XFX RX560 1024 shaders 16 CU 4GB from Aliexpress

[Japanat]

Hello.
On September 2023 I bought two RX 560 4gb from Aliexpress, branded XFX, and I tried them both either on a Broadwell socket 1150 CPU PC (one at a time, since it has only one pcie x16 slot), either on an HP Omen i5-8600k computer, especially in this last one, for a crossfire config.
On the first rig they worked normally, booting, testing them, etc, but I didn't used them there for long, just for test.
On the second computer, the Omen, they had just a weird behavior at boot POST: they showed an artifacted bi-color pattern, then the pc booted normally and everything worked correctly as always.
After some weeks that I didn't boot the Omen PC, they stopped working: no image from HDMI or DVI-D outputs. Since I don't have a displayport monitor at hand, I couldn't try it too. I tried them both even on the Broadwell computer, no avail.
I saved both BIOSes and it is exactly this one for both cards (already existing in the bios database): https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/193096/193096
I suspect a bad modified BIOS and I want to try to flash the correct bios, trying to save them (I already tried to heat one up with a heat gun, to no avail), so can anyone tell me which BIOS should I try?
Btw: I found an official RX560 BIOS from HP, can I try it as well? It is this one: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/211027/hp-rx560-4096-180322
I'll attach a picture of one of the card (they're identical) and of the back plate sticker. Both cards have Hynix memory chips.
Thank you in advance.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but if the cards worked before and now artifact, crash, and no longer boot, it's not a BIOS issue, it's a hardware failure. These cards are old and slow, you'd get a 10x better gaming experience if you retired these and got something like an RTX 4060 or RX 7600

 

[Japanat]

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but if the cards worked before and now artifact, crash, and no longer boot, it's not a BIOS issue, it's a hardware failure. These cards are old and slow, you'd get a 10x better gaming experience if you retired these and got something like an RTX 4060 or RX 7600

I didn't ask for such unsolicited advice, I asked help to fix the cards.

 

[Solaris17]

Both cards have Hynix memory chips.

You answered your own question. The memory is going to be a big deciding factor, assuming both are genuine. Otherwise, there isnt much help to give. You already know what to look for in the rom.

In the event of flash failure I would make sure you understand or have a way to reverse your changes.

That said with just the information you have given, while it may be true that the vbios' have been modified I think these cards have other issues since BIOS problems dont manifest as "I just dont want to work today".

 

[AusWolf]

I didn't ask for such unsolicited advice, I asked help to fix the cards.

And you got the answer: artefacting usually means bad VRAM, which can't be fixed with a BIOS flash or any other home DIY method, unfortunately, so there's no reason to even bother trying.

 

[Japanat]

You answered your own question. The memory is going to be a big deciding factor, assuming both are genuine. Otherwise, there isnt much help to give. You already know what to look for in the rom.

In the event of flash failure I would make sure you understand or have a way to reverse your changes.

That said with just the information you have given, while it may be true that the vbios' have been modified I think these cards have other issues since BIOS problems dont manifest as "I just dont want to work today".

Thank you for your answer.
I'm not an expert and I fiddled with vbios' so much time ago, just for some experiments sake. So I must look for the memory brand inside the database infos.
In the event of flash failure I won't blame anyone, don't worry, I just want to try to save the cards, for one reason: I don't want to trash them since I bought it recently.
I see that just the BIOS won't be the culprit of this behavior, but it's really weird that they both started to refuse to boot...

And you got the answer: artefacting usually means bad VRAM, which can't be fixed with a BIOS flash or any other home DIY method, unfortunately, so there's no reason to even bother trying.

Maybe I didn't explain it correctly, but it was just a weird bootscreen, before the POST, after that, the cards worked correctly and there wasn't any artifact while using windows or playing. And I used to play GTA5 most of the time, also other titles, all of them did never crash.
Also, when installed in the other computer, there was no weird bootscreen.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Thank you for your answer.
I'm not an expert and I fiddled with vbios' so much time ago, just for some experiments sake. So I must look for the memory brand inside the database infos.
In the event of flash failure I won't blame anyone, don't worry, I just want to try to save the cards, for one reason: I don't want to trash them since I bought it recently.
I see that just the BIOS won't be the culprit of this behavior, but it's really weird that they both started to refuse to boot...


