Issues unlocking Sapphire 6950 shaders

[autonomous42]

Hi there

I am using a Sapphire 6950 2GB but even after trying the traditional methods of shader unlocking, it remains steadfast at 1408. I've come this close to sacrificing a lamb but that involves too much blood. There were some techniques on other sites those people were successful with but I've had no luck. Flashing a 6970 firmware also doesn't work; in fact it bricks the card.

Any tips/voodoo I may try?

[1714049529]

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[1714049529]

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[computerparts]

Is it a reference design?


 
Only the reference design have a chance of unlocking shaders but it's not guaranteed.

[autonomous42]

It's this one:
http://www.pureoverclock.com/wp-content/uploads/images/review/video_cards/sapphire_6950d/sapphire_6950d_4.jpg
I'm pretty sure those other guys had success with it... What makes a reference design more likely to unlock than a "non-reference"? Any other tips?

[fgkrew]

From my knowledge reference designs use the same pcb and schematics provided from amd for that 6950 chip. Its basically an amd/ati board with the brand sticker and sometimes a little different cooler.

Other brands use the same chip but a diferent pcb layout and components. So the shaders could be hardware locked instead of software locked like reference design.

But i am not an expert on this.

[autonomous42]

Thanks for the help. I don't suppose hardware unlocking is something that can be done, is it?

[batman, not crabman]

I've unlocked a Sapphire card that looks very similar to that.  I booted into a dos prompt using a usb boot disk (make sure you load your flashing program and modded bios onto it too), then flashed the bios using ATIFlash.  Don't flash it in Windows, I could never get it to work right.

[computerparts]

It's this one:

I'm pretty sure those other guys had success with it... What makes a reference design more likely to unlock than a "non-reference"? Any other tips?

Reference design were software locked. Non reference had the shaders laser cut so there's nothing you can do about that. If it doesn't say AMD on the board above the pcie connection, then it's non reference.

[Hektek]

Have you checked if it has the second Bios switch ?
The second Bios has per default the shaders unlocked.

best regards

[autonomous42]

Yes, It does. The left side is unwritable and the right side's firmware suggests (via RBE) that it already has the 6970 shaders unlocked but GPU-z does not corroborate this.