Thursday, August 6th 2015
Some AMD GCN GPU Disabled Stream Processors Unlockable via Software
This is big. A new software is doing rounds on the forumscape, with lets you check exactly which GCN compute units (CUs) were disabled by AMD to carve out your "Pro" SKU graphics card (eg: R9 Fury non-X, R9 390, R9 285, etc.), and if you're lucky, re-enable some of those disabled CUs via a good old fashioned soft-mod. Called CUINFO, developed by OCN Forums member tx12, the tool has seen some success in unlocking disabled CUs in graphics cards based on "Fiji," "Hawaii," and "Tonga" chips.
The success is limited probably because AMD appears to be using two methods to disable CUs - laser-cutting them, and through firmware. Even in chips that let you unlock, you may not unlock all CUs, since some are genuinely damaged and disabled as part of the harvesting process, to maximize yield. There are no telltale signs of which chips let you unlock and which don't, and so you'll be playing a lottery. Cards with re-enabled CUs have shown increased performance, confirming that the soft-mod is real.
Sources:
OCN Forums, SweClockers, VideoCardz
The success is limited probably because AMD appears to be using two methods to disable CUs - laser-cutting them, and through firmware. Even in chips that let you unlock, you may not unlock all CUs, since some are genuinely damaged and disabled as part of the harvesting process, to maximize yield. There are no telltale signs of which chips let you unlock and which don't, and so you'll be playing a lottery. Cards with re-enabled CUs have shown increased performance, confirming that the soft-mod is real.
43 Comments on Some AMD GCN GPU Disabled Stream Processors Unlockable via Software
The gamble always seems to be one gamers are willing to take. I will miss the Built By ATI warranty though. V modded and destroyed 3 X700 Pros and they replaced it each time.
Edit: Mussels, if you read the link it says this tool only detects if there are potentially unlockable CUs, not to actually unlock them.
He's probably a disgruntled Nvidia buyer and is sad his company offers their consumers absolutely no chance in hell to in unlocking their cards. It plays out perfectly since they're all overpriced.
Adapters detected: 1
Card #1 PCI ID: 1002:6939 - 1043:0486
DevID [6939] Rev [00] (1), memory config: 0x500013A9 Elpida
Tonga-class chip with 8 compute units per Shader Engine
SE1 hw/sw: FF010001 / 00000000 [.......x]
SE2 hw/sw: FF010001 / 00000000 [.......x]
SE3 hw/sw: FF010001 / 00000000 [.......x]
SE4 hw/sw: FF010001 / 00000000 [.......x]
28 of 32 CUs are active. HW locks: 4 (R/O) / SW locks: 0 (R/W).
Sorry, all 4 disabled CUs can't be unlocked by BIOS replacement.
:cry: