How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[Carbide]

Hi guys

I've got a Club 3d 6950 2gb.
The card is flashed with a 6970 bios and works fine at:

CPU 800mhz
MEM: 1350mhz
Temperature IDLE: 40 C
Temperature load: 82 C


I'm trying to push the card to the stock 6970 CPU clock (880Mhz) via CCC but when I push it over 820Mhz I've got stability problems (not due to high temperatures I suppose).
Also improving the CPU voltage ( 20% via CCC), I always get a BSOD after few minutes of Crysis 2 (card protection?).
My PSU is a OCZ 700W so I exclude power-related issue.

Any idea about possible causes of instability?
Thanks in advance

Ok guys, a little update about my Club3d 6950.
I removed the 6970 Bios replacing it with a modified 6950 with ulocked shaders.
The results are:

• GPU Clock: 840mhz
• MEM Clock: 1350
• IDLE temp: 36 C
• LOAD temp: 64 C

I'm very happy cause I get almost the same performances of 6970 bios without touching the voltages. The effect are visible on temperatures, especially under LOAD conditions: 82°C VS 64°C (I'm testing the system with Crysis 2).
But still can't go beyond 840 Mhz on GPU....

 

[Coloneljesus]

Hi guys, I'm sorry, but I really need your help on this:

I got a Club3D card and tried to flash it. after the first try, nothing changed, so I tried again.
Then, my monitors stayed off when I tried to boot. I reset the CMOS, which fucked up my RAID0 so I had to reinstall Windows 7. I did this with my monitor directly connected to the MOBO.

The current situation is, that the PC won't boot, whenever the Club3D is installed alone. It boots without a video card or when I install both the Club3D and a GTX280. I tried to flash several BIOS, but I can't get the card to work, even though I get a message of a successfull flash.

Please help me with this, I beg you.

P.S. MOBO is a Gigabyte 890GPA

 

[Darkleoco]

Hi guys, I'm sorry, but I really need your help on this:

I got a Club3D card and tried to flash it. after the first try, nothing changed, so I tried again.
Then, my monitors stayed off when I tried to boot. I reset the CMOS, which fucked up my RAID0 so I had to reinstall Windows 7. I did this with my monitor directly connected to the MOBO.

The current situation is, that the PC won't boot, whenever the Club3D is installed alone. It boots without a video card or when I install both the Club3D and a GTX280. I tried to flash several BIOS, but I can't get the card to work, even though I get a message of a successfull flash.

Please help me with this, I beg you.

P.S. MOBO is a Gigabyte 890GPA

Are you sure that your GTX280 is in Slot 1 and you are flashing the 6950 that is in Slot 2?

Ok guys, a little update about my Club3d 6950.
I removed the 6970 Bios replacing it with a modified 6950 with ulocked shaders.
The results are:

• GPU Clock: 840mhz
• MEM Clock: 1350
• IDLE temp: 36 C
• LOAD temp: 64 C

I'm very happy cause I get almost the same performances of 6970 bios without touching the voltages. The effect are visible on temperatures, especially under LOAD conditions: 82°C VS 64°C (I'm testing the system with Crysis 2).
But still can't go beyond 840 Mhz on GPU....

What are you using to overclock and have you disabled ULPS?

 

[Coloneljesus]

Are you sure that your GTX280 is in Slot 1 and you are flashing the 6950 that is in Slot 2?

Are you referring to the PCIe slots? If yes, then yes, I am sure, the GTX280 is in the first, upper slot.

I can only assume that I flashed the right card, as I have no problems with the GTX280 (so no possible attempt to flash it caused any damage) and I tried the flashing with -unlockrom 0 as well as with -unlockrom 1. I guess that I would reach the 6950 that way.

How can I be sure that I flash the right slot?

 

[Coloneljesus]

I could still use some help here..

 

[Darkleoco]

I could still use some help here..

