Hi Everyone!
If you are reading this the guide is probably for you!!! This guide is an updated refresh based on or in part by other similar threads throughout TPU and my own personal experience (I used to be an nvidia guide but this 290x is too fun) it also covers all current information based off of the latest ATIFLASH.
(4.17 as of writing R9 compatible.)
All testing was done on windows 10 64bit.
After flashing my own I thought it might be a good idea to write an in-depth guide to help those out that may have fell to the wayside during their flashing endeavours, or maybe you're just curious!
Lets get started!
First and foremost. Lets talk about why you would want to read this guide or flash your card. For most people this boils down to three different reasons.
1. I want better performance out of my card but I want a more permanent solution than using OC software. (Clocks/Fan ramps)
2. I want to update my bios for a feature. (UEFI Support)
3. I've bricked my card probably attempting one of the above and now I'm stuck because I never thought it would happen.
To help with all of these situations I have split them into different problems that we can tackle one by one for you. This guide is filled with humor satire and I think Pizza sauce on my keyboard. (ain't life a bitch?) Lets start with getting better performance.
If you are at all uncomfortable with flashing your card the easiest way to get performance is using third party software to increase your clock rates so that you can drive better FPS and memory bandwidth. There are a lot of different ways to do this and a lot of different tools. If you are new to overclocking in general don't be discouraged by all the information, but don't set unrealistic goals either.
As the saying goes "Overclocking is a silicone lottery." Some chips will overclock better or worse than others even if they are the same in every way. That said try to take everything with a bit of salt.
Here are some overclocking software links that are commonly used and a link to some guides you can use to try your hand at lady luck.
OK! With that out of the way let's digest things a bit! First please understand any of these guides can get outdated or unnecessary. If you're unsure just ask in the relevant sub forum of the GPU forums! moving on good luck!
Now lets start with GPU Flashing the primary point. This section will be broken up into several sub sections to help with clarity and timelining. Some of these skills or instructions will be needed as explanations become harder to understand. If you have any questions please ask them but please attempt to read the section(s) in their entirety as it may have already been explained.
Is probably the single most important part of all of this aside from doing your own backup. This GPU BIOS DB is the most comprehensive list and collection of GPU bios' you can find anywhere on the internet. For simplicity the above title is linked to the AMD/ATI section of the DB but you can access the whole database
HERE.
First a rundown for those of us not interested in the scary things that come later in the guide such as bad flashing a bios, bricking your card, your grandmother walking in on your session of lonely space vixens, or losing your skyrim save data.
I want better performance out of my card but I want a more permanent solution than using OC software.
Welcome to the world of BIOS flashing your card! Most people generally do this for experimentation or because they first found stable OC settings and would like to make them more permanent. There is nothing wrong with either but lets get some SUPER basics down first.
- NEVER FLASH UNTIL YOU HAVE BACKED UP YOUR CURRENT BIOS!
- NEVER FLASH VIA WINDOWS!
- NEVER FLASH OVERCLOCKED!
- TRY NOT TO FLASH WITH MORE THAN 1 GPU!
Have you read that? good read it again..awesome lets tackle them one at a time.
Never flash until you have backed up your current bios!
This is a no brainer really. This is super important and is most importantly EASY TO DO! It also gives you a way to save your ass later if you mess up! Why? Let's face it even if you are 100% certain that the bios you picked will work there is always a chance you need to RMA (you warranty voiding heathen!) re-sell or otherwise manage to botch your flash. This can all be remedied by flashing the original back since well you know...it worked to begin with.
How to backup your bios
Lets start by grabbing
GPU-Z a nifty little utility you probably already use to stare at the specs of your really expensive minecraft machine.
Now lets open it up!
Here is the primary screen of GPU-Z here we will dump the bios from our GPU to save at a later time. simply click where I have circled.
This button image or whatever may change with future revisions of GPU-Z but I imagine it will most likely always be next to the bios version string. When in doubt just mouse over the various bits and it will tell you what it does. once you click it we need to name it.
By default it saves as .rom which is good since its the format we will be using to flash. By default GPU-Z saves it as the architecture name. case in point Hawaii.rom however lets change that to orig.rom or original.rom this is an easy way to make sure you always know the name of your backup bios file incase the worst happens.
