Enhance your 6950=unlock to 6970!

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Originally Posted by hurleybird

Thank you AMD for letting these things be unlocked. :banana::banana::banana::banana: you very much for discontinuing the longer CF bridges and making cards that have no airflow when used in CF.

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+1
Looking for two longer bridges myself... Damn, it's so lame. My cards are actually one slot apart already, and still, one is suffocating.

if they're a slot apart they're not suffocating. Probably have some poor gpu/heatsink contact and/or poor case ventilation, not that the fan profiles ever help anything either..

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Originally Posted by zalbard

+1
Looking for two longer bridges myself... Damn, it's so lame. My cards are actually one slot apart already, and still, one is suffocating.

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I wish I had mine a slot apart. My top card is *really* suffocating. I kept the power containment on that one at default, and the bottom one at +20%. Did a slight memory OC to 1400MHz for both, but withholding further OCing until my new bridge gets here.

Speaking of power containment, any kind of workaround yet to get a *real* +20% setting? (as in, +20 for the 6970 as opposed to the 6950 tdp.)

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Originally Posted by STEvil

if they're a slot apart they're not suffocating. Probably have some poor gpu/heatsink contact and/or poor case ventilation, not that the fan profiles ever help anything either..

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Open bench.
Maybe not suffocating, poor choice of words. Still, the top card is constantly 10C hotter, which sucks. Plus I am stuck at 8x instead of 16x PCIE that way... Which actually annoys me more, since I am going to watercool these soon.

Stick a fan to blow more air to your top card until you guys get a better solution worked out.

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Originally Posted by Neova

Stick a fan to blow more air to your top card until you guys get a better solution worked out.

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that being water cooling

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Originally Posted by kuroikenshi

that being water cooling

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Yes but just like Zalbard, my problem here is also the distance between the two real x16 PCIe.
Well, I didn't research what would be the performance difference with a second card on a x8 interface.

Unless its 2xGPU pcb, u might lose out to 1 or 2 fps, since I am also on the same boat, sold my 5970 just then and will get 2 x 6950's

Mine two MSI come in black PCB so please ignore my previous post above...

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Originally Posted by zalbard

Open bench.
Maybe not suffocating, poor choice of words. Still, the top card is constantly 10C hotter, which sucks. Plus I am stuck at 8x instead of 16x PCIE that way... Which actually annoys me more, since I am going to watercool these soon.

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I have same problem, top card is always hotter around 10C than other one :(
I did put small paper peace between those so top card would intake some fresh air but it did not help much, nevertheless I'm keeping it that way since it can not do any harm. :)
Not to mention this is all done with case panel opened.

However I did read some people complain about squealing noise problems after flashing it with 70 bios, and I did hear mine only when I loaded Crysis (Never flashed mine 50, all stock settings)? That time was loud one, after that they are almost silent. :confused:

Well, I took one of my '6970's out. Will put it back in just as soon as my long CF bridge arrives.

I got an official statement from AMD regarding unlocking 6950 to 6970 with vBIOS update:

"A number of news sites have reported on an apparent vBIOS flash that effectively turns an AMD Radeon HD 6950 into an HD 6970. While we do include two discrete BIOS ROMS and a BIOS switch for the purpose of trying new BIOS when they are made available, AMD does not endorse the use of the unsupported vBIOS’ on the AMD Radeon HD 6950 as this may lead to unstable performance and/or subsequent failure of the product which is not covered under warranty."

Source: Muropaketti.com

http://translate.google.com/translat...ys-evaa-takuun

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Originally Posted by Sampsa

I got an official statement from AMD regarding unlocking 6950 to 6970 with vBIOS update:

"A number of news sites have reported on an apparent vBIOS flash that effectively turns an AMD Radeon HD 6950 into an HD 6970. While we do include two discrete BIOS ROMS and a BIOS switch for the purpose of trying new BIOS when they are made available, AMD does not endorse the use of the unsupported vBIOS’ on the AMD Radeon HD 6950 as this may lead to unstable performance and/or subsequent failure of the product which is not covered under warranty."

Source: Muropaketti.com

http://translate.google.com/translat...ys-evaa-takuun

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Well of course they are not going to 'endorse' it, but I think the fact that they don't deny that it is possible is very telling. This is pretty awesome, I was originally planning to upgrade this gen, but then with dissapointing performance decided to hold off until ati 7xxx or nv 6xx. With this news I might be convinced to get a 6950

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Originally Posted by cobra_kai

Well of course they are not going to 'endorse' it, but I think the fact that they don't deny that it is possible is very telling. This is pretty awesome, I was originally planning to upgrade this gen, but then with dissapointing performance decided to hold off until ati 7xxx or nv 6xx. With this news I might be convinced to get a 6950

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'tis what pushed me to pull the trigger. I snapped up 2 x 6950's right when I read this in case the price jumped on the reference cards. I'm quite happy in the end :up:

Ask AMD the same question regarding unlocking cpus. You will get the same answer and if it benefits AMD, it will still be available.

Guide and article at TweakTown