AMD Radeon HD 6950 Can be Unlocked to HD 6970

[TheGuruStud]

Anybody run tests on power consumption? Any problems with power draw as 6950 only has 2x6 and not 1x6/8?

8 pin doesn't add power.

 

[dnihilist]

8 pin doesn't add power.

ok thnx

My theory is that MAD knew of this already and since the positioning of 6970 is in no-man's land, the free advertizing generated from this "feature" would sell more than enough 6950's to cover caniballized 6970 sales.

 

[trt740]

In your face, AMD... (man I hardly believe they didn't know about this possibility before launch)

Well now you have it do you really think they didn't? I mean they know the W1zzards of the world are out there.

 

[TheGuruStud]

ok thnx

My theory is that MAD knew of this already and since the positioning of 6970 is in no-man's land, the free advertizing generated from this "feature" would sell more than enough 6950's to cover caniballized 6970 sales.

That's exactly what I think. Just like unlocking the duals and tricores. It's working. I'm sitting on amazon's checkout page....


And I bought one. I'm so ashamed. It's like I paid a prostitute for the gratification.

Sapphire's on amazon is $292.50, btw. I wish I could hold out till the 3rd party coolers are available, but I guess I don't want to risk AMD actually fusing them.

 

[Vrgn86]

Would this card perform on par with a GTX 295, or better.

 

[jlewis02]

It will perform better

 

[dnihilist]

That's exactly what I think. Just like unlocking the duals and tricores. It's working. I'm sitting on amazon's checkout page....


And I bought one. I'm so ashamed. It's like I paid a prostitute for the gratification.

Sapphire's on amazon is $292.50, btw. I wish I could hold out till the 3rd party coolers are available, but I guess I don't want to risk AMD actually fusing them.

Heading out to get one now, nothing wrong about getting the most bang for your buck.

The dual-bios is starting to make sense, no point getting your noob 6950 customers bricking their cards performing their "free" upgrade.

 

[TheGuruStud]

Heading out to get one now, nothing wrong about getting the most bang for your buck.

The dual-bios is starting to make sense, no point getting your noob 6950 customers bricking their cards performing their "free" upgrade.

Yeah I was wondering why they implemented the feature. I loved it before this, but it definitely makes sense and makes me even happier.

Go Green Team! Or is it Team Green?

 

[KainXS]

well this makes the 6970 worth it to me now, get a 6950 flash to 6970

thats some incredible performance per dollar

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Have these flashed cards been stability tested? Because most 6950s reviewed don't seem to hit 880 on stock volts, and isn't the 6950 vid higher to begin with?

 

[PaNiC]

thank you AMD for taking $200 away from me

 

[DigitalUK]

man this sucks, i was going to buy the 6950 but spent the extra ,just put my system together again after installing my nice new 6970 and first thing i see 6950 unlocked. i thought the cores were different on the 6950 and 6970


also is there a reason mine is showing 1600 shaders.

 

[buggalugs]

You gotta use the new GPUZ to read the 69xx cards properly

 

[Salsoolo]

was eyeing a 6870. definitely getting a 6950 in two weeks on extra monies
hope it works with me

 

[DigitalUK]

that is the latest version 0.4.9, its gonna make 6950's sell like hot cakes.

 

[buggalugs]

that is the latest version 0.4.9, its gonna make 6950's sell like hot cakes.

Theres a newer one for these cards

[GPU-Z Test Build] Support for AMD Radeon HD 6950...

 

[DigitalUK]

thanks buggalugs didnt know that, everything reading properly now and bandwidth showing what it should.

 

[Rebelstar]

I wonder if AMD will close this way to unlock in the next 6950 revisions probably and only first 6950's are possible to unlock.

 

[buggalugs]

...... this is a nice Christmas present if you own a 6950 but i wouldnt be too upset if i already had a 6970. The best binned chips probably went into the 6970.

I wonder if AMD will close this way to unlock in the next 6950 revisions probably and only first 6950's are possible to unlock.

Dont think so. I think they do it on purpose, same with their unlocking of cores on their CPUs. AMD are too smart to let this happen by accident.

 

[KainXS]

it might be why they did the dual bios anyway. . . . . .

took to fast to figure this out

 

[dir_d]

Performance is the same even with two different architectures? Why did AMD switch to 4-Way? Was it a test run like the 40nm 4770?

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

no so much the same i can tell you in games like crysis warhead dual 5800 to dual 6900 was nearly double the performance it really depends on the game

Metro 2033
Alien Vs Predator

both scale and are far faster on the new cards by a landslide just DX9 and DX10 there on par or 20% faster *usually* but there are weird situations

example Bad Company 2 regular multiplayer xfire scaling is 18% Bad Company 2 Vietnam multiplayer scaling for me is around 82-85% and at those frame rates its about 35-40fps more then my 5850 oc xfire setup was

to be blunt theres far more games out there then the 5-10 you see in reviews and the games that need the xtra performance the 6900s do there share of improving

 

[Rebelstar]

.
Dont think so. I think they do it on purpose, same with their unlocking of cores on their CPUs. AMD are too smart to let this happen by accident.

Well, then I think we'll see OUT OF STOCK message for 6950 at newegg very soon

 

[wolf]

This makes the 6950 a hec of a lot more tempting, gahhh, if only the GTX560 were out already to make my decision easyer.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

come on wolf we both know the 560 will just be a new 470

580 replaced 480 took a step up
570 = 480
560 = 470
550 = 460

so on and etc