Radeon HD 6950 shader unlock instructions

[emperor0013]

THANK YOU, bystander! Successful unlock here with a MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II 2gb. I now have the full 1536 shaders without issue so far.

I have a few questions though:

1- This card is stock 810 MHz / 1250 MHz clocks. In both CCC and MSI Afterburner, it won't let me overclock past 840/1325. Is there a way to surpass this cap?

2- I can't adjust the Power Control Settings slider in CCC. The other options are adjustable, but when I move the slider for the power, it won't let me click "apply". The apply button lights up, registering that I made a change to the power setting, but when I click it, it remains lit up and no changes are made. Wtf?

3- On a similar note, should I even increase the power control setting at all? Or only if I overclock? Should I just leave the clocks/power setting where they are and be happy with just the shaders?

4- My 3dMark11 score was a little lower post-unlock. Why?

 

[bystander]

THANK YOU, bystander! Successful unlock here with a MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II 2gb. I now have the full 1536 shaders without issue so far.

I have a few questions though:

1- This card is stock 810 MHz / 1250 MHz clocks. In both CCC and MSI Afterburner, it won't let me overclock past 840/1325. Is there a way to surpass this cap?

2- I can't adjust the Power Control Settings slider in CCC. The other options are adjustable, but when I move the slider for the power, it won't let me click "apply". The apply button lights up, registering that I made a change to the power setting, but when I click it, it remains lit up and no changes are made. Wtf?

3- On a similar note, should I even increase the power control setting at all? Or only if I overclock? Should I just leave the clocks/power setting where they are and be happy with just the shaders?

4- My 3dMark11 score was a little lower post-unlock. Why?

It's awesome that your MSI tf II unlocked. Now there are two options here:
1) you can follow the link on my 2nd post of the thread, which will give a link to a special bios designed by MSI to not only unlock the shaders, but will unlock the OC limits.

2) You can unlock MSI afterburners by altering it's .ini file.
This might not be the most up to date syntax, I know the beta has different syntax: http/www.overclock.net/t/677696/how-to-unlock-msi-afterburner
This is the directions for the beta version: http/forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=182403

I'm unsure about the other 2 answers and I don't currently have a 6950/70 in my system to try and figure it out.

 

[emperor0013]

It's awesome that your MSI tf II unlocked. Now there are two options here:
1) you can follow the link on my 2nd post of the thread, which will give a link to a special bios designed by MSI to not only unlock the shaders, but will unlock the OC limits.

2) You can unlock MSI afterburners by altering it's .ini file.
This might not be the most up to date syntax, I know the beta has different syntax: http/www.overclock.net/t/677696/how-to-unlock-msi-afterburner
This is the directions for the beta version: http/forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=182403

I'm unsure about the other 2 answers and I don't currently have a 6950/70 in my system to try and figure it out.

Such a fast response! You are incredible.

So I went with the first method you listed, except instead of booting from a flashdrive as the guide suggested, I used the method in steps 10-13 of your original post using the bios downloaded from their guide. Worked great. MSI Afterburner now recognizes it as a twin frozr III PE.

Default clocks are now 850/1300, with a maximum setting of 1300/1800. Also, my Power Control Setting is now alterable in CCC. Everything seems to be perfect. Onto the extensive benchmarking...

Thanks again, bystander.

Edit: So I clocked it to stock 6970 specs: 880/1375. I also bumped up the power 10%. After almost 20 minutes in Furmark at 1920x1080, it reached a maximum temp of 84 degrees C, with no artifacts. My case is kind of a joke, and I have the side of it off at the moment. When I put a house fan on it during the benchmark, it maxes out at 77 degrees C. I think these numbers would be better with a decent case with nice airflow. I also tested several high-demand games at max settings and most of them couldn't even get the GPU usage to 100%.

This is a massive improvement over what I had, so I might keep the clocks at this level. I read that you typically shouldn't let them run above 80 degrees C, so I think I reached the best "safe" OC for this card. What do you think?

 

[mikenmbr1]

Since I have not yet seen a good instructional guide on how to unlock the shaders of the Radeon HD 6950's, I figured I'd write a guide of my own. Be aware that this process does entail some risks and is not for everyone.

By now, we have all see loads of posts about how to flash the 6970 bios onto a 6950 card. This is the first guide I believe most of have seen: http/www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

After following the discussion thread, it was learned that some people had been damaging their video RAM after continuous use. It is a small amount, but even a small amount is not good. I believe it was rui0317 who came up with a method to alter a few numbers in the bios that would unlock the shaders, but not alter anything else in the bios. This meant the video ram timings, fan profiles and clocks are all left alone. W1zzard packaged it up in a nice batch file to help modify a BIOS to unlock the shaders. I found that here: http/www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137136&page=15

I have personally used the following method on an XFX 6950 reference model, and an MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II which doesn't have a bios switch, and does not function with a reference bios. Others are having success with this method without the dual bios switch and with or without reference boards.

Step 1) Download ATI Winflash: http/www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1919/ATI_Winflash_2.0.1.13.html (The newest version has been reported to not work).
2) Install winflash in the root directory (i.e. C:\winflash)
3) Download the script to modify the bios and extract it: www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
4) If you have a BIOS switch, set it to the 1 position (switched towards the back of the card)
5) Run ATI Winflash, click "Save" to save your BIOS, be sure to make a copy of this and save it some where safe in case some thing goes wrong.
6) Make a copy of the saved BIOS and rename the copy to "original.bin"
6.a) If you cannot see the file extensions, you need to open the Folder Options in the control panel and uncheck the option "Hide extensions for known file types"
7) Copy the "original.bin" file to the script folder "Mod_BIOS_HD_6950"
8) Execute the "run.bat" batch file
9) Look in the folder "Mod_BIOS_HD_6950" and copy the file "modded.bin" to the folder you installed ATI Winflash in (C:\winflash)
10) Open up the command prompt (Start->All Programs->Accessories) you may have to right click and run as adminstrator
11) Change to the ATI Winflash directory with the command "cd C:\winflash" or what ever directory you saved it in
12) Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" (the "0" stands for the first PCIe card installed, "1" will work for the 2nd card)
13) Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 modded.bin" (the "0" stands for the first PCIe card installed, "1" will work for the 2nd card)
WARNING: do not turn off your computer until step 13 is completely finished.
You should have successfully installed the modified BIOS. You will see a window pop up to say it was verified and ask you to reboot if everything went as planned.
14) To verify that you succeeded in unlocking the shaders, use GPU-Z and look to see that you have 1536 Unified shaders.

If your system becomes unstable after you reboot, you'll have to reflash the original saved BIOS back onto the card following steps 10-13 and using the "original.bin" BIOS in place of "modded.bin".

If you cannot boot from this card and have the dual BIOS switch, switch it to the number 2 position, and boot up and right before you flash the original BIOS back, flip the switch to the number 1 position.

If you don't have a dual BIOS switch and you cannot boot up from the card, remove the card from your system, install it in a 2nd PCIe slot and install a working card in the first slot. You can then boot up from the first card. After you boot up, you can install the drivers for the 1st video card but not for the one that you just attempted to modify the BIOS on. Do not reboot if requested. Now follow steps 10-13 using the "original.bin" BIOS you saved and using "1" in place of "0" for the commands you type. The "1" is so that the 2nd card is flashed and not the 1st card which is not the one you wish to flash. Be very careful to use "1"s and not "0"s this time, because the card is no longer in the 1st PCIe slot.

If you still have trouble, boot in safe mode, open up the device manager and uninstall the bricked card from the list of display adapters. Reboot into windows and you should not be able to flash the card back to it's original BIOS. (I bricked my XFX 6950 reference card and tested that I could recover from a bricked card, and I could. I had the dual BIOS switch had things gone wrong, but this was a good test incase you do this without a dual BIOS switch).

Good luck, but please be careful and be aware of the risks involved in modifying your BIOS.

I did every step like you wrote.The system rebooted and shaders did not unlock i have SAPPHIRE 100312-3L with dual bios switch.Please help me,i really want to have those shaders unlocked.What could have gone wrong?

 

[bystander]

Many cards won't unlock anymore. Some have physically cut shaders (likely your problem), others have bios with locks on them.

If everything worked, and your shader count didn't change, you are just unlucky.

 

[mikenmbr1]

hey!!

i have done all the steps from 1 to 14 and the shaders did not unlock.I have sapphire 100312-3L with dual bios switch...
Tried both versions of winflash you posted,no results...Do you have any ideas what could have gone wrong?or what is the problem?
Please help

 

[bystander]

Nothing went wrong other than you were unfortunate to have a card that wouldn't unlock. Most won't these days.

You could try going here: http/forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?s=756ec20686b0df529e4b85862affebf7&t=355592

They've taken the guide I wrote and have gone beyond, including some pretty hardcore modes to get some cards to work.

 

[mikenmbr1]

this word "unlucky" hurts this is why i bought this card - to unlock it and go crossfire.Now i think i will just sell it and go back to 560ti's...

 

[mikenmbr1]

oh i forgot to Thank you for your replies guys...much appreciated!!!

