Going back to Red!

[Rhezuss]

Yeah, sold my 560 Ti for a really good price (unless the guy chickens out...) and now I want to get something equivalent, so a HD 6950 seems to fit the bill.

I play on a 1080p monitor so I guess 1gb will be enough or if I put it differently, I won't see any differences on a 2gb model (correct me if i'm wrong on this one).

My only question is: How can I know if it's a reference beaod so I could try to unlock the 6950 to a 6970?

Here's the models I'm looking at:

Sapphire http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814102949

Gigabyte http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814125385 (but this one seems to have problems with it's fan controller)

MSI http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814127604

The Sapphire is the one i'm more tempted to buy since I trust the brand. The Gigabyte one seems really nice too but I read that it has problems with it's fan controller crapping out after some time (not all cards but some) and the MSI Twin Frozr III is nice too but 20$ more for a simple overclock and a different fan.

So, are they all unlockable?

And BTW, if you think it'd be bettre with a 2gb model then i'll go for it, but seeing benches, it doesn't look like much improvement.

Thanks a bunch!!!!!!

 

[Red Storm]

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe you need the 2GB model to try unlocking.

 

[toyota]

1gb is not going to cut it in every game so get the 2gb version.

 

[Rhezuss]

Ok, 2gb it is.

 

[bryanW1995]

yes, get the 2gb.

You can unlock any of them, but the cards with dual bios are much safer to unlock b/c it is much easier to recover from a failed flash. Having said that, I'd use a custom 6950 bios instead, they'll get you with 2-3% of the performance of a similarly-clocked 6970 without the fear of bricking the card.

 

[Rhezuss]

Ok i'm ready to order and I see 2gb seems to be the way to go but at 1080p...is it really that necessary?

I'm asking this simply because I saw benches of 6950s stock vs 6870s OCed and they're so close to each other in 1920x1200 with AA/AF and some eye candy...

 

[Spikesoldier]

id really just keep the 560ti unless you were making the move to 28nm.

 

[Rhezuss]

id really just keep the 560ti unless you were making the move to 28nm.

Too late for that
Sold the card at lunch checking which Radeon to order now.

 

[peonyu]

If you buy a retail 6950, there is a 99.99999999999999% chance you wont be able to unlock the card even if it has Dual bios on it. The die on the cards [most of them] have been lazer cut since around March of this year.

 

[dpodblood]

Just out of curiosity why did you bother selling the 560ti? Seems like the 2 cards are pretty comparable. Oh and if you want to unlock you will need the 2GB version. All reference cards have the dual-bios.

 

[Rhezuss]

I sold the card because someone offered me 250CAD for it and I wanted to get back to AMD for some time. I just took advantage of the offer.

Now the whys are not important now, it's the which that matters

6870 1gb OC on the cheap (and maybe switch to HD 7000 series when it comes out) or 6950 2gb for the long run...

 

[toyota]

if you want to play ALL your games at the best possible settings then a 2gb model will be best at 1920. I think the 2gb will hold more of its value too because with games like BF 3 or even RAGE with 8K textures having more than 1gb is desirable.

 

[Rhezuss]

Thanks for your tips, I just ordered a Sapphire HD 6950 2gb.
Woohoo!

 

[Spikesoldier]

If you buy a retail 6950, there is a 99.99999999999999% chance you wont be able to unlock the card even if it has Dual bios on it. The die on the cards [most of them] have been lazer cut since around March of this year.

link me up ive heard thats an unfounded rumor.

 

[Arkaign]

2GB FTW! I'd also think that with Bethesda planning on a new development pack/resource kit to support the PC modding scene w/Skyrim, that a very high-detail texture pack will get put together for that title as well.

 

[Binky]

I recently purchased and successfully unlocked a Twin Frozr II. It overclocked to 6970 levels too. This means that there is absolutely a possibility that 6950 cards currently on the market can be unlocked.**


**A sample of one is not statistically significant, so you can safely ignore everything in this post (but its true).

 

[Rhezuss]

Is it easy to unlock/try to unlock a 6950?
If I can't unlock it i'll still be a happy gamer anyways

 

[Plimogz]

you'll need to flash the bios to a modded version which unlocks the extra shaders. And you really should familiarize yourself with the procedure for doing a blind flash, if the attempt goes awry and you suddenly find yourself wishing you hadn't attempted this whole thing in the first place.

Additionally, given that reference 6950s -- and their convenient dual-bios switches -- are pretty much a thing of the past at this point, you'll apparently have to do a simple little hardware mod to get the card to accept the modded bios.

edit: I should say, the hardware mod is only needed if the card won't accept the modded bios as is. Non-reference models come in both flavours.

This guy here came up with something

 

[Binky]

Is it easy to unlock/try to unlock a 6950?
If I can't unlock it i'll still be a happy gamer anyways

It's easy if it goes well!

If not, you have a mess to clean up.

 

[Binky]

You should find instructions that apply to YOUR card, but here are examples of the general procedure that I had saved.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1622205
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/316974-33-radeon-6950-shader-unlock-instructions

One thing to consider...the shader unlock increases performance by a few percent. Overclocking the 6950 to 6970 levels achieves nearly the same performance. Doing both is obviously the best.

 

[bononos]

Is the cooling on 6750/6790 the same or comparable? Theres a 50W diff btwn the TDPs on the Caymans.

 

[Rhezuss]

You should find instructions that apply to YOUR card, but here are examples of the general procedure that I had saved.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1622205
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/316974-33-radeon-6950-shader-unlock-instructions

One thing to consider...the shader unlock increases performance by a few percent. Overclocking the 6950 to 6970 levels achieves nearly the same performance. Doing both is obviously the best.

Wow thanks for those lonks...even though i'm not sure I completely understand/feel secure enough to try unlocking my soon to arrive 6950...

I'll read more about it and see if I'm game. Thanks again!