How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by yonef

ok, just got cat.11.1 from Ati site and my 6950 starts to behave strange
I don't know is it from the driver or something else is ****ed. GPU jumps to 3D mode continuously (see pic) while idle in windows.
..and CCC still says that this is cat.10.11

Can anyone confirm does new 11.1 has this isue or it is just me?
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/5890/capturejn.jpg

Hey, I was noticing that after the 11.1a install, my clocks were fluctuating like woah while running Furmark. (But they were fine during gaming in Crysis) Is that normal? Or was it related to the 11.1a? I downloaded the better one mentioned a few posts back.

[wmblalock]

To whom it might matter, I was bored the other day and look under the heatsink of my Gigabyte 6950, it has the T2C memory chips. I run it at 1375 daily for over a month with no issues here. I have my stock 6950 bios modded, so my voltage/mem timings are all stock.

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by wmblalock

To whom it might matter, I was bored the other day and look under the heatsink of my Gigabyte 6950, it has the T2C memory chips. I run it at 1375 daily for over a month with no issues here. I have my stock 6950 bios modded, so my voltage/mem timings are all stock.

Good to know thanks. This will help a lot of people. Now if someone knows what chips are on the XFX, ... ?

[bbob]

Originally Posted by bbob

hello everyone
im having some troubles with my modded 6950, i get white dots pop up now and again in crysis and crysis warhead when using very high settings and AA, its fine without AA

i only get 1 dot pop up every ten minutes or so but it still worries me, my friend says it is a driver issue or it would have done it in the 20+ other games i tested (like bfbc2 and black ops)

i used this file in this post http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpo...&postcount=381 to mod my 6950 to unlock all the shader, i am only running it at standard speeds (800/1250) as im too scared to overclock after i noticed this "dot"

i have only flashed it once, would it be safe to flash back to standard 6950? will that fix the crysis "dots" ?

Originally Posted by bbob

i will try now with the switch - i forgot about that

i just used the switch to switch over to the standard 6950 bios and im having the same issues
its just a little circle about the size of a smiley icon that flashes so fast its hard to catch, i tried to screenshot it but its so rare and so fast its impossible
no problems when AA is off though

no problems in other games either - i just purchased breach and played that for a while with no troubles

[wmblalock]

Originally Posted by bbob

i just used the switch to switch over to the standard 6950 bios and im having the same issues
its just a little circle about the size of a smiley icon that flashes so fast its hard to catch, i tried to screenshot it but its so rare and so fast its impossible
no problems when AA is off though

no problems in other games either - i just purchased breach and played that for a while with no troubles

Honestly sounds like a game bug or driver issue to me.

[dulemk]

I tried with changing the vendor from my sapphire bios to assus via rbe in sub vendor ID field, to unlock via smart doctor additional overclocking room.

And than I flashed it to my card(using winflash by cmd).
First the driver was not recognized, but after the second boot it was ok(gpuz check).
I tried to use 3D to test, but there were all over the place artifact(cube like, about 0.5mm) in multiple benchmarks.

Than I tough that I need to reinstall the driver, but did not help that.
Than i just flash the card with original assus bios, and it was the same.

So now I'm back to my original unlocked sapphire bios , no artifact fortunately.

So what is going on?, can someone response please.

[GSG-9]

Originally Posted by wmblalock

To whom it might matter, I was bored the other day and look under the heatsink of my Gigabyte 6950, it has the T2C memory chips. I run it at 1375 daily for over a month with no issues here. I have my stock 6950 bios modded, so my voltage/mem timings are all stock.

Well that does not sound good, I have the gigabyte card and I am still using the 6970 bios with 1250 clocks, I have not had any issues yet but now that I know that...

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by dulemk

I tried with changing the vendor from my sapphire bios to assus via rbe in sub vendor ID field, to unlock via smart doctor additional overclocking room.

And than I flashed it to my card(using winflash by cmd).
First the driver was not recognized, but after the second boot it was ok(gpuz check).
I tried to use 3D to test, but there were all over the place artifact(cube like, about 0.5mm) in multiple benchmarks.

Than I tough that I need to reinstall the driver, but did not help that.
Than i just flash the card with original assus bios, and it was the same.

