Flashing the vcore -- few Q's

[crossed_wires]

Hi all. I've been reading the beginner's OC stickey on this forum and trying to see if there's anyway of pushing my card a little further (7600GS 256MB DDR2). Currently, the highest I can stabily OC it is about 450/450 (from stock 400/400). Anything higher than about 460/460 and the artifacing starts to kick in (snowy particles when running 3dmark05). I use Rivatuner, but I was thinking about maybe trying PowerStrip or Coolbits as I don't have as much control of the slider as I would like, but that's another story...
If I flashed the vcore, by reading this guide (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=342919), in other words, add more voltage to the core, would I be able to maybe push the card a little further before the artifacing occurs? Or does it not work that way? Also, how much should I up the voltage if I do this? I have good cooling (not H2O) cooling, but the temps are all pretty good. 47C idle, 51-52C when OC'd to 450/450 and after running benchmark. Any suggestions? Thanks!
-Ryan

[crossed_wires]

Anyone? I was planning on doing this tonight. Just wondering if someone out there knows much about flashing the vcore (ie, increasing voltage to video card core to squeek out a little more performance).

[icedragn]

voltage helps stabalize the clock speed, yes, if you add more voltage you will/should beable to get higher clocks, unless of course your gpu is just maxxed out. Also, what do you mean by in rivatuner you do not have as much control of the slider as you'd like??? you mean when moving it, you cant get like 400 to 425 or something? use the arrow keys? I would also say to be careful with temps, and dont add a lot of voltage. Also i don't think it's possible on any of the 7600's to change the voltage in the bios, you must do a hard-mod to increase the voltage, which also needs better cooling, is your's passive? even if it has a cheap fan and hs, i still would say to get a better cooler, unless it has a good one, for example the leadtek 6800 series cooler, that was an amazing stock cooler, rivalled my zalman vf700, but not quite, the zalman allowed like 20mhz+ more, but was it worth the money? probably not, but i had fun pushing it hard.

[crossed_wires]

Yes, I ws talking about control of the slider. It seems that when I want to put it at 450, it wants to go 448 or 449 or 451, but not exactly what I want it to. I'll try the arrow keys, it never dawned on me to use those. I'm a mouse guy. Also, yeah, it has stock cooling, although I added a fan which sits in the PCI slot right next to it and circulates the air around it. It seems to keep it pretty cool - at least under 50C or so. If what you say is correct about the 7600 series not being able to change voltage on, except for hard-modding, I'm not sure I'm going to do that. I'll look at it more when I get home. Thanks for the information.