Asus EAH6850 with kraken G10

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I've ordered a package including G10 and Asetek AIO cooler. I want to put it to use with my current 6850, although I intend to use this setup with a R290x or refresh.

I have set it to 850/1100 with stock cooler without any problem. I think that with this new cooling setup I should have a higher GPU voltage (even though I know the card is memory bound).

I would have been ok with using 3rd party apps like Afterburner plus Asus Smart Doctor, but its not possible because SD has no support and GPU tweak doesn't support 6850 voltage change. There are google results about while using BF3 + Smart Doctor game crashes between round, which is what I experienced.

I've tried Asus GPUtweak (Smartdoctor), MSI afterburner(while doing the unofficial overclocking ini tweak) to get a soft volt mod but not Sapphire Trixx or any other tool.

So I need another way of bumping the GPU voltage. I've not got to the limit of CCC so I'll cross that bridge when I reach it.

I've read a few posts here and there about Racer-x(http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/push-overdrive-limits-over-the-top.141858/) and that if you mod the 6850 bios it will BSOD on windows boot.

However I'm a bit late to the party and I don't see a large thread of users all using the same method.

So atm bearing in mind I can't soft mod the voltage and the problem with modding the 6850 bios, it would be the best bet to flash a 6870 bios. I think it might be possible to mod the 6850 bios voltage registers but it would take nerves of steal to do this, rather than just use a manufacturer's pre made bios.

This is the bios I'm using currently:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/129472/asus-hd6850-1024-110616-2.html

and this is the bios I'm thinking of flashing:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/109702/asus-hd6870-1024-110719.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/how-to-use-atiflash.57750/

Has anyone tried this already or am a missing a better way. Note: My card has 2 power connectors (as I was reading another topic where someone said it wouldn't have enough power)

Edit:
I tried this bios:
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/100395/asus-hd6870-1024-101228.html
and it was incompatible, so save yourself the bother. I got my card working again following the bad flash guide sticky which I hope has been updated to reflect that the default display adapter must be selected in the motherboard bios and that if you want to use integrated graphics a cmos bios reset sets PCI-E as default. I only tested the reset with the PCI-E slot occupied so it may default to intergrated if no PCI-E adapter is found after a CMOS reset.

 

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I attached a file which you can view in MSI afterburner (and probably other programs based on riva tuner) u need to change the file extension to hml.

I have a default voltage for my 6850 at load of 1.157v and with voltage unlocked max of 1.233v. To unlock the voltage you can use either Asus Smart Doctor or GPU tweak. They are both listed as downloads on the Asus site but I only realised after reading about it after alot of googling. This work of any Asus voltage tweak card.

The way to unlock voltage control is to install the driver listed on the Asus site for your card, then install GPU tweak (and I use MSI afterburner for its fan profiling). After you check via GPU-z that the GPU tweak is altering the load voltage, fell free to uninstall the Asus control panel and driver normally, but don't do a full wipe with display driver uninstaller or driver cleaner pro. Install the control panel and driver you want (I installed the full package except for gaming evolved).

As a side note MSI afterburner's unoffical overclocking did not unlock my clock ceiling (which was 1000Mhz) but GPUtweak did have an option (I believe limit is now 2000Mhz ).

I found 1015Mhz was stable with 1.157v during GPU-z's built in stresser, but 1030Mhz was unstable (note: programmable hotkeys are useful here to reset the display adapter to a stable gpu clock). I added the full 1.233v and 1030Mhz was stable but 1050Mhz was not.

So I did a couple of 3dmark runs:
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm06/1049971/3dm06/17778832/3dm06/17764648/3dm06/17772763

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/5030181/fs/5029648/fs/4715883

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/sd/3099622/sd/3099459/sd/3005832/sd/3097046/sd/3020499

Considering my gpu was running @ ~50'c when overclocked to 1030Mhz in 3dmark06. I think more voltage would be nice.

The voltage is being controlled via software here, but I've found no luck speaking to Unwinder about it because he claims that Asus is either lying about the slider or there is another chip other than the RT8867 that is responsible for it. Asus isn't lying I found a silent pc review of the eah6850 where they undervolted and measured the lower sound and power consumption. My system is virtually silent whereas before the 6850 GPU fan was noticeable when watching a youtube video because the clocks go to 300/1000. It helps that I have the PC in behind a thin wall and cables passed through.

I have yet to try to overclock the memory from the setting I chose for air cooling after reading a couple of reviews.

I think that I'm set to wait until the dust settles with the new AMD gpus and try to snag a bargin, cause the rest of my PC has been recently upgraded and GPU is weakest link.