Tweaking your 6800GT

[JeffP]

I'm posting some tips I've found that work for me in boosting the performace of my 6800GT. I haven't seen to many scores higher especially at my CPU level.

1st BIOS mod. Use nvflash to backup your current BIOS and use Omniextremeedit to up the voltage from 1.3v to 1.4v. This will come in handy as you crank up the GPU speed.

2nd up your apeture size to 128 or 256. You may or may not find this helps you. In my case the benchmark score did not change but game play apeared to be smoother.

3rd newer drivers. I'm running 65.73 Nividia drivers which seem to help everything related to this card. Frame rates increased approx 2-3 fps. Benchmark score also improved as well. Nvidia is working hard it seems to refine the drivers for the 6800's.

4th speed. I OC'd my GPU in 3d to 420Mhz. The ram I have set a 1.10 any higher doesn't seem to result in any better scores and only pushing the hardware more then needed. I can run at 1.20 with no artifacts but game play nor benchmark scores change. The GPU may even go higher without issue but thats as high as I can go with the current BIOS.

5th Up the 2d GPU speed to 380Mhz. No increase in overall temps and the benchmark score went up slightly. Why I don't know but they did.

The above changes got me a consistant 12,766 in 3dmark03.

Items i've yet to try but want to.
Golden Sample BIOS (should allow GPU to go to 450Mhz) I think the GPU will do it with adequete cooling.
Better power supply (i'm getting some voltage variations, even audiable changes under load) new one on the way.


If anyone else has tweaks or changes that have worked for them post away as it will only help.

Jeff

 

[JeffP]

Managed to squeak a few more point out by uping the OC to 432. 3dmark03 came in at 12892. I had to up the initial timings with the Nivida optimization method then use expert tool that came with the Gainward to add a litle more.

Kind of hoping to hit that 13k mark without OC'ing the machine. Not sure where else I can squeeze a few points. I don't want to cheat as they negates my purpose for doing this.

 

[Spinout113]

What do you guys find is the best program for tweaking\ocing your 6800gt? Thanks

 

[bojangles]

I use coolbits, he uses bios flashes and cool bits it looks like. BTW jeffP, if you can go that hardcore on the GPU, why not OC the CPU for one 3dmark run. I love the scores too. Nice work.

 

[JeffP]

I use coolbits, he uses bios flashes and cool bits it looks like. BTW jeffP, if you can go that hardcore on the GPU, why not OC the CPU for one 3dmark run. I love the scores too. Nice work.

Coolbits wil give you some flexibility but as I mentioned I used the expert Tool that came with my Gainward to push beyond that.

As for OC'ing the processor I need to get a new board. I love this Intel mb for it's stability but as you know I'm sure you can't do squat to OC them. I want to get my watercooled setup running with this board then cut over once I'm sure all the bugs are worked out.

But your right at that point I should be able to blow the roof off the 13k score with additional CPU overclock.

 

[OnDborder]

Is there some kind of website for the Omniextremeedit to show how to use this?
Or how is it used? Does it install it in the bios?

 

[JeffP]

Is there some kind of website for the Omniextremeedit to show how to use this?
Or how is it used? Does it install it in the bios?

You can download Omniextremedit from here.

You use nvflash to backup your current BIOS. Command is nvflash -b mybios.rom You will need to do this with a bootable floppy and have the nvflash file on the floppy.

You can then edit the rom file you backed up with the omniedit. you then save that flash back to the floppy as say mybiosoc.rom keeping the original bios on there just in case. boot the floppy and type nvflash mybiosoc.rom to flash you card. All of this process is just for the voltage mod and the 2d core clock speed.

 

[Kosmic]

AFAIK, agp aperture should be kept low if you have a card with a good amount of RAM on it. That setting reserves some of your regular pc RAM for use in game. I actually had problems once upon a time with a different card when I had my agp aperture set to 256. I always run it at 64 now.

Try lowering it to 64 and run 3d mark again -- You might see an increase of a few points.

Nice OC on your card, BTW.

 

[OnDborder]

ThanX for the reply.

Expert Tool? Is that just for Gainward's?

