How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[HawkFest]

Please help me! I Flashed my 6950 to a 6970 easily and it was running great for about a month. Until my girlfriends games updated my drivers (the ones for the 6950) and now i can even install any drivers for the card nor can i flash it back to 6950 or to a 6970 again. Please help me out ive been trying to figure this out for about 4 hours now.
It's awesome to notice how so many "girl friends" can be used as an excuse for any error we make (even though we didn't need that kind of information)... We love you so much dear ladies! For your question, I'll only answer to your girlfriend ;-P

Seriously, a game title cannot update your driver (only Microsoft DirectX, IF your DirectX is an old one - even though it shows that it's installing, it won't replace anything more recent). Now a simple thing you could do is use your BIOS switch on top of the card and put it on position "2" (assuming you've flashed your BIOS while in position "1"). Then shutdown (completely, even the PSU) for about a minute and reboot. All should come back to stock BIOS settings on your 6950. Note that if you've never switched your BIOS to position "1" before flashing, it means that you have replaced your default stock BIOS settings.

Regarding the later case, unfortunately (that was my case with a Gigabyte card), the CMOS called up by switch position "1" is empty, it does not contain a copy of the BIOS targeted by position "2" (before playing with RBE and my card's BIOS, trying to boot from position "1" gave me a blank screen and nothing else happened apart from rotating chassis fans). So if you have flashed your BIOS over switch "2" (meaning you forgot to switch to position "1" before flashing), I really don't know what you can do... Always remember that the first thing to do before anything else is to backup your stock BIOS from position "2" to position "1", just in case you forget to switch to position "1" on the day you'll want to flash your BIOS.

EDIT - maybe there's a solution: copy the stock BIOS file on the root of a flash drive or floppy drive or CD drive (whatever medium can be used in the boot-up sequence before the hard drive), and the system should automatically load that BIOS... Hopefully... I've read that somewhere but never tried it.

[NameonPrime]

Yeah i dont have alot of money,
but i thought that the only difference between, the 6950 and 6970 were the shaders

wont unlocking the shaders be the same as a hd 6970 flash? provided that i up the clocks as well.

also after unlocking the shaders(using shader mod) and upping to 6970 clocks, would i need to up my powertune to 20%?

after you guys flashed using the hd 6970 bios what was your core voltage? (that being the stock core voltage of a 6970)

in the end, when i get my card, im planning to:-

unlock the shaders using the shader mod

increase the clocks and voltage to hd 6970 spec

up my power tune to 20% (if i need to, so tell me if i do)

shouldnt this be a fully fledged hd 6970 except for the memory timings/volts?

please answer on all my questions

[renq]

Yeah i dont have alot of money,
but i thought that the only difference between, the 6950 and 6970 were the shaders

wont unlocking the shaders be the same as a hd 6970 flash?

also after unlocking the shaders, would i need to up my powetune to 20%?

Just a post or two above it's been clarified. 6970 has:
* higher clocks
* more shaders
* better memory chips and thus has higher mem voltage and tighter mem timings

Most, if not all 6950, can unlock all the shaders without any problem, however, the extra voltage and tighter timings have killed memory on the 6950.

[NameonPrime]

I once again post this, and i need informative replies please,

i thought that the only major difference between, the 6950 and 6970 were the shaders

wont unlocking the shaders be the same as a hd 6970 flash? provided that i up the clocks as well.

also after unlocking the shaders(using shader mod) and upping to 6970 clocks, would i need to up my powertune to 20%?

after you guys flashed using the hd 6970 bios what was your core voltage? (that being the stock core voltage of a 6970)

in the end, when i get my card, im planning to:-

unlock the shaders using the shader mod

increase the clocks and voltage to hd 6970 spec

up my power tune to 20% (if i need to, so tell me if i do)

shouldnt this be a fully fledged hd 6970 except for the memory timings/volts?

please answer on all my questions

[JupiPupi]

I have unlocked shaders from 1408 to 1536 on a XFX Radeon HD 6950 1GB card.
Model of my card: HD-695X-ZNFC Version A.1 [card has dual bios switch]

http://www.pohrani.com/t/6/gO/3oENUOw/gpu.jpg (http://www.pohrani.com/?6/gO/3oENUOw/gpu.jpg)

http://www.pohrani.com/f/12/wS/1Y6PzUUF/cpu-z-1536.gif

But im not still sadisfacted :(
I have problem with unlocking my processor and memory frequencies.
The maximum for a processor is 840, and for a memory 1325Mhz.
I would like to move that limit up, and put a 6970 card frequencies, but I dont know how.

I tried with "Radeon Bios Editor v1.28" to change a frequneci and voltage, but after flashing with that BIOS I get BSOD when trying to boot Windows.

Anyone has idea how to solve this problem?

[manofthem]

I have unlocked shaders from 1408 to 1536 on a XFX Radeon HD 6950 1GB card.
Model of my card: HD-695X-ZNFC Version A.1 [card has dual bios switch]

http://www.pohrani.com/t/6/gO/3oENUOw/gpu.jpg (http://www.pohrani.com/?6/gO/3oENUOw/gpu.jpg)

http://www.pohrani.com/f/12/wS/1Y6PzUUF/cpu-z-1536.gif

But im not still sadisfacted :(
I have problem with unlocking my processor and memory frequencies.
The maximum for a processor is 840, and for a memory 1325Mhz.
I would like to move that limit up, and put a 6970 card frequencies, but I dont know how.

I tried with "Radeon Bios Editor v1.28" to change a frequneci and voltage, but after flashing with that BIOS I get BSOD when trying to boot Windows.

Anyone has idea how to solve this problem?

Download MSI Afterburner and OC with that. As long as you enable unofficial overclocking, you should be able to hit higher clocks. THat's the case w/ the 2GB models

[manofthem]

I once again post this, and i need informative replies please,

i thought that the only major difference between, the 6950 and 6970 were the shaders

wont unlocking the shaders be the same as a hd 6970 flash? provided that i up the clocks as well.

also after unlocking the shaders(using shader mod) and upping to 6970 clocks, would i need to up my powertune to 20%?

after you guys flashed using the hd 6970 bios what was your core voltage? (that being the stock core voltage of a 6970)

in the end, when i get my card, im planning to:-

unlock the shaders using the shader mod

increase the clocks and voltage to hd 6970 spec

up my power tune to 20% (if i need to, so tell me if i do)

shouldnt this be a fully fledged hd 6970 except for the memory timings/volts?

please answer on all my questions

Take your 6950 and unlock the shaders. Then OC it to the clocks of a 6970. When you do that, you'll see that it still doesn't reach the same bench scores as a 6970, so there is obviously something different. But the difference is negligible.

You will not need +20%PT to run at those speeds either. Perhaps the only thing that PT will help with is Furmark.

And all your questions have been answered in this thread many times over, even on the last several pages. So instead of getting an attitude in your posts, read up a bit, and then ask your questions with some deference.

[NameonPrime]

yeah, thanx for all your replies all,

just one basic question

what is the stock hd 6970 core voltage ?(you know - 880Mhz/1375Mhz)

so that i can apply it to my hd 6950 when i unlock and oc to 6970 specs.

[cadaveca]

1.175v for 6970. Seem to me fan profile might be a bit different for 6970, too.

[JupiPupi]

Download MSI Afterburner and OC with that. As long as you enable unofficial overclocking, you should be able to hit higher clocks. THat's the case w/ the 2GB models

Frequencies in MSI Afterburner are limited two.

[Sinster]

Frequencies in MSI Afterburner are limited two.

No it's not 11.4. You need to enable unofficial overclocking. You can do that by:
-Make sure you have the newest verison of MSI AB
-Go in to the program directory (example C:\Program Files(x86)\MSI afterburner) and open MSIAfterburner.cfg
-Scroll to bottom and enter the following values
[ATIADLHAL]
UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 1
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod = 0
-Open Afterburner and you can now clock higher than default 840/1325
-Open settings in MSI AB, and on the front tab, click "Unlock Voltage Control" and optionally "Unlock Voltage Monitoring"
-Restart MSI AB
You can now increase voltage and increase core/memory clocks. Only increase voltage as much as needed for a given clock speed.

Let us know how it goes and what clocks you reach!

Do this.

Make sure you type in "I confirm...."

[manofthem]

Frequencies in MSI Afterburner are limited two.

I made you a pretty picture! Wihoo!
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/prettypic.png

[JupiPupi]

I made you a pretty picture! Wihoo!
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/prettypic.png

manofthem & Sinster YOU ARE MY NEW BEST FRIENDS! Thanke you very mutch!
:respect::respect::respect::respect::respect:
:toast:

[manofthem]

manofthem & Sinster YOU ARE MY NEW BEST FRIENDS! Thanke you very mutch!
:respect::respect::respect::respect::respect:
:toast:

No worries at all! Make sure your OC is stable. Post back with some results as to what clock speeds you hit!

[mephistopoa]

My XFX 6950 2GB reference card using bios for unlock shaders only worked perfectly.

I'm running at 6970 clocks using software overclock on afterburner with a higher fan speed and on ccc power settings on +20%

all good, but the card on default 1.1v doesn't go beyond 880 mhz stable. Not bad for a card that costs a lot less than a 6970 =)

a lot better than my old 4870!

[sink]

Hi I flashed my 6950 to the 6970 bios before reading this thread. I only had it for a day and the display driver would crash on start up and as a precaution I used the hardware switch to set it back to the default bios. Everything is working fine now at stock, but my question is can I flash the 6970 bios modded back to stock without having to switch to it (i.e can I load flash the primary bios while using the secondary)?

[fullinfusion]

Hi I flashed my 6950 to the 6970 bios before reading this thread. I only had it for a day and the display driver would crash on start up and as a precaution I used the hardware switch to set it back to the default bios. Everything is working fine now at stock, but my question is can I flash the 6970 bios modded back to stock without having to switch to it (i.e can I load flash the primary bios while using the secondary)?
Im not sure what your asking, but in any event. If you flash to a 6970 bios.... Leave it and jus use the gpu's switch to switch between both bios's... you should be good.

I been testing both bios with out a problem, just make sure the power play is set to a min of +12%
:pimp:

[manofthem]

I been testing both bios with out a problem, just make sure the power play is set to a min of +12%
:pimp:

Are you talking about the 6970 bios? If so, what do you see in your tests with the +12%?

I've tried different powertune settings (0, +12%, and +20%) on my modded bios w/ shaders. So far, from default clocks to 6970 clocks to 910/1425, I haven't noticed any real difference, give or take a few points in benches.

Let me know what i should try to determine the best settings. Thanks

[jmcslob]

I haven't really noticed a difference after 925/1400 with +15%....I'm thinking it's the memory max for my card

[fullinfusion]

Are you talking about the 6970 bios? If so, what do you see in your tests with the +12%?

I've tried different powertune settings (0, +12%, and +20%) on my modded bios w/ shaders. So far, from default clocks to 6970 clocks to 910/1425, I haven't noticed any real difference, give or take a few points in benches.

Let me know what i should try to determine the best settings. Thanks

I run + 12 power play and set pci-e in bios to 105mhz.... anything higher gives a bsod.

Clock your cpu to the max and you'll see the score raise higher...12+ 20 IS ABOUT THE SAME IN MY TESTING BRO.

[manofthem]

I run + 12 power play and set pci-e in bios to 105mhz.... anything higher gives a bsod.

Clock your cpu to the max and you'll see the score raise higher...12+ 20 IS ABOUT THE SAME IN MY TESTING BRO.

I have my CPU at 4Ghz (1090t), anything higher is too high with my cooling.

I haven't touched pci-e in the bios though; ill give that a shot. Muchas gracias

[fullinfusion]

I have my CPU at 4Ghz (1090t), anything higher is too high with my cooling.

I haven't touched pci-e in the bios though; ill give that a shot. Muchas gracias
106-106 mhz is about the max.

[cadaveca]

12+ 20 IS ABOUT THE SAME IN MY TESTING BRO.

OK, let's explain powerplay here.

What it does, is manages power consumption, and if power consumption is too high, the card will downclock.

Moving the powerplay slider increases the limit before that power consumption threshold is reached. You only need to raise it if you see clocks dropping while under load. Raising it will prevent the throttle.


So, of course, +20 isn't going to change anything if your card isn't throttling due to power consumption. Even +1 isn't going to change anything, if you are not really pushing the VRM too much.

[fullinfusion]

OK, let's explain powerplay here.

What it does, is manages power consumption, and if power consumption is too high, the card will downclock.

Moving the powerplay slider increases the limit before that power consumption threshold is reached. You only need to raise it if you see clocks dropping while under load. Raising it will prevent the throttle.


So, of course, +20 isn't going to change anything if your card isn't throttling due to power consumption. Even +1 isn't going to change anything, if you are not really pushing the VRM too much.
Cool cad, Im talking about Pci-e mhz.... 100-106mhz... not power play

[hv43082]

Anyone else here having trouble with MSI Afterburner and Catalyst 11.4 Preview? I am getting random lock up and bsod regardless of the speed/voltage set with Afterburner. Once Afterburner is removed, no more problem.

[mephistopoa]

Anyone else here having trouble with MSI Afterburner and Catalyst 11.4 Preview? I am getting random lock up and bsod regardless of the speed/voltage set with Afterburner. Once Afterburner is removed, no more problem.

I only got problems with afterburner using clocks that apparently my card doesn't cope well with. Using 880/1375 is working fine on AB for me using 11.4, I'll run some more tests tonight

[NameonPrime]

Guys, things have changed ,

would i be able to unlock shaders, and oc volts and frequencies to 6970 spec

on the asus hd 6950 2gb with voltage tweak?

[NameonPrime]

i mean the asus card that comes with a voltage tweak and/or slight OC right out of the box\

[mephistopoa]

The only way to know is doing it, but if your card doesn't have the bios switch, I would not recommend doing it

[JupiPupi]

No worries at all! Make sure your OC is stable. Post back with some results as to what clock speeds you hit!

I have overclocked my XFX 6950 1GB
Core clock: 950Mhz
Memory clock 1375Mhz
Voltage 1.212
Average temperature: 85c
3DMark 11 Premium Graphic score: 5506

But! I have noticed some strange behaviour while browsing with Firefox and playing games two.
If You look at the graph. You can see that core frequency is jumping from 500 to 950Mhz all the time, while memory frequency is constant. Is anything of that normal behaviour?

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=41640&stc=1&d=1302637376

[cadaveca]

Yes, perfectly normal.

But, if this is happening during games, you need to raise the powertune % until it does not happen any more.

[manofthem]

OK, let's explain powerplay here.

What it does, is manages power consumption, and if power consumption is too high, the card will downclock.

Moving the powerplay slider increases the limit before that power consumption threshold is reached. You only need to raise it if you see clocks dropping while under load. Raising it will prevent the throttle.


So, of course, +20 isn't going to change anything if your card isn't throttling due to power consumption. Even +1 isn't going to change anything, if you are not really pushing the VRM too much.

I appreciate your insight. Please allow an inquiry:

My 6950 powertune is set to 0, and through games and benches, clocks hold strong and do not downclock (other than Furmark).

I've read that the TDP of a 6950 is 200W, so should I take it that even at full load my gpu is only pulling down somewhere >200W? (Does that not change even if the shaders are unlocked or if I raise voltage and OC to say 900/1375?)

I do thank you.
(I'm asking more for power management reasons; I want to be sure that my PSU will handle crossfire without problems)

[cadaveca]

Yes, you can say that in apps other than furmark, your gpu is not exceeding the TDP, if the card is not throttling. At least, that's how it's supposed to work.

And that's why we have access to it...basically AMD has given us the option to exceed TDP by 20%, and then, that's it...

That means that technically, if each and every part of the gpu is designed properly, these cards should basically be indestructible by overclockers...unless there is hard-mods.


I am not sure of what the TDP of these cards is, or if it's both ram and GPU, or just GPU, but I do understand what it is, and what it is supposed to do. I have not encountered any situation where I needed to adjust it, although I have spoken with a few users now that have had to use it to allow for overclocking.

[sabrehagen]

Hi Guys,

I have a PowerColor HD 6950 1GB and have read the techPowerUp! guide thoroughly and found I need to use RBE to change my clocks because the listed BIOSs are only for 2GB editions. I'm really excited to mod my card, but I'm not getting the expected results. These are the steps I went through:

I downloaded my card's BIOS with WinFlash.
I opened it in RBE and went to the last tab where 6950 > 6970 was enabled. I chose 6970.
I saved the BIOS and flashed it back to my card.
From there I reboot and check the result with GPU-Z and it is still only showing 1,408 unified.

Just to make sure the BIOS was updated correctly, I downloaded the BIOS now on my card and opened it with RBE and it is showing 6970 enabled. Do you know if GPU-Z is misreporting (I'm using the latest version - 0.5.3) or the card isn't picking up the extra Shaders?

On a related note, whenever I flash my BIOS with WinFlash I get "BIOS flash completed successfully" but my computer freezes and I have to hard reboot. No mouse movement either. Is this to be expected? It seems like it would be given you're changing the BIOS on an active device but I just wanted to confirm.

So, in summary, any idea on what I might be doing wrong or how to fix this? I'm sorry if this has been answered before, but I couldn't bring myself to trawl the 51 pages of this thread. I tried searching the forums but that was too coarse grained.

Thanks for your help,


sabrehagen

[manofthem]

I'm pretty sure you can't flash a 6970 bios to a 6950 1GB card.

I haven't tried unlocking shaders in RBE, but try this...
www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
I just downloaded a 1GB bios and ran it though that, it worked, though I can't verify that because I don't want to test flashing it on my 2GB card. Give that a shot.

