flashing an xfx r9 290 with an r9 290x bios issues

[jaw shwaa]

hey guys , so ill try to be detailed but quick with this .

so i've been trying to squeeze some extra juice out of my 290 by flashing the bios to a 290x

cuinfo tells me that this should be possible , Ive tried Hawaii info also , it shows the same string of numbers.
so the card should be unlockable

my problem is every time i flash an r9 290x bios , i get a blank screen , but if i wait i can hear the windows theme song (i dont know what else to call it) through my speakers telling me im at my desktop, but still see nothing on my monitors

so , i plugged in one of my older graphics cards in my second pcie to see what gpu-z might say. the r9 200 series registers on gpu-z but the clock speeds and a few other sections are blank , however it does show the shader count , 2816 , instead of being 2560 , (so partial success?)

the first flash i did was with the asus bios from dos off a flash drive, and the other flashes have been from atiwinflash with my second card hooked up to my monitors.

am i missing a step , or a special bios ? it would be a nice bonus to get a 290x , or did i run my luck dry unlocking my 6950s to 6970s, and unlocking the cores on my old athlon( in a different computer ) if any one can help i would appreciate it alot!

 

[AlienIsGOD]

as far as i know, there is no way to get the additional shaders on a 290X

 

[jaw shwaa]

as far as i know, there is no way to get the additional shaders on a 290X

im trying to get additional shaders on a 290 , turning it into a 290x ... sorry about the confusion

 

[manofthem]

Yeah, some unlocked but it wasn't as common as the 6950 -> 6970; neither of my 290s checked out as able to unlock so I didn't even try.

It looks like yours should unlock since the number match up as described in the main unlock thread on overclock.net, but if you've tried unsuccessfully, that may be it. There was the suggestion about using a bios from the same manufacturer of the 290, like Asus on Asus or sapphire for sapphire, could make sure of that.

I just realized my 290s are nearly 3 years old, and I haven't upgraded my main gpus since then. Might be time for an upgrade

 

[Solaris17]

Before you give your hopes up please understand that much like CPU unlocks this might just be the condition of the GPU. It simply might not be stable.

That said you can try if your brave enough to run force and wipe commands during the flash to make sure the ROM is clean before programming. You can also try another bios.

I suggest trying the lower clocked ones first. Don't just flash to the performance 290x's

 

[jaw shwaa]

Yeah, some unlocked but it wasn't as common as the 6950 -> 6970; neither of my 290s checked out as able to unlock so I didn't even try.

It looks like yours should unlock since the number match up as described in the main unlock thread on overclock.net, but if you've tried unsuccessfully, that may be it. There was the suggestion about using a bios from the same manufacturer of the 290, like Asus on Asus or sapphire for sapphire, could make sure of that.

I just realized my 290s are nearly 3 years old, and I haven't upgraded my main gpus since then. Might be time for an upgrade

yeah its a hit or miss kind of game , but worth playing imo lol . ive only tried a 4 of the 11 xfx 290x bios' that tpu has in the data base , so mabye ill try the rest of them just to be sure .
i got my 290 about 10 months ago for about $130 , im so happy with it i may have to get another

Before you give your hopes up please understand that much like CPU unlocks this might just be the condition of the GPU. It simply might not be stable.

That said you can try if your brave enough to run force and wipe commands during the flash to make sure the ROM is clean before programming. You can also try another bios.

I suggest trying the lower clocked ones first. Don't just flash to the performance 290x's

good point , i have gotten some decent oc's on my 290 .i got it up to 1002core/1350mem i havent tried to go higher.
but i usually just run it at stock speeds unless im showing off... ill keep trying the lower clocked 290x bios then move to the higher clocks

 

[AsRock]

Don't know if the XFX bios been updated for the 290X 1050\1200 but it was wrong last time i checked.

 

[jaw shwaa]

Don't know if the XFX bios been updated for the 290X 1050\1200 but it was wrong last time i checked.

Does that mean I should check other sites for the 290x bios too?

