sbohdan's Nibitor guide

[sbohdan]

all right . here is a little guide how to tweak your bios with a smart little tool called nibitor2.8a.

first download nibitor from the mvktech website: http://www.mvktech.net/component/opt...cat,92/page,3/

after extracting nibitor open it. you can extract your own VGA's bios by clicking tools---read bios---select device
then click again tools---read bios--read into nibitor


you will see this. this is your own cards bios ready to be tweaked :) :


here you can set the GPU and memory default speeds (these will be your cards default speeds after reflashing with the modified bios. ex.: if in this case the default was originally 500Mhz for the GPU and 500 (1000Mhz effective) for the mem. and you were able to get 580MHz on THe GPU without artifacts, than you can set the default speed to 550Mhz for inbstance (to be on safe side) or if you are really sure there is no artifacting and your GPU can take the 580Mhz even in extensive 3D gaming than you can set it to 580Mhz (in this case) and the memory accordingly. after the reflash of your own tweaked bios, there will be no need to OC the card with other utilities because it will be oC'd at default :) just remember: make sure your card and the cooling can take the higher speeds (give them an extensive torture test with 3dmark and monitor the temps. also remember: only raise the 3D speeds, since 2D has no influence on gaming. I actually have a card (6800LE), that i turned to a GT where I lowered the 2D GPU and mem. speeds to save power when not gaming.
you could also aquire the right timingset for your card's memory, which will be usefull when adjusting timingsets on the timingsets tab. just click bootup clocks--autoselect and it will find you the best recommended timingset. you can choose that one on the timingset tab or just test other timingsets and see if there is performance improvement from doing so. for now just leave the timingsets alone-those could be experienced with after tweaking and successfully reflashing , testing the new tweaked bios.

next tab is the voltages. here, you can eighter choose a 0.1 voltage raise in 3D or if you don't have a higher option, then click tools--voltage tble editor and there add a higher (0.1) voltage increase:




now going back to the voltage tab, you have the higher voltage option now:


the next tab would be the timings, where you can choose the new recommended timingset for your card, but as I said, I would leave this for a second part of the tweak, after all else works fine, so that you know, that any problems are caused by changing the timingset and not the voltage for example. so leave it for now:



the next tab which is more for fun and looks than performance is the boot settings tab. here you can change what , where (ex. middle), what color and how long it appears - should be the text that appears the first at boot-up, when your video card is identified:



after you are finished with tweaking your bios, just save it under a new name (make sure it's short, because long names are altered in DOS and you might have a problem entering the bios's name when flashing)
so just click file--save bios and save the new bios.

about flashing the new bios: I allready had that written down another guide but basically you need to download a little utility called nvflash: http://www.mvktech.net/component/opt...58ad2f9318800/

and put it along with the modified bios on a bootable disc (to make a boot disc: open explorer---right click A drive---format---check the "make a bootable disc")

next, restart the computer, go to bios, change the boot sequence to floppy first and after saving the setting restart with the bootfloppy in the drive. it will start booting in. once it stops, you see this:

A\:

write: dir (A\:dir) and hit enter
you will see the contents of the boot floppy you made. make sure you see the modified bios and the name (if the name was too long it could look different). If all OK, then first save your original bios by writing: A\:nvflash --save

once you have the original bios on the floppy, you can flash the modified bios on your card by typing: A\:nvflash -4 -5 -6 newbios.rom (where in the place of the "new bios" you put the name under which the modified bios is saved. hit enter. when asked click "y" to allow the flashing. flashing starts and it will say it's done, just turn off your computer (make sure the flashing process is over! don't ever turn off the computer during flashing!
turn it back on--your new bios should be on your card. test it extensively with 3dmark to see if everything is fine. you are done. for those of you who are more adventurous, you can now test different timing sets to find the best one for your memory.
that's it folks :P

[gvblake22]

Very interesting, nice work sbohdan! (as usual) :thup:

I have one question though. What cards does BIOS modification work on? Or at least which cards does the NiBiTor program work on? Both AGP and PCI-Express cards too?

[fps justin]

what if i don't have a backup - bios? and is a backup bios like a physical object or are yout talking about some sort of restart point.

[gvblake22]

A backup is just a copy of something current. So what he means by a backup is to just find or make a backup (copy) of your current BIOS so if something goes wrong, you can flash back to the original state of your card.

[sbohdan]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Very interesting, nice work sbohdan! (as usual) :thup:

I have one question though. What cards does BIOS modification work on? Or at least which cards does the NiBiTor program work on? Both AGP and PCI-Express cards too?

as far as I know Nibitor works with Nvidia cards for sure (not sure about ATI) - both AGP and PCI-E. sometimes if using a very old card the newest version of Nibitor won't support it - then you need to use an older version.

Originally Posted by fps justin

what if i don't have a backup - bios? and is a backup bios like a physical object or are yout talking about some sort of restart point.

the backup bios is your cards original, unmodded bios, which allows you to load it back (return your card to the original , defoult state) in case the modification won't work. sometimes (if you really screw up), your card wont even display anything after the flash (it could happen if you switch of your computer during the flashing, before the flashing is finished, or if you do some fondling with the memory timings, without advanced knowledge of what you doing or if you try to flash a bios on your card, which is some other cards bios, that is not compatible at all with your card (ex.: trying to flash a 6800GT with 256MB GDDR3 mem. bios on a vanilla 6800 with 128MB DDR or a trying to flash a PCI-E bios on a AGP version of the card). even than not all is lost. a card with a screwed up bios can still usually be saved eighter by putting in an old PCI vid card and flashing the backup bios back to your card or if you are an advanced user, you can do a blind flash without the use of a PCI card (BTW, you can get an old used PCI card for little cash in any used computer parts store)

[fps justin]

so your telling me. that i need to somehow save all my info somehwere but its ok if i skrew up casue i can just use a pci card?

EDIT: if i recall, i have a few pci-graphix cards

[sbohdan]

Originally Posted by fps justin

so your telling me. that i need to somehow save all my info somehwere but its ok if i skrew up casue i can just use a pci card?

EDIT: if i recall, i have a few pci-graphix cards

c'mon justin :D are you for real or just s******g me? in case if you serious: not all your info - the cards bios. you know what a bios is - don't you? it's a little program that has the basic essential info of your card (similar like the mobo's bios). the pci card isn't gonna save your card , but will allow you to see what you are doing in DOS when reflashing the card. if you do the the flashing right, then this is irrelevant. on the other hand, if you really mean what you just said - then I suggest not to touch any kind of activity involving any kind of flashing, before you get more educated in this field

[Tyreal]

I think hes serious. :D
As 'bohdan said, you have to save your normal bios (before the mod) somewhere on a floppy maybe, or a usb jumpdrive, that way you can flash it back if something goes wrong. The PCI video card is just so see what your doing. I've heard of people doing blindly too.

edit: damn 'bodhan, you already mentioned the blind flashing.

[sbohdan]

Originally Posted by Tyreal

edit: damn 'bodhan, you already mentioned the blind flashing.

heehe, yeah, I did that couple of times for others who screwed it up and than came crying to mama
never happened to me so far. I'm allways doing it slow and cautiously, even though I did it quite a bit by now :P
it's not a hard thing to do but allways think twice before hitting enter

[Tyreal]

Personally, i have never flashed a videocard before but i do plan to with my next videocard. I know the details and what im supposet do but no experience yet.