Kepler bios tweaker for mobile maps. Undervolting: reduce noise and heat of the video card

Maxwell generation graphics cards are ending their era, giving way to the improved Pascal architecture. But this did not stop the GM20x from being interesting in terms of its hidden potential, expressed in MHz. We remember that the introduction of Boost 2.0 technology put many spokes into the wheels when overclocking video cards using utilities (MSI Afterburner, EVGA Precision, Palit ThunderMaster and others), and the frequency shift led to the fact that the base and intermediate frequencies changed along with the BOOST frequency, and sooner or later this led to instability when changing the load on the video card. As a result, many people reduced overclocking, and for further overclocking, they either had to use the microcode editing method called "BOOST shutdowns" (in fact, the Boost 2.0 technology itself did not disappear anywhere, it was just that the video card worked at increased frequencies even under light loads), or use third party programs to fix the maximum frequencies (for example -Nvidia PowerMizer Manager). The disadvantages are increased frequencies and voltage in idle mode and a small load, as a result - excessive heating and consumption. In this case, the capabilities of the Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker and the driver part of the video cards act as limiters. But what if we look into thin world microcode with a HEX editor and see what this approach gives us.

Preparing to edit the graphics card microcode

First you need to flash the extreme BIOS version(no modifications) for your graphics card. You can find it both on the manufacturer's website and on third-party sites, for example -TechPowerUp. In order to flash the BIOS, you can use the NVFlash program. I recommend immediately downloading the version with certificate verification bypass, since it is she who will be useful to us later. For firmware, create a folder with the name in the root of drive C nvflash and unpack the contents of the previously downloaded archive into it. we also add a file with the microcode that we are going to "burn" to the root of the folder. Then we run command line on behalf of the administrator and enter the following commands in turn:

1. cd c:\nvflash
2. nvflash-6 namebios.rom

where namebios is the name of the BIOS file.

I mainly use MSI Afterburner for overclocking, so it will be featured in this article. Download the latest version and install it. We also download the GPU-Z program and install it.

The next step is to determine the value of the maximum frequency and operating voltage at full load on the video card without using overclocking. It is more convenient to do this using the render and sensor monitoring built into GPU-Z

On the this example the frequency in Boost 2.0 mode is 1455.5 MHz at a voltage of 1.199 V, the second video card (the BIOS of which will be discussed below) operated at a frequency of 1367 MHz at 1.193 V. Remember these parameters, they will come in handy.

Now we open the BIOS version that we loaded into our video card using the Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker. In parallel, consider the main tabs and the values ​​presented in them.

Common tab

TDP Base Entry/3D Base Entry/Boost Entry - do not touch these parameters, leave as is.

TDP Base Clock/3D Base Clock/Boost Clock - the value of the base and BOOST frequencies. In fact, TDP Base Clock / 3D Base Clock do not depend on the asic video card, and we can set it manually, but choose the frequencies from the Boost table tab. In my example, you see the frequency from 34 table cells.

But the Boost Clock frequency tells us the minimum BOOST frequency for the video card (1329 MHz - 59 cell of the table), but the actual frequency will be determined by the card's asic (you can see it in gpu-z) - the higher the asic, the higher the actual frequency in BOOST mode (on my video card with asic 73.5% boost out of the box up to 1392.5 MHz - 64 position in the frequency table). By changing the Boost Clock to values ​​from the table above the stock ones, we transfer the BOOST frequency. Changing the frequency of 1329 MHz (59th position of the table) to 1354.5 MHz (61st position) in my case will lead to a change in the actual frequency in BOOST mode from 1392 MHz (64 cells) to 1418 MHz (66 cells). This will allow you to change the maximum boost frequency without using AB. This is a lazy method. Also, the Gpu Clock Offset + 13MHz button will do the same, but it will also change the TDP Base Clock / 3D Base Clock (but you can manually return them to the desired ones).

Temp Target/Max Temp Target - temperature limits, the same sliders are in MSI Afterburner. We set the value to 89/91, provided that the video card does not heat up 80+ degrees.

fan control - control of the speed of the fans of the cooling system of the video card.

RPM1x/TMP1x/PER1x are the desired rpm (when using PWM controlled fans)/temperature/percentage rpm (when using voltage controlled fans) to adjust the valves. It is desirable to adjust the percentages by the calculation method (2600/3200 = 81%, not 70, like mine, but I have a PWM adjustment).

How it works.

RPM13/TMP13/PER13 - the maximum speed values, leave RPM13 / PER13 unchanged, and set TMP13 to the value that you think is necessary (in my example, 3200 rpm (maximum passport value) at 90 degrees).

RPM11/TMP11/PER11 - up to these values, the valves will spin up from zero or the initial values. In the picture above, up to 35 C o, the fans spin from the technically lowest possible value to 1000 rpm, after 35 and up to 70 C o (TMP12) they spin smoothly up to 2600 rpm (RPM12).

To stop the RPM11/TMP11/PER11 valves, write as 0/0/XX, where XX is the temperature up to which the valves will stand.

memory clock - frequency of video memory. We set a value that is stable in your opinion and subtract 100 MHz. For more stability and confidence.

Voltage Table Tab

This tab displays the voltage for each frequency from the frequency table.

If you have a GM200 and this tab looks like this:

then you need to open the second and third lines in the voltage table. To do this, open the BIOS in Kepler BIOS Tweaker and move the selected sliders to an arbitrary position:

It turns out something like this:

The BIOS now looks like this in the Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker:

1 line: the maximum possible voltage (depends on the voltage regulator of your video card, it can be both 1281 and 1250 as much as possible, as you're lucky). We put 1281.3.

2nd line: this is our base voltage for Boost Clock.

