How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[Qed]

The only reason I think the timings are tighter on the 6970 chips is because there have been multiple users experiencing an unstable card post-flash (mostly artifacting/rendering errors). This wasn't resolved by lowering the memory frequency to stock 6950 clocks but was resolved when they modified the 6950 BIOS to unlock the shaders.

In the 6970 bios ram has higher voltage.

[Gaul]

w1zzard = what special this BIOS ?

How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695... (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2137760&postcount=381)

ic...vgpu only 1.1v

[Whoops!]

But then I did upgrade from a 4670 to 6950 - I had been sitting on the fence for ages and this story made me order the XFX 6950 straight away - and flash it straight away too with the XFX 6970 bios - running at 880 / 1375 idles at 30½ degrees and just finished an afternoon of F1 2010 on ULTRA settings - FPS between 45 and 82 during races and max temp at 55 degrees (Fan set manually to 45%) :)

[voro12]

what is the max voltage on 6950 that you can use without causing damage to the card?

[ALBPM]

Hey rui0317,

Would it be better to edit the 6970 bios by reducing the memory timing,etc.. to make it safer for the 6950 cards?????

This way CCC thinks the card is a 6970 and gives us the Overclocking capabilities of the 6970... and we would have the increased voltage for the GPU only

[Frosty]

In the 6970 bios ram has higher voltage.

Could 1.6v actually cause artifacting though?

Even if that is the case, wouldn't it make more sense to modify the 6950 BIOS be3cause of the higher voltage?

[acousticdank]

Having 2 separate 6pin connectors or 1 bouble 6pin is different. Having the 2 separate connectors (a total of 4 6pin connectors) you have 2 times the available power compared to the other situation. That yellow and black lines are connected together inside the UPS.

I think I wrote it wrong.
I meant I am using a 6+2 on the outermost and a 6pin on the inner port. I am using 2 separate cables not a splitter and pulling from a separate part of the psu for both, not sharing with any other cables.
But my point was whether using a 6+2 vs a 6pin really makes a difference.

[yonef]

where do I get driver ver. 8.801 ? I'm using Catalyst 10.12a from AMD's site but it is driver ver. 8.790.
I've seen couple of screenshots where the guys using 8.801 with HD6900 series, and original Cat10.12 is not compatible with 6900 series.

[ranom]

Albeit rare cases, we've seen 3way or 4way SLIs, CFXs draw too much power from the ATX 24pin connector and burn. I'd rather play it safe and stick to stock 6970 volts at the max for the hd6950 for fear of the pci-e 6pin burning. Like in the article, +27W is a bit over the spec but should be tolerable as long as you dont have a cheap, crappy psu (remember, there are cheap psu's that have fake output specs).

[Tuvok]

In the 6970 bios ram has higher voltage.
the 6970 ram has higher voltage but I'm not so sure that it's set by the bios, or is it?

[Patjuh]

I'd like to confirm my XFX 6950 has been finally succesfully flashed to 6970 BIOS and clocks. Had some difficulties due to wrong driver, but in the end it's solved :) Thanks.

[razr21]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102914 (http://bit.ly/euBmr8)

Can I find this Sapphire cheaper anywhere else, or does anyone have any coupons I can use? Seems like this is the cheapest that I am finding.


Oh well, I should just be happy it's going to unlock and not worry about the price, right? :)

[rui0317]

Hey rui0317,

Would it be better to edit the 6970 bios by reducing the memory timing,etc.. to make it safer for the 6950 cards?????

This way CCC thinks the card is a 6970 and gives us the Overclocking capabilities of the 6970... and we would have the increased voltage for the GPU only

Yes, it is better to do that, in theory.

But I have to say it is too complicated/dangerous to do so. If you wanna play around with the memory timings, you need internal hardware document , manufactory level. Otherwise you have to forget about it.

The thing we can do is reducing/increasing the voltage for getting better OC capabilities. So wait for the new version REB is a good idea.

[Qed]

what is the max voltage on 6950 that you can use without causing damage to the card?

The same gpu voltage as the 6970, since are the same chip. No data about the ram.

Could 1.6v actually cause artifacting though?

Even if that is the case, wouldn't it make more sense to modify the 6950 BIOS be3cause of the higher voltage?

You will be able to change voltage and other stuff with RBE once it will support 6900 cards.

I think I wrote it wrong.
I meant I am using a 6+2 on the outermost and a 6pin on the inner port. I am using 2 separate cables not a splitter and pulling from a separate part of the psu for both, not sharing with any other cables.
But my point was whether using a 6+2 vs a 6pin really makes a difference.

I agree, I didn't express myself well. What i'm asking to ppl who didnt have a stable card after the flash: "Is you power supply able to handle 8pin+6pin?". The difference between 6pins and 8pins is only the shape and the nominal power. You can have 150W on a 6pin connector as long as your UPS is able too.

[bebyy]

Unlocked my Powercolor 6950 to an Asus 6970 last night, have been running furmark for about an hour now, clocks and temperatures in the attachment.

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/10/12/30/hye.png

[PopcornMachine]

Unlocked my Powercolor 6950 to an Asus 6970 last night, have been running furmark for about an hour now, clocks and temperatures in the attachment.

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/10/12/30/hye.png

Nice overclock. The most I've been able to do stably is 900/1400.

But I see that, although the temps remain at a nice 65C, you had to put the fan up to 70% which is kind of noisy.

[travex]

Unlocked my Powercolor 6950 to an Asus 6970 last night, have been running furmark for about an hour now, clocks and temperatures in the attachment.

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/10/12/30/hye.png

70% Fan = jet engine !

[bebyy]

70% Fan = jet engine !

Yeah, it was quite loud but I've set it down to about 60%, 3420RPM, temps gone up to 71-72 degress stable. Don't really notice the noise mostly have headphones in everytime i use the comp :D

[travex]

Yeah, it was quite loud but I've set it down to about 60%, 3420RPM, temps gone up to 71-72 degress stable. Don't really notice the noise mostly have headphones in everytime i use the comp :D

Hmm, mine @ 1016-1.3v with 50% fan setting only reach 70 degree, maybe you need more airflow in your casE?

[thesmokingman]

I managed to get both xfx 6950s unlocked with the xfx 6970 bios. Both cards are clocked at 930/1440. These cards can get hot now, it's a bit surprising.

[bebyy]

Hmm, mine @ 1016-1.3v with 50% fan setting only reach 70 degree, maybe you need more airflow in your casE?

Yup, I have a CM Storm Scout and I didn't check if the card would fit into the case. Then when i tried it didn't. So i had to take my hard drive cage out and the bottom of my 3.5" drive bays, wells its abit altered :P.

Looking on buying a 600T/700D in the coming weeks, so the CM is fine for the moment.

[razr21]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102914 (http://bit.ly/euBmr8)

Can I find this Sapphire cheaper anywhere else, or does anyone have any coupons I can use? Seems like this is the cheapest that I am finding.


Oh well, I should just be happy it's going to unlock and not worry about the price, right? :)

Also, will I be able to return this card if the unlock doesn't work?

[erocker]

Also, will I be able to return this card if the unlock doesn't work?

For that specific reason, no.

[thesmokingman]

Also, will I be able to return this card if the unlock doesn't work?

Oops, damm meant to quote. Anyways, it's 100% unlock rate, ie. all the chips are bios locked not fused locked.

[jonathan1107]

Hi, I read the article, and I've sucessfully unlcocked my 6950 with atiwinflash with the 6970 bios.

I got the shaders and the CCC overdrive utility working. Everything was going great until today. Things are still working fine, but the gpu voltage and the gpu load jumps up every 20 seconds.

Even if I tweak the +20% or -20% in the ATI overdrive section of CCC I still get jumps (smaller ones or bigger depending on what I changed)

I'm not sure what is causing this... I have flashed my card back to 6950 but I'm still getting those voltage jumps... Obviously, every jump increases the GPUs temp a little which is not so bad with correct fan speed... I'm just hoping I didn't mess my card up. Those voltage jumps are weird.

I Would appreciate all the help I can get... especially considering the fact I'm not an expert with cmd.exe or graphics cards. Please help :O(

[Wijkert]

where do I get driver ver. 8.801 ? I'm using Catalyst 10.12a from AMD's site but it is driver ver. 8.790.
I've seen couple of screenshots where the guys using 8.801 with HD6900 series, and original Cat10.12 is not compatible with 6900 series.

10.12 (8.801) is in fact compatible with the 6900 series and the reason why the 10.12a hotfix is 8.790 is because it is a moddified verion of 10.11. You will be fine with either driver though.

[jonathan1107]

Hi, I read the article, and I've sucessfully unlcocked my 6950 with atiwinflash with the 6970 bios.

I got the shaders and the CCC overdrive utility working. Everything was going great until today. Things are still working fine, but the gpu voltage and the gpu load jumps up every 20 seconds.

Even if I tweak the +20% or -20% in the ATI overdrive section of CCC I still get jumps (smaller ones or bigger depending on what I changed)

I'm not sure what is causing this... I have flashed my card back to 6950 but I'm still getting those voltage jumps... Obviously, every jump increases the GPUs temp a little which is not so bad with correct fan speed... I'm just hoping I didn't mess my card up. Those voltage jumps are weird.

I Would appreciate all the help I can get... especially considering the fact I'm not an expert with cmd.exe or graphics cards. Please help :O(

Do you guys think I could fix this with the ASUS bios using "SmartDoctor" to regulate voltages... I've seen most of yall run your unlocked car at 1.175v with crazy fan speeds... which is probably fine. I'm just thinking the 6950 could get damaged or become unstable with this particular voltage.

[Eluder]

I'm noticing something odd, the core and memory clocks will jump up to the overclocked state (880/1375) while I'm just browsing or in the Windows desktop every couple of mins. It'll then drop down to the underclocked state of 250/150. I'm running the XFX 6950 with unlocked shaders and using Sapphire's Trixx to overclock the card. Anyone else experience this as I find it strange that the clocks would increase when I'm simply in the Windows desktop.

[jonathan1107]

I'm noticing something odd, the core and memory clocks will jump up to the overclocked state (880/1375) while I'm just browsing or in the Windows desktop every couple of mins. It'll then drop down to the underclocked state of 250/150. I'm running the XFX 6950 with unlocked shaders and using Sapphire's Trixx to overclock the card. Anyone else experience this as I find it strange that the clocks would increase when I'm simply in the Windows desktop.

Yeah I've just been told this is because of GPU-Z... It causes jumps, try looking at your ATI ccc Overdrive section instead for Speeds and Temps...

[Eluder]

The prob is, when you have Sapphire's Trixx running, it hides any options from the CCC other than powertune and manual fan control.
The temps do display in CCC and seem to remain constant though when I shut down GPU-Z.

Good to know it's not just my experience I guess. :)

[MaxMax]

The prob is, when you have Sapphire's Trixx running, it hides any options from the CCC other than powertune and manual fan control.
The temps do display in CCC and seem to remain constant though when I shut down GPU-Z.

Good to know it's not just my experience I guess. :)

yeah, same experience with my sapphire hd6950@6970 here, sometimes fan spins up while in windows 2D idleing, and when trixx is running, CCC only shows PT and fan only.
i think that drivers and tools have to mature, than all this minor problems will have gone...the card is only ~2weeks available now...

[Yidaki]

http://vr-zone.com/articles/rumour-amd-preparing-revision-for-hd-6950-6970-/10569.html

[VinDog]

New to the forum, compelled to join after just reading up on this 6950 mod to make it a fully fledged 6970...
Well, yesterday I ordered a 6970 without having this information available at the time, if I'd have known I would 110% ordered a 6950, possibly two!
But what concerns me here is UK consumer law, basically AMD are screwing us over by charging us upto £50-75 more for precisely the same product. Forget its a BIOS upgrade thats needed to unlock cores etc to make it a 6970 - it is the same product off the production line. I have an issue with this.
Firstly I am going to see if I can cancel my 6970 order. Hell I could have put that extra £60 directly to a X6 1100T instead of the X4 970 CPU I bought.
Secondly I am going to investigate the legalities of what AMD further and deeper and look to get an answer directly from them as to how they can have the audacity to operate this way, when laws protect the consumer (certainly here in the UK) from precisely this kind of thing.
Watch my space on this one...
Great for all you guys who paid £200-220 for a 6950 and now have a 6970, not so great for those who are throwing money away!
:mad:

[Andrei23]

Good luck with bringing AMD down, I personally love them. I think I would have been pissed off too if I would have went for the 6970 just to find out I wasted money, glad I didn't though.

