• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

Status
Not open for further replies.

obsoletepower

New Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
23 (0.00/day)
Location
Canada
Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83 GHz (one day I will OC)
Motherboard GIGABYTE EP45-UD3P rev. 1.6
Cooling ZALMAN CNPS7500-ALCU Air Cooler
Memory 2x4GB OCZ PC2-6400 + 2x4GB Corsair PC2-6400 (same timings)
Video Card(s) Sapphire Radeon HD6950 2GB
Storage 1TB WD Caviar Blue 7200 RPM
Display(s) 23" Dell SP2309W LCD + Soundbar
Case Antec Performance P180
Audio Device(s) Build-in HD sound
Power Supply Antec EarthWatts 650W
Software Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
How strong is your PSU?

And: have you tried +10 to +15? Maybe with +20 it gets too hot and you have problems. Try it with lower GPU and memory frequency first ... :)

I have an Antec 650W psu. Actually I doubt it gets hot because I have the fan running at 60% manually to ensure proper cooling while I mess around with the card.
 

obsoletepower

New Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
23 (0.00/day)
Location
Canada
Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83 GHz (one day I will OC)
Motherboard GIGABYTE EP45-UD3P rev. 1.6
Cooling ZALMAN CNPS7500-ALCU Air Cooler
Memory 2x4GB OCZ PC2-6400 + 2x4GB Corsair PC2-6400 (same timings)
Video Card(s) Sapphire Radeon HD6950 2GB
Storage 1TB WD Caviar Blue 7200 RPM
Display(s) 23" Dell SP2309W LCD + Soundbar
Case Antec Performance P180
Audio Device(s) Build-in HD sound
Power Supply Antec EarthWatts 650W
Software Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
I tried various values between 10 and 20 to no avail.
 
M

Mastroz

Guest
Hi, I have crossfire, how would I apply the bios to both cards? please help

Thanks!
 
Joined
Mar 13, 2007
Messages
856 (0.14/day)
Location
Eastern Tennessee
System Name Firebird
Processor Ryzen 7 1700X
Motherboard MSI X370 Titanium
Cooling Tt Water2.0 PRO (They use the same bracket as 3.0)
Memory G.Skill TridentZ 2x8GB 3200 15-15-15-35 B-Die (@3333 ATM)
Video Card(s) ASUS STRIX R9 390 8GB
Storage Too many. Samsung 750GB, 120GB 850 EVO, Seagate 1TB, Toshiba 1TB, OCZ 32GB Cache Drive
Display(s) Samsung 46" UN46D6050 1080P HDTV
Case Home-made tech bench.
Audio Device(s) ASUS Xonar Essence STX (I use HDMI though *cry*)
Power Supply CWT PUC1000V-S 1000W, Abee Supremer (import) 1200W currently used as primary.
Mouse Razer Copperhead (circa 2005)
Keyboard Tt Challenger Pro (AVOID! Keys wear super fast)
Software Win 10 Pro x64
Benchmark Scores Meh.
I have an Antec 650W psu. Actually I doubt it gets hot because I have the fan running at 60% manually to ensure proper cooling while I mess around with the card.

Never assume with this sort of thing :) Crank the fan up to 100%, the over-power to +20%, drop the clocks back to 6950 speeds and keep GPU-Z open on the sensor readout so you can eyeball temperatures before you load FurMark.

Also, if you motherboard BIOS has an option to crank up the power to the PCIe slot (I believe on my ASRock 890FX it is call PCIe VDDA), that might help as well.

All I know is when I have had the driver recover from instability it typically means the card is unstable for one reason or another: Not enough GPU voltage (if I'm trying to undervolt), too high of GPU clock, or too high of memory clock. It'll likely happen from not enough power, but I've got an overkill 1200W unit so I can't offer feedback there :D
 

W1zzard

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
26,937 (3.72/day)
Processor Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory 48 GB
Video Card(s) RTX 4080
Storage 2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s) 30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software Windows 10 64-bit
Hi, I have crossfire, how would I apply the bios to both cards? please help

Thanks!

remove 1 card, flash it.
remove the flashed card, install the other card, flash it.
install both cards and enable cf
 

Kdefthog

New Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
1 (0.00/day)
How about the HD6850? I just ordered a Gigabyte HD6850 with the small OC 820/4200, can I make it a HD6870?
 

Wildstaroct

New Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2006
Messages
1 (0.00/day)
XFX unlocks and works fine.

W1zzard, your batch file works perfectly. I tried using the win version of flash but got an ID mismatch error.

Question is the load VDDC higher for the 6970 than the 6950? The 6970 is 1.175v but I don't remember the load voltage for the 6950.
 

