Unlock your ATI 6950 to a 6970 Thread

PESolution · 10 Sep 2011 at 21:20

Ive just read that you cant unlock an Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II to a 6970, which is the card I have - Can anybody confirm this?

Also i desperately need my original bios back as i cant get second monitor working

thanks

Nymins · 10 Sep 2011 at 21:24

In theory you shouldn't be able to as its not reference or a TOXIC card, but its strange that you were able to see the extra shaders available, so it could be an old batch.

I'm not sure how you get your old bios back. You should be able to find someone who backed theirs up before they tried to flash, but if you can't, then I'm not sure how.

PESolution · 10 Sep 2011 at 22:41

Nymins - thanks so much for your help - I appear to have it sorted - as I wasnt a reference card i had to use the "DRE" program that was links and modify my existing BIOS.

Im now running with shaders unlocked -+20% on CCC overdrive, and the same clocks as per this thread OP, i.e. 880 1350.

Seems to be stable after a benchmark through 3dMark11

Here's hoping it stays that way

Now to clock my 2500k i5

skalragg · 13 Sep 2011 at 13:03

Does anyone know if the flash upgrade will work on the sapphire 6950 2GB TOXIC, planning on crossfiring them

thanks

Nymins · 13 Sep 2011 at 13:08

Shouldn't need to flash the TOXIC's, just flick the bios switch and it should unlock as they come pre-flashed, but its not guaranteed to work.

fowler002 · 13 Sep 2011 at 14:04

skalragg said:
Does anyone know if the flash upgrade will work on the sapphire 6950 2GB TOXIC, planning on crossfiring them

thanks

it comes with 2 bioses which you change between by flicking a switch(the switch is by the xfire connectors you have to look closely or easy to miss, make sure the pc is off when flicking the switch), 1 is the standard 6950 bios and the other(as nymins said) is a pre-modified bios which may unlock the shaders.

I've got 2, 1 of which I've tested thus far and its unlocked. I can't setup xfire yet as I currently have my cpu watercooled(custom not h60 etc) and the radiator is blocking the 2nd pci-e slot, going to to be upgrading from a q6600 to i2500k(need to decide on ram before I can build it) so will put both 6950s in then and change over from custom watercooling to ocuk h20flo(basically the h60) for the time being(may change to custom watercooling for cpu and gpus in the future and transfer to a bigger case).

been thinking about swapping over the one thats currently installed with the one I haven't tested, so will be able test both cards until I come to upgrade my system and have thm running xfire but been lazy

skalragg · 13 Sep 2011 at 14:08

Nymins said:
Shouldn't need to flash the TOXIC's, just flick the bios switch and it should unlock as they come pre-flashed, but its not guaranteed to work.

If it doesnt come preflashed like you suggest is it possible to manually flash it, or do I simply have to settle for standard 6950's. thanks

Nymins · 13 Sep 2011 at 14:51

Its possible to manually flash it, but it will come pre-flashed.

If it doesn't work by flicking the switch, then the shaders will not unlock no matter what you do, be it manual or pre-flash.

skalragg · 13 Sep 2011 at 14:53

cool thanks

Crezzlin · 14 Sep 2011 at 07:16

Has anyone had the MSI and ASUS ref cards from release month with the 6970 bios without any problems?? I have those cards with the 6970 bios but only tested that they worked under 6970 bios for a day then flicked the switch back to ref bios. I would like to run them as 6970’s now with a real 6970 card under trifire but don’t want any problems to creep up. Thanks guys.

Lum · 14 Sep 2011 at 18:50

Been running an Asus 6950, the one that's a reference design only with a pathetic 5MHz overclock from standard. Flashed it to a 6970 not long after I got it and other than the problems doing the initial flash which are already documented in this thread (I somehow managed to flash the unflashable backup BIOS, and with the wrong 6970 BIOS at that) it's been fine since then. Flash was performed in April.

Crezzlin · 15 Sep 2011 at 22:11

Thanks for the replys, think i spoke to soon i was running them as 6970's no problem for 2 days now until monitor 1 and 3 started to flicker lines like mad on the desktop, i have not long done a windows update as it was a fresh copy of windows last wk but apart from that it was fine playing games :s so have removed the 11.8 drivers and set back to 6950's for the min.. bummer

Slackjaw190 · 20 Sep 2011 at 20:04

Has anyone had any success with Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB. It has a dual bios, does that mean it can be flashed?

Bradmax57 · 20 Sep 2011 at 20:57

Slackjaw190 said:
Has anyone had any success with Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB. It has a dual bios, does that mean it can be flashed?

unless its v.old stock i doubt it.....

Slackjaw190 · 20 Sep 2011 at 21:12

Bradmax57 said:
unless its v.old stock i doubt it.....

ok thanks.

Ive been going through this post for the past 15mins and im still not too sure, but if theres a dual bios switch there no harm in trying?

Bradmax57 · 20 Sep 2011 at 21:18

im not 100% sure but worst case is you can only break one bios

how long have you had the card?

Slackjaw190 · 20 Sep 2011 at 21:25

Bradmax57 said:
im not 100% sure but worst case is you can only break one bios how long have you had the card?

It’s on order. Tbh it didn’t even cross my mind that some cards still unlock until I saw this thread. I was under the impression they stopped it months ago.

Bradmax57 · 20 Sep 2011 at 21:28

Slackjaw190 said:
It’s on order. Tbh it didn’t even cross my mind that some cards still unlock until I saw this thread. I was under the impression they stopped it months ago.

you never know you might be lucky.......

Slackjaw190 · 20 Sep 2011 at 21:35

Bradmax57 said:
you never know you might be lucky.......

true I will give it ago at the weekend

DiscoDave · 22 Sep 2011 at 08:52

Tempted to sell my 4870x2 and get one of these for a slight performance/heat/power improvement, would it be worth it? Or wait for the 7 series..