7850 > 7870 BIOS Flashed!!

glenimp617 · 6 Jun 2012 at 23:52

Guys, it's late...I'm tired and I have work in the morning.

I have been testing the following, heaven benched ok but black lines on dragon scene (did this on 7850 bios though????). Have many things to say but will post back in detail tomorrow. Sorry can't say much now as mrs is moaning :rolleyes:

My 7850 standard

Running 7870 Bios

Rolling back for now as mrs needs PC tomorrow when im out at work

DON'T ATTEMPT THIS YOURSELF!!!!!!

buchtis · 7 Jun 2012 at 00:27

Nice. You say don't attempt this yourself, was this a difficult process?

Surveyor · 7 Jun 2012 at 00:27

Wouldn't it have been easier to just overclock the 7850?

Plenty of people have overclocked them well beyond 1000MHz without flashing the BIOS.

Helios1234 · 7 Jun 2012 at 00:35

Surveyor said:
Wouldn't it have been easier to just overclock the 7850?

Plenty of people have overclocked them well beyond 1000MHz without flashing the BIOS.

This!

wazza300 · 7 Jun 2012 at 00:38

it doesnt add or unlock any extra shaders,just raises the core and mem clocks which is easy to do simply by overclocking

Twirlywoos · 7 Jun 2012 at 01:08

wazza300 said:
it doesnt add or unlock any extra shaders,just raises the core and mem clocks which is easy to do simply by overclocking

how do you check if shaders are changed?

gareth170 · 7 Jun 2012 at 01:11

majnu said:
how do you check if shaders are changed?

in gpu-z

wazza300 · 7 Jun 2012 at 01:13

majnu said:
how do you check if shaders are changed?

in gpu-z

if it was a true 7870 it would show a higher shader count

Surveyor · 7 Jun 2012 at 01:34

All the OP has achieved is a higher clocked HD 7850 which is what I was trying to point out originally.

Nothing has been unlocked.

Unlike the HD 6950 there is nothing to try and unlock.

Twirlywoos · 7 Jun 2012 at 01:39

thanks wazza, seems a bit risky using bios from another model.

wazza300 · 7 Jun 2012 at 01:43

im not trying to shootdown the ops post,but i dont see what it brings flashing to a 7870 bios,other than upping the standard gpu voltage and the core/mem clocks thats all i can see that it does

if it gave you the same amount of shaders as a 7870 then i see your point

Surveyor · 7 Jun 2012 at 01:52

wazza300 said:
im not trying to shootdown the ops post,but i dont see what it brings flashing to a 7870 bios,other than upping the standard gpu voltage and the core/mem clocks thats all i can see that it does

That is all it does.

There's no point in messing around with the BIOS when you can get a better overclock using Afterburner.

Purgatory · 7 Jun 2012 at 06:11

Surveyor said:
That is all it does.

There's no point in messing around with the BIOS when you can get a better overclock using Afterburner.

^... This...

Only thing you are doing is risking bricking your GPU by flashing, it does not unlock shaders, any other hardware or remove any limitations set in the VBIOS on these cards. So a simple overclock is all you need to do to get the same results and with a lot less risk of bricking your new card.

psychodil · 7 Jun 2012 at 06:53

I say good on the OP for trying it, he has balls and everyone slates him for it just as it didn't unlock any shaders. If it unlocked shaders you would all be worshipping him. :rolleyes:

At least now we know for certain.

glenimp617 · 7 Jun 2012 at 07:18

psychodil said:
I say good on the OP for trying it, he has balls and everyone slates him for it just as it didn't unlock any shaders. If it unlocked shaders you would all be worshipping him.
At least now we know for certain.

Yes, this is the exact reason for trying

Already overclocked myself on the 7850 bios to near 1200 core and 1475 on the memory. This was just to put the whole 7870 bios flashing to bed really.

Read many posts about it across the net and had a way of trying it without any risk of bricking it.

Now we know

Love all the posts about just overclocking being the same. Yes, but before flashing we didn't really know for certain lol

Marine-RX179 · 7 Jun 2012 at 07:55

glen8 said:
Yes, this is the exact reason for trying

Already overclocked myself on the 7850 bios to near 1200 core and 1475 on the memory. This was just to put the whole 7870 bios flashing to bed really.

Read many posts about it across the net and had a way of trying it without any risk of bricking it.

Now we know

Love all the posts about just overclocking being the same. Yes, but before flashing we didn't really know for certain lol

If AMD didn't laser cut off the bits, pretty sure the net would get the wind of it. So in a way, people are just saying you are taking a risk for no reward...and if you ever have to rma the card, you can't just send the card back without flashing the bios AGAIN.

Surveyor · 7 Jun 2012 at 09:18

glen8 said:
Read many posts about it across the net and had a way of trying it without any risk of bricking it.

Now we know

Love all the posts about just overclocking being the same. Yes, but before flashing we didn't really know for certain lol

There is no way to flash the BIOS and be 100% certain you won't brick the card.

The HD 7850 has been available for around 2½ months.

We'd have heard by now if there was anything to unlock.

But thanks for risking your card to prove what we were already 99.9999% certain of.

I'll leave you the 0.0001% so you can feel you didn't take the risk for no reason.

psychodil · 7 Jun 2012 at 09:25

Give him a break. It is possible to re-flash a so called 'bricked' card you know. Like he said it was a minimal risk so unlike most people on here criticising he probably has the knowledge to repair a bricked card.

glenimp617 · 7 Jun 2012 at 09:27

psychodil said:
Give him a break. It is possible to re-flash a so called 'bricked' card you know. Like he said it was a minimal risk so unlike most people on here criticising he probably has the knowledge to repair a bricked card.

Yep, hence me creating a little program which automatically re-flashed the card on boot if anything went **** up

Did a couple of blind tests without the monitors plugged in to be sure

Surveyor · 7 Jun 2012 at 09:41

psychodil said:
Give him a break. It is possible to re-flash a so called 'bricked' card you know. Like he said it was a minimal risk so unlike most people on here criticising he probably has the knowledge to repair a bricked card.

glen8 said:
Yep, hence me creating a little program which automatically re-flashed the card on boot if anything went **** up

Did a couple of blind tests without the monitors plugged in to be sure

Being able to re-flash a bricked card isn't 100% guaranteed either.

Fair enough that glen8 had a go but I reckon the odds of him bricking the card were higher than him discovering that the HD 7850 would have anything to unlock.