Take your default bios and put it in that folder.
Name it "original.bin"
Then run "run.bat" That should take your bios and enables all 1536 shaders.
Modded bios should be saved as "modded.bin"
Then flash "modded.bin"
After flashing, double check in GPUz that shaders are changed.
Might work (This works with the 2GB version)

[jayc]

I'm pretty sure you can't flash a 6970 bios to a 6950 1GB card.

I haven't tried unlocking shaders in RBE, but try this...
www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
I just downloaded a 1GB bios and ran it though that, it worked, though I can't verify that because I don't want to test flashing it on my 2GB card. Give that a shot.

Take your default bios and put it in that folder.
Name it "original.bin"
Then run "run.bat" That should take your bios and enables all 1536 shaders.
Modded bios should be saved as "modded.bin"
Then flash "modded.bin"
After flashing, double check in GPUz that shaders are changed.
Might work (This works with the 2GB version)

I don't think sabrehagen is actually flashing his 6950 1Gb with a 6970 bios.
It's just RBE's label on the button that sort of says, unlock your shaders to something similar to a 6970.
So RBE just takes the bios you opened and unlocks the shaders.
It saves the new bios file for you to flash.

sabrehagen,
I think we are in new territory here with your 1Gb powercolor 6950. I have not seen anyone unlock shaders on this card personally. There is a possibility that Powercolor have cut physical traces to the extra shaders. It's an expensive option for them but it's possible. We can't do anything about that.

There is another possibility that you have incorrectly performed the re-flash.
This is something we can explore.
Use the script that manofthem has linked to and re-create a shader unlocked bios from your card.
Then use atiflash/winflash to load on the new bios.

Taking care that your card is in the primary PCI-E slot (closest to CPU).
Make sure you issue the - unlockrom 0 command, before the flash bios command.
Write down step by step, what you did and the result. Report back.

[sabrehagen]

I'm pretty sure you can't flash a 6970 bios to a 6950 1GB card.

I haven't tried unlocking shaders in RBE, but try this...
www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
I just downloaded a 1GB bios and ran it though that, it worked, though I can't verify that because I don't want to test flashing it on my 2GB card. Give that a shot.

Take your default bios and put it in that folder.
Name it "original.bin"
Then run "run.bat" That should take your bios and enables all 1536 shaders.
Modded bios should be saved as "modded.bin"
Then flash "modded.bin"
After flashing, double check in GPUz that shaders are changed.
Might work (This works with the 2GB version)

Unfortunately this method still results in 1408 being reported in GPU-Z. Any other ideas?

[FL4K]

I have a 1GB XFX card (the dual fan ZDDC model). I can download and mod the bios fine (it finds the string and replaces it) but cannot flash the image back. I get an error from atiwinflash and atiflash that the rom cannot be erased (even though I have issued the command to unlock it).

The dual bios switch is masked and not present on the card - I assume the ROM is read only (though that seems an odd thing to do on a single-bios card).

Any idea?

[jayc]

I have a 1GB XFX card (the dual fan ZDDC model). I can download and mod the bios fine (it finds the string and replaces it) but cannot flash the image back. I get an error from atiwinflash and atiflash that the rom cannot be erased (even though I have issued the command to unlock it).

The dual bios switch is masked and not present on the card - I assume the ROM is read only (though that seems an odd thing to do on a single-bios card).

Any idea?

A number of XFX 1Gb owners have successfully unlocked the shaders on their card. Read back a few pages to see what they did.

Make sure your card is in the primary GPU slot closest to the CPU when running the commands.

[fullinfusion]

Sorry but XFX suck except there Warrenty. Dont unlock, Whats the sense? your rig cant run your games?

Has anybody had any luck using MSI Afterburner on x-fired 6900 series cards?

I can use voltage and core,memory settings on the first gpu. 2nd gpu, any settings in AB cause a bsod... Any Idea's?

[manofthem]

Sorry but XFX suck except there Warrenty. Dont unlock, Whats the sense? your rig cant run your games?

Has anybody had any luck using MSI Afterburner on x-fired 6900 series cards?

I can use voltage and core,memory settings on the first gpu. 2nd gpu, any settings in AB cause a bsod... Any Idea's?

I had a problem with MSI AB when I installed my second card. No matter what I touched (clocks up 1 mhz or applying a fan curve), it would crash my pc. No bsod but some crazy lines and have to reboot.

I had to uninstall afterburner (and I may I've reinstalled drivers), and reinstalling AB did it work. I only did same OC as CCC, but had a custom fan curve.

[fullinfusion]

I had a problem with MSI AB when I installed my second card. No matter what I touched (clocks up 1 mhz or applying a fan curve), it would crash my pc. No bsod but some crazy lines and have to reboot.

I had to uninstall afterburner (and I may I've reinstalled drivers), and reinstalling AB did it work. I only did same OC as CCC, but had a custom fan curve.
What?

[manofthem]

What?

Sorry if I didn't make any sens; I was on my phone while we were in the drive though at Maimi Subs...

When I went crossfire 6950's, MSI Afterburner started acting up. Whenever I tried to apply any change at all, my pc would crash. It wasn't a BSOD, but I had to reboot nonetheless. (I don't know if that's similar to what you have going on)

I fixed it by uninstalling MSIAB completely. Then I may have uninstalled/reinstalled ATI drivers, can't remember. Then I reinstalled MSIAB. After reinstalling, I can now set up a custom fan curve and overclock. I have only OC'd in MSIAB as far as 840/1325 on both cards. I haven't gone past that with unofficial overclocking or touching voltage though.

[mingsoup]

Recently got two Sapphire reference 6950's. Pulled out the bios with GPU-Z. Modifed with RBE. Reflashed with ATIWinflash.

Cards are 100% stable with 1536 shaders in crossfire mode at stock 1.1V/800/1250.

However, I'm having real troubles trying to get them up to 6970 speeds.

First off. Sometimes when I use MSI AF 2.2 Beta 2 and set 1.175/880/1375 and hit apply I get an immediate BSOD. I *think* this might have something to do with ULPS? Trixx has an option for disable ULPS. I don't usually get an immediate BSOD when I use that. However strangely, my clocks were reverted after 1/3 AVP benches.

Manually disabling ULPS in regedit seemed to let me set 1175/880/1375 in MSI, but after benchmarking one AVP, the second GPU stayed at 100% after the bench failed, followed by a BSOD.

Do I just need a tiny bit more voltage? Thoughts?
I thought I could run 6970 speeds with stock 6970 voltage? (1175mV) correct?

Whats super strange is that crossfire shuts off after a restart from a BSOD or a AVP benchmark crash w/o BSOD but restart. Second GPU disappears out of Ati Manager and Device Manager. Until another restart. UHG. I am using 11.4 Preview.

Whats up with the OC resetting itself on its own, despite me dialing it into MSI?

[cadaveca]

I can run 6970 speeds on both my cards @ 1.135v. Most 6970's OC like mad, 950 is a cakewalk, but 6950's...not so much.

[Sk1nner]

increasing the pci-e clock increases gpu performance? i increased to 104 and i see about 8fps increase in msi kombustor. Is that possible?

[tdimarzio]

I have a Gigabyte 6950 2GB. Successfully running 6970 BIOS (Sapphire.HD6970.2048.101124.bin) at stock 6970 clocks (880/1375). I do set powertune to +20, otherwise I can witness the clocks dynamically throttling back to keep the TDP within spec. Ran FUR burn in for 7 hours straight no issues. Played Crysis for a few hours and no graphical issues, however, Crysis did lock up twice. The computer was not locked, nor did the graphics card/driver reset. I just had to ctr+alt+del and kill the crysis process and restart the game. I'm chalking that up to a Crysis bug until proven otherwise.

My question is, is there anyway to get the TDP defaults to match the 6970 or are they not included in the BIOS? I just don't want to have to worry about manually setting powertune to +20 in the future. It's obviously required so I'd like to make it a permanent default if possible.

[Bcterp]

I recently unlocked the shaders on my MSI 6950 (modified my own bios using RBE) and didn't touch anything else. I now get artifacts (speckles) in 2D using certain programs (firefox 4, CCC). The artifacts disappear after closing the program. Switching to the stock bios eliminates the artifacts so something is definitely up with the extra shaders. However when gaming everything is rock solid using the unlocked shaders. I even bumped the core to 880 and played the Frozen Paradise level of Crysis Warhead. Not a single artifact. Once I exited the game and opened Firefox, immediate speckles. Seems strange that only 2D programs using some GPU get artifacts.

Any ideas?

[cadaveca]

My question is, is there anyway to get the TDP defaults to match the 6970 or are they not included in the BIOS? I just don't want to have to worry about manually setting powertune to +20 in the future. It's obviously required so I'd like to make it a permanent default if possible.

I do not think this is possible, as the VRM for 6950 is quite different than 6970. I feel that they have used readings from hardware VRM current draw to set the limit, and the limit is the same for each card, but much lower on 6950 due to only being 6x6 instead of 6x8.

Any ideas?

Sure, many apps within the desktop space are 3-D accelerated. maintaining 2D clocks with 3D acceleration is probably why your card is NOT a 6970 already.

Is that possible?

Yes, as increasing the PCI-E bus gets data to the gpu faster.

[tdimarzio]

I recently unlocked the shaders on my MSI 6950 (modified my own bios using RBE) and didn't touch anything else. I now get artifacts (speckles) in 2D using certain programs (firefox 4, CCC). The artifacts disappear after closing the program. Switching to the stock bios eliminates the artifacts so something is definitely up with the extra shaders. However when gaming everything is rock solid using the unlocked shaders. I even bumped the core to 880 and played the Frozen Paradise level of Crysis Warhead. Not a single artifact. Once I exited the game and opened Firefox, immediate speckles. Seems strange that only 2D programs using some GPU get artifacts.

Any ideas?

I saw this at first on my 6950 right after flashing the 6970 BIOS. I went into the CCC overdrive, set the clocks to defaults (880,1375), shutdown the computer (to clear hardware registers) and then booted back up. The issue never reappeared.

[Arktic]

Hey Guys.

So I recently got my VTX3D 6950 2gig the other day and have had endless troubles with trying to get it to work with 6970 bios as it would flash fine but then would speckle when entering games or 3D Mark Vantage.

Im happy to say Ive found the solution after a few days of toil and many bioses later.

So heres what I did.

1) Downloaded the Powercolor HD 6950 PCS++ BIOS switch in normal position (Overclocked/unlocked) bios
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/94169/Powercolor.HD6950.2048.110121.html

2) The downloaded the 6950_to_6970_bios mod.zip.

3) Replaced the 6970 bios with the powercolor one and renamed it to unlock.bin

4) Ran the 6950_to_6970_mod script and waited for it to flash.

5) Reset and everything was great!


The clocks off 880 core didnt work so great on the vtx so I used 860/1350 and its perfectly stable now. :)

So now its at 1536 shaders with 860core and 1350 memory

Finally after all the hard work im happy that I now have mostly a 6970 lol!!

[rgsaunders]

Smooth sailing today, flashed my Sapphire 6950 2GB P/N 21188-00-40R using the batch files, no problems with what is now identified by GPU-Z as a 6970.

[jayc]

I recently unlocked the shaders on my MSI 6950 (modified my own bios using RBE) and didn't touch anything else. I now get artifacts (speckles) in 2D using certain programs (firefox 4, CCC). The artifacts disappear after closing the program.
Any ideas?

Try tdimarzio's suggestion, otherwise, did you reinstall the drivers?
If not, do it.
If it's still a problem, you could try RBE and adjust your bios' 2d voltage. 2D Default is 900mV. You might need a smidgen more, like 905mV. Then reflash with this updated voltage bios.

[jayc]

The clocks off 880 core didnt work so great on the vtx so I used 860/1350 and its perfectly stable now. :)
So now its at 1536 shaders with 860core and 1350 memory


You can still get it to run at 880 core IF you increase the core voltage. Did you try increasing the voltage?
MSI afterburner will be able to increase voltage for this card.
Alternatively, RBE can increase it OR decrease voltages more permanently at the bios level.

[mingsoup]

Recently got two Sapphire reference 6950's. Pulled out the bios with GPU-Z. Modifed with RBE. Reflashed with ATIWinflash.

Cards are 100% stable with 1536 shaders in crossfire mode at stock 1.1V/800/1250.

However, I'm having real troubles trying to get them up to 6970 speeds.

First off. Sometimes when I use MSI AF 2.2 Beta 2 and set 1.175/880/1375 and hit apply I get an immediate BSOD. I *think* this might have something to do with ULPS? Trixx has an option for disable ULPS. I don't usually get an immediate BSOD when I use that. However strangely, my clocks were reverted after 1/3 AVP benches.

Manually disabling ULPS in regedit seemed to let me set 1175/880/1375 in MSI, but after benchmarking one AVP, the second GPU stayed at 100% after the bench failed, followed by a BSOD.

Do I just need a tiny bit more voltage? Thoughts?
I thought I could run 6970 speeds with stock 6970 voltage? (1175mV) correct?

Whats super strange is that crossfire shuts off after a restart from a BSOD or a AVP benchmark crash w/o BSOD but restart. Second GPU disappears out of Ati Manager and Device Manager. Until another restart. UHG. I am using 11.4 Preview.

Whats up with the OC resetting itself on its own, despite me dialing it into MSI?

Forgive my diarrhea post there.

I've eliminated alot of the variables. Drivers and OC utilities were not the culprit. Insufficient power is not the culprit. It seemed to be my second card not wanting to cooperate and also the one behaving oddly after OC. So I took it out and tested it alone with the stock bios (switch to 2) and attempting to overclock the memory to 1375 resulted in the same exact instability. So I've effectively narrowed it down to the memory OC on my second card that is giving me grief. I'm up to 840/1300 @1.1V perfectly stable. I also tortured my stock clocked unlocked shader config with 10x AVP bench, and it benched perfectly and no articulating. So it seems in the end, that my second card's memory just doesn't want to go that high. Any solutions? Would flashing a 6970 bios maybe allow me to run at 1375? I *want* these to go to 6970 stock speeds.

[Arktic]

You can still get it to run at 880 core IF you increase the core voltage. Did you try increasing the voltage?
MSI afterburner will be able to increase voltage for this card.
Alternatively, RBE can increase it OR decrease voltages more permanently at the bios level.

Yeah when I started up my PC this morning it speckled again but ran COD4 for a few seconds and now its cleared away. I cant up the volts in MSI Afterburner.

Will adding volts help with the speckling issue? What are the standard volts of the 6950 2gig?

[NameonPrime]

Guys, major problem,

i just received a different version of my hd 6950

Its the 2GB sapphire card with a fan in the middle adn NO BIOS SWITCH,

would you still recommend for me to try unlocking those extra shaders?

or do i run a greater risk of bricking the card since it may be unflashable

and it has no backup BIOS

please in need info fast, esplecially from the knowledgable MANOFTHEM and Cadaveca

[mingsoup]

Forgive my diarrhea post there.

I've eliminated alot of the variables. Drivers and OC utilities were not the culprit. Insufficient power is not the culprit. It seemed to be my second card not wanting to cooperate and also the one behaving oddly after OC. So I took it out and tested it alone with the stock bios (switch to 2) and attempting to overclock the memory to 1375 resulted in the same exact instability. So I've effectively narrowed it down to the memory OC on my second card that is giving me grief. I'm up to 840/1300 @1.1V perfectly stable. I also tortured my stock clocked unlocked shader config with 10x AVP bench, and it benched perfectly and no articulating. So it seems in the end, that my second card's memory just doesn't want to go that high. Any solutions? Would flashing a 6970 bios maybe allow me to run at 1375? I *want* these to go to 6970 stock speeds.

FINALLY figured out what the problem was.

Not drivers, shaders, unlock, crossfire, or whatever.

It was power. Don't try to run two 6970's on a 750watt Antec.
Alone each will bench 100% stable 5loops of AVP with 1536 shaders and 880/1375/1175mv. Problem solved. Tomorrow I put in my Corsair 850W. If that doesn't work, then I'll buy a 1200watt and forget about it.

[cadaveca]

Guys, major problem,

i just received a different version of my hd 6950

Its the 2GB sapphire card with a fan in the middle adn NO BIOS SWITCH,

would you still recommend for me to try unlocking those extra shaders?

or do i run a greater risk of bricking the card since it may be unflashable

and it has no backup BIOS

please in need info fast, esplecially from the knowledgable MANOFTHEM and Cadaveca

wait a sec...does this card have a big round grey "button" on the heatsink near the output side?? Becasue if it does, that is the bios switch.

If not, then, yes, you can still attempt a flash.

Yes, Ido think there is a higher chance that the gpu you get may not work with all shaders. I am convinced, myself, that the only reason these card really unlock is due to the delay on the real 6950 PSB, which looks alot like the 6870 PCB.

I flashed my card with this "new" PCB, no problem. However, at hte same time, I do have 2 cards, so recovery from a bad flash is something I could recover from.


I have even flashed the wrong bios to the card, and it wouldn't boot into windows with the driver installed...but thanks to have a second card, recovery was not that hard.

All that said, if you don't feel comfortable with the situation, don't do it. I you do, use ATIWinFlash to suc kthe bios off of you card, mod it to enable the extra shaders, and flash away. Reboot after tha flash, and maybe everything will work right...and maybe not.

[2DividedbyZero]

Reboot after tha flash, and maybe everything will work right...and maybe not.


well put, never a truer word been spoken.

Kinda puts you off flashing :roll:

[cadaveca]

Meh, I "bricked" my card, was easy to recover. You jsut need to be full awre of what might happen, and know how to recover. NO big deal.

