How to enable additional shaders on Radeon HD 6950

[BababooeyHTJ]

It's probably a software issue. Have you tried reinstalling the display drivers?

I would honestly make a post at AMD forums to see if it is a known driver issue, some other sort of software issue, or you have a bum card which I doubt.

 

[genx]

Need some help

I have flashed my Reference 6950 2GB with many different bios and it gets flashed fine and everything with the new bios and loads into windows but the shaders still show 1408. However the clock speeds are set at 850/1375

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Arktic]

I have flashed my Reference 6950 with many different bios and it gets flashed fine and everything with the new bios and loads into windows but the shaders still show 1408. However the clock speeds are set at 850/1375

Anyone have any suggestions?

Try using a MSI 6950 bios that has unlocked shaders only then clock it up your self.
Also the powercolour PCS++ bios with unlocked shaders and clocks worked for me but wasnt stable without volts.

 

[genx]

Try using a MSI 6950 bios that has unlocked shaders only then clock it up your self.
Also the powercolour PCS++ bios with unlocked shaders and clocks worked for me but wasnt stable without volts.

Could you post a link to this bios?

Thanks

 

[Arktic]

The MSI BIOS.
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/95202/MSI.HD6950.2048.101123_1.html

Powercolor BIOS
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/94169/Powercolor.HD6950.2048.110121.html

 

[BoomBang85]

Hello everyone,
First post so be gentle.
First a question: Has anyone somewhere in this very long and informative discussion manage to unlock or mod the bios of the Sapphire 6590 2GB 100312-2SR (It's picture on post #2453 on this page 99)?
And on that matter can the author of the post put in the opening a list of the cards already unlocked successfully by model (if there is one then a link to it would be nice) especially when there seems to be a big difference between reference and non-reference cards.

On the card subject, and I pretty sure it's in all 6950 cards: for an after-market cooler Arctic Accelero TWIN TURBO Pro worked just fine on my card (from 54 idle/75 load to 38 idle/58 load)
I checked this link before to make sure it would fit:
http://www.arctic.ac/en/support/sup...rbo-pro-fit-my-card.htm?tx_diadamsolution_pi2
The only adjustment I had to make was to break two pins in the long heat-sink for the memory chips. Another thing worth mentioning in my card is that those chips had no heat sink on them and the smaller in-line chips had a stock heat-sink on them.
Excuse my English and the lack of knowledge on chips names.

 

[jayc]

I have flashed my Reference 6950 2GB with many different bios and it gets flashed fine and everything with the new bios and loads into windows but the shaders still show 1408. However the clock speeds are set at 850/1375

Anyone have any suggestions?

What are you using to check shaders have been unlocked?
GPU-Z? What version?

 

[jayc]

Has anyone somewhere in this very long and informative discussion manage to unlock or mod the bios of the Sapphire 6590 2GB 100312-2SR (It's picture on post #2453 on this page 99)?

If you have the same card, then both NameonPrime and Redline888 have this card but have been unsuccessful in unlocking the shaders on it.
Either the manufacturers have started locking the bios from being re-writable or they have removed the physical links to the extra shaders or both.

You can try the shader unlock mod. Nothing stopping you from trying.
Both NameonPrime and Redline888, who have this card tried and did not succeed, but the card is still operational.
Your only option, if it fails to unlock shaders, it to overclock the heck out of it.

 

[Sk1nner]

6950 unlocked crossfire

i´m thinking in getting a second card for my system, but i don't know if my power supply will old the beasts. i have a corssair TX750.
my system specs are :

CPU: Intel Core i5 760@4.0GHZ 1.20V Cooled By Noctua NH-U12P SE2
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Sabertooth 55i
RAM: 8 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 MHz cl7
PSU: Corssair TX-750
HARD DRIVE: 2*320gb raid0, 1tb
SoundCard: Creative x-fi titanium
i have also 5*120mm fans

anyone know if it can hold the 2GPU´s?

 

[Arktic]

TX750 will be more than enough.

 

[NameonPrime]

soo

i just oc'd my sapphire hd 6950 2gb
http://images.izideal.com/img/produ...ogy-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

all seems well and stable @ 910/1375 on 1174mV with MSI AB (whenever i put 1175 it goes down to that)
catalyst 11.3 drivers,
win7 64

but i see artifacts in two benchmarks the littlest artifacting occurs in unigine heaven
2.5 benchmark (very little artifact - small green flash-point when crossing bridge at sun-down)

the heavier artifacting occurs in 3dmark vantage especially in the jane nash scene, cant really notice artifacting in other scenes.I put it in high preset but an 1280x1024 resolution (my moniters supported resolution)

question is should i be alarmed about the artifacting and maybe tone down my oc?

