PowerColor Outs "Unlocked BIOS" for RX 480 RED Devil

[btarunr]

PowerColor today released an optional "Unlocked BIOS" for its Radeon RX 480 RED Devil graphics card. Available through PowerColor DevilClub (and TechPowerUp), the BIOS is optional because it is intended only for power-users. The BIOS increases power-limits on the card, facilitating higher overclocking headroom and clock speed sustainability.

The obvious trade-offs here are higher power-consumption, temperatures, and noise. In fact, PowerColor strongly recommends against using the modded card with FurMark as the company found that it will damage even non-overclocked cards with the new BIOS. PowerColor, however, stated that flashing your card with the optional BIOS will not void your warranty.

DOWNLOAD: PowerColor RX 480 Unlocked BIOS



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[dj-electric]

i really question how much this will improve on the extremely-poor OC capabilities of the RX 480...

 

[ZoneDymo]

Cool stuff!

 

[lanlagger]

Cool stuff!

it is actually the opposite - "hot stuff", and not like sexy "hot", but phisically hot (think of - mantel and vulkan hot )

 

[F-Zero]

Good guy PowerColor

 

[Caring1]

Red Devil, sounds perfect to me

 

[Sempron Guy]

PowerColor, however, stated that flashing your card with the optional BIOS will not void your warranty.

 

[silentbogo]

i really question how much this will improve on the extremely-poor OC capabilities of the RX 480...

I was recently reading a review of this card on a russian website (HardwareLuxx), and there are few things that make it even worse:
- There are 6 GPU phases and quote: "According to the information from PowerColor, each phase can deliver 25W, and not 22.5W." (giving a total of 150W just for GPU)
- With all the other stuff on the board it has a max power draw of 175W, which is exactly where the initial limit is set (hence that crappy/unstable 6.7% overclock)
- Temperatures under load are 76°C and 80°C in Silent-BIOS and OC-BIOS accordingly (which is kinda crazy, considering the size of the triple-fan cooling solution)

So, if there is an "Unlocked" BIOS with raised TDP, then PowerColor deliberately violates its own architectural limit for this card. I couldn't see the model# of mosfets used on this particular card, so I cannot confirm or deny for sure, as to whether these are capable of handling a bit higher than loads. It might be OK just for benching (ONLY with additional cooling), but I'd probably wait for an 8+ phase variant of RX480, if I wanted to overclock the sh#t out of it...

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

the optional BIOS will not void your warranty.

strongly recommends against using the modded card with FurMark

hows that supposed to work then?.....

 

[hojnikb]

I was recently reading a review of this card on a russian website (HardwareLuxx), and there are few things that make it even worse:
- There are 6 GPU phases and quote: "According to the information from PowerColor, each phase can deliver 25W, and not 22.5W." (giving a total of 150W just for GPU)
- With all the other stuff on the board it has a max power draw of 175W, which is exactly where the initial limit is set (hence that crappy/unstable 6.7% overclock)
- Temperatures under load are 76°C and 80°C in Silent-BIOS and OC-BIOS accordingly (which is kinda crazy, considering the size of the triple-fan cooling solution)

So, if there is an "Unlocked" BIOS with raised TDP, then PowerColor deliberately violates its own architectural limit for this card. I couldn't see the model# of mosfets used on this particular card, so I cannot confirm or deny for sure, as to whether these are capable of handling a bit higher than loads. It might be OK just for benching (ONLY with additional cooling), but I'd probably wait for an 8+ phase variant of RX480, if I wanted to overclock the sh#t out of it...

VRMs are capable of much more than that,

 

[$ReaPeR$]

this will work only with water cooling imo. its cool that they keep the warranty though!!

 

[Shou Miko]

this will work only with water cooling imo. its cool that they keep the warranty though!!

U don't need wc to flash this bios the devil air cooler should be able to handle this bios too

 

[qubit]

PowerColor strongly recommends against using the modded card with FurMark as the company found that it will damage even non-overclocked cards with the new BIOS

That's ridiculous. It shouldn't be possible to damage a card regardless of what software is running on it. Next thing you know, there's gonna be some really demanding new game that pushes it similarly hard to Furmark and the thing dies on you. I wouldn't buy a card like this.

If I run Furmark on my 780 Ti, it simply throttles down significantly and stays well below its max temperature. Animation was smooth, too.

 

[Ruru]

I'd not recommend Furmark for any GPU, since it's just so useless. Just tests the maximum heat output/power consumption, who needs that? IMO the best way to test the stability of an overclocked GPU is simply playing GPU intensive games.

 

[silentbogo]

VRMs are capable of much more than that,

I was quoting the website, that was quoting PowerColor, so it is not something I simply made up.

 

[Orivaa]

i really question how much this will improve on the extremely-poor OC capabilities of the RX 480...

Excuse you?

 

[dj-electric]

Some guy proved that overclocking your golden sample with water cooling makes it not so horrible. still pretty bad, but not horrible

FTFY.

 

[Tatty_Two]

I welcome anyone willing to go the extra to give us a little more performance out of our investment but looking in the UK these cards cost £266 ($348 US) as the 3 retailers I have just looked at have 8GB versions only, I therefore would suggest that unless retailers are taking a huge margin Powercolor may have needed something like this to push sales of the card .... I dunno, I still like the idea of getting something for nothing and it's nice to see as it's becoming rarer but in context this card is way more than what I paid for my 290X.

 

[dorsetknob]

PowerColor, however, stated that flashing your card with the optional BIOS will not void your warranty.

Soon to be added to TPU Data base By someone
and ................>>>>>> all those i Flashed my Bios and now card DON'T WORK threads

 

[Bruno Vieira]

FTFY.

He doesn't have a golden sample at all... All the RX 480 reach 1450 with 1.25v without any problem. Just look around the RX 480's Owners Club. And yes, you NEED water to live with 1.25v

 

[Orivaa]

FTFY.

Watch the video. That's not a golden sample.

 

[btarunr]

Soon to be added to TPU Data base By someone
and ................>>>>>> all those i Flashed my Bios and now card DON'T WORK threads

It's already on our DB, a human reviews every BIOS user-submission and GPU-Z keeps away identical submissions. Also, TPU doesn't offer any warranty for its downloads.

 

[dorsetknob]

Also, TPU doesn't offer any warranty for its downloads.

That's right
and as Powercolor are Saying

PowerColor, however, stated that flashing your card with the optional BIOS will not void your warranty.

I Still stand by what i said

>>> all those i Flashed my Bios and now card DON'T WORK threads

Trust me They will come

 

[rtwjunkie]

That's ridiculous. It shouldn't be possible to damage a card regardless of what software is running on it. Next thing you know, there's gonna be some really demanding new game that pushes it similarly hard to Furmark and the thing dies on you. I wouldn't buy a card like this.

If I run Furmark on my 780 Ti, it simply throttles down significantly and stays well below its max temperature. Animation was smooth, too.

What it's doing is intentional, just like all cards since the 2nd gen of Fermi, because Nvidia also feels Furmark will damage their cards. The difference is they do it for you instead of just warning you like Powercolor and AMD are doing. Furmark is bad...bad, bad, bad.

Don't be concerned about a game putting that much stress on a card.....games won't get there for at least 10 years. By then no one will be using any current cards.

 

[_Flare]

+33 Ampere
+55 Watts

the Warning is serious