Better image quality on GF2/3?

[slim_lim]

Just saw this on Anandtech:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1577&p=5

Any of you folks got the guts to try it? :eek:

[rogue1979]

Good God Almighty!!! I can't believe the difference! I modded both the Gainward Geforce Pro 450 and the Gainward Geforce 2 Ti 500. This is gosh darn amazing! The Pro 450 followed the reference board closely, but only two groups of 3 filters to remove. The Ti 500 was a best guess, there was only 3 filters in the general area that were the same color as the six on the Geforce Pro. I was prepared to resolder if necessary. Both mods worked, instantly on boot up it ws plain to see. The Gainwards have good image quality anyway (or so I thought) and now they are looking better than anything I have ever seen, even my Voodoo 5. Crisper, clearer, more contrast, more detail.
2D text is sharper and colors are better. 3D is even a bigger improvement, one of my favorites is the Demo in 3DMark 2000 and 2001. Wow, that is all I can say, what a difference. If every one with a Geforce 2 did this mod, people would be trashing their Radeons for inferior image quality!

[Arkaine23]

Looks simple enough, especially for a guy who used to do SMT components in a motherboard factory. Think I'll try it this morning on my Leadtek GF2 Ti.

[Twinkle]

Anyone know of a site with the schematics for a GeForce 2 MX 400? They would be real nice cause my board dosnt look too much like either of those.

[Warlord2]

omg believe me it is true

I just did that mod like 10 mins ago and it made the textures like 10 times brighter and sharper

all benchmarks are the same as before though=/

this mod had to be the easyest mod Ive ever done. for my card I had to use these surgical needlenose pliers I had laying around for some of the filters sence things where a little cramped but other thin that it was a sinch


this topic is also in the Alternative mods forum

[Despotes]

I definately have to try this on my GainwardG3Ti/550!
When I get enough courage;)

OK...here I go:eek:

[Yodums]

Newbie alert: So this can be done on the GeForce 2 100/200 right?

I'm not too clear of the diagrams but what exactly are they doing to the 3 rows?

They just take off like a "jumper" or something?

Fill me in.

Yodums

[Despotes]

Just did it! I don't know why the card manufacturers simply don't leave the capacitors off? The difference is amazing! I removed the (2) rows of caps (as in the pic of the VisiontekG3Ti/500) and now the colors are richer and the textures in RTCW are brighter and crisper! Yes, AMAZING!

Yodums: They are simply removing the 3 rows of 3 capacitors(Geforce2). You can carefully crush them with a pair of needle nose pliers and be sure to remove anything remaining without damaging the board. Pretty simple :) Good luck!

[Yodums]

Originally posted by Despotes
Just did it! I don't know why the card manufacturers simply don't leave the capacitors off? The difference is amazing! I removed the (2) rows of caps (as in the pic of the VisiontekG3Ti/500) and now the colors are richer and the textures in RTCW are brighter and crisper! Yes, AMAZING!

Yodums: They are simply removing the 3 rows of 3 capacitors(Geforce2). You can carefully crush them with a pair of needle nose pliers and be sure to remove anything remaining without damaging the board. Pretty simple :) Good luck!

So basically in those three rows you just take out the capcitors?

[slim_lim]

Why manufacturers use those capacitors on their board? Here's the answer straight from Anandtech:

In order to maintain FCC compliance, a low-pass filter is placed just before the analog video output on all cards. A low-pass filter is nothing more than a filter that allows frequencies lower than a certain point to pass through, effectively filtering out all higher frequencies that are not necessary to maintaining the quality of the output signal.

Hmm, maybe I'll try it on *my* (gonna return it to store eventually) GF2 TI. I doubt the slaespeople will notice. ;) A question: if I don't have needle-nose pliers or soldering equipment, what else can I use?

[univox]

You can push sideways with a small screwdriver, just be careful about it. You don't want to destroy any surrounding components. You may have to use this technique to clean up a bit if you crush a capacitor and a big portion of it stays behind.

[RainMaQer]

I want to do this mod... but I just can't bring myself to do it... I mean it's brand new for cripes sake... the warranty is still good (at least I think it is... unless putting AS2 under the hsf voided the warranty)hmmmmmm... I want to... but.... but....hmmmmm:beer:

[Yodums]

Originally posted by RainMaQer
I want to do this mod... but I just can't bring myself to do it... I mean it's brand new for cripes sake... the warranty is still good (at least I think it is... unless putting AS2 under the hsf voided the warranty)hmmmmmm... I want to... but.... but....hmmmmm:beer:

In the same boat I just killed something again I don't really feel like killing another though!

Yodums

[univox]

Originally posted by RainMaQer
I want to do this mod... but I just can't bring myself to do it... I mean it's brand new for cripes sake... the warranty is still good (at least I think it is... unless putting AS2 under the hsf voided the warranty)hmmmmmm... I want to... but.... but....hmmmmm:beer:

I wouldn't worry about it, your sig says you have a Gainward Ti 450. I have one too and the picture quality is pretty damn good.