[erocker]

New to the forum, compelled to join after just reading up on this 6950 mod to make it a fully fledged 6970...
Well, yesterday I ordered a 6970 without having this information available at the time, if I'd have known I would 110% ordered a 6950, possibly two!
But what concerns me here is UK consumer law, basically AMD are screwing us over by charging us upto £50-75 more for precisely the same product. Forget its a BIOS upgrade thats needed to unlock cores etc to make it a 6970 - it is the same product off the production line. I have an issue with this.
Firstly I am going to see if I can cancel my 6970 order. Hell I could have put that extra £60 directly to a X6 1100T instead of the X4 970 CPU I bought.
Secondly I am going to investigate the legalities of what AMD further and deeper and look to get an answer directly from them as to how they can have the audacity to operate this way, when laws protect the consumer (certainly here in the UK) from precisely this kind of thing.
Watch my space on this one...
Great for all you guys who paid £200-220 for a 6950 and now have a 6970, not so great for those who are throwing money away!
:mad:

Legality? Lol. I suppose one should do a little research before making a purchase. Does this extra 50 to 60 bucks come from VAT?

[VinDog]

Good luck with bringing AMD down, I personally love them. I think I would have been pissed off too if I would have went for the 6970 just to find out I wasted money, glad I didn't though.

Not looking to bring AMD down or anyone, but as I've written consumer laws in the UK that protect the consumer from being ripped off like that.

I can send my 6970 back if its too late to stop it being dispatched, BUT they will charge a restocking fee, then delivery again etc etc.

Overclockers are doing the 6950 for £214, cheapest 6970 was the one I bought from eBuyer at £277, £63 wasted it would seem.

[VinDog]

Legality? Lol. I suppose one should do a little research before making a purchase. Does this extra 50 to 60 bucks come from VAT?

A little research, lol, i've been researching these cards for months and held off on building a rig with a 5870, then the 6870 in order to build with a 6970, then xFire later on. I can only assume your statement is tongue in cheek.

I also went for AMD (again) as their products seemed to better suit my needs and budget, so yeach you could say its a little annoying :ohwell:

No the 50-60 is nothing to do with VAT it is to do with the pricing differences between the cards, see my last response...

[Anvirol]

Not looking to bring AMD down or anyone, but as I've written consumer laws in the UK that protect the consumer from being ripped off like that.

I can send my 6970 back if its too late to stop it being dispatched, BUT they will charge a restocking fee, then delivery again etc etc.

Overclockers are doing the 6950 for £214, cheapest 6970 was the one I bought from eBuyer at £277, £63 wasted it would seem.

In Finland you can return goods for free within 14 days and get a full refund..

Btw. here's my HIS 6950@70 CFX Benchmarks incase some people are interested :)

http://b.imagehost.org/0915/3dmark11cf.png (http://b.imagehost.org/view/0915/3dmark11cf)

http://d.imagehost.org/0259/heaven.png (http://d.imagehost.org/view/0259/heaven)

[bystander]

I'm noticing something odd, the core and memory clocks will jump up to the overclocked state (880/1375) while I'm just browsing or in the Windows desktop every couple of mins. It'll then drop down to the underclocked state of 250/150. I'm running the XFX 6950 with unlocked shaders and using Sapphire's Trixx to overclock the card. Anyone else experience this as I find it strange that the clocks would increase when I'm simply in the Windows desktop.

I thought it was doing this even when I had the 6950 bios. I assumed it was something new with the 10.12 drivers. I could be wrong.

[Fonill]

Just got my sapphire 6950 in today from newegg.... winflash is unable to erase the bios. Any ideas?

[kalviper]

Just got my sapphire 6950 in today from newegg.... winflash is unable to erase the bios. Any ideas?

read from pg 1 and u will know why and how to solve it :laugh:
anyway u need to do it the dos method :slap:

[BababooeyHTJ]

Is this a thread for whining or for results, tweaks, advice and what not?

[bebyy]

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".

try that

[PopcornMachine]

Just got my sapphire 6950 in today from newegg.... winflash is unable to erase the bios. Any ideas?

What was the error message?

You may have to use the command line method instead of the GUI.


EDIT: ^^^ what he said!

[bystander]

Is this a thread for whining or for results, tweaks, advice and what not?

The latter. Most people are happy, some have needed help, and someone offered a solution to the few who had artifact issues. It's a happy thread.

[Mike0409]

Anyone having issues with the driver freaking out? Causes the screen to flicker and go into the driver recovery.

Re-installed the driver and its just running the base 6970 clocks.

[Kuch24]

Hey everyone.

I just got through flashing my Gigabyte 6950 and running a few benchmarks and was wondering is the scores are close to what everyone has been seeing. They seem a bit low compared to some of the scores I've read on this forum. I've attached my findings in an excel doc. I upgraded from a nVidia GeForce GTX 285. If any additional info is required just let me know.

[ale86cuba]

hey guys....so i went from a 9800gtx oc to an asus 8400gs(because i sent my gtx to a friend overseas) waited for boxing week here in canada and bought a 6870 only to find out about this on the thread i made....anyhow i quickly got an RMA for the 6870 and went to buy a saphire 6950....did the flash the cmd way because it gave me the error "could not erase rom" and it seems to be flashed now according the gpuz....now this is my very first time with an ATI, ive always been an nvidia guy....how do i test for stability to make sure its running well? i downloaded furmark but do i need to select any specific settings before i hit go? thank you so much!!!

edit: ran furmark for 20 mins no artifacts....+0% power and temp averaged around 90C on auto fan control....also ran heaven with no probs....3dmark gave higher results with +10% power than with +20%, dunno why....thanks again!! this is sweet........

[abirdie4me]

I don't see my voltage in either GPU-Z or Afterburner, anyone else have this issue? I don't remember if it was there before I flashed to the 6970 bios.

[itsdanny]

It's fine.

[bear jesus]

A little research, lol, i've been researching these cards for months

During your research did you notice that the 6970 has memory chips with the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-R0C that are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective) (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/images/memory.jpg) and the 6950 has memory chips with the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-T2C that are specified to run at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz GDDR5 effective). (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6950/images/memory.jpg)

I have no idea of the cost of 2GB of 5ghz GDDR5 vs 6ghz GDDR5 but that alone should show there is a difference between the cards but also law wise all of the AMD and Intel cpu's are binned chips just as these cards are, as in the models within the same range all use the exact same chip just set to run at different speeds so if these cards were to breach any UK consumer law then all the AMD and Intel cpu's and many past ATI/AMD GPU's along with multiple from Nvidia would also, thus i very much doubt there is anything within the law to say all those products are breaking any rule or law.

[polyseal]

Just unlocked 2x Sapphire 6950s into 6970s.

running at 800mhz/1375mhz atm, 1536 shaders each. beautiful.

was debating whether or not the 6970s were worth it, and decided that a 10% performance gain was not worth +~30% cost (6950 vs 6970). turns out, obviously, that the 6950s were definately the correct choice. i would be kicking myself if i bought 2x 6970s right now. in the face. with ice climbing shoes on (spikey!)

<3

[AdreeN]

So I successfully flashed my Powercolor 6950 to a 6970 bios.
But I am having so pretty horrible idling temps.
I run a i7 920 with corsair h70 in push/pull with two antec tricool fans at medium
In a Antec p183 with 3 noctua PF12 fans.
Cable management is great, pretty much no wires obstructing air flow.
I currently idle at 47 degrees, with fanspeed at 45%
Ambient is around 24-25 degrees.
I also dropped the gpu clock down to 800MHz.
This seems pretty bad, or is it just me?

[itsdanny]

I would say, don't worry about it too much. Unless before the flashing, your temps were different, it is pretty normal for your card. "Idle" temps do not matter, check your LOAD temps.

[Qed]

During your research did you notice that the 6970 has memory chips with the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-R0C that are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective) and the 6950 has memory chips with the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-T2C that are specified to run at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz GDDR5 effective).

I have no idea of the cost of 2GB of 5ghz GDDR5 vs 6ghz GDDR5 but that alone should show there is a difference between the cards but also law wise all of the AMD and Intel cpu's are binned chips just as these cards are, as in the models within the same range all use the exact same chip just set to run at different speeds so if these cards were to breach any UK consumer law then all the AMD and Intel cpu's and many past ATI/AMD GPU's along with multiple from Nvidia would also, thus i very much doubt there is anything within the law to say all those products are breaking any rule or law.

Nice work! Memory works at the exact same voltage. This should be add to the main to W1zzard's post.

[mironicus]

I have only unlocked the shaders of my 6950 and don't run the stock 6970 bios, so the voltage settings remains the same. My 6950 ist running fine with 880/1375 with 1,1 Volt. It only needs about 20-25 Watts more than a stock 6950 in the Heaven Benchmark. In games like GTA IV there is no rise in power consumption compared to the stock 6950. The temperatures are only 2-3 celcius higher and the fan speed remains at 34%. Powertune remains at 0%. I am very happy with the result. :)

[crh]

Hello there

i have a Powercolor Radeon HD 6950

While trying to flash up to 6970 ATIWinflash it says "Resources files missing"

I am using Windows 7 64 bit german version

thanks for help

[BZB]

A little research, lol, i've been researching these cards for months and held off on building a rig with a 5870, then the 6870 in order to build with a 6970, then xFire later on. I can only assume your statement is tongue in cheek.

I also went for AMD (again) as their products seemed to better suit my needs and budget, so yeach you could say its a little annoying :ohwell:

No the 50-60 is nothing to do with VAT it is to do with the pricing differences between the cards, see my last response...

The two products are different. 6950 chips did not necessarily make the cut for 6970. They may have had faulty parts that would prevent them being full working chips disabled and used for the lower spec card. The chips may well have different power leakage and may not be capable of running at a 6970's higher speed. The PCBs have different memory and power components that are designed to give different performance. They are priced and made differently to address different market sectors, and the difference in performance and parts reflects that.

[Mark22]

Ok, I got 5064 in 3Dmark 11 with unlocked asus bios, overclocking to 880, 1375 @1.1volts. That seems about right to me so quite pleased.

I have noticed from pictures the pcb looks very similar to a 5870. I have a Zalman VF3000A that fits the 5870. has anyone tried one on the 6950 or 6970? I will give it a go when some new thermal tape I ordered arrives. I hope it'll fit as it's an awesome cooler.

[Marcko]

Hey wizard and thanks so much for this :) Got my HIS 6950 unlocked but I have one small problem - I can't find the "Powertune" feature on CCC anywhere. It's just not on the ATI Overdrive menu, and I do have the latest version installed.

Is there a separate download or something to get the Powertune feature to show up? Thanks in advance.

[voro12]

Hey wizard and thanks so much for this :) Got my HIS 6950 unlocked but I have one small problem - I can't find the "Powertune" feature on CCC anywhere. It's just not on the ATI Overdrive menu, and I do have the latest version installed.

Is there a separate download or something to get the Powertune feature to show up? Thanks in advance.

Try rebooting. Worked for me :)

[ReallyFlakey]

Hi guys, I have a Powercolor 6950 and I followed the instructions provided on the Techpowerup page to flash the card.

On first glance, I think the flash was successful...no errors. I checked CPU-Z and I saw the shader count at 1536 but the GPU clock and Memory clock is still stock 6950.

Could I ask if there's any intervention required for this? Am I doing this correctly? :)

Thanks. :D

http://www.attalicious.me/images/pc6950.gif

[Marcko]

Try rebooting. Worked for me :)

Still not there :(

[Mistral]

Slightly off topic, but...

Does the 6950 have a voltage table like the 4850? I remember by using those you could set voltage for the 4850 by editing your saved the CCC profile. I'm fairly certain the same trick would work for the 6950. Works fine for setting idle clocks for one thing.

[ta2]

Encounted a series of problems before I finally got this working. Here's what happened (hopefully this will help other people in same situation):

1. Fitted graphics card
2. Installed Catalyst 10.12 parallel computing edition
3. Run atiwinflash w/GUI (i.e. double click):
Problem #1 - here I got a BSOD which hard-reset my computer (the type where each hard drive has to spin up again individually when it gets to the RAID boot screen). Solution: installed really old catalyst drivers from the XFX install CD.
4. Save my existing BIOS
5. Find "unblock.bin" and try to flash. "System ID mismatch or something"
6. Run cmd and "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" then "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
Problem #2 - Didn't run cmd prompt as administrator. The second command somehow managed to kill the graphics output, whilst the computer was still on... Solution: run as administrator (the first time around I got no progress bar GUI when I ran those commands.
7. Restart computer
8. Run GPU-Z - shows only 768 stream processors
Problem #3 -Need to install some recent drivers, installed 10.12 parallel processing edition.
9. Restart computer, Success!

Thanks to everyone who put this together.

[ale86cuba]

after the flash i got 1600 unified shaders....is this what im supposed to get? i thought it was 1536...heres the screeshot....

[ta2]

after the flash i got 1600 unified shaders....is this what im supposed to get? i thought it was 1536...heres the screeshot....

You need GPU-Z 0.5.0.

[ale86cuba]

You need GPU-Z 0.5.0.

got it, thanks!!

[daggeronebravo]

I have only unlocked the shaders of my 6950 and don't run the stock 6970 bios, so the voltage settings remains the same. My 6950 ist running fine with 880/1375 with 1,1 Volt. It only needs about 20-25 Watts more than a stock 6950 in the Heaven Benchmark. In games like GTA IV there is no rise in power consumption compared to the stock 6950. The temperatures are only 2-3 celcius higher and the fan speed remains at 34%. Powertune remains at 0%. I am very happy with the result. :)
How do you unloock the shaders without the 6970 bios? IF you could, some post a link to show how to unlock using the 6950 bios instead of the 6970 because i dont to have the heat problems. I plan on unlocking the shaders and then just ocing to 6970 clocks maybe turn up powertune.

[AdreeN]

Could I get some input on how well my card is performing after the flash?
My 3dmark11 basic performance score is P5117, graphics score is 4957 physics is 6330 and combined is 4903. I am running at 905/1410.
P5239@930/1435
Does my CPU affect the scores at all? (kinda new to benching). I'm running a i7 920 at stock 2.6ghz.
I have my fan running at 45% manually, and it peaked at 65 degrees at one instant. usually it hovered around 62-63 during the test. it idles with fan at 45% at 45 degrees
Are these decent numbers?
edit : i unplugged my second monitor and the temps dropped idle from 45@45% to 33@45%.
can't live without the second monitor tho!

[Mirmendis]

Hi everyone, I have only unlocked the shaders of my sapphire 6950, runs fine (tested with furmark during 30mn, unigine etc, no crash no artefact) but i 've a problem when i Alt-Tab out of a game (for desktop or firefox) and go back in, sometimes i get a grey bar screen and i must reboot :(.

[Flak]

Received my Gigabyte 6950 (the bios switch little lever was there, so no toothpick needed). I downloaded the Gigabyte 6970 bios and successfully flashed to it. Been running AvP benchmark back to back without problems so far. It is at 6970 stock clock with fan speed manually set to 50%, gets to 62C running the AvP bench.

[CobraXP]

I ordered a set of Sapphire HD6950s last night.... lets give it a try :)

[bystander]

I've been having an intermittent problem which I'm unsure is related to the flash or not, but I thought I'd ask. When I'm using 2 monitors, the idle clocks are 500 gpu and 1375 memory. This I expect as I know the 2nd monitor will flicker if the memory drops.

The problem I occationally have, is that the GPU clock sometimes doesn't restore to full 880 Mhz when I enter a game. Once it fails to do so, it won't restore until I reboot.

This hasn't happened with 1 monitor, only with 2.

edit: now it seems it can happen with 1 monitor too.

[bystander]

So far, it would appear that everything is back to normal after removing MSI afterburner. As in a full uninstall.

[Neo4]

Great article and the upcoming change in the PC board that will likely end this means we need to get one of these cards soon. I plan on this being my next upgrade. Now where did I put that Piggy Bank...

[ale86cuba]

can someone post their idle and load temps while using auto fan control?
right now my card is idling at 60C with 30% fan speed...yesterday the max it went to while running furmark was 90C while the fan was around 47%....am i safe or should i have the fan set manually 24/7?

[zpaf]

can someone post their idle and load temps while using auto fan control?
right now my card is idling at 60C with 30% fan speed...yesterday the max it went to while running furmark was 90C while the fan was around 47%....am i safe or should i have the fan set manually 24/7?
Your card is too hot.
Max temp i have see is 80c after an hour playing metro 2033

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/4359/tempsm.jpg

[ale86cuba]

Your card is too hot.
Max temp i have see is 80c after an hour playing metro 2033

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/4359/tempsm.jpg

i think it was because my lil brother was watching some youtube videos on it....right now its idling at 42C...this is my first time using an ATI card so im not familiar with the limits....thanks

[BababooeyHTJ]

i think it was because my lil brother was watching some youtube videos on it....right now its idling at 42C...this is my first time using an ATI card so im not familiar with the limits....thanks

Well it depends on ambient temps. It's winter here and cool in my house so the card isn't running too hot now. I still use a moddified fan profile with MSI Afterburner and will probably end up throwing an aftermarket cooler on this card.

[BZB]

i think it was because my lil brother was watching some youtube videos on it....right now its idling at 42C...this is my first time using an ATI card so im not familiar with the limits....thanks

Accelerating Flash video on the graphics card with the latest Flash and AMD drivers will put more power and heat though the graphics card when it would otherwise be in full power saving mode.

[Mirmendis]

Hi everyone, I have only unlocked the shaders of my sapphire 6950, runs fine (tested with furmark during 30mn, unigine etc, no crash no artefact) but i 've a problem when i Alt-Tab out of a game (for desktop or firefox) and go back in, sometimes i get a grey bar screen and i must reboot :(.

Nobody has this problem ? any clues ? :confused:

[BababooeyHTJ]

Nobody has this problem ? any clues ? :confused:

I would start by reinstalling your display drivers and video card utilities such as afterburner.

[Atarion]

I only unlocked the shaders on my XFX 6950 and have had no problems whatsoever, even with the maximum overclock available in Ati Overdrive. I had to unlock the Bios first before I could flash it, but other than that, everything has been smooth so far.
Thanks to everyone for the good work that has made this all possible for us.

[HXL492]

Oh noes get your 6950's quick!!!
http://www.techpowerup.com/137448/AMD-Revising-Radeon-HD-6900-Series-PCB.html

[gspam1]

Probably meaningless but interesting. I have the XFX 6950 card. I tested the graphics with the Windows Experience Index. The index is supposed to run from 1.0 to 7.9. The stock 6950 posted the top 7.9 score in the Graphics and Gaming graphics categories.

After flashing and maxing the ATI Overdrive, the Windows Experience Index rating for Graphics fell to 5.9 and the index for Gaming Graphics fell to 2.0.

[danc]

Hey Wizard and guys, i did some testing for Powertune and based on my results and setup i think there is more to Powertune and flashed 6950.

AFAIK

1. Powertune is working for Asus 6970 bios. The translated site is wrong, at least with -20% i got a big drop in perf.

2. Powertune +20%/0% does nothing for overclocking stability. Though my OC is a modest 930/1375 with Asus 6970 bios, both settings allow me to loop 30mins of FF14 benchmark with zero issue.

3. Powertune +20%/0% does little for performance too. I do not have COD as TPU, but with several runs of Metro2033 benchmark, i see the following
> +20% returns max fps of around 125-140, average fps of about 40fps, min fps of around 9fps
> 0% returns max fps of around 96-120, average fps of about 40fps, min fps of around 12fps

Sure the min fps is indeed lower, as i can also see during the live run, it dips lower with 0%, but i also got 5fps once with +20%. IMHO, yes PT affects fps, not just Metro, but 3dmark11(about 10points lower) and FF14(about 50points lower) but it is very small to be concern about, and +20% is not a must setting if you flashed the bios.

4. Powertune does however impact temp spikes. I noticed at +20%, my max temps while looping FF14 can hit 3-4dC higher than 0%. Though that itself is small when temps are already nearing 80s. I do not have a watt-meter to test power consumption.


In conclusion, IMHO, I will be leaving PT at 0% with a flashed 6950. :D

[Nutbutter]

Crash crash crash... and some more crash. Runs very instable. Any ideas?

[niemion]

Here's my results with two Sapphire 6950.

Summary: My second card is nearly dead, either due to the shader unlocking or memory overclocking. Read the rest and draw your own conclusion.

The first one flashes without problems. I have tried with the 6970 BIOS and a modified 6950 Asus BIOS, both BIOS works brilliantly. I can run the same speed as before the flash + a little extra on the core. All according to expectations.

The second one flashes without problems too. I have tried with just the 6970 BIOS on this card. Now here's when it gets interesting. Before the flash I had stable 900/1480. To make sure I still have these speeds after the mod I isolate the core and mem and test separately. First the memory, so I lower the core to 800 and set the mem to 1480. I load a test replay in Starcraft II (which I have found to stress both core and mem more than Furmark and alike) and after 15 min my screen is divided in two, no artifacts, but two screens. Weird, and nothing I have seen while testing on my two cards so far. So I lower the clocks to 800/1250 just to try and isolate the cause. Could be the unlocked shaders, but it could also be the memory clock. With the stock clocks I run some replays without any errors. So I try to up the mem freq to 1450, no errors. 1470 then, 1 short replay playes fine, but a longer one blue screens (0x00000116) at the 15 minute mark.

Last time I had this 116 bluescreen was when I unlocked my other card, upped the mem freq to 1550 and stability tested in Starcraft II.

So, no biggie I think, I'll just reboot and lower the memory frequency a little. Terror and horror! At the boot screen (where CPU and memory speed, etc. is shown) I notice some white dots a boxes spread all over the screen. The windows load screen looks normal, but upon entering Windows I get the same bluescreen. Switching BIOS using the jumper made no difference at all. Now, booting in safe mode gave me no trouble. But flashing back to 6950 was a no go in safe mode, so I uninstalled ATI-drivers, rebooted and this time I could enter Windows without using safe mode. But the screen was tearing all over the place and 80% of the screen was green. Flashing back to my original BIOS caused me no trouble. It didn't help anything though, from the first POST screen everything was tearing and artifacts all over the place. I couldn't confirm the shader count had reversed to the original state, so I tried to install the ATI-driver again, but ofc it caused a bluescreen upon entering Windows.

So I installed both graphics cards, the working one in the primary PCI lane ofc. With the crossfire bridge installed I would get different bluescreens entering Windows. First a 0x000007E, then on the next boot a 0x00000116 again. Uninstalling the crossfire bridge I could enter Windows and using GPU-Z confirm that the secondary card only had 1408 shaders and thus should be completely restored to it's original BIOS state.

Now, as I see it, this could be caused by one of the three: overclocking the memory, unlocking the shaders or unlocking the shaders and overclocking the memory.

Anyway, just posted this to keep you updated. Keep up the good work. :nutkick:

[tcool93]

Now, as I see it, this could be caused by one of the three: overclocking the memory, unlocking the shaders or unlocking the shaders and overclocking the memory.

Anyway, just posted this to keep you updated. Keep up the good work. :nutkick:

I know very little about this, but to me it sounds more like the memory would be the cause... or something else. I can't see how unlocking shaders would ruin all the shaders. But I can be wrong.

Maybe that 2nd card was defective to begin with (before it was even flashed)?

[Mirmendis]

I would start by reinstalling your display drivers and video card utilities such as afterburner.

Thanks for your response, i run with the cd drivers and TRIXX beta (i suspect a jump of frequency or voltage when i alt tab to desktop :ohwell:), so i ll go test with the 12a and i'll see if the issue persist.

