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How do I revert formerly mined cards with modded bios's back to REAL cards ??

G

gn2

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I have a bunch of R9 290 graphics cards that perform TERRIBLY.

I'm almost certain the bios's have been modified to reduce the voltage and maybe more.

How do I get them to run like they're SUPPOSED to run ?

I've tried flashing the stock Sapphire bios back, but I don't know if its worked because the cards are still TERRIBLE when benchmarked.

Any help or insight would be appreciated, I've never done this kind of thing.
 
Flash with the original BIOS..?
 
Those cards should have a bios switch that lets you select a factory bios that can't be modified. Have you tried it?
 
I did try to flash back, it *appeared* to complete properly, but the card still performs terribly, won't even reach a 7.0 rating in Win7 Experience index, and barely breaks 20FPS in Valley Benchmark.

I'll investigate the bios switch more. I *thought* I'd tried it in both positions with the same result, but maybe I did something wrong.

Do I have to delete the drivers between switching the bios ?
 
gn2 said:
I did try to flash back, it *appeared* to complete properly, but the card still performs terribly, won't even reach a 7.0 rating in Win7 Experience index, and barely breaks 20FPS in Valley Benchmark.

I'll investigate the bios switch more. I *thought* I'd tried it in both positions with the same result, but maybe I did something wrong.

Do I have to delete the drivers between switching the bios ?
Click to expand...
@Law-II

He's our pro flasher.
 
post GPUZ screens
 
d44.png
 
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It's likely these cards have been treated harshly while mining. Check ASIC quality in particular. If it's incredibly low it's a telltale sign the card has been "mined to death" and will never perform right again.
 
R-T-B said:
Check ASIC quality in particular. If it's incredibly low it's a telltale sign the card has been "mined to death" and will never perform right again.
Click to expand...
I thought ASIC quality was set at binning and didn't change?
 
R-T-B said:
It's likely these cards have been treated harshly while mining. Check ASIC quality in particular. If it's incredibly low it's a telltale sign the card has been "mined to death" and will never perform right again.
Click to expand...

To my understanding high asic quality means the cards can do the same thing as low asic quality but at lower voltage and temperature, nothing to do with performance.
 
What Motherboard are you using, it shows PCI-e 16x1
 
Caring1 said:
What Motherboard are you using, it shows PCI-e 16x1
Click to expand...
Motherboard is a GA-990FXA-UD3.

I realize mining is death for cards, but these hadn't been mined hardly at all, they were in virtually new physical condition, no dust, no tell tale heat marks on them, and they don't artifact or do anything else, except perform very, very poorly.

Its as if they're only running on half of their capacity, I get better benchmarking from an old GTX570 I've got.

What is
R-T-B said:
ASIC quality
Click to expand...
? And how do I check it ?
 
Download GPU-Z .. install, and Right Click on Border window, 3/4 way down says "read ASIC quality".

Capture658.jpg
 
gn2 said:
d44.png
Click to expand...

Did you flash the right BIOS? It shouldn't say "Hawaii" for GPU. Shouldn't it say, "Grenada" if it wasn't a modified 390 bios?
Caring1 said:
What Motherboard are you using, it shows PCI-e 16x1
Click to expand...
Low voltage mode drops PCI-E from 3.0/2.0 to 1.1. My 390 will do this but under load it jumps up to 3.0. Nothing to worry about.

What sticks out to me is "Hawaii" and the BIOS version. The BIOS version looks very close to what's on my 390, so maybe it's the wrong BIOS for the GPU or is a modified BIOS?

This is mine for my 390.
390.PNG
 
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Aquinus said:
Did you flash the right BIOS? It shouldn't say "Hawaii" for GPU. Shouldn't it say, "Grenada" if it wasn't a modified 390 bios?

Low voltage mode drops PCI-E from 3.0/2.0 to 1.1. My 390 will do this but under load it jumps up to 3.0. Nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...
I used a bios image downloaded directly from Sapphire that was identified as being for this exact card.

The performance hasn't wavered in its suckiness regardless of where the bios switch is, or whether it is before or after flashing.
 
Aquinus said:
Good catch. However it makes me wonder if a newer version of the same BIOS would make a difference.

New question, how about temperatures? If the cooler is gunked up with dust, it won't cool it and it will throttle. How do temperatures look at idle and under load?
Click to expand...
Its pristine, looks like a brand new card, not even a hint of dust.

These really were not used much at all, they're atypical of formerly mined cards, in every way, except they perform in benchmarks at about 1/2 of their ability.

Which is why I'm so stumped by this.

The one thing that makes me think there was some kind of baseline change done to them is the temp doesn't read correctly. Even after a flash to the Sapphire provided stock bios, during benchmarks, the temp readout isn't even a number that could be considered a possible, its 5 digits long, and doesn't change.

ASIC quality is 81.9%, is that good or bad ?
 
newtekie1 said:
I thought ASIC quality was set at binning and didn't change?
Click to expand...

You might be right, but I swear I'd heard stories of it dropping from mining.