 

[curt123]

I have the latest drivers and a bfg I picked up today not overclocking as well as I expected, I am at 406/1.06 right now coolbits wont go much past that. This is the newer c ard with the two fans. Anyone else think these are low compared to some of the articles I have read?

 

[bobmanfoo]

I have the latest drivers and a bfg I picked up today not overclocking as well as I expected, I am at 406/1.06 right now coolbits wont go much past that. This is the newer c ard with the two fans. Anyone else think these are low compared to some of the articles I have read?

my bfg's ram sucks, core did 415 stable before i Vmodded it, now i can do 450 with custom cooling

 

[Kosmic]

My bfg 6800gt isn't much of an overclocker either. Oh well, it's fast enough at 405-415 core & 1.05 on the ram. Get rid of that shiny heatsink, though...it's just hurting your OC on your RAM and GPU. Watercool or get an arctic cooling rev 5 6800 cooler. You can run the ram "naked" if you have side case flan blowing on the card.

my bfg's ram sucks, core did 415 stable before i Vmodded it, now i can do 450 with custom cooling

I have the latest drivers and a bfg I picked up today not overclocking as well as I expected, I am at 406/1.06 right now coolbits wont go much past that. This is the newer c ard with the two fans. Anyone else think these are low compared to some of the articles I have read?

 

[Zazuk]

JeffP, can you adjust the AGP Mhz in your mother board BIOS? The AGP should be running at a default of 66Mhz if you could raise it to 75Mhz this would improve the bandwidth on the AGP bus which might push you in the the 13,000's. Might wanna give it a try.

 

[JeffP]

JeffP, can you adjust the AGP Mhz in your mother board BIOS? The AGP should be running at a default of 66Mhz if you could raise it to 75Mhz this would improve the bandwidth on the AGP bus which might push you in the the 13,000's. Might wanna give it a try.

Not with this intel POS. No control over OC'ing what so ever. It's going soon in light of a IC7-Max3 I believe. Haven't really made up my mind yet.

 

[Nandro]

Zazuk, I didnt know that would help my BW by changing the AGP mhz. Is there any drawback to this? I am stuck around 12500 with my 2500+M @2500/mhz.

 

[Kosmic]

I tried that AGP bump up to 72-73ish in my bios (PCI went up a little bit too, but nothing too much) and at the same time turned up the voltage to the AGP bus to 1.7 or 1.8 (the max it could go), applied the latest WHQL drivers from guru3d (65.73) and coolbits detected 407 / 1.07 which is much higher than it ever did in the past. Going to bench for a bit at 410 / 1.10 and see what the scores are. 12,500ish was what I was getting before at 405 / 1.05 and the cpu at 3.75 gigs.

 

[Nandro]

I need a faster cpu

 

[curt123]

this pos is going back to best buy. Artifacting at 406! cant even get over 1050 without problems, f this card. bfg gets a big d+ doesnt live up to the hype the reviews give it at least the new designed heat sink with two fans what a rip.

 

[JeffP]

this pos is going back to best buy. Artifacting at 406! cant even get over 1050 without problems, f this card. bfg gets a big d+ doesnt live up to the hype the reviews give it at least the new designed heat sink with two fans what a rip.

Get a Gainward GS if you can. I have a non GS model (not by choice) from Gainward doing 432/1.12 with no artifacts or problems. I'd expect the GS to do even better. They are the same price as the BFGs and EGA.

There are some na sayers out there from old Gainward problems but they seem to have gotten there act together for the new series.

Jeff

 

[Fragmaster]

I tried reflashing it, but it wouldn't let me. I was able to successfully back up my bios and modify voltages to 1.4, but when it got down to reflasing, I would get a bunch of error messages. I can go 427/1170 on this card anyway, so I guess I'll leave it. The problem is my powerstrip trial period just ended, and I want to use RIVA Tuner. I installed it and it reads my gt, but wont let me move the slider to overclock, and the "enable overclocking" box that you check is grayed out so I cant click on it? What version am I supposed to use. BTW, I dont like coolbits. it's too conservative. Wont let me go higher than 412/1120, but I can play doom all day at 418/1160 with no artifacts.