[Bcterp]

Try tdimarzio's suggestion, otherwise, did you reinstall the drivers?
If not, do it.
If it's still a problem, you could try RBE and adjust your bios' 2d voltage. 2D Default is 900mV. You might need a smidgen more, like 905mV. Then reflash with this updated voltage bios.

Unfortunately reinstalling the drivers didn't help. However, I think I got the 2D artifacts with my 6950 shaders unlocked sorted out. I found that the problem isn’t the idle clocks (250/150/0.9v) but the full speed clocks when in 2D (800/1250/ 1.1v). The artifacts appear whenever a 2D program (like Firefox rendering a web page) causes the GPU to briefly step up to full speed and voltage. I used Afterburner to setup a new 2D profile set at 500/1250/1.1V. It still drops down to 250/150/0.9 when idle but the GPU core will now max out at 500 when in use in 2D. This has eliminated the artifacts. My 3D profile is set to 870/1325/1.1 and thus far is stable and artifact free after several ~30 minute sessions of Crysis Warhead. I’ll need to do some more testing to be sure it is stable. It seems my unlocked shaders can’t handle 2D rendering at full speed but can handle 3D gaming just fine.. :confused:

[tdimarzio]

Unfortunately reinstalling the drivers didn't help. However, I think I got the 2D artifacts with my 6950 shaders unlocked sorted out. I found that the problem isn’t the idle clocks (250/150/0.9v) but the full speed clocks when in 2D (800/1250/ 1.1v). The artifacts appear whenever a 2D program (like Firefox rendering a web page) causes the GPU to briefly step up to full speed and voltage. I used Afterburner to setup a new 2D profile set at 500/1250/1.1V. It still drops down to 250/150/0.9 when idle but the GPU core will now max out at 500 when in use in 2D. This has eliminated the artifacts. My 3D profile is set to 870/1325/1.1 and thus far is stable and artifact free after several ~30 minute sessions of Crysis Warhead. I’ll need to do some more testing to be sure it is stable. It seems my unlocked shaders can’t handle 2D rendering at full speed but can handle 3D gaming just fine.. :confused:

So, the 2D "speckling" or "specks" that I thought were gone are not actually gone. They're just not very prominent or prevalent. You'll see them occasionaly on black background or in white areas if you look closely enough. I am in the same boat as you then. 3D is rock solid with 6970 clocks and shaders (I just used the 6970 BIOS rather than modding mine) but 2D has these speckling artifacts. I got annoyed and flashed back the original 6950 BIOS but given your suggesting of modifying the 2D profile using afterburner I might give it another shot. It would be a nicer fix to actually modify the 2D clocks in the BIOS itself so that afterburner is not required but I don't know if that's possible with the current tools.

[NameonPrime]

sooo.....

Let me get this straight cadaveca,

Even if my Sapphire 2gb hd 6950 is not reference design, has no BIOS switch and
has a reworked and shorter PCB (i think - than a reference hd 6950), i can still try to unlock those shaders?http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

and if i brick my card i can find a way to reflash it with its origional BIOS
since i have a backup hd 5830.... How?

and you have had success with this particular card as well?

[highfive]

I flashed my Powercolor 6950 2MB but it won't work on restart.. I tried powercolor and sapphire bios and then the procedure described in post #1234.. no success, all i can do is flash it back to normal.
Also i couldn't flash it in Winflash, but had to do it in DOS mode..

I have this one:
http://www.pandacomputer.com/online/images/AX6950-1GBD5-2DH.gif

Anyone has a suggestion to what might be the problem?

[BababooeyHTJ]

It's not a reference card.
Radon Bios editor should allow you to unlock the shaders on the bios.

[highfive]

Alright RBE was the thing i needed.
Unlocked! thank you.

[xanture]

I just got a xfx6950 2gb and tried using the batch file and tried flashing in dos. I made sure I ran as Admin but no luck so far. I tried all 3 diffrent xfx versions you have listed. Any ideas? http://www.frys.com/product/6575973?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG is the card I have

[mingsoup]

FINALLY figured out what the problem was.

Not drivers, shaders, unlock, crossfire, or whatever.

It was power. Don't try to run two 6970's on a 750watt Antec.
Alone each will bench 100% stable 5loops of AVP with 1536 shaders and 880/1375/1175mv. Problem solved. Tomorrow I put in my Corsair 850W. If that doesn't work, then I'll buy a 1200watt and forget about it.

Now I'm getting a STOP BSOD shortly after applying OC via MSI AB.
But alone both cards are perfectly stable. uhg.

[manofthem]

Now I'm getting a STOP BSOD shortly after applying OC via MSI AB.
But alone both cards are perfectly stable. uhg.

Try completely uninstalling MSIAB, then reinstalling after reboot. Same thing happened to me. But then again, I'm running 2 on a 750W PSU...;)


I just got a xfx6950 2gb and tried using the batch file and tried flashing in dos. I made sure I ran as Admin but no luck so far. I tried all 3 diffrent xfx versions you have listed. Any ideas? http://www.frys.com/product/6575973?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG is the card I have

According to the part #, it's not a reference card. It should be unlockable, shaders only though.
www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
Mod your own stock bios with that. Did you try that?

[xanture]

@Manofthem, first of all thank you for the quick response. I guess what i'm looking for is a reference model card though i'm not 100% sure what i'm looking for when. I don't have a firm understanding what is and what is not a reference card. I plan to take back the xfx tomorrow and continue my search for a 6950 I can unlock completely. I see the list of bios to flash but is there a list of reference cards I can look at so I can get the right thing next time? Thank you for your patients.

[mingsoup]

System is as follows:

i5-750 @ 4.2Ghz. Completely stable long before my two new 6950's. Previously ran crossfire 5770's OC'ed no stability problems.
8gb (2x4) DDR3 1600
Asus P7P55D Deluxe
Corsair 850TX
5 120mm Fans.
2 7200 Sata HD's
2 DVD drives
2 Sapphire Reference 6950's Both are shader unlocked from stock Bios. Shader unlock is stable without OC applied.
Catalyst 11.4/MSI AB 2.2 Beta 2

I simply cannot get these guys to OC stable when put together. Alone each will go through 5 AVP benchmarks at 1175/880/1375 no problem.

Together, I have all sorts of problems. It seems if I go into the registry and disable EnableULPS wherever I find it and restart, the computer will not immediately BSOD when I apply overclocks in MSI AB 2.2 Beta 2.

So then I moved on to benching. However after 1/5 AVP benches, the clocks reverted to normal automatically. Weird!

Restart and Uncheck CCC AMD Overdrive on both cards.
Bench again. AVP stops responding on 2/5 AVP bench. Whats really weird is that after I recover the memory and usage of the second GPU is stuck at MAX. If it was a power problem, wouldn't the computer simply shut down, rather than the benchmark stop responding? But the cards OC alone perfectly.....

Why would these cards OC perfect alone, but not together. The only thing I can think of is not enough power. However with this funny ULPS business, anything is possible I suppose.
Any help appreciated. Moving from a 750 Antec to an 850 Corsair didn't change any of my Crossfire symptoms. Do I need to get a 1250Watt?

[manofthem]

@Manofthem, first of all thank you for the quick response. I guess what i'm looking for is a reference model card though i'm not 100% sure what i'm looking for when. I don't have a firm understanding what is and what is not a reference card. I plan to take back the xfx tomorrow and continue my search for a 6950 I can unlock completely. I see the list of bios to flash but is there a list of reference cards I can look at so I can get the right thing next time? Thank you for your patients.

Your XFX should be able to flash and unlock shaders. I have an XFX and I've read about other XFX cards being unlockable.

What happens when you try to flash your card?

[manofthem]

System is as follows:

i5-750 @ 4.2Ghz. Completely stable long before my two new 6950's. Previously ran crossfire 5770's OC'ed no stability problems.
8gb (2x4) DDR3 1600
Asus P7P55D Deluxe
Corsair 850TX
5 120mm Fans.
2 7200 Sata HD's
2 DVD drives
2 Sapphire Reference 6950's Both are shader unlocked from stock Bios. Shader unlock is stable without OC applied.
Catalyst 11.4/MSI AB 2.2 Beta 2

I simply cannot get these guys to OC stable when put together. Alone each will go through 5 AVP benchmarks at 1175/880/1375 no problem.

Together, I have all sorts of problems. It seems if I go into the registry and disable EnableULPS wherever I find it and restart, the computer will not immediately BSOD when I apply overclocks in MSI AB 2.2 Beta 2.

So then I moved on to benching. However after 1/5 AVP benches, the clocks reverted to normal automatically. Weird!

Restart and Uncheck CCC AMD Overdrive on both cards.
Bench again. AVP stops responding on 2/5 AVP bench. Whats really weird is that after I recover the memory and usage of the second GPU is stuck at MAX. If it was a power problem, wouldn't the computer simply shut down, rather than the benchmark stop responding? But the cards OC alone perfectly.....

Why would these cards OC perfect alone, but not together. The only thing I can think of is not enough power. However with this funny ULPS business, anything is possible I suppose.
Any help appreciated. Moving from a 750 Antec to an 850 Corsair didn't change any of my Crossfire symptoms. Do I need to get a 1250Watt?

My 750W PSU is running almost the same things that you are running. You shouldn't need much more than what you are running. What happens when you have crossfired enabled and just running everything default in CCC? Try not using MSIAB

[mingsoup]

My 750W PSU is running almost the same things that you are running. You shouldn't need much more than what you are running. What happens when you have crossfired enabled and just running everything default in CCC? Try not using MSIAB

I think its heat.

LOL!/Uhg.

I turned on fans to 50% constant and no more freezing at the same exact point. That combined with turning off ULPS, makes the 880/1375/1175mV OC stable @ 3x AVP bench, which I have *never* been able to achieve before, before always freezing at the beginning of the hallway with the alien stream.

Thanks for the help manofthem. I'll keep working on it. Bought these two 6950's explicitly to run them at stock 6970 speeds and be done with it. Seems I'm getting much closer. Glad I don't have to buy a 1250Watter. I'll keep testing. Looks like its time for a longer Crossfire bridge/more case fans/new fan profile/alloftheabove. My current setup has a top fan, intake, output, and two pushing/pulling on a Scythe Mugen. You'd thing that would be enough fans....but its all inside an Antec P180, which isn't the best for heat.

[manofthem]

I think its heat.

LOL!/Uhg.

I turned on fans to 50% constant and no more freezing at the same exact point. That combined with turning off ULPS, makes the 880/1375/1175mV OC stable @ 3x AVP bench, which I have *never* been able to achieve before, before always freezing at the

Thanks for the help manofthem. I'll keep working on it. Bought these two 6950's explicity to run them at stock 6970 speeds and be done with it. Seems I'm getting much closer. Glad I don't have to buy a 1250Watter. I'll keep testing. Looks like its time for a bigger Crossfire bridge/more case fans/new fan profile/alloftheabove.

What motherboard are you running? What is the space like between the cards? That could make a heat problem

If you run GPU-Z and log your info, you can see what your temps are like when you freeze/crash/reboot..

[mingsoup]

Running a Asus P7P55D Deluxe......and the cards are essentially right on each other. Short bridge.

I'll give the GPU-Z log a try. What would you recommend first? Different fan profile or longer Xfire bridge? After that.....case modification on top of what I've already done.

[manofthem]

Running a Asus P7P55D Deluxe......and the cards are essentially right on each other. Short bridge.

I'll give the GPU-Z log a try. What would you recommend first? Different fan profile or longer Xfire bridge? After that.....case modification on top of what I've already done.

ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s US... (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131621&cm_re=P7P55D-_-13-131-621-_-Product)
Is that your board? It depends on how many PCI-E slots you have? More distance is better as long as the slots are right.

Definitely set up a nice custom fan curve, the auto in CCC is terrible

[mingsoup]

ASUS P7P55D Deluxe LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Mo... (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131400)

That's my board.

Any tips on setting up a custom fan curve. I've never done it. MSI AB correct?

[xanture]

Your XFX should be able to flash and unlock shaders. I have an XFX and I've read about other XFX cards being unlockable.

What happens when you try to flash your card?

When I run the batch file it says that it was successful and saved. When I restart I still have only 1408 shaders. When I try in the command prompt, after it is finished I get no message (Failure or Successful). When I reboot, still only 1408 shaders. When I try and run the atiwinflash by its self I get an error that was covered on the first page.

[manofthem]

ASUS P7P55D Deluxe LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Mo... (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131400)

That's my board.

Any tips on setting up a custom fan curve. I've never done it. MSI AB correct?

The distance on board is the same on mine, so that's good. Heat may be an issue, so the fan curve is a good idea. Open MSIAB Click on settings and the second tab is "Fan" which is what you want; make your own line for fan. Then when you are setting up a profile on the main page, click on auto for Fan Speed.

When I run the batch file it says that it was successful and saved. When I restart I still have only 1408 shaders. When I try in the command prompt, after it is finished I get no message (Failure or Successful). When I reboot, still only 1408 shaders. When I try and run the atiwinflash by its self I get an error that was covered on the first page.
Make sure your bios switch is in the right position. It's usually the 1 position that can be written, push the switch closer to the fan. But there are some reports that the 2 position, closer to the back of the pc, that can be written. Sounds like your switch is in the wrong position.

[xanture]

The distance on board is the same on mine, so that's good. Heat may be an issue, so the fan curve is a good idea. Open MSIAB Click on settings and the second tab is "Fan" which is what you want; make your own line for fan. Then when you are setting up a profile on the main page, click on auto for Fan Speed.


Make sure your bios switch is in the right position. It's usually the 1 position that can be written, push the switch closer to the fan. But there are some reports that the 2 position, closer to the back of the pc, that can be written. Sounds like your switch is in the wrong position.

Okay I just spend a while looking for the switch, I then took some pictures with my phone and here they are. Can't find the switch... do I need to take off the plastic housing to get to it?

http://img571.imageshack.us/i/imag00851.jpg/
http://img825.imageshack.us/i/imag0085o.jpg/
http://img854.imageshack.us/i/imag0087d.jpg/
http://img191.imageshack.us/i/imag0088a.jpg/

[manofthem]

Okay I just spend a while looking for the switch, I then took some pictures with my phone and here they are. Can't find the switch... do I need to take off the plastic housing to get to it?

http://img571.imageshack.us/i/imag00851.jpg/
http://img825.imageshack.us/i/imag0085o.jpg/
http://img854.imageshack.us/i/imag0087d.jpg/
http://img191.imageshack.us/i/imag0088a.jpg/

Perhaps yours doesn't have the bios switch...
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/P4160005.jpg
That's where it is on the reference card, right behind the crossfire connectors, but yours isn't reference so you may not have the switch.

Since it's likely not the bios switch, did you follow these instructions:
- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" <-- the 0 means first adapter, if you have multiple cards, physically uninstall all but the one you want to flash
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".

[cadaveca]

Okay I just spend a while looking for the switch, I then took some pictures with my phone and here they are. Can't find the switch... do I need to take off the plastic housing to get to it?

http://img571.imageshack.us/i/imag00851.jpg/
http://img825.imageshack.us/i/imag0085o.jpg/
http://img854.imageshack.us/i/imag0087d.jpg/
http://img191.imageshack.us/i/imag0088a.jpg/

No switch on that card. My works fine with shader-mod bios, erocker's as well.

[xanture]

Yeah I did all that. So the version on the box says A.1, i'm guessing these are unflashable cards.

[cadaveca]

Yeah I did all that. So the version on the box says A.1, i'm guessing these are unflashable card.

I'm sorry, but what part of "my cards work with shader-mod bios" did you not understand?

Yes, I have the same card, as well as reference.

ANY card is "flashable". Whether the gou works with a differnt bios is the question, and the only way to find out is to do it.

[xanture]

Must have missed that, how does it work?

[cadaveca]

It works fine. 1536 shaders, no artifacting, clocks to 865mhz with shaders unlocked on 1.1v.

fan does get a fair bit noisier though...these coolers are quite interesting to me...I got better temps removing the shroud, and putting a 120mm fan blowing across the card.

NO memory cooling on these cards either..the heatsink sits over hte memory, but does not contact it.

[manofthem]

When I run the batch file it says that it was successful and saved. When I restart I still have only 1408 shaders. When I try in the command prompt, after it is finished I get no message (Failure or Successful). When I reboot, still only 1408 shaders. When I try and run the atiwinflash by its self I get an error that was covered on the first page.

Download and use the mod script. Take your bios, name it "original.bin" and put it in the folder. then run "run.bat"
That will mod your bios and name it "modded.bin"
take that then flash it with the CMD prompt

Did you do that?

[NameonPrime]

sooo.....

Let me get this straight ,

Even if my Sapphire 2gb hd 6950 is not reference design, has no BIOS switch and
has a reworked and shorter PCB (i think - than a reference hd 6950), i can still try to unlock those shaders?
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

and if i brick my card, i can find a way to reflash it with its origional BIOS
since i have a backup hd 5830.... How? could you outline those steps for me please?

and you have had success with this particular card as well?

i would appreciate if manofthem and cadaveca would reply

[cadaveca]

OK, so, when you flash modded bios, usually the card still works. You might have artifacting, but the card works and is recognized by windows. So, the software tools used to flash the modded bios will still work on the card, installed as secondary.


I even accidentally flashed reference bios on my non-reference...the card wouldn't owrk once drivers loaded, so I uninstalled drivers, rebotted, and before drivers isntalled, I flashed the card back to stock bios.

I then put the right modded bios on, and have been using it like that since.

[manofthem]

sooo.....

Let me get this straight ,

Even if my Sapphire 2gb hd 6950 is not reference design, has no BIOS switch and
has a reworked and shorter PCB (i think - than a reference hd 6950), i can still try to unlock those shaders?
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

and if i brick my card, i can find a way to reflash it with its origional BIOS
since i have a backup hd 5830.... How? could you outline those steps for me please?

and you have had success with this particular card as well?

i would appreciate if manofthem and cadaveca would reply

Do you need steps to flash and unlock shaders, or do you need the steps to save it if it goes south?

[NameonPrime]

both in as much detail as possible would be nice

[xanture]

Update on where i'm at, I downloaded the Mod Bios HD 6, saved my bios as Original.bin, ran Run.bat, used admin CMD atiwinflash to flash modded.bin. atiwinflash didn't give a confirmation that it worked and it didn't say it failed, I restarted my computer. No luck on shaders. Did I miss a step?

[manofthem]

both in as much detail as possible would be nice

Here
http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

Take your default bios and put it in that folder.
Name it "original.bin"
Then run "run.bat" That should take your bios, run some cmd lines, and enable all 1536 shaders.
Modded bios should be saved as "modded.bin"
Then flash "modded.bin" using atiwinflash
After flashing, double check in GPUz that shaders are changed.

That's how to unlock shaders. Try it...

and Cadaveca just said how to save it in post 2341

[manofthem]

Update on where i'm at, I downloaded the Mod Bios HD 6, saved my bios as Original.bin, ran Run.bat, used admin CMD atiwinflash to flash modded.bin. atiwinflash didn't give a confirmation that it worked and it didn't say it failed, I restarted my computer. No luck on shaders. Did I miss a step?

Do you do these steps?
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/3.png
I put my winflash folder directly on the C: for easier access. and I name the bios that i flash to unlock.bin just because that's what Wiz's first instructions said, don't think it matters though

[xanture]

Are we flashing unlock.bin or modded.bin? I did -unlockrom 0 before i attempted modded.bin

Sorry didn't read last line, So yes i did all those steps

[manofthem]

Are we flashing unlock.bin or modded.bin? I did -unlockrom 0 before i attempted modded.bin

Sorry didn't read last line, So yes i did all those steps

Other than making sure your gpu is in the first pci-e slot closest to the cpu, I'm not sure what else..

I'm out for the night; hope it all works out. I'll check back tomorrow.

[xanture]

Thanks for you help so far tonight

[BababooeyHTJ]

I'm sorry, but what part of "my cards work with shader-mod bios" did you not understand?

Yes, I have the same card, as well as reference.

ANY card is "flashable". Whether the gou works with a differnt bios is the question, and the only way to find out is to do it.

I just felt that this needs to be repeated.

[NameonPrime]

Its less safer to flash using the hd 6970 BIOS since even PEOPLE WITH REFERENCE DESIGN HD 6950's have started to complain months after flashing their cards with a hd 6970 BIOS,

this is because If you flash a hd 6950 with a hd 6970 BIOS, a number of things happen,

1 the hd 6970 BIOS makes the card run on 880Mhz core and 1375Mhz memory (these are stock hd 6970 frequencies)

2 the hd 6970 BIOS also makes the core voltage run on 117mV so as feed the frequencies (this is also stock hd 6970 voltage)

All of the above is ususally fine for a hd 6950, the problem comes when that hd 6970 BIOS also changes the voltages/memory timings of the memory of the hd 6950. the memory of the hd 6950 DOES NOT SUPPORT THE MEMORY TIMINGS AND VOLTAGES OF A HD 6970 so the card gets damages immediately or over time.THEIR MEMORY IS DIFFERENT.

Thats why the safer option is to edit the BIOS of your hd 6950 to unlock the shaders,flash it with that edited BIOS, then oc to stock hd 6970 specs (frequencies shown above) this leaves the memory of the hd 6950 untouched.

there is no guarantee that you will be 100% successful in flashing your card, be it reference or non-reference, BUT this way is alot safer, thats the point, there is still always a chance that you can brick your card if it does not have a backup BIOS.

read from page 85-latest recommended, thay have all info you mught need to make an informed choice.

also on page 87 there is a guy who tells how he unbricked (revived his card after a bad flash) you could try it if it happens to you.

I have this card the Sapphire 2gb hd 6950
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

I'll run the card for a week on stock then try doing this and will post results.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Its less safer to flash using the hd 6970 BIOS since even PEOPLE WITH REFERENCE DESIGN HD 6950's have started to complain months after flashing their cards with a hd 6970 BIOS,



Who? I'm going to need to see some proof to back that statement up.

[NameonPrime]

Well if you think im making this up, try going through 90+ pages of this thread (like i did)
and count how many are reporting problems after flashing with a hd 6970 BIOS,

count how many posts say about the different roms and timings on the two graphics cards

im not saying every single person who has flashed a 6970 bios will fry the card, im just saying that the chances of of the card frying is much higher

i even doubt that you can even flash a 6970 bios on a non-reference, non-dual bios, or 1gb
hd 6950 without damaging or bricking the card

so the safer option is to mod your stock bios and unlock those shaders (if they can be unlocked) then flash that modded bios then oc using msi ab to hd 6970 spec.

it is still possible to brick your card with this safer option but the chances of success
not only short-term but long-term as well are higher.

[cadaveca]

Who? I'm going to need to see some proof to back that statement up.

Um, think for a minute....why do you even think there is a script to unlock shaders?



I'll give you the answer...While the memory on the 6950 is of the same IC-type, the quality of the actaul silicon the memory is made from is much worse, and it cannot handle 6970 speeds, nor the current to run those speeds.


Cards started failing. First one...then....two...three...Shortly after, the script arrived. Start looking at like page 12 or so...it didn't take long for reports of cards dieing.

[WhitePrQjser]

Hi!


I'm new here. I put together a PC for a friend with a Sapphire Radeon HD 6950:

http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=622370 <--- Don't mind the Danish language.


Now, I tried unlocking it, but it just won't work! :(


First, I looked for the BIOS switch. It didn't have any.

Then I needed to do it through RBE. That didn't work either.

Lastly I had to use the CMD-method. But when i type in the commands and flash it, there isn't coming any message saying "Verified". It's still just a standard 6950, when I reboot and check it with GPU-Z. It bums me since my friend really had his hopes up :(


I don't know if there's a guide out which explains exactly what to do, so I at least can see, what I'm doing wrong. The card works 100%, but just won't unlock.


Thanks in advance :)



EDIT: Added the correct link

[manofthem]

Hi!
I'm new here. I put together a PC for a friend with a Sapphire Radeon HD 6950:

http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=622370 <--- Don't mind the Danish language.

Now, I tried unlocking it, but it just won't work! :(

First, I looked for the BIOS switch. It didn't have any.

Then I needed to do it through RBE. That didn't work either.

Lastly I had to use the CMD-method. But when i type in the commands and flash it, there isn't coming any message saying "Verified". It's still just a standard 6950, when I reboot and check it with GPU-Z. It bums me since my friend really had his hopes up :(

I don't know if there's a guide out which explains exactly what to do, so I at least can see, what I'm doing wrong. The card works 100%, but just won't unlock.

Thanks in advance :)
EDIT: Added the correct link
If you're trying to unlock the shaders, did you download the mod script, place your bios in there, then run that?
Is your card in the primary pci-e slot?

[WhitePrQjser]

If you're trying to unlock the shaders, did you download the mod script, place your bios in there, then run that?
Is your card in the primary pci-e slot?

Script? Haven't seen there is one :S

I can place it in the primarity PCI-E slot if needed?

It's just, I'm not with my friend atm. But will be in a few days, I guess.

[cadaveca]

Honestly, I think AMD has written something in thier drivers that inteferes with flashing. I've had to help a couple of users on the TeamSpeak now that had major issues until they followed my specific directions...which do include having only one card in system in primary slot when flashing, and no driver for the card installed...


;)

script is here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2137760&postcount=381

[WhitePrQjser]

Honestly, I think AMD has written something in thier drivers that inteferes with flashing. I've had to help a couple of users on the TeamSpeak now that had major issues until they followed my specific directions...which do include having only one card in system in primary slot when flashing, and no driver for the card installed...


;)

script is here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2137760&postcount=381

What am I supposed to do with it? :)

[cadaveca]

What am I supposed to do with it? :)

1. In the first post is ATIWinFlash. Use that to save the bios.

2. Rename it to original.bin.

3. Place original.bin inside the shader mod script folder once you've unzipped the script folder.

4. Run the script. A CMD window will open, and tell you to press a key to continue. Press a key.

5. Inside the script folder the script will generate the modded bios, named "modded.bin". Use ATIWinFlash to flash the modded.bin to the card.

6. Reboot, and verify the flash using GPU-Z.

7. PROFIT!!!


:toast:

[manofthem]

1. In the first post is ATIWinFlash. Use that to save the bios.

2. Rename it to original.bin.

3. Place original.bin inside the shader mod script folder once you've unzipped the script folder.

4. Run the script. A CMD window will open, and tell you to press a key to continue. Press a key.

5. Inside the script folder the script will generate the modded bios, named "modded.bin". Use ATIWinFlash to flash the modded.bin to the card.

6. Reboot, and verify the flash using GPU-Z.

7. PROFIT!!!


:toast:
Well said, Good Sir!

[WhitePrQjser]

1. In the first post is ATIWinFlash. Use that to save the bios.

2. Rename it to original.bin.

3. Place original.bin inside the shader mod script folder once you've unzipped the script folder.

4. Run the script. A CMD window will open, and tell you to press a key to continue. Press a key.

5. Inside the script folder the script will generate the modded bios, named "modded.bin". Use ATIWinFlash to flash the modded.bin to the card.

6. Reboot, and verify the flash using GPU-Z.

7. PROFIT!!!


:toast:

Ooooh! That sounds SO great!

Will try that veryvsoon and give feedback! Thank you so much!

[fullinfusion]

Why even bother changing the shader count? You have a great gpu, One that's only around 3% slower then 6970 gpu.... for the money...

Leave it alone unless you want to change it to full 6970 volts/clocks and risk a melt down *epic fail*

Even then don't leave it on that setting. Use it for pissing matches then down grade for longitivity lol... I can run Cross-fired 6950's (reference designed) HIS cards at over 1000MHz core and 1400+mhz on the memory with no voltage changes.

Gaming on either a 6950 stock or changed to unlocked 6970 status yeild the same result...

F_A_F!!! FAST AS F*CK!!!!
DILYSI!!!

Drive it like you stole it!!!!
WFO
WIDE FUC*in OPEN lol!!!

[mingsoup]

Why even bother changing the shader count? You have a great gpu, One that's only around 3% slower then 6970 gpu.... for the money...

Leave it alone unless you want to change it to full 6970 volts/clocks and risk a melt down *epic fail*

Even then don't leave it on that setting. Use it for pissing matches then down grade for longitivity lol... I can run Cross-fired 6950's (reference designed) HIS cards at over 1000MHz core and 1400+mhz on the memory with no voltage changes.

Gaming on either a 6950 stock or changed to unlocked 6970 status yeild the same result...

F_A_F!!! FAST AS F*CK!!!!

You can get all the way to 1000mhZ and 1400mem on 1.125V? really? holy moly.

[fullinfusion]

You can get all the way to 1000mhZ and 1400mem on 1.125V? really? holy moly.
Yeah for sure, 1000-1010MHz core and 1450MHz memory. Im lucky as I live in Canada, Stock in the Whorehouses move slow. I ordered a HIS 6950 2GB model. Then ordered the 2nd gpu 3 weeks later and got the twin sister to the 1st gpu going by the serial number :D... Both clock out at the same freq, Crossfired or alone...

Im holding off on the Bulldozer B4 changing any hardware... If the dozer stomps then Ill open up the twins, If not I'll just go with a 2600K Intel proc and 1155 mobo and go from there...,

[jmcslob]

Ive been running my 6950 flashed to a 6970 for a few months now without issues...regardless of being flashed or not it will not run faster than 925/1400 but I leave it at 880/1375 stock 6970 speeds...

[manofthem]

Why even bother changing the shader count? You have a great gpu, One that's only around 3% slower then 6970 gpu.... for the money...

Yeah it's a good card, but if you can get some extra performance for free, then why not? It does seem though like many are having difficulties unlocking lately.

[cadaveca]

Yeah it's a good card, but if you can get some extra performance for free, then why not? It does seem though like many are having difficulties unlocking lately.

Again, I blame driver revisions for the majority of problems that aren't user error.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Um, think for a minute....why do you even think there is a script to unlock shaders?



I'll give you the answer...While the memory on the 6950 is of the same IC-type, the quality of the actaul silicon the memory is made from is much worse, and it cannot handle 6970 speeds, nor the current to run those speeds.


Cards started failing. First one...then....two...three...Shortly after, the script arrived. Start looking at like page 12 or so...it didn't take long for reports of cards dieing.

Show me one? Hundreds of people have flashed a 6970 bios onto their card. I have yet to see one reputable report of a card failing due to the flash.

It's just binned memory chips, btw. The silicon is the same.

Again, I blame driver revisions for the majority of problems that aren't user error.

That has also been the actual reason for most of the so called "failed cards" btw.

[fullinfusion]

Yeah it's a good card, but if you can get some extra performance for free, then why not? It does seem though like many are having difficulties unlocking lately.
Yeah I hear ya but really how many are reporting gpu FAIL'S?
0!!!
Ask CAD, he'll tell ya there isn't much of a benefit over unlocked sharers vs locked.. I tested both and its not worth the stress wondering if over time its going to have an EPIC FAIL or not on the gpu....

Im going to sell these unlocked gpu's from ATI for a set of Reference 6970's.

Just for the piece of mind of not having these fail after time. :D

[cadaveca]

Show me one? Hundreds of people have flashed a 6970 bios onto their card. I have yet to see one reputable report of a card failing due to the flash.

If you are too lazy to search this thread, I'm too lazy to point it out to you.


It's just binned memory chips, btw. The silicon is the same.

Exactly. Power consumption, current requirements, and stock speed differ. Beleive me, if those memory chips could have been sold to the board assemblers for more, they would have been. Otherwise, the 6950's would have the exact same chips on them as the 6970, 100%. the chips on the 6970 cost more becuase they are in fact, of faqr better quality than the T2C chips on the 6950's.



That has also been the actual reason for most of the so called "failed cards" btw.

Now it's my turn to call for proof. There's no way for you to even quantify that, and you're just looking to bolster your position with a reason you know cannot be verified. The best info I have for card failures is right here in this thread, and I have to assume that people are being honest. If they are not, then ask them why they presented false info, not me.

And I don't mean to toot my own horn, but who are you, exactly? You seem to think quite highly of yourself and your "ideas", so I'm quite curious as to how you came into this knowledge. My Name's Dave Rennie, and I'm TPU's motherboard reviewer(as well as a reviewer on another site). I also spend alot of time on the TPU teamspeak solving people's issue and giving advice on overclocking, with which I am generally 99% correct with, as those that use the teamspeak can testify....so why are you arguing with me?

So now that I have introduced myself, who are you?? Will you publically stand behind your posts as I do?

[fullinfusion]

If you are too lazy to search this thread, I'm too lazy to point it out to you.

Exactly. Power consumption, current requirements, and stock speed differ. Beleive me, if those memory chips could have been sold to the board assemblers for more, they would have been. Otherwise, the 6950's would have the exact same chips on them as the 6970, 100%. the chips on the 6970 cost more becuase they are in fact, of faqr better quality than the T2C chips on the 6950's.

Now it's my turn to call for proof. There's no way for you to even quantify that, and you're just looking to bolster your position with a reason you know cannot be verified. The best info I have for card failures is right here in this thread, and I have to assume that people are being honest. If they are not, then ask them why they presented false info, not me.

And I don't mean to toot my own horn, but who are you, exactly? You seem to think quite highly of yourself and your "ideas", so I'm quite curious as to how you came into this knowledge. My Name's Dave Rennie, and I'm TPU's motherboard reviewer(as well as a reviewer on another site). I also spend alot of time on the TPU teamspeak solving people's issue and giving advice on overclocking, with which I am generally 99% correct with, as those that use the teamspeak can testify....so why are you arguing with me?

So now that I have introduced myself, who are you?? Will you publically stand behind your posts as I do?

Your last QUOTE! Who are you directing your msg too?

[cadaveca]

:laugh: Not you?:D


It's an all-in-one type thing, just simply cut dude's post in bits so I could deal with each part of it seperately.


:laugh:

[fullinfusion]

:laugh: Not you?:D


It's an all-in-one type thing, just simply cut dude's post in bits so I could deal with each part of it seperately.


:laugh:
:rockout:
Sound's good, thanks

[BababooeyHTJ]

If you are too lazy to search this thread, I'm too lazy to point it out to you.

Now it's my turn to call for proof. There's no way for you to even quantify that, and you're just looking to bolster your position with a reason you know cannot be verified. The best info I have for card failures is right here in this thread, and I have to assume that people are being honest. If they are not, then ask them why they presented false info, not me.



I have pointed out that these strange artifacts like in RFG, GTA4, Heaven, ATITool, Super meat boy, I could go on are confirmed driver issues. Most of these are the same issues that people in a few threads mistook for problems with their card. Maybe you should do a little research.

I'm not the one making claims based off of no evidence. All that I asked is for you to provide me one reputable post about a 6970 bios doing any harm to their card and you can not do that. I've watched this thread pretty well and it's not here.


One guys who works at some store who had a couple of returns is not proof of any sort. Hundreds of people across various forums have flashed a 6970 bios onto their card over the past four months and there is no hard evidence to support you claims. I think that says something.

And I don't mean to toot my own horn, but who are you, exactly? You seem to think quite highly of yourself and your "ideas", so I'm quite curious as to how you came into this knowledge. My Name's Dave Rennie, and I'm TPU's motherboard reviewer(as well as a reviewer on another site). I also spend alot of time on the TPU teamspeak solving people's issue and giving advice on overclocking, with which I am generally 99% correct with, as those that use the teamspeak can testify....so why are you arguing with me?

