How to flash Powercolor Red Devil Vbios into XFX RX 590 Fatboy Core Edition 8GB 1545MHz

[wbx]

Hello, I have recently bought a used XFX AMD Radeon™ RX 590 Fatboy Core Edition 8GB 1545MHz with the purpose to use it under windows but also under macos. I have then read that the XFX RX 590 original firmware makes it non compatible with the recent macos versions like Mojave and Catalina or Big Sur.
A "simple" way to re-gain macos compatibility seems to flash the board with the Powercolor Red Devil Vbios. I have seen this video

that shows how easy seems to flash the vbios without risks but saving before the original bios.

I have tried to follow the video guideline to do my job but suddenly faced big difficulties:

I have saved the XFX RX 590 Fatboy Core Edition 8GB 1545MHz Vbios with the command

amdvbflash -s 0 BIOS-backup.rom

and surprisingly the saved file is long as the 2 vbios dimensions or 512 K.

Then I have put the board switch toward the power connectors and saved the vbios from GPU-Z application. This time I have saved a file 256 K long. I have then tried to upload this file to Techpowerup data base but the answer of the procedure have been "we already know this file as 219267.rom" and be careful to flash it ...

Next I have put the board switch toward the external video connectors and again saved the vbios from GPU-Z application again 256 K long. I have then tried to upload this file to Techpowerup data base but the answer of the procedure have been "we already know this file as 223160.rom" and be careful to flash it ...

Finally, I have tried to flash the Powercolor Red Devil Vbios downloaded from Techpowerup data base: Powercolor.RX590.8192.181106.rom with the command

amdvbflash -p 0 BIOS.rom

and I have received an id mismatch error.

Then I have tried to flash the board bios from its backup receiving the answer "already loaded vbios" or similar... This test to see the amdvbflash application at work but nothing seen.

Now I am very disappointed because while I don't want to brick my valuable board payed a lot, I don't know how to safely test the powercolor RX 590 Firmware that other people say solved every compatibility problem with macos. By the way the XFX RX 580 is fully macos compatible out of box ... I would flash its vbios but the Powercolor one seems to be more compatible with my XFX board model...

Please help to clarify the 512 -256 K dimensions doubts of saved vbios as well as the safety of testing the Powercolor or other compatible firmwares according to the above mentioned video.

Thanks a lot.

Walter

 

[Nike_486DX]

The bios firmware contains, among other things, the profile for vrm. So if the cards are too different then by flashing the other cards' bios can potentially damage the card. Prior to anything else, test the card as it is, to see if any tinkering is actually necessary. Also, are you putting it into a real Mac Pro or just prepping ur hackintosh setup? because afaik vbios mostly has to do with the mobo compatibility, and if u are running hackintosh then the mobo is not apple-specific.

 

[wbx]

I have put the card in an HP Z 600 workstation running Windows 11 and also macos Yosemite without any changes but more recent macos versions do not work.

The cards are very similar. Look at this:

XFX Rx 590 not working on Mojave

I'll just add to this thread my experience. XFX Fatboy would cause my Mojave USB installer to fail. I used my Windows 10 boot to flash it to the PowerColor BIOS and Mojave installed and it works. There are difficulties in flashing the BIOS. The first thing is there are actually two of them on...

www.tonymacx86.com

and this where it says "Had to flash the vbios on my GPU because XFX are not supported so had to change it to a RX 590 Powercolor and worked straight after "

https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/f9rfwe

then also look at

AMD GPUs | GPU Buyers Guide

where it says

Polaris 10 and 20 series​

#Highest Supported OS: Current/Monterey (12)​

#Initial Supported OS: Sierra (10.12)​

Regarding Polaris, basically every model of card is supported as long as it’s running either a Polaris or Baffin core(lower end cards like the RX550 run a Lexa core meaning no support in macOS).

