How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[winston856]

I've got myself an MSI twin frozr II 6950 2GB without the bios switch that I'm trying to unlock but keep hitting a wall.

I either get a message saying "cannot erase rom" or "rom not erased" depending on which method I use.

I've tried just using the latest atiwinflash and RBE 1.28 to modify and flash the bios but it ends up with one of those messages.

It's worth mentioning I think that I'm using windows 8 64 bit and am trying to flash in windows. I've tried using the command prompt (run as admin) in windows as well but it also fails me.

When I run the command "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" I get a message saying "rom unlocked". Then I run "atiwinflash -f -p 0 modifiedbios.rom (I've tried renaming it to .bin which produces the same result.)

I'm stuck and I don't know what's wrong, can anyone offer any assistance please?

Edit: I wanted to update this in case someone was following it. I managed to unlock the shaders on this card. I had to make a bootable dos flash drive and was able to flash successfully through that without even having to unlock the rom.

The gpu would only accept a bios that had the shaders unlocked. I was using RBE and editing the overclocking limits along with unlocking the shaders. If I flashed a bios with modified frequency limits the card would not boot into windows.

[vvulture]

AFAIK this trick only works on reference cards ( not 100% sure ).

[winston856]

Originally Posted by vvulture

AFAIK this trick only works on reference cards ( not 100% sure ).

I was able to finally get it unlocked, though I couldn't change the frequency limits at all.

[vvulture]

Thats correct... you can't change the core / mem speeds in BIOS. Only the voltage.
Otherwise, you will BSOD on bootup.

Thank you AMD for placing these restrictions.

[winston856]

Originally Posted by vvulture

Thats correct... you can't change the core / mem speeds in BIOS. Only the voltage.
Otherwise, you will BSOD on bootup.

Thank you AMD for placing these restrictions.

Ah well I was trying to raise the core limit to more than 840MHz. The card is maxed out in the CCC and it runs perfectly stable. I thought I read in the techpowerup guide that you could modify those limits.

I didn't know if I was doing something wrong or if you just can't like you say.

[brandonwh64]

This trick works on non reference cards as well. The only extra steps you have to do is unlock the bios to be able to flash using the "Bubble Gum" method. I did this on my XFX non reference card and it worked perfect.

[loopingz]

I have a 6950 1gb. I prepared a bios with unlocked 6970 shaders using rbe. It flashes ok. Then at reboot the shader count is the same with gpu-z. If I download the new bios it appears unlocked to rbe but still the same to gpu-z.
I guess it is just bad luck but maybe I missed something.

[Iamcute]

So I tried today to unlock shaders on my 2x 6950 2gb. 1 sapphire and 1 powercolor.
First of all I started of by, of course, saving the bios. I tried to download the 6970 bios when I was at step 2. Though I was unable to save it. It just asked me what program I wanted to use to open it... I was like meh. But then I found the folder you put together for noobs. I turned my PC off, removed 1 card, changed the bios to switch 1. Opened the folder. Pressed the file ''unlock to 6970 ''. It loaded and after like 10 sec it asked me to restart. I did but It didn't even boot. I had this red light on my MB and it just didn't want to boot. I switched to 2nd switch and was really disappointed.
Just for the heck of it, I tried with my powercolor this time. Same procedure. Ran the ''unlock to 6970 ''. It asked me to restart, didn't want to boot this one either. Same light. This leads me to think that it is something wrong with that command you are using instead of having to open the winflash.

Ideas? To start with. How can I save the .ROM files? After I downloaded it I double clicked it and it just asked me to open it with what, not save it...

[SetsunaFZero]

have u tried to load yr bios in rbe, unlock the shaders from there and flash the bios with atiwinflash?
If this didn't work then u might have a newer 6950 card with altered bios circuit, this makes shader unlocking impossible. But still u can OC ur 6950 to 6970 clocks, the performance should be close to the 6970s

[MaxMax]

Hi all, i encountered a weird problem: i changed my system from AMD Crosshair V 990FX mainboard (with Phenom X6 1055T) to a MSI Z68 GD45 Gen3 (PCI 3.0 ready) with Intel Xeon 1230v2 cpu. so far so good, but when i install my Sapphire 6950 2GB (purchased ~dec.2011 and immediatly flashed in dec. 2011 the full Sapphire 6970 bios on bios switch pos. 2) the MSI + xeon system would not boot at all with the bios switch switched to the "6970" bios?!
the same card ran without any problems on the former AMD sys, even when i return it there, it will boot straight to windows and i can run 3D games with all shaders enabled...but when i insert the same card to the new MSI z68 + xeon setup, the graphics card would only post to BIOS screen with the original 6950 bios enabled, as soon as i flip the switch to 6970 factory bios, i get no signal out of the card...altough cpu and vga fans start to spin, and the sys seems to boot (no beeps or any other error). i flashed already latest bios onto the msi z68 mainboard, and disabled PCIe 3.0 in UEFI bios but still no go with @6970 bios, 6950 bios but nethertheless works perfect on the MSI z68 + xeon setup (post screen, win boot, 3d games....) any one an idea why the identical 6950@6970 card would work on AMD system as an 6970 but does only work as a 6950 on intel sys? both mainboards have UEFI bios....i have no idea....
greets

[tzirf203]

MaxMax,

I ran into a similar problem about 8 months ago when I built an Ivy Bridge system and moved my XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB video card to it from my former AMD Phenom II X6 based system. After doing some testing I found that there seems to be an issue with video output when running a Radeon HD 6950 unlocked to a 6970 on PCI-Express 3.0. I originally thought the problem might be UEFI because I moved from a system with traditional bios, but after doing some test with a system that uses UEFI but doesn't have PCI-Express 3.0 my theory was thrown out the window when the video card worked.

