How to unlock a GTX465 to a GTX470

ATI and nVidia are well known for downclocking higher end cards and branding them as cheaper models. This satisfies demand and helps to sell more boards – the same principle applies with Intel and AMD processors with many people having unlocked extra cores on their CPU for more performance. It won't always work as a die will not always meet QA standards and are shifted into a lower end part – the upside is that this helps to maintain sales and lower waste costs.

The GPU testing process has several quality assurance stages. For example on the nVidia side, if a 480 core part fails when tested it will be sold as a 448 core part and if a 448 core part fails then it will be moved into a 352 core part.

The interesting point today however is that when an AIC manufacturer purchases boards from a large scale manufacturer they undergo additional testing. It is this stage in the process which has opened up the option of unlocking a GTX465 and turning it into a GTX470. Many partners bought an excess of GTX470's and due to failures or supply demands turned them into GTX465's.

They do this by applying a different bios with less cores and lower clocks. EXPreview have recently published an article with a roundup of GTX465 boards showing that many of them are actually GTX470's under the hood. You can download the Asus GTX465 Unlock Utility from EXPreview and try for yourself if you want.

What is the success rate? well EXPreview found that half of the cards they tried were able to revert to GTX470 which leads to a nice little performance boost indeed.

Check out the full article over here.

KitGuru says: If you try this and are successful let us know on our forums!

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