Is anyone else's Vnf4 ultra like this?

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Interitus
i'm not a bf42 gamer, but i imagine it would be hurting on 512mb of RAM. Could be wrong, just my first guess.

Agreed. RAM is MUCH more likely to be the problem than the video card is. I would upgrade to 1MB RAM, which is pretty much the minimum for decent gaming these days.

Silversierra, As for overclocking the card, I would just use the coolbits hack (let me know if you need directions for that), and up it slowly. If you go too far, you will either get artifacts (wierd blocky images) or a lockup. If you do, just lower your overclock and go from there. I do not know much about Jaton, so I cannot say for sure how well it would overclock. I would search reviews on your particular 6600Gt, since most reviewers include a note on how well the card overclocks in thier review these days. You should be able to get a comperable overclock out of your card.

 

[Silversierra]

What is coolbits? I definitely need instructions if I don't even know what it is. bf1942 says it needs 128mb of ram, but I am running it on highest quality, so it definitely would need more ram than lowest detail. Could I get 2 more 256mb cards, or should I get another gig and have 1.5gb? Or buy a gig and sell my 512? People say it's best to use just 2 dimms or some people say if you get only single sided memory you can use all 4 dimms. What's the deal?

 

[Silversierra]

http://oc3dmark.octeams.com/tip02.html
Is this what you mean? If it is, are these instructions right (can I trust this site?).

 

[Atif]

ChineseDemocracyGNR, I think you're mistaken on the Ultra and non-Ultra using the same BIOS. This has been stated by UncleBob (representing Chaintech's forum at PC Perspective Forums) on this issue:

The BIOS for the VNF4 ULTRA is NOT the same as the BIOS for the Non ULTRA!!
The website(s) is in error. This will be corrected ASAP.

Peace

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
http://oc3dmark.octeams.com/tip02.html
Is this what you mean? If it is, are these instructions right (can I trust this site?).

YES! This is exactly the same set of instructions I was going to point you to. They are easy to follow, and as long as you stick to thier steps (overclock a little at a time), you are fine. DO NOT make HUGE jumps in clockspeed or memory frequency on the card, or you may regret it. Just up it a little, benchmark (to see if it is stable), up some more, repeat until you start to see artifacts or get a lockup -- then back down a few notches, and run several benchmarks at that setting, to see if it is stable. You are definitely safe following these directions.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Atif
ChineseDemocracyGNR, I think you're mistaken on the Ultra and non-Ultra using the same BIOS. This has been stated by UncleBob (representing Chaintech's forum at PC Perspective Forums) on this issue:

The BIOS for the VNF4 ULTRA is NOT the same as the BIOS for the Non ULTRA!!
The website(s) is in error. This will be corrected ASAP.

Peace

SH*T!! If this is true, I wonder if anyone screwed up thier boards by flashing the non-ultra with an ultra BIOS. I would think that if anyone did, then they should be eligible for an RMA, since it was not thier fault that the website was incorrect.

 

[MajorPayne]

Just a note on the VNF4Ultra BIOS installed on the VNF4-non ultra -- it apparently DOES work without damaging anything. A user (also at pcper.com) had already installed this BIOS yesterday, and his has still been working fine since. I would not recommend that others do so tho.

On another note, here are a couple of more pictures from Silversierra's board, showing a close-up view. You may need to re-size them if they are too big, they are meant to show a closup of the board.
http://www.oregoncomputersolutions.com/screenshots/VNF4closeup1.jpg
http://www.oregoncomputersolutions.com/screenshots/VNF4closeup2.jpg

 

[Silversierra]

Thanks again MajorPayne for hosting my pictures!

If I overclock the video, and it "freezes" how do you "unfreeze it"? On the instructions for the coolbits, what do they mean by copying krusty's value to Bart's? What should I backup my registry to, a cd?

 

[Silversierra]

"bf1942 says it needs 128mb of ram, but I am running it on highest quality, so it definitely would need more ram than lowest detail. Could I get 2 more 256mb cards, or should I get another gig and have 1.5gb? Or buy a gig and sell my 512? People say it's best to use just 2 dimms or some people say if you get only single sided memory you can use all 4 dimms. What's the deal?"
Any ideas?

