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Asus HD 6950 DirectCU II Unlockable?

Googlefu..

Some Google Search said:
"One significant difference not included on the 6950 DirectCU II is the BIOS switch which would typically allow switching between two BIOSes in the event of a bad flash. Of course, we know this also allowed the 6950 to be flashed to a 6970, and with the improved power design on the DirectCU II, this would have been a perfect card for flashing. However, that's no longer possible here, as the BIOS switch is now gone and component changes have also been made. While the marketing folks would probably call this a "positive tradeoff" for improved durability and temperatures, we're willing to bet the real reason is AMD wasn't too pleased with the widespread ability to simply flash a 6950 to a 6970, thus poaching their own lineup and sales, and put a stop to it with the new models we now see. Since we've seen this change on other manufacturers' non-reference 6950 cards, we know this is not unique to ASUS."
Click to expand...

No BIOS switch + Non reference design = No flash for you matey.
 
All of the flashable 6950's are now out of stock or pre-order at OcUK.

I wouldn't be surprised if they are revised unflashable cards when they come back into stock.
 
Found this review, say it can be unlocked?
http://www.geeks3d.com/20110202/tested-asus-radeon-hd-6950-directcu-ii-review-overclocking/

(Quote)
Like all other HD 6970 and HD 6950, this HD 6950 DC2 is equipped with a dual-bios: the first bios can be flashed (read/write mode) and the second bios is a security bios (read only) you can use in case of a bad bios flashing. Thanks to this nice feature, you can safety flash your HD 6950 bios and get the HD 6970 performances: Transform Your HD 6950 Into a HD 6970 at No Cost. (Quote)
 
Hmm so two different reviews and two different views on the unlockability.

I wonder if anyone has tried it. If it has a dual BIOS then there's no risk but if AMD have closed the vunerability on a hardware level then the presence of a switch will make no difference.
 
Tealc said:
Hmm so two different reviews and two different views on the unlockability.

I wonder if anyone has tried it. If it has a dual BIOS then there's no risk but if AMD have closed the vunerability on a hardware level then the presence of a switch will make no difference.
Click to expand...

Perhaps there are 2 different versions of the PCB?

The fact that most of the 6950's are now out of stock suggests AMD are up to something.
 
You don't need to flash a regular 6950 bios to it... In fact this wouldn't work!

You can just use RBE to edit the bios that comes with the card to unlock the shaders :)

The MSI TFIII would be better for this, however, as it actually has a dual bios switch :)
 
ManiacVirus said:
Found this review, say it can be unlocked?
http://www.geeks3d.com/20110202/tested-asus-radeon-hd-6950-directcu-ii-review-overclocking/

(Quote)
Like all other HD 6970 and HD 6950, this HD 6950 DC2 is equipped with a dual-bios: the first bios can be flashed (read/write mode) and the second bios is a security bios (read only) you can use in case of a bad bios flashing. Thanks to this nice feature, you can safety flash your HD 6950 bios and get the HD 6970 performances: Transform Your HD 6950 Into a HD 6970 at No Cost. (Quote)
Click to expand...

This is false. The switch on the DirectCU is not a BIOS switch. It doesn't sport dual BIOS. Instead it's to do with the I/O ports at the back. It's terrible that the review can claim that without actually reading the box or testing it for themselves. More details here on the switch's purpose:
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asus_hd6950_2gb_directcu_ii_review,5.html

Like Shayper says, RBE might be able to unlock the shaders but flashing a different BIOS is not advised due to the components such as the voltage controller being different to the reference card. The main risk is that you don't have a second BIOS to fall back onto in case something goes wrong.

Again though, I'm not sure the switch on the TFIII is for dual BIOS. It simply switches the fan profiles between "Silent" and "Performance". It could be that the profiles are linked to two separate BIOSs but there's nothing to indicate if that's true or not.
 
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They all can, but you need RBE and as Helios has said it is risky as if anything goes bad it could mean bricked card! :(
 
Ive got this card and have not been able to unlock it yet. Tried to unlock just the shaders in RBE but unable to get it working just yet.
 
I think as a stand alone card it is good, and Ive read that overclocking it gets better results than unlocking it anyway! Just need to know if it will fit in the tower I want.

Anyone got a Coolermaster cm690 II lite? if so I could do with max length of GPU card will fit.
 
Helios1234 said:
Again though, I'm not sure the switch on the TFIII is for dual BIOS. It simply switches the fan profiles between "Silent" and "Performance". It could be that the profiles are linked to two separate BIOSs but there's nothing to indicate if that's true or not.
Click to expand...

Hmm, TechpowerUp reckoned it was, and they flashed it to unlock shaders.

As Shayper said though, anyone wanting to unlock a non-reference 6950, use RadeonBiosEditor (RBE) to unlock the shaders by making a new (almost identical) BIOS, then flash it to the card. However, as most non-reference cards don't have a dual-BIOS switch, if it goes wrong, you'll need to boot using a different GPU, or blind flash the card (which could prove very difficult to change boot order without the screen...) from a USB stick.
 
Card will fit my coolermaster, Just! Yay gonna get this card.
It's a beast of a card flashed or not imo.
And who knows in time someone may figure out a safe way to flash which would be a bonus.
 
Helios1234 said:
I don't think they actually unlocked in the card through flashing in their review. They only mentioned that it was a BIOS switch and that the possibility was there.

Here's my post from the other thread:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=19031290&postcount=6
Click to expand...

They did:

TechpowerUp said:
For even more performance, or as another method to get more performance, you could try the HD 6950 to HD 6970 mod which worked on our card.
Click to expand...

They then talk about the other features.

This is in the conclusion, which isn't worded as nicely as I'd like, but it is there.
 
Marvin said:
They did:

They then talk about the other features.

This is in the conclusion, which isn't worded as nicely as I'd like, but it is there.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I totally missed that.

This quote from Wizzard also resolves what I was wondering regarding the fan profiles and dual BIOS:

there are 2 bioses, one bios has "performance" settings, the other has "silent" settings

the switch does not switch any fan settings directly, it switches between bioses which each have different settings
Click to expand...

That makes it a very promising card!
 
Though it does look like Rev 1 cards are rapidly drying up, so maybe with how late this card is there will be very few that can unlock.
 
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