• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Modding/ Replacing Bios?

willhub

willhub

willhub

Caporegime
Joined
3 Jan 2006
Posts
25,278
Location
Chadderton, Oldham
Hi.

I am just wondering, could replacing the Bios of my 8800GTS with another one actually boost performance / increase overclocking potential, also is it very risky modding the bios and is there any programs to just tweak bios settings?
 
Yes bios modding can increase the performance of a graphics card.

Say you have an stock XFX card & use the bios of an preoverclocked XFX card - immediate improvement (provided your card can manage those clockspeeds).

Also you can mod the bios to loosen the memory timings so you can get higher overclocks.

And yes bios modding can kill your GPU if you do it wrong.

Try to have PCI card on standby to see if you can revert to your original bios (which you should make a backup copy of).
 
Last edited:
ACESHIGH said:
Yes bios modding can increase the performance of a graphics card.

Say you have an stock XFX card & use the bios of an preoverclocked XFX card - immediate improvement (provided your card can manage those clockspeeds).

Also you can mod the bios to loosen the memory timings to increase the speed of the ram.

And yes bios modding can kill your GPU if you do it wrong.

Try to have PCI card on standby to see if you can revert to your original bios (which you should make a backup copy of).
Click to expand...


So these Evga cards that cost loads, like 300+ for an 8800GTS, will that have better memory timings than my Gainward because I wouldent mind flashing to an Evga.

Also whats the risk? What is the main things that cause the Bios mods to go wrong? Is it higher risk than flashing motherboard Bios? I do this quite abit from Windows and have never got a problem.
 
willhub said:
So these Evga cards that cost loads, like 300+ for an 8800GTS, will that have better memory timings than my Gainward because I wouldent mind flashing to an Evga.

Also whats the risk? What is the main things that cause the Bios mods to go wrong? Is it higher risk than flashing motherboard Bios? I do this quite abit from Windows and have never got a problem.
Click to expand...
There's loads of bios versions here

NiBiTor v3.4

http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

I've flashed loads of various cards and on occasion had one act weird after. Just backup the original bios and you can blind flash back or use (which is what I do) a cheap PCI graphics card to temp boot and fix it.
 
Last edited:
fornowagain said:
Same hardware? Are the clocks/timings faster? Then yes.
Click to expand...

If a Bios flash went wrong, and I had a PCI card here, would I deffenitly be able to fix the 8800GTS or could it be done forever?

Would you recommend doing it withought a PCI Graphics Card spare?
 
willhub said:
If a Bios flash went wrong, and I had a PCI card here, would I deffenitly be able to fix the 8800GTS or could it be done forever?
Click to expand...
Definitely, like 100%? No.

Probably, like I've never lost one? Yes.

Would you recommend doing it withought a PCI Graphics Card spare?
Click to expand...
No I wouldn't, I hate blind flashing. But you can get away with it. Just practice a bit first.
 
Last edited:
willhub said:
If a Bios flash went wrong, and I had a PCI card here, would I deffenitly be able to fix the 8800GTS or could it be done forever?

Would you recommend doing it withought a PCI Graphics Card spare?
Click to expand...

It is possible to kill your card permananetly after a bad bios flash.
I know of someone who did this with an X1800XL.

You dont need a PCI card as you can do it blind, but its much easier with a PCI card so you can see what you are doing.
 
fornowagain said:
Definitely, like 100%? No.

Probably, like I've never lost one? Yes.


No I wouldn't, I hate blind flashing. But you can get away with. Just practice a bit first.
Click to expand...

ACESHIGH said:
It is possible to kill your card permananetly after a bad bios flash.
I know of someone who did this with an X1800XL.

You dont need a PCI card as you can do it blind, but its much easier with a PCI card so you can see what you are doing.
Click to expand...


How does bios flashing damage a card forever if you can just... flash back?
 
the only problem would be that a bios puts too much voltage in the core then it could damage the card but w3hy make a bios if it did that :confused:
 
Last edited:
I really wouldnt bother. Just overclock it like normal, flashing the bios, reducing timing etc offers like 1% improvement over just software overclocking - hardly worth risking your shiny new card over.
 
Kezmo said:
The latest rev o4 ;)

Grab a rev4 bios and mod it to the clocks u want :)
Click to expand...


EVGA rev04 bios?

I jsut thought, if one day my card dies, then that means I am screwed as I woudent be able to get the Gainward Bios back on and I wouldent be able to RMA it :(
 
If your worried dont flash it :) always back up your original bios so if u get a bad flash or need to rma theres not a problem ;)
 
Kezmo said:
If your worried dont flash it :) always back up your original bios so if u get a bad flash or need to rma theres not a problem ;)
Click to expand...


I know but if I need to RMA its obviously because the card is dead or tons of artifacts so I wont be able to flash it back lol.

And why the Rev04 bios, there is a Rev 05 bios :S

And I use NVFlash right, I downloaded that, its just 2 .EXE's, are these what I burn onto CD?

http://www.mvktech.net/content/view/15/37/

Would I be using:

2. a:nvflash -5 -6 file.rom [Enter]

Standard Flash (same card, same firmware)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom