[SOLVED] My graphics card wont use all vram

[talineagle]

I have a ROG Strix rx 480 8gb that says I am only using four out of the 8gb. To make sure it wasn’t just using 4gb because it didn’t need the other four I used the memory monitor on afterburner and ran r6s on all ultra settings (required 6 1/2 gbs) The game ran mid 50 frames then it crashed. Afterburner said it was only using 4gb during the 50 frames. Can you help me? My specs are x2 4gb ddr4 ram, ryzen 5 1400 overlooked to 3.95 GHZ with a ASrock fatality ab350 k4

 

[Darkbreeze]

Are you sure you don't simply have a 4GB model? Some of these cards had 8GB installed but could only use four as four of them were bios locked. I believe this was only on early cards but really could be possible on any of them. What is the EXACT model number of your graphics card?

Has the bios been flashed on that card at any time?

Do you have the latest motherboard bios revision installed?

 

[talineagle]

My model number is G9C0YZ348310 it is very possible that it has been flashed before. I contacted the seller and he told me; the amount of ram is bios you can reset it and make it work the way you want, its not deffected. Also if it crashing ur windows its because you may be using wrong driver you need to use a little older drivers from 2014. If you wanna use the new drivers you would to reset bios to factory defaults. This morning I tried to flash the bios and when i was creating a video bios collection file i said it was a 4gb and there where two options. I could see that the bios that i had installed was for a 4gb asus card but it was not for my rog strix. If I try to install the bios that I know it should have installed it will give me an error code;(invalid subsystem ID #) Probly because Im trying to install the 8gb version. I would imagine what I have to do is install the factory defaults and then flash the bios with the one that I want but I am not sure how to do that and I couldnt find out how to anywhere on the internet. Thanks Talin

 

[talineagle]

here is the card that the bios was meant for;https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/187019/asus-rx480-4096-160831
here is what the card should have installed;https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/193741/asus-rx480-8192-170628

 

[Darkbreeze]

There were not even RX480 cards in existence back in 2014, so whoever told you that is full of crap.

Also, that is not the model number. I don't know WHAT that number is, probably related to an individual component on the graphics card, but it's definitely not the graphics card. There are ZERO results for that number.

I'd suggest you need to contact ASUS and discuss this with them if you cannot find the actual model number of that card.

 

[talineagle]

Oh thats weird when I looked it up it worked for me. This is the website that I used https://www.asus.com/us/support/warranty-status-inquiry/
G9C0YZ348310. If It is still not working for you this is all that it showed me when i looked it up.


Product series Model Name Product S/n Warrenty Staus Warranty Expiration Date
Card STRIX-RX480-O8G-GAMING G9C0YZ348310 Under warranty 2019/12/29

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, so that obviously IS an 8GB card, which by the way the number you gave me originally was the serial number, not the model number. Serial number isn't ever going to bring up anything except on the ASUS warranty search, which it did.

Since somebody HAS flashed that card with a different bios, all bets are off. Likely it was done by somebody using the card for mining and it's likely that they either flashed the wrong bios or flashed a version that cannot be reversed as happens sometimes with motherboards as well.

Likely, even though that card should still be under warranty you will be facing two issues. One, not being the original purchaser ASUS isn't going to want to warrant it for you without the original purchase information, and two, since it has been "altered" by flashing a firmware version not intended for that card, they're not going to cover that either I'm sure. I think you are s#$t out of luck unless the seller is willing to take it back.

I doubt they will, because they have not been very honest or knowledgeable about anything else up to this point, but I guess it's worth a shot.

 

[talineagle]

Wait are you sure that there is no way that I can somehow force it to use the flash?

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'm not "sure" of anything, but there isn't any way I know of. Flashing is flashing, and there aren't any "forced flashing" techniques that I'm aware of.

If the card refuses to be flashed using normal techniques, it's generally because something is wrong OR the hardware believes the firmware you are trying to flash is incorrect. Either way, I'm not sure how you could get past either of those without simply replacing the ROM if it were replaceable, or sending it back to the manufacturer to be done using their much more advanced tools and hardware.

 

[madmatt30]

You can force flash by shorting legs on the bios chip.

It is however not somethig I'm going to go into detail on because its very very easy to kill a card completely doing this.

I'm with dark breeze, if that's an 8gb card that's been flashed to 4gb, either by mistake or on purpose, & the original owner never flashed back to 8gb then there is likely a reason for that.

I thinking he sold it off because he'd inadvertently crippled it & couldn't fix it.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Exactly. I agree completely.

 

[talineagle]

I figured out that I could use the command prompt as administrator and could bypass all the safety features and it forced flashed. Now have the correct bios and I am having no problems at all.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, congratulations. I'm glad it worked out for you. Honestly, that's a new one on me and I'll keep it in mind for the future.