Unlock your ATI 6950 to a 6970 Thread

Vipernet · 28 Jan 2011 at 19:52

My Powercolour 6950 arrived today

Compared to my old 460s its massive! Ran 3dmark 11 at stock and got P4640. Flashed with the sapphire bios to unlock the extra pipes, upped the power to +20% in CCC and set the frequencies at 6970 levels. Made it through 5 runs of 3dmark 11 so far with no artificating with a max score of P5141 - almost 500 points extra from a simple flash - w00t!

However, compared to the 460s I'm not impressed with the temps. With everything unlocked and power up by 20% it idles at 58 and has went up to a max of 89.5 degrees C. Is this too high? I'm not too bothered as I have a 6970 block on its way but would be good to make sure the card is 100% before I void the warranty

gareth170 · 28 Jan 2011 at 19:57

tbh in most things u don't need to up the power control..

413x · 28 Jan 2011 at 20:03

Vipernet said:
You flashed it yeh?

yep already flashed it

Vipernet · 28 Jan 2011 at 21:37

You tried heaven or 3dmark11?

413x · 28 Jan 2011 at 21:48

Not really fussed with non game benchmarks.. besides will probably put the card under more stress

DBT85 · 29 Jan 2011 at 07:37

Well I've found that my Powercolour 6950 will not run at 880 on the core using either the stock 6950 bios, the sharder unlock bios or the 6970 bios. Wondering how the Asus bios will do with the little extra voltage.

Nice to know though that its frequency that was causing my freezes and not a bad bunch of unlocked shaders.

sas30uk · 29 Jan 2011 at 09:57

Are these cards going to remain unlockable or will they ever start to lock them so they are true 6950's ?

HighlandeR · 29 Jan 2011 at 17:32

are these XFX ATI Radeon 6950 XXX 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
XFX ATI Radeon 6950 XXX 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
£214.99 inc VAT

Able to be unlocked to 6970s no issues? if thats the case for £214.99 its a bargain...

gareth170 · 29 Jan 2011 at 17:44

why get a XFX ATI Radeon 6950 XXX 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card when a OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card is £209.99

easyrider · 29 Jan 2011 at 17:47

As Gareth Says get the 2GB version

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

HighlandeR · 29 Jan 2011 at 18:11

didnt even see it was a 1gig version lol was wondering why these xfxs are going cheaper...

does this OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB unlock to 6970 then? cos thats quite cheap....

gareth170 · 29 Jan 2011 at 18:30

HighlandeR said:
does this OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB unlock to 6970 then? cos thats quite cheap....

they are all the same cards but with different brand stickers.

HighlandeR · 29 Jan 2011 at 18:46

nice thx

Necron · 1 Feb 2011 at 18:23

Will this void your warranty considering you have a switch of the default bios just in case?

ahenners · 1 Feb 2011 at 21:04

Necron said:
Will this void your warranty considering you have a switch of the default bios just in case?

Technically yes your warranty is void by flashing it, however provided you could flash the original bios back to it, no one would be any wiser if you had to RMA it

siclilmonkey · 1 Feb 2011 at 22:06

Strange I have just flashed the 6950 with the sapphire bios (i have a HIS card) and the core clock has dropped to 750mhz but the mem has increased by 100mhz

Liquoid · 2 Feb 2011 at 15:32

Is there a similar function possible with improving a HD 6850 performance, or is it only doable for 6950?

smc88 · 2 Feb 2011 at 16:37

I got one of these cards when they were £200 with a mind to doing this but I'm not so sure now I read this:

http://www.techimo.com/forum/graphics-cards-displays/255792-6950-6970-flash-info.html

What do you guys make of it?

eXist · 2 Feb 2011 at 19:06

worked fine on my ocuk/powercolor, flashed to the bios and batch file tech power provided, made sure clocks were 880/1375 in cc, and no need for additional power so far....

shea1980 · 3 Feb 2011 at 12:07

Can a msi hd 6950 be unlocked to a hd 6970 if it has a red PCB?