Recently AMD announced that they reclaimed the speed crown for the world’s fastest single-GPU graphics card with the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. The announcement bred a certain suspicion, which we have today confirmed: a leaked BIOS file will change your standard, “old” AMD Radeon HD 7970 almost completely into a Gigahertz Edition GPU.
We say “almost completely” because there are indeed certain hardware differences between the original and Gigahertz editions. The newer cards have improved sensors for more accurate PowerTune adjustments—but that’s the only physical difference. In all other respects, the upgrade should provide the Gigahertz Edition benefits to the older standard 7970 GPU:
- A higher GPU clockspeed of 1000MHz, up from the 7970’s 925MHz.
- A higher memory clockspeed of 1500MHz, up from the 7970’s 1375MHz.
- And PowerTune’s new “Boost” feature, which allows the graphics to dynamically overclock itself up to 1050MHz if the GPU has thermal headroom.
Of course, there’s always a question about the chances of success. That is, most regular HD 7970s will be able to handle the new speeds, but some 7970s in the market won’t be up to the job for DRAM or ASIC reasons.
For those ready and willing to try the BIOS flash, the BIOS file is here—just run it in Windows as an administrator, then reboot. Naturally, the normal disclaimer applies: You are doing this at your own risk. Icrontic cannot be held responsible for this modification and you may very well void your warranty and/or ruin your GPU.
Enjoy going fast(er)!
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