RX 560(but it's Baffin) flashed BIOS

[Sinistersky]

So, I bought a RX 560 Sapphire Pulse 4GB edition. I thought it was a damn 1024 version since it has a 6-pin connector. Now it turns out, it is a damn cut version of 896 named Baffin.

Downloaded the Sapphire BIOS from this site, flashed it. Everything went great, GPU-z shows 1024 processors, the clock speeds went from 1226 Mhz/1500mHz to 1300/1750mHz.

BUT,

the voltage went to 1143 volts on the MAX 7th step. So far it's been 2 days, and everything is working fine while gaming for hours. The card uses arround 60 W, temps are arround 68-73 celsius.

My SKU is 11267-18-20G.

Should I leave this like it is since it's pretty damn more stable then default BIOS, or should I reflash my old BIOS. I'm scared of frying my card since the voltage increase. How much can the PCB take? Is this even a locked chip?

Edit: I also like the fact that the card is at 66-68 celsius while gaming for hours but on the default bios its arround 74-76. How is that even possible? Did the BIOS change the temp chip reading?

Also, my RX has no 0 RPM fan option, but the newly flashed BIOS turns off the fan when idle or low usage.

Im jus trying to figure out if this BIOS would damage my card in the long run. Seems to be working fine TBH

 

[droopyRO]

How is that even possible?

Probably changed the fan profile and/or voltages.

Did you test the card before and after the flash to see if you have a framerate increase ?

 

[Sinistersky]

Probably changed the fan profile and/or voltages.

Did you test the card before and after the flash to see if you have a framerate increase ?

Yes, I did actually. I get nearly the same FPS, and sometimes 3 FPS more than when I OC the default (1226/1500mHz) BIOS to 1299/1750mHz). But in overall performance, I get less hiccups in games(although that can be attributed to something else since it's random)

It seems stable enough, I'm just scared it will overvolt or something since the default BIOS has 1018 volts on the 7th step, and this one has 1143 resulting in 60-64w usage. The card is 47W max i think?

I reflashed the default BIOS since I'm scared of destroying the GPU in the long run. But I don't know why it says 1024 cores in GPU-Z after flashing the new BIOS, since my SKU says that this is a physicaly disabled chip?

This is how it looks like. Factory BIOS(Left), BIOS from this site(Right). And ATIFlash info.

Is this safe or not?

 

[qubit]

Normally we don't suggest people flash their BIOSes, because it tends to lead to bricked cards, but in this case you've clearly gotten lucky.
Since the thing runs faster with lower temps and has the fan switch off in idle, that's a pretty good indication that everything is fine. Enjoy your modded card.

I softmodded and eventually BIOS flashed my 9800 Pro waaay back in 2004 from 4 pipelines to 8 pipelines and the thing went like a rocket. No artefacts and completely stable.

I still have it and it still works.

 

[eidairaman1]

@Final_Fighter has been doing bios mods for the 560, he could probably explain it better too.

You can get MSI after burner and set a fan profile so the fan never shuts off or compare and modify the 896 bios to support the higher voltage, clock, shader, ram timings from the 1024 bios.

 

[cdawall]

Chip probably has a garbage asic value and the new sapphire bios is higher clocked so it took more voltage to get there. My 460 to 1024SP had a pretty big voltage jump to run at full clocks just by default. The card will be fine it is on the normal auto voltage scale for amd.

 

[Sinistersky]

Normally we don't suggest people flash their BIOSes, because it tends to lead to bricked cards, but in this case you've clearly gotten lucky.
Since the thing runs faster with lower temps and has the fan switch off in idle, that's a pretty good indication that everything is fine. Enjoy your modded card.

I softmodded and eventually BIOS flashed my 9800 Pro waaay back in 2004 from 4 pipelines to 8 pipelines and the thing went like a rocket. No artefacts and completely stable.

I still have it and it still works.

