Two 480's - Two BIOS versions

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (srokus)

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:28:53 GMT

(Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but it beats starting a new one!)

I too have two vanilla EVGA GTX480 cards, one acquired at or just before launch, the other some months/year later.

Older card = 70.00.21.00.80
Newer card = 70.00.35.00.80

I am more than happy to only flash with an EVGA BIOS to avoid ruining the warranties, BUT the question still remains: where on EVGA's site does one get the BIOS'????

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (Xtremed)

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 15:10:00 GMT

Thanks Nirum, I already checked with Nibitor and the Board Id its different

70.00.21.00.82 Board ID = 5E00

70.00.21.00.84 Board ID = 5E00

70.00.35.00.80 Board ID = 1900

So if anyone is trying to flash to this new bios get this on consideration... (no problem with the flashing at all, but the board maybe has something different)

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (nirun)

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 09:42:48 GMT

I have 3 superclocked gtx480s and all 3 cards came shipped with different bios revisions

GPU3: 70.00.21.00.82

GPU2: 70.00.21.00.84

GPU1: 70.00.35.00.80 -> this card came in the cardboard packaging instead of the foam, and the PCB looks to be green instead of orange.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (rz22g)

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 08:53:03 GMT

Not really getting this... Obviously some SC cards are sold without the .82 SC bios. I have one in fact. So why is this .82 bios not available for download from the EVGA site ?

So where do I get the .82 bios ?

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (jdookie)

Sun, 02 May 2010 22:02:27 GMT

Yeah, it only gets that hot when gaming. Idle temps right now are 66/44C, and thank goodness my gpu's are all the way at the bottom of my case, (the Lian Li P80 is very large), and the hot air is pulled out before it ever reaches the cpu, memory, or psu area, which is at the top, and stays cold.

I'm also thinking about disconnecting the roof mounted exhaust fan. All I feel is cold air coming out of the roof, and that means that its doing nothing but robbing cold air from the psu, which is right next to it. The last thing I want is for hot air to be pulled into an otherwise cool area of the case, but instead, have the hot air completely exhausted out of the rear, which is why I am thinking about putting a higher cfm rear exhaust fan since it's centrally located on the rear of the case, and, with the addition of yet another intake fan in the side panel, that's just more air that needs to be pulled out. The rear exhaust fan runs at 100% all the time, and I don't even hear it, so it can stand to be upgraded without any negative effect.

The only fans I hear are these 480's. My rig was near silent before these.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (loveordie)

Sun, 02 May 2010 21:41:46 GMT

jdookie

loveordie

umm that not right have you tried making a profile in afterburner i set my to hit 100% fan at 80c works well, post a photo of the inside of your case if you can, maybe the thermal paste on your card wasn't placed right.

Yeah, I have a custom profile going that goes to 100% fans when temps go above 70C. I've even changed the TIM on the gpu's, and it made no difference either.

The case is a Lian Li PC-P80, and everything, but the video cards, is water cooled. Here are the fans I'm using:

(3) Lian Li 140mm 1200rpm 73cfm intake fans
(1) Lian Li 140mm 1200rpm 73cfm roof mounted exhaust fan
(1) CoolerMaster R4 2000rpm 69cfm rear exhaust fan

And I'm adding a Noctua 1300rpm 54.3cfm fan in the side panel as an additional intake fan to blow directly on the gpu's.

I'm certainly open for suggestions in the way of case fans, if any of them can be improved. Originally, my entire rig was water cooled, so I didn't need much of any airflow to speak of at all, but that's a completely different story since I went back to air cooling on the gpu's.

when i was running sli on my 2 280s i had the same problem with temps hitting over 100c and it would overheat my PSU because the bottom GPU was over the top of it, i tried change thermal paste and pads didn't help then i was going to buy 2 Accelero XTREME GTX Pro's but i was a waste of money on 2 old cards so i sold them a got a 480, i would say just wait awhile for a accelero cooler to come out shouldn't be that long of a wait, ill be getting one two if temps are really bad take a card out for now till u can upgrade cooling on them.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (jdookie)

Sun, 02 May 2010 21:23:00 GMT

loveordie

umm that not right have you tried making a profile in afterburner i set my to hit 100% fan at 80c works well, post a photo of the inside of your case if you can, maybe the thermal paste on your card wasn't placed right.

Yeah, I have a custom profile going that goes to 100% fans when temps go above 70C. I've even changed the TIM on the gpu's, and it made no difference either.

The case is a Lian Li PC-P80, and everything, but the video cards, is water cooled. Here are the fans I'm using:

(3) Lian Li 140mm 1200rpm 73cfm intake fans
(1) Lian Li 140mm 1200rpm 73cfm roof mounted exhaust fan
(1) CoolerMaster R4 2000rpm 69cfm rear exhaust fan

And I'm adding a Noctua 1300rpm 54.3cfm fan in the side panel as an additional intake fan to blow directly on the gpu's.

I'm certainly open for suggestions in the way of case fans, if any of them can be improved. Originally, my entire rig was water cooled, so I didn't need much of any airflow to speak of at all, but that's a completely different story since I went back to air cooling on the gpu's.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (jdookie)

Sun, 02 May 2010 21:10:58 GMT

Sidicas

jdookie

Congratulations, unfortunately, it didn't make any difference with mine. My idle temp actually went UP about 4C, and load temp is about the same. When playing Dragon Age Origins, my main gpu gets up to 102C with the side panel on, and if I remove my side panel, it drops to about 96C.

That's some SERIOUS case cooling issues you've got there.. You need to get a fan or two to blow directly onto your card or something.. Get a couple slot coolers, slap a 120mm fan right on top of the card and you'll be good to go..

I don't know how much more cooling I can get. I have three 140mm 76cfm intake fans with nothing obstructing the airflow between them and the hardware, and I can feel good cool air blowing right through the case, its just that these cards run so crazy hot that they heat up everything, even my room. I can only play a game for about two hours max before the room is too hot to even be in anymore. It's ridiculous actually.

Keep in mind, Dragon Age Origins is a very demanding game evidently because I can run Heaven 2.0 with all max settings (1920x1200) in a continuous loop and not break 76C, but when playing Dirt 2 and Dragon Age, the temps sky rocket.

I have to enable Vsync just to reduce the load on the gpu's so they don't get so hot. I think it's the dual monitors making it run hotter too because even though the main gpu (which is the cooler running one of the two) gets to 100C, the secondary gpu (which doesn't have any monitor hooked up to it) never gets above 85C during any game, and when I swap the cards around, the temps are even worse.

Either way, I'm adding that fan to the side panel, and may even look for higher cfm intake fans, but I think 1200rpm 76cfm fans is about the best I can get for the 140mm size, and still be reasonably quiet.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (loveordie)

Sun, 02 May 2010 21:05:25 GMT

i've just test the new bios didn't change any thing for me temp sits on 73c still when gaming, maybe only the fan speed they updated and because i use afterburner i didn't see any change

jdookie

vitaminx

Holy shi* batman. I don't know whats in that .21 bios but thats some good shi*. On top of have an SC clock now, my temps hardly break 70 c anymore!! Dang.. Also tends to run some games smoother.

Congratulations, unfortunately, it didn't make any difference with mine. My idle temp actually went UP about 4C, and load temp is about the same. When playing Dragon Age Origins, my main gpu gets up to 102C with the side panel on, and if I remove my side panel, it drops to about 96C. These are the same temps I was getting before the flash. Fans are running at 100% by the way, and this is with all stock clocks.

I ordered a new side panel fan to install, but I'm not expecting it to drop temps any lower than with the side panel removed.

jdookie

umm that not right have you tried making a profile in afterburner i set my to hit 100% fan at 80c works well, post a photo of the inside of your case if you can, maybe the thermal paste on your card wasn't placed right.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (Sidicas)

Sun, 02 May 2010 20:57:54 GMT

jdookie

Congratulations, unfortunately, it didn't make any difference with mine. My idle temp actually went UP about 4C, and load temp is about the same. When playing Dragon Age Origins, my main gpu gets up to 102C with the side panel on, and if I remove my side panel, it drops to about 96C.

That's some SERIOUS case cooling issues you've got there.. You need to get a fan or two to blow directly onto your card or something.. Get a couple slot coolers, slap a 120mm fan right on top of the card and you'll be good to go..

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (jdookie)

Sun, 02 May 2010 20:52:08 GMT

vitaminx

Holy shi* batman. I don't know whats in that .21 bios but thats some good shi*. On top of have an SC clock now, my temps hardly break 70 c anymore!! Dang.. Also tends to run some games smoother.

Congratulations, unfortunately, it didn't make any difference with mine. My idle temp actually went UP about 4C, and load temp is about the same. When playing Dragon Age Origins, my main gpu gets up to 102C with the side panel on, and if I remove my side panel, it drops to about 96C. These are the same temps I was getting before the flash. Fans are running at 100% by the way, and this is with all stock clocks.

I ordered a new side panel fan to install, but I'm not expecting it to drop temps any lower than with the side panel removed.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (loveordie)

Sun, 02 May 2010 18:31:20 GMT

jdookie

There's also an automatic method, so you don't have to enter *any* DOS commands, if you don't want to.

The only difference is, you are installing everything as an .iso file on your usb drive, and you use the program NVTurboFlash in addition to NVFlash.

One thing I have found so far is, you have to rename the vga bios file to "BIOS.rom" for it to work. Any other name resulted in an error, for me.

Doing it my way is alot easyer than messing around with dos files NVTurboFlash has NVFlash in side the iso and the resoin you have to rename the bios is because NVFlash only can read ROM files and file name no longer than 4 letters, i set up the BAT so it would boot from file name bios the same as i did in my AWDTurboFlash i did it this way to make it easy for every one to use and so it will flash with out any bios commands

NVTurboFlash By LiveOrDie

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (remenaker)

Sun, 02 May 2010 16:45:54 GMT

hi falcon yes it works by just putting in the file name and that is it
works great thank you.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (jdookie)

Sun, 02 May 2010 16:04:57 GMT

There's also an automatic method, so you don't have to enter *any* DOS commands, if you don't want to.

The only difference is, you are installing everything as an .iso file on your usb drive, and you use the program NVTurboFlash in addition to NVFlash.

One thing I have found so far is, you have to rename the vga bios file to "BIOS.rom" for it to work. Any other name resulted in an error, for me.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (GNielson)

Sun, 02 May 2010 13:50:27 GMT

remenaker

Hay falcon do you need any commands like -4 -5 -6 to get it to flash all i need is to do one card.

Those are overrides that you shouldn't need. I haven't checked what -4 does, but 5 and 6 are:

overridetype 5 Allow firmware and adapter PCI device ID mismatch.
overridesub 6 Allow firmware and adapter PCI subsystem ID

For one card you should just be able to use nvflash followed by the filename, in fact that's probably the safest. You need things like --index 0 and --index 1 if you have multiple cards installed. When you're doing things like flashing a bios from a different vendor, different card type, etc. is when you need those. Like if you've installed a waterblock on a standard card and want to flash to the 480FTW bios, you'll need overrides.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (CREUSS)

Sun, 02 May 2010 11:23:02 GMT

First things first you need to make sure your USB drive has the proper system files on it to boot from it. You need to do this first Make Your USB drive Bootable.

To the comment about using a floppy for flashing BIOS's and it being unstable that is rubbish. it is no more unstable than doing it from any other media. People just don't put them in systems anymore because of there storage capacity limitations so we have moved away from using them as a device to flash components with and no other reason.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (jdookie)

Sun, 02 May 2010 11:20:46 GMT

Okay, I figured out how to specify the usb flash drive as the boot device. It was actually in the Hard Disk boot Priority list, and not in the First Boot Device list.

So, I did that and it attempted to boot from the usb flash drive, but it said that the Boot Manager was missing.

