Flashing the Sapphire R9-280x Vapor-X Tri-X

[Sempron Guy]

I am planning to flash mine, just to unlock the voltages. Anyone tried it already?

 

[fullinfusion]

Why would it be locked and if so ,you think the flash will work? Be careful I see a brick incoming

 

[Sempron Guy]

the current Sapphire R9-280x Vapor-X Tri-x are voltage locked. VBE7 is fully compatible on the card. I'm thinking of editing the bios and do a re-flash. I just need more insights from those who tried it already as it would be my first time doing this. And thanks for the moral support

 

[fullinfusion]

I've flashed enough to know if a card is locked its been locked for a reason, but hey good luck and post how it went

 

[Tatty_Two]

I did mine last week with VBE7 (I have the origional Rev 1 VapourX with the dual fan cooler), mine maxed out at 1075 fully stable on the stock volts of 1.2V, I simply changed the 3D load voltage to 1.212V (which is stock for some of the super clocked models) and now she runs at 1100mhz all day, the bonus was it only added 2 degrees to the GPU temp and 3 degrees to VRM's.

Now here is the thing, as others have said, you use the term voltage locked? If that means that for example in Trixx you cannot manually adjust voltage then do not flash your card because simply put, chances are you don't have a software programmable controller and no end of flashes will change things and as others have said, would quite possibly brick your card.

If however you can manually adjust voltages through Trixx but rather than mess around with different software you would rather amend the Bios then you should be OK..... providng of course you know what you are doing!

If you have the voltage option in Trixx then check the votage increments first, they are strange, what I mean by that is that if you manually input say 1.220V and click "apply" you will see the incremental voltage set, if I remember in the case of 1.220V that reads 1.218V, set THAT voltage in VBE7, hence my 1.212V...... hope that makes sense? I used ATi Winflash to flash without issue..... but as always do so at your own risk.

 

[Sempron Guy]

Oh I might have used the wrong term on my first post. The voltage slider is adjustable in Trixx but it's already max out by default which is 1.2v. And i could adjust the slider and lower the voltage but it won't set at the lowered voltage I set it at. It still remains at 1.2v. I loaded my card's bios on VBE7 and this what I got

VRM controller says CHL822x which supported on VBE7?

 

[Law-II]

Hi

VRM controller says CHL822x which supported on VBE7?

Source here

how was this missed when downloading VBE7 from the opening post!

Note: don't forget to make a backup of the original vbios image before flashing

atb

Law-II

 

[Tatty_Two]

Is it also maxed in afterburner? Strange that you have a programmable controller but Sapphire limit it's application so to speak, especially considering that mine comes with an upper limit of 1.4V in Trixx!

if you are not very experienced or confident let me know and I can mod the Bios for you provided you dump/zip/upload it in here.

 

[Sempron Guy]

yup, thanks, I saw that at the beginning. I just want to clarify what @Tatty_One said

If that means that for example in Trixx you cannot manually adjust voltage then do not flash your card because simply put, chances are you don't have a software programmable controller and no end of flashes will change things and as others have said, would quite possibly brick your card.

@Tatty_One

with MSI Afterburner, the voltage slider is greyed out completely. Thanks for the offer, still in the process of thinking whether I should do it or not.

 

[Tatty_Two]

The controller is supported, the question you need to ask yourself is why you are doing it, if you like to push your hardware and eek every bit of performance out of it I can understand that but do you have what you need already? or is that itch just getting too bad lol! All I can say is that it worked flawless for me last week, your risk your gain so to speak, let me know if you need anything doing.

 

[Sempron Guy]

more on curiosity and that gratification of pushing the hardware at it's limit and don't you think the Vapor-X deserves more than 1.2v? hehe. Now one last question before I hit the hay and think about it. Is it possible to just set the voltage in bios via VBE7 at 1.3v instantly or should I try first at lower increments? How do I know how far I can increase the voltage?

 

[Tatty_Two]

Personally I would not recommend 1.3V for 24/7 use even on decent air cooling, it's OK for the odd benching session plus once it has been input and flashed it's there and non adjustable (at 3D load) unless you re-flash. I would go 1.25V max. That should give you at the VERY least another 50mhz, quite possibly more, obviously monitor temps in GPU-Z, especially VRM's.

Edit: You may find that raising the voltage in the Bios actually raises the limit in Trixx, on the negative side, if the restriction is imposed at the driver level (I am not a driver expert) then it could cause you problems. What is your upper overclocking limit in CCC overdrive?

 

[Sempron Guy]

I could go as high as 1500mhz on the core and 2000mhz on the mem clock. What's the usual borderline for VRM temps?

 

[Tatty_Two]

If they stay well below 90C at FULL load you should not have any issues, in reality at 1.25V you will probably only hit high seventies.

 

[de.das.dude]

do you really need those 10FPS more enoguh that you want to risk bricking this card? if you can afford to go for it.
but why not buy a better card in the first place

 

[Sempron Guy]

do you really need those 10FPS more enoguh that you want to risk bricking this card? if you can afford to go for it.
but why not buy a better card in the first place

cards already on hand, and I didn't have the slightest idea they were voltage locked. And it's not about FPS either. Just want to thread on unfamiliar waters. I could just sell these and buy a faster card but where's the fun in that?

 

[Sempron Guy]

Ok so after 8mos. I finally decided to do the reflash. I only changed the 3d load clocks to 1175 and the voltage to 1.25v, nothing else. The flash was successful and after reboot, gpu-z confirmed the new clocks. I fired up Furmark and then grey lines. Fans are spinning like it's at 100%. Attempted it twice, same procedure and I got no luck so far. So I'm now back at the stock bios and confirmed the card is working fine. One thing I noticed though, using ati winflash, during the flash process, w/c is going from stock to modded, the program freezes a bit. I got the program not responding at the header. It would last almost during the majority of the process and then I'd get the prompt that the flash was successful. Going back to stock bios, I could see the progress bar running seamlessly to completion. No freezes whatsover. Any thoughts?