What's the Geforce 6800 GTO?

[VedantR]

jelliott, the difference between that board and mine is that is not SLI and cannot support large memory configurations. My board has 1 16x PCI-E slot and a 8x PCI-E Slot but 2 phyisical 16x connectors. Also, my motherboard supports 32gb of ddr 266 ram but im only putting in 4gb of oc'ed 500mhz pc4000 ddr from ultra.

edit:

Ok, just confirmed. The total price for this monster is $6392. I'm purchasing an extended LianLi Aluminum case with a liquid cooling system, 4 fans, and another cooler module on the top of the case. I've also purchased Dual 20.3 Inch Sony LCD TFT Monitors. These monitors however were on sale in Canada (which is where I live but 99% of the components were bought in the US) and I got each monitor for $700 which I consider to be an amazing deal. Even if something surpasses this system, I don't really care since it'll pretty much run any game out there.

 

[rikadik]

That rig is a mean son of a bitch!!

Wish I had $7000 to spend on a PC.

Oh well! Hope it all goes well!

 

[VedantR]

Don't worry Rikadik, I was saving up for this baby for years. I got the dell as a gift but, before my Dell, I was stuck with a PII 350MHZ...

My case and PSU should be arriving in 3 days and the Monitors will arrive in 4 days. I'm going to have to wait just a little longer. I want to see what I get on 3dmark05.

 

[jelliott]

Originally posted by: VedantR
jelliott, the difference between that board and mine is that is not SLI and cannot support large memory configurations. My board has 1 16x PCI-E slot and a 8x PCI-E Slot but 2 phyisical 16x connectors. Also, my motherboard supports 32gb of ddr 266 ram but im only putting in 4gb of oc'ed 500mhz pc4000 ddr from ultra.

The board from Buy.com is the same as what you are talking about, is it not?

Technical Specs Product Type - Mainboard
Form Factor - Extended ATX
Width - 12 in
Depth - 13.1 in
Compatible Processors - Xeon
Processor Socket - Socket 604
Max Processor Speed - 3.6 GHz
Chipset Type - Intel E7525
Max Bus Speed - 800 MHz
BIOS Type - Phoenix
Installed Qty (Max Supported) - 0 ( 2 )
Supported RAM Technology - DDR SDRAM
Supported RAM Integrity Check - ECC
RAM Installed ( Max ) - 0 MB / 32 GB (max)
Supported RAM Speed - PC2100, PC2700
RAM Features - Registered
Storage Controller - RAID
RAID Level - RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, JBOD
Controller Interface Type - Serial ATA-150
Storage Controller (2nd) - Serial ATA
Controller (2nd) Interface Type - Serial ATA-150
Audio Output - Sound card
Signal Processor - Intel E7525
Sound Output Mode - 5.1 channel surround
Compliant Standards - AC '97
Networking - Network adapter - Intel 82541GI - Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet
BIOS Features - DMI 2.1 support, APM 1.2 support, ACPI 1.0 support, SMBIOS 2.3 support
Manual Settings - CPU frequency, processor core voltage
Hardware Monitoring - CPU core temperature, chassis temperature
Sleep / Wake Up - Keyboard wake up, suspend to RAM (STR), wake on LAN (WOL), wake on ring (WOR)
Hardware Features - Chassis intrusion detection
Expansion Slots Total (Free) - 2 PCI ( 5 V ) ¦ 2 PCI-X / 66 MHz ( 3.3 V ) ¦ 1 PCI Express x16 ¦ 1 PCI Express x8 ¦ 8 memory ( 2.5 V ) - DIMM 184-pin ¦ 2 processor - Socket 604
Interfaces - 2 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 pin USB Type A ¦ 2 x serial - RS-232 - 9 pin D-Sub (DB-9) ¦ 1 x parallel - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 25 pin D-Sub (DB-25) ¦ 1 x keyboard - generic - 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style) ¦ 1 x mouse - generic - 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style) ¦ 1 x net
Software Included - SuperO Doctor III

Price: $454.99

I'm not trying to bust your bubble, I am just trying to figure out the difference, that's all.

 

[VedantR]

Hmm..... That board is the same one I bought. Damn it! I just wasted like $1,000 on that board... Hmm... maybe I can return it. I'm checking on that site now. Lets see... Ok they will accept returns within 10 days. Not bad... Not bad... time to go to buy.com. I could have sworn that when I was looking on the net I found the most reasonable price. Well... atleast I didn't get ripped off on the rest of the stuff...

Each XEON processor cost me $550 US (Not 533 FSB, its 800)
Each Graphics Card cost me $300 US
4GB of RAM cost me $850 US

edit : Just confirmed. If I return it, it will take 2 days to get there but they refund me shipping (yay ) and if I buy from buy.com, I will get in maybe 4 days. not sure yet have to check. Jelliott, I have to say thanks because if I didn't look carefully, I would have just wasted 1k there.

 

[VedantR]

Hmm.... this Dual Xeon system is performing great. I can't do any CPU overclokcing because supermicro doesnt support it (its not a gamer's mobo...). With all the cooling in my Dual Ultra SLI, the core temperature on one card is 50C at idle and the other one is 52C at idle. The Ultra fan is simply huge and can cool A LOT. I have also installed 6 120mm fans on the case and have a liquid cooling system running through it aswell. This keeps my maximum load temperatures for the core at 66C and 70C respectively. The Ambient temperature at idle is 30C and at load goes to 38-40C...


Anyways, I believe I have solved the problem of the 6800 GTO if you don't want to buy an NV5 Silencer... Just put a fan at the back with an OC to 375/1000, I am at 51C core idle and 35C ambient. Under load, I go to a maximum of 84-85 C (I rarely go that high). This system isn't all that bad.

 

[LotusAM]

Originally posted by: VedantR
Custom Built Beast
Dual Intel Xeon 3.6GHz w/ HT
Supermicro X6DAT-G Motherboard
4GB Ultra DDR SDRAM @ 500MHz
2 * 74GB 15k RPM Ultra-SCSI HDD
400GB Hitachi 7200RPM SATA-150 HDD
2 * NVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra
M-Audio Delta 1010 24-bit Audio
Creative Gigaworks S750
2 * 20" Sony LCD TFT Monitor
LianLi Aluminum Case w/ 700 Watt PSU
3DMark05 : 13234 using 66.93 Drivers

I know this is off topic but I found this topic because I was looking at maybe going with a 6800 GTO instead of the impossible to find 6800 GTs.

I'm building a similar system but I'm going with 3.2 GHz Xeons and with 6800 GTs (if I can ever find them). If I could find the 6800 Ultras for the price that you got them, I would go that route too. How well did the faster RAM work with the motherboard? Where did you find PC4000 ECC RAM? I picked 2 GB Kingston PC2700 ECC RAM for a safe bet (I didn't know if the motherboard could handle higher speeds). What Lian-Li case did you go with? I wanted to go with the PC-V2100A or the PC-V1200 but I didn't think the 2 120mm fans could cool the system well enough. So I'm going with the PC-73SL which can have up to 7 or 8 80mm fans.

 

[VedantR]

The faster Ultra DDR 500MHZ ram works amazingly well since its low latency but I managed to get the ram to work @533mHZ and the FSB @ 1066 MHZ so it all works great. I found the 6800 Ultras for an amazing price at Dell waaaaay back for $300 EACH but now they are selling lowest at www.buyxg.com.

I only wish I had maybe gotten the DDR2 SLI Motherboard but its not like it matters much to me since 533MHz is pretty fast. I found the Ultra DDR Ram @ www.tigerdirect.com. Comes in a nice wooden case but I told them I didnt want it and they deducted about $50 for each case. What a waste of money for a case... Here is the exact link if you want : http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...etails.asp?EdpNo=30255

As for the case, I got the BLUE PC-7323c Aluminum Workstation case from LianLi. Its got 4 fans and can support Dual CPUs. I modded my case so I was able to put in the other 2 fans to get 6 fans.

People say get Opteron processors bla bla bla but the Xeon performs better than the Opteron in my opinion. Besides, the Xeon I have is EM64T so it supports 64-bit processing aswell so its good for me. The Xeon is also pretty amazing for gaming, I am trying to get HL2 to see how it works on my system.

Hope that helped...

 

[Longkid]

Originally posted by: bat711
Just an update:

With the newest Rivatuner RC 15.3 you can unlock the extra pixel vertex units that were hardware masked even when using RC 15.2.

After using Rivatuner RC 15.3 to unlock masked pixel and vertex units I saw a significant increase.