[Waddler]

Just built a new rig based on a i7 950 over xmas. Just flashed my 6950's from sapphire and updated to 12a drivers. My 3d Mark 11 P score came in just over 9000 which is great and the CPU is running on stock speeds........

Feels good to have bagged a double freebie :-)))

[bounz]

right now my card is idling at 60C with 30% fan speed...yesterday

with me two.

I have a sapphire HD6950 , modded to a HD6970 with the batchmod pack ( thanks for that, because the ROM was locked, and I'm a noob :rolleyes: )

i have ATI drivers from Asus ( and my pc says it's a Asus HD6950 :p )
standard clock speeds, and power control settings at 10%

I can't use Powertune because my motherboard is a M2N32 SLI Deluxe.
powersupply is a Zalmann ZM600HP ( hope it has enough power for my card )

I didn't yet test it with Furmark.

which settings do people use in Furmark ?
resolution, extreme, etc....


I control my fan with Trixx so my temp keeps around the 53° now.

a bytheway. I have a 1680x1050 monitor on it, and a Plasma TV 1368x768

and soon, eyefinity with 3xHD resolution + my plasma TV ( that's why I modded my HD6950 :cool: )

Thanks for the Biosmod guys !! :D

[davetheshrew]

New to the forum, compelled to join after just reading up on this 6950 mod to make it a fully fledged 6970...
Well, yesterday I ordered a 6970 without having this information available at the time, if I'd have known I would 110% ordered a 6950, possibly two!
But what concerns me here is UK consumer law, basically AMD are screwing us over by charging us upto £50-75 more for precisely the same product. Forget its a BIOS upgrade thats needed to unlock cores etc to make it a 6970 - it is the same product off the production line. I have an issue with this.
Firstly I am going to see if I can cancel my 6970 order. Hell I could have put that extra £60 directly to a X6 1100T instead of the X4 970 CPU I bought.
Secondly I am going to investigate the legalities of what AMD further and deeper and look to get an answer directly from them as to how they can have the audacity to operate this way, when laws protect the consumer (certainly here in the UK) from precisely this kind of thing.
Watch my space on this one...
Great for all you guys who paid £200-220 for a 6950 and now have a 6970, not so great for those who are throwing money away!
:mad:

there is an 8 pin on the 6970 and the 6950 doesnt have one, they are different, your argument is invalid when it concens legal stuff thrown at AMD, you wouldnt win

[Waddler]

Agree they have done nothing wrong legally as the products as sold are clearly not the same. What Amd have done is to maximise their scale by basing the cards on very similar hardware and using the software to control performance. If the end user decides to mod it's up to them and at their risk... This goes on in the car industry all the time where power outputs are controled by software depending on the model....

I do understand how this is frustrating for 6970 buyers who would willingly mod the card...

[VinnieM]

I have a Sapphire 6950 and am currently using the modded 6950 BIOS (unlocked shaders) and so far it's running perfectly at 880/1365 :)
The memory on these 6950's simply won't clock that high. Have any of you running 1400MHz or more on the memory tried lower frequencies and comparing the scores on Unigine or 3DMark? I'm getting higher scores till about 1365, after that the framerates seem to decrease instead of increase. The same happened with the 6970 BIOS so the timings or voltages don't seem to matter.

[niemion]

I have a Sapphire 6950 and am currently using the modded 6950 BIOS (unlocked shaders) and so far it's running perfectly at 880/1365 :)
The memory on these 6950's simply won't clock that high. Have any of you running 1400MHz or more on the memory tried lower frequencies and comparing the scores on Unigine or 3DMark? I'm getting higher scores till about 1365, after that the framerates seem to decrease instead of increase. The same happened with the 6970 BIOS so the timings or voltages don't seem to matter.

I haven't checked for decrease in performance, but my first card runs 1545 MHz and the second ~1450 until it crapped out (read #590). I will try to look for any negative impacts.

Add your clocks to 6950/6970 stable OC results thread (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=137340). :toast:

[chistiansen]

I have some questions for my next purchase : 6950 or 6970
I see the 6950@flash and becomes 6970
1. After you add flash card can be OC ? , and go to the normal parameters
2.What problems would it be?
3. What do you advise me to choose?


Soory for my bad english, and please help me :banghead::banghead:

[niemion]

I have some questions for my next purchase : 6950 or 6970
I see the 6950@flash and becomes 6970
1. After you add flash card can be OC ? , and go to the normal parameters
2.What problems would it be?
3. What do you advise me to choose?

Soory for my bad english, and please help me :banghead::banghead:

1. Yes you can OC it after flashing, probably even higher than before if you flash it to a 6970 BIOS.
2. Higher temps or more fan noise are likely caused by higher volts. Some have reported artifacts, though there's still uncertainty to the cause of these. It could potentially brick your card (#590).
3. Get the 6950 and flash it. :rockout:

[scaminatrix]

New to the forum, compelled to join after just reading up on this 6950 mod to make it a fully fledged 6970......
....Great for all you guys who paid £200-220 for a 6950 and now have a 6970, not so great for those who are throwing money away!
:mad:


Agree they have done nothing wrong legally as the products as sold are clearly not the same. .....

I do understand how this is frustrating for 6970 buyers who would willingly mod the card...

Other companies have been doing this for years. AMD and Intel to name some familiar ones. Physically the same chip, just with certain features "locked" (locked cache, lowered multiplier, etc.)
It keeps things cheaper for the manufacturer, which, in turn, (hopefully) keeps things cheaper for us.
Sorry for the off-topic-ness

[siqueirah]

Oops, I'll probably buy my HD6950 on January 22. Do you think the regular unlockable versions will still be avaible or AMD is gonna launch the new rev before that?

Do you have any information of which manufacturer uses the best memory chips?

[Mp0wer]

Thank You so much W1zzard for this wonderful mod...works awesome!!!

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/mpower1001/AnimatedSmilies_051.gif

XFX 6950 (6970 Bios Mod)
Core:940
Memory:1400
Will try and up these settings soon, but happy with these results so far http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/mpower1001/thumbsup.gif

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/11/01/01/47x.png

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/mpower1001/3dmark111.png

[voro12]

Thank You so much W1zzard for this wonderful mod...works awesome!!!

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/mpower1001/AnimatedSmilies_051.gif

XFX 6950 (6970 Bios Mod)
Core:940
Memory:1400
Will try and up these settings soon, but happy with these results so far http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/mpower1001/thumbsup.gif

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/11/01/01/47x.png

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/mpower1001/3dmark111.png

Nice. Have you change the voltage? My card is crashing at that speed :/

[EzyRyder]

Hello chaps,

Has anyone created a modded HIS 6950 bios with the unlocked shaders? I have just bought one of these but I would prefer to use the unlocked 6950 to a 6970 bios even if I won't be able to overclock it as much.

Also, which are the best drivers to use right now? 10.11, 10.11a, 10.12 or 10.12a?

Thanks

[PopcornMachine]

XFX 6950 (6970 Bios Mod)
Core:940
Memory:1400
Will try and up these settings soon, but happy with these results so far http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/mpower1001/thumbsup.gif


5745 is a very nice score.

The best stable OC I can get is 900/1400. My best score is 5430.

Funny thing is that since reinstalling Catalyst, in order to improve performance, my scores have topped out at around 5250. :confused:

[daggeronebravo]

I have a Sapphire 6950 and am currently using the modded 6950 BIOS (unlocked shaders) and so far it's running perfectly at 880/1365 :)
The memory on these 6950's simply won't clock that high. Have any of you running 1400MHz or more on the memory tried lower frequencies and comparing the scores on Unigine or 3DMark? I'm getting higher scores till about 1365, after that the framerates seem to decrease instead of increase. The same happened with the 6970 BIOS so the timings or voltages don't seem to matter.
Can somebody point me towards the modified 6950 bios? Also, does a modified 6950 bios result in lower temps than a 6970 bios (at 6970 clocks)? I plan on buying a gibabyte card soon
thanks

[mailoc]

I have 2 XFX 6950 in crossfire mode. I flashed the primary adapter to 6970 but on restart the computer eventually crashes in windows with graphic artifacts. I have turned down the clocks to prevent any over heating but it still crashes. Any ideas on why? Should I totally disable crossfire and take out my second card before flashing? Also off topic but when I have crossfire enabled CCC wont show the correct gpu and memory frequency for the linked adapter in ati overdrive, any ideas why?

[Wijkert]

Can somebody point me towards the modified 6950 bios?

On earlier pages in this topic you can find the links to them. All have been modded by rui0317.

Also, does a modified 6950 bios result in lower temps than a 6970 bios (at 6970 clocks)? I plan on buying a gibabyte card soon
thanks

Yes it results in lower temps, because the 6970 bios has a max voltage of 1.175 en the 6950 bios a max voltage of 1.1. Higher voltage = higher temps.

[bystander]

My issue with my clocks getting stuck at 500/1375 seems to have been resolved by taking my PCIe voltage settings in the bios, and putting it at 1.2v rather than on auto, which allowed the voltage to go up and down with powerplay. I have a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R motherboard.

I'll keep tabs on it for a while longer.

Edit: the problem persists. The change to the slot voltage helped it take longer to have a problem, but it still craps out about 30-60 seconds after I log out of a game, every time and will not restore when I game after. It's not even using the normal idle clocks, it's something in between.

[VinnieM]

Can somebody point me towards the modified 6950 bios? Also, does a modified 6950 bios result in lower temps than a 6970 bios (at 6970 clocks)? I plan on buying a gibabyte card soon
thanks

Look in post #349: How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695... (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2137622&postcount=349)

This BIOS leaves the voltage at 1.1 so your card stays considerably cooler.

By the way, I did some additional testing and it seems my card can take higher memory clocks after all :)
I tested up to 1520MHz, but that crashed after 2 minutes Unigine. 1480 seemed fine, but crashed while gaming so I'm now down to 1450, which is still a lot better than 1365 :cool:

[GSG-9]

PowerColor 23 21 1 0

Did two cards fail? What was the result of card 23?

Do you (anyone) think the few failures listed are related to power?

Thanks for maintaining the list W1zz (and for everything else). :toast:

[chistiansen]

A question for those who have : 6950 /// 6970
How silent is with unit closed in idle , compare with any fan ... Anything else ?

[dom99]

Hi,

So when I finally get round to doing this next week, I am going to use the 6950 shader unlocked version, then up the volts to 1.175V then overclock to stock 6970 speeds.

But what is recommended for changing the voltage on these cards and what are they supported by?

Thanks

[daggeronebravo]

Look in post #349: How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695... (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2137622&postcount=349)

This BIOS leaves the voltage at 1.1 so your card stays considerably cooler.

By the way, I did some additional testing and it seems my card can take higher memory clocks after all :)
I tested up to 1520MHz, but that crashed after 2 minutes Unigine. 1480 seemed fine, but crashed while gaming so I'm now down to 1450, which is still a lot better than 1365 :cool:

So i just flash that bios the same way i would the 6970's?

[bbmarley]

6950 arrives wednesday be nice to give this a go

[daggeronebravo]

You can try this scripts:
www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

Noob question, how do i work this? Do i just run the batch file as admin with a untouched bios in a certain directory?

[niemion]

Noob question, how do i work this? Do i just run the batch file as admin with a untouched bios in a certain directory?

Yes, run as admin. The Sapphire 6970 BIOS is included in the zip file. And the default Sapphire 6950 BIOS if you decide to switch back. You really don't have to do much except run the batch. :)

[daggeronebravo]

Yes, run as admin. The Sapphire 6970 BIOS is included in the zip file. And the default Sapphire 6950 BIOS if you decide to switch back. You really don't have to do much except run the batch. :)

I thought it was just a 6950 bios with the shaders unlocked not a 6970

[niemion]

I thought it was just a 6950 bios with the shaders unlocked not a 6970

Sorry, I thought you were asking about this: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html

The script you're linking to does take any 6950 BIOS and unlocks the shaders and nothing else. As I understand it. You just put your original 6950 BIOS in the same folder as the batch file. Name it original.bin and run the batch.

