see what happened to it, so all in all I think we are safe.

 

[MangoX]

Made me LOL. Especially reading your rig in your sig. :thumbsup:

At least you know you have premium components (Well, RAM at least. So far it seams like the 6900 GPU is near 100&#37; for yields/performance.) You have no warranty concerns either. Although, we've heard no reports of refused RMA's due to unlocking. You're safe, not foolish.

I'm one of the few people who have had a 6950 fail due to unlocking. I was able to RMA my card just fine and got a brand new card instead of a fixed one (I guess these cards are too new! ). I have 2 cards and running both stock, as I fear the same thing might happen. It's not worth the time/effort I went through RMA-ing if something bad happens.

 

[badb0y]

I'm one of the few people who have had a 6950 fail due to unlocking. I was able to RMA my card just fine and got a brand new card instead of a fixed one (I guess these cards are too new! ). I have 2 cards and running both stock, as I fear the same thing might happen. It's not worth the time/effort I went through RMA-ing if something bad happens.

Hey rUmX! Thanks for the input, personally if I had dual 6950s I wouldn't flash them either since they would already be overkill for my resolution but unfortunately I don't have a lot of spare cash at the moment. I think keeping stock BIOS would be the most safest and smartest option for you. Thanks again!

 

[betasub]

Although I've flashed mine to 6970, I still flip the switch and run it with the non-writable 6950 BIOS for benching/testing purposes (or for lower heat with older games). So the dual-BIOS provides the best of both worlds (6950 & 6970).

 

[Pohemi]

XFX 6950 flashed to XFX 6970 bios, no problems so far. Usually keep clocks @ 825 core / 1375 GDDR5 to reduce power and heat, but I've OC'ed it stable to 925/1425 with +15&#37; voltage. Got pretty hot (85C) when running Furmark for stability, but didn't crash.

Considering new info, I'll likely end up rolling it back to the original bios and unlocking it.