A video adapter BIOS update is rarely needed. Usually, with the "factory" BIOS, the card successfully lives all its life, but sometimes exceptional situations occur after which an update or restoration of the BIOS of the video adapter is required.

ATTENTION!

DO ALL FURTHER ACTIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK!

In this note I will try to describe the procedure BIOS updates on cards based on the Ati/AMD GPU.

First, let's stock up on some software tools with which we will update the BIOS for our video adapter.

If we find the BIOS for our card, then we compare it with the current BIOS. An update is possible and is not required unless the firmware is absolutely necessary. If there is fresh version BIOS then download the archiver. For our experimental Powercolor Radeon HD4850, I decided to flash the BIOS with a slightly overestimated, by 10MHz, GPU frequency. :).

For those who have not found their card manufacturer, or according to GPU-Z, the manufacturer is ATi: You can use the manufacturers' firmware on the so-called reference design. Most often these are close partners of Ati/AMD. For example Sapphire or PowerColor. But when searching for a "non-native" BIOS, observe the mandatory condition: the type and frequency of the GPU, the volume, type, frequency and width of the memory bus, as well as the connector for which the card was made (AGP / PCI-E) must match.

If you have found the correct BIOS file, you can start the update procedure.

Unpack the archive from winflash. Create or . Launch RBE Bios Editor, go to the menu file and choose the item Load BIOS. Today we will not edit the BIOS parameters for our card, but simply in the Information window we will make sure that we have downloaded exactly what we need, and not some kind of mp3 file with music.

Therefore, we carefully read the information about the downloaded BIOS file and if nothing causes suspicion, then press the button “ clock settings"and carefully look at the information about the frequencies and supply voltage GPU. We kindly ask you not to change anything in the open BIOS file!. After viewing, just close the program without changing anything.

In order to be able to roll back to the old BIOS version in case of abnormal situations or any other surprises, you need to save the current BIOS version to a file. The same GPU-Z will help us with this. We launch the utility and click on the button with the image of the microcircuit as in the picture and select the item " Save to file".

Let's give the BIOS file a simple name, for example old.rom

Now the most interesting stage begins. On a previously prepared bootable flash drive or floppy disk, copy two files to the root folder:

1. New firmware (new.rom)

2. Current saved firmware just in case. (old rom)

2. flash driver atiflash.exe

All. Everything is ready for flashing the BIOS of the card. We insert a floppy disk into the disk drive or a USB flash drive into the USB port and reboot the machine.

Most modern motherboards can easily boot from USB drives, so I personally use a 1Gb flash drive when updating the firmware of video cards or motherboards.

We boot the computer from our prepared media. If the download was successful, then we should see an invitation to enter DOS commands. Usually this " C:\>«.

Now we need to enter just one single command to flash the Ati video adapter.

We type:

atiflash.exe -p 0 new.rom

atiflash.exe -p -f 0 new.rom

Brief explanation on command keys:

atiflash.exe- this is the command to start the flasher

-p- "programm" key allowing programming of the memory chip.

0 is the number 0 (zero). Sequence number of the video adapter whose BIOS will be reprogrammed.

-f- "force" key that excludes checking all kinds of card IDs if a "non-native" BIOS is sewn.

new.rom- firmware file. the contents of which will be programmed into the card's memory.

After the command is typed, press Enter. After a few seconds, the process of flashing the BIOS of the card will end and you can reboot the machine from the hard drive.

That's actually all. If everything is done correctly and the correct BIOS image was selected during preparation, then at the output you will receive a freshly flashed card.

If something went wrong and the machine could not boot or there is no image on the monitor, then you need to roll back to old version BIOS that we saved in advance using GPU-Z.

To roll back, you need to find an old PCI video card, or put a "sick" card on the motherboard with an integrated graphics adapter, boot from the media we prepared with the flash driver and BIOS files.

After loading and displaying the DOS prompt, issue the command:

atiflash.exe -p -f 0 old.rom

After flashing, turn off the computer, pull out the PCI card, switch the monitor to our card, boot up and read google.com trying to analyze what happened and find the error.

Particularly lazy comrades can use the BIOS firmware option from the Windows environment. To do this, there is a utility Ati Winflash. You can use this flash driver directly from the open RBE Bios Editor. To do this, you just need to press the button " Acquire/flash” and specify the path to the Winflash.exe executable file.

All the best, successful flashing. ;)

Hello! A lot of people asked me to write a guide on the firmware of a video card for mining. And we waited a long time, and as you can see, the good news is that the guide has been written. And so our guide will be on the example of the firmware of the amd RX 580 sapphire nitro + video card. But the guide is suitable for all radeon (ati) video cards of the rx 580, 570, 470, 480, 460, 560, 460 series.

And so rx 580 nitro + sapphire before firmware

End result at the end of the article.

Video card bios firmware

As you understand from the name, it is bios that needs to be flashed, namely, to change the timings. BIOS firmware is especially good for mining ether (eth).

Attention! Flashing and changing the bios timings of the video card, you are at your own peril and risk! What will happen to the guarantee is not exactly known.

And so, the amd video card BIOS firmware begins with the necessary programs.

Programs for flashing video cards:

1. Ati flash is a program for flashing amd video cards, namely, for saving the old firmware and uploading the new one - .

2. Polaris BIOS Editor for editing video card BIOS timings, this version is suitable for all types of memory -.

3. Atikmdag patcher - needed so that after flashing the timings the video card would work correctly and there would be no errors -.

The entire basic set for flashing the bios of a video card for mining from under windows has been assembled.

Thank you all for your attention. Bye.

I also wanted to add that the bios firmware of the nvidia video card is not needed for mining! She won't give anything.

RBE is a handy tool to modify several interesting parameters in ATI BIOS files. It focuses on fan and clock settings as these are the most important things to most users. BIOS modification is an alternative to using memory resident tweaking utilities such as RivaTuner, ATI Tray Tools or ATITool.
But RBE can do more than that: It will balance the BIOS file's checksum, lets you modify the Overdrive settings, enables superior PowerPlay functionality for some video cards, contains a CCC profile editor for hidden features of the CCC and much more.

Main Features

  • Can display and change a lot of information strings inside the BIOS file, including Device ID and vendor ID.
  • Accesses every PowerPlay state and can change GPU clocks, RAM clocks and voltage for each of them seperately.
  • Displays the PowerPlay structure of the BIOS.
  • Also displays the voltages the card can make use of.
  • Can graphically display and modify four different fan controllers in a very comfortable way and automatically figures out which controller is used for a particular BIOS.
  • RBE modifies the Overdrive signature of a BIOS to enable a higher overclocking limit. Signatures can also be extracted and saved to a file.
  • Will make the annoying spin up bug some cards have vanish.
  • Enables superior PowerPlay.
  • Contains a profile editor for accessing hidden CCC panel features.
  • Acquires and flashes BIOSes all from within RBE using the built-in WinFlash interface.

Due to a digital signature requirement on latest AMD cards, RBE is no longer in active development and will not support the latest graphics cards.

Documentation

Downloads

The latest version is available in the downloads section.

Screenshots





Which video cards are supported?

So far, this might be an incomplete list:

  • 2400LE
  • 2400 PRO
  • 2400 PRO AGP
  • 2400XT
  • 2600LE
  • 2600Pro
  • 2600 Pro AGP
  • 2600XT
  • 2600XT AGP
  • 2900 GT
  • 2900 PRO
  • 2900XT
  • 3200 series
  • 3300 series
  • 3470 mobile
  • 3600 series
  • 3870x2
  • 4850x2
  • 4870x2
  • 4870x2
  • HD 5450
  • HD 5570
  • HD 5670
  • HD 5750
  • HD 5770
  • HD 5850
  • HD 5870
  • HD 5970
  • HD 6850
  • HD 6870
  • FireGL V3600
  • FireGL V3750
  • FireGL V5600
  • FireGL V5700
  • FireGL V7600
  • FireGL V7700
  • FireGL V7760
  • FireGL V7770
  • FireGL V8600
  • FireGL V8650
  • FireGL V8700 Duo
  • FireGL V8750

All in all, the engine is somewhat flexible. If you have a video card which is not officially supported, just give it a shot nevertheless.

revision history

v1.28

  • Fixed a bug that reported an error message regarding VendorID writing occasionally.
  • Fixed rare overdrive bug.
  • Added 6950 -> 6970 shader unlocking capability (will most likely only work for reference design cards).
  • Added 6990 DeviceID.

v1.27

  • Added volt modding capability for CHL8214 voltage controller (reference design 6870 and 6850 cards).
  • Added volt modding capability for VT1556M voltage controller (reference design 6970 and 6950 cards).
  • Changing DeviceID now changes both locations properly (hopefully) all the time.
  • Changing VendorID should work in more cases now.
  • Added some new DeviceIDs (6950/6970).
  • Updated WinFlash link.
  • Updated RBE"s internal BIOS extraction method to account for "ATI" labeled "AMD" now.
  • Improved Hex editor interface a little.
  • Fixed method 1 overdrive hacking signature extraction for 6xx0 cards. Only superficially tested due to no available non-reference signatures yet

v1.26

  • Added (preliminary) support for Radeon HD 6850 and 6870. Everything _should_ work, except for voltage modding.
  • Fixed minor WinFlash version detection bug.
  • Improved built-in hex editor search functionality (again).
  • Improved flashing procedure for more stability.
  • Fixed Dell Subvendor-ID, thanks to Clinton for the tip!

v1.25

  • Added preliminary fan control for 5970 (EMC2103 fan controller). Big thanks to Diverge for making this possible!
  • Added support for Radeon 5830, 5450 and 5570.
  • Added signature file based overdrive hacking capability for 5xx0 cards. Thanks to Biker for extensive testing!
  • Improved built-in hex editor search capability.
  • Fixed another subvendor display issue, hopefully for good this time.
  • Improved RAM interface detection.
  • Fixed a rarely occurring bug (on mobile Radeon BIOSes only) regarding powerplay table.
  • Added qualified error message if pre-2xx0 BIOS is detected.
  • Fixed rare file opening issue.
  • Updated WinFlash link.
  • Fixed minor clock wizard issue.
  • Added welcome message for first time users.
  • Added feature to enable RivaTuner versions< v2.25 to cooperate with 5xx0 Radeons.

v1.24

  • Added 58x0 and 5970 GPU voltage control. I "d like to express my gratitude to VuurVOS who made this possible.
  • Added memory voltage control where available (i.e. all cards that utilize a VT1165 in order to control memory voltage, such as 4890, 5870 and 5970 ).
  • Added GPU voltage control for cards utilizing a L6788A chip. Most 4770s and 5770s use them. Hey, better late than never! :-) Unfortunately, 5670 and 5750 reference design cards can not be supported because their UP6201 chip does not support external programming.
  • Fixed subvendor-display on 5xx0 cards.

v1.23

  • Fixed "GetStringPos" bug that occurred on rare BIOSes.
  • Improved RAM and RAM interface detection.
  • Improved 5xx0 support. Still no voltage tweaking yet.
  • Added 5xx0 device-IDs. These cards are featured now: 5670, 5750, 5770, 5850, 5870, 5970.

v1.22

  • Added clock tuning wizard.
  • Changed fan controller bug workaround settings" description to point out what it does a little better.
  • Improved program's startup routine.
  • Fixed "GetClockPos reported 0"-error that came up on loading several 4xx0-BIOSes.
  • Added preliminary support for Radeon 5870. Note that I"m still not sure about 5850"s DeviceID and that signature saving and loading will most likely not work properly on 5xx0s with this version. Furthermore, VT1165 programming is not functioning yet.

v1.21

  • Fixed minor glitch in BIOS flashing procedure.
  • Minor fixes and enhancements for hex editor.
  • Updated WinFlash link.
  • Fixed another 3650 bug... :-/ I hate that card!
  • Added some DeviceIDs.
  • Improved spec string analysis code.
  • Added fan support for 4770.

v1.20

  • Added hex editor.
  • Added alternative BIOS extraction method.
  • (Hopefully) fixed the 3650 Device-ID-bug for good.
  • Fixed a bug concerning weird 4670 fan settings.

