How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

Dr. Phd · Jul 6, 2011

Vargtass said:
Switch it to position 2 and flash, worked for me.

Really? Isn't that a read-only BIOS?

renq · Jul 6, 2011

There are ALWAYS exceptions to a/the rule!

Jakoozie · Jul 6, 2011

Hello,

Unloking my MSI R6950 Twin frozr III OC Edition, to 6970 went wrong!
Already changed the bios position boton and restarting over and over, the pc even goes to the bios or even gives any beep.

Any help please.
Best

loube · Jul 7, 2011

The Switch is not to enable the secondary bios it is to change the fan profiles from normal to performance. I would see about getting a secondary vid card and trying to reflash the stock bios. Link below explains the switch and has pretty pictures.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-r6950-twin-frozr-iii-power-edition-oc-review/5

Migelo · Jul 9, 2011

Hi guys, I have a problem. I tried flashing my 2GB HD6950 power color with the provided bat file but only the frequencies changed, sharders remained. Then I flashed some other BIOSes (from sapphire and powercolor) with no success. Only the frequencies were changing.

Then I downloaded RBE, aquired the bios file from backup (switch == 2) , unlocked the sharders and flashed it back to the card with switch set to 1. But it didn't change anything, if I read the bios file on switch == 1 it says that sharders should be unlocked but GPU-Z says otherwise.

Any ideas?

Regards, Migelo

Skywalk · Jul 10, 2011

This is strange.
My 1x6950 works well with the unlock.
But the 2nd one seem glitchy?

I miss a few stats displayed to the far right.
Could any of you tell me what's wrong?

EDIT: Paring the lower stat card up with the normal unlocked running card makes the lower value apply on both cards - hence it being in the first slot.
Do you think it's slot mitchmatch?

2nd EDIT: Changing slots won't work. It by default in CFX chooses the lowest value :/

WhitePrQjser · Jul 11, 2011

Which ones are unlockable then?

Hi!

Wow, there has been some major development on the 6950s, eh?

I couldn't read through all the pages, but can someone answer these questions:

1. Which of the non-reference design cards are unlockable as of today?
2. Can the PowerColor (with dual fans), PowerColor Vortex II or the Club3D (almost identical to the first mentioned PowerColor) be unlocked?
3. Is there a FAQ up on this yet?

Problem is that here in Denmark, there are almost no reference design cards left!

Only ones that cost the same as 6970.

I'm building a rig for a friend, and he's going for a black/red theme - hence the 3 different cards mentioned.

Help me, please!

Dr. Phd · Jul 11, 2011

So I've tried what Vargtass said and nothing changed. Still seeing the progress bar for a split second but then nothing.
How the hell is this not working on a reference card!?

HammerHand · Jul 12, 2011

I'm very confused, someone please help me:
On the article we are asked to make sure the switch is on 1 position. Running flash to 6970.bat tells me to put it on 2 position! I have a Sapphire HD 6950 2GB and I hear they flash well. Can someone tell me which position to put the switch on? 1 or 2.
Thanks. I'm on the verge of flashing it any second

p.s. Sorry if this has been answered before, but frankly reading 108 pages is scary and I couldn't find a "search thread" button anywhere

Eagerly awaiting...

Dr. Phd · Jul 12, 2011

Normally it's the "1" position.
If you're not sure the documentation included with your graphics card should provide the answer.

HammerHand · Jul 12, 2011

Thanks Dr. Phd for the quick reply. I'll try and post the result soon.

p.s. The funniest thing happened. The card flashed alright, checking GPU-Z it showed what it should: GPU Clock @ 880MHz, Memory 1375MHz. Here's the funny part: in Catalyst Control Center's AMD Overdrive clock is still at 800MHz while the Memory has changed to 1375MHz!!! I guess it's because I had already enabled (unlocked) the Overdrive and the default value for 6950 clock is 800. Do I need to manually put it on 880 when Overdrive is enabled? Cuz when it's not enabled, I'm sure the current value reads 880 at its peak... How about the additional 20% power? I'm worried about overheating and/or card damage

I'm a noob when it comes to tweaking GPUs...

WhitePrQjser · Jul 12, 2011

How about my question, anyone?

gizmo1981 · Jul 13, 2011

Hi all, Newbie here.

