Yes, you have read it right! You can (relatively) easily upgrade your AMD Radeon RX 480 graphics card to the newer RX 580 with just a flick of a switch. Or, at least that’s what one Sapphire RX 480 graphics card owner claims to have accomplished.
Apparently, said person, who also happens to be a member of the TPU forums, figured that all you need to do is download the BIOS of an RX 580 and then commence the BIOS flash to upgrade your RX 480.
The user claims that he successfully flashed his XFX RX 480 using the Sapphire RX 580 Limited Edition’s BIOS. It led to the clock speed cranking up all the way to 1411 MHz from the earlier 1300 MHz. That’s notably higher compared to any RX 480 card around on the market today.
The aforementioned BIOS file is available on the TPU database and can be downloaded for free. Better still, because the RX 480 comes with dual BIOS support, even if the BIOS upgrade fails midway, you will always have the option to roll back to the original functional BIOS.
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The user then proceeded on to test the newly flashed card in Furmark and The Witcher 3 and the results came out great. However, note that any subsequent attempt to overclock the “upgraded” card using MSI afterburner led to instant driver cash. Therefore, keep it in mind that if your RX 480 is already overclocked to 1.4GHz, this upgrade will be futile as it won’t let you any additional benefit.
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