lol.. it's less risk than flashing the mobo..
u can also flash for different brand bios especially OC ver..

seriously i recommend to flash.. if not the slow fan speed will ruin the chip.. or u can tweak using rivatuner then..

syazwanreno : sadly to say my 3850 is at ur 3870 stock speed now

i've flashed the bios with the one found on this page:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2638798
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=5391413

before this, my card wouldn't do more than 730...now :


     

i'm happy with my card...but remember...must set ur rivatuner fan speed @60% fixed...or not it will be bit warm... 

core - 770
mem - around 1000 

Im back from kampung and as promised,here is my SS for my OCed gc.

-pWs-, really nice score there even before gc. i think,its the proc that bottleneck my gc as -pWs- using 3850 with proc speed 3.2ghz,stock can score 9402. compared to noobianz,he's using 3870 with proc speed 2.7ghz,stock score only 9077. even stock 3870 cant beat stock 3850! 

so,i can conclude here that proc is the main culprit that bottleneck my gc. 

are u sure that vista wont allow u to use 3DMark06 if u enable the sys req scan? 
im using vista too..no problem on that. 

i try wif this setting: 700 / 860
and the result just :

owh..i thought,its the stock setting. 
but still,after u OC more,u can beat that 3870 OC.
very jealous with ur score. 

hurrmm,whats the speed of ur fan? mine if i set my fan at 60%, max temp is around 55C.

I don felt like using Vista at the moment, coz nothing special but onli pulling down ur gaming performance. As expected HD3850 & HD3870 still not enough to power DX10 graphics.

939...that what im going to do...am2 4000+ will still bottleneck or not?