[Eng] GIGABYTE BIOS hack subverts NVIDIA SLI certification, sticks it to the man

12068 Views 60 Replies 41 Participants Last post by lordikon, Sep 7, 2010

stumped

Discussion Starter · Mar 19, 2009

Quote:

When NVIDIA announced support for SLI on motherboards sporting Intel's X58 chipset, there was something of a hidden catch -- manufacturers needed to pay to become "certified." Yes, you might have thought all you needed was a pair of parallel PCI-E slots and couple of matching video cards to get your SLI on, but non-certified boards find themselves shunned by NVIDIA graphics hardware. However, where there's a will there's usually a way, and for at least one of those woefully illegitimate mobos there's a workaround. GIGABYTE didn't bother to get certification for its EX58-UD4 motherboard, but it did for the EX58-UD4P, and it turns out the same BIOS works on both. Naturally it takes a little extra work to get the wrong version up in the right EEPROM, but the read link has all the details you need to re-flash with finesse.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/19/g...tion-sticks-i/

sounds pretty cool if you ask me that they can get around stuff. But nvidia FORCING boards to pay a license fee??? maybe they should just send th e board owner a links stating "if you want sli on an older x58 board, you can buy the license for $XX amount of money [has to be reasonable of course] But still pretty cool if you ask me.

See less See more

Reactions: 1

1 - 20 of 61 Posts

Aaroman

· #2 · Mar 19, 2009

Quote:

Naturally it takes a little extra work to get the wrong version up in the right EEPROM, but the read link has all the details you need to re-flash with finesse.

I am assuming it's just a standard BIOS flash

DuckieHo

· #3 · Mar 19, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by stumped

View Post

sounds pretty cool if you ask me that they can get around stuff. But nvidia FORCING boards to pay a license fee??? maybe they should just send th e board owner a links stating "if you want sli on an older x58 board, you can buy the license for $XX amount of money [has to be reasonable of course] But still pretty cool if you ask me.

I believe NVIDIA charges $5 per motherboard for the SLI license.

See less See more

turbogeek

· #4 · Mar 19, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by stumped

View Post

nvidia FORCING boards to pay a license fee???

I hate to be this guy in the thread, but nVidia's not FORCING anybody to do anything. You want there code (or whatevs) you pay the license fee to use it.

Now is it lame? yes.

Can't say for sure, but nVidia could possibly sell more video cards if gamers didn't have to buy specially certified boards to run SLI.

See less See more

Reactions: 1

go4life

· #5 · Mar 19, 2009

hmm, cool!

Can you add the source link?

See less See more

Choggs396

· #6 · Mar 19, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbogeek

View Post

I hate to be this guy in the thread, but nVidia's not FORCING anybody to do anything. You want there code (or whatevs) you pay the license fee to use it.

Now is it lame? yes.

Can't say for sure, but nVidia could possibly sell more video cards if gamers didn't have to buy specially certified boards to run SLI.

How dare you bring logical reasoning into this.

See less See more

Reactions: 1

stumped

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 19, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbogeek

View Post

I hate to be this guy in the thread, but nVidia's not FORCING anybody to do anything. You want there code (or whatevs) you pay the license fee to use it.

Now is it lame? yes.

Can't say for sure, but nVidia could possibly sell more video cards if gamers didn't have to buy specially certified boards to run SLI.

well what i meant by this was why do they have to be "new" boards? why can't nvidia offer like a license fee the user pays if they bought one of the earlier released boards that people bought.

See less See more

captthunderpnts

· #8 · Mar 19, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckieHo

View Post

I believe NVIDIA charges $5 per motherboard for the SLI license.

Is that $5 at the consumer level, or at production?

See less See more

rmp459

· #9 · Mar 19, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by captthunderpnts

View Post

Is that $5 at the consumer level, or at production?

