Graphic Driver has recovered problem

[NoQuarter_]

Hello,

I read few topics on this and most of them are suggesting that it is a hardware issue.

I had some problems recently in a game, screen tearing for a moment (way less than a second) but nothing big, it was rare, i thought it was a recent update to World of Tanks.
GPU fan did get "loud" but temperatures were never over 95'C (that's in the summer)

This morning I was playing, had to go afk for 20 minutes, when i got back game was not responding. I force it down with task manager, try to restart game, PC goes nuts and I get a famous error message and a blue screen referring to VIDEO_TDR_ERROR

What I did so far:
Clean re-install of Windows (even used version other than I previously had)
New drivers with it ofc
Added Delay key in regedit with value 8

Problem still persists, my GPU is 6950 with 6970 BIOS and standard clocks for 6970 and with +20% power. I have very good PSU XFX PRO650w. Never had stability problems or crashes.

I returned the GPU BIOS switch to stock BIOS of 6950 and stock values and I still get blue screen whenever I try for anything graphically intensive.
I tried editing fan control in MSI afterburner and it caused blue screen.

at this point I am 99% sure my GPU is just days from black screen, any ideas?
Should I test it in the oven?

 

[Lutfij]

When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature it's customary to include your full system's specs inclusive of your OS. Please list them as:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

If you're on Windows 10, it's not a good idea to fiddle with the shell extension nor it's registry and often times can go belly up. On another note, which driver revision are you on? Did you try using DDU to uninstall your previous drivers and reinstall them with the last known stale version after a reboot?

Pertaining to your OS installer, have you recreated your installer to rule out a corrupt installer?

 

[NoQuarter_]

I am aware of that but I kind of skipped it because this problem is pretty much related to GPU and to my knowledge can be caused by RAM in like 0.00001% cases

System specs
ASUS M5A99X EVO
AMD FX-4170
Sapphire HD6950 (with BIOS switch and 6970 BIOS)
2x4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 RAM
3 Hard drives, 1x500GB for system and 2x750GB for storage and backup
XFX PRO 650W
Some Sound Blaster sound card as on-board one in trash, turned off the on-board sound car in BIOS
MS raptor case with tons of fans, good Titan cooler for CPU with 2x90mm fans
Windows 8.1

When problem happened I was barely able to backup files from C as error happened 1 minute after booting up the system.
Took me like 6-7 restarts to backup everything to re-install system
I was not able to use DDU, i tried, system freezes, blue screen....
I did not use the option to fix the system on re-installing, I formatted the whole C partition before installing new one.
I tried System Restore but it did not help

For new system I used the AMD detect option and it downloaded the 17.5.1, but I had error popping out once even with stock Windows drivers.

I used this Windows installer before, never had anything like this. I had problems with sound card but that was solved with PCI Sound Blaster. Both Windows 8.1 installers I have are fine, as far as this goes never had any problems, this morning it was the first time ever

 

[NoQuarter_]

Update:

I just downloaded FurMark, as soon as I start the StressTest system crashes.
Last temperature reading I get before it happens is 72'C, I even keep HwInfo on and all thermal diodes have close temperatures, none jumps out like crazy.
It crashes even on lowest stress test

But I can watch online videos, that's the top of the stress GPU can take so far.

Stability Test for CPU runs fine, I use the AMD OverDrive for testing it and no problems after 15 minutes, even tried overclocking it and it worked like a charm.

 

[NoQuarter_]

So I tested my GPU on other PC and I was not able to run any game or FurMark.

I read someplace that this can be caused by memory leak, can replacing my GPU BIOS for one from 1GB version of this card help?
Can it even be done?

I tried downloading BIOS from techpowerup and I got sub thingy ID mismatch
So I tried editing BIOS with:
1) RBE - no use, I change the vendor which should change ID but same error
2) biosedit - tried editing ID, saved, managed to flash it with atiflash and got black screen after restart
3) RaBit - I cannot even start working in it, cannot load BIOS as I get stupid error that Rabit Driver incorrect....

I tried using my 6950 BIOS but I cannot download it using the GPU-Z but it's a no-go, I get blue screen as I start the GPU-Z.
Used ATiFlash to save my BIOS but it creates a file no program from above could do anything useful about, best case scenario was black screen after restarting after flashing GPU using CMD line, tho I did not get message "verified"

Anyone got any tips of how could I do it?
Or any way to edit some BIOS and turn off half of the features and stuff on the GPU and not to crash it so I get black screen after flashing.
Making RaBit work would probably be my best bet but I suck so much at it, I just find it strange that I cannot successfully load any BIOS I download in it

I mean I am buying a new card, just trying to make this one somewhat stable for other PC, so having less RAM and even lower clocks would not bother me.