ATI 6950 Sapphire TOXIC mod to 6970

[robertomad]

I was reading about modding my video card to 6970. Apparently, this card already has a mod on bios 1. I've been reading about reviews and On this REVIEW, it was mentioned that I need to increase the power to 50% on powertune. My question is aside from heat and increase power consumption, is there a downside on doing this.

I've also read about capacitors of the 6950 but that was because a regular 6950 has 2x 6-pin power connector. This card has 1 x 8 pin and 1 x 6 pin, does this mean this is safer to overclock and unlocked?

I've asked this on another thread which I never had a good answer, I've just purchased a BFG 9600 gt OC from ebay, and I'm just wondering if this is enough to be a dedicated physx accelarated hardware. I read some articles saying that it might hold me down as all processes will be done on the 6950 vcard (saw some video from tech tips as well but that NVIDIA using lower NVIDIA card as dedicated Physx). I've also seen some videos on Youtube where 9600gt users run games on high settings and actually has good fps. And from this, I just thought that with this "power" on 9600GT this should not hold me back right?

Any help will be very much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[robertomad]

Thanks greghome. May I ask is the shader not that important. The reason for asking is that I try using the bios with unlocked shader without changing anything on the gpu clock, memory or power (880, 1300) and I've noticed that fps gone slightly higher(furmark). Though the voltage gone up from 12.16v to 13.1v. Is this normal? And also I'm still wondering if 9600gt is enough as physx hardware. Thanks again.

 

[robertomad]

Thanks again. I've googled this last night but none of the articles and forums seemed to have the answer. What should be the normal VDDC voltage. in GPUz there is a VDDC and a 12V do you know what it means? And what should be normal on idle vs load.

 

[solomonshv]

ive seen some reviews that claimed the TOXIC card doesn't have the switch but read more that say it does. So, I'm not sure whether sapphire is trying to sell more card by posting bogus reviews, or if some people are getting old revision, or (and most likely) there are people out there who buy the card but are too dumb to find the switch.

I have purchased a total of 12 reference HD 6950s... 3 MSI, 3 Sapphire, 4 XFX and 2 Powercolor.

I think i like the MSI ones the most. They SEEM to take higher clock speeds better, but please don't quote me on that. The switch was the first thing that popped into my eyes.

I just sold one of the MSI cards that never made it into a custom computer build I was supposed to complete this past weekend. here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/300606472827?ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1559.l2649#ht_564wt_1396

I posted some benchmarks on the auction page. Check them out. Stock vs unlocked shaders vs unlock+overclock.

I had it running rock solid unlocked at 925/1350 @ 1.16V right before I shipped. It matched and surpassed reference and factory (but marginally) overclocked GTX 580 cards in benchmarks.

But cross fire sucks. don't do it.

 

[robertomad]

Dude, I'm sorry but how does this relates to my questions? Very funny Solomnshv. I can tell you now that My 6950 toxic has switch hence I've ask the community. Seriously I've read a lot of articles and forums and it seemed to confuse me more. That is why I ask here because someone could actually actually give the answer I need.

 

[robertomad]

Dude, I'm sorry but how does this relates to my questions? Very funny Solomnshv. I can tell you now that My 6950 toxic has switch hence I've ask the community. Seriously I've read a lot of articles and forums and it seemed to confuse me more. That is why I ask here because someone could actually actually give the answer I need.

 

[solomonshv]

Thanks again. I've googled this last night but none of the articles and forums seemed to have the answer. What should be the normal VDDC voltage. in GPUz there is a VDDC and a 12V do you know what it means? And what should be normal on idle vs load.

VDDC is the core voltage. for a stock 6950 it should be 1.1V and for a stock 6970 it is 1.18V under load. at idle it should be 1.0V flat for both cards

this is only the voltage going to the GPU itself, not the memory or anything else.

here is my GPU Z readout for a 6950 with unlocked shaders, no overclock:

i dont have anything that says "12V" nor have I ever seen any readout that does. can you post a screen shot? you got me curious now.