Mind you, I treated my mining cards well, so no idea (former miner here ;) ).

81.9% is good ASIC quality, BTW. But that doesn't mean they weren't stressed.
 
gn2 said:
Its pristine, looks like a brand new card, not even a hint of dust.

These really were not used much at all, they're atypical of formerly mined cards, in every way, except they perform in benchmarks at about 1/2 of their ability.

Which is why I'm so stumped by this.

The one thing that makes me think there was some kind of baseline change done to them is the temp doesn't read correctly. Even after a flash to the Sapphire provided stock bios, during benchmarks, the temp readout isn't even a number that could be considered a possible, its 5 digits long, and doesn't change.

ASIC quality is 81.9%, is that good or bad ?
Click to expand...
Might be clean but what are the temperatures like? Clean doesn't mean the TIM isn't dead.
gn2 said:
the temp readout isn't even a number that could be considered a possible, its 5 digits long, and doesn't change.
Click to expand...
Then it could be the BIOS or the sensor. The problem is that the GPU relies on temperature to figure out when to throttle. If it's reporting a really high "temperature" it may not even let it come out of idle clocks.

Not that I condone trying different BIOSes but, the BIOS you got could have been for an older revision of your GPU. If you're willing to take the chance, this BIOS is theoretically compatible and is a newer version. If you have a BIOS switch, I would try this one out instead:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/150583/sapphire-r9290-4096-131121.html

I have a feeling that if you can fix the temperature sensor problem, you'll get your performance back. If the sensor is dead, you're probably out of luck and it's probably beyond repair if that's the case.

Remember: You flash a GPU at your own risk.

Edit: I merged my posts because the OP deleted his.
 
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DOH!
So, this has been a complete Homer incident....

It was the cpu that was causing all the problems

I build a LOT of computers, but I don't actually use them to do anything, as I enjoy the building part, not the using part. As a result, I have to rely on benchmarks to verify system configurations, I've never actually played a computer video game in my life.

I was under the wrong impression that a cpu had NO impact on a graphics cards performance, so I've been doing all this testing using an AMD motherboard, with a Sempron 145 processor.

I just benched one of the R9 290's that wouldn't perform, but this time I used an Intel, socket 1150 board and a G3220 processor, it scored in the range I expected these cards to score, and didn't have any issues at all. DOH!

Very sorry to have wasted everyone's time on this. I shouldn't have assumed the bios's of the video cards had been modded, JUST because the cards were used to mine. That wrong assumption led me down the wrong path to solving this issue.

Thanks very much for all the help, I ended up learning quite a bit about video cards, their bios's and how to monitor them for verification of performance.
 
gn2 said:
DOH!
So, this has been a complete Homer incident....

It was the cpu that was causing all the problems

I build a LOT of computers, but I don't actually use them to do anything, as I enjoy the building part, not the using part. As a result, I have to rely on benchmarks to verify system configurations, I've never actually played a computer video game in my life.

I was under the wrong impression that a cpu had NO impact on a graphics cards performance, so I've been doing all this testing using an AMD motherboard, with a Sempron 145 processor.

I just benched one of the R9 290's that wouldn't perform, but this time I used an Intel, socket 1150 board and a G3220 processor, it scored in the range I expected these cards to score, and didn't have any issues at all. DOH!

Very sorry to have wasted everyone's time on this. I shouldn't have assumed the bios's of the video cards had been modded, JUST because the cards were used to mine. That wrong assumption led me down the wrong path to solving this issue.

Thanks very much for all the help, I ended up learning quite a bit about video cards, their bios's and how to monitor them for verification of performance.
Click to expand...

Good news that the card works as it should, but the card temp is still incorrect
 
Its reported incorrectly within the benchmark, but not within GPUZ.
 
gn2 said:
DOH!
So, this has been a complete Homer incident....

It was the cpu that was causing all the problems

I build a LOT of computers, but I don't actually use them to do anything, as I enjoy the building part, not the using part. As a result, I have to rely on benchmarks to verify system configurations, I've never actually played a computer video game in my life.

I was under the wrong impression that a cpu had NO impact on a graphics cards performance, so I've been doing all this testing using an AMD motherboard, with a Sempron 145 processor.

I just benched one of the R9 290's that wouldn't perform, but this time I used an Intel, socket 1150 board and a G3220 processor, it scored in the range I expected these cards to score, and didn't have any issues at all. DOH!

Very sorry to have wasted everyone's time on this. I shouldn't have assumed the bios's of the video cards had been modded, JUST because the cards were used to mine. That wrong assumption led me down the wrong path to solving this issue.

Thanks very much for all the help, I ended up learning quite a bit about video cards, their bios's and how to monitor them for verification of performance.
Click to expand...
you need todo some research
a pentium is pretty sucky putting a 290 in a pentium rig is like stuffing a 2.0L four cylinder in a semi-truck(sure it will move the truck around but you aren't gonna haul anything with it)
I don't even wanna know what you where using before ...
@R-T-B
and No ASIC Quality has nothing todo with mining and it is static
 
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