So now that I have introduced myself, who are you?? Will you publically stand behind your posts as I do?

You seem to say something along these lines any time that anyone challenges on opinion of yours. Not the first time that I've seen you pull that card. All that I asked is that you go into more detail about these cards that you claim are dieing.

Exactly. Power consumption, current requirements, and stock speed differ. Beleive me, if those memory chips could have been sold to the board assemblers for more, they would have been. Otherwise, the 6950's would have the exact same chips on them as the 6970, 100%. the chips on the 6970 cost more becuase they are in fact, of faqr better quality than the T2C chips on the 6950's.


Then they would have problems as soon as you flash to a 6970 which several people have seen. I haven't seen this cause permanent damage down the road. I would expect more reputable reports like we saw on early 4870 with degraded memory.

[cadaveca]

All that I asked is that you go into more detail about these cards that you claim are dieing.

I claimed no such thing. :laugh:

:slap:

I claimed there are reports in this thread of such, beginning on page 12. I assume people are telling the truth, as I stated in my last post, so those are my source of info, not myself. My cards work great.


Still trying to understand where your info some from. It's my job to seeking these things out, so if I'm going to repeat your information, I want to be able to confirm it with a souce I can quote, and an anonymous user as a source just doesn't cut it.

I exlpained my position, and who I am and what I do to explain why I require such. I asked for similar info from you, to answer why we should take your info over posts of others in this thread. It's quite simple...you think I'm talking shit, meanwhile, I justifying my requiest for info due to how I might use it. I guess your response reveals more than you intended, anyway, and you harbour some sort of resentment towards me. At least, that's how it seems. Does me talking about what I do here on the forum, and elsewhere make you uncomfortable? Becuase I'm not pulling any card, I'm stating facts about myself, and what I do here on TPU.

Then they would have problems as soon as you flash to a 6970 which several people have seen. I haven't seen this cause permanent damage down the road. I would expect more reputable reports like we saw on early 4870 with degraded memory.

Um, let me jsut leave this example...first run elpidia hypers...and those were memory IC's that were sold as high-speed IC's and failed over time. Micron D9 chips, too. Or how about the good old Winbond UTT of days long passed...Nevermind all the 5870's that had bad memories...

[Aliaus]

Hi everyone, I’ve been following this topic pretty much since it started. I bought a 6950 immediately after I read W1zzard’s article and have been running it with a 6970 bios since New Year’s. One of the reasons I’m posting now is because there seems to be a lot of unwarranted fear mongering against the 6970 bios.

I have read through the 90+ pages of this thread, we all know the stock setting for a 6950 is 1.1v / 800 core / 1250 mem and the stock for a 6970 is 1.175v / 880 core / 1375 mem during their 3D clocks. But the question that has yet to be answered is this: what are the voltages for the memory? Are they the same as the voltages for the core? If not, what are the memory voltages for a 6950 and 6970 bios? If so, can a difference of .075 volts really brick a card?

Then there is the theory that it’s the different timings and frequency that are bricking the cards. The memory chips on the 6950 are rate for 5 GHz and 6970 are rated at 6 GHz (or so I’ve read). But I have yet to see proof that timing/frequency would brick a card. Frequent crashes, BSODs, and artifacts I would understand, but bricking the card? I don’t think so. As far as I know, the factors in damaging your memory chips would be: Heat? Definitely. Voltage? Maybe. But timing/frequency? I’m going to have to see some kind of proof before I believe that.

There was another theory going around saying it’s the vrm that are failing, not the memory. This theory is much more plausible. W1zzard’s article told people to set the power control to +20%, a mistake IMO. This sets the threshold to almost 10% above the rated power draw, no wonder so many cards are failing…. As many people have already confirmed, changing the power control does NOTHING. My recommendation would be to monitor your clocks with GPUz in the background while playing your games. If you see throttling, move the slider to the right by 1-2%.

The only thing that should throttle your clocks back is Furmark. With that said, DO NOT USE FURMARK TO TEST YOUR CARD. I truly believe that Furmark is the culprit for a lot of damaged cards. It’s not even a matter of testing against a worst case scenario, there will NEVER be a case where you will stress your GPU to nearly that sort of limit. If it passes benchmarks, then it’s fine. The only thing Furmark does is shorten the lifespan of your graphics cards. So unless you are obsessed with that furry donut, don’t use it.

One last thing, the default fan curve in CCC is completely retarded, I can’t believe that AMD would let your card cook at the high 80s while the fan sits at 30%, wtf? This is probably fine at stock, but if you’re buying this fairly high-end card, then you’re probably looking to overclock it, and the default just won’t suffice. I would recommend a linear curve set in Afterburner, i.e. 40% at 40c, 60% at 60c, etc, or a slightly shallower curve if you’re really anal about noise.

P.S. Using Sapphire 6950 with 6970 bios, core and memory maxed out in CCC with default voltage, running for four and a half month now.

[cadaveca]

Fan speed is low to minimize noise.The fact that the cooler is capable of more is indicator that AMD has overclockers in mind, as well as various climates...we do have several users here in the middle east, where 40c ambients are quite common.

Timings and frequency, if faster, create a higher CURRENT draw. It's is, quite specifically, CURRENT that kills any bit of silicon. It's not volts...volts just merely change the slope of the voltage, and the wattage, but that voltage is turned into CUREENT that can blow right through any transistor...looks like the OC game needs a reboot in it's terms.

If the 6970 is sporting 1.6v memory voltage, tied in with a higher speed, translates into more wattage and heat, and quite possibly, death. Easy to verify with a multi meter.

The other unmentioned bit is that the PCB from 6970 to 6950, even in reference form, is NOT the same, although in all appearances it is...however a close inspection revels several distinct differences in the power delivery section of the card which could lead to unexpected behavior by installation of a bios that is not intended for that circuit.

It is definitely possible that a 6970 bios can kill a 6950. Is it happenning? MAybe, but at the same time, since the release of the shader-only mod, very few people are actualyl running the 6970 bios any more...so it's really hard to pin any specifics to the situation other than that yes, it's possible, and yes, soem cards will handle it just fine.


What the focus of this part of the discussion should be HOW it's possible, and WHAT happened to these supposed dying cards, not running around screaming that it's not possible, becuase it most definitely IS possible.

And because it IS possible, I do feel it's my duty to disclose that info to those that may ask, so that when they do jump into it, they do so with their eyes wide open, not squeezed shut.

I take my job here seriously.;)

[BababooeyHTJ]

I claimed no such thing. :laugh:

:slap:

I claimed there are reports in this thread of such, beginning on page 12. I assume people are telling the truth, as I stated in my last post, so those are my source of info, not myself. My cards work great.


Still trying to understand where your info some from. It's my job to seeking these things out, so if I'm going to repeat your information, I want to be able to confirm it with a souce I can quote, and an anonymous user as a source just doesn't cut it.




Ok, this is one of the first users here to post that this bios damaged his card. Here is the thread where he finds out that he was experiencing a couple of known driver issues (http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138528). Here is a thread that user started (http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138287) with a poll where several people voted that the bios damaged their card and then later mention their specific driver issues. That is actually the thread where this rumor started. This is why I ask for a reputable poster. I have yet to see a post where after some digging you find out that they are just dealing with driver issues. I saw a user at Rage3d and another at OCN rma their card for what turned out to be driver issues. There are a fair amount of games on ATI cards that artifact at least when these cards were released.

I exlpained my position, and who I am and what I do to explain why I require such. I asked for similar info from you, to answer why we should take your info over posts of others in this thread. It's quite simple...you think I'm talking shit, meanwhile, I justifying my requiest for info due to how I might use it. I guess your response reveals more than you intended, anyway, and you harbour some sort of resentment towards me. At least, that's how it seems. Does me talking about what I do here on the forum, and elsewhere make you uncomfortable? Becuase I'm not pulling any card, I'm stating facts about myself, and what I do here on TPU.

I'm sorry, I asked you to explain your opinion and seem to have gotten offended and adversarial. I'm not the one claiming that there is a problem.

Um, let me jsut leave this example...first run elpidia hypers...and those were memory IC's that were sold as high-speed IC's and failed over time. Micron D9 chips, too. Or how about the good old Winbond UTT of days long passed...Nevermind all the 5870's that had bad memories...

You make a very good point but those were all well known issues. Quite a few people across various forums are running a 6970 bios on their 6950 right now. I would expect to see more reports of issues popping up, any really.

That said I am using just the shader moddified bios. It runs cooler and quieter. Both of my cards hit 6970 speeds at the default voltage. I'll even admit that I feel better knowing that I'm running a moddified version of the bios that shipped on my card. I see no reason to use the 6970 bios. I also haven't seen any proof that a 6970 bios has caused any harm to a 6950.

[cadaveca]

No, you are not claiming there is a problem, per se, however, you are indicating that there is false info...that'd be a problem, no?

I'm not offended! LoL. I keep repeating this..you guys gotta get on TeamSpeak and get to know me. You might understand a bit better. I simply chaulk most of it to a language barrier, as although we both know english, not all forms of english are the same.

Any processor or memory given additional voltage or running at a faster speed, can die from doing so. Something as simple as an ambient temp increase can increase leakage, and leakage is BAD!!! Leaky chips are good for clocking, when you cool them realyl cold, but that's not true at al ltemperatures! It's SEMI-conductors!

I'm actaulyl laughing at all fo this, that you think it's important to tell peple that it's perfectly safe, when it very well may not be.

Still won't tell me your name? C'mon dude, what's wrong with that?

You know, I'll also add in the P67 chipsets, that fully launched, and then were recalled..many times there are thing released into the market that aren't quite up to snuff. The issue with Elpidia Hypers wasn't well known..those of us that bought them when they first came out learnt the hard way.

It's undenyable that the bios siwthc is there so we can mod the bios. No other reason for it to be there, IMHO. I think if the switch is there, it's fair game, but like you, I see no need for the 6970 bios, nor do I see a need to unlock the shaders...I'm running two cards, and even in eyefinity, the extra poerformance offered is not enough to make any difference to my gaming expereince.

[BababooeyHTJ]

I never said that it was completely safe. No one in their right mind would think that flashing a bios from completely different card onto theirs would be 100% safe. Overclocking isn't 100% safe to begin with. What I am saying is that there is no proof that a 6970 bios has caused any damage to a 6950.

I'll be honest with you I don't see how my name is relevant. If you had addressed me in a friendly or professional way in a pm you would have found out. It's also not hard to find. It's in my post history. I guess talking down to people is one of your tools for what you call a "discussion".

I've made my point, I'm done.

[cadaveca]

Um man, me asking for you name WAS me being friendly. You know, "Hi, my name's Dave, who are you?" Is that not how you greet people? You know, I told you a bit about myself, what I do here on TPU...of course I expect the same back...

:wtf:


Maybe I want to be able to say "UNKNOWN says this, what do you think?"

But saying "UNKNOWN" Just doesn't work. So yeah, I'd like to know ya better. Of course it has nothing to do with this conversation, per se.

You seem to have taken offense to my posts, I apologize, if this is the case, but maybe our differences in personality/country simply are at fault?

I'm not talking down to you...I'm confused?:confused: What are you talking about now? Can you point this out to me so that I can endevour to not do so again?

I'm sry, man, I don't get it.

[Upuaut]

edit

[xrror]

Ugh, too much FUD around here.

The reason the 6970 bios is an unknown is that the PCB design (specifically the memory voltage regulation) is DIFFERENT than the 6950 PCB. Check it out:

6950
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6950/images/front.jpg

6970
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/images/front.jpg

Do you see the additional components on the 6950?

Thus the question is, when using the 6970 BIOS on the 6950, nobody really knows WHAT voltage is being applied to the memory. The voltage reported by the card isn't a measured result, it's just a value from a BIOS table of what the regulator is supposed to be providing - not what is actually being provided.

Now whether or not this degrades the 6950's T2C memory (vs 6970's ROC) over time is another debate. I have a feeling that the voltage supplied is just too high, but I have no proof and that's just speculation on my part. Someone just needs to find some voltage measuring points and probe it with a multimeter.
-----

Non-reference cards. Are unlockable.

Don't just download a pre-modded BIOS and flash it. Use the script to modify YOUR card's bios. When you run winflash, BE SURE TO MAKE A BACKUP OF THE BIOS THAT CAME WITH YOUR CARD. ESPECIALLY IF YOU DON'T HAVE A BIOS SWITCH.

Make a copy of that saved BIOS, and modify that. That's what you flash to your card. Thus you avoid any compatibility issues and no-POST because it's the BIOS that your card came with, just with extra shaders enabled.

[Upuaut]

edit

[FL4K]

Still no progress on flashing my XFX ZDDC. I always receive a rom not erased message, even after unlockrom returns successfully.

What ROMs do people have on their boards, I reckon atiflash does not support the pm25lv010 that is on this card.

[xrror]

Unlockable or not, tried your method with the original bios, but my Asus DCII hates to generate extra shaders, still 1408.I did some googling on unlocking the Asus DCII. I'd link to a translated german forum thread but I'm not sure what the policy is here about linking to other forums.

It appears that newer revisions of the Asus DCII may not be unlockable. They went as far as flashing the DCII 6970 bios to the 6950 and while the clock speeds increased, the shader count did not.

This does not bode well to the 6950 remaining unlockable =(

edit add:
gezz, the more I read up on this card, the weirder it is. Asus uses the bios switch (or at least a switch in the same location where a BIOS switch would be) to change one of the DVI ports from dual-link to single-link and I assume uses that to enable one of the four displayport ports...

Granted, they could just be switching between two BIOS's to do this, but that also means that both copies stored are not identical stock. This is a weird card.

[Upuaut]

edit

[BababooeyHTJ]

Is it still compatible with new cards when it comes to stress testing/artifact scanning?
The driver didn't install in to my computer [win 7 64 bit ultimate] although I was still able to scan artifacts and such. The thing is, I flashed my 6950's to 6970's and I'm getting artifacts [not detected by the program, but the yellow is coming up]. I'm just wondering if it's a bug due to non-compatibility or are my cards fubar'd [There still is artifacting at 500Mhz :(, though it could be due to the increased memory clocks ]

:laugh:

This is why I don't want to hear about how the card "died". It always ends up being a driver issue.

[tylercarbone]

Hi all-

I have an XFX HD-695X-CNFC (non reference 2GB). I've been trying to unlock it via the shader-unlock-only method, as described here, but the BIOS simply will not flash.

I've tried to flash it using both ATIFlash and ATIWinflash. In both cases I attempted to unlockrom first, and in both cases I was told that the ROM had been successfully unlocked. Despite that, when I then tried to flash the modded bios, it failed.

I've tried both the modded bios via Wizzard's script, as well as a modded bios via RBE. No matter what I try to do, I get a "Cannot erase ROM" error.


Thanks very much in advance,
Tyler

[xanture]

Other than making sure your gpu is in the first pci-e slot closest to the cpu, I'm not sure what else..

I'm out for the night; hope it all works out. I'll check back tomorrow.

Went ahead and took back the xfx and got the MSI R6950 Twin FrozrII and flashed it one the first shot! Runs great, the only thing is in AMD overdrive I can't get the GPU clock to go over 840 and the Memory above 1325

[englandr753]

Hi Tyler,

I advise for you to copy and paste your thread in a new topic. When you add to a current thread that doesnt belongto you, it gets c

[jayc]

It would be a nicer fix to actually modify the 2D clocks in the BIOS itself so that afterburner is not required but I don't know if that's possible with the current tools.

Clock changes in the BIOS is NOT possible with the current tools.
Only voltage changes.
If you need to change clock speeds, you will need to change them via Afterburner or similar 3rd party tools after the O/S drivers are loaded at bootup.

[manofthem]

Went ahead and took back the xfx and got the MSI R6950 Twin FrozrII and flashed it one the first shot! Runs great, the only thing is in AMD overdrive I can't get the GPU clock to go over 840 and the Memory above 1325

And you won't be able to (in CCC).

MSI Afterburner will allow those changes if you enable unofficial overclocking. Too, allow for voltage control in the settings tab to coordinate with your higher clocks.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/prettypic-1.png

And BTW congrats. Must have been a headache to have put your heart and soul into that XFX and not get the results you were expecting!!!

[jayc]

Went ahead and took back the xfx and got the MSI R6950 Twin FrozrII and flashed it one the first shot! Runs great, the only thing is in AMD overdrive I can't get the GPU clock to go over 840 and the Memory above 1325

That's great.
Sounds like Asus DCII and XFX are cards to avoid (if you want an easy shader unlock).

CCC not going over 840/1375 is a driver issue. AMD doesn't want you overclocking the card more than that and killing it, thereby adding to the statistics of returned failed cards.

You'll need to use a 3rd party program like MSI afterburner and enabling the unsupported overclocks to achieve higher speeds with additional voltage.

[Hexblade6950]

Hiya guys just wanna update, my Sapphire R6950 is running great after almost a month since I got it and mod it, im running 44 to 48 in idle and 80 to 86 while running games, tho while running Metro 2033 in full spec I get to 92. I live in the Dominican Republic and some days it gets very hot and temp increases
http://www.sunbeamtech.com/PRODUCTS/VentMax/VentMax.html
my case runs very cool I have a ventmax with 2x 120mm fans on the side and another extracting one under the card, im running the 11.4 beta drivers, afterburner says voltage is 1150 wondering if thats odd or not ?

[Hexblade6950]

I was wondering what would be the best aftermarket cooling system for a R6950, water or air cooled what would you recommend ?