[Mp0wer]

Nice. Have you change the voltage? My card is crashing at that speed :/

Nope didn't change the voltage

[Waddler]

Ok so now oc'd my CPU to 4g and hit 9500 in 3d Mark 11 p score....

[dimon222]

Help, i can't flash a modded 6950 rom.
After saying "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" i see this
http://img2.picbite.com/2011/01/02/266561iheax.jpg

Then if i flash a new rom, i see the process of flashing. But after ending i have no changes. GPU-Z shows the same 1408 shaders. Reboot doesn't help.
If i flash with gui, i get "Could not erase rom"

HIS Radeon 6950 (with sword on title) :(

Update: I Tried to flash in recovery bios lol :laugh:. Fixed ;)

[bounz]

I had some wierd stuff going on.

I had the Sapphire HD6950 flashed to HD6970 ( two days ago ) and immedatly my temps went to 60° in Idle but otherwis no problems. untill today.
pc wouldn't start, my graphics card couldn't be recognized anymore, Catalyst couldn't be installed anymore, gave blue screens every time. lukily I could reflash it back ( the only thing that worked hih ) , but with switch on 2 or 1 it didn't work. in short. terrble things, and I made immediatly the conclusion. my card is dying/dead.
my motherboard is a M2N32 Sli

I put my old nvidia 8600 in and it works perfect.
than i realised I also have a HD4870 in my previous game pc.
I installed it to see if the drivers install with this card. and it does.


So i thought. it's certainly my card.
but now i put my HD6950 in my other pc ( MSI P35 Platinum silentpipe )
and behold.... i can install the CCC drivers, and it runs cooler two.
Now i connected a second screen onto it, and temps going immediatly to 54°
but better than in my Asus pc..

I don't know what the problem is, I'm just glad it works again and at a little lower temp. however in my second pc, going to try it back in my other later one

[kalviper]

I had some wierd stuff going on.

I had the Sapphire HD6950 flashed to HD6970 ( two days ago ) and immedatly my temps went to 60° in Idle but otherwis no problems. untill today.
pc wouldn't start, my graphics card couldn't be recognized anymore, Catalyst couldn't be installed anymore, gave blue screens every time. lukily I could reflash it back ( the only thing that worked hih ) , but with switch on 2 or 1 it didn't work. in short. terrble things, and I made immediatly the conclusion. my card is dying/dead.
my motherboard is a M2N32 Sli

I put my old nvidia 8600 in and it works perfect.
than i realised I also have a HD4870 in my previous game pc.
I installed it to see if the drivers install with this card. and it does.


So i thought. it's certainly my card.
but now i put my HD6950 in my other pc ( MSI P35 Platinum silentpipe )
and behold.... i can install the CCC drivers, and it runs cooler two.
Now i connected a second screen onto it, and temps going immediatly to 54°
but better than in my Asus pc..

I don't know what the problem is, I'm just glad it works again and at a little lower temp. however in my second pc, going to try it back in my other later one

can check what psu is the 2 pc using? are there pure 6 pin? or 2 + 6 pin

[xocr]

Worked excellent with my Power Colour 6950~

i used your batch file:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html


100 % Stable Power Control Settings +12 %


http://i53.tinypic.com/erjtx1.png


gute arbeit w1zzard :)

[bounz]

the pc where the card in is, is a Antec Earthwatts EA 500
where it was in but didn't work zalmann ZM600-HP

I also think it's something to do with my powersupply.
because HD4870 who also needs 2x6pins crashes now( windows update, crash, bluescreen )
and geforce 8600gts hasn't that problem ( and that card doesn't need any 6pin power )

i was first afraid that Pci-Express 1.0 was to old for such a powerfull card
or don't they need power also from the slot itself?

[xocr]

i recommend using an PSU from coolermaster

they have 46 + ampere to fire up any graphic cards! nice PSU


i have myself an cooler master 550 gx:laugh:

[kalviper]

the pc where the card in is, is a Antec Earthwatts EA 500
where it was in but didn't work zalmann ZM600-HP

I also think it's something to do with my powersupply.
because HD4870 who also needs 2x6pins crashes now( windows update, crash, bluescreen )
and geforce 8600gts hasn't that problem ( and that card doesn't need any 6pin power )

i was first afraid that Pci-Express 1.0 was to old for such a powerfull card
or don't they need power also from the slot itself?

just making an assesment that it might be the psu. just imagine now u are using a 6970 which require a 6 + 8 pin (even thou the xtra 2 pin are jus ground). But basically the 6970 require more power than the 6950. the 6970 require a psu with a 6 pin and a 8 pin.

just pure speculation thou :roll:

[seraphi]

I have an HIS 6950 and have installed the ASUS 6970 BIOS linked by the OP. The card works fine, but when I try to start SmartDoctor I get the following message:

"Can not find graphics card information"

SmartDoctor then immediately closes.

I have tried uninstalling all Asus and ATI software / drivers and starting over but ended up with the same problem. GPU-Z shows my card as an "ASUS EAH6950 Series"

I have tried drivers from both ATI and from ASUS.

Any ideas? I would love to try out SmartDoctor to see what kind of overclock I can get.

[bounz]

i recommend using an PSU from coolermaster

i have myself an cooler master 550 gx:laugh:

nice try :cool: but i'm going for this one : Seasonic M12D-850 ( to have a little more headroom :rolleyes: in silence )

what I hated the most on my zallman was that despite the Heatpipe, it was the noisiest thing in my complete pc grrrrrr.... :banghead:
it has a 6pin and 8pin connector bytheway.

hopefull that is the only thing that needs changing, or the cash i gained by modding the 6950tot 6970 is totally wasted on other hardware :laugh:

[Mp0wer]

I have an HIS 6950 and have installed the ASUS 6970 BIOS linked by the OP. The card works fine, but when I try to start SmartDoctor I get the following message:

"Can not find graphics card information"

SmartDoctor then immediately closes.

I have tried uninstalling all Asus and ATI software / drivers and starting over but ended up with the same problem. GPU-Z shows my card as an "ASUS EAH6950 Series"

I have tried drivers from both ATI and from ASUS.

Any ideas? I would love to try out SmartDoctor to see what kind of overclock I can get.

Look at this post link Here (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2138047&postcount=433) and download this modded Asus Bios and New Version of Smartdoctor

[Eluder]

nice try :cool: but i'm going for this one : Seasonic M12D-850 ( to have a little more headroom :rolleyes: in silence )

what I hated the most on my zallman was that despite the Heatpipe, it was the noisiest thing in my complete pc grrrrrr.... :banghead:
it has a 6pin and 8pin connector bytheway.

hopefull that is the only thing that needs changing, or the cash i gained by modding the 6950tot 6970 is totally wasted on other hardware :laugh:

Awesome PSU, it's the one I use in my PC and have never had an issue with any video card I've thrown at it including a CF setup. It's also pretty darn quiet.

[Dr.Strange]

Hi everyone,
I successfully modded my Sapphire 6950 to an 6970 using the Sapphire BIOS.
I use the standard 6970 clocks and all games run fine (as far as I tested), but some benchmarks (eg 3dmark or the lost planet 2 benchmark) hang after a while and I get an errormessage similar to this:

"Workload work failed with error message: DXGI call IDXGISwapChain::Present failed:

Hardware device removed.

DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED"

Does anyone have a clue? I am using the current hotfix drivers 12a on my win7.
Thanks!! :)

[bystander]

Alright, I finally know exactly what is causing my clock issue. I imagine some of you have experienced this without knowing it, and I'd also like to know how to resolve the issue. It could be an IE issue, which I'll check after this post.

When ever I view an Adobe Flash video my clocks shift to 500 and 1375 and will not change when I enter 3D. The moment I close the page that had the Adobe flash video I viewed, my clocks resume. Turning off hardware acceleration did not change the result.

Any ideas?

Mozilla Firefox works. Internet Explorer was the culprit when viewing adobe flash.

[PopcornMachine]

Mozilla Firefox works. Internet Explorer was the culprit when viewing adobe flash.

Exploder strikes again! :eek:

I guess I'm lucky in that I haven't had any of these issues with 6950. Haven't achieved any great overclock, but it works fine with 1536 shaders.

[BZB]

Alright, I finally know exactly what is causing my clock issue. I imagine some of you have experienced this without knowing it, and I'd also like to know how to resolve the issue. It could be an IE issue, which I'll check after this post.

When ever I view an Adobe Flash video my clocks shift to 500 and 1375 and will not change when I enter 3D. The moment I close the page that had the Adobe flash video I viewed, my clocks resume. Turning off hardware acceleration did not change the result.

Any ideas?

Mozilla Firefox works. Internet Explorer was the culprit when viewing adobe flash.

This is a well known bug related to AMD drivers & Flash or other accelerated video on the desktop - just google for "ati stuck 2d clocks". IIRC, I think it's due to be corrected in either this month's or next month's drivers.

[GAR]

Quick question guys, i cannot monitor voltage after flashing 2 gigabyte 6950s, i used Wizzards tool to flash to 6970, does it increase voltage? if so from what to what? thanks.

[itsdanny]

Quick question guys, i cannot monitor voltage after flashing 2 gigabyte 6950s, i used Wizzards tool to flash to 6970, does it increase voltage? if so from what to what? thanks.

1.1v -> 1.175v

[bystander]

Use GPU-Z and switch to the sensor tab. The last meter at the bottom shows the voltage it's running at. You can't change it manually, but you can see it at least.

[GAR]

Use GPU-Z and switch to the sensor tab. The last meter at the bottom shows the voltage it's running at. You can't change it manually, but you can see it at least.

Actually with the bios provided with wizzards tool, gpu-z does not read the voltage.

[GAR]

1.1v -> 1.175v

Thanks.

[bystander]

Actually with the bios provided with wizzards tool, gpu-z does not read the voltage.

Are you sure? I could read it with mine. What version of GPU-Z did you have?

[SonDoobius]

Just worked perfectly for my Sapphire 6950 using the batch file you linked. This is awesome.

[crislink]

so i'm going yo buy one XFX 6950 to mod
i should go for a sapphire instead?

can everyone confirms it's a safe mod if i keep the original frequencies?

[GAR]

Are you sure? I could read it with mine. What version of GPU-Z did you have?

Im using the latest one, 0.5.0, to my knowledge this is the latest.

[itsdanny]

so i'm going yo buy one XFX 6950 to mod
i should go for a sapphire instead?

can everyone confirms it's a safe mod if i keep the original frequencies?

sure.

[PCWizKid]

This worked out great, after a few tweaks in the steps outlined on TechPowerUp. I made a video on what I did to show you how it worked and a quick benchmark on the before and after here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEZL5vezYm0

[ranom]

Hi everyone,
I successfully modded my Sapphire 6950 to an 6970 using the Sapphire BIOS.
I use the standard 6970 clocks and all games run fine (as far as I tested), but some benchmarks (eg 3dmark or the lost planet 2 benchmark) hang after a while and I get an errormessage similar to this:

"Workload work failed with error message: DXGI call IDXGISwapChain::Present failed:

Hardware device removed.

DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED"

Does anyone have a clue? I am using the current hotfix drivers 12a on my win7.
Thanks!! :)

Try running benchmarks in windowed mode and monitor your card's temp using GPU-Z. With my card, I found that after the mod, temps above 91C would result in hangups. Havent tried figuring out if it was the core or the mem, went for the simple solution of upping the fan speed.

[SonDoobius]

I don't know if anyone's answered this but I'm just wondering if everyone is running their fan speed on auto or raising it? I believe the highest I've seen it at during gameplay is 35%.

[SonDoobius]

nm, I raised my fan speed to 60% because I was crashing on auto, now it works fine, although a little noisy.

[bystander]

Try setting up a fan profile in MSI afterburner. You can set up a curve so it won't run at 60% except when it needs it.

[SonDoobius]

Ahh, nice. Thank you

[sakai4eva]

Wonderful news in this thread... made me buy up the 6950 almost immediately. Flashed a SAPPHIRE card with no hitches. Maybe some benchmarks tonight?

[Nuppi]

I see many succesfully flashed sapphires on the list.
However i would like to get the Asus version EAH6950/2DI2S/2GD5
What are the odds that flashing that Asus version would work?
Or should i just buy the sapphire version?

Thanks.

[yonef]

I've got a small problem here:
When I try to save my original BIOS with ATI Winflash my picture goes off after a while it apears a msg:"bios saved to file" on a black screen and my PC freezes up (needs soft reset) I've tried couple of times and still same behaviour. Is this normal? and has it saved my BIOS properly or it is not fully saved(corrupted)?
Saved file is 128K size but it saved in .rom file !? I thought it has to be .bin file?

Using win 7 x64.

[dimon222]

I've got a small problem here:
When I try to save my original BIOS with ATI Winflash my picture goes off after a while it apears a msg:"bios saved to file" on a black screen and my PC freezes up (needs soft reset) I've tried couple of times and still same behaviour. Is this normal? and has it saved my BIOS properly or it is not fully saved(corrupted)?
Check that u load bios 1
http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/biosswitch_small.jpg
Saved file is 128K size but it saved in .rom file !? I thought it has to be .bin file?
Its the same, u can just rename .rom to .bin

[crislink]

i need help on choosing the right 6850 version...

wich is the most succesful version with no related issues after modding it? i saw the list on the techpup review but it mention almost 99% success instead this post wich is full of issues

[dimon222]

i need help on choosing the right 6850 version...

wich is the most succesful version with no related issues after modding it? i saw the list on the techpup review but it mention almost 99% success instead this post wich is full of issues
HIS recommended by me :)

Update: wat?? 6850

[crislink]

sorry 69xx i'ts all a mess

also it's sfe using other 6970 reference bioses or i need to copy only the underclocked one to prevent issues?

[dom99]

I have a question, am I right in saying that the unlocked 6950 BIOS just unlocks shaders but not texture units?

But the 6970 bios unlocks texture units aswel?

[seraphi]

Look at this post link Here (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2138047&postcount=433) and download this modded Asus Bios and New Version of Smartdoctor

Thanks! That worked.

Currently running at 953mhz @ 1.26v

SmartDoctor rocks for fan control because there is an option to set 4 different thresholds.
I have mine set to 65 for step 1, 75 step2, 80,85. The result is that the fan stays a little over 30% idle(nice and quiet) and a little over 50% under load(not bothersome while gaming).

[yonef]

Check that u load bios 1
http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/biosswitch_small.jpg

Its the same, u can just rename .rom to .bin

It is on position 1. I've rebooted couple of times already, but I'm doing 'restart' istead of 'shutdown' and then power on. Does this make any difference? I've even tryed to do run Ati winflash in admin mode and without admin mode, same thing happens.
P.S. I can save the BIOS with GPU-Z without any problem. It is saved to .bin file! Is this compatible with AtiWinflash? I have to make sure if something goes wrong I can restore my original BIOS.

Thanks for the help.

[dimon222]

It is saved to .bin file! Is this compatible with AtiWinflash? I have to make sure if something goes wrong I can restore my original BIOS.
I think its compatible.
Else HD6xxx series have dual bios boot. So, if u have fail with flashing 1st bios, you can load with 2nd (its recovery bios, you can't flash him, CANT) and then move button to 1st bios (on cart).... and flash him again to default bios.
http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/biosswitch_small.jpg

[Whoops!]

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/343241

Flashed to 6970 - does this look ok? FPS dropped very low - maybe time for Sandybridge!

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/343336
Or this score with an overclock to 910MHz

[dimon222]

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/343241

Flashed to 6970 - does this look ok? FPS dropped very low - maybe time for Sandybridge!
Did you do this?
To ensure maximized performance open Catalyst Control Center, go to the Overdrive tab and set the PowerTune slider to the +20% setting. The "Testing" section of this article has more data on that.

[Whoops!]

Did you do this?
Just done it now and increased MHz to 910 for a better score of 4653
Cheers

[sneakyserb]

if u have a 6950 could u tell me your sc2 fps results 1920x1080 ultra please.i get like only 60fps and it dips below 40 in huge fights.This seems like balls for a 300$ card.i unlocked the card and have 2 running in cross fire but still the same.i feel like i should get more out of one card im sayin at least 100fps.

[Anvirol]

SC2 CFX seems to be broken on Caymans so u're only getting single card performance.

At least for me there was no fps difference with other card disabled. Also Fallout New Vegas, TERA-Online have crappy/nonworking CFX :|

I hope the drivers improve in following months..

[ZenZimZaliben]

Posted to Reddit/r/Hardware.

Awesome Job W1zzard!

Doesn't seem to make much sense now to purchase a 6970 for such a small performance gain due to throttling.

[Dr.Strange]

Try running benchmarks in windowed mode and monitor your card's temp using GPU-Z. With my card, I found that after the mod, temps above 91C would result in hangups. Havent tried figuring out if it was the core or the mem, went for the simple solution of upping the fan speed.

Hi there,
thank you. It looks like it worked. I only get some artifacts when I max all AA, AF etc settings out in the CCC and play SC2 (best visible in the cut scenes), but medium settings are ok, too.
Driver errors are gone.
The only problem is the fan-noise. I tried to use trixx, but apparently I need to adjust the fan manually.... oh well. Small price to pay I would say. But 60% fan is way too much, though.

Cheers.

[bystander]

Hi there,
thank you. It looks like it worked. I only get some artifacts when I max all AA, AF etc settings out in the CCC and play SC2 (best visible in the cut scenes), but medium settings are ok, too.
Driver errors are gone.
The only problem is the fan-noise. I tried to use trixx, but apparently I need to adjust the fan manually.... oh well. Small price to pay I would say. But 60% fan is way too much, though.

Cheers.

MSI Afterburner lets you create a fan curve so the fan only kicks up to higher percents when the temps hit certain temps of your choosing. It's very helpful.

[Dr.Strange]

MSI Afterburner lets you create a fan curve so the fan only kicks up to higher percents when the temps hit certain temps of your choosing. It's very helpful.

Thanks. Works with Trixx as well, I'll adjust the curves a little.
Maybe temperature is only part of the problem, as Napoleon total war just locked up my whole pc.

[mailoc]

Alright guys... I am out of ideas!!!

Here is my system setup
Phenom 2 X6 1090t at 3.6ghz
Gigabyte GA-890FX-UDA
8gb Corsair XMS DDR3 at 1600mhz
Seagate Barricuda XT 2TB Hard Drive
2x XFX Radeon 6950 in crossfirex
Pc Power and Cooling Silencer 750W PSU

I have tried multiple times to get my system to run stable with both 6950's flashed to 6970 in crossfire mode. Unfortunately I have been unsuccessful. I was getting hard lockups and BSOD when running under 6970 specs. I figured the core and memory speeds were too high for the cards so I lowered them... no luck there. I reinstalled all the drivers and still BSOD and hard lockups. I then tried the 6970 mod that only changes the stream processor units. Still no luck same problem.

The thing is when I have both the cards flashed to 6950 bios my system is rock solid. No crashes whatsoever. Basically I am wondering if my cards are just not being friendly with the 6970 bios. Maybe its my PSU. Although I would think 750W would be adequate. Anyhow I am looking for any other ideas as to why flashing to 6970 bios is resulting in severe system instability.

Thanks

[bystander]

Alright guys... I am out of ideas!!!

Here is my system setup
Phenom 2 X6 1090t at 3.6ghz
Gigabyte GA-890FX-UDA
8gb Corsair XMS DDR3 at 1600mhz
Seagate Barricuda XT 2TB Hard Drive
2x XFX Radeon 6950 in crossfirex
Pc Power and Cooling Silencer 750W PSU

I have tried multiple times to get my system to run stable with both 6950's flashed to 6970 in crossfire mode. Unfortunately I have been unsuccessful. I was getting hard lockups and BSOD when running under 6970 specs. I figured the core and memory speeds were too high for the cards so I lowered them... no luck there. I reinstalled all the drivers and still BSOD and hard lockups. I then tried the 6970 mod that only changes the stream processor units. Still no luck same problem.

The thing is when I have both the cards flashed to 6950 bios my system is rock solid. No crashes whatsoever. Basically I am wondering if my cards are just not being friendly with the 6970 bios. Maybe its my PSU. Although I would think 750W would be adequate. Anyhow I am looking for any other ideas as to why flashing to 6970 bios is resulting in severe system instability.

Thanks

I'd recommend testing each card individually. It might just be 1 card having difficulties.

Some people have been unsuccessful with the flash, not many, but some. If you just happen to be one, then you could attempt the shader unlock instead. It's not going to perform just like a 6970, but it's an increase over the 6950.


www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

Go ahead and save your original bios, then apply the script to it. It'll unlock your shaders. This is on page 16 of this thread.

[Qed]

Alright guys... I am out of ideas!!!

Here is my system setup
Phenom 2 X6 1090t at 3.6ghz
Gigabyte GA-890FX-UDA
8gb Corsair XMS DDR3 at 1600mhz
Seagate Barricuda XT 2TB Hard Drive
2x XFX Radeon 6950 in crossfirex
Pc Power and Cooling Silencer 750W PSU

I have tried multiple times to get my system to run stable with both 6950's flashed to 6970 in crossfire mode. Unfortunately I have been unsuccessful. I was getting hard lockups and BSOD when running under 6970 specs. I figured the core and memory speeds were too high for the cards so I lowered them... no luck there. I reinstalled all the drivers and still BSOD and hard lockups. I then tried the 6970 mod that only changes the stream processor units. Still no luck same problem.

The thing is when I have both the cards flashed to 6950 bios my system is rock solid. No crashes whatsoever. Basically I am wondering if my cards are just not being friendly with the 6970 bios. Maybe its my PSU. Although I would think 750W would be adequate. Anyhow I am looking for any other ideas as to why flashing to 6970 bios is resulting in severe system instability.

Thanks

Your UPS is fine, did you try to put 1 card at a time?

[mailoc]

Your UPS is fine, did you try to put 1 card at a time?

Yep I removed each card and flashed them separately. The BSOD error was from atikdmag.sys I believe. I have been only getting this blue screen when under 6970 bios. No crashes at all under 6950.

[Qed]

Yep I removed each card and flashed them separately. The BSOD error was from atikdmag.sys I believe. I have been only getting this blue screen when under 6970 bios. No crashes at all under 6950.

As Bystander said, did you try the 6950 bios just with shaders unlocked?

If you have an XFX you can use the already unlocked bios from this post:

How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695... (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2137536&postcount=343)

[crislink]

have you tried every card at once with the modded bios? still got issues with only one per time?

[SonDoobius]

I'm actually thinking about getting another card for crossfire. Is the modding causing alot of crossfire problems, or is it generally safe? I know how, just not whether or not its gonna cause me a ton of grief.

[polyseal]

I'm actually thinking about getting another card for crossfire. Is the modding causing alot of crossfire problems, or is it generally safe? I know how, just not whether or not its gonna cause me a ton of grief.

Im running almost the same system as malioc (1090t @ 3.6, 8gig, 2x sapphire 6950 @ 6970), and im having no dramas at all. in fact, both cards will happily run at 900/1400 with the unlocked shaders. i run them at 880/1375 tho, with +10% power. both cards monitored on second monitor with 2 instances of gpu-z, as well as CCC.

not being able to set custom fan curves is annoying me tho, as have to find a balance between fan speed and noise so the top card doesnt get too hot. sandwhich city. with fan speed at 65% top card, and 55% bottom card plays crysis warhead maxxxxxxxx settings (yes. maxxed out completely. enthusiast blah blah). for an hour, top card maxes out at 75deg. (frames min 55+. plays so good. friends all hate me).

ive been monitoring this thread a bit tho, and seems like not all the cards will just change over so easily. even IF they dont unlock tho, 2x 6950s is pwn. i bought them before i knew about the unlock. they are definately worth it.

poly.

[bobbavet]

Anyone know of a program that can monitor in game temps of the GPU?

I'd like to monitor cooling of:

6950 stock
6950 stock xfire
6950/70mod
6950/70mod xfire

then run the same with water blocks.

Am only going to use gaming temps. What would be a good game to use?