If you want to take the pressure off- change the maximum voltage in this line one step down with the keyboard arrows and flash the BIOS with this voltage, perform rendering manipulations in GPU-Z. The resulting voltage (this will be a minus step from your stock voltage) is written as the first value in the second and third lines.

If you do not want to step down the voltage- set the voltage found in the preparation stage using the GPU-Z render to the minimum and plus one step to the maximum. With this setting, frequencies will NOT be reset under temperature. Max Voltage in this line we set one step more from the minimum.

3rd line: The minimum value is the same as in the second row, the maximum is the same as in the first one. This is exactly the voltage that we can adjust using the sliders through MSI Afterburner.

Software monitoring (GPU-Z, MSI Afterburner, HWiNFO) is not always true and the displayed GPU voltage may be higher/lower than the actual one. You can verify this with a multimeter.

And now that the displayed voltage steps in the same gpu-z are not the only possible ones. We will make the change using the example of my video card, the VID of which on the stock BIOS is 1.150, 1.175, 1.193, 1.218, etc.

To begin with, we fix the voltage of 1.175 V in order to determine the cell number for this voltage. To do this, in the first three lines of the stress table, we set the following values:

1. 1.281-1.281
2. 1.175-1.181
3. 1.175-1.281

As a result, we get the BOOST frequency, relevant 59 cell.

Next, go to cell 59 in the voltage table and shift the values ​​in such a way as to shift the voltage range to the value we need. Having made a table, as in the screenshot, I got the VID of the card, which did not exist before. It becomes one of the range for each cell, and as seen in the video below, the voltage step can be adjusted more precisely.

It is worth considering that for a voltage offset of 6-10 mV, we move to the next cell of the boost table and get +13 MHz. You can change the voltage step, make it larger or smaller.

Power Table tab

These are power limits. We are interested in the first 6 groups (each group consists of Min|Def|Max values).

The first group is TDP cards. In fact, this calculated value of heat, which the manufacturer takes into account when designing the cooling system, has nothing to do with the power limit. We set it the same as the values ​​\u200b\u200bof group 6.

The second group - skip it.

The third group is the power of the PCI-E slot, we set this group taking into account 75 W maximum.

The fourth group is the permitted power of the first auxiliary power connector. We put 75000 for 6-pin and 150000 for 8-pinPCI-E.

The fifth group is the permitted power of the second auxiliary power connector. We put 75000 for 6-pin and 150000 for 8-pin PCI-E.

The sixth group is the power limit. This is what interests us the most. The values ​​are set in the calculation from the sum of the values ​​​​of all the power supplies of the video card, which we set in the table. We write the same values ​​\u200b\u200bin 1 group (optional).

Boost Table tab

Here we see the very table of frequencies, because of which we are gathered here. Each frequency here is associated with a voltage from the corresponding table, the binding goes by the cell number. Using the Max Table Clock slider, we can shift the frequencies from 35 to 74 cells both up and down. This is similar to the steps in MSI Afterburner. Also here we can clearly see that with an increase in the maximum BOOST frequency, all intermediate frequencies also change.

Boost States tab

We only change Max GPC in P00 and P02 to a value from 74 cells of the frequency table, the rest does not concern us.

Clock States tab

In the DDR profile P00, we set the memory frequency from the first tab (more precisely, it will change here itself when the frequency changes there), but DDR in P02 is either left as it is, or changed to the value as in P00. If we leave it as it is, when using CUDA, it will drop the frequency to this value.

Editing the frequency table with the HEX editor

To begin with, we set the boost voltage we need in the second and third lines in this way (in this example, I lowered the voltage for BOOST to 1.175 V, but it’s worth remembering that at the beginning of the article using GPU-Z we already determined the operating voltage and frequency, so set voltage you need).

In the second line, we add one step to the right value, in the third we set the maximum value to which it will be possible to raise the voltage through MSI Afterburner. It is worth considering that when the voltage is increased using MSI Afterburner, the voltage during heating will decrease to the minimum specified in the second line.

We remember in which cell the 3D Base Clock frequency is located:

On the BOOST position (On my copy of the video card at 1.174 V, this is 59 cells), we set the frequency, which is stable at this voltage (I recommend setting it 2-3 steps lower, adjust the rest in MSI Afterburner).

Next, open the BIOS in any HEX editor (I used HxD) and look for the BOOST cell as follows: add 12 to the cell number (in my example, 59+12=71) and translate it into hex (71d = 47h). Next, we take the frequency on this cell (1455.5 for me), multiply by 2 (1455.5 * 2 = 2911) and also translate into hex (2911d = 0B5Fh). Zero is not lost. Next, look for the following hexadecimal sequence in the HEX BIOS code: 47 5F 0B 00 01

Where 47 - hex code of the BOOST cell, 5F 0B- doubled frequency by the least significant digits ahead (0B_5F), 00 01 - command code. To the left (from position 46) are cells from 58 to 1 groups of 5. We take the frequency value that we will have between the base and BOOST frequencies (I chose 1405 MHz), translate it into a familiar format (1405 * 2 = 2810d = 0AFAh) and we insert them from the cell before the boost one (58 in my case) to the one on which the base frequency + 1 was (43+1=44) and change them to the value we need (FA 0A). After editing the frequency table, we correlate the values ​​\u200b\u200bin the voltage table (for all cells with the same frequency, one voltage range can be set), save the BIOS (be sure to then open it in Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker and save it to rewrite the checksum) and flash it.

You can write any frequencies, choose any step, but the tweaker can cross out frequencies that are not packed into it. It's okay, this is a flaw in the program, Kepler BIOS Tweaker also shows the BIOS from Maxwell.