Sorry went out for awhile and been looking for something similar to this post:

"If its a bad flash it might be likely that it is not picking up the card because it cannot detect it due to the card having a faulty BIOS. You can try and blind flash it by putting your main in the first PCI_E slot and the card in question in the 2nd, usually your 2nd PCI-E slot is designated as slot 1 as your main will be slot 0- that may vary check your mobo manual. Then you want to type:

atiflash.exe -f -p 1 biosname.bin

-f is to force the flash, 1 designates the slot the card is in. Sometimes the Bios can be a .rom file in this case replace the above with biosname.rom

Hope this helps."

That should pretty much be what you need hopefully.

 

[Coloneljesus]

Thanks a lot, I will try this and report back.

 

[Coloneljesus]

Alright I did the following things:
I discovered that only slot 0 is a PCIe x16 and the slot 1 is a PCIe x8. Even though this never made a difference while I was using two GTX280, I figured that this might matter in this issue. I booted the PC in this config:
Slot 0 - GTX280
Slot 1 - 6950
As expected, it booted and I used the command line you posted. The progress bar appeared quickly but there was no message of wether the flash was good or not. After a restart, the 6950 was still undetected by windows or ati catalyst or GPU-Z. I shut the PC down and switched the cards, then tried to boot. The PC didn't boot, no post and no turning on the monitor.
So I cannot try to flash the card while in a PCIe x16 slot, as it seems. only x8. I'm not sure if this makes a difference, but I tried.

 

[Darkleoco]

Alright I did the following things:
I discovered that only slot 0 is a PCIe x16 and the slot 1 is a PCIe x8. Even though this never made a difference while I was using two GTX280, I figured that this might matter in this issue. I booted the PC in this config:
Slot 0 - GTX280
Slot 1 - 6950
As expected, it booted and I used the command line you posted. The progress bar appeared quickly but there was no message of wether the flash was good or not. After a restart, the 6950 was still undetected by windows or ati catalyst or GPU-Z. I shut the PC down and switched the cards, then tried to boot. The PC didn't boot, no post and no turning on the monitor.
So I cannot try to flash the card while in a PCIe x16 slot, as it seems. only x8. I'm not sure if this makes a difference, but I tried.

Did you make sure that you used either .rom or .bin depending what type of file the bios you are flashing is? Also is it a backed up BIOS you are trying to flash or one you have downloaded?

 

[Coloneljesus]

I used the correct ending and I used a downloaded BIOS to flash to 6970.
Should I try a backup or downloaded 6950 BIOS next?

 

[Darkleoco]

I used the correct ending and I used a downloaded BIOS to flash to 6970.
Should I try a backup or downloaded 6950 BIOS next?

I would try a backup first, it would be much simpler to overclock your card and manually unlock the shaders than to use a 6970 BIOS.

 

[Coloneljesus]

I doubt that you are still around but maybe someone else can help me anyways.
I tried to flash my backup now, with slot 0 through 2 with no success.

What I find interesting and what might be worth considering is that no software except atiWinflash seems to detect my videocard. What is weird too is that according to atiWinflash, the card has still the same DeviceID as before the first flash attempt.
Here is a screencap of how it looks right now:http://i.imgur.com/PoyBq.png
And here is the message I got, after the first flashing attempt: http://i.imgur.com/OhZPF.png

Is my new videocard just hopelessly broken or what?

 

[Carbide]

What are you using to overclock and have you disabled ULPS?

I'm using CCC.
Mmmm....disabling ULPS...no never done. Can it really make the difference?
Thanks for the suggestion! I will let you know!

 

[Crow550]

I doubt that you are still around but maybe someone else can help me anyways.
I tried to flash my backup now, with slot 0 through 2 with no success.

What I find interesting and what might be worth considering is that no software except atiWinflash seems to detect my videocard. What is weird too is that according to atiWinflash, the card has still the same DeviceID as before the first flash attempt.
Here is a screencap of how it looks right now:http://i.imgur.com/PoyBq.png
And here is the message I got, after the first flashing attempt: http://i.imgur.com/OhZPF.png

Is my new videocard just hopelessly broken or what?

I just got the Sapphire 6950 2GB with bios switch as well and it's not showing the unlocked shaders or flashing.

Need to know if I should exchange it for another card....

