DIY cool facts: What’s so great about graphics card VBIOS?

Everyone knows about the motherboard's BIOS, and many people also know how to set up, upgrade and reset it. But did you know that the graphics card also has a BIOS, which is what enthusiasts of DIY enthusiasts call VBIOS, where V stands for video.

But compared with the motherboard BIOS, it does not have any setting options, and even editing and upgrading require special tools. Therefore, strictly speaking, it is more reasonable to call it the graphics card firmware.

Similar to the motherboard, the VBIOS of the graphics card is also solidified in a small memory chip of the graphics card, which contains many operating parameters of the graphics card and can be said to be the identity card of the graphics card. Therefore, many DIY enthusiasts have their eyes on it. So what is there to do with VBIOS?

1. Unlock higher performance

We know that a series of graphics cards launched by graphics card manufacturers is often achieved by setting different operating frequencies of the GPU and graphics cards. For example, many graphics cards have the word OC behind them, which means that the graphics card manufacturers have increased the frequency of the GPU and video memory with better physique.

If your graphics card and video memory are the same model as the OC version graphics card, you can increase the frequency of both to OC level in the dedicated VBIOS software. If it runs successfully, you will get an OC version graphics card for free.

2. Release more rendering pipelines/stream processors

In many cases, graphics card manufacturers often turn a graphics card into a low-performance one by blocking the rendering pipeline/stream processor. As early as the Pentium 4 era, some people opened the blocked rendering pipeline of the ATi R9500 graphics card by flashing the graphics card VBIOS, turning it into a more powerful R9700. This way of releasing potential for free is undoubtedly very attractive to high-end players.

3. Unique uses

This peculiar use is actually "Hackintosh". The so-called "Hackintosh" is to install the MacOS system on an ordinary PC. It can be said that you can have a more advanced experience at a small cost. However, "Hackintosh" is quite demanding on hardware, especially graphics cards. If you want to use it normally, you must meet the driver-free conditions of the MacOS system, such as the typical graphics card AMD RX560.

However, many people's graphics cards obviously do not meet the driver-free conditions, so they need to flash the VBIOS of other graphics cards to achieve this. For example, some AMD RX550 products use the same GPU as RX560, so they can be transformed into RX560 by flashing the VBIOS and be perfectly recognized by the system. This is a model upgrade. Of course, there are also model downgrades, such as RX580 2048SP needs to flash the VBIOS of RX570 to achieve driver-free.

Although flashing the VBIOS of a graphics card is fun, it also has great risks. If the GPU and video memory do not match the target VBIOS, there is a high probability that the screen will go black when booting. Therefore, you must think twice and be cautious when operating, and make a backup of the original VBIOS. However, you don’t need to worry too much. If the graphics card has an integrated graphics card, you can just flash the backup VBIOS back if it goes black. But if there is no integrated graphics card...?

In a word: take it easy.