Can I flash powercolor r9270x devil BIOS onto powercolor r9 270x PCS+ card?

[Aung Kyaw Thu]

HI guys, long story short, I hit my max OC with powercolor r9 270x PCS+.
It is a voltage locked card. So I cant oc any further.
However, powercolor devil r9 270x has slightly higher factory clock.
So I was wondering...
1. Can I flash devil's BIOS onto my card, powercolor r9 270x PCS+ ( since they have same architecture, same company, same board)
2. If I do so, will I be able to overclock further than I can now?

Thanks in advance guys!

This is the bios of the card I am using (Powercolor R9 270x PCS+)
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/150599/powercolor-r9270x-2048-131111.html

This is the bios (Powercolor R9 270x Devil) I want to flash onto my card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/149452/powercolor-r9270x-2048-131022.html

 

[jossrik]

I dabbled into editing my cards bios when I was mining, back when mining was worth it. You can flash from a different bios, but why not use a bios editor to edit your original bios? Just because it's the same chip same company, doesn't mean the bios is even close to the same, in much the same way I wouldn't use say a Sabertooth bios on a Maximus Hero board. They might both be the same intel chipset, same manufacturer, very different bios. Look into editing your original bios, it's easy, and as long as you don't lose your mind when you pick clock rates, you should be fine. I used VBE (Video Bios Edit), don't know if they're still running strong or not, but it'll do a 270X just fine. Use GPU-Z to get the bios, edit it, save it with a new name, then flash it to your card. Boom! Easy.

 

[Aung Kyaw Thu]

I dabbled into editing my cards bios when I was mining, back when mining was worth it. You can flash from a different bios, but why not use a bios editor to edit your original bios? Just because it's the same chip same company, doesn't mean the bios is even close to the same, in much the same way I wouldn't use say a Sabertooth bios on a Maximus Hero board. They might both be the same intel chipset, same manufacturer, very different bios. Look into editing your original bios, it's easy, and as long as you don't lose your mind when you pick clock rates, you should be fine. I used VBE (Video Bios Edit), don't know if they're still running strong or not, but it'll do a 270X just fine. Use GPU-Z to get the bios, edit it, save it with a new name, then flash it to your card. Boom! Easy.

Thanks Joss,
I downloaded VBE7(video bios editor) to modify the values.
I modify my vddc from 1206 to 1212. I leave the clock untouched coz I plan to tweak them with afterburner.
Then I flash with win ati flash.
Everything went good.
But when I try to test the stability with heaven, the PC freezes with lines on on the monitor and GPU fan went 100%.
I had to reflash the original BIOS.
Any suggestions?

My powercolor r9270x runs at 1100/1425 stock.
I overclodked at 1150/1550.
That's the max I can.
This is volt locked card and cant modify mV in afterburner.
I want the core to clock at 1200 and leave the memory untouched.

That's why I tried to tweak the voltage. Alas, it was un successful.
Why is it? and is there any other way around that I can increase my clock?
Thanks

 

[jossrik]

You might be at the peak of what that particular card can do, if you're crashing, add voltage through the bios editor. Baby steps though, you don't want to burn out your card, watch your temps very carefully, as soon as it starts to get into the 90s or so under load you want to back off.

 

[Aung Kyaw Thu]

You might be at the peak of what that particular card can do, if you're crashing, add voltage through the bios editor. Baby steps though, you don't want to burn out your card, watch your temps very carefully, as soon as it starts to get into the 90s or so under load you want to back off.

Hi Joss,

The smallest increment VBE only allows me to increase my volt from default 1206mV is +6, making it overvolted at 1212mV.
I cannot put a value in between them.

So I only overvolted and leave the core and memory clock untouched.
Restarted the PC and run heaven benchmark and the PC freezes and hang. I back down to 1206mV volt and it runs fine again.
Does it mean I cannot increase my voltage on the card?

 

[jossrik]

Sounds like it's unstable at that voltage. You just might be stuck. Haven't encountered a situation where more voltage made a card less stable unless I was at the thermal limits of what I had.

 

[Aung Kyaw Thu]

Sounds like it's unstable at that voltage. You just might be stuck. Haven't encountered a situation where more voltage made a card less stable unless I was at the thermal limits of what I had.

Hi Joss,

I found this online.
https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=16907.0

Here's a quote from /u/dewminer:

"OK, this card has a different VRM that VBE7 believe it has. VBE7 shows CHL822x VRM for the card, but Gigabyte used a newer incarnation of the this VRM chip, it is called IR3567A. The reason why the name of the VRM chip was completely changed is, that the company who designed the original CHL822x (Chil Semiconductor) was aquired by another chip maker, International Rectifier back in 2011. IR redesigned the chip a little bit and now they selling it under IR3567A name. Anyway, the VRM codes changed also, so the VBE7 is useless for these cards."

VBE shows my card VRM as CHL822x, exactly as above.
Could this be the problem?
Does VBE7 mistake the VRM?
If so, there is nothing I can do to adjust the voltage, right? 🙁

 

[jossrik]

Sounds like that may be your problem, and if so, ya, you're stuck. At this point not sure where to tell you to look for more information. It sounds like you've found quite a bit on your own.

 

[Aung Kyaw Thu]

Sounds like that may be your problem, and if so, ya, you're stuck. At this point not sure where to tell you to look for more information. It sounds like you've found quite a bit on your own.

Guess I will have to live with it 😀
Seems like there is no other way around except hex editing which I am very unfamiliar with. Coz some people say they have succeeded in overvolting the cards with similar problems by changing hex.
I am scared to do it.
Anyway, Thanks for your help and time.
I appreciate it.
Stay cool!
Cheers!