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The R9 290 -> 290X Unlock Thread

1M views 4K replies 818 participants last post by  zakalweocp 
#1 ·
WARNING: FLASH AT YOUR OWN RISK

Hawaii Info is in the Download Section of the Guide

Please read this post first before posting questions about your graphics card (if it unlocks, how to unlock, etc.).

There have been a few incidents of having an unstable card after unlocking to a 290x, so tread carefully. If you're just receiving a new 290, hoping to unlock it shortly afterwards, please play around with the card for a couple days so you know how it behaves. Afterwards, you can try flashing. If you notice any symptoms that didn't occur with the stock BIOS, like having lower fps/scores in whatever you're playing/benching, you're unstable, etc., immediately flash the default bios back.

Some people have also had more stability and unlock success using a 290x bios matching their AIB 290 card (i.e. Sapphire 290x bios on Sapphire 290). So, if you're experiencing stability issues, and/or your card won't unlock, you may want to try that out if the Asus 290x/PT1/PT3/etc. bios doesn't work right for you.

Also, if you're having problems with the drivers installing even though you have an unlockable card, check Techpowerup's BIOS database to find a bios that matches the default bios version on your card (i.e. 015.44.000.007.000000- use GPU-Z to find your bios version).


Just a heads up for everyone, I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about mining in this thread. There are other threads more appropriate for that topic. Thanks
thumb.gif


The following threads are more suitable for mining discussion:

290 and 290X Litecoin Mining Performance

[Official] BitCoin LiteCoin DigitalCoin And all crypto currencies Club And General Information...

Other coin mining threads

  • Make a backup of your ROM. Do this by dumping the ROM using GPU-Z
  • Benchmark your card so you can compare it later on.
TheFiles.zip 2180k .zip file

  • It includes atiflash.exe, an Asus 290x rom, hp format tool, and the windows 98 boot files. It also includes Memory Info, and Hawaii Info.
  • Run Hawaii Info. If the numbers don't look like either one of these, then your card is locked. Any results other than the results below means your card is locked. Your Hawaii Info results HAS to match either one of these in order for your card to be unlocked to a 290X.
  • More info on Hawaii Info HERE.

Code:

Code:
RA1: F8000005 RA2: F8010000
RB1: F8000005 RB2: F8010000
RC1: F8000005 RC2: F8010000
RD1: F8000005 RD2: F8010000
Code:

Code:
RA1: F8000005 RA2: 00000000
RB1: F8000005 RB2: 00000000
RC1: F8000005 RC2: 00000000
RD1: F8000005 RD2: 00000000
  • Extract all of the files
  • Open up the Windows 98 Archive you downloaded and extract it to a folder.
  • Open up the HP Format tool. Make sure you select the drive you want to make bootable, and that FAT32 is checked.
  • Check the "Create DOS Startup Disk box, and link it to your extracted windows 98 folder.
  • Format the drive. It should be bootable now.
  • Copy ATIFlash.exe to the root directory of your USB Drive.
  • Drag your 290X ROM on the root directory as well. To avoid the Windows 8.3 filename with other roms you might use (i.e. asusflas~1.rom), shorten the name of the rom to like 7 characters.
  • Now, your drive is set up.
  • Turn off your computer, and switch the BIOS selector on your R9 290 so that it's closest to the power connectors. That's the Uber position (the 290 doesn't have an Uber BIOS, both switch positions are copies of the 290 Quiet BIOS). The Quiet switch position is the one closest to your video connections.
  • Take out all other PCI devices, including multiple R9 290s.
  • We're flashing them one at a time so that if your card bricks up or doesn't respond like it should to the flash, you still have another good card to use.
  • Boot from your USB drive. You shoud get a CLI.
  • Type DIR to verify that ATIFlash and your ROM are on the drive.
  • Use this command to flash: atiflash.exe -f -p 0 romname.rom
  • The flashing process should take around 10sec.
  • Rinse and repeat for any other 290s that you have that you would like to flash (turn off computer, swap out cards, and repeat the process, making sure you have the card on the Uber switch position).
  • When you restart your computer, you may have a low resolution desktop. This is fine.
  • Wait for the drivers to reinstall on your card, and restart the computer again.
  • Open up GPU-Z to see if there are any changes to your shaders and clock speed.
  • To confirm that you successfully flashed your card, run some benchmarks and compare it to your original score.
  • If you found out you were unsuccessful in your flash, or you just want to flash it back, here's how you do it.
  • Take your backed-up ROM that you did in Step 1, and transfer it to your bootable USB drive.
  • Turn off your computer, and make sure your 290's switch is in the Uber position. Again, remove any other PCI devices, including multiple 290s.
  • Turn on your computer, and flash the stock rom using this command: atiflash.exe -f -p 0 romname.rom
  • Yup, it's the same one as before.
  • Reboot your computer, and after the drivers reinstall, you should have a completely stock card again!
  • Put the stock rom on your bootable USB drive.
  • Get a spare card, and throw it in the primary PCIe slot in your computer.
  • Put your 290 in another slot, with it switched to the faulty bios.
  • Put your video cables on your backup card and boot from your USB drive
  • Type this in: atiflash.exe -i
  • This will show you what adapter number your card is. It should say Hawaii, along with the card you're using to boot.
  • Whatever your adapter number is, remember it because you'll need it for the following command
  • Now, type in atiflash.exe -f -p x stockrom.rom
  • x will be the adapter number of your card.
  • Give it about 5sec. reboot your computer, switch your 290 back to primary, and you should be good.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Redvineal View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomsom View Post

Strange problem occurred after I flashed my 290 with the ASUS 290x BIOS. I can no longer see POST as I am booting, the screen does not come on until windows is fully loaded. Which in turn means I can't revert the BIOS because my monitor is just blank until windows is finished loading.

