Unlock your 6950 to a 6970!

[wh3resmycar]

So you get 136fps instead of 121fps, big deal.

You could make half the difference up or more simply by doing a moderate overclock of the 6950.

FAIL.

 

[studioman22]

30FPS is fine for fluid motion with some blur, but it is incomparable to 60FPS for twitchy responsiveness. Even a constant 30FPS would feel sluggish (definitely smooth, but sluggish). Some people prefer 100FPS. I don't mind 60FPS myself, but I can notice a difference between 60FPS and 100FPS even with a 60Hz display. I generally don't get anywhere near that though

My tongue-in-cheek mention of CS players was in reference to those who absolutely "must" have 150FPS in order to play.

Yeah but you went one twitch too far at 100 FPS and missed.

Ok, I wasn't sure what side of the fence you were arguing there. Don't think for a minute though that I wouldn't want a steady 150 FPS if I could afford it- I am totally with you. A nice high DPI gaming mouse is a plus too.

But we digress from the topic at hand, and I apologize, OP.

This is a cool article, although I bet they choose certain boards to be the 6970's, while locking down others to become 6950's after certain specs are attained in the output piece. There could be a valid reason why those shaders are locked on that particular board- maybe activating them caused the slightest instability of some kind- keeping it from becoming a 6970. I'd be curious to see how the board performs long term after the unlock though.

 

[bystander]

Yeah but you went one twitch too far at 100 FPS and missed.

Ok, I wasn't sure what side of the fence you were arguing there. Don't think for a minute though that I wouldn't want a steady 150 FPS if I could afford it- I am totally with you. A nice high DPI gaming mouse is a plus too.

But we digress from the topic at hand, and I apologize, OP.

This is a cool article, although I bet they choose certain boards to be the 6970's, while locking down others to become 6950's after certain specs are attained in the output piece. There could be a valid reason why those shaders are locked on that particular board- maybe activating them caused the slightest instability of some kind- keeping it from becoming a 6970. I'd be curious to see how the board performs long term after the unlock though.

It's more likely there is no instabilibility, and the only reason those shaders were locked is because they needed to sell 6950's too. They realize most people will get the 6950, with the more cutting edge people willing to pay more, so they made that possible.

 

[plznote]

Has anyone here tried flashing their card?
@Shadow187 Yeah, it also raises clocks when it unlocks shaders (I think)

 

[studioman22]

It's more likely there is no instabilibility, and the only reason those shaders were locked is because they needed to sell 6950's too. They realize most people will get the 6950, with the more cutting edge people willing to pay more, so they made that possible.

Maybe, but do you think they would overlook what this article is saying- that the board can be bios-flashed up to 6970 status?

I mean surely with all the uber geeks out here they couldn't expect this to remain covered up for long? On the other hand, it is not everyday that I think to try and flash my video bios with another model card's bios... This might have been a simple mistake that inadvertently worked, which was then exploited. But I now do have to wonder if this might work in other cards? I am just not going to risk my machine or card to find out, that's for darn sure.

 

[bystander]

It does work on other cards. They've been doing this sort of thing for years.

However, due to having less power, and not as good of ram in many cases. People are not getting the same clocks as the 6970's when they both attempt to OC. Some are having to underclock.

 

[studioman22]

It does work on other cards. They've been doing this sort of thing for years.

However, due to having less power, and not as good of ram in many cases. People are not getting the same clocks as the 6970's when they both attempt to OC. Some are having to underclock.

Which is why generally you get what you pay for. A 6970 has the supporting necessaries to run at those speeds, long term. This is good fun and games, and interesting, but not for me. Couldn't recommend to clients much either. Of course my clients aren't demanding this kind of extremism. If they did, I'd tell them to get the 6970 and be done with it.

 

[shadow187]

Well remember that the allocation of chips for the HD6970 supposedly increased..obviously all the chips are meeting spec. Makes you wonder, "Gee, if all these cards are hitting the Cayman shaders..couldn't they have made a good-yielding higher-spec'd chip?"

 

[Tamz_msc]

This is like unlocking the Phenom II x2s and x3s.You cannot be sure that it will unlock.

 

[jyjjy]

this will cannibalize the sales of 6970, but boost 6950 sales in opposition to 570
i wonder if it is bringing overall profit to amd or not.