Conclusion

Overclocking video cards has several reasons. Here and sports interest, and the need for a few additional frames per second, or just the pursuit of beautiful numbers. In this article, we looked at a small example of how to get rid of sticks inserted into our wheels during acceleration. Boost Technology 2.0, in my opinion, is no different from the software sequence of cause and effect, so changing the conditions leads to a change in the operating mode. Using a HEX editor and changing the voltage and frequency tables, I achieved unprecedented results on the GTX 980 TI (using air cooling) - with a core frequency of 1592 MHz and an effective video memory frequency of 8500 MHz at a voltage of 1.27 V software application Firestrike from the 3DMark package achieved 22666 graphic points, in Firestrike Extreme at the same voltage and 1596/8400 MHz, respectively, the result was 10641 graphic points.

For games, the use of this technique also turned out to be quite useful. For example, absolute stability at a core frequency of 1558 MHz (the memory frequency was 8400 MHz) under any load was achieved at 1.199 V.

By lowering the operating voltage, the video card turned out to be cold and almost silent. At a voltage of 1.143 V, the video card operated at a frequency of 1503 MHz.

In this case, the frequency was set with some margin

When changing the load, there were no many intermediate frequencies, there was BOOST frequency, the base and the only intermediate one for which a voltage that was stable for it was selected. At the same time, energy-saving functions worked correctly, which you can see in the picture above.

Be creative, adjust the BIOS for yourself and your needs, but remember that you do all the manipulations at your own peril and risk. Good luck and stable overclocking!

Maxwell generation graphics cards are ending their era, giving way to the improved Pascal architecture. But this did not stop the GM20x from being interesting in terms of its hidden potential, expressed in MHz. We remember that the introduction of Boost 2.0 technology put many spokes into the wheels when overclocking video cards using utilities (MSI Afterburner, EVGA Precision, Palit ThunderMaster and others), and the frequency shift led to the fact that the base and intermediate frequencies changed along with the BOOST frequency, and sooner or later this led to instability when changing the load on the video card. As a result, many reduced overclocking, and for further overclocking, they either had to use the microcode editing method called "BOOST shutdowns" (in fact, the Boost 2.0 technology itself did not disappear anywhere, the video card just worked at higher frequencies even under light loads), or use third-party programs for fixing maximum frequencies (for example, -Nvidia PowerMizer Manager). The disadvantages are increased frequencies and voltage in idle mode and a small load, as a result - excessive heating and consumption. In this case, the capabilities of the Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker and the driver part of the video cards act as limiters. But what if we look into the subtle world of microcode using a HEX editor and see what this approach will give us.

Preparing to edit the graphics card microcode

First you need to flash the latest BIOS version (without modifications) for your video card. You can find it both on the manufacturer's website and on third-party sites, for example -TechPowerUp. In order to flash the BIOS, you can use the NVFlash program. I recommend immediately downloading the version with certificate verification bypass, since it is she who will be useful to us later. For firmware, create a folder with the name in the root of drive C nvflash and unpack the contents of the previously downloaded archive into it. we also add a file with the microcode that we are going to "burn" to the root of the folder. Then we launch the command prompt as an administrator and enter the following commands in turn:

1. cd c:\nvflash
2. nvflash-6 namebios.rom

where namebios is the name of the BIOS file.

I mainly use MSI Afterburner for overclocking, so it will be featured in this article. Download the latest version and install it. We also download the GPU-Z program and install it.

The next step is to determine the value of the maximum frequency and operating voltage at full load on the video card without using overclocking. It is more convenient to do this using the render and sensor monitoring built into GPU-Z

In this example, the frequency in Boost 2.0 mode is 1455.5 MHz at a voltage of 1.199 V, the second video card (the BIOS of which will be discussed below) operated at a frequency of 1367 MHz at 1.193 V. Remember these parameters, they will come in handy.

Now we open the BIOS version that we loaded into our video card using the Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker. In parallel, consider the main tabs and the values ​​presented in them.

Common tab

TDP Base Entry/3D Base Entry/Boost Entry - do not touch these parameters, leave as is.

TDP Base Clock/3D Base Clock/Boost Clock - the value of the base and BOOST frequencies. In fact, TDP Base Clock / 3D Base Clock do not depend on the asic video card, and we can set it manually, but choose the frequencies from the Boost table tab. In my example, you see the frequency from 34 table cells.

But the Boost Clock frequency tells us the minimum BOOST frequency for the video card (1329 MHz - 59 cell of the table), but the actual frequency will be determined by the card's asic (you can see it in gpu-z) - the higher the asic, the higher the actual frequency in BOOST mode (on my video card with asic 73.5% boost out of the box up to 1392.5 MHz - 64 position in the frequency table). By changing the Boost Clock to values ​​from the table above the stock ones, we transfer the BOOST frequency. Changing the frequency of 1329 MHz (59th position of the table) to 1354.5 MHz (61st position) in my case will lead to a change in the actual frequency in BOOST mode from 1392 MHz (64 cells) to 1418 MHz (66 cells). This will allow you to change the maximum boost frequency without using AB. This is a lazy method. Also, the Gpu Clock Offset + 13MHz button will do the same, but it will also change the TDP Base Clock / 3D Base Clock (but you can manually return them to the desired ones).

Temp Target/Max Temp Target - temperature limits, the same sliders are in MSI Afterburner. We set the value to 89/91, provided that the video card does not heat up 80+ degrees.

fan control - control of the speed of the fans of the cooling system of the video card.

RPM1x/TMP1x/PER1x are the desired rpm (when using PWM controlled fans)/temperature/percentage rpm (when using voltage controlled fans) to adjust the valves. It is desirable to adjust the percentages by the calculation method (2600/3200 = 81%, not 70, like mine, but I have a PWM adjustment).

