HD6950 to HD6970 softmod?

[Pierre3400]

Hey guys,

It recently came to my attention, that by changing the Bios on my HD6950, i could potentially change it into an HD6970. Ofcourse i wanted to try this.

Youtube videos confirmed it, and i have been trying to do this without luck.

Everything i do anything it stops on an error, somthing like Rom not erased.

Does anyone here know of an easy and simple way to this, one that actually works. If anything, i could like a decent guide to how to if anyone knows of a good one.

Thanks

 

[EarthDog]

You have to have a reference card. By the PCIe peg at the bottom of the card, does it say AMD? Do you have the dual bios switch on the card?

 

[Janus67]

It isn't possible with every card. Many newer 6950s are laser-locked and it isn't possible to modify the BIOS.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

Is the guide that I followed though when I had my 6950 and it worked just fine.

 

[mbentley]

moved to AMD (ATI) GPUs

 

[Pierre3400]

moved to AMD (ATI) GPUs

Im sorry, that was my fault.

It isn't possible with every card. Many newer 6950s are laser-locked and it isn't possible to modify the BIOS.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

Is the guide that I followed though when I had my 6950 and it worked just fine.

Thats the same guide i tried, i have Gigabyte, and yes it is "newer" so possibly not possible on mine (i dont know manufacture date ofcourse), but what are the tell tell signs of this not being possible?

 

[grumperfish]

Im sorry, that was my fault.

Thats the same guide i tried, i have Gigabyte, and yes it is "newer" so possibly not possible on mine (i dont know manufacture date ofcourse), but what are the tell tell signs of this not being possible?

If there's no dual-BIOS switch, if it's not a reference PCB, and/or if it doesn't enable the shaders after the BIOS mod, you likely can't unlock it.

 

[Pierre3400]

If there's no dual-BIOS switch, if it's not a reference PCB, and/or if it doesn't enable the shaders after the BIOS mod, you likely can't unlock it.

Its got 2 Bios (Bios switch)

What is reference PCB?

In GPU-Z it says 1408 unififed shaders.

Would picture of gpuz help?

 

[EarthDog]

You have to have a reference card. By the PCIe peg at the bottom of the card, does it say AMD?

 

[grumperfish]

Its got 2 Bios (Bios switch)

What is reference PCB?

In GPU-Z it says 1408 unififed shaders.

Would picture of gpuz help?

If the softmod applies correctly it would read 1536 shaders.

What commands are you using for the mod, and what BIOS are you using?


What is the card's exact model? A Newegg link would be nice.


Also:

You have to have a reference card. By the PCIe peg at the bottom of the card, does it say AMD?

Reference PCB vs. a revision:
http://www.swiftech.com/images/Product_pages/Komodo-HD-6900/HD-6970-PCB-REVISIONS.jpg

 

[hajalie24]

If after the flash the card still has 1408 shaders then there's nothing you can do. The shaders are laser cut.

 

[Janus67]

Have you tried using the command line script part? I couldn't get my 6950 to flash using the GUI I had to do it in dos/command prompt and it worked just fine.

 

[grumperfish]

Have you tried using the command line script part? I couldn't get my 6950 to flash using the GUI I had to do it in dos/command prompt and it worked just fine.

I used Winflash within Windows 7 for mine. I made sure the BIOS toggle switch was set to BIOS 1 (not the write-protected backup), renamed the new XFX 6950 BIOS I downloaded on TechPowerUp! to unlock.bin , then followed these instructions:

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 6970 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".

If you've picked the right modded BIOS, named it unlock.bin, and you have the card's toggle switch set properly, and then you run the above and it doesn't work.. you have a locked card.

 

[Pierre3400]

I used Winflash within Windows 7 for mine. I made sure the BIOS toggle switch was set to BIOS 1 (not the write-protected backup), renamed the new XFX 6950 BIOS I downloaded on TechPowerUp! to unlock.bin , then followed these instructions:




If you've picked the right modded BIOS, named it unlock.bin, and you have the card's toggle switch set properly, and then you run the above and it doesn't work.. you have a locked card.

So i finaly got around to trying out this method.

At first try it did not succed, but on second command itit didnt launch winflash, so i tried once more, and puff it worked

Now with 1536 shaders
http://peecee.dk/uploads/082011/HD6950-6970.jpg
*GPU clock speed has been fixed up

Thank you everyone for your help. Especially grumperfish

 

[hajalie24]

It's not recommended to flash to a 6970 bios, you could mess up the memory on the card. And is this a reference card?

 

[Pierre3400]

It's not recommended to flash to a 6970 bios, you could mess up the memory on the card. And is this a reference card?

What do you mean by and this is a reference card?

 

[Janus67]

A reference card has the AMD logo down by the PCI-E pins/part that goes into the slot on the motherboard.

Regarding messing up the memory, I haven't witnessed it, but I believe that the memory on a 6970 has slightly faster/better binned memory modules, so if the memory on the 6950 can't handle the speeds it could cause an issue. I didn't see it on my 6950 when I flashed it with a 6970 bios though. Later I just edited my own bios with Radeon Bios Editor only unlocking the shaders then flashed that bios.

 

[Pierre3400]

A reference card has the AMD logo down by the PCI-E pins/part that goes into the slot on the motherboard.

Regarding messing up the memory, I haven't witnessed it, but I believe that the memory on a 6970 has slightly faster/better binned memory modules, so if the memory on the 6950 can't handle the speeds it could cause an issue. I didn't see it on my 6950 when I flashed it with a 6970 bios though. Later I just edited my own bios with Radeon Bios Editor only unlocking the shaders then flashed that bios.

Ok, so i bothered to take it out and look closer, Its a geniuen AMD with the initial chips.

Looked alot like the HD 6970 posted above.
http://peecee.dk/uploads/082011/DSCN2526.JPG

 

[grumperfish]

What do you mean by and this is a reference card?

Did you flash a pre-modded 6950 BIOS from the techpowerup VGA BIOS database?

You want to use a pre-modded 6950 NOT a 6970 BIOS.
If you flashed a modded 6950 BIOS and the shaders are recognized, you're done (and good work ) but if you flashed a 6970 BIOS you should re-do the flash with the 6950 version preferably from your card's manufacturer. Techpowerup should have modded reference versions for basically every manufacturer in their VGA database.

 

[hajalie24]

Use this guide.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/316974-33-radeon-6950-shader-unlock-instructions

 

[SuperDave1685]

Glad to hear you got it sorted out man Feels good, doesn't it? I remember flashing my Radeon X850 back in the day.... that was a good card