How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[f0d]

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]

@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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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_Two]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.......

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]

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]

Has the shader count changed?

yes it has of course
its my mistake - i meant my reply for DJManiac who 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

I dl the new Afterburner but its only 2.6 mb and cant be installed.... anyone same problem?

 

[Mp0wer]

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]

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]

quite so wmablock,

i got afterburner beta running, but now my card runs at full clocks all the time, no downclocking while idle...

 

[wmblalock]

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]

nope, just normal 22",
hmm mabey i should try a restart before i start crying

 

[wmblalock]

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]

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?!