How To: Flash Your RX 480 to an RX 580 In 8 Easy Steps!

It has come to our attention that the AMD RX 580 is nothing more than a refined RX 480, and as such, most AIB (add-in board) partners such as ASUS and the rest are simply just putting the refined core on their existing cards, changing the BIOS to say it’s a 580 instead of a 480, and calling it a day. In that case, shouldn’t most, if not all the cards just flash? Well, yes, with all things being correct, they should. What’s there to stop you from doing it yourself? The truth is that there is nothing stopping you unless you’re afraid of bricking your card and/or care for your warranty, both of which are legitimate concerns.

Within this article, I am going to tell you exactly what you need for the flash to take place and where to get the files. Note: I am using an ASUS STRIX RX 480 8GB in this example, but it should be the same for any other vendor. So, without any further time wasting … let’s get into the good stuff!

First and foremost is to download a program called ATIFlash (v2.74), an essential bit of software for both backing up your original BIOS and flashing the new one on to your RX 480. You must have the latest version – which at the time of writing is 2.74 – or else your card may or may not be detected when it comes to flashing the GPU later in the process. Once you have downloaded ATIFlash, extract it and create a folder on your C:/ drive called “ati” which you will move the contents of the extracted folder into.

You may notice something bizarre if you have two of the same cards like I do. My top card had a 512KB BIOS installed whilst the bottom one only had a 256KB BIOS installed. Both cards are four serial numbers apart, but I cannot explain the weird phenomenon. Whenever I try to flash the card that had a 256KB BIOS with a 512KB BIOS, thinking that it should be the same card, it throws an error in my face and does not let me proceed with the flash. I just thought I’d throw that out there for any of you wondering. I might be the only one that this has happened to, but I seriously doubt that.

Here are the steps in a listed format for easy following:

1. Download ATIFlash and extract it;
2. Create a folder on your C:/ drive and call it ‘ati’ and copy the ATIFlash files into the folder;
3. Open ATIFlash (from C:/) and save your BIOS with the appropriate button, call it stock or something you can recognise;
4. Download the RX 580 BIOS for your card and place it in the ‘ati’ folder and name it appropriately;
5. Click on the Start button, and type in ‘cmd’, right click and run with admin rights;
6. Type this into the window, exactly as I put it, and you should be flashing your card in no time! Hit enter between each of the two lines. If you have more than one card, replace the ‘0’ with ‘1’ for the second GPU, ‘2’ for the third etc. – note that the primary GPU is 0 and not 1;
   1. cd c:/ati
   2. atiwinflash -f -p 0 580.rom
      
7. Wait for the flash to take place, and you should then be greeted with a confirmation;
   
8. Reboot your system, wait for the drivers to install your “new” card, and you’re almost done;
9. Test with your favourite game/stress test to see if it is stable;
10. Voila!

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