Unlockable 6950's?

[GoodRevrnd]

1. Does this still work? Are they disabling this ability on some newer cards?
2. What's the best card to do this on? I'm liking the MSI FROZRIII since people seem to say it's quieter, but it seems results may vary for unlocking.
3. I seriously doubt I will XFire, but will a Corsair TX750 handle it? (w/ 2500K).

 

[Zargon]

1. it sometimes does AFAIK

2 sapphire has one that still has dual bios on it. I have one but havent had time to mess with it yet

3. I am assuming the tx750 is 80+? check my gamer in my sig, 2500K, dual 5870's. the 750 should be fine for xfire let alone one

 

[bryanW1995]

Haha, tx750 is certainly powerful enough for that. Yes, it is 80+, and corsair tests their psu's at 50c instead of room temp like most psu companies. My hx620 has 51a on the 12v rail, what is tx750, 68a or so?

You can unlock any 6950, just install a 6970 bios. However, without a dual bios switch you stand a decent chance of permanently bricking your card. IIRC, the 2gb 6950's have the dual bios switch and the 1gb cards don't. I'd recommend a custom 6950 bios or just plain ole' overclocking, from what I've seen a 6950 @ 6970 clocks is only 2-3% slower than a 6970, anyway.

BTW, what res do you use for gaming? Unless you're at 2560x1600 then I would strongly recommend against flashing regardless of whether you have dual bios switch or not.

edit: from looking at the Hardware Canucks review of the tx750, it looks like it's only 60a, though that's still way more than enough for xfire 6950's.

 

[3DVagabond]

The 6950 Toxic comes with the "2nd" BIOS already unlocked. No factory support for "6970 mode", but that would be the case anyhow if you did it yourself. IIRC, the 6950 Dirt 3 Edition card also has the BIOS. Not factory unlocked, and not quite as nice of a card. The Toxic are Sapphire's top of the line cards.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

I'm at 1920x1200. Whether it needs it or not it just seems like the free performance from unlocking is a no-brainer.

Toxic seems nice, but does the MSI FROZR cooler perform better?

 

[3DVagabond]

I'm not sure which cooler is better. Both the Toxic vapor chamber cooler and the Twin Frozr coolers are highly rated. The HD6950 Twin Frozr III is a really sweet card. I've read mixed reports about it's unlocking ability though. I've read the HD6950 Twin Frozr II is more likely to unlock than the III. That seems to change though from one batch of cards to the next.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Egh... think I'm going to go with the Toxic. Seems slightly more reliable for unlocking and apparently OCs better for whatever reason. Even if Frozr II is more unlockable than the III, it lacks dual BIOS so you risk screwing yourself over.

 

[chimaxi83]

I bought a TF3 6950 last month. Overclocks like a mofo (1003 core / 1590 ram) but every unlocking method I came across failed to unlock any shaders. Oh well.

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