OC or flash my 6950 ? for better performance with ARMA2/OA

[avibird 1 154]

Hello, what do you guys think will give me better performance with my system. I have a 6950 and i5-2500k with a Gigabyte MOBO with EasyTune6.

Should I flash the the 6950 to the 6970 or just use the easytune to OC my system with a simple hit of a button. If I flash the card then I should not OC because of the different power pins the cards have. Which will give me more perfromance with ARMA2 extra shaders or CPU speed > 4.0 using the easytune6. What will be better for the system in the long term.

[killaalf 0]

If it were me I'd definitely overclock that Sandybridge as far as it went, why else would you get the "K" model?

[ginger mcale 11]

I have same CPU and same graphic cards and i can recommend you to do both.

[avibird 1 154]

I have same CPU and same graphic cards and i can recommend you to do both.

What performance improvements did you get. It has been stated a few times on the net that you should not to OC if you flash the card B/C of the different power requirements/pins of the cards. I was getting 51 FPS with my 5870 card with most setting on very high and somethings like AA/post on normal with a viewdistance a little > 4000. The 5870 was not OC but the card had some issues and was sent back to newegg:butbut: But for > money I got the 6950. With the same setting I was getting only 44 FPS:mad: I know this is better then fine to play ARMA2 but we always want more. When I used the easytune6 OC 4.1 I got 49 FPS. How much will the extra shaders improve the game. I know anything over 30-35 FPS you can't tell with your eyes. What will be the long term efforts on the card using more power on the vid card. I know OC the I5 2500k to ~ 4.0 is ok and is in a safe range with stock cooler. I can OC a little more but not with the easytune So I will not.

Edited March 1, 2011 by AVIBIRD 1

[Leon86 13]

I wouln't overclock that 2500K with easytune while having stock cooler.

The reason is you'll want to make sure your cpu is running stable, that's only possible with extensive stresstesting. Easytune is probably quite generous with extra voltage for the chip, needlessly increasing power use and temperature. If you want to overclock with the stockcooler do it manually in the bios so you know what voltages are used.

If you have a 6950 with a little switch on it you can flash bioses in relative safety. Sometimes the extra shaders work great, sometimes they dont.

[ginger mcale 11]

What performance improvements did you get. How much will the extra shaders improve the game. It has been stated a few times on the net that you should not to OC if you flash the card B/C of the different power requirements/pins of the cards.

I did not benchmark before and after flashing because i knew already what the difference will be (10% overall more performance - not arma 2 related). Before the flashing i spent a half day looking through hardware forums where people were talking about this and sharing their experience.

Conclusion:

If you flash the card and bring the clocks to 6970 values you will have the exact same performance of the 6970 (10% faster then 6950). I followed also the discussion about the power req/pins you did mention and it was clear that it was technically OK (i dont remember the facts perfectly, its too long ago). Here is the guide of techpowerup:

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

And here the related article with discussion, iam pretty sure you will find the discussion about power/pins in this thread too if you want, here it is:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137136

With the same setting I was getting only 44 FPS:mad: I know this is better then fine to play ARMA2 but we always want more.

Weird, the 6950 should be the same speed as the 5870, article with results for this graphic card series:

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2010/test-amd-radeon-hd-6970-und-hd-6950/26/#abschnitt_performancerating_mit_aaaf

What will be the long term efforts on the card using more power on the vid card.

The usual rule is the graphics card should die earlier but you get better price value through better FPS on cost of higher energy costs (the same as for 6970). But people discussued all about it the linked thread (and also in other hardware forums), i recommend you to check it out if you want to know all the facts :-)

I know OC the I5 2500k to ~ 4.0 is ok and is in a safe range with stock cooler. I can OC a little more but not with the easytune So I will not.

Iam on the stock cooler too at the moment and are on 4 ghz too. I tried more then that but the temps went to high (over 70 or 80 ° celsius, dont remember exactly) and i dont wanted to get the CPU to be that hot. Before buying this parts i had everythign watercooled in my PC and will in the future get a watercooler for this CPU and the graphic cards and will bring up the CPU to at least 4.8 ghz. I recommend you to clock the CPU to 4 ghz with the stock cooler or to buy a bigger cooler and to go to 4.5 - 4.8 (safe area). 5 ghz are possible too when air cooled but its already the extreme area. 5.2 gz are the maximum when air cooled that i know:

http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f139/intel-lga1155-overclocking-ergebnis-thread-kein-frage-oder-quatschthread-776057.html

Scroll down in the first post and open the spoiler tag for "Intel® Core™ i5-2500K Processor (6M Cache, 3.30 GHz)". Its a overclock results thread from a big german hardware forums for Intel LGA1155. But the results are self-explanatory, you will get an idea without knowing german. There will be similiar lists and threads in english speaking hardware communities. Especially in the http://www.xtremesystems.org forums (hardcore overclocking forums for computer hardware).

And here is a very good overclock guide for our CPU series (if you want or you need to overclock it someday directly in the bios):

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=264300

That what Leon86 said, absolutely correct. Can fully aggree.

In the linked thread of hardwareluxx.de you will find also the "4000Mhz Lowest Vcore" list. Very good read.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Ginger McAle