6950 & MSI Afterburner Voltage Increase

[PC_User]

I'm using Afterburner to overclock my 6950. I have all of the overclocks unlocked (via config file). However, whenever I increase the voltage past 1.1v, the settings to not take effect.

The program displays 1.15v, for example, but the voltage never goes past 1.1v in Furmark or games. What is causing this? How can I have the voltage actually increase to what I set?

 

[Bakku]

I dont think the voltage settings in the latest Afterburner works on the HD6950 at all.
It has no effect on my card as well.

 

[PC_User]

I dont think the voltage settings in the latest Afterburner works on the HD6950 at all.
It has no effect on my card as well.

At least I'm not the only one.

I wonder how people overclock their cards if this is the case...

 

[Camberwell]

Which version of Afterburner are you using, and are your cards reference?

 

[crawlgsx]

Been trying to mess wiht the same thing myself. I used a tutorial I can't find again to unlock my shaders by flashing a bios that I swear mentioned increasing voltage (but leaving clocks alone) but GPUZ and MSI both say its pulling 1.1

I can get 890/1350 on 1.1 but would love to go for more.

Also is there any way to OC with Afterburner, but still have Power Control on? IE: I'm overclocking with AF but if I run Furmark the card is still throttling (power control 0% I avg 29fps, Power Control _20% I avg 42fps)

 

[amd7674]

At least I'm not the only one.

I wonder how people overclock their cards if this is the case...

hmmm.... I cannot either change it... I just did quick test with latest AF (config modified), latest GPU-Z and furmark... The 3D clock still says 1.10V, even though AF reports 1.15V...

 

[PC_User]

hmmm.... I cannot either change it... I just did quick test with latest AF (config modified), latest GPU-Z and furmark... The 3D clock still says 1.10V, even though AF reports 1.15V...

Same problem.

The reason I think I need to increase voltage is because I bumped up the clocks to 880/1325 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 now crashes about 25 minutes into each game.

Other games seem to be fine...it just crashes in BC2. I'm also stable in FurMark after 10 minutes @ 1.1v. Any thoughts? Could it just be the game? Should I reinstall it?

 

[amd7674]

Same problem.

The reason I think I need to increase voltage is because I bumped up the clocks to 880/1325 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 now crashes about 25 minutes into each game.

Other games seem to be fine...it just crashes in BC2. I'm also stable in FurMark after 10 minutes @ 1.1v. Any thoughts? Could it just be the game? Should I reinstall it?

I don't think it is BC2... Did you try power control +20 in CC? I could be wrong but different game might be using GPU/vmem differently. Does the game crashes with stock speeds? Try lowering o/c to 850/1300 clocks and see what happens... However you might need a slight voltage increase if you are planning to keep GPU/vmem o/c'ed.

 

[FaRKle0079]

hmmm.... I cannot either change it... I just did quick test with latest AF (config modified), latest GPU-Z and furmark... The 3D clock still says 1.10V, even though AF reports 1.15V...

Go with what afterburner says. Furmark and GPU-Z incorrectly reports the voltages.

 

[amd7674]

Go with what afterburner says. Furmark and GPU-Z incorrectly reports the voltages.

thanks, will have to look into it. Is there another utility agreeing with AF?

This thread talks more about different vids used on different 6950/6970 cards... I wonder if this could be the problem....

 

[nvmc]

Flash a BIOS from a vendor who hasn't played with the VID numbers. My XFX card overvolts fine.
IIRC Sapphire was one of the vendors who changed the numbers, not sure about any of the other ones though.

 

[FaRKle0079]

This thread talks more about different vids used on different 6950/6970 cards... I wonder if this could be the problem....

Possibly. I'll post my GPU registers below:

VID4: 3d voltage when using single card
VID3: 3d voltage when crossfiring cards

My cards are XFX 6950s with the ASUS 6950 BIOS flashed on them.

I determined my VID registers when I wanted to see which was which. I set VID4 to 1.2V and VID3 to 1.175. When I disabled crossfire and ran furmark afterburner said the primary GPU was running at 1.2V. I modified my GPU bios with RBE and only changed VID4. Later when I crossfired both cards and ran furmark again afterburner showed both cards as only running 1.175V. I thought this was odd so I changed VID3 to 1.2V and VID4 back to 1.175. After doing this afterburner showed both GPUs as 1.2V when running furmark while crossfire was enabled.

 

[eViL_M@LuM]

Flash a BIOS from a vendor who hasn't played with the VID numbers. My XFX card overvolts fine.
IIRC Sapphire was one of the vendors who changed the numbers, not sure about any of the other ones though.