 

[robertomad]

Thanks solomnshv, Sorry to be thick but hours come it's lower when it's stressed.

 

[robertomad]

Thanks solomnshv, Sorry to be thick but hours come it's lower when it's stressed.

 

[solomonshv]

also, about the 6 and 8 pin power connectors....

a normal PCI Express x8 or x16 slot will feed a maximum of 75watts. each 6pin PCI E power cable will feed a maximum of 150 watts. 75 + 2 x 150 = 375 watts, more then any single core ATI card will ever need. the 8 pin cable pushes either 175 or 200 watts, can't remember right now. but it doesn't help much.

 

[solomonshv]

Thanks solomnshv, Sorry to be thick but hours come it's lower when it's stressed.

say what? it is higher when it is stressed.

6950:
1.000V at Idle
1.100V when stressed

6970
1.000V at idle
1.180V when stressed

does that help?

also, when you overclock and overvolt a graphic card, it will only run at the over volted rating when under stress. when it idles, it will still go back down to normal idle Voltage, this is hard coded into the card

 

[solomonshv]

I have to correct myself.

According to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#ATX12V_v2.2
PCI Express slot pushes 75watts
6 pin PCI E cable pushes 75W as well
8 pin pushes 150W

so, the 6950 can accept at most 3x75W = 225W of power while the 6970 can take 300W (75+75+150).

Sorry about that. my mind plays tricks on me at my old age.


BUT, even then, a 6970 at full load will only hit 185W at FULL load. look here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/27.html

Moral of the story. You can unlock a 6950's shaders and overclock it without fear of killing anything. I've been doing it for almost a year, never had a problem. Well, never had a problem when running 1 HD 6950. problems start when you get crossfire.

 

[robertomad]

say what? it is higher when it is stressed.

6950:
1.000V at Idle
1.100V when stressed

6970
1.000V at idle
1.180V when stressed

does that help?

also, when you overclock and overvolt a graphic card, it will only run at the over volted rating when under stress. when it idles, it will still go back down to normal idle Voltage, this is hard coded into the card

Sorry my bad. I misread it. Thank you very much for all your answers.

 

[robertomad]

I have to correct myself.

According to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#ATX12V_v2.2
PCI Express slot pushes 75watts
6 pin PCI E cable pushes 75W as well
8 pin pushes 150W

so, the 6950 can accept at most 3x75W = 225W of power while the 6970 can take 300W (75+75+150).

Sorry about that. my mind plays tricks on me at my old age.


BUT, even then, a 6970 at full load will only hit 185W at FULL load. look here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/27.html

Moral of the story. You can unlock a 6950's shaders and overclock it without fear of killing anything. I've been doing it for almost a year, never had a problem. Well, never had a problem when running 1 HD 6950. problems start when you get crossfire.

Does this mean that my 6950 Toxic can handle more voltage. I've read that a normal 6950 only has 2x 6 pins but my card, as mentioned, has 1x8 pin and 1 x 6pin.

From this

http://www.overclock.net/amd-ati/973288-max-voltage-hd6950.html

it has been discussed about the voltage in relation to gpu clocks. I'm new to overclocking (CPU or GPU) and never actually done ever since. the default gpu clock for my card is 880mhz and I can see it's running at 1.16V from VDDC. My Question is, does the card automatically handles the voltage when the clocks has change?

 

[robertomad]

I'm really sorry about a lot of questions. So is this the job of powertune to adjust the voltage? The reason I asked because, I've run furmark benchmark using the locked shaders it shows (12.3V) then when I switched the bios to unlock and run furmark benchmark it shows (13.2 V). Please note that I'm still using the same clock speed from previous settings which is 880mhz (GPU) and 1300mhz(Memory) And I didn't change the voltage as well. Is 13+V something to worry about?

 

[robertomad]

Thanks.