What's the Geforce 6800 GTO?

[knyghtbyte]

Hullo folks, this sites forum came up when i was trying to discern what the GTO graphics card i ordered from Dell actually was.....now i know, this site and another gave me the lowdown on the actual stats.
The card isnt actually as bad as your probably thinking, on my new puter...
Pentium4 3.0Ghz (800fsb with HT)
1Gb DDR2 400 RAM
6800 GTO (not overlcocked or modded in any way)
SB Audigy2 (Dell)
80Gb 7200rpm HD

i got 9,500 marks on 3dMark03...
didnt at the time know there was a 3dMark05 to test it on, alas the video card did have a fault, but it was to do with the connectors, not the chips or anything, so its back with Dell at the mo, hopefully back by friday

from PC Gamer (UK) test results on a similar system to mine (533fsb on the P4 but same Ghz and only 512Mb DDR RAM) on the 6800 GT (normal version) scored approx 10,000 marks, so i assume if u double the RAM and add a bit for the fsb difference then the GTO isnt actually out of line costwise, at least not from UK Dell (i should probably mention im an advertising executive in a call centre environment who gets people to pay for something they can have for free so getting the Dell guy to make the system i ordered cheaper wasnt too difficult...lol)
Also if you mod the GTO to unlock the pipes and bump up the RAM speed you will probably find your card performing as well as the conventional GT does.

Hopefully i've been helpful, scuse me if i've twittered on some, i get carried away typing sometimes ;-)

 

[klah]

So what are the specs for your card? 12/5 350/900?

 

[JBT]

I bet it is a bit slower than a GT but not much. PRobably just clock speed. I have a feeling it is similar to when they had the Radeon 9700 TX's

 

[knyghtbyte]

my GTO is running at 350 core and 450 memory, havnt had the chance to rivatuner it yet.....
difference is simply 12 piplines (well, 3 quad pumped) and 5 of those other things people mention, cant remember what now.....already on the wine tonight..lol
but with Rivatuner so long as certain pipelines are disabled you can enable them and the 6th other thingy, that way u have a GT.....but some of the cards have different pipe disabled due to an actual error on the card rather than nvidia/dell scheming against us poor gamers....

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: knyghtbyte
my GTO is running at 350 core and 450 memory, havnt had the chance to rivatuner it yet.....
difference is simply 12 piplines (well, 3 quad pumped) and 5 of those other things people mention, cant remember what now.....already on the wine tonight..lol
but with Rivatuner so long as certain pipelines are disabled you can enable them and the 6th other thingy, that way u have a GT.....but some of the cards have different pipe disabled due to an actual error on the card rather than nvidia/dell scheming against us poor gamers....

Yep, those are the specs of the GF 6800 GTO: 350/450 with 12 pipes. It's closer to a 6800nu than a 6800GT although it's pretty much in the middle due to the GDDR3.

Yet more deceptive advertising; you'd think the GTO would be faster than the 350/500 16 pipe GT, but in reality it's another chinsey hybrid between a 6800nu and a 6800GT. Curse you Dell!

 

[knyghtbyte]

i dont know what the 6800nu is.......is that better than a bog standard 6800?
the fact u can mod a GTO so the pipes are 16 and the other thing is 6 means its a GT card thats been restricted.......rather than a lesser card being pumped up......the GTO certainly beats the living daylights out of a bog standard 6800's results......
i agree its naughty of companies (Dell or others) to use something like GTO as a name extension, but a serious puter user should twig it wont be the same and ask if its faster or slower.....and someone just buying a computer for general use it wont make a difference, the card will improve their system i think at a fair amount for the extra cost.....

btw, just for the record, all 4 computers i've had have been from Dell and this newest one is the first one i ever had a problem with, so im not gonna whack Dell for that, anytime you buy something there is always the chance its your turn to get the duff item......i will however slate Dell for annoyingly giving you the bare minimum power supply they can get away with...lol.

(the specs in my signature werent a real puter i bought btw...lol....my first PC was a P3 500MHz, died from a lightening strike, 2nd PC was the insurance replacement P3 1GHz, not a bad upgrade...alas i put too much stuff inside and fried the power supply..lol, third PC is the one im sitting on atm, P4 3GHz bought a year ago, upgrading as me mum wanted a puter and i said she could have this if she handed over a wad of cash so i could get a PCIe based system so im more future proof, which is the one that had knackered connectors on the PCIe x16 slot and is back in the Dell workshop...doh

 

[dak125]

Just thought I'd share my 6800 GTO results. I have it set at 442mhz/1.1 ghz and a 3dmark score of 11,453. Not too shabby at all .

Screenshot

How do you find out the amount of pipelines enabled? Perhaps I can flash the bios and who knows .

 

[SickBeast]

Is the core clock of the GeForce GTO equal to the horsepower of the Pontiac GTO?

