Overclockers unlock computing devices in AMD Hawaii, Tonga and Fiji

Manufacturers often take advantage of partially defective circuits by disabling broken functions and creating scaled-down models. Depending on supply and demand, however, flawless copies can also be used for the same graphics card, which means that there is sometimes a lot of hidden and unused capacity.

In a thread on the Overlock.net forum, tools are now provided to unlock disabled computing devices in AMD’s graphics chips Hawaii, Tonga and Fiji, ie the graphics cards Radeon R9 290/390, 285/380 and Fury. In this way, it may in some cases be possible to convert a scaled-down model to the full-scale version.

Handy enthusiasts of the more adventurous kind can use the Cuinfo program to check if the disabled computing devices are available. Then it’s time to read the graphics card firmware, create an unlocked version, say a silent prayer and finally write back the changes.

The method is not normally risk-free. It is not possible to find out in advance whether the deactivated calculation units are faultless and functional, which in the worst case can result in an unusable graphics card. At the same time, the warranty expires and in addition, the increased power consumption and heat generation risks shortening the life of the graphics card.