what does flashing GPU mean

[saba17]

so i saw posts about flashing rx 570 into rx 580 bios.what does this mean and why are people flashing rx 570 into rx 580 bios

[fuzz0r]

Basic Input/Output System and also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS or PC BIOS) is firmware used to perform hardware initialization during the booting process

From wikipedia. (didn't want to explain it so I just copy/pasted. )

 

They unlock some performance by doing it.

[Levent]

Higher stock clock speeds and most likely higher voltage settings options. Back in 2010, AMDs HD6950s were in so much demand that AMD would flash intact HD6970s into HD6950s with shaders being locked in BIOS level, nowadays you cant unlock shaders by flashing BIOS' but you can increase the limits set in BIOS (such as gpu core voltage, power limits etc). If you dont know how to recover a graphics card bios and you dont have a dual bios card, DONT DO IT. I actually recovered 3 graphics cards that were bricked by people who didnt know what they were doing.

[SupaKomputa]

To unlock the shaders which is absent in 570, therefore boost the performance.

It's AMD habit, they made a single chip then decided to have multiple version of it.

[Deuxez]

8 minutes ago, Levent said:

If dont know how to recover a graphics card bios and you dont have a dual bios card, DONT DO IT. I actually recovered 3 graphics cards that were bricked by people who didnt know what they were doing.

Yeah, ive done this, and it went not so good. I were lucky enough to have a bios switch on my GPU, and a CPU with integrated grapichs too, so i could recover it to the normal bios. It happend a few years ago, and it still have it in my system. Id also recommend that @sabapro17 dont flash anything, or even try to flash.

And im also pretty sure you cant flash a 570 to a 580 (might be wrong, but ive never heard of anyone doing that). 470 -> 570 and 480 -> 580 should work tho.