Tuesday, May 14th 2013
GeForce GTX 680 Can Be Flashed to GTX 770?
No you can't, but read on. When we learned that NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 770 uses a GPU not unlike the GeForce GTX 680 in specifications, we overlooked one possibility, that it uses the same exact chip, the GK104. We assumed that NVIDIA could release a new ASIC codenamed "GK114" or "GK204," which features higher energy-efficiency, and GPU Boost 2.0.
A Reddit user claims that a simple BIOS flash of the GeForce GTX 680 could turn it into a GeForce GTX 770. The BIOS ROM image, which probably works with reference-design GTX 680 boards was posted, along with a GPU-Z screenshot of a "GeForce GTX 770" obtained this way. The BIOS runs the card at 1059 MHz core, 1125 MHz maximum GPU Boost, and 1752 MHz (7.00 GHz GDDR5-effective) memory, yielding a memory bandwidth of 224 GB/s. The BIOS file can be found here (try it at your own risk). We tested the BIOS with some of our own GTX 680 cards, and found it to be nothing more than a modified GTX 680 BIOS (for increased clocks) with a modified driver INF file that makes the GeForce driver display a different model name. The BIOS just has made-up clock speeds that could run on some GTX 680 cards, but could be unstable on most.
We created four additional GPU-Z screenshots to serve as evidence that just by modifying the INF file, you can make the card appear as anything you want. The string from the INF file is used in Windows for display purposes only; the graphics driver does not use it for anything else; certainly not feature detection.
When your GTX 680 manages to be stable with the new BIOS, the higher clock speeds obviously work to get you that 5-7 percent performance increment. Third-rate companies often get away selling rebranded fake graphics cards in developing markets using this method. For example, they buy cheap GeForce 210 cards and sell them as GT 630 for twice the money. Even between officially rebranded NVIDIA graphics cards (such as GeForce 8800 GT to 9800 GT), the device ID is changed, so there's no reason why NVIDIA won't do the same with the GTX 770. In conclusion, this "GTX 770" mod is nothing more than a combination of a custom GTX 680 BIOS that adds higher clock speeds, and a custom INF file that changes the card's name string.
A Reddit user claims that a simple BIOS flash of the GeForce GTX 680 could turn it into a GeForce GTX 770. The BIOS ROM image, which probably works with reference-design GTX 680 boards was posted, along with a GPU-Z screenshot of a "GeForce GTX 770" obtained this way. The BIOS runs the card at 1059 MHz core, 1125 MHz maximum GPU Boost, and 1752 MHz (7.00 GHz GDDR5-effective) memory, yielding a memory bandwidth of 224 GB/s. The BIOS file can be found here (try it at your own risk). We tested the BIOS with some of our own GTX 680 cards, and found it to be nothing more than a modified GTX 680 BIOS (for increased clocks) with a modified driver INF file that makes the GeForce driver display a different model name. The BIOS just has made-up clock speeds that could run on some GTX 680 cards, but could be unstable on most.
We created four additional GPU-Z screenshots to serve as evidence that just by modifying the INF file, you can make the card appear as anything you want. The string from the INF file is used in Windows for display purposes only; the graphics driver does not use it for anything else; certainly not feature detection.
84 Comments on GeForce GTX 680 Can Be Flashed to GTX 770?
Lucky us :cool:
his present SLI hack is very difficult to counter, due to the way it is written (pretty low-level and early in boot if i remember)
Before that was possible,Nvidia even had entered some malicious code into their drivers to make systems crash that had the hack installed...intentionally.
So, Hybrid SLI with different cards, and the hack should still be up and running somewhere along these forums,for the people that want to try it out themselves ;)
Re: that account. I took Charlie/Copper to task for daring to suggest that Chas might actually follow through with getting some articles out regarding Intel's lawsuit failures (AMD, Nvidia specifically)- since his stock answer to anything that could lead to Intel criticism is to sweep it under the rug...oh, and being one of those daring to questionthe veracityof John Fruehe's (also known as JF_AMD on many forums) claims for Bulldozer, and the subsequent banning of people who questioned his numbers - nothing like having a sig that basically says "Company VP" to help sway the moderators into wielding the banhammer. And my account was very, very far from being the only one chopped.Here, allow me to help out.
You and Casecutter should really torque up the personal baiting- it really becomes you.
"Geforce GTX 680 Can Be Flashed to GTX770"
:nutkick:
BTW:
Oops.
Anyhow, I'll take your advice...assuming you take your own that is, and Casecutter can restrain himself from playing wingman.
No love for trolls :pimp: