7900GT: Unlocking the Beast Within

[samusaraniv]

Originally posted by: nib95
I finally got my Opteron to run stable at 2.7ghz.

My 3dMark05 score is now 13900 (13897 to be exact) and my 3dMark06 score is 8754!!

These are both with SLI 7900 GT at only 550/1500 OC.
Imagine what I could get with this volt mod!?!

I need to get myself to a hardware store quick!

Hmm, just ran 3DMark 05 and got 9761 -- does this seem low for a comp with these specs?

Win XP Pro SP2
ABIT AN8 32X
AMD 4000+ San Diego OCed to 2.81GHz (234 x 12)
2GB OCZ DDR400 Platinum Rev 2 (2.5-4-3-6 2T, 234MHz FSB)
WD Raptor 150GB
eVGA 7900GT SE (690/1880, 1.4V/2.2V) / VF700 in silent mode
84.25 ForceWare w/ Coolbits 2 installed

Not sure if 3DMark overrides the Nvidia control panel, but it is setup as such:

AA App-controlled
AF 16x
Image Settings High quality
VSync Off
Triple Buffering On

 

[nib95]

Originally posted by: samusaraniv

Originally posted by: nib95
I finally got my Opteron to run stable at 2.7ghz.

My 3dMark05 score is now 13900 (13897 to be exact) and my 3dMark06 score is 8754!!

These are both with SLI 7900 GT at only 550/1500 OC.
Imagine what I could get with this volt mod!?!

I need to get myself to a hardware store quick!

Hmm, just ran 3DMark 05 and got 9761 -- does this seem low for a comp with these specs?

Win XP Pro SP2
ABIT AN8 32X
AMD 4000+ San Diego OCed to 2.81GHz (234 x 12)
2GB OCZ DDR400 Platinum Rev 2 (2.5-4-3-6, 234MHz FSB)
WD Raptor 150GB
eVGA 7900GT SE (690/1880, 1.4V/2.2V) / VF700 in silent mode
84.25 ForceWare w/ Coolbits 2 installed

Not sure if 3DMark overrides the Nvidia control panel, but it is setup as such:

AA App-controlled
AF 16x
Image Settings High quality
VSync Off
Triple Buffering On

I am using SLI mind.

But yes, that does sound very low. I'm not sure if your CPU limited but 2.81ghz is still a mighty fine speed. My X1900 XTX used to do 11k before my new set up, so I'd say you should at least be hitting 10k.
There's no way my SLI set up should be 4k better.

What quality settings is yours set at?
Mine is Performance, though even at quality settings I only get about 60 points less.

 

[samusaraniv]

That's more like it...restored global defaults and now i got:

10777! (Quality)

 

[nib95]

Originally posted by: samusaraniv
That's more like it...restored global defaults and now i got:

10777! (Quality)

Yeap spot on!
Very good infact. I'm sure if you had an X2 dual core at similar or even lower speeds you'd easily break 11k.

 

[akugami]

Ok, considering the overclockability (in general) of these cards. I'm thinking of waiting for the Zalman VF900 (due in April) and a 7900GT. It should run $300 for the card and $50 for the hsf. This should produce a nicely cooled card along with a great bang for the buck with a $350 card+hsf that would perform at roughly the same speed as a $500 card. Lots of people seem to have decent luck getting the cards to at least 600-650mhz core with a decent cooler. Stock hsf seems to only net in the high 500's for the core.

 

[Acanthus]

one warning for you guys trying these Vmem mods on the 7900GTs.

If you dont have cooling on the memory, and its building up heat, the memory WILL NOT THROTTLE IT WILL HEAT UP UNTIL IT FAILS. Just a PSA so you guys dont burn up your $300 cards thinking that they will throttle if something gets too hot. Only the core clocks down in response to heat.

The only reason i posted this was because i noticed that much like the 6600GT back in the day, the 7900GT doesnt have ramsinks on the stock cooler. Just be wary guys and make sure you have ramsinks at the very least.

Edit: and by fails, i mean permanently fails, just to be clear.

 

[samusaraniv]

Whoops, fell asleep while testing 3DMark 05 with Performance enabled instead of Quality:

11148

Booya!

 

[nib95]

Originally posted by: samusaraniv
Whoops, fell asleep while testing 3DMark 05 with Performance enabled instead of Quality:

11148

Booya!

Noiyce!!!!

Thats 7900 GTX realms and better!

 

[TheRyuu]

Look what I just got in the mail

Nice new rool of Sekisui Thermal Tape for attaching some copper ram sinks with my new WC setup. The crap stuff that came on them didn't hold, so hopefully this will fair a little better.

 

[TheRyuu]

Just scored 8488 3dmarks in 3dmark06 with 7900GT's in SLI. Thats with out the voltage mod and @ 552/820 (1640 effective). Can't wait to see what it'll do at 600+ speeds.

 

[firewolfsm]

Will 1.3V bring much OCing petential, it seems like everyone is trying 1.4V.

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: firewolfsm
Will 1.3V bring much OCing petential, it seems like everyone is trying 1.4V.

