Once this is done you can flash your RX 480/580 8GB with this modded VBIOS. If all goes well, macOS will detect your RX 480/580 correctly as “Radeon RX 580” in About this Mac and System Information for as long as Apple supports the Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB. Keep in mind there are drawbacks to this modification. Jan 24, 2020 NiBiTor or NVIDIA BIOS Editor is a utility for editing the BIOS of your graphics card. Using this VBIOS editing utility you can customize or make important changes to your VBIOS file regarding clock speeds, voltage, timings, boot settings, temperature settings and then can save the updated VBIOS to the hard drive for flashing purpose.
AMD Polaris graphics cards have been a blessing for Mac Pro users since their release last summer. My RX 480 macOS installation how-to detailed progress of driver development as early as Sierra 10.12 beta. There was good news and bad news along the way. Overall Radeon RX GPUs have served Mac users well in both the Mac Pro towers and external graphics enclosures.
With the release of macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 this week, there’s a sleep issue with RX 480/580. macOS can still detect these cards at boot and most features work well, but sleep and wake-up present problems in the Mac Pro tower. The sleep light by the Power button pulsates like expected when the Mac is in sleep mode. However, the GPU itself remains running. Upon waking, you’ll be faced with a black screen and unresponsiveness from the Mac Pro. A force shutdown by holding the Power button is the only way to get it going again.
I found a workaround. I’ve done this modification prior to 10.13.2 to make macOS High Sierra recognize all RX 470/480/570/580 as “Radeon RX 580” in About this Mac. This was strictly a cosmetic procedure. With 10.13.2 though, it helps prevent sleep and wake-up issues in the Mac Pro tower by tricking the system into believing a Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB is installed.
The Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB is the only current generation AMD GPU identified correctly in macOS. This is due to it being used in the Apple external graphics dev kit. There are two part numbers for this particular RX 580, 113-4E353BU-O4E and 113-4E3531U-O4V. macOS checks for either of these part numbers in order to show “Radeon RX 580” instead of “AMD R9 XXX” in About this Mac. This workaround essentially borrows the identity of the Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB so that all Polaris 10 and 20 cards are treated equally in macOS High Sierra 10.13.2. Here’s the procedure:
1. Save the original VBIOS of your RX 470/480/570/580 with ATIWinFlash in Windows. Make an extra copy of the ROM to restore the original VBIOS to your GPU should things go wrong. I used a reference cooler RX 480 8GB for this guide.
2. Take note of the part number in the original VBIOS. In my case, it’s 113-D0090501-101. Open the VBIOS in a Hex Editor of your choice and search for this part number (I used HxD). Replace it with either part number that macOS identifies as “Radeon RX 580”. You’ll notice I added an extra character “1” to the end of 113-4E353BU-O4E because the original part number has one more character than the part number of the Sapphire RX 580 8GB. If the part number of your RX 480/580 has fewer characters, try matching 113-4E353BU-O4E as closely as possible.
3. The new VBIOS ROM will have an invalid checksum and you won’t be able to flash your card with ATIWinFlash just yet. Open this modified VBIOS in PolarisBIOSEditor. It will tell you to save the VBIOS in order to fix this error.
4. Once this is done you can flash your RX 480/580 8GB with this modded VBIOS. If all goes well, macOS will detect your RX 480/580 correctly as “Radeon RX 580” in About this Mac and System Information for as long as Apple supports the Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB.
Keep in mind there are drawbacks to this modification. The first one is BIOS signature enforcement in Windows that prevents AMD drivers from loading (error 43). If you don’t intend to use it with Windows, this is a non-issue. You can also get a card with dual-VBIOS for dual booting. The second issue is video output from the ports. If your RX 470/480/570/580 does not have the same port arrangement as the Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB, some of the ports may not work. On my reference RX 480, one of the three DisplayPort has no output after the modification.
