6950 2GB Sapphire Toxic OC Review [H]

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Feb 19, 2009
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Here's the deal with the 6950, you don't need to unlock the shaders to realize the gains. The entire card is running crippled due to the lower ram clocks and much lower core clocks. Just bumping it to default 6970 speeds will give you ~97% of a 6970 performance, at less power usage (6950 has lower voltage on the ram). But given how easy it is to get to 950 core, its a no brainer. $250 or less for a card thats all in all a 6970 is a bargain thats hard to beat.
 

Spikesoldier

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 2001
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Because others who have purchased it said that the addition shaders were still laser cut.

im sure this guy (newegg reviewer) had an electron microscope to verify. i see plenty of reports of successful unlock on that SKU.

something tells me this kid didnt know what he was doing or he got a card that simply wouldnt unlock.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
11,848
2,051
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Here's the deal with the 6950, you don't need to unlock the shaders to realize the gains. The entire card is running crippled due to the lower ram clocks and much lower core clocks. Just bumping it to default 6970 speeds will give you ~97% of a 6970 performance, at less power usage (6950 has lower voltage on the ram). But given how easy it is to get to 950 core, its a no brainer. $250 or less for a card thats all in all a 6970 is a bargain thats hard to beat.

QFT, you don't NEED to unlock the shaders. The bigger gains are from the increased clocks.
 

WT

Diamond Member
Sep 21, 2000
4,818
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Aww damnnn, I just got a chance to swap out my GTX280 for my 6950 that I got last weekend. Pulled the 280, popped the 6950 in. Connected the 6 and 8 pin power leads from the PC P&C 750 PSU and powered it up. GPU fan spun at 100% (holy chit, made the old Nvidia 5800 sound quiet by comparison) and I heard a few beeps. No display. Yanked the card, reseated it, same thing.

Just contacted Newegg to RMA it, but I will test it in another rig here before giving up on it. I haven't ordered the rest of my SB build yet, but figured my eVGA 750i SLI FTW was fine to use the card in until the rest of my parts are ordered.

Edit: Tested it in another rig with an AMD board and an Antec 750w PSU - same result. Back to the Egg for an RMA. :(
 
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houe

Senior member
Nov 10, 2005
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0
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Aww damnnn, I just got a chance to swap out my GTX280 for my 6950 that I got last weekend. Pulled the 280, popped the 6950 in. Connected the 6 and 8 pin power leads from the PC P&C 750 PSU and powered it up. GPU fan spun at 100% (holy chit, made the old Nvidia 5800 sound quiet by comparison) and I heard a few beeps. No display. Yanked the card, reseated it, same thing.

Just contacted Newegg to RMA it, but I will test it in another rig here before giving up on it. I haven't ordered the rest of my SB build yet, but figured my eVGA 750i SLI FTW was fine to use the card in until the rest of my parts are ordered.

Edit: Tested it in another rig with an AMD board and an Antec 750w PSU - same result. Back to the Egg for an RMA. :(

Order a grounding wrist strap while you are at it. I'd say 1/2 the time people think they got a DOA they really just zapped it. People are not careful with sensitive electronics.
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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It would be interesting to see crossfire vs SLI comparison at higher res (2560x1600) of this versus a 570. Wonder who would win? :D
 

WMD

Senior member
Apr 13, 2011
476
0
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Here's the deal with the 6950, you don't need to unlock the shaders to realize the gains. The entire card is running crippled due to the lower ram clocks and much lower core clocks. Just bumping it to default 6970 speeds will give you ~97% of a 6970 performance, at less power usage (6950 has lower voltage on the ram). But given how easy it is to get to 950 core, its a no brainer. $250 or less for a card thats all in all a 6970 is a bargain thats hard to beat.

Here's a review of 6950 unlocking.

http://gigaflopd.com/reviews/unlocked-radeon-hd-6950-performance-review/

Yes unlocked shaders only gives 1-3% gain in real world gaming benchmarks.
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
7,381
2,415
146
hmm, thats what I thought. I was wondering if that was just an early nvidia driver issue or if it was still true that 2 GB really helped. I figured the latter, which is why I went with 6950's.