WEBVTT

00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:05.839
all right guys this is a 6950

00:00:03.679 --> 00:00:11.679
or is it there's been a lot of talk about a potential unlock from the 6950

00:00:09.200 --> 00:00:17.199
to the 6970. now remember graphics card overclocking for a long time has been

00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:21.119
kind of limited like you can here this is a 6970 so the one physical difference

00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:25.680
between these cards is an eight pin connector here whereas this one has a

00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:30.480
two six pin connectors so for a long time we haven't been able to properly

00:00:27.840 --> 00:00:36.079
overclock a lower end card to a higher end card for example the gtx 570 has

00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:41.920
fewer functional units on it than the gtx 580 you cannot even if you overclock

00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:44.960
this 570 to the same speed as the 580 it

00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:47.840
will not have the same performance now

00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:52.000
a software unlocking of the the either usually their laser cut

00:00:50.800 --> 00:00:58.800
or somehow disabled functional units software

00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:03.359
re-enabling seems to be back there that was the most awkward way of saying that

00:01:00.160 --> 00:01:04.879
ever but according to tech powerup the

00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:11.360
6950 should be possible to unlock to a 6970

00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:13.200
so i have a sample card here and i just

00:01:11.360 --> 00:01:16.880
want to go through the process with you guys and show you how dead simple it is

00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:23.520
so i downloaded the package from tech powerup which has

00:01:21.600 --> 00:01:26.960
this in it okay so there's wind flash here i thought i was going to have to do

00:01:24.880 --> 00:01:30.560
the flashing uh do the BIOS update through the uh through a bootable usb

00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:35.600
but it looks like i don't even have to do that because of this little sort of

00:01:32.960 --> 00:01:40.560
magic thing right here so this card has two BIOS's it is dual BIOS the 6950 and

00:01:38.240 --> 00:01:45.280
the 6970 both are they're labeled one two so all i had to do was change it to

00:01:43.119 --> 00:01:52.399
the two position okay that's the first thing i had to do and then i have to go

00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:54.479
to flash to 69 70. all right then

00:01:52.399 --> 00:01:58.719
there's some little instructions here i press any key to continue flashing in

00:01:56.399 --> 00:02:03.119
progress please wait okay please

00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:06.240
restart your system for the changes to apply

00:02:04.240 --> 00:02:09.920
after reboot check the shader count using the GPU-z included in this

00:02:08.160 --> 00:02:13.040
directory so i've already opened up gpuz because i

00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:16.480
wanted to see okay so there's our shaders that's the functional units i'm

00:02:14.720 --> 00:02:20.879
talking about more shaders potentially okay so guys check that out look closely

00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:25.920
and we're going to reboot the computer and see if we have successfully

00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:32.319
unlocked this 6950 into a 6970 and if it

00:02:29.920 --> 00:02:35.599
really is that easy and takes only a couple minutes now here's something

00:02:33.920 --> 00:02:41.360
really cool about the dual BIOS on the 6900 or rather the 69

00:02:39.200 --> 00:02:45.200
yeah i guess all the 6900 series cards so far have this feature so the dual

00:02:43.040 --> 00:02:48.400
BIOS allows you to go oh okay that didn't work like let's say we get a

00:02:46.640 --> 00:02:52.160
bunch of artifacts all over the screen or it's not stable or whatever we can

00:02:50.239 --> 00:02:56.080
flash it back as you can see there was a file included for that but we could also

00:02:54.160 --> 00:03:00.239
just turn the computer off flip the switch to the one position and go back

00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:05.200
to our original BIOS just like that no problem at all whereas with with other

00:03:02.720 --> 00:03:09.440
cards you can run into issues where you can't um

00:03:07.440 --> 00:03:13.920
you can't boot anymore because the BIOS didn't take and then you got to put in

00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:17.760
another card and another slot and boot to that one and then manually flash the

00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:21.040
other one and it can be kind of messy and a real pain in the

00:03:19.760 --> 00:03:25.680
uh pain in something anyway okay so no

00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:29.920
don't always ask me this so let's find out if we have more

00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:32.400
shaders now hmm

00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:38.640
no we don't okay maybe i did something wrong give me

00:03:35.040 --> 00:03:38.640
time to figure this out then

00:03:38.720 --> 00:03:46.720
all right i have found a different set of instructions on the tech powerup website that seems to be quite different

00:03:44.239 --> 00:03:50.080
indeed so i've downloaded a bio so i'm going to

00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:54.239
reset with the bioswitch in the one position instead and see if i can find a

00:03:52.959 --> 00:03:57.760
way to make it work this way so stay tuned guys you're along for the ride on

00:03:56.080 --> 00:04:01.680
this one i guess all right so now we're running winflash

00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:03.599
manually or rather ati win flash manually

00:04:02.799 --> 00:04:11.040
so the instructions say now to load an image so i'm going to go into the

00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:17.040
whoops where are my downloads anyway i guess i better find those Linus

00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:18.959
downloads there we are okay so

00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:22.880
what's that under let's go with this no i don't think it's there

00:04:20.479 --> 00:04:27.360
i think it was under yeah there we go

00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:32.080
okay so okay we have the BIOS image there so click load image followed by

00:04:29.840 --> 00:04:35.919
program so we're going to click program please wait flashing is in process

00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:39.440
something something something erasing v okay this this looks like it took longer

00:04:37.520 --> 00:04:43.520
so that's probably a good sign your v BIOS was programmed successfully

00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:48.080
okay cool you have to reboot the system before the

00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:50.800
changes take effect all right i guess we'll do that so i'll be back in a

00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:56.639
moment all right here we have the moment of truth again

00:04:54.479 --> 00:05:01.199
opening up gpuz here we go here we go

00:04:58.880 --> 00:05:05.360
hey hey 1536

00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:09.440
unified shaders check that out so it was that easy this

00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:13.360
is not a cherry picked card in any way shape or form

00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:19.280
and it is now according to GPU-z completely unlocked

00:05:15.520 --> 00:05:23.520
to 69-70 spec so the only thing to do

00:05:19.280 --> 00:05:25.360
now once you've unlocked your card is to

00:05:23.520 --> 00:05:28.960
extreme benchmark chess is to find out if it's actually stable so the only way

00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:32.160
to do that is to run some benchmarks run some games

00:05:30.320 --> 00:05:35.120
and uh see if you see any visual artifacts i did do a video a little

00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:41.440
while ago where i showed what an artifact was i don't know what it was called so unless you are

00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:44.479
like a really avid viewer you probably won't know which one it is but hey if

00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:48.560
you do remember the one please post it in the comments and guys please thumbs

00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:52.560
up on that particular comment so that we can all see what an artifact looks like

00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:59.280
so i'm just going to let you guys stick around while we run at least the first graphics test here and see if the card

00:05:56.400 --> 00:06:02.400
did manage to unlock successfully so far it looks alright so that is a

00:06:01.440 --> 00:06:06.960
pretty cool little tweak and i'm getting some funny looks from

00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:12.720
someone else in the office here who thinks i'm standing here in my office talking to myself

00:06:09.919 --> 00:06:19.840
so thanks for checking out my video on how to

00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:22.560
flash the Radeon 6950 BIOS to the 6970

00:06:19.840 --> 00:06:26.800
and uh yeah make sure the credit goes where it's due because i am not the one

00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:32.080
who came up with this wizard at tech power up is truly a wizard and

00:06:29.840 --> 00:06:37.360
we all owe him a great deal for his GPU zed tool all of his great reviews that

00:06:34.080 --> 00:06:38.800
he does over there and this latest trick

00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:42.639
which is pretty phenomenal don't forget to subscribe to Linus tech tips