 

[AsRock]

If you know one trust worthy, mines a 290 1050\1250 VBIOS Version: 015.041.000.001.003746 and it says EUFI is not supported which is not true unless they did some with support and others without it with the same bios version. All so mines revision 00 so thinking it was one of the early ones.

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/152637/xfx-r9290x-4096-131218

TBH it's not worth doing anyways , you be better of buying another card at least you should get a boost in some games at least then.

Maybe the @XFXSupport guy would help you out, not sure though.

 

[jaw shwaa]

If you know one trust worthy, mines a 290 1050\1250 VBIOS Version: 015.041.000.001.003746 and it says EUFI is not supported which is not true unless they did some with support and others without it with the same bios version. All so mines revision 00 so thinking it was one of the early ones.

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/152637/xfx-r9290x-4096-131218

TBH it's not worth doing anyways , you be better of buying another card at least you should get a boost in some games at least then.

Maybe the @XFXSupport guy would help you out, not sure though.

Mines also a revision 00 ,an xfx double D, though you might not be able to tell, I had a heatsink issue and xfx sent me a heatsink ,shroud and back plate for a 390X, not really a surprise but it all fit XD. Maybe I'll take a crack at the high clocked bios.. What's the worst that could happen..

 

[AsRock]

Mines also a revision 00 ,an xfx double D, though you might not be able to tell, I had a heatsink issue and xfx sent me a heatsink ,shroud and back plate for a 390X, not really a surprise but it all fit XD. Maybe I'll take a crack at the high clocked bios.. What's the worst that could happen..

Yeah they sent me a spare 290X cooler just so i could cut a peice out of the 290X plate so a AC cooler would fit, then sent me a 390X cooler.

Well there is the part when you screw your card up and end up spending money what you did not need to . Best case you get what you want and find out the gain was not worth it.

 

[eidairaman1]

Bricking your card is worst case scenario but is certainly easy to do so, not worth bios flashing a gpu imho

 

[jaw shwaa]

Bricking your card is worst case scenario but is certainly easy to do so, not worth bios flashing a gpu imho

i like to live on the edge lol ,

 

[FR@NK]

Did you try switching outputs? I remember reading about DVI ports that stop working after flashing a slightly compatible BIOS.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1924431/multi-monitor-work-flashed-7970-bios.html

 

[_larry]

I also have an XFX R9 290. The very early production models can be flashed to a 290x. The later ones like mine, cannot be flashed to a 290X. I would watch your VRM temps. The stock cooler does not have heatsinks on the VRM chips. I have already modded mine with small memory chip heatsinks. Mine were getting into the 80-90C range. Now they don't even touch 70C.

 

[gupsterg]

@jaw shwaa

Yeah I would attempt unlock on card as CUinfo is showing relevant data . Pretty much all 290/X card have dual bios, so even if you have bad flash on one ROM position it is easy to recover card by using the other ROM position. All you do is boot on good ROM position, flip switch to bad ROM position and flash it with stock ROM.

Which 290X ROM did you flash to your XFX 290? can you state which exact model of XFX 290 you have? model number from sticker be handy .

 

[jaw shwaa]

Did you try switching outputs? I remember reading about DVI ports that stop working after flashing a slightly compatible BIOS.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1924431/multi-monitor-work-flashed-7970-bios.html

nice beamers , the only output i havent tried is the display port , my two dvi ports and hdmi have monitors hooked up to them

I also have an XFX R9 290. The very early production models can be flashed to a 290x. The later ones like mine, cannot be flashed to a 290X. I would watch your VRM temps. The stock cooler does not have heatsinks on the VRM chips. I have already modded mine with small memory chip heatsinks. Mine were getting into the 80-90C range. Now they don't even touch 70C.

is your 290 one with a blower style cooler on it? mines one of the DD cards , so it has a face plate that cools the vram and voltage chips too.