I formatted the usb drive using the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, and used a set of DOS system files that were posted in another thread, but I think I need to use my own DOS files. Where can I get these?

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (jdookie)

Sun, 02 May 2010 10:47:33 GMT

You make it sound so easy, but I've been trying all morning to get it to work, and can't.

I can't seem to get the system to boot from the usb. I keep getting a non system disk error. The only usb related first boot device options I have in my bios are usb-fdd and usb-zip. Which one is the correct one to use?

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (vitaminx)

Sun, 02 May 2010 10:40:44 GMT

To flash it is not that tough, it is quite simple.

Step 1) Going to need a flash drive USB- DONT USE A FLOPPY to unstable and diffently dont want that flashing a vga bios lol.

Step2) follow the USB flash drive setup for the BIOS flashing of the motherboards. There is a link right from the 758 bios page. Dont put the motherboard stuff on it though. The AWD dont need and the mobo bios of course don't need. You just want the drive to boot to dos thats it.

Step3) download the latest Nvflash program. You can find the latest downloads from techpowerup website. MAKE SURE to make a copy of your old bios using GPU-z.

Step4) Put Nvflash and the new bios + THE OLD BIOS onto the flash drive. Write down both bios file names your going to need to know them later. Also make sure the file is a .rom and not a .bin. Nvflash will only accept .rom files. To change it just simply rename the file with .rom at the end.

Step5) also going to need some support files for nvflash. Their called CWSDPMI, CWSDPR0, CWSPARAM. You can yahoo them and find the download for them. My download was CSDPMI4B which contained all three in a bin folder. You need to put CWSDPMI, CWSDPR0, CWSPARAM onto the USB drive with nvflash. If you don't Nvflash won't run and will kick you out back to DOS.

Step6) Set the motherboard bios to boot off the USB.

Step7) You should see a dos screen. /nvflash -4 -5 -6 (The new bios file name you wrote down). It will ask to confirm with you, just hit y and y. The flash will take about 15-30 seconds and done. If something should go wrong and you get a black screen, dont panic!! Just type /nvflash -4 -5 -6 (old bios file name). That will flash it back to the orginal bios, it's called blind flashing. It also helps to have a second video card just in case this happens still can see a screen.
IMPORTANT!! IF you have two cards installed then you need to use a different command line. --index=0 is the top VGA card --index=1 is the bottom VGA card. So for two cards; flashing the top card will look like this /nvflash --index=0 -4 -5 -6 (new bios file name). The bottom card will look like /nvflash --index=1 -4 -5 -6 (new bios file name).

Step8) reboot and go into GPU-z. Check to make sure the bios number is correct. IT should be changed now to .82.

Thats it =D. Very simple, just like flashing a motherboard.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (jdookie)

Sat, 01 May 2010 20:00:23 GMT

It seems that in the rush to get these cards out, they were very haphazardly flashing them, and missed quite a few.

I bought two 480 SC's from Newegg, and each came with a different BIOS installed. One had the correct SC BIOS and the other had a Vanilla BIOS.

I started this thread, and got in touch with Jacob. He then emailed me an .iso file to flash the BIOS to the correct SC like it should have had from EVGA.

All I had to do was burn the iso to a disc, and then boot from that disc, and it did everything automatically, just like when flashing the BIOS for the motherboard, no different.

I highly suggest that if you don't have the correct BIOS, DO NOT take it upon yourself to flash the BIOS. Contact Jacob, and wait until he emails you the correct file, and then SAVE that email just in case you ever have to RMA the card, you have proof that it was flashed by EVGA's instruction, and not on your own.

By the way, don't expect any performance difference between the Vanilla BIOS and the SC BIOS. After flashing the card that had the Vanilla BIOS, it ran exactly the same with the correct BIOS, so I could have actually left it alone, and it would have been fine.

