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How to spot reference design

By looks, all reference cards use the same dual-slot cooler that has a red radial fan at the farthest end of the card. The most concrete way to make sure the PCB is reference (which TMK all reference fan cards have a reference PCB) is to look near the PCIe connector. If you see the AMD stamp and arrow, the card uses a reference PCB as well.

All of the following cards are by different manufacturers (Duh!), but they all use the same PCB for their model. There are only slight variations between the 6950 and 6970 PCB.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Image... CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Image... CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Image... CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

EDIT: NP. Glad to have helped :).
 
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Fantastic. Thanks XacTactX. That definately is clear and to the point.
 
I'm assuming your looking for a reference card to unlock it. The link you provided has 1gb models as well so be sure to pay attention to that. You cannot unlock the 1gb models.

In addition to what XacTactX said the reference design also have a block shaped cooler and a plate covering the back of the card. They also have 3 Red lines across the top of the card as seen here.

radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950-powertune,R-D-273145-13.jpg
 
What you see on Newegg doesn't mean it is reference anymore either. Most manufacturers have moved to their second design now and the cards don't look like that picture anymore. Most do not have a backplate and use newer circuitry. Same circuit board but different stuff plugged in to it. The changes are small enough that it doesn't mean a new model, just revision, and may not unlock or things like that. Keep that in mind. If you are just looking for liquid cooling purposes then it may be the same PCB so it should be good but may not unlock anymore. The second revision from most manufacturers, all that I have seen actually, do not have dual BIOS.
 
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Thanks all. MSI it is. Needed the reference design for both water cooling and unlocking.
 
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