6950 Non-reference card OC, Flashing and tweaking thread

[itsagas]

I know there is another thread for 6950 settings (that one is for reference models) but thought maybe some others are having trouble with flashing, OC'ing and tweaking the 6950 non reference and 1GB models. 

Some of these cards seem to be locked, some not. 

I have the Powercolor 6950 1GB model.  It has decent stock ranges for OC'ing GPU (800-950) but limited for downclocking memory (1250-1350). 

This card has the BIOS switch and I seem to be able to flash something with RBE / winflash / GPU-Z in windows.  So when something gets screwed up, just flip the switch to position 2 and you can boot and then flash the original bios back to position 1. 

I have spent days trying to do the following:

- downclock the memory
- unlock the shaders

Ideally, would like to play with the voltages as well but that will be a bonus. 

My miners are all Linux but I have a windows XP machine set up just to tweak these cards. 

Any other non reference 6950's out there that has solved this problem?

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[Basiley]

no bios editiors, able [correctly]edit Ati/amd 6xx0 GPU's firmware, was created, yet :/
try raise bounty for fixing/writing update versions of RBE, for example.

[Fuzzy]

I unlocked my REF XFX 6950 with RBE. It HAS a bios switch. (as I bought the card second hand)
My new XFX it NON-REF and does NOT have a switch, but I can see on the PCB where the switch would go. When I try to write the edited bios, it says "BIOS Locked".

I am going to map the switch connections on my REF card, and see if I can fool the NON-REF card with some staples and a solder gun.

I have 2 more XFX, 3 Sapphire and 3 Power Color 6950s on the way, betting they're all non-ref, so the 5-10% increase with unlocked shaders will be like having a whole extra card for free 

[Dusty]

Hello, does someone knows how to use RBE to raise the 840Mhz limit for overclocking on a 6950?

[minerX]

Current RBE _cannot_ raise or lower memory clocks for 6xxx cards.  The ONLY thing you can do is adjuster voltage registers.

Raise voltage and then track down the register tweak that unlocks CCC.

[lolmiepp]

I recently flashed my 6950, and then overclocked it
i'm now at 950mhz, and don;t plan on getting even higher, because i think it may not be wise to stress the card even further.
for all you guys thinking about flashing: i say just do it.
But NOT if you don;t have a bios switch, because it often goes wrong.

[padrino]

I unlocked my REF XFX 6950 with RBE. It HAS a bios switch. (as I bought the card second hand)
My new XFX it NON-REF and does NOT have a switch, but I can see on the PCB where the switch would go. When I try to write the edited bios, it says "BIOS Locked".

I am going to map the switch connections on my REF card, and see if I can fool the NON-REF card with some staples and a solder gun.

I have 2 more XFX, 3 Sapphire and 3 Power Color 6950s on the way, betting they're all non-ref, so the 5-10% increase with unlocked shaders will be like having a whole extra card for free 

Really looking forward to this, I have a thread over at techpowerup where I was discussing the flash and my initial attempts at bridging the switch. I don't have a reference card in hand so I went with some pictures online and thought I would bridge the normally closed position 1 for the switch thinking they essentially left it in "recovery" mode.  I didn't have any luck but then I didn't have a reference card (for reference ).

[itsagas]

I recently flashed my 6950, and then overclocked it
i'm now at 950mhz, and don;t plan on getting even higher, because i think it may not be wise to stress the card even further.
for all you guys thinking about flashing: i say just do it.
But NOT if you don;t have a bios switch, because it often goes wrong.

Could you let us know the model you have and exactly how you did the flash. 

[lolmiepp]

I have he Asus EAH6950 (reference cooler)
I went to the techpowerup, and followed their guide (http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159)
but that didn't work, it gave me an error that the bios was not similar to something i forgot
So i looked around more, and found this: (http://www.overclock.net/amd-ati/942034-how-flash-6950-6970-guide.html) -the doing it via command part
And that worked.


btw, it doesn't matter which bios you choose. i chose the Asus bios, because my card is Asus, and if i ever wanted to sell it again, it's better not to scare the buyer with a Sapphire Bios

let me know when you get any problems

[faille]

I've got 3 of the powercolor 1gb 6950s and have had no luck in unlocking the shaders. I've tried varios methods, which look like they work, but they remain locked. Even when I load up the flashed bios in RBE, it says that the shaders are unlocked, but they aren't 8(

Would love to find out what works on these cards.

ps, no doubt this should be in the hardware forum!

[lolmiepp]

it's a 1 gb version....
flashing is to my knowledge only possible on the 2gb versions of the HD 6950.

[haydent]

limited for downclocking memory (1250-1350). 

have you tried MSI afterburner, it enabled me to go below that limit on my 1GB Gigabyte Non-Reference once i had modified the config file and mentioned in the 6950 optimisation thread.

ive never tried flashing/unlocking it, but heard from someone with several that some work some dont, so im not worrying about it. the voltage is also locked, so you can get stable over about 895mhz.

i can understand them locking the voltage, as it would be the #1 killer of devices when overclocking.

[saadtariq30]

I have 2 6950s..both reference...one his and one asus...i went on techpowerup and searched their bios collection..they have unlocked bios of both cards..

ALWAYS use an unlocked 6950 bios rather than flashing it with a 6970 bios...the later will cause your card to run hotter, break the voltage control, and has know to cause damage due to the memory using different timings..

as for increasing the overclocking limits, i dont use the unofficial method in msi afterburner as then i cant clock down the cards at idle and i lose the power control 20+ option in CCC..

to get around the 840mhz limit, i used racerx's registry CCC hack and set my own upper and lower limits, that way i didnt have to enable 'unofficial overclocking'..google it

[asher2]

I got a pair of Sapphire 1GB 6950s yesterday.

I can unlock them, and I have overclocked the cores and underclocked the memory. I am running stock voltages because although I can get higher performance with more voltage, it uses significantly more power and runs hotter, so I'd rather sacrifice the 20-30Mhash/s.

I spoke to someone else with the exact same model of card and he can't unlock his shaders. The serial numbers of our cards reveal that mine are older than his, so it seems Sapphire has 'fixed' the issue.

Stock is 800Mhz - 1250Mhz - 1100mV

I am running mine at...
925Mhz - 310Mhz - 1100mV = 390Mhash/s
950Mhz - 317Mhz - 1100mV = 404Mhash/s

Also, these cards do not have a BIOS switch.

[itsagas]

I have 2 6950s..both reference...one his and one asus...i went on techpowerup and searched their bios collection..they have unlocked bios of both cards..

ALWAYS use an unlocked 6950 bios rather than flashing it with a 6970 bios...the later will cause your card to run hotter, break the voltage control, and has know to cause damage due to the memory using different timings..

as for increasing the overclocking limits, i dont use the unofficial method in msi afterburner as then i cant clock down the cards at idle and i lose the power control 20+ option in CCC..

to get around the 840mhz limit, i used racerx's registry CCC hack and set my own upper and lower limits, that way i didnt have to enable 'unofficial overclocking'..google it

Thanks but we are trying to work with NON REFERENCE cards in this thread! 

[saadtariq30]

the racerx ccc hack should work for non reference cards as well

[skerit]

So I'm guessing this card http://www.techpowerup.com/140134/Club3D-Intros-its-Radeon-HD-6950-1-GB-Graphics-Card.html is a non-reference one? Bummer.

[haydent]

ive the GA 6950 OC

i used to get 330 with it just OC'd @ 895mhz

but i just got it unlocked simply though this may not work in all cases.

getting 360Mhs now.

backup bios with gpuz

mod with rbe to unlock shaders

reflash off boot disk (not windows important) with atiflash