Unlock your 6950 to a 6970!

[mactronix]

To be honest im not surprised Wizard tried this, It was known that they were using full chips for 6950 cards so it makes semse for someone like Wizard to give it a go.
Part of me thinks this was deliberate, AMD have been very clynical with the way they have set out their price/performance points of late, why else make trying it a no brainer with the back up bios on a switch ? If they had loads of good chips to make 6970's from then they could have priced them below the 570 and really cleaned up but they chose to make 6950's out of them instaed.
lets face it they had to do something to add value to a card that only performs so so.

Mactronix

 

[willmalcom]

Oh come on! I was all set for the technicals!

Movies shot in film are cool at 24 FPS. Computer games? Gotta build in some FPS OVER. So 30 FPS is a good minimum, one I agree with after playing nearly every shooter starting way back at Wolfenstein 3D. Yeah even 15 to 20 FPS is playable, when you HAVE to play on a lame puter. And I played CS too, what's the beef?

I didn't read all of the posts. I play css and dods in league cause I'm that much of a nerd. I just read something on Tom's that confirmed my suspicions that the eye does detect up to ~ 200 fps. If you have played css or dods the main reason for higher FPS (as far as I am concerned) is better shot registration. My accuracy is consistently higher @ 250fps than it is when I play w/ vsync @ 60fps.

 

[plznote]

Yeah, Marney_5, I can't wait until you get your cards! Let's see if the XFX ones flash...

 

[plznote]

Anyone tried? Post experiences!

 

[bystander]

I did it. It worked. I am able to run at stock 6970 clocks with no issue. I just can't overclock hardly at all. The temps are fine, but it causes the drivers to fail. It's probably a voltage issue.

I went from a 3dmark11 4600 score to 5300.

 

[studioman22]

I did it. It worked. I am able to run at stock 6970 clocks with no issue. I just can't overclock hardly at all. The temps are fine, but it causes the drivers to fail. It's probably a voltage issue.

I went from a 3dmark11 4600 score to 5300.

Well if the drivers are detecting a 6950 instead of a 6970, what do you expect? The way most drivers are packaged with inherent card detection, unless there was a special driver made for an unlocked 6950, I can't see how that's ever going to quite work right. So the question is, what does your sys info say about the new unlocked 6950? Does it say 6970 now that it has been unlocked? I'll bet it still says 6950, or just 6900 series. Internally, the driver may still think it is accessing a 6950, which is true. And whether it says it or not, someone needs to figure out whether the newly flashed card presents itself to the driver as a 6950 or 6970. It seems to me that the model comes from the GPU bios, which if flashed up with the 6970 bios, might well now present itself as a 6970- so I am curious about the answer to this.

 

[jyjjy]

I'm pretty sure once flashed with the HD6970 BIOS the card is recognized as such by the drivers and the system in general.

 

[bystander]

Well if the drivers are detecting a 6950 instead of a 6970, what do you expect? The way most drivers are packaged with inherent card detection, unless there was a special driver made for an unlocked 6950, I can't see how that's ever going to quite work right. So the question is, what does your sys info say about the new unlocked 6950? Does it say 6970 now that it has been unlocked? I'll bet it still says 6950, or just 6900 series. Internally, the driver may still think it is accessing a 6950, which is true. And whether it says it or not, someone needs to figure out whether the newly flashed card presents itself to the driver as a 6950 or 6970. It seems to me that the model comes from the GPU bios, which if flashed up with the 6970 bios, might well now present itself as a 6970- so I am curious about the answer to this.

The card is listed as a 6900 device/Series every where I've looked. It shows 6900 in GPU-Z, system info, dxdiag and CCC.

No were does it say 6950 or 6970.

As far as the clocks go. Some people are able to overclock all the way to 940 and 1440. Some people can't. It seems to just be a matter of luck.

 

[Digital Dissent]

The card is listed as a 6900 device/Series every where I've looked. It shows 6900 in GPU-Z, system info, dxdiag and CCC.

No were does it say 6950 or 6970.

As far as the clocks go. Some people are able to overclock all the way to 940 and 1440. Some people can't. It seems to just be a matter of luck.

I think what we have here is yet another example of high production and binning of the same thing being sold as something else. AMD probably dosent expect as many 6970's to sell as 6950's, so most likely they are setting up some 6970 level cards as 6950's, with the only difference between the two cards being the chip yield quality and not the architecture. Same as what happens with cpu's all the time, so some people will get cards that CAN use the extra shaders but cant overclock much, and others will get cards that for all intents and purposes ARE a 6970. I hope Im one of the lucky latter, but either way the increase in speed is significant so either way here the consumer is winning. Same as unlocking cpu cores!