A less involved alternative to fix this issue is to edit the info.plist file inside AMD9500Controller.kext. In macOS 10.13.2, the video output port number for Polaris graphics cards somehow is set to 6. Once you set this port number to a value that matches your RX 480/580, it will resolve the sleep issue in 10.13.2.
1a. Locate AMD9500Controller.kext in /System/Library/Extensions then right click to show package content. Copy Info.plist to the Desktop so that you can edit this file. Keep in mind SIP needs to be disabled.
2a. Find the key CFG_FB_LIMIT in this Info.plist file. Change the value from 0 to a number that matches your GPU’s number of ports. My reference RX 480 has 3 DisplayPort and one HDMI port so that value I used is 4.
3a. Run Kext Utility to repair kext permissions. Restart your Mac Pro when this process is complete.
⚠ BIOS flashing best suits 4GB cards ⚠
Claymore miner arguments now let you achieve the same results in a non-invasive and easily reversible way with 8GB cards.
By tweaking the -strap, -sintensity, and -rxboost options, you can adjust the timings of your GPUs and increase hashrate by 10-20% depending on a GPU model and memory chips installed.
The article down below is left as it was, just for the reference.
The benefits of the flashed GPU BIOS
Stock AMD RX 470/480/570/580/590 are capable of 22-24 MHs/s mining Ethereum using DaggerHashimoto. You can push up to 29-31 Mh/s by tuning the memory clock. We covered this approach here, yet, you still can squeeze some more by reflashing your GPU's BIOS with lower memory timings.
Lowering memory timings may help to push a card even further and provide up to 31 Mh/s — a 7-9Mh/s increase! The only way to do so with an AMD GPU is to flash BIOS. For Nvidia cards, there is 'The Pill'.
Why bother?
RAM and VRAM are types of Dynamic Random-Access Memory. As a whole, it has two major parameters:
Frequency, which impacts the memory's speed. The higher the value, the faster the data is transferred.
Timings, which define the latency between read and write operations. These latencies are crucial for stable memory performance, but they are not optimized with mining in mind. We can fix that 😏
Imagine yourself driving a Ferrari. Your car can reach 250 Km/h of frequency. But, you are always stuck at traffic lights of timing/latency at every corner. So, what is the point of that speed limited by obstacles?
There are three ways to boost DRAM chips:
- Raise frequency;
- Lower timings;
- Or both. Why not?
Which cards can be reflashed using this method?
Theoretically speaking, any kind. But most of the cards would require complicated microcode edits. AMD 400/500 series, on the other hand, allows you to use Polaris BIOS Editor app to apply custom modifications. It is a simple method which doesn't require any specialized hardware.
Are there any risks?
Indeed, there are some risks associated with BIOS modifications, but with careful planning and following our instructions, those risks are easily avoidable.
Warranty void
No service center will provide you with free maintenance if they find out that any BIOS changes were applied. Reverse all the modifications before handing your GPU to a vendor.
Potentially shorter life-span
Manufacturers test their product using stock parameters and make assumptions about life-span, assuming that the product is working in the same conditions as a test bench. Pushing your GPU's capabilities beyond those may bring unpredictable consequences to card's work state and lifetime. Frankly, that applies to any overclocking and the mining process itself, so...
Unstable mining
Mining relies on long-term stability and reliability, not immediate blast power. The Ferrari example above is still applicable — there is no point of going lightning fast for a split second just to get stuck turning into a snail a moment later.
It's not only about miner crashing or PC hanging. It's also about calculations precision. Overstressed GPU might think that 2+2=5, thus generating an invalid share. Such shares do not get rewarded by a pool; therefore your profitability will decrease.
Visual artifacts in games
Flashed GPUs are prone to display random green lines or blinking noisy squares on a screen while playing games. Sometimes the driver can even stop responding, resulting in an immediate game crash or even a BSOD.
Be conscious about the risks before considering modifying the timings. Test your GPU thoroughly after flashing or stick to a soft memory overclock if in doubt.