v1.19

  • Fixed a startup bug causing the main window not to show up.
  • Added experimental voltage register access. RBE automatically figures out if the card"s equipped with a VT11xx. Just use register 15 for underclocking/undervolting and register 18 for overclocking. Register tweaking will override the voltage table. Still, you should adjust your powerplay settings according to the new register values .

v1.18

  • Fixed minor file saving bug for RV730 BIOSes.
  • Fixed TSlope calculation bug.
  • Enabled (preliminary) support for more RV770 (and derivatives) based cards.
  • Fixed "HandleOneClickUpdate" bug that occurred on several BIOSes on saving.
  • Updated link to WinFlash to most recent version.
  • Added some Device-IDs to now officially support those cards.

v1.17

  • Fixed the "Runtime error "7": out of memory" bug at the cost of the right-aligned combo boxes for the voltages in the clock settings tab.

v1.16

  • Minor bug fix concerning voltage settings on 2900 XT and some other cards.
  • Minor bug fix concerning method 2 hack.
  • Fixed bug that caused RBE to crash occasionally when canceling the search for WinFlash.
  • Fixed minor Acquire/Flash BIOS bug.
  • Replaced EXE-packer because some virus scanners have been reported to raise false alarm for the old one.
  • Fixed some minor file opening probs.
  • Fixed a bug with checksum calculation. Actually, this was a bug by ATI again due to PCI standards violation. Damn, what a pain in the ass to find that glitch...
  • Added option to enable the user to decide whether to write fan controller bug workaround settings or not.
  • Added some device-IDs (thanks to TheCow).
  • Added "recent files" section in the main window's file menu.
  • Added system tray icon. God who knows will use it... :-/
  • Added "-systray" parameter for RBE startup in systray mode only.
  • Added option to make RBE run on windows bootup.
  • Added saving the program's window position.
  • Did some GUI work to make RBE look a little cooler (hopefully). Unfortunately, RBE's file size increased significantly because of this due to embedded libraries. I'm not sure if it is worth it so far but it enabled more cool looking features to come in the future. Here's what has been done in particular:
  • Enabled themed styles for all supported user controls.
  • Added some icons to several buttons.
  • Added some more or less matching icons throughout the GUI.
  • Replaced voltage combo boxes by boxes that can be right-aligned.
  • Replaced some scrollbars by more modern sliders.
  • Replaced program icon.

v1.15

  • Fixed bug causing an error message on loading several BIOSes (small ones like several 3870 X2 BIOSes).
  • Added remote control feature for WinFlash to acquire and flash BIOSes from within RBE. Will be included in the tutorial soon.
  • Superior PowerPlay should be available for more 4870 BIOSes now.
  • Added link to the tutorial in the menu bar. (Info... Tutorial on how to use RBE (websource)...)
  • Added display for the card's internal voltage table (it's in the clock settings tab).
  • Fixed a bug causing the device ID being written incorrectly if it's changed in rare cases. Coded this very drunk, there might be bugs... :-/
  • Added some nice method one hack signatures (4850, 4870 X2).
  • Added a feature for method one overdrive hack signature saving and loading.

v1.14

  • Fixed bug with method one overdrive hack not working. Should run fine now.
  • Added fan control for 4870 X2. Completely new controller chip, was a big pain in the ass to code... :-/
  • Made spin up fix, powerplay functionality and voltage decrease in the one-click update for 4xx0 cards seperately selectable.
  • Fixed WinFlash check sum correction bug.
  • Added and fixed a lot of small things. Too many and too minor to mention all... :-)

v1.13

  • Added the checksum calculation method WinFlash uses because for some files, the checksums differ. See built-in-FAQ for more on this.
  • Improved checksum balancing algorithm to capture this. This is a completely new method, so there might be some minor bugs, but it is guaranteed to not corrupt any file. Notify me on any strange behaviour.
  • Added one-click update functionality for some 48x0 cards which corrects a well known "spin-up bug" and improves powerplay (power saving functionality).
  • Added method for overdrive limit increasing. Still experimental, read built-in help text before using this. Power users only!
  • Fixed bug with not properly displayed overdrive limits.

