Unlocking a 6800 standard, Why?

[dfloyd]

Well not why per say more so whats the difference.

I keep seeing people trying it, I keep seeing them state what it does, but I am never seeing anyone post numbers before and after. I am lead to believe that it sounds impressive but in final numbers it may not be that impressive.

I guess I am posting for two reasons. One is that I hope someone proves me wrong. Two is so I know the difference as I am about to purchase a 6800 and am planning on attempting this.... If its worth it that is

And by worth it I would say that gaining 10fps max is not really much of a benefit and not really worth the risk. Now gaining say 25+fps when running fsaa and AF, now thats a different story.

Thanks up front for advice.

 

[Navid]

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...d1=softmod+AND+success

 

[HappyNic]

well, just think of it this way,, it you were able to unlock the pipes and shaders, and overclock the GPU and memory to 6800GT speed, (50mhz more for gpu and 50hmz more for ram), then your regular 6800 will preform just as good as a 6800GT. So just check on the review of a 6800 compare to a 6800gt and you'll get your answer on what improvment you might get.

 

[bradyapba]

Dfloyd,

And by worth it I would say that gaining 10fps max is not really much of a benefit and not really worth the risk. Now gaining say 25+fps when running fsaa and AF, now thats a different story.

you are not going to see anywhere that kind of increase. you are looking at around a 10 FPS increase after unlocking, even if you CAN unlock, and then DONT get any artifacts.

25+ is not going to happen. So if that is your expectations, you will be disappointed.
10 fps is more realistic.

Now as for why i did it.

1. Becuase I could. Im a tinkerer. It was interesting to try and open the pipes, and see what difference it made.

2. The something for nothing theory. If i can make my card better, then I should try.

3. Though they say it voids your warranty, its pretty hard to prove. How is a retailer going to know you tried to unlock your pipes? Its not like they are gonna test your card. Many a consumer has returned their card after trying to soft mod it, OC it, etc.


Just my 2 cents.

Chris

 

[BlackPear1]

Well, not really quite as good as a GT - remember the 6800 has just 128 Mb memory. Also, you would have to OC the RAM on the 6800 by 150 MHz, not 50 MHz to get GT speeds. The core OC to GT speeds would be 25, not 50 MHz. Even without a big OC though, you should see a significant difference in performance if you can unlock the additional pipelines. That additional performance, even if it's "only" 10 fps, should allow you to go up a level in resolution or add more AA/AF in your games - that's been the effect on my 6800's. The beauty part is that there probably isn't any risk since it's a softmod and your card remains basically unchanged. Good luck on your new card, there's about a 50/50 chance it will unlock successfully.