How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[dadojaksa]

@cobe
how i read the posts.. some1 talked about revision of xfx card, like the motherboards.
Newer cards have newer revision i think.. some1 mentioned that the rev 1.2 is not flashable..
The revision should be makred at the PCB somewhere...

 

[dadojaksa]

soo.. my xfx6950 is here
and i see on the sticker on the box there is Model no... Part no.. and on the right side of the sticker ther is " Ver 1.2 "..
sooo is this the version i should not flash ???? Some1 flashed a 1.2 version xfx 6950 2GB VGA ???

 

[shwazemoto]

soo.. my xfx6950 is here
and i see on the sticker on the box there is Model no... Part no.. and on the right side of the sticker ther is " Ver 1.2 "..
sooo is this the version i should not flash ???? Some1 flashed a 1.2 version xfx 6950 2GB VGA ???

No dont flash it will brick your card...

 

[dadojaksa]

on page 80 on this thread some1 had 1.2 and flashed it ...

 

[webbyboy]

Can anyone confirm whether the powercolor 1gb HD 6950 can be unlock? It comes with dual bios switch too!

 

[lamja]

Impatient much? Welcome to the forum, now relax a bit.

That's a 1gb card. You cannot flash a 6970 bios to a 1gb card. Return and get a 2 gb card; it's only like $30 more.

hey man its not 1gb its 2gb 6950 my problem is only to find bios switch jumper there is not jumper on new sapphire 6950 2gb

http://img607.imageshack.us/f/61494463.png/

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=1082
there is my 6950

 

[manofthem]

hey man its not 1gb its 2gb 6950 my problem is only to find bios switch jumper there is not jumper on new sapphire 6950 2gb

http://img607.imageshack.us/f/61494463.png/

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=1082
there is my 6950

Well I stand corrected about the 1-2gb since gpuz proves me wrong.

 

[lamja]

Well I stand corrected about the 1-2gb since gpuz proves me wrong.

so whats the point now? can i flash my bios anyway ?

 

[cadaveca]

That card has bios switch on top of heatsink shroud, I thought? Big silver cicle with slot in middle? Or does yours have fan in middle?

 

[lamja]

That card has bios switch on top of heatsink shroud, I thought? Big silver cicle with slot in middle? Or does yours have fan in middle?

cadaveca please open http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=1082 check pictures its same like that card... yes with fan in middle.... i tryed only once for searching my jumper and i cant find it myabe there is somewhere but i cant find it((

 

[cadaveca]

I do not beleive there is switch on that card you have, and I also think it is not very likely to mod. You could try the shader unlock, but not 6970 bios, IMHO, and chance of shader unlock working seems unlikely. To me, it makes sense that cards that can have shaders unlocked have bios switch, and cost a bit more, and those that cannot unlock do not have switch, but I could be wrong, for sure.

 

[lamja]

I do not beleive there is switch on that card you have, and I also think it is not very likely to mod. You could try the shader unlock, but not 6970 bios, IMHO, and chance of shader unlock working seems unlikely. To me, it makes sense that cards that can have shaders unlocked have bios switch, and cost a bit more, and those that cannot unlock do not have switch, but I could be wrong, for sure.

ok i can try for shader unlock but how ?

 

[ArrestedDeveloper]

I just did flashed my Asus card and everything seems fine. The only thing is I can't boost the 20% power increase that the article suggests. All the versions of catalyst control center I've downloaded (currently I'm on the 11.4 preview called AMD Vision Engine Control Center instead of CCC) hasn't shown ATI overdrive. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong/missing.

 

[cadaveca]

ok i can try for shader unlock but how ?

OK, first off, if this screws your card up, not my fault!




Open ATIWinFlash, and save your bios. Follow the directions to mod the bios using the provided scrpit, and re-flash back onto the card using ATIWinFlash.


It's possible your bios is locked from flashing, and it won't work.

It's possible you card will only work with 6950 bios.

In the end, 6950 gpus, even the ones that unlock, are of a far worse quality than 6970, and are matched with lower-binned ram as well, allowing the lower price. It's like AMD has gone 100% enthusiast, and those switches are there specifically for us to mod the bios with. I'm willing to say, that due ot the smal lcost, but big payoff, that this is all 100% intentional.

But, the actual performance difference in most real-world apps is so small...

I am kinda wondering why everyone is so willing to take such a large risk, for so little payoff....

 

[LastCaress]

I did something stupid and flashed the recovery bios (the setting was on "2" instead of "1"). Wasn't this bios supposed to be unwritable? I can't flash the backup ("cannot erase rom"). Luckily the board still works on the "1" position.
What should I try now? I want to have a recovery bios :|

 

[LearnIIBurn]

My oh my, I just spent my entire day reading every page of this knowledge filled thread. Amazing info and developments! I'm having so much fun tweaking around my new card (Sapphire 6950 2GB) with all this BIOS flashing and shader unlocking! I just built a new system with an i5-2500k, which is a very cool little CPU as well.

After playing around with benchmarks all day and a couple solid hours of Bad Company 2 with unlocked shaders, I can't seem to find any issues (yet) with having them unlocked. It seems to speed up my cards performance a little, but I guess I haven't had it long enough to notice a difference. Think I'm gonna run this card bone stock for a month or so to get used to her habits, then maybe kick in some OC and modded BIOS. Hopefully newer drivers from AMD don't break some of the cool things we are able to do with these Caymans. I went with the 6950 after hours and hours upon days of research about the 6900 series GPUs.

I guess I'm pretty much just rambling, but I definitely wanted to introduce myself after reading a thread for 13+ hours straight. Hats off to you Adderall, you terrible, terrible drug.

Cheers!

 

[LastCaress]

I did something stupid and flashed the recovery bios (the setting was on "2" instead of "1"). Wasn't this bios supposed to be unwritable? I can't flash the backup ("cannot erase rom"). Luckily the board still works on the "1" position.
What should I try now? I want to have a recovery bios :|

Well I booted in dos and ran atiflash but still the same problem : the rom cannot be erased - error 0fl01. This is really weird.

 

[ionic]

Hi,

Does anyone have a reference design Sapphire HD6950 2GB with a red PCB?
I want to order this card, but I'm wondering if it has the BIOS switch.

Thanks in advance

 

[manofthem]

Hi,

Does anyone have a reference design Sapphire HD6950 2GB with a red PCB?
I want to order this card, but I'm wondering if it has the BIOS switch.

http://www.alternate.be/pix/prodpic/450x450/j/jdxsw1.jpg

Thanks in advance

I just ordered another one off Newegg. In the 5th picture, it has a view of the power connectors and crossfire bridges. Zooming in will show you the bios switch, so if it has that picture wherever you are purchasing, try that...it should be there if it's in the pic (that's what I went by). Hopefully its there when I receive it.

 

[ionic]

Well... the thing is that on newegg it's a black PCB card, but at my local store it's a red one, that's why I'm confused :<

 

[manofthem]

Well... the thing is that on newegg it's a black PCB card, but at my local store it's a red one, that's why I'm confused :<

You could always buy it, open it, and check to see if the switch is there. If not, take it right back and order from another place. Or you could ask the people that work there, as long as its not some place that hosts incompetent-idiot staff like Best Buy.

I hope the one I just got it good to flash, shaders only though. I got the Gigabyte card, $265, and it'll go with my XFX that's already flashed. If not, I could go back to stock on both and that'll be fine, too.

 

[alick]

The ones on new egg are the rev2 with no extra shader for the sapphire ones. Check the model number before ordering.

 

[Sethm1980]

mod result

I am happy to report that i succesfully flashed my Gigabyte HD6950 2Gb witht the Gigabyte HD6970 2Gb bios card and it works just fine. I already have a day of benchmarking with 3d mark and games, and the tepm have't risen above 74 degrees celsius vith an ambient soom temperature of 22-23 degrees.
All the best for the techpuwerup masters !

 

[rlweller]

help

yes i have followed your steps in flashing the 6950 to 6970, when i am almost completed the procedure and i do the commands in cmd a screen pops up like its flashing however i never receive anything saying vertified or completed and when i open cpuz to check its still same settings.
any help be appreciated

thanks

 

[manofthem]

I am happy to report that i succesfully flashed my Gigabyte HD6950 2Gb witht the Gigabyte HD6970 2Gb bios card and it works just fine. I already have a day of benchmarking with 3d mark and games, and the tepm have't risen above 74 degrees celsius vith an ambient soom temperature of 22-23 degrees.
All the best for the techpuwerup masters !

When did you purchase your gigabyte card? I just ordered one, but I wasn't sure that it was going to be flashable...