I flashed my RX480 STRIX OC with the RX580 STRIX TOP OC bios

[Hail The Brain Slug]

And now I have an RX580 STRIX TOP OC. It was actually pretty easy.

When the RX 580 was released and it boiled down to some voltage/power/clock bumps, I figured it would be possible. Then I saw about the guy who flashed a Sapphire RX580 bios to his RX480.

Knowing that ASUS typically releases a bios flasher to switch between silent/performance bioses for the STRIX cards, I checked the website daily until it was posted. I ripped out the bioses, checked the settings in the polaris bios tweaker, then got to flashing.

The differences observable in the bios were that the power limit was increased from 110->180 watts, the current limit from 107->149 amps, and the fan profiles were different. I sort of made a huge assumption that based on how much ASUS loves reusing designs that the RX580 was going to be identical or similar enough that it would work. Turns out it did.

Now, I had already been overclocking my RX480 to 1410 core clock with stock voltage, so it seemed pretty safe for stability to flash the 1411 MHz bios. So far, I have not experienced any issue or instability with various benchmarking or stability testing.

I have noticed that the voltage is a lot more stable than before. Originally, under load, the voltage reported by GPU-z would fluctuate anywhere from ~1.1 - ~1.135 with the occasional spike to 1.15. Now it is very consistent at 1.16, but fluctuates slightly from 1.15 to 1.1688. It seems to have enabled me to get a few more MHz out of my overclock at default settings.

I am disappointed that GPU TWEAK II can only increase voltage to 1.2 with this bios instead of the 1.3 originally possible with the RX480 bios, since with the increased power limit I figured I could do some more extreme benchmarking.

========================================================================

Update May 11/2017

After testing the card for the last 3 weeks and doing some research on the RX580 STRIX board design, I have experienced no issues and have a stronger belief that the VRM design is exactly the same as the RX480 strix. Comparing the board layout and the part numbers from teardowns of both indicates there are no differences.

I still stand by my assertion this is a safe modification, provided you don't flash an overclock too high for your sample.

 

[Valantar]

Question: when did you buy your 480? The interesting thing about all this to me is wether we're looking at a gradual development or if this would be possible even with launch-day 480s.

 

[Shmee]

I saw an article stating why this could be a BAD idea. If your 480 is one of the the early models, with only a single 6 pin, this could cause some major issues. In summary, 580 will use more power, and the 6 pin + PCIe power would not be enough. Could damage the card/motherboard.

Anyways, the author seems to make some good points. Here it is. https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/248044-flashing-rx-480-gpu-rx-580-bios-really-really-bad-idea

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Question: when did you buy your 480? The interesting thing about all this to me is wether we're looking at a gradual development or if this would be possible even with launch-day 480s.

I bought my STRIX in early october, so a few months after initial launch.

I saw an article stating why this could be a BAD idea. If your 480 is one of the the early models, with only a single 6 pin, this could cause some major issues. In summary, 580 will use more power, and the 6 pin + PCIe power would not be enough. Could damage the card/motherboard.

Anyways, the author seems to make some good points. Here it is. https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/248044-flashing-rx-480-gpu-rx-580-bios-really-really-bad-idea

I'm glad you brought it up. I do not want to give someone the idea that flashing any old RX480 is a good idea. I know someone who flashed his NITRO+ RX480's and lost the automatic fan control. He had to manually set a fan speed for them to even spin. Obviously he flashed it back after some playing and no harm was done.

The STRIX has an 8 pin and an exceptional power delivery section that I think is unchanged for the 580. It was severely overspecced for the 110 watt power limit in the bios.

The strix cooler is also more than adequate. I did end up doing a repaste since the original paste job was total crap, but now with the default RX580 STRIX TOP OC settings I hit around 67C under load.

I feel confident for this card specifically it is a relatively safe "upgrade" for me.

 

[SKORPI0]

It might be worth reading this thread at another forum.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/xfx-rx480-8gb-flashed-to-saphire-rx580.232489/

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

It might be worth reading this thread at another forum.
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/xfx-rx480-8gb-flashed-to-saphire-rx580.232489/

I'll admit that I skimmed this thread before doing it. I prefer to research myself, so I set about inspecting the specs and photos of the strix 580 for design differences and inspected the bios settings before going forward. In most cases, the vendors made changes to the design of their cards for the 580, but I do not think ASUS felt it was necessary. I feel pretty confident the design is very similar or even exactly the same.

I've been bios modding video cards for a few years now, so I am not some rookie who has to Google to even figure out how to do it.

Edit: it reads like the guy in the article flashed the 1411 sapphire bios and it wasnt stable for him - he obviously aimed too high. I would never flash a bios that was unstable like that. I had dialed in my core overclock at 1410 on RX480 default voltages, so I have had no problems with the 1411 bios and the slightly bumped voltage. I'm even testing 1425/1430 on default RX580 voltage.

If your RX480 didn't overclock well, flashing the bios wont help you much. I would go so far as to say that you need to pick a bios with a default clock similar to your best stable overclock, otherwise you're going to have an unstable default clock.

 

[Tasilium]

I'll admit that I skimmed this thread before doing it. I prefer to research myself, so I set about inspecting the specs and photos of the strix 580 for design differences and inspected the bios settings before going forward. In most cases, the vendors made changes to the design of their cards for the 580, but I do not think ASUS felt it was necessary. I feel pretty confident the design is very similar or even exactly the same.

I've been bios modding video cards for a few years now, so I am not some rookie who has to Google to even figure out how to do it.

Edit: it reads like the guy in the article flashed the 1411 sapphire bios and it wasnt stable for him - he obviously aimed too high. I would never flash a bios that was unstable like that. I had dialed in my core overclock at 1410 on RX480 default voltages, so I have had no problems with the 1411 bios and the slightly bumped voltage. I'm even testing 1425/1430 on default RX580 voltage.

If your RX480 didn't overclock well, flashing the bios wont help you much. I would go so far as to say that you need to pick a bios with a default clock similar to your best stable overclock, otherwise you're going to have an unstable default clock.

I am considering doing this myself, but when I checked out the 580 online the strix 580 has 7 power phase where as the 480 has 6...also the heatsink appears to have been redisgned..albeit very slightly. I am curious as to what other changes they have made.

Also when you overclocked your 480 to 1400+ on stock voltage did you disable the chaining of clock and voltage in gpu tweak? By default when you increase the frequency the voltage rises with it. Also did you increase the memory or leave it stock? Curious because I have a very recent 480 (April 2017) strix 480 and it will clock and run at 1420 but I wouldn't consider it at all stable, as stress testing will crash it after maybe 10mins.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

I am considering doing this myself, but when I checked out the 580 online the strix 580 has 7 power phase where as the 480 has 6...also the heatsink appears to have been redisgned..albeit very slightly. I am curious as to what other changes they have made.

Also when you overclocked your 480 to 1400+ on stock voltage did you disable the chaining of clock and voltage in gpu tweak? By default when you increase the frequency the voltage rises with it. Also did you increase the memory or leave it stock? Curious because I have a very recent 480 (April 2017) strix 480 and it will clock and run at 1420 but I wouldn't consider it at all stable, as stress testing will crash it after maybe 10mins.

You, sir, found something I missed, although I think the 6 phase design is sufficient for the increased power levels of the 580. According to GPU-z, it bounces around 150-250 watts under load.

I did not use GPU Tweak to overclock. I use Wattman, so I increased the top level clock to 1410 and left voltage on auto. I did overclock memory to 2150 from 2000.

At 1410/2150 on all default voltages, it would run any and all stress tests indefinitely with no stability issues. I also played a fair amount of demanding games to test it and never had an issue.

I did figure out that for some unknown reason on the 580 bios, it will sometimes drop and hang around. 1.11-1.13 volts, so I had to set voltage to 1200 in Wattman to make sure it stays around 1.16-1.18 under load to keep it stable at 1420.

 

[thiodore]

hello can u sent a link of that bios i want to flash my rx480 strix oc to 580 i know the risks but if you have done it safely wy risking try any other bios if you cant share this pulic sent it on my e-mail teo35gr@hotmail.com thanks in advance

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

hello can u sent a link of that bios i want to flash my rx480 strix oc to 580 i know the risks but if you have done it safely wy risking try any other bios if you cant share this pulic sent it on my e-mail teo35gr@hotmail.com thanks in advance

Here is a zip of the extracted stuff out of both the RX480 STRIX And RX580 STRIX bios flashers.

The RX580 version is pretty easy, there are two versions for each 580 STRIX, a silent and a performance bios. AS06 is the performance TOP OC version clocked at 1411 MHz and the one I used.

The RX480 bioses are a bit more messy. There are a lot of bioses in there and I think 3 sets of them are 1310 MHz clocked, so I do not know what the differences are as they are not visible in Polaris Bios Editor. Make sure you understand that if you don't flash back the correct bios, you may have issues with warranty support. I would recommend making a rip of your original bios and saving it so you can flash back to it, then use the STRIX RX480 bios flasher to flash a signed version back over it.