I'm new to shader unlocking and the likes, And I wanted some advice off you good helpful folks on this forum on whether or not the following card can be unlocked, I'm not sure of it's revision but it is..

PowerColor HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI 2mini DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
Product Description

Graphics Engine - RADEON HD6950
Video Memory - 2GB GDDR5
Engine Clock - 800MHz
Memory Clock - 1250MHz (5.0Gbps)
Memory Interface - 256bit
DirectXÂ® Support - 11
Bus Standard - PCI-E 2.1
Display Connectors - DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/2* mini DisplayPort
Maximum Resolution
VGA - 2048x1536
DVI - 2560x1600
DisplayPort - 2560x1600
HDMI - 1920x1200
Power Specs + Board Dimensions
Board Dimensions - 275mmx111.2mmx38mm
Minimum System Power requirement (W) - 500W
Extention Power Connector - Two 6-Pin Express Power connectors

And that information is taken from -> Ebuyer

loube · Jul 13, 2011

From the looks of the card I would say Highly unlikely to unlocking.

gizmo1981 · Jul 13, 2011

What about This?

Sapphire HD 6950 FLEX Edition 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Mini DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card

Specification
Output
1 x Dual-Link DVI
1 x HDMI 1.4a
2 x Mini-DisplayPort
1 x Single-Link DVI-D
GPU
800 MHz Core Clock
40 nm Chip
40 x Stream Processors
Memory
2048 MB Size
256 -bit GDDR5
5000 MHz Effective
Dimension
270(L)x110(W)x40(H) mm Size.

500 Watt Power Supply is required.
2 X 75Watt 6-pin PCI Express power connector is required.

Ideally I need a 2GB 6950 that CAN be unlocked with no issues for under £250 brand new, Can anyone Advise?

loube · Jul 13, 2011

Something more like this(Reference Design). Has the blower fan in the back of the card. I think it is still not guaranteed to unlock to 6970. I here there are laser cut shaders on the newer revision cards. In the US there is a 50 dollar difference between 6950 and the 6970.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129171

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127555

HammerHand · Jul 13, 2011

@gizmo1981: I'm not really one to talk about which cards unlock and which cards don't. Reference cards manufactured in the early 2011 generally would unlock, but something tells me AMD has disabled this features in more recent releases. (That's perhaps why so many people are complaining here as to why their new Sapphire doesn't unlock) I myself unlocked a Sapphire 6950 2GB last night, but I'm guessing where I live high quality cards remain on shelves for long and I'm pretty sure mine was manufactured dome months ago. But I repeat, I myself am new here, so you should wait to get a pro's advice.

I got a question of my own. Today I was playing F.3.E.R and the card kept restarting my computer due to overheating only after 10 minutes of playing tops. Later I manually put the fan on constant 45% so it took more than an hour to go above 82-83 degrees and restart again! Then, I decided to run a 15 round loop of Metro 2033 on rather high quality (it takes 15 minutes) and no restarting!!! The final temp was almost 90 and the fan was around 45-46% on auto... My question is: could a specific game (like F.3.E.R cause the card to think it's overheating and as a result restart?!?
Thanks in advance for your patience reading this

gizmo1981 · Jul 13, 2011

Can anyone advise if http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-ati-radeon-6950-hd-800mhz-2gb-pci-express-2-1-hdmi-79BQ.html Would be able to be unlocked to 6970?

My options are quite limited considering that many online retailers now stop selling the reference design cards and are now selling updated versions.

Thanks

:edit:
I posted this like 6 times , thinking it wasnt refreshing the page lol, sorry admins!

loube · Jul 13, 2011

gizmo1981 said:
Can anyone advise if http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-ati-radeon-6950-hd-800mhz-2gb-pci-express-2-1-hdmi-79BQ.html Would be able to be unlocked to 6970?

My options are quite limited considering that many online retailers now stop selling the reference design cards and are now selling updated versions.

Thanks

:edit:
I posted this like 6 times , thinking it wasnt refreshing the page lol, sorry admins!

This card looks like your best option, Good luck!
Manufactures Model #: HD-695A-CNFC
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144544

gizmo1981 · Jul 13, 2011

loube said:
This card looks like your best option, Good luck!
Manufactures Model #: HD-695A-CNFC
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144544

Many thanks! I can see on dabbs that they have 19 on order so I'll definitely order one in for myself!

