Is this Diamond 5850 still a reference PCB?

[CIB24]

Earlier this week I ordered a Diamond 5850 and the picture on TigerDirect (Circuit City) was of a reference cooled 5850. However, I received this in the mail which looks a lot like the PowerColor design. Yet, the PCB is still red like the reference 5850's so I'm wondering if only the cooler has changed? Actually, I'm hoping only the cooler has changed so I can use voltage control

 

[pedophilekiller]

That's not a reference board. Reference boards have an AMD logo above the slot teeth.

 

[anthrex]

Well since you already have it open install and see, but almost certainly custom

 

[CIB24]

Damn, I was really hoping to be able to overclock it to above 900mhz.

I have heard that you can install 5870 drivers on a 5850 to get a slightly higher voltage and reference clocks. Can it be done or will I have to rely on MSI Afterburner to clock this card higher?

 

[Mr. K6]

Damn, I was really hoping to be able to overclock it to above 900mhz.

I have heard that you can install 5870 drivers on a 5850 to get a slightly higher voltage and reference clocks. Can it be done or will I have to rely on MSI Afterburner to clock this card higher?

I believe you might be thinking of flashing a 5870 BIOS on to a 5850, which can be done with a certain modified 5870 BIOS on reference 5850's. All it supposedly does is raise the voltage given to the RAM (although it could loosen the timings on it too, which would lessen the impacts of the higher speeds anyway, I don't know really). Since you opened the card, I would try booting it up and see if you have any voltage control in MSI Afterburner. You would need to test clocks first anyway before flashing them, so you'd have to use MSI Afterburner at some point anyway.