DMA Firmware: Cards, Fusers and KMBox

You seated a card in a spare PCIe slot and Windows now shows an unknown device with a yellow exclamation mark. Or you are working out why a two-computer setup runs to several hundred dollars when an internal product costs six. Either way, the piece almost nobody explains properly is DMA firmware.

This is the plain-English version: what a DMA setup is, why the second PC exists, what a fuser and a KMBox do, what the 35T, 75T and 100T numbers mean, and what the whole chain costs.

It is written for someone deciding whether to buy in, and for someone who already owns a card and needs the firmware step to make sense.

What DMA is and why it needs a second PC

DMA stands for direct memory access. PCIe devices are allowed to read and write system memory directly instead of routing every transfer through the CPU, which is a normal capability that network cards and storage controllers use constantly.

A DMA card puts that in your hands. It is an FPGA board seated in a PCIe slot on your gaming PC, reading the game's memory across the bus. It does no analysis of its own; it pushes what it reads down a USB 3 cable to a second computer, which parses the structures, locates players and draws the overlays.

The reason people accept that complexity is what is not on the gaming machine: no process to enumerate, no driver to load, no module injected into the game, no overlay hooked into the renderer. Kernel anti-cheats are very good at inspecting the machine they run on, and far weaker when the software they hunt sits on a computer they have no presence on.

That leaves two problems, and every other piece of hardware exists to solve one of them. The second computer has to see your game, and it has to move your mouse. The machine itself does not need to be powerful, because it renders nothing. An old office desktop or a laptop with a USB 3 port and a capture input covers it.

Fusers, KMBox devices and the rest of the chain

The video path, and what a fuser is for

Your second PC has no idea what your game looks like. It has memory addresses, not pixels, so something has to carry the video across.

An HDMI fuser is a splitter built for that job. It takes the gaming PC's output, passes the full signal to your monitor, and sends a copy to the capture input on the second machine.

The obvious question is why a twelve dollar splitter will not do, and the answer is EDID. A splitter negotiates one shared display mode across everything attached to it, so hanging a 1080p60 capture input off a cheap one drags your high refresh monitor down to match. A proper fuser handles EDID per port, so the gaming PC keeps its native resolution and refresh rate while the second machine gets a copy it can digest.

That is what separates a 1K fuser from a 4K one. At 1080p a standard unit is enough. Above that, 4K capability stops the capture path compromising the picture you play on, and it matters because you spend the session looking at the second machine's screen.

KMBox and Makcu-class input devices

Here is the fork that decides what your money buys. A card on its own is read-only. It hands you information: overlays, radar, positions, loot. It cannot move your mouse, and no firmware changes that.

A KMBox-class device is a small board on the USB path between your mouse and the gaming PC. Your real mouse plugs into it, and it plugs into the gaming PC. The second computer sends it instructions over its own link and the board emits USB HID reports, so movement arrives as real USB input rather than something synthesised by local software.

Makcu is a cheaper board in the same family and the input device CamUnlocks ships in its bundles. Without one, plan for a visuals-only setup and price accordingly.

Cables

The card talks to the second PC over USB 3, so use the cable supplied with the kit. A marginal cable is the most common cause of a board that enumerates fine and then reads slowly or drops mid-session, and it is the last thing anyone suspects.

Card tiers: what 35T, 75T and 100T actually mean

The numbers are not tiers invented by sellers. They name the Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA on the board: XC7A35T, XC7A75T, XC7A100T. The number is roughly how many thousand logic cells the chip carries, so a 100T has substantially more programmable fabric than a 35T.

More logic cells buys firmware room to do more on the card itself, plus buffering headroom that shows up as higher sustained read throughput. Throughput is the part you feel: everything the second PC knows about the world is refreshed by reading memory across the bus, so faster reads mean overlays that track rather than trail.

In practice the 35T is the budget entry and it works, with the least headroom for elaborate firmware. The 75T is the mainstream pick and the board CamUnlocks builds its bundles around. The 100T has the most headroom and the longest useful life. ZDMA boards are a separate family and are also supported.

The tier does not change which features you get, only how comfortably the setup keeps up. On a tight budget, the money saved by dropping to a 35T is better spent on a decent fuser.

What DMA firmware actually does and why it matters

An FPGA is a blank chip until you load a bitstream into it. That bitstream is the firmware, and it decides what the device looks like to the machine it is plugged into.

Every PCIe device answers a standard set of questions when the system enumerates the bus: vendor ID, device ID, subsystem IDs, class code, capability list, memory window layout. That block is the configuration space, and anything privileged enough to walk the bus can read it, kernel-level anti-cheat included.

Stock, publicly available firmware answers with documented, widely known values, so checking a machine against a published list is not difficult work. Custom firmware changes the answers so the device presents as something else. Emulated firmware goes further: it reproduces the configuration space of a specific real commercial card, field for field, and pairs it with that device's driver. CamUnlocks describes its build in exactly those terms.

The driver half is what buyers miss, and it is why the yellow exclamation mark matters. A PCIe device with no driver appears in Device Manager as a problem device, a visible anomaly on an otherwise ordinary machine. A driver-backed build loads a driver and shows as normal hardware.

The last piece is the DNA lock. Every Xilinx FPGA carries a unique factory identifier called Device DNA, and a locked build is compiled against your board's so it will not run on anyone else's card. That is why firmware is not an instant download: it is built per order once you supply your DNA ID.

No firmware makes a card invisible, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling a story. What good firmware does is remove the obvious tells, and because detection approaches change, it is something you keep current.

DMA firmware products at CamUnlocks

These are coverage grades, not quality grades, separated by which anti-cheats the build is made to sit alongside: BattlEye at entry, then Easy Anti-Cheat and Anti-Cheat Expert, then Vanguard at the top. Buy the lowest tier that covers what you actually play.

All three support ZDMA, 35T, 75T and 100T cards, and checkout asks you to confirm you already own one. This is the only product on the store that is not instant delivery, so expect to open a ticket and allow up to 24 hours. The listing also carries a warranty giving 50% off replacements if a build is blocked outside the warranty period, with terms on the DMA category page.

What a full DMA setup costs end to end

Firmware is one line on a longer bill, and pricing the chain up front avoids buying a card and then discovering the fuser costs as much again. CamUnlocks sells the hardware as bundles, which is the cleanest way to see the real number:

Two costs sit outside those figures. The second PC is yours to supply, free if you have an old machine in a cupboard and a real expense if not. The per-game software licence is separate and recurring, which is the line people forget: hardware is bought once, but the product you run on it is rented by the day, week or month across 45 categories.

Getting set up

Order matters here more than on anything else the store sells, because firmware is built for a card you have to own first.

1. Get the hardware working: card seated in the gaming PC, second machine on, video path built, input device wired between your mouse and the gaming PC.
2. Read your card's Device DNA ID. The setup pages at guides.camunlocks.com cover how.
3. Buy the tier matching the anti-cheats you play against, and confirm the card ownership prompt at checkout.
4. Open a ticket in the Discord with your DNA ID. Firmware is built per order and can take up to 24 hours, unlike the instant delivery elsewhere on the store.
5. Flash the build, then confirm in Device Manager that the device shows as normal hardware rather than a problem device.
6. Buy your game software last, once the rig is proven.

Support runs 24/7 through the same Discord, and setup questions are the most common thing it handles.

Staying safe with a DMA setup

A DMA rig changes what runs on your gaming machine. It does not change how you behave in a match, and account risk is real regardless of how clean the hardware looks.

Server-side analysis has no interest in where your software runs. It looks at hit rates, reaction timings, movement and engagement patterns, and those numbers come from you rather than from your card. Player reports and admin spectating are equally indifferent.

What reduces risk is unglamorous. Keep firmware current rather than running a build from six months ago. Check the public status page before every session, because something fine on Tuesday can be pulled on Thursday. Keep recordings and streams off, including your friends' clips. Stay inside what a strong player could plausibly do, and use an account you would not mind losing, because the card survives a ban and the account does not.

Frequently asked questions

What is DMA firmware and why do I need it?

A DMA card is an FPGA, a blank programmable chip until you load a bitstream onto it. That bitstream is the firmware, and it determines what the device reports about itself to the machine it is plugged into. Stock firmware answers with publicly documented values that are trivial to look up.

Do I need a KMBox or Makcu to use a DMA card?

Only if you want aim assistance. A card by itself is read-only, so it gives you overlays, radar and positional information but cannot move your mouse. A KMBox-class board sits between your mouse and the gaming PC and delivers movement as real USB input. Without one you have a visuals-only setup.

What is the difference between a 35T, 75T and 100T card?

Those names come from the Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA on the board, and the number is roughly its logic cell count in thousands. More fabric means more firmware headroom and higher sustained read throughput, which shows up as overlays that track closely rather than trailing. The tier does not add features.

Why is DMA firmware not delivered instantly?

Because it is built for your specific board. Every Xilinx FPGA carries a unique factory identifier called Device DNA, and a locked build is compiled against yours so it will not run on any other card. You supply the DNA ID by opening a Discord ticket, and delivery can take up to 24 hours.

How much does a complete DMA setup cost?

Bundles start at $279.99 for the 75T Basic, covering the card, a Makcu input device, a standard 1K fuser, cables and a choice of firmware. The 75T Pro starts at $494.99 and the 75T Ultimate at $619.99, both with a 4K fuser. You supply the second PC.

Can I use a cheap HDMI splitter instead of a fuser?

You can try, and most people regret it. A basic splitter negotiates one shared display mode across every attached output, so a 1080p60 capture input drags your high refresh monitor down to match. A fuser manages that per port, letting the gaming PC keep its native resolution and refresh.

Will a DMA setup stop me getting banned?

No, and nobody can honestly tell you otherwise. DMA removes software from the gaming machine, which addresses one category of detection. It does nothing about server-side behavioural analysis, player reports or admin spectating, all of which respond to how you play. Keep firmware current and check the status page.

If you already own a card, the DMA category lists the firmware tiers and their anti-cheat coverage in full. If you are still deciding, the bundles show the real total before you commit, and the Discord is open 24/7 for a second opinion.