first LOCKED non-moddable HD6950!!!

[Delavan]

Howdy,

TPU did review a MSI Twin Frozer II HD6950...cannot be unlocked!!! no little switch, and even then, BIOS mod didn't work...

Quote from TPU's conclusion:

MSI's HD 6950 Twin Frozr II is the first custom design HD 6950 card to reach our labs. Due to what seems to be a restriction from AMD side, the card comes with an overclock out of the box of only 10 MHz - such a small increase is not noticeable in actual gaming. Overclocking potential is increased when compared to the AMD reference design, part of this achievement is due to the slightly higher GPU voltage in 3D, which also has the effect of increasing power consumption slightly.
While the AMD reference design had a Volterra voltage regulator and a dual BIOS switch, MSI has chosen to go without the switch and a CHiL voltage regulator. The CHiL controller is supported in MSI's excellent overclocking software Afterburner, so this shouldn't be a problem. When we tried to unlock the additional shaders to turn this card into a HD 6970, we were out of luck. It seems the ASIC on our test sample has the shaders properly locked, so a BIOS mod is not possible. Whether this is the case for the HD 6950 Twin Frozr II production cards is unknown at this time.

link to full article:

MSI HD 6950 Twin Frozr II 2 GB Review - Page 1/32 | techPowerUp

[lowfat]

It is also non reference. So that very well may be the problem.

[Boggins]

So what exactly is the point of this card of it doesn't cool much better or any quieter than the reference card which actually unlocks to a 6970?

[Delavan]

Honestly,

The HD6950's only great feature is it's crossfire scaling and the price point (and maybe the unlock possibility). But, it they start raising prices, they won't sell any...

If you look carefully, you can find GTX570's for $320 once in a while....
The Hd6950 will continue to sell if it stays below $300, ideally, below $279...IMHO.

[xhrrcollector]

If 6950 is over $300 i will definitely pick up at GTX 570 instead. IMO the GF110 are just better designed card. I give the edge to 58xx over GF100 but the GF110 is great

[Luay79]

That trick won't work here as this card is not reference. I wonder what would happen if we flash an MSI R6970 Twin Frozr II BIOS into this card ;)

Voltage adjustment was only introduced recently in the 69xx series, so while you can throw the HD 6970 BIOS on the card, it seems that there's some issues coming to light with the memory a few weeks on. Personally, I would recommend that you go down the path of adding voltage and overclocking instead of changing the BIOS. It also seems at the moment there's no option to adjust the voltage on the modified BIOS HD 6950s. Now considering we can get not only performance better than reference HD 6970s, but also overclocked ones, this is the path to take.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-r6...i-oc-review/23
GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6950 2GB Video Card Overclocked - Final Thoughts :: TweakTown USA Edition

[lowfat]

Originally Posted by Luay79

That trick won't work here as this card is not reference. I wonder what would happen if we flash an MSI R6970 Twin Frozr II BIOS into this card ;)

Voltage adjustment was only introduced recently in the 69xx series, so while you can throw the HD 6970 BIOS on the card, it seems that there's some issues coming to light with the memory a few weeks on. Personally, I would recommend that you go down the path of adding voltage and overclocking instead of changing the BIOS. It also seems at the moment there's no option to adjust the voltage on the modified BIOS HD 6950s. Now considering we can get not only performance better than reference HD 6970s, but also overclocked ones, this is the path to take.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-r6...i-oc-review/23
GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6950 2GB Video Card Overclocked - Final Thoughts :: TweakTown USA Edition

You can flash bioses so that it doesn't affect memory clocks. All it does is unlock the shaders. And on the modified HD6950 bioses you still should be able to adjust Vgpu. I can on both my HIS and my Sapphire.