MSI 6850 OC wanting higher clocks/voltage?

[snoodge]

So I have 2 MSI 6850 OC's in Crossfire and I want to go above the 850mhz clock limit in CCC but MSI Afterburner crashes my system if I try to use that, so i'd like to remove the bios limit on these cards. I read the tutorial and downloaded the bios for an MSI 6870 but im unsure and I dont want to brick my cards.

Anybody have any direct experience or advice on how to accomplish this?

 

[snoodge]

Anybody? Lots of views, no advice

 

[bonzai_cyberninja]

Have you considered using RBE to modify your voltages in bios on cards, then using afterburner to overclock? I find it is much more stabe when you have already taken care of the voltage, at least in my experience i got better overclocks doing it that way!

 

[snoodge]

Have you considered using RBE to modify your voltages in bios on cards, then using afterburner to overclock? I find it is much more stabe when you have already taken care of the voltage, at least in my experience i got better overclocks doing it that way!

I would love to do that... Cant I also use RBE to remove the clocks limit? I started this thread in hopes that someone would walk me through what to do... I read the guide but i'm shit scared i'm gonna brick my cards.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Yeah you could flash them but not necessary.

Trixx allows me to clock past 850 using crossfire. Have to disable ULPS (Ultra Low Power State) and there is a checkbox in Options in Trixx to do so. I'd read the whole thread first esp as there are diff links to newer verisons as it goes on.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133783

 

[snoodge]

Heres the deal with Sapphire Trixx... I downloaded it from that thread about a week ago, installed no problems, disabled ULPS, was able to clock both cards to 950mhz, everything was grand.

As soon as I rebooted, Trixx tried applying the settings that it previously had, crashed, and now I cannot even START Trixx without getting the Appcrash dialogue box... Try uninstalling trixx, run CC Cleaner, reinstall, now it wont even reinstall. I have tried 3.04, 3.03, and one other older version.

I even reformatted to see if I could get Trixx to install properly and it just isnt happening. I could be missing something but I dont know...

At this point, I really just want to be able to use CCC to overclock because its stable unlike MSI Afterburner and Trixx...

 

[HossHuge]

Do all HD6850's have the 850mhz limit in CCC? Cause my Asus doesn't.

 

[snoodge]

The manufacturer can set the limits to whatever they want in the bios.

 

[HossHuge]

The manufacturer can set the limits to whatever they want in the bios.

I thought ATI/AMD sets the limit for the manufacturer.

 

[snoodge]

AMD produces a reference design, manufacturers can follow it to whatever degree they want really... Afterall they will be responsible for returns/rma's/refunds/repairs if the products are not reliable...

 

[BAGZZlash]

It works this way: Vendors produce their own BIOSes, but they need AMD to approve them, that is, AMD adds a digital signature to the BIOS. Without it, the BIOS won't work. AMD has servers where BIOSes can be sent to. These servers check the BIOS files for consistency, but also, what overdrive limits have been set.
If these limits are exceeded, the server will reject signing the BIOS. The vendor will have to reduce the limits, then. Or (that part I'm guessing, but I'm pretty sure it works that way), they can contact AMD and negotiate an individual deal. However, AMD demands $$$ for higher limits. The same is true for default clocks. Why should vendors pay for that? To get an advantage over their competitors which is important since video cards are very much homegeneous products.

 

[snoodge]

That makes sense Bagzz. And since you're such a knowledgeable chap, any ideas on using RBE to make those changes to my MSI 6850 bioses? Just a slight voltage bump and change clock maxes?

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

No issues like that with Trixx here snoodge or at all so far since I got finally ULPS to disable properly (apparently...the blue screens finally stopped). This was after a reformat myself. I don't have it set to clock the cards at startup in case that's pertinent. I also never unlocked Overdrive but don't know if that's relevant (and there is also that tool to relock it if you have done so).

The fact you still have issues after a clean install of Windows is definitely very strange.

