GPU vBIOS flashing with mismatched BIOS

[coaxialgamer]

So here's the situation: my EVGA RTX 2080 XC is a lemon.

By that I mean that the GPU core simply won't boost at all, and will flat out refuse to be overclocked (core and memory frequencies do not exceed stock settings even with an OC applied in MSI afterburner or EVGA Precision X1). Researching online about this seems to indicate that this is a problem in some EVGA cards of that era, specifically those with a reference PCB design. Specifically, it's most likely a BIOS bug.
I am stuck with this card. I cannot RMA it or send it back.

Reflashing with the original EVGA BIOS for this card hasn't worked. I have heard whispers that this issue might be fixable by using the BIOS of another 2080. Is this even workable? There are plenty of cards with reference PCBs out there too, so it's not like the hardware would be totally different either.

I am aware that recovering from a bad GPU bios flash is possible, but given how tedious this task is (not to mention I don't actually have a spare GPU on hand atm so I'd be out a PC for a few days) I'd rather know if this has a 100% chance of failure before attempting it.

 

[Ripcord]

I wouldn't if I were you . you currently have a working card.

 

[eidairaman1]

Complete and detailed system specs to include power supply make and model number please. Get hwinfo64, load sensors only get pics of the volts going to motherboard and gpu, get amps and power to gpu please, both idle and under a game load, temperatures too. Are you using an oc utility like afterburner?

Get pic of white sticker on card back and a gpu z screenshot please

 

[coaxialgamer]

Complete and detailed system specs to include power supply make and model number please. Get hwinfo64, load sensors only get pics of the volts going to motherboard and gpu, get amps and power to gpu please, both idle and under a game load, temperatures too. Are you using an oc utility like afterburner?

Get pic of white sticker on card back and a gpu z screenshot please

Sorry man, I got so caught up that I forgot about the basics.

Rig specs are as follows:
CPU: R7 1700 at 3.7GHZ w/ NH-D14 cooler
MB: Gigabyte AB350 gaming 3 (latest bios revision has been flashed)
RAM: 4*4GB (1R) sticks of mismatched Corsair/Crucial DDR4 2933 (all Micron memory though)
GPU: the aforementioned EVGA RTX 2080 XC Gaming
PSU: Corsair CX750M (2015)
OS: Windows 10 Home 64 bit, running off of a 1TB 660p SSD
I'm running the latest (as of now) drivers for this card.

As for the various screenshots:
GPU-Z:

HWINFO64 at idle:

HWINFO under gaming load after 5min (Unigine Heaven at 1440p Ultra, Superposition crashes whenever I tried to look at HWINFO):

As for the sticker on the back of the card:

I initially tried to use Afterburner because that's what I've historically used for previous GPU OCs. This is what afterburner currently looks like:

As you can see, the power limit slider is actually inoperable. Adjustments to core or memory frequencies sliders are possible, but they won't apply (the frequency remains the same 1515mhz under load no matter what). Weirdly, using the "apply" or "reset" buttons make the screen go blank for a second or two, which is not something I remember happening on my previous 290X (that, and my Windows "easy on the eyes" temperature settings revert back to stock).

The issues I encountered here lead to uninstalling afterburner and getting EVGA's own Precision X1, which had the exact same issues. A complete reinstall of driver software (using DDU) also did nothing, and neither did a flash of this card using the correct EVGA BIOS. I've spent the better part of an afternoon looking into this and my best lead is a GPU vBIOS bug, so if you have any other leads I'll welcome tem with open arms.

 

[eidairaman1]

Sorry man, I got so caught up that I forgot about the basics.

Rig specs are as follows:
CPU: R7 1700 at 3.7GHZ w/ NH-D14 cooler
MB: Gigabyte AB350 gaming 3 (latest bios revision has been flashed)
RAM: 4*4GB (1R) sticks of mismatched Corsair/Crucial DDR4 2933 (all Micron memory though)
GPU: the aforementioned EVGA RTX 2080 XC Gaming
PSU: Corsair CX750M (2015)
OS: Windows 10 Home 64 bit, running off of a 1TB 660p SSD
I'm running the latest (as of now) drivers for this card.

As for the various screenshots:
GPU-Z:
View attachment 277766

HWINFO64 at idle:
View attachment 277773

HWINFO under gaming load after 5min (Unigine Heaven at 1440p Ultra, Superposition crashes whenever I tried to look at HWINFO):
View attachment 277768

As for the sticker on the back of the card:
View attachment 277769

I initially tried to use Afterburner because that's what I've historically used for previous GPU OCs. This is what afterburner currently looks like:
View attachment 277770
As you can see, the power limit slider is actually inoperable. Adjustments to core or memory frequencies sliders are possible, but they won't apply (the frequency remains the same 1515mhz under load no matter what). Weirdly, using the "apply" or "reset" buttons make the screen go blank for a second or two, which is not something I remember happening on my previous 290X (that, and my Windows "easy on the eyes" temperature settings revert back to stock).

The issues I encountered here lead to uninstalling afterburner and getting EVGA's own Precision X1, which had the exact same issues. A complete reinstall of driver software (using DDU) also did nothing, and neither did a flash of this card using the correct EVGA BIOS. I've spent the better part of an afternoon looking into this and my best lead is a GPU vBIOS bug, so if you have any other leads I'll welcome tem with open arms.

Go back into afterburner and click the gear Icon and Reset everything.

 

[coaxialgamer]

Go back into afterburner and click the gear Icon and Reset everything.

It's a clean install of afterburner so everything is at default settings here.

 

[eidairaman1]

Sometimes ab loves to retain settings in the registry, so make sure to do that so we have a baseline to work with

It's a clean install of afterburner so everything is at default settings here.

 

[coaxialgamer]

Sometimes ab loves to retain settings in the registry, so make sure to do that so we have a baseline to work with

Yep, that's done. All configuration files have been wiped.

EDIT: Actually went out of my way to multi-boot a seperate copy of windows 10 onto my PC to make sure existing configs weren't an issue. Installed drivers, superposition and GPU-Z and had the same issue. Installed afterburner after that and had the same problem. This is not an issue with Windows or windows software, as I suspected.

 

[eidairaman1]

Yep, that's done. All configuration files have been wiped.

EDIT: Actually went out of my way to multi-boot a seperate copy of windows 10 onto my PC to make sure existing configs weren't an issue. Installed drivers, superposition and GPU-Z and had the same issue. Installed afterburner after that and had the same problem. This is not an issue with Windows or windows software, as I suspected.

Sounds like a hard fault with the card

This is the latest bios for your card, if it doesnt resolve the issue I suggest you try to replace the thermal paste on the gpu die, if still no dice there is a hardware failure on the card and at that point you replace the card.

EVGA RTX 2080 VBIOS

8 GB GDDR6, 1515 MHz GPU, 1750 MHz Memory

www.techpowerup.com

 

[kc0r8y]

Did you try giving EVGA a call and ask them what to do? They have great customer support.