Just recently we were given some really exciting news. We found out that it was possible to flash the Radeon HD 6950 with a Radeon HD 6970 version BIOS and in turn make it an $369 valuable Radeon HD 6970, and really we don't have to tell you how cool that would be. Therefore we grabbed our closest Radeon HD 6950 to us which was a Sapphire and proceeded to flash it with a Sapphire Radeon HD 6970 BIOS. We used WinFlash, an easy Windows based program that gives you the ability to flash and also backup the BIOS of supported video cards. The whole process is relatively easy, but of course, it's done at your own risk. We can show the potential behind, but the risk remains with you as an onwer. - TweakTown

Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB Unlock Vision Review

A few important points need to be made. The first is that this is of course done at your own risk. While you shouldn't kill your card due to the ability of moving back to the reference BIOS thanks to that included switch, we make no guarantees. Also, don't think that this is restricted to sample cards only, as users with retail bought cards from Sapphire, HIS and ASUS have all been able to perform these BIOS flashings without any issues. When it came to issues, we fortunately didn't have any, and if you do we recommend that you just flash this BIOS back to the original one which you saved before updating as a safety measure.

At the end of the day there could well be a reason the chip used on your Radeon HD 6950 card is not on a Radeon HD 6970. Really, when it all comes down to it, though this is great news for Radeon HD 6950 owners who are looking for some more performance and something a bit more manageable without the need to run overclocking software. Once you've updated the BIOS your Radeon HD 6950 will run exactly like a Radeon HD 6970. Of course, that means that it won't only offer more performance, but it will run warmer and draw more power. Though it's being done at the price of the Radeon HD 6950, so really who are we to complain.

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