The Mother Board

[Sabrewings]

In reference to this thread here, I'm going to relate my own experiences with modding and overclocking the 6800 vanilla. Like in the review, I will be using the XFX 6800.

Specs for the 6800 differ from the GT and Ultra only in a few areas. The GT and Ultra both use GDDR3 memory clocked over 1ghz, a 16 pixel pipeline and 6 vertex pipeline core clocked at 350mhz for GT and 400mhz for Ultra, 256-bit memory interface, and pretty extensive cooling.

Now, the vanilla 6800 has regular DDR memory clocked at 700mhz, only 12 pixel pipelines and 5 vertex pipelines (remaining pipes are there, only locked), core at 325mhz, full 256-bit memory interface, and (at least on my card) only mediocre cooling.

The last quality will be fixed easily by adding a NV Silencer 5 by the famed Arctic Cooling. The NV Silencer 5 should easily give me just as good cooling (if not better due to the exhaust style cooler) as the cooling found on any 6800GT or Ultra.

Now, overclocking basics. The higher the voltage, the faster transistors can open and close (meaning higher frequencies). But, the higher the voltage, the more heat there is (hence the NV Silencer). Not many people will have this option, but my motherboard (IC7-Max3) has extensive system settings in the BIOS, including AGP voltage. Options include 1.5v (standard AGP voltage), 1.55v, 1.6v, and 1.65v. When I get into overclocking, I am going to increase the voltage to 1.65v to achieve a maximum OC.

I have only just received the card and Silencer today, and will be continuing this later tonight. Stay tuned.

Disclaimer: Overclocking/unlocking your card may render it useless or otherwise damaged. This is not the fault of the card's maker, this is not the fault of me, this is not the fault of Motherboards.org, this is not the fault of the dude living next door. It's your own dang fault for blowing it up, so you accept all legal responsibility if you decide to proceed with this mod.
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RIAA vs The People

[Black Wolf]

Cool I like to see what the temps are on your card when your done.
The BFG 6800 ULtra OC:
48'C GPU Core
34'C Ambient Temp

My Case is temp is 16'C (Proc 24'C)
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[Sabrewings]

Preliminary findings:

Here is a list of my old benchmark scores with my 5900se and the new scores with my 6800 stock speeds (I haven't added the NV Silencer 5 yet) with the stock number of pipelines. I am using the HardwareOC FarCry benchmark program as a real world benchmark as opposed to relying on a synthetic benchmark.

HardwareOC - Volcano:

5900se - 25.20 FPS
6800 - 68.27 FPS

HardwareOC - Archive:

5900se - 22.87 FPS
6800 - 68.27 FPS

HardwareOC - River:

5900se - 30.20 FPS
6800 - 43.32 FPS

So, without a doubt the 6800 is 2-3 times faster than my 5900se. This is already a great improvement for only $100 out of my pocket (sold the 5900se). Now, I will move on to unlocking some pipes and overclocking this babe...
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RIAA vs The People

[Sabrewings]

Success!!!! The remaining 4 pixel pipes and single vertex pipe came to life very easily. Anyone who has trouble with this step PM me and I'll be glad to help. I can send you the file and all you have to do is execute it.

Sure enough, RivaTuner reports 16x1 Pixel Pipes and 6 Vertex Pipes, as seen here:



I've already seen a 10 FPS increase in every one of the benchies I ran before. This is great! Now just to add the NV Silencer 5 and OC the heck out of this thing....
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RIAA vs The People

[YouGiveMeRash!!!]

Sweet!

Ive had my eye on the 6800 for a while now.

Thats a huge improvement over your 5900se. Enjoy the new card!
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Main rig: 1/2" ID Water Cooled Lian-Li V2000B, Abit IP35 Pro, Intel C2D E6750@ -3.4ghz 1.3375v, Mushkin 2gb DDR2-800 996576, one terabyte storage, evga 7900GS KO w/ Zalman VF700-AlCu cooler, Swiftech Apogee GT water block, Ultra X2 550w PSU
Laptop: Asus Z70VA, Pentium M 725 1.6@ -2.13ghz (pinmod), ATI X700 Pro, 1680x1050 native res., bluetooth, the works...

[Sabrewings]

360/860 on core/mem. This baby has some juice!!!

I havne't even hit the wall yet, either. I just decided that's far enough for now. I'd like 380/900, but I'll try that tomorrow. For now, I'm tired of watching benchies, lol.
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RIAA vs The People

[Black Wolf]

[Sabrewings]

Actually, I was watching a whole slew of benchies. HL2 time demos, Far Cry time demos, Doom 3 time demos, 3DMark 2001se, 03, 05, PCMark 04, Aquamark 3, and CodeCreaturs.

I was sick of watching my computer play games for me.

Now, I'm going to go race my GTO on NFS:U2.
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RIAA vs The People

[snap355]

How did you get the GTO so quickly?
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Lend a hand and help with the folding project. Come join our 33258 team!

[Black Wolf]