How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[jayc]

Ok, I'm new here and I'm going to build my first computer soon. I've been looking at graphic cards and HD6970 was my first option ofcourse, but now I've read this decent thread & you've got me convinced to go cheaper , more money for SSD !

I'm just wondering with 2 cards:

The first one is from Asus, but that one is already OC'd to 810Mhz, I'm guessing than it's not gonna work (http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=dekcICIFak0zpxUk&templete=2).

Then my second option would be a Sapphire one: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=1021
I'm thinking this one would do the job.

But just wanted some confirmation. Thanks in advanced!

Both cards you linked to will work with 6950 unlocked shaders bios or the 6970 bios.
Just go with whichever card is cheaper.

 

[Hexblade6950]

Ty jayc I already ordered a sapphire refence card since the package includes more stuff than the others.

 

[Lufe]

I have a XFX Radeon HD6950 XXX HDMI Dual-DisplayPort Dual-DVI 1GB
Will this work for that too or do I need something else since all the bios have 2GB?

 

[PhantomGamers]

I have a XFX Radeon HD6950 XXX HDMI Dual-DisplayPort Dual-DVI 1GB
Will this work for that too or do I need something else since all the bios have 2GB?

You need a 2GB Model to unlock.

@OP: Thanks W1zzard for this. I just picked up an XFX 6950 and it unlocked just fine.
Overclocked it to 950/1450 as well, but can't seem to push it passed that.
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8379/6950ocd.gif

 

[manofthem]

Just wanted to throw this out there now:

XFX said that the 6970 bios flash isn't supported under warranty (no surprise) and that the later revisions of the 6950 cards will be damaged by trying to flash with a 6970 bios. Keep that in mind if you are going to be getting an XFX card in the future. (I don't know about the unlocked shaders only bios)

Since I wanted to get another one to CF, I'll probably just get another brand, especially considering that the XFX card on newegg is up to $320.

Edit: Also...
Does anyone know who has a better warranty and customer serivce out of HIS and Sapphire?

 

[siqueirah]

Well, someone should put all the downloads in the first page so that they are easier to find.
The search engine isn't the best and I've been having trouble finding the ASUS HD6950 "Shaders Only" BIOS.
Could someone please post it again for me?

 

[PhantomGamers]

XFX said that the 6970 bios flash isn't supported under warranty (no surprise) and that the later revisions of the 6950 cards will be damaged by trying to flash with a 6970 bios. Keep that in mind if you are going to be getting an XFX card in the future. (I don't know about the unlocked shaders only bios)

Are you sure? Can you give me a link?
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=187571
That thread makes me think otherwise.

But it doesn't really matter anyway because of the dual bios, just boot with original bios and flash first bios back to 6950 bios... then if there IS any permanent damage just send it in.

 

[manofthem]

Are you sure? Can you give me a link?
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=187571
That thread makes me think otherwise.

But it doesn't really matter anyway because of the dual bios, just boot with original bios and flash first bios back to 6950 bios... then if there IS any permanent damage just send it in.

There's no link. I emailed the support guy off of Newegg and asked him about the 6970 bios deal. His exact response was:

"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."

When I started reading it, I thought the bios mod was fine since it's not permanent. but the end of the response made me think otherwise.

But I appreciate the link you posted. I'll read through it right now.

 

[PhantomGamers]

"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."

Well that sucks... but as I said -> just flash back and send in.
Hopefully I didn't get the "new revision" as I just purchased my card Wednesday.
Though it is running fine so far, with 6970 bios (I used the XFX Bios, not the one in first page) and overclocks.

 

[manofthem]

Well that sucks... but as I said -> just flash back and send in.
Hopefully I didn't get the "new revision" as I just purchased my card Wednesday.
Though it is running fine so far, with 6970 bios (I used the XFX Bios, not the one in first page) and overclocks.

Yeah, my XFX ran fine with the 6970 bios, too. I only went back to the 6950 w/ unlocked shaders because people saying that the 6970 memory clocks and voltage were too much for it. But it's been running great now on 900/1375@1.160v. I'll probably keep it like that and try to get another one to xfire.

 

[PhantomGamers]

Yeah, my XFX ran fine with the 6970 bios, too. I only went back to the 6950 w/ unlocked shaders because people saying that the 6970 memory clocks and voltage were too much for it. But it's been running great now on 900/1375@1.160v. I'll probably keep it like that and try to get another one to xfire.

I may have went a little far... lmao.
950/1450 @ 1.3v

I wouldn't say it gets too hot though, but I have it set to go to 58% fans when it hits 80c.

I actually tried to get it to 1000, but 950 seems to be my limit. Any higher and the PC crashes with that brown/black line screen.

 

[Bengie]

Yeah, my XFX ran fine with the 6970 bios, too. I only went back to the 6950 w/ unlocked shaders because people saying that the 6970 memory clocks and voltage were too much for it. But it's been running great now on 900/1375@1.160v. I'll probably keep it like that and try to get another one to xfire.