On the other hand, my old Creative Geforce 2 had craptacular picture quality. Doing the mod just let it catch up with my Gainward.

[RainMaQer]

Yeah... that's right... you hear that... it's gonna stay that way too... hahaha...
No... seriously though, I think I'll leave mine. It's already been such an improvement over my Voodoo 5. I don't want to mess it up or even risk it. I'm already about to put a waterblock on this bad boy... no more moding... heck I won't even take my ramsinks off of it:beer:

[Yodums]

Originally posted by RainMaQer
Yeah... that's right... you hear that... it's gonna stay that way too... hahaha...
No... seriously though, I think I'll leave mine. It's already been such an improvement over my Voodoo 5. I don't want to mess it up or even risk it. I'm already about to put a waterblock on this bad boy... no more moding... heck I won't even take my ramsinks off of it:beer:

Maybe that option had save alot of hassle heeh who knows.

[Rooski]

I did the mod today on my Visiontek gf3 ti200. I used a pair of Mrs. Rooski's cuticle cutters. Just grabbed each cap at it's center and gave a gentle twist. They popped right off.

Upon first boot, the video looked all messed up! Strange, bright outlines around certain objects! I thought I just killed my card! My heart sank deep into my chest cavity as I just stared at the screen wondering what the hell am I gonna do, now!

Well, turns out all I had to do was decrease my monitor's contrast setting. I normally had it set at 100 out of 100 steps. Now I have to set it at around 40.

I must admit, the colors do look quite a bit richer, and has better contrast now! I like the change!

It didn't seem to help the blurriness at high resolutions like I had hoped. I'm using an over 1 year old CTX 19in monitor. I did decide to open up my monitor and re-tweak the focus controls, and readjust the convergence. Took me awhile to get it just right, but I did. Looks much sharper now! Even at 1600x1200. I normally use 1152x864for desktop, and 1024x768 or higher for games. Man, it sure looks better now!

[Yodums]

So basically you just grab the capcitor by the pliers and twist them off gently? I don't think I'll be attempting this as my card works fine the way it is :/


Yodums

[Rooski]

So basically you just grab the capcitor by the pliers and twist them off gently?
Yes. They have to be dinkey little pliers, though. Those caps are tiny!

I have an Aopen gf2mx in my secondary rig. I just may try the mod on that card. If I decide to go with it, I'll post back with the results.

[funnyperson1]

this should be a sticky :)

[Warlord2]

So basically you just grab the capcitor by the pliers and twist them off gently? I don't think I'll be attempting this as my card works fine the way it is :/

basicaly yea

it VERY easy to take thim off you could even maybe pull thim off with your figure nails

I thought my graphics where perfect but after I did the mod EVERYTHING looks better.

and yes I think putting AS2 would void any warranty on the card and if you oc it you just voided it there too.:D

[Monaco]

Ya'll got me pretty interested- my GTS is a bit washed out.

Is there anything BAD that can potentially happen from doing this?

[RainMaQer]

Originally posted by Warlord2

and if you oc it you just voided it there too.:D

The glory of the Golden Sample revealed:D Warranty covers overclocking;) Just not too the extent of mine:p

[Rooski]

Ok, just modded the Aopen gf2 mx in my secondary rig. The color improvement, if any, is not as dramatic as my VT gf3 ti200 was. Maybe because my gf2mx already was missing the middle row of caps.

I do notice a slightly sharper image quality, though. Enough of an improvement to allow me to comfortably increase my desktop resolution a notch :)

[slim_lim]

Well, duh, of course pulling components off your vid card can potentially screw it up or even kill it. And, of course, void your warranty too. So, don't do it if you can't take the risk.
If you do decide to do it, I think it's best if you know how to soldier and have approprite equipment, so you can reverse the mod if it goes wrong. If you crush/clip them off, you gotta live with the consequences whatever they may be. Personally, I still cant bring myself to do it.
As for overclocking voiding the warranty, I wouldn't worry abut that. There's no way you could tell by the card's appearance if it's been overclocked or not.

[slim_lim]

OK, here's a link to a more in-deph description of this mod:

http://www.geocities.com/porotuner/imagequality.html#gf2gtsmx_ref

I'm a little confused: this document says you're supposed to short the inductors too, not just remove caps. :confused:

[Warlord2]

I'm a little confused: this document says you're supposed to short the inductors too, not just remove caps

that is the advanced way of doing it, they also said there was almost no improvment if any after they did the shorting out method

As for overclocking voiding the warranty, I wouldn't worry abut that. There's no way you could tell by the card's appearance if it's been overclocked or not.

no you wont be able to see it but it is still voiding your warranty

I dont think most people would notice the filters missing either, so I guess you can get away with sending it back in that case too.
;)

[slim_lim]

Hehe, they can't void your warranty for o/c'ing if they don't know, and they won't know if you won't tell them :D.
Anyhow, I did the mod. Well, the good news is that the card still works, the bad news is that I see zero improvement. :(
*edit* ok, maybe I see a little improvement, but not enough to matter. 1600x1200 is still blurry as ever.

[Yodums]

Hmmm I got big time away with my RMA of my card to the vendor clerk.

