So it begins - upgrades part 1

[Colonel Mitch]

I love it when companies do this, it's just so funny when they try cut costs but end up chancing losing revenue :P

To be fair AMD were happy enough leaving the phenoms unlocked, and even added dual bios to these cards with a easy switch to go to the backup. Its my guess that they arent fussed about this being possible as only the most hardcore nerds will go messing with their VBIOS, and in those few nerds, it will give them something to brag about and probably inspires some loyalty.

Speaking purely of gains vs losses my guess is its a LOT cheaper for them to just mass produce 6970s and have a very small number of people flash the bios than it is for them to make two cards.