[bystander]

not being able to set custom fan curves is annoying me tho, as have to find a balance between fan speed and noise so the top card doesnt get too hot. sandwhich city. with fan speed at 65% top card, and 55% bottom card plays crysis warhead maxxxxxxxx settings (yes. maxxed out completely. enthusiast blah blah). for an hour, top card maxes out at 75deg. (frames min 55+. plays so good. friends all hate me).


Have you tried MSI Afterburner? It definately works with a single card, and it used to work with dual 5870's. It has a fan curve ability. I use it now.

[bystander]

Anyone know of a program that can monitor in game temps of the GPU?

I'd like to monitor cooling of:

6950 stock
6950 stock xfire
6950/70mod
6950/70mod xfire

then run the same with water blocks.

Am only going to use gaming temps. What would be a good game to use?

MSI Afterburner and GPU-Z will

[SonDoobius]

Does Afterburner override CCC? Or do you have to turn off CCC?

[bobbavet]

Cheers mate. :toast:

Does Afterburner override CCC? Or do you have to turn off CCC?

Good question.

[bystander]

Does Afterburner override CCC? Or do you have to turn off CCC?

MSI Afterburner will enable the overclocking section of ATI Overdrive in the CCC and use the clocks you specify in MSI Afterburner to set Overdrive. If you turn on the user defined fan settings in Afterburner, it will set Overdrive to be user defined, but ignore the % listed in Overdrive, and instead use the curve created in Afterburner. The new power control settings are accessible in Overdrive still. Overdrive will still take control of idle mode clock settings and ignore Afterburner.

Basically, what ever you set in Afterburner will override ATI Overdrive in the CCC, and what it doesn't control you can still change in ATI Overdrive.

[bystander]

And if you are using it just to monitor, when you open up Afterburner, it will just copy the settings of Overdrive and give you graphics on the right. It's only when you alter the clocks and apply that it changes Overdrive settings.

[AiponGkooja]

Might be a stupid question, but does the card come in default BIOS slot 1 or 2? It's just hard as hell to get my card back out now that I put it in, but I know it has to be in slot 1 to do any flashing... If I try and it's in slot 2, will it hurt anything? Or just fail?

Thanks,
Aip

Edit: Nevermind... That was an INCREDIBLY stupid question, because the switch is right on top... Wow...

[polyseal]

Have you tried MSI Afterburner? It definately works with a single card, and it used to work with dual 5870's. It has a fan curve ability. I use it now.

as ive got sapphire cards, i was using trixx, but even though it has the option to "enable sync in multi-gpu setup" or words to that effect, the fan curve only works on the primary card. granted, the bottom card doesnt need quite the attention the top card needs, but the fan is still kinda slow, and card still rather warm on auto, even on stock 6950. yay for being a temp nut! (cpu has noctua nh-d14! :D)

ill give afterburner a go and let you know. i tried reinstalled the sapphire util and drivers etc, but didnt work. even tried installing the bottom card, using trixx, installing top card (with bottom card still in there), and using trixx.

afterburner download woo

poly.

[EDIT] ok. afterburner seems to work. just made a basic XXdeg = XX% (eg. 50deg = 50% fan) and fired up multigpu furmark. both cards' fans sped up accordingly. even had all my settings from CCC :D cheers kneegrow.

[calvinbui]

works for me, sapphire 6950, now 6970 :)

[AiponGkooja]

Another quick question. If the first "HD_6950_to_HD_6970_mod" worked, and doesn't artifact at above-6970 clocks and 0% power control, should I just leave it with that one? I know this also may change ram timings and it ups the voltage by .075 under load, but does this matter if it seems pretty stable? Or would it still be safer to use the "Mod_BIOS_HD_6950" and then manually update the BIOS with cmd prompt (since I have an XFX card)?

Thanks for any input,
Aip

[bobbavet]

Well I'm pretty dumbfounded

THESE CARDS ARE FREAKIN AWSOME!

In Unigine one 6950 is only 300 behind my 5850xfire. I haven't even modded them yet.

OMFG!

Am encountering a bit of a problem though. When I cross too or back from xfire, I am getting a BSOD.

Any thoughts?

ALSO I have noticed on my f8 restarts, I do not have an option to boot from my usb to do the atiflash. Can I do it from the command prompt in windows?

[yonef]

Can anyone post some benchmark results with modded 6950 bios(unlocked shaders only)?
What is the difference over normal 6950 on Unigine demo, or any game.
I've flashed mine to 6970 and it seems to have 10% performance increase, but got very loud and system power condumption increased with 80W, temps increased as well.
So I'm wondering what would be the difference with only shader unlocked 6950.

Tnanks.

[yonef]

Well I'm pretty dumbfounded

ALSO I have noticed on my f8 restarts, I do not have an option to boot from my usb to do the atiflash. Can I do it from the command prompt in windows?

F8 will not get you option to boot from usb!
You have to check what key enables Boot Select. This could be found in your MB manual, or you can choose boot device straight from the MB BIOS.

[bobbavet]

F8 will not get you option to boot from usb!
You have to check what key enables Boot Select. This could be found in your MB manual, or you can choose boot device straight from the MB BIOS.

Cheers

I was going off instructions from a youtube vid. I seen them do it.

They may have had a different MB.

Yeh I may have to go to bios and set usb as default boot device or see if there is a boot menu in the bios splash screen. x58ud5

[bobbavet]

Well I now able to boot up and run atiflash but am getting this error code:

ERROR ofl01

I have not heard of this in the forums.

[dimon222]

Well I now able to boot up and run atiflash but am getting this error code:

ERROR ofl01

I have not heard of this in the forums.
Check, you use 1st bios?
http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/biosswitch_small.jpg

[bobbavet]

Check, you use 1st bios?
http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/biosswitch_small.jpg

Yeh it is in position one.

Still getting error. Took some more notice.

It says:

Adapter not found
ERROR ofl01

[dimon222]

You use gui?
Try with prompt
If you get an error like ID mismatch or Could not erase ROM, then you'll have to do some extra work in a Windows command prompt (or DOS): Run atiwinflash -unlockrom 0 followed by atiwinflash -f -p 0 bios.bin where bios.bin is the path and filename of the HD 6970 BIOS you downloaded.

If still doesn't work... hm... maybe try reinstall drivers?

[Chrom]

Hello !

I need your help!

I need the ATI HD 6950 Club3d Bios.

Can someone upload it, please?

[crislink]

i'm in, i've ordered a Sapphire HD 6950, hope everything will go well flashing it

and talking about issues on clocks, do you think leaving the original 6850 clock will prevent problems? can i raise only core clock leaving memory at 1250?

[Qed]

i'm in, i've ordered a Sapphire HD 6950, hope everything will go well flashing it

and talking about issues on clocks, do you think leaving the original 6850 clock will prevent problems? can i raise only core clock leaving memory at 1250?

I didnt have any problem on mine. The memory are certified for 1250 MHz and the gpu is the same as the 6970 so i dont think you will have any problem.

[crislink]

is it safer than windows flashing the card on msdos booted by a usb pendrive?

also changing settings in a stock bios values (like lowering ram etc) will cause any kind of problem (like conflicts with powerstates)?

[The_Ish]

So here I am with my two new Sapphires.. But I've got this problem when I launched ATI Winflash my system just freezes :/ Any ideas? the bios jumpers are set to 1 if that matters.

Here's a pic of my GPUZ.. Perhaps I can't have CF enabled?
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17840900/atiflash.gif

[TotalChaos]

take 1 card out and flash the card still in the pc. then take that card out and put the other card in and flash it. then put the second card back in reconnect Crossfire bridge and you should be good to go

[The_Ish]

Gaaah!! And I who have literally NO space for the bottom card.. There's like 1mm margin lol.. Was a bitch to install, oh well! Thank you for your help!

[Mp0wer]

Anyone know of a program that can monitor in game temps of the GPU?


MSI Afterburner and GPU-Z will

How do you get GPU-Z to show OSD in games, is there a hotkey :(

[bystander]

I don't know if GPU-Z can display it without alt tabbing out, unless you have a 2nd monitor as I do. However, you can always alt tab out and see a log of your in game temps. The log can let you know what you are peaking at.

MSI Afterburner has the ability for OSD.

[GuyIncognito]

Hey Guys,

just flashed my Sapphire 6950 with the Asus 6970 bios and it works fine. But I had to to this flash unlock thing.

And supprisingly I don't have to increase the TDP-Limit. I checked the Frequency with GPU-Z while Furmark was running and it didn't throttle.

Great Thanks to Wizzard, I saved a lot of Money

[PopcornMachine]

I think you're just getting the prompt back. That is normal.

Check your card with GPU-Z.

EDIT: No prob. Glad you figured it out. :D

[The_Ish]

I deleted what I just wrote. I was being foolish as usual.. I had winflash running *doh* Exited the program and voila! Just need to restart my PC and do it again with the other card.. I'll report back :)

edit/ Okay, update time. I managed to get both flashed, but the clocks aren't what they should be on one of them so I'll get that sorted now.
edit2/ All done! Thanks to W1zard for the help and anyone else who have helped my confused mind :D

[Kimo P]

I seem to have run into a slight problem flashing /reflashing my 6950 card :-o

I have an ASUS 6950 oc edition card
The flashing procedure went on just fine, and everything unlocked fine and looked good
until i fired up Bad company 2, then problems arrived!

My system hung after 5 mins of play, and i was forced to close the app.
i went through the forum here again to see if some suggestions where available, i tried to up the power limit via CCC and lowered the clock a little and tried again, still it failed after a few minutes.

Heat doesn't seem to be the issue?

I tried to reflash back to the original bios i saved, but that does not work? and i get the ID mismatch message? ... i then tried to do it as described following the "extra work" link, but replacing the "unlock.bin" with my backup copy of the original bios, named "bios original" (with the space) ... im not sure if i can rename it?? ....
So what and how do i restore my original bios again on my card ???

[mailoc]

As Bystander said, did you try the 6950 bios just with shaders unlocked?

If you have an XFX you can use the already unlocked bios from this post:

How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695... (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2137536&postcount=343)


I have tried the shader unlock bios profile also with no luck. The whole issue is just perplexing me. I played Mafia 2 and Dirt 2 last night for two hours with no problems using the original 6950 bios. It seems like anything that has to do with the 6970 bios makes my cards take a shit.

I may just give up on trying to get it to work. After all crossfire 6950's are still bad ass!!!

[pantherx12]

Think all this will be disabled next rev of the cards all you lucky devils! I'll have a buy a second hand rev 1 in the future from one of you :p

[Beany]

EDIT: forget this post. got it working!

[baud]

is it safer than windows flashing the card on msdos booted by a usb pendrive?

it's probably just easier to do it in windows.

also changing settings in a stock bios values (like lowering ram etc) will cause any kind of problem (like conflicts with powerstates)?

if you're talking about editing the bios with RBE we can't do that yet. we need a new version of RBE first.

[JJ-Sheridan]

Why Device ID still 1002-6719 after flashing 6950 to 6970? Any ideas?..
Guess it might be problem with drivers in future
6950@6970 -> 39984 Genuine 6970 -> 39985

[jimmyz]

It shows that it is a 6950 because it is. The device ID is still intact. This is a good thing, it keeps dishonest people from flashing and selling as 6970s.

[hajabooja]

So have many people had luck flashing just the shader unlock and overclocking to 6970 speeds on stock voltage? Or maybe getting close? My XFX 6950 should be here tomorrow! Also, a lot of people saying that their temps are up a lot when flashing to 6970 (voltage and all), anyone having closer or at least cool temps? Thanks

[Beany]

Managed to flash both my cards. These are now way too loud in crossfire though from the extra heat, twice as loud as before the flash, and also compared to my 5870's. It's so bad that i might just send these back and get two 6970's.

So i'd advise anyone thinking of using crossfire with two flashed 6950's to just get two 6970's instead if you can afford it.
With just one card flashed it's not bad though, but crossfire produces too much heat so the fans now go crazy.

[Qed]

Managed to flash both my cards. These are now way too loud in crossfire though from the extra heat, twice as loud as before the flash, and also compared to my 5870's. It's so bad that i might just send these back and get two 6970's.

