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How to make Link speed 2.5GT/s to 5.0GT/s on ATI card and Nvidia card

Interesting! So you did it solely by comparing pictures of the different parts and narrowed it down to the single resistor that is only missing in the Mac edition.

Wow, time consuming job!

Nice to share your findings with the community. I'd be happy to donate a few bucks to get you a relaxing beer or coffee after the job if you tell me your Paypal email.
 
J-MI said:
I have compared pictures between the Mac edition and other 7950 PC pictures on Techpowerup website.
Sapphire Mac edition PCB design is very similar to the AMD Radeon 7950 3GB one.
First, everybody think the solution was only in the resistors near the crossfire connector.
But when you compare the cards, a lot of resistors are different on the two PCB (blue squares on the picture).

[url=http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/1240/7950macedition11.jpg]Image[/URL]

Because of all those difference, I thought compare these two cards was a wrong way.

In fact, only the Sapphire Mac edition and HIS radeon HD 7950 IceQ X2 Boost 3 GB is quite similar to the Mac edition one.Only two resistors differences (red squares on the picture).

I think the resistor near the power connector was not significant because on this point there is no difference between Sapphire Mac edition and AMD Radeon 7950 3GB.

But the other resistor difference, under the right down screw hole of the GPU, seems to was "the" resistor.

The cards reviewed on techpowerup website showed two type of design on the PCB for the resistor R17 (ver1 and ver2).
All the card, alike their design, had the R17 resistor. The Sapphire Mac edition hadn't it.

I talk about that to Fouel. He tried the resistor under the power connector and I tried the R17 resistor.
Click to expand...
I tried the the resistor under the power connector then got a brick card. The card failed to boot and atiflash.exe can't recognize it.
That's all right.Everything is worth.
Thanks J-MI.
 
i have the Powercolor HD7970 , remove the R17 , but still 2.5GT/s .. donna why :confused:
 
Thanks so much for taking the time to find this, and sharing it with the community!
I will try this on my AMD Reference 7950 and report back.
 
hmls said:
i have the Powercolor HD7970 , remove the R17 , but still 2.5GT/s .. donna why :confused:
Click to expand...

Strange...:confused:
What is your powercolor model ?

I have 2 powercolor :
- HD7950 PCS+ Boost State who have the first reference design of R17 resistor: I removed the R17 resistor and got the 5.0 GT/s

-HD7970 PCS+ Vortex II who have the second reference design of R17 resistor: I removed the R17 resistor and got the 5.0 GT/s

Are you sure you have removed the R17 resistor?
 
Cecco said:
Nice to share your findings with the community. I'd be happy to donate a few bucks to get you a relaxing beer or coffee after the job if you tell me your Paypal email.
Click to expand...

Thanks Cecco, you are cool;)

But keep your money...Nektas do all his job for the Mac Pro community for free. It's because guys like him we can have mac EFI rom from radeon HD79XX. I use Nekta's work for free on my Mac Pro, I also use for free Dr. Stealth's job to add, in a very clean way, an extra power supply inside my Mac Pro for my radeon 7970.
I found the R17 resistor tips to get the 5.0 GT/s on radeon 79XX, and I think it is normal after that to share my finding to the community for free.:)
 
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J-MI said:
Strange...:confused:
What is your powercolor model ?

I have 2 powercolor :
- HD7950 PCS+ Boost State who have the first reference design of R17 resistor: I removed the R17 resistor and got the 5.0 GT/s

-HD7970 PCS+ Vortex II who have the second reference design of R17 resistor: I removed the R17 resistor and got the 5.0 GT/s

Are you sure you have removed the R17 resistor?
Click to expand...

i think its just a normal version of 7970 , yes, i remove the R17, but didnt work .. :(

link for the card : http://www.powercolor.com/us/products_features.asp?id=398
 
hmls said:
i think its just a normal version of 7970 , yes, i remove the R17, but didnt work .. :(

link for the card : http://www.powercolor.com/us/products_features.asp?id=398
Click to expand...

No idea whether it is needed but you've reset SMT and NVRAM?

----------
J-MI said:
I also use for free Dr. Stealth's job to add, in a very clean way, an extra power supply inside my Mac Pro for my radeon 7970.
Click to expand...

I don't have plans for using a 7970 but what is it your talking about?

----------
J-MI said:
Thanks Cecco, you are cool;)
But keep your money...
Click to expand...

So I'm going to drink it to your success. ;)
 
I just removed R17 from my AMD Reference HD 7950 card, and it works!
5.0GT/s!!!!
Thanks SOOO much for this!!!!

It should also work on 7970, since I'm 99% positive my card is actually a 7970 (6pin+8pin power, shows 2048 cores\128 in GPU-Z, but I use a 7950 BIOS to keep power under 225Watts)
 
J-MI said:
I don't know why....:mad::mad::mad:

I can't help you without a detailled picture of the card's back.

What is your Mac Pro model ?
Early 2008, early 2009, Mid 2010 or Mid 2012 ?
Click to expand...

my MacPro is 2009

and here is my card
 

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hmls said:
my MacPro is 2009

and here is my card
Click to expand...
It looks like you removed the wrong resistor (C18).
The R17 is upper and C18 is lower.
see the arrow in picture.
 

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Finally heated up my soldering station and removed the R17 on my HIS 7950 (well actually the whole block had no parts numbering but the layout was identical to the pictures posted, so it was no problem to locate R17).

Man this thing is tiny. You can hardly see it with bare eyes. I'm happy to have to do this only once. And a warning to those with little experience in soldering. This is a tough job that needs the right tools, good eyes and steady hands or you will brick your card. Luckily I have all those except the good eyes, which I supported by a head-loupe. ;) Given the little improvement you see in real world apps, think twice before you start the adventure.

Put card back in case, powered up and it shows 5.0 speed. :D

Had a bit of weird benchmark performance and a freeze of the system until I've reset the NVRAM. So I'd recommend to do this immediately after the mod.
 
hmls said:
Email sent, thx :D
Click to expand...

OK.
On the picture, the R17 resistor is still présent, so if you want to get the 5.0 GT/s, you must remove it.
Are you sur the R18 resistor is now in good condition ? because on the picture you send to me it looks bad...
When you removed the R17 resistor the first time, are you sure you didn't make a tin link between the resistors ?
Your picture is not very detailled but it seems there is a tin link between R16 and R17 resistor and may be also between R18 and R17.

Really, I don't understand why it's doesn't work for you. You seem to be the only one...I'm so sorry for you.
 
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