6800 NU modded into GT <SOFTWARE> (12 -> 16 pipelines)

[fafnir]

their is sucess is our failure as they were the first to complete this mod on SOFTWARE

even with all the bios modification tools and all the time and effort put in by extremetheme and the others, they've beat us

BUT HERE IT IS:

(will update with both download links and instructions)

[kiyoshilionz]

What are you talking about? I'm guessing that some other overclocking/computer enthusaist forum beat us to get the 6800 -> 6800GT pipemod first?

[Voltron]

I thought you had to do a hardware mod to open up the extra pipes? It just doesn't seem right a soft mod would be able to do this. It might be able to spoof the OS and other software into thinking it was on 16 pipes but will still be on 12 pipes via hardware.

You never know though. Maybe nV only locked it out through software. I feel sorry for them if they did.

I look foward to your follow up post on instructions. :thup:

[Fragmaster]

That doesn't help the fact the regular 6800 has no GDDR3 RAM and is rated at 700mhz, does it?

[Sentential]

That doesn't help the fact the regular 6800 has no GDDR3 RAM and is rated at 700mhz, does it?

Thats a very valid point. Eventho it softmods fine, it still cant do stock GT or Ultra speeds.

[Drec]

its still one hell of a card for the price though.

[juliendogg]

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET, i absolutely CAN'T wait to try this on my eVGA 6800NU. I'm all giddy just thinking about it. If this works i'll give someone a kiss i swear it!


J.

[juliendogg]

how 'bout some info on this? ya killin me here

[Nebulous]

Am I missing something here? :confused:

[juliendogg]

Am I missing something here? :confused:

Dunno whats there to miss. Someone is claiming to have succesfully opened up the 4 disabled pipelines on the 6800NU using only a softmod.

J.

[xtrmeocr]

the chaintech 6800nu uses 2.2ns DDR so it might have a shot at hititng 1ghz with some ram sinks.

358/1000 is over GT speeds :D

[Chowdy]

It also doesn't compensate for the 128MB less of VRAM, unless there are reasonably priced 6800's with 256MB.

[fafnir]

i was nothing short of stumped when i first saw this, all the time i've ever poured into trying to mod a bios that wouldn't slow down the ram but still open the other 4 pipelines

and not to mention that the xbitlabs article about hard flashing the bios was full of sh|t, it was just maybe a few of us over at the xtremesystems.org trying this out

and then it hit me:

[fafnir]

expect a release of rivatuner within a week or so to include the options in the above picture, and a following release of it with ram timings

and don't worry about the 700mhz ram, cause all evidence points to that even with the crippled 128mb of ram only at 700mhz,

10,000 3dmarks is the resonable estimate

i'm still working on a download link for this, so hold on

oh yeah, and apparently it also applies to x800 users

_

[xtrmeocr]

3dmark doesn't mean much though, because its run w/o AA and AF. which is where the bandwidth would be needed.

[Nandro]

I agree about the memory, but I still think a full 16 pipes would add a great deal of value to these cards. I have had all 3 NV cards and the NU is by far the best value for the money, and even more so if the other 4 pipes can be enabled.

Any idea how far along this is? I wouldnt mind beta testing :p

[PCGUY112887]

fafnir, how are you getting shots of a RevaTuner beta?

Have you ran this for yourself? How well did it work?

[juliendogg]

fafnir, how are you getting shots of a RevaTuner beta?

Have you ran this for yourself? How well did it work?

http://www.digit-life.com/news.html?107374#107374

there's the article ^


J.

[xtrmeocr]

I agree about the memory, but I still think a full 16 pipes would add a great deal of value to these cards. I have had all 3 NV cards and the NU is by far the best value for the money, and even more so if the other 4 pipes can be enabled.

Any idea how far along this is? I wouldnt mind beta testing :p

well theres no question it would add value. it would help most in shader heavy games.

[Nandro]

MAN!!!! That will be sweet. I may even sell my GT and get another NU. Only reason is that my NU plays everything out now as well as I really need it to, and with 16 pipes it would probably be even better. If I can get a NU and save some more money I will be in a better position when the next refresh comes around. Will have to see how it performs when this is available.

[fafnir]

I may even sell my GT and get another NU.


unless you're not going to lose any money by selling your GT, its not worth it

in a few weeks, there will be a "Geforce 6600" or the NV43

expect the 6600 GT to almost be as good as the 6800 NU, without the additional pipes, that is, and for $190


so should this pipe mod not work for your 6800 NU, (as its not going to work with everyone, more like 60-80% from current estimates on trials run by both the rivatuner author and people who are trying the hard mod methods) its the 6800 NU you should sell

assuming if it doesn't work for you


but if it does, then by all means go sell your GT


you should find out first


_

[xtrmeocr]

from the sound of it the 6600 sounds like the 9600 from ati. native 8 pipe card using 110nm running around ~500mhz so a pipe mod would be impossible.

