How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[dom99]

There is a 6950 bios with only unlocked shaders, its been posted earlier in this thread

 

[Qed]

If you nuke your memory, in other words overclocking it to the 6970 speeds then stress testing it till it messes up pretty bad, it may permanently damage it. There is no amount of reverting that can reverse heat and overclocking damage. That's why I'm curious as to why there isn't a 6950-6970 bios with just the shaders unlocked yet and posted on the article.

The shader pretty much risk free, the overclocking memory by 125mhz is not.

There is. Did you check this post? How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

 

[bbmarley]

ello 6950 arrived today [VTX]
i used the flash pack W1zzard compiled did a reboot set power to +12%
everything seems to be working fine
GPU Temperature hits 83C while gaming seems normal
but GPU Temp #3 hits 99C is that normal?

pic because everyone likes pics =D

edit after doing some looking around i figure why my temp are a little hi due to multiple moniter setup

 

[baud]

i think #3 is the memory temperature. it's always higher than the core for some reason.

 

[bbmarley]

is it safe ?

 

[dimon222]

is it safe ?

Just enable manual fan and use it on 50%.

 

[tecnoworld]

my board (Powercolor 6950) finally arrived.

I immediately patched my BIOS with Wizard's script, and updated it. Everything went fine (I just had to unlock and update via command line). After that, everything seems perfect; all the shaders are now active.

My questions:
1) in CCC I can only reach 840/1325. Is it normal? How can I go "at least" to 880Mhz for the GPU?
2) same in afterburner, where I can't set the voltage, even if I enable the setting via advanced properties. How can I do that?
3) what's exatly the power control from the CCC? What does 10% or 20% mean?
4) not related to this topic but...how do I enable "triple buffering" in D3D?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Iliyena]

Got myself a Sapphire HD6950 today. Had some early problems removing my old nVidia-drivers correctly and to get Catalyst Control Center to work. But now everything seems ok, I've done the flashmod, though the 20% extra power didn't do any difference in 3dMark Vantage, put it at 13% instead.

Hopefully I won't experience microstuttering in games. Haven't had the time to try any fps yet, gotta go to bed because of work. Everything seems fine though.

Went from 12k GPU-score in 3dMark Vantage with my GTX 275 to 17k with the HD6950@70. The CPU I'm running is a Q9300@3,05GHz which gives approx 11k in CPU-score, its a bit of a bottleneck together with my 4GB DDR2 800MHz.. But hey! this is a worthy boost since a friend is buying the GTX 275.

To sum it up I got 40% scoreboost, DX11, roughly the same wattage, at least in this synthetic test for approx 150$... worth it? Ye, I think so.

Nighty!

 

[Flak]

I flashed my gigabyte 6950 to a gigabyte 6970 bios. Though with the memory issues I'm reading about on other forums and the speculation here, I'm trying to decide just flashing to a modified 6950 bios. I've not seen any artifacts yet in any games or furmark.

Other then clocks, are there any differences between the 6970 and modified 6950 bioses?

 

[tecnoworld]

I have a Sapphire 6950 and am currently using the modded 6950 BIOS (unlocked shaders) and so far it's running perfectly at 880/1365

how can you reach 880/1365, if the upper limits in CCC are 840/1325, for a modded 6950 BIOS? Do you use another utility? thanks.

 

[Qed]

how can you reach 880/1365, if the upper limits in CCC are 840/1325, for a modded 6950 BIOS? Do you use another utility? thanks.

TriXX from Sapphire is working, i believe you can also use it on other brands card. You need version 3.0.2 or later for 6900 cards.

 

[dom99]

I think someone posted a link to trixx earlier in this thread, although ive already got it installed on my comp from a previous hd 6870. Is it possible to use Trixx with both 6870 and 6950 cards without having to reinstall it?

 

[sleid]

Hello to all... i flashed the 6950 into 6970 via sapphire bios and everything is fine but when i go into starcraft 2 i find a little bit of artifacts.. little black windows are popping up... soo i tried to stay on 6970 bios and put clocks as 6950 but it happens again... soo i get back to default 6950 bios and they do not appear.... soo what should be the problem... unlocked shaders, or something other that was unlocked? i put +20 power soo that isnt the problem..

 

[joeyck]

yuuucck, all that work for 70$ more, i praise you guys for doing it though! i would if i had the funds for a 6950... but i got the 6870 (i wanted a new GPU NOW!)

 

[dom99]

Hello to all... i flashed the 6950 into 6970 via sapphire bios and everything is fine but when i go into starcraft 2 i find a little bit of artifacts.. little black windows are popping up... soo i tried to stay on 6970 bios and put clocks as 6950 but it happens again... soo i get back to default 6950 bios and they do not appear.... soo what should be the problem... unlocked shaders, or something other that was unlocked? i put +20 power soo that isnt the problem..