I applied ASII, I had the blorb on forgot to take it off told them it was my fan they saw the ASII I gave them back the stock heatsink.

I cleaned off some ASII on the traces of the card and I got my card back in another series!

Haha!

Yodums

[Myself and I]

So there are 3 rows and 9 capcitors to clip off right?
I have a visiontek geforce 3 ti 200

[slim_lim]

There may be 2 rows/6 caps depending on your card. Some GF3's already have one row missing from the factory. Be careful and don't clip off the wrong things! The capacitors are the tiny square things, marked with C### on the PCB. Try one row at a time and see what happens.

[Myself and I]

I see six on the geforce 3 ti 200 from visiontek but the other 3 capcitors are different . They look small but they are black

[Monaco]

of course there is a risk associated with overclocking and tinkering like this, that's part of what makes it fun!:)

All I'm saying is there has to be a REASON why they are putting these resistors on there. Who knows if there is a one in a trillion chance that your monitor could send a short back through your card and fry your whole system, and these resistors protect against it.

I'm sure that is waaaay extreme, I doubt there is anything that bad that could happen, I'm just wondering what these things DO! I know they are supposed to roll off hi-freq signal, but why is that important?

[Myself and I]

Ok read this visiontek geforce 3 ti 200 owners

I just clipped off 2 rows = 6 capcitors from the front to the back.
I noticed that the contrast is alot better now then before.
Am i supposed to break off the other 3 towards the back?
they look different like they are black
thanks

[slim_lim]

No! Don't do it! Those are resistors - you break them off, say bye-bye to your card! Read the thread on this subject @ Anandtech forums. A few ppl there already made this mistake and now have big, expensive keychains. :eek:

[slim_lim]

Monster of Rock, this filter is in place to reduce electromagnetic radiation along the monitor cable and comply with FCC standards. Supposedly disabling the filter may cause interference with other electronic eqipment, such as cellphones, radios, etc. So far no such effects have been reported as a result of this mod.

[Myself and I]

i dont think you understand what i mean
i know the big black resistors are not the ones to clip
The 3rd row towards the back is what im talking about they look smaller then the other ones. maybe those are the ones that are already missing?
I need a visiontek geforce 3 ti 200 user to reply

[Monaco]

slim, thanks! I think I'm gonna risk it on my GTS here. I'm going to solder them off so I can put them back on if needed, just in case:)

just gotta find a soldering iron tip that small...off to Radio Shack!:)

[slim_lim]

OK, suit yourself, fella. But I wouldn't do it - if you don't know for sure, it's better to leave it alone. There's a picture in the Anandtech article (link in the orinal post) of a GF3 ti500 and what you're supposed to remove - I don't know if it's similar to ti200 but take a look. I do know that a few anandtecg users reported removing "small black things" that caused their cards to stop working, though.

[Myself and I]

yeah slim jim sorry for the missunderstanding you are right about those last 3 filters. It will screw up your card big time. I did however remove the 6 in the front which look just like the ones in the picture. My 2d seems better but to tell you the truth its so minor i cant really tell.
hey your name makes me want to go buy some slim jims tonight im addicted to those things

[slim_lim]

Yeah, I did this mod on a Visiontek GF2 TI yesterday and it didn't do much for me either. So I guess results vary from card to card and how bad your IQ was to start with.
Sorry to disappoint you, my nick slim_lim is short for Stoned Lim-Lim (anybody guess where I got it? ;) ) -- no relation to slim jims.

[Myself and I]

actually i do see a difference in picture under windows however i havent really tested it in games.
2d is much clearer, and better looking i like it
i cant believe all the people who killed or screwed up their video cards already.
I am still puzzled why my card only had 2 rows and not 3. The 3rd row is where people are messing up and breaking off the little black resistors. I guess they now have a worse picture

[funnyperson1]

just killed my video card...:eh?:

[RainMaQer]

Originally posted by funnyperson1
just killed my video card...:eh?:

What'd you do?:eh?: Clip the wrong ones?

[slim_lim]

:eek: Oh no! What happened?!

[Myself and I]

I dont see how unless you clipped the last row towards the back or you didnt use good needlenose pliers.
My 2d is probbly comparable to the radeon now or better.
i guess we have good days and bad days, dont feel bad i killed a xp1800 a month ago

i bought a xp2000 and i wont unlock it until i can buy another xp2000+ at 100bucks

[funnyperson1]

i used needlenose for one row for other two i used a screwdriver...maybe it slipped...oh well dont wanna think aobut it :eh?:

[Myself and I]

Yeah thats it probbly what happened.
I took my pliers and grabbed the center and crushed the resistor. i then scraped it off with my nail easy as that.
my card only has 2 rows and the 3rd row on my card is where people are killing their cards. you only remove the first 2 rows.
i cant believe people are trying to remove their resistors safely so they can resodder them lol
its impossible

[slim_lim]

I used hair tweezers to grab and twist off the caps. In the process 2 got crushed.
funnyperson1, unless you removed the wrong parts, chances are you may yet repair your card. Perhaps there was some conductive debris left after you removed the caps? Blow air on card surface to clean it up, and maybe it'll start working again. Or possibly you damaged a trace on the PCP with your screwdriver? Examine the area thru the magnifying glass, and if you find it's true, you could attempt to reconnect the trace with electrically conductive paint or something. I don't know that much about electronics, so maybe someone with expertise can give you a better advice on how to do it.

[Monaco]

it's not too hard to desolder PC-mount stuff, as long as you have the right tools. Putting them back on is even easier.

Even if you don't have the right tools, a regular soldering iron and a piece of scrap metal for a heat sink will work ok if you have a very steady hand. Sloppy, but ok. Those things are mighty close together on my GTS, I think I'll practice on a TNT or something first- too many folks having bad luck! lol:D

[Karsta]

I just removed those 9 capacitors from Asus V8200d. I used pliers and soldering iron - still I broke some of those caps. Anyway I wouldn't put them back - image quality is so much better now:D

Finally I can use 1280x1024. And with crisper picture than with lower resolutions before! It was really worth the risk.

[funnyperson1]

mine has a little pcb cver over the monitor plug restricting access to the capacitors....im pretty sure i did the mod right....since i have never soldered before (and i crushed the caps) i think ill probably have to just get a 7500 to replace it....one good thing is i mihgt actually study for my midterms instead of playing RTCW

[Placid]

I asked someone who works for nvidia what the negative to doing this mod is and this is what he said.


"It'll cause shifting of the dynamic range... EG, display luminance linearity is affected as well as lessening over voltage output protection."

Dosen't sound too bad so do whatever.

[univox]

For those who damaged their card removing the filter, don't give up hope yet.

Some of you may have damaged the inductors or the protection Diodes (the little black "resistor" people keep refering too). If you install a jumper to bypass the the filter curcuit as I have shown with the red lines in the attached picture, you may be able to save your card.

Edit: If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself I'm sure you can get a local electronic repair shop to do it for $10-20.

[Monaco]

good info there Placid. Looks like that is PR-speak for 'it messes with your brightness controls" heh heh :)

looks like an acceptable risk to me!

[funnyperson1]

Originally posted by univox
For those who damaged their card removing the filter, don't give up hope yet.

Some of you may have damaged the inductors or the protection Diodes (the little black "resistor" people keep refering too). If you install a jumper to bypass the the filter curcuit as I have shown with the red lines in the attached picture, you may be able to save your card.

Edit: If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself I'm sure you can get a local electronic repair shop to do it for $10-20.

i may try it, but again that plastc cover will be a pain..

[Myself and I]

I think the 2d is alot better and it seems i can adjust my contrast and brightness better now.
someone post a screen shot of their desktop because i cant tell if mine is really better
lol

[slim_lim]

That won't work. The difference in this case is not in the digital rendering quality but in the way the analog image is displayed. Thus a screenshot showing off the "improved" image quality will look just as good or as bad as any image on your system.
Ok, this may be a little confusing, so I'll try to give you an analogy: Suppose there's a beautiful painting on a wall. Two persons are looking at it, except one has excellent vision and other has very bad vision (and suppose there's no such thing as eyeglasses). Even though they're looking at the exact same painting, one sees a much better image than the other. It would be impossible for one to take a picture and show the other how much better/worse his image is because the other would still be viewing the picture thru his excellent/very bad eyes.

[FIRESTARR357]

I have a visiontec G2 mx400 i cliped the first two rows and the card is not dead.But there is a space that looks like there would be another set but there is not then behind that there is another ro and they seem to be the same in every way should i clip them or no?

[funnyperson1]

yes, thank you thank you thank you....i gave it a nice bath in Alcohol (not beer, Isopropyl:beer: ) and it works....praise be to the Lord (though im not a Christian, i guess it still applies) i havent noticed any improvement in quality though...

[Myself and I]

I have before and after pic of my desktop and you can tell a difference
some reason i cant upload pics bigger than 600*600
oh well

[Yodums]

Originally posted by funnyperson1
yes, thank you thank you thank you....i gave it a nice bath in Alcohol (not beer, Isopropyl:beer: ) and it works....praise be to the Lord (though im not a Christian, i guess it still applies) i havent noticed any improvement in quality though...


Alcohol, for the many times it saved our asses from ASII on the leads to this! :D

Yodums

[funnyperson1]

Originally posted by Yodums



Alcohol, for the many times it saved our asses from ASII on the leads to this! :D

Yodums

yeah dude, i need to treasure this bottle, remember it also resurrected my PIII600....and oh yeah, colors do look brighter...its not that far off my Rage Fury Pro now in image quality.....but its still off:D ....

[Yodums]

Originally posted by funnyperson1


yeah dude, i need to treasure this bottle, remember it also resurrected my PIII600....