HanSolo78

New Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2006
Messages
4 (0.00/day)
I just wanna say thx to the great article of techpowerup!! :toast:
I just bought a HD6950 because of the good rate of HD6950 to HD6970 flashes today from Sapphire and it worked for me also very well. :rockout:
The card is now running 1536 Shaders and default HD6970 clocks... now I am testing OC... added my GPU only watercooler :D:D
 
Joined
Aug 17, 2009
Messages
1,585 (0.30/day)
Location
Los Angeles/Orange County CA
System Name Vulcan
Processor i6 6600K
Motherboard GIGABYTE Z170X UD3
Cooling Thermaltake Frio Silent 14
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB)
Video Card(s) ASUS Strix GTX 970
Storage Mushkin Enhanced Reactor 1TB SSD
Display(s) QNIX 27 Inch 1440p
Case Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s) On Board
Power Supply Cooler Master V750
Software Win 10 64-bit
So what do we call these cards? They aren't true 6970s.

How about HD 6957? :D
 
M

Mastroz

Guest
remove 1 card, flash it.
remove the flashed card, install the other card, flash it.
install both cards and enable cf

Thanks, also when doing the bios stuff what does the system video devices mean and there are 2 listed? See attached image please.
 

Attachments

  • atiflash.jpg
    atiflash.jpg
    83.5 KB · Views: 832

W1zzard

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
26,937 (3.72/day)
Processor Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory 48 GB
Video Card(s) RTX 4080
Storage 2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s) 30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software Windows 10 64-bit
Thanks, also when doing the bios stuff what does the system video devices mean and there are 2 listed? See attached image please.

that's with just 1 card installed? must be some winflash bug then that lists the card for some reason
 
M

Mastroz

Guest
that's with just 1 card installed? must be some winflash bug then that lists the card for some reason

no, I have 2 6950's in my computer right now, would it be safe to flash and just use the lower when then i'm ready to do the 2nd one?
 

obsoletepower

New Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
23 (0.00/day)
Location
Canada
Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83 GHz (one day I will OC)
Motherboard GIGABYTE EP45-UD3P rev. 1.6
Cooling ZALMAN CNPS7500-ALCU Air Cooler
Memory 2x4GB OCZ PC2-6400 + 2x4GB Corsair PC2-6400 (same timings)
Video Card(s) Sapphire Radeon HD6950 2GB
Storage 1TB WD Caviar Blue 7200 RPM
Display(s) 23" Dell SP2309W LCD + Soundbar
Case Antec Performance P180
Audio Device(s) Build-in HD sound
Power Supply Antec EarthWatts 650W
Software Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Never assume with this sort of thing :) Crank the fan up to 100%, the over-power to +20%, drop the clocks back to 6950 speeds and keep GPU-Z open on the sensor readout so you can eyeball temperatures before you load FurMark.

Also, if you motherboard BIOS has an option to crank up the power to the PCIe slot (I believe on my ASRock 890FX it is call PCIe VDDA), that might help as well.

All I know is when I have had the driver recover from instability it typically means the card is unstable for one reason or another: Not enough GPU voltage (if I'm trying to undervolt), too high of GPU clock, or too high of memory clock. It'll likely happen from not enough power, but I've got an overkill 1200W unit so I can't offer feedback there :D

Thanks for the advice! For my power supply, my computer while idling is generally using about 125W and under full load the max it had ever hit was 315W which is well within the specs of my power supply. I monitor the power draw using my UPS as well as a separate app. They are more or less the same.

Regarding the PCIe voltage increase, my mobo has that option however I'd rather not mess with that because I've seen and heard cases where people have fried their graphics card from doing this. I reverted back to the 6950 BIOS until I get some more info about this.
 

W1zzard

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 14, 2004
Messages
26,937 (3.72/day)
Processor Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory 48 GB
Video Card(s) RTX 4080
Storage 2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe
Display(s) 30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Software Windows 10 64-bit
no, I have 2 6950's in my computer right now, would it be safe to flash and just use the lower when then i'm ready to do the 2nd one?

you'll probably be fine. but the safest method in my opinion is to just have 1 card in the system, flash it and test it, then do the other card
 

bystander

New Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
52 (0.01/day)
I have an XFX card, and it failed.

GPU-Z shows 1440 shaders, rather than 1408.

When I attempted to Load the new image. I get the error: SubsystemIDs mismatch.
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
Just tried it on my brand new 6950 (Gigabyte)
The interface gave me the Could not erase ROM error so I had to use the cmd line, but when I issue the flash command the progress bar comes up, advances 4 or 5 blocks and then closes silently
Also my 6950 is a bit strange (it's 100% retail tho) cause the bios switch doesn't pop up, it's just flat and I wonder how could I switch it (crappy pics of the "switch")

UPDATE: got it working:
I checked better and I was able to flash to 6970, don't worry!
The switch was flat but still actionable with a toothpick, and in fact it was sitting in the "2" position, preventing the unlock to work.
Once switched to "1" position with a toothpick I am now enjoying a gigabyte 6970 ;)
 
Last edited:
M

Mastroz

Guest
you'll probably be fine. but the safest method in my opinion is to just have 1 card in the system, flash it and test it, then do the other card

Yeah i'm doing one at a time flashed the first one, showed 1536. So i change the clock speed or something now too? and I guess the fan speed to? i'm gonna take out and flash the 2nd one now. Attached is card one, is it suppose to be the right clock speeds below? ALso i had to use the DOS way. Should I do any certain testing now?

Do i change the power control settings to 20? is that what you mean?
 

