How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[crislink]

i'm in, i've ordered a Sapphire HD 6950, hope everything will go well flashing it

and talking about issues on clocks, do you think leaving the original 6850 clock will prevent problems? can i raise only core clock leaving memory at 1250?

 

[Qed]

i'm in, i've ordered a Sapphire HD 6950, hope everything will go well flashing it

and talking about issues on clocks, do you think leaving the original 6850 clock will prevent problems? can i raise only core clock leaving memory at 1250?

I didnt have any problem on mine. The memory are certified for 1250 MHz and the gpu is the same as the 6970 so i dont think you will have any problem.

 

[crislink]

is it safer than windows flashing the card on msdos booted by a usb pendrive?

also changing settings in a stock bios values (like lowering ram etc) will cause any kind of problem (like conflicts with powerstates)?

 

[The_Ish]

So here I am with my two new Sapphires.. But I've got this problem when I launched ATI Winflash my system just freezes :/ Any ideas? the bios jumpers are set to 1 if that matters.

Here's a pic of my GPUZ.. Perhaps I can't have CF enabled?

 

[TotalChaos]

take 1 card out and flash the card still in the pc. then take that card out and put the other card in and flash it. then put the second card back in reconnect Crossfire bridge and you should be good to go

 

[The_Ish]

Gaaah!! And I who have literally NO space for the bottom card.. There's like 1mm margin lol.. Was a bitch to install, oh well! Thank you for your help!

 

[Mp0wer]

Anyone know of a program that can monitor in game temps of the GPU?

MSI Afterburner and GPU-Z will

How do you get GPU-Z to show OSD in games, is there a hotkey

 

[bystander]

I don't know if GPU-Z can display it without alt tabbing out, unless you have a 2nd monitor as I do. However, you can always alt tab out and see a log of your in game temps. The log can let you know what you are peaking at.

MSI Afterburner has the ability for OSD.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Hey Guys,

just flashed my Sapphire 6950 with the Asus 6970 bios and it works fine. But I had to to this flash unlock thing.

And supprisingly I don't have to increase the TDP-Limit. I checked the Frequency with GPU-Z while Furmark was running and it didn't throttle.

Great Thanks to Wizzard, I saved a lot of Money

 

[PopcornMachine]

I think you're just getting the prompt back. That is normal.

Check your card with GPU-Z.

EDIT: No prob. Glad you figured it out.

 

[The_Ish]

I deleted what I just wrote. I was being foolish as usual.. I had winflash running *doh* Exited the program and voila! Just need to restart my PC and do it again with the other card.. I'll report back

edit/ Okay, update time. I managed to get both flashed, but the clocks aren't what they should be on one of them so I'll get that sorted now.
edit2/ All done! Thanks to W1zard for the help and anyone else who have helped my confused mind

 

[Kimo P]

I seem to have run into a slight problem flashing /reflashing my 6950 card :-o

I have an ASUS 6950 oc edition card
The flashing procedure went on just fine, and everything unlocked fine and looked good
until i fired up Bad company 2, then problems arrived!

My system hung after 5 mins of play, and i was forced to close the app.
i went through the forum here again to see if some suggestions where available, i tried to up the power limit via CCC and lowered the clock a little and tried again, still it failed after a few minutes.

Heat doesn't seem to be the issue?

I tried to reflash back to the original bios i saved, but that does not work? and i get the ID mismatch message? ... i then tried to do it as described following the "extra work" link, but replacing the "unlock.bin" with my backup copy of the original bios, named "bios original" (with the space) ... im not sure if i can rename it?? ....
So what and how do i restore my original bios again on my card ???

 

[mailoc]

As Bystander said, did you try the 6950 bios just with shaders unlocked?

If you have an XFX you can use the already unlocked bios from this post:

How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 695...

I have tried the shader unlock bios profile also with no luck. The whole issue is just perplexing me. I played Mafia 2 and Dirt 2 last night for two hours with no problems using the original 6950 bios. It seems like anything that has to do with the 6970 bios makes my cards take a shit.

I may just give up on trying to get it to work. After all crossfire 6950's are still bad ass!!!

 

[pantherx12]

Think all this will be disabled next rev of the cards all you lucky devils! I'll have a buy a second hand rev 1 in the future from one of you

 

[Beany]

EDIT: forget this post. got it working!

 

[baud]

is it safer than windows flashing the card on msdos booted by a usb pendrive?

it's probably just easier to do it in windows.

also changing settings in a stock bios values (like lowering ram etc) will cause any kind of problem (like conflicts with powerstates)?

if you're talking about editing the bios with RBE we can't do that yet. we need a new version of RBE first.

 

[JJ-Sheridan]

Why Device ID still 1002-6719 after flashing 6950 to 6970? Any ideas?..
Guess it might be problem with drivers in future
6950@6970 -> Genuine 6970 ->

 

[jimmyz]

It shows that it is a 6950 because it is. The device ID is still intact. This is a good thing, it keeps dishonest people from flashing and selling as 6970s.

 

[hajabooja]

So have many people had luck flashing just the shader unlock and overclocking to 6970 speeds on stock voltage? Or maybe getting close? My XFX 6950 should be here tomorrow! Also, a lot of people saying that their temps are up a lot when flashing to 6970 (voltage and all), anyone having closer or at least cool temps? Thanks

 

[Beany]

Managed to flash both my cards. These are now way too loud in crossfire though from the extra heat, twice as loud as before the flash, and also compared to my 5870's. It's so bad that i might just send these back and get two 6970's.

So i'd advise anyone thinking of using crossfire with two flashed 6950's to just get two 6970's instead if you can afford it.
With just one card flashed it's not bad though, but crossfire produces too much heat so the fans now go crazy.

 

[Qed]

Managed to flash both my cards. These are now way too loud in crossfire though from the extra heat, twice as loud as before the flash, and also compared to my 5870's. It's so bad that i might just send these back and get two 6970's.

So i'd advise anyone thinking of using crossfire with two flashed 6950's to just get two 6970's instead if you can afford it.
With just one card flashed it's not bad though, but crossfire produces too much heat so the fans now go crazy.

Why do you think 2x6970 would be quieter? Have the same TPD once you canhe the bios and the PBC has only 3 different resistors.

 

[The_Ish]

I only play with headphones so fan levels doesn't really bother me much

 

[WaffleMakerMan]

Can anyone post some benchmark results with modded 6950 bios(unlocked shaders only)?
What is the difference over normal 6950 on Unigine demo, or any game.
I've flashed mine to 6970 and it seems to have 10% performance increase, but got very loud and system power condumption increased with 80W, temps increased as well.
So I'm wondering what would be the difference with only shader unlocked 6950.

Tnanks.

My 3dMark11 scores

Stock: P4325
Asus 6950 Modded Bios Stock Speeds4427
Asus 6950 Modded Bios 840Mhz 1325Mhz +20%4569
XFX 6970 Bios4696
I Lost the score for 6970 +20% but I think it was over P4700

Im keeping it in the 6950 Modded bios for now unless I need the power as it runs cooler.

Hope that helps

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Why do you think 2x6970 would be quieter? Have the same TPD once you canhe the bios and the PBC has only 3 different resistors.

I got a good laugh out of that.

 

[Qed]

I got a good laugh out of that.

Since you cant prove it, only the laugh has left.