How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[Dr. Phd]

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]

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?

 

[xrror]

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

 

[Joshwaa]

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...

 

[Thassodar]

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]

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.

 

[mrpatate]

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 ?

 

[reddie007]

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?

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]

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
- 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".

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 !

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]

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.

 

[reddie007]

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

 

[Dr. Phd]

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.

 

[reddie007]

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

 

[Dr. Phd]

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).

 

[Vargtass]

Switch it to position 2 and flash, worked for me.

 

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