How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[Phobic]

i just successfully flashed my HIS 6950 using the batch files provided in the first post. gpu-z reports the right shaders and clock speeds for 6970 and 3dmark 06 runs fine (albeit with minimal score increase due to my highly limiting 5600+ processor). however there are a couple wonky issues. crysis won't start, the screen goes black like it is about to and then just goes right back to desktop, one time changing my rez to 1024x768. (warhead works fine). also, and of more concern, the display doesn't kick in until the welcome screen of windows on startup, meaning i have no access to bios or safe mode.

any ideas on these other than restore back to 6950 bios? i am a little unclear as to what that batch file actually did, is the card 100% 6970 now, or do i need to boost the power or voltage or something myself? i went through the thread as best i could, but with one this large i apologize if these questions have already been answered.

edit: restoring original bios does not fix the problems. crap. what now?

[danc]

reinstall catalyst drivers?

[wazgoingon?]

Hi all, just needed some help on the XFX 6950 VER 1.2. I have a ver 1.1 card and flashed and I was able to overclock it beyond the 880/1375 setting after it flashed. My problem is I have purchased a second card for my friend and have sort of successfully flashed it to the 6970 bios. HOWEVER...the shader to start with was only 7xx unified instead of the 14xx unified setting as referenced on page 1 of this thread. After I flashed the VER 1.2 xfx 6950 with any of the bios for the 6970, for example, I used the Asus aggressive bios and flashed perfectly except now the shader is only showing 768 unified instead of 1536 unified. Has XFX done something in version 1.2 of their cards or am I missing something? Again I was successful on my ver 1.1 but I have no clue what's happening on the 1.2.


Any suggestions? Thanks!

[manofthem]

Originally Posted by wazgoingon?

Hi all, just needed some help on the XFX 6950 VER 1.2. I have a ver 1.1 card and flashed and I was able to overclock it beyond the 880/1375 setting after it flashed. My problem is I have purchased a second card for my friend and have sort of successfully flashed it to the 6970 bios. HOWEVER...the shader to start with was only 7xx unified instead of the 14xx unified setting as referenced on page 1 of this thread. After I flashed the VER 1.2 xfx 6950 with any of the bios for the 6970, for example, I used the Asus aggressive bios and flashed perfectly except now the shader is only showing 768 unified instead of 1536 unified. Has XFX done something in version 1.2 of their cards or am I missing something? Again I was successful on my ver 1.1 but I have no clue what's happening on the 1.2.


Any suggestions? Thanks!

XFX told me:

Originally Posted by manofthem

"We don’t support anything other than software modification of a card, any permanent modification to a card that cant be undone or that damages the card wont be supported by warranty. Later revisions of the 6950 will be damaged by trying to flash with a 6970 BIOS."

Maybe thats what happened?

[wazgoingon?]

Darn, I guess I'll try to return it tomorrow and try to find an older 1.1. Has anyone else tried the Ver 1.2 with similar results?

[fire2havoc]

I just got my HIS 6950.

Which 6970 BIOS should I use? Do I need to use the HIS 6970 BIOS or will any bios work?

Is a particular BIOS more stable and preferred among the people here who have already flashed their cards?

Thanks.

[rui0317]

Originally Posted by wazgoingon?

Hi all, just needed some help on the XFX 6950 VER 1.2. I have a ver 1.1 card and flashed and I was able to overclock it beyond the 880/1375 setting after it flashed. My problem is I have purchased a second card for my friend and have sort of successfully flashed it to the 6970 bios. HOWEVER...the shader to start with was only 7xx unified instead of the 14xx unified setting as referenced on page 1 of this thread. After I flashed the VER 1.2 xfx 6950 with any of the bios for the 6970, for example, I used the Asus aggressive bios and flashed perfectly except now the shader is only showing 768 unified instead of 1536 unified. Has XFX done something in version 1.2 of their cards or am I missing something? Again I was successful on my ver 1.1 but I have no clue what's happening on the 1.2.


Any suggestions? Thanks!

Interesting. Infact, if you see "768", that means you've got the extra shaders which you expected after flash the 6970's bios to your v1.2 6950.

6900 serise has two core inside:
6950 = "704" * "2" = 1408 shaders
6970 = "768" * "2" = 1536 shaders
"2" means two core enabled.

As you can see, all what we did here was trying to unlock "704" to "768", the "2" should be a constant because it should be hard-wired inside the core.

So if you see "768" after flash BIOS, that means "2" has been changed to "1".

Maybe the state register of "2" has been reset after BIOS flashed. So my suggestion is try to unlock the extra shaders on the original v1.2 6950 BIOS.