People with problems using the 6970 bios usually find that the 6950 bios with the shaders unlocked works fine, then you can overclock to 6970 clocks.

 

[bystander]

yuuucck, all that work for 70$ more, i praise you guys for doing it though! i would if i had the funds for a 6950... but i got the 6870 (i wanted a new GPU NOW!)

Besides being fun to tweak the hardware, it takes about 15 minutes to do, unless you are in the minority with a few problems. I had issues, but the issues I had were Internet explorer errors when using flash videos. It effected both the default 6950 and the 6970, so this had nothing to do with it.

 

[sleid]

People with problems using the 6970 bios usually find that the 6950 bios with the shaders unlocked works fine, then you can overclock to 6970 clocks.

where can i find 6950 bios with only shaders unlocked? and with which program should i overclock to 6970 clocks?

thanks!

 

[bystander]

where can i find 6950 bios with only shaders unlocked? and with which program should i overclock to 6970 clocks?

thanks!

You don't flash your bios with this method. Just run this utility: www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

It'll update your current bios.

 

[hajabooja]

You don't flash your bios with this method. Just run this utility: www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

It'll update your current bios.

Any documentation/instructions on this?

 

[bystander]

Any documentation/instructions on this?

On page 16 of this thread they introduced that method. It seems to be pretty self explanatory.

 

[hajabooja]

On page 16 of this thread they introduced that method. It seems to be pretty self explanatory.

Thanks, I figured as much. Just trying to get as much info as I can.

 

[ale86cuba]

1: what is really the difference between unlocking the shaders but keeping the 6950 bios vs flashing the card with the 6970 bios?
2: i ran heave benchmark with 0% 10% 13% and 20% power and no difference in the score, do i really need a %age or can i keep it at 0%?
3: after flashing the card, lets say i have to return the card for warranty, if i flash it back to 6950 will the warranty still be void?

thanks

 

[sleid]

You don't flash your bios with this method. Just run this utility: www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

It'll update your current bios.

thanx now it works whitout problems...

i noticed that my shaders are 1536 which is ok but my texture filtrate is 77.8, and my pixel filtrate 25.9, is that ok? because normal 6950 has about 70 texture filtrate and about 27 pixel filtrate... soo why i have less pixel filtrate and more texture filtrate then normal? :S is that ok?

and by only unlocking shaders and with these performance do i need to put +20 power or i can stay on 0.. clocks are same as 6950

tnx!

 

[tecnoworld]

by using TriXX I was able to set up my 6950 to 865Mhz stable (at 880Mhz Crysis locked after some minutes, even if the temperature was only at 60°).

Is there a way to increase the voltage to the level of a 6970? in TriXX the option is not enabled...

Besides, I'm no longer able to set the power control in CCC, now...the option has disappeared

 

[turbobeta]

Hi! Since the other thread kinda died, I'm copypastaing my post into this thread. I think some people might find it useful, as I'm one of the people who found they cannot hit 880/1375

UPDATE ON MY GIGABYTE 6950 >>> 6970:

FAIL: At speeds 875mhz core / 1350mhz memory and higher, I get memory artifacts in Borderlands, and WoW Cataclysm crashes at the login screen. All other benchmarks, Unigine Heaven, FFXIV bench, FFXI bench, work fine.

PASS: At speeds of 870mhz core / 1345mhz memory and below, Borderlands, WoW Cataclysm, Unigine Heaven, FFXIV, and FFXI function properly.

ERATTA: For safety and stability's sake, I'm running my card 3 ticks down from last known failure, so my final clocks are 860mhz core / 1335mhz memory.

The card I have: GIGABYTE GV-R695D5-2GD-B Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bi...
The bios I used: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/88934/Gigabyte.HD6970.2048.101124.html

Thoughts: You're almost guaranteed to take your $300 6950, and turn it into an equivalent of a 6960, or a 6965. The chances of you turning your 6950 into a perfectly stable, flawless $370 6970? Slim.

More thoughts: I think if more people tested thier oc's/mods throughly, they'd notice instability as well. I don't think this is a manufacture specific issue. I think 99.9% of the 6950 gpus out there can do full shaders at 800mhz, but most can't do full shaders at 880. Also, these 6950 cards are built with slower ram chips as well based on the info we've seen from the ram product numbers. Expecting your ram to go from 1250 to 1375 is unrealistic.

Conclusion: Buyer be educated, buyer beware. Go into this knowing that if you have a reference card, you're getting a great deal. Have realistic expectations.