flash 7870 --> 270x ?

M

mkrohn

2[H]4U
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Anybody come across this being done yet? They seem to have far better RAM timing configs than 7870's so I was wondering if there's anybody doin this.
 
I suggest you check again a 270x is a rebadged 7870 Ghz. It's been well documented as such.
 
Spazturtle said:
The 270x is a new card, its not a rebrand.
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7850 --> 270
7870 --> 270x
7970 --> 280x
290/290x are the ONLY actually new cards that I've seen. Low end might have something changed too but i don't follow them. AMD has basically just bumped up clock speeds the past what 3 years now? I sure wish I were an AMD engineer. I do something good then sit on that work for years to come.
 
mkrohn said:
7850 --> 270
7870 --> 270x
7970 --> 280x
290/290x are the ONLY actually new cards that I've seen. Low end might have something changed too but i don't follow them. AMD has basically just bumped up clock speeds the past what 3 years now? I sure wish I were an AMD engineer. I do something good then sit on that work for years to come.
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That's somewhat incorrexct, the 270 has the same number of cores as the 270x, just lower clocks.
 
Gumbi10 said:
That's somewhat incorrexct, the 270 has the same number of cores as the 270x, just lower clocks.
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oh seriously? I haven't paid that close of attention to it. core codename is the same though right?
 
anyway anyone know what works and what bricks?
getting pissed trying to find another 7870 hawk to crossfire with this one does 1250/1500 all day a 270x + 270x would be nice
 
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They probably have better ram timings because they have better RAM modules on the cards... So doing this will only hurt what you already have.
 
Warrior said:
They probably have better ram timings because they have better RAM modules on the cards... So doing this will only hurt what you already have.
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Actually it was already found with the 280x that most of the companies that used Elpida RAM instead of Hynix had absolute trash timings set for the elpida. Think of RAM timings in your computer like cas and the others. Your video RAM has the same timings that can be tweaked to improve performance. The card manufacturers didn't bother tweaking timings. We've seen this repeatedly with the various cards.
 
Ok bro. You have all the answers. Flash it and let us know...
 
The lack of BIOS switch is the main thing stopping me. I have an XFX and saphire 7870Ghz edition that are close to the 270x speeds. I might just give it a try on one of those.
 
I just RMA'd an MSI 6870 and got back a 7870 that reads:

AMD Radeon HD 7870
Pitcairn XT
1280 shaders
190 Watts

My 270X cards read:
AMD Radeon R9 270X
Pitcairn
1280 shaders
180 Watts

via GPU-Z and GPU Shark.

I'm not really ready to brick another card though. :)
 
Since I read something on this very topic a few months ago: i'll throw something out there. SKYMTL at hardwarecanucks mentioned several months ago after the 270/280X launch that he (or some of his employees) had attempted to flash 7970s to 280X cards. Different products, but same concept - he said that the cards were bricked as a result of the flash. Of course, the 7970s had dual BIOS so they could easily switch, so they wouldn't have an issue of having to do an RMA as they would with some 7870 models.

I don't know if this will apply to the 7870, but i'd proceed with caution - you may want to ask SKYMTL on his forum if you get a chance. I do specifically remember him warning against flashes between 7870 > 270X / 7970 > 280X for whatever reason - it doesn't seem all that intuitive since they're similar products? But nonetheless. Definitely ask around about this, i've heard bad things.

In any case, if this helps, you can ask him and I do think he has direct experience with such.
 
As has been said in this thread before, the memory is different and it's entirely probable that it wouldn't work. What are you trying to gain from this? From your post about wanting another 7870 to match your OC, couldn't you just get a 270 or 270x if you wanted to crossfire? A 7970 will crossfire with a 280x, so I'd imagine a 270x would crossfire fine with a 7870. Heck, I could crossfire my 7970 with the 7870LE that I had for a short amount of time, and those have completely different memory bandwidths and amounts.
 
I would think there is some difference, in either the memory or the core. The 7870 cards struggle to hit 400KH/s while mining, while most of the 270(x) cards will do nearly 500KH/s pretty easily.
 
Pitbully said:
I would think there is some difference, in either the memory or the core. The 7870 cards struggle to hit 400KH/s while mining, while most of the 270(x) cards will do nearly 500KH/s pretty easily.
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If I had to guess, i'd say more aggressive memory timings is part of it. And that's why 7970 > 280X flashing doesn't work all too well from what I gather. Memory timings being "off" will definitely cause things to go awry, although i'm not sure specifically about the 7870 > 270X. But it has been mentioned that 7970 > 280X doesn't work for most people, and has caused bricking. Definitely proceed with caution, IMO.
 
Are they not broadly the same hardware wise but the 270x has some extra media features/updates for video and audio?

More than skin deep this one.
 
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