What's the Geforce 6800 GTO?

[IceMole]

Mine can't be unlocked, unwidner (maker of RT) said it has to do with the hardware. I am getting 10,8xx in '03 stock 12/5, which seems higher then that guys unlocked score of 9k, I think he has some other issues to look at there.

 

[knyghtbyte]

Icemole, sorry to hear yours cant be unlocked, i guess Dell (i presume yours is Dell) have found a way to cripple them. originally everyone was unlocking their GTO's (on this and other forums) then a few couldnt, now it seems everyone cant.....mebbe thats why Dell is again offering the X800XT on Dimension 8400's...so people will buy top range from them, rather than crap X300SE to make do and buy the 6800GT/X800XT from third party company.

i was getting something like 9,5xx on stock 12/5, 350/900, but then im only on a 3ghz with 1gb of 400-DDR2. so i would imagine up to your 3.2 with 533-DDR2 would probably account for the extra 1,000 or so your getting. I must admit i was surprised some other people getting same score as me but with your specs. But then as we all know computer parts like memory are rarely going to be exactly the same from batch to batch and might not be operating quite as well as another lot. unlocked pipes gives me 10,8xx (roughly, mighta been 10,7xx) and then upping to 375/1000 with unlocked pipes rose to 11,4xx .

 

[gshock888]

i dont see them offering x800 xt...

 

[gshock888]

well whaddayaknow i'm correcting myself... i read pc mag and i found a 8400 with an XT on it
look at its ridiculous price. i know its got RAID 400GB SATA and the 2001fp and etc etc, but still 3k i can build me a rig that flies

http://configure.us.dell.com/d...840rpw&x=0&y=0

 

[knyghtbyte]

best thing to do with Dell is to configure it on the website or from a magazine article, then phone up and see what you can bully them into giving you extra or cheaper, they can usually give you more options on interal parts and peripherals......or take off the crappy speakers and take something off the price for it....
when i ordered my current PC, from UK Dell, they were only offereing the X300SE or the X800SE.....when i phoned however he told me i can have the GTO or XT (that was the irish call centre tho, the Indian call centre i spoke to a few days beforehand said only the SE cards on 8400 system....)

 

[kitkit201]

I got a Dell D8400 and it was making very bad machine noise, so I requested to get a new one.

The replacement came today and to my surprise, inisde was a GF 6800 card, and not the X800 SE that I had in my original system config. (don't know how they got the two mistaken)

However, following Knyghtbyte's instructions, it looks like I can only OC. It's default is 325/600 (A bit low i guess) and 3dmark'03 yields 8600.

This is coming from a 1gb 533 speed and p3 3.0HT.

Upon further inspection of it, I saw in Rivatuner that it is NV41 chipset, and not the NV40 set that people have been getting. I cannot find which bytes to enable the other 16pipes, but looks like the party maybe over...

 

[kitkit201]

And weird thing is that it doesn't say it is a GTO.. Just says Geforce 6800 (256mb @ PCI-X) ??? I'm confused....

 

[runuh]

Originally posted by: gshock888
well whaddayaknow i'm correcting myself... i read pc mag and i found a 8400 with an XT on it
look at its ridiculous price. i know its got RAID 400GB SATA and the 2001fp and etc etc, but still 3k i can build me a rig that flies






Do u have 3k on u? Not many ppl do. Dell offers the financing that lets us poo folk get a decent system.

 

[knyghtbyte]

hmm...kitkit201, im not sure if you have a GTO there......that 325/600 is waaay to low, the core should be 350 and the memory 900 by default (stock) pipes should be 12 and should be 5vu's.....

your pentium is same as mine, but u got the better memory, same amount tho.....

heres an easy way to check, open your case, does your card have the SLI connector? (looking in your case at the card, the SLI connector is on the top edge towards the brackets)

if no SLI then you got yourself a bog standard 6800

if SLI connector then u do have a GTO card (GT/Ultra based) so ramp up the core and memory to 350/900 and see how it handles....if it goes ok with no problems, try it up to 375/1000 (what mine is)
oh but before u do, check they put an extra fan in your case blowing down on the PCI slots, if not dont OC too much or it'll overheat

and lastly, its possible they havnt got any X800SE's in stock atm so figured you'd be happy with a Geforce equivelant......if u can OC it then you've done better than you paid for....lol

if you cant OC it, well, find someone who has your puter but with the X800SE working and see if they benchmark better, if they do then complain to dell....heh

good luck with it

 

