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6950 vs 6970

MattShepherd

MattShepherd

MattShepherd

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4 Mar 2009
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Dubai
There is about a £70 difference between these 2 cards...i know the 50's can be flashed to the 70's bios. But is there any other difference between the 2 cards? the specs look similar, but i really cant decide if i should fork out the extra £70?
 
The 6970 can't really be flashed with the 6950 bios as the ram chips have different timings and are of different specs.

You can use a shader unlocked 6950 bios and then use RBE program to up the voltage (version 1.27 allows this but it doesn't support modding clocks in the bios yet) for the gpu (6950 is 1.1v, 6970 is 1.175v) to make your 6950 clock higher than the 6970.

It pretty much is the same, but it isn't a case of change the bios and it changes the card to exactly a 6970.

Buy a £200 6950 rev1 and flash it. A 6970 is a complete waste of money.
 
They are exactly the same card, just different BIOSes. the 6950s seem to be product binned, but 99% of them seem to be fine @ 6970 settings - sometimes even overclocked. thh 6970s will overclock further though. thats the only difference really. and yes, it has 1 6 pin and 1 8 pin vs teh 6950's 2 6 pin power connectors. - the 6+6 provides enough power though.
I'd get a 6950 revision 1 and unlock it :)
I have, and its an ace card.
to be honest, i didnt notice much difference after unlocking due to the already high frame rates @ 1680x1050 and 1080p on max settings. ( imanaged to change the voltage too using afterburner)
 
Last edited:
Alasdairhurst said:
They are exactly the same card, just different BIOSes. the 6950s seem to be product binned, but 99% of them seem to be fine @ 6970 settings - sometimes even overclocked. thh 6970s will overclock further though. thats the only difference really. and yes, it has 1 6 pin and 1 8 pin vs teh 6950's 2 6 pin power connectors. - the 6+6 provides enough power though.
I'd get a 6950 revision 1 and unlock it :)
I have, and its an ace card.
to be honest, i didnt notice much difference after unlocking due to the already high frame rates @ 1680x1050 and 1080p on max settings. ( imanaged to change the voltage too using afterburner)
Click to expand...

You are incorrect, they are not exact the same card, the ram chips on board are of a higher spec on the 6970 than the 6950. They are 99% the same card, but you cannot buy one assuming you can just stick a 6970 bios onto it.
The 6970 gpu could be higher spec, but remember a stock voltage 6950 is 1.1v and the 6970 is 1.175v so it will clock higher unless the 6950 voltage is upped to that of a 6970.
 
I got 2 x 6950's, flashed with a modded 6950 bios to unlock the shaders, increased the voltage with smart doctor and then overclocked to 6970 clock speeds.

Saves £140 and gives the same performance.

I did flash to a full 6970 bios at first but then saw this might cause issues with the vram so did it the slightly longer but probably safer way.
 
+1 for the 6950.

As mentioned, be careful flashing to the full bios. Lots of people get artifacts because the VRAM on the 6950 isn't good enough.

Plenty of guides on how to push up the 6950 performance to equal the 6970 though, so hard to justify spending the £70 on the 6970.
 
Got a msi one myself and running at 940/1500 without any voltage increase yet :)

Not flashed it yet either.

Runs very cool too low 60c in furmark as long as fan is cranked up a bit.
Low 50s when playing black ops :)

Frame rates have more than doubled from previous card (8800gts G92)

Only down side is my room is a lot colder now after coming from a 8800gts that doubled up as a heater :)
 
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