Yup... Thats why I was referring to cleaning the leads off the slot catridge leads :D

[funnyperson1]

Originally posted by Yodums


Yup... Thats why I was referring to cleaning the leads off the slot catridge leads :D

amen brother...maybe i should send some of this to you so yu can wipe off that Celly and BH6

[RainMaQer]

Congrats funnyperson1... I'm glad you got your card workin... I noticed you play RTCW... try Bid for Power (Quake 3 TC)... kicks but:D

[funnyperson1]

Originally posted by RainMaQer
Congrats funnyperson1... I'm glad you got your card workin... I noticed you play RTCW... try Bid for Power (Quake 3 TC)... kicks but:D

dont have Quake III i only had it for like a month, i beat the game and then gave the cd back to my friend...

[Rezman5]

I am confused on which to cut/take off. There are 3 sets of the, should I be taking off all 9, or the first 2 sets from left to right, or the last to from left to right. PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME! I am using a GeForce2 MX400 if that helps.

[funnyperson1]

study the picture at anandtech, the boxes you cut off should all be identical, and there may be a row missing, also anantech links to another article which shows it on a Kercules MX400 that only has two rows, look at that too...

[Rezman5]

I took a pic of the area. Sorry about the bluriness, can someone please tell me when to remove?

[slim_lim]

See if this is any help:

http://www.geocities.com/porotuner/imagequality.html#gf2gtsmx_ref

Remove the capacitors. DOT NO REMOVE THE INDUCTORS! Ignore what it says about shorting them out. It's optional.

[Rezman5]

OK, thank you, will try it in the morning, dont want to risk it while this tired. I will let you know how it goes!

[FIRESTARR357]

Just took out the last 3 on my G2 mx400,works fine and looks better not leaps and bounds but is better

[dabhpr]

...Just finished removing the 9 capacitors from my Visiontek GF3 Ti200 card, which is modded to a Quadro DDC...

It has measurably improved my clarity on the desktop, running at 1600X1200, 32-bit.

My caps are exactly in the position shown in the photos in the Anandtech article.

YMMV:D

[Myself and I]

i only removed 6 caps on my geforce 2 ti 200 visiontek
did you remove the black caps ? those are not supposed to be removed. as far as i know peoples visiontek cards with the last 3 caps towards the back of the card are not supposed to be clipped

[oc jason]

jsut did the mod, not much difference-but improved

Leadtek Winfast Geforce 2 Pro 64

[slim_lim]

I do have to wonder why this mod works so well for some people and does nothing for others. You could argue that some cards like my Visiontek GF2 TI already have high quality components and good visual quality (and it certainly is leaps and bounds better than my old TNT) so the mod has nothing to improve on. But... some of you are reportinmg clear image @ 1600x1200 and for me it's just as blurry as ever, despite the mod.

[Karsta]

I just had to write here once more. This has to be the best mod I've ever made! All the cooling and voltage mods etc. are o/c oriented and merely for fun but this one gives rest for eyes - does so even at higher resolution where text is smaller. I have now better image quality with 1280x1024x32 than I had with 1024x768x32.

[Karsta]

1600x1200 is blurry for me also. But it is the highest resolution of this Samsung SyncMaster 950p. And as it is 19" monitor picture is too small for that resolution anyway.

I guess it is so that some cards have better quality components than others. Also it is possible that not everybodys monitors can give good picture at all resolutions. After the mod I had to readjust the monitor (the focus too as I changed resolution) to get the full advantage.

[Myself and I]

I can tell with my visiontek geforce 3 ti 200 in windows and 3dgames
colors are brighter and clearer. i.e winamp skins , windows messenger. for some reason certain colors stand out alittle better than before.
I think its a good improvment over from what i had i do believe.
i have before and after pics of my desktop but you cant upload but 600*600 pics mine are 1280*1024

[oc jason]

send them to me and ill compress them to 600x600

[Myself and I]

i did compress them to 600*600 in paint but it reduces the picture size

[Arkaine23]

Wow, somehow I knew this thread would just take off while I was gone over the weekend. I did this mod friday morning and noticed a slight improvement in sharpness and colors, especially at higher resolutions. 3dmark score remains unaffected. This was a Leadtek GF2 Ti... guess looking at other posts, that Leadtek already has fairly decent filter capacitors in place, so the improvement is slight, or maybe I just need to adjust the settings on my monitor a little.

Whatever the case, I'm glad I did this mod. If the improvement is noticeable, then it was definitely worth it.

For those asking about it, remove 1, 2 or 3 rows of 3 capacitors. Test in between or remove all three rows at once if you like. Some cards may only have two rows of caps (Visiontek, it seems and some others). Make sure all these caps look exactly the same and have C### printed on the PCB next to them. See the pics in this thread and the anadtech article before you do this mod.

[RainMaQer]

Originally posted by Myself and I
i did compress them to 600*600 in paint but it reduces the picture size

Go to "stretch-skew" instead of "attributes"... this will resize the whole image rather than crop some of it off:)

[slim_lim]

Well, I returned my GF2 TI back to store as planned, and now i'm back to TNT (until I can buy someting better online). Blurrrrrrrsville... I wonder if I can mod it too. I don't have any schematics for a TNT, so I don't know which caps to pull.

[Arkaine23]

doesn't the anandtech article link to another site with other cards' designs? I thought I saw something about TNT2's on that other site.