6800 GTO 12x1 5vp:

Stock speed (350/900) - 9754 3DMarks
Overclocked (400/1050) - 11342 3DMarks

6800 GTO 16x1 6vp:
Stock speed (350/900) - 11267 3DMarks
Overclocked (400/1000) - 12371 3DMarks

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3523666

The temps on this GTO card are at ridiculous levels even at stock speed (90-95c at peak), so I installed a PCI slot car cooler (Adaptec ACC-9100, can be purchased through Best Buy if in US, howeve, I don't recommend it because it seems to have some issues maintaining a constant RPM) it lowered peak temps 7-10c.

Idle temp: ~55-56
Peak temp: ~85-88

Thanks for the info. One question, what utility are you using to measure the temps of your 6800GTO? I didnt notice any monitoring software bundled with my dell 8400. Sry if this is a stupid question.

 

[VedantR]

Well, you can either do one of three things. You can use the nVidia software that comes with the drivers, you can check your motherboard or you can use riva tuner to monitor the temperature.

The nVidia software uses the onboard temperature sensor on the card to determine the Ambient (case) and Core temperature. To use it, simply right click when on the desktop and go to NVIDIA Display then select the name of your monitor. You are now in the settings menu where you can check the temperature under Temperature Settings.

To check using RivaTuner, under Target adapter, click customize and then click on Hardware information. The advantage of using RivaTuner is so that you can create a chart/graph to monitor the temperature. This way, you can tell when the temperature peaks.

The BIOS is the last option but I am unaccustomed to using the BIOS Dell systems use so I cant help you there. The Motherboard sensors are usually the most accurate but I think that the onboard sensor (on the graphics card) is also pretty accurate and you shouldn't have too much problem.

Hope it helped.

 

[Longkid]

heh, found it on the nVidia menu not too long after I posted. thanks for answering

 

[Melkior]

Hi

The GTo is a failed Ultra

Is runs at 350/900 with 12 pipelines (4 being disabled) you can enable them but get mixed results as they are failed ultras.

They also overclock quite well I have mine running at 405/1129

 

[VedantR]

We know... If you buy this card from Dell, you are pretty much assured to have a fully working 6800 ultra provided you have RivaTuner 15.3 as Dell hasn't crippled their cards. They just used software to lock the pipelines however, w/ NVStrapDriver v 1.7 (included with RT 15.3) you can perform the softmod.

 

[LotusAM]

Ok, I've officially given up my search for a reasonably priced 6800 GT. So now It's time for other options and the 6800 GTO looks like a good one. I know it's basically a 6800 with a faster core and memory that can easily become a 6800 Ultra.

So if I was going to get a 6800 GTO now and want to do SLI later, what would I have to get, a 6800, another 6800 GTO, a 6800 GT, or a 6800 Ultra? I would think that I would either have to get another 6800 GTO or a 6800. Any thoughts on the matter?

Originally posted by: VedantR
We know... If you buy this card from Dell, you are pretty much assured to have a fully working 6800 ultra provided you have RivaTuner 15.3 as Dell hasn't crippled their cards. They just used software to lock the pipelines however, w/ NVStrapDriver v 1.7 (included with RT 15.3) you can perform the softmod.

Does everyone else agree with this statement? Or is it more that you have a very slim chance at getting one that can't be modified?

 

[VedantR]

Don't give up, I saw 6800GT cards on sale for $479, don't remember where but I'll do my best to look it up for you. No time right now, just studying studying studying for exams.

 

[rikadik]

Hey,

I've been playing with RivaTuner and 3DMark05 today on my 6800 GTo. Got these results:

12x1 5vp 350/900 [STOCK] 3950 Marks Peak Ambient: 58c Peak Core: 76c
12x1 5vp 375/1003 4329 Marks Peak Ambient: 75c Peak Core: 103c
16x1 6vp 375/1003 [Cancelled Test - Green Artefacts All Over The Place]

It seems my masked pipelines are cripples, and the increase in temperature at that minimal overclocking I don't think is worth it.

So I'm sticking with stock settings.

Any tips, advice or comments?

 

[VedantR]

Hmm... It appears the Dell scum have managed to cripple the pipelines. It looks like you now have a hardware problem and not a software problem. If you really want those other 4 pipelines, then I suppose you could try asking dell to send you another card. The thing is its a refurbished card and could be older so they might not have crippled the card and you can perform the softmod. I'm not sure though. At any rate, good luck rikadik.

 

[VedantR]

Ofcourse, if you want the best card out there, you would buy 2 nVidia Quadro FX 4400G cards (they support SLI). These cards are truly amazing

Specs:

512MB GDDR3
400MHz core clock
1100MHz memory speed
35.2 gb/s memory bandwith

Price.... well thats the unfortunate part...
brace yourselves...
$3000+!!!!!!!

 

[Azndude51]

Originally posted by: VedantR
Ofcourse, if you want the best card out there, you would buy 2 nVidia Quadro FX 4400G cards (they support SLI). These cards are truly amazing

Specs:

512MB GDDR3
400MHz core clock
1100MHz memory speed
35.2 gb/s memory bandwith

Price.... well thats the unfortunate part...
brace yourselves...
$3000+!!!!!!!

Has anyone tested one of these on 3dmark or something?

 

[VedantR]

Nope but I guarantee you if its done, the 3DMark05 score will probably be somewhere near 20,000 w/o overclocking (For 2 cards). I mean this card has 512MB of DDR3 running at the same speeds of the 6800 ultra and has the same memory bandwith. It also is SLI capable so if you run 2 of them, you'll get incredible results. I remember that a guy w/ 2 6800 ultras and an fx-55 (exdeath on these forums) had like 47.5 FPS on return to proxycon. You can't just multiply by 2 because I think that memory speed is more important than quantity. I'd rather have a 256MB card w/ 2GHZ Memory speed and 1GHZ core clock than a 400/1.1 but 512MB of memory.

 

[VedantR]

Rikadik, have you tried the NV Silencer 5 out? I tried calling a few places but they dont have the replacement bracket. Im hoping that when I get the NV5, I'll be able to run the GTO @ 400/1.1.

 

[j0v1al]

The replacement bracket can be found at www.frozencpu.com. Just search for NV Silencer 5 and it will show up as one of the results. It is $1.99. I ordered one and there seems to be about 10 or so left.

Why did Dell make the bracket two slots? What a pain in the arse.

 

[Yilar]

Hey people,

Just wanted to thank Knightbyte for his excellent pieces on how to unlock the GTO pipes etc.. Got my Dell yesterday, unlocked the pipes and shaders and ran 11952 3dmarks with it.. And that's without overclocking the card even Although my stats are a bit different, also Dell also gave me a free processor upgrade by accident .. Doom 3 is zipping by like a charm..

Stats:

P4 3.4Ghz (ordered 3.2)
1GB 533Mhz DDR2
160 GB HDD
Geforce 6800GTO running 16/6 default clockspeed
Audigy 2

3dmark03: 11952
3dmark05: 5613 (needs tweaking)

What kind of Nforce driver works best with the card at the moment? Any ideas?

Cheers,
Yil

 

[VedantR]

Originally posted by: Yilar
Hey people,

Just wanted to thank Knightbyte for his excellent pieces on how to unlock the GTO pipes etc.. Got my Dell yesterday, unlocked the pipes and shaders and ran 11952 3dmarks with it.. And that's without overclocking the card even Although my stats are a bit different, also Dell also gave me a free processor upgrade by accident .. Doom 3 is zipping by like a charm..

Stats:

P4 3.4Ghz (ordered 3.2)
1GB 533Mhz DDR2
160 GB HDD
Geforce 6800GTO running 16/6 default clockspeed
Audigy 2

3dmark03: 11952
3dmark05: 5613 (needs tweaking)

What kind of Nforce driver works best with the card at the moment? Any ideas?

Cheers,
Yil

Best driver in my opinion is 66.93 but 61.77 although old is still pretty good.

 

[VedantR]

Originally posted by: j0v1al
The replacement bracket can be found at www.frozencpu.com. Just search for NV Silencer 5 and it will show up as one of the results. It is $1.99. I ordered one and there seems to be about 10 or so left.

Why did Dell make the bracket two slots? What a pain in the arse.

Because it's dell... so sad... Considering the card only has a 1 slot cooling solution, having a double bracket card is just to annoy you...

the $1.99 is niec but paying $8 in shipping is kind of high not to mention taxes aswell... I hear you can just email arctic cooling.