Unlock and OC that 6950 TF3/ Twin Frozr III- the definitive guide!

PASSWORD TO ALL ATTACHED FILES : 6950

Well well , tons of those amazing MSI AMD HD6950 TF3 here , I see.. and honestly , they clock very well , are sortofsilent, look amazing, and come with better vram( more on this later)..

This thread is open to additions/ modifications in the OP , let me know if there's anythign worth adding.

CONTENTS :
1. Unlocking the shaders to 1536 from 1408 (a 9.1% increase)
2. Overclocking
3. General **
And this includes, but not limited to :
Backing up that BIOS.
Locked cards, not flashing.
CFX flashing guide.
Voltage adjustment FAIL >.<
Flashing a 6970 Twin frozr 3 BIOS to a 6950 TF3 card.
Credits

************************************
UNLOCKING
There was a point where MSI released documentation on their 6950 TF3's unlocking and these cards are one of the few recent batches that actually do unlock. Getting a 1GB version of late has not proven to be exploitable the way the reference 6950s were ..
In fact, its the only non reference card with a more robust power supply and unlockability !
A TF3 can be unlocked to run extra shaders as was intended for the original 69xx die .. this is possible, and the document enclosed was from MSI before it was taken down.
ORIGINAL DOCUMENT FROM MSI ( pulled down now of course)

1.Make a bootable pendrive(link)
Use whatever works for you -- I recommend making the pen drive bootable by running NTFSfloppysetup and then tinkering with any filesystem files as per your preferences/ needs Just insert a ~ 2GB pen drive and you know that it WILL work. Some PD's hate booting into dos . Well.

2. Extract the Modded BIOS flash files to the pen drive(link)
Copy them to root..

3. Reboot and FLASH!
The TF3 has two different BIOS's , one with an aggressive fan profile, and one with a passive fan profile. These can be accessed from the fan speed toggle switch.
So a bad flash should not be a problem , but its your card and if you're weary , I assume you know better.

Reboot and boot from the PD . type :
Atiflash –p –f 0 R6950PEX.bin
Try it again if it doesn't work the first time
Its done !
Stock TF3 6950 BIOS attached, please keep it as a backup /create one from GPU-z
Original BIOS(link).

************************************
Overclocking

The TFs has, as is rumored, 1600MHz VRAM. ..
The flashing should be safe, un-eventful ,and also raise your clock limits !!



Run AFTERBURNER -- download the latest version from HERE.
Edit the config from the program files directory..
to look like this :

[ATIADLHAL]
UnofficialOverclockingEULA= I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode= 1

Raise the VMEM and VAUX volts to anything you'd like, it's all safe.. and push that VRAM and core to its limits !! It did take + 20mV to reach that 1625 and AF doesn't go above that .. so .. I'll leave the more extreme stuff to you.


************************************

POINTS TO PONDER-->
Those extra shaders were locked at some point , intentionally. On YOUR sample , we haven't a clue why - were they bad , or did AMD just do that to fill the market demand / was it a marketing move ... there's tons of speculation. This is not the argument we'd like to get started now.
Instability may arise, at which point, either increase the volts, or time to flash back to stock..
Thus , backing up the stock BIOS IS CRUCIAL!

While this flash will goof up the CRC on the BIOS, so an experienced techie may pick this up as a void to your warranty in the case of a later failure, why take the risk , flash the card back to stock! For that either use your OWN backup or the Original BIOS(link).

Hope this helped. This is all the relevant info. required for this card, when it come to unlocking and flashing. I just put it in one place.

NOTE : DO NOT USE ATIwinFLASH TOOL !!! Chances are things will fail !! And though it may seem that you're just flashing 64 kb instead of the 128kb that the BIOS should be , its perfectly OK !!

AT YOUR OWN RISK!!
Edited by 0razor1 - 7/23/11 at 4:48am

Locked card, not flashing?
"atiflash -unlock 0"
Simple

For CFX users..
While flashing from DOS mode, use the following syntax: ( note that all that's changed is the slot 0 to slot 1 pcie)

Atiflash –p –f 0 R6950PEX.bin
for the 1st card becomes,
Atiflash –p –f 1 R6950PEX.bin
for the second card!
Please sync. the cards clocks under AF so as to not aggravate the micro---stuttering issues.

