BIOS Mod Boosts RX 9070 to XT Speeds But Not Without Risks

Higher clock, higher electricity, better performance: A hobbyist brought his RX 9070 in full swing with a foreign BIOS. The upgraded graphics card can even keep up with XT reference models. But the whole thing has a few disadvantages.

More power from the RX 9070 with XT-BIOS

A hardware enthusiast has achieved a remarkable success. So user Gurdi from the PCGH forum through a BIOS flash, operate its AMD Radeon RX 9070 with the settings of the more powerful RX 9070 XT. He used that BIOS of an Asus Prime RX 9070 XT OC to clearly speed up his Asus Prime Radeon RX 9070 OC. The graphics card now runs with up to 3,010 MHz instead of the original 2,590 MHz and can access a power limit of 317 watts, which is significantly above the standard 220 watts.

The resulting performance increases are remarkable. In benchmark tests, the modified graphics card was even able to catch up to reference models of the RX 9070 XT. Although the card continues to work with 56 compute units (CUS) – compared to the 64 CUs of the real XT variant – the combination of higher clock and increased power limit is sufficient to close the performance gap.

How PC Games Hardware reports, this BIOS flash has so far been unique in its form and has opened up new opportunities for hardware enthusiasts. It is particularly noteworthy that the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 OC, despite only two 8-pin power connections (instead of three in the XT variant), can cope with the increased power consumption. The connections like some of the Nvidia GeForce cards are not expected to melt the connections.

Risks and restrictions

If you want to get started yourself, you should still be aware of the risks. A BIOS flash of this kind is a hobbyist project for experienced users and can recover some dangers for the hardware. Since the graphics card is operated outside of its official specifications, the guarantee usually also expects. In the worst case, the card could even be permanently damaged by errors in the furnishings.

In addition, there are still some problems with the modified map of Gurdi. The user reports, for example, about instabilities in idling and difficulties with the Ultra-Low-Power State (ULPS). “You can already tell that the card is very inefficient with the setting. But at least it runs and a reference XT can be easily put in your pocket with a little optimize,” he writes in the forum.

Technical backgrounds

The modification works because both cards are based on the same graphics chip. Both the RX 9070 and the RX 9070 XT use AMDS Navi 48 XT CHIP with RDNA 4 architecture. The difference is mainly due to the number of activated computing units and the power supply and tact limits.

The current modification is a little reminiscent of earlier times of the graphics card scene when it was still possible to reactivate deactivated parts of a chip through software tricks. However, this is no longer possible due to the current production process of the manufacturers. Nevertheless, this experiment shows that graphics cards of the lower price range often have more potential than the factory settings suggest.