• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 TOXIC has dual BIOS pre-unlocked to 1536 SP?

well I got my order of the 2x 6950s in today(only got it 2 hrs or so ago), only had a chance to test 1 but it unlocks the shaders tho it seems to suffer from the issue mentioned in 1/2 reviews where the core is is down to 775mhz rather than the pre-oced 880mhz its ment to be. will test the 2nd soon as I can.

the price is now £240, if you wanted to risk it would have been best ordering few days back(they got the stock in yesterday and put the price up). if you didn't care for the deus ex code than afternoon of of 25th at the latest would have been the best time to order as they were £225 and increased to £230 on 25th late evening(I had them in the basket in the afternoon arond 3pm but didn't finish checkout, came back to order at 9pm and the price had gone upto £230 between 3pm and 9pm).
 
Last edited:
fowler002 said:
well I got my order of the 2x 6950s in today(only got it 2 hrs or so ago), only had a chance to test 1 but it unlocks the shaders tho it seems to suffer from the issue mentioned in 1/2 reviews where the core is is down to 775mhz rather than the pre-oced 880mhz its ment to be. will test the 2nd soon as I can.

the price is now £240, if you wanted to risk it would have been best ordering few days back(they got the stock in yesterday and put the price up). if you didn't care for the deus ex code than afternoon of of 25th at the latest would have been the best time to order as they were £225 and increased to £230 on 25th late evening(I had them in the basket in the afternoon arond 3pm but didn't finish checkout, came back to order at 9pm and the price had gone upto £230 between 3pm and 9pm).
Click to expand...

Thanks. I was told that the card comes with a dual-BIOS design, and by switching to the pre-loaded BIOS (without having to flash it myself) it simply unlocks to 1536 SP?
 
harmony said:
Thanks. I was told that the card comes with a dual-BIOS design, and by switching to the pre-loaded BIOS (without having to flash it myself) it simply unlocks to 1536 SP?
Click to expand...

That's the theory.

SAPPHIRE TOXIC HD6950 Video Card Review

The SAPPHIRE TOXIC HD6950 has a BIOS switch that allows you to choose between a standard HD 6950 BIOS with 1408 Shaders, or an HD 6970 BIOS with 1536 Shaders. Many HD 6950's can be flashed to an HD 6970 BIOS, but this one comes with it already done for you. SAPPHIRE has made it extremely easy to possibly get a lot more performance out of this video card. SAPPHIRE does not guarantee that all the extra shaders will work for the card, or that you will receive any performance gain by using it. We did see a noticeable performance increase when switching to the 1536 Shader BIOS however, but your millage may vary. It was with this BIOS switch, and overclocking, we were able to beat an HD 6970 and GTX 580 with this video card.
Click to expand...
 
yes there's a switch hidden by the xfire connectors, you just flick the switch while the pc is off and it unlocks the shaders or locks them depending on which position you have the switch set to.

but as I said mine seems to revert to stock 6950 core clock(775mhz) when the shaders are unlocked(well the one I've tested, not tested the 2nd one yet), will need to up it to 880mhz in the ccc overdrive.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/08/29/sapphire_toxic_hd6950_video_card_review
 
If you read the review I linked to, particularly this page, you'll see that there is a new BIOS to fix performance issues.

I don't know if this is publically available yet or if one or both BIOS's need fixing.
 
doesn't mention how to do it or where to get the bios.

p.s.the price is down to £233.99 this 'week only' till next tuesday(£4/card more than I paid).
 
fowler002 said:
doesn't mention how to do it or where to get the bios
Click to expand...

This is a perfect example of HardOCP finding a problem, communicating with the corresponding company, and getting a fix for the community. If we had not gotten our hands on this card, who knows how long it would have been before this problem would have been found. How it got by SAPPHIRE and shipped with this major flaw is beyond us. What we do appreciate though is SAPPHIRE's good communication and getting this BIOS fix to us, and to the community. We are not sure when the fix will be made public, but we are told it will be public and we will update you when it does. The fix works, and that is good news.
Click to expand...
 
Well, I went and forked out for on of these :)

In my reckoning, it's a 6970 for £200 when you figure in cost of games.

Looks like a wicked card for the money :)
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
Do these definatley unlock?
Click to expand...

not definate as some on newegg.com(we are allowed to mention them right as american company?) saying the one they got didn't unlock.

but saying that 1 of the 2 I ordered has unlocked, have yet to test the other and will report back once I have installed it in the pc.

core wise they're fine tho think the memory is weaker than the 6970s, whats the top end clok on a 6970(without going volt modding etc)? the reviews report ~950/1400 for the 6950 toxic unlocked(locked slightly higher).
 
Last edited:
fowler002 said:
think the memory is weaker than the 6970s, whats the top end clok on a 6970(without going volt modding etc)? the reviews report ~950/1400 for the 6950 toxic unlocked(locked slightly higher).
Click to expand...

I don't know about the 6970 but my 6950>70 xfire cards @1.1v will cause lock ups if I try anything over 1400MHz.

I tend to lay off and stick to 950/1300 as the difference can't be seen outside benchmark numbers anyway.
 
What an odd card!? Take a gamble and hope you can use the pre set bios or resigned to just a regular 6950 if it fails. Is £40 extra than a standard 6950 worth the gamble to get a unlocked shader version?
It should have been called 6950 "gamble" edition instead of "toxic".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom