Question Best way to check if the BIOS of a used card was modified/used for mining?

[Cyber_Akuma]

I just purchased a GTX 1060 on eBay for almost suspiciously cheap (A PNY VCGGTX10606PB-CG ), looking at the seller's other items I think I can guess why, they had a handful of GTX 1060, RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 cards as well as bags of PCIe to SATA power adapters, so feels like the chances of this being previously a mining card are high (Is it common that miners would keep the boxes the cards came in? Feels like that's something that would get tossed, but this card comes with it's box as did most of the others).

If the seller had modified it's BIOS (and didn't re-flash it back before selling), what would be the best way for me to check? I know I can dump the BIOS using GPU-Z, but I am not sure how that would help since I am not aware of any checksum repository for them, especially if it's not listed on TechPowerup. And I also don't know if there could possibly be other settings somewhere that could have been changed or if it's all in the BIOS and if it checks out, the card is stock.

If it is modified, I know I can use NVflash and a BIOS from TechPowerup to reflash it, but if the flash were to fail, would it be possible to try flashing it again by using a different card to display video? I have a spare GT 720 I can use alongside the GTX 1060 in case a bad flash bricks it and I need to see what I am doing in an attempt to re-flash it. Or would a bad flash kill the card to the point that I can't even re-flash it anymore?

 

[kerberos_20]

good way to see if its mining bios is to look at vram timings, mining cards have tuned timings (as low as possible) to improve hashrate, tho lowered vram timings also improve gaming fps...so dunno if you really want to revert that?

bad flash can be still redone, you just need to have another GPU around which you boot from (both needs to be inserted in PCI-E or atleast igpu present)

 

[USAFRet]

(and didn't re-flash it back before selling)

If it had been used for mining (likely) and he advertised it as not...he reflashed it.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

good way to see if its mining bios is to look at vram timings, mining cards have tuned timings (as low as possible) to improve hashrate, tho lowered vram timings also improve gaming fps...so dunno if you really want to revert that?

bad flash can be still redone, you just need to have another GPU around which you boot from (both needs to be inserted in PCI-E or atleast igpu present)

I didn't even know you could modify anything about the RAM timings on a GPU other than just the clock speed. How would I even check what it's timings are and what they are supposed to be? I don't recall ever seeing that information on any of the monitoring programs I have used, like Rivatuner or GPU-Z.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

The card just came in, and, should I be worried that TechLookup does not seem to recognize it?

Despite the model number being in TechLookup's database, when I clicked "Lookup" on GPU-Z it brought me to a page that claims that the card is not recognized:

https://imgur.com/QIfEmJk

View: https://i.imgur.com/QIfEmJk.png


The card is a A PNY NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1060 6GB, model number: VCGGTX10606PB-CG

It's BIOS version number (86.06.45.00.C6) also does not match any of the BIOS versions on TechLookup's site for that card:

https://imgur.com/BXX7FjH

View: https://i.imgur.com/BXX7FjH.gif

 

[kerberos_20]

its here
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/215234/215234

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

its here
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/215234/215234

Thanks

Hmm..... my checksum of the BIOS I dumped does not match the one posted there. Does that mean anything? If it could have been modified or something? (Although I suppose it's possible the one on TechLookup could have been modified since it's unverified)

https://imgur.com/QkooMQX

View: https://i.imgur.com/QkooMQX.png

 

[dor_13]

How is this possible to modify BIOS beyond the allowed versions of the manufacturer?
Only a verified BIOS should be able to be installed, that's a basic security measure.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

I have no idea, I never did anything like that myself. I just recall reading that people would modify the BIOS of their card to make an overclock permanent or for mining reasons or to try to change it's model if it was binned for it and other reasons. But I never kept up on the news of that.

 

[palladin9479]

How is this possible to modify BIOS beyond the allowed versions of the manufacturer?
Only a verified BIOS should be able to be installed, that's a basic security measure.

Those who invest tons of money into building crypto mining farms also pay other folks to make custom bios's for them that that let them get even more money from those cards. Those custom bios's likely wont' be available anywhere on the internet. Normally I'd not want to mess with a GPU BIOS but OP might have to make some hard decisions soon, cause keeping a modified BIOS on their card might not be soon good for stability.