[kitkit201]

Yes, it does have an SLI connector on it, but its not coming up as GTO, just 6800... it is a newer revision of it NV41 as opposed to nV40, but I'll try the OCing

Wilson

 

[jimikim]

Wow I'm glad I found this forum. I ordered a Dell 8400 last night, you guys will choke when you hear at what price. Specs:

3.2Ghz
1gig DDR2@400
6800 GTO
160gig HD
2005FPW WIDESCREEN 20 INCH ULTRASHARP LCD
Windows XP Pro
Unit Price: $2,157
Discount: -$647.10 (i found some crazy 30% coupon that expired 5 hours after i used it)
Net Price: $1,492.80 (I have no idea how 2157-647.1=1492.8 but that's what the email says....)


Can't wait to OC the 6800...

 

[knyghtbyte]

hmm, Dells definitely found out their original GTO board could be unlocked then, mine says NV40 on the main Rivatuner tab, altho it says NV45 in the VGA BIOS report (im guessing cuz its PCIe). So they musta fiddled around and set it up as NV41 and completly crippled the pipes. that sucks, sorry guys.

something im curious about with your guys setups, check this link http://forums.anandtech.com/me...AR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

look a few posts down for the one thats got the graphics subsytem diagnostics thing listed.

under Hardwired ID, he tells what they are, 0040 = ULtra, 0041 = standard, 0042 = LE, then jumps to 0045 = GT........mine says 0044....LOL....does all you guys see 0044? if not what?

 

[imported_crawl]

Just wanted to let you guys know You suck
I saw this forum so i proceeded to order a 8400, Got my system 2 days ago, p4 550 3.4 gig, 1 gig of ddr533, 6800 GTO, etc etc etc

First thing I did was install the latest drivers and install Rivatuner. Followed your precise instructions on unlocking the card(which dindt work, tried serveral times, restarted and checked rivatuner again and it was still back to the 12-5.) So i followed the instructions on overcloking. Set the memory to 950 and the core to 370. Restarted, worked great, played everquest 2 for about 25 minutes and my monitor went dead.

thats right, 25 minutes of running at those speeds my card DIED! lol. I had only picked up the computer from ups not 2 hrs ago. Now I am waiting for them to send me a new computer. This time im going to just tweak the settings and leave the videocard alone haha

thought you might all enjoy that

 

[jimikim]

Hmmm...maybe i shouldn't fudge with it when mine comes...thanks for the warning Crawl.

 

[knyghtbyte]

i think in one of my first posts in this thread i did say that my puter stopped working within a few days of receiving it, dell picked it up and sent it back with new mobo and graphics card, could be that there is a problem sometimes between the mobo and the graphics card.......

there is a thread not dissimilar to this about 6800LE from evga.com, people buying them originally were getting full blown Ultra cards just parred down because some didnt quite hit the quality mark, they were getting them by the sound of it even cheaper than this GTO.....but once the thread had been around for a while it was made apparent that the majority of these cards couldnt be clocked back up to Ultra levels.....hence the chips being stuck on cheaper boards........

i guess its a case of if your in there first your lucky, if not then its not so good.....

however your GTO even at stock speeds is still better than a 6800 standard card if the clocks are 350/900 as the Dell website states.......so its in the correct pricing. and its a nice card for games at that level.

sorry if it hasnt worked for you, i only put up what i said because it worked for me and other people at the time.

 

[Elvisman2001]

Anyone found out anyhting about flashing the dual layer dvd recorder that comes with the 8400 so that it will do both +R AND -R? Comes only able to do +R.

I got a REALLY good deal on my 8400 system I got. Dell was running a 1 day sale of 40% off anyhting over 2400 dollars.The computer I was planning to build was going to be around $3000.00 and that was without LCD, Speakers etc.
For $1900.00 I got:

Petium 3.2 GHZ With HT Tech
20 inch Ultra sharp LCD screen
300 Gig hard drive
Sound Blaster Audigy Card
Geforce 6800 GTO Graphics card
1 gig of 533 mhz DDR Ram
Klipsch 5.1 Ultra Speakers (These things kick so much major a$$ its unbelieveable)
Windows XP Pro with service pack 2
4 year warranty

I have built every computer I hav EVER owned except my commodores... but this price was pretty unbelievable and I couldnt pass it up.

 

[knyghtbyte]

heya elvisman, sorry i never got back to ya, the few people i know with the dual layer DVD in an 8400 say it cant be done......at least to the best of their knowledge......

my own single layer cant be done either........

sucks...lol

btw, i just played HL2.....yeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

damn that game is a worthy sequel to HL.......(have only got a little way in so far, but damn am i enjoying myself....heh)

 

[spheros]

Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write capability - is this -R capable now or is it the same DVD burner that you guys have that don't do -R?

-> 128MB PCI Express? x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon? X800 SE
-> 256MB Nvidia® GeForce 6800 GTO Graphics Card

which is better of the two now that 6800 GTO has been 'tampered with' by Dell techs. Is there a way to undo what the Dell did to the GTO's?

 

[knyghtbyte]

if it states DVD+/-RW then you can do both spheros, but make sure when you order it that the guy on the phone confirms that......

the GTO is still better than the X800SE, the X800SE is 128mb of DDR.......the GTO is 256MB of GDDR3, that alone is worth the extra money.....
the X800SE has a 425 core compared to GTO's 350, but then im assuming that you cant actually compare the cores because they make their chips different to one another.....
the X800SE only has 350mhz memory tho, the GTO is 450.......

personally i feel the price difference more than justifies buying the GTO even at the stock speeds, and if it turns out you can unlock or overclock then its definitely worth it......

i have tested my GTO today on HL2 at its stock 12/5 350/900 just to see what happens, it copes just fine at 1024/768 with all settings on high except i had reflect world, not reflect all, 4xAA and 8xAF......and it runs Doom 3 at a reasonably decent rate as well......

i dont think you can undo what the Dell techs have done now to the pipes/vu, i think they really have completely crippled them by the sound of it.....but also its likely that the board isnt being given enough extra power to run anything more than what they let you have....it doesnt use a standard power connector....

if you want totally outrageous power with the best quality graphics, then take the PC with an X300SE (yes, 300, not the 800) and buy an X800XT or 6800 Ultra separately......
(just bear in mind the 8400 comes with 350w power supply, so dont go for a 6800 Ultra if you have 2 optical drives, 1gb memory, Audigy soundcard and other trimmings, go with an X800XT, the Ultra just might prove too greedy for your system to run properly.....

hope this helps

EDIT: just to confirm btw, the GTO is a dual DVI, Dell will ship a DVI-VGA adaptor if you order a CRT rather than a flat panel, but you cant hook two CRT's up to it, if u want two screens one must be a flat panel...and there is no TV-out, so if u need TV out then i advise taking the standard X300SE and buy an X800XT separately, or even order it from Dell.....(forgot earlier in this post that Dell do the X800XT on the 8400 again...lol)

 

[nihawk]

WOW
I am confuzed.
I have read ( all?) the postings on this subject and yes .. I too have a brand new dell8400 3.4HT 1GB 533 MHZ dual 16X +-RW etc etc.....
to recap though i have NO IDEA what card i should keep/use

I ordered the X800SE thinking i was gona pull a fast one and get one of those ATI-for-nuttin-just-change-a-bit-and-get-a-$600-card cards ...
when the box came (with a sweeeet 20.1 widescreen LCD i might add...more on that if anyone wants to a first hand description) i had a nvidia 6800 card.
i thought they made a mistake and i got upgraded ....
here is what i know:
1 it came at 300MHZ core and 600MHZ memory.- i am able to clock it at 375/700 no prob but the max showing in rivatuner is 490/900
2 under rivatuner it shows up as a NVIDIA GeForce 6800 (NOT a 6800 GTO.) under that it says:
128 bit NV41 (a2,12X1,5vp) with 256MB DDR (not GDDR3)
3. it takes up 2 slots ( the adjacent PCI slot is covered by the fan) and it has a SLI.
4. 3d bench gives me 9854 which i think is decent but i am new to this.
5. i can't unlock the extra 4 pipes but i REALLY don't know what i am doing so i am probably doing this wrong.

