I bit the bullet!!! but it gets better…
AMD Radeon HD 6950 to HD 6970 Mod
I picked XFX over Visiontek (both lifetime warranty) due to XFX’s better warranty policies (they don’t mind OC, different cooler, etc as long as the board is not burnt… same as EVGA) as well as Pine’s long history in the industry (parent company). XFX is a cooler name than Visiontek. Visiontek’s listing on Newegg did not include a picture of the actual card, neither does the Visiontek website, so there’s no guarantee they didn’t install some stupid off-the-wall cooler or other nonstandard component. Also XFX’s warranty is transferable… all in all it was worth the extra $10 for me this time.
To make the deal slightly sweeter, the mounting pattern around the GPU should fit my watercooling gear I already own (I have a DD Maze 5):
Frankly I doubt I’ll watercool it at this point unless noise is an issue or there ends up being a lot of extra performance locked away due to heat/temperature. Maybe if I build a nice case I’ll end up WC’ing just for the sake of appearances.