Redditor shows up to 25% improvement after flashing Radeon RX 9070 XT BIOS into non-XT card

More tests are emerging with Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) being flashed with an RX 9070 XT VBIOS, raising power limits and allowing much higher boost clocks. This is, of course, an update to our April coverage , where it was discovered that such modding is even possible. However, such reports are rarely shared, so we thought this would serve as a reminder.

A Reddit user shared their experience flashing a PowerColor RX 9070 Reaper with the XT firmware. Running 3DMark Steel Nomad, the stock card scored 5821 points. With the XT BIOS applied, the same card reached 6461 points without tuning. After voltage and memory adjustments, the user managed 7277 points , which is above what undervolting could achieve on the original firmware. That’s a 25% improvement without physical changes to the card.

In gaming, the uplift is smaller but still present. The user measured around 70 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p on the stock BIOS with a mix of ray tracing settings. With the XT firmware and tuning, average framerates rose to 78 FPS, with better 1% and 0.1% lows. Overall, the card seems to be 8% to 12% faster in gaming.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with the results, as feeding this card more power has enabled me to gain a sizable improvement across the board in the games that I have been playing. If you decide to do this, make sure perform your due diligence and take precautions.

— noVa_realiZe/Reddit

Earlier coverage highlighted similar findings: while the mod does not unlock extra compute units, it increases board power from ~220 W to over 300 W, enabling higher boost clocks. This helps the RX 9070 narrow the gap with or even surpass some RX 9070 XT models in scenarios where clock speed is more important than core count.

As a reminder, as with all BIOS mods, there are risks. Users report higher power draw, increased heat, and possible instability in idle states. Cards with dual BIOS switches are safer for experimentation, but flashing a single-BIOS card carries the risk of bricking the GPU. Warranty coverage is also void once modified.

Still, we should remember and possibly thank AMD for leaving that gate open. Such mods were possible on nearly all GPU architectures, including RX 480->580 mods, Vega 56 to 64 BIOS and such.

Source: Reddit/Radeon