# How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950



## W1zzard (Dec 26, 2010)

Show article


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## dom99 (Dec 26, 2010)

Cannot wait for results to come flooding in, if true I will definitly be doing this in a couple of weeks! but is it possible that future driver updates will effect stability?


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## W1zzard (Dec 26, 2010)

dom99 said:


> Cannot wait for results to come flooding in, if true I will definitly be doing this in a couple of weeks! but is it possible that future driver updates will effect stability?



nothing is impossible, but the maximum i would expect from amd is that future cards are properly fused on-die and not using the bios


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## robmagee (Dec 26, 2010)

Emailed W1zzard, my HIS 6950 is now a fully functioning 6970. Massive icrease in performance is some games and ran furmark for an hour. Give it a run guys and you will be beaming like Cheshire cats. Nice little Christmas present from AMD


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## W1zzard (Dec 26, 2010)

robmagee said:


> Email W1zzard, my HIS 6950 is now a fully functioning 6970. Massive icrease in performance is some games and ran furmark for an hour



thanks. added to the statistics


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## HTC (Dec 26, 2010)

I propose that the "2 BIOS on the card with a switch for easy recovery of the BIOS in case of bad flashing" becomes nominated for the "technological innovation of the year" award!


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## micropage7 (Dec 26, 2010)

wow.. Its the fastest way to boost your card


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## dom99 (Dec 26, 2010)

Cannot wait to try this out! do you think it would work on a VTX3D 6950? I went for the cheapest one lol but is there a reason it was £10 cheaper than most 6950s that you know of?

Plus the Bios is for a sapphire 6950, I am a bit nervous about using it because o fdifferent brands, both cards are reference design but would it make a difference, should I try and get a VTX3D 6970 Bios and where could I get this form. I would be happy with a Powercolor Bios as VTX3D and Powercolor are essentially the same company, where would I get these bios versions that I can flash my 6950 with?


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## W1zzard (Dec 26, 2010)

dom99 said:


> I am a bit nervous about using it because o fdifferent brands, both cards are reference design but would it make a difference, should I try and get a VTX3D 6970 Bios and where could I get this form. I would be happy with a Powercolor Bios as VTX3D and Powercolor are essentially the same company, where would I get these bios versions that I can flash my 6950 with?



all cards are the same, you can safely use the sapphire bios (which is actually an AMD bios, which is identical to Gigabyte, HIS and PowerColor HD 6970 as listed in the BIOS collection)


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## LagunaX (Dec 26, 2010)

Very Impressive W1zzard!

This reminds me on how you taught me to unlock my 3DConnect x800GTO from 12 to 16 pipelines!


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## W1zzard (Dec 26, 2010)

LagunaX said:


> This reminds me on how you taught me to unlock my 3DConnect x800GTO from 12 to 16 pipelines!



and the radeon 9500 to 9700 mod before that, which is what got me involved with the whole hardware industry in the first place, which led to tpu and everything i do now


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## qubit (Dec 26, 2010)

This is fantastic news  and I doubt very much that this was accidental, or that it will be disabled any time soon.

AMD can't seem to compete with nvidia for the top performance crown, so they sneak in some "unofficial" ways to unlock your card to the top model and give the customer more value.

So, I can buy a 6950 with a massive 2GB RAM for just over £200 and get 6970 performance out of it, now that's amazing value. Perhaps enabling this feature is what delayed the 69xx series a bit?

This is one way to poke nvidia in the eye and I'm thoroughly in favour of it. And I'm an nvidia user (see specs). 



W1zzard said:


> and the radeon 9500 to 9700 mod before that, which is what got me involved with the whole hardware industry in the first place, which led to tpu and everything i do now



Yeah, I remember my Hercules 9800 AIW SE with 4 pipelines in 2003. One softmod driver later and it had 8 pipes and double the performance. Awesome.  I eventually did the hardmod on it (details on TPU!) and no longer needed the softmod driver. And hey, I still have it.


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## W1zzard (Dec 26, 2010)

BIOS 1 is the "normal" one, BIOS 2 is the backup BIOS.

You must set the switch to 1 to flash the normal BIOS.

It seems you have an ASUS card, so you need to do:
_atiflash -unlockrom 0_

asus write protects their rom


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## davetheshrew (Dec 26, 2010)

HIS 6950, I was first


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## Gaul (Dec 26, 2010)

TRY.......ASUS 6970 bios


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## W1zzard (Dec 26, 2010)

gaul are you sure you have the switch set to the correct position?
numbers are written on the black surface on the back of the card

edit: just looked at your picture above and you have 1 and 2 mixed


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## W1zzard (Dec 26, 2010)

updated the switch picture with clear numbers for the positions


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## Gaul (Dec 27, 2010)

U'r the BEST W1ZZARD..............always

DONE 
POWERCOLOR 6950 with ASUS 6970, but getting HOT there........


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:

- Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
- Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
- Click Start Button
- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" <-- the 0 means first adapter, if you have multiple cards, physically uninstall all but the one you want to flash
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".


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## Risc (Dec 27, 2010)

Gaul, I´m going to buy one Powercolor 6950... Do you have any artifacts ???

Thank you Gaul...


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## B1gD4ddy (Dec 27, 2010)

Hey guys,

because of that nice "feature", I'm thinking about buying a 6950 and unlock it to a 6970.

Now my question, can I use a 6970 together with my 5870 in crossfire ?

And finally, do you know where I can find a recent "crossfire yes/no matrix picture" ?

Thanks a lot !


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

I have the Sapphire and the flashed went well.

I have zero issue in Heaven and 3D mark

Now going to test some games!


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## tyrael64 (Dec 27, 2010)

i have 2 shappire to unlock xD

I am going to remove one and try another


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

Do you think they will be hardware cut in future cards?


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## bear jesus (Dec 27, 2010)

I would really hope they leave the chips as they are just like the unlockable single,dual and triple core cpu's from AMD.

I was unconvinced about getting a 6970 but now i think i shall gather the cash for a 6950 and give it a flash. 

Thanks for the great article


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## tyrael64 (Dec 27, 2010)

unlocked one ok 
now i need to try it

thanks santa!


update: apparently works well
Now I'll have to upgrade The other

is already overcloked the bios right?
figure that is already running at 880 and 1350

update: playing stacraft 2 10min with the crossfire, computer shut down and the cooler of the vga go 100%
i dink too hot


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## HalfAHertz (Dec 27, 2010)

Try underclocking back down to 6950 speeds?


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## tyrael64 (Dec 27, 2010)

i leave the clocks the same, but increase the fan speed, and apparently was corrected
There is one card that is very close to the other and becomes very hot


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## PopcornMachine (Dec 27, 2010)

I have a Sapphire HD 6950 and got a "Could not erase ROM" message.

Used the "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0 followed by atiwinflash -f -p 0 bios.bin" method it worked.

Before and after pictures attached.


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## LagunaX (Dec 27, 2010)

$293 free shipping at Amazon (no tax in CA) for Sapphire and HIS versions...

Why did I get that silly 6870? It's straight to Ebay for that card...


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## my_name_is_earl (Dec 27, 2010)

So after this card is flash to hd6970. I should always stick with hd6970 driver from now on?


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

my_name_is_earl said:


> So after this card is flash to hd6970. I should always stick with hd6970 driver from now on?



it's the same driver


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## vvulture (Dec 27, 2010)

Tried this with my 6950's...  Both of them Sapphire and now working as 6970's..
Benchmark results confirm much improvement...

Cheers


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## Wrigleyvillain (Dec 27, 2010)

my_name_is_earl said:


> So after this card is flash to hd6970. I should always stick with hd6970 driver from now on?



Wow


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## Tifone (Dec 27, 2010)

Hey guys! I have a Sapphire 6970 now. If i buy a 6950 flash the bios to a 6970 can I use it in CrossFireX with my existing card without problem? What do you think?


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

Tifone said:


> Hey guys! I have a Sapphire 6970 now. If i buy a 6950 flash the bios to a 6970 can I use it in CrossFireX with my existing card without problem? What do you think?



yep, should work fine


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## Tifone (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> yep, should work fine



Nice, thank you so much! I'm ordering a 6950 now


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## aquax (Dec 27, 2010)

Nice, but will the pci-e molex 6pin + 6pin differ than the 6pin + 8 pin?
dual 6 pins on the 6950 are enough to use same 6970 specification for long time without issue?


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## Tifone (Dec 27, 2010)

aquax said:


> Nice, but will the pci-e molex 6pin + 6pin differ than the 6pin + 8 pin?
> dual 6 pins on the 6950 are enough to use same 6970 specification for long time without issue?



Oh My I didn't think about it!!!


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

aquax said:


> Nice, but will the pci-e molex 6pin + 6pin differ than the 6pin + 8 pin?
> dual 6 pins on the 6950 are enough to use same 6970 specification for long time without issue?



i updated the article about 2 hours ago with power consumption testing


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

updated the article with link to easy to use flashing tools that also includes the right build of GPU-Z


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

Nice work W1zzard 


Can I just clarify that running +20 is fine for gaming and benching on a day to day basis.

I have a 620w Enermax Liberty PSU


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

easyrider said:


> Can I just clarify that running  20 is fine for gaming and benching on a day to day basis



it's slightly over the spec, but in my well educated opinion that's perfectly safe.


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## voro12 (Dec 27, 2010)

If u got an Asus 6950 and mod it into an 6970, will you lose the Asus Voltage Tweak tool since you swich bios?


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

voro12 said:


> If u got an Asus 6950 and mod it into an 6970, will you lose the Asus Voltage Tweak tool since you swich bios?



yes, use the ASUS 6970 bios from the vga bios collection in that case


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## ranom (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> i updated the article about 2 hours ago with power consumption testing



thanks W1zzard, I've just tried the flash_to_6970 batch file and found it to work with my XFX HD6950! (it was locked. I did get confused for a sec when it told me to switch to the "2" position just a typo, right?)
I've yet to test for artifacts, but I'll test it to see how it goes.

Besides the power consumption concern, I'm wondering how the HD6950's stock cooler will hold up. The ones on the 6970 do have a slightly larger fan, am I right?


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## kn00tcn (Dec 27, 2010)

"Also the card uses the same cooler and PCB as the HD 6950 reference design."

http://techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/4.html
http://techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6950/4.html

looks the same

EDIT: whoops... slight fan difference.. someone should test CFM, RPM, fan %


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

ranom said:


> thanks W1zzard, I've just tried the flash_to_6970 batch file and found it to work with my XFX HD6950! (it was locked. I did get confused for a sec when it told me to switch to the "2" position just a typo, right?)



typo indeed. thanks for bringing it up. i fixed it in the download


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

I really hope this flash is successful 24/7 its still early days on what if any  problems may arise


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## B1gD4ddy (Dec 27, 2010)

Hey guys,

because of that nice "feature", I'm thinking about buying a 6950 and unlock it to a 6970.

Now my question, can I use a 6970 together with my 5870 in crossfire ?

And finally, do you know where I can find a recent "crossfire yes/no matrix picture" ?

Thanks a lot !


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## Cold Storm (Dec 27, 2010)

No. Crossfire can not be done with a card of a different series/chip.


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## Mastroz (Dec 27, 2010)

vvulture said:


> Tried this with my 6950's...  Both of them Sapphire and now working as 6970's..
> Benchmark results confirm much improvement...
> 
> Cheers



Works great? no problesm?


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## B1gD4ddy (Dec 27, 2010)

Thx Cold Storm


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## Cold Storm (Dec 27, 2010)

B1gD4ddy said:


> Thx Cold Storm



happy to do.

Welcome to TPU

Glad to see a lot of people signing up due to this article W1zzard!


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## ranom (Dec 27, 2010)

I've run Furmark on my 6970ed card but it did hang up on me the first try. Seems the cooler wasnt working hard enough and overheated, temps went above 93degs when it hung up. After cranking up the fan to 55% via ATI overdrive, Furmark bench is running without a problem. Temps are around 72-73degC, PowerTune is set to 0%.

Ive checked the RPM/fan% on my 6950,  and it was like 24%=1080rpm 27%=1150rpm 33%=1660rpm 38%=1970rpm 43%=2320rpm 48%=2670rpm 53%=3010rpm.


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## Mastroz (Dec 27, 2010)

how do you flash the bios if you have 2 cards in crossfire??


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## Mastroz (Dec 27, 2010)

the top right, is that both cards? or just 1 listed there??


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## zolkorn (Dec 27, 2010)

Hello W1zzard, well you know when ATI RBE will support for 6900 bios now need to change for scale of OC


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## taemun (Dec 27, 2010)

For those really worried about the PCIe power plug difference - you could go and buy a 2x4 pin Molex Mini-Fit Jr plug and swap them over.

I don't imagine it'd be terribly easy to get all six pins hot enough to pull at the same time, but that doesn't make it impossible 

What I'm more interested in: has anyone modded PowerTune to get to more than 20%?


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## TAViX (Dec 27, 2010)

I didn't know you can CrossFire a 6970 with a 6870!  ... Or can't you?


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## Yidaki (Dec 27, 2010)

I will try my Sapphire HD6950 on the second of january. Hopefully it will clock fine too. I will also mount a water block


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

There seems to be some  scaremongering going on with regards to the 8 pin and 6 pin power connectors of the 6970 and the fact the 6950 has 2 x 6 pin connectors.

Is it true that 8 pin just provided extra earths and not additional volts?


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## taemun (Dec 27, 2010)

easyrider: yes, very true. The 2x4 8-circuit PCIe plug has 5x ground and 3x +12V.

That said, I'm sure that the engineers involved had a good reason to do that. The spec allows for 4A through the bronze connectors for 22AWG plug size (which PCIe is). 4A*12V = 48W per pin. Three pins gives you 144W, which is probably fudged to your 150W.


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

taemun said:


> easyrider: yes, very true. The 2x4 8-circuit PCIe plug has 5x ground and 3x +12V.
> 
> That said, I'm sure that the engineers involved had a good reason to do that. The spec allows for 4A through the bronze connectors for 22AWG plug size (which PCIe is). 4A*12V = 48W per pin. Three pins gives you 144W, which is probably fudged to your 150W.



So can you see it being an issue?


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## taemun (Dec 27, 2010)

easyrider: as per page 7 of http://www.pcisig.com/developers/ma...c_id=dd9f797639898b8d0afdd46401cbd27839f35ccd

I think it's just there as way of telling the graphics card that the power supply doesn't expect more than 75W draw on the 6p cable, versus the 150W draw from the 8p.

If your 8p cable is a 6p+2p convertible like the vast majority, then you can be assured that the conductors, cabling and stuff in the power supply is rated to supply the extra current.


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

Mine is an Enermax Liberty 620w with 2 x 6 pin PCI-e connectors...


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## taemun (Dec 27, 2010)

easyrider said:


> Mine is an Enermax Liberty 620w with 2 x 6 pin PCI-e connectors...



Well then it wasn't designed with 12.5A loads (12.5A * 12V = 150W) on those connectors. It will *probably* work fine. Just be aware of the +12V currents allowed on the two rails of that unit - you don't want more than 22A on one rail. 
http://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=301&image=enermax_liberty_label_lrg


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

Having said that its modular.  whats the difference in using a molex and 8 pin adaptor the cards come with?

6970 users are not all running PSU'swith 8pin connectors as standard.


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## EwX (Dec 27, 2010)

Damn you AMD  ,i was sure about waiting for/getting GTX560,but now i got confused over HD6950 unlocking... 
I still wait for GTX560 tests, but this HD6950 with unlocking looks tempting choice


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## taemun (Dec 27, 2010)

I haven't played with a 6970 - so didn't know it came with a 2x (?3x) Molex -> 8p cable. That seems quite pointless. Someone buying a 6970 almost certainly has a power supply with two 6p cables - and you'd be better off faking that second sense pin than using Molex plugs at all.

Bottom line with anything here: it depends on the power supply. Units with shitty small gauge wiring will not appreciate the extra current draw. Your Enermax should be ok.


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## kAljo (Dec 27, 2010)

I'm experiencing a problem with the FLASH. I downloaded the extra "pack", started the batch-file and got smth like "Succeeded" -> OK. Restarts my comp but still got 1408. 

Any1 experiencing the same problem? Got a PowerColor.


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

kAljo said:


> I'm experiencing a problem with the FLASH. I downloaded the extra "pack", started the batch-file and got smth like "Succeeded" -> OK. Restarts my comp but still got 1408.
> 
> Any1 experiencing the same problem? Got a PowerColor.



you got only 1 ati card installed? anythign you saw during the flash? switch set to the 1 position?


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## ranom (Dec 27, 2010)

I think I also found one more typo in the batch file, this time in the flash_back_to_6950.bat. 
if exist backup.bin ( atiwinflash -f -p 0 orig.bin
should probably be 
if exist backup.bin (atiwinflash -f -p 0 backup.bin
not a big problem because it'll just flash to a generic HD6950, but for those who want to return to their original they should just fix that line and should be ok


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

ranom said:


> I think I also found one more typo in the batch file, this time in the flash_back_to_6950.bat.
> if exist backup.bin ( atiwinflash -f -p 0 orig.bin
> should probably be
> if exist backup.bin (atiwinflash -f -p 0 backup.bin
> not a big problem because it'll just flash to a generic HD6950, but for those who want to return to their original they should just fix that line and should be ok



yep. copy and paste error... fixed and uploaded


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## Cold Storm (Dec 27, 2010)

TAViX said:


> I didn't know you can CrossFire a 6970 with a 6870!  ... Or can't you?



Most likely you won't be able to since they are of different chips. The 6870 is "bart" while the 6970 is "cayman"... But, even the ati/amd website isn't updated with the new 6 series crossfireX chart.


But, if you really do want to get the cards working.. hydra chip motherboards will run nvidia and ati together, crossfire/sli any card.. Just that its t0o new of a tech to really work right..


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

I'm getting artifacts in Heaven when I run at +20


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

easyrider said:


> I'm getting artifacts in Heaven when I run at +20



caused by high clocks ? or temperature ?


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> caused by high clocks ? or temperature ?



Default clocks

+10 atifacts too.

I don't run it long enough to get temps but at 0% temps are 64c when running Heaven

Works fine a 0%

+5 Artifacts


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

Not sure what do.


Wether I should flash back to 6950 and run @ +20 all the time or

Keep the 6970 bios and run 0% all the time.


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

Dropped my Ram to 1350 (25mhz) and put slider to +20

No artifacts although it made no difference to perfromance in heaven wether the slider was 0% or 20+%

Got 1377 @ 880/1350 @ 20+%

Got 1380@ 880/1375 @ 0%


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## TotalChaos (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard you can add my Sapphire 6950 to the successful updated cards. Thanks you just made a rather dull Christmas shine


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

TotalChaos said:


> W1zzard you can add my Sapphire 6950 to the successful updated cards. Thanks you just made a rather dull Christmas shine



Have you tested at +20?


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## TotalChaos (Dec 27, 2010)

yup no issues


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

This is odd. I think my fans speed was to low. I just did another run @20+ and had no issues...


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## Bluecobra (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard, how are you measuring power consumption of the card?  Are you using something like a kill-a-watt and subtracting the system power draw?  BTW, I bought a Sapphire 6950 from Amazon so I will be able to report my findings in a couple of days. It should be a pretty nice upgrade going from a 4890 to a 6970.


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## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

Bluecobra said:


> W1zzard, how are you measuring power consumption of the card?  Are you using something like a kill-a-watt and subtracting the system power draw?  BTW, I bought a Sapphire 6950 from Amazon so I will be able to report my findings in a couple of days. It should be a pretty nice upgrade going from a 4890 to a 6970.



no, i measure card only power at the bus interface and pci-e power cables. see my vga reviews for a bit more info


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## easyrider (Dec 27, 2010)

@ 0%







@+20%


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## Mike0409 (Dec 27, 2010)

w1zz thanks a ton for this. Just made the 6950 a deciding factor in my upgrade with this little tweak, can't wait to try it out!


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## Yidaki (Dec 27, 2010)

probably the error lies in the memory frequency. 6950 and 6970 use different chips. -ROC (6970) and -T2C (6950). These have different specification, just take a look at the document. 

6Gbps vs. 5Gbps


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## davetheshrew (Dec 27, 2010)

mery christmas lads enjoy your unlock


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## Yidaki (Dec 27, 2010)

Glad to see that Sapphire has 4 WINS of 4 trys


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## 95Viper (Dec 27, 2010)

News is starting to spread and W1zzard and TPU have made the news over at MaximumPC.
Nice, congrats, "fellas"

Article in the link below.

AMD Radeon HD 6950 Reportedly Shipping with Unlockable Shaders


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## Yidaki (Dec 27, 2010)

Dude, 

http://www.computerbase.de/news/har...eon-hd-6950-zu-radeon-hd-6970-freigeschaltet/ 

And I just started a thread on hardwareluxx.de (one of the biggest oc sites in germany)

http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f140/amd-hd6950-hd6970-thread-772439.html


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## Flak (Dec 27, 2010)

Bought a gigabyte 6950, will let you know how it goes once I get the card.


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## dom99 (Dec 27, 2010)

Ive got to wait till I get back to university to try it out in my rig, almost worth going back early!


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## Yidaki (Dec 27, 2010)

dom99 said:


> Ive got to wait till I get back to university to try it out in my rig, almost worth going back early!



same here


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## obsoletepower (Dec 27, 2010)

Hi everybody! Glad to be on this forum, you seem like a great bunch 

So I modded my Sapphire HD6950 with the 6970 bios but even with stock 6950 clocks, everytime I run a 3D app or stability test like FurMark, the screen freezes for a couple seconds, goes black then  back to normal with a Windows notification message saying the AMD Display driver has stopped responding and has successfully recovered. 

Any idea what may be happening? I didn't reinstall the AMD display driver, should I have done that?


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## dom99 (Dec 27, 2010)

@obsoletepower
This happened to me when I pushed my 6870 (dont own it anymore) to the max and over!
I dont know why it happened but when playing games I think CCC automatically downclocked the core and memory when I started a game because I was able to push the core up to max and it didnt keel over, and when I alt+tabed out of the game a message would very quickly pop up with a loading bar in CCC, but it was always too quick to read.

I would also like an explanation, I suspect its a safety thing for when the chip is pushed too far, so you may have a sample which cannot take the 6970 bios, however I realy dont know, plus I have also experienced the thing that says the driver stopped working and has recovered. I was also thinking it might have been a bad driver installation


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## Yidaki (Dec 27, 2010)

obsoletepower said:


> Any idea what may be happening? I didn't reinstall the AMD display driver, should I have done that?



How strong is your PSU?

And: have you tried +10 to +15? Maybe with +20 it gets too hot and you have problems. Try it with lower GPU and memory frequency first ...


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## Formula350 (Dec 27, 2010)

obsoletepower said:


> Hi everybody! Glad to be on this forum, you seem like a great bunch
> 
> So I modded my Sapphire HD6950 with the 6970 bios but even with stock 6950 clocks, everytime I run a 3D app or stability test like FurMark, the screen freezes for a couple seconds, goes black then  back to normal with a Windows notification message saying the AMD Display driver has stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
> 
> Any idea what may be happening? I didn't reinstall the AMD display driver, should I have done that?



Your graphics card is unstable. Either your PSU is too weak for the extra power draw, or if you are overclocking then it simply might not like those speeds. Especially if you are OCing the RAM since as Yidaki mention, they are likely different chips. Mind you it could still have the same chips seeing as my ASUS 5770s have the same high end chips that pretty much all the 5870s do, but at the same time not all 5770s come with them.



w1zz: So with the 6850s having some review samples running with 6870 shader counts, and I believe it was just a BIOS fix... does that mean the 6850s can be modded to 6870s?? 

Going to make a news posting over at Pro-Clockers.com for you guys 

Great job w1zz


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## obsoletepower (Dec 27, 2010)

Yidaki said:


> How strong is your PSU?
> 
> And: have you tried +10 to +15? Maybe with +20 it gets too hot and you have problems. Try it with lower GPU and memory frequency first ...



I have an Antec 650W psu. Actually I doubt it gets hot because I have the fan running at 60% manually to ensure proper cooling while I mess around with the card.


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## Yidaki (Dec 27, 2010)

Where is your power limit?


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## obsoletepower (Dec 27, 2010)

I tried various values between 10 and 20 to no avail.


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 27, 2010)

Hi, I have crossfire, how would I apply the bios to both cards? please help

Thanks!


----------



## Formula350 (Dec 27, 2010)

obsoletepower said:


> I have an Antec 650W psu. Actually I doubt it gets hot because I have the fan running at 60% manually to ensure proper cooling while I mess around with the card.



Never assume with this sort of thing  Crank the fan up to 100%, the over-power to +20%, drop the clocks back to 6950 speeds and keep GPU-Z open on the sensor readout so you can eyeball temperatures before you load FurMark. 

Also, if you motherboard BIOS has an option to crank up the power to the PCIe slot (I believe on my ASRock 890FX it is call PCIe VDDA), that might help as well.

All I know is when I have had the driver recover from instability it typically means the card is unstable for one reason or another: Not enough GPU voltage (if I'm trying to undervolt), too high of GPU clock, or too high of memory clock. It'll likely happen from not enough power, but I've got an overkill 1200W unit so I can't offer feedback there


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> Hi, I have crossfire, how would I apply the bios to both cards? please help
> 
> Thanks!



remove 1 card, flash it.
remove the flashed card, install the other card, flash it.
install both cards and enable cf


----------



## Kdefthog (Dec 27, 2010)

How about the HD6850? I just ordered a Gigabyte HD6850 with the small OC 820/4200, can I make it a HD6870?


----------



## Wildstaroct (Dec 27, 2010)

XFX unlocks and works fine.

W1zzard, your batch file works perfectly. I tried using the win version of flash but got an ID mismatch error.

Question is the load VDDC higher for the 6970 than the 6950? The 6970 is 1.175v but I don't remember the load voltage for the 6950.


----------



## HanSolo78 (Dec 27, 2010)

I just wanna say thx to the great article of techpowerup!! 
I just bought a HD6950 because of the good rate of HD6950 to HD6970 flashes today from Sapphire and it worked for me also very well. 
The card is now running 1536 Shaders and default HD6970 clocks... now I am testing OC... added my GPU only watercooler


----------



## PopcornMachine (Dec 27, 2010)

So what do we call these cards?  They aren't true 6970s.

How about HD 6957?


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> remove 1 card, flash it.
> remove the flashed card, install the other card, flash it.
> install both cards and enable cf



Thanks, also when doing the bios stuff what does the system video devices mean and there are 2 listed?  See attached image please.


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> Thanks, also when doing the bios stuff what does the system video devices mean and there are 2 listed?  See attached image please.



that's with just 1 card installed? must be some winflash bug then that lists the card for some reason


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> that's with just 1 card installed? must be some winflash bug then that lists the card for some reason



no, I have 2 6950's in my computer right now, would it be safe to flash and just use the lower when then i'm ready to do the 2nd one?


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 27, 2010)

Formula350 said:


> Never assume with this sort of thing  Crank the fan up to 100%, the over-power to +20%, drop the clocks back to 6950 speeds and keep GPU-Z open on the sensor readout so you can eyeball temperatures before you load FurMark.
> 
> Also, if you motherboard BIOS has an option to crank up the power to the PCIe slot (I believe on my ASRock 890FX it is call PCIe VDDA), that might help as well.
> 
> All I know is when I have had the driver recover from instability it typically means the card is unstable for one reason or another: Not enough GPU voltage (if I'm trying to undervolt), too high of GPU clock, or too high of memory clock. It'll likely happen from not enough power, but I've got an overkill 1200W unit so I can't offer feedback there



Thanks for the advice! For my power supply, my computer while idling is generally using about 125W and under full load the max it had ever hit was 315W which is well within the specs of my power supply. I monitor the power draw using my UPS as well as a separate app. They are more or less the same. 

Regarding the PCIe voltage increase, my mobo has that option however I'd rather not mess with that because I've seen and heard cases where people have fried their graphics card from doing this. I reverted back to the 6950 BIOS until I get some more info about this.


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 27, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> no, I have 2 6950's in my computer right now, would it be safe to flash and just use the lower when then i'm ready to do the 2nd one?



you'll probably be fine. but the safest method in my opinion is to just have 1 card in the system, flash it and test it, then do the other card


----------



## bystander (Dec 27, 2010)

I have an XFX card, and it failed.

GPU-Z shows 1440 shaders, rather than 1408.

When I attempted to Load the new image.  I get the error:  SubsystemIDs mismatch.


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 27, 2010)

Just tried it on my brand new 6950 (Gigabyte)
The interface gave me the Could not erase ROM error so I had to use the cmd line, but when I issue the flash command the progress bar comes up, advances 4 or 5 blocks and then closes silently 
Also my 6950 is a bit strange (it's 100% retail tho) cause the bios switch doesn't pop up, it's just flat and I wonder how could I switch it (crappy pics of the "switch")

UPDATE: got it working:
I checked better and I was able to flash to 6970, don't worry!
The switch was flat but still actionable with a toothpick, and in fact it was sitting in the "2" position, preventing the unlock to work.
Once switched to "1" position with a toothpick I am now enjoying a gigabyte 6970


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> you'll probably be fine. but the safest method in my opinion is to just have 1 card in the system, flash it and test it, then do the other card



Yeah i'm doing one at a time flashed the first one, showed 1536.  So i change the clock speed or something now too? and I guess the fan speed to?  i'm gonna take out and flash the 2nd one now.  Attached is card one, is it suppose to be the right clock speeds below?  ALso i had to use the DOS way.  Should I do any certain testing now?

Do i change the power control settings to 20? is that what you mean?


----------



## Flak (Dec 27, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> Just tried it on my brand new 6950 (Gigabyte)
> The interface gave me the Could not erase ROM error so I had to use the cmd line, but when I issue the flash command the progress bar comes up, advances 4 or 5 blocks and then closes silently
> Also my 6950 is a bit strange (it's 100% retail tho) cause the bios switch doesn't pop up, it's just flat and I wonder how could I switch it (crappy pics of the "switch")



This isn't giving me much hope for the Gigabyte 6950 I just ordered.  May see if I can still cancel it and get a different brand.


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 27, 2010)

whys everyone keep saying great job wizz like he done it first lol, it was me and pyr0 that where first, fact


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 27, 2010)

Flak said:


> This isn't giving me much hope for the Gigabyte 6950 I just ordered.  May see if I can still cancel it and get a different brand.



Just do the dos way, that's what I had to do and worked like a champ . Flashed fine when I did it..

here is step by step, you can even copy and paste :-D worked for me

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2134576&postcount=19


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 27, 2010)

Flak said:


> This isn't giving me much hope for the Gigabyte 6950 I just ordered.  May see if I can still cancel it and get a different brand.


I checked better and I was able to flash to 6970, don't worry!
The switch was flat but still actionable with a toothpick, and in fact it was sitting in the "2" position, preventing the unlock to work.
Once switched to "1" position with a toothpick I am now enjoying a gigabyte 6970


----------



## Bearlake (Dec 27, 2010)

so wiizard,
would it be interesting to add a chart or results about the 6950++'s preformance qua temperatures..

it seems a fair ammount of people have temp issues after doing the bios unlock..
why dont i hear anyone about the 6970 about this..

i draw the conclusion from that, that the unlocked 6950 has a decent chance to overtemp with fan on auto?

in wich case it makes me wonder why the 6970 doesnt do this..
so whats different about the cards then..

also, in the list about succes/fails.. you should try to get info about the actual used memory chips as well,

this is vital info.. if a bios flash fails it might mean the memory, but it also might be an indicator for other issues with the card at hand..

ive ordered a 6950 now after reading about your discovery.. but the more people post here, the more i think to cancel it and get a 6970 instead..
from what i saw so far..

6950:
- the bios unlock is a CHANCE.. for all you know, it might not work...
- even if it works, the different memory might hold you back from getting the true "unlocked" potentional
- even if the memory is identical, AND you succeed at flashing the bios, you have a fair chance of running into temperature related problems ? (easy fix.. turn up fan.. DUH but im not looking to have a jet engine sound on my desk..)

so thats 3 reasons for me to seriously consider if its worth just saving 40 euros on this..
40 euros vs this.. and the risk of losing your waranty.. still not convinced i should go for the 6950 specially with the 2th and 3rd point i just listed


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 27, 2010)

Is the bios flash setting also the voltage to the 6970 reference voltage?


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 27, 2010)

Bearlake said:


> so wiizard,
> would it be interesting to add a chart or results about the 6950++'s preformance qua temperatures..
> 
> it seems a fair ammount of people have temp issues after doing the bios unlock..
> ...



he didnt discover it, I did


----------



## bystander (Dec 27, 2010)

Updated:

I didn't see the section on those with errors at first.  I followed the directions for those with locked BIOS, and it worked.

XFX +1

Interestingly, it shows my shaders as having 1600 unified, rather than the 1536 listed in the artical.


----------



## PopcornMachine (Dec 27, 2010)

bystander said:


> Updated:
> 
> I didn't see the section on those with errors at first.  I followed the directions for those with locked BIOS, and it worked.
> 
> ...



Same happened to me.  You need the new version o GPU-Z.  It's on the front page.


----------



## DarthElvis (Dec 27, 2010)

davetheshrew said:


> he didnt discover it, I did



 True dat. credit where credit is due. dave was first to the gate over at Guru3d. Some acknowledgment from W1zzard about that little fact would be nice, dave is too nice a guy to say it in so many words, but I'm not.


----------



## Bearlake (Dec 27, 2010)

davetheshrew said:


> he didnt discover it, I did



thank you 

but yes, if you made the discovery you should get credit.. and the sue's if shit hits the fan ofc  haha j/k

either way, thanks to wiizard as well for making the discovery of dave a bigass succes

also, i realize this is only my second post on TPU, i HAVE been a very loyal reader of your site for quite a while now, i kinda never really felt the urge to register since in most situations my questions are allready answered in the reviews.. and if not, someone else had allready asked the question...

just felt like i had to say that, 
i think tpu rocks, and i guess im glad i finaly registered


----------



## Commander_HK47 (Dec 27, 2010)

This is very interesting, as i am now looking at a 6950s to upgrade from my 4890s in crossfire.

I would like to know, like others what memory chips are being used with cards that are reporting successful at 6970 speeds

So please post manufacture of the card, and whether it is using:

H5GQ2H24MFR-R0C(6970 chips)

or 

H5GQ2H24MFR-T2C(6950 chips)

Thank you.

Also like others... I am a long time reader, first time poster here.


----------



## Formula350 (Dec 27, 2010)

PopcornMachine said:


> So what do we call these cards?  They aren't true 6970s.
> 
> How about HD 6957?



While I (finally) understand your logic in that naming, wouldn't perhaps 6960 be the perfect in between, seeing as it is in fact in between 50 and 70? 




As for the discovery, thanks to Dave (and whom ever helped) at Guru3D. And thanks to w1zz for the nice tutorial and batch for everyone (even if I don't have a card to use it!), as that is very helpful in it's own right


----------



## voro12 (Dec 27, 2010)

Is my Corsair 550W enough to supply a 6950 unlocked to 6970 with 6970 clock frequences and +20% power limit? I got an amd X4 920 @ 3 GHz and one hdd 
Thanks


----------



## Frosty (Dec 27, 2010)

voro12 said:


> Is my Corsair 550W enough to supply a 6950 unlocked to 6970 with 6970 clock frequences and +20% power limit? I got an amd X4 920 @ 3 GHz and one hdd
> Thanks



Shouldn't be a problem.


----------



## PopcornMachine (Dec 27, 2010)

Formula350 said:


> While I (finally) understand your logic in that naming, wouldn't perhaps 6960 be the perfect in between, seeing as it is in fact in between 60 and 70?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



You mean between 50 and 70.  

I like to be different, and thought 6957 was cool. 

But I guess it's unlikely that they would actually make a 6960 at this point.


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 27, 2010)

aye I love that tutorial that got made its really good, nice bit of work there, Ive just benched at a 1000 core stable with voltage seemingly working but even better POWERTUNE still works , gpuz doesnt say voltage is going higher than 1.175v  but gpuz doesnt say a lot of things lol, its stable so thats enough for me, a bios will be on guru at some point when Im sure it works.

Thanks a lot guys, congrats everyone.


----------



## PopcornMachine (Dec 27, 2010)

davetheshrew said:


> aye I love that tutorial that got made its really good, nice bit of work there, Ive just benched at a 1000 core stable with voltage seemingly working, gpuz doesnt say so but gpuz doesnt say a lot of things lol, its stable so thats enough for me, a bios will be on guru at some point when Im sure it works.
> 
> Thanks a lot guys, congrats everyone.



You also need the new version of GPU-Z that came out today!


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 27, 2010)

voro12 said:


> Is my Corsair 550W enough to supply a 6950 unlocked to 6970 with 6970 clock frequences and +20% power limit? I got an amd X4 920 @ 3 GHz and one hdd
> Thanks


I'm running fine with an E8400 @ 4 ghz and an unlocked 6950 + 20% on a corsair 450


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 27, 2010)

ahhh thankyou I will have a look now


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 27, 2010)

played an hour of Borderlands flawlessly, +1 for Gigabyte 
thx dave for your discovery and wizz for documenting and spreding the word


----------



## Formula350 (Dec 27, 2010)

PopcornMachine said:


> You mean between 50 and 70.
> 
> I like to be different, and thought 6957 was cool.
> 
> But I guess it's unlikely that they would actually make a 6960 at this point.



Eerr yea  lol EDIT TIME!


----------



## Makaveli (Dec 27, 2010)

Now that i've read this i'm interested in checking this out. 

The last time I did a flash like this was x800pro to x800xtPE which worked out great.

I bought a 9700pro so I skipped the 9500-9700 flash back in the day.

Couple questions but first thank you Wiz and the guy from Guru for this find.

1. With the price difference being so small between these cards in canada the 6950 is going for $320 - 6970 for $384 is it worth it?

2. Will the 6pin x 2 of 6950 vs 6pin+8pin of the 6970 really make a difference? (what kind of PSU should you have wattage wise to run this)

3. I'm currently on a 4890 + Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo Pro I know this cooler is compatible with 6870 can I also fit it on a 69xx series?


----------



## Formula350 (Dec 27, 2010)

Makaveli said:


> 1. With the price difference being so small between these cards in canada the 6950 is going for $320 - 6970 for $384 is it worth it?
> 
> 2. Will the 6pin x 2 of 6950 vs 6pin+8pin of the 6970 really make a difference? (what kind of PSU should you have wattage wise to run this)
> 
> 3. I'm currently on a 4890 + Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo Pro I know this cooler is compatible with 6870 can I also fit it on a 69xx series?



1) Of course it's worth it  Especially to save $64! (EDIT: Reworded, before it sounded like getting the 6970 was better.)

2) The 2 extra pins on the 8pin are only ground. I don't see whatever PSU you're running for the 4890 being much of a problem for the 6900 

3) They updated their site with 6900 coolers, I'd go check but I believe it said 6800 and 6900 compatible.


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 27, 2010)

i'm pretty happy so far, let me know what you all think :-D 

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/295632


----------



## TotalChaos (Dec 27, 2010)

very nice scaling I scored 4921 with a single card after the flash


----------



## Makaveli (Dec 27, 2010)

Formula350 said:


> 1) Of course it's worth it  Especially to save $64! (EDIT: Reworded, before it sounded like getting the 6970 was better.)
> 
> 2) The 2 extra pins on the 8pin are only ground. I don't see whatever PSU you're running for the 4890 being much of a problem for the 6900
> 
> 3) They updated their site with 6900 coolers, I'd go check but I believe it said 6800 and 6900 compatible.



I'm using an Enermax Infinity 720 watts so I think i'll be fine there.

The site was updated however it only shows 6870 as the highest end card.





I need someone that owns one of these cards to check this for me.





http://www.arctic.ac/en/support/sup...rbo-pro-fit-my-card.htm?tx_diadamsolution_pi2


----------



## voro12 (Dec 27, 2010)

Ok thanks Frosty and Tuvok 
Can´t wait until i receve my ASUS 6950  
I will problably use an EK universal GPU block witch covers only the GPU. Will The VRM temps increase after this mod? My 4870 get´s high VRM temps, is that a problem on the 6900 series? If it is, i´ll probably buy an fullcover block


----------



## DarthElvis (Dec 27, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> nothing is impossible, but the maximum i would expect from amd is that future cards are properly fused on-die and not using the bios



 This. My guess is the next batch will be properly laser cut. But for now, woohooo. Have at 'er
boys. As of now, AMD/ATI has the undisputed price/performance crown (until the next batch anyways).


----------



## MrHydes (Dec 27, 2010)

how about does who have the 6970 allready?


----------



## tl.dr (Dec 27, 2010)

hi, 

i didnt get an answer over at guru3d.. so maybe someone here knows 

if u get the 6950 now and unlock it to 6970 and now somewhere down the road its not possible to do this anymore since amd changed the design, will u be able to run it in a crossfire if you then buy a "real" 6970 ? 

And does it have to be the same brand, or can u get the 6950 from asuals and then the 6970 from his for example? Tnx


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 27, 2010)

MrHydes said:


> how about does who have the 6970 allready?


I bet you can flash a 6950 bios if you're willing to try


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 27, 2010)

tl.dr said:


> hi,
> 
> i didnt get an answer over at guru3d.. so maybe someone here knows
> 
> ...


yes you can xfire it, in fact, you could even crossfire 6970 with a plain 6950 if I'm not mistaken


----------



## dom99 (Dec 27, 2010)

davetheshrew said:


> he didnt discover it, I did



Lol ok dave you eagar beaver I think ul find I discovered it 

 6950 using 6970 Bios?


----------



## Yidaki (Dec 27, 2010)

Oh come on guys who cares? I discovered, that the AsRock 880G board runs with a 890GX BIOS


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 27, 2010)

dom sorry bud but you didnt post results, no where do I see ' by god Jeeves I think Ive cracked it!', no 3dmark, no gpuz, I saw that the other day btw 

quote: No I wont be trying it, was just wondering. But I am right in saying that one of the two bios can be changed.

we were all thinking it, it was me that actually went through with it, congratz on your card btw


----------



## dom99 (Dec 27, 2010)

davetheshrew said:


> dom sorry bud but you didnt post results, no where do I see ' by god Jeeves I think Ive cracked it!', no 3dmark, no gpuz, I saw that the other day btw
> 
> quote: No I wont be trying it, was just wondering. But I am right in saying that one of the two bios can be changed.
> 
> we were all thinking it, it was me that actually went through with it, congratz on your card btw



Yeh fair enough lol im too chicken to be the first, on a budget


----------



## Anosh (Dec 28, 2010)

What about future driver updates!?!
Even if AMD decides not to do some sort of a fix in future drivers there are no guaranties that the correct drivers will be installed, or am I wrong?


----------



## BudyCZ (Dec 28, 2010)

Do you can statistics include me. My three Sapphire HD 6950 work on unlocking the HD6970 properly .. So great increase in performance


----------



## Yidaki (Dec 28, 2010)

Anosh said:


> What about future driver updates!?!
> Even if AMD decides not to do some sort of a fix in future drivers there are no guaranties that the correct drivers will be installed, or am I wrong?



I guess they could do some kind of that for the CPUs as well, but they don't do it. Anyways, if there would be a new driver that disables this function, you could flash your card again. Don't see any Problem here. Or during installation switch to position 1, then back to 2 again. Or the other way round. 



BudyCZ said:


> Do you can statistics include me. My three Sapphire HD 6950 work on unlocking the HD6970 properly .. So great increase in performance



Nice WINs, dude


----------



## jpierce55 (Dec 28, 2010)

The price of the 6950 is not much more than a 6870, so now it seems the 6950 is packing killer value vs. any other card out there. Oh, I hope they don't fix it so this can't be done, if I don't get shipped to Colombia I am going to have to have one .


----------



## Anosh (Dec 28, 2010)

Yidaki said:


> I guess they could do some kind of that for the CPUs as well, but they don't do it. Anyways, if there would be a new driver that disables this function, you could flash your card again. Don't see any Problem here. Or during installation switch to position 1, then back to 2 again. Or the other way round. :



That doesn't make any sense.
If you change the bios to 6950 then install updated drivers wouldn't it be the drivers for 6950?
And then you switch back to the bios for 6970 and use the installed drivers for 6950?


----------



## vvulture (Dec 28, 2010)

bystander said:


> I have an XFX card, and it failed.
> 
> GPU-Z shows 1440 shaders, rather than 1408.
> 
> When I attempted to Load the new image.  I get the error:  SubsystemIDs mismatch.



Thats just a glitch in GPU-Z..  You need to use 0.5.0 which is linked in the instuctions..


----------



## LagunaX (Dec 28, 2010)

Frack the Sapphire 6950's went up to $340+ on Amazon...

No will power, grabbed the $282 HIS 6950...

Will be flashing within a week =)


----------



## Andypro (Dec 28, 2010)

I hate to be the first one in the grid with artifacts / graphical issues after the flash, but I may be.  If you can suggest things to test to see if it's something other than the extra shaders I unlocked that would be good.

I have a Sapphire 6950 and after flashing the 6970 bios as instructed, I'm having artifacts - flickering textures in Super Meat Boy.  It seems like it's a shaders thing because that game doesn't stress the GPU at all.  Running GPU-Z in the background showed that the GPU load never went about about 11% and the temp never went above 69C.  Core was 500MHz although I have it set at 800MHz in the driver.  I tried +20% Power Control and 0% - no differences.  I ran Heaven at default settings, and that seemed to run without problems that I could see.


----------



## vvulture (Dec 28, 2010)

Here's something strange...
After running 3DMark11 with my flashed cards, the results are still showing them as 6950's...

Anyone here care to speculate ? or even test it for themselves ?


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Okay so I have an update about where things stand with my Sapphire HD6950. I tried the BIOS images from all manufacturers and they all cause the same problems. Every time I launch something 3D like a game (even GPU-Z) the driver malfunctions and crashes with artifacts all over despite messing with the PowerTune settings between 0% and 20%. I think I may be one of those with a non-moddable 6950. If anybody has more suggestions that would be great.


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 28, 2010)

some guys on other forum fixed the artifact uninstalling and reinstalling drivers


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Yeah I tried that too. It didn't work for me.


----------



## easyrider (Dec 28, 2010)

Change your ram clocks to 1350 and see if this fixes things


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

I can't make them any lower than 1375. The slider in the ATI Overdrive doesn't go any lower.


----------



## remb (Dec 28, 2010)

You can add another Gigabyte 6950 to the tally! Had to do some extra work but the onlock went smoothly otherwise. Thank you guys so much!


----------



## drteming (Dec 28, 2010)

Just flashed my XFX 6950.  Works great.  Thanks W1zzard!


----------



## sa seba (Dec 28, 2010)

I can confirm another XFX 6950 unlock working, using XFX 6970 bios and running on 6970 clock speeds. Furmark and Unigine Heaven stable.

Maybe I should pick up another one, before the hardware locked batches come out....


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 28, 2010)

remb said:


> You can add another Gigabyte 6950 to the tally! Had to do some extra work but the onlock went smoothly otherwise. Thank you guys so much!


You have the sawed off switch too?


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

so if i turn off my computer and switch the switch to 2, it's back to normal then? 6950 settings


----------



## Whilhelm (Dec 28, 2010)

Just flashed my Sapphire 6950 to the 6970 and it worked flawlessly. 

I went out and bought one today after reading this article. I was on the fence between the 70 and the 50, thanks for saving me money W1zzard!!


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Okay so I installed the 10.12a hotfix from AMD and the crashing seems to be less now. However, I still cannot play games like CoD Black Ops and BF BC2 due to extreme artifacting.

**edit** I am using the Sapphire Tweak Utility and I was able to reduce the clocks to their 6950 stock values. Still the same.


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

obsoletepower said:


> Okay so I installed the 10.12a hotfix from AMD and the crashing seems to be less now. However, I still cannot play games like CoD Black Ops and BF BC2 due to extreme artifacting.
> 
> I have a question. how do I move the memory clock slider to less than 1375? It will not go any lower in ATI Overdrive. Should I be using another app for this?



U have the power slider up to 20% and fan speed up??


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> U have the power slider up to 20% and fan speed up??



Definitely.


----------



## bystander (Dec 28, 2010)

I thought I should add my experience so far with the updated BIOS.

It works great up to 890 GPU clock.  After 890 GPU clocks, I start having driver crashes.  The good news is the Memory Clock at 1375 has no issues.

3dmark 11 went from 4600 with maxed 6950 clocks, to 5300 with stock 6970 clocks.

I'd also like to mention that when my system did lock up with 900 GPU core, my temps were never above 75C.  I assume this may be a voltage issue or something else...anyone care to give me advise if there is something I can do, as temps do not seem to be the issue?


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

obsoletepower said:


> Definitely.



Try 0% and fan at 50%


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

Is your clock at 880?


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> Try 0% and fan at 50%



I just tried this and running 3DMark11 and the display driver crashed. 3DMark11 won't run.


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> Is your clock at 880?



Yes. GPU clock is 880 and Memory is at 1375.


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Every game I run will cause the display driver to crash.


----------



## bystander (Dec 28, 2010)

obsoletepower said:


> I just tried this and running 3DMark11 and the display driver crashed. 3DMark11 won't run.



The only thing I could do, when having the same issue, was back off the GPU clock until it would run.  Luckly for me, that was at 890, but you may have to drop it lower.

Temps were NOT an issue, so I wonder if someone might suggest a better solution.


----------



## trialsin (Dec 28, 2010)

+1 to Sapphire 6950s successfully flashed.  I replaced the BIOS today and set the clocks to 6970 levels.  I got a big performance jump and there's no artifacting in games.  Thanks for the writeup!


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

I'd back the 1375 down a tad maybe... How are your temps??


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> I'd back the 1375 down a tad maybe... How are your temps??



I cannot, ATI Overdrive minimum is 1375. I can't go any lower.

Since I have the fan at 70% they are not bad. Idle is 38 and load.....I don't know since I cannot run any games or even FurMark.


----------



## bystander (Dec 28, 2010)

obsoletepower said:


> I cannot, ATI Overdrive minimum is 1375. I can't go any lower.



Install MSI Afterburner, it will allow you to lower it.  It will also end up lowering the amount ATI Overdrive allows.


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

Yeah I'd try what bystander said... What are your temps like??


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> Yeah I'd try what bystander said... What are your temps like??



Idle is around 38C but I cannot test the card under load because it will crash the app.


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

I lowered the GPU clock to 800 and Mem clock to 1250. Those are stock 6950 settings. It makes no difference. Apps still crash.


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

hmm, weird.... whats your clock at on the card? 880? or 800?


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> hmm, weird.... whats your clock at on the card? 880? or 800?



I put it to 800.


----------



## bystander (Dec 28, 2010)

If it won't allow you to run at stock 6950 clocks, this leads me to believe that you may have actually run into a card that had a reason to disable some shaders.


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

bystander said:


> If it won't allow you to run at stock 6950 clocks, this leads me to believe that you may have actually run into a card that had a reason to disable some shaders.



Is there no fix for this?


----------



## bystander (Dec 28, 2010)

I don't know.  Hopefully someone else can enlighten us.


----------



## bystander (Dec 28, 2010)

obsoletepower said:


> Is there no fix for this?



If you are just looking to get the card working again, you can always flash your saved bios back.  That should put you back to where you started at least.


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

bystander said:


> If you are just looking to get the card working again, you can always flash your saved bios back.  That should put you back to where you started at least.



Oh yeah I have done that no worries


----------



## Andypro (Dec 28, 2010)

I tried lowering my memory clocks back to 6950 stock (1250MHz).  That didn't help my artifacting unfortunately.  Keep the suggestions coming.


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Andypro said:


> I tried lowering my memory clocks back to 6950 stock (1250MHz).  That didn't help my artifacting unfortunately.  Keep the suggestions coming.



Yep, I'm having the same issue.


----------



## tcool93 (Dec 28, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> You have the sawed off switch too?


Do the Gigabyte cards have a problem with the bios switch?  Just wondering by your post and the person you replied to.


----------



## matteh (Dec 28, 2010)

has anyone got a VTX3D Card to flash properly? Looking at getting one because its $40 cheaper than the other 6950's in Australia.


----------



## easyrider (Dec 28, 2010)

obsoletepower said:


> I can't make them any lower than 1375. The slider in the ATI Overdrive doesn't go any lower.



install Msi afterburner


----------



## baud (Dec 28, 2010)

howdy everyone

i've tried with an xfx 6950 to no avail.  just a black screen at startup, system doesn't boot.

tried with the GUI; card was locked.  so i tried with the cmd prompt and it booted to a black screen.  then i tried with the xfx 6970 rom and still a black screen.

i even tried with the batch file, but the results were the same.

is it really just the luck of the draw?  my part no. is HD-695A-CNFC  version no 1.1
did anyone else with an XFX card have success with this part no?  what were the various XFX part no. that worked?


----------



## Super XP (Dec 28, 2010)

Good job AMD, Dual-Bios to reduce the amount of RMA's. This should have been done long ago.


----------



## bystander (Dec 28, 2010)

baud said:


> howdy everyone
> 
> i've tried with an xfx 6950 to no avail.  just a black screen at startup, system doesn't boot.
> 
> ...



I'm not sure I had the same exact part number, but my XFX 6950 was able to be flashed to a 6970.  It works up to 890 GPU clocks, and at least 1375 memory clocks.


----------



## baud (Dec 28, 2010)

bystander said:


> I'm not sure I had the same exact part number, but my XFX 6950 was able to be flashed to a 6970.  It works up to 890 GPU clocks, and at least 1375 memory clocks.



right on; thanks for the reply

i'll try a couple of other roms; maybe they'll work.

EDIT:
i tried with all the other 6970 roms in the vga bios section... same deal.  

man, i was really hoping they'd wait a few days to fabricate the on-die limitations. :/


----------



## zpaf (Dec 28, 2010)

2xhd6950 sapphire flashed to hd6970
No problems at all


----------



## bobbavet (Dec 28, 2010)

matteh said:


> has anyone got a VTX3D Card to flash properly? Looking at getting one because its $40 cheaper than the other 6950's in Australia.



Mate, Umart have the Sapphire for just $6 more than the VTX3D.

I got 2.


----------



## vvulture (Dec 28, 2010)

zpaf said:


> 2xhd6950 sapphire flashed to hd6970
> No problems at all



Hey zpaf, are you running your card @ 950/1450 ?  If so, how ?


----------



## vvulture (Dec 28, 2010)

Still waiting for an answer...    Have any of you noticed that even after the cards are flashed, 3DMARK11 still sees them as 6950's ???
How can that be ??
EDIT:

*Got my answer...  seems as tho the device ID does not change when flashing the card.*
   *This has me worried and has possibly got us all fooled.
Think for a minute... the drivers think that you are still using a 6950 purely because of the device ID and installs drivers for it respectively.
Now, this would mean that the drivers are infact still using the 1408 shaders and not the 1536 we are lead to believe...
The performance increase could be purely from the extra core speed.
I found it weird that when i downclocked my flashed cards to 6950 speed i saw next to no gain...

Anyone care to speculate ?*


----------



## Torello (Dec 28, 2010)

Someone worried about voltages on 6950:

In the power-saving mode the GPU frequency is lowered to 250 MHz and the GPU voltage is reduced from 1.1 to 0.9 volts on the HD 6950 and from 1.175 to 0.9 volts on the HD 6970. 

Each card comes with 2048 megabytes of GDDR5 memory in eight FBGA chips from Hynix Semiconductor. The Radeon HD 6950 carries H5GQ2H24MFR T2C chips which work at 1.5 volts voltage and 5000 MHz rated frequency. The Radeon HD 6970 is equipped with H5GQ2H24MFR R0C chips 1.5 volts, 6000 MHz.

(from http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd6970-hd6950_4.html)


----------



## zpaf (Dec 28, 2010)

vvulture said:


> Hey zpaf, are you running your card @ 950/1450 ?  If so, how ?


How ??
This is my new ccc limits.
My cards runs fine without any symptom.


----------



## Robbaz (Dec 28, 2010)

This works with crossfire right? 

Should i also just run the system with one graphics card each time i flash?


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 28, 2010)

vvulture said:


> Still waiting for an answer...    Have any of you noticed that even after the cards are flashed, 3DMARK11 still sees them as 6950's ???
> How can that be ??
> EDIT:
> 
> ...


Just look at the graph in the article:





and I don't think that the installed drivers are different from 6950 to 6970, nor the driver tells the gpu how many shaders to use


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 28, 2010)

The best way to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950 is modify the original HD6950 BIOS directly , clean the software mask of shaders which been mark as inactived SIMD. It is prety safe because the any other settings in the BIOS will keep the same and no need to worry about.


----------



## vvulture (Dec 28, 2010)

zpaf said:


> How ??
> This is my new ccc limits.
> My cards runs fine without any symptom.



Seriously ??  With no additional voltage ??
Your a lucky bugger..


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 28, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> The best way to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950 is modify the original HD6950 BIOS directly , clean the software mask of shaders which been mark as inactived SIMD. It is prety safe because the any other settings in the BIOS will keep the same and no need to worry about.


that's true, the artifacting that many people have could just be caused by the memory having problems with the 6970's memory timings


----------



## vvulture (Dec 28, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> Just look at the graph in the article:
> http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/159/images/perf.gif
> 
> and I don't think that the installed drivers are different from 6950 to 6970, nor the driver tells the gpu how many shaders to use



Yeah i saw that graph already...   thx for the comment tho..  puts me at ease somewhat.


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 28, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> that's true, the artifacting that many people have could just be caused by the memory having problems with the 6970's memory timings



Modify the  HD6950 BIOS is no a problem , I did it for some HD6950 users and the shaders are unlocked as expect.

Flash 6970 bios to those up comming unreference designed 6950 for unlocking shaders will cause more problem.


----------



## vvulture (Dec 28, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> Modify the  HD6950 BIOS is no a problem , I did it for some HD6950 users and the shaders are unlocked as expect.
> 
> Flash 6970 bios to those up comming unreference designed 6950 for unlocking shaders will cause more problem.



So, let me get this straight.
You have personally modified a 6950 bios manually to unlock the extra shaders ?
Or are you saying you flashed the bios like everyone else here ?

cheers


----------



## easyrider (Dec 28, 2010)

^^^^ want to share that Bios?


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 28, 2010)

vvulture said:


> So, let me get this straight.
> You have personally modified a 6950 bios manually to unlock the extra shaders ?
> Or are you saying you flashed the bios like everyone else here ?
> 
> cheers



I modify the original HD6950 BIOS manually to unlock the extra shaders. 

I dont have 6950 or 6970, I did the modification for some 6950 users.

Would you like to try?


----------



## ranom (Dec 28, 2010)

I think I've seen a review of a 6950 with R0C 6000MHz chips, but that could have been an engineering sample that was lent to the media. Since I dont wanna take my cooler off I dont know which chips I have under my XFX HD6950 (HD-695A-CNFC Ver 1.1), but mine seems to take 6000MHz(1375x4) fine, though I wouldnt want to use it regularly at this clock without checking what chips are used first.

About the shader unlocking, if the yield on the Cayman's arent super high, wouldnt some of the 6950 cards be using Caymans that failed as 6970s but passed as 6950s? Would those cards be getting artifacts once they try to unlock, or would they not be able to unlock at all?


----------



## jfac (Dec 28, 2010)

hey there, i´ve got an xfx 6950 flashed and it worked perfectly, great thanks for this thread 
but i noticed that the 6970 got this new EQAA and the 6950 just the normal AA, if i´m right^^
and theres no way to use EQAA with a flashed 6950?

cheers


----------



## Ganzir (Dec 28, 2010)

Hello,

one question, maybe someone of you has already tried this or could try it and tell if it works:

I already own a regular 6970, so getting a 6950 and flashing it would only make sense, if these two could run together in crossfire. Is this possible?

Greetz
Ganzir


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 28, 2010)

Ganzir said:


> Hello,
> 
> one question, maybe someone of you has already tried this or could try it and tell if it works:
> 
> ...



Yes, that can be done and it is possible.

Should I get the 6950 over the GTX 570 because of this "exploit"? I won't be upgrading for awhile after I purchase either, hence something decent and efficient for that reason would be good.
Cheers,


----------



## easyrider (Dec 28, 2010)

Ganzir said:


> Hello,
> 
> one question, maybe someone of you has already tried this or could try it and tell if it works:
> 
> ...



yes


----------



## Ganzir (Dec 28, 2010)

Did you do it?

Are there any problems one might run into, even if the flashing process works according to plan or is it more or less the same as plugging in a second 6970?


----------



## easyrider (Dec 28, 2010)

Ganzir said:


> Did you do it?
> 
> Are there any problems one might run into, even if the flashing process works according to plan or is it more or less the same as plugging in a second 6970?



Loads have done it without issue

You can run a 6950 and 6970 in CF anyway


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 28, 2010)

Ganzir said:


> Did you do it?
> 
> Are there any problems one might run into, even if the flashing process works according to plan or is it more or less the same as plugging in a second 6970?



Just take out your current 6970. Put in the 6950, flash it, etc. Now put in the 6970 and CF.


----------



## Ganzir (Dec 28, 2010)

Well thank you all, I suddenly feel like ordering a 6950


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 28, 2010)

So far, what's everyone's highest clock and memory speed they can get with the flashed BIOS on the 6950? And what brand card?


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 28, 2010)

Someone here maxed out the ccc limits (950/1450), mine seems to be fine at 940/1440.
Dunno how to go higher since MSI Afterburner has the same limits here


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

Ganzir said:


> Hello,
> 
> one question, maybe someone of you has already tried this or could try it and tell if it works:
> 
> ...



Yes, I have mine crossfired and everything is working good. 2 Sapphires here.  I just did the flash one at a time in my computer. Having one card in my computer, taking the one out and doing the other.  Ran COD:BO all night last night and was getting about 59-60C and when I ran BFBC2 for about an hr I was getting about 67-68C.  Ran 3dmark06,11, Heaven and no crashing or anything.  Thats 880 Clock, +20%, and fan at 50% on both 6950's.

One question I have is, if i switch both card is setting 2 before booting PC, does it take everything back to stock bios settings?


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 28, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> Yes, I have mine crossfired and everything is working good. 2 Sapphires here.  I just did the flash one at a time in my computer. Having one card in my computer, taking the one out and doing the other.  Ran COD:BO all night last night and was getting about 59-60C and when I ran BFBC2 for about an hr I was getting about 67-68C.  Ran 3dmark06,11, Heaven and no crashing or anything.  Thats 880 Clock, +20%, and fan at 50% on both 6950's.
> 
> One question I have is, if i switch both card is setting 2 before booting PC, does it take everything back to stock bios settings?



yes if you flick the switch you have 6950's again, great for comparisons


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

davetheshrew said:


> yes if you flick the switch you have 6950's again, great for comparisons



Thanks, The settings are running great for me :-D


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 28, 2010)

davetheshrew said:


> yes if you flick the switch you have 6950's again, great for comparisons



what if you didn't back up the BIOS at the start, when you flick it to setting 2 and start up, it'll load fine. but how do you get the setting 1 to load now? how do you flash it if you didn't back up the BIOS at the start? and what do you use to flash it back with? winflash?


----------



## Falkentyne (Dec 28, 2010)

You flick the switch back to 1, before running the atiflash.  And you run atiflash by booting off a bootable USB.  I had to use my nintendo DS flash card's microSDHC disk (formatted after backing up my games) to boot.  Older versions of ATIflash fit on a floppy; the new ones are 1.8MB in size, so you have to use a bootable USB drive, since that won't fit on a floppy.

This is basically the same thing as hotflashing a motherboard BIOS from years ago, without having to risk short circuiting something by using metal IC pullers to pull the BIOS chip out.  

I also have an old pentium 4 with an IC7 max3 with a "Bios savior", which is basically the same thing--a dual bios.  Brick the good one, flick a switch, boot from backup, flick switch back, flash the bricked one .....


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

I thought you can flash it in windows, just boot as bios 2.. load into windows and then switch it to 1 and load original flash. if you didn't back it up, you would use the one they have on this site.  I haven't tried it, but it sounds right like they said on the first page.


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

itsdanny said:


> what if you didn't back up the BIOS at the start, when you flick it to setting 2 and start up, it'll load fine. but how do you get the setting 1 to load now? how do you flash it if you didn't back up the BIOS at the start? and what do you use to flash it back with? winflash?



Thats why you have dual also :-D you leave the 2nd one for orginal and you'll never have a problem.


----------



## tcool93 (Dec 28, 2010)

The problem with this card hack thing, is now the merchants have all jacked up their prices on the 6950.  Newegg and Amazon are the ones who have a long history of price jacking.  Its not AMD, its the merchants price gouging.  Newegg at first (after learning about the hack) hid the rebate for their Gigabyte card, and now they pretend the card is sold out (which I know from past history it isn't, they just want to avoid paying the rebate).

I was tempted to buy one, but now its unlikely.  I'll just skip this generation of cards.  My 5850 is plenty fast enough for all real games.


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 28, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> Thats why you have dual also :-D you leave the 2nd one for orginal and you'll never have a problem.




I know, but what I meant is, if you didn't back up on the first BIOS, and result is that it may not load. You flick it to the second BIOS, which will load but then again, the first one still won't and is still bricked, hence if you have no back up, how will you flash the first one back to its original state before the actual flashing/unlocking?

Meh, it shouldn't matter.


----------



## Bearlake (Dec 28, 2010)

i do wonder tough...

The Radeon HD 6970 features 1536 stream processing units, 96 texture units, 32 render back ends, 880MHz clock-speed and 256-bit memory bus. Meanwhile, the Radeon HD 6850 sports the same chip with 1408 stream processing units, 88 texture units, 32 render back ends, 800MHz clock-speed and 256-bit memory bus.


so with unlocking these stream processing units, wich is very cool ofc..
how about the actual ammount of texture units.. are the last 8 units unlocked too?


----------



## Rule-R (Dec 28, 2010)

tcool93 said:


> The problem with this card hack thing, is now the merchants have all jacked up their prices on the 6950.  Newegg and Amazon are the ones who have a long history of price jacking.  Its not AMD, its the merchants price gouging.  Newegg at first (after learning about the hack) hid the rebate for their Gigabyte card, and now they pretend the card is sold out (which I know from past history it isn't, they just want to avoid paying the rebate).
> 
> I was tempted to buy one, but now its unlikely.  I'll just skip this generation of cards.  My 5850 is plenty fast enough for all real games.



Prices here in The Netherlands have stayed the same.

One of the cheapest is the XFX for Roughly 340 bucks (€260), I bought one this afternoon.

By how much have the prices risen?


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

itsdanny said:


> I know, but what I meant is, if you didn't back up on the first BIOS, and result is that it may not load. You flick it to the second BIOS, which will load but then again, the first one still won't and is still bricked, hence if you have no back up, how will you flash the first one back to its original state before the actual flashing/unlocking?
> 
> Meh, it shouldn't matter.



You can usethe bios on page one on the zip or Rar file.  That has the original bios there.  Should be all set


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 28, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> You can usethe bios on page one on the zip or Rar file.  That has the original bios there.  Should be all set



Yep, I figured that earlier, I just rephrased myself as you didn't seem to comprehend my question properly. Thanks though.


----------



## Bearlake (Dec 28, 2010)

Bearlake said:


> i do wonder tough...
> 
> The Radeon HD 6970 features 1536 stream processing units, 96 texture units, 32 render back ends, 880MHz clock-speed and 256-bit memory bus. Meanwhile, the Radeon HD 6850 sports the same chip with 1408 stream processing units, 88 texture units, 32 render back ends, 800MHz clock-speed and 256-bit memory bus.
> 
> ...




can anyone relate to this please,
do the extra texture units unlock as well?


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 28, 2010)

I upgraded to the hotfix 12a drivers and it started artifacting, reverting to the cd drivers now...what about you guys? what drivers are you using?


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

I'm using the 10.12a drivers.. But ati see it as 10.11 for some reasons on the version..  what setting are you running for everything?? Have powertune +20? fan at least 50%, 880?? 800??


----------



## wiak (Dec 28, 2010)

> Errr, huh. http://bit.ly/fmlHO1 ;-)


http://twitter.com/Wavey_Dave/status/19765518718214144


----------



## New-Bee (Dec 28, 2010)

hi
i have a new problem:
I have a EVGA P55 ftw and it has an additional 12V Molex for the GPU Power-Suppyl.
I tried it but then i have a bit performance loos eg in Furmark.
Any ideas?

New-Bee


----------



## Yidaki (Dec 28, 2010)

DFI had that as well on the nf4 Ultra-D but nobody used it ...


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 28, 2010)

Is DFI still around? I can't imagine so with their grossly over-priced motherboards haha. Lots of unnecessary features that I imagine were more hype than anything else.


----------



## Wessmess (Dec 28, 2010)

*Xfx 6950 -> 6970*

Upgrade went ok, no artifact or whatever, everything stable.

Furmark went from 5993 to 7166 which looks ok.
3DMark06 went from 17955 to 19514, which looks a little low, in all reviews > 20000.

System is a clean x64 Windows 7
CPU: E8400 @4 ghz
MEM: 8 GB
PSU: 400 W Zallmann

Driver Packaging Version	8.801-101125a-109809C-ATI	
Catalyst™ Version	10.12	

Power control setting at +20%.

My PSU looks fine because the system is stable at Furmarks Xtreme burning mode @ 1920.
Tested with afterburner, powertune does not kick in. Gpu clock stays at 880 mhz.

Any ideas


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 28, 2010)

Wessmess said:


> Upgrade went ok, no artifact or whatever, everything stable.
> 
> Furmark went from 5993 to 7166 which looks ok.
> 3DMark06 went from 17955 to 19514, which looks a little low, in all reviews > 20000.
> ...



nice, get the trial of 3dmark 11 and see what you get?  I have the free trial right now and everything.  Yours I think is a little low because of the CPU  you are using.  Still great numbers I think.


----------



## Yidaki (Dec 28, 2010)

obsoletepower said:


> Is DFI still around? I can't imagine so with their grossly over-priced motherboards haha. Lots of unnecessary features that I imagine were more hype than anything else.



No, DFI doesn't exist any more (consumer market). So tell me, what was your problem with DFI?


----------



## ranom (Dec 28, 2010)

Ive now tried Power control setting +20%, and mine also went OK but I'm getting close results with +0% and +20%, must be my CPU being underpowered 
Windows7 x64, i3-540@3.7GHz, Mem2GBx2, Catalyst 10.12a Hotfix driver

3DMark 11 Basic v1.014767 
Heaven(1920x1080, 8xAA, Fullscreen, Shaders, Textures:high, Filter:trilinear, Aniso16x, Occlusion/ Refraction/Volumetric:enabled, Replication:disabled, Tessellation:extreme ) FPS:26.2 Scores:659 MinFPS:11.0 MaxFPS:73.8

I must note that I went safe and cranked up the fan speed to 59%. Sounded like a hair dryer lol


----------



## baud (Dec 28, 2010)

ranom said:


> I think I've seen a review of a 6950 with R0C 6000MHz chips, but that could have been an engineering sample that was lent to the media. Since I dont wanna take my cooler off I dont know which chips I have under my XFX HD6950 (HD-695A-CNFC Ver 1.1), but mine seems to take 6000MHz(1375x4) fine, though I wouldnt want to use it regularly at this clock without checking what chips are used first.



we have the same version XFX card, but for some reason mine won't flash properly...

switch is in the "1" position, card is in the first pcie slot, no other cards present, yet every time i flash it my comp doesn't boot... i have to keep using the backup rom 

am i doing something wrong?  what else could it be?


----------



## Paintface (Dec 28, 2010)

SAPPHIRE 100312SR Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5...

get them while they are in stock, afraid future revisions will have a lazer cut or no dual bios


----------



## singsonn (Dec 28, 2010)

I'm having a bsod when I am flashing the BIOS with atiwinflash. The program actually freeze for a few seconds, then theres the bsod saying that there is an issue with my display driver (that I'm trying to modify something, not sure here), and then reboot of the machine.
I have a Sapphire, and the only thing that differs from the GPU-z of the article is the driver version. Mine's Catalyst 10.12 (Win7 64): 8.801.0.0. Anyone else with a similar issue??


----------



## Wrigleyvillain (Dec 28, 2010)

Paintface said:


> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102914
> 
> get them while they are in stock, afraid future revisions will have a lazer cut or no dual bios



Why did that link to two other URLs before newegg?


----------



## singsonn (Dec 28, 2010)

singsonn said:


> I'm having a bsod when I am flashing the BIOS with atiwinflash. The program actually freeze for a few seconds, then theres the bsod saying that there is an issue with my display driver (that I'm trying to modify something, not sure here), and then reboot of the machine.
> I have a Sapphire, and the only thing that differs from the GPU-z of the article is the driver version. Mine's Catalyst 10.12 (Win7 64): 8.801.0.0. Anyone else with a similar issue??



Nevermind, I removed the PCI-E sata controller card from the motherboard and now atiwinflash works fine, have to reboot to make sure though.


----------



## Wessmess (Dec 28, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> nice, get the trial of 3dmark 11 and see what you get?  I have the free trial right now and everything.  Yours I think is a little low because of the CPU  you are using.  Still great numbers I think.



3DMark 2011: 4369 http://3dmark.com/3dm11/301456

Looks like the physics score is killing me: 
http://hw-lab.com/detail-about-radeon-hd-6970-3dmark-11-result.html

This is due to the processor I guess.


----------



## Bearlake (Dec 28, 2010)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Why did that link to two other URLs before newegg?



fishy..

the first link is supposed to a url-shortener, but then i dunno what happens after that..

either way, please use direct links you can shorten them with the [url= command


----------



## Andypro (Dec 28, 2010)

Sorry for the off topic, but I'm new here -

Can someone tell me how to turn off the setting that sends me an e-mail every time this thread is updated?


----------



## PopcornMachine (Dec 28, 2010)

Andypro said:


> Sorry for the off topic, but I'm new here -
> 
> Can someone tell me how to turn off the setting that sends me an e-mail every time this thread is updated?



Under User CP, select "Edit Options" and set "Default Thread Subscription Mode" to "No email notification".

Also, you can click on Thread Tools at the top and select "Unsubscribe from this thread".


----------



## Shaidarhun (Dec 28, 2010)

Hi!

My Gigabyte card running fine after the unlock got nice scores in 3dmark 11
6950 with 0% power controll... No heat problem after 10 min 99% gpu stress test I had 79 Celsius with normal fan controll (35% fan speed). 
Managed to lower the temperature to 69Celsius with MSI Afterburner at 40% fan speed.

Edit: Tested on 880/1375MHz...


----------



## Patjuh (Dec 28, 2010)

When I try to flash my XFX6950 with XFX6970 bios I get the error:

SubSystemID mismatch.

Whjat's causing this and how to solve? I remark that the file I downloaded says .bin, I removed the .bin and removed all dots in the filetitle so it says: XFXHD69702048101203

Anyone?


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 28, 2010)

Wessmess said:


> 3DMark 2011: 4369 http://3dmark.com/3dm11/301456
> 
> Looks like the physics score is killing me:
> http://hw-lab.com/detail-about-radeon-hd-6970-3dmark-11-result.html
> ...


I got P4344 with my E8400 @ 4200 and unlocked 6950 so your system is fine


----------



## vvulture (Dec 28, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> I modify the original HD6950 BIOS manually to unlock the extra shaders.
> 
> I dont have 6950 or 6970, I did the modification for some 6950 users.
> 
> Would you like to try?



Huh yeah !   Why not post some instructions here, or better still start a new thread and post link here.
This could solve some artefact issues some members are having.

cheers


----------



## Frosty (Dec 28, 2010)

vvulture said:


> Huh yeah !   Why not post some instructions here, or better still start a new thread and post link here.
> This could solve some artefact issues some members are having.
> 
> cheers



^^ This

I've ordered two 6950s and I'd definitely like to try this out. It would make sense that the different timings on the 6970 memory chips would cause the artifacting as most users have decreased their memory clocks to stock 6950 levels after the flashing process and still experience artifacting.


----------



## Formula350 (Dec 28, 2010)

Patjuh said:


> When I try to flash my XFX6950 with XFX6970 bios I get the error:
> 
> SubSystemID mismatch.
> 
> ...



Use ATiFlash in DOS. You can use the -fp (force flash) option then. I'd run atiflash -i first to make sure your card is Device 0 (most likely is), but then just do atiflash -fp 0 <biosname>.bin

I flashed both of my 5770s yesterday while both were in the computer with no problem :\

People are overcomplicating this >_> That or it's just because I've used computers for long enough to have needed to use DOS/Command Prompt to do certain things... It's easier than one might think though


----------



## stingushon (Dec 28, 2010)

hi, i have two HIS 6950, i flashed the first with the atiwinflash command on CMD method.. now i want to flash the other one, GPU2.. what is the command to flash the 2nd card ?


----------



## Patjuh (Dec 28, 2010)

I downloaded and used the complete package provided by Wizzard, used the batch file and run the bios flash.

Now I seem to not see the GPU with GPU-Z and Ati Catalyst isn't installing anymore... (10.12).

What's my problem? lol.


----------



## Formula350 (Dec 28, 2010)

stingushon said:


> hi, i have two HIS 6950, i flashed the first with the atiwinflash command on CMD method.. now i want to flash the other one, GPU2.. what is the command to flash the 2nd card ?



*sigh* Read my post RIGHT above yours 

Also, the program _tells_ you how to operate it -_-

atiflash -p 1 <filename>

Since I'm sure you would've just posted again saying you can't figure it


----------



## Formula350 (Dec 28, 2010)

Patjuh said:


> I downloaded and used the complete package provided by Wizzard, used the batch file and run the bios flash.
> 
> Now I seem to not see the GPU with GPU-Z and Ati Catalyst isn't installing anymore... (10.12).
> 
> What's my problem? lol.



Silly question, but have you restarted the computer since flashing?


----------



## Bearlake (Dec 28, 2010)

stingushon said:


> hi, i have two HIS 6950, i flashed the first with the atiwinflash command on CMD method.. now i want to flash the other one, GPU2.. what is the command to flash the 2nd card ?




flash a single card, test with furmark etc to make sure its not artifacting at higher temps/speeds

then remove card, place second card and repeat procedure..
once both cards pass furmark tests, put both in and go ahead and enjoy


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 29, 2010)

how long do you run furmark for and what settngs??

Also, has anyone uninstalled and reinstalled drivers with bios update?


----------



## bystander (Dec 29, 2010)

I'm curious as to why the artical hasn't been updated with those who have failed to get it to work.  There are at least 2-3 people that couldn't get it to work due to it crashing after the bios flash, or artifacting.

People should be aware that not everyone is having success, even if most are.


----------



## erocker (Dec 29, 2010)

When the person who updates the article logs on it will get updated. Sometimes people need a day off.


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 29, 2010)

Going for another, which so far seems to be the "better" card brand?
So far I've seen one Sapphire user, get to the limits, 950/1450. And if I recall correctly, a few Gigabyte users have also gotten good results (higher than 6970 stock), one was 940/1440. 

Anyone else?


----------



## bystander (Dec 29, 2010)

With XFX I've gotten to 900 GPU core.  Given how the 5870's had such issues with high memory clocks overheating the VRM's, I'm afraid to OC the memory, and my benchmarks between 1275 and 1375 have almost no effect, I see no reason to.


----------



## Eluder (Dec 29, 2010)

Sadly, I'm one of the unlucky people as my XFX 6950 artifacts in the Windows desktop when I unlock the extra shaders.  Guess as speculated, the memory timings are too tight for the RAM that happens to be on my card. Now I wonder if I should have picked up the HIS version instead since it was the same price, but the XFX warranty is too good to pass up sometimes.


----------



## tommyg_kiwi (Dec 29, 2010)

*Corruption in windows 7*

Looks like I have the same problem when I flash to 6970:-> in 3D all is well, but in windows I start to see pieces corrupted. Like maximise button missing, etc.  

So I think I'll wait till the timing, powertune and device ID parts are also matching the required HW/emulation mix.


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

Eluder said:


> Sadly, I'm one of the unlucky people as my XFX 6950 artifacts in the Windows desktop when I unlock the extra shaders.  Guess as speculated, the memory timings are too tight for the RAM that happens to be on my card. Now I wonder if I should have picked up the HIS version instead since it was the same price, but the XFX warranty is too good to pass up sometimes.



If you like to try, I can modify the original XFX6950 bios directly for unlocking the extra shaders. Just post the original BIOS of your card , or send to me , I will do the modification for you.


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> If you like to try, I can modify the original XFX6950 bios directly for unlocking the extra shaders. Just post the original BIOS of your card , or send to me , I will do the modification for you.



The only difference is that the OP, flashes it with a modded BIOS. And you are modifying it directly? But either way, each to its own, they achieve the same thing? Both have unlocked shaders, nothing else in the BIOS is changed? Hence no difference, besides the actual concept of unlocking the shaders. What's the harm doing OP's way then?


----------



## ranom (Dec 29, 2010)

wouldnt it be easier to just take a 6970 bios and mod it so that it'll run at 800/1250 ? I'm new to Radeons so sorry if this isnt possible.


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

Hi itsdanny,

Im sorry , I dont get your point. What the "OP" mean ?

The only method by now for unlocking the extra shaders is flash 6970 BIOS to 6950. Is there any other method to do the work?


----------



## Frosty (Dec 29, 2010)

itsdanny said:


> The only difference is that the OP, flashes it with a modded BIOS. And you are modifying it directly? But either way, each to its own, they achieve the same thing? Both have unlocked shaders, nothing else in the BIOS is changed? Hence no difference, besides the actual concept of unlocking the shaders. What's the harm doing OP's way then?



I think the issue is that stock 6970 BIOSes have the memory set at specific timings. Timings that the chips on the 6950s can't handle. This is most likely why the artifacting doesn't go away for most people when they just lower the memory clock.

Modifying the 6950 BIOS to unlock the shaders and increase the clocks will leave all other settings intact (including memory timings).


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 29, 2010)

Frosty said:


> I think the issue is that stock 6970 BIOSes have the memory set at specific timings. Timings that the chips on the 6950s can't handle. This is most likely why the artifacting doesn't go away for most people when they just lower the memory clock.
> 
> Modifying the 6950 BIOS to unlock the shaders and increase the clocks will leave all other settings intact (including memory timings).



Thanks!
Hence, the only difference is that, the BIOSes that the OP has referenced to, has different memory timings whilst rui0317 here, who directly accesses and modifies it will leave everything in-tact. Or, well there could be more differences, but they are minimal and leave no degrade in performance unlike the memory timings. Otherwise, they're both different methods, and achieve the same thing, but rui0317's method will allow more stability and less chances if not none at artifacting.



rui0317 said:


> Hi itsdanny,
> 
> Im sorry , I dont get your point. What the "OP" mean ?
> 
> The only method by now for unlocking the extra shaders is flash 6970 BIOS to 6950. Is there any other method to do the work?



OP means "original post" / "original poster". Basically, if you re-read my post and read Frosty's post and my reply to Frosty's post, could you confirm that is what is so "special" in regards with your method?


----------



## bystander (Dec 29, 2010)

Perhaps you could just post your modified 6950 bios.  Wouldn't your modified bios be flashable and work for others?


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 29, 2010)

bystander said:


> Perhaps you could just post your modified 6950 bios.  Wouldn't your modified bios be flashable and work for others?



That's what I thought as well.


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

Flash the 6970 BIOS to your 6950 , you will get the extra shaders, that's what you want. But at the same time, the specific memory timings which come from 6970 BIOS will cause same risk such as "artifacting", this is extra results you dont want but you have to take it.

Unlocking extra shaders by modifying the original BIOS, you dont need to take the extra risk, that's the "special" of this method. 

AMD apply some software mask settings inside HD5850/6850/6950 BIOS, allowing them to use full spec core on such card. HD6970 BIOS has no such mask settings , and that's that the reason you can get the extra shaders after flashing 6970 BIOS to 6950 . Clean/Bypass such mask settings on original 6950 BIOS will get the same result.


----------



## bystander (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> Flash the 6970 BIOS to your 6950 , you will get the extra shaders, that's what you want. But at the same time, the specific memory timings which come from 6970 BIOS will cause same risk such as "artifacting", this is extra results you dont want but you have to take it.
> 
> Unlocking extra shaders by modifying the original BIOS, you dont need to take the extra risk, that's the "special" of this method.
> 
> AMD apply some software mask settings inside HD5850/6850/6950 BIOS, allowing them to use full spec core on such card. HD6970 BIOS has no such mask settings , and that's that the reason you can get the extra shaders after flashing 6970 BIOS to 6950 . Clean/Bypass such mask settings on original 6950 BIOS will get the same result.



But why continue to modify each bios individually, when you could take your modified 6950 bios, and post it for others to use?  It would save you a ton of work.


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 29, 2010)

Agreed. Since all the cards are basically the same, what's the harm in posting your modified 6950 bios?


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

I got same original 6950 BIOS's which come from different users, and I DO SEE difference. So I request the original BIOS from your own card .


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> I got same original 6950 BIOS's which come from different users, and I DO SEE difference. So I request the original BIOS from your own card .



Just curious, even the 6950's from the SAME *brand* have a difference?


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

itsdanny said:


> Just curious, even the 6950's from the SAME *brand* have a difference?



http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...ufacturer=&model=HD+6950&interface=&memSize=0

Download the first and the second one, compare the binary data , and see.


----------



## bystander (Dec 29, 2010)

While there are differences, it would seem all the cards can use any of the bios.  Could it be that the different brands may have coded the bios differently, but they are using the same hardware?


----------



## Fluffy (Dec 29, 2010)

successfully flashed my XFX card. Now to try some games out


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...ufacturer=&model=HD+6950&interface=&memSize=0
> 
> Download the first and the second one, compare the binary data , and see.



My internet is shaped, so I will not bother. Although, binary data does not say anything. It could have been compiled different with different compiler settings, the PE header hence will easily be changed and hence the different binary data. And I assume that they will contain different information as well because of the brand, so of course they will have different binary data. That does not mean they have different GPU Bios settings although, but it could be the case.

Is your method a complicated task to accomplish? Either way, why not post a tutorial then for users and members who wish to do a DIY task instead of going through the inconvenience?


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

I had build a small utility , can do this modification almost auto, beta testing stage.


----------



## baud (Dec 29, 2010)

i'm actually very interested in writing a rom,  i've picked up a few things from flashing 4870s for use in my mac, and reading about flashing 5770s and 5870s for mac use.  before the community got a hold of the apple rom some of the more experienced users were writing roms piecemeal from other apple cards.

btw, i returned my XFX and picked up a Diamond, but flashing it still results in a black screen at startup and the comp won't load windows.  i honestly don't know what would cause this; maybe the mobo being an EFI mobo, or possibly that it's got pcie 1.0 instead of 2.1.  the card works flawlessly with its stock rom, it's just flashing it that borks it all up.


----------



## stingushon (Dec 29, 2010)

i was kinda stupid when asking how to flash the 2nd card.. eventually i got it working...
weird thing tough...
in 2D i get artifacted on black backgrounds and stuff... and when entering a game/benchmark/furmark i get artifacts for like 20 seconds and than when the cards get "calibrated" they get away(the artifacts) and everything works great (even on 920/1440 clocks)
 any idea ?

edit : for 2D artifacts to get away i need to lower the memory clocks to 1250~


----------



## 521ztz (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> I had build a small utility , can do this modification almost auto, beta testing stage.



Dear rui大,
Looking forward to your utility!!


----------



## vvulture (Dec 29, 2010)

Who wants to have some fun ??

Go over to the AMD Game forum and start a thread about this...  see how long it lasts before they delete it  LOL...   Mine was deleted in record time.


----------



## H82LUZ73 (Dec 29, 2010)

lol i glad most of the 27 out of 27 Sapphire cards worked,I seen a young kid and his girl in my computer store yesterday (I bought a 6970) and he was ready to buy one himself...So i said hey you want to save a few bucks get the 6950 and go to techpowerup.com and read the 6950 to 6970 thread lol  So now this morning i will be heading back to pick up the last 6970 in the store wish me luck lol If it is gone i will just buy the 6950 and flash it.


----------



## dom99 (Dec 29, 2010)

Modifying the 6950 bios to unlock the shaders/SIMDS/anything else in that chip, sounds like a much better idea to me, then overclocking up to 6970 speeds.

Looking forward to this program from RUI0317!


----------



## tecnoworld (Dec 29, 2010)

Hello all! I just ordered a Powercolor 6950 for about 250€. I'll be getting it in a week or so and then I'll try unlocking it. I really hope to succeed!


----------



## Qed (Dec 29, 2010)

I'm confused.

1) HD 6970 and HD 6950 have the same voltage on dram/gpu? Checking the bios description it says _"Voltage: VID1"_ on both versions but  VID1 can be different in the 2 cards.

2) In this picture 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





How can the "HD 6950 modded +20%" use 22W less and have exactly the same temperature?

Thanks.


----------



## dom99 (Dec 29, 2010)

I would like to know the pros/cons of the two methods, unlocking the shaders in the 6950 bios itself, or simply flashing the 6970 bios?


----------



## tecnoworld (Dec 29, 2010)

With the first method (modifying 6950 Bios) you'll have the extra shaders, but everything else will be the same as in the original 6950 (clock, memory timings and so on)

With the second method, you'll have a 6970, but only if your memory holds.


----------



## dom99 (Dec 29, 2010)

tecnoworld said:


> With the first method (modifying 6950 Bios) you'll have the extra shaders, but everything else will be the same as in the original 6950 (clock, memory timings and so on)
> 
> With the second method, you'll have a 6970, but only if your memory holds.



Yes "if your memory holds". I would like to know if there is any performance difference between using 6950 unlocked bios at 6970 clock speeds, and the stock 6970 bios.


----------



## tecnoworld (Dec 29, 2010)

I can only guess, here, but I think the difference is negligible, if you then overclock the 6950 to 6970 speeds.


----------



## dom99 (Dec 29, 2010)

Well I would say that doing it by using the 6950 modded bios then overclocking as far as you can seems the way to go for maximum stability/performance. Because a lot of people are reporting green artifacts


----------



## Patjuh (Dec 29, 2010)

Yes I've restarted the computer over and over, installed it over, uninstalled it over, and still not working...

Anyone? my Ati Catalyst isn't installing... Yes I've already flashed the card...


----------



## Rule-R (Dec 29, 2010)

Patjuh said:


> Yes I've restarted the computer over and over, installed it over, uninstalled it over, and still not working...
> 
> Anyone? my Ati Catalyst isn't installing... Yes I've already flashed the card...



Use a program to erase all amd drivers first than reinstall?

I always use DriverCleaner


----------



## Icer Jo (Dec 29, 2010)

Placed an order @ NewEgg for 2 Sapphire 6950's one to replace my 8800gts 512MB rig and one for my future Mini-ITX build. When they arrive I'll test them both to make sure their are no defects, then ill unlock and flash. Thanks for the Find and now I'm glad I turned down the 4890, 5870, and the 6870.


----------



## postumus (Dec 29, 2010)

Hey guys, 

Wondering if somebody can help me out here. I obtained an odd looking "6950", it's probably an engineering sample. It has the 8+6pin out of the 6970 but the sticker on it reads 6950. Anyway, the drivers just will not install! I've tried them over and over again, and even though they seem to install just fine, I'm not prompted that I need to reboot at the end. Even if I reboot manually, when I get back into win7 64 it's still just a standard vga adapter. I've tried the latest drivers off AMD's site. Also, under GPU-Z I noticed the device ID is just 1 digit away from what they say it should be. Could it be that b/c of that ID being off the drivers won't go in? I've tried flashing the card using W1z's guide, hoping that would change the ID, but wasn't successful in that endeavor either. 

Any ideas/help would be greatly appreciated!


----------



## Yidaki (Dec 29, 2010)

Could you take a picture? Where did you get it? Retail market?

What VGA did you use before your 6950?


----------



## postumus (Dec 29, 2010)

I'm at work, but could take a picture later, there's not much to see though, looks exactly like a 6970 but with a 6950 sticker on it. I've used many gpus before this, but most recently the GTX 460. I've never had a problem installing drivers or flashing a gpu before though.


----------



## obsoletepower (Dec 29, 2010)

I am also looking forward to RUI0317's utility. If it works, I will gladly donate some money for it.


----------



## Yidaki (Dec 29, 2010)

@ postumus

Okay, I get it. Like a AsRock 890GX Extreme3 mainbaord with a 880G sticker on it 

Have you tried any driver cleaner? Or installing the driver under "safe mode" (if this is possible).


----------



## Sqweekie (Dec 29, 2010)

@ postumus 
Maybe try through the device manager and upgrade driver for the standard vga driver and lead it to the unpacked ati driver ?


Anyway, I ordered a Sapphire 6950 , will get in thursday evening and will try to flash it than  will post with results.


----------



## postumus (Dec 29, 2010)

Haven't tried it in safe mode, but will try that next! I was thinking if editing the driver inf would work to support this device id. But safe mode sounds a lot easier to do. I've tried resolving other problems with registry cleaners, but never had any luck, is there one you can recommend Yidaki?


----------



## inerax (Dec 29, 2010)

*Dual 6850's*

hello. i have dual xfx 6850's.

First off, if i do this flash and something does go wrong latter on (like years). would this void my warranty? would they even know if the card completly failed?

Also, how do i flash both cards? do i set both to option 1 then flash away?

or should i pull one card and do it one at a time?

also, does anyone know the safe max temp? i have seen some people hitting 92c with this unlock. is 92c safe?


----------



## Yidaki (Dec 29, 2010)

This is for 6*9*50!


----------



## inerax (Dec 29, 2010)

Yidaki said:


> This is for 6*9*50!



DOH!!! lol... Thanks!!


----------



## acousticdank (Dec 29, 2010)

still a good question.  I know the technical answer is yes, doing this could void your warranty, but let's say you mod it then revert both switches back to original, would they void it?  Would they even know?  Isn't that the whole reason there is a switch?


----------



## inerax (Dec 29, 2010)

inerax said:


> DOH!!! lol... Thanks!!



I just purchased both cards from newegg. going to see if i can return them and get dual 6950's...

When i get the cards can i flash both at the same time? or should i flash one at a time?


----------



## stingushon (Dec 29, 2010)

stingushon said:


> i was kinda stupid when asking how to flash the 2nd card.. eventually i got it working...
> weird thing tough...
> in 2D i get artifacted on black backgrounds and stuff... and when entering a game/benchmark/furmark i get artifacts for like 20 seconds and than when the cards get "calibrated" they get away(the artifacts) and everything works great (even on 920/1440 clocks)
> any idea ?
> ...



hi, can some1 help me with that ?


----------



## acousticdank (Dec 29, 2010)

inerax said:


> I just purchased both cards from newegg. going to see if i can return them and get dual 6950's...
> 
> When i get the cards can i flash both at the same time? or should i flash one at a time?



Probably better to do one at a time so you can test that both are working.


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 29, 2010)

stingushon said:


> hi, can some1 help me with that ?


I had artifacting with the 12a hotfix driver, reverting to cd drivers fixed it


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 29, 2010)

Whats the best way to deal with testing? and timing? I've done some tests, but I need more input to make sure i'm doing everything correctly like I should.


----------



## inerax (Dec 29, 2010)

Mastroz said:


> Whats the best way to deal with testing? and timing? I've done some tests, but I need more input to make sure i'm doing everything correctly like I should.



Mastorz, did you unlock one card at a time then crossfire? did you have any problems?


what kind of temps are you getting?

anyone know what max temp is safe?


----------



## postumus (Dec 29, 2010)

Just a small update, the drivers from Saphire's site install fine, but the drivers from AMD's site don't. Very strange, but the results from GPU-Z (1536 shaders) and Heaven point to this being a 6970 with a 6950 slapped on it, so I guess I lucked out (so far).  

I guess no need to unlock for me then.  

It sounded like fun too, like my old 9500 > 9700.


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

bystander said:


> I'm curious as to why the artical hasn't been updated with those who have failed to get it to work. There are at least 2-3 people that couldn't get it to work due to it crashing after the bios flash, or artifacting.



please email me, i'm not monitoring the forum replies here. it's hard to keep track of both email and forum at the same time, so i changed the article to just "email me".


----------



## Eluder (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> If you like to try, I can modify the original XFX6950 bios directly for unlocking the extra shaders. Just post the original BIOS of your card , or send to me , I will do the modification for you.



Hi there, my BIOS is the one seen here.  I did a binary comparison to the one I saved before flashing and it's identical.

Appreciate the help.


----------



## BZB (Dec 29, 2010)

So ideally what we need is a 6970 BIOS with 6950 memory timings?  Are there any BIOS editors for 69xx yet?


----------



## travex (Dec 29, 2010)

Flashed successfully my Sapphire 6950, Running at 6970 stock timming, thanks you Wizzard ! Btw anybody can show me how can I use ATI video converter please ? Enabled acceleration in CCC but dont know how to use the CCC to convert video or such. Thanks.


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

Eluder said:


> Hi there, my BIOS is the one seen here.  I did a binary comparison to the one I saved before flashing and it's identical.
> 
> Appreciate the help.



OK , here we go. 

Not recommand other 6950 users to use this BIOS, unless you sure your original 6950 bios identical to this one.


----------



## Eluder (Dec 29, 2010)

Seems to work so far... thanks.
So how did you find out what is required to unlock just the shaders, very intriguing.


----------



## travex (Dec 29, 2010)

Eluder said:


> Seems to work so far... thanks.
> So how did you find out what is required to unlock just the shaders, very intriguing.
> 
> http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/10/12/29/cn.png



Wrong clicked the thanks button  , but anyway you've managed to get new shaders including keep the memory/core speed stay still, gratz


----------



## ALBPM (Dec 29, 2010)

I have a NOOB question.... What program do I need to open the .bin files and read/edit them???


----------



## Qed (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> OK , here we go.
> 
> Not recommand other 6950 users to use this BIOS, unless you sure your original 6950 bios identical to this one.



Do you mind to do the same also for the Saphire 6950? I'm gonna try one and checking the users reports it is one of the most used. I'm more happy having the stock speed and the freedom to overclock it.

AMD	1	1	0	0
HIS	10	10	0	0
ASUS	2	2	0	0
PowerColor	14	14	0	0
Sapphire	27	27	0	0
XFX	15	15	0	0
Club3D	6	6	0	0
Gigabyte	3	3	0	0
Diamond	1	1	0	0


Here is the bios http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/88971/Sapphire.HD6950.2048.101123.html

Thanks.


----------



## ALBPM (Dec 29, 2010)

x2 for the Sapphire 6950 bios !!

Thanks rui0317!!!!!!!


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

Saphire 6950 BIOS.

I had build a small utility to do this BIOS modification, beta testing stage. You guys can DIY the 6950 BIOS for you own card by using this utility.


----------



## ALBPM (Dec 29, 2010)

Thanks!!!

What program do I need to open and read/edit the .bin files??


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 29, 2010)

inerax said:


> Mastorz, did you unlock one card at a time then crossfire? did you have any problems?
> 
> 
> what kind of temps are you getting?
> ...



Yes, did one at a time, take one card out and put in the other one.  Max temps in COD:BO is 59-60, and BFBC2 is 67-68.  No problems in etiher one. Ran bo yesterday for about 5 hrs no problems and bfbc2 for an hr no problems.  Do you have crossfire?  i'm wondering If i were to completely uninstall drives for ATI will the drivers reinstall without a problem?


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> Saphire 6950 BIOS.
> 
> I had build a small utility to do this BIOS modification, beta testing stage. You guys can DIY the 6950 BIOS for you own card by using this utility.



rui instead of writing a utility, rather write a batch file. so that people can look inside it, find out what it does and know that it won't hurt their system


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

ALBPM said:


> Thanks!!!
> 
> What program do I need to open and read/edit the .bin files??



Any binary editor. HxD editor, this one is freeware.


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 29, 2010)

Hey W1zzard, what do you recommend as far as testing for stability and length of time?  and programs etc.  Please fill me in :-D


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> Saphire 6950 BIOS.
> 
> I had build a small utility to do this BIOS modification, beta testing stage. You guys can DIY the 6950 BIOS for you own card by using this utility.



nice approach changing the conditional jump


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> rui instead of writing a utility, rather write a batch file. so that people can look inside it, find out what it does and know that it won't hurt their system



Thank you very much for the suggestion. 

But it is a bit complicated. How to tech the user to calculate and restore the checksums for AMD/ATI bios image? RivaTuner have a good patchscripts system, but it can only mod the BIOS for NV.


----------



## dom99 (Dec 29, 2010)

postumus said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> Wondering if somebody can help me out here. I obtained an odd looking "6950", it's probably an engineering sample. It has the 8+6pin out of the 6970 but the sticker on it reads 6950. Anyway, the drivers just will not install! I've tried them over and over again, and even though they seem to install just fine, I'm not prompted that I need to reboot at the end. Even if I reboot manually, when I get back into win7 64 it's still just a standard vga adapter. I've tried the latest drivers off AMD's site. Also, under GPU-Z I noticed the device ID is just 1 digit away from what they say it should be. Could it be that b/c of that ID being off the drivers won't go in? I've tried flashing the card using W1z's guide, hoping that would change the ID, but wasn't successful in that endeavor either.
> 
> Any ideas/help would be greatly appreciated!



I have expierenced exactly this before, even though I installed catalyst it didnt need a reboot and didnt even seem to pick up the card, I found taking the card out and putting it back in then reinstalling drivers worked.


----------



## baud (Dec 29, 2010)

*success!*

thanks rui!!

i used your XFX modified rom with my Diamond 6950 and it works now!

all i had to do was uninstall previous drivers, reboot in safe mode, run driver sweeper, then install the latest drivers from ati.amd.com

and now:



yaaaaay!


----------



## tecnoworld (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317: great idea! I'll be getting my powercolor 6950 in a week or less, so I'll be very happy to test your program. Where can I find it?


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> Thank you very much for the suggestion.
> 
> But it is a bit complicated. How to tech the user to calculate and restore the checksums for AMD/ATI bios image? RivaTuner have a good patchscripts system, but it can only mod the BIOS for NV.



shouldnt the checksum delta be always the same ? subtract 6 from the checksum and it should be fine ?

so something like:
find 4A 8D 54 22 FF 0F 49, replace with 4A 8D 54 22 FF 0F 43
byte[33]=byte[33]+6

should work


----------



## dom99 (Dec 29, 2010)

Could anyone who has used rui`s 6950 shader unlock for 6950 bios please message their findings, ie is it stable, and anyone who found the 6970 bios flash unstable might want to try a 6950 unlocked flash and see if it makes a difference


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 29, 2010)

dom99 said:


> Could anyone who has used rui`s 6950 shader unlock for 6950 bios please message their findings, ie is it stable, and anyone who found the 6970 bios flash unstable might want to try a 6950 unlocked flash and see if it makes a difference



+1 on this!


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

dom99 said:


> Could anyone who has used rui`s 6950 shader unlock for 6950 bios please message their findings, ie is it stable



i didnt test it, but looking at the method i'm sure it will work fine

if you know how to use a hex editor, you can also manually modify your bios as i posted a bit further above


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 29, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> i didnt test it, but looking at the method i'm sure it will work fine
> 
> if you know how to use a hex editor, you can also manually modify your bios as i posted a bit further above


no doubt the unlock works, but we'd like to see if the artifacts were caused by the ram timings or the disabled simds were really defective


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> shouldnt the checksum delta be always the same ? subtract 6 from the checksum and it should be fine ?
> 
> so something like:
> find 4A 8D 54 22 FF 0F 49, replace with 4A 8D 54 22 FF 0F 43
> ...



Yes it is right step, of course it will work. 

But Im not expect all 6950 users have such experience and capability to modify the binary code directly. It is too dangerous for most of them to DIY BIOS code without 100% sure what they are doing. I just want to do the dirty work for them and make it easy and safety.


----------



## acousticdank (Dec 29, 2010)

dom99 said:


> Could anyone who has used rui`s 6950 shader unlock for 6950 bios please message their findings, ie is it stable, and anyone who found the 6970 bios flash unstable might want to try a 6950 unlocked flash and see if it makes a difference



2 people have posted it works, one worked where 6970 was unstable...


----------



## Mark22 (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> Saphire 6950 BIOS.
> 
> I had build a small utility to do this BIOS modification, beta testing stage. You guys can DIY the 6950 BIOS for you own card by using this utility.



I have an asus card, bios here, do you think you could mod this one for me and others to try out.

Thankyou.


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> Yes it is right step, of course it will work.
> 
> But Im not expect all 6950 users have such experience and capability to modify the binary code directly. It is too dangerous for most of them to DIY BIOS code without 100% sure what they are doing. I just want to do the dirty work for them and make it easy and safety.



let me see if i can write a vbs script to do it.


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 29, 2010)

Mark22 said:


> I have an asus card, bios here, do you think you could mod this one for me and others to try out.
> 
> Thankyou.


I have a Gigabyte but I'd love to flash the Asus bios for some Smart Doctor fun 

Also, shouldn't we change the device id so that any software and drivers will see it just like a downlclocked 6970?


----------



## CSCicus (Dec 29, 2010)

Unlocked asus 6950

Stock +20%  800/1250  
3Dmark 2011 X 1585

New bios +20% 800/1250
3Dmark 2011 X 1637

New bios +20% 890/1375
3Dmark 2011 X 1805

Unigine Score 1335

FurMark 20Min max temp 95 avg 90 no Artifacting
SCORE:7192 points (60000 ms)
FPS: min=103  max=171  avg=120
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q9650  @ 4050 MHz
Windows 7 64-bit build 7600 [No Service Pack]


----------



## baud (Dec 29, 2010)

the modded 6950 bios works well for me; i just played crysis for about 40 minutes with no artifacting


----------



## dom99 (Dec 29, 2010)

baud said:


> the modded 6950 bios works well for me; i just played crysis for about 40 minutes with no artifacting
> 
> i have all 1536 shaders unlocked, but the fill rates are slower than the 6970 BIOS.  this may have something to do with the RAM timings, but I honestly don't know for sure.



Really thats interesting, what clocks are you using?


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

mark22 said:


> i have an asus card, bios here, do you think you could mod this one for me and others to try out.
> 
> Thankyou.



asus bios


----------



## baud (Dec 29, 2010)

dom99 said:


> Really thats interesting, what clocks are you using?



derp, stock clocks

the fill rates are faster with faster clocks, i just discovered

original post edited to hide nubcakery


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 29, 2010)

rui, is your unlock also setting the voltage to the 6970's reference voltage?


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> rui, is your unlock also setting the voltage to the 6970's reference voltage?




NO! Just the mask settings, didnt touch anything else.


----------



## dom99 (Dec 29, 2010)

Ok that settles it for me Im not going to use 6970 bios, RUI solution seems a lot better to me.

Could you post the VTX3D unlocked bios here so that the others and I can download and try it. here is a link, thanks.

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/89604/VTX3D.HD6950.2048.101123.html

you said that the binaries in the bios for the different brands were different, but on techpowerup the Gigabyte, HIS, Saphhire, Powercolor and MSI are all listed as the same, is this true?


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> NO! Just the mask settings, didnt touch anything else.


wouldn't it be nice to change also the voltage to 6970's? after all the cooling is the same so it should be no harm and should help reaching 6970 clocks

I've found and modified the "4A 8D 54 22 FF 0F 49" to 43 in the .bin, now where's the checksum to modify?


----------



## BZB (Dec 29, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> wouldn't it be nice to change also the voltage to 6970's? after all the cooling is the same so it should be no harm and should help reaching 6970 clocks
> 
> I've found and modified the "4A 8D 54 22 FF 0F 49" to 43 in the .bin, now where's the checksum to modify?



Can you use Powertune to do that?


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

rui, can you read php ? how does that look to you? (i gave up on vbs, took me longer to find out how to read a binary file than to write the whole thing in php, will include a php win32 binary).


```
<?php
$file=file_get_contents("in.bin");
if ($file===FALSE)
{
	echo "Could not find input BIOS. Put it in this folder and name it in.bin";
}
$search=chr(0x4A).chr(0x8D).chr(0x54).chr(0x22).chr(0xFF).chr(0x0F).chr(0x49);
$idx=strpos($file, $search);
if ($idx!==FALSE)
{
	$idx+=strlen($search)-1;
	$file[$idx]=chr(0x43);
	$file[33]=chr((ord($file[33])+6) & 0xFF);
} else
{
	echo "Could not find byte sequence in file";
}
file_put_contents("out.bin", $file);
?>
```


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script. 

www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

give it a try and let me know how well it works


----------



## bystander (Dec 29, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> wouldn't it be nice to change also the voltage to 6970's? after all the cooling is the same so it should be no harm and should help reaching 6970 clocks
> 
> I've found and modified the "4A 8D 54 22 FF 0F 49" to 43 in the .bin, now where's the checksum to modify?



For those without issue, I believe I'd rather use the 6970 timings, but some people have cards that can't handle those timings, yet still can use the extra shaders.  This new masking solution is best for them.

I'm glad someone was able to confirm it works well.  I was a little worried at first, when he was not willing to post any bios versions.  We all get a little worried about sending too much info over the internet at times.


----------



## dom99 (Dec 29, 2010)

bystander said:


> For those without issue, I believe I'd rather use the 6970 timings, but some people have cards that can't handle those timings, yet still can use the extra shaders.  This new masking solution is best for them.
> 
> I'm glad someone was able to confirm it works well.  I was a little worried at first, when he was not willing to post any bios versions.  We all get a little worried about sending too much info over the internet at times.



Why would some peoples cards be able to handle the timings and some wouldnt? what is it dependant on? and also why would the timings be better?


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

Hi W1zzard

Yes the code is looking good . 

But there is something else. Infact AMD apply such mask settings in BIOS since HD5850.

5850 : 4a 8d 54 22 ff 03 49
6850 : 4a 8d 54 22 7f 00 49
6950 : 4a 8d 54 22 ff 0f 49

What do you think?


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 29, 2010)

this is much better rui could you modify this HIS bios please?


----------



## dom99 (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> Hi W1zzard
> 
> Yes the code is looking good .
> 
> ...



hmm what implications does this have on say 5850 owners?


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> Hi W1zzard
> 
> Yes the code is looking good .
> 
> ...



4a 8d xx yy zz aa is TEST yyxx, aazz
49 xx yy is JNE yyxx


----------



## bystander (Dec 29, 2010)

dom99 said:


> Why would some peoples cards be able to handle the timings and some wouldnt? what is it dependant on?



When the GPU chips are created, they test them to see which have the least imperfections and seperate them out based on which will be successful at higher clocks.  I'm not sure what all they test, but let's just say that some chips can handle higher voltages and clocks speeds, while others can't.

Those who aren't good enough to be 6970's, but still work at 6950 settings, are reserved for 6950's.  Obviously most the chips they are making are good enough to be 6970's based on this post, so many of those chips that could have been 6970's are being used on 6950 cards.  However, some are not able to handle the 6970 clocks/timings.

I've also read that there may be two types of ram chips used, if you have a lesser ram chip, it too might not be able to handle the higher clock speeds.


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 29, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.
> 
> www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> 
> give it a try and let me know how well it works



works well w1zzard


----------



## acousticdank (Dec 29, 2010)

man thanks W1zzard and rui0317 you guys are awesome


----------



## redrumy3 (Dec 29, 2010)

Awesome job, unlock them all ^_^


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

could someone with a modded bios (*not* card using 6970 bios) submit the bios to the bios collection using gpuz? i added a feature to mark these bioses correctly to avoid confusion, just needs some testing


----------



## Chrom (Dec 29, 2010)

Hello !

Today I flashed my Sapphire 6950 and successful.

I tried to use the Benchmark-Test from F1 2010, but i always get an error at the start of the benchmark.

Does someone else has the same problem?


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 29, 2010)

damn  the 6950 bioses have lower core voltages than the 6970 bioses, this new bios is set to 1.100v but the last one was 1.175, I cant get anywhere close to the oc that I just had, any way to have a bios that can run a higher voltage than 1.100v?


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

davetheshrew said:


> any way to have a bios that can run a higher voltage than 1.100v?



gotta wait for rbe to get hd 6900 support


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 29, 2010)

in that case im going back to 6970 bios for the time being, runs fine on mine


----------



## Chrom (Dec 29, 2010)

Also tried Furmark stability test, after ~ 15 sec the computer hung up.

any suggestions ?


----------



## baud (Dec 29, 2010)

i've submitted my Diamond 6950 BIOS modded to unlock all shader cores

thanks for the php script man, and for the article and discussion

i'm wondering how to overclock the card past its limits now; the only method i know of is RBE but after flashing the driver doesn't recognize the card any more...


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

baud said:


> i've submitted my Diamond 6950 BIOS modded to unlock all shader cores



works. thanks








baud said:


> i'm wondering how to overclock the card past its limits now; the only method i know of is RBE but after flashing the driver doesn't recognize the card any more...


gotta wait for 6900 support in rbe


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 29, 2010)

wonder how long untill it has support, just itching to get a proper custom bios made


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 29, 2010)

baud said:


> i'm wondering how to overclock the card past its limits now; the only method i know of is RBE but after flashing the driver doesn't recognize the card any more...


you can go past the 950/1450 limit using an Asus card bios and the latest Smart Doctor







you can find asus 6970 and 6950 bios's in this thread

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=264107

but the overvolting doesn't seem to work


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 29, 2010)

nah seems like asus dont know how to make proper software lol


----------



## Musicman (Dec 29, 2010)

Hello,

rui0317 can you please unlock my shaders from the Powercolor 6950 bios ?

http://rapidshare.com/files/439871574/Powercolor.rar


----------



## Qed (Dec 29, 2010)

davetheshrew said:


> damn  the 6950 bioses have lower core voltages than the 6970 bioses, this new bios is set to 1.100v but the last one was 1.175, I cant get anywhere close to the oc that I just had, any way to have a bios that can run a higher voltage than 1.100v?



Where did you find it? Rbe (unsupported card) is not showing anything different from the 2 bios.


----------



## ALBPM (Dec 29, 2010)

Maybe we should change tactics and edit the 6970 bios instead of the 6950 bios.

Would it be better to edit the 6970 bios by reducing the memory timing,etc.. to make it safer for the 6950 cards. 

This way CCC thinks the card is a 6970 and gives us the Overclocking capabilities of the 6970... and we would have the increased voltage...

Just a Thought....


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

Musicman said:


> Hello,
> 
> rui0317 can you please unlock my shaders from the Powercolor 6950 bios ?
> 
> http://rapidshare.com/files/439871574/Powercolor.rar



You can try this scripts:
www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

Chrom said:


> Also tried Furmark stability test, after ~ 15 sec the computer hung up.
> 
> any suggestions ?



You can try to modify the original 6950 BIOS for you card, it is safty.


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> 4a 8d xx yy zz aa is TEST yyxx, aazz
> 49 xx yy is JNE yyxx




My point is you can extend the code to make it also work on 5850/6850 BIOS, to bypass the software mask settings in these BIOS.


----------



## Bearlake (Dec 29, 2010)

cancelled my order on the 6950... ><

for 5 euro less than the cheapest 6950 availiable here in the netherlands, 
i bought myself a perfectly working P45 mainboard + E8400 + 4gb 5ms ddr2 800 + 4890 toxic...
the second 4890 toxic would bring me VERY close to the 6950 performance if i crossfire them..
and on top i get a mobo+cpu+mem with it... what more can i wish for


----------



## W1zzard (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> My point is you can extend the code to make it also work on 5850/6850 BIOS, to bypass the software mask settings in these BIOS.



no, those cards dont have shaders configured via bios


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 29, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> no, those cards dont have shaders configured via bios



Yeah , the chance is prety small, but not zero.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6850/


----------



## thesmokingman (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317 said:


> Yeah , the chance is prety small, but not zero.
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6850/



You are on a roll my friend. That's interesting, hmm.


----------



## voro12 (Dec 29, 2010)

Thanks W1zzard, just unlocked the shaders on my ASUS 6950 with your script 
My GPU score in 3DMark 11 increased from 4519 to 4903  (With 885/1380 as clock)
Thanks!


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 29, 2010)

I just downloaded an Asus 6950 bios, unlocked it with the script and flashed.
Now with smart doctor I can go past the panel oc limits and the overvolting seems to work as well! (at least, temperature jumped 20° when setting 1,3v)


----------



## Mastroz (Dec 29, 2010)

What's tue difference with the new one then the old bios??


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 29, 2010)

I need someone to register there saphire card to get trixx beta, its up now, there was a beta 3 that was supposed to work but didnt and this one supposedly works! please someone get this and upload please asap


----------



## abirdie4me (Dec 29, 2010)

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?


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 29, 2010)

abirdie4me get trixx beta for me please


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 29, 2010)

please can someone either upload or test TriXX OC Utility V3.0.2 beta please, it apparently works.

nvm i got it, taking a look in a min.


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 29, 2010)

got the magic 1000 mhz with asus bios+unlock+smart doctor (voltage is 1.3v here)





stock 6950 scored 3860


----------



## Andypro (Dec 29, 2010)

rui0317: Thanks so much!  I just flashed my Sapphire to your 6950 with unlocked shaders and all my artifacting is gone.

I guess this along with others' experiences pretty much demonstrates that the artifacting was due to the 6970 memory timings.


----------



## acousticdank (Dec 29, 2010)

Bearlake said:


> cancelled my order on the 6950... ><
> 
> for 5 euro less than the cheapest 6950 availiable here in the netherlands,
> i bought myself a perfectly working P45 mainboard + E8400 + 4gb 5ms ddr2 800 + 4890 toxic...
> ...



no dx11 support will make the 6950/70 much better even if u xfire.
Next year's games like bf3 will have native dx11 support, but will also include 10 so it's not a total loss, but that's the problem with going with the super fast old cards.


----------



## vvulture (Dec 30, 2010)

There you go...   TriXX available for you all...   

http://www.mediafire.com/file/wap38...X_Installer_beta_v3_634288091734581250.02.exe

enjoy !!

btw..  still no voltage control


----------



## abirdie4me (Dec 30, 2010)

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


----------



## vvulture (Dec 30, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> I just downloaded an Asus 6950 bios, unlocked it with the script and flashed.
> Now with smart doctor I can go past the panel oc limits and the overvolting seems to work as well! (at least, temperature jumped 20° when setting 1,3v)



Hey Tuvok..  which Asus bios did you download ?
or, could you upload the modded Asus bios you are using now ?

thx


----------



## kAljo (Dec 30, 2010)

Worked on PowerColor Radeon HD 6950! ) THANKS W1ZZARD!


----------



## BZB (Dec 30, 2010)

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?



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.


----------



## bystander (Dec 30, 2010)

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).
> 
> ...



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.


----------



## Eluder (Dec 30, 2010)

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.


----------



## abirdie4me (Dec 30, 2010)

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.



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?


----------



## BZB (Dec 30, 2010)

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.



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?



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.


----------



## vvulture (Dec 30, 2010)

Which version of Smart Doctor to use ??


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## Tuvok (Dec 30, 2010)

vvulture said:


> Which version of Smart Doctor to use ??


asus 6950 bios modded http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0P3NBAXK
smart doctor http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us (graphics / ati / 6970 / utility)


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## vvulture (Dec 30, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> asus 6950 bios modded http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0P3NBAXK
> smart doctor http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us (graphics / ati / 6970 / utility)



thx...


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## abirdie4me (Dec 30, 2010)

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.



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.


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## itsdanny (Dec 30, 2010)

Nice work rui (& w1zzard) +1


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## bystander (Dec 30, 2010)

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.



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.


----------



## abirdie4me (Dec 30, 2010)

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.
> 
> ...



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!


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## mironicus (Dec 30, 2010)

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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## my_name_is_earl (Dec 30, 2010)

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?



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.


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## mironicus (Dec 30, 2010)

"File not found" if you just use "unlock". Does not work.


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## itsdanny (Dec 30, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> asus 6950 bios modded http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0P3NBAXK
> smart doctor http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us (graphics / ati / 6970 / utility)





@ the Asus 6950 Bios Modded. So, you used W1zzard's script? Shouldn't that only change the conditional jump (CMOVNS)? Why is there a NOP at the header? (XCHG EAX,ESI -> NOP) What is it NOP'ing?


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## bystander (Dec 30, 2010)

mironicus said:


> "File not found" if you just use "unlock". Does not work.



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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## davetheshrew (Dec 30, 2010)

itsdanny said:


> @ the Asus 6950 Bios Modded. So, you used W1zzard's script? Shouldn't that only change the conditional jump (CMOVNS)? Why is there a NOP at the header? (XCHG EAX,ESI -> NOP) What is it NOP'ing?



so whats happening man is the voltage working its magic? Anyone tested with a multi meter yet?

i sent a bios to this guy and he wrote this.

http://translate.google.com/transla...eon-hd-6900-bios-powertune-a-spotreba&act=url


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## obsoletepower (Dec 30, 2010)

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*!


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## niemion (Dec 30, 2010)

XFX 6950 BIOS, all stock settings but unlocked shaders: http://www.overclock.net/ati/899639-6950-6970-unlock-thread-7.html#post11817905


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## ALBPM (Dec 30, 2010)

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


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## niemion (Dec 30, 2010)

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:
> ...



Cool. Unlike the Asus 6950 BIOS, the Sapphire doesn't allow you to up voltage does it?


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## ALBPM (Dec 30, 2010)

No it doesn't


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## acousticdank (Dec 30, 2010)

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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## Frosty (Dec 30, 2010)

So the general concesus is to modify the 6950 BIOS so that the memory timings remain intact, right?

My only concerns are that the device will not be identified as a 6970 and the voltage will be slighlty lower which could cripple overclock potential at this time.


Would it be possible to mod a 6970 BIOS so that it has the memory timings of the 6950 or is that something that cannot be modified?


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## abirdie4me (Dec 30, 2010)

Frosty said:


> So the general concesus is to modify the 6950 BIOS so that the memory timings remain intact, right?
> 
> My only concerns are that the device will not be identified as a 6970 and the voltage will be slighlty lower which could cripple overclock potential at this time.
> 
> ...



Well, I have 2 Sapphire 6950s and the original 6970 bios flash that W1zzard posted worked for me.  My temps are quite a bit higher than when on stock 6950 settings, but I'm able to sustain a 920 clock and 1400 memory timings during benchmarks and several hours of gaming. I doubt you would get a clock like that with just a modified 6950 bios, but you never know. I think it also depends on your individual card(s).

Some other posters have asked the same question regarding modding the memory timings of a 6970 bios, I believe that was somewhere around page 15 if you want to see what they decided.


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## Qed (Dec 30, 2010)

obsoletepower said:


> 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*!



I'm start thinking it is more related to the power supply and how much power can flow through the 2x6-pin connectors insted of the 6-pin+8-pin. Now you are using lower core voltage and lower ram voltage.


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## Wijkert (Dec 30, 2010)

Hi guys, have been reading these forums for a while, but never registered untill now. I have succesfully flashed my 6950 XFX with the 6970 bios and changed the clocks to 6970 stocksettings. While running 3dmark 11, 3dmark vantage en furmark no artifacts appeared. As I already know from pasted experience, running games is a whole different thing from running benchmarks/stability tests. Last night I accountered to types of different artifacts in WoW and GTA4. In WoW I saw some black spikes, which I recognize from when my previous card (4890) had to high core clocks and I saw green stars/dots in GTA4 wich probably have something to do with to high mem clocks. Both the types of artifacts went away when I lowered the clocks to 6950 stocksettings. 

Previous posters have already requested a bios with unlocked shaders + 6970 voltage settings, since those timings might make in necessary to keep those mem clocks low. I am also very interested in such a bios, but recognize that it might be unrealistic to make a several bioses for several different needs.

I would like to thank both W1zzard and Dave for providing a lot of information about this topic.


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## Qed (Dec 30, 2010)

Wijkert said:


> Previous posters have already requested a bios with unlocked shaders   6970 voltage settings, since those timings might make in necessary to keep those mem clocks low.



What timings are you talking about?


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## Wijkert (Dec 30, 2010)

Qed said:


> What timings are you talking about?



The ones from the videomemory that are set to tidier settings in the 6970 bios, because the 6970 has different/better mem modules.


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## Yidaki (Dec 30, 2010)

I think the timings of the 6970 are not that tight, but it operates at a higher frequency (and also 1.6V and not 1.5V like the T2C).


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## Qed (Dec 30, 2010)

Wijkert said:


> The ones from the videomemory that are set to tidier settings in the 6970 bios, because the 6970 has different/better mem modules.



It doesn't make sense to me, source?


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## Yidaki (Dec 30, 2010)

Do you need a source for the different memory chips or the different timings?


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## Qed (Dec 30, 2010)

Yidaki said:


> Do you need a source for the different memory chips or the different timings?



I need a soucre showing the gddr5 timings are different from 6950 to 6970, different memory chips doen't imply different timing.
The ram frequency of the 6970 is 10% higher than the 6950 and the bandwidth is exactly 10% higher. So it doesn't make sense to have different timings.


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## Wijkert (Dec 30, 2010)

Qed said:


> I need a soucre showing the gddr5 timings are different from 6950 to 6970, different memory chips doen't imply different timing.
> The ram frequency of the 6970 is 10% higher than the 6950 and the bandwidth is exactly 10% higher. So it doesn't make sense to have different timings.



I know that different chips does't imply different timings, but a kinda assumed since multiple people have metioned these faster timings in this thread a copple of pages ago. If they are wrong, then I am wrong and my request/point is mute.

In that case it just comes down to lowering the clocks untill no game shows artifacts, or increasing the voltage when the 69xx series will be supported by afterburner or similar program. That brings up another point. What would be the max save voltage for a 6950?


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## Tuvok (Dec 30, 2010)

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.


Make sure that the bios switch is in the "1" position


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## Tuvok (Dec 30, 2010)

itsdanny said:


> @ the Asus 6950 Bios Modded. So, you used W1zzard's script? Shouldn't that only change the conditional jump (CMOVNS)? Why is there a NOP at the header? (XCHG EAX,ESI -> NOP) What is it NOP'ing?


Yes I only used the batch unlocker, don't know about the rest.
I'd also like to point out that the smart doctor voltage tuning works but gpu-z can't detect it (it stays at 1.1v), but it's definitely there (check temperatures and overclocking)


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## Qed (Dec 30, 2010)

Wijkert said:


> In that case it just comes down to lowering the clocks untill no game shows artifacts, or increasing the voltage when the 69xx series will be supported by afterburner or similar program. That brings up another point. What would be the max save voltage for a 6950?



That's exactly my point.

About the gpu voltage, the chips are the same as the colling system so it is safe to assume voltage can be exactly the same. As for cpu, you can have "better" chip depending on how many dust grain are on the die compromising performance at higher frequency. The worst thing that can happen are artifacts,

About ram voltage, i coundt find any data. Disabling shaders and setting frequency by bios seems suggesting the chips are the same, only different in the "quality" as i mentioned before. Also, producing a gddr5 working at 5.5 GHz imply having pices, coming out the productive process, unable to work at that frequency but working at slight lower one.


The thing imo is making the difference is the *power supply*. If the 6970 has 8pin+6pin connector, you cant expect to have the card working under any condition with a 2x6pin connectors. It's known that some power supply are capable of higher currents than the specification required.


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## Patjuh (Dec 30, 2010)

So, I tried removing all drivers with driver cleaner and ATi CCC uninstalling everything which was on my pc. I already flashed my XFX 6950, and now CCC doesn't show up every time I installed it. Someone knows how to solve this? Version we're talking about is 10.12...

Kind regards


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## voro12 (Dec 30, 2010)

Is it possible that unlocking of shaders make the card unstable when overclocking?


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## Gugi (Dec 30, 2010)

If i remember right the only difference between 6pin and 8pin pci-e power connector is that 8pin has 2 extra grounds.
So that should not make any difference in powering the card.


----------



## Wijkert (Dec 30, 2010)

Qed said:


> The thing imo is making the difference is the *power supply*. If the 6970 has 8pin+6pin connector, you cant expect to have the card working under any condition with a 2x6pin connectors. It's known that some power supply are capable of higher currents than the specification required.



What I find puzzleling is that when I run furmark wich puts a high demand on powersupply, the temp shoots up to 90c, but no artifacts can be found. And when I run a game like GTA4 artifacts are visible within a minute of play. As I said in my first post, I know this to be the case when overclocking a videocard, but that does't mean I understand why.


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## BZB (Dec 30, 2010)

Patjuh said:


> So, I tried removing all drivers with driver cleaner and ATi CCC uninstalling everything which was on my pc. I already flashed my XFX 6950, and now CCC doesn't show up every time I installed it. Someone knows how to solve this? Version we're talking about is 10.12...
> 
> Kind regards



You should be using the 10.12a hotfix driver.


----------



## davetheshrew (Dec 30, 2010)

Gugi said:


> If i remember right the only difference between 6pin and 8pin pci-e power connector is that 8pin has 2 extra grounds.
> So that should not make any difference in powering the card.



yep your right, that was confirmed a while back, i think it was hardware secrets.

im having no trouble with any bios, i guess im lucky


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## tecnoworld (Dec 30, 2010)

here are the pinouts:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html

the 8pin has the same 12+12+12 than the 6pin, but has an higher official maximum wattage delivery (150W vs 75W).


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## davetheshrew (Dec 30, 2010)

true but not the case for this paticular card.


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## Gugi (Dec 30, 2010)

So this could mean that if your power supply has only 6pin pci-e power connectors it can deliver 2x75W (+75W from mobo) = 225W of juice to the graphics card.
And 6950 modded to 6970 hungers for a maximum of 250W (says so in the specs of 6970) then it means you have a problem.

But if you have a power supply that has 6+2pin pci-e power connectors that can deliver 2x150W (+75W from mobo) = 375W of juice to the graphics card.
Then there should be not problems.

Am i right?


----------



## Sqweekie (Dec 30, 2010)

Probably yes, because your powersupply will be able to supply the necessary power on your 6pin connector.


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## tecnoworld (Dec 30, 2010)

it could be interesting to make a fast survey about which power supply is used, here, to see if there is a correlation among it and the success/unsuccess


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## Yidaki (Dec 30, 2010)

Qed said:


> About ram voltage, i coundt find any data.




H5GQ2H24MFR-R0C (6970): 6.0Gbps/16Bank, 1.6V/1.6V
H5GQ2H24MFR-T2C (6950): 5.0Gbps/16Bank, 1.5V/1.5V


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## HalfAHertz (Dec 30, 2010)

Wijkert said:


> What I find puzzleling is that when I run furmark wich puts a high demand on powersupply, the temp shoots up to 90c, but no artifacts can be found. And when I run a game like GTA4 artifacts are visible within a minute of play. As I said in my first post, I know this to be the case when overclocking a videocard, but that does't mean I understand why.



Your card is throttling in furmark and runs at a lower frequency compared to GTA4 that's why you don't see any artifacts. Try lowering memory frequency


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## Andrei23 (Dec 30, 2010)

hi

I have a HIS 6950 and I did the bios flash procedure. I managed to get it working, but now the graphics card performs so poorly it is unbelievable, regardless of what clocks and power control settings I try. I am getting half and sometimes a third of the frames I would be getting on my non-flashed 6950. So I decided to switch back to the old bios and still the same low performance problem. Switched to the second bios on the board and still the same problem. getting 18 fps where I would be getting 60 previously, all thanks to this bios flash. what gives?????

in case you are wondering I have a CoolerMaster GX550W PSU with 2 6+2 PCI power connectors....


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## tecnoworld (Dec 30, 2010)

very odd. did you try reinstalling the drivers? you should also try your card on another pc


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## Andrei23 (Dec 30, 2010)

I think it was already stated in this thread that you don't need to reinstall the drivers as they are the same for both the 6950 and the 6970


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## Tuvok (Dec 30, 2010)

Gugi said:


> So this could mean that if your power supply has only 6pin pci-e power connectors it can deliver 2x75W (+75W from mobo) = 225W of juice to the graphics card.
> And 6950 modded to 6970 hungers for a maximum of 250W (says so in the specs of 6970) then it means you have a problem.
> 
> But if you have a power supply that has 6+2pin pci-e power connectors that can deliver 2x150W (+75W from mobo) = 375W of juice to the graphics card.
> ...



guys you should stop useless speculations about this 8pin stuff.
my unlocked 6950 runs fine at 1025 mhz even at 1.4 volts on my 450w psu (2x6 pin)


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## acousticdank (Dec 30, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> guys you should stop useless speculations about this 8pin stuff.
> my unlocked 6950 runs fine at 1025 mhz even at 1.4 volts on my 450w psu (2x6 pin)



Yeah but what brand of psu?  How many fans do you run?  How many hard drives?  Mechanical or SSD?  What cpu?

What games are you running?

Nothing you say really says this speculation is useless, not enough info.


----------



## Andrei23 (Dec 30, 2010)

turns out reinstalling the driver helped
runing stable at 900 core/ 1375 memory


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## bystander (Dec 30, 2010)

Andrei23 said:


> turns out reinstalling the driver helped
> runing stable at 900 core/ 1375 memory



I'm suprised you weren't forced to reinstall after the flash.  I was.


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## Tuvok (Dec 30, 2010)

acousticdank said:


> Yeah but what brand of psu?  How many fans do you run?  How many hard drives?  Mechanical or SSD?  What cpu?
> 
> What games are you running?
> 
> Nothing you say really says this speculation is useless, not enough info.



I'm just saying a lot of people always have to point out that this mod is dangerous cause the 6950 lacks the 8pin connector.
They should only shut up and try for themselves cause all the cards tested are working fine with no power issues, and it's not even close to the limit, since the cards have proven to work fine even under heavy overclock and overvolt


----------



## travex (Dec 30, 2010)

Hmm, I can push my 6950  over 1007Mhz+ , but the I notice a weird problem with the Cinebench , my score keep decreasing when I try to push the Core higher or even lower now ?! But in 3kmark2011 everything is fine, more Mhz ---> more Frame.

Using Asus Bios and Smartdoctor , 1007@1.3v.


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## Tuvok (Dec 30, 2010)

travex said:


> Hmm, I can push my 6950  over 1007Mhz+ , but the I notice a weird problem with the Cinebench , my score keep decreasing when I try to push the Core higher or even lower now ?! But in 3kmark2011 everything is fine, more Mhz ---> more Frame.
> 
> Using Asus Bios and Smartdoctor , 1007@1.3v.


use a tool like gpu-z and check the logs to see if the core is throttling back during the bench


----------



## voro12 (Dec 30, 2010)

Hmm my 6950 is crashing when going over 940 O:
Is it the memory clock that makes the card crash?


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## travex (Dec 30, 2010)

Tuvok said:


> use a tool like gpu-z and check the logs to see if the core is throttling back during the bench



I keep the fan lvl at 55% to let the temp < 60 degree always, and no the core is not throttling back, stay still at the selected Mhz.


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## Wijkert (Dec 30, 2010)

When finetuning your overclock while playing games, would you guys recommend changing core and mem clocks on the fly or clossing the game first then change the clocksspeeds and start it up again?


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## mironicus (Dec 30, 2010)

I managed to flash my Powercolor 6950 successfully. Yes the switch was set to "2". My bad.

Would it also be possible to change the clock speeds if you play a video?

The 6950 clock speeds change to 500/1250 if you just play a plain DXVA-video, so it consumes more than 40 Watts. Thats just too much. It should be possible to have no issues with just 500/500. I think those settings are also stored in the bios, don't you think...? 

Another thing I would like to mention: I am just using a 400 Watt PSU. My system running GTA IV with the 6950 (with all shaders enabled with stock gpu speed) just consumes 240 Watt.


----------



## kalviper (Dec 30, 2010)

seems valid pt regarding the psu on pure 6 pins and 2+6 pins.

i flash my sapphire 6950 to 6970 using the batch unlock. using 10.12 drivers. power tune +20%. overclock to 950 / 1450.

Zero problems wrt to GPUz, gaming(WOW, Metro, L4D2, CnC4, Conviction, Assasin Creed etc) and 3d mark. 

Using 850W with 2 x 2+6pin. Those with prob maybe wanna state whether yr psu is 6pin or 2+6pin.


----------



## yonef (Dec 30, 2010)

Hello guys,
I'm about to unlock my XFX HD6950 to 6970, but first I had to ask few questions to clarify everything, before I mess up everything.

1) Can I use XFX 6970 BIOS to flash it ot my XFX 6950, or I have to use Saphire one?
2) Do I need to reinstall drivers when flashed to 6970 as it is a different card ?

Thanks.


----------



## acousticdank (Dec 30, 2010)

kalviper said:


> seems valid pt regarding the psu on pure 6 pins and 2+6 pins.
> 
> i flash my sapphire 6950 to 6970 using the batch unlock. using 10.12 drivers. power tune +20%. overclock to 950 / 1450.
> 
> ...



I just used a 2+6 on the outermost port since that's the one that the 6970 uses.  I doubt it makes a whole lot of difference, is it the cable itself that allows more power to be drawn, or the receiving port?


----------



## Frosty (Dec 30, 2010)

Qed said:


> I need a soucre showing the gddr5 timings are different from 6950 to 6970, different memory chips doen't imply different timing.
> The ram frequency of the 6970 is 10% higher than the 6950 and the bandwidth is exactly 10% higher. So it doesn't make sense to have different timings.



The only reason I think the timings are tighter on the 6970 chips is because there have been multiple users experiencing an unstable card post-flash (mostly artifacting/rendering errors). This _wasn't_ resolved by lowering the memory frequency to stock 6950 clocks but _was_ resolved when they modified the 6950 BIOS to unlock the shaders.



yonef said:


> Hello guys,
> I'm about to unlock my XFX HD6950 to 6970, but first I had to ask few questions to clarify everything, before I mess up everything.
> 
> 1) Can I use XFX 6970 BIOS to flash it ot my XFX 6950, or I have to use Saphire one?
> ...



1) You can use any 6970 BIOS for a reference card, AFAIK.
2) The drivers are the same for both the 6950 and 6970 so you shouldn't need to reinstall. Personally, I always do a safe mode driver cleaning and then reinstall but I'm paranoid.


----------



## travex (Dec 30, 2010)

So far so good ! With Asus bios @ 1.3v


----------



## tecnoworld (Dec 30, 2010)

travex: which brand is your card? And what settings do you use for fan speed?


----------



## travex (Dec 30, 2010)

tecnoworld said:


> travex: which brand is your card? And what settings do you use for fan speed?



Mine is Sapphire flashed to Asus , fan setting is at 50% right now


----------



## stevec (Dec 30, 2010)

Had been stuck trying to pick between a 6970 and gtx570 since before x-mas until I saw this thread - it was the deciding factor in me ordering a 6950. Have gone for the Asus one and will post results for both the modded 6950 bios and Asus 6970 bios as soon as the card arrives. Also planning to swap out the cooler for my T-Rad2 so will keep a log of temps both before and after incase anyone is interested. 

@Makavelli (r.e. aftermarket cooler) I've got a T-Rad2 on my 4870 at the mo (which I love) so emailed Thermalright asking if it's compatible with a 6950, which they confirmed it is! 

The Accelero Twin Turbo Pro is also compatible with the 4870 and is pretty similar in design, so I'd be pretty confident it'll work on a 6950 too. The mouting holes must be the same spacing as on the 4870 etc. Will happily measure for you while I'm swapping my cooler out if you like?

Massive thanks to everyone who has contributed, especially to W1zzard and Rui - it's one of the best examples of community spirit i've seen in all my time in nerddom and has certainly made me feel at ease trying it when my card arrives!

Will be back with my results once my card is here (hopefully soon!).


----------



## Qed (Dec 30, 2010)

acousticdank said:


> I just used a 2 6 on the outermost port since that's the one that the 6970 uses. I doubt it makes a whole lot of difference, is it the cable itself that allows more power to be drawn, or the receiving port?



Having 2 separate 6pin connectors or 1 bouble 6pin is different. Having the 2 separate connectors (a total of 4 6pin connectors) *you have 2 times the available power* compared to the other situation. That yellow and black lines are connected together inside the UPS.


----------



## Qed (Dec 30, 2010)

Frosty said:


> The only reason I think the timings are tighter on the 6970 chips is because there have been multiple users experiencing an unstable card post-flash (mostly artifacting/rendering errors). This wasn't resolved by lowering the memory frequency to stock 6950 clocks but was resolved when they modified the 6950 BIOS to unlock the shaders.



In the 6970 bios ram has higher voltage.


----------



## Gaul (Dec 30, 2010)

w1zzard = what special this BIOS ?

 How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

ic...vgpu only 1.1v


----------



## Whoops! (Dec 30, 2010)

*Big thanks for a big improvement*

But then I did upgrade from a 4670 to 6950 - I had been sitting on the fence for ages and this story made me order the XFX 6950 straight away - and flash it straight away too with the XFX 6970 bios - running at 880 / 1375 idles at 30½ degrees and just finished an afternoon of F1 2010 on ULTRA settings - FPS between 45 and 82 during races and max temp at 55 degrees (Fan set manually to 45%)


----------



## voro12 (Dec 30, 2010)

what is the max voltage on 6950 that you can use without causing damage to the card?


----------



## ALBPM (Dec 30, 2010)

Hey rui0317,

Would it be better to edit the 6970 bios by reducing the memory timing,etc.. to make it safer for the 6950 cards????? 

This way CCC thinks the card is a 6970 and gives us the Overclocking capabilities of the 6970... and we would have the increased voltage for the GPU only


----------



## Frosty (Dec 30, 2010)

Qed said:


> In the 6970 bios ram has higher voltage.



Could 1.6v actually cause artifacting though?

Even if that is the case, wouldn't it make more sense to modify the 6950 BIOS be3cause of the higher voltage?


----------



## acousticdank (Dec 30, 2010)

Qed said:


> Having 2 separate 6pin connectors or 1 bouble 6pin is different. Having the 2 separate connectors (a total of 4 6pin connectors) *you have 2 times the available power* compared to the other situation. That yellow and black lines are connected together inside the UPS.



I think I wrote it wrong.
I meant I am using a 6+2 on the outermost and a 6pin on the inner port.  I am using 2 separate cables not a splitter and pulling from a separate part of the psu for both, not sharing with any other cables.
But my point was whether using a 6+2 vs a 6pin really makes a difference.


----------



## yonef (Dec 30, 2010)

where do I get driver ver. 8.801 ? I'm using Catalyst 10.12a from AMD's site but it is driver ver. 8.790.
I've seen couple of screenshots where the guys using 8.801 with HD6900 series, and original Cat10.12 is not compatible with 6900 series.


----------



## ranom (Dec 30, 2010)

Albeit rare cases, we've seen 3way or 4way SLIs, CFXs draw too much power from the ATX 24pin connector and burn. I'd rather play it safe and stick to stock 6970 volts at the max for the hd6950 for fear of the pci-e 6pin burning. Like in the article, +27W is a bit over the spec but should be tolerable as long as you dont have a cheap, crappy psu (remember, there are cheap psu's that have fake output specs).


----------



## Tuvok (Dec 30, 2010)

Qed said:


> In the 6970 bios ram has higher voltage.


the 6970 ram has higher voltage but I'm not so sure that it's set by the bios, or is it?


----------



## Patjuh (Dec 30, 2010)

I'd like to confirm my XFX 6950 has been finally succesfully flashed to 6970 BIOS and clocks. Had some difficulties due to wrong driver, but in the end it's solved  Thanks.


----------



## razr21 (Dec 30, 2010)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102914

Can I find this Sapphire cheaper anywhere else, or does anyone have any coupons I can use? Seems like this is the cheapest that I am finding.


Oh well, I should just be happy it's going to unlock and not worry about the price, right?


----------



## rui0317 (Dec 30, 2010)

ALBPM said:


> Hey rui0317,
> 
> Would it be better to edit the 6970 bios by reducing the memory timing,etc.. to make it safer for the 6950 cards?????
> 
> This way CCC thinks the card is a 6970 and gives us the Overclocking capabilities of the 6970... and we would have the increased voltage for the GPU only



Yes, it is better to do that, in theory.

But I have to say it is too complicated/dangerous to do so. If you  wanna play around with the memory timings, you need internal hardware document , manufactory level. Otherwise you have to forget about it.

The thing we can do is reducing/increasing the voltage for getting better OC capabilities. So wait for the new version REB is a good idea.


----------



## Qed (Dec 30, 2010)

voro12 said:


> what is the max voltage on 6950 that you can use without causing damage to the card?



The same gpu voltage as the 6970, since are the same chip. No data about the ram.



Frosty said:


> Could 1.6v actually cause artifacting though?
> 
> Even if that is the case, wouldn't it make more sense to modify the 6950 BIOS be3cause of the higher voltage?



You will be able to change voltage and other stuff with RBE once it will support 6900 cards.



acousticdank said:


> I think I wrote it wrong.
> I meant I am using a 6+2 on the outermost and a 6pin on the inner port.  I am using 2 separate cables not a splitter and pulling from a separate part of the psu for both, not sharing with any other cables.
> But my point was whether using a 6+2 vs a 6pin really makes a difference.



I agree, I didn't express myself well. What i'm asking to ppl who didnt have a stable card after the flash: "Is you power supply able to handle 8pin+6pin?". The difference between 6pins and 8pins is only the shape and the nominal power. You can have 150W on a 6pin connector as long as your UPS is able too.


----------



## bebyy (Dec 30, 2010)

Unlocked my Powercolor 6950 to an Asus 6970 last night, have been running furmark for about an hour now, clocks and temperatures in the attachment.


----------



## PopcornMachine (Dec 30, 2010)

bebyy said:


> Unlocked my Powercolor 6950 to an Asus 6970 last night, have been running furmark for about an hour now, clocks and temperatures in the attachment.
> 
> http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/10/12/30/hye.png



Nice overclock.  The most I've been able to do stably is 900/1400.

But I see that, although the temps remain at a nice 65C, you had to put the fan up to 70% which is kind of noisy.


----------



## travex (Dec 30, 2010)

bebyy said:


> Unlocked my Powercolor 6950 to an Asus 6970 last night, have been running furmark for about an hour now, clocks and temperatures in the attachment.
> 
> http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/10/12/30/hye.png



70% Fan = jet engine !


----------



## bebyy (Dec 30, 2010)

travex said:


> 70% Fan = jet engine !


 
Yeah, it was quite loud but I've set it down to about 60%, 3420RPM, temps gone up to 71-72 degress stable. Don't really notice the noise mostly have headphones in everytime i use the comp


----------



## travex (Dec 30, 2010)

bebyy said:


> Yeah, it was quite loud but I've set it down to about 60%, 3420RPM, temps gone up to 71-72 degress stable. Don't really notice the noise mostly have headphones in everytime i use the comp



Hmm, mine @ 1016-1.3v with 50% fan setting only reach 70 degree, maybe you need more airflow in your casE?


----------



## thesmokingman (Dec 30, 2010)

I managed to get both xfx 6950s unlocked with the xfx 6970 bios. Both cards are clocked at 930/1440. These cards can get hot now, it's a bit surprising.


----------



## bebyy (Dec 30, 2010)

travex said:


> Hmm, mine @ 1016-1.3v with 50% fan setting only reach 70 degree, maybe you need more airflow in your casE?



Yup, I have a CM Storm Scout and I didn't check if the card would fit into the case. Then when i tried it didn't. So i had to take my hard drive cage out and the bottom of my 3.5" drive bays, wells its abit altered .

Looking on buying a 600T/700D in the coming weeks, so the CM is fine for the moment.


----------



## razr21 (Dec 30, 2010)

razr21 said:


> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102914
> 
> Can I find this Sapphire cheaper anywhere else, or does anyone have any coupons I can use? Seems like this is the cheapest that I am finding.
> 
> ...



Also, will I be able to return this card if the unlock doesn't work?


----------



## erocker (Dec 30, 2010)

razr21 said:


> Also, will I be able to return this card if the unlock doesn't work?



For that specific reason, no.


----------



## thesmokingman (Dec 30, 2010)

razr21 said:


> Also, will I be able to return this card if the unlock doesn't work?



Oops, damm meant to quote. Anyways, it's 100% unlock rate, ie. all the chips are bios locked not fused locked.


----------



## jonathan1107 (Dec 30, 2010)

*Unlocked 6950 problems :O(*

Hi, I read the article, and I've sucessfully unlcocked my 6950 with atiwinflash with the 6970 bios. 

I got the shaders and the CCC overdrive utility working. Everything was going great until today. Things are still working fine, but the gpu voltage and the gpu load jumps up every 20 seconds.

Even if I tweak the +20% or -20% in the ATI overdrive section of CCC I still get jumps (smaller ones or bigger depending on what I changed)

I'm not sure what is causing this... I have flashed my card back to 6950 but I'm still getting those voltage jumps... Obviously, every jump increases the GPUs temp a little which is not so bad with correct fan speed... I'm just hoping I didn't mess my card up. Those voltage jumps are weird.

I Would appreciate all the help I can get... especially considering the fact I'm not an expert with cmd.exe or graphics cards. Please help :O(


----------



## Wijkert (Dec 30, 2010)

yonef said:


> where do I get driver ver. 8.801 ? I'm using Catalyst 10.12a from AMD's site but it is driver ver. 8.790.
> I've seen couple of screenshots where the guys using 8.801 with HD6900 series, and original Cat10.12 is not compatible with 6900 series.



10.12 (8.801) is in fact compatible with the 6900 series and the reason why the 10.12a hotfix is 8.790 is because it is a moddified verion of 10.11. You will be fine with either driver though.


----------



## jonathan1107 (Dec 30, 2010)

jonathan1107 said:


> Hi, I read the article, and I've sucessfully unlcocked my 6950 with atiwinflash with the 6970 bios.
> 
> I got the shaders and the CCC overdrive utility working. Everything was going great until today. Things are still working fine, but the gpu voltage and the gpu load jumps up every 20 seconds.
> 
> ...



Do you guys think I could fix this with the ASUS bios using "SmartDoctor" to regulate voltages... I've seen most of yall run your unlocked car at 1.175v with crazy fan speeds... which is probably fine. I'm just thinking the 6950 could get damaged or become unstable with this particular voltage.


----------



## Eluder (Dec 30, 2010)

I'm noticing something odd, the core and memory clocks will jump up to the overclocked state (880/1375) while I'm just browsing or in the Windows desktop every couple of mins.  It'll then drop down to the underclocked state of 250/150.  I'm running the XFX 6950 with unlocked shaders and using Sapphire's Trixx to overclock the card.  Anyone else experience this as I find it strange that the clocks would increase when I'm simply in the Windows desktop.


----------



## jonathan1107 (Dec 30, 2010)

Eluder said:


> I'm noticing something odd, the core and memory clocks will jump up to the overclocked state (880/1375) while I'm just browsing or in the Windows desktop every couple of mins.  It'll then drop down to the underclocked state of 250/150.  I'm running the XFX 6950 with unlocked shaders and using Sapphire's Trixx to overclock the card.  Anyone else experience this as I find it strange that the clocks would increase when I'm simply in the Windows desktop.



Yeah I've just been told this is because of GPU-Z... It causes jumps, try looking at your ATI ccc Overdrive section instead for Speeds and Temps...


----------



## Eluder (Dec 30, 2010)

The prob is, when you have Sapphire's Trixx running, it hides any options from the CCC other than powertune and manual fan control.
The temps do display in CCC and seem to remain constant though when I shut down GPU-Z.

Good to know it's not just my experience I guess.


----------



## MaxMax (Dec 30, 2010)

Eluder said:


> The prob is, when you have Sapphire's Trixx running, it hides any options from the CCC other than powertune and manual fan control.
> The temps do display in CCC and seem to remain constant though when I shut down GPU-Z.
> 
> Good to know it's not just my experience I guess.



yeah, same experience with my sapphire hd6950@6970 here, sometimes fan spins up while in windows 2D idleing, and when trixx is running, CCC only shows PT and fan only.
i think that drivers and tools have to mature, than all this minor problems will have gone...the card is only ~2weeks available now...


----------



## Yidaki (Dec 30, 2010)

http://vr-zone.com/articles/rumour-amd-preparing-revision-for-hd-6950-6970-/10569.html


----------



## VinDog (Dec 31, 2010)

*Hi all*

New to the forum, compelled to join after just reading up on this 6950 mod to make it a fully fledged 6970...
Well, yesterday I ordered a 6970 without having this information available at the time, if I'd have known I would 110% ordered a 6950, possibly two!
But what concerns me here is UK consumer law, basically AMD are screwing us over by charging us upto £50-75 more for precisely the same product.  Forget its a BIOS upgrade thats needed to unlock cores etc to make it a 6970 - it is the same product off the production line.  I have an issue with this.
Firstly I am going to see if I can cancel my 6970 order.  Hell I could have put that extra £60 directly to a X6 1100T instead of the X4 970 CPU I bought.
Secondly I am going to investigate the legalities of what AMD further and deeper and look to get an answer directly from them as to how they can have the audacity to operate this way, when laws protect the consumer (certainly here in the UK) from precisely this kind of thing.
Watch my space on this one...
Great for all you guys who paid £200-220 for a 6950 and now have a 6970, not so great for those who are throwing money away!


----------



## Andrei23 (Dec 31, 2010)

Good luck with bringing AMD down, I personally love them. I think I would have been pissed off too if I would have went for the 6970 just to find out I wasted money, glad I didn't though.


----------



## erocker (Dec 31, 2010)

VinDog said:


> New to the forum, compelled to join after just reading up on this 6950 mod to make it a fully fledged 6970...
> Well, yesterday I ordered a 6970 without having this information available at the time, if I'd have known I would 110% ordered a 6950, possibly two!
> But what concerns me here is UK consumer law, basically AMD are screwing us over by charging us upto £50-75 more for precisely the same product.  Forget its a BIOS upgrade thats needed to unlock cores etc to make it a 6970 - it is the same product off the production line.  I have an issue with this.
> Firstly I am going to see if I can cancel my 6970 order.  Hell I could have put that extra £60 directly to a X6 1100T instead of the X4 970 CPU I bought.
> ...



Legality? Lol. I suppose one should do a little research before making a purchase. Does this extra 50 to 60 bucks come from VAT?


----------



## VinDog (Dec 31, 2010)

Andrei23 said:


> Good luck with bringing AMD down, I personally love them. I think I would have been pissed off too if I would have went for the 6970 just to find out I wasted money, glad I didn't though.



Not looking to bring AMD down or anyone, but as I've written consumer laws in the UK that protect the consumer from being ripped off like that.

I can send my 6970 back if its too late to stop it being dispatched, BUT they will charge a restocking fee, then delivery again etc etc.

Overclockers are doing the 6950 for £214, cheapest 6970 was the one I bought from eBuyer at £277, £63 wasted it would seem.


----------



## VinDog (Dec 31, 2010)

erocker said:


> Legality? Lol. I suppose one should do a little research before making a purchase. Does this extra 50 to 60 bucks come from VAT?



A little research, lol, i've been researching these cards for months and held off on building a rig with a 5870, then the 6870 in order to build with a 6970, then xFire later on.  I can only assume your statement is tongue in cheek.

I also went for AMD (again) as their products seemed to better suit my needs and budget, so yeach you could say its a little annoying 

No the 50-60 is nothing to do with VAT it is to do with the pricing differences between the cards, see my last response...


----------



## Anvirol (Dec 31, 2010)

VinDog said:


> Not looking to bring AMD down or anyone, but as I've written consumer laws in the UK that protect the consumer from being ripped off like that.
> 
> I can send my 6970 back if its too late to stop it being dispatched, BUT they will charge a restocking fee, then delivery again etc etc.
> 
> Overclockers are doing the 6950 for £214, cheapest 6970 was the one I bought from eBuyer at £277, £63 wasted it would seem.



In Finland you can return goods for free within 14 days and get a full refund.. 

Btw. here's my HIS 6950@70 CFX Benchmarks incase some people are interested


----------



## bystander (Dec 31, 2010)

Eluder said:


> I'm noticing something odd, the core and memory clocks will jump up to the overclocked state (880/1375) while I'm just browsing or in the Windows desktop every couple of mins.  It'll then drop down to the underclocked state of 250/150.  I'm running the XFX 6950 with unlocked shaders and using Sapphire's Trixx to overclock the card.  Anyone else experience this as I find it strange that the clocks would increase when I'm simply in the Windows desktop.



I thought it was doing this even when I had the 6950 bios.  I assumed it was something new with the 10.12 drivers.  I could be wrong.


----------



## Fonill (Dec 31, 2010)

*sad sad day.*

Just got my sapphire 6950 in today from newegg.... winflash is unable to erase the bios. Any ideas?


----------



## kalviper (Dec 31, 2010)

Fonill said:


> Just got my sapphire 6950 in today from newegg.... winflash is unable to erase the bios. Any ideas?



read from pg 1 and u will know why and how to solve it 
anyway u need to do it the dos method


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Dec 31, 2010)

Is this a thread for whining or for results, tweaks, advice and what not?


----------



## bebyy (Dec 31, 2010)

W1zzard said:


> For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:
> 
> - Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
> - Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
> ...



try that


----------



## PopcornMachine (Dec 31, 2010)

Fonill said:


> Just got my sapphire 6950 in today from newegg.... winflash is unable to erase the bios. Any ideas?



What was the error message?

You may have to use the command line method instead of the GUI.


EDIT: ^^^ what he said!


----------



## bystander (Dec 31, 2010)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> Is this a thread for whining or for results, tweaks, advice and what not?



The latter.  Most people are happy, some have needed help, and someone offered a solution to the few who had artifact issues.  It's a happy thread.


----------



## Mike0409 (Dec 31, 2010)

Anyone having issues with the driver freaking out?  Causes the screen to flicker and go into the driver recovery.

Re-installed the driver and its just running the base 6970 clocks.


----------



## Kuch24 (Dec 31, 2010)

Hey everyone.

I just got through flashing my Gigabyte 6950 and running a few benchmarks and was wondering is the scores are close to what everyone has been seeing.  They seem a bit low compared to some of the scores I've read on this forum.  I've attached my findings in an excel doc.  I upgraded from a nVidia GeForce GTX 285.  If any additional info is required just let me know.


----------



## ale86cuba (Dec 31, 2010)

hey guys....so i went from a 9800gtx oc to an asus 8400gs(because i sent my gtx to a friend overseas) waited for boxing week here in canada and bought a 6870 only to find out about this on the thread i made....anyhow i quickly got an RMA for the 6870 and went to buy a saphire 6950....did the flash the cmd way because it gave me the error "could not erase rom" and it seems to be flashed now according the gpuz....now this is my very first time with an ATI, ive always been an nvidia guy....how do i test for stability to make sure its running well? i downloaded furmark but do i need to select any specific settings before i hit go? thank you so much!!!

edit: ran furmark for 20 mins no artifacts....+0% power and temp averaged around 90C on auto fan control....also ran heaven with no probs....3dmark gave higher results with +10% power than with +20%, dunno why....thanks again!! this is sweet........


----------



## abirdie4me (Dec 31, 2010)

I don't see my voltage in either GPU-Z or Afterburner, anyone else have this issue?  I don't remember if it was there before I flashed to the 6970 bios.


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 31, 2010)

It's fine.


----------



## bear jesus (Dec 31, 2010)

VinDog said:


> A little research, lol, i've been researching these cards for months



During your research did you notice that the 6970 has memory chips with the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-R0C that are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective) and the 6950 has memory chips with the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-T2C that are specified to run at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz GDDR5 effective).

I have no idea of the cost of 2GB of 5ghz GDDR5 vs 6ghz GDDR5 but that alone should show there is a difference between the cards but also law wise all of the AMD and Intel cpu's are binned chips just as these cards are, as in the models within the same range all use the *exact *same chip just set to run at different speeds so if these cards were to breach any UK consumer law then all the AMD and Intel cpu's and many past ATI/AMD GPU's along with multiple from Nvidia would also, thus i very much doubt there is anything within the law to say all those products are breaking any rule or law.


----------



## polyseal (Dec 31, 2010)

Just unlocked 2x Sapphire 6950s into 6970s.

running at 800mhz/1375mhz atm, 1536 shaders each. beautiful.

was debating whether or not the 6970s were worth it, and decided that a 10% performance gain was not worth +~30% cost (6950 vs 6970). turns out, obviously, that the 6950s were definately the correct choice. i would be kicking myself if i bought 2x 6970s right now. in the face. with ice climbing shoes on (spikey!)


----------



## AdreeN (Dec 31, 2010)

So I successfully flashed my Powercolor 6950 to a 6970 bios.
But I am having so pretty horrible idling temps.
I run a i7 920 with corsair h70 in push/pull with two antec tricool fans at medium
In a Antec p183 with 3 noctua PF12 fans.
Cable management is great, pretty much no wires obstructing air flow.
I currently idle at 47 degrees, with fanspeed at 45%
Ambient is around 24-25 degrees.
I also dropped the gpu clock down to 800MHz.
This seems pretty bad, or is it just me?


----------



## itsdanny (Dec 31, 2010)

I would say, don't worry about it too much. Unless before the flashing, your temps were different, it is pretty normal for your card. "Idle" temps do not matter, check your LOAD temps.


----------



## Qed (Dec 31, 2010)

bear jesus said:


> During your research did you notice that the 6970 has memory chips with the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-R0C that are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective) and the 6950 has memory chips with the model number H5GQ2H24MFR-T2C that are specified to run at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz GDDR5 effective).
> 
> I have no idea of the cost of 2GB of 5ghz GDDR5 vs 6ghz GDDR5 but that alone should show there is a difference between the cards but also law wise all of the AMD and Intel cpu's are binned chips just as these cards are, as in the models within the same range all use the exact same chip just set to run at different speeds so if these cards were to breach any UK consumer law then all the AMD and Intel cpu's and many past ATI/AMD GPU's along with multiple from Nvidia would also, thus i very much doubt there is anything within the law to say all those products are breaking any rule or law.



Nice work! Memory works at the exact same voltage. This should be add to the main to W1zzard's post.


----------



## mironicus (Dec 31, 2010)

I have only unlocked the shaders of my 6950 and don't run the stock 6970 bios, so the voltage settings remains the same. My 6950 ist running fine with 880/1375 with 1,1 Volt. It only needs about 20-25 Watts more than a stock 6950 in the Heaven Benchmark. In games like GTA IV there is no rise in power consumption compared to the stock 6950. The temperatures are only 2-3 celcius higher and the fan speed remains at 34%. Powertune remains at 0%. I am very happy with the result.


----------



## crh (Dec 31, 2010)

Hello there

i have a Powercolor Radeon HD 6950

While trying to flash up to 6970  ATIWinflash it says "Resources files missing"

I am using Windows 7 64 bit german version

thanks for help


----------



## BZB (Dec 31, 2010)

VinDog said:


> A little research, lol, i've been researching these cards for months and held off on building a rig with a 5870, then the 6870 in order to build with a 6970, then xFire later on.  I can only assume your statement is tongue in cheek.
> 
> I also went for AMD (again) as their products seemed to better suit my needs and budget, so yeach you could say its a little annoying
> 
> No the 50-60 is nothing to do with VAT it is to do with the pricing differences between the cards, see my last response...



The two products are different. 6950 chips did not necessarily make the cut for 6970. They may have had faulty parts that would prevent them being full working chips disabled and used for the lower spec card.  The chips may well have different power leakage and may not be capable of running at a 6970's higher speed.  The PCBs have different memory and power components that are designed to give different performance. They are priced and made differently to address different market sectors, and the difference in performance and parts reflects that.


----------



## Mark22 (Dec 31, 2010)

Ok, I got 5064 in 3Dmark 11 with unlocked asus bios, overclocking to 880, 1375 @1.1volts. That seems about right to me so quite pleased.

I have noticed from pictures the pcb looks very similar to a 5870. I have a Zalman VF3000A that fits the 5870. has anyone tried one on the 6950 or 6970? I will give it a go when some new thermal tape I ordered arrives. I hope it'll fit as it's an awesome cooler.


----------



## Marcko (Dec 31, 2010)

Hey wizard and thanks so much for this  Got my HIS 6950 unlocked but I have one small problem - I can't find the "Powertune" feature on CCC anywhere. It's just not on the ATI Overdrive menu, and I do have the latest version installed. 

Is there a separate download or something to get the Powertune feature to show up? Thanks in advance.


----------



## voro12 (Dec 31, 2010)

Marcko said:


> Hey wizard and thanks so much for this  Got my HIS 6950 unlocked but I have one small problem - I can't find the "Powertune" feature on CCC anywhere. It's just not on the ATI Overdrive menu, and I do have the latest version installed.
> 
> Is there a separate download or something to get the Powertune feature to show up? Thanks in advance.



Try rebooting. Worked for me


----------



## ReallyFlakey (Dec 31, 2010)

*Did I do it correctly?*

Hi guys, I have a Powercolor 6950 and I followed the instructions provided on the Techpowerup page to flash the card. 

On first glance, I think the flash was successful...no errors. I checked CPU-Z and I saw the shader count at 1536 but the GPU clock and Memory clock is still stock 6950.

Could I ask if there's any intervention required for this? Am I doing this correctly? 

Thanks.


----------



## Marcko (Dec 31, 2010)

voro12 said:


> Try rebooting. Worked for me



Still not there


----------



## Mistral (Dec 31, 2010)

Slightly off topic, but...

Does the 6950 have a voltage table like the 4850? I remember by using those you could set voltage for the 4850 by editing your saved the CCC profile. I'm fairly certain the same trick would work for the 6950. Works fine for setting idle clocks for one thing.


----------



## ta2 (Dec 31, 2010)

Encounted a series of problems before I finally got this working. Here's what happened (hopefully this will help other people in same situation):

1. Fitted graphics card
2. Installed Catalyst 10.12 parallel computing edition
3. Run atiwinflash w/GUI (i.e. double click):
*Problem #1* - here I got a BSOD which hard-reset my computer (the type where each hard drive has to spin up again individually when it gets to the RAID boot screen). Solution: installed really old catalyst drivers from the XFX install CD.
4. Save my existing BIOS
5. Find "unblock.bin" and try to flash. "System ID mismatch or something"
6. Run cmd and "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" then "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
*Problem #2* - Didn't run cmd prompt as administrator. The second command somehow managed to kill the graphics output, whilst the computer was still on... Solution: run as administrator (the first time around I got no progress bar GUI when I ran those commands.
7. Restart computer
8. Run GPU-Z - shows only 768 stream processors
*Problem #3* -Need to install some recent drivers, installed 10.12 parallel processing edition.
9. Restart computer, Success!

Thanks to everyone who put this together.


----------



## ale86cuba (Dec 31, 2010)

after the flash i got 1600 unified shaders....is this what im supposed to get? i thought it was 1536...heres the screeshot....


----------



## ta2 (Dec 31, 2010)

ale86cuba said:


> after the flash i got 1600 unified shaders....is this what im supposed to get? i thought it was 1536...heres the screeshot....



You need GPU-Z 0.5.0.


----------



## ale86cuba (Dec 31, 2010)

ta2 said:


> You need GPU-Z 0.5.0.



got it, thanks!!


----------



## daggeronebravo (Dec 31, 2010)

mironicus said:


> I have only unlocked the shaders of my 6950 and don't run the stock 6970 bios, so the voltage settings remains the same. My 6950 ist running fine with 880/1375 with 1,1 Volt. It only needs about 20-25 Watts more than a stock 6950 in the Heaven Benchmark. In games like GTA IV there is no rise in power consumption compared to the stock 6950. The temperatures are only 2-3 celcius higher and the fan speed remains at 34%. Powertune remains at 0%. I am very happy with the result.


How do you unloock the shaders without the 6970 bios? IF you could, some post a link to show how to unlock using the 6950 bios instead of the 6970 because i dont to have the heat problems.  I plan on unlocking the shaders and then just ocing to 6970 clocks maybe turn up powertune.


----------



## AdreeN (Dec 31, 2010)

Could I get some input on how well my card is performing after the flash?
My 3dmark11 basic performance score is P5117, graphics score is 4957 physics is 6330 and combined is 4903.  I am running at 905/1410.
P5239@930/1435
Does my CPU affect the scores at all? (kinda new to benching).  I'm running a i7 920 at stock 2.6ghz.
I have my fan running at 45% manually, and it peaked at 65 degrees at one instant. usually it hovered around 62-63 during the test. it idles with fan at 45% at 45 degrees
Are these decent numbers?
edit : i unplugged my second monitor and the temps dropped idle from 45@45% to 33@45%.
can't live without the second monitor tho!


----------



## Mirmendis (Dec 31, 2010)

*ALT-TAB crash*

Hi everyone, I have only unlocked the shaders of my sapphire 6950, runs fine (tested with furmark during 30mn, unigine etc, no crash no artefact) but i 've a problem when i Alt-Tab out of a game (for desktop or firefox) and go back in, sometimes i get a grey bar screen and i must reboot .


----------



## Flak (Dec 31, 2010)

Received my Gigabyte 6950 (the bios switch little lever was there, so no toothpick needed).  I downloaded the Gigabyte 6970 bios and successfully flashed to it.  Been running AvP benchmark back to back without problems so far.  It is at 6970 stock clock with fan speed manually set to 50%, gets to 62C running the AvP bench.


----------



## CobraXP (Dec 31, 2010)

I ordered a set of Sapphire HD6950s last night.... lets give it a try


----------



## bystander (Dec 31, 2010)

I've been having an intermittent problem which I'm unsure is related to the flash or not, but I thought I'd ask.  When I'm using 2 monitors, the idle clocks are 500 gpu and 1375 memory.  This I expect as I know the 2nd monitor will flicker if the memory drops.

The problem I occationally have, is that the GPU clock sometimes doesn't restore to full 880 Mhz when I enter a game.  Once it fails to do so, it won't restore until I reboot.

This hasn't happened with 1 monitor, only with 2.

edit: now it seems it can happen with 1 monitor too.


----------



## bystander (Dec 31, 2010)

So far, it would appear that everything is back to normal after removing MSI afterburner.  As in a full uninstall.


----------



## Neo4 (Dec 31, 2010)

Great article and the upcoming change in the PC board that will likely end this means we need to get one of these cards soon. I plan on this being my next upgrade. Now where did I put that Piggy Bank...


----------



## ale86cuba (Dec 31, 2010)

can someone post their idle and load temps while using auto fan control?
right now my card is idling at 60C with 30% fan speed...yesterday the max it went to while running furmark was 90C while the fan was around 47%....am i safe or should i have the fan set manually 24/7?


----------



## zpaf (Dec 31, 2010)

ale86cuba said:


> can someone post their idle and load temps while using auto fan control?
> right now my card is idling at 60C with 30% fan speed...yesterday the max it went to while running furmark was 90C while the fan was around 47%....am i safe or should i have the fan set manually 24/7?


Your card is too hot.
Max temp i have see is 80c after an hour playing metro 2033


----------



## ale86cuba (Dec 31, 2010)

zpaf said:


> Your card is too hot.
> Max temp i have see is 80c after an hour playing metro 2033
> 
> http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/4359/tempsm.jpg



i think it was because my lil brother was watching some youtube videos on it....right now its idling at 42C...this is my first time using an ATI card so im not familiar with the limits....thanks


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Dec 31, 2010)

ale86cuba said:


> i think it was because my lil brother was watching some youtube videos on it....right now its idling at 42C...this is my first time using an ATI card so im not familiar with the limits....thanks



Well it depends on ambient temps. It's winter here and cool in my house so the card isn't running too hot now. I still use a moddified fan profile with MSI Afterburner and will probably end up throwing an aftermarket cooler on this card.


----------



## BZB (Dec 31, 2010)

ale86cuba said:


> i think it was because my lil brother was watching some youtube videos on it....right now its idling at 42C...this is my first time using an ATI card so im not familiar with the limits....thanks



Accelerating Flash video on the graphics card with the latest Flash and AMD drivers will put more power and heat though the graphics card when it would otherwise be in full power saving mode.


----------



## Mirmendis (Jan 1, 2011)

Mirmendis said:


> Hi everyone, I have only unlocked the shaders of my sapphire 6950, runs fine (tested with furmark during 30mn, unigine etc, no crash no artefact) but i 've a problem when i Alt-Tab out of a game (for desktop or firefox) and go back in, sometimes i get a grey bar screen and i must reboot .



Nobody has this problem ? any clues ?


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 1, 2011)

Mirmendis said:


> Nobody has this problem ? any clues ?



I would start by reinstalling your display drivers and video card utilities such as afterburner.


----------



## Atarion (Jan 1, 2011)

I only unlocked the shaders on my XFX 6950 and have had no problems whatsoever, even with the maximum overclock available in Ati Overdrive.  I had to unlock the Bios first before I could flash it, but other than that, everything has been smooth so far.
Thanks to everyone for the good work that has made this all possible for us.


----------



## HXL492 (Jan 1, 2011)

Oh noes get your 6950's quick!!!
http://www.techpowerup.com/137448/AMD-Revising-Radeon-HD-6900-Series-PCB.html


----------



## gspam1 (Jan 1, 2011)

*Windows Experience Index*

Probably meaningless but interesting.  I have the XFX 6950 card.   I tested the graphics with the Windows Experience Index.  The index is supposed to run from 1.0 to 7.9.  The stock 6950 posted the top 7.9 score in the Graphics and Gaming graphics categories.

After flashing and maxing the ATI Overdrive, the Windows Experience Index rating for Graphics fell to 5.9 and the index for Gaming Graphics fell to 2.0.