You'll need to run ATIWinFlash from the command prompt like this:

atiwinflash -f -p 0 biosname.rom

Where the 0 is the index of the GPU you want to flash. If you have more than one GPU, you'll need to find the commands to enumerate them so you can flash the right ones by index.

DISCLAIMER: I am not advocating anyone do this, I am simply displaying the process for the sake of forum discussion.

 

[thiodore]

it was a great sucsess 1411mhz stable with 1-2 degrese increased temp p.s if some one willing to do this i recomend to change the thermal paste of this card you will see a very big change in temperatures thanks alot XabanakFanatik you are awesome

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

it was a great sucsess 1411mhz stable with 1-2 degrese increased temp p.s if some one willing to do this i recomend to change the thermal paste of this card you will see a very big change in temperatures thanks alot XabanakFanatik you are awesome

I had changed paste on my strix. What temps/fan speeds do you see?

 

[Tasilium]

Here is a zip of the extracted stuff out of both the RX480 STRIX And RX580 STRIX bios flashers.

The RX580 version is pretty easy, there are two versions for each 580 STRIX, a silent and a performance bios. AS06 is the performance TOP OC version clocked at 1411 MHz and the one I used.

The RX480 bioses are a bit more messy. There are a lot of bioses in there and I think 3 sets of them are 1310 MHz clocked, so I do not know what the differences are as they are not visible in Polaris Bios Editor. Make sure you understand that if you don't flash back the correct bios, you may have issues with warranty support. I would recommend making a rip of your original bios and saving it so you can flash back to it, then use the STRIX RX480 bios flasher to flash a signed version back over it.

You'll need to run ATIWinFlash from the command prompt like this:

atiwinflash -f -p 0 biosname.rom

Where the 0 is the index of the GPU you want to flash. If you have more than one GPU, you'll need to find the commands to enumerate them so you can flash the right ones by index.

DISCLAIMER: I am not advocating anyone do this, I am simply displaying the process for the sake of forum discussion.

 

[Tasilium]

I think I am going to give this a try..thanks for the info!

With atleast two people confirming it works, it may be worth a shot...what have I got to lose, I am picking up Vega as soon as they release it anyway...

 

[thiodore]

65-67 c at 77% fan speed at gtav 4k wich is good

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

65-67 c at 77% fan speed at gtav 4k wich is good

What rpm is it at 77%?

Before repasting, I would see 80C+ under heavy load with my overclock and the default fan profile.

After I repasted, the card had no issue staying at or under the 65C temp target with the default fan profile.

Now with the 580 bios, I find it a little loud with a 65C temp target making it run at 2100 RPM (And getting to 65-68C) so I increase it to 75C and it usually sits around 70-73C and 1600-1700 RPM (~40%)

 

[thiodore]

What rpm is it at 77%?

Before repasting, I would see 80C+ under heavy load with my overclock and the default fan profile.

After I repasted, the card had no issue staying at or under the 65C temp target with the default fan profile.

Now with the 580 bios, I find it a little loud with a 65C temp target making it run at 2100 RPM (And getting to 65-68C) so I increase it to 75C and it usually sits around 70-73C and 1600-1700 RPM (~40%)

before repaste i also had near 80c and couldnt make the card working under 70 c even with 100% fans.77%=3200rmp its a bit loud but i prefer to have lower temps

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

before repaste i also had near 80c and couldnt make the card working under 70 c even with 100% fans.77%=3200rmp its a bit loud but i prefer to have lower temps

It sounds like it could still be better - Like I said, If I have a 65C temp target, it will hang around 65-68C at the maximum RPM of 2100 (50% fan speed) and never get any hotter.

If I change it to a 75C temp target, it sits around 1600-1750 at 70-75C and is much quieter.

These measurements are at 1420/2150 with 1.16-1.18 actual volts measured through GPU-z 1.20 and a +50% power limit

What paste did you use and how did you repaste it? Just a direct die application and allow the cooler to spread it? Pre-spread on the gpu die?