 

[lal102]

I have the Sapphire 2GB 9850 NON-Dirt 3 Edition. And it's impossible to unlock shaders.

I'm very frustated with this

 

[Crow550]

I have the Sapphire 2GB 9850 NON-Dirt 3 Edition. And it's impossible to unlock shaders.

I'm very frustated with this

Ditto....

Do we exchange our cards or what?

 

[lal102]

Hello guys,

I'm having an issue with my Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB (100312-3L) that I recently purchased from neweggbusiness on the $215 deal.

I can't get Windows to recognize the new shaders but when flip the switch and I looked at my BIOS in RBE and it said it had the 6970 shaders already unlocked.

What can I do to get Windows 7 to recognize the new shaders.. I've tried everything from uninstalling drivers... re-installing.. flipping the switch back uninstall drivers.. switching it back and then installing and still no luck.

Please help, thanks in advance!

same problem over here...

 

[Coloneljesus]

Is it possible that some more recently produced cards are just impossible to unlock?

Oh and I will send in my broken card, I just hope I get a new one for free. Dunno if I will try to unlock the new one...

 

[sildar]

Driver issues?

Hey guys, hoping y'all can help me with my 6950. I've read through this thread, and the original post on TPU. First, some background card:

XFX HF-695X-ZNFC 1GB card (not sure on the revision, sadly, case is a bitch to get into)
MSI 890GXM-G65 (onboard video)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

So my first complication is that I've got a 1GB card, and the second complication is that it's an XFX (which doesn't seem to be a highly regarded brand here, for a variety of reasons). However, I was able to successfully pull the BIOS from my card, save it, open it in RBE, unlock the shaders using the option on the Additional Features tab, flash the modified BIOS to my card, and reboot to freshly unlocked shaders. GPU-Z reported 1536 shaders, as hoped.

But I'm greedy, and I wanted the clock speeds to go with those shiny new shaders. There seem to be two settings which may or may not be required to access those clock speeds: the actual BIOS clock settings, and the Overdrive limits. Having read through the RBE documentation and tutorial, I get the impression that even if your BIOS clocks are set to a specific value, if that value is greater than the Overdrive limit, the clock speeds will be limited (or the card won't work, or you'll get wonky results and/or stability). Is this accurate?

I first tried setting the Overdrive limits in RBE using Method 2, shooting for the 6970 core/mem clocks that I wanted to run at (880/1375), without setting the BIOS clocks. This was pretty much wishful thinking on my part, and unsurprisingly when I rebooted after flashing, Windows 7 boot looped. Safe mode let me uninstall the 6950, and reboot into Normal mode, where I could reflash my card.

Long story short, I've tried a variety of possible combinations: changing the card ID, the clocks (including voltages), the overdrive limits via Method 1 using signatures from 6970 and 6950 (1GB and 2GB) cards, the whole shebang. If I run a modified version of the shipped ROM with just the shaders unlocked, everything is fine. I get a modest performance bump and the card is flawlessly stable.

But I really, really, really want those increased clocks speeds.

Help?

 

[manofthem]

Hey guys, hoping y'all can help me with my 6950. I've read through this thread, and the original post on TPU. First, some background card:

XFX HF-695X-ZNFC 1GB card (not sure on the revision, sadly, case is a bitch to get into)
MSI 890GXM-G65 (onboard video)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

So my first complication is that I've got a 1GB card, and the second complication is that it's an XFX (which doesn't seem to be a highly regarded brand here, for a variety of reasons). However, I was able to successfully pull the BIOS from my card, save it, open it in RBE, unlock the shaders using the option on the Additional Features tab, flash the modified BIOS to my card, and reboot to freshly unlocked shaders. GPU-Z reported 1536 shaders, as hoped.

But I'm greedy, and I wanted the clock speeds to go with those shiny new shaders. There seem to be two settings which may or may not be required to access those clock speeds: the actual BIOS clock settings, and the Overdrive limits. Having read through the RBE documentation and tutorial, I get the impression that even if your BIOS clocks are set to a specific value, if that value is greater than the Overdrive limit, the clock speeds will be limited (or the card won't work, or you'll get wonky results and/or stability). Is this accurate?