I looked all over the internet hoping someone had a fix for this that maybe it requires a tweak in the bios used to flash the 6950 to 6970 cards. Unfortunately I was unable to find anything, so I was forced to lose the performance and run the card as a stock Radeon HD 6950. Cheers

[jmcslob]

I have the same issue with my card...was unlocked to a 6970 and worked just fine until I upgraded to a MSI Z77A-G45 with a I5 3570 and now it wont do the 6970 clocks at all but I was able to use the HIS unlocked shaders bios for the reference cards...I have just the shaders unlocked and the card OC'd at 840/1275....good enough I guess.

My mobo has an option to disable PCI-E GEN 3 and have it run at PCI-E GEN2 but it didn't work....for the 6970 unlock...

[tzirf203]

Originally Posted by jmcslob

I have the same issue with my card...was unlocked to a 6970 and worked just fine until I upgraded to a MSI Z77A-G45 with a I5 3570 and now it wont do the 6970 clocks at all but I was able to use the HIS unlocked shaders bios for the reference cards...I have just the shaders unlocked and the card OC'd at 840/1275....good enough I guess.

My mobo has an option to disable PCI-E GEN 3 and have it run at PCI-E GEN2 but it didn't work....for the 6970 unlock...

Are you saying that you have a bios that unlock the shaders but leaves the reference mem/core frequency for the 6950? I know the bios I used to flash my 6950 to a 6970 increased the base core/memory frequency to 880/1375. If that is the problem I wonder if I underclock the card back to 800/1275 if that would fix the problem. Where can I find these bios to unlock the shaders? Whats the performance increase like? Cheers

[SetsunaFZero]

Originally Posted by tzirf203

Are you saying that you have a bios that unlock the shaders but leaves the reference mem/core frequency for the 6950? I know the bios I used to flash my 6950 to a 6970 increased the base core/memory frequency to 880/1375. If that is the problem I wonder if I underclock the card back to 800/1275 if that would fix the problem. Where can I find these bios to unlock the shaders? Whats the performance increase like? Cheers

Actually its not safe to flash a different bios except for reference boards. Many boards have different memory and timings setting. Flashing the wrong bios may cause NoBoot or you could even brake your card.

Read your Original bios from the EERom, unlock the extra shaders via RBE and flash your unlocked bios. If the card is still locked than ur one of the unlucky folks.
My old card XFX 6950 2GB XXX Edition was also unlockable :/
cheers

[tzirf203]

Originally Posted by SetsunaFZero

Actually its not safe to flash a different bios except for reference boards. Many boards have different memory and timings setting. Flashing the wrong bios may cause NoBoot or you could even brake your card.

Read your Original bios from the EERom, unlock the extra shaders via RBE and flash your unlocked bios. If the card is still locked than ur one of the unlucky folks.
My old card XFX 6950 2GB XXX Edition was also unlockable :/
cheers

As I stated in my previous post I already flashed it to a 6970 and it worked. The issue lies with my new system being PCI-Express 3.0. Also FYI I have a reference design. If he has a bios that works with PCI-Express 3.0 I would like to give it a try. I know the risks and I ain't worried I have the bios switch on my card. If I can get the unlocked shaders that bit of extra performance is better than nothing. That being said if you think I an achieve this another way can you give me more detailed instructions? I know RBE and EERom, that being said to unlock the shaders, does that require manually changing the bios or does RGE have a built in function for it?

EDIT: Never mind I figured it out. Thanks for letting me know about this I will post back to let everyone know if it worked. :-)

[Uranium]

For the 6950@6970 and the UEFI problem:
- start with the 2nd bios
- open your 6970 bios with RBE
- change the pid for a 6950
- flash the first bios

[jmcslob]

OMG Thanks Uranium....It was that simple LOL-Awesome!!!


Never thought all you had to do was to change the name to HD6950 and pick the right vender info and voila!
Nice


Follow at your own risk
Directions:
Download ATI Winflash and RBE
I save all my GFX ROM files in the WinFlash folder to make them easier to find
Load your 6970 bios in RBE


Go To:
Where it says Sub Vender ID/ Video card
On Video card tab click the drop down box and select HD 6950

and then click save and save again to save...let it auto title it to make it easier to find.
I use WinFlash to flash my cards...
From there I turn off all other programs..including antivirus
I then go into Wnflash as an Admin (right click run as Admin)
Load up my changed BIOS and program it onto the 6950...my screen went black for a few minutes and then hung on BIOS successfully installed-rebooted and all was well.

[Johnf186]

Hy, i did all the steps but I could not change shader and nothing, absolutely everything is the same. Please help me!

[zubinvig]

Originally Posted by W1zzard

nothing is impossible, but the maximum i would expect from amd is that future cards are properly fused on-die and not using the bios

Can msi hd 6950 twin frozr iii be fully unlocked like with bandwidth n everything else like 6970 and not only shaders ,memory clock and core clock???plzz replyyy

[TRWOV]

Originally Posted by zubinvig

Can msi hd 6950 twin frozr iii be fully unlocked like with bandwidth n everything else like 6970 and not only shaders ,memory clock and core clock???plzz replyyy

Luck of the draw. You won't know until you try it.

[k1d0n]

Hey,

So I have two 6950 cards. I flashed to 6970 on one, and it worked. GPU-Z showed the proper shader count, etc.

I installed a new cooler on my second 6950 and removed the one I flashed to 6970. I try the flash with this card (same model and everything) and WinFlash says it worked, but GPU-Z (latest version) doesn't show a difference.

But in my Graphics OverDrive panel for Catalyst, the CPU clock speed went up to 950 and the memory clock settings went up to 1450. So did it work?