xsuperbgx's Volt modding, zombies and electronics learning thread.

did you find some compatible ram chips? None of the ddr2 sticks that I have, seem to have the correct size of ic's.

yeah i did they are only 1066 though, but its a good start. once i find out of this works or not i will try to get my hands on some d9's or something used thats close to the require specs.

How aRe they soldered on? with the little solder balls and a heat gun?

yeah they are bga style chips. So got the stencils and a hot air rework station coming sometime next week. Also have the balled solder and flux coming, with a small usb microscope to check the traces and pads with. Should be able to reball Xbox chips aswell now

1066 rating is progress. It'd be nice to know what the 4650's BIOS is running the timings at though, the ram may not be clocking because it's at cas4 or something.

i'll grab the card from you this weekend ed, probably at the lan party. then i will take a shot at the bios.

I Am going to get started with modding in preparation for 3d points gathering.
I have these gpus:
X850xtpe
3870
3870
8800 gs
5770
5870
210
9600 gt
5450.
I will see what i can do with them. I will get before and after pics. I don't know that i will get pre mod results, but there will be post mod results. Some of the cards may get zombie treatment as well, if they need it.

Ok, I am done buying hardware.
I picked up an 8800gts 320 and a 8800gtx 768 tonight!!!

NO more until IB.

I have one of the GTX680 the way and i am looking forward to doing a little benching. I don't know that I am brave enough to go modding mine, but I have been looking over tin's mods in this Kpc thread.

Perhaps someone could explain or help me with some questions.

1. Tin does a vid mod. My understanding is that this increases the core voltage as well as the voltage/current/power limits that are built in. Which is the advantage over using just the software which would only raise the vgpu until it hits the current or voltage limit. Is that correct?

2. From the thread there: "NVIDIA limited voltage range to max 1.21V by hardware, having MSB VID6 and VID7 tied to 1 and 0 by hardware (direct connect to power and ground by trace). So if you want VID more than 1.21V than need to cut VID6 connection to VCC and manually connect to GND. Because VID7 already tied to GND I just shorted those two pins together with piece of thin wire." As I look at the tables for the voltage controller in the pdf that he links, is the table used vr11? And he is using the dip switch to change the hex value? I am mostly trying to understand what the vid6 does that hes has to cut it on the board to increase above 1.2.. v.
A little explanation to expand my limited understanding would be appreciated. ( maybe it is because of the hex values and how that works)

(I am on my phone and will edit in questions so I don't lose this whole post as I am in and out cutting and pasting)

Since i don't have my hands on a 680 yet :\ I can't really say what kinda voltage control they have stock. I am guessing what they have available is very limited if there is some. Not to mention only having 4 power phases and quite a bit of ocp, ovp, otp. The biggest thing his main voltage mod seems to be doing isn't just the ability to up the voltage but the disabling or changing of the settings for those. Since you can't just trim the sense line like you do on most cards.

Software voltage control caps at 1.17v or so. If you start doing hardware VID mods it caps at 1.21v, unless you cut a trace and do some creative bridge work.
The MOSFETs explode by 1.5v or so.

1.17 is pretty low in my book :\

That does explain it. I had not imagined that it was that low for software voltage. I was thinking that I could do those mods but the cutting of the trace and scraping away at the PCB make me think probably not.( for now anyways)

3870 voltmod. I got a good increase in core speeds, memory needs to be worked on. probably needs some ramsinks. my biggest concern is where to stop with the volts. I went up to about 1.56 volts on the core and 2.25 on the mem. core speeds not maxed out , but out of dice at 1056.

1.56V is just getting started IMO. Out of DIce is a larger issue.
I figure get something on the books and then push till it doesn't scale anymore.

I've officially adopted a scorched earth policy for cheapish GPUs/CPUs. It wins or it dies trying.
It gives a guy a sense of freedom. Sort of like going commando, except without the zipper concerns.

My biggest obstacle to benching is o/s and bench issues. I really need to get a system down for keeping track of that stuff.

I think that i am going to flip the gtx 680 and wait for a lightning version. I will instead invest in a better pot and larger quantities on LN2.

xsuperbgx said:

3870 voltmod. I got a good increase in core speeds, memory needs to be worked on. probably needs some ramsinks. my biggest concern is where to stop with the volts. I went up to about 1.56 volts on the core and 2.25 on the mem. core speeds not maxed out , but out of dice at 1056.

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Those big, fat, juicy planes make me want to untouchables that thing

I got a free monitor from a guy I know. I tore it apart and replaced some bulging/leaking caps. Works as good as new. A very easy fix. It would be a good project for anyone to try.

Those big, fat, juicy planes make me want to untouchables that thing

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I am thinking the same, perhaps a good zombie candidate. I do have a question though, if i do the voltmod on the 5870 lightning, in hopes of using that for a zombie. As soon as i cut the pcb or remove the gpu from the pcb, i don't think that the vmod will work. Any ideas?

Perhaps i need to buy an untouchables, then i need one of the controllers right?