----------



## danc (Jan 1, 2011)

Hey Wizard and guys, i did some testing for Powertune and based on my results and setup i think there is more to Powertune and flashed 6950.

AFAIK 

1. Powertune is working for Asus 6970 bios. The translated site is wrong, at least with -20% i got a big drop in perf.

2. Powertune +20%/0% does nothing for overclocking stability. Though my OC is a modest 930/1375 with Asus 6970 bios, both settings allow me to loop 30mins of FF14 benchmark with zero issue.

3. Powertune +20%/0% does little for performance too. I do not have COD as TPU, but with several runs of Metro2033 benchmark, i see the following 
 > +20% returns max fps of around 125-140, average fps of about 40fps, min fps of around 9fps
 > 0% returns max fps of around 96-120, average fps of about 40fps, min fps of around 12fps

Sure the min fps is indeed lower, as i can also see during the live run, it dips lower with 0%, but i also got 5fps once with +20%. IMHO, yes PT affects fps, not just Metro, but 3dmark11(about 10points lower) and FF14(about 50points lower) but it is very  small to be concern about, and +20% is not a must setting if you flashed  the bios.

4. Powertune does however  impact temp spikes. I noticed at +20%, my max temps while looping FF14 can hit 3-4dC higher than 0%. Though that itself is small when temps are already nearing 80s. I do not have a watt-meter to test power consumption. 


In conclusion, IMHO, I will be leaving PT at 0% with a flashed 6950.


----------



## Nutbutter (Jan 1, 2011)

Crash crash crash... and some more crash.  Runs very instable.  Any ideas?


----------



## niemion (Jan 1, 2011)

Here's my results with two Sapphire 6950.

*Summary: My second card is nearly dead, either due to the shader unlocking or memory overclocking. Read the rest and draw your own conclusion.
*
The first one flashes without problems. I have tried with the 6970 BIOS and a modified 6950 Asus BIOS, both BIOS works brilliantly. I can run the same speed as before the flash + a little extra on the core. All according to expectations.

The second one flashes without problems too. I have tried with just the 6970 BIOS on this card. Now here's when it gets interesting. Before the flash I had stable 900/1480. To make sure I still have these speeds after the mod I isolate the core and mem and test separately. First the memory, so I lower the core to 800 and set the mem to 1480. I load a test replay in Starcraft II (which I have found to stress both core and mem more than Furmark and alike) and after 15 min my screen is divided in two, no artifacts, but two screens. Weird, and nothing I have seen while testing on my two cards so far. So I lower the clocks to 800/1250 just to try and isolate the cause. Could be the unlocked shaders, but it could also be the memory clock. With the stock clocks I run some replays without any errors. So I try to up the mem freq to 1450, no errors. 1470 then, 1 short replay playes fine, but a longer one blue screens (0x00000116) at the 15 minute mark.

Last time I had this 116 bluescreen was when I unlocked my other card, upped the mem freq to 1550 and stability tested in Starcraft II.

So, no biggie I think, I'll just reboot and lower the memory frequency a little. Terror and horror! At the boot screen (where CPU and memory speed, etc. is shown) I notice some white dots a boxes spread all over the screen. The windows load screen looks normal, but upon entering Windows I get the same bluescreen. Switching BIOS using the jumper made no difference at all. Now, booting in safe mode gave me no trouble. But flashing back to 6950 was a no go in safe mode, so I uninstalled ATI-drivers, rebooted and this time I could enter Windows without using safe mode. But the screen was tearing all over the place and 80% of the screen was green. Flashing back to my original BIOS caused me no trouble. It didn't help anything though, from the first POST screen everything was tearing and artifacts all over the place. I couldn't confirm the shader count had reversed to the original state, so I tried to install the ATI-driver again, but ofc it caused a bluescreen upon entering Windows.

So I installed both graphics cards, the working one in the primary PCI lane ofc. With the crossfire bridge installed I would get different bluescreens entering Windows. First a 0x000007E, then on the next boot a 0x00000116 again. Uninstalling the crossfire bridge I could enter Windows and using GPU-Z confirm that the secondary card only had 1408 shaders and thus should be completely restored to it's original BIOS state.

Now, as I see it, this could be caused by one of the three: overclocking the memory, unlocking the shaders or unlocking the shaders and overclocking the memory.

Anyway, just posted this to keep you updated. Keep up the good work.


----------



## tcool93 (Jan 1, 2011)

niemion said:


> Now, as I see it, this could be caused by one of the three: overclocking the memory, unlocking the shaders or unlocking the shaders and overclocking the memory.
> 
> Anyway, just posted this to keep you updated. Keep up the good work.



I know very little about this, but to me it sounds more like the memory would be the cause... or something else.  I can't see how unlocking shaders would ruin all the shaders.  But I can be wrong.

Maybe that 2nd card was defective to begin with (before it was even flashed)?


----------



## Mirmendis (Jan 1, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> I would start by reinstalling your display drivers and video card utilities such as afterburner.



Thanks for your response, i run with the cd drivers and TRIXX beta (i suspect a jump of frequency or voltage when i alt tab to desktop ), so i ll go test with the 12a and i'll see if the issue persist.


----------



## Waddler (Jan 1, 2011)

Just built a new rig based on a i7 950 over xmas.  Just flashed my 6950's from sapphire and updated to 12a drivers.  My 3d Mark 11 P score came in just over 9000 which is great and the CPU is running on stock speeds........

Feels good to have bagged a double freebie ))


----------



## bounz (Jan 1, 2011)

*warm card*



ale86cuba said:


> right now my card is idling at 60C with 30% fan speed...yesterday



with me two.

I have a sapphire HD6950 , modded to a HD6970 with the batchmod pack ( thanks for that, because the ROM was locked, and I'm a noob   )

i have ATI drivers from Asus ( and my pc says it's a Asus HD6950  )
standard clock speeds, and power control settings at 10%

I can't use Powertune because my motherboard is a M2N32 SLI Deluxe.
powersupply is a Zalmann ZM600HP ( hope it has enough power for my card )

I didn't yet test it with Furmark.

which settings do people use in Furmark ?
resolution, extreme, etc....


I control my fan with Trixx so my temp keeps around the 53° now.

a bytheway. I have a 1680x1050 monitor on it, and a Plasma TV 1368x768

and soon, eyefinity with 3xHD resolution + my plasma TV ( that's why I modded my HD6950  )

Thanks for the Biosmod guys !!


----------



## davetheshrew (Jan 1, 2011)

VinDog said:


> New to the forum, compelled to join after just reading up on this 6950 mod to make it a fully fledged 6970...
> Well, yesterday I ordered a 6970 without having this information available at the time, if I'd have known I would 110% ordered a 6950, possibly two!
> But what concerns me here is UK consumer law, basically AMD are screwing us over by charging us upto £50-75 more for precisely the same product.  Forget its a BIOS upgrade thats needed to unlock cores etc to make it a 6970 - it is the same product off the production line.  I have an issue with this.
> Firstly I am going to see if I can cancel my 6970 order.  Hell I could have put that extra £60 directly to a X6 1100T instead of the X4 970 CPU I bought.
> ...



there is an 8 pin on the 6970 and the 6950 doesnt have one, they are different, your argument is invalid when it concens legal stuff thrown at AMD, you wouldnt win


----------



## Waddler (Jan 1, 2011)

Agree they have done nothing wrong legally as the products as sold are clearly not the same.  What Amd have done is to maximise their scale by basing the cards on very similar hardware and using the software to control performance.  If the end user decides to mod it's up to them and at their risk...   This goes on in the car industry all the time where power outputs are controled by software depending on the model....

I do understand how this is frustrating for 6970 buyers who would willingly mod the card...


----------



## VinnieM (Jan 1, 2011)

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 
The memory on these 6950's simply won't clock that high. Have any of you running 1400MHz or more on the memory tried lower frequencies and comparing the scores on Unigine or 3DMark? I'm getting higher scores till about 1365, after that the framerates seem to decrease instead of increase. The same happened with the 6970 BIOS so the timings or voltages don't seem to matter.


----------



## niemion (Jan 1, 2011)

VinnieM said:


> 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
> The memory on these 6950's simply won't clock that high. Have any of you running 1400MHz or more on the memory tried lower frequencies and comparing the scores on Unigine or 3DMark? I'm getting higher scores till about 1365, after that the framerates seem to decrease instead of increase. The same happened with the 6970 BIOS so the timings or voltages don't seem to matter.



I haven't checked for decrease in performance, but my first card runs 1545 MHz and the second ~1450 until it crapped out (read #590). I will try to look for any negative impacts.

Add your clocks to 6950/6970 stable OC results thread.


----------



## chistiansen (Jan 1, 2011)

I have some questions for my next purchase : 6950 or 6970
 I see the 6950@flash and becomes 6970 
1. After you add flash card can be OC ? , and go to the normal parameters
2.What problems would it be?
3. What do you advise me to choose?


Soory for my bad english, and please help me


----------



## niemion (Jan 1, 2011)

chistiansen said:


> I have some questions for my next purchase : 6950 or 6970
> I see the 6950@flash and becomes 6970
> 1. After you add flash card can be OC ? , and go to the normal parameters
> 2.What problems would it be?
> ...



1. Yes you can OC it after flashing, probably even higher than before if you flash it to a 6970 BIOS.
2. Higher temps or more fan noise are likely caused by higher volts. Some have reported artifacts, though there's still uncertainty to the cause of these. It could potentially brick your card (#590).
3. Get the 6950 and flash it.


----------



## scaminatrix (Jan 1, 2011)

VinDog said:


> New to the forum, compelled to join after just reading up on this 6950 mod to make it a fully fledged 6970......
> ....Great for all you guys who paid £200-220 for a 6950 and now have a 6970, not so great for those who are throwing money away!






Waddler said:


> Agree they have done nothing wrong legally as the products as sold are clearly not the same.  .....
> 
> I do understand how this is frustrating for 6970 buyers who would willingly mod the card...



Other companies have been doing this for years. AMD and Intel to name some familiar ones. Physically the same chip, just with certain features "locked" (locked cache, lowered multiplier, etc.)
It keeps things cheaper for the manufacturer, which, in turn, (hopefully) keeps things cheaper for us.
Sorry for the off-topic-ness


----------



## siqueirah (Jan 1, 2011)

Oops, I'll probably buy my HD6950 on January 22. Do you think the regular unlockable versions will still be avaible or AMD is gonna launch the new rev before that?

Do you have any information of which manufacturer uses the best memory chips?


----------



## Mp0wer (Jan 1, 2011)

Thank You so much W1zzard for this wonderful mod...works awesome!!!







XFX 6950 (6970 Bios Mod)
Core:940
Memory:1400
Will try and up these settings soon, but happy with these results so far


----------



## voro12 (Jan 1, 2011)

Mp0wer said:


> Thank You so much W1zzard for this wonderful mod...works awesome!!!
> 
> http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/mpower1001/AnimatedSmilies_051.gif
> 
> ...



Nice. Have you change the voltage? My card is crashing at that speed :/


----------



## EzyRyder (Jan 1, 2011)

Hello chaps,

Has anyone created a modded HIS 6950 bios with the unlocked shaders? I have just bought one of these but I would prefer to use the unlocked 6950 to a 6970 bios even if I won't be able to overclock it as much.

Also, which are the best drivers to use right now? 10.11, 10.11a, 10.12 or 10.12a?

Thanks


----------



## PopcornMachine (Jan 1, 2011)

Mp0wer said:


> XFX 6950 (6970 Bios Mod)
> Core:940
> Memory:1400
> Will try and up these settings soon, but happy with these results so far http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/mpower1001/thumbsup.gif



5745 is a very nice score.

The best stable OC I can get is 900/1400.  My best score is 5430.

Funny thing is that since reinstalling Catalyst, in order to improve performance, my scores have topped out at around 5250.


----------



## daggeronebravo (Jan 1, 2011)

VinnieM said:


> 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
> The memory on these 6950's simply won't clock that high. Have any of you running 1400MHz or more on the memory tried lower frequencies and comparing the scores on Unigine or 3DMark? I'm getting higher scores till about 1365, after that the framerates seem to decrease instead of increase. The same happened with the 6970 BIOS so the timings or voltages don't seem to matter.


Can somebody point me towards the modified 6950 bios?  Also, does a modified 6950 bios result in lower temps than a 6970 bios (at 6970 clocks)? I plan on buying a gibabyte card soon
thanks


----------



## mailoc (Jan 1, 2011)

*Flashing XFX 6950 to 6970 causes crashing*

I have 2 XFX 6950 in crossfire mode.  I flashed the primary adapter to 6970 but on restart the computer eventually crashes in windows with graphic artifacts.  I have turned down the clocks to prevent any over heating but it still crashes.  Any ideas on why?  Should I totally disable crossfire and take out my second card before flashing?  Also off topic but when I have crossfire enabled CCC wont show the correct gpu and memory frequency for the linked adapter in ati overdrive, any ideas why?


----------



## Wijkert (Jan 1, 2011)

daggeronebravo said:


> Can somebody point me towards the modified 6950 bios?



On earlier pages in this topic you can find the links to them. All have been modded by rui0317.



daggeronebravo said:


> Also, does a modified 6950 bios result in lower temps than a 6970 bios (at 6970 clocks)? I plan on buying a gibabyte card soon
> thanks



Yes it results in lower temps, because the 6970 bios has a max voltage of 1.175 en the 6950 bios a max voltage of 1.1. Higher voltage = higher temps.


----------



## bystander (Jan 1, 2011)

My issue with my clocks getting stuck at 500/1375 seems to have been resolved by taking my PCIe voltage settings in the bios, and putting it at 1.2v rather than on auto, which allowed the voltage to go up and down with powerplay.  I have a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R motherboard.

I'll keep tabs on it for a while longer.

Edit: the problem persists.  The change to the slot voltage helped it take longer to have a problem, but it still craps out about 30-60 seconds after I log out of a game, every time and will not restore when I game after.  It's not even using the normal idle clocks, it's something in between.


----------



## VinnieM (Jan 1, 2011)

daggeronebravo said:


> Can somebody point me towards the modified 6950 bios? Also, does a modified 6950 bios result in lower temps than a 6970 bios (at 6970 clocks)? I plan on buying a gibabyte card soon
> thanks



Look in post #349:  How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

This BIOS leaves the voltage at 1.1 so your card stays considerably cooler.

By the way, I did some additional testing and it seems my card can take higher memory clocks after all 
I tested up to 1520MHz, but that crashed after 2 minutes Unigine. 1480 seemed fine, but crashed while gaming so I'm now down to 1450, which is still a lot better than 1365


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 1, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> PowerColor 	23 	21 	1 	0



Did two cards fail? What was the result of card 23? 

Do you (anyone) think the few failures listed are related to power?

Thanks for maintaining the list W1zz (and for everything else).


----------



## chistiansen (Jan 1, 2011)

A question for those who have : 6950 /// 6970
How silent is with  unit closed in idle  , compare with  any fan ... Anything else ?


----------



## dom99 (Jan 1, 2011)

Hi,

So when I finally get round to doing this next week, I am going to use the 6950 shader unlocked version, then up the volts to 1.175V then overclock to stock 6970 speeds.

But what is recommended for changing the voltage on these cards and what are they supported by?

Thanks


----------



## daggeronebravo (Jan 2, 2011)

VinnieM said:


> Look in post #349:  How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...
> 
> This BIOS leaves the voltage at 1.1 so your card stays considerably cooler.
> 
> ...



So i just flash that bios the same way i would the 6970's?


----------



## bbmarley (Jan 2, 2011)

6950 arrives wednesday be nice to give this a go


----------



## daggeronebravo (Jan 2, 2011)

rui0317 said:


> You can try this scripts:
> www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip



Noob question, how do i work this?  Do i just run the batch file as admin with a untouched bios in a certain directory?


----------



## niemion (Jan 2, 2011)

daggeronebravo said:


> Noob question, how do i work this?  Do i just run the batch file as admin with a untouched bios in a certain directory?



Yes, run as admin. The Sapphire 6970 BIOS is included in the zip file. And the default Sapphire 6950 BIOS if you decide to switch back. You really don't have to do much except run the batch.


----------



## daggeronebravo (Jan 2, 2011)

niemion said:


> Yes, run as admin. The Sapphire 6970 BIOS is included in the zip file. And the default Sapphire 6950 BIOS if you decide to switch back. You really don't have to do much except run the batch.



I thought it was just a 6950 bios with the shaders unlocked not a 6970


----------



## niemion (Jan 2, 2011)

daggeronebravo said:


> I thought it was just a 6950 bios with the shaders unlocked not a 6970



Sorry, I thought you were asking about this: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html

The script you're linking to does take any 6950 BIOS and unlocks the shaders and nothing else. As I understand it. You just put your original 6950 BIOS in the same folder as the batch file. Name it original.bin and run the batch.


----------



## Mp0wer (Jan 2, 2011)

voro12 said:


> Nice. Have you change the voltage? My card is crashing at that speed :/



Nope didn't change the voltage


----------



## Waddler (Jan 2, 2011)

Ok so now oc'd my CPU to 4g and hit 9500 in 3d Mark 11 p score....


----------



## dimon222 (Jan 2, 2011)

Help, i can't flash a modded 6950 rom.
After saying "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" i see this





Then if i flash a new rom, i see the process of flashing. But after ending i have no changes. GPU-Z shows the same 1408 shaders. Reboot doesn't help.
If i flash with gui, i get "Could not erase rom"

HIS Radeon 6950 (with sword on title) 

*Update*: I Tried to flash in recovery bios lol . *Fixed*


----------



## bounz (Jan 2, 2011)

I had some wierd stuff going on.

I had the Sapphire HD6950 flashed to HD6970 ( two days ago ) and immedatly my temps went to 60° in Idle but otherwis no problems. untill today.
pc wouldn't start, my graphics card couldn't be recognized anymore, Catalyst couldn't be installed anymore, gave blue screens every time. lukily I could reflash it back ( the only thing that worked hih ) , but with switch on 2 or 1 it didn't work. in short. terrble things, and I made immediatly the conclusion. my card is dying/dead.
my motherboard is a M2N32 Sli

I put my old nvidia 8600 in and it works perfect.
than i realised I also have a HD4870 in my previous game pc.
I installed it to see if the drivers install with this card. and it does.


So i thought. it's certainly my card.
but now i put my HD6950 in my other pc ( MSI P35 Platinum silentpipe )
and behold.... i can install the CCC drivers, and it runs cooler two. 
Now i connected a second screen onto it, and temps going immediatly to 54°
but better than in my Asus pc..

I don't know what the problem is, I'm just glad it works again and at a little lower temp. however in my second pc, going to try it back in my other later one


----------



## kalviper (Jan 2, 2011)

bounz said:


> I had some wierd stuff going on.
> 
> I had the Sapphire HD6950 flashed to HD6970 ( two days ago ) and immedatly my temps went to 60° in Idle but otherwis no problems. untill today.
> pc wouldn't start, my graphics card couldn't be recognized anymore, Catalyst couldn't be installed anymore, gave blue screens every time. lukily I could reflash it back ( the only thing that worked hih ) , but with switch on 2 or 1 it didn't work. in short. terrble things, and I made immediatly the conclusion. my card is dying/dead.
> ...



can check what psu is the 2 pc using? are there pure 6 pin? or 2 + 6 pin


----------



## xocr (Jan 2, 2011)

Worked excellent with my Power Colour 6950~

i used your batch file:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html


100 % Stable  Power Control Settings +12 %








gute arbeit w1zzard


----------



## bounz (Jan 2, 2011)

the pc where the card in is, is a Antec Earthwatts EA 500
where it was in but didn't work zalmann ZM600-HP

I also think it's something to do with my powersupply. 
because HD4870 who also needs 2x6pins crashes now( windows update, crash, bluescreen )
and geforce 8600gts hasn't that problem  ( and that card doesn't need any 6pin power )

i was first afraid that Pci-Express 1.0 was to old for such a powerfull card 
or don't they need power also from the slot itself?


----------



## xocr (Jan 2, 2011)

i recommend using an PSU from coolermaster

they have 46 + ampere to fire up any graphic cards! nice PSU


i have myself an cooler master 550 gx


----------



## kalviper (Jan 2, 2011)

bounz said:


> the pc where the card in is, is a Antec Earthwatts EA 500
> where it was in but didn't work zalmann ZM600-HP
> 
> I also think it's something to do with my powersupply.
> ...



just making an assesment that it might be the psu. just imagine now u are using a 6970 which require a 6 + 8 pin (even thou the xtra 2 pin are jus ground). But basically the 6970 require more power than the 6950. the 6970 require a psu with a 6 pin and a 8 pin. 

just pure speculation thou


----------



## seraphi (Jan 2, 2011)

I have an HIS 6950 and have installed the ASUS 6970 BIOS linked by the OP. The card works fine, but when I try to start SmartDoctor I get the following message:

"Can not find graphics card information"

SmartDoctor then immediately closes. 

I have tried uninstalling all Asus and ATI software / drivers and starting over but ended up with the same problem. GPU-Z shows my card as an "ASUS EAH6950 Series"

I have tried drivers from both ATI and from ASUS. 

Any ideas? I would love to try out SmartDoctor to see what kind of overclock I can get.


----------



## bounz (Jan 2, 2011)

xocr said:


> i recommend using an PSU from coolermaster
> 
> i have myself an cooler master 550 gx



nice try   but i'm going for this one : Seasonic M12D-850  ( to have a little more headroom  in silence )

what I hated the most on my zallman was that despite the Heatpipe, it was the noisiest thing in my complete pc grrrrrr.... 
it has a 6pin and 8pin connector bytheway.

hopefull that is the only thing that needs changing, or the cash i gained by modding the 6950tot 6970 is totally wasted on other hardware


----------



## Mp0wer (Jan 2, 2011)

seraphi said:


> I have an HIS 6950 and have installed the ASUS 6970 BIOS linked by the OP. The card works fine, but when I try to start SmartDoctor I get the following message:
> 
> "Can not find graphics card information"
> 
> ...



Look at this post link Here and download this modded Asus Bios and New Version of Smartdoctor


----------



## Eluder (Jan 2, 2011)

bounz said:


> nice try   but i'm going for this one : Seasonic M12D-850  ( to have a little more headroom  in silence )
> 
> what I hated the most on my zallman was that despite the Heatpipe, it was the noisiest thing in my complete pc grrrrrr....
> it has a 6pin and 8pin connector bytheway.
> ...



Awesome PSU, it's the one I use in my PC and have never had an issue with any video card I've thrown at it including a CF setup.  It's also pretty darn quiet.


----------



## Dr.Strange (Jan 2, 2011)

Hi everyone,
I successfully modded my Sapphire 6950 to an 6970 using the Sapphire BIOS.
I use the standard 6970 clocks and all games run fine (as far as I tested), but some benchmarks (eg 3dmark or the lost planet 2 benchmark) hang after a while and I get an errormessage similar to this:

"Workload work failed with error message: DXGI call IDXGISwapChain:resent failed:

Hardware device removed.

DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED"

Does anyone have a clue? I am using the current hotfix drivers 12a on my win7.
Thanks!!


----------



## bystander (Jan 2, 2011)

Alright, I finally know exactly what is causing my clock issue.  I imagine some of you have experienced this without knowing it, and I'd also like to know how to resolve the issue.  It could be an IE issue, which I'll check after this post.

When ever I view an Adobe Flash video my clocks shift to 500 and 1375 and will not change when I enter 3D.  The moment I close the page that had the Adobe flash video I viewed, my clocks resume.  Turning off hardware acceleration did not change the result.

Any ideas?

Mozilla Firefox works.  Internet Explorer was the culprit when viewing adobe flash.


----------



## PopcornMachine (Jan 2, 2011)

bystander said:


> Mozilla Firefox works.  Internet Explorer was the culprit when viewing adobe flash.



Exploder strikes again!  

I guess I'm lucky in that I haven't had any of these issues with 6950.  Haven't achieved any great overclock, but it works fine with 1536 shaders.


----------



## BZB (Jan 2, 2011)

bystander said:


> Alright, I finally know exactly what is causing my clock issue.  I imagine some of you have experienced this without knowing it, and I'd also like to know how to resolve the issue.  It could be an IE issue, which I'll check after this post.
> 
> When ever I view an Adobe Flash video my clocks shift to 500 and 1375 and will not change when I enter 3D.  The moment I close the page that had the Adobe flash video I viewed, my clocks resume.  Turning off hardware acceleration did not change the result.
> 
> ...



This is a well known bug related to AMD drivers & Flash or other accelerated video on the desktop - just google for "ati stuck 2d clocks".  IIRC, I think it's due to be corrected in either this month's or next month's drivers.


----------



## GAR (Jan 2, 2011)

Quick question guys, i cannot monitor voltage after flashing 2 gigabyte 6950s, i used Wizzards tool to flash to 6970, does it increase voltage? if so from what to what? thanks.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 2, 2011)

GAR said:


> Quick question guys, i cannot monitor voltage after flashing 2 gigabyte 6950s, i used Wizzards tool to flash to 6970, does it increase voltage? if so from what to what? thanks.



1.1v -> 1.175v


----------



## bystander (Jan 2, 2011)

Use GPU-Z and switch to the sensor tab.  The last meter at the bottom shows the voltage it's running at.  You can't change it manually, but you can see it at least.


----------



## GAR (Jan 3, 2011)

bystander said:


> Use GPU-Z and switch to the sensor tab.  The last meter at the bottom shows the voltage it's running at.  You can't change it manually, but you can see it at least.



Actually with the bios provided with wizzards tool, gpu-z does not read the voltage.


----------



## GAR (Jan 3, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> 1.1v -> 1.175v



Thanks.


----------



## bystander (Jan 3, 2011)

GAR said:


> Actually with the bios provided with wizzards tool, gpu-z does not read the voltage.



Are you sure?  I could read it with mine.  What version of GPU-Z did you have?


----------



## SonDoobius (Jan 3, 2011)

Just worked perfectly for my Sapphire 6950 using the batch file you linked. This is awesome.


----------



## crislink (Jan 3, 2011)

so i'm going yo buy one XFX 6950 to mod 
i should go for a sapphire instead?

can everyone confirms it's a safe mod if i keep the original frequencies?


----------



## GAR (Jan 3, 2011)

bystander said:


> Are you sure?  I could read it with mine.  What version of GPU-Z did you have?



Im using the latest one, 0.5.0, to my knowledge this is the latest.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 3, 2011)

crislink said:


> so i'm going yo buy one XFX 6950 to mod
> i should go for a sapphire instead?
> 
> can everyone confirms it's a safe mod if i keep the original frequencies?



sure.


----------



## PCWizKid (Jan 3, 2011)

*I now have a HD6970! It worked!*

This worked out great, after a few tweaks in the steps outlined on TechPowerUp.  I made a video on what I did to show you how it worked and a quick benchmark on the before and after here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEZL5vezYm0


----------



## ranom (Jan 3, 2011)

Dr.Strange said:


> Hi everyone,
> I successfully modded my Sapphire 6950 to an 6970 using the Sapphire BIOS.
> I use the standard 6970 clocks and all games run fine (as far as I tested), but some benchmarks (eg 3dmark or the lost planet 2 benchmark) hang after a while and I get an errormessage similar to this:
> 
> ...



Try running benchmarks in windowed mode and monitor your card's temp using GPU-Z. With my card, I found that after the mod, temps above 91C would result in hangups. Havent tried figuring out if it was the core or the mem, went for the simple solution of upping the fan speed.


----------



## SonDoobius (Jan 3, 2011)

I don't know if anyone's answered this but I'm just wondering if everyone is running their fan speed on auto or raising it? I believe the highest I've seen it at during gameplay is 35%.


----------



## SonDoobius (Jan 3, 2011)

nm, I raised my fan speed to 60% because I was crashing on auto, now it works fine, although a little noisy.


----------



## bystander (Jan 3, 2011)

Try setting up a fan profile in MSI afterburner.  You can set up a curve so it won't run at 60% except when it needs it.


----------



## SonDoobius (Jan 3, 2011)

Ahh, nice. Thank you


----------



## sakai4eva (Jan 3, 2011)

Wonderful news in this thread... made me buy up the 6950 almost immediately. Flashed a SAPPHIRE card with no hitches. Maybe some benchmarks tonight?


----------



## Nuppi (Jan 3, 2011)

I see many succesfully flashed sapphires on the list.
However i would like to get the Asus version EAH6950/2DI2S/2GD5
What are the odds that flashing that Asus version would work?
Or should i just buy the sapphire version?

Thanks.


----------



## yonef (Jan 3, 2011)

I've got a small problem here:
When I try to save my original BIOS with ATI Winflash my picture goes off after a while it apears a msg:"bios saved to file" on a black screen and my PC freezes up (needs soft reset) I've tried couple of times and still same behaviour. Is this normal? and has it saved my BIOS properly or it is not fully saved(corrupted)?
Saved file is 128K size but it saved in .rom file !? I thought it has to be .bin file?

Using win 7 x64.


----------



## dimon222 (Jan 3, 2011)

yonef said:


> I've got a small problem here:
> When I try to save my original BIOS with ATI Winflash my picture goes off after a while it apears a msg:"bios saved to file" on a black screen and my PC freezes up (needs soft reset) I've tried couple of times and still same behaviour. Is this normal? and has it saved my BIOS properly or it is not fully saved(corrupted)?


Check that u load bios 1







yonef said:


> Saved file is 128K size but it saved in .rom file !? I thought it has to be .bin file?


Its the same, u can just rename .rom to .bin


----------



## crislink (Jan 3, 2011)

i need help on choosing the right 6850 version... 

wich is the most succesful version with no related issues after modding it? i saw the list on the techpup review but it mention almost 99% success instead this post wich is full of issues


----------



## dimon222 (Jan 3, 2011)

crislink said:


> i need help on choosing the right 6850 version...
> 
> wich is the most succesful version with no related issues after modding it? i saw the list on the techpup review but it mention almost 99% success instead this post wich is full of issues


HIS recommended by me 

Update: wat?? 6*8*50


----------



## crislink (Jan 3, 2011)

sorry 69xx i'ts all a mess

also it's sfe using other 6970 reference bioses or i need to copy only the underclocked one to prevent issues?


----------



## dom99 (Jan 3, 2011)

I have a question, am I right in saying that the unlocked 6950 BIOS just unlocks shaders but not texture units?

But the 6970 bios unlocks texture units aswel?


----------



## seraphi (Jan 3, 2011)

Mp0wer said:


> Look at this post link Here and download this modded Asus Bios and New Version of Smartdoctor



Thanks! That worked. 

Currently running at 953mhz @ 1.26v

SmartDoctor  rocks for fan control because there is an option to set 4 different thresholds. 
I have mine set to 65 for step 1, 75 step2, 80,85. The result is that the fan stays a little over 30% idle(nice and quiet) and a little over 50% under load(not bothersome while gaming).


----------



## yonef (Jan 3, 2011)

dimon222 said:


> Check that u load bios 1
> http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/biosswitch_small.jpg
> 
> Its the same, u can just rename .rom to .bin



It is on position 1. I've rebooted couple of times already, but I'm doing 'restart' istead of 'shutdown' and then power on. Does this make any difference? I've even tryed to do run Ati winflash in admin mode and without admin mode, same thing happens. 
P.S. I can save the BIOS with GPU-Z without any problem. It is saved to .bin file! Is this compatible with AtiWinflash? I have to make sure if something goes wrong I can restore my original BIOS.

Thanks for the help.


----------



## dimon222 (Jan 3, 2011)

yonef said:


> It is saved to .bin file! Is this compatible with AtiWinflash? I have to make sure if something goes wrong I can restore my original BIOS.


I think its compatible.
Else HD6xxx series have dual bios boot. So, if u have fail with flashing 1st bios, you can load with 2nd (its recovery bios, you can't flash him, CANT) and then move button to 1st bios (on cart).... and flash him again to default bios.


----------



## Whoops! (Jan 3, 2011)

*3D MARK 11 result*

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/343241

Flashed to 6970 - does this look ok? FPS dropped very low - maybe time for Sandybridge!

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/343336
Or this score with an overclock to 910MHz


----------



## dimon222 (Jan 3, 2011)

Whoops! said:


> http://3dmark.com/3dm11/343241
> 
> Flashed to 6970 - does this look ok? FPS dropped very low - maybe time for Sandybridge!


Did you do this?


> To ensure maximized performance open Catalyst Control Center, go to the Overdrive tab and set the PowerTune slider to the +20% setting. The "Testing" section of this article has more data on that.


----------



## Whoops! (Jan 3, 2011)

dimon222 said:


> Did you do this?


Just done it now and increased MHz to 910 for a better score of 4653
Cheers


----------



## sneakyserb (Jan 3, 2011)

*6950 help*

if u have a 6950 could u tell me your sc2 fps results 1920x1080 ultra please.i get like only 60fps and it dips below 40 in huge fights.This seems like balls for a 300$ card.i unlocked the card and have 2 running in cross fire but still the same.i feel like i should get more out of one card im sayin at least 100fps.


----------



## Anvirol (Jan 3, 2011)

SC2 CFX seems to be broken on Caymans so u're only getting single card performance.

At least for me there was no fps difference with other card disabled. Also Fallout New Vegas, TERA-Online have crappy/nonworking CFX :|

I hope the drivers improve in following months..


----------



## ZenZimZaliben (Jan 3, 2011)

Posted to Reddit/r/Hardware.

Awesome Job W1zzard!

Doesn't seem to make much sense now to purchase a 6970 for such a small performance gain due to throttling.


----------



## Dr.Strange (Jan 3, 2011)

ranom said:


> Try running benchmarks in windowed mode and monitor your card's temp using GPU-Z. With my card, I found that after the mod, temps above 91C would result in hangups. Havent tried figuring out if it was the core or the mem, went for the simple solution of upping the fan speed.



Hi there,
thank you. It looks like it worked. I only get some artifacts when I max all AA, AF etc settings out in the CCC and play SC2 (best visible in the cut scenes), but medium settings are ok, too.
Driver errors are gone. 
The only problem is the fan-noise. I tried to use trixx, but apparently I need to adjust the fan manually.... oh well. Small price to pay I would say. But 60% fan is way too much, though.

Cheers.


----------



## bystander (Jan 3, 2011)

Dr.Strange said:


> Hi there,
> thank you. It looks like it worked. I only get some artifacts when I max all AA, AF etc settings out in the CCC and play SC2 (best visible in the cut scenes), but medium settings are ok, too.
> Driver errors are gone.
> The only problem is the fan-noise. I tried to use trixx, but apparently I need to adjust the fan manually.... oh well. Small price to pay I would say. But 60% fan is way too much, though.
> ...



MSI Afterburner lets you create a fan curve so the fan only kicks up to higher percents when the temps hit certain temps of your choosing.  It's very helpful.


----------



## Dr.Strange (Jan 3, 2011)

bystander said:


> MSI Afterburner lets you create a fan curve so the fan only kicks up to higher percents when the temps hit certain temps of your choosing.  It's very helpful.



Thanks. Works with Trixx as well, I'll adjust the curves a little.
Maybe temperature is only part of the problem, as Napoleon total war just locked up my whole pc.


----------



## mailoc (Jan 3, 2011)

Alright guys... I am out of ideas!!!

Here is my system setup
Phenom 2 X6 1090t at 3.6ghz
Gigabyte GA-890FX-UDA
8gb Corsair XMS DDR3 at 1600mhz
Seagate Barricuda XT 2TB Hard Drive
2x XFX Radeon 6950 in crossfirex
Pc Power and Cooling Silencer 750W PSU

I have tried multiple times to get my system to run stable with both 6950's flashed to 6970 in crossfire mode.  Unfortunately I have been unsuccessful.  I was getting hard lockups and BSOD when running under 6970 specs.  I figured the core and memory speeds were too high for the cards so I lowered them... no luck there.  I reinstalled all the drivers and still BSOD and hard lockups.  I then tried the 6970 mod that only changes the stream processor units.  Still no luck same problem.

The thing is when I have both the cards flashed to 6950 bios my system is rock solid.  No crashes whatsoever.  Basically I am wondering if my cards are just not being friendly with the 6970 bios.  Maybe its my PSU.  Although I would think 750W would be adequate.  Anyhow I am looking for any other ideas as to why flashing to 6970 bios is resulting in severe system instability.

Thanks


----------



## bystander (Jan 3, 2011)

mailoc said:


> Alright guys... I am out of ideas!!!
> 
> Here is my system setup
> Phenom 2 X6 1090t at 3.6ghz
> ...



I'd recommend testing each card individually.  It might just be 1 card having difficulties.

Some people have been unsuccessful with the flash, not many, but some.  If you just happen to be one, then you could attempt the shader unlock instead.  It's not going to perform just like a 6970, but it's an increase over the 6950.


www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

Go ahead and save your original bios, then apply the script to it.  It'll unlock your shaders.  This is on page 16 of this thread.


----------



## Qed (Jan 3, 2011)

mailoc said:


> Alright guys... I am out of ideas!!!
> 
> Here is my system setup
> Phenom 2 X6 1090t at 3.6ghz
> ...



Your UPS is fine, did you try to put 1 card at a time?


----------



## mailoc (Jan 3, 2011)

Qed said:


> Your UPS is fine, did you try to put 1 card at a time?



Yep I removed each card and flashed them separately.  The BSOD error was from atikdmag.sys I believe.  I have been only getting this blue screen when under 6970 bios.  No crashes at all under 6950.


----------



## Qed (Jan 3, 2011)

mailoc said:


> Yep I removed each card and flashed them separately.  The BSOD error was from atikdmag.sys I believe.  I have been only getting this blue screen when under 6970 bios.  No crashes at all under 6950.



As Bystander said, did you try the 6950 bios just with shaders unlocked?

If you have an XFX you can use the already unlocked bios from this post:

 How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...


----------



## crislink (Jan 3, 2011)

have you tried every card at once with the modded bios? still got issues with only one per time?


----------



## SonDoobius (Jan 3, 2011)

I'm actually thinking about getting another card for crossfire. Is the modding causing alot of crossfire problems, or is it generally safe? I know how, just not whether or not its gonna cause me a ton of grief.


----------



## polyseal (Jan 4, 2011)

SonDoobius said:


> I'm actually thinking about getting another card for crossfire. Is the modding causing alot of crossfire problems, or is it generally safe? I know how, just not whether or not its gonna cause me a ton of grief.



Im running almost the same system as malioc (1090t @ 3.6, 8gig, 2x sapphire 6950 @ 6970), and im having no dramas at all. in fact, both cards will happily run at 900/1400 with the unlocked shaders. i run them at 880/1375 tho, with +10% power. both cards monitored on second monitor with 2 instances of gpu-z, as well as CCC.

not being able to set custom fan curves is annoying me tho, as have to find a balance between fan speed and noise so the top card doesnt get too hot. sandwhich city. with fan speed at 65% top card, and 55% bottom card plays crysis warhead maxxxxxxxx settings (yes. maxxed out completely. enthusiast blah blah). for an hour, top card maxes out at 75deg. (frames min 55+. plays so good. friends all hate me).

ive been monitoring this thread a bit tho, and seems like not all the cards will just change over so easily. even IF they dont unlock tho, 2x 6950s is pwn. i bought them before i knew about the unlock. they are definately worth it.

poly.


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 4, 2011)

Anyone know of a program that can monitor in game temps of the GPU?

I'd like to monitor cooling of:

6950 stock
6950 stock xfire
6950/70mod
6950/70mod xfire

then run the same with water blocks.

Am only going to use gaming temps. What would be a good game to use?


----------



## bystander (Jan 4, 2011)

polyseal said:


> not being able to set custom fan curves is annoying me tho, as have to find a balance between fan speed and noise so the top card doesnt get too hot. sandwhich city. with fan speed at 65% top card, and 55% bottom card plays crysis warhead maxxxxxxxx settings (yes. maxxed out completely. enthusiast blah blah). for an hour, top card maxes out at 75deg. (frames min 55+. plays so good. friends all hate me).



Have you tried MSI Afterburner?  It definately works with a single card, and it used to work with dual 5870's.  It has a fan curve ability.  I use it now.


----------



## bystander (Jan 4, 2011)

bobbavet said:


> Anyone know of a program that can monitor in game temps of the GPU?
> 
> I'd like to monitor cooling of:
> 
> ...



MSI Afterburner and GPU-Z will


----------



## SonDoobius (Jan 4, 2011)

Does Afterburner override CCC? Or do you have to turn off CCC?


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 4, 2011)

Cheers mate. 



SonDoobius said:


> Does Afterburner override CCC? Or do you have to turn off CCC?



Good question.


----------



## bystander (Jan 4, 2011)

SonDoobius said:


> Does Afterburner override CCC? Or do you have to turn off CCC?



MSI Afterburner will enable the overclocking section of ATI Overdrive in the CCC and use the clocks you specify in MSI Afterburner to set Overdrive.  If you turn on the user defined fan settings in Afterburner, it will set Overdrive to be user defined, but ignore the % listed in Overdrive, and instead use the curve created in Afterburner.  The new power control settings are accessible in Overdrive still.  Overdrive will still take control of idle mode clock settings and ignore Afterburner.

Basically, what ever you set in Afterburner will override ATI Overdrive in the CCC, and what it doesn't control you can still change in ATI Overdrive.


----------



## bystander (Jan 4, 2011)

And if you are using it just to monitor, when you open up Afterburner, it will just copy the settings of Overdrive and give you graphics on the right.  It's only when you alter the clocks and apply that it changes Overdrive settings.


----------



## AiponGkooja (Jan 4, 2011)

Might be a stupid question, but does the card come in default BIOS slot 1 or 2?  It's just hard as hell to get my card back out now that I put it in, but I know it has to be in slot 1 to do any flashing...  If I try and it's in slot 2, will it hurt anything? Or just fail?

Thanks,
Aip

Edit: Nevermind... That was an INCREDIBLY stupid question, because the switch is right on top...  Wow...


----------



## polyseal (Jan 4, 2011)

bystander said:


> Have you tried MSI Afterburner?  It definately works with a single card, and it used to work with dual 5870's.  It has a fan curve ability.  I use it now.



as ive got sapphire cards, i was using trixx, but even though it has the option to "enable sync in multi-gpu setup" or words to that effect, the fan curve only works on the primary card. granted, the bottom card doesnt need quite the attention the top card needs, but the fan is still kinda slow, and card still rather warm on auto, even on stock 6950. yay for being a temp nut! (cpu has noctua nh-d14! )

ill give afterburner a go and let you know. i tried reinstalled the sapphire util and drivers etc, but didnt work. even tried installing the bottom card, using trixx, installing top card (with bottom card still in there), and using trixx. 

afterburner download woo

poly.

[EDIT] ok. afterburner seems to work. just made a basic XXdeg = XX% (eg. 50deg = 50% fan) and fired up multigpu furmark. both cards' fans sped up accordingly. even had all my settings from CCC  cheers kneegrow.


----------



## calvinbui (Jan 4, 2011)

works for me, sapphire 6950, now 6970


----------



## AiponGkooja (Jan 4, 2011)

Another quick question.  If the first "HD_6950_to_HD_6970_mod" worked, and doesn't artifact at above-6970 clocks and 0% power control, should I just leave it with that one?  I know this also may change ram timings and it ups the voltage by .075 under load, but does this matter if it seems pretty stable?  Or would it still be safer to use the "Mod_BIOS_HD_6950" and then manually update the BIOS with cmd prompt (since I have an XFX card)?

Thanks for any input,
Aip


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 4, 2011)

Well I'm pretty dumbfounded

THESE CARDS ARE FREAKIN AWSOME!

In Unigine one 6950 is only 300 behind my 5850xfire. I haven't even modded them yet.

OMFG!

Am encountering a bit of a problem though. When I cross too or back from xfire, I am getting a BSOD.

Any thoughts?

ALSO I have noticed on my f8 restarts, I do not have an option to boot from my usb to do the atiflash. Can I do it from the command prompt in windows?


----------



## yonef (Jan 4, 2011)

Can anyone post some benchmark results with modded 6950 bios(unlocked shaders only)?
What is the difference over normal 6950 on Unigine demo, or any game.
I've flashed mine to 6970 and it seems to have 10% performance increase, but got very loud and system power condumption increased with 80W, temps increased as well.
So I'm wondering what would be the difference with only shader unlocked 6950.

Tnanks.


----------



## yonef (Jan 4, 2011)

bobbavet said:


> Well I'm pretty dumbfounded
> 
> ALSO I have noticed on my f8 restarts, I do not have an option to boot from my usb to do the atiflash. Can I do it from the command prompt in windows?



F8 will not get you option to boot from usb!
You have to check what key enables Boot Select. This could be found in your MB manual, or you can choose boot device straight from the MB BIOS.


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 4, 2011)

yonef said:


> F8 will not get you option to boot from usb!
> You have to check what key enables Boot Select. This could be found in your MB manual, or you can choose boot device straight from the MB BIOS.



Cheers

I was going off instructions from a youtube vid. I seen them do it.

They may have had a different MB.

Yeh I may have to go to bios and set usb as default boot device or see if there is a boot menu in the bios splash screen. x58ud5


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 4, 2011)

Well I now able to boot up and run atiflash but am getting this error code:

ERROR ofl01

I have not heard of this in the forums.


----------



## dimon222 (Jan 4, 2011)

bobbavet said:


> Well I now able to boot up and run atiflash but am getting this error code:
> 
> ERROR ofl01
> 
> I have not heard of this in the forums.


Check, you use 1st bios?


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 4, 2011)

dimon222 said:


> Check, you use 1st bios?
> http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/biosswitch_small.jpg



Yeh it is in position one.

Still getting error. Took some more notice.

It says:

Adapter not found
ERROR ofl01


----------



## dimon222 (Jan 4, 2011)

You use gui?
Try with prompt


> If you get an error like ID mismatch or Could not erase ROM, then you'll have to do some extra work in a Windows command prompt (or DOS): Run atiwinflash -unlockrom 0 followed by atiwinflash -f -p 0 bios.bin where bios.bin is the path and filename of the HD 6970 BIOS you downloaded.



If still doesn't work... hm... maybe try reinstall drivers?


----------



## Chrom (Jan 4, 2011)

Hello !

I need your help!

I need the ATI HD *6950 Club3d* Bios.

Can someone upload it, please?


----------



## crislink (Jan 4, 2011)

i'm in, i've ordered a Sapphire HD 6950, hope everything will go well flashing it

and talking about issues on clocks, do you think leaving the original 6850 clock will prevent problems? can i raise only core clock leaving memory at 1250?


----------



## Qed (Jan 4, 2011)

crislink said:


> i'm in, i've ordered a Sapphire HD 6950, hope everything will go well flashing it
> 
> and talking about issues on clocks, do you think leaving the original 6850 clock will prevent problems? can i raise only core clock leaving memory at 1250?



I didnt have any problem on mine. The memory are certified for 1250 MHz and the gpu is the same as the 6970 so i dont think you will have any problem.


----------



## crislink (Jan 4, 2011)

is it safer than windows flashing the card on msdos booted by a usb pendrive?

also changing settings in a stock bios values (like lowering ram etc) will cause any kind of problem (like conflicts with powerstates)?


----------



## The_Ish (Jan 4, 2011)

So here I am with my two new Sapphires.. But I've got this problem when I launched ATI Winflash my system just freezes :/ Any ideas? the bios jumpers are set to 1 if that matters.

Here's a pic of my GPUZ.. Perhaps I can't have CF enabled?


----------



## TotalChaos (Jan 4, 2011)

take 1 card out and flash the card still in the pc. then take that card out and put the other card in and flash it. then put the second card back in reconnect Crossfire bridge and you should be good to go


----------



## The_Ish (Jan 4, 2011)

Gaaah!! And I who have literally NO space for the bottom card.. There's like 1mm margin lol.. Was a bitch to install, oh well! Thank you for your help!


----------



## Mp0wer (Jan 4, 2011)

bobbavet said:


> Anyone know of a program that can monitor in game temps of the GPU?





bystander said:


> MSI Afterburner and GPU-Z will



How do you get GPU-Z to show OSD in games, is there a hotkey


----------



## bystander (Jan 4, 2011)

I don't know if GPU-Z can display it without alt tabbing out, unless you have a 2nd monitor as I do.  However, you can always alt tab out and see a log of your in game temps.  The log can let you know what you are peaking at.

MSI Afterburner has the ability for OSD.


----------



## GuyIncognito (Jan 4, 2011)

Hey Guys,

just flashed my Sapphire 6950 with the Asus 6970 bios and it works fine. But I had to to this flash unlock thing.

And supprisingly I don't have to increase the TDP-Limit. I checked the Frequency with GPU-Z while Furmark was running and it didn't throttle.

Great Thanks to Wizzard, I saved a lot of Money


----------



## PopcornMachine (Jan 4, 2011)

I think you're just getting the prompt back.  That is normal.

Check your card with GPU-Z.

EDIT: No prob.  Glad you figured it out.


----------



## The_Ish (Jan 4, 2011)

I deleted what I just wrote. I was being foolish as usual..  I had winflash running *doh* Exited the program and voila! Just need to restart my PC and do it again with the other card.. I'll report back 

edit/ Okay, update time. I managed to get both flashed, but the clocks aren't what they should be on one of them so I'll get that sorted now.
edit2/ All done! Thanks to W1zard for the help and anyone else who have helped my confused mind


----------



## Kimo P (Jan 4, 2011)

I seem to have run into a slight problem flashing /reflashing my 6950 card :-o

I have an ASUS 6950 oc edition card
The flashing procedure went on just fine, and everything unlocked fine and looked good
until i fired up Bad company 2, then problems arrived!

My system hung after 5 mins of play, and i was forced to close the app. 
i went through the forum here again to see if some suggestions where available, i tried to up the power limit via CCC and lowered the clock a little and tried again, still it failed after a few minutes.

Heat doesn't seem to be the issue?

I tried to reflash back to the original bios i saved, but that does not work? and i get the ID mismatch message? ... i then tried to do it as described following the "extra work" link, but replacing the "unlock.bin" with my backup copy of the original bios, named "bios original" (with the space) ... im not sure if i can rename it?? .... 
So what and how do i restore my original bios again on my card ???


----------



## mailoc (Jan 4, 2011)

Qed said:


> As Bystander said, did you try the 6950 bios just with shaders unlocked?
> 
> If you have an XFX you can use the already unlocked bios from this post:
> 
> How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...




I have tried the shader unlock bios profile also with no luck.  The whole issue is just perplexing me.  I played Mafia 2 and Dirt 2 last night for two hours with no problems using the original 6950 bios.  It seems like anything that has to do with the 6970 bios makes my cards take a shit.

I may just give up on trying to get it to work.  After all crossfire 6950's are still bad ass!!!


----------



## pantherx12 (Jan 4, 2011)

Think all this will be disabled next rev of the cards all you lucky devils! I'll have a buy a second hand rev 1 in the future from one of you


----------



## Beany (Jan 4, 2011)

EDIT: forget this post. got it working!


----------



## baud (Jan 4, 2011)

crislink said:


> is it safer than windows flashing the card on msdos booted by a usb pendrive?



it's probably just easier to do it in windows.



> also changing settings in a stock bios values (like lowering ram etc) will cause any kind of problem (like conflicts with powerstates)?



if you're talking about editing the bios with RBE we can't do that yet.  we need a new version of RBE first.


----------



## JJ-Sheridan (Jan 4, 2011)

Why Device ID still 1002-6719 after flashing 6950 to 6970? Any ideas?..
Guess it might be problem with drivers in future
6950@6970 ->    Genuine 6970 ->


----------



## jimmyz (Jan 4, 2011)

It shows that it is a 6950 because it is. The device ID is still intact. This is a good thing, it keeps dishonest people from flashing and selling as 6970s.


----------



## hajabooja (Jan 4, 2011)

So have many people had luck flashing just the shader unlock and overclocking to 6970 speeds on stock voltage? Or maybe getting close? My XFX 6950 should be here tomorrow! Also, a lot of people saying that their temps are up a lot when flashing to 6970 (voltage and all), anyone having closer or at least cool temps? Thanks


----------



## Beany (Jan 5, 2011)

Managed to flash both my cards. These are now way too loud in crossfire though from the extra heat, twice as loud as before the flash, and also compared to my 5870's. It's so bad that i might just send these back and get two 6970's. 

So i'd advise anyone thinking of using crossfire with two flashed 6950's to just get two 6970's instead if you can afford it.
With just one card flashed it's not bad though, but crossfire produces too much heat so the fans now go crazy.


----------



## Qed (Jan 5, 2011)

Beany said:


> Managed to flash both my cards. These are now way too loud in crossfire though from the extra heat, twice as loud as before the flash, and also compared to my 5870's. It's so bad that i might just send these back and get two 6970's.
> 
> So i'd advise anyone thinking of using crossfire with two flashed 6950's to just get two 6970's instead if you can afford it.
> With just one card flashed it's not bad though, but crossfire produces too much heat so the fans now go crazy.



Why do you think 2x6970 would be quieter? Have the same TPD once you canhe the bios and the PBC has only 3 different resistors.


----------



## The_Ish (Jan 5, 2011)

I only play with headphones so fan levels doesn't really bother me much


----------



## WaffleMakerMan (Jan 5, 2011)

yonef said:


> Can anyone post some benchmark results with modded 6950 bios(unlocked shaders only)?
> What is the difference over normal 6950 on Unigine demo, or any game.
> I've flashed mine to 6970 and it seems to have 10% performance increase, but got very loud and system power condumption increased with 80W, temps increased as well.
> So I'm wondering what would be the difference with only shader unlocked 6950.
> ...



My 3dMark11 scores

Stock: P4325
Asus 6950 Modded Bios Stock Speeds4427
Asus 6950 Modded Bios 840Mhz 1325Mhz +20%4569
XFX 6970 Bios4696
 I Lost the score for 6970 +20% but I think it was over P4700

Im keeping it in the 6950 Modded bios for now unless I need the power as it runs cooler.

Hope that helps


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 5, 2011)

Qed said:


> Why do you think 2x6970 would be quieter? Have the same TPD once you canhe the bios and the PBC has only 3 different resistors.



 I got a good laugh out of that.


----------



## Qed (Jan 5, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> I got a good laugh out of that.



Since you cant prove it, only the laugh has left.


----------



## hajabooja (Jan 5, 2011)

Qed said:


> As Bystander said, did you try the 6950 bios just with shaders unlocked?
> 
> If you have an XFX you can use the already unlocked bios from this post:
> 
> How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...



Has anyone used these? No doubting the poster, just trying to be careful. Thanks


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 5, 2011)

tomorrow I should finally get my Powercolor 6950. I hope everything will be fine, since I indend to flash it to 6970 immediately. Since I'm going to keep this system on just for gaming (I have a nettop for everything else) it wouldn't be a problem for me to have a loudy system.

Which kind of settings do you suggest to keep, in the control panel?


----------



## Eluder (Jan 5, 2011)

Everyone keeps mentioning MSI Afterburner, just wondering, what version are you guys using and does it work with non MSI 6950's?  The only one I found on the MSI site is from September, so can't be the right version.  Thanks.


----------



## bystander (Jan 5, 2011)

hajabooja said:


> Has anyone used these? No doubting the poster, just trying to be careful. Thanks



Yes, a few people used it further back in the thread.  I also used it to see how it worked.  It definitely worked.


----------



## bystander (Jan 5, 2011)

Eluder said:


> Everyone keeps mentioning MSI Afterburner, just wondering, what version are you guys using and does it work with non MSI 6950's?  The only one I found on the MSI site is from September, so can't be the right version.  Thanks.



I'm using MSI afterburner 2.0.0.  It works with all brands.


----------



## Beany (Jan 5, 2011)

Qed said:


> Why do you think 2x6970 would be quieter? Have the same TPD once you canhe the bios and the PBC has only 3 different resistors.



Not sure on this, but i thought the 6970 has improved cooling? i was under that impression.


----------



## Beany (Jan 5, 2011)

Heres a few benches i done for anyone interested, before and after flash, and with single card and crossfire... 

*Heaven*

*1920x1200*

6950 Crossfire: 
FPS: 89.8
Scores: 2262
Min FPS: 57.3
Max FPS: 216.8

6950 Crossfire flashed to 6970: 
FPS: 99.4
Scores: 2505
Min FPS: 59.4
Max FPS: 243.8


*2560x1600*

Single 6950:
FPS: 32.7
Scores: 823
Min FPS: 17.6
Max FPS: 67.5

Single 6950 flashed to 6970:
FPS: 37.1
Scores: 936
Min FPS: 19.2
Max FPS: 77.1

6950 Crossfire: 
FPS: 64.5
Scores:	1624
Min FPS: 24.6
Max FPS: 137.1

6950 Crossfire flashed to 6970:
FPS: 72.0
Scores: 1815
Min FPS: 25.9
Max FPS: 153.5


*Heaven + extreme tesselation:*

*2560x1600*

Single 6950:
FPS: 22.4
Scores: 565
Min FPS: 9.9
Max FPS: 60.8

Single 6950 flashed to 6970:
FPS: 25.3
Scores: 638
Min FPS: 11.5
Max FPS: 69.3

6950 Crossfire:
FPS: 44.6
Scores:	1123
Min FPS: 18.4
Max FPS: 123.9

6950 Crossfire flashed to 6970:
FPS: 49.9
Scores: 1256
Min FPS: 18.7
Max FPS: 139.3

...all the above is with +20% power setting in CCC.


*Lightmark* (crossfire has no effect with this)

*2560x1600 + 4xAA*

6950: 514 FPS
6950 flashed to 6970: 551 FPS
6950 flashed to 6970 with +20% power setting: 575 FPS


----------



## The_Ish (Jan 5, 2011)

What speeds are 'safe' to overclock to with stock cooler and auto fan control?


----------



## afroball (Jan 5, 2011)

Hey guys i'm from norway i can announce that my powercolor card was sucessfully flashed to 6970 but it took me about 2 days tweaking (I finally found out that this 10.12a hotfix shit was the problem)  now everything works fine with stock 6970 clocks an 20%+. thanks for the thread!


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 5, 2011)

My 6950 is in the mail 



afroball said:


> Hey guys i'm from norway i can announce that my powercolor card was sucessfully flashed to 6970 but it took me about 2 days tweaking (I finally found out that this 10.12a hotfix shit was the problem)  now everything works fine with stock 6970 clocks an 20%+. thanks for the thread!



So for you NOT using the hotfix made your rig more stable?


----------



## afroball (Jan 5, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> My 6950 is in the mail
> 
> 
> 
> So for you NOT using the hotfix made your rig more stable?




yeah. I think that was the problem. I installed the 10.12 driver (normal). then both bfbc2 and crysis warhead could run for hours..  but you never know.   and i found out that if you use ATI overdrive and MSI afterburner at the same time it could be more unstable EDIT: ended up using only ati overdrive (i thought MSI aftrburner was god becauce of their fan tweaking abilities)


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 5, 2011)

Here are the benches I did between the 5850 and 6950 16A @ 2560x1600












Im impressed that single 6950 is only 300 behind my 5850xfire.

Once I added 20% power my scores actually went backwards. Close to 300 on the xfire.

WTF is that about? 

Is it bottling an i7 920 cpu or do I need to start an OC?


----------



## Bensam123 (Jan 5, 2011)

You know, it's kind of curious, anyone who has had experience with overclocking could easily tell you that the higher memory temps in the 6970 bioses is what is causing everyone grief. It would cause hard locks, artifacting, BSoDs, and other BS. The bios's everyone is referring them to have the higher clocks. Stock for 6950 is 1250 and for a 6970 it is 1375. While it may not seem like much, it is more then enough to cause issues if the memory isn't rated at that speed. 

A lot of graphics card makers pick different memory and don't use the same stuff (something no one has looked into in here), that all depends on who their supplier is.

I'd suggest anyone having issues to downclock the memory speeds to the default speeds (1250). I'm surprised there aren't bios's up with just the GPU increase and shader unlock yet.


----------



## tony849 (Jan 5, 2011)

I went ahead and did this, but I'm constantly getting blue screens/crashes even going back to the 6950 bios, I think it's the drivers but I've reinstalled them a couple times. Any insight would be helpful.


----------



## Torello (Jan 5, 2011)

tony849 said:


> I went ahead and did this, but I'm constantly getting blue screens/crashes even going back to the 6950 bios, I think it's the drivers but I've reinstalled them a couple times. Any insight would be helpful.



If you have Daemon Tools/Alcohol 120% installed, try uninstall SPTD driver.
(that works for me, same problem).


----------



## pantherx12 (Jan 5, 2011)

bobbavet said:


> Here are the benches I did between the 5850 and 6950 16A @ 2560x1600
> 
> http://i54.tinypic.com/2yyb1x2.jpg
> 
> ...




It pushes the card past it's powertune limits, basically it tells the card it can output 225 max (powertune settings are STILL 6950 after a flash)when you set the card to +20 and when in 6970 mode it goes past this point so throttles back.

For what ever reason + 10% stops it from doing this even though the power limit is less :S


----------



## Kimo P (Jan 5, 2011)

Seems like the "Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus" fits the 6950 and 6970 series fine :-D

After some intense searching for cooling solutions for the 69xxx series, i stumbled upon this german site, actually showing the mounting on a 6970 card.

http://www.hardwareoverclock.com/Al...D6970_Arctic_Cooling_Accelero_Xtreme_Plus.htm

This looks very promising regarding temperature and noise levels, at least until some water cooling solution arrives.


----------



## pantherx12 (Jan 5, 2011)

Kimo P said:


> Seems like the "Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus" fits the 6950 and 6970 series fine :-D
> 
> After some intense searching for cooling solutions for the 69xxx series, i stumbled upon this german site, actually showing the mounting on a 6970 card.
> 
> ...



All cooling solutions that fit 6870s/5870s/4870s will fit the 6970s only thing to worry about is VRM cooling which will require buying heatsinks especially sometimes.


----------



## Kimo P (Jan 5, 2011)

pantherx12 said:


> All cooling solutions that fit 6870s/5870s/4870s will fit the 6970s only thing to worry about is VRM cooling which will require buying heatsinks especially sometimes.



Yes they do mention that also, and describe that they use parts from a setsugen 2 kit, as more practical and easy to fit, and recommend the voltage converter from the setsugen 2 kit


----------



## Mirmendis (Jan 5, 2011)

I finally modded my 6950 with 6970 bios with 900/1415 but im a little worried about memory speed overclock after reading this thread : 
http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/898919-rip-gtx-570-a.html
Ok it's a 570 but it seems his oc killed the card.

Edit : Link fixed


----------



## dimon222 (Jan 5, 2011)

Mirmendis said:


> I finally modded my 6950 with 6970 bios with 900/1415 but im a little worried about memory speed overclock after reading this thread :
> http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/8989...gtx-570-a.html
> Ok it's a 570 but it seems his oc killed the card.


Wrong link :shadedshu


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 5, 2011)

Kimo P said:


> Seems like the "Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme Plus" fits the 6950 and 6970 series fine :-D
> 
> After some intense searching for cooling solutions for the 69xxx series, i stumbled upon this german site, actually showing the mounting on a 6970 card.
> 
> ...



I'll be trying a Zalman VF3000A later today, was just waiting on some thermal tape. This kept my old 5850 extremely cool and quiet so hopefully it'll fit this. It also has a vrm heatsink that screws to the board. With any luck it'll fit this.


----------



## Qed (Jan 5, 2011)

Mirmendis said:


> I finally modded my 6950 with 6970 bios with 900/1415 but im a little worried about memory speed overclock after reading this thread :
> http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/898919-rip-gtx-570-a.html
> Ok it's a 570 but it seems his oc killed the card.
> 
> Edit : Link fixed



What you can do to stay within che chip specifications is to use the original Bios and and modify it with the php script. Change only the gpu speed up to 880 MHz and leave the memory clock as it (it is already at the certified speed).


----------



## Kimo P (Jan 5, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> I'll be trying a Zalman VF3000A later today, was just waiting on some thermal tape. This kept my old 5850 extremely cool and quiet so hopefully it'll fit this. It also has a vrm heatsink that screws to the board. With any luck it'll fit this.



Super 

Plz post results if it works, and if any issues with the montage


----------



## Bensam123 (Jan 5, 2011)

tony849 said:


> I went ahead and did this, but I'm constantly getting blue screens/crashes even going back to the 6950 bios, I think it's the drivers but I've reinstalled them a couple times. Any insight would be helpful.



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.


I forgot to mention I successfully unlocked a Gigabyte 6950, then restored the clocks to 800/1250.

Curiously, I also noticed that the VDDC climbs to 1.115 now instead of 1.1. Is the bios I downloaded overvolting as well as turning up the GPU speed (zip file pack on the main article page)?


----------



## dom99 (Jan 5, 2011)

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


----------



## Qed (Jan 5, 2011)

Bensam123 said:


> 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 (Jan 5, 2011)

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 (Jan 5, 2011)

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


----------



## bbmarley (Jan 5, 2011)

is it safe ?


----------



## dimon222 (Jan 5, 2011)

bbmarley said:


> is it safe ?


Just enable manual fan and use it on 50%.


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 5, 2011)

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 (Jan 5, 2011)

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 (Jan 5, 2011)

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 (Jan 5, 2011)

VinnieM said:


> 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 (Jan 6, 2011)

tecnoworld said:


> 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 (Jan 6, 2011)

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 (Jan 6, 2011)

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 (Jan 6, 2011)

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!)


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## dom99 (Jan 6, 2011)

sleid said:


> 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 (Jan 6, 2011)

joeyck said:


> 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.


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## sleid (Jan 6, 2011)

dom99 said:


> 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!


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## bystander (Jan 6, 2011)

sleid said:


> 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.


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## hajabooja (Jan 6, 2011)

bystander said:


> 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 (Jan 6, 2011)

hajabooja said:


> Any documentation/instructions on this?



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


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## hajabooja (Jan 6, 2011)

bystander said:


> 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.


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## ale86cuba (Jan 6, 2011)

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


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## sleid (Jan 6, 2011)

bystander said:


> 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!


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## tecnoworld (Jan 6, 2011)

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


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## turbobeta (Jan 6, 2011)

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.
> 
> ...





> 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.


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## turbobeta (Jan 6, 2011)

I'm now trying my card with a modified 6950 bios, instead of flashing a 6970 to it, and seeing if I have better results. I'll give an update after a day or two of testing.


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## hajabooja (Jan 6, 2011)

Flashed the shaders only bios for XFX. Overclocked to the max CCC (for now) 840/1325 and running great! Thanks for the help.


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## abirdie4me (Jan 6, 2011)

My 2 Sapphire 6950s have been running happily with the 6970 bios for 4 days now, I have all the sliders in CCC maxed out at 950/1450 (the fan is at 50%).  Benchmarks all look great and no issues after hours of Crysis, BFBC2, Metro2033, and Modern Warfare....I really like shooting stuff!

How are some of you guys taking the 6950 above 950?  I can't try anything higher than that in CCC or Afterburner, and Trixx causes bluescreens for me.


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## JJ-Sheridan (Jan 6, 2011)

Hi guys. Does anyone tried to change fan settings in RBE 1.26. Does it work?
could be like this  

 
or so (recommended settings) 



Just want to slow down the heat. My CrossFired cards is very hot after unlock. The top card is heated up to 96С, bottom - up to 92.


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## JJ-Sheridan (Jan 6, 2011)

abirdie4me said:


> ..How are some of you guys taking the 6950 above 950?



My cards were unable to subdue 920MHz   Left them at the original clocks 880/1375.


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## zpaf (Jan 6, 2011)

abirdie4me said:


> My 2 Sapphire 6950s have been running happily with the 6970 bios for 4 days now, I have all the sliders in CCC maxed out at 950/1450 (the fan is at 50%).  Benchmarks all look great and no issues after hours of Crysis, BFBC2, Metro2033, and Modern Warfare....I really like shooting stuff!
> 
> How are some of you guys taking the 6950 above 950?  I can't try anything higher than that in CCC or Afterburner, and Trixx causes bluescreens for me.



You cant go higher than 950/1450 with crossfire setup at this moment.


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## AiponGkooja (Jan 6, 2011)

For people who are concerned about not being able to hit 1375+ on the ram, it makes VERY little difference in real world performance OR benchmarks.  And we already know the ram is of slightly lower quality than what they use in the 6970's.  So instead of risking damaging your card, and having unstable overclocks, just set it sub-1300 and mess with core clock if you're looking for performance.

Just a thought,
Aip


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## Mach1.9pants (Jan 6, 2011)

In Crossfire the 'power control settings' seems to have disappeared, same for everyone (i.e. I cannot set a +20% as rec'd)


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## zpaf (Jan 6, 2011)

Mach1.9pants said:


> In Crossfire the 'power control settings' seems to have disappeared, same for everyone (i.e. I cannot set a +20% as rec'd)



Not for me with sapphire bios 6970


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## Mach1.9pants (Jan 6, 2011)

zpaf said:


> Not for me with sapphire bios 6970



Weird, I have 2 sapphires and flashed using the saphire 70 BIOS. But after doing all that and going CF it seems to have disappeared...


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## turbobeta (Jan 6, 2011)

Mach1.9pants said:


> Weird, I have 2 sapphires and flashed using the saphire 70 BIOS. But after doing all that and going CF it seems to have disappeared...



I think the issues with options and power disappearing entirely has less to do with modding, and more to do with a new driver. Once AMD releases Catalyst 11.1 we'll probably see a lot of these issues resolved.


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## crislink (Jan 6, 2011)

can someone explain what is the "Power Control Settings" feature?
How it should be set with those cards?


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## sliderider (Jan 6, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Why would some peoples cards be able to handle the timings and some wouldnt? what is it dependant on? and also why would the timings be better?



The rated speed of the memory chips may be different on some cards. HD6950 is meant to be a lower performing and less expensive part than HD6970 so some vendors might have slower, cheaper memory installed. It's the same as when the 9500 non-pro could have the pixel pipelines unlocked to make a 9700 core. The 9500's came with slower memory than the 9700's did so they didn't run quite as fast as an actual 9700 even with the core overclocked to 9700 levels. Another factor could be that some of the HD6900 cores used in the HD6950 cards might have been rejects that were binned because they couldn't handle the higher clocks of the HD6970 but were still perfectly acceptable for use as a HD6950. In either case, whether you got stuck with a card that had slow memory or a slow core, you won't be able to unlock/overclock to full HD6970 performance levels but you should still be able to outperform a stock HD6950 unless of course the unlocked shaders really are defective in which case you're stuck with a HD6950 no matter what you do.


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## tecnoworld (Jan 6, 2011)

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. How can I do that again?


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## span (Jan 6, 2011)

i have a gigabyte 6950,and some questions
1)it seems that there are a few that choose gigabyte's card,but in Greece where i live the brands that come in stores first are sapphire and gigabytes,the others come months after the release.so i want to ask if i can flash it to the asus modded bios with the extra shaders unlocked,just to use smart doctor for the voltage control for extra o/c?

2)when it's done,will i have the same or pretty much the same texture fillrate and bandwidth of an 6970 just setting memory and core clocks with the similar to a 6970 values?

i 'd be gratefull for some help,cause i'm a noob 
thanks in advance


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 6, 2011)

span said:


> i have a gigabyte 6950,and some questions
> 1)it seems that there are a few that choose gigabyte's card,but in Greece where i live the brands that come in stores first are sapphire and gigabytes,the others come months after the release.so i want to ask if i can flash it to the asus modded bios with the extra shaders unlocked,just to use smart doctor for the voltage control for extra o/c?
> 
> 2)when it's done,will i have the same or pretty much the same texture fillrate and bandwidth of an 6970 just setting memory and core clocks with the similar to a 6970 values?
> ...



1) Yes, of course you can do that. That has been done and also suggested by a member here who is in the exact same case as you. Same card, bios and software used for voltage.

2) Sure, that is possible depending on how far you go with your OC.

Tell us how it goes!


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## daggeronebravo (Jan 6, 2011)

is it possible to OC a modded 6950 bios (unlocked shaders only) to 6970 clocks without voltage increase?


----------



## Qed (Jan 6, 2011)

daggeronebravo said:


> is it possible to OC a modded 6950 bios (unlocked shaders only) to 6970 clocks without voltage increase?



Most likely no. 6950 and 6970 have the same gpu, it would be the same to undervoltage a 6970 to 6950 keeping the same clock.


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## Tatty_One (Jan 6, 2011)

From what i can see, Asus is a good option for the unlocking, my neighbour has bought an Asus OC HD 6950, unlocked it with the flash and using Asus's own Voltage Tweak software, along with a nominal voltage increase is running his fully stable at 900Mhz, seems many without the voltage options are not getting there quite.


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## tecnoworld (Jan 6, 2011)

daggeronebravo said:


> is it possible to OC a modded 6950 bios (unlocked shaders only) to 6970 clocks without voltage increase?



possible, but not highly probable. E.g. My 6950 with modded BIOS can reach 865Mhz stable, while at 880Mhz would lock down in Crysis. I'd like to be able to overvolt it to 1.175v and see if this solves, but I don't know how to do that.

Memory is not a big issue, since it doesn't almost affect performance.


----------



## rzayas28 (Jan 6, 2011)

I contacted XFX support about this and about voiding my double lifetime warranty and they responded with this:

Message History [ 1/5/2011 8:35:09 PM] I read that there is a way to flash the 6950 with a 6970 BIOS to unlock additional shaders here: http://techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159 Does this void the lifetime warranty? 
[MICHAELC_W 1/6/2011 1:11:36 AM] Hi Raymond; we don`t offer BIOS updates and something like that would end up most likely killing the card and voiding warranty coverage. If there are any available BIOS flashes those are intended for fixing very specific issues not really related to 3d performance, but more like bugs with certain other products or monitors. You have double lifetime warranty coverage for each card as long as nothing has been done to void warranty coverage. Thanks, Michael 

What do you guys think?


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## span (Jan 6, 2011)

what else whould they say???


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## rzayas28 (Jan 6, 2011)

span said:


> what else whould they say???



tru.


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## bystander (Jan 6, 2011)

rzayas28 said:


> I contacted XFX support about this and about voiding my double lifetime warranty and they responded with this:
> 
> Message History [ 1/5/2011 8:35:09 PM] I read that there is a way to flash the 6950 with a 6970 BIOS to unlock additional shaders here: http://techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159 Does this void the lifetime warranty?
> [MICHAELC_W 1/6/2011 1:11:36 AM] Hi Raymond; we don`t offer BIOS updates and something like that would end up most likely killing the card and voiding warranty coverage. If there are any available BIOS flashes those are intended for fixing very specific issues not really related to 3d performance, but more like bugs with certain other products or monitors. You have double lifetime warranty coverage for each card as long as nothing has been done to void warranty coverage. Thanks, Michael
> ...



If you flashed the BIOS back to the original bios from a backup, can they tell it had been altered to begin with?


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 6, 2011)

daggeronebravo said:


> is it possible to OC a modded 6950 bios (unlocked shaders only) to 6970 clocks without voltage increase?



This is exactly what I have done with my asus card. Works a treat @ 6970 speeds and 1.0V. I also use MSI Afterburner to gradually increase fan speed so it's quiet most of the time but as said earlier I'm going to stick a Zalman vf3000a I have on there when I get the time. 

I don't know if the asus card has better components as it is OC edition (only 810MHz), and voltage tweakable so might have better memory? Once fitted with better cooling I might test further with voltage increases but tbh I'm perfectly happy with stock 6970 speeds


----------



## daggeronebravo (Jan 6, 2011)

tecnoworld said:


> possible, but not highly probable. E.g. My 6950 with modded BIOS can reach 865Mhz stable, while at 880Mhz would lock down in Crysis. I'd like to be able to overvolt it to 1.175v and see if this solves, but I don't know how to do that.
> 
> Memory is not a big issue, since it doesn't almost affect performance.



What about setting powertune to like 15% or something? what would that do?


----------



## rzayas28 (Jan 6, 2011)

bystander said:


> If you flashed the BIOS back to the original bios from a backup, can they tell it had been altered to begin with?



That is a good question, but I cannot exactly come out and ask them that...kwim?


----------



## sleid (Jan 6, 2011)

i flashed 6950 with modded bios only for shaders, and clocks are as default 6950... should i put + 20 power for shaders only or can i stay at 0?


----------



## Qed (Jan 6, 2011)

sleid said:


> i flashed 6950 with modded bios only for shaders, and clocks are as default 6950... should i put + 20 power for shaders only or can i stay at 0?



You can stay at +0% the 2 more pipe unlocked are less than 1/12 of the die surface, for the die structere it means less than 1/12 than the power increase IF the gpu is fully used and i'm not talking about the usage shown on the software tools (very unlickely in any real application/game).

The total power consumption fo the card is mainly splitted between gpu and gddr3 blocks. I would be surprised if it will go over  2-3%.

Anyway, just monitor your card frequency while playing/benchmarking. If it satays at full speed, your power settings are fine. If not try to rise it a bit.


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 6, 2011)

rzayas28 said:


> That is a good question, but I cannot exactly come out and ask them that...kwim?



I can only speak from personal experience but I have returned 3 or 4 cards after bad flashes by restoring the origional Bios and have never failed to get replacement, therefore I beleive that providing it is the origional there is no way to trace that a flash has occured.


----------



## abirdie4me (Jan 6, 2011)

tecnoworld said:


> 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. How can I do that again?



At what point in Crysis did you have problems?  I was having all kinds of issues at the final scene, then ran across some posts talking about DX10 memory leaks.  I changed Crysis to run at DX9 and it ran perfectly!


----------



## ASpectuk (Jan 6, 2011)

Hey, neither method is working for me ;/
what to do? http://i.imgur.com/lTisF.jpg

oh and http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/11/01/06/h9k.png


----------



## Qed (Jan 6, 2011)

ASpectuk said:


> Hey, neither method is working for me ;/
> what to do? http://i.imgur.com/lTisF.jpg
> 
> oh and http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/11/01/06/h9k.png



Did you run your prompt as administrator?
Try just to unlock the bios form the prompt and flash the card using the gui utility. Is your card in the 1st slot?


----------



## ASpectuk (Jan 6, 2011)

Qed said:


> Did you run your prompt as administrator?
> Try just to unlock the bios form the prompt and flash the card using the gui utility. Is your card in the 1st slot?



Yes.
Tried that & I still get the same ID mismatch error 
Yes.
Not sure what to think of this, thanks for your help anyway mate


----------



## Qed (Jan 6, 2011)

ASpectuk said:


> Yes.
> Tried that & I still get the same ID mismatch error
> Yes.
> Not sure what to think of this, thanks for your help anyway mate



The "SubsistemID mismatch" might be related to the bios you are flashing. Did you try W1zzrd script to modify your current bios to enable shaders?


----------



## ASpectuk (Jan 6, 2011)

Qed said:


> The "SubsistemID mismatch" might be related to the bios you are flashing. Did you try W1zzrd script to modify your current bios to enable shaders?



no I didn't, seemed to have missed this mind linking it?


----------



## Qed (Jan 6, 2011)

ASpectuk said:


> no I didn't, seemed to have missed this mind linking it?



 How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

Extract your bios with gpu-z, run the script on it, flash it back.


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 6, 2011)

daggeronebravo said:


> What about setting powertune to like 15% or something? what would that do?



I'm currently using triXX and it doesn't feature the possibility of setting powertune (and when triXX operates, the feature disappeares from the CCC). Any way of implementing it at the same time?

anyway I'm looking forward to the possibility of overvolting the GPU


----------



## Mp0wer (Jan 6, 2011)

XFX 6950


----------



## bystander (Jan 6, 2011)

abirdie4me said:


> At what point in Crysis did you have problems?  I was having all kinds of issues at the final scene, then ran across some posts talking about DX10 memory leaks.  I changed Crysis to run at DX9 and it ran perfectly!



Ya, the end of Crysis is a major issue on memory leaks.

Everywhere else has a minor memory leak I believe.  If I play long enough, I always end up with a slow down.  Turning off Aero helps prolong the memory leak.


----------



## stevec (Jan 6, 2011)

W1zzard, you can add another Asus 6950 to the list.

Unlocked absolutely fine using Rui's modded Asus bios. Currently running at stock 6970 clocks at 1.1v. Completely stable and haven't noticed any issues after a couple of days of benching/gaming.

Temp wise it idles 35-40c, however hits 90c in furmark with the fan on auto. Waiting for there to be a decent option for cooling the VRMs then i'll be slapping my T-RAD2 on there to see if that makes a difference.


----------



## stevec (Jan 6, 2011)

Also, not sure if it will work for people not running Asus cards, however after I enabled "unofficial overclocking" in Asus SmartDoctor, I can now set up to 1620 core and 2500 mem in CCC now - saves fannying around with afterburner and the like. Haven't gone past stock 6970 clocks yet as temps under full load get a bit toasty, but once cooling is sorted will see how high I can go.

Uninstalled SmartDoctor and CCC is still unlocked, so if people can get SmartDoctor to run with their card (flashed with an Asus bios?) it might do the trick for them too.


----------



## bystander (Jan 6, 2011)

I attempted to use the ASUS bios.  That aspect worked, but unfortunately, I couldn't use Smartdoctor.  It kept telling me it couldn't find an ASUS card.


----------



## Kimo P (Jan 6, 2011)

bystander said:


> I attempted to use the ASUS bios.  That aspect worked, but unfortunately, I couldn't use Smartdoctor.  It kept telling me it couldn't find an ASUS card.



I had the exact same prob!

Further, when i look in ATI overdrive in CCC, the current values is listed as follows

GPU clock  : 250mhz
Mem clock : 150mhz 

and should be as the default GPU=810/Mem=1275 wich is default, wich also is listed correct
in GPU-z

Is this the power saving thing, that throttles back the card ??


----------



## dom99 (Jan 7, 2011)

Kimo P said:


> I had the exact same prob!
> 
> Further, when i look in ATI overdrive in CCC, the current values is listed as follows
> 
> ...



yes it is the idle clocks to save power, when u run a 3d ap you will see 810/1275


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 7, 2011)

Ok, I just put the 6950 w/ unlocked shaders Asus bios on my Gigabyte 6950. I did this because I want to use smart doctor. All seems fine, shaders are unlocked and I can use SmartDoctor, but I lot the Power Control Option in the ATI Catalyst Control center. I wanted to put that up to 20% as suggested since I will be overclocking, but it's not there. Why is it gone? Do I need the power control option if I am manually upping the voltage via Smart Doctor? Without the Power Control Slider, and without it being at 20%, will my card get throttled back if its not getting enough power??
- Mike


----------



## PopcornMachine (Jan 7, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> I wanted to put that up to 20% as suggested since I will be overclocking, but it's not there. Why is it gone?



My experience is that you can only set the power tune option if you are not using any other overclocking tool.


----------



## sirbaili (Jan 7, 2011)

Hi people.
After 2 days of experimenting here are the conclusions:
I have 2 sapphire HD6950 cards - I have Flashed with modded asus HD6950 Bios, which enables only hidden shaders - afterward I installed asus smartdoctor that unlocks higher frequencies in Catalyst.
Without upping VCore I am running both cards stable 915 - 1375.
My Graphics score in 3dmark11:  http://3dmark.com/3dm11/369311   --  9113
Its very important to note that you should only be concerned with Graphics score and not with overall score which is very much CPU Bound(physics and stuff)and is irrelevant for assessing Video cards real muscle.

Hope this helps.


----------



## abirdie4me (Jan 7, 2011)

sirbaili said:


> Hi people.
> After 2 days of experimenting here are the conclusions:
> I have 2 sapphire HD6950 cards - I have Flashed with modded asus HD6950 Bios, which enables only hidden shaders - afterward I installed asus smartdoctor that unlocks higher frequencies in Catalyst.
> Without upping VCore I am running both cards stable 915 - 1375.
> ...



I also have 2 sapphire 6950 in crossfire, however they are flashed to 6970 bios.  My 3DMark11 graphics score is about 300 points higher than your at the same settings, I wonder if the extra voltage in the 6970 bios is helping me get a higher score with the same card setup?


----------



## sirbaili (Jan 7, 2011)

abirdie4me said:


> I also have 2 sapphire 6950 in crossfire, however they are flashed to 6970 bios.  My 3DMark11 graphics score is about 300 points higher than your at the same settings, I wonder if the extra voltage in the 6970 bios is helping me get a higher score with the same card setup?



*****  what are your Core/memory speeds?
if those are same  -  I guess answer is yes. However I noticed one more thing - when I was using Asus 6970 Bios My scores in Furmark Actually increased when I was down-clocking cards.

May be it's related to stability - despite the fact that I was running furmark with 975/1400.
The problem arises while playing Bad company 2 - I had artifacts at the beginning of the game but not during the game.


----------



## bbjayo (Jan 7, 2011)

Beany said:


> EDIT: forget this post. got it working!



Hey Beany - How did you get it to flash. I'm having the same issue in win 7 x64. 

Batch file or manually via cmd appear to work but gpuz still shows 1408 shaders after flash.

bb


----------



## stevec (Jan 7, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Ok, I just put the 6950 w/ unlocked shaders Asus bios on my Gigabyte 6950. I did this because I want to use smart doctor. All seems fine, shaders are unlocked and I can use SmartDoctor, but I lot the Power Control Option in the ATI Catalyst Control center. I wanted to put that up to 20% as suggested since I will be overclocking, but it's not there. Why is it gone? Do I need the power control option if I am manually upping the voltage via Smart Doctor? Without the Power Control Slider, and without it being at 20%, will my card get throttled back if its not getting enough power??
> - Mike



Once you've "enabled unofficial overclocking" in Asus SmartDoctor, uninstall it. I'm pretty sure my PowerTune bar went missing while I was fiddling but it's back now, so I can only assume that PopcornMachine is right and that it disappears if you're using a 3rd party OC tool.

Give it a try and lemme know if it works.


----------



## Qed (Jan 7, 2011)

Anyone else experiencing high clock of the Sapphire 6950 in idle? I'm talking with only shaders unlocked.

I found 4 profiles in the bios:

00:
GPU 800 MHz
RAM 1250 MHz

01:
GPU 150 MHz
RAM 150 MHz

*02:*
GPU 500 MHz
RAM 1250 MHz

03:
GPU 725 MHz
RAM 1250 MHz


The card is using the profile 02 in idle and not the 01. My HD5870 has a normal behave, it is using the profile 01.

*01:*
GPU 157 MHz
RAM 300 MHz


----------



## rzayas28 (Jan 7, 2011)

*Zalman vf3000a*



Mark22 said:


> This is exactly what I have done with my asus card. Works a treat @ 6970 speeds and 1.0V. I also use MSI Afterburner to gradually increase fan speed so it's quiet most of the time but as said earlier I'm going to stick a Zalman vf3000a I have on there when I get the time.



Mark22,

Would you mind posting your experience with that cooler once installed?  There is a review at Tom's Hardware on Thermalrights Shaman VGA cooler that gives it high marks, but just on the GPU cooling part.  It says that you have to buy another cooler for the chips on the back part of the card.  I got this from XFX support:

[ 12/28/2010 6:11:41 PM] I was reading a review of Thermalright`s Shaman VGA cooler which is compatible with the 6950 at http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/aftermarket-vga-cooling-shaman,2797-2.html, but was unsure how I would get it on the card. If I open the casing on the card, does that void the 2 x Lifetime warranty? I also ran Furmark in stability mode with xtreme burn settings and 8x AA and the cards got up to 85c before I got scared and stopped Furmark. What is the max temp I should allow them to get to before shutting them off?
[DANIEL_E 12/30/2010 12:49:39 AM] Hi, you may change or remove the cooler on the video card as well as adjust the clock speeds through software e.g. riva tuner, etc... However any physical damage caused to the card by affixing a 3rd party cooler to the video card will not be covered (i.e. say a capacitor was damaged or knocked off the card during the installation of a 3rd party cooler, water damage from a water cooling leak, etc.). If you need warranty service then as long as the fault occurred during normal use the card will be covered under warranty. Ensure you keep all of the stock components for the video card as before we can offer any warranty service the video card must be returned to 100% original condition (i.e. ensure you remove any 3rd party products and affix the stock factory parts back on the card) before returning the card to us. The card must also have been registered within 30 days of the purchase date to quality for the double lifetime warranty. If you`re not seeing 95c or higher I wouldn`t worry. Daniel


----------



## Icer Jo (Jan 7, 2011)

b4 I unlocked 1 of my Sapphire 6950's, only time I've seen a card use profile 01 was in crossfire it would put my 2nd card in that state or it would just turn it down to zero.


----------



## Shrike (Jan 7, 2011)

*Starcraft 2 freeze*

Hey Guys,

i did the Biosflash and everything went well (Powercolor).
I tested Crysis, Furmark, Unigine Heaven, 3DMark and everysingle one went trough without any problems.
But in SC2 the game freezes after starting a game.
On low or middle details it goes well but on high or Ultra details not only the game but the pc freezes and restart ist necessary.
I tryied 850 Mhz but it didnt help and i tried to cool the card better but even if the temps aint higher than 55 °C the pc freezes after about 5 minutes.
I even tried blocking the framerate and Vsync on/off.
Dunno what to do now... ):

Please help 

Shrike


----------



## Bensam123 (Jan 7, 2011)

Turn the GPU down to 800 and the memory down to 1250, the default speeds.


----------



## Shrike (Jan 7, 2011)

Hmm works well so far Bensam, but why is SC2 having such problems while other programms/games dont...
Any ideas?


----------



## Qed (Jan 7, 2011)

Shrike said:


> Hmm works well so far Bensam, but why is SC2 having such problems while other programms/games dont...
> Any ideas?



It seems like you dont wanna be helped.


----------



## Shrike (Jan 7, 2011)

Oh, u got that wrong 
i did what he said and THAT works fine now 
Though why is sc2 having such problems?

Sorry


----------



## Qed (Jan 7, 2011)

Shrike said:


> Oh, u got that wrong
> i did what he said and THAT works fine now
> Though why is sc2 having such problems?
> 
> Sorry




Starcraft 2 on Ultra settings is a pretty heavy game. Most likely is a RAM problem, try lowering the frequency, your GPU should be fine @ the 6970 frequency and vcore. If you can provide a screenshot it will be easyer to understand the cause.


----------



## Jynks (Jan 7, 2011)

Hey All,

Confirming 2 x Gigabyte 6950s unlocked with shader unlocked ASUS 6950 BIOS, may overclock them a tiny bit.

Big thanks to Wizzard for the walkthorugh, Rui for the modded BIOS, and whoever discovered this (Dave?), and to everyone else for the feedback and troubleshooting in this thread!

THANKS!


----------



## Qed (Jan 7, 2011)

Icer Jo said:


> b4 I unlocked 1 of my Sapphire 6950's, only time I've seen a card use profile 01 was in crossfire it would put my 2nd card in that state or it would just turn it down to zero.



If my browser is open and not minimized (Mozilla), my videocard is running at full speed even if i have only 1 tab open and it is the hope page of www.google.com 

I know browsers are integrating the gpu acceleration, but srsly... full speed to view a static page?


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 7, 2011)

I'm eagerly waiting for some tool able to change voltage to the GPU for non Asus cards. Is there anything like that, right now?


----------



## hd6950 (Jan 7, 2011)

Flashed sapphire hd6950. After 2 hours of gameplay got somekind of artifacts in 3d. Flashed back to old. Still artifacts. Lower clocks. still artifacts. Switched to 2nd bios. Still artifacts. Installed new drivers. Still artifact. Dirt2 isn't going to 5760 x 1080 res. anymore.


----------



## Icer Jo (Jan 7, 2011)

Qed said:


> If my browser is open and not minimized (Mozilla), my videocard is running at full speed even if i have only 1 tab open and it is the hope page of www.google.com
> 
> I know browsers are integrating the gpu acceleration, but srsly... full speed to view a static page?



I know that I read a couple pages back that if you turned down the power then  it would stay at a lower clock more often but that can also affect you game play where u need the higher clock.


----------



## abirdie4me (Jan 7, 2011)

sirbaili said:


> *****  what are your Core/memory speeds?
> if those are same  -  I guess answer is yes. However I noticed one more thing - when I was using Asus 6970 Bios My scores in Furmark Actually increased when I was down-clocking cards.
> 
> May be it's related to stability - despite the fact that I was running furmark with 975/1400.
> The problem arises while playing Bad company 2 - I had artifacts at the beginning of the game but not during the game.



I set my cards to the same speeds you listed (915/ 1375, I think) and ran 3DMark11.  I can run every benchmark and game for hours with no artifacts at 950/1450 as long as I keep the fan cranked up.  I guess I got lucky with 2 really good cards. I've created several profiles now for different games, as only Metro 2033 and Crysis really need the higher clocks.  I keep the settings around 900 / 1300 for most games since there is no noticible difference in frame rates and I can keep the fan turned down (and not go deaf!).

That sucks about the artifacts in Bad Company...but I bet it still runs silky smooth for you at 915/1375.


----------



## abirdie4me (Jan 7, 2011)

Qed said:


> Anyone else experiencing high clock of the Sapphire 6950 in idle? I'm talking with only shaders unlocked.
> 
> I found 4 profiles in the bios:
> 
> ...



Are you running 2 monitors?


----------



## bystander (Jan 7, 2011)

Qed said:


> Anyone else experiencing high clock of the Sapphire 6950 in idle? I'm talking with only shaders unlocked.
> 
> I found 4 profiles in the bios:
> 
> ...



I think you are experiencing the same issue I had a while back in the thread.  You are using Internet Explorer and viewed an Adobe Flash video.  For some odd reason, when you do this, the voltage on the card changes to 1.000, and the clocks are set to 500/1250 (or 500/1350 if you are using the 6970 bios) regardless of what you have it set for.   What is worse is the clocks will not go into 3D mode.

If you chage the page with the viewed video, it goes back to normal.  I installed Mozilla Firefox and that stopped the madness.


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 7, 2011)

hd6950 said:


> Flashed sapphire hd6950. After 2 hours of gameplay got somekind of artifacts in 3d. Flashed back to old. Still artifacts. Lower clocks. still artifacts. Switched to 2nd bios. Still artifacts. Installed new drivers. Still artifact. Dirt2 isn't going to 5760 x 1080 res. anymore.
> 
> [url]http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/2867/naamloos2e.jpg[/URL]



you could have produced a damage to the memory, if you flashed your card to the 6970 bios. I'd advise everyone to flash just to the modified 6950 bios, instead, which unlocks the shaders, but doesn't touch the memory


----------



## tl.dr (Jan 7, 2011)

with an unlocked 6950 shader bios, how do you overclock past 840, 1325 ? thats the limit in CCC and asusu smartdoctor


----------



## baud (Jan 7, 2011)

tl.dr said:


> with an unlocked 6950 shader bios, how do you overclock past 840, 1325 ? thats the limit in CCC and asusu smartdoctor



it looks like you need to do some research Mr. tl.dr.


----------



## tl.dr (Jan 7, 2011)

this thread is 35 pages long  you could just tell me


----------



## baud (Jan 7, 2011)

tl.dr said:


> this thread is 35 pages long  you could just tell me



true, but the answer to your question isn't in this discussion.  just play around with smart doctor, you'll find it.


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 7, 2011)

tl.dr: use triXX, afterburner os smart doctor. They'll all let you go beyond those limits, but unfortunately no tool will let you overvolt your card, unless it's an asus.


----------



## Qed (Jan 7, 2011)

bystander said:


> I think you are experiencing the same issue I had a while back in the thread.  You are using Internet Explorer and viewed an Adobe Flash video.  For some odd reason, when you do this, the voltage on the card changes to 1.000, and the clocks are set to 500/1250 (or 500/1350 if you are using the 6970 bios) regardless of what you have it set for.   What is worse is the clocks will not go into 3D mode.
> 
> If you chage the page with the viewed video, it goes back to normal.  I installed Mozilla Firefox and that stopped the madness.



Flash 10 is using 3D acceleration, i'm having that on a simple HTML 4 page :-/ If i remember correctly you had your frequency jumping while browsing, mine is pretty steary at max, i think it's a drivers issue.




abirdie4me said:


> Are you running 2 monitors?



Yes :-(





hd6950 said:


> Flashed sapphire hd6950. After 2 hours of gameplay got somekind of artifacts in 3d. Flashed back to old. Still artifacts. Lower clocks. still artifacts. Switched to 2nd bios. Still artifacts. Installed new drivers. Still artifact. Dirt2 isn't going to 5760 x 1080 res. anymore.
> 
> [url]http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/2867/naamloos2e.jpg[/URL]



Did you flash it with a 6970 bios? If yes, you most likely fried your card. If you want to play on that resolution i suggest you to get 2xHD6950 in crossfire with only shaders unlocked.
The 3 different resistors on the 2 card are very close to the VRM and may cause a wrong voltage once you flash the 6950 with the 6970 bios.


----------



## BZB (Jan 7, 2011)

Qed said:


> Anyone else experiencing high clock of the Sapphire 6950 in idle? I'm talking with only shaders unlocked.
> 
> I found 4 profiles in the bios:
> 
> ...



If you're getting profile 2, then your card isn't fully idling.  There is probably something running that is using video processing, like a browser running the latest version of Flash, a TV card or other video app that uses hardware acceleration.

For instance, I get profile 1 with nothing much running, but I get profile 2 when my TV card is running.


----------



## Ecto Plasma (Jan 7, 2011)

*Successful Unlock on a PowerColor HD6950*

I used the HD6970 BIOS posted in the article and used CCC to OC to 950MHz on the GPU and 1450MHz on the RAM. I ran furmark on stress mode for 9 hours and never reached above 73C with the fan manually set @ 70%. Crysis Warhead runs @ ~35FPS @ 1080P 8xAA! (Finally) No artifacts so far. I picked this card up for $300CAD (taxes included).


----------



## yonef (Jan 7, 2011)

Is there any chance we can edit these profiles. I do not need my GPU to run 500 Mhz just to keep up with the flash, right? I'm using GPU-Z to monitor GPU load and when card is clocked to 500/1375 GPU load is 1-3% (shocked) I can do hardware acceleration on flash even on 250/150, right? So why AMD put the GPU clock that high? I wish I had a chance to lower that power profile to lets say 300/150. I'm sure some low-end cards will struggle to do HW-accelerated flash on idle clock, but this is cayman GPU, we have 1536 shaders to deal with damn flash.
Is there any chance to edit these power states, especially profile 02 ?!


----------



## f0d (Jan 7, 2011)

hi all
i went out and bought a sapphire 6950 as soon as i saw this mod, i flashed the asus 6970 on it and tested to make sure it was reliable
the memory doesnt increase score when i lower the clocks (i have noticed with ddr5 that theres no artifacts when going too far with memory - just reduced performance) - 1375 mem any higher clocks and i get reduced performance and lower clocks i get reduced performance also (so it JUST does 1375) - i also tested with max AA as possible to stress as much vidmem as possible

940mhz core - tested this for 5 hours of looping 3dmark and around 10 hours of playing battlefield bad company 2 

*BUT*
i cant get the asus smartdoctor software running -i definatly have the asus bios it says so in GPU-Z






im even running the asus driver from the website just incase that made a difference
but all i get when trying smartdoctor is "error - can not find graphics card information"




anyone have any ideas why it wont work?

thank you to everyone who made this mod possible - i missed out on the 9500's and i wasnt going to miss out on this one


----------



## Qed (Jan 7, 2011)

yonef said:


> Is there any chance we can edit these profiles. I do not need my GPU to run 500 Mhz just to keep up with the flash, right? I'm using GPU-Z to monitor GPU load and when card is clocked to 500/1375 GPU load is 1-3% (shocked) I can do hardware acceleration on flash even on 250/150, right? So why AMD put the GPU clock that high? I wish I had a chance to lower that power profile to lets say 300/150. I'm sure some low-end cards will struggle to do HW-accelerated flash on idle clock, but this is cayman GPU, we have 1536 shaders to deal with damn flash.
> Is there any chance to edit these power states, especially profile 02 ?!



You will be able to change these prfiles as RBE will support 69xx cards, but you should not touch anything.
Profiles are set by drivers and changing a profile but not letting know to the driver is a bad idea. Just wait for the next drivers (we are using a modded version of the 10.11) and see how's going. My HD5870 is perfectly fine and i expect catalyst 11.1 will fix this issue on the 6950.


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 7, 2011)

agree. Newer driver and newer RBE are needed! 

I'd like to increase voltage for the GPU to 1.175v asap.


----------



## LagunaX (Jan 8, 2011)

*HIS Radeon HD 6950*

Out of the box switched jumper to bios position 1.
Required the atiwinflash unlock rom before it would flash.
Quick and dirty stability test for artifacts is 3dMark11 Demo#2 (won't artifact in benchmark tests but will artifact in the demo test 2 if not stable...)
Stock:




Modded Shader bios:




HIS 6970 bios:





Stock:




Modded Shader bios:




HIS 6970 bios:





Stable on HIS 6970 bios 

Thanks again W1zzard!


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 8, 2011)

By the way, @LagunaX, use the latest version of GPU-Z (0.50) to get the correct displayed info.


----------



## abirdie4me (Jan 8, 2011)

Qed, try disabling your 2nd monitor in CCC and watch your temperatures drop.  I idle at 38 degrees with one monitor running, 56 with 2 monitors on.  And that's with NOTHING running, including IE and flash.


----------



## buddatech (Jan 8, 2011)

Thanks to all that made this flash/mod possible! I successfully flashed two XFX 6950's with XFX 6970 BIOS  Torture tested them for 3 days now, super stable even @900/1400 "like a rock" 

I was really on the fence about 2 GTX 580's and 2 HD6970's for my 3x 30" 3007's and this mod made my decision a bit easier... with the money saved I may just grab a 3rd 6950 and unlock 

Edit:
Only draw back for now is that I'm running them @ 16x 8x otherwise top card cooks at about 96c

Idle temps: 37-38c top and 34-35c bottom card
Load temps: 90-92c top and 88-90c bottom card

Ambient temps between 20 and 23c


----------



## bystander (Jan 8, 2011)

abirdie4me said:


> Qed, try disabling your 2nd monitor in CCC and watch your temperatures drop.  I idle at 38 degrees with one monitor running, 56 with 2 monitors on.  And that's with NOTHING running, including IE and flash.



Just in case you aren't aware of why this is.  When two monitors are hooked up, it has to run at higher clock speeds, particularly the memory, or the 2nd monitor will have bad flickering when anything changes on it.  This is also something that Nvidia cards do for the same reason.


----------



## bladerunner_tr (Jan 8, 2011)

dudes, gddr5 ram used at 6950 are 5000 mhz , but 6970 has got 6000 mhz, check hynix , so, there is a problem, or will be. im having some artifacts seldomly. GPU is ok but ram is not.


----------



## buddatech (Jan 8, 2011)

I guess it really depends on luck of the draw, although it's still too early to tell for those who have been successful. Just like not all CPU's will overclock using low voltage or even high clocks with moderate to high voltage.


----------



## calvinbui (Jan 8, 2011)

im starting to get rendering errors now :S default clocks

edit: i think its a dx11/dx10 error, im not getting it on dx9
edit2: on stock, no error. once shaders are unlocked = error i'll try and get up some screenshots of it


----------



## Flak (Jan 8, 2011)

I had my 6950 flashed to a 6970.  But with all the memory scare (propoganda?  lol) in the various forums I downloaded afterburner and tried underclocking the memory back to 6950 speeds.  But in my case underclocking the memory by even 1mhz introduced stuttering in games and benchmarks (this happened on my particular card with any 6970 bios I tried).

So I flashed to a modified 6950 bios.  I tried Asus first to use smartdoctor.  Smartdoctor loads and lets me overclock, but changing the voltage doesn't seem to actually affect anything (that or gpu-z v0.5.0 isn't showing the change).  With or without smartdoctor my max core clock with the 6950 bios is the same as it was for the 6970 bios (which is 940core so far) but with the added bonus that the card in general runs much much cooler now across all temps shown in gpu-z.


----------



## Bensam123 (Jan 8, 2011)

You know you could cut out almost all these problems if someone edited the article that this thread is linked from, that tells everyone to flash it to the 880/1375 6970 Bios. Instead everyone is unlocking their shaders and overclocking their memory obviously more then it can handle.



Shrike said:


> Oh, u got that wrong
> i did what he said and THAT works fine now
> Though why is sc2 having such problems?
> 
> Sorry



SC2 uses more of your GPU and stresses your card harder then most games, since it is newer. You'd probably encounter similar issues in Bad Company 2 or Crysis if you have them. The memory clock speed is too high, thats why everyone is having stability problems.


----------



## bystander (Jan 8, 2011)

Bensam123 said:


> You know you could cut out almost all these problems if someone edited the article that this thread is linked from, that tells everyone to flash it to the 880/1375 6970 Bios. Instead everyone is unlocking their shaders and overclocking their memory obviously more then it can handle.
> 
> 
> 
> SC2 uses more of your GPU and stresses your card harder then most games, since it is newer. You'd probably encounter similar issues in Bad Company 2 or Crysis if you have them. The memory clock speed is too high, thats why everyone is having stability problems.



You might want to say, some people.  Most people aren't having memory issues, just a few that are posting.  Most are happily playing.


----------



## turbobeta (Jan 8, 2011)

Bensam123 said:


> You know you could cut out almost all these problems if someone edited the article that this thread is linked from, that tells everyone to flash it to the 880/1375 6970 Bios. Instead everyone is unlocking their shaders and overclocking their memory obviously more then it can handle.



Agreed. I think that using the 6970 bios which runs the memory at different voltages, clocks, and timings, is the source of almost everyone's problems. After flashing to modified 6950, all my problems are gone.


----------



## Qed (Jan 8, 2011)

Anyone with a Sapphire 6950 remeber the position of the BIOS switch when you get it our of the box?




abirdie4me said:


> Qed, try disabling your 2nd monitor in CCC and watch your temperatures drop.  I idle at 38 degrees with one monitor running, 56 with 2 monitors on.  And that's with NOTHING running, including IE and flash.



It was a Crossfire problem, i removed 1 card and how it's at 450 MHz with browser and some othe stuff opened. The 2nd monitor still connected.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 8, 2011)

Flak said:


> Smartdoctor loads and lets me overclock, but changing the voltage doesn't seem to actually affect anything (that or gpu-z v0.5.0 isn't showing the change).



GPU-Z v0.50 doesn't show the voltage change, although it is applied. You can detect it by the temperature increases and the higher withhold when possibly increasing the clocks which was previously before unstable.



Qed said:


> Anyone with a Sapphire 6950 remeber the position of the BIOS switch when you get it our of the box?



I don't know why, maybe it is actually like this, although, mine was set to the 2nd, which is the read-only BIOS.


----------



## f0d (Jan 8, 2011)

so nobody else has this error when trying to use smartdoctor and the asus bios?






bystander said:


> You might want to say, some people.  Most people aren't having memory issues, just a few that are posting.  Most are happily playing.


very true - this (now) 6970 has been rock solid through at least 12+ hours (so far) of bfbc2 and 6+hours hour looping 3dmark11 with 8xAA to stress the memory more


Qed said:


> Anyone with a Sapphire 6950 remeber the position of the BIOS switch when you get it our of the box?


mine was in position 1


----------



## Jynks (Jan 8, 2011)

Update: Crossfired 6950 gigabytes shader unlocked to Rui's modded asus 6950 bios with an i7 950 OC'd to 4Ghz are giving me P8600 in 3DMark11.

This is Ok i guess but i have seen people with crossfired 5870s getting slightly above P9000 which is a bit disconcerting.... OCing my cards to maxed clocks without tweaking the voltage makes no difference to the score....

Must be a way I can improve their performance...


----------



## whippoorwill (Jan 8, 2011)

Bought a Sapphire 6950 for 250 euro, flashed it with the 6970 bios. All worked well, no problem in games. I ran Furmark the whole night (12 hours) no crashing.  However I have run in to a few anomalies.

GPU-Z, Speccy and CCC seems my card as the 6970 (6900 series) but other programs like Furmark, dxdiag and 3Dmark see my card as the 5700 series.  

When I was using the Winflash or RBE utility it was telling me that I'm using the 5700 series. Again 

Personally I think it's a problem with the drivers. I did a clean install (DriverSweaper and CCleaner) of both 10.12 and 10.12a hotfix and it gave me the same issues. When I had no drivers installed it showed my card as Standard VGA or Standard ATI VGA

My results so far
*Furmark*
I ran Furmark for 12 hours my results on 1920x1080 were max temp 91 and average fps 87.

*Heaven*
min 16 fps, max 68, average 35 fps (total of 899 points) Not sure if thats good but I was expecting better scores. Most likely the driver.

*
3Dmark Vantage and 3Dmark11*
3Dmark 11 was really poor with only 4500 points (and about 10 fps on average in all the tests) Vantage gave me better results but it was about 20~25% better than my old 4850. Again I blame the driver for this.

*Gaming *
I played several games: Crysis, Amnesia, Mass Effect 2, Bad Company 2, Dirt 2. All of the games detected my card as the 5700 series. Performance was good but I still had a feeling I wasn't getting everything from the card.

*Overclocking*
I did a light overclock from 880/1375 + 10% to 900/1400 + 10% with no problems in games or Furmark (4 hours)

*Tweaking fan speeds.*
I saw a user suggesting using RBE to modify the fanspeeds in the BIOS and I did so but I didn't see any change. 80 degrees should have been running at 50% but ran at 42%. So no joy until the new RBE comes out.

*
Conclusion*
I'm quite insecure/disappointed about the performance and the weird anomalies I'm getting but I'm almost certain it's the current driver issue. Hopefully the new 11.1 driver will have proper 6900 series support and bring me better results. If not I might be considering a move to Nvidia

EDIT:

I made a screenshot with the card detection anomaly.


----------



## Kaali (Jan 8, 2011)

@whippoorwill

I think your results are good ! 

Mine on Heaven with a sapphire 6950 with unlock shader bios and oc @ 840 GPU , 1325 Memory :


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 8, 2011)

Alright, well I thought I had the setup I wanted. I put on the modded 6950 Asus bios so the memory info would be the same and planned on using SmartDoctor to up the voltage and speeds to 6970 speeds. All works fine except for one issue. SmartDoctor doesn't save the GPU voltage after reboot. It saves the overclock, still runs my custom fan settings, but doesn't save the voltage, it just puts it back to stock 1.1v after reboot. Any ideas on how to fix this, or any other program that can adjust the voltage and save it on reboot??
- Mike


----------



## ghisisan (Jan 8, 2011)

*ASUS6950 successfully unlocked to ASUS6970 BIOS*

Hi. 

Count me in with an unlocked ASUS6950.
Everything was smooth ans simple. After the bios update(I used the original ASUS6970 version), I restarted the system, my card was found without any problems. CPU-Z reports it as unlocked(shaders, CPU & Memory speeds), and the nI went to CCC and set +10% power.

I have run 3DMark11 several times for the last couple hours on extreme settings, no artifacts.

3DMark11 Extreme settings score on Asus6950: 1506 
3DMark11 Extreme settings score on Asus6950 unlocked: 1736 

Looks good for me  I will test it further and let you know if something goes wrong.

P.S. I wanned the Gigabyte version of the card, but I coud no find it on stock so I had to chose between Asus and Saphire.... I really trus Asus more when it comes to quality.

Thanks a lot TechPowerup!

Cheers!


----------



## Shrike (Jan 8, 2011)

turbobeta said:


> Agreed. I think that using the 6970 bios which runs the memory at different voltages, clocks, and timings, is the source of almost everyone's problems. After flashing to modified 6950, all my problems are gone.



Hey guys,
i got a problem with a crashing Sapphire in Starcraft 2.
I read that its probably a problem with the memory and now i would like to knwo what this modified 6950 bios is and where i can download it(didnt find anything on the mainpage/blind?)?
Do i have the full 1536 shaders, the 880 and 1350 Mhz but the voltages, clocks and timings of 6950?
Did i get that right?

Thanks,
Shrike


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 8, 2011)

Shrike said:


> Hey guys,
> i got a problem with a crashing Sapphire in Starcraft 2.
> I read that its probably a problem with the memory and now i would like to knwo what this modified 6950 bios is and where i can download it(didnt find anything on the mainpage/blind?)?
> Do i have the full 1536 shaders, the 880 and 1350 Mhz but the voltages, clocks and timings of 6950?
> ...



Browse through or search through this thread. There is a program script posted to modify your stock bios as well as links to several 6950 modified bioses that have the shaders unlocked with everything else left alone (stock 6950 voltages/memtimings/speeds)


----------



## Shrike (Jan 8, 2011)

Yo,

i found and installed it.
Went well. Gonna try out Starcraft 2 now...
1 thing left:
MSI Afterburner lets me go up to 840/1325 and thats it?!
Is there a way to go up to 880/1350, because my card didnt have any problems with that when using the 6970 bios...

thanks


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 8, 2011)

Shrike said:


> Yo,
> 
> i found and installed it.
> Went well. Gonna try out Starcraft 2 now...
> ...



Sure is. Download the modded Asus 6950 bios from this thread and flash it, then you can download Asus SmartDoctor that is listed somewhere in this thread. In Asus SmartDoctor you can go into the options and increase the mhz overclock limits. Asus SmartDoctor also allows you to set a manual fan curve in the options (highly recommended) and it allows you to adjust the voltage to the gpu. This is the only program at the moment that allows you to up the cores voltage. You must have the Asus bios to use SmartDoctor. Also, as I just found out, for Asus SmartDoctor to maintain your voltage / overclock after reboot, you must right click on its tray icon, choose settings, then click "use clock settings after reboot". And just FYI, stock 6970 GPU voltage is 1.175, 6950 is 1.100. So I'd start in Asus SmartDoctor with 1.175 (actually it makes you do 1.180).


----------



## Qed (Jan 8, 2011)

Shrike said:


> Yo,
> 
> i found and installed it.
> Went well. Gonna try out Starcraft 2 now...
> ...



Yes, it is normal. Install TriXX from Sapphire, you need version 3.0.2 or later. You might not be able to reach 880 MHz without overvoltage. RBE and TriXX will be updated soon with voltage control.
The ram speed is find at stock speed, it is already too fast for the gpu. Ppl reported 1% increase in 3dmark2011 moving from 1325 MHz to 1400 MHz.


----------



## Qed (Jan 8, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> And just FYI, stock 6970 GPU voltage is 1.175, 6950 is 1.100. So I'd start in Asus SmartDoctor with 1.175 (actually it makes you do 1.180).



That's why i woudnt use a tool for changing a very sensitive hardware parameter, like voltage, with a non supported tool. Especially when AMD heavily changed the VRM part.


----------



## Shrike (Jan 8, 2011)

Thanks for those answers, but didnt i just install the modded 6950 to get 1.1 v instead of 1.175 (6970) or am i messing up 2 different things now?!
If i use Trixx (which is for Sapphire) i cant change the voltage right now, if i use SmartDoctor i can do that, but i have to install the modded Asus 6950 bios( i didnt find that one yet, its not listed here:  http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/88845/Sapphire.HD6970.2048.101124.html )
Correct?

Edit: Can i use Trixx for the rates and Afterburner for the fan? i got to like that one


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 8, 2011)

Qed said:


> That's why i woudnt use a tool for changing a very sensitive hardware parameter, like voltage, with a non supported tool. Especially when AMD heavily changed the VRM part.



I'd prefer a better solution as well, but currently SmartDoctor is all we have for those of us that want to run a 6950 modded bios at 6970 core speeds. Some can get 6970 speeds at 1.100v, but not most. As far as my experience goes though, SmartDoctor seems to be working pretty well and does everything I need. It does my custom fan curve, custom voltage, and allows me to push my speeds over the 6950 normal limits.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 8, 2011)

Shrike said:


> Thanks for those answers, but didnt i just install the modded 6950 to get 1.1 v instead of 1.175 (6970) or am i messing up 2 different things now?!
> If i use Trixx (which is for Sapphire) i cant change the voltage right now, if i use SmartDoctor i can do that, but i have to install the modded Asus 6950 bios( i didnt find that one yet, its not listed here:  http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/88845/Sapphire.HD6970.2048.101124.html )
> Correct?



The only thing the modded 6950 bioses change is they enable the extra shaders. The voltage still remains at 1.100v (6950). The Asus bios is in this thread somewhere because I got it from here. I've attached it for you.
Also, I'd suggest only running one program to minimize any kind of conflict. SmartDoctor will do everything. I like Afterburner best for the fan curve, but I am just using SmartDoctor to do it all and it seems to be working fine.


----------



## Qed (Jan 8, 2011)

TriXX can chanve GPU freq, ram freq, fan speed and fan profile (speed depending on temperature). There is the voltage bar but you can't move it, for now.


----------



## Shrike (Jan 8, 2011)

So,
i tried the modded 6950 bios witch 840, 1325 Mhz and played SC2 for more than 1 hour!!
All my problems solved!!
Thank u all!!


----------



## manofthem (Jan 9, 2011)

Hello all, I did the flash to my XFX 6950, and I had to do it using the CMD prompt run as Administrator.  Finally worked.  Here's my GPU-Z:





Shaders are at 1536, but GPU Clock is still at 800, though default clock says 880.  Is that right?  The other pics I've seen after the flash show 880 as GPU Clock. Thanks in advance.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 9, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Hello all, I did the flash to my XFX 6950, and I had to do it using the CMD prompt run as Administrator.  Finally worked.  Here's my GPU-Z:
> http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/6950_flashed_70.gif
> Shaders are at 1536, but GPU Clock is still at 800, though default clock says 880.  Is that right?  The other pics I've seen after the flash show 880 as GPU Clock. Thanks in advance.



That's fine. It's just at a different clock rate.


----------



## f0d (Jan 9, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Hello all, I did the flash to my XFX 6950, and I had to do it using the CMD prompt run as Administrator.  Finally worked.  Here's my GPU-Z:
> http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/6950_flashed_70.gif
> Shaders are at 1536, but GPU Clock is still at 800, though default clock says 880.  Is that right?  The other pics I've seen after the flash show 880 as GPU Clock. Thanks in advance.



do you have any software running that you was using before to overclock as a 6950?

im thinking you have something like afterburner setup @ 800mhz with "apply overclocking at system startup" checked

if you do you will have to change the frequency in the program


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## yonef (Jan 9, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Hello all, I did the flash to my XFX 6950, and I had to do it using the CMD prompt run as Administrator.  Finally worked.  Here's my GPU-Z:
> http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/6950_flashed_70.gif
> Shaders are at 1536, but GPU Clock is still at 800, though default clock says 880.  Is that right?  The other pics I've seen after the flash show 880 as GPU Clock. Thanks in advance.



I had the same problem with. It is a driver problem. All I did is completely uninstall catalyst dirvers, use driversweeper, and uninstall any additional overcloking software (e.g. trixxx, msi afterburner...)  Reinstall drivers and you'r done! Never had this problem again


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 9, 2011)

Have also an XFX 6950 @ 6970 sucessfully flashed with orgl. XFX 6970 BIOS with VGPU 1,175

I mad the following realization:
Fan on auto: max 920/1450 - GPUtemp Max ca. 85°C - Fan goes often up and down from 40% to 60% (3DMark11 Demo  Loop stable - Also Furkmark stable)
Fan fixed on 60%: max 950/1450 - GPU Temp 65°C (3DMark11 Demo  Loop stable , Not tested yet with Furmark but this might be a Problem - because of hight Temps)
Once I installed the Asus mod bios I set it to 1,3 VGPU @ 950/1450 and the card ist also stable on Furnmark with this....

I found out for me that the critical Temp is around 65°C with VGPU 1,175 (Stock 6970) - If the GPUTemp goes higher then there ist not enough VGPU...

For me there is a very Linear dependency between Temp, VGPU and max GPU Clock - Of course thats not new but such a linear behaviour was not expected (for me)....

So I made an MSI Afterburner FAN courve that suits me(an my card) and everthhing is fine for now (with the XFX6970 Bios)
Silent @ 920/1450 max fan around 40% (highter Temps)
Max FPS @ 950/1450 max Fan @ 60% (Temp max 65°C)

Next to Test is Fan on 100% (o my God - there is an Jet starting ) and see how much the CPUClock will go higher! 

Cant await the Rel. of RBE 1.27 (hopefully next week as I read in another thread here) I play with VGPU again   (Hate this Asus Tool because of stuttering in benches and games)

*EDIT*

Fan 60%-65%: 950/1450 - GPU Temp 65°-70°C (Also Furmark stable - with all on: max heating,....) - Above Temp 72-73°C Furmark hangs....  So it lookes like that really critical is somewere above 70°C (with stock VGPU 1,175)

That results me 3DMark11 - P5822 - What the heck? This is a really good score for a 250,00 EUR Card, isnt it? 


All this was done with a quite good case air Flow - not too noisey but not silent at all - Kepp this in mind....


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 9, 2011)

Guys, I am having a problem I have not seen before.

Went to do some unigine benches, only to find I was getting results around half of expected benches.

This is happening with xfire and to both of the cards seperately.

My xfire score was around 2100 and is now around 1100.

Seperate the cards were also down by half.

Ive tried everything. Driver uninstall, driver clean, driver reinstall.

Failsafe bios, reflash to original saphire 6950 bios.

I am really at a loss at what could cause this. Naturally I thought it was a dead card in xfire, but both cards are fine but in someway both giving out half the performance.

Help please.


----------



## Qed (Jan 9, 2011)

bobbavet said:


> Guys, I am having a problem I have not seen before.
> 
> Went to do some unigine benches, only to find I was getting results around half of expected benches.
> 
> ...



Do you have more than 1 monitor?


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 9, 2011)

Qed said:


> Do you have more than 1 monitor?



No JUst the 1.


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## whippoorwill (Jan 9, 2011)

Wait for the new driver to come out. The current one is really buggy.


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## Qed (Jan 9, 2011)

whippoorwill said:


> Wait for the new driver to come out. The current one is really buggy.



There are benchmark of Crossfire 6950/6970. Drivers arent mature for sure, but the CF is working.


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## whippoorwill (Jan 9, 2011)

Qed said:


> There are benchmark of Crossfire 6950/6970. Drivers arent mature for sure, but the CF is working.



I know but most users aren't getting most of the card like they should. Thats why I hope that ATI/AMD will solve that issue.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 9, 2011)

yonef said:


> I had the same problem with. It is a driver problem. All I did is completely uninstall catalyst dirvers, use driversweeper, and uninstall any additional overcloking software (e.g. trixxx, msi afterburner...)  Reinstall drivers and you'r done! Never had this problem again



Well, since I didn't have any other overclocking software, I uninstalled catalyst drivers, did driversweeper, and reinstalled drivers.  I wasn't sure if I could use the same drivers that I got from xfxforce since it was for the 6950, but I did it anyway.  After the reinstall, it all works out the way it should. GPU clock now at 880.  Thanks a lot yonef


----------



## Eluder (Jan 9, 2011)

Same driver package, so no difference it'll just be the ID type probably that's different.
Either way, the Catalyst driver will detect the right card and install the appropriate driver.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 9, 2011)

Eluder said:


> Same driver package, so no difference it'll just be the ID type probably that's different.
> Either way, the Catalyst driver will detect the right card and install the appropriate driver.



Thanks man.  I wasn't sure but I went ahead and did it.  Now it's all working the way it should with the right clocks!


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## crislink (Jan 9, 2011)

my  sapphire 6950 will come in a bunch of days
do you reccomend to

1) Flash it with only shader bios and eventually OC it with some tools
2) Flash it with a HD6970 bios and let it go
3) Flash it with a Hd6970 bios and lower a bit the frequencies, expecially the ram (with CCC)


----------



## yonef (Jan 9, 2011)

crislink said:


> my  sapphire 6950 will come in a bunch of days
> do you reccomend to
> 
> 1) Flash it with only shader bios and eventually OC it with some tools
> ...



2) 99.9% of all cards are running well with 6970 bios. Do not bother lower anything.


----------



## Qed (Jan 9, 2011)

crislink said:


> my  sapphire 6950 will come in a bunch of days
> do you reccomend to
> 
> 1) Flash it with only shader bios and eventually OC it with some tools
> ...



The 1st all the way. PBCs have 3 different resistors near the VRM, imo isnt that smart to flash the card with the 6970 when you can just unlock the 2 SIMD (shaders) of your card bios.


----------



## Ph3n0m (Jan 10, 2011)

*It works! *

My XFX 6950 now has all 1536 shaders unlocked, I have it clocked at 880 Mhz core and 1375 Mhz memory, with the power bumped up 20%. No problems so far, and I have much better performance in Fallout 3 than I did with the 6950 BIOS. I'm getting well over 60 FPS now on Ultra settings, instead of the ~50 that I got before, and the framerate drops I experienced are gone. Thanks for posting this, I heard of this in the product reviews on Newegg after I'd had my 6950 for two weeks and tryed it as soon as I got home from school. I'm really glad now that I bought the 6950 instead of the 6970 and saved myself $80.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 10, 2011)

My XFX 6950/70 works great.  I did the +20% vs the +10% in the 3DMark 11, and I got a better result with the +10%.  Anyone else get similar results?

And is AMD going to fix this option with their new batch of cards?  I really want to get one ASAP, but I heard that they are going to fix this flash option...


----------



## f0d (Jan 10, 2011)

crislink said:


> my  sapphire 6950 will come in a bunch of days
> do you reccomend to
> 
> 1) Flash it with only shader bios and eventually OC it with some tools
> ...



number 2
just use a 6970 bios - thats what i did and i overclocked to 940mhz aswell 
most people are just using a 6970 bios
3dmark tested for 6+ hours with max aa to test as much memory as possible, i play battlefield bad company 2 each day for about 4-6 hours at a time with no troubles also
i even ordered a 2ND 6950 because its such an awesome deal


----------



## manofthem (Jan 10, 2011)

f0d said:


> number 2
> just use a 6970 bios - thats what i did and i overclocked to 940mhz aswell
> most people are just using a 6970 bios
> 3dmark tested for 6+ hours with max aa to test as much memory as possible, i play battlefield bad company 2 each day for about 4-6 hours at a time with no troubles also
> i even ordered a 2ND 6950 because its such an awesome deal



Did you have to  up the voltage for the GPU?  I would like to try to OC to 940.


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 10, 2011)

Guys Im still having the problem of the cards giving 1/2 scores in Unigine both in single and xfire. ie My xfire now perform the same as a single card

Now Ive done everything. Uninstall drivers, safe mode clean, reinstall drivers, use default bios, reflash bios to original Saph6950.

I consistently see 1/2 what the performances should be on the cards separate and xfire.

I've been thinking about this today at work. Comments on my logic welcome.

1. Id did my benches upon recieving the cards, every thing was as it should be and reflecting the Unigine scores of others. Using stock and mod bios'

2. Last Friday after some BFBC2, I exited the game and disengaged Xfire. I got a BSOD and registry dump.

3. Investigated this BSOD and appeared to happen when disengaing xfire, not all the time but mostly when the card fans were at 50+%.

4. On Sat I installed Crysis Warhead to give the cards a workout, I thought the 6950 by all reports could give enthusiast a good nudge.
The game ran like it was on my old GTX260, crap frame rate even on gamer settings. Was a bit disappointing, shrugged it of at the time.

5. Thought I would do another unigine bench to check that the cards.

6. Benches were 1/2 scores, the panic sets in.:shock: All the while still the odd BSOD reg dump, when going in or out of xfire.

My deduction atm:

1. This is not a driver or bios issue. The results are consistently half. Reg drriver/hotfix driver, 6950/6950mod bios.

2. This is not a physical problem with the cards. It occurs when each card is separate or in xfire. Afterburner show gpu's working well, the  gpu and memory clocks are as they should be as per the bios that is in use.

3. When I think of half performance, I think of 32/64bit. Could my Win 7 registry be now corrupted after the BSOD's. Could Win7 now be defaulting to a 32bit mode when using the cards(device)? Would this result in half performance?

Any thought appreciated.

In the mean time I will get my 5850's back in and compare their bench scores.

Cheers Guys.

*
Update*: I put in the 5850 and windows installed a new ATI device driver. The 5850 was only 4 fps and 90 score lower than my original 5850 test. But I may have used the other 5850 for the original test.. Definitely not a 50% drop. Def not the mobo.

I am hoping when I put in the 6950, Windows will again install a device driver. This is what could have been damaged in the registry.


----------



## abirdie4me (Jan 10, 2011)

bobbavet said:


> Guys Im still having the problem of the cards giving 1/2 scores in Unigine both in single and xfire. ie My xfire now perform the same as a single card
> 
> Now Ive done everything. Uninstall drivers, safe mode clean, reinstall drivers, use default bios, reflash bios to original Saph6950.
> 
> ...



That sucks, hope you get it resolved soon.  Do you have a system restore point that you can revert to, preferably before you installed the 6950s? Do you have access to another machine to put the cards in?


----------



## bystander (Jan 10, 2011)

Did you happen to install any of the ASUS software?  I've had similar results in Crysis with Smartdoctor installed and it was resolved when I uninstalled it.


----------



## f0d (Jan 10, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Did you have to  up the voltage for the GPU?  I would like to try to OC to 940.



nope standard 6970 voltage
i wish i could up the gpu voltage - but i keep getting this error when trying to use asus smartdoctor


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 10, 2011)

I put the 6950's back in, still no go. Windows didn't detect and install a drive like the 5850 test. I'm resigned to do a full reinstall of windows. About time I did anyway. Busy backing up me stuff now.


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Jan 10, 2011)

I managed to successfully flash the 6970 XFX BIOS to my 6950.


----------



## Ricow (Jan 10, 2011)

heey guys i have buyed a new system 

 Moederbord AMD Asus Crosshair IV Formula AM3 
 SSD crusual 64GB
 Processor AMD Phenom II X6 1090T AM3 Black Box 
2x VGA Sapphire Radeon HD6950 2GB 
1x Corsair 2x2048MB DDR3 2133 CMT4GX3M2A2133C9 

with this system i have a 3Dmark06 score of 20860 with 2 crosfired cards and with 3Dmark11 pP5269 if i do a single card than i have in 3Dmark06 20215 and in 3Dmark11 4313 but i can get a higher score than this where can i find that problem is it a driver isue or somting else?


----------



## bobbavet (Jan 10, 2011)

I FIXED IT! 

Reinstalled windows and Catalyst. I haven't installed the hot fix as my probs occurred after installing them. I will wait for next set of drivers.

So am putting it down to corrupt window registry.

Single card now back up to 42FPS/1044.

Thanks for the help guys. :thumbup:

One for the memory bank.

The second card will have to go back in tomorrow after work.


----------



## calvinbui (Jan 10, 2011)

tried the 6950 shader unlock and 6970 bios and i keep getting rendoring errors. Please tell me this is another problem like dx11 or driver issue, i really want this shader unlock to work

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_PsQcSpwqtwA/TSrwcjtLC4I/AAAAAAAAANk/cFkgQXwhqkA/s576/00000.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_PsQcSpwqtwA/TSrwfP9CuSI/AAAAAAAAANo/NwS4MgzieeE/s576/00001.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_PsQcSpwqtwA/TSryCmUvFDI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/6ppZO6I8DfM/s576/00008.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_PsQcSpwqtwA/TSryDreQ9II/AAAAAAAAAOU/_XrLmF7fgJQ/s576/00002.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_PsQcSpwqtwA/TSryEBdw10I/AAAAAAAAAOg/cup0-0kFA_c/s576/00005.jpg


----------



## whippoorwill (Jan 10, 2011)

After 2 days of having an unlocked bios I already have a glitchy mouse cursor... go AMD 

EDIT:

Reboot doesn't help.. guess I'll be going to the 6950 bios


----------



## Orbi (Jan 10, 2011)

I just got my Sapphire 6950 and want to flash the BIOS, but whenever I run ATIWinflash (as administrator on Win7 x64) and load the BIOS and click program, I get a full system lock up, mouse won't move, nothing. I have to kill the computer at the wall, which probably isn't good. I have the switch in the 1 position, so I have no clue what I'm doing wrong. Any help?


----------



## honestabe (Jan 10, 2011)

Orbi said:


> I just got my Sapphire 6950 and want to flash the BIOS, but whenever I run ATIWinflash (as administrator on Win7 x64) and load the BIOS and click program, I get a full system lock up, mouse won't move, nothing. I have to kill the computer at the wall, which probably isn't good. I have the switch in the 1 position, so I have no clue what I'm doing wrong. Any help?





For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:

- Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
- Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
- Click Start Button
- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" <-- the 0 means first adapter, if you have multiple cards, physically uninstall all but the one you want to flash
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".


----------



## MaxMax (Jan 10, 2011)

calvinbui said:


> tried the 6950 shader unlock and 6970 bios and i keep getting rendoring errors. Please tell me this is another problem like dx11 or driver issue, i really want this shader unlock to work



the screens look like to me if the card is to much overclocked (especially RAM overclock)? if not, than i would say sorry, but your unlocked shaders are defective, i really doubt that these artefacts like you show in the screens come from corrupt dx11/any other software...usually if software/dlls or so are missing or corrupted than most games/benchmarks will instantly crash or make BSOD...sorry to say this thus....
did you try to bench with 6970er bios but at stock 6950 frequency e.g. 800/1250 ?


----------



## calvinbui (Jan 10, 2011)

MaxMax said:


> the screens look like to me if the card is to much overclocked (especially RAM overclock)? if not, than i would say sorry, but your unlocked shaders are defective, i really doubt that these artefacts like you show in the screens come from corrupt dx11/any other software...usually if software/dlls or so are missing or corrupted than most games/benchmarks will instantly crash or make BSOD...sorry to say this thus....
> did you try to bench with 6970er bios but at stock 6950 frequency e.g. 800/1250 ?



yep tried the 6970 bios with 6950 clocks.
also tried the 6950 bios with shader unlock
same thing, weird colours and that. depending on the game, it gives a different thing like in metro 2033 i would have crazy lines and beams of colour coming from everywhere. in crysis i would have flashing textures. But when i do a stability test with furmark or kombustor, no problems at all, i can let it run for 12 hours straight

edit: i would like to add that when on the STOCK bios, im watching flash videos on certain sites it would get really pixellated and some parts of the video would lag behind others creating strange and glitchy stuff. This problem isnt experienced on my 5770, should i rma?


----------



## Qed (Jan 10, 2011)

calvinbui said:


> tried the 6950 shader unlock and 6970 bios and i keep getting rendoring errors. Please tell me this is another problem like dx11 or driver issue, i really want this shader unlock to work
> 
> http://lh4.ggpht.com/_PsQcSpwqtwA/TSrwcjtLC4I/AAAAAAAAANk/cFkgQXwhqkA/s576/00000.jpg
> 
> ...



These are RAM artifacts. Flash back your card with the 6950 + shaders.


----------



## MaxMax (Jan 10, 2011)

calvinbui said:


> yep tried the 6970 bios with 6950 clocks.
> also tried the 6950 bios with shader unlock
> same thing, weird colours and that. depending on the game, it gives a different thing like in metro 2033 i would have crazy lines and beams of colour coming from everywhere. in crysis i would have flashing textures. But when i do a stability test with furmark or kombustor, no problems at all, i can let it run for 12 hours straight
> 
> edit: i would like to add that when on the STOCK bios, im watching flash videos on certain sites it would get really pixellated and some parts of the video would lag behind others creating strange and glitchy stuff. This problem isnt experienced on my 5770, should i rma?



yes, rma the card: if it is really buggy at stock bios with flash videos, than the card has a serious (cooling?) problem (of the ram chips?)


----------



## calvinbui (Jan 10, 2011)

guys all of a sudden its working like normal. 6970 bios or 6950 shader bios, no artifacting. strange i hope this lasts! thanks for all of your help.

videos are still buggy though, i would give you the link but its actually porno lol


----------



## MaxMax (Jan 10, 2011)

bobbavet said:


> I FIXED IT!
> 
> Reinstalled windows and Catalyst. I haven't installed the hot fix as my probs occurred after installing them. I will wait for next set of drivers.
> 
> ...



glad to see that you fixed your Crossfire issues: i had two 6950`s @6970`s installed either this weekend and sometimes weird thinks happening: e.g. Grant Theft Auto 4 flickers all the time in menues and refuses to adjust any resolution or quality settings in game. Alien vs. predator DX11 benchmark at first start refused to run on two GPU`s, than i restarted application two times and than it worked, but i had some rendering issues (fog/light scattering/flickering) therefore i went into the driver and forced AFR-friendly D3D game and than the flickering was gone... metro 2033 and 3dmark11 working perfect in Crossfire mode...also does Stone Giant benchmark and lost planet 2 dx11 mode, unigine heaven 2.1 
refused either to use 2nd GPU, after some restarts and switching to fullscreen it worked. 
also if you use tools like Afterburner 2.1.beta5  or trixx 3.0.2beta or gpu-z 0.5.0 i got lots of BSODs while changing clockrates or fan profiles, usually i could adjust the first gpu, but when i wanted to sync the 2nd GPU to the first one -> reproduceable immediatly crashed, especially if i adjust with MSI afterburner on the desktop and slide the sliders and hit apply -> BSOD, but if i write clockrates into cfg and assign a hotkey, than i could switch to overclocked states while playing without crashes -> long story short answer: drivers and tools are still very buggy for crossfiring overclocked modded underestimated cards like hd6950...


nethertheless, crossfirescaling is impressive: nearly doubled min fps in metro 2033 vs. single gpu, same in Lost planet 2....also stalker seems to run with less microstuttering than with my previous hd5870 setup...but powerdrain is bad: with phenom x6@4GHz and both 6950@6970 @950/1500mhz my power meter showed ~600watt consumption while playing metro 2033...before with hd5870´s it was around ~525watts
greets


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## Shrike (Jan 10, 2011)

Hey guys,

to all who tell others to just go and flash the full 6970 bios:
You say its nearly always works, because u can run furmark for hours and 3DMark and Crysis ect.

But i have to tell you that i experienced the same witch the 6970 bios, but when i tried to play Starcraft II it always crashed.
Lowerings the rates only brought me 2 or 3 minutes more before crashing.
Only the modded 6950 bios (free shaders, same voltage) helped me out there.
I think many of you would have the same problems if they had SC2 to test it (Ultra-Settings), but its still the only game i had crashes so most of yout wont mind anyway 
I have to see what futturegames bring (Crysis II, The Witcher II)

Shrike


----------



## chrisj1326 (Jan 10, 2011)

You can add another successful Sapphire 6950 to 6970 Asus bios flash to the list.
Currently running 915Core 1375 Ram. I ran Heaven benchmark about halfway through at 940 core but it crashed, going to plug in the extra 4 pin power to my board tonight and try again.


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 10, 2011)

Shrike said:


> Hey guys,
> to all who tell others to just go and flash the full 6970 bios:
> You say its nearly always works, because u can run furmark for hours and 3DMark and Crysis ect.
> 
> ...



I run SC2 without any crashes. Given my frame rate is low for my specs (36-48 fps @ 2048x1056). I do get crashes in Oblivion though.


----------



## mrwhitesox (Jan 10, 2011)

hi all,i just joined today after buying one of these radeon 6950 cards,succesfully unlocked to 6970 bios..    card is  xfx radeon 6950 hd


----------



## sy5tem (Jan 10, 2011)

just got my XFX 6950! 

just got a huge problem!  this was a replacement for 9800GTX+ , now with 9650 install i get PCI option rom poblem (my ich10R won't work)

was so anxious to get bios mod going damit!


----------



## dom99 (Jan 10, 2011)

Just installed my VTX 6950, looking good at the moment I was really impressed with the quality heavy feel of the card. Going to run some benchmarks tomorrow but not going to push it untill Ive been using it for a few days to wear it in lol. My gf is playing the Sims3 at the moment and it runs sooooo much smoother than the 6870, im thinking the 2gb memory is useful with the insane amount of textures in this game. But ill be using it on BC2 and BO tomorrow


----------



## Faytx (Jan 11, 2011)

Just got my Sapphire 6950 and unlocked it to 6970.





Everything working fine so far.


----------



## AiponGkooja (Jan 11, 2011)

Just had a strange issue with the ram staying locking its clock rate at 1375, despite it being set to 1275 in Overdrive.  It read 1375 in both CCC and GPU-Z, and would not change even when I adjusted the settings in CCC Overdrive.

I only even noticed it because suddenly my mouse cursor glitched out.  Looked like a strip in the middle of it was erased and moved off to the left of the pointer, and there was a skinny vertical line off to the right of the whole mess.  It fixed itself after closing everything and clicking on the desktop... but even that seems strange, haha.

Anyone else have issues with the clock settings not staying fixed?

Edit: It just happened again... seems to occur every time I open Hulu now... guessing there's an issue here.  Is it safe to use it like that?

Thanks for any thoughts,
Aip


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 11, 2011)

Not directly related but I noticed that CS 1.6 in DX9 @ 2048x1156 8xmsaa gives me around 72 fps. CSS DX9+ @ 2048x1156 8xmsaa gives me 150+ fps.

I thought it was interesting.


----------



## f0d (Jan 11, 2011)

im starting to get rendering artifacts now even after going back to the 6950 bios
reinstalled the drivers, 6950 all stock driver settings and clock speeds
i get errors in 3dmark11 and heaven dx10 mode
you can really notice it at the top of the screen in the second demo of 3dmark11 but i cant seem to be able to get any screenshots of it

theres a few small places in heaven dx10 that you can notice it flicker on and off









it was all fine for a while but i started to notice it after about 5 days @6970
hopefully i can return it for another but i dont think my chances are good

you win some and you lose some i spose


----------



## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

So 6970 bios run great for a while, but it's killing the 6950 day after day, i am running the 6950 Xfire unlocked shader @ 840 core 1325 memory , i hope havn't trouble like this :s 

Because i have some litlle bug, in single mod the 2 6950 run fine in all game (Crysis, BBC2, Metro 2033) but in Xfire in have some graphics bug in BBC2 like a very short lightning black screen, someone have the same bug ?  
Other trouble in BBC2 like the death screen and victory screen is very laggy in Xfire but fine in single !
I hope it's just a driver or game issue but in crysis i have some rendering error like twinkle sky ! of course no problem in single mod with the two 6950 !

I have the 10.12 driver , and a good PSU, Cooler Master Pro M 1000 W so anyone have trouble like me in Xfire ?


----------



## dom99 (Jan 11, 2011)

yeh Im not going to the 6970 bios im going to run the 6950 unlocked shader version, too many stories of long term instability. I dont even need the extra performance im just greedy lol

But I have a problem, and it looks driver related. I havent done any modding yet and my idle clocks are 450MHz core and 1250MHz memory. It is strange because when I installed it yesterday I was seeing something like 250MHz core on idle. Hmm I have seen other people in this thread with clock issues but anyone care to shed any light on this?


----------



## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

Anyone have this rendering error on BBC2 with single 6950 with catalyst 10.12 (the grey line over the helmet of the last right guy )?

I am going to try the 10.12a to see what happens !


----------



## monte84 (Jan 11, 2011)

I successfully unlock my Gigabyte 6950 however after reading of people getting artifacts I restored the original bios. Just long enough to run some benchmarks. Those who got artifacts after extended use, what brand was the card?

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/adfux/


----------



## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

2 Sapphire for me :s


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 11, 2011)

I think that 6970 bios could eventually damage memory. That's why I went for the modded 6950 bios, that just touches the GPU.


----------



## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

Maybe , maybe not , i havn't use the 6970 bios , i just use the 6950 unlock bios and i am getting rendering error so ... even if i flash back to 6950 bios

I try the 10.12A same rendering error on BBC2 , could anyone who have 6950 and BBC2 tell me if you have the same rendering error ?


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 11, 2011)

this is very strange; could it be caused by defective shaders? but, of course, flashing back you should inhibit them once again...don't know, really.


----------



## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

I guess my 6950 are damaged  , but it's wierd because i have the same error for the 2 !


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 11, 2011)

yes, that's totally odd...did you try reinstalling windows?


----------



## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

No i don't , i want to avoid but i am thinking of !


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 11, 2011)

you should either do that or try your cards on another machine...


----------



## dom99 (Jan 11, 2011)

Can anyone offer a reason why my 6950 idle clocks are 450MHz core and 1250MHz memory? Before modding, tried reinstalling drivers and no fix


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 11, 2011)

probably because you use two monitors


----------



## f0d (Jan 11, 2011)

Kaali said:


> Anyone have this rendering error on BBC2 with single 6950 with catalyst 10.12 (the grey line over the helmet of the last right guy )?
> 
> I am going to try the 10.12a to see what happens !
> 
> [url]http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/2125/sanstitrepo.th.jpg[/URL]



yep exactly the same here






anyone else getting these errors in 3dmark11/demo2/performance profile?


----------



## Mirmendis (Jan 11, 2011)

Fod, your problem of rendering artifacts is still here or is solved ?


----------



## dom99 (Jan 11, 2011)

tecnoworld said:


> probably because you use two monitors



Yes thats it, it started happening after I plugged the TV in, spot on thanks


----------



## Rorima (Jan 11, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Can anyone offer a reason why my 6950 idle clocks are 450MHz core and 1250MHz memory? Before modding, tried reinstalling drivers and no fix



Hello, 

I had the same problem, it's a driver bug 
and reinstallation does not correct the problem. 

We need to correct values in IDLE, 
go into the Catalyst -> Graphics -> ATI Overdrive 
Then simply press Default, then Apply. 

Enjoy.


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 11, 2011)

rorima: also for you, it's just because you probably use two monitors at the same time. Try to turn off the second monitor and see.


----------



## f0d (Jan 11, 2011)

Mirmendis said:


> Fod, your problem of rendering artifacts is still here or is solved ?



still there as you can see by the screenshots


----------



## dom99 (Jan 11, 2011)

Rorima said:


> Hello,
> 
> I had the same problem, it's a driver bug
> and reinstallation does not correct the problem.
> ...



I tried clicking "defaults" but I am already at default settings so I do not get an option to apply, but I have disconnected my TV from the HDMI socket, refreshed the displays and all is well. But really what a terrible error from AMD to which multi monitor support is their biggest selling point!


----------



## Rorima (Jan 11, 2011)

dom99 said:


> I tried clicking "defaults" but I am already at default settings so I do not get an option to apply, but I have disconnected my TV from the HDMI socket, refreshed the displays and all is well. But really what a terrible error from AMD to which multi monitor support is their biggest selling point!



Action on default , change many things in the register , not only informations on the screen.
This action correct the problem for me. 

Regards.


----------



## Qed (Jan 11, 2011)

Kaali said:


> Anyone have this rendering error on BBC2 with single 6950 with catalyst 10.12 (the grey line over the helmet of the last right guy )?
> 
> I am going to try the 10.12a to see what happens !
> 
> [url]http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/2125/sanstitrepo.th.jpg[/URL]



I have the same grey line in the same position, i think it's a driver/BC2 issue.


----------



## dom99 (Jan 11, 2011)

Quick question to you knowledgeable people, using W1zzards unlocking batch file I get a .rom file, can I just rename it to a .bin file and run it?

Also I am such a CMD noob I cannot get the flash to work. My username for computer is Dominic, so into CMD (run as admin) I type exactly this "cd %Dominic%\desktop\winflash". However it cannot find the path. The winflash folder is simply named "winflash" on my desktop (win7 pro x64). 

After youve stopped laughing at how thick im being could you please write out exactly what I need to type?

Thanks

This is what I am trying to follow;

For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:

- Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
- Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
- Click Start Button
- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" <-- the 0 means first adapter, if you have multiple cards, physically uninstall all but the one you want to flash
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".




EDIT: Fixed and completed, now got all shaders working


----------



## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

Yep thanks all , i have try with my old HD2600XT still there ! so drivers or game bug , @F0D i have the same errors in 3dmark11/demo2/performance , it's not an errors just some ugly lullabies in performance mod  

So our graphics card run fine ! 

Thanks all 


Edit : A Screenshot to show you


----------



## Qed (Jan 11, 2011)

Kaali said:


> @F0D i have the same errors in 3dmark11/demo2/performance



I don't have any on 3dmark nor Heaven benchmark. The BC2 thing is mostly a drivers problem, the video card is in 2D mode in that menu.


----------



## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

I havn't on Heaven , running fine , but on 3dmark i have this ugly lullabies ! With the 2 6950 in solo or Xfire so ... i think it's just a bug !


----------



## Mirmendis (Jan 11, 2011)

f0d said:


> still there as you can see by the screenshots



Drivers related , but in Heaven, do you still have that strange red light ? Seems Calvinbui has the same glitch (#918)

If yes, have you tried to set "defaults" in 3d catalyst settings ?


----------



## f0d (Jan 11, 2011)

Qed said:


> I don't have any on 3dmark nor Heaven benchmark. The BC2 thing is mostly a drivers problem, the video card is in 2D mode in that menu.



are you talking about the 3dmark11 benchmark or the demo or both?
because i dont get it in the benchmark but i do get it in the demo which is kinda weird




Mirmendis said:


> Drivers related , but in Heaven, do you still have that strange red light ?
> 
> If yes, have you tried to set "defaults" in 3d catalyst settings ?



that strange light only appears at certain angles and at night time in dx10 mode and its allways the same spot/glitch - yeah i have tried all the settings that i could think of including defaults and all the catalyst a.i settings
mine isnt anywhere near as bad as calvinbui's though



Kaali said:


> Yep thanks all , i have try with my old HD2600XT still there ! so drivers or game bug , @F0D i have the same errors in 3dmark11/demo2/performance , it's not an errors just some ugly lullabies in performance mod
> 
> So our graphics card run fine !
> 
> ...



thanks for checking that for me
is yours also fine in the actual benchmark - just demo has the problems i think

every game i have tested with its fine - bfbc2/sc2/crysis/metro2033 and loads others is all fine, its just the small heaven glitch and the 3dmark11 demo glitch


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 11, 2011)

since Asus SmartDoctor has an option to unlock CCC overdrive, is it possible to know what is changed by SD in the register (or wherever)?

In this way it would be possible to create a small app that does the same thing...

Anybody is able to do that?


----------



## dom99 (Jan 11, 2011)

Hi,

ignore my previous post the problem sorted lol, now running hd 6950 moddified bios solid as a rock. 

now i need trixx to support voltage modding so i can hit 1.175V And 6970 clocks


----------



## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

Hahahaha f0d i think our graphics cards like to joke with us :

Same bug as you , so to my mind just drivers bug , 6950 are new cards so we have to wait a mature driver to run all fine.

The bug is on dx10 and 9 no bug on dx11 , only in one place , next to the dragon at the start, i guess you have the bug on the same place ?  !





Now i am trying to get the ghost red light


----------



## AiponGkooja (Jan 11, 2011)

AiponGkooja said:


> Just had a strange issue with the ram staying locking its clock rate at 1375, despite it being set to 1275 in Overdrive.  It read 1375 in both CCC and GPU-Z, and would not change even when I adjusted the settings in CCC Overdrive.
> 
> I only even noticed it because suddenly my mouse cursor glitched out.  Looked like a strip in the middle of it was erased and moved off to the left of the pointer, and there was a skinny vertical line off to the right of the whole mess.  It fixed itself after closing everything and clicking on the desktop... but even that seems strange, haha.
> 
> ...




Switching to the unlocked 6950 BIOS fixed the jacked up memory clock in Hulu.  Now it only goes to 1250 normally, occasionally jumping to the stock 1275.  Haven't noticed my mouse cursor glitching anymore.

Just an fyi for anyone who read my first post about it.

-Aip


Edit: Also, had to hit "Defaults" in CCC to get the card to start downclocking to 250/150.  Before it would only drop to 500/900 at the lowest.


----------



## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

@f0d Exactly same bug with HD2600XT on dx10 and dx9 at the exactly same place, you can all test in dx10 and 9 at this place here (Heaven bug that it) :






For the red light i am trying but i havn't , maybe one more stupid bug


----------



## Qed (Jan 11, 2011)

Kaali said:


> Hahahaha f0d i think our graphics cards like to joke with us :
> 
> Same bug as you , so to my mind just drivers bug , 6950 are new cards so we have to wait a mature driver to run all fine.
> 
> ...




I can confirm i have that too, it is visible in that position if you turn tesselation low or off. It's a junction point as you can see, it is not an artifact.

About 3dmark11, i didnt notice anything on the demo.


----------



## AiponGkooja (Jan 11, 2011)

f0d said:


> anyone else getting these errors in 3dmark11/demo2/performance profile?



I get them.  Are they actually errors though?


----------



## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

It's what i said before !!!! A ugly Lullabies  , not bug at all on benchmark mod ! only on demo !


----------



## AiponGkooja (Jan 11, 2011)

Kaali said:


> It's what i said before !!!! A ugly Lullabies  , not bug at all on benchmark mod ! only on demo !



Gotcha.  Thanks!


----------



## f0d (Jan 11, 2011)

Kaali said:


> @f0d Exactly same bug with HD2600XT on dx10 and dx9 at the exactly same place, you can all test in dx10 and 9 at this place here (Heaven bug that it) :
> 
> 
> [url]http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1346/00000nq.th.jpg[/URL]
> ...



made some youtube videos 
this one showing the glitch at the start of the benchmark and the red light (i call them christmas lights lol) the video came out very dark at the christmas lights but you can still see them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NX96OHZ-lw

this one is 3dmark11 demo mode - there is fine particles of snow falling mainly at the start and there is some kind of "noise" at the top of the screen at the start when theres no trees and blue sky - is this a glitch or how it was supposed to be?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meJvZav_Ux4




Kaali said:


> It's what i said before !!!! A ugly Lullabies  , not bug at all on benchmark mod ! only on demo !


i think you are right kaali - these are benchmark/engine glitches or driver glitches or something, i dont get any errors anywhere else


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## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

f0d said:


> this one is 3dmark11 demo mode - there is fine particles of snow falling mainly at the start and there is some kind of "noise" at the top of the screen at the start when theres no trees and blue sky - is this a glitch or how it was supposed to be?
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meJvZav_Ux4




Same glitch on blue sky  with the 2 6950 single and Xfire mod , just ugly mod in 720p when my screen is 1080p !

I forget to said : i havn't bug anymore in crysis since i have installed the 10.12a drivers, now sky run great  

But always bug in BBC2 i guess the game or drivers for Xfire Suck like hell ^^ .

AMD i hope your next driver will be good !


----------



## AiponGkooja (Jan 11, 2011)

Kaali said:


> Same glitch on blue sky  with the 2 6950 single and Xfire mod , just ugly mod in 720p when my screen is 1080p !
> 
> I forget to said : i havn't bug anymore in crysis since i have installed the 10.12a drivers, now sky run great
> 
> ...



Do you get underscan in Crysis?  I have a 1080p monitor, but when I select 1080p resolution and run it, it always underscans Crysis; it shrinks the screen and there is maybe a one inch black border all the way around the image.  Actually I think this happens on anything with DX10.

Does it do this for you?  Or do you know how to fix it?  I currently just alt-tab, continue to hold alt, and then tab back to Crysis.  Seems to be the only way to keep it full-screen, but not have it underscanning.

Thanks,
Aip


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## Kaali (Jan 11, 2011)

Hey it's happens when i use a c****d version , but with the one i have bought during the christmas holidays on Steam i havn't this trouble ^^


----------



## techie81 (Jan 11, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Well, since I didn't have any other overclocking software, I uninstalled catalyst drivers, did driversweeper, and reinstalled drivers.  I wasn't sure if I could use the same drivers that I got from xfxforce since it was for the 6950, but I did it anyway.  After the reinstall, it all works out the way it should. GPU clock now at 880.  Thanks a lot yonef



I had the same problem but an uninstall and driver sweeper did the trick ty.


----------



## AiponGkooja (Jan 11, 2011)

Kaali said:


> Hey it's happens when i use a c****d version , but with the one i have bought during the christmas holidays on Steam i havn't this trouble ^^



I have the Steam version too... hmmm


----------



## Wijkert (Jan 11, 2011)

Hi guys, I have the following problem with my 6950(XFX):
I flashed my 6950 with the 6970 bios(sapphire) set the clocks to 6950(800-1250), but after encountering artifacts in both wow and gta4, but not in Furmark or 3dmark11, I flashed my card with the shader-unlock only bios. Still the artifacts remained, so I flashed my original bios back. Sadly within an minute of playing gta4 the same artifacts returned. I have tried to reinstall catalyst 10.12 drivers, but that didn't help. I am pretty sure that those artifacts weren't there before I started flashing the bios. Do you guys now of any game/benchmark wich stresses the gpu or mem a lot(because those artifacts look a lot like the ones you get when overclocking your mem), wich can give me a second opinion?

Ps took a picture since it would't let me use 'print screen'


----------



## SonDoobius (Jan 11, 2011)

I'm wondering if anyone can help. I just bought my second Sapphire 6950, and I unlocked it and flashed the 6970 BIOS exactly the same way as my first card. Everything looked like it worked fine, works fine on games like Hot Pursuit, Rainbow Six Vegas and Crysis. But while running BC2 it freezes like 3 mins into playing and I get a dark green/grey screen and  have to reset my whole system. The same thing happened with FarCry 2. I don't get what the problem is, I took out the first card and flashed the new card the exact same way. I haven't tried crossfireing yet. Any suggestions?


----------



## Whilhelm (Jan 11, 2011)

Has anyone else had issues with crossfire not working on a pair of flashed cards? I have tried on A Rampage III Formula and an Asus Sabertooth setup and I get instant lockup and driver crash or BSOD when I try to run any 3D game or benchmark. 

Both cards work perfect by themselves and I have tried the following bios configurations

6950-6950 Works fine with 3d apps

6970-6950 Works fine with 3d apps

6950-6970 Works fine with 3d apps

6970-6970 Instant lockup with any 3d app

I have tried the drivers from the disc and the 10.12a drivers. Anyone have any advice for me?


----------



## Anvirol (Jan 11, 2011)

Perhaps you had MSI Afterburner on when u tried the pair of flashed cards and forgot to disable ULPS in Windows registry? Every time u reinstall drivers it gets reactivated.


----------



## so11ex (Jan 11, 2011)

Got a 6950 XFX card, unlocked with 6970 bios. First I thought all is fine, Furmark was ok, no glitches at Unigine heaven and 3Dmarks. But in Fallout New Vegas and World of Warcraft, i have noticed some flickering, looks more like a part of the scene, that is displayed in wrong place. Driver bug, or hardware problem, I dont know, its an artifacts (3-5 times in a minute) after getting this, i have flashed 6950 unlocked bios (lower clocs) but still the artifacts remained, but they were not that often, as at 6970 clocks. I have put bios switch jumper to test with original bios, but was receiving artifacts at Fallout and WoW even at stock. I have noticed, that increasing RAM clocks to 6970 level causes more artifacts at same place as i had with stock frequences. I have returned the card back. Imho there can be two problems, a) bad drivers b) a major problem with video ram on all 6950s, its not stable.


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## Mark22 (Jan 11, 2011)

Still haven't got round to testing the Zalman cooler on this card (been away). But, a lot of people here seem to think they can unlock a card overclock it and play away with no issue. You do realise such actions generally warrant extra cooling, monitoring temperatures and general competence from the owner.

Overclocking your memory, which the 6970 bios does, and then moaning and blaming AMD when the memory overheats and things go wrong is just retarded. You have no standpoint to send that card back, you let it overheat, simple.

Sorry if you don't want to hear it but someone had to say it. Far to many noobs trying this!


----------



## Qed (Jan 11, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> Still haven't got round to testing the Zalman cooler on this card (been away). But, a lot of people here seem to think they can unlock a card overclock it and play away with no issue. You do realise such actions generally warrant extra cooling, monitoring temperatures and general competence from the owner.
> 
> Overclocking your memory, which the 6970 bios does, and then moaning and blaming AMD when the memory overheats and things go wrong is just retarded. You have no standpoint to send that card back, you let it overheat, simple.
> 
> Sorry if you don't want to hear it but someone had to say it. Far to many noobs trying this!



He is bloody right.


----------



## dem967 (Jan 11, 2011)

I have received my Asus 6950 card, unlocked with 6950 modded bios and all is running nicely  A card is little loud under load, im thinking about extra cooling for it, less temps less noise


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 12, 2011)

with the newly released RBE (1.27) I just created the following BIOS:

http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=g99jg137mvb

starting from my unlocked 6950, converted to Asus brand, injected the 6970 signature. Now the CCC limits are 950/1450, but I didn't change the voltage (you can do that with SD in Windows, to test the limits of your own card). So the base voltage is still 1.0v for the GPU. 

Enjoy


----------



## davetheshrew (Jan 12, 2011)

about device id changes how about these commands available to use

-padevid and -passid?

is it possible we can go from dev.id 6719 to 6718 from here, making our cards PROPER 6970's? Im going to have a go but I may need a little guidance please


----------



## ninefingers (Jan 12, 2011)

Decided to reflash the original bios. How do I lock it back once I'm finished? 

Since this is the unlock command (atiwinflash -unlockrom 0) what is the lock command?

Thanks


----------



## davetheshrew (Jan 12, 2011)

you cant, ummmm why?


----------



## Frosty (Jan 12, 2011)

tecnoworld said:


> with the newly released RBE (1.27) I just created the following BIOS:
> 
> http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=g99jg137mvb
> 
> ...



Not sure as to why but this BIOS bricked my Powercolor 6950. I had to flash back to the original BIOS to get it to work again.


----------



## davetheshrew (Jan 12, 2011)

should I keepposting this untill its confirmed?

-padevid [deviceID] and -passid [ssid]? (in ATIFLASH)

is it possible we can go from dev.id 6719 to 6718 from here, making our cards PROPER 6970's? Im going to have a go but I may need a little guidance please 


edit screw it im trying this.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 12, 2011)

manofthem said:


> My XFX 6950/70 works great.  I did the +20% vs the +10% in the 3DMark 11, and I got a better result with the +10%.  Anyone else get similar results?
> 
> And is AMD going to fix this option with their new batch of cards?  I really want to get one ASAP, but I heard that they are going to fix this flash option...



I did the same thing: 10% vs 20%. The first time the 10% was better. Then tonight I did it again and got better results with 20%, but I did have my
RAM at lower timings (maybe that affected it). Not sure.


----------



## Amorpheus (Jan 12, 2011)

That's what they are in the 6950 default BIOS - if you have two monitors on it. Some people also had the driver bug out and not apply the low idle values, no idea what's up with that.


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 12, 2011)

Frosty said:


> Not sure as to why but this BIOS bricked my Powercolor 6950. I had to flash back to the original BIOS to get it to work again.



very strange; I created that bios starting from my board, which is a Powercolor as well. Try this other one, which is simply the same one with shader unlocked and then reverted to Asus vendor (w/o injecting overdrive limit from 6970) and tell me if it works:

http://www.gigasize.com/get.php?d=50zvsqxkllc


----------



## davetheshrew (Jan 12, 2011)

tecnoworld have you played with these commands?

-padevid [deviceID] and -passid [ssid]? (in ATIFLASH)

possibility of making 6950's into proper 6970's yes?


----------



## LagunaX (Jan 12, 2011)

I tried RBE also on my HIS unlocked shader bios.

Changed all clocks to match 6970 clocks plus increased limit - BRICK.

Changed clocks only - BRICK.

Changed only first clock to 880/1375 - BRICK.

Thank God for the backup boot ROM.

Back to unlocked shader bios and also 6970 bios when I want...


----------



## davetheshrew (Jan 12, 2011)

LagunaX said:


> I tried RBE also on my HIS unlocked shader bios.
> 
> Changed all clocks to match 6970 clocks plus increased limit - BRICK.
> 
> ...



rbe 1.27 is for voltage changes ONLY, learn2reading


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 12, 2011)

it seems that the highet CCC causes problems. IMHO the best thing to do right now is to use the Asus modded bios I just posted, and then SD to play with voltages and higher frequency.

davetheshrew: I didn't try those commands, yet


----------



## LagunaX (Jan 12, 2011)

Thanks Dave - I'll wait for RBE 1.28...

I guess I stopped reading after I got an iphone...=)


----------



## Flak (Jan 12, 2011)

Anyone who flashed to an asus bios to try smart doctor.  Do your voltage changes stick between reboots?  I'm using what I think is the latest, smart doctor v5.74.  I can change voltages, yet if the machine is rebooted when smart doctor is relaunched on boot voltage is displayed as 1.1 instead of what it was set to previously.


----------



## davetheshrew (Jan 12, 2011)

tecnoworld said:


> it seems that the highet CCC causes problems. IMHO the best thing to do right now is to use the Asus modded bios I just posted, and then SD to play with voltages and higher frequency.
> 
> davetheshrew: I didn't try those commands, yet



im not saying it will as I dont understand the commands fully but -mb might help as that is the modify command but -padevid is for the device id specifically I belive, might be possible and solve a nagging question??? im hving a go tommorow but if anyones up for it tke heed that this is 99%failproof due to dual bios


----------



## davetheshrew (Jan 12, 2011)

Flak said:


> Anyone who flashed to an asus bios to try smart doctor.  Do your voltage changes stick between reboots?  I'm using what I think is the latest, smart doctor v5.74.  I can change voltages, yet if the machine is rebooted when smart doctor is relaunched on boot voltage is displayed as 1.1 instead of what it was set to previously.



its sh*te, your rubishing this thread with those words, use rbe  jk

afterburner will be very very soon. dont bother with sd, it really is sucky at best.


----------



## Flak (Jan 12, 2011)

Well, I think I may be adding my 6950 to the list of those with bad memory now.  Other then heaven, what's a quick test for memory problems?

And keep in mind, this is on a 6950 with fan set manually to 75% at all times.  According to GPU-Z temps across the board never went higher then 65C.  And I, just tonight, am starting to see corruption when running heaven.


----------



## deleted (Jan 12, 2011)

Successfully unlocked my Sapphire 6950 to a 6970 two nights ago, and confirmed stability with 2 hours of Furmark. Overclocking to 900 MHz core bricked the card about half a second into Furmark and now I get no video output with either BIOS, although my computer still boots correctly. I was actually able to fumble around with a blank screen long enough to open foobar2000 and start some music playing to confirm.

Looks like I'm the first one with a bricked Cayman? Being special is great.


----------



## Crew883 (Jan 12, 2011)

Hey guys I have a few quick questions that hopefully you guys can help me wrap my head around. 

I modded my XFX 6950 bios from the tool used earlier in the thread, and I am only running my clocks at the max allowed by CCC 840 and 1270 on the memory because I am worried about what I have heard about the memory failing . Card runs max 60c in BC2 and other games over the course of a gaming night. 

So: 1. How dangerous are my settings for the card? 2. Do I need to have extra power going to the card from CCC if I am just running the modded 6950 extra shaders? 

Thanks to the people who put this together too, everything was easy to do and setup.


----------



## LongThumb (Jan 12, 2011)

Got my XFX HD6950 and flashed succesfully.

Currently running it at 900/1500

I get the feeling that XFX are just softlocking full 6970's.

Add another one to the XFX list, that's 52 outta 52 now right?


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 12, 2011)

Got another Gigabyte 6950 card. Although, leaving it on Auto fan, anyone getting 100c+ on the other dies (#1, #2, #3)? (10min in Furmark) http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/11/01/12/4gt.png


----------



## LongThumb (Jan 12, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> Got another Gigabyte 6950 card. Although, leaving it on Auto fan, anyone getting 100c+ on the other dies (#1, #2, #3)? (10min in Furmark) http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/11/01/12/4gt.png



I'm getting high temps on the core, around 91c after about 5 minutes an auto fan so probs getting the same high temps as you.

Roll on aftermarket cooler.


----------



## Mirmendis (Jan 12, 2011)

Flak said:


> Well, I think I may be adding my 6950 to the list of those with bad memory now.  Other then heaven, what's a quick test for memory problems?
> 
> And keep in mind, this is on a 6950 with fan set manually to 75% at all times.  According to GPU-Z temps across the board never went higher then 65C.  And I, just tonight, am starting to see corruption when running heaven.



Can you post a screen of your corruption ? Maybe just a driver problem.


----------



## dom99 (Jan 12, 2011)

I have found my temp have decreased using unlocked shaders by about 3 degrees


----------



## Flak (Jan 12, 2011)

Mirmendis said:


> Can you post a screen of your corruption ? Maybe just a driver problem.



Flashed back to a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders and doing a reinstall of the OS (only takes 12mins for a complete clean install from usb drive).  Will see what happens after this.  My "corruption" issue was that I was seeing ghost images on screen of past images.  Like in Heaven I'd see ghost trees everywhere, on the ship, in the sky, etc.  Heaven was really the only thing I started seeing this in, so I uninstalled it.  Cleaned up remaining mess and reinstalled it hoping it was just messed up for some reason.  Same thing occured.  So I flashed a modified 6950 bios and am in the process of reinstalling win7 now.

I'd believe it was a driver problem if I was having this issue from the start.  But I've been running with the 6970 bios since the 31st and just noticed the problem last night (without any other system changes).


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 12, 2011)

I think I may be moving to 6950+Shaders.

I opened VLC last night, and my rig stops playing video (VLC window goes black, sound stops) every 15min or so, pauses for around 10 seconds. Then continues. I tried lowering my memory and core clocks but the results did not improve. Temps around 60c as it happens.


----------



## niemion (Jan 12, 2011)

ninefingers said:


> Decided to reflash the original bios. How do I lock it back once I'm finished?
> 
> Since this is the unlock command (atiwinflash -unlockrom 0) what is the lock command?
> 
> Thanks



I have the same question, anyone?


----------



## Rorima (Jan 12, 2011)

2.0.1.11
add Redwood/Cedar support 
*add lockrom/unlock rom support *
update -mb command to support new location of SSID/SSVID rom straps on Evergreen series ASICs 

Regards,


----------



## dom99 (Jan 12, 2011)

Ok I have experienced a problem.

Last night everything was fine on modded 6950 bios, however today I enabled trixx to overclock by 10MHz to 810MHz. Nothing huge about this clock speed.

But then there was a slight problem, experienced crashing in games and also my mouse cursor was going all funny, like it had bits missing on the point.

So I thought what have I done since yesterday, ahah trixx, so I disabled trixx and hey presto cursor looks fine and no crashing. I am going to try raising the clocks 10MHz in CCC instead next time.


----------



## f0d (Jan 12, 2011)

im now getting artifacts in bfbc2 even as a stock 6950
this mod seems to only have problems after using it for a while - at the start i diddnt have any problems, now they are starting to pop up after about a week

the settings are 1920x1200 8xaa all high
the artifacts im getting are black and white "blobs" in the middle of the screen every now and again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDHvow6ILpQ


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 12, 2011)

It seems more and more are having permanent problems after this mod every day. I don't *yet*... we need to find out the root cause of this. I don't understand people having permanent card damage though after simply modding their stock 6950 bios to enable shaders. I don't see why that would permanently damage the card, if those shaders are defective, they should be disabled and all should be well after going back to the stock bios. So I guess we need to find out, everyone who has permanent card damage, did you ever use a 6970 bios? Whats your overclocking situation?


----------



## f0d (Jan 12, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> everyone who has permanent card damage, did you ever use a 6970 bios? Whats your overclocking situation?



i used a 6970 bios and at first i had it overclocked to 940/1375 without error
when i started having problems i first went back to stock 6970 speeds (880/1375) then i went back to the 6950 bios that came with it at stock speeds (800/1250)

still getting errors and its getting worse and worse


----------



## Wijkert (Jan 12, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> It seems more and more are having permanent problems after this mod every day. I don't *yet*... we need to find out the root cause of this. I don't understand people having permanent card damage though after simply modding their stock 6950 bios to enable shaders. I don't see why that would permanently damage the card, if those shaders are defective, they should be disabled and all should be well after going back to the stock bios. So I guess we need to find out, everyone who has permanent card damage, did you ever use a 6970 bios? Whats your overclocking situation?



I started out with 6970 bios @ 880/1375. Artifacts appaired within a copple of days so I flashed in the unlocked shader bios and kept the clocks at stock speeds (6950). The artifacts where less noticable, but still there so I flashed back my original bios, but still the artifacts remained. I agree that it is weird that this mod would cause these problems, but maybe those shader units where disabled for a reason. Either that or we somehow damaged the memory when we flashed the 6970 bios in and use't the card for a copple of days. I am seeing artifacts in both GTA4 and the Heaven benchmark. A screen of the GTA4 artifacts can be found a copple of posts back. If someone has a theory I would be happy to hear and/or test it.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 12, 2011)

I created a poll here:  Poll: What caused your flashed 6950 perm...
For you guys who have permanent damage to your 6950 cards after flashing them or modding your bios. If you guys could vote in over there, maybe we can start to find out the root cause of what's killing these cards. If I had to guess, I think it's the high memory speeds, or possibly some sort of memory timings in the 6970 bios.


----------



## yonef (Jan 12, 2011)

Flashed mine XFX 6950 back to original 
Mouse pointer started to scramble while in windows at idle clocks. 2 days already with stock BIOS no problems so far, hopefuly haven't perm. damaged it.

P.S. I want to know, have the guys flashed with modded 6950 bios, have some sort if issues?


----------



## ALBPM (Jan 12, 2011)

I flashed my 2 Sapphire cards with the unlocked 6950 Sapphire bios back on Dec. 29 and have been running both at 840/1300 with no problems. 
My Top card has only hit 74 degrees and bottom maxes out around 65 degrees using the 10.12a driver and fans on Auto..

My only problem so far is trying to get Trixx to work. I get a BSOD even setting it to the default 800/1250...???


