For those of you looking at buying a new vid card

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[url]http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=137136[/url]

[Guest RET.CW4.ThievingSix=US=]

I think im going to wait for their high-end dual gpu series of cards :D

[Guest gamerk2]

No different then how you can (sometimes) turn a Phenom 2 X3 into an X4 varient. Remember, those cards are binned down because the batch failed to meat qualification specifications for the next higher up model (in this case, all 6850's are nothing more then 6870's with shaders disabled, just like how all Phenom X3 CPU's are really X4's with a core disabled). In short: No guarantee the unlocking will work.

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It is a bit different, I'd hardly say it's no different. The biggest difference is there is no x3 or x2 (you can sometimes even unlock 2) which makes it the same as a current model. For instance I have a 435 which i've unlocked but this doesn't make it a 635. It's its own class, not the same as any other retail chip. With the video cards you are actually matching 6970 performance. The benches provided have proved this. However, for the first batch of cards, the success rate has been pretty good. The only issue is with some memory timings. So now some people are simply going into the 6950 bios and unlocking the shaders and keeping everything else intact which is probably the better solution. The rumor is a lot of the current 6950s aren't the typical binned down 6970s that failed qc and are in fact amd's lazy way of providing more 6850s. Remember they already delayed release date by a month. Btw this wasn't possible with the 6850/6870