PCStats have a new advanced guide out for flashing your video card BIOS! While this *not* something for the novice to undertake, flashing your video card BIOS may lead to performance and feature enhancements.
We recently ran an article on flashing (reprogramming) the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) of your motherboard to enable new features and fix errors. That got us thinking that we'd only covered half the story. Sure, hardware enthusiasts have been upgrading the BIOS on their motherboards for years, but what about the other components of a computer system? Video cards in particular have an interesting history in relation to the BIOS flashing procedure. While motherboard BIOS fixes generally add support for new processors and fix hardware glitches, video card BIOS updates have the potential to do much more. Enterprising tech-heads have discovered instances where a video card can actually be transformed by a BIOS update, activating hidden features and potential buried performance aspects by the manufacturer (generally for marketing purposes).
In this article, PCstats will describe the process of flashing (re-programming) your video card's BIOS chip. We cover the potential benefits and risks of the procedure, as well as specific steps for both ATI and Nvidia cards. In case anything goes wrong, a troubleshooting section brings up the rear, and may save yours.
Advanced Guide: Flashing a Video Card BIOS
We recently ran an article on flashing (reprogramming) the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) of your motherboard to enable new features and fix errors. That got us thinking that we'd only covered half the story. Sure, hardware enthusiasts have been upgrading the BIOS on their motherboards for years, but what about the other components of a computer system? Video cards in particular have an interesting history in relation to the BIOS flashing procedure. While motherboard BIOS fixes generally add support for new processors and fix hardware glitches, video card BIOS updates have the potential to do much more. Enterprising tech-heads have discovered instances where a video card can actually be transformed by a BIOS update, activating hidden features and potential buried performance aspects by the manufacturer (generally for marketing purposes).
In this article, PCstats will describe the process of flashing (re-programming) your video card's BIOS chip. We cover the potential benefits and risks of the procedure, as well as specific steps for both ATI and Nvidia cards. In case anything goes wrong, a troubleshooting section brings up the rear, and may save yours.
Advanced Guide: Flashing a Video Card BIOS