This is only true if you havent unlocked your shaders. Once you unlock the shaders on your card it's a different story. For some reason the shader unlock sequence, locks the VRM adjustment in programs such as Trixx and MSi. You can adjust the slider all you want but there is null affect from it. You simply have to decide on a voltage use RBE and flash a custome bios that has thos voltages preset. Then use MSiAB to force constant voltage while overclocking. Now in GPU-z it will still say 1.1 or 1.175v, it's reading the driver side not the hardware side. If you take a multimeter and test it you'll see what you're actually getting.

 

[nvmc]

Mine is unlocked, core is at 1045MHz, 1.275v set in AB. If I load it up, and then drop the volts back to stock in AB, it crashes the whole computer instantly. I don't have a multimeter to check what the core is actually getting, but the volts are definitely changing. GPU-Z shows 1.1v, but you ain't getting 1GHz stable on 1.1v.

 

[amd7674]

This is only true if you havent unlocked your shaders. Once you unlock the shaders on your card it's a different story. For some reason the shader unlock sequence, locks the VRM adjustment in programs such as Trixx and MSi. You can adjust the slider all you want but there is null affect from it. You simply have to decide on a voltage use RBE and flash a custome bios that has thos voltages preset. Then use MSiAB to force constant voltage while overclocking. Now in GPU-z it will still say 1.1 or 1.175v, it's reading the driver side not the hardware side. If you take a multimeter and test it you'll see what you're actually getting.

Thanks for the post, wow... so I guess if I flashed it back with my won VBIOS backup I should get voltage control back in AB. I wonder if it is possible for Trixx or AB to fix this "issue"....

 

[[H]ocusPocus]

This is only true if you havent unlocked your shaders. Once you unlock the shaders on your card it's a different story. For some reason the shader unlock sequence, locks the VRM adjustment in programs such as Trixx and MSi. You can adjust the slider all you want but there is null affect from it. You simply have to decide on a voltage use RBE and flash a custome bios that has thos voltages preset. Then use MSiAB to force constant voltage while overclocking. Now in GPU-z it will still say 1.1 or 1.175v, it's reading the driver side not the hardware side. If you take a multimeter and test it you'll see what you're actually getting.

This does not match my experience. I unlocked my 6950 by backing up the bios from my card, running W1ZZARD'S script from TechPowerUp on the backup and then flashing the modified backup to my card. The script only unlocks the shaders, it does not change any voltages or clocks. I have no trouble adjusting and monitoring the voltage in Afterburner v2.1.0. In my case, Afterburner shows the voltage jumping from .9V to 1.18V when I start Kombuster. Note that Kombuster, GPU-Z and FurMark all report the voltage incorrectly for me, all maxing out at 1.1V.

 

[PC_User]

This does not match my experience. I unlocked my 6950 by backing up the bios from my card, running W1ZZARD'S script from TechPowerUp on the backup and then flashing the modified backup to my card. The script only unlocks the shaders, it does not change any voltages or clocks. I have no trouble adjusting and monitoring the voltage in Afterburner v2.1.0. In my case, Afterburner shows the voltage jumping from .9V to 1.18V when I start Kombuster. Note that Kombuster, GPU-Z and FurMark all report the voltage incorrectly for me, all maxing out at 1.1V.

I think this may be the conclusion then: Afterburner does apply the new voltage setting (and increase) but the programs which read the VID (GPU-Z, FurMark, etc) do not show this new voltage setting. They continue to show 1.1v.

If this is the case, hopefully it is fixed with a patch or future release.

 

[Evil Scooter]

Possibly. I'll post my GPU registers below:

VID4: 3d voltage when using single card
VID3: 3d voltage when crossfiring cards

My cards are XFX 6950s with the ASUS 6950 BIOS flashed on them.

I determined my VID registers when I wanted to see which was which. I set VID4 to 1.2V and VID3 to 1.175. When I disabled crossfire and ran furmark afterburner said the primary GPU was running at 1.2V. I modified my GPU bios with RBE and only changed VID4. Later when I crossfired both cards and ran furmark again afterburner showed both cards as only running 1.175V. I thought this was odd so I changed VID3 to 1.2V and VID4 back to 1.175. After doing this afterburner showed both GPUs as 1.2V when running furmark while crossfire was enabled.

I'm trying to figure out specifically what VID3 and VID4 are doing also as I plan on setting up xfire as soon as my second 6950 arrives and I mod it. I read elsewhere that:

VID4: possibly the voltage at "intermediate" mode (between 2D and 3D). Sometimes you'll see your card clock in at 500MHz, then this voltage is used.

Here is what the stock VID registers look like on my MSI 6950:

Not saying you are wrong at all here and thanks for the input. But why would it be set to run at 1.065v (VID4) as a single card when from what I've read 1.1v is the stock voltage? Does it make sense to run at 1.1v only when configured in xfire (VID3)? It simply does not make sense to me that each card would require more volts simply it's running in tandem with another card.