My 8800GT SLI Overclock with Thermaltake ND1's

homer77 · Nov 3, 2007

I just got ND1 to replace my stock 8800gt hsf (haven't installed yet). If you are only getting ~60C full load on the ND1, then I am kind of disappointed at ND1. My stock with 100% fan speed with 120mm blowing on top is getting me 66C full load.

I'll have to try it myself and see if I am getting the same result.

GoldenTiger · Nov 3, 2007

homer77 said:
I just got ND1 to replace my stock 8800gt hsf (haven't installed yet). If you are only getting ~60C full load on the ND1, then I am kind of disappointed at ND1. My stock with 100% fan speed with 120mm blowing on top is getting me 66C full load.

I'll have to try it myself and see if I am getting the same result.

At what speeds, though? The shaders especially drastically affect the temperatures. I have a 120mm case fan blowing toward the side of the cards... one other thing to note is the ND1's fan is very quiet, if it ran faster it would definitely cool better. It pushes a good amount of air, though. The stock one is noisy as a race car at 100%

, I couldn't stand it in my already-noisy-feeling system at 66-70%, let alone 100%. The more important thing is the temp difference, because ambients vary... my guess would be you'll see an equivalent drop. Another thing to note is mine are in SLI, which can cause extra heat.

Just plopped in an order at the 'egg for this:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=122&page_num=4
"Rosewill" (newegg brand) RX750-S-B

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182067&Tpk=Rosewill+RX750-S-B

I really think I'm power-limited, and if not, I must be right on the precipice... we'll see as to whether it helps (I think it will), but if not, it's room for the future

.

HousERaT · Nov 3, 2007

If you're going to spend that much for a PSU you might want to consider the HX620.

GoldenTiger · Nov 3, 2007

HousERaT said:
If you're going to spend that much for a PSU you might want to consider the HX620.

I was considering that, but according to the reviews, this PSU should be roughly as good quality-wise, but have higher wattage. If you think I'm wrong, tell me though

... I could cancel the order and pick up the HX 620 locally tomorrow.

EDIT: Oh my... didn't realize newegg carried this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006 It's the new 750-watt version of the HX 620... cancelled the other one's order, gonna order this after I get feedback

.

homer77 · Nov 3, 2007

GoldenTiger said:
At what speeds, though? The shaders especially drastically affect the temperatures. I have a 120mm case fan blowing toward the side of the cards... one other thing to note is the ND1's fan is very quiet, if it ran faster it would definitely cool better. It pushes a good amount of air, though. The stock one is noisy as a race car at 100% , I couldn't stand it in my already-noisy-feeling system at 66-70%, let alone 100%. The more important thing is the temp difference, because ambients vary... my guess would be you'll see an equivalent drop. Another thing to note is mine are in SLI, which can cause extra heat.

I m running @ 740/1850/1000 core/shader/mem.

Since you are running at SLI so the temp around the cards will be higher than mine at single card. So I m hoping I can get a better result than 60C.

Tweak486Dx2 · Nov 3, 2007

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=3617061

I scored like 15,226 with a single 8800gt. Somethings up with your setup, is SLI even enabled? I dont think its PSU related at all, do you watch your 12v rails under load?

My 12v rail dips down to around 11.84!! And i still break 15,200 with one card. Power supplys dont make stuff run slow, they just make your computer freeze or crash when they cant keep up.

I would re-install ALL drivers and make sure SLI is enabled and you have it setup correctly. A REAL bad score for you should be 17,000. Your scores are exactly the same and the same clocked scores I was getting with 1 card. Check your connections.

GoldenTiger · Nov 3, 2007

Tweak486Dx2 said:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=3617061

I scored like 15,226 with a single 8800gt. Somethings up with your setup, is SLI even enabled? I dont think its PSU related at all, do you watch your 12v rails under load?

My 12v rail dips down to around 11.84!! And i still break 15,200 with one card. Power supplys dont make stuff run slow, they just make your computer freeze or crash when they cant keep up.

I would re-install ALL drivers and make sure SLI is enabled and you have it setup correctly. A REAL bad score for you should be 17,000. Your scores are exactly the same and the same clocked scores I was getting with 1 card. Check your connections.

Hmmmm... no, I don't have a way to watch my rails under load (don't own a multimeter yet, gonna buy one for when I go to voltmod though). I'll try the 169.01 drivers and see if they help, and maybe the 169.04's again... I have SLI enabled, but it crashes when I try to disable it, meaning something may be up with the drivers too.

Part of your high score is the extra CPU speed... mine's 3.15 @ 350 1:1, yours is 3.6 @ 400. I've double-checked connections already and found nothing missing/loose

.

As far as the PSU, I ran into someone at XS who said he had a similar situation with underperformance and measured his PSU draw at about its peak, once he swapped to a better one his system performed better without adjusting anything else. I know it's gotta be borderline already, so I'm going to buy a new one regardless, even if just for future-proofing and to have some extra power around.

I'll be back...

Tweak486Dx2 · Nov 4, 2007

I think I just found your problem. Your using the wrong drivers. 8800Gt has 1 driver and 1 driver only. Its the 169.02 THATS IT. If your using the 169.01 or the 04's your using G80 core drivers. The 8800Gt is a totally different card with a 8800 name, diffferent core, different PCB, and different drivers.

I willing to bet after installing the correct drivers your problems will be solved and u will be crowned king with a 06 score of 17,000+!!

Please install the 169.02's and report back immed.

EDIT::

Here ya go....http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_169.02.html Just install those and call me in the morning.

Hazaro · Nov 4, 2007

Tweak486Dx2 said:
I think I just found your problem. Your using the wrong drivers. 8800Gt has 1 driver and 1 driver only. Its the 169.02 THATS IT. If your using the 169.01 or the 04's your using G80 core drivers. The 8800Gt is a totally different card with a 8800 name, diffferent core, different PCB, and different drivers.

I willing to bet after installing the correct drivers your problems will be solved and u will be crowned king with a 06 score of 17,000+!!

Please install the 169.02's and report back immed.

EDIT::

Here ya go....http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_169.02.html Just install those and call me in the morning.

>_________<

****

I was using the 169.04 drivers when windows died on me (Boot driver, no going past welcome screen, and I had to reinstall)

If that is true, then definitely make sure people are getting the 169.02.

Tweak486Dx2 · Nov 4, 2007

These cards require there own drivers, I really dont know how you guys got the other drivers to even install?>?? I tried it and it would not let me.

IF your using the regular 8800GTS/GTX/Ultra driver u might as well just be using an ATI driver.

169.02 is all we get with these cards, wether Vista or Xp.

In the link I provided above, u can read where it says Products supported and only the GT is listed.

M Diddy · Nov 4, 2007

Uh.... The GT is also supported by the 169.04 drivers.... Don't think that's the issue....

Tweak486Dx2 · Nov 4, 2007

YES I just saw that, well I would still install the 169.02, they seem to be Gt ONLY and there the newest.

GoldenTiger · Nov 4, 2007

Tweak486Dx2 said:
I think I just found your problem. Your using the wrong drivers. 8800Gt has 1 driver and 1 driver only. Its the 169.02 THATS IT. If your using the 169.01 or the 04's your using G80 core drivers. The 8800Gt is a totally different card with a 8800 name, diffferent core, different PCB, and different drivers.

I willing to bet after installing the correct drivers your problems will be solved and u will be crowned king with a 06 score of 17,000+!!

Please install the 169.02's and report back immed.

EDIT::

Here ya go....http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_169.02.html Just install those and call me in the morning.

169.02 was what I was on, seemed very broken to me on the SLI-changing front

.

I fiddled some and came up with this (~1.485v actual vcore after drooping) (RAM timings: 1:1, 5-5-5 1T) (note: SLI *is* enabled, despite what GPU-Z proclaims):

I don't know what to make of it now

... there is more headroom for the CPU/FSB that I haven't tried pushing on fully yet. That means the PSU probably has more headroom... but then again, someone who had a similar-draw config told me they had a 500+ watt draw during load with that kind of system, while I know the Corsair HX 520w is under-rated power-wise, it still seems a stretch. I'm now at 16,415 3dmark06

.

Hipcrostino · Nov 4, 2007

Let me step in here. I have mounted a MCW60 waterblock onto my card. I have placed sinks on all the compnents that the stock HS covered. The two sets of 4 mosfets at the back of the card get very very warm with copper ram sinks on them. I highly advise you get a sink on them.

Also i just scored 14,853 06 marks with a single, reference design, Inno3D card, running at 700/1750/1000(2000 effective) There is more in this card at stock volts yet. My cpu is a Q6600 G0 at 3.6Ghz. I can play crysis at full graphics, no AA 1600x1200 at a fair frame rate, lower resolutions are just fine. 15k won't be hard to get i don't think.

GoldenTiger · Nov 4, 2007

I'll put sinks on them tomorrow, then, to be sure... maybe I'll get some more overclocking out of them, too then

. Score-wise I really don't know what to think... just raising the CPU from 3154 to 3285 and the FSB accordingly seems to have upped my score quite a bit, so it appears on the surface to be a CPU bottleneck/RAM bottleneck.

However, with people saying things like you are in terms of single-card results having such high scores, it makes me think something's wrong with my two-card setup. If it were to scale linearly, my system at a 3.6ghz/400FSB would seem to go to around 18k it seems, which would be more like I was expecting. I'm going to try for more GPU speed once I put those sinks on, and see what happens there also... I'm confused as confused can be at this point though

.

brakezone · Nov 4, 2007

Your score is high enough that SLI is probably kicking in for sure; however, you definitely are not seeing the full effect. Try benching with SLI off to get some kind of performance baseline for a single card. Secondly, I think the best way to deal with SLI is to do application specific settings in the nvidia driver profiles. Try out the different SLI modes (AFR1&2, SFR, etc).

I've had SLI for awhile now with 2X7600, and I have to say that the performance is very sensitive to little things in these 3dmark benchmarks. Make sure you clean your drivers and driver settings really well.

Also, overclocking can cause problems with SLI and can hamper performance without any other symptoms aside from a lower score. The best thing to do is to overclock the cards individually to their fastest and then run benchmarks over and over, lowering the clock speed until the score is highest.

GoldenTiger · Nov 4, 2007

I just tried a run with SLI disabled, and got ~13,500, so yeah, it's definitely kicking in. I'll try lowering the overclocks some and seeing if it raises the score at any given point tomorrow... for the night, I think I'm going to go play some games

.

GoldenTiger · Nov 4, 2007

So I was just looking around at people with similar clocks' 3dmark scores, anddddd... it seems as though the SM2.0 score doesn't move AT ALL with SLI, whereas the HDR/SM3.0 score shows significant improvement. Hmmmm... I'm gonna play with SLI modes tomorrow I think, for now I play games and go to sleep in awhile

.

Hipcrostino · Nov 4, 2007

just benched 15,236 @ 730/1850/1010. Thats the comfortable top for this card without modes. I could squeeze more out but i won't bother, to much hassle for little effort

and don't forget, this isn't a superclocked version, or even a "good" brand.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=3633296

jason4207 · Nov 4, 2007

I didn't read the thread at the following link, but I found this snippet here.

"Alas, the G92s aint flawless. We've tried to run the 8800GT in SLI mode with an EVGA 680i mainboard and the Asus P5N32E-SLI, but was only greeted with a single card in Vista's device manager despite our various attempts to rectify this problem. All users who wishes to buy a couple of 8800GT cards should take note, G92 SLI doesnt seem to be quite working with the 680i chipset in Vista just yet. Nevertheless, we reckon this isn't a major problem and Nvidia should be fixing this in due time, as we've seen SLI benchmarks of the G92s on Nforce 780i floating around the web in recent days."

This may be why your having issues. You might just have to wait for new drivers.

My 8800GT SLI Overclock with Thermaltake ND1's

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