Tuesday, July 5th 2016

AMD 4GB Radeon RX 480 Can Be Flashed into 8GB

by
btarunr
 Discuss (43 Comments)
You've heard of unlocking shaders with BIOS mods in the past, but how about doubling the memory on your card? That's right, owners of some 4 GB Radeon RX 480 graphics cards discovered that they can unlock 4 extra gigabytes of memory on their card by simply flashing it with the BIOS of the 8 GB variant. Some early batches of 4 GB Radeon RX 480 apparently have 8 GB of memory physically, but the BIOS prevents the GPU from addressing beyond 4 GB of it. Not all cards have such a weird contraption, and so AMD is drawing you into a lottery.

UPDATE: We successfully flashed a 4 GB retail RX 480 to 8 GB and benchmarked it in our newer article.
Source: MyCE

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43 Comments on AMD 4GB Radeon RX 480 Can Be Flashed into 8GB

#26
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
Musselstime to make a detailed modding guide? :D
atiflash.exe -f -p 0 8gbbiosfile.rom

Kthxbai.
Posted on Reply
#27
Recon-UK
Ummm bios flashing is as simple as me making a cup of coffee...
Posted on Reply
#28
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
i meant for knowing if your card was compatible or not with pretty pictures
Posted on Reply
#29
$ReaPeR$
it could be meant as a pr move, but imo it was just to bump start the 4gig version sale, thats the real sweet spot card.
Posted on Reply
#30
W1zzard
btarunratiflash.exe -f -p 0 8gbbiosfile.rom

Kthxbai.
doesn't work. i tried flashing the 8 gb press card bios to the 4 gb card
Posted on Reply
#31
truth teller
im sure not all (future) 4gb retails cards wont ship with 8gb.
that was probably a manufacture mode so they could increase the availability (of any of the models) at launch. one assembly line, one pick and place routine and component list, just a different bios flashing near the end
but, hey one can dream right?
btw, is there anything in place on the hardware that prevents the flashing of a modded bios on the rx480?
W1zzarddoesn't work. i tried flashing the 8 gb press card bios to the 4 gb card
digital signature check? if the cards continue to come out of the assembly line like this, please investigate the issue! if this could be softmoded (or even with some small hardware changes like the 9800 resistor mod) it would kick ass!
Posted on Reply
#32
GhostRyder
So its similar to how early production HD 6950 cards could be unlocked to full HD 6970's. Its just early production must have had an influx on the chips and used some of them on the 4gb models. Guess it could be an early bonus if you get lucky and get one and figure out how to unlock it.
W1zzarddoesn't work. i tried flashing the 8 gb press card bios to the 4 gb card
Hmm, wonder how its locked out then...
Posted on Reply
#34
Jism
So any solid proof on flashing to 8GB?

I think it's a 1GB vs 2GB chip-story. We've never seen a company put 8GB ram but only adress half of it on GPU's. They did rebadge 750MHz CPU's before as 600MHz models.
Posted on Reply
#36
-The_Mask-
JismSo any solid proof on flashing to 8GB?
Waiting for W1zzard ;)
We've never seen a company put 8GB ram but only adress half of it on GPU's.
We do now, the first RX480 cards have it.
Posted on Reply
#37
Jism
If sample cards would carry 8GB and thus by Bios be flashed towards 4GB to do 2 reviews at the same time, then it's pretty much obvious. I dont think there are retail cards out there that have 8GB of ram but flashed back to 4GB. It would make no sense at all.

Like someone said before in this thread, it's the 1Gb vs 2Gb chips.
Posted on Reply
#38
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
TRWOVI don't get why would AMD ship 8GB in 4GB cards. Are they sure they can actually access >4GB of VRAM and not just listed in GPU-Z or something?
Simplify the first manufacturing run. They didn't have enough time to re-tool and switch to the 4GB version before the launch, so they just flashed some of the 8GB models to 4GB models to get them on shelves in time. It's been done in the past. Early GTX465 cards were really GTX470 cards flashed with GTX465 BIOS. It was only the first batch though.
Posted on Reply
#39
ixi
I remember AMD doing this before (flash 6950 to 70), does anybody remember Nvidia doing something like this before, no. I only remember 3.5GB fast RAM and 512MB slow xD.
Posted on Reply
#40
horik
I feel like watching those videos where a youtuber "teatches" you how to upgrade your old TV to a 4K one or a PS3 to PS4.
Posted on Reply
#41
TRWOV
mmm hmmm.... *backs away slowly from thread and takes out wallet*
Posted on Reply
#42
-The_Mask-
JismIf sample cards would carry 8GB and thus by Bios be flashed towards 4GB to do 2 reviews at the same time, then it's pretty much obvious. I dont think there are retail cards out there that have 8GB of ram but flashed back to 4GB. It would make no sense at all.

Like someone said before in this thread, it's the 1Gb vs 2Gb chips.
You should read Tweakers more. ;)
It does make sense, explanation already given there.
Posted on Reply
#43
Nobody99
Companies should really stop locking cores, chips and limiting frequency. This is really not economical and in the end you end up with more models which have the same hardware and are never 100% utilized. Also can you call such a product ECO since there are elements on it which will never be used?
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