So now I'm back to my original unlocked sapphire bios , no artifact fortunately.

So what is going on?, can someone response please.

Why not try modding your own bios to unlock shaders? That shouldn't be a problem for you.

[BlackZero]

Originally Posted by manofthem

Hey, I was noticing that after the 11.1a install, my clocks were fluctuating like woah while running Furmark. (But they were fine during gaming in Crysis) Is that normal? Or was it related to the 11.1a? I downloaded the better one mentioned a few posts back.

I was having the same issue, putting power control to +20 fixed it.. so I guess it's probably just driver related.

[decapnz]

ok so i got a sapphire 6950 yesterday and im trying to unlock the shaders following what wmblalck wrote down but im having this "cannot erase rom" problem.
Ok so heres the steps that i took:
switch is in the 1 position
I saved bios using gpuz and backup
i modified the bios
i loaded using winflash then hit program and it started loadeing up but then i got the error msg =/

Originally Posted by wmblalock

Hey guys, I just changed my setup a little bit in effort to make everything work as smoothly and easily as possible, so I figured I would update you guys. I also have a question to ask at the end.

I have my 6950 using it's own bios, except modded to enable all shaders. I had been using Afterburner, with unofficial overclocking enabled, to control the clocks, voltage, and fan speed. The problem I had with that setup was that by enabling "unofficial overclocking" (to increase overclock limits), Afterburner would disable Powerplay and also functionality of the Power Control Slider in CCC. By disabling Powerplay, the video card would run at full 3D voltage / clocks all the time. I did not like this, as it seems like necessary stress on the card. Yes, you can set 2D and 3D profiles in Afterburner, but I found a bug where Afterburner goes back to the cards default fan curve every time it automatically changes back and forth between the 2D and 3D profiles. So, that's no good. With that said, I set out to find another, simple, single software solution... here is what I came up with.

I have since gotten rid of Afterburner and now use only Trixx 3.02 beta to control the card. The advantage to this is that Trixx, by default, has unlocked high overclock limits, BUT it does NOT disable Powerplay, or the functionality of the Power Control Slider in CCC. So I can now overclock as I want, but the card will still idle down when in 2D mode. Trixx also properly works a custom fan curve. The only down side I can find is that Trixx doesn't yet support voltage control for our cards. But that is ok, now I just use RBE to adjust my core voltage. I honestly think this is the best setup for our cards, and the only thing that could make it any more perfect would be for Trixx to enable voltage control for our cards.

So, for people who are new to modding your 6950 and have questions, here is a summary of the best / easiest way to mod and overclock your 6950 as I see it. I will post back later if I find anything better. The consensus seems to be that this method is less risky and better for your card's longevity than just flashing a 6970 bios to your card.
1. Save your cards bios using GPUz to your desktop:
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
2. Use this script to modify YOUR exact bios and enable all shaders:
http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
3. Use this script to flash this modified bios to your card with your card's bios selection switch on '1':
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...ing_Tools.html
4. Download and install Trixx 3.02 beta:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S71ZJ4SW
5. In Trixx, immediatly go to the 'fan control' screen and click 'custom', then setup a custom fan curve that keeps your card at least around 40*-45* idle and 80* or less at full load.
I have my curve setup with 35% fan speed up until 70*, then a constant slope up from there to 100% fan at 100*.
6. Use Trixx to overclock as you wish, If you want to up your voltage for more overclocking, download and use RBE until Trixx enables voltage control:
http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/
If using RBE to up the core voltage, you may have to adjust VID3 or VID4, some cards use VID3 for 3D core voltage, and others use VID4 for 3D core voltage. See which one generates more heat and higher overclocks with increased voltage.



This setup is good because it uses YOUR EXACT bios, which eliminates any issues that could possibly occur by using a modded bios from someone else's card or from a card of a different manufacturer such as different memory, timings, or anything else for that matter.

This brings me to my question, which I will post in a separate post in a few minutes..

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by BlackZero

I was having the same issue, putting power control to +20 fixed it.. so I guess it's probably just driver related.

