[SOLVED] Flashing GPU bios

[NotANiceGuy]

I have MSI RTX 2060 Ventus XS and it has 160W power limit, which is 100% and I cannot raise it more.
How do I find a compatible bios from another 2060? I understand that the number of power connectors should be the same, but do I need to look for anything else, like power phases (I guess it has 6) or video outputs (3 DP and 1 HDMI)?

Spoiler: PCB photo (it's from review I haven't opened it yet since some parts for the loop haven't arrived yet0

P.S. I know that more power won't make it very good overclocking performer but why not?

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

You will likely brick the card if you use a different bios from another gpu with any major or even minor differences. From what it sounds like, you should learn how to mod your own bios (ensure you make a backup of the original) and simply tweak the power limit and voltage. In my opinion I would not flash the bios at all. The performance gains are marginal, and considering the fact that you can fatally harm your GPU, it's just not worth it IMO.

*Edit: In my experience flashing AMD gpu bios (dozens of times) I have bricked a gpu at least 2-3 times and successfully recovered it each time. However, you may not be so lucky in your bios flashing, and then there is also the risk of over-volting and damaging the silicon.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Even if you find another BIOS with a higher power limit I still doubt you will get anywhere as the cards require hardware modification to send more voltage to the card.

They are overclocking limited.

I had tried this with another turing GPU and while the different bios allowed for a higher power limit, I couldn't oc any more.

 

[NotANiceGuy]

You will likely brick the card if you use a different bios from another gpu with any major or even minor differences. From what it sounds like, you should learn how to mod your own bios (ensure you make a backup of the original) and simply tweak the power limit and voltage. In my opinion I would not flash the bios at all. The performance gains are marginal, and considering the fact that you can fatally harm your GPU, it's just not worth it IMO.

*Edit: In my experience flashing AMD gpu bios (dozens of times) I have bricked a gpu at least 2-3 times and successfully recovered it each time. However, you may not be so lucky in your bios flashing, and then there is also the risk of over-volting and damaging the silicon.

Maybe my brother got lucky but he increased fps in TW:W2 from 30-35 to 40+ by overclocking his 1060, but it has really nice cooling solution and almost +20% PL.
But if it is possible to modify bios for 20xx series then I will probably do that. Is there any information on how much power should be max? I've seen that EVGA 2060 with 6 phases has 193W max, but maybe there are more general rules to maximizing power limit.
And wouldn't I be able to flash original bios to a bricked card by using another GPU in primary slot for video output?

 

[NotANiceGuy]

Even if you find another BIOS with a higher power limit I still doubt you will get anywhere as the cards require hardware modification to send more voltage to the card.

They are overclocking limited.

I had tried this with another turing GPU and while the different bios allowed for a higher power limit, I couldn't oc any more.

How did you choose a bios? I can reflash it back with another gpu, should I fail. But I would still like to give it a little room to breath, because when I overclocked it with stock bios I had a few fps increase which allowed for smooth 60, not constant high 50s which was nice. But then it heated up with max fan settings and started hitting power limit with lower frequences - probably something to do with power loss.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

I chose a BIOS based on memory brand (Samsung, Micron, Elpida, Micron, etc... which you can find using GPU-Z) . Some memory brands are compatible with each other, and others are not. However, I was using custom bios where the memory timings, clock speeds, and power settings were tweaked by other people who knew what they were doing with the memory timings. I could easily pick up on the frequencies, power, and voltage settings to further edit the bios before I flashed it.

 

[NotANiceGuy]

I chose a BIOS based on memory brand (Samsung, Micron, Elpida, Micron, etc... which you can find using GPU-Z) . Some memory brands are compatible with each other, and others are not. However, I was using custom bios where the memory timings, clock speeds, and power settings were tweaked by other people who knew what they were doing with the memory timings. I could easily pick up on the frequencies, power, and voltage settings to further edit the bios before I flashed it.

What software did you use?

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

What software did you use?

As I said it was AMD GPUs, so I used ATIFlash.