ASRock updated the UEFI on Z68 Extreme4 (and other Z68 boards) for IvyBridge, then pulled the update?

ASRock released new UEFIs for the entire Z68 lineup, getting ready for the IvyBridge launch.

Here’s a comparison between 1.60G UEFI and L2.02 beta UEFI on my Z68 Extreme4 (non-Gen3).

The makeover actually is same as the one on the ASRock Z77 mobos. =)

Main screen:

Unlocking Gigabyte HD 6950 1GB OC (GV-R695OC-1GD). Possible or what?

Few months back, I bought a couple of Gigabyte's HD6950 1GB OC cards to replace my HD5870 card. I was never a fan of multi GPU setups but I wanted to try it out. Besides, I had to buy something that would last long before the wedding, because I knew I will not be able to spend on toys as much as I used to. (It has nothing to do with getting my wife's consent, but more to do with higher cost of living.)

Anyways, it is a well known secret that (most of) the HD6950 2GB reference cards would unlock the full shaders of a HD6970. The success rates of unlocking 1GB cards is almost nil. These cards being non-reference makes it worse.

But I had my reasons for buying these cards.

1. They were the cheapest HD6950 cards from a known manufacturer.
2. They had a non-reference cooler which performance much better than the reference cooler.
3. They came with a ~10% factory overclock
4. I thought 1GB was enough because I didn't see myself buying a 1600p display or multiple 1080p monitors. (But still there are games that use more than 1GB VRAM even at 1080p)

New internet connection in action

A lot of things happened in the last couple of months. I will slowly reveal what happened, but for today, this should do.

I opened up Origin to see if there were any updates for BF3 or something, and instead of an update, I got the message that I can download the demo version of Mass Effect 3.

I went ahead with the download. Checked the download speed. A drop of tears came to my eyes….tears of happiness. 11.6MBps of awesomeness!!!