How Do I get the most out of my 6800GS?

Hi all,

I used to have time and keep up with the latest and the greatest, but these days I just haven't. So I'm asking for your suggestions.

I have an eVGA 6800GS PCI-x card (256MB). I use it mainly for Quake 4, but I might try a few others as well (Doom 3, Half Life II, which I haven't gotten to yet). In any case, the card works great at 800x600 with all setting on high. At 1040x768, it starts to get a little choppy in areas, but not too bad. Higher than that, and it gets choppy, and of course, I cannot even really try Ultra High effects, for which the game gives me a warning that the textures are swapping like 512MB or something.

Anyway, what can I do to get a little extra juice out of this thing? Just try overclocking the GPU or memory? Faster CPU? Or should I try SLI? Or something else? I'd really like to try the higher resolutions, with AA set to max (or close) and on ultra high quality effects. I did notice there are SLI boards that aren't too much money. And another 6800GS card is only $100.

I'm currently working this card on a 1.6Ghz Sempron 64 2800+ (Socket 754), with 1GB RAM, and non-SLI mobo, on Windows XP. I'm probably not interested in overclocking the CPU, since this is also my main rig.

You are probably being held back more by your CPU more than anything. That 6800GS is pretty good for its price range, and they overclock like mad, but you will not gain much if you are running that CPU at such a slow speed.

If you are worried about stability, just take the proper precautions of rigorous testing to make sure it does not fail. (ORTHOS for 24Hrs+). Those Sempy 2800+ are known to overclock like mad. Do not go SLI with your sempy, it would not be a sound upgrade.

What are system specs?
-Motherboard
-RAM
-HD
-SOUND
-Cooling

Good luck,

Bryan d

My brothers Barton @ 2.2 with a 7600GS 256MB can run Doom 3 at high detail 1024x768 with a consistent framerate above 50fps.

I think your CPU is really holding you back.

Agreed on the CPU bottleneck! I can run HL2 without any trouble at 1600 x 1200 at decent to high detail ( when my rig is put together ) No noticeable stuuttering on my end.

i use the XFX 6800GS XXX ( 485 / 1100 ) PCI-E with an Nv Silencer 5 rev. 3 on it.

I sold my 7950GT KO :/


~ Gos

Mobo: MSI K8N-Neo3 (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1806)
RAM: G. Skill PC3200 1GB (2.5-3-3-6)
HD: 74GB Raptor
Sound: Soundblaster Live
Cooling: OEM HSF

So maybe it's the CPU, eh? Would it be the 256kb cache, or the Mhz that I could use more of?

I was under the impression that my board is not well suited to overclocking. And to be honest, I have not well understood overclocking on the AMD/Hypertransport platform. I'm much more used to the traditional Intel FSB types platforms. I get those, but something about the AMD platform just didn't get into my brain, so I forgot about it. To add, I tried overclocking one time on this rig, just mildly, and the thing wouldn't boot up and I had to clear and reset the BIOS.

Thanks, guys!

The cache is not too important, but rather the clock speed. My sempy 3100+ was sweet running at 2.4GHz but it is nothing compared to my C2D at 2.4GHz.

Read the stickies in the AMD section and you should be fine.

Bryan d

Thanks, guys. At least I know what to do next, now. I've been wanting to upgrade the CPU, anyway.

BTW,...damn! Quake 4 single player game is the bomb! I love fighting the bosses and the firefights with the other soldiers.

Thought the idea of the iron maiden being hidden in those pod things was pretty cool, gave a sense of foreboding, but the maidens themselves look kind of stupid with that "dress" thing they wear.