What is the point of Asus Smartdoctor?

[Spree]

Just grabbed myself an Asus 6950 Directcu II 2gb card (non reference, triple slot). This is a great card, runs cool, and so far I have it at 950/1375 at 1.21v.

My problem is the card can only have its voltage increased with the bundled Asus Smartdoctor software (afterburner has the voltage bar locked as it is a non reference card). I've set Smartdoctor to remember my settings on reboot. Now it remembers all my settings EXCEPT the voltage, which resets to 1.1v on a reboot.

There isn't a lot about this huge flaw posted on the net, but from those who have posted it seems that this is "normal" for the program. Hence my title question - what is the point of Smartdoctor?

To me this just destroys the main feature of the card (great overclocking potential). I'm not interested in having to manually increase my voltage every time I boot up.

Any other 6950 directcu II users out there with the same dilemma? Anyone successfully modded the bios to increase the voltage? (I've read that attempts to do so results in a BSOD with this card).

 

[Spree]

bump - seriously - has no one come across this major flaw with Smartdoctor-only voltage controlled graphics cards?

 

[magoo]

It may be a conflict with the CCC, make sure you DO NOT have AMD Overdrive enabled.

There may be also a conflict with ULPS, perhaps at boot it has preference and overrides the software utility?

I'm sure it's a glitch, but I don't use SmartDoctor so I can't help much more than that, sorry.

As far as AB goes, I assume you enabled voltage override. Also in the configuration file make sure you enable overclocking. Then maybe you can adjust the voltage? As you said however voltage is usually reserved to "reference" cards only.

 

[gjs278]

smartdoctor truly is pointless, CCC should just have some really hidden option allowing you to overvolt. really hidden so nobody can blame them by accidentally overvolting the card by making you edit a config file or something.

a huge issue I have with my asus card is that I can overvolt on windows using smart doctor, but aticonfig on linux does not allow overvolting to my cards limit. I can't get anything besides screwing with my bios, and I'm really not comfortable with that nor do I want my card to not be able to volt back up to 1.3 if I lower it temporarily.

ati needs to just add real voltage control to ccc and aticonfig and then nobody would need these little one off programs to do things their card is completely capable of handling without some 3rd party hack job.

 

[Spree]

smartdoctor truly is pointless, CCC should just have some really hidden option allowing you to overvolt. really hidden so nobody can blame them by accidentally overvolting the card by making you edit a config file or something.

a huge issue I have with my asus card is that I can overvolt on windows using smart doctor, but aticonfig on linux does not allow overvolting to my cards limit. I can't get anything besides screwing with my bios, and I'm really not comfortable with that nor do I want my card to not be able to volt back up to 1.3 if I lower it temporarily.

ati needs to just add real voltage control to ccc and aticonfig and then nobody would need these little one off programs to do things their card is completely capable of handling without some 3rd party hack job.

So you mentioning your bios tells me you have the same issue with Smartdoctor - it doesn't save your voltage settings after a reboot?

 

[gjs278]

So you mentioning your bios tells me you have the same issue with Smartdoctor - it doesn't save your voltage settings after a reboot?

RBE doesn't have the capability of changing my voltages. the registers are blanked out for me. I try manually changing them with someone else's bios, but ccc, smartdoctor, and all that never recognize the change and gpu-z never reports it going above my cards "limit" of 1.2125 even though smartdoctor can easily do 1.35

when I do edit my voltages with smartdoctor alone, that is never saved just like you mentioned. I always have to redo it on bootup.

 

[Postmodum]

I hate Smart Doctor. Had it on my 580 DCUII ... just hated the usability ...

who developed that GUI was not thinking about the user in mind ... i mean ... really small handles ... can't type values ... and ... well ... in general, not that great ...

 

[Spree]

Thought I'd give my thread a bump for a good reason. Not only is the app pointless but also dangerous. I booted up to find it had my 6950 DC2 at 1.5v!! Pulled up Gpu-z to confirm but it had it was reading 1.1v. Anyway, thinking Smartdoctor was misreporting the voltage I started up a game and shortly afterward it crashed and the temps went 10c higher than normal (clearly gpu-z doesn't have the ability to read voltage fluctuations on this non-reference card).

I can set the volts back to stock and quit Smartdoctor. I then start Smartdoctor again and the volts are at 1.5v! It also reports the odd spike up to 1.8v! And for those of you who may ask - no I don't have any other voltage monitoring app running that would cause these spikes.

Suffice to say smartdoctor will be uninstalled permanently.

Regarding CCC - anyone having trouble with their overdrive clock speeds saving after reboots?

 

[sleepeeg3]

Similar issue. Although, it save settings on restart, it resets to default anytime windows crashes. Worthless program. If anyone has a fix, I would love to hear it. The 6950 Direct CU II would be a beast, if it had voltage.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

smartdoctor truly is pointless, CCC should just have some really hidden option allowing you to overvolt. really hidden so nobody can blame them by accidentally overvolting the card by making you edit a config file or something.

a huge issue I have with my asus card is that I can overvolt on windows using smart doctor, but aticonfig on linux does not allow overvolting to my cards limit. I can't get anything besides screwing with my bios, and I'm really not comfortable with that nor do I want my card to not be able to volt back up to 1.3 if I lower it temporarily.

ati needs to just add real voltage control to ccc and aticonfig and then nobody would need these little one off programs to do things their card is completely capable of handling without some 3rd party hack job.

tell Nvidia to enable it too then..

lol it will never happen.. AMD/ATI and Nvidia both need to cover their own asses. if they allow overvolting through the drivers then they officially have to support overclocking which means they now become solely responsible for any cards that die because of overclocking and not the AIB's. this will never happen and the AIB's know it. the little programs that come with the cards are just bogus selling points that they can advertise to get people to buy their stuff(which it does work). thus why programs like Afterburner, EVGA precision, rivatuner exist. the AIB's let you go to X limit(which is covered by the warranties unless noted otherwise) and the 3rd party programs let you exceed X limit which means you are now responsible for killing your card.

in the end its about giving the customer what they want but to a limit(since they test enough cards and know that the card should survive a specific voltage range and thus lock it to that limit) that doesn't effect their bottom line having to replace cards because some dumb ass decided he didn't want to research his facts before overclocking a card and then trying to RMA it after they killed the card.