6600GT AGP vs. 6800nu

[Machine350]

Which do u guys think will be the most bang for the buck?

 

[Corporate Thug]

6800 nu IMO

esp after the pipe unlock

 

[fbrdphreak]

definitely 6800nu. most can unlock to full 16 pipes using RivaTuner. I believe www.outpost.com still has the BFG 6800 OC for $250.....

 

[voodoochili]

Has anyone been unlocking the pipes on this card and if so whats teh method please

 

[Megatomic]

I've heard that's hit or miss and that the newer the card the lower the chances of actually unlocking the pipelines. But I don't know if this is a bonafide truth or not at this time.

voodoochili, there is a forum at guru3d that is all about RivaTuner. The info is there but it seems like an awful lot to read to figure this out. I glanced over it last night but didn't get enough to proceed with in the 10 minutes I sifted through it all. I'm sure it's not very complicated but I don't have the time/inclination to proceed right now.

 

[SithSolo1]

Got mine in the BestBuy deal, all pipes and vertex shaders unlocked with no artifacts at stock speed. Haven't tried overclocking yet.

 

[Megatomic]

What did you have to do to unlock them SithSolo? Can you provide an outline as to how you did it and save us hours of skimming?

 

[voodoochili]

how well does it perform in its normal condition. Just incase i get one that wont unlock any pipes etc. ?????I was considering buying a 6600gt, but opted not to go PCI express, so I was going to sell my car and buy the 6800gt, but this one at 250.00 seems pretty , good buy it now or wait, what say you ?

 

[Megatomic]

Well, if you don't care about PVP being busted in AGP 6800 cards then I say go for the 6800 OC. I got mine from Best Buy for $255, not a bad deal at all. I just wish the PVP wasn't busted. I might have to take this card back and buy an X800 Pro.

 

[voodoochili]

whats PVP LOL

 

[Megatomic]

It's NV's HD acceleration. NV40 was supposed to have it but they botched it on the AGP 6800 family.

 

[KevinH]

Is there going to be a PCI-Express version of the NU? Thanks in advance .

Kev

 

[SithSolo1]

DL and install this.

Open it.

On the Main tab, the top section should say Target adapter.
There should be 2 boxes in it. One white and one grey. Click the little triangle next to Customize... on the right end of the grey box. Click on the picture of the video card. Click on the NVStrap driver Tab. In the 3rd section (Graphics processor config, click the Customize button. Put a check next to the disabled Pixel unit and any disabled vertex units. Check to see if they are HW masked. Click ok. If they are masked check the box next to Allow enabling hardware masked units, should be opposite the Customize button. Click ok. Click ok. Reboot. Run 3Dmark03/05 several times looking for both a gain in points and to make sure there are no artifacts.

 

[Megatomic]

I actually stayed up late last night and tried to do this. I could enable the disabled Pixel bit but when I enabled the disabled Vertex bit I got artifacts. I then read the FAQ and learned how to tell if bits were hardware or software masked and it turns out mine are hardware masked most likely due to physical faults within the GPU. Per the info contained within the FAQ my card should not be unlocked.

Thanks for the info though, SithSolo1, I'm sure other people need too. :beer:

 

[Lordicus]

I have the Leadtek 6800nu.

I tried RivaTuner, and like Megatomic, my items were hardware masked. Read something briefly about risk of damage, so I stopped right there.

If anyone will take the time to clarify the severity of the risk I'be be interested in knowing.

 

[SithSolo1]

I got the same risk of damage thing. Everyone who has ever unlocked it gets the same message.

 

[voodoochili]

can someone post some numbers of the card with the pipes locked then unlocked whats the real deal thanks

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Lordicus
I have the Leadtek 6800nu.

I tried RivaTuner, and like Megatomic, my items were hardware masked. Read something briefly about risk of damage, so I stopped right there.

If anyone will take the time to clarify the severity of the risk I'be be interested in knowing.

AFAIK, almost all of them are hardware masked? Nonetheless, my hardware masked 6800NU runs 16/6, 350/800 just fine.

 

[stelleg151]

I am having similar dilemma, except wondering about waiting for nforce4 and going 6600gt PCIe, or getting 939 AGP now and getting 6800nu. An OC'ed 6600gt does very well against a 6800nu, and with allll that upgradability a big part of my brain tells me to wait for NForce4, as does my wallet that says 190 is a lot cheaper than 270. (<-- Pricewatch prices)

 

[xSkyDrAx]

You're going to sell your car to buy a new video card

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: stelleg151
I am having similar dilemma, except wondering about waiting for nforce4 and going 6600gt PCIe, or getting 939 AGP now and getting 6800nu. An OC'ed 6600gt does very well against a 6800nu, and with allll that upgradability a big part of my brain tells me to wait for NForce4, as does my wallet that says 190 is a lot cheaper than 270. (<-- Pricewatch prices)

AFAIK, 3 things are true:
1. You can't unlock a 6600, and an unlocked 6800NU pounds a 6600
2. The memory bandwidth of 16 GB/sec isn't very near the 6800NUs 22 GB/sec
3. The 6800NU can be OCd as well

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: stelleg151
I am having similar dilemma, except wondering about waiting for nforce4 and going 6600gt PCIe, or getting 939 AGP now and getting 6800nu. An OC'ed 6600gt does very well against a 6800nu, and with allll that upgradability a big part of my brain tells me to wait for NForce4, as does my wallet that says 190 is a lot cheaper than 270. (<-- Pricewatch prices)

You consider this option? Instead of going A64 socket 939, go with an A64 socket 754, save a few bucks and move up to a 6800GT AGP.