What do i do about this?
I had the same problem with my XFX R9 290. Just follow these steps:

1. Flip the bios switch on the card to the position with the original bios
2. Boot to the flash drive (command line)
3. Flip the bios switch on the card to the position with the Asus bios
4. Run atiflash.exe -ai and verify the information represents the Asus bios
5. Flash the original bios using the same command you used to flash the Asus bios (changing the bios name used in the command, of course)

PM me if you need anymore info.

Techpowerup R9 290 ROM Database
Techpowerup R9 290X ROM Database

ASUS 290X ROM.zip 104k .zip file


ASUS290ROM.zip 43k .zip file


PT1 Custom ROM.zip 42k .zip file


PT3 Custom ROM.zip 42k .zip file


PT1T.zip 42k .zip file


Non-Reference Bioses (to use with non-reference cards that can't unlock although having the right numbers on Hawaii Info):

SapphireTri-X290X.zip 42k .zip file


PCS290XPerformanceQuiet.zip 198k .zip file


Credit goes to @zackbummente for uploading the Tri-X BIOS, and @buddatech for dumping the BIOS. Thanks guys
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tsm106 View Post

...pt1 is a normal bios with no limits, so it has natural droop. pt3 is the same but with no droop. pt3 is inherently more dangerous obviously since it will actually feed more volts than you input. And when we figure the droop involved it is actually a lot more volts. I prefer droop, its safer imo. I want to be the one in control of how much droop I'm affected by and not a predetermined offset.
PT1T BIOS Description:
Quote:
Credit for this bios goes to xnotx2:

This is the PT1 290x bios that has modified ssid and vid (video id) that tricks the motherboard into thinking it is a 290 bios. It's for when the motherboard boots with a black screen, but can still hear the windows start up chime. (Motherboard fussy with mismatched ID's)
BE CAREFUL WITH THESE ROM FILES. The PT1/PT3/PT1T Bioses have the potential of destroying your card if you don't know what you're doing. The PT1/PT3 ROMS will allow you to adjust the slider to 2V, which translates roughly to 800W to your card. The maximum for this card is around 525W. Also, keep in mind that there is only one clock speed setting. If you have it at 1000Mhz, it will stay at 1000Mhz, even when it's idling.

The Asus 290/x bioses allow you to adjust the voltage up to 1.4v using ASUS GPUTweak. All of the other bioses will officially go up to +100mV in MSI Afterburner.

Spreadsheets/Forms:

Inside the following two spoilers are the official results of people who have attempted to unlock their card(s). If you would like to contribute, please fill out the respective form(s) to be added to the respective spreadsheet(s). Thanks
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#3 ·
ATTENTION POST-FLASHED USERS: Please redo everything if possible
biggrin.gif
I wanna make this as organized and informative as possible, and re-submitting your results will really help out. Thanks
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If you already have your before/after results in a post, feel free to use that.
 
#4 ·
Sapphire 290 :

bios ASUS 290 :



bios ASUS 290X :



No unlock.
 
#5 ·
If anyone knows of a good shader dependent benchmark we can use to verify these, please post it. I tried ShaderToyMark and Compubench but there aren't a lot of scores to compare to.
 
#6 ·
Also Sapphire 290 with elpida and no unlock after flashing Asus 290x bios.
 
#8 ·
#13 ·
  • Rep+
Reactions: basco
#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by R35ervoirFox View Post

atiflash 4.07 won't work, you need aitflash 4.17.

My sapphire 290 booted with blank screen with both asus and sapphire 290x bioses, so couldn't see if the unlocked
laughingsmiley.gif
Thanks. Updated OP.
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by basco View Post

thx toss3 but if i start with -f =invalid command
cant find the force command.
bios is same as on tpu databse.
i really tried a lot before posting here but this drives me crazy
don't start with the -f, but atiflash -p -f 0 asus.rom.

Here's a guide: CLICK
 
#19 ·
No success on a sapphire 290 here, I've tried asus, powercolor, and sapphire 290x bioses no luck with any of them. Seems to be a luck thing until more data comes in.
 
#20 ·
It certainly looks like a big crap shoot to get one that will flash with the extra shaders and TMU's. I am certainly curious to see how many actual XFX 290 cards will flash properly.

I'm wondering if we should post where we bought our cards as well? Maybe its a certain shipment as even some XFX wont flash for some of the members here. Just makes me wonder where they bought their card. I really can't see that I would be so lucky to flash 2 of them and hit the jackpot (with exception of a great overclock as some others have seen).