 

[reggaemaster]

Its exactly the same: (not sure if its supposed to be)

When I boot from usb and use atiflash to flash the stock bios to the modded.bin everything is the same:


(Every line is old, then next line is new, IE:
Old SSID: 2010
New SSID: 2010 - etc)



SSID: 2010
P/N: 113-SS2G02-002
DeviceID: 6719
Product Name: Cayman Pro PCIE 2g/256B Gddr5 2xdvi/hdmi/2xmdp 840e/1280m
Bios version: 013.010.000.007.039363

Flash type: M25P10/c
20000/20000h bytes programmed
20000/20000h bytes verified

Restart system to complete VBIOS Update

C:\>


------

Again, not sure if the SSID, P/N, DeviceID, and especially the Bios version number should have changed after the "modden.bin" file was flashed.

same thing happened to me, are equal the versions
it is reasonable that the modified file is different
Anyone know it can be?

 

[bystander]

The files will be identical except for like 2-4 values that determine the number of shaders that are usable. Everything will read the same as the old except for those values.

 

[reggaemaster]

The files will be identical except for like 2-4 values that determine the number of shaders that are usable. Everything will read the same as the old except for those values.

hello, could somebody give this bios http/www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/100666/HIS.HD6950.2048.110330.html
modified with shader unlocked, pls

 

[riseagainstall]

Hi

i found this videohttp/www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIV_gQEWqPs
and followed the post by "shinakuma3.
People, this card comes with the 6950 and 6970 bios.
If you change the switch position and then look in the gpu-z you will see the shaders unlocked. you don't have to flash anything, just change the switch and encrease the clocks manually.

For me, this is the best card EVER!!!!

i have flipped the switch and GPUZ did say that it was now with 6970 shaders. has anyone else tried this and confirrmed it works for them. and is this safe to do ?

cheers

 

[BradHP]

I just wanted to report a recent success with my new Twin Frozr II/OC 2GB. I'm not sure on the clock speed so far, I had a crash to desktop with Skyrim but I think that may have just been Skyrim not liking mods I installed. I need to test some more and with other games.

Only issue I'm having is that Afterburner doesn't always like to keep my clock settings and reverting to default. I have this saved as a profile and "apply at start" checked. I haven't messed with the voltage or power control in Overdrive. Would adjusting the max power limits help, or is that something to stay away from unless it's needed?

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[bystander]

With the twin frozr II's, you can use the special bios I posted in the 2nd post of this thread. With that, you do not need MSI Afterburner, because it unlocks the clocks maximum from within the bios, allowing you to overclock it to how ever high you wish within the CCC. That also allows you to use the power tun feature too.

 

[Zed03]

Wait what? Am I reading this right?

People are flashing the TF III PE edition bios onto the TF II OC? Thats insanity, they use different voltage controllers.

The TF III PE uses triple voltage controller, the TF II OC only uses single voltage.

 

[bystander]

Wait what? Am I reading this right?

People are flashing the TF III PE edition bios onto the TF II OC? Thats insanity, they use different voltage controllers.

The TF III PE uses triple voltage controller, the TF II OC only uses single voltage.

Interesting. Yes, people are using it without any reports of failure. Perhaps the BIOS is able to handle it either way.

 

[Zed03]

Interesting. Yes, people are using it without any reports of failure. Perhaps the BIOS is able to handle it either way.

This guy here claims he bricked his card:

Just an fyi. As stated the MSI bios for the twin frozr 3 pe will brick your tf2. Or it did brick mine. Bio these are not reference cards they use different voltage regulators for instance and lack a bios switch.

http/hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1622205

He comments on non reference card, all of these are non reference, so it sounds like he doesn't know what he's talking about.

I have a TF II OC I'm about to throw in. emperor0013, can you please confirm if your TF II was OC edition?

 

[emperor0013]

This guy here claims he bricked his card:

Just an fyi. As stated the MSI bios for the twin frozr 3 pe will brick your tf2. Or it did brick mine. Bio these are not reference cards they use different voltage regulators for instance and lack a bios switch.

http/hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1622205

I have a TF II OC I'm about to throw in. emperor0013, can you please confirm if your TF II was OC edition?

Yes. They both are. Both now read as Twin Frozr III PE.

 

[Zed03]

Ok - thanks for the quick replies. I'll report my results tonight.

emperor0013, another question.

So I clocked it to stock 6970 specs: 880/1375. I also bumped up the power 10%.

By power, do you mean you increased voltage by 10%? What is your voltage in millivolts after the increase (I'm assuming it now matches stock 6970)? Was this necessary to get stable clocks?