I first tried setting the Overdrive limits in RBE using Method 2, shooting for the 6970 core/mem clocks that I wanted to run at (880/1375), without setting the BIOS clocks. This was pretty much wishful thinking on my part, and unsurprisingly when I rebooted after flashing, Windows 7 boot looped. Safe mode let me uninstall the 6950, and reboot into Normal mode, where I could reflash my card.

Long story short, I've tried a variety of possible combinations: changing the card ID, the clocks (including voltages), the overdrive limits via Method 1 using signatures from 6970 and 6950 (1GB and 2GB) cards, the whole shebang. If I run a modified version of the shipped ROM with just the shaders unlocked, everything is fine. I get a modest performance bump and the card is flawlessly stable.

But I really, really, really want those increased clocks speeds.

Help?

Very well written post

So since you have unlocked shaders download MSI Afterburner and OC from there
http://downloads.guru3d.com/downloadget.php?id=2816&file=1&evp=1fac210e5c087f895a503cdfd64eb448

Unlock voltage control in settings to increase voltage obviously.
Then edit the cfg file in program dir according to the following:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=338906
(Hope those links work, I'm on my phone)

Overclock and it shouldn't be a problem. I ran my cards at about 950/1425@1.2v or there about... And for some reason, my XFX didn't overclock as well as my Gigabyte, not sure why.

 

[sildar]

Very well written post

Thanks! I know how much it sucks getting inarticulate or whiny posts on a tech forum.

Unlock voltage control in settings to increase voltage obviously.
Then edit the cfg file in program dir according to the following:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=338906
(Hope those links work, I'm on my phone)

I'll try this when I get home. I may come back here for advice, depending on how intuitive this is, but I think I've got all the info I need...

Overclock and it shouldn't be a problem. I ran my cards at about 950/1425@1.2v or there about...

I'm not looking for a performance boost of that size. If you check my case, you'll see it's relatively small and very cramped. I don't think I've got the cooling overhead to go with settings like that.

And for some reason, my XFX didn't overclock as well as my Gigabyte, not sure why.

I think I remember reading in this thread about XFX using lower quality memory on its cards (maybe just the 6950s, maybe all of them), which couldn't handle high clock speeds.

Might (read: will) get a little ballsier with speeds when I convert to LC this summer, but for now I just want another 15-20fps. Almost there now.

 

[sildar]

Oh, and maybe this isn't the best place to post, but what's y'all's opinion on this VGA cooler?

ARCTIC COOLING Accelero TWIN TURBO Pro Fluid Dynam...

The stock XFX cooler is noisy as hell and (I suspect) poorly mounted, plus it's only got a single fan. I'm looking at this and some copper RAM sinks to tide me over until I go LC.

 

[sildar]

Well, I've met with some measure of success, and I'm satisfied with what I've got for now.

Using MSI Afterburner, my modded 6950 is running the following settings, stably:
Core Voltage 1131mV
Core Clock 865 MHz
Mem Clock 1350 MHz

GPU temp caps out around 97C, which is livable but less than ideal. It also results in a very noisy fan, so I'll probably nab that AC VGA Cooler, or something like it.

Thanks, manofthem!

 

[manofthem]

Well, I've met with some measure of success, and I'm satisfied with what I've got for now.

Using MSI Afterburner, my modded 6950 is running the following settings, stably:
Core Voltage 1131mV
Core Clock 865 MHz
Mem Clock 1350 MHz

GPU temp caps out around 97C, which is livable but less than ideal. It also results in a very noisy fan, so I'll probably nab that AC VGA Cooler, or something like it.

Thanks, manofthem!

Congrats, well done! Also in MSIAB you can setup a custom fan curve, if you haven't figured that out already. Should keep your temps a little lower, but it usually means more noise. My temps were around mid 70's with fan at about 50-60%...I think. But go with water cooling and you'll be balls happy.

 

[sildar]

Yeah, LC will be far better than air, but I'm going with a twin loop setup and blocks from EK, so... that's gonna take a bit.