 

[studioman22]

The card is listed as a 6900 device/Series every where I've looked. It shows 6900 in GPU-Z, system info, dxdiag and CCC.

No were does it say 6950 or 6970.

As far as the clocks go. Some people are able to overclock all the way to 940 and 1440. Some people can't. It seems to just be a matter of luck.

At this point it might be helpful to have the input of someone who actually writes catalyst drivers for AMD and knows firsthand the REAL differences, down to the last chip, between the two. In fact, I'd like to see what they say about why, technically, it would not be a good idea to take a set of 6950 hardware, R&D'd out the ying yang to operate within certain speed limits, and flash it up to the capabilities provided with 6970 hardware.

So, who's going to be the volunteer to write to AMD's technical department for an answer? :lol:

You know, I love to watch over-the-toppers. You guys pull off some radicals, for sure. And it's plenty of fun to see the results- as long as it's YOUR card that's going to fry and not mine. Yeah, I am not much on the whole OC thing, much less this radical idea. It's my personal belief that you can use up the over engineering buffer zone now at full speed, or run it where it was designed to run- and get the real expected lifetime of a product. And either choice is fine, just glad there is a choice. The rich- and the obsessed- are not always known for making the wisest choices. After all, they can afford one way or another to justify pushing the limits.

 

[bystander]

At this point it might be helpful to have the input of someone who actually writes catalyst drivers for AMD and knows firsthand the REAL differences, down to the last chip, between the two. In fact, I'd like to see what they say about why, technically, it would not be a good idea to take a set of 6950 hardware, R&D'd out the ying yang to operate within certain speed limits, and flash it up to the capabilities provided with 6970 hardware.

So, who's going to be the volunteer to write to AMD's technical department for an answer? :lol:

You know, I love to watch over-the-toppers. You guys pull off some radicals, for sure. And it's plenty of fun to see the results- as long as it's YOUR card that's going to fry and not mine. Yeah, I am not much on the whole OC thing, much less this radical idea. It's my personal belief that you can use up the over engineering buffer zone now at full speed, or run it where it was designed to run- and get the real expected lifetime of a product. And either choice is fine, just glad there is a choice. The rich- and the obsessed- are not always known for making the wisest choices. After all, they can afford one way or another to justify pushing the limits.

OCing generally is pretty risk free, as long as you don't get too radical. Generally speaking, if you ever read any of these OC articals, increasing clocks slowly doesn't leave hardly any chance of frying a card. The real risks come in when you increase voltages a lot.

If you test the limits with small increments, you just go until it fails, then back it off a bit.

On the site where a lot of people have tried this, only 2-3 people have failed at getting it to work. They were able to restore their old bios and nothing terrible has happened. No one is frying their cards.

I personally am not afraid and if for some reason my card only lasts 2 years instead of 4, I don't really care, as I'll probably be replacing it before then.

While doing this process, I also created a fairly agressive fan profile under MSI afterburner, so my temps have not gone over 80C, even though the card can handle up to 100C. It runs at 75C under max load currently.

 

[plznote]

Well at least it worked, is GPU-Z showing more shaders?

 

[bystander]

Well at least it worked, is GPU-Z showing more shaders?

Yes.

And based on everything I've read, including the review on this site, they use the same exact chip and card, except for the power connecters. Although I've read elsewhere there is can sometimes be a lower quality vram chip used on the 6950.

http/www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950-cayman,2818-6.html

 

[plznote]

Yeah to cut costs, as it is a lower (high-end) card...

 

[wh3resmycar]

The card is listed as a 6900 device/Series every where I've looked. It shows 6900 in GPU-Z, system info, dxdiag and CCC.

No were does it say 6950 or 6970.

As far as the clocks go. Some people are able to overclock all the way to 940 and 1440. Some people can't. It seems to just be a matter of luck.

same way with the 4800s, it was listed as a series. no anomalies there.

 

[plznote]

I think that was with the 5800's too.

 

[plznote]

Anyone else except for bystander try and have success?

 

[bystander]

On the original site, there are at least 100 that have had success.

 

[Tamz_msc]

But the good times isn't gonna last:
http/www.techpowerup.com/137448/AMD-Revising-Radeon-HD-6900-Series-PCB.html

 

[jyjjy]

A redesigned PCB doesn't necessarily have anything to do with whether the cards will be unlockable. It's not like AMD just forgot to cut out some shader clusters for the initially run. They had to purposely decide not to do so. The question is whether the reasons were to avoid further delays or because they wanted the card to be unlockable. They certainly haven't "fixed" their CPUs that can unlock so I wouldn't be so sure they have any plans to do so with the HD6950.