[BababooeyHTJ]

Well water cooling will give you the best results. There is no doubt about that.

The thing that worries me about aftermarket air coolers is that almost all of them do a really good job on the gpu but the memory and vrms tend to run hotter than they would on the stock cooler. There isn't any real way to monitor these temps which worries me even more. This is another one of the big advantages of water cooling.

Have you tried using Afterburner to setup a custom fan profile? It may help but will probably get pretty loud.

[fullinfusion]

Hello everyone. 1st of all I would like you to forgive me my possible mistakes as I am not perfect in english. I am from Ukraine and there is very very few info about 6950 flashing in my native language. Google gives the most amount of responses to techPowerUp forums that is why I decided to discuss my problem here. I sincerely ask for your help guys.

I am a happy owner of this type of a card http://eu.sapphiretech.com/gm/images/product/gallery/1082/1082_20110124_7748.jpg

I had read a lot of info here but did not get the point if it is unlockable or not.
I tried myself all known methods of flashing posted here and nothing worked for my card.

Tried modded BIOS of my card via atiflash, atiwinflash, flashrom! NOTHING worked.
It says that it can not erase rom.

I wonder if there is any solution for flashing this card or it is completely impossible to do?

Thank all of you in advance!

have you tried unlocking the rom bios this way http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2134576&postcount=19

[manofthem]

Yes! It shows the progress bar. The line goes to 2\3 and the bar suddenly dissappears. I can see no window with "verified". After the pc is restared there are still 1408sp.

Are you doing this while the drivers are installed? If so, try uninstalling the drivers and then try flashing it.

[cadaveca]

Have just tried and it said me something strange!
Here is a screenshot http://img534.imageshack.us/i/74706951.jpg/

Hmm, what tool is that? That is not familiar to me...which could be why you are having issues...

[manofthem]

Have just tried and it said me something strange!
Here is a screenshot http://img534.imageshack.us/i/74706951.jpg/

Whatever you're running is trying to flash a 6970 bios, isn't it? That's not possible on your card, but you can unlock the shaders. Try the flash a modded 6950 bios instead. Maybe?

[cadaveca]

That tool is a techPowerUp bat file which uses the latest atiwinflash and BIOSes in its folder. I modded my BIOS saved using GPU-Z with the latest RBE and put it there so it tried to flash my own modded BIOS not the one of 6970.

I also tried to flash via the cmd as the link a few posts ago says and got the same strange error.

Everything was ran as Admin.

Do not use RBE to add shaders...use the script that mods the bios.

Do not use the flashing tool, use ATIWinFlash.

[jayc]

That tool is a techPowerUp bat file which uses the latest atiwinflash and BIOSes in its folder. I modded my BIOS saved using GPU-Z with the latest RBE and put it there so it tried to flash my own modded BIOS not the one of 6970.

I also tried to flash via the cmd as the link a few posts ago says and got the same strange error.

Everything was ran as Admin.

What slot on the motherboard have you got your vid card installed in?
Make sure it's in the first PCI-e slot nearest the CPU. Unless you modify the atiwinflash command, it will assume you have your card in the the first PCI-e slot.
The next time you try flashing the card, write down each step, so we can verify you are doing things right.

[manofthem]

8. Typed -unlockrom 0,
-f -p 0 modded.bin.

Did you type in "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0"
then "atiwinflash -f -p 0 modded.bin"

[cadaveca]

Yes! I did not forget to type atiwinflash

Why do you need to use the CMD option for flashing, does the GUI not work at all?

LoL. GUI is Graphic User Interface, just FYI.

[manofthem]

Why do you need to use the CMD option for flashing, does the GUI not work at all?

LoL. GUI is Graphic User Interface, just FYI.

My XFX 2GB ref. card wouldn't flash unless I did the CMD as admin. My Gigabyte, however, flashed fine in GUI.

[cadaveca]

My XFX 2GB ref. card wouldn't flash unless I did the CMD as admin. My Gigabyte, however, flashed fine in GUI.

Interesting. Mine just flashed right up. And I know XFX pre-tested my card before shipping it to me....:wtf:...Interesting.

[xrror]

I was wondering what would be the best aftermarket cooling system for a R6950, water or air cooled what would you recommend ?This had been driving me nuts too. Similiar to BababooeyHTJ's concerns, my biggest "need" was cooling the VRM's. I managed to screw up the stock cooler when I took it off the card, well specifically I managed to screw up the thermal pads, and my attempts to shim the resultant gaps with aluminum failed utterly.

The Thermalright Shaman would have been my first choice, except I actually have PCI cards I use and the Shaman would have bascially blocked everything south of the PCIe slot. And even then it still needs seperate sinks for VRM. While that would have looked awesome with "heatsink city" coming off my card, it just was too much space.

I kept waiting for Artic Cooling to release an official kit to use it's Accelero XTREME Plus with the 6900 series cards. And waited... and waited. Finally I just got tired and ordered one with the VR005 kit since it looked like it had the most ram/chip/vrm heatsinks to play with. I only had to use a Dremel on the VRM sinks to shorten them to fit in line. However I see now that Artic Cooling now has (finally) officially marked the VR001 kit as compatible with the reference 6970. The downside is you end up spending around $90 by the end of it. At least Thermalright is more up-front about the fact you are going to be spending more than just the GPU sink.

Zalman also has some coolers, but I didn't look at them too much. But I'm not sure what compatibility they list - but if you're comfortable with a Dremel you can fix that ;p

I'm pretty happy with it, but just throwing these out there. But learn from me... don't remove the stock heatsink unless you're sure you want to replace it. My VRM temps were horrible after I removed the stock sink the first time. So I guess be very careful about those thermal pads if you do need to remove it (and want to reuse it).

[manofthem]

Where do you guys find the VR001 kit for the Acceleo Xtreme cooler?

Edit: I found it on eBay, but if anyone knows a site where you can buy the kit, I'd appreciate it.

[jayc]

I managed to screw up the thermal pads

You must have tried to remove the heatsink when the vid card was cold.

I removed mine to replace the factory thermal paste (which was poorly applied mind you).
But first run a benchmark or something similar that will heat up the card for at least 30 minutes.
Shut down, and quickly remove the card and the heatsink when it is still warm to hot.
It should leave the VRM thermal pads fairly intact. It will be soft enough to lift the heatsink off.

Just re applying the thermal paste (properly) in a thin layer with good thermal paste (I had Arctic silver 5 lying around), was good enough for a 5 deg C drop in load temps on the factory heatsink.

[xrror]

So what is the result?

Do you think the card can not be flashed?

I tried everything!

Or can anyone point me the post where this card flashing is confirmed?Flip the BIOS switch?

[cadaveca]

So what is the result?

Do you think the card can not be flashed?

I tried everything!

Or can anyone point me the post where this card flashing is confirmed?

The card in my system confirms it is possible on some non-reference.

[azuki]

The card in my system confirms it is possible on some non-reference.

When did you purchase the xfx 2gb 695x?

[cadaveca]

When did you purchase the xfx 2gb 695x?

I didn't purchase it, it was an RMA replacement for a 5870 prior to the launch of the non-reference cards.

[Mark22]

Well water cooling will give you the best results. There is no doubt about that.

The thing that worries me about aftermarket air coolers is that almost all of them do a really good job on the gpu but the memory and vrms tend to run hotter than they would on the stock cooler. There isn't any real way to monitor these temps which worries me even more. This is another one of the big advantages of water cooling.

Have you tried using Afterburner to setup a custom fan profile? It may help but will probably get pretty loud.

My Zalman vf3000A had a nice big heatsink for vrm that is screwed down. I had to cut a small corner off to make it fit but that's no big deal. Now the card runs great and about 30c cooler. The memory all have heatsinks on and are a lot cooler than stock. Stock only has thermal pads barely connecting the memory to anything. So if anyone wants aftermarket cooling consider the Zalman at least because they can be had pretty cheap now.

[Hexblade6950]

I dont mind the noise of the fan at all, I have a total of 11 fans running on my comp, also play with headphones all the time, what would be a safe % to raise the fan speed with afterburner ?

[BababooeyHTJ]

My Zalman vf3000A had a nice big heatsink for vrm that is screwed down. I had to cut a small corner off to make it fit but that's no big deal. Now the card runs great and about 30c cooler. The memory all have heatsinks on and are a lot cooler than stock. Stock only has thermal pads barely connecting the memory to anything. So if anyone wants aftermarket cooling consider the Zalman at least because they can be had pretty cheap now.

I've used those aluminum sinks that come with the Thermalright coolers and they do not perform as well as the stock cooler. With my GTX280 I lost almost 50mhz in overclocking head room with those little sinks. The stock thermal pads on these stock coolers is surprisingly good. How do you know that your memory runs cooler? There is no way to know for sure. You should stress you card and touch one of your memory sinks I bet that you'll be in for a surprise.

The Zalman vrm sink scares me. That thing has taken out few cards due to shorts. You won't find a thread on that cooler on any forum without a few reports of cards that were fried.

I dont mind the noise of the fan at all, I have a total of 11 fans running on my comp, also play with headphones all the time, what would be a safe % to raise the fan speed with afterburner ?

Yeah, that is fine. You can use Afterburner to setup your own fan profile so that the fan will only really ramp up when it needs to.

[NameonPrime]

Sooo, guys, having problems with my unlock with my 2gb card with no BIOS switch
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

Primarily, I CANT even unlock the card, when i use that .bat file to unlock the shaders and then flash that resulting BIOS onto my card using ATI Winflash , i get a message saying "Cannot erase rom". So i tried using the command prompt which im sure i followed correctly,

- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0"
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 modded.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".

the ati winflash progress bar pops up but only reaches half-way before exiting itself and i dont get a message saying something verified.

Please cadaveca and manotfthem help me, what elso could i try. I know this has been probably answered many times over. Please HELP!!!

[fullinfusion]

Sooo, guys, having problems with my unlock with my 2gb card with no BIOS switch
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

Primarily, I CANT even unlock the card, when i use that .bat file to unlock the shaders and then flash that resulting BIOS onto my card using ATI Winflash , i get a message saying "Cannot erase rom". So i tried using the command prompt which im sure i followed correctly,

- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0"
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 modded.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".

the ati winflash progress bar pops up but only reaches half-way before exiting itself and i dont get a message saying something verified.

Please cadaveca and manotfthem help me, what elso could i try. I know this has been probably answered many times over. Please HELP!!!

Have you removed the ccc driver like CAD mentioned? Try that and try again.

You can always get a hold of Sapphire tech and ask them if they can give ya the tool to use for flashing purpose.

[Mark22]

I've used those aluminum sinks that come with the Thermalright coolers and they do not perform as well as the stock cooler. With my GTX280 I lost almost 50mhz in overclocking head room with those little sinks. The stock thermal pads on these stock coolers is surprisingly good. How do you know that your memory runs cooler? There is no way to know for sure. You should stress you card and touch one of your memory sinks I bet that you'll be in for a surprise.

The Zalman vrm sink scares me. That thing has taken out few cards due to shorts. You won't find a thread on that cooler on any forum without a few reports of cards that were fried.



Yeah, that is fine. You can use Afterburner to setup your own fan profile so that the fan will only really ramp up when it needs to.

I'm not 100% sure but I remember reading somewhere that GPU temp 3 in gpuz corresponds to vrm. This never goes above the 50's now. I used the same cooler on my old 5850 and it was great there too, trust me it runs a lot cooler, I run it at 910,1450 Mhz.

[BababooeyHTJ]

I'm not 100% sure but I remember reading somewhere that GPU temp 3 in gpuz corresponds to vrm. This never goes above the 50's now. I used the same cooler on my old 5850 and it was great there too, trust me it runs a lot cooler, I run it at 910,1450 Mhz.

Nope that is just an unspecified section of the gpu core. There is no utility available that can read the temps of the vrms on Cayman. I have actually heard that the vrm cooler on that card does a good job, probably due to the lack of thermal pads or thermal tape. At best I'm sure that the vrm plate cools as well as the stock cooler. Not using thermal pads or tape on a plate like that for the vrms can be a bit risky as can be seen by googling this cooler. I know that those little aluminum sinks don't cool as well as the stock cooler. Will that make a big difference for me and you? Thats debatable. Will it make a difference for someone in the Dominican republic?

[Mark22]

Fair enough, it does the job keeping everything cooler in my case, which for me is 10-15c cooler in 2d running dual monitors. It bugged me running along at over 50c core for just 2D. It seems fine in games and I only unlocked shaders so it serves its purpose for me. I used IC24 for tim, where could the heatsink short exactly? Haven't heard about that at all.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Fair enough, it does the job keeping everything cooler in my case, which for me is 10-15c cooler in 2d running dual monitors. It bugged me running along at over 50c core for just 2D. It seems fine in games and I only unlocked shaders so it serves its purpose for me. I used IC24 for tim, where could the heatsink short exactly? Haven't heard about that at all.

Your card runs fine, I wouldn't worry about any shorting. There was just an abnormal amount of reports of dead cards from the VF3000 on the forums.

[Mark22]

Ok cool, MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 Twin FrozR II looks good for anyone who hasn't bought yet and wants cool and quiet.

[Aliaus]

Would better cooling for the gpu, mem, and vrm lower the risk of killing your card from running a 6970 bios or is that completely irrelevant?

[cadaveca]

Would better cooling for the gpu, mem, and vrm lower the risk of killing your card from running a 6970 bios or is that completely irrelevant?

Irrelevant, IMHO, due to the PCB differences.I'd mod bios for shaders, volts, and overdrive limits, if wanting 6970 speeds fully. If the mem is capable of reaching those speeds, it should do it under those conditions.

[Hexblade6950]

if I would always run it at 100% fan speed all the time, what would the lifespam of the card be ?

[cadaveca]

I think only AMD can answer that at this point.

[Rebelstar]

Hey guys. So no good overclock for this moment for 6950 patched to 6970? I can't raise my voltage and get more than 920 mhz on GPU via MSIAF.

[mingsoup]

Guys&Gals.

Made some progress. After putting in place a more aggresive fan profile...I am now down to 1165mv/880/1375 stable!!!

I was also wanted to comment that 11.4's CCC.EXE was giving me some serious hitching in both World of Warcraft and Portal 2.
I uninstalled it....and the hitching it gone. It seems CCC.EXE I/O (to hard drive?) was spiking every 3-5 seconds causing gaming and desktop movements to hitch at that time. Uninstalling Catalyst Control Center seems to have gotten rid of it.
Also of note.....for people using MSI AB 2.2 Beta 2, make sure that the crossfire settings are syncing up. Sometimes I would get instability, cause the settings wouldn't sync even though I checked the sync GPU option. Trying unchecking/checking it to just make sure.
Also!~ Disable all! instances of "EnableUlps" in the registry to avoid immediate or very quick BSOD after setting OC.
Great cards! Shader unlock only is 100% stable. I'm gonna keep bringing down my core voltage....so I can further reduced my fans.
Unfortunately I can't space out my Crossfire setup with a long bridge. On my mobo (Asus P7P55D Deluxe) when 2/3 of the PCI-E lanes are in use....the third *always* goes to x4, while the top closer two go to x8. bummer really.

[NameonPrime]

Yeah i live in east africa so im not sure if i can get a hold of sapphire and ask them
for their flashing tool, plus i did remove the display driver, no luck , my card wont unlock its bios for some reason,
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg
what else could i try?

also, cadaveca and manofthem, dont go quiet on me now please.

[NameonPrime]

so,
how far you reckon i can oc this non-ref card to @ 1175mV?
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg
so that i can some how get better performance without the shaders (obviously cant oc to
6970 performance without those shaders but still.)

im thinkin i'll leave the memory clock at 1375Mhz but core will try at 900-930Mhz.(@1175mV)

p.s sorry, cant buy your card even of i wanted to, by the time it gets here,(in 10years)
it'll probably be damaged and i'll have a mountain of a shipping bill.

[NameonPrime]

cool oc but what are the temps, i hope your using stock cooling on it. if you do i'll try that.

[NameonPrime]

with that oc how does that card compare to a stock hd 6970?

[NameonPrime]

yes the clocks beat a 6970 but does the performance beat a 6970?

so your using the stock cooling that came with the card?

could you please post a pic of YOUR custom fan curve in msi ab,

and could you post a pic of an "ideal/best/coolest/efficient" custom fan curve in msi ab,

i really dont care about noise.

thanx

[heliox]

Sooo, guys, having problems with my unlock with my 2gb card with no BIOS switch
Primarily, I CANT even unlock the card, when i use that .bat file to unlock the shaders and then flash that resulting BIOS onto my card using ATI Winflash , i get a message saying "Cannot erase rom". So i tried using the command prompt which im sure i followed correctly,

- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0"
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 modded.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".

the ati winflash progress bar pops up but only reaches half-way before exiting itself and i dont get a message saying something verified.

Please cadaveca and manotfthem help me, what elso could i try. I know this has been probably answered many times over. Please HELP!!!


Hi all (my first post here),
I have the same card with 1 GB only and having the same issue. I did everything you did but under DOS with a bootable USB key to no avail.
I'm getting this error message:
Programed = 0 Rom Size 20000
Rom Not Erased
ERROR 0FL01
It seems they have made the bios unerasable. As we don't have the dual bios switch, we can't flip to a modifiable chip like people do when they actually have that switch, to position 1 or 2.
So I'm wondering myself if they have just left out the switch or removed the modifiable chip. In the first case, as there's a place holder, we could solder a spare switch to enable that function. Am I assuming too much?