The only brand of GPU you should avoid with the Polaris series would be XFX, PowerColour, HIS and VisionTek as many users have had issues with these cards with viewing Clover and macOS booting but other users have found fixes/workarounds(though nothing consistent). This seems to be caused by having an odd VBIOS that doesn't communicate well with macOS and the only real solution is flashing another VBIOS which is not ideal for most users.

Supported cards:

400 Series:

• RX 480
• RX 470D
• RX 470
• RX 460

500 Series:

• RX 590

My question is how to do without bricking the board...

Thanks.

Walter

 

[Imperator]

Hello.
IF after all the procedure you will end up in bricking the video card ...then you will unbrick it and you will start all over again.
I mean it.
I have XFX 580 8gb BIOS in some Sapphire Pulse 8 gb cards (mining purposes ofc)
If you fail , then you could follow the unbricking procedure over and over again until your desired outcome.

How to recover from a bad video BIOS flash

Almost every day there are new threads regarding bricked graphics cards due to wrong BIOS flashing, and since eidairaman1 is no longer around to help, here is a guide how to deal with a bad VGA BIOS flash. Find the correct BIOS First off, you'll have to find a copy of the original BIOS. In case...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[wbx]

Thank you impero for your suggestion, can you please answer to the following specific questions ?

1- Why saving vbios with the command amdvbflash -s 0 BIOS-backup.rom I obtain a file that is long 512 K (like 2 vbios dimensions) while when I save it through the GPU-Z utility the file has only 256 K length ?

2- When I flash the firmware to adapter 0 the only way to distinguish between the 2 vbios memories is the position of the (vbios) mini switch ?

3- When I flash the Powercolor Firmware I have to consider only one vbios: in which position of the switch I have to flash it or it is indifferent ?

Thank you.

Walter

 

[Imperator]

Hello
I can't answer to the question regarding of the dimension of the file.
When you flash the ROM you must choose what version you flash in it and you choose the correspondent switch position.
I mean you must choose between silent and performance version of the BIOS. So you must flash normal BIOS file in it while the switch is positioned to silent position.
Same for performance one.
Near the power cables is performance mode, while the position farthest from the power connector cables is the quiet/stealth mode

 

[wbx]

Hello, i have tried to flash the Powercolor Red Devil vbios to the XFX 590 Fatboy Core Edition 8GB 1545MHz but i have had the following error:

Saving bios to BIOS_backup.rom...

AMDVBFLASH version 3.20 EXTERNAL, Copyright (c) 2021 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

-f option not support in external version of the tool. Please refer to tool help for list of option supported
Old SSID: 9587
New SSID: 2391
SSID mismatched

ERROR: 0FL01

Premere un tasto per continuare . . .

Please help.

Walter

 

[Zyll Goliat]

Download some older atiflash vers and use the -f(force method) I am pretty sure it will work just fine as I personally did flashed many times,RX 470,RX 480,R9 Fury,R9 380....and it works....

 

[Imperator]

Hello.

Do not use 3.20 version.

From that menu you will choose version 2.93.
And you will use that version to flash your card.
Good luck

 

[wbx]

Thank You Impero and Zyll Goliat !! Your advices are very useful.

I change the atiflash version and try again to do the flash ...

Just done unistalling the driver of version 3.20 ...
It says:

Saving bios to BIOS_backup.rom...

cannot load driver

Premere un tasto per continuare . . .

and I am stuck.

Sorry I have used to flash the same text of the saving-Vbios.bat. but the command is for flashing.

Just corrected. Now it says:

Flashing bios from BIOS.rom...

cannot load driver

Premere un tasto per continuare . . .

 

[eidairaman1]

Tul cards are known to be locked hard. I recall not being able to flash 1 side of a bios on a RD 5700XT but the other would flash fine. Get a SPI flasher

 

[wbx]

Impero told me:
"So you must flash normal BIOS file in it while the switch is positioned to silent position.
Same for performance one.
Near the power cables is performance mode, while the position farthest from the power connector cables is the quiet/stealth mode"

The switch was positioned in silent position during last flashing attempt. Which position is "protected" ?

