On my bench landed an absolutly abominated HD6950, or as I later discovered HD6970. I had not much information about it, besides that it was supposedly working. I have a theory though.
Ever seen a GPU with a CPU cooler? Me too. Ever seen a redneck GPU with a CPU cooler? Me neither, at least untill I saw this one.
First thing I did was check resistance on external 12V, PCIE 12V and 3.3V.
Seems all right. This GPU was in such condition, that I didn’t want to run it without checking what’s under the hood.
As previously mentioned, whenever I need to and can do so, I like to put screws in visual representation of places they belong to. Makes reassembly a bit easier.
But then…
Man, this is why I have trust issues.
Somebody clearly refurbrished this card, but forgot to remove the protective film from thermopads. On top of that that guy may have used a crowbar to open up this card. In retrospection I’m amazed that this GPU lives.
New thermopads and thermal paste applied. Those keen-eyed probably noticed that the PCIE 12V connector is also a bit damaged.
To cover the hole I decided to make a new cover. I know, “graphic design is my passion”. Unfortunately I don’t have a single sharp knife at home, so it looks quite bad. I will later replace it with something nicer.
At least it’s usable now. A quick driver install later I’m already ready to turn this GPU to a HD6970. An even quicker look at GPU-Z tells me that I’m late. Previous owner already did so.
Just for the sake of a sanity check I flipped the VBIOS selector switch.
Yep, it’s a HD6957.
GPU now is fully functional, as for looks, I guess everybody has a different sense of GPU-fashion, but I like it.
Thank You for reading!