NEVER flash via Windows
Flashing in windows is a terrible Idea Too many things can go wrong such as interrupts from annoying UAC prompts to updates or spiked CPU load. The options are endless and your chances of success are too slim for this to be worth it. I will explain later how to flash the proper way. It will take you maybe an extra 5min and you should seriously consider doing it. If you decide to not heed this warning and flash via windows anyway and totally scramble your GPUs brains I have a section for that but not sympathy. In Fact I will probably publicly shame you. So just read the guide leave a thanks and not say a thing.
Never flash overclocked
This is another one of the cardinal rules laid out for you. Much like the flashing in windows warning there is alot that can go wrong. Even if you have done your mobo bios another card whatever overclocked I can personally say I have wrecked boards doing this. Most motherboards now have profiles you can save and all of them have a quick menu option to restore to defaults usually on the save/exit page and in almost 100% of cases the default reset key is F9 there is literally no excuse to do it since it's easy and fast to do and easy and fast to revert back. I cannot stress this enough.
Try not to flash with more than 1 GPU
Like the title states. this isn't so much a rule as it is a failsafe against yourself and ease of the process. With the onset of card mixing for physics or performance and the steady upward slope of SLI/Crossfire systems multi-GPU systems are here to stay. The problem in some cases is in fact the damn good compatibility. With certain manufacturers playing nice with others at different clocks its easy to mix cards between brands even if they dont necissarily play well with each others clocks or memory timings the driver takes care of the rest. However a mistake of this type when flashing can leave you with nothing but problems. I generally recommend flashing with only the GPU intended to be flashed instead of the team you may have working for you. This makes the chance of mistake lower and the flashing process a bit easier.
With the rules out of the way let's get started with flashing for the noob. Upto this point please refer to the things learned thus far and we at this point will run under the assumption you have read it understood it and have a perfectly working card that you just want to flash.
To get started go ahead and grab the "flash package" attached at the bottom of this post which contains everything needed to get you started! Unzip it to a directory so you can easily manage the files. After which lets do the following.
Individual files attached below are provided for people that are having a hard time finding specific things. The "Flash Package" contains all of the attached files in one nice package.
If you run into ANY problems saving your bios via ATIFLASH or you have issues flashing some systems respond better to RUFUS
1.) Get a thumb drive 64mb or greater.
2.) Unplug all other removable drives from your machine (USB, SD, External HDD etc)
3.) Run the HP Disk storage tool as Administrator.
4.) In the Tool make sure your device appears under the "Device" drop down list
5.) Check the box "Create A DOS startup disk using system files located at"
6.) click the "..." browse button and navigate to the directory you extracted this from.
7.) Click on the "win98boot" folder and press "OK"
8.) Now click "Start" inside the HP format tool.
9.) After the format completes COPY atiflash.exe and xxx.rom where xxx.rom is the actual name of your bios .rom file. This should be 5 or less characters. Also remember to copy over your original!
10.) After the copy completes Please make sure if your GPU comes with a bios switch it is in position number 1!!!!! If it is not or you are uncertain shut down your machine and make sure of this now! Generally it is marked on the PCB and most times the "1" position is towards the rear of the PC case (assuming card is installed) However it is good to lookup and verify these positions yourself. Please check with your GPU manufacturer for more details.
11.) Reboot your machine and Press F12, F10, F9, ESC, or whatever button brings you to your system boot menu.
12.) Select your thumb drive and hit enter.
13.) You will be greeted with a black and white DOS screen and a blinking cursor.
14.) Run the following command to get the adapter number no quotes please. "atiflash -i"
14b.) If you have not backed up your bios yet via GPU-Z above take this time to do it now using this command atiflash -s 0 orig.rom where "0" is your adapter number!
15.) Prepare to flash your GPU using the following command substituting "0" with whatever device number your GPU is. and substitute xx with your .rom name.
16.) atiflash -f -p 0 xxx.rom
Success! In most cases your system flash has gone smooth especially if you followed the directions above! Most of the time you will need nothing more and if flashing again just follow the instructions again to the letter. minus making the actual flash drive. At this point you can remove and copy bios.roms to and from to your hearts content.
However it is not uncommon that after a bios flash you need to reinstall your drivers! Doing so may fix a lot of odd issues after a bios flash so please try that should anything seem off! A Link to the AMD driver page is at the top of this guide!
Has she gone to a better place?
BTW your guide is awesome!