 

[Glpster]

What's with the sticker for the board name and rev? What happened to the silkscreen?

Have you tried peeling off the sticker to see what it says (if anything) underneath?

P.S. I LOVE the Blue. Heatsink - eh.

Has anyone taken the time to do a semi-detailed comparison of the components on this board to see if there are any other obvious or glaring differences?

 

[Silversierra]

I don't think I'll mess with the sticker. I would be really ticked if I screwed up the board trying to scrape a sticker off. So do you think the new cooler is better or worse? Almost all heatsinks I can think of have fins. I have never seen a cpu or chipset cooler with spokes like the original vnf4 ultra (I know, somewhere one does exist and some genius will have to point it out). But I really like my board as is. The only thing I would ever consider doing to it is adding an active cooler to the chipset.

 

[Glpster]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
I don't think I'll mess with the sticker. I would be really ticked if I screwed up the board trying to scrape a sticker off. So do you think the new cooler is better or worse? Almost all heatsinks I can think of have fins. I have never seen a cpu or chipset cooler with spokes like the original vnf4 ultra (I know, somewhere one does exist and some genius will have to point it out). But I really like my board as is. The only thing I would ever consider doing to it is adding an active cooler to the chipset.

Looks wise, I don't find the new heatsink any more attractive (although if they had used a different color for the logo I might like it more). Maybe the green is UV reactive. Do you have a black light?

I am curious though as to why they changed it. I couldn't say if it is any more effective than the original. My un-expert opinion would be that it doesn't look any more effective at removing heat. It may simply be that that particular heatsink allowed them to put the series logo on it.

I think the sticker is a little curious too. Perfectly understandable if you don't want to remove it. I suspect some other tinkerer will get this board and peel it off to find out what they covered up.

 

[sigpop]

lots of good info, majorpayne. i'm bookmarking this thread for future use. thx.

 

[Silversierra]

No, I don't have a black light or a windowed case. My case is "normal". What majorpayne said about making a uv reative pcb is a good idea though. That would look sweet if you have a windowed case. It would be basically pointless in my "normal" antec case though. Yeah, I really like this forum, I keep learning all this new stuff and (most) everyone seems helpful and nice. Thanks for helping me so far guys!

 

[bookman]

What would be even better for a new revison of this board is if they would move some of the capacitors around the CPU so that we could use an XP-120 to cool this puppy.

 

[Atif]

^

The XP-120 already fits on the board, check it out for yourself here. I have a thread bookmarked at home that also has pictures of a successful install (at school right now, will post later if you please)

It seems as though silversierra's board was just a stepping stone to a serious revision, as noted here by X-bit labs. I think I'll call and request the updated revision (would like that active cooler on the northbridge)

Peace

 

[Silversierra]

My vote is to get Chaintech to GIVE (or at least make it available separately)us loyal 1st gen. vnf4 owners a free chipset fan like in the xbit article posted by Atif. Anyone with me on that?

 

[Silversierra]

Do you think an email to Chaintech would do any good? Do they have good customer service?

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
Do you think an email to Chaintech would do any good? Do they have good customer service?

In my experience (limited to this particular board), chaintech has excellent customer service. On a number of forums I post on, there are chaintech engineers or reps working with users to get beta BIOS out, and address peoples questions/issues. On pcper.com they have a forum just for chaintech motherboards for AMD, and they have a rep there. The email address for the rep there is rubyl@chaintechusa.com. You could try asking the rep there, and see what they have to say, or go to chaintech's support site, and email them about it directly. If nothing else, it would not hurt to ask!

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
Thanks again MajorPayne for hosting my pictures!

No problem... Glad I could help!

Originally posted by: Silversierra
If I overclock the video, and it "freezes" how do you "unfreeze it"? On the instructions for the coolbits, what do they mean by copying krusty's value to Bart's? What should I backup my registry to, a cd?

If the system "freezes" because you overclocked the video too far, then you may need to force a reboot of the computer. Coolbits is a neat overclocker because it will not let you "cement" a particular overclock unless you can test it, and confirm it, and then manually press the save settings button, so the reboot would put you back at either the defaults (if you did not save an overclock setting) or at the last working saved overclock.