Because why even bother with 1.3, the stock voltage on a GTX is 1.4v so It's not like your risking your card.

BTW, 3dmark scores for 552/820 (1640 effective):
3dmark05: 13688
3dmark06: 8488

Thats with 7900GT in SLI.
Now, to go get a conductive ink pen.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Just did a run with 3DMark05 @ 700/1820 and got 10872 . . . which isn't bad I suppose. I really need Dual Core though lol . . .

 

[samusaraniv]

3DMark 06:
5049

Revising my GPU clock because 3DMark 06 would hang and unfreeze intermittently during benchmark. New stable clock for GPU is 670.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: samusaraniv
3DMark 06:
5049

Revising my GPU clock because 3DMark 06 would hang and unfreeze intermittently during benchmark. New stable clock for GPU is 670.

Yeah that would happen to me when I tried 3DMark05 @ 716 mhz core. After I toned down to 700 core, things are staying stable.

Anyway, ran 3Dmark06 and got 5530. If I had dual core it would easily be 6000+ but alas that is not the case . . .

 

[samusaraniv]

Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1

Originally posted by: samusaraniv
3DMark 06:
5049

Revising my GPU clock because 3DMark 06 would hang and unfreeze intermittently during benchmark. New stable clock for GPU is 670.

Yeah that would happen to me when I tried 3DMark05 @ 716 mhz core. After I toned down to 700 core, things are staying stable.

Anyway, ran 3Dmark06 and got 5530. If I had dual core it would easily be 6000+ but alas that is not the case . . .

Damn, I wonder why you outscored me by so much. I would think that my RAM clock rate would outweigh the GPU difference. Perhaps it is because I have my system RAM clocked lower than yours..?

I'm priming CPU/RAM at 245 x 11, 2.5-4-3-6-2T (computer won't post at 1T, no matter what I try) right now to see if this will get me a better score.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: samusaraniv
Damn, I wonder why you outscored me by so much. I would think that my RAM clock rate would outweigh the GPU difference. Perhaps it is because I have my system RAM clocked lower than yours..?

I'm priming CPU/RAM at 245 x 11, 2.5-4-3-6-2T (computer won't post at 1T, no matter what I try) right now to see if this will get me a better score.

Hmm, maybe the g71 core isn't quite bandwidth limited yet at 700 mhz?

I don't think its your system ram as I've compared the differences I get between running 200 mhz @ 2-2-2-7 1T vs. 250mhz 2.5-3-3-7 1T and the difference was maybe 40 or 50 points in 3DMark05, which could very well be just normal variation. 2T vs. 1T I would imagine is even less of a difference . . .

Also I ran the 3DMark06 benchmark with my mem speeds @ 192mhz 2-2-2-7 1T (mem isn't too stable anymore at 245FSB)

Maybe it's because I'm using the XG 84.25 drivers?

 

[samusaraniv]

I ran 3DMark 06 again with 245 FSB and got 5113 this time. I'm guessing it has to be the drivers, as I'm using the standard Nvidia 84.25. I thought all XG did to the drivers was inplement Coolbits 2.0 inside the install so you didn't have to run the reg. hack separately?

Also, what IQ setting are you using -- Performance or Quality?

I'm going to install those and rebench. I'll let ya know..

3DMark 06 w/ XG 84.25, all other things the same:
5115 :\

 

[samusaraniv]

I thought I would try to bench at 700/1822 like you Sharigan, but the GPU on my card just can't take that high of a clock rate, as it keeps freezing up during the bench.

Gonna revert back to 670/1880.

I still wonder why there's like a 400 point difference between us considering our computers are pretty much equal. :\

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Originally posted by: samusaraniv
I thought I would try to bench at 700/1822 like you Sharigan, but the GPU on my card just can't take that high of a clock rate, as it keeps freezing up during the bench.

Gonna revert back to 670/1880.

I still wonder why there's like a 400 point difference between us considering our computers are pretty much equal. :\

Okay I'll bench mine at 670/1828 and see what I get . . .

 

[samusaraniv]

What image quality setting are you using, Performance?

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: samusaraniv
What image quality setting are you using, Performance?

Sorry to but in, but I think everyone runs their 3dmark on High Performance for the extra points

At least I do.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Yeah I'm using High Performance.

At 670/1828 I get 5238 in 3DMark06 . . . so about a 200 point increase for a 30 mhz increase in core speeds . . .

 

[Kalessian]

Originally posted by: 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

It's pretty funny you would say that. I think a month before the cards release I made a post about how the $300 price poinnt was stagnant and uninteresting compared to the other pricing segments.

I was rabidly attacked by people who claimed the 7800gt was a brilliant card 6 monthes after its release.

Now we have a x1800xt and a massively interesting(easy to vmod + oc) 7900gt.

I guess Zebo and I were right.

 

[Muhadib]

Originally posted by: 1Dark1Sharigan1

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

Here

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

I tryed this GPU voltage tweak method (1.5v) on my GT and could only get to 650 GPU 890 Memory stable.

Did others use this method or the Vr-zone one?