How it works.

RPM13/TMP13/PER13 - the maximum speed values, leave RPM13 / PER13 unchanged, and set TMP13 to the value that you think is necessary (in my example, 3200 rpm (maximum passport value) at 90 degrees).

RPM11/TMP11/PER11 - up to these values, the valves will spin up from zero or the initial values. In the picture above, up to 35 C o, the fans spin from the technically lowest possible value to 1000 rpm, after 35 and up to 70 C o (TMP12) they spin smoothly up to 2600 rpm (RPM12).

To stop the RPM11/TMP11/PER11 valves, write as 0/0/XX, where XX is the temperature up to which the valves will stand.

memory clock - frequency of video memory. We set a value that is stable in your opinion and subtract 100 MHz. For more stability and confidence.

Voltage Table Tab

This tab displays the voltage for each frequency from the frequency table.

If you have a GM200 and this tab looks like this:

then you need to open the second and third lines in the voltage table. To do this, open the BIOS in Kepler BIOS Tweaker and move the selected sliders to an arbitrary position:

It turns out something like this:

The BIOS now looks like this in the Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker:

1 line: the maximum possible voltage (depends on the voltage regulator of your video card, it can be both 1281 and 1250 as much as possible, as you're lucky). We put 1281.3.

2nd line: this is our base voltage for Boost Clock.

If you want to take the pressure off- change the maximum voltage in this line one step down with the keyboard arrows and flash the BIOS with this voltage, perform rendering manipulations in GPU-Z. The resulting voltage (this will be a minus step from your stock voltage) is written as the first value in the second and third lines.

If you do not want to step down the voltage- set the voltage found in the preparation stage using the GPU-Z render to the minimum and plus one step to the maximum. With this setting, frequencies will NOT be reset under temperature. We set the maximum voltage in this line one step more from the minimum.

3rd line: The minimum value is the same as in the second row, the maximum is the same as in the first one. This is exactly the voltage that we can adjust using the sliders through MSI Afterburner.

Software monitoring (GPU-Z, MSI Afterburner, HWiNFO) is not always true and the displayed GPU voltage may be higher/lower than the actual one. You can verify this with a multimeter.

And now that the displayed voltage steps in the same gpu-z are not the only possible ones. We will make the change using the example of my video card, the VID of which on the stock BIOS is 1.150, 1.175, 1.193, 1.218, etc.

To begin with, we fix the voltage of 1.175 V in order to determine the cell number for this voltage. To do this, in the first three lines of the stress table, we set the following values:

1. 1.281-1.281
2. 1.175-1.181
3. 1.175-1.281

As a result, we get the BOOST frequency, relevant 59 cell.

Next, go to cell 59 in the voltage table and shift the values ​​in such a way as to shift the voltage range to the value we need. Having made a table, as in the screenshot, I got the VID of the card, which did not exist before. It becomes one of the range for each cell, and as seen in the video below, the voltage step can be adjusted more precisely.

It is worth considering that for a voltage offset of 6-10 mV, we move to the next cell of the boost table and get +13 MHz. You can change the voltage step, make it larger or smaller.

Power Table tab

These are power limits. We are interested in the first 6 groups (each group consists of Min|Def|Max values).

The first group is TDP cards. In fact, this calculated value of heat, which the manufacturer takes into account when designing the cooling system, has nothing to do with the power limit. We set it the same as the values ​​\u200b\u200bof group 6.

The second group - skip it.

The third group is the power of the PCI-E slot, we set this group taking into account 75 W maximum.

The fourth group is the permitted power of the first auxiliary power connector. We put 75000 for 6-pin and 150000 for 8-pinPCI-E.

The fifth group is the permitted power of the second auxiliary power connector. We put 75000 for 6-pin and 150000 for 8-pin PCI-E.

The sixth group is the power limit. This is what interests us the most. The values ​​are set in the calculation from the sum of the values ​​​​of all the power supplies of the video card, which we set in the table. We write the same values ​​\u200b\u200bin 1 group (optional).

Boost Table tab

Here we see the very table of frequencies, because of which we are gathered here. Each frequency here is associated with a voltage from the corresponding table, the binding goes by the cell number. Using the Max Table Clock slider, we can shift the frequencies from 35 to 74 cells both up and down. This is similar to the steps in MSI Afterburner. Also here we can clearly see that with an increase in the maximum BOOST frequency, all intermediate frequencies also change.

Boost States tab

We only change Max GPC in P00 and P02 to a value from 74 cells of the frequency table, the rest does not concern us.

Clock States tab

In the DDR profile P00, we set the memory frequency from the first tab (more precisely, it will change here itself when the frequency changes there), but DDR in P02 is either left as it is, or changed to the value as in P00. If we leave it as it is, when using CUDA, it will drop the frequency to this value.

Editing the frequency table with the HEX editor

To begin with, we set the boost voltage we need in the second and third lines in this way (in this example, I lowered the voltage for BOOST to 1.175 V, but it’s worth remembering that at the beginning of the article using GPU-Z we already determined the operating voltage and frequency, so set voltage you need).

In the second line, we add one step to the right value, in the third we set the maximum value to which it will be possible to raise the voltage through MSI Afterburner. It is worth considering that when the voltage is increased using MSI Afterburner, the voltage during heating will decrease to the minimum specified in the second line.

We remember in which cell the 3D Base Clock frequency is located:

On the BOOST position (On my copy of the video card at 1.174 V, this is 59 cells), we set the frequency, which is stable at this voltage (I recommend setting it 2-3 steps lower, adjust the rest in MSI Afterburner).

