7900GT: Unlocking the Beast Within

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: Kakumba
according to the Extremesystems forums, this card has OVP issues, so you do have to replace the resistors potentially. you want to do a bit of reading before going ahead with voltmods on this card, but the benefits are indeed great.

The conductive pen method goes around the OVP . . . you only need to remove transistors if you wanna go above 1.55v . . .

 

[samusaraniv]

So does the conductive pen method allows overclocking of the memory modules, as well, or do you have to use the pencil shading trick for the memory? By shading that resistor, will that give you a substantial-enough boost for the mem voltage?

 

[samusaraniv]

OK, I would like to use a pencil on the memory to get it up to 2.2 (VR says they were able to get the mem up to 1063 this way) and I want to take the core to no more than 1.5 so that I can try and get it up to 745MHz. Can someone take the pic from this link and use Paint or some program to point out EXACTLY which resistors need to be linked to ground via conductive pen for 1.5V? I am not 100% clear.

 

[imported_ST]

a couple of points for ya'll:

1) there is no softmod for voltage increase presently

2) gtx voltage speeds is 1.4V, so it is still relatively safe (popular suspicion is the gt / gtx parts are the same, just gtx speedbinned / tested for higher clocks).

3) if you are not comfortable with possibly damaging your core/mem, don't do it.

for me, 1.4v mod brought out 650/800 alone (comparable to gtx speeds). ymmv

 

[samusaraniv]

Did you use the conductive pen method? Can you post a picture of what two resistors you linked? Once again, I am not totally clear on which one should be linked to ground. And sorry if I'm seeming like a nag, I'm just really excited about this development!

 

[Steelski]

I dont get it. I know the numbers are great for a cheap card. I know that most would agree that the increese is fantastic. But what is the standard voltage on a GTX? 1.4? is that not a bit high for a 90nm process? how long will this card last, does anyone care?

 

[yacoub]

Originally posted by: the Chase
Bang for the buck just flew off the charts!!

+1!! awesome overclock!

 

[Gstanfor]

Originally posted by: Steelski
I dont get it. I know the numbers are great for a cheap card. I know that most would agree that the increese is fantastic. But what is the standard voltage on a GTX? 1.4? is that not a bit high for a 90nm process? how long will this card last, does anyone care?

I'm sure the cards will last at least as long as the 512mb 7800GTX which ATi and the fanATics were claiming was dangerously overvolted and wouldn't last...

nVIDIA is quite conservative when it comes to setting voltages and clock speeds.

 

[sindows]

Aren't "GPUs" much more sensative to voltage than "CPUs"? I remember reading people voltmodding older cards and they would die within a few months with no hopes of it ever working again.

 

[Gstanfor]

Depends on the manufacturing process more than anything.

It's a combo of heat and electro-migration that does the killing, with electro-migration being by far the worst.

This is unlikely to matter in this case though, given the 7900GTX runs @ 1.4V. I'd certainly t.hink twice about raising voltage any higher than that though.

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: Gstanfor
Depends on the manufacturing process more than anything.

It's a combo of heat and electro-migration that does the killing, with electro-migration being by far the worst.

This is unlikely to matter in this case though, given the 7900GTX runs @ 1.4V. I'd certainly t.hink twice about raising voltage any higher than that though.

Yeah. 1.4-1.5V should be fine (as long as temps are good), but going to 1.6V/1.7V is only good if you aren't going to keep it for very long, eventuall its going to die.

 

[morgash]

woot bookmarked for when my 7900gt gets here from evga. man i havnt been this excited since i learned of the conductive pen trick with the x800's

 

[Alaa]

wow amazing super great results for 300$!

 

[xtknight]

Holy jesus on a bicycle batman. That's more than my good old 6800NU overclocked at stock (I thought 25% was out of this world for OC).

 

[shabby]

Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1

Originally posted by: samusaraniv
Conductive pin? What's this?

Here

It's easy and (relatively) safe . . .

Heh this volt mod is so easy you probably dont even have to take the card out.

 

[AzNPinkTuv]

lol dont take it out and fry the card =)

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Did the pen mod and it works (yay - though it's harder than you would think since the it's alot smaller than it is in that picture and my pen isn't exactly what you would call fine-tipped) . . . running at 1.3v and so far doing 650/1820 no problems . . . gonna see if I can push the core to 670 (common OC GTX speeds) . . . if not, well I'll stick with 1.3v . . .

Temps are good too, ran rthdribl for 10 minutes and got 56C . . .

 

[samusaraniv]

Awesome!! I think I'mma go ahead and push mine to 1.5V once I get my pen tomorrow. I did get a chance to try the pencil shading technique on the VRAM resistor, and while I wasn't able to get my card artifact-free at 1020, I was able to get it running flawlessly at 940 (prior to shading, 870 was the highest I could go)!! And Oblivion runs soooooo much smoother, it's amazing.

Can't wait to see how two Unleashed Beasts work in SLI tandem...

 

[nib95]

I really want to try 1.4v on each of my 7900 GT's along with Zalman V900 coolers.
But the dilema I've fallem in is that I have no more 3 pin fan connectors left
Which is what the VF900 uses.

 

[akugami]

1Dark1Sharigan1 what type of cooling are you using for that 7900GT overclock to reach 650/1820? Seriously considering this card and overclocking it but supplies are low and everyone sells it for over MSRP.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: the Chase
Bang for the buck just flew off the charts!!

you really can say that again.....1.7 volts and 800Mhz ....wow. a good water cooling set up should make that pretty safe going too. what a card

that very easily destroys my SLI set up

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: akugami
1Dark1Sharigan1 what type of cooling are you using for that 7900GT overclock to reach 650/1820? Seriously considering this card and overclocking it but supplies are low and everyone sells it for over MSRP.

NV Silencer 5 on an open-air system . . .

I couldn't get to 670 (system froze and then my GPU reset and I had to restart) so 1.4v is probably needed . . . probably won't go that high though . . . 650 is good enough for me, at least for now . . . almost gave me 11K in 3DMark05 . . .

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Yes I am a noob but I have a friend who's great @ soldering electronics. What exactly to be done with the conductive pen? link the points???

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: gersson
Yes I am a noob but I have a friend who's great @ soldering electronics. What exactly to be done with the conductive pen? link the points???

Yeah just connect the points on that picture with the conductive pen. Though it's a little harder than the picture suggests . . .

Alright, I'm just gonna go for it and do 1.4v before I head off and test it when I get home . . .

 

[samusaraniv]

Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1

Originally posted by: gersson
Yes I am a noob but I have a friend who's great @ soldering electronics. What exactly to be done with the conductive pen? link the points???

Yeah just connect the points on that picture with the conductive pen. Though it's a little harder than the picture suggests . . .

Alright, I'm just gonna go for it and do 1.4v before I head off and test it when I get home . . .

So when you "draw" the lines, do you want to merge the two for 1.5 or do they need to be separate? Also, you say you're going to try 1.4.. you already have the 1.3V point connnected, and for 1.4 there is only one line, so are you going to have to clean off the 1.3V line? How do you do it, if so?