6950 might have potential to unlock 128 extra shaders.

deathman20 · Dec 28, 2010

EarthDog said:
The 8 pin carries more power though. If you do the math, thats only 225W. PCIe spec is up to 300W.

Another crash course in power from the PC dealing with GPU's

PCI-E 16x slot = 150W Power Output (typically I think they are limited to 75W)
6-Pin PCI-E Connector = 75W Output
8-Pin PCI-E Connector = 150W Output
6-Pin PCI-E Connector w/ 8-Pin dongle = 150W Output

Really the 6-Pin connector can toss out 150W, though little extra grounding to the card is nice for the increased power consumption hence why the 2 extra connectors.

So truely the 225W they say is max really is 300W on a typical 2x 6-Pin setup with PCI-E 2.0+ Slot. They just don't use all the power from the slot to limit other people that might have a PCI-E 1.x slot still.

EarthDog · Dec 28, 2010

Crash Chance, not me...

! Thanks for the info!

deathman20 · Dec 28, 2010

EarthDog said:
Crash Chance, not me... ! Thanks for the info!

I've done lots of posts recently on this. I should have a pre-typed word doc with all the posts done and pre-typed up. Besides your post was right there why not use it :santa2:

EarthDog · Dec 28, 2010

ROFLMAO!!!

Jhatfie · Dec 28, 2010

I have a Gigabyte and Sapphire 6950 coming, I'll be sure to test both once I receive them.

Neural Net · Dec 28, 2010

Laoag24 said:
First of all, I can't see them letting 6970 performance at 6950 prices for a period of time. Secondly, AMD should know this would happen, maybe they would let it happen to sell a lot of 6950 cause they don't sell so great if they hoped for. The new batch would probably have laser cuts for sure but then again they sold a lot of 6950 by then.

Edit:

Btw my AMD Sapphire HD 6950 will be delivered today.

What you're forgetting is that AMD is still selling the 6950 at a profit.

All I'm wondering now is what the hell the 389mm die size has been spent on, it sure as hell isn't 1536 shaders.

Theocnoob · Dec 28, 2010

Laoag24 said:
First of all, I can't see them letting 6970 performance at 6950 prices for a period of time. Secondly, AMD should know this would happen, maybe they would let it happen to sell a lot of 6950 cause they don't sell so great if they hoped for. The new batch would probably have laser cuts for sure but then again they sold a lot of 6950 by then.

~Some AMD triple core CPU's are an attempted 4 core CPU with a defective fourth core. Sold as a triple core instead of throwing it away.

~Some AMD triple core CPU's are perfectly good 4 core CPUs that simply had a core locked via bios and were sold as 3 core to meet high demand for 3 core chips at a given point in time. These can easily have that fourth core unlocked.

Many things on AMD chips have been relatively easy to unlock for a number of years. There was a point where you could use a pencil and grease to unlock certain features on their CPUs.

ChanceCoats123 · Dec 28, 2010

deathman20 said:
Another crash course in power from the PC dealing with GPU's

PCI-E 16x slot = 150W Power Output (typically I think they are limited to 75W)
6-Pin PCI-E Connector = 75W Output
8-Pin PCI-E Connector = 150W Output
6-Pin PCI-E Connector w/ 8-Pin dongle = 150W Output

Really the 6-Pin connector can toss out 150W, though little extra grounding to the card is nice for the increased power consumption hence why the 2 extra connectors.

So truely the 225W they say is max really is 300W on a typical 2x 6-Pin setup with PCI-E 2.0+ Slot. They just don't use all the power from the slot to limit other people that might have a PCI-E 1.x slot still.

Thanks for the info. I told you all I was more than likely incorrect. :rofl:

EarthDog said:
Crash Chance, not me... ! Thanks for the info!

BigTerminator · Dec 28, 2010

If the 6950 costs as much to manufacture as a 6970 and they still sell them for profit, then maybe they should make the 6970 $300, cancel the 6950 and watch Nvidia cry and see their precious stock fall down :clap:

deathman20 · Dec 28, 2010

BigTerminator said:
If the 6950 costs as much to manufacture as a 6970 and they still sell them for profit, then maybe they should make the 6970 $300, cancel the 6950 and watch Nvidia cry and see their precious stock fall down

But then they wouldn't have a low high end range card :shock:

scornduffer · Dec 28, 2010

Unlocking 6950

Does it matter what brand? The one that the egg for $299 plus rebate sold out was a Gigabyte. Will other brands work as well?

Dolk · Dec 28, 2010

hey death. You don't think that people will need to drop the 6pin off, and add the 8pin with added components? I don't have either of these cards in hand so I have no clue how the power distrabution looks between the two.

redrumy3 · Dec 28, 2010

Just grabbed a XFX 6950 hopefully mine unlocks fine without any problems saving me a good 80 bucks or so

deathman20 · Dec 28, 2010

Dolk said:
hey death. You don't think that people will need to drop the 6pin off, and add the 8pin with added components? I don't have either of these cards in hand so I have no clue how the power distrabution looks between the two.

Nope, even with 2x 6 Pins, technically that can yield 300W of power there and has been done before on cards that require 2 8-Pin connectors and they just use the 6-8 adapter. Its just not the way it was intended for use but it can be and was done in the past. I know I would of but I got a PSU that had my 8-Pin connectors on it when I got a the new video card back then.

Peeved Kitten · Dec 28, 2010

I love the new 6pin 8pin set up. My PSU has 2 8 pins and 2 6 pins so it's perfect for running 2 6970's crossfired. What would be the max draw of two of these running in CF? I have a 950 watt Power supply and would really like to use my current PS. If I have to upgrade though I think I'm going seasonic 1200w or so. I intend to add a second pump as soon as I get paid, flowrates are ok with just my cpu loop but GPU+CPU+Magicool 1080 might be a wee bit much for a single mcp655-b.

EarthDog · Dec 28, 2010

Your 950W PSU wont even break sweat with that setup. Seriously. I would be surprised if you hit 600W at the wall.

Dolk · Dec 28, 2010

deathman20 said:
Nope, even with 2x 6 Pins, technically that can yield 300W of power there and has been done before on cards that require 2 8-Pin connectors and they just use the 6-8 adapter. Its just not the way it was intended for use but it can be and was done in the past. I know I would of but I got a PSU that had my 8-Pin connectors on it when I got a the new video card back then.

Figured I would ask and learn.

ChanceCoats123 · Dec 28, 2010

EarthDog said:
Your 950W PSU wont even break sweat with that setup. Seriously. I would be surprised if you hit 600W at the wall.

Definitely, and that's taking the psu efficiency into account, which is really saying something.

deathman20 · Dec 28, 2010

ChanceCoats123 said:
Definitely, and that's taking the psu efficiency into account, which is really saying something.

To give you a figure now mines not maxed out to any extent but it pulls between 280-320W from the wall if not mistaken. Not bad considering, not sure what it would pull if I had HT enabled and my 3.8Ghz clock or even a 4.0Ghz clock, probably another 40-50W full tilt at least.

EarthDog · Dec 28, 2010

Let me throw some info down...

an i7 860 @ 4Ghz with HT and a GTX 470 at 750/1500/1800 pulled a hair over 400W with FURMARK, and a max of 380W while gaming and benching. I have a Gold rated PSU so around that load its 90% efficient, so lets say I had about 360W actual load according to the KillaWatt.

6950 might have potential to unlock 128 extra shaders.

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