amd 6950 should i flash?

[fabage]

hello guys my beast is processing atm!
my gpu is a amd 6950, some may be familiarized with the fact that, apparently, this gpu can be flashed (via bios flash) into an amd 6970
id like to try it but if i have any problem, can i send it back to pcspecialists get a replacement?

 

[Nemesis]

flashing a GPU or overclocking it will void the warranty.

 

[fabage]

thank you im not flashing it then =)
i had an idea but wanted to have a final and conclusive answer =)
cant wait to receive my rig and one thing does it take 13 days (litearally)
never less, or never more?

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

But then noone would buy a 6970!

 

[vanthus]

thank you im not flashing it then =)
i had an idea but wanted to have a final and conclusive answer =)
cant wait to receive my rig and one thing does it take 13 days (litearally)
never less, or never more?

Delivery can take less or more than 13 days.
It's just an estimate.

 

[Phoenix]

Like Nemesis said you will void your warranty, I wouldn't recommend doing it either unless you're already familiar with doing things like this.

 

[Rakk]

cant wait to receive my rig and one thing does it take 13 days (litearally)
never less, or never more?

As Vanthus said, its just an estimate and various things can affect it, like waiting for stock, money/finance clearing, the number of people getting fast-tracked and skipping ahead, if anything fails in testing, and just general busy-ness of PCS.
Also remember it's an estimate in working days, not actual days.

 

[NilSatis]

I have a little experience on this......As stated it will void the warranty, but later in time when the card maybe starts to struggle with games it is possibly worth doing. It does have a bios failsafe switch which works fine, and if you do your research you can find a way of flashing the card to unlock the shaders only of the 6970; the only difference then is mostly the clock speeds of the card and the memory/timings. Once the shaders are unlocked then overclocking can basically get you a 6970. If you flash to the 6970 then you do run a risk of frying the memory on the card; and the card may not be stable at the slightly higher overclock the 6970 bios gives you. There is a reason there are 6950s and 6970s and on essentially the same gpu this must be the cards tolerances to voltage changes and quality of the memory.

IF you do it, stick to a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders and then overclock; for a free performance boost. Just dont go asking for a warranty return if things go wrong; although most things can be put back to normal with a switch of the cars bios switch and a reflash back to the stock 6950 bios. The 6950 is a modest overclocker at best at stock voltage however......bear this in mind whatever you do. Once a slightly larger amount of voltage is introduced (As per the 6970 bios) the card overclocks very well. Once you get to a certain stage of overclocking this card it will let you keep going without becoming unstable but performance will plateau out anyway. Temperatures will also go up.

I have a 2gb model from pcs and have found that there is no need to overclock the card; it performs great on a modern rig and eats up most games. Performing the shader unlock is "relatively" risk free but will only increase performance by a small amount .....3%ish. Performing the bios flash to the 6970 will get you better performance but at a definite risk although the general concensus is if you can manage the flash successfully (and assuming you know what you are doing and can do some background reading and research what you are actually doing potentially to the card) the cards usually perform problem free. The general problem is not all cards are the same so the majority might not mean your card. If you are prepared to take the risk then it is almost worth it....although you will not get any warranty support if you cant reflash the bios back to "stock". My vote would go to the shader unlock (which still involves flashing...if not sure dont do it!) and then overclock as you would anyway, this will allow you to see if your card can handle it whilst being able to get back to stock settings. Feel free to pm me if you need any more advice. I have helped 3 friends do the flash to their cards which somewhat annoyingly have performed great after the bios flash....but mine is staying stock for now; simply no need to do it. It does grate that they have a free performance increase but who needs it if the card runs everything smoothly as it?! For benchmarks maybe....

 

[fabage]

ok i do trust what you say and it makes complete sense
my only concern is that my monitor will be the iiyama e2710hds and the native resolution is full HD
i would like to play my games at my native resolution but i don't know if the 6950 will handle such power (with the graphics set to considerably high)
does your amd 6950 play games at full HD and enthusiast settings?
i know that once i get my card i wont be too worried about the setting but playing at his native resolution is priority because othersiwe it just doesnt look right =P

 

[kriwad]

PC gamers have been running "full HD" and better for a long, long time. You shouldn't have issues with your card

 

[NilSatis]

Yeah, as Kriwad said above.....that card will do well at any resolution out there at the moment on monitors....and generally 2gb memory cards like this one come into their own at higher resolutions. Most games can be maxed out on detail etc. at max resolution.