v1.12

  • Added display for GDDR5 (for 4870 and future cards).
  • Added check for corruption of GDDR5 BIOSes.
  • Fixed bug with all voltages being "---".
  • The lock for clock info is now unchecked by default.
  • Added command line feature for automated BIOS loading.
  • Added profile editor to edit CCC settings that can not be modified using the CCC.
  • Added support for 4870 X2 (experimental).
  • Fixed checked "pre-modified" checkbox on plain 4870 BIOSes.
  • Added more clock info modes to meet the needs of Radeon mobility BIOSes.
  • Improved some internal things.

v1.11

  • Fixed values ​​written if look up table is used.
  • Improved method of clock rates detection (old method was not working properly with some weired BIOSes).
  • Added some FireGL device IDs.
  • Added some stuff to the in-program FAQ.
  • Updated link to WinFlash.
  • Fixed little bug occuring writing some BIOS infos.
  • Fixed some confusion regarding 3650 cards.
  • Added support for some exotic mobile card's BIOSes (experimental).
  • Added support for HD 4850/4870 (experimental).
  • Added fan control for most 3870 X2.

v1.10

  • Some minor bugfixes concerning file drag & drop and other things.
  • Changed scale for graph "s grid.
  • Fixed a bug causing RBE to not recognizing some proper BIOSes.
  • Graphs have been made click-and-dragable.
  • Added step function graph view mode for those math freaks out there complaining about the continous graph. :-)
  • Added sub vendor - and video card ID detection and also possibility to change them.
  • Eased input restrictions: Now you can use CTRL+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+X and CTRL+Z.
  • Added update check functionality as requested.

v1.09

  • Added complete fan control handling for 3xx0 and several 2xx0 cards. Now you have full access! :-)
  • Added nice graph function displaying what is going on with any settings changed.
  • Added screen shot function for graphs.
  • Some minor bug fixes.
  • Added some annoying hint links throughout RBE's front end. :-/
  • Added drag & drop for BIOS files.

v1.08

  • 99% of the code is completely rewritten.
  • Tab based front end implemented. Finally! :-)
  • You can now enter the fan hysteresis if lookup-table is used.
  • No more pre-selection of video card type is required. RBE detects it itself now.
  • You can re-open a BIOS saved with RBE now.
  • Most of the BIOS information strings can be changed now. However, this is not recommended and thus is a power user feature only.
  • Several bugs removed, including a crash when trying to load some improper files.
  • Added some new bugs:-) But seriously: Because most of the code is completely new, there will be some bugs for sure.
  • Intelligent bug report system added to the code.
  • Changed method to detecting fan settings for 3xx0-cards. Should be more compatible now. Will reduce incorrect fan setting detection for most cards also.
  • Improved checksum handling for even giant checksum differences.
  • Filesize shrinked a litte because of more compact code.
  • You can now unlock the states/modes dependencies if you like. This is a power user feature as well. The default setting is still locked for dependent states for more comfort.

v1.07

  • First release for site.
  • Added fan control setting for 29x0 cards. Oh yeah! :-)

v1.06

  • Added some information on the 862 MHz lock in the FAQ section.
  • Added a "BIOS image size" info line.

v1.05

  • No more "fan settings detection error" message with 3450 and 3650 cards.
  • Fan values ​​can be entered directly now.
  • Some more minor bug fixes.

v1.04

  • Added some more bytes for checksum balancing.
  • Changed checksum display form mode 0F00h to 0x0F00 because that's cooler!
  • Changed adapted frame caption displaying dependent on selected video card mode.
  • Changed number of displayed states/modes on 2900 XT/2900 pro 512 bit from 5 to 6.

v1.03

  • Fixed dependencies between clock settings during user input.
  • Revised FAQ.

v1.02

  • Added more modes for 3xx0 cards (experimentally).

v1.01

  • Fixed an issue with checksum display.

v1.00

  • Added checksum display.

v0.99

  • Revised FAQ.
  • Added security request if user set 60 °C threshold for fan fix with 3850/3870 cards.

Updating the BIOS of the video card is very rarely required, this may be due to the release of important updates or resetting the settings. Usually, the graphics adapter works fine without flashing all its life, but if you need to do it, then you need to do everything carefully and follow the instructions exactly.

