6950 flashed to 6970

[flopper]

My question is whether or not you will run into power issues. The 6950 only had 2x6 pin and the 6970 has 1 8 pin and 6 pin.

you get not as much due to as you noted but the extra shaders add up.

 

[hclarkjr]

you get not as much due to as you noted but the extra shaders add up.

according to this review http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd6970-hd6950_12.html#sect0
at the same clock speed the cards are the same.

Overclocking helps Radeon HD 6950 almost eliminate the performance difference from HD 6970, and in some games and test modes even outperform the latter.

 

[flopper]

to my knowledge, you need around 930 core on the 6950 to match a stock 6970.
however, in some resolutions you wont notice difference.
I might due to I play at 5760x1080.

 

[3DVagabond]

Just because the spec for the 6 pin is 75W doesn't mean it won't supply more.

 

[Termie]

Here's a bit more info from W1zzard at TechPowerUp: http://www.techpowerup.com/137140/AMD-Radeon-HD-6950-can-be-unlocked-to-HD-6970.html

 

[Adul]

what to do what to do...

 

[Cheesetogo]

Woohoo! It worked great for me. Thanks OP.

Aside from the power connector and different memory chips, is there any difference between a flashed 6950 and a 6970?

 

[littlezipp]

Woohoo! It worked great for me. Thanks OP.

Aside from the power connector and different memory chips, is there any difference between a flashed 6950 and a 6970?

According to most of these how to guides, no!
I'm still waiting to see which card comes out as the best card to unlock! Looks too easy, I'm guessing these will be laser cut in the near future...

 

[Skurge]

Seems like a coincidence that these are also the 1st AMD branded cards and they unlock just like their CPUs, reminds me of my X3 that unlocked to an X4.

+1 to AMD for including the dual bios.

 

[Shmee]

Good stuff, now I am back to considering 2 of them! Was kinda disappointed at the release and lack of overclocking features. this looks pretty sweet though!

 

[RaistlinZ]

Is the only different between the 6950 and 6970 the number of shaders and GPU/memory clocks? Do they have the same number of ROPs, texture units, etc?

I wonder of the flashing will be disabled by future AMD Cat drivers?

 

[BFG10K]

Is the only different between the 6950 and 6970 the number of shaders and GPU/memory clocks? Do they have the same number of ROPs, texture units, etc?

The 6950 has the same number of ROPs, but less TMUs (which the flash also unlocks).

 

[Teizo]

This may be a good value for customers, but I wonder how it is going to affect their sales overall since this makes purchasing a 6970 less appealling.

 

[yepp]

edited out: already been posted

 

[AnotherGuy]

Dailytech also mentioned this process today and posted a link to the actual step by step process on techpowerup site...

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

 

[Cheesetogo]

Dailytech also mentioned this process today and posted a link to the actual step by step process on techpowerup site...

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

That's what I used. Makes it a bit easier than having to do it off a boot disk.

 

[Adul]

grrr it wont flash for me. I keep getting cannot erase ROM error message when I try. Any ideas?

 

[Makaveli]

I'm going to read that TPU article now.

However the difference in price is really small between these cards not like when people were flashing Radeon 9500 to 9700pro's.

6950 is $319 Cdn
6970 is $384 Cdn

 

[RavenSEAL]

I'm going to read that TPU article now.

However the difference in price is really small between these cards not like when people were flashing Radeon 9500 to 9700pro's.

6950 is $319 Cdn
6970 is $384 Cdn

$60 is plenty in my book.

 

[Adul]

ok I tried everything in that article no dice so far 🙁

 

[Adul]

damn I just realize I had the switch in the wrong position. sigh where is my caffeine..

 

[3DVagabond]

ok I tried everything in that article no dice so far 🙁

Well, just in case you didn't try everything. 😉

W1zzard mentioned 2 things to people who were having trouble flashing their cards.

1, If it's an ASUS card you need to do some additional editing

2, Some people ar ehaving trouble because they have the BIOS switch on the card set to the wrong position.

Sorry I'm getting ready to leave for work and don't have time to search through the posts on TPU's forum.

This is the link to the forum thread. -> http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=137136

 

[Cheesetogo]

Mine seems to be quite stable at the stock 6970 settings. However, I don't think it's capable of overclocking like a real 6970 -- I can only get it up to around 900 mhz before it starts to become unstable. Something to keep in mind if you're considering a 6950 over a 6970.

 

[Elfear]

Got both of my Gigabyte cards unlocked and overclocked to 925/1400. No artifacts that I can see and performance is noticeably better.

 

[HurleyBird]

Just ordered 2 HD 6950's. Cayman may be a disappointment, but a combination of low prices, 2GB memory for eyefinity, good CFX performance, unlocking, and future driver enhancements has got me convinced.

If I can get both unlocked, there's a good chance that with newer drivers I'll have two cards with ~GTX 580 performance at only 60 dollars more cost.

Can't wait to play Metro and Crysis at eyefinity resolutions! SLI/CF virgin so hopefully I don't run into too many dual GPU issues...