How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[Jeordy]

Is it safe to assume at this point that any card purchased now will not be unlockable?

I'm not entirely sure how to find out if it is or not, and also not sure what the consequences would be if I tried to unlock mine and it wasn't an unlockable one.

Here is the link to the one I bought:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004O6FKVA/?tag=tec06d-20

It does have a little switch on it, but I'm not sure if that is for dual-bios or something else. It's isn't a full-enclosure, there are heat pipes showing... If any info from GPUz would help determine whether it is a flashable one I can post a screeny or the info from it.

Thanks for any and all advice/help!!

 

[samy1]

Aurora R3 stock 6950 to 6970

Alienware Auror R3 2600K with 2x6950 in CF
I was able to unlock the rom using CDM and flash the bios for both cards using RBE to unlock the shaders then load 6970 bios via winflash with no problem. Furmark at full screen 1980x1080 score was 5013 and 1280x720 7389 max 73 C. all appear to be stable. Idle Temp reads 50 c.
screen shot of CPU-Z :

 

[mav2000]

Just a quick question, do these cards run hotter once unlcoked?

Also can someone post a screenshot of the max temps running say 5 minutes of combuster or furmark?

 

[I_Know_nothing]

Small issue

Hey Guys, I bought a 6950 to flash. I flashed it with the bios provided in the instructions and the attached file shows what I received. I did not get any unlocked shaders. Is there something I can do to unlock them or is my card locked out of messing with the shader count? I would have searched the forum but its like 170 pages long. I am new to the site so any advice would be great. Thanks!

I do not know the specific manufacturer of the card. It was pulled from an alienware system and only says AMD on the fan sticker.

 

[vychytraly]

you shouldnt flash it using BIOS attached, you should have used RBE and make your own BIOS and flash it using it, you are lucky that your card works still fine

 

[sildar]

Just a quick question, do these cards run hotter once unlcoked?

Also can someone post a screenshot of the max temps running say 5 minutes of combuster or furmark?

It's practically guaranteed that your card will run hotter after this hack, but the difference will depend on your card, cooling, and case. If you decide to OC as well as unlock sharers and/or flash BIOS,your temps will (obviously) rise even more.

I don't have any data to post, partially because I'm on my phone and partially because I'm not sure it'd help you. iirc, my experience was as follows. I've got an XFX 1GB model.

Unlocked shaders: no increase at idle, +1-2 degree C under load.
Flashed BIOS: unstable, driver issues (this is probably specific to my card)
OC'd using stock 6950 Overdrive settings: +5 at idle, +10 under load
OC'd to 6970 clock speeds and voltage using AB: +5 at idle, +15 or more under load (unstable)

Disclaimer: I'm doing this in a SFF case with inadequate airflow and a stock cooler because I am a masochist. YMMV

 

[allius]

After a few hours with finicking with this i resort to posting here.

I have tried everything I can think of.

i have the HD-695X-CDFC (xfx card 2gb)

I try to flash either a 6970 bios or a modified bios through both methods

whenever i try straight up winflash I get the "cannot erase error"

whenever i use cmd when i type atiwinflash -unlockrom 0 and enter it loads two bars of winflash and closes

then i follow with atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin and it loads 50% then closes and no flashing done. same results no matter what bios i us(tried many modified and many 6970 ones)

 

[TheStudent]

Bios installed, shaders still at 1408

So after some looking I can't find the answer to my problem.

I've successfully installed the updated bios after unlocking the rom.

- What I get, increased overclocking ability up to 950/1450.

- What I don't get are the increase in shaders. They stay at 1408 no matter what.

What did I do? - I installed winflash and propped it on my desktop and tried to flash 6970 BIOSes onto it, it was locked, I unlocked it via the command prompt. And proceeded to implant the 6970 BIOSes which Winflash told me it had done successfully. Reboot - Open up GPUZ and still at 1408.