As for copying "krusty's value to bart's", these are registry values, and Krusty and Bart are thier names. In this case, I would not worry about that step, since very few video cards can overclock high enough to make the simpson's edit needed. Do without it for now, and only use it if you card can reach the maximum allowable overclock in coolbits at default.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Silversierra
I don't think I'll mess with the sticker. I would be really ticked if I screwed up the board trying to scrape a sticker off. So do you think the new cooler is better or worse? Almost all heatsinks I can think of have fins. I have never seen a cpu or chipset cooler with spokes like the original vnf4 ultra (I know, somewhere one does exist and some genius will have to point it out). But I really like my board as is. The only thing I would ever consider doing to it is adding an active cooler to the chipset.

I would not bother removing the sticker -- it most likely takes the place of the silk-screened information there on the original board, so there is probably nothing at all underneath it.

I personally like the original cooler more, mainly because it seems like it would be easier to mount a fan to the original (and I would NOT use this board without adding a chipset fan!). I have seen some chipset coolers like the one on the original VNF4, but I agree they are less common -- I liked it though, since it made it VERY easy for me to add a fan to mine.

Originally posted by: Glpster
Has anyone taken the time to do a semi-detailed comparison of the components on this board to see if there are any other obvious or glaring differences?

I have compared as much as I can based on the photos from Silversierra's board, and my own VNF4 (first edition), and in my (unexpert) opinion, the ONLY differences are the blue PCB (an improvement), the heatsink on the chipset (maybe NOT an improvement), and the sticker (I actually prefer silkscreened info to a sticker, so not improvement here either).

I would NOT send my great performing board back to chaintech just to get one of the blue ones, but that new rev in the x-bit article would definitely be enough to get me to ask for an exchange. I have emailed chaintech support about it, and I will let you guys know what they have to say (whether I can exchange for a new rev board, or not).

Then again, my board already performs great, and I have added the active cooling to the chipset myself, so I will have to wait and see if anything else is different about the new rev board. Also, the new rev board on x-bit appears to be a return to the old black/brown PCB, so possibly the blue PCB is only an in-between stage, and it will not be present in the new rev.

 

[Glpster]

Originally posted by: MajorPayne

I would NOT send my great performing board back to chaintech just to get one of the blue ones, but that new rev in the x-bit article would definitely be enough to get me to ask for an exchange. I have emailed chaintech support about it, and I will let you guys know what they have to say (whether I can exchange for a new rev board, or not).

Thanks. Would love to know what Chaintech has to say.

I suspect that they would only do an exchange if the new rev. addressed some significant problem(s) that there were no other workarounds for.

And, I would hope that if there are any serious problems with these Rev.1 boards that they would do an exchange for those of us who haven't had them very long.

 

[Glpster]

By-the-way, how has people's experience been with the upgraded Bios revs?

I would like to update to one of the newer rev bios, but I tend to be VERY leary of anything labled Beta. So, so far I'm just using the Bios that came with the board.

Any stability or performance issues noticed with the newer Bios revs?

Thanks.

 

[MajorPayne]

Originally posted by: Glpster

By-the-way, how has people's experience been with the upgraded Bios revs?

I would like to update to one of the newer rev bios, but I tend to be VERY leary of anything labled Beta. So, so far I'm just using the Bios that came with the board.

Any stability or performance issues noticed with the newer Bios revs?

Thanks.

I have been using the FIRST beta BIOS since it came out (1-17 I believe). It is ROCK stable, and turns the board into a SUPER overclocker! I recommend it completely to anyone willing to flash a BIOS. I too was leery of beta BIOS, but having used it for over a week now, I have seen zero problems, and a huge performance boost in overclocking. I have not tried the second one at all, since I do not use NTUNE, and the second BIOS addresses issues with using NTUNE only, as far as I know.

 

[Silversierra]

If a 6600gt could reach 600mhz core, would it be similar to a 6800? Are there any benchmarks comparing 6600gt overclocked to 6800? What brand of low cost memory have people been using with the vnf4 ultra? I'm thinking of getting a gb, is mushkin ok? Corsair? Kingston Value? Are any dual channel 1gb kits single sided? My 512 kit is single sided, and it seems like people recommend single sided if you try to use all 4 dimms.