How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[PhantomGamers]

What voltage are you running the GPU at?

 

[alick]

voltage

whats the voltage dude?

http://i54.tinypic.com/91fn6v.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/hvyv82.jpg

 

[Gaul]

What voltage are you running the GPU at?

whats the voltage dude?

which ones ? 1 gb or 2 gb

 

[SpaceRanger]

I was able to unlock the shaders only on my HIS 6950. Using the unlock bin that the OP provided caused my system to error on boot (BIOS Error of 1 Long Beep and 2 short beeps).

After successfully flashing the HIS Shader Only BIOS (as seen on page 74 I believe), I am now up to 1536 shaders and may the testing begin!

Thank you for an AWESOME thread.

- Space

 

[PhantomGamers]

which ones ? 1 gb or 2 gb

Erm, both screenshots show a 2048MB GPU.

 

[Gaul]

Erm, both screenshots show a 2048MB GPU.

ic, here :
1 GB need 1.25v for 1 GH
2 GB need 1.325 for 1 GH

 

[harmonica01]

XFX 2gb 6950 not matching

I've tried every bios download available on the guide's page.

Each one gives me the mismatch error; I'm assuming the rumors on newer 6950s not having capacity to flash the bios is accurate.

Buy your 6950s used gentlemen, not sure if any new card works now.

 

[mephistopoa]

Guys, what about this powercolor card?

PowerColor HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI 2mini.. | Eb...
model AX6950 2GBD5-2DH

it is a dual fan design, but I'm not sure is someone has already tried to unlock. All reports are related to the other versions, especially the pcs++

Has anyone got a change to test this model? There is not even a bit of information if it has dual bios switch.

 

[DJManiac]

Hey Guys...

some interesiting news:

New BIOS (from HIS) in Database here on TechPowerUp online:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/93896/HIS.HD6970.2048.110109.html

with higher OC Limits 1000/1500 (normal is 950/1450)

[EDIT] WORKS FINE!

And now only FAN curve via RBE is missing untill I am really happy!

 

[angelfire1000]

9670 issue

I have this problem i mod my 6950 to 6970 and evrything seems good in all games. But in Uniheaven i see some artifacts blue stripes flashing. Only in DX11 mode in other all just fine. In AVP DX 11 all OK in crysis all OK but IN metro 2033 flashing stripes anyone have same issue?

 

[RatusNatus]

Having issues flashing XFX 6950's, when I run ATIwinflash it shows my previously installed XFX 5770 as the video card. I have tried unistalling the drivers, and using driver sweeper but when I reinstall and run ATIwinflash it keeps coming up as 5770.

Please assist.

ATIwinflash shows the device id as: 0x6719

all the fields and information are blank, when I try flashing it tells me unable to erase ROM and I have trided the CMD prompt options and through the application.

UPDATED:

well I'm not sure how I got it to work but I got them flashed using Wizard's 6950 BIOS and unlocked the shaders, still sys ATI 5770 in ATIwinflash though.

Clear cmos solve it.

 

[angelfire1000]

Clear cmos solve it.

Please how to clear cmos

 

[Eggiez]

Hi guys, having a problem I'm not seeing anywhere else. I flashed 2 Sapphire 6950s just fine, tested them separately in a couple of games to make sure they weren't artifacting or anything. So they were both successfully flashed to 6970 bios, no additional overclocking or anything.

Then I tried crossfiring them. Now when I try to boot, the screen freezes at the Starting Windows (Win7 64) screen, but the computer itself successfully boots. I can hear myself login when I type in my password, but the screen remains frozen at "Starting Windows". I tried booting with each separately, same story.

The really annoying thing is that I have the same problem with the read only bios on both cards. Both cards can get into safe mode, but I don't seem to be able to flash them there. If I throw in a GTS 250 I have here, it doesn't freeze. I tried clearing the cmos, but that didn't help. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Eggiez]

Okay, I managed to fix it, but I don't like what I discovered.

I had forgotten to mention that I had cleaned out my AMD drivers before installing my crossfired cards (I wanted to install them on a clean machine), which seems to be the problem. I was able to install reinstall AMD drivers by booting into windows on a 4890, and my cards are now able to get past startup without freezing.

I decided to experiment a bit, and uninstalled the drivers again then rebooted. I was able to get to the desktop. Then I booted into safe mode, cleaned out everything with Driver Cleaner Pro, and rebooted. My 6950s started freezing at startup again.

So DCP cleans out something that makes even the read only bios on my 6950s freeze when logging into windows. However, the 4890 was able to get to the desktop just fine after the DCP cleanup. Does anyone have any insight into this? I'd prefer not to have to borrow an ATI card each time I wanted to do a clean driver update.

 

[acousticdank]

Okay, I managed to fix it, but I don't like what I discovered.

I had forgotten to mention that I had cleaned out my AMD drivers before installing my crossfired cards (I wanted to install them on a clean machine), which seems to be the problem. I was able to install reinstall AMD drivers by booting into windows on a 4890, and my cards are now able to get past startup without freezing.

