6800nu Overclocking.

[amdhunter]

I have been running my eVGA 6800nu, bios flashed, from 325/700 to a modest 350/900 for the past 5 months or so. I can play games like Q4 and FEAR pretty decently with my P4 530 @ 3.4GHz. But I can't help but think that I can get a bit more out of the card, particularly the core.

Does anyone know the limits of these cards? I don't see much info on the overclocking aspect of the core/mem, but I can find loads of data on pipeline unlocking, which my card cannot do. I can only unlock the 1 vertex processor (?) but I don't really see much difference with that enabled.

So I just wonder what kinda clock speeds people have seen with the plain old 6800. Also, using Nibitor, I see I can raise voltages up to 1.4v, would that have any effect, or is it better to leave that alone?

 

[Kogan]

Generally, most all of them run easily up to 350/800. The max believable speeds I've seen were around 450/950. The highest I could get my leadtek refurbished 6800nu was 385/920 with default voltage.

I used nibitor once to change the voltage to 1.4, but didn't try overclocking.. I was hoping it would help me unlock my pipes (it didn't), so I flashed it back.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: Kogan
Generally, most all of them run easily up to 350/800. The max believable speeds I've seen were around 450/950. The highest I could get my leadtek refurbished 6800nu was 385/920 with default voltage.

I used nibitor once to change the voltage to 1.4, but didn't try overclocking.. I was hoping it would help me unlock my pipes (it didn't), so I flashed it back.

Ah, cool. For some reason I was thinking that many were hitting over 400 core with 1000 mem. I can hit 375/930 pretty easily, but I thought I'd keep it just a bit under to keep the card in check.

Thanks.

 

[Hyperlite]

sig.....405 core/ 833 mem 1.4volt nibitor mod. also using a Arctic Cooling NV-5. alot of people can crank mem way way up, and i can't really figure out why i can't.

i suggest not doing the volt mod unless you have aftermarket cooling.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: Hyperlite
sig.....405 core/ 833 mem 1.4volt nibitor mod. also using a Arctic Cooling NV-5. alot of people can crank mem way way up, and i can't really figure out why i can't.

i suggest not doing the volt mod unless you have aftermarket cooling.

I am about to perform the 1.4v mod. Does that mod only affect the core? I'd freaking love to hit 400 core with my 6800.

Also, would running the fan @ 100% all the time cause any long term damage?

 

[Avalon]

I did about 350/850 with my eVGA 6800NU unlocked, but I'm pretty sure it had more room in it. I just didn't bother since it was running all my games at the time like melted butter. I miss it

I'm sure it would have gone to around 375/900, maybe a little higher on the core, but I bet no higher on the memory.

 

[Elfear]

My brother's 6800Nu hits 410/920 with a thermalright V-1 and no voltmods.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: Elfear
My brother's 6800Nu hits 410/920 with a thermalright V-1 and no voltmods.

I'd be happy with that.

 

[xtknight]

PCIe 6800NU (NV41):
Default: 325/600 MHz (GPU/effective mem)
12 pixel pipelines, 5 vertex shaders (can't unlock on PCIe)
Stock HSF, no mods whatsoever (no BIOS mod, default gpu/mem volt, default memory timings)
450/850 MHz w/ "fan always on" in Coolbits

3DMark05 (all optimized settings in ForceWare control panel): 5201

I haven't tried going higher because I don't want to fry it. Additionally, for everyday gaming I just use default clocks.

 

[fliguy84]

i got mine unlocked and OC to 405/850 with stock cooling and no volt mod. and thus, the scores in sig

 

[DarkTXKnight]

ok I just purchased the XFX 6800NU and an NV5 and Id love to know what I can do to this baby. I remembered when I OCed my 5950 that there was much info on the web. are there any links that point to OCing the 6800 ?

 

[zagood]

From what I've read, you can overclock higher by NOT unlocking the pipes and shaders. Haven't really put mine through the paces yet, 350/850 unlocked.

I've had some issues with the temp monitor going haywire, so going to try to figure those out before I go all crazy on this card.

-z

 

[HeatMiser]

I have a BFG overclocked to 385/850. The core is maxed, maybe more room on the memory. I could only unlock the 6th vertex shader, so still at stock 12 pixel pipes. This is all with stock cooling and no voltage mods. amdhunter, sounds like you have a pretty good one with the speeds you have achieved.

 

[amdhunter]

I just did the 1.4v mod and my core can hit 415MHz now. :Q Temps went up though, hitting 70-73C consistently when running 2 instances of rthdribl_1_2.

Gonna do a little bit more testing to be sure.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: HeatMiser
I have a BFG overclocked to 385/850. The core is maxed, maybe more room on the memory. I could only unlock the 6th vertex shader, so still at stock 12 pixel pipes. This is all with stock cooling and no voltage mods. amdhunter, sounds like you have a pretty good one with the speeds you have achieved.

Yeah, I have been really happy with my card so far. I went through most of Quake 4 so far with little slowdowns (only in really open complex areas does it slow at all) but I wanna squeeze as much as I can since I plan to upgrade before christmas.