So i'd advise anyone thinking of using crossfire with two flashed 6950's to just get two 6970's instead if you can afford it.
With just one card flashed it's not bad though, but crossfire produces too much heat so the fans now go crazy.

Why do you think 2x6970 would be quieter? Have the same TPD once you canhe the bios and the PBC has only 3 different resistors.

[The_Ish]

I only play with headphones so fan levels doesn't really bother me much :)

[WaffleMakerMan]

Can anyone post some benchmark results with modded 6950 bios(unlocked shaders only)?
What is the difference over normal 6950 on Unigine demo, or any game.
I've flashed mine to 6970 and it seems to have 10% performance increase, but got very loud and system power condumption increased with 80W, temps increased as well.
So I'm wondering what would be the difference with only shader unlocked 6950.

Tnanks.

My 3dMark11 scores

Stock: P4325
Asus 6950 Modded Bios Stock Speeds:P4427
Asus 6950 Modded Bios 840Mhz 1325Mhz +20%:P4569
XFX 6970 Bios:P4696
I Lost the score for 6970 +20% but I think it was over P4700

Im keeping it in the 6950 Modded bios for now unless I need the power as it runs cooler.

Hope that helps :)

[BababooeyHTJ]

Why do you think 2x6970 would be quieter? Have the same TPD once you canhe the bios and the PBC has only 3 different resistors.

:laugh: I got a good laugh out of that.

[Qed]

:laugh: I got a good laugh out of that.

Since you cant prove it, only the laugh has left.

[hajabooja]

As Bystander said, did you try the 6950 bios just with shaders unlocked?

If you have an XFX you can use the already unlocked bios from this post:

How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695... (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2137536&postcount=343)

Has anyone used these? No doubting the poster, just trying to be careful. Thanks

[tecnoworld]

tomorrow I should finally get my Powercolor 6950. I hope everything will be fine, since I indend to flash it to 6970 immediately. Since I'm going to keep this system on just for gaming (I have a nettop for everything else) it wouldn't be a problem for me to have a loudy system.

Which kind of settings do you suggest to keep, in the control panel?

[Eluder]

Everyone keeps mentioning MSI Afterburner, just wondering, what version are you guys using and does it work with non MSI 6950's? The only one I found on the MSI site is from September, so can't be the right version. Thanks.

[bystander]

Has anyone used these? No doubting the poster, just trying to be careful. Thanks

Yes, a few people used it further back in the thread. I also used it to see how it worked. It definitely worked.

[bystander]

Everyone keeps mentioning MSI Afterburner, just wondering, what version are you guys using and does it work with non MSI 6950's? The only one I found on the MSI site is from September, so can't be the right version. Thanks.

I'm using MSI afterburner 2.0.0. It works with all brands.

[Beany]

Why do you think 2x6970 would be quieter? Have the same TPD once you canhe the bios and the PBC has only 3 different resistors.

Not sure on this, but i thought the 6970 has improved cooling? i was under that impression.

[Beany]

Heres a few benches i done for anyone interested, before and after flash, and with single card and crossfire...

Heaven

1920x1200

6950 Crossfire:
FPS: 89.8
Scores: 2262
Min FPS: 57.3
Max FPS: 216.8

6950 Crossfire flashed to 6970:
FPS: 99.4
Scores: 2505
Min FPS: 59.4
Max FPS: 243.8


2560x1600

Single 6950:
FPS: 32.7
Scores: 823
Min FPS: 17.6
Max FPS: 67.5

Single 6950 flashed to 6970:
FPS: 37.1
Scores: 936
Min FPS: 19.2
Max FPS: 77.1

6950 Crossfire:
FPS: 64.5
Scores: 1624
Min FPS: 24.6
Max FPS: 137.1

6950 Crossfire flashed to 6970:
FPS: 72.0
Scores: 1815
Min FPS: 25.9
Max FPS: 153.5


Heaven + extreme tesselation:

2560x1600

Single 6950:
FPS: 22.4
Scores: 565
Min FPS: 9.9
Max FPS: 60.8

Single 6950 flashed to 6970:
FPS: 25.3
Scores: 638
Min FPS: 11.5
Max FPS: 69.3

6950 Crossfire:
FPS: 44.6
Scores: 1123
Min FPS: 18.4
Max FPS: 123.9

6950 Crossfire flashed to 6970:
FPS: 49.9
Scores: 1256
Min FPS: 18.7
Max FPS: 139.3

...all the above is with +20% power setting in CCC.


Lightmark (crossfire has no effect with this)

2560x1600 + 4xAA

6950: 514 FPS
6950 flashed to 6970: 551 FPS
6950 flashed to 6970 with +20% power setting: 575 FPS

[The_Ish]

What speeds are 'safe' to overclock to with stock cooler and auto fan control?

[afroball]

Hey guys i'm from norway i can announce that my powercolor card was sucessfully flashed to 6970 but it took me about 2 days tweaking (I finally found out that this 10.12a hotfix shit was the problem) now everything works fine with stock 6970 clocks an 20%+. thanks for the thread!

[GSG-9]

My 6950 is in the mail :)

Hey guys i'm from norway i can announce that my powercolor card was sucessfully flashed to 6970 but it took me about 2 days tweaking (I finally found out that this 10.12a hotfix shit was the problem) now everything works fine with stock 6970 clocks an 20%+. thanks for the thread!

So for you NOT using the hotfix made your rig more stable?

[afroball]

My 6950 is in the mail :)



So for you NOT using the hotfix made your rig more stable?


yeah. I think that was the problem. I installed the 10.12 driver (normal). then both bfbc2 and crysis warhead could run for hours.. but you never know. and i found out that if you use ATI overdrive and MSI afterburner at the same time it could be more unstable EDIT: ended up using only ati overdrive (i thought MSI aftrburner was god becauce of their fan tweaking abilities)

[bobbavet]

Here are the benches I did between the 5850 and 6950 16A @ 2560x1600

http://i54.tinypic.com/2yyb1x2.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/k4i61y.jpg

Im impressed that single 6950 is only 300 behind my 5850xfire.

Once I added 20% power my scores actually went backwards. Close to 300 on the xfire.

WTF is that about?

Is it bottling an i7 920 cpu or do I need to start an OC?

[Bensam123]

You know, it's kind of curious, anyone who has had experience with overclocking could easily tell you that the higher memory temps in the 6970 bioses is what is causing everyone grief. It would cause hard locks, artifacting, BSoDs, and other BS. The bios's everyone is referring them to have the higher clocks. Stock for 6950 is 1250 and for a 6970 it is 1375. While it may not seem like much, it is more then enough to cause issues if the memory isn't rated at that speed.

A lot of graphics card makers pick different memory and don't use the same stuff (something no one has looked into in here), that all depends on who their supplier is.

I'd suggest anyone having issues to downclock the memory speeds to the default speeds (1250). I'm surprised there aren't bios's up with just the GPU increase and shader unlock yet.

[tony849]

I went ahead and did this, but I'm constantly getting blue screens/crashes even going back to the 6950 bios, I think it's the drivers but I've reinstalled them a couple times. Any insight would be helpful.

[Torello]

I went ahead and did this, but I'm constantly getting blue screens/crashes even going back to the 6950 bios, I think it's the drivers but I've reinstalled them a couple times. Any insight would be helpful.

If you have Daemon Tools/Alcohol 120% installed, try uninstall SPTD driver.
(that works for me, same problem).

[pantherx12]

Here are the benches I did between the 5850 and 6950 16A @ 2560x1600

http://i54.tinypic.com/2yyb1x2.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/k4i61y.jpg

Im impressed that single 6950 is only 300 behind my 5850xfire.

Once I added 20% power my scores actually went backwards. Close to 300 on the xfire.

WTF is that about?

Is it bottling an i7 920 cpu or do I need to start an OC?


It pushes the card past it's powertune limits, basically it tells the card it can output 225 max (powertune settings are STILL 6950 after a flash)when you set the card to +20 and when in 6970 mode it goes past this point so throttles back.

For what ever reason + 10% stops it from doing this even though the power limit is less :S

[Kimo P]

Seems like the "Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus" fits the 6950 and 6970 series fine :-D

After some intense searching for cooling solutions for the 69xxx series, i stumbled upon this german site, actually showing the mounting on a 6970 card.

http://www.hardwareoverclock.com/Alternativ_Kuehler_Radeon_HD6970_Arctic_Cooling_Ac celero_Xtreme_Plus.htm

This looks very promising regarding temperature and noise levels, at least until some water cooling solution arrives.

[pantherx12]

Seems like the "Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus" fits the 6950 and 6970 series fine :-D

After some intense searching for cooling solutions for the 69xxx series, i stumbled upon this german site, actually showing the mounting on a 6970 card.

http://www.hardwareoverclock.com/Alternativ_Kuehler_Radeon_HD6970_Arctic_Cooling_Ac celero_Xtreme_Plus.htm

This looks very promising regarding temperature and noise levels, at least until some water cooling solution arrives.

All cooling solutions that fit 6870s/5870s/4870s will fit the 6970s only thing to worry about is VRM cooling which will require buying heatsinks especially sometimes.

[Kimo P]

All cooling solutions that fit 6870s/5870s/4870s will fit the 6970s only thing to worry about is VRM cooling which will require buying heatsinks especially sometimes.

Yes they do mention that also, and describe that they use parts from a setsugen 2 kit, as more practical and easy to fit, and recommend the voltage converter from the setsugen 2 kit

[Mirmendis]

I finally modded my 6950 with 6970 bios with 900/1415 but im a little worried about memory speed overclock after reading this thread :
http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/898919-rip-gtx-570-a.html
Ok it's a 570 but it seems his oc killed the card.

Edit : Link fixed

[dimon222]

I finally modded my 6950 with 6970 bios with 900/1415 but im a little worried about memory speed overclock after reading this thread :
http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/8989...gtx-570-a.html
Ok it's a 570 but it seems his oc killed the card.
Wrong link :shadedshu

[Mark22]

Seems like the "Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus" fits the 6950 and 6970 series fine :-D

After some intense searching for cooling solutions for the 69xxx series, i stumbled upon this german site, actually showing the mounting on a 6970 card.

http://www.hardwareoverclock.com/Alternativ_Kuehler_Radeon_HD6970_Arctic_Cooling_Ac celero_Xtreme_Plus.htm

This looks very promising regarding temperature and noise levels, at least until some water cooling solution arrives.

I'll be trying a Zalman VF3000A later today, was just waiting on some thermal tape. This kept my old 5850 extremely cool and quiet so hopefully it'll fit this. It also has a vrm heatsink that screws to the board. With any luck it'll fit this.

[Qed]

I finally modded my 6950 with 6970 bios with 900/1415 but im a little worried about memory speed overclock after reading this thread :
http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/898919-rip-gtx-570-a.html
Ok it's a 570 but it seems his oc killed the card.

Edit : Link fixed

What you can do to stay within che chip specifications is to use the original Bios and and modify it with the php script. Change only the gpu speed up to 880 MHz and leave the memory clock as it (it is already at the certified speed).

[Kimo P]

I'll be trying a Zalman VF3000A later today, was just waiting on some thermal tape. This kept my old 5850 extremely cool and quiet so hopefully it'll fit this. It also has a vrm heatsink that screws to the board. With any luck it'll fit this.

Super :)

Plz post results if it works, and if any issues with the montage

[Bensam123]

I went ahead and did this, but I'm constantly getting blue screens/crashes even going back to the 6950 bios, I think it's the drivers but I've reinstalled them a couple times. Any insight would be helpful.

If you nuke your memory, in other words overclocking it to the 6970 speeds then stress testing it till it messes up pretty bad, it may permanently damage it. There is no amount of reverting that can reverse heat and overclocking damage. That's why I'm curious as to why there isn't a 6950-6970 bios with just the shaders unlocked yet and posted on the article.

The shader pretty much risk free, the overclocking memory by 125mhz is not.


I forgot to mention I successfully unlocked a Gigabyte 6950, then restored the clocks to 800/1250.

Curiously, I also noticed that the VDDC climbs to 1.115 now instead of 1.1. Is the bios I downloaded overvolting as well as turning up the GPU speed (zip file pack on the main article page)?