Have you OC'd your card at all? I thought I did the +20%, but it may have been before doing that. I'll hve to check. Thanks

[BlackZero]

Originally Posted by manofthem

Have you OC'd your card at all? I thought I did the +20%, but it may have been before doing that. I'll hve to check. Thanks

Again this could be a driver issue as when I enabled full overclocking from msi afterburner, ccc stop showing clocks and wouldn't let me make changes to the power until i restarted... yes mines overclocked and i've just installed the xfx 6970 bios on my xfx 6950, was testing and got the same fluctuations in kombuster but changing power to +20 fixed it.

[wmblalock]

Originally Posted by decapnz

ok so i got a sapphire 6950 yesterday and im trying to unlock the shaders following what wmblalck wrote down but im having this "cannot erase rom" problem.
Ok so heres the steps that i took:
switch is in the 1 position
I saved bios using gpuz and backup
i modified the bios
i loaded using winflash then hit program and it started loadeing up but then i got the error msg =/

You need to download and use the script I posted a link to in step 3 to flash your bios instead of using Winflash directly. Download that script, rename your modded bios to "unlock.bin", copy it into the "winflash" folder (which is inside the folder you extract this script to), then run "flash_to_6970.bat"

[fullinfusion]

Hey fellow 6 series holders, Im now a proud owner of an HIS 6950 2gb card. I've read some pages in this thread but there is soooo much to read.

I need to know, is flashing my gpu to turn it into a 6970 going to kill the memory or gpu in general?

also is there a program out yet that will allow me to unlock the voltage control?

[wmblalock]

Originally Posted by fullinfusion

Hey fellow 6 series holders, Im now a proud owner of an HIS 6950 2gb card. I've read some pages in this thread but there is soooo much to read.

I need to know, is flashing my gpu to turn it into a 6970 going to kill the memory or gpu in general?

also is there a program out yet that will allow me to unlock the voltage control?

Some say yes, some say no. Flashing to a 6970 bios directly seems to be more risky. The consensus is that modifying your stock bios, and enabling the shaders is the safest method. Read through this thread to find out how to do so. You might be able to control voltage with Afterburner if you enable it in the options (works on some cards, not on others). Alternatively you can use RBE to edit your cards bios and adjust the voltage. I have several posts about how to do so, just browse through the thread.

[BlackZero]

Originally Posted by BlackZero

Again this could be a driver issue as when I enabled full overclocking from msi afterburner, ccc stop showing clocks and wouldn't let me make changes to the power until i restarted... yes mines overclocked and i've just installed the xfx 6970 bios on my xfx 6950, was testing and got the same fluctuations in kombuster but changing power to +20 fixed it.

here's a pic of my first gpu test with bios mod without enabling +20 power from ccc.






Here's another with power at +20 and the hd 6970 bios.

[fullinfusion]

Originally Posted by wmblalock

Some say yes, some say no. Flashing to a 6970 bios directly seems to be more risky. The consensus is that modifying your stock bios, and enabling the shaders is the safest method. Read through this thread to find out how to do so. You might be able to control voltage with Afterburner if you enable it in the options (works on some cards, not on others). Alternatively you can use RBE to edit your cards bios and adjust the voltage. I have several posts about how to do so, just browse through the thread.

so your saying just to leave the volts alone and just enable the extra shaders?

there is 60 so odd pages to read and its going to take all night...

Any body give me a quick link?

[decapnz]

great, thankyou very much oh and hey, do i need to start trixx everytime i start my pc?

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by fullinfusion

so your saying just to leave the volts alone and just enable the extra shaders?

there is 60 so odd pages to read and its going to take all night...

Any body give me a quick link?

Take a look at this link

Originally Posted by wmblalock

Good, hope it helps you out. Here is how I run my card: How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by BlackZero

Again this could be a driver issue as when I enabled full overclocking from msi afterburner, ccc stop showing clocks and wouldn't let me make changes to the power until i restarted... yes mines overclocked and i've just installed the xfx 6970 bios on my xfx 6950, was testing and got the same fluctuations in kombuster but changing power to +20 fixed it.

