Before the launch of HD 6790 there were rumors the card could be unlocked, like HD 6950. HD 6950 came with a BIOS switch making it extremely easy to unlock stream processors, but this is not the case with HD 6790. AMD has issued that there is unlocking stream processors with the latest card.
Radeon HD 6790 ias based on Barts that is also found in HD 6850 and HD 6870. Barts comes with 1120 stream processors, 32 ROPs, 56 texture units and 256-bit memory bus. The only card based on Barts with full potential is HD 6870 (Barts XT), while HD 6850 (Barts Pro) comes with 960 stream processors and 48 texture units and HD 6790 (Barts LE) sporting 800 stream processors, 32 texture units and only 16 ROPs.
It would be just lovely if you could flash the BIOS to HD 6850 or HD 6870, but AMD has confirmed that this will not be an option with the new mid-range card. AMD points out there is a lot get from the card even though it can’t be unlocked since it has a high overclocking potential, but the statement still comes as a bit of a disappointment for the nifty users.
Source: Xbit Labs
