6850 flash?

[Russ88765]

Hey just wondered if anyone has ever flashed their 6850 with a 6870 bios. If you have can you describe your experiences, if it was hard/simple, and if it's recommended. I read one successful claim online of a 6850 flash, so I am wondering if anyone else with this card has tried. Thank you.

 

[funkysnair]

im not sure anyone in here has yet, but i know nevakonaza is waiting on his which he will be flashing and im going to purchase one.

i flashed the bios on my 5850 up to 5870 spec (without shaders unlocked) i found it a little difficult but i am sure its easyer doing the newer 6850's as it has dual bios so less chance of bricking the gpu.

i will be watching this thread for answers also

 

[Shane]

6850? Im waiting on a 6950 mate.

Op do you mean 6950?

 

[Russ88765]

No, I know that the 6950 has been done. Just wondering if you can get a perf increase at a much lower budget. So far the only reports i've found indicate it unlocks some clocks, but no extra shaders/processors like i'd hoped for.

 

[Giantz]

Well since I saw this thread I've been trying to flash my 6850 to a 6870, and I'm having a little trouble, this could be because I've never done this before and there's no step by step tutorial like the 6950 to 6970.

I've also heard that when it is flashed, the shaders are not unlocked to that of a 6870. Anyway I'll keep trying and report back here later with the results.

 

[kobaj]

Why you can't get more shaders by flashing a 6850 to a 6870, but you can get more shaders by flashing a 6950 to a 6970...

AMD has two methods of locking the shader count on all of their recent GPUs. The first one relies on fuses inside the GPU, or on the substrate - a mechanism similar to Intel's multiplier locking. It is not reversible as far as we know. The second mechanism is the one we are interested in, AMD can configure the VGA BIOS in a way that it disables extra shaders, in addition to the ones disabled via the on-die fuses. This method is mostly used to create engineering samples or reviewer cards that match the target specifications. Usually production cards come with the shader count configured in the fuses, so that it can not be changed.

Apparently currently shipping Radeon HD 6950 cards from all manufacturers - which actually are all the same card with different sticker - have their shaders locked via the BIOS method, so we can exploit it easily.

TL;DR: 6850 uses a physical lock that can't be broken, but the 6950 uses a software lock which can be overwritten.

Flashing the bios of a 6850 won't do much, sorry.

 

[funkysnair]

ah my bad ,i got the 2 cards mixed up lol