I hope you are right. This 1300/1750 mHz is really good, and temps are lower than stock while being stable. I just don't understand how GPU-Z shows 1024 processors, while the SKU on Sapphires site says it's a chip with only 896. And that worries me a little, and the increased W to 60-67W from 40-45W. The card has a 6-pin connector so I think it's ok. These cards go to 100W max right? I don't want to turn my PC on one day and get no signal. At least not for a year or two. :/

@Final_Fighter has been doing bios mods for the 560, he could probably explain it better too.

You can get MSI after burner and set a fan profile so the fan never shuts off or compare and modify the 896 bios to support the higher voltage, clock, shader, ram timings from the 1024 bios.

I hope he would . This makes no sense to me for now. Judging by the SKU the chip is physically locked, so 896 to 1024 makes no sense to me. Am i overworking the PCB with this?

 

[eidairaman1]

I hope you are right. This 1300/1750 mHz is really good, and temps are lower than stock while being stable. I just don't understand how GPU-Z shows 1024 processors, while the SKU on Sapphires site says it's a chip with only 896. And that worries me a little, and the increased W to 60-67W from 40-45W. The card has a 6-pin connector so I think it's ok. These cards go to 100W max right? I don't want to turn my PC on one day and get no signal. At least not for a year or two. :/

Some cards were dropped back because of defects in the cu, not all cards exhibit this though.

 

[Sinistersky]

Chip probably has a garbage asic value and the new sapphire bios is higher clocked so it took more voltage to get there. My 460 to 1024SP had a pretty big voltage jump to run at full clocks just by default. The card will be fine it is on the normal auto voltage scale for amd.

I have no idea. All I know is, the stock BIOS puts the max 7th step to 1018 voltage. This new BIOS puts it at 1143. Idk if thats a big bump or not, I just hope it's not too much for the PCB. It's on auto under Wattman, and I would never increase it further.

 

[qubit]

I hope you are right. This 1300/1750 mHz is really good, and temps are lower than stock while being stable. I just don't understand how GPU-Z shows 1024 processors, while the SKU on Sapphires site says it's a chip with only 896. And that worries me a little, and the increased W to 60-67W from 40-45W. The card has a 6-pin connector so I think it's ok. These cards go to 100W max right? I don't want to turn my PC on one day and get no signal. At least not for a year or two. :/


I hope he would . This makes no sense to me for now. Judging by the SKU the chip is physically locked, so 896 to 1024 makes no sense to me. Am i overworking the PCB with this?

To elaborate on what eidy said, parts of the GPU can be disabled in the BIOS, rather than being lasered off and not all GPUs are faulty. This is why your BIOS flash worked without problems. Otherwise you would have seen artefacts or perhaps even boot problems.

Also, don't worry about that voltage reading. If it's running cooler, then the voltage is likely to actually be lower than before, regardless of the software readings, which are notoriously unreliable. The only way to know for sure is to physically measure the voltage with a multimeter. It will consume more power, but that's only by a 2-5 watts or so for that small difference in shaders.

Again, don't worry about your card, it's working fine.

 

[Sinistersky]

To elaborate on what eidy said, parts of the GPU can be disabled in the BIOS, rather than being lasered off and not all GPUs are faulty. This is why your BIOS flash worked without problems. Otherwise you would have seen artefacts or perhaps even boot problems.

Also, don't worry about that voltage reading. If it's running cooler, then the voltage is likely to actually be lower than before, regardless of the software readings, which are notoriously unreliable. The only way to know for sure is to physically measure the voltage with a multimeter. It will consume more power, but that's only by a 2-5 watts or so for that small difference in shaders.

Again, don't worry about your card, it's working fine.

It is working fine so far Thanks for the clarification. Hopefully I won't make a post in the near future about "No signal after BIOS flash" One more thing, would the card just drop dead, or would I experience some sort of visual defects on my monitor? I assume some artifacts show up? Drops in FPS?