Maybe I didn't explain it correctly, but it was just a weird bootscreen, before the POST, after that, the cards worked correctly and there wasn't any artifact while using windows or playing. And I used to play GTA5 most of the time, also other titles, all of them did never crash.
Also, when installed in the other computer, there was no weird bootscreen.

It's not unrelated, unsolicited advice, it's actually about as sensible advice as one can realistically give somebody else. As Solaris mentioned, you have the exact GPU model, know the correct memory type to look for in a ROM, and to that extent, we can even assume you already tried reflashing them with the correct BIOS, considered you have all the answers that you need. It's not like a card decides out of nowhere "it's not like I don't wanna work today", and if they previously worked but started to artifact, that indicates:

1. Hardware failure (I'd say 8 in 10 cases)
2. Power supply failure (the remaining two in 10)
3. Veeeeery remote possibility that it's software related

Additionally, you also mentioned that they are from AliExpress, so you must know that there's a very high likelihood that these cards were previously used for cryptocurrency mining. Being 4 GB versions of the RX 560, even being much weaker than the other Polaris cards that are commonly used for mining, there was a time that it was indeed profitable to use these for that purpose. Without exception, all cards retired from former Chinese Ethereum farms are spent tools and were already handed a death sentence, they just don't know which sunrise will be their last just yet.

Before you go happy flashing again: Fully uninstall your drivers, remove one card from your system, go through all troubleshooting paces. Reinstall driver. Then remove card if it works and replace by the other. If both work on their own, you already did away with two issues: that it's a BIOS related problem or a hardware failure.

Next, install them both on the system, re-enable CrossFire and go testing. Try light, medium, and heavy workloads. If the card crashes on medium to heavy workloads, or when there are transients, replace PSU. If one card doesn't work but the other does, then try to reflash the BIOS - and since they're identical, why not save the exact ROM file from the card you already have working? But if reflashing doesn't work, then accepting your reality may very well be all you can do.

Good luck.

 

[Japanat]

It's not unrelated, unsolicited advice, it's actually about as sensible advice as one can realistically give somebody else. As Solaris mentioned, you have the exact GPU model, know the correct memory type to look for in a ROM, and to that extent, we can even assume you already tried reflashing them with the correct BIOS, considered you have all the answers that you need. It's not like a card decides out of nowhere "it's not like I don't wanna work today", and if they previously worked but started to artifact, that indicates:

1. Hardware failure (I'd say 8 in 10 cases)
2. Power supply failure (the remaining two in 10)
3. Veeeeery remote possibility that it's software related

Additionally, you also mentioned that they are from AliExpress, so you must know that there's a very high likelihood that these cards were previously used for cryptocurrency mining. Being 4 GB versions of the RX 560, even being much weaker than the other Polaris cards that are commonly used for mining, there was a time that it was indeed profitable to use these for that purpose. Without exception, all cards retired from former Chinese Ethereum farms are spent tools and were already handed a death sentence, they just don't know which sunrise will be their last just yet.

Before you go happy flashing again: Fully uninstall your drivers, remove one card from your system, go through all troubleshooting paces. Reinstall driver. Then remove card if it works and replace by the other. If both work on their own, you already did away with two issues: that it's a BIOS related problem or a hardware failure.

Next, install them both on the system, re-enable CrossFire and go testing. Try light, medium, and heavy workloads. If the card crashes on medium to heavy workloads, or when there are transients, replace PSU. If one card doesn't work but the other does, then try to reflash the BIOS - and since they're identical, why not save the exact ROM file from the card you already have working? But if reflashing doesn't work, then accepting your reality may very well be all you can do.

Good luck.

