Considering 6970, anything I should be aware of?

For the moment, it's more cost effective to flash a 6950 with a 6970 bios. You should know however that you don't need 2gb of vram unless you are using multiple monitors, high resolutions, or both. On an interesting note, the 6950 1gb has just been released for a little less money than the 2gb versions, and when people report back on whether they can flash those cards with 6970 bios, it will become the new best deal on the $300-$350 market. I did hear that they might fix the bios unlock on newer cards though, so keep that in mind.
 
I'm currently running 4 monitors, 1920x1080, 2x 1680x1050 and 1280x1024. I don't know if I'd need 2GB of ram for that since my current card handles it.

So a 6970 is exactly the same as a 6950 except for the ram? What about the stream processors? Is flashing the bios the same as if I overclocked my i7 920 to the same specs as a pricier i7 cpu?

Thanks!
 
No, they aren't the same exact cards but you can unlock the 6950 2gb with a bios flash to become recognized as a 6970 2gb by your computer. You just need the 6970 bios file and the flash utility to do it. It sounds like you'll want a Radeon card, as the new 6xxx gen cards can support up to 6 displays with eyefinity 6. XFX and Asus are my favorite companies for cards, Asus tends to make their cards aimed at overclocking while XFX offers a lifetime warranty and makes certain limited editions of their cards from time to time. I'm told their return policy can be tricky though. You never said what your max budget was?
 
Jawn said:
Is it really that easy to flash the bios? Does it void the warranty somehow or is there a way of knowning?

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...rn-your-radeon-6950-into-a-6970.aspx?pageid=1
Click to expand...

There's no way of knowing simply because even if the BIOS for some reason completely doesn't work with the card, then you just flip the back up BIOS switch and you're back at default settings. As previously mentioned though, I've heard AMD is trying to put an end to it, so it's not a sure thing anymore.
 
Alright thanks!

Can you crossfire a 6950 with a 6970? I can't find the compatibility chart anymore.
 
Jawn said:
Alright thanks!

Can you crossfire a 6950 with a 6970? I can't find the compatibility chart anymore.
Click to expand...

If the first 2 numbers are the same, they will crossfire.

There is one exception to this, which is the 5970. It is 2 x 5870 chips on one PCB, so a 5970 will crossfire with any 58xx card
 
I just ordered a 6970 2GB card for $340. See here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GUTBV4

VisionTek I have used before I have a 3870X2 and its still running strong in my kids machine. They have lifetime warrenty as long as you register it on their website within 30 days of purchase.

I would have bought 2 of them for that price but I'm just buying a house so saving for some new house items and all. Hard to talk the wife into that. Though I'm affraid I'm going to lose some performance over my 2 GTX 285 SLI cards I have now. But I really wanted some DX11 support for upcoming games i'm getting DA2 for instance.

I run a Asus X58 chipset board so I could go either way on CF or SLI , but the darn new Nvidia cards are so much more now. I only paid like $365 for my GTX 285 cards new when they were top of the line single GPU cards, and the 580s are $500, I mean come on...

I have also always liked Radeon's visual quality. I've never been fanboy of either company I normally bounce back and forth depending on how is the best at the time. Same with Intel and AMD processors. :P

Also I noticed this HIS one they just lowered the price on and have a rebate which brings it in at $330 http://www.amazon.com/HIS-Eyefinity...ress-H697F2G2M/dp/B004FPYL9C/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2

But again I like the VisionTek because of the warranty and I normally keep cards for a while as I pass them down to my wife and kids machines :).
 
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You should be aware of how awesome this card is and you should buy it. I've been pushing it to it's limits since I bought it yesterday and zero issues so far.
 
I take my last statement back. I returned the Asus card because of freezing issues with a Sapphire and now I'm getting artifacts and the card isn't even 2 hours old. Hmph.
 
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