Is my HD 6950 faulty or is it drivers?

http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

use this


or lower your ram speed on card to 6950 specs

did you install hot fix?
reinstall driver may help + hot fix

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst1012ahotfix.aspx

HomerPepsi said:

Sorry I meant to say I flashed back to my original HD 6950 and am still experiencing the problem

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and I meant to try re install driver + hot fix

also did you try the switch on the card ? 2. bios

it would also be good to see if anyone else with a 6900 series card and the game also has the same problems as there are a lot of troubles with the drivers atm

i thought my card was busted too until i found out lots of other people were having the same troubles even with 5800 series cards

see if anyone with a proper 6970 has the same troubles - could all just be a driver bug

GUYS, stop crying about a fact that your card is articacting, making BSODs and other stuff. You flashed it to HD6970 and you permanently damaged it! Flashing back to HD6950 make no difference after memory chips were damaged!

Flashing HD6950 to HD6970 damages memory chips on card permanently! If you must, than use modded HD6950 bios.

It's not a driver problem!

Read this:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=138287&page=3

Stop making threads like that!

arroyo said:

GUYS, stop crying about a fact that your card is articacting, making BSODs and other stuff. You flashed it to HD6970 and you permanently damaged it! Flashing back to HD6950 make no difference after memory chips were damaged!

Flashing HD6950 to HD6970 damages memory chips on card permanently! If you must, than use modded HD6950 bios.

It's not a driver problem!

Read this:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=138287&page=3

Stop making threads like that!

Click to expand...

mine was one of those seven votes that voted they had a broken card, i wish i could take it back because there is nothing wrong with my card except driver problems

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=138511
is a more accurate poll i think

its probley drivers the main reason, i say 'ashamed' that i will be going nvidia either very soon or definitely next upgrade. no problems with the 4800 series for me but the 5800 series have been a problem and now the 68/69 series. im defo looking over the fence.

My card was working fine with HD6970 bios and its still working just fine. (but to be sure, i've reflashed to my HD6950 backup.)

Only problem what i have found is a driver problem. (like wow, having big fps drops 30 FPS instead of 60 FPS with vsync but after a reboot its gone)

Call of Duty Blackops, aint working on maxed settings, 20-30 fps (seems engine problem?)

but like AvP, is just working great on maxed settings on 1920x1080, not even a single fps drop.

Reefer86 said:

its probley drivers the main reason, i say 'ashamed' that i will be going nvidia either very soon or definitely next upgrade. no problems with the 4800 series for me but the 5800 series have been a problem and now the 68/69 series. im defo looking over the fence.

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my last card was an nvidia gtx260 and i never had as much troubles with that as i do with my 6950
for a little while there i was going to sell this 6950 and get an nvidia card because of all the hassle of not even knowing if my card is damaged or if its driver/game engine problems (i still might)

ati's driver department needs a good kick in the backside imo

f0d said:

my last card was an nvidia gtx260 and i never had as much troubles with that as i do with my 6950
for a little while there i was going to sell this 6950 and get an nvidia card because of all the hassle of not even knowing if my card is damaged or if its driver/game engine problems (i still might)

ati's driver department needs a good kick in the backside imo

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Why do you condone violence against animals? Leave those poor AMD monkeys alone...

f0d said:

my last card was an nvidia gtx260 and i never had as much troubles with that as i do with my 6950
for a little while there i was going to sell this 6950 and get an nvidia card because of all the hassle of not even knowing if my card is damaged or if its driver/game engine problems (i still might)

ati's driver department needs a good kick in the backside imo

Click to expand...

You didn't own a GTX260 within it's first couple months of release or so. Drivers were a mess. ATI doesn't even have a whql out to support Cayman yet. The card isn't even a month old.

BababooeyHTJ said:

You didn't own a GTX260 within it's first couple months of release or so. Drivers were a mess. ATI doesn't even have a whql out to support Cayman yet. The card isn't even a month old.