 

[Dustswirl]

Grand Tourismo Omologato

 

[knyghtbyte]

Originally posted by: dak125
Just thought I'd share my 6800 GTO results. I have it set at 442mhz/1.1 ghz and a 3dmark score of 11,453. Not too shabby at all .

Screenshot

How do you find out the amount of pipelines enabled? Perhaps I can flash the bios and who knows .

========================

Dak, whats the rest of your system specs? your using a Dell 8400 i presume?

i cant remember atm, but i think 3dmark03's system analyser will tell you how many pipes you got, if not just use Rivatuner......i cant remember the exact procedure now for cranking up the pipes but if your using a standard Dell GTO card and all you've done is upped the core and memory but not the pipes then you'll find your graphics looks even nicer once u do the pipes....
im getting ready for work atm, so i'll find the full info on how to do it and post it here when i get home this evening
(one thing i remember tho is not all cards can enable all pipes, some of the chips are actually physically broken, possibly a manufacturing process error that didnt affect anything else and allows them to sell on those chips)

well, the nice Dellman said my puter should definitely be back tomorrow.....i hope so, wanna complete Doom3 before HL2 is available...lol

 

[dak125]

Just a bit of an update, I enabled the last 4 pipelines. I'm now at 6800 Ultra speeds + some.

New 3dmarks03 score of 12,111 with the above OC and the 4 pipelines. This thing has more in it too. I only had the pc for 5 hours as of yesterday.

Rest of the specs are:

3.0
1 gig DDR2 400mhz
160 gig serial
6800 GTO
16x dual layer that's now flashed to a NEC-3500A
16x DVD
2001FP 20.1 inch LCD.

If I told you how much I had to spend out of pocket you'd call me a liar

 

[knyghtbyte]

Originally posted by: dak125
Just a bit of an update, I enabled the last 4 pipelines. I'm now at 6800 Ultra speeds + some.

New 3dmarks03 score of 12,111 with the above OC and the 4 pipelines. This thing has more in it too. I only had the pc for 5 hours as of yesterday.

Rest of the specs are:

3.0
1 gig DDR2 400mhz
160 gig serial
6800 GTO
16x dual layer that's now flashed to a NEC-3500A
16x DVD
2001FP 20.1 inch LCD.

If I told you how much I had to spend out of pocket you'd call me a liar

hey Dak, is all that in a Dell 8400 yes? did u add any cooling to the case, or did it work fine OC'ing it with just the extra internal case fan dell stick in there above the graphics card?

so the moral of the story is, Dell/nvidia arnt necessarily ripping people off with the GTO, if u know how to OC and unlock cards potentional, then your getting an Ultra for LESS than the price of a normal GT
(altho i'll back that claim up more substantially once i test my card when the puter gets back to me...lol)
(no or i'll eat my hat comments from me just yet...heh)

 

[dak125]

Yeah stock everything. I picked it up, plugged it in, turned it on and installed Rivatuner and coolbits.

Apparently that OC is quite outstanding. Who knows how far this thing can go. I'm going to OC it a bit more....it is under warranty after all

 

[Elvisman2001]

Hello everyone.
I just bought me a new Dell 8400 and was trying to find out about this graphics card (6800GTO) and stumbled upon this forum by mere chance/luck.

I am reading about how you guys have unlocked the extra pipes and overclocked the card. I also see that one of you flashed the Dual Layer 16x DVD Burner to a 3500A. Does this now allow you to burn -R DVD disks?

I have never overclocked a graphics card before. Can someone throw me a bone and tell me how to go about it? I would appreciate it. I'm very interested in how the Flashing changed your DVD burner too dak125.

Thanks!


My Specs:
Dell 8400
P4 3.4 GHZ HT Tech
Nvidia 6800 GTO
1 gig of 533 DDR Ram
x2 160 gig hard drives (I already had one in old machine)
Klipsch Ultra 5.1 Speaker System (these kick major AZZZZ)
20.1 inc 2100 LCD monitor (Gave it to my wife)
20 inch Viewsonic G220fb Graphics Series Perfect Flat CRT (Liked it much better for my work I do as a graphic artist)

 

[dak125]

As of now I can't get this flash to work properly. I wouldn't recommend until I figure out what the deal is. I can only burn at a max of 2.4x *sigh*.

Also if you play MOH:AA don't buy the 6800 GT. It absolutely sucks for MOH!

 

[Elvisman2001]

Well, I managed to find the Firmware to o this with and I flashed it. I used 2 different versions. 2.06 and 2.16 I believe and they flashed fine, but when I tried to burn a -R DVD, it would fail the "Disk AT Once" Function and tell me it couldnt burn at 2.4 and end the attempt before it was begun. Which, I think sucks because ID like the ability to burn both -R and +R. Had I known this DVD Burner would only do +R, I wouldnt have gotten it (Well, I probly would have since its dual layer and was a free upgrade).
But, I have a stack of 100 -R blank DVD's here. Guess Ill put in my unit from my old machine.