100% true. I'm at 950/1450@1.2v. Just ran Furmark again and noticed the throttling of the GPU clock speed. Opened CCC and +20% was not checked. I checked it, after some hastle since it kept going back to original position, and ran Furmark again. This time, GPU clock stayed at the 950 the whole time. Thanks!!!

[fullinfusion]

Originally Posted by manofthem

Take a look at this link

Thank you

I've decided to just leave the bios alone for now.
I have another HIS gpu on it's way to run x-fire.

This card alone is amazing against my *now gone* 5970. It may be slower, but the visuals in everything are way nicer looking And gaming is way better.

I was able to open up the voltage control and also open up the core clocks using the latest MSI Afterburner Beta program. The only thing I needed to do to up the core clocks was using note pad to change the .cfg file

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by fullinfusion

Thank you

I've decided to just leave the bios alone for now.
I have another HIS gpu on it's way to run x-fire.

This card alone is amazing against my *now gone* 5970. It may be slower, but the visuals in everything are way nicer looking And gaming is way better.

I was able to open up the voltage control and also open up the core clocks using the latest MSI Afterburner Beta program. The only thing I needed to do to up the core clocks was using note pad to change the .cfg file

Yeah, opening the .cfg file and switching the one of the bottom lines. enableunofficialoverclocking, from 0 to 1 to be enable unofficial OCing.

It would be awesome to modd both cards to unlock the shaders, and then giving them a nice little OC, even in CCC. That would be awesome; that's what I want to do!

[fullinfusion]

Originally Posted by manofthem

Yeah, opening the .cfg file and switching the one of the bottom lines. enableunofficialoverclocking, from 0 to 1 to be enable unofficial OCing.

It would be awesome to modd both cards to unlock the shaders, and then giving them a nice little OC, even in CCC. That would be awesome; that's what I want to do!

That's cool! Let me know how it works for ya. And I'll let you know if I do it b4 you.

[yonef]

Originally Posted by manofthem

Hey, I was noticing that after the 11.1a install, my clocks were fluctuating like woah while running Furmark. (But they were fine during gaming in Crysis) Is that normal? Or was it related to the 11.1a? I downloaded the better one mentioned a few posts back.

Originally Posted by BlackZero

here's a pic of my first gpu test with bios mod without enabling +20 power from ccc.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6472/6970test.th.jpg




Here's another with power at +20 and the hd 6970 bios.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/7691/6970clocks.th.jpg

It is meant to be like that !
No matter what driver you use, this it the PowerPlay fearute of ATI 6900 series cards. It is normal to throttle GPU clock while it consumes enormous power. There goes the Power control feature in CCC where you can adjust how much power your GPU can use before it starts to throttle. This will not happen in any game(if stock clocks are used) because the power consumption ingames are no where near what furmark can do.

This is not relevant to the problem where I described in post #1552, when GPU clock jumps to 800Mhz while idleing in windows! (when 11.1 are used)

[JimmyJump]

I flashed both my Sapphire HD6950's with the Sapphire 6970 BIOS without a problem (that is, I had to do it through the command prompt).

Only weird thing I had is that the speeds of both cards were set to those of my Asus 5870 Matrix Platinum 2GB card, which ran at 900MHz.

I have performed benches in both 3DMark11 and Unigine Heaven 2.1 before and after. With the former and 11.1 drivers and with and without the power upgrade.

Everything has worked fine so far, except for my temperatures to go sky high on the upper card, but that is due to the cards sitting too close to each other on the mainboard (Asus Maximus III Gene LGA1156 µATX)...

Latest benchmarks are at P9164 in 3DMark11 and 2500 points (normal tessellation) 3541 points (no Tessellation) in Unigine Heaven... If you want pics, I have 'em


@Yonef: I also have the 'issue' with my main card jumping to 800MHz when idle. That is to say, I only have it when my desktop switches background...

Originally Posted by wmblalock

To whom it might matter, I was bored the other day and look under the heatsink of my Gigabyte 6950, it has the T2C memory chips. I run it at 1375 daily for over a month with no issues here. I have my stock 6950 bios modded, so my voltage/mem timings are all stock.

After my flashing, my cards have set themselves to 900MHz GPU Clock & 1375MHz Memory Clock... I leave 'em like that and don't have any problems so far...