Enhance your 6950=unlock to 6970!

The guide from techPowerUp!, none of the cards failed the flashing process.

http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/before.gif

http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/after.gif

:up:

lol, this is a blast :D

I wonder if this was the reason AMD added the bios switch? I suppose it does add substantial value to the product (for those who feel comfortable flashing gpus) while at the same time AMD isn't responsible if you brick your card. :ROTF:

GG AMD. :up:

At $299.99, no tax, and free shipping, this makes the 6950 really hard to pass up. I haven't unlocked shaders since the GeForce 6800. YIPPEE!

:rofl:This is the second time this has happened to me. I bought a 2900pro and found out it was a 2900XT under-clocked and now I buy a 6950 and find out the same.

I'll wait a few days and see how this pans out as I am in no great hurry but this is a hell of a bonus.

if this prove to be reliable, i think i'm not going to the gtx 570 because the price/quality relationship is on this 6950 :yepp:

First thread about the topic: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=264159

second thread: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=264189

now that looks more tempting.. any chance of future versions not being able to unlock ?

I can imagine if they do bring out the 1GB versions, then those will be hard locked or whatever.

Depending on how reliable this ends up long-term wise, this makes the 6950 2gb a very good deal in my eyes. I'm also doubtful the 1gb 6950 will have the same success story for unlocking unfortunately, but this definitely makes the 6950 a lot more attractive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pantsu

I wonder if this was the reason AMD added the bios switch? I suppose it does add substantial value to the product (for those who feel comfortable flashing gpus) while at the same time AMD isn't responsible if you brick your card. :ROTF:

GG AMD. :up:

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:confused:Sooo, what are the chances you brick a card if you have a switch? ;)

good news for 6950 !!!!!

Ordered an ASUS 6950 just now.

Can't wait.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mechromancer

At $299.99, no tax, and free shipping, this makes the 6950 really hard to pass up. I haven't unlocked shaders since the GeForce 6800. YIPPEE!

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False.

You were unlocking Pixel Pipelines, not shaders. :p:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mats

:confused:Sooo, what are the chances you brick a card if you have a switch? ;)

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Chances are always there, but if done properly you can even revert from a bad flash when the card has no video. Just slap in a PCI video card or use the on board. Everyone should be backing up their original BIOS before the flash.

If you look at both the 6950 and 6970, the cards are identical. It sounds like AMD made unlocking the 6950 to 6970 all to easy.

Maybe that's their ace in the hole. AMD has given users very powerful cards for a lower price, and yet nvidia has to compete with it using their "hard locked" cards.

Good Game indeed AMD. Very good game. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FlawleZ

Chances are always there, but if done properly you can even revert from a bad flash when the card has no video. Just slap in a PCI video card or use the on board.

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So you're saying the switch doesn't help in such situation, contrary to what TPU says? You lost me there..:shrug:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mats

So you're saying the switch doesn't help in such situation, contrary to what TPU says? You lost me there..:shrug:

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I haven't seen a case where it hasn't worked. I was merely suggesting another method which can work when recovering cards from a bad flash.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mad Pistol

If you look at both the 6950 and 6970, the cards are identical. It sounds like AMD made unlocking the 6950 to 6970 all to easy.

Maybe that's their ace in the hole. AMD has given users very powerful cards for a lower price, and yet nvidia has to compete with it using their "hard locked" cards.

Good Game indeed AMD. Very good game. :)

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6950 likely is cards that didnt meet their criteria for 6970.
one of mine dosnt play well and is artifacting in windows.
the other works.
I am likely to just play with the 6950 after voltage support been added from afterburner.

maybe a unlocked 6970 bios with mem timings same as 6950 might work but I doubt it.

Wonder how long it's gonna take em to put the halt to this????

Just for giggles, if one of you does this to a 6950, please do 3-5 runs of some GPU benchmark at the 6950's stock speed to get an average first. Then after flashing, please underclock to the 6950's default core and memory clocks and re-run 3-5 passes of the same thing. I'd like to make sure performance is increasing from the extra shaders instead of purely core/mem clocks.

I think the community as a whole would owe you some gratitude.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by screwtech02

Wonder how long it's gonna take em to put the halt to this????

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Why would they? People who do this sort of stuff are still giving them money and we account for a sliver of the sliver of people who actually buy these high end parts in the first place. I think this is why historically we've seen this happen time and time again. It's not like they forget with every new product that BIOSes can be overwritten.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Particle

Just for giggles, if one of you does this to a 6950, please do 3-5 runs of some GPU benchmark at the 6950's stock speed to get an average first. Then after flashing, please underclock to the 6950's default core and memory clocks and re-run 3-5 passes of the same thing. I'd like to make sure performance is increasing from the extra shaders instead of purely core/mem clocks.

I think the community as a whole would owe you some gratitude.

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:yepp:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mad Pistol

If you look at both the 6950 and 6970, the cards are identical. It sounds like AMD made unlocking the 6950 to 6970 all to easy.

Maybe that's their ace in the hole. AMD has given users very powerful cards for a lower price, and yet nvidia has to compete with it using their "hard locked" cards.

Good Game indeed AMD. Very good game. :)

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It looks like they are,but not exactly,6950 uses different memory chips.If people are having stability issues,chances are it's because of memory,but the fused off cores could be at fault as well.


And to people saying that later cards ,will not be unlockable, if we look at AMD CPU's they never started to lock them,chances are they won't lock these as well :)


And tests have been done,did you guys actually read the link in the OP ? The performance increase is there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Particle

Just for giggles, if one of you does this to a 6950, please do 3-5 runs of some GPU benchmark at the 6950's stock speed to get an average first. Then after flashing, please underclock to the 6950's default core and memory clocks and re-run 3-5 passes of the same thing. I'd like to make sure performance is increasing from the extra shaders instead of purely core/mem clocks.

I think the community as a whole would owe you some gratitude.



Why would they? People who do this sort of stuff are still giving them money and we account for a sliver of the sliver of people who actually buy these high end parts in the first place. I think this is why historically we've seen this happen time and time again. It's not like they forget with every new product that BIOSes can be overwritten.

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check the op's link.. techpowerup did that test and is 100% same thing as a 6970