Flashing AMD BIOS

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One of the reasons to choose AMD over Nvidia is the aftermarket community surrounding it. Many people choose to flash their BIOS in addition to overclocking and undervolting their cards. This involves changing the timing in the BIOS, reflashing the card, as well as merging and resigning drivers to make this work on Windows. Needless to say, this can be very complicated for someone just starting out.

Utilities Needed

 

BIOS Collections

Should you happen to require stock BIOS images, please visit the following site:

 

Bricked card

  • (470/480/570/580): If you manage to brick your card, jump pins 1+8 on the IC chip located on the rear of the card. More info available here.

Backing up your card’s BIOS

  • Only complete this process with a single card in your machine at a time. Test your card’s functionality after every flash.
  • Close any GPU monitoring (GPU-Z, MSI Afterburner, etc) applications before running ATI Flash

From command line

  • Download ATIFlash and extract it to a new folder on your Desktop called “ATI”
  • Run Command Prompt as an Administrator
  • Run the following command: cd %homepath%\Desktop\ATI\
    • You should now be in the ATI folder
  • Run the following command: AtiFlash.exe -s 0 backup.rom
  • If all is successful, you will see a new file called backup.rom in your ATI folder
  • Save this file somewhere on your computer with the following naming convention:
    • <Manufacturer><Model><Chipset>_<Memory>_Stock.rom

  • It should look similar to this: MSIGamingX480_8gb_Stock.rom

From GUI

  • Download ATIFlash and extract it to a new folder on your Desktop called “ATI”
  • Right Click ATIFlash and run as an Administrator

  • Ensure your card is selected, then save the BIOS with a name that will help you identify it later

Editing your BIOS

  • Check GPU-Z for your card’s memory type (Samsung or Hynix)

  • Open Polaris (Run as Admin) and open the backup you saved of your card’s BIOS above

  • Depending on your card’s memory type and size, you will need to copy specific timing straps into higher slots

Hynix Memory

RX4xx – 4GB
  • Copy 1500 > 1625
  • Copy 1625 > 1750
  • Copy 1750 > 2000
RX5xx – 4GB
  • Copy 2:1625 > 2:1750
  • Copy 2:1750 > 2:2000
RX4xx – 8GB
  • Copy 1750 > 2000
RX5xx – 8GB
  • Copy 2:1750 > 2:2000

Samsung Memory

RX4xx – 4GB
  • Copy 1625 > 1750
  • Copy 1750 > 2000
RX5xx – 4GB
  • Copy 1:1625 > 1:1750
  • Copy 1:1750 > 1:2000
RX4xx – 8GB
  • Copy 1750 > 2000
RX5xx – 8GB
  • Copy 1:1750 > 1:2000

  • Once completed, save your BIOS with a name to indicate it is the modded file

 

Flashing the modded BIOS

  • Copy your modded BIOS to the same directory as ATIFlash and **take note of the directory path (see #1 in the below image)

  • Rename the file to bios.rom
  • Click Start and search for Command Prompt

  • Right click and Run As Administrator
  • Type the following:
    • cd <path_to_ATI_Flash> (*See Step 1 if you didn’t get this year)
    • atiflash -p 0 bios.rom

Your card is flashed! You will likely need to play with core and memory clocks in an overclocking utility like MSI Afterburner to get optimal performance out of your card.

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