Choosing a firmware tier
A decision guide across the five firmware tiers on this site. Which anti-cheat each one is built for, what the per-order donor tiers add, and what no tier buys you.
Short answer
Pick the tier by the anti-cheat your game runs, not by price. Emulated covers the listed EAC and BattlEye titles. Slotted adds the Ricochet and ACE workflows, plus M.2 support. Slotted v2 is the Fortnite tier. Signature and Sovereign are the FaceIt and Vanguard tiers, built from per-order donors.
On this page10
Start from the anti-cheat, not the budget
The tiers on this site are not a quality ladder where more money buys a better version of the same thing. They are built against different anti-cheat stacks, and the tier you need is decided by what your game runs. Buying above that line adds warranty length and donor exclusivity. Buying below it means the profile was not built for the checks your game performs, and no amount of care in setup fixes that.
Situation to tier
Titles and anti-cheat coverage are as listed on the firmware product page. Confirm your exact game and board with support before ordering — that confirmation step is part of every tier.
| Your situation | Tier | Why that one | Replacement cover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Escape from Tarkov, Rust, Apex Legends, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, The Finals, Dead by Daylight, Hunt: Showdown or Squad | Emulated | PCIe device emulation with IRQ and TLP behaviour and no driver on the game PC, built for the listed EAC and BattlEye workflows | 6 month free replacement |
| Call of Duty: Warzone, Modern Warfare III, Black Ops 6, Delta Force or Naraka: Bladepoint | Slotted | Descriptors from a curated production-driver pool with additional anti-scan handling for the listed Ricochet and ACE workflows | 12 month free replacement |
| Your card is M.2 rather than 75T or 100T | Slotted or above | Full M.2 support is listed from Slotted upward. Confirm the specific board with support before you order | 12 month free replacement |
| Fortnite, Halo Infinite or Star Citizen | Slotted v2 | A purpose-built layer for Fortnite-grade EAC with descriptor injection at depth and a deliberately small signature pool, capped weekly | 24 month free replacement |
| CS2 on FaceIt, Valorant or Valorant Premier | Signature | Starts from a genuine donor pulled for your order and rebuilt as a one-of-one fingerprint. This is the FaceIt and Vanguard tier | Lifetime free replacement |
| You want a rare per-order donor, the written patch commitment and a direct line to the engineer | Sovereign | Rare production donor sourced per order, 1-of-1 hardware profile, quarterly re-testing against the supported stack, private channel and the listed refund policy | Lifetime replacement, first in queue |
Each tier includes everything listed on the tier below it. Coverage rows describe what a tier is built and tested for, not a promise about outcomes. A title on a tier list does not mean the store sells a DMA cheat for it: PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, Hunt: Showdown, Squad, Naraka: Bladepoint, Halo Infinite and Star Citizen have none. ARC Raiders, FiveM, Marvel Rivals, Overwatch 2 and Arena Breakout have DMA cheats but appear on no tier list, so confirm the tier with support first.
What every tier has in common
Constants across the range, so they should not enter your decision.
- Supported hardware
- 75T, 100T and M.2 boards. Support confirms the exact board before a build is released
- Build turnaround
- Typically inside 24 to 48 hours
- Bound to the card
- Every build is generated against your card's DNA ID and runs on that board only
- Confirmation step
- Support confirms the game and the board before the build is released
- Replacement
- Every tier carries free replacement cover; the length is the tier difference
Why the anti-cheat decides and the card does not
A common mistake is choosing a firmware tier from FPGA class. The two are orthogonal. FPGA class is capacity — how large an image the chip can hold and how much logic is available for throughput. Tier is identity and handling — whose descriptors the card presents and what scan behaviour the build accounts for. A 100T on an entry tier is a large chip presenting an entry profile. Buy the class your board already is, and buy the tier your game requires.
Price order, and where the money actually goes
The tiers rise in price in listed order: Emulated, then Slotted, then Slotted v2, then Signature, then Sovereign. Current figures are on the firmware product page, which is the only place worth quoting them from. What the increases buy is real but specific: broader anti-cheat coverage and longer replacement cover. The top two tiers add a donor sourced for your order instead of a profile shared with other cards. The cheapest correct tier for your game is a better purchase than the most expensive one available.
Warning
What no tier buys you
No tier makes a setup undetectable, and nothing on this page should be read that way. Firmware addresses one exposure vector: how the card's identity reads to whatever enumerates it. Your software behaviour, your input device, your display path, your account history and anything a human reviewing a report can see are all outside it. A per-order donor on the top tier and careless behaviour in game is a worse position than an entry profile used carefully. Tier choice is risk reduction on one axis, not a guarantee on any.
Before you order
Six answers. Missing any one of them is the usual reason a build waits.
- The exact game, and the anti-cheat it runs — including which platform, since CS2 on FaceIt is not CS2 elsewhere
- Your board's FPGA class and model, read from the silkscreen rather than the listing
- A photo of the board including the FPGA marking
- Your card's DNA ID, read from the tool your order instructions name
- Confirmation from support that this tier covers this game on this board
- Whether you need M.2 support, which is listed from Slotted upward
Tip
Moving between tiers later
A tier is a build, not a subscription. Changing tier means a new image flashed to the same card — the DNA does not change, the profile does. You may plan to add a game with a harder anti-cheat within a few months. In that case, ask support what that path looks like before you order the lower tier. The answer is a policy question rather than a technical one, and it is cheaper to know it up front.
Tier questions
Can I buy one tier and get another game covered later?
A different anti-cheat generally means a different build. Ask support what a tier change costs before you order, because that is a policy answer rather than a technical one.
Does a higher tier read faster?
No. Throughput is a function of the FPGA class, the image and above all the USB path. Tier changes the identity and handling layer, not the read rate.
Why are the top tiers capped or sourced per order?
Because exclusivity is the product. A profile shared across many cards is a set with known membership, so limiting how many cards carry a profile is the point of a per-order donor.
Is the entry tier a bad profile?
No, it is a profile built for a narrower set of anti-cheat workflows. On the titles it is listed for, it is the correct purchase and a more expensive tier adds warranty length rather than fit.
Does any tier guarantee I will not be banned?
No, and no seller can offer that honestly. Tiers differ in how much of the identity surface is handled and how exclusive the profile is. Everything outside the card remains yours to manage.
Sources
Tier names, game coverage and replacement terms are our own product terms. They come from what we build and sell, not from a published document.
- 01AMD/Xilinx DS180, 7 Series FPGAs Data Sheet: Overview
the per-part Artix-7 capacities behind the point that FPGA class is capacity, not tier
docs.amd.com
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