----------



## Qed (Jan 12, 2011)

f0d said:


> im now getting artifacts in bfbc2 even as a stock 6950
> this mod seems to only have problems after using it for a while - at the start i diddnt have any problems, now they are starting to pop up after about a week
> 
> the settings are 1920x1200 8xaa all high
> ...



Overvoltage and overclock are decreasing the life of your components without even considering the 3 different resistors on the VRM, That might cause your the 1.175V to be anything.

This as been pointed out many times on this thread, *flashing your 6950 with a 6970 is dangerous especially for the ram.* Anyone who got ram damage should know that's permanent and prevent you from using OpenCL applications.


----------



## bushwakko (Jan 12, 2011)

I used the 6970 bios in the guide and unlocked it successfully, it's also running at default 6970 speeds. However I do get loads of artifacts in Starcraft 2, but only for like a minute or so and it goes away completely. I have some artifacts in windows as well, but this also goes away. I suspect this might be a fan control problem, making the card run hot for about a minute before the fans kicking in or doing their thing. Anyone else experienced this.

During the artifacts, clocing the card down to 800 and memory way down as well does not help (doesn't seem to do anything in fact) nor does changing the power to 0% or 20%. I've been playing starcraft for hours without problems. The GPU goes to about 80-90 degrees.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 12, 2011)

bushwakko said:


> I used the 6970 bios in the guide and unlocked it successfully, it's also running at default 6970 speeds. However I do get loads of artifacts in Starcraft 2, but only for like a minute or so and it goes away completely. I have some artifacts in windows as well, but this also goes away. I suspect this might be a fan control problem, making the card run hot for about a minute before the fans kicking in or doing their thing. Anyone else experienced this.
> 
> During the artifacts, clocing the card down to 800 and memory way down as well does not help (doesn't seem to do anything in fact) nor does changing the power to 0% or 20%. I've been playing starcraft for hours without problems. The GPU goes to about 80-90 degrees.



Im not sure about the artifacting but it doesn't sound good and might get worse / permanent as time goes on. I would flash it back to the stock bios / speeds to see if you still get artifacts (permanent damage). Also, do yourself a favor and use a program like afterburner to cool down your card. I use afterburner and set a manual fan curve up to keep it cool but quite and my card never goes over 40ide / 62full load


----------



## Ciaos (Jan 12, 2011)

I emailed W1zzard 2 weeks ago indicating that my XFX6950 was successfully flashed to 6970 w/ Powertune + 12%.

However, artifacts have started to appear and I have since flashed to the XFX6950 modded bios and everything seems to be grand now. I think its the memory clocks being too high maybe?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 12, 2011)

I saved my bios before flashing to 6970. It Saved it as just a file, no extension like .bin. So do I just rename with a .bin after and reflash with that?


----------



## Qed (Jan 12, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I saved my bios before flashing to 6970. It Saved it as just a file, no extension like .bin. So do I just rename with a .bin after and reflash with that?



Yes, or you can just boot with the switch in position 2 and extract the bios.


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 12, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I saved my bios before flashing to 6970. It Saved it as just a file, no extension like .bin. So do I just rename with a .bin after and reflash with that?



Yup that should do, or just flip the switch on your card to recover it.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 12, 2011)

Alright thanks. I'll have to re-read that section about about flipping the switch to 2 and then flip it back to 1 while on...  

Has anyone does this?  Is it easy to do?


----------



## Qed (Jan 12, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Alright thanks. I'll have to re-read that section about about flipping the switch to 2 and then flip it back to 1 while on...
> 
> Has anyone does this?  Is it easy to do?



But cant you just boot with the switch on 2, extract the bios, boot with the switch on 1 and flash?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 12, 2011)

Qed said:


> But cant you just boot with the switch on 2, extract the bios, boot with the switch on 1 and flash?



I don't know how to do it.  I just was about to check the process right now on how to flash back.  I don't want to permanently damage my card.  I flashed it last Friday.  I haven't run into any problems, but then again I haven't gamed that much either, other than an hour of BC2 last night.  Sure did play nicely though, 55-60fps online.


----------



## bushwakko (Jan 12, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Im not sure about the artifacting but it doesn't sound good and might get worse / permanent as time goes on. I would flash it back to the stock bios / speeds to see if you still get artifacts (permanent damage). Also, do yourself a favor and use a program like afterburner to cool down your card. I use afterburner and set a manual fan curve up to keep it cool but quite and my card never goes over 40ide / 62full load



The artifacts are completely gone after under a minute and I don't see any other artifacts after that, and everything seems pretty good. Very strange, what's the difference between the modded 6950 bios and the 6970 one btw?


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 12, 2011)

bushwakko said:


> The artifacts are completely gone after under a minute and I don't see any other artifacts after that, and everything seems pretty good. Very strange, what's the difference between the modded 6950 bios and the 6970 one btw?



Modded 6950 bios only enables the extra shaders, and everything else in the bios is left the same as stock (clock speeds, voltages, timing, etc). By flashing a 6970 bios you are upping your gpu voltage, possibly changing the memory timing / voltage, and upping the default clock speeds.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 12, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Modded 6950 bios only enables the extra shaders, and everything else in the bios is left the same as stock (clock speeds, voltages, timing, etc). By flashing a 6970 bios you are upping your gpu voltage, possibly changing the memory timing / voltage, and upping the default clock speeds.



Is the modded 6950 bios safer than the 6970, not showing to cause artifacting or other errors?  I'm going to flash back to default bios, but if this is safer, I would like to do that.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 12, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Is the modded 6950 bios safer than the 6970, not showing to cause artifacting or other errors?  I'm going to flash back to default bios, but if this is safer, I would like to do that.



I don't believe there is really any risk in running the modded 6950 bios if you run it at stock 6950 clock speeds. Your probably even safe to overclock the gpu, but I would leave the memory stock 100% for now.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 12, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> I don't believe there is really any risk in running the modded 6950 bios if you run it at stock 6950 clock speeds. Your probably even safe to overclock the gpu, but I would leave the memory stock 100% for now.



Awesome thanks.  I just flashed back to default bios for now since other were talking about problems.  I hope I skirted the problems by flashing back before anything happened.  I'm going to look for a modded bios now, the one with the shaders unlocked.


----------



## techie81 (Jan 12, 2011)

I flashed my old bios back just in case. I'm going to wait to see an explanation. The rom file just needs to be renamed to XXXXX.bin


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 12, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Awesome thanks.  I just flashed back to default bios for now since other were talking about problems.  I hope I skirted the problems by flashing back before anything happened.  I'm going to look for a modded bios now, the one with the shaders unlocked.



It's probably safest to use the scrip posted earlier in this thread to modify your exact bios. That just leaves out any room for other problems such as different cards  and/or manufacturers using different ram chips with slightly different specs. Just an idea. 
You can download the script here: http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
Put your original bios in the folder and call it original.bin then run the script to modify your stock bios. After that, use the other scrips in the first post on this thread to flash your card with the modded bios.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 12, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> It's probably safest to use the scrip posted earlier in this thread to modify your exact bios. That just leaves out any room for other problems such as different cards  and/or manufacturers using different ram chips with slightly different specs. Just an idea.
> You can download the script here: http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> Put your original bios in the folder and call it original.bin then run the script to modify your stock bios. After that, use the other scrips in the first post on this thread to flash your card with the modded bios.



Sweet.  Thanks, you saved me having to look and find it.  I'm going to try this out tonight.  I'll post back after seeing what happens and how it goes.  I have the XFX card, so I have to run CMD as Administrator in order to flash.  So this mod only changes the shaders, huh?  Would you suggest perhaps upping the GPU clocks in CCC or another OC utility?


----------



## bushwakko (Jan 12, 2011)

Installed unlocked 6950 bios now, no artifacts, but then again I'll have to wait until tomorrow when the computer is cold to see if it persists. I would like to overclock more than 840/1325 which is the 6950 max. Would be awesome if someone could mod a 6950 bios to have 6950 voltages and timings, but still identifying as 6970 so I can overclock more!  Any hackers?


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 12, 2011)

Has anyone had any luck using the new RBE to increase the overclocking limits of their stock 6950 modded bios? I was using the Asus 6950 bios and smart doctor to override the overclock limits / voltage but got some weird stuff I wasn't sure about. I would rather use my own modded bios with increased overclock limits and voltage control to ensure complete compatibility with my card and it's exact memory chips. Anyone found any way of doing this yet with their own 6950 bios, or are we still stuck at using the Asus 6950 bios with smart doctor for now?


----------



## ac3 (Jan 13, 2011)

f0d: Have you tried running Battlefield Vietnam without MSI Afterburner running in the background?.

I think I noticed the same problem but next time I ran the game (with afterburner closed) I didn't notice it any more. Are the problems people having only with BFBC2/Vietnam? seems like it.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 13, 2011)

I realized that since I switched from nVIDIA to ATI card/drivers, when I'm dragging a folder/window/application, it trails / ghosts. Anyone else?

To begin, I used Driver Sweeper to remove any old traces of nVIDIA applications and affiliates. All was cleared via Safe Mode. Then preceded to install AMD drivers, etc via provided CD. It installed the Catalyst Control Centre and the ATI Display Drivers (I assume this is the video drivers as well?), and other utilities.

Did all of this yesterday. And just a few minutes ago completed the process again, although the ghosting and trails still appear. I'm still on good ol' XP by the way, and since most are using the 10.12a, I'm unable to, but that shouldn't be a problem as I'm sure the hotfix is just somewhat dx11 related fixes, etc.

Any clue?


----------



## Crew883 (Jan 13, 2011)

LongThumb said:


> Got my XFX HD6950 and flashed succesfully.
> 
> Currently running it at 900/1500
> 
> ...





 Please report back after extended use


----------



## Crew883 (Jan 13, 2011)

I hate to double post this, but I think it got lost in the last page...

I have a few quick questions that hopefully you guys can help me wrap my head around. 

I modded my XFX 6950 bios from the tool used earlier in the thread, and I am only running my clocks at the max allowed by CCC 840 and 1270 on the memory because I am worried about what I have heard about the memory failing . Card runs max 60c in BC2 and other games over the course of a gaming night. 

So: 1. How dangerous are my settings for the card? 2. Do I need to have extra power going to the card from CCC if I am just running the modded 6950 extra shaders? 

Thanks to the people who put this together too, everything was easy to do and setup.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 13, 2011)

Well, my card on my other rig so far looks good ... 2 weeks, 840/1325 on 20% powertune. No problems at all, 65c max on games on 45% fan.

This rig with the card, is at 920/1400 on 20% powertune as well, it's been a week. No problems yet, 70c max on 50% fan.



Only "problem" I'm getting is I'm assuming it's the DRIVERS, when I drag a folder/window, it gets trails behind / ghosting (like when you are in safe mode, and no drivers are loaded, etc, that laggy feel), does anyone get this or have any idea on how to get it fixed? I'm on the 10.12 drivers (XP)... Didn't have this problem with nVIDIA drivers... Any clue?


----------



## HI. (Jan 13, 2011)

Hi to all this community. Im just here to give a hint of my knowledge over this thing. Im a student ending up my formation in electronic engineering. The Modded Bios: If truely just UNLOCK THE SHADER and do not touch voltage or timings, Will not have any effect on your card. Since 6970 bios does really upper the voltage the temp goes exponantial higher for each step of voltage... So as you guys speak of seeing 85 celcius dont get suprised. im using the stock card and i never been over 67 celcius, NEVER even with long testing. I got an Antec 900 first version and this tower isnt the best cooling i know of, how the hell you guys manage to reach 88-90?? dont ask, the modded bios...


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 13, 2011)

HI. said:


> Hi to all this community. Im just here to give a hint of my knowledge over this thing. Im a student ending up my formation in electronic engineering. The Modded Bios: If truely just UNLOCK THE SHADER and do not touch voltage or timings, Will not have any effect on your card. Since 6970 bios does really upper the voltage the temp goes exponantial higher for each step of voltage... So as you guys speak of seeing 85 celcius dont get suprised. im using the stock card and i never been over 67 celcius, NEVER even with long testing. I got an Antec 900 first version and this tower isnt the best cooling i know of, how the hell you guys manage to reach 88-90?? dont ask, the modded bios...



Well, what are your fan settings? Was it on auto, or did you have it fixed, or was it on a profile curve? I know a few people with the modded BIOS at full GPU load and auto fan that reach 80-85c.


----------



## baud (Jan 13, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> Well, my card on my other rig so far looks good ... 2 weeks, 840/1325 on 20% powertune. No problems at all, 65c max on games on 45% fan.
> 
> This rig with the card, is at 920/1400 on 20% powertune as well, it's been a week. No problems yet, 70c max on 50% fan.
> 
> ...



I had a ghosting problem too, but only after i uninstalled Smart Doctor.  Once I reinstalled it and left it running at startup, the weirdness went away.  No other problems since then.


----------



## HI. (Jan 13, 2011)

i've seen throught the thread some people posting about over 80+ temps. maybe in crossfire.. but how. how in a single gpu unit would u reach this. im now using a fan curve setup. But when i got this card out of the box, it was on its own. With CCC. Im using Trixxx with the stock Bios.. 

edit: (840/1300) with 67 celcius. Btw any1 knows the MAXIMUM temperature should the card handle ?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 13, 2011)

HI. said:


> edit: (840/1300) with 67 celcius. Btw any1 knows the MAXIMUM temperature should the card handle ?



I just read about the card getting up to 92C on Furmark.  I'm not sure personally though.


----------



## f0d (Jan 13, 2011)

ac3 said:


> f0d: Have you tried running Battlefield Vietnam without MSI Afterburner running in the background?.
> 
> I think I noticed the same problem but next time I ran the game (with afterburner closed) I didn't notice it any more. Are the problems people having only with BFBC2/Vietnam? seems like it.



just tried it then

and yes even as a 6950 and afterburner closed it still artifacts



HI. said:


> i've seen throught the thread some people posting about over 80+ temps. maybe in crossfire.. but how. how in a single gpu unit would u reach this. im now using a fan curve setup. But when i got this card out of the box, it was on its own. With CCC. Im using Trixxx with the stock Bios..
> 
> edit: (840/1300) with 67 celcius. Btw any1 knows the MAXIMUM temperature should the card handle ?



i read somewhere just before (cant find it now) that its something like 100degrees
heres a chart from anandtech showing temps in crysis (is that ok? i couldnt find a techpowerup reference)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950/24





upto 89 degrees in crossfire and 75 degrees for the 6950
furmark was 90's for crossfire and 80's for single card
i have a fan curve that keeps it at about 74 or below - after 74 it gets crazy, i made it ramp to 100%@85 degrees. i really dont care about noise - thats what headphones are for


----------



## manofthem (Jan 13, 2011)

HI. said:


> edit: (840/1300) with 67 celcius. Btw any1 knows the MAXIMUM temperature should the card handle ?



I just ran the Furmark 1.8.2, and the max I hit was 91C.  I ran it for like 15 minutes.  That's with a default bios, auto fan settings, and +10% power in CCC.


----------



## HI. (Jan 13, 2011)

f0d said:


> i have a fan curve that keeps it at about 74 or below - after 74 it gets crazy, i made it ramp to 100%@85 degrees. i really dont care about noise - thats what headphones are for



Hmm what case are u using. do you got Alot of cables in the way in your computer case? Do you live in africa where temps are higher? what bios are you running? my curve reach's 100% fan at 82 celcius. but fan never gone over 40-55 %. there must be something..


----------



## HI. (Jan 13, 2011)

manofthem said:


> and +10% power in CCC.



power is voltage. again same as my preview post.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 13, 2011)

HI. said:


> power is voltage. again same as my preview post.



I have the Xclio Blackhawk Advanced case.  




Most of the cables are at the bottom and not too intrusive I believe...  Any suggestions.
Do you think my temps are too high in Furmark?


----------



## HI. (Jan 13, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I have the Xclio Blackhawk Advanced case.
> http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/IMG_0572.jpg
> Most of the cables are at the bottom and not too intrusive I believe...  Any suggestions.
> Do you think my temps are too high in Furmark?



Last but not least. Are you overclocked to be at +10%, 
if not why are you +10
overclocking as we all know uppers the temps quickly aswell.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 13, 2011)

HI. said:


> Last but not least. Are you overclocked to be at +10%,
> if not why are you +10
> overclocking as we all know uppers the temps quickly aswell.



I had the +10 when I had the other bios loaded.  I just switched back a little bit ago, never changed anything in CCC yet.  I went back to the default bios since other were saying they ran into problems.  I am planning to loaded the modded bios which unlocks the shaders (which I have ready, just haven't loaded it yet) and OC the GPU clock some but keep the memory at the default speed for now.


----------



## f0d (Jan 13, 2011)

HI. said:


> Hmm what case are u using. do you got Alot of cables in the way in your computer case? Do you live in africa where temps are higher? what bios are you running? my curve reach's 100% fan at 82 celcius. but fan never gone over 40-55 %. there must be something..



my fan usually sits around 60% because im in australia and its about 30degrees air temp inside now - the gpu never gets past 75 because of the fan curve i set
fan curve





my case is a thermaltake kandalf LCS - its freakin huge (11 drive bays in the front) and no cables in the way its all cable managed - 8 fans (5 intake 3 exhaust) 





i was running the 6970 bios but now im back to the standard 6950 bios that came with it (i backed it up) and all at stock speeds


----------



## HI. (Jan 13, 2011)

Just stay tuned im currently running a Fur 1.8.2 1920-1080 4x msaa for a 15 minute to show you... what i meant for the temperature..


----------



## Whilhelm (Jan 13, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> In case your card does not boot at all you can use AMD's new backup BIOS feature:
> Set the BIOS switch (pictured above) in the 2 position to enable the recovery BIOS and restart the computer. This will let you boot the card without problems.
> Boot into Windows/DOS prompt and get ready to flash the card - do not start the flashing process just yet.
> Set the BIOS switch in the 1 position with the system running and ready to flash.
> ...



My system blue screened when I was attempting to flash an unlocked shader bios onto the card. Now I get no display from bios #1. I was using ATI WIN flash at the time and have done it several times without issue. Something went wrong this time and I don't know how to get bios 1 working again. 

I understand that I can use the backup bios to recover the card. But I do not understand what I am supposed to do at the above steps colored in red. Do I use ATI flash to do this? Can anyone give me an idea as to how to do this? Thanks.


----------



## ALBPM (Jan 13, 2011)

ALBPM said:


> I flashed my 2 Sapphire cards with the unlocked 6950 Sapphire bios back on Dec. 29 and have been running both at 840/1300 with no problems.
> My Top card has only hit 74 degrees and bottom maxes out around 65 degrees using the 10.12a driver and fans on Auto..
> 
> My only problem so far is trying to get Trixx to work. I get a BSOD even setting it to the default 800/1250...???



I did a search and found the thread on setting "enableulps" to 0 in the registry and got Trixx working finally....
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=133783&highlight=trixx&page=2

Now running at 880/1325. Top card got to 67 degrees max, bottom card got up to 74 degrees max after an hour of gaming with fans on the default auto setting.
So, I'm finally getting more usage out of the bottom card with "enableulps" disabled.


----------



## HI. (Jan 13, 2011)

there we go. Hope it can enlight you guys.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 13, 2011)

Whilhelm said:


> My system blue screened when I was attempting to flash an unlocked shader bios onto the card. Now I get no display from bios #1. I was using ATI WIN flash at the time and have done it several times without issue. Something went wrong this time and I don't know how to get bios 1 working again.
> 
> I understand that I can use the backup bios to recover the card. But I do not understand what I am supposed to do at the above steps colored in red. Do I use ATI flash to do this? Can anyone give me an idea as to how to do this? Thanks.



It's funny, because I also had the same misunderstanding or not being able to understand that as well a week ago or so. And W1zzard was all like, everything is there and is clear, when I just needed a further explanation. 

But yes, you do. You can use any app to flash your old (backup) BIOS with. Basically, if you are unable to get into Windows or POST, you flip the switch to "2", which is the read-only BIOS and you should be able to get in now as that is the default BIOS. After, you would prepare all the flashing tools and what not to flash back to your old (backup) BIOS, but you don't initiate the actual flashing process yet TILL you flip the switch back to "1"; which is the BIOS that "went wrong". After it is on the "1" switch, initiate and flash away!

Hope that helps! :O


----------



## Crew883 (Jan 13, 2011)

* can somoene help please? *

I hate to double post this, but I think it got lost in the last page...

I have a few quick questions that hopefully you guys can help me wrap my head around. 

I modded my XFX 6950 bios from the tool used earlier in the thread, and I am only running my clocks at the max allowed by CCC 840 and 1270 on the memory because I am worried about what I have heard about the memory failing . Card runs max 60c in BC2 and other games over the course of a gaming night. 

So: 1. How dangerous are my settings for the card? 2. Do I need to have extra power going (via power tune) to the card from CCC if I am just running the modded 6950 extra shaders with 840 clocks?? 

Thanks to the people who put this together too, everything was easy to do and setup.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 13, 2011)

@Crew883, I did indirectly answer your question, don't worry about it too much. If you're worrying too much, don't attempt it...


----------



## Whilhelm (Jan 13, 2011)

Ok thanks so much for the info. I saved the backup bios using ATI WInflash and booted it with the switch in the 2 position. When at the command prompt I switched it to 1 position and typed atiflash -p 0 bios.rom and I am just getting Adapter not Found Error 0FL01 

I followed the steps exactly and now I am stuck.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 13, 2011)

Whilhelm said:


> Ok thanks so much for the info. I saved the backup bios using ATI WInflash and booted it with the switch in the 2 position. When at the command prompt I switched it to 1 position and typed atiflash -p 0 bios.rom and I am just getting Adapter not Found Error 0FL01
> 
> I followed the steps exactly and now I am stuck.



Which one are you trying to apply? The 6950 -> 6970 flash (with unlocked shaders)? Or flashing to the modified 6950 (with unlocked shaders)?

If the 6950 -> 6970 flash, use the batch script that does it ALL for you! And it makes a backup as well! http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html

Otherwise, if flashing to the modified 6950, use this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

It should be fairly straight forward (read the batch file), otherwise post back again!


----------



## Crew883 (Jan 13, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> @Crew883, I did indirectly answer your question, don't worry about it too much. If you're worrying too much, don't attempt it...



ok I see now thanks  will the ccc power tune yield anything though? is it under powered for those clocks as i am right now?


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 13, 2011)

Crew883 said:


> ok I see now thanks  will the ccc power tune yield anything though? is it under powered for those clocks as i am right now?



Nope, it should be fine. But if you want maximum performance, put the slider at 20%. Some users have left feedback that 20% power gives a worse benchmark score, than on 10%. See whatever works best for you. Basically, increasing the power, will prevent throttling and remain stable.


----------



## f0d (Jan 13, 2011)

Qed said:


> Anyone who got ram damage should know that's permanent and prevent you from using OpenCL applications.



just tested a few opencl tests without issue
maybe its not a ram problem then with the 6970 mod


----------



## Whilhelm (Jan 13, 2011)

I figured it out now. I didn't realise you could flip the bios switch while the system was running and flash it right there 

I thought it could only be flipped with the system turned off and I figured I would lose display by flipping the switch in windows. 

All is well now, have both cards with unlocked shaders and the clocks at stock 6950 settings, well at the CCC overdrive limits of 840, 1325. 

Thanks for the help, I was literally about to but my head through my window.

Also I had already flashed both cards with the full 6970 bios but crossfire would not work at all and after reading through this thread I decided it would be much safer to just unlock the shaders and leave the voltage, memory clocks and timings alone.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 13, 2011)

Whilhelm said:


> I figured it out now. I didn't realise you could flip the bios switch while the system was running and flash it right there
> 
> I thought it could only be flipped with the system turned off and I figured I would lose display by flipping the switch in windows.
> 
> ...



I was wondering the same thing as well earlier on! Glad it all worked out!!


----------



## Whilhelm (Jan 13, 2011)

Yeah I am glad it is sorted and these things are pretty awesome. 












They run far cooler without the 6970 bios and are quieter too plus it is nice that crossfire actually works


----------



## bushwakko (Jan 13, 2011)

Started my computer up today, this time with unlocked 6950 bios OC to max. No artifacts at all, now I only wished someone would be able to mod the bios to allow it to clock further, and perhaps set voltage manually in the bios as well. Would be great for overclocking


----------



## Wijkert (Jan 13, 2011)

bushwakko said:


> Started my computer up today, this time with unlocked 6950 bios OC to max. No artifacts at all, now I only wished someone would be able to mod the bios to allow it to clock further, and perhaps set voltage manually in the bios as well. Would be great for overclocking



Have patience and wait untill a new version of afterburner with voltage control is released.


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 13, 2011)

Asus smartdoctor has an option to unlock further overclocking,,,,

With unlocked 6950 bios the sliders in ccc go to 1620 and 2500.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 13, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> Asus smartdoctor has an option to unlock further overclocking,,,,
> 
> With unlocked 6950 bios the sliders in ccc go to 1620 and 2500.



This has been figured awhile ago in this thread.


----------



## ac3 (Jan 13, 2011)

f0d said:


> just tried it then
> 
> and yes even as a 6950 and afterburner closed it still artifacts



f0d: I am getting the same black and white flashes in battlefield vietnam, I am hoping it's a game / driver problem. What drivers are you using?


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 13, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> This has been figured awhile ago in this thread.



I'm aware of that, I've been running the modded asus bios from the start. Above several people seem to be stuck on lower ccc overdrive numbers. Just trying to help


----------



## f0d (Jan 13, 2011)

ac3 said:


> f0d: I am getting the same black and white flashes in battlefield vietnam, I am hoping it's a game / driver problem. What drivers are you using?



cat 10.12

i wish it would be a driver problem but im fairly sure its a hardware failure


----------



## bushwakko (Jan 13, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> This has been figured awhile ago in this thread.



Can anyone use Asus Smartdoctor, if so, where can I get it?


----------



## Mirmendis (Jan 13, 2011)

f0d said:


> cat 10.12
> 
> i wish it would be a driver problem but im fairly sure its a hardware failure



I've the same glitch in 3dmark 2011 and Unigine Heaven(first glitch who flashes on the ground at the beginning) but too bad, i haven't bfbc2 to test .


----------



## ac3 (Jan 13, 2011)

I think it's only BFBC2 Vietnam as I played standard BFBC2 for about an hour and didn't notice it.


----------



## Kaali (Jan 13, 2011)

Wait new drivers or game update ^^ , i have the same wierd stuff in BBC2 vietnam  + crossfire bug like black lightning screen or black screen during short time , this game isn't realy optimised for 6950 crossfire because when i disable crossfire it's run fine without any trouble !


----------



## Shrike (Jan 13, 2011)

Hey guys,

another question:
I modded my 6950 to full 6970 but it started crashing, so i switched to the modded 6950(free shaders) and its currently running @840, 1325 nicely.
So my vram couldnt stand the 6970 specs, as there are 1.175v and other timings(?)

When a new Afterburnerversion comes out with which i can rise the core clock and core voltages ect. and i change the voltage to 1.175 is my vram in dangern once again or does this voltagechange only affect the gpu?
Should i stay at lets say 1.125 and see how far i can rise the core clock?
Or can i go the full 1.175 or even more if the cooling is good enough without damaging my vram?

Thanks

Shrike


----------



## Mirmendis (Jan 13, 2011)

Wijkert said:


> I started out with 6970 bios @ 880/1375. Artifacts appaired within a copple of days so I flashed in the unlocked shader bios and kept the clocks at stock speeds (6950). The artifacts where less noticable, but still there so I flashed back my original bios, but still the artifacts remained. I agree that it is weird that this mod would cause these problems, but maybe those shader units where disabled for a reason. Either that or we somehow damaged the memory when we flashed the 6970 bios in and use't the card for a copple of days. I am seeing artifacts in both GTA4 and the Heaven benchmark. A screen of the GTA4 artifacts can be found a copple of posts back. If someone has a theory I would be happy to hear and/or test it.



I don't think your issue is flash related, look at this thread : http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=335460

Many users have the same problem, even with real 6970.


----------



## Qed (Jan 13, 2011)

f0d said:


> just tested a few opencl tests without issue
> maybe its not a ram problem then with the 6970 mod



I didn't write it in the proper way.
You CAN execute OpneCL code on your card, but you can NoT trust the results. For example if you compute an SHA1 of a file you might get different result if the gpu is using one of the faulty memory bit.




Mirmendis said:


> I don't think your issue is flash related, look at this thread : http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=335460
> 
> Many users have the same problem, even with real 6970.



And the user wrote: _"Solved, problem was a defective card, tried with another video card, problem disappeared, returned the card for RMA, received back, no problems now what so ever, confirmed the previous card which was causing these issues was defective, is anyone else has these issues your card may be faulty"_

I'm not sure if they are gonna replace an 6950 modded with an 6970 bios.


----------



## Shrike (Jan 13, 2011)

Someone should try and tell the others


----------



## Nuppi (Jan 13, 2011)

Im getting the Asus 6950.
Which 6970 bios should i try?
The asus one or the sapphire one?

Thanks


----------



## arroyo (Jan 13, 2011)

Don't use any HD6970 bios. Mod yours bios or use a bios from HD6950 with unlocked shaders.


----------



## Nuppi (Jan 13, 2011)

Oh.
Ok.
Thanks for the hint arroyo.
So the tutorial here at: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
is something you should not do afterall?
Hows that?

Where to get bios for asus 6950 with unlocked shaders?
Im sure i dont know how to modify my own bios anyway.


----------



## arroyo (Jan 13, 2011)

Somwhere in this thread, someone posted the tool for modification of oryginal HD6950 bios. And i'm 100% there was a modded Asus HD6950 bios.

I've send a email to W1zzard about his article that it needs to be rewrited, because this can made more harm than good.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 13, 2011)

Nuppi said:


> Oh.
> Ok.
> Thanks for the hint arroyo.
> So the tutorial here at: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
> ...



http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
Download that, it'll let you modd your own bios.  Save your original bios. I made a backup using atiwinflash.  

wmblalock helped me do it already.  he said
Put your original bios in the folder and call it original.bin then run the script to modify your stock bios. After that, use the other scrips in the first post on this thread to flash your card with the modded bios.
editriginal post #1043


----------



## kronowolf (Jan 13, 2011)

I'd say count me as +1 to the Sapphire 6950->6970 group -- but I'm not sure.

I flashed the 6970 BIOS and set my clocks to 880/1375 (6970 speeds) and haven't had any artifacting or majorly noticeable visual defects.  I had a couple of blue screens caused by switching between single- and dual-display setups, but I expect subsequent drivers will iron that issue out.

HOWEVER, I have been noticing some visual stuttering -- I'd almost call it judder.  It's most noticeable when a game or benchmark is panning across a sweeping vista, like in Just Cause 2's Desert Sunrise benchmark.  It's also immediately apparent when playing any 3D game in a window (i.e. not fullscreen).  Even something as simple as ZDoom -- if it's running in a window -- will stutter every couple of seconds as a I move around.

I'm going to run my own battery of tests (change Power Control setting, drop clocks to 6950 speeds, switch to 6950 BIOS, etc.) but I wanted to check and see if anyone else has been having this issue.  I really don't remember seeing this with my old card (a stalwart 5770).


----------



## arroyo (Jan 13, 2011)

kronowolf, if you flashed to HD6970 bios, your card will be dead in a couple of days. Trust me 

Flash it to the unlocked HD6950 bios as soon ass possible and pray if the HD6970 bios didn't damaged your memory chips.


----------



## davetheshrew (Jan 13, 2011)

^^ thats wrong, 0.1mv will not damage ram, jeez

ive been running mine since 26th dec with many 6970 bioses and havent had even a hint of trouble, its just some cards arent cut out for unlocking shaders and high reference clocks. I know a bunch that have unlocked and couldnt run at those oc's so they clock down a little, problem solved but the card is crap compared to a decent unlocked one, I can bench all day long at 1.325mv 1000/1475 and all is well, some others cant.


----------



## kronowolf (Jan 13, 2011)

I've had my 6950 since January 2 with nary a problem.  BC2, Just Cause 2, Crysis, Warhead, Metro 2033, Pripyat -- you name it, this card runs it without breaking a sweat.  

I installed Sapphire TriXX and enabled a more aggressive fan curve such that temps never go above 65-70C, even during Extreme Burning Mode in FurMark.  I've done everything possible to safeguard the card, and in turn haven't had any major issues -- except for this damn stuttering.

Would it help if I loaded Fraps/Xfire and made a video of the stuttering I'm seeing?


----------



## davetheshrew (Jan 13, 2011)

the stuttering might be down to your fan profiles refreshing, try setting your fan speed in ccc only and give it a run, im 99% sure your stutter will dissapear  infact try turning everything off exept ccc and give it a go but try the fan profiles first


----------



## arroyo (Jan 13, 2011)

Ok, let's call it like that. For the first week of January there were no problems with selling HD6950. We sold them more than any other card since TPU article about overclocking. Since 3 days we got about 30% of this cards returned with artifacting problem. Not all users said that they were modifying their cards with HD6970 bios but some of them confested to that.

Now we are applying our shop warranty sticker on BIOS switch with switch at position 2.

I have about 17 dead because of artifacting HD6950 cards on storeroom (all of them are artifacting with default bios).


----------



## kronowolf (Jan 13, 2011)

davetheshrew said:


> the stuttering might be down to your fan profiles refreshing, try setting your fan speed in ccc only and give it a run, im 99% sure your stutter will dissapear  infact try turning everything off exept ccc and give it a go but try the fan profiles first



I disabled TriXX and set CCC to 880/1375/+20%/manual 40% fan speed.  ZDoom still stutters. 

I'll report back with the results from my testing.

@arroyo: I wouldn't be surprised if you're correct.  I know some people have had good luck with their cards, but I imagine many others haven't.  For my part, all I can say is that while I've had good luck so far, something has felt off about this hack since day one -- the card has never felt 100% stable or smooth, so *something* is amiss.


----------



## davetheshrew (Jan 13, 2011)

that may all be well and true but I bet at least a third are totally fine, people return cards for all sorts of reasons and just say 'artifacting', I bet a few more are ok because they last minute decided to get a gtx570 etc etc etc, the ones that are dead dead more than likely doomed sub-par cards before the flash, 17 cards, how many did you sell?


----------



## Nuppi (Jan 13, 2011)

arroyo said:


> Somwhere in this thread, someone posted the tool for modification of oryginal HD6950 bios. And i'm 100% there was a modded Asus HD6950 bios.
> 
> I've send a email to W1zzard about his article that it needs to be rewrited, because this can made more harm than good.



Ok.
Thanks for the heads up mate!
Will study some more before flashing my asus.
Maybe ill just get some shaders unlocked and nothing else. If thats safe? and gives some performance boost?

Too bad if just over 100mhz increase in memory speed will brick the card :/


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 13, 2011)

@Nuppi

I flashed my asus to the unlocked shaders version of the asus 6950 bios. Look through this thread and it's somewhere back there. I then use smart doctor to enable overclocking. I use ccc to run the card at 880 ad 1300mem. This causes no problems and gets a 3Dmark11 score of 5058, 6 less than if the memory is at 1375. I use afterburner to set a fan curve to keep temps low as well.


----------



## kronowolf (Jan 13, 2011)

kronowolf said:


> I disabled TriXX and set CCC to 880/1375/+20%/manual 40% fan speed.  ZDoom still stutters.



I tested again with Bad Company 2 on Cold War (campaign level 2) and was not able to reproduce the stuttering.  The stutter also appears to be gone in ZDoom and Minecraft.

I'm pretty positive TriXX was completely shut down last time I tested.  Otherwise, all that's changed is giving it about an hour or so to sit at 880/1375/+20%.  I can't really figure how letting the card sit a spell would magically make the stutter go away.  

I'll report back if it resurfaces.  Still not feeling 100% settled about all of this.


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 13, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> @Nuppi
> 
> ...*Look through this thread and it's somewhere back there*....



Until someone stickys it:

Here is the quote



wmblalock said:


> It's probably safest to use the scrip posted earlier in this thread to modify your exact bios. That just leaves out any room for other problems such as different cards  and/or manufacturers using different ram chips with slightly different specs. Just an idea.
> You can download the script here: http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> Put your original bios in the folder and call it original.bin then run the script to modify your stock bios. After that, use the other scrips in the first post on this thread to flash your card with the modded bios.


----------



## Nuppi (Jan 13, 2011)

Thanks guys


----------



## manofthem (Jan 13, 2011)

A little off topic, what is a good score for a 6950 with default bios in 3DMark 11?  I'm wondering to compare mine to.


----------



## Wijkert (Jan 13, 2011)

manofthem said:


> A little off topic, what is a good score for a 6950 with default bios in 3DMark 11?  I'm wondering to compare mine to.



Between 4000 and 5000. It depends on the rest of your system though.


----------



## kronowolf (Jan 13, 2011)

manofthem said:


> A little off topic, what is a good score for a 6950 with default bios in 3DMark 11?  I'm wondering to compare mine to.



Lots of little factors make it impossible to give a definitive number. The 3DMark score is worthless here because it factors in the Physics Score, and that depends primarily on CPU speed.

For what it's worth, though, I ran 3DMark 11 Performance (P) on my stock 6950 and got the following results:
Graphics Score - 4294
GraphicsTest1 - 18.99 fps
GraphicsTest2 - 21.82 FPS
GraphicsTest3 - 26.94 FPS
GraphicsTest4 - 12.72 FPS


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 13, 2011)

I fired one question on the RBE thread, but didn't get a specific reply. I started thinking that GPU voltage and memory voltage are somehow connected. This is why I started thinking about this:

card GPU memory
6950 1.1 ---- 1.5
6970 1.175 -- 1.6

same proportion (both about 6,7% more for 6970)

if this is the case, also overvolting the GPU from RBE or any other tool (such as SD) would also increase memory voltage thus potentially harming it. 

Any hint about this?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 13, 2011)

Wijkert said:


> Between 4000 and 5000. It depends on the rest of your system though.



Thanks. Im right in line then. I had like P4718, but that was when I had the 6970 bios with +10%. I need to run it again when I get home on default 6950 and then with the modded 6950 w/ shaders.


----------



## Shrike (Jan 13, 2011)

Hey guys,

another question:
I modded my 6950 to full 6970 but it started crashing, so i switched to the modded 6950(free shaders) and its currently running @840, 1325 nicely.
So my vram couldnt stand the 6970 specs, as there are 1.175v and other timings(?)

When a new Afterburnerversion comes out with which i can rise the core clock and core voltages ect. and i change the voltage to 1.175 is my vram in dangern once again or does this voltagechange only affect the gpu?
Should i stay at lets say 1.125 and see how far i can rise the core clock?
Or can i go the full 1.175 or even more if the cooling is good enough without damaging my vram?

Thanks

Shrike

PS: i got Graphics score 4590 with standard and 4747 witch unlocked shaders and 840, 1325 MHz, but my q6700@3.33 GHz might have slowed down the process....


----------



## gungstar (Jan 13, 2011)

crossflashed two sapphire 6950, only one stable after


----------



## AstroBounce (Jan 13, 2011)

*Should I unlock?*

I'm going to assemble my PC this weekend and got this card in 2 weeks ago. *Would you guys recommend that I unlock my card?* It is of Sapphire Brand. I'm worried about the various problems I'm reading in this thread; like artifact problems. I'm not as tech savvy as some people and may have a a hard time fixing problems should a problem occur in the first place.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 13, 2011)

Definitely consider flashing with a modded 6950 bios that unlocks the shaders. Check out post #1111 where it shows how to do it and has a link. But too many reports of a 6970 flash with negative side affects.


----------



## Super XP (Jan 13, 2011)

Hey guys I Google searched for the new ATI/AMD Cat drivers and got this. What do you think, could this be the new CAT Drivers (cat_11.**) because they do look ferocious or should I say it looks ferocious. If this style of CAT drivers has anything to do with the CAT 11.**, then ATI/AMD may have a vicious winner on its hands.

ATI's New CAT 11.**'s






The CAT 10.0 to 10.12 look like they are resting after a long hard but successful year, preparing for the new CAT 11's. If you count the braw's we are looking at CAT 11.0 to 11.8


----------



## AstroBounce (Jan 13, 2011)

@manofthem
Same process as modding w/ 6970 Bios?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 13, 2011)

AstroBounce said:


> @manofthem
> Same process as modding w/ 6970 Bios?



Same process as flashing, but I was referring to link which showed how to take a copy of your original bios and modd it.


----------



## AstroBounce (Jan 13, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Same process as flashing, but I was referring to link which showed how to take a copy of your original bios and modd it.



Ok so I should make a copy (atiwinflash) of my original Bios. Save it into that folder of downloadable link. Run it to mod the bios. Then use the flashing process described in the first post for the 6970? Sorry I'm just a little confused at the moment.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 13, 2011)

AstroBounce said:


> Ok so I should make a copy (atiwinflash) of my original Bios. Save it into that folder of downloadable link. Run it to mod the bios. Then use the flashing process described in the first post for the 6970? Sorry I'm just a little confused at the moment.



Yes, make the backup of the original bio using atiwinflash.  When i made the copy, it saved it without a file extension, so if that happens, add ".bin" to the end.  You'll notice the .bin files are the files used to flash.  I made an original copy (saved that just in case), and then I made an extra copy of the original and modded it.  

That link i mentioned above is for the download.  Extract the files in the rar file to a folder.  Dump your copy of the original bios into that folder and run the file "run.bat"  Running that file will modd your bios file.  Once modded, use it to flash as outlined in the beginning of the thread like you said.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 13, 2011)

I have a quick question that I wondered if anyone knew the answer to. I have a Gigabyte 6950, is the serial number stored in the bios or anywhere else in/on the card except for the couple stickers on the outside of the card?


----------



## AstroBounce (Jan 13, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Yes, make the backup of the original bio using atiwinflash.  When i made the copy, it saved it without a file extension, so if that happens, add ".bin" to the end.  You'll notice the .bin files are the files used to flash.  I made an original copy (saved that just in case), and then I made an extra copy of the original and modded it.
> 
> That link i mentioned above is for the download.  Extract the files in the rar file to a folder.  Dump your copy of the original bios into that folder and run the file "run.bat"  Running that file will modd your bios file.  Once modded, use it to flash as outlined in the beginning of the thread like you said.



Thanks.


----------



## Qed (Jan 14, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> I have a quick question that I wondered if anyone knew the answer to. I have a Gigabyte 6950, is the serial number stored in the bios or anywhere else in/on the card except for the couple stickers on the outside of the card?



Not in the bios, it might be awailable from the PCI-e inteface but definitly not from the bios.


----------



## AstroBounce (Jan 14, 2011)

Since I'm considering using the 6950 mod bios to unlock the shaders for my Sapphire 6950, how would I go about raising the GPU clock speed to 880 and memory to 1375 once the GPU is unlocked? Can anyone answer this thanks.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 14, 2011)

AstroBounce said:


> Since I'm considering using the 6950 mod bios to unlock the shaders for my Sapphire 6950, how would I go about raising the GPU clock speed to 880 and memory to 1375 once the GPU is unlocked? Can anyone answer this thanks.



You can use MSI Afterburner.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 14, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> You can use MSI Afterburner.



I opened up MSI Afterburner, and the limits were the same as CCC.  I've never used MSI AB so if there a way to be able to raise up past those levels?

And is it safe to OC to 880 and 1375 using MSI AB as opposed to the 6970 BIOS?


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 14, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I opened up MSI Afterburner, and the limits were the same as CCC.  I've never used MSI AB so if there a way to be able to raise up past those levels?




http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2156271&postcount=82


----------



## AstroBounce (Jan 14, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> You can use MSI Afterburner.



Wouldn't that work for MSI products only? If it can work with my Sapphire Card then techically can I use Asus Smart Doctor or even Sapphire's own Trixx.


----------



## dccmadams (Jan 14, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:
> 
> - Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
> - Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
> ...



Thanks for these instructions. Got my XFX to unlock without issue following your steps. Once unlocked and drivers reinstalled, you have the same clock/memory limits in CCC as a 6970. When I hit default settings, it goes to the 880/1375 settings with room for more if possible. At stock 6970 settings, ran 3dmark11 with no problems, but locked up hard on COD Black OPS. I set clock/mem at 850/1250 and all is ok. I believe the ram is different on the 6950s, and is only rated for 1250. Going higher may be causing damage to some folks cards on here. I am pleased with the boost I have gotten, without risking ram damage.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 14, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2156271&postcount=82



Thank you good sir.  Might I ask: Is it safe?... meaning if I go over the limits set, will I run into the same problems as those running the 6970 bios?

I was reading the OCC review of the 6950, and they said that they OC'd it to 906/1493.  I'm thinking about maybe trying that out, but I'm just unsure.  So it looks like i'll go little by little.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 14, 2011)

AstroBounce said:


> Wouldn't that work for MSI products only? If it can work with my Sapphire Card then techically can I use Asus Smart Doctor or even Sapphire's own Trixx.



No, it works for all. I mean, honestly, why not just try it? It doesn't hurt. Well, hey, you said you wanted to enhance your overclocking capabilities, and I suggested an application. If you want to suggest your own, then feel free, but then why ask? At least help out yourself and try it then.


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 14, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Thank you good sir.  Might I ask: Is it safe?... meaning if I go over the limits set, will I run into the same problems as those running the 6970 bios?
> 
> I was reading the OCC review of the 6950, and they said that they OC'd it to 906/1493.  I'm thinking about maybe trying that out, but I'm just unsure.  So it looks like i'll go little by little.



Dont be too shy!  - You have evertime your 2. Bios for rescue.

My XFX6950 @ 6970 BIOS did 1000/1500 @ VGPU 1300 mV @ 80% Fan to be safe (set this only for a short 3DMark11 bench) which gave me* hughe P6042*...

For a 24/7 setup I now have Furmark/Game stable 950/1450(set in MSI Afterburner or CCC) + 20% (in CCC) and 1225 mV (set by RBE). For this I also have to set a new FAN curve in MSI Afterburner... 
With FAN on Auto it will be too hot and driver will reset while running furmark...
Max FAN is now (with new curve) ca. 60-65% @ 75-78°C (on heavy Furmark Load)
In normal Gaming it is evertime under 70°C @ Fan 50-55%

Found out for my card that above 80°C it become critical if you set (only) 1225 mV...

Its the major thing to play around with VGPU / FAN / CLOCKS to find the perfect balance for you (and your card  )

By the way: Have not seen a simgle artifact or something like this while testing (and testing, and testing  )


----------



## manofthem (Jan 14, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> Dont be too shy!  - You have evertime your 2. Bios for rescue.
> 
> My XFX6950 @ 6970 BIOS did 1000/1500 @ VGPU 1300 mV @ 80% Fan to be safe (set this only for a short 3DMark11 bench) which gave me* hughe P6042*...
> 
> ...



So are you still on the 6970 BIOS and running fine?  

I'm on the XFX card too trying to get some higher numbers, but drivers crashed in 3DMark11 like you were saying.  I haven't played with the voltages yet, but that's the next step.


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 14, 2011)

manofthem said:


> So are you still on the 6970 BIOS and running fine?
> 
> I'm on the XFX card too trying to get some higher numbers, but drivers crashed in 3DMark11 like you were saying.  I haven't played with the voltages yet, but that's the next step.



Yes and again NO problems for me here with 6970 BIOS here... Already tried XFX6970 BIOS... And now I am running on my XFX 6950 the ASUS 6970 BIOS 

Saw it RBE that the Asus BIOS has a entry more under clocks than the other BIOSe (Clock Info 4) - so I think that this might be helpfull it some ways (or not - dont know  )





*Keep in mind: Clock changing in RBE do NOT work at the moment!*


----------



## arroyo (Jan 14, 2011)

davetheshrew said:


> that may all be well and true but I bet at least a third are totally fine, people return cards for all sorts of reasons and just say 'artifacting', I bet a few more are ok because they last minute decided to get a gtx570 etc etc etc, the ones that are dead dead more than likely doomed sub-par cards before the flash, 17 cards, how many did you sell?



People don't return the cards broken if they want change it to the GTX570. If RMA will be OK with those cards, thay probably get new HD6950. We sold them like 80 or 90 (I don't know exact numbers since this is not my deal). The dead ones were all flashed (we double checked each one and we called to the customers about it). My manager is angry because now we must handle a lot of RMA paper work.


----------



## RoniN2k11 (Jan 14, 2011)

arroyo said:


> The dead ones were all flashed (we double checked each one and we called to the customers about it)



Hey Arroyo, 

how do you want to judge if a broken card was flashed? People should be clever enough to flash the original Bios back before returning it...

And no, i don't have a defective one, i only enabled the additional shaders and will watch this here very closely before going to o/c the card 

Greetings!


----------



## arroyo (Jan 14, 2011)

@RoniN2k11

1. 90% of people on earth are idiots. That's why they don't flash to the oryginal bios. Just set the a switch to position 2. There were some that flashed card back but confesed to use HD6970 bios. That's why we decided to put our stickers on that switch. If client flash his hars and f#$k it up, then RMA is his problem, not our.
2. "Everybody lies" (House MD (TM))
3. If you flashed with unlocked HD6950, you are ok. The card will be rocking.

Greetings


----------



## RoniN2k11 (Jan 14, 2011)

arroyo said:


> @RoniN2k11
> 
> 1. 90% of people on earth are idiots



I wouldn't agree with 90%, but ppl trying to return the card without having flashed it back or admitting that they flashed it definitely belong to this group   

Hopefully, i'll be able to test the card over the weekend a little bit longer, if i'm not satisfied i'll get a GTX570...decided for the 6950 because i play in 2560/1600 resolution, so i thought 2GB VRAM could be a good idea.

And surely, this mod gave the final kick...so i hope this will be a lasting solution 

I would'nt mind investing more money and buying GTX570/HD6970 since i didn't buy anything for my pc the last 2 years...but i surely don't mind either if i can save that money and nevertheless can have (almost) the same performance 

Actually, i really only wanted to buy that card, but than i could't resist and ordered a 
Core i5-250K plus Mainboard and 8GB RAM...hell, life's 2 short 2 NOT waste your money 

That should assure me the next 2 years of problem-free gaming i hope!

Have a nice WE!


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 14, 2011)

RoniN2k11 said:


> Hey Arroyo,
> 
> how do you want to judge if a broken card was flashed? People should be clever enough to flash the original Bios back before returning it...
> 
> ...



How can you re-flash a "broken" card?  Once it's broken it's too late to flash it back, unless of course all the broken cards are just showing artifacts or only behave badly whilst in 3D clocks, if it's truly broken and won't boot it's too late to re-flash surely.


----------



## RoniN2k11 (Jan 14, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> How can you re-flash a "broken" card?  Once it's broken it's too late to flash it back, unless of course all the broken cards are just showing artifacts or only behave badly whilst in 3D clocks, if it's truly broken and won't boot it's too late to re-flash surely.



Hi,

right, wrong expressed by me, with 'broken' i  meant those card showing 'only' artifacts.

Flashing a device that can't be booted anymore could be quite a challenge 

However, didn't read the whole thread, but has a card already really been broken?

Only read about the artifacts so far...

Greetings, nice WE!


----------



## arroyo (Jan 14, 2011)

@Tatty_One

All the broken cards are booting properly but they show graphical glithes in 3D. After restoring HD6950 regular bios, the artifacts still exist. We will send the first batch of them today to RMA. Will see what service will do.

PS. Thank you Tatty_One for changing your monkey avatar to the new one. Can you post a link to full sized one?


----------



## f0d (Jan 14, 2011)

well my card doesnt seem to be broken like i first thought
it seems people with gtx570 and 5850's were getting the same artifacts as me so i dont think my hardware was at fault
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=138358


----------



## RoniN2k11 (Jan 14, 2011)

f0d said:


> well my card doesnt seem to be broken like i first thought
> it seems people with gtx570 and 5850's were getting the same artifacts as me so i dont think my hardware was at fault
> http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=138358



Great News, i'll keep my fingers crossed 

Perhaps a lot of these 'broken' cards will turn out in the end as driver or game related.

Greeting


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 14, 2011)

MSI Afterburner 210 Beta 6 with support for voltage control for HD6950 and HD6970:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=3847771&postcount=1


----------



## f0d (Jan 14, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> MSI Afterburner 210 Beta 6 with support for voltage control for HD6950 and HD6970:
> 
> http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=3847771&postcount=1



i was just about to post that lol
tested and working on my 6950 (1.3v woohoo)
for some reason i couldnt get the smartdoctor program to work when i had an asus bios but this works great


----------



## Mirmendis (Jan 14, 2011)

arroyo said:


> @Tatty_One
> 
> All the broken cards are booting properly but they show graphical glithes in 3D. After restoring HD6950 regular bios, the artifacts still exist. We will send the first batch of them today to RMA. Will see what service will do.



What sort of artifacts, ugly lulaby(snow)on 3dmark11, or quickly flash in BFBC2 on only one map ? 
And watch the poll result, skrewed votes by users with another card than 6950, false positive votes (drivers related)... sounds like it is not much in fact.
I seriously doubt this mod destroys most cards like you say.


----------



## badb0y (Jan 14, 2011)

Hey guys! I am a long time lurker and just joined to ask a few questions.

I have a XFX 6950 BIOS modded to a Sapphire 6970 and it's 100% stable in my testing, in fact I can overclock it higher if I want to. Now my question is that should I be worried about my card dying out? I have had it for a few days and I played some games (Metro 2033, Crysis, WoW, etc.) and all are rock solid and the videocard seems to be solid as well. Should I just mod it to a 6950 with the shaders unlocked only? Thanks let me know. Also what seems to be the failure rates on these cards when flashed? There is a thread about this on this forum but the options don't allow to choose a "6950 flashed to 6970 and stable" option which doesn't really answer my question.


Thanks for all your help in advance.

EDIT: Prior to posting, I ran OCCT for 1 hour with error check and 0 errors returned so far, will run it again next week, than after that a month later if my card survives :-/


----------



## ac3 (Jan 14, 2011)

I think people are finding artifacts on 6950>6970 flashed cards because they are looking for them, but the only problems found so far are all driver / software related.

As shown here http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18229206 the black/white dots in bfbc2 vietnam are happening on original 6970 cards and even nvidia cards.


----------



## arroyo (Jan 14, 2011)

Mirmendis said:


> What sort of artifacts, ugly lulaby(snow)on 3dmark11, or quickly flash in BFBC2 on only one map ?
> And watch the poll result, skrewed votes by users with another card than 6950, false positive votes (drivers related)... sounds like it is not much in fact.
> I seriously doubt this mod destroys most cards like you say.



On most of them it's like a green little boxes showing all around the screen. It is easy to see on dark screen places. We test the cards in Metro 2033 and 3D Mark 2006. We don't have Batllefield. It's not driver related, because when we change the faulty HD6850 with the same brand new HD6950 on the same system artifacting stopped.
Sadly I didn't have screenshots. I didn't have the time for that. But if someone will bring another bricked card I will post them here.

I just don't understand you guys. The performance between:
HD6950@shader mod only with OC 880/1375
and 
HD6950@HD6970 bios
is the same, but the shader option is far more safer.


----------



## Wijkert (Jan 14, 2011)

arroyo said:


> On most of them it's like a green little boxes showing all around the screen. It is easy to see on dark screen places. We test the cards in Metro 2033 and 3D Mark 2006. We don't have Batllefield. It's not driver related, because when we change the faulty HD6850 with the same brand new HD6950 on the same system artifacting stopped.
> Sadly I didn't have screenshots. I didn't have the time for that. But if someone will bring another bricked card I will post them here.
> 
> I just don't understand you guys. The performance between:
> ...



I have never seen those green little boxes you speak of, but was worried about possible damage untill I read this thread. It is quite possible that some cards are damaged, but most are not. We are just getting a lot of false possitives because game/benchmarks/drivers are buggie due to limited support for directx11 or the 69xx series.


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 14, 2011)

Forgive me, can someone direct me to the "shader only" Mod, I scrolled through the first few pages of the thread, by which time I had lost the will to live!


----------



## vvulture (Jan 14, 2011)

arroyo said:


> but the shader option is far more safer.


Ofcourse it is...    the ram isn't stressed with extra voltage.  I don't understand why people are scratching their heads on this one...  its a no brainer.


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Jan 14, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> Forgive me, can someone direct me to the "shader only" Mod, I scrolled through the first few pages of the thread, by which time I had lost the will to live!



I think this is it.


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 14, 2011)

f0d said:


> i was just about to post that lol
> tested and working on my 6950 (1.3v woohoo)
> for some reason i couldnt get the smartdoctor program to work when i had an asus bios but this works great



*Do you have your 6950 modded is any way OR 100% like out of the box?*


Jeepee!!!!  MSI ist Fast!

So another task for this evening 

Forget SmartDoctor from ASUS - I dont know why such a good Hardwareseller releases such a crappy software!

*EDIT*

_Note for those who use modded 6950 cards. Afterburner provides voltage control only on reference design 6950 cards with 100% original 6950 BIOS and 6970 cars with 100% original 6970 BIOS. Afterburner's voltage control WILL NOT function if 6970 BIOS is flashed on 6950, it is supposed to be that way and it won't change in future versions and any "bugreports" on it or demands to "fix" it will be ignored._

DAMN!!!!!       But hope the 6950 mod BIOS will work...  We will see.......


----------



## f0d (Jan 14, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> Jeepee!!!!  MSI ist Fast!
> 
> So another task for this evening
> 
> ...



im on the 6950 bios mod now and it seems to work - GPU-Z doesnt recognize it as being changed but i hear thats normal


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Jan 14, 2011)

f0d said:


> im on the 6950 bios mod now and it seems to work - GPU-Z doesnt recognize it as being changed but i hear thats normal



Has the shader count changed?


----------



## f0d (Jan 14, 2011)

InnocentCriminal said:


> Has the shader count changed?



yes it has of course 
its my mistake - i meant my reply for DJManiac who said 



DJManiac said:


> _Note for those who use modded 6950 cards. Afterburner provides voltage control only on reference design 6950 cards with 100% original 6950 BIOS and 6970 cars with 100% original 6970 BIOS. Afterburner's voltage control WILL NOT function if 6970 BIOS is flashed on 6950, it is supposed to be that way and it won't change in future versions and any "bugreports" on it or demands to "fix" it will be ignored._
> 
> DAMN!!!!!       But hope the 6950 mod BIOS will work...  We will see.......



yes it does work on a 6950 mod bios but the voltage change doesnt show in GPU-Z but i hear thats normal


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 14, 2011)

f0d said:


> im on the 6950 bios mod now and it seems to work - GPU-Z doesnt recognize it as being changed but i hear thats normal



Puuuuh - that sounds good!    -   GPU-Z still reads Driver settings of CCC, thats normal....


----------



## Wijkert (Jan 14, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> Puuuuh - that sounds good!    -   GPU-Z still reads Driver settings of CCC, thats normal....



I understand what you are saying. It should't be normal, but it is nonetheless.


----------



## Shrike (Jan 14, 2011)

Hey guys,

if i overvolt my core clock voltage with msi ab now, its not like my vram will be overvolted too, isnt it?
So i can savely oc my modded 6950 without fearing to crash my card?! At least no more than normal^^


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 14, 2011)

Ok, so now the new Afterburner will adjust voltage which is great, what I really want to know is if anyone has found any way (other than using an Asus bios / SmartDoctor) to increase the 6950 overclocking limits. I would really like to run MY EXACT bios, just modded for shaders, and be able to overclock above the lame 6950 limits. I thought about trying to up the limits using RBE, but after reading the help part about it in RBE, I'm not sure of what to do, or if RBE can increase the limits in my stock bios. Any help would be great! Thanks!


----------



## Shrike (Jan 14, 2011)

I dl the new Afterburner but its only 2.6 mb and cant be installed.... anyone same problem?


----------



## Mp0wer (Jan 14, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Ok, so now the new Afterburner will adjust voltage which is great, what I really want to know is if anyone has found any way (other than using an Asus bios / SmartDoctor) to increase the 6950 overclocking limits. I would really like to run MY EXACT bios, just modded for shaders, and be able to overclock above the lame 6950 limits. I thought about trying to up the limits using RBE, but after reading the help part about it in RBE, I'm not sure of what to do, or if RBE can increase the limits in my stock bios. Any help would be great! Thanks!



You can unlock the core and memory limits in MSI Afterburner... program files(x86)/MSI Afterburner/MSIAfterburner.cfg and change EnableUnofficialOverclocking to 1


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 14, 2011)

Mp0wer said:


> You can unlock the core and memory limits in MSI Afterburner... program files(x86)/MSI Afterburner/MSIAfterburner.cfg and change EnableUnofficialOverclocking to 1
> 
> http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm251/mpower1001/snipe4.png



Awesome, I will try it when I get off work tonight! If this works (as I'm sure it will) then it looks like the puzzle is complete as to the safest/best way to mod/overclock these cards and maybe the OP should add this summary to, or update the original thread for new readers.

*Here is the best complete solution as I see it:
1. Save your cards bios file to your hard drive.
2. Mod it using the script in this thread to unlock the shaders only.
3. Flash your modded bios back to the card.
4. Install the latest beta 6 of Afterburner and modify the config file to increase the overclocking limits.
5. Now you have full control over your card, use afterburner to do it all, voltage, clock speeds, fan control, OSD if wanted
6. Highly Recommended: Set a custom fan curve in Afterburner to keep your card cool.*

I think this is the absolute BEST and SAFEST solution for everyone because it uses your cards EXACT bios. This prevents any problems that may crop up later from different manufacturers tweaking their bioses differently or using different components such as ram.


----------



## Shrike (Jan 14, 2011)

quite so wmablock,

i got afterburner beta running, but now my card runs at full clocks all the time, no downclocking while idle...


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 14, 2011)

Shrike said:


> quite so wmablock,
> 
> i got afterburner beta running, but now my card runs at full clocks all the time, no downclocking while idle...



Hmm. Ill see if mine does that when I get home. Maybe it's a bug we should report to the Afterburner guy and he might take care of it quickly? Do you have multiple monitors?


----------



## Shrike (Jan 14, 2011)

nope, just normal 22",
hmm mabey i should try a restart before i start crying


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 14, 2011)

Shrike said:


> nope, just normal 22",
> hmm mabey i should try a restart before i start crying



Lol, yeah you could try that 
Does it really matter if the card doesn't underclock itself in 2d mode? I am pretty sure these cards stay at either full speed or close to it when you have multiple monitors even from the factor if I'm not mistaken, so it shouldn't really hurt the card I wouldn't think? Maybe?


----------



## Shrike (Jan 14, 2011)

hmm didnt help
hmm i think its because of powersaving and i realize that the temps are higher in idle than before... its not a problem but its not nice either...
well its a beta version, and for the time being im happy 

ps: i ask this a third time now: if i raise the core clock voltage it doesnt affect my vram voltage right?
so i cant damage the vram by overvolting and oc of the core clock, right?!


----------



## Mp0wer (Jan 14, 2011)

Shrike said:


> quite so wmablock,
> 
> i got afterburner beta running, but now my card runs at full clocks all the time, no downclocking while idle...



Read this http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=3818004&postcount=2


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 14, 2011)

Mp0wer said:


> Read this http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=3818004&postcount=2



Now that I think of it, I do remember reading that. Doesn't afterburner have an automatic profile switching option in it to set one profile for 2D and one profile for 3D? Why not just use profile 1 for your overclock and set that for 3D mode, then set profile 2 with the 500mhz or whatever normal 2D clocks are and use that for 2D mode?


----------



## Shrike (Jan 14, 2011)

hey^^

well... thanks for enlighten me 
but honestly do u care to read manuals of every little program u install?
dont think so 

nervermind^^

gonna make to profiles right now
500/850 for idle is alright?


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 14, 2011)

Since Afterburner's unofficial overclocking option will disable the Powertune slider in CCC, does anyone know of a way to up Powertune to 20% without the slider being there? Or a way to re-enable Powertune while Afterburner has unofficial overclocking enabled? Can something be changed in the bios via RBE?


----------



## Mp0wer (Jan 14, 2011)

The power control setting slider still shows in CCC after enabling the UnofficialOverclocking, but don't know if it actually works, plus my 250/150 2d clocks  are working too...strange


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 14, 2011)

Mp0wer said:


> The power control setting slider still shows in CCC after enabling the UnofficialOverclocking, but don't know if it actually works.



Hmm, anyone know how to tell if it works? If it doesn't anyone know how to up Powertune any other way, or how to make the slider work while running Afterburner with unofficial overclocking enabled?


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 14, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Hmm, anyone know how to tell if it works? If it doesn't anyone know how to up Powertune any other way, or how to make the slider work while running Afterburner with unofficial overclocking enabled?



Personally I don't think powertune makes a huge difference. Also in afterburner I have a 3D profile set but no 2D one and in 2D it just defaults to 250/150MHz (with 1 monitor enabled).


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 15, 2011)

Mp0wer said:


> The power control setting slider still shows in CCC after enabling the UnofficialOverclocking, but don't know if it actually works, plus my 250/150 2d clocks  are working too...strange



Your power control is at 0%?


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 15, 2011)

so these tools will disable power control? in the sense that they disable throttling or that they will consider power control set at 0% (so that throttling may probably occour)?


----------



## dky (Jan 15, 2011)

hi everyone...
am i doing it right? 

-run winflash make a backup of my bios.
-run the script using my backup to modify it.
-run winflash using my modified backup to flash it back.

-now which driver should i use? (i use a 7800gt for years, so im not rly familiar with ati or the newest drivers :>)


ps. is there a "better" option on a card for that money (~260€)

best regards,
dky


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 15, 2011)

dky said:


> hi everyone...
> am i doing it right?
> 
> -run winflash make a backup of my bios.
> ...



Why worry about doing it manually? First, try the automated batch script (http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html), which will do everything for you! It will create a backup of your original BIOS, and then precede to flash the current BIOS. Also, make sure your graphics card BIOS switch is set to the "1" position. The "2" position is a read-only BIOS.

You can use the drivers that come with your graphics card. Otherwise, you can download off the ATI site, and if you are on Windows 7, you will be prompt with the 10.12a hotfix drivers.


----------



## Flak (Jan 15, 2011)

Flak said:


> Flashed back to a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders and doing a reinstall of the OS (only takes 12mins for a complete clean install from usb drive).  Will see what happens after this.  My "corruption" issue was that I was seeing ghost images on screen of past images.  Like in Heaven I'd see ghost trees everywhere, on the ship, in the sky, etc.  Heaven was really the only thing I started seeing this in, so I uninstalled it.  Cleaned up remaining mess and reinstalled it hoping it was just messed up for some reason.  Same thing occured.  So I flashed a modified 6950 bios and am in the process of reinstalling win7 now.
> 
> I'd believe it was a driver problem if I was having this issue from the start.  But I've been running with the 6970 bios since the 31st and just noticed the problem last night (without any other system changes).



Just wanted to update...  I flashed back to my original bios modded for unlocked shaders.  I did a clean install of Win7.  And am not experiencing any problems now in any games or benchmarks and have not since my quoted post above when I said I was going to do the format and clean install.  Granted the only problem I was seeing was in Heaven but an uninstall and manually clean up and reinstall of Heaven did not fix it at the time.

With the latest beta of AB I am, so far, running my 6950 @ 950/1250 w/1.150v with unlocked shaders.


----------



## dky (Jan 15, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> Why worry about doing it manually? First, try the automated batch script (http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html), which will do everything for you! It will create a backup of your original BIOS, and then precede to flash the current BIOS. Also, make sure your graphics card BIOS switch is set to the "1" position. The "2" position is a read-only BIOS.
> 
> You can use the drivers that come with your graphics card. Otherwise, you can download off the ATI site, and if you are on Windows 7, you will be prompt with the 10.12a hotfix drivers.



i wanted to avoid the 6970 bios cause of the problems mentioned above from others... so i wanted to use the modded 6950 bios from the beginning.

AND: is there any other card i should buy instead of the HD 6950? (now i have still the option to choose another card!)

/edit: i still use windows XP !

best regards,
dky


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 15, 2011)

dky said:


> i wanted to avoid the 6970 bios cause of the problems mentioned above from others... so i wanted to use the modded 6950 bios from the beginning.
> 
> AND: is there any other card i should buy instead of the HD 6950? (now i have still the option to choose another card!)
> 
> ...



Well...if you want buy a 6970...otherwise suck it up and buy a 6950 and try to mod it.


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 15, 2011)

tecnoworld said:


> so these tools will disable power control?



But only if you set this 1 in Afterburner cfg File like mentioned above to go over CPUClock Limits....

If you are clocking in the "normal" range of 6950/6970 PowerTune/2D"UVD/3D Clocks will work as usual in a normal way.....

If you set 1 in Afterburner cfg, then and only then 3D Clocks are activated all the time.... Then you have to set some Profiles for Afterburner eg. 2D and 3D and activate them in AB Options... Easy to find were excatly...

But Its a pitty that if you overclocking is enabled you can not to 250 GPUclock anymore to set a fine 2D clock for profiles......

nothing is perfect.....


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 15, 2011)

tecnoworld said:


> so these tools will disable power control? in the sense that they disable throttling or that they will consider power control set at 0% (so that throttling may probably occour)?



No I don't think so, power control as I understand it is there to stay perminent and exists at the hardware level (although as we know it can be manipulated at the software level), by it being disabled I think that you just lose the ability to manipulate it so when the card draws/exceeds it's "peak" level throttling will occur, you just lose the ability to change that level...... well from all of what I have read that is my interpretation...... I might be wrong.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 15, 2011)

dky said:


> i wanted to avoid the 6970 bios cause of the problems mentioned above from others... so i wanted to use the modded 6950 bios from the beginning.
> 
> AND: is there any other card i should buy instead of the HD 6950? (now i have still the option to choose another card!)
> 
> ...



Well, then, sure. It will work out if you use the direct BIOS mod either way, as I provided.
I still do as well. Tell me how it goes, I do have something to ask in regards.


----------



## dom99 (Jan 15, 2011)

Hi all,

I have a question I was wondering if anyone could answer. I prefer having CCC disabled at startup, but if before I disable CCC I turn the power setting up to +20%, would it stay there if CCC is disabled via msconfig?

Similarly if I overclock in CCC but have it disabled at startup would the overclock remain?


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 15, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I have a question I was wondering if anyone could answer. I prefer having CCC disabled at startup, but if before I disable CCC I turn the power setting up to +20%, would it stay there if CCC is disabled via msconfig?
> 
> Similarly if I overclock in CCC but have it disabled at startup would the overclock remain?



No i dont thinks so, if disabled you are saying to it "dont' use/ignore" and therefore it should default to driver level stock speeds/settings.


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 15, 2011)

For those interested I just installed the Zalman VF3000A on my Asus 6950. This worked fine but I had to trim a small corner off of the vrm heatsink in order for it to fit, otherwise it fitted fine into the two pushpin holes same as on a 5870. It now runs about 20c cooler with dual monitors Screens below for idle with 1 and 2 monitors, this is at minimum fan speed (near silent).












Not sure which temp corresponds to vrm and HWMonitor Pro doesn't seem to recognise it.

Now the temps after 10 minutes of furmark @880/1300, still at minimum fan speed:






and at maximum fan speed after a few more minutes:






I'm not sure what is interfering with the core clock reading? Afterburner displays them correctly, probably one program messing up another.

Anyway I'm pretty pleased with these results!


----------



## f0d (Jan 15, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> I'm not sure what is interfering with the core clock reading? Afterburner displays them correctly, probably one program messing up another.
> 
> Anyway I'm pretty pleased with these results!



it looks like your clocks are lowering because of powertune


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 15, 2011)

Interesting, ok turned off afterburner and cranked power control up to 20% and get this now:






and with fan on max:






Still much improved I think, will have to not use afterburner to oc and stick with ccc.


----------



## FranDaMan (Jan 15, 2011)

Sorry for being such a dolt but...Been all over this thing and I can't find it so real quickly: I have the batch file but unsure just where to put the modded bios? Is it in winflash itself then run the batch? Sleep deprived and not thinking clearly (work nights) and want to wrap this up before hitting the sack.
Thanks


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 15, 2011)

Hey guys, as many suggested, I just made a new poll that is all inclusive to all 6950 and 6970 owners. Please take a second to vote on the status of your video card:  Poll: ALL 6950 and 6970 Owners, What's the curren...


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 15, 2011)

FranDaMan said:


> Sorry for being such a dolt but...Been all over this thing and I can't find it so real quickly: I have the batch file but unsure just where to put the modded bios? Is it in winflash itself then run the batch? Sleep deprived and not thinking clearly (work nights) and want to wrap this up before hitting the sack.
> Thanks



I put mine in the winflash folder on my desktop that I extracted the zip file to, I called it "unlock.rom" and that was pretty much it.


----------



## FranDaMan (Jan 15, 2011)

Thanks...I got it sorted. 6950 Saphires now with asus unlocked only bios. I don't think AB yet exceeds the AMD speeds of 840/1325 but it does allow voltage. Guess I'll mosey over to ASUS for a peek at the doctor.


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 15, 2011)

You need to unlock higher clocks in the cfg file with afterburner. Or smart doctor can do it.


----------



## HI. (Jan 15, 2011)

Could some1 Unlock me a saphire bios only with the shaders?, i really appreciate using trixxx, even if right now it does not allow voltage controle im pretty sure it will eventually be able to.
Any1??  my thx if so!


----------



## ALBPM (Jan 15, 2011)

HI. said:


> Could some1 Unlock me a saphire bios only with the shaders?, i really appreciate using trixxx, even if right now it does not allow voltage controle im pretty sure it will eventually be able to.
> Any1??  my thx if so!



This is what I'm using which is the Sapphire 6950 unlocked bios.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=39827&d=1293648822

Also:

I did a search and found the thread on setting "enableulps" to 0 in the registry and got Trixx working finally....
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=133783&highlight=trixx&page=2


My folder 2 and 3 were set at "1"


----------



## HI. (Jan 15, 2011)

Sry the link u sent is not workin!!


----------



## ALBPM (Jan 15, 2011)

Link is fixed....


----------



## dky (Jan 15, 2011)

well im done 

i had to do a little extra work (cause my winflash had an error with ROM cant be deleted or smthng.. >solution:  How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...)

that were my steps:
-save bios with winflash
-run saved bios with script do modifie the shaders
-flash with winflash (link above)
-+20% @Power Control

i think im done for now. any advices? to test it or smthng?

best regards,
stuu


----------



## Nuppi (Jan 15, 2011)

Sorry for spammin this thread. Just dont want to brick my asus 6950.

But ok it seems clear that flashing 6970 bios to 6950 will cause problems sooner or later.

How about just unlocking the shaders? Is that safe?
Like described here:  How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

Your input arroyo would be appreciated.

Thanks.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 15, 2011)

Nuppi said:


> Sorry for spammin this thread. Just dont want to brick my asus 6950.
> 
> But ok it seems clear that flashing 6970 bios to 6950 will cause problems sooner or later.
> 
> ...



Yes, enabling shaders should be safe. Much safer than 6970 bios.


----------



## travex (Jan 15, 2011)

One quick question guys, the powertune slide in CCC or in Asus smart doctor is for the core only or also for the memory voltage ?

I'm using the Asus 6970 bios so far without any problem.
Thx.


----------



## dom99 (Jan 15, 2011)

Regarding Trixx, I got it when I was using a 6870 card before christmas, but now I have a 6950 does it matter that I have changed my card, do I have to install a different version of Trixx to use it with my 6950?

Slowly overclocking my 6950, currently at 830MHz and about to max out CCC. Will later driver updates enable further overclocking in CCC do you think?


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 16, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Will later driver updates enable further overclocking in CCC do you think?



Possible. But unlikely, so no.


----------



## decapnz (Jan 16, 2011)

hey guys! long time listner, first time caller 
ok, i have a gigabyte hd6950 on the way and i need suggestions from the experience of you lovely people 
how should i/if i should at all, go about violating this card?
a) should i just unlock the shaders?
b) should i just flash it to a 6970?
c) if i flash it to a 6970, should i try to find a gigabyte bios or does it not matter?
d) should i just leave it alone?

whats the consensus at page 49, 3 weeks later? is this safe?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2011)

I have the bios with unlocked shaders, and I've oc'd with MSI AB a little.  My aim is to oc with MSI AB more by raising thr voltage. Is it necessary to have the +20 in CCC, or does that get bypassed or made obsolete with MSI AB?  Thanks


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 16, 2011)

decapnz said:


> hey guys! long time listner, first time caller
> ok, i have a gigabyte hd6950 on the way and i need suggestions from the experience of you lovely people
> how should i/if i should at all, go about violating this card?
> a) should i just unlock the shaders?
> ...



Yes. I would suggest you to just unlock the shaders directly via the current 6950 BIOS. Use this script in regards: http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip



manofthem said:


> I have the bios with unlocked shaders, and I've oc'd with MSI AB a little.  My aim is to oc with MSI AB more by raising thr voltage. Is it necessary to have the +20 in CCC, or does that get bypassed or made obsolete with MSI AB?  Thanks



It will be fine and will not disable PowerPlay, unless you enable UNOFFICIAL overclocking.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> Yes. I would suggest you to just unlock the shaders directly via the current 6950 BIOS. Use this script in regards: http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> 
> 
> 
> It will be fine and will not disable PowerPlay, unless you enable UNOFFICIAL overclocking.



I do believe I enabled the unoficial oc to go past the limits in CCC. So if I do that, It looks like it disables the powerplay in CCC, which is fine I just wanted to know for sure. Thanks.


----------



## twistedneck (Jan 16, 2011)

gspam1 said:


> Probably meaningless but interesting.  I have the XFX 6950 card.   I tested the graphics with the Windows Experience Index.  The index is supposed to run from 1.0 to 7.9.  The stock 6950 posted the top 7.9 score in the Graphics and Gaming graphics categories.
> 
> After flashing and maxing the ATI Overdrive, the Windows Experience Index rating for Graphics fell to 5.9 and the index for Gaming Graphics fell to 2.0.




Did this ever get resolved?  i have a low 6.0 rating now for both windows experience aero and gaming.. (was 7.7 or something).. seems to game very well now that i use wizard's 6950 unlock program, maybe its a windows experience index bug?


----------



## f0d (Jan 16, 2011)

twistedneck said:


> Did this ever get resolved?  i have a low 6.0 rating now for both windows experience aero and gaming.. (was 7.7 or something).. seems to game very well now that i use wizard's 6950 unlock program, maybe its a windows experience index bug?



i just tested with the 6970 bios on my 6950 and i get 7.9 rating for both
i will try later with the 6950 shader unlock mod and see if thats any different


----------



## decapnz (Jan 16, 2011)

> I would suggest you to just unlock the shaders directly via the current 6950 BIOS. Use this script in regards: http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip


do i need to worry about the php folder?


----------



## twistedneck (Jan 16, 2011)

f0d said:


> i just tested with the 6970 bios on my 6950 and i get 7.9 rating for both
> i will try later with the 6950 shader unlock mod and see if thats any different



My results agree, i flashed it back to 6950 original and i still get 6.0 rating in windows experience...  probly because of my lame h55 mini itx zotac bandwith restrictions even though its supposed to be a real 1156 with full pci 2.0 x16.. sad.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 16, 2011)

decapnz said:


> do i need to worry about the php folder?



No, you don't. You just need to place your original BIOS in the folder with the batch script. Make sure you create a backup as well!


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 16, 2011)

Had this happened on my 2nd card:




Full res:
http://localhostr.com/file/ePHpRWO/ARtifacts.PNG

Read about it here:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036710634


Think I should be worried? It did disappear yes (read full story above), but possibility it would come back? Does that usually happen?

EDIT2: Restarted computer. Reset & Placed at DEFAULT CLOCKS and SETTINGS: Ran Heaven:
http://img259.imageshack.us/i/artifacts2.png/
http://img522.imageshack.us/i/artifacts3.png/

EDIT3:
Reverted back to ORIGINAL 6950 BIOS. No problems.
Flashed back to MODDED 6950 BIOS with unlocked shaders. No problems ... YET? Should I be worried?

I ALSO realized that when I was having the EDIT2 problems, before @ the default clocks, when it was clocked up to 900/1399, when in Heaven, I think it was underclocked, according to MSI Afterburner reading the Core and Memory clocks. It went down and up, that's what I saw in the graphs any way. Although, why did this happen? Enabling Unofficial Overclocking should have disabled PowerPlay, although, I did see 250/150 clocks in the graph or some similar result!! Maybe this was why? No idea...

EDIT5:

If I alt+tab out of Heaven, and go back into the application and the Unigine draws again and what not, the artifacts disappear. I'm still running on the original BIOS at default clocks by the way. But, what does this mean if it disappears if I alt tab and come back in?

All info in Hardforum thread,


----------



## decapnz (Jan 16, 2011)

Dankeschön


----------



## Mirmendis (Jan 16, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> Had this happened on my 2nd card:



I've some artifacts too with the unlocked shaders bios if i increase memory frequency (artifacts or very low performance decrease) cause 6950 bios has lower voltage memory than 6970.
If you plan to keep your unlocked bios, keep also your memory to 1250 and increase only your gpu frequency. Or use the 6970 bios, you ll can easily up your memory to 1350/1400 with this bios.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 16, 2011)

Mirmendis said:


> I've some artifacts too with the unlocked shaders bios if i increase memory frequency (artifacts or very low performance decrease) cause 6950 bios has lower voltage memory than 6970.
> If you plan to keep your unlocked bios, keep also your memory to 1250 and increase only your gpu frequency. Or use the 6970 bios, you ll can easily up your memory to 1350/1400 with this bios.



Thanks, but if you did not read my post, I'll point out to you directly that I did run at the lowest clocks on the unlocked BIOS. There is no point using the 6970 BIOS IMO, I thought that was obvious. And plus, it only happens in Heaven. Also, if I alt+tab out of Heaven, and go back into the application and the Unigine draws again and what not, the artifacts disappear. I'm still running on the original BIOS at default clocks by the way. But, what does this mean if it disappears if I alt tab and come back in?


----------



## Shrike (Jan 16, 2011)

i dont know why but i have afterburner running with unofficial oc on 1 and i still can change powercontrol, its at +10% right now and my card is running in crysis with 900, 1400, 1.175v corevoltage without any problems,
crysis 1.0 @ultrasettings and always more than 35 fps 
so im happy enough right now )


----------



## englandr753 (Jan 16, 2011)

Sorry if I missed some info in previous threads, I read what I could on the fly.

I have the XFX 6950 flashed to the Saphire 6970 BIOS and increased the voltage to +20.  I tested in heaven 2.1 with the stock BIOS 3 times to get an avg, then switched over to the 6970 BIOS to test again and I lost video to my monitor.  I could still hear the sound of the benchmark running so I rebooted.  I went into ccc and increased the fan speed and tried again.  This time I lost the video again and the sound was distorted as if you were touching speaker wires to the connectors on the back of your system and crossing them up so I did a hard shut down and let the system cool.

This am I plugged everything back in and went to set back to default voltages and 6950 BIOS but the voltage menu isn't available in ccc.

I'm off to work and can't read or post anything further but I will check this thread from work later if I get a chance and try to properly read more.

Any suggestions?...


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 16, 2011)

Shrike said:


> i dont know why but i have afterburner running with unofficial oc on 1 and i still can change powercontrol, its at +10% right now and my card is running in crysis with 900, 1400, 1.175v corevoltage without any problems,
> crysis 1.0 @ultrasettings and always more than 35 fps
> so im happy enough right now )



Yes, but restart your computer, then open CCC again, it should be set to 0%. And just because you see it being set at 10% in the CCC GUI, does not mean it is applied.



englandr753 said:


> Sorry if I missed some info in previous threads, I read what I could on the fly.
> 
> I have the XFX 6950 flashed to the Saphire 6970 BIOS and increased the voltage to +20.  I tested in heaven 2.1 with the stock BIOS 3 times to get an avg, then switched over to the 6970 BIOS to test again and I lost video to my monitor.  I could still hear the sound of the benchmark running so I rebooted.  I went into ccc and increased the fan speed and tried again.  This time I lost the video again and the sound was distorted as if you were touching speaker wires to the connectors on the back of your system and crossing them up so I did a hard shut down and let the system cool.
> 
> ...



To make you feel better, don't worry, I experienced the same as well. It's just the drivers crashed, and that's why you lost video but audio was still going. I found a way to get the drivers to restart if the drivers were to crash, and it seems fairly efficient.

Any way, you mean the Power Control menu isn't available in CCC? If it has disappeared, best you can do is reinstalling CCC. That helped me, and many others.

Good luck.


----------



## englandr753 (Jan 16, 2011)

I'll reinstall ccc to see if that works.  How did you get your drivers to restart after they crashed?  Maybe since it appears something is going on in the ccc with the voltage settings menu disappearing, I may just need to reinstall to see if that fixes everything.  I'll repost later tonight when I get back in and report back after a few more benchmarks...


----------



## Ulysses (Jan 16, 2011)

As posted in this thread  Poll: ALL 6950 and 6970 Owners, What's the curren..., I did notice significant artifacting under ATI tool using 6970 @ stock 6970 clocks, while there are no artifacts using unlocked 6950 BIOS even @ 920 core / 1500 mem (stock volts / no other mod than single byte enabling shaders + O/C under TriXX).


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 16, 2011)

englandr753 said:


> ...Maybe since it appears something is going on in the ccc with the voltage settings menu disappearing, I may just need to reinstall to see if that fixes everything.



A driver uninstall via the installer, and then a fresh driver install after restart made the voltage come back for me (and it functioned). When I used Guru3ds driver sweeper I had some strange things happen, (IE the voltage control was in CCC but immediately after change it would revert.) It could have been for a different reason though.


----------



## MaxGeek (Jan 16, 2011)

Ulysses said:


> As posted in this thread  Poll: ALL 6950 and 6970 Owners, What's the curren..., I did notice significant artifacting under ATI tool using 6970 @ stock 6970 clocks, while there are no artifacts using unlocked 6950 BIOS even @ 920 core / 1500 mem (stock volts / no other mod than single byte enabling shaders + O/C under TriXX).



I experienced similar issues with the 6970 bios even at default 6950 clocks in ATI Tool. With the 6950 shader unlocked bios and at 840/1350 everything seems fine. How can I enable higher overclocking settings with the 6950 bios?


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 16, 2011)

MaxGeek said:


> I experienced similar issues with the 6970 bios even at default 6950 clocks in ATI Tool. With the 6950 shader unlocked bios and at 840/1350 everything seems fine. How can I enable higher overclocking settings with the 6950 bios?



People with a real 6970 have that artifacting in Atitool too.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

Hey guys, I just changed my setup a little bit in effort to make everything work as smoothly and easily as possible, so I figured I would update you guys. I also have a question to ask at the end. 

I have my 6950 using it's own bios, except modded to enable all shaders. I had been using Afterburner, with unofficial overclocking enabled, to control the clocks, voltage, and fan speed. The problem I had with that setup was that by enabling "unofficial overclocking" (to increase overclock limits), Afterburner would disable Powerplay and also functionality of the Power Control Slider in CCC. By disabling Powerplay, the video card would run at full 3D voltage / clocks all the time. I did not like this, as it seems like necessary stress on the card. Yes, you can set 2D and 3D profiles in Afterburner, but I found a bug where Afterburner goes back to the cards default fan curve every time it automatically changes back and forth between the 2D and 3D profiles. So, that's no good. With that said, I set out to find another, simple, single software solution... here is what I came up with.

I have since gotten rid of Afterburner and now use only Trixx 3.02 beta to control the card. The advantage to this is that Trixx, by default, has unlocked high overclock limits, BUT it does NOT disable Powerplay, or the functionality of the Power Control Slider in CCC. So I can now overclock as I want, but the card will still idle down when in 2D mode. Trixx also properly works a custom fan curve. The only down side I can find is that Trixx doesn't yet support voltage control for our cards. But that is ok, now I just use RBE to adjust my core voltage. I honestly think this is the best setup for our cards, and the only thing that could make it any more perfect would be for Trixx to enable voltage control for our cards.

*So, for people who are new to modding your 6950 and have questions, here is a summary of the best / easiest way to mod and overclock your 6950 as I see it. I will post back later if I find anything better. The consensus seems to be that this method is less risky and better for your card's longevity than just flashing a 6970 bios to your card. *
*1. Save your cards bios using GPUz to your desktop: 
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
2. Use this script to modify YOUR exact bios and enable all shaders:
http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
3. Use this script to flash this modified bios to your card with your card's bios selection switch on '1':
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html
4. Download and install Trixx 3.02 beta:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S71ZJ4SW
5. In Trixx, immediatly go to the 'fan control' screen and click 'custom', then setup a custom fan curve that keeps your card at least around 40*-45* idle and 80* or less at full load. 
I have my curve setup with 35% fan speed up until 70*, then a constant slope up from there to 100% fan at 100*.
6. Use Trixx to overclock as you wish, If you want to up your voltage for more overclocking, download and use RBE until Trixx enables voltage control:
http://www.techpowerup.com/rbe/
If using RBE to up the core voltage, you may have to adjust VID3 or VID4, some cards use VID3 for 3D core voltage, and others use VID4 for 3D core voltage. See which one generates more heat and higher overclocks with increased voltage.
*


This setup is good because it uses YOUR EXACT bios, which eliminates any issues that could possibly occur by using a modded bios from someone else's card or from a card of a different manufacturer such as different memory, timings, or anything else for that matter.

This brings me to my question, which I will post in a separate post in a few minutes..


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

So I have a question about changing the gpu voltage in RBE. I'm a little confused, maybe someone can help clarify. When I open my bios with RBE (my stock bios, or my stock bios modded with the shader mod), here is what I get for my VID settings currently on the card.







Some people say change the VID that has 1.1v in it because that is supposed to be the 6950s stock 3D voltage, others say change VID4 because that is always the 3D voltage on this card.

I have come to believe that VID4 is the correct one to change because it increased my 3D temps when increased while increasing VID3 did nothing. 

I thought the 6950s were supposed to have a stock 3D core voltage of 1.100v (as in VID3), but as you see, my bios suggests 1.065 is our stock voltage if we go by VID4. Trixx reports stock voltage as 1.060 and Afterburner reports stock voltage as 1.100. 

Why do you think there is such discrepancy in what our stock voltage is? 
Do you think maybe it just depends on what each cards core takes to run at stock speeds and thats what the manufacturers set it as? 
Or maybe different manufacturers just use different voltages? 

If VID4 is the one that makes my 3D temps go up, then obviously its the one I need to adjust for my GPU core when overclocking, correct?

Does anyone have a clue as to what VID3 is then, and why its set at 1.100v, which is what most people say our stock voltage is supposed to be? Also, why would there be an extra voltage (VID3) that is higher than my 3D voltage (supposedly VID4)? What would a higher voltage be used for? Could this be a problem when overclocking since after VID4 is increased for overclocking, it will be higher than VID3... VID3 stock was higher than VID4.


----------



## MaxGeek (Jan 17, 2011)

Thanks Wmblalock, the info you posted was very helpful. I'm going to give Trixx a try.


----------



## ale86cuba (Jan 17, 2011)

but now that i have the 6970 bios on my 6950 how do i go back?


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 17, 2011)

ale86cuba said:


> but now that i have the 6970 bios on my 6950 how do i go back?



If you used the script, it would have made a backup. Along with that in the folder, there's a file called "flash_back_to_6950", run that and it'll be fine.


----------



## f0d (Jan 17, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> So I have a question about changing the gpu voltage in RBE. I'm a little confused, maybe someone can help clarify. When I open my bios with RBE (my stock bios, or my stock bios modded with the shader mod), here is what I get for my VID settings currently on the card.
> 
> http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/959/voltagesu.jpg
> 
> ...



actually im quite sure it is vid3 that is the 3d voltage (for the 6950 anyways)





you can see in afterburner that vid3 is getting used for 3d (1.175v)
i think there is a bug in trixx reading vid4 instead of 3


----------



## HI. (Jan 17, 2011)

Thx for sending this bios. I've tried it, and something is wrong.
1, I uninstalled the drivers.
2, cleaned keys...
3,Installed bios + restart.
4,Installed driver + restart.
Tried Heaven benchmark. with 840/1250.. It gave +2 fps on average that's cool.BUT that's not the problem.
Seems like the card is giving me a weird image, in windows, and even more when there's action like little little, hardly noticable cloudy image. but it annoys my eyes to see hte image wrong can some1 explain?

EVEN Worse when i rolled back to the first driver this cloud effect look like stand still!.


----------



## f0d (Jan 17, 2011)

HI. said:


> Thx for sending this bios. I've tried it, and something is wrong.
> 1, I uninstalled the drivers.
> 2, cleaned keys...
> 3,Installed bios + restart.
> ...



is it ok when you go back to standard bios?
i havnt seen this issue yet as it was fine on mine so i dont think i can help much 
anyone else have this problem?


----------



## HI. (Jan 17, 2011)

no they are not fine when im back to normal that's just not awsome... now i really regret lol

thing is. my resolution look like all smaller, icons my game page. with darker colors.


----------



## f0d (Jan 17, 2011)

HI. said:


> no they are not fine when im back to normal that's just not awsome... now i really regret lol
> 
> thing is. my resolution look like all smaller, icons my game page. with darker colors.



was this with an unlocked only bios? if so thats weird, nobody i know of has had troubles with an unlocked only (not 6970) bios


----------



## HI. (Jan 17, 2011)

yes an unlock Only. from this thread. so none would have crossed this??hmmm another thing im wondering is would the 3d have activated , that could explain the smaller icons, blurry image?


----------



## f0d (Jan 17, 2011)

HI. said:


> yes an unlock Only. from this thread. so none would have crossed this??hmmm another thing im wondering is would the 3d have activated , that could explain the smaller icons, blurry image?



not sure but i doubt it - can you screenshot it?


----------



## HI. (Jan 17, 2011)

ill try finding a flagrant missing precision image.


----------



## HI. (Jan 17, 2011)

or get to the link and open it as 1920-1080, i swear those detail werent as weird as this.


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 17, 2011)

HI. said:


> yes an unlock Only. from this thread. so none would have crossed this??hmmm another thing im wondering is would the 3d have activated , that could explain the smaller icons, blurry image?



I had similar when I first flashed mine with just a modded XFX 6950 bios, I simply re-installed the driver (only) and everything was OK again.


----------



## Gaul (Jan 17, 2011)

6950 @ 1GH/1500


----------



## Mp0wer (Jan 17, 2011)

You can't change voltage in Trixx


----------



## Mp0wer (Jan 17, 2011)

Gaul said:


> 6950 @ 1GH/1500



What voltage are you using?


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 17, 2011)

Gaul said:


> 6950 @ 1GH/1500



Good overclock but why have you put it in here? It seems you haven't unlocked the shaders, try that and see what diffference it makes with the same oc.

Should give it a nice boost.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

f0d said:


> actually im quite sure it is vid3 that is the 3d voltage (for the 6950 anyways)
> http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/7189/vid3.jpg
> 
> you can see in afterburner that vid3 is getting used for 3d (1.175v)
> i think there is a bug in trixx reading vid4 instead of 3



Well, then it seems that different cards use different VIDs for 3D voltage. If your sure yours is VID3, and I'm sure mine is VID4, then it seems that way. I know for a fact mine is VID4 which previously had 1060 in it (vid3 had 1100), because no matter what I changed VID3 (1100) to, my temps and overclock stayed the same. Once I changed VID4 (1060) to 1200 my temps went up under 3D load considerably and my coverclocking went up a good bit. I could only get like 910mhz with VID4 at 1060 (stock), I upped it to 1200 and now I am getting 965mhz on the core and had to increase the fan quite a bit to keep my load temps below 80*. Are you just comparing your Afterburner voltage reading to the bios, or have you actually tested your temps and overclocking abilities when changing voltages in VID3? Maybe AB is written to only control a certain VID (3 or 4) and since it seems different cards use different VIDs for 3D, AB may not work for everyone, could be a bug they will have to fix.


----------



## f0d (Jan 17, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Well, then it seems that different cards use different VIDs for 3D voltage. If your sure yours is VID3, and I'm sure mine is VID4, then it seems that way. I know for a fact mine is VID4 which previously had 1060 in it (vid3 had 1100), because no matter what I changed VID3 (1100) to, my temps and overclock stayed the same. Once I changed VID4 (1060) to 1200 my temps went up under 3D load considerably and my coverclocking went up a good bit. I could only get like 910mhz with VID4 at 1060 (stock), I upped it to 1200 and now I am getting 965mhz on the core and had to increase the fan quite a bit to keep my load temps below 80*. Are you just comparing your Afterburner voltage reading to the bios, or have you actually tested your temps and overclocking abilities when changing voltages in VID3? Maybe AB is written to only control a certain VID (3 or 4) and since it seems different cards use different VIDs for 3D, AB may not work for everyone, could be a bug they will have to fix.



my vid4 was 1060 too - i just changed it to 1100 for the sake of it in that bios (and to see which voltage is being used) but yeah i have tested clocks and im pretty sure mine is vid3 because i can hit 970mhz on 1200 but can only hit around 900 @ 1100


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

f0d said:


> my vid4 was 1060 too - i just changed it to 1100 for the sake of it in that bios (and to see which voltage is being used) but yeah i have tested clocks and im pretty sure mine is vid3 because i can hit 970mhz on 1200 but can only hit around 900 @ 1100



Strange, because I know mine is definitely VID4. When I put my VID3 up to 1.3v, I couldn't overclock anymore and my temps were exactly the same as stock. When I put my VID4 up to 1.2v I could overclock MUCH more and my temps went way up. It makes me wonder what my VID3 is for then and what your VID4 is for then. Anyone have any insight? What brand is your card, mines Gigabyte.


----------



## f0d (Jan 17, 2011)

mine is sapphire

what voltage does yours say it is in afterburner?


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

f0d said:


> mine is sapphire



I hope the programmers of these overclocking programs know that some cards use VID3 and some use VID4, or that could definitely cause a problem. Now that I think about it, I know its a problem in Afterburner because I tried using it to overclock and up my voltage, but it seemed like the voltage adjustment wasn't doing anything. I couldn't get past 910mhz with Afterburner set to 1.3v, while I can get to 965mhz with my VID4 set to 1.2v. I'll inform the afterburner guy of my findings.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

f0d said:


> mine is sapphire
> 
> what voltage does yours say it is in afterburner?



My afterburner is reporting 1.1v, which is what my VID3 is in the bios.

I have my VID4 at 1.2v running Kombustor at 965mhz/1400mhz for hours... something I COULD not do with 1.1v or do with ANY voltage increase in Afterburner, further proving that my VID4 controls voltage and that different cards use different VIDs.


----------



## dky (Jan 17, 2011)

hm i cant find the vsync settings @CCC :/

im using 10.11 and the only points at "3D" are:
standard settings
anti-aliasing
anti-aliasing mode
anisotropic filtering
all settings

so im missing vsync and mipmap settings (under "All Settings" are only anti alias, anisotropic, catalyst A.I.)


best regards,
stuu


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 17, 2011)

Something new strange:

Switched to TRIXX just minutes ago (from Afterburner)... Everthing looks fine first time..
but it looks like that the Power Control in CCC do not work properly with TRIXX...

The Slider is still on +20% but in Furmark I get lower FPS that before.... The slider wont work when TRIXX is running... cant change it or save it - Jumps evertime back...

If I close TRIXX and move the Power Control slider and save it frame are back again in Furmark... If I start then TRIXX everthing looks like on function now...

But if I do a restart Frame in Furmark are again low. Frames are looking like if Power Control slider is on 0%... But the slider is set on +20%....

Any suggestions?


----------



## tecnoworld (Jan 17, 2011)

I can only guess that any third party overclocking tool disables power control. This is very bad, since CCC is quite limited for the 6950. We can only hope that in future releases, both trixx and AB implement power control feature as well, along with voltage control.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> Something new strange:
> 
> Switched to TRIXX just minutes ago (from Afterburner)... Everthing looks fine first time..
> but it looks like that the Power Control in CCC do not work properly with TRIXX...
> ...



Hmm, not sure about that. Are you saying your FPS is low when Trixx is running, or does Furmark show your MHZ for core/mem dropping (throttling down by power play due to lack of power)? I am not sure if the power control slider actually functions when using Trixx, I know it does NOT function when using Afterburner from what I understand. So Trixx might have the same issue with disabling the power control slider function as Afterburner does. Not sure, right now I have my 6950 using 1.2v and running Kombustor (furmark) for the last 8hrs at 965mhz/1400mhz with no throttling down of the clock speeds.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

tecnoworld said:


> I can only guess that any third party overclocking tool disables power control. This is very bad, since CCC is quite limited for the 6950. We can only hope that in future releases, both trixx and AB implement power control feature as well, along with voltage control.



Seems that way.. although I have my card at 1.2v (using RBE) and have been running Furmark all day at 965/1400 without any throttling down of the clock speeds


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 17, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Hmm, not sure about that. Are you saying your FPS is low when Trixx is running, or does Furmark show your MHZ for core/mem dropping (throttling down by power play due to lack of power)? I am not sure if the power control slider actually functions when using Trixx, I know it does NOT function when using Afterburner from what I understand. So Trixx might have the same issue with disabling the power control slider function as Afterburner does. Not sure, right now I have my 6950 using 1.2v and running Kombustor (furmark) for the last 8hrs at 965mhz/1400mhz with no throttling down of the clock speeds.



mmm  Yes - didnt saw this first time.* GPU drops while Furmark is running..*. But why? Can I switch this off? If I run my clocks without TRIXX everthing is fine....


----------



## manofthem (Jan 17, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Seems that way.. although I have my card at 1.2v (using RBE) and have been running Furmark all day at 965/1400 without any throttling down of the clock speeds



I need to try Trixx and RBE.  (When you open RBE, do you need to load a BIOS first?  When I open it, there are no values anywhere, and since I've never used this program, so I don't know what to look for)

Today I've been messing with MSI AB with the voltages and GPU clocks, but I can't get it past 900/1400.  Everytime I try to run 3DMark 11, it gives me an error.  Or the last time I tried, my PC shut down. 

From the looks of your numbers, it's a better way to go.  I'm stable at 900/1375.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> mmm  Yes - didnt saw this first time.* GPU drops while Furmark is running..*. But why? Can I switch this off? If I run my clocks without TRIXX everthing is fine....



Yeah, Trixx probably disables the use of the PowerControl slider in CCC. Why, I don't know, but from what I know Afterburner does as well. If your using Afterburner instead of Trixx, for the same MHZ, does your GPU speed get throttled down? What bios are you using, what clocks are you using during throttle down, and what program are you using to set your clocks when they DONT get throttled down?


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 17, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Yeah, Trixx probably disables the use of the PowerControl slider in CCC. Why, I don't know, but from what I know Afterburner does as well. If your using Afterburner instead of Trixx, for the same MHZ, does your GPU speed get throttled down? What bios are you using, what clocks are you using during throttle down, and what program are you using to set your clocks when they DONT get throttled down?



With Afterburner (cfg set to 1) everthing is working! Have the ASUS 6970 BIOS (on XFX 6950). But in AB PowerPlay didnt work. Therefore I wanted to switch to TRIXX...

Stable are 950/1450 +20% (only in CCC) @ 1225mV (RBE)

now I wanted to test more 

Set 1250mV (RBE) and TRIXX 960/1500 +20% - That works also if I set those Clocks, close TRIXX remove the slider to eg. 15% save it and remove to 20% Power Control and save it again...  Framre again high as they should be and almost stable (30mins Furmark)....


----------



## Gaul (Jan 17, 2011)

Mp0wer said:


> What voltage are you using?



v1.275 and no bios mod jus msi ab v2.1 beta 6



Mark22 said:


> Good overclock but why have you put it in here? It seems you haven't unlocked the shaders, try that and see what diffference it makes with the same oc.
> 
> Should give it a nice boost.



ok, soon i'll flash with asus6970oc


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I need to try Trixx and RBE.  (When you open RBE, do you need to load a BIOS first?  When I open it, there are no values anywhere, and since I've never used this program, so I don't know what to look for)
> 
> Today I've been messing with MSI AB with the voltages and GPU clocks, but I can't get it past 900/1400.  Everytime I try to run 3DMark 11, it gives me an error.  Or the last time I tried, my PC shut down.
> 
> From the looks of your numbers, it's a better way to go.  I'm stable at 900/1375.



Save your bios from your card to your had drive, atiwinflash can do this. Then use the Load Bios button in RBE to load your bios. Right now I think RBE only lets us modify voltage on our cards, so don't mess with anything else. Once your bios is loaded, go to the Clock Settings tab at the top. Now click the GPU Registers button near the bottom left of the screen. Either VID3 or VID4 is where you need to put in what voltage you want for 3D. Some people need to use VID3 and some need to use VID4. After you've put in the what you want (ex 1200 for 1.200v), click ok to close the register, then slick Save Bios at the bottom to save your new bios file. Use winflash to flash that new bios back to the card. You may have to try VID3 and VID4 one at a time to see which one raises your overclock ability and temperatures. Mine uses VID4, but I know some other have to adjust VID3.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> With Afterburner (cfg set to 1) everthing is working! Have the ASUS 6970 BIOS (on XFX 6950). But in AB PowerPlay didnt work. Therefore I wanted to switch to TRIXX...
> 
> Stable are 950/1450 +20% (only in CCC) @ 1225mV (RBE)
> 
> ...



You may be fine to go, but I would HIGHLY recommend modifying your stock 6950 bios with the method I posted here:  How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...  instead of using the 6970 bios. It's safer for your memory. I'd hate to see you fry the card with that 6970 bios when there is no need to run it.


----------



## Gaul (Jan 17, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> You may have to try VID3 and VID4 one at a time to see which one raises your overclock ability and temperatures. Mine uses VID4, but I know some other have to adjust VID3.



mind VID4 too, here def registers, coz def vgpu = 1.175





hmm, save with gpuz got *.bin, when edit whit rbe and save it, got *.rom file ? different extension ?
well this Winflash support bin or rom ? when we flash it ?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 17, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Save your bios from your card to your had drive, atiwinflash can do this. Then use the Load Bios button in RBE to load your bios. Right now I think RBE only lets us modify voltage on our cards, so don't mess with anything else. Once your bios is loaded, go to the Clock Settings tab at the top. Now click the GPU Registers button near the bottom left of the screen. Either VID3 or VID4 is where you need to put in what voltage you want for 3D. Some people need to use VID3 and some need to use VID4. After you've put in the what you want (ex 1200 for 1.200v), click ok to close the register, then slick Save Bios at the bottom to save your new bios file. Use winflash to flash that new bios back to the card. You may have to try VID3 and VID4 one at a time to see which one raises your overclock ability and temperatures. Mine uses VID4, but I know some other have to adjust VID3.



Awesome thanks, that's what I needed to know.  I should be able to work it from there with your instructions. Are you on an XFX by any chance?


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Awesome thanks, that's what I needed to know.  I should be able to work it from there with your instructions. Are you on an XFX by any chance?



Good, hope it helps you out. Here is how I run my card:  How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

Mines a Gigabyte 6950


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 17, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> You may be fine to go, but I would HIGHLY recommend modifying your stock 6950 bios with the method I posted here: How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695... instead of using the 6970 bios. It's safer for your memory. I'd hate to see you fry the card with that 6970 bios when there is no need to run it.



Understand your suggestion but NEVER had any problems running 6970! Even not at 1500... Looks like that XFX has 6970 ram on it 

Nevertheless but that did not solve my problem.... Just reinstalled driver but with no result...
Will go back to Afterburner 950/1450 @ 1225 mV with working clocks without dropping.... And wait what the near future will bring up!


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> Understand your suggestion but NEVER had any problems running 6970! Even not at 1500... Looks like that XFX has 6970 ram on it
> 
> Nevertheless but that did not solve my problem.... Just reinstalled driver but with no result...
> Will go back to Afterburner 950/1450 @ 1225 mV with working clocks without dropping.... And wait what the near future will bring up!



To each their own. Good luck! Report back if you ever have any problems with your card!
Happy Overclocking!


----------



## Gaul (Jan 17, 2011)

here v1225

960/1500


----------



## manofthem (Jan 17, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Good, hope it helps you out. Here is how I run my card:  How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...
> 
> Mines a Gigabyte 6950



Here's a shot of what it looks like.





It looks different from what I saw you post earlier.  And there's no voltage that reads 1100 or 1.1.  

So what do you think would be the right one for me to start increasing?  Thanks


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Here's a shot of what it looks like.
> http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/rbe.png
> It looks different from what I saw you post earlier.  And there's no voltage that reads 1100 or 1.1.
> 
> So what do you think would be the right one for me to start increasing?  Thanks



Click on GPU Registers... That's where you adjust your voltage, not on the main screen like your screenshot


----------



## manofthem (Jan 17, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Click on GPU Registers... That's where you adjust your voltage, not on the main screen like your screenshot



Perfect, I appreciate that big time. I'm going to mess around with it and let you know what I come by.  Thanks


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Perfect, I appreciate that big time. I'm going to mess around with it and let you know what I come by.  Thanks



Sounds good, good luck!


----------



## Gaul (Jan 17, 2011)

VID 4, change 1275, here max i can reach


----------



## manofthem (Jan 17, 2011)

Gaul said:


> VID 4, change 1275, here max i can reach
> 
> [url]http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/1962/1gh1500.jpg[/URL]



That's pretty indeed.  How does it run in game?

You're running XFX right.  Was it only VID4 that needed adjustment?


----------



## decapnz (Jan 17, 2011)

soo i should pretty much be sure that my voltage will be vid4 since im getting a gigabyte 6950?


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 17, 2011)

decapnz said:


> soo i should pretty much be sure that my voltage will be vid4 since im getting a gigabyte 6950?



Mine is, so I would think so, but just test it out and find out which one raises temps and overclock limits.


----------



## dom99 (Jan 17, 2011)

Using Trixx I overclock to 880MHz, but when I reboot my PC the clocks turn back to 840MHz (the max that CCC allows), anyone else get this and how do I fix it without diabling CCC (I want to keep powerplay). thanks

EDIT: Ok fixed this, my issue was due to not having selected an option in the settings tab, what an id!


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 17, 2011)

Gaul said:


> v1.275 and no bios mod jus msi ab v2.1 beta 6
> 
> 
> 
> ok, soon i'll flash with asus6970oc



I would strongly suggest a shader unlocked asus 6950 bios and then oc yourself again from there. Just to be safe with your memory chips.

Too late I see, wanna send me that sandy bridge setup so I can see if I can match your scores?
Ps. the multiplier seems to have dropped, how fast were you going on the cpu. I hear 4.6 is a fairly safe 24/7 oc.


----------



## Gaul (Jan 17, 2011)

manofthem said:


> That's pretty indeed.  How does it run in game?
> 
> You're running XFX right.  Was it only VID4 that needed adjustment?



sorry im not play game, only bench 
anyway i'll try later



Mark22 said:


> I would strongly suggest a shader unlocked asus 6950 bios and then oc yourself again from there. Just to be safe with your memory chips.
> 
> Too late I see, wanna send me that sandy bridge setup so I can see if I can match your scores?
> Ps. the multiplier seems to have dropped, how fast were you going on the cpu. I hear 4.6 is a fairly safe 24/7 oc.



yup, just test
thx 4 advice, anyway my sandy max 4.7 GH on air 24/7


----------



## Ganzir (Jan 18, 2011)

Hello you Unlockers,

are there any news regarding the redesign and the flashing capability? From what I heard/read this might give AMD the possibility to do so. Now the questions is: Will they? And if so, have any unflashable cards already surfaced and is there a way to identify cards with the old design?

Greetz
Ganir


----------



## dom99 (Jan 18, 2011)

Quick question for anyone who cares to answer, how far can you push the core clock speed of 6950 unlocked without voltage tweek? I dont know how to recognise the signs of overclocking too far on the core?

For example what will I notice on the screen when playing a game? I am noticing at the moment a few horizonal line glitches in BFBC2 and dont know whether it is normal or not for a game?

Keeping the core nice and cool, doesnt go above 55C in BFBC2 with cusotm fan profile


----------



## manofthem (Jan 18, 2011)

Doesn't sound like it's too OC'd if it's staying nice and cool at 55* on load. What bios mod did you go with?


----------



## dom99 (Jan 18, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Doesn't sound like it's too OC'd if it's staying nice and cool at 55* on load. What bios mod did you go with?



I went with the shader unlocked version using W1zzards script. running at 880MHz with no voltage change now and all seems well. Im going to leave it there, havent touched the memory though not sure I want to with all the scare stories about bricked cards

Plus is BFBC2 a CPU intensive game? my core i7 920 is hitting 56C in it?


----------



## Whoops! (Jan 18, 2011)

I ran 6970 bios for 3 weeks with no issues but have decided to go for shaders only for peace of mind.
In RBE my VIDS are now 1000 900 1200 1275
I've overclocked in Trixx to 890 and 1350 (and could slide higher)
BUT Trixx still shows GPU voltage as 1100 and the slider won't work. Is this  bug in Trixx?
Same deal in AfterBurner too - voltage slider won't slide!
GPUZ shows voltage never going higher than 1.1v
How can i tell what my voltage really is and how can I increase it?


----------



## decapnz (Jan 18, 2011)

bfbc2 is gfx intensive seeing as i have 5670 atm with 1090t oc 4ghz, it crashes after 5 mins with major artifacts until i restart and then all artifacts are gone


----------



## dom99 (Jan 18, 2011)

Whoops! said:


> I ran 6970 bios for 3 weeks with no issues but have decided to go for shaders only for peace of mind.
> In RBE my VIDS are now 1000 900 1200 1275
> I've overclocked in Trixx to 890 and 1350 (and could slide higher)
> BUT Trixx still shows GPU voltage as 1100 and the slider won't work. Is this  bug in Trixx?
> ...



Yeh I cannot change the voltage in Trixx either, wish I could I would bump it up to 1.175


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 18, 2011)

It's not supported yet... in Trixx.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 18, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Yeh I cannot change the voltage in Trixx either, wish I could I would bump it up to 1.175



So use RBE to increase you voltage. That's what I did. Very simple, only takes a few minutes. I bumped my voltage up to 1.2v and my core runs stable at 965mhz now


----------



## ALBPM (Jan 18, 2011)

I have 2 "unlocked only" 6950s in xfire and I tried to set a custom fan profile in TRIXX but it only  works for my top card. 

The bottom card is still in auto mode controlled by CCC. The top card now has the "enable manual control" checked from the setting TRIXX profile.

Is this a known issue with TRIXX or is there something I need to change still.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 18, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Sounds good, good luck!



Well, it couldn't have gone any worse.  

I went from MSI AB with 900/1375@1.180v and everything was nice and pretty, smooth 60 fps on BBC2 this afternoon.  

I went to Trixx with the plan of raising voltage in RBE.  I started with Trixx, thinking everything was fine.  But I couldn't get to play a game with settings even on stock voltage.  I tried raising voltage to 1200 in RBE like was suggested, but again I couldn't get a BC2 game to work.  I could get to the point of joining a server, and then it would crash on me.

After several times of hard restarts, and several flashed, I'm back to stock voltage on modded bios with shaders.  

Anyone else experienced something similar?


----------



## niemion (Jan 18, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Quick question for anyone who cares to answer, how far can you push the core clock speed of 6950 unlocked without voltage tweek? I dont know how to recognise the signs of overclocking too far on the core?
> 
> For example what will I notice on the screen when playing a game? I am noticing at the moment a few horizonal line glitches in BFBC2 and dont know whether it is normal or not for a game?
> 
> Keeping the core nice and cool, doesnt go above 55C in BFBC2 with cusotm fan profile



When looking for max GPU speed, set the RAM frequency to its default. Then use Furmark to stress the core. Look for "black outs", where the screen goes black then back to normal. That is one sign of too high GPU speed. Also halt of stress test, bluescreen or restart. If you get any "driver has recovered..." messages, that too was caused by too high core freq.

Again, remember to test for max GPU speed and mem speed seperatly. Also, some game may stress the card even more, so 900MHz furmark stable may only be 870MHz stable in you favorite game.

I can recommend Starcraft II for testing both GPU and mem.


----------



## travex (Jan 18, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Well, it couldn't have gone any worse.
> 
> I went from MSI AB with 900/1375@1.8V, and everything was nice and pretty, smooth 60 fps on BBC2 this afternoon.
> 
> ...



Wow Core voltage @ 1.8  ?


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 18, 2011)

travex said:


> Wow Core voltage @ 1.8  ?



Well, considering the limits of AB, I would think he meant 1.18v.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 18, 2011)

travex said:


> Wow Core voltage @ 1.8  ?



Yeah my bad, meant 1.180v. Fixed it in the other post. 

I'm not sure why, but the combination of Trixx and RBE just didn't seem to work well for me.  Constant problems.  
MSI AB seems to work better, at least at 900/1375 for now


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 18, 2011)

I am running just the shader modded bios with my clocks set at the CCC max of 840, have been doing that for a few days without issue, I just wanted to take things slowly to start.  Anyways, I thought it was about time I started pushing a little further so to start the process, last night I raised 3D voltages a little in the Bios using RBE but no matter what I did I got driver errors in Windows on boot up basically saying that there was an issue and therefore windows would not load the driver.  Now I don't know if I am raising the voltage in RBE wrongly but I tried different approaches either simply putting 1.15V in the clock tables under the 800/1250 entry, using the overclock button thingy and changing the register as well, or a combination of all of them..... can anyone who has increased the volts through RBE shed some light on what method worked for them please.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 18, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> I am running just the shader modded bios with my clocks set at the CCC max of 840, have been doing that for a few days without issue, I just wanted to take things slowly to start.  Anyways, I thought it was about time I started pushing a little further so to start the process, last night I raised 3D voltages a little in the Bios using RBE but no matter what I did I got driver errors in Windows on boot up basically saying that there was an issue and therefore windows would not load the driver.  Now I don't know if I am raising the voltage in RBE wrongly but I tried different approaches either simply putting 1.15V in the clock tables under the 800/1250 entry, using the overclock button thingy and changing the register as well, or a combination of all of them..... can anyone who has increased the volts through RBE shed some light on what method worked for them please.



You should adjust the voltages only via the GPU registers, take a look at this post:
 How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...


----------



## f0d (Jan 18, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> I am running just the shader modded bios with my clocks set at the CCC max of 840, have been doing that for a few days without issue, I just wanted to take things slowly to start.  Anyways, I thought it was about time I started pushing a little further so to start the process, last night I raised 3D voltages a little in the Bios using RBE but no matter what I did I got driver errors in Windows on boot up basically saying that there was an issue and therefore windows would not load the driver.  Now I don't know if I am raising the voltage in RBE wrongly but I tried different approaches either simply putting 1.15V in the clock tables under the 800/1250 entry, using the overclock button thingy and changing the register as well, or a combination of all of them..... can anyone who has increased the volts through RBE shed some light on what method worked for them please.



i used the gpu registers


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 18, 2011)

f0d said:


> i used the gpu registers



And ONLY the GPU registers?

Do NOT change anything else regarding Clocks/Fan/Pulldownmenu under Clocks....

Only GPU register do work properly at the moment.
As my experience VID4 is 3D

And do not play to much with the other VID (in GPU register): I tried to lower 2D VID from 900mV to 800mV but this gave me a blackscreen after boot/Winlogo.... But 850mV on 2D works...  Just keep in mind that those VIDs are very sensitive....


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 18, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Yeah, Trixx probably disables the use of the PowerControl slider in CCC. Why, I don't know, but from what I know Afterburner does as well. If your using Afterburner instead of Trixx, for the same MHZ, does your GPU speed get throttled down? What bios are you using, what clocks are you using during throttle down, and what program are you using to set your clocks when they DONT get throttled down?



Finally I found a quite good solution for me....

*1.) VID4 1250 mV via RBE
2.) FAN curve via Afterburner
3.) OC via ATI Tray Tools with 2D (250/150) and (960/1500) Profiles, autoset from ATT*

This is the only solution for me at the moment which gives my full OC Control and +20% Power Control boost and automaticly 2D/3D clock switching....

And another nice "feature" is that with the use of ATT the UVD clocks will not go to 500/1375 anymore - which are even too high in my opinion - while playing 1080p mkvs card stays now at cold and silent 250/150 @ 5-15 GPU usage....  NICE!


----------



## dom99 (Jan 18, 2011)

Is BFBC2 a good test of memory clocks? I still havent chnged the voltage and am on 880MHz core and 1320MHz memory, max temperature seen so far in BFBC2 is 67C, is there something wrong?

You would be surprised but when you play the sims 3 on max settings it can get VERY slow (seen 4fps with hd 6950), I am impressed with this overclock it has realy improved things in it, gna push for 1375MHz.


----------



## dom99 (Jan 18, 2011)

How do I know if the Card is throttling back? In the GPU-Z log file it shows constant clocks of 880MHz and 1375Mhz for core and memory, using 6950 unlocked shader bios, but Im getting this on the stock voltage of 1.1V.

Is this normal, can anyone else get this? I dont see how it can be right


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 18, 2011)

Well, check the MIN & MAX in GPU-Z. Or monitor it with a drawn graph... (or simply use Afterburner). How is it not right? It shows that you can run 6970 clocks on stock 6950 voltage. Nothing is wrong with that. One thing I'd like to ask though, test if needed, but what are your max clocks (core/mem) on stock 1.1v and retaining stability in benchmarks/games?


----------



## dom99 (Jan 18, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> Well, check the MIN & MAX in GPU-Z. Or monitor it with a drawn graph... (or simply use Afterburner). How is it not right? It shows that you can run 6970 clocks on stock 6950 voltage. Nothing is wrong with that. One thing I'd like to ask though, test if needed, but what are your max clocks (core/mem) on stock 1.1v and retaining stability in benchmarks/games?



Sorry but ull understand that I dont want to push the card anymore than it is. Im happy with a 6950@6970 clock speeds with 6950 unlocked bios, it was what I was aiming for lol means I have 6970 performance for 6950 price!

Just run 3dmark11 and got these results, dont know how they stack up next to other peoples 6950 mods:

P5019
Graphics Score 4869


----------



## Jeager (Jan 18, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> The Slider is still on +20% but in Furmark I get lower FPS that before.... The slider wont work when TRIXX is running... cant change it or save it - Jumps evertime back...
> 
> If I close TRIXX and move the Power Control slider and save it frame are back again in Furmark... If I start then TRIXX everthing looks like on function now...
> 
> ...



Which version of Trixx do u use ?
I dont have throlle with 10.12a@20% and Trixx 3.02 (i will check tonight to be sure at 100%)



niemion said:


> When looking for max GPU speed, set the RAM frequency to its default. Then use Furmark to stress the core. Look for "black outs", where the screen goes black then back to normal. That is one sign of too high GPU speed. Also halt of stress test, bluescreen or restart. If you get any "driver has recovered..." messages, that too was caused by too high core freq.
> 
> Again, remember to test for max GPU speed and mem speed seperatly. Also, some game may stress the card even more, so 900MHz furmark stable may only be 870MHz stable in you favorite game.
> 
> I can recommend Starcraft II for testing both GPU and mem.



You'r right, my 6950 is fine in every bench/games at 900@default voltage but I have random freeze in SCII (and every times a have to reboot )


----------



## dom99 (Jan 18, 2011)

When overclocking with Trixx, When I open CCC overdrive the core and memory overclocking bars have disappeared and clocks are not shown. Also the power bar is there but when I slide it to +20% it will slide back after about a second unless I quickly click apply. Anyone else experience this?


----------



## b0unc3r82pl (Jan 18, 2011)

Hi to All at the beggining 

I bought 2 Gigabyte GV-R695D5-2GD-B cards after reading the article here. Both were modded using Unlock Shaders Script only. Then DriverSweeper and brand new AMD Catalyst drivers 10.12 (old style) were installed. At the end pushed clock of both to max allowed by CCC - 840 MHz for core. Memory stays at default. Power + 15%

Wont tell You exact benchmarks scores because my CPU isn't so powerful as yours :] It's only E8400 @ 4 GHz . Another important thing to mention is that I use 30' DELL 3011 display at native resolution 2560 * 1600. Ok, so lets begin...

- SC 2 - All maxed out / smooth gameplay / aye candy effects.
- Mafia 2 - All maxed out / smooth gameplay / aye candy effects. The most funny thing at this game is that I have higher FPS on PhysicX on medium or high than on off by average 8 FPS 
- BF:BC2 All maxed out / smooth gameplay / aye candy effects. Only "problems" I noticed are that frame rate just have to speed up in firsts 3 (up to 5) seconds after loading screen, loading screen itself (before each map / round) don't fade as fluently as before and take a little more time. There are some glitches on grass (Heavy Metal Map) some times too but I read is normal.
- GTA IV - hmm... what to say. HORRIBLY optimized game. Without forcing setting in command line it won't run in other than minimal settings in CF. Gameplay isn't as fluent as it was in previous games, but is is acceptable with Car Sensitivity at 1 (Ahaha) and rest at max with Visible Distance and Detail Distance to 45. Maybe problem here is my CPU - probably needs some quad.

Backing to "modding" topic...

* Does RBE 1.27 support card ID change? I would like to change it to 6970 to use higher overclocking limits in CCC. Do not like s***y (in my opinion) programs like AB or SD.
* Is it VID4 that is responsible in RBE for 3D clocks, and is it 1.175 for 6970 original bios?

I really would like to achive 6970 GPU clock (maybe a little more) and memory timings on default without running 3rd party applications.

At the end want to thanks everyone for this great job / +1 for all involved.

Regards,

Dmnk


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 18, 2011)

b0unc3r82pl said:


> * Does RBE 1.27 support card ID change? I would like to change it to 6970 to use higher overclocking limits in CCC. Do not like s***y (in my opinion) programs like AB or SD.
> * Is it VID4 that is responsible in RBE for 3D clocks, and is it 1.175 for 6970 original bios?



IIRC, it was going to be done and it is implemented, but I'm not sure if it is supported with the 69xx. Try checking the changelog.

Somewhat, yes and no. So it seems, it is switched around with different cards, hence you will have to experiment either VID3 or VID4 is handling your 3D clocks. Monitor the temps and then confirm the enhanced overclocking capabilities and there you will have the correct variable.


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 18, 2011)

b0unc3r82pl said:


> Hi to All at the beggining
> 
> I bought 2 Gigabyte GV-R695D5-2GD-B cards after reading the article here. Both were modded using Unlock Shaders Script only. Then DriverSweeper and brand new AMD Catalyst drivers 10.12 (old style) were installed. At the end pushed clock of both to max allowed by CCC - 840 MHz for core. Memory stays at default. Power + 15%
> 
> ...



I turn smart doctor off after booting but I can still have unlocked overclocking in ccc. Seems a good stopgap for now. In RBE there are settings to increase the allowed oc in ccc but I'm not sure how well these settings have been tested on a 6950 bios yet. Maybe someone more experienced with RBE could create a bios with unlocked shaders and increased overdrive abilities to test?


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 18, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> IIRC, it was going to be done and it is implemented, but I'm not sure if it is supported with the 69xx. Try checking the changelog.
> 
> Somewhat, yes and no. So it seems, it is switched around with different cards, hence you will have to experiment either VID3 or VID4 is handling your 3D clocks. Monitor the temps and then confirm the enhanced overclocking capabilities and there you will have the correct variable.



Surely if there is only one entry at 1.1V in the register whichever Vid it is against, that has to be the 3D clocks if all other registers are lower?

@ Mark....... The only safe way is through Method 1 as I understand it, and through method 1 we need to find and import a signature from a 6950 bios that already has the higher CCC limit, so I think we may struggle until some overclocked versions come out that do have a higher limit..... if ever


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 18, 2011)

dom99 said:


> When overclocking with Trixx, When I open CCC overdrive the core and memory overclocking bars have disappeared and clocks are not shown. Also the power bar is there but when I slide it to  20% it will slide back after about a second unless I quickly click apply. Anyone else experience this?



Yes - same here - read the other threads (just a few above yours) before asking... 

And for it it looks like that even it is on +20% it feels like (in Furmark, 3DMark11) that it's real 0% Powerboost after loading TRIXX Profile or a Reboot...


----------



## Mirmendis (Jan 18, 2011)

Here is my experience with the 6950 unlocked shaders and 6970 bios.
My 6950 with (and without) unlocked shaders doesn't accept more than 1320 for memory if i oc more than 880 for the gpu (random star artifacts in heaven only), even with voltage increased (rbe or afterburner).
However, i can increase the gpu core at 1000 without issues if i adjust voltage AND don't go further than 1320 for memory. So maybe it exists a link between gpu and memory .
When i flash to 6970 bios, no problem, i can oc to 1000/1400 without any issues.

Nobody has encountered this problem ???


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 18, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> Surely if there is only one entry at 1.1V in the register whichever Vid it is against, that has to be the 3D clocks if all other registers are lower?
> 
> @ Mark....... The only safe way is through Method 1 as I understand it, and through method 1 we need to find and import a signature from a 6950 bios that already has the higher CCC limit, so I think we may struggle until some overclocked versions come out that do have a higher limit..... if ever



The register that has 1.1v in it is not necessarily the correct one to use for overclocking. You must test if VID3 or VID4 gives you more heat / overclocking room. My VID3 is 1100 and my VID4 is 1060, yet VID4 (1060) is the one I must adjust to overclock.


----------



## coldrazor (Jan 18, 2011)

*how can i put 6970 values on my xfx 6950*

i modded my 6950 to 6970, but with msi afterburner i put the 6970 clock values but, this don`t come down when im in 2d, how can i change it? i tried modified bios using the utility on top but my PC don`t start with these values.

In MSI i put the values 880/1375 without problems(tested), but this is bad T_T


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 18, 2011)

coldrazor said:


> i use the 6950 modded bios by script, but with msi afterburner i put the 6970 clock values but, this don`t come down when im in 2d, how can i change it? i tried modified bios using the utility on top but my PC don`t start with these values.
> 
> In MSI i put the values 880/1375 without problems(tested), but this is bad T_T



You need to set it as a 3D profile, it should then downclock in 2D.


----------



## coldrazor (Jan 18, 2011)

*63! degrees idle an 78 full!*

I put 6970 clocks in a 3d profile and my temps are 63 idle and 78 full on auto fan, i think is too high!

notice i live in Costa Rica a tropical place with 28c ambient now!

Edit: solved using trixx idle: 43c and full 75c using curve <70c 35% >70 fan goes up.

Tested a variety of software no problems.


----------



## travex (Jan 19, 2011)

I have no idea why ppl love to let the fan setting on auto mode ?! Even at 50% its still quite enough, so why auto !


----------



## coldrazor (Jan 19, 2011)

50% is too loud for me... (i hate loudly idle modes) so a auto mode do the work for me


----------



## Whoops! (Jan 19, 2011)

I've just loaded the 6970 bios into RBE
The voltage register reads 1000 / 900 / 1150 / 1175
Could I just replace the offending 1175 in vid4 with a safer 1150 and use this modified 6970 bios instead as I know it already works for me and allows me to overclock up to 950 and 1450 with +20% PC ?


----------



## Whoops! (Jan 19, 2011)

I'll answer my own question! No i can't - Just tried it but it didn't work - RBE seems to have no effect on the core voltage - Whatever I put into those 4 boxes, I still see 1100 with a 6950 bios and 1175 with a 6970 bios when I look in GPU-Z or TRIXX or AB


----------



## Gaul (Jan 19, 2011)

more !!


----------



## coldrazor (Jan 19, 2011)

OMG is a 6950?


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 19, 2011)

coldrazor said:


> OMG is a 6950?



Yes, it is.


----------



## Gaul (Jan 19, 2011)

coldrazor said:


> OMG is a 6950?



yup, flash with asus6970 bios and edit with RBE


----------



## manofthem (Jan 19, 2011)

Gaul said:


> yup, flash with asus6970 bios and edit with RBE



What is your core voltage at that let's you hit such high numbers?


----------



## decapnz (Jan 19, 2011)

Gaul said:


> VID 4, change 1275, here max i can reach
> 
> [url]http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/1962/1gh1500.jpg[/URL]



^


----------



## manofthem (Jan 19, 2011)

Gracias


----------



## ACEkombatkiwi (Jan 19, 2011)

Hi all,

Just brought 2 Asus HD6950s they both unlock just fine but 1 of the cards has major artifacts no matter what clocks I run, which is really disappointing since I wanted to get some descent numbers with the 2 cards in crossfire on a few benchmarks


----------



## Sebascenso (Jan 19, 2011)

Yesterday I bought a Sapphire 6950, I applied a modded 6950 bios to unlock the extra shaders. The process was successfull. The clocks are still the default 6950 ones. I runned 3dmark 11, vantage and uniheaven benchmarks, no artifacts. I'm planning in overclocking the card to see if it can handle the 6970 clocks, and if it does, and it is worth it, then flash to 6970.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 19, 2011)

Sebascenso said:


> Yesterday I bought a Sapphire 6950, I applied a modded 6950 bios to unlock the extra shaders. The process was successfull. The clocks are still the default 6950 ones. I'm planning in overclocking the card to see if it can handle the 6970 clocks, and if it does, and it is worth it, then flash to 6970.



Why flash to the 6970? If you can achieve and succeed on the 6970 clocks, leave it as it is. Flashing to the 6970 could just be risking your card, but if that's the chance you are willing to take, then so be it. You don't need the extra voltage (1.6v) on the RAM.


----------



## Sebascenso (Jan 19, 2011)

that's why I wrote "if it is worth it". I didn't knew about the extra voltage. Is the core in the 6970bios also with extra voltage to reach 880mhz compared to the 6950?
If it ain't worth it, then I will keep the bios I have right now, and just oc to achieve better performance.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 19, 2011)

Sebascenso said:


> that's why I wrote "if it is worth it". I didn't knew about the extra voltage. Is the core in the 6970bios also with extra voltage to reach 880mhz compared to the 6950?
> If it ain't worth it, then I will keep the bios I have right now, and just oc to achieve better performance.



chill, just saying. The 6970 BIOS has 1.175v compared to the 6950 BIOS with 1.1v. For now, you can use either MSI Afterburner or Sapphire TriXX (recommend) to go beyond the CCC limits. See how that goes with the 6970 clocks.


----------



## Sebascenso (Jan 19, 2011)

Sorry if my words sounded upset. I meant the opposite. Thanks for your feedback.


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## Shrike (Jan 19, 2011)

Jeager said:


> Which version of Trixx do u use ?
> I dont have throlle with 10.12a@20% and Trixx 3.02 (i will check tonight to be sure at 100%)
> 
> 
> ...




I had that too until i used modded 6950 bios instead of ful 6970 bios.
If u havent done so yet, u should try it out.


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## Jeager (Jan 19, 2011)

Shrike said:


> I had that too until i used modded 6950 bios instead of ful 6970 bios.
> If u havent done so yet, u should try it out.



Good to know. I'm waiting a few more days for my flash


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## chrisj1326 (Jan 19, 2011)

*Catalyst 11.1a*

I stumbled across this today didn't see it posted yet thought you all would like it. It works well on my unlocked 6950

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1929/AMD_Catalyst_11.1a_Hotfix.html


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## yonef (Jan 19, 2011)

chrisj1326 said:


> I stumbled across this today didn't see it posted yet thought you all would like it. It works well on my unlocked 6950
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1929/AMD_Catalyst_11.1a_Hotfix.html



does not make any difference for me  Absolutely the same results in all benchmarks.


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## Whoops! (Jan 19, 2011)

I've just realised that I can get better scores in 3DMark11 with the modded 6950 bios than I did with the 6970 bios!

Previously with 6970 bios I overclocked in CCC to 950/1450 +20% 3DMark11 score = 4916 (GPU score = 5296)

Now with 6950 shader only bios overclocked in Trixx to 950/1450 (+20% set via CCC b4 loading Trixx) 3DMark11 score = 5029 (GPU score = 5487)

Hotfix drivers used for 6950 score
6950 bios changed vids 3 and 4 both to 1150 - but I'm still not sure that this has any affect as GPU-Z and Trixx still only show maximum voltage as 1100


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## PopcornMachine (Jan 19, 2011)

Whoops! said:


> I've just realised that I can get better scores in 3DMark11 with the modded 6950 bios than I did with the 6970 bios!
> 
> Previously with 6970 bios I overclocked in CCC to 950/1450 +20% 3DMark11 score = 4916 (GPU score = 5296)
> 
> ...



I was having the same issue with my Sapphire HD 6950.  Changed VID4 with RBE and nothing changed.  VID3 was the one showing 1.1 default.

Started using MSI Afterburner to increase core voltage, and then acquired bios with RBE.  VID3 was the one being changed.

So my advice is to only change the VIDn that defaults to 1.1 and see how that works.

Oh, and I ran some quick tests with 11.1a before going to work and noticed good improvement.  Can post numbers later. 

Sometimes the day job really gets in the way of the really important things.


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## DJManiac (Jan 19, 2011)

Whoops! said:


> Now with 6950 shader only bios overclocked in Trixx to 950/1450 (+20% set via CCC b4 loading Trixx) 3DMark11 score = 5029 (GPU score = 5487)



Do you get the same score after a reboot (with Trixx on "Start at Winstart")?

+20% and save BEFORE loading TRIXX works here also - But when I restart, Slider is still on +20% but it feels like 0% in scores because of throtteling down...


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## wmblalock (Jan 19, 2011)

I just got in a second Gigabyte 6950 for a friend of mine and I have been testing it along side my Gigabyte 6950. The cards look the same, and are model numbered the same, but seem very different in terms of overclocking, voltages, power control, etc. For example, My card uses VID4 for 3D voltage, the new card uses VID3. Afterburner can adjust the new cards voltage, but not my card. My card reads 1.065v for the stock voltage in Afterburner, Komubustor, etc, while the new card reads 1.100v. I overclock my card with Trixx and have NEVER seen the card throttles its clock speeds down. With the new card I must set my clocks, close Trixx, then apply 20% powertune in CCC otherwise the card throttles it speeds down under load. I've just started messing with the second card, so maybe tonight after work I will get some more comparison info, but this goes to prove that even two cards, same model, from the same manufacturer, can be very different cards. This is why I suggest using your cards EXACT bios and modifying it. Who knows if the cards may use different ram/timings/ram voltages or anything else for that matter.


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## alex2112 (Jan 19, 2011)

Hello guys. I have just flashed my Powercolor 6950 with 6970 BIOS. Memory and shaders are just like they should be: 1375 and 1536  but GPU clock remained 800, though GPU-Z shows the default of 880. Can you please tell me why it is so?
p.s.: sorry for my english, i am from Ukraine


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## DJManiac (Jan 19, 2011)

alex2112 said:


> Hello guys. I have just flashed my Powercolor 6950 with 6970 BIOS. Memory and shaders are just like they should be: 1375 and 1536 but GPU clock is 800 anyway default clock in GPUz is 880. Can you please tell me why it is so?
> p.s.: sorry for my english, i am from Ukraine



Sound like you still go with 6950 Clocks - probably from before flashing....

Take a look at ATIs Overdrive and see if Overdrive is activated with 800 GPU clock....


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## DJManiac (Jan 19, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> With the new card I must set my clocks, close Trixx, then apply 20% powertune in CCC otherwise the card throttles it speeds down under load.



Exactly the same here! Wrote it several times some post before....

Let me (us) know when you find out something regarding this....


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## alex2112 (Jan 19, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> Sound like you still go with 6950 Clocks - probably from before flashing....
> 
> Take a look at ATIs Overdrive and see if Overdrive is activated with 800 GPU clock....


But if I still running with 6950 BIOS why do I have Memory clock from 6970 1375? Overdrive is activated and i just manually increase core to 880 in it.


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## manofthem (Jan 19, 2011)

alex2112 said:


> But if I still running with 6950 BIOS why do I have Memory clock from 6970 1375? Overdrive is activated and i just manually increase core to 880 in it.



I hadthe exact thing happen to me. What worked for me was to uninstall the drivers, reboot, then reinstall. It checked out at 880 after I did that. Try it out


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## DJManiac (Jan 19, 2011)

alex2112 said:


> But if I still running with 6950 BIOS why do I have Memory clock from 6970 1375? Overdrive is activated and i just manually increase core to 880 in it.



I never said 6950 BIOS - I said 6950 Clocks! 

Exactly what I said... Overdrive was the reason... If your Limit in Clocks of Overdrive is now 950/1450 be sure that u have succesfully flashed it....

Have fun..

There is no need to uninstall/install the driver again.....


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## alex2112 (Jan 19, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> If your Limit in Clocks of Overdrive is now 950/1450 be sure that u have succesfully flashed it....
> 
> Have fun..
> 
> There is no need to uninstall/install the driver again.....


Thats right, my limit clocks are 950/1450 so It looks like I have stock 6970 now, thank you again


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## wmblalock (Jan 19, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> Exactly the same here! Wrote it several times some post before....
> 
> Let me (us) know when you find out something regarding this....



I don't know what changed since last night, or if the programs just did something by themselves, but now, with the new card, if I use Afterburner then my card throttles it's clock speed, while if I use TRIXX, it DOES NOT throttle. It was the opposite last night 

I keep switching between programs trying to test things, but it seems when I open and close different programs, different settings stick and others don't.. very confusing. Although, I like the way its working right now (no throttle down with Trixx)

Actually, I'm kind of irritated because now, no matter what, if Afterburner is open my card throttles down, and I like to use Afterburner for the OSD function only. I am also completely missing all sliders except the fan slider in ccc no matter what I do... I'm very confused as to exactly what's going on here.


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

Since my Afterburner throttles my clock speeds for whatever reason, does anyone else know of another good OSD program to show my GPU Temps & Clocks on the screen during games??? Riva Tuner is pretty old and doesn't seem to support much for these cards


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## TRiGDaDDy (Jan 20, 2011)

I have tried everything from the whole bios to the shader unlock with a sapphire hd6950 and keep getting the could not erase rom error. I have to rebbot and get stuck and WIndows wants me to start in safe mode after it the last two times. I just start windows normally and get the 1408 shaders. I bought the video card from microcenter a week and a half ago brand new. NOt sure what to do. I follow the exact instructions to flash it to the shader unlock or the bios and it never succeeds. Any help would be appreciated.


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

TRiGDaDDy said:


> I have tried everything from the whole bios to the shader unlock with a sapphire hd6950 and keep getting the could not erase rom error. I have to rebbot and get stuck and WIndows wants me to start in safe mode after it the last two times. I just start windows normally and get the 1408 shaders. I bought the video card from microcenter a week and a half ago brand new. NOt sure what to do. I follow the exact instructions to flash it to the shader unlock or the bios and it never succeeds. Any help would be appreciated.



Have you tried saving your bios, using the scripts in this thread to mod it, then use this script here to actually flash your card? Put your bios in the winflash folder after extracting this scrip then run the script. 

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html

If I try just using winflash, my bios wont erase either. Also, sometimes it takes a try or two for it to work. Once in a while my system will freeze while trying to flash, then I have to boot the system with the card bios switch on '2', get winflash ready to go, and right before I hit the program button, switch the video card switch back to bios '1'. Are you sure you bios is in position '1' when you try to flash?


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

Ok, well I figured out what was going on regarding my previous post about the card throttling. I realized that Afterburner is not what was throttling my card, it was Trixx, even after I had closed it. I had Trixx running on startup, and apparently each time you run Trixx it disables power control, thus the card throttles, until your next reboot, even if you exit the program. Mind you, this is with my second Gigabyte 6950 that is a friends.. I don't think Trixx throttled MY Gigabyte 6950. I am going to pop it back in the computer in a minute and check and see. I know this card uses different VIDs to control 3D voltage (mine VID4, the new one VID3), maybe that has something to do with my Trixx disables the power slider control on one Gigabyte 6950 but not my new one? Let me pop My card back in and ill post back...


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## dom99 (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Ok, well I figured out what was going on regarding my previous post about the card throttling. I realized that Afterburner is not what was throttling my card, it was Trixx, even after I had closed it. I had Trixx running on startup, and apparently each time you run Trixx it disables power control, thus the card throttles, until your next reboot, even if you exit the program. Mind you, this is with my second Gigabyte 6950 that is a friends.. I don't think Trixx throttled MY Gigabyte 6950. I am going to pop it back in the computer in a minute and check and see. I know this card uses different VIDs to control 3D voltage (mine VID4, the new one VID3), maybe that has something to do with my Trixx disables the power slider control on one Gigabyte 6950 but not my new one? Let me pop My card back in and ill post back...



How can you tell if trixx is throttling the card? im using trixx at the moment


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

dom99 said:


> How can you tell if trixx is throttling the card? im using trixx at the moment



I use GPUz, open it to the "sensors" tab and check the box "continue refreshing this screen while GPUZ is in the background". Then start Kombustor or Furmark and watch the GPU Core Clock number in GPUZ. If it goes up and down, your being throttled. If it stays steady at your current clock speed then its not.


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## DJManiac (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Ok, well I figured out what was going on regarding my previous post about the card throttling. I realized that Afterburner is not what was throttling my card, it was Trixx, even after I had closed it. I had Trixx running on startup, and apparently each time you run Trixx it disables power control, thus the card throttles, until your next reboot, even if you exit the program. Mind you, this is with my second Gigabyte 6950 that is a friends.. I don't think Trixx throttled MY Gigabyte 6950. I am going to pop it back in the computer in a minute and check and see. I know this card uses different VIDs to control 3D voltage (mine VID4, the new one VID3), maybe that has something to do with my Trixx disables the power slider control on one Gigabyte 6950 but not my new one? Let me pop My card back in and ill post back...



Probably it has something to do with the different 3D VIDs as you already said.... That seams to be the only difference... And if Trixx or AB grab the VID at different places and found less mV as expected, than the programm throttles down... MAY BE?!

For me AB did not throttle my card! I have VID4 for 3D with ASUS 6970 BIOS. TRIXX throttles here...

Strange Strange!


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## dom99 (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> I use GPUz, open it to the "sensors" tab and check the box "continue refreshing this screen while GPUZ is in the background". Then start Kombustor or Furmark and watch the GPU Core Clock number in GPUZ. If it goes up and down, your being throttled. If it stays steady at your current clock speed then its not.



Checked and Trixx does not throttle my card even when GPU usage is a constant 100%. using 6950 unlocked shaders @ 880MHz 1375MHz 1.1V 10.12 drivers.

Does 10.12a provide better performance? lookin forward to official new driver release


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## itsdanny (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> I like to use Afterburner for the OSD function only. Since my Afterburner throttles my clock speeds for whatever reason, does anyone else know of another good OSD program to show my GPU Temps & Clocks on the screen during games??? Riva Tuner is pretty old and doesn't seem to support much for these cards



Nope, but there are ways around it. I made an executable with the same class and file name and it seems to be good. OSD hooks fine. Or you could load it in a debugger and find where it is finding the parent MSI Afterburner app and patch it there. Either works.


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> Nope, but there are ways around it. I made an executable with the same class and file name and it seems to be good. OSD hooks fine. Or you could load it in a debugger and find where it is finding the parent MSI Afterburner app and patch it there. Either works.



I think most of that was over my head. What did you make an executable of / for? What do you mean class, and what file name?

**EDIT** I guess I don't need to worry about it anyway, since after that post I made about not being able to use AB because of throttling I found out a lot more ... what I posted above.. and now with my original card, since it allows me to use the power control slider with Trixx (unlike my second card which made the power control slider disappear all together), I can use Afterburner for OSD only and the card won't throttle. In my previous post I thought Afterburner was causing the card to throttle, now I see that the combo of Trixx and Card2 disabled Power Control slider causing the card to throttle. My Card1 doesn't throttle anymore because, with trixx, the power control slider in ccc doesn't disappear and still works.


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## itsdanny (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> I think most of that was over my head. What did you make an executable of / for? What do you mean class, and what file name?



For the MSI Afterburner app. Exact Window name and file name as the latter. Basically, I think OSD uses some APIs to detects specific static variables or handles to see if MSI Afterburner is active, if not, it does not hook any apps with its wrapper.

Good info btw. My card, picked up on the 5th, was a Gigabyte, and it is also controlled in the VID3 variable.


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> For the MSI Afterburner app. Exact Window name and file name as the latter. Basically, I think OSD uses some APIs to detects specific static variables or handles to see if MSI Afterburner is active, if not, it does not hook any apps with its wrapper.
> 
> Good info btw. My card, picked up on the 5th, was a Gigabyte, and it is also controlled in the VID3 variable.



Ahh, see, there are two versions of the card. Ones with VID3 3D voltage and ones with VID4 3D voltage. Those with VID3, like you, don't have the power control slider with trixx, thus trixx is useless. But with people like me, who use VID4, we can use trixx because we have the power control slider. 

It seems I should make a new thread titled "6950 modding and overclocking guide" and put all this info in there so people can get the best software / setup for their card right outta the gate. It's really confusing since some software, like AB works better with some cards (VID3 cards) and programs like trixx work better for other cards (VID4)


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## itsdanny (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Ahh, see, there are two versions of the card. Ones with VID3 3D voltage and ones with VID4 3D voltage. Those with VID3, like you, don't have the power control slider with trixx, thus trixx is useless. But with people like me, who use VID4, we can use trixx because we have the power control slider.
> 
> It seems I should make a new thread titled "6950 modding and overclocking guide" and put all this info in there so people can get the best software / setup for their card right outta the gate. It's really confusing since some software, like AB works better with some cards (VID3 cards) and programs like trixx work better for other cards (VID4)



If I recall correctly, the power control slider only disappeared when MSI Afterburner was running. If it wasn't and TriXX was still active, the Power Control Slider was still there.


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## DJManiac (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Gigabyte 6950 #1 Ordered 12/29/10
> 
> Gigabyte 6950 #2 Ordered 1/13/11



More than WELL DONE!!!! This brings bright light to this topic!!!!

Many Thanks!!!


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

Ok, well I removed my findings and the post above because they were incorrect, itsdanny's post made me go back, re-test a few things and double check my findings. So it turns out, here is what I found out now. 

I had just been using Kombustor's reading of the core clock to tell if my card was throttling. This is not an accurate source of the actual clock speed and I should have been using GPUz. Now, using GPUz, I find out that both of my Gigabyte 6950 cards have been throttling all along. DOH :shadedshu

But I did still get some useful information from my research of two Gigabyte 6950s. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*First Finding:*
Different 6950s use different VIDs for 3D voltage. Even the same model card from the same manufacturer. One of my Gigabyte 6950s uses VID3 and the other one uses VID4. So test your card to find out which one and make sure you are using the correct VID. This is also another good reason to edit and use your OWN card's bios rather than flashing a modified bios from another card to yours... even if it's the same manufacturer. 

*Second Finding:*
A final explanation / bug of overclocking with Trixx. When overclocking with Trixx, even if your power control slider in CCC says +20%, that's not accurate and it may not be using +20% power causing your card to throttle down while gaming. You can confirm if your card is throttling by running Kombustor or Furmark while watching the GPU Mhz sensor in GPUz. 

Here is the bug in Trixx. Trixx resets your Power Control to 0% each time you either restart your computer, or each time you change your clock speed in Trixx and click apply. Even though it resets your Power Control setting to 0%, your CCC still shows the slider as being at +20%. This is what fooled me. What you have to do, if you use Trixx, is this. Each time you restart your computer, or change your clock speeds in Trixx, you must open up CCC, move the Power Control slider down to something other than +20%, click apply, then move it back to +20% and click apply again. It's a little tricky because you only have 1 second to click apply before the slider goes back to whatever it was. Another way of doing it is to close Trixx, then open CCC, set Power Control to anything other than +20%, apply, then set it at +20% and hit apply. After that re-open Trixx. This way you don't have to fight with Trixx moving the slider every 1 second.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

I am sort of stuck now as to what I want to use to overclock the clock speeds of my 6950 now.

If I use Trixx, I have to mess around with the Power Control slider each time I reboot or change my clock speed, that's a pain.

If I use Afterburner, I have to enable "Unofficial Overclocking" to increase the 6950s default overclock limits, which causes two problems. It causes the card to run at full 3D voltage/speeds 24/7 and never idles the card down in 2D mode. This isn't good for the card. The second problem with Afterburner is that If you create two profiles (one for 2D and one for 3D) so that the Afterburner automatically switches profiles and idles the card down somewhat (although it can't fully, so its still not great) in 2D mode, then I lose control of my user defined fan curve in Afterburner which keeps my card cool. See, when "Unofficial Overclocking" is enabled in Afterburner, it defaults back to ATIs fan curve every time you click "apply" in the program, and every time it automatically applies a 2D or 3D profile (which it will do constantly as you use your computer). You can get Afterburner to use the user defined fan curve again by double clicking the user define button twice, but its not practical to do that each time it automatically switches 2D/3D profiles, which happens all the time.

Any program suggestions? 
It seems like there is no program that will just do it all correctly. Maybe I could run two programs, but I'd really rather not.. Here is what I want to do, hopefully with just one program. Any suggestions would be great. It seems so simple, it sucks that no program I can find will do these 4 simple things! Does anyone have a solution that does all of the 4 necessary things below? 

1. Have increased overclock limits beyond that of a stock 6950
2. Have the program not disable or screw with the Power Control settings. I need it at +20% all the time.
3. Allow the card to idle itself down in 2D mode, so it's not running 100% voltage and speed all the time while in 2D use
4. Allow me to set a custom fan curve to keep the card cool.


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## manofthem (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Ok, well I removed my findings and the post above because they were incorrect, itsdanny's post made me go back, re-test a few things and double check my findings. So it turns out, here is what I found out now.
> 
> I had just been using Kombustor's reading of the core clock to tell if my card was throttling. This is not an accurate source of the actual clock speed and I should have been using GPUz. Now, using GPUz, I find out that both of my Gigabyte 6950 cards have been throttling all along. DOH :shadedshu
> 
> ...



Thanks for all the heads up and the hard work you put into this.  Well done!


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Thanks for all the heads up and the hard work you put into this.  Well done!



No problem. Hopefully it helps other 6950 owners. 
I really wish I could find a good solution to control my cards overclocking and fan correctly though. Per my above post, it seems like nothing does a complete job.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> No problem. Hopefully it helps other 6950 owners.
> I really wish I could find a good solution to control my cards overclocking and fan correctly though. Per my above post, it seems like nothing does a complete job.



Yeah, it was weird today.  I'm back using MSI AB, but even after I apply a profile, say 900/1375 (one I used often), a few seconds later it would be back to like 400/625 (my 2D profile).  Sometimes it would stay, sometimes not.  Weird..


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Yeah, it was weird today.  I'm back using MSI AB, but even after I apply a profile, say 900/1375 (one I used often), a few seconds later it would be back to like 400/625 (my 2D profile).  Sometimes it would stay, sometimes not.  Weird..



Do you have unofficial overclocking enabled in AB? If so, what do you do for your fan? Customer curve in AB or what?


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## manofthem (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Do you have unofficial overclocking enabled in AB? If so, what do you do for your fan? Customer curve in AB or what?



Yeah, unofficial is unlocked, and I have a custom fan curve. I've gotten to 930/1400@1.1.80v.  Atleast, AB says 1.18 but GPUz still says 1.10v, but I think I heard that's normal.  That's my 3D profile
2D is 400/625@1.06v

edit: I've been try to monitor it now and see when it throttles back, but now it's not happening...


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Yeah, unofficial is unlocked, and I have a custom fan curve. I've gotten to 930/1400@1.1.80v.  Atleast, AB says 1.18 but GPUz still says 1.10v, but I think I heard that's normal.  That's my 3D profile
> 2D is 400/625@1.06v
> 
> edit: I've been try to monitor it now and see when it throttles back, but now it's not happening...



Is your custom fan curve working for you all the time and staying active when Afterburner switches between 2D and 3D profiles? No matter what, with Unofficial Overclocking enabled, my fan curve goes back to ATIs default when the profiles automatically switch. Even though, in Afterburner, User Define is selected and the fan slider boarder is lit up green to show that its supposed to use my custom curve. Two click of the "user define" button and my fan curve reactivates, but only until I change the clocks or the profile switches. What about you? Are you sure AB is following your custom fan curve all the time? I don't see why yours would when mine wont.


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## itsdanny (Jan 20, 2011)

Yep, I realized that as well. Having to click the "user define" button twice to get the custom curve back. Sometimes though, when I switch profiles (1-5), I don't have to click twice, sometimes it takes a few seconds to get the fan curve back to where it was. I would say it's buggy or somewhat.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Is your custom fan curve working for you all the time and staying active when Afterburner switches between 2D and 3D profiles? No matter what, with Unofficial Overclocking enabled, my fan curve goes back to ATIs default when the profiles automatically switch. Even though, in Afterburner, User Define is selected and the fan slider boarder is lit up green to show that its supposed to use my custom curve. Two click of the "user define" button and my fan curve reactivates, but only until I change the clocks or the profile switches. What about you? Are you sure AB is following your custom fan curve all the time? I don't see why yours would when mine wont.



I see what you are saying...
The custom fan is staying active and accurate most of the time...but, for instance, I just adjusted profile 5 900/1375 to 910/1375@1.18 in 3DMark 11.  It ran fine to completion.  Then when I went to save that profile to spot 5, the fan dropped back down to like 27%.  It stayed there for a few seconds, maybe ~5sec, then went back up to where it was supposed to be, ~35%.

After that, I switched back to 1, which is 400/625@0.9v.  When I did, the fan dropped to 27%, stayed there for about 3-4secs, then went back to 30 where it's supposed to be.



itsdanny said:


> Sometimes though, when I switch profiles (1-5), I don't have to click twice, sometimes it takes a few seconds to get the fan curve back to where it was. I would say it's buggy or somewhat.



I think you're right, it just takes a bit to get back on track, not sure why.


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> Yep, I realized that as well. Having to click the "user define" button twice to get the custom curve back. Sometimes though, when I switch profiles (1-5), I don't have to click twice, sometimes it takes a few seconds to get the fan curve back to where it was. I would say it's buggy or somewhat.



For me, it disables my custom fan curve every time I change a setting and click apply or every time it auto switches profiles. It makes the program useless to me because it won't cool the card the way I need it too and I don't want to overheat the card when playing a game. I posted it in the Afterburner bug thread and they just said to disable Unofficial Overclocking.. lol.. so either way Afterburner is pretty much useless to me :shadedshu


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## manofthem (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Is your custom fan curve working for you all the time and staying active when Afterburner switches between 2D and 3D profiles? No matter what, with Unofficial Overclocking enabled, my fan curve goes back to ATIs default when the profiles automatically switch. Even though, in Afterburner, User Define is selected and the fan slider boarder is lit up green to show that its supposed to use my custom curve. Two click of the "user define" button and my fan curve reactivates, but only until I change the clocks or the profile switches. What about you? Are you sure AB is following your custom fan curve all the time? I don't see why yours would when mine wont.



I just tried switching back and forth.  When I went from 2D to 3D, the fan dropped lower than it's supposed to.  It stayed there for about 15sec, and then it went back to normal.  

If you let it sit a bit, do you notice it goes to where it's supposed to be?


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I just tried switching back and forth.  When I went from 2D to 3D, the fan dropped lower than it's supposed to.  It stayed there for about 15sec, and then it went back to normal.
> 
> If you let it sit a bit, do you notice it goes to where it's supposed to be?



Just tried it out.. no matter what I do, it wont go back to my profile until I double click user define


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## manofthem (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Just tried it out.. no matter what I do, it wont go back to my profile until I double click user define



Well, it's weird here.  My fan is supposed to sit at 30 at the lowest.  I switched back to 2D, and it dropped to 30%.  I just checked it again after not doing anything with it for a few minutes (watched a ME2 PS3/360 comparison video), and the fan dropped to 25%.  So it looked like it doesn't sit where it should all the time.  Not that it mattered in that instance since it didn't need to be high, but it is still frustrating nonetheless.

edit: my bigger problem is that AB doesn't seem to want to switch back from 3D to 2D.  Isn't it supposed to do that automatically, since it does switch from 2D to 3D automatically?  I have to set it to go back to 400/625...


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Well, it's weird here.  My fan is supposed to sit at 30 at the lowest.  I switched back to 2D, and it dropped to 30%.  I just checked it again after not doing anything with it for a few minutes (watched a ME2 PS3/360 comparison video), and the fan dropped to 25%.  So it looked like it doesn't sit where it should all the time.  Not that it mattered in that instance since it didn't need to be high, but it is still frustrating nonetheless.



Exactly, doesn't matter in 2D mode, but leave it alone and try running kombustor and see how hot it gets running the stock profile.. not good. Kills the program for me if I can game with my custom fan profile while using AB with unofficial overclocking


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## manofthem (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Exactly, doesn't matter in 2D mode, but leave it alone and try running kombustor and see how hot it gets running the stock profile.. not good. Kills the program for me if I can game with my custom fan profile while using AB with unofficial overclocking



I did leave it and run Furmark with GPUz open to monitor it.  It seemed to go alright.  And earlier today playing BC2 online for like 1.5 hours, it must have been working because the fan was going pretty well.  I just don't know...
But I do appreciate your help thus far!


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I did leave it and run Furmark with GPUz open to monitor it.  It seemed to go alright.  And earlier today playing BC2 online for like 1.5 hours, it must have been working because the fan was going pretty well.  I just don't know...
> But I do appreciate your help thus far!



I guess to each their own. I run my card at 1.200v 965mhz/1450mhz and I like keeping my card below 80* so I need my fan control. I am using Trixx for now. I just tested it if I use Hibernate instead of shutdown for my computer then I don't have to go mess with Power Control when I turn my computer back on, it stays at the +20% and doesn't throttle down the card. It's still a pain when I am overclocking and change my clock speeds because I have to play with the Power Control slider each time, but for now it seems to be my best solution. Hopefully these programs will evolve and do what we need properly. Besides fan control, and automatically increase overclock limits, the other thing I like about Trixx over Afterburner is that it still allows the card to idle down in 2D per the stock ATI settings.  So my card runs at a easy 250mhz core (.9v) / 150mhz memory until I game. That's much lower than Afterburner can go.


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## decapnz (Jan 20, 2011)

have/can you guys report these bugs the respectable devs?


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## Sebascenso (Jan 20, 2011)

When playing wolfentein with my sapphire 6950 with unlocked shaders, I noticed some weird snow flakes floating and in some cases, things suddenly dissapearing, for example chairs o whatever that in one instant are there and in the other, they dissapear. With an nvidia 460 gtx (my previuos card), this things didn't happen. I don't know if these issues are driver related or if the enabled extra shaders are causing the trouble.


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## DJManiac (Jan 20, 2011)

*Again - Many thanks wmblalock - You help us all to understand more*

Your testing proves what I mentioned some posts before regarding TRIXX....

I think we al have to remind that we are still playing with BETAs of AB and TRIXX... And of course BETA Catalysts!!!

Again (as I wrote some posts before) . In my opinion a good solution is in total:

*- VGPU via RBE
- FAN via Afterburner
- 2D/3D Clocks (no limits) via ATI Tray Tools with 2D/3D profiles for auto-OC'ing.*

What a pitty that there is no solution in ATT for FAN curve at the moment....Want to get rid of thoose card seller tools... 

The only difference to ATI Powerplay is that UVD clocks (500/1375) are not present if you use ATT.... But the 6950/6970 will do it also with 250/150 easily!

*Up to now there is no perfect tool at all!*

Hopefully... Sometime.. there will be a support for clocks and FAN in RBE... 

Then all the problems will be gone... Normally dont like those tools running al ther time....


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## Tatty_One (Jan 20, 2011)

I am just running mine with the shader only mod and 840mhz CCC max without the need for voltage adjustment in RBE.  I can't be doing with messing about and I get all the performance I need as I don't bother with benching anymore.  I am sure overclocked versions will be around soon that have higher CCC limits although I appreciate that might invade 6970 space, if/when we do see those OC cards I will try and import their signature file into RBE and see if I can use method 1 to increase CCC limits.

If we dont see any official higher OC limits then I will have to re-think my strategy, hopefully by which time Afterburner will give us in anycase everything we need without the odd irritation.

Edit: Seems we are there already, Powercolor is releasing a PCS++ version of the HD 6950 that will have Reference clocks of 880mhz and therefore an even higher overdrive limit, just gotta hope now that RBE lets the importation of signatures.


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## decapnz (Jan 20, 2011)

amen to that tatty_one


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## tecnoworld (Jan 20, 2011)

the new powercolor (factory unlocked and overclocked) is an interesting product.

It could be referred to as 6960, since has the same GPU specs as the 6970 and the same memory specs as the 6950.

I'm particularly interested to know if its GPU voltage is 1.1v or 1.175v.

My unlocked card (just shader unlocked over factory BIOS) can't handle 880Mhz in certain situations (e.g. Crysis), while it can do 865Mhz safely. Memory is stable at 1325Mhz.


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## Tatty_One (Jan 20, 2011)

tecnoworld said:


> the new powercolor (factory unlocked and overclocked) is an interesting product.
> 
> It could be referred to as 6960, since has the same GPU specs as the 6970 and the same memory specs as the 6950.
> 
> ...



I assume it can't handle the 880mhz at 1.1V???  If so why not just raise the voltage to ha happy medium like 1.15v in RBE??


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## tecnoworld (Jan 20, 2011)

mine can't handle 880Mhz at 1.1v, but I've read some reports of cards that actually can do that. Anyway you are right, I think a bit more voltage should be more than enough for even reaching 900Mhz.


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## Mark22 (Jan 20, 2011)

My asus card runs fine at 880/1300 @1.1V but a bios with a slightly tweaked voltage would be nice for higher easy overclocks.


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## Tatty_One (Jan 20, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> My asus card runs fine at 880/1300 @1.1V but a bios with a slightly tweaked voltage would be nice for higher easy overclocks.



It is simple to do that yourself in RBE, if you have never done that before I would be happy to help.


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## dom99 (Jan 20, 2011)

yeh mine handles 880MHz and 1375MHz on 1.1V, dont wana try any higher yet but im sure it could!


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## tecnoworld (Jan 20, 2011)

mark22 and dom99: have you tried crysis at 880Mhz? I'm asking since my card seems to handle anything at that frequency, but Crysis, that locks up.


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> I am just running mine with the shader only mod and 840mhz CCC max without the need for voltage adjustment in RBE.  I can't be doing with messing about and I get all the performance I need as I don't bother with benching anymore.  I am sure overclocked versions will be around soon that have higher CCC limits although I appreciate that might invade 6970 space, if/when we do see those OC cards I will try and import their signature file into RBE and see if I can use method 1 to increase CCC limits.
> 
> If we dont see any official higher OC limits then I will have to re-think my strategy, hopefully by which time Afterburner will give us in anycase everything we need without the odd irritation.
> 
> Edit: Seems we are there already, Powercolor is releasing a PCS++ version of the HD 6950 that will have Reference clocks of 880mhz and therefore an even higher overdrive limit, just gotta hope now that RBE lets the importation of signatures.




That would be great if it worked out. The only issue I see, if you are able to import the signature, is that the overclock limits still might not be high enough. Both of my cards are rock stable at 965mhz/1450mhz 1.200v, and I think a lot of peoples probably are at 1.200v. I might even be able to push my card some more. I just doubt even the powercolor increased limits will allow that much of an overclock, but I guess we will see.


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> *Again - Many thanks wmblalock - You help us all to understand more*
> 
> Your testing proves what I mentioned some posts before regarding TRIXX....
> 
> ...



What windows are you running? I tried installing ATI Tray Tools on Windows 7 X64 and every time I try to start the program I just get a blue screen and reboot


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## DJManiac (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> That would be great if it worked out. The only issue I see, if you are able to import the signature, is that the overclock limits still might not be high enough. Both of my cards are rock stable at 965mhz/1450mhz 1.200v, and I think a lot of peoples probably are at 1.200v. I might even be able to push my card some more. I just doubt even the powercolor increased limits will allow that much of an overclock, but I guess we will see.



My hope is now in PowerColor's HD 6970 LCS which gives us 925/1425 @ stock. And probably even more to OC... But its also possible that CCC also limits @ 950/1450 again...
We will see... Did not found any BIOS of it in NET of it. Of course its not completly released yet. Will take some time again and we will find in in techpowerup database...

I think we all want to much... too fast


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## DJManiac (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> What windows are you running? I tried installing ATI Tray Tools on Windows 7 X64 and every time I try to start the program I just get a blue screen and reboot



Also Win7 64x - ATT installation without problems here...

Be sure to take the newest Beta (ATi Tray Tools 1.7.9.1537 Beta)

http://www.radeon3d.org/downloads/ati_software_und_tools/ati_tray_tools_beta/

Try "Low Level Driver Installation" from ATT Menu.
And what did you set in Win7: Settings for User Account Control? Try lowest settings


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## Tatty_One (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> That would be great if it worked out. The only issue I see, if you are able to import the signature, is that the overclock limits still might not be high enough. Both of my cards are rock stable at 965mhz/1450mhz 1.200v, and I think a lot of peoples probably are at 1.200v. I might even be able to push my card some more. I just doubt even the powercolor increased limits will allow that much of an overclock, but I guess we will see.



And if it didnt work I would be quite happy to take the route that you have chosen, the difference then would be that much more time will have elapsed so I can see how many of the cards have failed in the longer term if you get my meaning, 2 - 3 weeks is great but I want to see 2-3 months before I take the plunge, but like I said, I stopped my heavy overclocking adventures a couple of years ago.


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

Does ATT allow you to overclock past the normal CCC limits like Trixx does? If so, I will give ATT another attempt when I get home and see about letting afterburner just control my fan. 

I posted my Afterburner troubles in their bug thread days ago and haven't gotten a response yet. I did post about the fan issue in AB while unofficial overclocking was enabled, and they just wrote back saying to disable unofficial overclocking, which makes the program useless :shadedshu

Does anyone know where I can post or how I can get a hold of the Trixx programmer to let him know about the Power Control bug?


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## kalviper (Jan 20, 2011)

i realise that after unlocking afterburner, the lowest clock that you can set for 2d is 400/6xx, is tat the lowest? cause that is higher than the default 150/250. this make my card run higher/hotter when i m surfing the net.......


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## krousnik (Jan 20, 2011)

I've unlock my powercolor 6950 in some games it works perfect without rendering errors but in pro evolution soccer 2011 sometimes they appear. Anny thought?


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

kalviper said:


> i realise that after unlocking afterburner, the lowest clock that you can set for 2d is 400/6xx, is tat the lowest? cause that is higher than the default 150/250. this make my card run higher/hotter when i m surfing the net.......



That's one reason I do not use Afterburner. Plus if you have a custom fan curve, Afterburner will not keep using it if you have AB setup to auto switch between 2D and 3D profiles which can cause the card to run even hotter. Unfortunately there is no great solution to fully run all the settings we need on these cards at the moment.


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## kalviper (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> That's one reason I do not use Afterburner. Plus if you have a custom fan curve, Afterburner will not keep using it if you have AB setup to auto switch between 2D and 3D profiles which can cause the card to run even hotter. Unfortunately there is no great solution to fully run all the settings we need on these cards at the moment.



nah. i m the like the other lucky guy. my custom fan curve will return after a few sec. So in actual fact, i m very close to what we want. only thing lacking is the 2d clocks....damm


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

kalviper said:


> nah. i m the like the other lucky guy. my custom fan curve will return after a few sec. So in actual fact, i m very close to what we want. only thing lacking is the 2d clocks....damm



Lucky, but even so, yeah the 2D clock issue still kills it for me. I don't mind having a high overclock on my card as long as it's only running that while playing games. Most likely that will never damage the cad. Now running the card fast all the time, now that just seems like a bad idea and unnecessary wear and tear. I wish I was a programmer, I'd love to make a simple program for this card that just worked! Ultimately it would be great if we could do the clock speeds, fan, and voltage in the bios. But either way, i think software controls the fan now, not the bios so that won't happen I guess. I wonder if there is a way to mod the fan curve in the ATI drivers so we don't need a 3rd party program to do it.. anyone know if that's possible?


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## Sebascenso (Jan 20, 2011)

There is a buzz in my mind asking me if all this trouble is worth the extra 70 bucks. Poor driver support, the mod not fully successfull (I see some snow/dust particles and things dissapearing in games). Before the 6950 I had a 460gtx, and previous to the nvidia 460 y had an ati 4850, so you can see that I'm not a fanboi. I just care about performance and price. I was happy with the 460gtx 1gb that overclocked to 830/1000 worked well, but I wanted more horsepower, and when I saw the articles about the 6950 mod, I thought it was my chance to upgrade taking profit of the extra free performance. But as i said, I don't know if it is worth it. I'm thinking about  returning the card and buying a 570gtx. 
I can return the card for free, but I have only 5 more days to decide, if not, I have to stay with the 6950.


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## DJManiac (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Does ATT allow you to overclock past the normal CCC limits like Trixx does? If so, I will give ATT another attempt when I get home and see about letting afterburner just control my fan.
> 
> Does anyone know where I can post or how I can get a hold of the Trixx programmer to let him know about the Power Control bug?



*Yes - it allows OC to 1335 GPU / 2062 RAM here * More that enough. The only thing it to get the higher clock you have to start ATT while 3D clocks were activated otherwise only 2D clock range is there... For 2D profile the same... start ATT while card is in 2D mode... If you got it running ask again for concete settings regarding 2D/3D profiles if you need help...

