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How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

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abirdie4me said:
I had no issues doing the original bios flash posted here on my 2 Sapphire 6950s. I am able to push them to 920/1400 with no issues in 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark06 (I know, I need to download some newer benchmarks). However, my cards now idle around 60C, while they idled around 42C on the original bios. Did the bios flash increase my core voltage, causing the huge increase in temps? I like the performance bump, but not at the expense of heat / fan noise. Is there an easy way to reduce my voltage on the 6970 bios, or do I need to go back to my earlier bios and then do the shader hack?
Click to expand...

The 6970 BIOS does up the core voltage to the GPU. More power running though the less meaty power system of the 6950 is going make it inefficient and produce more heat. I've also heard some people say the 6950 fan is slightly smaller, though I don't know if that's true.

You can try lowering clocks/powertune, or flash with a modded 6950 BIOS. You should still be able to raise clocks/powertune, but you won't get so as far on the lower stock voltage of the 6950 - but it should make less heat and be quieter.
 
abirdie4me said:
Downloaded 3DMark11 Basic and ran the standard test, got the following results. I have 2 Sapphire 6950s in crossfire, both have the 6970 bios and are running at 920 / 1400. I have no idea if these scores are in line with other crossfire setups since this is my first time to use 3DMark11. Any other free utilities I can use to benchmark my setup?

Still concerned that my cards are around 65 degrees at idle and ramp up to 85 degrees under full load (although that's with the fans never going above 33%, which is the point where it gets too loud to be bearable).

3DMark Score
P8117
Graphics score
9775
Physics Score
5899
Combined Score
4754
GraphicsTest1
44.1 FPS
GraphicsTest2
47.08 FPS
GraphicsTest3
62.58 FPS
GraphicsTest4
29.23 FPS
PhysicsTest
18.73 FPS
CombinedTest
22.11 FPS
Click to expand...

Your scores are good. You should have ran them before so you could see the difference.

As far as the idle temps go, are you running two monitors on it? If you do, the card does not idle nearly as low and that temp is about right. If you don't use 2+ monitors, it may be high.
 
Anyone find that when Sapphire's Trixx is running you can't change the Power Control setting in CCC? It keeps reverting to default before I can click Apply.
 
BZB said:
The 6970 BIOS does up the core voltage to the GPU. More power running though the less meaty power system of the 6950 is going make it inefficient and produce more heat. I've also heard some people say the 6950 fan is slightly smaller, though I don't know if that's true.

You can try lowering clocks/powertune, or flash with a modded 6950 BIOS. You should still be able to raise clocks/powertune, but you won't get so as far on the lower stock voltage of the 6950 - but it should make less heat and be quieter.
Click to expand...

Thanks BZB. I've tried every clock between 800 and 940, and the temperature doesn't change. I found a post on another forum that using dual monitors won't allow the 6950 to drop to 2D mode, so I disabled my second monitor and the temps dropped into the low 50s at idle. Still too hot for non-gaming use, but not quite the furnace I've been feeling.

What overclocks have you guys been getting on the 6950 shader mod as opposed to the 6970 bios replacement? Are temps significantly cooler with the 6950 shader mod?
 
abirdie4me said:
Thanks BZB. I've tried every clock between 800 and 940, and the temperature doesn't change. I found a post on another forum that using dual monitors won't allow the 6950 to drop to 2D mode, so I disabled my second monitor and the temps dropped into the low 50s at idle. Still too hot for non-gaming use, but not quite the furnace I've been feeling.
Click to expand...

Yeah, dual monitors doesn't clock down so far. IIRC, it's something to do with flickering caused by clocking up and down on dual setups, so they don't do it. Also they can put unoccupied outputs into power saving mode, with a second monitor plugged in, they have to keep it live the same as the primary.

abirdie4me said:
What overclocks have you guys been getting on the 6950 shader mod as opposed to the 6970 bios replacement? Are temps significantly cooler with the 6950 shader mod?
Click to expand...

Should be less as the core voltage is lower on 6950. The memory chips are also not being driven as hard. The memory and VRMs are all on the same heatsink as the GPU, so all that stuff is going to run hotter just from the higher voltage, which will make it innefficient and hotter again. I'd be surprised if you don't get less heat from the modded 6950 BIOS in place of the 6970 BIOS.
 
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bystander said:
Your scores are good. You should have ran them before so you could see the difference.

As far as the idle temps go, are you running two monitors on it? If you do, the card does not idle nearly as low and that temp is about right. If you don't use 2+ monitors, it may be high.
Click to expand...

Thanks bystander, I found out about the dual monitor / 2D issue on another site and disabling my 2nd monitor drops my temps from 57C idle to 43 idle using a new profile I created for non-gaming activities. I hope a new driver will come out that will allow 2D idle when using a second monitor, I'm shocked that a second monitor can cause a 14 degree rise in temps. I can't imagine what temps will be like when I go 3 X 1 eyefinity soon!