I decided to see if I could open up RBE and choose the unlock to 6970 option. Then I would load the updated BIOSes again (after bringing them back to the standar BIOS). Yet continually it tells me it cannot locate my card. Returned the BIOS back to default and still can't locate my card, I terminated the UAC and still it cannot find my card.

I'm thinking this might somehow be connected but I'm not sure.

Has anyone experienced this? Or perhaps I'm missing something simple?

-Thanks

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Jeordy]

I decided to give flashing my card a whirl, nothing bad happened...

BUT, the shaders did not unlock, nor did the max clock settings in CCC increase.

What I did:
Saved my bios from the card using winflash. Loaded that bios into RBE and did not change anything except increasing the shaders and increasing the max clock settings. Saved the modified bios, loaded it into winflash and click program. It said the flash was successful and that I needed to restart my system. I did not change what card it was in the drop down on the main information tab (from 6950 to 6970), is that a necessary step that is not included in the article?

From what I understand, if the shaders are laser cut, the increased clock settings should still have increased even if the shaders did not. Did I do something wrong or was there a false positive with the bios "successfully" flashing?

Update: Also tried using the CMD method, with no differing results.

 

[isee]

Hi all
bought a VTX3D it's a 6950 1GB

http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B005UF62RU/?tag=tec053-21 thuogh at a much cheaper price.

Used RBE to unlock to 6970 it and it went fine, restarted, and checked with RBE, 6970 check box is ticked.
GPU-Z however is showing 1404 shaders.

Heaven benchmark increased by 10 points, I am guessing it's just a standard deviation.

Any idea if there are other methods I could try or should I just give up and be happy with what I have?

 

[Whoops!]

One year on, has anyone flashed to full 6970 bios and run for a whole year without breaking anything?

I originally flashed to 6970 but then chickened out and went for the shader unlock only.

 

[R!zZ]

After flashing my VGA, one month later to be precise my VGAs memorys failed and since it had its warranty I took it back to the shop were I bought it. And instead of buying the same one I added some money and took home a GTX 580.
It was my first AMD, and let's say I didn't get a good experience.

 

[lauri_hoefs]

One year on, has anyone flashed to full 6970 bios and run for a whole year without breaking anything?

Well, I've not run it a whole year, but a while anyway. Before I got a water block for my 6950 I used a modified original BIOS. The 6970 BIOS raised the temperatures way too high under gaming loads with the stock cooling.

But for the four last months that I've had the card water cooled I've used the 6970 BIOS. And no problems so far. The card is a reference model Asus.

After flashing my VGA, one month later to be precise my VGAs memorys failed and since it had its warranty I took it back to the shop were I bought it. And instead of buying the same one I added some money and took home a GTX 580.
It was my first AMD, and let's say I didn't get a good experience.

So, wait, you bricked the card by flashing it with a modded BIOS, which voids the warranty. But you still got it replaced, or even better, fully refunded? And that was a bad experience?

It just doesn't cease to amaze me, that some people in this thread have bricked their cards like this, and after that send them to be replaced by warranty. Now that's really something...

 

[MaxMax]

One year on, has anyone flashed to full 6970 bios and run for a whole year without breaking anything?

I originally flashed to 6970 but then chickened out and went for the shader unlock only.

Hi, i have my card running now since dec. 2010, full bios flash with original 6970 bios. but its watercooled, so i cannot say anything about temp rising.
card runs overclocked 950/1500mhz at ~1.20v without any problems...on eyefinity setup.
that card was best bang for bucks ever.

 

[Christof]

Powercolor Radeon HD 6950 1gb card

I believe I followed the instructions to the T...

I downloaded RBE, went to the last tab, switched it over to 6970 shader count..
saved
loaded and reflashed with winflash
rebooted to the blue screen of death...

tried it a couple times same deal...

Powercolor Radeon HD 6950 1gb card is my card

any ideas or tips?

 

[sildar]

I believe I followed the instructions to the T...