 

[qubit]

It is working fine so far Thanks for the clarification. Hopefully I won't make a post in the near future about "No signal after BIOS flash" One more thing, would the card just drop dead, or would I experience some sort of visual defects on my monitor? I assume some artifacts show up? Drops in FPS?

If a card dies, then the symptoms tend to be kinda random. Basically you'll know it's fucked one way or the other.

Look, I bought a Palit GTX 1080 some time back. Worked fine for three months, then started having odd issues and eventually died. Symptoms included, PC hanging at reset and requiring another push of the button, to brief screen blanks when playing YouTube videos. In the end, I clicked on a YT video a while later, the picture blanked and stayed blank - that was it. Interestingly, there was still a signal to the monitor, it was just all black and the card worked internally, because I could tell the PC was still functioning normally, just without a picture.

After a replacement failed (barely booted from out of the box (DOA) I got a refund for that POS and now have that nice Zotac in my specs.

 

[Sinistersky]

If a card dies, then the symptoms tend to be kinda random. Basically you'll know it's fucked one way or the other.

Look, I bought a Palit GTX 1080 some time back. Worked fine for three months, then started having odd issues and eventually died. Symptoms included, PC hanging at reset and requiring another push of the button, to brief screen blanks when playing YouTube videos. In the end, I clicked on a YT video a while later, the picture blanked and stayed blank - that was it. Interestingly, there was still a signal to the monitor, it was just all black and the card worked internally, because I could tell the PC was still functioning normally, just without a picture.

After a replacement failed (barely booted from out of the box (DOA) I got a refund for that POS and now have that nice Zotac in my specs.

Hmm, Hope I never have odd issues. I love the fact that 1300/1750 runs so stable and under such lower temp than stock BIOS. And I love that the fan doesn't spin when idle and turns on when it hits 50c to cool it at max 1400 RPM and keeps it under 66 celsius. I want to keep this BIOS, but I'm so scared of frying it,im scared of that 1143 volts compared to 1018 Yea, that ZOTAC looks fine as ****, mhm

 

[cdawall]

I have no idea. All I know is, the stock BIOS puts the max 7th step to 1018 voltage. This new BIOS puts it at 1143. Idk if thats a big bump or not, I just hope it's not too much for the PCB. It's on auto under Wattman, and I would never increase it further.

They auto step voltage. This BIOS is 74mhz faster if ASIC value is bad (this is a reason to lock the "working chip" to 896SP), then it would require a healthy bump in voltage to keep it at that clockspeed. That voltage is done automatically by the BIOS, it is within the safe limits of the BIOS. That is why it is programmed into the BIOS. They wouldn't send you home with a default value that is too much. The Polaris based chips as a whole (doesn't matter which one) are all fine on normal air cooling up to like 1200mv and depending on ASIC quality they may very well be that high OEM. If it bothers you and you think you can improve it lower the voltage in Sapphire Trixx or wattman.

 

[Sinistersky]

They auto step voltage. This BIOS is 74mhz faster if ASIC value is bad (this is a reason to lock the "working chip" to 896SP), then it would require a healthy bump in voltage to keep it at that clockspeed. That voltage is done automatically by the BIOS, it is within the safe limits of the BIOS. That is why it is programmed into the BIOS. They wouldn't send you home with a default value that is too much. The Polaris based chips as a whole (doesn't matter which one) are all fine on normal air cooling up to like 1200mv and depending on ASIC quality they may very well be that high OEM. If it bothers you and you think you can improve it lower the voltage in Sapphire Trixx or wattman.

I think that the verified BIOS from this site is the best stability and power I could get with my current knowledge of GPU tinkering. The ASIC is 74.2%. That is bad, right? So with 1143v on the max step, im still on the safe side?

 

[cdawall]

Actually 74.2% is pretty good. You are still fine for voltage, but you can probably undervolt that.