Next, open the BIOS in any HEX editor (I used HxD) and look for the BOOST cell as follows: add 12 to the cell number (in my example, 59+12=71) and translate it into hex (71d = 47h). Next, we take the frequency on this cell (1455.5 for me), multiply by 2 (1455.5 * 2 = 2911) and also translate into hex (2911d = 0B5Fh). Zero is not lost. Next, look for the following hexadecimal sequence in the HEX BIOS code: 47 5F 0B 00 01

Where 47 - hex code of the BOOST cell, 5F 0B- doubled frequency by the least significant digits ahead (0B_5F), 00 01 - command code. To the left (from position 46) are cells from 58 to 1 groups of 5. We take the frequency value that we will have between the base and BOOST frequencies (I chose 1405 MHz), translate it into a familiar format (1405 * 2 = 2810d = 0AFAh) and we insert them from the cell before the boost one (58 in my case) to the one on which the base frequency + 1 was (43+1=44) and change them to the value we need (FA 0A). After editing the frequency table, we correlate the values ​​\u200b\u200bin the voltage table (for all cells with the same frequency, one voltage range can be set), save the BIOS (be sure to then open it in Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker and save it to rewrite the checksum) and flash it.

You can write any frequencies, choose any step, but the tweaker can cross out frequencies that are not packed into it. It's okay, this is a flaw in the program, Kepler BIOS Tweaker also shows the BIOS from Maxwell.

Conclusion

Overclocking video cards has several reasons. Here and sports interest, and the need for a few additional frames per second, or just the pursuit of beautiful numbers. In this article, we looked at a small example of how to get rid of sticks inserted into our wheels during acceleration. Boost 2.0 technology, in my opinion, is no different from a software sequence of cause and effect, so changing conditions leads to a change in operating mode. Using a HEX editor and changing the voltage and frequency tables, I achieved unprecedented results on the GTX 980 TI (using air cooling) - with a core frequency of 1592 MHz and an effective video memory frequency of 8500 MHz at a voltage of 1.27 V in the Firestrike software application from the package 3DMark achieved 22666 graphic points, in Firestrike Extreme at the same voltage and 1596/8400 MHz, respectively, the result was 10641 graphic points.

For games, the use of this technique also turned out to be quite useful. For example, absolute stability at a core frequency of 1558 MHz (the memory frequency was 8400 MHz) under any load was achieved at 1.199 V.

By lowering the operating voltage, the video card turned out to be cold and almost silent. At a voltage of 1.143 V, the video card operated at a frequency of 1503 MHz.

In this case, the frequency was set with some margin

When changing the load, there were no many intermediate frequencies, there was a BOOST frequency, the base and the only intermediate one, for which a stable voltage was selected for it. At the same time, energy-saving functions worked correctly, which you can see in the picture above.

Be creative, adjust the BIOS for yourself and your needs, but remember that you do all the manipulations at your own peril and risk. Good luck and stable overclocking!

Kepler BIOS Tweaker is a small and portable software utility that aids advanced computer users in editing BIOS details for their Nvidia graphics card with great ease. It sports intuitive options to get the job done quickly.

Since installation is not a requirement, you can drop the executable file anywhere on the HDD and just click it to run.

It is also possible to save Kepler BIOS Tweaker to a usb flash disk or similar storage unit, in order to run it on any machine effortlessly, without previous installers.

An important aspect to take into account is that the Windows registry does not receive new entries, and files are not left behind on the disk after removing the program.

The UI is represented by a standard window with a simple structure, where you can open a BIOS file (ROM or BIN format) using either the file browser or drag-and-drop support.

Shown BIOS details include the graphics card name, board, date, version, device ID, vendor, checksum and file name.

It is possible to edit common details, such as base and memory clock, boost clock and limit, minimum and maximum percent, along with power control. Furthermore, you can adjust voltages, edit boost table parameters, as well as modify boost and clock states. The new BIOS information can be overwritten to the original file or saved to a new one.

Unfortunately, Kepler BIOS Tweaker does not provide buttons for copying data to the Clipboard or printing it directly. It runs on a low amount of CPU and RAM, though, so it does not affect computer performance.

No error dialogs were shown in our tests, and the app did not hang or crash. All in all, Kepler BIOS Tweaker offers a user-friendly environment and simple options for editing BIOS data for Nvidia graphics cards.

Warming is just around the corner, which means that soon computer cooling systems will not be able to cope with their tasks. How to reduce the temperature, noise and power consumption of video cards without spending a single penny on it? Read this article about graphics adapter undervolting.

Undervolting is the term used to reduce the voltage and therefore the current used by the video card, which entails a significant decrease in temperature under load (in some cases by 10 degrees). However, this is not the only advantage of undervolting, this procedure also helps to combat video card noise in games.

As a rule, lowering the temperature by even a few degrees will reduce the speed of the fans of the active cooler, which makes a noticeable difference in the noise level. In some programs (MSI Afterburner, Trixx) you can go even further and further reduce CO noise by adjusting the cooler algorithm. As a first approximation, you can focus on a temperature of 80 degrees Celsius. That is, change the fan speed so that under load the chip does not warm up above 80 degrees. However, this is another topic, but today we will talk about undervolting.

It is desirable to lower the voltage gradually. For example, from 1.200 V first to 1.150 V, and then in steps of 0.01, i.e. up to 1.140, 1.130, etc. After each decrease, you can test the stability of the video card, that is, keep it under load for a while. For this, you can use the same FurMark.

Undervolting is somewhat like overclocking, only in the opposite direction - instead of increasing the frequency, you need to lower the voltage. After the first failure (the driver will show a message), you should go back one step by increasing the GPU voltage, and thoroughly test the stability of this mode.

Consider several ways of undervolting. The first two boil down to using special utilities, and the third, more advanced, to flashing the BIOS of the video card.

Program method

In the main window of this program there is an adjustable parameter Core Voltage, which is responsible for the level of voltage supplied to the core of the video card. As a rule, this parameter is in the range of 1.100–1.200 V and is set by the manufacturer with some margin.

In principle, you can reduce the Core Voltage indicator with any step (but it is better with a small one), this operation cannot somehow harm the video card. The worst that will happen is that the computer will freeze, or, more likely, a message will appear in the system tray stating that an error has occurred in the video card driver.

Flaw MSI programs Afterburner, lies in the fact that it allows you to adjust the voltage of far from all video cards.

Despite the fact that the name of the application Sapphire Trixx, as in the case of MSI Afterburner, contains a mention of a specific manufacturer of video cards, the utility works with adapters from all companies, not just those indicated.

The advantage of Trixx is that this program can regulate the voltage more video cards. In other words, if Core Voltage is disabled in Afterburner, try Trixx.

The voltage regulation procedure in Trixx is not fundamentally different from that for Afterburner. The required slider is located in the Overclocking tab and is called VDDC.

The only drawback of Trixx in terms of undervolting is that the utility cannot restore the voltage value when the computer is restarted. Only the core and memory frequencies are restored, and the voltage must be set manually each time. Afterburner does not have this drawback, but, as already mentioned, it supports fewer video cards.

Changing settings in the graphics card's BIOS

Let's start with the usual warning in such cases. You carry out all the operations described below at your own peril and risk. Do not flash the BIOS if you are not sure of the correctness of your actions. A damaged or failed firmware update can damage the graphics card, voiding the manufacturer's warranty.

So, what to do if the video card is not supported Afterburner, but you don’t want to set the voltage manually using Trixx after each reboot of the PC? In this case, you can edit the parameters specified in the BIOS of the video card.

AMD Radeon

You can use the utility to save the BIOS to a file on your computer. GPU-Z or ATI Winflash. The second program is preferable because it will come in handy again later to update the BIOS, while GPU-Z will no longer be used.

After saving the BIOS to a file, you need to open it in Radeon BIOS Editor, and on the Clock Settings tab, in the Voltage fields, set the voltage value selected earlier in Afterburner or Trixx. After that, save the edited BIOS (Save BIOS), preferably to a new file.

At the last step, it remains to launch ATIWinflash, select the required video card, if there are several of them in the computer, load the edited BIOS into the program (Load Image) and click the Program button to flash it. The program will “think” for a while, after which it will offer to restart the computer and load the video card with a new voltage value.

NVIDIA GeForce

For NVIDIA graphics cards you will need GPU-Z programs (to save the graphics card BIOS to a file) and NiBiTor(NVIDIA BIOS Editor) to change the voltage of the video card (Voltages tab, 3D parameter). Note that in some cases, a limited range of voltages with a certain discreteness or even several specific values ​​will be available for the 3D mode. If the presented list does not contain what is required, you may have to abandon the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bflashing the BIOS or use a value that is slightly higher than the minimum sufficient.

For video cards based on Kepler and Maxwell chips ( GeForce GTX 6xx/7xx) you will need the Kepler BIOS Tweaker application. However, given the multiple operating states of GPUs due to the operation of the technology GPU Boost, for these models, only a software voltmod is often used.

After editing, the BIOS must be saved to a new file and uploaded to the video card. To do this, download the utility NV Flash, after which the file with the edited BIOS needs to be flashed. To do this, you need to remember the basics of working with the command line by typing in the console: nvflash.exe -6 BIOS.ROM. In this case, BIOS.ROM is the name of the edited firmware file, which must be located in the same directory as NVFlash.

Results

To ensure the stable operation of video cards, manufacturers set the supply voltage GPU with a certain margin. Often, it can be somewhat reduced without obvious consequences for the device itself, thereby reducing GPU heating, and, accordingly, the noise level of the cooling system.

A side bonus of reducing the supply voltage is also a reduction in the power consumption of the video card. The account in this case goes to tens of watts for modern high-performance video cards. Whether the game is worth the candle is up to you.

Maxwell generation graphics cards are ending their era, giving way to the improved Pascal architecture. But this did not stop the GM20x from being interesting in terms of its hidden potential, expressed in MHz. We remember that the introduction of Boost 2.0 technology put many spokes into the wheels when overclocking video cards using utilities (MSI Afterburner, EVGA Precision, Palit ThunderMaster and others), and the frequency shift led to the fact that the base and intermediate frequencies changed along with the BOOST frequency, and sooner or later this led to instability when changing the load on the video card. As a result, many reduced overclocking, and for further overclocking, they either had to use the microcode editing method called "BOOST shutdowns" (in fact, the Boost 2.0 technology itself did not disappear anywhere, the video card just worked at higher frequencies even under light loads), or use third-party programs for fixing maximum frequencies (for example, -Nvidia PowerMizer Manager). The disadvantages are increased frequencies and voltage in idle mode and a small load, as a result - excessive heating and consumption. In this case, the capabilities of the Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker and the driver part of the video cards act as limiters. But what if we look into the subtle world of microcode using a HEX editor and see what this approach will give us.

Preparing to edit the graphics card microcode

First you need to flash the latest BIOS version (without modifications) for your video card. You can find it both on the manufacturer's website and on third-party sites, for example -TechPowerUp. In order to flash the BIOS, you can use the NVFlash program. I recommend immediately downloading the version with certificate verification bypass, since it is she who will be useful to us later. For firmware, create a folder with the name in the root of drive C nvflash and unpack the contents of the previously downloaded archive into it. we also add a file with the microcode that we are going to "burn" to the root of the folder. Then we launch the command prompt as an administrator and enter the following commands in turn:

1. cd c:\nvflash
2. nvflash-6 namebios.rom

where namebios is the name of the BIOS file.

