How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[rui0317]

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

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

 

[dom99]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[dom99]

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?

hmm what implications does this have on say 5850 owners?

 

[W1zzard]

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?

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

 

[bystander]

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]

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]

man thanks W1zzard and rui0317 you guys are awesome

 

[redrumy3]

Awesome job, unlock them all ^_^

 

[W1zzard]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Chrom]

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

any suggestions ?

 

[baud]

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]

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

works. thanks

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]

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