 

[snoodge]

It's so ridiculous that I wish I could say I was making this up... I've never seen something break itself and not start working again after a reformat.

Is Sapphire still being stingy with Trixx and only letting registered users have the program? Is the 3.0.4 the latest version? I'd really like to try installing a version that has worked perfectly for someone else? Can someone email me the installer?



?

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

No download the latest beta listed a page or so back. 3.0.5 I think. And remove your email address before the spambots get it (when you need to post such do it like "snoodge AT gmail.com")

 

[snoodge]

I cannot get the standalone or installable versions to work, they just give me the windows appcrash error.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

All windows updates and C++ Visual Basic hoo-ha is all installed? Same issue with any other utilities like Trixx? Something like RadeonPro?

 

[snoodge]

Everything is installed to my knowledge... I've installed all available Windows Updates properly.

RadeonPro works without issue, I have to use it pretty much constantly to force AFR for a game that I play Riftlanes of Telara because the Crossfire is pretty much broken in that game unless you use RadeonPro.

 

[bonzai_cyberninja]

I would love to do that... Cant I also use RBE to remove the clocks limit? I started this thread in hopes that someone would walk me through what to do... I read the guide but i'm shit scared i'm gonna brick my cards.

You can use RBE to change the clock limits, however, i have found i had the most success with simply making a change to the voltage in RBE, upping it to 1.3 on the gpu, and then using MSI Afterburner with unofficial overclocking enabled, this seems to give my 6870 much more room to breathe, and seems to provide a more stable platform for pushing further.
You can simply use the voltage control in Afterburner and do it that way, but i like it better in bios.

As for changing the clock max in CCC i havent bothered making any changes as it stops me at 1000mhz, however Afterburner allows me to go all the way up to 1300 i believe, however i dont think your 6850 will wanna try going quite that hard!

 

[snoodge]

My goals are very modest by comparison... Right now I am stuck at 850mhz/1135mhz... I know for a fact that both GPU's can do 975mhz with no voltage bump because i've stressed them individually in a single card configuration with Afterburner. I'd like to be able to bump the Ram speed though, 1135 is sort of mediocre, can i bump the ram voltage with RBE?

So ideally, if I could get 950-975 on both cards with 1200mhz ram i'd be a pretty happy camper.

 

[snoodge]

OK...

So I tried my hand at RBE using one of my two MSI 6850's and it was a disaster.

I basically used the Clocks Wizard, left the underclock one alone and changed the other clock from 820 to 925 (confirmed stable with Afterburner) and changed nothing else...

Flashed the card, flash went fine, heres the problem. The card wont work with CCC anymore. If I uninstall CCC, the card will get into windows fine, if I install CCC I get BSOD and comp crash.

Flashed back to stock and the drivers install perfectly.

So can anybody help me out here? I also tried modifying the bios so that the only thing changed was raising the limit in the additional tab and the same thing, once modified, the card wont work with CCC anymore.

 

[snoodge]

Has anybody else had this problem after flashing? Where the card will work until you install CCC and then itll BSOD when you try to boot into windows?

 

[BAGZZlash]

Roam the forum, you will find that issue virtually everywhere. It's a new security mechanism by AMD.

 

[snoodge]

Oh... Well that means that I didn't biff the flash then? Can you or someone else link to a solution if one exists?

 

[BAGZZlash]

Oh... Well that means that I didn't biff the flash then? Can you or someone else link to a solution if one exists?

There's no proper solution for this available.
In order to avoid the need for third party tools like AfterBurner etc. running in windows all the time, a new combination of methods is undergoing development right now: So far it works for 69x0 users only, but RacerX and I are hoping to have that thing trimmed for other card types as well. If it's done we will suggest to alter voltage registers in the BIOS using RBE (which still works) and tweak the CCC overdrive limits using the software I linked to.

RacerX is doing a lot of research at the moment and I'm coding stuff he finds. We hope to have this method flexible enough for a wide range of users in a few days.