• 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.
Sapphire 2 GB 6950

Ok, I finally got my card successfully flashed to 6970 however there was major artifacting as soon as I open Civ 5, Rift, any other game. Had to flash back to 6950 :(
 
THANKS TO EVERYONE again. I just called my friend and told him to update and the shaders are showing correctly after flashing to the 6970 bios. So I guess the XFX 6950 ver 1.2 is good to go for flashing the bios as everything is matching what it's supposed to. BTW, I told him to upgrade to the latest GPUZ and I'm guessing that was the culprit.

Thanks again!
 
Just to update I'm running my 6950 unlocked with the 6970 bios +20% @925/1375....This seems to be the best speeds I can achieve with CCC...which is more than fine with me...
 
jmcslob said:
Just to update I'm running my 6950 unlocked with the 6970 bios +20% @925/1375....This seems to be the best speeds I can achieve with CCC...which is more than fine with me...
Click to expand...

You need to pump the voltage up with Afterburner (or I guess any other program that lets you do it) to get it to the 950/1450.
I have my card running at 1300mV.
 
fire2havoc said:
Did this. Am now unlocked with 1536 shaders.

Do I need to adjust "Power Control" to +20% in CCC?
Click to expand...

Yes. The power control limits the power consumption of the video card. The 6950 was limited by the power consumption with stock clocks and 1408 shaders, it should be even worse with the extra shaders.

The only real issues with increasing the power control is it can/will cause the card to run hotter and put more strain on your PSU. So long has the card stays cool and your PSU can handle ~230watts over two 6 pins, then you should be fine.
 
Bengie said:
Yes. The power control limits the power consumption of the video card. The 6950 was limited by the power consumption with stock clocks and 1408 shaders, it should be even worse with the extra shaders.

The only real issues with increasing the power control is it can/will cause the card to run hotter and put more strain on your PSU. So long has the card stays cool and your PSU can handle ~230watts over two 6 pins, then you should be fine.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I ran 3DMark before and after the flash. My benchmark went up by 800-900 points after the flash so it is surely not worse than before.
 
Very interesting....

In one of the few differences from the 6970, the 6990 is using 5GHz GDDR5 instead of 6GHz GDDR5 – our specific sample is using 2Gb Hynix T2C modules. This means the 5GHz stock speed of the card already has the RAM running for as much as it’s spec’d for. Hynix’s datasheets note that 6GHz RAM is spec’d for 1.6v at 6GHz, versus 1.5v at 5GHz for 5GHz RAM.

source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4209/amds-radeon-hd-6990-the-new-single-card-king/3

This throws some light on the mem voltage differences between the 6950 and the 6970.
 
Sebascenso said:
Very interesting....

In one of the few differences from the 6970, the 6990 is using 5GHz GDDR5 instead of 6GHz GDDR5 – our specific sample is using 2Gb Hynix T2C modules. This means the 5GHz stock speed of the card already has the RAM running for as much as it’s spec’d for. Hynix’s datasheets note that 6GHz RAM is spec’d for 1.6v at 6GHz, versus 1.5v at 5GHz for 5GHz RAM.

source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4209/amds-radeon-hd-6990-the-new-single-card-king/3

This throws some light on the mem voltage differences between the 6950 and the 6970.
Click to expand...

yep two 6970's will beat out the 6990, good scaling. But my 6950 will run much higher frequencies no probs. Just takes some good cooling.
 
I just used the hd 6950 bios modding script on my Asus EAH6950, thanks for the very well written script (I can send the modded bios if anyone wants, since asus has 810mhz)

now in terms of safe power usage, what is the safest & riskless percentage to use in power control? 10%? 12%?
 
Last edited:
aydahm said:
I just used the hd 6950 bios modding script on my Asus EAH6950, thanks for the very well written script (I can send the modded bios if anyone wants, since asus has 810mhz)

now in terms of safe power usage, what is the safest & riskless percentage to use in power control? 10%? 12%?
Click to expand...

I still have mine set to 0% until I read otherwise.
 
fire2havoc said:
I still have mine set to 0% until I read otherwise.
Click to expand...

The power Overdrive settings only modify the TDP, it doesn't touch voltage. The only extra load it modifies is the card's VRM and your PSU.

Consuming up-to more 20% more wattage will make your card generate up-to 20% more heat, but that's about it.
 
Bengie said:
The power Overdrive settings only modify the TDP, it doesn't touch voltage. The only extra load it modifies is the card's VRM and your PSU.

Consuming up-to more 20% more wattage will make your card generate up-to 20% more heat, but that's about it.
Click to expand...

Although that sounds nice and good everyones scores say performance goes up when you increase the volts including W1zz and I saw the performance increase myself in 3dmark11. Why would you say that?
 
GSG-9 said:
Although that sounds nice and good everyones scores say performance goes up when you increase the volts including W1zz and I saw the performance increase myself in 3dmark11. Why would you say that?
Click to expand...

it's not volts that that bar affects, maybe? Frankly, i think it enables power phase not used otherwise.

Real voltage has no effect on performance, here.
 
Hi, is there a foolproof method to check for rendering errors? So far I have noticed nothing in games ... but I'd like to use some bench, which tests "everything" to be on the save side.
 
kobebryant8885 said:
Hey guys.
I have a 6950 twin frozr II.
Is ther any way a can boot to a 6970???
Click to expand...

Does it have the dual bios switch, if it does then why not try the method this thread is about. You should be able to overclock quite well with that cooling as well.
 
unlocked bios

I think we all need some Moded, open Bios with unlocked CCC limit,like we had last year with MSI unlocked bios for 5850.Any guru out there who can make that Gift for All of us,who wants to push this little monster above 1000mhz :D:D:D:D:D
 
GSG-9 said:
Although that sounds nice and good everyones scores say performance goes up when you increase the volts including W1zz and I saw the performance increase myself in 3dmark11. Why would you say that?
Click to expand...

I never said increasing voltage won't increase performance, but I don't see how/why it would.

Increasing the overdrive can increase performance, but Overdrive doesn't affect voltage. wattage != voltage
 
Since I was getting some artifacts and a lot of heat, I decided to go back to the 6950 bios from the 6970. I downloaded the file to do the 6950 mod just for the shaders, but when I click on the run, all I get is the message to put my original bios in this folder and press any key. To what folder are they refering?

EDIT: Nevermind, I got it.
 
Last edited:
I was trying to upload the Asus HD 6950 BIOS, 810mhz with shaders unlocked, but GPU-Z says it already exists, yet the already existing one is the reference one without the shaders unlocked.

is there a way to overcome this?
 
Bengie said:
I never said increasing voltage won't increase performance, but I don't see how/why it would.

Increasing the overdrive can increase performance, but Overdrive doesn't affect voltage. wattage != voltage
Click to expand...

I know that it only increases wattage, not voltage.

So far, I've just unlocked my shaders; have not overclocked yet. I may have to bump the voltage up from 1.1v if I begin to overclock past 850/1350. I haven't even begun yet...

My original question was: after unlocking the shaders, is there a noticeable benefit from increasing power control to +20%, or can I just leave it at 0%?
 
fire2havoc said:
My original question was: after unlocking the shaders, is there a noticeable benefit from increasing power control to +20%, or can I just leave it at 0%?
Click to expand...

It depends on what application you are running.
If you find a game or benchmark program throttling your speeds down, then increase power control 5% at a time until it stops throttling your speeds.

Personally, I find only Furmark benching intensive enough for the need to throttle my card's speeds. I use 10% for best heat generation vs performance.

So far none of my games are impacted with a 10% power control setting.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top