Default VID (voltage) has nothing to do with the BIOS, so that will remain the same. I am thinking the only difference may have been the fan speed profile, but I have my own profile running in MSI Afterburner anyway.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (remenaker)

Sat, 01 May 2010 17:35:22 GMT

I have a good one for EVGA the gtx 480 sc I have has the bios 70.00.1A.00.80 not the 70.00.1A.00.82 and the clocks on both cards I have come up with the SC card speeds 725 1450 the speeds for both are the same so what is the deal hear.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (remenaker)

Sat, 01 May 2010 16:34:31 GMT

Hay vitaminx what do i need to flash i have the bin.rom file for the SC
480 will nvflash 5.91.01 do it and what commands.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (vitaminx)

Sat, 01 May 2010 16:10:34 GMT

LoL I'll flash it to the SC bios.
Then again I like to live dangerously.....
I'm willing to bet that the only difference between SC and vanilla is the bios...
If the card is toast to the point you can't flash it back, how is EVGA going to know what bios its on if the thing is deader then a door nail?

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (remenaker)

Sat, 01 May 2010 15:53:42 GMT

hay two for me and two for my brothers systems.
It works great and I do not want to rma the card.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (CREUSS)

Sat, 01 May 2010 13:56:09 GMT

remenaker

hay EVGA_JacobF I have one of my 4 that are GTX 480 SC that the BIOS is not right also it is a SC with the 70.00.1A.00.80 and not the 82 bios so What do I do thanks for any help.

Ouch you bought 4 X EVGA SC cards and one of them still has the vanilla BIOS? How does that happen? I guess a 25Mhz clock difference wouldn't really require more voltage to be stable but who knows what else is tweaked in the SC BIOS. I would for sure get EVGA_JacobF to help you get that fixed up. Did you get all your cards directly from EVGA or another vendor?

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (jdookie)

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:35:26 GMT

sancheuz

Hey, why does my 480 show bios version 70.00.1a.00.02 different form the .80 and .82 you guys are talking about? Is it because different brand cards carry different bios numbers? I have a Zotac... http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/10/04/18/4fz.png

That's the original Nvidia BIOS. You would have to contact Zotac to find out if they've updated the NVidia BIOS with one of their own, or if they are still using the Nvidia one. Our BIOS's are proprietary to EVGA.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (sancheuz)

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:15:09 GMT

Hey, why does my 480 show bios version 70.00.1a.00.02 different form the .80 and .82 you guys are talking about? Is it because different brand cards carry different bios numbers? I have a Zotac... http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/10/04/18/4fz.png

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (jdookie)

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 08:25:38 GMT

I checked mine, and both have those same BIOS stickers. I wouldn't even look at those.

Still waiting to hear back from Jacob, btw.

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (mwparrish)

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 20:46:59 GMT

DragonX1979

EVGA_JacobF

82 is SC.

If you have 2x SCs and one is .80, send me a PM.

And which bios is this if I may ask? It looks to me I have probably the "oldest" ha?

EVGA GeForce GTX480-SC:
Bios Ver: 70.00.1A.00.02

(Just to mention it, I didn't do a readout by software, it is just what the Sticker sais on the card...)

Both of my vanillas say this too! But my software read says 70.00.1A.00.80

Re:Two 480's - Two BIOS versions (jdookie)

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:33:55 GMT

Nex_Lupus

so anyone can clarify what ive asked? i want to make sure im not killing my warrenty

We have yet to actually get a concrete answer yet from someone from EVGA. Personally, I would think its safe to upgrade the BIOS as long as its an EVGA BIOS designed for that particular card, but others are saying that the BIOS installed has to match the BIOS sticker on the back of the card, which has just been proven wrong by the posts above this one, since he has an NVidia BIOS sticker with an EVGA BIOS installed, so that would rule that theory incorrect.

This being said, we haven't received any kind of okay from anyone from EVGA that upgrading a vga BIOS in any way, shape, or form is okay to do. We are just speculating right now when we say that it shouldn't void the warranty, if you use a BIOS from EVGA intended for your card.

As of right now, I wouldn't do it unless an EVGA tech tells you to. At least until we get a definite answer one way or the other.

As far as one of my cards having a Vanilla BIOS, I have sent Jacob a pm, but haven't heard back from him yet.