Radeon HD 6950 shader unlock instructions

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/article [...] idcard/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/ [...] 36&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/downloa [...] .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.

For those with an MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition, I was shown that the MSI came up with a special BIOS that not only unlocks the shaders, but unlocks their max clocks in CCC.

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pag [...] ing,1.html

I decided to test to see if it would work with a their Twin Frozr II version, and it did, but it is not MSI recommended to do so, so do it at your own risk.

That method is a riskier method, much like the original. You are flashing a 6970 bios on top of a 6950 card. The instructions I posted above does not flash a 6970 bios onto a 6950 card. It alters your existing BIOS by changing 2 bytes worth that determine how many shaders you have. Most people are aware and can find those instructions. However, those don't work on non reference cards (the above instructions do however) and the entail more risk, since you are changing timings, clocks and fan profiles.

which method did you use?

I used the mod bios method to unlock the shaders on my Twin Frozr II. Then I just OC'ed it using MSI afterburner using the unnoficial overclock mode.

I got a Rom Programming Failure trying to use the newest version of atiwinflash for the process on my Twin Frozr ii. Using the version in the OP link worked though.

Just a FYI for those going to try it.

It's not necessary to email. There is a database of the bios on TechPowerUp.

Here is the database: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/

This is the MSI Twin Frozr II OC: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios [...] 10126.html

It should work with any 6950. It just alters the existing bios.

this does not work on the sapphire hd6950 2GB with no bios switch. i have the same card with the bios switch and it is no problem flashing it. the new version is apparently hardware locked. a shame!

the process under command.com just stops with no info whatsoever, or i get the unable to erase rom error under atiwinflash. i have tried both methods, the one with hd6970 bios and the modded bios. i had first the card in the 2nd slot, but putting it in the first did not help either.

i have no idea what y'all mean with "op link". tried downloading atiwinflash 1.08, nut it does not run: missing critical file! a link would be much appreciated. may i say "much obliged" before i leave the building?

same results as with the latest version. looks like sapphire is gonna win

If the chips are being laser cut now, as it was suspected, then it's quite possible none will be able to be unlocked. If it's because my directions aren't well written enough or these that have failed are a result of bad luck (there is always a chance the shaders don't function), it could be all are able to be unlocked.

I'm starting to wonder about the laser cut shaders now.

I heard they were "planning", but people kept being able to. However, it does sound like the well is drying up.

Part of the reason I'm not as sure as you are, is some of those who are having troubles are having troubles with the flashing step. It shouldn't matter if the shaders are lasered off or not, flashing should still be possible.

I'm not meaning to take shots and the fact that I can't physically work with your cards leaves me to only be able to speculate, but the truth is, all cards of any vendor or model should be able to be flashed.

Yes. The directions on the first post work with either.

Back to me previous posts thought. Is it possible that rather than lasering the shaders, they are putting in read only bios, like the backup bios with the cards that have a switch?

Ya, I'm wondering if they are putting in read only bios on these cards. It can obviously be done, the reference card has a read only bios which gives an error if you try to flash on it, and one that is writable.

sounds very plausible, but if it is a software solution, then it should be possible to bypass it... but not with the methods shown until now?

those are the last figures with exactly 825Mhz core and 1300Mhz hemory:
40.6
1023
24.1
91.8
i did not try going beyond that because i know that at those settings the card runs stable and secure. and the power wast set @ +20% just to play safe. less would probably work also.

I am confused. You say the Bios is not flashable yet you also say you can unlock the shaders. Which is it?

could somebody give us a few figures of his/her card before and after flashing? because i am really confused now. i cannot see any noticeable difference between flashed or not.

well, the trouble is that it does not seem worth all the trouble: a 5% difference would be hardly noticeable during gameplay. sure if it means the difference between more or less than 30fps, it might just be noticed, but otherwise it is only theoretically interesting.

+3% here:

OK so I have 2 twin frozr ii and I was able to unlock shader on both of the cards.
So I am guessing this will work with all twin frozr ii cards unless I just got lucky with both cards which is highly unlikely.
That means if you are having trouble doing this method of unlock it's human error and not just the twin frozr ii cards.

The HIS card is suppose to be unlock and the twin frozr ii is not suppose to be unlock makes no sens.