Unlocking MSI r7950

[jmcrisostomo]

I have a MSI Twin Frozr III r7950 with a 7970 PCB. After doing some research, reports from China are saying that they are manufacturing 7950s with 7970 boards. Other sites show them flashing a 7970 bios into a 7950 and unlocking the disabled stream processors. I know my PCB is a 7970, not only because the configuration is the same, but instead of a 6+6 PCIE power connection, I have 8+6 PCIE power connection. So i tried flashing with atiflash (MS-DOS) a lighting 7970 BIOS to my Twin Frozr II (basically the same card but different BIOS), this is what I get:

Thu Aug 30 00:15:51 2012
Command Operation without options: -p 0 newbios.bin

Old SSID: 2771
New SSID: 2770
Old P/N: 113-C3861300-X01
New P/N: 113-C3860100-X00
Old DeviceID: 679A
New DeviceID: 6798
Old Product Name: 113-MSITV277MS.202 TAHITI B0 PROH C38613 GDDR5 3GB 500E/150M
New Product Name: 113-MSITV277MS.110 TAHITI B0 CR XT C38601 GDDR5 3GB 500E/150M
Old BIOS Version: 015.020.000.000.001083
New BIOS Version: 015.012.000.004.000346
Flash type: Unknown SPI

Write fail
0/20000h bytes programmed

ERROR : press '1' to continue

This command with is -f option. Help please.

 

[TheBigTroll]

it shouldnt work given amd lasered the 7950 die so that you cant do a unlock. unless amd didnt do it on your chip, you cant. you might even brick the card

 

[jmcrisostomo]

I disagree. The Chinese market reports that they indeed intake (http://vga.it168.com/a2012/0507/1345/000001345261.shtml), and one website even has a after screenshot with gpu-z that shows 2048 stream processors (http://videocardz.com/32782/amd-radeon-hd-7950-modified-to-7970). No worries on bricking the thing because it has a dual BIOS switch for easy recovery. Just need help getting around the error, then I will confirm this.

 

[TheBigTroll]

chinese markets....

well go ahead and try

 

[TheBigTroll]

well chinese people (like me) have our ways to pull off things. as i said, you can try at your own risk. AMD isnt foolish enough to let their customers unlock chips at their will

 

[jmcrisostomo]

I have been trying for a couple days now. The issue I have is not what I need but how. Like I said, i'm not worried about bricking it because it has dual bios, so if one fails, just switch over and recover. What I need help with is how to force flash my BIOS. The reason I quoted the Chinese market is because most of the products are made there then sold in America. I believe only reference cards by AMD themselves are made in America. Maybe AMD are, after all this was the case with the 6950. Many people were unlocking them to a 6970.

 

[TheBigTroll]

AMD doesnt produce any of their cards. even the OEM ones come from some other company.

all their chips are either from malaysia, israel, or taiwan.

 

[jmcrisostomo]

I though that was the case. Was just lazy to do the research. Still wanna give it a try. Help force flashing please.