 

[Final_Fighter]

your voltage is fine and temps are good. that card is very capable of driving a fully unlocked chip. i own one of them but the oc edition. i say go ahead and try overclocking the card. i had mine running at 1425mhz core and 2000mhz memory on stock bios. its in my brothers pc at the moment running a modded bios at 1435mhz core and 2100mhz mem. you will need msi afterburner or trixx. create a custom fan profile and increase the tdp to max. i would recommend you try 1350mhz on the core and 1850mhz on the memory to start.

good luck and dont worry about your volts, they are fine. ive run mine up to 1.35v just to see how high i could get the core clock. anything below 1.28v is safe for Polaris.

 

[Zubasa]

I hope you are right. This 1300/1750 mHz is really good, and temps are lower than stock while being stable. I just don't understand how GPU-Z shows 1024 processors, while the SKU on Sapphires site says it's a chip with only 896. And that worries me a little, and the increased W to 60-67W from 40-45W. The card has a 6-pin connector so I think it's ok. These cards go to 100W max right? I don't want to turn my PC on one day and get no signal. At least not for a year or two. :/

I hope he would . This makes no sense to me for now. Judging by the SKU the chip is physically locked, so 896 to 1024 makes no sense to me. Am i overworking the PCB with this?

Chances are the different versions of RX 560 have the same PCB just to save cost, it is cheaper to just make one pcb to make similar cards than to open separate production lines for each and every model. Even if it means the cheaper model actually end up with excess components.

As for the voltage, the way Polaris and Vega works is the Driver and Bios scales the voltage according to the quality of the chip.
Which means for example my 2 Vega 56 both reference cards, runs at slightly different voltages even with the same Bios and PCB.
They also boost to different clock speeds as well, as much as 50Mhz difference at times.

 

[Sinistersky]

your voltage is fine and temps are good. that card is very capable of driving a fully unlocked chip. i own one of them but the oc edition. i say go ahead and try overclocking the card. i had mine running at 1425mhz core and 2000mhz memory on stock bios. its in my brothers pc at the moment running a modded bios at 1435mhz core and 2100mhz mem. you will need msi afterburner or trixx. create a custom fan profile and increase the tdp to max. i would recommend you try 1350mhz on the core and 1850mhz on the memory to start.

good luck and dont worry about your volts, they are fine. ive run mine up to 1.35v just to see how high i could get the core clock. anything below 1.28v is safe for Polaris.

Thank You very much for the information. I have decided to go back to the default BIOS and OC it. Yesterday as I was playing, I got a black screen with a blue window in the top right(That window was probably the Catalyst info as I had it turned on), but yeah, I think it crashed and I turned off the PSU. When I turned it back on, everything was normal, but I got so scared that I want to be on the safe side for now. If there is a BIOS specifically for my SKU card, that just unlocks the 1024 cores, I would test it, but I can't find it. And I am still not sure if the chip is lasered off or just locked?

Either way, right now, I'm running +8 mV (1.020mV I think?) with 1370 mHz Core and 1950 mHz Memory on stock BIOS(896 cores). The fan curve is decently configured as it is not even noticable when the fan spins, but the card is at arround 55 celsius(problably could lower it even further, I think it's at 1200 RPM now) and when it hits 38 celsius, the fan turns off(when I'm in windows, Idk if that is safe).


I cannot get it to 1400 or 1425 mHz even with +20mV

Chances are the different versions of RX 560 have the same PCB just to save cost, it is cheaper to just make one pcb to make similar cards than to open separate production lines for each and every model. Even if it means the cheaper model actually end up with excess components.

As for the voltage, the way Polaris and Vega works is the Driver and Bios scales the voltage according to the quality of the chip.
Which means for example my 2 Vega 56 both reference cards, runs at slightly different voltages even with the same Bios and PCB.
They also boost to different clock speeds as well, as much as 50Mhz difference at times.

