AMD’s Radeon RX 5600 XT is a fierce 1440p contender rivaling even Nvidia’s RTX 2060… so long as it’s been flashed with the latest vBIOS from the card’s manufacturer. In this RX 5600 XT update guide we’ll outline how to flash your vBIOS safely and simply for the best performance from your new graphics card.

A little pre-game juicing just moments prior to the RX 5600 XT’s release date has AMD’s “ultimate graphics card for 1080p gaming” pumped up to 1440p gaming standards. The red team claims this is due to “thermal and electrical headroom” built into its partners’ third-party designs, and nothing to do with Nvidia’s sudden RTX 2060 price drop – but I think we know what’s up.

“Based on ongoing testing with our board partners, we have raised the GPU core and memory frequencies for overclocked Radeon RX 5600 XT SKUs to take advantage of increased thermal and electrical headroom built into partner’s custom designs,” a statement PCGamesN received from AMD says. “The updated VBIOS has been made available to our board partners for inclusion in select OC SKUs at launch.

“AMD is dedicated to disrupting the market with industry-leading compute products, and the new VBIOS makes the Radeon RX 5600 XT an even more powerful contender for high-performance 1080p gaming. Previously announced product specs are unchanged, as they remain AMD’s recommended reference design specs.”

AMD went as far to name and shame Nvidia for “artificially gimping the product” during its RX 5600 XT pre-briefing. Yet later proceeded to prove without a doubt that it was artificially limiting both GPU and memory on the RX 5600 XT prior to the updated BIOS specification. Quite a turnaround.

The vBIOS updates pushed by AMD arrived so late in the day that some graphics cards shipped out to retailers before they could be updated. Hence there will be at least a handful unpatched cards out in the wild unbeknownst to their owners.

But hey, you’re here, and that means you may have noticed your shiny new graphics card isn’t delivering up to expectations. Below you’ll find simple steps on how to update an RX 5600 XT from most major manufacturers to unlock the fastest performance.

If you’re still shopping around for an RX 5600 XT, we recommend purchasing one with a Dual BIOS switch, such as models from Sapphire and XFX.

While updating your graphics card vBIOS is most often a mundane affair, if your system suffers a fault, such as losing power, it can result in a bricked graphics card. As such, we recommend you only update your vBIOS if you’re 100% sure your system is running the slower BIOS – and you’re willing to take the risk.

How to update your Sapphire RX 5600 XT

Sapphire released two new BIOS firmware updates, Performance and Silent. The Sapphire Pulse RX 5600 XT features Dual BIOS functionality, the BIOS switch located along from the power connector, enabling a quick and painless vBIOS update process.

Sapphire Pulse RX 5600 XT Game clock Boost clock TGP Memory Performance 1,615MHz 1,750MHz 160W 14Gbps Silent 1,460MHz 1,620MHz 135W 12Gbps

Only graphics cards with the following board part numbers are ready to update. Do not try this process with any card not specified below. Ye’ have been warned. The board part number is located on the sticker along the PCIe connector length of the graphics card.

299-4E411-002SA

299-5E411-002SA

299-4E411-002FC

To update your Sapphire RX 5600 XT vBIOS:

Download the BIOS bat files from Sapphire’s official website Unzip PULSE 5600 XT BIOS_update_V1.01 Toggle the BIOS switch to the left hand side (oriented to the ‘BIOS SWITCH’ label) to update the Silent profile, or the right hand side for the Performance Mode profile Select either the BIOS_update_SW_left.bat (Silent) or BIOS_update_SW_right.bat (Performance) file from within the PULSE 5600 XT BIOS_update_V1.01 folder Wait until the Command window closes before restarting your system Ensure your system boots on the updated BIOS before following the same process again for alternate BIOS

If you’re stuck with any of that, Sapphire tells us there’s technical support to hand here.

How to update your ASRock RX 5600 XT

First, locate the product page for your ASRock RX 5600 XT graphics card. Three models are available with the BIOS at launch: the Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D2 6G OC, Radeon RX 5600 XT Challenger D 6G OC, Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC. You can follow the links below.

From there, select Support and vBIOS. ASRock “assumes no responsibility for any damages caused by improper operations of downloading or updating the vBIOS,” which seems a little unfair considering the circumstance, but it’s something to bear in mind before you proceed.

To update your ASRock RX 5600 XT vBIOS:

Download the relevant vBIOS file from the links above Extract the folder to desktop Run the ‘Update’ file Wait until the Command window reads “Success: Restart to Complete VBIOS Update.” Press any key to restart your system

How to update your Asus RX 5600 XT

In order to update your Asus graphics card, you’ll need to head over to the Asus Support page. There will be two versions of the vBIOS update tools available shortly after launch: Default mode and Q mode.

We’re told Q mode will offer greater acoustic performance once installed, which we’d guess will be similar to the Sapphire Silent BIOS.

Asus also tells us that the new and improved BIOS firmware will unlock memory overclocking up to the aforementioned limits. As far as we know, only the GPU clock will be ramped up on installation of the updated BIOS.

We’ll update this guide once the exact details on how to update are live on the Asus website.

How to update your Gigabyte RX 5600 XT

Gigabyte’s support page for the Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming OC 6G is now live with an updated BIOS.

You’ll want to grab the FA0 BIOS for maximum performance. That’s the one rated to 180W.

To update your Gigabyte RX 5600 XT vBIOS:

Download VGA @BIOS Start VGA @BIOS after installation. Choose the BIOS file you prefer to update (FA0) after clicking on Flash. Restart your computer after the update is completed.

We’ve also been informed that you may need to instead use the AMD Flash Utility to update the RX 5600 XT’s vBIOS. To do so, follow the instructions below.

Download the AMD Flash Utility (AMDVbFlash v3.04) software Install the AMD Flash Utility Run amdvbflashWin within the installed Flash Utility folder (program files > AMD > AMDVbFlash) Select Load Image Choose the BIOS file Click program Once successful, click OK and restart your system

How to update your XFX RX 5600 XT

Like Sapphire, XFX has a full support page ready and waiting for RX 5600 XT owners (favouritism perhaps?). Anyways, you’ll be wanting to flash your graphics card with the 5600 XT Pro Tuned BIOS, which sounds well rad.

Most XFX graphics cards feature a convenient Dual BIOS switch, one for Performance and one for Quiet BIOS modes. There’s less risk of GPU injury if anything were to go wrong mid-update. “The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare” as that guy from 300 says.

The following XFX RX 5600 XT graphics cards support the Pro Tuned BIOS:

Model SKU UPC Pro Tuned BIOS (MHz) THICC III Ultra RX-56XT638D8 778656079083 1660 / 1750 THICC III Ultra RX-56XT6TBD8 778656079076 1660 / 1750 THICC III Pro RX-56XT636D8 778656079090 1615 / 1750 THICC III Pro RX-56XT6TFD8 778656079052 1615 / 1750 THICC II Pro RX-56XT626D6 778656079069 1560 / 1620 THICC II Pro RX-56XT6DFD6 778656079014 1560 / 1620 RAW II Pro RX-56XT6OFFR 778656079106 1560 / 1620

To update your ASRock RX 5600 XT vBIOS: