AMD Radeon HD 6950 Can be Unlocked to HD 6970

W1zzard · Dec 26, 2010

Looks like Santa brought an extra present for us hardware enthusiasts this year. Thanks to a less secure locking method AMD's new Radeon HD 6950 can be unlocked to a full blown HD 6970 with a few mouse clicks.

As detailed in our article, you can safely perform the flashing process from within Windows. In case something goes wrong it is easier than ever to recover the card thanks to AMD's new Dual-BIOS feature.

We tested the unlock on three HD 6950 cards: one AMD engineering sample, one HIS media sample and one ASUS retail card. All of them unlocked perfectly and run at HD 6970 speeds now. More success reports are compiled into a table at the end of the modding article.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

crazyeyesreaper · Dec 26, 2010

damn it w1zzard... i already paid for 2x 6970s im using now where the hell were you a week ago god damn it..... :roll:

oh well thanks for bringing it to are attention will definetly help some ppl save a bit of money

Tatty_Two · Dec 26, 2010

This is fantastic news.... gonna buy me a HD 6950 now!!!

jlewis02 · Dec 26, 2010

Very nice hope they are still like that when I upgrade.
Yea after I buy a second 5850 this pops up.

HTC · Dec 26, 2010

It seems the "AMD's better deal" just got better ...

EDIT

Do all the flashed cards support 6970 stock clocks?

PhysXerror · Dec 26, 2010

Haha, Oh this sucks so bad for people that have already got their 6970's :laugh:

cyriene · Dec 26, 2010

I have an xfx 6950 on the way, hope it can unlock as well....

I was going to wait until nvidia's next card comes out to lower prices to get a second, but now I may just go ahead and buy another just incase they change this in a later revision.

robmagee · Dec 26, 2010

I can confirm this works, all my proof is on XS posted under bodkin

buggalugs · Dec 26, 2010

this changes things, im glad i waited.

v12dock · Dec 26, 2010

Awesome find!

95Viper · Dec 26, 2010

Thanks, W1zzard!
Got a Gigabyte 6950 on the way, if, the UPS man can get though the snow.
Hopefully, I'll see it tomorrow or the next day.
I will have to try this out...

Mistral · Dec 26, 2010

W1zzard, is this a late Christmas or an early New Year present?

Have a 6950 Powercolor here and I'm so going to try this. :rockout:

PopcornMachine · Dec 26, 2010

Wow. I have a Sapphire 6950. Going to read your article thoroughly before trying.

Hayder_Master · Dec 26, 2010

guys quick pick up thous first samples before they locked it

the54thvoid · Dec 26, 2010

Is this not a bit shit? I mean as in shipping units that are 'software' crippled and can be 'fixed'? It's great for the guys with 6950's but it surely must leave a sour taste in the mouth for 6970 owners who paid what, 50-80 quid more? I guess hardware fusing is more expensive so BIOS mod.......

HOLD THE BOAT....

Is this what the delay was all about? CD at S/A had an article about 6970 stocks being higher than expected and 6950 stocks being very low. Was the delay caused by the last minute BIOS fiddlings to make more 6950's out of the 6970 cards?

Plausible?

W1zzard · Dec 26, 2010

the54thvoid said:
I guess hardware fusing is more expensive so BIOS mod.......

both costs nothing.

configuring the bios is like 3 mouse clicks for amd, i doubt that's the reason for the delay

damric · Dec 26, 2010

Doht! I just bought a 6850, as it seemed like best bang for buck 6000 series. I wonder if it would unlock to 6870?

cyriene · Dec 26, 2010

I'm excited to try this out. Hopefully amazon ships these quickly. This will be my first crossfire setup as well. Now I have to decide which water blocks I want to use.

Swamp Monster · Dec 26, 2010

thanks W1zzard, another good reason to buy HD 6950. This is why I love TPU :rockout:

Breit · Dec 26, 2010

I just came around to see this thread and it made me launch GPU-Z just to compare your shot to my ASUS 6970. Now I'm wondering if it is a bug of some kind or if the 'real' 6970 actually has more shaders available than the modded 6950.

here is what GPU-Z gives me on a retail ASUS 6970:
Edit: Validation is here.

W1zzard · Dec 27, 2010

Breit said:
I just came around to see this thread and it made me launch GPU-Z just to compare your shot to my ASUS 6970. Now I'm wondering if it is a bug of some kind or if the 'real' 6970 actually has more shaders available than the modded 6950.

here is what GPU-Z gives me on a retail ASUS 6970:
Edit: Validation is here.

you have an old gpuz version ..

grab this one:
[GPU-Z Test Build] Support for AMD Radeon HD 6950...

thanks. fixed the link in the article and will release a new official build in the next few days

Breit · Dec 27, 2010

W1zzard said:
you have an old gpuz version ..

grab this one:
[GPU-Z Test Build] Support for AMD Radeon HD 6950...

thanks. fixed the link in the article and will release a new official build in the next few days

It seems to work fine now, thanks for the fast reply! New validation comes here.

trt740 · Dec 27, 2010

well this is very good news

toyo · Dec 27, 2010

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

dnihilist · Dec 27, 2010

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

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AMD Radeon HD 6950 Can be Unlocked to HD 6970

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