Flashing Video Card BIOS

[Gamingphreek]

First of all will this work on a 5900XT. If so where the heck is this bios i would be updating it to. If it works on the XT's can someone just give a basic rundown of what i need to do.
Thx
-Kevin

 

[us3rnotfound]

Stay away from flashing FX card's BIOS, they are as-is.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Why tho. I have heard of plenty of people doing it. ANd was just curious.
-Kevin

 

[GeneralGrievous]

I doubt the xt has fast enough RAM to accomodate 5950 speeds.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous
I doubt the xt has fast enough RAM to accomodate 5950 speeds.

You cant expect 2.8ns memory to even come close to 2.0ns 5950 memory.

So if you flash it and the bios locks the card at 5950 speeds, your card may never run and you risk damaging your memory and possibly the core.

 

[Gamingphreek]

lol well that wouldn't be good at all because then i would be stuck with my AWESOME Geforce 2 . Well ifnot 5950 Ultra what about 5900Ultra. I know it can make it that fast.
-Kevin

 

[PhlashFoto]

just stick to coolbits... only reason to flash is to juust have your card read 59xx so you can impress/fool your buddies to think you have a high end card... or to rip someone off on ebay


There is no feature gained or unlocked from flashing nvidia 59xx series cards

 

[Shamrock]

Originally posted by: ELopes580
just stick to coolbits... only reason to flash is to juust have your card read 59xx so you can impress/fool your buddies to think you have a high end card... or to rip someone off on ebay


There is no feature gained or unlocked from flashing nvidia 59xx series cards

oh really? Before, my 5900 Ultra would only OC to 975Mhz mem (at 55-60degrees c no less) using coolbits, when I flashed it, I get 950 by default, AND the temperature is at 43c PLUS, I can OC it to over a Ghz (1050 to be exact), but I DO have the Gainward 5900 Ultra Golden Sample w/2.0 ns ram. I have been running it like this for over 2 months now

there is your feature

but I do not recommend flashing a 5900 XT. I dont even recommend flashing a 5900 NU, although some have. To be safe, only flash an Ultra. Just heed all the warnings, if you mess up, you have a kewl looking necklace, and out of a video card.

 

[THUGSROOK]

about a months worth of testing have shown me that my card likes my stock 5900 bios better.
it doesnt overclock as far, but its alot faster due to the faster cas settings.

the additional voltage didnt seem todo anything for me with the core.
maybe my 5900 bios was already "boosted"?
anyone wanna try my BFG 5900 bios?

anyways, just be clear about what speed equals what with the new bios.....

the 5950 bios clocks at a default speed of 475x950.
in order for the 5900 bios to match benchmarks scores (from various programs) it only needed to run 475x890! :Q

i hope you guys are thoroughly testing what youre doing before drawing a conclusion on which bios to use.

 

[VIAN]

It's called overclocking.

Flashing is way too dangerous and stupid and pointless.

 

[paladiin]

I agree - I wouldn't worry about doing it. I flashed my BIOS from my 5900u 256MB to the 5950u (I got one of the 5900u mispackaged as 5900SE) since my card had the incorrect 5900SE bios on it and I was going to be flashing anyway.

It did give me a higher, more stable overclock (got up to 575/1010, stable for benchmarking). But there wasn't a very large performance increase, so I backed back down to a more conservative overclock (525/950) - which is what I could do without the BIOS in the first place. So the BIOS isn't doing anything for me currently.

The reward for the BIOS flash does not equal the risk you could take in screwing up your card. Just use Coolbits and overclock it normally.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: VIAN
It's called overclocking.

Flashing is way too dangerous and stupid and pointless.

once again, the flashing gives you a better OC. i have seen atleast 7 5900's with 2.2ns ram get flashed without a problem

 

[MichaelZ]

flashing is safe if you know the BIOS will work. better to find someone else who has the same card and successfully flashed it to another bios. also begging for the same bios would help

 

[Terranboy]

I had a very sucessful flash of my 9800Non pro into a Pro. Works like a charm, and it was a good 800 point increase in 3DMark2k3. Its been steaming ( <-- no relation to the heat ) for almost a year now. *knocks on wood*

Whats the difference in flashing a Nvidia and a ATI?

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
about a months worth of testing have shown me that my card likes my stock 5900 bios better.
it doesnt overclock as far, but its alot faster due to the faster cas settings.

the additional voltage didnt seem todo anything for me with the core.
maybe my 5900 bios was already "boosted"?
anyone wanna try my BFG 5900 bios?

anyways, just be clear about what speed equals what with the new bios.....

the 5950 bios clocks at a default speed of 475x950.
in order for the 5900 bios to match benchmarks scores (from various programs) it only needed to run 475x890! :Q

i hope you guys are thoroughly testing what youre doing before drawing a conclusion on which bios to use.

Its no use thugs, its like they want to ruin their hardware, or its their destiny or something.

