How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[yonef]

Does anyone has a problem with 11.4preview driver from AMD and a modded 6950 ?!
I'v got very weird results here. With all the jabber I read online about how great is 11.4, I installed it and it turns to be the worst driver ATI/AMD ever made (last 6 years I'm with ATI).
I've got performance decrease 5%-40% in various games/benches, especially it affects min.FPS.

Most dramatic is Dragon Age II: difference between 11.2 vs 11.4 on DA II. How I tested, got 5-6 savegames on different location of the game, maxed out settings(1680x1050). I load the save and do not move the so it is absolutelly the same scene to render every time.
Here is the difference:
11.2 - 11.4
43 FPS - 18 FPS !!!
31 FPS - 28 FPS
36 FPS - 29 FPS
57 FPS - 56 FPS

I'm just wondering is it something to do with MODDED 6950 , or it is just me who get the **** results?

Can someone with modded 6950 test dragon age II with 11.2 vs 11.4 ?

thank you.

 

[Makaveli]

I don't have this game but may have it buy tomorrow and can check.

 

[2DividedbyZero]

Here is the difference:
11.2 - 11.4
43 FPS - 18 FPS !!!
31 FPS - 28 FPS
36 FPS - 29 FPS
57 FPS - 56 FPS

thats crazy, sounds like a problem with your software tbh.

Did you do a clean install of 11.4 or install over 11.2?

 

[alick]

dont have da2 but

hey dude I was having that problem with my bench with the upgraded drivers with mod bios and sometimes on 6970 bios. I had to go back to 11.2 because it was horrible

Does anyone has a problem with 11.4preview driver from AMD and a modded 6950 ?!
I'v got very weird results here. With all the jabber I read online about how great is 11.4, I installed it and it turns to be the worst driver ATI/AMD ever made (last 6 years I'm with ATI).
I've got performance decrease 5%-40% in various games/benches, especially it affects min.FPS.

Most dramatic is Dragon Age II: difference between 11.2 vs 11.4 on DA II. How I tested, got 5-6 savegames on different location of the game, maxed out settings(1680x1050). I load the save and do not move the so it is absolutelly the same scene to render every time.
Here is the difference:
11.2 - 11.4
43 FPS - 18 FPS !!!
31 FPS - 28 FPS
36 FPS - 29 FPS
57 FPS - 56 FPS

I'm just wondering is it something to do with MODDED 6950 , or it is just me who get the **** results?

Can someone with modded 6950 test dragon age II with 11.2 vs 11.4 ?

thank you.

 

[yonef]

thats crazy, sounds like a problem with your software tbh.

Did you do a clean install of 11.4 or install over 11.2?

I did clean install after driver sweeper.
...

as I can see it is not just me that has performance degrade with 11.4, and AMD claims that this driver has major improvements on Dragon Age II, all I wonder does anyone from amd driver team bothered testing 6950 at all.

P.S.
top tip regarding AMD: if you can't make it better, please don't make it worse !

 

[shwazemoto]

I did clean install after driver sweeper.
...

as I can see it is not just me that has performance degrade with 11.4, and AMD claims that this driver has major improvements on Dragon Age II, all I wonder does anyone from amd driver team bothered testing 6950 at all.

P.S.
top tip regarding AMD: if you can't make it better, please don't make it worse !

I am back to stock 6950 bios on cat 11.4 and its a lot better, performs like modded on 11.2
but if I mod it on 11.4 its not as good, I think they did this for a reason

 

[R!zZ]

First time here =D.
Just wanted to thank you for this guide, and tell you that you can add new XFX succesfully flashed to the list.
I've noticed a substantial improvement on FurMark, at first it showed 2.7k points, and now shows 3.6k points.
I would also like to know if is it normal that the card makes a noise like a buzzing, it made that sound at stock (6950) and flashed (6970) as well. This only happens when I'm running fullscreen apps, like FurMark, Call Of Duty 4, Cryostasis; and if I minimize the application the sound stops until I open the app again. Any ideas?

 

[Phobic]

it's probably the fan spinning up. might be loose or have something caught in it.

