Crossfire 6950's

[Zinth]

I have 1 6950 that is unlockable and 1 that isn't ( i dont think at least msi twin fozr III). If i unlocked the XFX 6950 to a 6970 then going crossfire with the locked one , would i see a big performance boost ? or one at all. Also im looking for an upgrade on my system, spec me an upgrade ??. Specs in sig

 

[MeMeMeMe]

You can crossfire a 6970 with a 6950, so yes, you should see a performance boost.

 

[BlackBat]

If I remember correctly you may be able to unlock the MSI TFIII, if you do a search you should be able to find the info. on how to do it, you should however back up the BIOS on the card first, because if you brick the card you will need to re-flash it back as there is only one BIOS stored on that card unlike the XFX card which has two.

 

[Surveyor]

If I remember correctly you may be able to unlock the MSI TFIII, if you do a search you should be able to find the info. on how to do it, you should however back up the BIOS on the card first, because if you brick the card you will need to re-flash it back as there is only one BIOS stored on that card unlike the XFX card which has two.

Then again you may not be able to flash it back if you brick the card.

See this thread, post #24 onwards.

 

[BlackBat]

Oops, I've obviously missed that thread, on second thoughts, don't bother trying to flash it.

 

[Terrier_Jimlad]

Buy another XFX6950 and i'll take the MSI off your hands

 

[trisp]

I can flash my Msi Twin Frozr 3 pe

 

[Zinth]

Don't wanna risk bricking my card xD. Only just bought the msi twin fozr aswell so xD. I think ill get onto flashing the xfx when bf3 comes out

 

[Surveyor]

I can flash my Msi Twin Frozr 3 pe

That's nice for you but it doesn't mean it will work for everyone as the cautionary thread I linked to shows.

You can end up with a £200+ paperweight.

Also you can successfully flash a HD 6950 but that doesn't always unlock the extra shaders.

 

[Zinth]

When flashing a 6950 to a 6970 do the temps rise a lot ??? and is there maybe a way of upgrading the gpu cooler for it to make it more stable.

 

[gamerdude1989]

crossfiring a 6950 with a 6970 would not give you any performance increase at all actually.
When crossfiring and Sli-ing two different speed cards, the faster one automatically runs at the slowers ones speed. so the 6970 would run like a 6950.

The same with PCi-Express slots on your mobo, if one is x16 and one is x8, then both cards would automatically run at 8x, not 16x and 8x....

 

[Surveyor]

crossfiring a 6950 with a 6970 would not give you any performance increase at all actually.
When crossfiring and Sli-ing two different speed cards, the faster one automatically runs at the slowers ones speed. so the 6970 would run like a 6950.

That's incorrect.

With Crossfire you can run the cards at different speeds.

 

[Zinth]

Seems half people on here think theres no difference and half think there is xD.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

True, but the half that there think there's no difference are wrong.
With SLI it's true that the two cards run at the speed of the slowest, but that's not the case with crossfire. Because it uses different methods of sharing the load across the cards than SLI, it is possible to get some benefit from have a faster card.

In practice, it's a little more complicated. I remember a review where they tested a 5850 and 5870. In some games and settings settings, it was better than a crossfire 5850 setup, but obviously never as good as a crossfire 5870.
However, in some games at some settings, the 5870+5850 setup was worse than the crossfire 5850. The reviewers theorised there was some extra overhead caused by the cards running at different speeds.

In either case, it was way, way better than a single 5870. So if you had a 5870, and had the opportunity to add a 5850 for a decent price, or vice-versa, it was still very much worth doing.

With the improvements in the 6900 generations scaling, this quirk may no longer be true.

 

[Zinth]

True, but the half that there think there's no difference are wrong.
With SLI it's true that the two cards run at the speed of the slowest, but that's not the case with crossfire. Because it uses different methods of sharing the load across the cards than SLI, it is possible to get some benefit from have a faster card.

In practice, it's a little more complicated. I remember a review where they tested a 5850 and 5870. In some games and settings settings, it was better than a crossfire 5850 setup, but obviously never as good as a crossfire 5870.
However, in some games at some settings, the 5870+5850 setup was worse than the crossfire 5850. The reviewers theorised there was some extra overhead caused by the cards running at different speeds.

In either case, it was way, way better than a single 5870. So if you had a 5870, and had the opportunity to add a 5850 for a decent price, or vice-versa, it was still very much worth doing.

With the improvements in the 6900 generations scaling, this quirk may no longer be true.

Cheers for clearing that up