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How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

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I figured it would. It really didn't make any sense to me that XFX would claim such, and after a small bit of investigation, I can understand why they said what they did, but perhaps they would have been better served if they explained a bit as to what the situation was exactly.

I was a bit concerned that I might brick my card, but becuase of that earler claim, I ahd to check and see. I mean, there is always the chance that some cards out there will not like ahving the shaders enabled, but it seems very unlikely that simply flashing a bios would truly brick a card in such a way that a flash back wouldn't fix it, unless the bios some so different that the voltages it gave the card were way over spec.

So between the 2 of us, we sussed out the real story. ;)
 
Nice seeing some success stories for the XFX cards and 1Gb 6950s.
 
Did I brick my card?

I bought the Asus 6950. Clearly reference since it has a bios switch and the AMD stamp above the PCI-E connectors on the PCB. Winflash wouldn't let me flash bios (subsystem ID mismatch) so I used the script provided.

Worked beautifully... played Shogun 2 for an hour, then Furmark for 25 min just to see how hot it would get (94C... damn). Then suddenly, constant crashes and hung-ups. I successfully flashed the backup.bin, but it still happens.

I boot fine into windows, but 30 seconds later, I blue screen with the message "A process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated."

How could I have bricked a card that is now running its stock and original BIOS??? I don't understand this at all.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
TigerLord said:
How could I have bricked a card that is now running its stock and original BIOS??? I don't understand this at all.

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...


Try full driver uninstall, then re-install driver.

If you were overclocknig using extra volts, it's possible something happened to the card. The 6970 has extra pins on power plugs for a reason...running the high clocks needs it. I have been monitoring PCIe power consumption, per plug, decided that clocking up to 850mhz on 1.1v is good enough for my cards. ;) i don't suggest going anywhere over 1.15v unless you are supplying signifigant cooling to the VRM, and on stock cooler, you are not.
 
TigerLord said:
Did I brick my card?

I bought the Asus 6950. Clearly reference since it has a bios switch and the AMD stamp above the PCI-E connectors on the PCB. Winflash wouldn't let me flash bios (subsystem ID mismatch) so I used the script provided.

Worked beautifully... played Shogun 2 for an hour, then Furmark for 25 min just to see how hot it would get (94C... damn). Then suddenly, constant crashes and hung-ups. I successfully flashed the backup.bin, but it still happens.

I boot fine into windows, but 30 seconds later, I blue screen with the message "A process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated."

How could I have bricked a card that is now running its stock and original BIOS??? I don't understand this at all.

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

I dont think its your gpu but it sounds like you cpu is under volted... try upping it .5v and see if it helps. I see that bsod msg when my cpu pisses out on an overclock. ;)
 
My OC has been rock stable for 3+ months... could a more demanding card impact speed? I run a i7 920 at 4.0ghz on about 1.275v. I tried booting at stock CPU speeds and got the same problem.

Could RAM voltage of the 6970 bios have damaged the RAM?

Good news: I replaced the card with an old backup 8600 and the problem is persisting, so this is not GPU-related. What an odd coincidence though...
 
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TigerLord said:
My OC has been rock stable for 3+ months... could a more demanding card impact speed? I run a i7 920 at 4.0ghz on about 1.275v. I tried booting at stock CPU speeds and got the same problem.

Could RAM voltage of the 6970 bios have damaged the RAM?

Good news: I replaced the card with an old backup 8600 and the problem is persisting, so this is not GPU-related. What an odd coincidence though...
Click to expand...
If you used the 6970 bios then YES you killed the ram. You should only use the UNLOCKED SHADERS only bios... These ram chips run higher timings and a low end binned chips that don't like the added voltage. There is only a hand full of reference 6950's that tolerate the higher volts. I have 2 of them and still no problems after a month of running them @ 6970 clocks.
 
TigerLord said:
My OC has been rock stable for 3+ months... could a more demanding card impact speed? I run a i7 920 at 4.0ghz on about 1.275v. I tried booting at stock CPU speeds and got the same problem.

Could RAM voltage of the 6970 bios have damaged the RAM?

Good news: I replaced the card with an old backup 8600 and the problem is persisting, so this is not GPU-related. What an odd coincidence though...
Click to expand...
Up the cpu volts a bit to test it.
 
TigerLord said:
Did I brick my card?

I bought the Asus 6950. Clearly reference since it has a bios switch and the AMD stamp above the PCI-E connectors on the PCB. Winflash wouldn't let me flash bios (subsystem ID mismatch) so I used the script provided.

Worked beautifully... played Shogun 2 for an hour, then Furmark for 25 min just to see how hot it would get (94C... damn). Then suddenly, constant crashes and hung-ups. I successfully flashed the backup.bin, but it still happens.

I boot fine into windows, but 30 seconds later, I blue screen with the message "A process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated."

How could I have bricked a card that is now running its stock and original BIOS??? I don't understand this at all.

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Flip the switch, and do a clean driver install.
 
Turns out the sparks I thought I saw and heard when powering up the 6950 (pre flash at that) were not hallucinated. It seems to have fucked up my entire motherboard.

I got the flashing package from here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html

I assume this was the correct one (ie. unlocks the shaders without the memory changes).

Everything ran at stock... but the mobo is definitely fooked up.
 
HD-695A-CNFC
HD-695X-CNFC

Can we have the xfx success thing seperated for the two? I believe the A one is AMD rebranded and takes extremely well to the flash whereas the X doesn't, is from XFX and a newer revision, so it's not fair to group them into one XFX success rate :(.

