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How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

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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. :confused:

Help and suggestionts wanted :) Can anybody explain this to me
Click to expand...

Sorry to say it but I think you're card isn't unlockable.
 
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
 
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.
 
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 :o

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.
 
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Can't wait to try and unlock my Twin Frozr's :D
 
Just unlocked my HIS 6950's

Very happy individually, crossfired again and then catalyst chucks a spaz and stops working. Has this happened before?
 
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.

hd6950furmarktest.png
 
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).

If someone could point out cards in that list that are likely unlockable it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
Click to expand...

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!
 
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.
 
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)
 
Nices Gebastos I wana Flash Mine but i had No Luck Maybe you message me sometime with whole lowdown on everything
LivinShady
 
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

Which model MSI card are you talking about?
 
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Mfr: MSI **
Model: R6950 TWIN FROZR II
FRYS.com*#6559683 **
UPC: 816909080957
 
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?

96u.png


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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kokalo said:
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?

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/11/10/06/96u.png

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?
Click to expand...

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?
 
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?
Click to expand...

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?
 

Attachments

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. :)
 
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. :)
Click to expand...

this is not necessarily
 
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