Attachments

  • card1.jpg
    card1.jpg
    94.9 KB · Views: 633
Joined
Jul 7, 2008
Messages
409 (0.07/day)
Location
US
Just tried it on my brand new 6950 (Gigabyte)
The interface gave me the Could not erase ROM error so I had to use the cmd line, but when I issue the flash command the progress bar comes up, advances 4 or 5 blocks and then closes silently
Also my 6950 is a bit strange (it's 100% retail tho) cause the bios switch doesn't pop up, it's just flat and I wonder how could I switch it (crappy pics of the "switch")

This isn't giving me much hope for the Gigabyte 6950 I just ordered. May see if I can still cancel it and get a different brand.
 

davetheshrew

New Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2010
Messages
91 (0.02/day)
whys everyone keep saying great job wizz like he done it first lol, it was me and pyr0 that where first, fact :)
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
This isn't giving me much hope for the Gigabyte 6950 I just ordered. May see if I can still cancel it and get a different brand.
I checked better and I was able to flash to 6970, don't worry!
The switch was flat but still actionable with a toothpick, and in fact it was sitting in the "2" position, preventing the unlock to work.
Once switched to "1" position with a toothpick I am now enjoying a gigabyte 6970 ;)
 

Bearlake

New Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
9 (0.00/day)
System Name Gaming Rig
Processor E8500 @ 400*9.5 1.35v
Motherboard Asus Maximus Formula (X38... Bearlake)
Cooling CPU-Grand Kama Cross GPU-T-rad2
Memory OCZ platinum 4x2gb kit (1ghz) @ 1200mhz, 2.14v (custom flash by ocz tech support)
Video Card(s) 4890 @ 975mhz/1050mhz
Storage 2x WD 250GB sata2 RE2 @ Raid-0
Display(s) Samsung 24" Syncmaster 245b + Philips 17"170S4
Case Zalman GT-1000
Audio Device(s) Onboard-riser Supreme FX-II + Logitech G35 surround heatset
Power Supply Gigabyte 850watt Odin GT (usb connected)
Software Win7 x64
Benchmark Scores CPU @ 4.4ghz 18543 3DMarks (3870x2 gpu with 4gb team Xtreem memory, both replaced) (the 3870x2 die
so wiizard,
would it be interesting to add a chart or results about the 6950++'s preformance qua temperatures..

it seems a fair ammount of people have temp issues after doing the bios unlock..
why dont i hear anyone about the 6970 about this..

i draw the conclusion from that, that the unlocked 6950 has a decent chance to overtemp with fan on auto?

in wich case it makes me wonder why the 6970 doesnt do this..
so whats different about the cards then..

also, in the list about succes/fails.. you should try to get info about the actual used memory chips as well,

this is vital info.. if a bios flash fails it might mean the memory, but it also might be an indicator for other issues with the card at hand..

ive ordered a 6950 now after reading about your discovery.. but the more people post here, the more i think to cancel it and get a 6970 instead..
from what i saw so far..

6950:
- the bios unlock is a CHANCE.. for all you know, it might not work...
- even if it works, the different memory might hold you back from getting the true "unlocked" potentional
- even if the memory is identical, AND you succeed at flashing the bios, you have a fair chance of running into temperature related problems ? (easy fix.. turn up fan.. DUH but im not looking to have a jet engine sound on my desk..)

so thats 3 reasons for me to seriously consider if its worth just saving 40 euros on this..
40 euros vs this.. and the risk of losing your waranty.. still not convinced i should go for the 6950 specially with the 2th and 3rd point i just listed
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2009
Messages
46 (0.01/day)
Is the bios flash setting also the voltage to the 6970 reference voltage?
 

davetheshrew

New Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2010
Messages
91 (0.02/day)
so wiizard,
would it be interesting to add a chart or results about the 6950++'s preformance qua temperatures..

it seems a fair ammount of people have temp issues after doing the bios unlock..
why dont i hear anyone about the 6970 about this..

i draw the conclusion from that, that the unlocked 6950 has a decent chance to overtemp with fan on auto?

in wich case it makes me wonder why the 6970 doesnt do this..
so whats different about the cards then..

also, in the list about succes/fails.. you should try to get info about the actual used memory chips as well,

this is vital info.. if a bios flash fails it might mean the memory, but it also might be an indicator for other issues with the card at hand..

ive ordered a 6950 now after reading about your discovery.. but the more people post here, the more i think to cancel it and get a 6970 instead..
from what i saw so far..

6950:
- the bios unlock is a CHANCE.. for all you know, it might not work...
- even if it works, the different memory might hold you back from getting the true "unlocked" potentional
- even if the memory is identical, AND you succeed at flashing the bios, you have a fair chance of running into temperature related problems ? (easy fix.. turn up fan.. DUH but im not looking to have a jet engine sound on my desk..)

so thats 3 reasons for me to seriously consider if its worth just saving 40 euros on this..
40 euros vs this.. and the risk of losing your waranty.. still not convinced i should go for the 6950 specially with the 2th and 3rd point i just listed

he didnt discover it, I did ;)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top