 

[Jeff7181]

If you flash your VGA BIOS it could blow up and kill you and everyone else within a 70 foot radius. :roll:

Use coolbits to overclock the card to 475/950... if it's stable, go ahead and flash it. If not, maybe a 5900 Ultra BIOS will work. Just don't use a BIOS that defaults to higher clock speeds than you can attain using coolbits.

I wish I could write my own BIOS for mine so I didn't have to mess with coolbits anymore since it's been stable for 6+ months at 490/940 and I'd like to keep it at that speed by default.

 

[Shamrock]

Jeff is correct, overclock first to see if the flash will be stable, if your OC is stable at 475/950, then it's "possible" to flash it. Oh, and TRY to find a BIOS that fits YOUR BRAND of card, I have a Gainward, I used a Gainward bios.

The Ultras seem to be having the best results.

 

[caz67]

I flashed my Leadtek 5900Ultra 256MB, to a 5950Ultra.

Its easy to do with very little risk. I can overclock my flashed 5950Ultra , to 525 and 1000. This thing flys.

If you have a 5900Ultra, overclock it, the risk is minimal, and the results are worth it.

Be aware, however, that you will void your warranty once flashed.

I found, that my temps, dropped about 10C, once i flashed my card. This worked out really well for me, as i was thinking of getting rid of the 5900, due to heat issues.

 

[Tango57]

Originally posted by: caz67
I flashed my Leadtek 5900Ultra 256MB, to a 5950Ultra.

Its easy to do with very little risk. I can overclock my flashed 5950Ultra , to 525 and 1000. This thing flys.

If you have a 5900Ultra, overclock it, the risk is minimal, and the results are worth it.

Be aware, however, that you will void your warranty once flashed.

I found, that my temps, dropped about 10C, once i flashed my card. This worked out really well for me, as i was thinking of getting rid of the 5900, due to heat issues.

this is a controversial overclocking topic and being that the video card nowadays is becoming the most expensive part of the system, this entails a lot more risk. i also successfully flashed my Leadtek 5900 ultra 256 mb using a Leadtek 5950 ultra bios. it has worked fine for me since and have been using it with no problems for the past 3 months. of course, aside from a difference of a few mhz clock speed, the 5900 ultra and 5950 are almost identical which makes it easier for flashing. however as with all overclocking/flashing etc. no expected results are ever guaranteed. from what i've read so far, there has been some success using a variety of 5900 series cards in flashing to a 5950. if you are adamant about flashing your card i would suggest you flash using the same brand of bios. cross-branding the bios can work in some cases but i would feel more comfortable sticking with the same brand. again, flash at your own risk as you may be committing hardware homicide and goodluck. :beer:

 

[Acanthus]

You guys arent reading. Flashing reduces the memory timings, AND MAKES THE CARD SLOWER unless you get more than 70mhz more out of the flash...

 

[Shamrock]

went from 460/870 upto 500/1000 and get 10c less now so isnt that 70Mhz? My calculations say it's 230Mhz faster memory (STOCK!, can OC it to 1100)...I have a Golden sample is why my clocks are odd. Stock is 460/870

and I have NO IDEA where you get that it makes the card SLOWER...my favorite game, F1 Challenge 99-02 went from 51FPS (4xAA4xAF) upto 67FPS @ 1280x1024

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Shamrock
Jeff is correct, overclock first to see if the flash will be stable, if your OC is stable at 475/950, then it's "possible" to flash it. Oh, and TRY to find a BIOS that fits YOUR BRAND of card, I have a Gainward, I used a Gainward bios.

The Ultras seem to be having the best results.

The Leadtek BIOS was most popular I believe because the Leadtek card is made according to nVidia's reference design. So pretty much any card made according to the reference design can use that BIOS. It worked perfectly with my Aopen 5900 NU because it's nVidia's reference design.

The only reason I'm not using it now is because I only got 10 Mhz more out of the RAM before artifacts showed up, and I got about 30-40 Mhz more out of the GPU, but I never tested for long term stability. So... since my card was a good overclocker to begin with... 490/940... I still didn't gain much headroom by using the 5950 Ultra BIOS that is supposed to relax RAM timings and increase voltage to the GPU so I switched back to my 5900 NU BIOS.

Now if only I could write a custom BIOS so I don't have to keep using coolbits...

 

[Gamingphreek]

I tried OCing with coolbits but when i put test new settings i get an error when i go above 797 memory. Should i increase my agp voltage? What is the best thing to do?
Thx,
Kevin

 

[Shamrock]

I suggest you dont flash that video card at all GamingPhreek...just OC it with coolbits....dont push it too much, the RAM isnt as strong as the Ultras. 797 may be all you can get.

 

[BFG10K]

Flashing the BIOS is dangerous because it can produce an unusable card if it doesn't support the core/memory frequencies of the faster card.

A far safer option is to overclock manually.