Oh, that is very interesting actually. Also, I sometimes see the GPU usage fluctuating. 100-0-100-0% but I don't notice any FPS drops, sometimes they are there but that's just in those really unoptimized games, like Just Cause 3. In Heaven, the FPS is pretty consistent except for the really heavy parts where it scales down properly

 

[STk3000]

Hey is this available for the 2GB aswell? Talking about the Saphire Pulse cards.

I have both OC 2GB (1300MHZ 16 Compute Units 1000 shaders) and the Lite 2GB (1223 14 Compute Units 860 shaders).
I tweaked the bios on the OC, memory to 1950 and used the same mem straps from 1500 up to 2000.

Can I just flash the factory OC 1300 Mhz 1000 shaders bios to the Lite 860 shaders card? Both cards have the 6 pin connector.

On a different note I do mining too on 560s (cryptonote) and since this mem overclock and strap changes sometimes the driver will hang/i would get a notification near the clock that the driver was restarted. Should I restore the 1500 strap and just copy the next step up to the last?

Or should I use the one click mod from Polaris Bios Editor?


Thanks,
Catalin

 

[cdawall]

Should be able to use the 1024 bios on the lite card and the one click on PBE is just copy pasting the straps with one click

 

[STk3000]

Ok Thanks.
While i do that (Waiting for a new mobo) can you help me troblrshoot an Isuse?
Flashed many attempts at straps (the best one for mining being the settings from one click modding offered by pbe) and always memory overclocking to 1950. System is always unstable and hashtate is always fluctuating wildly in claymore. I suspect ITS a driver Isuse, what drivers are recommended for running modded BIOS on 560 and what sign software (to solve the yellow exclamation in device manager)?


Thanks

 

[Sinistersky]

@Final_Fighter When you said it's safe up until 1.28 mV, did you mean 1.028 or 1.280? Because in MSI Afterburner, if i set the mV to +68, I get it stable at 1425/1950 mHz. Temps are arround 68 and Voltage is about 1.081 or so

 

[Final_Fighter]

1.28v

 

[Adrenilyn]

This Polaris Architecture, wonderful and just amazing. Bought my son the SAPPHIRE Radeon™ RX 470 4G D5 OC(basically has the reference design with a blower cooler) last year for Christmas and this thing is still chugging along. Landed it for $140 with an Open-Box Deal 1216 Mhz Core/1750 Mhz Memory. For the past year its been sitting at +20% power limit and running around 1260 Mhz core. Touching the memory on these cards yield no results and take away from high core clocks. Maybe different for Miners though. Anyways, a week ago I decided to upgrade my GTX 970 FTW to the GTX 1080ti FTW3. So gave my son the 970. Well, yesterday the 970 finally gave out after 3 1/2 years of worth every penny back when it was over $350 for it. So I was checking out some custom BIOS today and come to find out, we can beef these bad arse 470's in a fine line between a RX480 and the RX580. So with my reference designed blower cooler that can get pretty warm, I decided to try flashing a heck of a RX 570 BIOS from the Sapphire Nitro+ addition which took my stock clock from 1216Mhz to 1340Mhz with a 30% power limit undervolt, but still running the same memory settings . You play with that it messes up the timings and benchmarks are degraded by a fair amount. Wonderful, just turned this thing into a nice $200 payday come next week when I buy the 1070ti for the kiddo so he can do some decent VR gaming.

With Voltage the highest I've seen on this now 570 is 1.150v. Prior to flashing, it would never break 1.063v so now clue how that 560 can even get to 1.280v. Power only comes from the PCI-e slot correct? Seems a bit high for 75w max, unless I'm mistaken with the 560.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/details/gmnay. Validating even shows it's a 570. Think, I'm either gonna run a rack of 10 of these Flashed 470's for Mining or not even get into it. Feels like the only reason the crytocurrency market is so inflated is due to having a billionaire sitting his arse firmly in the white house. It will fall off due to the fact there is nothing of value that backs it.

Good Luck with your 560.