I decided to experiment a bit, and uninstalled the drivers again then rebooted. I was able to get to the desktop. Then I booted into safe mode, cleaned out everything with Driver Cleaner Pro, and rebooted. My 6950s started freezing at startup again.

So DCP cleans out something that makes even the read only bios on my 6950s freeze when logging into windows. However, the 4890 was able to get to the desktop just fine after the DCP cleanup. Does anyone have any insight into this? I'd prefer not to have to borrow an ATI card each time I wanted to do a clean driver update.

Well the first question is which options are you clicking on when you remove from DCP? You gotta be careful, I've heard of people who've wiped out their AMD raid drivers which also get removed if you click on all the different ATI options.
The thing is, if you are going from ATI to ATI you don't need to worry about driver cleaning. It's more imperative when going from NV to ATI. It's preferable of course to clean out but in the end, ATI uninstalls whatever you don't need as part of the package.
But like I said, if you are just clicking all the ATI options you might be removing some required driver for windows to recognize xfire or something.

 

[Eggiez]

Well the first question is which options are you clicking on when you remove from DCP? You gotta be careful, I've heard of people who've wiped out their AMD raid drivers which also get removed if you click on all the different ATI options.
The thing is, if you are going from ATI to ATI you don't need to worry about driver cleaning. It's more imperative when going from NV to ATI. It's preferable of course to clean out but in the end, ATI uninstalls whatever you don't need as part of the package.
But like I said, if you are just clicking all the ATI options you might be removing some required driver for windows to recognize xfire or something.

I did check all of the ATI options. However each 6950, when booted alone, would freeze at startup after the cleaning. The 4890 did not have this problem. So missing xfire drivers weren't the problem. Even the read only bios would freeze at startup! This would have been a serious problem if my cards were a part of a new build, and I did not have access to the 4890.

 

[FourLights]

Hi all,

I just wanted to say thanks, this thread contains a wealth of information that after careful reading (and use of the search function) allowed me to unlock my 6950.

Originally I went with the 6970 bios but after reading other's concerns I dumped my original bios off of the read-only slot, unlocked the shaders and kept stock speeds (thus far). I employed a custom fan profile in MSI Afterburner

<=50C = 25%

70C = 35%

100C = 100%

I ran the Crysis 2 demo on steam at 1920x1080 on both advanced / hardcore modes and maintained a mostly constant 60 fps (vsync), with a temp of < 75C

With the 6970 bios posted at the beginning of the thread my temps were around 90C in the above scenarios, although I did not have a custom fan profile enabled.


Thanks again (and if you have advice / comments I am all ears)


quick stats

i5-750
8GB 1066 OCZ
sapphire 6950 2gb

 

[RatusNatus]

Please how to clear cmos

Your motherboard has a jumper to do that. Read your manual or google for an image.

With the pc off, change the jumper position for 10 seconds(dont start your PC). Change it back and powerUP. I dont remember if i had to reinstall the driver,... probably yes.

I forgot to do this and have the very same problem but my old card was a 3870.

cya

 

[Nevakonaza]

packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.

www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

give it a try and let me know how well it works

Did not work for me :/

Ran it,Told me to restart....restarted = stock 6950 :/

 

[mustrum]

You can add another sapphire 2048mb reference model to the list.
Flashed the asus bios and am enjoying my 6970 now. No artifacts or anything.

 

[sy5tem]

You can add another sapphire 2048mb reference model to the list.
Flashed the asus bios and am enjoying my 6970 now. No artifacts or anything.

artefact come with heat.. and voltage.. and/or time... beware taht at 6970 clock u might irreversibly damage your memory

just saying...

 

[mustrum]

artefact come with heat.. and voltage.. and/or time... beware taht at 6970 clock u might irreversibly damage your memory

just saying...

Running 960/1420 with a max temp of 47 degrees.
Gotta love watercooling with a mora 2 radiator.
Edit: I didn't touch voltage yet.

 

[fasteststone]

I seem to have a problem here I try all methods but I don't get the "verified" message actualy
nothing hapens and the shaders are still 1408 I have a ASUS and the swuitch is definitely at 1 position is there anything else to do?? (or something I'm missing??)

 

[Bengie]

artefact come with heat.. and voltage.. and/or time... beware taht at 6970 clock u might irreversibly damage your memory

just saying...

I've never seen a high clock damage a chip. I have seen voltage/heat/power damage chips though.

 

[mustrum]

I've never seen a high clock damage a chip. I have seen voltage/heat/power damage chips though.

I allways overvolt my CPUs and GPUs (if possible and with reasonable gain) and i have not managed to kill anything yet. I do use good (water-)cooling though.
The northbridge of my X38 motherboard runs at 1.65 instead of 1,45v for ages now (stupid chipset needs to be pushed hard to get reasonable FSB clocks).
That being said there hardly is any good gain from overvolting GPUs from my experience wich is why i settled for 960 mhz core clock on this card. Overvolting to get to 1ghz is just not worth it for regular use because you simply can't feel a difference.