[TruckChase!]

Originally posted by Myself and I
i did compress them to 600*600 in paint but it reduces the picture size

Don't bother. Screenshots are a capture of the frame buffer. The frame buffer is before it gets sent to the monitor, so the screenshots will show no differance.

[slim_lim]

Yeah, thats what I told him, but he won't believe me.

[Über~PhLuBB]

I'm gonna be honest. When I was ripping that first component off with my needlenose pliers, my first thought was "This beter not be one of those joke threads. Some people are going to be in SERIOUS trouble if it is... not to mention I'll be screwed".

When I got all 9 off and plugged it in, I didn't see any difference. I still don't. I suppose there's no harm done, the card still works just fine. I am a little dissapointed that I took such a risk for no gain though. Eh well, that's overclocking. =P

Edit: Holy GOD. I just changed from 1024 x 768 to 1280 x 1024. WOW. Before, I could barely read anything, it was so blurry. But now... Just wow!

[Myself and I]

you can see a difference in the screen shots in msn messenger

[Myself and I]

before mod shot
notice msn is not colorful after the mod

[Myself and I]

This is the after shot when i did the mod. Notice msn is more colorful and clearer.

[Myself and I]

from oberserving the pics i can see the win messenger is alot more colorful after the mod and on the start bar , the start icon where the windows logo is more colorful than before.
blue seem alot more richer after the mod. i did notice that winamp is alot more clearer and brighter and looks a whole lot better after i did the mod.
but i cant show that

[Karsta]

The only way to prove it would be taking a photograph from close distance before and after the mod. It should be taken so that pixels can be distinguished also in final picture file.

[Myself and I]

trust me you can see a difference especially in 2d

[rogue1979]

It definately looks richer and clearer. I go the same results with a Gainward Geforce2 Ti 500, Gainward Pro 450 and PNY Geforce MX-200 32MB.

[Myself and I]

I dont know why people dont believe us
i dont think they even did the mod
lol

[ken257]

I just did this mod a few min ago to my GF2 Ultra which I run at 270/500 and it made a BIG improvement in 2D. The color is better and text on the screen is very clear and sharp now just as it is with my Radeon :D I am about to test it in 3D with some games.

[Myself and I]

i cant really tell in 3dgames however i did see a big improvment in 2d where the geforce lacks considerably against all other vid cards esspcially 3dfx voodoo 5.
winamp on my screen looks better and all other apps.
i did noticed that 3d games are now alot brighter and less darker and i do find that i dont need to increase the brightness as much since the detail is better.

[Despotes]

Yeah, in gaming the textures have more detail and the colors are richer and brighter. Nice improvement in my Gainward G3 Ti/550:)

[Myself and I]

bump

[Cowboy X]

this will definitely hurt companies like leadtech who have gone to lengths by putting on high quality capacitors in their latest.


Now my gainward will look just as good or even better.:D

[Myself and I]

Yeah i know what you mean i got a visiontek geforce 3 ti 200 from best buy for 99 dollars after rebates this past christmas and now my 2d rocks . i will forget about the radeon now :D
Oh yeah by the way i got it 243/520 rock stable:cool:
You should go to the annadtech fourm where they talk about this article because there are like 10 people who already killed or screwed up their geforce 3 cards something bad:o
not me though:D

[Cowboy X]

This post should be a sticky !!

[AMD900*]

i already broke all 9 capacitors is this all?

[ken257]

Originally posted by AMD900*
i already broke all 9 capacitors is this all?

Yup you got it. Removing the 9 caps is all I did and it was WELL worth it :D

[MadMan007]

Originally posted by Placid
I asked someone who works for nvidia what the negative to doing this mod is and this is what he said.


"It'll cause shifting of the dynamic range... EG, display luminance linearity is affected as well as lessening over voltage output protection."

Dosen't sound too bad so do whatever.

The second part of that sentence is what worries me. What is this over voltage output protection? Does this mean there is a chance of damaging your monitor, ie more voltage can be output to it? Something to consider if you have a really expensive monitor...

[Myself and I]

BUmp

[Yodums]

I foughy my fear.

I did it.

It kicked ass!!!

The forums look so sharper and stuff where before it was all fadish color not too dark now its really in depth.

Just take really thin long needle pliers and grab the capcitor and just twist it and it comes off very easily.


Yodums

[splateee]

I agree with everyone on the improvements. I did it in 10 minutes and i am happy with the results. The only other thing i needed to do was to lower my contrast on the monitor.
visiontek g3 @ 245/550

[Yodums]

Mod for me took like 3 mins it was fast.

Yodums

[Element-Xero]

what an improvement! Best five minutes I ever spent with tweezers!!

[rUfUnKy]

I didn't notice a diference ..when I get the time im going to short the inductors and see if that helps...

[Ifishsum]

Did this mod on my Chaintech GF2ti...definitely notice a difference in clarity. Those caps are small!!! used a a hemostat clamp and just a little twist. This deserves mod of the month!

