RX 460 modded bios?

[joelmappa]

Hello,
So here is my build
G4580 3.6ghz(it is an es)[same specs than g4560]
G.SKILLS IV 8GB 2400MHZ ram x1
B250m
Msi rx 460 2gb low profile
1440*900 monitor

So i decided to buy this gpu because i got a really good offer and as my screen was limited to 1440*900 i saw from the benchmark that it was a solid choice.
My main objective for this budget pc was to play Nier Automata on high i watched video with this build at 1440*900 high and the person reached 55fps with 1210mhz rx 460 mine is only 1200 so there should be some performance loss.Also my processor is an es and it acts weird sometimes it is better on some games and sometimes worse.So i found a kind of modded bios that increase from 896 shaders to 1024.From what i saw it gives fps boost.So i was asking because the only bios i found is for the msi rx460 2gb oc.
And not the 2gb low profile so i am asking will that bios work?Is it dangerous?Will it reduce the lifetime?
Could i run nier automata at 60 fps?
Thanks in advance for the reply

 

[KahouAoki]

You cannot magically make shader cores appear on a GPU with a bios flash. Doing that will surely brick your card. The only extra performance you're going to gain is by bumping up the core clock with wattman, and even that is a 10% gain at best.

 

[joelmappa]

Did you at least try looking for the modded bios for the rx 460?
On what i read they locked it to 896 shaders core because of the Polaris 11 architecture

 

[KahouAoki]

Yes, the P11 core is only 896 shaders. That "modded bios" cannot be anything but a scam to get people to break their cards. The claim it makes is physically impossible.

 

[joelmappa]

Thanks for the info! and what is that wattman method you were talking also i forgot to tell i have an evga 500b.

 

[KahouAoki]

Wattman is a part of the AMD Radeon software. It's a utility for overclocking graphics cards. The 460 isn't specifically made for that, though but you might be able to bump the clocks ~50-100Mhz.

 

[joelmappa]

Is bumping the clocks dangerous?
If i play games like 24/24 on will i get problems?

 

[KahouAoki]

Higher power consumption, higher heat and more fan noise. If the core is consistently above 75-80 degrees, then it might be damaging in the long run.

 

[joelmappa]

My psu is 500w and rx 460 requirements are 400w so i don't think will get a problem.I don't mind the fan noise.And my case is always open to get lot of air.So i need to overclock it and manage to not go higher than 70 degrees?

 

[KahouAoki]

That's a good goal. You might want to try this:
1. Set power limit to maximum
2. Bump up the last core performance level to ~1250 first, run something like Unigine Heaven or Valley for a while, check for render artifacts or crashes, then increment higher
3. When you've found the highest stable clock (I'd guess that core can hit 1300), lower the core voltage in increments of 20 until the card crashes, testing each time with Heaven or Valley
4. Set the voltage for the overclock 30mv higher than the voltage it crashed at.

Having an open case is a bad habit though, unless you blast the insides with compressed air while cleaning the room it's in.

 

[joelmappa]

Thanks for helping me in all the thread! I don't have the gpu yet because it is blocked in customs but very soon.I will try when i get it.

 

[davidmele]

Hi Joelmappa,

I have successfully modded my Sapphire RX460 Nitro (4GB) with the unlocked bios.
works great so far, been using this mod for the last 6 months and never ran into problems except that i have to self sign my radeon drivers everytime i do a driver update. there's a description for this as well, the tool is called "pixelclock patcher" you can find it over on monitortests.com.

I also tried flashing my rx460 with a rx560 bios but the driver didn't recognize my clock speeds correctly, that's why i went back to the unlocked rx460 bios.

the rx560 bios was signed and therefore the driver did not have to be patched, but i prefer overclocking ability before native driver support.
Cheers Dave

 

[Tolis_GR]

Indeed those modded bios unlock shader units and stream processors. I also unlocked my Sapphire RX 460 nitro and it actually becomes an RX 560. On purpose AMD had been disabling those extra units. If you cannot find a bios for your exact model though, it can be dangerous, and yes in some cases you may brick the card. At least, if your try, make sure to save a copy of your original bios and learn how to flash it back, either with commands or inside Windows.