Unleash the full power of your graphics card... TOTALLY FREE!

You’ve probably heard of the motherboard chipset, which contains the BIOS that performs system startup. Most BIOSes allow for different types of tweaks, which in some cases provide additional performance. But did you know that inside Graphic card we have the VBIOS?

Usually, when we talk about a graphics card, we talk about its features. And if the frequency, and if the heatsink, and if the VRAM, etc. But, within the graphics card we have the VBIOS, a great unknown for most that allows us to unlock the full potential of the graphics card.

VBIOS, this great unknown of your graphics card

Essentially, the VBIOS and motherboard BIOS are not that different. Both are contained on a special memory chip that allows their settings to be adjusted. But, there are big differences at the same time between the two. The main one is that if the BIOS can be “easily” manipulated, the VBIOS is complex and it is difficult to make adjustments

To be able to make changes to this element of the graphics card, special software tools are usually required. Also, while motherboard BIOSes get updates often, that’s not usually the case with its namesake on graphics cards.

But when do we overclock the graphics card we do not modify the VBIOS? It’s true that you modify it, but you really play very few parameters.

Usually the GPU frequency and voltage are changed, as well as the RAM frequency. In fact, there are many other aspects that you cannot change because you are denied access.

At this point we will explain what we can do in the VBIOS

Get more performance

A lot manufacturers of the graphic launch two or more variants of the same model Graphic card. We mean that, for example, the Hardzone assembler launches the RTX 3080 Blizzard. Not only does it launch the Hardzone RTX 3080 Blizzard, but it can launch the Blizzard Pro, Max, and Ultra. The difference between them is not in the design, they all have the same heatsink, but the frequencies change.

Due to frequency adjustment, the price varies between models. An interesting trick that people don’t know is that we can download the Blizzard Ultra’s VBIOS firmware and install it on the “base” model. We saved, for example, 100 dollars.

Activate cores that are “off”

It is not the most common, but in some cases it is They are launching a graphics card with a GPU belonging to a higher model. What is done is disable “X” number of cores so that both are “identical”. If this happens, we can load the upper model VBIOS and disable these cores.

Create a BIOS optimized for our needs

In fact, for this last aspect, awareness fairly advanced hardware and programming. Although it is true that there are specialized forums where firmware is uploaded with special or specific optimizations.

WARNING: the risks are quite significant

The first thing you need to know is that modifying the VBIOS is possible, but it is far from recommended. Installing new firmware is a major risk which may render the chart unusable.

If the GPU and video memory hardcoded in the firmware do not match the target, we may not get any video at system startup. Restoring in the VBIOS of a graphics card is not as simple as on the motherboard, where there are recovery mechanisms thanks to a “hot spare” BIOS. Since the VBIOS is not meant to be fiddled with, this second chip is usually not added with the stock firmware in case we “fake it”.

We must point out that manufacturers, if they detect tampering with the VBIOS, may refuse to process the warranty. It is “forbidden” to manipulate the firmware of the graphics card and if it is done, it is a risk that the user assumes. Therefore, if something goes wrong during the process, we might find that we have run out of graphics card.