Why do people call it 'unlocking to 6970'?

[zombiegenesis]

When from what I have gathered, bearing in mind my unfamiliarity, the unlocking only opens up the shaders. The actual speeds of the card need to be overclocked to 6970 speeds don't they? Which I'm relatively sure the 6950 could do anyway.

In that case, it's not really a 6970... more a 6950 OC. Or am I missing something critical?
Just a little point of curiosity.

 

[varkanoid]

unlocking the shaders gives it the same number as a 6970. So at that point its now a 6970 but with lower clock speeds, then you up the clock speeds to same as 6970 if not higher.

I think if I remember reading right the 6950 is originally a 6970 with locked shaders and lower clock speeds.

 

[lollyhayes]

The unlocking you refer to means you flash the 6950 with a 6970 bios. The actual physical cards differ on only 2 counts:
1. The 6970 has an 8pin power socket and the 6950 has a 6 pin.
2. The memory chips are slightly higher specd in the 6970.

When you flash the 6950 with a 6970 it becomes a 6970 in terms of stream processors and also clock speeds...
So in essence it is a 6970... you can also get mdded 6950 bioses that simply unlock the shaders, this is what I did. And then overvolt them and overclock them...

 

[zombiegenesis]

I'll need to look into how to do that. Overvolting sounds complicated for a newbie like myself.

 

[Mr Krugga]

I'll need to look into how to do that. Overvolting sounds complicated for a newbie like myself.

And flashing a bios doesn't?

 

[lollyhayes]

I would recommend simply using one of the modded 6950 bioses... The 6970 bios mod can (apparently) kill cards. Voltage modding isn't really needed, if you max out ati overdrive (840mhz gpu, 20+% powertune) it will eat most games alive with the unlocked stream processors...

 

[zombiegenesis]

I guess I'll just use a modded 6950 and an overclock programme then? If that's what you mean. I'll do all my research when my 2GB 6950 shows up.

 

[lollyhayes]

it is fairly simple. Techpower up has an article on it and there are numerous guys on this forum whom I sure could give you some assistance (having done it to their cards already) Easyrider, Gareth for example...
The 6950 bioses are for XFX, HIS, Sapphire and Asus cards as far as I'm aware. However they are intechangeable (I am using asus bioses on my sapphire 6950's)...

 

[gareth170]

1 thing that doesn't unlock is the texture units.

 

[zombiegenesis]

Oh, so the modded 6950 bios won't work on my MSI card?

 

[gareth170]

Oh, so the modded 6950 bios won't work on my MSI card?

it will work on all makes

this is the asus 6950 unlocked shaders bios.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/80ywuj...us6950full.bin

 

[bhavv]

I remember my first bios flashed card, the expensive ATI 9800 pro > 9800 xt.

I missed the opportunity of the far better and earlier ATI 9500 pro > 9700 because I didnt know anything about bios flashing then.

The 6950 > 6970 flash does sound great, but I wish it was still possible to get a £150 card and unlock it to a £300 one

The legend of the ATI 9500 pro shall not be forgotten!

 

[Andrei23]

1 thing that doesn't unlock is the texture units.

yes it does because texture fillrate is the same as on the 6970 on the flashed 6950s

 

[Helios1234]

http://www.vortez.co.uk/articles_pages/his_amd_radeon_hd_6950_2gb_review,23.html

The two SIMD clusters are re-enabled on the HD6950 so it has all the shader processors and texture units. The review above show the performance differences.

 

[easyrider]

The sticky at the top of this page explains everything

 

[jrodga2k5]

You're unlocking it's true potential...that's why

 

[gareth170]

http://www.vortez.co.uk/articles_pages/his_amd_radeon_hd_6950_2gb_review,23.html

The two SIMD clusters are re-enabled on the HD6950 so it has all the shader processors and texture units. The review above show the performance differences.

well some review/forums sites says it doesn't unlock the texture units,

i tested stock 6950 bios vs 6970 bios clock for clock, the texture fillrate is same....

 

[Helios1234]

That's strange. The texture fill rate should have been slightly less.

Both the texture units and stream processors are linked to the SIMD clusters so enabling those will fully unlock the former two. But regardless, performance still ends up the same as a HD6970 when unlocked.