I mainly use MSI Afterburner for overclocking, so it will be featured in this article. Download the latest version and install it. We also download the GPU-Z program and install it.

The next step is to determine the value of the maximum frequency and operating voltage at full load on the video card without using overclocking. It is more convenient to do this using the render and sensor monitoring built into GPU-Z

In this example, the frequency in Boost 2.0 mode is 1455.5 MHz at a voltage of 1.199 V, the second video card (the BIOS of which will be discussed below) operated at a frequency of 1367 MHz at 1.193 V. Remember these parameters, they will come in handy.

Now we open the BIOS version that we loaded into our video card using the Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker. In parallel, consider the main tabs and the values ​​presented in them.

Common tab

TDP Base Entry/3D Base Entry/Boost Entry - do not touch these parameters, leave as is.

TDP Base Clock/3D Base Clock/Boost Clock - the value of the base and BOOST frequencies. In fact, TDP Base Clock / 3D Base Clock do not depend on the asic video card, and we can set it manually, but choose the frequencies from the Boost table tab. In my example, you see the frequency from 34 table cells.

But the Boost Clock frequency tells us the minimum BOOST frequency for the video card (1329 MHz - 59 cell of the table), but the actual frequency will be determined by the card's asic (you can see it in gpu-z) - the higher the asic, the higher the actual frequency in BOOST mode (on my video card with asic 73.5% boost out of the box up to 1392.5 MHz - 64 position in the frequency table). By changing the Boost Clock to values ​​from the table above the stock ones, we transfer the BOOST frequency. Changing the frequency of 1329 MHz (59th position of the table) to 1354.5 MHz (61st position) in my case will lead to a change in the actual frequency in BOOST mode from 1392 MHz (64 cells) to 1418 MHz (66 cells). This will allow you to change the maximum boost frequency without using AB. This is a lazy method. Also, the Gpu Clock Offset + 13MHz button will do the same, but it will also change the TDP Base Clock / 3D Base Clock (but you can manually return them to the desired ones).

Temp Target/Max Temp Target - temperature limits, the same sliders are in MSI Afterburner. We set the value to 89/91, provided that the video card does not heat up 80+ degrees.

fan control - control of the speed of the fans of the cooling system of the video card.

RPM1x/TMP1x/PER1x are the desired rpm (when using PWM controlled fans)/temperature/percentage rpm (when using voltage controlled fans) to adjust the valves. It is desirable to adjust the percentages by the calculation method (2600/3200 = 81%, not 70, like mine, but I have a PWM adjustment).

How it works.

RPM13/TMP13/PER13 - the maximum speed values, leave RPM13 / PER13 unchanged, and set TMP13 to the value that you think is necessary (in my example, 3200 rpm (maximum passport value) at 90 degrees).

RPM11/TMP11/PER11 - up to these values, the valves will spin up from zero or the initial values. In the picture above, up to 35 C o, the fans spin from the technically lowest possible value to 1000 rpm, after 35 and up to 70 C o (TMP12) they spin smoothly up to 2600 rpm (RPM12).

To stop the RPM11/TMP11/PER11 valves, write as 0/0/XX, where XX is the temperature up to which the valves will stand.

memory clock - frequency of video memory. We set a value that is stable in your opinion and subtract 100 MHz. For more stability and confidence.

Voltage Table Tab

This tab displays the voltage for each frequency from the frequency table.

If you have a GM200 and this tab looks like this:

then you need to open the second and third lines in the voltage table. To do this, open the BIOS in Kepler BIOS Tweaker and move the selected sliders to an arbitrary position:

It turns out something like this:

The BIOS now looks like this in the Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker:

1 line: the maximum possible voltage (depends on the voltage regulator of your video card, it can be both 1281 and 1250 as much as possible, as you're lucky). We put 1281.3.

2nd line: this is our base voltage for Boost Clock.

If you want to take the pressure off- change the maximum voltage in this line one step down with the keyboard arrows and flash the BIOS with this voltage, perform rendering manipulations in GPU-Z. The resulting voltage (this will be a minus step from your stock voltage) is written as the first value in the second and third lines.

If you do not want to step down the voltage- set the voltage found in the preparation stage using the GPU-Z render to the minimum and plus one step to the maximum. With this setting, frequencies will NOT be reset under temperature. We set the maximum voltage in this line one step more from the minimum.

3rd line: The minimum value is the same as in the second row, the maximum is the same as in the first one. This is exactly the voltage that we can adjust using the sliders through MSI Afterburner.

Software monitoring (GPU-Z, MSI Afterburner, HWiNFO) is not always true and the displayed GPU voltage may be higher/lower than the actual one. You can verify this with a multimeter.

And now that the displayed voltage steps in the same gpu-z are not the only possible ones. We will make the change using the example of my video card, the VID of which on the stock BIOS is 1.150, 1.175, 1.193, 1.218, etc.

To begin with, we fix the voltage of 1.175 V in order to determine the cell number for this voltage. To do this, in the first three lines of the stress table, we set the following values:

1. 1.281-1.281
2. 1.175-1.181
3. 1.175-1.281

As a result, we get the BOOST frequency, relevant 59 cell.

Next, go to cell 59 in the voltage table and shift the values ​​in such a way as to shift the voltage range to the value we need. Having made a table, as in the screenshot, I got the VID of the card, which did not exist before. It becomes one of the range for each cell, and as seen in the video below, the voltage step can be adjusted more precisely.