 

[yonef]

I am back to stock 6950 bios on cat 11.4 and its a lot better, performs like modded on 11.2
but if I mod it on 11.4 its not as good, I think they did this for a reason

ooh maaan, if they did something to screw modded cards it will be very cruel!

Do you have Dragon Age II to test with? I'm curious if there is performance boos on stock bios and 11.4 ?

Thanks.

 

[shwazemoto]

ooh maaan, if they did something to screw modded cards it will be very cruel!

Do you have Dragon Age II to test with? I'm curious if there is performance boos on stock bios and 11.4 ?

Thanks.

no not yet is it a good game? I was thinking of getting it but heard bad reveiws, I did all my benches on unigine using stock 6950 modded and full 6970 bios in both cat 11.2 and cat 11.4 and there is a drop in performance with 11.4
on cat 11.4 the full 6970 bios was only 2fsp fater than oc 6950??? on 11.2 it was more like 10 fsp.

 

[Hexblade6950]

Hiya guys I finished my modding yesterday and it was a success, you can add another sapphire card to the list, I have the 11.4 preview drivers and playing DA2 I get 34-36 FPS sometimes goes up to 60 depending on the moment, I play with all the graphics turned up AA 4X and A 16X, the rest of my games have improved after doing the mod and installing 11.4.

 

[cadaveca]

hey dude I was having that problem with my bench with the upgraded drivers with mod bios and sometimes on 6970 bios. I had to go back to 11.2 because it was horrible

I have Sapphire card, did not notice these problems on the 11.4 preview driver(performance increases were good, but without mod and 11.4, card is great anyway), so there must be something else up here...maybe vram is clocked a bit too high?

 

[BZB]

Does anyone has a problem with 11.4preview driver from AMD and a modded 6950 ?!
I'v got very weird results here. With all the jabber I read online about how great is 11.4, I installed it and it turns to be the worst driver ATI/AMD ever made (last 6 years I'm with ATI).
I've got performance decrease 5%-40% in various games/benches, especially it affects min.FPS.
thank you.

These are beta drivers, so it's possible it's a bug. I also wonder if maybe the drivers are increasing utilization, and with the extra shaders enabled, an unlocked 6950 make the powertune throttling kick in where it didn't before. Try increasing the powertune level and see if results are better because the card can use a bit more power before engaging the power throttle.

This would explain why results seem better when switching back to an unlocked BIOS, because the powertune limit isn't kicking in, and so giving you better results despite the lack of the extra shaders.

I'm using an unlocked 6950 and haven't noticed and problems with the 11.4 preview drivers, but then I have the powertune, memory and GPU sliders all pushed to the max in CCC, and haven't tried Dragon Age 2.

 

[alick]

Hey dude I had exchange for second sapphire card then ended up switching up for an asus 6950 I had the same problem with the 3rd card. The 11.4 drives cause lose in performance. I have not tried it at stock not unlock bios yet. But I will soon. I'm just in the middle of a move right now so everything is packed away until April. Will check then.

I have Sapphire card, did not notice these problems on the 11.4 preview driver(performance increases were good, but without mod and 11.4, card is great anyway), so there must be something else up here...maybe vram is clocked a bit too high?

 

[Sk1nner]

crysis 2 Artifacts

i was testing the beta crysis 2 that leaked a few weeks ago and this happened, i went back to stock clocks and stock shadders and it still happens and i took a few screen shots:

my guess is a problem in the game(beta) or drivers, this is the only game that i have problems, anyone has a better explanation?
*my clocks are 880/1375 1.16v

 

[dadojaksa]

hello,

i bought a xfx 6950 (not here yet ). If i did understand it.. i can flash it to 6970 ?
And with dual bios i can switch the card from 6950 to 6970?
Is there any chance to f**k the vga ?

 

[manofthem]

hello,

i bought a xfx 6950 (not here yet ). If i did understand it.. i can flash it to 6970 ?
And with dual bios i can switch the card from 6950 to 6970?
Is there any chance to f**k the vga ?

Flash at your own risk. According to multiple xfx customer service reps, flashing with the 6970 bios will permanently damage and/or brick the card. Not sure if it's the same about a "shaders only" bios. I have an xfx that runs fine with shaders only, but with the newer cards, I'm not sure.

 

[yonef]

no not yet is it a good game? I was thinking of getting it but heard bad reveiws, I did all my benches on unigine using stock 6950 modded and full 6970 bios in both cat 11.2 and cat 11.4 and there is a drop in performance with 11.4
on cat 11.4 the full 6970 bios was only 2fsp fater than oc 6950??? on 11.2 it was more like 10 fsp.

I think it is a good game, not as good as the first one though. DA2 is more "consolish" and that's the only thing that I dislike. Other than that it has a good graphics a good story and a fairly good gameplay (I hate consoles )
So, there is definitelly a problem with modded bios and 11.4 :shadedshu

@Hexblade6950
I'm currently playing DA2 on 1680x1050 modded shader bios, stock 6950 clocks! catalyst 11.2, everything maxed out! + very high textrures mod. and the game runs confortably at 40+ fps to 60 FPS at most of the time, there is rare cases that it drops to 30+

 

[lamja]

i want to ask somethink i have this version of 6950 http://www.dove.co.nz/assets/images/product/7378-5912142.jpg Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2gb and i want to flash bios to 6970, i tryed but noting happend i check my card and i cant found the bios switcher JUMPER, so is there way to make my 6950 to 6970 with no jumper for dual bios ?

 

[cobe2121]

Hey everyone,

So I tried this with one of my two XFX 6950 cards with no success (an attempt to get the most out of crysis 2); things were chopping out really bad with DA 2 and not so good with the original crysis either. So i attempted to follow the OP through flashing back to the 6950. Once I did so, everything checked out fine in gpu-z showing that everything was back to stock 6950, but i still have the same performance issues, rendering my games unplayable. It passes windows experience index just fine at 7.8 going through those tests but games are literally at like 5 -10 fps with the flashed card. I can go with the 6950 i didn't flash and things are fine on high settings, but obviously now I can't play games at their maximum anymore :shadedshu

I wouldn't call myself good at this stuff, but I tried following the steps the best I could in the command prompt. I think I did everything right, but I was a bit confused with the switch on the card (you know, switching it to the '2' position, rebooting, switching it back, and flashing..). Maybe someone can tell me what this does perhaps guide me through that specific part?

Thanks so much.

Edit: Oh ya, and I'm using the 11.2 drivers.

 

[dadojaksa]

@cobe2121
what version or revision of the xfx u have ?...

 

[cobe2121]

@cobe2121
what version or revision of the xfx u have ?...

Apologies, I'm not exactly sure how to verify that, nor am I 100% sure the exact thing you're asking for.

This was the XFX 6970 bios I downloaded from the tech power up library. The 6950 bios was just the stock one the that came with the card..

 

[lamja]

i want to ask somethink i have this version of 6950 http://www.dove.co.nz/assets/images/product/7378-5912142.jpg Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2gb and i want to flash bios to 6970, i tryed but noting happend i check my card and i cant found the bios switcher JUMPER, so is there way to make my 6950 to 6970 with no jumper for dual bios ?

anyone tell me plz ?

 

[manofthem]

anyone tell me plz ?

Impatient much? Welcome to the forum, now relax a bit.

That's a 1gb card. You cannot flash a 6970 bios to a 1gb card. Return and get a 2 gb card; it's only like $30 more.

 

[m3talm0rph]

Hello guys! I am new here!
Can you please tell me if this card is okay for the mod?

Sapphire HD6950 2048MB (PCI-E,2xD,HDMI,2xDP,A) [21188-00-40R]
http://www.mega-lo-mania.eu/shop/img/p/1041-1909-thickbox.jpg

Output 1 x Dual-Link DVI
1 x HDMI 1.4a
2 x Mini-DisplayPort
1 x Single-Link DVI-D
DisplayPort 1.2

GPU
800 MHz Core Clock
40 nm Chip
1408 x Processori Stream

Memory
2048 MB Dimensioni
256 -bit GDDR5
5000 MHz Effettive
Software Driver CD

Thank you! Have a nice day!