2 VTX3D 6950 cards, only 4 serial numbers different, 1 unlocks, 1 does not???

[aussieanth]

Howdy

On April 18th I bought a VTX3d 6950 (twin fan) from a shop here in Australia.
Serial number is PG1103006989.
No matter what I try, I cant POST after flashing a 6970 bios. If I flash a modded (shaders unlocked) 6950 bios, GPU-Z always reports 1408 shaders. Have even taken a copy of my own bios, modded it with a script, and re-flashed it. POSTS fine, but no unlocked shaders.... Just loaded RBE (Radeon Bios Editor), and checked my current BIOS....and it reports shaders are set to the 6970 count.

Another user on the forums, Planetmoo, has the same card from the same store, serial number is only 4 digits off. His ends in 6985 and mine ends in 6989.. He states in another thread here: Mine is PG1103006985 (dual fan) and it unlocked fine with Wizard's script, with 1536 shaders displaying in GPU-Z

Planetmoo and I chatted and went through the steps. His unlocks, mine does not. He even emailed me his modded bios, which still wont unlock the shaders.
Another user with identical cards states:

VTX3D 6950 2GB - S/N PG1102025161 (9/4/11 arrived in stock that day) shader unlocking no problem
VTX3D 6950 2GB - S/N PG1104011852 (19/4/11 arrived in stock that day) shader unlock removed.

The only reason I can see why mine fails and Planetmoo's unlocks, is that somewhere between the 4 serial numbers between our 2 cards, VTX3d changed the design somehow and locked the shaders.

Could I be this unlucky? The serial numbers seem to include the manufacture date year then month, followed by 6 digits. PG PG1103006989.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[Jack Doph]

That's pretty much already been covered in this thread.
Looks like you're stuck with an unlockable pair of cards mate:/

 

[aussieanth]

Yeah im referring to a lot of info in that thread.

I only have 1 card. Another user has the other thats Serial number is only 4 digits off mine.

Find it hard to believe they made the change between our 2 cards which were so close to each other in serial number

 

[erocker]

Serial numbers don't really matter all that much. One GPU is good silicon with all unlocked shaders working, the other not so much.

 

[aussieanth]

so you dont think the serial number indicates the order they were manufactured?

 

[cadaveca]

so you dont think the serial number indicates the order they were manufactured?

The important part is the last numbers, not the ones in the middle.


25161
06989
11852


are the important numbers, to me, and in my books, they go in the order I listed there, showing a difference of about a million cards between each of them, or the 1102, 1103, 1104 refer to year/week of manufacture.

 

[sliderider]

It's better not to flash with a 6970 BIOS. Run it as a 6950 with unlocked shaders then overclock if you can. Also, some newer 6950 cards may not be unlockable as AMD was supposed to start laser cutting the cores. The original 6950's got out uncut because AMD needed to get them out quickly and laser cutting would have added another step to the process so they BIOS locked them instead. If you can't unlock anything then you probably got a laser cut core or one that actually was binned for defects and the cores don't work but you would get some sort of artifacting if that were the case so I'm guessing yours are laser cut.

 

[datfreak]

I still can not get mine to unlock either.

Did you try reading from the unlockable card then flashing the other one with that bios?

Can I send my bios to anyone who is a guru of ati to have a look?

 

[aussieanth]

Ha, how unlucky is this.

I just bought a 2nd card, Identical, from the same store. The newest one is unlockable. My first one is not.

I checked the serial numbers....

PG1103006989 - 1st purchased card. Cant be unlocked.
PG1103006953 - 2nd purchased card. CAN be unlocked. Shaders now at 1536!!

so I'd say the 2nd card is a few units newer than the first. I must have gotten one of the first locked cards off the production line first time around

 

[datfreak]

damn those serial are close together..
I would not have bought another VTX3d as I would not risked another unlockable card.
(and becaue I'm pissed at them for my unlockable card.)

Ha, how unlucky is this.

I just bought a 2nd card, Identical, from the same store. The newest one is unlockable. My first one is not.

I checked the serial numbers....

PG1103006989 - 1st purchased card. Cant be unlocked.
PG1103006953 - 2nd purchased card. CAN be unlocked. Shaders now at 1536!!

so I'd say the 2nd card is a few units newer than the first. I must have gotten one of the first locked cards off the production line first time around