Overclock Sapphire 6950 dirt 3 edition to 6970 speeds safe?

[shwick]

I just bought a sapphire 6950 dirt 3 edition from newegg, did some research and am pondering making it into a 6970.

This requires two things: flipping the switch to unlock the shaders and overclocking the card to 6970 speeds.

I understand that the 6970 is built with one 8 pin power connector for additional ground because the card uses more power, and the memory modules are binned at higher speeds.

Over the years I have found that graphics cards are delicate pieces of hardware and have a high failure rate.

Right now I am leaning towards simply unlocking the additional shaders but leaving the card at stock 6950 speeds. It simply wasn't built to be a 6970.

I'm worried about the memory, power and the fact that it was built to be a 6950 not 6970.

Any comments?

 

[happy medium]

Just unlocking the shaders is not worth it. It might give you 2% more fps.

I think you would be better off just overclocking your card without unlocking the shaders.

 

[hondaf17]

Just unlocking the shaders is not worth it. It might give you 2% more fps.

I think you would be better off just overclocking your card without unlocking the shaders.

+1 as that's what I've read as well. My 6950 arrives tonight and I plan on ocing it a bit to get ready for BF3. I can report back on my success, if you'd like. A bing search will yield plenty of results for you.