Sapphire 6950 2GB with dual bios. (Does not contain unlocked shaders and won't flash)

[Crow550]

Do I return this card for another or is there something I didn't try?

This is the card I got: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102954

I flipped the switch away from the crossfire port like the directions say & both contain the same firmware.

I tried flashing it to a 6970 but it would not boot so I had to restore it. I also tried modifying the current firmware with the unlocked shaders and nothing.

I used GPU-Z & Sapphire Trixx to look at the Shaders.

Anyone know what's up? It seems some others have had the same issue.

Really wanted this for the unlocked features.

 

[Arkadrel]

maybe your amoung the 5% or so that have a chip that doesnt.
Nothing wrong with the card, its like with a cpu and unlocking a extra core.

If you get it, bonus, free performance gain for you.
If not... you got what you payed for.

Anyways, RoPs kinda limit the usefullness of all those shaders on the 69xx cards.
If you just overclock the hell out of it, it ll still be pretty close in performance to the overclocked 6970's.

 

[RussianSensation]

Some cards don't unlock. Keep in mind, there is only a 2-4% performance difference by unlocking the shaders. So most of your gains will come from overclocking the card to 880mhz (or higher) and memory to 1375.

Before you return the card, overclock it and see how high it can go. The unlocking is cool, but it doesn't drastically affect performance for 6950 as overclocking does from 800 --> 880mhz.

Keep in mind that still represents good GPU value from what's currently available. Although this GTX570 for $270 is sweet too.

 

[Crow550]

I was thinking of exchanging it for same in hopes of getting the bios....

I still have my old PC I can mess with till the exchange comes through so it's no big deal.

However the gain does sound small. However I did purchase the card with the 6970 bios in mind too.

I can't get around to mailing it back till after New Years anyways if I do.

 

[Crow550]

What is the ideal OC speeds of this card to 6970 like speeds?

GPU: 880mhz & Memory: 1375mhz?

Leave Voltage at 1100?

 

[RussianSensation]

You'd probably need to raise the stock voltage to HD6970's level, which is 1.175V. I had to raise mine to 1.175V to get it stable at 880mhz with full 1536 SPs. I used MSI Kombustor for 15 min to test stability as well as some 3dMark 06 runs and 9 loops of Crysis benchmark runs.