Can you flash a cpu?

[Rehmanpa]

The long story short is I started having a conversation with a friend, neither of us knowing anything about bios flashing, and I am wondering, "Is it possible to flash a ryzen 1900x to a 1950x if it has all of the parts of the processor and they're just disabled?" I'm assuming that the 1900x is like a 1950x just with half the cores disabled, is this correct?

 

[Athlon2K15]

In the past some have had luck unlocking amd cpus

 

[xkm1948]

Eons ago there were people who enabled their 3 core Phenom to 4 core Phenom via BIOS modding. It used to be possible.

As for now, those 1900X probably have parts disabled physically so not very likely.

 

[Rehmanpa]

So an r9 290 being flashed to a 290x does not have those shaders disabled physically? Also how would you tell if it's been disabled physically vs software?

 

[EarthDog]

If a software unlock works or not.

Pipelines used to be laser cut back in the day... some not (x800 pro to XT anyone?).

 

[Rehmanpa]

Anyone know if someone is working on an attempt at flashing these? If so does that mean one could potentially flash a ryzen 1600 into a 1700?

 

[EarthDog]

It wont unlock.

 

[hapkiman]

I'm betting the days of unlocking cores are long gone. Unless you've got money to burn I would leave it as is.

 

[Rehmanpa]

I guess they laser the cores off in production so that would mean you couldn't do that.

 

[jaggerwild]

I'm betting the days of unlocking cores are long gone. Unless you've got money to burn I would leave it as is.

Thats not to say in the future someone might figure it out, or they might release the unlock after a long time.

 

[jboydgolfer]

guess they laser the cores off in production so that would mean you couldn't do that.

I'd rather they do this , then processor manufacturers handling it like call of duty or the battlefield and charging for "DLC/expansions" every few months. Imagine that, "make sure to order you extra cores, or cache"

DLC
Downloadable Cores

 

[craigo]

Eons ago there were people who enabled their 3 core Phenom to 4 core Phenom via BIOS modding. It used to be possible.

Eons ago... Phenoms... Options built into firmwares... BIOS flash... Noobs.

Maybe you could edit the microcode so the bios only had reference settings for the high end chip?

Please enjoy the image of this Barton that has been pencil modded then overclocked using jumpers on the mainboard before enthusiast was a market segment. I dont even think the modder had paid for his CPU insurance.

P.S, not even mad

 

[AsRock]

Eons ago there were people who enabled their 3 core Phenom to 4 core Phenom via BIOS modding. It used to be possible.

As for now, those 1900X probably have parts disabled physically so not very likely.

Typo maybe ?, my Phenom x2 unlocks to a x4 and boards were all so released to do so, so modding was not needed in some cases.

 

[eidairaman1]

So an r9 290 being flashed to a 290x does not have those shaders disabled physically? Also how would you tell if it's been disabled physically vs software?

No you can't flash a cpu, only the EEPROM on a motherboard or gpu.

You can attempt to unlock a cpu via bios or hardware mod.

On the CU part of a 290, some do unlock fully without any instability (rarest), some you unlock and they are just unstable (more common but not most common, most you can't unlock the CU (most common)

Same goes for the 390 lineup.

Bear in mind though that some 290s and 290xs have the same exact clock rate, so you might aswell use AB to push them as long as the cooling is good.

 

[er557]

I am literally modding a e5 xeon v3 into a much higher performing part equivalent to 22 cores e5 v4 instead of this e5 v3 18 core, via removing microcode from bios, then injecting a boot driver that uses an old bug to boost all cores to max turbo, hence xeon e5 2686 v3(cinebench 2000 pts) into a xeon e5 2699 v4(cinebench 2600 pts).
stable as a rock if cooled properly

mind you I am on 100% stock in bios, default frequencies and bclk!!, no overclocking whatsoever, ram default etc. Just loving it, and it saves power fine in c states and whatever.

Guess what? it is going to get a twin brother for dual monster soon

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I am literally modding a e5 xeon v3 into a much higher performing part equivalent to 22 cores e5 v4 instead of this e5 v3 18 core, via removing microcode from bios, then injecting a boot driver that uses an old bug to boost all cores to max turbo, hence xeon e5 2686 v3(cinebench 2000 pts) into a xeon e5 2699 v4(cinebench 2600 pts).
stable as a rock if cooled properly

mind you I am on 100% stock in bios, default frequencies and bclk!!, no overclocking whatsoever, ram default etc. Just loving it, and it saves power fine in c states and whatever.

Guess what? it is going to get a twin brother for dual monster soon

are you enabling more cores ,higher frequencies or both?

 

[er557]

just forcing turbo on all active cores to 3.5ghz, instead of the default 2-3 natively and instead all cores simultaneously @2.3ghz at factory- they are now around 3ghz - 3.5ghz. The normal default clock speed non-turbo is still 2.0ghz for all 18 cores.

hint: "what controls turbo boost in xeons"- a very very long thread

 

[EarthDog]

We're talking about unlocking cores... this is just overclocking in a more complicated manner.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

nevermind, I'm mistaken

 

[er557]

Could be just a complicated overclocking manner, mind you on a completely locked down hard chip, a server part that has a gazillion restrictions out of the box

Never ever before could these mega core parts be tweaked outside of a little base frequency increase, and the $$ value is enormous, these are segmented price wise and in practice a meager QS stepping part(=ES same as OEM exactly)

 

[jaggerwild]

I am literally modding a e5 xeon v3 into a much higher performing part equivalent to 22 cores e5 v4 instead of this e5 v3 18 core, via removing microcode from bios, then injecting a boot driver that uses an old bug to boost all cores to max turbo, hence xeon e5 2686 v3(cinebench 2000 pts) into a xeon e5 2699 v4(cinebench 2600 pts).
stable as a rock if cooled properly

mind you I am on 100% stock in bios, default frequencies and bclk!!, no overclocking whatsoever, ram default etc. Just loving it, and it saves power fine in c states and whatever.

Guess what? it is going to get a twin brother for dual monster soon

Please feel free to expunge

 

[er557]

judging from your other posts, I assume you misspelled "explain"??
It's up to the user if he wants to risk a no post situation by modding bios, all the info is in that thread, there's more than meets the eye

 

[EarthDog]

Anyway, cool stuff er557.. well done. But, its not adding cores. Its simply overclocking (albeit more complicated).

 

[er557]

Sure i'm adding cores..... I just ordered a 2nd 18c proc......

 

[er557]

How about this- modding an hdd into an ssd via ram and ssd read and write caching- primo cache application, this is a standard 5tb hdd here: