How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[obsoletepower]

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.

 

[Yidaki]

Where is your power limit?

 

[obsoletepower]

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

 

[Mastroz]

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

Thanks!

 

[Formula350]

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]

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]

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

 

[Wildstaroct]

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]

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]

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

How about HD 6957?

 

[Mastroz]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Mastroz]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[davetheshrew]

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

he didnt discover it, I did