Crap overclocks with my eVGA 8800gt! wtf!

[d3v0]

As a long time fan of nvidia and evga, I went with eVGA for my new 8800gt. Before buying it, I tested both a BFG 8800gt OC and a Visiontek hd4850 from best buy and concluded that the 8800gt is the better choice, clearly.

My problem is now, that when using rivatuner/atitool artifact test to overclock my 8800gt...that I'm getting smaller max stable overclocks.

On the BFG 8800gt OC I was able to reach 737 core, 1843 shader, and 1075 memory stable, no artifacts whatsoever, flew through benchmarks with no errors. However, I did this on 175.16 forceware.

On my new eVGA 8800gt, I am only able to reach 705 core, 1710 shader, and 1030 memory when overclocking with no artifacts whatsoever, and no errors during benchmarking. This is with the new 177.73 forceware.

Both ran at under 70 degrees after 15+ minutes of ati tool stressing.

Two questions:

1.) I pretty much assume that gpu chips are not unlike cpu chips in that certain ones will overclock better than others...so is that the case here?

2.) I know drivers have alot to do with video card performance as well. I still have the 175.16 driver install.exe saved to my computer, should I uninstall the newer one and try that one out? Or is there an even older/better driver for the 8800gt for overclocking?

Thanks, I'm sure this has been asked/answered thousands of times but I wanted to make sure for my unique situation that I got the correct information.

 

[||Console||]

Yes Like CPUS not all GPUS overclock the same.

That said The BFG OC might have had a Higher Voltage than your Evga has .

You could do the 1.1vgpu Bios flash and see if it overclocks any higher .

70 and even 80 deg are common with stock hsf's on GFX cards . But if the temps still bother you you could pic up a after market hsf there are alot so do your research ( I have been on water for a while now x800pro ,8800gts 320mb , 7800gt ,x850xt, 8600gt , 8800gt in that order. My one GPU block has worked on all on them I cant remember above 45deg ever on any of the gfx cards )

 

[d3v0]

You could do the 1.1vgpu Bios flash and see if it overclocks any higher .

How would I do this exactly? I am unfamiliar with voltmods that dont require a pencil

And yeah, under 70 degrees is just fine. I try to keep it under 80 and im happy. with 100% fan speed it ati-tool stress tests at 63 or so.

 

[benbaked]

I don't think it's a driver issue as I saw no change in overclockability of my 8800GT between the 175.16 and 177.35 drivers. Your EVGA card probably isn't as good of an overclocker as the BFG is.

The 177.35 drivers aren't supposed to be for the 8800GT, officially. You might try an older driver or try downloading the 175.19 driver, but I don't believe different drivers are going to magically give you an extra 100-200 mhz on the shaders.

 

[||Console||]

http://www.overclock.net/faqs/97340-edit-nvidia-graphics-card-bios.html

 

[d3v0]

I don't think it's a driver issue as I saw no change in overclockability of my 8800GT between the 175.16 and 177.35 drivers. Your EVGA card probably isn't as good of an overclocker as the BFG is.

The 177.35 drivers aren't supposed to be for the 8800GT, officially. You might try an older driver or try downloading the 175.19 driver, but I don't believe different drivers are going to magically give you an extra 100-200 mhz on the shaders.

Haha yea I understand that new drivers arent going to make my card massively improve, I was just stating the difference in drivers when I oc'd the BFG versus the eVGA.

Also, the 177.35 driver was one of the ones listed on the site for my 8800gt no? Kind of strange that its not supposed to be for the 8800gt yet its on the site for it.

 

[d3v0]

http://www.overclock.net/faqs/97340-edit-nvidia-graphics-card-bios.html

Ah I don't have a floppy disk drive. I suppose a usb drive wouldnt work?

 

[Nebulous]

Ah I don't have a floppy disk drive. I suppose a usb drive wouldnt work?

Hmmm, it could work. I'm sure it would.

 

[benbaked]

Also, the 177.35 driver was one of the ones listed on the site for my 8800gt no? Kind of strange that its not supposed to be for the 8800gt yet its on the site for it.

That's kind of odd, when I checked nvidia's website this morning for drivers for the 8800GT they only listed 175.19 as the highest. It had been that the 177.35 required a modified INF file to install onto a 8800GT, but that was about a month ago, it may have changed since then.

 

[d3v0]

Yeah the file installed just fine, ran well.

 

[d3v0]

Alright, so I was in the process of doing the 1.1vgpu biosflash and after I saved the .rom file to my bootable usb drive, along with the nvflash.exe and the other file...

I get this error when I do "nvflash new.rom"



What the hell?

 

[d3v0]

Anyone seen this happen?

 

[d3v0]

I'm taking care of it, getting a new version of the nvflash

 

[d3v0]

I got it to work! But the problem is when I run atitool, my screen flickers. I am assuming this is because I have a 500watt power supply hahaha and the extra volts going to the gpu have finally sucked my rig dry.

I calculated my power source usage using that extreme power supply calculator, and it came out to be 456watt at 100% load...which doesn't count the volt mods to the video card.

Boo.

 

[necrokiller]

500W is just fine for that card and your system as a whole...now it depends if its a good brand or a generic psu.

 

[ratbuddy]

Wait, you really running ME??

 

[kellygtp]

Wait, you really running ME??

i hope to hell not....i doubt it...could just be the boot disk..

 

[d3v0]

Hahah I have xp 32 bit sp2.

And I have a thermaltake goodpower 500w psu.

As I said, 3133mhz cpu @1.5v, "high end desktop" motherboard, 8800gt 512mb with 1.1vmod, 1x 10,000rpm hdd, 1x dvd-rom drive, 4x usb devices drawing power, with 4x Led 120mm fans, 1x 120mm "performance" fan, and 1x 200m fan, all on high and 100% system load:
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

gives me 462 watts, and as I said before that's not counting my gpu vmod.

A flickering screen is a sign of lack of power correct?

And I took my cpu back to normal clocks/voltages and ran the 1.1vmod, overclocked a bit further (got 40 more mhz on core/shaders, 0 on memory lol) and ran atitool/3dm06 etc...no problems.

Thus, it is the power, no?

 

[chad11779]

Alright, so I was in the process of doing the 1.1vgpu biosflash and after I saved the .rom file to my bootable usb drive, along with the nvflash.exe and the other file...

I get this error when I do "nvflash new.rom"



What the hell?

Type this in. "nvflash -4 -5 -6 new.rom"

 

[ratbuddy]

I can't find any mention of a 'thermaltake goodpower' PSU, you sure it's not an xclio goodpower? Rather old and maybe failing at this point..