Guide to 6800 "GT" -> "Ultra" Bios Flash

[fafnir]

thread void, use this procedure instead:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=323502


also be sure to use a bios that other people have tried and tested, don't just come up with your own bios


if you have a GT, use this bios:

http://www.ocforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33310



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[Nebulous]

Several guyz already tried this flash, and let me say they're in posession of $400+ paperweights now.

Unless it's a proven experiment that will not make anymore expensive paperweights, i would'nt try it.

Oh yeah, someone wanting to do this flash and asked the person who did the flash and kill his card, he said after killing it: "Can't make an omlet without breaking a few eggs"

.....there's one born evry minute.

[oc_byagi]

I just flashed my ARTIFACTING 6800GT (see my thread) and it posted fine. Of course I can't test anything since my 6800GT is giving me a hard time, it didn't seem to have broke anything.

[Mr.Guvernment]

^^^ how can you boot to dos when the video card post occurs before booting up? it is not possible.... if your vid card is not booting - you can not get into dos on that system.


you would need a PCI card.

[Syx]

If it wasn't for these forums I would do something stupid like this.

[xtrmeocr]

i wouldn't flash unless your using a 3rd party cooler. the voltage from 1.3 to 1.4 is going to overwhelm the stock GT heatsink/fan.

[walldow]

thanks for the heads up! k question!

Q:is this just for nvidia referance design cards only?

the reason im asking i have been looking into the Albatron FX6800GT pretty hard and seems they are making there own desighn! (im an active member of Albatron Singapore. on there forums, one of there tech reps over the forums stated that Albotron is not using the NVIDIA referance sesighn for the GT version?)anyway differant card desighn, differant bios?


i guess we will see? i plan on volt modding the card anyways so the only real advantage to me would be the titer memory timings! but on the other hand it could be a down fall? tighter timings means less overclock in most cases!even though youre gaining bandwith with titer timeings, sometimes a higher overclock can gane you even more bandwith!

i myself would rather run 1500mhz on looser memory timings than 1200mhz on tite ones! some may beg to differ!

[oc_byagi]

so how are people going with this??? is it quite a performance boost???

[bobmanfoo]

im not trying to up the voltage till i get better cooling

[oc_byagi]

did you try the bios hack yet?

[bobmanfoo]

did you try the bios hack yet?
nope not doing anything till i get rid of this POS hs, really disappointed in it, its so dinky compared to the ultra

GT:
http://www.ixbt.com/video2/images/nv40-2/6800gt-cooler1.jpg

ULTRA:

[oc_byagi]

hmmm what dissapoint you so much??? just the cooling??? I'll be getting vga silencer rev 4 either way so I'm fine with GT. (plus ultra costs over $600 at the moment)

[oc_byagi]

ok, flashed GT to Ultra, no artifacts so far, looking great.

UPDATE: Gained 800 POINtS IN 3DM2003 just from BIOS. yay :bday:

[Nandro]

What clocks do you have your card at? 400/1200?

[oc_byagi]

just a stock ULTRA speed, as I'm still testing my CPU limit. (I believe 400/1100, the Leadtek bios)

[Nandro]

Thats awsome! I have the BFG 6800GT OC. Would that bios work on my card? I also bought a 6800NU for my other rig. I am hoping it can be modded into 16 pipes.

[fafnir]

btw, if you're editing your own bios, DON'T FORGET TO NVCHK.exe THE FILE WHEN YOU'RE DONE


nvchk.exe write a new checksum for the file, without which, will result in a no-post (bios chksum error)



_

[Nandro]

Thanks for the tips. If I decide to give it a go I'll let you know how it works out.

