Is my PC up to new gpu?

[P23UNK]

I am about to buy a Sapphire RADEON HD6970 2gb and am not sure if it is worth it incase my pc isn't up to par with the gpu. I've heard if your pc is rubbish then it bottlenecks the gpu's performance. I am wondering if this will happen with my system.

My PC spec;
Processor : Intel Core i7 860 @ 2.8GHz
RAM : 4.00 GB
System type: 64-Bit Operating System (Windows 7)

Any information on compatibillity or potential problems will be apreciated or if any one else has a similar set up i'd like to hear from you about how it performs. I have recently bought Battlefield 3 and trying to run if from this pc with an nvidia gt240..... not the best.

Cheers,
Ryan.

[wazza300]

[P23UNK]

Re: Is my PC up to new gpu?

Thanks Wazza(Australian?),
I am looking for a gpu powerfull enough to play battlefield 3 and other new games on the highest settings, that was my reasoning for this particular card. How easy is it to flash the upgraded software onto the 6950?
Cheers for the sugestion, i've had a quick look and doing it your way will save around 100 pounds if it doesn't cost to flash the software which is a huge difference in price! Thanks for the help so far. Any idea where i can download the update and how to flash it?
Cheers.

[profJim]

Re: Is my PC up to new gpu?

A web search using: sapphire 6950 bios flash unlock
should provide useful information.
Happy flashing

[P23UNK]

Re: Is my PC up to new gpu?

Thanks Jim,
I've found some good info about flashing. Will flashing this uprate it from the standard 800MHz chip clock (6950) to 880MHz (6970)?

[wazza300]

Re: Is my PC up to new gpu?

australian?hehe english,and yes its the exact same card just locked out pixel shaders and lower mem and core clocks on the 6950,ive flashed gpu bios's with winflash its simple but ive never flashed a 6950 to a 6970,yes it will raise the clocks to 6970 clocks

heres a good guide on how to do it,make sure you do a back up of your cards original bios,before you flash and make sure its a sapphire card

Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB Unlocked to HD 6970 :: TweakTown USA Edition

[profJim]

Re: Is my PC up to new gpu?

Glad to help out.
From the final paragraph in the TweakTown article provided by wazza300:

A few things to remember, though; we're not sure how long you're going to be able to do this for. The other thing is the brands we know that are able to do it are still quite small, so if you do have luck on a brand other than one of the mentioned ones, please drop us a line in our comments section below.

In the end the HD 6970 doesn't really offer that much more performance over the HD 6950, unlike the old X800 PRO that could be flashed to an XT many years ago. But for something that should carry with it limited risk, it's a nice upgrade, especially if you start looking at Crossfire setups.

Do your homework, don't take shortcuts such as not backing up your original bios.
It looks like the safest bet is to buy a card that has the dual-bios switch feature.
Good luck, let us know how everything works out.

australian?hehe english

Blimey!! he's a limey
(I'm a poet and I didn't even know it)

[wazza300]

Re: Is my PC up to new gpu?

i think you will be fine,it tells you the run command to type in if winflash wont flash it in that guide,if for any reason you cant flash the card the 6950 isnt far behind the 6970 in performance anyway,and will play bf3 easily on highest settings,i dont know if sapphire have changed the cards since that review was posted but i dont think so,do some research before you purchase,i dont want to be blamed for you bricking your new card or if the flash wont take