@jaw shwaa

Yeah I would attempt unlock on card as CUinfo is showing relevant data . Pretty much all 290/X card have dual bios, so even if you have bad flash on one ROM position it is easy to recover card by using the other ROM position. All you do is boot on good ROM position, flip switch to bad ROM position and flash it with stock ROM.

Which 290X ROM did you flash to your XFX 290? can you state which exact model of XFX 290 you have? model number from sticker be handy .

its not even my final form!!
even if it didnt have a second bios , i have a few extra cards that i could use to flash the bios back . ive even been plugging in my old 6850 to try to flash the 290 bios in windows. i already had good luck with the 6950-6970 unlock on the other cards.... i basically started with an asus 290x bios , and when that didnt work i started going down the list of xfx 290x bios on the gpu database on this site...still havent had any luck..but i havent made it all the way down the list . i found another xfx 290x for $100 and might jump on that and see if that can sort anything out

 

[_larry]

is your 290 one with a blower style cooler on it? mines one of the DD cards , so it has a face plate that cools the vram and voltage chips too.

Yes, mine is just like yours. However, the VRM chips DO NOT have heatsinks or thermal pads on them like the VRAM does. My VRM chips were hitting 95C~ under heavy overclocking and voltage increases. I put some low-profile copper memory chip heatsinks on them under the main card heatsink (I had to file down the part over the VRM chips to make them fit under there properly.) Now my VRM chips barely hit 70-75C under heavy overclock/voltage.

 

[jaw shwaa]

Yes, mine is just like yours. However, the VRM chips DO NOT have heatsinks or thermal pads on them like the VRAM does. My VRM chips were hitting 95C~ under heavy overclocking and voltage increases. I put some low-profile copper memory chip heatsinks on them under the main card heatsink (I had to file down the part over the VRM chips to make them fit under there properly.) Now my VRM chips barely hit 70-75C under heavy overclock/voltage.

did you mean these? this is the 290

xfx sent me this setup off the 390x as a replacement

 

[AsRock]

Yes, mine is just like yours. However, the VRM chips DO NOT have heatsinks or thermal pads on them like the VRAM does. My VRM chips were hitting 95C~ under heavy overclocking and voltage increases. I put some low-profile copper memory chip heatsinks on them under the main card heatsink (I had to file down the part over the VRM chips to make them fit under there properly.) Now my VRM chips barely hit 70-75C under heavy overclock/voltage.

My XFX 290X cooler had them on it all so the spare they sent me all so had them.

did you mean these? this is the 290
View attachment 80843

xfx sent me this setup off the 390x as a replacement
View attachment 80844

Yes the 390X cooler they sent me for my 290X just like that too which all had pads.

 

[cdawall]

None of the 290's I have gotten through the shop unlocked. Had a pair of furys unlock to fury x however those bow crunch passwords lol.

 

[Onglar]

Ugh... do it in DOS with ATIFLASH. If you flash it with a 290x bios it should work regardless, but if its not a 290x in disguise (which you're hoping for) its obviously jsut going to be a really slow 290x according to 3dmark or whatever.

 

[cdawall]

Ugh... do it in DOS with ATIFLASH. If you flash it with a 290x bios it should work regardless, but if its not a 290x in disguise (which you're hoping for) its obviously jsut going to be a really slow 290x according to 3dmark or whatever.

The cu's are there and just sw masked if they are bad however it will black screen.

 

[jaw shwaa]

Ugh... do it in DOS with ATIFLASH. If you flash it with a 290x bios it should work regardless, but if its not a 290x in disguise (which you're hoping for) its obviously jsut going to be a really slow 290x according to 3dmark or whatever.

i know , i know ... i have a dedicated flash drive for this , maybe its lazyness , ive only tried one bios flash with it in dos though...

 

[Onglar]

i know , i know ... i have a dedicated flash drive for this , maybe its lazyness , ive only tried one bios flash with it in dos though...

There's no guarantee the 290x flash would work, and even if it did you'd easily overclock a 290 to outperform a 290x.

Edit: I hope you're trying to flash a ref card with a ref bios, or atleast the same model custom card with 290 and 290x being the only difference