Oh and, One more thing.
Would you happen to know where I can obtain the bios files and flasher to unlock to 6970?

That way I can download all the needed files and then unlock the same day the card arrives lol.

Thanks again loube, You've been quite helpful on this

reddie007 · Jul 13, 2011

Dr. Phd said:
So I've tried what Vargtass said and nothing changed. Still seeing the progress bar for a split second but then nothing.
How the hell is this not working on a reference card!?

another idea: try to swap the card to different PCIE slot... if any chance, I'd try in another computer.. simply missing the point, why it would not work ???

are you able to save the bios from the card at all? just to ensure the atiwinflash/atiflash can communicate with that card at all?

Anastaciu · Jul 13, 2011

Excelent post, I modded my Asus HD6950, works fine, I only have one problem, when I install Asus smartdoctor it says it can't find grafics information, do you know how to solve this? thanks

Anastaciu · Jul 13, 2011

To complete the information, I used the Asus HD6970 bios, not the saphire one...

Zimster · Jul 14, 2011

So I followed the post in the original article to the dot, using all the files and instructions there. After a few minutes of not even doing anything intensive, my screen just starts shifting around. After a while it just crashes and I can hear sound for a few moments, but that eventually stops as well and my whole computer crashes. I rebooted a few times with the same result. I tried leaving the clocks as they were and only using the shaders but that yielded the same result. I flashed back to the original BIOS and everything is fine.

Any ideas as to what the problem was?

jonathan1107 · Jul 15, 2011

Seeing there seems to be about 100~ pages in this article...

Could anyone help me get up-t0-date about overclocking the radeon 6950?

I have a XFX 6950 2gb and a HIS 6950 2gb in CF... They're both "shaders unlocked" only...

Here are my Questions:

1. Is there any new concrete info about the "safety" of flashing 6950 to 6970 bios? Is it still dangereous to do this? Have there been any discoveries about "how to push the 6950 further without permanently damaging it???"

2. Is it really worth it to push the 6950 clock speeds further than the CCC Overdrive limits ???

3. What exactly is there to gain when you OC a radeon 6950? something like 10-15% perf boost? And what about when you're using them in CF ???

Basically, I haven't checked in for radeon 6950 OC info for the last 4 months... so is there anything new I should know ???

Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
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Memory	Crucial Ballistix 2x16GB 3200MHz
Video Card(s)	ASUS TUF RTX 3060 Ti
Storage	1TB + 1TB nvme SSD
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Motherboard	P8P67 (non-pro)
Cooling	ThermalRight 120 extreme
Memory	16gb GSkill DDR3 1600mhz
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte 6950> 6970 (shader unlocked)
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Display(s)	Dell 24" LCD
Case	Antec 900
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System Name	Abyss
Processor	Intel Core i7 920
Motherboard	Asus Rampage II Extreme
Cooling	Corsair H50
Memory	Corsair Dominator 1600MHz XMS3
Video Card(s)	2x6950 with 6970 BIOS
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Display(s)	BENQ 24" HD
Case	Corsair 800D
Audio Device(s)	SoundBlaster X-Fi
Power Supply	Corsair 1000W
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System Name	Whatever 2
Processor	Intel i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz
Motherboard	P8P67 (non-pro)
Cooling	ThermalRight 120 extreme
Memory	16gb GSkill DDR3 1600mhz
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte 6950> 6970 (shader unlocked)
Storage	OCZ Vertex2, WD RE4 500gb
Display(s)	Dell 24" LCD
Case	Antec 900
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-FI
Power Supply	Seasonic 700W
Software	Windows 7 PRO 64bit

System Name	Whatever 2
Processor	Intel i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz
Motherboard	P8P67 (non-pro)
Cooling	ThermalRight 120 extreme
Memory	16gb GSkill DDR3 1600mhz
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte 6950> 6970 (shader unlocked)
Storage	OCZ Vertex2, WD RE4 500gb
Display(s)	Dell 24" LCD
Case	Antec 900
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-FI
Power Supply	Seasonic 700W
Software	Windows 7 PRO 64bit

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How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

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