Flashing 7950 to 7970 - possible: YES.. but...

[biddicoin]

Hello all,

since RBE doesnt work with HD7xxx series I looked for a way to flash the bios - so I could overclock a bit more.
With ATIFLASH it worked! I took a ASUS 7970 Bios online, download it and flashed it to 2 different 7950.

I use Linux Mint. Reinstalled Linux Mint + drivers - everything working. Started CGMiner - everything working... but!!! but...:

More heat while Idle (think because there is more Voltage on it)
Yes more overclocking - but also much more power use (for every 10mhash > 10 watt)
If you drive your overclocking to the point the card stops working - the whole system - even after restart - goes crazy!
I tried it twice, and everytime after reaching the limits, I had to reinstall linux!

If you are willing to play around (make bios backups first!) - and stop overclocking at about 1180 Engine Clock (test with Saphire 7950 3GB OC) - it works. Most 7950 (or all?) have dual bios- so you don't even need to flash back, just switch the switch to the other position.

So to me: Makes no sense because of power costs, I've a system running in total 580w at about  ~1360-1380mh.

before flashing I have a max (7950) of about 580mh, after flashing 615mh - and for every mh there is at least 1w of power use!

I think this could be because of more basic voltage on it after flashing. But I didn't want to play around with voltage - so I don't know.

Regards

[mc_lovin]

wow, that's awesome!  I wonder if you could do the flash, lower the voltage somehow, and still get higher clocks?

[biddicoin]

yes! I wonder, too :-)

I spent a whole day on this thing, but without trying the voltage... had no more nerves for reinstall again and again (after find the max for every card...)

So I again, run it with old original bios - no more 7970...