Hello, I have 2 Sapphire HD6950 2GB GDDR5 cards which I tried to unlock them to 6970. I flashed them via winflash, got some ID error, and then flashed them in cmd mode and all went just fine. BUT, it shows 1536 unified shaders in GPUZ and the clock speeds on 250mhz. also the windows goes slowly (I use win8 pro 64bit). and the most noticeable strange activity, is when I restart the pc, and there is no screen, even the windows logo isn't show up, and after a half a minute or so the windows showing up with slow movement. When I get the switches back to stock position (2) all runs great (stock mode)... what went wrong?? should I flash them again? note: I flashed them one by one, removed each card physically.
You should use the W1zzard bios patcher (is shown to be more effective and safer than RBE, check the HD6950 unlock thread) and unlock the shaders that way on the stock bios. If you unlock to HD6970 you are also overclocking the GPU and RAM, and it may not like it due to voltage and timing differences.
what do you mean to unlock the shaders on stock bios? do you mean to do it on switch number 2? I don't want to ruin this bios at all, can't I do it with switch number 1? I did all as the instruction say, but didn't touch the rbe... if you could explain more it would help me more to understand...
Because the 6950's unlocked are not detected by the motherboard, have the same problem, i just O/C my 6950's.
overclocking these cards isn't the same like unlocking them...the gain of performance will be far more noticeable than oc'ing them... it is reasonable that the mobo isn't detecting them. what should I do to unlock them correctly? thanks.
here are some pictures with this odd unlocking as you can see the shaders are 1536 like it should be, but note the clocks. after i enter to RBE, it couldn't to recognize the card at all! maybe this is the problem of the black screen I get when I reboot the pc and I can't see nothing but after a minute the windows starts up, and act slowly. when I go to stock mode (switch number 2) all goes good as before. please HELP!
You cannot flash a 6970 BIOS onto a 6950 - it will not work. Unlock with the latest version of RBE using a modded 6950 BIOS. Also, shader count makes almost no difference to performance. Just overclock card with Afterburner.
Shader unlock does work on the HD6950, it was the nature of the GPU. The HD6950 and HD6970 were basically identical except the HD6950 were binned differently, which is also why the HD6970 bios can work (although the memory type can be problematic). Also the HD6950 may not overclock as well. As I said, DO NOT use RBE to unlock the shaders, you must use the W1zzard script on the stock unmodified bios of your specific card. Using RBE could actually corrupt the bios! Here is my original post about it: http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=3967087&postcount=944
Where did I say shaders could not be unlocked?? And btw, shader unlocking only works on early releases of the 6950. Completely untrue.
you seem to know what you are talking about, how can I fix what I did? for now I am happy that I didn't do irreversible mistake, for now switch 1 has these problems I told you, switch 2 is on stock BIOS. I tried to open the file you linked, but it wont open, windows prevents it with some protection error...
Sorry, that is wrong! RBE only works on early releases that were all reference designs and used the reference bios. For newer releases you have to use the W1zzard script. This has been confirmed by others not only in that HD6950 unlock thread but on other websites as well. For me, RBE just corrupted my Asus HD6950 DCII 2GB bios, which is NOT an early or reference card. The screenshot I took in the post is from using the W1zzard script. There were quite a few different people with different non-reference HD6950 cards that encountered the same error, RBE not working whereas the W1zzard script does. I believe the use of RBE to mod these bioses led to a lot of misinformation that non-reference HD6950's couldn't be modded.
What protection error does it come up with? It might be due to the php editor inside. To fix the error you have, download the exact bios for your card from techpowerup vga database (or save the bios from the backup position you are using now from the command line), use the w1zzard script on that, and reflash. Make sure you reflash the original position (the bios that you corrupted)!
So how did I flash my late release 6950 with RBE? Did I imagine it? Please stop scaring people by posting false info.
? Your late release HD6950 probably used a reference bios. My statements about the W1zzard script was purely relating to non-reference bioses of many later model HD6950 cards (non-reference cards) like my HD6950 DCII was. My comment about not being able to flash late model HD6950 reference cards was directly in response to your comment that you cannot flash late model HD6950 cards! All I know is, for me, and MANY others with MANY different cards, the RBE method simply did not work, whereas the W1zzard method does. Even RBE itself says the unlock may only work with reference bioses. What this also means is you simply cannot download the reference bios and unlock it for non-reference boards, you first have to save the bios from you card, patch it, then flash it. This is an important bit of info that a lot of people miss! Also, you can flash a HD6950 to HD6970 (not really recommended though), as long as you flash a reference HD6950 to a reference HD6970, or (for instance), an Asus HD6950 DCII 2GB to an Asus HD6970 DCII 2GB. You can't flash a 1GB card to 2GB, you can't flash a non-reference card bios to another non-reference card bios, and if you do flash a non-reference HD6950 to a non-reference HD6970, it really only works if the memory is similar, in that the voltage or timings aren't out (or the memory clock too high). You have to force flash a HD6950 to HD6970 if you want to do that, meaning using ATIFlash from dos.
guys you confused me I need one answer to fix this mess. I think that mine are reference cards, here is the link to the official site, and you decide if it is a reference card: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=0001&pid=1021&lid=1 this is what I think to to, please tell me if it is ok: I want to reflash these cards with their original BIOS, just to check if it fixes this bad unlocking, I will do it with winflash and CMD mode to complete the reflash, is it ok? this is the error that I get trying to open the w1zzard: If I understand thatguy91 correctly, I cant flash my card with a 6970 BIOS, but I can flash it with 6950 modded BIOS, is that right? I ran into some thing that called 6950 %20 modded BIOS, what is it? where can I download a modded bios for my card please? btw thank you both for you help and advises, hope you will help me to unlock these bastards
Dude, you are seriously confused. Is that clear enough for you? Written by the Wiz himself. @OP - you need the latest version of RBE which is 1.28, not 1.27.
So why does it say Radeon Bios Editor version 1.27 in your screenshot? Which steps did you follow exactly? 1-9 is for reference cards only. Edit: you're honestly better off overclocking with Afterburner rather than trying to unlock it. As I said before the unlocked shaders will barely affect performance. Less than 5% if I remember right.
isn't my card a reference card? with the pic I tried to do something else... totally confused if you ask me...
Unlikely your card is reference since nearly all Sapphire 7950's are custom PCB. What is the exact model?