Before starting, we recommend that you draw your attention to the fact that all actions must be performed strictly according to the instructions. Any deviation from it can lead to serious consequences, up to the point that you will have to use the services of a service center to restore work. Now let's take a closer look at the process of flashing the BIOS of an AMD video card:

  1. Go to the official GPU-Z website and download the latest version.
  2. Open it and pay attention to the name of the video card, GPU model, BIOS version, type, memory size and frequencies.

  3. Using this information, locate the BIOS firmware file on the Tech Power Up website. Compare the version on the site and specified in the program. It happens that an update is not required, except in cases where a full restore is necessary.
  4. Unzip the downloaded archive to any convenient location.
  5. Download the RBE BIOS Editor program from the official website and run it.
  6. Select an item Load BIOS and open the unpacked file. Verify that the firmware version is correct by viewing the information in the window "Information".

  7. Go to tab "Clock Settings" and check frequencies and voltage. The indicators should match those displayed in the GPU-Z program.

  8. Go back to GPU-Z program and save the old version of the firmware so that you can roll back to it if something happens.

  9. Create a bootable flash drive and move two firmware files and the ATIflah.exe flash driver to its root folder, which can be downloaded from the developer's official website. Firmware files must be in ROM format.
  10. Everything is ready to start the firmware. Shut down the computer, insert the boot drive and start up. You must first configure the BIOS to boot from a USB flash drive.
  11. After a successful download, the screen should display command line where to enter:

    atiflash.exe -p 0 new.rom

    Where New.rom- the name of the file with the new firmware.

  12. Click Enter, wait for the process to finish and restart the computer by removing the bootable drive first.

    13. Rollback to an older BIOS version

    Sometimes the firmware is not installed, and most often this happens due to the inattention of users. In this case, the video card is not detected by the system, and in the absence of a built-in graphics accelerator, the image on the monitor disappears. To resolve this issue, you will need to roll back to a previous version. Everything is done very simply:

    1. If booting from the integrated adapter is not successful, then the PCI slot you need to connect another video card and boot from it.
    2. Use the same bootable flash drive that contains the old BIOS version. Plug it in and boot your computer.
    3. The command line will appear again on the screen, but this time you should enter the command:

      atiflash.exe -p -f 0 old.rom

      Where old rom- the name of the file with the old firmware.

    It remains only to change the card back and find the cause of the failure. It is possible that the wrong version of the firmware was downloaded or the file was corrupted. In addition, you should carefully study the voltage and frequencies of the video card.

    Today we examined in detail the process of flashing the BIOS of AMD video cards. There is nothing complicated in this process, it is only important to follow the instructions and carefully check the necessary parameters so that there are no serious problems that cannot be solved by rolling back the firmware.

So, as you already understood, today we will talk about restoring such an important device for every player as a video card. I think some people from your inner circle (friends and friends of friends) met with various kinds of artifacts, or simply, turning on the computer one morning, instead of starting to download their favorite operating system saw the magical black screen of Malevich. Or heard strange squeaks from the system unit. Usually it is one long and two short beeps. Well, or one incessant squeak, which happens in the case of video cards with additional power when it is not connected or fails for other reasons. However, this part of the article will be at the mercy of such things as artifacts, freezes and other pleasant little things.

In fact, the list of faults that can be repaired by software is quite narrow. These are some types of artifacts and banal freezes in 3D Mark and games, for example.

Wrenches, screwdrivers...

For work, we need several utilities. The best way to diagnose artifacts is to use ATITool
(gcontent)Download ATITool (/gcontent)

The utility, as the name implies, is designed for ATI video cards, well, or, as it has become correct to say now, AMD. Frequency shifting features may not be available on NVIDIA graphics cards. But this is not important, because this soft is the best artifact scanner ever, fast, convenient and quite tough. Plus, through it, manipulations are performed with frequencies, fan rotation and some other usefulness that have nothing to do with repair, but rather useful for the enemies of all repairmen, fellow overclockers (gee-gee-gee! The author is his own enemy :) - approx. ed.).

Further, the well-known program RivaTuner
(gcontent)Download RivaTuner (/gcontent)

It is used to change frequencies, regulate fan speed, and plus such goodies as manipulating pixel shaders on NVIDIA video cards.
Well, more specific software of course.