I got mine from Newegg.ca online and they were shipped from L.A.
 
#21 ·
Hi all!
I find this situation about unlockable and not unlockable cards to be very interesting.
I think the main unlock indicator is PCI ID change (from 67B1 to 67B0). It may be a driver who reads this ID and further locks out some of cores.

Why only Powercolor and some XFX are unlockable so far is very strange.

To make things a little more understandable, I'd like to ask to add some more information about the cards you try to unlock:
1. Its VERY interesting to see a result of flashing the real 290X card with stock 290 BIOS. All 290X cards should lock to 67B1 ID. It would be very strange if 290X will not change its ID. Since the cards are dual BIOS and of the same reference design, I consider its a safe experiment, but I don't have any of 290 or 290X in hands now. If would be wonderful if someone with 290X will try that.

2. Please post a details of your stock BIOS 290 (non-X) together with unlock results - is it the same as listed on techpowerup?

3. Post some lot numbers, production date or serial numbers from XFX cards, both unlockable and non-unlockable. Its possible what only a specific batch of 290 chips is unlockable and card's manufacturing date is the key. The photo of chip's face would be the best, so if you're going to watercooling please make chips photos. Chip marking and date could be meaningful.

There are some theories possible why some cards are unlocked but others don't:

- The worst: some batches of 290 cards may be populated with 290X chips due to shortage of real 290 chips. Doubtful, but still possible.
- A little bit better: some (the very first?) batch of 290 chips was HW protected somehow from ID change, but later chips were not protected to simplify production process.
- The best: there are some difference in boards (like tiny bootstrap jumpers or even resistors like used by NVIDIA). 290 boards must have somewhat different set of bootstraps, but some manufacturers may omit the changes to simplify production. If so, it would be possible to find a difference between 290 and 290X boards and fix it to unlock these not unlockable cards.

If the most of chips have HW locked ID, the lock should be added at the very last stage of manufacturing. Of course, if they indeed test & select 290 / 290X chips basing on chip quality. It shouldn't be possible to run real tests on uncut die or bare crystals because of enormous power dissipation. Chips should all be ready to use and mounted on their BGA substrates to be heatsinked for testing. That leaves only surface methods of HW locks like laser cutting or jumper strapping. So far I saw nothing like that on chip photos.

Will the unlocked cores indeed do their work is another question. Being known bad or untested, extra cores could drive the chip to instability or provide erroneous computational results. For games that's not so bad, so I'f you're not going to use unlocked card for GPGPU it should be safe. The other possible side effect is increased power consumption, but power controls should easily counter it.
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by youra6 View Post

Looks like so far, only cards to have unlocked are PowerColor and XFX cards (and 1 Sapphire card).
Could you link the Sapphire card, I was under the impression no Sapphire cards unlocked, thanks
smile.gif

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astonished View Post

Dumb question: If a 290 can be unlocked to a 290x, is it physically the same as a 290x then? And therefor have no difference in performance?
Yes
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Astonished View Post

Dumb question: If a 290 can be unlocked to a 290x, is it physically the same as a 290x then? And therefor have no difference in performance?
290 is the same chip as 290X with the some of the cores turned off. Cores are turned off for marketing purposes and to increase yield. Due to high CPU parallelism chip design enables you to take "partially working" chips, turn off poorly working cores and sell for lower price instead of wasting it.
This possiblity makes possible to get lower prices for both fully working and "partially working" chips.

Performance will be different for the fully enabled and locked chips.

As for the card's board - AMD reference boards looks to be the same.
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Astonished View Post

Dumb question: If a 290 can be unlocked to a 290x, is it physically the same as a 290x then? And therefor have no difference in performance?
As stated, it could be physically the same card, but if the locked cores in the 290 are not fully functional/unstable, you won't be getting any extra performance. If they are fully functional and locked just to market a lower-tier product, then you will most likely be able to get a 290X out of a 290. This is all luck, though you may see a trend depending on the early findings of this thread.

This is similar to when AMD's dual core Phenom II CPUs (Phenom II 555) could be fully unlocked to the 955 (Quad core). If the cores were fully functional, then you went from a dual core to a quad core for free. If the cores did not work or were unstable, you would be stuck with the dual or partially locked tri-core CPU.
 
#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Forceman View Post

If anyone knows of a good shader dependent benchmark we can use to verify these, please post it. I tried ShaderToyMark and Compubench but there aren't a lot of scores to compare to.
Wouldn't pretty much any GPGPU program work for this? For example:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2321772

Note that due to the short amount of time to completion on modern high-end GPUs, a width upscaling amount of 800% or even 1600% may be better.

EDIT: Though that program apparently uses the CPU quite a bit even with GPU acceleration, so it itself may not be the best choice.

EDIT 2: However it's very possible that the difference in amount of GPU shaders would still make a noticeable performance difference. We won't know unless someone tries.
wink.gif
(I'm on a lowly 8800GS, so I certainly can't test it). At the very least it would mean that absolute performance cannot be compared to other people but the relative performance difference between locked & unlocked very well could be.
 
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