Can u provide any details on how to do the video card?

 

[dguy6789]

i dont know what the 6800nu is




the nu or np on any card means non ultra or non pro. Such as gefroce 6800nu or 9800np. People cant read, so they must be put there. If you just say radeon 9800, most people will think you mean the pro even though you dont.

 

[knyghtbyte]

oh yeah, spank diddle tastic time

got home, nu puter had been delivered back to me from the dell repairshop and seems to be working ok so far

installed latest forceware driver.....
installed Rivatuner.....
unmasked things so im now on 16/6 instead of 12/5....
3dmark03 score spanked itself up from 9,554 to 10,720

Elvisman, to do this, once u have installed Rivatuner, open it up, click on the little arrow next to where it says what your graphics has (mine for instance says 256bit NV40 (A1, 16x1, 6vp)with 256MB DDR) and then choose the 'Low Level System Tweaks box.......then choose the NVstrap Driver tab, then install, then near the bottom where it says Active Pixel/Vertex units configuration, you choose custom and make sure you tick the Allow enabling hardware masked units.........then click the customize button. then you get a (slightly confusing at first) screen with lots of info on it, just look for the pixel unit and vertex unit that says disabled under state and yes under HW masked, then on the far left of those two just click so its checked......then ok it and everything else till u closed rivatuner and then reboot to make sure.....thats what i did and its worked, dont think i left anything out...lol

now i need help, i cant work out how to raise the core and memory speeds, it says to test, so i test but it says failed internal clock test, please reset values and try again...keeps saying that...anyone tell me how? or should i be using another program, not rivatuner, to raise those things?

 

[Elvisman2001]

Ok. Thaks Knyghtbyte. Ill give a go tomorrow when Im more awake after a nights sleep.

Did you get the 16x Dual Layer DVD Burner by chance? And if so, are you going to try the firmware update to make it a 3500? Mine came as an NEC-3100 which I think is stock. Supposedly, you can flash the firmware of this unit and make it act like a 3500 which would allow for both +R and -R DVD formats, but I am unable to get this to work.
If you manage it, let me know.

 

[Elvisman2001]

Well knyghtb yte, I went ahead and tried it. Seems to have worked!
Says Im running 16 pipes and all shaders now!
Let me know if you figure out how to do the other over clocking. Im fiddiling with it now and doing some web searches. Ill let you know if anything turns up.
Nice to be doing this while its still under warranty. lol.

EDIT: Yep... no matter what I try I am getting the same thing as you... failing the test message...

 

[dak125]

Unfortunately the flashing of the drive isn't working yet. We have to wait for a patch to come out.

 

[knyghtbyte]

Glad it worked for you as well Elvisman, did it add an extra thousand or so on 3dmark? (i forgot to mention it bumped by 3dmark05 score up from around 3,200 to 4,300

i bought my system from UK Dell around a month ago, JUST before they started offering dual layer..doh..lol
i dont mind too much tho, i very rarely use that much recording space....

there is a site, i think called hardforums or something similar, go to yahoo, not google, and search for '6800 GTO' (make sure theres a space between them) and it should show a site called hardforums or hardtechforums or similar to that, i think there was a thing there about the overclocking core and memory bit, i havnt had the chance yet, i was drunk last night when i tried out me unmasking and wanted to get to bed...lol

this is wayyyy too early for me to be up...bleah.......im off bowling now, be back later today and will let you know if i have any success

 

[Elvisman2001]

Well, My Benchmark score went up from around 9000 to 10100. BUT, I didnt bother turning off anything... like my firewall, anti virus stuff, Spy ware monitor etc. So, thats pretty dambned good with all that stuff running and STILL getting that high. Ill try again today with everything cut off and see what I get.

We have to wait for a patch? Patch for what? This really sux that this thing only does +R... Let me know when you hear of something that works. Or email me: kennydt@comcast.net
Ill still be checking back here as I am going to try and get the overclocking bit figured out as soon as I get house work finished.

Nice to finally meet some helpful people on a message board... most of the boards I've talked on I ran into a bunch of smart azzes that just tell you to figure it out yourself or some such.

Using 3dmark03 btw

 

[knyghtbyte]

well im nu here meself, but certainly seem to be a good bunch of folks posting, and yes, it does make a change from the usual big headed 'you mean you dont even know THAT?' kind of responses to a query...

on the DVD+R thingy, sorry, cant help there, never done anything to my disc drives, and given this puter im on now only has one drive i dont wanna risk flashing it or anything and it going tits up...lol

i only just got on the puter again today so im now gonna hunt down some more info on upping the clocks, if i find anything i'll post it back here

happy 3dmarking ;-)

 

[Mrvile]

Where can you buy a GTO? Can someone link me?