[Hexblade6950]

Guys to my understanding the mod will not work on 1GB versions of the 6950, you have to use a "REFERENCE" card, the R6950 are all the same card the only thing that changes is the sticker that ASUS,MSI,Sapphire, HIS stick to the front of the card to say it theirs, but all R6950 are made by AMD and distributed to the other companys so they can start making their own models of the 6950, if you check of previous pages of this post you will find some more people with the same card as you guys and I believe they have been told the same thing, sorry to break the news to ya but your card will not be able to be modded

[Makaveli]

No bios switch only 1 GB of Vram = Good luck!

[manofthem]

Guys to my understanding the mod will not work on 1GB versions of the 6950, you have to use a "REFERENCE" card, the R6950 are all the same card the only thing that changes is the sticker that ASUS,MSI,Sapphire, HIS stick to the front of the card to say it theirs, but all R6950 are made by AMD and distributed to the other companys so they can start making their own models of the 6950, if you check of previous pages of this post you will find some more people with the same card as you guys and I believe they have been told the same thing, sorry to break the news to ya but your card will not be able to be modded

There were people with non ref 2GB cards and 1GB cards that were able to unlock the shaders, like this guy:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144537

But now it seems that many cannot unlock their shaders with a flash, so the bioses/bios's(?) must be protected. Unfortunately I don't have access to one to try anything.

[NameonPrime]

soo

i just oc'd my sapphire hd 6950 2gb
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

all seems well and stable @ 910/1375 on 1174mV with MSI AB (whenever i put 1175 it goes down to that)
catalyst 11.3 drivers,
win7 64

but i see artifacts in two benchmarks the littlest artifacting occurs in unigine heaven
2.5 benchmark (very little artifact - small green flash-point when crossing bridge at sun-down)

the heavier artifacting occurs in 3dmark vantage especially in the jane nash scene, cant really notice artifacting in other scenes.I put it in high preset but an 1280x1024 resolution (my moniters supported resolution)

question is should i be alarmed about the artifacting and maybe tone down my oc?

[Super XP]

Down the GPU clock by 10MHz, that should help remove the aritfacts I believe.

[fullinfusion]

Id lower the clocks down a bit so not to screw the card from artifacting...

Your going to kill that poor gpu :shadedshu

[BababooeyHTJ]

soo

i just oc'd my sapphire hd 6950 2gb
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

all seems well and stable @ 910/1375 on 1174mV with MSI AB (whenever i put 1175 it goes down to that)
catalyst 11.3 drivers,
win7 64

but i see artifacts in two benchmarks the littlest artifacting occurs in unigine heaven
2.5 benchmark (very little artifact - small green flash-point when crossing bridge at sun-down)

the heavier artifacting occurs in 3dmark vantage especially in the jane nash scene, cant really notice artifacting in other scenes.I put it in high preset but an 1280x1024 resolution (my moniters supported resolution)

question is should i be alarmed about the artifacting and maybe tone down my oc?

The artifacting during Jane Nash is a long time ATI problem. I've seen it with three different cards across different generations on different hardware. I also saw heavy artifacting with Heaven the last time that I ran it which was with 10.10e IIRC apparently that was a common problem too.

If you aren't seeing these artifacts with GPUtool, OCCT, and actual games I wouldn't worry about it.

[datfreak]

41819
I'm having problems unlocking my
VTX3D Radeon HD6950 2GB.
See pic, its a twin fan one.
Flashing it with a 6970 bios fails to boot and unlocking with RBE actually does not unlock it(but when i read the bios after, it say its modded by rbe and the unlock box is ticked)

anyone have any experience with this card?

any thoughts to unlock this would be great

thanks
scott

[asciutto]

I hope this hasn't already been answered before, but I looked through the last 20 pages and couldn't find anything on it. (Roughly the time it was announced) but is the 6950 Flex edition flash-able? I see no reason why it shouldn't, but I did read somewhere that because it has a custom "something" from Sapphire it may not work.

That's probably a load of bull, but it never hurts to know before I pull the trigger on buying this thing.

I mean, the cards are essentially identical aren't they?

Any way, thanks for the help! And again, I'm sorry if it's been asked before, I promise I searched and couldn't find anything!

[manofthem]

I hope this hasn't already been answered before, but I looked through the last 20 pages and couldn't find anything on it. (Roughly the time it was announced) but is the 6950 Flex edition flash-able? I see no reason why it shouldn't, but I did read somewhere that because it has a custom "something" from Sapphire it may not work.

That's probably a load of bull, but it never hurts to know before I pull the trigger on buying this thing.

I mean, the cards are essentially identical aren't they?

Any way, thanks for the help! And again, I'm sorry if it's been asked before, I promise I searched and couldn't find anything!

http://tech-news-buzz.blogspot.com/2011/03/sapphire-hd-6950-flex-edition.html
That site says it's a resounding yes to flashable, and I read that it does have a dual bios switch:)

[arroyo]

It is stupid what companies do with the HD6950. On every Polish website that reviews HD6950 all non-reference cards are unlocking well. But the shop non-reference versions does not unlock at all.

We had few weeks ago review sample of XFX Radeon 6950 Dual Heatpipe XXX 1GB HD-695X-ZDDC. Nice card with ability to unlock extra shaders. We ordered a whole box of them to our shop ang guess what... none of them was able to unlock extra shaders.

If you want to be 100% sure about unlocking potential... buy 2GB reference model.

[JeanH]

Please can I use this bios to unlock the shaders. the details tell that the shaders are unlock http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95881/MSI.HD6950.2048.110126.html

to flash my MSI R6950 twin frozr II to an 6970.

I am an newby. perhaps the anwser is somewere. but I did not find it yet.
Thanks in advance.

[Arktic]

UPDATE: Just an update on my bios modding experience.

After flashing the bios with a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders and stock settings the card was running fine. OC'd to bench and ran fine. Games I got some artifacts but backed the clocks down to stock settings again.

Currently running the card in stock standard 6950 form, no shaders and stock clocks etc.

Almost every time I play COD4 online while im on the black screen waiting for the map to load I get green flashing speckle artifacts for a few seconds then they disappear for the whole time im playing.
This only happens on some games loading screens but never in game. Also happens in NFS Hot Pursuit 2. It only happens once every few hours or after I havent played any games for a while.

It doesnt effect the games in anyway but is really annoying. Is the VRAM stuffed? Have I bricked the card? I've gone back to complete stock settings and it still happens.



EDIT: I know some people have success with this mod but I generally DONT advise it as it doesnt seem to do the card any good. Rather OC the standard clocks and get results that way.

[BababooeyHTJ]

It's probably a software issue. Have you tried reinstalling the display drivers?

I would honestly make a post at AMD forums to see if it is a known driver issue, some other sort of software issue, or you have a bum card which I doubt.

[genx]

I have flashed my Reference 6950 2GB with many different bios and it gets flashed fine and everything with the new bios and loads into windows but the shaders still show 1408. However the clock speeds are set at 850/1375

Anyone have any suggestions?

[Arktic]

I have flashed my Reference 6950 with many different bios and it gets flashed fine and everything with the new bios and loads into windows but the shaders still show 1408. However the clock speeds are set at 850/1375

Anyone have any suggestions?

Try using a MSI 6950 bios that has unlocked shaders only then clock it up your self.
Also the powercolour PCS++ bios with unlocked shaders and clocks worked for me but wasnt stable without volts.

[genx]

Try using a MSI 6950 bios that has unlocked shaders only then clock it up your self.
Also the powercolour PCS++ bios with unlocked shaders and clocks worked for me but wasnt stable without volts.

Could you post a link to this bios?

Thanks

[Arktic]

The MSI BIOS.
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95202/MSI.HD6950.2048.101123_1.html

Powercolor BIOS
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/94169/Powercolor.HD6950.2048.110121.html

[BoomBang85]

Hello everyone,
First post so be gentle.
First a question: Has anyone somewhere in this very long and informative discussion manage to unlock or mod the bios of the Sapphire 6590 2GB 100312-2SR (It's picture on post #2453 on this page 99)?
And on that matter can the author of the post put in the opening a list of the cards already unlocked successfully by model (if there is one then a link to it would be nice) especially when there seems to be a big difference between reference and non-reference cards.

On the card subject, and I pretty sure it's in all 6950 cards: for an after-market cooler Arctic Accelero TWIN TURBO Pro worked just fine on my card (from 54 idle/75 load to 38 idle/58 load)
I checked this link before to make sure it would fit:
http://www.arctic.ac/en/support/support/detail/question/93-will-accelero-twinturbo-pro-fit-my-card.htm?tx_diadamsolution_pi2
The only adjustment I had to make was to break two pins in the long heat-sink for the memory chips. Another thing worth mentioning in my card is that those chips had no heat sink on them and the smaller in-line chips had a stock heat-sink on them.
Excuse my English and the lack of knowledge on chips names.

[jayc]

I have flashed my Reference 6950 2GB with many different bios and it gets flashed fine and everything with the new bios and loads into windows but the shaders still show 1408. However the clock speeds are set at 850/1375

Anyone have any suggestions?

What are you using to check shaders have been unlocked?
GPU-Z? What version?

[jayc]

Has anyone somewhere in this very long and informative discussion manage to unlock or mod the bios of the Sapphire 6590 2GB 100312-2SR (It's picture on post #2453 on this page 99)?

If you have the same card, then both NameonPrime and Redline888 have this card but have been unsuccessful in unlocking the shaders on it.
Either the manufacturers have started locking the bios from being re-writable or they have removed the physical links to the extra shaders or both.

You can try the shader unlock mod. Nothing stopping you from trying.
Both NameonPrime and Redline888, who have this card tried and did not succeed, but the card is still operational.
Your only option, if it fails to unlock shaders, it to overclock the heck out of it.

[Sk1nner]

i´m thinking in getting a second card for my system, but i don't know if my power supply will old the beasts. i have a corssair TX750.
my system specs are :

CPU: Intel Core i5 760@4.0GHZ 1.20V Cooled By Noctua NH-U12P SE2
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Sabertooth 55i
RAM: 8 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 MHz cl7
PSU: Corssair TX-750
HARD DRIVE: 2*320gb raid0, 1tb
SoundCard: Creative x-fi titanium
i have also 5*120mm fans

anyone know if it can hold the 2GPU´s?

[Arktic]

TX750 will be more than enough.

[NameonPrime]

soo

i just oc'd my sapphire hd 6950 2gb
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

all seems well and stable @ 910/1375 on 1174mV with MSI AB (whenever i put 1175 it goes down to that)
catalyst 11.3 drivers,
win7 64

but i see artifacts in two benchmarks the littlest artifacting occurs in unigine heaven
2.5 benchmark (very little artifact - small green flash-point when crossing bridge at sun-down)

the heavier artifacting occurs in 3dmark vantage especially in the jane nash scene, cant really notice artifacting in other scenes.I put it in high preset but an 1280x1024 resolution (my moniters supported resolution)

question is should i be alarmed about the artifacting and maybe tone down my oc?

If you have the same card, then both NameonPrime and Redline888 have this card but have been unsuccessful in unlocking the shaders on it.
Either the manufacturers have started locking the bios from being re-writable or they have removed the physical links to the extra shaders or both.

You can try the shader unlock mod. Nothing stopping you from trying.
Both NameonPrime and Redline888, who have this card tried and did not succeed, but the card is still operational.
Your only option, if it fails to unlock shaders, it to overclock the heck out of it.

Sooo,

hey peeps of TPU, yes this card's shaders cant be unlocked so the only way to go is to OC it - i did OC it and i got artifacts, but i got good news, the artifacting i saw in 3dMark vantage Jane Nash scene
is present even if i put my card to stock hd 6950 clocks, so no worries there,
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

which leaves the artifacting i saw in unigine heaven 2.5 benchmark after i OC'd to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV.

so i tried the card on stock clocks,- no artifacting, i OC'd the card to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV- artifacting occurs, so a crazy idea popped into my mind,
i wanted to see what would happen if i increased the clocks from stock to 880/1375 BUT without changing the voltage.

And guess what happened,

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?

P.s - Redline888, i urge you to try this and post us the results.

If you guys try this and fry your cards, well then im sorry but i should not be blamed for that.

[Resao]

I recently bought a Sapphire 2GB 6950, unlocked the shaders and it ran fine for a day. Turned my pc on the following day and a puff of smoke and yellow sparks appeared from the card... Needless to say it is now screwed. I didn't OC the card at all, just unlocked using the tech power up guide.

I'm assuming I'm not able to RMA the card as I have modded the bios, even though the voltages were running lower than the specification of 225w.

Has anyone managed to RMA successfully? I'm sure this has probably been mentioned in this thread but it is now 99 pages long...

[cheesy999]

I recently bought a Sapphire 2GB 6950, unlocked the shaders and it ran fine for a day. Turned my pc on the following day and a puff of smoke and yellow sparks appeared from the card... Needless to say it is now screwed. I didn't OC the card at all, just unlocked using the tech power up guide.

I'm assuming I'm not able to RMA the card as I have modded the bios, even though the voltages were running lower than the specification of 225w.

Has anyone managed to RMA successfully? I'm sure this has probably been mentioned in this thread but it is now 99 pages long...

just do it, its not as if them not giving your card back to you if they do notice (they probably won't) will change anything - it dosn't work anyway

[fullinfusion]

I recently bought a Sapphire 2GB 6950, unlocked the shaders and it ran fine for a day. Turned my pc on the following day and a puff of smoke and yellow sparks appeared from the card... Needless to say it is now screwed. I didn't OC the card at all, just unlocked using the tech power up guide.

I'm assuming I'm not able to RMA the card as I have modded the bios, even though the voltages were running lower than the specification of 225w.

Has anyone managed to RMA successfully? I'm sure this has probably been mentioned in this thread but it is now 99 pages long...
Im thinking something besides flashing your gpu went wrong. I wouldn't sweat it, rma it and get another one, down side is your likely going to end up with a non reference 6950 and that's going to suck big time :mad: but better then nothing ;)

[NameonPrime]

Sooo,

hey peeps of TPU, yes this card's shaders cant be unlocked so the only way to go is to OC it - i did OC it and i got artifacts, but i got good news, the artifacting i saw in 3dMark vantage Jane Nash scene
is present even if i put my card to stock hd 6950 clocks, so no worries there,
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

which leaves the artifacting i saw in unigine heaven 2.5 benchmark after i OC'd to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV.

so i tried the card on stock clocks,- no artifacting, i OC'd the card to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV- artifacting occurs, so a crazy idea popped into my mind,
i wanted to see what would happen if i increased the clocks from stock to 880/1375 BUT without changing the voltage.

And guess what happened,

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?

P.s - Redline888, i urge you to try this and post us the results.

This works for me byt ,If you guys try this and fry your cards, well then im sorry but i should not be blamed for that.

C'mon guys of TPU where are you?
i expect atleast these people to give some comments in my situation

manofthem
cadaveca
redlin888
fullinfusion
BababooeyHTJ
and others too

please reply guys.

[edhahaha]

Hi guys. Bought my Sapphire reference 2GB 6950 month ago, and finally decided to flash it. First I flashed to 6970 bios with 880/1375. It ran okay, even benchmarks are no problem. However, I started getting random shutdown/restart after couple days. And as I do more research, I realize I can achieve the same performance with modded shader 6950 bios. So I flashed back to original 6950 bios, then flashed to 6950 modded bios. now I have 1536 shaders with 800/1250. I heard that with stock voltage(1100) I can get up to 900/1350 stable. But when i tried to oc at 880/1350. my comp freezes at benchmarks or games. So do I HAVE to adjust the voltage or is it different cards may have different results in oc. Thanks
Currently using 11.4 catalyse and oc'ed with trixx.
Btw. Am I gonnna damage my card cuz I flashed back and forth the bios?

[Arktic]

Hi guys. Bought my Sapphire reference 2GB 6950 month ago, and finally decided to flash it. First I flashed to 6970 bios with 880/1375. It ran okay, even benchmarks are no problem. However, I started getting random shutdown/restart after couple days. And as I do more research, I realize I can achieve the same performance with modded shader 6950 bios. So I flashed back to original 6950 bios, then flashed to 6950 modded bios. now I have 1536 shaders with 800/1250. I heard that with stock voltage(1100) I can get up to 900/1350 stable. But when i tried to oc at 880/1350. my comp freezes at benchmarks or games. So do I HAVE to adjust the voltage or is it different cards may have different results in oc. Thanks
Currently using 11.4 catalyse and oc'ed with trixx.
Btw. Am I gonnna damage my card cuz I flashed back and forth the bios?


Heres my experience.

UPDATE: Just an update on my bios modding experience.

After flashing the bios with a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders and stock settings the card was running fine. OC'd to bench and ran fine. Games I got some artifacts but backed the clocks down to stock settings again.

Currently running the card in stock standard 6950 form, no shaders and stock clocks etc.

Almost every time I play COD4 online while im on the black screen waiting for the map to load I get green flashing speckle artifacts for a few seconds then they disappear for the whole time im playing.
This only happens on some games loading screens but never in game. Also happens in NFS Hot Pursuit 2. It only happens once every few hours or after I havent played any games for a while.

It doesnt effect the games in anyway but is really annoying. Is the VRAM stuffed? Have I bricked the card? I've gone back to complete stock settings and it still happens.



EDIT: I know some people have success with this mod but I generally DONT advise it as it doesnt seem to do the card any good. Rather OC the standard clocks and get results that way.


So in Conclusion, my card has started speckling from all the flashing etc. So I dont advise.

Rather clock it on the stock 6950 and not on a 6970 or 6950 modded bios.