Sorry if posted before, which in the 80+ pges I'll presuem it has, was just redirected here by a friend xD.
 
Late version XFX 1Gb modded -

Hi.

Just to let you know - Successfully unlocked shaders on a new version XFX 1Gb 6950 -

Instead of using ATIWinFlash in Windows mode, I used cmd mode (Run as Administrator) and the following commands -

"atiwinflash -unlockrom 0"
"atiwinflash -f -p 0 modded.bin"

as suggested by W1zzard here http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2134576&postcount=19

modded.bin has been attached - it's a modded stock 6950 bios from my own card, modded with Wizzards script from here: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2137760&postcount=381

Thanks W1zzard - Flerbizky Signing Off...

[Edit:] Just realised - since this card replaced my SLI 8800GTS 512Mb setup, I had the PCIe bus running at x8 instead of x16. New Postmodded screenshot attached with correct PCIe speed.
 

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ferod said:
HD-695A-CNFC
HD-695X-CNFC

Can we have the xfx success thing seperated for the two? I believe the A one is AMD rebranded and takes extremely well to the flash whereas the X doesn't, is from XFX and a newer revision, so it's not fair to group them into one XFX success rate :(.

Sorry if posted before, which in the 80+ pges I'll presuem it has, was just redirected here by a friend xD.
Click to expand...

Both cards mod. I have the 695X; this card was just discussed as being able to mod, although you must mod bios off of card for shader unlock, no 6970 bios flashes for this card.

Flerbizky here has same PCB, but differnt ram, and it's worked for him as well. Turns out XFX techs aren't exactly helpful. I've had an ongoing RMA with then since January, still going on.
 
Flerbizky said:
Hi.

Just to let you know - Successfully unlocked shaders on a new version XFX 1Gb 6950 -

Instead of using ATIWinFlash in Windows mode, I used cmd mode (Run as Administrator) and the following commands -

"atiwinflash -unlockrom 0"
"atiwinflash -f -p 0 modded.bin"

as suggested by W1zzard here http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2134576&postcount=19

modded.bin has been attached - it's a modded stock 6950 bios from my own card, modded with Wizzards script from here: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2137760&postcount=381

Thanks W1zzard - Flerbizky Signing Off...
Click to expand...
I just realized that the 1 GB model has higher clocks than the reference 2 GB.
 
Flerbizky said:
Hi.

Just to let you know - Successfully unlocked shaders on a new version XFX 1Gb 6950 -

Instead of using ATIWinFlash in Windows mode, I used cmd mode (Run as Administrator) and the following commands -

"atiwinflash -unlockrom 0"
"atiwinflash -f -p 0 modded.bin"

as suggested by W1zzard here http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2134576&postcount=19

modded.bin has been attached - it's a modded stock 6950 bios from my own card, modded with Wizzards script from here: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2137760&postcount=381

Thanks W1zzard - Flerbizky Signing Off...
Click to expand...

I just got my XFX HD 6950 1GB and flashed it just as you did, after modifying the BIOS using W1zzard's script. I now have the full 1536 shaders unlocked as well! Proof.

BTW, I uploaded my BIOS too, as mine is the slower clocked, non-porn model (non XXX model :p ).

W1zz, do you think you could make an announcement or something that these 1GB models unlock just fine? There seems to be a lot of people on these and other forums telling people to stay away from the 1GB versions because they "don't unlock".
 

Attachments

Hi, thanks for the guide, I have successfully unlocked my Sapphire 6950 :toast:
I would be interested to know which programs you guys are using for stability testing though.
 
fullinfusion said:
If you used the 6970 bios then YES you killed the ram. You should only use the UNLOCKED SHADERS only bios... These ram chips run higher timings and a low end binned chips that don't like the added voltage. There is only a hand full of reference 6950's that tolerate the higher volts. I have 2 of them and still no problems after a month of running them @ 6970 clocks.
Click to expand...

I agree, recommend people shader unlock first then test with Games and stress programs running the 6970clocks or beyond with MSI afterburner where can push the core voltage. This way you don't mess with any memory times or the memory voltage. After you have confirmed its stable then go full 6970 bios if you still choose to.
 
After about 2 months of being stumped with flashing my card I figured it out, needed to switch the Bios on the card to #2, Gigabyte must lock the first one or something. After my comp has what can only be described as a seizure and the Mobos Bios freaking out Im back up and running.

What a night!
 
Wastedslayer said:
After about 2 months of being stumped with flashing my card I figured it out, needed to switch the Bios on the card to #2, Gigabyte must lock the first one or something. After my comp has what can only be described as a seizure and the Mobos Bios freaking out Im back up and running.

What a night!
Click to expand...

My Gigabyte flashed fine the first time, and I didn't even have to do it in cmd like I do with my XFX card. but the reference cards have 2 bioses: one that can be flashed, and the other is a read only default bios. Is that what you are referring to? It's great that you got it working though, thumbs up.
 
tekgun said:
Hi, thanks for the guide, I have successfully unlocked my Sapphire 6950 :toast:
I would be interested to know which programs you guys are using for stability testing though.
Click to expand...

Furmark, and 3dMark Vantage.
But nothing tests as well or is as much fun while testing as actually playing the games you play with.

Use the your most graphically intensive game as a stress tool for your newly unlocked GPU.
 
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