1375 is 6970 clocks, you're just running at 1.5v instead of 1.6v.

The 6970 memory voltages are what cause the problems.

 

[Bengie]

I may have went a little far... lmao.
950/1450 @ 1.3v

I wouldn't say it gets too hot though, but I have it set to go to 58% fans when it hits 80c.

I actually tried to get it to 1000, but 950 seems to be my limit. Any higher and the PC crashes with that brown/black line screen.

Power consumption increases by the square of the voltage. If you drop your speeds to even 940, you may be able to lower your voltage to 1.28 which is under the 10% "safe" over-voltage limit.

 

[manofthem]

1375 is 6970 clocks, you're just running at 1.5v instead of 1.6v.

The 6970 memory voltages are what cause the problems.

I usually run my memory at 1345, though it is fine higher so far. But I've kept it at 1.16v as opposed to the 1.175v of a 6970 bios. Since it's still a 6950 bios that I'm using, it's all the same settings of a 6950, just overclocked. And that makes me feel better about using.

 

[dom99]

Does anyone using MSI Afterburner to overclock their 6950 get this problem;

At night I power down my PC and turn it off at the wall (with a swanky new remote control device I got for xmas), then power it on in the morning and it boots up with the graphics card fan on at a constant rate of 50%, it only ramps down to normal custom profile by turning the custom profile off then on again. Ive googled it but cannot get a concise answer, all suggestions appreciated!

 

[sy5tem]

Later revisions of the 6950 will be damaged by trying to flash with a 6970 BIOS."

does this mean present revision are rebadged 6970 and will not get damaged or this is only saying "you've been lucky with old card , futurecard will insta-Explode on bios mod" ?


cause i don't want to remove my XFX HS/FAN to see memory chip and then know what memory can take without burning out in 30 day..!!

 

[PhantomGamers]

does this mean present revision are rebadged 6970 and will not get damaged or this is only saying "you've been lucky with old card , futurecard will insta-Explode on bios mod" ?


cause i don't want to remove my XFX HS/FAN to see memory chip and then know what memory can take without burning out in 30 day..!!

Sounds to me like they are threatening to have a feature in the card that kills itself on a bios flash?
Idk, sounds stupid.

 

[PhantomGamers]

Power consumption increases by the square of the voltage. If you drop your speeds to even 940, you may be able to lower your voltage to 1.28 which is under the 10% "safe" over-voltage limit.

Pretty sure the 40nm GPUs are safe up to 1.4v...
But I think I'm good here, the temperatures seem fine and it's running stable (I.E: No artifacting or crashing).

It idles at 51c, and gets up to 81c on full load. Then the Fans kick in at 80c and keep it steady.
Really only reason I would want to change it is because the fan noise is a bit annoying, but I can deal with it.

 

[manofthem]

Does anyone using MSI Afterburner to overclock their 6950 get this problem;

At night I power down my PC and turn it off at the wall (with a swanky new remote control device I got for xmas), then power it on in the morning and it boots up with the graphics card fan on at a constant rate of 50%, it only ramps down to normal custom profile by turning the custom profile off then on again. Ive googled it but cannot get a concise answer, all suggestions appreciated!

What version of afterburner are you using? Make sure it's the latest one since it cuts out a lot of those issues. I had something similar to what you're describing, but that was a bit ago with the older version.

 

[dom99]

What version of afterburner are you using? Make sure it's the latest one since it cuts out a lot of those issues. I had something similar to what you're describing, but that was a bit ago with the older version.

Using newest version of afterburner, I dont know what the matter is but Ive stopped using it now, just using 6950 @ stock, I dont currently have any games that need the extra juice anyway (untill crysis 2 is released)

 

[Flak]

I used asus smartdoctor to enable the extra overclocking in CCC. Then uninstalled smartdoctor, and even with clean installs of ati drivers whatever change smartdoctor made has stuck around.

Without voltage changes my 6950 has been at 900/1375 so far, going to try for higher when I'm not playing Rift so hardcore.

 

[n0cks]

I used asus smartdoctor to enable the extra overclocking in CCC. Then uninstalled smartdoctor, and even with clean installs of ati drivers whatever change smartdoctor made has stuck around.

Without voltage changes my 6950 has been at 900/1375 so far, going to try for higher when I'm not playing Rift so hardcore.

Does smartdoctor work with any HD6950?
Doesn't it modify your voltage?

I think I'll have to check it up

 

[Gaul]

That is the 1Gb version of the 6950.

Share only ! , with 26k@4.8gh


6950 1024 MB @ 1 GH/1350
vGpu 1.2500

 

[alannathanson]

The bios flash worked for me; I used the batch file in the pack you uploaded. In Catalyst control center I enabled AMD Overdrive and set the High Performance GPU clock settings to 880MHz and the Power Control settings to +20%. I'll do a stress test later.

 

[Gaul]