I downloaded RBE, went to the last tab, switched it over to 6970 shader count..
saved
loaded and reflashed with winflash
rebooted to the blue screen of death...

tried it a couple times same deal...

Powercolor Radeon HD 6950 1gb card is my card

any ideas or tips?

Since you're getting video, my first guess would be a driver issue.

 

[excubated]

Sapphire HD6950 2GB - no success.

Tried a lot of BIOSes, also messed around with RBE. Successful flash, reboot, BSOD. Even tried extracting BIOS, enabling the shader unlock and reflashing, no reboot, uninstall drivers then reboot. Booted in 800x600, installed detected driver, rebooted, BSOD.

My card runs stable at 920MHz / 1500MHz / 1,12v tho, at 65° C / 40% fan speed after an hour of Skyrim .. solutions?

Should I change vendor and model number, or leave them as the original BIOS reads? For some reason the vendor is 0000, not 0002 as Sapphire should be..

 

[Ginnoskie]

well lucky me.just flashed my Asus Direct CU II 2gb and its a success..but im chickend out so just went back to unlocked shaders..and btw it really is a dual bios..man this card is the best of all..

 

[excubated]

well lucky me.just flashed my Asus Direct CU II 2gb and its a success..but im chickend out so just went back to unlocked shaders..and btw it really is a dual bios..man this card is the best of all..

What vendor produced your card? Also, when did you buy it?

 

[Ginnoskie]

What vendor produced your card? Also, when did you buy it?

ASUS EAH6950 Direct CU II, Bought it Last June 11, 2011..


Heres my screen shot from Flashed to Unlock shaders:

 

[Terodius]

ASUS 6950 DirectCU II

I built my new rig with two 6950s from ASUS and managed to unlock them just fine. It some research and a little patience but it all worked out. Was getting scores around 900 points on heaven 2.5 @ 810/1000 and that jumped to 1000-1030 points unlocked at the same clocks. I'm going to try OC them to 1000/1200 later today and see if they'll take it.

 

[Ginnoskie]

I built my new rig with two 6950s from ASUS and managed to unlock them just fine. It some research and a little patience but it all worked out. Was getting scores around 900 points on heaven 2.5 @ 810/1000 and that jumped to 1000-1030 points unlocked at the same clocks. I'm going to try OC them to 1000/1200 later today and see if they'll take it.

Nice..show me some bench on that and what voltage do you got on both? are they on stock? because for me i cant go through to 950/1375 without bumping my voltage to 1.175.

 

[Terodius]

I'll probably keep them at 1.2V 950/1350 for 24/7 use (I'm also gonna be mining with this rig) and the last stable round was 990/1500 at 1.287Vcore. I've also managed to push my 2600K to 5.5GHz at 1.55V. Again this is just for benchmarking, I usually have it a 4.6GHz and 1.36v.

 

[Ginnoskie]

I'll probably keep them at 1.2V 950/1350 for 24/7 use (I'm also gonna be mining with this rig) and the last stable round was 990/1500 at 1.287Vcore. I've also managed to push my 2600K to 5.5GHz at 1.55V. Again this is just for benchmarking, I usually have it a 4.6GHz and 1.36v.

Well Same here if i go beyond 950/1350 i bumped my voltage 1.2v but it's just for the benchmark I'm steady at 890/1375 clocks 24/7 at 1.75v.

 

[Terodius]

Final benchmarks

Well Same here if i go beyond 950/1350 i bumped my voltage 1.2v but it's just for the benchmark I'm steady at 890/1375 clocks 24/7 at 1.75v.

OK I finished benchmarking. I think I got as much juice out of the system as is possible. Past 975MHz on my GPU and 5GHz on my CPU I really had to increase the voltages to get it stable, and despite going all the way to 1.4v on the GPU I couldn't get them running at 1GHz to my disappointment

I wanted to attach the link to the 3DMarkVantage score but for some reason I'm having trouble uploading the result. So I'm attaching screenshots here instead.