[Arkaine23]

Originally posted by Ifishsum
Did this mod on my Chaintech GF2ti...definitely notice a difference in clarity. Those caps are small!!! used a a hemostat clamp and just a little twist. This deserves mod of the month!

Mod of the month is right, or at the very least a sticky!! What's up moderators? Do you all use Ati Radeon's?

[Despotes]

:beer:

[Element-Xero]

lol, the drunken bump...

[DAGO]

Still seems like a helluva chance to take...If you fubar the card, you can't realistically expect to return it with such obvious tampering...So unless you can afford to wreck the thing and just prance off to purchase another, it doesn't sound like a real good idea to me. My GF2 will remain as it is now...pitiful, but functional.

My 2 cents...:D

[slim_lim]

IMO, this mod should come with a big red warning sticker. Although alot of people got significant improvement out of it, a significant minority hopelessly damaged thier cards. I think Anand made an ethical mistake making it seem so cool and easy in his article. Those of you thinking about doing it, should decide if they can deal with the potential consequences of a broken card.

[Yodums]

Originally posted by DAGO
Still seems like a helluva chance to take...If you fubar the card, you can't realistically expect to return it with such obvious tampering...So unless you can afford to wreck the thing and just prance off to purchase another, it doesn't sound like a real good idea to me. My GF2 will remain as it is now...pitiful, but functional.

My 2 cents...:D

May sound complicated but its not.

Your just get long needle nose pliers and grabbing them and twisting and they pop right off and this mod was done in 2 minutes for me. The people probably won't even know the capcitors are missing.

If you fubar your card then thats weird because all the caps are listed on the card so its pretty easy to identify which's which's.

Yodums

[Element-Xero]

Yeah I agree with Yodums.

If you don't have enough confidence in the amount of motor skills it takes to twist off a capacitor with some pliers, then you SHOULDN'T attempt this mod (or any hardware mods for that matter). But for most people, this really is a very very basic hardware mod. Basically you are your own judge. If you don't feel comfortable, then don't do it. Cuz its really not something that you can't live without. But if you have some idea of what you're doing and 3 minutes its a sweet little improvement.

[HiProfile]

I will be doing this mod right after I finish a d/l (a 412mb d/l). I have great experience with soldering, so I will desolder them. I tested on an old moboard with caps (just checking resistance), and all 10 tries, both removing AND replacing, went fine. The card is an Inno3d GF2ti that (luckly) has a very similar config to the Anandtech pic. Heck, if I can save the new warranty...


To all the people out there who have destroyed their cards by clipping the "black thingys" (resistors): if you can solder a wire onto the little pads where the resistors were, you may be able to salvage your card. Granted the SMD resistors are tiny, the kind RS sells are just as capable. I have no clue as to what they were rated for on a given card, but you can just ask someone with the same card what the 3 #'s are. You can determine the ohm rating by taking the first two #'s and substitute them for AB and the third for C, then use this equation: ABx10^C. Solder 2 wires (from an ATA66 or ATA33 cable) on each end of the Radioshack resistor and solder each wire to a solder pad. I don't know if the absence of the resistors "blew out" the card, but this won't work if it did.

[HiProfile]

Not exactly what I was expecting, but there is an improvement.

I decided to save the caps. The both end rows were a tight fit, but my soldering iron has a pitted tip that allowed the cap to almost stick to the iron.

[Hellraiser]

has anyone tried the following?
this is a sort of test for the mod to see if it really helps.
i thought that by making a net out of short wires which have the exact distances t short all the capasitors and resistors and by simply , while the pc is running , laying the net of wires over the parts, if it is possible to see the instant change of quality.
this way you could check if it works and/or how much better the image quality is.

please give me some feedback on this.

thx

[tyPo_negitive]

Originally posted by Hellraiser
i thought that by making a net out of short wires which have the exact distances t short all the capasitors and resistors and by simply , while the pc is running , laying the net of wires over the parts, if it is possible to see the instant change of quality.


It sounds like you are trying to short the resistors. Pulling out the resisters raises the resistance to infanate, shorting them would do quite the opposit and make the resistance 0. By shorting them you allow current to go through without problem, where as breaking them, the current must take another way arround. The filter is set up so that frequancys outside the limits of the filter will take the resistor to ground out. By takeing the resistor out, you force ALL frequancys to go through to your moniter.

Umm.. so basicly, if i lossed you, it would be impossable to test, without breaking the resistors. And noone in there right mind would do so with the card turned on, unless hes got lots of cards to spair. :)

I can tell you though that running Q3 Arena before and after was quite noticable, it made the whole screen seem brighter.

[Hellraiser]

u are right. i mixed something up there. i thought that by making this net of wires i would do exactly what u do by removing the parts.
oups. sorry bout that. really mixed that up.

[rUfUnKy]

After doing this mod has anyone run into this problem ..a finger print like impresions in the corners of the screen ..by adjusting the contrast and brightness I can make it almost unnoticeable but its really agrivateing me!!I took a pic with my cam (obveously it would not show on a print screen)Just in case you couldn't see what I was talking about I drew on the pic so you can see were I'm getting these impresions and what they look like..