[Phobic]

well it seems my issues were not related to the flash after all. the startup was a result of which ports i had my monitors connected to, and the crysis crash was a coincidentally-timed problem with the game fixed by a reinstall.

unfortunately, the full 6970 flash doesn't seem completely stable. crysis locks up after about 10-15 minutes. i tried boosting the power 20% in CCC, but that didn't help. i've been seeing loads of people reporting clocks well beyond stock 6970 speeds, so i'm a tad miffed. any suggestions on that end? is there something like upping voltage i can do (and is it safe)?

[wazgoingon?]

Interesting. Infact, if you see "768", that means you've got the extra shaders which you expected after flash the 6970's bios to your v1.2 6950.

6900 serise has two core inside:
6950 = "704" * "2" = 1408 shaders
6970 = "768" * "2" = 1536 shaders
"2" means two core enabled.

As you can see, all what we did here was trying to unlock "704" to "768", the "2" should be a constant because it should be hard-wired inside the core.

So if you see "768" after flash BIOS, that means "2" has been changed to "1".

Maybe the state register of "2" has been reset after BIOS flashed. So my suggestion is try to unlock the extra shaders on the original v1.2 6950 BIOS.

Thanks for your valuable input!!

Just to sort things out for me as I have not gone the route of unlocking the shader on the original Bios (6950)...

Should I .... 1) unlock shader so I will see 1536 shaders and then

2) reflash to 6970 bios so it have unlocked shaders and the 6970 bios... OR

3) unlock the shaders with the 6950 bios and just oc from there?

Also just to mention...

when you mentioned "Maybe the state register of "2" has been reset after BIOS flashed" , before the flash I saw 704 and after the flash to the 6970 bios it showed 768. so I guess it never showed "2" but was always on "1". I guess my question is if I unlock the shaders with the 6950 bios, will it stay that way if I flash it to the 6970 bios again and show in GPU-Z the correct # being 1536 ?

I have read a few sites mentioning that the newer boards will be damaged by flashing the bios to 6970. I've had no problems flashing the bios but as mentioned after is showing 768 unified and before the # was 704 unified.

Thanks again guys as I am still a bit confused.

Thanks to all you guys as it seems you all are helpful and quite knowledgeable! I really appreciate the help.

[rui0317]

Hi wazgoingon?

"3) unlock the shaders with the 6950 bios and just oc from there?" ,this is good!

If you saw "704" shaders at default hd6950 state, it mybe cause by missreading of GPUZ. AMD just use a new register to show the dual core state? Weird.....

If this is the case, you will also see "768" even you use unlock shader only 6950 bios. Whatever, unlocking shader on original 6950 bios is safty than flash 6970 bios directly. Read the post from #363 in this thread ( at page 15) for getting the solution.

I would say you've got succeed on unlocking the extra shaders, your v1.2 hd6950 is unlockable.

Could you post screenshot of the GPUZ? And post the v1.2 hd6950 BIOS here? Thank you!

[wazgoingon?]

Hi wazgoingon?

"3) unlock the shaders with the 6950 bios and just oc from there?" ,this is good!

If you saw "704" shaders at default hd6950 state, it mybe cause by missreading of GPUZ. AMD just use a new register to show the dual core state? Weird.....

If this is the case, you will also see "768" even you use unlock shader only 6950 bios. Whatever, unlocking shader on original 6950 bios is safty than flash 6970 bios directly. Read the post from #363 in this thread ( at page 15) for getting the solution.

I would say you've got succeed on unlocking the extra shaders, your v1.2 hd6950 is unlockable.

Could you post screenshot of the GPUZ? And post the v1.2 hd6950 BIOS here? Thank you!

Thanks for your wisdom rui0317!!

The card at the moment is installed in my friend's computer and I taught him what to do last night in terms of flashing to 6970. I 'll let him know of the info you have provided. I guess it is safe to keep the card and not be afraid of the xfx claim that it will destroy the card since it was successfully unlocked.

The next time I go there, I will post up the GPUZ screen for his 1.2 card and bios for the 6950 ver 1.2

[fire2havoc]

I've been reading this thread and it seems that flashing to a 6970 can potentially overvolt the card and fry the memory. I don't want to brick a new card...

Is it better to just flash to a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders (and overclock with AMD overdrive) than flashing to a 6970 bios?

[Phobic]

i don't know what normal is for the 6950, but my voltages were at .9 2d and 1.175 3d. i tried upping it with MSI afterburner, but it doesn't seem to work. both afterburner and gpu-z don't show it going past 1.175. i think you're safe from overvolting.

[dom99]

Originally Posted by fire2havoc

I've been reading this thread and it seems that flashing to a 6970 can potentially overvolt the card and fry the memory. I don't want to brick a new card...