If you have the same card, then both NameonPrime and Redline888 have this card but have been unsuccessful in unlocking the shaders on it.
Either the manufacturers have started locking the bios from being re-writable or they have removed the physical links to the extra shaders or both.

You can try the shader unlock mod. Nothing stopping you from trying.
Both NameonPrime and Redline888, who have this card tried and did not succeed, but the card is still operational.
Your only option, if it fails to unlock shaders, it to overclock the heck out of it.

Sooo,

hey peeps of TPU, yes this card's shaders cant be unlocked so the only way to go is to OC it - i did OC it and i got artifacts, but i got good news, the artifacting i saw in 3dMark vantage Jane Nash scene
is present even if i put my card to stock hd 6950 clocks, so no worries there,

which leaves the artifacting i saw in unigine heaven 2.5 benchmark after i OC'd to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV.

so i tried the card on stock clocks,- no artifacting, i OC'd the card to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV- artifacting occurs, so a crazy idea popped into my mind,
i wanted to see what would happen if i increased the clocks from stock to 880/1375 BUT without changing the voltage.

And guess what happened,

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?

P.s - Redline888, i urge you to try this and post us the results.

If you guys try this and fry your cards, well then im sorry but i should not be blamed for that.

 

[Resao]

I recently bought a Sapphire 2GB 6950, unlocked the shaders and it ran fine for a day. Turned my pc on the following day and a puff of smoke and yellow sparks appeared from the card... Needless to say it is now screwed. I didn't OC the card at all, just unlocked using the tech power up guide.

I'm assuming I'm not able to RMA the card as I have modded the bios, even though the voltages were running lower than the specification of 225w.

Has anyone managed to RMA successfully? I'm sure this has probably been mentioned in this thread but it is now 99 pages long...

 

[cheesy999]

I recently bought a Sapphire 2GB 6950, unlocked the shaders and it ran fine for a day. Turned my pc on the following day and a puff of smoke and yellow sparks appeared from the card... Needless to say it is now screwed. I didn't OC the card at all, just unlocked using the tech power up guide.

I'm assuming I'm not able to RMA the card as I have modded the bios, even though the voltages were running lower than the specification of 225w.

Has anyone managed to RMA successfully? I'm sure this has probably been mentioned in this thread but it is now 99 pages long...

just do it, its not as if them not giving your card back to you if they do notice (they probably won't) will change anything - it dosn't work anyway

 

[fullinfusion]

I recently bought a Sapphire 2GB 6950, unlocked the shaders and it ran fine for a day. Turned my pc on the following day and a puff of smoke and yellow sparks appeared from the card... Needless to say it is now screwed. I didn't OC the card at all, just unlocked using the tech power up guide.

I'm assuming I'm not able to RMA the card as I have modded the bios, even though the voltages were running lower than the specification of 225w.

Has anyone managed to RMA successfully? I'm sure this has probably been mentioned in this thread but it is now 99 pages long...

Im thinking something besides flashing your gpu went wrong. I wouldn't sweat it, rma it and get another one, down side is your likely going to end up with a non reference 6950 and that's going to suck big time but better then nothing

 

[NameonPrime]

No artifacting

Sooo,

hey peeps of TPU, yes this card's shaders cant be unlocked so the only way to go is to OC it - i did OC it and i got artifacts, but i got good news, the artifacting i saw in 3dMark vantage Jane Nash scene
is present even if i put my card to stock hd 6950 clocks, so no worries there,
http://images.izideal.com/img/produ...ogy-radeon-hd-6950-1-g-gddr5-pci-express.jpeg

which leaves the artifacting i saw in unigine heaven 2.5 benchmark after i OC'd to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV.

so i tried the card on stock clocks,- no artifacting, i OC'd the card to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV- artifacting occurs, so a crazy idea popped into my mind,
i wanted to see what would happen if i increased the clocks from stock to 880/1375 BUT without changing the voltage.

And guess what happened,

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?

P.s - Redline888, i urge you to try this and post us the results.

This works for me byt ,If you guys try this and fry your cards, well then im sorry but i should not be blamed for that.

C'mon guys of TPU where are you?
i expect atleast these people to give some comments in my situation

manofthem
cadaveca
redlin888
fullinfusion
BababooeyHTJ
and others too

please reply guys.

