Can this card be flashed? 7950HD 3gb

[coinking]

I have an opportunity to buy this card for $200 (canadian).. it's a year old and has a year of warranty left. Should I ONLY buy this card if it can be flashed? What's the communities take on this?

I've heard some models cannot be flashed.. has anyone had experience with this card in particular?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202007

Thanks in advance

[1713471609]

1713471609

[1713471609]

1713471609

[ineedit]

I have an opportunity to buy this card for $200 (canadian).. it's a year old and has a year of warranty left. Should I ONLY buy this card if it can be flashed? What's the communities take on this?

I've heard some models cannot be flashed.. has anyone had experience with this card in particular?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202007

Thanks in advance

Yes, but use ATIFLASH from a bootable DOS disk and grab the BIOS from here http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/

[coinking]

I have an opportunity to buy this card for $200 (canadian).. it's a year old and has a year of warranty left. Should I ONLY buy this card if it can be flashed? What's the communities take on this?

I've heard some models cannot be flashed.. has anyone had experience with this card in particular?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202007

Thanks in advance

Yes, but use ATIFLASH from a bootable DOS disk and grab the BIOS from here http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/

Thanks for the advice, I have another option.. 4x 5970's for $950 (can) but they are a couple years old with no warranty left.

My question is would it be worth it to wait and try an find individual cards (i'm looking to build a 3 or 4 gpu system) like the 7950 that I'm considering buying and build my rig from scratch or should I go with the 5970's with no warranty? I hear cards die quickly when mining so I'm tempted to go with something with warranty, even though the 5970's are a good price.

Would the fact that they are a couple years old affect the hashrate? or more likely to fail?

[ineedit]

...

Thanks for the advice, I have another option.. 4x 5970's for $950 (can) but they are a couple years old with no warranty left.

My question is would it be worth it to wait and try an find individual cards (i'm looking to build a 3 or 4 gpu system) like the 7950 that I'm considering buying and build my rig from scratch or should I go with the 5970's with no warranty? I hear cards die quickly when mining so I'm tempted to go with something with warranty, even though the 5970's are a good price.

Would the fact that they are a couple years old affect the hashrate? or more likely to fail?

Personally I would buy 2nd 7970's for BTC and 7950's for alt-coins because of their lower power consumption which will keep your electricity costs down.

[coinking]

...

Thanks for the advice, I have another option.. 4x 5970's for $950 (can) but they are a couple years old with no warranty left.

My question is would it be worth it to wait and try an find individual cards (i'm looking to build a 3 or 4 gpu system) like the 7950 that I'm considering buying and build my rig from scratch or should I go with the 5970's with no warranty? I hear cards die quickly when mining so I'm tempted to go with something with warranty, even though the 5970's are a good price.

Would the fact that they are a couple years old affect the hashrate? or more likely to fail?

Personally I would buy 2nd 7970's for BTC and 7950's for alt-coins because of their lower power consumption which will keep your electricity costs down.

Great, thanks.. I'm not sure what you mean about mining BTC with the 7970's.. I was under the assumption BTC minig with gpu's is dead, if not dying.. Regardless I think I will go with the one 7950 for now and order my other parts online.. while they come maybe I can find another 7950 or two for a good price.

I really dislike buying new items (everything I own is pretty much second hand) but I may make an exception for the other cards I buy.

What would the requirements for the rest of the pc be with a 4 gpu rig? Thanks again in advance

[ineedit]

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Great, thanks.. I'm not sure what you mean about mining BTC with the 7970's.. I was under the assumption BTC minig with gpu's is dead, if not dying.. Regardless I think I will go with the one 7950 for now and order my other parts online.. while they come maybe I can find another 7950 or two for a good price.

I really dislike buying new items (everything I own is pretty much second hand) but I may make an exception for the other cards I buy.

What would the requirements for the rest of the pc be with a 4 gpu rig? Thanks again in advance

You can still mine BTC by GPU it is just inefficient unless you have free electricity and access to enough hardware to make a miner but there are some that still use GPU's just because they can or want to.

2nd hand is good for mining  run it till it dies and then get another

[coinking]

...
Great, thanks.. I'm not sure what you mean about mining BTC with the 7970's.. I was under the assumption BTC minig with gpu's is dead, if not dying.. Regardless I think I will go with the one 7950 for now and order my other parts online.. while they come maybe I can find another 7950 or two for a good price.

I really dislike buying new items (everything I own is pretty much second hand) but I may make an exception for the other cards I buy.

What would the requirements for the rest of the pc be with a 4 gpu rig? Thanks again in advance

You can still mine BTC by GPU it is just inefficient unless you have free electricity and access to enough hardware to make a miner but there are some that still use GPU's just because they can or want to.

2nd hand is good for mining  run it till it dies and then get another

Right on, it seems like people are saying go with the 7950's.. I found a few builds online and they all use those cards.

If I plan on having 4 cards will I still need a 1200w power supply?

[ineedit]

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Right on, it seems like people are saying go with the 7950's.. I found a few builds online and they all use those cards.

If I plan on having 4 cards will I still need a 1200w power supply?

