So... the vBIOS...

[Timmy-P]

I've recently gained an interest in doing some flashing of my VGA BIOS lately. I have the software and such, and I've been snooping around to see what I can find. Primarily, I'm looking to squeeze more power out of my card, a Gigabyte GTX 650 Ti, by raising the voltage. Yes, I understand it's a huge risk. Yes, I understand it's not something to be done regularly. I get that. I just have a few questions:

-To my understanding, you can flash similar vBIOS ROMs to a card, which will trick the card into thinking it's a different card in the series. In my case, I could take the vBIOS from a Gigabyte 650 Ti Boost or a 660, then the BIOS would "unlock" disabled cores etc. and increase the TDP, theoretically. Is this correct? Or am I missing something?

-If the above were to be true, the only vBIOS ROMs that I could find are 2 GB VRAM modules, in which my card has 1. Does the BIOS have any affiliation with this? Could I flash that no problem?

Thanks for stopping by.

[FireFox]

I don't think it is as simple as that because people would have already done it. I think NVIDIA does something to the chip to disable SMX units.

 

My recommendation is not to do it. The GTX 650 Ti is pretty close to the GTX 660 (I have both) so you'd barely notice an improvement. A while ago I OC'ed my MSI GTX 650 Ti from the factory OC of 993MHz to about 1,120MHz and it pretty much equalled my GTX 660.

[Timmy-P]

I don't think it is as simple as that because people would have already done it. I think NVIDIA does something to the chip to disable SMX units.

I've heard people do it with AMD cards all the time, like a 7x50 to a 7x70, or an R9 290 to an R9 290X. If NVIDIA went the extra mile with the SMX, then that might explain the drought of info I'm getting over on Team Green.

My recommendation is not to do it. The GTX 650 Ti is pretty close to the GTX 660 (I have both) so you'd barely notice an improvement. A while ago I OC'ed my MSI GTX 650 Ti from the factory OC of 993MHz to about 1,120MHz and it pretty much equalled my GTX 660.

At stock, I'd disagree with you:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/781?vs=783

I wish to OC myself, I've been having other problems with my computer these past few days, so I couldn't get around to finding a stable setting. The fact that I could only increase mine to add an extra 62 mV in Afterburner was a bit limiting. Hence my interest in the vBIOS.

[FireFox]

I've heard people do it with AMD cards all the time, like a 7x50 to a 7x70, or an R9 290 to an R9 290X. If NVIDIA went the extra mile with the SMX, then that might explain the drought of info I'm getting over on Team Green.

At stock, I'd disagree with you:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/781?vs=783

I wish to OC myself, I've been having other problems with my computer these past few days, so I couldn't get around to finding a stable setting. The fact that I could only increase mine to add an extra 62 mV in Afterburner was a bit limiting. Hence my interest in the vBIOS.

 

I went from a GTX 650 Ti to a GTX 660 and from my experiences I didn't see much of a gain.

[killcomic]

Oh, you're playing with fire there. If you can't OC to a stable clock, messing with the BIOS won't do much but bring a world of hurt. Sometimes your OC is limited by the actual silicone and there ain't a BIOS out there that can helps.

Some people get lucky and get golden chips that can go far above and beyond, but that's a lottery that not many people win.

[harrynowl]

This isn't a thing anymore. Missing SMX(es) are "cut" off the die rather than disabled with the VBIOS/UEFI GOP.

 

Gone are the days of flashing 6950s into 6970s and GTX465s into 470s.

 

Otherwise VBIOS flashing is safer than most think. If you run into a "brick" situation you can blindflash or use onboard graphics or a different card entirely.

[FireFox]

This isn't a thing anymore. Missing SMX(es) are "cut" off the die rather than disabled with the VBIOS/UEFI GOP.

 

Gone are the days of flashing 6950s into 6970s and GTX465s into 470s.

 

Otherwise VBIOS flashing is safer than most think. If you run into a "brick" situation you can blindflash or use onboard graphics or a different card entirely.

 

The disabled SMX's are still present on the die, they don't literally cut it out.

[harrynowl]

The disabled SMX's are still present on the die, they don't literally cut it out.

I did put it in inverted commas for that reason, I believe they just laser off the logic links or something.

[FireFox]

I did put it in inverted commas for that reason, I believe they just laser off the logic links or something.

 

Ahh

[Timmy-P]

Oh, you're playing with fire there. If you can't OC to a stable clock, messing with the BIOS won't do much but bring a world of hurt. Sometimes your OC is limited by the actual silicone and there ain't a BIOS out there that can helps.

Some people get lucky and get golden chips that can go far above and beyond, but that's a lottery that not many people win.

It's not that my OC is unstable; I haven't gotten around to finding a definitive clock and stressing it yet, as I'm worrying about OCin my CPU first.

This isn't a thing anymore. Missing SMX(es) are "cut" off the die rather than disabled with the VBIOS/UEFI GOP.

Gone are the days of flashing 6950s into 6970s and GTX465s into 470s.

Otherwise VBIOS flashing is safer than most think. If you run into a "brick" situation you can blindflash or use onboard graphics or a different card entirely.

Okay, thanks for the info. I have Kepler BIOS Editor, and I can just experiment there.

Edit: One more question, I forgot... Apparently UEFI on vBIOS is a thing. How would one go about obtaining it?

[harrynowl]

It's not that my OC is unstable; I haven't gotten around to finding a definitive clock and stressing it yet, as I'm worrying about OCin my CPU first.

Okay, thanks for the info. I have Kepler BIOS Editor, and I can just experiment there.

Edit: One more question, I forgot... Apparently UEFI on vBIOS is a thing. How would one go about obtaining it?

A lot of newer cards have by default for fast boot. I know you can add it using a hex editor.

[Timmy-P]

A lot of newer cards have by default for fast boot. I know you can add it using a hex editor.

Thanks for the info.