The "unsolicited unrelated advice" I was talking about is the "buy newer stuff" part, that's quite frustrating and irritating, it's not what I asked for.
And for your information, I did not reflash anything yet, I came here to know if there were a possibility that the installed vbios that the cards came in was a modified one and I was trying to find the original unmodified one.

As for the cards, reading what you wrote, maybe it wasn't clear the precedent behavior:

• they didn't start to artifact or crush all of a sudden, as a matter of fact, they did never artifact and/or crash at all.
• what I indicated as an "artifact" was just a weird bootscreen at POST, but it wasn't an issue, since the cards in Windows and in game worked correctly, always. Actually I just interpreted the weird bootscreen as a weird POST incompatibility with the computer I was using them with, nothing to worry so much about.
• The actual issue is that they don't show any signal on they outputs, and I don't know (yet) if the computer still keep booting the OS or not.

I'm trying, now, to use a working gpu as a main output and one of the rx560 as a secondary one, the computer booted correctly and the failing card is also detected, even tho the drivers stated that there is an issue with the card (I forgot to take note tho).
Also, btw, I saved the vbios' of both cards with GPU-Z and they are identical and, as I already stated, is the same as this one: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/193096/193096
One more thing: I tried to use the oven trick with one of them, but it didn't work... (also it melted a bit the plastic shim around the gpu chip, so I removed it, the shim I mean).

 

[Dr. Dro]

The "oven trick" is basically a board-wide crude soldering reflow attempt, the chances are very high you'll damage another part of, or another component on the PCB while attempting to do this. Removing that shim will also cause issues with the heatsink assembly.

Essentially by now your cards are wasted. That's about what I can deduce of it, a BIOS will be of no help. I used to have an R9 290X Lightning, similar issue, it died in the midst of a GTA V session. It basically started artifacting a little at idle, knowing that I had messed with its clock settings I reset the driver and went to play. After a while it just crashed the game and it never booted again, with a cold core. Card was very used at that point and I had been its 4th owner or so.

I know "buy a new GPU" is not what you've wanted to hear but considering RX 560 CF is probably one of the worst graphics setups you could have today (pitifully weak performance, multi GPU doesn't work in the largest majority of games, driver bugs that will never be fixed, also legacy drivers only), and the fact your hardware is literally dying, I think it's rather sensible to begin looking at their replacement.

 

[Keullo-e]

And you got the answer: artefacting usually means bad VRAM, which can't be fixed with a BIOS flash or any other home DIY method, unfortunately, so there's no reason to even bother trying.

Could also be a bad solder joint with the GPU. Hard to be 100% sure what causes the artifacts.

The "oven trick" is basically a board-wide crude soldering reflow attempt, the chances are very high you'll damage another part of, or another component on the PCB while attempting to do this. Removing that shim will also cause issues with the heatsink assembly.

Essentially by now your cards are wasted. That's about what I can deduce of it, a BIOS will be of no help. I used to have an R9 290X Lightning, similar issue, it died in the midst of a GTA V session. It basically started artifacting a little at idle, knowing that I had messed with its clock settings I reset the driver and went to play. After a while it just crashed the game and it never booted again, with a cold core. Card was very used at that point and I had been its 4th owner or so.

I know "buy a new GPU" is not what you've wanted to hear but considering RX 560 CF is probably one of the worst graphics setups you could have today (pitifully weak performance, multi GPU doesn't work in the largest majority of games, driver bugs that will never be fixed, also legacy drivers only), and the fact your hardware is literally dying, I think it's rather sensible to begin looking at their replacement.

Oven reflowing is IMO very luck depending. I managed to revive a 2600 XT back in the day and it worked as long as I had it.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Could also be a bad solder joint with the GPU. Hard to be 100% sure what causes the artifacts.


Oven reflowing is IMO very luck depending. I managed to revive a 2600 XT back in the day and it worked as long as I had it.

Could be that back then success chance with these was higher because the chips were larger, more resistant, had less contact pads and stuff. I've kept my first PS3 going for a while reflowing with a hairdryer too but eventually it'd always die again