Might as well squeeze that last bit out of the card.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
ok I just purchased the XFX 6800NU and an NV5 and Id love to know what I can do to this baby. I remembered when I OCed my 5950 that there was much info on the web. are there any links that point to OCing the 6800 ?

I just used Powerstrip to overclock my 6800 since I can choose clockspeeds without confirmation/testing. No real trick to overclocking the card at all. Just choose a speed and test.

Then I used Nibitor and just started fiddling with the settings. Flashed the BIOS on my VGA by booting off my flash drive to a command prompt.

After I settle on clockspeeds, I usually run 3DMark 2003 in a loop overnight.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: amdhunter
I just did the 1.4v mod and my core can hit 415MHz now. :Q Temps went up though, hitting 70-73C consistently when running 2 instances of rthdribl_1_2.

Gonna do a little bit more testing to be sure.

Ugh, it freezes at that speed. I had to back it down to 400MHz core to complete a 3DMark05 run. I will run it overnight at this speed to see if its stable, and maybe dig deeper into the bios settings to further tweak the card.

I will bump this thread again tomorrow. There is nothing like taking a baby card and turning it into a lil monster.

 

[MasterFlash]

My BFG 6800OC AGP is at 400/840. It's not stable above that. My vertex and pixel pipes are unlocked with RivaTuner. 3DMark03 = 10940.

 

[amdhunter]

Anyone know how bad it is to run the core @ 400MHz with the BIOS set to 1.4v? I have read a few posts (but nothing really definitive) about 6800 series cards dying with the voltage pumped to 1.4 volts. I am currently trying to find a way to set it to 1.3v if it is at all possible.

I may back down the overclock after all. I know I am being a pain in the ass, and bumping quite frequently, but hey, might as well get all the info now to max this card before I put it to pasture.

 

[lestat0521]

i just purchased a pny 6800, i have the core unlocked to 16/6, and oc to 390/800.
Scoring 11380 on 3dmark03.

Above people are mentioning flashing the core to better clock speeds? what exactly are you guys using? A different bios or what?

 

[jdurg]

Feel free to bump away! I've got an eVGA 6800nu AGP on its way to me right now along with an NV-5 cooler and some Arctic Silver 5. I've never overclocked a video card before, so this is going to be my first attempt. I like being able to see what I'm getting myself into

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: lestat0521
i just purchased a pny 6800, i have the core unlocked to 16/6, and oc to 390/800.
Scoring 11380 on 3dmark03.

Above people are mentioning flashing the core to better clock speeds? what exactly are you guys using? A different bios or what?

I used Nibitor to make a BIOS dump directly from my eVGA card (so I have a perfect original, just in case) and made a copy.

I loaded the BIOS dump into Nibitor and set the clocks to what I know was stable forever, from a lot of testing/use and just entered those values and saved the modified ROM image.

Then I used NVflash to load the modified BIOS into the video card. Now I don't have to use coolbits to overclock. It's rather a painless process once you do it.

Nibitor also has other options to further tweak the card, such as raise the voltage to the core (which I did to get 400MHz) and even change the latencies on the boards mem (which I am researching).

LOL, right now I flashed it back to 1.4v, 400/900MHz, haha. I figure why not. I'm gonna leave it there until the card starts to act up, or dies. It seems ROCK solid right now. Before I go to sleep tonight I will run some heavy app in a loop for some piece of mind.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: jdurg
Feel free to bump away! I've got an eVGA 6800nu AGP on its way to me right now along with an NV-5 cooler and some Arctic Silver 5. I've never overclocked a video card before, so this is going to be my first attempt. I like being able to see what I'm getting myself into

You can get coolbits to play around with the overclocking settings in the nvidia control panel. It also has a built in self-test to keep you from damaging the card.

The only thing is, the nvidia self-test is so random, you never really know if its the best your card can do. For example, my card supposedly couldnt do 730MHz by using nvidia's test, yet I can run 900MHz rock stable when overclocking with powerstrip (or flashing bios)

But it is good for a beginner to play with. Powerstrip doesn't have to run a self-test to set the clock speeds, so its a better bet. Just overclock in small increments and run a 3D app until you start to see artifacts. Then just back off 15MHz or so and you should be fine.

 

[jdurg]

Yeah I've made the registry hack for coolbits, and I've also downloaded and installed RivaTuner and NiBiTor in preparation for my new card. I've also gone and messed around with the overclocking of my current GeForce 4 Ti-4600. I don't really trust the self-test feature, however, since I bumped the memory up to 700 MHz DDR and it passed the self test, yet when I loaded Doom3 the system locked up. I'll still do the self testing option when the 6800 arrives, but I also downloaded 3DMark05 to truly test out the overclock before I consider it 'successful' and then after a few months of useage move the software overclock to the BIOS and make it permanent.

 

[Plester]

Gainward 6800nu 1.4v vcore, 2.83v vmemm = 435/1005 (using 6800gt/ultra timings).

very easy memory voltage mod for 6800nu agp cards