It is worth considering that for a voltage offset of 6-10 mV, we move to the next cell of the boost table and get +13 MHz. You can change the voltage step, make it larger or smaller.

Power Table tab

These are power limits. We are interested in the first 6 groups (each group consists of Min|Def|Max values).

The first group is TDP cards. In fact, this calculated value of heat, which the manufacturer takes into account when designing the cooling system, has nothing to do with the power limit. We set it the same as the values ​​\u200b\u200bof group 6.

The second group - skip it.

The third group is the power of the PCI-E slot, we set this group taking into account 75 W maximum.

The fourth group is the permitted power of the first auxiliary power connector. We put 75000 for 6-pin and 150000 for 8-pinPCI-E.

The fifth group is the permitted power of the second auxiliary power connector. We put 75000 for 6-pin and 150000 for 8-pin PCI-E.

The sixth group is the power limit. This is what interests us the most. The values ​​are set in the calculation from the sum of the values ​​​​of all the power supplies of the video card, which we set in the table. We write the same values ​​\u200b\u200bin 1 group (optional).

Boost Table tab

Here we see the very table of frequencies, because of which we are gathered here. Each frequency here is associated with a voltage from the corresponding table, the binding goes by the cell number. Using the Max Table Clock slider, we can shift the frequencies from 35 to 74 cells both up and down. This is similar to the steps in MSI Afterburner. Also here we can clearly see that with an increase in the maximum BOOST frequency, all intermediate frequencies also change.

Boost States tab

We only change Max GPC in P00 and P02 to a value from 74 cells of the frequency table, the rest does not concern us.

Clock States tab

In the DDR profile P00, we set the memory frequency from the first tab (more precisely, it will change here itself when the frequency changes there), but DDR in P02 is either left as it is, or changed to the value as in P00. If we leave it as it is, when using CUDA, it will drop the frequency to this value.

Editing the frequency table with the HEX editor

To begin with, we set the boost voltage we need in the second and third lines in this way (in this example, I lowered the voltage for BOOST to 1.175 V, but it’s worth remembering that at the beginning of the article using GPU-Z we already determined the operating voltage and frequency, so set voltage you need).

In the second line, we add one step to the right value, in the third we set the maximum value to which it will be possible to raise the voltage through MSI Afterburner. It is worth considering that when the voltage is increased using MSI Afterburner, the voltage during heating will decrease to the minimum specified in the second line.

We remember in which cell the 3D Base Clock frequency is located:

On the BOOST position (On my copy of the video card at 1.174 V, this is 59 cells), we set the frequency, which is stable at this voltage (I recommend setting it 2-3 steps lower, adjust the rest in MSI Afterburner).

Next, open the BIOS in any HEX editor (I used HxD) and look for the BOOST cell as follows: add 12 to the cell number (in my example, 59+12=71) and translate it into hex (71d = 47h). Next, we take the frequency on this cell (1455.5 for me), multiply by 2 (1455.5 * 2 = 2911) and also translate into hex (2911d = 0B5Fh). Zero is not lost. Next, look for the following hexadecimal sequence in the HEX BIOS code: 47 5F 0B 00 01

Where 47 - hex code of the BOOST cell, 5F 0B- doubled frequency by the least significant digits ahead (0B_5F), 00 01 - command code. To the left (from position 46) are cells from 58 to 1 groups of 5. We take the frequency value that we will have between the base and BOOST frequencies (I chose 1405 MHz), translate it into a familiar format (1405 * 2 = 2810d = 0AFAh) and we insert them from the cell before the boost one (58 in my case) to the one on which the base frequency + 1 was (43+1=44) and change them to the value we need (FA 0A). After editing the frequency table, we correlate the values ​​\u200b\u200bin the voltage table (for all cells with the same frequency, one voltage range can be set), save the BIOS (be sure to then open it in Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker and save it to rewrite the checksum) and flash it.

You can write any frequencies, choose any step, but the tweaker can cross out frequencies that are not packed into it. It's okay, this is a flaw in the program, Kepler BIOS Tweaker also shows the BIOS from Maxwell.

Conclusion

Overclocking video cards has several reasons. Here and sports interest, and the need for a few additional frames per second, or just the pursuit of beautiful numbers. In this article, we looked at a small example of how to get rid of sticks inserted into our wheels during acceleration. Boost 2.0 technology, in my opinion, is no different from a software sequence of cause and effect, so changing conditions leads to a change in operating mode. Using a HEX editor and changing the voltage and frequency tables, I achieved unprecedented results on the GTX 980 TI (using air cooling) - with a core frequency of 1592 MHz and an effective video memory frequency of 8500 MHz at a voltage of 1.27 V in the Firestrike software application from the package 3DMark achieved 22666 graphic points, in Firestrike Extreme at the same voltage and 1596/8400 MHz, respectively, the result was 10641 graphic points.

For games, the use of this technique also turned out to be quite useful. For example, absolute stability at a core frequency of 1558 MHz (the memory frequency was 8400 MHz) under any load was achieved at 1.199 V.

By lowering the operating voltage, the video card turned out to be cold and almost silent. At a voltage of 1.143 V, the video card operated at a frequency of 1503 MHz.

In this case, the frequency was set with some margin

When changing the load, there were no many intermediate frequencies, there was a BOOST frequency, the base and the only intermediate one, for which a stable voltage was selected for it. At the same time, energy-saving functions worked correctly, which you can see in the picture above.

Be creative, adjust the BIOS for yourself and your needs, but remember that you do all the manipulations at your own peril and risk. Good luck and stable overclocking!

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