[fafnir]

just mailed jmke at the [M] who said he'll do an acticle on this, with much better instructions



btw, here's a newer file that'll work with **ALL** GT's;



does not include default clock speed boosts, though both the voltage and the throttling has been done, runs slightly cooler than the stock ultra bios also, uses 1.4V and stays at 1.4V (even on startup)

use nvflash 4.42 (ONLY 4.42, not 5.0, not 4.46) and;

nvflash4 -p -u -2 "ultra".rom (replace "ultra" with whatever the file name is)


link: http://www.ocforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33310



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[heyheyhey]

I just did it... only got 100 points and 10MHz increase. Oh well, I can say I have an Ultra now :)

[johnmcc516]

its good to know i won't be ocing my video card now :)

[jmke]

thank you fafnir, I'll be putting things into place very soon :)

[Huigie]

Flashing your GT to Ultra is bull**** if you have 2ns memory on it imho. I tried it, under watercooling and performance dropped. Coolbits allowed me to go to 471MHz where under the GT bios it would only go as far as 456MHz.

3DMark03

Score: 13430

Date: 2004-07-29
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3740 MHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra Leadtek bios
5 MHz / 2 MHz
OS: Microsoft Windows XP
Res: 1024x768@32 bit

And with the original XFX GT bios:

Score: 13726

Date: 2004-07-30
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3740 MHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
5 MHz / 1 MHz
OS: Microsoft Windows XP
Res: 1024x768@32 bit

The "Ultra" card on GT speeds performed slower than the original GT bios.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2858086

[bobmanfoo]

so all the sudden its BS cause it didn't work out for you? you need to get your facts straight, the leadtek ultra uses 2.0ns chips like most of the ULtrash,LINK (http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/gffx/nv40-3-p1.html) scroll down to the ram chips

[Huigie]

Show me some real results then...

[bobmanfoo]

why would i need to show YOU real results? i was responding to your misinforming post above about the ram. if you want results, read the posts above, search on other forums

[fafnir]

no, you don't get it, the ultra at GT speeds isn't supposed to help your speeds at stock, i modded it the way it is because:

1. its modded with a constant voltage, and raised voltage, e.g. should help your overclocks with software

2. the cold start 1.1v 400/1100 was too much for a alot of GT's, 50% couldn't make it, this is designed to make sure everyone gets an ultra

3. the ram timings are stock ultra ram timings, with many ultras shipping factory with 2.0ns ram, this shouldn't be a problem, as its supposed to help you get higher speeds, rather than better timings (5-5-5-22 vs 4-5-5-22)

4. help with the thermal throttling issue, as the safety shutdown has not changed, but the throttling now matches the ultra (is from the ultra)

Huigie, if you want, i can write you a custom bios corresponding to your maximum overclock, based on your choice of either the GT or Ultra bios (ram timings)

feel free to ask


_

[bobmanfoo]

fafnir, could you do a make one with the stock Ultra speeds and modded voltage, i was getting throttling probs with the above bios, tia

[fafnir]

bobmanfoo,

1. what kind of throttling problems?

2. see this: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36541

3. sure, pm me and send me your bios, we'll talk


_

[bobmanfoo]

bobmanfoo,

1. what kind of throttling problems?

2. see this: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36541

3. sure, pm me and send me your bios, we'll talk


_

thanks, well ill get the bios to you asap, need to tell my bro to back up his bios PNY, im going to see if i can get his working first, then maybe ill do mine if you don't mind modding a bfg gt oc for me as well, tia

[rsquires]

fafnir: I would very much like to try this ultra bios flash on my PNY 6800GT (have already flashed a modded GT bios to it), but I want as a base to use the newest available ultra bios, which apparently solves some freezing/crashing problems seen by people.

See http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17272276 for details and the newer bios. Have you tried this one yet?

rms

[bobmanfoo]

i'd stick with the GT bios, only the Ultra bioses causes the problems, im using a modded GT bios with 1.4V and am doing 450/1.18

[copernicus]

i'd stick with the GT bios, only the Ultra bioses causes the problems, im using a modded GT bios with 1.4V and am doing 450/1.18



what are your temp's like? i modded mine to 1.5v and set stock clock's to 400/1100 idle at 49c best artifact free oc so far is 445/1260 case ambient 20c

3dmark03 http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2955732

[hypertek]

i'd stick with the GT bios, only the Ultra bioses causes the problems, im using a modded GT bios with 1.4V and am doing 450/1.18

what kind of cooling is on your card??

[Diablo23RD]

That is easy to mod GT BIOS with 1.4V???

[GTX_SlotCar]

I tried flashing my eVga 6800GT to an nVidia Ultra bios (generic, I guess) and it didn't work out well. I got less performance and couldn't get through 3DMark 03 at 400/1100, it crashed. Also, the IQ wasn't as good. Then I tried an eVga Ultra bios and it worked a little better, but I still couldn't match my OC'd GT performance. I flashed it back to original and just run the OC (415/1170).
I'd like to get more performance out of it, especially the memory (it seems to gain the most performance), but then I looked around at everyone else's 3DM '03 scores and I wonder if I should even bother.
My current score is 12,787.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2967818

Any ideas?

Gary

[fafnir]

yes, it has to do with the bios version you're using

what are you ending up with for the ultra? e.g. the bios version

also, there is an ammendment to the procedure


the bios must be flashed twice, the second time with nvflash 5.0X, as to also change the secondary ID's


e.g. the NF7-S had a 1394 id in the bios, a unique number; same here



_

[GTX_SlotCar]

yes, it has to do with the bios version you're using
what are you ending up with for the ultra? e.g. the bios version
I'm not sure I understand the question. The eVga Ultra bios I put in was Version : 5.40.02.15.07 d/l from MVK. Would the version number change after I install it? Should I read the bios after it's flashed (how, with nvflash?) and tell you the number?
I used nvflash 4.42
nvflash -b 6800gt.rom
nvflash -f ultra.rom -p -u -2 (where ultra.rom was the name of the new rom)

Some people were supposedly getting good results with this procedure. I can flash it again, the 2nd time with nvflash 5.x if that will make it run better.
With the ultra bios, I had to lower the core to 375 to compete 3dmark.

With the nvidia ultra bios, my temps showed about 10°C lower than stock. With the eVga ultra bios, they showed the same. I think it's just reading it differently with the different bios.
Maybe I should also try the Gainward Ultra bios?

With the stock bios, at 415/1170 I'm getting 12787 in 3Dmark03. P4 2.4c at 3.12. Will persueing this give me much of a gain?

Thanks
Gary

[fafnir]

stay away from the 5.40.02.15.07's, especially th eVGA ver, i don't know why but i can't get the thing stable at any rate on ultra clocks to run doom3, while back on the older leadtek ultra bios i could and it overclocks decently well

the newest gainward bios i could find is 5.40.02.15.06, and its the one i'm using for my primary GT card

have you ever tried changing the stock clocks of the bios to match your maximum overclock? and also changing the voltage to reflect a constant 1.4V?


might help


and what i meant was the bios version influences stability a lot, and sometimes, the no boot into windows (no xp boot screen) can be fixed by a re-flash



_

[GTX_SlotCar]

stay away from the 5.40.02.15.07's, especially th eVGA ver,..........have you ever tried changing the stock clocks of the bios to match your maximum overclock? and also changing the voltage to reflect a constant 1.4V?
I'm not really sure how to modify the bios. Hex editor maybe, if I knew what I was looking for. What would the constant 1.4v do for me?

My eVga 6800GT bios is 05.40.02.15.00.
The eVga 6800U bios I tried had the same number, but called my card an Ultra.
The generic Ultra bios I tried was 05.40.02.03.00 but I believe was modified to still call my card a GT.
The BFG GT bios I tried was 05.40.02.15.00 again and so was the Gainward Ultra bios I just tried. That one ran pretty good. IQ was as good as the stock bios but temps were up about 6°C and OC wasn't quite as good. 3DM'03 score was 12210 compared to the 12807 I did with the stock bios a few minutes later.

Gary