[NameonPrime]

Sooo,

hey peeps of TPU, yes this card's shaders cant be unlocked so the only way to go is to OC it - i did OC it and i got artifacts, but i got good news, the artifacting i saw in 3dMark vantage Jane Nash scene
is present even if i put my card to stock hd 6950 clocks, so no worries there,
http://images.izideal.com/img/produc...i-express.jpeg

which leaves the artifacting i saw in unigine heaven 2.5 benchmark after i OC'd to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV.

so i tried the card on stock clocks,- no artifacting, i OC'd the card to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV- artifacting occurs, so a crazy idea popped into my mind,
i wanted to see what would happen if i increased the clocks from stock to 880/1375 BUT without changing the voltage.

And guess what happened,

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?

P.s - Redline888, i urge you to try this and post us the results.

This works for me but ,If you guys try this and fry your cards, well then im sorry but i should not be blamed for that.

C'mon guys of TPU where are you?
it seems like as if you guys are actually choosing to ignore my posts.

i expect at least these people to give some comments about my situation

manofthem
cadaveca
redlin888
fullinfusion
BababooeyHTJ
and others too

please reply guys.

[manofthem]

which leaves the artifacting i saw in unigine heaven 2.5 benchmark after i OC'd to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV.

so i tried the card on stock clocks,- no artifacting, i OC'd the card to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV- artifacting occurs, so a crazy idea popped into my mind,
i wanted to see what would happen if i increased the clocks from stock to 880/1375 BUT without changing the voltage.

And guess what happened,

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?

P.s - Redline888, i urge you to try this and post us the results.

This works for me but ,If you guys try this and fry your cards, well then im sorry but i should not be blamed for that.
...
please reply guys.

My card won't run 880/1375 on default voltage, may about 1.16v. At 1.175v, I got 910/1400-1425 and passed brief benches in 3dmark and unigine. But playing Metro 2033 for excessed time, ran into problems. Had to back down to 900/1375-1400 at 1.175v and everything runs fine without artifacts or lock ups.

When cooks are too high for a voltage, display driver will crash, maybe not even recover unless a hard restart. So if you can play an extremely intense game for extended time without lock ups, artifacts, or crashes, then you are good.

That's my idea on the matter.

[cadaveca]

Sorry, I have no feedback 4 you, NameonPrime. My cards unlocked, so my experience does not relate to yours, as our cards already behave differently.

Frankly, i unlocked, but no OC here for 24/7...only for benching. I do not play any titles that need any OC.

[jayc]

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?


What else can we say?
The only way of checking stability on your card is for you to start using it on the games you play. Unless you want to send it to me :p I'll test it for ya.

You might be able to use benchmarks like 3d Mark, Furmark, Heaven, etc, but they are not games you play all the time.

880/1375 on stock voltages does seem a lot to ask for the vid card to do. You might find some issues while playing intensive games. Then just adjust voltage upslightly. I personally use 1.150v for 880/1375, as it solves small problems for me on Crysis and Metro 2033 and Shogun 2.

I'm currently re-testing with the new 11.4 drivers, so voltages might change afterall.
Some are reporting that overclocks don't reach as high for them on 11.4 drivers.

[jayc]

Hi guys. Bought my Sapphire reference 2GB 6950 month ago, and finally decided to flash it. First I flashed to 6970 bios with 880/1375. It ran okay, even benchmarks are no problem. However, I started getting random shutdown/restart after couple days. And as I do more research, I realize I can achieve the same performance with modded shader 6950 bios. So I flashed back to original 6950 bios, then flashed to 6950 modded bios. now I have 1536 shaders with 800/1250. I heard that with stock voltage(1100) I can get up to 900/1350 stable. But when i tried to oc at 880/1350. my comp freezes at benchmarks or games. So do I HAVE to adjust the voltage or is it different cards may have different results in oc. Thanks
Currently using 11.4 catalyse and oc'ed with trixx.
Btw. Am I gonnna damage my card cuz I flashed back and forth the bios?

ed,
your crashing in benchmarks might also be attributed to heat.
Increase fan speed curves using an app like MSI Afterburner, then try benchmarks again.
If it still crashes, small voltage adjustments will be needed. 1100mv till 1175mv should be safe. You probably won't need 1175mv. As I said above, I only need 1150mv (1.15v) for the games I play.

Different cards will ALWAYS have different o/c results. Diff drivers will also be a factor in how high you can overclock.

[jayc]

So in Conclusion, my card has started speckling from all the flashing etc

Have you tried cleaning drivers and then reinstalling drivers?

[slypenguin0]

Hi guys. I just recently purchased the MSI Twin Frozr II HD 6950 and a CM Hyper 212+ to start my OCing and GPU mod journey. I've read through this and other threads on the subject. I'd like to thank w1z and the top contributors :respect: first. When I booted up Winflash in Admin I got this:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_fX4zLmNwrcg/Tbo1_6EqQ6I/AAAAAAAAA4Q/hHp-M-Zx97w/s640/atiunknown.jpg
And here is a picture of GPUZ
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_fX4zLmNwrcg/Tbo_O6e4fkI/AAAAAAAAA40/S6CbbIQnGNA/GPUZbeforemod.gif

Shouldn't it recognize more than that? I have had a similar problem with Everest/CPUID/etc not detecting my Mobo's name/type/etc for a long time; long before I bought these two additions.

I decided to click the save button anyway to save bios. When I did the screen flashed occasionally and my music stopped and started. At times I couldn't use the mouse. After a minute I saw a confirmation that it had saved but the screen continued to flash and music continued to stutter. Then the computer finally froze with music still playing.
I restarted the computer, turned on ATIWinflash and Everest. Everest got stuck loading and then explorer stopped working and I had to restart again.

What's up? haha:confused: (specs in the sidebar)

[edhahaha]

ed,
your crashing in benchmarks might also be attributed to heat.
Increase fan speed curves using an app like MSI Afterburner, then try benchmarks again.
If it still crashes, small voltage adjustments will be needed. 1100mv till 1175mv should be safe. You probably won't need 1175mv. As I said above, I only need 1150mv (1.15v) for the games I play.

Different cards will ALWAYS have different o/c results. Diff drivers will also be a factor in how high you can overclock.

I think 1150 mv seems fine to me to with 900/1350. I no longer get lock ups. But I do get random restarts either during game play or normal computer usage. So does that mean my setting is not stable? Cuz even I set everything back to default for gpu. I still get restart. So does that mean something else in my system besides oc'ing the gpu is causing the problem?
and wut other risks may be raise by increasing the voltage??

[fullinfusion]

Sorry, I have no feedback 4 you, NameonPrime. My cards unlocked, so my experience does not relate to yours, as our cards already behave differently.

Frankly, i unlocked, but no OC here for 24/7...only for benching. I do not play any titles that need any OC.
Gech Dave, where's the fun in that? :toast:

[fullinfusion]

HIS 6950 unlocked to full 6970 and Cross/Fired to boot heheheh, Im showing 99.9-99.8% scaling with these kids
Max core and mem clocks under stock volts.

http://img.techpowerup.org/110429/besttototodate.png

[manofthem]

HIS 6950 unlocked to full 6970 and Cross/Fired to boot heheheh, Im showing 99.9-99.8% scaling with these kids
Max core and mem clocks under stock volts.

http://img.techpowerup.org/110429/besttototodate.png

Impressive... Most impressive.

Those are some handsome overclocks, both CPU and GPU's! Looking good at stock volts (1.175 from a 6970?).

[NameonPrime]

Well guys,

as i've said before i've ocverclocked my gpu to 910/1375 @ stock 6950 voltage, when playing crysis 1 on the first level, (first few minutes of gameplay), @ max settings @ resolution 1280x1024 (my monitor) it runs bautifuly.

when i push it to 920/1375 @ stock 6950 voltages and play crysis 1 on the first level, (first few minutes of gameplay), @ max settings @ resolution 1280x1024 (my monitor) it
hangs up/crashes after a few minutes of gameplay

so i guess i've found the point where the oc is unstable and so i've dialed it down back to 910/1375
@ stock hd 6950 voltages :) :laugh: :rockout:

but i notice in fullinfusion's recent posted pic in ccc it shows the unofficial clocks
where as when i go above unofficial oc the clocks in ccc disappear only leaving powertune
and fan control sliders.

Is it okay for me to say that i have an extremely lucky card to be able to run those clocks @ those voltages?

What do you guys think?

Software used:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
Catalyst drivers/control center/ 11.3
MSI AfterBurner latest version ?2.1?

My gpu
sapphire hd 6950 2gb non-reference
http://images.izideal.com/img/product/10164313/l/be_fr/sapphire-technology-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

[fullinfusion]

Impressive... Most impressive.

Those are some handsome overclocks, both CPU and GPU's! Looking good at stock volts (1.175 from a 6970?).
Thanks man, the gpu is stock volts under full 6970 unlock... MSI AB is useless to me. Having twins hooked up its a no go till they sort out the x-fire issues.

[BlessedYouth]

For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:

- Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
- Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
- Click Start Button
- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" <-- the 0 means first adapter, if you have multiple cards, physically uninstall all but the one you want to flash
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".

Thank you very much!. :-)

[NameonPrime]

yeah

well it seems this whole thread is just choosing to ignore my posts
(i dont know what i did)

so you guys wont hear from me again, i wont bother you guys again

P.S - thanx for the little attention you paid to some of my posts

[Winterwind]

Hi

I have an Asus HD6950 DirectCU II 1GB.
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/AMD_Series/EAH6950_DCII2DI4S1GD5/
Is it possible to unlock it?
It has the bios switch and i have tried to flash both bios-es
but no luck. It flashes but after restart it still shows 1408 shaders.
I guess it is unlockable or im i doing something wrong?
I have tried to mod my stock bios with that mod batch and with RBE
but still no luck.

Also i have problems with that card.
Sometimes it just doesnt show any picture after reboot.
It was like that before i got flashed it and it still is like that now.
I have to take card out of computer and but it back, then it starts correctly.
Switching bioses wont help either, only card out-card in helps..

Heres link for my original bios:
http://www.upload.ee/files/1310129/original.bin.html

[trt740]

I am also wondering the same thing do you have this card. Execpt, It is the 2gb version.

ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5

ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 25... (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121431)

[Winterwind]

I am also wondering the same thing do you have this card. Execpt, It is the 2gb version.

ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5

ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 25... (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121431)

Yes, i have same card but 1GB

[trt740]

Yes, i have same card but 1GB

I just bought one of these after I sold my ref 6950, but I'm not sure I am going to keep it hell of a card.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHbxlSvCK9o

[Ashcrapper]

Just ran the batch file and its unlocked one of my graphics cards (both XFX 2gb 6950s), how do I unlock the other one?

Many thanks,
Ash

[manofthem]

Just ran the batch file and its unlocked one of my graphics cards (both XFX 2gb 6950s), how do I unlock the other one?

Many thanks,
Ash

Take out the 1st card and replace with 2nd card. Do the same thing for the 2nd card that you did for the 1st card. Should work out just fine.

[Makaveli]

yeah

well it seems this whole thread is just choosing to ignore my posts
(i dont know what i did)

so you guys wont hear from me again, i wont bother you guys again

P.S - thanx for the little attention you paid to some of my posts

Instead of crying about it you might want to take note this is a 100 page thread.

If its that important to you start your own.

Don't try to act like some victim that needs pity.

[Ashcrapper]

Take out the 1st card and replace with 2nd card. Do the same thing for the 2nd card that you did for the 1st card. Should work out just fine.

Was looking for a method without having to mess about removing hardware, incidentally I found this which worked a treat:

Copy the batch file, then edit it using Notepad. Look for the calls to ATIWinFlash.exe, there should be two:

ATIWinFlash -unlockrom 0
ATIWinFlash -f -p 0 <filename>

Replace the 0's with 1's

ATIWinFlash -unlockrom 1
ATIWinFlash -f -p 1 <filename>

[manofthem]

Was looking for a method without having to mess about removing hardware, incidentally I found this which worked a treat:

Copy the batch file, then edit it using Notepad. Look for the calls to ATIWinFlash.exe, there should be two:

ATIWinFlash -unlockrom 0
ATIWinFlash -f -p 0 <filename>

Replace the 0's with 1's

ATIWinFlash -unlockrom 1
ATIWinFlash -f -p 1 <filename>
I think I heard that way would work too. When I did mine, I did it one at a time. When doing it one at a time, you can test it and make sure it works just fine before going straight to crossfire.

[azuki]

Just ran the batch file and its unlocked one of my graphics cards (both XFX 2gb 6950s), how do I unlock the other one?

Many thanks,
Ash

are those the reference or non-reference :0

[jonathan1107]

Hi guys. Bought my Sapphire reference 2GB 6950 month ago, and finally decided to flash it. First I flashed to 6970 bios with 880/1375. It ran okay, even benchmarks are no problem. However, I started getting random shutdown/restart after couple days. And as I do more research, I realize I can achieve the same performance with modded shader 6950 bios. So I flashed back to original 6950 bios, then flashed to 6950 modded bios. now I have 1536 shaders with 800/1250. I heard that with stock voltage(1100) I can get up to 900/1350 stable. But when i tried to oc at 880/1350. my comp freezes at benchmarks or games. So do I HAVE to adjust the voltage or is it different cards may have different results in oc. Thanks
Currently using 11.4 catalyse and oc'ed with trixx.
Btw. Am I gonnna damage my card cuz I flashed back and forth the bios?

With the shaders unlock only, how can you get it to past 840mhz in CCC? I've heard you can use MSI AB... but when I installed that program I noticed the speeds and voltages are limited to the 6950 bios settings (max 840/1325)... Can anyone point me towards the information I need to OC my 6950 without flashing to 6970 bios???

[kangaroodan]

Hi, tried this with the package you'd made for people inexperienced in this kind of thing (I am definitely one of those =D) and it worked fine, thanks! My card was a Sapphire one incidentally.

[manofthem]

With the shaders unlock only, how can you get it to past 840mhz in CCC? I've heard you can use MSI AB... but when I installed that program I noticed the speeds and voltages are limited to the 6950 bios settings (max 840/1325)... Can anyone point me towards the information I need to OC my 6950 without flashing to 6970 bios???

Look at my post #2394 on page 96. That should guide you to enable unofficial overclocking and voltage control in MSI AB. It works great; you'll be able to overclock nicely, even with dual card setup. I'm running both my 6950's at 900/1375@1.175v using AB.

[yacoub]

There were people with non ref 2GB cards and 1GB cards that were able to unlock the shaders, like this guy:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144537

But now it seems that many cannot unlock their shaders with a flash, so the bioses/bios's(?) must be protected. Unfortunately I don't have access to one to try anything.

Would it be helpful if I Saved out the BIOS from mine when it arrives?

Would you (or someone here) be able to compare it against the BIOS from a reference model to see if the shader mask is stored in the same bytes or not?

Is it possible things have shifted if the BIOS is slightly different and that's what folks with these newer Sapphire cards are having no luck unlocking the shaders?

[lauri_hoefs]

I have an Asus 6950 Directcu II an I've tryed to unlock it through RBE and Wizzard's script, in bot cases GPUZ recognised the 1536 shaders but I could not appreciate any performance increase between original and unlocked. running al 883core and 5300 memory I get around P4950 3Dmark 2011 in an I5-760.


Is that the GPU score, or the total score?

Modded and running the core at 840 my GPU score in 3Dmark 11 went to 4812 from 4576, while the total score only went to 3820 from 3726. (latter scores being with stock clocks and un-modified)

So the total score doesn't actually show the increase in performance as clearly.

Out of curiosity I also tried the 6970 BIOS, the GPU score went up to 5104 with 6970 stock clocks. But as I have no real need for the added performance, and wanted to make sure that the card runs stable, I chickened and flashed back the original unmodded BIOS :o


At the same time using geeks3d GPU caps viewer I can see only 1406 shaders while gpuz shows 1536...


I think I ran into this on another forum, but could not find the posts anywhere, sorry.. But anyway, there were at least a couple reports of GPU Caps Viewer showing a wrong shader count, so that should probably be ok.


Did anybody have performance increase unlocking a Directcu II? if so, please send me your bios because I've played so many times with mines (1 and 2) that I'm not 100% sure I keep the original one... (I know, this is too bad, shamo on me...)


If the original BIOS is lost, there are some saved in the VGA BIOS Collection:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95388/Asus.HD6950.2048.101222.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95927/Asus.HD6950.2048.101222_1.html

Those should both be original and unmodified :)


-Lauri

[Vicc]

packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.

www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

give it a try and let me know how well it works

How exactly would you run this?
I just purchased a 6950 twin frozr iii with dual bios and I'm trying to unlock it. :]
Thanks in advance for any help.


Also, for some reason apparently my IP got banned. Originally I was going to PM my question to W1zzard in the morning, but I had to rush to work and I didn't have an account, and just now when I signed up for these forums and went to his profile I got this message. Sorry. The administrator has banned your IP address. To contact the administrator click here
I wouldn't be asking this here if the link I'm supposed to click wasn't dead. :/

[yacoub]

Greetings. I received the card today and installed it.

Here is the stock BIOS from the Sapphire Radeon HD6950 2GB non-reference model 100312-2SR (see attached). In case anyone needs it, and more appreciatively if anyone can examine it and compare it against a reference model BIOS to see if there are any changes that would explain why we can't seem to unlock the extra shaders on this model card.

Thank you in advance. :toast:

[fullinfusion]

How exactly would you run this?
I just purchased a 6950 twin frozr iii with dual bios and I'm trying to unlock it. :]
Thanks in advance for any help.


Also, for some reason apparently my IP got banned. Originally I was going to PM my question to W1zzard in the morning, but I had to rush to work and I didn't have an account, and just now when I signed up for these forums and went to his profile I got this message.
I wouldn't be asking this here if the link I'm supposed to click wasn't dead. :/
Did you read the beginning of the thread? there is all the info you need to flash your card.

Download THIS (http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html) It has everything you need to flash back n forth.