Same thing happened to me. However I found a solution. I set it to 6950 shaders and flashed that rom. Then I loaded the rom on there set it back to 6970 and flashed it. I didn't even have to do any of these work arounds verified in Gpu-Z 6970 shaders!
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Successfully Unlocked: Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB (100312-3SR)
- Thread starter elgrandeburro
- Start date
Same thing happened to me. However I found a solution. I set it to 6950 shaders and flashed that rom. Then I loaded the rom on there set it back to 6970 and flashed it. I didn't even have to do any of these work arounds verified in Gpu-Z 6970 shaders!
xplode download your original bios off your card using GPUZ!!! and save it, then edit with RBE, after that follow instructions to a T and after that turn ur pc off, dont restart, turn it off for 1 minute, then turn it back on, after it comes on reinstall latest catalyst drivers... then check and see... also make sure that your using atiwinflash .13 not .14 i did and it worked for my gigabyte 695OC 1gb, also besides turning down UAC are you running the flash in cmd prompt as admin? as in start comand prompt by right clicking then choosing run as administrator?
finally make sure that you name the bios something stupid simple, like 1.rom or a.rom, sometimes the name of the file can cause issues, why who knows, the shorter the better though
most ppl 1) dont reinstall catalyst and don't realize they actually did unlock the shaders, windows 7 is super gay, and for some reason shaders don't update on certain systems till u reinstall video drivers(i didnt driver sweep or nothing just reinstalled right over the old ones)
2)they don't use GPU-z thinking RBE will work just fine to download the original bios off their card for modding(RBE fucks it up esp on gigabytes card, so make sure you get the original with gpuz and then mod with RBE)
3)for gigabyte cards, regardless of what atiwinflash seems to do when u try to flash without doing the BIOS circuit pin 3 to 8 connect trick you must connect pins 3 and 8 with a wire or by drawing a line with a circuit pen, otherwise it wont really flash, it will just appear that way cuz you typed -f for force flash which then forces the flash despite it not being possible i think(i suspect at least that is the issue)
also your bios version is weird, unlike mine, check out my GPUZ
also i attached my bios file its checksum is 868549f8b9b6c822a031ed26604b9904 open it with rbe and resave it as a .rom file, cuz i couldnt upload a rom due to this boards extension restrictions(wtf?) i also uploaded the checksum program if you need it(the zip file), the only file i didnt was ATIwinflash .13... which you need to get because i am not saying get it for my health, i have heard of tons of ppl having failure until switching to .13 yes you have .14 but the point is that, when you don't follow the exact steps of someone with identical hardware, how can you blame anyone but yourself for no succeeding? anyhow good luck i think thatll cover it all
make sure you run cmd prompt as admin
don't forget to turn off UAC before doing the flash and re-enable it afterwards, but still run the cmd.exe as administrator on top of it as well, and i can't stress enough the importance of reinstalling catalyst drivers afterward
finally make sure that you name the bios something stupid simple, like 1.rom or a.rom, sometimes the name of the file can cause issues, why who knows, the shorter the better though
most ppl 1) dont reinstall catalyst and don't realize they actually did unlock the shaders, windows 7 is super gay, and for some reason shaders don't update on certain systems till u reinstall video drivers(i didnt driver sweep or nothing just reinstalled right over the old ones)
2)they don't use GPU-z thinking RBE will work just fine to download the original bios off their card for modding(RBE fucks it up esp on gigabytes card, so make sure you get the original with gpuz and then mod with RBE)
3)for gigabyte cards, regardless of what atiwinflash seems to do when u try to flash without doing the BIOS circuit pin 3 to 8 connect trick you must connect pins 3 and 8 with a wire or by drawing a line with a circuit pen, otherwise it wont really flash, it will just appear that way cuz you typed -f for force flash which then forces the flash despite it not being possible i think(i suspect at least that is the issue)
also your bios version is weird, unlike mine, check out my GPUZ
also i attached my bios file its checksum is 868549f8b9b6c822a031ed26604b9904 open it with rbe and resave it as a .rom file, cuz i couldnt upload a rom due to this boards extension restrictions(wtf?) i also uploaded the checksum program if you need it(the zip file), the only file i didnt was ATIwinflash .13... which you need to get because i am not saying get it for my health, i have heard of tons of ppl having failure until switching to .13 yes you have .14 but the point is that, when you don't follow the exact steps of someone with identical hardware, how can you blame anyone but yourself for no succeeding? anyhow good luck i think thatll cover it all
make sure you run cmd prompt as admin
don't forget to turn off UAC before doing the flash and re-enable it afterwards, but still run the cmd.exe as administrator on top of it as well, and i can't stress enough the importance of reinstalling catalyst drivers afterward
Last edited:
XplodedSynapses
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Thanks for the files.
A few observations:
My card's BIOS evidently was written 12-20-2010 and yours 08-01-2011.
RBE says 'unable to find Overdrive settings' when i load the file you uploaded into it- there are no Upper GPU limits nor are there any Upper RAM Limits. These both read 0 and are unchangeable.
RBE displays your .ROM with values for mode 1 'low' (2), mode 2 'medium' (2) and mode 3 'high' (0)... my original .bin shows values of (2), (2) and (3), respectively.