*TRIXX: This post says it is our W1zzard from here  *
 Sapphire TriXX supporting Crossfire


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

Sebascenso said:


> There is a buzz in my mind asking me if all this trouble is worth the extra 70 bucks. Poor driver support, the mod not fully successfull (I see some snow/dust particles and things dissapearing in games). Before the 6950 I had a 460gtx, and previous to the nvidia 460 y had an ati 4850, so you can see that I'm not a fanboi. I just care about performance and price. I was happy with the 460gtx 1gb that overclocked to 830/1000 worked well, but I wanted more horsepower, and when I saw the articles about the 6950 mod, I thought it was my chance to upgrade taking profit of the extra free performance. But as i said, I don't know if it is worth it. I'm thinking about  returning the card and buying a 570gtx.
> I can return the card for free, but I have only 5 more days to decide, if not, I have to stay with the 6950.



I guess its preference really. If I was just doing this to save money, then no, it wouldn't be worth it I don't think. I really do it for fun and to see how much extra I can get. If i spent $70 more and go something else I would push it to its limits as well.


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## Sebascenso (Jan 20, 2011)

Don't get me wrong, I like to push the limits too, that was one of the reasons, besides price-performance, of why I jumped on board with this mod thing. But I'm a practical person too. Maybe buying a 570 gtx and overclocking it, would be a better deal. What should I do? Thoughts?


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

Sebascenso said:


> Don't get me wrong, I like to push the limits too, that was one of the reasons, besides price-performance, of why I jumped on board with this mod thing. But I'm a practical person too. Maybe buying a 570 gtx and overclocking it, would be a better deal. What should I do? Thoughts?



I haven't really looked into the 570 gtx and how it compares to the 6950/6970, but I am pretty happy with my card. The only issue I have with my modded 6950 is getting software to run the fan/overclock/power control/2d idle settings all correctly. Trixx is pretty close, and hopefully they will fix the Power Control setting conflict which would make Trixx the perfect program for this card. I think it will get better as time goes on and more programs / drivers fully support these 6900 cards, remember they are new cards. If you are having problems with the shader unlock in-game maybe you got one of the rare cards that doesnt work well with the extra shaders? I have mine unlocked at 965mhz/1450mhz rock solid with no issue or blips in games to speak of.


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> *Yes - it allows OC to 1335 GPU / 2062 RAM here * More that enough. The only thing it to get the higher clock you have to start ATT while 3D clocks were activated otherwise only 2D clock range is there... For 2D profile the same... start ATT while card is in 2D mode... If you got it running ask again for concete settings regarding 2D/3D profiles if you need help...
> 
> *TRIXX: This post says it is our W1zzard from here  *
> Sapphire TriXX supporting Crossfire



I was able to get a hold of W1zzard about our Trixx issue with the Power Control setting. Here was his response:

"I have heard about the issue, but haven't had time to look into it yet.

Voltage support for 6900 series is planned and we're just waiting on documentation from the vrm manufacturer"

I do appreciate his work, and am sure he will look into the issue when he gets some time. At least he is aware of the issue, so now all we can do is wait and hope he can get it worked out fairly easily. Thanks W1zzard!


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## Mark22 (Jan 20, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Lucky, but even so, yeah the 2D clock issue still kills it for me. I don't mind having a high overclock on my card as long as it's only running that while playing games. Most likely that will never damage the cad. Now running the card fast all the time, now that just seems like a bad idea and unnecessary wear and tear. I wish I was a programmer, I'd love to make a simple program for this card that just worked! Ultimately it would be great if we could do the clock speeds, fan, and voltage in the bios. But either way, i think software controls the fan now, not the bios so that won't happen I guess. I wonder if there is a way to mod the fan curve in the ATI drivers so we don't need a 3rd party program to do it.. anyone know if that's possible?



In afterburner I never set a 2D profile and it always then reverted to default clocks in 2D. Also it always used the custom fan curve, maybe your issue is through forcing a 2D profile rather than letting it drop back to ccc settings in 2D.


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> In afterburner I never set a 2D profile and it always then reverted to default clocks in 2D. Also it always used the custom fan curve, maybe your issue is through forcing a 2D profile rather than letting it drop back to ccc settings in 2D.



Do you have unofficial overclocking enabled? The problem does not occur if unofficial overclocking is not enabled.


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## Mark22 (Jan 20, 2011)

No, that's enabled in smartdoctor but I close that after booting. Maybe you could do the same for now then?

I don't use afterburner any more as it disables power control and I don't need custom fan as I attached a Zalman VF3000A. But I can still overclock in ccc because smartdoctor enables it to oc to 1620/2500. My 2D clocks are always @450/1250 with dual monitors (good temps with new cooler anyway) but do drop to 150/250 or whatever it is if I disable one and did with afterburner set to 880/1300 inn 3D profile.


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> No, that's enabled in smartdoctor but I close that after booting. Maybe you could do the same for now then?
> 
> I don't use afterburner any more as it disables power control and I don't need custom fan as I attached a Zalman VF3000A. But I can still overclock in ccc because smartdoctor enables it to oc to 1620/2500. My 2D clocks are always @450/1250 with dual monitors (good temps with new cooler anyway) but do drop to 150/250 or whatever it is if I disable one.



I am just hoping Trixx fixes the Power Control bug, then it will be perfect for me. I don't use smart doctor because I don't want to put an Asus bios on my card. I like using my stock, modified bios just to be safe.


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## Mark22 (Jan 20, 2011)

Are you sure smartdoctor wont still be able to enable ocing in ccc. I'd of thought that is probably seperate to whatever bios you happen to be running. Bit of a bodge job though I admit, I'll have a look at this Trixx proggie if it gets sorted to control power as well, does Trixx open up overclocking further in ccc?


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## wmblalock (Jan 20, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> Are you sure smartdoctor wont still be able to enable ocing in ccc. I'd of thought that is probably seperate to whatever bios you happen to be running. Bit of a bodge job though I admit, I'll have a look at this Trixx proggie if it gets sorted to control power as well, does Trixx open up overclocking further in ccc?



I don't know about in CCC, but I know the overclock limits in Trixx itself are automatically very high. Smart Doctor will not run at all, not even to enable higher CCC limits if you don't have an Asus bios on your card. And then, if you take the Asus bios off the card the CCC limits go back to normal. Yeah, check out Trixx. I think it will be perfect once they fix the Power Control bug. They are also adding in voltage control for the 6900 cards soon. After that, it will be the complete package.


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## Mark22 (Jan 20, 2011)

Ahh cool, that sounds like it will save some messing about.


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## dom99 (Jan 20, 2011)

tecnoworld said:


> mark22 and dom99: have you tried crysis at 880Mhz? I'm asking since my card seems to handle anything at that frequency, but Crysis, that locks up.



No I havent tried Crysis I dont have the game, got Crysis 2 on pre-order though!

my most intensive game is BFBC2 and that seems ok but im not too sure whether I am seeing it rip a little more than previously


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## TRiGDaDDy (Jan 21, 2011)

I got the shaders to unlock finally! i did what wmblalock said and instaed of running the Dos prompt I right clicked it and ran as an administrator and it went through its flash and I rebooted and GPU-Z confirmed 1500+ shaders! Thanks!


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## blaqsmith (Jan 21, 2011)

Well I guess I'm one of the few that can't seem to get the 6950 -> 6970 unlock to work with my new Sapphire 6950 card. I get the "Cannot erase ROM." error when using atiwinflash from the gui interface. Using command prompt to "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" briefly pops up the atiwinflash progress bar, but it disappears after a quarter of a second with no apparent affect. 

I've also tried the batch script, which I notice mentions that I'll have to "Click OK in the Winflash screen that shows up", but I never get this dialog, just a couple of atiwinflash progress bars as before, each disappearing after less than half a sec. I've tried it with the provided unlock.bin rom and with the Sapphire unlock rom.

"atiwinflash -i" also gets a brief progress bar that disappears.

I've everything tried in both position 1 and 2. Always running things as admin. No dice. Shaders always report as 1408 :\

I can save my bios with atiwinflash... this occasionally flashes the screen a few times then lock up. Reboot required.

Windows 7 64bit. Any thoughts on where I'm messing up?


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## itsdanny (Jan 21, 2011)

blaqsmith said:


> Well I guess I'm one of the few that can't seem to get the 6950 -> 6970 unlock to work with my new Sapphire 6950 card. I get the "Cannot erase ROM." error when using atiwinflash from the gui interface. Using command prompt to "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" briefly pops up the atiwinflash progress bar, but it disappears after a quarter of a second with no apparent affect.
> 
> I've also tried the batch script, which I notice mentions that I'll have to "Click OK in the Winflash screen that shows up", but I never get this dialog, just a couple of atiwinflash progress bars as before, each disappearing after less than half a sec. I've tried it with the provided unlock.bin rom and with the Sapphire unlock rom.
> 
> ...



Just make sure you're following this correctly and WITH the position on "1". No point attempting it on the "2", as that is the read-only BIOS.

 How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...


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## tahoe916 (Jan 21, 2011)

Man I'm having the same issue with the Sapphire card I just bought from Microcenter. Tried flashing it EXACTLY the way listed by W1zzard, and no go. The progress bar pops up a couple times and then nothing, and shaders stay at 1408 every time.

Sucks =/


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## blaqsmith (Jan 21, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> Just make sure you're following this correctly and WITH the position on "1". No point attempting it on the "2", as that is the read-only BIOS.
> 
> How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...



Yep, it's certainly in position 1 when doing everything. I've tried the instructions on that link to a T.

My card is from Newegg, fwiw.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 21, 2011)

blaqsmith said:


> Yep, it's certainly in position 1 when doing everything. I've tried the instructions on that link to a T.
> 
> My card is from Newegg, fwiw.



My card is from Newegg, an XFX.  I had to run CMD as Administrator. THose steps worked fine for me.

After "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" the progress bar disappears after a second, it's just letting it be rewritten.

Then type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin", whereas "unlock.bin" is the bios that you want to load.  Rename whatever bios you want to "unlock.bin" and throw it in the winflash folder.  It should work out for you.




blaqsmith said:


> "atiwinflash -i" also gets a brief progress bar that disappears



That's not in the directions that were linked a few posts ago. Wonder what that's for..


----------



## blaqsmith (Jan 21, 2011)

Of course, as soon as I post this, after testing and trying everything, I find the solution. I had my 6950 in the secondary PCI slot because it fit better in my small form factor box. After moving it back over to the primary PCI slot (a really, really freakin tight fit - presses on wires from the power supply), the unlock now works.





blaqsmith said:


> Well I guess I'm one of the few that can't seem to get the 6950 -> 6970 unlock to work with my new Sapphire 6950 card. I get the "Cannot erase ROM." error when using atiwinflash from the gui interface. Using command prompt to "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" briefly pops up the atiwinflash progress bar, but it disappears after a quarter of a second with no apparent affect.
> 
> I've also tried the batch script, which I notice mentions that I'll have to "Click OK in the Winflash screen that shows up", but I never get this dialog, just a couple of atiwinflash progress bars as before, each disappearing after less than half a sec. I've tried it with the provided unlock.bin rom and with the Sapphire unlock rom.
> 
> ...


----------



## esqueel (Jan 21, 2011)

*esqueel*

Just flashed the card successfully with an xfx, and after setting the card to 20% power it blew up on me.  Poof, smoke, and one dead card.  What are the odds I can RMA this?


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 21, 2011)

esqueel said:


> Just flashed the card successfully with an xfx, and after setting the card to 20% power it blew up on me.  Poof, smoke, and one dead card.  What are the odds I can RMA this?



Well the odds are that if the card has blown, they will not be able to tell that you have flashed it so you may be OK.


----------



## RatusNatus (Jan 21, 2011)

*Another sucessful XFX unlocked here*. I did use the regular unlocked bios with the script.
Piece of cake.
PS. Already sended a mail to W1zzard.

I did use the script cuz winflash was crashing my pc. Maybe becouse it was recognizing my old 3870 there.
Anyway, the flash worked.

It was 3DMark, Boinc, CSS and BFBC2 stable.
I got 1 BSOD in my first try of 3DMark. Then i instaled the update, set the fan to 60% and quit GPU-Z. Works.
3DMark still shows 6950.

Anyway, i got only 4946 points. My PC its a little old. I have an Q9450@3.4 with 4gb DDR2 1120 cas5. default 6870 clocks.
Huge performance lost in Couner strike source. 500 FPS to 150 with 8xAA 16 Ani. I think it is Probably a driver/config thing.
Any comments:


----------



## El-Capitain (Jan 21, 2011)

tahoe916 said:


> Man I'm having the same issue with the Sapphire card I just bought from Microcenter. Tried flashing it EXACTLY the way listed by W1zzard, and no go. The progress bar pops up a couple times and then nothing, and shaders stay at 1408 every time.
> 
> Sucks =/



Hi - flashed my Sapphire but had to do it the DOS way otherwise I got the exact same as you. Down load the files into your User> and follow the instructions - the hardest bit for me was geting the Paths names right for the files in DOS!


----------



## Achamian (Jan 21, 2011)

Hi
I was using for over two weeks moded bios. Play games, benchmark and etc. Morning I turn on ghotic 4 and see a picture:




Such a picture is even worse in every game.

I changed the BIOS switch to 2 reinstal drivers, I have no idea what to do.

Can anyone help?

Edit:
I checked that the artifacts appear if the GPU is set above 50C and the fan speed is 50% and is currently well.
Maybe some other solution?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 21, 2011)

RatusNatus said:


> Anyway, i got only 4946 points. My PC its a little old. I have an Q9450@3.4 with 4gb DDR2 1120 cas5. default 6870 clocks.



Is that 3DMark 11?  I only have managed to get like 4897 points running that, so your numbers look good to me.  Maybe I'm just running low then...  
I'm running 1090t@4.0 and 8G DDR3@1600.  

Should I be higher?  If so, how can I get it higher?


----------



## ClassicEnergy (Jan 21, 2011)

I just flashed my sapphire 6950. Everything went fine except that my amd overdrive tab is locked.

I noticed this even before flashing the card. Any suggestion?


----------



## decapnz (Jan 21, 2011)

Achamian said:


> Hi
> I was using for over two weeks moded bios. Play games, benchmark and etc. Morning I turn on ghotic 4 and see a picture:
> [url]http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/9492/arcania2011012120525512.th.png[/URL]
> 
> ...



looks to me like you fried the card but im no pro tech. my 5670 started looking like that a couple of weeks ago so i had it replaced


----------



## raddeon (Jan 21, 2011)

I need some help here!

just got this card Asus HD6950, so tryed to flash the Asus 6970 bios, got the wrong Id thing so followd W1zzard guid.

The problem is that  the driver wont detect the card, in the device panel it just says Standar VGA adapter, even my screen aspect ratio is wrong.
Have tried to install the Catalyst sevral times, also uninstalled and so on.

Flashed it back to the original backup and still the same ((

in this condition its useless

need help, im stuck


----------



## krousnik (Jan 21, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.
> 
> www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> 
> give it a try and let me know how well it works



This works perfect. Any chance to make a bios that can run core clock speed of 880MHz?
please


----------



## manofthem (Jan 21, 2011)

raddeon said:


> I need some help here!
> 
> just got this card Asus HD6950, so tryed to flash the Asus 6970 bios, got the wrong Id thing so followd W1zzard guid.
> 
> ...



I had a problem, not exactly like yours, but I uninstalled the drivers, then used driver sweeper to delete all things ATI. Then after rebooting, reinstall. Could try it.  It sounds like there is no driver installed from what you are describing.


----------



## krousnik (Jan 21, 2011)

stevec said:


> W1zzard, you can add another Asus 6950 to the list.
> 
> Unlocked absolutely fine using Rui's modded Asus bios. Currently running at stock 6970 clocks at 1.1v. Completely stable and haven't noticed any issues after a couple of days of benching/gaming.
> 
> Temp wise it idles 35-40c, however hits 90c in furmark with the fan on auto. Waiting for there to be a decent option for cooling the VRMs then i'll be slapping my T-RAD2 on there to see if that makes a difference.



can you paste a link on where can I download the Rui's modded Asus bios?


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 21, 2011)

krousnik said:


> This works perfect. Any chance to make a bios that can run core clock speed of 880MHz?
> please



I would love to be able to do that too. It's too bad that you can't edit clock speeds with RBE anymore.


----------



## dom99 (Jan 22, 2011)

Ive taken my clocks back down to 800/1250 because I dont need the extra horsepower at the moment, plus the guy above has said his card developed those lines after 2 weeks modded


----------



## manofthem (Jan 22, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Ive taken my clocks back down to 800/1250 because I dont need the extra horsepower at the moment, plus the guy above has said his card developed those lines after 2 weeks modded



Maybe that's not a bad idea. Go back to stock and just OC from there.


----------



## Kiwi7Kid (Jan 22, 2011)

*flashed 6950*

Has any one ran the furmark 3d benchmark test after flashing there card? mine freezes a little bit into it any one else?


----------



## Kiwi7Kid (Jan 22, 2011)

*Flashing 6950*

update just played cod bo at 950/1450 after 5 mins screen went all screwed up noticed gpu was very hot what should i do ?


----------



## telafidium (Jan 22, 2011)

*Unlocked but unstable...*

*Powercolor 6950 successfully flashed to 6970 but having stability problem, no artifacts.*

It reboots after 1min on fumark, crashes on Metro2033 but it's 12hr stable if it's idle on desktop or anything non-gpu intensive, it still crashes with 70% fan speed and under 80*C.

Tried it on 6970 and 6950 clocks but still unstable with power control setting on CCC to 20%


- now I went back to 6950 bios even with overclock and that's stable...
yes I flashed it with Powercolor's 6970 BIOS and I have 700W PSU...

*What's the deal here guys it's unstable...? * (like kiwikids post above I guess)

*edit using the latest catalyst preview for w7 x64, does that matter?


----------



## Kiwi7Kid (Jan 22, 2011)

*flashing 6950*

hi i just put the clocks back to 880 and 1375 and did the 3d benchmark perfectly.. im not running any xtra cooling just have 2 intake (1 led) both 140 and 1 120 exuast i got a graphics score of 4872 a physics score of 7680 and a combined score of 5291..

running a i5 2500k oc 3.9
2x2gb g.skill x series 1600
and a 750hx corsair psu

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/481431


----------



## telafidium (Jan 22, 2011)

*Powercolor 6950 successfully flashed to 6970 but having stability problem, no artifacts.*

awwh man, even at 800/880 clocks with 1375 memory, it still crashes 

I'm starting to think I got a dud card...


----------



## harblhat (Jan 22, 2011)

Hi there, registered just to participate in this thread.

Just bought a XFX 6950 today and unlocked it following the instructions in this thread. Have many problems!

First, I get some very irritating coil squeal when running almost any game, never mind benchmarking.

Second, games like Crysis and Civ5 crash to desktop with windows specifying a 'low memory' error. This is a major issue!

Third, is there any way to increase voltage by 20% without CCC? I tried installing it but the package kept giving me an error message that it failed to install no matter what I tried (and this was before flashing!)...

Help would be appreciated! Thanks!


----------



## FtRazer (Jan 22, 2011)

harblhat said:


> Hi there, registered just to participate in this thread.
> 
> Just bought a XFX 6950 today and unlocked it following the instructions in this thread. Have many problems!
> 
> ...



Have them same problem even when i flashed back to 6950


----------



## yonef (Jan 22, 2011)

harblhat said:


> ... is there any way to increase voltage by 20% without CCC? I tried installing it but the package kept giving me an error message that it failed to install no matter what I tried (and this was before flashing!)...



To clarify things, CCC will NOT change voltage no matter if you set powerplay to -20% or +20%. This is not a voltage control! This will control the amount of power (Watts) that will flow to GPU before it starts to throttle. Changing it will NOT give you higher OC freq. for GPU/Mem. And there is NO other  software to controll PowerPlay feature other than CCC.
If you want to change voltage of the GPU then you have to use Trixx. But using trixx(or Afterburner, SmartDoctor) will disable the powerplay function in CCC.


----------



## telafidium (Jan 22, 2011)

*Instability issue fixed!*

The problem was in 6970 bios, my powercolor doesn't like it somehow.

Instead of replacing it with 6970 bios, I used a modded 6950 bios that just unlocked the shaders while keeping GPU and memory clock the same.

it worked.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 22, 2011)

yonef said:


> To clarify things, CCC will NOT change voltage no matter if you set powerplay to -20% or +20%. This is not a voltage control! This will control the amount of power (Watts) that will flow to GPU before it starts to throttle. Changing it will NOT give you higher OC freq. for GPU/Mem. And there is NO other  software to controll PowerPlay feature other than CCC.
> If you want to change voltage of the GPU then you have to use Trixx. But using trixx(or Afterburner, SmartDoctor) will disable the powerplay function in CCC.



No, Trixx works fine. It doesn't disable PowerPlay for me.


----------



## Jeager (Jan 22, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> No, Trixx works fine. It doesn't disable PowerPlay for me.



I think it only work for non modded cards

As for the voltage, is there a new version of trixx ? because you cant change them in the 3.02.


----------



## coldrazor (Jan 22, 2011)

*happy!*

Im running a XFX at 880/1375 with 6950 mod since january 19, no problems! thats good!


----------



## dom99 (Jan 22, 2011)

TRIXX would be perfect if it supported voltage modding.

I just hope my card lasts untill this Christmas lol where I plan to go Nvidia with 28nm


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 22, 2011)

dom99 said:


> TRIXX would be perfect if it supported voltage modding.
> 
> I just hope my card lasts untill this Christmas lol where I plan to go Nvidia with 28nm



There is a big bug in Trixx that keeps it from being perfect. Voltage control should be added soon from what W1zzard says, but the big bug is with power control. With the current Trixx, each time you restart your computer, or change your core Mhz in Trixx, it puts power control back at 0% no matter what the slider may say. You must then close Trixx, Open CCC, set power control to something other than +20%, click apply, then move the slider back to +20% and click apply again. If you don't do this, and your highly overclocked, your card will throttle the gpu speed down. You can use the sensors tab in GPUz to see when the card is being idled down, test using furmark or Kombustor. W1zzard is aware of this bug, so hopefully he can find a solution for it in the next Trixx release. Then Trixx will be perfect


----------



## dom99 (Jan 22, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> There is a big bug in Trixx that keeps it from being perfect. Voltage control should be added soon from what W1zzard says, but the big bug is with power control. With the current Trixx, each time you restart your computer, or change your core Mhz in Trixx, it puts power control back at 0% no matter what the slider may say. You must then close Trixx, Open CCC, set power control to something other than +20%, click apply, then move the slider back to +20% and click apply again. If you don't do this, and your highly overclocked, your card will throttle the gpu speed down. You can use the sensors tab in GPUz to see when the card is being idled down, test using furmark or Kombustor. W1zzard is aware of this bug, so hopefully he can find a solution for it in the next Trixx release. Then Trixx will be perfect



Ah right I shall keep checking on here for a TRIXX update. I just tried changing the power control bar from +20% to +18% meaning  to change it back, then the bar disappeared just like the core and memory bars have! strange eh


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 22, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Ah right I shall keep checking on here for a TRIXX update. I just tried changing the power control bar from +20% to +18% meaning  to change it back, then the bar disappeared just like the core and memory bars have! strange eh



Yeah, reboot and it should come back. I've had it do that before. :shadedshu


----------



## siqueirah (Jan 22, 2011)

Hey guys,
I've just bought an Asus HD6950. Do you have any tips for me ?


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 22, 2011)

siqueirah said:


> Hey guys,
> I've just bought an Asus HD6950. Do you have any tips for me ?



I have the same, I would suggest using the shader unlocked asus 6950 bios I have attached. I then overclock to 880 core and 1300 memory for gaming. Mine runs fine at this speed with no extra voltage. I would use msi afterburner or Trixx to set your fan speed to increase with temperature up to say 50% over 80c.

Remember to monitor temps when overclocking etc.


----------



## Kiwi7Kid (Jan 22, 2011)

*flashing 6950*

Hey is around 50-65 c good underload with the flashed 6950?


----------



## MasterVampire (Jan 22, 2011)

Ok so I unlocked my Sapphire 6950 to a 6970 no problems and did the 20% thing.

Im looking at my temps in GPUz and its reading:

GPU TEMP – 62 degress
FAN SPEED – 30 %

is that a bit hot for when its just on idle?

I only have just the 1 monitor.


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 22, 2011)

Kiwi7Kid said:


> Hey is around 50-65 c good underload with the flashed 6950?



Of course! I keep mine under 80°C all the time and this seams to important as I figured out from my card...

50-65°C are cold holidays for your card...


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 22, 2011)

MasterVampire said:


> Ok so I unlocked my Sapphire 6950 to a 6970 no problems and did the 20% thing.
> 
> Im looking at my temps in GPUz and its reading:
> 
> ...



I think that your card did not clock down to 2D mode! Look at the clocks! They have to be at 250/150 in Idle/2D mode!


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 22, 2011)

siqueirah said:


> Hey guys,
> I've just bought an Asus HD6950. Do you have any tips for me ?



My tip is: Take the time and read the whole thread! The are so many infos in so many post....

If you ask for tips everone will say something different...


----------



## dom99 (Jan 22, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> My tip is: Take the time and read the whole thread! The are so many infos in so many post....
> 
> If you ask for tips everone will say something different...



Yes good advice everything that is worth saying has been posted here, ive followed it from the beginning (first post lol) but I wouldnt want to read all 60 odd pages again


----------



## MasterVampire (Jan 22, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> I think that your card did not clock down to 2D mode! Look at the clocks! They have to be at 250/150 in Idle/2D mode!



I just checked GPUZ again and at the moment GPU Core Clock is at 250 and GPU Memory Clock is at 150 so it did lock to 2d mode?
(im a noob)


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 23, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Yes good advice everything that is worth saying has been posted here, ive followed it from the beginning (first post lol) but I wouldnt want to read all 60 odd pages again



Funny saying, cause I re-read it all over 4 times so far. Although, I'm going to stop lurking now for awhile. Cya.


----------



## dom99 (Jan 23, 2011)

Ive already posted this in another thread but thought I would stick it in here too. Powercolor hd 6950 PCS+ is being released with a pre-loaded bios of 6970 specs, interesting they must have had the go-ahead from AMD to do so;

Link: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=28578


----------



## Kiwi7Kid (Jan 23, 2011)

*flashing 6950*

What does it mean if the gpu clock an mem clock stay at 880 and 1375?


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 23, 2011)

Kiwi7Kid said:


> What does it mean if the gpu clock an mem clock stay at 880 and 1375?



Constantly? Then that means it isn't throttling and lets say you've either set CCC's Power Control at 20% or using a 3rd-party app that is causing that.


----------



## Kiwi7Kid (Jan 23, 2011)

Yeah i set ccc to 20% thats what i was sposed to do tho right ?


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 23, 2011)

Yes, that is why it is not throttling back to lower clocks. Well, you do not NEED to, it only serves the purpose of maximizing your performance with benchmarks. Read it properly next time or research.


----------



## bobesko (Jan 23, 2011)

My temps exceed 100 degrees so I decided to flash my bios back to 6950 but I didnt save my original bios. So what should I do? Can I just download 6950 bios a run Winflash, load the bios and flash it back to 6950?


----------



## dom99 (Jan 23, 2011)

Quick question, how do I stop getting emails from people replying to this thread, its filling my inbox?


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 23, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Quick question, how do I stop getting emails from people replying to this thread, its filling my inbox?



Click on thread tools up the top and unsubscribe.

@bobesko, thee should have been a backup made in the winflash directory.


----------



## The_Ish (Jan 23, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Quick question, how do I stop getting emails from people replying to this thread, its filling my inbox?



Quick links @ top right*-->* _Edit options_*-->* _Messaging & Notification_*-->* Then under _"Default Thread Subscription Mode"_ there is a drop down box


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 23, 2011)

bobesko said:


> My temps exceed 100 degrees so I decided to flash my bios back to 6950 but I didnt save my original bios. So what should I do? Can I just download 6950 bios a run Winflash, load the bios and flash it back to 6950?



Yes, you can do that. If you want your actual "original" BIOS, you can always switch to the "2" position, which is the read-only BIOS, and when you boot up, save that BIOS on your computer. Then prepare the flashing tools and what not and use the BIOS you had just saved, but don't flash it just yet, switch it to the "1" position now and then precede to flash.


----------



## dom99 (Jan 23, 2011)

telafidium said:


> *Powercolor 6950 successfully flashed to 6970 but having stability problem, no artifacts.*
> 
> awwh man, even at 800/880 clocks with 1375 memory, it still crashes
> 
> I'm starting to think I got a dud card...



When overclocking its best to see how far the core will go before the memory I find, so set you memory back down to 1250 and crank up the core from there, then when hit the max settings where stable start pushing memory


----------



## siqueirah (Jan 23, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> My tip is: Take the time and read the whole thread! The are so many infos in so many post....
> 
> If you ask for tips everone will say something different...



I've read most of it but thanks.
What I needed was specific tips for Asus card from Asus users as our friend just did.


----------



## dulemk (Jan 23, 2011)

I plan to take one 6950 in monday.

So the best option that I find so far is to: 
1. Take the bios from 6950, 
2. With RBE increase voltage to Ex: 1.175 on that bios,
3. With TPU unlocker from W1zz unlock the sp and update the bios to your card,
4. Use MSIA or trixx* to make custom fan preset and overclock to your desired clock(Ex: 930/1325).

So is this right or there is better option??

Like to use 6970 bios and only decrease the memory clock(I'v heard that 1375 is maybe to much for 6950)

*With my 6870 trixx lags on some of the benchmarks, but when I close it it's all fine.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 23, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> Constantly? Then that means it isn't throttling and lets say you've either set CCC's Power Control at 20% or using a 3rd-party app that is causing that.



Afterburner with "unofficial overclocking" will cause that. Power Control being at +20% will not do that, I use Trixx and my Power Control at +20% and it goes through all its 2D lower clock settings like stock.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 23, 2011)

dulemk said:


> Like to use 6970 bios and only decrease the memory clock(I'v heard that 1375 is maybe to much for 6950.



1375 shouldn't be too much. I've been running 1375 for a while, maybe 2-3 weeks, and the GPU clock at 900-930. I raised the voltage to 1.18 so it could run. I think right now I've been keeping it at 900/1375, and it's been solid in benching and gaming.


----------



## dulemk (Jan 23, 2011)

manofthem said:


> 1375 shouldn't be too much. I've been running 1375 for a while, maybe 2-3 weeks, and the GPU clock at 900-930. I raised the voltage to 1.18 so it could run. I think right now I've been keeping it at 900/1375, and it's been solid in benching and gaming.



So by your experience what do you think it is the best option to do?

Use 6950 unlocked bios and oc it (with increasing voltage in rbe first);
Or just using 6970 bios.




wmblalock said:


> Afterburner with "unofficial overclocking" will cause that. Power Control being at +20% will not do that, I use Trixx and my Power Control at +20% and it goes through all its 2D lower clock settings like stock.



Do you have any problem with trixx?? 
Because with my 6870 trixx lags on some of the benchmarks, but when I close it it's all fine.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 23, 2011)

dulemk said:


> So by your experience what do you think it is the best option to do?
> 
> Use 6950 unlocked bios and oc it (with increasing voltage in rbe first);
> Or just using 6970 bios.
> ...



I've been using the 6950 modded bios with 1536 shaders instead of the 6970 bios, due to the problems other have run into.  

For my setup, MSI AB has worked better than Trixx and RBE.  I bumped the voltage slightly using MSI AB to 1.18 when gpu clocks at 930, now only 1.15 using 900/1375, and setting up a custom fan curve in AB.  Everything runs great, just played BBC2 for about an hour at a solid 60fps, never getting above 51*C with fan @58%.

I tried Trixx to OC and RBE to bump voltage, but I couldn't get it to run right: constant crashes, lockups, problems.  But many have had great success with it, bumping voltage to 1.2xx and hitting 965/14xx something like that.    Perhaps I needed to mess with it more...

Edit:Trixx worked fine to OC for me.  The problem was when I tried to raise voltage in RBE and OC higher with Trixx.  It was likely my inexperience with RBE that resulted in problems.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 24, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Afterburner with "unofficial overclocking" will cause that. Power Control being at +20% will not do that, I use Trixx and my Power Control at +20% and it goes through all its 2D lower clock settings like stock.



Yes, that's why I mentioned "using a 3rd-party app that is causing that". And well, yes it can. Try not using any 3rd-party apps, uninstall them all, reboot, and then use CCC's Power Control. And his was set at 20% any way, and it doesn't seem like he was running any 3rd-party apps.


----------



## Kiwi7Kid (Jan 24, 2011)

*Hey guys vote for me and write a comment and make a guess!*

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=187283474634165&set=o.39472213702


----------



## manofthem (Jan 24, 2011)

Kiwi7Kid said:


> http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=187283474634165&set=o.39472213702



Sorry, no facebook for me.  

I hope this doesn't sidetrack the point of this thread.


----------



## ranom (Jan 24, 2011)

Remember all cards are not the same. While most 6950 cards use T2C mem chips which are rated at 1250Mhz, there are a few 6950 cards that use the R0C, the chips used on the 6970. Those really lucky folks should have no problems running 1375, while 6950s with the T2C chips are always at a risk. Some T2Cs might not fail at 1375 but some will, especially those with insufficient cooling. I'd stick to 6950 modded bios and overclock only the core, 1250 is good enough and far less risk.


----------



## SoCalRailRoader (Jan 24, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Sorry, no facebook for me.
> 
> I hope this doesn't sidetrack the point of this thread.



You can't get Facebook   Or is it you don't want to?  Trust me, it won't bite


----------



## manofthem (Jan 24, 2011)

SoCalRailRoader said:


> You can't get Facebook   Or is it you don't want to?  Trust me, it won't bite



You listen to me, Bobby Boucher. Facebook is the Devil!!!  

No, I just never really wanted or needed it. And to make it worse, I don't really care for the guy who played in The Social Network.


----------



## SoCalRailRoader (Jan 24, 2011)

manofthem said:


> You listen to me, Bobby Boucher. Facebook is the Devil!!!
> 
> No, I just never really wanted or needed it. And to make it worse, I don't really care for the guy who played in The Social Network.



Lol No Worries   It's been invaluable for me in finding old Elementary, Junior High and High School friends, I don't know what I would have done without it as I no longer live in SoCal where I grew up, and some of them have moved to other states, like ID, UT, TX, OR, WA, FL and NY.  I also am able to keep closer in touch with family members, who are spread out across CA, OR, WA, ID, UT and AZ.


----------



## 95Viper (Jan 24, 2011)

Little advice...

Thread is about "How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950".
You may want to get back on track, before a Mod puts it back.
You can go here to discuss likes, dis-likes and the foibles of FaceBook.

Just saying.


----------



## SoCalRailRoader (Jan 24, 2011)

95Viper said:


> Little advice...
> 
> Thread is about "How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950".
> You may want to get back on track, before a Mod puts it back.
> ...



Yep, I know, I've been posting on forums for a long time


----------



## Tatty_One (Jan 24, 2011)

SoCalRailRoader said:


> Yep, I know, I've been posting on forums for a long time



Clearly not this one!


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 24, 2011)

I'm gonna go out and be the first to say it I guess....

I have a Gigabyte 6950, I am still using the ASUS 6970 bios, I have my mem clocks @ 1250, but I have been using the card for 6+ hours gaming every day since I flashed it maybe 3 weeks ago. I have no artifacting issues.

I am confident at this point my card will not suffer a horrible death from using the 6970 bios. Also keep in mind I have a nasty fan curve that keeps my card @ 36 idle and the fan hits 100% @ 70c.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 24, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> I'm gonna go out and be the first to say it I guess....
> 
> I have a Gigabyte 5950, I am still using the ASUS 5970 bios, I have my mem clocks @ 1250, but I have been using the card for 6+ hours gaming every day since I flashed it maybe 3 weeks ago. I have no artifacting issues.
> 
> I am confident at this point my card will not suffer a horrible death from using the 5970 bios. Also keep in mind I have a nasty fan curve that keeps my card @ 36 idle and the fan hits 100% @ 70c.



You do mean the 6950/6970???


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 24, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> You do mean the 6950/6970???



Haha, yeah, fixed that, for some reason I have it burned into my typing that I am still on the 5 series.


----------



## Sebascenso (Jan 24, 2011)

I re-flashed the bios, with the original bios modded with w1zzard's mod to enable the extra shaders. I also installed the 11.1a catalyst drivers.
With these changes, all the problems I had (white dust/snow and things dissapearing) were solved.
I have the card oc to 840/1300 using CCC and everything is working fine for now.


----------



## Gaul (Jan 24, 2011)

*Last Update !!!!*


----------



## manofthem (Jan 24, 2011)

So is there a difference between running a 6970 bios OC to 900 or running a modded 6950 with shaders and OCing to say 900/1375 at 1.175v?  Does it work to about same thing?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 24, 2011)

Gaul said:


> *Last Update !!!!*
> 
> [url]http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/3459/2006yg.jpg[/URL]
> 
> ...



Those are some pretty crazy numbers!  I'd be afraid to push my stuff that far.


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 24, 2011)

Gaul said:


> *Last Update !!!!*
> 
> [url]http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/3459/2006yg.jpg[/URL]
> 
> ...



I like the sound of 1000Mhz


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 24, 2011)

Gaul said:


> Last Update !!!!



More interesting is his OC of 5GHZ at 1,488 VCORE - Crazy 

6950/6970 - 1000/1500 is possible with a good cooling!

How much VGPU did you need for your 1000? Once I did 1000 I need around 1,3 VGPU - But only did a short 3DMark11 run - no stability test on this....


----------



## dom99 (Jan 24, 2011)

Anyone know of a date when TRIXX with 6900 voltage support will get released? been waiting ages lol im too impatient


----------



## RatusNatus (Jan 24, 2011)

manofthem said:


> So is there a difference between running a 6970 bios OC to 900 or running a modded 6950 with shaders and OCing to say 900/1375 at 1.175v? Does it work to about same thing?



The main difference is the exclusive 6970 AA thing.

 I did have 2 BSODs on 2D but no problem in game. Reinstaled the driver(10.12a) and it reconyzed the 6950 again but with shaders.
So, I did replace the Saphire 6970 bios for my original XFX bios with the shaders and no problems so far. also cant OC from Msi OB and it not even show me the voltage.
But i want to go to a 6970 bios with lowered voltage and clocks but with AA and clock unlocked.


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 24, 2011)

RatusNatus said:


> The main difference is the exclusive 6970 AA thing.



There is a difference between Anti-aliasing on the 6970 and 6950?


----------



## BZB (Jan 24, 2011)

RatusNatus said:


> The main difference is the exclusive 6970 AA thing.



There is no difference in AA capabilities between the 6950 and 6970.  They both have the new morphological filtering. It's a post-processing filter using the stream processors, and AMD said they'll be backporting it to the 5950/5970 in the near future.  In fact there are even hacked drivers that make it work now on the older cards.


----------



## dulemk (Jan 25, 2011)

So i'v read that there is a problem oc-ing above ccc limit with MSIA if you use unlocked 6950 bios.

But what is wrong with just flashing to 6970 bios?
That way you can just normal MSIA and all should work fine to 950/1450 clocks.

So when new versions of trixx or RBE come out?

TRIXX just need to add voltage and don't disable the 20% power;

RBE add support for more modding so you can lift the ccc limit and than just use MSIAA.


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 25, 2011)

dulemk said:


> But what is wrong with just flashing to 6970 bios?
> That way you can just normal MSIA and all should work fine to 950/1450 clocks.



There are a lot of people saying there 6950s died/started artifacting after the 6970 flash, and there is no way to get rid of the artifacts. I don't have the issue.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 25, 2011)

dulemk said:


> So i'v read that there is a problem oc-ing above ccc limit with MSIA if you use unlocked 6950 bios.
> 
> But what is wrong with just flashing to 6970 bios?
> That way you can just normal MSIA and all should work fine to 950/1450 clocks.



I've OC'd past the CCC limits with MSI AB to 900/1375@1.15v using the nodded 6950 bios, and everythings runs great!  I'm wondering if I load the 6970 bios, can I hit the 950/1450 settings that you mentioned, without further voltage increase?

I keep saying I'm going to try it, but I still havent.

Edit: I remember hearing voltage had to be up to 1.2 to go to 965/14xxx so that answers that


----------



## Whoops! (Jan 25, 2011)

ranom said:


> Remember all cards are not the same. While most 6950 cards use T2C mem chips which are rated at 1250Mhz, there are a few 6950 cards that use the R0C, the chips used on the 6970. Those really lucky folks should have no problems running 1375, while 6950s with the T2C chips are always at a risk. Some T2Cs might not fail at 1375 but some will, especially those with insufficient cooling. I'd stick to 6950 modded bios and overclock only the core, 1250 is good enough and far less risk.



How do I find out if my XFX card (version 1.0) has T2C or R0C?


----------



## coldrazor (Jan 25, 2011)

Same board here, im curious to know my mem chips lol


----------



## SoCalRailRoader (Jan 25, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> Clearly not this one!



Kinda rude and stuck up aren't we?  Geez, NOT a good way to welcome somebody to the forum, seriously, not good at all.  I was kidding with him hence the , but you need to lighten up, I don't know whether you had a fight with your wife or you are just rude all the time, but don't take it out on me.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 25, 2011)

ranom said:


> Remember all cards are not the same. While most 6950 cards use T2C mem chips which are rated at 1250Mhz, there are a few 6950 cards that use the R0C, the chips used on the 6970. Those really lucky folks should have no problems running 1375, while 6950s with the T2C chips are always at a risk. Some T2Cs might not fail at 1375 but some will, especially those with insufficient cooling. I'd stick to 6950 modded bios and overclock only the core, 1250 is good enough and far less risk.



So what will happen if you go past 1250 with the TC2 chips?  Will it fail and have the game/benchmark freeze or lock up?  Will it permanently damage the chips? 

The XFX cards must use higher chips since mine runs higher with no problems


----------



## coldrazor (Jan 25, 2011)

Mine do 1375 without problems, it`s strange.


----------



## ranom (Jan 25, 2011)

Whoops! said:


> How do I find out if my XFX card (version 1.0) has T2C or R0C?


Only way to know exactly is to take the cooler off and check the prints on the rams. 



manofthem said:


> So what will happen if you go past 1250 with the TC2 chips?  Will it fail and have the game/benchmark freeze or lock up?  Will it permanently damage the chips?
> 
> The XFX cards must use higher chips since mine runs higher with no problems



Just like when you overvolt & overclock your mem sticks, if you over do them and/or don't cool them enough you *COULD* fry them resulting in permanent artifacts. We've seen guys reporting damaged 6950's from running 6970 bioses here havent we? It all depends on how lucky you are. Some overclock better than others even if they use the same chips. As always, its do at your own risk


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 25, 2011)

ranom said:


> Remember all cards are not the same. While most 6950 cards use T2C mem chips which are rated at 1250Mhz, there are a few 6950 cards that use the R0C, the chips used on the 6970. Those really lucky folks should have no problems running 1375, while 6950s with the T2C chips are always at a risk. Some T2Cs might not fail at 1375 but some will, especially those with insufficient cooling. I'd stick to 6950 modded bios and overclock only the core, 1250 is good enough and far less risk.



Thanks for this usefull info! As I will strip of my stock cooler today (to mount Accelero XTREME) I will take a closer look at the RAM chips to find out which one my XFX 6950 has...

Up to now 1500 on MEM is no problem here... 

*Will report!*


----------



## dulemk (Jan 25, 2011)

*Voltage problem*

For me both vid3 and vid4 are not working.
I tried with: 
just moded bios; 
moded + Vid3;  
moded + Vid4;

noting works, always is the same.

I notice that while analysing my original bios with RBE that maybe clock info are somewhat connected to the VIDs.
As you can see at the image we know that vid2 and clock info 1 are connected so maybe all others are connected to. 








What do you think, it is safe to try changing the VID1 or not??

And one more thing, do I have to reinstall the driver if I flash the bios??

And this
Do I have to insert the voltage in Voltage(V) in RBE field so the changes take effect, because they are now "---"


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 25, 2011)

No. It's not safe, do not change VID1 or VID2.


----------



## dulemk (Jan 25, 2011)

So what to do, apparently vid3 and vid4 are not working for me.
Is it safe to try increase them both at the same time??

Once again 
Do I have to insert the voltage in Voltage(V) in RBE field so the changes take effect, because they are now "---"


----------



## RatusNatus (Jan 25, 2011)

BZB said:


> There is no difference in AA capabilities between the 6950 and 6970.  They both have the new morphological filtering. It's a post-processing filter using the stream processors, and AMD said they'll be backporting it to the 5950/5970 in the near future.  In fact there are even hacked drivers that make it work now on the older cards.




This is not true. 6950 dont have morphological filter. I do know cus i do have 1, Did the MOD and the option on CCC only shows with the 6970 bios.
I'm pretty sure of it!

And  my instability problem was ralated to this filter and the driver. So now i do have a 6950 with shaders but NO morphological option. And thats the problem to me. I really dont care  to 6970 clocks. I just want the filter.


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 25, 2011)

I have the filter, try 11.1a?


----------



## yonef (Jan 25, 2011)

RatusNatus said:


> This is not true. 6950 dont have morphological filter. I do know cus i do have 1, Did the MOD and the option on CCC only shows with the 6970 bios.
> I'm pretty sure of it!
> 
> And  my instability problem was ralated to this filter and the driver. So now i do have a 6950 with shaders but NO morphological option. And thats the problem to me. I really dont care  to 6970 clocks. I just want the filter.



We all (in this forum thread) have one 6950 !! and YES it has morphological AA no matter what bios you install. Just open CCC2 , under 3D settings you'll find it.


----------



## f0d (Jan 25, 2011)

yonef said:


> We all (in this forum thread) have one 6950 !! and YES it has morphological AA no matter what bios you install. Just open CCC2 , under 3D settings you'll find it.
> http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1389/captureny.jpg



yep MLAA works on all 6900 series cards, i think they are even going to enable it in the driver for the 5800 series too eventually


----------



## BZB (Jan 25, 2011)

RatusNatus said:


> This is not true. 6950 dont have morphological filter. I do know cus i do have 1, Did the MOD and the option on CCC only shows with the 6970 bios.
> I'm pretty sure of it!
> 
> And  my instability problem was ralated to this filter and the driver. So now i do have a 6950 with shaders but NO morphological option. And thats the problem to me. I really dont care  to 6970 clocks. I just want the filter.




Check the reviews, it's there.  It's in my CCC.  I can turn it on and get MLAA happening in games and benchmarks.  I'd suggest you try re-installing your drivers.

I've got a 6950 with a shader modded BIOS, and with the 10.12a hotfix drivers, MLAA is a tickbox setting under 3D -> AA.


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 25, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> No. It's not safe, do not change VID1 or VID2.



This is not completly true... I changed my 2D VID2 from 900mV to 850mV which gave me 2°C lower temps in 2D! BUT: 800mV did NOT work for me (Blackscreen in Windows - thanks to Dual Bios  )... This seams to be very sensitive!

@dulemk: Your settings shows once more that many BIOSe have many different VID Positions... You have to try it by your own / or not....


----------



## VinnieM (Jan 25, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> This is not completly true... I changed my 2D VID2 from 900mV to 850mV which gave me 2°C lower temps in 2D! BUT: 800mV did NOT work for me (Blackscreen in Windows - thanks to Dual Bios  )... This seams to be very sensitive!



Exactly. I could lower mine to around 770mv. 750mv was really too low though  This resulted in a black screen as well. Idle temps are around 31C, which is a lot better than my old GTX275.


----------



## vivithemage (Jan 25, 2011)

Lots of info to go through ... but from what i've read, the least risky thing to do is build up your own/custom firmware then unlock the extra shaders?

I have 4 XFX 6950's coming (2 xfire setups), and I was wondering how i'd go about doing this? This way they are not overvolted, and wont cause any damage to the cards themselves.

If I missed the post on how to do this, direct me!

If anyone could also give me an idea, why this is a bad idea, and that flashing directly to 6970 works, then please tell me ... but from what i've read, it causes the cards to use more watt's then they can/capable of.


----------



## RatusNatus (Jan 25, 2011)

yonef said:


> We all (in this forum thread) have one 6950 !! and YES it has morphological AA no matter what bios you install. Just open CCC2 , under 3D settings you'll find it.
> http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1389/captureny.jpg



Well, i dont have it. And i really dont want to do a fresh install. 

So, the hotfix tis just a hotfix or its a driver itself cuz i did install only the hotfix and not the 10.12 without A.



vivithemage said:


> If I missed the post on how to do this, direct me!


You'll need to do card by card. Only 1 on your pc to flash it.
You can flash any 6970 bios or free the shaders of your own bios. The files on the W1zzard article are just to flash to 6970. It has a saphire 6970 bios there.
If you want to MOD your bios to free the shaders only, you'll need another script. Look till page 15 and you'll find it.
You can do all by scripts. Really easy.

Recovery:
Set to position 2, boot,... with the PC ON set it back to 1 and flash it(script again).

Thats it.


----------



## vivithemage (Jan 25, 2011)

I assume that is the smart/safe way to do it? mod my own, for my XFX cards, just to unlock shaders?


----------



## Qed (Jan 25, 2011)

vivithemage said:


> I assume that is the smart/safe way to do it? mod my own, for my XFX cards, just to unlock shaders?



Do you know how many times this question has been made?

Guess the answer? *READ* the whole thread.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 25, 2011)

vivithemage said:


> I assume that is the smart/safe way to do it? mod my own, for my XFX cards, just to unlock shaders?



That's safer supposedly.  They say the 6970 bios damages some cards.  I too have an XFX 6950, and I'm currently running the 6970 bios OC'd in CCC to 900/1425 + 20% on the default 1.1.75v.  I haven't noticed any problems, but then again, they may come later.


----------



## vivithemage (Jan 25, 2011)

manofthem said:


> That's safer supposedly.  They say the 6970 bios damages some cards.  I too have an XFX 6950, and I'm currently running the 6970 bios OC'd in CCC to 900/1425 + 20% on the default 1.1.75v.  I haven't noticed any problems, but then again, they may come later.



Thanks for that. That is what I am worried about, my plan is to run the cards for at least 1-2 years in xfire with that firmware.



Qed said:


> Do you know how many times this question has been made?
> 
> Guess the answer? *READ* the whole thread.



I don't really want to read through 62 pages of it, but it might be my only option.


----------



## dulemk (Jan 25, 2011)

So the final result is that nor VID3 nor VID4 work for me, even combined (increased to 1.2v).

So what is going on here??


----------



## BZB (Jan 25, 2011)

RatusNatus said:


> Well, i dont have it. And i really dont want to do a fresh install.
> 
> So, the hotfix tis just a hotfix or its a driver itself cuz i did install only the hotfix and not the 10.12 without A.




The hotfix is a complete driver - you just install it over your current setup just as you would an ordinary driver.  If you still don't get the MLAA tickbox, then I'd remove all the ATI software using the ATI Manager "uninstall all" options, reboot, and then try and reinstall again.

However, the official 11.1a for 69xx cards is due out tomorrow, so you might want to wait for that if you don't want to do the whole thing twice.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 25, 2011)

vivithemage said:


> Thanks for that. That is what I am worried about, my plan is to run the cards for at least 1-2 years in xfire with that firmware.
> 
> 
> 
> I don't really want to read through 62 pages of it, but it might be my only option.



Maybe read post #1493. It explains somewhat why cards have problems and some don't; it has to do with the different memory chips used.  They say the chips used on the 6950 aren't rated for 1375, which is what the 6970 runs at. But for I've been running my memory at atleast 1375 since January 3rd, and it's still rock solid. Maybe XFX uses the better chip, not sure. Maybe someone knows here.


----------



## vivithemage (Jan 25, 2011)

Thanks manofthem. 

I was going to use this BIOS :

 How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

What software can I use to overclock/check temps? nVidia used to have some great apps, not sure about ATi's at all.


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Jan 25, 2011)

vivithemage said:


> Thanks manofthem.
> 
> I was going to use this BIOS :
> 
> ...



A lot of people use MSI's AfterBurner. Check TPU's download section.


----------



## vivithemage (Jan 25, 2011)

MSI Afterburner works for ATi? Sweet.


----------



## yonef (Jan 25, 2011)

manofthem said:


> ...I've been running my memory at atleast 1375 since January 3rd, and it's still rock solid. Maybe XFX uses the better chip, not sure. Maybe someone knows here.



I've got XFX.
I've been running mine for 3 weeks, rock solid, no sign of isues, but then suddenly started to artefact while in windows (idle clocks)?!*  and then I've reverted back to modded 6950 bios. Fortunatelly it is not perm. damaged. I think mem timings and voltage are different on 6970 bios.
On your place I'll get back to modded 6950 bios with 6970 clocks and it is absolutely same performance and it is safe enough.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 25, 2011)

yonef said:


> I've got XFX.
> I've been running mine for 3 weeks, rock solid, no sign of isues, but then suddenly started to artefact while in windows (idle clocks)?!*  and then I've reverted back to modded 6950 bios. Fortunatelly it is not perm. damaged. I think mem timings and voltage are different on 6970 bios.
> On your place I'll get back to modded 6950 bios with 6970 clocks and it is absolutely same performance and it is safe enough.



Oh alright thanks. I guess I'll shoot back to modded bios and OC. I don't understand though. If I OC my modded bios to over the default settings of the 6970, will it be safe?  Only difference would be perhaps memory timings...


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 25, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> Quote:
> Originally Posted by ranom View Post
> Remember all cards are not the same. While most 6950 cards use T2C mem chips which are rated at 1250Mhz, there are a few 6950 cards that use the R0C, the chips used on the 6970. Those really lucky folks should have no problems running 1375, while 6950s with the T2C chips are always at a risk. Some T2Cs might not fail at 1375 but some will, especially those with insufficient cooling. I'd stick to 6950 modded bios and overclock only the core, 1250 is good enough and far less risk.
> Thanks for this usefull info! As I will strip of my stock cooler today (to mount Accelero XTREME) I will take a closer look at the RAM chips to find out which one my XFX 6950 has...
> ...



Have those T2C Chips on my card but no probs here with higher RAM clocks... For now quite a month!


----------



## RatusNatus (Jan 26, 2011)

BZB said:


> The hotfix is a complete driver - you just install it over your current setup just as you would an ordinary driver.  If you still don't get the MLAA tickbox, then I'd remove all the ATI software using the ATI Manager "uninstall all" options, reboot, and then try and reinstall again.
> 
> However, the official 11.1a for 69xx cards is due out tomorrow, so you might want to wait for that if you don't want to do the whole thing twice.




Thanks for the reply. I think my problem is not even the driver. 
Check the card on Kombustor image.






Do anyone know how can i solve this problem. Already use the driver cleaner and 3800 still there.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 26, 2011)

dulemk said:


> So the final result is that nor VID3 nor VID4 work for me, even combined (increased to 1.2v).
> 
> So what is going on here??



You are probably changing it incorrectly according to your posts.


----------



## Kiwi7Kid (Jan 26, 2011)

*falshing 6950*



manofthem said:


> Maybe read post #1493. It explains somewhat why cards have problems and some don't; it has to do with the different memory chips used.  They say the chips used on the 6950 aren't rated for 1375, which is what the 6970 runs at. But for I've been running my memory at atleast 1375 since January 3rd, and it's still rock solid. Maybe XFX uses the better chip, not sure. Maybe someone knows here.



I have the saphire version and mine runs mint at 1375 aswell i cant overlock cause i dont have enuff cooling


----------



## Kiwi7Kid (Jan 26, 2011)

*flashing 6950, catalyst 3d application settings*

Hi guys i have a question does any one else have problems with morphological filtering? Mine lags in cod bo and it will only go away if i take it off.


----------



## yonef (Jan 26, 2011)

ok, just got cat.11.1 from Ati site and my 6950 starts to behave strange 
I don't know is it from the driver or something else is ****ed. GPU jumps to 3D mode continuously (see pic) while idle in windows.
..and CCC still says that this is cat.10.11 

Can anyone confirm does new 11.1 has this isue or it is just me?


----------



## justcallmefred (Jan 26, 2011)

Could anyone be so kind as to give me some advice on this error, it's in the event viewer..and I believe it's why I'm getting BSOD.

 "  \??\C:\Users\xxxx\Desktop\HD_6950_to_HD_6970_mod\winflash\at has been blocked from loading due to incompatibility with this system. Please contact your software vendor for a compatible version of the driver. "

  And I see this to

    The atidgllk service failed to start due to the following error: 
This driver has been blocked from loading


----------



## justcallmefred (Jan 26, 2011)

Is this part of it?

  " Application 'C:\Windows\explorer.exe' (pid 1964) cannot be restarted - Application SID does not match Conductor SID.. "


----------



## Mark22 (Jan 26, 2011)

yonef said:


> ok, just got cat.11.1 from Ati site and my 6950 starts to behave strange
> I don't know is it from the driver or something else is ****ed. GPU jumps to 3D mode continuously (see pic) while idle in windows.
> ..and CCC still says that this is cat.10.11



I'm using the 11.1 from Guru3D for a few days and not seeing that problem.

Edit: Ok scrap that, after going into 3D overdrive using furmark and make into 2D it's now doing that, damn it!!

Edit2: It seems to be happen more when GPUz 0.51 is in the foreground, try it! Weird.


----------



## yonef (Jan 26, 2011)

I had no problem with 11.1 (the one with broken openGL), but just installed final 11.1 which apears to be older v.8.812 and it start doing this. What could cause GPU to switch to 3D clocks with no GPU load? I have no overckloking enabled in CCC and have no overclocking software installed 

...going to revert back to 11.1a hotfix.


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 26, 2011)

yonef said:


> I had no problem with 11.1 (the one with broken openGL), but just installed final 11.1 which apears to be older v.8.812 and it start doing this. What could cause GPU to switch to 3D clocks with no GPU load? I have no overckloking enabled in CCC and have no overclocking software installed
> 
> ...going to revert back to 11.1a hotfix.



When I get home I am going to check to see if I am experiencing this to, I noticed my card is louder but I did not check to see if the clocks were dropping during 2d or not.


----------



## yonef (Jan 26, 2011)

OK guys, found the problem.
It is official cat-11.1  Shame on you AMD !
I've reverted back to 11.1a hotfix and the clocks are solid 250/150 in windows. Plus temps with the "bug" was 43C idle, while without the "bug" are 33C idle !?!

P.S. there are newer version of 11.1a-updated (fixed openGL tessalation isue), theese work as well with no clock isues.


----------



## BZB (Jan 26, 2011)

yonef said:


> ok, just got cat.11.1 from Ati site and my 6950 starts to behave strange
> I don't know is it from the driver or something else is ****ed. GPU jumps to 3D mode continuously (see pic) while idle in windows.
> ..and CCC still says that this is cat.10.11
> 
> Can anyone confirm does new 11.1 has this isue or it is just me?



You should be using the 11.1a hotfix released today by AMD - it is newer and has better support for 69xx series cards.


----------



## dom99 (Jan 26, 2011)

yonef said:


> OK guys, found the problem.
> It is official cat-11.1  Shame on you AMD !
> I've reverted back to 11.1a hotfix and the clocks are solid 250/150 in windows. Plus temps with the "bug" was 43C idle, while without the "bug" are 33C idle !?!
> 
> P.S. there are newer version of 11.1a-updated (fixed openGL tessalation isue), theese work as well with no clock isues.



Are these hotfix drivers available off the AMD website?


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 26, 2011)

Use this one for 6950/6970 - *AMD_Catalyst_11.1a_Win7_Jan26.exe*

http://www2.ati.com/DRIVERS/hotfix/catalyst_11.1_hotfixes/AMD_Catalyst_11.1a_Win7_Jan26.exe


----------



## RatusNatus (Jan 26, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Are these hotfix drivers available off the AMD website?



Or AMD_Catalyst_Win7_8.82.2Beta1_Jan13-[Guru3D.com].

http://downloads.guru3d.com/AMD-Catalyst-11.1a-Hotfix--x32-x64-download-2668.html


----------



## yonef (Jan 26, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> Use this one for 6950/6970 - *AMD_Catalyst_11.1a_Win7_Jan26.exe*
> 
> http://www2.ati.com/DRIVERS/hotfix/catalyst_11.1_hotfixes/AMD_Catalyst_11.1a_Win7_Jan26.exe



I'm using these now!


----------



## manofthem (Jan 26, 2011)

Thanks guys for the heads up!  I'll have to get this later tonight.


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 27, 2011)

yonef said:


> ok, just got cat.11.1 from Ati site and my 6950 starts to behave strange
> I don't know is it from the driver or something else is ****ed. GPU jumps to 3D mode continuously (see pic) while idle in windows.
> ..and CCC still says that this is cat.10.11
> 
> ...



Got the same scenario as you. Reverted back for now...


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 27, 2011)

RatusNatus said:


> Or AMD_Catalyst_Win7_8.82.2Beta1_Jan13-[Guru3D.com].
> 
> http://downloads.guru3d.com/AMD-Cata...load-2668.html



This ist FIRST 11.1a from Jan13 (BETA)  - Recommend SECOND 11.1a from Jan26...

Jan26 is official... Jan13 not really.....

*EDIT*

For those how need it even more officialy:
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst111aHotfix.aspx


----------



## Gaul (Jan 27, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> More interesting is his OC of 5GHZ at* 1,488 VCORE* - Crazy
> 
> 6950/6970 - 1000/1500 is possible with a good cooling!



im still stock HSF POWER COLOR 6950
sorry thats the first time i got 5 gh, now only need *v1.428* @ 5 GH


with 26 jan i got inc 100 pts for gpu score


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 27, 2011)

Gaul said:


> im still stock HSF POWER COLOR 6950
> sorry thats the first time i got 5 gh, now only need *v1.428* @ 5 GH
> 
> with 26 jan i got inc 100 pts for gpu score



And your System is rock stable with al this OCs?
CPU: Prime95 stabe? LinX stable?
GPU: Furmark Extreme heating test stable? Kombuster stable? Gaming stable?

Or is this setting only for a short bench?

BTW: I can imaging that you are proud of what your system can reach but I dont think every 50 or 100 points change or evey Voltage/Mhz change is worth to post it.. Just to keep this Thread a bit more readable...


----------



## itsdanny (Jan 27, 2011)

DJ... You don't need a Furmark Extreme heating to test if your card is "stable". It's not like any games with extend over that threshold or lengths. Simply not needed.

Basically, if it passes benchmarks, it's fine. -protip


----------



## DJManiac (Jan 27, 2011)

itsdanny said:


> DJ... You don't need a Furmark Extreme heating to test if your card is "stable". It's not like any games with extend over that threshold or lengths. Simply not needed.
> 
> Basically, if it passes benchmarks, it's fine. -protip



Everthing has to be 101% sure in OCing issues for me  

But know what you mean - will keep an eye on it....


----------



## bbob (Jan 27, 2011)

hello everyone 
im having some troubles with my modded 6950, i get white dots pop up now and again in crysis and crysis warhead when using very high settings and AA, its fine without AA

i only get 1 dot pop up every ten minutes or so but it still worries me, my friend says it is a driver issue or it would have done it in the 20+ other games i tested (like bfbc2 and black ops)

i used this file in this post http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2137760&postcount=381 to mod my 6950 to unlock all the shader, i am only running it at standard speeds (800/1250) as im too scared to overclock after i noticed this "dot"

i have only flashed it once, would it be safe to flash back to standard 6950? will that fix the crysis "dots" ?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 27, 2011)

bbob said:


> hello everyone
> im having some troubles with my modded 6950, i get white dots pop up now and again in crysis and crysis warhead when using very high settings and AA, its fine without AA
> 
> i only get 1 dot pop up every ten minutes or so but it still worries me, my friend says it is a driver issue or it would have done it in the 20+ other games i tested (like bfbc2 and black ops)
> ...



Flash it back to stock if you want; it won't hurt at all.  Did you try the new driver 11.1a?


----------



## yonef (Jan 27, 2011)

hmm, weird.
Do not worry to flash your card as much as you want. 
And first I'll recomend to uninstall the current driver, then use driver sweeper and then install This driver.
If this does not help then you can turn the switch on the back of the card to position 2 and restart the system, this will boot with your original (backup) BIOS.
Just try which of these will sort your problem.


----------



## bbob (Jan 27, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Flash it back to stock if you want; it won't hurt at all.  Did you try the new driver 11.1a?



yes
i only got it yesterday so the first driver i installed was 11.1a, i also did a complete reformat and reinstall before installing the card



yonef said:


> hmm, weird.
> Do not worry to flash your card as much as you want.
> And first I'll recomend to uninstall the current driver, then use driver sweeper and then install This driver.
> If this does not help then you can turn the switch on the back of the card to position 2 and restart the system, this will boot with your original (backup) BIOS.
> Just try which of these will sort your problem.



i will try now with the switch - i forgot about that


----------



## Marv (Jan 27, 2011)

Excellent guide TPU, been a lurker here for years, but simply had to sign up for this.

Bought an MSI 6950, which is now, for all intents and purposes, a 6970. 

I did come across a couple of issues, first when saving the current BIOS using ATFlash the system basically locked (the mouse would be movable, but with about 5s of lag, and the taskbar was screwed up) so I reset, stuck on the backup BIOS, then when booted switched the BIOS just flashed straight over it - worked a treat.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 28, 2011)

yonef said:


> ok, just got cat.11.1 from Ati site and my 6950 starts to behave strange
> I don't know is it from the driver or something else is ****ed. GPU jumps to 3D mode continuously (see pic) while idle in windows.
> ..and CCC still says that this is cat.10.11
> 
> ...



Hey, I was noticing that after the 11.1a install, my clocks were fluctuating like woah while running Furmark.  (But they were fine during gaming in Crysis)  Is that normal?  Or was it related to the 11.1a? I downloaded the better one mentioned a few posts back.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 28, 2011)

To whom it might matter, I was bored the other day and look under the heatsink of my Gigabyte 6950, it has the T2C memory chips. I run it at 1375 daily for over a month with no issues here. I have my stock 6950 bios modded, so my voltage/mem timings are all stock.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 28, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> To whom it might matter, I was bored the other day and look under the heatsink of my Gigabyte 6950, it has the T2C memory chips. I run it at 1375 daily for over a month with no issues here. I have my stock 6950 bios modded, so my voltage/mem timings are all stock.



Good to know thanks. This will help a lot of people.  Now if someone knows what chips are on the XFX, ... ?


----------



## bbob (Jan 28, 2011)

bbob said:


> hello everyone
> im having some troubles with my modded 6950, i get white dots pop up now and again in crysis and crysis warhead when using very high settings and AA, its fine without AA
> 
> i only get 1 dot pop up every ten minutes or so but it still worries me, my friend says it is a driver issue or it would have done it in the 20+ other games i tested (like bfbc2 and black ops)
> ...





bbob said:


> i will try now with the switch - i forgot about that



i just used the switch to switch over to the standard 6950 bios and im having the same issues
its just a little circle about the size of a smiley icon  that flashes so fast its hard to catch, i tried to screenshot it but its so rare and so fast its impossible
no problems when AA is off though

no problems in other games either - i just purchased breach and played that for a while with no troubles


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 28, 2011)

bbob said:


> i just used the switch to switch over to the standard 6950 bios and im having the same issues
> its just a little circle about the size of a smiley icon  that flashes so fast its hard to catch, i tried to screenshot it but its so rare and so fast its impossible
> no problems when AA is off though
> 
> no problems in other games either - i just purchased breach and played that for a while with no troubles



Honestly sounds like a game bug or driver issue to me.


----------



## dulemk (Jan 28, 2011)

*Problem flashing*

I tried with changing the vendor from my sapphire bios to assus via rbe in sub vendor ID field, to unlock via smart doctor additional overclocking room. 

And than I flashed it to my card(using winflash by cmd).
First the driver was not recognized, but after the second boot it was ok(gpuz check).
I tried to use 3D to test, but there were all over the place artifact(cube like, about 0.5mm) in multiple benchmarks.

Than I tough that I need to reinstall the driver, but did not help that.
Than i just flash the card with original assus bios, and it was the same.

So now I'm back to my original unlocked sapphire bios , no artifact fortunately.

So what is going on?, can someone response please.


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 28, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> To whom it might matter, I was bored the other day and look under the heatsink of my Gigabyte 6950, it has the T2C memory chips. I run it at 1375 daily for over a month with no issues here. I have my stock 6950 bios modded, so my voltage/mem timings are all stock.


Well that does not sound good, I have the gigabyte card and I am still using the 6970 bios with 1250 clocks, I have not had any issues yet but now that I know that...


----------



## manofthem (Jan 28, 2011)

dulemk said:


> I tried with changing the vendor from my sapphire bios to assus via rbe in sub vendor ID field, to unlock via smart doctor additional overclocking room.
> 
> And than I flashed it to my card(using winflash by cmd).
> First the driver was not recognized, but after the second boot it was ok(gpuz check).
> ...



Why not try modding your own bios to unlock shaders?  That shouldn't be a problem for you.


----------



## BlackZero (Jan 28, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Hey, I was noticing that after the 11.1a install, my clocks were fluctuating like woah while running Furmark.  (But they were fine during gaming in Crysis)  Is that normal?  Or was it related to the 11.1a? I downloaded the better one mentioned a few posts back.



I was having the same issue, putting power control to +20 fixed it.. so I guess it's probably just driver related.


----------



## decapnz (Jan 28, 2011)

ok so i got a sapphire 6950 yesterday and im trying to unlock the shaders following what wmblalck wrote down but im having this "cannot erase rom" problem.
Ok so heres the steps that i took:
switch is in the 1 position
I saved bios using gpuz and backup
i modified the bios
i loaded using winflash then hit program and it started loadeing up but then i got the error msg =/



wmblalock said:


> Hey guys, I just changed my setup a little bit in effort to make everything work as smoothly and easily as possible, so I figured I would update you guys. I also have a question to ask at the end.
> 
> I have my 6950 using it's own bios, except modded to enable all shaders. I had been using Afterburner, with unofficial overclocking enabled, to control the clocks, voltage, and fan speed. The problem I had with that setup was that by enabling "unofficial overclocking" (to increase overclock limits), Afterburner would disable Powerplay and also functionality of the Power Control Slider in CCC. By disabling Powerplay, the video card would run at full 3D voltage / clocks all the time. I did not like this, as it seems like necessary stress on the card. Yes, you can set 2D and 3D profiles in Afterburner, but I found a bug where Afterburner goes back to the cards default fan curve every time it automatically changes back and forth between the 2D and 3D profiles. So, that's no good. With that said, I set out to find another, simple, single software solution... here is what I came up with.
> 
> ...


----------



## manofthem (Jan 28, 2011)

BlackZero said:


> I was having the same issue, putting power control to +20 fixed it.. so I guess it's probably just driver related.



Have you OC'd your card at all?  I thought I did the +20%, but it may have been before doing that. I'll hve to check. Thanks


----------



## BlackZero (Jan 28, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Have you OC'd your card at all?  I thought I did the +20%, but it may have been before doing that. I'll hve to check. Thanks



Again this could be a driver issue as when I enabled full overclocking from msi afterburner, ccc stop showing clocks and wouldn't let me make changes to the power until i restarted... yes mines overclocked and i've just installed the xfx 6970 bios on my xfx 6950, was testing and got the same fluctuations in kombuster but changing power to +20 fixed it.


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 28, 2011)

decapnz said:


> ok so i got a sapphire 6950 yesterday and im trying to unlock the shaders following what wmblalck wrote down but im having this "cannot erase rom" problem.
> Ok so heres the steps that i took:
> switch is in the 1 position
> I saved bios using gpuz and backup
> ...



You need to download and use the script I posted a link to in step 3 to flash your bios instead of using Winflash directly. Download that script, rename your modded bios to "unlock.bin", copy it into the "winflash" folder (which is inside the folder you extract this script to), then run "flash_to_6970.bat"


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 28, 2011)

Hey fellow 6 series holders, Im now a proud owner of an HIS 6950 2gb card. I've read some pages in this thread but there is soooo much to read. 

I need to know, is flashing my gpu to turn it into a 6970 going to kill the memory or gpu in general?

also is there a program out yet that will allow me to unlock the voltage control?


----------



## wmblalock (Jan 28, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Hey fellow 6 series holders, Im now a proud owner of an HIS 6950 2gb card. I've read some pages in this thread but there is soooo much to read.
> 
> I need to know, is flashing my gpu to turn it into a 6970 going to kill the memory or gpu in general?
> 
> also is there a program out yet that will allow me to unlock the voltage control?



Some say yes, some say no. Flashing to a 6970 bios directly seems to be more risky. The consensus is that modifying your stock bios, and enabling the shaders is the safest method. Read through this thread to find out how to do so. You might be able to control voltage with Afterburner if you enable it in the options (works on some cards, not on others). Alternatively you can use RBE to edit your cards bios and adjust the voltage. I have several posts about how to do so, just browse through the thread.


----------



## BlackZero (Jan 28, 2011)

BlackZero said:


> Again this could be a driver issue as when I enabled full overclocking from msi afterburner, ccc stop showing clocks and wouldn't let me make changes to the power until i restarted... yes mines overclocked and i've just installed the xfx 6970 bios on my xfx 6950, was testing and got the same fluctuations in kombuster but changing power to +20 fixed it.



here's a pic of my first gpu test with bios mod without enabling +20 power from ccc.








Here's another with power at +20 and the hd 6970 bios.


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 28, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Some say yes, some say no. Flashing to a 6970 bios directly seems to be more risky. The consensus is that modifying your stock bios, and enabling the shaders is the safest method. Read through this thread to find out how to do so. You might be able to control voltage with Afterburner if you enable it in the options (works on some cards, not on others). Alternatively you can use RBE to edit your cards bios and adjust the voltage. I have several posts about how to do so, just browse through the thread.


so your saying just to leave the volts alone and just enable the extra shaders?

there is 60 so odd pages to read and its going to take all night...

Any body give me a quick link?


----------



## decapnz (Jan 28, 2011)

great, thankyou very much  oh and hey, do i need to start trixx everytime i start my pc?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 28, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> so your saying just to leave the volts alone and just enable the extra shaders?
> 
> there is 60 so odd pages to read and its going to take all night...
> 
> Any body give me a quick link?


Take a look at this link


wmblalock said:


> Good, hope it helps you out. Here is how I run my card:  How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...


----------



## manofthem (Jan 28, 2011)

BlackZero said:


> Again this could be a driver issue as when I enabled full overclocking from msi afterburner, ccc stop showing clocks and wouldn't let me make changes to the power until i restarted... yes mines overclocked and i've just installed the xfx 6970 bios on my xfx 6950, was testing and got the same fluctuations in kombuster but changing power to +20 fixed it.



100% true.  I'm at 950/1450@1.2v. Just ran Furmark again and noticed the throttling of the GPU clock speed.  Opened CCC and +20% was not checked.  I checked it, after some hastle since it kept going back to original position, and ran Furmark again.  This time, GPU clock stayed at the 950 the whole time.  Thanks!!!


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 28, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Take a look at this link


Thank you 

I've decided to just leave the bios alone for now.
I have another HIS gpu on it's way to run x-fire. 

This card alone is amazing against my *now gone* 5970. It may be slower, but the visuals in everything are way nicer looking  And gaming is way better.

I was able to open up the voltage control and also open up the core clocks using the latest MSI Afterburner Beta program. The only thing I needed to do to up the core clocks was using note pad to change the .cfg file


----------



## manofthem (Jan 28, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Thank you
> 
> I've decided to just leave the bios alone for now.
> I have another HIS gpu on it's way to run x-fire.
> ...



Yeah, opening the .cfg file and switching the one of the bottom lines. enableunofficialoverclocking, from 0 to 1 to be enable unofficial OCing.  

It would be awesome to modd both cards to unlock the shaders, and then giving them a nice little OC, even in CCC.  That would be awesome; that's what I want to do!


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 28, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Yeah, opening the .cfg file and switching the one of the bottom lines. enableunofficialoverclocking, from 0 to 1 to be enable unofficial OCing.
> 
> It would be awesome to modd both cards to unlock the shaders, and then giving them a nice little OC, even in CCC.  That would be awesome; that's what I want to do!


That's cool! Let me know how it works for ya. And I'll let you know if I do it b4 you.


----------



## yonef (Jan 28, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Hey, I was noticing that after the 11.1a install, my clocks were fluctuating like woah while running Furmark.  (But they were fine during gaming in Crysis)  Is that normal?  Or was it related to the 11.1a? I downloaded the better one mentioned a few posts back.





BlackZero said:


> here's a pic of my first gpu test with bios mod without enabling +20 power from ccc.
> 
> [url]http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6472/6970test.th.jpg[/URL]
> 
> ...



It is meant to be like that !
No matter what driver you use, this it the PowerPlay fearute of ATI 6900 series cards. It is normal to throttle GPU clock while it consumes enormous power. There goes the Power control feature in CCC where you can adjust how much power your GPU can use before it starts to throttle. This will not happen in any game(if stock clocks are used) because the power consumption ingames are no where near what furmark can do.

This is not relevant to the problem where I described in post #1552, when GPU clock jumps to 800Mhz while idleing in windows! (when 11.1 are used)


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 28, 2011)

I flashed both my Sapphire HD6950's with the Sapphire 6970 BIOS without a problem (that is, I had to do it through the command prompt).

Only weird thing I had is that the speeds of both cards were set to those of my Asus 5870 Matrix Platinum 2GB card, which ran at 900MHz.

I have performed benches in both 3DMark11 and Unigine Heaven 2.1 before and after. With the former and 11.1 drivers and with and without the power upgrade.

Everything has worked fine so far, except for my temperatures to go sky high on the upper card, but that is due to the cards sitting too close to each other on the mainboard (Asus Maximus III Gene LGA1156 µATX)...

Latest benchmarks are at P9164 in 3DMark11 and 2500 points (normal tessellation) 3541 points (no Tessellation) in Unigine Heaven... If you want pics, I have 'em 


@Yonef: I also have the 'issue' with my main card jumping to 800MHz when idle. That is to say, I only have it when my desktop switches background...




wmblalock said:


> To whom it might matter, I was bored the other day and look under the heatsink of my Gigabyte 6950, it has the T2C memory chips. I run it at 1375 daily for over a month with no issues here. I have my stock 6950 bios modded, so my voltage/mem timings are all stock.



After my flashing, my cards have set themselves to 900MHz GPU Clock & 1375MHz Memory Clock... I leave 'em like that and don't have any problems so far...


----------



## dulemk (Jan 28, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Why not try modding your own bios to unlock shaders?  That shouldn't be a problem for you.



Yes I did that the first day, but I want more overclock than 840.

So f I change vendor to assus in my bios, than smart doctor will work, and with smartdoctor you can increase your official overclock limit.

So the simple problem is, why i cant work with anything than my own bios(without changing vendor).


----------



## Whoops! (Jan 28, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Good to know thanks. This will help a lot of people.  Now if someone knows what chips are on the XFX, ... ?



Check out post #1547


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 28, 2011)

dulemk said:


> Yes I did that the first day, but I want more overclock than 840.
> 
> So f I change vendor to assus in my bios, than smart doctor will work, and with smartdoctor you can increase your official overclock limit.
> 
> So the simple problem is, why i cant work with anything than my own bios(without changing vendor).



For some reason, like I said in my earlier post, both my Sapphire 6950's -after flashing them with the Sapphire 6970 BIOS- run stock at 900MHz (which was the speed of my Asus Matrix 5870 2GB, incidentally) and 1375MHz on the VRAM...

Haven't tried higher clockspeeds because of heat issues on the Assus Gene (LGA1156) mainboard (cards sitting right on top of each other)...

If you want to go over the clock restrictions of the Catalyst Center (which is 950/1450) you could use MSI Afterburner...


----------



## manofthem (Jan 28, 2011)

dulemk said:


> Yes I did that the first day, but I want more overclock than 840.
> 
> So f I change vendor to assus in my bios, than smart doctor will work, and with smartdoctor you can increase your official overclock limit.
> 
> So the simple problem is, why i cant work with anything than my own bios(without changing vendor).



So using RBE, you tried to change the vender name to Asus?  Someone said a while back to only change gpu voltages in RBE because that's the only that can be changed right now. Maybe that's the problem. If you want more OC room, you can edit gpu voltages and OC with Trixx. That's worked well for me lately.


----------



## SkymoD (Jan 28, 2011)

Hi all!

Successfully flashed a HD6950 Sapphire to HD6970 using W1zzard's batch files (Winflash refused to erase rom in standard use) 

Before:







After:






PowerTune +20%, no artefacts at all 

Asus Rampage Extreme / E8600 @4460MHz / G-Skill Pi PC3-17600 2x2048 / Corsair HX850W PSU.

Thanks all for the good job   And add to stats


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 28, 2011)

manofthem said:


> So using RBE, you tried to change the vender name to Asus?  Someone said a while back to only change gpu voltages in RBE because that's the only that can be changed right now. Maybe that's the problem. If you want more OC room, you can edit gpu voltages and OC with Trixx. That's worked well for me lately.



Thanks for the tip on Trixx, Manofthem... Didn't know Sapphire had tweaker software of their own... will check it out mate


----------



## dulemk (Jan 28, 2011)

manofthem said:


> So using RBE, you tried to change the vender name to Asus?  Someone said a while back to only change gpu voltages in RBE because that's the only that can be changed right now. Maybe that's the problem. If you want more OC room, you can edit gpu voltages and OC with Trixx. That's worked well for me lately.



I read somewhere that it is actually working.

I'm the proof kind of

Because the driver recognize the moded vendor and all was ok in 2d. 
The 100% exactly thing happen with original assus bios, so the problem must be something else.

edit:

One stupid question:
RBE produces .rom, but for the wizzard script to work the file must be .bin. S
So do you just rename the file if rbe is used or what??


----------



## manofthem (Jan 28, 2011)

dulemk said:


> One stupid question:
> RBE produces .rom, but for the wizzard script to work the file must be .bin. S
> So do you just rename the file if rbe is used or what??



yes just rename the .rom to .bin and flash from there.


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 28, 2011)

I need Atiflash 3.85  does anyone know where I can find it. I searched all over with no luck

Im using 3.79 atm and I get adapter not found when trying to flash in DOS...
even typing atiflash -i   I dont get anything but the help info

Help


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 28, 2011)

Nobody has flashed there 6950 in DOS?
winflash dont work, and I dont under stand what to type in CMD


----------



## Wijkert (Jan 28, 2011)

Anyone here tried this mod?


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 28, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Nobody has flashed there 6950 in DOS?
> winflash dont work, and I dont under stand what to type in CMD




Yes, I had to. The way to go is on the first page of this topic... 



W1zzard said:


> For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:
> 
> - Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
> - Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
> ...


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 28, 2011)

Wijkert said:


> Anyone here tried this mod?



I've tried it on one card, and it works, but the performance is lower because that BIOS is from a factory 'overclocked' Asus 6950, not a 6970. Asus released an overclocked version because it's not a reference board any longer and the card can't be flashed.

I flashed my card back to standard 6950 BIOS and re-flashed it to the Sapphire 6970 BIOS, because my cards run at 900/1375 when flashed... I don't need CCC to overclock either...


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 28, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> Yes, I had to. The way to go is on the first page of this topic...


Yup, I got it to work. I was not thinking atm but W1zzard fixed the problem I ran into.
Now I can flash freely back n forth with ease


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 28, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Yup, I got it to work. I was not thinking atm but W1zzard fixed the problem I ran into.
> Now I can flash freely back n forth with ease



Congrats and good luck amigo


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 28, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> Congrats and good luck amigo


Is THIS the bios that just unlockes the shaders but dont change the voltage?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 29, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Is THIS the bios that just unlockes the shaders but dont change the voltage?



That looks like it since it says it's a 6950 modded to unlock shaders. Use that or just just the script mentioned in this thread earlier to modify your original bios.


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 29, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Is THIS the bios that just unlockes the shaders but dont change the voltage?



Yep, that's the one...


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 29, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> Yep, that's the one...


is there any thing I should know of about clocking this flashed gpu? anything to be concerned about?


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 29, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> is there any thing I should know of about clocking this flashed gpu? anything to be concerned about?



Not at all, Fullinfusion. This flash keeps core- and memory clocks at the reference level (800/1250) and only unlocks the shader amount, so there should be nothing to worry about...

There's of course always a certain risk, flashing a BIOS, but here, when a flash should go wrong, you have the 2nd BIOS and the possibility of re-flashing the primary BIOS to its original state...


----------



## Elvis_Marmaduke (Jan 29, 2011)

I was reading somewhere that there is also a 6950 bios that unlocks the shaders, and they said that there are issues when you use the 6970 bios... anyone heard of or had any issues?


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 29, 2011)

Elvis_Marmaduke said:


> I was reading somewhere that there is also a 6950 bios that unlocks the shaders, and they said that there are issues when you use the 6970 bios... anyone heard of or had any issues?


Im using the HIS 6950 shader mod only without the voltage change. Well it seems fine.

Im now on the Sapphire 6970 bios... clocked it up to 950/1400 and runs Mark11 without any problems. I think the issue was the memory isnt as good as the 6970 is from the factory.. 6950 memory is weaker I understand and dont like the added heat...


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 29, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> Not at all, Fullinfusion. This flash keeps core- and memory clocks at the reference level (800/1250) and only unlocks the shader amount, so there should be nothing to worry about...
> 
> There's of course always a certain risk, flashing a BIOS, but here, when a flash should go wrong, you have the 2nd BIOS and the possibility of re-flashing the primary BIOS to its original state...


Yeah sence W1zzard told me what I needed to do, flashing takes about 5 seconds lol... now I can even flash in DOS mode so it's all good!

Plus ya gotta love the dual bios switch


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 29, 2011)

Elvis_Marmaduke said:


> I was reading somewhere that there is also a 6950 bios that unlocks the shaders, and they said that there are issues when you use the 6970 bios... anyone heard of or had any issues?


"Somewhere" and "They" are too vague to take into consideration. From what I've read on youtube, Gamespot, Guru of 3D and here, there's but a fraction of the people who flashed their cards to whatever BIOS wha have issues. And those issues are mostly due to wrong drivers or bad luck that the card doesn't accept the flashing...



fullinfusion said:


> Im using the HIS 6950 shader mod only without the voltage change. Well it seems fine.
> 
> Im now on the Sapphire 6970 bios... clocked it up to 950/1400 and runs Mark11 without any problems. I think the issue was the memory isnt as good as the 6970 is from the factory.. 6950 memory is weaker I understand and dont like the added heat...



Then you're better off than me... I can't overclock the cards (running them at 900MHz isn't a real overclock) as my computer locks-up the minute I go over 900MHz or increase the mem-speed over 1375MHz...



fullinfusion said:


> Yeah sence W1zzard told me what I needed to do, flashing takes about 5 seconds lol... now I can even flash in DOS mode so it's all good!
> 
> Plus ya gotta love the dual bios switch



Yay... nice to see everything worked out just fine mate


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 29, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> "Somewhere" and "They" are too vague to take into consideration. From what I've read on youtube, Gamespot, Guru of 3D and here, there's but a fraction of the people who flashed their cards to whatever BIOS wha have issues. And those issues are mostly due to wrong drivers or bad luck that the card doesn't accept the flashing...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Canada gets the best cpu and gpus for clocking lol 
How about using the HIS bios... The one that just opens up the shaders and not the volts?

Then use the newest beta ver of MSI Afterburner and up the core clocks as well as the mem clocks using the opened up voltage control...

Your going to need to edit the .CFG file in Afterburner using Note pad, but I think you should try it and see how it works...


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 29, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Canada gets the best cpu and gpus for clocking lol
> How about using the HIS bios... The one that just opens up the shaders and not the volts?
> 
> Then use the newest beta ver of MSI Afterburner and up the core clocks as well as the mem clocks using the opened up voltage control...
> ...



I'll have ago at that. But I fear it's my CPU which for some reason doesn't like what I do. I had it before with other cards too, but those other cards, I could overclock pretty easy on a Gigabyte UD2 mobo with an i5 750...

Also, my current Asus Maximus III Gene is a great board, but not really fit for CFX/SLI, because of the µATX form and the cards sitting smack atop each other... I was gonna buy a new Asus board, but I think it's not worth it buying a new LGA1156 board. Gonna have a talk with the swine running my piggybank and see if there's a Sandy Bridge set-up in it... 

But thanks for the advice, Fullinfusion. I have taken note of it and will look into it


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 29, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> I'll have ago at that. But I fear it's my CPU which for some reason doesn't like what I do. I had it before with other cards too, but those other cards, I could overclock pretty easy on a Gigabyte UD2 mobo with an i5 750...
> 
> Also, my current Asus Maximus III Gene is a great board, but not really fit for CFX/SLI, because of the µATX form and the cards sitting smack atop each other... I was gonna buy a new Asus board, but I think it's not worth it buying a new LGA1156 board. Gonna have a talk with the swine running my piggybank and see if there's a Sandy Bridge set-up in it...
> 
> But thanks for the advice, Fullinfusion. I have taken note of it and will look into it


Your welcome, But as for the Intel hardware... Im knowledge less


----------



## Loosenut (Jan 29, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> ~snip~
> 
> Gonna have a talk with the swine running my piggybank and see if there's a Sandy Bridge set-up in it...
> 
> ~snip~





If I said something like that, my wife would  me so hard, I'd end up with an extra set of tonsils


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 29, 2011)

Loosenut said:


> If I said something like that, my wife would  me so hard, I'd end up with an extra set of tonsils


whats saying Jimmy isn't a lady  and the swine is her hubby?


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 29, 2011)

Loosenut said:


> If I said something like that, my wife would  me so hard, I'd end up with an extra set of tonsils



Do not fear for my tonsils, Loosenut, I live on my own. It was also a figure of speech: since I have a piggybank, I presumed it would be run by a, well, pig :lol:


----------



## Loosenut (Jan 29, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> whats saying Jimmy isn't a lady  and the swine is her hubby?





JimmyJump said:


> Do not fear for my tonsils, Loosenut, I live on my own. It was also a figure of speech: since I have a piggybank, I presumed it would be run by a, well, pig :lol:


----------



## manofthem (Jan 29, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> "Somewhere" and "They" are too vague to take into consideration. From what I've read on youtube, Gamespot, Guru of 3D and here, there's but a fraction of the people who flashed their cards to whatever BIOS wha have issues. And those issues are mostly due to wrong drivers or bad luck that the card doesn't accept the flashing...
> ll:



I'm not saying that's not true, but I've been in this thread for a while and following a bunch of guys posts. Recently a guy posted that after a month of running 690 bios with No problems, he started getting artifacts in 2D profiles without any warning. After switching to
Modded bios, they stopped. It seems somewhat coincidental thy many posters on this thread had problems with the 6970 bios while not the same problems with the modded one. it's something to think about. 

I just don't know though. When I ran the 6970 bios, it was fine and scored better in benchmarks than an OC'd 6950 modded bios.


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 29, 2011)

A Mark11 run with the Sapphire 6970 over volt bios.







This was just a test, but for my 24/7 gpu setting it's going to be just the shader unlocked version - without the volt increase 

Plus i ave a second HIS 6950 on the way  I hope it clocks as well at this one.

I cant wait to see some serious mark numbers in X-Fire mode


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 29, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I'm not saying that's not true, but I've been in this thread for a while and following a bunch of guys posts. Recently a guy posted that after a month of running 690 bios with No problems, he started getting artifacts in 2D profiles without any warning. After switching to
> Modded bios, they stopped. It seems somewhat coincidental thy many posters on this thread had problems with the 6970 bios while not the same problems with the modded one. it's something to think about.
> 
> I just don't know though. When I ran the 6970 bios, it was fine and scored better in benchmarks than an OC'd 6950 modded bios.



I'm not saying that what you're sayting isn't true either (this is getting confusing), but the few who had issues are a minority. Besides, when you have issues, hey, simply revert back to the original BIOS. That's the beauty of it: you can't go wrong, even when you go wrong 

I've only tried a overclocked 6950 BIOS (the Asus one -but with 10MHz more on the clock, that's hardly an OC) and after 5 minutes reflashed to the original BIOS and then to the Sapphire 6970 one, just because of it being silly (to me) of flashing a 6950 with another 6950...




fullinfusion said:


> A Mark11 run with the Sapphire 6970 over volt bios.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/110129/testshaders.png
> 
> ...



Hey, that's a beautiful score you have there, Fullinfusion... 

I didn't get higher than this:






CPU is absolutely the weakest link in my system...

In CFX I got to a better result, also because this time I upped the power to that of a 6970 (+12% in CCC):


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 29, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> I'm not saying that what you're sayting isn't true either (this is getting confusing), but the few who had issues are a minority. Besides, when you have issues, hey, simply revert back to the original BIOS. That's the beauty of it: you can't go wrong, even when you go wrong
> 
> I've only tried a overclocked 6950 BIOS (the Asus one -but with 10MHz more on the clock, that's hardly an OC) and after 5 minutes reflashed to the original BIOS and then to the Sapphire 6970 one, just because of it being silly (to me) of flashing a 6950 with another 6950...
> 
> ...


Nice! But I havent touched the power in the cpu setting.... it's still at ZERO!

WTH does it do any way?


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 29, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Nice! But I havent touched the power in the cpu setting.... it's still at ZERO!
> 
> WTH does it do any way?



You can slide the power from -20% to +20%... The +20 would make the card able to use a maximum of 252Watt under full stress. At +12% you more or less pull up the available power from the level of the 6950 to that of the 6970 (roughly 227Watt)...

The addition of the extra 12% made my score in 3DMark11 go up from P8800 to P9200...


----------



## manofthem (Jan 29, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Nice! But I havent touched the power in the cpu setting.... it's still at ZERO!
> 
> WTH does it do any way?



The powertune option in CCC let's the GPU have more wattage. If you try to OC too high and the powertune is set to 0 (default), the GPU will throttle back the clock speeds. It's happened to me when I tried my 950/1450 OC. Instead of holding at 950, it was all over the place from 550 to around 900. But with the +20%, it held steady at 950. You can notice if you have GPU-Z open and do a furmark run, for example. If it's too high OC, you'll see it. 

Thts why some overclocking utilities that disable power control aren't as useful since it limits your OC.


----------



## fullinfusion (Jan 29, 2011)

manofthem said:


> The powertune option in CCC let's the GPU have more wattage. If you try to OC too high and the powertune is set to 0 (default), the GPU will throttle back the cool speeds. It's happened to me when I tried my 950/1450 OC. Instead of holding at 950, it was all over the place from 550 to around 900. But with the +20%, it held steady at 950. You can notice if you have GPU-Z open and do a furmark run, for example. If it's too high OC, you'll see it.
> 
> Thts why some overclocking utilities that disable power control aren't as useful since it limits your OC.


I tried both settings and monitored Gpu-z. Results were non changing for me, luck of the draw im thinking


----------



## manofthem (Jan 29, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> I tried both settings and monitored Gpu-z. Results were non changing for me, luck of the draw im thinking



What are your settings at for your GPU?  You'll notice more of a result as you push your card higher and faster? I tried a couple of runs just for the sake of it at different levels, and it made no real difference with the extra power until it came to higher clock speeds, since it didn't need extra power at the lower settings. Keep an eye as you go and you'll notice some differences.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 29, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> A Mark11 run with the Sapphire 6970 over volt bios.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/110129/testshaders.png
> 
> ...



And these here are pretty numbers. My 3DMark 11 runs have only
Managed to pull off like around 5200 max! I'm a little jealous. I haven't gone that high on the GPU clock yet though. That'll be really nice with the cfx setup soon!


----------



## manofthem (Jan 29, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> In CFX I got to a better result, also because this time I upped the power to that of a 6970 (+12% in CCC):
> 
> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ashing_004_Crossfire_3DMark11_Catalyst_11.jpg



That looks like it must be an awesome setup; I really want to get another card for crossfire. How does in perform in really demanding games, like Crysis or Metro?  Well done!

(Edit: sorry for 3 posts in a row. It sucks to try to multiquote with my phone. Plus I'm tired)


----------



## yonef (Jan 29, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> ...
> I didn't get higher than this:
> 
> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v326/JimmyJump/Gamespot/6950_Flashing_002_single_3DMark11.jpg



hmm, I didn't get higher than this:




No matter what drivers I use, all do prety much the same result. Especially graphic score seems to be too low if we leave alone cpu score  

P.S.
can someone post some results with stock clocks 6950, unlocked shaders on unigine 2.1 (dx11/shaders:hi/tess:extreme/anisotropy:4/AA: off/1680x1050) so I can make a comparision on pure GPU score?
It seams that my 6950 performs ok on other benches and games but not damn 3Dmark11.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 29, 2011)

yonef said:


> hmm, I didn't get higher than this:
> http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/3413/capturefbi.jpg
> No matter what drivers I use, all do prety much the same result. Especially graphic score seems to be too low if we leave alone cpu score
> 
> ...



Your GPU score isn't bad, but the physics is low, which is based on CPU, right? Looks like CPU is bringing it down.


----------



## yonef (Jan 29, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Your GPU score isn't bad, but the physics is low, which is based on CPU, right? Looks like CPU is bringing it down.



my GPU score is ~4200 , usualy 6950 is ~4900 
I know my phisyx score is low but if you look at Combited test score it is much higher than JimmyJump socre who scored 2099 and mine is 3502, which is weird ? But mostly gpu score is bothering me, gpu score shoud not be dependable on the CPU, or I'm wrong?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 29, 2011)

yonef said:


> my GPU score is ~4200 , usualy 6950 is ~4900
> I know my phisyx score is low but if you look at Combited test score it is much higher than JimmyJump socre who scored 2099 and mine is 3502, which is weird ? But mostly gpu score is bothering me, gpu score shoud not be dependable on the CPU, or I'm wrong?



I'm not sure. I just remember my stock 6950 usually had an overall score in 3DMark 11 of like P4200-P4400. 
http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=1198&page=10
Looks like we are both a little low...ha


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 29, 2011)

yonef said:


> my GPU score is ~4200 , usualy 6950 is ~4900
> I know my phisyx score is low but if you look at Combited test score it is much higher than JimmyJump socre who scored 2099 and mine is 3502, which is weird ? But mostly gpu score is bothering me, gpu score shoud not be dependable on the CPU, or I'm wrong?



I find it even more weirder, considering my Physics (CPU) score is way higher than yours. The combined score should be higher for me then as well, since it's a combination of GPU and CPU...

By the way, not to get all nitpicking, but doen't confuse PhysX (NVidia) with Physics (quantum mechanics)...


----------



## yonef (Jan 29, 2011)

oh maan, I knew 3Dmark11 is idiotic benchmark, but never think it is that much stupid!
Strangely I was able to run Xtreme bench on my monitor which is NOT supporting fullHD, it is 1680x1050, and cannot display 1920x1080 resolution! Then I checked the OSD on the monitor and it says that is running on 1280x960!?!? for some reason.
Then I tried Performance mode, and ...same resolution 1280x960 
then I run it on performance settings, but choose resolution 1280x960 and it scores absolutely the same.Then I run it on perf.settings, but resolution 1024x768 ... same score!
...Something realy sucks with futuremark!


edit:


JimmyJump said:


> I find it even more weirder, considering my Physics (CPU) score is way higher than yours. The combined score should be higher for me then as well, since it's a combination of GPU and CPU...
> 
> By the way, not to get all nitpicking, but doen't confuse PhysX (NVidia) with Physics (quantum mechanics)...


Yep, I noticed Combined score difference !?! (idiotic)
And yes, I meant physics  (It is bulet physics)


----------



## trt740 (Jan 29, 2011)

Worked like a champ on my Gigabyte 6950, the shaders unlocked but the clock remained the same . Is that how it was intended? I  should just overclock it to 6970 specs and set the power to +20? or were the clocked supposed to be flashed to 880/1375?. They default to 800/1275 and I betting thats how it was intended but I didn't read it in the posts.


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 30, 2011)

trt740 said:


> Worked like a champ on my Gigabyte 6950, the shaders unlocked but the clock remained the same . Is that how it was intended? I  should just overclock it to 6970 specs and set the power to +20? or were the clocked supposed to be flashed to 880/1375?. They default to 800/1275 and I betting thats how it was intended but I didn't read it in the posts.



It depends on which BIOS you used to flash your 6950... I used the one from the Sapphire 6970 (which works on most other cards as they're all basically the same cards with just another brand sticker on them, except for the Asus one which is a factory overclocked GPU)...

The power-up has to be set to +12 to attain the same power as the 6970 (approx 227Watt). At +20 the card can go as high as approx 255Watt...

With me, the flashing automatically set my speeds to 900MHz/1375MHz... The 900MHz thing could be because my Asus Matrix 5870 was running at that speed. is just a guess tho, as I don't see another reason for the clock setting itself to 900 instead of 880MHz...


----------



## dulemk (Jan 30, 2011)

*RBE voltage*

I found that my voltage is actually the vid3, but for some reason sapphire bios can't increase the voltage at all.
So now I use assus bios.


One strange thing i notice is that if i use 1.15v on vid3 i have small amount of artifact for the first seconds in 3d, and after that it is all ok.

Than i'v tried 1.175, and i notice that i had more artifact and lasts more seconds(about 10-15), and than everything is clear again.

But if i try 1.2v i have lots of artifact and i did not waited long enough to clear, but my prediction is that they will to clear eventually.

So is this normal?? Does voltage need to lie down somewhat, so i wait for the artifact to run out, or my core voltage just wont work(1.2v is not a problem for all others cases that i know).

I use 11.1 hotfix.


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 30, 2011)

dulemk said:


> I found that my voltage is actually the vid3, but for some reason sapphire bios can't increase the voltage at all.
> So now I use assus bios.
> 
> 
> ...



Before upping the voltage, simply overclock the core and memory bit by bit, until the card is no longer stable. Then you can try upping the voltage to get it stable again...

Starting with increasing the voltage does no good but increase power consumption... I'm not yet at the stage of increasing voltages, as I've just started overclocking a bit using Sapphire's TRIXX...

By the way, I thought the Asus BIOS was that of the factory OC 6950? Doesn't that BIOS have a speed of 810/1250?


----------



## trt740 (Jan 30, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> It depends on which BIOS you used to flash your 6950... I used the one from the Sapphire 6970 (which works on most other cards as they're all basically the same cards with just another brand sticker on them, except for the Asus one which is a factory overclocked GPU)...
> 
> The power-up has to be set to +12 to attain the same power as the 6970 (approx 227Watt). At +20 the card can go as high as approx 255Watt...
> 
> With me, the flashing automatically set my speeds to 900MHz/1375MHz... The 900MHz thing could be because my Asus Matrix 5870 was running at that speed. is just a guess tho, as I don't see another reason for the clock setting itself to 900 instead of 880MHz...



Strange now it is auto setting to 880/1375 must have had overdrive enabled when it was a 6950 and all it needed was a reset


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 30, 2011)

trt740 said:


> Strange now it is auto setting to 880/1375 must have had overdrive enabled when it was a 6950 and all it needed was a reset



Probably... nice to see it works mate


----------



## dulemk (Jan 30, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> Before upping the voltage, simply overclock the core and memory bit by bit, until the card is no longer stable. Then you can try upping the voltage to get it stable again...
> 
> Starting with increasing the voltage does no good but increase power consumption... I'm not yet at the stage of increasing voltages, as I've just started overclocking a bit using Sapphire's TRIXX...
> 
> By the way, I thought the Asus BIOS was that of the factory OC 6950? Doesn't that BIOS have a speed of 810/1250?



Thanks for your effort but trust me I'v tried more things than you can imagine,flashed my card more than 20 times for the past couple of days.
Use trixx, MSIA, smart doctor ect...

So i know what i want to achieve, i know how to do that, but i got some bizzar problem on my hands.   

From first i tough that i was doing someting wrong while flashing, but it come out that if I increase my voltage like I said early i get artifacts, that strangely run out after some time in 3d.

Here is the same thing here kind of:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=31163243


----------



## trt740 (Jan 30, 2011)

Is there a voltage control tool yet?


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Jan 30, 2011)

trt740 said:


> Is there a voltage control tool yet?



Afterburner works now. Apparently if you have a modded bios or a 6950 with a 6970 bios you need some kind of workaround to get it working though but powertune won't work.


----------



## trt740 (Jan 30, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> Afterburner works now. Apparently if you have a modded bios or a 6950 with a 6970 bios you need some kind of workaround to get it working though but powertune won't work.



Okay well 900/1375 seems pretty fast and I haven't tried to go further so we will see. I think it is the product id that stops it, even with a 6970 bios you have a product tag that says it was originally a 6950 and thats the problem.


----------



## vivithemage (Jan 30, 2011)

I flashed my XFX to unlock shaders with the unlocked 6950 BIOS.

One thing I noticed is my pixel fillrate and texture fillrate didn't jump up as much, is that normal with the 6950 shader unlock?


before :








after :


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 30, 2011)

vivithemage said:


> I flashed my XFX to unlock shaders with the unlocked 6950 BIOS.
> 
> One thing I noticed is my pixel fillrate and texture fillrate didn't jump up as much, is that normal with the 6950 shader unlock?
> 
> ...



For some reason, both core and memory clocks didn't go all the way to those of a standard 6970... They should be 880MHz/1375MHz...

*EDIT*
Ah, misread... You only unlocked the shaders, so, normally, core and memory should be staying at 800/1250...


----------



## trt740 (Jan 30, 2011)

Okay, I used this bios mod that W1zzard posted to unlock the shaders but not mod the voltage. Then I down loaded Afterburner beta and edited the config file for Afterburner changing the 0 to a 1 for unofficial overclocking and also for voltage control. Now my clocks are unlocked and I can adjust he voltage.

 How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

http://downloads.guru3d.com/Afterbur...load-2604.html

Here is all you need. Thx Wizzard and Underwinder.

My goodness these suckers get hot with voltage added.

*If you don't wish to use the above method.
Found a work around on the Afterburner voltage issue. Download the beta version and enable the voltage control and unoffical overclocking while your orginal bios 6950 is installed. Then flash your bios with the 6870 bios to covert your card and after restart Afterburner leaves the voltage control enabled. I think what happens is the program checks the shader count and product tag and if they don't match it blocks voltage control but this some how subverts this. Found it by accident.*


----------



## vivithemage (Jan 30, 2011)

Thanks JimmyJump, i modified it and uploaded a new screen, much better. I don't plan on OCing it anymore than I have in that SS.

What software should I use to monitor both GPU's temp/clock speeds/etc? MSI Afterbuner only shows GPU2, and parts of GPU1 (doesn't show clock, temp, fan - they aren't even options in the settings).


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 30, 2011)

vivithemage said:


> Thanks JimmyJump, i modified it and uploaded a new screen, much better. I don't plan on OCing it anymore than I have in that SS.
> 
> What software should I use to monitor both GPU's temp/clock speeds/etc? MSI Afterbuner only shows GPU2, and parts of GPU1 (doesn't show clock, temp, fan - they aren't even options in the settings).



Well, you have GPU-Z... Second tab is for sensors (temps, fan speeds, clock speeds, etc...)
At the bottom you can switch GPU as well 

You can minimize GPU-Z to the tray instead of closing, so it keeps monitoring in the background...


----------



## Stranger (Jan 30, 2011)

Ok so ive tried the last 3 driver packs however it seems my cards are still staying at 800clock (not dropping down to 450 like it did unclocked) :s

My room is currently 28ºc (This is at Midnight :/)

ive setup my Fan Curve like Wizard posted in his original post..

However at Idle right now its going between 66-69ºc with 55-60% Fan Speed!

i do have two 6950's Unlocked Shaders (still 6950 bios) Crossfired so im sure thats not helping the temp of the room 

Anyone know a way to make it scale back down but still have the Shaders Unlocked?
Will they still scale down while xfire is enabled??

im sure my room temp is affecting it greatly, need the 2d phasing badly!:S 
Cooking in mah room! lol


**EDIT**
After Changing back to the Dec 16th drivers again (3rd time!)

GPU-z Reads:

Card1 = 450/1250   65ºc/55%speed
Card2 = 250/150    55ºc / 28%speed

However in Trixx my MINIMUM Fan Curve starts at 35%
The 2nd card in xfire does not use this curve??

also my first card is still boiling/making lot of noise!!!!


----------



## dulemk (Jan 30, 2011)

I now flash back to my original 1408 shader 6950 bios that i take from gpuz and keep it from day one. 

And now apparently MSIA voltage works, so i try to raise just the voltage(clocks stays the same 800/1250).

And the same f*ing thing happen.

So now I try to find the lowest visible artifact showing with lower voltage.
Up till now i find that i have some artifact showing at 1.12v

So now I'm kind of hoping at 1.1v the artifact to appear so i could rma the card

One more thing i will try before i give app and use only unlocked bios at 840/1300 with 1.1v is to change the driver at 10.12a
I read somewhere that 11.1 or 11.1 hotfix  render some errors on some cards, so i will try that and post here.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 30, 2011)

Stranger said:


> **EDIT**
> After Changing back to the Dec 16th drivers again (3rd time!)
> 
> GPU-z Reads:
> ...



Just going to throw this out there. In Trixx settings, is the setting checked to apply settings to both cards?  That should apply your fan curve to both....


----------



## Stranger (Jan 30, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Just going to throw this out there. In Trixx settings, is the setting checked to apply settings to both cards?  That should apply your fan curve to both....



ive got "Synchronize cards in Mutli-GPU config" Selected thats the only one i can see=D


----------



## hanti (Jan 30, 2011)

hello
ive been reading this forum for a long time but now i need to ask you about something

i think using 6970 bios to mod ours 6950 card is unlocking something more than only shaders
i have triple checked it and now only need some confirmation

3dmark vantage last test called "perlin noise"
when im using 6950 with only unlocked shaders (clocks 900/1375) i got like 145fps, but after switching this to asus 6970 bios (same clocks) i got like 199fps 
like i said i triple checked this and results are always the same 
can someone try this and see if he got that big diference too in 3dmark vantage "perlin noise" test ?
ofc in other tests i got similar result on both modded only and 6970bios, but here 30% diference ? thats strange

"perlin noise - this feature test stresses  the computing power of your gpu by rendering multiple octaves of perlin noise ..." ;p


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 30, 2011)

dulemk said:


> One more thing i will try before i give app and use only unlocked bios at 840/1300 with 1.1v is to change the driver at 10.12a
> I read somewhere that 11.1 or 11.1 hotfix  render some errors on some cards, so i will try that and post here.



I'm using those 10.12 11.1a drivers... Nothing weird going on here in the artifacts department...



manofthem said:


> Just going to throw this out there. In Trixx settings, is the setting checked to apply settings to both cards?  That should apply your fan curve to both....



When "Synchronize Cards in Multi-GPU config" is enabled (and should stay enabled at all times when using CFX) then both cards are handled at the same time, in every setting you use...


----------



## dulemk (Jan 30, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> I'm using those 10.12 11.1a drivers... Nothing weird going on here in the artifacts department...



I'v tried 10.12a, and now i know that i did not have luck with this card, i just cant increase the voltage at all.

So now i'm using my bios just unlocked at 840/1325 and i'm quite happy with this setup, so for the further notice i officially give up.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 31, 2011)

Edit: I erased my comment because it was incorrect thinking.


----------



## manofthem (Jan 31, 2011)

Edit to make a long story short: 
My XFX card was at 950/1450@1.25v and was crashing in all games. After some message around, it looks like my XFX card can't go past 1435 on the memory. 1440 and it crashes on me.  So now back up and running without crashes in games again at 930/1435@1.25v. Now I need to see how high I can get the gpu at that voltage. 

Any idea why in Furmark my GPU clocks and up and down? I'm at +20% in CCC, and it stays at the OC'd clock in gaming...  I'll look at it tomorrow.


----------



## Stranger (Jan 31, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> When "Synchronize Cards in Multi-GPU config" is enabled (and should stay enabled at all times when using CFX) then both cards are handled at the same time, in every setting you use...



Well my 2nd Card isnt adhering too the Fan Curve i have set!!!


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 31, 2011)

Stranger said:


> Well my 2nd Card isnt adhering too the Fan Curve i have set!!!



You can still change the fan settings of the 2nd card in the CCC


----------



## Stranger (Jan 31, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> You can still change the fan settings of the 2nd card in the CCC



only a select speed thou, not a curve;p


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 31, 2011)

Stranger said:


> only a select speed thou, not a curve;p



Unticking the box in front of "Enable Manual Fan Control" sets the fan to auto-react to heat fluctuations, which is the equivalent of a curve, alas a fix one... Funny enough, with me, neither the auto- or manual fan control in the CCC worked on my second card, nor did I see the temps, fan speed and used resources... In Sapphire TRIXX the curve works fine.

And since TRIXX is installed, I now all of a sudden can see the temperature, fan speed and used resource on the second card in the CCC...

Another perfect example of how the same software acts differently on different set-ups, I guess...


----------



## manofthem (Jan 31, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> Unticking the box in front of "Enable Manual Fan Control" sets the fan to auto-react to heat fluctuations, which is the equivalent of a curve, alas a fix one... Funny enough, with me, neither the auto- or manual fan control in the CCC worked on my second card, nor did I see the temps, fan speed and used resources... In Sapphire TRIXX the curve works fine.



the auto fan setting in CCC is worthless!  My temps got up to 92* in Furmark on auto, and using custom fan curve they never go above 70*.


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 31, 2011)

manofthem said:


> the auto fan setting in CCC is worthless!  My temps got up to 92* in Furmark on auto, and using custom fan curve they never go above 70*.



Maybe you've got to many tinkering programs installed which conflict with each other... With me, everything works fine with just Sapphire Trixx and the CCC. So, saying CCC is worthless is just an expression of frustration, I presume. There's a huge difference between a worthless program and one not working for you specifically.

Not going to claim CCC is the most magnificent software in the world either, of course, but still...


----------



## BZB (Jan 31, 2011)

manofthem said:


> the auto fan setting in CCC is worthless!  My temps got up to 92* in Furmark on auto, and using custom fan curve they never go above 70*.



That's because both Nvidia and AMD have sacrificed cooling in return for a quiet fan curve. These chips are supposed to be good for 100 degrees centigrade, and that is only a problem if you're overclocking, flashed to higher voltage, etc.  Most people would not put up with these fans running over 40 percent even under load, as they are just too noisy.


----------



## mm540 (Jan 31, 2011)

Hello.  I am new to this forum and would like to know what the latest information is on the 6950 unlock.  Are there many failures with cards after flashing has been done for say 3 to 4 weeks, or are they running fine.  I am deciding whether to purchase one of the 6950 HIS cards.  HIS also has a card on newegg with a default clock of 840 core with the different memory timings.  It costs 30.00 more than the stock card.  Is it worth the extra money?


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 31, 2011)

mm540 said:


> Hello.  I am new to this forum and would like to know what the latest information is on the 6950 unlock.  Are there many failures with cards after flashing has been done for say 3 to 4 weeks, or are they running fine.  I am deciding whether to purchase one of the 6950 HIS cards.  HIS also has a card on newegg with a default clock of 840 core with the same memory timings.  It costs 30.00 more than the stock card.  Is it worth the extra money?



Welcome to TPU! Well, my card has not failed or had issue yet, it is a Gigabyte 6950 running ASUS 6970 @ 900 core 1250mhz ram. It is not yet clear what the failure rate is (at least not to me). Keep in mind they are releasing an updated 6950 soon that you cannot unlock. So if you want a flash-able card get it quick.

As for the extra OC on the card I would say no, buy the brand you like/whats affordable and overclock it yourself, it sounds like you want to overclock it anyway.


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 31, 2011)

mm540 said:


> Thanks for your reply.  I plan to pick one up at the end of this week.  Hopefully the stock levels on flashable cards will still be available.  Did you have to make any voltage adjustments or does the flash control that?



I defiantly did not have to but when I did I got a performance increase. If you look at the first post in this thread W1zz recorded the performance impact that upping the voltage has. The one thing I noticed was at default I can run my card up to around 910 core without issue, if I go higher and I don't increase the voltage +20% my card crash (driver failure in windows, not a hard crash) on extended gaming sessions. I am thrilled that it runs fine @ 900 1250 though. I don't push it farther than that unless I am in 3dmark really.


----------



## mm540 (Jan 31, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> I defiantly did not have to but when I did I got a performance increase. If you look at the first post in this thread W1zz recorded the performance impact that upping the voltage has. The one thing I noticed was at default I can run my card up to around 910 core without issue, if I go higher and I don't increase the voltage +20% my card crash (driver failure in windows, not a hard crash) on extended gaming sessions. I am thrilled that it runs fine @ 900 1250 though. I don't push it farther than that unless I am in 3dmark really.



That is good to know.  I have been reading for a few days about this and my main concern is overtime what the effects are.  From youtube to internet forums there are those who donot like the idea of flashing and those who look at this another way to get more fps for only a few dollars spent.  Since these cards are basically all the same I am looking for the one with the best rebate cost, 289.99 or 299.99 does not matter.  I am not willing to pay for the 570's.  I like the cards but not the price.  Thanks for your help.


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 31, 2011)

mm540 said:


> Hello.  I am new to this forum and would like to know what the latest information is on the 6950 unlock.  Are there many failures with cards after flashing has been done for say 3 to 4 weeks, or are they running fine.  I am deciding whether to purchase one of the 6950 HIS cards.  HIS also has a card on newegg with a default clock of 840 core with the different memory timings.  It costs 30.00 more than the stock card.  Is it worth the extra money?



Looking around different forums, the "failure" rate is less than 5%. Failure is also a big word, because there's no damage done, as the cards can simply be flashed back to their original BIOS.

I myself have flashed both my Sapphire 6950's witth the Sapphire 6970 BIOS and my cards have been running at 900MHz/1375MHz since.

I have slightly overclocked the cards to 920/1425, and they do fine in MSI Afterburner benchmarks (duration: 1 minute) but the driver crashes in the 4th test in 3DMark11...

Am going to test with upping the voltage slightly, but that's gonna be later this week as I need to rebuild two computers to have a games-only machine...


----------



## GSG-9 (Jan 31, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> Looking around different forums, the "failure" rate is less than 5%. Failure is also a big word, because there's no damage done, as the cards can simply be flashed back to their original BIOS.



For some, there are also people whos cards have unrepairable damage now. They have artifacts after flashing back because the 6950 uses T2C memory chips, which are not the same memory chips that the 6970 uses, and the theory is that the 6950 has different resistors and therefore when your giving your card a certain voltage via a bios made for a card with different ram you are not giving it as much power as you think you are. 
This thread is over 30 pages long now and it has been mentioned a few times, it just gets lost.


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 31, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> For some, there are also people whos cards have unrepairable damage now. They have artifacts after flashing back because the 6950 uses T2C memory chips, which are not the same memory chips that the 6970 uses, and the theory is that the 6950 has different resistors and therefore when your giving your card a certain voltage via a bios made for a card with different ram you are not giving it as much power as you think you are.
> This thread is over 30 pages long now and it has been mentioned a few times, it just gets lost.



That is something which has to be investigated. First of all because the first batch of 6950 cards ARE 6970 ones but with a BIOS which downgrades the card and a 6-pins PCIe connector replacing one of the original 8-pins connectors (which is no issue as the 2 added wires on an 8-pins connector are both groundings).

So, there's a possibility there that the cards who show artifacts after having been flashed, would have croaked anyway, even when keeping the oiginal BIOS. That is of course guesswork, as we'll never know if that was the case...

But seeing the amount of cards on which the flashing works flawlessly, I surmise that the failed ones are just bad luck and had issues even before the flashing...


----------



## manofthem (Jan 31, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> Maybe you've got to many tinkering programs installed which conflict with each other... With me, everything works fine with just Sapphire Trixx and the CCC. So, saying CCC is worthless is just an expression of frustration, I presume. There's a huge difference between a worthless program and one not working for you specifically.
> 
> Not going to claim CCC is the most magnificent software in the world either, of course, but still...



Okay, maybe not completely worthless.  It does it's job credibly if your aim is not to OC at all. But it's not just frustration either.  I played around with my card in CCC before I decided to OC and definitely before upping voltage. I've had several AMD cards, and I never cared for the auto fan setting even on my 5770's CF. I would definitely sacrifice some noise level for a cooler card, particularly while OCing.


----------



## JimmyJump (Jan 31, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Okay, maybe not completely worthless.  It does it's job credibly if your aim is not to OC at all. But it's not just frustration either.  I played around with my card in CCC before I decided to OC and definitely before upping voltage. I've had several AMD cards, and I never cared for the auto fan setting even on my 5770's CF. I would definitely sacrifice some noise level for a cooler card, particularly while OCing.



You are of course correct that the CCC is of little use when wanting to overclock. For example, in the CCC I can hardly get my cards above 900/1400MHz, while in MSI Afterburner, I'm now at 930/1475... Unstable in 3DMark11 though, but that's something I'll have to check later this week...


----------



## chevy350 (Jan 31, 2011)

Figured why not, so far so good. Picked up extra shaders and points in benchies and CCC works fine, left clocks at 880/1375  And now it can be confirmed it works for the VisionTek 6950


----------



## Whoops! (Feb 1, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> You are of course correct that the CCC is of little use when wanting to overclock. For example, in the CCC I can hardly get my cards above 900/1400MHz, while in MSI Afterburner, I'm now at 930/1475... Unstable in 3DMark11 though, but that's something I'll have to check later this week...



I've had my shader unlocked 6950 up to 950/1500 (via Trixx) +20% and got a graphics score of 5517 in 3DMark11 :-

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/466903;jses...m11/466903?key=cHJXzV7BuQKxmtW48MAtEzzNNQnFKe

but I have added a little extra voltage thru RBE - I've upped vid 3 and vid 4 to 1150


----------



## manofthem (Feb 1, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> You are of course correct that the CCC is of little use when wanting to overclock. For example, in the CCC I can hardly get my cards above 900/1400MHz, while in MSI Afterburner, I'm now at 930/1475... Unstable in 3DMark11 though, but that's something I'll have to check later this week...



My card was unstable at 950/1450, and it was because my memory couldn't be clocked that high. Looks like 1435 was my max, 1440 would crash. But my gpu clock is at 950@1.250v and stable in 3DMark 11 and in Crysis for an hour. Try just lowering the memory a little bit, might work.


----------



## Flak (Feb 1, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Edit to make a long story short:
> My XFX card was at 950/1450@1.25v and was crashing in all games. After some message around, it looks like my XFX card can't go past 1435 on the memory. 1440 and it crashes on me.  So now back up and running without crashes in games again at 930/1435@1.25v. Now I need to see how high I can get the gpu at that voltage.
> 
> Any idea why in Furmark my GPU clocks and up and down? I'm at +20% in CCC, and it stays at the OC'd clock in gaming...  I'll look at it tomorrow.



When trying to test stability in furmark/kombuster my card also goes up and down with clocks, regardless of bios or powertune setting.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 1, 2011)

Flak said:


> When trying to test stability in furmark/kombuster my card also goes up and down with clocks, regardless of bios or powertune setting.



Yeah, it's weird. Today I did a test I Furmark, and the gpu was up and down. It looked like the +20% wasn't on so i put it on. Then it stayed stable. I don't get it because it does and sometimes it doesn't.

Edit: after seeing it go up and down and seeing the +20% on, I did a quick run on 3DMark11. When it was over, it was back to 0 on the power control, even though it held steady at 950 on the gpu clock. So after that, I put it back to +20%. I did another Furmark run and it held steady at 950 too. Very strange. Anyone know why it's not working even when it says it's at the +20?


----------



## WhiteNoise (Feb 1, 2011)

Flashed my XFX 6950 with the XFX 6970 this past Friday night and all is working well. Running stock 6970 clocks and using the +20% with no issues at all. Saw a really nice performance increase going from the 6950 to 6970 as well. Perfect!


----------



## manofthem (Feb 1, 2011)

WhiteNoise said:


> Flashed my XFX 6950 with the XFX 6970 this past Friday night and all is working well. Running stock 6970 clocks and using the +20% with no issues at all. Saw a really nice performance increase going from the 6950 to 6970 as well. Perfect!



Very awesome. I have an XFX too, but am on the modded bios. I never had any problems with the 6970 flash.


----------



## Capla (Feb 1, 2011)

*pls. help me somebody!* I can't flash my Gigabyte 6950 to 6970. "It says cannot erase rom" than I do all that mentioned in that post  How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695... I rename the bios file to unlock.bin, and when I run atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin nothing happens. why?  it's completes in a half and with no messages


----------



## dulemk (Feb 1, 2011)

But first do you use this command??

atiwinflash -unlockrom 0


----------



## Capla (Feb 1, 2011)

*dulemk* yes, sure. I got no message at all in the program and cmd screen
here the vidio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOx-tqsnduk


----------



## Wijkert (Feb 1, 2011)

Capla said:


> *dulemk* yes, sure. I got no message at all in the program and cmd screen
> here the vidio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOx-tqsnduk



Are you running cmd as administrator? Have you tried using the script, instead of typing it manualy in cmd?


----------



## chevy350 (Feb 1, 2011)

I used this http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html from the op and it worked like a charm, just extracted everything to desktop and ran the .bat file and it did everything else


----------



## Capla (Feb 1, 2011)

Wijkert said:


> Are you running cmd as administrator? Have you tried using the script, instead of typing it manualy in cmd?



yes cmd running as admin. what script?
*chevy350* it's the same.


----------



## Wijkert (Feb 1, 2011)

Capla said:


> what script?



This one.


----------



## Capla (Feb 1, 2011)

Wijkert said:


> This one.



it's the same, didn't help. damn it  I used to flash it yesterday, but when I try overclock CPU, my PC is stuck so I have to drop bios on motherboard with CMOS Battery. and then obviously bios in video card are erase to default. Now I can't flash it back to 6970. I don't know what is wrong now... sh.t


----------



## Mark22 (Feb 1, 2011)

Did you run as administrator?

Is your graphics card in the first pcie slot?

Stop oc'ing cpu and gpu at the same time! how would you know which is causing the unstability?

Clearing cmos on the mobo will not effect the bios on the graphics card at all, it sounds like you are new to overclocking because that's not how to oc a cpu by clearing cmos each failure. Do one at a time and follow a guide for your system.


----------



## DJManiac (Feb 1, 2011)

MSI Afterburner 2.1.0 Beta 7 is ready, changes list includes:

- the official support of GTX 560 Ti / GT 440.
- Now Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 runtime libraries are included in distributive
- Hardware database is now configured to force fan duty cycle monitoring to be performed via slower AMD ADL SDK path on AMD RADEON 4870 X2 and 5790 series cards
- Changed way of unlocking unofficial overclocking on AMD graphics cards to make overclocking newbies think harder before enabling this functionality blindly and coming to support forums with fake bugreports
- Added alternate unofficial overclocking path allowing keeping PowerPlay active on some modern ASIC families during overclocking
- Fan control settings are now being forcibly reapplied after changing the clocks via unofficial overclocking path to bypass bug in AMD driver causin the fan control settings to be reset to defaults after programming PowerPlay table

To enable unofficial overclocking in this version it is necessary to:

- Set UnofficialOverclockingEULA field to the following text: I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
- Set UnofficialOverclockingMode to 1 to keep PowerPlay active (may not work on old ASICs), 2 to traditionally disable PowerPlay or to 0 to temporary disable unofficial overclocking path

-> http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=3870536


----------



## Capla (Feb 1, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> Did you run as administrator?
> 
> Is your graphics card in the first pcie slot?
> 
> ...


Yes I run cmd as admin of course! I have only 1 PCI-E slot. I try to flash via bios - atiflash didn't see adapter at all. try gigabyte vga_utility_atbios it can flash bios from the same VGA only. all is vain... I'am a little desperate now :shadedshu


----------



## dulemk (Feb 1, 2011)

Try with 
atiwinflash -unlockrom 1

If it shows something than ok.

Or maybe you should just try atiwinflash -unlockrom because you have just one slot.

P.S. But I don't know if that can make thing worst.


----------



## Capla (Feb 1, 2011)

dulemk said:


> Try with
> atiwinflash -unlockrom 1
> 
> If it shows something than ok.
> ...



dev. number is 0 because its only one. it's not work too...


----------



## JimmyJump (Feb 1, 2011)

Capla said:


> *dulemk* yes, sure. I got no message at all in the program and cmd screen
> here the vidio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOx-tqsnduk



Have you made sure that the GPU's BIOS switch is set to the number one position? Mine came out of the box set on number two...


----------



## Wijkert (Feb 1, 2011)

Capla said:


> Yes I run cmd as admin of course!


 If you use the script instead of manualy via cmd, run it as admin also.


----------



## Nakox (Feb 1, 2011)

Sapphire 6950 flashed to 6970 ! Everything is ok ! Thanks a lot !


----------



## hanti (Feb 1, 2011)

hanti said:


> hello
> ive been reading this forum for a long time but now i need to ask you about something
> 
> i think using 6970 bios to mod ours 6950 card is unlocking something more than only shaders
> ...



ah noone can check this


----------



## Capla (Feb 1, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> Have you made sure that the GPU's BIOS switch is set to the number one position? Mine came out of the box set on number two...
> 
> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v326/JimmyJump/Gamespot/techPowerUp/biosswitch.jpg



I've try N2, N1 pos> don't work.


----------



## DJManiac (Feb 1, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> MSI Afterburner 2.1.0 Beta 7 is ready



Juhu! Works like a charm here!

*Finally ONE Tool for all:*
Overclocking over CCC limits, FAN curve AND PowerPlay 2D/3D/UVD clocking!!!


----------



## JimmyJump (Feb 1, 2011)

Wijkert said:


> If you use the script instead of manualy via cmd, run it as admin also.


I use Windows 7 with UAC turned off permanently, and when I use the "Run" command box, I always get the "This task will be created with Adminstrative Privileges" underneath...


----------



## GSG-9 (Feb 1, 2011)

Capla said:


> Yes I run cmd as admin of course!



This may be a stupid question but have you clicked on the .bat file inside that download, clicked "run as administrator" and see if it worked? Sometimes people don't realize the .bat file is in the download.


----------



## JimmyJump (Feb 1, 2011)

Capla said:


> *pls. help me somebody!* I can't flash my Gigabyte 6950 to 6970. "It says cannot erase rom" than I do all that mentioned in that post  How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695... I rename the bios file to unlock.bin, and when I run atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin nothing happens. why?  it's completes in a half and with no messages



What is the exact type of your video card, Capla? If it's an originally factory overclocked edition, then you cannot flash the card as it has a BIOS which was already altered... Only original reference cards can be flashed.


----------



## GSG-9 (Feb 1, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> ...then you cannot flash the card as it has a BIOS which was already altered... Only original reference cards can be flashed.



What? Thats not true. Where do you hear things like that? ALL 6950 cards released before the soon to be released reduced price 1gb/2gb revisions will work.
I can't say if the 2gb cards on the egg right now will work, I would think they are still the old versions as the item number for the gigabyte card is the same as when I bought mine a month ago. I know the 1gb xfx will not flash.



W1zzard said:


> Apparently currently shipping Radeon HD 6950 cards from all manufacturers - which actually are all the same card with different sticker - have their shaders locked via the BIOS method, so we can exploit it easily.


----------



## arroyo (Feb 1, 2011)

Some HD6950 2GB don't unlock their shaders:
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=2004&pageID=10186


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## JimmyJump (Feb 1, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> What? Thats not true. Where do you hear things like that? ALL 6950 cards released before the soon to be released reduced price 1gb/2gb revisions will work.
> I can't say if the 2gb cards on the egg right now will work, I would think they are still the old versions as the item number for the gigabyte card is the same as when I bought mine a month ago. I know the 1gb xfx will not flash.



The Asus 6950 doesn't let itself flash, because it has a factory overclock. Only cards with the reference BIOS can be flashed. Gigabyte has a factory overclock as well, so no reference BIOS, that's why I asked...

*EDIT*

Seems that the factory overclocked Gigabyte 6950 is a 1GB card, so Capla should be in the clear...


----------



## GSG-9 (Feb 1, 2011)

arroyo said:


> Some HD6950 2GB don't unlock their shaders:
> http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=2004&pageID=10186



I don't trust that bjorn3d tried all the methods to unlock their 6950. Although it is a possibility that this is a NEW 2Gb (as said revision) model that can no longer be flashed. My speculation above is that some of the cards at new egg are still old cards. My logic being that the model number on the Gigabyte card at new egg is the same as it was when I bought my card a month ago, which makes me think they can still be flashed. 



JimmyJump said:


> Seems that the factory overclocked Gigabyte 6950 is a 1GB card, so Capla should be in the clear...



Yeah its all the new ones that can't; the next two months are going to be confusing for people unlocking these.


----------



## arroyo (Feb 1, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> The Asus 6950 doesn't let itself flash, because it has a factory overclock. Only cards with the reference BIOS can be flashed.


I have Asus HD6950 2GB with stock 810/1250 clocks and I have no problems with unlocking additional shaders although I did not use HD6970 bios. Still I'm damn happy about this card.

One question to you, guys: What is your max stable GPU OC on HD6950 with 1.1V on GPU (stock voltage)?


----------



## GSG-9 (Feb 1, 2011)

arroyo said:


> One question to you, guys: What is your max stable GPU OC on HD6950 with 1.1V on GPU (stock voltage)?



900 core for extended use, I don't oc my ram.


----------



## yonef (Feb 1, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> *Finally ONE Tool for all:*
> Overclocking over CCC limits, FAN curve AND PowerPlay 2D/3D/UVD clocking!!!



Can you give me a quick tip how can I set UVD clocks ?


----------



## manofthem (Feb 1, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> 900 core for extended use, I don't oc my ram.



I couldn't hit 900 on stock voltage. I think I had to go to 1.15v.


----------



## ghisisan (Feb 1, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> MSI Afterburner 2.1.0 Beta 7 is ready, changes list includes:
> 
> - the official support of GTX 560 Ti / GT 440.
> - Now Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 runtime libraries are included in distributive
> ...



Thanks man!
Now I am running with unlocked shaders and 890/1350 at 1.175 Vcore and custom fan curve, all within one tool!!! (+20% from CCC). Have been struggling until now with trixx, Smartdoctor, RBE and stuff - not anymore! 

I have an ASUS6950(unlocked shaders BIOS), and the speeds above are the stock speeds for an ASUS6970.

It's probably not the max I can get for clock speeds but it is indeed very stable, and it really meets all my current needs.


Cheers!


----------



## GSG-9 (Feb 1, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I couldn't hit 900 on stock voltage. I think I had to go to 1.15v.



Edit: Yup its at 1175 volts. It starts crashing @ 920, so I leave it at 900.


----------



## Mark22 (Feb 1, 2011)

arroyo said:


> I have Asus HD6950 2GB with stock 810/1250 clocks and I have no problems with unlocking additional shaders although I did not use HD6970 bios. Still I'm damn happy about this card.
> 
> One question to you, guys: What is your max stable GPU OC on HD6950 with 1.1V on GPU (stock voltage)?



I think I was doing 880/1300 also on an Asus card (never stressed the memory).

Now I'm using a unlocked Asus 6950 bios that also has core voltage at 1.175 (was mentioned earlier in thread) and run at 920/1480 for every day 3D.

The core is identical to 6970 and can probably easily take more voltage than this. In furmark my card never reaches above 70c at these speeds using a Zalman VF-3000A cooler. So if trying yourself beware of that, I also have a modded Antec 902 case with very good fans and airflow (quiet though)


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 1, 2011)

Im still looking for ATIFLASH Version 3.85 ppl!   I need it asap please


----------



## ranom (Feb 2, 2011)

arroyo said:


> One question to you, guys: What is your max stable GPU OC on HD6950 with 1.1V on GPU (stock voltage)?



I could only go up to 860 on my unlocked XFX 6950 
While it aint that bad I think I can say mine uses a 6950 binned GPU, which is a liiiittle bit disappointing considering the Cayman cores were rumored to have good yield and that AMD had too many cores that could be binned 6970s. But then again I NEVER get lucky so I should be happy the shaders were unlocked w/o a problem


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 2, 2011)

ranom said:


> I could only go up to 860 on my unlocked XFX 6950
> While it aint that bad I think I can say mine uses a 6950 binned GPU, which is a liiiittle bit disappointing considering the Cayman cores were rumored to have good yield and that AMD had too many cores that could be binned 6970s. But then again I NEVER get lucky so I should be happy the shaders were unlocked w/o a problem


Thats XFX for ya bro! sorry but I've been there and done that. The only thing XFX is good at is RMA and thats it!

 I run this 24/7 no problem on my HIS card... 

And this is no voltage bump and power controll settings @ 0%


----------



## manofthem (Feb 2, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Thats XFX for ya bro! sorry but I've been there and done that. The only thing XFX is good at is RMA and thats it!
> 
> I run this 24/7 no problem on my HIS card...
> 
> ...



So you're running the 6970 bios OC'd to 990/1450?!!! On stock 1.175 voltage?  Man I need to get rid of my XFX and get an HIS!  those are some crazy numbers. I'm jealous, well done.


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 2, 2011)

manofthem said:


> So you're running the 6970 bios OC'd to 990/1450?!!! On stock 1.175 voltage?  Man I need to get rid of my XFX and get an HIS!  those are some crazy numbers. I'm jealous, well done.


Look at my gpu screen shot, look at the Default clock speeds vs the Overclocked speeds. The Gpu speeds are stock 6950 speeds.... not the 6970 speeds.
And.... Umm, NO. I'm using the HIS Bios just to unlock the shaders, that's all 

Im not going to kill this card due to memory over volt as others have done in the past by using True 6970 Bios's... I have a great gpu and Im keeping it that way


----------



## manofthem (Feb 2, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Look at my gpu screen shot, look at the Default clock speeds vs the Overclocked speeds. The Gpu speeds are stock 6950 speeds.... not the 6970 speeds.
> And.... Umm, NO. I'm using the HIS Bios just to unlock the shaders, that's all
> 
> Im not going to kill this card due to memory over volt as others have done in the past by using True 6970 Bios's... I have a great gpu and Im keeping it that way



I hear what you're saying about not killing the card.  But the default clocks in your gpuz shot say 880/1375, which are the clocks of the 6970 bios, if I'm not mistaken. That's why I thought you were that bios... Either way, it looks good.


----------



## DJManiac (Feb 2, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Thats XFX for ya bro! sorry but I've been there and done that. The only thing XFX is good at is RMA and thats it!
> 
> I run this 24/7 no problem on my HIS card...
> 
> And this is no voltage bump and power controll settings @ 0%



It looks like that you have also a NVidea card installed because PhysX is enabeld in GPU-Z.... Then a 6 Core.... And then 990/1450....

And ONLY P5700 3DMark11 ???

Much too less then!!!!  It looks like that your card throttles down! Whatch your card clocks while benching (eg. log it) - Try with Power sliders 12%-20%... 

And let us know if then the card is stable with only 1175 mV under really full load...

And manofthen is right - If you are running 880/1375 default then its 6970 BIOS!

Never heard about a card which ist stable 990/1450 without voltage adjustment... But if its so its one if the best HD6900 chip I heard of...

Guys, dont take this example to compare it with your card...

This ist with 1000/1500 and Sys see below in CPU-Z specs


----------



## yonef (Feb 2, 2011)

ranom said:


> I could only go up to 860 on my unlocked XFX 6950
> While it aint that bad I think I can say mine uses a 6950 binned GPU, which is a liiiittle bit disappointing considering the Cayman cores were rumored to have good yield and that AMD had too many cores that could be binned 6970s. But then again I NEVER get lucky so I should be happy the shaders were unlocked w/o a problem



It is not binned 6950 GPU! You disregard the fact that you are running it on 1.1v while STOCK 6970 has 1.175v. If you up your voltage to 1.175 you'll get  far beyound 6970 stock clocks. Every 6900 series card can run 880Mhz on 1.175v which again is the default voltage on 6970 bios. Even, lots of 6970s won't run 880Mhz on 1.1v !


----------



## arroyo (Feb 2, 2011)

ranom said:


> I could only go up to 860 on my unlocked XFX 6950
> While it aint that bad I think I can say mine uses a 6950 binned GPU, which is a liiiittle bit disappointing considering the Cayman cores were rumored to have good yield and that AMD had too many cores that could be binned 6970s. But then again I NEVER get lucky so I should be happy the shaders were unlocked w/o a problem



Nothing to worry man. I was asking because my ASUS overclocks to 860 MHz on stock voltrage (1.1V). On 1.175 I can do 910 MHz


----------



## JimmyJump (Feb 2, 2011)

yonef said:


> It is not binned 6950 GPU! You disregard the fact that you are running it on 1.1v while STOCK 6970 has 1.175v. If you up your voltage to 1.175 you'll get  far beyound 6970 stock clocks. Every 6900 series card can run 880Mhz on 1.175v which again is the default voltage on 6970 bios. Even, lots of 6970s won't run 880Mhz on 1.1v !



Errr... 880MHz Core is the default speed of a 6970 card...


----------



## JimmyJump (Feb 2, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Look at my gpu screen shot, look at the Default clock speeds vs the Overclocked speeds. The Gpu speeds are stock 6950 speeds.... not the 6970 speeds.
> And.... Umm, NO. I'm using the HIS Bios just to unlock the shaders, that's all
> 
> Im not going to kill this card due to memory over volt as others have done in the past by using True 6970 Bios's... I have a great gpu and Im keeping it that way



The stock speed in GPU-Z is that of the 6970. A 6950 has 800MHz/1250MHz as stock...


----------



## yonef (Feb 2, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> Errr... 880MHz Core is the default speed of a 6970 card...



Um.. we all know that. I still don't get your point.


----------



## GSG-9 (Feb 2, 2011)

JimmyJump said:


> Errr... 880MHz Core is the default speed of a 6970 card...





yonef said:


> Um.. we all know that. I still don't get your point.



Your missing each others points, Yonef was saying a 6970 wont get 880 @ 1.1 V as it needs 1.175V so why would a 6950 get 880mhz without the voltage bump.


----------



## yonef (Feb 2, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> Your missing each others points, Yonef was saying a 6970 wont get 880 @ 1.1 V as it needs 1.175V so why would a 6950 get 880mhz without the voltage bump.



exactly what I meant


----------



## Mark22 (Feb 2, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> It looks like that you have also a NVidea card installed because PhysX is enabeld in GPU-Z.... Then a 6 Core.... And then 990/1450....
> 
> And ONLY P5700 3DMark11 ???
> 
> ...



Can I ask what voltages you are using, core and mem, and did you use RBE to set them? I'd like to bump my core up to 1000 and see what temps I can maintain with my cooler.

Cheers.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 2, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> MSI Afterburner 2.1.0 Beta 7 is ready, changes list includes:
> 
> - the official support of GTX 560 Ti / GT 440.
> - Now Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 runtime libraries are included in distributive
> ...



Has anyone used this yet? If so, is it a good way to overclock and increase the voltage to say ...~1.250v?   It seems like this would be ideal because the reported bugs seem to be getting worked out. Unfortunately, my Internet is down and can't try this until the 10th. Stupid AT&T!!!


----------



## Sebascenso (Feb 2, 2011)

Which voltage vid do I have to modify using RBE to give my sapphire 6950, 1.175v? I have a mess in my head, because I think I read that the sapphire bios uses differently the vids.


----------



## obsoletepower (Feb 2, 2011)

Well my card is fubar'd. I initially replaced the bios with the 6970 bios and kept trying to make it work. I then reverted back to the original bios and just did the shaders unlock. I have to mention that while I had it overclocked, I kept the fan speed at 100% to minimize the chance of ruining it. I am pretty sure it was the memory that I messed up. The card was noticeably screwed. I had constant game freezing, artifacts, driver crashes etc. It used to take a few reboots before I could play a game. Eventually it got to a point where any game I would start would cause the computer to lock up. I put in my HD4890 and the problems all go away.

I have RMA'd the card. I expect a replacement soon. Hopefully this one has the T2C chips and will allow me to overclock it without ruining it.


----------



## Mark22 (Feb 2, 2011)

Sebascenso said:


> Which voltage vid do I have to modify using RBE to give my sapphire 6950, 1.175v? I have a mess in my head, because I think I read that the sapphire bios uses differently the vids.



In the modded Asus one I'm using (I didn't mod it, was posted somewhere else), both vid 3 and 4 are set to 1.175, seems to do the job for me.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 2, 2011)

Sebascenso said:


> Which voltage vid do I have to modify using RBE to give my sapphire 6950, 1.175v? I have a mess in my head, because I think I read that the sapphire bios uses differently the vids.



It depends on what card you have, either VID3 or VID4.  I have an XFX and ViD3 is the one I change to adjust voltage. I believe someone else with a Gigabyte card used VID4. So it may take some messing around with. When trying to figure it out, I adjusted VID4 first, and everything kept crashing, couldn't even get into a game or even benches. So if it's crashif like woah, it's probably the other value.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 2, 2011)

obsoletepower said:


> Well my card is fubar'd. I initially replaced the bios with the 6970 bios and kept trying to make it work. I then reverted back to the original bios and just did the shaders unlock. I have to mention that while I had it overclocked, I kept the fan speed at 100% to minimize the chance of ruining it. I am pretty sure it was the memory that I messed up. The card was noticeably screwed. I had constant game freezing, artifacts, driver crashes etc. It used to take a few reboots before I could play a game. Eventually it got to a point where any game I would start would cause the computer to lock up. I put in my HD4890 and the problems all go away.
> 
> I have RMA'd the card. I expect a replacement soon. Hopefully this one has the T2C chips and will allow me to overclock it without ruining it.



That sucks. If you flash with a different bios, do they know it or not?  I hope they cover it!!!  When you get your new card, are you going to run it a little more gently?  what were your clocks/voltage at?


----------



## dulemk (Feb 2, 2011)

I just record it now my artifact problem with MSIA.

Run vantage at 900/1300 with 1.2v on my unlocked 6950.

Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiLl68BNHCA

And why at that voltage vantage stuck?? 
A tough all chips can at least work at 1.175 on 900 core without a problem.


----------



## Stranger (Feb 2, 2011)

first card is 450/1250 idle
2nd card is 250/150 idle..

any idea how i can make my first card drop down while its idling?
its cooking itself for nothing!

or does one card have to be set at the above speeds for normal desktop usage???
(running in xfire)


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 2, 2011)

manofthem said:


> So you're running the 6970 bios OC'd to 990/1450?!!! On stock 1.175 voltage?  Man I need to get rid of my XFX and get an HIS!  those are some crazy numbers. I'm jealous, well done.


Shit, just looking at some stuff here and yes I was running the 6970 Sapphire bios.
I need to pay better attention and doucument my tests a little closer.

Sorry If I miss lead ya but I only ran one run in fear of hurting the memory and instead Im NOW using the 6950 modded bios for the unlocked shaders only..

Sorry


----------



## Mark22 (Feb 2, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Shit, just looking at some stuff here and yes I was running the 6970 Sapphire bios.
> I need to pay better attention and doucument my tests a little closer.
> 
> Sorry If I miss lead ya but I only ran one run in fear of hurting the memory and instead Im NOW using the 6950 modded bios for the unlocked shaders only..
> ...



That makes more sense, the memory doesn't seem to need the extra juice anyway so no need for a 6970 bios. What vcore did you need for 990?


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 2, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> That makes more sense, the memory doesn't seem to need the extra juice anyway so no need for a 6970 bios. What vcore did you need for 990?


I believe it was set @ 1200v 1.2v in afterburner

I'll run it all again this weekend to be sure and post my results.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 2, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> I believe it was set @ 1200v 1.2v in afterburner
> 
> I'll run it all again this weekend to be sure and post my results.



That's a pretty awesome OC, especially for the voltage. I may need to give MSI AB another go. When I was using it before, I couldn't get past 930@1.2v. I'm going to give it another shot, using the new beta 7 AB and see what I can manage.


----------



## DJManiac (Feb 2, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> Can I ask what voltages you are using, core and mem, and did you use RBE to set them? I'd like to bump my core up to 1000 and see what temps I can maintain with my cooler.
> 
> Cheers.



Arg... Missed it to gave the Info in my first post 

I'am now 24/7   1000/1500   XFX 6950 @ ASUS 6970 @ 1350 mV twitch @ Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 5870 (modded) - max 65°C (only Furmark full load) @ 80-90% FAN (still whisper-quiet)
In Gaming/Benching cold 55°C @ 50% FAN (can not hear the FAN)

btw: in 2D (250/150) I can turn the FAN completly OFF (under 10% FAN in AB the FAN stands still) and have only 43°C - So in 2D passive cooling 

Roomtemp was around 24°C

Fully stable with Furmark (all 3 option on) (30mins), Kombustor (30mis DX11 and OpenGL3), 3DMark11 (benching and Demoloop 30min) and Gaming (min. 3 hours straight)

@ 1300mV it is also Gaming and Bench stable but Furmark didnt made it...

mV set in RBE and FAN curve with new Afterburner Beta 7 (Juhu Powerplay and OC work together)

Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 5870 @ 6950/6970 Infos:
http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f136/arctic-cooling-accelero-xtreme-plus-auf-hd6950-777503.html   (sorry only in German!)


----------



## wmblalock (Feb 3, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> Arg... Missed it to gave the Info in my first post
> 
> I'am now 24/7   1000/1500   XFX 6950 @ ASUS 6970 @ 1350 mV twitch @ Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 5870 (modded) - max 65°C (only Furmark full load) @ 80-90% FAN (still whisper-quiet)
> In Gaming/Benching cold 55°C @ 50% FAN (can not hear the FAN)
> ...



Hey, what memory chips did your XFX come with? The normal 6950 ones, or the faster 6970 memory chips?


----------



## shea1980 (Feb 3, 2011)

So i have just bought a hd6950
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-...mhz-gddr5-gpu-800mhz-1408-cores-dvi-mhdmi-mdp
Will i be able to unlock it to a 6970?thanks


----------



## DJManiac (Feb 3, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> Hey, what memory chips did your XFX come with? The normal 6950 ones, or the faster 6970 memory chips?



Wrote it here already:  How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

T2C -> seams to be "normal" 6950er


----------



## DJManiac (Feb 3, 2011)

shea1980 said:


> So i have just bought a hd6950
> http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-...mhz-gddr5-gpu-800mhz-1408-cores-dvi-mhdmi-mdp
> Will i be able to unlock it to a 6970?thanks



*Probably NOT! Because of the red custom PCB !!!!*

Only the most of the original ATI PCBs (black) are able to do it...

But those custom PCBs are still not well known... Think nobody can say it for sure!


----------



## nitoxys (Feb 3, 2011)

So... I bought one of the XFX 6950 1GB cards and flashed it to the XFX 6970 Bios, and of course it didn't work. I had to at least give it a shot. Should I try the stock bios for the 6970? I looked at the bios through RBE and there is no way to modify the amount of RAM. This card looks like it's a reference 6950 with less RAM.


----------



## nitoxys (Feb 3, 2011)

bebyy said:


> Yup, I have a CM Storm Scout and I didn't check if the card would fit into the case. Then when i tried it didn't. So i had to take my hard drive cage out and the bottom of my 3.5" drive bays, wells its abit altered .
> 
> Looking on buying a 600T/700D in the coming weeks, so the CM is fine for the moment.



What do you mean? Fits just fine... I have the same case as you do.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 3, 2011)

nitoxys said:


> So... I bought one of the XFX 6950 1GB cards and flashed it to the XFX 6970 Bios, and of course it didn't work. I had to at least give it a shot. Should I try the stock bios for the 6970? I looked at the bios through RBE and there is no way to modify the amount of RAM. This card looks like it's a reference 6950 with less RAM.



You should return it for a 2gb 6950. Price difference isn't too much.


----------



## hanti (Feb 3, 2011)

i have a question maybe someone can answer:

we all know how to enable additional shaders but how to enable additional texture memory units 96 vs 88 (tmus -) using 6950 bios ? if u r using 6970 bios u have all enabled but if u r using 6950 modded bios u have them locked like shaders :/ i figured it out by 3dmark vantage texture fill test, and perlin noise test

same clocks:

6970 bios: http://3dmark.com/3dmv/2889427
6950 bios: http://3dmark.com/3dmv/2896634

score is the same but look at tests texture fill, and perlin noise

and im posting about that 3rd time with no reaction, is this really not that interesting ? ;p


----------



## coldrazor (Feb 3, 2011)

nitoxys said:


> What do you mean? Fits just fine... I have the same case as you do.



I have the same case, it fits, but only if the motherboard have the pci-e slot in the first back slot of the case, if not, they don`t fit.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 3, 2011)

So let me throw down a little something:
Playing Black Ops campaign just now, right about an hour when my pc locks up, had to reset. So I check my GPU-Z log, and it was at 56*C/58% fan when it locked up. 950/1435@1.25v modded bios. I've passed 3DMark11 and Furmark tests. 

Any ideas why it happened?  Not over heating...  Maybe just too much OC?


----------



## danc (Feb 3, 2011)

The only use for Furmark IMHO is to test how your case ventilation of heat. Furmark cannot tell stability of modern 3D gaming. 

3DMark11 is not good stability test too in Performance settings. Try testing with FF14 benchmark. If total bad OC, it will lock up immediately in scene 3 or later - the ship parts. If  not very stable, it will crash after 2-3 loops. Just use 720p settings and let it loop in background while your surf TPU.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 3, 2011)

danc said:


> The only use for Furmark IMHO is to test how your case ventilation of heat. Furmark cannot tell stability of modern 3D gaming.
> 
> 3DMark11 is not good stability test too in Performance settings. Try testing with FF14 benchmark. If total bad OC, it will lock up immediately in scene 3 or later - the ship parts. If  not very stable, it will crash after 2-3 loops. Just use 720p settings and let it loop in background while your surf TPU.



Gracias for the tip. I'll check it out tomorrow and see what's going on with my OC.


----------



## remdiablo (Feb 3, 2011)

Sorry guys,may be I missing something ,but, I used a W1zzard tutorial For unlocking shaders and clocks.So my Q is- Why Voltage is not working in MSI AB,no matter if I increase V or put it down, Furmark shows the Same 1.175 V.Any idea???? may be I need just flash it to 6970 bios, to take effect? Cos at stock everything works fine, modded I lost Voltage control and can't pass CCC limit even if I enable unofficial overclocking .930/1400 this is highest I 've got stable,without Voltage increase for CF.Need advise please, GURU HELP PLEASE.


----------



## yonef (Feb 3, 2011)

hanti said:


> i have a question maybe someone can answer:
> 
> we all know how to enable additional shaders but how to enable additional texture memory units 96 vs 88 (tmus -) using 6950 bios ? if u r using 6970 bios u have all enabled but if u r using 6950 modded bios u have them locked like shaders :/ i figured it out by 3dmark vantage texture fill test, and perlin noise test
> 
> ...



This is strange. I thought that everything is unlocked. Can you PM wizzard with this question and see what he will say about this.
P.S. as for the GPU-Z it shows that texture fill rate and pixel fill rate are equal to 6970s at the same freq.


----------



## danc (Feb 3, 2011)

yonef said:


> This is strange. I thought that everything is unlocked. Can you PM wizzard with this question and see what he will say about this.
> P.S. as for the GPU-Z it shows that texture fill rate and pixel fill rate are equal to 6970s at the same freq.



Make PT to +10% to your 6950 mod. The texture fill will become same scores. 
Color fill seem to lose out 0.1~0.2 to real 6970 with no effect from PT.
PT +20% seems only increase perlin noise scores but cannot reach 6970 levels of ~190.
So just leave PT +10% for 6950 mod is optimal?   

A good reference for view.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/20126/6

I think this will make interesting research to unlocking.  Do we need to use unlock bios to activate all TMU? Or increase PT will be enough? It seem 6950 shader mod bios, the card is still different from real 6970 or even 6970 bios flash. Perhaps in the communication of power delivery by respective bios?

I have not the time to test. I hope some else can do.


----------



## icedragn43 (Feb 3, 2011)

Tried searching all the pages in here and didn't find any information about artifacts. But, I seem to be getting some, however only noticeable in WoW (ran 3DMark 11, Bad Company 2, and WoW). Turning of Vsync in world of warcraft helped a lot, but when I came across a fire zone I saw artifacts again. Previously it was on a lot of objects including the sky and windows, but vsync off fixed all that. See attached image and link to video so you can see my temps, speeds, voltage, and in the video the artifacts i'm talking about. Yes flashing back to 6950 fixes it, dropping clocks does not fix it on the Sapphire 6970 bios (the one im using), tried bumping voltages up by .05 from 1.15 up to 2.15 then stopped as i didn't want to go too high. Any ideas? Where is this 6950 modded bios everyone is talking about?

MSI AB Image: http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2282/artifact695070.jpg
Youtube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFcI34Q4ryc

The video isn't good quality, but just watch and you will see the flickering, it's very noticeable, especially the large fullscreen flicker near the end.

edit: also PT is at +20% fyi
edit2: should note it only artifacts in this zone using large amounts of fire, no where else that I have noticed yet. But, again, flashing back to 6950 original bios solves it. Hmm, bad card?


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## arroyo (Feb 3, 2011)

One offtopic question gentlemans:

Do you know, if it's possible to remove the vapor chamber from HD6950 cooler without removing the metal base of the cooler? I want to apply Accelero S1 on my GPU and I want to have stock cooled VRM and memory. At the backside of the cooler it looks like vapor chamber is attached separately.


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## Stranger (Feb 3, 2011)

manofthem said:


> So let me throw down a little something:
> Playing Black Ops campaign just now, right about an hour when my pc locks up, had to reset. So I check my GPU-Z log, and it was at 56*C/58% fan when it locked up. 950/1435@1.25v modded bios. I've passed 3DMark11 and Furmark tests.
> 
> Any ideas why it happened?  Not over heating...  Maybe just too much OC?



You still running stock cooling Manofthem?

56c/58% while in a game seems very low..

my gpus @ 65c/55%fan idle without an OC... only shaders unlocked..


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## itsdanny (Feb 3, 2011)

@Stranger,

Just to add in, I also get temps of 55c average (max) in a game on a custom fan curve that does not exceed 60%. I idle on 35c average. Something must be restricting the airflow within your case.


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## yonef (Feb 3, 2011)

icedragn43 said:


> ...
> edit2: should note it only artifacts in this zone using large amounts of fire, no where else that I have noticed yet. But, again, flashing back to 6950 original bios solves it. Hmm, bad card?



I used to have similar problem in F1 2010 with 6970 BIOS, it is gone when reverted back to 6950 unlocked shader bios.
I think this is some kind of mem voltage in 6970 bios.


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## dulemk (Feb 3, 2011)

icedragn43 said:


> Tried searching all the pages in here and didn't find any information about artifacts. But, I seem to be getting some, however only noticeable in WoW (ran 3DMark 11, Bad Company 2, and WoW). Turning of Vsync in world of warcraft helped a lot, but when I came across a fire zone I saw artifacts again. Previously it was on a lot of objects including the sky and windows, but vsync off fixed all that. See attached image and link to video so you can see my temps, speeds, voltage, and in the video the artifacts i'm talking about. Yes flashing back to 6950 fixes it, dropping clocks does not fix it on the Sapphire 6970 bios (the one im using), tried bumping voltages up by .05 from* 1.15 up to 2.15* then stopped as i didn't want to go too high. Any ideas? Where is this 6950 modded bios everyone is talking about?
> 
> MSI AB Image: http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2282/artifact695070.jpg
> Youtube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFcI34Q4ryc
> ...





Wow man, you want to instant kill your card and maybe your pc.
You should not go above 1.4v, at above 2v your gpu could explode.

And if you are using rbe try to change vid3 or vid4, one of them is your 3d voltage.
Mine was vid3.


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## manofthem (Feb 3, 2011)

Stranger said:


> You still running stock cooling Manofthem?
> 
> 56c/58% while in a game seems very low..
> 
> my gpus @ 65c/55%fan idle without an OC... only shaders unlocked..



Yes I'm on stock cooler. The 56*C/58%fan was while the new CoD game, but while running Crysis temps and fans go up some more. But my case has has lots of fans, which helps keep it cool. Your gpu seems like it's high in idle though. Are you running 2 in CF?


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## CXX (Feb 3, 2011)

Hi to everybody, and thanks to wizard, dave and all who contributed to this great forum. Ten days ago, I have got a Sapphire HD6950 2GB, and discovered this forum last week. Then first succesfully converted to 6970. I witnessed no problems though next day I was scared after reading some bad experiences here and just unlocked 6950 shaders. Still no problems. 
MSI Afterburner core voltage setting doesn't work on my card, it simply is ineffective. This may be due to the fact that my core voltage register seem to be VID3, and MSI may be using VID4. It is probable that this may be rectified by using an MSI 6950 BIOS. That also may be an immutable harware setting. I don't know. I may try the MSI 6950 BIOS, but I don't have it. If any of you have one, may you please post it here?


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## GSG-9 (Feb 3, 2011)

manofthem said:


> So let me throw down a little something:
> Playing Black Ops campaign just now, right about an hour when my pc locks up, had to reset. So I check my GPU-Z log, and it was at 56*C/58% fan when it locked up. 950/1435@1.25v modded bios. I've passed 3DMark11 and Furmark tests.
> 
> Any ideas why it happened?  Not over heating...  Maybe just too much OC?


Games tax your computer differently than benchmarks, I would say it is just a little to much of an oc at that voltage. I was running mine at 940 for a while but it is not stable over time, 900 runs  great though, I would say lower your clock slowly until it is stable.




remdiablo said:


> Sorry guys,may be I missing something ,but, I used a W1zzard tutorial For unlocking shaders and clocks.So my Q is- Why Voltage is not working in MSI AB,no matter if I increase V or put it down, Furmark shows the Same 1.175 V.Any idea???? may be I need just flash it to 6970 bios, to take effect? Cos at stock everything works fine, modded I lost Voltage control and can't pass CCC limit even if I enable unofficial overclocking .930/1400 this is highest I 've got stable,without Voltage increase for CF.Need advise please, GURU HELP PLEASE.


I have not been able to change the voltage in AfterBurner either and I am on the 6970 bios, I just decided I don't need it. 



arroyo said:


> One offtopic question gentlemans:
> 
> Do you know, if it's possible to remove the vapor chamber from HD6950 cooler without removing the metal base of the cooler? I want to apply Accelero S1 on my GPU and I want to have stock cooled VRM and memory. At the backside of the cooler it looks like vapor chamber is attached separately.



I can't answer but I want to apply new past to mine as well so if you find out or do it and document you should post your findings!


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## manofthem (Feb 3, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> Games tax your computer differently than benchmarks, I would say it is just a little to much of an oc at that voltage. I was running mine at 940 for a while but it is not stable over time, 900 runs  great though, I would say lower your clock slowly until it is stable:



think you're right. 900 was definitely stable for me. What voltage are you at for 900?

Is there any difference 'stability wise' between raising Voltage to the same point using RBE or MSIAB?


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## dom99 (Feb 3, 2011)

I hit 920MHz on 1.175V, recon I could go loads higher though


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## Mark22 (Feb 3, 2011)

dom99 said:


> I hit 920MHz on 1.175V, recon I could go loads higher though



This is about my limit so far with 1.175, I lowered to 910/1475 and no probs so far. TBH this runs games pretty damn great but still want to push a bit further fo benches etc.


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## GSG-9 (Feb 3, 2011)

manofthem said:


> think you're right. 900 was definitely stable for me. What voltage are you at for 900?
> Is there any difference 'stability wise' between raising Voltage to the same point using RBE or MSIAB?





dom99 said:


> I hit 920MHz on 1.175V, recon I could go loads higher though





Mark22 said:


> This is about my limit so far with 1.175, I lowered to 910/1475 and no probs so far. TBH this runs games pretty damn great but still want to push a bit further fo benches etc.



Stock 1.175V, It would run at 950mhz for a short time (5min?) in games, then crash hard (My xfi would go to 100% volume with white noise on all speakers.).
930mhz it would crash sometimes, mostly a driver stopped responding, my games did not even crash though, just pause and recover over like 5-10sec.
So I dropped it to 900mhz and I have had 0 issues since.


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## manofthem (Feb 3, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> Stock 1.175V, It would run at 950mhz for a short time (5min?) in games, then crash hard (My xfi would go to 100% volume with white noise on all speakers.).
> 930mhz it would crash sometimes, mostly a driver stopped responding, my games did not even crash though, just pause and recover over like 5-10sec.
> So I dropped it to 900mhz and I have had 0 issues since.



Since you're stock voltage is 1.175v, I take it you're running the 6970 bios?  Any problems at all this far?


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## manofthem (Feb 3, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> I have not been able to change the voltage in AfterBurner either and I am on the 6970 bios, I just decided I don't need it.



I remember when AB beta 6 came out, there was a note saying that voltage adjustability would not work on 6950 with 6970 bios. It had to be stock of modded 6950 bios to be able to adjust voltage. Dont know if beta 7 changed it or not, likely not.


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## GSG-9 (Feb 3, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Since you're stock voltage is 1.175v, I take it you're running the 6970 bios?  Any problems at all this far?


None thus far.


manofthem said:


> I remember when AB beta 6 came out, there was a note saying that voltage adjustability would not work on 6950 with 6970 bios. It had to be stock of modded 6950 bios to be able to adjust voltage. Dont know if beta 7 changed it or not, likely not.



They could be a reason to go back to the 6950 bios, and if I can up the voltage for the core it should be similar performance.


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## icedragn43 (Feb 3, 2011)

dulemk said:


> Wow man, you want to instant kill your card and maybe your pc.
> You should not go above 1.4v, at above 2v your gpu could explode.
> 
> And if you are using rbe try to change vid3 or vid4, one of them is your 3d voltage.
> Mine was vid3.



Well seeing as none of the voltage changes helped (for vCore) I don't think I will raise them at all, was jut a suggestion and yeah I guess I probably did go really high.



yonef said:


> I used to have similar problem in F1 2010 with 6970 BIOS, it is gone when reverted back to 6950 unlocked shader bios.
> I think this is some kind of mem voltage in 6970 bios.



Can I change the voltages for vMem in RBE?


edit: looks like RBE v1.27 doesn't support this Bios? Boot and High Performance voltages dont even show, they show as "--" and performance mode 3 is "unknown" in the list box, def not touching anything in here and I don't see vMem voltages.

edit2:
P4437 - 6950 +20%
P4572 - 6950 +20% @ 840/1325
P4686 - 6950 Modded Bios @ 840/1325 +20%
P4914 - 6970 shaders/clocks (880/1375) +20%

My results with the various bios/clocks.

Modding the 6950 bios seems to have stopped the artifacting, but the performance drop is steep. is the 40mhz/50mhz core/mem really make the difference? or is it the SIMD units not being unlocked or w.e someone else in this threat was speculating about when not using a true 6970 bios? Please let me know if anyone knows how to mod a 6970 bios to use 6950 vmem.


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## DJManiac (Feb 3, 2011)

icedragn43 said:


> Can I change the voltages for vMem in RBE?
> edit: looks like RBE v1.27 doesn't support this Bios? Boot and High Performance voltages dont even show, they show as "--" and performance mode 3 is "unknown" in the list box, def not touching anything in here and I don't see vMem voltages.



Vmem - NO!

Vgpu - YES - As this thread said it very (very) often: Klick on GPU Register.
If you use a 6970 BIOS it mostly VID4 (1175mV) which is to change for more Vgpu....


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## manofthem (Feb 4, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> Stock 1.175V, It would run at 950mhz for a short time (5min?) in games, then crash hard (My xfi would go to 100% volume with white noise on all speakers.).
> 930mhz it would crash sometimes, mostly a driver stopped responding, my games did not even crash though, just pause and recover over like 5-10sec.
> So I dropped it to 900mhz and I have had 0 issues since.



Well, I dropped in the 6970 bios and OC'd to 900/1425 on the 1.175v.  Ran fine and did some benchmarks.  So for kicks, I loaded the modded 6950 bios at 1.175v (RBE) with the same clocks and got pretty much the same results.  

Looks like I'll be keeping the modded 6950 bios, even though very few actually have problems with the 6970 bios.  And I've decided to keep a relatively mild OC because I'm getting tired of trying to get it higher. (i think a "good for you" comment is in order from someone, ha)


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## itsdanny (Feb 4, 2011)

GSG-9 said:


> They could be a reason to go back to the 6950 bios, and if I can up the voltage for the core it should be similar performance.



You can add the chip entry bytes to the configuration file and that would work fine if the chip is supported (haven't seen one fail with this yet).


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## Myrthain (Feb 4, 2011)

wmblalock said:


> You need to download and use the script I posted a link to in step 3 to flash your bios instead of using Winflash directly. Download that script, rename your modded bios to "unlock.bin", copy it into the "winflash" folder (which is inside the folder you extract this script to), then run "flash_to_6970.bat"



Hey, thank you for your convenient summary. It helped me successfully unlocking my shaders on my Asus card. But it would be nice if you can add the part about renaming and swapping the bios file to your description. I was afraid enough about the whole part that i carefully read the script file at first, but others might not be and end up with a result they did not plan. Thank you.


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## nycsnakeeyes (Feb 4, 2011)

hey all ! i tried running ATI Winflash first it says i need to be in admin mode which gives me no option to choose, then it says its missing a critical file. ive redownloaded this 3x. with the 9 radeon cards not working with this update on ur stats im nervous man. LOL. help me !! thanx


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## Wijkert (Feb 4, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Looks like I'll be keeping the modded 6950 bios, even though very few actually have problems with the 6970 bios.  And I've decided to keep a relatively mild OC because I'm getting tired of trying to get it higher. (i think a "good for you" comment is in order from someone, ha)



Good for you! 

I have been looping test 4 of 3dmark11 for stability tests. It seems that on 1.175v at 920 it crashes(drivers stopped working) after about half an hour, but on 915 it doesn't. The games that I have tested are also stable at 915. On 1.250v 950 crashes after 15min but at 940 it doesn't.

I have noted three aditional things:
- If you keep you temps under 82 degrees you can OC your core about 10-15 mhz higher. I don't think that the noise level is worth it though. Maybe the fact that your card might live longer is worth considdering.
- Overlocking you mem is't realy worth it. An OC of +125mhz will give you about 35 points more in 3dmark11. At 1250 the mem is already fast anough compared to a core clock of lets say 940.
- Turning powerplay to +12 or +20% does't seem worth it either. Only in the furmark bench does it give you a significant higher score. It doesnt in 3dmark11/Vantage or in games. It will make your card a little bit hotter, so I don't think it is worth the trouble. Maybe for realy high OC's it is usefull to get it stable(not even shure about this though) but you would need good cooling for that.


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## GSG-9 (Feb 4, 2011)

Wijkert said:


> Good for you!
> - Turning powerplay to +12 or +20% does't seem worth it either. Only in the furmark bench does it give you a significant higher score. It doesnt in 3dmark11/Vantage or in games. It will make your card a little bit hotter, so I don't think it is worth the trouble. Maybe for realy high OC's it is usefull to get it stable(not even shure about this though) but you would need good cooling for that.



Thanks for that, I did not realize I was not getting a performance increase in games from the Power increase.


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## Erik9519 (Feb 4, 2011)

Hi guys,
I have just unlocked my ASUS 6950 to a 6970 with the ASUS OC bios and is working very well but now SmartDoctor say an error and it won't start and another problem is that I cannot set voltage.Is there any fix for these error?
I have tried this script too and it work but in Ungine Heaven I have tried to do a benchmark with 6970 clock and it get about 30FPS but with the 6970 bios it get 32-33.


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## manofthem (Feb 4, 2011)

Wijkert said:


> Good for you!
> 
> I have been looping test 4 of 3dmark11 for stability tests. It seems that on 1.175v at 920 it crashes(drivers stopped working) after about half an hour, but on 915 it doesn't. The games that I have tested are also stable at 915. On 1.250v 950 crashes after 15min but at 940 it doesn't.
> 
> ...



I think your points are all valid and true! Well said and many should listen to this. 

Ive decided a card that will be alive longer is more important in the long run, especially since I want to xfire. i'll probably turn down the memory a little to be closer to 1375-1400. 

And with the +12-20%, its like you said, the only difference I see is in Furmark.  When I try to use it in 3DMark11, seems that after the test it's set back to 0, no matter what program for OCing (trixx or msiab). Thanks for the tips


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## vargus (Feb 4, 2011)

Hey all, just got a new Gigabyte HD6950 and have been attempting to unlock the shaders and up the default clock rates to 6970 standards. However, I've run into some problems accomplishing this. The card seems to be really touchy about higher voltages; I can't even get it stable on 1.175 with default 6970 clocks (880/1375, I think). If I set the voltage to that via the pre-existing 6970 BIOS or modding a 6950 BIOS in RBE, the card freezes up even when I'm playing Flash videos in a browser. At this point it kind of seems like I'm hosed for getting this unlocked to 6970 speeds. I can try lowering the voltage, but with the higher clocks, wouldn't that make it even more unstable? If it makes a difference, I'm using a Thermaltake 750W modular PSU that's supposedly got 85-90% efficiency, surely that would be enough?

Any insight would be appreciated, as I am, admittedly, a bit of an overclocking and tweaking noob.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I put the power use to +20% in CC, would that be making enough of a difference to cause it to crash consistently?


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## manofthem (Feb 4, 2011)

vargus said:


> Hey all, just got a new Gigabyte HD6950 and have been attempting to unlock the shaders and up the default clock rates to 6970 standards. However, I've run into some problems accomplishing this. The card seems to be really touchy about higher voltages; I can't even get it stable on 1.175 with default 6970 clocks (880/1375, I think). If I set the voltage to that via the pre-existing 6970 BIOS or modding a 6950 BIOS in RBE, the card freezes up even when I'm playing Flash videos in a browser. At this point it kind of seems like I'm hosed for getting this unlocked to 6970 speeds. I can try lowering the voltage, but with the higher clocks, wouldn't that make it even more unstable? If it makes a difference, I'm using a Thermaltake 750W modular PSU that's supposedly got 85-90% efficiency, surely that would be enough?
> 
> Any insight would be appreciated, as I am, admittedly, a bit of an overclocking and tweaking noob.
> 
> EDIT: Forgot to mention, I put the power use to +20% in CC, would that be making enough of a difference to cause it to crash consistently?



If you're editing voltages in RBE, are you changing the correct VID?  When I esoterica wrong VID, everything kept crashing on me like what you are describing. Shouldn't need +20% to make it run smoothly. Try flashing the 6970 bios and see if it runs. Then go back to the 6950 modest bios. Change voltage in MSIAB to 1.175 and put clocks to 880/1375, or even try a lower memory clock. What clocks can you reach without increasing voltage?


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## vargus (Feb 4, 2011)

Thanks for the reply, I'll answer the first question first and try some of the other stuff when I get a chance. In RBE, I'm changing VID4 for the voltage as I had read that that was the correct one for the Gigabyte cards. Also, I haven't tried just flashing the HD6970 BIOS without changing the power to +20%, so I can see if that fixes anything. I'll update this when I try some more things. Thanks.


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## w00tie (Feb 4, 2011)

Hey Peepz around,

I got a very strange problem. I got 2 Sapphire HD6950 2Gb with unlocked shaders with the bios found i this thread (ATI(1002)).
Now yesterday, i was playing around with afterburner w/o problem and today after reading forward in this forum I installed Sapphire Trixx (beta for 69xx) and now each time i use afterburner &/or Trixx i get BSODs. I uninstalled Trixx and still afterburner doing my rig crashing.
Even when i hit the "reset" button in afterburner i get a BSOD... yesterday i was able to push the mem to 840/1300 w/o problems.

Does anyone know what's going on?

Also what is the stock voltage for a 6950 ?

Thanks for the feedback..

Cheerz,

w00tie


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 4, 2011)

Could be a software issue, make sure you cleaned the files out for whatever you installed


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## w00tie (Feb 4, 2011)

i'll check that right away..


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 4, 2011)

w00tie said:


> i'll check that right away..



I installed Rivatuner once on my I7 rig when i had MSI afterburner (Just wanted to see what features i could use on it) and it would lock up the PC or i would loose video signal


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## w00tie (Feb 4, 2011)

deinstalled trixx / afterburner .. reboot.. reinstalled afterburner after killing the afterburner service still running and everything works back.. damn software!


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## w00tie (Feb 4, 2011)

oopsss.. 

since the moment i "unlock" afterburner .. i get my rig crashing.
I managed to get it working at 840/1325 but afterburner "unlocked" won't do it for me.. damn


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## manofthem (Feb 4, 2011)

w00tie said:


> oopsss..
> 
> since the moment i "unlock" afterburner .. i get my rig crashing.
> I managed to get it working at 840/1325 but afterburner "unlocked" won't do it for me.. damn



Does it happen when it's unlocked only or when you increase clocks beyond the normal limit?

If it happens as soon as you unlock AB, maybe uninstall that and try only Trixx to see if it locks your system also...


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## w00tie (Feb 4, 2011)

well, as soon as afterburner is unlocked .. crash.
i'll try that 2morrow  i'l keep you posted


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## dannoddd (Feb 4, 2011)

I got my Asus 6950 unlocked running on the 6970 bios provided in the TechPowerUp! batch file. It hits 95*C under a gaming load, not furmark. Seems pretty hot. 

The other thing I've noticed is that when I enable powertune, it doesn't downclock in 2D mode correctly, it leaves the GPU at 400 and the mem. at 1375. I've only got 1 monitor.

Has anyone else noticed the high temps and when enabling powertune not getting correct idle?


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## manofthem (Feb 5, 2011)

dannoddd said:


> I got my Asus 6950 unlocked running on the 6970 bios provided in the TechPowerUp! batch file. It hits 95*C under a gaming load, not furmark. Seems pretty hot.
> 
> The other thing I've noticed is that when I enable powertune, it doesn't downclock in 2D mode correctly, it leaves the GPU at 400 and the mem. at 1375. I've only got 1 monitor.
> 
> Has anyone else noticed the high temps and when enabling powertune not getting correct idle?



Those temps seem really high.  My GPU gets to like 55-60*C with CoD BO, and between 60-maybe 70*C for a really graphically intense game.  Did you set up a custom fan curve?  If not, that's imperative.


----------



## dannoddd (Feb 5, 2011)

I haven't set up a custom fan profile right now.
It very happily gets to about 95*c then the fan spins and drops it, then it repeats.
I played with an exchange table within the BIOS, but it basically did the same thing.
I've been looking to see if any of the 6950/6970 BIOSes have different curves but they're all the same. The curve is very odd on these cards, it looks like they're intentionally sacrificing temp for noise. 

I just came from a 4890 -> 6870 -> to the 6950 then did the mod. 
I was REALLY happy with the 6870 but am questioning the 6950 right now. I feel like 
the powertune thing is probably just a driver bug. 

Do you have a suggestion for the fan speed profile/curve?

I would like to keep it as silent as possible while maintaining at most 80*C


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## manofthem (Feb 5, 2011)

dannoddd said:


> I haven't set up a custom fan profile right now.
> It very happily gets to about 95*c then the fan spins and drops it, then it repeats.
> I played with an exchange table within the BIOS, but it basically did the same thing.
> I've been looking to see if any of the 6950/6970 BIOSes have different curves but they're all the same. The curve is very odd on these cards, it looks like they're intentionally sacrificing temp for noise.
> ...


 
I don't remember why, but I had a similar problem with the clocks not going back down to normal 250/150. It's been fine since and I don't remember what did it. Do you have any OCing applications installed?  I've used the custom fans in AB and Trixx, and both do a good job.


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## DJManiac (Feb 5, 2011)

manofthem said:


> And with the  12-20%, its like you said, the only difference I see is in Furmark. When I try to use it in 3DMark11, seems that after the test it's set back to 0, no matter what program for OCing (trixx or msiab). Thanks for the tips



Hey manofthem! Confirm! Same here! After a rebbot slider is still on 20% but behave as its on 0%. Onyl after remove slider and save and again to 20% and save full power is back also in Furmark!
But this makes only in Furmark a difference in Scores!

Made a short 3DMark11 compare regarding slider 0% vs. 20% - Re-Checked with Furmark if the 20% are really on! 

0% - P6075

20% - P6078

I think we can call it the same! 

3DMark11, Kombuster, Games without throttling -  Furmark WITH throttling.
(I cant check the CPU/MEM clocks while testing via G15 keybord and its LCD display)

Others found out the same. Already posted this on Afterburner Forum! (I'am Fluffi there )
But if its a AB issue or a CCC bug is not clear...

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=3874424&posted=1#post3874424

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=3873179&posted=1#post3873179

For me this is finished now! - I am happy as it now is with Afterburners FAN Curve, Unoff. OC AND PowerPlay working together in Beta7... RBE did the voltages! No need to use ATI Tray Tools for me anymore to do the OCings.

Only whish is know that RBE will support one day Custom FAN curve and custom Clocks. Then I can leave Afterburner also!


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## w00tie (Feb 5, 2011)

ok,

I flashed the Sapphire 6970 bios and afterburner is now working like a charm..

So i guess it was a problem with the "shaders only" unlock bios.


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## manofthem (Feb 5, 2011)

DJManiac said:


> Hey manofthem! Confirm! Same here! After a rebbot slider is still on 20% but behave as its on 0%. Onyl after remove slider and save and again to 20% and save full power is back also in Furmark!
> But this makes only in Furmark a difference in Scores!
> 
> Made a short 3DMark11 compare regarding slider 0% vs. 20% - Re-Checked with Furmark if the 20% are really on!
> ...



I remember wmbalock was talking about this same issue a while back. But I'm not too worried about it anymore, like you said. I did some runs last night on Heaven Benchmarks on different powertune settings, and it really made little difference. 

What OC have you settled on for now?


----------



## manofthem (Feb 5, 2011)

w00tie said:


> ok,
> 
> I flashed the Sapphire 6970 bios and afterburner is now working like a charm..
> 
> So i guess it was a problem with the "shaders only" unlock bios.



Thats weird that the shader only bios would do that. did you download the bios, or did you mod your own original bios?  I modded mine and runs fine with AB.


----------



## Erik9519 (Feb 5, 2011)

Hi guys,does anyone know how to get away the error of smart doctor saying No graphic card information found with the 6970 Bios,and also how to get voltage control in msi afterburner?


----------



## manofthem (Feb 5, 2011)

Erik9519 said:


> Hi guys,does anyone know how to get away the error of smart doctor saying No graphic card information found with the 6970 Bios,and also how to get voltage control in msi afterburner?



Don't know about smartdoctor. But you can enable voltage control in the settings. Click settings and on the first tab at the bottom are some options to check to enable, voltage control being one of them.
Make sure you have the newer version.


----------



## w00tie (Feb 5, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Thats weird that the shader only bios would do that. did you download the bios, or did you mod your own original bios?  I modded mine and runs fine with AB.



I used the Sapphire "shaders only" bios posted here...


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 5, 2011)

Just going to add my two cents here for you guy's having all sorta problems unlocking the shaders and getting things working the way it should.

#1 rule

After the flash in windows is finished and the pop up window shows flash complete.. DONT CLICK SHUT DOWN to complete... Select NO and then shut windows down with out restarting.

When the system shuts down, pull the cord from the PSU for at least 10 seconds and then plug back in and re-boot... the flash takes way better and things seem way more stable.

Just doing a reboot seems to corrupt things, not always but alot of the time... Yanking the power for 10-15 sec seems to be the way to go from my findings. Thus the software don't give headaches after that


----------



## w00tie (Feb 5, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Just going to add my two cents here for you guy's having all sorta problems unlocking the shaders and getting things working the way it should.
> 
> #1 rule
> 
> ...



You mean power off the rig while in windows after flashing?


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 5, 2011)

w00tie said:


> You mean power off the rig while in windows after flashing?


Yes, after Winflash flashes the card and it asks you to reboot! Dont! just click quit or later... what ever it says anyway just close it and shut the system down... dont restart, just shut down... clicky the switch off the back of the power supplie or if you have no switch then just unplug it for 10-15 seconds.


----------



## w00tie (Feb 5, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Yes, after Winflash flashes the card and it asks you to reboot! Dont! just click quit or later... what ever it says anyway just close it and shut the system down... dont restart, just shut down... clicky the switch off the back of the power supplie or if you have no switch then just unplug it for 10-15 seconds.



Well since today i had a problem of freeze after 5mins gaming with the full unlocked bios.. so i flashed back the "shaders" only using your method..

I'll see what happend..


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 5, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Thats weird that the shader only bios would do that. did you download the bios, or did you mod your own original bios?  I modded mine and runs fine with AB.


The HIS modded shader Bios works great for me. No problems with AB at all.


----------



## w00tie (Feb 5, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> The HIS modded shader Bios works great for me. No problems with AB at all.



Well its a bit too late right now, but i'll eventually give a shot tomorrow. I'll PM you for the right file if your ok with that.

do you run crossfire ?


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 5, 2011)

w00tie said:


> Well since today i had a problem of freeze after 5mins gaming with the full unlocked bios.. so i flashed back the "shaders" only using your method..
> 
> I'll see what happend..


Way are so many flashing these cards to the full unlock? there's only a few 6950's out there that can hold up to the added memory voltage. I guess Im one of the guys that cant afford killing this gpu just for 1-2 fps in a game or bench 

For the time being just use unlocked shaders only, It's the safest atm. Wait for more info to be released and use google or what have you and search and read all the problems out there.


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 5, 2011)

w00tie said:


> Well its a bit too late right now, but i'll eventually give a shot tomorrow. I'll PM you for the right file if your ok with that.
> 
> do you run crossfire ?


next week I'll be. 

Yes and do pm me for added x-fire info with these cards if you need.


----------



## Deleted member 67555 (Feb 5, 2011)

I have a Sapphire with the BLACK PCB and it unlocked 





Ive run Heaven, Furmark, played games and everything I have and it's 100% stable but I'm not sure if my system can even stress this card


----------



## manofthem (Feb 5, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Way are so many flashing these cards to the full unlock? there's only a few 6950's out there that can hold up to the added memory voltage. I guess Im one of the guys that cant afford killing this gpu just for 1-2 fps in a game or bench
> 
> For the time being just use unlocked shaders only, It's the safest atm. Wait for more info to be released and use google or what have you and search and read all the problems out there.



I would hate to burn up my card and have to pay for a new one. Warranty will likely not cover if it gets damaged from a higher bios flash. I'm back to the shaders only bios. I think the other w00tie guy just is trying to find out what will work and what won't. 

So when it gets flashed to a 6970, what gets changed with the memory other than the 1375MHz?


----------



## w00tie (Feb 5, 2011)

Well GPU clock goes to 880Mhz & memory clock to 1375Mhz instead of (800/1250).
Fact is that both 6950 and 6970 seems to be just the same but the memory chip used on both cards are different. 
For me with everything unlocked, it was working yesterday but today after 5 mins of gaming i got my pc to freeze.. So i flashed back the shaders only bios using fullinfusion method and i had no freeze anymore. I'm using similar card in crossfire.
Normally i could increase the memory voltage in order to get the memory stable but at this point i had to used another mod bios and its quite late today so I eventually do that tomorrow.


----------



## Deleted member 67555 (Feb 5, 2011)

TBH I'm flashing back myself..I may try the modded bios but for now I don't need either one


----------



## manofthem (Feb 5, 2011)

But what I'm saying is: If the only change is increasing memory clock to 1375, then it would be the same as OCing the normal 6950 to a memory clock of 1375. Right?  Or are there additional changes that make the 6970 bios dangerous?  

Either way, I've noticed there is little difference in benchmarks scores when the memory goes much past the 1375 mark, atleast at a low gpu OC around 900-910.


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 5, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I would hate to burn up my card and have to pay for a new one. Warranty will likely not cover if it gets damaged from a higher bios flash. I'm back to the shaders only bios. I think the other w00tie guy just is trying to find out what will work and what won't.
> 
> So when it gets flashed to a 6970, what gets changed with the memory other than the 1375MHz?


Voltage and memory timings... these DDR5 memory chips are so sensitive to voltage.... unless your lucky enough to have the R0C Memory chip's on board that sucker is a 6970 -minus- the two extra ground wires on the 8 pined plug... Until you take the card apart and check the numbers on the chips your playing Russian Roulette with killing your card.


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 5, 2011)

Sorry to doble post but Crazyeyes and myself ran Mark11 Xtreme mode. He runs an X4 and cpu and me a X6.

He also has two identicle 6970's in X-fire... Me a single 6950.

Crazy turned off X-fire and asked me to down clock my cpu to mach his system.

I did and all I did was run unlocked shaders only bios and matched his stock 6970 clocks....
The numbers were bang on even except I was a bit higher in the combined score due to the 2 extra cores.

Im going to ask him if he wants to run the same bench, but I'll run the regular 6950 locked shader bios to really see the difference.... I betcha it works out to be the same numbers..

I'll update after I get the results with pix


----------



## Deleted member 67555 (Feb 5, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Blah Blah Blah blah blah blah Blah bloop blop blah blah


Do you think you could repost your modded bios or a link to the post so I don't have to look through 70-odd pages for it


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 5, 2011)

jmcslob said:


> Do you think you could repost your modded bios or a link to the post so I don't have to look through 70-odd pages for it


HIS Modded shader only unlocked only Bios? SURE CLICKY


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 5, 2011)

Ok just mached a run... 

Mine 6950 locked shaders...






Crazy's True 6970....


----------



## manofthem (Feb 5, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Ok just mached a run...
> 
> Mine 6950 locked shaders...
> 
> ...



Very nice, The scores are close, though your CPU score was still higher. I'd love to be able to afford 2 6970's!!!


----------



## manofthem (Feb 6, 2011)

So i've been messing with my card again.  This is what I've come to so far:
Modded shader 6950 bios@1.175 via RBE.  
910/1425 via Trixx w/ custom fan curve.

What do you guys think?  Do you think the memory will be okay at that speed or should I drop it down lower?  It's been stable in Heaven, 3DMark11, and Furmark benches, and it's been fine in game.  Who knows how long though, right...


----------



## danc (Feb 6, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Ok just mached a run...
> 
> Mine 6950 locked shaders...
> 
> ...



Your high cpu score make up plenty for crazy's true 6970 graphics score lead.

If you downcore the x6 to x4 and same clocks, i expect your final scores to be around x1650 or so.


----------



## dom99 (Feb 6, 2011)

If I change the voltage in latest version of MSI afterburner, does it actually change?
In GPU-Z it still says 1.1V even if I change it to 1.175V in Afterburner, has it actually changed?


----------



## manofthem (Feb 6, 2011)

dom99 said:


> If I change the voltage in latest version of MSI afterburner, does it actually change?
> In GPU-Z it still says 1.1V even if I change it to 1.175V in Afterburner, has it actually changed?



GPU-Z always reads a max of 1.1 if you are on a 6950 bios, even in you increase voltage. (this was edited from what I said earlier) You can tell if the voltage increased for sure  if you can run a higher OC then before. 

For instance, on 1.175v, you should be able to run a gpu clock of 900-910 stable. That wouldn't be possible at the default 1.1v


----------



## dom99 (Feb 6, 2011)

manofthem said:


> GPU-Z always reads a max of 1.1, even if you flash the 6970 bios with 1.175. You can tell if the voltage increased for sure  if you can run a higher OC then before.
> 
> For instance, on 1.175v, you should be able to run a gpu clock of 900-910 stable. That wouldn't be possible at the default 1.1v



Oh right, I have mine running at 900/1375/1.175 at the moment.

Quick question, in BFBC2 I seem to be getting horizontal screen breaking sometimes. Is this normal? It seems to happen even on stock 6950 clocks


----------



## kylzer (Feb 6, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Oh right, I have mine running at 900/1375/1.175 at the moment.
> 
> Quick question, in BFBC2 I seem to be getting horizontal screen breaking sometimes. Is this normal? It seems to happen even on stock 6950 clocks



Enable vsync?


----------



## hanti (Feb 7, 2011)

manofthem said:


> GPU-Z always reads a max of 1.1, even if you flash the 6970 bios with 1.175. .....



thats not true  if u flash 6950 with 6970 bios gpu-z shows 1.175v


----------



## manofthem (Feb 7, 2011)

hanti said:


> thats not true  if u flash 6950 with 6970 bios gpu-z shows 1.175v



Oops, my bad.  Flashing to 6970 bios does show 1.175v in GPU-Z, sorry.  Already edited the other post...


----------



## Sebascenso (Feb 7, 2011)

Hi to everyone,

I have a Sapphire 6950 with shaders unlocked only. I want to raise the VID using RBE to change the voltaje from 1.1v to 1.175v to try and reach 900/1375, but I don't know which VID I have to change. 
If anyone could help me with this, I would really appreciate it. I don't want to start doing trial and error with the bioses.


----------



## Stranger (Feb 7, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Yes I'm on stock cooler. The 56*C/58%fan was while the new CoD game, but while running Crysis temps and fans go up some more. But my case has has lots of fans, which helps keep it cool. Your gpu seems like it's high in idle though. Are you running 2 in CF?



Yep running 2 6950s with unlocked shaders in CF
Does this affect it?

Also for cooling i have.

5x120mm intake fans (4 at front with 4xCM Stacker bays, 1 on side panel)
2x120mm out fans(back) (one has H70 Radiator attached with a 2nd fan not counted in the list)
1x200mm out fan (top)


----------



## VinnieM (Feb 7, 2011)

manofthem said:


> GPU-Z always reads a max of 1.1 if you are on a 6950 bios, even in you increase voltage. (this was edited from what I said earlier) You can tell if the voltage increased for sure  if you can run a higher OC then before.
> 
> For instance, on 1.175v, you should be able to run a gpu clock of 900-910 stable. That wouldn't be possible at the default 1.1v



If you have a good card you can run 900MHz on lower voltages. My card does 900/1465 at 1.11v (too bad not 1.1v ) and it's very efficient this way. Beyond 900 it needs about 20-25mV more per 10MHz, so it gets hotter, louder and requires more power. I only have a 500Watt power supply so I'm keeping it at these speeds for the moment.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 7, 2011)

VinnieM said:


> If you have a good card you can run 900MHz on lower voltages. My card does 900/1465 at 1.11v (too bad not 1.1v ) and it's very efficient this way. Beyond 900 it needs about 20-25mV more per 10MHz, so it gets hotter, louder and requires more power. I only have a 500Watt power supply so I'm keeping it at these speeds for the moment.



My XFX 6950 is running 900/1375@1.175v. Anything higher and it crashes on me. Not right away though, and it passes benches. But say an 1/1.5 hours of straight gaming, and it'll freeze on me(driver stops responding and need to reboot).  Maybe I'll try reinstalling drivers...  

But it's good to see someone can hit high clocks on low voltage. This will be my last xfx I buy most likely.


----------



## dom99 (Feb 8, 2011)

kylzer said:


> Enable vsync?



Yeh it worked, disabled V-sync in CCC and enabled it in game, thx


----------



## w00tie (Feb 8, 2011)

manofthem said:


> My XFX 6950 is running 900/1375@1.175v. Anything higher and it crashes on me. Not right away though, and it passes benches. But say an 1/1.5 hours of straight gaming, and it'll freeze on me(driver stops responding and need to reboot).  Maybe I'll try reinstalling drivers...
> 
> But it's good to see someone can hit high clocks on low voltage. This will be my last xfx I buy most likely.



its not that bad ..


----------



## DJManiac (Feb 8, 2011)

w00tie said:


> But it's good to see someone can hit high clocks on low voltage. This will be my last xfx I buy most likely.



And those first cards with reference design were not modified by the cardresellers (like XFX, ASUS, etc.)..

Only a Sicker onto the FAN, more or less modified BIOS and finish....

If you have a good or a bad card is only about luck or not....


----------



## dom99 (Feb 8, 2011)

I can get 895MHz/1375MHz/1.1V on my 6950 stable. Well chuffed


----------



## Intelman (Feb 9, 2011)

I did the 6950 unlocked shaders mod (using the provided PHP script) with my XFX 6950. The 6970 bios seemed to cause me problems with the latest 11.1a drivers. All seems well again. I have been using MSI Afterburner, and boy is that program nice. CCC should provide the fan functionality. I have the default fan profile set , which seems to be more aggressive at ramping up the fan speed and my core set to 880. Card is fast.


----------



## CXX (Feb 9, 2011)

GPU-Z shows the VCC level always at 1.1V whatever power level I choose from the CCC power level setting. BIOS core voltage is 1.1V. But after I choose it to be at +20%, shouldn't it be 1.32V ?


----------



## manofthem (Feb 9, 2011)

CXX said:


> GPU-Z shows the VCC level always at 1.1V whatever power level I choose from the CCC power level setting. BIOS core voltage is 1.1V. But after I choose it to be at +20%, shouldn't it be 1.32V ?



Powertune increases wattage, not voltage.  If running a 6950 bios, GPU-Z always shows 1.1v.  The +20% lets the GPU increase TDP before cutting power and throttling


----------



## arroyo (Feb 9, 2011)

GPU-Z does not show real voltage. If I change the voltage in afterburner to 1.2V, GPU-Z still shows 1.1V.


----------



## CXX (Feb 9, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Powertune increases wattage, not voltage.  If running a 6950 bios, GPU-Z always shows 1.1v.  The +20% lets the GPU increase TDP before cutting power and throttling



Thanks for the answer. Then it can increase TDP only by increasing the amount of current since as far as I remember, W=V*A. Right? Then it should not be a problem for the core because it is actually the same core as in an 6970 card. Next question is, what about the current supplied to memory? Is that also increased? If so then that may cause a problem since many of our cards does not have the same type of memory.


----------



## CXX (Feb 9, 2011)

arroyo said:


> GPU-Z does not show real voltage. If I change the voltage in afterburner to 1.2V, GPU-Z still shows 1.1V.



I have a similar problem, but that may be due to different usage of voltage registers on different cards. Some use VID3, some use VID4. That is why I cannot use the afterburner. I may try an MSI BIOS to see if that can be resolved that way. But, to be honest, I can't  dare do it


----------



## manofthem (Feb 9, 2011)

CXX said:


> Thanks for the answer. Then it can increase TDP only by increasing the amount of current since as far as I remember, W=V*A. Right? Then it should not be a problem for the core because it is actually the same core as in an 6970 card. Next question is, what about the current supplied to memory? Is that also increased? If so then that may cause a problem since many of our cards does not have the same type of memory.



I've asked several times, and all I can find out is that the 6970 uses different voltages and timings, let alone different memory chips. The 6950 chips are not rated for the higher memory clocks of the 6970, but many are running their memory higher than that. I've overclocked but kept the memory lower because it seems that was culprit accounting for my unexplained crashes in-game. 

And you dont need an MSI card or an MSI bios to use Afterburner. My xfx cards runs it fine, and my xfx uses VID3 as far as I can tell.  But if you want, flash a new bios to the card; It'll work. You can always flash it back, even if it's crashing and failing.


----------



## CXX (Feb 9, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I've asked several times, and all I can find out is that the 6970 uses different voltages and timings, let alone different memory chips. The 6950 chips are not rated for the higher memory clocks of the 6970, but many are running their memory higher than that. I've overclocked but kept the memory lower because it seems that was culprit accounting for my unexplained crashes in-game.
> 
> And you dont need an MSI card or an MSI bios to use Afterburner. My xfx cards runs it fine, and my xfx uses VID3 as far as I can tell.  But if you want, flash a new bios to the card; It'll work. You can always flash it back, even if it's crashing and failing.



You confirm what I already suspect, and this is not good news to me. I am aware that these questions are asked from the beginning but no satisfactory answer is provided yet. So I gave it just another shot 
Nevertheless, though I had more than enough money for the topmost card, I have chosen this one as my next upgrade. There is a strange satisfaction in getting a similar performance from a lower grade card and then bragging about it everywhere 

Update: Just check the performance comparison charts. Even without overclocking and unlocking, it is so close to the 6970 that I think our card is the best for the money.


----------



## Gaul (Feb 10, 2011)

Tesselation level = OFF


----------



## CXX (Feb 10, 2011)

Gaul said:


> [url]http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/6145/testhvo.jpg[/URL]
> 
> Tesselation level = OFF



Default clock 890 MHz? Using a different ASUS BIOS then.


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 10, 2011)

Gaul said:


> [url]http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/6145/testhvo.jpg[/URL]
> 
> Tesselation level = OFF


Cpu-Z along with the Mark11 score along with GPU-z or it's BS


----------



## manofthem (Feb 10, 2011)

CXX said:


> Default clock 890 MHz? Using a different ASUS BIOS then.



Doesn't Asus have stock overclock on 10MHz higher than normal?



fullinfusion said:


> Cpu-Z along with the Mark11 score along with GPU-z or it's BS



I don't think it's BS. Gaul had posted lots of these, and they are always amazing. And they are usually with CPU-Z. 

Gaul, you still at 5Ghz CPU.  What voltage did you need for that clock? You've come down from 1000/1500..


----------



## CXX (Feb 10, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Doesn't Asus have stock overclock on 10MHz higher than normal?


Either those GPUs they put in their cards are from a better yield, or they are trying to get a somewhat unfair advantage over their competitors. If not so then why don't others do the same thing? There must be an AMD requirement to prevent nonstandard configurations. Perhaps ASUS is too big to be directed by AMD, or there is a completely different story behind.

Back to the subject, I found out something interesting when I compared MSI and Sapphire BIOSes before trying the MSI BIOS on my Sapphire card. They are identical. 
Try it:
    fc MSI.HD6950.2048.101123.bin Sapphire.HD6950.2048.101123.bin /b
And my original BIOS is Sapphire.HD6950.2048.101123.bin. It should be the stock AMD BIOS.
I am at a loss why afterburner voltage tuning doesn't work on my card. Not that I want to use a higher voltage on a daily basis. Unlocking the extra shaders and maxing out the regular CCC overclocking options are more than enough for me.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 10, 2011)

CXX said:


> Either those GPUs they put in their cards are from a better yield, or they are trying to get a somewhat unfair advantage over their competitors. If not so then why don't others do the same thing? There must be an AMD requirement to prevent nonstandard configurations. Perhaps ASUS is too big to be directed by AMD, or there is a completely different story behind.
> 
> Back to the subject, I found out something interesting when I compared MSI and Sapphire BIOSes before trying the MSI BIOS on my Sapphire card. They are identical.
> Try it:
> ...



I took your Saphire bios from the collection on this site, flash it, and it works fine (though I had to reinstall CCC).  I just used it as it came, then OCd to 900/1350@1.15v, which is what I usually use in Afterburner, and it worked fine.  Ran all the way through Heaven Benchmark, so pretty stable, though I haven't done any long stress tests.  

Make sure you enabled voltage control and that's it not 'grayed out.'  It's in the settings on the first tab, click on the "Unlock Voltage Contol" and then it's available.  Sorry to hear you're having trouble.


----------



## CXX (Feb 11, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Make sure you enabled voltage control and that's it not 'grayed out.'  It's in the settings on the first tab, click on the "Unlock Voltage Contol" and then it's available.  Sorry to hear you're having trouble.


I did exactly as you said. Voltage controls were enabled, and I set the voltage to a fairly safe 1.175V. Though afterburner reported the voltage as 1.175V, GPU-z showed a constant 1.1V. It was probable that GPU-z might be reporting it wrong. So ignoring it I started a benchmark. I observed serious core speed throttling, and a drop in FPS.

Next, I tried a higher voltage, 1.2V. The same result. I returned to CCC control panel and observed that power was still at +20%. Not trusting it, first set it to something different and then again to +20%. Throttling stopped, FPS recovered. Afterburner still reported 1.2V, and GPU-z 1.1V. Then changed the afterburner voltage to something different and back to 1.2V , pressing Apply each time. Throttling started again, and FPS dropped. Clearly, there is something wrong with afterburner, it probably conflicts with CCC power setting. I mean, even if it successfully sets the voltage, it probably drops the current rate, effectively dropping the resulting TDP. I don't think it can set the voltage either, since I trust GPU-z more, and it is the latest version meanwhile.

Afterburner is still beta, and maybe better to wait for the release version. It's very apparent that success rate with the current version is well below 100%. I also tried Trixx but it was a worse experience for me. I also tried RBE, and the increase in the voltage was not worth the increase in performance. At least not enough for me to take the risk. Nevertheless I will give it another shot with the next version of Afterburner.


----------



## Elmo147 (Feb 12, 2011)

When i run the CMD, i get to the last step of flashing the card, and it gives me the error of unlock.bin not found...

any help with this would be appreciated...


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 12, 2011)

Elmo147 said:


> When i run the CMD, i get to the last step of flashing the card, and it gives me the error of unlock.bin not found...
> 
> any help with this would be appreciated...
> 
> ...


your unlock.bin has that stupid VLC player Icon, Id sugest you un-install VLC media player and try again...

It's making that .bin unreadable *wrong format*

It should look like this...






also add your gpu-z saved Caymen.bin bios to this file if you ever need to flash back. it just makes things way easier


----------



## manofthem (Feb 12, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> your unlock.bin has that stupid VLC player Icon, Id sugest you un-install VLC media player and try again...
> 
> It's making that .bin unreadable *wrong format*
> 
> ...



Again...I'm not disagreeing, but my unlock.bin has the VLC icon and it works fine. Maybe it's different on his system.


----------



## fullinfusion (Feb 12, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Again...I'm not disagreeing, but my unlock.bin has the VLC icon and it works fine. Maybe it's different on his system.


Well for him having the problem I betcha thats the problem... I ran into somr thing like that last year with a file that VLC changed... I removed the program for the moment and it worked like a charm.. But hey with these things it's anybody's guess 

Plus it always helps when they fill in there system spec's!

I've been seeing alot of single posts from one timers looking for answers.... WTF?


----------



## manofthem (Feb 12, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Well for him having the problem I betcha thats the problem... I ran into somr thing like that last year with a file that VLC changed... I removed the program for the moment and it worked like a charm.. But hey with these things it's anybody's guess
> 
> Plus it always helps when they fill in there system spec's!
> 
> I've been seeing alot of single posts from one timers looking for answers.... WTF?



I was about to edit my post af say it's definitely worth a shot. I don't even how I got it like that, the VLC player that is. But when there's a problem like what he's experiencing, it's worth to try any kind of option.


----------



## itsdanny (Feb 12, 2011)

You probably got it like that, when you installed VLC, and left it at the default (aka. recommended settings) and quickly went through with the installation without checking the file associate types.


----------



## CXX (Feb 12, 2011)

File type association shouldn't affect how other applications interpret a file. However this doesn't mean there aren't any. In fact, no harm in trying. I know how crazy things I try when I exhaust all the possible solutions to solve a problem. And sometimes the solution may seem really crazy.


----------



## Vargtass (Feb 12, 2011)

> your unlock.bin has that stupid VLC player Icon, Id sugest you un-install VLC media player and try again...
> 
> It's making that .bin unreadable *wrong format*


Nothing to do with it.


----------



## venomousdesigns (Feb 13, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.
> 
> www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> 
> give it a try and let me know how well it works



Just want to confirm, I have an ASUS 6950 (came Factory Overclocked at 810Mhz) - I've read so much over the last week I've gone and confused myself.

What I want to achieve is, to avoid damage to my 6950, is simply Unlock Shaders only - don't want to flash to a 6970 BIOS or OC. So am I correct in thinking I simply use the above scipt to Unlock Shaders?

What I need to do is:

1. Run the 'WinFlash' program and backup original BIOS
2. Run script on that 'backup' BIOS (lets call it Unlocked Bios now)
3. Use 'WinFlash' to flash to the above Unlocked Bios

Profit?


----------



## manofthem (Feb 13, 2011)

venomousdesigns said:


> Just want to confirm, I have an ASUS 6950 (came Factory Overclocked at 810Mhz) - I've read so much over the last week I've gone and confused myself.
> 
> What I want to achieve is, to avoid damage to my 6950, is simply Unlock Shaders only - don't want to flash to a 6970 BIOS or OC. So am I correct in thinking I simply use the above scipt to Unlock Shaders?
> 
> ...



Profit?  Not sure
Correct?  Yes.  (just joking with you)

The script mods your own bios. Back up your original and mod that. It wouldn't hurt to make a copy of the original backup before modding it just so you have a backup. Double check it worked by gpuz (1536 shaders)


----------



## Blaircroft (Feb 13, 2011)

Thanks Wizard for everything. Works like a charm, i have noticed a positive difference in Black Ops.

Since i am unable to email you my results i post it in this reply.

I unlocked my Sapphire 6950 2GB into the 6970 at the specified shader and clock numbers with no problems at all.


----------



## Elmo147 (Feb 15, 2011)

Vargtass said:


> Nothing to do with it.



actually, it was to do with VLC..

uninstalled it and restarted, and worked perfectly.

Wizard can add another sapphir 6950 to the long list of ones that will work.

1536 shaders, 880mhz clock, and 1350mhz clocks

gave me a FPS increase from 74 to 81 on BC2 with everything maxed out


----------



## manofthem (Feb 15, 2011)

Elmo147 said:


> actually, it was to do with VLC..
> 
> uninstalled it and restarted, and worked perfectly.
> 
> ...



Congrats! Never would have thought that was it since it didn't affect mine.


----------



## SimBech (Feb 15, 2011)

*Possible for 6850 -> 6870*

I was looking at buying the 6850 and wondering if this would be possible ??

thanks


----------



## manofthem (Feb 15, 2011)

SimBech said:


> I was looking at buying the 6850 and wondering if this would be possible ??
> 
> thanks



http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=335359


----------



## ZeroHour (Feb 15, 2011)

*6950 to 6970 Gigabyte*

Hi , 

i bought 2 gigabyte 6950 , and flashed without problems the 2 , thanks for the tip , saved me money


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## skum-cat (Feb 15, 2011)

i can't unlock my gigabyte 6950 2GB :S

When i use the CMD trick, and flash the new BIOS, it's just finish in the process bar and that's it. I don't get a finish messages or other things the result in "done"  i have tried many manufacturer BIOS with no luck.

Please help me!


----------



## manofthem (Feb 15, 2011)

Did you run CMD as admin?  Did you first do unlorckrom?  Did you check with gpuz to make sure it's not working?  Are you doing a 6970 bios or modded 6950?


----------



## skum-cat (Feb 15, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Did you run CMD as admin?  Did you first do unlorckrom?  Did you check with gpuz to make sure it's not working?  Are you doing a 6970 bios or modded 6950?



Yes, yes and yes!  i have tried Asus 6970, gigabyte 6970 and the ATI 6970 bios


----------



## manofthem (Feb 15, 2011)

skum-cat said:


> Yes, yes and yes!  i have tried Asus 6970, gigabyte 6970 and the ATI 6970 bios



Is the bios switch on the card in number 1 position?  Position 2 is read only, won't flash. If not that, try the a modded 6950 bios (or mod your own) instead of 6970. Don't see why it would make a difference but give it a shot.


----------



## Elmo147 (Feb 15, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Is the bios switch on the card in number 1 position?  Position 2 is read only, won't flash.



^this

it will work afetr you check this


----------



## jayc (Feb 15, 2011)

*Undervolting*

Hi all,
I have been a long time reader, following this thread closely, and having gotten so much out of this forum with a successful unlocking of my VTX3D 6950, I thought I'd give something back to the community.

While everyone has been talking about overclocking and how to get the fastest speeds possible, no one, has been exploring undervolting. 

Now that I have gotten my 6950 into a 6970 and overclocked to speeds I am comfortable with in the games I play, the next logical step is to look in the other direction -> undervolting the 2d or idle speeds.

Why? you ask.
Because the usage of my PC is for more than games, where the overclocked speeds are needed. The PC is used by me and my wife to read emails, surf the web, work related activities, Word/Excel/Powerpoint, shopping, banking, etc. 
That means the vast majority of the time the PC is in 2D mode.
Everyone is whinging about high temps. Here is a couple of ways to help reduce the temperature. *UNDERVOLTING the 2D idle speeds.* This in turn reduces the heat produced as a by-product. The other way I reduced temps was to replace the thermal paste on the card, my card was thick with TIM. I cleaned and replaced it with some Arctic Silver 5 I had laying around. This reduced temps in the order of 4-5 degrees C. Not bad for a free mod.

We know that the 69x0 goes into an idle speed and voltage when in 2D mode, doing nothing.
The card downclocks itself to 250 core and 150 memory speed using 0.9volts.
Does the card really need 0.9v to run in Windows?

As no one had done this before, I bit the bullet and tested it myself. (Believe me I searched all over the net for a similar instance).

The lowest you can go without artifacts in 2D is about 0.76 volts. But I'd run it with 0.77 volts, just in case. This was adjusted using RBE v1.27, and VID3 was adjusted accordingly in GPU registers. Running any lower than 0.76V will lock the PC up upon boot up. You will get as far as the windows startup screen, and as soon as the display drivers are loaded you will crash to a black screen. Running at 0.76volts I experienced artifacts on the Windows desktop. So 0.77v it was.

I'm now running my 6950 with 0.77v for the 250core/150mem speeds.
Which is good for *5 to 6 degrees C lower in heat.*

Also note that the voltage and temp change is observed in MSI Afterburner 2.1.0 beta 7. Unfortunately, GPUZ ver 0.5.1 does not pick up the change. I think, GPUZ is reading the value off the driver, rather than the bios. However, the lower temperature is picked up by GPUZ as well.

6970's might need a bit more volts in 2D mode, but some tests are needed there.

Good luck.
Clearly this is for people that know what they are doing ONLY.
You need to know how to change VID3 using RBEv1.27. 
You need to know how to extract and reflash the updated bios onto your card. (I used the scripts for unlocking the 6950 to a 6970 downloaded from this very site).


----------



## skum-cat (Feb 16, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Is the bios switch on the card in number 1 position?  Position 2 is read only, won't flash. If not that, try the a modded 6950 bios (or mod your own) instead of 6970. Don't see why it would make a difference but give it a shot.



yes it's on the corret position. The closest to the fan


----------



## dannoddd (Feb 16, 2011)

Can someone post, or re-post, an Asus 6950 BIOS with the unlocked shaders, not the 6970 BIOS?
I've read that some people are killing their cards with the 6970 RAM timings and voltages and I don't want to do that, but I'd like the extra fps that come with the extra shaders.


----------



## Mark22 (Feb 16, 2011)

There are two asus bioses, one is just the unlocked 6950 one and the other is unlocked but also modded to run the core at 1.175 like the 6970. The latter is the one I use and doesn't effect memory timings or voltage, it just allows a higher core to be run making the card easily exceed 6970 performance without the worries.

You can also use the script earlier in this thread to unlock your own bios and then use rbe to adjust the core voltage if you prefer.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 16, 2011)

skum-cat said:


> yes it's on the corret position. The closest to the fan



I would try redownloading/reinstalling the atiwinflash.  Then try any bios to see if it'll work, the default bios and see if it'll reflash.


----------



## dannoddd (Feb 16, 2011)

Thanks a ton Mark22. I really like the sound of the voltmod one. I'll give it a shot!


----------



## VinnieM (Feb 16, 2011)

jayc said:


> As no one had done this before, I bit the bullet and tested it myself. (Believe me I searched all over the net for a similar instance).



Then you haven't searched good enough 

Some have tested this before (including myself) right after RBE 1.27 came out (and there are posts mentioning it in different threads or at Guru3D).
Funny thing is I have my card running at about the same 2D voltage as your card (0.775V). And besides the 2D voltage I have lowered the 500MHz voltage (VID1) as well with about 0.1V. So far no problems!


----------



## Gaul (Feb 16, 2011)

CXX said:


> Default clock 890 MHz? Using a different ASUS BIOS then.



here : http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/89310/ASUS.HD6970.2048.101203.html



fullinfusion said:


> Cpu-Z along with the Mark11 score along with GPU-z or it's BS



BS ? Blue Screen ? 
*tesselation : OFF*








manofthem said:


> I don't think it's BS. Gaul had posted lots of these, and they are always amazing. And they are usually with CPU-Z.
> 
> Gaul, you still at 5Ghz CPU.  What voltage did you need for that clock? You've come down from 1000/1500..




yup 5 gh, here :





vgpu 1.35 with RBE


----------



## manofthem (Feb 16, 2011)

Gaul said:


> here : http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/89310/ASUS.HD6970.2048.101203.html
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Sexy!


----------



## jayc (Feb 16, 2011)

VinnieM said:


> Then you haven't searched good enough
> 
> Some have tested this before (including myself) right after RBE 1.27 came out (and there are posts mentioning it in different threads or at Guru3D).
> Funny thing is I have my card running at about the same 2D voltage as your card (0.775V). And besides the 2D voltage I have lowered the 500MHz voltage (VID1) as well with about 0.1V. So far no problems!



HAHA, more like I stopped reading google search after 2 pages because every search was about overclocking and was unrelated to undervolting.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 17, 2011)

skum-cat said:


> yes it's on the corret position. The closest to the fan



Check which PCI-E slot it's in.



blaqsmith said:


> Of course, as soon as I post this, after testing and trying everything, I find the solution. I had my 6950 in the secondary PCI slot because it fit better in my small form factor box. After moving it back over to the primary PCI slot (a really, really freakin tight fit - presses on wires from the power supply), the unlock now works.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 17, 2011)

jayc said:


> Hi all,
> I have been a long time reader, following this thread closely, ... While everyone has been talking about overclocking and how to get the fastest speeds possible, no one, has been exploring undervolting.



I do appreciate the thoughts on lowering voltage. It's been talked about a little on this thread, though not extensively; I haven't tried it yet.  



DJManiac said:


> This is not completly true... I changed my 2D VID2 from 900mV to 850mV which gave me 2°C lower temps in 2D! BUT: 800mV did NOT work for me (Blackscreen in Windows - thanks to Dual Bios  )... This seams to be very sensitive!.





VinnieM said:


> Exactly. I could lower mine to around 770mv. 750mv was really too low though  This resulted in a black screen as well. Idle temps are around 31C, which is a lot better than my old GTX275.


----------



## jayc (Feb 17, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I do appreciate the thoughts on lowering voltage. It's been talked about a little on this thread, though not extensively; I haven't tried it yet.
> 
> Quote:
> Originally Posted by DJManiac
> ...



Your success here, and that of DJManiac and VinnieM's, might depend on which bios is used on the 6950.

Specifically, I am using the modded 6950 bios which unlocks the shaders only.
Using this modded 6950 bios on my 6950 card, I'm able to reduce the 2D voltage to 770mv as per VinnieM. 
I wonder what bios DJManiac is using? 
There might be something in this. Quite possibly, a 6970 bios for the 6950 requires more voltage to be stable. Note: a real 6970 has 6+8 pin power, whereas, the 6950 has 6+6 pin power only.

Use our findings as a guide. 
If you are using a 6950 bios, then 750mv is far too low and results in black screen on bootup. 760mv will boot up but you will get screen artifacts at the desktop. 770mv is perfect for anything in 2D and will save you a few degrees in heat build up. 
If you are using a 6970 bios, then 850mv is the appropriate target for 2D clocks.

This change was one of the simplest things to do with very little risk thanks to the dual bios feature of the 69x0 cards. Overvolting has higher risks associated to it, but undervolting isn't as bad.


----------



## megatimes12 (Feb 17, 2011)

I need some help with my 6950. I bought the VTX3D 6950 and i flashed it to the asus bios (6950 bios), and now im trying to flash it again to the 6950 with unlocked shaders bios. However when i run winflash i get a "cannot erase rom" error, and when i try to force flash with cmd everythings fine until i get the force flashing progress bar where it stays up for a few seconds before dissapearing and i dont get and verification box or nothing. This really has me puzzled to the point where i had to open up my case to check whether i left the switch on the GPU at the 1 position, which it was. Any ideas guys? cheers in advanced


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## Bengie (Feb 17, 2011)

I was using the 6970 flash for a bit, but stumbled across wizard's post about using the 6950 mod instead.

I use my original XFX6950 bios and the patch successfully.  All 1536 shaders show up and my voltages are back to 6950 stock.

I was playing around last night and pushed my card to 930/1500 and 3Dmark 2011 ran fine multiple times. No artifacts or weird polygons. Card ran quite a bit warmer, but only 52c. It didn't break 46c with stock speeds. I did not try to go any higher because of a limit I seem to be hitting, which I will describe below.

I was going to try to push it further, but I noticed my GPU usage and clock speeds were not able to maintain 100% according to MSI AB at those speeds. Do you think I'm hitting the TDP limit? If this is the case, I may get a benefit from under-voltaging the core a bit to reduce wattage. I do have a distributed GPU app that can usually peg my GPU, but it now levels at 95% to, but only at those high clock speeds.

Thanks  

P.S. I did get to play 1.5 hours of BC2 last night with the new OC and I had no issues at all.
P.P.S. Because of this GPU cap I seem to be getting, I dropped clock speeds down to 910/1420(after playing BC2) since the extra power draw is just capping off anyway.


----------



## Bengie (Feb 18, 2011)

Finally found time to run some tests now that I got home

I was able to drop the voltage, but nothing changed for clock speeds. BC2 and 3D mark 2011 are able to run the clock at max and keep it near/at 100%

The card ran unstable at 1.06v but pass 3DMark with 1.065v core. I pushed it up to 1.08v to keep it from soft crashing in the middle of games.

So, I'm running 910/1420 @ 1.08v core and stock mem voltages. Reduced the temps about 6c. 3D mark now caps at 51c instead of 57c. Seems stable so far.

I know someone out there wants to take my card, drop an aftermarket cooler on it and try to push it. I'm happy with the current clock rates.


----------



## Wijkert (Feb 18, 2011)

Bengie said:


> Finally found time to run some tests now that I got home
> 
> I was able to drop the voltage, but nothing changed for clock speeds. BC2 and 3D mark 2011 are able to run the clock at max and keep it near/at 100%
> 
> ...



I am not sure that you got those voltages right. It seems you are missing a '.1' or 100 mlv on all mentioned numbers in you above post.

I stopped using 3dmark as a benchmarking test, because games like BBC2, Crysis and Napoleon Total War seem to crash when my clocks were stable in 3dmark. I am currently running mine at 880/1375 @ 1.125 volts. I have finished Mass Effect 2 with 1.110 volts and most other games will run without problems as well. The before mentioned 'heavy' games will crash on 1.110 volts. Keep in mind that every card is different and this is only an indication.

The sweetspot of the memory seems to be at 1375 wich is the same clockspeed as the 6970. My mem can reach 1440 stable, but the benchmark scores remain roughly the same as at 1375.

Edit: Did anyone here try to reaply the stockcooler for lower temps?


----------



## Bengie (Feb 18, 2011)

"I am not sure that you got those voltages right. It seems you are missing a '.1' or 100 mlv on all mentioned numbers in you above post."

Nope, I am actively under-volting the core. MSI AB says 1080mv. At 1060 it would crash 2011 and at 1065 it would pass it. I pushed it up to 1080 to make sure it stayed stable being. BC2 seems to run fine. I also ran through 8 work units for ~16 minutes on my distributed program just fine.

I played BC2 for an hour at these settings to. Would've been longer, but watched "how to train a dragon" with the wife and got tired.


----------



## Wijkert (Feb 18, 2011)

Bengie said:


> "I am not sure that you got those voltages right. It seems you are missing a '.1' or 100 mlv on all mentioned numbers in you above post."
> 
> Nope, I am actively under-volting the core. MSI AB says 1080mv. At 1060 it would crash 2011 and at 1065 it would pass it. I pushed it up to 1080 to make sure it stayed stable being. BC2 seems to run fine. I also ran through 8 work units for ~16 minutes on my distributed program just fine.
> 
> I played BC2 for an hour at these settings to. Would've been longer, but watched "how to train a dragon" with the wife and got tired.



Liked that movie 

My bad, so you are trying to undervolt at stock clocks? I missunderstood because must people that post in this thread are trying to do the opposite. 

Are you also undervolting the 2d volts to about 770? Would like to do that too, but is more useful in the summer. What I realy would like is to be able to change the fancurve in RBE instead of a 3rd party program, because I am currently using a ASUS 6950 bios (unlocked shaders / 6970 clocks @ 1.125 volts), so I can change the CCC limits with SD and then uninstall the program. Maybe a ASUS bios is no longer necessary because of this  tool. Any of you have any idea if RBE will ever be able to change the fancurve of the 69xx series?


----------



## Bengie (Feb 18, 2011)

"My bad, so you are trying to undervolt at stock clocks?" nope. I'm undervolting while overclocking. Seems the card I got doesn't mind whatever clock speed I set it at. Card temps do go up quite a a bit as I increase the clock speeds, so I know it's doing stuff and my distributed GPU app is finishing faster.

I have not messed with the 2D voltage because the card is rated at only ~25-30watts idle so I'm not concerned with 2d voltages.

I decided to do under-volting because I'm cpu limited, the card is crazy fast already, and why create more heat with summer around the corner.

I pushed the card to 930/1500 on stock voltages, which I think is freak'n awesome.  But I'm perfectly happy. So right now I'm running 910/1420 @ 1.08v. This is like the Celeron 300a all over for me again.

I'm tempted to find out it's limits on stock voltages just for S&Gs. I have not found the card's limit yet. I think I might try finding the cards cap today after work. Of course I'll set the core back to 1.1v before testing.

I'll let you guys know how it goes. Too bad my stock i7-920 caps my performance unless I crank up the AA. BC2 with ultra settings and 2x AA (hbao off), I'm getting 60% gpu load at 55fps. hbao pushes that up to 90% load, but that just double my electricity cost without adding enough "pretty".

P.S. "How to Train a Dragon" was really good  Gonna watch "Kick Ass" tonight

edit: after doing some reading on the 6950s VRM, I am hesitant to push it further as it would just add extra power load.
edit2: some more reading is telling me just to watch vrm temps. people are saying gpu temp #3 on gpu-z should be the vrm. I'll just watch all 3 temps


----------



## Bengie (Feb 19, 2011)

Bah, not much luck pushing it further. At stock 6950 voltages, it wouldn't go much past 930. At 1.125v it went to 950, but at 1.175 I wouldn't make 960 without locking the machine after a minute of two of Unigine.

I did notice a few consistent minor visual issues with Unigine that went away when lowered from 1420 to 1400.

Because Unigine showed a few more issues that neither 3DMark2011 nor Bad Company2 showed, I decided to back down to 905/1385 @ 1.085v core.

I seem to have a huge diminishing return after 910mhz, so I'm playing it safe with 905 to run cooler and more stability cushion.


----------



## Bengie (Feb 22, 2011)

I backed down further to 890/1385 @ 1.08v. Seems I was getting micro-stuttering from the VRM self-limiting the power draw during heavy rendering.

Personally, I don't see how anyone can push the 6950 past 900mhz w/o hitting the power limit. Even under-volting the chip to consume less power, I'm up against the power limit.

The 6950 flashed to 6970 uses 6970 stock voltages for both GPU and memory, but the card is still stuck with the same power limit of the 6950.

A card with a 6970 flash will consume about 8% more power than my card just because of the increased voltages. I see no way of a flashed 6950 gaining any benefit past 900/1400. Even if you can clock it past that, it will just limit the power draw which will limit the performance.

Benchmarks may show higher because the "Average" FPS will be higher, but any heavy rendering will cause the power to be limited and that annoying stuttering will kick in. My FPS during the stuttering barely changes, but I find it crazy annoying. The stuttering went away once I dropped the voltages enough to lower power consumption.

You know something is up when "lowering" voltages below stock makes it run better.


----------



## MaxMax (Feb 22, 2011)

Bengie said:


> I backed down further to 890/1385 @ 1.08v. Seems I was getting micro-stuttering from the VRM self-limiting the power draw during heavy rendering.
> 
> Personally, I don't see how anyone can push the 6950 past 900mhz w/o hitting the power limit. Even under-volting the chip to consume less power, I'm up against the power limit.
> 
> ...



sorry, i cannot follow your statement: i run my 6950@6970 at 950/1500@1.17volt w/o any stuttering (tested with metro 2033, crysis, anno 1404, settler 7 with SSAA). the only thing you have to do is adjust the fan profile manually so that the core temp of the flashed 6950 does not get above 65°C (yes it gets louder than at stock, but i do not mind, usually 55-60% fan power and good caseventilation is enough to keep it below 65°C)
greets


----------



## ShaunB (Feb 22, 2011)

Having issues flashing XFX 6950's, when I run ATIwinflash it shows my previously installed XFX 5770 as the video card. I have tried unistalling the drivers, and using driver sweeper but when I reinstall and run ATIwinflash it keeps coming up as 5770.

Please assist.

ATIwinflash shows the device id as: 0x6719

all the fields and information are blank, when I try flashing it tells me unable to erase ROM and I have trided the CMD prompt options and through the application.

UPDATED:

well I'm not sure how I got it to work but I got them flashed using Wizard's 6950 BIOS and unlocked the shaders, still sys ATI 5770 in ATIwinflash though.


----------



## cZm (Feb 22, 2011)

I have a quick question which I am sure has been raised before but cant find in the last 75 pages

I have flashed my sapphire 6950 to the standard 6970 BIOS and left at that , no OC'ing Volts, fan profiles etc.
Done a few weeks ago and had no issues what so ever and pleased I done it, my question is regarding heat.  Under full load it max's out ar 83c?  
As i said I have no issues with it I just wanted to see if that is too warm???

Thanks


----------



## kenjin (Feb 23, 2011)

I was having problem with unlocking my powercolor 6950. got the cannot erase rom msg.

I tried the command in cmd did not work. 

but after i try using wizards unlock package script he posted it work flawless. if anyone having issue unlock should definitely try that.


----------



## MaxMax (Feb 23, 2011)

cZm said:


> I have a quick question which I am sure has been raised before but cant find in the last 75 pages
> 
> I have flashed my sapphire 6950 to the standard 6970 BIOS and left at that , no OC'ing Volts, fan profiles etc.
> Done a few weeks ago and had no issues what so ever and pleased I done it, my question is regarding heat.  Under full load it max's out ar 83c?
> ...



i think the maximum temperature junction is around ~100°C for the 69xx (e.g. the new intel core i5/i7 32nm have a maximum of 98°C) if you reach this temp, the innercore structures will be destroyed. so you are still "far" away...


----------



## n0cks (Feb 23, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.
> 
> www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> 
> give it a try and let me know how well it works



Hi. I've seen that it contains several files. Which one should I run, the batch file or the .exe one?

I'm actually reading through the pages, so it can take me some time, since I'm newbie regarding OC and so 

It's supposed to automatically make a modified BIOS so I can flash it with ATIWinFlash?

By the way, is there any risk to do this with no extra cooler?

Edit: Ok.. now I guess I have to run the batch file.

Also.. my PSU is Corsair VX550W. Will it handle it?

Edit2: After some php reading, yeah, I have to run the batch file and place in the same folder that the batch file my bios, renamed to original.bin. Now I only have to know how to get my original BIOS >.<

Edit3: Yeah, I have to do the BIOS save with AtiwinFlash ^^


----------



## Hexblade6950 (Feb 23, 2011)

Hello all! currently I have a sapphire 5750 but I will be buying my 6950 very very shortly my concern is that the card I chose wont be able to be upgraded to 6970 specs, I see that most people have Sapphire and they seem to get the upgrade with no issue, Im more inclined to go with Asus or MSI, what would the experts in the matter suggest ? (I did read that Asus are a bit trickier to get upgraded)

MSI Card: http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R6950-Twin-Frozr-II.html
Asus Card: http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?p_id=dekcicifak0zpxuk

I like to OC, alot! so I read that the 6950 works top at 900 correct ?


----------



## Bengie (Feb 24, 2011)

MaxMax said:


> sorry, i cannot follow your statement: i run my 6950@6970 at 950/1500@1.17volt w/o any stuttering (tested with metro 2033, crysis, anno 1404, settler 7 with SSAA). the only thing you have to do is adjust the fan profile manually so that the core temp of the flashed 6950 does not get above 65°C (yes it gets louder than at stock, but i do not mind, usually 55-60% fan power and good caseventilation is enough to keep it below 65°C)
> greets



Maybe I need to play around a bit more. But my card isn't getting past 55c playing games at 930/1500 @ 1.12v


----------



## jayc (Feb 24, 2011)

Hexblade6950 said:


> Hello all! currently I have a sapphire 5750 but I will be buying my 6950 very very shortly my concern is that the card I chose wont be able to be upgraded to 6970 specs, I see that most people have Sapphire and they seem to get the upgrade with no issue, Im more inclined to go with Asus or MSI, what would the experts in the matter suggest ? (I did read that Asus are a bit trickier to get upgraded)
> 
> MSI Card: http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R6950-Twin-Frozr-II.html
> Asus Card: http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?p_id=dekcicifak0zpxuk
> ...



Just get the cheapest 6950 you can find that is based on the reference design.
The Asus card you linked is based on the reference design.
However, the MSI twin Frozr II you linked is NOT reference design and most certainly does not have the dual bios feature. Do not expect it to unlock shaders to 6970 specs.

Look for any 2Gb card that looks like the Asus card, which is a reference design, then buy the cheapest one. Reference cards, despite the brandname, are all the same.


----------



## n0cks (Feb 24, 2011)

jayc said:


> Just get the cheapest 6950 you can find that is based on the reference design.
> The Asus card you linked is based on the reference design.
> However, the MSI twin Frozr II you linked is NOT reference design and most certainly does not have the dual bios feature. Do not expect it to unlock shaders to 6970 specs.
> 
> Look for any 2Gb card that looks like the Asus card, which is a reference design, then buy the cheapest one. Reference cards, despite the brandname, are all the same.



How do you know if they are based on the design or not?

I'm about to get this one.


----------



## jayc (Feb 24, 2011)

n0cks said:


> I'm about to get this one.



Yep, that will work with the unlock to a 6970.


----------



## Hexblade6950 (Feb 24, 2011)

thank you so much Jayc, I will be looking for the asus then, will update later as I go

btw since you said a 2gb one, Im guessing this one would be out of the question ?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7198682&SRCCODE=WEBAMZP1


----------



## Caryntjen (Feb 24, 2011)

Ok, I'm new here and I'm going to build my first computer soon. I've been looking at graphic cards and HD6970 was my first option ofcourse, but now I've read this decent thread & you've got me convinced to go cheaper , more money for SSD !

I'm just wondering with 2 cards:

The first one is from Asus, but that one is already OC'd to 810Mhz, I'm guessing than it's not gonna work (http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=dekcICIFak0zpxUk&templete=2). 

Then my second option would be a Sapphire one: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=1021
I'm thinking this one would do the job.

But just wanted some confirmation. Thanks in advanced!


----------



## jayc (Feb 25, 2011)

Hexblade6950 said:


> thank you so much Jayc, I will be looking for the asus then, will update later as I go
> 
> btw since you said a 2gb one, Im guessing this one would be out of the question ?
> 
> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7198682&SRCCODE=WEBAMZP1



That is the 1Gb version of the 6950. It will NOT upgrade to the 6970 bios, since the 6970 bios has 2Gb memory. You will also notice a non reference fan and heatsink. That's a clue that it's not a reference design. This 1Gb card most likely will NOT have the dual bios feature as well. So any incorrect flashing of the bios will probably render the card useless.

As yet, I don't think you can unlock the extra shaders on a 1Gb version. At least I have not read of any one doing so. 

So unless you don't want/need that extra performance on a 2Gb version with the option of unlocking shaders and flashing to a 6970, THEN buy the 1Gb 6950 version.


----------



## jayc (Feb 25, 2011)

Caryntjen said:


> Ok, I'm new here and I'm going to build my first computer soon. I've been looking at graphic cards and HD6970 was my first option ofcourse, but now I've read this decent thread & you've got me convinced to go cheaper , more money for SSD !
> 
> I'm just wondering with 2 cards:
> 
> ...



Both cards you linked to will work with 6950 unlocked shaders bios or the 6970 bios.
Just go with whichever card is cheaper.


----------



## Hexblade6950 (Feb 25, 2011)

Ty jayc I already ordered a sapphire refence card since the package includes more stuff than the others.


----------



## Lufe (Feb 25, 2011)

I have a XFX Radeon HD6950 XXX HDMI Dual-DisplayPort Dual-DVI 1GB
Will this work for that too or do I need something else since all the bios have 2GB?


----------



## PhantomGamers (Feb 25, 2011)

Lufe said:


> I have a XFX Radeon HD6950 XXX HDMI Dual-DisplayPort Dual-DVI 1GB
> Will this work for that too or do I need something else since all the bios have 2GB?



You need a 2GB Model to unlock.

@OP: Thanks W1zzard for this. I just picked up an XFX 6950 and it unlocked just fine.
Overclocked it to 950/1450 as well, but can't seem to push it passed that.
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8379/6950ocd.gif


----------



## manofthem (Feb 26, 2011)

Just wanted to throw this out there now:

XFX said that the 6970 bios flash isn't supported under warranty (no surprise) and that the later revisions of the 6950 cards will be damaged by trying to flash with a 6970 bios.  Keep that in mind if you are going to be getting an XFX card in the future.  (I don't know about the unlocked shaders only bios)

Since I wanted to get another one to CF, I'll probably just get another brand, especially considering that the XFX card on newegg is up to $320.

Edit: Also...
Does anyone know who has a better warranty and customer serivce out of HIS and Sapphire?


----------



## siqueirah (Feb 26, 2011)

Well, someone should put all the downloads in the first page so that they are easier to find.
The search engine isn't the best and I've been having trouble finding the ASUS HD6950 "Shaders Only" BIOS.
Could someone please post it again for me?


----------



## PhantomGamers (Feb 26, 2011)

manofthem said:


> XFX said that the 6970 bios flash isn't supported under warranty (no surprise) and that the later revisions of the 6950 cards will be damaged by trying to flash with a 6970 bios.  Keep that in mind if you are going to be getting an XFX card in the future.  (I don't know about the unlocked shaders only bios)



Are you sure? Can you give me a link?
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=187571
That thread makes me think otherwise.

But it doesn't really matter anyway because of the dual bios, just boot with original bios and flash first bios back to 6950 bios... then if there IS any permanent damage just send it in.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 26, 2011)

PhantomGamers said:


> Are you sure? Can you give me a link?
> http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=187571
> That thread makes me think otherwise.
> 
> But it doesn't really matter anyway because of the dual bios, just boot with original bios and flash first bios back to 6950 bios... then if there IS any permanent damage just send it in.



There's no link.  I emailed the support guy off of Newegg and asked him about the 6970 bios deal.  His exact response was:

"We don’t support anything other than software modification of a card, any permanent modification to a card that cant be undone or that damages the card wont be supported by warranty. Later revisions of the 6950 will be damaged by trying to flash with a 6970 BIOS."

When I started reading it, I thought the bios mod was fine since it's not permanent.  but the end of the response made me think otherwise.

But I appreciate the link you posted.  I'll read through it right now.


----------



## PhantomGamers (Feb 26, 2011)

manofthem said:


> "We don’t support anything other than software modification of a card, any permanent modification to a card that cant be undone or that damages the card wont be supported by warranty. Later revisions of the 6950 will be damaged by trying to flash with a 6970 BIOS."



Well that sucks... but as I said -> just flash back and send in. 
Hopefully I didn't get the "new revision" as I just purchased my card Wednesday.
Though it is running fine so far, with 6970 bios (I used the XFX Bios, not the one in first page) and overclocks.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 26, 2011)

PhantomGamers said:


> Well that sucks... but as I said -> just flash back and send in.
> Hopefully I didn't get the "new revision" as I just purchased my card Wednesday.
> Though it is running fine so far, with 6970 bios (I used the XFX Bios, not the one in first page) and overclocks.



Yeah, my XFX ran fine with the 6970 bios, too.  I only went back to the 6950 w/ unlocked shaders because people saying that the 6970 memory clocks and voltage were too much for it. But it's been running great now on 900/1375@1.160v.  I'll probably keep it like that and try to get another one to xfire.


----------



## PhantomGamers (Feb 26, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Yeah, my XFX ran fine with the 6970 bios, too.  I only went back to the 6950 w/ unlocked shaders because people saying that the 6970 memory clocks and voltage were too much for it. But it's been running great now on 900/1375@1.160v.  I'll probably keep it like that and try to get another one to xfire.



I may have went a little far... lmao.
950/1450 @ 1.3v

I wouldn't say it gets too hot though, but I have it set to go to 58% fans when it hits 80c.

I actually tried to get it to 1000, but 950 seems to be my limit. Any higher and the PC crashes with that brown/black line screen.


----------



## Bengie (Feb 26, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Yeah, my XFX ran fine with the 6970 bios, too.  I only went back to the 6950 w/ unlocked shaders because people saying that the 6970 memory clocks and voltage were too much for it. But it's been running great now on 900/1375@1.160v.  I'll probably keep it like that and try to get another one to xfire.



1375 is 6970 clocks, you're just running at 1.5v instead of 1.6v.

The 6970 memory voltages are what cause the problems.


----------



## Bengie (Feb 26, 2011)

PhantomGamers said:


> I may have went a little far... lmao.
> 950/1450 @ 1.3v
> 
> I wouldn't say it gets too hot though, but I have it set to go to 58% fans when it hits 80c.
> ...



Power consumption increases by the square of the voltage. If you drop your speeds to even 940, you may be able to lower your voltage to 1.28 which is under the 10% "safe" over-voltage limit.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 26, 2011)

Bengie said:


> 1375 is 6970 clocks, you're just running at 1.5v instead of 1.6v.
> 
> The 6970 memory voltages are what cause the problems.



I usually run my memory at 1345, though it is fine higher so far. But I've kept it at 1.16v as opposed to the 1.175v of a 6970 bios. Since it's still a 6950 bios that I'm using, it's all the same settings of a 6950, just overclocked. And that makes me feel better about using.


----------



## dom99 (Feb 26, 2011)

Does anyone using MSI Afterburner to overclock their 6950 get this problem;

At night I power down my PC and turn it off at the wall (with a swanky new remote control device I got for xmas), then power it on in the morning and it boots up with the graphics card fan on at a constant rate of 50%, it only ramps down to normal custom profile by turning the custom profile off then on again. Ive googled it but cannot get a concise answer, all suggestions appreciated!


----------



## sy5tem (Feb 26, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Later revisions of the 6950 will be damaged by trying to flash with a 6970 BIOS."




does this mean present revision are rebadged 6970 and will not get damaged or this is only saying "you've been lucky with old card , futurecard will insta-Explode on bios mod" ?


cause i don't want to remove my XFX HS/FAN to see memory chip and then know what memory can take without burning out in 30 day..!!


----------



## PhantomGamers (Feb 26, 2011)

sy5tem said:


> does this mean present revision are rebadged 6970 and will not get damaged or this is only saying "you've been lucky with old card , futurecard will insta-Explode on bios mod" ?
> 
> 
> cause i don't want to remove my XFX HS/FAN to see memory chip and then know what memory can take without burning out in 30 day..!!



Sounds to me like they are threatening to have a feature in the card that kills itself on a bios flash?
Idk, sounds stupid.


----------



## PhantomGamers (Feb 26, 2011)

Bengie said:


> Power consumption increases by the square of the voltage. If you drop your speeds to even 940, you may be able to lower your voltage to 1.28 which is under the 10% "safe" over-voltage limit.



Pretty sure the 40nm GPUs are safe up to 1.4v...
But I think I'm good here, the temperatures seem fine and it's running stable (I.E: No artifacting or crashing).

It idles at 51c, and gets up to 81c on full load. Then the Fans kick in at 80c and keep it steady.
Really only reason I would want to change it is because the fan noise is a bit annoying, but I can deal with it.


----------



## manofthem (Feb 27, 2011)

dom99 said:


> Does anyone using MSI Afterburner to overclock their 6950 get this problem;
> 
> At night I power down my PC and turn it off at the wall (with a swanky new remote control device I got for xmas), then power it on in the morning and it boots up with the graphics card fan on at a constant rate of 50%, it only ramps down to normal custom profile by turning the custom profile off then on again. Ive googled it but cannot get a concise answer, all suggestions appreciated!



What version of afterburner are you using?  Make sure it's the latest one since it cuts out a lot of those issues. I had something similar to what you're describing, but that was a bit ago with the older version.


----------



## dom99 (Feb 27, 2011)

manofthem said:


> What version of afterburner are you using?  Make sure it's the latest one since it cuts out a lot of those issues. I had something similar to what you're describing, but that was a bit ago with the older version.



Using newest version of afterburner, I dont know what the matter is but Ive stopped using it now, just using 6950 @ stock, I dont currently have any games that need the extra juice anyway (untill crysis 2 is released)


----------



## Flak (Feb 27, 2011)

I used asus smartdoctor to enable the extra overclocking in CCC.  Then uninstalled smartdoctor, and even with clean installs of ati drivers whatever change smartdoctor made has stuck around.

Without voltage changes my 6950 has been at 900/1375 so far, going to try for higher when I'm not playing Rift so hardcore.


----------



## n0cks (Feb 27, 2011)

Flak said:


> I used asus smartdoctor to enable the extra overclocking in CCC.  Then uninstalled smartdoctor, and even with clean installs of ati drivers whatever change smartdoctor made has stuck around.
> 
> Without voltage changes my 6950 has been at 900/1375 so far, going to try for higher when I'm not playing Rift so hardcore.


Does smartdoctor work with any HD6950?
Doesn't it modify your voltage?

I think I'll have to check it up


----------



## Gaul (Feb 28, 2011)

jayc said:


> That is the 1Gb version of the 6950.



Share only ! , with 26k@4.8gh


*6950 1024 MB @ 1 GH/1350* 
vGpu 1.2500


----------



## alannathanson (Mar 1, 2011)

The bios flash worked for me; I used the batch file in the pack you uploaded. In Catalyst control center I enabled AMD Overdrive and set the High Performance GPU clock settings to 880MHz and the Power Control settings to +20%. I'll do a stress test later.


----------



## Gaul (Mar 1, 2011)




----------



## PhantomGamers (Mar 1, 2011)

What voltage are you running the GPU at?


----------



## alick (Mar 1, 2011)

*voltage*

whats the voltage dude?


Gaul said:


> http://i54.tinypic.com/91fn6v.jpg
> 
> http://i56.tinypic.com/hvyv82.jpg


----------



## Gaul (Mar 1, 2011)

PhantomGamers said:


> What voltage are you running the GPU at?





alick said:


> whats the voltage dude?



which ones ? 1 gb or 2 gb


----------



## SpaceRanger (Mar 1, 2011)

I was able to unlock the shaders only on my HIS 6950.  Using the unlock bin that the OP provided caused my system to error on boot (BIOS Error of 1 Long Beep and 2 short beeps).  

After successfully flashing the HIS Shader Only BIOS (as seen on page 74 I believe), I am now up to 1536 shaders and may the testing begin!  

Thank you for an AWESOME thread.  

- Space


----------



## PhantomGamers (Mar 1, 2011)

Gaul said:


> which ones ? 1 gb or 2 gb



Erm, both screenshots show a 2048MB GPU.


----------



## Gaul (Mar 1, 2011)

PhantomGamers said:


> Erm, both screenshots show a 2048MB GPU.



ic, here :
1 GB need 1.25v for 1 GH
2 GB need 1.325 for 1 GH


----------



## harmonica01 (Mar 2, 2011)

*XFX 2gb 6950 not matching*

I've tried every bios download available on the guide's page.

Each one gives me the mismatch error; I'm assuming the rumors on newer 6950s not having capacity to flash the bios is accurate.

Buy your 6950s used gentlemen, not sure if any new card works now.


----------



## mephistopoa (Mar 2, 2011)

Guys, what about this powercolor card?

PowerColor HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI 2mini.. | Eb...
model AX6950 2GBD5-2DH

it is a dual fan design, but I'm not sure is someone has already tried to unlock. All reports are related to the other versions, especially the pcs++

Has anyone got a change to test this model? There is not even a bit of information if it has dual bios switch.


----------



## DJManiac (Mar 2, 2011)

Hey Guys...

some interesiting news:

New BIOS (from HIS) in Database here on TechPowerUp online:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/93896/HIS.HD6970.2048.110109.html

with higher OC Limits 1000/1500   (normal is 950/1450)

*[EDIT]*  WORKS FINE!







*And now only FAN curve via RBE is missing untill I am really happy! *


----------



## angelfire1000 (Mar 2, 2011)

*9670 issue*

I have this problem i mod my 6950 to 6970 and evrything seems good in all games. But in Uniheaven i see some artifacts blue stripes flashing. Only in DX11 mode in other all just fine. In AVP DX 11 all OK in crysis all OK but IN metro 2033 flashing stripes anyone have same issue?


----------



## RatusNatus (Mar 2, 2011)

ShaunB said:


> Having issues flashing XFX 6950's, when I run ATIwinflash it shows my previously installed XFX 5770 as the video card. I have tried unistalling the drivers, and using driver sweeper but when I reinstall and run ATIwinflash it keeps coming up as 5770.
> 
> Please assist.
> 
> ...



Clear cmos solve it.


----------



## angelfire1000 (Mar 2, 2011)

RatusNatus said:


> Clear cmos solve it.



Please how to clear cmos


----------



## Eggiez (Mar 3, 2011)

Hi guys, having a problem I'm not seeing anywhere else. I flashed 2 Sapphire 6950s just fine, tested them separately in a couple of games to make sure they weren't artifacting or anything. So they were both successfully flashed to 6970 bios, no additional overclocking or anything.

Then I tried crossfiring them. Now when I try to boot, the screen freezes at the Starting Windows (Win7 64) screen, but the computer itself successfully boots. I can hear myself login when I type in my password, but the screen remains frozen at "Starting Windows". I tried booting with each separately, same story.

The really annoying thing is that I have the same problem with the read only bios on both cards. Both cards can get into safe mode, but I don't seem to be able to flash them there. If I throw in a GTS 250 I have here, it doesn't freeze. I tried clearing the cmos, but that didn't help. Does anyone have any suggestions?


----------



## Eggiez (Mar 3, 2011)

Okay, I managed to fix it, but I don't like what I discovered.

I had forgotten to mention that I had cleaned out my AMD drivers before installing my crossfired cards (I wanted to install them on a clean machine), which seems to be the problem. I was able to install reinstall AMD drivers by booting into windows on a 4890, and my cards are now able to get past startup without freezing.

I decided to experiment a bit, and uninstalled the drivers again then rebooted. I was able to get to the desktop. Then I booted into safe mode, cleaned out everything with Driver Cleaner Pro, and rebooted. My 6950s started freezing at startup again.

So DCP cleans out something that makes even the read only bios on my 6950s freeze when logging into windows. However, the 4890 was able to get to the desktop just fine after the DCP cleanup. Does anyone have any insight into this? I'd prefer not to have to borrow an ATI card each time I wanted to do a clean driver update.


----------



## acousticdank (Mar 3, 2011)

Eggiez said:


> Okay, I managed to fix it, but I don't like what I discovered.
> 
> I had forgotten to mention that I had cleaned out my AMD drivers before installing my crossfired cards (I wanted to install them on a clean machine), which seems to be the problem. I was able to install reinstall AMD drivers by booting into windows on a 4890, and my cards are now able to get past startup without freezing.
> 
> ...



Well the first question is which options are you clicking on when you remove from DCP?  You gotta be careful, I've heard of people who've wiped out their AMD raid drivers which also get removed if you click on all the different ATI options.  
The thing is, if you are going from ATI to ATI you don't need to worry about driver cleaning.  It's more imperative when going from NV to ATI.  It's preferable of course to clean out but in the end, ATI uninstalls whatever you don't need as part of the package.
But like I said, if you are just clicking all the ATI options you might be removing some required driver for windows to recognize xfire or something.


----------



## Eggiez (Mar 3, 2011)

acousticdank said:


> Well the first question is which options are you clicking on when you remove from DCP?  You gotta be careful, I've heard of people who've wiped out their AMD raid drivers which also get removed if you click on all the different ATI options.
> The thing is, if you are going from ATI to ATI you don't need to worry about driver cleaning.  It's more imperative when going from NV to ATI.  It's preferable of course to clean out but in the end, ATI uninstalls whatever you don't need as part of the package.
> But like I said, if you are just clicking all the ATI options you might be removing some required driver for windows to recognize xfire or something.



I did check all of the ATI options. However each 6950, when booted alone, would freeze at startup after the cleaning. The 4890 did not have this problem. So missing xfire drivers weren't the problem. Even the read only bios would freeze at startup! This would have been a serious problem if my cards were a part of a new build, and I did not have access to the 4890.


----------



## FourLights (Mar 3, 2011)

Hi all,

I just wanted to say thanks, this thread contains a wealth of information that after careful reading (and use of the search function) allowed me to unlock my 6950.

Originally I went with the 6970 bios but after reading other's concerns I dumped my original bios off of the read-only slot, unlocked the shaders and kept stock speeds (thus far). I employed a custom fan profile in MSI Afterburner

<=50C = 25%

70C = 35%

100C = 100%

I ran the Crysis 2 demo on steam at 1920x1080 on both advanced / hardcore modes and maintained a mostly constant 60 fps (vsync), with a temp of < 75C

With the 6970 bios posted at the beginning of the thread my temps were around 90C in the above scenarios, although I did not have a custom fan profile enabled.


Thanks again (and if you have advice / comments I am all ears)


quick stats

i5-750
8GB 1066 OCZ
sapphire 6950 2gb


----------



## RatusNatus (Mar 3, 2011)

angelfire1000 said:


> Please how to clear cmos



Your motherboard has a jumper to do that. Read your manual or google for an image.

With the pc off, change the jumper position for 10 seconds(dont start your PC). Change it back and powerUP. I dont remember if i had to reinstall the driver,... probably yes.

I forgot to do this and have the very same problem but my old card was a 3870.

cya


----------



## Nevakonaza (Mar 4, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.
> 
> www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> 
> give it a try and let me know how well it works



Did not work for me :/

Ran it,Told me to restart....restarted = stock 6950 :/


----------



## mustrum (Mar 4, 2011)

You can add another sapphire 2048mb reference model to the list.
Flashed the asus bios and am enjoying my 6970 now. No artifacts or anything.


----------



## sy5tem (Mar 4, 2011)

mustrum said:


> You can add another sapphire 2048mb reference model to the list.
> Flashed the asus bios and am enjoying my 6970 now. No artifacts or anything.



artefact come with heat.. and voltage..  and/or time... beware taht at 6970 clock u might irreversibly damage your memory

just saying...


----------



## mustrum (Mar 4, 2011)

sy5tem said:


> artefact come with heat.. and voltage..  and/or time... beware taht at 6970 clock u might irreversibly damage your memory
> 
> just saying...



Running 960/1420 with a max temp of 47 degrees. 
Gotta love watercooling with a mora 2 radiator.
Edit: I didn't touch voltage yet.


----------



## fasteststone (Mar 4, 2011)

I seem to have a problem here I try all methods but I don't get the "verified" message actualy
nothing hapens and the shaders are still  1408 I have a ASUS and the swuitch is definitely at 1 position is there anything else to do?? (or something I'm missing??)


----------



## Bengie (Mar 5, 2011)

sy5tem said:


> artefact come with heat.. and voltage..  and/or time... beware taht at 6970 clock u might irreversibly damage your memory
> 
> just saying...



I've never seen a high clock damage a chip. I have seen voltage/heat/power damage chips though.


----------



## mustrum (Mar 5, 2011)

Bengie said:


> I've never seen a high clock damage a chip. I have seen voltage/heat/power damage chips though.



I allways overvolt my CPUs and GPUs (if possible and with reasonable gain) and i have not managed to kill anything yet. I do use good (water-)cooling though.
The northbridge of my X38 motherboard runs at 1.65 instead of 1,45v for ages now (stupid chipset needs to be pushed hard to get reasonable FSB clocks). 
That being said there hardly is any good gain from overvolting GPUs from my experience wich is why i settled for 960 mhz core clock on this card. Overvolting to get to 1ghz is just not worth it for regular use because you simply can't feel a difference.


----------



## Phobic (Mar 6, 2011)

i just successfully flashed my HIS 6950 using the batch files provided in the first post.  gpu-z reports the right shaders and clock speeds for 6970 and 3dmark 06 runs fine (albeit with minimal score increase due to my highly limiting 5600+ processor).  however there are a couple wonky issues.  crysis won't start, the screen goes black like it is about to and then just goes right back to desktop, one time changing my rez to 1024x768.  (warhead works fine).  also, and of more concern, the display doesn't kick in until the welcome screen of windows on startup, meaning i have no access to bios or safe mode.

any ideas on these other than restore back to 6950 bios?  i am a little unclear as to what that batch file actually did, is the card 100% 6970 now, or do i need to boost the power or voltage or something myself?  i went through the thread as best i could, but with one this large i apologize if these questions have already been answered.

edit:  restoring original bios does not fix the problems.  crap.  what now?


----------



## danc (Mar 6, 2011)

reinstall catalyst drivers?


----------



## wazgoingon? (Mar 6, 2011)

Hi all, just needed some help on the XFX 6950 VER 1.2.   I have a ver 1.1 card and flashed and I was able to overclock it beyond the 880/1375 setting after it flashed.  My problem is I have purchased a second card for my friend and have sort of successfully flashed it to the 6970 bios.  HOWEVER...the shader to start with was only 7xx unified instead of the 14xx unified setting as referenced on page 1 of this thread.  After I flashed the VER 1.2 xfx 6950 with any of the bios for the 6970, for example, I used the Asus aggressive bios and flashed perfectly except now the shader is only showing 768 unified instead of 1536 unified.  Has XFX done something in version 1.2 of their cards or am I missing something?  Again I was successful on my ver 1.1 but I have no clue what's happening on the 1.2.  


Any suggestions?   Thanks!


----------



## manofthem (Mar 6, 2011)

wazgoingon? said:


> Hi all, just needed some help on the XFX 6950 VER 1.2.   I have a ver 1.1 card and flashed and I was able to overclock it beyond the 880/1375 setting after it flashed.  My problem is I have purchased a second card for my friend and have sort of successfully flashed it to the 6970 bios.  HOWEVER...the shader to start with was only 7xx unified instead of the 14xx unified setting as referenced on page 1 of this thread.  After I flashed the VER 1.2 xfx 6950 with any of the bios for the 6970, for example, I used the Asus aggressive bios and flashed perfectly except now the shader is only showing 768 unified instead of 1536 unified.  Has XFX done something in version 1.2 of their cards or am I missing something?  Again I was successful on my ver 1.1 but I have no clue what's happening on the 1.2.
> 
> 
> Any suggestions?   Thanks!



XFX told me:


manofthem said:


> "We don’t support anything other than software modification of a card, any permanent modification to a card that cant be undone or that damages the card wont be supported by warranty. Later revisions of the 6950 will be damaged by trying to flash with a 6970 BIOS."


 Maybe thats what happened?


----------



## wazgoingon? (Mar 6, 2011)

Darn, I guess I'll try to return it tomorrow and try to find an older 1.1.  Has anyone else tried the Ver 1.2 with similar results?


----------



## fire2havoc (Mar 6, 2011)

I just got my HIS 6950.

Which 6970 BIOS should I use? Do I need to use the HIS 6970 BIOS or will any bios work?

Is a particular BIOS more stable and preferred among the people here who have already flashed their cards? 

Thanks.


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## rui0317 (Mar 6, 2011)

wazgoingon? said:


> Hi all, just needed some help on the XFX 6950 VER 1.2.   I have a ver 1.1 card and flashed and I was able to overclock it beyond the 880/1375 setting after it flashed.  My problem is I have purchased a second card for my friend and have sort of successfully flashed it to the 6970 bios.  HOWEVER...the shader to start with was only 7xx unified instead of the 14xx unified setting as referenced on page 1 of this thread.  After I flashed the VER 1.2 xfx 6950 with any of the bios for the 6970, for example, I used the Asus aggressive bios and flashed perfectly except now the shader is only showing 768 unified instead of 1536 unified.  Has XFX done something in version 1.2 of their cards or am I missing something?  Again I was successful on my ver 1.1 but I have no clue what's happening on the 1.2.
> 
> 
> Any suggestions?   Thanks!



Interesting. Infact, if you see "768", that means you've got the extra shaders which you expected after flash the 6970's bios to your v1.2 6950.

6900 serise has two core inside:
6950 = "704" * "2" = 1408 shaders
6970 = "768" * "2" = 1536 shaders
"2" means two core enabled.

As you can see, all what we did here was trying to unlock "704" to "768",  the "2" should be a constant because it should be hard-wired inside the core.

So if you see "768" after flash BIOS, that means "2" has been changed to "1".

Maybe the state register of "2" has been reset after BIOS flashed. So my suggestion is try to unlock the extra shaders on the original v1.2 6950 BIOS.


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## Phobic (Mar 6, 2011)

well it seems my issues were not related to the flash after all.  the startup was a result of which ports i had my monitors connected to, and the crysis crash was a coincidentally-timed problem with the game fixed by a reinstall. 

unfortunately, the full 6970 flash doesn't seem completely stable.  crysis locks up after about 10-15 minutes.  i tried boosting the power 20% in CCC, but that didn't help.  i've been seeing loads of people reporting clocks well beyond stock 6970 speeds, so i'm a tad miffed.  any suggestions on that end?  is there something like upping voltage i can do (and is it safe)?


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## wazgoingon? (Mar 6, 2011)

> Interesting. Infact, if you see "768", that means you've got the extra shaders which you expected after flash the 6970's bios to your v1.2 6950.
> 
> 6900 serise has two core inside:
> 6950 = "704" * "2" = 1408 shaders
> ...




Thanks for your valuable input!!  

Just to sort things out for me as I have not gone the route of unlocking the shader on the original Bios (6950)...

Should I  ....  1) unlock shader so I will see 1536 shaders and then

2) reflash to 6970 bios so it have unlocked shaders and the 6970 bios... OR 

3) unlock the shaders with the 6950 bios and just oc from there?  

Also just to mention...

when you mentioned "Maybe the state register of "2" has been reset after BIOS flashed" ,  before the flash I saw 704 and after the flash to the 6970 bios it showed 768.  so I guess it never showed "2" but was always on "1".  I guess my question is if I unlock the shaders with the 6950 bios, will it stay that way if I flash it to the 6970 bios again and show in GPU-Z the correct # being 1536 ?

I have read a few sites mentioning that the newer boards will be damaged by flashing the bios to 6970.   I've had no problems flashing the bios but as mentioned after is showing 768 unified and before the # was 704 unified.  

Thanks again guys as I am still a bit confused.

Thanks to all you guys as it seems you all are helpful and quite knowledgeable!   I really appreciate the help.


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## rui0317 (Mar 6, 2011)

Hi wazgoingon? 

"3) unlock the shaders with the 6950 bios and just oc from there?" ,this is good!

If you saw "704" shaders at default hd6950 state, it mybe cause by missreading of GPUZ. AMD just use a new register to show the dual core state? Weird.....

If this is the case, you will also see "768" even you use unlock shader only 6950 bios. Whatever, unlocking shader on original 6950 bios is safty than flash 6970 bios directly. Read the post from #363 in this thread ( at page 15) for getting the solution.

I would say you've got succeed on unlocking the extra shaders, your v1.2 hd6950 is unlockable.

Could you post screenshot of the GPUZ? And post the v1.2 hd6950 BIOS here? Thank you!


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## wazgoingon? (Mar 6, 2011)

> Hi wazgoingon?
> 
> "3) unlock the shaders with the 6950 bios and just oc from there?" ,this is good!
> 
> ...




Thanks for your wisdom rui0317!!  

The card at the moment is installed in my friend's computer and I taught him what to do last night in terms of flashing to 6970.  I 'll let him know of the info you have provided.  I guess it is safe to keep the card and not be afraid of the xfx claim that it will destroy the card since it was successfully unlocked.    

The next time I go there, I will post up the GPUZ screen for his 1.2 card and bios for the 6950 ver 1.2


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## fire2havoc (Mar 6, 2011)

I've been reading this thread and it seems that flashing to a 6970 can _potentially_ overvolt the card and fry the memory. I don't want to brick a new card...

Is it better to just flash to a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders (and overclock with AMD overdrive) than flashing to a 6970 bios?


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## Phobic (Mar 7, 2011)

i don't know what normal is for the 6950, but my voltages were at .9 2d and 1.175 3d.  i tried upping it with MSI afterburner, but it doesn't seem to work.  both afterburner and gpu-z don't show it going past 1.175.  i think you're safe from overvolting.


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## dom99 (Mar 7, 2011)

fire2havoc said:


> I've been reading this thread and it seems that flashing to a 6970 can _potentially_ overvolt the card and fry the memory. I don't want to brick a new card...
> 
> Is it better to just flash to a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders (and overclock with AMD overdrive) than flashing to a 6970 bios?



LOL how many times has this been asked here!

Dont mean to be rude but if you have read the thread you already know it all buddy


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## jayc (Mar 7, 2011)

wazgoingon? said:


> Thanks for your wisdom rui0317!!
> 
> The card at the moment is installed in my friend's computer and I taught him what to do last night in terms of flashing to 6970.  I 'll let him know of the info you have provided.  I guess it is safe to keep the card and not be afraid of the xfx claim that it will destroy the card since it was successfully unlocked.
> 
> The next time I go there, I will post up the GPUZ screen for his 1.2 card and bios for the 6950 ver 1.2



Make sure you have the most recent version of GPUZ as well. v0.5.1 is the latest.
I believe earlier versions had trouble reading the 69x0 properly.


----------



## fire2havoc (Mar 7, 2011)

dom99 said:


> LOL how many times has this been asked here!
> 
> Dont mean to be rude but if you have read the thread you already know it all buddy



I know, but there are 60+ pages in the thread and I honestly do not have the time to read all of it in detail.

Can you please just provide a direct answer?


----------



## Phobic (Mar 7, 2011)

dom99 said:


> LOL how many times has this been asked here!
> 
> Dont mean to be rude but if you have read the thread you already know it all buddy



if you didn't mean to be rude, then why did you take the time to post this and still not answer?  this is an enormous thread.

@jayc, yeah i've got the latest version.  i'm not worried about it now that i've discovered my instability was overheating instead of lack of power.  custom fan profile fixed that.  why is it that the drivers are perfectly content to let the card cook while sitting at 30% fan speed?


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## jayc (Mar 7, 2011)

Phobic said:


> i don't know what normal is for the 6950, but my voltages were at .9 2d and 1.175 3d.  i tried upping it with MSI afterburner, but it doesn't seem to work.  both afterburner and gpu-z don't show it going past 1.175.  i think you're safe from overvolting.



That's not normal voltages.
By Normal I assume it means before flashing the bios.
In which case the voltages for a 6950 are 0.9v in 2D and 1.1v in 3D.

If you are referring to a 6950 flashed to a 6970 bios, then 0.9v in 2D and 1.175v in 3D.

MSI Afterburner WILL work with voltage unlocks and it WILL go above 1.1v for a 6950 or 1.175v for 6970. You just need to know how to unlock the unofficial overclocking abilities of that software.


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## jayc (Mar 7, 2011)

Phobic said:


> @jayc, yeah i've got the latest version.  i'm not worried about it now that i've discovered my instability was overheating instead of lack of power.  custom fan profile fixed that.  why is it that the drivers are perfectly content to let the card cook while sitting at 30% fan speed?



That was actually meant for wazgoingon?, to check that he or his friend is using GPUZ 0.5.1. because GPUZ was reporting 768 unified shaders.


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## Phobic (Mar 7, 2011)

oh.  yeah i wasn't very clear with that post about voltages.  i meant after flashing to 6970 thats what they were reading.  i read about unlocking the unofficial overclocking with afterburner, but i thought that was just for clock speeds past what CCC overdrive will do.  i thought just the checkboxes would unlock the voltage.  no matter, i won't be messing with it now anyway.  i probably shouldn't have bothered flashing it right now either, as i'm severely bottlenecked by my 5600+ processor.  they need to hurry up with the bulldozer 

while i'm here, what's up with the auto-tune button missing in CCC?  anyone know of a third party program that does the same thing?  i'm too lazy to do it manually


----------



## fire2havoc (Mar 7, 2011)

What do your 6950s idle at? Mine idles @ 49C and that seems a bit high. Ambient temp is ~20C.


----------



## jayc (Mar 7, 2011)

fire2havoc said:


> What do your 6950s idle at? Mine idles @ 49C and that seems a bit high. Ambient temp is ~20C.



Seems a bit high when your ambient is 20degC.
But don't worry about idle temps so much.
What is load temps, and is it stable when using it?


----------



## Phobic (Mar 7, 2011)

mine idles at 45-50 C.  the 4850 (single slot reference design) it replaced idled at 80, so that's frigid to me 

crysis was pushing it up to 90 on load where it would crash, but pushing the fan up i got it to stabilize at around 70C at about 55% fan.


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## Deleted member 67555 (Mar 7, 2011)

Phobic my 6950 crashed on Crysis before I unlocked it....Crysis crashes a lot in DX10 I bet you wont have the same problem if you run Crysis in DX9
just add "-dx9" at the end of the target for your destop Icon and it will launch in DX9 mode


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## Chieftexas (Mar 7, 2011)

*Problem with Sapphire  2GB 6950*



W1zzard said:


> For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:
> 
> - Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
> - Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
> ...



After the -unlockrom 0 step, my display went black and every few seconds my mouse clicker and the windows command prompt scroll bar would appear then disappear again. Had to reboot with the switch in the 2 position to get it working again does anyone know what happened?


Thanks


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## Bengie (Mar 7, 2011)

Use the 6950 mod, not the 6970 flash

 How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

6970 flash changes your memory voltage which has a good chance to burn it out.


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## Chieftexas (Mar 7, 2011)

*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


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## wazgoingon? (Mar 7, 2011)

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!


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## Deleted member 67555 (Mar 8, 2011)

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...


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## fire2havoc (Mar 8, 2011)

Bengie said:


> Use the 6950 mod, not the 6970 flash
> 
> How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...
> 
> 6970 flash changes your memory voltage which has a good chance to burn it out.



Did this. Am now unlocked with 1536 shaders.

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


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## PhantomGamers (Mar 8, 2011)

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...



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.


----------



## Bengie (Mar 8, 2011)

fire2havoc said:


> Did this. Am now unlocked with 1536 shaders.
> 
> Do I need to adjust "Power Control" to +20% in CCC?



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.


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## fire2havoc (Mar 8, 2011)

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.



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.


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## Sebascenso (Mar 8, 2011)

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.


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## Mark22 (Mar 9, 2011)

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.*
> 
> ...



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.


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## aydahm (Mar 9, 2011)

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%?


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## fire2havoc (Mar 9, 2011)

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%?



I still have mine set to 0% until I read otherwise.


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## Bengie (Mar 9, 2011)

fire2havoc said:


> I still have mine set to 0% until I read otherwise.



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.


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## GSG-9 (Mar 9, 2011)

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.



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?


----------



## cadaveca (Mar 9, 2011)

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?



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.


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## Ganzir (Mar 9, 2011)

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.


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## kobebryant8885 (Mar 9, 2011)

Hey guys.
I have a 6950 twin frozr II.
Is ther any way a can boot to a 6970???


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## Mark22 (Mar 9, 2011)

kobebryant8885 said:


> Hey guys.
> I have a 6950 twin frozr II.
> Is ther any way a can boot to a 6970???



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.


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## kobebryant8885 (Mar 9, 2011)

It does not have the bios switch... 
Overclocking workes fine but it is locked at 840 MHZ...


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## remdiablo (Mar 9, 2011)

*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


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## Bengie (Mar 9, 2011)

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?



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


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## Landrover (Mar 9, 2011)

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.


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## aydahm (Mar 9, 2011)

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?


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## fire2havoc (Mar 10, 2011)

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



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%?


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## jayc (Mar 10, 2011)

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%?



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.


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## fire2havoc (Mar 10, 2011)

jayc said:


> 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.
> ...



I just ran 3DMark 11 (performance) with and without the power control option.

Unlocked 6950 (not overclocked):
*Without* - 5021
*+10% PC* - 5012

Seems to be no impact, at least in the synthetic benchmarks.


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## vivithemage (Mar 10, 2011)

Is it just me, or after unlocking my shaders (using XFX BIOS on my XFX cards to unlock shaders posted in this thread)...I get flickering at the desktop and in more intense GPU games (BC2, but not LoL).


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## Quieto (Mar 10, 2011)

Hey guys!

I have been following this thread since it started, and got me a sweet Sapphire 6950 (Only modded shaders).
A few days ago i thought i would try to overclock it, i only tested it in Rift so it may be a problem with the game. But i set the core to 900 and voltage to 1175, to see if it could handle it. Didnt touch the memory)
But after like 10min of gaming the graphic driver stopped responding. And i thought "Hmm i just bump the voltage up" and i bumped it up to 1210, but it still chrashed!
Then i set the powertune on 10%, still crash.
But then i read that someone just had set Powertune on 10% and pushed his fan speed on 48% and then driver wouldnt chrash.
I thought wtf and set the fan on 50% just to see, and it worked! (I still had powertune on 10%, and voltage on 1200)
It cant have be overheating because it is only on 75c when playing Rift :O

So anyone have any suggestions what could be causing the graphic driver crashing when the fan is under 48%?


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## Landrover (Mar 10, 2011)

O.k.  So I did the 6950 bios hack and got the shaders and max OC, running stable as heck.  I think I even picked up a few fps from when I had the 6970 bios, at least in the game Rift.  I still have my voltage at stock and no issues.  

Thanks for the help Power Up forums!  EDIT:  Sorry, just an FYI I have a HIS 2GB 6950 and I when I'm playing games I set the fan at 45%.  Not too loud and it keeps the card around 80C.


----------



## jayc (Mar 10, 2011)

fire2havoc said:


> I just ran 3DMark 11 (performance) with and without the power control option.
> 
> Unlocked 6950 (not overclocked):
> *Without* - 5021
> ...



Yep, Maybe not in 3dmark11.
You will see a difference in Furmark.

But test your games, that's where it counts. Any slow down or stuttering could be signs of throttling.


----------



## fire2havoc (Mar 10, 2011)

jayc said:


> Yep, Maybe not in 3dmark11.
> You will see a difference in Furmark.
> 
> But test your games, that's where it counts. Any slow down or stuttering could be signs of throttling.



I'll have to test it out more thoroughly. You may be right. I do notice a bit of stuttering when a map first loads in Bad Company 2. However, my card did crash on me yesterday so I'll have to test it further.

If there's no difference in the games, I might as well keep power control at 0%. There may be a difference in synthetic benchmarks (i.e. Furmark) but it's real-world performance that matters.


----------



## Datenshi (Mar 11, 2011)

Does this mod work anymore? I just got my new "ASUS RADEON HD6950 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E DVI/HDMI/DP" yesterday and i tried this mod both using the original article method, manually and the bat package. Looked like it flashed successfully but shaders didnt change at all. Then i tried the 6950 bios modification, with my original dump. But the same thing here, successful flash but nothing changed. Btw is the flash process suppose to take like 1 second? cuz compared to flashing the MB bios the writing process bar practically just "blinked" very fast.

Any news on this?


----------



## fullinfusion (Mar 11, 2011)

Datenshi said:


> Does this mod work anymore? I just got my new "ASUS RADEON HD6950 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E DVI/HDMI/DP" yesterday and i tried this mod both using the original article method, manually and the bat package. Looked like it flashed successfully but shaders didnt change at all. Then i tried the 6950 bios modification, with my original dump. But the same thing here, successful flash but nothing changed. Btw is the flash process suppose to take like 1 second? cuz compared to flashing the MB bios the writing process bar practically just "blinked" very fast.
> 
> Any news on this?


It should work for you, but mabey you got a revised gpu from Asus. Try flashing again in windows and when prompted to restart just select cancel and no... Do a system shut down, unplug your psu for 30sec, plug back in and then power up. See if that works


----------



## jayc (Mar 11, 2011)

Datenshi said:


> Btw is the flash process suppose to take like 1 second? cuz compared to flashing the MB bios the writing process bar practically just "blinked" very fast.



Well, the firmware file is only 128KB afterall. Doesn't take long to erase and write 128KB.


----------



## fire2havoc (Mar 11, 2011)

Datenshi said:


> Does this mod work anymore? I just got my new "ASUS RADEON HD6950 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E DVI/HDMI/DP" yesterday and i tried this mod both using the original article method, manually and the bat package. Looked like it flashed successfully but shaders didnt change at all. Then i tried the 6950 bios modification, with my original dump. But the same thing here, successful flash but nothing changed. Btw is the flash process suppose to take like 1 second? cuz compared to flashing the MB bios the writing process bar practically just "blinked" very fast.
> 
> Any news on this?



Are you flashing with ATIWinflash or through command prompt?


----------



## Deleted member 67555 (Mar 11, 2011)

My flash took about 45 seconds


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## CreexX (Mar 11, 2011)

hi everybody!
When i try to flash my bios winfalsh says that there is a mistake in the subsystem ids.
Does anybody know what is going wrong there?
thx


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## fire2havoc (Mar 11, 2011)

CreexX said:


> hi everybody!
> When i try to flash my bios winfalsh says that there is a mistake in the subsystem ids.
> Does anybody know what is going wrong there?
> thx



Try to flash through command prompt, as outlined by W1ZZARD in the article.


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## Phobic (Mar 11, 2011)

Quieto said:


> Hey guys!
> 
> I have been following this thread since it started, and got me a sweet Sapphire 6950 (Only modded shaders).
> A few days ago i thought i would try to overclock it, i only tested it in Rift so it may be a problem with the game. But i set the core to 900 and voltage to 1175, to see if it could handle it. Didnt touch the memory)
> ...



yes, i'm pretty sure it is an overheating issue.  i had roughly the same thing going, and i also thought it was voltage/power, and it didn't work.  best solution for me was making a custom fan speed curve with MSI afterburner.  mine was crashing in crysis when it hit around 90 degrees.  with the custom profile, the temp settles out around 65-70 with acceptable fan noise.  you could probably even get away with temps at 80.  that's what my old 4850 idled at.


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## fullinfusion (Mar 12, 2011)

the latest version of msi afterburner and Sapphire Trix wont work over clocking the 6950 in crossfireX

Any body know what im doing wrong?

I running 2 reference designed cards

Is there a program that will work. I'm able to up the voltage but as soon as I move the slider from 800mhz to 801mhz and click applie for the core I get a BSOD!

Any Ideas?


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## kobebryant8885 (Mar 12, 2011)

Hey guys

How can you flash back a video card if it does not start...

Can you do it puting it on secondery pcie and working whit another video card?????


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## Makaveli (Mar 13, 2011)

Hey all,

I just finally picked up a Sapphire 6950.

The good news

Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo Pro fits on the card no issues. 

Now what is the recommended bios to use.

Do I just grab a sapphire 6970 bios?

or do I use the 6950 bios with unlocked shaders?

Suggestions?


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## Makaveli (Mar 13, 2011)

ok so I have a problem now.

I made a backup of my Bios then took the bios editor and wanted to create an shader unclocked bios with everything at stock except for the CC overdrive limits I pushed those to 880/1375 as I wanted to test the card before just going straight to a 6970 bios. After 3 attempts I got the flash to work but now the machine will BSOD before getting to the desktop. I can boot to safe mode fine and if I switch the card to setting number 2 it works fine. 

I believe the Overlimit change is what caused all the problems however I cannot get back into windows to flash it while its on Setting number 1.

Can I flip the switch from 1 to 2 while at the desktop then flash or do I have reboot?

The next course of action is I need a program that will flash from dos so I can just put the stock bios back on.

Need help Asap.


*update*

NM you can switch it while the machine is running and flash it back I should have read that on the first page of the instructions.

_Shaders unlock still at default 6950 clock speed and Voltage._





_idle Temps with AC Twin Turbo Pro_


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## Kitt (Mar 14, 2011)

I'm at my wit's end. I've tried everything suggested in this thread and many others (they've all said essentially the same things) and to no avail. I'm using an HIS 6950 2GB which I recently purchased (about a week or 2 ago). I am using the most recent version of both ATIWinflash and GPU-Z.

When trying to flash using the ATIWinflash GUI, I get the "Couldn't Erase ROM" error. Additionally, "Asic Revision", "Video memory", "Memory Clock", "Engine Clock" all report "N/A". If the information matters at all, ATIWinflash is reporting my DeviceID as 0x6719 and the Flash type as PM25LV010.

Next, I tried the unlocking method. I ran CMD as an Administrator, relocated to the directory that ATIWinflash is in (and also made sure the proper bios files are in there as well), and then did: _atiwinflash -unlockrom 0_ followed by _atiwinflash -f -p 0 bios.bin_. This didn't seem to give any error messages, and a few progress dialog boxes poped up and disappeared nearly instantly. Upon a restart, GPU-Z still reports the shaders at 1408 unified. 

My graphics card is in the second PCI-E slot from the top on my motherboard. Due to short cables, I can't actually install it in the top most slot. I have no other devices installed in any of my other expansion slots. I've also attempted doing the CMD unlock method using a 1 instead of a 0 - exact same results.

I've used many different bioses, including 6950 bioses modified to only have the shaders tweaked. Even stranger, whenever I try to "Load Image" then "Program" from ATIWinflash using my backed-up bios (which I obtained from GPU-Z using the button next to the BIOS version information) I get: "This version of VBIOS is already installed". This seems to indicate to me that I've never yet actually really flashed the bios.

Does anyone have an idea what's going on? I haven't found anyone else who seems to have this problem - for the few who have, unlocking using CMD fixed it. What am I doing wrong?

I have absolutely no idea what the problem is, and I've been at this for nearly 6 hours now


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## Whoops! (Mar 14, 2011)

*bios name*

Just a long shot but is the bios that you are trying to flash to really called "BIOS.BIN" ?

And is BIOS.BIN located in the winflash folder?


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## hobojo06 (Mar 14, 2011)

Ok, well i've been using the modified bios for the sapphire 2gb 6950 over a month now and i'd like to share my results. I have shaders unlock to 1536 and my clocks set to 880/1375. For the first week my screens started to flicker randomly when on the net and I recieved messages on my traybar saying that my gpu isn't responding and needs to refresh. Now, my system tends to reboot after playing vigorous games like BC2 after like maybe 30 mins. I have increased my fan speeds to almost 100%, that didn't work and now i've reverted back to my old bios and that didn't help either. If i had to guess, it seems that my card is dying after prolong use with modified bios. Not sure exactly what's causing it but now i've left my clocks at 880/1250 with unlocked shaders... Let's see how that might work.


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## manofthem (Mar 14, 2011)

Kitt said:


> My graphics card is in the second PCI-E slot from the top on my motherboard. Due to short cables, I can't actually install it in the top most slot. I have no other devices installed in any of my other expansion slots. I've also attempted doing the CMD unlock method using a 1 instead of a 0 - exact same results.
> 
> I have absolutely no idea what the problem is, and I've been at this for nearly 6 hours now


A while back, it was mentioned that it won't work unless the gpu is installed in the primary pci-e slot. Try to rearrange things to get it in the first slot


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## Makaveli (Mar 14, 2011)

hobojo06 said:


> Ok, well i've been using the modified bios for the sapphire 2gb 6950 over a month now and i'd like to share my results. I have shaders unlock to 1536 and my clocks set to 880/1375. For the first week my screens started to flicker randomly when on the net and I recieved messages on my traybar saying that my gpu isn't responding and needs to refresh. Now, my system tends to reboot after playing vigorous games like BC2 after like maybe 30 mins. I have increased my fan speeds to almost 100%, that didn't work and now i've reverted back to my old bios and that didn't help either. If i had to guess, it seems that my card is dying after prolong use with modified bios. Not sure exactly what's causing it but now i've left my clocks at 880/1250 with unlocked shaders... Let's see how that might work.



Are you back to the original shader 1408 bios?


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## Makaveli (Mar 14, 2011)

Kitt said:


> I'm at my wit's end. I've tried everything suggested in this thread and many others (they've all said essentially the same things) and to no avail. I'm using an HIS 6950 2GB which I recently purchased (about a week or 2 ago). I am using the most recent version of both ATIWinflash and GPU-Z.
> 
> When trying to flash using the ATIWinflash GUI, I get the "Couldn't Erase ROM" error. Additionally, "Asic Revision", "Video memory", "Memory Clock", "Engine Clock" all report "N/A". If the information matters at all, ATIWinflash is reporting my DeviceID as 0x6719 and the Flash type as PM25LV010.
> 
> ...



I noticed similar things when I was doing my flash. 

when I first tried it Atiwinflash would crash as soon as I used the cmd to unlock the card before flashing. After a few attempts I got it to go thru, you however need to see a confirmation prompt if you didn't see it the flash didn't go thru.

And you should be shutting down the machine after the flash not just rebooting.

Do as the other guy suggested move the card to the primary PCI E slot.


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## Kitt (Mar 14, 2011)

Whoops! said:


> Just a long shot but is the bios that you are trying to flash to really called "BIOS.BIN" ?
> 
> And is BIOS.BIN located in the winflash folder?



Aye, it is.



manofthem said:


> A while back, it was mentioned that it won't work unless the gpu is installed in the primary pci-e slot. Try to rearrange things to get it in the first slot





Makaveli said:


> [snip]
> And you should be shutting down the machine after the flash not just rebooting.
> 
> Do as the other guy suggested move the card to the primary PCI E slot.



Shoot, I was afraid of this. There is an 8 pin cable that has to stretch from the very very bottom of my case, to the tippy top and is literally too short to reach if I move the card up a PCI-E slot. It looks like I may need to un-attach the PSU from the case and let it hang loose just long enough to move the card up a slot and flash. After flashing, the card should then work in whatever PCI-E slot, correct?


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## jayc (Mar 14, 2011)

Kitt said:


> Shoot, I was afraid of this. There is an 8 pin cable that has to stretch from the very very bottom of my case, to the tippy top and is literally too short to reach if I move the card up a PCI-E slot. It looks like I may need to un-attach the PSU from the case and let it hang loose just long enough to move the card up a slot and flash. After flashing, the card should then work in whatever PCI-E slot, correct?



Why don't you run that 8pin power cable under the vid card.
So run the cable along the mobo up to the connector then slide the card over the cable into the PCI-e slot.

Yes, after a successful flash, you can move the card to any other PCI-e slot you choose.


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## shwazemoto (Mar 15, 2011)

Ive been reading this and all I can say is no wonder these cards are failing..
Every one is talking about OC, OC and more OC pushing it further is sure to brick the card.
I have a XFX 6950 Flashed to a 6970, 880 core and mem downclocked to 1250 been running stable now for almost 3 months never played with voltage other than the +20%,  I am curious tho if I should use RBE to play with voltage.


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## aydahm (Mar 15, 2011)

hobojo06 said:


> Ok, well i've been using the modified bios for the sapphire 2gb 6950 over a month now and i'd like to share my results. I have shaders unlock to 1536 and my clocks set to 880/1375. For the first week my screens started to flicker randomly when on the net and I recieved messages on my traybar saying that my gpu isn't responding and needs to refresh. Now, my system tends to reboot after playing vigorous games like BC2 after like maybe 30 mins. I have increased my fan speeds to almost 100%, that didn't work and now i've reverted back to my old bios and that didn't help either. If i had to guess, it seems that my card is dying after prolong use with modified bios. Not sure exactly what's causing it but now i've left my clocks at 880/1250 with unlocked shaders... Let's see how that might work.



due to a fear of the card somehow failing, I'm only using 1536 shaders and nothing else. Does using the shaders at this level pose any threat or risk do you think?


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## shwazemoto (Mar 15, 2011)

thats how mines been for almost 3 months ok so far but I never tried to push it further, I would rather have a stable card so I will leave it at 880/1250 mem on 6970 bios


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## jayc (Mar 15, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> Ive been reading this and all I can say is no wonder these cards are failing..
> Every one is talking about OC, OC and more OC pushing it further is sure to brick the card.
> I have a XFX 6950 Flashed to a 6970, 880 core and mem downclocked to 1250 been running stable now for almost 3 months never played with voltage other than the +20%,  I am curious tho if I should use RBE to play with voltage.



If you don't plan on overclocking any higher, then you have no need to increase voltages using RBE.

However a true overclocker doesn't stop there. Once you have achieved the faster speeds you were looking for using x amount of voltage, you can start looking in the other direction.
When the card is in idle, running 2D speeds of 250core/150mem using 0.9volts.

Does your card really need 0.9volts to run such a low speed? - the answer is no.

I have my 6950 running 2d speeds using only 0.77volts. 
This is good for a 5 degC reduction in temps.
Any lower than 0.76v will result in either artifacts or black screen when loading the windows drivers at boot up.

My usage of the PC is 75% in 2d mode - reading forum posts, emails, online shopping, banking, Ms word, excel, etc. Only 25% is used in 3d mode.

Use RBE to reduce voltages in 2D. The 2D voltage will be listed as 900mv. And reflash using the bios generated by RBE.


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## shwazemoto (Mar 15, 2011)

I just downloaded the 6950 updated bios with shader unlocks but it downloaded intoa vlc file?  what do I need to change it to? or is ther a .bat file for this? I want to try this to see if its better


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## jayc (Mar 15, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> I just downloaded the 6950 updated bios with shader unlocks but it downloaded intoa vlc file?  what do I need to change it to? or is ther a .bat file for this? I want to try this to see if its better



Are you sure it's got a vlc extension to the filename?
It should be a .bin.
Make sure you have View extensions enabled in Windows.
If the firmware file is not a .bin, i would not trust it.


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## Kitt (Mar 15, 2011)

jayc said:


> Why don't you run that 8pin power cable under the vid card.
> So run the cable along the mobo up to the connector then slide the card over the cable into the PCI-e slot.
> 
> Yes, after a successful flash, you can move the card to any other PCI-e slot you choose.



If you can believe it, I was already doing this just to make it reach from the lower slot. Once I move it up a slot, thanks to some unfortunate geometry, the angle it makes reduces the distance by a few centimeters. Since I was already stretched to the limit in the lower slot, those few centimeters were enough to make it not reach. That said, just today I ran up to my local computer store, and purchased an extender cable for the specific connection I need. Worked like a charm! Not sure why I didn't think of that sooner... Oh well.

A Question: When OCing this card and attempting to bench mark it, I almost always end up causing the system to completely shut off. No errors, no complaints, just completely shuts off as if I'd held the power button down. I have a nagging suspicion that it's my PSU not providing enough power, and nothing to do with the actual OC (since my attempts have been pretty modest compared to what others are reporting as stable); however, I've never had to worry about such things until this card, so I'm not sure how the system would actually react to unmet power demands. Does anyone have any insight into the matter?


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## shwazemoto (Mar 15, 2011)

Whoops! said:


> How do I find out if my XFX card (version 1.0) has T2C or R0C?



anyone know this????


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## fullinfusion (Mar 15, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> I just downloaded the 6950 updated bios with shader unlocks but it downloaded intoa vlc file?  what do I need to change it to? or is ther a .bat file for this? I want to try this to see if its better


remove VLC player or uncheck the .bin in the vlc options..


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## shwazemoto (Mar 15, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> remove VLC player or uncheck the .bin in the vlc options..



I did and the files are blank windows wants me to choose a program to open it with


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## fullinfusion (Mar 15, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> I did and the files are blank windows wants me to choose a program to open it with


Thats ok, just slip the .bin file into the winflash folder and flash away. You dont need to open the .bin file winflash will do what it needs to.


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## shwazemoto (Mar 15, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Thats ok, just slip the .bin file into the winflash folder and flash away. You dont need to open the .bin file winflash will do what it needs to.



win flashed never worked for me I had to use the easy way the .bat file


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## fullinfusion (Mar 15, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> win flashed never worked for me I had to use the easy way the .bat file


Did you follow THIS


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## shwazemoto (Mar 15, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Did you follow THIS



no the  Windows Batch File (.bat) is much easyer, isnt there one for just modded 6950 bios?


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## fullinfusion (Mar 15, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> no the  Windows Batch File (.bat) is much easyer, isnt there one for just modded 6950 bios?


Yeah, what's your flavor? just unlocked or full 6970 bios?
I use the Sapphire ones, also I just use the bios switch on the side of the gpu to run stock for daily stuff and slide it when I want to bench and such.


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## dom99 (Mar 16, 2011)

you just rename the file to a .bat file and it works


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## shwazemoto (Mar 16, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Yeah, what's your flavor? just unlocked or full 6970 bios?
> I use the Sapphire ones, also I just use the bios switch on the side of the gpu to run stock for daily stuff and slide it when I want to bench and such.



so far I was only able to use the 6970 bios and it worked fine for me I just wanted to try the shaders only to see how it was


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## jayc (Mar 16, 2011)

Kitt said:


> A Question: When OCing this card and attempting to bench mark it, I almost always end up causing the system to completely shut off. No errors, no complaints, just completely shuts off as if I'd held the power button down. I have a nagging suspicion that it's my PSU not providing enough power, and nothing to do with the actual OC (since my attempts have been pretty modest compared to what others are reporting as stable); however, I've never had to worry about such things until this card, so I'm not sure how the system would actually react to unmet power demands. Does anyone have any insight into the matter?



No one is going to be able to advise you without knowing what your equipment is.
So the answer for the moment is ... Probably.


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## jayc (Mar 16, 2011)

dom99 said:


> you just rename the file to a .bat file and it works



Uh what?
No it doesn't.


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## -ION- (Mar 16, 2011)

Yesterday I received my HIS HD6950, unlocked it right away and tested it with stable results.
Note i had to use the manual way though


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## shwazemoto (Mar 16, 2011)

yeah thats what I used too, mine has been stable for a while but a lot of ppl on here are saying that their cards are now failling.  I am going to flash mine back for now until there is a manual way to only unlock shaders.


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## Bengie (Mar 16, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> yeah thats what I used too, mine has been stable for a while but a lot of ppl on here are saying that their cards are now failling.  I am going to flash mine back for now until there is a manual way to only unlock shaders.



There is a manual way to "only" unlock the shaders without touching timings or voltages. It's even in this long long post somewhere. It's called the 6950 mod instead of 6970 flash.


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## Mark22 (Mar 16, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> yeah thats what I used too, mine has been stable for a while but a lot of ppl on here are saying that their cards are now failling.  I am going to flash mine back for now until there is a manual way to only unlock shaders.



Most people in this thread are only using unlocked shaders and overclocking from there.


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## shwazemoto (Mar 16, 2011)

I sent in a ticket to XFX  this see if it is safe to flash the crads

 3/16/2011 3:13:45 AM] I have been reading on techpowerup website about a possible bios flash for the 6950 is this safe on the card?? 

[BRIAN 3/16/2011 5:06:40 PM] Hi, there was a BIOS going around when the card first came out. However, on the newer revisions of the card, it will actually brick the card. If you aren`t having any issues with the card, then flashing the BIOS is not necessary. Video cards are not like motherboards and the BIOS that is on them will typically be the only BIOS for that card in its lifespan. Thanks, Brian. 

he did not say it was unsafe? just that newer cards will brick..


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## alick (Mar 16, 2011)

That's why I got my asus 6950  from memory express.   They did a 10% price beat for local store and they have an IPR program which I bought.  I got a 3 year instore new replacement plan.  So I don't have to send card to the manufacturer. Plus replacements are new or of they don't have that model I get a free upgrade to the newer model of that card out. Best of both worlds.  As long as the cards don't have physical water damage its all good. 

I buying all my computer stuff from there. The Irp are great. Cost about the same as shipping with rma so way better deal if your local to memory express in canada


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## Thassodar (Mar 16, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> I sent in a ticket to XFX  this see if it is safe to flash the crads
> 
> 3/16/2011 3:13:45 AM] I have been reading on techpowerup website about a possible bios flash for the 6950 is this safe on the card??
> 
> ...



I think that's funny because on PowerColor's website it has, on the front page mind you, unlocking alllllll over it for the 6950. It's almost as if they WANT you to unlock the shaders. Mine is in the mail and should be here in less than a hour. Then it's time for unlocking goodness !


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## shwazemoto (Mar 16, 2011)

Thassodar said:


> I think that's funny because on PowerColor's website it has, on the front page mind you, unlocking alllllll over it for the 6950. It's almost as if they WANT you to unlock the shaders. Mine is in the mail and should be here in less than a hour. Then it's time for unlocking goodness !



unlocking shades or full unlock to 6970?


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## Thassodar (Mar 16, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> unlocking shades or full unlock to 6970?



I suppose they mean just the shaders, check it out on their site: http://powercolor.com/us/default.asp

To the far right if you watch the little flash animation about the 6950 it mentions "Unlocking Performance". Maybe I'm misunderstanding their meaning but when everyone and their grandma knows about unlocking the shaders why not make it a selling point?


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## shwazemoto (Mar 16, 2011)

Thassodar said:


> I suppose they mean just the shaders, check it out on their site: http://powercolor.com/us/default.asp
> 
> To the far right if you watch the little flash animation about the 6950 it mentions "Unlocking Performance". Maybe I'm misunderstanding their meaning but when everyone and their grandma knows about unlocking the shaders why not make it a selling point?



there talking about the 6950pcs++ the card is pre modded to full 6970 (minus mem speed which is at 1250) with the switch on the card you can run at 6950 or to modded 6970


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## jayc (Mar 17, 2011)

And take a look at the specs for the Powercolor 6950 PCS++ ...
Extention Power Connector - One 6-Pin and One 8-Pin PCI Express Power connectors

It uses the 8pin PCIE power connector just like a 6970.

Note: both bios' on the Powercolor PCS++ is LOCKED. However, with a 6950 and 6970 feature, you don't need to flash it anyway. BUT !!! you can't use something like RBE to change voltages in bios either.

I'd rather just spend the extra few dollars for a true 6970.


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## Sk1nner (Mar 17, 2011)

*clock´s*

i have a powercolor 6950 with the shaders mod only, oced to 880/1400 1.16 (catalist 11.4)
when i´m in windows the clocks change to 500/1400 but then i play a video(youtube or in media player) the clocks change to 500/1250, isn't suppose to remain at 500/1250 in windows also? and then change to 880/1400 in more demanding gpu applications. Anyone know if this is a driver problem or just related to some configuration? thanks 
*sorry for the bad English


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## cadaveca (Mar 17, 2011)

driver forces the 500/1250 speed(UVD clocks).

Real idle clocks are 250/150 here.


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## Sk1nner (Mar 18, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> driver forces the 500/1250 speed(UVD clocks).
> 
> Real idle clocks are 250/150 here.



here the clocks never lower from 500/1400 , unless when a video is playing (500/1250), shouldn't drop to 250/150 in windows?


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## alick (Mar 18, 2011)

Well I notice if you have two monitors hooked up it will stay at 500core but if you only have one hooked up it drops to 250 MHz core.  That is what happens when I unhook my second monitor.


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## jayc (Mar 18, 2011)

alick is correct. If you have more than 1 monitor, the driver detects this and sets your clocks to 500/1250.

Why yours is 500/1400? I'm not sure.
Probably a quirk or conflict of the driver (500/1250) and the application you are using to overclock (880/1400). 

let me guess, are you running Afterburner?


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## cadaveca (Mar 18, 2011)

He could be running eyefinity.


Done MUCHO testing with unlocked shaders and game performance.


Have to use 3rd party tool to set fan curve with unlocked shaders, but even with stock fan profile, and stock 1.1v, I can get at most 860mhz.

Tested VS. 860MHz with locked shaders, unless you are running above 1920x1080, or 8xAA, 6950 2GB with stock bios is just fine, and unlock adds very little, although, I did not ever OC memory.

I flashed my card back. $259 for this performance is just fine with me.


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## Sk1nner (Mar 18, 2011)

jayc said:


> alick is correct. If you have more than 1 monitor, the driver detects this and sets your clocks to 500/1250.
> 
> Why yours is 500/1400? I'm not sure.
> Probably a quirk or conflict of the driver (500/1250) and the application you are using to overclock (880/1400).
> ...



now i have afterburner running to set a custom fan curve, but to overclock i was using amd overdrive in ccc , and edited the bios to get more voltage because at normal voltage i cant get past 850.


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## Hebbe (Mar 18, 2011)

Hello

Im having a huge truble trying to flash my Sapphire 6950. I've done the steps that is on page one but it says "Can't Erase ROM", but when I try to flash it via CMD it just says that it can't find the specified path. It can't even find my desktop.

Can anyone please help me?


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## Hebbe (Mar 18, 2011)

And I've tried to restore it. I've done the steps that is at the bottom of the page.


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## cadaveca (Mar 18, 2011)

Hebbe:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2134576&postcount=19


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## Sk1nner (Mar 18, 2011)

jayc said:


> alick is correct. If you have more than 1 monitor, the driver detects this and sets your clocks to 500/1250.
> 
> Why yours is 500/1400? I'm not sure.
> Probably a quirk or conflict of the driver (500/1250) and the application you are using to overclock (880/1400).
> ...



yes, i have 2 monitors, not in eyefinity, only in extended mode because is different resolutions(1920*1080(22) and 1680*1050(20)). 
I set custom profiles for 2D and 3D on msi afterburner and the problem is solved for now, the only problem that remains is that when i lunch game with a browser page open for ex on youtube the UVD clocks dont change, have to close the browser, maybe just bug in the  drivers.


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## Hebbe (Mar 18, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Hebbe:
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...6&postcount=19



I have tried that but it still doesn't work.


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## cadaveca (Mar 18, 2011)

Hebbe said:


> I have tried that but it still doesn't work.



Make sure to try the unlock first, and if it doesn't work with switch in position #1, try #2.


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## Hebbe (Mar 18, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Make sure to try the unlock first, and if it doesn't work with switch in position #1, try #2.



If I click the CMD prompt normally it can find the files but if I right click it and press "Run as Administrator" it can't find anything.


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## cadaveca (Mar 18, 2011)

Did you put winflash folder on desktop, and rename it to "winflash"?

I did not have this issue, sounds like you're missing a step, or something else is fouling things for ya.


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## Hebbe (Mar 18, 2011)

I have named it winflash. I've tried to delete everything and downloaded it again and made a new folder twice but it still doesn't work :'(


----------



## cadaveca (Mar 18, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> I sent in a ticket to XFX  this see if it is safe to flash the crads
> 
> 3/16/2011 3:13:45 AM] I have been reading on techpowerup website about a possible bios flash for the 6950 is this safe on the card??
> 
> ...



I call shens. Lies, even. Checked thier website, almost every single one of thier cards currently for sale has a bios update available, if not many of them

Bricking the card? Totally possible. Why they would spend money to do that, I dunno, but OK, if that's what they want to say, then fine. I wonder myself though, if the card has the switch, how can they really stop you? Are they purposefully modding the cards so a flash kill 'em? How is that possible? And they expect people to want to buy them? LOL WHUT?!?



I guess they never heard of "infernal devices", nor thier legality.


----------



## shwazemoto (Mar 18, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> I call shens. Lies, even. Checked thier website, almost every single one of thier cards currently for sale has a bios update available, if not many of them
> 
> Bricking the card? Totally possible. Why they would spend money to do that, I dunno, but OK, if that's what they want to say, then fine. I wonder myself though, if the card has the switch, how can they really stop you? Are they purposefully modding the cards so a flash kill 'em? How is that possible? And they expect people to want to buy them? LOL WHUT?!?
> 
> ...



mine flashed fine I had no issues I flashed back to 6950 using cat 11.4 
cause with cat 11.4 using the 6970 bios my minimum memory speed was 1375 but in cat 11.2 I was able to but my mem down to 1250 which was safer, performance is the same with cat 11.4 oc 6950 as the 6970 bios with clocks at 880/1250 in cat 11.2 so might as well stick with stock 6950 and oc, I tried the shader unlock mod thing but it messed up my pc, the eplorer.exe file was affected and I was not able to open any files I had to do a system restore,


----------



## manofthem (Mar 19, 2011)

Hebbe said:


> I have named it winflash. I've tried to delete everything and downloaded it again and made a new folder twice but it still doesn't work :'(



Don't know if it'll help, but instead of putting it on my desktop, I put the winflash folder right on the C: drive.  (C:\winflash)  I did that because it was easier to navigate to in CMD.  Maybe it'll work for you


----------



## yonef (Mar 19, 2011)

Does anyone has a problem with 11.4preview driver from AMD and a modded 6950 ?!
I'v got very weird results here. With all the jabber I read online about how great is 11.4, I installed it and it turns to be the worst driver ATI/AMD ever made (last 6 years I'm with ATI).
I've got performance decrease 5%-40% in various games/benches, especially it affects min.FPS.

Most dramatic is Dragon Age II: difference between 11.2 vs 11.4 on DA II. How I tested, got 5-6 savegames on different location of the game, maxed out settings(1680x1050). I load the save and do not move the so it is absolutelly the same scene to render every time. 
Here is the difference:
11.2             -           11.4
43 FPS          -          18 FPS   !!!
31 FPS          -          28 FPS
36 FPS          -          29 FPS
57 FPS          -          56 FPS

I'm just wondering is it something to do with MODDED 6950 , or it is just me who get the **** results?

Can someone with modded 6950 test dragon age II with 11.2 vs 11.4 ?

thank you.


----------



## Makaveli (Mar 19, 2011)

I don't have this game but may have it buy tomorrow and can check.


----------



## 2DividedbyZero (Mar 19, 2011)

yonef said:


> Here is the difference:
> 11.2             -           11.4
> 43 FPS          -          18 FPS   !!!
> 31 FPS          -          28 FPS
> ...



thats crazy, sounds like a problem with your software tbh.

Did you do a clean install of 11.4 or install over 11.2?


----------



## alick (Mar 19, 2011)

*dont have da2 but*

hey dude I was having that problem with my bench with the upgraded drivers with mod bios and sometimes on 6970 bios.  I had to go back to 11.2 because it was horrible 


yonef said:


> Does anyone has a problem with 11.4preview driver from AMD and a modded 6950 ?!
> I'v got very weird results here. With all the jabber I read online about how great is 11.4, I installed it and it turns to be the worst driver ATI/AMD ever made (last 6 years I'm with ATI).
> I've got performance decrease 5%-40% in various games/benches, especially it affects min.FPS.
> 
> ...


----------



## yonef (Mar 19, 2011)

2DividedbyZero said:


> thats crazy, sounds like a problem with your software tbh.
> 
> Did you do a clean install of 11.4 or install over 11.2?



I did clean install after driver sweeper.
...

as I can see it is not just me that has performance degrade with 11.4, and AMD claims that this driver has major improvements on Dragon Age II, all I wonder does anyone from amd driver team bothered testing 6950 at all.

P.S.
top tip regarding AMD: if you can't make it better, please don't make it worse !


----------



## shwazemoto (Mar 20, 2011)

yonef said:


> I did clean install after driver sweeper.
> ...
> 
> as I can see it is not just me that has performance degrade with 11.4, and AMD claims that this driver has major improvements on Dragon Age II, all I wonder does anyone from amd driver team bothered testing 6950 at all.
> ...



I am back  to stock 6950 bios on cat 11.4 and its a lot better, performs like modded on 11.2
but if I mod it on 11.4 its not as good, I think they did this for a reason


----------



## R!zZ (Mar 20, 2011)

First time here =D.
Just wanted to thank you for this guide, and tell you that you can add new XFX succesfully flashed to the list. 
I've noticed a substantial improvement on FurMark, at first it showed 2.7k points, and now shows 3.6k points.
I would also like to know if is it normal that the card makes a noise like a buzzing, it made that sound at stock (6950) and flashed (6970) as well. This only happens when I'm running fullscreen apps, like FurMark, Call Of Duty 4, Cryostasis; and if I minimize the application the sound stops until I open the app again. Any ideas?


----------



## Phobic (Mar 20, 2011)

it's probably the fan spinning up.  might be loose or have something caught in it.


----------



## yonef (Mar 20, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> I am back  to stock 6950 bios on cat 11.4 and its a lot better, performs like modded on 11.2
> but if I mod it on 11.4 its not as good, I think they did this for a reason



ooh maaan, if they did something to screw modded cards it will be very cruel!

Do you have Dragon Age II to test with? I'm curious if there is performance boos on stock bios and 11.4 ?

Thanks.


----------



## shwazemoto (Mar 20, 2011)

yonef said:


> ooh maaan, if they did something to screw modded cards it will be very cruel!
> 
> Do you have Dragon Age II to test with? I'm curious if there is performance boos on stock bios and 11.4 ?
> 
> Thanks.



no not yet is it a good game? I was thinking of getting it but heard bad reveiws,  I did all my benches on unigine using stock 6950 modded and full 6970 bios in both cat 11.2 and cat 11.4  and there is a drop in performance with 11.4
on cat 11.4 the full 6970 bios was only 2fsp fater than oc 6950??? on 11.2 it was more like 10 fsp.


----------



## Hexblade6950 (Mar 20, 2011)

Hiya guys I finished my modding yesterday and it was a success, you can add another sapphire card to the list, I have the 11.4 preview drivers and playing DA2 I get 34-36 FPS sometimes goes up to 60 depending on the moment, I play with all the graphics turned up AA 4X and A 16X, the rest of my games have improved after doing the mod and installing 11.4.


----------



## cadaveca (Mar 20, 2011)

alick said:


> hey dude I was having that problem with my bench with the upgraded drivers with mod bios and sometimes on 6970 bios.  I had to go back to 11.2 because it was horrible



I have Sapphire card, did not notice these problems on the 11.4 preview driver(performance increases were good, but without mod and 11.4, card is great anyway), so there must be something else up here...maybe vram is clocked a bit too high?


----------



## BZB (Mar 20, 2011)

yonef said:


> Does anyone has a problem with 11.4preview driver from AMD and a modded 6950 ?!
> I'v got very weird results here. With all the jabber I read online about how great is 11.4, I installed it and it turns to be the worst driver ATI/AMD ever made (last 6 years I'm with ATI).
> I've got performance decrease 5%-40% in various games/benches, especially it affects min.FPS.
> thank you.



These are beta drivers, so it's possible it's a bug.  I also wonder if maybe the drivers are increasing utilization, and with the extra shaders enabled, an unlocked 6950 make the powertune throttling kick in where it didn't before.  Try increasing the powertune level and see if results are better because the card can use a bit more power before engaging the power throttle.

This would explain why results seem better when switching back to an unlocked BIOS, because the powertune limit isn't kicking in, and so giving you better results despite the lack of the extra shaders.

I'm using an unlocked 6950 and haven't noticed and problems with the 11.4 preview drivers, but then I have the powertune, memory and GPU sliders all pushed to the max in CCC, and haven't tried Dragon Age 2.


----------



## alick (Mar 20, 2011)

Hey dude I had exchange for second sapphire card then  ended up  switching up for an asus 6950 I had the same problem with the 3rd card. The 11.4 drives cause lose in performance.   I have not tried it at stock not unlock bios yet. But I will soon.  I'm just in the middle of a move right now so everything is packed away until April. Will check then. 


cadaveca said:


> I have Sapphire card, did not notice these problems on the 11.4 preview driver(performance increases were good, but without mod and 11.4, card is great anyway), so there must be something else up here...maybe vram is clocked a bit too high?


----------



## Sk1nner (Mar 21, 2011)

*crysis 2 Artifacts*

i was testing the beta crysis 2 that leaked a few weeks ago and this happened, i went back to stock clocks and stock shadders and it still happens and i took a few screen shots:











my guess is a problem in the game(beta) or drivers, this is the only game that i have problems, anyone has a better explanation?
*my clocks are 880/1375 1.16v


----------



## dadojaksa (Mar 21, 2011)

hello,

i bought a xfx 6950 (not here yet ). If i did understand it.. i can flash it to 6970 ?
And with dual bios i can switch the card from 6950 to  6970?
Is there any chance to f**k the vga ?


----------



## manofthem (Mar 21, 2011)

dadojaksa said:


> hello,
> 
> i bought a xfx 6950 (not here yet ). If i did understand it.. i can flash it to 6970 ?
> And with dual bios i can switch the card from 6950 to  6970?
> Is there any chance to f**k the vga ?



Flash at your own risk. According to multiple xfx customer service reps, flashing with the 6970 bios will permanently damage and/or brick the card. Not sure if it's the same about a "shaders only" bios. I have an xfx that runs fine with shaders only, but with the newer cards, I'm not sure.


----------



## yonef (Mar 21, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> no not yet is it a good game? I was thinking of getting it but heard bad reveiws,  I did all my benches on unigine using stock 6950 modded and full 6970 bios in both cat 11.2 and cat 11.4  and there is a drop in performance with 11.4
> on cat 11.4 the full 6970 bios was only 2fsp fater than oc 6950??? on 11.2 it was more like 10 fsp.



I think it is a good game, not as good as the first one though. DA2 is more "consolish" and that's the only thing that I dislike. Other than that it has a good graphics a good story and a fairly good gameplay (I hate consoles  )
So, there is definitelly a problem with modded bios and 11.4 :shadedshu

@Hexblade6950
I'm currently playing DA2 on 1680x1050 modded shader bios, stock 6950 clocks! catalyst 11.2, everything maxed out! + very high textrures mod. and the game runs confortably at 40+ fps to 60 FPS at most of the time, there is rare cases that it drops to 30+


----------



## lamja (Mar 22, 2011)

i want to ask somethink i have this version of 6950 http://www.dove.co.nz/assets/images/product/7378-5912142.jpg Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2gb and i want to flash bios to 6970, i tryed but noting happend i check my card and i cant found the bios switcher JUMPER, so is there way to make my 6950 to 6970 with no jumper for dual bios ?


----------



## cobe2121 (Mar 22, 2011)

Hey everyone,

So I tried this with one of my two XFX 6950 cards with no success (an attempt to get the most out of crysis 2); things were chopping out really bad with DA 2 and not so good with the original crysis either. So i attempted to follow the OP through flashing back to the 6950. Once I did so, everything checked out fine in gpu-z showing that everything was back to stock 6950, but i still have the same performance issues, rendering my games unplayable. It passes windows experience index just fine at 7.8 going through those tests but games are literally at like 5 -10 fps with the flashed card. I can go with the 6950 i didn't flash and things are fine on high settings, but obviously now I can't play games at their maximum anymore :shadedshu

I wouldn't call myself good at this stuff, but I tried following the steps the best I could in the command prompt. I think I did everything right, but I was a bit confused with the switch on the card (you know, switching it to the '2' position, rebooting, switching it back, and flashing..). Maybe someone can tell me what this does perhaps guide me through that specific part? 

Thanks so much.

Edit: Oh ya, and I'm using the 11.2 drivers.


----------



## dadojaksa (Mar 22, 2011)

@cobe2121
what version or revision of the xfx u have ?...


----------



## cobe2121 (Mar 22, 2011)

dadojaksa said:


> @cobe2121
> what version or revision of the xfx u have ?...



Apologies, I'm not exactly sure how to verify that, nor am I 100% sure the exact thing you're asking for. 

This was the XFX 6970 bios I downloaded from the tech power up library. The 6950 bios was just the stock one the that came with the card..


----------



## lamja (Mar 22, 2011)

lamja said:


> i want to ask somethink i have this version of 6950 http://www.dove.co.nz/assets/images/product/7378-5912142.jpg Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2gb and i want to flash bios to 6970, i tryed but noting happend i check my card and i cant found the bios switcher JUMPER, so is there way to make my 6950 to 6970 with no jumper for dual bios ?



anyone tell me plz ?


----------



## manofthem (Mar 22, 2011)

lamja said:


> anyone tell me plz ?


Impatient much?  Welcome to the forum, now relax a bit. 

That's a 1gb card. You cannot flash a 6970 bios to a 1gb card. Return and get a 2 gb card; it's only like $30 more.


----------



## m3talm0rph (Mar 22, 2011)

Hello guys! I am new here! 
Can you please tell me if this card is okay for the mod?

Sapphire HD6950 2048MB (PCI-E,2xD,HDMI,2xDP,A) [21188-00-40R]
http://www.mega-lo-mania.eu/shop/img/p/1041-1909-thickbox.jpg

Output    1 x Dual-Link DVI
1 x HDMI 1.4a
2 x Mini-DisplayPort
1 x Single-Link DVI-D
DisplayPort 1.2

GPU    
800 MHz Core Clock
40 nm Chip
1408 x Processori Stream

Memory    
2048 MB Dimensioni
256 -bit GDDR5
5000 MHz Effettive
Software    Driver CD

Thank you! Have a nice day!


----------



## dadojaksa (Mar 23, 2011)

@cobe
how i read the posts.. some1 talked about revision of xfx card, like the motherboards.
Newer cards have newer revision i think.. some1 mentioned that the rev 1.2 is not flashable..
The revision should be makred at the PCB somewhere...


----------



## dadojaksa (Mar 23, 2011)

soo.. my xfx6950 is here
and i see on the sticker on the box there is Model no... Part no.. and on the right side of the sticker ther is    " Ver 1.2 "..
sooo  is this the version i should not flash ????  Some1 flashed a 1.2 version xfx 6950 2GB VGA ???


----------



## shwazemoto (Mar 23, 2011)

dadojaksa said:


> soo.. my xfx6950 is here
> and i see on the sticker on the box there is Model no... Part no.. and on the right side of the sticker ther is    " Ver 1.2 "..
> sooo  is this the version i should not flash ????  Some1 flashed a 1.2 version xfx 6950 2GB VGA ???



No dont flash it will brick your card...


----------



## dadojaksa (Mar 23, 2011)

on page 80 on this thread some1 had 1.2 and flashed it ...


----------



## webbyboy (Mar 23, 2011)

Can anyone confirm whether the powercolor 1gb HD 6950 can be unlock? It comes with dual bios switch too!


----------



## lamja (Mar 23, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Impatient much?  Welcome to the forum, now relax a bit.
> 
> That's a 1gb card. You cannot flash a 6970 bios to a 1gb card. Return and get a 2 gb card; it's only like $30 more.



hey man its not 1gb its 2gb 6950 my problem is only to find bios switch jumper there is not jumper on new sapphire 6950 2gb 

http://img607.imageshack.us/f/61494463.png/

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=1082
there is my 6950


----------



## manofthem (Mar 23, 2011)

lamja said:


> hey man its not 1gb its 2gb 6950 my problem is only to find bios switch jumper there is not jumper on new sapphire 6950 2gb
> 
> http://img607.imageshack.us/f/61494463.png/
> 
> ...



Well I stand corrected about the 1-2gb since gpuz proves me wrong.


----------



## lamja (Mar 23, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Well I stand corrected about the 1-2gb since gpuz proves me wrong.



so whats the point now? can i flash my bios anyway ?


----------



## cadaveca (Mar 23, 2011)

That card has bios switch on top of heatsink shroud, I thought? Big silver cicle with slot in middle? Or does yours have fan in middle?


----------



## lamja (Mar 23, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> That card has bios switch on top of heatsink shroud, I thought? Big silver cicle with slot in middle? Or does yours have fan in middle?




cadaveca please open http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=1082 check pictures its same like that card... yes with fan in middle.... i tryed only once for searching my jumper and i cant find it myabe there is somewhere but i cant find it((


----------



## cadaveca (Mar 23, 2011)

I do not beleive there is switch on that card you have, and I also think it is not very likely to mod. You could try the shader unlock, but not 6970 bios, IMHO, and chance of shader unlock working seems unlikely. To me, it makes sense that cards that can have shaders unlocked have bios switch, and cost a bit more, and those that cannot unlock do not have switch, but I could be wrong, for sure.


----------



## lamja (Mar 23, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> I do not beleive there is switch on that card you have, and I also think it is not very likely to mod. You could try the shader unlock, but not 6970 bios, IMHO, and chance of shader unlock working seems unlikely. To me, it makes sense that cards that can have shaders unlocked have bios switch, and cost a bit more, and those that cannot unlock do not have switch, but I could be wrong, for sure.



ok i can try for shader unlock but how ?


----------



## ArrestedDeveloper (Mar 24, 2011)

I just did flashed my Asus card and everything seems fine.  The only thing is I can't boost the 20% power increase that the article suggests.  All the versions of catalyst control center I've downloaded (currently I'm on the 11.4 preview  called AMD Vision Engine Control Center instead of CCC) hasn't shown ATI overdrive.  Anyone know what I'm doing wrong/missing.


----------



## cadaveca (Mar 24, 2011)

lamja said:


> ok i can try for shader unlock but how ?



OK, first off, if this screws your card up, not my fault!




Open ATIWinFlash, and save your bios. Follow the directions to mod the bios using the provided scrpit, and re-flash back onto the card using ATIWinFlash.


It's possible your bios is locked from flashing, and it won't work.

It's possible you card will only work with 6950 bios.

In the end, 6950 gpus, even the ones that unlock, are of a far worse quality than 6970, and are matched with lower-binned ram as well, allowing the lower price. It's like AMD has gone 100% enthusiast, and those switches are there specifically for us to mod the bios with. I'm willing to say, that due ot the smal lcost, but big payoff, that this is all 100% intentional.

But, the actual performance difference in most real-world apps is so small...

I am kinda wondering why everyone is so willing to take such a large risk, for so little payoff....


----------



## LastCaress (Mar 25, 2011)

I did something stupid and flashed the recovery bios (the setting was on "2" instead of "1"). Wasn't this bios supposed to be unwritable? I can't flash the backup ("cannot erase rom"). Luckily the board still works on the "1" position.
What should I try now? I want to have a recovery bios :|


----------



## LearnIIBurn (Mar 25, 2011)

My oh my, I just spent my entire day reading every page of this knowledge filled thread. Amazing info and developments! I'm having so much fun tweaking around my new card (Sapphire 6950 2GB) with all this BIOS flashing and shader unlocking! I just built a new system with an i5-2500k, which is a very cool little CPU as well. 

After playing around with benchmarks all day and a couple solid hours of Bad Company 2 with unlocked shaders, I can't seem to find any issues (yet) with having them unlocked. It seems to speed up my cards performance a little, but I guess I haven't had it long enough to notice a difference. Think I'm gonna run this card bone stock for a month or so to get used to her habits, then maybe kick in some OC and modded BIOS.  Hopefully newer drivers from AMD don't break some of the cool things we are able to do with these Caymans. I went with the 6950 after hours and hours upon days of research about the 6900 series GPUs. 

I guess I'm pretty much just rambling, but I definitely wanted to introduce myself after reading a thread for 13+ hours straight. Hats off to you Adderall, you terrible, terrible drug.

Cheers!


----------



## LastCaress (Mar 25, 2011)

LastCaress said:


> I did something stupid and flashed the recovery bios (the setting was on "2" instead of "1"). Wasn't this bios supposed to be unwritable? I can't flash the backup ("cannot erase rom"). Luckily the board still works on the "1" position.
> What should I try now? I want to have a recovery bios :|



Well I booted in dos and ran atiflash but still the same problem : the rom cannot be erased - error 0fl01. This is really weird.


----------



## ionic (Mar 27, 2011)

Hi, 

Does anyone have a reference design Sapphire HD6950 2GB with a red PCB?
I want to order this card, but I'm wondering if it has the BIOS switch.







Thanks in advance


----------



## manofthem (Mar 27, 2011)

ionic said:


> Hi,
> 
> Does anyone have a reference design Sapphire HD6950 2GB with a red PCB?
> I want to order this card, but I'm wondering if it has the BIOS switch.
> ...


I just ordered another one off Newegg. In the 5th picture, it has a view of the power connectors and crossfire bridges. Zooming in will show you the bios switch, so if it has that picture wherever you are purchasing, try that...it should be there if it's in the pic (that's what I went by). Hopefully its there when I receive it.


----------



## ionic (Mar 27, 2011)

Well... the thing is that on newegg it's a black PCB card, but at my local store it's a red one, that's why I'm confused :<


----------



## manofthem (Mar 27, 2011)

ionic said:


> Well... the thing is that on newegg it's a black PCB card, but at my local store it's a red one, that's why I'm confused :<



You could always buy it, open it, and check to see if the switch is there.  If not, take it right back and order from another place.  Or you could ask the people that work there, as long as its not some place that hosts incompetent-idiot staff like Best Buy.

I hope the one I just got it good to flash, shaders only though.  I got the Gigabyte card, $265, and it'll go with my XFX that's already flashed.  If not, I could go back to stock on both and that'll be fine, too.


----------



## alick (Mar 27, 2011)

The ones on new egg are the rev2 with no extra shader for the sapphire ones. Check the model number before ordering.


----------



## Sethm1980 (Mar 27, 2011)

*mod result*

I am happy to report that i succesfully flashed my Gigabyte HD6950 2Gb witht the Gigabyte HD6970 2Gb bios card and it works just fine. I already have a day of benchmarking with 3d mark and games, and the tepm have't risen above 74 degrees celsius vith an ambient soom temperature of 22-23 degrees.
 All the best for the techpuwerup masters !


----------



## rlweller (Mar 27, 2011)

*help*

yes i have followed your steps in flashing the 6950 to 6970, when i am almost completed the procedure and i do the commands in cmd a screen pops up like its flashing however i never receive anything saying vertified or completed and when i open cpuz to check its still same settings.
any help be appreciated

thanks


----------



## manofthem (Mar 27, 2011)

Sethm1980 said:


> I am happy to report that i succesfully flashed my Gigabyte HD6950 2Gb witht the Gigabyte HD6970 2Gb bios card and it works just fine. I already have a day of benchmarking with 3d mark and games, and the tepm have't risen above 74 degrees celsius vith an ambient soom temperature of 22-23 degrees.
> All the best for the techpuwerup masters !



When did you purchase your gigabyte card?  I just ordered one, but I wasn't sure that it was going to be flashable...


----------



## Sethm1980 (Mar 27, 2011)

I got mine on 24 March 2011  It's a card that was manufactured back in february 2011.I'm in Romania, i think they get some tive to arrive here.The card was specially ordered as i had to wayt 3 days so the Gigabyte representatives could get it in the country- it seems there are not so many high-end purchases it the times of financial crisys.
 It seems that until now the succes rate for the gigabyte cards is 100%.Hope will stay that way!




rlweller said:


> yes i have followed your steps in flashing the 6950 to 6970, when i am almost completed the procedure and i do the commands in cmd a screen pops up like its flashing however i never receive anything saying vertified or completed and when i open cpuz to check its still same settings.
> any help be appreciated
> 
> thanks


 Did u restarted your sistem after flashing?The "easy way" is not working for u?I did mine extremely easy...just a few clicks and...done


----------



## rlweller (Mar 28, 2011)

yeah i restarted i think what it is i dont have this bios switch 1-2 on my card could that be it?


----------



## Sethm1980 (Mar 28, 2011)

U are saying that near the crossfire connector u don't have that tiny switch?What manufacturer and model of the card u have?Flashing only works on the standard 2Gb videocard.If it has a reworked pcb, than bye-bye flashing.


----------



## rlweller (Mar 28, 2011)

well right there is the issue my card is 1gb so i cant unlock the shaders from the stock 1408?


----------



## renq (Mar 28, 2011)

Rollin' on 1536 unlocked shaders here


----------



## Sethm1980 (Mar 28, 2011)

NO!There is no way at this moment to unlock those shaders, at least not by flashing the bios to a 6970. If u are good, and willing to experiment on your card, there are tools wich u can use to edit your bios...but there is no guarantee that u will suceed,and there is a very high risk to brick your card.U have to think that maybe the 1gb parts get to be put in that pcb because thay could not work as full fledged 6970.


----------



## rlweller (Mar 28, 2011)

Thank you very much for your responses, this is terrible that you cant raise those shaders if there is a safe recomendations i am willing to try it.


----------



## jayc (Mar 29, 2011)

Sethm1980 said:


> NO!There is no way at this moment to unlock those shaders, at least not by flashing the bios to a 6970. If u are good, and willing to experiment on your card, there are tools wich u can use to edit your bios...but there is no guarantee that u will suceed,and there is a very high risk to brick your card.U have to think that maybe the 1gb parts get to be put in that pcb because thay could not work as full fledged 6970.



Just because you don't know how to do it, doesn't mean it can't be done.

Stop spreading false info.

There have been success stories of 1Gb 6950 cards being shader unlocked.
Have a look here on this very forum http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141976
The new RBE tool has a shader unlock feature now. And already one or two people with a 1Gb 6950 has unlocked their card.

So yes, it can be done. Go ask Mystifier.

Is the owner of the 1Gb 6950 card taking a big risk? Yes, they are. They need to realize without a dual bios function on their card it IS a very risky mod. But can it be done - YES!

There are other instances of 1Gb 6950's being shader unlocked in other forums. So this is not a once off.


----------



## Sethm1980 (Mar 29, 2011)

Read my post again, carefully this time.All i said is that u can't unlock shaders by FLASHING a 6970 bios, BUT there are some BIOS EDITING TOOLS that can be used, but with a higher risk (no bios switch) . So...i basically said the same thing as u! Any other comments from some wise guy?


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## NickB95 (Mar 29, 2011)

you can add an unlocked (shaders only though) Sapphire to the list


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## jayc (Mar 29, 2011)

Sethm1980 said:


> So...i basically said the same thing as u!



No you didn't say the same thing as me.

You said "NO!There is no way at this moment to unlock those shaders, ..."

I said "So yes, it can be done. .... But can it be done - YES!"

How is that the same?

Now if you had said "There is A way at this moment to unlock those shaders, BUT not by flashing the bios to a 6970."
Then we would be in agreement.


----------



## littlej (Mar 30, 2011)

*XFX HD 6950 Unlock Failed*

Hey everyone, I thought I'd chime in with how my unlock attempt went.  In short, it didn't work . My advice is when attempting to do this unlock make sure you're using an AMD spec card.  From what I can see in these posts the successful HD 6950 unlocks are occuring on AMD spec cards, meaning they are effectively direct copies of the AMD specification card.  My new XFX card is not an AMD spec card.  It looks like XFX has made some changes to the current shipping versions of their cards - like no switch for the recovery BIOS, the fan shroud is different, and who knows what else.  DAMN!!!!!

Here are my card specs:
*Manufacturer:* XFX
*Model Number:* HD-695X-CN
*Part Number:* HD-695X-CNFC
*Version:* A.1
*Memory:* 2GB
*Link: *http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/graphiccards/HD%206000series/6950Standard.aspx
*Image:*




Here was a summary of my attempt, the *almost bricking* of my card and the recovery steps I performed.

When I got the card installed it everything seemed to flash okay.  At the end of the process I needed to reboot, but when I attempted to reboot Windows shut down and then nothing came back.  My computer wouldn't even POST anymore.  I put my old HD 3870 back in and it POSTed fine this time, thought it complained about a BIOS error and reset all my settings (including my onboard RAID settings ).  So I'm thinking - well there's $300.00 gone bye-bye.    Being somewhat motivated to try and breath life back into my card I did some pretty crazy things,

My card doesn’t have the dual BIOS switch so I can't just switch it back to a known good BIOS.  It looks like my card has the spot for a switch, just no switch installed.  So I soldered some bare wire onto the card where the switch contacts were.  I figured the card is f'd by this point anyway and there is no chance of an RMA so what's the harm in trying?  I looked up on DigiKey to see what contacts to short for the switch that is installed on the AMD spec cards and shorted the pin locations to simulate switching between the different BIOS locations.  No luck, still wouldn't do anything.
I put my HD 3870 back in, emptied all my other card slots and moved some SATA connections so that I could put my HD 6950 into the second PCI-E slot (it's a big mother of a card and was covering the SATA ports on my M2N32SLI-Deluxe).  My theory was, if I could boot with my HD 3870 and still "see" my dead HD 6950 then I might be able to flash it back to the backup I made of the BIOS.  Well good thought (in theory).  My computer booted and I was able to log into Windows!  YEAH!!!  Windows immediately saw the dead HD 6950 and started to install drivers for it.  As soon as the drivers were installed and Windows attempted to initialize the card then my monitor went black (yes, the one pluged into the HD 3870) and my computer locked up.  Sigh…. 
Working with the above theory, it tried going into Safe Mode to re-flash the card back to the original HD 6950 BIOS.  No luck, ATIWinFlash doesn't allow it.  It throws up a error about needing Administrative privileges.  DAMN!!!! 
I booted the "Last Known Good Configuration" in Windows 7 and rushed into the Device Manager before the system to could attempt to install the drivers for my dead HD 6950 and quickly disabled the card and it's HDMI audio device.  The system was stable and stayed running!  YEAH!!!!
I was finally able to re-flash the dead HD 6950 with the backup of the BIOS I made before this whole process started.  YEAH!!!!  After the re-flash of the HD 6950 I needed to reboot again.  I crossed my fingers and everything worked!!  YEAH!!!

So I'm back to square one.  But at least my new HD 6950 is back and running.  After reading some of the other forum posts a bit more I've seen one other with the same problem I had (manofthem #1930) and XFX support told him,


			
				XFX Support to manofthem said:
			
		

> the 6970 bios flash isn't supported under warranty (no surprise) and that the later revisions of the 6950 cards will be damaged by trying to flash with a 6970 bios.


Well if manofthem is still watching, F that!  Whomever you were speaking with at XFX support doesn't know their own product very well.  Sure the recovery isn't very pretty but I got mine back and running.  

Hope this helps anyone else that has the same problem as I did.  There is hope to get your card back up and running!


----------



## dumo (Mar 30, 2011)

Just got MSI MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III PE/OC Radeon HD 6950 2GB ...

Testing


----------



## manofthem (Mar 30, 2011)

littlej said:


> So I'm back to square one.  But at least my new HD 6950 is back and running.  After reading some of the other forum posts a bit more I've seen one other with the same problem I had (manofthem #1930) and XFX support told him,
> 
> Well if manofthem is still watching, F that!  Whomever you were speaking with at XFX support doesn't know their own product very well.  Sure the recovery isn't very pretty but I got mine back and running.
> 
> Hope this helps anyone else that has the same problem as I did.  There is hope to get your card back up and running!



That sounds like an awful headache, but it's awesome that you got it back running nicely. My XFX card is the original reference card, so I didn't have that problem.  I wanted another one to CF, but I just ordered a Gigabyte instead.  

If that had happened to my card, I would have been awfully lost as to how to fix it. Superb job


----------



## littlej (Mar 30, 2011)

manofthem said:


> That sounds like an awful headache, but it's awesome that you got it back running nicely. My XFX card is the original reference card, so I didn't have that problem.


Man, I tell ya.  It was a nightmare.  But it's definately nice that it's working again.



manofthem said:


> If that had happened to my card, I would have been awfully lost as to how to fix it. So you booted with another card and reflashed the 6950? I thought that to flash with atiwinflash, the card had to be in the primary slot, 0?


Nope you can flash a card in the second slot (thank goodness!!).  I booted up with my original HD 3870 in the primary slot and my dead HD 6950 in the secondary slot.  The second PCI-E slot's ID is 1.  So the commands with atiwinflash change ever so subtly (I've underlined the changes),
Instead of *atiwinflash -unlockrom 0* it's *atiwinflash -unlockrom 1* to unlock the ROM for the video card in the second PCI-E slot.
Instead of *atiwinflash -f -p 0 {BIOS BINARY FILE}* it's *atiwinflash -f -p 1 {BIOS BINARY FILE}* to flash the video card in the second PCI-E slot.
And voila, that's all it took.


----------



## Nerdbox87 (Mar 30, 2011)

Seems my VTX3D 2GB 6950's won't unlock. 

They're the dual fan models, identical to the Powercolor ones but with VTX3D stickers;

PowerColor AX6950 2GBD5-2DH Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256...

They've got the BIOS switch and all, and when flashed simply cause the PC to fail to boot during the restart after completing the flash. 

Have tried a few different 6970 BIOS's, including the 6950 clock speed ones.


Anyone else had this problem or can help me out? Or I'm just out of luck with this model?

(Though I ordered the 1GB ones for 220$ AUS each and got these 2GBs due to supplier error, so can't complain either way   )


----------



## jayc (Mar 30, 2011)

Have you tried it with the shader unlock mod?
It basically uses your card's own bios and unlocks the shaders only.
This avoids the card id issues.


----------



## Nerdbox87 (Mar 30, 2011)

jayc said:


> Have you tried it with the shader unlock mod?
> It basically uses your card's own bios and unlocks the shaders only.
> This avoids the card id issues.



Thanks!

Shaders unlocked with both cards using W1zzards BIOS mod program no worries, without the need for the CMD prompts and the other hassles I had using the 6970 bios's (which were unsuccessful anyway)

Will test stability now


----------



## Zhorn (Mar 30, 2011)

I just used RBE to unlock the shaders on my (non-standard?) Gigabyte GV-R695OC-1GD Video Card.

GPU-Z is now reporting 1536 shaders. 

And yes, not having a dual bios switch did make me a wee bit nervous when I ran the Atiflash command!


----------



## Performer81 (Mar 30, 2011)

Hi
Anyhow my modded 6950 doesnt like voltages over 1,16V. Till that Point she runs absolutely fine and overclocks very very good. If i take the voltage to 1,17 or higher i instantly get graphic errors at Tesselation based applications (Unigine, Metro etc.), but only there.
The higher the voltage the more errors. SOmeone can explain this?


----------



## arroyo (Mar 30, 2011)

@Performer81
Get more powerful PSU.


----------



## Performer81 (Mar 30, 2011)

DOnt think so. I also get these errors @800MHZ and in every app that uses tesselation. I have a strong 675W psu.


----------



## cadaveca (Mar 30, 2011)

littlej said:


> Here was a summary of my attempt, the *almost bricking* of my card and the recovery steps I performed.
> 
> 
> ~snip~
> ...





Just an FYI...here is the same card, but 2GB version, modded:






XFX is correct that 6970 bios on these cards will not work, as 6970 uses different PWM, and therefore, needs a different bios. So, I just modded the bios that was on the card to enable the extra shaders, using the script listed in the OP.

The bios wasn't locked, and I didn't even worry about it..in fact, I popped the card in the system, saved the bios and confirmed it was a 2GB card, and went straight to modding hte bios and flashing, before even running any 3D.


So, yes, flashing 6970 bios can brick your card.

but flashing the proper bios, modded, can work out quite well, as I can personally attest to.



P.S. These cards with 6850/6870-style pwn also feature VRM temp monitoring that some of the reference cards do not.


----------



## littlej (Mar 30, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Just an FYI...here is the same card, but 2GB version, modded
> 
> ~snip~
> 
> but flashing the proper bios, modded, can work out quite well, as I can personally attest to.


Sweetness!  I have the 2GB version too, so I'll giver a try tonight.  Thanks for the info!


----------



## littlej (Mar 30, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> I just modded the bios that was on the card to enable the extra shaders, using the script listed in the OP.


Okay, stupid question alert here, but which script did you use?


----------



## cadaveca (Mar 30, 2011)

i used this one:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2137760&postcount=381


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## littlej (Mar 31, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> i used this one:
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2137760&postcount=381


Awesome! It worked for me!  Thanks a million!


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## cadaveca (Mar 31, 2011)

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.


----------



## jayc (Mar 31, 2011)

Nice seeing some success stories for the XFX cards and 1Gb 6950s.


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## TigerLord (Mar 31, 2011)

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.


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 1, 2011)

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.




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.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 1, 2011)

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.
> 
> ...



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.


----------



## TigerLord (Apr 1, 2011)

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...


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 1, 2011)

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...


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.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 1, 2011)

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...


Up the cpu volts a bit to test it.


----------



## TigerLord (Apr 1, 2011)

I used the package provided in the thread... I assume it was the correct one?


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 1, 2011)

TigerLord said:


> I used the package provided in the thread... I assume it was the correct one?



The can be only one.


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 1, 2011)

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.
> 
> ...



Flip the switch, and do a clean driver install.


----------



## TigerLord (Apr 1, 2011)

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.


----------



## ferod (Apr 1, 2011)

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.


----------



## Flerbizky (Apr 1, 2011)

*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.


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 1, 2011)

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 .
> ...



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.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 2, 2011)

Flerbizky said:


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


I just realized that the 1 GB model has higher clocks than the reference 2 GB.


----------



## Flerbizky (Apr 2, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I just realized that the 1 GB model has higher clocks than the reference 2 GB.



I don't think these are reference design though. Guess is, XFX cranked the knob a bit on these.


----------



## devguy (Apr 2, 2011)

Flerbizky said:


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



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  ).

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".


----------



## tekgun (Apr 3, 2011)

Hi, thanks for the guide, I have successfully unlocked my Sapphire 6950 
I would be interested to know which programs you guys are using for stability testing though.


----------



## Makaveli (Apr 3, 2011)

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.



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.


----------



## Wastedslayer (Apr 4, 2011)

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!


----------



## manofthem (Apr 4, 2011)

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!



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.


----------



## jayc (Apr 4, 2011)

tekgun said:


> Hi, thanks for the guide, I have successfully unlocked my Sapphire 6950
> I would be interested to know which programs you guys are using for stability testing though.



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.


----------



## jayc (Apr 4, 2011)

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!




That's the 3rd time I've heard of a Gigabyte owner saying that their erasable bios is on the #2 switch of the card, and the read only bios is on the #1 switch.


----------



## hito (Apr 4, 2011)

I'm getting random restarts, as if I pushed the reset button on my tower.  No BSOD, Windows doesn't log anything besides that it failed to shutdown correctly, and happens pretty randomly, from just starting up FireFox, to after an hour+ solid of gaming.

Purchased an HIS 2GB 6950 about 2 months ago and flashed the 6970 BIOS (which was the mistake after reading this thread) rather than the 6950 shader unlock BIOS.  It has been running fine until about 4 days ago when random restarts came up.  After diagonising every possible thing, it seems this was probably the issue.  I've flashed the original BIOS back using the guide posted, done a clean driver install, and still get the random restarts.  Aside from testing a back up a video card (which I will be stealing my roommates tomorrow afternoon when he's gone...) to confirm it, it seems to be pointing to this.

My question is... am I gonna have to send it in for warranty replacement (and hope they don't find out...) or is there a way to salvage it?


----------



## arroyo (Apr 4, 2011)

Every HD6950 that was baked by using HD6970 bios returned from RMA to our shop with "Repair Denial" status (even if client flashed back to stock HD6950 bios). We had a real plague of bricked cards in January. I am glad that people started to use unlocking script rather than HD6970 bios to perform HD6950 mod.


----------



## hito (Apr 4, 2011)

Seems I've baked it.  I'm getting a restart on the 6950 on any game I start, while using a 9600GSO plays just fine.



arroyo said:


> Every HD6950 that was baked by using HD6970 bios returned from RMA to our shop with "Repair Denial" status (even if client flashed back to stock HD6950 bios). We had a real plague of bricked cards in January. I am glad that people started to use unlocking script rather than HD6970 bios to perform HD6950 mod.



Sounds like I shouldn't bother with the RMA then.  Well, thanks for the tidbit of info


----------



## Dog (Apr 5, 2011)

*in trouble*

Hello guys,

I'm in trouble.. I just bought a card and flashed it according to the article. It was done with no issue from command line. But after when I wanted to make my happy feedback, the screen has gone black, and the machine has frozen.  It's strange that outlook, internet explorer, GPU-Z and a lot of other programs are working with no issue. Windows is stable, starts up with no error.  But when I start Google Chrome, or a game, the screen goes black and it's over. 

Then I read the forums and seen that the article is a bit outdated and I should have been used the modded bios instead of 6970. No prob, I wanted to flash back the original, than the modded bios, but it does not work anymore.  Unlock and flash starts without any error message, but the flashing progressban is going only for about 1/3 then quits with no error, and flash does not happening. 

Then I was looking for the "backup bios switch" but it seem there is no switch on my card. :/ It a Gigabyte 6950 OC 1G. Please help if someone have experience with this card.


----------



## x900lbGorillax (Apr 5, 2011)

How hot does it get if you do 6970 BIOS? An what are you guys running your fan speed at for idle an while in games?


----------



## Dog (Apr 5, 2011)

x900lbGorillax said:


> How hot does it get if you do 6970 BIOS? An what are you guys running your fan speed at for idle an while in games?



The fans are quiet, the card is on 46C, seems not an issue. It's a 3 fan version.


----------



## x900lbGorillax (Apr 5, 2011)

Dog said:


> The fans are quiet, the card is on 46C, seems not an issue. It's a 3 fan version.



What brand is your 6950? I just bought a 2GB Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 and thinking a lot of things over. I see you had an unsuccessful attempt at flashing with the first guide that has been up. They really should update that. 

Considering you're dealing with 6+8 6970 vs dual 6 PCI E on 6950. How can it possibly draw enough power to run 880-1375 6970 clocks over dual 6 pin and no voltage increase to GPU? Are dual 6 pins able to handle the power consumption? Assuming the voltage you have to play with on 6950 is good enough for those 6970 clocks? It's just not making much sense to me. The modscript to unlock your shader count to 6970 with no voltage/cock changes seems much safer. Have you attempted the modscript using your 6950 bios? I was curious if you get your card back to being functional. I have only read reviews of the card I bought working with 6970 BIOS. I do see though 6950 same size unit as the 6970 making it seem possible to handle the heat with the current heatsink/fan. The given information here though is nice but not detailed enough. Everything seems iffy an I see already a lot of failed attempts.


----------



## Dog (Apr 5, 2011)

x900lbGorillax said:


> What brand is your 6950? I just bought a 2GB Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 and thinking a lot of things over. I see you had an unsuccessful attempt at flashing with the first guide that has been up. They really should update that.
> 
> Considering you're dealing with 6+8 6970 vs dual 6 PCI E on 6950. How can it possibly draw enough power to run 880-1375 6970 clocks over dual 6 pin and no voltage increase to GPU? Are dual 6 pins able to handle the power consumption? Assuming the voltage you have to play with on 6950 is good enough for those 6970 clocks? It's just not making much sense to me. The modscript to unlock your shader count to 6970 with no voltage/cock changes seems much safer. Have you attempted the modscript using your 6950 bios? I was curious if you get your card back to being functional. I have only read reviews of the card I bought working with 6970 BIOS. I do see though 6950 same size unit as the 6970 making it seem possible to handle the heat with the current heatsink/fan. The given information here though is nice but not detailed enough. Everything seems iffy an I see already a lot of failed attempts.



I have a Gigabyte HD 6950 OC with 1G RAM, no backup BIOS switch. The card obviously does not work well. I don't know much about voltages, and ccc is not working on my machine due to Visual Studio fucked up the .NET framework. I just want to flash back the original BIOS. The problem is that I can't. WinFlash starts up normally but @ 1/3 progress it quits. There's no error, any message, just quits. I also tried to use the -log swith to make an error log, but it's only 1 line in the log: "Ready to Flash". But it does not flashing the card. I have also tried the communication test. If I use the command on slot 1, it obviously shows error (the card is in slot 0). When I try it with slot 0, it does not say anything.

It's also interesting that if I don't use the unlock then I get the "ID mismatch" error, so the program can communicate with the card. But if I use unlock, the program quits at the same point, just without the error message. Strange.


----------



## renq (Apr 5, 2011)

x900lbGorillax said:


> Considering you're dealing with 6+8 6970 vs dual 6 PCI E on 6950. How can it possibly draw enough power to run 880-1375 6970 clocks over dual 6 pin and no voltage increase to GPU? Are dual 6 pins able to handle the power consumption?


The 2 extra pins on an 8pin connector are GND (ground), not 12V, so it shouldn't really matter.


----------



## Vargtass (Apr 5, 2011)

Guys,
if I read Dog right, he flashed a 6970 bios on to a 6950 *1GB* card. How is that possible?


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 5, 2011)

renq said:


> The 2 extra pins on an 8pin connector are GND (ground), not 12V, so it shouldn't really matter.



The extra plugs are not just ground, BTW, so yes, it can very well matter.

Most aren't even aware that a 6-pin plug only require 2x 12v leads, either, but OK.









> Table 2. 6-Pin PCI Express Power Connector Pinout
> Pin Number Description
> 1 +12 V
> 2 +12 V
> ...


----------



## hv43082 (Apr 5, 2011)

So what's the consensus on the 2GB reference 6950's card?  

-Unlock shader only and not load 6970 bios.  
-Overclock manually with powertune to 20%, OC the core clock to 840-860 at stock voltage.  What's the highest voltage and clock frequency I can go here without frying it? 
-Leaving memory at 1250 and default memory voltage?  Seems like people are frying the memory when push to 6970's frequency and voltage.

Thanks in advance.


----------



## Dog (Apr 5, 2011)

Can someone save me a BIOS from working Gigabyte GV-6950-OC-1GD?


----------



## vvulture (Apr 5, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> The extra plugs are not just ground, BTW, so yes, it can very well matter.



Yes they are...  just GND ( common GND to be more specific ) !!  If they were anything else, they would be coloured differently.
Also, for experimental purposes, i have cut the wires on a pci-e plug and rejoined them in a different order ( keeping yellows together and blacks together ) and it made no difference whatsoever..  I did this on a 6 and 8 pin connector.
My multimeter also confirms that the black wires are ALL GND and that they are ALL connected together internally using continuity test.
Opening up the PSU also confirmed that ALL the black wires are connected together.

One last thing, if your claim were correct, a standard molex to PCI-E adaptor would not work...

Cheers

Check -->  http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html


----------



## manofthem (Apr 5, 2011)

hv43082 said:


> So what's the consensus on the 2GB reference 6950's card?
> 
> -Unlock shader only and not load 6970 bios.
> -Overclock manually with powertune to 20%, OC the core clock to 840-860 at stock voltage.  What's the highest voltage and clock frequency I can go here without frying it?
> ...



I definitely think shaders only is a smarter move, as opposed to full blow 6970 bios.  

So that's what I've done with my card, being able to OC it to about 910/1425@1.175V via MSI AB with custom fan curve and voltage mod.  It ran fine for the benches and games that I've tested it with .  For a long time, i kept  a modest 900/1345@1.16V via MSI AB w/o powertune.  I didn't seem to notice any difference in bench scores with the powertune set to +12-20%, so I leave it at 0 (only exception is Furmark, which throttles clock speed but even does it at default clocks).  

So it seems that leaving a 6950 bios and OCing to say 880/1375 is safer than a 6970 bios with default clocks of 880/1375.  Anyone agree or disagree with this?  Let me know; i don't want to fry anything.


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 5, 2011)

vvulture said:


> Yes they are...  just GND ( common GND to be more specific ) !!  If they were anything else, they would be coloured differently.
> Also, for experimental purposes, i have cut the wires on a pci-e plug and rejoined them in a different order ( keeping yellows together and blacks together ) and it made no difference whatsoever..  I did this on a 6 and 8 pin connector.
> My multimeter also confirms that the black wires are ALL GND and that they are ALL connected together internally using continuity test.
> Opening up the PSU also confirmed that ALL the black wires are connected together.
> ...



There is alot of confusion over the PCIe power connector because you have to pay to get the real specs. That bit I quoted above, is from nVidia directly, on what thier plugs are for, for a specific SKU, and note that both the 6-pin and the 8-pin have sense wires, and that a 6-pin connector requires only 2x12v leads, as in the picture is put in the above post, contrary to your link.

Here's what you link says:



> The PCI Express specification is, unfortunately, not a free, public specification. *So most people have never seen it. Including me.*





> I've never seen a 6 pin PCI Express power cable with pin 2 not connected.






So your source admits they do not know the purpose of the connectors.

You know, I really try to make a point to bring real, accurate info, so please do keep that in mind.


----------



## x900lbGorillax (Apr 6, 2011)

I can confirm the modded 6950 BIOS script works well. Very stable just unlocking shader count. Here is the card setup I have just recently done with a brand new 6950.

Video Card ::  2GB Sapphire Radeon 6950 HD. No 6970 BIOS voltage/clocks flash. But OC'ed and flashed w/modded 6950 BIOS to 840-1325 +20 power consumption, shader count 1536. My temps seem to get around 71c in game.


----------



## jayc (Apr 6, 2011)

Dog said:


> Hello guys,
> 
> I'm in trouble...
> 
> ...



You flashed a 6970 bios on a 6950 1Gb card?? 
If you used the script from the first page, it would have created a backup bios. Unless you manually typed in the commands, and skipped this part about performing backups.
Look in the folder where the script is. It should be named "backup.bin".

When you get the original 1Gb bios back, try force flashing the card with the ATIFLASH commands in safemode DOS prompt or DOS bootup disk. I'm assuming you know how to create your own dos boot usb stick?

Don't use ATIWINFLASH. Note I said Atiflash. Download here...
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1968/ATIFlash_3.86.html

atiflash -f -p 0 "your_New_BIOS.bin"
where 
-f = force flash 
-p = write bios to adapter
0 = adapter 1 => primary card/GPU  (-p 1 => adapter 2 => secondary card/GPU, etc)
your_New_BIOS.bin => be conscious to select an short BIOS name with no special characters.

Good luck.

At least you have confirmed what everyone thought was not possible. Now we know for sure. 

<edit> Oh needless to say, don't game or run too many applications at once until you have fixed this.
It should be possible to fix this with no damage to the card. The drivers only think you have 2Gb of memory available, but you only physically have 1Gb. So then apps try to use that ram above 1Gb, cccrrrraaaassssshhhhhh.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 6, 2011)

x900lbGorillax said:


> I can confirm the modded 6950 BIOS script works well. Very stable just unlocking shader count. Here is the card setup I have just recently done with a brand new 6950.
> 
> Video Card ::  2GB Sapphire Radeon 6950 HD. No 6970 BIOS voltage/clocks flash. But OC'ed and flashed w/modded 6950 BIOS to 840-1325 +20 power consumption, shader count 1536. My temps seem to get around 71c in game.



Do some benches with the +20% and then with +0%.  When I did I didn't see any difference.  Let me know what you get.


----------



## jayc (Apr 6, 2011)

hv43082 said:


> So what's the consensus on the 2GB reference 6950's card?
> 
> -Unlock shader only and not load 6970 bios.  - Correct
> 
> ...



-


----------



## jayc (Apr 6, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Do some benches with the +20% and then with +0%.  When I did I didn't see any difference.  Let me know what you get.



Like manofthem said. It's not worth the extra 'possible' heat at +20%.
Only Furmark seems to be able to pick up the difference. But who "plays" Furmark???


----------



## x900lbGorillax (Apr 6, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Do some benches with the +20% and then with +0%.  When I did I didn't see any difference.  Let me know what you get.



To be very specific I only seen like 2-3fps more at the end of my total bench on Heaven. 

Here is my best bench.

17:01:02 Time:    259.512
17:01:02 Frames:    10679
17:01:02 FPS:    41.1503
17:01:02 Min FPS:    21.5806
17:01:02 Max FPS:    90.0593
17:01:02 Scores:    1036.58

So yeah not worth it unless, the +20 keeps 840-1325 clocks stable feeding it more power. I haven't tested that. I am new to the catalyst radeon ap so is power control settings of +20 increasing voltage? I think it did but never checked GPUZ. I just know it now reads from .900-1.100 VDDC


----------



## manofthem (Apr 6, 2011)

x900lbGorillax said:


> To be very specific I only seen like 2-3fps more at the end of my total bench on Heaven.
> 
> Here is my best bench.
> 
> ...



The +20% increases the wattage limits before it throttles the core clock down to a lower level. It doesn't raise voltage. If you want to raise voltage, then MSI afterburner works as well as manually setting it via RBE. But at clocks of 840/1325, you shouldn't have to raise voltage.


----------



## Dog (Apr 6, 2011)

jayc said:


> You flashed a 6970 bios on a 6950 1Gb card??
> If you used the script from the first page, it would have created a backup bios. Unless you manually typed in the commands, and skipped this part about performing backups.
> Look in the folder where the script is. It should be named "backup.bin".
> 
> ...



Shame, but ye, I have flashed 6970 BIOS into my 1gig 6950. I did not know there is 2 different version, so I even did not bother with it when I have ordered the card. :/

As for the solutions, thanks, but it seems it's not possible to flash the card anymore. Under DOS at least I get a failure message: "Error 0FL01 - ROM not erased"

It seems the current BIOS can not be erased from the ROM, even if I use unlock  then force flash. I have started the RMA process, hope they will help.


----------



## x900lbGorillax (Apr 6, 2011)

manofthem said:


> The +20% increases the wattage limits before it throttles the core clock down to a lower level. It doesn't raise voltage. If you want to raise voltage, then MSI afterburner works as well as manually setting it via RBE. But at clocks of 840/1325, you shouldn't have to raise voltage.



Ah ok I see, thanks for the help!


----------



## vvulture (Apr 6, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> There is alot of confusion over the PCIe power connector because you have to pay to get the real specs. That bit I quoted above, is from nVidia directly, on what thier plugs are for, for a specific SKU, and note that both the 6-pin and the 8-pin have sense wires, and that a 6-pin connector requires only 2x12v leads, as in the picture is put in the above post, contrary to your link.
> 
> Here's what you link says:
> 
> ...



Ok, the cards may use these wires as some sort of 6 pin or 8 pin sensing mechanism, but the PSU itself does not "sense" anything. The PCI-E plug itself is pure 12v +ve and COM GND.
Thats the point i was trying to make..  I have made this observation myself and i am 100% certain that ALL the yellow wires are simply 12v +ve, and ALL the black wires are simply COM GND wires.
As simple as that...  What ever the card manufaturers decide to use these wires for is entirely up to them.


----------



## azaelpc (Apr 6, 2011)

I downloaded the script here on the site.
I ran and did biosmod.

VGA XFX 6950 my 2gb.

I used the files that came in scritp site.

detail POWERTUNER'm not using, I configured at 0%

run some risk of having problems with my VGA?


----------



## manofthem (Apr 6, 2011)

azaelpc said:


> I downloaded the script here on the site.
> I ran and did biosmod.
> 
> VGA XFX 6950 my 2gb.
> ...



That should be fine, no need for powertune with just shaders unlocked.  or did you do the 6970 bios?  If so, rethink it and go with shaders only and OC that junk like nobody's business!


----------



## SAlunasky (Apr 7, 2011)

Please help me! I Flashed my 6950 to a 6970 easily and it was running great for about a month. Until my girlfriends games updated my drivers (the ones for the 6950) and now i can even install any drivers for the card nor can i flash it back to 6950 or to a 6970 again. Please help me out ive been trying to figure this out for about 4 hours now.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 7, 2011)

SAlunasky said:


> Please help me! I Flashed my 6950 to a 6970 easily and it was running great for about a month. Until my girlfriends games updated my drivers (the ones for the 6950) and now i can even install any drivers for the card nor can i flash it back to 6950 or to a 6970 again. Please help me out ive been trying to figure this out for about 4 hours now.



How about a little more information?  
What card do you have?  What's happening with it now? 
Try to flash it back to a 6950 the same way you flashed it before.


----------



## SAlunasky (Apr 7, 2011)

Edit: Got it figured out thanks! Quick response from someone on a different thread!


----------



## jayc (Apr 7, 2011)

SAlunasky said:


> Now i cant update the drivers whatsoever. even after i DO update the driver when i reboot its back to no drivers



This doesn't make sense.   Driver updates have nothing to do with your video card bios.
If you can't update system drivers, then windows isn't allowing you to.

Are you still running on your girlfriend's account or are you in Admin account ??? 

You won't be able to do jack with bios flashing or driver updates if you're not in Admin account.
Go check and never let your girlfriend play with your machine.


----------



## jayc (Apr 7, 2011)

SAlunasky said:


> Edit: Got it figured out thanks! Quick response from someone on a different thread!



What was it then?

Was it admin rights? In which case you deserve a , in a friendly joking kind of way.


----------



## Sinster (Apr 7, 2011)

So far success on an HIS H695FSG2M flashed with the .bat files provided in this thread.    Ran FURMARK for 10 minutes with no issue.  Did manually adjust fan to 60% and maintained 72-74c. Auto temps shot up to 90c and freak once it hit 90°c  Hopefully when I get my second card tomorrow it will flash without issue.  

A few question though 
At what temp should I start to worry?

Those who had issues after a successful flash and then notice issue how long did it take to notice the issue and what kind of issues? 


I replaced my 5850's for these and I notice that my audio isn't looping anymore when I shut down games.  I'm stoked about that.

The big question is should I just use the 6950* Modded *or the 6970 which I'm running now? I'm not a big OC'ing so I'm not going past stock 880/1375.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 7, 2011)

Sinster said:


> So far success on an HIS H695FSG2M flashed with the .bat files provided in this thread.    Ran FURMARK for 10 minutes with no issue.  Did manually adjust fan to 60% and maintained 72-74c. Auto temps shot up to 90c and freak once it hit 90°c  Hopefully when I get my second card tomorrow it will flash without issue.
> 
> A few question though
> At what temp should I start to worry?
> ...


Most definitely use the 6950 bios modded with shaders unlocked, much safer than a 6970 bios. And instead of using a set fan speed, use MSI afterburner to set up a custom fan curve to keep the card(s) cool, and MSI ab will also allow you to adjust voltage to OC back to the speeds of a 6970 and beyond. 

Seems like at default fan on auto, furmark gets the card up to about 90-92*C. Using a custom fan curve allows for better cooling, given some extra noise. When running one card with custom fan curve, my temps were always around 55-65*C @ 60-70% fan, with the higher numbers being a game like Crysis.


----------



## Sinster (Apr 7, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Most definitely use the 6950 bios modded with shaders unlocked, much safer than a 6970 bios. And instead of using a set fan speed, use MSI afterburner to set up a custom fan curve to keep the card(s) cool, and MSI ab will also allow you to adjust voltage to OC back to the speeds of a 6970 and beyond.
> 
> Seems like at default fan on auto, furmark gets the card up to about 90-92*C. Using a custom fan curve allows for better cooling, given some extra noise. When running one card with custom fan curve, my temps were always around 55-65*C @ 60-70% fan, with the higher numbers being a game like Crysis.



So how do I go about flashing to the modded 6950 since I flashed to the 6970?  Go back to old bios and then use the run.bat  to unlock the shader?  Since installed the 6970 successfully I don't need to use the switch to flash it to old.bin?

Do I use the flash_back.bat or winflash orig.bin.  I installed it via winflash unlock.bin.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 7, 2011)

http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
Should be it...
Download the mod script that has the "run.bat" file. Take your default 6950 bios and throw it in the folder where "run.bat" is in. Name bios "original.bin" and run the bat file. The bat file will run a few cmd lines and you'll have a new file there named "modded.bin". Flash that bin the same way as you did the 6970 bios. It'll overwrite whatever is there as long as the switch is in the 1 position.


----------



## Sinster (Apr 7, 2011)

manofthem said:


> http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> Should be it...
> Download the mod script that has the "run.bat" file. Take your default 6950 bios and throw it in the folder where "run.bat" is in. Name bios "original.bin" and run the bat file. The bat file will run a few ms lines and you'll have a new file there named "modded.bin". Flash that bin the same way as you did the 6970 bios. It'll overwrite whatever is there as long as the switch is in the 1 position.



Cool thanks.


----------



## Sinster (Apr 7, 2011)

One more thing and it's probably been answer before and most likely in the 89 pages.  Why would you fry the card if running 6970 bios?  Wouldn't OCing to those specs do the same damage? 

I'm running MSI AB 840/1325 @ core v stock.


----------



## jayc (Apr 7, 2011)

Sinster said:


> One more thing and it's probably been answer before and most likely in the 89 pages.  Why would you fry the card if running 6970 bios?  Wouldn't OCing to those specs do the same damage?
> 
> I'm running MSI AB 840/1325 @ core v stock.



Overclocking using MSI Afterburner, for example, increases the voltage for the core ONLY. 
The 6970 bios runs the ram on the 6950 at a higher voltage. The memory voltage is not the same as the core voltage.

And since the 6950 ram is not the same as the ram used in the real 6970 cards, this extra voltage (to the ram) is probably what is causing damage to some people's vid cards.

Adjusting the voltage on MSI Afterburner does not alter the memory voltage.

Even if you are not seeing issues in the first few days after the 6950 to 6970 mod, you might experience issues later, as some have reported.

However, the shader unlock only mod uses the bios from your own 6950 to unlock the extra shaders. This keeps voltages at what your ram is rated for. Then overclock it to 880/1375 speeds to match a real 6970, and adjust core voltage to meet your increased core speed.


----------



## hv43082 (Apr 7, 2011)

jayc said:


> Overclocking using MSI Afterburner, for example, increases the voltage for the core ONLY.
> The 6970 bios runs the ram on the 6950 at a higher voltage. The memory voltage is not the same as the core voltage.
> 
> And since the 6950 ram is not the same as the ram used in the real 6970 cards, this extra voltage (to the ram) is probably what is causing damage to some people's vid cards.
> ...



Good explanation.  I will do that when my 6950's arrive.


----------



## Sinster (Apr 7, 2011)

Thanks Jayc.  

AB is only allowing me to go to 840/1325 how can I go higher? Is it because I'm using 11.4's?


----------



## manofthem (Apr 7, 2011)

Sinster said:


> Thanks Jayc.
> 
> AB is only allowing me to go to 840/1325 how can I go higher? Is it because I'm using 11.4's?



No it's not 11.4.  You need to enable unofficial overclocking.  You can do that by:
-Make sure you have the newest verison of MSI AB
-Go in to the program directory (example C:\Program Files(x86)\MSI afterburner) and open MSIAfterburner.cfg
-Scroll to bottom and enter the following values
[ATIADLHAL]
UnofficialOverclockingEULA	= I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode	= 1
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod	= 0
-Open Afterburner and you can now clock higher than default 840/1325
-Open settings in MSI AB, and on the front tab, click "Unlock Voltage Control" and optionally "Unlock Voltage Monitoring" 
-Restart MSI AB
You can now increase voltage and increase core/memory clocks.  Only increase voltage as much as needed for a given clock speed.

Let us know how it goes and what clocks you reach!


----------



## Sinster (Apr 7, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Let us know how it goes and what clocks you reach!



 I was running 1.175 @880/1375..  I think.. My second card came in and I'm about to flash that one so I put everything to default.  I removed the first card.


----------



## Sinster (Apr 7, 2011)

Second card has been modded and running @ 1175 880/1375.  Tell you the truth I really didn't try the default 1.1 voltage.  I ran Furmark for 12 minutes and heaven benchmark and everything working fine.  I'm going to install my second card now.


----------



## Sinster (Apr 7, 2011)

Having issues.. Everything in CCC is grayed out and in MSI AB it won't let me set the GPU Volt and Mem Volt when I hit apply they go to 0.

EDIT: Reinstalled drivers and all is good now.


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 8, 2011)

*The final word*

Hey wizzard 



i just want your final word on the whole flashing thing,



i am soon to receive a sapphire hd 6950 2gb card and im looking into unlocking it to a fully fledged hd 6970

but i've come across at least three posts in forums stating that the hd 6970 uses different memory timings than the hd 6950

which when applied to a hd 6950 would kill the card and even reverting to a hd 6950 bios wont help becoz of the damaged memory modules on the card.



now i need to hear this from you,



is it true, about the memory timings?



would you recommend for me to unlock the 6950 or should i stick with it?



plus why do sapphire cards have such a high failure rate of unlocking but with rendering errors?



how would i know if my card has the reference board/pcb so i can unlock?



can i unlock on a non-reference board/pcb?



My current specs:

Asus crosshair IV formula

AMD Phenom II X4 970 BE Processor @ 3.51Ghz (stock)

XFX hd 5830 1gb 

Apower ak850 850w psu

coraisr xms3 ddr3 4gb (2x2gb) @ 1333mhz RAM


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 8, 2011)

^ WOW GOING STRAIGHT TO THE TOP ON HIS QUESTION LOL... oops my bad for the caps.

Hey its a risk every one takes when messing with hardware. You do it at your own risk.

And yes the memory timings are different on the 6950 vs the 6970... the 6970 use better binned mem chips... some fail and like me am lucky to have 2 cards that haven't been hurt running the full fledged unlock...

Dude only you can answer your question, W1zzard cant... he can only recommend.

I would just do the un-locked shader bios only to be safe.. but if you have lots of money then go for it... turn them into 6970's

Its your choice.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 8, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> ^ WOW GOING STRAIGHT TO THE TOP ON HIS QUESTION LOL... oops my bad for the caps.
> 
> Hey its a risk every one takes when messing with hardware. You do it at your own risk.
> 
> ...


Bravo!


----------



## HawkFest (Apr 9, 2011)

SAlunasky said:


> Please help me! I Flashed my 6950 to a 6970 easily and it was running great for about a month. Until my girlfriends games updated my drivers (the ones for the 6950) and now i can even install any drivers for the card nor can i flash it back to 6950 or to a 6970 again. Please help me out ive been trying to figure this out for about 4 hours now.


It's awesome to notice how so many "girl friends" can be used as an excuse for any error we make (even though we didn't need that kind of information)... We love you so much dear ladies! For your question, I'll only answer to your girlfriend ;-P

Seriously, a game title cannot update your driver (only Microsoft DirectX, IF your DirectX is an old one - even though it shows that it's installing, it won't replace anything more recent). Now a simple thing you could do is use your BIOS switch on top of the card and put it on position "2" (assuming you've flashed your BIOS while in position "1"). Then shutdown (completely, even the PSU) for about a minute and reboot. All should come back to stock BIOS settings on your 6950. Note that if you've never switched your BIOS to position "1" before flashing, it means that you have replaced your default stock BIOS settings.

Regarding the later case, unfortunately (that was my case with a Gigabyte card), the CMOS called up by switch position "1" is empty, it does not contain a copy of the BIOS targeted by position "2" (before playing with RBE and my card's BIOS, trying to boot from position "1" gave me a blank screen and nothing else happened apart from rotating chassis fans). So if you have flashed your BIOS over switch "2" (meaning you forgot to switch to position "1" before flashing), I really don't know what you can do... Always remember that the first thing to do before anything else is to backup your stock BIOS from position "2" to position "1", just in case you forget to switch to position "1" on the day you'll want to flash your BIOS.

EDIT - maybe there's a solution: copy the stock BIOS file on the root of a flash drive or floppy drive or CD drive (whatever medium can be used in the boot-up sequence before the hard drive), and the system should automatically load that BIOS... Hopefully... I've read that somewhere but never tried it.


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 9, 2011)

*FlASHING MY HD 6950*

Yeah i dont have alot of money,
but i thought that the only difference between, the 6950 and 6970 were the shaders

wont unlocking the shaders be the same as a hd 6970 flash? provided that i up the clocks as well.

also after unlocking the shaders(using shader mod) and upping to 6970 clocks, would i need to up my powertune to 20%?

after you guys flashed using the hd 6970 bios what was your core voltage? (that being the stock core voltage of a 6970)

in the end, when i get my card, im planning to:-

unlock the shaders using the shader mod

increase the clocks and voltage to hd 6970 spec

up my power tune to 20% (if i need to, so tell me if i do)

shouldnt this be a fully fledged hd 6970 except for the memory timings/volts?

please answer on all my questions


----------



## renq (Apr 9, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> Yeah i dont have alot of money,
> but i thought that the only difference between, the 6950 and 6970 were the shaders
> 
> wont unlocking the shaders be the same as a hd 6970 flash?
> ...



Just a post or two above it's been clarified. 6970 has:
* higher clocks
* more shaders
* better memory chips and thus has higher mem voltage and tighter mem timings

Most, if not all 6950, can unlock all the shaders without any problem, however, the extra voltage and tighter timings have killed memory on the 6950.


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 9, 2011)

I once again post this, and i need informative replies please,

i thought that the only major difference between, the 6950 and 6970 were the shaders

wont unlocking the shaders be the same as a hd 6970 flash? provided that i up the clocks as well.

also after unlocking the shaders(using shader mod) and upping to 6970 clocks, would i need to up my powertune to 20%?

after you guys flashed using the hd 6970 bios what was your core voltage? (that being the stock core voltage of a 6970)

in the end, when i get my card, im planning to:-

unlock the shaders using the shader mod

increase the clocks and voltage to hd 6970 spec

up my power tune to 20% (if i need to, so tell me if i do)

shouldnt this be a fully fledged hd 6970 except for the memory timings/volts?

please answer on all my questions


----------



## JupiPupi (Apr 9, 2011)

I have unlocked shaders from 1408 to 1536 on a XFX Radeon HD 6950 1GB card.
Model of my card: HD-695X-ZNFC Version A.1 [card has dual bios switch]











But im not still sadisfacted 
I have problem with unlocking my processor and memory frequencies.
The maximum for a processor is 840, and for a memory 1325Mhz.
I would like to move that limit up, and put a 6970 card frequencies, but I dont know how.

I tried with "Radeon Bios Editor v1.28" to change a frequneci and voltage, but after flashing with that BIOS I get BSOD when trying to boot Windows.

Anyone has idea how to solve this problem?


----------



## manofthem (Apr 9, 2011)

JupiPupi said:


> I have unlocked shaders from 1408 to 1536 on a XFX Radeon HD 6950 1GB card.
> Model of my card: HD-695X-ZNFC Version A.1 [card has dual bios switch]
> 
> [url]http://www.pohrani.com/t/6/gO/3oENUOw/gpu.jpg[/url]
> ...



Download MSI Afterburner and OC with that.  As long as you enable unofficial overclocking, you should be able to hit higher clocks.  THat's the case w/ the 2GB models


----------



## manofthem (Apr 9, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> I once again post this, and i need informative replies please,
> 
> i thought that the only major difference between, the 6950 and 6970 were the shaders
> 
> ...



Take your 6950 and unlock the shaders.  Then OC it to the clocks of a 6970.  When you do that, you'll see that it still doesn't reach the same bench scores as a 6970, so there is obviously something different. But the difference is negligible.  

You will not need +20%PT to run at those speeds either.  Perhaps the only thing that PT will help with is Furmark.  

And all your questions have been answered in this thread many times over, even on the last several pages.  So instead of getting an attitude in your posts, read up a bit, and then ask your questions with some deference.


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 9, 2011)

*flashing my hd 6950*

yeah, thanx for all your replies all,

just one basic question

what is the stock hd 6970 core voltage ?(you know - 880Mhz/1375Mhz)

so that i can apply it to my hd 6950 when i unlock and oc to 6970 specs.


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 9, 2011)

1.175v for 6970. Seem to me fan profile might be a bit different for 6970, too.


----------



## JupiPupi (Apr 9, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Download MSI Afterburner and OC with that.  As long as you enable unofficial overclocking, you should be able to hit higher clocks.  THat's the case w/ the 2GB models



Frequencies in MSI Afterburner are limited two.


----------



## Sinster (Apr 9, 2011)

JupiPupi said:


> Frequencies in MSI Afterburner are limited two.





manofthem said:


> No it's not 11.4.  You need to enable unofficial overclocking.  You can do that by:
> -Make sure you have the newest verison of MSI AB
> -Go in to the program directory (example C:\Program Files(x86)\MSI afterburner) and open MSIAfterburner.cfg
> -Scroll to bottom and enter the following values
> ...



Do this.  

Make sure you type in "I confirm...."


----------



## manofthem (Apr 10, 2011)

JupiPupi said:


> Frequencies in MSI Afterburner are limited two.



I made you a pretty picture!  Wihoo!


----------



## JupiPupi (Apr 10, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I made you a pretty picture!  Wihoo!
> http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/prettypic.png



manofthem & Sinster YOU ARE MY NEW BEST FRIENDS! Thanke you very mutch!


----------



## manofthem (Apr 10, 2011)

JupiPupi said:


> manofthem & Sinster YOU ARE MY NEW BEST FRIENDS! Thanke you very mutch!



No worries at all!  Make sure your OC is stable.  Post back with some results as to what clock speeds you hit!


----------



## mephistopoa (Apr 11, 2011)

My XFX 6950 2GB reference card using bios for unlock shaders only worked perfectly.

I'm running at 6970 clocks using software overclock on afterburner with a higher fan speed and on ccc power settings on +20%

all good, but the card on default 1.1v doesn't go beyond 880 mhz stable. Not bad for a card that costs a lot less than a 6970 =)

a lot better than my old 4870!


----------



## sink (Apr 12, 2011)

Hi I flashed my 6950 to the 6970 bios before reading this thread. I only had it for a day and the display driver would crash on start up and as a precaution I used the hardware switch to set it back to the default bios. Everything is working fine now at stock, but my question is can I flash the 6970 bios modded back to stock without having to switch to it (i.e can I load flash the  primary bios while using the secondary)?


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 12, 2011)

sink said:


> Hi I flashed my 6950 to the 6970 bios before reading this thread. I only had it for a day and the display driver would crash on start up and as a precaution I used the hardware switch to set it back to the default bios. Everything is working fine now at stock, but my question is can I flash the 6970 bios modded back to stock without having to switch to it (i.e can I load flash the  primary bios while using the secondary)?


Im not sure what your asking, but in any event. If you flash to a 6970 bios.... Leave it and jus use the gpu's switch to switch between both bios's... you should be good.

I been testing both bios with out a problem, just make sure the power play is set to a min of +12%


----------



## manofthem (Apr 12, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> I been testing both bios with out a problem, just make sure the power play is set to a min of +12%



Are you talking about the 6970 bios?  If so, what do you see in your tests with the +12%?

I've tried different powertune settings (0, +12%, and +20%) on my modded bios w/ shaders. So far, from default clocks to 6970 clocks to 910/1425, I haven't noticed any real difference, give or take a few points in benches. 

Let me know what i should try to determine the best settings. Thanks


----------



## Deleted member 67555 (Apr 12, 2011)

I haven't really noticed a difference after 925/1400 with +15%....I'm thinking it's the memory max for my card


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 12, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Are you talking about the 6970 bios?  If so, what do you see in your tests with the +12%?
> 
> I've tried different powertune settings (0, +12%, and +20%) on my modded bios w/ shaders. So far, from default clocks to 6970 clocks to 910/1425, I haven't noticed any real difference, give or take a few points in benches.
> 
> Let me know what i should try to determine the best settings. Thanks



I run + 12 power play and set pci-e in bios to 105mhz.... anything higher gives a bsod.

Clock your cpu to the max and you'll see the score raise higher...12+ 20 IS ABOUT THE SAME IN MY TESTING BRO.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 12, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> I run + 12 power play and set pci-e in bios to 105mhz.... anything higher gives a bsod.
> 
> Clock your cpu to the max and you'll see the score raise higher...12+ 20 IS ABOUT THE SAME IN MY TESTING BRO.



I have my CPU at 4Ghz (1090t), anything higher is too high with my cooling. 

I haven't touched pci-e in the bios though; ill give that a shot. Muchas gracias


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 12, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I have my CPU at 4Ghz (1090t), anything higher is too high with my cooling.
> 
> I haven't touched pci-e in the bios though; ill give that a shot. Muchas gracias


106-106 mhz is about the max.


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 12, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> 12+ 20 IS ABOUT THE SAME IN MY TESTING BRO.



OK, let's explain powerplay here.

What it does, is manages power consumption, and if power consumption is too high, the card will downclock.

Moving the powerplay slider increases the limit before that power consumption threshold is reached. You only need to raise it if you see clocks dropping while under load. Raising it will prevent the throttle.


So, of course, +20 isn't going to change anything if your card isn't throttling due to power consumption. Even +1 isn't going to change anything, if you are not really pushing the VRM too much.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 12, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> OK, let's explain powerplay here.
> 
> What it does, is manages power consumption, and if power consumption is too high, the card will downclock.
> 
> ...


Cool cad, Im talking about Pci-e mhz.... 100-106mhz... not power play


----------



## hv43082 (Apr 12, 2011)

Anyone else here having trouble with MSI Afterburner and Catalyst 11.4 Preview?  I am getting random lock up and bsod regardless of the speed/voltage set with Afterburner.  Once Afterburner is removed, no more problem.


----------



## mephistopoa (Apr 12, 2011)

hv43082 said:


> Anyone else here having trouble with MSI Afterburner and Catalyst 11.4 Preview?  I am getting random lock up and bsod regardless of the speed/voltage set with Afterburner.  Once Afterburner is removed, no more problem.



I only got problems with afterburner using clocks that apparently my card doesn't cope well with. Using 880/1375 is working fine on AB for me using 11.4, I'll run some more tests tonight


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 12, 2011)

Guys, things have changed , 

would i be able to unlock shaders, and oc volts and frequencies to 6970 spec

on the asus hd 6950 2gb with voltage tweak?


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 12, 2011)

i mean the asus card that comes with a voltage tweak and/or slight OC right out of the box\


----------



## mephistopoa (Apr 12, 2011)

The only way to know is doing it, but if your card doesn't have the bios switch, I would not recommend doing it


----------



## JupiPupi (Apr 12, 2011)

manofthem said:


> No worries at all!  Make sure your OC is stable.  Post back with some results as to what clock speeds you hit!



I have overclocked my XFX 6950 1GB
Core clock: 950Mhz
Memory clock 1375Mhz
Voltage 1.212
Average temperature: 85c
3DMark 11 Premium Graphic score: 5506

But! I have noticed some strange behaviour while browsing with Firefox and playing games two.
If You look at the graph. You can see that core frequency is jumping from 500 to 950Mhz all the time, while memory frequency is constant. Is anything of that normal behaviour?


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 12, 2011)

Yes, perfectly normal.

But, if this is happening *during games*, you need to raise the powertune % until it does not happen any more.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 13, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> OK, let's explain powerplay here.
> 
> What it does, is manages power consumption, and if power consumption is too high, the card will downclock.
> 
> ...



I appreciate your insight.  Please allow an inquiry:

My 6950 powertune is set to 0, and through games and benches, clocks hold strong and do not downclock (other than Furmark).  

I've read that the TDP of a 6950 is 200W, so should I take it that even at full load my gpu is only pulling down somewhere >200W?  (Does that not change even if the shaders are unlocked or if I raise voltage and OC to say 900/1375?)

I do thank you.
(I'm asking more for power management reasons; I want to be sure that my PSU will handle crossfire without problems)


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 13, 2011)

Yes, you can say that in apps other than furmark, your gpu is not exceeding the TDP, if the card is not throttling. At least, that's how it's supposed to work.

And that's why we have access to it...basically AMD has given us the option to exceed TDP by 20%, and then, that's it...

That means that technically, if each and every part of the gpu is designed properly, these cards should basically be indestructible by overclockers...unless there is hard-mods.


I am not sure of what the TDP of these cards is, or if it's both ram and GPU, or just GPU, but I do understand what it is, and what it is supposed to do. I have not encountered any situation where I needed to adjust it, although I have spoken with a few users now that have had to use it to allow for overclocking.


----------



## sabrehagen (Apr 13, 2011)

*HD 6950 1GB with RBE*

Hi Guys,

I have a PowerColor HD 6950 1GB and have read the techPowerUp! guide thoroughly and found I need to use RBE to change my clocks because the listed BIOSs are only for 2GB editions. I'm really excited to mod my card, but I'm not getting the expected results. These are the steps I went through:

I downloaded my card's BIOS with WinFlash.
I opened it in RBE and went to the last tab where 6950 > 6970 was enabled. I chose 6970.
I saved the BIOS and flashed it back to my card.
From there I reboot and check the result with GPU-Z and it is still only showing 1,408 unified.

Just to make sure the BIOS was updated correctly, I downloaded the BIOS now on my card and opened it with RBE and it is showing 6970 enabled. Do you know if GPU-Z is misreporting (I'm using the latest version - 0.5.3) or the card isn't picking up the extra Shaders?

On a related note, whenever I flash my BIOS with WinFlash I get "BIOS flash completed successfully" but my computer freezes and I have to hard reboot. No mouse movement either. Is this to be expected? It seems like it would be given you're changing the BIOS on an active device but I just wanted to confirm.

So, in summary, any idea on what I might be doing wrong or how to fix this? I'm sorry if this has been answered before, but I couldn't bring myself to trawl the 51 pages of this thread. I tried searching the forums but that was too coarse grained.

Thanks for your help,


sabrehagen


----------



## manofthem (Apr 13, 2011)

I'm pretty sure you can't flash a 6970 bios to a 6950 1GB card.  

I haven't tried unlocking shaders in RBE, but try this...
www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
I just downloaded a 1GB bios and ran it though that, it worked, though I can't verify that because I don't want to test flashing it on my 2GB card.  Give that a shot.  

Take your default bios and put it in that folder. 
Name it "original.bin"
Then run "run.bat" That should take your bios and enables all 1536 shaders.
Modded bios should be saved as "modded.bin"
Then flash "modded.bin"
After flashing, double check in GPUz that shaders are changed.
Might work (This works with the 2GB version)


----------



## jayc (Apr 13, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I'm pretty sure you can't flash a 6970 bios to a 6950 1GB card.
> 
> I haven't tried unlocking shaders in RBE, but try this...
> www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> ...



I don't think sabrehagen is actually flashing his 6950 1Gb with a 6970 bios.
It's just RBE's label on the button that sort of says, unlock your shaders to something similar to a 6970.
So RBE just takes the bios you opened and unlocks the shaders.
It saves the new bios file for you to flash.

sabrehagen,
I think we are in new territory here with your 1Gb powercolor 6950. I have not seen anyone unlock shaders on this card personally. There is a possibility that Powercolor have cut physical traces to the extra shaders. It's an expensive option for them but it's possible. We can't do anything about that.

There is another possibility that you have incorrectly performed the re-flash.
This is something we can explore.
Use the script that manofthem has linked to and re-create a shader unlocked bios from your card.
Then use atiflash/winflash to load on the new bios.

Taking care that your card is in the primary PCI-E slot (closest to CPU).
Make sure you issue the - unlockrom 0 command, before the flash bios command.
Write down step by step, what you did and the result. Report back.


----------



## sabrehagen (Apr 13, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I'm pretty sure you can't flash a 6970 bios to a 6950 1GB card.
> 
> I haven't tried unlocking shaders in RBE, but try this...
> www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> ...



Unfortunately this method still results in 1408 being reported in GPU-Z. Any other ideas?


----------



## FL4K (Apr 13, 2011)

I have a 1GB XFX card (the dual fan ZDDC model). I can download and mod the bios fine (it finds the string and replaces it) but cannot flash the image back. I get an error from atiwinflash and atiflash that the rom cannot be erased (even though I have issued the command to unlock it).

The dual bios switch is masked and not present on the card - I assume the ROM is read only (though that seems an odd thing to do on a single-bios card).

Any idea?


----------



## jayc (Apr 14, 2011)

FL4K said:


> I have a 1GB XFX card (the dual fan ZDDC model). I can download and mod the bios fine (it finds the string and replaces it) but cannot flash the image back. I get an error from atiwinflash and atiflash that the rom cannot be erased (even though I have issued the command to unlock it).
> 
> The dual bios switch is masked and not present on the card - I assume the ROM is read only (though that seems an odd thing to do on a single-bios card).
> 
> Any idea?



A number of XFX 1Gb owners have successfully unlocked the shaders on their card. Read back a few pages to see what they did.

Make sure your card is in the primary GPU slot closest to the CPU when running the commands.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 14, 2011)

Sorry but XFX suck except there Warrenty. Dont unlock, Whats the sense? your rig cant run your games?

Has anybody had any luck using MSI Afterburner on x-fired 6900 series cards?

I can use voltage and core,memory settings on the first gpu. 2nd gpu, any settings in AB cause a bsod... Any Idea's?


----------



## manofthem (Apr 14, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Sorry but XFX suck except there Warrenty. Dont unlock, Whats the sense? your rig cant run your games?
> 
> Has anybody had any luck using MSI Afterburner on x-fired 6900 series cards?
> 
> I can use voltage and core,memory settings on the first gpu. 2nd gpu, any settings in AB cause a bsod... Any Idea's?



I had a problem with MSI AB when I installed my second card. No matter what I touched (clocks up 1 mhz or applying a fan curve), it would crash my pc. No bsod but some crazy lines and have to reboot. 

I had to uninstall afterburner (and I may I've reinstalled drivers), and reinstalling AB did it work. I only did same OC as CCC, but had a custom fan curve.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 14, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I had a problem with MSI AB when I installed my second card. No matter what I touched (clocks up 1 mhz or applying a fan curve), it would crash my pc. No bsod but some crazy lines and have to reboot.
> 
> I had to uninstall afterburner (and I may I've reinstalled drivers), and reinstalling AB did it work. I only did same OC as CCC, but had a custom fan curve.


What?


----------



## manofthem (Apr 14, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> What?



Sorry if I didn't make any sens; I was on my phone while we were in the drive though at Maimi Subs...

When I went crossfire 6950's, MSI Afterburner started acting up.  Whenever I tried to apply any change at all, my pc would crash.  It wasn't a BSOD, but I had to reboot nonetheless.  (I don't know if that's similar to what you have going on)

I fixed it by uninstalling MSIAB completely.  Then I may have uninstalled/reinstalled ATI drivers, can't remember.  Then I reinstalled MSIAB.  After reinstalling, I can now set up a custom fan curve and overclock.  I have only OC'd in MSIAB as far as 840/1325 on both cards.  I haven't gone past that with unofficial overclocking or touching voltage though.


----------



## mingsoup (Apr 14, 2011)

Recently got two Sapphire reference 6950's. Pulled out the bios with GPU-Z. Modifed with RBE. Reflashed with ATIWinflash.

Cards are 100% stable with 1536 shaders in crossfire mode at stock 1.1V/800/1250.

However, I'm having real troubles trying to get them up to 6970 speeds. 

First off. Sometimes when I use MSI AF 2.2 Beta 2 and set 1.175/880/1375 and hit apply I get an immediate BSOD. I *think* this might have something to do with ULPS? Trixx has an option for disable ULPS. I don't usually get an immediate BSOD when I use that.  However strangely, my clocks were reverted after 1/3 AVP benches.

Manually disabling ULPS in regedit seemed to let me set 1175/880/1375 in MSI, but after benchmarking one AVP, the second GPU stayed at 100% after the bench failed, followed by a BSOD.

Do I just need a tiny bit more voltage? Thoughts?
I thought I could run 6970 speeds with stock 6970 voltage? (1175mV) correct?

Whats super strange is that crossfire shuts off after a restart from a BSOD or a AVP benchmark crash w/o BSOD but restart. Second GPU disappears out of Ati Manager and Device Manager. Until another restart. UHG. I am using 11.4 Preview.

Whats up with the OC resetting itself on its own, despite me dialing it into  MSI?


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 14, 2011)

I can run 6970 speeds on both my cards @ 1.135v. Most 6970's OC like mad, 950 is a cakewalk, but 6950's...not so much.


----------



## Sk1nner (Apr 14, 2011)

increasing the pci-e clock increases gpu performance? i increased to 104 and i see about 8fps increase in msi kombustor. Is that possible?


----------



## AMD718 (Apr 14, 2011)

I have a Gigabyte 6950 2GB. Successfully running 6970 BIOS (Sapphire.HD6970.2048.101124.bin) at stock 6970 clocks (880/1375). I do set powertune to +20, otherwise I can witness the clocks dynamically throttling back to keep the TDP within spec. Ran FUR burn in for 7 hours straight no issues. Played Crysis for a few hours and no graphical issues, however, Crysis did lock up twice. The computer was not locked, nor did the graphics card/driver reset. I just had to ctr+alt+del and kill the crysis process and restart the game. I'm chalking that up to a Crysis bug until proven otherwise.

My question is, is there anyway to get the TDP defaults to match the 6970 or are they not included in the BIOS? I just don't want to have to worry about manually setting powertune to +20 in the future. It's obviously required so I'd like to make it a permanent default if possible.


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## Bcterp (Apr 14, 2011)

I recently unlocked the shaders on my MSI 6950 (modified my own bios using RBE) and didn't touch anything else.   I now get artifacts (speckles) in 2D using certain programs (firefox 4, CCC).  The artifacts disappear after closing the program.   Switching to the stock bios eliminates the artifacts so something is definitely up with the extra shaders.  However when gaming everything is rock solid using the unlocked shaders. I even bumped the core to 880 and played the Frozen Paradise level of Crysis Warhead.   Not a single artifact.  Once I exited the game and opened Firefox,  immediate speckles.   Seems strange that only 2D programs using some GPU get artifacts. 

Any ideas?


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## cadaveca (Apr 14, 2011)

tdimarzio said:


> My question is, is there anyway to get the TDP defaults to match the 6970 or are they not included in the BIOS? I just don't want to have to worry about manually setting powertune to +20 in the future. It's obviously required so I'd like to make it a permanent default if possible.



I do not think this is possible, as the VRM for 6950 is quite different than 6970. I feel that they have used readings from hardware VRM current draw to set the limit, and the limit is the same for each card, but much lower on 6950 due to only being 6x6 instead of 6x8.



Bcterp said:


> Any ideas?



Sure, many apps within the desktop space are 3-D accelerated. maintaining 2D clocks with 3D acceleration is probably why your card is NOT a 6970 already.



Sk1nner said:


> Is that possible?



Yes, as increasing the PCI-E bus gets data to the gpu faster.


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## AMD718 (Apr 14, 2011)

Bcterp said:


> I recently unlocked the shaders on my MSI 6950 (modified my own bios using RBE) and didn't touch anything else.   I now get artifacts (speckles) in 2D using certain programs (firefox 4, CCC).  The artifacts disappear after closing the program.   Switching to the stock bios eliminates the artifacts so something is definitely up with the extra shaders.  However when gaming everything is rock solid using the unlocked shaders. I even bumped the core to 880 and played the Frozen Paradise level of Crysis Warhead.   Not a single artifact.  Once I exited the game and opened Firefox,  immediate speckles.   Seems strange that only 2D programs using some GPU get artifacts.
> 
> Any ideas?



I saw this at first on my 6950 right after flashing the 6970 BIOS. I went into the CCC overdrive, set the clocks to defaults (880,1375), shutdown the computer (to clear hardware registers) and then booted back up. The issue never reappeared.


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## Arktic (Apr 14, 2011)

Hey Guys.

So I recently got my VTX3D 6950 2gig the other day and have had endless troubles with trying to get it to work with 6970 bios as it would flash fine but then would speckle when entering games or 3D Mark Vantage.

Im happy to say Ive found the solution after a few days of toil and many bioses later.

So heres what I did.

1) Downloaded the Powercolor HD 6950 PCS++ BIOS switch in normal position (Overclocked/unlocked) bios
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/94169/Powercolor.HD6950.2048.110121.html

2) The downloaded the 6950_to_6970_bios mod.zip.

3) Replaced the 6970 bios with the powercolor one and renamed it to unlock.bin

4) Ran the 6950_to_6970_mod script and waited for it to flash.

5) Reset and everything was great!


The clocks off 880 core didnt work so great on the vtx so I used 860/1350 and its perfectly stable now. 

So now its at 1536 shaders with 860core and 1350 memory

Finally after all the hard work im happy that I now have mostly a 6970 lol!!


----------



## rgsaunders (Apr 15, 2011)

Smooth sailing today, flashed my Sapphire 6950 2GB P/N 21188-00-40R using the batch files, no problems with what is now identified by GPU-Z as a 6970.


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## jayc (Apr 15, 2011)

Bcterp said:


> I recently unlocked the shaders on my MSI 6950 (modified my own bios using RBE) and didn't touch anything else.   I now get artifacts (speckles) in 2D using certain programs (firefox 4, CCC).  The artifacts disappear after closing the program.
> Any ideas?



Try tdimarzio's suggestion, otherwise, did you reinstall the drivers?
If not, do it.
If it's still a problem, you could try RBE and adjust your bios' 2d voltage. 2D Default is 900mV. You might need a smidgen more, like 905mV. Then reflash with this updated voltage bios.


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## jayc (Apr 15, 2011)

Arktic said:


> The clocks off 880 core didnt work so great on the vtx so I used 860/1350 and its perfectly stable now.
> So now its at 1536 shaders with 860core and 1350 memory



You can still get it to run at 880 core IF you increase the core voltage. Did you try increasing the voltage?
MSI afterburner will be able to increase voltage for this card.
Alternatively, RBE can increase it OR decrease voltages more permanently at the bios level.


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## mingsoup (Apr 15, 2011)

mingsoup said:


> Recently got two Sapphire reference 6950's. Pulled out the bios with GPU-Z. Modifed with RBE. Reflashed with ATIWinflash.
> 
> Cards are 100% stable with 1536 shaders in crossfire mode at stock 1.1V/800/1250.
> 
> ...



Forgive my diarrhea post there.

I've eliminated alot of the variables. Drivers and OC utilities were not the culprit. Insufficient power is not the culprit. It seemed to be my second card not wanting to cooperate and also the one behaving oddly after OC. So I took it out and tested it alone with the stock bios (switch to 2) and attempting to overclock the memory to 1375 resulted in the same exact instability. So I've effectively narrowed it down to the memory OC on my second card that is giving me grief. I'm up to 840/1300 @1.1V perfectly stable. I also tortured my stock clocked unlocked shader config with 10x AVP bench, and it benched perfectly and no articulating. So it seems in the end, that my second card's memory just doesn't want to go that high. Any solutions? Would flashing a 6970 bios maybe allow me to run at 1375? I *want* these to go to 6970 stock speeds.


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## Arktic (Apr 15, 2011)

jayc said:


> You can still get it to run at 880 core IF you increase the core voltage. Did you try increasing the voltage?
> MSI afterburner will be able to increase voltage for this card.
> Alternatively, RBE can increase it OR decrease voltages more permanently at the bios level.



Yeah when I started up my PC this morning it speckled again but ran COD4 for a few seconds and now its cleared away. I cant up the volts in MSI Afterburner.

Will adding volts help with the speckling issue? What are the standard volts of the 6950 2gig?


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## NameonPrime (Apr 15, 2011)

*Unlocking my hd 6950 shaders*

Guys, major problem, 

i just received a different version of my hd 6950

Its the 2GB sapphire card with a fan in the middle adn NO BIOS SWITCH,

would you still recommend for me to try unlocking those extra shaders?

or do i run a greater risk of bricking the card since it may be unflashable

and it has no backup BIOS

please in need info fast, esplecially from the knowledgable MANOFTHEM and Cadaveca


----------



## mingsoup (Apr 15, 2011)

mingsoup said:


> Forgive my diarrhea post there.
> 
> I've eliminated alot of the variables. Drivers and OC utilities were not the culprit. Insufficient power is not the culprit. It seemed to be my second card not wanting to cooperate and also the one behaving oddly after OC. So I took it out and tested it alone with the stock bios (switch to 2) and attempting to overclock the memory to 1375 resulted in the same exact instability. So I've effectively narrowed it down to the memory OC on my second card that is giving me grief. I'm up to 840/1300 @1.1V perfectly stable. I also tortured my stock clocked unlocked shader config with 10x AVP bench, and it benched perfectly and no articulating. So it seems in the end, that my second card's memory just doesn't want to go that high. Any solutions? Would flashing a 6970 bios maybe allow me to run at 1375? I *want* these to go to 6970 stock speeds.



FINALLY figured out what the problem was.

Not drivers, shaders, unlock, crossfire, or whatever.

It was power. Don't try to run two 6970's on a 750watt Antec. 
Alone each will bench 100% stable 5loops of AVP with 1536 shaders and 880/1375/1175mv. Problem solved. Tomorrow I put in my Corsair 850W. If that doesn't work, then I'll buy a 1200watt and forget about it.


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 15, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> Guys, major problem,
> 
> i just received a different version of my hd 6950
> 
> ...



wait a sec...does this card have a big round grey "button" on the heatsink near the output side?? Becasue if it does, that is the bios switch.

If not, then, yes, you can still attempt a flash.

Yes,  Ido think there is a higher chance that the gpu you get may not work with all shaders. I am convinced, myself, that the only reason these card really unlock is due to the delay on the real 6950 PSB, which looks alot like the 6870 PCB. 

I flashed my card with this "new" PCB, no problem. However, at hte same time, I do have 2 cards, so recovery from a bad flash is something I could recover from.


I have even flashed the wrong bios to the card, and it wouldn't boot into windows with the driver installed...but thanks to have a second card, recovery was not that hard.

All that said, if you don't feel comfortable with the situation, don't do it. I you do, use ATIWinFlash to suc kthe bios off of you card, mod it to enable the extra shaders, and flash away. Reboot after tha flash, and maybe everything will work right...and maybe not.


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## 2DividedbyZero (Apr 15, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Reboot after tha flash, and maybe everything will work right...and maybe not.




well put, never a truer word been spoken.

Kinda puts you off flashing


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 15, 2011)

Meh, I "bricked" my card, was easy to recover. You jsut need to be full awre of what might happen, and know how to recover. NO big deal.


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## Bcterp (Apr 15, 2011)

jayc said:


> Try tdimarzio's suggestion, otherwise, did you reinstall the drivers?
> If not, do it.
> If it's still a problem, you could try RBE and adjust your bios' 2d voltage. 2D Default is 900mV. You might need a smidgen more, like 905mV. Then reflash with this updated voltage bios.



Unfortunately reinstalling the drivers didn't help.  However, I think I got the 2D artifacts with my 6950 shaders unlocked sorted out. I found that the problem isn’t the idle clocks (250/150/0.9v) but the full speed clocks when in 2D (800/1250/ 1.1v). The artifacts appear whenever a 2D program (like Firefox rendering a web page) causes the GPU to briefly step up to full speed and voltage. I used Afterburner to setup a new 2D profile set at 500/1250/1.1V. It still drops down to 250/150/0.9 when idle but the GPU core will now max out at 500 when in use in 2D. This has eliminated the artifacts. My 3D profile is set to 870/1325/1.1 and thus far is stable and artifact free after several ~30 minute sessions of Crysis Warhead. I’ll need to do some more testing to be sure it is stable. It seems my unlocked shaders can’t handle 2D rendering at full speed but can handle 3D gaming just fine..


----------



## AMD718 (Apr 15, 2011)

Bcterp said:


> Unfortunately reinstalling the drivers didn't help.  However, I think I got the 2D artifacts with my 6950 shaders unlocked sorted out. I found that the problem isn’t the idle clocks (250/150/0.9v) but the full speed clocks when in 2D (800/1250/ 1.1v). The artifacts appear whenever a 2D program (like Firefox rendering a web page) causes the GPU to briefly step up to full speed and voltage. I used Afterburner to setup a new 2D profile set at 500/1250/1.1V. It still drops down to 250/150/0.9 when idle but the GPU core will now max out at 500 when in use in 2D. This has eliminated the artifacts. My 3D profile is set to 870/1325/1.1 and thus far is stable and artifact free after several ~30 minute sessions of Crysis Warhead. I’ll need to do some more testing to be sure it is stable. It seems my unlocked shaders can’t handle 2D rendering at full speed but can handle 3D gaming just fine..



So, the 2D "speckling" or "specks" that I thought were gone are not actually gone. They're just not very prominent or prevalent. You'll see them occasionaly on black background or in white areas if you look closely enough. I am in the same boat as you then. 3D is rock solid with 6970 clocks and shaders (I just used the 6970 BIOS rather than modding mine) but 2D has these speckling artifacts. I got annoyed and flashed back the original 6950 BIOS but given your suggesting of modifying the 2D profile using afterburner I might give it another shot. It would be a nicer fix to actually modify the 2D clocks in the BIOS itself so that afterburner is not required but I don't know if that's possible with the current tools.


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## NameonPrime (Apr 15, 2011)

sooo.....

Let me get this straight cadaveca,

Even if my Sapphire 2gb hd 6950 is not reference design, has no BIOS switch and
has a reworked and shorter PCB (i think - than a reference hd 6950), i can still try to unlock those shaders?
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





and if i brick my card i can find a way to reflash it with its origional BIOS
since i have a backup hd 5830.... How?

and you have had success with this particular card as well?


----------



## highfive (Apr 15, 2011)

I flashed my Powercolor 6950 2MB but it won't work on restart.. I tried powercolor and sapphire bios and then the procedure described in post #1234.. no success, all i can do is flash it back to normal. 
Also i couldn't flash it in Winflash, but had to do it in DOS mode..

I have this one: 





Anyone has a suggestion to what might be the problem?


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 15, 2011)

It's not a reference card.
Radon Bios editor should allow you to unlock the shaders on the bios.


----------



## highfive (Apr 16, 2011)

Alright RBE was the thing i needed. 
Unlocked! thank you.


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## xanture (Apr 16, 2011)

I just got a xfx6950 2gb and tried using the batch file and tried flashing in dos. I made sure I ran as Admin but no luck so far. I tried all 3 diffrent xfx versions you have listed. Any ideas? http://www.frys.com/product/6575973?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG is the card I have


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## mingsoup (Apr 16, 2011)

mingsoup said:


> FINALLY figured out what the problem was.
> 
> Not drivers, shaders, unlock, crossfire, or whatever.
> 
> ...



Now I'm getting a STOP BSOD shortly after applying OC via MSI AB. 
But alone both cards are perfectly stable. uhg.


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## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

mingsoup said:


> Now I'm getting a STOP BSOD shortly after applying OC via MSI AB.
> But alone both cards are perfectly stable. uhg.



Try completely uninstalling MSIAB, then reinstalling after reboot.  Same thing happened to me.  But then again, I'm running 2 on a 750W PSU...




xanture said:


> I just got a xfx6950 2gb and tried using the batch file and tried flashing in dos. I made sure I ran as Admin but no luck so far. I tried all 3 diffrent xfx versions you have listed. Any ideas? http://www.frys.com/product/6575973?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG is the card I have



According to the part #, it's not a reference card. It should be unlockable, shaders only though.
www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
Mod your own stock bios with that.  Did you try that?


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## xanture (Apr 16, 2011)

@Manofthem, first of all thank you for the quick response. I guess what i'm looking for is a reference model card though i'm not 100% sure what i'm looking for when. I don't have a firm understanding what is and what is not a reference card. I plan to take back the xfx tomorrow and continue my search for a 6950 I can unlock completely. I see the list of bios to flash but is there a list of reference cards I can look at so I can get the right thing next time? Thank you for your patients.


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## mingsoup (Apr 16, 2011)

System is as follows:

i5-750 @ 4.2Ghz. Completely stable long before my two new 6950's. Previously ran crossfire 5770's OC'ed no stability problems. 
8gb (2x4) DDR3 1600
Asus P7P55D Deluxe
Corsair 850TX
5 120mm Fans.
2 7200 Sata HD's
2 DVD drives
2 Sapphire Reference 6950's Both are shader unlocked from stock Bios. Shader unlock is stable without OC applied. 
Catalyst 11.4/MSI AB 2.2 Beta 2

I simply cannot get these guys to OC stable when put together. Alone each will go through 5 AVP benchmarks at 1175/880/1375 no problem.

Together, I have all sorts of problems. It seems if I go into the registry and disable EnableULPS wherever I find it and restart, the computer will not immediately BSOD when I apply overclocks in MSI AB 2.2 Beta 2.

So then I moved on to benching. However after 1/5 AVP benches, the clocks reverted to normal automatically. Weird!

Restart and Uncheck CCC AMD Overdrive on both cards.
Bench again. AVP stops responding on 2/5 AVP bench. Whats really weird is that after I recover the memory and usage of the second GPU is stuck at MAX.  If it was a power problem, wouldn't the computer simply shut down, rather than the benchmark stop responding? But the cards OC alone perfectly.....

Why would these cards OC perfect alone, but not together. The only thing I can think of is not enough power. However with this funny ULPS business, anything is possible I suppose. 
Any help appreciated. Moving from a 750 Antec to an 850 Corsair didn't change any of my Crossfire symptoms. Do I need to get a 1250Watt?


----------



## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

xanture said:


> @Manofthem, first of all thank you for the quick response. I guess what i'm looking for is a reference model card though i'm not 100% sure what i'm looking for when. I don't have a firm understanding what is and what is not a reference card. I plan to take back the xfx tomorrow and continue my search for a 6950 I can unlock completely. I see the list of bios to flash but is there a list of reference cards I can look at so I can get the right thing next time? Thank you for your patients.



Your XFX should be able to flash and unlock shaders.  I have an XFX and I've read about other XFX cards being unlockable.

What happens when you try to flash your card?


----------



## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

mingsoup said:


> System is as follows:
> 
> i5-750 @ 4.2Ghz. Completely stable long before my two new 6950's. Previously ran crossfire 5770's OC'ed no stability problems.
> 8gb (2x4) DDR3 1600
> ...



My 750W PSU is running almost the same things that you are running. You shouldn't need much more than what you are running.  What happens when you have crossfired enabled and just running everything default in CCC?  Try not using MSIAB


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## mingsoup (Apr 16, 2011)

manofthem said:


> My 750W PSU is running almost the same things that you are running. You shouldn't need much more than what you are running.  What happens when you have crossfired enabled and just running everything default in CCC?  Try not using MSIAB



I think its heat.

LOL!/Uhg.

I turned on fans to 50% constant and no more freezing at the same exact point. That combined with turning off ULPS, makes the 880/1375/1175mV OC stable @ 3x AVP bench, which I have *never* been able to achieve before, before always freezing at the beginning of the hallway with the alien stream.

Thanks for the help manofthem. I'll keep working on it. Bought these two 6950's explicitly to run them at stock 6970 speeds and be done with it. Seems I'm getting much closer. Glad I don't have to buy a 1250Watter. I'll keep testing. Looks like its time for a longer Crossfire bridge/more case fans/new fan profile/alloftheabove. My current setup has a top fan, intake, output, and two pushing/pulling on a Scythe Mugen. You'd thing that would be enough fans....but its all inside an Antec P180, which isn't the best for heat.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

mingsoup said:


> I think its heat.
> 
> LOL!/Uhg.
> 
> ...



What motherboard are you running?  What is the space like between the cards?  That could make a heat problem

If you run GPU-Z and log your info, you can see what your temps are like when you freeze/crash/reboot..


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## mingsoup (Apr 16, 2011)

Running a Asus P7P55D Deluxe......and the cards are essentially right on each other. Short bridge.

I'll give the GPU-Z log a try. What would you recommend first? Different fan profile or longer Xfire bridge? After that.....case modification on top of what I've already done.


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## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

mingsoup said:


> Running a Asus P7P55D Deluxe......and the cards are essentially right on each other. Short bridge.
> 
> I'll give the GPU-Z log a try. What would you recommend first? Different fan profile or longer Xfire bridge? After that.....case modification on top of what I've already done.



ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s US...
Is that your board?  It depends on how many PCI-E slots you have?  More distance is better as long as the slots are right.  

Definitely set up a nice custom fan curve, the auto in CCC is terrible


----------



## mingsoup (Apr 16, 2011)

ASUS P7P55D Deluxe LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Mo...

That's my board.

Any tips on setting up a custom fan curve. I've never done it. MSI AB correct?


----------



## xanture (Apr 16, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Your XFX should be able to flash and unlock shaders.  I have an XFX and I've read about other XFX cards being unlockable.
> 
> What happens when you try to flash your card?



When I run the batch file it says that it was successful and saved. When I restart I still have only 1408 shaders. When I try in the command prompt, after it is finished I get no message (Failure or Successful). When I reboot, still only 1408 shaders. When I try and run the atiwinflash by its self I get an error that was covered on the first page.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

mingsoup said:


> ASUS P7P55D Deluxe LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Mo...
> 
> That's my board.
> 
> Any tips on setting up a custom fan curve. I've never done it. MSI AB correct?



The distance on board is the same on mine, so that's good.  Heat may be an issue, so the fan curve is a good idea.  Open MSIAB  Click on settings and the second tab is "Fan" which is what you want; make your own line for fan. Then when you are setting up a profile on the main page, click on auto for Fan Speed.



xanture said:


> When I run the batch file it says that it was successful and saved. When I restart I still have only 1408 shaders. When I try in the command prompt, after it is finished I get no message (Failure or Successful). When I reboot, still only 1408 shaders. When I try and run the atiwinflash by its self I get an error that was covered on the first page.


Make sure your bios switch is in the right position.  It's usually the 1 position that can be written, push the switch closer to the fan.  But there are some reports that the 2 position, closer to the back of the pc, that can be written. Sounds like your switch is in the wrong position.


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## xanture (Apr 16, 2011)

manofthem said:


> The distance on board is the same on mine, so that's good.  Heat may be an issue, so the fan curve is a good idea.  Open MSIAB  Click on settings and the second tab is "Fan" which is what you want; make your own line for fan. Then when you are setting up a profile on the main page, click on auto for Fan Speed.
> 
> 
> Make sure your bios switch is in the right position.  It's usually the 1 position that can be written, push the switch closer to the fan.  But there are some reports that the 2 position, closer to the back of the pc, that can be written. Sounds like your switch is in the wrong position.



Okay I just spend a while looking for the switch, I then took some pictures with my phone and here they are. Can't find the switch... do I need to take off the plastic housing to get to it?

http://img571.imageshack.us/i/imag00851.jpg/
http://img825.imageshack.us/i/imag0085o.jpg/
http://img854.imageshack.us/i/imag0087d.jpg/
http://img191.imageshack.us/i/imag0088a.jpg/


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## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

xanture said:


> Okay I just spend a while looking for the switch, I then took some pictures with my phone and here they are. Can't find the switch... do I need to take off the plastic housing to get to it?
> 
> http://img571.imageshack.us/i/imag00851.jpg/
> http://img825.imageshack.us/i/imag0085o.jpg/
> ...



Perhaps yours doesn't have the bios switch...





That's where it is on the reference card, right behind the crossfire connectors, but yours isn't reference so you may not have the switch.

Since it's likely not the bios switch, did you follow these instructions:
- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" <-- the 0 means first adapter, if you have multiple cards, physically uninstall all but the one you want to flash
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 16, 2011)

xanture said:


> Okay I just spend a while looking for the switch, I then took some pictures with my phone and here they are. Can't find the switch... do I need to take off the plastic housing to get to it?
> 
> http://img571.imageshack.us/i/imag00851.jpg/
> http://img825.imageshack.us/i/imag0085o.jpg/
> ...



No switch on that card. My works fine with shader-mod bios, erocker's as well.


----------



## xanture (Apr 16, 2011)

Yeah I did all that. So the version on the box says A.1, i'm guessing these are unflashable cards.


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 16, 2011)

xanture said:


> Yeah I did all that. So the version on the box says A.1, i'm guessing these are unflashable card.



I'm sorry, but what part of "my cards work with shader-mod bios" did you not understand?

Yes, I have the same card, as well as reference.

ANY card is "flashable". Whether the gou works with a differnt bios is the question, and the only way to find out is to do it.


----------



## xanture (Apr 16, 2011)

Must have missed that, how does it work?


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 16, 2011)

It works fine. 1536 shaders, no artifacting, clocks to 865mhz with shaders unlocked on 1.1v.

fan does get a fair bit noisier though...these coolers are quite interesting to me...I got better temps removing the shroud, and putting a 120mm fan blowing across the card.

NO memory cooling on these cards either..the heatsink sits over hte memory, but does not contact it.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

xanture said:


> When I run the batch file it says that it was successful and saved. When I restart I still have only 1408 shaders. When I try in the command prompt, after it is finished I get no message (Failure or Successful). When I reboot, still only 1408 shaders. When I try and run the atiwinflash by its self I get an error that was covered on the first page.



Download and use the mod script. Take your bios, name it "original.bin" and put it in the folder.  then run "run.bat"
That will mod your bios and name it "modded.bin"
take that then flash it with the CMD prompt

Did you do that?


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 16, 2011)

sooo.....

Let me get this straight ,

Even if my Sapphire 2gb hd 6950 is not reference design, has no BIOS switch and
has a reworked and shorter PCB (i think - than a reference hd 6950), i can still try to unlock those shaders?





and if i brick my card, i can find a way to reflash it with its origional BIOS
since i have a backup hd 5830.... How? could you outline those steps for me please?

and you have had success with this particular card as well?

i would appreciate if manofthem and cadaveca would reply


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 16, 2011)

OK, so, when you flash modded bios, usually the card still works. You might have artifacting, but the card works and is recognized by windows. So, the software tools used to flash the modded bios will still work on the card, installed as secondary.


I even accidentally flashed reference bios on my non-reference...the card wouldn't owrk once drivers loaded, so I uninstalled drivers, rebotted, and before drivers isntalled, I flashed the card back to stock bios.

I then put the right modded bios on, and have been using it like that since.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> sooo.....
> 
> Let me get this straight ,
> 
> ...



Do you need steps to flash and unlock shaders, or do you need the steps to save it if it goes south?


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 16, 2011)

both in as much detail as possible would be nice


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## xanture (Apr 16, 2011)

Update on where i'm at, I downloaded the Mod Bios HD 6, saved my bios as Original.bin, ran Run.bat, used admin CMD atiwinflash to flash modded.bin. atiwinflash didn't give a confirmation that it worked and it didn't say it failed, I restarted my computer. No luck on shaders. Did I miss a step?


----------



## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> both in as much detail as possible would be nice



Here
http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip

Take your default bios and put it in that folder. 
Name it "original.bin"
Then run "run.bat" That should take your bios, run some cmd lines, and enable all 1536 shaders.
Modded bios should be saved as "modded.bin"
Then flash "modded.bin" using atiwinflash
After flashing, double check in GPUz that shaders are changed.

That's how to unlock shaders.  Try it...

and Cadaveca just said how to save it in post 2341


----------



## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

xanture said:


> Update on where i'm at, I downloaded the Mod Bios HD 6, saved my bios as Original.bin, ran Run.bat, used admin CMD atiwinflash to flash modded.bin. atiwinflash didn't give a confirmation that it worked and it didn't say it failed, I restarted my computer. No luck on shaders. Did I miss a step?



Do you do these steps?




I put my winflash folder directly on the C: for easier access. and I name the bios that i flash to unlock.bin just because that's what Wiz's first instructions said, don't think it matters though


----------



## xanture (Apr 16, 2011)

Are we flashing unlock.bin or modded.bin? I did -unlockrom 0 before i attempted modded.bin

Sorry didn't read last line, So yes i did all those steps


----------



## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

xanture said:


> Are we flashing unlock.bin or modded.bin? I did -unlockrom 0 before i attempted modded.bin
> 
> Sorry didn't read last line, So yes i did all those steps



Other than making sure your gpu is in the first pci-e slot closest to the cpu, I'm not sure what else..

I'm out for the night; hope it all works out.  I'll check back tomorrow.


----------



## xanture (Apr 16, 2011)

Thanks for you help so far tonight


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 16, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> I'm sorry, but what part of "my cards work with shader-mod bios" did you not understand?
> 
> Yes, I have the same card, as well as reference.
> 
> ANY card is "flashable". Whether the gou works with a differnt bios is the question, and the only way to find out is to do it.



I just felt that this needs to be repeated.


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 16, 2011)

*Info*

Its less safer to flash using the hd 6970 BIOS since even PEOPLE WITH REFERENCE DESIGN HD 6950's have started to complain months after flashing their cards with a hd 6970 BIOS, 

this is because If you flash a hd 6950 with a hd 6970 BIOS, a number of things happen, 

1 the hd 6970 BIOS makes the card run on 880Mhz core and 1375Mhz memory (these are stock hd 6970 frequencies) 

2 the hd 6970 BIOS also makes the core voltage run on 117mV so as feed the frequencies (this is also stock hd 6970 voltage) 

All of the above is ususally fine for a hd 6950, the problem comes when that hd 6970 BIOS also changes the voltages/memory timings of the memory of the hd 6950. the memory of the hd 6950 DOES NOT SUPPORT THE MEMORY TIMINGS AND VOLTAGES OF A HD 6970 so the card gets damages immediately or over time.THEIR MEMORY IS DIFFERENT. 

Thats why the safer option is to edit the BIOS of your hd 6950 to unlock the shaders,flash it with that edited BIOS, then oc to stock hd 6970 specs (frequencies shown above) this leaves the memory of the hd 6950 untouched. 

there is no guarantee that you will be 100% successful in flashing your card, be it reference or non-reference, BUT this way is alot safer, thats the point, there is still always a chance that you can brick your card if it does not have a backup BIOS. 

read from page 85-latest recommended, thay have all info you mught need to make an informed choice. 

also on page 87 there is a guy who tells how he unbricked (revived his card after a bad flash) you could try it if it happens to you.

I have this card the Sapphire 2gb hd 6950






I'll run the card for a week on stock then try doing this and will post results.


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## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 16, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> Its less safer to flash using the hd 6970 BIOS since even PEOPLE WITH REFERENCE DESIGN HD 6950's have started to complain months after flashing their cards with a hd 6970 BIOS,



Who? I'm going to need to see some proof to back that statement up.


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## NameonPrime (Apr 16, 2011)

Well if you think im making this up, try going through 90+ pages of this thread (like i did)
and count how many are reporting problems after flashing with a hd 6970 BIOS, 

count how many posts say about the different roms and timings on the two graphics cards

im not saying every single person who has flashed a 6970 bios will fry the card, im just saying that the chances of of the card frying is much higher

i even doubt that you can even flash a 6970 bios on a non-reference, non-dual bios, or 1gb
hd 6950 without damaging or bricking the card 

so the safer option is to mod your stock bios and unlock those shaders (if they can be unlocked) then flash that modded bios then oc using msi ab to hd 6970 spec.

it is still possible to brick your card with this safer option but the chances of success
not only short-term but long-term as well are higher.


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## cadaveca (Apr 16, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> Who? I'm going to need to see some proof to back that statement up.



Um, think for a minute....why do you even think there is a script to unlock shaders?



I'll give you the answer...While the memory on the 6950 is of the same IC-type, the quality of the actaul silicon the memory is made from is much worse, and it cannot handle 6970 speeds, nor the current to run those speeds.


Cards started failing. First one...then....two...three...Shortly after, the script arrived. Start looking at like page 12 or so...it didn't take long for reports of cards dieing.


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## WhitePrQjser (Apr 16, 2011)

Hi!


I'm new here. I put together a PC for a friend with a Sapphire Radeon HD 6950:

http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=622370     <--- Don't mind the Danish language.


Now, I tried unlocking it, but it just won't work! 


First, I looked for the BIOS switch. It didn't have any.

Then I needed to do it through RBE. That didn't work either.

Lastly I had to use the CMD-method. But when i type in the commands and flash it, there isn't coming any message saying "Verified". It's still just a standard 6950, when I reboot and check it with GPU-Z. It bums me since my friend really had his hopes up 


I don't know if there's a guide out which explains exactly what to do, so I at least can see, what I'm doing wrong. The card works 100%, but just won't unlock.


Thanks in advance 



EDIT: Added the correct link


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## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

WhitePrQjser said:


> Hi!
> I'm new here. I put together a PC for a friend with a Sapphire Radeon HD 6950:
> 
> http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=622370     <--- Don't mind the Danish language.
> ...


If you're trying to unlock the shaders, did you download the mod script, place your bios in there, then run that?  
Is your card in the primary pci-e slot?


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## WhitePrQjser (Apr 16, 2011)

manofthem said:


> If you're trying to unlock the shaders, did you download the mod script, place your bios in there, then run that?
> Is your card in the primary pci-e slot?



Script? Haven't seen there is one :S

I can place it in the primarity PCI-E slot if needed?

It's just, I'm not with my friend atm. But will be in a few days, I guess.


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## cadaveca (Apr 16, 2011)

Honestly, I think AMD has written something in thier drivers that inteferes with flashing. I've had to help a couple of users on the TeamSpeak now that had major issues until they followed my specific directions...which do include having only one card in system in primary slot when flashing, and no driver for the card installed...




script is here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2137760&postcount=381


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## WhitePrQjser (Apr 16, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Honestly, I think AMD has written something in thier drivers that inteferes with flashing. I've had to help a couple of users on the TeamSpeak now that had major issues until they followed my specific directions...which do include having only one card in system in primary slot when flashing, and no driver for the card installed...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



What am I supposed to do with it?


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## cadaveca (Apr 16, 2011)

WhitePrQjser said:


> What am I supposed to do with it?



1. In the first post is ATIWinFlash. Use that to save the bios. 

2. Rename it to original.bin.

3. Place original.bin inside the shader mod script folder once you've unzipped the script folder. 

4. Run the script. A CMD window will open, and tell you to press a key to continue. Press a key.

5. Inside the script folder the script will generate the modded bios, named "modded.bin". Use ATIWinFlash to flash the modded.bin to the card.

6. Reboot, and verify the flash using GPU-Z.

7. PROFIT!!!


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## manofthem (Apr 16, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> 1. In the first post is ATIWinFlash. Use that to save the bios.
> 
> 2. Rename it to original.bin.
> 
> ...


Well said, Good Sir!


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## WhitePrQjser (Apr 16, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> 1. In the first post is ATIWinFlash. Use that to save the bios.
> 
> 2. Rename it to original.bin.
> 
> ...



Ooooh! That sounds SO great! 

Will try that veryvsoon and give feedback! Thank you so much!


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## fullinfusion (Apr 17, 2011)

Why even bother changing the shader count? You have a great gpu, One that's only around 3% slower then  6970 gpu.... for the money...

Leave it alone unless you want to change it to full 6970 volts/clocks and risk a melt down *epic fail*

Even then don't leave it on that setting. Use it for pissing matches then down grade for longitivity lol...  I can run Cross-fired 6950's (reference designed) HIS cards at over 1000MHz core and 1400+mhz on the memory with no voltage changes.

Gaming on either a 6950 stock or changed to unlocked 6970 status yeild the same result...

F_A_F!!! FAST AS F*CK!!!!
DILYSI!!!

Drive it like you stole it!!!!
WFO
WIDE FUC*in OPEN lol!!!


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## mingsoup (Apr 17, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Why even bother changing the shader count? You have a great gpu, One that's only around 3% slower then  6970 gpu.... for the money...
> 
> Leave it alone unless you want to change it to full 6970 volts/clocks and risk a melt down *epic fail*
> 
> ...



You can get all the way to 1000mhZ and 1400mem on 1.125V? really? holy moly.


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## fullinfusion (Apr 17, 2011)

mingsoup said:


> You can get all the way to 1000mhZ and 1400mem on 1.125V? really? holy moly.


Yeah for sure, 1000-1010MHz core and 1450MHz memory. Im lucky as I live in Canada, Stock in the Whorehouses move slow. I ordered a HIS 6950 2GB model. Then ordered the 2nd gpu 3 weeks later and got the twin sister to the 1st gpu going by the serial number ... Both clock out at the same freq, Crossfired or alone... 

Im holding off on the Bulldozer B4 changing any hardware... If the dozer stomps then Ill open up the twins, If not I'll just go with a 2600K Intel proc and 1155 mobo and go from there...,


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## Deleted member 67555 (Apr 17, 2011)

Ive been running my 6950 flashed to a 6970 for a few months now without issues...regardless of being flashed or not it will not run faster than 925/1400 but I leave it at 880/1375 stock 6970 speeds...


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## manofthem (Apr 17, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Why even bother changing the shader count? You have a great gpu, One that's only around 3% slower then  6970 gpu.... for the money...



Yeah it's a good card, but if you can get some extra performance for free, then why not? It does seem though like many are having difficulties unlocking lately.


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## cadaveca (Apr 17, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Yeah it's a good card, but if you can get some extra performance for free, then why not? It does seem though like many are having difficulties unlocking lately.



Again, I blame driver revisions for the majority of problems that aren't user error.


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 17, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Um, think for a minute....why do you even think there is a script to unlock shaders?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Show me one? Hundreds of people have flashed a 6970 bios onto their card. I have yet to see one reputable report of a card failing due to the flash.

It's just binned memory chips, btw. The silicon is the same.



cadaveca said:


> Again, I blame driver revisions for the majority of problems that aren't user error.



That has also been the actual reason for most of the so called "failed cards" btw.


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## fullinfusion (Apr 17, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Yeah it's a good card, but if you can get some extra performance for free, then why not? It does seem though like many are having difficulties unlocking lately.


Yeah I hear ya but really how many are reporting gpu FAIL'S?
0!!!
Ask CAD, he'll tell ya there isn't much of a benefit over unlocked sharers vs locked.. I tested both and its not worth the stress wondering if over time its going to have an EPIC FAIL or not on the gpu....

Im going to sell these unlocked gpu's from ATI for a set of Reference 6970's.

Just for the piece of mind of not having these fail after time.


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## cadaveca (Apr 17, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> Show me one? Hundreds of people have flashed a 6970 bios onto their card. I have yet to see one reputable report of a card failing due to the flash.



If you are too lazy to search this thread, I'm too lazy to point it out to you.




> It's just binned memory chips, btw. The silicon is the same.



Exactly. Power consumption, current requirements, and stock speed differ. Beleive me, if those memory chips could have been sold to the board assemblers for more, they would have been. Otherwise, the 6950's would have the exact same chips on them as the 6970, 100%. the chips on the 6970 cost more becuase they are in fact, of faqr better quality than the T2C chips on the 6950's.





> That has also been the actual reason for most of the so called "failed cards" btw.



Now it's my turn to call for proof. There's no way for you to even quantify that, and you're just looking to bolster your position with a reason you know cannot be verified. The best info I have for card failures is right here in this thread, and I have to assume that people are being honest. If they are not, then ask them why they presented false info, not me.

And I don't mean to toot my own horn, but who are you, exactly? You seem to think quite highly of yourself and your "ideas", so I'm quite curious as to how you came into this knowledge. My Name's Dave Rennie, and I'm TPU's motherboard reviewer(as well as a reviewer on another site). I also spend alot of time on the TPU teamspeak solving people's issue and giving advice on overclocking, with which I am generally 99% correct with, as those that use the teamspeak can testify....so why are you arguing with me?

So now that I have introduced myself, who are you?? Will you publically stand behind your posts as I do?


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 17, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> If you are too lazy to search this thread, I'm too lazy to point it out to you.
> 
> Exactly. Power consumption, current requirements, and stock speed differ. Beleive me, if those memory chips could have been sold to the board assemblers for more, they would have been. Otherwise, the 6950's would have the exact same chips on them as the 6970, 100%. the chips on the 6970 cost more becuase they are in fact, of faqr better quality than the T2C chips on the 6950's.
> 
> ...



Your last QUOTE! Who are you directing your msg too?


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 17, 2011)

Not you?


It's an all-in-one type thing, just simply cut dude's post in bits so I could deal with each part of it seperately.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 17, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Not you?
> 
> 
> It's an all-in-one type thing, just simply cut dude's post in bits so I could deal with each part of it seperately.



Sound's good, thanks


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## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 17, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> If you are too lazy to search this thread, I'm too lazy to point it out to you.
> 
> Now it's my turn to call for proof. There's no way for you to even quantify that, and you're just looking to bolster your position with a reason you know cannot be verified. The best info I have for card failures is right here in this thread, and I have to assume that people are being honest. If they are not, then ask them why they presented false info, not me.



I have pointed out that these strange artifacts like in RFG, GTA4, Heaven, ATITool, Super meat boy, I could go on are confirmed driver issues. Most of these are the same issues that people in a few threads mistook for problems with their card. Maybe you should do a little research.

I'm not the one making claims based off of no evidence. All that I asked is for you to provide me one reputable post about a 6970 bios doing any harm to their card and you can not do that. I've watched this thread pretty well and it's not here. 


One guys who works at some store who had a couple of returns is not proof of any sort. Hundreds of people across various forums have flashed a 6970 bios onto their card over the past four months and there is no hard evidence to support you claims. I think that says something.



> And I don't mean to toot my own horn, but who are you, exactly? You seem to think quite highly of yourself and your "ideas", so I'm quite curious as to how you came into this knowledge. My Name's Dave Rennie, and I'm TPU's motherboard reviewer(as well as a reviewer on another site). I also spend alot of time on the TPU teamspeak solving people's issue and giving advice on overclocking, with which I am generally 99% correct with, as those that use the teamspeak can testify....so why are you arguing with me?
> 
> So now that I have introduced myself, who are you?? Will you publically stand behind your posts as I do?



You seem to say something along these lines any time that anyone challenges on opinion of yours. Not the first time that I've seen you pull that card. All that I asked is that you go into more detail about these cards that *you claim* are dieing.



> Exactly. Power consumption, current requirements, and stock speed differ. Beleive me, if those memory chips could have been sold to the board assemblers for more, they would have been. Otherwise, the 6950's would have the exact same chips on them as the 6970, 100%. the chips on the 6970 cost more becuase they are in fact, of faqr better quality than the T2C chips on the 6950's.



Then they would have problems as soon as you flash to a 6970 which several people have seen. I haven't seen this cause permanent damage down the road. I would expect more reputable reports like we saw on early 4870 with degraded memory.


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 17, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> All that I asked is that you go into more detail about these cards that *you claim* are dieing.



I claimed no such thing. 



I claimed there are reports in this thread of such, beginning on page 12. I assume people are telling the truth, as I stated in my last post, so those are my source of info, not myself. My cards work great.


Still trying to understand where your info some from. It's my job to seeking these things out, so if I'm going to repeat your information, I want to be able to confirm it with a souce I can quote, and an anonymous user as a source just doesn't cut it.

I exlpained my position, and who I am and what I do to explain why I require such. I asked for similar info from you, to answer why we should take your info over posts of others in this thread. It's quite simple...you think I'm talking shit, meanwhile, I justifying my requiest for info due to how I might use it. I guess your response reveals more than you intended, anyway, and you harbour some sort of resentment towards me. At least, that's how it seems. Does me talking about what I do here on the forum, and elsewhere make you uncomfortable? Becuase I'm not pulling any card, I'm stating facts about myself, and what I do here on TPU.



BababooeyHTJ said:


> Then they would have problems as soon as you flash to a 6970 which several people have seen. I haven't seen this cause permanent damage down the road. I would expect more reputable reports like we saw on early 4870 with degraded memory.



Um, let me jsut leave this example...first run elpidia hypers...and those were memory IC's that were sold as high-speed IC's and failed over time. Micron D9 chips, too. Or how about the good old Winbond UTT of days long passed...Nevermind all the 5870's that had bad memories...


----------



## Aliaus (Apr 17, 2011)

Hi everyone, I’ve been following this topic pretty much since it started. I bought a 6950 immediately after I read W1zzard’s article and have been running it with a 6970 bios since New Year’s. One of the reasons I’m posting now is because there seems to be a lot of unwarranted fear mongering against the 6970 bios.

     I have read through the 90+ pages of this thread, we all know the stock setting for a 6950 is 1.1v / 800 core / 1250 mem and the stock for a 6970 is 1.175v / 880 core / 1375 mem during their 3D clocks. But the question that has yet to be answered is this: what are the voltages for the memory? Are they the same as the voltages for the core? If not, what are the memory voltages for a 6950 and 6970 bios? If so, can a difference of .075 volts really brick a card?

     Then there is the theory that it’s the different timings and frequency that are bricking the cards. The memory chips on the 6950 are rate for 5 GHz and 6970 are rated at 6 GHz (or so I’ve read). But I have yet to see proof that timing/frequency would brick a card. Frequent crashes, BSODs, and artifacts I would understand, but bricking the card? I don’t think so. As far as I know, the factors in damaging your memory chips would be: Heat? Definitely. Voltage? Maybe. But timing/frequency? I’m going to have to see some kind of proof before I believe that.

     There was another theory going around saying it’s the vrm that are failing, not the memory. This theory is much more plausible. W1zzard’s article told people to set the power control to +20%, a mistake IMO. This sets the threshold to almost 10% above the rated power draw, no wonder so many cards are failing…. As many people have already confirmed, changing the power control does NOTHING. My recommendation would be to monitor your clocks with GPUz in the background while playing your games. If you see throttling, move the slider to the right by 1-2%.

     The only thing that should throttle your clocks back is Furmark. With that said, DO NOT USE FURMARK TO TEST YOUR CARD. I truly believe that Furmark is the culprit for a lot of damaged cards. It’s not even a matter of testing against a worst case scenario, there will NEVER be a case where you will stress your GPU to nearly that sort of limit. If it passes benchmarks, then it’s fine. The only thing Furmark does is shorten the lifespan of your graphics cards. So unless you are obsessed with that furry donut, don’t use it.

     One last thing, the default fan curve in CCC is completely retarded, I can’t believe that AMD would let your card cook at the high 80s while the fan sits at 30%, wtf? This is probably fine at stock, but if you’re buying this fairly high-end card, then you’re probably looking to overclock it, and the default just won’t suffice. I would recommend a linear curve set in Afterburner, i.e. 40% at 40c, 60% at 60c, etc, or a slightly shallower curve if you’re really anal about noise.

P.S. Using Sapphire 6950 with 6970 bios, core and memory maxed out in CCC with default voltage, running for four and a half month now.


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## cadaveca (Apr 17, 2011)

Fan speed is low to minimize noise.The fact that the cooler is capable of more is indicator that AMD has overclockers in mind, as well as various climates...we do have several users here in the middle east, where 40c ambients are quite common.

Timings and frequency, if faster, create a higher CURRENT draw. It's is, quite specifically, CURRENT that kills any bit of silicon. It's not volts...volts just merely change the slope of the voltage, and the wattage, but that voltage is turned into CUREENT that can blow right through any transistor...looks like the OC game needs a reboot in it's terms.

If the 6970 is sporting 1.6v memory voltage, tied in with a higher speed, translates into more wattage and heat, and quite possibly, death. Easy to verify with a multi meter.

The other unmentioned bit is that the PCB from 6970 to 6950, even in reference form, is NOT the same, although in all appearances it is...however a close inspection revels several distinct differences in the power delivery section of the card which could lead to unexpected behavior by installation of a bios that is not intended for that circuit.

It is definitely possible that a 6970 bios can kill a 6950. Is it happenning? MAybe, but at the same time, since the release of the shader-only mod, very few people are actualyl running the 6970 bios any more...so it's really hard to pin any specifics to the situation other than that yes, it's possible, and yes, soem cards will handle it just fine.


What the focus of this part of the discussion should be HOW it's possible, and WHAT happened to these supposed dying cards, not running around screaming that it's not possible, becuase it most definitely IS possible.

And because it IS possible, I do feel it's my duty to disclose that info to those that may ask, so that when they do jump into it, they do so with their eyes wide open, not squeezed shut.

I take my job here seriously.


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## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 17, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> I claimed no such thing.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Ok, this is one of the first users here to post that this bios damaged his card. Here is the thread where he finds out that he was experiencing a couple of known driver issues.  Here is a thread that user started with a poll where several people voted that the bios damaged their card and then later mention their specific driver issues. That is actually the thread where this rumor started. This is why I ask for a reputable poster. I have yet to see a post where after some digging you find out that they are just dealing with driver issues. I saw a user at Rage3d and another at OCN rma their card for what turned out to be driver issues. There are a fair amount of games on ATI cards that artifact at least when these cards were released.



> I exlpained my position, and who I am and what I do to explain why I require such. I asked for similar info from you, to answer why we should take your info over posts of others in this thread. It's quite simple...you think I'm talking shit, meanwhile, I justifying my requiest for info due to how I might use it. I guess your response reveals more than you intended, anyway, and you harbour some sort of resentment towards me. At least, that's how it seems. Does me talking about what I do here on the forum, and elsewhere make you uncomfortable? Becuase I'm not pulling any card, I'm stating facts about myself, and what I do here on TPU.



I'm sorry, I asked you to explain your opinion and seem to have gotten offended and adversarial. I'm not the one claiming that there is a problem. 



> Um, let me jsut leave this example...first run elpidia hypers...and those were memory IC's that were sold as high-speed IC's and failed over time. Micron D9 chips, too. Or how about the good old Winbond UTT of days long passed...Nevermind all the 5870's that had bad memories...



You make a very good point but those were all well known issues. Quite a few people across various forums are running a 6970 bios on their 6950 right now. I would expect to see more reports of issues popping up, any really.

That said I am using just the shader moddified bios. It runs cooler and quieter. Both of my cards hit 6970 speeds at the default voltage. I'll even admit that I feel better knowing that I'm running a moddified version of the bios that shipped on my card. I see no reason to use the 6970 bios. I also haven't seen any proof that a 6970 bios has caused any harm to a 6950.


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 17, 2011)

No, you are not claiming there is a problem, per se, however, you are indicating that there is false info...that'd be a problem, no?

I'm not offended! LoL. I keep repeating this..you guys gotta get on TeamSpeak and get to know me. You might understand a bit better. I simply chaulk most of it to a language barrier, as although we both know english, not all forms of english are the same.

Any processor or memory given additional voltage or running at a faster speed, can die from doing so. Something as simple as an ambient temp increase can increase leakage, and leakage is BAD!!! Leaky chips are good for clocking, when you cool them realyl cold, but that's not true at al ltemperatures! It's SEMI-conductors!

I'm actaulyl laughing at all fo this, that you think it's important to tell peple that it's perfectly safe, when it very well may not be. 

Still won't tell me your name? C'mon dude, what's wrong with that?

You know, I'll also add in the P67 chipsets, that fully launched, and then were recalled..many times there are thing released into the market that aren't quite up to snuff. The issue with Elpidia Hypers wasn't well known..those of us that bought them when they first came out learnt the hard way.

It's undenyable that the bios siwthc is there so we can mod the bios. No other reason for it to be there, IMHO. I think if the switch is there, it's fair game, but like you, I see no need for the 6970 bios, nor do I see a need to unlock the shaders...I'm running two cards, and even in eyefinity, the extra poerformance offered is not enough to make any difference to my gaming expereince.


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## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 17, 2011)

I never said that it was completely safe. No one in their right mind would think that flashing a bios from completely different card onto theirs would be 100% safe. Overclocking isn't 100% safe to begin with. What I am saying is that there is no proof that a 6970 bios has caused any damage to a 6950.

I'll be honest with you I don't see how my name is relevant. If you had addressed me in a friendly or professional way in a pm you would have found out. It's also not hard to find. It's in my post history. I guess talking down to people is one of your tools for what you call a "discussion".

I've made my point, I'm done.


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## cadaveca (Apr 17, 2011)

Um man, me asking for you name WAS me being friendly. You know, "Hi, my name's Dave, who are you?" Is that not how you greet people? You know, I told you a bit about myself, what I do here on TPU...of course I expect the same back...




Maybe I want to be able to say "UNKNOWN says this, what do you think?"

But saying "UNKNOWN" Just doesn't work. So yeah, I'd like to know ya better. Of course it has nothing to do with this conversation, per se.

You seem to have taken offense to my posts, I apologize, if this is the case, but maybe our differences in personality/country simply are at fault?

I'm not talking down to you...I'm confused? What are you talking about now? Can you point this out to me so that I can endevour to not do so again?

I'm sry, man, I don't get it.


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## Upuaut (Apr 17, 2011)

edit


----------



## xrror (Apr 17, 2011)

*Argh*

Ugh, too much FUD around here.

The reason the 6970 bios is an unknown is that the PCB design (specifically the memory voltage regulation) is DIFFERENT than the 6950 PCB. Check it out:

6950
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6950/images/front.jpg

6970
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/images/front.jpg

Do you see the additional components on the 6950?

Thus the question is, when using the 6970 BIOS on the 6950, nobody really knows WHAT voltage is being applied to the memory. The voltage reported by the card isn't a measured result, it's just a value from a BIOS table of what the regulator is supposed to be providing - not what is actually being provided.

Now whether or not this degrades the 6950's T2C memory (vs 6970's ROC) over time is another debate. I have a feeling that the voltage supplied is just too high, but I have no proof and that's just speculation on my part. Someone just needs to find some voltage measuring points and probe it with a multimeter.
-----

Non-reference cards. Are unlockable.

Don't just download a pre-modded BIOS and flash it. Use the script to modify YOUR card's bios. When you run winflash, BE SURE TO MAKE A BACKUP OF THE BIOS THAT CAME WITH YOUR CARD. ESPECIALLY IF YOU DON'T HAVE A BIOS SWITCH.

Make a copy of that saved BIOS, and modify that. That's what you flash to your card. Thus you avoid any compatibility issues and no-POST because it's the BIOS that your card came with, just with extra shaders enabled.


----------



## Upuaut (Apr 17, 2011)

edit


----------



## FL4K (Apr 17, 2011)

Still no progress on flashing my XFX ZDDC. I always receive a rom not erased message, even after unlockrom returns successfully.

What ROMs do people have on their boards, I reckon atiflash does not support the pm25lv010 that is on this card.


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## xrror (Apr 17, 2011)

Upuaut said:


> Unlockable or not, tried your method with the original bios, but my Asus DCII hates to generate extra shaders, still 1408.


I did some googling on unlocking the Asus DCII. I'd link to a translated german forum thread but I'm not sure what the policy is here about linking to other forums.

It appears that newer revisions of the Asus DCII may not be unlockable. They went as far as flashing the DCII 6970 bios to the 6950 and while the clock speeds increased, the shader count did not.

This does not bode well to the 6950 remaining unlockable =(

edit add:
gezz, the more I read up on this card, the weirder it is. Asus uses the bios switch (or at least a switch in the same location where a BIOS switch would be) to change one of the DVI ports from dual-link to single-link and I assume uses that to enable one of the four displayport ports...

Granted, they could just be switching between two BIOS's to do this, but that also means that both copies stored are not identical stock. This is a weird card.


----------



## Upuaut (Apr 17, 2011)

edit


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## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 17, 2011)

CStaal said:


> Is it still compatible with new cards when it comes to stress testing/artifact scanning?
> The driver didn't install in to my computer [win 7 64 bit ultimate] although I was still able to scan artifacts and such. The thing is, I flashed my 6950's to 6970's and I'm getting artifacts [not detected by the program, but the yellow is coming up]. I'm just wondering if it's a bug due to non-compatibility or are my cards fubar'd [There still is artifacting at 500Mhz , though it could be due to the increased memory clocks ]





This is why I don't want to hear about how the card "died". It always ends up being a driver issue.


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## tylercarbone (Apr 17, 2011)

*HD-695X-CNFC Issues*

Hi all-

I have an XFX HD-695X-CNFC (non reference 2GB). I've been trying to unlock it via the shader-unlock-only method, as described here, but the BIOS simply will not flash.

I've tried to flash it using both ATIFlash and ATIWinflash. In both cases I attempted to unlockrom first, and in both cases I was told that the ROM had been successfully unlocked. Despite that, when I then tried to flash the modded bios, it failed.

I've tried both the modded bios via Wizzard's script, as well as a modded bios via RBE. No matter what I try to do, I get a "Cannot erase ROM" error.


Thanks very much in advance,
Tyler


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## xanture (Apr 18, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Other than making sure your gpu is in the first pci-e slot closest to the cpu, I'm not sure what else..
> 
> I'm out for the night; hope it all works out.  I'll check back tomorrow.



Went ahead and took back the xfx and got the MSI R6950 Twin FrozrII and flashed it one the first shot! Runs great, the only thing is in AMD overdrive I can't get the GPU clock to go over 840 and the Memory above 1325


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## englandr753 (Apr 18, 2011)

Hi Tyler,

I advise for you to copy and paste your thread in a new topic.  When you add to a current thread that doesnt belongto you, it gets c


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## jayc (Apr 18, 2011)

tdimarzio said:


> It would be a nicer fix to actually modify the 2D clocks in the BIOS itself so that afterburner is not required but I don't know if that's possible with the current tools.



Clock changes in the BIOS is NOT possible with the current tools.
Only voltage changes.
If you need to change clock speeds, you will need to change them via Afterburner or similar 3rd party tools after the O/S drivers are loaded at bootup.


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## manofthem (Apr 18, 2011)

xanture said:


> Went ahead and took back the xfx and got the MSI R6950 Twin FrozrII and flashed it one the first shot! Runs great, the only thing is in AMD overdrive I can't get the GPU clock to go over 840 and the Memory above 1325



And you won't be able to (in CCC).

MSI Afterburner will allow those changes if you enable unofficial overclocking.  Too, allow for voltage control in the settings tab to coordinate with your higher clocks.






And BTW congrats. Must have been a headache to have put your heart and soul into that XFX and not get the results you were expecting!!!


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## jayc (Apr 18, 2011)

xanture said:


> Went ahead and took back the xfx and got the MSI R6950 Twin FrozrII and flashed it one the first shot! Runs great, the only thing is in AMD overdrive I can't get the GPU clock to go over 840 and the Memory above 1325



That's great.
Sounds like Asus DCII and XFX are cards to avoid (if you want an easy shader unlock).

CCC not going over 840/1375 is a driver issue. AMD doesn't want you overclocking the card more than that and killing it, thereby adding to the statistics of returned failed cards.

You'll need to use a 3rd party program like MSI afterburner and enabling the unsupported overclocks to achieve higher speeds with additional voltage.


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## Hexblade6950 (Apr 18, 2011)

Hiya guys just wanna update, my Sapphire R6950 is running great after almost a month since I got it and mod it, im running 44 to 48 in idle and 80 to 86 while running games, tho while running Metro 2033 in full spec I get to 92. I live in the Dominican Republic and some days it gets very hot and temp increases
http://www.sunbeamtech.com/PRODUCTS/VentMax/VentMax.html
my case runs very cool I have a ventmax with 2x 120mm fans on the side and another extracting one under the card, im running the 11.4 beta drivers, afterburner says voltage is 1150 wondering if thats odd or not ?


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## Hexblade6950 (Apr 18, 2011)

I was wondering what would be the best aftermarket cooling system for a R6950, water or air cooled what would you recommend ?


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## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 18, 2011)

Well water cooling will give you the best results. There is no doubt about that. 

The thing that worries me about aftermarket air coolers is that almost all of them do a really good job on the gpu but the memory and vrms tend to run hotter than they would on the stock cooler. There isn't any real way to monitor these temps which worries me even more. This is another one of the big advantages of water cooling.

Have you tried using Afterburner to setup a custom fan profile? It may help but will probably get pretty loud.


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## fullinfusion (Apr 18, 2011)

RedLine888 said:


> Hello everyone. 1st of all I would like you to forgive me my possible mistakes as I am not perfect in english. I am from Ukraine and there is very very few info about 6950 flashing in my native language. Google gives the most amount of responses to techPowerUp forums that is why I decided to discuss my problem here. I sincerely ask for your help guys.
> 
> I am a happy owner of this type of a card http://eu.sapphiretech.com/gm/images/product/gallery/1082/1082_20110124_7748.jpg
> 
> ...



have you tried unlocking the rom bios this way http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2134576&postcount=19


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## manofthem (Apr 18, 2011)

RedLine888 said:


> Yes! It shows the progress bar. The line goes to 2\3 and the bar suddenly dissappears. I can see no window with "verified". After the pc is restared there are still 1408sp.



Are you doing this while the drivers are installed?  If so, try uninstalling the drivers and then try flashing it.


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## cadaveca (Apr 18, 2011)

RedLine888 said:


> Have just tried and it said me something strange!
> Here is a screenshot http://img534.imageshack.us/i/74706951.jpg/



Hmm, what tool is that? That is not familiar to me...which could be why you are having issues...


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## manofthem (Apr 18, 2011)

RedLine888 said:


> Have just tried and it said me something strange!
> Here is a screenshot http://img534.imageshack.us/i/74706951.jpg/



Whatever you're running is trying to flash a 6970 bios, isn't it?  That's not possible on your card, but you can unlock the shaders. Try the flash a modded 6950 bios instead. Maybe?


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## cadaveca (Apr 19, 2011)

RedLine888 said:


> That tool is a techPowerUp bat file which uses the latest atiwinflash and BIOSes in its folder. I modded my BIOS saved using GPU-Z with the latest RBE and put it there so it tried to flash my own modded BIOS not the one of 6970.
> 
> I also tried to flash via the cmd as the link a few posts ago says and got the same strange error.
> 
> Everything was ran as Admin.



Do not use RBE to add shaders...use the script that mods the bios.

Do not use the flashing tool, use ATIWinFlash.


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## jayc (Apr 19, 2011)

RedLine888 said:


> That tool is a techPowerUp bat file which uses the latest atiwinflash and BIOSes in its folder. I modded my BIOS saved using GPU-Z with the latest RBE and put it there so it tried to flash my own modded BIOS not the one of 6970.
> 
> I also tried to flash via the cmd as the link a few posts ago says and got the same strange error.
> 
> Everything was ran as Admin.



What slot on the motherboard have you got your vid card installed in?
Make sure it's in the first PCI-e slot nearest the CPU. Unless you modify the atiwinflash command, it will assume you have your card in the the first PCI-e slot.
The next time you try flashing the card, write down each step, so we can verify you are doing things right.


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## manofthem (Apr 19, 2011)

RedLine888 said:


> 8. Typed -unlockrom 0,
> -f -p 0 modded.bin.



Did you type in "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0"
then "atiwinflash -f -p 0 modded.bin"


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## cadaveca (Apr 19, 2011)

RedLine888 said:


> Yes! I did not forget to type atiwinflash



Why do you need to use the CMD option for flashing, does the GUI not work at all?

LoL. GUI is Graphic User Interface, just FYI.


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## manofthem (Apr 19, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Why do you need to use the CMD option for flashing, does the GUI not work at all?
> 
> LoL. GUI is Graphic User Interface, just FYI.



My XFX 2GB ref. card wouldn't flash unless I did the CMD as admin. My Gigabyte, however, flashed fine in GUI.


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## cadaveca (Apr 19, 2011)

manofthem said:


> My XFX 2GB ref. card wouldn't flash unless I did the CMD as admin. My Gigabyte, however, flashed fine in GUI.



Interesting. Mine just flashed right up. And I know XFX pre-tested my card before shipping it to me.......Interesting.


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## xrror (Apr 19, 2011)

Hexblade6950 said:


> I was wondering what would be the best aftermarket cooling system for a R6950, water or air cooled what would you recommend ?


This had been driving me nuts too. Similiar to BababooeyHTJ's concerns, my biggest "need" was cooling the VRM's. I managed to screw up the stock cooler when I took it off the card, well specifically I managed to screw up the thermal pads, and my attempts to shim the resultant gaps with aluminum failed utterly.

The Thermalright Shaman would have been my first choice, except I actually have PCI cards I use and the Shaman would have bascially blocked everything south of the PCIe slot. And even then it still needs seperate sinks for VRM. While that would have looked awesome with "heatsink city" coming off my card, it just was too much space.

I kept waiting for Artic Cooling to release an official kit to use it's Accelero XTREME Plus with the 6900 series cards. And waited... and waited. Finally I just got tired and ordered one with the VR005 kit since it looked like it had the most ram/chip/vrm heatsinks to play with. I only had to use a Dremel on the VRM sinks to shorten them to fit in line. However I see now that Artic Cooling now has (finally) officially marked the VR001 kit as compatible with the reference 6970. The downside is you end up spending around $90 by the end of it. At least Thermalright is more up-front about the fact you are going to be spending more than just the GPU sink.

Zalman also has some coolers, but I didn't look at them too much. But I'm not sure what compatibility they list - but if you're comfortable with a Dremel you can fix that ;p

I'm pretty happy with it, but just throwing these out there. But learn from me... don't remove the stock heatsink unless you're sure you want to replace it. My VRM temps were horrible after I removed the stock sink the first time. So I guess be very careful about those thermal pads if you do need to remove it (and want to reuse it).


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## manofthem (Apr 19, 2011)

Where do you guys find the VR001 kit for the Acceleo Xtreme cooler?

Edit: I found it on eBay, but if anyone knows a site where you can buy the kit, I'd appreciate it.


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## jayc (Apr 19, 2011)

xrror said:


> I managed to screw up the thermal pads



You must have tried to remove the heatsink when the vid card was cold.

I removed mine to replace the factory thermal paste (which was poorly applied mind you).
But first run a benchmark or something similar that will heat up the card for at least 30 minutes.
Shut down, and quickly remove the card and the heatsink when it is still warm to hot.
It should leave the VRM thermal pads fairly intact. It will be soft enough to lift the heatsink off.

Just re applying the thermal paste (properly) in a thin layer with good thermal paste (I had Arctic silver 5 lying around), was good enough for a 5 deg C drop in load temps on the factory heatsink.


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## xrror (Apr 19, 2011)

RedLine888 said:


> So what is the result?
> 
> Do you think the card can not be flashed?
> 
> ...


Flip the BIOS switch?


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## cadaveca (Apr 19, 2011)

RedLine888 said:


> So what is the result?
> 
> Do you think the card can not be flashed?
> 
> ...



The card in my system confirms it is possible on some non-reference.


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## azuki (Apr 19, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> The card in my system confirms it is possible on some non-reference.



When did you purchase the xfx 2gb 695x?


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## cadaveca (Apr 19, 2011)

azuki said:


> When did you purchase the xfx 2gb 695x?



I didn't purchase it, it was an RMA replacement for a 5870 prior to the launch of the non-reference cards.


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## Mark22 (Apr 19, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> Well water cooling will give you the best results. There is no doubt about that.
> 
> The thing that worries me about aftermarket air coolers is that almost all of them do a really good job on the gpu but the memory and vrms tend to run hotter than they would on the stock cooler. There isn't any real way to monitor these temps which worries me even more. This is another one of the big advantages of water cooling.
> 
> Have you tried using Afterburner to setup a custom fan profile? It may help but will probably get pretty loud.



My Zalman vf3000A had a nice big heatsink for vrm that is screwed down. I had to cut a small corner off to make it fit but that's no big deal. Now the card runs great and about 30c cooler. The memory all have heatsinks on and are a lot cooler than stock. Stock only has thermal pads barely connecting the memory to anything. So if anyone wants aftermarket cooling consider the Zalman at least because they can be had pretty cheap now.


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## Hexblade6950 (Apr 19, 2011)

I dont mind the noise of the fan at all, I have a total of 11 fans running on my comp, also play with headphones all the time, what would be a safe % to raise the fan speed with afterburner ?


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## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 19, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> My Zalman vf3000A had a nice big heatsink for vrm that is screwed down. I had to cut a small corner off to make it fit but that's no big deal. Now the card runs great and about 30c cooler. The memory all have heatsinks on and are a lot cooler than stock. Stock only has thermal pads barely connecting the memory to anything. So if anyone wants aftermarket cooling consider the Zalman at least because they can be had pretty cheap now.



I've used those aluminum sinks that come with the Thermalright coolers and they do not perform as well as the stock cooler. With my GTX280 I lost almost 50mhz in overclocking head room with those little sinks. The stock thermal pads on these stock coolers is surprisingly good. How do you know that your memory runs cooler? There is no way to know for sure. You should stress you card and touch one of your memory sinks I bet that you'll be in for a surprise. 

The Zalman vrm sink scares me. That thing has taken out few cards due to shorts. You won't find a thread on that cooler on any forum without a few reports of cards that were fried.



Hexblade6950 said:


> I dont mind the noise of the fan at all, I have a total of 11 fans running on my comp, also play with headphones all the time, what would be a safe % to raise the fan speed with afterburner ?



Yeah, that is fine. You can use Afterburner to setup your own fan profile so that the fan will only really ramp up when it needs to.


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## NameonPrime (Apr 19, 2011)

Sooo, guys, having problems with my unlock with my 2gb card with no BIOS switch






Primarily, I CANT even unlock the card, when i use that .bat file to unlock the shaders and then flash that resulting BIOS onto my card using ATI Winflash , i get a message saying "Cannot erase rom". So i tried using the command prompt which im sure i followed correctly,

- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" 
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 modded.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".

the ati winflash progress bar pops up but only reaches half-way before exiting itself and i dont get a message saying something verified.

Please cadaveca and manotfthem help me, what elso could i try. I know this has been probably answered many times over. Please HELP!!!


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## fullinfusion (Apr 19, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> Sooo, guys, having problems with my unlock with my 2gb card with no BIOS switch
> http://images.izideal.com/img/produ...ogy-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg
> 
> Primarily, I CANT even unlock the card, when i use that .bat file to unlock the shaders and then flash that resulting BIOS onto my card using ATI Winflash , i get a message saying "Cannot erase rom". So i tried using the command prompt which im sure i followed correctly,
> ...



Have you removed the ccc driver like CAD mentioned? Try that and try again.

You can always get a hold of Sapphire tech and ask them if they can give ya the tool to use for flashing purpose.


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## Mark22 (Apr 19, 2011)

BababooeyHTJ said:


> I've used those aluminum sinks that come with the Thermalright coolers and they do not perform as well as the stock cooler. With my GTX280 I lost almost 50mhz in overclocking head room with those little sinks. The stock thermal pads on these stock coolers is surprisingly good. How do you know that your memory runs cooler? There is no way to know for sure. You should stress you card and touch one of your memory sinks I bet that you'll be in for a surprise.
> 
> The Zalman vrm sink scares me. That thing has taken out few cards due to shorts. You won't find a thread on that cooler on any forum without a few reports of cards that were fried.
> 
> ...



I'm not 100% sure but I remember reading somewhere that GPU temp 3 in gpuz corresponds to vrm. This never goes above the 50's now. I used the same cooler on my old 5850 and it was great there too, trust me it runs a lot cooler, I run it at 910,1450 Mhz.


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## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 19, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> I'm not 100% sure but I remember reading somewhere that GPU temp 3 in gpuz corresponds to vrm. This never goes above the 50's now. I used the same cooler on my old 5850 and it was great there too, trust me it runs a lot cooler, I run it at 910,1450 Mhz.



Nope that is just an unspecified section of the gpu core. There is no utility available that can read the temps of the vrms on Cayman. I have actually heard that the vrm cooler on that card does a good job, probably due to the lack of thermal pads or thermal tape. At best I'm sure that the vrm plate cools as well as the stock cooler. Not using thermal pads or tape on a plate like that for the vrms can be a bit risky as can be seen by googling this cooler. I know that those little aluminum sinks don't cool as well as the stock cooler. Will that make a big difference for me and you? Thats debatable. Will it make a difference for someone in the Dominican republic?


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## Mark22 (Apr 20, 2011)

Fair enough, it does the job keeping everything cooler in my case, which for me is 10-15c cooler in 2d running dual monitors. It bugged me running along at over 50c core for just 2D. It seems fine in games and I only unlocked shaders so it serves its purpose for me. I used IC24 for tim, where could the heatsink short exactly? Haven't heard about that at all.


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## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 20, 2011)

Mark22 said:


> Fair enough, it does the job keeping everything cooler in my case, which for me is 10-15c cooler in 2d running dual monitors. It bugged me running along at over 50c core for just 2D. It seems fine in games and I only unlocked shaders so it serves its purpose for me. I used IC24 for tim, where could the heatsink short exactly? Haven't heard about that at all.



Your card runs fine, I wouldn't worry about any shorting. There was just an abnormal amount of reports of dead cards from the VF3000 on the forums.


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## Mark22 (Apr 20, 2011)

Ok cool, MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 Twin FrozR II looks good for anyone who hasn't bought yet and wants cool and quiet.


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## Aliaus (Apr 20, 2011)

Would better cooling for the gpu, mem, and vrm lower the risk of killing your card from running a 6970 bios or is that completely irrelevant?


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## cadaveca (Apr 20, 2011)

Aliaus said:


> Would better cooling for the gpu, mem, and vrm lower the risk of killing your card from running a 6970 bios or is that completely irrelevant?



Irrelevant, IMHO, due to the PCB differences.I'd mod bios for shaders, volts, and overdrive limits, if wanting 6970 speeds fully. If the mem is capable of reaching those speeds, it should do it under those conditions.


----------



## Hexblade6950 (Apr 20, 2011)

if I would always run it at 100% fan speed all the time, what would the lifespam of the card be ?


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## cadaveca (Apr 20, 2011)

I think only AMD can answer that at this point.


----------



## Rebelstar (Apr 20, 2011)

Hey guys. So no good overclock for this moment for 6950 patched to 6970? I can't raise my voltage and get more than 920 mhz on GPU via MSIAF.


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## mingsoup (Apr 20, 2011)

Guys&Gals.

Made some progress. After putting in place a more aggresive fan profile...I am now down to 1165mv/880/1375 stable!!!

I was also wanted to comment that 11.4's CCC.EXE was giving me some serious hitching in both World of Warcraft and Portal 2.
I uninstalled it....and the hitching it gone. It seems CCC.EXE I/O (to hard drive?) was spiking every 3-5 seconds causing gaming and desktop movements to hitch at that time. Uninstalling Catalyst Control Center seems to have gotten rid of it. 
Also of note.....for people using MSI AB 2.2 Beta 2, make sure that the crossfire settings are syncing up. Sometimes I would get instability, cause the settings wouldn't sync even though I checked the sync GPU option. Trying unchecking/checking it to just make sure. 
Also!~ Disable all! instances of "EnableUlps" in the registry to avoid immediate or very quick BSOD after setting OC.
Great cards! Shader unlock only is 100% stable. I'm gonna keep bringing down my core voltage....so I can further reduced my fans.
Unfortunately I can't space out my Crossfire setup with a long bridge. On my mobo (Asus P7P55D Deluxe) when 2/3 of the PCI-E lanes are in use....the third *always* goes to x4, while the top closer two go to x8. bummer really.


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## NameonPrime (Apr 21, 2011)

*Really?*

Yeah i live in east africa so im not sure if i can get a hold of sapphire and ask them
for their flashing tool, plus i did remove the display driver, no luck , my card wont unlock its bios for some reason, 





what else could i try?

also, cadaveca and manofthem, dont go quiet on me now please.


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## NameonPrime (Apr 21, 2011)

*Overclock*

so,
how far you reckon i can oc this non-ref card to @ 1175mV?




so that i can some how get better performance without the shaders (obviously cant oc to
6970 performance without those shaders but still.)

im thinkin i'll leave the memory clock at 1375Mhz but core will try at 900-930Mhz.(@1175mV)

p.s sorry, cant buy your card even of i wanted to, by the time it gets here,(in 10years)
it'll probably be damaged and i'll have a mountain of a shipping bill.


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 21, 2011)

*nice*

cool oc but what are the temps, i hope your using stock cooling on it. if you do i'll try that.


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 21, 2011)

with that oc how does that card compare to a stock hd 6970?


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 21, 2011)

yes the clocks beat a 6970 but does the performance beat a 6970?

so your using the stock cooling that came with the card?

could you please post a pic of YOUR custom fan curve in msi ab,

and could you post a pic of an "ideal/best/coolest/efficient" custom fan curve in msi ab,

i really dont care about noise.

thanx


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## heliox (Apr 22, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> Sooo, guys, having problems with my unlock with my 2gb card with no BIOS switch
> Primarily, I CANT even unlock the card, when i use that .bat file to unlock the shaders and then flash that resulting BIOS onto my card using ATI Winflash , i get a message saying "Cannot erase rom". So i tried using the command prompt which im sure i followed correctly,
> 
> - Type "cmd"
> ...




Hi all (my first post here),
I have the same card with 1 GB only and having the same issue. I did everything you did but under DOS with a bootable USB key to no avail.
I'm getting this error message:
Programed = 0 Rom Size 20000 
Rom Not Erased
ERROR 0FL01 
It seems they have made the bios unerasable. As we don't have the dual bios switch, we can't flip to a modifiable chip like people do when they actually have that switch, to position 1 or 2.
So I'm wondering myself if they have just left out the switch or removed the modifiable chip. In the first case, as there's a place holder, we could solder a spare switch to enable that function. Am I assuming too much?


----------



## Hexblade6950 (Apr 22, 2011)

Guys to my understanding the mod will not work on 1GB versions of the 6950, you have to use a "REFERENCE" card, the R6950 are all the same card the only thing that changes is the sticker that ASUS,MSI,Sapphire, HIS stick to the front of the card to say it theirs, but all R6950 are made by AMD and distributed to the other companys so they can start making their own models of the 6950, if you check of previous pages of this post you will find some more people with the same card as you guys and I believe they have been told the same thing, sorry to break the news to ya but your card will not be able to be modded


----------



## Makaveli (Apr 22, 2011)

No bios switch only 1 GB of Vram = Good luck!


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## manofthem (Apr 22, 2011)

Hexblade6950 said:


> Guys to my understanding the mod will not work on 1GB versions of the 6950, you have to use a "REFERENCE" card, the R6950 are all the same card the only thing that changes is the sticker that ASUS,MSI,Sapphire, HIS stick to the front of the card to say it theirs, but all R6950 are made by AMD and distributed to the other companys so they can start making their own models of the 6950, if you check of previous pages of this post you will find some more people with the same card as you guys and I believe they have been told the same thing, sorry to break the news to ya but your card will not be able to be modded



There were people with non ref 2GB cards and 1GB cards that were able to unlock the shaders, like this guy:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144537

But now it seems that many cannot unlock their shaders with a flash, so the bioses/bios's(?) must be protected. Unfortunately I don't have access to one to try anything.


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 23, 2011)

*Artifacts*

soo

i just oc'd my sapphire hd 6950 2gb





all seems well and stable @ 910/1375 on 1174mV with MSI AB (whenever i put 1175 it goes down to that)
catalyst 11.3 drivers,
win7 64

but i see artifacts in two benchmarks the littlest artifacting occurs in unigine heaven
2.5 benchmark (very little artifact - small green flash-point when crossing bridge at sun-down)

the heavier artifacting occurs in 3dmark vantage especially in the jane nash scene, cant really notice artifacting in other scenes.I put it in high preset but an 1280x1024 resolution (my moniters supported resolution)

question is should i be alarmed about the artifacting and maybe tone down my oc?


----------



## Super XP (Apr 23, 2011)

Down the GPU clock by 10MHz, that should help remove the aritfacts I believe.


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 23, 2011)

Id lower the clocks down a bit so not to screw the card from artifacting...

Your going to kill that poor gpu :shadedshu


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 23, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> soo
> 
> i just oc'd my sapphire hd 6950 2gb
> http://images.izideal.com/img/produ...ogy-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg
> ...



The artifacting during Jane Nash is a long time ATI problem. I've seen it with three different cards across different generations on different hardware. I also saw heavy artifacting with Heaven the last time that I ran it which was with 10.10e IIRC apparently that was a common problem too.

If you aren't seeing these artifacts with GPUtool, OCCT, and actual games I wouldn't worry about it.


----------



## datfreak (Apr 24, 2011)

I'm having problems unlocking my 
VTX3D Radeon HD6950 2GB.
See pic, its a twin fan one.
Flashing it with a 6970 bios fails to boot and unlocking with RBE actually  does not unlock it(but when i read the bios after, it say its modded by rbe and the unlock box is ticked)

anyone have any experience with this card?

any thoughts to unlock this would be great

thanks
scott


----------



## asciutto (Apr 24, 2011)

I hope this hasn't already been answered before, but I looked through the last 20 pages and couldn't find anything on it. (Roughly the time it was announced) but is the 6950 Flex edition flash-able? I see no reason why it shouldn't, but I did read somewhere that because it has a custom "something" from Sapphire it may not work.

That's probably a load of bull, but it never hurts to know before I pull the trigger on buying this thing. 

I mean, the cards are essentially identical aren't they?

Any way, thanks for the help! And again, I'm sorry if it's been asked before, I promise I searched and couldn't find anything!


----------



## manofthem (Apr 24, 2011)

asciutto said:


> I hope this hasn't already been answered before, but I looked through the last 20 pages and couldn't find anything on it. (Roughly the time it was announced) but is the 6950 Flex edition flash-able? I see no reason why it shouldn't, but I did read somewhere that because it has a custom "something" from Sapphire it may not work.
> 
> That's probably a load of bull, but it never hurts to know before I pull the trigger on buying this thing.
> 
> ...



http://tech-news-buzz.blogspot.com/2011/03/sapphire-hd-6950-flex-edition.html
That site says it's a resounding yes to flashable, and I read that it does have a dual bios switch


----------



## arroyo (Apr 24, 2011)

It is stupid what companies do with the HD6950. On every Polish website that reviews HD6950 all non-reference cards are unlocking well. But the shop non-reference versions does not unlock at all. 

We had few weeks ago review sample of XFX Radeon 6950 Dual Heatpipe XXX 1GB HD-695X-ZDDC.  Nice card with ability to unlock extra shaders. We ordered a whole box of them to our shop ang guess what... none of them was able to unlock extra shaders.

If you want to be 100% sure about unlocking potential... buy 2GB reference model.


----------



## JeanH (Apr 25, 2011)

Please can I use this bios to unlock the shaders. the details tell that the shaders are unlock http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95881/MSI.HD6950.2048.110126.html

to flash my MSI R6950 twin frozr II to an 6970.

I am an newby. perhaps the anwser is somewere. but I did not find it yet.
Thanks in advance.


----------



## Arktic (Apr 25, 2011)

UPDATE: Just an update on my bios modding experience. 

After flashing the bios with a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders and stock settings the card was running fine. OC'd to bench and ran fine. Games I got some artifacts but backed the clocks down to stock settings again.

Currently running the card in stock standard 6950 form, no shaders and stock clocks etc.

Almost every time I play COD4 online while im on the black screen waiting for the map to load I get green flashing speckle artifacts for a few seconds then they disappear for the whole time im playing.
This only happens on some games loading screens but never in game. Also happens in NFS Hot Pursuit 2. It only happens once every few hours or after I havent played any games for a while.

It doesnt effect the games in anyway but is really annoying. Is the VRAM stuffed? Have I bricked the card? I've gone back to complete stock settings and it still happens.



EDIT: I know some people have success with this mod but I generally DONT advise it as it doesnt seem to do the card any good. Rather OC the standard clocks and get results that way.


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Apr 25, 2011)

It's probably a software issue. Have you tried reinstalling the display drivers? 

I would honestly make a post at AMD forums to see if it is a known driver issue, some other sort of software issue, or you have a bum card which I doubt.


----------



## genx (Apr 26, 2011)

*Need some help*

I have flashed my Reference 6950 2GB with many different bios and it gets flashed fine and everything with the new bios and loads into windows but the shaders still show 1408.  However the clock speeds are set at 850/1375

Anyone have any suggestions?


----------



## Arktic (Apr 26, 2011)

genx said:


> I have flashed my Reference 6950 with many different bios and it gets flashed fine and everything with the new bios and loads into windows but the shaders still show 1408.  However the clock speeds are set at 850/1375
> 
> Anyone have any suggestions?



Try using a MSI 6950 bios that has unlocked shaders only then clock it up your self.
Also the powercolour PCS++ bios with unlocked shaders and clocks worked for me but wasnt stable without volts.


----------



## genx (Apr 26, 2011)

Arktic said:


> Try using a MSI 6950 bios that has unlocked shaders only then clock it up your self.
> Also the powercolour PCS++ bios with unlocked shaders and clocks worked for me but wasnt stable without volts.



Could you post a link to this bios?

Thanks


----------



## Arktic (Apr 26, 2011)

The MSI BIOS.
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95202/MSI.HD6950.2048.101123_1.html

Powercolor BIOS
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/94169/Powercolor.HD6950.2048.110121.html


----------



## BoomBang85 (Apr 27, 2011)

Hello everyone, 
First post so be gentle. 
First a question: Has anyone somewhere in this very long and informative discussion manage to unlock or mod the bios of the Sapphire 6590 2GB 100312-2SR (It's picture on post #2453 on this page 99)? 
And on that matter can the author of the post put in the opening a list of the cards already unlocked successfully by model (if there is one then a link to it would be nice) especially when there seems to be a big difference between reference and non-reference cards.

On the card subject, and I pretty sure it's in all 6950 cards: for an after-market cooler Arctic  Accelero TWIN TURBO Pro worked just fine on my card (from 54 idle/75 load to 38 idle/58 load)
I checked this link before to make sure it would fit:
http://www.arctic.ac/en/support/sup...rbo-pro-fit-my-card.htm?tx_diadamsolution_pi2
The only adjustment I had to make was to break two pins in the long heat-sink for the memory chips. Another thing worth mentioning in my card is that those chips had no heat sink on them and the smaller in-line chips had a stock heat-sink on them.
Excuse my English and the lack of knowledge on chips names.


----------



## jayc (Apr 27, 2011)

genx said:


> I have flashed my Reference 6950 2GB with many different bios and it gets flashed fine and everything with the new bios and loads into windows but the shaders still show 1408.  However the clock speeds are set at 850/1375
> 
> Anyone have any suggestions?



What are you using to check shaders have been unlocked?
GPU-Z? What version?


----------



## jayc (Apr 27, 2011)

BoomBang85 said:


> Has anyone somewhere in this very long and informative discussion manage to unlock or mod the bios of the Sapphire 6590 2GB 100312-2SR (It's picture on post #2453 on this page 99)?



If you have the same card, then both NameonPrime and Redline888 have this card but have been unsuccessful in unlocking the shaders on it.
Either the manufacturers have started locking the bios from being re-writable or they have removed the physical links to the extra shaders or both.

You can try the shader unlock mod. Nothing stopping you from trying. 
Both NameonPrime and Redline888, who have this card tried and did not succeed, but the card is still operational.
Your only option, if it fails to unlock shaders, it to overclock the heck out of it.


----------



## Sk1nner (Apr 27, 2011)

*6950 unlocked crossfire*

i´m thinking in getting a second card for my system, but i don't know if my power supply will old the beasts. i have a corssair TX750.
my system specs are :

CPU: Intel Core i5 760@4.0GHZ 1.20V Cooled By Noctua NH-U12P SE2
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Sabertooth 55i
RAM: 8 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 MHz cl7
PSU: Corssair TX-750
HARD DRIVE: 2*320gb raid0, 1tb
SoundCard: Creative x-fi titanium
i have also 5*120mm fans

anyone know if it can hold the 2GPU´s?


----------



## Arktic (Apr 27, 2011)

TX750 will be more than enough.


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 27, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> soo
> 
> i just oc'd my sapphire hd 6950 2gb
> http://images.izideal.com/img/produ...ogy-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg
> ...





jayc said:


> If you have the same card, then both NameonPrime and Redline888 have this card but have been unsuccessful in unlocking the shaders on it.
> Either the manufacturers have started locking the bios from being re-writable or they have removed the physical links to the extra shaders or both.
> 
> You can try the shader unlock mod. Nothing stopping you from trying.
> ...



Sooo,

hey peeps of TPU, yes this card's shaders cant be unlocked so the only way to go is to OC it - i did OC it and i got artifacts, but i got good news, the artifacting i saw in 3dMark vantage Jane Nash scene
is present even if i put my card to stock hd 6950 clocks, so no worries there,






which leaves the artifacting i saw in unigine heaven 2.5 benchmark after i OC'd to 
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV. 

so i tried the card on stock clocks,- no artifacting, i OC'd the card to 
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV- artifacting occurs, so a crazy idea popped into my mind,
i wanted to see what would happen if i increased the clocks from stock to 880/1375 BUT without changing the voltage.

And guess what happened,

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?

P.s - Redline888, i urge you to try this and post us the results.

If you guys try this and fry your cards, well then im sorry but i should not be blamed for that.


----------



## Resao (Apr 27, 2011)

I recently bought a Sapphire 2GB 6950, unlocked the shaders and it ran fine for a day. Turned my pc on the following day and a puff of smoke and yellow sparks appeared from the card... Needless to say it is now screwed. I didn't OC the card at all, just unlocked using the tech power up guide. 

I'm assuming I'm not able to RMA the card as I have modded the bios, even though the voltages were running lower than the specification of 225w.

Has anyone managed to RMA successfully? I'm sure this has probably been mentioned in this thread but it is now 99 pages long...


----------



## cheesy999 (Apr 27, 2011)

Resao said:


> I recently bought a Sapphire 2GB 6950, unlocked the shaders and it ran fine for a day. Turned my pc on the following day and a puff of smoke and yellow sparks appeared from the card... Needless to say it is now screwed. I didn't OC the card at all, just unlocked using the tech power up guide.
> 
> I'm assuming I'm not able to RMA the card as I have modded the bios, even though the voltages were running lower than the specification of 225w.
> 
> Has anyone managed to RMA successfully? I'm sure this has probably been mentioned in this thread but it is now 99 pages long...



just do it, its not as if them not giving your card back to you if they do notice (they probably won't) will change anything - it dosn't work anyway


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 27, 2011)

Resao said:


> I recently bought a Sapphire 2GB 6950, unlocked the shaders and it ran fine for a day. Turned my pc on the following day and a puff of smoke and yellow sparks appeared from the card... Needless to say it is now screwed. I didn't OC the card at all, just unlocked using the tech power up guide.
> 
> I'm assuming I'm not able to RMA the card as I have modded the bios, even though the voltages were running lower than the specification of 225w.
> 
> Has anyone managed to RMA successfully? I'm sure this has probably been mentioned in this thread but it is now 99 pages long...


Im thinking something besides flashing your gpu went wrong. I wouldn't sweat it, rma it and get another one, down side is your likely going to end up with a non reference 6950 and that's going to suck big time  but better then nothing


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 28, 2011)

*No artifacting*



NameonPrime said:


> Sooo,
> 
> hey peeps of TPU, yes this card's shaders cant be unlocked so the only way to go is to OC it - i did OC it and i got artifacts, but i got good news, the artifacting i saw in 3dMark vantage Jane Nash scene
> is present even if i put my card to stock hd 6950 clocks, so no worries there,
> ...



C'mon guys of TPU where are you?
i expect atleast these people to give some comments in my situation

manofthem
cadaveca
redlin888
fullinfusion
BababooeyHTJ
and others too

please reply guys.


----------



## edhahaha (Apr 28, 2011)

*6950 FREEZES after unlocking!*

Hi guys. Bought my Sapphire reference 2GB 6950 month ago, and finally decided to flash it. First I flashed to 6970 bios with 880/1375. It ran okay, even benchmarks are no problem. However, I started getting random shutdown/restart after couple days. And as I do more research, I realize I can achieve the same performance with modded shader 6950 bios. So I flashed back to original 6950 bios, then flashed to 6950 modded bios. now I have 1536 shaders with 800/1250. I heard that with stock voltage(1100) I can get up to 900/1350 stable. But when i tried to oc at 880/1350. my comp freezes at benchmarks or games. So do I HAVE to adjust the voltage or is it different cards may have different results in oc. Thanks
Currently using 11.4 catalyse and oc'ed with trixx.
Btw. Am I gonnna damage my card cuz I flashed back and forth the bios?


----------



## Arktic (Apr 28, 2011)

edhahaha said:


> Hi guys. Bought my Sapphire reference 2GB 6950 month ago, and finally decided to flash it. First I flashed to 6970 bios with 880/1375. It ran okay, even benchmarks are no problem. However, I started getting random shutdown/restart after couple days. And as I do more research, I realize I can achieve the same performance with modded shader 6950 bios. So I flashed back to original 6950 bios, then flashed to 6950 modded bios. now I have 1536 shaders with 800/1250. I heard that with stock voltage(1100) I can get up to 900/1350 stable. But when i tried to oc at 880/1350. my comp freezes at benchmarks or games. So do I HAVE to adjust the voltage or is it different cards may have different results in oc. Thanks
> Currently using 11.4 catalyse and oc'ed with trixx.
> Btw. Am I gonnna damage my card cuz I flashed back and forth the bios?




Heres my experience.

UPDATE: Just an update on my bios modding experience. 

After flashing the bios with a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders and stock settings the card was running fine. OC'd to bench and ran fine. Games I got some artifacts but backed the clocks down to stock settings again.

Currently running the card in stock standard 6950 form, no shaders and stock clocks etc.

Almost every time I play COD4 online while im on the black screen waiting for the map to load I get green flashing speckle artifacts for a few seconds then they disappear for the whole time im playing.
This only happens on some games loading screens but never in game. Also happens in NFS Hot Pursuit 2. It only happens once every few hours or after I havent played any games for a while.

It doesnt effect the games in anyway but is really annoying. Is the VRAM stuffed? Have I bricked the card? I've gone back to complete stock settings and it still happens.



EDIT: I know some people have success with this mod but I generally DONT advise it as it doesnt seem to do the card any good. Rather OC the standard clocks and get results that way.


So in Conclusion, my card has started speckling from all the flashing etc. So I dont advise. 

Rather clock it on the stock 6950 and not on a 6970 or 6950 modded bios.


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 28, 2011)

Sooo,

hey peeps of TPU, yes this card's shaders cant be unlocked so the only way to go is to OC it - i did OC it and i got artifacts, but i got good news, the artifacting i saw in 3dMark vantage Jane Nash scene
is present even if i put my card to stock hd 6950 clocks, so no worries there,
http://images.izideal.com/img/produc...i-express.jpeg

which leaves the artifacting i saw in unigine heaven 2.5 benchmark after i OC'd to 
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV. 

so i tried the card on stock clocks,- no artifacting, i OC'd the card to 
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV- artifacting occurs, so a crazy idea popped into my mind,
i wanted to see what would happen if i increased the clocks from stock to 880/1375 BUT without changing the voltage.

And guess what happened,

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?

P.s - Redline888, i urge you to try this and post us the results.

This works for me but ,If you guys try this and fry your cards, well then im sorry but i should not be blamed for that. 

C'mon guys of TPU where are you?
it seems like as if you guys are actually choosing to ignore my posts.

i expect at least these people to give some comments about my situation

manofthem
cadaveca
redlin888
fullinfusion
BababooeyHTJ
and others too

please reply guys.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 28, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> which leaves the artifacting i saw in unigine heaven 2.5 benchmark after i OC'd to
> 880-910/1375 @ 1175mV.
> 
> so i tried the card on stock clocks,- no artifacting, i OC'd the card to
> ...



My card won't run 880/1375 on default voltage, may about 1.16v. At 1.175v, I got 910/1400-1425 and passed brief benches in 3dmark and unigine. But playing Metro 2033 for excessed time, ran into problems. Had to back down to 900/1375-1400 at 1.175v and everything runs fine without artifacts or lock ups. 

When cooks are too high for a voltage, display driver will crash, maybe not even recover unless a hard restart. So if you can play an extremely intense game for extended time without lock ups, artifacts, or crashes, then you are good. 

That's my idea on the matter.


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 28, 2011)

Sorry, I have no feedback 4 you, NameonPrime. My cards unlocked, so my experience does not relate to yours, as our cards already behave differently.

Frankly, i unlocked, but no OC here for 24/7...only for benching. I do not play any titles that need any OC.


----------



## jayc (Apr 29, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
> and it was stable/smooth
> and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING
> 
> ...


What else can we say?
The only way of checking stability on your card is for you to start using it on the games you play. Unless you want to send it to me  I'll test it for ya.

You might be able to use benchmarks like 3d Mark, Furmark, Heaven, etc, but they are not games you play all the time. 

880/1375 on stock voltages does seem a lot to ask for the vid card to do. You might find some issues while playing intensive games. Then just adjust voltage upslightly. I personally use 1.150v for 880/1375, as it solves small problems for me on Crysis and Metro 2033 and Shogun 2.

I'm currently re-testing with the new 11.4 drivers, so voltages might change afterall.
Some are reporting that overclocks don't reach as high for them on 11.4 drivers.


----------



## jayc (Apr 29, 2011)

edhahaha said:


> Hi guys. Bought my Sapphire reference 2GB 6950 month ago, and finally decided to flash it. First I flashed to 6970 bios with 880/1375. It ran okay, even benchmarks are no problem. However, I started getting random shutdown/restart after couple days. And as I do more research, I realize I can achieve the same performance with modded shader 6950 bios. So I flashed back to original 6950 bios, then flashed to 6950 modded bios. now I have 1536 shaders with 800/1250. I heard that with stock voltage(1100) I can get up to 900/1350 stable. But when i tried to oc at 880/1350. my comp freezes at benchmarks or games. So do I HAVE to adjust the voltage or is it different cards may have different results in oc. Thanks
> Currently using 11.4 catalyse and oc'ed with trixx.
> Btw. Am I gonnna damage my card cuz I flashed back and forth the bios?



ed,
your crashing in benchmarks might also be attributed to heat. 
Increase fan speed curves using an app like MSI Afterburner, then try benchmarks again.
If it still crashes, small voltage adjustments will be needed. 1100mv till 1175mv should be safe. You probably won't need 1175mv. As I said above, I only need 1150mv (1.15v) for the games I play.

Different cards will ALWAYS have different o/c results. Diff drivers will also be a factor in how high you can overclock.


----------



## jayc (Apr 29, 2011)

Arktic said:


> So in Conclusion, my card has started speckling from all the flashing etc



Have you tried cleaning drivers and then reinstalling drivers?


----------



## slypenguin0 (Apr 29, 2011)

Hi guys. I just recently purchased the MSI Twin Frozr II HD 6950 and a CM Hyper 212+ to start my OCing and GPU mod journey. I've read through this and other threads on the subject. I'd like to thank w1z and the top contributors  first. When I booted up Winflash in Admin I got this:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_...I/AAAAAAAAA4Q/hHp-M-Zx97w/s640/atiunknown.jpg
And here is a picture of GPUZ
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_fX4zLmNwrcg/Tbo_O6e4fkI/AAAAAAAAA40/S6CbbIQnGNA/GPUZbeforemod.gif

Shouldn't it recognize more than that? I have had a similar problem with Everest/CPUID/etc not detecting my Mobo's name/type/etc for a long time; long before I bought these two additions.

I decided to click the save button anyway to save bios. When I did the screen flashed occasionally and my music stopped and started. At times I couldn't use the mouse. After a minute I saw a confirmation that it had saved but the screen continued to flash and music continued to stutter. Then the computer finally froze with music still playing.
I restarted the computer, turned on ATIWinflash and Everest. Everest got stuck loading and then explorer stopped working and I had to restart again.

What's up? haha (specs in the sidebar)


----------



## edhahaha (Apr 29, 2011)

jayc said:


> ed,
> your crashing in benchmarks might also be attributed to heat.
> Increase fan speed curves using an app like MSI Afterburner, then try benchmarks again.
> If it still crashes, small voltage adjustments will be needed. 1100mv till 1175mv should be safe. You probably won't need 1175mv. As I said above, I only need 1150mv (1.15v) for the games I play.
> ...



I think 1150 mv seems fine to me to with 900/1350. I no longer get lock ups. But I do get random restarts either during game play or normal computer usage. So does that mean my setting is not stable? Cuz even I set everything back to default for gpu. I still get restart. So does that mean something else in my system besides oc'ing the gpu is causing the problem?
and wut other risks may be raise by increasing the voltage??


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 29, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Sorry, I have no feedback 4 you, NameonPrime. My cards unlocked, so my experience does not relate to yours, as our cards already behave differently.
> 
> Frankly, i unlocked, but no OC here for 24/7...only for benching. I do not play any titles that need any OC.


Gech Dave, where's the fun in that?


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 30, 2011)

HIS 6950 unlocked to full 6970 and Cross/Fired to boot heheheh, Im showing 99.9-99.8% scaling with these kids
Max core and mem clocks under stock volts.


----------



## manofthem (Apr 30, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> HIS 6950 unlocked to full 6970 and Cross/Fired to boot heheheh, Im showing 99.9-99.8% scaling with these kids
> Max core and mem clocks under stock volts.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/110429/besttototodate.png



Impressive...  Most impressive.

Those are some handsome overclocks, both CPU and GPU's!  Looking good at stock volts (1.175 from a 6970?).


----------



## NameonPrime (Apr 30, 2011)

Well guys,

as i've said before i've ocverclocked my gpu to 910/1375 @ stock 6950 voltage, when playing crysis 1 on the first level, (first few minutes of gameplay), @ max settings @ resolution  1280x1024 (my monitor) it runs bautifuly.

when i push it to 920/1375 @ stock 6950 voltages and play crysis 1 on the first level, (first few minutes of gameplay), @ max settings @ resolution 1280x1024 (my monitor) it 
hangs up/crashes after a few minutes of gameplay

so i guess i've found the point where the oc is unstable and so i've dialed it down back to 910/1375
@ stock hd 6950 voltages   

but i notice in fullinfusion's recent posted pic in ccc it shows the unofficial clocks
where as when i go above unofficial oc the clocks in ccc disappear only leaving powertune
and fan control sliders.

Is it okay for me to say that i have an extremely lucky card to be able to run those clocks @ those voltages?

What do you guys think?

Software used:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
Catalyst drivers/control center/ 11.3
MSI AfterBurner latest version ?2.1?

My gpu
sapphire hd 6950 2gb non-reference


----------



## fullinfusion (Apr 30, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Impressive...  Most impressive.
> 
> Those are some handsome overclocks, both CPU and GPU's!  Looking good at stock volts (1.175 from a 6970?).


Thanks man, the gpu is stock volts under full 6970 unlock... MSI AB is useless to me. Having twins hooked up its a no go till they sort out the x-fire issues.


----------



## BlessedYouth (Apr 30, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:
> 
> - Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
> - Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
> ...



Thank you very much!.


----------



## NameonPrime (May 1, 2011)

yeah 

well it seems this whole thread is just choosing to ignore my posts
(i dont know what i did)

so you guys wont hear from me again, i wont bother you guys again

P.S - thanx for the little attention you paid to some of my posts


----------



## Winterwind (May 1, 2011)

Hi

I have an Asus HD6950 DirectCU II 1GB.
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/AMD_Series/EAH6950_DCII2DI4S1GD5/
Is it possible to unlock it? 
It has the bios switch and i have tried to flash both bios-es
but no luck. It flashes but after restart it still shows 1408 shaders.
I guess it is unlockable or im i doing something wrong?
I have tried to mod my stock bios with that mod batch and with RBE
but still no luck.

Also i have problems with that card.
Sometimes it just doesnt show any picture after reboot. 
It was like that before i got flashed it and it still is like that now.
I have to take card out of computer and but it back, then it starts correctly.
Switching bioses wont help either, only card out-card in helps..

Heres link for my original bios:
http://www.upload.ee/files/1310129/original.bin.html


----------



## trt740 (May 1, 2011)

I am also wondering the same thing do you have this card. Execpt, It is the 2gb version.

ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 

ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 25...


----------



## Winterwind (May 1, 2011)

trt740 said:


> I am also wondering the same thing do you have this card. Execpt, It is the 2gb version.
> 
> ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5
> 
> ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 25...



Yes, i have same card but 1GB


----------



## trt740 (May 1, 2011)

Winterwind said:


> Yes, i have same card but 1GB



I just bought one of these after I sold my ref 6950, but I'm not sure I am going to keep it hell of a card. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHbxlSvCK9o


----------



## Ashcrapper (May 1, 2011)

Just ran the batch file and its unlocked one of my graphics cards (both XFX 2gb 6950s), how do I unlock the other one?

Many thanks,
Ash


----------



## manofthem (May 1, 2011)

Ashcrapper said:


> Just ran the batch file and its unlocked one of my graphics cards (both XFX 2gb 6950s), how do I unlock the other one?
> 
> Many thanks,
> Ash



Take out the 1st card and replace with 2nd card.  Do the same thing for the 2nd card that you did for the 1st card. Should work out just fine.


----------



## Makaveli (May 1, 2011)

NameonPrime said:


> yeah
> 
> well it seems this whole thread is just choosing to ignore my posts
> (i dont know what i did)
> ...



Instead of crying about it you might want to take note this is a 100 page thread.

If its that important to you start your own.

Don't try to act like some victim that needs pity.


----------



## Ashcrapper (May 1, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Take out the 1st card and replace with 2nd card.  Do the same thing for the 2nd card that you did for the 1st card. Should work out just fine.



Was looking for a method without having to mess about removing hardware, incidentally I found this which worked a treat:

Copy the batch file, then edit it using Notepad. Look for the calls to ATIWinFlash.exe, there should be two:

ATIWinFlash -unlockrom 0
ATIWinFlash -f -p 0 <filename>

Replace the 0's with 1's

ATIWinFlash -unlockrom 1
ATIWinFlash -f -p 1 <filename>


----------



## manofthem (May 1, 2011)

Ashcrapper said:


> Was looking for a method without having to mess about removing hardware, incidentally I found this which worked a treat:
> 
> Copy the batch file, then edit it using Notepad. Look for the calls to ATIWinFlash.exe, there should be two:
> 
> ...


I think I heard that way would work too.  When I did mine, I did it one at a time.  When doing it one at a time, you can test it and make sure it works just fine before going straight to crossfire.


----------



## azuki (May 2, 2011)

Ashcrapper said:


> Just ran the batch file and its unlocked one of my graphics cards (both XFX 2gb 6950s), how do I unlock the other one?
> 
> Many thanks,
> Ash



are those the reference or non-reference :0


----------



## jonathan1107 (May 3, 2011)

edhahaha said:


> Hi guys. Bought my Sapphire reference 2GB 6950 month ago, and finally decided to flash it. First I flashed to 6970 bios with 880/1375. It ran okay, even benchmarks are no problem. However, I started getting random shutdown/restart after couple days. And as I do more research, I realize I can achieve the same performance with modded shader 6950 bios. So I flashed back to original 6950 bios, then flashed to 6950 modded bios. now I have 1536 shaders with 800/1250. I heard that with stock voltage(1100) I can get up to 900/1350 stable. But when i tried to oc at 880/1350. my comp freezes at benchmarks or games. So do I HAVE to adjust the voltage or is it different cards may have different results in oc. Thanks
> Currently using 11.4 catalyse and oc'ed with trixx.
> Btw. Am I gonnna damage my card cuz I flashed back and forth the bios?



With the shaders unlock only, how can you get it to past 840mhz in CCC? I've heard you can use MSI AB... but when I installed that program I noticed the speeds and voltages are limited to the 6950 bios settings (max 840/1325)... Can anyone point me towards the information I need to OC my 6950 without flashing to 6970 bios???


----------



## kangaroodan (May 3, 2011)

Hi, tried this with the package you'd made for people inexperienced in this kind of thing (I am definitely one of those =D) and it worked fine, thanks! My card was a Sapphire one incidentally.


----------



## manofthem (May 3, 2011)

jonathan1107 said:


> With the shaders unlock only, how can you get it to past 840mhz in CCC? I've heard you can use MSI AB... but when I installed that program I noticed the speeds and voltages are limited to the 6950 bios settings (max 840/1325)... Can anyone point me towards the information I need to OC my 6950 without flashing to 6970 bios???



Look at my post #2394 on page 96. That should guide you to enable unofficial overclocking and voltage control in MSI AB. It works great; you'll be able to overclock nicely, even with dual card setup. I'm running both my 6950's at 900/1375@1.175v using AB.


----------



## yacoub (May 5, 2011)

manofthem said:


> There were people with non ref 2GB cards and 1GB cards that were able to unlock the shaders, like this guy:
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144537
> 
> But now it seems that many cannot unlock their shaders with a flash, so the bioses/bios's(?) must be protected. Unfortunately I don't have access to one to try anything.



Would it be helpful if I Saved out the BIOS from mine when it arrives? 

Would you (or someone here) be able to compare it against the BIOS from a reference model to see if the shader mask is stored in the same bytes or not? 

Is it possible things have shifted if the BIOS is slightly different and that's what folks with these newer Sapphire cards are having no luck unlocking the shaders?


----------



## lauri_hoefs (May 5, 2011)

mvx15n said:


> I have an Asus 6950 Directcu II an I've tryed to unlock it through RBE and Wizzard's script, in bot cases GPUZ recognised the 1536 shaders but I could not appreciate any performance increase between original and unlocked. running al 883core and 5300 memory I get around P4950 3Dmark 2011 in an I5-760.



Is that the GPU score, or the total score?

Modded and running the core at 840 my GPU score in 3Dmark 11 went to 4812 from 4576, while the total score only went to 3820 from 3726. (latter scores being with stock clocks and un-modified)

So the total score doesn't actually show the increase in performance as clearly.

Out of curiosity I also tried the 6970 BIOS, the GPU score went up to 5104 with 6970 stock clocks. But as I have no real need for the added performance, and wanted to make sure that the card runs stable, I chickened and flashed back the original unmodded BIOS 



mvx15n said:


> At the same time using geeks3d GPU caps viewer I can see only 1406 shaders while gpuz shows 1536...



I think I ran into this on another forum, but could not find the posts anywhere, sorry.. But anyway, there were at least a couple reports of GPU Caps Viewer showing a wrong shader count, so that should probably be ok.



mvx15n said:


> Did anybody have performance increase unlocking a Directcu II? if so, please send me your bios because I've played so many times with mines (1 and 2) that I'm not 100% sure I keep the original one... (I know, this is too bad, shamo on me...)



If the original BIOS is lost, there are some saved in the VGA BIOS Collection:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95388/Asus.HD6950.2048.101222.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95927/Asus.HD6950.2048.101222_1.html

Those should both be original and unmodified 


-Lauri


----------



## Vicc (May 6, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.
> 
> www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> 
> give it a try and let me know how well it works



How exactly would you run this?
I just purchased a 6950 twin frozr iii with dual bios and I'm trying to unlock it. :]
Thanks in advance for any help.


Also, for some reason apparently my IP got banned. Originally I was going to PM my question to W1zzard in the morning, but I had to rush to work and I didn't have an account, and just now when I signed up for these forums and went to his profile I got this message. 





> Sorry. The administrator has banned your IP address. To contact the administrator click here


I wouldn't be asking this here if the link I'm supposed to click wasn't dead. :/


----------



## yacoub (May 6, 2011)

Greetings. I received the card today and installed it. 

Here is the stock BIOS from the Sapphire Radeon HD6950 2GB non-reference model 100312-2SR (see attached). In case anyone needs it, and more appreciatively if anyone can examine it and compare it against a reference model BIOS to see if there are any changes that would explain why we can't seem to unlock the extra shaders on this model card.

Thank you in advance.


----------



## fullinfusion (May 6, 2011)

Vicc said:


> How exactly would you run this?
> I just purchased a 6950 twin frozr iii with dual bios and I'm trying to unlock it. :]
> Thanks in advance for any help.
> 
> ...


Did you read the beginning of the thread? there is all the info you need to flash your card.

Download  THIS It has everything you need to flash back n forth.


----------



## remdiablo (May 6, 2011)

jonathan1107 said:


> With the shaders unlock only, how can you get it to past 840mhz in CCC? I've heard you can use MSI AB... but when I installed that program I noticed the speeds and voltages are limited to the 6950 bios settings (max 840/1325)... Can anyone point me towards the information I need to OC my 6950 without flashing to 6970 bios???



Use that link It works perfect !!! screens for validation.
http://www.techimo.com/forum/graphi...9-enable-higher-overclocks-ccc-reg-entry.html

and I attached the file ,you can create reg file ,that is so easy.


----------



## Vicc (May 6, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Did you read the beginning of the thread? there is all the info you need to flash your card.
> 
> Download  THIS It has everything you need to flash back n forth.



I did read the beginning but Atiflash didn't recognize the file in my quote.

I'm guessing I just have to run the file? It opens a command window but I'm not sure as to what to type in it.


----------



## fullinfusion (May 7, 2011)

Vicc said:


> I did read the beginning but Atiflash didn't recognize the file in my quote.
> 
> I'm guessing I just have to run the file? It opens a command window but I'm not sure as to what to type in it.


Dude you just need to open the CMD window and just copy and paste the commands you see below...


cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash
atiwinflash -unlockrom 0
atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin


BUT LOOK HERE 1ST v
- Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
- Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
- Click Start Button
- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" <-- the 0 means first adapter, if you have multiple cards, physically uninstall all but the one you want to flash
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified".


----------



## slypenguin0 (May 7, 2011)

I have a MSI Twin Frozr II 2gb. I downloaded the 6950mod, made a backup of my card with winflash, put it in the folder, made the modded.bin then flashed but it failed. I restarted and tried the CMD route. Upon entering the -unlock part my screen flashed a couple times then went black. Finally hit the restart button after awhile and the computer cycled through turning off on off on until finally actually booting up.

Maybe mine has the rumored code written in by ATI to not allow flashing.


----------



## lauri_hoefs (May 7, 2011)

slypenguin0 said:


> I have a MSI Twin Frozr II 2gb. I downloaded the 6950mod, made a backup of my card with winflash, put it in the folder, made the modded.bin then flashed but it failed. I restarted and tried the CMD route. Upon entering the -unlock part my screen flashed a couple times then went black. Finally hit the restart button after awhile and the computer cycled through turning off on off on until finally actually booting up.
> 
> Maybe mine has the rumored code written in by ATI to not allow flashing.




Hi.

I had the same problem (computer freezing, screen going black) once when unlocking too. 

Don't worry, it doesn't necessarily mean trouble, I have been able to flash the BIOS many times since without it ever freezing again.

My card is the Asus 2GB reference design, so the unlocking was necessary. Do you actually even need the unlock with an MSI card?

Now that I'm thinking about it, the freezing might have occurred when I was flashing a 6970 BIOS to my card after already unlocking it when trying the modded BIOS. I haven't been able to replicate the freezing though.

Anyone else run into this?


----------



## lauri_hoefs (May 7, 2011)

I tried my Asus 6950 flashed with an Asus 6970 BIOS, and it worked nicely. No artifacting, stable under load, run it for a couple of days without errors. The only thing I didn't like though, were the temps that started to rise to unbearable levels under heavy load and automatic fan (fan speed doesn't rise much above 40% though the temps start to hit 90).

No wonder, that some 6970 flashed cards start developing problems after a while, at least if the GPU-Z readings are to be believed (and why wouldn't they be) the mem temps can rise way over 100 degrees just under normal gaming loads!



Now for a trivial question:

With the fan set to 50% or above the modded card stays cool enough, but being quite lazy I find it troublesome to always have to change to a CCC profile to game, and to another to get the card to quiet down for watching movies etc. (That's, like, two extra mouse clicks every time! )

One option would be to use Smart Doctor to control the fan speed, but I noticed that the minimum speed that you can set is actually not that low, and unfortunately quite loud too.

Are any of the other manufacturers programs (like Afterburner) any better with the fan profiles?

I've put a lot of time and effort to make the computer run as silent as possible under normal usage, and balancing the cooling so that Q-Fan starts to kick in when the computer is stressed and temps start rising. Running the card with original BIOS and stock clocks it stays quiet and cool enough to my liking, but still it would be really tempting to OC and mod it..

If there is no easy solution, the I'll just keep it stock, it's not like I actually am desperately needing the marginal speed increase 


tl;dr: Is there an easy way to cool the 6970 modded card enough, while still keeping it as quiet as possible when idling, and doing all this with minimal effort and if possible automated?

I want my cake and eat it too


----------



## xxyyy (May 7, 2011)

*No BIOS switch*

Hallo

i have tried to find the BIOS switch on my HD6950 but there is no switch there. You can see a printed white text on the PCB which says SW1 but there is no switch soldered on there. Is it still possible to Flash the BIOS to the HD6970. The manufacturer of the VGA is HIS.

Thx in advance


----------



## yacoub (May 7, 2011)

lauri_hoefs said:


> I tried my Asus 6950 flashed with an Asus 6970 BIOS, and it worked nicely. No artifacting, stable under load, run it for a couple of days without errors. The only thing I didn't like though, were the temps that started to rise to unbearable levels under heavy load and automatic fan (fan speed doesn't rise much above 40% though the temps start to hit 90).
> 
> No wonder, that some 6970 flashed cards start developing problems after a while, at least if the GPU-Z readings are to be believed (and why wouldn't they be) the mem temps can rise way over 100 degrees just under normal gaming loads!
> 
> ...



Sapphire's TRIXX program allows custom fan control by temp: http://www.sapphiretech.com/ssc/TriXX/TriXX.aspx


----------



## Scrizz (May 8, 2011)

hehe just picked up a MSI 6950, unlocked and flashed without a hitch.


----------



## slypenguin0 (May 9, 2011)

Scrizz said:


> hehe just picked up a MSI 6950, unlocked and flashed without a hitch.



What kind? Twin Frozr II?


----------



## trt740 (May 9, 2011)

MSI 6950 Twin FrozerIII owners look here. Anyone seen this http://www.ocdrift.com/2011/04/msi-r6950-twin-frozr-iii-peoc-unlocking-guide/


----------



## slypenguin0 (May 10, 2011)

Can someone post up the process they took to unlock using RBE. As I posted before, Winflash failed for me and when I went the cmd line route my computer froze when I tried to -unlock
I have the MSI Twin Frozr II 2GB


----------



## NameonPrime (May 10, 2011)

*Artifacting*

Hey big problem

As soon as i installed the catalyst 11.4 drivers, i started expiriencing artifacting in Unigine
Heaven 2.5 Benchmarks even @ Stock 6950 Clocks , Am i Alone?, What are your suggestion

this comes as a big surprise because on amd's website it states:-

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.4 software suite for Windows 7. These include:
 •The GPU no longer shows high GPU usage after running Firefox 4 with hardware acceleration enabled.
 •Bioshock no longer displays random tearing and screen corruption with Vsync and MLAA enabled.
 •Water textures no longer flicker in Two Worlds II in Crossfire mode.
 •Bulletstorm lightshafts no longer appear broken when running on a HD 6970 series product.
 •Bulletstorm no longer displays random texture corruption when running in Crossfire mode.
 •FI 2010 no longer slows down intermittently when in Crossfire mode.
 •PowerDVD no longer crashes if Crossfire is enabled / disabled during playback of a BD title.
 •WinDVD no longer displays corrupted BD playback when the monitor is rotated to portrait mode.
 •Crysis Warhead corruption is no longer randomly observed when launching the game.
•Running the Heaven benchmark no longer displays graphics corruption during DirectX 11 tests.
 •Catalyst Control Center Avivo settings are now correctly displayed after connecting a secondary display.
 •The Catalyst Control Center screen no longer flickers while adjusting screen brightness.


----------



## mvx15n (May 10, 2011)

hi,

Yesterday after installing 11.5 drivers the system was quite unstable and after a couple of blue screens I removed the previous drivers using the drivers funtion and the installed them again an everything came back to normal...

In my unlocked 6950 uniengine works perfectly under 11.5 of catalyst. (available in ati-amd.com

good luck and remember to unistall first previous drivers... (ati drivers suck here I never had this kind of issues with nvidia)


----------



## slypenguin0 (May 10, 2011)

Well I did even more research. The Twin Frozr II isn't unlockable =/ I had seen people say they unlocked their's the day I decided to buy it (since all the ref cards were out of stock) but now, going back to those posts, they typo'd. They meant to say their Twin Frozr III cards unlocked. Lame. But I can still overclock my card.


----------



## jojo2peter (May 10, 2011)

Hey guys,

i have a HIS HD 6950 iceQ Turbo X
840MHz

I looked for the switch but i didnt find any, but i wanted to unlock the shaders.

Well, i did, then i had a bluescreen, so I logged in with secure mode, deleted the drivers
then i could start windows normally. Then I tried another flash (edited with RBE, like the old) thought the 900MHz i set caused the Bluescreen. So I chose only the Shader "6950 -> 6970" method, but it failed hard.

Now, no display is recognizing the card, so i took another card, (nvidia 8500gt) put it in the first PCIe slot, worked... The 6950 was in the second slot and AIDA64 recognized it... but as "ASUS EAH6950" (no screen yet, the card is just in front of me, looking for any switch >.<)
So i didn't know what I did wrong, except the try to unlock it again ^^...

Is there any solution, how to flash the card? i tried "atiflash -p 1 new.rom" (took a HIS file from here http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95377/HIS.HD6950.2048.101223.html) i guessed it is the right one, but oviously it didn't flash, because its name is ASUS EAHxxxx

btw. didn't try atiflash -p 0 new.rom because i dont wanna flash me only left pcie card :-S






lol when i look at this picture, i see, that the version that is posted here as "HIS HD 6950" is a ASUS oO



SOLVED: I was able to flash the original Bios (i made a backup!!!) via ATIwinflash... nice...


----------



## Rockitman (May 10, 2011)

Gentlemen,

This whole episode for the 6950 has become quite confusing.  Let me see if I got this right:

 One is led to the original instructions here on this forum regarding flashing the card with a 6970 bios, which unlocks the shaders, bumps up the clocks, and also the memory voltages.  Plus one is to bump up the powerslider in CCC to 20.   This is supposed to make the 6950 act just like a 6970.

Later on,  others brought up the issue that the 6950 memory is not made to run at 6970 settings and that one could be harming the memory on their card by going this route.

It has then been suggested that one can modify their 6950 bios to unlock the shaders.
Then they can manually set their overclocks in Afterburner.   This appears to be the safer route as the memory voltage is untouched.

If this is true,  how come the original article is not modified to present this information?

Why does one have to plod through over 100 pages of forum thread to glean this vital information?   

Trying to get the big picture from this 100 page thread is making my head explode.

I have 2 XFX 6950's and they have the bios switch.   At the time I only had one installed and went through the procedures in the article successfully,  ( I did have to do it from the command line though).   I had no problems with the card but did notice it ran hotter and since I had another 6950 in the box,  I decided to go back to original bios at stock settings and just add the other card for crossfire.   

Now that I'm in crossfire,  I'm doing fine and am even playing my games at 5760 x 1080 as I have 3 28" hannsg monitors in eyefinity now.  With that said,  some games require me to throttle down some of the settings to get smooth gameplay.   Now I'm looking at boosting my cards again and am thinking I want to take the safer route and modify the 6950 bios and manually overclock.

Would you guys agree this is the best route to go?


----------



## manofthem (May 10, 2011)

Rockitman said:


> It has then been suggested that one can modify their 6950 bios to unlock the shaders.
> Then they can manually set their overclocks in Afterburner.   This appears to be the safer route as the memory voltage is untouched.
> 
> If this is true,  how come the original article is not modified to present this information?
> ...



It doesn't take reading the 100 pages to determine that the majority vote goes to unlocking shaders if possible. That was discussed and agreed upon early on; that is the safer way, unlocking your shaders. Though safer, it doesnt mean that some report eventual problems; it's a gamble when messing with that stuff.

if you're worried about heat, ensure you have nice air flow in your case, and use custom fan curve in MSIAB. Im running 2 ref. cards unlocked and OC'd to 900/1375, and they never go above ~68*C, 70*C max Under load. Granted it usually means your fans are running faster and thus more noise.


----------



## Rockitman (May 10, 2011)

manofthem said:


> It doesn't take reading the 100 pages to determine that the majority vote goes to unlocking shaders if possible. That was discussed and agreed upon early on; that is the safer way, unlocking your shaders. Though safer, it doesnt mean that some report eventual problems; it's a gamble when messing with that stuff.
> 
> if you're worried about heat, ensure you have nice air flow in your case, and use custom fan curve in MSIAB. Im running 2 ref. cards unlocked and OC'd to 900/1375, and they never go above ~68*C, 70*C max Under load. Granted it usually means your fans are running faster and thus more noise.




Well then,  why isn't the original article updated to include this info?   

Regarding custom fan curves,  I have MSI Afterburner but it isn't very intuitive on how to set up a fan curve.   Could you give me some pointers?   

When playing crysis in crossfire, with eyefinity at 5760x1200,  Afterburner shows that my temps on my cards will get up to 80C.   Is that an ok temp?   I have great airflow in my Silverstone Fortress case,  but I suspect that my 6950 fans aren't kicking in better when the temps get high.


----------



## manofthem (May 10, 2011)

Rockitman said:


> Well then,  why isn't the original article updated to include this info?
> 
> Regarding custom fan curves,  I have MSI Afterburner but it isn't very intuitive on how to set up a fan curve.   Could you give me some pointers?
> 
> When playing crysis in crossfire, with eyefinity at 5760x1200,  Afterburner shows that my temps on my cards will get up to 80C.   Is that an ok temp?   I have great airflow in my Silverstone Fortress case,  but I suspect that my 6950 fans aren't kicking in better when the temps get high.



As for the article not being updated, I don't know but I sure wouldn't question W1zzard

80C is safe for these cards, though personally I try to keep it as low as possible, which obviously means some more noise. I have my fan curve in MSIAB as follows:


----------



## Rockitman (May 11, 2011)

thanks for that snapshot of your fan curve.    I've adjusted mine and now when I get hot and heavy in Crysis,  these cards are staying much cooler,   in the 60's.    Of course I can hear the fans kick in and they get louder but in the middle of the game I don't hear them at all.


----------



## menacenz (May 13, 2011)

Hi.

First time poster here and I've really enjoyed all the indepth information that I could find in this thread but I for some reason cannot get my card to unlock the shaders.

The model is a Gigabyte GV-R695OC-1GD so a non reference, over clocked 1GB 6950.
Now I've had no issue in obtaining my bios, updating it ( both with wiizard's batch files and RBE method ) and even the flashing both using GUI winflash and the command prompt method ( running the -unlock command first followed by the flash itself ).
As far as I can tell everything works perfectly, no errors or anything.

However whenever I reboot back to windows GPU-Z continues to tell me I only have the 1408 shaders unlocked even though loading up my bios in RBE tells me it's already been flashed to the 6970 shaders ( as will Wiizard's batch file error if I try flash a second time ). This implies the flashing worked but for some reason the shaders have not unlocked?

I do note earlier in the thread another user with the exact same model as me had success using the RBE method.

Not too sure what else to try from here because I would have thought if anything was wrong in thep rocess I would have got an error or the bios would not show as being updated after reboot.

I guess it could be a hardware thing in the sense the bios is indeed udpated but the old architecture that linked the bios flash to the physical unlocking of the shaders could be removed but that doesn't explain how the other user did it with this card being this is marked as revision 1.0 on the card so I can't possibly have a newer model?

Any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

edit:

As an update I DO have a 8800GT in slot 1 of my PC I plan on patching to use for physx but I don't believe anything I can read of here could be having that cause the issue since I'm not actually getting any flash errors?


----------



## Vargtass (May 13, 2011)

Have you run a benchmark with both 1408 and (presumably) 1536 shaders and observed any difference in score? There should not be any need for reinstall the catalyst drivers.


----------



## capital (May 14, 2011)

Hey guys, making my first post and I've got a question about the 6950 I'm picking up tomorrow afternoon.

How can I be sure that it's indeed a reference card that I'd be picking up? From what I gather, it should at least have the black back plate and the dual bios switch, along with the red fans/exhaust? Anything else I can look at from a physical stand point?

Here's an image of the card that the seller had sent me: http://i.imgur.com/0Gd9L.jpg

Thanks! I'll get back to reading the rest of the thread.


----------



## lauri_hoefs (May 15, 2011)

slypenguin0 said:


> Can someone post up the process they took to unlock using RBE. As I posted before, Winflash failed for me and when I went the cmd line route my computer froze when I tried to -unlock
> I have the MSI Twin Frozr II 2GB



Did you try this more than once, and did it freeze every time?

Note that in Windows Vista you have to open cmd with administrative privileges (with right mouse button, select "Run as administrator")

Other than that, the shader unlock does not involve anything else than the steps mentioned in many other posts:

1. Save your original bios with CPU-Z
2. Open it with RBE, on the last tab select "Unlock shaders"
3. Save the modified bios file (to unlock.bin or what ever you wish)
4. Write the modified bios to the card with Winflash
5. Reboot and enjoy

ADDITIONAL STEPS IF PROGRAMMING THE BIOS FAILS, NOT NEEDED ON ALL CARDS
4. Unlock the cards bios with "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0"
5. Write the modified bios with "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
6. Reboot and enjoy




-Lauri


----------



## lauri_hoefs (May 15, 2011)

slypenguin0 said:


> Can someone post up the process they took to unlock using RBE. As I posted before, Winflash failed for me and when I went the cmd line route my computer froze when I tried to -unlock
> I have the MSI Twin Frozr II 2GB



There's also this from a couple of pages ago:



trt740 said:


> MSI 6950 Twin FrozerIII owners look here. Anyone seen this http://www.ocdrift.com/2011/04/msi-r...locking-guide/



It's for TwinFrozer III, but the method should work just fine for other cards and bios files too.


----------



## Mad Diplomat (May 15, 2011)

Greetings  I've been planning on trying this out on my PowerColor HD6950 2GB for quite a few months now, but never found the time (too busy OCing the CPU and RAM ) Anyway, just did it today (flashed it to PowerColor HD6970 BIOS) and so far so good. All 1536 shaders show up in GPU-Z and I managed to complete 99 runs of Metro 2033 benchmark without any visible artifacts. I will keep out an eye for any issues in the coming days as I test it in other games.

So far I am running it at stock 6970 speeds (875/1375 I think?). Before the BIOS flash I was running my card at 875/1475 MHz. I read somewhere that 6970 BIOS changes settings for the VRAM as well? Does anyone know what they are? Voltage, timings, something else? If so, can I expect the card to still reliably operate at 1475MHz memory now that I flashed it (first I have to make sure it's 100% stable at stock). Or maybe it will even go higher if only voltages are higher and timings are not? Did anyone have any experience with this? Thanks 

Update:
Everything's still running great. It seems that memory @ 1475 is no longer a go for some reason, 1450MHz is the stable maximum since the flash. Just as well, since I can now basically uninstall Sapphire's TRIXX I've been using to get past the limits of ATI's control panel. Since I flashed the card, ATI's utility now maxes out at 1450MHz which is what I need.
So 880 core, 1450 mem, +20 power is what I'm running at. My futuremark score increased by around 1000-1500 points since the flash.


----------



## capital (May 16, 2011)

Been having problems unlocking the shaders on my card. It's the AMD reference 2GB model. I've used my own bios (saved from gpu-z) and ran the script for the shader unlock. Then ran atiwinflash, loaded the modded.bin, programmed and restarted my PC.