The vast majority of consumers will have no clue about this stuff so I doubt it will make much of difference either way.

 

[wh3resmycar]

The vast majority of consumers will have no clue about this stuff so I doubt it will make much of difference either way.

nay.

the vast majority of consumers you're talking about will not be buying the 6950, those who are in the market for one though, knows a thing or 2 about it.

these are "enthusiast" class cards, not the type of bundled cards uncle joe buys @ bestbuy.

 

[jyjjy]

I think you overestimate the knowledge level of people with the money and desire to own a high end video card.

 

[wh3resmycar]

^ i think you underestimate the volume of new threads spawning in every tech-website asking for graphics card help.

 

[jyjjy]

We hang out on and follow tech sites and forums but it a mistake to think that is normal for any segment of the market. Also in general in my experience ignorance is the norm in almost every situation involving humans. You can think what you want I'd be very surprised if over 5% of the HD6950s sold ever get flashed into a HD6970.

 

[painis]

I did this yesterday, feels good man.

What makes me rage is that AMD charged 60$ more for nothing. Nvidia must never fail or AMD will rocket their prices first chance given.

AMD, i am disappoint.

 

[jyjjy]

I did this yesterday, feels good man.

What makes me rage is that AMD charged 60$ more for nothing. Nvidia must never fail or AMD will rocket their prices first chance given.

AMD, i am disappoint.

AMD is a business like any other. They aren't a non-profit group dedicated to making the world a better place to game in. The goal of any business is to maximize profit. They will price their products based upon supply and consumer demand. Rage against capitalism if you desire but blaming AMD for being a business is just... warped IMO.
But anyway... you are disappointed that AMD didn't laser cut their GPUs to prevent unlocking like Nvidia does? It makes you "rage" to get extra performance for free? Do you rage against Intel because there's a $300 i7 and $1000 i7 that are physically the same chip? What should be more upsetting is the purposeful physical disabling of portions of a processor like almost every other line of video cards. The norm is to actually spend slightly more producing the card so that you get a less capable product that cannot unlock. That they didn't do it here is a welcome change.

 

[wh3resmycar]

We hang out on and follow tech sites and forums but it a mistake to think that is normal for any segment of the market. Also in general in my experience ignorance is the norm in almost every situation involving humans. You can think what you want I'd be very surprised if over 5% of the HD6950s sold ever get flashed into a HD6970.

having a clue and actually flashing it are 2 different things. funny you come up with a statistic twice (one is subjective), yet there's no way for you to extract and use that data yourself.

if someone has a 6950, and the fact that it has 2 bios as standard, this is pretty doable.

 

[jyjjy]

having a clue and actually flashing it are 2 different things. funny you come up with a statistic twice (one is subjective), yet there's no way for you to extract and use that data yourself.

if someone has a 6950, and the fact that it has 2 bios as standard, this is pretty doable.

It's certainly doable, I never questioned that. To the point that I guess I was using knowledge of the possibility and actually doing so interchangeably. I just pulled 5% out of nowhere to be honest but if I had to guess it is approximately correct. There's no real data on this stuff of course so it's all speculation.

 

[marney_5]

Just ordered 2 x XFX 6950 and they should arrive tomorrow. I'll give the flash a try and run a few tests and benchmarks to see if it works!

 

[Digital Dissent]

AMD is a business like any other. They aren't a non-profit group dedicated to making the world a better place to game in. The goal of any business is to maximize profit. They will price their products based upon supply and consumer demand. Rage against capitalism if you desire but blaming AMD for being a business is just... warped IMO.
But anyway... you are disappointed that AMD didn't laser cut their GPUs to prevent unlocking like Nvidia does? It makes you "rage" to get extra performance for free? Do you rage against Intel because there's a $300 i7 and $1000 i7 that are physically the same chip? What should be more upsetting is the purposeful physical disabling of portions of a processor like almost every other line of video cards. The norm is to actually spend slightly more producing the card so that you get a less capable product that cannot unlock. That they didn't do it here is a welcome change.

A funny point to follow up yours. Back when intel started making the i7's, they had an overstock of the $1000 i7 vs profit. Hence they resold them as the $500 and $300 i7's sometimes. I think I might have gotten one of those. It happens, maybe thats the case with these first production models...