I guess I'll search the Internet to find some similar 3DMark11 scores just to make sure I'm not too far out of whack, but all I really care about is performance in games. I'm about to fire up Metro and see if 920/1400 makes a noticeable difference.
 
abirdie4me said:
Thanks bystander, I found out about the dual monitor / 2D issue on another site and disabling my 2nd monitor drops my temps from 57C idle to 43 idle using a new profile I created for non-gaming activities. I hope a new driver will come out that will allow 2D idle when using a second monitor, I'm shocked that a second monitor can cause a 14 degree rise in temps. I can't imagine what temps will be like when I go 3 X 1 eyefinity soon!

I guess I'll search the Internet to find some similar 3DMark11 scores just to make sure I'm not too far out of whack, but all I really care about is performance in games. I'm about to fire up Metro and see if 920/1400 makes a noticeable difference.
Click to expand...

Trust me, don't hope there is a way to drop the idle clocks with 2 monitors.

When the 5000 first came out, their drivers treated two monitors the same way as a single monitor with the lower clocks. It causes unbelievable screen tearing on the 2nd monitor. It's insanely bad.

Later, they made it work at slightly lower clocks than normal (900 for the memory). That worked better, but still it flickered occationally.

Now it works great. I can live with higher temps. I can't live with insane flickering.
 
bystander said:
Trust me, don't hope there is a way to drop the idle clocks with 2 monitors.

When the 5000 first came out, their drivers treated two monitors the same way as a single monitor with the lower clocks. It causes unbelievable screen tearing on the 2nd monitor. It's insanely bad.

Later, they made it work at slightly lower clocks than normal (900 for the memory). That worked better, but still it flickered occationally.

Now it works great. I can live with higher temps. I can't live with insane flickering.
Click to expand...

I had a 5870 in this rig before I got the 6850s, I don't remember any visual issues with the second monitor and the temps always hovered in the mid 40s. I guess the additional card really adds a lot more heat. I'm going to stick with it for now, I could see a noticeable improvement in Metro for the few minutes I played it.

Thanks W1zzard, rui0317, and all others who have helped created this awesome mod, I thought I got a good deal on my 6950s and it turns out that I got a GREAT deal on a pair of 6970s!
 
Hi! I can't unlock my Powercolor 6950. Tried your batchfiles and ATIFlash. It does not want to erase the flash. Also the manual unlocking does not help.

I made a screenshot of ATIFlash. I am using a Asus M4A785TD-V EVO. This does have onboard graphics but it is disabled in the bios. Can someone give me a hint?
 

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mironicus said:
Hi! I can't unlock my Powercolor 6950. Tried your batchfiles and ATIFlash. It does not want to erase the flash. Also the manual unlocking does not help.

I made a screenshot of ATIFlash. I am using a Asus M4A785TD-V EVO. This does have onboard graphics but it is disabled in the bios. Can someone give me a hint?
Click to expand...

When renaming the bios to unlock.bin, you don't have to type .bin because it's already a .bin file. Otherwise you have to type in the CMD unlock.bin.bin. Try that. I had problem at first but it's working after I remove the .bin when renaming.
 
mironicus said:
"File not found" if you just use "unlock". Does not work.
Click to expand...

What he means is when you rename the 6970 bios that you want to use to unlock. You do not add the .bin at the end, unless you turn on the folder option to show full filenames (something I do).
 
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I have an update regarding my Sapphire 6950 modding. So I used the utility posted by W1zzard and I can confirm that it all works properly. I am using the maximum gpu and memory clocks that overdrive will allow and so far no artifacts or crashes. Thank you rui0317 and W1zzard!
 
ALBPM said:
I just flashed both my Sapphire 6950's using W1zzard's batch files but I substituted the 6970 .bin (unlock) file with rui0317's unlocked Sapphire 6950.bin file. (Sapphire.HD6970.2048.101124 - renamed to unlock)


rui0317's Sapphire unlocked 6950 file:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=39827&d=1293648822


W1zzard's Batch files:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html
Click to expand...

Cool. Unlike the Asus 6950 BIOS, the Sapphire doesn't allow you to up voltage does it?
 
No it doesn't :(
 
I have no idea if this is good... 840/1325 +20%
unigine attached
Anyone have any thoughts?


Before 840/1325 +20%
3DMark Score P3755
Graphics score 4368
Physics Score 2696
Combined Score 2567
GraphicsTest1 19.26 FPS
GraphicsTest2 22.07 FPS
GraphicsTest3 27.31 FPS
GraphicsTest4 13.03 FPS
PhysicsTest 8.56 FPS
CombinedTest 11.94 FPS

After 840/1325 +20%
3DMark Score P4019
Graphics score 4876
Physics Score 2691
Combined Score 2547
GraphicsTest1 20.77 FPS
GraphicsTest2 25.02 FPS
GraphicsTest3 30.54 FPS
GraphicsTest4 14.75 FPS
PhysicsTest 8.54 FPS
CombinedTest 11.85 FPS

After 885/1385 +20%
3DMark Score P4121
Graphics score 5098
Physics Score 2672
Combined Score 2539
GraphicsTest1 21.72 FPS
GraphicsTest2 26.23 FPS
GraphicsTest3 31.86 FPS
GraphicsTest4 15.41 FPS
PhysicsTest 8.48 FPS
CombinedTest 11.81 FPS
 

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