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actually yes i did, i got my gtx 260 just under a month after it came out

im just talking from my own experience - i diddnt have any issues in any games with it

f0d said:

actually yes i did, i got my gtx 260 just under a month after it came out

im just talking from my own experience - i diddnt have any issues in any games with it

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Really? FO3 didn't stutter like crazy for the longest time? I couldn't play Gothic as well as most other DX7 titles for a year. NWN2 was broken for like six months. Nvidia releaced a couple of WHQL drivers where AA didn't work. These were all within the past year and thats not including betas or the card killing drivers.

HomerPepsi said:

Installed the hotfix drivers and problem seems to be gone. Thanks LGV!

Click to expand...

arroyo said:

GUYS, stop crying about a fact that your card is articacting, making BSODs and other stuff. You flashed it to HD6970 and you permanently damaged it! Flashing back to HD6950 make no difference after memory chips were damaged!

Flashing HD6950 to HD6970 damages memory chips on card permanently! If you must, than use modded HD6950 bios.

It's not a driver problem!

Read this:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=138287&page=3

Stop making threads like that!

Click to expand...

Yeah... mine works perfectly fine after flashing the bios and memory. I tested all my games. I spent my entire day off yesterday playing games. Never had a single crash. Hasnt damaged my card. clock speeds are stock hd 6970. Generally the only people who vote on those "my card broke" forms are people who dont know how to do it properly. My only complaint is that the drivers for the card dont utilize the fan properly. Im someone who prefers the fans to be around 40 - 50%. I use a gaming headset anyways so its not like i hear it.

prowlex said:

Hasnt damaged my card.

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Yeah I thought the same thing untill a couple days later I started noticing artifacts.

load81 said:

Yeah I thought the same thing untill a couple days later I started noticing artifacts.

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Well mines been running on the new firmware for 3 weeks now. If it was going to mess up it wouldve done it by now. Especially yesterday while i was gaming for 18 hours straight.

I followed the instructions exactly. unlocked firmware. Flashed 6970 firmware. Increased powertune slider to +20%. Manually set fan speed to 50%/ 40% in tests. Ran ati tool for about 3 hours straight averaging around 800 fps.

prowlex said:

I followed the instructions exactly. unlocked firmware. Flashed 6970 firmware. Increased powertune slider to +20%. Manually set fan speed to 50%/ 40% in tests. Ran ati tool for about 3 hours straight averaging around 800 fps.

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also installed the catalyst 10.12a hotfix immediately after first reboot. Another important step.

Its just simply not that easy to break a card by a simple bios change. Your hardware isnt broke. If your experiencing issues then you need to use the tools in place to fix them. its annoying when people are telling others their stuff is broke just because its not working correctly. The only way to break it is to put too much overclock on a card, short out the card, or just bludgeon it with a hammer. The hd 6950 is more than capable of doing what the 6970 does. At least at the 6970 stock speeds and voltages. If your experiencing issues take the advice of LGV

"try re install driver + hot fix

also did you try the switch on the card ? 2. bios"

That switch on the card gets you to recovery mode for your card. all you do after that is go to device manager and uninstall the driver. The driver is MUCH more likely to be messed up than the card itself. So uninstall that and reinstall using the hotfix.

Ill say this now and ill say this again. If you dont know what your doing. If you dont have experience in overclocking or any of this you really shouldnt try to do it in the first place. A common response from someone who doesnt know what they are doing is "I think its broke!!"

I have been working on computers since my Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 lol its not from inexperience. Some cards just cant handle it more and more people with problems are popping up.

load81 said:

I have been working on computers since my Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 lol its not from inexperience. Some cards just cant handle it more and more people with problems are popping up.

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more and more people with problems are popping up because most people doing this dont know what they are doing. with everyone ive helped to fix their problems its either A) they flashed it incorrectly B) they forgot to increase voltage C) they have a corrupt driver or D) they havent installed the hotfix yet.