Success with flashing XFX 695X 2gb CNFC?

[mulberry]

I have read that some can unlock this card, others can't. I am seeing scattered result with this card, some people have been able to successfully oc all necessary components.

 

[wolfram23]

So, what is your question?

 

[mulberry]

if people with said card can flash the 695x cnfc to the 6970. if not, how were they able to OC it? msi afterburner? what were the results?

 

[wolfram23]

Generally it's always been hit or miss on these cards. There's 2 things that happen with the unlock. One is unlocking more cores in the GPU, and the second is it changes the clocks, both the GPU core and memory clocks, as well as memory timing (supposedly).

This means that first off, the disabled cores might be unstable. So there's no way of knowing if unlocking them will work at all. Secondly, the VRAM might not like the faster speeds at all, so even if the core unlock is successful it might still crash and burn.

There are ways to unlock only the cores, I believe I read about it at Techpowerup.com.

As for overclocking, it's kind of in a similar boat. I'd suggest you read some overclocking guides, you can find many here at Tom's or do a Google search.

Please note that you can seriously screw your card up by flashing the BIOS and/or overclocking, so it's definitely a risk.

 

[mulberry]

I don't mean by that much, just overclocking a little more than AMD overdrive allows. I believe trixx or afterburner allow that but I have never used it. extremeoverclocking has a nice guide but no one posted with this specific card so i was seeing if anyone had luck before I tried.

 

[amuffin]

It's more of a 75% chance that it fails and a 25% chance that it unlocks. It it fails, you're card is bricked. Plus, you have to look at the PCB revisions to make sure you have the right card.

 

[mulberry]

It's more of a 75% chance that it fails and a 25% chance that it unlocks. It it fails, you're card is bricked. Plus, you have to look at the PCB revisions to make sure you have the right card.

i'm not understanding. do i need to unlock before I overclock with something like afterburner? because i'm pretty sure you don't need to, you just need to change a few settings in the cfg files. if this specific card cant be flashed to a 6970 that's fine, I would however like oc it a little more than what amd overdrive offers.

 

[amuffin]

MSI afterburner.

 

[wolfram23]

I wrote up a nice overview/guide on GPU overclocking. Might be worth reading.

http://wolframpc.blogspot.ca/2012/01/graphics-card-overclocking.html

 

[mulberry]

MSI afterburner.

Please expand in response to my earlier post.

 

[mulberry]

I wrote up a nice overview/guide on GPU overclocking. Might be worth reading.

http://wolframpc.blogspot.ca/2012/01/graphics-card-overclocking.html

So far, a very informative read for beginners..thanks! Question for you though, you said, " is probably the best all around program, and the only reason not to use it is if you have non-reference, non-MSI cards and want to adjust the voltage." My xfx card is obviously non-msi and also non-reference. what would you do in my case? not adjust the voltage? keep it simple and just use afterburner?

 

[wolfram23]

A quick google search later, it looks like your card is actually a reference model.

However, voltage adjustment is where you start to break things, so I wouldn't go there until I was very familiar with what I'm doing, if I were you. Just stick to speed adjustments for now, IMO, no voltage.

 

[mulberry]

A quick google search later, it looks like your card is actually a reference model.

However, voltage adjustment is where you start to break things, so I wouldn't go there until I was very familiar with what I'm doing, if I were you. Just stick to speed adjustments for now, IMO, no voltage.

The 695X CNFC is different from the ZDFC or CNFD.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150530

This isn't a reference card, at least a few other forums said this card was not a reference. Correct me if I am wrong??
edit: it also doesnt have a bios switch.

 

[wolfram23]

This is where I read that:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=691036

However, yeah, the reference model should have a BIOS switch. If it doesn't, then that's another reason to not flash the BIOS with the 6970 BIOS - it could definitely brick your card. If you have a backup GPU you can do it, the problem with bricking is mostly that you can't see your monitor anymore. With a 2nd GPU you can use it as primary and get into Windows to reflash.

Still, you're obviously new to this and I would suggest taking your time and just try basic overclocking for now. You definitely don't want to break your GPU.

 

[mulberry]

This is where I read that:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=691036

However, yeah, the reference model should have a BIOS switch. If it doesn't, then that's another reason to not flash the BIOS with the 6970 BIOS - it could definitely brick your card. If you have a backup GPU you can do it, the problem with bricking is mostly that you can't see your monitor anymore. With a 2nd GPU you can use it as primary and get into Windows to reflash.

Still, you're obviously new to this and I would suggest taking your time and just try basic overclocking for now. You definitely don't want to break your GPU.

what basic overclocking do you suggest? afterburner? do you think you can help me?

 

[wolfram23]

Afterburner is a good place to start. Just follow the instructions in my guide. Make a change, test, repeat until artifacts/crashes/errors, then reduce clocks back to something stable.

 

[mulberry]

I will do that when I find some free time this week. I will post in this thread if there are any problems. Thanks!