200w per card and 100w for the motherboard/CPU/mem gets you very close to 1000w, I would go with the 1200W as it will last longer because it is not being pushed too hard.

[evansearle42]

Yes this card can be flashed but are you sure you wanna buy some overpriced 7950? you can even get yourself a 7970 with $200...

[TheDragonSlayer]

I have an opportunity to buy this card for $200 (canadian).. it's a year old and has a year of warranty left. Should I ONLY buy this card if it can be flashed? What's the communities take on this?

I've heard some models cannot be flashed.. has anyone had experience with this card in particular?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202007

Thanks in advance

Why not buy Sapphire 7950 dual-x instead? You can undervolt it easily without flashing the GPU...

[coinking]

Yes this card can be flashed but are you sure you wanna buy some overpriced 7950? you can even get yourself a 7970 with $200...

The price for the 7950 is very reasonable.. $185 for a card with a year warranty left on it...

plus the power usage is considerably higher with the 7970 I was told.. can someone verify this?

Where can I find a 7970 for $200?

[winner999]

I have an opportunity to buy this card for $200 (canadian).. it's a year old and has a year of warranty left. Should I ONLY buy this card if it can be flashed? What's the communities take on this?

I've heard some models cannot be flashed.. has anyone had experience with this card in particular?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202007

Thanks in advance

Whay do you need to flash it? It has BIOS 1 with unlocked voltages and BIOS 2 with locked voltage and "Boost clocks". Just use the small switch to change BIOS1/BIOS2 settings.

[kuusj98]

Yes this card can be flashed but are you sure you wanna buy some overpriced 7950? you can even get yourself a 7970 with $200...

The price for the 7950 is very reasonable.. $185 for a card with a year warranty left on it...

plus the power usage is considerably higher with the 7970 I was told.. can someone verify this?

Where can I find a 7970 for $200?

Got my R9 280X for 300$, if you wreck a BIOS on those 7950 you have a chance of breaking the card, and I would not recommend to do that.

[Sythyn]

Yes this card can be flashed but are you sure you wanna buy some overpriced 7950? you can even get yourself a 7970 with $200...

The price for the 7950 is very reasonable.. $185 for a card with a year warranty left on it...

plus the power usage is considerably higher with the 7970 I was told.. can someone verify this?

Where can I find a 7970 for $200?

You have to look in around, sometimes there are a few cheap 7970 but usually gone pretty fast...

[johncarpe64]

Yes, it can be flashed. But why you wanna flash it when you only have few GPU?

[coinking]

Yes this card can be flashed but are you sure you wanna buy some overpriced 7950? you can even get yourself a 7970 with $200...

The price for the 7950 is very reasonable.. $185 for a card with a year warranty left on it...

plus the power usage is considerably higher with the 7970 I was told.. can someone verify this?

Where can I find a 7970 for $200?

You have to look in around, sometimes there are a few cheap 7970 but usually gone pretty fast...

Is there a big difference between the 7850/7950/7970 (i've read the charts, I'm looking for REAL experiences here)

Most of the guides online say to use the 7850..

[winner999]

Yes this card can be flashed but are you sure you wanna buy some overpriced 7950? you can even get yourself a 7970 with $200...

The price for the 7950 is very reasonable.. $185 for a card with a year warranty left on it...

plus the power usage is considerably higher with the 7970 I was told.. can someone verify this?

Where can I find a 7970 for $200?

You have to look in around, sometimes there are a few cheap 7970 but usually gone pretty fast...

Is there a big difference between the 7850/7950/7970 (i've read the charts, I'm looking for REAL experiences here)

Most of the guides online say to use the 7850..

7850 is good for gaming, but not for mining. It is very hard to achieve 400kh/s with 7850, and with 7950 you can get about 600-630kh/s., and 7970 can get you 700+ kh/s.

So, considering [card price/ khs] ratio I would say that ATI HD7950 is the best bang for the buck.

[ineedit]

Yes, it can be flashed. But why you wanna flash it when you only have few GPU?

Heat, the F43 BIOS runs a lot cooler when mining especially the VRM's which have a tendency to blow if they get too hot. Running cooler also means that less Watts are used to produce the same amount of shares.

[Feneusens]

Yes, it can be flashed. But why you wanna flash it when you only have few GPU?

Heat, the F43 BIOS runs a lot cooler when mining especially the VRM's which have a tendency to blow if they get too hot. Running cooler also means that less Watts are used to produce the same amount of shares.

You can still undervolt it with afterburner right? Cause most people usually don't wanna flash their GPU unless they are having like 100 of them... flashing GPU will void the warranty...

[ineedit]

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You can still undervolt it with afterburner right? Cause most people usually don't wanna flash their GPU unless they are having like 100 of them... flashing GPU will void the warranty...

Some 7950's you can and some you cannot. Flashing the BIOS with the vendors own BIOS does not void the warranty as they supply both the BIOS and the tools to do it with, check out the vendors download sites.

With a  dual BIOS like the 7950 if a mistake is made in flashing it then you can flip to the working BIOS and then flash it back to the original.