Sapphire 390X Bios?

MEC-777 · July 29, 2015

After you swap!

After you swap what?

-iSynthesis · July 29, 2015

Not to sure I would trust that cooler after ASUS had some 290 failures but if you feel its good then you can try...

They are known for the best coolers for the R9 series. ASUS took the cooler of the 780 and slapped it onto the 290x. Since the 290x chip is quite a lot smaller than the one of the 780, the heat plate is too big resulting in horrible temps. Since Sapphire only makes AMD cards that is not a problem.

Nena Trinity · July 29, 2015

They are known for the best coolers for the R9 series. ASUS took the cooler of the 780 and slapped it onto the 290x. Since the 290x chip is quite a lot smaller than the one of the 780, the heat plate is too big resulting in horrible temps. Since Sapphire only makes AMD cards that is not a problem.

True! MSI, Sapphire & XFX are all great!

DXMember · July 29, 2015

Yes it does matter. The differences in the BIOS between 290's and 390's is more than just clock and voltage tweaks. They've altered more than that. The proof of this is in the fact that with my 290 flashed to a 390x, I have observed 3-5% improvements (in benchmarks and gaming performance) clock for clock with lowered voltages and the card also runs a couple degrees cooler. So they've clearly made other optimizations within the 390's BIOS.

Yes, what I meant was that he will still be able to flash any 390 BIOS onto his card no matter if he uses ASUS, Saphire or any other manufacturers BIOS.

And the difference between different 390 BIOS'es would be only in clock speeds and voltages.

MEC-777 · July 30, 2015

Yes, what I meant was that he will still be able to flash any 390 BIOS onto his card no matter if he uses ASUS, Saphire or any other manufacturers BIOS.

And the difference between different 390 BIOS'es would be only in clock speeds and voltages.

I see what you meant now, but that's still not the whole story. Not all 390 BIOS's are the same and the changes run deeper than just the clocks and voltages. Different PCB's have different components and components layouts. Some have more or less power phases with different controllers etc. The BIOS from a reference 390 will not work on some non-reference 390's because of this.

MEC-777 · August 1, 2015

@brainlessgaming

The 390x BIOS, I have discovered, was giving me issues with a couple of games (Rocket League and Spintires, specifically). Every 5 mins or so (sometimes every minute), during game play, the PC would freeze for a few seconds, then the screens would go black for a moment and reset, then the game would continue on running as before. Super-annoying when you're trying to play a fast-paced online multiplayer game.

So I flipped my BIOS switch back to the 290 and the problem has gone away.

I think it's safe to conclude that it's not really worth doing the BIOS flash for what little gains you get and dealing with possible problems on top of that.