GPU-Z still reports my shaders to be at 1408. I've tried other how-to's online and have been able to get 810/1250 as default, but shaders still remain at 1408. I did try one of the 6970 bins as well as other 6950 ones from other manufacturers; the 6970 bios did hit the whole 880/1375 number but shaders remained at 1408

So now I'm back to stock at 800/1250. Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?


----------



## manofthem (May 16, 2011)

First time i unlocked my card back in January, the shaders remained at 1408 in GPUz. Someone recommended reinstalled the drivers, since they had had the same problem and fixed it that way. Worked for me. Others say you don't have to do it, but it's worth a shot if you haven't tried it yet.


----------



## capital (May 16, 2011)

manofthem said:


> First time i unlocked my card back in January, the shaders remained at 1408 in GPUz. Someone recommended reinstalled the drivers, since they had had the same problem and fixed it that way. Worked for me. Others say you don't have to do it, but it's worth a shot if you haven't tried it yet.



Yeah, after reading some other forums, I ran the installer again (no luck); uninstalled the drivers, rebooted then ran GPUZ again and it detected the vender as an Asus (rather than ATI), reinstalled drivers and it kept the 810/1250 but the shaders remained locked at 1408.

- saved my bios via atiwinflash & gpuz
- ran the script that modded the bios to unlock shaders only
- flashed through the atiwinflash gui & command line
- no shaders unlock.

Then did the same with various bios files here, like the modded asus and diamond one. 

I'll definitely try again and am open to any ideas on what to do.


----------



## menacenz (May 17, 2011)

Have you tried using the atiflash dos flashing utility? That is my next attempt coming up because I too have tried everything (including grabbing the original bios off this website for my card to try unlock that but to no avail) but nothing seems to get it to shader unlock. One thing I did note is when using winatiflash via command it never actualyl gives a success message so I wonder if that implies something is off.

I'll try this dos flash idea once I get my hands on a usb stick i can format for it but if that fails then im out of ideas. Anyway thoguht you might want to give it a try also if you have not already.

Another thing I noticed is I can't change my voltage in afterburner no matter how I try enable the feature (.cfg and in the settings) so I wonder if that voltage locknig has anything to d iwth my inability to unlock but I did find someone with the exact same card as me and they had success the dos method so i'm hopign that will work out for me.


----------



## Darkrix (May 18, 2011)

*Sapphire 6950 2gb*

 i have problem. Sapphire toke the bios switch out Cant flash bios at all..
allways error Cannot erase rom..no matter where ill try in DOS OR CMD OR WIN nothing goes trough even the orginal bios if ill try to flash it says CANNOT ERASE ROM.


some help i want those shaders up and running..


CPU AMD Phenom II X4 975 @ 4100mhz 1.48Volt
GPU Sapphire HD 6950 2 GB@ 860/1400 1.2volt
MEM G-Skill 4X 2GB 1600mhz 7-8-7-24 1.65Volt
MB Asus Croshair IV Formula
PSU Corsair HX 620W  < BTW i think i need bigger PSU

PN 288-4E186-000SA
SKU# 11188-00-40R


----------



## menacenz (May 18, 2011)

When I say dos I mean real dos, not a command prompt. Basically there's a tutorail on it somewhere (probably in this thread undoubtably) in that you run I think it's a HP app that makes a usb pen drive a bootable floppy and you then copy atiflash tool ( not ati winflash )to it as well and power down then power back up with the correct bios boot sequence and then flash from there completely outside of windows.

Yet to try it myself because im just biding my time til I pickup a pen drive I can format.


----------



## Darkrix (May 18, 2011)

nothing works. no dos no dos with another card, just tryed with useing hd2900pro@xt bios in and the hd6950 in pcie 2 slot went in atiflash -i showed both cards fine unlockked the rom from hd6950 thne tryed to flash it with command atiflash -f -p 1 unlock.bin   and tenmiljon times rom not erased.. so they have lockked it someway that we dont know and yes I WAS IN CALDERA DOS,, have been modding and soft modding GPU and MBOS long time so i know what im doing but this card is killing me..


----------



## Darkrix (May 18, 2011)

edit picture includet in dos and yes i was trying here to put 6970 bios in but same think whit even ORG bios..


----------



## panacuba (May 19, 2011)

slypenguin0 said:


> Well I did even more research. The Twin Frozr II isn't unlockable =/ I had seen people say they unlocked their's the day I decided to buy it (since all the ref cards were out of stock) but now, going back to those posts, they typo'd. They meant to say their Twin Frozr III cards unlocked. Lame. But I can still overclock my card.



Dont worry I have a solution for you, you can unlock those shaders in your Twin Frorz without using a 6970bios. read this post i found in tomshardware, it give you a good tutorial on how to do that. it works with your video card, i have talked to the guy who gave the directions and he has that same model, im waiting for my card to arrive i ordered the same as you 

edit: search for it seems like i cant post links to other forums:
this is the name of the post : MSI r6950 2gb Issues Help?


----------



## jayc (May 19, 2011)

capital said:


> Yeah, after reading some other forums, I ran the installer again (no luck); uninstalled the drivers, rebooted then ran GPUZ again and it detected the vender as an Asus (rather than ATI), reinstalled drivers and it kept the 810/1250 but the shaders remained locked at 1408.
> 
> - saved my bios via atiwinflash & gpuz
> - ran the script that modded the bios to unlock shaders only
> ...



What version of GPUZ are you using?
Make sure it's at least v0.5.1.

What brand is your card?
Have you tried flashing with the switch in the other position?


----------



## Yosharian (May 19, 2011)

I'm getting an MSI 6950 2GB and I'm a bit confused about how I should approach unlocking the shaders.  Apparently it's now NOT recommended to flash the bios to a 6970 one?

It seems like I'm supposed to use a WinFlash script to modify the existing bios in order to unlock the shaders.  I think I understand that part.

What do I do next?  Bearing in mind it's an MSI so I have access to Afterburner?

And also, where does the risk come in with regard to voltages and so on?  What can I do safely, and where does the risk start coming in?

Edit: oh and also its not a Frozr version.  Link


----------



## ace80 (May 19, 2011)

Hi guys, been a while since i been on here.
Just got back into the pc game and bought myself a Sapphire 6950 2gb then found out it could be moddified.
After reading all the info thought id give it a go, tried all methods apart from flashing to 6970 to no avail, seems i have a card that cant be unlocked 

Used RBE to unlock shaders and the script file too.
When using winflash through the command line the progress bar shows up for a sec then dissapears with no verification of successful flash even after leaving for about 5 mins.

Also tried 2 versions of atiflash on bootable usb. 






I always get the rom not erased error. U guys think ive hit a dead end. oh and it has no bios switch on this card.

Wish id done my research before buying the card now


----------



## panacuba (May 19, 2011)

Yosharian said:


> I'm getting an MSI 6950 2GB and I'm a bit confused about how I should approach unlocking the shaders.  Apparently it's now NOT recommended to flash the bios to a 6970 one?
> 
> It seems like I'm supposed to use a WinFlash script to modify the existing bios in order to unlock the shaders.  I think I understand that part.
> 
> ...



Its a Reference card, its possible to unlock shaders by removing the 6950 bios and adding the 6970. but after i read this entire thread I dont sugest doing that. its better to just mod the 6950 bios to unlock those shaders and then OC


----------



## Yosharian (May 20, 2011)

panacuba said:


> Its a Reference card, its possible to unlock shaders by removing the 6950 bios and adding the 6970. but after i read this entire thread I dont sugest doing that. its better to just mod the 6950 bios to unlock those shaders and then OC



Yes... the OC part... how do I do that?  Can I do it just using MSI AB?

And is it only the OC part that comes with the risk of damaging memory?


----------



## manofthem (May 20, 2011)

Yosharian said:


> Yes... the OC part... how do I do that?  Can I do it just using MSI AB?
> 
> And is it only the OC part that comes with the risk of damaging memory?



OC using MSIAB. Remember to enable unofficial overclocking and allow voltage control, otherwise you'll be stuck at same clocks as CCC. I've been running an overclocked 6950 since January at about 900/1375-1400. Then in march I got another one and run them both at 900/1375@1.175V. No problems or stability issues. 

OC as high as you can per voltage until unstable. Then either raise voltage to go higher or back clocks off a tad.


----------



## Kdubb223 (May 22, 2011)

*MSI Kombustor scores...*

Hey guys just wondering if anyone experienced slightly higher scores *after* reducing the power in CCC.

I have a HIS 6950 2gb flashed to 6970 bios and stock clock speeds 880/1375. originally had CCC set to +20%

I ran Kombustor at 20%, 10%, and 0% CCC power settings and the highest score was when it was set to 0%...

Just wondering if anyone else experienced this and would be safer to have it set to 0%?

Thanks


----------



## capital (May 22, 2011)

jayc said:


> What version of GPUZ are you using?
> Make sure it's at least v0.5.1.
> 
> What brand is your card?
> Have you tried flashing with the switch in the other position?



Used .5.3 GPUZ. 

It's a Visiontek reference card, the one with the big black cover and not the one with the two cooling fans. This time I've tried both positions just now with no luck with the RBE method

- Saved bios 1 & 2 via GPUZ (1 I'll assume is the one farthest from the crossfire connector)
- Loaded bios in RBE, clicked the 6970 shader unlock option; saved new bios.rom file
- ran CMD as admin, did the whole "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" thing (progress meter showed up, filled, disappeared)
- "atiwinflash -f -p 0 bios.rom" progress meter filled up, another confirmation popup then a prompt to restart.

Restarted, ran GPUZ, nothing changed. 1408 shader, 800/1250 clock. Did that for both switch positions and it remained the same. 

I guess I'll try the actual dos one using the USB method and see if that helps.


----------



## Vicc (May 23, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> Dude you just need to open the CMD window and just copy and paste the commands you see below...
> 
> 
> cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash
> ...



Sigh. Doesn't work for me. Once I flash the card my pc refuses to boot up.


----------



## jayc (May 23, 2011)

capital said:


> Used .5.3 GPUZ.
> 
> It's a Visiontek reference card, the one with the big black cover and not the one with the two cooling fans. This time I've tried both positions just now with no luck with the RBE method
> 
> ...



You seem to be doing everything right.
The next time you attempt this, uninstall the ATI catalyst drivers from Windows first.
There have been previous reports of the windows drivers blocking unlock attempts.


----------



## Second (May 23, 2011)

i'd flashed my xfx card with edited bios and now i have a problem with hardware acceleration in firefox.




PIC: hw acc. top-enabled bottom-disabled
Anyone knows the solution?

EDIT: it was morphological filtering on.


----------



## PoulGrym (May 23, 2011)

I had the same thing a few months ago. I beleive it was an Gaming>3D setting in the AMD Vision Engine Controll > Anti-Aliasing Filter or something.. Give that a spin..


----------



## jayc (May 24, 2011)

Vicc said:


> Sigh. Doesn't work for me. Once I flash the card my pc refuses to boot up.



More info Vicc ??
What did you do?


----------



## Vicc (May 24, 2011)

jayc said:


> More info Vicc ??
> What did you do?



I tried both the BIOS mod and the 6970 bios. The 6950 mod simply didn't do anything (tried both switch positions). With the 6970 bios, I think I flashed successfully, but when I restarted my pc it wouldn't load. I don't have a second pc to check it with.  I had to flash back by starting my pc with the BIOS switch in 2nd position, and while the pc was running I  switched to the 1st.
I'm using MSI 6950 Twin Frozr iii Power Edition.

Hmm should I try another manufacturer's BIOS, or try modding the previous version of Twin Frozr BIOS?


----------



## bardoczx (May 24, 2011)

How safe is unlock shaders and raise the clocks 840/1325  (CCC overdrive limits)???
Improvement the min FPS, worth for Crossfire, decrease the life time???
Thanks.


----------



## jayc (May 25, 2011)

Vicc said:


> I tried both the BIOS mod and the 6970 bios. The 6950 mod simply didn't do anything (tried both switch positions). With the 6970 bios, I think I flashed successfully, but when I restarted my pc it wouldn't load. I don't have a second pc to check it with.  I had to flash back by starting my pc with the BIOS switch in 2nd position, and while the pc was running I  switched to the 1st.
> I'm using MSI 6950 Twin Frozr iii Power Edition.
> 
> Hmm should I try another manufacturer's BIOS, or try modding the previous version of Twin Frozr BIOS?



Vicc,

did you try this guide for the Frozr III?
http://www.ocdrift.com/2011/04/msi-r6950-twin-frozr-iii-peoc-unlocking-guide/


----------



## metilic (May 25, 2011)

bardoczx said:


> How safe is unlock shaders and raise the clocks 840/1325  (CCC overdrive limits)???
> Improvement the min FPS, worth for Crossfire, decrease the life time???
> Thanks.



When I flashed my first card, I didn't notice such a big improvement...maybe around 5% with those settings; 6950 in Crossfire doesn't need modding, except if you play on huge resolutions or Eyefinity. Most of the people here did not report bad things happening from unlocking just the shaders, the tricky part was flashing to a 6970 bios, which had different memory timings and voltage. Only time will tell the effect on life time, but I personally believe that just unlocking the shaders and OC-ing to CCC limits at stock voltage can't harm your card. The decision is yours my friend; keep us posted with your progress


----------



## bardoczx (May 25, 2011)

metilic said:


> When I flashed my first card, I didn't notice such a big improvement...maybe around 5% with those settings; 6950 in Crossfire doesn't need modding, except if you play on huge resolutions or Eyefinity. Most of the people here did not report bad things happening from unlocking just the shaders, the tricky part was flashing to a 6970 bios, which had different memory timings and voltage. Only time will tell the effect on life time, but I personally believe that just unlocking the shaders and OC-ing to CCC limits at stock voltage can't harm your card. The decision is yours my friend; keep us posted with your progress



When I unlocked shaders with those settings my improvement was around 4 extra average FPS in games like Aliens v/s Predator and Resident Evil 5.  In Heaven Benchmark my increment was 1 FPS   However, I have not yet valid conclusions about the increase of min FPS (the most important for me).

I agree with you, those setting can't harm my card.  Thanks


----------



## metilic (May 25, 2011)

This depends also on the driver version and related issues; glad to be of any assistance 
I got mine on May 2nd, and before doing anything to it I read all the 103 pages of this thread, call me a geek blah blah 
Best of luck with your overclocking endeavors mate.


----------



## foxy@OC'd (May 25, 2011)

Unlocking shaders doesnt actually give you that big of a performance increase to risk bricking your card now, does it?


----------



## Vicc (May 25, 2011)

jayc said:


> Vicc,
> 
> did you try this guide for the Frozr III?
> http://www.ocdrift.com/2011/04/msi-r6950-twin-frozr-iii-peoc-unlocking-guide/



Thanks for the link. I'm gonna check it out once I'm back from work.


----------



## manofthem (May 25, 2011)

foxy@OC'd said:


> Unlocking shaders doesnt actually give you that big of a performance increase to risk bricking your card now, does it?



Unlocking the shaders is an optional free performance upgrade. I haven't heard anyone brick their cards from unlocking shaders. There exists the possibility of a bad bios flash, which won't allow the card to boot. Without a bios switch, it takes a few more steps to correct abd reflash to a working bios.


----------



## garretth9090 (May 25, 2011)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=322873&CatId=7005

Has anyone had luck unlocking this card?


----------



## metilic (May 26, 2011)

garretth9090 said:


> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=322873&CatId=7005
> 
> Has anyone had luck unlocking this card?



Non-reference 2 GB model, but possibly with no dual-bios switch; i guess it could work, but i wouldn't flash a card with no dual bios frankly  Do you have the card or just plan on buying it?


----------



## milesc (May 26, 2011)

Hi, I hope this hasn't been answered too many times... I've read through about 60 pages thus far.

I have a Sapphire 6950 1GB.  I would like to unlock the additional shaders.  I have followed the directions to obtain my bios, patch it with RBE, and then write it back.  Writing from RBE doesn't work.  Also, if i drop to command line (with administrator privs) and run the two commands:
atiwinflash -unlockrom 0
atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin 

Both command display the flashing window with progress bar for a few seconds, before exiting silently.  Upon reboot and also uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, I still show the default number of shaders.

Is my bios unflashable or am I doing something wrong?

Thank you for any help,
milesc


----------



## tdbone1 (May 27, 2011)

hi all:
i just sold my 5870 crossfire setup (because bfbc2 problems)
i was going to get a gtx 580 but really it benches lower then the 5870 crossfire setup i just got rid of

but it would be quieter if i got the 580 and probably not as many problems with the game itself since i would not be in cfx

anyhow here i am in the 6950 bios thread.

im thinking about buying (2) 6950`s for cfx again..i know i cant believe it either but the game i really want is BF3

anyhow i just want the CHEAPEST 6950`s that can be flashed to a 6970 and that cfx will still work good.

i would have two cards so i dont need a reference card with dual bios do i?

anyhow your thought would be appreciated.

thanks


----------



## Kaj (May 27, 2011)

Hey guys,

I followed this guide to flash my 6950 club3d card but things aren't working out for me. The normal process described in the OP did not work, I had to go through the BIOS and do the EXTRA WORK thingie. It said a succesful flash was completed and reboot was nescessary, it also showed me a window with some info in it, things like: new device id and old device id or something.

After the reboot me monitor went on and showed INPUT NOT SUPPORTED! Message. I tried a few bios versions: the club3d 2gb 6970 and the xfx/sapphire 2gb 6970 BIOS. All with the same result: "input not supported".

I also tried a different guide:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1608/5/

This gave me exactly the same results, the flash is succesful but after a reboot the monitor displays a input not supported message. Specs will be below, I hope someone can help me out here!

Thanks 

Specs:

Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB, 7200rpm, 32MB, SATA	
Asus P7P55D PRO, S1156, P55, 4xDDR3, 3xPCIe, ATX	
CLUB3D HD6950 2GB GDDD5 (with 2 coolers on it and the 1-2 bios switch)
Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz, 8MB, S1156, Box	
Corsair Dominator 4GB(2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz	
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Midi Tower,500w

Monitor: Acer AL2216W


----------



## ace80 (May 27, 2011)

milesc said:


> Hi, I hope this hasn't been answered too many times... I've read through about 60 pages thus far.
> 
> I have a Sapphire 6950 1GB.  I would like to unlock the additional shaders.  I have followed the directions to obtain my bios, patch it with RBE, and then write it back.  Writing from RBE doesn't work.  Also, if i drop to command line (with administrator privs) and run the two commands:
> atiwinflash -unlockrom 0
> ...


I got exactly the same problem, mine is the Sapphire 2gb non reference model without bios switch, does yours have the switch.

Have you tried flashing from a bootable usb device, i alway get the rom not erased message, check my post at top of page 103 for screenie.


----------



## SyRenity (May 27, 2011)

Hi.

Having hit performance issues in Witcher 2, I decided to give a go to flashing my launch-day XFX card.

Reading this thread, I see that recommendations have quite changed, and instead of flashing a 6970 BOIS, the recommendation now is to re-flash the card with modded original 6950 BIOS that came from the card, then tune the clock speed via MSI AB, correct?

On another hand, I see the RBE tool mentioned here several times - so perhaps the best way do all above from RBE?

Also, what clock timings/voltages are considered safe?

Thanks for any advice!


----------



## capital (May 27, 2011)

I tried the hp usb boot method with no luck once again on my Visiontek 6950 card. 

- Used wizzards .bat patch with one of my original bios files, saved as modded.bin
- boot to dos
- "atiflash -unlock 0" (got ok) "atiflash -f -p 0 modded.bin (http://i.imgur.com/HikZi.jpg)
- removed usb, powered off system
- checked GPUZ, nothing changed.

- opened RBE and loaded original bios file again; saved file as modded.rom
- checked off 6970 shaders option
- boot to dos
- "atiflash -unlock 0" (got ok) "atiflash -f -p 0 modded.rom  (http://i.imgur.com/HikZi.jpg)
- ...
- GPUZ, no changes.

So I'm at a loss as to what's going on. Is there a difference between the .rom and .bin file? I saved my bios in RBE in both positions. The file that was created with the switch to the far right (away from CF, which I understand is bios 1) comes up as an error when I rename it as original.bin and run wizzards patch: "could not find byte sequence in file." 
Whereas if I load the bios file that was saved from what should be bios 2, wizzards patch runs fine. 

I came across another thread, either here or somewhere else that had someone successfully flash their 6950 which had the bios switch and aftercooler fans installed. 

This is driving me crazy.

edit - maybe I should just try another vendors bios file found here on TPU.

It's still weird if I do one of the other methods where it changes my clock speeds but does not unlock the shaders.


----------



## mm540 (May 29, 2011)

*Another Successful 6950 mod*

I just wanted to add my success to this forum.  I had posted a few months ago and wanted to update my experience.  I have an XFX 2gb Reference card.  I tried a couple of different mods over the months and have the best results with the shader mod using Sapphire TRIXX.  Core is 884mhz and Memory 1366mhz.  The system runs the most stable with these settings.  Unique Heaven was the hardest Bench to set.  Furmark and 3D Mark 11 did not present any problems at all.    Scores for Unique 1094, 3D Mark 11 5617 Performance preset, Furmark is 2998.  Maybe not the highest scores, but good enough for what I do.  Hope this helps someone.


----------



## b0uncyfr0 (May 29, 2011)

Im having some trouble unlocking the shaders on my Gigabyte 6950 1 GB. One guy did it before but the other was having trouble, same as me.

Has anyone had any luck getting it to work??


----------



## menacenz (May 30, 2011)

Yeah I've still not managed to unlock that Gigabyte card though I'm yet to try the dos usb bootdisk method.

On a side note they are sexily overclockable. So far I'm stable at 920/1425 at stock voltage and just a fairly standard fan curve in Afterburner. Hottest I've seen it thus far is 60 degrees and it run witcher 2 at 100% GPU utilization very well without artifacts or crashes. Must be the 3 fans they put on these cards. Best stock card I've ever had anyway.


----------



## Bengie (May 30, 2011)

jonathan1107 said:


> With the shaders unlock only, how can you get it to past 840mhz in CCC? I've heard you can use MSI AB... but when I installed that program I noticed the speeds and voltages are limited to the 6950 bios settings (max 840/1325)... Can anyone point me towards the information I need to OC my 6950 without flashing to 6970 bios???



I found this on the web and have been using it. I would normally use AB/Trixx/etc, but Punkbuster has been having issues crashing computers that use ANY software that probes the video card. Even GPUz will make PB crash(BSOD). So, to OC using CCC, I have this in a .reg file, then just run the file. I don't know what it all means, but I found the exact same file linked from a few sites

Probably have to restart after applying it, can't remember.





```
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   
   
  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000]
   
  "PP_PhmSoftPowerPlayTable"=hex:6f,01,05,01,00,04,04,10,18,58,00,68,00,b8,00,e8,\
    03,e8,03,58,00,00,80,01,00,0f,00,00,02,08,3c,00,00,68,00,b8,00,00,18,01,09,\
    00,18,01,26,01,83,01,00,00,a0,0c,00,00,30,01,40,01,4b,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
    aa,00,00,00,78,00,00,00,60,ea,00,00,56,01,0a,00,00,00,14,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
    00,01,01,02,03,02,02,02,04,03,02,02,04,80,38,01,48,e8,01,01,ff,7e,04,00,00,\
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    01,e8,03,7e,04,00,00,01,00,00,00,68,3c,01,48,e8,01,01,ff,7e,04,00,00,01,00,\
    00,00,34,1b,01,48,e8,01,01,ff,7e,04,00,00,01,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,78,00,00,\
    00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,78,00,00,00,\
    00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,04,00,00,7a,00,00,00,00,\
    00,00,f0,d2,00,00,40,9c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,7a,00,00,00,00,04,\
    00,70,11,01,00,c0,da,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,06,94,11,c4,22,54,24,60,09,3c,\
    0f,88,13,0a,00,d0,78,02,00,90,d0,03,00,03,40,9c,00,84,03,50,c3,00,e8,03,68,\
    3c,01,01,ff,02,98,3a,00,b6,03,48,e8,01,7e,04,02,98,3a,00,84,03,48,e8,01,e8,\
    03,04,84,03,11,00,00,00,e8,03,1a,00,00,00,4b,04,28,00,00,00,4c,04,28,00,00,\
    00

  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0001]
   
  "PP_PhmSoftPowerPlayTable"=hex:6f,01,05,01,00,04,04,10,18,58,00,68,00,b8,00,e8,\
    03,e8,03,58,00,00,80,01,00,0f,00,00,02,08,3c,00,00,68,00,b8,00,00,18,01,09,\
    00,18,01,26,01,83,01,00,00,a0,0c,00,00,30,01,40,01,4b,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
    aa,00,00,00,78,00,00,00,60,ea,00,00,56,01,0a,00,00,00,14,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
    00,01,01,02,03,02,02,02,04,03,02,02,04,80,38,01,48,e8,01,01,ff,7e,04,00,00,\
    01,00,00,00,a8,61,00,98,3a,00,84,03,b6,03,00,00,01,00,00,00,50,c3,00,48,e8,\
    01,e8,03,7e,04,00,00,01,00,00,00,68,3c,01,48,e8,01,01,ff,7e,04,00,00,01,00,\
    00,00,34,1b,01,48,e8,01,01,ff,7e,04,00,00,01,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,78,00,00,\
    00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,78,00,00,00,\
    00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,04,00,00,7a,00,00,00,00,\
    00,00,f0,d2,00,00,40,9c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,7a,00,00,00,00,04,\
    00,70,11,01,00,c0,da,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,06,94,11,c4,22,54,24,60,09,3c,\
    0f,88,13,0a,00,d0,78,02,00,90,d0,03,00,03,40,9c,00,84,03,50,c3,00,e8,03,68,\
    3c,01,01,ff,02,98,3a,00,b6,03,48,e8,01,7e,04,02,98,3a,00,84,03,48,e8,01,e8,\
    03,04,84,03,11,00,00,00,e8,03,1a,00,00,00,4b,04,28,00,00,00,4c,04,28,00,00,\
    00
```


----------



## tomigun (May 30, 2011)

*Sapphire hd6950 1gb non-reference*

I have a Sapphire 6950 1gb non-reference that I tried to unlock the shaders on . BSOD Dead. think I corrupted bios?
I was using winflash and had modded a bios using RBE to unlock extra shaders.
I had saved the bios as a .rom and I think that may have been an issue?
Lucky for me I had just dumped the original bios using the sapphire software Trixx.
in .bin format.
I restarted using my intergrated graphics and tried to flash with winflash.
I keep getting "cannot read Rom " error.
after following this link http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...6&postcount=19 using the command prompt  and the original .bin bios I managed to restore my card.
I tried again to unlock the shaders this time saving the modded bios as a .bin , but with no luck.
Shaders stayed the same, funny thing is memory increased to 1325mhz, 
haven't experimented anymore yet.
lucky to still have a working card I guess.

Regards


----------



## blinzi (May 30, 2011)

ace80 said:


> I got exactly the same problem, mine is the Sapphire 2gb non reference model without bios switch, does yours have the switch.
> 
> Have you tried flashing from a bootable usb device, i alway get the rom not erased message, check my post at top of page 103 for screenie.




i have the exact same problem with my sapphire 2gb (bios p/n: 113-4E18600-S42)

this card seems to be hardware locked on the PM25LV010 Flash Memory.

you have to use a SOIC8 Clip to bridge the WP# and the VCC pin.

never tried it tough cuz of the risk 

good luck!


----------



## tomigun (May 31, 2011)

*Sapphire hd6950 1gb non-reference*

Well I managed to alter my bios I think, the card would not work , 

cannot read bios error message.

BSOD when flashing.

Then working again after attempting to reflash original bios, with unlock command.

Maybe there is hope for us non-reference owners.............


----------



## Zhorn (May 31, 2011)

menacenz said:


> Yeah I've still not managed to unlock that Gigabyte card though I'm yet to try the dos usb bootdisk method.
> 
> On a side note they are sexily overclockable. So far I'm stable at 920/1425 at stock voltage and just a fairly standard fan curve in Afterburner. Hottest I've seen it thus far is 60 degrees and it run witcher 2 at 100% GPU utilization very well without artifacts or crashes. Must be the 3 fans they put on these cards. Best stock card I've ever had anyway.



Yep those Gigabyte 1 GB OC cards are awesome. After unlocking the shaders you may find that you can't O/C it as high, possibly owing to the extra voltage needed for the unlocked shaders? That's what happened to me. I havent tried upping the voltage on it yet tho. It still runs fine at it's factory OC speeds (870/1250) with shaders unlocked. I guess you'd need to decide what gives better performance.. locked shaders at 920/1425 or unlock shaders at 870/1250?

The key to flashing that card for me was to 1) save the bios using GPU-Z (not winflash as I read it saves corrupted bioses for some cards) 2) edit with RBE and save 3) flash it using ATIflash from a bootable USB or floppy.


----------



## milesc (May 31, 2011)

It seems people (including myself) are still not having any luck unlocking the shaders on the newer non-reference Sapphire 6950s.  So, I ask again, has anyone been successful, and if so, what were your steps?

Second question: even though the dual bios switch is not there, I still see the 1 and 2 printed on the PCB as well as the pads to which the switch would have been attached.  Would it be possible to solder a switch in there?


----------



## blinzi (May 31, 2011)

@milesec: the sapphire rev.2 is hardware locked!

look at my post:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2298603&postcount=2584


----------



## milesc (May 31, 2011)

Thanks for the info Blinzi... do you have a link to a site with a bit more information regarding your proposed modification?

Thanks,
milesc


----------



## tomigun (Jun 1, 2011)

*Sapphire HD6950 1gb non-reference*

I noticed a modified sapphire 6950 1gb bios with unlocked shaders for download here on techpowerup.

For this non-reference card?

or did sapphire release a 1gb reference model before?


----------



## blinzi (Jun 1, 2011)

milesc said:


> Thanks for the info Blinzi... do you have a link to a site with a bit more information regarding your proposed modification?
> 
> Thanks,
> milesc



http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=3968672&postcount=2

its a gigabyte card tough - the chip is on the backside of the card. the sapphire has the flash memory on the gpu side, which makes it much more difficult to use this moddification!

thats the chip (U11) http://circuits.datasheetdir.com/403/PM25LV010-pinout.jpg

u can find it here on the sapphire card: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/846/dscf6848d.jpg

bridge VCC to WP# (the arrow on the card indicates Pin1)

but really, id rather go with a better VGA-Cooler like the accelero extreme plus and pump that GPU Clock to 950Mhz. the shaders only give you like 5fps at max!


----------



## b0uncyfr0 (Jun 1, 2011)

Ok this might explain why im getting the same error "Rom Not Erased" on my Gigabyte 695OC 1GB. Ive been trying to get it it unlocked for a while now and many people dont have the card so i couldnt verify it was a problem.

Funny thing is, it worked the first few times i flashed, then it just wouldnt let me flash anymore. Is there a sort of limitation on the number of flashes you can do? Is that possible because ive used everything and still getting the same error. 

That chip-thing above maybe what i need, but if its too costly im not going to bother with it. On a side-note i cant go past 1310 on my memory without artifacts in Ati-Tool. Thats very shallow isnt it?


----------



## blinzi (Jun 1, 2011)

b0uncyfr0 said:


> On a side-note i cant go past 1310 on my memory without artifacts in Ati-Tool. Thats very shallow isnt it?



dont touch the memory! my card cant even handle 1300Mhz on the memory... thats because its already at its limit with 1250!

with the SOIC clip it should be quite easy! be sure to check if the chip is on the backside of the card, else you wont be able to use it with the stock cooler.

BACKUP YOUR CURRENT BIOS and get a 2nd graphics card in case u dont have one onboard.

thats because u want to redo the flashing if something goes wrong.

always remember that this will completely destroy your warranty rights


----------



## b0uncyfr0 (Jun 1, 2011)

Wow and some people are past 1400, thats insane. Must be cause of that extra voltage. Well how would the manufacturers know i did this mod, they isnt any physical damage right?

Ive attached a picture of the back of my card, it looks identical to the reference 6970 2GB that the polish user (SonyHD) posted.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/854/dscf1139z.jpg/


----------



## blinzi (Jun 1, 2011)

nice - mount that clip on the chip with the yellow dot, bridge pin 8 to pin 3 (look at my diagram for numbers) put the card back in the pcie slot and follow the polish guys instructions.


----------



## b0uncyfr0 (Jun 1, 2011)

Hmm sounds easy enough, now i just have to get that clip in Australia. 

Another side-note, how did SonyHD get 990 Core on 1.175. Im on that voltage now and that seems impossible. Also just realised his card is non-reference otherwise he would ave used the dual-bios switch. Duhh..


----------



## blinzi (Jun 1, 2011)

dunno how he did that - im stuck at 950Mhz@1.150V but i only have a stock cooler my temps are 85°C in furmark....

you have +20% in CCC ?


----------



## Sk1nner (Jun 1, 2011)

I have a Powercolor HD6950 unlocked 880/1375 1.125v with catalist 11.5b and i never had a problem in any game ,the temperature never rise above 74Cº, but now in dirt 3 this is happening (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KHBceMfwiM)
look for the license plate and the name of the player ahead.
Is the graphic card dying?
Thanks


----------



## blinzi (Jun 1, 2011)

shader unlock only? what happens when you reset the clock speeds to default? reinstalled driver already? tried a different resolution? why did you raise the memory?


----------



## Sk1nner (Jun 1, 2011)

blinzi said:


> shader unlock only? what happens when you reset the clock speeds to default? reinstalled driver already? tried a different resolution? why did you raise the memory?



shader unlock only, tried catalist 11.4, 11.5 and 11.5b, format , tried default speeds ( not default shaders), and still happens in any of these scenarios.
And i forgot to mention that i have a folding program that i have been  running for the past month  but the temperature never raised above 74Cº.


----------



## blinzi (Jun 1, 2011)

re-flash your old bios and see if it helps...


----------



## Sk1nner (Jun 1, 2011)

blinzi said:


> re-flash your old bios and see if it helps...



original bios and... same result :S


----------



## b0uncyfr0 (Jun 1, 2011)

blinzi said:


> you have +20% in CCC ?



Whats that? EDIT:Found it. Interesting, i just turned it on on my fps on Dirt 3 went up by 3fps. Not bad. Going to test with a higher clock.

To Sk1nner, id check my vrm temps. The card may not be raising past 74 but they might be above that. Normally artifacts are a memory problem.


----------



## Sk1nner (Jun 2, 2011)

the temperatures while folding 





i keep the memories at 1250 while folding because it doesn't make difference with higher clocks.


----------



## b0uncyfr0 (Jun 2, 2011)

Hmm thats strange then, it might be a problem with your card. Have you tried other games? Load up Crysis 2 or something really intensive and see if you can spot anything strange. 

I saw your video, i cant see anything wrong with it.


----------



## fullinfusion (Jun 2, 2011)

Sk1nner said:


> I have a Powercolor HD6950 unlocked 880/1375 1.125v with catalist 11.5b and i never had a problem in any game ,the temperature never rise above 74Cº, but now in dirt 3 this is happening (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KHBceMfwiM)
> look for the license plate and the name of the player ahead.
> Is the graphic card dying?
> Thanks


I think it's just the game mate! and don't fret it just yet. Let AMD get there driver working proper and code master to release a patch.


----------



## Sk1nner (Jun 2, 2011)

i played 1 hour of crysis2 and saw nothing, i´m gonna wait for new patch and drivers before taking my conclusions. 
thanks.


----------



## b0uncyfr0 (Jun 2, 2011)

The first patch for Dirt 3 just came out so give that a try, its huge though. Hopefully new content.


----------



## tomigun (Jun 2, 2011)

Sk1nner said:


> I have a Powercolor HD6950 unlocked 880/1375 1.125v with catalist 11.5b and i never had a problem in any game ,the temperature never rise above 74Cº, but now in dirt 3 this is happening (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KHBceMfwiM)
> look for the license plate and the name of the player ahead.
> Is the graphic card dying?
> Thanks



Dirt 3 gets all funky on me too, occasions horizontal bands in green purple... 
think it might just be the game


----------



## blinzi (Jun 2, 2011)

i only get those when i heavy crash into something with the car


----------



## Sk1nner (Jun 2, 2011)

horizontal bands in green purple its normal when u crash , its not a artifact.


----------



## Sk1nner (Jun 2, 2011)

b0uncyfr0 said:


> The first patch for Dirt 3 just came out so give that a try, its huge though. Hopefully new content.



I played with the patch already, same result .


----------



## nawe (Jun 2, 2011)

I made another thread about my problem here: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2301689&posted=1#post2301689

and was told to ask this thread for help. 

So here goes: I can't get my bricked (non reference) XFX HD6950 to flash back to its old bios (flashing it in the first place was easy) using a second, old, PCI card. Atiflash in DOS recognizes the card fine, and the -unlockrom 0 command seems to work, but whenever I attempt to flash the card, I get "Rom not erased". AtiWinflash, on the other hand appears to recognize the card when I run the GUI, but I get a subsystem ID mismatch error (as expected, I needed to unlock the rom when I first flashed it). Running it in command prompt, however, fails to do much of anything. Every command (unlockrom, flashing a bios, and even "-i") results in the progress bar flashing up for a second, before disappearing completely without leaving so much as an error. RBE won't recognize the card at all.

Anything else I could try before I end up returning it?


----------



## fullinfusion (Jun 2, 2011)

nawe said:


> I made another thread about my problem here: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2301689&posted=1#post2301689
> 
> and was told to ask this thread for help.
> 
> ...



A bricked 6950 gpu from flashing the bios? ya dont say! So xfx should give you a new gpu because you willingly knowingly voided your warranty flashing something you shouldn't .... ahh but anyways

What version of Atiflash you using? Try 3.84 *I have better luck using that version* and grab your gpu bios file from the data base here on TPU.
What other gpu are you using to see while flashing? another 6950? if so move the working gpu to the bottom pci-e slot and the non working one to the top slot.. plug your monitor into the lower gpu and get into DOS.

type atiflash -i and see what comes up. It should show the bricked gpu.
now type atiflash -f -p 0/1 file name.bin (whatever number i shows you for your bricked gpu)
so again it's 
atiflash -f -p 0 filename.bin 
or
atiflash -f -p 1 filename.bin

If it works and askes for a restart, restart but go into the bios and hit the power button on your case. That will shut down. Now unplug your power and wait 60sec and then power back up.. Good luck and just a note.. I was just bustin your balls at the top of my message lol


----------



## fullinfusion (Jun 2, 2011)

Stupid link is weird but look HERE to unbrick your gpu


----------



## nawe (Jun 2, 2011)

fullinfusion said:


> A bricked 6950 gpu from flashing the bios? ya dont say! So xfx should give you a new gpu because you willingly knowingly voided your warranty flashing something you shouldn't .... ahh but anyways
> 
> What version of Atiflash you using? Try 3.84 *I have better luck using that version* and grab your gpu bios file from the data base here on TPU.
> What other gpu are you using to see while flashing? another 6950? if so move the working gpu to the bottom pci-e slot and the non working one to the top slot.. plug your monitor into the lower gpu and get into DOS.
> ...



Afraid I've tried all of the above :-( I'm using an ancient PCI card for my monitor output - the -i command detects it in atiflash, but when I try the actual "atiflash -f -p 0 bios.rom" command, or any variation thereof, I get "rom not erased".

I think I'm just gonna return it. It was sold to me, and advertised as safely flashable from the OverclockersUK site, and I was given a slightly revised version of the card (which I wasn't aware of at the time), so regardless of whether I've voided XFX's warranty, I'm still technically within the T&Cs of the seller (the T&Cs they actually broke by sending me a slightly different model without telling me).


----------



## fullinfusion (Jun 2, 2011)

^ good luck mate! I hope they do you good this time and not mislead ya


----------



## Gabkicks (Jun 3, 2011)

I am using a powercolor 6950 1gb (dual fans/dual bios)  and 11.5b drivers .

i just tried with atiflash and atiwinflash and sofar it still shows 1408 unified shaders 

*  i just tried the methods listed by techpowerup to no avail. Also, i tried flashing to 6970 and that just gave mea blank screen w/ artifacts, so I blindflashed it back to my "unlocked" bios that isnt really unlocked according to gpu-z.

Any Ideas?  RBE says my bios is already set to 6970 shader count, but not GPU-z


----------



## Gabkicks (Jun 4, 2011)

Before using thebear's bios (he unlocked his powercolor 1gb a couple months ago):






after:


----------



## JPS1982 (Jun 4, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.
> 
> www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> give it a try and let me know how well it works



Podrias explicarme un poco más como se utiliza este script.

Tengo una MSI TwinFrozr III 6950 y quiero desbloquearle los shaders aunque sea.
Agradeceria tu ayuda. Desde ya muchas gracias.

---
Could you explain a bit more as you use this script.

I have an MSI TwinFrozr III 6950 and I want to unlock the shaders. (6970)
Appreciate your help. Regards !!


----------



## Phrozin (Jun 8, 2011)

Hi all,first time here
Firstly thanks to all who contributed to this awesome thread!!!

The benefit of living in a third world country is that we were lucky enough to get some reference cards,MSI R6950 2gb-2PM2D2GD5.Mine will arrive tomorrow and the other nine later this week(for my friends).

I have read through the whole thread so far and have decided to do the modded 6950 bios via script and unlocking the shaders.

I was thinking then further is it possible to put in overclock settings via RBE?
There is a setting in RBE that allows this,but found this thread:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=143965
and in the help file of RBE they say this:
"_The overdrive limit in the BIOS is protected by this key. It can be changed, but if so, the key won't match any more which makes the catalyst driver not recognize the card any more and therefore, this BIOS is unusable. RBE can't decrypt this key, but it can transplant an overdrive limit and its key to another BIOS_"

So the ideal would be to have a standard 6950 bios with unlocked shaders and the gpu and memmory overclocked in bios.
I don't wanna do it via software-I want it to boot up with selected clocks.

If this is not possible,what about using a overclocked bios from another 6950 like the "MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition/OC" and unlock the shaders via script.

with these methods if possible it seems better than playing around with a 6970 bios that has different memmory timings/volts.

Hope the guru's here can point me in the right direction or have a possible solution to the bios OC part

Cant wait for tommorow to get my hd6950

[edit] Ok,got my card today,it's the black pcb with bios switch(awesome)..
So me pushing it through benches & games at stock level to test stability and look if the card is ok(no artifacts) before I go for shader unlock.
Will keep updating as I go - Will try to find out some more on the flashing of a factory overclocked 6950 bios to 6950-reference card..


----------



## xrror (Jun 8, 2011)

It seems possible that using the PowerColor HD 6950 PCS++ 2 GB BIOS this should be possible, since if I'm reading this correctly it has a "signature" already that allows higher overdrive limits:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_6950_PCS_Plus_Plus/27.html
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't gotten around to trying this yet.

I need/want to try this myself when I have some time, otherwise it's always a race to see if the latest MSI Afterburner beta supports the latest catalyst driver each month. 

Also I'm not sure if Radeon BIOS Editor (RBE) supports editing voltages yet, or if it's still experimental on the 6950. My goal is to make a modded bios for my 6950 with the voltage and overclock "baked in" to the card bios, so I don't need to worry about using other tools to get the card up to speed. That way it "just works" regardless of what computer or OS the card gets stuck in.


----------



## antipesto93 (Jun 9, 2011)

Just a note:

Asus HD6950 Direct CU2 2gb
- You CAN flash a 6970 bios BUT you CANNOT unlock the shaders.

- so basically, it cant unlock the shaders.


----------



## Phrozin (Jun 9, 2011)

@ xrror,
Awesome buddy,seems we've got the same idea of getting our stable clocks into the bios..
Hope the guru's can shed some light here for us!


----------



## 1uk3 (Jun 11, 2011)

I have the XFX 6950 2GB reference card - I used a bios from the XFX 6970 and flashed it using atiflash and no issues whatsoever.  Perfect and temps are fine.

It's always nice to get something for free!

---

UPDATE: I decided to go back to original bios but unlocked the shaders.  After a lot of reading I became slightly concerned that I might damage my card using the 6970 bios.

The card doesn't seem to like to overclock to 6970 speeds with the 6950 bios though even though it was fine with the 6970 bios.  I get some flickering occasionally when I've enabled AMD Overdrive.


----------



## deadman_uk (Jun 16, 2011)

I have a MSI Radeon HD 6950 2GB Twin Frozr III Power Edition which arrived today. Is it worth me flashing to an 6970? What is the best way for me to do this? I hear people saying it's best to flash, others saying revert to original BIOS and just OC. Also some saying they need to unlock the shaders, while others don't need to. I am confused, can someone take me by the hand and help?

Thanks!


----------



## Boatski (Jun 17, 2011)

deadman_uk said:


> I have a MSI Radeon HD 6950 2GB Twin Frozr III Power Edition which arrived today. Is it worth me flashing to an 6970? What is the best way for me to do this? I hear people saying it's best to flash, others saying revert to original BIOS and just OC. Also some saying they need to unlock the shaders, while others don't need to. I am confused, can someone take me by the hand and help?
> 
> Thanks!



I just got my Twin Frozr III 6950 in today. I've tried using RBE to unlock the shaders in the existing BIOS, but that hasn't work for me.


----------



## Olleing (Jun 17, 2011)

Read this article 
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/msi_r6950_twin_froz_iii_power_edition_unlocking,1.html

and use / try this bios file
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/96402/MSI.HD6950.2048.110324.html


----------



## Phrozin (Jun 17, 2011)

Hi All
Again thanks to all who posted their thoughts and ideas..helped me a bunch.
So here is my findings and updates since my last post on the MSI R6950 2gb-2PM2D2GD5 reference.revision1 card-http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2307086&postcount=2621

It's a shame not a lot responded on the questions asked there,but no biggie.
Thanks as well to "xrror" for your idea on the PowerColor HD 6950 PCS++ 2 GB BIOS.

Like stated in previous post I didn't want to run a 6970 bios,but rather a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders and overclocked gpu at 850 or 880mhz thus ensuring the memory timings/volts stay intact.

Ok, here is what I did.
1.Firstly I tested the card on benches and games at stock to see for artifacts(none found).

2.Then I upped my gpu clock and memory clock to 6970 specs via Msi After Burner(first have to unlock the unofficial overclocking values via the .cfg file found install diectory of app)

3.Then I ran it through benches again-I used 3dmark Vantage,3dMark11,Crysis Warhead,Crysis2,Metro2033 *benched for a half hour checking temps and game play.Used Msi Kombuster to max gpu to 99% to see temps and custom fan profile I created in Msi After Burner.- no artifacts or crashes.

4.I then tried a overclocked bios->http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/96402/MSI.HD6950.2048.110324.html Unfortunately manage to flash it via atiwinflash using cmd console due to "id mismatch error" in gui ,flash was a success,but didn't boot up-no signal..

5.So I switch to bios2 and boot up and tried the powercolor bios which only has gpu clocked to 880mhz->http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/94169/Powercolor.HD6950.2048.110121.html
It booted up no problems(my ati drivers were already uninstalled) then I installed the new ati driver 11.6 and checked via gpu-z and it showed unlocked shaders and gpu clock 880mhz.

6.So then I did the usual benching and stress test to check heat etc..all is ok 
Memory is at 1250Mhz,this i can clock to 1300mhz if i need/want to via Msi AB

So in short,yes you can flash a overclocked 6950 bios which is better i.m.h.o. than a 6970 bios to a MSI R6950 2gb-2PM2D2GD5..Mwuhaha

Here is my benches:
Vantage: 



3DMark11: 




Happy unlocking


----------



## b0uncyfr0 (Jun 20, 2011)

Just a quick update guys, i got the soic clip but i was unable to unlock it. Very disappointed though, i thought it was a guranteed unlock.


----------



## reddie007 (Jun 20, 2011)

*MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition - OC 2GB*

was anyone able to unlock the card recently and which bios to use?

I am asking because on the page:
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/msi_r6950_twin_froz_iii_power_edition_unlocking,1.html 

a custom bios is provided to unlock the both OC and nonOC version of the card and the 'modified' bios has only 64kb. Atiwinflash will come out with a warning screen that the bios is probably corrupted. Wouldn't dare just to load this to the card as such

thanks for any reply


----------



## kalawera (Jun 20, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> was anyone able to unlock the card recently and which bios to use?
> 
> I am asking because on the page:
> http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/msi_r6950_twin_froz_iii_power_edition_unlocking,1.html
> ...



I've both the BIOS you linked and the one from TPU database with unlocked shader, they both unlocked my TFIII (no matter the size) but both rendering artifacts even on desktop w/out any OC (at first it was all OK, but once I started DAII the artefacting started) so now I am just OC with the stock BIOS: 950/1400@1.24 Witcher2 stable, can not get to 1GHz stable
tried also Lightning BIOS- it did not work at all


----------



## reddie007 (Jun 20, 2011)

kalawera said:


> I've both the BIOS you linked and the one from TPU database with unlocked shader, they both unlocked my TFIII (no matter the size) but both rendering artifacts even on desktop w/out any OC (at first it was all OK, but once I started DAII the artefacting started) so now I am just OC with the stock BIOS: 950/1400@1.24 Witcher2 stable, can not get to 1GHz stable
> tried also Lightning BIOS- it did not work at all



ok thanks - I had Sapphire Flex HD6950 2GB recently, OCed to 960/1400@1.20 w/o errors, but was not satisfied with the noise it was producing, so I am buying this one instead, expecting better cooling & less noise.
Pity it didn't work for you. Tried to modify your own bios with the RBE v1.28 to unlock too? Maybe the shaders are corrupted - if it is even possible(?). I'd also try with non OC-ed system, but that's a blind shot.


----------



## kalawera (Jun 20, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> ok thanks - I had Sapphire Flex HD6950 2GB recently, OCed to 960/1400@1.20 w/o errors, but was not satisfied with the noise it was producing, so I am buying this one instead, expecting better cooling & less noise.
> Pity it didn't work for you. Tried to modify your own bios with the RBE v1.28 to unlock too? Maybe the shaders are corrupted - if it is even possible(?). I'd also try with non OC-ed system, but that's a blind shot.



maybe they were "corrupted" deliberately at the factory, I mean not properly laser cut or something... or the software- drivers, CCC, MSI AB, etc. have troubles understanding that a 6950 can have 1536 shaders... did not try RBE myself- too many options and was afraid not to mess something up...strangely  enough even with the size difference according to TPU database both BIOSes are reported the same
I am moving to SB tomorrow and will see how things are with a fresh Win install


----------



## blinzi (Jun 20, 2011)

b0uncyfr0 said:


> Just a quick update guys, i got the soic clip but i was unable to unlock it. Very disappointed though, i thought it was a guranteed unlock.



you sure u bridged the right pins??


----------



## reddie007 (Jun 20, 2011)

kalawera said:


> maybe they were "corrupted" deliberately at the factory, I mean not properly laser cut or something... or the software- drivers, CCC, MSI AB, etc. have troubles understanding that a 6950 can have 1536 shaders... did not try RBE myself- too many options and was afraid not to mess something up...strangely  enough even with the size difference according to TPU database both BIOSes are reported the same
> I am moving to SB tomorrow and will see how things are with a fresh Win install



good luck with that; its even stranger to see its not working when on the contrary some ppl claim that the unlocking shader bios was issued by msi itself granting that ability :-(

if you would want to use RBE:
save the original bios to a file, run RBE, load the bios into it, click on the "additional features" tab, and on the right side of the window, there is "unlock 6950->6970" section. Here select the "6970 shader count" and save your new bios to a file...

well this didn't work for me on the saphire flex card, but that's how it should be done. tmorow i hope i get the msi twin frozr3 too, so.. we'll see


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## uki789 (Jun 20, 2011)

*ASUS radeon HD 6950 DC II 1 gb*

can the card from the title(or any other 1GB HD 6950) be ulocked to radeon HD6970???


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## kalawera (Jun 20, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> good luck with that; its even stranger to see its not working when on the contrary some ppl claim that the unlocking shader bios was issued by msi itself granting that ability :-(



it was indeed posted on the MSI UK site, but it was taken down since then
here it a thread from overclockers.co.uk started from the MSI Rep there. he *** Removed pending updated information *** 2 days after posting


----------



## reddie007 (Jun 21, 2011)

kalawera said:


> it was indeed posted on the MSI UK site, but it was taken down since then
> here it a thread from overclockers.co.uk started from the MSI Rep there. he *** Removed pending updated information *** 2 days after posting



With great interrest I read all the thread. So, you were able to unlock with artefacts ony, you re back at the stock bios now. I just dont know if I was in your position, and wanted to OC the card more than up to 900Mhz - I guess you would still need to load the unlocking bios, but .. is there any bios which is only unlocking the OC potential (to be able to raise the GPU core frequency more than 900), and doesn't unlock the shaders ??


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## ehmdjii (Jun 21, 2011)

hello, i would like to flash my sapphire 6950 to a 9670 using the BIOS as many have done already.

the only thing is that i have a 1GB version and on this page only BIOSes for 2GB cards can be found:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...ufacturer=&model=HD+6970&interface=&memSize=0

is it safe to also use this BIOS for the 1GB model?

thanks!


----------



## kalawera (Jun 21, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> With great interrest I read all the thread. So, you were able to unlock with artefacts ony, you re back at the stock bios now. I just dont know if I was in your position, and wanted to OC the card more than up to 900Mhz - I guess you would still need to load the unlocking bios, but .. is there any bios which is only unlocking the OC potential (to be able to raise the GPU core frequency more than 900), and doesn't unlock the shaders ??



OK, today I moved to SB and here you the results: artifacts are gone, MSI Kombustor 2.0.2 extreme benchmark preset results/stock clocks: 1536 sh: 1941/1937p; 1408 sh: 1931/1932p (tests done twice, GPU-z 0.5.3 reports shaders)
So for me it is official- unlocking shaders gives you (almost)nothing and I am done fiddling with it. Essentially 6950 and 6970 are the same chips and the bigger difference is stock clocks, binning and higher OC potential. More shaders might give something here and there, but IMO OC can give you much more.
On the other question- unlocking the OC limits use this small program called RacerX from RacerX/TechIMO forum to edit registry and enable OC as high as you want.


----------



## reddie007 (Jun 21, 2011)

kalawera said:


> I've both the BIOS you linked and the one from TPU database with unlocked shader, they both unlocked my TFIII (no matter the size) but both rendering artifacts even on desktop w/out any OC (at first it was all OK, but once I started DAII the artefacting started) so now I am just OC with the stock BIOS: 950/1400@1.24 Witcher2 stable, can not get to 1GHz stable
> tried also Lightning BIOS- it did not work at all




question (just got the card now): the OC you are mentioning, did you do anything with the memory/aux voltage in afterburner? I tried 940/1325@1.25 and it fails in the FinalFantasy14 benchmark, so not very stable. going to try to unlock the shaders right now


----------



## reddie007 (Jun 21, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> question (just got the card now): the OC you are mentioning, did you do anything with the memory/aux voltage in afterburner? I tried 940/1325@1.25 and it fails in the FinalFantasy14 benchmark, so not very stable. going to try to unlock the shaders right now



ok, unable to unlock the shaders   (tried both the custom bioses and RBE mod too)

worse thing: I cant overclock the card at all. Will get a "display driver failed and recovered" error every time i move the slider on the core clock in Afterburner (2.2 beta4) and run the FF14 benchmark (was stable with the sapphire flex card)

everything is perfectly stable at the stock clocks (


----------



## kalawera (Jun 22, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> ok, unable to unlock the shaders   (tried both the custom bioses and RBE mod too)
> 
> worse thing: I cant overclock the card at all. Will get a "display driver failed and recovered" error every time i move the slider on the core clock in Afterburner (2.2 beta4) and run the FF14 benchmark (was stable with the sapphire flex card)
> 
> everything is perfectly stable at the stock clocks (



make sure that you are actually increasing the voltage- at first I was unable  even when moving the slider. in AB settings change graphics processor type to 1150mv, also make sure clock settings in CCC are the same, +20% power, put some more AUX voltage (I personally did not see any difference with it) and increase vcore a bit more
try the OC in games, I am using witcher 2 to test as it is very picky and that's how I found what is stable for me


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## reddie007 (Jun 22, 2011)

kalawera said:


> make sure that you are actually increasing the voltage- at first I was unable  even when moving the slider. in AB settings change graphics processor type to 1150mv, also make sure clock settings in CCC are the same, +20% power, put some more AUX voltage (I personally did not see any difference with it) and increase vcore a bit more
> try the OC in games, I am using witcher 2 to test as it is very picky and that's how I found what is stable for me



thanks - should I combine the power tune in CCC (set to 20%) with increasing the voltage in Afterburner? When I did try 880/1325 only in CCC i did put powertune to +20% and it was stable. I was thinking I shall use either powertune or the voltage adjustments but not both.. with sapphire flex I was only using Trixx and didnt do anything whatsoever with CCC


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## reddie007 (Jun 22, 2011)

ehmdjii said:


> hello, i would like to flash my sapphire 6950 to a 9670 using the BIOS as many have done already.
> 
> the only thing is that i have a 1GB version and on this page only BIOSes for 2GB cards can be found:
> http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...ufacturer=&model=HD+6970&interface=&memSize=0
> ...



I read through this whole thread and some other on another forums, but I encountered only 1 person who was able to unlock 1GB version [so the answer is very unlikely, 99% no]


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## kalawera (Jun 23, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> thanks - should I combine the power tune in CCC (set to 20%) with increasing the voltage in Afterburner? When I did try 880/1325 only in CCC i did put powertune to +20% and it was stable. I was thinking I shall use either powertune or the voltage adjustments but not both.. with sapphire flex I was only using Trixx and didnt do anything whatsoever with CCC



I personally first increase powertune and then start to OC/voltage tweak with AB, but now with a Z68 board in i-gpu mode(monitor plugged to mobo) CCC does not even work and since games work fine I keep it stock


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## ehmdjii (Jun 23, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> I read through this whole thread and some other on another forums, but I encountered only 1 person who was able to unlock 1GB version [so the answer is very unlikely, 99% no]



thanks for the info. you dont happen to have a link to this other forum?

also let's say i try it with RBE. extract the bios, unlock the shaders and reflash. and then it fails, will my card be broken or will it just not work?

this is the card btw:


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## reddie007 (Jun 24, 2011)

kalawera said:


> I personally first increase powertune and then start to OC/voltage tweak with AB, but now with a Z68 board in i-gpu mode(monitor plugged to mobo) CCC does not even work and since games work fine I keep it stock



results from OC - not very exciting - I am now at 920/1325 but with the voltage of 1.23 - thats too much for that frequency I'd say. I did read few articles where they were able to reach 1Ghz with 1.3v so so far it doesnt look like I am going there. 940@1.23 doesnt work too.
Was able to reach 880/1325 w/o any voltage increase, I guess thats what I will be using for gaming unless I play Metro 2033 (not my favorite game anyway so.. )

I checked the powertune, every time when I raised the core frequency by 20Mhz and must say I didnt see any difference - didnt help /didnt harm the stability when puting it to +20% / reverting back to normal.

The cooling is better than with the Sapphire Flex, but given the needed voltage, I guess thats not much of an advantage here - at 920 with Flex, I was at 1.15v, which, compared to the twin frozr3, was giving less heat, so - now I am with better cooling producing more heat.. not much of an improvement.  

The noise from the fans needs to be reduced in my opinion. What is the advantage of having the hairdryer inside of the PC with 65 Celsius temperature, when the chip is designed to work under 100 Celsius? Under 45% of the fan speed is almost inaudible and with 45%, its still ~72 under full load (default clocks). 

Its really cool that frozr3 have triple voltage to control, but its completely useless as I didn't gain any extra stability by increasing the memory to +20mv and if i try increase the Aux in MSI AB 2.2 beta4, it reverts back when I click on apply... omg  

Have you noticed any performance improvement when increasing memory speed? When I compared 1250 to 1325 on the Flex, It didnt give me any performance increase whatsoever. 

And yes, I think that thats what most of us will be doing - checking the overclocking possibilities and then reverting back to the normal - this card is quite powerful for today's games w/o much an of extra tweaking


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## reddie007 (Jun 24, 2011)

ehmdjii said:


> thanks for the info. you dont happen to have a link to this other forum?
> 
> also let's say i try it with RBE. extract the bios, unlock the shaders and reflash. and then it fails, will my card be broken or will it just not work?



Honestly - I am cured out of the unlocking shaders business. People are gaining 2% more performance at maximum at games, at the cost of risking bricking the card or spending hours and hours flashing and reflashing again and again, never sure when this break something... Even more if your card doesn't have dual bios...

No sorry, I dont have the link -  that was just really a one note at that forum, don't remember it anything.

Overclock your card, enjoy it, don't mess with the shaders 

Noone can guarantee what will happen if you try this with RBE. Anyway, If you want to go that way, here's couple of links:

Script from w1zzard which modifies file with bios and updates it for enabling the shaders:
(just an another alternative of unlocking)
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137136&page=16) 

Techpowerup Vga bios db (i guess you know this already  ):
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...cturer=&model=HD+6950&interface=&memSize=1024 

btw this bios could possibly be for you (shaders unlocked):
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95237/Sapphire.HD6950.1024.101224_2.html 

testing locked/unlocked shaders:
http://www.overclock.net/amd-ati/909086-6950-shaders-unlocked-vs-full-unlocked.html 
http://www.overclock.net/amd-ati/946615-stock-vs-unlocked-hd-6950-a.html 

on non-reference cards with one bios, I would personally never use the -f switch when flashing, due to these bioses are mostly extra modified. So use only:

atiwinflash -p 0 bios.bin

Also if you get ID mismatch message during flashing, cancel it and use another bios. I did force the bios flash on my previous Sapphire Flex card even with the ID mismatch message, and almost bricked it. Sooo happy for the second Bios switch   If you read somewhere else to not bother with ID mismatch messages, thats probably only for the reference cards design only.


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## ehmdjii (Jun 24, 2011)

reddie007: thanks a lot for the detailed information. i will try the flash later and then report here if it was successfull.
i will probably use RBE and create a modified BIOS myself.


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## Atelophobia (Jun 25, 2011)

I have a Powercolor 6950 2048MB. Pretty new one I guess because I bought it yesterday.
I tried the 6970 unlock method with the complete pack in the guide (bat-files).
After that, gpu didnt work anymore after reboot.
I flashed my original bios with the help of a bootusbstick back on my GPU and Bios 1 works again. Then I tried to modify the bios myself with RBE... I selected to unlock the shaders and used that rom but nothing did change. I also used the rom Phrozin proposed a page earlier -> GPU bios 1 blackout again. So Im back to my original bios again and Im still looking for a method to get the shaders. Is there sth I can try?


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## reddie007 (Jun 25, 2011)

Atelophobia said:


> I have a Powercolor 6950 2048MB. Pretty new one I guess because I bought it yesterday.
> I tried the 6970 unlock method with the complete pack in the guide (bat-files).
> After that, gpu didnt work anymore after reboot.
> I flashed my original bios with the help of a bootusbstick back on my GPU and Bios 1 works again. Then I tried to modify the bios myself with RBE... I selected to unlock the shaders and used that rom but nothing did change. I also used the rom Phrozin proposed a page earlier -> GPU bios 1 blackout again. So Im back to my original bios again and Im still looking for a method to get the shaders. Is there sth I can try?



JUST two posts earlier 

Script from w1zzard which modifies file with bios and updates it for enabling the shaders:
(just an another alternative of unlocking)
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137136&page=16


----------



## Atelophobia (Jun 25, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> JUST two posts earlier
> 
> Script from w1zzard which modifies file with bios and updates it for enabling the shaders:
> (just an another alternative of unlocking)
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137136&page=16



Thanks for the hint!

I used the script and "edited" the bios. I flashed my bios 1 with atiflash, bootusbstick and the new modded bin but nothing did change. I still have 1408 shaders in GPU-Z 0.5.3
Did I do sth wrong?


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## ginsoked boy hd (Jun 26, 2011)

i am from india i bought an sapphire hd 6950 card but it is tottaly diffrant from reffrance desins and does not have an dual bios switch and the card is also the bad naked looking ilike the packed one reffrance desine i maintioned to my dealer about which type of 6950 i want i told them i want card with amd stock cooler and pcb but the dont give me that instid of that they give me a i think vapour x edition which has the modded sapphire 6950 pcb without dual bios 


so guys can u help me on that issu
is compony will return me the reffrance card instid of this vapour x ?
is there the dual bios card are bann?
are not in stock in any country?
are the vapourx models of 6950 can be flashed?
problems facing the users of flashed 6050 to 6970?
is it safe ?(really this card is expensive)


so plese help me 
thaks in advance


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## ginsoked boy hd (Jun 26, 2011)

http://images.izideal.com/img/produ...ogy-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg


this is my card


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## liquidtension (Jun 27, 2011)

*Shader unlock failed on 1GB PowerColor 6950*

I think i may have somehow overwritten the stock bios in position 1. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks! - Dom

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148051


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## reddie007 (Jun 27, 2011)

liquidtension said:


> I think i may have somehow overwritten the stock bios in position 1. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks! - Dom
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148051



"3. Tried blind flashing the bios from a bootable usb but 'atiflash -i' couldn't find any compatible display adapters"

how do you know it couldn't find display adapters on a blind flash attempt?

take original bios, use atiflash with -f (force switch), load it to the position 1

I'd also make sure first you use latest mobo bios and do a clear cmos on the mobo before trying to flash the card (only disable the mobo integrated GPU before trying to flash the corrupted card)

this is something to study before you go on:

http://www.overclock.net/amd-ati/342894-how-blind-flash-gpu.html


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## reddie007 (Jun 27, 2011)

ginsoked boy hd said:


> is compony will return me the reffrance card instid of this vapour x ?
> is there the dual bios card are bann?
> are not in stock in any country?
> are the vapourx models of 6950 can be flashed?
> ...



simply don't do it... one bios, non reference card - thats the worst scenario I'd say. Many cards now on the market are unlockable. I never heard about any non reference Sapphire being unlocked.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2322114&postcount=2650


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## ginsoked boy hd (Jun 27, 2011)

can i return it to my dealer and get the reffrance card


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## reddie007 (Jun 27, 2011)

ginsoked boy hd said:


> can i return it to my dealer and get the reffrance card



how can anyone know? simply ask your dealer


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## reddie007 (Jun 27, 2011)

Atelophobia said:


> Thanks for the hint!
> 
> I used the script and "edited" the bios. I flashed my bios 1 with atiflash, bootusbstick and the new modded bin but nothing did change. I still have 1408 shaders in GPU-Z 0.5.3
> Did I do sth wrong?



no... looks like the card won't unlock then.. not a reference one I think ..?


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## Dr. Phd (Jun 28, 2011)

Bought a reference model Asus 6950 2GB






Followed W1zzard's instructions. First the original, then the cmd way since I got "SubsystemIDs mismatch" in ATIWinflash.
Seemed to work (didn't see any 'verified' message, just a progress bar appearing on screen for less than a second.), rebooted.







I'm guessing it did not do anything at all?


----------



## Joshwaa (Jun 28, 2011)

Hello I am looking to purchase a 6950 and unlock it. Can some one tell me what is the best card for this as I do not see many reference cards left on newegger. Also dose it matter if it is a 1 or 2GB card?


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## xrror (Jun 28, 2011)

There really needs to be a FAQ for this by now. Of course by saying that I suppose I should shut up and write one.  

Anyone aware of a 6950 unlock FAQ yet? Hopefully there is, cause otherwise it's looking like my horrid writing ... 

edit add: Going to try and make a rough outline of a FAQ, so that if I can't, someone else can take off with it.

edit 2: canceled this due to lack of time/interest


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## Joshwaa (Jun 28, 2011)

Ok I have found that you need a 2GB card. I am thinking of this one, anyone had luck with it? I have had powercolor cards in the past and they were exceptional.

PowerColor AX6950 2GBD5-2DH Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256...


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## Thassodar (Jun 28, 2011)

Joshwaa said:


> Ok I have found that you need a 2GB card. I am thinking of this one, anyone had luck with it? I have had powercolor cards in the past and they were exceptional.
> 
> PowerColor AX6950 2GBD5-2DH Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256...



I don't think the twin fan ones have the BIOS switch  I have a PowerColor card I bought a few months ago that is reference design and it looks nearly identical to the one in Dr.Phd's post up above. Flashed just fine  You may want to look on youtube and see if there is unboxing for that particular 6950, that way you'll know if it has a switch or not


----------



## Joshwaa (Jun 28, 2011)

Thassodar said:


> I don't think the twin fan ones have the BIOS switch  I have a PowerColor card I bought a few months ago that is reference design and it looks nearly identical to the one in Dr.Phd's post up above. Flashed just fine  You may want to look on youtube and see if there is unboxing for that particular 6950, that way you'll know if it has a switch or not



From the pictures on the egg it does have the switch. But whos to say that is the correct picture.


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## mrpatate (Jun 29, 2011)

Hi,

I tried the original method to flash my Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2Go Dirt 3 Edition, then the 2 coming from the 2 updates but nothing worked.

Be sure the BIOS switch on my card is set to the 1 position.

As it isn't a reference design card, i used ATI Winflash to save my existing BIOS, then used RBE to modify my existing BIOS (file extension : .rom not .bin), then enabled the shader unlock option on the last tab, then flashed that modified BIOS to my card.

Can the Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2Go Dirt 3 Edition be flashed ?

Could someone please help me ?


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## reddie007 (Jun 29, 2011)

Dr. Phd said:


> Bought a reference model Asus 6950 2GB
> 
> Followed W1zzard's instructions. First the original, then the cmd way since I got "SubsystemIDs mismatch" in ATIWinflash.
> Seemed to work (didn't see any 'verified' message, just a progress bar appearing on screen for less than a second.), rebooted.
> ...



These cards have locked bios.
Do: atiwinflash -unlockrom 0

before you try to load the other bios.
Where did you get the new bios you are flashing it in there? This card from Asus DOES unlock for sure. Unless Asus did something very wrong with those cards recently.


----------



## Dr. Phd (Jun 29, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> These cards have locked bios.
> Do: atiwinflash -unlockrom 0
> 
> before you try to load the other bios.
> Where did you get the new bios you are flashing it in there? This card from Asus DOES unlock for sure. Unless Asus did something very wrong with those cards recently.


I did try the cmd method as described here:


> For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:
> 
> - Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
> - Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
> ...




And indeed I've never heard of this card not unlocking. It's the reason I bought it even. 
I have no idea what to do now.


----------



## reddie007 (Jun 29, 2011)

Dr. Phd said:


> I did try the cmd method as described here:
> 
> And indeed I've never heard of this card not unlocking. It's the reason I bought it even.
> I have no idea what to do now.



Did you actually modify the bios? Because from the above, it looks like you just saved the bios from the card and uploaded it back to the card 

do you know RBE v1.28? 

Alternatively, here is link to the one BIOS you could try to upload to the card:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/90661/Asus.HD6970.2048.101124.html


----------



## reddie007 (Jun 29, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> Did you actually modify the bios? Because from the above, it looks like you just saved the bios from the card and uploaded it back to the card



sorry, bad reading... I see you used a HD 6970 bios; well I would try RBE or the bios I have mentioned


----------



## Atelophobia (Jun 30, 2011)

Joshwaa said:


> Ok I have found that you need a 2GB card. I am thinking of this one, anyone had luck with it? I have had powercolor cards in the past and they were exceptional.
> 
> PowerColor AX6950 2GBD5-2DH Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256...



This looks exactly like my Powercolor HG 6950. Same box artwork, dual fans and both black and AX6950 is mentioned on the box. But NONE of the flash methods did work. However, flashing back was never a problem.


----------



## Atelophobia (Jun 30, 2011)

Thassodar said:


> I don't think the twin fan ones have the BIOS switch  I have a PowerColor card I bought a few months ago that is reference design and it looks nearly identical to the one in Dr.Phd's post up above. Flashed just fine  You may want to look on youtube and see if there is unboxing for that particular 6950, that way you'll know if it has a switch or not



I have a twin fan PC card - I even think its the mentioned one. It HAS dual bios. However, havent found a bios that unlocked the shaders yet


----------



## renq (Jun 30, 2011)

Joshwaa said:


> Ok I have found that you need a 2GB card. I am thinking of this one, anyone had luck with it? I have had powercolor cards in the past and they were exceptional.
> 
> PowerColor AX6950 2GBD5-2DH Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256...



I have a Club3D card like that- PCB looks identical at first glance, so does the cooling.
http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/products/reader.en/product/radeon-hd-6950.html

Flashed nicely, some OC/3dmark-ing results http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2265748&postcount=873

BTW, the cooler was very-very loud, even at CCC min rpm- 20%. Couldn't stand it, bought Arctic Xtreme Plus- now 'tis quiet 'n cool


----------



## reddie007 (Jul 1, 2011)

mrpatate said:


> Hi,
> I tried the original method to flash my Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2Go Dirt 3 Edition, then the 2 coming from the 2 updates but nothing worked.
> 
> Can the Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2Go Dirt 3 Edition be flashed ?



I had Sapphire Flex HD 6950 before, and that is the same card just with different cooler. Sorry mate, I looked almost a week around many forums and noone ever been successful with that. Seems its laser-cut, as well as most non-reference cards which are out today.


----------



## b0uncyfr0 (Jul 1, 2011)

blinzi said:


> you sure u bridged the right pins??



Sorry for the hold up.I followed your picture, and im sure i did it right. I managed to get it to flash once without an error but it still refused to show up in GPU-Z as 1508 shaders. Im officially done with unlocking shaders, ive tried my best. Now im just going to overclock and tweak settings.

Good luck to anyone trying though, its hit or miss now. I have a bloody soic clip that im probably never going to use again. If anyone wants it for a small fee, drop me a line.


----------



## mrpatate (Jul 1, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> I had Sapphire Flex HD 6950 before, and that is the same card just with different cooler. Sorry mate, I looked almost a week around many forums and noone ever been successful with that. Seems its laser-cut, as well as most non-reference cards which are out today.



Hi,

Thank you reddie007, i'm so disappointed !
What's the best advice; let it go and keep this card or remplacing it with a reference one ?

Have a nice day !


----------



## reddie007 (Jul 1, 2011)

mrpatate said:


> Hi,
> 
> Thank you reddie007, i'm so disappointed !
> What's the best advice; let it go and keep this card or remplacing it with a reference one ?
> ...



I was able to overclock that Sapphire to 960Mhz on core, which was way way much better than any 2% unlock could ever give (btw if you overclock unlocked card, it does not scale with the gpu frequency, so even after OC you still have 2% increase max). So I was satisfied with the card (later I returned it anyway bcoz of high noise).

IMHO - let it go, try OC (1.25v max is good even for a daily use, but i was able to get that 960 with 1.20 only). If you re satisfied otherwise with the card, I'd stay with it


----------



## Dr. Phd (Jul 2, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> These cards have locked bios.
> Do: atiwinflash -unlockrom 0
> 
> before you try to load the other bios.
> Where did you get the new bios you are flashing it in there? This card from Asus DOES unlock for sure. Unless Asus did something very wrong with those cards recently.



Does the -unlockrom 0 command refer to a specific PCIe slot or something? Or at least the 0 part of it? If it is then maybe that's the reason I can't get it to work...
I use the command prompt method and while there is a progress bar on screen for a split second after pressing enter, nothing about something being verified pops up or shows up in the command prompt window.


I just can't understand why it doesn't work at all. Not a single ASUS reference 6950 2GB card has been unable to flash so far.


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## reddie007 (Jul 4, 2011)

Dr. Phd said:


> Does the -unlockrom 0 command refer to a specific PCIe slot or something? Or at least the 0 part of it? If it is then maybe that's the reason I can't get it to work...
> I use the command prompt method and while there is a progress bar on screen for a split second after pressing enter, nothing about something being verified pops up or shows up in the command prompt window.



0 is the adapter number; if you would have 2 cards in the system, the one in the first PCI_E would be the 0 , the other one would be 1
try if atiflash can comunicate correctly with your card (-i 0   = to display information abt the card)

integrated mobo cards are often not valid cards for atiflash, but you should anyway be sure any integrated graphics card on the mobo is disabled prior to any of the experiments


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## Dr. Phd (Jul 4, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> 0 is the adapter number; if you would have 2 cards in the system, the one in the first PCI_E would be the 0 , the other one would be 1
> try if atiflash can comunicate correctly with your card (-i 0   = to display information abt the card)



The same happens as when I try to use it the guided way. For a split second I see a progress bar on screen but that's it. Nothing else happens.

I managed to "print screen" at the exact moment the progress bar shows up:





But other than that, absolutely nothing happens.


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## reddie007 (Jul 5, 2011)

Dr. Phd said:


> The same happens as when I try to use it the guided way. For a split second I see a progress bar on screen but that's it. Nothing else happens.
> I managed to "print screen" at the exact moment the progress bar shows up:
> But other than that, absolutely nothing happens.



u sure that you have the bios switch in the right position? (the other bios is not flashable)
I'd try usb stick with dos and atiflash (not atiwinflash). other than that, I am out of ideas


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## Dr. Phd (Jul 5, 2011)

Yeah the switch is on the "1" position. 
I just don't get it. Is there nobody else who uses this reference model from Asus? I've never heard of this issue before and the techpowerup chart lists that not a single Asus card doesn't unlock.

I have since tried THIS as well but I hit the same wall. I never see a window confirming the flash happened (and rightly so because it doesn't).


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## Vargtass (Jul 5, 2011)

Switch it to position 2 and flash, worked for me.


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## Deleted member 67555 (Jul 5, 2011)

Post for marking useful or pointless sections of a thread


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## Dr. Phd (Jul 6, 2011)

Vargtass said:


> Switch it to position 2 and flash, worked for me.



Really? Isn't that a read-only BIOS?


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## renq (Jul 6, 2011)

There are ALWAYS exceptions to a/the rule!


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## Jakoozie (Jul 6, 2011)

Hello,

Unloking my MSI R6950 Twin frozr III OC Edition, to 6970 went wrong!
Already changed the bios position boton and restarting over and over, the pc even goes to the bios or even gives any beep.

Any help please.
Best


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## loube (Jul 7, 2011)

The Switch is not to enable the secondary bios it is to change the fan profiles from normal to performance.  I would see about getting a secondary vid card and trying to reflash the stock bios.  Link below explains the switch and has pretty pictures.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-r6950-twin-frozr-iii-power-edition-oc-review/5


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## Migelo (Jul 9, 2011)

Hi guys, I have a problem. I tried flashing my 2GB HD6950 power color with the provided bat file but only the frequencies changed, sharders remained. Then I flashed some other BIOSes (from sapphire and powercolor) with no success. Only the frequencies were changing. 

Then I downloaded RBE, aquired the bios file from backup (switch == 2) , unlocked the sharders and flashed it back to the card with switch set to 1. But it didn't change anything, if I read the bios file on switch == 1 it says that sharders should be unlocked but GPU-Z says otherwise. 

Any ideas?

Regards, Migelo


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## Skywalk (Jul 10, 2011)

This is strange.
My 1x6950 works well with the unlock.
But the 2nd one seem glitchy?







I miss a few stats displayed to the far right.
Could any of you tell me what's wrong?

EDIT: Paring the lower stat card up with the normal unlocked running card makes the lower value apply on both cards - hence it being in the first slot.
Do you think it's slot mitchmatch?

2nd EDIT: Changing slots won't work. It by default in CFX chooses the lowest value :/


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## WhitePrQjser (Jul 11, 2011)

*Which ones are unlockable then?*

Hi!


Wow, there has been some major development on the 6950s, eh?

I couldn't read through all the pages, but can someone answer these questions:

1. Which of the non-reference design cards are unlockable as of today?
2. Can the PowerColor (with dual fans), PowerColor Vortex II or the Club3D (almost identical to the first mentioned PowerColor) be unlocked?
3. Is there a FAQ up on this yet?

Problem is that here in Denmark, there are almost no reference design cards left!  Only ones that cost the same as 6970.

I'm building a rig for a friend, and he's going for a black/red theme - hence the 3 different cards mentioned.

Help me, please!


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## Dr. Phd (Jul 11, 2011)

So I've tried what Vargtass said and nothing changed. Still seeing the progress bar for a split second but then nothing.
How the hell is this not working on a reference card!?


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## HammerHand (Jul 12, 2011)

I'm very confused, someone please help me:
On the article we are asked to make sure the switch is on 1 position. Running flash to 6970.bat tells me to put it on 2 position! I have a Sapphire HD 6950 2GB and I hear they flash well. Can someone tell me which position to put the switch on? 1 or 2.
Thanks. I'm on the verge of flashing it any second 

p.s. Sorry if this has been answered before, but frankly reading 108 pages is scary and I couldn't find a "search thread" button anywhere  Eagerly awaiting...


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## Dr. Phd (Jul 12, 2011)

Normally it's the "1" position.
If you're not sure the documentation included with your graphics card should provide the answer.


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## HammerHand (Jul 12, 2011)

Thanks Dr. Phd for the quick reply. I'll try and post the result soon.

p.s. The funniest thing happened. The card flashed alright, checking GPU-Z it showed what it should: GPU Clock @ 880MHz, Memory 1375MHz. Here's the funny part: in Catalyst Control Center's AMD Overdrive clock is still at 800MHz while the Memory has changed to 1375MHz!!! I guess it's because I had already enabled (unlocked) the Overdrive and the default value for 6950 clock is 800. Do I need to manually put it on 880 when Overdrive is enabled? Cuz when it's not enabled, I'm sure the current value reads 880 at its peak... How about the additional 20% power? I'm worried about overheating and/or card damage  I'm a noob when it comes to tweaking GPUs...


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## WhitePrQjser (Jul 12, 2011)

How about my question, anyone?


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## gizmo1981 (Jul 13, 2011)

Hi all,  Newbie here.

I'm new to shader unlocking and the likes,  And I wanted some advice off you good helpful folks on this forum on whether or not the following card can be unlocked,  I'm not sure of it's revision but it is..

PowerColor HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI 2mini DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
Product Description

Graphics Engine - RADEON HD6950
Video Memory - 2GB GDDR5
Engine Clock - 800MHz
Memory Clock - 1250MHz (5.0Gbps)
Memory Interface - 256bit
DirectXÂ® Support - 11
Bus Standard - PCI-E 2.1
Display Connectors - DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/2* mini DisplayPort
Maximum Resolution
VGA - 2048x1536
DVI - 2560x1600
DisplayPort - 2560x1600
HDMI - 1920x1200
Power Specs + Board Dimensions
Board Dimensions - 275mmx111.2mmx38mm
Minimum System Power requirement (W) - 500W
Extention Power Connector - Two 6-Pin Express Power connectors

And that information is taken from  -> Ebuyer


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## loube (Jul 13, 2011)

From the looks of the card I would say Highly unlikely to unlocking.


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## gizmo1981 (Jul 13, 2011)

What about  This?

Sapphire HD 6950 FLEX Edition 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Mini DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card

Specification
Output
1 x Dual-Link DVI
1 x HDMI 1.4a
2 x Mini-DisplayPort
1 x Single-Link DVI-D
GPU
800 MHz Core Clock
40 nm Chip
40 x Stream Processors
Memory
2048 MB Size
256 -bit GDDR5
5000 MHz Effective
Dimension
270(L)x110(W)x40(H) mm Size.

500 Watt Power Supply is required.
2 X 75Watt 6-pin PCI Express power connector is required.


Ideally I need a 2GB 6950 that CAN be unlocked with no issues for under £250 brand new,  Can anyone Advise?


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## loube (Jul 13, 2011)

Something more like this(Reference Design).  Has the blower fan in the back of the card.  I think it is still not guaranteed to unlock to 6970.  I here there are laser cut shaders on the newer revision cards.  In the US there is a 50 dollar difference between 6950 and the 6970.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129171

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127555


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## HammerHand (Jul 13, 2011)

@gizmo1981: I'm not really one to talk about which cards unlock and which cards don't. Reference cards manufactured in the early 2011 generally would unlock, but something tells me AMD has disabled this features in more recent releases. (That's perhaps why so many people are complaining here as to why their new Sapphire doesn't unlock) I myself unlocked a Sapphire 6950 2GB last night, but I'm guessing where I live high quality cards remain on shelves for long and I'm pretty sure mine was manufactured dome months ago. But I repeat, I myself am new here, so you should wait to get a pro's advice.

I got a question of my own. Today I was playing F.3.E.R and the card kept restarting my computer due to overheating only after 10 minutes of playing tops. Later I manually put the fan on constant 45% so it took more than an hour to go above 82-83 degrees and restart again! Then, I decided to run a 15 round loop of Metro 2033 on rather high quality (it takes 15 minutes) and no restarting!!! The final temp was almost 90 and the fan was around 45-46% on auto... My question is: could a specific game (like F.3.E.R cause the card to think it's overheating and as a result restart?!? 
Thanks in advance for your patience reading this


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## gizmo1981 (Jul 13, 2011)

Can anyone advise if http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-ati-radeon-6950-hd-800mhz-2gb-pci-express-2-1-hdmi-79BQ.html Would be able to be unlocked to 6970?

My options are quite limited considering that many online retailers now stop selling the reference design cards and are now selling updated versions.

Thanks

:edit:
I posted this like 6 times ,  thinking it wasnt refreshing the page lol,  sorry admins!


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## loube (Jul 13, 2011)

gizmo1981 said:


> Can anyone advise if http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-ati-radeon-6950-hd-800mhz-2gb-pci-express-2-1-hdmi-79BQ.html Would be able to be unlocked to 6970?
> 
> My options are quite limited considering that many online retailers now stop selling the reference design cards and are now selling updated versions.
> 
> ...



This card looks like your best option, Good luck!
Manufactures Model #:  HD-695A-CNFC
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144544


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## gizmo1981 (Jul 13, 2011)

loube said:


> This card looks like your best option, Good luck!
> Manufactures Model #:  HD-695A-CNFC
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144544



Many thanks!  I can see on dabbs that they have 19 on order so I'll definitely order one in for myself!

Oh and,  One more thing.
Would you happen to know where I can obtain the bios files and flasher to unlock to 6970?

That way I can download all the needed files and then unlock the same day the card arrives lol.

Thanks again loube,  You've been quite helpful on this


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## reddie007 (Jul 13, 2011)

Dr. Phd said:


> So I've tried what Vargtass said and nothing changed. Still seeing the progress bar for a split second but then nothing.
> How the hell is this not working on a reference card!?



another idea: try to swap the card to different PCIE slot...  if any chance, I'd try in another computer.. simply missing the point, why it would not work ???

are you able to save the bios from the card at all? just to ensure the atiwinflash/atiflash can communicate with that card at all?


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## Anastaciu (Jul 13, 2011)

Excelent post, I modded my Asus HD6950, works fine, I only have one problem, when I install Asus smartdoctor it says it can't find grafics information, do you know how to solve this? thanks


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## Anastaciu (Jul 13, 2011)

To complete the information, I used the Asus HD6970 bios, not the saphire one...


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## Zimster (Jul 14, 2011)

So I followed the post in the original article to the dot, using all the files and instructions there. After a few minutes of not even doing anything intensive, my screen just starts shifting around. After a while it just crashes and I can hear sound for a few moments, but that eventually stops as well and my whole computer crashes.  I rebooted a few times with the same result. I tried leaving the clocks as they were and only using the shaders but that yielded the same result. I flashed back to the original BIOS and everything is fine.

Any ideas as to what the problem was?


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## jonathan1107 (Jul 15, 2011)

Seeing there seems to be about 100~ pages in this article...

Could anyone help me get up-t0-date about overclocking the radeon 6950?

I have a XFX 6950 2gb and a HIS 6950 2gb in CF... They're both "shaders unlocked" only...

Here are my Questions:

*1. Is there any new concrete info about the "safety" of flashing 6950 to 6970 bios? Is it still dangereous to do this? Have there been any discoveries about "how to push the 6950 further without permanently damaging it???"

2. Is it really worth it to push the 6950 clock speeds further than the CCC Overdrive limits ???

3. What exactly is there to gain when you OC a radeon 6950? something like 10-15% perf boost? And what about when you're using them in CF ???

Basically, I haven't checked in for radeon 6950 OC info for the last 4 months... so is there anything new I should know ???*


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## godslam (Jul 16, 2011)

I have a Diamond Radeon HD 6950 and I flashed it to an HD 6970 with success, but once the computer restarted there was nothing to display. I'm wondering what it is that's wrong. I tried the modified Diamon .bin and still nothing. Any help is appreciated.

I'm pretty sure it's not booting at all actually.


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## jonathan1107 (Jul 17, 2011)

*I'd like an answer pls...*

Bump, I'd still like an answer to my questions in RED plzzz


----------



## godslam (Jul 17, 2011)

jonathan1107 said:


> Seeing there seems to be about 100~ pages in this article...
> 
> Could anyone help me get up-t0-date about overclocking the radeon 6950?
> 
> ...



I'll try and answer to the best of my ability.

1. If you have the correct card then the chances of running into issues are pretty slim. Pushing anything over its listed limits is chancing it.

2. I guess it depends on the person. The risk-reward factor is there. If you want to risk it all, you can end up with a card that is much better than before. 

3. This one I'm not sure about. You gain a performance boost, but I'm not sure how great it is.


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## doveman (Jul 17, 2011)

I've got a Powercolor 6950 2GB (non-reference) that shader unlocked with RBE no problem. I've also used Afterburner to overclock it to 900/1350 @ stock 1.1v (without editing the .cfg file).

What's puzzling me is that the article shows an increase of 50W and 27FPS in Furmark when PT is set to +20%, but when I tried it, it didn't make any difference (I've tried at +5% increments from 0-20% as well). I've been testing with GPU Tool rather than Furmark, but I'd still expect to see a noticeable increase in consumption and it loads the card to 98%.


----------



## WhitePrQjser (Jul 17, 2011)

doveman said:


> I've got a Powercolor 6950 2GB (non-reference) that shader unlocked with RBE no problem. I've also used Afterburner to overclock it to 900/1350 @ stock 1.1v (without editing the .cfg file).
> 
> What's puzzling me is that the article shows an increase of 50W and 27FPS in Furmark when PT is set to +20%, but when I tried it, it didn't make any difference (I've tried at +5% increments from 0-20% as well). I've been testing with GPU Tool rather than Furmark, but I'd still expect to see a noticeable increase in consumption and it loads the card to 98%.



Could it possibly have been this one?

http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=624065

Don't mind the Danish 

If it is, could you PM me how exactly you did it starting from 1.? Kinda like a little guide?


----------



## r2edu (Jul 17, 2011)

I recently bought one XFX HD-695X-CNFC 2GB vA.1, and no dual-bios switch in it, neither two phisical bios chip, only one inside the card so I take the cooler out and bridge the pins 8 & 3 (as I read in other forum or in other thread here)... 

Now the card flash ok (before the bridge I get the "Could not erase rom" error) but now ATIWinflash via CMD finish the work and ask me to reboot but nothing change... 1408 Shaders

I tried via DOS with Atiflash, flash ok, but nothing...1408 Shaders

@cadaveca: Could you tell me please what version number is yours? Mine is A.1, so I think it might be flashable cause I got another XFX HD-695X-ZNFC 1GB vA.1 with dual-bios switch and unlock ok...

I am really stuck here, tried everything, RBE, script mod, with drivers, without drivers, with different flags in Atiwinflash, etc, etc....

By the way, could you upload the bios modded of your card just to see if that work in mine?

Thank you and sorry for my english (I´m from Argentina)


----------



## doveman (Jul 17, 2011)

WhitePrQjser said:


> Could it possibly have been this one?
> 
> http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=624065
> 
> ...



Yep, same card. Rather than PM you I thought I'd post here in case anyone else can benefit.

It's been a while since I did it, so I can't be precise but basically:

1. Dump BIOS from Card (maybe using GPU-Z)
2. Load BIOS into RBE and tick "unlock shaders" and save modded BIOS
3. Upload modded BIOS to card (with switch in whatever position is NOT the read-only backup). I think you can do this from within RBE
4. Reboot and check that GPU-Z shows increased shader count
5. Test with GPU Tool or Furmark to check it's stable (I didn't, but it's a good idea)
5. Install Afterburner 2.1 and increase core and memory clocks to 900/1350.
6. Test with GPU Tool or Furmark to check it's stable


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## WhitePrQjser (Jul 17, 2011)

doveman said:


> Yep, same card. Rather than PM you I thought I'd post here in case anyone else can benefit.
> 
> It's been a while since I did it, so I can't be precise but basically:
> 
> ...



What do you mean by #3? 

And thank you very much!


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## jonathan1107 (Jul 18, 2011)

bump, I'd still like you guys to give me more info about my questions in RED from ealier (same page as this: page 109)


----------



## r2edu (Jul 18, 2011)

jonathan1107 said:


> Seeing there seems to be about 100~ pages in this article...
> 
> Could anyone help me get up-t0-date about overclocking the radeon 6950?
> 
> ...



For what I know/read:

1) NO. "Use it at your own risk" claims all the pages/forums/info about that.. In my knoweldge the mems on those cards are different, so IMHO there is no perceptible change between Only Shaders Unlock + OC and 6970 bios in a 6950.. perhaps a 5-10%? Does this percent make you take that risk?

2) No problem with that, if you dont rise the Vcore too much it´s like any other card.. test and error, temps, etc...

3) It´s up to you and your needs... if you need a 6950 CF, unlocked + OC I think you might have a 30" at 2560x1920 at least... any other way doesn´t make sense to me...

This is my opinion, I´m not an expert... so maybe you are better waitting for another answer 

Good luck!


----------



## doveman (Jul 18, 2011)

WhitePrQjser said:


> What do you mean by #3?
> 
> And thank you very much!



On the card there's a switch. In one position, it makes the card use the backup BIOS, which is read-only, and in the other position it uses a flashable BIOS, so the switch needs to be in that position (I think it's position 1) before you can flash the card with your modded BIOS.


----------



## WhitePrQjser (Jul 18, 2011)

doveman said:


> On the card there's a switch. In one position, it makes the card use the backup BIOS, which is read-only, and in the other position it uses a flashable BIOS, so the switch needs to be in that position (I think it's position 1) before you can flash the card with your modded BIOS.



Once again - thank you! 

And, what do you mean by uploading the BIOS? Got confused :/


----------



## elvis0305 (Jul 18, 2011)

Unfortunately it doesn't work for my gigabyte hd6950 1G, used RBE to enable Unlock 6950->6970 option (ticked "6970 shader count"), saved the new BIOS, and freshed it into my card, reboot.. the shader count is still 1408 ! Any help?


----------



## b0uncyfr0 (Jul 18, 2011)

elvis0305 said:


> Unfortunately it doesn't work for my gigabyte hd6950 1G, used RBE to enable Unlock 6950->6970 option (ticked "6970 shader count"), saved the new BIOS, and freshed it into my card, reboot.. the shader count is still 1408 ! Any help?



Trust me elvis you are not the first to try. Ive even bought the soic clip and tried to hard-flash and it still didint work. Take it from me, forget about it and overclock the hell out of the card. 

We were lucky to get a very nice cooler so you should be able to get at least 920/1300. Monitor your temperatures though.


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## T_L_O_T_D (Jul 18, 2011)

hey guys
i wanted to unlock my xfx 6950 2 gb and it's reference model. first i used xfx 6950 2gb modded bios to unlock shadders .  and i successfully unlocked additional shadder. but problem is i tried to use 6970 xfx 2 gb. when i flashed my bios. my memory clock change to 1375.but core clock is still stock (800) . i checked in gpu-z texture fill rate is 76.8.  i increased core clock to 880 but after i lunch a game at the beginning it will stop. but with 1375 memory clock and 800 core clock game is stable. i tried using second method i mean using Msi after burner version 2.1. first of all i flashed with modded bios and tried to increase voltage but in Msi after burner this option is disabled. so i tried to increase voltage via modifying  bios in RBE.i've set voltage to 1.1. i flashed card with modified bios but after restarting windows won't boot. and i should place bios position to second position to boot windows again. any idea what should i do? 
p.s: my psu is 585 watt.


----------



## doveman (Jul 18, 2011)

WhitePrQjser said:


> Once again - thank you!
> 
> And, what do you mean by uploading the BIOS? Got confused :/



I mean flash the modded BIOS to the card.


----------



## ehmdjii (Jul 19, 2011)

so after all i did manage to use this physical mod to flash my sapphire 9650 1gb. 
i used rbe to set the shaders to 9670. saved the new rom. 
used winflash and i said flash was ok!

unfortunately i still only see 1408 shaders instead of 1536


----------



## T_L_O_T_D (Jul 19, 2011)

ehmdjii said:


> so after all i did manage to use this physical mod to flash my sapphire 9650 1gb.
> i used rbe to set the shaders to 9670. saved the new rom.
> used winflash and i said flash was ok!
> 
> unfortunately i still only see 1408 shaders instead of 1536



cuz it's n't unlockable


----------



## WhitePrQjser (Jul 20, 2011)

doveman said:


> I mean flash the modded BIOS to the card.



How? :S


----------



## TORCH'D (Jul 20, 2011)

can someone please post how to do it with 1GB card ?
pics will be much of help,..

thanks​


----------



## Alchemist (Jul 21, 2011)

Hi, I've got a PowerColor 6950 2GB and I've tried everything and I cannot even unlock any shaders.. Really frustrating! I've used the Wizards toolkits, made sure it is unlocked and every time I reboot after a successful flash my system fails to boot. reset to position 2 again.. restart.. I've tried most of the bios in the list, I've tried RBE to unlock shaders, I just cannot get it to work. I am using a reference card, have the bios switch, and know what I am doing.. cannot use the atiwinflash gui, have to use through cmd, only have one card, running win7 x64 on Q6600, overclocked 3.2GHz, even running the rig at stock (thinking the overclock could be screwing it up) - no joy..
I'm really rather frustrated with this, and some help would be greatly appreciated. I understand it is not a given that this will work, but not even being able to unlock the shaders?? As I've said, I've used the tools provided by Wizzard and modded by RBE (funnily enough that boots, but no extra shader in GPU-Z.0.5.4..) could the shaders be lasered off I've heard mention?
Nothing.. Nada.. Zilch.. it's not like I can take it back to the shop and say, sorry, cannot flash this card, give me a new one.. 
Has anyone else had this type of fault? I've been reading the forums but after 20+ pages, I had to go to bed; I've flashed the &^*% out of this card, and well, I'm about to give up and resign myself to having a nice shiny new 6950 that refuses to be anything but a 6950.. 
Thanks to Wizzard and everyone else for all your input over the thread, and if anyone does have any ideas... please share!! 
Cheers in advance, one very unhappy and by the sounds of it, rather unlucky 6950 2GB owner..


----------



## arroyo (Jul 21, 2011)

@Alchemist

Question: Is it reference card? And if I say reference I mean, is it have reference PCB and reference cooler?
Possible answers:
Answer 1: Yes, It is reference. (It can be modded.)
Answer 2: No. But looks similar to the reference. (Give it up! It won't mod.)
Answer 3: No. It is totally different. (Give it up! It won't mod.)


----------



## Alchemist (Jul 21, 2011)

@arroyo
Thanks for your response. Checking I cannot see an AMD sticker on the PCI slot.. so I guess it's non-reference.. gutted.. however, the 6950 is a kicking card, so I'll guess I'll have to be happy with what I have.. 
what I don't get, is why put a bios switch on a card that has not the possibility of being flashed, or is it just easier from a production line point of view? and why would Powercolor disable this feature??
anyway, rhetorical questions only.. 
Cheers


----------



## Skywalk (Jul 26, 2011)

Hmm - did my own unlock of the cards i have. 2x6950.
One of the cards shows as:

"PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x8 2.0"

How come it won't show @x16 like the other one?


----------



## WhitePrQjser (Jul 27, 2011)

Skywalk said:


> Hmm - did my own unlock of the cards i have. 2x6950.
> One of the cards shows as:
> 
> "PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x8 2.0"
> ...



Do you have two PCI-E slots which both are at x16?

My PCI-E slots are x16/x8/x4, which means my GTX 460s operate at x8/x8


----------



## Skywalk (Jul 27, 2011)

WhitePrQjser said:


> Do you have two PCI-E slots which both are at x16?
> 
> My PCI-E slots are x16/x8/x4, which means my GTX 460s operate at x8/x8



Rampage II Extreme: "3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 support at x16, x8, x8, or dual x16 speed"

But seems to me it's the first time showing in GPU-Z :s


----------



## WhitePrQjser (Jul 27, 2011)

Skywalk said:


> Rampage II Extreme: "3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 support at x16, x8, x8, or dual x16 speed"
> 
> But seems to me it's the first time showing in GPU-Z :s



Could be a GPU-Z issue... Try downloading the latest


----------



## Skywalk (Jul 27, 2011)

For some reason, it's showing dual x16 correctly now.
Wierd. But thanks White.
Forgot to look it up at that angle


----------



## WhitePrQjser (Jul 28, 2011)

Skywalk said:


> For some reason, it's showing dual x16 correctly now.
> Wierd. But thanks White.
> Forgot to look it up at that angle



No problem, Skywalk  Have fun with your cards!


----------



## hermalina (Jul 31, 2011)

i got one problem, might seem silly to most of you, but I can't flip the switch on my card. I found the thing using the instructions, but when I got to it, the thing won't move...

I bought the entire machine like month and a half ago, with a MSI ATI Radeon HD6950 (2gb). 
I am suffering random problems with the card too, like, the screen would randomly move itself so that half of the screen that should be on left side goes to right, and vice versa for the right side...It is usually followed by random lines(like white noise almost) across one part of screen too, if I am in a fullscreen application... That's what made me consider upgrading the card to 6970, hoping the problems would go away...
the funny bit is, the card itself on it's casing has HD6970 inscribed, not HD6950.


any help would be mucho mucho appreciated.

here is a link to machine I got, i know most of you won't be able to read the language, but you will get the idea coz the configuration shows step by step:
http://www.gigatronshop.com/racunari/gigatron_blackbird-10068


----------



## dxaniz (Jul 31, 2011)

if i buy a XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB now, can it still be unlocked? or have they locked the cards so its not unlockable anymore?


----------



## polarizeme (Aug 1, 2011)

Hey all, not sure if this has been covered at all yet or not, but here goes...

There are currently three different VisonTek cards circulating for sale.
1) reference card w/ fan in the back
2) a revision card w/ reference pcb, two fans and bigger heat pipe configuration
3) full revision card w/ new pcb and fan in the middle

Chances are, you will receive #3 if you're buying now. I know that VisionTek (stated by them on the phone) has limited amounts of #2 in stock and will absolutely allow you to RMA #3 for #2.

1 & 2 are absolutely firmware flashable. 1 is obvious, but 2 is 100% flashable; I know because I just did it. No issues. Took like 5 minutes for unlock, flash, reboot, OC'ing. =]

So, if anyone is curious about the VisionTek 2GB cards specifically, read what I said above and apply it to these images:

1) looks like this:






2) looks like this:





3) looks like this:





Hope this helps, friends.

Cheers!


----------



## xTr3me (Aug 1, 2011)

Hey,
I flashed my Sapphire 6950 with a 6970 bios in January this year, the card was running fine the last 7 month but now I`m getting artifacts when using Tesselation (Crysis 2 , Heaven Benchmark)
I`m wondering if this artifacts are caused by flashing the bios or not? In the meanwhile I decided to use a modified 6950 bios because I heard it`s safer because of the higher vram voltage in the 6970 bios. However I have still artifacts anyway, is there any way to slove this problem?


----------



## Fapestar (Aug 3, 2011)

Sorry if i'm bringing up a super old thread

I'm trying to see if I can Unlock my HIS non-reference 6950 2gb using the method below.

But is there a list of cards which have succesfully unloked shaders usng the method shown in this vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn-6HDuCCsg


*PLEASE DO NOT ANSWER YES OR NO IF YOU 1. ARE SPECULATING 2.HAVE NO PROFF OR RECOLECTION 3. ARE ASSUMING.*


----------



## splurgenxs (Aug 4, 2011)

i have tried everything ..but nothing seems to work.. 
The ati winflash (when i used this method atiwinflash -f -p 0 modded.bin) give me a loading screen and then closes down half way then nothing happens... does anyone  else have the same prob?
IM using a sapphire 6950 with no bios switch and the fan is in the center .. on windows 7
Can  i even mod my card? PLZ help


----------



## HoundComputers (Aug 11, 2011)

*Xfx hd 6950*

I have tried to flash my XFX HD 6950 using the manual method and the provided package. It seems to go through the whole process, doesnt say verified but looks to be completed and gets to the reboot prompt. After rebooting both times i check GPU-Z and it still shows shaders at 1408 unified. Any idea what i need to do to flash this?


----------



## manofthem (Aug 11, 2011)

HoundComputers said:


> I have tried to flash my XFX HD 6950 using the manual method and the provided package. It seems to go through the whole process, doesnt say verified but looks to be completed and gets to the reboot prompt. After rebooting both times i check GPU-Z and it still shows shaders at 1408 unified. Any idea what i need to do to flash this?



Is that a Reference XFX 6950 2gb?  My ref xfx flashed fine, but I had to do it through cmd


----------



## HoundComputers (Aug 11, 2011)

How can you tell if it is Reference or not? It may be.


----------



## manofthem (Aug 11, 2011)

HoundComputers said:


> How can you tell if it is Reference or not? It may be.



Look up at post 2744; it breaks down which card is which.


----------



## HoundComputers (Aug 12, 2011)

Mine appears to be a Reference card. This is the one I have http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=93094&srkey=P450-6958

Can this one be flashed?


----------



## r2edu (Aug 12, 2011)

I got the exact same model as yours, 695x-cnfc, no dual-bios -> no switch

I made the bridge mod but no luck neither, doesn´t unlock

BTW, is not a reference model, the reference from XFX is the 695A


----------



## HoundComputers (Aug 12, 2011)

Yea i have tried everything on this forum with no luck. Anyone else have any ideas on how to unlock this?


----------



## erocker (Aug 12, 2011)

r2edu said:


> I got the exact same model as yours, 695x-cnfc, no dual-bios -> no switch
> 
> I made the bridge mod but no luck neither, doesn´t unlock
> 
> BTW, is not a reference model, the reference from XFX is the 695A





HoundComputers said:


> Yea i have tried everything on this forum with no luck. Anyone else have any ideas on how to unlock this?



If your card (hound) is like r2edu's card I really don't think it is possible.


----------



## Malign (Aug 18, 2011)

Hello, I have a HD 6950 Power Collor with 2 BIOS switches. I tried to install the sapphire BIOS to the first switch but it wouldnt boot anymore. I booted from the second switch and followed the recovery steps on this site but somehow i must have messed up and the card cant boot anymore in both switches? :S Does anyone knows how to make my pc work again? I already gave up on adding additional shaders.


----------



## pivo (Aug 18, 2011)

Anybody knows about shader unlocking on a Asus 6950 Direct CU II ? what do you think should i take the risk, so i could have a 6970 like card with better cooling, or should i take the Asus reference 6950 for the same price(!) ?


----------



## manofthem (Aug 18, 2011)

Malign said:


> Hello, I have a HD 6950 Power Collor with 2 BIOS switches. I tried to install the sapphire BIOS to the first switch but it wouldnt boot anymore. I booted from the second switch and followed the recovery steps on this site but somehow i must have messed up and the card cant boot anymore in both switches? :S Does anyone knows how to make my pc work again? I already gave up on adding additional shaders.



Try these instructions:




littlej said:


> Nope you can flash a card in the second slot (thank goodness!!).  I booted up with my original HD 3870 in the primary slot and my dead HD 6950 in the secondary slot.  The second PCI-E slot's ID is 1.  So the commands with atiwinflash change ever so subtly (I've underlined the changes),
> Instead of *atiwinflash -unlockrom 0* it's *atiwinflash -unlockrom 1* to unlock the ROM for the video card in the second PCI-E slot.
> Instead of *atiwinflash -f -p 0 {BIOS BINARY FILE}* it's *atiwinflash -f -p 1 {BIOS BINARY FILE}* to flash the video card in the second PCI-E slot.
> And voila, that's all it took.



originally from pg 87, post 2165 of this thread.  There's likely more info on that page; take a gander


----------



## Footman (Aug 19, 2011)

Such a shame:

I just bought a pair of HD6950's the Sapphire Dirt 3 edition with dual fan, dual bios and 5 heatpipes, to replace a pair of GTX 560Ti's as I am moving to 2560x1440 resolution and wanted the extra 1gb of vram.











I just tried flashing them and was unsuccessful. I wanted to enable the extra shaders only so here is the proceedure I followed.

Used GPU-Z to save original bios as bin file.
Loaded this in to RBE and then enabled extra shaders and saved the bios as a new bin file.

I placed the bin file in my winflash folder, moved the bios switch to position 1, rebooted the computer and booted in to dos where I successfully flashed each card separatly. 

After this, I reinstalled the latest cat 11.8's and brought up GPU-Z to look for increased shader numbers and was disappointed to see 1408 still on both cards...

I tried to reflash with the bios using winflash in windows and in a cmd window and I was told that I had already flashed the cards with this bios image.

Can I conclude that my flash was successful but these cards are not able to utilize all shaders or am I missing something here?

Thanks for advice...


----------



## Footman (Aug 19, 2011)

Just used Wizz's PHP scrip to try again and Winflash. Sad to say that I still have 1408 shaders on both cards.... This sucks, some reviews have successfully unlocked the shaders on this card. I can't imagine that I am missing something here, I have flashed many cards in my time, mainly Nvidia granted...

Guess my 6950's are not able to be modded.... Shame, at least I can run at 920 x 1375 in CF so all is not lost.....


----------



## qbrix (Aug 19, 2011)

Footman said:


> Just used Wizz's PHP scrip to try again and Winflash. Sad to say that I still have 1408 shaders on both cards.... This sucks, some reviews have successfully unlocked the shaders on this card. I can't imagine that I am missing something here, I have flashed many cards in my time, mainly Nvidia granted...
> 
> Guess my 6950's are not able to be modded.... Shame, at least I can run at 920 x 1375 in CF so all is not lost.....



I also have that Sapphire card, bought it here:
SAPPHIRE 100312-1GDP Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GD...

I've also tried the various methods mentioned out there, but still NOTHING at all. Very disappointed


----------



## Pnorth (Aug 20, 2011)

I just bought one of these (sapphire 6950 dirt 3 edition) and tried to unlock it.
Wasn't successful at first but then i tried rbe to unlock shaders and
it worked. I only used the 6950-6970 fix and flashed with atiwinflash.


----------



## Ceremco (Aug 21, 2011)

Flashing worked. It has the shaders unlocked and can change the speeds, but cannot change the power.





I have a Sapphire HD 6950 2GB


----------



## manofthem (Aug 21, 2011)

Ceremco said:


> Flashing worked. It has the shaders unlocked and can change the speeds, but cannot change the power.
> http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/447/novoltageincreasehd6950.jpg
> I have a Sapphire HD 6950 2GB
> http://media.sapphiretech.com//imag..._2DVI_PCIE_FBC_634414111226423131_600_600.jpg



Check the box to enable manual fan control, then adjust the slider, followed Apply.


----------



## Ceremco (Aug 22, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Check the box to enable manual fan control, then adjust the slider, followed Apply.



Thats not the problem here. I can't ajust the power control setting sure I can adjust the slider for that, but it has no effect 1.175V is default for the 6970


----------



## manofthem (Aug 22, 2011)

Ceremco said:


> Thats not the problem here. I can't ajust the power control setting sure I can adjust the slider for that, but it has no effect 1.175V is default for the 6970



The power control setting will not change the 1.175V you see in gpuz. If you want to increase the voltage, you'll need a different program, like MSI AB.  Even then voltage, I think, doesn't change in gpuz.  The power control settings, +20 for instance, increase TDP on your card, effectively allowlng more wattage before it throttles clock speeds so you get the most out of overclocking.


----------



## SanderValk (Aug 25, 2011)

*Hey*

I hadn't slept for 2 days and i foolishly flashed both the bioses, is there a way to undo this crime, im on a very old gpu at the momentm neither of the bioses will boot up.

club 3d hd6950


----------



## manofthem (Aug 25, 2011)

SanderValk said:


> I hadn't slept for 2 days and i foolishly flashed both the bioses, is there a way to undo this crime, im on a very old gpu at the momentm neither of the bioses will boot up.
> 
> club 3d hd6950



Look up st my post #2758, and follow the info there. It also directs back to an earlier page with more on your problem.


----------



## SanderValk (Aug 25, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Look up st my post #2758, and follow the info there. It also directs back to an earlier page with more on your problem.



She lives once again! THANK YOU


----------



## manofthem (Aug 25, 2011)

SanderValk said:


> She lives once again! THANK YOU



Awesome, glad it worked for you!


----------



## epa (Aug 26, 2011)

qbrix said:


> I also have that Sapphire card, bought it here:
> SAPPHIRE 100312-1GDP Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit GD...
> 
> I've also tried the various methods mentioned out there, but still NOTHING at all. Very disappointed


thats not the dirt3 edition.
yours has 1 gb mem.
i have the same problem as footman,flashing went fine(altough the bios switch was by default on the locked rom,so i had to flip it first to be able to flash)
first i tried rbe mehtod with only the shaders unlocked,
then i tried forcing a 6970 bios,and corupted it.
so  i flipped switch>boot>flip back>reflash and al is fine ,but ofcourse still no extra shaders 
btw i used a booable stick and atiflash.

@ footman my bios checksum= 0xC500 , bios size=0x20000
is that yours 2?
i could not find any bios with the same cheksum.
any help would be apreciated.
edit/ i also used the script in post 381 ,it flashed but stil no extra shaders.


polarizeme said:


> Hey all, not sure if this has been covered at all yet or not, but here goes...
> 
> There are currently three different VisonTek cards circulating for sale.
> 1) reference card w/ fan in the back
> ...



so they are flashable but somehow it doesn't work here.


----------



## Nicokeller (Aug 30, 2011)

*Desperate*

What should I do now ? The flashing thing just wont work, and my card doesn't have the switch button. Please please please, tell me something that can fix that =(

Thanks.


----------



## manofthem (Aug 30, 2011)

Nicokeller said:


> What should I do now ? The flashing thing just wont work, and my card doesn't have the switch button. Please please please, tell me something that can fix that =(
> 
> Thanks.



Flash the stock bios back.


----------



## Nicokeller (Aug 30, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Flash the stock bios back.



The program is refusing to recognize the GPU. I try to click on Load Image, but nothing happens... I'm REALLY scared right now.


----------



## manofthem (Aug 30, 2011)

Nicokeller said:


> The program is refusing to recognize the GPU. I try to click on Load Image, but nothing happens... I'm REALLY scared right now.



Which card are you running?  Does the card boot up into windows?  
Try flashing it the other way, running CMD as admin and flashing it through CMD prompt. 
Or if that doesn't work, try using another card and flashing the 6950 in the second slot, assuming you have another card and another slot...


----------



## Nicokeller (Aug 30, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Which card are you running?  Does the card boot up into windows?
> Try flashing it the other way, running CMD as admin and flashing it through CMD prompt.
> Or if that doesn't work, try using another card and flashing the 6950 in the second slot, assuming you have another card and another slot...



I'm here by this method... And I'm not being able to force to flash the original BIOS in the card... Any thoughts ?


----------



## manofthem (Aug 30, 2011)

Nicokeller said:


> I'm here by this method... And I'm not being able to force to flash the original BIOS in the card... Any thoughts ?



I didn't personally encounter any problems flashing my bioses. but if available, I'd throw in another card and try to flash the 6950 in the second spot. It's worth a shot.


----------



## Nicokeller (Aug 30, 2011)

manofthem said:


> I didn't personally encounter any problems flashing my bioses. but if available, I'd throw in another card and try to flash the 6950 in the second spot. It's worth a shot.



I think you didn't understand... I'm doing that ATM. When I open the Atiwinflash, it doesn't fill the slots. Actually, it does, but with random things. And when I press Load Image, it wont load anything, not even save...


----------



## epa (Aug 30, 2011)

seems it doesnt see the adaptor.
so maybe id 1 is wrong,or maybe some bios setting disabled the 2e pci-e slot.
there is a command in atilash to see witch card is witch.
maybe use a pci grafics card to boot and put the 6950 in the fisrt slot and flash with the switch 0


----------



## unchiu (Aug 30, 2011)

*shaders unlock problem*

Hi, 
I have 2 Sapphire 6950 dirt 3 edition. One has serial nr xxxx4 and one xxxx7, so  they are identical. I succeded to unlock shaders in the first card, by modifying the original bios. When I start programming the bios, a message that this verion is already in, I pressed Continue and the image froze. I reset the computer after 3-5 minutes and I saw that shaders were unlocked.
The second card succesfully write the unlocked bios, but the shaders were not modified. I tried several times with atiwinflash and with modified batch file "flash_back_to_6950.bat". Nothing worked. If I write the modified bios from the first card windows is not opening.
Please advice.
Thank you


----------



## epa (Aug 30, 2011)

unchiu said:


> Hi,
> I have 2 Sapphire 6950 dirt 3 edition. One has serial nr xxxx4 and one xxxx7, so  they are identical. I succeded to unlock shaders in the first card, by modifying the original bios. When I start programming the bios, a message that this verion is already in, I pressed Continue and the image froze. I reset the computer after 3-5 minutes and I saw that shaders were unlocked.
> The second card succesfully write the unlocked bios, but the shaders were not modified. I tried several times with atiwinflash and with modified batch file "flash_back_to_6950.bat". Nothing worked. If I write the modified bios from the first card windows is not opening.
> Please advice.
> Thank you


hi i also have a dirt edition,witch flashed but no unlocked shaders.
my bios checksum= 0xC500
where is the serial nr you mean?
and witch card was succesfull,the xxxx7 or the xxxx4 ?
could u post the original and modfied bios from your first card here?also post the bios of the other one,i can compare with hex compare program to see 
if /where it differs.
tnx


----------



## unchiu (Aug 30, 2011)

epa said:


> hi i also have a dirt edition,witch flashed but no unlocked shaders.
> my bios checksum= 0xC500
> where is the serial nr you mean?
> and witch card was succesfull,the xxxx7 or the xxxx4 ?
> ...



Serial no. of the video card (on the sticker from the card). I just tried to say that my cards are from same series. The one with xxx4 was sucessful.

I compared hex from the first and secon card, original with modified. First card have 6 differences and the second one (the one with problems) only 5 differences. If you figure it out please post solution here.


----------



## epa (Aug 30, 2011)

i hope i can help you and myself.i have a look

ok 
your xxxx4 and xxxx7 and my original bios are identical.
i tryd flashing your xxxxx4 880 mod bios gives me a bsod.
then i lowered the clock speed to normal in your mod bios then it was ok ,but no shaders.
then i compared your mod bios normal speed with my rbe modded bios normal speed 3 differences in hex???

tomorrow i do some more comparison with the bat file mod bios and check the card for number.


----------



## unchiu (Aug 30, 2011)

Please check this file also, found it later... I don't remember exactly which one is uploaded and worked, but if you said that the 880 one is with problems, then this must be the right one.


LE:
Added new saved bios from shaders unlocked working card rom and bin versions.


----------



## JotaSX (Aug 30, 2011)

Sorry i cannot ready everything so ai will ask i have a HD695X-CDDC from XFX and i cant unlock the shaders. Someone can help ? Thanks!


----------



## Arcus (Aug 31, 2011)

Hey thanks for the great thread, just received my MSI 6950 twin frozr iii today , ( got it just before Newegg deactivated them) Used atiflash from a bootable usb and flashed it to the R6950PEX.BIN bios from this article http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/msi_r6950_twin_froz_iii_power_edition_unlocking,1.html.
Clocks are the same but shader count is now at 1536! 

 I basically followed the directions in the article to the letter and worked on my 1st attempt.

The new BIOS also seems to have COMPLETELY  unlocked the Clock limits in Overdrive!

Before I did anything to the card, (just installed it and loaded the latest drivers-ccc) i ran gpu-z and noticed my VDDC offset is 1.20000. I tried to google and find if this is normal for my card, seems high to me for default voltage from the factory.

Its after Midnight here and I have to work in the morning, ill try to find Max stable/performing clocks tomorrow. this card is really quiet btw I  MSI





MSI X58M
I7 920 @4.0Ghz (200x20) 1.27v W/ Noctua NH-D14
24GB kingston Hyperx (6x4GB) @1600Mhz 1.65v 9-9-9-27-1T
MSI 6950 TFIII PE/OC unlocked to 1536 shaders
OCZ Vertex2 120GB SSD (OS drive)
1TB WD Black 7200rpm (Data Drive)
650W Antec EarthPower

(The reason I have 24gigs of RAM is I install almost all my games to a RamDisk, then save the image to my storage drive and just load whatever game installation image I want to play in to Memory.) My Ramdisk reads at ~9500MB/s compared to My SSD at ~250MB/s


----------



## reddie007 (Aug 31, 2011)

Arcus said:


> Before I did anything to the card, (just installed it and loaded the latest drivers-ccc) i ran gpu-z and noticed my VDDC offset is 1.20000. I tried to google and find if this is normal for my card, seems high to me for default voltage from the factory.



congrats to the unlock, good to hear that at least some of the new cards are still able to unlock.. where+when did you buy it exactly?

I bought mine at Czech republic, 2 months ago, no luck unlocking the shaders.

For your high voltage, the gpu-z doesnt display it right. Download latest beta of MSI Afterburner and in the settings, set your GPU type to 1150mA, unlock voltage monitoring and voila, you will see that the real voltage during 3D mode is 1149mA.
Let me know your OC results. I was not very successful with that, reaching max 940Mhz on 1259mA


----------



## Arcus (Aug 31, 2011)

reddie007 said:


> where+when did you buy it exactly?



Purchased from Newegg.com.
Ordered it 8-24-2011
 They were "out of stock" but still listed, I really like MSI and the reviews I read for this card so I checked every night for about a week and on Wednesday 8-24-11 they were back in stock, I ordered it. Checked back the next day with thoughts of crossfire, and they were "deactivated". MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III PE/OC Radeon HD 6950 2GB ...



MSI X58M
I7 920 @4.0Ghz (200x20) 1.27v W/ Noctua NH-D14
24GB kingston Hyperx (6x4GB) @1600Mhz 1.65v 9-9-9-27-1T
MSI 6950 TFIII PE/OC unlocked to 1536 shaders
OCZ Vertex2 120GB SSD (OS drive)
1TB WD Black 7200rpm (Data Drive)
650W Antec EarthPower

(The reason I have 24gigs of RAM is I install almost all my games to a RamDisk, then save the image to my storage drive and just load whatever game installation image I want to play in to Memory.) My Ramdisk reads at ~9500MB/s compared to My SSD at ~250MB/s


----------



## reddie007 (Aug 31, 2011)

Arcus said:


> Purchased from Newegg.com.
> Ordered it 8-24-2011
> They were "out of stock" but still listed, I really like MSI and the reviews I read for this card so I checked every night for about a week and on Wednesday 8-24-11 they were back in stock, I ordered it. Checked back the next day with thoughts of crossfire, and they were "deactivated". MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III PE/OC Radeon HD 6950 2GB ...



nice... let know whats your max stable overclock


----------



## Nicokeller (Sep 1, 2011)

Hello Guys.
I'm back again... Now I finally am able to write new bioses in my GPU, however, ANY of the bios in the GPU bios database works on my board...
I mean... They flash and all the stuffs, but when I start up windows, it won't recognize my GPU... Well... It recognizes as an HD 6950, but the shaders, gpu clock, memory clock, everything is "unknown".
I'm ALMOST sure that it isn't working, because all these bioses on the database are from ATI (under the HIS "tab"), and it's not working at all... 
I'm REALLY hoping that some awesome soul would share with me a 6950 HIS IceQ X 2GB original Bios, or at least a Bios which works for my HIS card..

Thanks in advance!
Nico


----------



## epa (Sep 1, 2011)

unchiu said:


> Please check this file also, found it later... I don't remember exactly which one is uploaded and worked, but if you said that the 880 one is with problems, then this must be the right one.
> 
> 
> LE:
> Added new saved bios from shaders unlocked working card rom and bin versions.


i tryed the other cayman shaders 4 ,doesnt unlock shaders:shadedshu
i took detailed pics of my card without cooler.
maybe  we can compare with card that is unlockable.
also ,the  modded bios with rbe is different from modded bios with bat.file page 381,also different from your cayman shaders 4?
they al flash ok but no free shaders.
pic1
pic2
edit/ looking@ the bottem of the gpu ,upper left corner there are 2 resistors missing r3605 and r3601(if i read it right)maybe they suply power 2 the missing shaders?


----------



## Nicokeller (Sep 1, 2011)

Ok. What's happening here ?
The bios flashes sucessfuly but seems like it didn't 

I`m trying to flash with the bios provided in the gpu database, and no, I didn`t backup my bios image FML (I think, cuz the one I think is my backup, keep acting the same way)

Anyone ?


----------



## pacifist (Sep 2, 2011)

Hello Guys.
i have a XFX HD6950 XXX Edition 2GB GDDR5 (HD-695X-CNDC) (830/5200) and i cant unlock the shaders. Someone can help ? Thanks! With kind regards Vitaly

PS I flash a video card a bios modified an utility from Wizzard (Mod_BIOS_HD_6950) http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip 
nothing changed, the amount of shaders had remained former  - 1408


----------



## unchiu (Sep 2, 2011)

epa said:


> i tryed the other cayman shaders 4 ,doesnt unlock shaders:shadedshu
> i took detailed pics of my card without cooler.
> maybe  we can compare with card that is unlockable.
> also ,the  modded bios with rbe is different from modded bios with bat.file page 381,also different from your cayman shaders 4?
> ...



Well.... please mark on the picture the missing resistors so I will compare with my card 4. I hope they are not on the GPU side because I don't want to remove the cooler.

I found this on the internet... If I understand correctly it may be a cause for non unlocking shaders:
"Just to add my personal note on this matter. There have been many reports of people not being able to unlock their cards despite MSI's confidence that the card will unlock. This may be due to recent batches of the cut down Cayman GPU being laser cut and thus rendered unable to unlock. So please do this at your own discretion and beware that in flashing the card, you will also void your warranty but there are ways to avoid that... Should the flash be successful but fail to unlock the extra shaders, you will still get the benefits of an increased overclocking headroom in MSI Afterburner. As soon as more info is available from MSI, the article will be updated."


----------



## epa (Sep 2, 2011)

look here  @ the bottem of the card.
if they are lasercut,then from now on,al 6950 should be hard locked.
hopefully not.
best thing is to compare to see any differences.


----------



## unchiu (Sep 3, 2011)

epa said:


> look here  @ the bottem of the card.
> if they are lasercut,then from now on,al 6950 should be hard locked.
> hopefully not.
> best thing is to compare to see any differences.



Both my cards look just like yours. The resistors are there and they are black. Here is a picture with card 4. Just press the button to download.


----------



## epa (Sep 3, 2011)

hm your eyes and camara are better then mine
i think i give up on it.probably hard locked.
ill keep an eye on this thread.


----------



## ctn (Sep 4, 2011)

Have you guys noticed that the 6950 overclocks better with a 6970 bios vs a shader unlocked 6950 bios esp on the memory. I could max out the slider on the memory on the 6970 bios but on the 6950 shader unlocked bios, it would artifact over 1375.


----------



## Mason69 (Sep 9, 2011)

Has anyone been able to flash this one:







?????

If yes, how??


----------



## broon (Sep 10, 2011)

Just bought a Sapphire 6950 Dirt 3 2gb which I was planning to unlock the shaders on. I've noticed that GPU-Z is reporting that the GPU is Antilles and that the device id is 671D. Is that normal? Can I still go ahead and unlock the shaders?






Edit: Just realised I can't unlock the shaders using RBE, that option is greyed out because the hardware ID on the card is that of a 6990. What's going on here?


----------



## epa (Sep 10, 2011)

broon said:


> Just bought a Sapphire 6950 Dirt 3 2gb which I was planning to unlock the shaders on. I've noticed that GPU-Z is reporting that the GPU is Antilles and that the device id is 671D. Is that normal? Can I still go ahead and unlock the shaders?
> 
> http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/11/09/09/azp.png
> 
> ...


i could not unlock my shaders with my saphire dirt3 2 card,as you have probably read above.
unchiu has2 identical card's 1 unlocks, the other one doesnt.
you could try using the batfile method in post 381(on that page).
you could post your bios here for devellopment,maybe in the future someone is succesfull.


----------



## Mason69 (Sep 11, 2011)

Mason69 said:


> Has anyone been able to flash this one:
> 
> http://www.powercolor.com/pt/show_img.asp?id=313&file=image_a_s.jpg
> 
> ...




?????????


----------



## allocura (Sep 11, 2011)

hello gentlemen, my Saphire 6950 (with the fan on the middle) card does not have the bios switch thingy on it, if I flash it and something goes wrong, can I just plug in the 4850 I have in another PC and flash the original back in?


----------



## loube (Sep 11, 2011)

you should copy your bios and then modify it with the shader script.  Much safer!


----------



## allocura (Sep 11, 2011)

and how do I go about doing that? all the information I've seen comes from the article this thread is about.


----------



## loube (Sep 11, 2011)

you can take GPU-Z and export your bios to a file then you would take this http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip modify your bios as show on this post http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2258094&highlight=mod_bios_+hd_6950.zip#post2258094 then try and flash that back to your card with RBE 1.28


----------



## allocura (Sep 12, 2011)

Thanks a bunch ill try it out.


----------



## losbellos (Sep 12, 2011)

*sapphire hd 6950*

hej, 

I managed to flash my sapphire hd 6950 to 6970.  I had some rendering errors but after setting the power control to +20% it disappeared. 
My setup core: 840mhz, memory:1350mhz 
It seems to work, 25% performance increase in furmark compared to 6950
It is Interesting that the board is black with the flex case design. I thought only the original amd cards are reference design.


----------



## inerax (Sep 13, 2011)

*Does this work this new drivers?*

Hello all, I am running dual 6950's stock. does this unlock still work with the newer drviers?

any changes? thanks all


----------



## loube (Sep 13, 2011)

drivers have nothing to do with flashing.  we need more info, what type of cards do you have?  Look at my post above on this page.  that is the safer way to upgrade your 6950 > 6970.


----------



## Ginnoskie (Sep 14, 2011)

Hey Guys..i Just owned a Sapphire HD6950 reference card..now all i want is to unlock the shaders and not to touch the voltage thing and not to flash it to 6970 because there are many issues about it, also I've already read some comments here that there is a 6950 mod which only unlock's the shaders..does anyone one know where could i get it?? and how to make it happen? can someone give me an idea i really appreciate it..


----------



## broon (Sep 14, 2011)

In addition to my last post, I tried the batfile script on the BIOS from my Sapphire 2gb Dirt3 edition, and flashed with the BIOS that the script created. The flash was successful as far as I can tell, but the number of shaders remains at 1408. I have uploaded the original BIOS.


----------



## loube (Sep 14, 2011)

Ginnoskie said:


> Hey Guys..i Just owned a Sapphire HD6950 reference card..now all i want is to unlock the shaders and not to touch the voltage thing and not to flash it to 6970 because there are many issues about it, also I've already read some comments here that there is a 6950 mod which only unlock's the shaders..does anyone one know where could i get it?? and how to make it happen? can someone give me an idea i really appreciate it..



Look at my post above with the links to do EXACTLY that.  If you have a reference card it works 99% of the time.


----------



## inerax (Sep 14, 2011)

loube said:


> drivers have nothing to do with flashing.  we need more info, what type of cards do you have?  Look at my post above on this page.  that is the safer way to upgrade your 6950 > 6970.



I have XFX 6950 black edition. what is the best way to do this?


----------



## loube (Sep 14, 2011)

If the fan is in the middle of the card it will most likely *NOT* unlock.  You can try this:



loube said:


> you can take GPU-Z and export your bios to a file then you would take this http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip modify your bios as show on this post http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2258094&highlight=mod_bios_+hd_6950.zip#post2258094 then try and flash that back to your card with RBE 1.28


----------



## lukax (Sep 15, 2011)

Hi guys I'm new here and i recently bought a XFX HD 6950 but this card does not have a BIOS switch and it's a nice looking card so what you guys suggest me to do? I didn't open the box yet so I can send back to them and take my money to buy a reference one... but that will take quite a while...







Or should I risk using the RBE to just unlock the shaders?
And if I brick the card by doing a bad flash will it be possible to re flash it using for example the Onboard graphics to log on windows and flash the video card?
sorry for the bad english and thanks


----------



## madpacket (Sep 16, 2011)

broon said:


> In addition to my last post, I tried the batfile script on the BIOS from my Sapphire 2gb Dirt3 edition, and flashed with the BIOS that the script created. The flash was successful as far as I can tell, but the number of shaders remains at 1408. I have uploaded the original BIOS.



I've got the exact same card and tried the same steps as you with no luck unlocking the shaders. Can someone more technically inclined take a look at this supposed Antilles specific bios with a hex editor and see if something else can be done to unlock this card? 

I'm wondering if AMD is running out of Cayman chips and had to resort to selling poor yield Antilles 6990 leftover chips. 

Thoughts?


----------



## SuperLOL (Sep 18, 2011)

Mason69 said:


> Has anyone been able to flash this one:
> 
> http://www.powercolor.com/pt/show_img.asp?id=313&file=image_a_s.jpg
> 
> ...






i have one 

and unlocks 

using the shader script and flash using winflash 


model  AX6950 2GBD5-2DH 


in your picture i see short PCB, my card PCB is larger ....
















sorry i dont speak good english


----------



## madpacket (Sep 18, 2011)

SuperLOL said:


> i have one
> 
> and unlocks
> 
> ...



Your English is fine. Thanks for posting pics of your card. I just ordered the same card to replace my sapphire that won't unlock. 

Few questions about your card,

-Does your card have a dual bios? 

-Are you able to change the voltages? and if so, can you under-volt it as well as over-volt?

-Have you done any overclocking? and if so, how far have you been able to push it with the unlocked shaders? 

Thanks!


----------



## SuperLOL (Sep 19, 2011)

madpacket said:


> Your English is fine. Thanks for posting pics of your card. I just ordered the same card to replace my sapphire that won't unlock.
> 
> Few questions about your card,
> 
> ...




1,- Yes 


2- yes i can but only over-volt with sapphire trixx software
1.100v min - 1.300 max


3- yes 1536 shaders unlock @ 900core 1350 mem 1.1v ( stock ) very nice chip .


very nice card of powercolor in my opinion


----------



## naizarak (Sep 19, 2011)

Yet another noob here looking for recommendations.  I read up on the original mod when it just came out, and am now just about to purchase a 6950, but as I understand, things have changed radically since then.

I assume I'm correct in thinking that MFR's have revised their designs to lock-down on shader unlocking, but at the same time I've seen a lot more tools and methods released and I'm now just way over my head.

I'd really appreciate if someone could have a look at these cards and tell me if any are exploitable; I'm just interested in unlocking extra shaders, not voltage/frequency tuning.

Sapphire 2gb Dirt 3  edition
As I understand this card has a dual-bios feature but isn't unlockable?

Powercolor 2gb
Just looked at the post above mine lol.  Just out of curiosity SuperLOL, how would you rate your card?  I've always thought of Powercolor as some cheap generic brand, but if it's unlockable, OC-able, and pretty cheap, your review will be all I need before I commit.  


MSI Twin Frozr III
I read up somewhere that this card IS exploitable, even though it's non-reference.


XFX 2gb

Thanks in advance for any help. I'm usually very interested in learning these things by myself but the OP is outdated and I'm afraid my eyes won't handle perusing 110+ pages.


----------



## Mason69 (Sep 19, 2011)

SuperLOL said:


> i have one
> 
> and unlocks
> 
> ...



Thanks for your answer, i will take a look at my card and see if it is the same because i think so.


----------



## naizarak (Sep 19, 2011)

Mason69 said:


> Thanks for your answer, i will take a look at my card and see if it is the same because i think so.



Mason69 would you mind looking at this link and telling me if that's the card you have, and whether or not you've been able to unlock it. Thanks in advance.


----------



## lukax (Sep 19, 2011)

bump
can someone answer my question #2816 ? thanks


----------



## LivinShady (Sep 19, 2011)

I would Like to No if  Flash VisionTek 900352 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity


----------



## SuperLOL (Sep 20, 2011)

naizarak said:


> Powercolor 2gb
> Just looked at the post above mine lol. Just out of curiosity SuperLOL, how would you rate your card? I've always thought of Powercolor as some cheap generic brand, but if it's unlockable, OC-able, and pretty cheap, your review will be all I need before I commit.



10 of 10 

runs cool 36 c idle, 66 c full load 35% idle fan 55% fan full load @ 900core (1.1v),  unlock with no problems, need to test more OC and more volt.


----------



## naizarak (Sep 20, 2011)

SuperLOL said:


> 10 of 10
> 
> runs cool 36 c idle, 66 c full load 35% idle fan 55% fan full load @ 900core (1.1v),  unlock with no problems, need to test more OC and more volt.



do you think the card i'm about to purchase would be unlockable? is it the same model as yours?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=292642&CatId=7005


----------



## micromini (Sep 20, 2011)

Man me and my luck! 
I had a Asus 6950 Direct CU II revision B6 that was unflashable! (even tied wizzards script) But i could overclock it in RBE.

Got a new Asus 6950 Direct CU II with revision B8 and that one is unlocks with wizzards script, but if i try to edit the clocks to 6970 speeds in RBE and reflash with the new custom bios i get bluescreens!

i know that this card can handle 890/1350

Anyone?


----------



## loube (Sep 20, 2011)

RBE cannot be used to adjust clock speed or fans, it causes blue screens on the 6900 series cards.  Only thing you could adjust are voltage registers, but usually they are only adjustable on reference cards.  I would use TRIXX or AFTERBURNER to adjust fan curve and clocks.


----------



## micromini (Sep 20, 2011)

loube said:


> RBE cannot be used to adjust clock speed or fans, it causes blue screens on the 6900 series cards.  Only thing you could adjust are voltage registers, but usually they are only adjustable on reference cards.  I would use TRIXX or AFTERBURNER to adjust fan curve and clocks.




Ah yeah remember that now!

Need a clean Asus 6970 Direct CU II then so i can make a modded bin and go that way!
Only problem is that the ones in the vga database is messed around with (not original settings)

Does anyone have a clean original Asus 6970 Direct CU II bios?


----------



## DogSnake (Sep 20, 2011)

Greetings from a new member. I just received my HIS 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2GB from Newegg. Using RBE and winflash, I had no trouble getting the additional shaders unlocked. The original overclock at 840 is there and all running cool and quiet. The card is non reference and had not bios switch. Yes luck was on my side today . Thanks for a great guide and instruction set.


----------



## pacifist (Sep 20, 2011)

pacifist said:


> Hello Guys.
> i have a XFX HD6950 XXX Edition 2GB GDDR5 (HD-695X-CNDC) (830/5200) and i cant unlock the shaders. Someone can help ? Thanks! With kind regards Vitaly
> 
> PS I flash a video card a bios modified an utility from Wizzard (Mod_BIOS_HD_6950) http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> nothing changed, the amount of shaders had remained former  - 1408


?


----------



## DogSnake (Sep 20, 2011)

Since that is a non reference card, take a look at update 2 (http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159). This is the method I used on my non ref.card. You do not want to flash back with a reference bios from what I have read. Hope this helps.


----------



## SuperLOL (Sep 22, 2011)

naizarak said:


> do you think the card i'm about to purchase would be unlockable? is it the same model as yours?
> 
> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=292642&CatId=7005



is the same model but my card comes with large PCB

no idea if yours come with short or large PCB 

use the W1zzard script is the method for any non refence 


sorry with my bad english


----------



## Mason69 (Sep 22, 2011)

SuperLOL said:


> is the same model but my card comes with large PCB
> 
> no idea if yours come with short or large PCB
> 
> ...



Im pretty sure it is the same, just as mine is.
What do you mean by large pcb?? Sorry for the noob question.


----------



## fufnk (Sep 22, 2011)

*Sapphire 6950 Dirt 3 edition - antilles gpu???!*

Can anybody help me with my card - Atiwinflash is showing device ID 0x671D - this is bdw 6990 device ID, RBE is showing me 6990 series card, and original Sapphire overclocking prog - TRIXX is showing: Antilles GPU!  
I have tried anything to unlock my non-reference 6950 2gb dirt 3 edition card to 6970 - but in the RBE, shaders option is gray, because even bios is non reference. Now I realized that my freaking card hasn't got cayman gpu, but somehow has antilles gpu. 

Help and suggestionts wanted  Can anybody explain this to me


----------



## masterff (Sep 23, 2011)

Hi,


i've just attempted this flash on my HIS non reference board, and it's cocked royally up.

i've got vga but it blue screens when loading windows, is there any program available that I can fix this through a dos based command?


even trying my old card as the main card  and having the borked 6950 just connected won't work as windows crashes out all the time.


any help appreciated, also I need a bios for the HIS 2GB as i've lost the backup.



help much appreciated again.


----------



## naizarak (Sep 23, 2011)

fufnk said:


> Can anybody help me with my card - Atiwinflash is showing device ID 0x671D - this is bdw 6990 device ID, RBE is showing me 6990 series card, and original Sapphire overclocking prog - TRIXX is showing: Antilles GPU!
> I have tried anything to unlock my non-reference 6950 2gb dirt 3 edition card to 6970 - but in the RBE, shaders option is gray, because even bios is non reference. Now I realized that my freaking card hasn't got cayman gpu, but somehow has antilles gpu.
> 
> Help and suggestionts wanted  Can anybody explain this to me



Sorry to say it but I think you're card isn't unlockable.


----------



## fufnk (Sep 23, 2011)

The card is very fast, cool and quiet - it can easly OC to 950mhz - maybe even more, but I hate to know it's real gpu potetial is not used  - If it realy has Antilles gpu (like 6990) it would be nice to unlocked somehow


----------



## broon (Sep 27, 2011)

Hi fufnk, I have the same card as you and am also unable to unlock the shaders. My understanding of the 6990 is that the Antilles GPU is pretty much the exact same as the Cayman GPU, except there are two chips on the card. If you look at our 6950's, there is only the one GPU. There's no way to make the card perform like a 6990. I suspect the additional shaders may have been laser cut - which I think means they have been physically disconnected and are unable to be accessed by any type of BIOS flash. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this.

In terms of the overclocking potential, yes, this card does run very cool. I managed to get mine to 950mhz using Sapphire Trixx, and while stable in benchmarks I found games would crash. This was on stock voltage though, so there's a good chance raising the voltage would stabilize it.


----------



## ripsky4501 (Sep 27, 2011)

So I'm a newbie but I've read up a bit on this whole unlocking thing with the 6950s and decided to try it out. I have a Sapphire Dirt3 2GB and a Sapphire Flex 2GB running in Crossfire. By default, both show the 1408 shaders in GPU-Z. I powered down and flipped the switches on both and rebooted. Now, they have the 1536 shaders in GPU-Z.

Is that it? Are there any further steps I should take to increase performance?

Thanks for the help 

edit:
To be clear, I don't want to flash my BIOS to 6970 because I've read about voltage issues and I don't want to risk degrading my cards.


----------



## babourian (Sep 28, 2011)

There is no switch in my HIS 6950 2GB. There are the numbers but no button or switch.WHY?


----------



## Darkleoco (Sep 28, 2011)

Can't wait to try and unlock my Twin Frozr's


----------



## ecms171 (Sep 28, 2011)

Just unlocked my HIS 6950's

Very happy individually, crossfired again and then catalyst chucks a spaz and stops working. Has this happened before?


----------



## Beaverrr (Sep 29, 2011)

Hey lads,

Got a Asus HD6950 2gb DirectCU II - been switching firmwares (both stock and with the shader unlock) and trying different OC's.

Think its running way too hot tho - wondering if I should just remove the heatsink and apply a new paste or just return the card (about 1week old).

Oh and by the way - mine has the bios swich too, so firmware updating was as easy as to any card.


----------



## LivingDaylight (Sep 30, 2011)

Hi all.  I was directed to this thread from reddit as you are the 6950 unlocking experts.

I was looking at cards form my favourite retailer, NCIX (http://www.ncix.com/search/?categoryid=0&q=radeon+6950).

If someone could point out cards in that list that are likely unlockable it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.


----------



## Ginnoskie (Oct 1, 2011)

LivingDaylight said:


> Hi all.  I was directed to this thread from reddit as you are the 6950 unlocking experts.
> 
> I was looking at cards form my favourite retailer, NCIX (http://www.ncix.com/search/?categoryid=0&q=radeon+6950).
> 
> ...



all of them are unlockable as long as it is an HD 6950 reference card..also you can read in this thread that there are some non reference card (the new models that has two fans or the fan is in the middle) which is also unlockable but not all. just read some info in this thread and you'll find out which card is suitable for you.. Good Luck!


----------



## Mason69 (Oct 1, 2011)

Mason69 said:


> Im pretty sure it is the same, just as mine is.
> What do you mean by large pcb?? Sorry for the noob question.



SuperLOL could you answer me? Also can you link me the steps you took to do it??


----------



## bassgoonist (Oct 2, 2011)

I have a sapphire 6950, cayman core. Everytime I try to flash, command line or gui, it looks like its going to, but doesn't, or it just freezes everything.


----------



## gebastos (Oct 2, 2011)

Hi, I have successfully flash HD 6950 from Gigabyte GV-R695OC-1GD
I used this bios and I used this method

In this graphics card does not BIOS switch. 
Verry silent and cold card (max temperature 70c)


----------



## LivinShady (Oct 5, 2011)

Nices Gebastos I wana Flash Mine but i had No Luck Maybe you message me sometime with whole lowdown on everything 
LivinShady


----------



## gebastos (Oct 6, 2011)

LivinShady said:


> Nices Gebastos I wana Flash Mine but i had No Luck Maybe you message me sometime with whole lowdown on everything
> LivinShady



What help is needed?


----------



## KEVK (Oct 6, 2011)

Put a mark down in the "Does not unlock" column for the MSI card. I tried all the options out there. I had our IT guy try in a different computer where he was able to unlock his Asus card and it BSODed for him.


----------



## loube (Oct 6, 2011)

KEVK said:


> Put a mark down in the "Does not unlock" column for the MSI card. I tried all the options out there. I had our IT guy try in a different computer where he was able to unlock his Asus card and it BSODed for him.



Which model MSI card are you talking about?


----------



## KEVK (Oct 6, 2011)

Msi 6950


----------



## loube (Oct 6, 2011)

KEVK said:


> Msi 6950



Again WHICH one?  They have four 6950 models.

http://us.msi.com/product/vga/#?fp=Radeon HD 6000 Series&sk=Radeon HD 6950


----------



## KEVK (Oct 6, 2011)

Mfr: MSI	**
Model: R6950 TWIN FROZR II
FRYS.com*#6559683	**
UPC: 816909080957


----------



## kokalo (Oct 6, 2011)

Hi all,

my sapphire dirt 3 edition unlocked the shaders with the bios switch: 

SKU: 11188-05-50G
P/N: 299-1E186-520SA

my pixel fillrates are lower than normal

should i try RBE?






also is it safe to leave it like this and overclock, or should I again use RBE to edit the original bios?

edit: Just saw that the fill rates rise with overclocking. so I have only the second question. Should I use RBE?


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## epa (Oct 6, 2011)

kokalo said:


> Hi all,
> 
> my sapphire dirt 3 edition unlocked the shaders with the bios switch:
> 
> ...



best is to overclock with software to be safe.you can go even past the ccc limits with saphire overclock program.

could you post the bios you flashed,and original bios please?


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## kokalo (Oct 6, 2011)

epa said:


> best is to overclock with software to be safe.you can go even past the ccc limits with saphire overclock program.
> 
> could you post the bios you flashed,and original bios please?



I did not flash the bios I just flipped the dual bios switch.  I am attaching it.

Only the shaders unlocked, I have overclocked to 6970 clocks with trixxx and I have a gpu voltage of 1.1 which is the 6950's voltage if I'm not mistaken. If it is does it mean it's a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders?


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## autior (Oct 7, 2011)

Hi guys, only one question: I just unlocked the shaders of my MSI 6950 Twin Frozr III with WinFlash and I would like to know if I have to modify the PowerTuner slider (inside the Catalyst Control Center) to +20% as mentioned in this article.

Thanks.


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## gebastos (Oct 7, 2011)

autior said:


> Hi guys, only one question: I just unlocked the shaders of my MSI 6950 Twin Frozr III with WinFlash and I would like to know if I have to modify the PowerTuner slider (inside the Catalyst Control Center) to +20% as mentioned in this article.
> 
> Thanks.



this is not necessarily


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## autior (Oct 7, 2011)

gebastos said:


> this is not necessarily



Even if I want to oveclock the card?


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## Darkleoco (Oct 7, 2011)

Just to clarify having two of the same video card works just as well as a Dual BIOS switch as long as I flash one card at a time?


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## gebastos (Oct 7, 2011)

autior said:


> Even if I want to oveclock the card?



If you want to flash + overclocking then ( +20% PowerTune) increase gives more stability when working.


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## autior (Oct 7, 2011)

gebastos said:


> If you want to flash + overclocking then ( +20% PowerTune) increase gives more stability when working.



Ok, thanks for your help.


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## epa (Oct 7, 2011)

kokalo said:


> I did not flash the bios I just flipped the dual bios switch.  I am attaching it.
> 
> Only the shaders unlocked, I have overclocked to 6970 clocks with trixxx and I have a gpu voltage of 1.1 which is the 6950's voltage if I'm not mistaken. If it is does it mean it's a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders?


yes your bios is the same as a standart 6950 bois with unlocked shaders(like rbe modded)
i checked and its bit for bit the same.
but in my saphire dirt 3 it doesnt unlock shaders.
seems it is pretty random with those cards,wether it unlocks or not(your lucky)
2 pages back someone has 2 of these cards 1 unlocks ,the other doesnt.


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## xgimp (Oct 10, 2011)

Hello

I have an XFX HD 6950 2GB (695X-CNFC VA.1) which has the following specifications:

CAYMAN PRO BIOS Hill GDDR5
ATI-ATOMBIOSBK VER013.010.000.007.039363

And I'm trying to unlock .. but I'm not succeeding .. I have tried to unlock the scripts and
also use the HD6970 firmware, and some gave nothing 

So I ask noble colleagues .. how can I take to unlock my video card? Please help me! 

thanks


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## thedan82 (Oct 10, 2011)

Hi All,

I have a MSI reference 6950 that I unlocked the shaders and OC to 6970 specs a while back.

Now looking at adding a 2nd 6950 and hopefully unlocking it to run same specs in CF.

I would like to order from the below site ( I am in Australia ) so if someone who is up on the recent models can please take a look at the models available below and provide a recommendation -

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=193_1179

I know its a bit of a lottery on what new models can be unlocked but thought some might be better then others. 

Cheers
Dan


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## gebastos (Oct 10, 2011)

thedan82 said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I have a MSI reference 6950 that I unlocked the shaders and OC to 6970 specs a while back.
> 
> ...



I sucefully flash this videocard
but i have one problem - but I can not flash back to the HD6950.
in anyway - it's a lottery.


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## gebastos (Oct 10, 2011)

xgimp said:


> Hello
> 
> I have an XFX HD 6950 2GB (695X-CNFC VA.1) which has the following specifications:
> 
> ...



Try using different BIOS versions and different WinFlash version...


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## xgimp (Oct 10, 2011)

friend .. already tried various bios and WinFlash too! and not right! when I put any bios other than the original video card does not boot ..
 please some kind soul try to make the release of my video card.

 thanks


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## loube (Oct 10, 2011)

loube said:


> you can take GPU-Z and export your bios to a file then you would take this http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip modify your bios as show on this post http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2258094&highlight=mod_bios_+hd_6950.zip#post2258094 then try and flash that back to your card with RBE 1.28



Try this it's the safest and performs as well as flashing a 6970 bios.


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## zCamoLegend (Oct 11, 2011)

Would this card unlock ? http://www.computeralliance.com.au/parts.aspx?qryPart=12961


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## vedar (Oct 11, 2011)

I am trying to unlock one of these cards  http://reviewiptv.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Sapphire-HD-6950.jpg a sapphire 2gb.

I have modified the bios image but I can not flash it to the card as I get the error 'cannot erase rom' with atiwinflash. So i ran the command to unlock it which the atiwinflash seemed to run through with no problem, a quick progress bar came up briefly and completed although no message or anything at the end however I then tried to flash the bios again and get the same message 'cannot erase rom'. I assume it is locked in some way, is there any known workaround for this problem?


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## epa (Oct 11, 2011)

xgimp said:


> friend .. already tried various bios and WinFlash too! and not right! when I put any bios other than the original video card does not boot ..
> please some kind soul try to make the release of my video card.
> 
> thanks


you should use the rbe method,to modifie your own bios.even when the shaders do not unlock ,the card still works normal.


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## epa (Oct 11, 2011)

vedar said:


> I am trying to unlock one of these cards  http://reviewiptv.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Sapphire-HD-6950.jpg a sapphire 2gb.
> 
> I have modified the bios image but I can not flash it to the card as I get the error 'cannot erase rom' with atiwinflash. So i ran the command to unlock it which the atiwinflash seemed to run through with no problem, a quick progress bar came up briefly and completed although no message or anything at the end however I then tried to flash the bios again and get the same message 'cannot erase rom'. I assume it is locked in some way, is there any known workaround for this problem?


 flip the switch on the card.


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## branflake12 (Oct 12, 2011)

*Will the 1Gb cards unlock/speed up/etc?*

Hey guys,
I just got an MSI twinFrozr III 1 GB 6950. I found the vortez.net MSI "custom" unlocking BIOS for this. I cant get it to work. Boot to command prompt, write the new BIOS, says its good, card wont boot. flip the swtich back and restore again.

Someone elsewhere said that the 1GB cards wont work. If i cant get the custom BIOS (really a tuned 6950, not a true 6970) to work, can i at least unlock the voltage slider? (tried just changed the afterburner.cfg to =1, but no go) or get the OC'ing limits raised?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!


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## Logoman (Oct 13, 2011)

I also have XFX 695x CNFC (Nonreference, no Bios switch)
and when i use the unlock command, a progress bar goes to 40% and disappears
and when i try to flash with Wizard's .bin, another progress bar appears, goes to 40% and disappears

needless to say, my shaders remain at 1408
anyone else have luck on this?  Ive also heard that this card can't be unlocked


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## Ginnoskie (Oct 13, 2011)

First of all lets just all leave the unlocking to the reference model ..it has been stated in all over reviews and forums that unlocking the shaders does not really acquire much performance. why would you risk your card for a 5% gain? when you can overclock your card to 10% to 20% more performance than flashing or unlocking it. also flashing it to 6970? of you're lucky enough or your card might be lucky enough it would unlock but then the life span of your card will be shorter..it's like killing you're card slowly. 

By the way I have Asus HD6950 Direct CU II 2gb (EAH6950) and its a really nice card. no need for unlocking or flashingthis one, because i can overclock it 950/1325 without bumping the voltage. and its rock solid!! so in my end i would rather have the new rev. card because for the Two Fans and Large heatsinks they are so powerful when overclocking.

P.S. if you still want to flash you card or unlock it. its you're decision. Im just Opening up my opinion to save your card.


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## doveman (Oct 13, 2011)

I've got a Powercolor 6950 2GB non-ref and that unlocked just fine.

Why do you think unlocking the shaders is any worse than overclocking the card? Both will obviously make the card do more work and run hotter, so both will probably "kill your card slowly" or reduce it's lifespan, but if it's reduced from e.g. 10 to 8 years, I don't suppose anyone will care.

I've just bought an Accelero Xtreme Plus II anyway, which will make the card run much cooler than with any stock heatsink, and quieter. I just used a custom fan profile in Afterburner up till now, to keep the card below a certain temperature, but it was just too noisy for me.


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## cobes1974 (Oct 13, 2011)

*Script Mod*

Hey guys,

card: Diamond HD6950 2gb version 2 (dual fans)

i used the php scirpt used to mod my original 6950 bios and it booted up fine.  when i checked the shaders in gpu-z, i still have stock stats..


i've also tried to use ati's bios mod tool and unlocked the shaders that way as well. after i flashed, half way through post i get a blue screen.

any ideas on how to just get the shaders unlocked and the stock gpu & memory limits raised?


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## Ginnoskie (Oct 14, 2011)

doveman said:


> Why do you think unlocking the shaders is any worse than overclocking the card? Both will obviously make the card do more work and run hotter, so both will probably "kill your card slowly" or reduce it's lifespan, but if it's reduced from e.g. 10 to 8 years, I don't suppose anyone will care.



it's just my opinion though because as i read and search almost all article regarding unlocking and flashing only the lucky one's was able to unlock with no issues and flashing without having any issues. and as what I've said as for the rev. card with those 2 fans and heatsinks it can instantly overcome 6970 with just plain overclocking.


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## Largoh (Oct 14, 2011)

I just got my Asus 6950 2GB DirectCU II. It has a switch on it.
Tried unlocking the card but the shaders always remain at 1408 although the clockspeed changes to 890 and the memory changes to 1375.
I overclocked it to 950 on 1.1v and it runs fine so far.

Stumped about the shaders though.


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## doveman (Oct 14, 2011)

Ginnoskie said:


> it's just my opinion though because as i read and search almost all article regarding unlocking and flashing only the lucky one's was able to unlock with no issues and flashing without having any issues. and as what I've said as for the rev. card with those 2 fans and heatsinks it can instantly overcome 6970 with just plain overclocking.



Guess I'm one of the "lucky ones" 

You're lucky with your overclock. I have to bump my voltage up to 1.174v to run at 920/1375 and my card's stock cooler has 2 fans and a fancy heatsink. To be honest, I don't see any connection between the fans/heatsink and needing to increase the voltage to overclock, and I don't know why some cards can reach a certain overclock at stock volts, whilst others need to overvolt to get there. 

Having a good heatsink should allow you to increase the voltage (and thus the heat) MORE than with a crappy heatsink though


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## Ginnoskie (Oct 15, 2011)

doveman said:


> Guess I'm one of the "lucky ones"
> 
> You're lucky with your overclock. I have to bump my voltage up to 1.174v to run at 920/1375 and my card's stock cooler has 2 fans and a fancy heatsink. To be honest, I don't see any connection between the fans/heatsink and needing to increase the voltage to overclock, and I don't know why some cards can reach a certain overclock at stock volts, whilst others need to overvolt to get there.



Good to hear

what 3rd party program did you use to bump your voltage? I've got MSI AB 2.10 but still i can't bump my voltage even i checked the unlocked voltage control. and set the MS AB.cfg to 1 and unlock the overclocking but still the voltage slider won't work. i want to reach 1ghz and 1400.

Also i have CCC 11.9 but i cant see my ATI Overdrive, the only thing i see is the AMD Overdrive..weird..


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## DnDiene (Oct 15, 2011)

I have a Club3D HD6950 *1gb*

Loaded bios from card with WinFlash. Opened bios in RBE. Set '6970 shader count'. Saved bios. 

Then tried using WinFlash to flash the card but 'Could not erase ROM'

So I tried atiwinflash -unlockrom 0 and then atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.rom. Flash succesfull. But after reboot I get a bluescreen during boot.

Set the switch back to 2 and now it boots. How to proceed? Is it possible for me to somehow still get 6970 shader count?

Thanks!


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## doveman (Oct 15, 2011)

Ginnoskie said:


> Good to hear
> 
> what 3rd party program did you use to bump your voltage? I've got MSI AB 2.10 but still i can't bump my voltage even i checked the unlocked voltage control. and set the MS AB.cfg to 1 and unlock the overclocking but still the voltage slider won't work. i want to reach 1ghz and 1400.
> 
> Also i have CCC 11.9 but i cant see my ATI Overdrive, the only thing i see is the AMD Overdrive..weird..



I dunno. I'm using AB 2.1.0 as well and just ticked the "Unlock voltage control" box under Settings.

I'm still running CCC 11.8 but that only has AMD Overdrive, which is all you need. Not sure why you want to see ATI Overdrive as well.


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## DnDiene (Oct 15, 2011)

DnDiene said:


> I have a Club3D HD6950 *1gb*
> 
> Loaded bios from card with WinFlash. Opened bios in RBE. Set '6970 shader count'. Saved bios.
> 
> ...



Update: I also set upper limit RAM to 1375 while flashing. Just tested without doing that. Now it flashes properly and boots, but gpu-z still shows 1408 shaders and no performance increase in 3Dmark11. How do I proceed? Any hopes of getting my shaders unlocked?


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## Ande (Oct 15, 2011)

Hi guys

I have a sapphire 6950 2Gb Dirt 3 edition.
I fucked up the bios that can be modded..
Can someone please upload a modded bios for The Dirt edition.

Please.. 

/Ande


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## broon (Oct 16, 2011)

See here  for a copy of my unmodified Radeon 6950 Dirt3 2gb bios


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## Ande (Oct 16, 2011)

Hi Again..

broon your bios works fine ... 
But do anyone have a modded bios for Dirt 6950??
Or original with shaders unlocked?



/Ande


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## Ginnoskie (Oct 16, 2011)

doveman said:


> I dunno. I'm using AB 2.1.0 as well and just ticked the "Unlock voltage control" box under Settings.



I've already check the box and set the unlock voltage control.. here are the screenshot:


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## manofthem (Oct 16, 2011)

Ginnoskie said:


> I've already check the box and set the unlock voltage control.. here are the screenshot:
> 
> [url]http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2742/afterburner.jpg[/URL]



Try unchecking "Force Constant Voltage". I have the others checked but not that one.


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## Ginnoskie (Oct 17, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Try unchecking "Force Constant Voltage". I have the others checked but not that one.



been trying that..here's a screenie:





but still i can't bump my voltage.. anyone there can help me how to bump my voltage?


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## gizmo1981 (Oct 19, 2011)

I'm not having any luck either.

Dirt 3 Sapphire HD 6950 2GB  ( Twin fan )
SKU# 11188-05-50G

I've uploaded my Bios,  Anyone fancy modding it to 6970 spec for me?

I would do it myself but I'm a total n00b at this stuff.


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## Maxheadroom (Oct 19, 2011)

*Sooo Which one?*

I've read through the latter half of this thread but unsure which 6950 to go for.

I gather that newer boards, even reference ones with the bios switch, have the shaders well and truly locked down (the ones that come bundled with Dirt 3?). 

That being the case, can someone recommend a card with a switch that can still have the shaders unlocked?

thanks in advance


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## gebastos (Oct 19, 2011)

Maxheadroom said:


> I've read through the latter half of this thread but unsure which 6950 to go for.
> 
> I gather that newer boards, even reference ones with the bios switch, have the shaders well and truly locked down (the ones that come bundled with Dirt 3?).
> 
> ...



Unfortunately no one can accurately advise. Those who successfully flash videocards, now can not flash...
AMD plans to provide updated circuit boards for its graphics cards based on Cayman, Radeon HD6950
new revision of the Radeon HD6950 will give the company an opportunity to block the activation of the device disabled SIMD-blocks, which can now be implemented BIOS version


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## 96accord (Oct 19, 2011)

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I have a MSi 2GB HD 6950 Twin Frozr III card.. 

I've followed two sets of instructions.. 

First set of instructions I followed were here ( http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159 ) which caused after restart the display to stay a solid amber color.. I shut down PC switched the backup bios and started PC. I flashed the primary bios back to original and restarted PC and it seems like I don't see the actual bootup process.. I just have an amber light and then I see the Windows 7 screen.. 

I tried this set of instructions ( http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/msi_r6950_twin_froz_iii_power_edition_unlocking,1.html ) and it seemed to work fine but once I attempted to play Bad Company 2 I had a hard lockup after about 5 mins of playing.. Restarted the PC and tried to play BC2 again and same thing after a few mins... Hard lockup 

I didn't do step 2 in those 2nd set of instructions (http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/msi_r6950_twin_froz_iii_power_edition_unlocking,1.html ) is that bad??

Thanks

-Jeff


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## Rui Silva (Oct 19, 2011)

I'm thinking on buying the "ASUS HD 6950 DCII 2048 MB GDDR5" and I was wondering if i can do this on this card or not? Could someone help me about this!? Thanks a million!!


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## manofthem (Oct 20, 2011)

Rui Silva said:


> I'm thinking on buying the "ASUS HD 6950 DCII 2048 MB GDDR5" and I was wondering if i can do this on this card or not? Could someone help me about this!? Thanks a million!!



More info on this thread.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146745




96accord said:


> Good Afternoon Everyone,
> 
> I have a MSi 2GB HD 6950 Twin Frozr III card..
> 
> ...



Did BFBC2 work prior?  I had hard lockups before in BC2, but they were either related to any GPU utility running (MSI AB or GPUz) or sound/pb problem.  Either way, TPU's review of your card flashed fine.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_6950_Twin_Frozr_III/27.html


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## Rabin (Oct 20, 2011)

Hi , i unlock my Sapphire 6950 to 6970 bios perfect in jumper possition 1 . but i want update 6950 bios in jumper possition 2 to newer and cannot ,all seems goin well but old bios was not changed .did someone try it ?


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## 96accord (Oct 20, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Did BFBC2 work prior?  I had hard lockups before in BC2, but they were either related to any GPU utility running (MSI AB or GPUz) or sound/pb problem.  Either way, TPU's review of your card flashed fine.
> http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_6950_Twin_Frozr_III/27.html



Yes BFBC2 worked fine with my previous card (9800GTX+) and when I first installed the HD6950 card. If I flash the original bios back I don't have any issues with lockups..

I don't have any other games to test and see if I get lockups.. Hmmm Weird. 

I had another question.. I don't get why when I flashed the bios back to stock the monitor light stays amber until it gets to Windows 7 loading screen.. But if i switch to the backup bios switch I can see the mobo startup info when I turn the PC on... 

So what I did was switch to the backup bios.. Save a copy of it.. Switched to primary bios.. Flashed it with the backup original bios and restarted. Still same thing.. Amber Light on monitor then I see the Windows 7 loading screen.. Weird isn't it? Any ideas??


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## manofthem (Oct 22, 2011)

Rabin said:


> Hi , i unlock my Sapphire 6950 to 6970 bios perfect in jumper possition 1 . but i want update 6950 bios in jumper possition 2 to newer and cannot ,all seems goin well but old bios was not changed .did someone try it ?



The bios you're trying to overwrite is your back up stock bios; you shouldn't flash anything to that position. Additionally, you may want to reconsider a full on 6970 bios for a shader unlock only mod, then overclock from there.


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## Maxheadroom (Oct 22, 2011)

jayc said:


> However, the shader unlock only mod uses the bios from your own 6950 to unlock the extra shaders. This keeps voltages at what your ram is rated for. Then overclock it to 880/1375 speeds to match a real 6970, and adjust core voltage to meet your increased core speed



Sorry if this has been answered already (did look, couldnt see it) but what core voltage would that be exactly?


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## iam1simpleguy (Oct 22, 2011)

*flashed 6950 dont show crossfire*

I have successfully flashed 6950's to 6970's.As instructed in the guide ,i flashed it by putting single card.And yes it showed unlocked shaders and clock.So all good,both cards are flashed.

But now i dont see Crossfire in CCC nor second gpu in Device Manger nor in GPUz.
Things i have tried..
Fresh windows install..Tried driver..11.3-11.5-11.10 preview drivers but no success.
triple checked Crossfire bridge.im using single crossfire bridge
tried swaping the cards..
Tried many time to make sure card is properly inserted
triple checked PCI-E cables.
Tried by using only single gpu..just to make sure any card is defected.
Flashed back to 6950 (as original bios was saved)both the cards and yet no crossfire.
Updated bios of my mobo p8p67pro.

And now im out of options and any ideas.Been googleing all sorts of forums but no solution.

Hope anyone here can help me.


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## Alpha1_actual (Oct 29, 2011)

*Help!*

Hello everyone!
And great article Wizzard! Thumbs up for you! I'll also dedicate you a toast if you can help me with this one .
It happens that the first time I tried to unlock the card I got the ''mismatch'' error and it gave me a black screen afterwards. I rebooted thinking I had lost the bios, but to my surprise when I tried to load back the fail safe original bios it said ''Bios already installed''. ''Great I -thought- then nothing bad happened, lets go again'' I re tried doing the steps one by one untill I went for the ''cmd'' mod after reading the article about the flash.
It was then when the bar seemed to load and said ''flash verified '' or something like that so great I thought! Shaders were unlocked before I flashed the board (the previous step untill the final flash when doing it through CMD'' but clocks were under stock : 690 for core and I forgot about memory, I also lost many pipelines and bandwith! after the flash I rebooted and BAM , it wouldn't load. So I switched to ''recovery bios'' then when I got to windows it said the same as before 690 Mhz core 20 Gb/s and 10 Rops...made me think something went nuts.
Then the card wouldn't even boot WITH THE SAFE BIOS ON!...then it'ss when I went WTF you sorry a$$ POS! and treid re tried and did it again untill widows itself deleted ATI display driver and re-installed it. Then it showed stock values again so I calmed down...the hting is that now I'm using stock values on safe bios (Bios 2) and I'm afraid of even trying to go back to Bios 1...mainly because the Safe Bios gave me a error so it might have gotten corrupted.

Any Ideas? 
Sorry for the long message guys, but those details are all important to my concern.
Have a rgeat day!


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## Super XP (Oct 30, 2011)

iam1simpleguy said:


> I have successfully flashed 6950's to 6970's.As instructed in the guide ,i flashed it by putting single card.And yes it showed unlocked shaders and clock.So all good,both cards are flashed.
> 
> But now i dont see Crossfire in CCC nor second gpu in Device Manger nor in GPUz.
> Things i have tried..
> ...


Not sure what the issue is or why the Crossfire is not showing up. Make sure you connected the CrossfireX bridges properly. Sometimes you will need to use 2 x CrossfireX bridges if your card allows for it. 

Perhaps somebody can help you further.


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## derobert (Oct 30, 2011)

hi all! I have Powercolor 6950 AX6950 2GBD5-PPVG http://www.powercolor.com/Global/products_features.asp?id=339 and I was not able to unlock additional shaders  With modded 6950 bios nor original 6970 bios, shader count does not change. So i think im out of luck here. Was someone successful on this card? Thanks.


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## Brazaa (Nov 4, 2011)

Club 3D 6950 2GB Coolstream Edition succesfully bios'd to a 6970.

Thanks for the guide and the tools.


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## shwazemoto (Nov 4, 2011)

I flashed my card when this article first came out, flashe to full 6970 using a .batch file, ( cause it does all the work for you)  I never had any problems but I did flash back to 6950 after ppl where having problems, I want to know how to unlock just the shadders seems like everyone is only unlocking the shadders is there a .batch file for this? If there is one out there can someone give me the link or a link of step by step to unlock shadders. I tried winflash to unlock just shadders before but it did not work might of missed a step.


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## Preacher (Nov 6, 2011)

*MSI power edition wont flash*

I´ve tried winflash and RBE without luck on my MSI 6950 TwinFrozrIII power edition. The BIOS switch options are performance & silent, I tried both and keep on getting ROM write failure, even if I flash out of a cmd window. Any advise is welcome!


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## teude (Nov 7, 2011)

Had to register for this.

Thanks for great article, too bad it didn't work for me as well as I hoped. I managed to flash my card, needed to do 'extra work' and everything looked good. Resolution went weird, so I installed drivers again and thats when problems started. Computer started to freeze on Windows or if it didn't freeze, BF3 or 3DMark 11 didn't work. I tried everything, installing drivers, full sweep with Driver Sweeper, installing DirectX and so on, but nothing. Lastly had to put 6950 BIOS inside and now everything works perfectly.

Card: Asus 6950 DirectCU II 2GB

Thanks anyway!

E: I used Asus 6970 BIOS, not that Sapphire what that article says. Don't know does it matter?


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## itech (Nov 7, 2011)

Hi,
I stumbled accross your article and thought GREAT, I followed it to a T, and downloaded the latest 6970 bios but just didnt work. The system wouldnt restart, nothing came up on screen after shutting down. I switched it back to "2" and got it working again. When it first came back up, the bios (main computer bios), said something along the lines of "your computer did not start because of a voltage mismatch" or similar to that - something about the voltage anyway.

My system:
Intel i7 860
Gigabyte P55-UD6-11
8Gb DDR3 1600
Win 7 64bit
Sapphire 6950 2Gb
HighPower 650W PSU

Interesting exercise, just didnt work. Tried running it using Ati Winflash tool and Subsystems ID mismatch error so used your batch file method - the process worked, but as stated, resulted in the system not restarting, just black screen. Not sure what else to try. Defaults are below.
Cheers
Ian


----------



## shwazemoto (Nov 7, 2011)

I was able to unlock the shaders but CCC wont let me OC past the 840mhz?
any ideas how to get past this or what to use, does rivatuner work?