 

[edhahaha]

6950 FREEZES after unlocking!

Hi guys. Bought my Sapphire reference 2GB 6950 month ago, and finally decided to flash it. First I flashed to 6970 bios with 880/1375. It ran okay, even benchmarks are no problem. However, I started getting random shutdown/restart after couple days. And as I do more research, I realize I can achieve the same performance with modded shader 6950 bios. So I flashed back to original 6950 bios, then flashed to 6950 modded bios. now I have 1536 shaders with 800/1250. I heard that with stock voltage(1100) I can get up to 900/1350 stable. But when i tried to oc at 880/1350. my comp freezes at benchmarks or games. So do I HAVE to adjust the voltage or is it different cards may have different results in oc. Thanks
Currently using 11.4 catalyse and oc'ed with trixx.
Btw. Am I gonnna damage my card cuz I flashed back and forth the bios?

 

[Arktic]

Hi guys. Bought my Sapphire reference 2GB 6950 month ago, and finally decided to flash it. First I flashed to 6970 bios with 880/1375. It ran okay, even benchmarks are no problem. However, I started getting random shutdown/restart after couple days. And as I do more research, I realize I can achieve the same performance with modded shader 6950 bios. So I flashed back to original 6950 bios, then flashed to 6950 modded bios. now I have 1536 shaders with 800/1250. I heard that with stock voltage(1100) I can get up to 900/1350 stable. But when i tried to oc at 880/1350. my comp freezes at benchmarks or games. So do I HAVE to adjust the voltage or is it different cards may have different results in oc. Thanks
Currently using 11.4 catalyse and oc'ed with trixx.
Btw. Am I gonnna damage my card cuz I flashed back and forth the bios?

Heres my experience.

UPDATE: Just an update on my bios modding experience.

After flashing the bios with a 6950 bios with unlocked shaders and stock settings the card was running fine. OC'd to bench and ran fine. Games I got some artifacts but backed the clocks down to stock settings again.

Currently running the card in stock standard 6950 form, no shaders and stock clocks etc.

Almost every time I play COD4 online while im on the black screen waiting for the map to load I get green flashing speckle artifacts for a few seconds then they disappear for the whole time im playing.
This only happens on some games loading screens but never in game. Also happens in NFS Hot Pursuit 2. It only happens once every few hours or after I havent played any games for a while.

It doesnt effect the games in anyway but is really annoying. Is the VRAM stuffed? Have I bricked the card? I've gone back to complete stock settings and it still happens.



EDIT: I know some people have success with this mod but I generally DONT advise it as it doesnt seem to do the card any good. Rather OC the standard clocks and get results that way.


So in Conclusion, my card has started speckling from all the flashing etc. So I dont advise.

Rather clock it on the stock 6950 and not on a 6970 or 6950 modded bios.

 

[NameonPrime]

Sooo,

hey peeps of TPU, yes this card's shaders cant be unlocked so the only way to go is to OC it - i did OC it and i got artifacts, but i got good news, the artifacting i saw in 3dMark vantage Jane Nash scene
is present even if i put my card to stock hd 6950 clocks, so no worries there,
http://images.izideal.com/img/produc...i-express.jpeg

which leaves the artifacting i saw in unigine heaven 2.5 benchmark after i OC'd to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV.

so i tried the card on stock clocks,- no artifacting, i OC'd the card to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV- artifacting occurs, so a crazy idea popped into my mind,
i wanted to see what would happen if i increased the clocks from stock to 880/1375 BUT without changing the voltage.

And guess what happened,

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?

P.s - Redline888, i urge you to try this and post us the results.

This works for me but ,If you guys try this and fry your cards, well then im sorry but i should not be blamed for that.

C'mon guys of TPU where are you?
it seems like as if you guys are actually choosing to ignore my posts.

i expect at least these people to give some comments about my situation

manofthem
cadaveca
redlin888
fullinfusion
BababooeyHTJ
and others too

please reply guys.

 

[manofthem]

which leaves the artifacting i saw in unigine heaven 2.5 benchmark after i OC'd to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV.

so i tried the card on stock clocks,- no artifacting, i OC'd the card to
880-910/1375 @ 1175mV- artifacting occurs, so a crazy idea popped into my mind,
i wanted to see what would happen if i increased the clocks from stock to 880/1375 BUT without changing the voltage.

And guess what happened,

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?

P.s - Redline888, i urge you to try this and post us the results.

This works for me but ,If you guys try this and fry your cards, well then im sorry but i should not be blamed for that.
...
please reply guys.

My card won't run 880/1375 on default voltage, may about 1.16v. At 1.175v, I got 910/1400-1425 and passed brief benches in 3dmark and unigine. But playing Metro 2033 for excessed time, ran into problems. Had to back down to 900/1375-1400 at 1.175v and everything runs fine without artifacts or lock ups.

When cooks are too high for a voltage, display driver will crash, maybe not even recover unless a hard restart. So if you can play an extremely intense game for extended time without lock ups, artifacts, or crashes, then you are good.

