oh true thing - have the same stats with overlocked gpu and mem it runs with 880/1375 atleast unigine heaven and 3dmark test ran without problems
Hmm, is your sapphire one of the first batches or last? This is intresting, cause AMD claims position 2, is locked. Yet I flashed in that position by accident thx to some magic strawberry cigarretes I was smoking and my Asus happens to be one the LAST batches of reference cards. I can confirm its NOT locked. Thank god for MS-DOS and ATIFLASH. Had it back in working order in less then 5 min. Almost had a heart attack though
I swear that was everything I did, I posted that specifically because I found this thread by checking on Google whether there have been any progress with the unlocking of these card, and once I saw that comment in the video I found it actually pretty silly that that was the only thing I needed to done so I tried it. I also just dumped the BIOS' from one of the cards. Dumped the unlocked shaders one (#2) first and I noticed in RBE, that once I acquired the BIOS from the card the "BIOS has been premodified by RBE" box was ticked. Now this either means that RBE was actually used, or that it recognises that this isn't the original BIOS. I'm also pretty sure the boxes of both the cards were factory sealed and I bought them from the biggest retailer in Romania. I don't think their clerks are modifying GPU BIOS' in their lunch breaks. Anyway I then dumped the BIOS with the shaders locked (#1) and then the box wasn't ticked. However once I saved it and then reloaded the BIOS from the file instead of the GPU, the box has been ticked in and I didn't modify anything (except the filename, but that should be irrelevant right?) Here are both of them for those of you who want to try it out (again #1-locked #2-unlocked) http://www.mediafire.com/?9az5dtnypmeypi6 I hope someone eventually pops up for whom the flip the switch trick works too, because truth be told, if it wouldn't work for me, I'd be calling BS by now.
Hi everybody, my shaders unlocked just by flicking the bios switch too!! so i would like to ask what bmate asked as well: Is it safe to leave it like this or since the shaders are unlocked I should try another bios. I have read at the techpowerup thread that the 6970 bios voltages are wrong for the 6950. Also someone said that these cards do not overclock well. what would be a safe overclock to get things going? my card is SKU: 11188-05-50G P/N: 299-1E186-520SA EDIT: I just noticed that the three of us that flipped the switch have lower fillrates EDIT 2: Fillrates increase with overclocking
I can confirm that flipping the switch unlocked edional shaders for me as well. Seems to me like sapphire put a custom bios in, but did't atvertise it. Thats a shame since in rocks not to have to flash my cards, especially because I am running xfire.
The plot thickens !!!!! Looks like there is versions kicking about with unlocked bios from the factory. Cards that will not unlock with any method and cards that unlock with the above guide. All I can say, that Ive had 2 cards that where standard bios on both switch positions. One card wouldnt unlock and the other card unlocked with the above guide.
I followed this guide and unlocked my 6950 dirt3 2 weeks ago without any problem. The only hurdle is when overclocked to 6970 specs (880/1375) the games artifact or crash sometimes. I'm thinking about using trixx to increase the voltage, I have never done it before so I'm a bit hesitant. Is it safe to do so? Has anybody tried increasing the voltage, if yes then how much should I increase over 1.1 to keep the overclock stable?
I'm using 880/1350 clocks with stock 6950 voltage if that helps. 1375 gave me endless problems. You can try 1.2v and see if it helps, or reduce clocks to 1350
Thanks, will try to reduce memory clock if voltage tweek doesnt work. I was just worried, increasing the volts might brick the card.
Hello, I'm going to buy a "Sapphire HD6950 2GB Dirt 3" model 11188-05-50G do you confirm that this model has dual bios?
Hi, Just wanted to add that my Sapphire 6950 Dirt 3 also unlocked by moving the BIOS switch. P/N: 299-1E186-520SA SKU: 11188-05-50G
Well mine unlocked the shaders simply by moving the switch! A 3 seconds process for 128 more shaders it's awesome. I used MSI Afterburner to OC the card to 6970 clocks and that's it, got a nice 6970 for the price of a 6950! BTW, I bought the Sapphire HD 6950 2gb (not the Dirt 3 edition but on Sapphire site it's registered as the Dirt 3 edition...even though I don't have the coupon, sad) model # 11188-05-20G.
Got the 20G version, not sure if this has anything to do with the revision but my box does not have a car on it like the box on the official page. Didn't unlock =( Tried with just flipping the switch at first, no difference. Neither with flashing.
Just bought one of this cards last week, and i was one of the lucky ones!!! I was reading from some time now about modifying the bios on these 6950 cards. When i finally made up my mind, flipped the switch booted to windows and before started the modify bios precedure, i have runned GPU-Z just for curiosity and for my surprise shaders where already unlocked!!!!! Sapphire RULES!!!! :banana::banana::banana: After that i got the TRIXX software from Sapphire upped the clocks to 880 - 1375 and upped the voltage by just 15mV to 1,115V and now the card is ROCK STABLE with everything i trow at him! And temps with GPU at 100% never get past 68ยบ (celsius). 3DMark11 extreme preset - 1820 3DMark11 perfomance preset - 5320
My bios version is "013.012.000.021.000000 and all posted images of successful unlocks have "013.012.000.008.000000". Could that have anything to do with it? Just guessing here since I really wanna unlock my card.
Would you mind sending me your bios? I'm probably wrong but It's worth a shot. EDIT: Never mind, tried with the 008 version and sadly no difference
Hi Guys I have made a misstake.. I flashed my Dirt edition and it wont boot. The thing is that i realized to late that the second bios was unlocked from the begining. So my question is... is there someone here that can upload there second bios? Or a modded one. Please... /Ande