----------



## SgtxVortex (Nov 9, 2011)

hi guys i have small problem's with unlocking the card 

Frist this BIO maybe not working i don't have switch in my video card (HD RADEON 6950 2GB GDDR's XFX) i look it to my card i bought yesterday for BF 3 anyhelp overhere please

Erorr:http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/641/problemga.png/


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## Mpress (Nov 9, 2011)

*Has anyone seen a bios for 6970 flex yet?*

If your thinking of flashing your 6950 flex edition card.  Dont do it if your planning on using eyefinity.  The card already has the shaders unlocked in bios 1.  And if you flash using any of the standard 6970 bios, you will get all the advantages of the 6970.  But, you will also disable your second DVI port that makes it a flex edition.  So, if you dont care about a 3 monitor eyefinity set-up, flash away.  OK, back to my point of this post.)  If the 6970 Flex BF3 bios gets posted can I get some feedback if its working on the 6950's of not.  Thanks in advance.


----------



## ChristTheGreat (Nov 10, 2011)

Hi! I have a question for you guys.

I tried unlocking my shader on my Powercolor HD6950 1gb with RBE and it didn't worked. I saw there was a PHP pfile that someone people tried and work instead of RBE.

There is just on t hing I worry about. people said that you should use your original BIOS, that you didn't touch with RBE in case for corruption.

I don't remember if I modified the bios to get higher frequencies on the original bios, or I took the one I modified first with RBE and I just uncheck the HD6970 shader and flash back.

Do you think it would be risky to try with the actual bios? Anyway, in the case the card show black screen, with an nVidia card I could boot in dos and reflash?

Thanks for any help, just trying to get the max from my card


----------



## manofthem (Nov 10, 2011)

shwazemoto said:


> I was able to unlock the shaders but CCC wont let me OC past the 840mhz?
> any ideas how to get past this or what to use, does rivatuner work?



MSI AB works well for overclocking. To OC past ccc defaults, enable unofficial overclocking by editing the cfg file in program directory. It's simple, google what to add in.


----------



## twixtel (Nov 10, 2011)

Hi, guys. 
Big problem here.
I tried to flash my PowerColor 6950 to 6970 but it didn't work so i decided to flash the bios back to the original but I forgot to set the BIOS button to the 1 position.
So now my card won't boot neither on 1 nor on 2.
Is there any hope?


----------



## leo766 (Nov 12, 2011)

ok I bought a Gigabyte 695OC 1GB non-referance card on october 2nd 2011 at microcenter in va

just unlocked the shaders, so much for all the BS about laser cuttings, first you must def find the bios chip on the back of the card, and take a circuit pen and connect pins 3 and 8 to over-ride the hardware flash protections(otherwise itll look like u succeeded but u wont, and will think like an idiot that u have a laser cut chip)

the exact steps i took can be found in these two guides:
1) how to unlock the bios hardware lock: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148806
2) this guide is for unlocking a saphire card, but basically i used these steps: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151456

to sum it up, after the circuiut pen trick, go Start->search:uac... then when the screen pops up put the slider all the way down, and restart

then open CMD prompt as admin, and type the usual atiwinflash unlockrom 0 and -f -p biosname.rom

after the flash restart the pc and reinstall catalyst drivers to make sure ur not displaying the wrong number of shaders in GPU-z(if i had a nichle for every time this step got skipped and tards thought their card was locked, i would be bill gates)

finally put UAC back to normal

the only thing i left out is i Used GPU-z to get my normal bios and then modded it with RBE 1.28, i used the older version for atiwinflash that came in the packet from the main article out on techpowerup on unlocking

oh in case u dont believe me heres the proof... i honestly thought 95% sure i would fail, but i guess all the failures with this non-referance card, must come from idiots flashing 2gb bioses on it 

hope this helps 
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/images/attach/gif.gif


----------



## broon (Nov 14, 2011)

I've got a Sapphire 2gb Dirt3 edition. RBE doesn't allow the Unlock 6950 > 6970 option to be selected as it is greyed out. Used GPU-Z to dump the BIOS and the unlock script. Seems to flash ok using atiwinflash, says verified and prompts to reboot. Does this indicate that the BIOS isn't hardware locked?

Anyway, after flash the shader count stays fixed at 1408 in GPU-Z. I have tried using DriverSweeper to clear out the Catalyst drivers after unlock and have reinstalled Catalyst, but no difference in GPU-Z. The GPU on my card is also reported as Antilles in GPU-Z, not sure if that makes a difference. Any suggestions?


----------



## leo766 (Nov 14, 2011)

hey guys if sandra says i have 1408 and gpu-z says i have 1536... which is correct? both are most current versions...

also messing with the gigabyte 6950 1gb oc version, it doesn't seem to support power tune, its factory set to 1.175 and sandra says the card min/max is .9-1.175 and 140W ... is there nothing i can do? i mean if im voltage locked, what about amps?or does powertune simply throttle the voltage regulator? any help on how i can enable this would be greatly appretiated, since i cant seen to do anything in terms of Powertune adjustments at all

broon have you cheaked that you switched the bios switch on your dual bios to the second position(i believe only one of them is actually flashable)

you made to turn off UAC also right? and what version of atiwinflash did you use?


----------



## broon (Nov 14, 2011)

BIOS switch is in position furthest away from crossfire connector. Fairly sure it flashed successfully as winflash verified the flash and asked to reboot.

Edit: After a little more digging it appears this is a problem on cards which identify as Antilles GPU. Any further information on why this is the case?


----------



## leo766 (Nov 20, 2011)

that cant be right...  antilles is the dual GPU 6990 codename... if thats what you have either A)download the newer version of GPUz asap, or B) you don't know that you somehow have a 6990 and are trying to unlock it?


----------



## broon (Nov 20, 2011)

GPUz 0.5.5 reports it as AMD Radeon HD6900 Series with GPU Antilles. Device Manager reports the Hardware ID as VEN_1002 & DEV_671D, which I believe is the hardware ID for a 6990. I'm pretty sure the card only has a single GPU on it though. 

Other people with the Dirt3 edition 6950 seem to have the same issue. GPUz detects the card as Antilles, and upon what appears to be a successful flash, the shaders remain at 1408. 

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33982483

http://www.overclock.net/t/1152156/amd-6950-unlock#post_15469431


----------



## daelric90 (Nov 23, 2011)

Hey guys, I think I'm in need of some help. 

1st off let me say, frak'n awesome find on this simple mod and this is the reason why I bought my two Asus 6950's. 

2nd, my sort of problem... like I said, I bought two Asus 6950's and did the mod to each one separately (one at a time) and it works great with either one but when I install both of my mod'd 6950's (with or without the Cross Fire connector) Windows 7 just sits at the loading screen. 

I tried looking through the several pages but decided to go here and beg for help... so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks ahead of time!!


----------



## GuyM50 (Nov 25, 2011)

Hi all, been an avid follower of this thread and modded a Sapphire 2GB 6950 with 6970 bios without problems a few months back.
Last week I bought another Sapphire 2GB 6950 Twin fan version, it has the switch, sku number is: 11188-05-41G.  I have tried everything suggested here, started with trying to load the 6970 bios (would not boot, had to reflash origibal bios) to using RBE to unlock shaders only: no good... stuck on 1408.   I can't see that anyone has posted anything about a successful mod of this SKU 
Would be grateful of any suggestions.
Thanks in advance


----------



## sprogis (Nov 26, 2011)

daelric90 said:


> Hey guys, I think I'm in need of some help.
> 
> 1st off let me say, frak'n awesome find on this simple mod and this is the reason why I bought my two Asus 6950's.
> 
> ...



Well, I dunno if you un-installed the frivers before you flashed each one? If not, boot into safe mode un-install the drivers and then un-install the App profiles.. Reboot into safe mode and then un-install the video card(s) from device manager. Use a reg cleaner like CCleaner on next boot and clean the registery. Shut down the computer and cut the power to the system, clear the c-moss by removing the battery for 2 min. Then reconnect battery/power and re-install the latest driver an App profiles. I am hoping that this will correct your issues.


----------



## sprogis (Nov 26, 2011)

I have found this guide to be very useful in unlocking the HD6950 cards. They do credit TechPowerUp for it.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1608/5/

I have two Cards in CrossFireX and my validation is here 2rra4. The Part number to my cards are "Sapphire HD6950 P/N 102-C21601-00-AT" If you want to see screen shots of the GPU-Z are here. 

http://forums.canadacomputers.com/showthread.php?tid=1480


----------



## vurubshnut (Nov 26, 2011)

I recently tried flashing a XFX 6950 2G with the latest sapphire 6970 bios after saving the original bios, and although atiflash reported the bios programmed successfully, i only get a black screen now when booting.  

The card does not have the bios switch on it.  Is there anyway to recover from this?


----------



## OOZMAN (Nov 28, 2011)

I have a HIS HD6950, i tried every method listed here, to no avail. I bought it only a few months ago, it DOES NOT have the dual bios switch. Does all the HIS 6950 not have the switch, or just the recent ones? Can I still (in theory) flash it? Or would the bios be read only? Even if its not read only, is it recommended i just leave it as a 6950 in case i brick it?

Also, W1ZZARD, there are quite a few people that this has not worked for, yet on the page it list only a few fails.

Thanks in advance folks!


----------



## AZONIC[rus] (Nov 30, 2011)

*nothing...*

Hi!
I am new here and my English not very good sorry in advance
I have Asus EAH6950 DirectCuII 2 GB. Bought it 1 month ago. It is non-reference card.
I tried to unlock it. First of all I need to say that this card has 2 BIOS. The switch is not only for DVI port but also for bios change. I know it because unlocking wasn't succesful unfortunately

What I've done:
1) saved my bios
2) patched it with W1zzard mod
3a) flashed modded bios with winflash = GPU-z doesn't showed more shaders
3b) flashed modded bios with atiflash through DOS = nothing
3c) re-installed driver -nothing
4) tried to flash it with this
After (4) and after restart videocards doesn't start. PC is loading but no image on screen. Really scary for me...
Then I turned off PC and switched the switch to 1 position... and it works
After that I flashed original bios back. Just switched the switch to 2 position and flashed!

P.S. I tried to use RBE but when I push on "analyze" it says that no ATI card found...

As a result: I want to unlock my card. What should I try?


----------



## hindle8907 (Dec 2, 2011)

Hey Guys my name is Ant, I just got a VTX HD 6950 1GB *Dirt3* With dual BIOS Switch.
Thought I would ask here which is the best way to unlock the shaders or if someone could point me to the correct guide.
Also Can you tell me how to flash the bios of this card back to stock please if one of the two BIOS are not displaying.


----------



## OOZMAN (Dec 2, 2011)

hindle8907 said:


> Hey Guys my name is Ant, I just got a VTX HD 6950 1GB *Dirt3* With dual BIOS Switch.
> Thought I would ask here which is the best way to unlock the shaders or if someone could point me to the correct guide.
> Also Can you tell me how to flash the bios of this card back to stock please if one of the two BIOS are not displaying.



Go to page one and follow the link


----------



## hindle8907 (Dec 2, 2011)

OOZMAN said:


> Go to page one and follow the link



So i need to make a custom BIOS with RBE and FLASH with ATI Winflash. 
IF something goes wrong when unlocking switch the switch over to the other BIOS then once in windows switch the switch back to the faulty BIOS and flash with backedup original BIOS ? 

I read somewhere that its not safe to move the switch while in windows but the guide says its fine ?


----------



## hotshot25120 (Dec 2, 2011)

Hi, I just buy 2 6950 from newegg from the black friday sale and I receive 2 reference design. 

I flash both card to 6970 bios and everithing run fine but the temperature are way too high under load around 98 celcius.

the fan are not running fast they always running at around 20-40% even if the card is at 98 celcius .

anyone else have the same issues ?


----------



## OOZMAN (Dec 2, 2011)

hindle8907 said:


> So i need to make a custom BIOS with RBE and FLASH with ATI Winflash.
> IF something goes wrong when unlocking switch the switch over to the other BIOS then once in windows switch the switch back to the faulty BIOS and flash with backedup original BIOS ?
> 
> I read somewhere that its not safe to move the switch while in windows but the guide says its fine ?



You don't make the bios, you download the one provided. You can flash with ati winflash, or through the command prompt way.



hotshot25120 said:


> Hi, I just buy 2 6950 from newegg from the black friday sale and I receive 2 reference design.
> 
> I flash both card to 6970 bios and everithing run fine but the temperature are way too high under load around 98 celcius.
> 
> ...



Just turn the fan speed up manually with Catalyst Control, something like 65% for the duration of your game, then turn it back down when your finished.


----------



## jonathan1107 (Dec 2, 2011)

Hey guys, I know pretty much all the basics about overclocking the 6950 2gb ref models...

I have 2 in crossfire... I unlocked the SHADERS only (like 7 months ago I believe...) and it's been working fine...

But lately, I've been wanting to try and get a 50FPS solid minimum in Skyrim, and because the game ain't optimized properly it relies a lot on CPU speed and GPU speed helps too (I've tested on a single card using MSI AB)

I've tried the latest drivers and all... but it's not giving me the desired results... So: I'm thinking about flashing the 6970 bios onto both my cards, but I'd like you guys to update me as to if it's safe or not...

7 months ago, there was some talk about how it was "safer to just do the shaders unlock..." and I went that way... Did some reading today and noticed almost no one has had problems in a whole year of OCing those cards with the 6970 bios flashed onto the 6950  card...

So I just wanna get a confirmation from you guys, to see if yall are gettin problems with the 6970 bios or not?

Cause I think I'm gonna go ahead and disable ULPS and do the "unofficial OCing manoeuver" in the MSI text doc and flash the 6970 bios, because I believe I'm gonna get the little boost I need there...

Let me know what you think
Let me know what are you actual clocks with your 6950s flashed with 6970 bios
Let me know what you have experienced with your clock SPEEDs, I'd like to know what you've found to be "stable" and what was "unstable" pls.

Thx in advance for your input ;O)


----------



## AZONIC[rus] (Dec 2, 2011)

Hey! Does anybody know about me? I can't flash my non-reference ASUS 6950...


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## hindle8907 (Dec 2, 2011)

OOZMAN said:


> You don't make the bios, you download the one provided. You can flash with ati winflash, or through the command prompt way.



I have the 1GB card, not the 2 GB.  
The guide says:
 ** Above method is only for 2 GB HD 6950 reference design cards. If you have a custom design or 1 GB card, then use RBE to modify your existing BIOS. Save the BIOS from your card, load it into RBE, enable the shader unlock option on the last tab, then flash that modified BIOS to the card instead of the one downloaded from this page**

that sounds to me like i use my bios to create a new bios with RBE ?


----------



## Gunnett (Dec 3, 2011)

*DIAMOND 6950PE52G Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Cro*

I bought the DIAMOND 6950PE52G Radeon HD 6950 2GB Card on sale on Black Friday at newegg for $229.99. It appears to be the single fan reference design with bios switch rather than the two fan configuration showed on the list page. I followed the instructions provided on techpowerup. ATI Winflash reported the flash of the 6970 BIOS as successful but GPU-Z is not showing a change in the shaders but the clock and memory speeds are boosted to 880 MHz & 1375 MHz respectively. I guess I got one of the cards that has the shaders locked at the die?


----------



## OOZMAN (Dec 4, 2011)

jonathan1107 said:


> Hey guys, I know pretty much all the basics about overclocking the 6950 2gb ref models...
> 
> I have 2 in crossfire... I unlocked the SHADERS only (like 7 months ago I believe...) and it's been working fine...
> 
> ...



So wait wait wait wait.... you've got 2 6970s in CFX, plus an i7 something or other @ 4ghz (system specs) and you cant run skyrim at 50fps? When I can run it at 50fps with a 2500k 4ghz + *SINGLE* 6950. That cant be right man...



hindle8907 said:


> I have the 1GB card, not the 2 GB.
> The guide says:
> ** Above method is only for 2 GB HD 6950 reference design cards. If you have a custom design or 1 GB card, then use RBE to modify your existing BIOS. Save the BIOS from your card, load it into RBE, enable the shader unlock option on the last tab, then flash that modified BIOS to the card instead of the one downloaded from this page**
> 
> that sounds to me like i use my bios to create a new bios with RBE ?



Sorry, wasnt aware of that. If it has the dual bios switch, just try the 2gb bios, and re-flash it if it doesnt work (which will probably be the case). But heck, wont hurt to try, you might come lucky.



Gunnett said:


> I bought the DIAMOND 6950PE52G Radeon HD 6950 2GB Card on sale on Black Friday at newegg for $229.99. It appears to be the single fan reference design with bios switch rather than the two fan configuration showed on the list page. I followed the instructions provided on techpowerup. ATI Winflash reported the flash of the 6970 BIOS as successful but GPU-Z is not showing a change in the shaders but the clock and memory speeds are boosted to 880 MHz & 1375 MHz respectively. I guess I got one of the cards that has the shaders locked at the die?



Update gpu-z


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## jonathan1107 (Dec 4, 2011)

OOZMAN said:


> So wait wait wait wait.... you've got 2 6970s in CFX, plus an i7 something or other @ 4ghz (system specs) and you cant run skyrim at 50fps? When I can run it at 50fps with a 2500k 4ghz + *SINGLE* 6950. That cant be right man...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I've got 2x 6950... both are ref models... I was wondering if you consider it SAFE to flash them with the 6970 bios... I ask this because it's been quite a few months since I last checked... And when I did last check, there was some talk about how the 2 cards are physically different, how they don't have the same type of memory timings and speed... how they have different power pins (6 vs 8) and how it is possible to damage the VRAM which the procedure of flashing the 6970 bios onto a 6950...

Now, what I am inquiring about is this: How many of you have flashed the 6970 bios onto the 6950 and have had NO PROBLEMS for a while?

And about the FPS in skyrim, you have a superior CPU than mine... and the game is VERY cpu bound, much more than GPU... and the crossfire is broken... even with the new drivers, it's very unstable...

Also, I have a hard time believing you have 50 FPS ALL THE TIME... Don't you have drops in towns... This game is known to be a port (in many aspects)... and there are towns where you look in one direction and you get 60FPS, look in the other way and there goes your FPS down to ~30FPS...

Also, all my .ini are tweaked for MAX settings and I've got a few mods and more importantly, I've got my "ugridstoload" @ 7... how about you? That thing eats your computer alive, especially if you put it @ 11...


----------



## Gunnett (Dec 4, 2011)

OOZMAN said:


> So wait wait wait wait.... you've got 2 6970s in CFX, plus an i7 something or other @ 4ghz (system specs) and you cant run skyrim at 50fps? When I can run it at 50fps with a 2500k 4ghz + *SINGLE* 6950. That cant be right man...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



 I have latest verison of GPU-Z 0.5.6


----------



## OOZMAN (Dec 4, 2011)

jonathan1107 said:


> I've got 2x 6950... both are ref models... I was wondering if you consider it SAFE to flash them with the 6970 bios... I ask this because it's been quite a few months since I last checked... And when I did last check, there was some talk about how the 2 cards are physically different, how they don't have the same type of memory timings and speed... how they have different power pins (6 vs 8) and how it is possible to damage the VRAM which the procedure of flashing the 6970 bios onto a 6950...
> 
> Now, what I am inquiring about is this: How many of you have flashed the 6970 bios onto the 6950 and have had NO PROBLEMS for a while?
> 
> ...



I haven't modded any files, and the drop in towns is a cpu thing, coz of all the objects, and yeah, it usually stays around 45-50, I've got quite consistent fps. I had a crappy AMD A8 APU running it before this setup (still with the 6950), and I was getting 20fps in some towns :/. 

But anyway, I haven't flashed my 6950 because I can't, but if if I had one that was able to, and especially if I had 2, I'd flash them in a heartbeat. Earlier in the thread it was mentioned that the extra 2 pins were only ground pins.

If your not sure, just try and read more of the thread.


----------



## Darkleoco (Dec 4, 2011)

I don't think I need to unlock the shaders but why not since I have been overclocking everything recently, going to unlock and run full 6970 clocks as soon as I get the time 

Edit: Oops lol seems i have already significantly exceeded 6970 clocks on my cards lol well I will see what I can do to go farther I guess.


----------



## Darkleoco (Dec 4, 2011)

jonathan1107 said:


> Hey guys, I know pretty much all the basics about overclocking the 6950 2gb ref models...
> 
> I have 2 in crossfire... I unlocked the SHADERS only (like 7 months ago I believe...) and it's been working fine...
> 
> ...



Just out of curiosity why not simply Overclock instead of flashing the 6970 Bios? I am running 945/1440 clocks on both of my 6950's with the normal Bios and if you have the shaders unlocked I really see no point in not simply manually setting 6970 clocks. 

P.S. I would bring up my FPS but I don't feel it would be constructive with my 2600K running at 4.4 Ghz and not having my shaders currently unlocked.


----------



## OOZMAN (Dec 5, 2011)

Darkleoco said:


> Just out of curiosity why not simply Overclock instead of flashing the 6970 Bios? I am running 945/1440 clocks on both of my 6950's with the normal Bios and if you have the shaders unlocked I really see no point in not simply manually setting 6970 clocks.
> 
> P.S. I would bring up my FPS but I don't feel it would be constructive with my 2600K running at 4.4 Ghz and not having my shaders currently unlocked.



If you have 940/1440 clocks with stock 6950 shaders, it still won't be as fast as a 6970. Shader count is much more relevent to performance than mem/core clocks. I was running my 6950 at 940/1440 but it barely gave a 1fps advantage in furmark than when it was at 890/1400, but it got heaps hotter.

Are you using benchmarking software like furmark/3Dmark?


----------



## Darkleoco (Dec 6, 2011)

OOZMAN said:


> If you have 940/1440 clocks with stock 6950 shaders, it still won't be as fast as a 6970. Shader count is much more relevent to performance than mem/core clocks. I was running my 6950 at 940/1440 but it barely gave a 1fps advantage in furmark than when it was at 890/1400, but it got heaps hotter.
> 
> Are you using benchmarking software like furmark/3Dmark?



No I am doing it for a performance increase in my heavily modded Skyrim and without a shader unlock I see a minimum fps increase of around 10-12 going from stock clocks of 810/1250 to my current clocks. Though I am about to test the shader unlock I do think.

Edit: Holding off until after I deal with all my work so I don't spend a long time sidetracked if something goes wrong >.>


----------



## netvir (Dec 8, 2011)

Hello guys,

I'm having an issue with my Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB (100312-3L) that I recently purchased from neweggbusiness on the $215 deal.

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 already 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!


----------



## Razerian (Dec 8, 2011)

I'm having exactly the same issue as you.  I have been looking around and thus far unable to find a solution.  Maybe it has something to do with this card specifically   If anyone more experienced with this has any suggestions that would be appreciated.


----------



## OOZMAN (Dec 9, 2011)

netvir said:


> Hello guys,
> 
> I'm having an issue with my Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB (100312-3L) that I recently purchased from neweggbusiness on the $215 deal.
> 
> ...



Why do you need windows to recognise the shaders? are you unsure if it worked properly? Just do a benchmark test like furmark with switch at 1, then compare with switch at 2.


----------



## vychytraly (Dec 12, 2011)

*6950*

Hi hou

please sorry my english in advance

nowhere I found answer for all of my questions, thats why I ask you, the "inventors" of 6950 flashing 

So here is the problem:

I have Sapphire HD6950 2GB with no BIOS switch (yes I know, Sapphire fu_ked with me so hard)







(yes this one)
It has got blue chip

Question is

is the card unlockable? I just want to unlock shaders, not to flash it with 6970 bios
does this card have the shaders? (it is only 24,5cm long) 
is the unlocking of this card safe?
is it able to repair it if something screws up? (if yes how?)
is it true that this card has hardware lock of shaders and I should do something like this: ?






thank you very very much in advance 

Vychytraly from Slovakia


----------



## scylk (Dec 12, 2011)

I followed this tutorial.

But bios1 position on the picture was my bios2 position... I fucked one bios, and when i tried to recover it by switching bios while my computer was running, i fucked the other one.

I tried atiflash with dos command but i got the error "adapter not found"

Is there a way to fix my card or is it down forever ?


----------



## Carbide (Dec 14, 2011)

*Unlock and overclock*

Hi guys

I've got a Club 3d 6950 2gb.
The card is flashed with a 6970 bios and works fine at: 

CPU 800mhz
MEM: 1350mhz
Temperature IDLE: 40 C
Temperature load: 82 C

I'm trying to push the card to the stock 6970 CPU clock (880Mhz) via CCC but when I push it over 820Mhz I've got stability problems (not due to high temperatures I suppose).
Also improving the CPU voltage (+20% via CCC), I always get a BSOD after few minutes of Crysis 2 (card protection?).
My PSU is a OCZ 700W so I exclude power-related issue.

Any idea about possible causes of instability?
Thanks in advance


----------



## reggaemaster (Dec 16, 2011)

Hi, I need help, you can unlock the shader 6970, in my his iceqxturbo 6950,
know that there is a dual bios, but have read that some users have successfully
is possible or not? anyone know?
purchase card is this http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-611.shtml


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## Ray_Rogers2109 (Dec 16, 2011)

I'm about to purchase the Sapphire Radeon 6950 2GB 100312-3L from Amazon.com in a few days. Can I toggle the switch to position 2 to unlock the shaders before I power on the computer with it installed or should I have it in the 1/6950 position first? Read online and it said the 2 switch has the 6970 shaders pre-loaded, from eteknix.com.
Can anyone verify this please? Would I also need to install DirectX 11 drivers even though I have the latest version of Catalyst already on my system? Stupid integrated 4290...

So, flip switch without turning on computer with card installed to get to 6970 shaders WITHOUT using card whatsoever in 6950 mode. Recommended?


----------



## OOZMAN (Dec 17, 2011)

reggaemaster said:


> Hi, I need help, you can unlock the shader 6970, in my his iceqxturbo 6950,
> know that there is a dual bios, but have read that some users have successfully
> is possible or not? anyone know?
> purchase card is this http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-611.shtml



Thats the one I have, mine does not have the dual bios switch.


----------



## PMad (Dec 18, 2011)

So I have two of the XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB XXX editions, they are pre-overclocked a little bit, just like the older Black Edition GPU's...

Only problem, there's no BIOS switch on these cards! I searched this thread and found a few people asking this with no replies to them, so im trying myself!

Is there any known way to flash a new BIOS to these cards without the Dual Bios switch? Has anyone done it successfully?


----------



## OOZMAN (Dec 18, 2011)

PMad said:


> So I have two of the XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB XXX editions, they are pre-overclocked a little bit, just like the older Black Edition GPU's...
> 
> Only problem, there's no BIOS switch on these cards! I searched this thread and found a few people asking this with no replies to them, so im trying myself!
> 
> Is there any known way to flash a new BIOS to these cards without the Dual Bios switch? Has anyone done it successfully?



Yes! Im in the same situation. Someone please respond!


----------



## ChristTheGreat (Dec 18, 2011)

Hi all

Just found that my HD6950 1gb Powercolor has the bios switch. So if I was already on position 1, and flashed a my stock bios with the HD6970 shader count, and it didn't show more shaders, could I have any luck by flashing directly a HD6970 bios?

Thanks


----------



## Carbide (Dec 19, 2011)

Carbide said:


> Hi guys
> 
> I've got a Club 3d 6950 2gb.
> The card is flashed with a 6970 bios and works fine at:
> ...



Ok guys, a little update about my Club3d 6950.
I removed the 6970 Bios replacing it with a modified 6950 with ulocked shaders.
The results are:

GPU Clock: 840mhz
MEM Clock: 1350
IDLE temp: 36 C
LOAD temp: 64 C

I'm very happy cause I get almost the same performances of 6970 bios without touching the voltages. The effect are visible on temperatures, especially under LOAD conditions: 82°C VS 64°C (I'm testing the system with Crysis 2).
But still can't go beyond 840 Mhz on GPU....


----------



## Coloneljesus (Dec 21, 2011)

Hi guys, I'm sorry, but I really need your help on this:

I got a Club3D card and tried to flash it. after the first try, nothing changed, so I tried again.
Then, my monitors stayed off when I tried to boot. I reset the CMOS, which fucked up my RAID0 so I had to reinstall Windows 7. I did this with my monitor directly connected to the MOBO.

The current situation is, that the PC won't boot, whenever the Club3D is installed alone. It boots without a video card or when I install both the Club3D and a GTX280. I tried to flash several BIOS, but I can't get the card to work, even though I get a message of a successfull flash.

Please help me with this, I beg you.

P.S. MOBO is a Gigabyte 890GPA


----------



## Darkleoco (Dec 21, 2011)

Coloneljesus said:


> Hi guys, I'm sorry, but I really need your help on this:
> 
> I got a Club3D card and tried to flash it. after the first try, nothing changed, so I tried again.
> Then, my monitors stayed off when I tried to boot. I reset the CMOS, which fucked up my RAID0 so I had to reinstall Windows 7. I did this with my monitor directly connected to the MOBO.
> ...



Are you sure that your GTX280 is in Slot 1 and you are flashing the 6950 that is in Slot 2?



Carbide said:


> Ok guys, a little update about my Club3d 6950.
> I removed the 6970 Bios replacing it with a modified 6950 with ulocked shaders.
> The results are:
> 
> ...



What are you using to overclock and have you disabled ULPS?


----------



## Coloneljesus (Dec 21, 2011)

Darkleoco said:


> Are you sure that your GTX280 is in Slot 1 and you are flashing the 6950 that is in Slot 2?



Are you referring to the PCIe slots? If yes, then yes, I am sure, the GTX280 is in the first, upper slot.

I can only assume that I flashed the right card, as I have no problems with the GTX280 (so no possible attempt to flash it caused any damage) and I tried the flashing with _-unlockrom 0_ as well as with _-unlockrom 1_. I guess that I would reach the 6950 that way.

How *can* I be sure that I flash the right slot?


----------



## Coloneljesus (Dec 21, 2011)

I could still use some help here..


----------



## Darkleoco (Dec 21, 2011)

Coloneljesus said:


> I could still use some help here..



Sorry went out for awhile and been looking for something similar to this post:

"If its a bad flash it might be likely that it is not picking up the card because it cannot detect it due to the card having a faulty BIOS. You can try and blind flash it by putting your main in the first PCI_E slot and the card in question in the 2nd, usually your 2nd PCI-E slot is designated as slot 1 as your main will be slot 0- that may vary check your mobo manual. Then you want to type:

atiflash.exe -f -p 1 biosname.bin

-f is to force the flash, 1 designates the slot the card is in. Sometimes the Bios can be a .rom file in this case replace the above with biosname.rom 

Hope this helps."

That should pretty much be what you need hopefully.


----------



## Coloneljesus (Dec 21, 2011)

Thanks a lot, I will try this and report back.


----------



## Coloneljesus (Dec 21, 2011)

Alright I did the following things:
I discovered that only slot 0 is a PCIe x16 and the slot 1 is a PCIe x8. Even though this never made a difference while I was using two GTX280, I figured that this might matter in this issue. I booted the PC in this config:
Slot 0 - GTX280
Slot 1 - 6950
As expected, it booted and I used the command line you posted. The progress bar appeared quickly but there was no message of wether the flash was good or not. After a restart, the 6950 was still undetected by windows or ati catalyst or GPU-Z. I shut the PC down and switched the cards, then tried to boot. The PC didn't boot, no post and no turning on the monitor.
So I cannot try to flash the card while in a PCIe x16 slot, as it seems. only x8. I'm not sure if this makes a difference, but I tried.


----------



## Darkleoco (Dec 21, 2011)

Coloneljesus said:


> Alright I did the following things:
> I discovered that only slot 0 is a PCIe x16 and the slot 1 is a PCIe x8. Even though this never made a difference while I was using two GTX280, I figured that this might matter in this issue. I booted the PC in this config:
> Slot 0 - GTX280
> Slot 1 - 6950
> ...



Did you make sure that you used either .rom or .bin depending what type of file the bios you are flashing is? Also is it a backed up BIOS you are trying to flash or one you have downloaded?


----------



## Coloneljesus (Dec 21, 2011)

I used the correct ending and I used a downloaded BIOS to flash to 6970.
Should I try a backup or downloaded 6950 BIOS next?


----------



## Darkleoco (Dec 21, 2011)

Coloneljesus said:


> I used the correct ending and I used a downloaded BIOS to flash to 6970.
> Should I try a backup or downloaded 6950 BIOS next?



I would try a backup first, it would be much simpler to overclock your card and manually unlock the shaders than to use a 6970 BIOS.


----------



## Coloneljesus (Dec 21, 2011)

I doubt that you are still around but maybe someone else can help me anyways.
I tried to flash my backup now, with slot 0 through 2 with no success.

What I find interesting and what might be worth considering is that no software except atiWinflash seems to detect my videocard. What is weird too is that according to atiWinflash, the card has still the same DeviceID as before the first flash attempt.
Here is a screencap of how it looks right now:http://i.imgur.com/PoyBq.png
And here is the message I got, after the first flashing attempt: http://i.imgur.com/OhZPF.png

Is my new videocard just hopelessly broken or what?


----------



## Carbide (Dec 21, 2011)

Darkleoco said:


> What are you using to overclock and have you disabled ULPS?




I'm using CCC.
Mmmm....disabling ULPS...no never done. Can it really make the difference?
Thanks for the suggestion! I will let you know!


----------



## Crow550 (Dec 21, 2011)

Coloneljesus said:


> I doubt that you are still around but maybe someone else can help me anyways.
> I tried to flash my backup now, with slot 0 through 2 with no success.
> 
> What I find interesting and what might be worth considering is that no software except atiWinflash seems to detect my videocard. What is weird too is that according to atiWinflash, the card has still the same DeviceID as before the first flash attempt.
> ...



I just got the Sapphire 6950 2GB with bios switch as well and it's not showing the unlocked shaders or flashing.

Need to know if I should exchange it for another card....


----------



## lal102 (Dec 21, 2011)

I have the Sapphire 2GB 9850 NON-Dirt 3 Edition. And it's impossible to unlock shaders.

I'm very frustated with this


----------



## Crow550 (Dec 21, 2011)

lal102 said:


> I have the Sapphire 2GB 9850 NON-Dirt 3 Edition. And it's impossible to unlock shaders.
> 
> I'm very frustated with this



Ditto....

Do we exchange our cards or what?


----------



## lal102 (Dec 21, 2011)

netvir said:


> Hello guys,
> 
> I'm having an issue with my Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB (100312-3L) that I recently purchased from neweggbusiness on the $215 deal.
> 
> ...



same problem over here...


----------



## Coloneljesus (Dec 22, 2011)

Is it possible that some more recently produced cards are just impossible to unlock?

Oh and I will send in my broken card, I just hope I get a new one for free. Dunno if I will try to unlock the new one...


----------



## sildar (Dec 22, 2011)

*Driver issues?*

Hey guys, hoping y'all can help me with my 6950. I've read through this thread, and the original post on TPU. First, some background card:

XFX HF-695X-ZNFC 1GB card (not sure on the revision, sadly, case is a bitch to get into)
MSI 890GXM-G65 (onboard video)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

So my first complication is that I've got a 1GB card, and the second complication is that it's an XFX (which doesn't seem to be a highly regarded brand here, for a variety of reasons). However, I was able to successfully pull the BIOS from my card, save it, open it in RBE, unlock the shaders using the option on the Additional Features tab, flash the modified BIOS to my card, and reboot to freshly unlocked shaders. GPU-Z reported 1536 shaders, as hoped.

But I'm greedy, and I wanted the clock speeds to go with those shiny new shaders. There seem to be two settings which may or may not be required to access those clock speeds: the actual BIOS clock settings, and the Overdrive limits. Having read through the RBE documentation and tutorial, I get the impression that even if your BIOS clocks are set to a specific value, if that value is greater than the Overdrive limit, the clock speeds will be limited (or the card won't work, or you'll get wonky results and/or stability). Is this accurate?

I first tried setting the Overdrive limits in RBE using Method 2, shooting for the 6970 core/mem clocks that I wanted to run at (880/1375), without setting the BIOS clocks. This was pretty much wishful thinking on my part, and unsurprisingly when I rebooted after flashing, Windows 7 boot looped. Safe mode let me uninstall the 6950, and reboot into Normal mode, where I could reflash my card.

Long story short, I've tried a variety of possible combinations: changing the card ID, the clocks (including voltages), the overdrive limits via Method 1 using signatures from 6970 and 6950 (1GB and 2GB) cards, the whole shebang. If I run a modified version of the shipped ROM with just the shaders unlocked, everything is fine. I get a modest performance bump and the card is flawlessly stable.

But I really, really, _really_ want those increased clocks speeds.

Help?


----------



## manofthem (Dec 22, 2011)

sildar said:


> Hey guys, hoping y'all can help me with my 6950. I've read through this thread, and the original post on TPU. First, some background card:
> 
> XFX HF-695X-ZNFC 1GB card (not sure on the revision, sadly, case is a bitch to get into)
> MSI 890GXM-G65 (onboard video)
> ...


Very well written post

So since you have unlocked shaders download MSI Afterburner and OC from there
http://downloads.guru3d.com/downloadget.php?id=2816&file=1&evp=1fac210e5c087f895a503cdfd64eb448

Unlock voltage control in settings to increase voltage obviously.
Then edit the cfg file in program dir according to the following:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=338906
(Hope those links work, I'm on my phone)

Overclock and it shouldn't be a problem. I ran my cards at about 950/1425@1.2v or there about... And for some reason, my XFX didn't overclock as well as my Gigabyte, not sure why.


----------



## sildar (Dec 22, 2011)

manofthem said:


> Very well written post



Thanks! I know how much it sucks getting inarticulate or whiny posts on a tech forum.



manofthem said:


> Unlock voltage control in settings to increase voltage obviously.
> Then edit the cfg file in program dir according to the following:
> http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=338906
> (Hope those links work, I'm on my phone)



I'll try this when I get home. I may come back here for advice, depending on how intuitive this is, but I think I've got all the info I need...



manofthem said:


> Overclock and it shouldn't be a problem. I ran my cards at about 950/1425@1.2v or there about...



I'm not looking for a performance boost of that size. If you check my case, you'll see it's relatively small and very cramped. I don't think I've got the cooling overhead to go with settings like that.



manofthem said:


> And for some reason, my XFX didn't overclock as well as my Gigabyte, not sure why.



I think I remember reading in this thread about XFX using lower quality memory on its cards (maybe just the 6950s, maybe all of them), which couldn't handle high clock speeds.

Might (read: will) get a little ballsier with speeds when I convert to LC this summer, but for now I just want another 15-20fps. Almost there now.


----------



## sildar (Dec 22, 2011)

Oh, and maybe this isn't the best place to post, but what's y'all's opinion on this VGA cooler?

ARCTIC COOLING Accelero TWIN TURBO Pro Fluid Dynam...

The stock XFX cooler is noisy as hell and (I suspect) poorly mounted, plus it's only got a single fan. I'm looking at this and some copper RAM sinks to tide me over until I go LC.


----------



## sildar (Dec 22, 2011)

Well, I've met with some measure of success, and I'm satisfied with what I've got for now.

Using MSI Afterburner, my modded 6950 is running the following settings, stably:
Core Voltage 1131mV
Core Clock 865 MHz
Mem Clock 1350 MHz

GPU temp caps out around 97C, which is livable but less than ideal. It also results in a very noisy fan, so I'll probably nab that AC VGA Cooler, or something like it.

Thanks, manofthem!


----------



## manofthem (Dec 23, 2011)

sildar said:


> Well, I've met with some measure of success, and I'm satisfied with what I've got for now.
> 
> Using MSI Afterburner, my modded 6950 is running the following settings, stably:
> Core Voltage 1131mV
> ...



Congrats, well done! Also in MSIAB you can setup a custom fan curve, if you haven't figured that out already. Should keep your temps a little lower, but it usually means more noise. My temps were around mid 70's with fan at about 50-60%...I think. But go with water cooling and you'll be balls happy.


----------



## sildar (Dec 23, 2011)

Yeah, LC will be far better than air, but I'm going with a twin loop setup and blocks from EK, so... that's gonna take a bit.


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## Jeordy (Dec 25, 2011)

Is it safe to assume at this point that any card purchased now will not be unlockable?

I'm not entirely sure how to find out if it is or not, and also not sure what the consequences would be if I tried to unlock mine and it wasn't an unlockable one.

Here is the link to the one I bought:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004O6FKVA/?tag=tec06d-20

It does have a little switch on it, but I'm not sure if that is for dual-bios or something else. It's isn't a full-enclosure, there are heat pipes showing... If any info from GPUz would help determine whether it is a flashable one I can post a screeny or the info from it.

Thanks for any and all advice/help!!


----------



## samy1 (Dec 26, 2011)

*Aurora R3 stock 6950 to 6970*

Alienware Auror R3 2600K with 2x6950 in CF
I was able to unlock the rom using CDM and flash the bios for both cards using RBE to unlock the shaders then load 6970 bios via winflash with no problem. Furmark at full screen 1980x1080 score was 5013 and 1280x720 7389 max 73 C. all appear to be stable. Idle Temp reads 50 c.
screen shot of CPU-Z :


----------



## mav2000 (Dec 26, 2011)

Just a quick question, do these cards run hotter once unlcoked?

Also can someone post a screenshot of the max temps running say 5 minutes of combuster or furmark?


----------



## I_Know_nothing (Dec 27, 2011)

*Small issue*

Hey Guys, I bought a 6950 to flash. I flashed it with the bios provided in the instructions and the attached file shows what I received. I did not get any unlocked shaders. Is there something I can do to unlock them or is my card locked out of messing with the shader count? I would have searched the forum but its like 170 pages long. I am new to the site so any advice would be great. Thanks!

I do not know the specific manufacturer of the card. It was pulled from an alienware system and only says AMD on the fan sticker.


----------



## vychytraly (Dec 27, 2011)

you shouldnt flash it using BIOS attached, you should have used RBE and make your own BIOS and flash it using it, you are lucky that your card works still fine


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## sildar (Dec 27, 2011)

mav2000 said:


> Just a quick question, do these cards run hotter once unlcoked?
> 
> Also can someone post a screenshot of the max temps running say 5 minutes of combuster or furmark?



It's practically guaranteed that your card will run hotter after this hack, but the difference will depend on your card, cooling, and case. If you decide to OC as well as unlock sharers and/or flash BIOS,your temps will (obviously) rise even more.

I don't have any data to post, partially because I'm on my phone and partially because I'm not sure it'd help you. iirc, my experience was as follows. I've got an XFX 1GB model.

Unlocked shaders: no increase at idle, +1-2 degree C under load.
Flashed BIOS: unstable, driver issues (this is probably specific to my card)
OC'd using stock 6950 Overdrive settings: +5 at idle, +10 under load
OC'd to 6970 clock speeds and voltage using AB: +5 at idle, +15 or more under load (unstable)

Disclaimer: I'm doing this in a SFF case with inadequate airflow and a stock cooler because I am a masochist. YMMV


----------



## allius (Dec 29, 2011)

*After a few hours with finicking with this i resort to posting here.*

I have tried everything I can think of.

 i have the HD-695X-CDFC (xfx card 2gb)

I try to flash either a 6970 bios or a modified bios through both methods

whenever i try straight up winflash I get the "cannot erase error"

whenever i use cmd when i type atiwinflash -unlockrom 0 and enter it loads two bars of winflash and closes

then i follow with atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin and it loads 50% then closes and no flashing done. same results no matter what bios i us(tried many modified and many 6970 ones)


----------



## TheStudent (Dec 30, 2011)

*Bios installed, shaders still at 1408*

So after some looking I can't find the answer to my problem.

I've successfully installed the updated bios after unlocking the rom.

- What I get, increased overclocking ability up to 950/1450.

- What I don't get are the increase in shaders. They stay at 1408 no matter what.

What did I do? - I installed winflash and propped it on my desktop and tried to flash 6970 BIOSes onto it, it was locked, I unlocked it via the command prompt.  And proceeded to implant the 6970 BIOSes which Winflash told me it had done successfully.  Reboot - Open up GPUZ and still at 1408.

I decided to see if I could open up RBE and choose the unlock to 6970 option.  Then I would load the updated BIOSes again (after bringing them back to the standar BIOS).  Yet continually it tells me it cannot locate my card.  Returned the BIOS back to default and still can't locate my card, I terminated the UAC and still it cannot find my card.

I'm thinking this might somehow be connected but I'm not sure.

Has anyone experienced this?  Or perhaps I'm missing something simple?

-Thanks

Am I doing something wrong?


----------



## Jeordy (Dec 30, 2011)

I decided to give flashing my card a whirl, nothing bad happened...

BUT, the shaders did not unlock, nor did the max clock settings in CCC increase.

What I did:
Saved my bios from the card using winflash. Loaded that bios into RBE and did not change anything except increasing the shaders and increasing the max clock settings. Saved the modified bios, loaded it into winflash and click program. It said the flash was successful and that I needed to restart my system. I did not change what card it was in the drop down on the main information tab (from 6950 to 6970), is that a necessary step that is not included in the article?

From what I understand, if the shaders are laser cut, the increased clock settings should still have increased even if the shaders did not. Did I do something wrong or was there a false positive with the bios "successfully" flashing?

Update: Also tried using the CMD method, with no differing results.


----------



## isee (Jan 5, 2012)

Hi all
bought a VTX3D it's a 6950 1GB

http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B005UF62RU/?tag=tec053-21 thuogh at a much cheaper price.

Used RBE to unlock to 6970 it and it went fine, restarted, and checked with RBE, 6970 check box is ticked.
GPU-Z however is showing 1404 shaders.

Heaven benchmark increased by 10 points, I am guessing it's just a standard deviation.

Any idea if there are other methods I could try or should I just give up and be happy with what I have?


----------



## Whoops! (Jan 5, 2012)

One year on, has anyone flashed to full 6970 bios and run for a whole year without breaking anything?

I originally flashed to 6970 but then chickened out and went for the shader unlock only.


----------



## R!zZ (Jan 5, 2012)

After flashing my VGA, one month later to be precise my VGAs memorys failed and since it had its warranty I took it back to the shop were I bought it. And instead of buying the same one I added some money and took home a GTX 580.
It was my first AMD, and let's say I didn't get a good experience.


----------



## lauri_hoefs (Jan 5, 2012)

Whoops! said:


> One year on, has anyone flashed to full 6970 bios and run for a whole year without breaking anything?



Well, I've not run it a whole year, but a while anyway. Before I got a water block for my 6950 I used a modified original BIOS. The 6970 BIOS raised the temperatures way too high under gaming loads with the stock cooling.

But for the four last months that I've had the card water cooled I've used the 6970 BIOS. And no problems so far. The card is a reference model Asus.





R!zZ said:


> After flashing my VGA, one month later to be precise my VGAs memorys failed and since it had its warranty I took it back to the shop were I bought it. And instead of buying the same one I added some money and took home a GTX 580.
> It was my first AMD, and let's say I didn't get a good experience.



So, wait, you bricked the card by flashing it with a modded BIOS, which voids the warranty. But you still got it replaced, or even better, fully refunded? And that was a bad experience?

It just doesn't cease to amaze me, that some people in this thread have bricked their cards like this, and after that send them to be replaced by warranty. Now that's really something...


----------



## MaxMax (Jan 6, 2012)

Whoops! said:


> One year on, has anyone flashed to full 6970 bios and run for a whole year without breaking anything?
> 
> I originally flashed to 6970 but then chickened out and went for the shader unlock only.



Hi, i have my card running now since dec. 2010, full bios flash with original 6970 bios. but its watercooled, so i cannot say anything about temp rising.
card runs overclocked 950/1500mhz at ~1.20v without any problems...on eyefinity setup.
that card was best bang for bucks ever.


----------



## Christof (Jan 8, 2012)

*Powercolor Radeon HD 6950 1gb card*

I believe I followed the instructions to the T...

I downloaded RBE, went to the last tab, switched it over to 6970 shader count..
saved
loaded and reflashed with winflash
rebooted to the blue screen of death...

tried it a couple times same deal...

Powercolor Radeon HD 6950 1gb card is my card

any ideas or tips?


----------



## sildar (Jan 9, 2012)

Christof said:


> I believe I followed the instructions to the T...
> 
> I downloaded RBE, went to the last tab, switched it over to 6970 shader count..
> saved
> ...



Since you're getting video, my first guess would be a driver issue.


----------



## excubated (Jan 9, 2012)

Sapphire HD6950 2GB - no success.

Tried a lot of BIOSes, also messed around with RBE.  Successful flash, reboot, BSOD.  Even tried extracting BIOS, enabling the shader unlock and reflashing, no reboot, uninstall drivers then reboot.  Booted in 800x600, installed detected driver, rebooted, BSOD.

My card runs stable at 920MHz / 1500MHz / 1,12v tho, at 65° C / 40% fan speed after an hour of Skyrim .. solutions?

Should I change vendor and model number, or leave them as the original BIOS reads?  For some reason the vendor is 0000, not 0002 as Sapphire should be..


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 9, 2012)

well lucky me.just flashed my Asus Direct CU II 2gb and its a success..but im chickend out so just went back to unlocked shaders..and btw it really is a dual bios..man this card is the best of all..


----------



## excubated (Jan 9, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> well lucky me.just flashed my Asus Direct CU II 2gb and its a success..but im chickend out so just went back to unlocked shaders..and btw it really is a dual bios..man this card is the best of all..



What vendor produced your card?  Also, when did you buy it?


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 9, 2012)

excubated said:


> What vendor produced your card?  Also, when did you buy it?




ASUS EAH6950 Direct CU II, Bought it Last June 11, 2011..


Heres my screen shot from Flashed to Unlock shaders:


----------



## Terodius (Jan 9, 2012)

*ASUS 6950 DirectCU II*

I built my new rig with two 6950s from ASUS and managed to unlock them just fine. It some research and a little patience but it all worked out. Was getting scores around 900 points on heaven 2.5 @ 810/1000 and that jumped to 1000-1030 points unlocked at the same clocks. I'm going to try OC them to 1000/1200 later today and see if they'll take it.


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 9, 2012)

Terodius said:


> I built my new rig with two 6950s from ASUS and managed to unlock them just fine. It some research and a little patience but it all worked out. Was getting scores around 900 points on heaven 2.5 @ 810/1000 and that jumped to 1000-1030 points unlocked at the same clocks. I'm going to try OC them to 1000/1200 later today and see if they'll take it.




Nice..show me some bench on that and what voltage do you got on both? are they on stock? because for me i cant go through to 950/1375 without bumping my voltage to 1.175.


----------



## Terodius (Jan 9, 2012)

I'll probably keep them at 1.2V 950/1350 for 24/7 use (I'm also gonna be mining with this rig) and the last stable round was 990/1500 at 1.287Vcore. I've also managed to push my 2600K to 5.5GHz at 1.55V. Again this is just for benchmarking, I usually have it a 4.6GHz and 1.36v.


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 9, 2012)

Terodius said:


> I'll probably keep them at 1.2V 950/1350 for 24/7 use (I'm also gonna be mining with this rig) and the last stable round was 990/1500 at 1.287Vcore. I've also managed to push my 2600K to 5.5GHz at 1.55V. Again this is just for benchmarking, I usually have it a 4.6GHz and 1.36v.




Well Same here if i go beyond 950/1350 i bumped my voltage 1.2v but it's just for the benchmark I'm steady at 890/1375 clocks 24/7 at 1.75v.


----------



## Terodius (Jan 9, 2012)

*Final benchmarks*



Ginnoskie said:


> Well Same here if i go beyond 950/1350 i bumped my voltage 1.2v but it's just for the benchmark I'm steady at 890/1375 clocks 24/7 at 1.75v.



OK I finished benchmarking. I think I got as much juice out of the system as is possible. Past 975MHz on my GPU and 5GHz on my CPU I really had to increase the voltages to get it stable, and despite going all the way to 1.4v on the GPU I couldn't get them running at 1GHz to my disappointment 

I wanted to attach the link to the 3DMarkVantage score but for some reason I'm having trouble uploading the result. So I'm attaching screenshots here instead.


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 9, 2012)

Terodius said:


> OK I finished benchmarking. I think I got as much juice out of the system as is possible. Past 975MHz on my GPU and 5GHz on my CPU I really had to increase the voltages to get it stable, and despite going all the way to 1.4v on the GPU I couldn't get them running at 1GHz to my disappointment
> 
> I wanted to attach the link to the 3DMarkVantage score but for some reason I'm having trouble uploading the result. So I'm attaching screenshots here instead.



Wooohoooo..well really nice scores on those OC'ing but me i couldn't go pass beyond to 950/1375. benchmark are crashing but stability test are ok using kombustor, but it crashes in the middle of benchmarking using ungine heaven, 3dmark vantage and 3dmark 11..i dunno what's wrong with it..


----------



## Terodius (Jan 9, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> Wooohoooo..well really nice scores on those OC'ing but me i couldn't go pass beyond to 950/1375. benchmark are crashing but stability test are ok using kombustor, but it crashes in the middle of benchmarking using ungine heaven, 3dmark vantage and 3dmark 11..i dunno what's wrong with it..



I'm rerunning it now in performance mode and will rerun them in high settings afterwards. unfortunately my monitor is only 1920x1080 so I can't run the extreme preset. The thing is it's -15 celsius outside right now and I have the window wide open so my room is at about zero degrees and I  have the case open so I get idle temps of like 15 degrees and load temps of 40 hehe. I think that's partly why it's so stable. lower temp means lower resistance, lower vdroop, and lower current load and ultimately a more stable OC. I'll be posting the new benchmark scores soon.


----------



## OOZMAN (Jan 9, 2012)

Terodius said:


> I'm rerunning it now in performance mode and will rerun them in high settings afterwards. unfortunately my monitor is only 1920x1080 so I can't run the extreme preset. The thing is it's -15 celsius outside right now and I have the window wide open so my room is at about zero degrees and I  have the case open so I get idle temps of like 15 degrees and load temps of 40 hehe. I think that's partly why it's so stable. lower temp means lower resistance, lower vdroop, and lower current load and ultimately a more stable OC. I'll be posting the new benchmark scores soon.



What I wouldn't do for temps like those... Your gpu load temperature is my ambient air temp! I'm sweating my ass off in the air con! Damn Australian weather...


----------



## dragoon (Jan 10, 2012)

i have a sapphire 6950 2GB (dirt 3 edition)
tried to change the bios (from the bios switch) and now windows can't recognize my card 
tried ATIflash but it says "adapter not found" using ATIflash 3.89 flashing stock and 6970.
do i need to use earlier version ? like the 3.85 ? but can't find it anywhere ;(

i don't know if this been covered before but been searching the net for the past 4 hours.


Thanks !


----------



## Terodius (Jan 10, 2012)

dragoon said:


> i have a sapphire 6950 2GB (dirt 3 edition)
> tried to change the bios (from the bios switch) and now windows can't recognize my card
> tried ATIflash but it says "adapter not found" using ATIflash 3.89 flashing stock and 6970.
> do i need to use earlier version ? like the 3.85 ? but can't find it anywhere ;(
> ...



You should have saved your OWN BIOS and used RBE utility to modify it. I had a couple scare like that, but luckily I have two cards so if one got fucked up I could always turn off that PCIe lane and boot up with the other one and then reflash it back to factory from windows. While it is possible to unlock the card to full 6970 shaders, you only get about a 9-10% increase in performance and if you don't know what you're doing you could end up with an expensive silicon brick with a voided warranty


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 10, 2012)

Terodius said:


> You should have saved your OWN BIOS and used RBE utility to modify it. I had a couple scare like that, but luckily I have two cards so if one got fucked up I could always turn off that PCIe lane and boot up with the other one and then reflash it back to factory from windows. While it is possible to unlock the card to full 6970 shaders, you only get about a 9-10% increase in performance and if you don't know what you're doing you could end up with an expensive silicon brick with a voided warranty




well i didn't used RBE because there are error's and many unsuccessful unlocks to non reference card..try to mod you're own bios from w1zzards php mod script then use the cmd mode to flash you're card using you're own modded bios which is unlocked shaders only.

Also I'm getting 70c when I'm in full load because the ambient here is so hot it's like 29c ambient so it's very normal getting those temps..


----------



## dragoon (Jan 10, 2012)

scylk said:


> I followed this tutorial.
> 
> But bios1 position on the picture was my bios2 position... I fucked one bios, and when i tried to recover it by switching bios while my computer was running, i fucked the other one.
> 
> ...



I did the same thing =(

i tried the bios bypass thing, didn't work =(

please let me know if you find anything!

Thanks


----------



## onehans (Jan 15, 2012)

*love this article*

well its all working but i get occasional artefacts in my firefox browser :/ and small glitches in games but hardly noticeable.

my card is http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R6950-2PM2D2GD5.html

so what i can do? use that RBE to modify existing BIOS? lower setings?
or is it bios not compatible with my card ?

pls help


----------



## onehans (Jan 15, 2012)

dragoon said:


> I did the same thing =(
> 
> i tried the bios bypass thing, didn't work =(
> 
> ...



have u tried to do it from windows level (if u have built in graphics card in your motherboard)?


----------



## dragoon (Jan 15, 2012)

onehans said:


> have u tried to do it from windows level (if u have built in graphics card in your motherboard)?



yea tried that but windows won't recognize my card


----------



## onehans (Jan 15, 2012)

dragoon said:


> yea tried that but windows won't recognize my card



Try this forum http://www.overclock.net/t/1200348/6950-2gb-bios-flash-gone-wrong/10 might help a but


----------



## dragoon (Jan 15, 2012)

onehans said:


> Try this forum http://www.overclock.net/t/1200348/6...-gone-wrong/10 might help a but



That's my thread =(


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

dragoon said:


> That's my thread =(



I wolud anything to fix it but i never experience this problem so sry but o try to look for some fix for ya as i got problems with my card too. And sry for language i prefer polish


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

have you tried the flashing through USB? maybe try that one..


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> well its all working but i get occasional artefacts in my firefox browser :/ and small glitches in games but hardly noticeable.
> 
> my card is http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R6950-2PM2D2GD5.html
> 
> ...



i lowered core clock and mem clock to lowest and i stll get the same effect :?


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> i lowered core clock and mem clock to lowest and i stll get the same effect :?



use the Newer version of ATIWinflash then save you're original bios then flash you're card to revert back it original settings.


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> use the Newer version of ATIWinflash then save you're original bios then flash you're card to revert back it original settings.



iv used ati_winflash_2.0.1.14

maybe if i try different bios ?? but where do i get them?

thanks for reply


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

Try these bioses on what it will suite to you're card

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...SI&model=HD+6950&interface=PCI-E&memSize=2048


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> iv used ati_winflash_2.0.1.14
> 
> maybe if i try different bios ?? but where do i get them?
> 
> thanks for reply



ok so i reverted bios to the one it was on card and turn on kombustor is this places on pic are normal? (now i dont get any funky spots in browser)


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

hmmmm maybe i should check out mine when i get back home after work..and i don't think that's an artifact..anyways have you tried those bios i send you the link?


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> hmmmm maybe i should check out mine when i get back home after work..and i don't think that's an artifact..anyways have you tried those bios i send you the link?



ill will try now the 6950 check in kombustor then go for 6970 and check again


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## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

yup my card is flashed to 6970 until now..i will check at home after work then post if we have the same result. but so far when i ran kombustor i didnt see artifacts nor in games or benching..and it's running 24/7 stable..but i will double check it again..


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> ill will try now the 6950 check in kombustor then go for 6970 and check again



i tried 3 avaible 6950 bioses all of them does this funny collors in kombustor. i have checked google and other pictures shows that, so is got to be standard.

but i could not load 6970 bios from that link uv send. do i need to modify them to get it to work?
what i was thinking is to download 6970 bios of this model R6970-2PM2D2GD5 which is higher version of this one R6950-2PM2D2GD5 and load it on to mine R6950-2PM2D2GD5 but winflash sais "subsystem IDmismatch"


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

oh so you want to flash it with 6970 i thought you where referring to the unlock shaders only..yes on the link I've sent to you there are 6970 bioses there:

http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...SI&model=HD+6970&interface=PCI-E&memSize=2048

..try one of them..and use the CMD mode it's much accurate than loading it directly to ATIWinflash.


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> oh so you want to flash it with 6970 i thought you where referring to the unlock shaders only..yes on the link I've sent to you there are 6970 bioses there:
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...SI&model=HD+6970&interface=PCI-E&memSize=2048
> 
> ..try one of them..and use the CMD mode it's much accurate than loading it directly to ATIWinflash.



and what commands do i need to drop in CMD? and do i need to use winflash? (i found commands just now in here http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3762/sapphire_radeon_hd_6950_2gb_unlocked_to_hd_6970/index.html)

will it bring me better effect by unlocking it to 6970? or just shaders are enough?

ARTIFACTS solved  got none in browser so probably i wont get any in games now YEY! it must been a bios then by flashing it to 6970 work as a charm, so i go get some game play experience and 3dmark11 test 

oh and any chance to control core voltage in afterburner? if yes what is a save max vcore?


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

safest is 1.175v..yes in msiafterburner you can..


----------



## englandr753 (Jan 16, 2012)

I'm trying to decide if it's worth trying to follow through with unlocking my 3x XFX 6950's or going to a single 7970 (if I can find one).  I have the ASUS Crosshair V, 1090T CPU, 8G Gskill trident ram, H60 cooler, Corsair 1000 watt psu.

I'm just concerned now with the headaches of setting this up with unlocked 6950's when I can get similar performance from a single faster card that overclocks very well with less power draw.

Has anyone here had success with 3x stable 6950's unlocked?  Also, did u unlock the shaders or flash to 6970?

I'm about to do this in the next few days so a little feedback is appreciated.  =D


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

if you're going benching 3 6950 would be good..but for gaming i would grab 7970..


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2012)

englandr753 said:


> I'm trying to decide if it's worth trying to follow through with unlocking my 3x XFX 6950's or going to a single 7970 (if I can find one).  I have the ASUS Crosshair V, 1090T CPU, 8G Gskill trident ram, H60 cooler, Corsair 1000 watt psu.
> 
> I'm just concerned now with the headaches of setting this up with unlocked 6950's when I can get similar performance from a single faster card that overclocks very well with less power draw.
> 
> ...



1090t holds back 2 6950's, let alone 3.  When I went from my 1090t to 2600k with my 6950's, my bench scores and fps in games went up substantially.  You better overclock that chip like woah


----------



## SplifPolitics (Jan 16, 2012)

Hello guys, I got the follow PowerColor HD 6950 (here you go).
And I've tried to flash it from the 6950 bios to the 6970 bios with zero success.
While modding my current BIOS with the batch file posted on the guide and flash it on the current one, after i choose the to reboot the PC won't start up -> Black screen & no beeps from the MB.
Then I switch to BIOS N. 2 and Just flash the original back to the first BIOS.
I tried with multiple BIOSes and tried to mod some other with zero success.

What should I do? Can I even flash my current GPU?


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

SplifPolitics said:


> Hello guys, I got the follow PowerColor HD 6950 (here you go).
> And I've tried to flash it from the 6950 bios to the 6970 bios with zero success.
> While modding my current BIOS with the batch file posted on the guide and flash it on the current one, after i choose the to reboot the PC won't start up -> Black screen & no beeps from the MB.
> Then I switch to BIOS N. 2 and Just flash the original back to the first BIOS.
> ...



is your card a reference one or the revision?


----------



## englandr753 (Jan 16, 2012)

Thanks guys.  I plan to oc to at least 4.0ghz or higher if possible.  I have the crosshair V mobo with the idea if a future CPU AMD releases that will give better performance then Ill retire the 1090T.

Now to sell 2x 6950's and move the 3rd to my media center. =P


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## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> safest is 1.175v..yes in msiafterburner you can..



well i tried setting in afterburner but it does seem to want to turn on  iv set core clock to 900 and it crash
would be possible that vcore is locked? or afterburner fault?


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> well i tried setting in afterburner but it does seem to want to turn on  iv set core clock to 900 and it crash
> would be possible that vcore is locked? or afterburner fault?



Did you unlock voltage control and voltage monitoring in settings?  Select that and then you can adjust the voltage to whatever.  Monitor temps as you go.  I had my voltage set to 1.2v I believe with clocks at 920ish/1400ish, with temps being in the 70's: everything ran fine.


----------



## SplifPolitics (Jan 16, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> is your card a reference one or the revision?



Well I don't know (how can I know if my card is a reference one?)- But I do have the Dual Bios switch.

In some reviews in New egg people said that they did flashed it. (here)


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2012)

SplifPolitics said:


> Well I don't know (how can I know if my card is a reference one?)- But I do have the Dual Bios switch.



It's not a reference card.  Reference cards had single fan at the back and a black pcb.  Your has a red pcb and dual fans.  According to the reviews on Newegg, it can be unlocked, though it's not always 100%


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> well i tried setting in afterburner but it does seem to want to turn on  iv set core clock to 900 and it crash
> would be possible that vcore is locked? or afterburner fault?



well if you're card is a reference model you can unlock the vcore at MSIAfterburner.but if you're card is a revision model the voltage is lock in MSIAB. except if you use MSI Model card you can voltage tweak at MSIAB.


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

manofthem said:


> Did you unlock voltage control and voltage monitoring in settings?  Select that and then you can adjust the voltage to whatever.  Monitor temps as you go.  I had my voltage set to 1.2v I believe with clocks at 920ish/1400ish, with temps being in the 70's: everything ran fine.



i did that and its still not working


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> well if you're card is a reference model you can unlock the vcore at MSIAfterburner.but if you're card is a revision model the voltage is lock in MSIAB. except if you use MSI Model card you can voltage tweak at MSIAB.



thats my baby http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R6950-2PM2D2GD5.html so whats wrong on stock bios same thing cant move that silly slider


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> i did that and its still not working



Try reinstalling Afterburner. I know that if I ever reinstalled my drivers, I would have to reinstall Afterburner or else no settings would take effect.


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

just got latest version from official site, lets see...


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> thats my baby http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R6950-2PM2D2GD5.html so whats wrong on stock bios same thing cant move that silly slider



That's a reference model.you can over volt through MSIAB..


----------



## SplifPolitics (Jan 16, 2012)

manofthem said:


> It's not a reference card.  Reference cards had single fan at the back and a black pcb.  Your has a red pcb and dual fans.  According to the reviews on Newegg, it can be unlocked, though it's not always 100%





Ginnoskie said:


> well if you're card is a reference model you can unlock the vcore at MSIAfterburner.but if you're card is a revision model the voltage is lock in MSIAB. except if you use MSI Model card you can voltage tweak at MSIAB.



Well thanks, I'm just wondering if i'm doing something wrong while trying to flash my bios or is it the card it self.
After I'm flashing my BIOS the computer wont start up (no beep no picture -> stuck on pre MB bios while all fans running) Is it because the GPU locked?


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> That's a reference model.you can over volt through MSIAB..



updating afterburner did the job MAny THANKS


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2012)

SplifPolitics said:


> Well I don't know (how can I know if my card is a reference one?)- But I do have the Dual Bios switch.
> 
> In some reviews in New egg people said that they did flashed it. (here)



Have you tried unlocking shaders with RBE?

Load your BIOS into RBE and select 6970 shader count (under additional features, all the way to the right)

i've never used this method, but I've heard it works


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> updating afterburner did the job MAny THANKS



lucky you!!


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

+1 to manofthem


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> +1 to manofthem



Many thanks, your Grace


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 16, 2012)

SplifPolitics said:


> Well thanks, I'm just wondering if i'm doing something wrong while trying to flash my bios or is it the card it self.
> After I'm flashing my BIOS the computer wont start up (no beep no picture -> stuck on pre MB bios while all fans running) Is it because the GPU locked?



that's what you called bad flashing..try it with RBE if the ATIWindlash fail..


----------



## SplifPolitics (Jan 16, 2012)

manofthem said:


> Have you tried unlocking shaders with RBE?
> <a href="http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1962/mirrors.php">RBE Here</a>
> Load your BIOS into RBE and select 6970 shader count (under additional features, all the way to the right)
> 
> i've never used this method, but I've heard it works





Ginnoskie said:


> that's what you called bad flashing..try it with RBE if the ATIWindlash fail..



Well, I just modded my current bios with RBE (6970 shaders pciked in RBE), Flashed it with RBE - PC starts up fine But in GPU-Z the shaders are still 1408.


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> lucky you!!



any more than 1100 vc and 880 core brings artifacts so i have to stay with my new 6970 still good score 

i think is time to get drukt i sit in hire last 6 h


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> any more than 1100 vc and 880 core brings artifacts so i have to stay with my new 6970 still good score
> 
> i think is time to get drukt i sit in hire last 6 h



You should be able to get more voltage than that, that's default voltage.


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

manofthem said:


> You should be able to get more voltage than that, that's default voltage.



As soon I go over defaults I get artifacts straight away in windows7 :/ duno. and idle is 32 I have stock cooler. Flashed with 6970 as bios from forum gave me artifacts too


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> As soon I go over defaults I get artifacts straight away in windows7 :/ duno. and idle is 32 I have stock cooler. Flashed with 6970 as bios from forum gave me artifacts too



You've probably said it already, but are you using a modded 6950 bios or a 6970 bios?


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

manofthem said:


> You've probably said it already, but are you using a modded 6950 bios or a 6970 bios?



It a 6970 bios, moded one did not like my card and giving me artefacts :/


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> It a 6970 bios, moded one did not like my card and giving me artefacts :/





onehans said:


> any more than 1100 vc and 880 core brings artifacts so i have to stay with my new 6970 still good score



If it's a 6970 bios, voltage should be at 1.1.75, not 1.1  Can you check gpuz to see which it's running at?


----------



## onehans (Jan 16, 2012)

manofthem said:


> If it's a 6970 bios, voltage should be at 1.1.75, not 1.1  Can you check gpuz to see which it's running at?



I went for beer  but ill check it 2morrow. ill be back in here in about 15h


----------



## manofthem (Jan 16, 2012)

onehans said:


> I went for beer  but ill check it 2morrow. ill be back in here in about 15h



Beer sounds nice and right


----------



## Ron Jeremy (Jan 17, 2012)

Ok, so I have a Diamond 6950 that absolutely refuses to unlock it's shaders, even when Winflash, RBE and DOS complete "successful" flashes.  When I run the batch file (W1zzard), I get "Could not find byte sequence in file".  I have tried EVERY method I have seen and GPU-Z still shows 1408....I have reinstalled drivers, turned UAC off..etc etc.  I also have a Sapphire 6950 that flashed the shaders flawlessly when W1zzard first wrote the batch.  Any ideas?  And yes, the switch is in #1 position.


----------



## Kingken (Jan 17, 2012)

Apologies if this has been answered before i have been trawling this thread! 

Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [11188-05-50G]

I followed the guide from here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/159

Managed to unlock the bios then upgrade to 6970 bios fine could see the extra shaders. But after rebooting back into win7 desktop kept freezing/going black, and lots of ATI errors in system tray reporting recovering from errors driver restarting or something. 

So i ended up flicking the switch back to the standard bios feeling most deflated, until i saw this thread offering hope. 

Can anyone assist me in what i might of done wrong or i read here about add unlocking shaders in 6950 bios and or adjusting voltages, what's the best way for my card? Many thanks in advance.


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 17, 2012)

Kingken said:


> Apologies if this has been answered before i have been trawling this thread!
> 
> Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [11188-05-50G]
> 
> ...



As we all know that the safest thing to do is the unlock shaders only..have you tried the unlock shaders only?


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 17, 2012)

Kingken said:


> Apologies if this has been answered before i have been trawling this thread!
> 
> Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [11188-05-50G]
> 
> ...



Have you tried uninstalling and re installing drivers?? sometimes that might just help..


----------



## Kingken (Jan 17, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> As we all know that the safest thing to do is the unlock shaders only..have you tried the unlock shaders only?



No not tried that how do i unlock shaders only..?


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 17, 2012)

Kingken said:


> No not tried that how do i unlock shaders only..?



Try to follow this guide.. http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/t355592.html

Then give me an update so i can help which problem you have..


----------



## onehans (Jan 17, 2012)

manofthem said:


> If it's a 6970 bios, voltage should be at 1.1.75, not 1.1  Can you check gpuz to see which it's running at?



gpu-z shows 1,1500v and afterburner - got adjustable vc slider but does not change any vc ?? again i try other version of afterburner. plus today i dont get artifacts going with 920 in windows and combustor so i check it in 3dmark11 now 

so card runs stable at core 915mhz and 1410 mem but vcore slider dont work :/ i will look for some other solution rather afterburner


----------



## Noci (Jan 18, 2012)

*unlock succesfull*

Thanx W1zzard, works like a charm.

Very clear explanation, finished it within a few minutes.

I've a VTX3D 6950 1Gb (_art: VX6950 1GBD5-2DH look @ http://www.vtx3d.com/products_features.asp?id=96_) and the RBE method worked. The card was purchased only a month ago (€ 189,90 @ pixmania), so it looks like AMD does not 'hard' lock al Cayman chips.
It's quite a happy moment, after the disappointment that my AMD Phenom II x4 690T CPU had no unlockable cores.

This is my first time on this forum so I'll have to figure out how to upload a picture to show the proof.

First I'll read my way through this topic than do some stabillity tests, benchmarking and carefull OC. I'm also thinking of getting another identical card to create my first CF configuration.

2 x 6970 in CF for less than € 400,-, sounds good to me.

Thanks again, people like you make computing fun again


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 18, 2012)

Noci said:


> Thanx W1zzard, works like a charm.
> 
> Very clear explanation, finished it within a few minutes.
> 
> ...




Cheers for that mate!!


----------



## Rule-R (Jan 18, 2012)

Noci said:


> This is my first time on this forum so I'll have to figure out how to upload a picture to show the proof.



TPU Image upload

when youve uploaded an image, just copy the bbcode in a post


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 18, 2012)

onehans said:


> gpu-z shows 1,1500v and afterburner - got adjustable vc slider but does not change any vc ?? again i try other version of afterburner. plus today i dont get artifacts going with 920 in windows and combustor so i check it in 3dmark11 now
> 
> so card runs stable at core 915mhz and 1410 mem but vcore slider dont work :/ i will look for some other solution rather afterburner




Did you flash it to 6970 bios or it's just the unlocked shaders? because if you flashed it to 6970 bios there's no need for voltage control it's already set to 1.175v.


----------



## onehans (Jan 18, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> Did you flash it to 6970 bios or it's just the unlocked shaders? because if you flashed it to 6970 bios there's no need for voltage control it's already set to 1.175v.



i flashed to 6970 but i was playing LA noire and system crash after around 15 min so i played batman arkham city and it crashes after 1h :/
so i turned my a8-3870k processor to stock 3Ghz from 3,5 and i got same result :?

maybe if i unlock shaders on my 6950 stock bios and overclock will help? as bios from forum gives me artifacts


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 18, 2012)

onehans said:


> i flashed to 6970 but i was playing LA noire and system crash after around 15 min so i played batman arkham city and it crashes after 1h :/
> so i turned my a8-3870k processor to stock 3Ghz from 3,5 and i got same result :?
> 
> maybe if i unlock shaders on my 6950 stock bios and overclock will help? as bios from forum gives me artifacts



hmmm..what driver are you using? i have mine flashed to 6970 with 11.12 drivers, no issues or whatsoever. try the unlock shaders only then give me a feedback if the problem still exist..
and can i ask what PSU are you using and how many watts? maybe you're you're Powersupply is out of juice and that's causing the problem..because as i can see you overclocked it way too high..


----------



## onehans (Jan 18, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> hmmm..what driver are you using? i have mine flashed to 6970 with 11.12 drivers, no issues or whatsoever. try the unlock shaders only then give me a feedback if the problem still exist..
> and can i ask what PSU are you using and how many watts? maybe you're you're Powersupply is out of juice and that's causing the problem..because as i can see you overclocked it way too high..



i changed drivers to http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst1012ahotfix.aspx 2010.1215 just to see if this let me control vcore (update still does not work :/ )
my psu got 750w (OCZ) processor A8-3870 on ASRock pro4 and mem- PC192000 one hard drive sata and dvdrw sata too, so hould be enough
and even going back to 880/1375 cause same effect, crash in LAnoire after 15min and in batman in 1h time gameplay

i will flash it back to unlock shaders only but when i comeback from holiday im going tomorrow morning and be back in 9 days 

thank you very much for ur kind help


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 18, 2012)

onehans said:


> i changed drivers to http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst1012ahotfix.aspx 2010.1215 just to see if this let me control vcore (update still does not work :/ )
> my psu got 750w (OCZ) processor A8-3870 on ASRock pro4 and mem- PC192000 one hard drive sata and dvdrw sata too, so hould be enough
> and even going back to 880/1375 cause same effect, crash in LAnoire after 15min and in batman in 1h time gameplay
> 
> ...




ok..update me if that help, but if not just try flashing it back to you original bios and if the problem still exist..well it's RMA time..


----------



## SplifPolitics (Jan 18, 2012)

manofthem said:


> Have you tried unlocking shaders with RBE?
> <a href="http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1962/mirrors.php">RBE Here</a>
> Load your BIOS into RBE and select 6970 shader count (under additional features, all the way to the right)
> 
> i've never used this method, but I've heard it works





Ginnoskie said:


> that's what you called bad flashing..try it with RBE if the ATIWindlash fail..



Well, I just modded my current bios with RBE (6970 shaders pciked in RBE), Flashed it with RBE - PC starts up fine But in GPU-Z the shaders are still 1408.


----------



## Ginnoskie (Jan 18, 2012)

SplifPolitics said:


> Well, I just modded my current bios with RBE (6970 shaders pciked in RBE), Flashed it with RBE - PC starts up fine But in GPU-Z the shaders are still 1408.



Try to unsinstall and install driver..sometimes it would help but not much..


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## SplifPolitics (Jan 18, 2012)

Ginnoskie said:


> may i ask if you're card had a dual bios? because it's not a reference card and we all know that there are really small chances on unlocking or flashing those card..can give me the procedure on how did you do it?



Ye, I do have a dual bios.

Well, I tried three different ways on unlocking:
The first was saving my current bios with Winflash and then edit the shaders with RBE and then flash with RBE/winflash.
The other one was to flash a 6970 bios with RBE/Winflash.
the las one was to flash a modded bios of my original with the batch file that Wizzard posted (which is the same as the first method).

I had two result:
First, When unlocking the shaders of my original bios with RBE after the reboot GPU-Z show 1408 shaders (nothing changed) but in RBE it's ticked on 6970 shaders (lol?).
Second, When flashing a 6970 bios the pc stuck on the pre MB bios; black screen-no beeps.


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## swchoi89 (Jan 20, 2012)

Hi,

I followed your instructions (using the package that you created for less experienced user) on my MSI Radeon HD 6950 Twin Froze OC II. Now my card is not functioning and seems like the BIOS is messed up. Any tips?


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## chan1600 (Jan 20, 2012)

I changed my MSI R6950's shaders to 1536 Unified.
And, I tried to restart the computer is work with 1536 Unified.







However, I don't see any option to change the GPU clock more than 840MHz







Did I success to change the 6950 to 6970 yet?


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## swchoi89 (Jan 20, 2012)

chan1600 said:


> I changed my MSI R6950's shaders to 1536 Unified.
> And, I tried to restart the computer is work with 1536 Unified.
> http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/01/19/2dx.png
> 
> ...



Could you please explain to me how you did yours? Mine got busted for some reason :S


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## manofthem (Jan 20, 2012)

chan1600 said:


> I changed my MSI R6950's shaders to 1536 Unified.
> And, I tried to restart the computer is work with 1536 Unified.
> http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/01/19/2dx.png
> 
> ...



Looks like it's a modded 6950 bios according to the clock speeds and your post.  Unlocking shaders only unlocks the shaders.  Use MSI Afterburner to overclock.  Edit the user cfg file to allow "unofficial overclocking" to set clocks much higher, and in the settings options, you can allow voltage control and monitoring.  Don't worry about using CCC to change clocks from there on out.



swchoi89 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I followed your instructions (using the package that you created for less experienced user) on my MSI Radeon HD 6950 Twin Froze OC II. Now my card is not functioning and seems like the BIOS is messed up. Any tips?



If you don't have a bios switch on your card, and your card won't boot at all, use another video card in your first pcie slot and throw your "dead" in second pcie slot.  Flash it back to default bios, but using the different pcie slot number (0 for primary pcie and 1 for second pcie)


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## swchoi89 (Jan 20, 2012)

manofthem said:


> Looks like it's a modded 6950 bios according to the clock speeds and your post.  Unlocking shaders only unlocks the shaders.  Use MSI Afterburner to overclock.  Edit the user cfg file to allow "unofficial overclocking" to set clocks much higher, and in the settings options, you can allow voltage control and monitoring.  Don't worry about using CCC to change clocks from there on out.
> 
> 
> 
> If you don't have a bios switch on your card, and your card won't boot at all, use another video card in your first pcie slot and throw your "dead" in second pcie slot.  Flash it back to default bios, but using the different pcie slot number (0 for primary pcie and 1 for second pcie)



Thanks for the reply. If you could further clarify for me, that would be great.

Now I'm scared how to flash anything at all...

So i have a spare radeon 5770 that I can use. At the same time, I have the file that has "flash to 6950". So how would I know if i run that program will apply to my second slot (the "dead" one)? In other words, what is the trick using GPU-Z or whatever to help me flash ONLY the "dead" one?

My second question would be... seems like I might run out of cables for the cards. Do both cards require that they are plugged in to the power supply? For example, 5770 has one 6pin slot whereas 6950 has 2. would my computer recognize that 6950 is plugged in without the 6pins?

Again, thank you very much!


----------



## chan1600 (Jan 20, 2012)

manofthem said:


> Looks like it's a modded 6950 bios according to the clock speeds and your post.  Unlocking shaders only unlocks the shaders.  Use MSI Afterburner to overclock.  Edit the user cfg file to allow "unofficial overclocking" to set clocks much higher, and in the settings options, you can allow voltage control and monitoring.  Don't worry about using CCC to change clocks from there on out.
> 
> 
> 
> If you don't have a bios switch on your card, and your card won't boot at all, use another video card in your first pcie slot and throw your "dead" in second pcie slot.  Flash it back to default bios, but using the different pcie slot number (0 for primary pcie and 1 for second pcie)



Thank you, man!!
I try to find out how to edit cfg. Thank you so much


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## chan1600 (Jan 20, 2012)

manofthem said:


> Looks like it's a modded 6950 bios according to the clock speeds and your post.  Unlocking shaders only unlocks the shaders.  Use MSI Afterburner to overclock.  Edit the user cfg file to allow "unofficial overclocking" to set clocks much higher, and in the settings options, you can allow voltage control and monitoring.  Don't worry about using CCC to change clocks from there on out.
> 
> 
> 
> If you don't have a bios switch on your card, and your card won't boot at all, use another video card in your first pcie slot and throw your "dead" in second pcie slot.  Flash it back to default bios, but using the different pcie slot number (0 for primary pcie and 1 for second pcie)


OK .... Work now...!
Thank you so much!


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## chan1600 (Jan 20, 2012)

Tested by Heaven DX11 Benchmark 2.5.
I have to improve the Core Voltage to more than 1100 and run well.


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## Amfidiusz (Jan 21, 2012)

_[--SOLVED--]

Hey,

I tried to unlock additional shaders using RBE application to switch bios on my Asus HD6950 DCII. Unfortunatelly, due to lack of experience I managed to mess something up and now have troubles in flashing the card with the original bios copy. A few facs of how it behaves now:

- Windows 7 will not start at all - I get a BSOD after the welcome screen. 
- Windows starts in safe mode but none of the tools seem to work.
- My card is not referential one so I don't have a dual bios switch.
- After creating a bootable USB stick with atiflash 3.60 on it, I get an error 0FL101 Adapter not found
- I got just one pci-e slot on my motherboard.

Is there any other way to flash it with a working bios? Maybe some other tool loaded on the USB stick? Is there any chance I will get this card working again?

I hope you'll be able to help me 

[--/SOLVED--]_

OK, seems like the old atiflash utility didn't recognize a newer card. In fact, I was convinced I had to use version 3.60 as it had bootable files instead of just exe file in 3.89. Apparently, atiflash.exe works from USB key smoothly and I was finally able to flash my card. 

But there is always a bright point - I finally was forced to create an account here after several last weeks of just reading your articles and tutorials


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## manofthem (Jan 21, 2012)

chan1600 said:


> Thank you, man!!
> I try to find out how to edit cfg. Thank you so much



I don't know if you figured out how to do it yet, but if not, you can look here:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=327291




Amfidiusz said:


> _[--SOLVED--]
> 
> Hey,
> 
> ...



Good job on solving it 
Hopefully you'll get that 6950 unlocked.  Try it again, just not the same way as the first time.


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## Rule-R (Jan 21, 2012)

Amfidiusz said:


> _[--SOLVED--]
> 
> Hey,
> 
> ...



Welcome


----------



## chropose (Jan 24, 2012)

*Texture Units & SIMD.*

Does unlocking shaders with RBE also unlocks texture units and SIMD as well (88 to 96 for texture units and 22 to 24 for SIMD) ?






Thanks.


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## fausto412 (Jan 24, 2012)

*I have an engineering sample.*

I have an AMD Engineering sample 6950. what are my chances to flash it to 6970 speeds. anybody have any luck?

How can I tell what brand my card is in the bios? will GPU-Z tell me?

I believe the date on the label on the outside is December 2010


Which bios are you guys all using?


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## sildar (Jan 24, 2012)

fausto412 said:


> I have an AMD Engineering sample 6950. what are my chances to flash it to 6970 speeds. anybody have any luck?
> 
> How can I tell what brand my card is in the bios? will GPU-Z tell me?



That should be a reference card, so you should have an easier time flashing to a 6970 BIOS if that's what you choose to do. You're better off modding your BIOS with RBE, though.

And if it's an engineering sample, the brand should be AMD, shouldn't it?


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## fausto412 (Jan 24, 2012)

sildar said:


> That should be a reference card, so you should have an easier time flashing to a 6970 BIOS if that's what you choose to do. You're better off modding your BIOS with RBE, though.
> 
> And if it's an engineering sample, the brand should be AMD, shouldn't it?




I will try the flashing the BIOS. what's the benefit with RBE? how will i know if that will work?

My 6990 engineering sample has Sapphire branding on the bios. 

I was trying to crossfire the 6950 with the 6990 but the system wouldn't always see the 6950 or both the 6990's. I ran into problems with that. I also couldn't enable cross fire on 3 gpu's, never figured out how. Hoping that flashing to 6970 allows me to crossfire with 6990 and downclock to keep power demands under control as my PSU is a Corsair AX850 which is pretty good but top TDP for both these cards is pretty darn high for it. I figure i could Powertune it -20% and I should be good. 

I could also just game with the 6950 or modded 6950 if it provides a better BF3 experience. I read that 3 gpu's gets rid of stuttering which I have a lot of with the 6990.


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## sildar (Jan 24, 2012)

fausto412 said:


> I will try the flashing the BIOS. what's the benefit with RBE? how will i know if that will work?
> 
> My 6990 engineering sample has Sapphire branding on the bios.
> 
> ...



The guide lays out the basics of RBE, and the software has good documentation. There's lots of info in this thread, as well. Basically, instead of downloading and flashing a 6970 BIOS to your 6950 card, it's much more stable to use RBE to download the BIOS from your card, modify it to unlock your shaders (and perhaps modify the powertune limits), and re-flash the modded BIOS to your card.

I can't give you advice on CF with your 6990, or with 3xCF. Maybe someone else can.


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## onehans (Jan 27, 2012)

oh well i did flash than i did flash back to original state but i still get occasional artefacts in fire fox browser :? i guess i damaged card a bit :/


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## xcorp (Jan 29, 2012)

So I just flashed my card (Diamond) with the Diamond 6970 bios.  Everything went well and the clock speed is set to 880/1375, but I only have 1408 shaders.  I loaded the Bios into RBE, but the Shaders unlock part is greyed out.  Any suggestions on what to do?


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## manofthem (Jan 30, 2012)

xcorp said:


> So I just flashed my card (Diamond) with the Diamond 6970 bios.  Everything went well and the clock speed is set to 880/1375, but I only have 1408 shaders.  I loaded the Bios into RBE, but the Shaders unlock part is greyed out.  Any suggestions on what to do?



Perhaps reinstall drivers.  Same thing happened to me last year when I flashed and shaders didn't indicate 1536 right away.


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## xcorp (Jan 30, 2012)

I just went back to the stock bios because BF3 kept locking up my whole computer after 15 mts of gameplay.


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## ramguerra (Jan 30, 2012)

*Trying to Unlock*

Hey guys. I have a Diamond 6950 reference card seen here and I have tried to unlock the shaders. I was able to load different BIOS to it, but none will unlock. I am able to load the Diamond one from the links posted, but all I get is the overclock and not the unlock. Even RBE shows the option to unlock the shaders, but when I do and push the new bios in, It still shows the 1408 shaders. Any Ideas?


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## manofthem (Jan 30, 2012)

ramguerra said:


> Hey guys. I have a Diamond 6950 reference card seen here and I have tried to unlock the shaders. I was able to load different BIOS to it, but none will unlock. I am able to load the Diamond one from the links posted, but all I get is the overclock and not the unlock. Even RBE shows the option to unlock the shaders, but when I do and push the new bios in, It still shows the 1408 shaders. Any Ideas?



Did you try reinstalling the drivers?


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## ramguerra (Jan 31, 2012)

manofthem said:


> Did you try reinstalling the drivers?



Yea I have tried that. Unless I did the uninstall wrong. I just uninstalled The AMD catalyst control center, then used CC Cleaner. But I might be missing a step.


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## manofthem (Jan 31, 2012)

ramguerra said:


> Yea I have tried that. Unless I did the uninstall wrong. I just uninstalled The AMD catalyst control center, then used CC Cleaner. But I might be missing a step.



This guide is great, give her a go
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52502

it may not be the driver as the problem so post back ....
Which bios are you flashing: modded 6950 or a full 6970?


----------



## ramguerra (Jan 31, 2012)

manofthem said:


> This guide is great, give her a go
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52502
> 
> it may not be the driver as the problem so post back ....
> Which bios are you flashing: modded 6950 or a full 6970?



Ok I will try that. And Ive tried both. Using the stock Bios and modding it with RBE and downloading the 6970 BIOS. Hopefully its just a driver issue and the shaders aren't cut.


----------



## Power22 (Feb 1, 2012)

Hey w1zzard,

I hope you can help me out. I got a MSI 6950 Twin Frozr III!

I got my card 14th april 2011. I tried to flash the msi r6950pex bios (from MSI) but it won't unlock the shaders. I also tried to flash a 6970 bios but then my computer won't boot up. I got it fixed by setting the switch in the other position and then flashed the orignal bios back. Now I got both of the switch positions working again. 

I tried flashing via atiwinflash and dos and by both I got the problem.

Is my card laser cutted?

Here is a pic of my card with serial number etc. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





My PC: 

CPU: Intel core i7-2600k
Motherboard: MSI P67a-GD65 (B3)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance CL9 1600MHZ
GPU: MSI 6950 Twin Frozr III (driver version 12.1, maybe the driver is blocking it?)
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 Desktop Class HD502HJ
SSD: OCZ Vertex 2
DVD Player: Samsung Super-WriteMaster SH-S223C
PSU: Be Quiet Straight Power 700W
Case: CoolerMaster CM690II Advanced.


----------



## goldfingerfif (Feb 2, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> packaged the hd 6950 bios modding script.
> 
> www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
> 
> give it a try and let me know how well it works



Thanks so much.  I wanted to tell you this worked with my GIGABYTE GV-R695OC-1GD Radeon HD 6950 1GB GIGABYTE GV-R695OC-1GD Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256-bit ...

I ordered this card 1-26-12

I was scared to order it since I was building a "gaming" computer for my girlfriends brother on a very tight budget since he wanted a computer when he saw mine with an 8800gts, my girlfriends i7-920 with a gtx285 i built her blew him away.  Then he seen my 1100t with 4 6870's (crossfired powercolor 6870x2) and scrounged money together, after hours looking up cards I am glad I went with this even though the 1gb success rate seems lower.  I am glad I can now give him a 6970 in his new computer.  

I ran your script in windows (w7 x64 ultimate) and then used ultimate boot cd 4 win and selected NTFS for dos, I didn't want to waste my time with the Windows version of ATI Flash since if it failed and ruined the card I didn't want to buy him a new one or give up one of mine.

I saved everything in a folder c:\6950 and used 
atifla~1 -f -p 0 modded.bin


----------



## Power22 (Feb 6, 2012)

Is there absolutely no one who can help me out?


----------



## Noci (Feb 6, 2012)

@Power22,

despite all your efforts and the luck some others had, realise it could be possible that your card is equipped with a GPU that actually is crippled (_not fit to be a 6970, but a good 6950_).

Eventhough the yields from AMD are/where good, there can always be some chips that are not 100%. I can't imagine AMD implements randomly lasercutting on good chips. I've the same with my Phenom II x4 690T CPU, it will not unlock the 2 additional cores.

On the other hand it can be something in the MSI BIOS, as my card (VTX3D HD6950 1GB) unlocked (RBE) easily and was flashed with winflash, without any drivers removal or software issues whatshowever. I've done the trick in app. 5 minutes.

For understanding and digging into the BIOS programming, most of us (including me) are not capable.
So try your luck with MSI afterburner to gain some extra graphic power and forget the few percent gain unleashed with the shader unlocking. With your CPU, your system has enough potential and you could always consider CF or a graphic card upgrade.


----------



## Power22 (Feb 7, 2012)

@Noci

Thanks for your replay. I got the clock speeds unlocked and got it now clocked as a 6970 without the shaders. I have a 3DMark11 performance score of 6292 so I'm happy.

I just got bad luck I guess, althrough my card is from 14th April 2011.


----------



## jokapo (Feb 7, 2012)

im a having 2 sapphire hd6950's in my system. 1 that is unlocked. the other one i have tried several things but gpu-z keeps saying 1408 shaders. does anyone know how i can unlock.

i allready did follow the howto unlock here on tech


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## roymustang16 (Feb 8, 2012)

Hi everyone, i search in this topic but cannot find the anwser, is there any 6950 1GB bios modded like a 6970, i have two bios on my Sapphire 6950 1GB, one with the normal shader and the other one with the unlock shader but i would like to overclock my GPU to 6970 frequency, so i would like to know if it's possible and if a modded bios for a 1GB 6950 @6970clock already exist?
I can actually overclock my 6950 with Sapphire Trixx, it work perfectly with 880 and 1375 Mhz and stock voltage but everytime i try to flash a modified 6950 bios with this frequency i get a BSOD at the boot.


----------



## Noci (Feb 10, 2012)

roymustang16 said:


> Hi everyone, i search in this topic but cannot find the anwser, is there any 6950 1GB bios modded like a 6970, i have two bios on my Sapphire 6950 1GB, one with the normal shader and the other one with the unlock shader but i would like to overclock my GPU to 6970 frequency, so i would like to know if it's possible and if a modded bios for a 1GB 6950 @6970clock already exist?
> I can actually overclock my 6950 with Sapphire Trixx, it work perfectly with 880 and 1375 Mhz and stock voltage but everytime i try to flash a modified 6950 bios with this frequency i get a BSOD at the boot.



As far as I know there are no 1GB 6970 cards, so also no available BIOS'ses. But if you get the shaders unlocked and can run at the 6970 stock speeds, what is the added value of a 6970 BIOS? There's no gain, unless you want to push the limit even further and take the risk of frying your card

An available option is to start studying programming, do some reversed engineering on your BIOS, re-program/test it and share it with the rest of the world.

_Common sense is not so common!_


----------



## Yo_Wattup (Feb 10, 2012)

Noci said:


> As far as I know there are no 1GB 6970 cards, so also no available BIOS'ses. But if you get the shaders unlocked and can run at the 6970 stock speeds, what is the added value of a 6970 BIOS? There's no gain, unless you want to push the limit even further and take the risk of frying your card
> 
> An available option is to start studying programming, do some reversed engineering on your BIOS, re-program/test it and share it with the rest of the world.
> 
> _Common sense is not so common!_



Shaders dude.

_Common sense is not so common!_


----------



## chevy350 (Feb 10, 2012)

jokapo said:


> im a having 2 sapphire hd6950's in my system. 1 that is unlocked. the other one i have tried several things but gpu-z keeps saying 1408 shaders. does anyone know how i can unlock.
> 
> i allready did follow the howto unlock here on tech



I have the same issue but with a Diamond 6950, flashed just fine but still only shows 1408 shaders?? Is this just a common thing with running 2? I flashed it with the unlock.bin, saved bios from other card, and Diamond 6970 bios and all have shown 1408.


----------



## roymustang16 (Feb 10, 2012)

Noci said:


> As far as I know there are no 1GB 6970 cards, so also no available BIOS'ses. But if you get the shaders unlocked and can run at the 6970 stock speeds, what is the added value of a 6970 BIOS? There's no gain, unless you want to push the limit even further and take the risk of frying your card
> 
> An available option is to start studying programming, do some reversed engineering on your BIOS, re-program/test it and share it with the rest of the world.
> 
> _Common sense is not so common!_



No in fact i juste would like to have this OC frequency as the stock frequency because i format frequently and i don't like using another software to do it.


----------



## Noci (Feb 10, 2012)

roymustang16 said:


> No in fact i juste would like to have this OC frequency as the stock frequency because i format frequently and i don't like using another software to do it.



English is not my native language, that's why I didn't understand the _"shaders dude"_ remark from down under.
I've read your OP again, but with the info above I now understand. I would like to try this also on my VTX3D HD6950 1GB cards, as I can not even reach the 6970 stock speeds without getting artifacts.
Anyway, I think we'll have to wait untill some whizzkid programms a 6970 BIOS for a 1GB card, or enlightens all of us how to mod the BIOS strings without messing it up. Atm this is way over my head tech stuff. The BIOS'ses are copyrighted by AMD, so I don't see this happening outside off the OC scene.

@ Yo_Wattup, _common sense is not so common_!, is not to offend anybody. It's just a personal observation. When you start reading randomly through topics, you'll  know what mean.
I sign most of my posts with it, hoping to trigger people not to overlook simple things in solving complex problems. Also, stupid questions don't exist, wrong answers ans ignorance do!

_Common sense is not so common!_


----------



## Noci (Feb 10, 2012)

roymustang16 said:


> No in fact i juste would like to have this OC frequency as the stock frequency because i format frequently and i don't like using another software to do it.





chevy350 said:


> I have the same issue but with a Diamond 6950, flashed just fine but still only shows 1408 shaders?? Is this just a common thing with running 2? I flashed it with the unlock.bin, saved bios from other card, and Diamond 6970 bios and all have shown 1408.



I've recently purchased my second VTX3D HD6950 1GB and set up my first CF succesfully. I've had no time yet to unlock the new card, but probebly will try this weekend.

Did you guys check the cards shaders with GPU-Z, but with only one card installed at a time? If they both show 1536 shaders in a single card configuration and later on one with 1403 shaders in CF, it could also be a glitch in GPU-Z. Putting the card in a CF configuration does not change the BIOS, so GPU-Z should read the same info.

_Common sense is not so common!_


----------



## lokito50 (Feb 16, 2012)

Does anyone know where the thread for the posted results is? The one where ppl said which unlock they performed and how long running without problems? Ive had my 6950 unlocked to 6970 shaders only for over a year and no problems so now i want to go to the full 6970 shaders and clocks bios. Or is it better to just oc mine? Thank you


----------



## chevy350 (Feb 16, 2012)

Noci said:


> I've recently purchased my second VTX3D HD6950 1GB and set up my first CF succesfully. I've had no time yet to unlock the new card, but probebly will try this weekend.
> 
> Did you guys check the cards shaders with GPU-Z, but with only one card installed at a time? If they both show 1536 shaders in a single card configuration and later on one with 1403 shaders in CF, it could also be a glitch in GPU-Z. Putting the card in a CF configuration does not change the BIOS, so GPU-Z should read the same info.
> 
> Common sense is not so common!




Yes, I checked and flashed each card seperately. The newer card still only shows 1408 shaders but has the 6970 clocks. I ended up flashing both back to the original bios for each card as I was getting CTD's in games, after that no issues. I will try them again possibly this weekend and see if they both show correct shaders.


----------



## chevy350 (Feb 19, 2012)

Still a no go on the Diamond card. it takes the 880, 1325 and 1.175v but still no extra shaders. I tried both methods in the OP and have run out of ideas why. Only 124 pages of posts to go through on this so I guess I should start now and see if there was anyone else with this issue and if it was resolved.

Looked through 75% of the post's in this thread and still not able to get the shaders unlocked. Flashed the Diamond card in slot 1 and 3 with several 6970 bios and the unlock ones in the OP and can only guess that they can't be unlocked on this card. Shame because it has the 1-2 bios switch. Checked it with the supplied GPU-Z in the OP and the latest version and still shows 1408 shaders but has the 6970 voltage and clock's. Guess I'll just leave them both with 6950 bios and play from there.


----------



## Fitseries3 (Feb 25, 2012)

worked on my asus 6950 DCuII 2gb. thanks W1zz


----------



## Volkszorn88 (Feb 25, 2012)

Sucks that my 2x xfx 2gb 6950s can't unlock D:


----------



## aflatonios (Feb 25, 2012)

After unlocking my asus 6950 2GB Direct CUII
everything worked well and the temperature was good around 50-55

but the problem started after trying to do a Furmark test to check the power consumption . 
after 15 seconds testing , the computer crashed . I tried to reboot but the GPU is not working . 
i can hear the windows start up sound and all fans are working even the gpu fans but nothing on the screen . 
the VGA LED on the motherboard is on (maybe indicating a problem )

I switched the BIOS to position 1 , but the same result . I cant boot the gpu.



i got the gpu two weeks ago from amazon and i can replace it  but what i am worried about is that i can't change the BIOS back to default so they may wont accept the return . 

any ideas ?


----------



## Copak (Mar 7, 2012)

*help!!??!*

Hello 

 After flashing my my asus 6950 i got this 






I used this bios http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95911/Asus.HD6970.2048.110106.html , since it says  013.010.000.009.000000 exactly like my 6950 said in gpuz before flashing. 

Any ideea what i'm doin' wrong? I followed everything it says here... http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159 to the letter 

before flashing, gpuz was like this http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/before.gif 

so... why everything changed but the shaders value didn't?  even smartdoctor says EAH6970... pfff

what to do, what to do  

this means my shaders are laser-cut? damn Jedi, they messed up my card


----------



## Noci (Mar 7, 2012)

Copak said:


> this means my shaders are laser-cut? damn Jedi, they messed up my card



Hi Copak,

Looks like the AMD jedi was playing with his light saber, may the force be with you....

at least you've got quite some gain in the GPU and RAM speeds and if the temps are OK tou'll have to learn to live with it .


----------



## Copak (Mar 7, 2012)

*yup*



Noci said:


> Hi Copak,
> 
> Looks like the AMD jedi was playing with his light saber, may the force be with you....
> 
> at least you've got quite some gain in the GPU and RAM speeds and if the temps are OK tou'll have to learn to live with it .



thank you! so far temps are ok! 31-32-33 celsius

tho' i notice a change at bus interface it was 2.0x16@2.0x16 now is 2.0x16@1.1 and vcore changed it's voltage from 1.1 to 1.25. 

I hope the dark side will not swallow my gpu and render those shaders dead due this voltage increase... so... may teh force be with all our gp units 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	





ps. i forgot to mention, i used ATI Winflash 2.0.1.18 + this bios maybe i should try ati winflash 2.0.1.17  and see what happens


----------



## manofthem (Mar 7, 2012)

Copak said:


> Hello
> 
> After flashing my my asus 6950 i got this
> 
> ...



Way back when I first flashed a 6970 bios to my 6950, the clock speeds changed but the shaders dd not, until I reinstalled the driver. If you haven't already done that, it may be worth a shot, even though it may be all for not. 

Also, it seems like 1.25v is a little high for 890mhz.


----------



## Copak (Mar 7, 2012)

manofthem said:


> Way back when I first flashed a 6970 bios to my 6950, the clock speeds changed but the shaders dd not, until I reinstalled the driver. If you haven't already done that, it may be worth a shot, even though it may be all for not.
> 
> Also, it seems like 1.25v is a little high for 890mhz.



I thought so too! but it was set like so after overclocking, when smartdoctor pop'd up 1.25 was there. 
I did another 2 fl one with an older driver from asus website and didnt worked at all, said can't find the driver after reboot and 2nd with this: catalyst 2.12

after 2nd one smartdoctor & gpuz says 






1.175 voltage set by bios after flash, i still have those 1408 shaders there but the bus interface says 2.0 x 2.0 instead of 2.0 x 1.1 - i guess is just a minor bug or it has to do with that sharing pci lanes inside my mobo?! dunno, i'm not good at all at this things... 

also did a quick test and got P5735 3DMarks with those basic settings, couldn't set anything high and the temp was at most 45 celsius. dunno how to stress the gpu to see how high the temp gets and monitor the temp same time 

and yes, i figured so too, it has to do with the driver installed, bios version and ati winflash version  and i bet other things too pfff so damn complicated 

and Noci was right, it's not a matter of life and death, its more to see those shaders there  cause i wanna crossfire my card and i again i feel like i dont know what im talking since i dont know exactly how much will improve and how many apps and games that supports cross. or sli. etc. many? 

can you tell me what version, manofthem? (the driver)


----------



## vedranius (Mar 11, 2012)

Hello all, I'm totally new to this forum, and totally totally new to unlocking any of these GPUs...
So I wonder, is this GPU unlockable at all?
http://www.adm.hr/product_info.php?products_id=9821
I know it's croatian, but could you know from seeing it, is it unlockable, and is that card this one: HD-695X-CDDC ?
Because, I read somewhere that XXX edition GPUs aren't available for unlock... Is that true?
Also, how much power you get when you unlock any HD 6950 GPU compairing to HD 6950 XXX, or it is the same?
We in Croatia only have Sapphire, VTX3D and XFX - HD 6950 to choose...
Which would you suggest...
Also, I'm thinking of buying any of these but 2GB, because I'm thinking of playing BF3 on my 42" LED (1920x1080 resolution), and also need it for fast video rendering/encoding...

So, this are other HD 6950 2GB cards we got here:
http://www.optimum-online.hr/detalj...i-e-radeon-hd-6950-2gb-ddr5-11188-05-20g.aspx

http://www.telebit.hr/VGA-XFX-HD6950--2GB-DDR5--XFX-HD-695X-CDF/p/87775011.aspx - CDF? what does it means? Is this different from CDDC one?

http://www.telebit.hr/VGA-VTX-HD695...0-5000MHz--VX6950-2GBD5-2DH-/p/494246186.aspx - what about VTX3D?

http://www.telebit.hr/VGA-Sapphire-HD-6950--2GB-GDDR5--HDMI--2-x-mDP--21188-00-40R/p/266042679.aspx

I hope someone can help me with this! 
Many many thanks!


----------



## Fitseries3 (Mar 11, 2012)

theres a thread on the xfx one. it is unlockable.


----------



## vedranius (Mar 11, 2012)

Fitseries3 said:


> theres a thread on the xfx one. it is unlockable.



Could you plz share a link here for me? I'm so tired of looking all those forums to find the answer...
Thank you!


----------



## Fitseries3 (Mar 11, 2012)

Noci said:


> Thanx W1zzard, works like a charm.
> 
> Very clear explanation, finished it within a few minutes.
> 
> ...



VTX3D card worked for this guy. the xfx is somewhere around here. should be a link in this thread. if not... its same as w1zzards guide, just have to get the right bios from the xfx 6970 here on tpu in our bios collection.


----------



## vedranius (Mar 11, 2012)

Fitseries3 said:


> VTX3D card worked for this guy. the xfx is somewhere around here. should be a link in this thread. if not... its same as w1zzards guide, just have to get the right bios from the xfx 6970 here on tpu in our bios collection.



Tnx!
Tell me, how can I know if some GPU has dual bios switch before buying it?
Does any of this GPUs that I linked has dual bios switch? 
And which of these are 100% unlockable? Not even Sapphire? or?


----------



## vedranius (Mar 11, 2012)

Can anyone answer my question? PLZ


----------



## cadaveca (Mar 11, 2012)

vedranius said:


> Can anyone answer my question? PLZ



No manufacturer has 100% unlockable cards. Every brand has cards that unlock, and cards taht won't, and they are all mixed in together at this point. At launch, nearly every single card was unlockable.

I have a 2GB XFX card, nonreference, with no BIOS switch...it unlocked...a reference Sapphire card...it unlocked, Erocker had 1GB XFX cards, they both unlocked...



But we bought our cards right at the launch. I had my card before XFX was even selling the non-reference cards, thanks to them sending me the card in replacement for a 5870. I thought at first the revision number on the card was the ticket, but I have spoken to several members since that had the same revision as I did, but their card did not unlock.


Basically, you gotta take the plunge, and hope for the best. Rest assured, if your card does not unlock, it's not really going to be all thta much slower than with the shaders unlocked, so much so that in order to keep tmeps down, I use locked shader BIOSes for both my cards when using them in Crossfire. I barely notice the difference, as it's only a few FPS at the resolution i play at(2560x1600 currently).


----------



## vedranius (Mar 11, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> No manufacturer has 100% unlockable cards. Every brand has cards that unlock, and cards taht won't, and they are all mixed in together at this point. At launch, nearly every single card was unlockable.
> 
> I have a 2GB XFX card, nonreference, with no BIOS switch...it unlocked...a reference Sapphire card...it unlocked, Erocker had 1GB XFX cards, they both unlocked...
> 
> ...



Thank you for your reply!

So, this the one you have? 
http://www.adm.hr/product_info.php?products_id=9821

Also, what can happen if trying to flash non-reference GPU without Dual BIOS?
What happens if you brick it?
Can you also fry it with flashing? or?

And also, if I get some more money, which should I buy:
- HD 6950 2GB - about 400$
- HD 6970 2GB - about 450-500$
- GTX 570 1,3GB - about 450-500$

This are the prices which are here, and for which I can buy some of those...
Which you suggest is the best deal for playing maxed BF3 on 1680x1050 and in future on 42" LED 1920x1080?
Tnx!


----------



## cadaveca (Mar 11, 2012)

For $50 more...just get the 6970. Or perhaps there is a 7950 for around the same price?


AS to that card...no...I have a "plain" single-fan card. Like this one:

XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 ...


I will say too, that XFX has done me right with this card. I RMA'd many 5870's, 9 in one year, and when the 6950 was offered as replacement, I requested that they give me a "bullet-proof" card, as I run benchmarks a lot, do reviews, game every day for quite a few hours...and here we are over a year later, and I still have the same card. The cooler is not very good, my card hits 90c @ load, but it doesn't artifact, it hasn't died, and has been flawless.

However, it seems that perhaps the GTX570 might be a bit faster? Perhaps that card is the better choice...personally i have no brand preference, so either the 6970 or the 570 would be the better option, to me...you'll have to decide for yourself which to go with.


----------



## ZoneDymo (Mar 11, 2012)

Hello, so tried all the methods but I am still unsuccesfull.
Got a Saphire HD6950 2gb Dirt 3 edition and well I keep getting messages that it did not work.
The first method results in the "ID mismatch" problem
The second method results in the "rom not erased" problem
The premade batch file thing seems to work but after restarting nothing has changed

So yeah, anything else I can try?

Edit, RBE leads nowhere, but now I managed to flash the bios with winflash using a modified bios I made in RBE.
Problem is, it does not do anything at all 
Card remains completely the same according to GPU-Z


----------



## supercoolfool (Mar 23, 2012)

Fitseries3 said:


> worked on my asus 6950 DCuII 2gb. thanks W1zz



I also have an 6950 DCuII 2gb, but I think mine might be locked.

I tried for a while when I got it in November, and I'm trying again.

I've tried the Sapphire BIOS W1zzard provides, as well as some Asus BIOS's and AMD BIOS's. (all 6970's)

All they've ever done is boost my clock/memory speeds.

I've also tried the RBE method, (which I think would be best for most) and I still can't unlock the shaders.

Here's what I tried last, maybe I'm missing a step:

- Aquire the BIOS in RBE
- click on Additional Features and select 6970 Shader count
- Save modded BIOS
- open cmd prompt with admin privileges
- had to unlock first with winflash
- used winflash to load the modded bios.
- Reboot, no change to shaders. 
- Reinstall Catalyst 12.2, reboot and still no change.

RBE and ATIWinflash are the latest versions.

Any ideas?

Thank you


----------



## Skaaj (Mar 25, 2012)

I've a Gigabyte 6950 flashed to 6970.

In every game I played, I got freeze. Display freeze for a few seconds, then the screen blink and everything return to normal.

In the Windows Event Viewer, it tells me that the "Display driver amdkmdap did not respond"

When I set the BIOS to 2, everything is normal.

Any idea?


----------



## illtech (Mar 26, 2012)

supercoolfool said:


> I also have an 6950 DCuII 2gb, but I think mine might be locked.
> 
> I tried for a while when I got it in November, and I'm trying again.
> 
> ...



i too have the asus HD 6950 DCUII flashed to 6970, gpu-z show the 6970 clocks but shaders are 1408 unified, anyone know a fix?


----------



## Skeith (Mar 27, 2012)

Greetings, I have PowerColor's 6950, and I tried to apply the upgrade. However, no matter what I do (even using RBE) the shader number does not change. can you guys help me?


----------



## jimmymonge (Apr 16, 2012)

*Xfx amd hd 6950 xxx*

hi all
I have a special problem with my 2G XFX HD 6950 XXX AMD.

I work on OS X platform using a MAC PRO with lion, I connected the card that I described earlier and the system does not recognize.

I think if maybe flashing the card mac osx lion system recognizes the card as a bootable 2GB 6970. Would this be possible?

Thank you very much for the attention being


----------



## Bo$$ (Apr 17, 2012)

jimmymonge said:


> hi all
> I have a special problem with my 2G XFX HD 6950 XXX AMD.
> 
> I work on OS X platform using a MAC PRO with lion, I connected the card that I described earlier and the system does not recognize.
> ...


MAC cards are different, The bios is different on the card, im not sure if it'll work. wait for an expert to comment 
I advise you make your own thread to make it easier for us to comment and help you better


----------



## Ruben (Apr 22, 2012)

*problem unlocking Sapphire HD 6950 2G*



manofthem said:


> Perhaps yours doesn't have the bios switch...
> http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc208/manofthem/P4160005.jpg
> That's where it is on the reference card, right behind the crossfire connectors, but yours isn't reference so you may not have the switch.
> 
> ...



I'm new in the forum and found this post regarding unlocking the shaders of HD 6950.
I tryed all the proposed methods but didn't succeed.
I followed also the the procedures described here step by step but ended with the message "Rom not erased".
Could it be that the rom on my card is not unlockable .

Sapphire HD 6950 2GB GDDR5
BIOS date: 03/22/11 05:13
BIOS version: 113-1E18620-S44
Chip type: CAYMAN
Hardware spec: CAYMAN PRO Hill GDDR5 BIOS
AtomBIOS version: ATOMBIOSBK-ATI VER013.012.000.008.000000

Can anyone help

regards ruben


----------



## Bo$$ (Apr 22, 2012)

Ruben said:


> I'm new in the forum and found this post regarding unlocking the shaders of HD 6950.
> I tryed all the proposed methods but didn't succeed.
> I followed also the the procedures described here step by step but ended with the message "Rom not erased".
> Could it be that the rom on my card is not unlockable .
> ...


make a new thread in the graphics card/ati section, post pictures of your card if possible. more people browse that part of the site, someone will help you there


----------



## darkom (Apr 26, 2012)

I apologize for my English . How do I install the VisionTek BIOS 6950 2GB (dual bios) from DOS. Everything I tried from the windows and did not work? Is it because I was the switch to 2 when I flash?


----------



## Bo$$ (Apr 26, 2012)

ATIFlash, use a guide for the commands if you are stuck please post here!!!
Take a backup of your BIOS! if you don't you may get stuck!


----------



## darkom (Apr 27, 2012)

Unlocked shaders on VisionTek 6950 2GB (non-reference)


----------



## Ottimo (May 4, 2012)

I tried to unlock my MSI 6950 Twin Frozer II / oc with AtiWinFlash, but after performing the procedure using the firmware for the 6970 and restarted the computer, the screen stays black!

I moved the 6950 on the secondary pcie, put on the 8800GT pcie primary. The PC starts well, the 6950 is detected with "shader 1563 880MHz GPU clock," but does not work.

If I try to load the old firmware with atiwinflash I get error "mismatch subsystemIDs".

What can I do?

Please help me!!


----------



## Lexy_f (May 4, 2012)

Need help ASAP!!!
Please, can anyone finally confirm? Is it possible to unlock this card to 6970 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005X64QAG/?tag=tec06d-20 ?
Thanks in advance...


----------



## manofthem (May 5, 2012)

Lexy_f said:


> Need help ASAP!!!
> Please, can anyone finally confirm? Is it possible to unlock this card to 6970 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005X64QAG/?tag=tec06d-20 ?
> Thanks in advance...



Click your link and scroll down to the reviews. The first one that I see says "Unlockable to 6970". That should be a decent indication, but it's hard to say 100%.


----------



## urdreams (May 5, 2012)

hello guys,

i was referred to this website by a buddy that flashed his 6950's to the 6970's and said he followed your guide.

well, I've done the same, but, Ive been unsuccessful with EVERY angle I've tried to take thus far.
I recently purchased the Sapphire 6950 2gig OC edition from new egg, I do have the Dual bios switch. I just cant seem to get the dang thing to convert. I used the Atiwinflash, with that i got the missmatchID. So, I went the other route after reverting back to the 6950 original Bios and tried doing it manually, still unsuccessful. I've honestly have tried I'd say anywhere from 20-25 times plus so far haha. All I get on the reboot, is a black screen, and when the bios flashes, I've noticed the ID has been downgraded. Is there anything else I could possibly do? Id love to see this thing flashed to the 6970


----------



## urdreams (May 8, 2012)

Anyone?


----------



## Noci (May 8, 2012)

Hello urdreams,

check the last part of the quote




Noci said:


> I've got the new mainboard installed and both cards are running @ PCI-e 2.0 x 16.
> 
> In 3Dmark11 they now even exceed the hardware target score a little. For me this proves the PCI-e 2.0  16x/4x slots where indeed a bottleneck. CPU wise, I'll just wait for the Bulldozer updates and will see in time.
> 
> ...



Sometimes we're just out of luck  and it has nothing to do with the software (BIOS). Probably a Cayman chip that is a perfect 6950 but with a small defect and thus not suitable for a 6970.

You bought the OC edition, which normally means a better VRM than basic edition. Maybe you can push the clocks and/or voltage a little bit more. Just make sure you have adequate cooling on the card! 
I personally can only detect a marginal advantage of the unlocked shaders in real life computing. But it's for free... _which makes my fingers tinkling to try other methods on my second 6950_,,
I think living with the thought that having an unlockable 6950, outweights the the feeling of ending up with a bricked 6950

So not much help, but some food for thought


----------



## D007 (May 8, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> and the radeon 9500 to 9700 mod before that, which is what got me involved with the whole hardware industry in the first place, which led to tpu and everything i do now



And then.. To the end of the world.. Mwa! mwa! mwahahahahaha!!!


----------



## athenaesword (May 9, 2012)

will I be able to update drivers after i've unlocked?


----------



## TomBrooklyn (May 20, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> Test Results​(Last updated March 28th)
> 
> <table border="0" cellpadding="4">  <tr><td align="center"><strong>Manufacturer</strong></td>  </tr></table>
> 
> [Table omitted as it does not reproduce in post, (although it does in post Preview)]



1. On the table of Test Results at the end of this article, which is dated 2010-12-26, the "Last Updated" date of March 28th refers to what year?   

2. What is the source of this tabulated data?


----------



## theeldest (May 29, 2012)

athenaesword said:


> will I be able to update drivers after i've unlocked?



Yes.



TomBrooklyn said:


> 1. On the table of Test Results at the end of this article, which is dated 2010-12-26, the "Last Updated" date of March 28th refers to what year?
> 
> 2. What is the source of this tabulated data?



1. Last year (2011)
2. From initial discussion posts and (probably) PMs.


----------



## lamobot700 (May 30, 2012)

Hello, Everybody. Can You guys help me?
 I've just bought HIS HD 6950 2Gb H695F2G2M and as soon as I got known about the hidden shaders I tried to unlock them for my card. As I know, this card has a reference design and should have the bios switch: it has the place for the switch but it seems that it had never been soldered to its place by manufacturer. Even though it lacks the switch I tried to flash it with modded bios using different ways. Atiwinflash unlocked  the rom (it was written in the pop-up window), but trying to flash it even have the rom unlocked it doesn't render any errors and just says that "rom not erased"!? It's like the manufacturer had put the switch into the second position  and then removed it for good!? 
Has anybody faced such things, is there way to unlock the missing shaders?


----------



## olrod (Jun 2, 2012)

Hi Guys 

Please add another successful to the XFX HD6950 2GB flashed to HD6970 

I bought the XFX HD6950 in Jan 2011 and only just felt brave enough to have a go 

used the techpowerup automatic update ( for the noobs ) which worked fine, had to remove and reinstall driver though but it works a treat , increase in games like battlefield 3 etc help me to get a smooth frame rate now 

GPUZ states clocks and shaders are of a HD6970 and i increased power to 20%

all good

mike


----------



## SetsunaFZero (Jun 4, 2012)

olrod said:


> Hi Guys
> 
> Please add another successful to the XFX HD6950 2GB flashed to HD6970
> 
> ...



ur lucky mate :/ i wasnt 

i bougth the XFX HD695X CDDC 2GB XXX Edition Rev. A.0
after hard unlocking the Bios and flashing to 6970 -> Fail non bootable
took me some time to recover the bios 
2nd try, Stock bios with RBE unlock option on -> Fail
seems like my gpu is lasercuted damn :/

any1 know how to override the oc limits mine are 850/1400 (gpu clock 840/1375). I tried to rip the Hashed limit form some other bios but i end up with BSOD. NonHashed limits dosent work ether.


----------



## cadaveca (Jun 4, 2012)

SetsunaFZero said:


> ur lucky mate :/ i wasnt
> 
> i bougth the XFX HD6950 2GB XXX Edition Rev. A0
> after hard unlocking the Bios and flashing to 6970 -> Fail non bootable
> ...



Increase CCC limits tool here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2266947&postcount=79


----------



## olrod (Jun 8, 2012)

olrod said:


> Hi Guys
> 
> Please add another successful to the XFX HD6950 2GB flashed to HD6970
> 
> ...



GPUZ states i have the full 1536 shaders and clock speed of 880 / 1375 and 176gb mem bandwidth...... 

Most programs see the card as a HD6950 though ???? Any way round this ?

I knew Custom PC were barking up the wrong tree when telling peeps to hold off buying a HD6950 and wait insead for the GTX560Ti ( good though it is ) it aint no HD6970 !


----------



## TRWOV (Jun 26, 2012)

*hardlocked bios?*

Got me a used Sapphire HD6950 Dirt3 ED but I can't flash it (using RBEs shader unlock, not 6970 bios). I've used the "Force flash" in RBE and the atiwinflash command line but if I try to flash I get a "ROM not erased" error (atiwinflash -unlockrom is reported as successful).

Is there any other way or should I forget about it? should I try flashing from a boot disk?


----------



## cadaveca (Jun 26, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> Got me a used Sapphire HD6950 Dirt3 ED but I can't flash it (using RBEs shader unlock, not 6970 bios). I've used the "Force flash" in RBE and the atiwinflash command line but if I try to flash I get a "ROM not erased" error (atiwinflash -unlockrom is reported as successful).
> 
> Is there any other way or should I forget about it? should I try flashing from a boot disk?



Yes, there is a way, that involves shorting out the BIOS chip. 


No, I do not think it is worth it.


----------



## TRWOV (Jun 26, 2012)

For a 5% increase, yeah, not worth it. Too bad this one turned to be a bad overclocker.


----------



## AndreiD (Jun 27, 2012)

Hi, I found a pretty good deal for a Sapphire HD6950 1GB (dual bios version apparently), has anyone had any luck unlocking it?


----------



## TRWOV (Jun 27, 2012)

That's the same one I have (2GB version). If it's anything like mine it'd be hardlocked.


----------



## brandonwh64 (Jun 27, 2012)

Here is my sapphire 6950 2GB bios if anyone wants to try it

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34835733/Cayman.rom


----------



## AndreiD (Jun 27, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> That's the same one I have (2GB version). If it's anything like mine it'd be hardlocked.



I've read that some people had success with unlocking it, I guess you just got unlucky?       
The deal is too good to refuse, it's around 100$ cheaper than a HD7850


----------



## TRWOV (Jun 28, 2012)

I mean that the bios is hardlocked. The pin that enables the bios to be overwritten isn't connected. 

The 6950 is still a beast at stock settings anyway. Pull the trigger.


----------



## BLJ (Jul 15, 2012)

Hello Everyone

Back in January 2011 i bought a HIS 6950. Didn't flash it to 6970 since my CPU was the bottleneck back then.
Just upgraded my CPU to an i5-3570K, using and ASROCK Z77 board. Tried to flash the 6950 to 6970 - and failed.
First, i verified that my 6950 is a reference design card. Backed up the card's bios and calculated the md5 sum: It matches the md5 of the reference card's bios of that time (same file as orig.rom in the 6950 -> 6970 package).
So downloaded the Sapphire 6970 that is linked in the article. Made sure bios-switch was set to "1". Used ati_winflash_2.0.1.18 to update and rebooted.
Some beeps and the screen is blank.

With the fail-save bios i booted and flashed "1" back to my backup. Verified the check sum of the downloaded 6970 file - everything ok. Retried flashing. Same result.

Now, i guess some shaders of my card are defective or it doesn't like the 880MHZ (which is unlikely since its just a 10% increase).

Can you confirm this as the most likely cause or might there be a chance that something else like RBE might work?

(I don't think the card was laser-cut since it was manufactured back in 2010, and back then AFAIR the cards were not laser-cut, that started a few months later).

thank you.

PS: I also tried flashing using the 6950->6970 package, which uses an older version of the ati_winflash, same symptoms.
PPS: could the integrated graphics of the CPU pose a problem?


----------



## gamefeud (Jul 16, 2012)

dont know if i did it right. i dont feel any change in my gaming performance. or is it my processor is just i3 2100. can anyone check this(XFX hd6950)? im running my computer for more than 6 hours. no error so far.


----------



## AndreiD (Jul 17, 2012)

Sapphire HD6950 1GB DDR5 (Dual Fan Cooler & Dual Bios Edition)    




Unlocked just by setting the bios slider to the second position, so it came with a shader unlock from the factory.


----------



## Sleuth (Aug 5, 2012)

*Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 TOXIC*

Hey guys,

I just tried unlocking my Sapphire HD 6950 TOXIC 2GB card to 6970. I used the latest Sapphire ROM from here: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...ufacturer=&model=HD+6970&interface=&memSize=0

Now, I'm sort of confused. As soon as I switched to the "1" position, I was already at 1536 Unified shaders, but I continued with the unlock anyhow to see what it would do.


*BEFORE*







*AFTER*







That's such a small difference here that I'm wondering if I should keep the unlock or not.
I've only just noticed the box says "Overclocked" already and wonder if it's even safe with this card?!


----------



## TRWOV (Aug 5, 2012)

Did you buy it used? Looks like someone had already unlocked it. 

The only thing changed by the bios you used is the memory speed (1300 -> 1375).


----------



## Sleuth (Aug 6, 2012)

No it was not used, it was bought new. Like I said, the box does say it is factory overclocked already, so that explains the higher clock rate I guess.


----------



## manofthem (Aug 6, 2012)

Sleuth said:


> No it was not used, it was bought new. Like I said, the box does say it is factory overclocked already, so that explains the higher clock rate I guess.



Your card unlocks to a 6970 with the bios switch, which is why your card has 8pin/6pin for power. Only difference is your memory clocked to 1300 instead of 1375 like a normal 6970.


----------



## noobsrus (Aug 9, 2012)

*how to unlock XFX Double D HD-695X-CDFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB*

hey guys, i'm new to this and was hoping someone could fill me in/ help me out with unlocking this card.  i have the XFX Double D HD-695X-CDFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB. im not sure if it can be unlocked, but wanted to ask the community if it can. i dont want to burn nor mess it up. by the way, my card doesnt no have the bios switch. is there anyone that could help me out? heres the link: Newegg.com  - Once You Know, You Newegg


----------



## TRWOV (Aug 9, 2012)

unlocking is hit or miss, no guarantees. Just in the previous page another dude with the same card as me unlocked with no problems but I couldn't.


----------



## noobsrus (Aug 9, 2012)

whats the wrost thing that could happen if i try this? and how do i fix it? i dont have a backup card


----------



## TRWOV (Aug 9, 2012)

The worst is that the bios bricks the card and then you'll have to reflash it with the original bios. If your motherboard has an IGP (board has DVI or VGA port) you can use that as a "backup card".


----------



## noobsrus (Aug 9, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> The worst is that the bios bricks the card and then you'll have to reflash it with the original bios. If your motherboard has an IGP (board has DVI or VGA port) you can use that as a "backup card".



how can i backup orignal bios? i believe my motherboard has an igp, gpu z picks up another video display when i launch it


----------



## TRWOV (Aug 9, 2012)

noobsrus said:


> how can i backup orignal bios? i believe my motherboard has an igp, gpu z picks up another video display when i launch it



You can backup the bios from GPU-Z itself (clic on the "Save BIOS" button). If your motherboard has a DVI, HDMI or VGA connector it has an IGP.


----------



## noobsrus (Aug 9, 2012)

this is the second option in gpz, does this mean i have an igp?


----------



## TRWOV (Aug 9, 2012)

yes


----------



## noobsrus (Aug 9, 2012)

when i do command "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin" in cmd, its saying "rom not erased" is tha normal? and the 6950 is device 0


----------



## TRWOV (Aug 9, 2012)

try -unlockrom before flashing. 

If that doesn't work, the bios might be hardlocked (the pin that enables flashing is disabled). Also, remember to run the command line as administrador (if you're using Vista/W7).


----------



## jeff_man (Aug 21, 2012)

So before someone flames me, Yes tl;dr but I have a very simple question.

Card I have is a HIS HD6950 2GB H695FT2G2M

I did the 6970 unlock over a year ago using RBE to make my custem bios and just did a simple 6970 unlock then set power the +20% in ati control panel.

Now to get the to HD6950 w/1536 shaders and 6970 clocks do I simply just turn up the Core to 900MHz and memory to 1400MHz in the ATI controle panel or do I load one of the bios from HIS HD6970 Bios

Or can I safely go higher?


----------



## cadaveca (Aug 21, 2012)

jeff_man said:


> So before someone flames me, Yes tl;dr but I have a very simple question.
> 
> Card I have is a HIS HD6950 2GB H695FT2G2M
> 
> ...



You can go higher.

however, 6950 stock votlage is 1.1 V on that card, while stock 6970 voltage is 1.174 V. Both use the same cooler.

So, load up Sapphire Trixx, go to teh settings tab, check the "disable ULPS" option, and enable the "run trixx at startup", "minimize", and "load clock" options on the settings page.

Reboot.

Upon booting into windows again, ULPS will be disabled. Then you can safely adjust voltage to 1.174 V, and then adjust clocks as you desire.


----------



## jeff_man (Aug 21, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> You can go higher.
> 
> however, 6950 stock votlage is 1.1 V on that card, while stock 6970 voltage is 1.174 V. Both use the same cooler.
> 
> ...




Thanks for the fast replay

never used Sapphire Trixx but guessing it will work with any ati card? When you say I can go higher... What is a good safe high bad ass number or how do I went to far. Guessing crashing and freezing means turn it down but looking for a good starting number i.e. 950/1500

Also does the setting 1.174v replace setting power at +20% or do I need to do both?

Off the read and watch how to videos.


----------



## cadaveca (Aug 21, 2012)

Personally, I run unlocked shaders and 925 MHz @ 1.15 V on my three cards now.

And yes, Trixx tends to work with most AMD cards without any real intervention by adjusting configuration files, or any of that stuff. Since that HIS card is reference, it should work like a charm.

I have three reference cards, one Sapphire, one Gigabyte, and one XFX. XFX card uses a different BIOS, yet, Trixx has no prolems clocking all three cards perfectly.

I also suggest you use 12.3 or 11.11c drivers with HD6950, and the latest CAP profile. I have done extensive testing with these cards, and the 12.3 driver is the last that works properly, after 11.11c. All others have bugs of one form or another.


----------



## jeff_man (Aug 21, 2012)

Why run an older driver, I'm also running a single card not a cross fire. Guess 925Mhz at 1.174v is a good place to start but what about memory MHz?

See you edited as I was replying.


----------



## cadaveca (Aug 21, 2012)

Older driver as it performs best with that generation of cards. Since the 7-series launch, the drivers have been focused for those cards.

I also use a single  non-reference HD6950 2 GB card in all my motherboard and memory reviews posted here, so that goes for both single GPU and multi-GPU. Yes, I have four of thesse cards. 

For memory, some cards won't do the 1375 MHz of the 6970 BIOS. some will run 1475 no problem. GPU clocking is just the same...luck of the draw. Unlocknig shaders is the same as well, but the original reference cards have a very high probability to unlock, but as these cards were produced, and OEMs binned cards for different models, things like clocking and such have been greatly restricted. You got a reference card, so it should clock well, but there's no way for me to provide any guidance as to what you shoudl aim for. Most of these "reference" 6950's were only released in this refernce "form" becuase of a parts shortage for the actual 6950 PCB, which had it's power delivery section by the vga ports, so some chips are great..soem are very poor, pushed out just to meet orders.


----------



## jeff_man (Aug 21, 2012)

My card stock is 840/1408 plus the shades unlocked some I'm past the 1375 =D. For OCing I know i just keep adding 10MHz on the core till I start seeing artifacts. Does the memory fallow the same logic?


----------



## cadaveca (Aug 21, 2012)

Yeah, sure does, but personally, I use 25 MHz jumps, then when it fails, go back 25 Mhz to the past good clocks and call it done.


----------



## dragoskid10 (Aug 24, 2012)

*Funny situation*

Hello and thx for this great hack,
I have a Ati 6950 2GB from Sapphire. 
I had this card inside a P5ql pro MB from asus 775 socket - and intel E8400+ 4GB ram DDR2.
I unlocked the shaders and tha card worked pertfectly.
I placed the card into a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H + 3570k Ivy Bridge + DDR3 8GB ram.
It doesnt wana post with the new bios (unlocked one), it only wants to start with stock bios.
I dont know what is the problem, the new platform doesnt suports it???


----------



## Ruhnie (Aug 24, 2012)

Is it possible that some z77 boards will have an issue with this unlock? I have been beating my head against the wall for the last 24 hours with an issue with my new build. Popped my unlocked 6950 into a new mobo and I can't get any signal from the graphics card. Did some googling and found an Asus Z77 board that was confirmed to have a problem with this unlock. Guess I'll try updating my BIOS and see if it fixes it, and worst case run with my backup 6950 BIOS


----------



## manofthem (Aug 24, 2012)

dragoskid10 said:


> Hello and thx for this great hack,
> I have a Ati 6950 2GB from Sapphire.
> I had this card inside a P5ql pro MB from asus 775 socket - and intel E8400+ 4GB ram DDR2.
> I unlocked the shaders and tha card worked pertfectly.
> ...





Ruhnie said:


> Is it possible that some z77 boards will have an issue with this unlock? I have been beating my head against the wall for the last 24 hours with an issue with my new build. Popped my unlocked 6950 into a new mobo and I can't get any signal from the graphics card. Did some googling and found an Asus Z77 board that was confirmed to have a problem with this unlock. Guess I'll try updating my BIOS and see if it fixes it, and worst case run with my backup 6950 BIOS



http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/352078-33-trouble-unlocked-6950

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=22466102

It seems that it is/was a bug with the z77 chipset.  i don't know if you have the latest bios on your motherboard, might try that.  But it seems that the unlocked shaders works better than a full 6970 bios flashed.  Try the unlock instead.


----------



## Ruhnie (Aug 25, 2012)

manofthem said:


> http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/352078-33-trouble-unlocked-6950
> 
> http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=22466102
> 
> It seems that it is/was a bug with the z77 chipset.  i don't know if you have the latest bios on your motherboard, might try that.  But it seems that the unlocked shaders works better than a full 6970 bios flashed.  Try the unlock instead.



Interesting, thanks for the links. I literally spent all day today trying to find the answer to this, guess my googling needs some work. Much appreciated. So looks like just doing shader unlock + MSI afterburner for OC is the way to go on Z77.


----------



## dragoskid10 (Aug 26, 2012)

*it worked*

Thx, just unloking the shaders of 6950 worked perfectly.


----------



## contaboa (Aug 30, 2012)

hey guyz, help me plz. i unlocked my sapphire 6950 to 6970 , and when i restarted the system its doenst starts, what can i do about it ? How can to original bios if i cant start the win ? 
Thx


----------



## manofthem (Aug 30, 2012)

contaboa said:


> hey guyz, help me plz. i unlocked my sapphire 6950 to 6970 , and when i restarted the system its doenst starts, what can i do about it ? How can to original bios if i cant start the win ?
> Thx



What 6950 card do you have, what method did you use, and did you use the full 6970 bios?

If you have a bios switch up by the crossfire connector, flip the switch to boot up normally 
After you're booted, put the switch bak to the position with the bad bios (while the pc is running), and then flash again but with a good bios. 


It you don't have the switch, then you'll need to use a different video card and flash the bad gpu in a secondary pcie slot.


----------



## contaboa (Aug 30, 2012)

manofthem said:


> What 6950 card do you have, what method did you use, and did you use the full 6970 bios?
> 
> If you have a bios switch up by the crossfire connector, flip the switch to boot up normally
> After you're booted, put the switch bak to the position with the bad bios (while the pc is running), and then flash again but with a good bios.
> ...



i use a sapphire 6950 dual fan oc, i used this method http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
and i flashed it now to the original bios, when i load any 6970bios my pc dont start up , what can i do about it ? cant i unlock my card ? 
Thx for ur help


----------



## contaboa (Sep 1, 2012)

any1 ?


----------



## manofthem (Sep 2, 2012)

contaboa said:


> i use a sapphire 6950 dual fan oc, i used this method http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
> and i flashed it now to the original bios, when i load any 6970bios my pc dont start up , what can i do about it ? cant i unlock my card ?
> Thx for ur help



Rather than use a 6970 bios, mod your existing 6950 bios to unlock all shaders. After that you can overclock to the 6970 clock speeds, 880/1375. You can unlock the shaders using RBE, available here at TPU for download. Load your bios into RBE and choose the 6970 shader option. For more details, you can google it as I can't recall off the top of my head.


----------



## contaboa (Sep 2, 2012)

manofthem said:


> Rather than use a 6970 bios, mod your existing 6950 bios to unlock all shaders. After that you can overclock to the 6970 clock speeds, 880/1375. You can unlock the shaders using RBE, available here at TPU for download. Load your bios into RBE and choose the 6970 shader option. For more details, you can google it as I can't recall off the top of my head.



I tried that but the shaders still locked =(  have you guyz any ideas about  what's happening ?


----------



## manofthem (Sep 2, 2012)

contaboa said:


> I tried that but the shaders still locked =(  have you guyz any ideas about  what's happening ?



One idea: if you've tried both a 6970 bios and a 6950 bios modded for shader unlock and still nothing, then I'd say the shaders aren't going to unlock, must be locked down good and tight. Last hope, some suggest unlocking while the AMD video drivers are not installed. So as a last effort, uninstall your drivers, then try unlocking after a reboot (no guarantees...but worth a shot), obviously followed up by reinstalling drivers. 

I hope it works, but it may not


----------



## contaboa (Sep 2, 2012)

manofthem said:


> One idea: if you've tried both a 6970 bios and a 6950 bios modded for shader unlock and still nothing, then I'd say the shaders aren't going to unlock, must be locked down good and tight. Last hope, some suggest unlocking while the AMD video drivers are not installed. So as a last effort, uninstall your drivers, then try unlocking after a reboot (no guarantees...but worth a shot), obviously followed up by reinstalling drivers.
> 
> I hope it works, but it may not


 
Thx for ur help, i ll try that


----------



## bphr34k (Sep 6, 2012)

*unlocked - or is it?*



contaboa said:


> I tried that but the shaders still locked =(  have you guyz any ideas about  what's happening ?



So I've got the same problem, any luck with this one? 
I completed the command prompt update as well as the wizard based update at first - both kille d my card, so I had to recover with Bios2, restore Bios1 and try again. When neither of those worked, I tried the RBE - I retrieved by BIOS, saved it, modded it to the increased shader, saved new modded file, flashed, still stuck at 1408 shaders - reloaded RBA retrieved bios and confirmed - its got the mod, but only 1408 shaders...any ideas?


----------



## TRWOV (Sep 6, 2012)

Mine didn't unlock either. It's just bad luck


----------



## Durvelle27 (Sep 12, 2012)

can some one plz help me unlock my HD 6950


----------



## fame (Sep 13, 2012)

contaboa which version of the sapphire do u have? i have the sapphire 6950 dual fan, dual display port "overclocking edition" .. i tried flashing my bios for it not even realizing that it came with its own option to overclock built into the ati software but the only problem is that it doesnt unlock the shaders... do u have this edition or is it a different one? i overlooked it.. others might have aswell... but if anyone knows of a way to unlock the shaders for this please let me know.. thanks


----------



## Bow (Oct 10, 2012)

I have 2 Sapphire HD 6950's I want to flash to 6970, do I have to do one card at a time in the #1 pcie slot or can I flash them both in crossfire?


----------



## cadaveca (Oct 10, 2012)

Bow said:


> I have 2 Sapphire HD 6950's I want to flash to 6970, do I have to do one card at a time in the #1 pcie slot or can I flash them both in crossfire?



one at a time, one in the system only, please.


----------



## Bow (Oct 10, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> one at a time, one in the system only, please.



" One ping please"


----------



## CalvinD (Oct 16, 2012)

Hey guys, tried unlocking my 6950 today.

It is a Club3D 6950 2GB BF3 edition. First off I chose the Sapphire BIOS to flash the 6950 with. 
Sapphire HD6970

The ATIwinflash program wouldn't work so I did it through the command prompt which did it for me. Unfortunately when I rebooted my PC it wouldn't give a signal to my monitor. I then had to set the BIOS switch to "2". PC booted again and I flashed "1" back to my old BIOS save.

Didn't really wanna give up, so I downloaded an other BIOS to try; the Club3D 6970 (since I have a Club3D thought it'd be worth the try). Club3D HD6970

Unfortunately, same issue. After that I have flashed "1" back to my old BIOS again and I'm now hoping for a solution.

I have an ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 mobo with an i5-3570K (so I've had to flash my BIOS to be able to run the ivy bridge technology before). Might be some valuable information to my matter.

Hope you can help me


----------



## brandonwh64 (Oct 16, 2012)

CalvinD said:


> Hey guys, tried unlocking my 6950 today.
> 
> It is a Club3D 6950 2GB BF3 edition. First off I chose the Sapphire BIOS to flash the 6950 with.
> Sapphire HD6970
> ...




Why not just use the original bios and the unlock the shaders with RBE?


----------



## CalvinD (Oct 16, 2012)

I don't know too much about GPUs... 

RBE?


----------



## CalvinD (Oct 16, 2012)

CalvinD said:


> I don't know too much about GPUs...
> 
> RBE?



Okay well I've gotten into using RBE in the past few hours. Although with no luck so far. The exact steps that I've done are:

Open GPU-Z and save BIOS file to desktop (green arrow thingy behind "BIOS version")
I have opened that .rom file in BRE and went to "additional features"
Under the title "unlock 6950 -> 6970" I chose the option "6970 shader count".
I then clicked "save BIOS" and saved it to my desktop (the name it creates is cayman.rom).
Since ATIwinflash won't work for me, I have to do it through the command prompt. 
I clicked on "start" -> typed cmd -> run as administrator.

Typed in 

```
cd %USERPROFILE%/desktop/winflash
atiwinflash -unlockrom 0
atiwinflash -f -p 0 cayman.rom
```

It said verified and told me to reboot.
I rebooted my PC and started up GPU-Z. No effect. Still 1408.
But when I open this BIOS file in BRE it does say that the option to unlock 6970 shader count is enabled.

I've also tried loading someone elses 6950 with unlocked shader but that gave me no signal again, had to flash the original back.

Does this mean my 6950 is gay and only likes 6950s and no 6970s?


----------



## rbo (Oct 18, 2012)

*Recent Troubles*

I have MSI 6950 2GB card running on Asrock Extreme6 P67 MB. About 18 months ago I came upon this article and flashed to 6970 with no problems. It has worked flawlessly ever since. Recently, I flashed MB to P2.10 Bios and now I get black screen after booting. I also tried card in new Gigabyte 1155 Z77 MB with same result. Does anyone know of a problem with flashed card and latest Intel North Bridge? Does anyone know of a solution?


----------



## Mastroz (Oct 22, 2012)

rbo said:


> I have MSI 6950 2GB card running on Asrock Extreme6 P67 MB. About 18 months ago I came upon this article and flashed to 6970 with no problems. It has worked flawlessly ever since. Recently, I flashed MB to P2.10 Bios and now I get black screen after booting. I also tried card in new Gigabyte 1155 Z77 MB with same result. Does anyone know of a problem with flashed card and latest Intel North Bridge? Does anyone know of a solution?



Why  not just turn the switch back to regular bios on the card and see if it boots?  it has the original bios when you flip the switch.  I don't know if yours has one.  But mine does.  I have an early 6950x2 crossfire.  But I don't have flashed enabled right now.  just running the stock one.


----------



## CalvinD (Oct 24, 2012)

rbo said:


> I have MSI 6950 2GB card running on Asrock Extreme6 P67 MB. About 18 months ago I came upon this article and flashed to 6970 with no problems. It has worked flawlessly ever since. Recently, I flashed MB to P2.10 Bios and now I get black screen after booting. I also tried card in new Gigabyte 1155 Z77 MB with same result. Does anyone know of a problem with flashed card and latest Intel North Bridge? Does anyone know of a solution?



There seems to a problem with the newer Z77 chipset motherboards. 

My Z68 has been flashed to P2.10 BIOS too and it won't work. Nor even let me unlock (which is just bad luck I guess).

If you switch your BIOS on the card to "2" then it will boot. If you then flash "1" to a HD6950 with unlocked shaders you'll have the same (working result). I'm quite sure it'll work since your card has unlocked before.


----------



## MTDEW332 (Nov 2, 2012)

rbo said:


> I have MSI 6950 2GB card running on Asrock Extreme6 P67 MB. About 18 months ago I came upon this article and flashed to 6970 with no problems. It has worked flawlessly ever since. Recently, I flashed MB to P2.10 Bios and now I get black screen after booting. I also tried card in new Gigabyte 1155 Z77 MB with same result. Does anyone know of a problem with flashed card and latest Intel North Bridge? Does anyone know of a solution?





CalvinD said:


> There seems to a problem with the newer Z77 chipset motherboards.
> 
> My Z68 has been flashed to P2.10 BIOS too and it won't work. Nor even let me unlock (which is just bad luck I guess).
> 
> If you switch your BIOS on the card to "2" then it will boot. If you then flash "1" to a HD6950 with unlocked shaders you'll have the same (working result). I'm quite sure it'll work since your card has unlocked before.


If you want to use a 6970 bios, you have to edit the 6970 bios you're using to have the 6950 ID now, otherwise, blackscreen.
Your only other choice as mentioned is to use your original 6950 bios, unlock the shaders and overclock with a utility.
Read Below.....


Jaro said:


> Hello everybody, this is my first post, and sorry for my English. I had the same problem - black screen after flashing Sapphire 6950 to 6970 on Asus P8Z77-V. A lot of Asus (and probably other brands) motherboard users witch Z77/Z68 chipset have the same problem. My flashed card worked excellent on my previous mobo - Asus P5QL-E.  Asus probably blocks flashed cards (6950 with 6970 bios) from using.  On this forum is few solutions with unlocking shaders and changing clocks –  to do it we have to edit 6950 bios -  sometimes it works, but this is only modified 6950 Bios.  My solution is simply. Take your target 6970 bios, edit with RBE, change "video card ID" from 6970 to 6950, save, flash. Now motherboard recognize it as standard 6950, but we have full functional 6970 witch 1536 shaders, 880/1375 clocks, new clocks limits, proper voltages and fan profile. It works for me, and I hope it will for others.


Quoted from Here


----------



## hrcmiha (Nov 22, 2012)

Hello, i think i have kind of an unique issue as i can tell. So 2 months ago i flashed my card successfully trough cmd because of atiwinflash cannot erase ROM message. So today i updated my MBO BIOS and "switch 1" wouldn't load. PC started and gave 3 strange bips one after the other and nothing happened, PC worked normally besides nothing on the screen. So i switched to "2" and it worked normally. The problem is that i can flash it to my original bios but cannot flash it to any HD6970 BIOS. Every time i try that 3 bips like before happen. I tried trough atiwinflash,batch file provided by WiZZard and cmd. Does anyone know what the problem could be because I'm out of ideas and honestly really frustrated by all this. GPU is Gigabyte reference card and MBO is P8P67LE with 3680 bios now. EZ Flash 2 won't let me downgrade to my previous BIOS cuzz its "Out of date". Please help! Anything is much appriciated


----------



## SetsunaFZero (Nov 22, 2012)

hrcmiha said:


> Hello, i think i have kind of an unique issue as i can tell. So 2 months ago i flashed my card successfully trough cmd because of atiwinflash cannot erase ROM message. So today i updated my MBO BIOS and "switch 1" wouldn't load. PC started and gave 3 strange bips one after the other and nothing happened, PC worked normally besides nothing on the screen. So i switched to "2" and it worked normally. The problem is that i can flash it to my original bios but cannot flash it to any HD6970 BIOS. Every time i try that 3 bips like before happen. I tried trough atiwinflash,batch file provided by WiZZard and cmd. Does anyone know what the problem could be because I'm out of ideas and honestly really frustrated by all this. GPU is Gigabyte reference card and MBO is P8P67LE with 3680 bios now. EZ Flash 2 won't let me downgrade to my previous BIOS cuzz its "Out of date". Please help! Anything is much appriciated



did u tried to flash from Dos?

Hiran'sBootCD is quite useful for recovery stuff


----------



## vellaaa (Nov 24, 2012)

*still unable to unlock*

Hi, i have followed the 'extra steps' to the command prompt method and have still had no luck... i enter in exactly what you have in your comment and i still recieve the message 'ROM not erased'.. the only thing i can put it down to is that i may have named the bios file wrongly... is it meant to be a bin file or just called unlock.bin but as a ROM file type.....

any help would be much appreciated - i have a sapphire 6950 2gb dirt3 edition card

thank you


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## winston856 (Dec 15, 2012)

I've got myself an MSI twin frozr II 6950 2GB without the bios switch that I'm trying to unlock but keep hitting a wall. 

I either get a message saying "cannot erase rom" or "rom not erased" depending on which method I use. 

I've tried just using the latest atiwinflash and RBE 1.28 to modify and flash the bios but it ends up with one of those messages. 

It's worth mentioning I think that I'm using windows 8 64 bit and am trying to flash in windows. I've tried using the command prompt (run as admin) in windows as well but it also fails me. 

When I run the command "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" I get a message saying "rom unlocked". Then I run "atiwinflash -f -p 0 modifiedbios.rom (I've tried renaming it to .bin which produces the same result.)

I'm stuck and I don't know what's wrong, can anyone offer any assistance please?

*Edit:* I wanted to update this in case someone was following it. I managed to unlock the shaders on this card. I had to make a bootable dos flash drive and was able to flash successfully through that without even having to unlock the rom. 

The gpu would only accept a bios that had the shaders unlocked. I was using RBE and editing the overclocking limits along with unlocking the shaders. If I flashed a bios with modified frequency limits the card would not boot into windows.


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## vvulture (Dec 16, 2012)

AFAIK this trick only works on reference cards ( not 100% sure ).


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## winston856 (Dec 17, 2012)

vvulture said:


> AFAIK this trick only works on reference cards ( not 100% sure ).



I was able to finally get it unlocked, though I couldn't change the frequency limits at all.


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## vvulture (Dec 17, 2012)

Thats correct...  you can't change the core / mem speeds in BIOS.  Only the voltage.
Otherwise, you will BSOD on bootup.  

Thank you AMD for placing these restrictions.


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## winston856 (Dec 17, 2012)

vvulture said:


> Thats correct...  you can't change the core / mem speeds in BIOS.  Only the voltage.
> Otherwise, you will BSOD on bootup.
> 
> Thank you AMD for placing these restrictions.



Ah well I was trying to raise the core limit to more than 840MHz. The card is maxed out in the CCC and it runs perfectly stable. I thought I read in the techpowerup guide that you could modify those limits. 

I didn't know if I was doing something wrong or if you just can't like you say.


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 17, 2012)

This trick works on non reference cards as well. The only extra steps you have to do is unlock the bios to be able to flash using the "Bubble Gum" method. I did this on my XFX non reference card and it worked perfect.


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## loopingz (Dec 18, 2012)

I have a 6950 1gb. I prepared a bios with unlocked 6970 shaders using rbe. It flashes ok. Then at reboot the shader count is the same with gpu-z. If I download the new bios it appears unlocked to rbe but still the same to gpu-z.
I guess it is just bad luck but maybe I missed something.


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## Iamcute (Feb 11, 2013)

*custom folder messes everything up*

So I tried today to unlock shaders on my 2x 6950 2gb. 1 sapphire and 1 powercolor. 
First of all I started of by, of course, saving the bios. I tried to download the 6970 bios when I was at step 2. Though I was unable to save it. It just asked me what program I wanted to use to open it... I was like meh. But then I found the folder you put together for noobs. I turned my PC off, removed 1 card, changed the bios to switch 1. Opened the folder. Pressed the file ''unlock to 6970 ''. It loaded and after like 10 sec it asked me to restart. I did but It didn't even boot. I had this red light on my MB and it just didn't want to boot. I switched to 2nd switch and was really disappointed. 
Just for the heck of it, I tried with my powercolor this time. Same procedure. Ran the ''unlock to 6970 ''. It asked me to restart, didn't want to boot this one either. Same light. This leads me to think that it is something wrong with that command you are using instead of having to open the winflash.

Ideas? To start with. How can I save the .ROM files? After I downloaded it I double clicked it and it just asked me to open it with what, not save it...


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## SetsunaFZero (Feb 13, 2013)

have u tried to load yr bios in rbe, unlock the shaders from there and flash the bios with atiwinflash?
If this didn't work then u might have a newer 6950 card with altered bios circuit, this makes shader unlocking impossible. But still u can OC ur 6950 to 6970 clocks, the performance should be close to the 6970s


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## MaxMax (Feb 14, 2013)

*weird problem*

Hi all, i encountered a weird problem: i changed my system from AMD Crosshair V 990FX mainboard (with Phenom X6 1055T) to a MSI Z68 GD45 Gen3 (PCI 3.0 ready) with Intel Xeon 1230v2 cpu. so far so good, but when i install my Sapphire 6950 2GB (purchased ~dec.2011 and immediatly flashed in dec. 2011 the full Sapphire 6970 bios on bios switch pos. 2) the MSI + xeon system would not boot at all with the bios switch switched to the "6970" bios?!
the same card ran without any problems on the former AMD sys, even when i return it there, it will boot straight to windows and i can run 3D games with all shaders enabled...but when i insert the same card to the new MSI z68 + xeon setup, the graphics card would only post to BIOS screen with the original 6950 bios enabled, as soon as i flip the switch to 6970 factory bios, i get no signal out of the card...altough cpu and vga fans start to spin, and the sys seems to boot (no beeps or any other error). i flashed already latest bios onto the msi z68 mainboard, and disabled PCIe 3.0 in UEFI bios but still no go with @6970 bios, 6950 bios but nethertheless works perfect on the MSI z68 + xeon setup (post screen, win boot, 3d games....) any one an idea why the identical 6950@6970 card would work on AMD system as an 6970 but does only work as a 6950 on intel sys? both mainboards have UEFI bios....i have no idea....
greets


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## tzirf203 (Feb 19, 2013)

MaxMax, 

I ran into a similar problem about 8 months ago when I built an Ivy Bridge system and moved my XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB video card to it from my former AMD Phenom II X6 based system. After doing some testing I found that there seems to be an issue with video output when running a Radeon HD 6950 unlocked to a 6970 on PCI-Express 3.0. I originally thought the problem might be UEFI because I moved from a system with traditional bios, but after doing some test with a system that uses UEFI but doesn't have PCI-Express 3.0 my theory was thrown out the window when the video card worked. 

I looked all over the internet hoping someone had a fix for this that maybe it requires a tweak in the bios used to flash the 6950 to 6970 cards. Unfortunately I was unable to find anything, so I was forced to lose the performance and run the card as a stock Radeon HD 6950. Cheers


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## Deleted member 67555 (Feb 25, 2013)

I have the same issue with my card...was unlocked to a 6970 and worked just fine until I upgraded to a MSI Z77A-G45 with a I5 3570 and now it wont do the 6970 clocks at all but I was able to use the HIS unlocked shaders bios for the reference cards...I have just the shaders unlocked and the card OC'd at 840/1275....good enough I guess.

My mobo has an option to disable PCI-E GEN 3 and have it run at PCI-E GEN2 but it didn't work....for the 6970 unlock...


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## tzirf203 (Feb 25, 2013)

jmcslob said:


> I have the same issue with my card...was unlocked to a 6970 and worked just fine until I upgraded to a MSI Z77A-G45 with a I5 3570 and now it wont do the 6970 clocks at all but I was able to use the HIS unlocked shaders bios for the reference cards...I have just the shaders unlocked and the card OC'd at 840/1275....good enough I guess.
> 
> My mobo has an option to disable PCI-E GEN 3 and have it run at PCI-E GEN2 but it didn't work....for the 6970 unlock...



Are you saying that you have a bios that unlock the shaders but leaves the reference mem/core frequency for the 6950? I know the bios I used to flash my 6950 to a 6970 increased the base core/memory frequency to 880/1375. If that is the problem I wonder if I underclock the card back to 800/1275 if that would fix the problem. Where can I find these bios to unlock the shaders? Whats the performance increase like? Cheers


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## SetsunaFZero (Feb 25, 2013)

tzirf203 said:


> Are you saying that you have a bios that unlock the shaders but leaves the reference mem/core frequency for the 6950? I know the bios I used to flash my 6950 to a 6970 increased the base core/memory frequency to 880/1375. If that is the problem I wonder if I underclock the card back to 800/1275 if that would fix the problem. Where can I find these bios to unlock the shaders? Whats the performance increase like? Cheers



Actually its not safe to flash a different bios except for reference boards. Many boards have different memory and timings setting. Flashing the wrong bios may cause NoBoot or you could even brake your card.

Read your Original bios from the EERom, unlock the extra shaders via RBE and flash your unlocked bios. If the card is still locked than ur one of the unlucky folks. 
My old card XFX 6950 2GB XXX Edition was also unlockable :/ 
cheers


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## tzirf203 (Feb 25, 2013)

SetsunaFZero said:


> Actually its not safe to flash a different bios except for reference boards. Many boards have different memory and timings setting. Flashing the wrong bios may cause NoBoot or you could even brake your card.
> 
> Read your Original bios from the EERom, unlock the extra shaders via RBE and flash your unlocked bios. If the card is still locked than ur one of the unlucky folks.
> My old card XFX 6950 2GB XXX Edition was also unlockable :/
> cheers



As I stated in my previous post I already flashed it to a 6970 and it worked. The issue lies with my new system being PCI-Express 3.0. Also FYI I have a reference design. If he has a bios that works with PCI-Express 3.0 I would like to give it a try. I know the risks and I ain't worried I have the bios switch on my card. If I can get the unlocked shaders that bit of extra performance is better than nothing. That being said if you think I an achieve this another way can you give me more detailed instructions? I know RBE and EERom, that being said to unlock the shaders, does that require manually changing the bios or does RGE have a built in function for it?

EDIT: Never mind I figured it out. Thanks for letting me know about this I will post back to let everyone know if it worked.


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## Uranium (Mar 9, 2013)

For the 6950@6970 and the UEFI problem:
 - start with the 2nd bios
 - open your 6970 bios with RBE
 - change the pid for a 6950
 - flash the first bios


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## Deleted member 67555 (Mar 9, 2013)

OMG Thanks Uranium....It was that simple LOL-Awesome!!!






Never thought all you had to do was to change the name to HD6950 and pick the right vender info and voila!
Nice


Follow at your own risk
Directions:
Download ATI Winflash and RBE
I save all my GFX ROM files in the WinFlash folder to make them easier to find
Load your 6970 bios in RBE








Go To:
Where it says Sub Vender ID/ Video card
On Video card tab click the drop down box and select HD 6950




and then click save and save again to save...let it auto title it to make it easier to find.
I use WinFlash to flash my cards...
From there I turn off all other programs..including antivirus
I then go into Wnflash as an Admin (right click run as Admin)
Load up my changed BIOS and program it onto the 6950...my screen went black for a few minutes and then hung on BIOS successfully installed-rebooted and all was well.


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## Johnf186 (Mar 28, 2013)

*I can to unlock my HD 6950 2GB AMD Brand !*

Hy, i did all the steps but I could not change shader and nothing, absolutely everything is the same. Please help me!


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## zubinvig (Apr 21, 2013)

*Plzzz help me fast!!!!*



W1zzard said:


> nothing is impossible, but the maximum i would expect from amd is that future cards are properly fused on-die and not using the bios



Can msi hd 6950 twin frozr iii be fully unlocked like with bandwidth n everything else like 6970 and not only shaders ,memory clock and core clock???plzz replyyy


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## TRWOV (Apr 21, 2013)

zubinvig said:


> Can msi hd 6950 twin frozr iii be fully unlocked like with bandwidth n everything else like 6970 and not only shaders ,memory clock and core clock???plzz replyyy



Luck of the draw. You won't know until you try it.


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## k1d0n (Apr 27, 2013)

*Not showing up in GPU-Z but in AMD GFX OverDrive*

Hey,

So I have two 6950 cards. I flashed to 6970 on one, and it worked. GPU-Z showed the proper shader count, etc. 

I installed a new cooler on my second 6950 and removed the one I flashed to 6970. I try the flash with this card (same model and everything) and WinFlash says it worked, but GPU-Z (latest version) doesn't show a difference. 

But in my Graphics OverDrive panel for Catalyst, the CPU clock speed went up to 950 and the memory clock settings went up to 1450. So did it work?


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## Netput (Jun 3, 2013)

I have tried to unlock the shaders, but now my computer won’t start anymore.
After following this guide, I got an error. The guide directed me to this solution. Everything went ok according to my computer, yet now it won’t restart anymore. The fans are on max speed making immense sound. It does not matter if I change the bios to position #1 or #2.

Does anyone have an  idea to fix this? I would hate to buy a new card because of this.

This are my hardware specs:
 Sapphire HD6950
 Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
 Nexus NX-6000 R3


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## ChristTheGreat (Jun 3, 2013)

Do you have the dual bios switch? if yes, switch to BIOS 2.


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## Duzonn (Jun 12, 2013)

Hi, I did the unlock shaders by RBE mode on my powercolor HD6950 2gb. Got vga's bios and modified the shaders options but after the flash bios only shaders has changed. 
The clock kept at 800Mhz - 1250Mhz as default. I tried to change it with Trixx to HD6970 clocks but the screen started to flash and I reset it to original.
Now I am lil confused if I flash to 6970 bios and it become to flash again or I keep the way it is as default.


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## Michelle911 (Sep 17, 2013)

LOL at previous threads! Look out, new girl to mess up all your systems! 

Anyhow! Thanks W1zzard for the Bios Mod!  I plan on using it on my 2 6950's   (full specs below)  but really so far my only question is, should I run the mod one card at a time i.e. have only one card in the system when I run it?  Or am I ok doing this with both cards in the computer? Would it do both at the same time? 

Thanks!

(sorry, I checked the old thread warning)


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## Michelle911 (Sep 18, 2013)

answered my own question, thanks anyways


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## nazmy (Oct 2, 2013)

when whe modded 6950 to 6970 should we use 6970 drivers or continue to using 6950 drivers? and another question is before we flashing the graphic card should i uninstal the driver? then install drivers again?


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## KnuserN (Oct 19, 2013)

*Asus 6950 unlocked fine*

Hey i followed this thread and tried out unlocking my Asus 6950 2gb.
I used atiwinflash and it all worked fine..only problem was i forgot to uninstall drivers first so when i started pc after flashing it was all black, but i had another original 6970 that i put in main slot and the flashed 1 in other slot..then started pc and all worked fine after reinstalling drivers.
Thanks for good info guys..love it ^^


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## MTDEW332 (Oct 19, 2013)

nazmy said:


> when whe modded 6950 to 6970 should we use 6970 drivers or continue to using 6950 drivers? and another question is before we flashing the graphic card should i uninstal the driver? then install drivers again?


6950 and 6970 use the exact same drivers, so you use the latest Radeon HD Series 6xxx drivers for both. (or what ever betas you want that support the 6xxx series)
And yes un-install the drivers and flash, reboot and re-install drivers.


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## ahantu (Nov 27, 2013)

Thanks my card work faster.... Thanks for this nice article.


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## Giorgio (Oct 20, 2014)

Hi guys...

I'm new in this forum, sorry for everything I will do wrong...

In the last days I have tried to flash BIOS of my HD 6950, Sapphire Dirt 3 Edition...

I follow the guide, downloaded batch file but after flash the card doesn't boot!

I try to restore the original BIOS with batch, but the card continue to don't boot when I set and flash the BIOS on 1 position...

What's happened? Thanks to all...

Sorry also for my bad English!

EDIT: I installed original BIOS from prompt, but every Sapphire 6970 BIOS not boot after installation... Is my card unlockable?


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## Schmuckley (Dec 31, 2014)

I would say probably not.


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## lauris47 (Jul 19, 2015)

It didn't work for my gygabite 6950 1GB

I tried wiring the switch and without, tried doing via atiflash in dos and winflash

In both methods it says that it was flashed, but shaders won't go higher than 1408.

Does this mean that its impossible on mine or I am missing something ?


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## Bo$$ (Jul 19, 2015)

lauris47 said:


> It didn't work for my gygabite 6950 1GB
> 
> I tried wiring the switch and without, tried doing via atiflash in dos and winflash
> 
> ...


Won't work


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## TheSatan1st (Jan 10, 2016)

Well, there is a situation that still unclear to me. HIS6950 via 2Gb RAM flashes perfectly, but... It has no sign of life during OS loading (Win 8.1) but in system it works correct (unlocked shaders, clocks and etc). After switching to Win7 card does not boot at all via modded bios (the original one seems to be fully working). I tried to flash bios that has only unlocked shaders and it worked perfectly except locked max clock values. What am I doing wrong?


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## Schmuckley (Jan 11, 2016)

That's probably a UEFI thing.
It gets tricky with newer boards/older cards.


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## TheSatan1st (Jan 12, 2016)

I also have this supposition but don't have another MB to check it out. By the way, I'd found some kind of solution: I'd modified stock bios (saved from my card) by unlocking 6970 shaders count and raising max allowed clocks (modifying stock clocks makes my card not-recognizable)


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## vince_tarace (Jan 21, 2016)

Hi,

First, sorry for my english...

I got an Asus 6950. I unlock to 6970 yesterday (work after doing the dos commands)
My motherboard is a gigabyte ga-ex58-ud3r.
I am under windows 7, 64 bits.

Now, in GPU-Z, i got 1536 shaders and 890 Mhz : ok. (tested in game)

My problem is : if i overdrive gpu on AMD, when i launch a game, my screen "freeze", then windows says the amd component wad not answering.

Tested with farcry 4 : problem on the launch, fallout 4 and witcher 3 : ok on the menu but after loading of my save, same problem.

And of cource, when it was 6950 not unlocked on 6970, the OC of GPU work fine.


Thanks


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## jaggerwild (Jun 8, 2016)

3D isn't working, you'll need to flash it back(if you can)


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## jaw shwaa (Jul 3, 2016)

just noticed this thread here , i scored a pair of msi 6950s about a month ago for $60 , both cards were unlocked no problem


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## SuperStarr (Dec 30, 2016)

W1zzard said:


> For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:
> 
> - Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
> - Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
> ...


Looks like I have failed on this one.
I had one 6950 (Sapphire Dirt3 1Gb)  which was unlocked successfully than I bought other one (same model).
That "other one", had write-protection (Could not erase ROM) so I tried this method. Flashing was failed, now it won't even boot - symptoms are like you "overdrive" with overclock. Fans are spinning, on every 3 seconds they speed up for a moment, like MoBo is trying to load default BIOS settings.

Now, I have 2 questions:

1) Problem might be that I flashed *.ROM file which I get from latest GPU-Z or ROM is same format like BIN?
2) Or the problem can be that I flashed ROM from first card to second one not checking does both cards have same DDR installed.

Also, I would appreciate if someone can suggest me how I could put back original BIOS on this second card. I have backup but as i wrote before, it is in ROM format.

Thanks in advance!


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## themohawk21 (Jan 22, 2017)

W1zzard said:


> For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:
> 
> - Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
> - Save the 6970 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
> ...



sorry for making you have to reply 7 years later but i bought one of these for $40 aussie dollars and wanted to flash it but in your post it says rename it unlock.bin what exactly do i rename because the bios file is a .rom file and im not sure what to rename! anyway your help will be greatly appreciated if you can and have a good new year

thanks

Dennis


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## SuperStarr (Jan 22, 2017)

It's just the file extension, both of the files contain the same programming code.
You can safely rename the BIOS file to .bin and .rom or .rar, even. Whatever you want it to be, and it'll still flash successfully and safely.


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## themohawk21 (Jan 22, 2017)

SuperStarr said:


> It's just the file extension, both of the files contain the same programming code.
> You can safely rename the BIOS file to .bin and .rom or .rar, even. Whatever you want it to be, and it'll still flash successfully and safely.



thanks it really helped me

ill get to testing tomorrow

thanks again superstarr

helped alot

Dennis


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## TikiThorsen (Feb 24, 2017)

Hello, hopefully someone can help me with my issue;
After flashing and unlocking my MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition/OC successfully I launch MSI Afterburner, unlock the voltage control as "extended MSI" set the "graphics processor type" to 1150mv, power Limit is at +20, configure the clocks to what a 6970 would be; 880/1375 and is stable while gaming and on Heaven Benchmark.

Now the problem is that any core clock higher then 880MHz becomes unstable (video drivers resets/game locks up ) and also I can't increase the voltage (I will not bother to play with the memory clock until I get a stable core clock).
So I do the logical thing and raise the core voltage to 1.200v and set the core clock to 900MHz and is still unstable.
I was about to give up hope to overclocking the GPU when by checking with AIDA64/HWMONITOR/HWINFO/OHM notice that the core *voltage on load/performance NEVER changes from 1.150v* even when is set to 1.300v on Afterburner and it the voltage monitor in AF is does show 1.300v (Using the Catalyst 15.7.1)

Things I have tried:
Changed back to "silent mode" with the BIOS switch of the GPU (which is the stock bios, not unlocked) and I have the same problem as described above.
AMD Uninstaller and do a clean install of all drivers.
Uninstall and Reinstall MSI Afterburner and changing around every single option in AF, nothing works.
Even went as far as doing a clean install of Windows 7 to no avail, the same problem persist. (Same drivers)


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## jaggerwild (Jan 22, 2018)

Did you unlock voltage adjustment within the AIB setting/general??


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## Dofras (Aug 5, 2018)

I have attempted multiple times to flash both of my 6950 cards with 6970 bios files with no success.
The program states that it flashed successfully but system will not boot after flash. Only when I switch to backup will the system boot.
I have both a Sapphire Radeon HD 6970 2 GB DDR5 and a GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6950 DirectX 11 GV-R695D5-2GD-B 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP cards.

These are the ones I have duplicate issues with. 
Any help?


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## Durvelle27 (Aug 5, 2018)

Dofras said:


> I have attempted multiple times to flash both of my 6950 cards with 6970 bios files with no success.
> The program states that it flashed successfully but system will not boot after flash. Only when I switch to backup will the system boot.
> I have both a Sapphire Radeon HD 6970 2 GB DDR5 and a GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6950 DirectX 11 GV-R695D5-2GD-B 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP cards.
> 
> ...


You have to realize not all HD 6950s will work with HD 6970 BIOs


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## pipes (Aug 29, 2018)

good morning, i have mod my bios 6950 with rbe and i think work fine update shader from 1408 to 1536


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## m4gician (Sep 14, 2018)

Hey everyone, new here but just finally getting around to updating my old rig. I put in a Powercolor 6950 1GB. How do I proceed with the mod? 

I tried using GPU-Z to save the bios, then opened RBE and selected the radio button. I win-flashed the bios I saved after I checked the radio button, but GPU-Z still showing the 1408 number for the shaders. Is my card locked or did I do something wrong?


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## m4gician (Sep 17, 2018)

hey all, just an update (not working still) but I re-downloaded the bios and changed the max ram clock and it seems to have worked. However simply selecting the 6970 radio button in the settings menu, while visable in RBE, still doesn't reflect it in the GPU-Z reading. 

I'm thinking if I can flash a different bios onto this card instead? GIiven it's a 1gb Powercolor card, do I need a Powercolor bios or can I use a Sapphire or XFX bios or something? Or is this card even unlockable at this point?


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