Go-go, Power Flashers!
The process may seem complicated. But, if you'll carefully follow these steps, everything will work out.
You will need to:
- Install the latest AMD driver which is optimal for mining;
- Enable Compute Mode;
- Apply atikmdag-patcher to bypass driver's BIOS validation;
- Figure out your memory's manufacturer and backup stock BIOS, both using GPU-Z;
- Modify BIOS with Polaris BIOS Editor;
- Flash it with AtiWinFlash;
The process for AMD 400 and 500 series is the same. In our example, we are using MSI RX480 GamingX with Samsung memory chips. Performance is measured for Ethereum mining. The stock performance is 24Mh/s.We've got 27Mh/s after applying a memory overclock. That's 12% more than stock. All right, but not very impressive.
Install an optimal driver
Install the latest AMD GPU driver and enable Compute Mode. Reboot your PC after the installation is complete.
Apply the patch
Rx 580 Bios Hex Editor
Launch atikmdag-patcher.exe to disable BIOS checksum check. A driver will be unable to detect your GPU after BIOS reflash if you skip this step.
Backup your stock BIOS
Using GPU-Z do the following:
- Find out what memory chips are installed on your board;
Backup the stock BIOS:
- Click on the arrow under AMD Radeon logo;
- 'Save to file...' and choose the folder to backup your BIOS to.
Copy the file to a secure place, i.e., Google Drive. You'll be able to safely revert any changes using the original BIOS.
Modify the BIOS
Open Polaris Bios Editor. It allows you to change clock speeds, voltages, TDP, temp limits and timings directly in BIOS.
Click 'OPEN BIOS' at the top left corner and select a file you have just dumped using GPU-Z.
Pay attention to a section in a lower-right. For each memory clock available for a GPU you'll find a Timing Strap value, which can be modified in three ways:
- Using 'ONE CLICK TIMING PATCH' button. The app will automatically set timings from a safe built-in preset. Choose this option if you are not sure what timings you should set.
Shift the values up and use N-th timing strap for an N-1 frequency, as shown in the picture below:
Find the best strap value for your card/memory vendor on the Internet. We consider this method the riskiest since a card might not boot up if the incorrect timings applied.
After finishing all the manipulations, save your modified BIOS to a separate file.
Do not overwrite stock BIOS! Use self-explanatory names to distinguish different BIOSes.
Flash your new BIOS
Launch AtiWinFlash with an 🛡Administrator Privileges.
- Select the required card, if there are several in your PC;
- Click on 'Load Image' to select the modified BIOS file;
- Finish with 'Program' button, flashing the code to the memory;
- Reboot your PC.
Who is awesome? You are awesome!
You got it! The GPU is ready to bring you millions... well, maybe not dollars, but hashes for sure!Remember that RX480 from the beginning? This is him now at stock clocks:Overclocking helps to achieve up to 30-31 Mh/s. In total, that's a 25% boost compared to stock BIOS and clocks.
In case something went wrong 🛑
Flash your stock BIOS back if you notice some unusual behavior.
Display goes blank
Connect your output cable to an integrated graphics or to a different GPU if you have several. Use the same AtiWinFlash steps to revert your card to a stock BIOS.
AtiWinFlash doesn't detect a card
Contact the closest service center and ask a professional to use programmer hardware to flash your stock BIOS. Make sure to grab a thumb drive with BIOS dump.
Card is not detected by a driver
Run atikmdag-patcher one more time.
Lost stock BIOS
Try searching Techpowerup BIOS database. Make sure BIOS you download corresponds to your GPU's memory vendor. For example, a GPU with Samsung's VRAM will not work with Micron's BIOS.
Troubles flashing? On our way to help! 🚑
Fear not! Message us, we’ll help with any issue 💪🏻 Replies are given within one day.
Rx 580 Bios For Mining
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- Or email us to support@kryptex.org directly.