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Why no BIOS updates for video cards?

Originally posted by: PeteRoy
Does anyone know why there are no BIOS updates for video cards like there is for motherboards?
Click to expand...

There are occasional updates to video card BIOSes.

However, since most of the functionality is addresses via drivers, it makes more sense to make updates there.
 
There do exist some obscure web sites that compile dozens of video card firmwares.
A manufacturer may update a specific card's factory firmware, which an end user is then able to extract and contribute to online databases.
 
Originally posted by: angry hampster
There are. They're called "next generation cards." :laugh:
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in some cases that is correct...in others they don't even bother to update the bios!! Nvidia is the most recent culprit with 8800gt/9800gt/gts250, but ati blazed this trail many years ago.
 
Originally posted by: bryanW1995
Originally posted by: angry hampster
There are. They're called "next generation cards." :laugh:
Click to expand...

in some cases that is correct...in others they don't even bother to update the bios!! Nvidia is the most recent culprit with 8800gt/9800gt/gts250, but ati blazed this trail many years ago.
Click to expand...

Actually it was 8800GTS -> 9800GTX+ -> GTS 250.

And I wish nVidia had gone ahead with their plans to relabel the 9800GT as a GTS 240, then at least we would have a uniform naming system for all the current-generation cards.

You guys seem to forget that while GT200 (GTX 260/280) is based on G92 it's not quite the same. GT200 features the same basic architecture but nVidia added a considerable number of shader processors to beef up the rendering capabilities (G92 had 96/112/128 depending on the card, GT200 has 192/216/240). The advantage is pretty drastic in certain applications (various games, F@H, CUDA apps).
 
Originally posted by: Denithor
Originally posted by: bryanW1995
Originally posted by: angry hampster
There are. They're called "next generation cards." :laugh:
Click to expand...

in some cases that is correct...in others they don't even bother to update the bios!! Nvidia is the most recent culprit with 8800gt/9800gt/gts250, but ati blazed this trail many years ago.
Click to expand...

Actually it was 8800GTS -> 9800GTX+ -> GTS 250.

And I wish nVidia had gone ahead with their plans to relabel the 9800GT as a GTS 240, then at least we would have a uniform naming system for all the current-generation cards.

You guys seem to forget that while GT200 (GTX 260/280) is based on G92 it's not quite the same. GT200 features the same basic architecture but nVidia added a considerable number of shader processors to beef up the rendering capabilities (G92 had 96/112/128 depending on the card, GT200 has 192/216/240). The advantage is pretty drastic in certain applications (various games, F@H, CUDA apps).
Click to expand...


you are forgetting gtx280m aswell
 
only bios 'updates' that i know of are the ones that mod/alter the bios in some way. like that ati gto card bios that unlocked (8?) extra pipes, or the bios that modded the fan speed or boosted/overclocked the default settings etc. i think there were some that changed consumer cards into firegl/quadro cards
 
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