RX 400 And 500 Series BIOS Modding For Mining

Learn how to BIOS Mod Polaris GPUs for Mining to increase your Hashrate. This works on any RX 400 or 500 series card.

GPU Mining
BIOS Modding
Basics
:المحدّث مؤخرا 06/10/2022

BIOS Modding your RX 400 and RX 500 Series GPUs can help boost your memory performance, in return giving you a higher hashrate on memory-intensive algorithms.

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If you are mining a ProgPow variant algorithm such as KawPow or FiroPow then you do not need to BIOS mod as they are core-intensive algorithms.

There are 2 ways to BIOS Mod your RX 400 or 500 Series Polaris Cards For Mining, on-the-fly modding and permanent modding.

The On-the-fly method is great if you are mining on your Personal or Gaming PC, and Permanent modding is best for a dedicated Mining Rig for its increase in stability and performance.

GPU Memory type plays a big role in BIOS Modding, so you might get different results based on your memory type.

If you happen to brick your GPU, there will be instructions for unbricking it at the end. Please be aware that Permanent BIOS modding is risky, as it is recommended for Mining Rigs, it can still brick your GPU and you have a very slim chance of being unlucky and not being able to recover it.

Method 1: BIOS Modding on the fly

BIOS modding on the fly is usually applied through your mining software or your AMD Radeon Settings. You will want to look for a parameter that mentions memory timings or straps. In this guide, we will use Phoenixminer for the instructions but you should be able to find the same parameters on other mining software, use our guides for reference.

Instructions apply for both Windows 10 and any Linux-based operating system (HiveOS, NHOS, etc.).

Mining Software Instructions

  1. Open your start_miner.bat file for the coin you wish to mine. You will add parameters to it now.
  2. Add -rxboost 20, this gives your RX cards a little memory boost.
    You can try from 1-24 and see which works best for you, I personally found 20 to be the best for most of my cards.
  3. Add -mt 2, this is what modifies your memory timing aka BIOS modding on the fly. You can try values from 1,2,3. 2 worked best for me.
  4. Save the file and run your miner, now you can enjoy a little boost in the Hashrate!
Phoenixminer Polaris BIOS Modding
Phoenixminer Polaris BIOS Modding

AMD Radeon Settings Instructions

  1. Open your AMD Radeon Settings which are available once you download your GPU Drivers
  2. Go to the Performance tab and then select the Tuning tab
  3. Navigate to the VRAM Tuning section
  4. Click on Memory Timing and select Level2
Memory Timings on AMD Radeon Settings
Memory Timings on AMD Radeon Settings

Run the miner for 10-20 minutes and see if you're getting the expected Hashrate, which will be around 28-30 MH/s. If your GPU is still giving a very low Hashrate then try a different Level for your Memory Timing.

Method 2: Permanent BIOS Modding

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Disclaimer: As BIOS Modding is highly recommended for mining, it can also lead to bricking your GPU if done incorrectly. Some GPUs also don't handle this well. Please follow this guide exactly as written to avoid complications. If you do happen to brick your GPU, follow our unbricking solution.

This guide assumes you have 1 GPU in your system. It is recommended to do it one by one on Windows and you need to make sure that your display is coming from your Integrated Graphics instead of your GPU. If you have a display port in your Motherboard and it is not working then you most likely need to do some Motherboard BIOS settings change before you can proceed.  

If you are on a Linux-based Mining OS such as HiveOS then you can do multiple GPUs by saving the BIOS through the web application and following the rest of the steps.

1. First, you need to install 3 different applications to make the BIOS modding successful.

  • Install PolarisBiosEditor. This is what will modify your timings on the Polaris GPU BIOS.
  • Install AMDVBFlash / ATI ATIFlash. This is used to Save and Flash a BIOS to your GPU.
  • Install GPU-Z. This is used for finding specs on your GPU and saving your BIOS as well.
  • OPTIONAL: Install AMD/ATI Pixel Patcher. This is used if your GPU gives you a Code 43 Error, meaning that it will not function. After running this Patcher, it usually fixes the problem.

Now once you have them all installed, you can start the process.

2. Save your original BIOS. This can be done in 2 ways, through GPU-Z or through the AMDVBFlash command-line. For this guide, we will use GPU-Z.

Make sure when you save your vBIOS, you follow a proper naming structure just encase you want to revert back to the Original BIOS. For example, for me I will name it MSI_RX_580_8GB_Hynix_original.rom. Hynix is my memory type which you can see in GPU-Z.

Saving vBIOS using GPU-Z
Saving vBIOS using GPU-Z

3. Run PolarisBiosEditor and open your saved BIOS. Ignore any Pro version pop-ups or any irrelevant information.

4. Click on One Click Timing Patch to modify your BIOS. Now you will get a series of pop-ups that mention different optimizations that are being applied. Hit Yes on all of them.

5. Save your modded BIOS mod. You can save it with the same name as the original and instead of saying original, replace that with mod.

So now you should have the following .rom files:

  • MSI_RX_580_8GB_Hynix_original.rom
  • MSI_RX_580_8GB_Hynix_mod.rom

6. To flash your GPU, open a Command Prompt as an administrator.

7. Use the cd command to navigate to your amdvbflash.exe folder.

You can do that by going to where your amdvbflash folder is and then right-click on amdvbflash.exe and opening properties, then copying the location value. Now back at the Command Prompt, type in cd and then right-click and paste the location you just copied, then hit enter.

Changing directory on Command Prompt
Command Prompt

8. Type in the command amdvbflash -i. If you did everything correctly so far then you should see a list of your plugged-in GPUs with their adapter ID. (1 in this scenario)  

9. Now to flash the GPU, use the command amdvbflash -p 0 MSI_RX_580_8GB_Hynix_mod.rom. 0 refers to the Adapter # and the .rom file refers to your new modded BIOS file, so replace them accordingly. The file has to exist in the same folder as the amdvbflash.exe.  

Make sure to type this out carefully, if you have more than one GPU plugged in then you might accidentally mod the wrong GPU and brick it.

Congratulations, now you are permanently modded and enjoying probably 30+ MH with the proper settings that can be found in our RX 500/400 Mining Settings.

Recovering a Bricked GPU

To recover your GPU, you will just need to use step #8 but instead of flashing the modded BIOS, flash your original one. If your GPU is not giving you any display then make sure to use a CPU and Motherboard with integrated Graphics so you can get the display out of them or plug in another GPU.

If you get a Code 43, make sure to use the Patcher mentioned above in step #1.

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