Paid by the manufacturer before the board is sold... which leads to more expensive mboards for the consumer

See less See more

Derp

· #10 · Mar 19, 2009

When i purchased my SLI/Xfire X58 the SLI version is the same price but the non SLI version has a $15 rebate. SO yeah Nvidia might charge the board manufacturers $5 but some time between there and when you purchase it that $5 turns into $10-$15 SLI fee because each business that touches it always wants MOAR!

killerhz

· #11 · Mar 19, 2009

It's not that bad. Nvidia has to charge as it not really their boards. So the so called $5 is for support. No need to get all worked up.

dr_bowtie

· #12 · Mar 19, 2009

Source...???

Quote:

Since you are flashing your board with a different model BIOS, you cannot just use the BIOS QFlash utility or the Windows based @BIOS. Instead, you need to flash your UD4 board with a DOS BIOS flashing program called SPIFLASH - a quick Google reveals it is readily available online. Once you've downloaded the utility, you need to enter DOS mode with a boot disk and simply type in the command "SPIFLASH EX58UD4P.F6", then the BIOS flash update will proceed. Once you've rebooted and gone back into Windows, you'll have SLI support.

Remember that flashing your board with a different BIOS will more than likely void your warranty and do take care if you wish to try it out. Leave your results and comments over at our GIGABYTE tech support forum.

Source here....

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/11708/...ard/index.html

Choggs396

· #13 · Mar 19, 2009

I believe this is the source (Engadget) of the OP's article. (S)he should add the link to their post.

squall325

· #14 · Mar 22, 2009

Quote:

If you're brand new to the DIY PC building scene, you may think Intel chipset-based motherboard owners have always been able to run multiple Nvidia videocards in SLI. You'd also be wrong. It was less than six months ago that Nvidia officially announced it was licensing its SLI technology to several top-tier motherboard makers for Intel's X58 chipset, in exchange for a fee. So we can't imagine anyone over at Nvidia doing cartwheels when end-users find a way to enable SLI on non-SLI certified boards with a relatively simple BIOS hack.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/new..._certification

nice hacking!

Note: Please delete if its a repost. Thanks!

crashnburn_819

· #15 · Mar 22, 2009

Only works for Gigabyte x58 chipsets that don't officially support Sli right? (ie the UD4--->UD4P?)

DeadSkull

· #16 · Mar 22, 2009

Can this sort of hack be implemented on Gigabyte P45 boards with two PCIE slots?

crashnburn_819

· #17 · Mar 22, 2009

2

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeadSkull

View Post

Can this sort of hack be implemented on Gigabyte P45 boards with two PCIE slots?

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

I doubt it will work for the UD3P because P45 doesn't have any Sli support, therefore no bios to hack.

See less See more

T3h_Ch33z_Muncha

· #18 · Mar 22, 2009

2

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeadSkull

View Post

Can this sort of hack be implemented on Gigabyte P45 boards with two PCIE slots?

no, the hardware isn't there to support it. in the X58 boards (SLI certified or not) there IS the hardware to support it. it just needs something to DRIVE that hardware (a specific bios code). P45 does not have that hardware.

alternatively, if you could solder on a NF200 chip...

See less See more

Reactions: 1

DeadSkull

· #19 · Mar 22, 2009

2

Quote:

Originally Posted by T3h_Ch33z_Muncha

View Post

no, the hardware isn't there to support it. in the X58 boards (SLI certified or not) there IS the hardware to support it. it just needs something to DRIVE that hardware (a specific bios code). P45 does not have that hardware.

alternatively, if you could solder on a NF200 chip...

:swearing: RAGE.

I don't understand why Intel was about to sue Nvidia for violating x58 license etc...having sli available only on i7 boards is a great way to push people to switch.

See less See more

dmbjohn

· #20 · Mar 22, 2009

2

Quote:

Originally Posted by T3h_Ch33z_Muncha

View Post

alternatively, if you could solder on a NF200 chip...

now that sounds like a project....or not

See less See more

1 - 20 of 61 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.