Is this information the same as you see it in RBE? If not, then converting to text back to ROM is probably not the way to go. If you would check your PM's, i have given my e-mail address so you may send it to me that way so i can be sure to get the information as a ROM rather than risking another bad Flash... unless you corroborate that the information is correct...
Also, RBE shows my original BIOS having two different checksums 0x8800 and 0x9000. The FAQ says that's because WinFlash has a bug in it that displays the checksum incorrectly. The text ROM shows both checksums are identical: 0x9F00 and 0x9F00.
i saved my original BIOS with GPU-Z since the start... but i had version GPU-Z.0.4.4 when i started.... could this have been the problem all along?
If it is- then i need my original BIOS?
Thanks for all the effort you are putting into this. i certainly appreciate your time.
A few observations:
My card's BIOS evidently was written 12-20-2010 and yours 08-01-2011.
RBE says 'unable to find Overdrive settings' when i load the file you uploaded into it- there are no Upper GPU limits nor are there any Upper RAM Limits. These both read 0 and are unchangeable.
RBE displays your .ROM with values for mode 1 'low' (2), mode 2 'medium' (2) and mode 3 'high' (0)... my original .bin shows values of (2), (2) and (3), respectively.
Is this information the same as you see it in RBE? If not, then converting to text back to ROM is probably not the way to go. If you would check your PM's, i have given my e-mail address so you may send it to me that way so i can be sure to get the information as a ROM rather than risking another bad Flash... unless you corroborate that the information is correct...
Also, RBE shows my original BIOS having two different checksums 0x8800 and 0x9000. The FAQ says that's because WinFlash has a bug in it that displays the checksum incorrectly. The text ROM shows both checksums are identical: 0x9F00 and 0x9F00.
i saved my original BIOS with GPU-Z since the start... but i had version GPU-Z.0.4.4 when i started.... could this have been the problem all along?
If it is- then i need my original BIOS?
Thanks for all the effort you are putting into this. i certainly appreciate your time.
Hi guys chance upon this thread. My card does have 2 bios, 6950:1408 shaders & 6950:1536 shaders. Btw, tried flashing my sapphire 2gb 6950 dirt 3 card.
Flashed 3 times and still it failed. After every flash shut down my pc and power on after 1 min of waiting. Switch off both psu and power plug.
After which i have to switch the bios switch back to 1408 shaders to flash it back to the stock 1536 shaders. Currently running it on the unlocked 1536 6950 800/1250, using trixx utility 880/1375 voltage at 1.150 but its not stable. Crashes in crysis warhead. I used 1.150 because this guy is using http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIV_gQEWqPs Help needed!!
Flashed 3 times and still it failed. After every flash shut down my pc and power on after 1 min of waiting. Switch off both psu and power plug.
After which i have to switch the bios switch back to 1408 shaders to flash it back to the stock 1536 shaders. Currently running it on the unlocked 1536 6950 800/1250, using trixx utility 880/1375 voltage at 1.150 but its not stable. Crashes in crysis warhead. I used 1.150 because this guy is using http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIV_gQEWqPs Help needed!!
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Try upping the voltage until it becomes stable. Don't just go by what someone else has it set to, all cards are different.
the only difference to the steps above ,is that i rebooted the pc and didnt turn it of for a minute.
you think this is the key to unlock the saphire dirt3?
btw i flashed with atiflash under dos,and flashing went fine,just no extra shaders, and yes i reinstalled the drivers.
the pencil trick is for cards without the switch,i think??
switch positsion furthes away from the crossfire conn.
you think this is the key to unlock the saphire dirt3?
btw i flashed with atiflash under dos,and flashing went fine,just no extra shaders, and yes i reinstalled the drivers.
the pencil trick is for cards without the switch,i think??
switch positsion furthes away from the crossfire conn.
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What culd be the gainings with unlocked shaders versus locked shaders in performance?
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Of course...
You're talking about how much in precentage? 3/4% ou even more?
You're talking about how much in precentage? 3/4% ou even more?
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The performance increase depends entirely on the game and in some cases the exact scene being used. If the shaders are being taxed heavily then the performance boost will be closer to the 9% difference in shaders.
In reality you will see at most 5% boost at the same clock speed.
The HD6970 is noticably faster than the HD6950 due to the 80Mhz core clock increase and 500Mhz effective memory clock increase.
In reality you will see at most 5% boost at the same clock speed.
The HD6970 is noticably faster than the HD6950 due to the 80Mhz core clock increase and 500Mhz effective memory clock increase.
I'm having an issue with my Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB (100312-3L).
I can't get Windows to recognize the new shaders but when flip the switch and I looked at my BIOS in RBE and it said it had the 6970 shaders unlocked.
What can I do to get Windows 7 to recognize the new shaders.. I've tried everything from uninstalling drivers... re-installing.. flipping the switch back uninstall drivers.. switching it back and then installing and still no luck.
Please help, thanks in advance!
I can't get Windows to recognize the new shaders but when flip the switch and I looked at my BIOS in RBE and it said it had the 6970 shaders unlocked.
What can I do to get Windows 7 to recognize the new shaders.. I've tried everything from uninstalling drivers... re-installing.. flipping the switch back uninstall drivers.. switching it back and then installing and still no luck.
Please help, thanks in advance!