Which ATI 6950?

[tw33k]

My Gigabyte 6950 flashed with the Asus 6970 BIOS will last me a very long time I'd imagine. Avg over 100fps in BC2 on max settings. Can't complain about that.

 

[sygnus21]

XFX are already starting to bring out revised editions (ver 1.1), but they are still cross flashable with the 6970 AFIK.

But ASUS, GIGA, Sapphire, HIS are all good as well.

My Gigabyte 6950 flashed with the Asus 6970 BIOS will last me a very long time I'd imagine. Avg over 100fps in BC2 on max settings. Can't complain about that.

That's good to know.

Thanks.

 

[Wishmaster]

This sounds like a very good alternative.


But I am curious if this will be like some of AMD CPUs were?

Meaning, for the most part they locked them for a reason.
Even though a lot of people were able to unlock them without any problems at all, a few did have issues.

So Im wondering if it might possibly be a bit of luck involved as to whether or not it will work good or not.

So far Ive only seen positive remarks about it though, so thats a good sign.
I too Im considering this route now though

 

[sygnus21]

Look at this link - AMD Radeon HD 6950 to HD 6970 Mod | techPowerUp - At the bottom of the page is a stats list showing the success rate of flashes by brand.

 

[Wishmaster]

Thanks, very good info.


Looks like my favored Sappire brand will be a bit of gamble.

Seems XFX,HIS or Gigabyte would be the better choice to do this with.

 

[sygnus21]

Looks like my favored Sappire brand will be a bit of gamble.

Actually from the review I posted earlier - Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB Unlocked to HD 6970 :: TweakTown USA Edition - I was going to go with a Sapphire until I saw that stats sheet that says all cards can be flashed.

Point - From the review I read, I don't think you'd have a problem flashing the Sapphire.

Remembr though that any time you flash any BIOS there's always a risk of something going wrong, so....

I would backup the old BIOS first, in case something did go wrong.

 

[Zen00]

That's what the dual BIOS system is for.

 

[sygnus21]

That's what the dual BIOS system is for.

Exactly

 

[sygnus21]

Well my order is on the way, should be here tomorrow. And the winner is...... Sapphire.

Really wanted to get the XFX but Amazon, via Tiger Direct, sold out at the time I went to purchase. Checked Tiger Direct’s site and they said they had it but it would ship 1-3 business days . That to me said they didn't have any but were expecting them in.

BTW Newegg wants $319 for the XFX + 30 bucks overnight shipping vs Amazon 289 (sapphire) + 20 bucks overnight shipping

Anyway this will be my first Sapphire product and I can't wait to get the card. I'm going to run 3DMark advantage with my 4890, then run it again with the 6950 to compare scores.

That's it; will let you know what happens tomorrow..... hopefully.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Well my order is on the way, should be here tomorrow. And the winner is...... Sapphire.

Really wanted to get the XFX but Amazon, via Tiger Direct, sold out at the time I went to purchase. Checked Tiger Direct’s site and they said they had it but it would ship 1-3 business days . That to me said they didn't have any but were expecting them in.

BTW Newegg wants $319 for the XFX + 30 bucks overnight shipping vs Amazon 289 (sapphire) + 20 bucks overnight shipping

Anyway this will be my first Sapphire product and I can't wait to get the card. I'm going to run 3DMark advantage with my 4890, then run it again with the 6950 to compare scores.

That's it; will let you know what happens tomorrow..... hopefully.

Sexy.

Good luck mate.

Keep us posted.

 

[sygnus21]

Well my Sapphire 6950 finally arrived today



Included contents....


As you can see the card is longer than my old 4890....


Ok, first thing I noticed about the card, other than size, is how quiet it is. After installing it and booting up the system I couldn't even hear it. And I mean exactly that, the card is that quiet.... even at startup.

Now, my 4890, when the system booted up, the card's fan would rev up for a few seconds and you certainly heard it! In fact I was so use to hearing this that when the 6950 didn't do it I immediately thought something was wrong, but no... the card simply doesn't rev the fan! Just smooth and quiet. Very nice.

Also during gaming (Dead Space 2) and benching with 3DMark Vantage the fan never ran high or got loud. In fact the only fan I heard was the CPU's fan, and it's quiet enough in it's own right!

Another thing I noticed is the temps are lower than the 4890. The first one is the 6950, the second, 4890....



Here's some benchmarks scores using 3DMark Vantage.....

 

[sygnus21]

Benchmark Scores.....

Here's some benchmarks using 3DMark Vantage....

Here's the 4890 taken two days ago....


6950....


Here's my WEI score....

4890....


6950....


LOL... who knew the processor would be the weak link

Anyway these are just with default settings. Haven't even began to mess about doing the BIOS update to turn it into a 6970. That'll be in about 30 days. I want to make sure the card is stable and in working order before doing any BIOS tweaks.

PCMark Vantage.....

4890 - Result


6950 - Result

 

[SlackerITGuy]

That's some straight up geek pr0n right there lol.

Congrats on the new card.

Will you be doing some game benchmarking?

 

[sygnus21]

Will you be doing some game benchmarking?

Unless the game comes with a benchmark tool I doubt I'll be doing any games. We'll see though.

 

[Wishmaster]

Kinda funny the CPU is the weakest link with a 7.6 WIE. Not that its weak at all .. just saying. Its a good thing.

Looks great, and good scores/temps too.



BTW, I never really thought about it until you brought it up, but my 4890 does the same thing at boot up. I guess I too have just got used to the spin up and seldom notice it anymore.

Looks like that card would be a excellent choice when I upgrade mine!

 

[sygnus21]

Kinda funny the CPU is the weakest link with a 7.6 WIE. Not that its weak at all .. just saying. Its a good thing.

It is weird when you think about it. I laughed.

BTW, I never really thought about it until you brought it up, but my 4890 does the same thing at boot up.

The 4850 and the 3870 did the samething when I had them. Although the 4850 seems a little quieter in my other system.

I'm telling you when/if you get one of these cards, you're going to be amazed how quiet it is. Trust me.

And price to performance on this is nice.... plus you can always turn it into a 6970 with a BIOS replacement! Well worth the investment.

 

[sygnus21]

Issues

Hmmm..... been getting weird artifacts with the card lately, doesn’t happen all the time but it does happen. At first I thought it was because MLAA was turned on which will cause certain images to look weird even in 2D, but that's been turned off, yet I still get artifacts. Looks like dirt particles.

Darn it might have to replace the card! What a PITA

Posted the issue at Rage3D - Artifacts showing up - 6950 - Rage3D Discussion Area

 

[mickey megabyte]

keeping a very interested eye on this thread - very soon, i hope to be doing the same upgrade as you.

hope you sort your artefacts out - have you got a screenshot?

 

[sygnus21]

No screen shot, they're very subtle and happen randomly. I'll wait and see what they say over at rage3d but I'm 99.99 percent leaning on replacing the card. Don't want to wait till the swap out period is over from Amazon to have to deal with an RMA through Sapphire. Better to be safe now. I just hate to have to go through the process of replacing the card.

 

[stormy13]

Agree with waiting to see what they say over at Rage3d, and the sending it back if necessary. I do remember seeing a few mentioning about the MLAA affecting more than just games, just pick the 11.1/11.1a thread over there to find it.

Just one small comment about not hearing the card on boot-up over the old one; one word, Powerplay. My 4830 does the same thing and this is why,



higher speed than default (in my case it actually runs at 4850 speeds on boot), which also ramps up the fan speed until it gets past the boot speed. Guessing it is one more thing that has been adjusted/tweaked in the 6xxx cards (and possibly the 5xxx).