Flashing Video Bios

[mrmonsoon]

There I was, standing naked in front of my video card, I saw no difference in performance.
Seriously, I have heard that Nvidia 5900's can be bios flashed to 5950's. Would this work for a 5900SE? If so could someone please tell me how. I have used "coolbits" to OC processor to 460Mhz and ram to 875Mhz. Would flashing the bios provide more performance? Thank for the help.

 

[mrface]

im not sure about flashing from 5900 to 5950 speeds but, i do know if you can find it make sure you have you card set at stock speeds of the card you are flashing it too. or you could have problems.

<A HREF="http://www.cameronwilliamson.com" target="_new">-={Apostalic Alcoholic.}=-</A>

 

[mrmonsoon]

Thanks for the heads up. I was wondering if flashing the bios would provide more performance than my current oc'd settings, and if so, how to do it. I intend to only do one or the other.

 

[mrface]

me personaaly would prefer just OC'ing to the speeds of the 5950 instead of falshing the card,

with flashing there is a greater risk of human error and messing up the card(also no RMA if this happens.) on the other hand well OC'ing can always be stepped down if you get artifacts or whatever and if by chance you damage the card just RMA it.

<A HREF="http://www.cameronwilliamson.com" target="_new">-={Apostalic Alcoholic.}=-</A>

 

[Slava]

Thanks for the heads up. I was wondering if flashing the bios would provide more performance than my current oc'd settings, and if so, how to do it. I intend to only do one or the other.

I have read an article (unfortunately I do not remember the web site) where a guy describes flashing 5900 to 5950 in great detail.

He also runs extensive benchmarks on the 5900 before and after flashing to 5950. The results are very disappointing: on some benchmarks the card flashed to 5950 gives something like a 1% (one percent) improvement, but on the majority of benchmarks the performance is actually up to 3% worse than before flashing.

The guy, however does not touch upon overclocking the card after flashing to 5950. I am not sure what that would yield. It is possible that after flashing you could get better performance if you also overclocked. But a 5900 at stock settings runs equal or better to 5900 flashed to 5950 and run at 5950 stock settings.

My advice – don’t bother. FX 5900 is a pretty good performer as it is. Just overclock it and enjoy your games.

<font color=green>Stingy people end up paying double. One kick-ass rig every three years or one half-decent one every year?</font color=green>
<font color=red>I got no sense of humor but my porn is better than yours!</font color=red>

 

[scottchen]

Go to 3dchips oc section, I have a guide there on how to mod your 5900 to 5950U.

<A HREF="http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/myrig.php?do=view&id=17301" target="_new">My PC</A>

 

[mrmonsoon]

Thanks everyone, I think I will just stick with ocing, since it is stable and happy.

 

[KCjoker]

Flashing the xt or se versions doesn't work as well as the nu. The reason is because most of the xt,se use 2.8ns ram latencies while the nu uses 2.2ns. Some xt,se versions use 2.5ns and those do alot better. You need to remember that when you flash the card with a 5950 bios it also raises the voltage.

 

[coylter]

i dont see the point in flashing the bios....you wont gain magical performance....

Athlon 2700xp+ (oc: 3200xp+ with 200fsb) , Radeon 9800pro (oc: 410/360) , 512mb pc3200 (5-3-3-2), Asus A7N8X-X<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by coylter on 04/28/04 05:56 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[scottchen]

Yes you do gain magical performance. If you flash FX5900-5950, miraculously, voltage increase, temp decrease. Max overclockability increases massively, performance increase at same speeds, even though with higher latency memory. Nvidia put lots of optimizations in the 5950U.

<A HREF="http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/myrig.php?do=view&id=17301" target="_new">My PC</A>

 

[fragglefart]

FX5900Ultra to 5950 increases voltage, but slacks off the Memory CAS, i think; hence massive overclocks, cooler card and BETTER bench's/FPS.

I have not benched for a while, but when i flashed, running Prince of Persia and Halo with forced PS2/VS2 had huge improvements with the flashed/oc'ed card
(model used MSI 5900U) biggest impact of higher GPU clocks is PS2/VS2 code... but BE PREPARED for HIGH temps!

Given up with this card since my mates 9600XT matches me for NFS : U and Far Cry performance... (goddamn DX9) i own with UT 2004 ;P

........ cant wait to upgrade next year with full PCIX whooparseness! (oh, ps Ati are gonna whoop! ) whatever speeds i can get out of my 5900U... the IQ difference with Ati cards are where my future lie (if they get their drivers running 3DSmax with no hiccups!)

I am tired of max speed... the latest driver set which feature forced tri-linear mip-mapping are where my interests lie. NV- we need MORE CONTROL!

Sorry got off track (£ a pint night!).... if your memory can handle the overclocks... i say go for the flash, if only to dampen that trademark "stutter".

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Render times? You'll find me down the pub...