Is your Voltage adjustment NOT working ??
Well, the CHIL controller used on these cards ( coming from a 6850 that had one too , is programmable so yes, these cards OBV can voltage tweak .. the problem is the software side.. . Editing this particular BIOS isn't particularly advised..
Anyhow , the problem is probably your drivers and AF not working in tandem -- how oft doesn't that happen
Well.. Do the following then ..
1. Driversweeper -- clean up everything.
2. Install the latest drivers from http://downloads.guru3d.com/
3. Install AF from the same link above^^
4. Flash to the new BIOS , if you haven't done so already ? This problem seems to stick with both stock and flashed BIOS's when it does..
5. Unlock AF as I've already mentioned in the 1st post.
6. FORCE CONSTANT VOLTAGE under AF's options.. and restart it .
7. All should be done !! HF
NEW STUFF ( a 6970 TF3 BIOS):
If all else fails , here's an idea .. MSI have released a 6970 with the same PCB layout(EXCEPT FOR THE EXTRA PHASES) et all.. if that IS the case , then it should be oh so easy to flash that BIOS to this card.. Just a proposition in the air. HERE's the BIOS . But don't blame me for anything that goes wrong haven't tried it myself so am not vouching for it

RELEVANT THREADS:


All credits due.


**6950 Twin Frozr III Clarification Thread**

[PureOC] MSI HD 6950 Twin Frozr III Review

6950 unlocking

6950: Shaders Unlocked vs Full Unlocked Tested

Registry hacking to get the CCC limits raised

Radeon HD 6950 to 6970 Guide
However , I cannot recommend the Atiwinflash method ^ cause it simply does NOT work with MSI TF3's .. Informative, nevertheless.

MSI 6950 TFIII PE/OC- testing w/ CL3P20
^ Insane overclocking and tons of OCP pencil mods Thanks CL3P20 Amazing stuff. Homage to you, sir!
This is ESP. good if you're considering going above 1.3Vcore and all.. You've been warned on what higher voltages mean ( shorter lifespans in general , maybe not short enough for it to affect your general product cycling anyhow..)

Thoroughly unrelated, but so want :

Edited by 0razor1 - 7/28/11 at 4:28am

Make sure that your drive isnt in use
the simplest way is to format the drive/ turm opff readyboost on it .
if nothing works , then after scanning your PD , turn off ur antivurs, media players etc and then flash .
if not even that , reboot he machine into safe mode and try again


Have to run : however, take one card out and then flash it at a time .
If you insist on doing both , just change the pci location in the code!

Atiflash –p –f 0 R6950PEX.bin
for the 1sy card becomes,
Atiflash –p –f 1 R6950PEX.bin
for the second card!

Viola!

Will do
Thanks!

That's sad to hear That just means that you DID get a laser cut version. Anyhow , the 6950's can oC really high without that shader unlock !! NO kidding , the 6950 w/o shader unlocks went to 1GHz stable at a lower voltage ( cant quite remember what it was ) but at the same volts, my unlocked 6950 only hit 940Core..
Anyway , the unlock took. How ? The shaders didn't unlock, but the limits did .. OC that beast !! People have compared a 6950 @ 1GHz to a 6970 @ .95GHz and found vitrually no differences in benches.
If however, you want to repeat the process, by all means , do .. but I think It'll be an effort in vain.
Worth noting -- ROMs have a limited numer of write cycles.. so take care
PS: Why don't you have voltage control ? Have you unlocked the voltage contorl in AF yet ? Get cracking with that OC then
Lol , I just used the default !! The main ROM is flashable , and the backup isn't.
Here's what ->
Run the flash on one of the BIOS's .. If it flashes-- you're golden ..
If it doesn't flash , that means that you hit the backup ROM ( thats unflashable)
Simply toggle the switch, reboot and flash!!!

Some people don't bother to reboot after toggling the switch .. But why take chances