Another BFG 6800 OC success

[AirGibson]

I'd been itching to get GF 6600 GT AGP, but since the price is being pumped up due to low availability, I started reading around about spending $50 more and unlocking the 6800. So I decided to try the BFG 6800 OC. Ordered it from Chumbo.com so I could get the rebate ($260 after rebate, with $5 overnight shipping).

Right off the bat, I went with the 67.42 Forceware drivers. Riva Tuner enabled the disabled pipes / vertex shader without any trouble at all.

After playing with the O/C some, I'm sitting at 375 core / 850 memory - a 15-20% increase. Was a great deal. Props to this forum and others for having so much info on it. Saved me a chunk of $$ for a great card.

 

[James3shin]

ooh, me want too

 

[rammstein junkie]

this sucks my local fry's electronics just bumped the BFG 6800 up to 300 grrr im mad

 

[btbam]

67.42 Forceware drivers


Where do you get those?

 

[dj1]

guru3d.com

 

[btbam]

i used those drivers but made my screen move very very abnormaly slow.

 

[AirGibson]

I switched back to the standard 66.93 nVidia drivers. Made no difference in my Doom 3 FPS.

However, regardless of drivers, Rome: Total War won't load for me. When I start the game, my monitor reports that it's attempting to run the game in some absurdly high refresh rate of 290 or so. Dunno what's up with that.

 

[saechaka]

Originally posted by: AirGibson
I'd been itching to get GF 6600 GT AGP, but since the price is being pumped up due to low availability, I started reading around about spending $50 more and unlocking the 6800. So I decided to try the BFG 6800 OC. Ordered it from Chumbo.com so I could get the rebate ($260 after rebate, with $5 overnight shipping).

Right off the bat, I went with the 67.42 Forceware drivers. Riva Tuner enabled the disabled pipes / vertex shader without any trouble at all.

After playing with the O/C some, I'm sitting at 375 core / 850 memory - a 15-20% increase. Was a great deal. Props to this forum and others for having so much info on it. Saved me a chunk of $$ for a great card.

i need help w/the softmod process. i have 16x1 showing in nvstrap but i can't get the 16x1 in the main tab. thanks

 

[James3shin]

^wierd....are you seeing a boost in performance?

 

[saechaka]

i'm downloading 3dmark 2005 right now. does anyone know what scores i should be getting?

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: saechaka
i'm downloading 3dmark 2005 right now. does anyone know what scores i should be getting?

It depends on your CPU and memory also.

So, run the benchmark and write down the result. Then, set the pipelines back to normal (locked) and run the benchmark again.

 

[saechaka]

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: saechaka
i'm downloading 3dmark 2005 right now. does anyone know what scores i should be getting?

It depends on your CPU and memory also.

So, run the benchmark and write down the result. Then, set the pipelines back to normal (locked) and run the benchmark again.

well i ended up w/a score of 3364 and 3360 so no softmod success. seems i can't even unlock mine

 

[hypaspazz]

Under the NVStrap driver make sure to have "Allow enabling hardware masked units" checked. Otherwise, your bios will continue to keep the pipes you just enabled as non-operational or "masked".

 

[saechaka]

thats where it gets weird. i have that checked. i see a tab that says 16x1 5vp i think. but on the main page. i don't see the 16x1. what i did notice was here compared to mine bit 01 is enable and bit03 is disabled. so that might be causing the prob.

 

[hypaspazz]

Mine was bit03 disabled and it works now..... showing 16x1, 6vp. If after running RivaTuner your bits are still listed as disabled then that means the "Allow enabling hardware masked units" didn't take.

 

[saechaka]

so it seems i got unlucky. oh well. hopefully somebody will pick up my 9500np to help offset the cost alittle bit

 

[hypaspazz]

saechaka, there is still hope. If Riva Tuner still lists the bit as disabled you never effectively enabled the pipe and, therefore, you don't know if the softmod would have falied b/c Riva Tuner didn't actually unlock the pipes

If it comes down to it, try flashing the BIOS. There are a 6800 ultra BIOSes floating around out there that you could use. Of course, it is not for the faint of heart.

BTW, Are you using Riva Tuner 15.2?

 

[saechaka]

yeah, 15.2 i really hope i don't have to flash the bios. i don't even know if the gains are worth it. what scores are you getting in 3dmark2005 hypaspazz. thanks for the help

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: AirGibson
I'd been itching to get GF 6600 GT AGP, but since the price is being pumped up due to low availability, I started reading around about spending $50 more and unlocking the 6800. So I decided to try the BFG 6800 OC. Ordered it from Chumbo.com so I could get the rebate ($260 after rebate, with $5 overnight shipping).

Right off the bat, I went with the 67.42 Forceware drivers. Riva Tuner enabled the disabled pipes / vertex shader without any trouble at all.

After playing with the O/C some, I'm sitting at 375 core / 850 memory - a 15-20% increase. Was a great deal. Props to this forum and others for having so much info on it. Saved me a chunk of $$ for a great card.

That's what I hope my eVGA card will do when I get it this afternoon. Nice softmod/overclock!
:beer:

 

[DecoY]

can someone help. i used aquamark3 to bench my card.
my card unlocks sucessfully but i get artifacts in hl2, but not in aquamark. weird.

case 0: default (47661)
case 1: default + enable pixel unit 0 (48756)
case 2: default + enable vertex unit (47695)
case 3: enable both pixel 0 and unit 3 (4877)

can someone interpret what's going on?
also, when i make the modifcations, i get artifacts in hl2 but not in aquamark3. help?

 

[hypaspazz]

Originally posted by: saechaka
yeah, 15.2 i really hope i don't have to flash the bios. i don't even know if the gains are worth it. what scores are you getting in 3dmark2005 hypaspazz. thanks for the help

I am running with the 66.81 drivers in 3Dmark05:

Out of the box(12x1, 5vp): 3326
Softmodded no O/C(16x1,6vp): 3702
Softmodded w/ suggested O/C @363/775(16x1,6vp): 4082

Added: I should say that this card is a PNY 6800 not a BFG OC..... This is why I list non-O/C specs. My comments on this post are only to give suggestions on how to get the softmod to work for the 6800 series. I have heard that the BFG has a high success rate.

 

[KBtn]

The BFG card comes overclocked and is warrantied that way.

 

[Hikari]

How loud is the fan on this? And is $259 (after rebate) good?

 

[AirGibson]

Originally posted by: Hikari
How loud is the fan on this? And is $259 (after rebate) good?

The BFG I got is "average". Not quiet, not really loud.

$250 - $260 is a pretty good price. Some retailer had them the other day (best buy or compusa I think) for $220 with Half-Life 2 after a big rebate (somewhere around $120 rebate I think).

 

[bovinda]

Originally posted by: AirGibson

Originally posted by: Hikari
How loud is the fan on this? And is $259 (after rebate) good?

The BFG I got is "average". Not quiet, not really loud.

$250 - $260 is a pretty good price. Some retailer had them the other day (best buy or compusa I think) for $220 with Half-Life 2 after a big rebate (somewhere around $120 rebate I think).

Best Buy has the BFG 6800 OC/HL2 bundle for 220$ after rebate. I think it's good until this Saturday--there's a lot more details about it over in the Hot Deals forum, which is where I learned about it.