Dell is now offering 4 cards under dell home dimension 8400
ati X300 SE, 800SE, NVIDIA 6800 and 6800gto
the 800SE and 6800 sell at the same price.
SO what should i do ?;-) call dell and get the X800 SE i ordered? the only benchmark i saw here posted was lower then what i was getting ...should i shut up and be thankfull?

 

[knyghtbyte]

well, given the memory limit you should have a bog standard 6800 but u have SLI which means Dell are using the main board from a GTO, just it has 256mb compared to normal 6800 128mb, it isnt GDDR3 tho, if it was you could OC the memory to 1000 and more......
you probably wont be able to unlock the pipes as Dell seems to be crippling them effectively now.......

Your benchmark is mainly good because you have a 3.4 with 1Gb of fast memory, if anything your graphics card is holding you back......

far as i can tell you got what you paid for, the X800SE and your 6800 probably can achieve the same levels when overclocked......
if you play Doom3, keep your nvidia, if you play HL2 phone dell and demand a X800SE.....lol

if you have the money i would call Dell and tell you want to pay the extra difference and get an X800XT

or sell the card u got and buy a X800XT or 6800Ultra (whichever u can actually find to buy on PCI-e....lol)

either top end card will boost your 3dmark03 score to around 12,000 quite happily........and thats a lot of frames difference in actual gaming terms....

personally i would keep the 6800 u got over a straight X800SE swap as you do have more memory available and your core and memory speed up to reasonable rates for the price card it is.....

but also personally i would definitely upgrade to a top end card if i had the cash on a 3.4 system with 1gb fast memory....

 

[nihawk]

knyghtbyte,
first off thanks!

I think the main diference is that the card i got is a diferent chipset ( NV41 vs NV40)
take a look at:
http://www.behardware.com/news/6982/NV41-6800.html
http://www.behardware.com/news...tures-of-the-NV41.html

the bit's i have turned on and off are diferent then those i have seen in step-by-step guides of unlocking the pipes on the 6800.
I don't have a pipe set as "disabled" it is just "NA" same for the shader
I am hoping someone will come along and figure out how to do it right on these "new cards"
My trial and error had my heart skipping a beat as windows locked up in a black screen after boot and i couldn't revert the changes i made(after a few reboots and safe mode changes it came back)

Any idea what Dell might want for the card upgrade? ( to the X800XT)

I am also not running the latest drivers as they don't support my native screen res ( 1680X1050)
I just noticed that i can overclock through the NVIDIA .rivaturner would only let me go to 490/900 MAX ( with a warning sign)
the NVIDIA automatically set me at 407/766 with a max of 650/1.4GHZ! ( haven't tried that ...)
if that is right then what kind of memory DO i have? ... that can't be right.....

I am running 3dMark03 again ... can't think of anything better to do at 3:15 am! LOL

 

[nihawk]

well off to sleep but before that ...... drum roll please ....

3dMark03 10485!!!!

not bad OC 405/764.
I will play with the image settings ( performance vs quality" tomorrow)
looks like i may keep this card.

 

[knyghtbyte]

well, from checking those links nihawk, im guessing u got the chip that only actually has 12/5, not 16/6 cut back........as for your memory, not sure what to say on that....lol i guess the easy way is to try and ramp it up to 1000mhz (effective)...........if it manages it then u got GDDR3.......if it doesnt then u got normal DDR......

certainly sounds like u got more than your moneys worth tho....hehe

 

[Azndude51]

I haven't been keeping up with this thread, but does anyone have 3dmark scores for GTOs in sli?