If you own a recent AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) graphics card, it may be possible to boost its performance using software to re-flash its BIOS an enable disabled GPU cores.
A user at the OCN forums called tx12 developed a utility called CUinfo which can be used to read CPU infor from Hawaii, Tonga and Fiji based graphics cards. The tool would then inform its users about all active and disabled GPU cores. Using this information, the user can edit the card's configuration and re-flash its BIOS (using another tool) to enable the disabled cores.
To take advantage of economics of scale, chip makers typically produce all chips with enough cores for the top model in the series. To produce mid-range and low level cards, the company disables some CPU cores, leaving only the required cores active.
Of course, unlocking disabled cores isn't risk free as there is no guarantee that a disabled core is fault-free. Also, the ability to unlock disabled cores depends on the method used to disable them; AMD is known to disable core by laser cutting them or by disabling them through the firmware. The former is irreversible while the later can be unlocked by the method outline above.
CUinfo can be found here. Please keep in mind that tampering with BIOS would certainly void your warranty.