That's my idea on the matter.

 

[cadaveca]

Sorry, I have no feedback 4 you, NameonPrime. My cards unlocked, so my experience does not relate to yours, as our cards already behave differently.

Frankly, i unlocked, but no OC here for 24/7...only for benching. I do not play any titles that need any OC.

 

[jayc]

I got my best score yet,(higher by around 13points)
and it was stable/smooth
and there WAS NO ARTIFACTING

how do i check its true stability?
this has got to be a good thing if my card can run on those clocks smoothly at stock voltage, right?

What else can we say?
The only way of checking stability on your card is for you to start using it on the games you play. Unless you want to send it to me I'll test it for ya.

You might be able to use benchmarks like 3d Mark, Furmark, Heaven, etc, but they are not games you play all the time.

880/1375 on stock voltages does seem a lot to ask for the vid card to do. You might find some issues while playing intensive games. Then just adjust voltage upslightly. I personally use 1.150v for 880/1375, as it solves small problems for me on Crysis and Metro 2033 and Shogun 2.

I'm currently re-testing with the new 11.4 drivers, so voltages might change afterall.
Some are reporting that overclocks don't reach as high for them on 11.4 drivers.

 

[jayc]

Hi guys. Bought my Sapphire reference 2GB 6950 month ago, and finally decided to flash it. First I flashed to 6970 bios with 880/1375. It ran okay, even benchmarks are no problem. However, I started getting random shutdown/restart after couple days. And as I do more research, I realize I can achieve the same performance with modded shader 6950 bios. So I flashed back to original 6950 bios, then flashed to 6950 modded bios. now I have 1536 shaders with 800/1250. I heard that with stock voltage(1100) I can get up to 900/1350 stable. But when i tried to oc at 880/1350. my comp freezes at benchmarks or games. So do I HAVE to adjust the voltage or is it different cards may have different results in oc. Thanks
Currently using 11.4 catalyse and oc'ed with trixx.
Btw. Am I gonnna damage my card cuz I flashed back and forth the bios?

ed,
your crashing in benchmarks might also be attributed to heat.
Increase fan speed curves using an app like MSI Afterburner, then try benchmarks again.
If it still crashes, small voltage adjustments will be needed. 1100mv till 1175mv should be safe. You probably won't need 1175mv. As I said above, I only need 1150mv (1.15v) for the games I play.

Different cards will ALWAYS have different o/c results. Diff drivers will also be a factor in how high you can overclock.

 

[jayc]

So in Conclusion, my card has started speckling from all the flashing etc

Have you tried cleaning drivers and then reinstalling drivers?

 

[slypenguin0]

Hi guys. I just recently purchased the MSI Twin Frozr II HD 6950 and a CM Hyper 212+ to start my OCing and GPU mod journey. I've read through this and other threads on the subject. I'd like to thank w1z and the top contributors first. When I booted up Winflash in Admin I got this:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_...I/AAAAAAAAA4Q/hHp-M-Zx97w/s640/atiunknown.jpg
And here is a picture of GPUZ
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_fX4zLmNwrcg/Tbo_O6e4fkI/AAAAAAAAA40/S6CbbIQnGNA/GPUZbeforemod.gif

Shouldn't it recognize more than that? I have had a similar problem with Everest/CPUID/etc not detecting my Mobo's name/type/etc for a long time; long before I bought these two additions.

I decided to click the save button anyway to save bios. When I did the screen flashed occasionally and my music stopped and started. At times I couldn't use the mouse. After a minute I saw a confirmation that it had saved but the screen continued to flash and music continued to stutter. Then the computer finally froze with music still playing.
I restarted the computer, turned on ATIWinflash and Everest. Everest got stuck loading and then explorer stopped working and I had to restart again.

What's up? haha (specs in the sidebar)

 

[edhahaha]

ed,
your crashing in benchmarks might also be attributed to heat.
Increase fan speed curves using an app like MSI Afterburner, then try benchmarks again.
If it still crashes, small voltage adjustments will be needed. 1100mv till 1175mv should be safe. You probably won't need 1175mv. As I said above, I only need 1150mv (1.15v) for the games I play.

Different cards will ALWAYS have different o/c results. Diff drivers will also be a factor in how high you can overclock.

I think 1150 mv seems fine to me to with 900/1350. I no longer get lock ups. But I do get random restarts either during game play or normal computer usage. So does that mean my setting is not stable? Cuz even I set everything back to default for gpu. I still get restart. So does that mean something else in my system besides oc'ing the gpu is causing the problem?
and wut other risks may be raise by increasing the voltage??