[Dragonprince]

I thought you had to do a hardware mod to open up the extra pipes? It just doesn't seem right a soft mod would be able to do this. It might be able to spoof the OS and other software into thinking it was on 16 pipes but will still be on 12 pipes via hardware.

9500 ---> 9700 soft mod ring any bell's ?

[Sentential]

from the sound of it the 6600 sounds like the 9600 from ati. native 8 pipe card using 110nm running around ~500mhz so a pipe mod would be impossible.

^^ 6600 has 12 native pipes if I remember correctally, not 8. You are thinking of their budget card.

[xtrmeocr]

^^ 6600 has 12 native pipes if I remember correctally, not 8. You are thinking of their budget card.

no, its 8 pipes @ ~500mhz making it roughly comparable to the current 12pipe @ 325mhz 6800NU.

if its clocked at ~500 thats 8x500 = 4000 vs the current NU 12x325 = 3900. so the 6600GT will be slightly faster stock then the current NU, its also suppose to use ~1ghz GDDR3. so it should be faster then the current NU and much cheaper/cooler to produce.

[juliendogg]

^^ 6600 has 12 native pipes if I remember correctally, not 8. You are thinking of their budget card.

Correct. However it appears that the cores are the same between the NU and the GT series. In effect we KNOW there are 4 disabled pipes on the NU. We know those pipes are there. We know they CAN be opened. What remains to be seen is how many cards have defects within those 4 disabled pipes. We are running under the assumption that some or even most of the 6800NU cores were disabled for a reason, and as has held true in the past, this number should decrease as production of the 6000 series cores matures. At this point for all we know every 6800NU produced to date could succesfully mod. Perhaps 1 in 100 will mod, or even less.. I for one can't wait to find this out. This could mean big news for alot of modders out there who havn't upgraded because of the cost of new graphics technology.

*edit* Oops, i misread 6600 as 6800. I am not familiar with the 6600 model.

J

[Sentential]

no, its 8 pipes @ ~500mhz making it roughly comparable to the current 12pipe @ 325mhz 6800NU.

if its clocked at ~500 thats 8x500 = 4000 vs the current NU 12x325 = 3900. so the 6600GT will be slightly faster stock then the current NU, its also suppose to use ~1ghz GDDR3. so it should be faster then the current NU and much cheaper/cooler to produce.

You are indeed correct. That would make a nice midrange card. Especially the GT at 500mhz

[mcoleg]

so, any news on the softmod yet?

[Dco-Br]

Correct. However it appears that the cores are the same between the NU and the GT series. In effect we KNOW there are 4 disabled pipes on the NU. We know those pipes are there. We know they CAN be opened. What remains to be seen is how many cards have defects within those 4 disabled pipes. We are running under the assumption that some or even most of the 6800NU cores were disabled for a reason, and as has held true in the past, this number should decrease as production of the 6000 series cores matures. At this point for all we know every 6800NU produced to date could succesfully mod. Perhaps 1 in 100 will mod, or even less.. I for one can't wait to find this out. This could mean big news for alot of modders out there who havn't upgraded because of the cost of new graphics technology.

*edit* Oops, i misread 6600 as 6800. I am not familiar with the 6600 model.

J


I'd say the defective cores aren't even defective, but the bad batches of A1 chips from Ibm that had really low yield.

a good while ago Nv was sampling A2 chips @475mhz from Tsmc and Nv will not be using Ibm chips from NY anymore, so is reasonable to belive that the manufacturing process for both A1 and A2 chips is mature enough so the chances of modding any well built 6800nu are very good.

If any, chips with defective pipelines will most probably be sold as "rejects" to be fitted in 6800se and below the $199 range.

It's also known that 6800ultras and Gt's are not going to sell nearly as much as $300 cards like the 6800nu, so lots of very good chips will end up filling the demand for cheaper cards.

The only risk is Nv fisically disabling the extra pipes making them harder to mod in the newer series, but doing that is stupid, coz the 6800nu is a x800pro killer and high end enthusiasts will still buy the best ultra/gt's.

Nv does not care anyway, they are selling the same chips no matter if it's a Nu, ultra or gt, it's exacly the same as the g4ti4xx series and Fx59xx's.

Ati has been doing the "mod thing" for a while now, and look at their sales..everyone I know is waitting confirmation on this mod, it's just like the 9500->9700pro times.

making "modable" cards really sells and ppl acctually look for brands with better mod suport such as a good variety of bios, good Pcb and big ass capacitors.

Dn.

[mcoleg]

where exactly are all these developments take place fafnir? i've looked through usual places and no1 even mentions it...

[juliendogg]

where exactly are all these developments take place fafnir? i've looked through usual places and no1 even mentions it...

yeah? that bug you also? i posted a link above to the original article at digit-life. there are some pretty good threads around xtremesystems.org and guru3d.com. here's a good one to have a read through if you like,

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?threadid=100105

[mcoleg]

thanks juliendogg :)

i am not what you would call an expert but i find that while keeping an eye on things like that really pays of for me. at least i'll learn something :P .

[Nandro]

I think most 6800 users are anxious to see if this works out and what kind of gains it will reap. I know I am.

[juliendogg]

I think most 6800 users are anxious to see if this works out and what kind of gains it will reap. I know I am.

no doubt. and i must ask.. how you manage to get your ram speed to 1000???? that's pretty amazing for an NU!

J.

[Kobra007]

I'm betting this won't work for a majority of people, and if you pull it off, you'll get some image stability problems.. 6800's DO have 16 pipes, but 4 of them are defective, and they turn them off for that specific purpose, they aren't up to spec. See this article: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf6800-oc.html

But... There are some other stark differences between the NU and GT.. Least of which is DDR vs DDR3, the extra 128MB of ram, and the better quality chips used in the GT across the board... Then, theres the GPU.. I'm convinced that 90% of the performance in these cards comes from the GPU and GPU core speed, NOT the pipes or ram, in fact, i've read at least one test where they clocked a GT down to NU speeds, and with the extra pipes, all it helped was 2-3 FPS in Doom 3....

Bottom line, if you want a GT, you go buy a GT.... Its as simple as that, spend the extra $100 and get the card you want. If you buy a NU, then you'll always be wanting a GT, so just buy the GT to start out, and save some headaches later. :attn:

[mcoleg]

lighen up Kobra man :) it's all about tweaking not about saving a hundred of the best and the greenest :P . though for some kids that could be a factor...

the ppl who make rivatuner, i think they hang out here:

http://www.nvworld.ru/php/index.php

most of it in russian though. i get an impression they need to work on compatibility with the latest drivers before they release next version. they also are collecting info on how certain tabs in rivartuner look with 6800 cards installed... or something like that:

http://www.nvworld.ru/php/viewtopic.php?t=12058

[juliendogg]

I'm betting this won't work for a majority of people, and if you pull it off, you'll get some image stability problems.. 6800's DO have 16 pipes, but 4 of them are defective, and they turn them off for that specific purpose, they aren't up to spec. See this article: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf6800-oc.html

But... There are some other stark differences between the NU and GT.. Least of which is DDR vs DDR3, the extra 128MB of ram, and the better quality chips used in the GT across the board... Then, theres the GPU.. I'm convinced that 90% of the performance in these cards comes from the GPU and GPU core speed, NOT the pipes or ram, in fact, i've read at least one test where they clocked a GT down to NU speeds, and with the extra pipes, all it helped was 2-3 FPS in Doom 3....

Bottom line, if you want a GT, you go buy a GT.... Its as simple as that, spend the extra $100 and get the card you want. If you buy a NU, then you'll always be wanting a GT, so just buy the GT to start out, and save some headaches later. :attn:

You know what? some of us don't have the cash to buy a $400 vid card once a year. Some of us like to buy something a little lower down the food chain and OVERCLOCK it. BTW, if you'll read some of the threads i linked to above you will find out how full of crap that xbit labs article is.

[mcoleg]

my thinking is - the major problem with getting GT and Ultra cards on the market is not the GPU chips, it's DDR3 memory. there's just not enough of it. not to raise anyone's hopes up but it is consivable that some perfectly good 16-pl chips would end up in 6800's simply because they are already produced and need to be sold to recover the investment.

[Nandro]

juliendogg I had to change my sig. I messed up when I changed it from my 5800NU which ran at those speeds. I had just changed the core. I run the mem at 840, hopefully faster when my waterblock arroves, although its not very promising considering the memory barely gets warm.

[Lejend]

my thinking is - the major problem with getting GT and Ultra cards on the market is not the GPU chips, it's DDR3 memory. there's just not enough of it. not to raise anyone's hopes up but it is consivable that some perfectly good 16-pl chips would end up in 6800's simply because they are already produced and need to be sold to recover the investment.

I agree. The reason there is a shortage of 6800 ultras and even X800 PE? (the high end one, I forget the name, and who really pay's attention to all that ATI stuff anyway :P) is because of they can't make enough ddr3 ram. This would lead one to think that the chips are fine, and that they put "Good chips" with 16 pipelines on the 6800nu's.

As for Kobra, a lot of use (myself included) just like tweaking. For the price I paid for my 2500xp and all the extra cooling, I could have gotten a 3200+, and still have run at the same speeds. I did it cause it's fun and I enjoy it. Same goes for the 12 -> 16 pipe mod. I'd run at 16 pipes even if it made no difference performance wise. Just to do it.