MSI HD6950 Twin Frozr III Flashing to 6970?

The switch on the Twin Frozr III is a fan switch I've read. It's not a bios switch as some early reviews thought.

It may be possible to flash it to a 6970, but the Twin Frozr III does have a different fan profile, so you might be required to use the 6970 version of the Twin Frozr III bios.

I can confirm that you can do the shader unlock version, which actually uses bios flashing, it's just it's flashing a modified version of your current bios.

The downside to either is that you don't have a backup bios switch.

You know what, I'd like to know this for sure as well. I was always under the understanding that it had to be a reference card to be flashable/unlockable. However there was a post on here the other day by a silver badge member (I'll try to find it), who said he flashed BOTH of his MSI Twin Frozr II cards to 6970s. So I'm not entirely sure myself.

EDIT -

Oh look at taht it was Bystander who did it.. and he beat me to the punch... dammit.    

So, any 2GB 6950 is flashable, albeit not "safely"?

I have not flashed directly to a 6970 bios. I have taken the existing bios of the MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II, ran it through a script that alters it to unlock the shaders, then flashed the altered bios to the card.

In the end, you get the same shaders, and it leaves all the timings and voltages alone. Then you can take MSI Afterburner and unlock the max OC levels and OC it to 6970 levels or more.

I'd assume it can flash directly to a 6970 bios (I have not done this), but I believe the bios altering is safer as the bios has info on the fan profile and memory timings, which can be different from one model to the next. In both cases, you don't have a backup bios in case something goes horribly wrong.

Dont use the 6970 bios, many people are having issues. Use the modified 6950 bios then OC like bystander said.

nystander, could you point us to the right direction please?
Where we can find that script? or a good guide of how doing that method that allows us to get the performance of a 6970 without flahing it, but altering the BIOS.

How secure is that method against flashing, and what cards can be modded using your method.

Thanks in advance

I wouldn't call it my method. I just followed the thread on the original bios flashing method.

It should be much safer than flashing to a 6970 bios, as it uses the bios shipped with the card only it unlocks the shaders, nothing else.

You deserve nothing but all my respect and thanks, your a big usefule and nice resource of information  .



extra question, this method of using a modded 6950 bios will work on any video card or restriction are applied to certain manufactureres?

It works on all the reference cards, and it worked on the MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II. I don't know for sure if it works on other non reference cards.

I saw some References cards at tigerdirect, compusa and globalcomputer, they are cheaper than the msi twin frorz but i dont like the cooling design.

Also im trying to see if i pick one of those reference cards cuz i heard they are easier to mod, or get this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
cuz is cheaper and seems to have a better cooling design, but I dont know if its possible to unlock the shadders with "your method"

I have both a reference and a twin frozr II. I can tell you that the Twin Frozr II runs a lot cooler. Given that the script only changes 4 numbers, which unlock the shaders, and works in the twin frozr II, I find it unlikely it won't work on a twin frozr III, but I can't know for sure without having seen it done.

The reference design has a backup when things don't go as planned, that is a handy thing, but if you have a 2nd card, you should be able to flash the bios back to stock from the command line.

Here's a link with methods for reference and non-reference models. What's not guaranteed is if the particular card you've chosen will unlock.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcar...

I find it highly unlikely this particular method will work on the Twin Frozr III. I tell you why.

I currently have a reference card and a Twin frozr II. Both cards have unlocked shaders, neither of which was done by flashing to the 6970 bios (I used the methods I listed above). They both work and perform well.

One has a stock speed of 810 and the other of 800. Due to their differences, MSI Afterburner isn't syncing them up (Overdrive works), so I decided to flash the same bios on to them. Since the reference card has the backup bios, I chose to try the twin frozr II bios on the reference card. When I flashed the twin frozr II bios on the reference card (XFX) windows locked up after I reinstalled the drivers and rebooted. I went back to the original bios and all is good.

Clearly there is something different about the twin frozr II bios that doesn't work on a reference card, and it's likely the same issue going the other way.

Good ta know.

If it were to work, you'd likely have to use the MSI R6970 Twin Frozr III bios, if someone wanted to take the risk.

have decided to get the Twin Frorz II, better cooling and I can mod it  , i want to thanks every one who participated in ths posrt

I have been trying to Flash my Frozr 3 2950 which as far as i can tell does have a bios switch as when i flashed the wrong bios i flicked the switch and hey presto it booted up again. I have tried the methods on TPU and here but GPU-z still stays i have the orginal shader count where RBE is stating that the 6970 shaders are fully unlocked.