The price difference between an A64 3400+ (s754) and an A64 3500+ (s939) is about $50 on newegg, the price difference between the A64 3200+ for these sockets is almost $80 for the retail version, and the socket 754 motherboards are generally cheaper as well. It depends on what type of upgrader you are. If you plan on upgrading the rig piece-by-piece over time, you might want to wait for nForce4, if you just want a fast rig at a good price now that will be replaced in its entirety next time around, socket 754 might be the better option. A 6800GT would outperform a 6800 even if the 6800 was in the overall faster computer, and it completely destroys the 6600GT.

 

[SniperWulf]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: Lordicus
I have the Leadtek 6800nu.

I tried RivaTuner, and like Megatomic, my items were hardware masked. Read something briefly about risk of damage, so I stopped right there.

If anyone will take the time to clarify the severity of the risk I'be be interested in knowing.

AFAIK, almost all of them are hardware masked? Nonetheless, my hardware masked 6800NU runs 16/6, 350/800 just fine.

How did you get around the mask Rollo?? I couldn't figure out how to get mine to work

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: SniperWulf

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: Lordicus
I have the Leadtek 6800nu.

I tried RivaTuner, and like Megatomic, my items were hardware masked. Read something briefly about risk of damage, so I stopped right there.

If anyone will take the time to clarify the severity of the risk I'be be interested in knowing.

AFAIK, almost all of them are hardware masked? Nonetheless, my hardware masked 6800NU runs 16/6, 350/800 just fine.

How did you get around the mask Rollo?? I couldn't figure out how to get mine to work

1) Run RivaTuner and look at the main tab. You?ll see your current graphic processors configuration and amount of active pixel / vertex units in device status string, for example: NV40 (A1,12x1,5vp).
2) Click ?Customize? button located at the right of device status string to activate device customization toolbar.
3) Click ?Graphics subsystem diagnostic report? button in device customization toolbar to activate RivaTuner?s diagnostic module.
4) Scroll down ?Report categories? list and tick ?NVIDIA VGA BIOS information? report category.
5) Click ?Capture report? button in the ?Report preview? window to refresh report.
6) Scroll down ?Report preview? window and find ?NVIDIA VGA BIOS information? manually or simply double click ?NVIDIA VGA BIOS information? category name in the ?Report categories? list to automatically navigate to ?NVIDIA VGA BIOS information? in the ?Report preview?.
7) Look at line displaying ?GPU units mask?. If you see 16x1,6vp there, it means that VGA BIOS allow activating all non-hardware masked GPU pixel/vertex units, so your configuration is determined by chip capabilities and you may forget about softmodding because your chips is 100% not softmoddable. If you see something different there (for example, 12x1,5vp) ? you have chances to unlock some units. Take a note that only ?GPU units mask? is important for board softmoddabbility detection. So don?t mix it with the current GPU configuration displayed in ?Graphics core? line in ?NVIDIA specific display adapter information? report category.
8) Click ?Low-level system settings? button in device customization toolbar to activate ?Low-level system tweaks? panel.
9) Select ?NVStrap driver? tab.
10) Press ?Install? button if you never installed the driver before. If you already have it installed after the previous version of RivaTuner, ensure that you have pressed ?Reinstall? button to update the driver. This step is very important!
11) Select ?Custom? in the ?Active pixel/vertex units configuration? list to activate the ?Customize? button, then click it to activate ?Custom graphics processor configuration? dialog.
12) Tick all disabled pixel and vertex units and click ?OK?.
13) Reboot system when prompted.
14) Start RivaTuner and look again at your current graphics processor configuration and amount of active pixel / vertex units in device status string. If you see no changes there ?the units you tried to unlock are masked at hardware level, so you may uninstall NVStrap and forget about softmodding. Otherwise, enjoy free performance boost.

Important note for users / display adapter sellers / reviewers testing many NV4x based boards in succession: If you?re experimenting with NV40 softmodding, please ensure that you?ve uninstalled NVStrap or set ?Active pixel/vertex pipelines? to ?determined by VGA BIOS? before replacing an adapter with new one. Otherwise you?ll see the pixel/vertex units configuration set by NVStrap instead of hardware default configuration. If you forgot to do it before installing new adapter ? simply uninstall NVStrap or click ?Reset to default? button in the ?Custom graphics processor configuration? dialog then reboot the PC to see hardware default configuration for new display adapter.

It only works for about half of them, but that's how you do it.

 

[stelleg151]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: stelleg151
I am having similar dilemma, except wondering about waiting for nforce4 and going 6600gt PCIe, or getting 939 AGP now and getting 6800nu. An OC'ed 6600gt does very well against a 6800nu, and with allll that upgradability a big part of my brain tells me to wait for NForce4, as does my wallet that says 190 is a lot cheaper than 270. (<-- Pricewatch prices)

You consider this option? Instead of going A64 socket 939, go with an A64 socket 754, save a few bucks and move up to a 6800GT AGP.

The price difference between an A64 3400+ (s754) and an A64 3500+ (s939) is about $50 on newegg, the price difference between the A64 3200+ for these sockets is almost $80 for the retail version, and the socket 754 motherboards are generally cheaper as well. It depends on what type of upgrader you are. If you plan on upgrading the rig piece-by-piece over time, you might want to wait for nForce4, if you just want a fast rig at a good price now that will be replaced in its entirety next time around, socket 754 might be the better option. A 6800GT would outperform a 6800 even if the 6800 was in the overall faster computer, and it completely destroys the 6600GT.

Yeah, I thought long and hard about 754, and just decided 939 was the way I wanted to go. A big more cash, but significantly better performance at oc. Average OC that I am seeing with 754 is from 2.4-2.5, which is approx equal to 939 2.2. So an 3000+ at 2.6 on 939 = approx 2.8 on 754, so I feel it is worth the extra money. Also, I prefer quality CPU speed to graphics, because you can turn your graphics down.