Just got my new GF3 Ti200 back from the Gainward RMA department...

And it's, well, different... It has an older BIOS, different 'stuff' on the board, and remember that vmod I absolutely couldn't figure out? NOW it has those chips on there, so I guess I could vmod this thing now... Also it's just not the same, a coil I'm used to seeing through my window mod is gone, replaced with some other part, there are new 'thingies' on there too (I'm not an electronics whiz so I can't tell you what they are)... Perhaps these Ti200 Golden Samples are the ones that everyone runs at super high speeds?

Problem is I couldn't get off my 60mm copper cooler from the old one, even after a whole night in the freezer that AA epoxy was ON there. I know Gainward is generous with their RMA's, but if it were missing the GPU I think they'd get suspicious So I guess I'll hold off on the vmod till I start to notice it hiccuping in newer games.

So, what do you think? Should I update to the newer BIOS or just play with it as is? I don't think I'm gonna super-mod this card for now, the computer is so much more pleasant to be on now that the 8300 RPM 60mm fan and sink is gone, it vibrated like CRAZY, the whole table shook. I dunno, it's weird how it's almost a completely different card.

I'll update on the initial OC tomorrow, I'm just gonna loop 3dmark at stock before I go to work and let it run all day/night. Burn in helped my CPU like you wouldn't believe, maybe it'll help the vid too

--Illah

And the default core/mem is 175/400, the old Gainward was 200/450...

--Illah

Illah said:

And the default core/mem is 175/400, the old Gainward was 200/450...

--Illah

Click to expand...

That's because the older BIOS had it as 175/400 default, if you flash to the new BIOS the default will be 200/450.

-NORE

Yeah, I kinda figured. So you think the newer one will be better?

--Illah

yeah flash it and you should be good as new. thats what they did to your first card.

any luck overclocking yet?