My clocks in AMD overdrive havent changed at 850 / 1300mhz.

Is there a way i can be sure that the shaders are unlocked?

The MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III does not have a bios switch, but has two fan profiles to switch between. However, you can still unlock the shaders. Unlocking the shaders does not change the clocks of the card.

If you have an old version of GPU-Z, it doesn't have accurate info, check for the most up today version, and you should see 1536, if you don't, follow a guide I put together: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/316974-33-radeon-6950...

When i get to stage it 8 it says connot find byte sequence in file then exits upon pressing enter

That usually means your BIOS is already unlocked. The one you put in the folder at least.

What does GPU-Z show as a shader count?

The very latest one still says 1408  

Did you save the current BIOS, rename it to original.bin (and you have to have file extentions visible or it'll be original.bin.rom and you won't know it). Then you must place the original.bin in the folder with the script.

it was deffinatly the current bios and yep i have file extentions shows and the file is a bin file

Did you put it in the zipped folder, or the extracted folder? I found it wouldn't run if it was in the zipped folder, but it does seem curious that it said it didn't find the bytes.

the extracted folder  

asi said earlier RGE says it is unlocked at 1536 but GPUZ dosnt

I took the BIOS from this database, which should be the BIOS you have and put it in the Mod_BIOS_HD_6950 folder. I renamed the file "original.bin". I deleted the modded.bin file and ran the "run.bat" batch file. It successfully altered it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/94504/MSI.HD6950.204...

Is it possible you have original spelled wrong? If not, you could try the bios from the database I linked, as it is the Twin Frozr III version.

Do you have more than 1 in your system? Maybe you didn't have the right one visible. That you or didn't close and reopen it after you rebooted and installed the new drivers.

I only have the one card, I just got as far as step 13 is the tutorial you linked me but it says flashing rom failed every time

Did you copy the modded.bin file into the winflash directory? The one you run the command from? Also, you might have to open up the command prompt by right clicking the program and clicking run as administrator.

I did all of that and still no luck installing rom failed.

I'm wondering if you don't have a bios switch, that's about the only thing I can think of that would cause it to fail, other than not doing Step 12 before 13.

Like i said ealier when i flashed it to the wrong bios and it brikcked i was able to flick the switch and have it boot up again and then i flashed my bios back to normal.
so i think it is a duel bios switch rarther than a fan profile.

I currently have it all the way forward towards the front of the case which is what i assume bios 1 is?

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_6950_Twin_Fro...

Frozr 3 does apppparently have the duel bios switch

That is why it's failing, forward is bios 2, the backup, flip it towards the back of the card.

it still gets about half way through then pop up appears saying flashing rom failed.

what about this http://uk.msi.com/marketing/dls/R6950_TF_III_PE_Unlock_...

The only possible problem with that guide is that it doesn't alter the existing bios, but uses one they already altered. It's likely it won't work with non reference cards. However, if you followed those steps, and placed the modded.bin file in their directory on the flash drive, and flashed that instead of the one they provided, it should work.

Edit: After reading the guide one more time, it does appear that the guide does use the Twin frozr III bios. That should work for you.

would you be able to explain to me how i create that type of bootable disk, i know how to make a windows installation flash disk but not one that you can install files seperately using a command promt, i have been looking around goole but most tutorials are either over the top complicated or for the windows installation
or recovery and it's giving me a head ache.  

I managed it, i now have the increased clocks limit however it still says 1408 in GPU Z

Try using GPU-Z 5.3. That is the version I'm using, and it works.

 

As it mentioned on the directions you followed, there has been 450 out of 47X successes. You might have one that won't unlock. At least you get an easy overclocking setup with the updated bios. I liked the sound of it so much, I check to see if the TF II would work with it....and it did.

Best answer selected by panacuba.

Nice to see my post worked for other members, ill gonna pick up my recently arrived 6950 twin frz II   then gonna try your method from a friend computer  

I can confirm that the Bios Mod method works on the Twin Frozr 2. Way too much misinformation out there. Mod the original bios, use MSI afterburner util or another util that will let you clock it higher and it will get you a "6970"

Having read many of these threads I have just received my twin frozr 3 and can confirm that the fan speed switch is a dual bios switch. There must be different fan profiles in each bios. Nevertheless, I have successfully flashed the primary bios using the one MSI released and it has unlocked the extra shaders and the higher overclocking limits with no problems. I have the card running at stock 6970 speeds now and it's barely breaking a sweat.

The MSI Bios is here http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/msi_r6950_twin_fro...

I also can confirm that method works on a 6950 twin frozr II as well.

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey