8800GTX @ 670 / 1000

[aaronjb]

Certainly not the highest score around, but my e6600 isn't stable past 3.4Ghz in 3Dmark06:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=1809559

I refuse to roll back to an FM-approved driver at this point, but I may do so and submit a result for the ranking.

How high have some of you pushed the core clock on the 8800GTX?

Edit: Guess I could just look at the ranking above. :)

I'm on water (VJ block), actively cooling the vRegs with some neato VJ sinks, and a fan running over the RAM sinks. I feel like I have more headroom above 670 on the core, so I'm going to push it till it drops.

[Gautam]

Nice score. :thup:You tried playing with the shader clocks?

[El<(')>Maxi]

There should actually be more memory clocks there, both of mine ran 670/1100 on air :)

[Gautam]

Supposedly a great deal of them are capable of 700+ if the shader is adjusted properly.

[aaronjb]

Nice score. :thup:You tried playing with the shader clocks?

Thanks, it's leaps and bounds above my AMD 4400+ system.

Nope, haven't yet hit the shader clocks. Great idea. Any suggestions? I've yet to edit the shader clocks. Currently, ATITool is the only OC tool I'm using under Vista64. Will I need to flash the BIOS to adjust the shader clocks?

[aaronjb]

There should actually be more memory clocks there, both of mine ran 670/1100 on air :)

Nice! I'll try for a 700 / 1050 run, then keep pushing the memory until it artifacts. And then, I'll see how far past 700 I can push the core.

Anyone putting more voltage through these cards?

[Gautam]

Thanks, it's leaps and bounds above my AMD 4400+ system.

Nope, haven't yet hit the shader clocks. Great idea. Any suggestions? I've yet to edit the shader clocks. Currently, ATITool is the only OC tool I'm using under Vista64. Will I need to flash the BIOS to adjust the shader clocks?
You'll probably want some more background reading on this, but yeah, thru changing the BIOS. AFAIK the shader goes up concurrently with the core, and often you run into shader limits before core clock limits, so the shader binds you. If the shader isn't binding you then you can extract a lot more performance often by increasing it.

[El<(')>Maxi]

Check your shader clocks in Rivatuner. The OC versions of the BFG GTX's use a higher default shader clock which is good for 05 & 06. You might be able to mod your BIOS to match them for better scores. I'd try pushing the memory clocks first with 670 core to find the limits, then see how much further the core will go. These cards can be volt modified thru the BIOS but they are already using the max core values of the three voltages available, outside of that it requires a hard mod.

[aaronjb]

Thanks for the tips. I'm currently testing at 700 / 1050 without touching the shader clocks.

I see someone with over 850 core and 1200 memory on the official hwbot list. Hard volt mod with extreme cooling?

[aaronjb]

OK, having some issues past 690 on the core, but I was able to squeeze 1090 out of the memory. Broke 12,500K in 06, but I neglected to submit the results. Will be repeating again this afternoon.

Any links to hard voltmods out there?

[El<(')>Maxi]

Sure there are quite a few mod guides out there. I wouldn't even try it unless your very good at soldering tiny components or you are comfortable with pencil modding.

[aaronjb]

I'll pass on the hard mod for now, because I'm not that skilled with a soldering iron. Maybe I'll ship this off to VJ sometime in the future.

Even after playing with the shader clocks a bit, I have hit a wall at 690 / 1110. I'm attributing the issues to my power supply, though, as the computer is rebooting without warning in the middle of 3DMark06. After checking the 12v rail with a multimeter, I can see that it's dropping to 11.5v (!!) under load. I have a lot of fans, hard drives and a pump on this 650W supply, so it's time to move on.

Final score was just over 12,5. I'm hoping that a new PS will allow me to reach a more stable CPU overclock, which will help my benchmarking efforts.

[El<(')>Maxi]

If your PSU is weak and your card is still hitting those clocks it's a pretty good one ;)

[aaronjb]

OK, new PSU (Corsair 620HX) and a new personal best:

12972 (http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=1894871)

More to come later today... 13K is the goal.. so close! :)

[El<(')>Maxi]

Good work aaron!

[Hazaro]

OC your CPU a tiny bit to get there >.>

[aaronjb]

Well I'll be sitting down to at least complete the OCForums Part I (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=510302) mini-suite of benchmarks tonight. I have licenses for all the software in the full-on benchmark club (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=502742), so maybe I'll tackle that as well.

Quite honestly, the only thing that keeps me from benching is the silly 3DMark requirement of having approved drivers. I understand why they do this, but there I need featues (and fixes) in the new drivers for my day-to-day use.

[aaronjb]

Argh, I can't hit futuremark.com right now. What are the latest approved drivers for XP with an NV card? 97.92?

[El<(')>Maxi]

Windows Vista
GeForce 6, 7, 8 Series:
http://www.futuremark.com/images/icons/linkbullet.gif ForceWare 100.65 Drivers (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_100.65.html)

Windows XP
GeForce 8 Series:
http://www.futuremark.com/images/icons/linkbullet.gif ForceWare 97.94 Drivers (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_97.94.html)
GeForce FX, 6 and 7 Series:
http://www.futuremark.com/images/icons/linkbullet.gif ForceWare 93.71 Drivers (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_93.71.html)

[aaronjb]

Thanks! I still can't hit futuremark.com this morning....

[aaronjb]

OC your CPU a tiny bit to get there >.>

I can't seem to get it past 3450 for anything but a few SuperPi runs. It's a newer e6600, and even with 1.6v it won't make it through a full 3DMark06 run.