Is it better to just flash to a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders (and overclock with AMD overdrive) than flashing to a 6970 bios?

LOL how many times has this been asked here!

Dont mean to be rude but if you have read the thread you already know it all buddy

[jayc]

Originally Posted by wazgoingon?

Thanks for your wisdom rui0317!!

The card at the moment is installed in my friend's computer and I taught him what to do last night in terms of flashing to 6970. I 'll let him know of the info you have provided. I guess it is safe to keep the card and not be afraid of the xfx claim that it will destroy the card since it was successfully unlocked.

The next time I go there, I will post up the GPUZ screen for his 1.2 card and bios for the 6950 ver 1.2

Make sure you have the most recent version of GPUZ as well. v0.5.1 is the latest.
I believe earlier versions had trouble reading the 69x0 properly.

[fire2havoc]

Originally Posted by dom99

LOL how many times has this been asked here!

Dont mean to be rude but if you have read the thread you already know it all buddy

I know, but there are 60+ pages in the thread and I honestly do not have the time to read all of it in detail.

Can you please just provide a direct answer?

[Phobic]

Originally Posted by dom99

LOL how many times has this been asked here!

Dont mean to be rude but if you have read the thread you already know it all buddy

if you didn't mean to be rude, then why did you take the time to post this and still not answer? this is an enormous thread.

@jayc, yeah i've got the latest version. i'm not worried about it now that i've discovered my instability was overheating instead of lack of power. custom fan profile fixed that. why is it that the drivers are perfectly content to let the card cook while sitting at 30% fan speed?

[jayc]

Originally Posted by Phobic

i don't know what normal is for the 6950, but my voltages were at .9 2d and 1.175 3d. i tried upping it with MSI afterburner, but it doesn't seem to work. both afterburner and gpu-z don't show it going past 1.175. i think you're safe from overvolting.

That's not normal voltages.
By Normal I assume it means before flashing the bios.
In which case the voltages for a 6950 are 0.9v in 2D and 1.1v in 3D.

If you are referring to a 6950 flashed to a 6970 bios, then 0.9v in 2D and 1.175v in 3D.

MSI Afterburner WILL work with voltage unlocks and it WILL go above 1.1v for a 6950 or 1.175v for 6970. You just need to know how to unlock the unofficial overclocking abilities of that software.

[jayc]

Originally Posted by Phobic

@jayc, yeah i've got the latest version. i'm not worried about it now that i've discovered my instability was overheating instead of lack of power. custom fan profile fixed that. why is it that the drivers are perfectly content to let the card cook while sitting at 30% fan speed?

That was actually meant for wazgoingon?, to check that he or his friend is using GPUZ 0.5.1. because GPUZ was reporting 768 unified shaders.

[Phobic]

oh. yeah i wasn't very clear with that post about voltages. i meant after flashing to 6970 thats what they were reading. i read about unlocking the unofficial overclocking with afterburner, but i thought that was just for clock speeds past what CCC overdrive will do. i thought just the checkboxes would unlock the voltage. no matter, i won't be messing with it now anyway. i probably shouldn't have bothered flashing it right now either, as i'm severely bottlenecked by my 5600+ processor. they need to hurry up with the bulldozer

while i'm here, what's up with the auto-tune button missing in CCC? anyone know of a third party program that does the same thing? i'm too lazy to do it manually :P

[fire2havoc]

What do your 6950s idle at? Mine idles @ 49C and that seems a bit high. Ambient temp is ~20C.

[jayc]

Originally Posted by fire2havoc

What do your 6950s idle at? Mine idles @ 49C and that seems a bit high. Ambient temp is ~20C.

Seems a bit high when your ambient is 20degC.
But don't worry about idle temps so much.
What is load temps, and is it stable when using it?

[Phobic]

mine idles at 45-50 C. the 4850 (single slot reference design) it replaced idled at 80, so that's frigid to me :P

crysis was pushing it up to 90 on load where it would crash, but pushing the fan up i got it to stabilize at around 70C at about 55% fan.

[jmcslob]

Phobic my 6950 crashed on Crysis before I unlocked it....Crysis crashes a lot in DX10 I bet you wont have the same problem if you run Crysis in DX9
just add "-dx9" at the end of the target for your destop Icon and it will launch in DX9 mode

[Chieftexas]

Originally Posted by W1zzard

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".

After the -unlockrom 0 step, my display went black and every few seconds my mouse clicker and the windows command prompt scroll bar would appear then disappear again. Had to reboot with the switch in the 2 position to get it working again does anyone know what happened?


Thanks