GPU-Z- information utility for video cards. It also allows you to write off the BIOS from them for further editing.
(gcontent)Download GPU-Z (/gcontent)

Radeon Bios Editor- for manipulating the BIOS's of video cards from AMD
(gcontent)Download Radeon Bios Editor (/gcontent)

NiBiTor– editing NVIDIA BIOSes, respectively
(gcontent)Download NiBiTor (/gcontent)

ATIFlash- BIOS flasher for AMD video cards. NVFlash - NVIDIA flash driver
(gcontent)Download ATIFlash (/gcontent)

Well, the last resort - Hexedit. It is designed to edit hex code directly
(gcontent)Download Hexedi (/gcontent)

Scary? I don't!

Diagnostics

In general, various types of artifacts are most often caused by operational (video) memory or a central chip. Low-quality components soldered at the factory, premature degradation, overclocking, well, or small defects in the printed circuit board video cards with which the memory or chip cannot work as it should - these are the sources of combustible user tears. It is these things that can be repaired using various software.

In cases where the video card freezes in 3D modes, the diagnostic method remains the same, only it is not so convenient to check. I advise you to use 3D Mark 2005 for this - this test loads the video subsystem quite heavily, but at the same time it is the shortest of the series 3D mark You can download from the following link...

There is another very peculiar kind of artifacts. On the ATITool scanner, it looks like a chessboard of various colors with an admixture of ordinary artifacts. This is most often observed only in 3D mode. Such a glitch is a frequent guest on the GeForce 8600 GT/GTS and on some video cards of the middle and lower price range. These artifacts are caused by broken pixel pipelines in the kernel. If you are “lucky” to have such a nuisance, then it will be a little more difficult. But a little lower I will try to explain in detail how to deal with this.

What to do with "broken" pipelines?

Well, actually the testing technique. With help ATITool

RivaTuner the frequency of the memory or, if it does not help, then the graphics processor (core) is slowly decreasing. In order not to waste time, I recommend doing this approximately in increments of 50 megahertz for memory and 20 for the core.
If you are lucky and the artifacts disappear, then two options are possible.

The first is to keep the frequencies at which no problems are observed as a profile. Both ATITool and RivaTuner can do this. The second is to edit the BIOS, writing these frequency values ​​\u200b\u200bthere, and flash it into the video card so that you never remember this again. See below for how to edit and flash BIOSes.

The fight against overheating

It's no secret that many modern video cards from the category of powerful, with all their steepness and speed, heat up like stoves. And it happens that manufacturers are in such a hurry to throw a fresh top on the market that even the BIOSes of video cards do not normally bring to mind. Especially in terms of “smart” cooler speed control.
For this (well, actually not for this, but for overclockers) both ATITool and RivaTuner have options for manually adjusting the speed. You can set as many as a percentage of the maximum speed needed for 2D or 3D mode. Well, then it is possible to save the fan settings to a profile in the same way as the frequencies, and set this profile to autoload when Windows starts. Most users will actually fit and such measures.

Editing BIOSes

Well, if the video card is not yours, for example? Or are you even going to float it somewhere soon (yeah, down the Yenisei - ed. note)? Do not despair! For these purposes, video card BIOS editors are used. Let's take a look at the two main ones:
for AMD (Radeon BIOS Editor) and NVIDIA (NiBiTor) respectively.
Nibitor. At the time of this writing, the latest version available for download is code number 4.6. The functionality of this program is quite extensive - up to changing the secondary timings of video memory, but in this case we do not need all this, and only a few functions are required.
Program window NiBiTor looks pretty simple. First of all, we need to read the BIOS from our video card for processing by the program.
The sequence of actions: Tools menu, then Read BIOS and Select Device - will give the name of your video card. If there are any problems with this, then most likely you do not have the latest version of the utility. Well, or too new video card :)!
Click OK. Then again Tools, Read BIOS, but now Read Into NiBiTor.
In the main window of NiBiTor, the main characteristics of your video card should appear. They can be changed.
As described above, earlier in Riva Tuner you found the frequencies at which your video card began to work normally. Now these frequencies should be rewritten in the corresponding fields of NiBiTor. Attention! A small point: since the appearance of the GeForce 8th series, NVIDIA video cards have been dividing the core frequency into two indicators: the frequency of the core itself and separately of the shader unit. But when you changed the core frequency in RivaTuner, I think you noticed that the value for the shader block also changed. Rewrite them both from RivaTuner.
With memory, everything is much simpler - you just need to change a couple of numbers. All is ready? Then the procedure is as follows: menu File, Save BIOS. The file name must be in English letters or numbers, and preferably shorter. Everything, the BIOS file is ready for firmware.