 

[thiodore]

first of all i use custom fan curve with msi afterburner so i dont target temp i could posibly go with les noise but it depends on what game you are playing gtav online is heavy on 4k for an rx480 i push the gpu to its limit i repasted with arctic mx_4 with the direct die self spreding method also i am from greece right now i have 25 c room temperature

 

[Tasilium]

I guess the silicon lottery didn't smile on me, atleast not for my GPU. I gave it a good try, and was very excited when GPU-z popped up showing my newly flashed "580" at 1411mhz. But no amount of tweaking or luck allowed me to run stable in games or do any benchmarking. Firestrike would crash almost immediately, and even CS:GO would crash within minutes. So I flashed back to my original bios and I will just patiently await Vega.

Sidenote I have a newer Strix RX480 O8 8Gb card with the 8pin connector. I haven't changed paste but I don't believe I would see a significant enough change to achieve stability.

I would be willing to try again but I don't know what to attempt differently.

 

[thiodore]

I guess the silicon lottery didn't smile on me, atleast not for my GPU. I gave it a good try, and was very excited when GPU-z popped up showing my newly flashed "580" at 1411mhz. But no amount of tweaking or luck allowed me to run stable in games or do any benchmarking. Firestrike would crash almost immediately, and even CS:GO would crash within minutes. So I flashed back to my original bios and I will just patiently await Vega.

Sidenote I have a newer Strix RX480 O8 8Gb card with the 8pin connector. I haven't changed paste but I don't believe I would see a significant enough change to achieve stability.

I would be willing to try again but I don't know what to attempt differently.

i dont think silicon lottery is the problem.as i mentioned above you must change the paste i thing overheating causing crash in games try changing the paste then give +20 power limit and core 1411 sould be stable as 480 then try to flash it to 580 and also i have the same card with you strix with 8 pin connector . im using this card as 580 for 6 days now and it is stable as hell

 

[Tasilium]

i dont think silicon lottery is the problem.as i mentioned above you must change the paste i thing overheating causing crash in games try changing the paste then give +20 power limit and core 1411 sould be stable as 480 then try to flash it to 580 and also i have the same card with you strix with 8 pin connector . im using this card as 580 for 6 days now and it is stable as hell

I just might have to pull the card and repaste, just to give it a try. Flashing the bios is so easy. Repasting should be pretty much as simple as it gets. As we near the release of VEGA I get less enthused about pushing my 480. Its probably going to end up on eBay..or somewhere for sale. I only bought it to use as a stopgap video solution for my Ryzen system while I waited on VEGA.

All that said I will probably be pulling the card out in the next day or two, repasting, reflashing, and seeing if I can get a stable 580 out of it..

 

[Sorreah]

Here is a zip of the extracted stuff out of both the RX480 STRIX And RX580 STRIX bios flashers.

The RX580 version is pretty easy, there are two versions for each 580 STRIX, a silent and a performance bios. AS06 is the performance TOP OC version clocked at 1411 MHz and the one I used.

The RX480 bioses are a bit more messy. There are a lot of bioses in there and I think 3 sets of them are 1310 MHz clocked, so I do not know what the differences are as they are not visible in Polaris Bios Editor. Make sure you understand that if you don't flash back the correct bios, you may have issues with warranty support. I would recommend making a rip of your original bios and saving it so you can flash back to it, then use the STRIX RX480 bios flasher to flash a signed version back over it.

You'll need to run ATIWinFlash from the command prompt like this:

atiwinflash -f -p 0 biosname.rom

Where the 0 is the index of the GPU you want to flash. If you have more than one GPU, you'll need to find the commands to enumerate them so you can flash the right ones by index.

DISCLAIMER: I am not advocating anyone do this, I am simply displaying the process for the sake of forum discussion.

Hey, thanks for providing that file. I'm planning to flash my non-OC version of the 480 Strix, will be going with the AS03 rom. Already made a backup of my current rom with the AtiWinFlash GUI tool. Is there a reason to flash from the command line, or can I just flash via the GUI as well?

This post is a bit old, so regardless of whether you end up getting back to me, thanks for the zip, it's been helpful!

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Hey, thanks for providing that file. I'm planning to flash my non-OC version of the 480 Strix, will be going with the AS03 rom. Already made a backup of my current rom with the AtiWinFlash GUI tool. Is there a reason to flash from the command line, or can I just flash via the GUI as well?

This post is a bit old, so regardless of whether you end up getting back to me, thanks for the zip, it's been helpful!

In order to override the hardware ID mismatch (580 bios on a 480) you need to use the command line and enter the flags as I specified earlier in the thread. The GUI version would simply report a hardware ID mismatch after attempting to flash and exit early.

 

[Sorreah]

Wow that was pretty quick.

Right, that makes sense. I suppose the -f flag stands for force then, will go about it that way.

Thanks for getting back to me.