[Cisco Kid]

Welcomne to the world o what ATI owners experience everyday, hehehe just ribbing ya boys.

Simple fix why would Nvidia not do this off the bat??

Cisco KId

[Über~PhLuBB]

Originally posted by rUfUnKy
After doing this mod has anyone run into this problem ..a finger print like impresions in the corners of the screen ..by adjusting the contrast and brightness I can make it almost unnoticeable but its really agrivateing me!!I took a pic with my cam (obveously it would not show on a print screen)Just in case you couldn't see what I was talking about I drew on the pic so you can see were I'm getting these impresions and what they look like..

That's called a moire pattern. Hopefully your monitor has a moire adjustment setting. If not, I dunno what to say. You might have popped off the wrong caps. =(

I twisted off the SMALL ones. If you twisted off the big ones, I don't know the consequences, but apparently, they're bad.

Have you tried a different monitor? Perhaps your monitor is old enough that it can't take the new frequencies being pumped into it by your vidcard now. Before the mod, it was only getting mid-frequencies. Now it's getting higher highs and lower lows, and might not be able to cope.

[slim_lim]

Your monitor may have a moire adjustment setting. Mine does. Play around with it and maybe you can ge your problem to go away.

[funnyperson1]

Originally posted by Cisco Kid
Welcomne to the world o what ATI owners experience everyday, hehehe just ribbing ya boys.

Simple fix why would Nvidia not do this off the bat??

Cisco KId

they cant...its not theyre problem its Hercules, MSI, ASUS, Gainward, and Powercolors problem...Nvidia can only make the chip.....

[rUfUnKy]

Originally posted by Über~PhLuBB


That's called a moire pattern. Hopefully your monitor has a moire adjustment setting. If not, I dunno what to say. You might have popped off the wrong caps. =(

I twisted off the SMALL ones. If you twisted off the big ones, I don't know the consequences, but apparently, they're bad.

Have you tried a different monitor? Perhaps your monitor is old enough that it can't take the new frequencies being pumped into it by your vidcard now. Before the mod, it was only getting mid-frequencies. Now it's getting higher highs and lower lows, and might not be able to cope. Nope I twisted the right ones off and you were right it was the moire adjustment..I never knew what that was for guess now I know...Thanks alot !! I feal much better now :D and thanks slim_lim

[Element-Xero]

what is moire? It doesnt have any effect on my monitors display.

[Über~PhLuBB]

Originally posted by Element-Xero
what is moire? It doesnt have any effect on my monitors display.

That's because you don't have a moire problem. =)

That's one of those gray areas with me. I would know a moire pattern if I saw it, but I can't really describe what it is. I CAN however show you. Here's a picture of the bottom of a HSF from the main page. The moire pattern is the half-concentric lines that are not part of the pattern on the HSF's base.

This is a good example. The lines on the underside of the HSF are not actually there, it's just that there are machining marks on the bottom, and when displayed on a monitor, this pattern appears.
http://www.overclockers.com/articles505/ark41.jpg

Here's one with a little less subtle moire.
http://www.overclockers.com/articles454/al80452.jpg

Sometimes when you resize a picture that has many horizontal lines, a moire pattern will develop.

[bose70]

can I do my creative labs geforce 256 ddr card
I see no ref to it and I took a look at the card and although I can see the caps they are not exactly the same as the geforce2mx
Bose

[Yodums]

Originally posted by bose70
can I do my creative labs geforce 256 ddr card
I see no ref to it and I took a look at the card and although I can see the caps they are not exactly the same as the geforce2mx
Bose

Do you see three rows of them on the bottom left of the car with resistors as well? The resistors should be black.

[Über~PhLuBB]

Originally posted by bose70
can I do my creative labs geforce 256 ddr card
I see no ref to it and I took a look at the card and although I can see the caps they are not exactly the same as the geforce2mx
Bose

I knew what to look for when I modded my GeForce2 Ultra, but I didn't want to try it with my GF256. I wasn't absolutely certain which caps to pop off, and when I'm not certain, I'm not gonna take the risk.

[NickLNitro]

Damn i removed all 9 on my geforce 2 mx400 (Pine) and there is almost no difference in color but when i up the resolution to about 1600x1200 i notice it's much clearer than before

[rUfUnKy]

Originally posted by NickLNitro
Damn i removed all 9 on my geforce 2 mx400 (Pine) and there is almost no difference in color but when i up the resolution to about 1600x1200 i notice it's much clearer than before Yah if you had high Quality filters on there you wont notice much of a diference in lower resolutions...

[Supratik]

Has anybody attempted this mod with this card? How have results been? Are there two or three rows?

Thanks!

[WeaponX]

I have that card and there are three rows. ALmost all the Geforce 2 cards have the same amount of rows.

[Supratik]

Okay... And, you have, of course, performed this modification? Is there any noticeable difference in picture quality?

[slim_lim]

If you read thru the thread you'll see that results have varied. Some people got dramatic improvement, some none at all (like me). A few people had the brighness on the card increase dramtically so they had to commpenstate via monitor controls. A few did it wrong and screwed up their cards.