Radeon Bios Editor

This utility is a little more difficult to understand. And she has a small joint. Unlike NiBiTor, it is not yet capable of reading BIOSes directly from video cards. For this we use GPU-Z - latest version on the this moment 0.28. Here, to the right of the strip with the BIOS Version, there is an icon depicting a chip with a green arrow. When pressed, the Save to File and Submit to on-line database options appear. Of course, we are interested in Save to File. Next, select any location and file name you like and click OK. The BIOS is saved in bin format, not rom, but Radeon Bios Editor will read it.
Now in the Radeon BIOS Editor, select the Load BIOS option and set the program on our file. The main window of RBE is downright overloaded with information! But we are interested in the Clock settings menu. There are many different frequencies, but since you already know the numbers you need (we found them out with the help of ATITool, or maybe even RivaTuner), then just change the stock values ​​​​to the ones you need.
The Radeon BIOS Editor has one advantage over NiBiTor: on the latest AMD video cards, it is able to flash the Fan Settings values ​​​​in the BIOS, that is, the fan operating modes. This is done, who would have thought, on the Fan Settings tab.

seamstress

BIOS ready? Now Save BIOS! RBE has a built-in flasher, but it does not always work correctly, so it's better to flash it properly from under DOS.
For firmware from under DOS, we need either a good old floppy disk or a flash drive. In the case of a floppy disk, it is enough to format it as bootable and upload the downloaded flash driver files and the BIOS file to it. In the case, which is very likely in the modern world, when you do not have an FDD drive, you will have to use a USB flash drive, which is not so simple. I will not describe the creation of a bootable USB flash drive within the framework of this article, it will take up a lot of space. Maybe some other time :). Let's assume you have it.
Here are the parameters that need to be set for each flash driver:

Options nvflash -5 -6 (your BIOS file).rom Options atiflash -p -f 0 (your BIOS file).rom

Death to chess!

Well, for dessert, I promised to tell you how to deal with artifacts under the code name "chess field". I haven't seen them on ATI video cards in my practice, and on GeForce - only in some models. For this purpose, we will need Riva tuner and HexEdit .
In the Riva Tuner window, click the top settings section. In the window that opens, select NVStrap Driver. On the Active pixel/vertex units configuration tab, remove the Determined by VGA BIOS value and set the Custom value. The Customize tab becomes active...

Actually, here it is, the power over pixel pipelines! By unchecking and checking them, you can enable and disable these same pipelines. Which isn't that hard at all. The only point is that the application requires a reboot.

But how to cut them off permanently without using RivaTuner? Nothing complicated! If you paid attention to what happened during the game of ticks, you saw that when you uncheck or check the box for controlling pipelines, there is a bar on top in which values ​​like 000F0703 flicker, and when the pipelines are turned off, the value changes, suppose , at 000F0701. Actually, we don't need anything else. Now HexEdit comes into play.

In the program window, through the "File" menu, open your saved BIOS. Now click on the Editing tab. It has a search feature. There we switch from the "String" value to the "Code" value. Now you can start entering the values ​​that we found in RivaTuner. But there is a small point: the value is not entered in the same way as it looked there, but mirrored. For example, my value 000F0703 should be entered as 03070F00, moving characters from the end to the beginning in pairs. Found? Now we need to change the value. In my case, it was necessary to change 03 to 01. This can be seen from RivaTuner. If the parameter is found twice, it's okay - change it in both places. Now the menu "File", "Record as ...". Write immediately with the rom extension.

Well, that's all. Now you can flash the corrected BIOS. For some time now, quite a lot of such video cards have gone from some brands, so if you or your friends accidentally had such a bug after the end of the warranty on the video card, then you know what to do.