Flashed 6950 unstable

I've been having a few issues with my reference 6950 flashed with a 6970 BIOS. I just can't get it 100% stable with even a very mild overclock (900MHz). Increasing the voltage doesn't help. It's stable for hours on end with some apps such as Furmark or 3DMark or the Crysis benchmark, but then some games like Black Ops make it crash within 20 minutes.

This problem doesn't happen when it's at stock clocks. Can anyone here point me in the direction of a 6950 shader unlock BIOS?

what bios did you use i found the saffire bios from techpowerup worked flawlessly with my xfx(his) card

I can't remember which BIOS I've got, some form of 6970 BIOS.

Don't flash to a 6970 bios. It messes with voltages you don't want messed with. Use the script that unlocks the shaders but keeps you at 6950 clocks, then overclock from there. Or just use the newest version of RBE and modify your stock bios.

+1 vixro

I have used RBE to modify the BIOS but I can't figure out how to flash it. I tried using Winflash but I get the message "SubsytemIDs mismatch" and ATI Flash doesn't work on my computer because I keep getting a message saying it's not compatible with my OS (Windows 7 Pro x64). I have tried a newer version of ATI Flash but I still get the same message.

There are 2 things I want to achieve with a different BIOS:

1. Unlock the shaders to 6970 specs.

2. Increase overclocking limits.

common problem you have to unlock it using "command line" ill find the solution and post it soon

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html

all you have to do is run the flash to 6970 app will open a cmd box and do the whole thing for you make sure bios switch is in position 1

th3b3ar said:

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1920/HD_6950_to_HD_6970_Flashing_Tools.html

all you have to do is run the flash to 6970 app will open a cmd box and do the whole thing for you make sure bios switch is in position 1

Click to expand...

I've had a look at that, but all it does it flash it to a 6970, not flash it to a modified shader unlocked 6950 BIOS.

Check out these two threads.
This is the original topic that showed up on OCF:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=664251

This is a second one about unlocking the OC:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=668485

The BIOS you want to use can be found here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/wizzard/Mod_BIOS_HD_6950.zip
Just follow the instructions. Its a 6950 BIOS that unlocks the shaders without changing anything else.

If you're stuck on that error, here's the original techpowerup article:
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/159

And the relevant bit:

If you get an error like ID mismatch or Could not erase ROM, then you'll have to do some extra work in a Windows command prompt (or DOS): Run atiwinflash -unlockrom 0 followed by atiwinflash -f -p 0 bios.bin where bios.bin is the path and filename of the HD 6970 BIOS you downloaded.

Click to expand...

SMOKEU said:

I've had a look at that, but all it does it flash it to a 6970, not flash it to a modified shader unlocked 6950 BIOS.

Click to expand...

I was lazy when I flashed my 6950. I simply downloaded a pre-modded XFX BIOS from techpowerup and slapped it on with atiwinflash. Probably could have unlocked the original BIOS with RBE (as I already had a copy), but ... effort. So either pull a BIOS file from Techpowerup's GPU BIOS catalog, or use RBE to mod the #1 position BIOS on your card (which you can pull off with GPU-Z) for shaders-unlock only.. It's basically just a toggle-switch in RBE. Then you'd flash the modified 6950 BIOS (with the BIOS selector switch in position 2) with atiwinflash:

' For the people who need to unlockrom and fail at command line:

- Unpack the Winflash download onto your desktop in a folder called "winflash"
- Save the 6950 BIOS in your Winflash folder and name it unlock.bin
- Click Start Button
- Type "cmd"
- Right click the entry and select "Run as Administrator"
- Black command prompt windows opens
- Type "cd %USERPROFILE%\desktop\winflash"
- Type "atiwinflash -unlockrom 0" <-- the 0 means first adapter, if you have multiple cards, physically uninstall all but the one you want to flash
- Type "atiwinflash -f -p 0 unlock.bin"
- It should complete the flashing process with a message saying something with "verified". '


Edit: Instructions read "6970 BIOS". Changed to 6950 (not that it matters much as the steps are the same).

ATI Flash doesn't work on my computer because I keep getting a message saying it's not compatible with my OS (Windows 7 Pro x64). I have tried a newer version of ATI Flash but I still get the same message.

Click to expand...

You have to boot from a usb stick