PNY 6800 revisions: A documentation

[touchmyichi]

I have in my possession 2 6800 PNY cards-
comparison of "old" and "new"

The first of these is an "older" PNY card and the other one is a newer one. The old one was able to mod to 16x1, 6vp. However, the new one is stuck at the default 12 pipes no matter what i try to do with the mod. But at the same time, the older one has the s*** 2d that everyone was talking about, the newer one has without a doubt improved on this and I have had no 2d problems.

For physical aspects what should immediately be recognizable is the absence of a gold plate on the top of the old geforce 6800. Also, the molex adapter is colored black in the old and white in the new. The print of the heatsink on the new one is also a lot paler in contrast with the old. I also circled in my picture some of the capacitor differences on the card- i only did a few of them as there is so many differences.

So what exactly is the point of this? Well I would like to bring some ideas to you guys as to how to unlock these 12 pipes on the newer models. The old ones read a bios of "V5.40.02.12.51"- i think that a flash of this on a newer one could possibly allow us to unlock these pipes. Also, many of these different capacitors might be the key to hardmodding.

Most importantly though, these older revisions are running out fast if you want a chacne to get your 16 pipes. While many of these (such as mine) had the 2d problem, I am not so sure you could generalize it for all of them.

UPDATE:
I'm hoping that this thread won't continue to progress beyond the point... A lot of you are contradicting me on some things I unintentionally said and are missing the overall point of this. So far-
1. Nearly all of the "old" 6800's have been able to be unlocked- many of which have fine 2D but others are experiencing problems.
2. So far all the new ones are completely locked.

 

[mrrman]

nice writeup and pics....thanks

 

[dj1]

nice post, i have a PNY 6800 card also that i got from black friday.

what are u trying to suggest? that if i flash my bios to that of a newer version that i will be able to unlock the remaining 4 pipes?

right now i have bios version V5.40.02.12.51 and i am getting articfacts through out the screen when i unlock the 4 pipes.
however, i do not get artifacts when unlocking the 6th vshader.

 

[Shawn]

what 2d problems did you have?

 

[dj1]

regarding to 2d problems, all problems was fixed when i got my lcd monitor. for some reason my card didn't like my old crt monitor.

 

[touchmyichi]

Originally posted by: dj1
nice post, i have a PNY 6800 card also that i got from black friday.

what are u trying to suggest? that if i flash my bios to that of a newer version that i will be able to unlock the remaining 4 pipes?

right now i have bios version V5.40.02.12.51 and i am getting articfacts through out the screen when i unlock the 4 pipes.
however, i do not get artifacts when unlocking the 6th vshader.

Well... You seem to have an "older" revision of it- aka the ones that can unlock 4 pipes. You are able to unlock them since they are not locked, but your card has defective pipes so there's nothing I can really do about that. What I am suggesting is that people with the "new" revisions might be able to flash an older bios.

 

[touchmyichi]

Originally posted by: Supercharged
what 2d problems did you have?

I can definitely vouch for the 2d being screwed up on many of these. When I ran 85 herz on the "new" 6800 it looked perfectly fine and I didn't see what everyone was complaining about. With the "old" one in I immediately detected it. Everything is so blurry and just looks wrong at 85 herz. Lowering it to 60 herz helps, but really I'm not paying 200 bucks for this. I'm hoping i'll be able to find a way to open up the 4 pipes on my old one so I dont' have to deal w/ this.

Has anyone here had an "old" revision that has had decent 2d?

 

[fstime]

I have the old version (black molex) it doesnt unlock the pipes, only the vertex, sorry.

 

[fstime]

Oh and I dont have 2d problems.

 

[touchmyichi]

Originally posted by: BouZouki
I have the old version (black molex) it doesnt unlock the pipes, only the vertex, sorry.

still.. its better than the new ones which all seem completely locked. Do you know your bios by any chance?

 

[fstime]

nope, how do I get my bios?

 

[esun]

Great post, man, I do indeed have the "old" version (same BIOS revision number as you posted, black molex connector, same circled chips, although no text where you put that red arrow) and I have the 2D problems you mentioned. 16 pipes are nothing to me if image quality sucks, but this'll help me when I'm talking to the tech tomorrow about an RMA.

 

[touchmyichi]

Originally posted by: BouZouki
nope, how do I get my bios?

it should say it when you post- it seems so far though that all of the "old" ones have the same bios.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: touchmyichi

Originally posted by: Supercharged
what 2d problems did you have?

I can definitely vouch for the 2d being screwed up on many of these. When I ran 85 herz on the "new" 6800 it looked perfectly fine and I didn't see what everyone was complaining about. With the "old" one in I immediately detected it. Everything is so blurry and just looks wrong at 85 herz. Lowering it to 60 herz helps, but really I'm not paying 200 bucks for this. I'm hoping i'll be able to find a way to open up the 4 pipes on my old one so I dont' have to deal w/ this.

Has anyone here had an "old" revision that has had decent 2d?

So you think 200 bucks is a bad deal for a 12 pipe 6800?

 

[LoneWolf15]

Mine has the black molex connector. No display problems on my 4year-old Samsung Syncmaster 900p 19" CRT monitor running at 1280x1024 @85Hz. I was unable to unlock the pipelines without getting corrumption in 3dMark05. I'm not sure there's really a connection between the differences in the two cards pictured and unlocking performance, or in display quality...I think you'd need to gather more data.

Not denying that some people are having problems, I just don't see a trend that indicates who will and who won't.

 

[nwahs]

What type of power supply is needed for a 6800?

I have a True Power 330.

I was reading the PNY manual on line and it looks like the plain 6800 is fine. But the 6600GT requires at least a 350W.

Any thoughts?

 

[fstime]

yes, get a 400-420 wat psu. Especialy if your runing an a64 system.

 

[touchmyichi]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: touchmyichi

Originally posted by: Supercharged
what 2d problems did you have?

I can definitely vouch for the 2d being screwed up on many of these. When I ran 85 herz on the "new" 6800 it looked perfectly fine and I didn't see what everyone was complaining about. With the "old" one in I immediately detected it. Everything is so blurry and just looks wrong at 85 herz. Lowering it to 60 herz helps, but really I'm not paying 200 bucks for this. I'm hoping i'll be able to find a way to open up the 4 pipes on my old one so I dont' have to deal w/ this.

Has anyone here had an "old" revision that has had decent 2d?

So you think 200 bucks is a bad deal for a 12 pipe 6800?

I was referring to 200 bucks for a 6800 with bad 2D quality was not worth my time when I have a 9700 pro that was much better.

As for the trend which lonewolf doesn't see... I can't exactly say if there is or not. I'm more of just bringing a hypothesis to you guys and seeing if there is any consistency to this.

So far it seems like most of the people with old revisions were able to unlock their pipes to some extent- yes this includes even if they artifacted, as long as these pipes are not locked. BUT I do need to hear for more of you with new 6800's with white molexes. If you guys are all locked then there is definently something that happened between the old and new revisions that caused this to happen. My suggestion of course was that it could possibly be the bios and maybe just the bios change alone could have caused this.

 

[dirtrat]

But an Unlocked 6800 will blow away your 9700 Pro in all benchmarks not to metion support for some more advanced features in Dx9. I fail to understand the worry about these capacitors. If they fell off then return the card for a replacement. I bought 2 of these on BF and both are the older ones and both totally unlock and overclock. The 2D looks fine to me but I'm sure some people are real picky and may notice some issue.

Originally posted by: touchmyichi

I was referring to 200 bucks for a 6800 with bad 2D quality was not worth my time when I have a 9700 pro that was much better.

As for the trend which lonewolf doesn't see... I can't exactly say if there is or not. I'm more of just bringing a hypothesis to you guys and seeing if there is any consistency to this.

So far it seems like most of the people with old revisions were able to unlock their pipes to some extent- yes this includes even if they artifacted, as long as these pipes are not locked. BUT I do need to hear for more of you with new 6800's with white molexes. If you guys are all locked then there is definently something that happened between the old and new revisions that caused this to happen. My suggestion of course was that it could possibly be the bios and maybe just the bios change alone could have caused this.[/quote]

 

[touchmyichi]

Originally posted by: dirtrat
But an Unlocked 6800 will blow away your 9700 Pro in all benchmarks not to metion support for some more advanced features in Dx9. I fail to understand the worry about these capacitors. If they fell off then return the card for a replacement. I bought 2 of these on BF and both are the older ones and both totally unlock and overclock. The 2D looks fine to me but I'm sure some people are real picky and may notice some issue.

Originally posted by: touchmyichi

I was referring to 200 bucks for a 6800 with bad 2D quality was not worth my time when I have a 9700 pro that was much better.

As for the trend which lonewolf doesn't see... I can't exactly say if there is or not. I'm more of just bringing a hypothesis to you guys and seeing if there is any consistency to this.

So far it seems like most of the people with old revisions were able to unlock their pipes to some extent- yes this includes even if they artifacted, as long as these pipes are not locked. BUT I do need to hear for more of you with new 6800's with white molexes. If you guys are all locked then there is definently something that happened between the old and new revisions that caused this to happen. My suggestion of course was that it could possibly be the bios and maybe just the bios change alone could have caused this.

[/quote]

Oh of course, its not like I'm going to buy a card for its 2D quality or anything. Its just that I will be using this card for some time and would prefer it to have the same sharp text my 9700 pro did.

Anyways, I'm hoping that this thread won't continue to progress beyond the point... A lot of you are contradicting me on some things I unintentionally said and are missing the overall point of this. So far-
1. Nearly all of the "old" 6800's have been able to be unlocked- many of which have fine 2D but others are experiencing problems.
2. So far all the new ones are completely locked.

Anyways, I would like this thread to be for the purpose of distinguishing not only these 2 models but all the new ones and compiling any data so we could possibly come up with some ways of getting 16 pipes on a newer version.

 

[dj1]

eh.. just returned my card. didn't like the performance.

 

[Ricman]

so....

the "new" is locked ???

 

[windsor]

I picked up one of the PNY 6800's at CompUSA and installed it today. I have a Samsung 950p analog CRT monitor and haven't noticed any screen bluriness or any other abnormal behavior.

Edit: it's also an old revision with black molex

 

[hillrock]

I have an old revision PNY 6800 with black molex without any 2D problem. Unlocked to 16/6 and runs perfectly

 

[Jedi2155]

I'm currently using a old type PNY 6800 from BF....

Well, my text was crap at first but after messing with the monitor timings on the nvidia drivers, it got to be decent enough. Still not up to par with my old 9700 pro or a XFX 6800 NU i've tried as well. But decent enough to get around.

Another thing I was wondering is how did all you guys send in the rebate? I mean if i remove the UPC sticker it'll void the warranty wouldn't it?