P4Man is absolutely correct, please allow me to elaborate on the 6970/6950 subject:
At the fab (silicon chip manufacturer) level, there is no difference at all, the 6970 and 6950 cards are using the same GPU chip.
While the differences seem minor (lower clock rate and shader count), they have some important implications for the end user.
Chips sold as 6950 may have been downgraded from 6970 status due to:
(1) faulty shaders - as long as the total number of functional shaders is >= 1408 everything is ok.
(2) low quality chip - not all chips made from the same silicon die are created equal. Some are better than others.
A poor-quality chip might not be stable at stock voltage when clocked at 880 MHz (hd 6970 default clock) but may still work fine at 800MHz.
(3) market demand - this is what every 6950 buyer is hoping for: a good, 6970-grade chip sold as 6950 solely due to market demand.
Keep in mind that AMD have been laser-cutting the disabled shaders on all 6950 chips to make them totally inert for a long time now.
It is probable that OP's chip is just substandard. P4's suggestion of raising the voltage might remedy the situation somewhat but miracles are not to be expected.
i appreciate that but was still hopeful that i could squeeze a few extra mhz out of the chip.. funny thing is my mh is actually higher than i had anticipated already, just getting greedy. (404mh average)
BTW about the laser cutting.. i bought my card brand new not 2 weeks ago... it is not laser cut.. i was able to activate my shaders no problem using the rbe method.
also my temps are holding steady at 73c@55% fan the chip is clocked to 880mhz, and the memory is down to 755, cant get the voltage down under bamt for some reason or another