I was not aware of the command:

Amdvbflash.exe -unlockrom 0

I try.

 

[Imperator]

Hello
In my experience i did not encountered RX5xx series that does have a protection at the hardware level (the switch).
The switch is used to change the version of the BIOS you use.(performance or silent)
In fact the BIOS files are write protected at a software level, for unlocking ROM there is a specific command in amdvbflash.exe which do exactly this.

Last Edit : after i searched on the web i found an answer from Gigabyte technical crew to a customer where they answered the following :

"It is a Dual BIOS switch which can be toggled between a protected BIOS and an unlocked BIOS to be used to flash that latest BIOS mod. Both BIOS have the same frequency."

So the performance BIOS can be flashed after what they say.

On Sapphire , on the other hand the switch do what i am used to : switching from performance to silent:
"Use the physical switch on the card to move between performance mode or silent mode to choose the best BIOS experience for your gaming with the Dual BIOS feature. With the TriXX Software BIOS Switch position, gamers can easily switch from performance mode to silent mode and back using our TriXX software for a quick and convenient way toalternate between the dual BIOS modes.
For quieter operation, the Secondary, or Silent setting reduces clock targets and raises target temperatures."

So it appears that on some producers it will write protect the file when the switch it is in one position.

 

[wbx]

Hey guys successfully flashed Powercolor vbios now working perfectly....

hereafter the procedure followed:

Procedure to flash Powercolor Vbios:

install ver 3.2 e 2.9

install driver flash ver. 3.2
from ver 3.2 issue command

amdvbflash.exe -unlockrom 0

switch to ver 2.9

save old bios with GPU-Z (256K wide)

save old bios with the following script (512K wide)

cd C:\Users\walte\Desktop\XFX-RX590-Flash\atiflash_293
@Echo off
cls

echo Saving bios to BIOS_backup.rom...
echo.
amdvbflash -s 0 BIOS_backup.rom
echo.

pause

download Powercolor Vbios 256K wide (in my case was Powercolor.RX590.8192.181106.rom)

rename it as BIOS.rom and put it in the atiflash 2.9.3 directory

flash with the commands (inside a flash.bat file:

cd C:\Users\walte\Desktop\XFX-RX590-Flash\atiflash_293
@Echo off
cls

echo Flashing bios from BIOS.rom...
echo.
amdvbflash -f -p 0 BIOS.rom
echo.

pause

N.B. the board vbios switch is toward power connwctors

finally (optional)

from ver 3.2 issue command

amdvbflash.exe -lockrom 0


End of procedure

 

[eidairaman1]

3.2 changed syntax, but 2.93 is a little easier to use

 

[Imperator]

Hey, nice to see that you made it.
Have a nice day mate!

 

[wbx]

Thank you all for your help that made possible my success in Flashing the XFX AMD Radeon™ RX 590 Fatboy Core Edition 8GB 1545MHz with the Powercolor firmware making this way the board compatible with macos Mojave and also more recent macos versions.

What I have learned is that few little advices and knowledge from many people lead to understand and finally do the job...

 

[Mr.CorTex]

Thank you all for your help that made possible my success in Flashing the XFX AMD Radeon™ RX 590 Fatboy Core Edition 8GB 1545MHz with the Powercolor firmware making this way the board compatible with macos Mojave and also more recent macos versions.

What I have learned is that few little advices and knowledge from many people lead to understand and finally do the job...

Hey wbx, Thank you very much for sharing this awesome guide thankfully I found this post and you help me a lot. I was in the same spot with the XFX RX 590 on macOS Big Sur and now Monterey, both OS detected the card but won't let me connect through. With the PowerColor vbios it worked like a charm on my Intel NUC10 with external graphics tower connected via Thunderbolt 3.

 

[Imperator]

Nice to see that our work gives results.
Cheers mate

 

[wbx]

Very happy to hear that our work has been useful. Cheers mate!!