-> Mod your 6800GS AGP to Ultra Extreme with coolermod!

[tecxx]

thanks for all the information and help.
unfortunately i tried out the xtreme-g ones intensively now and was somehow disappointed with the results. my test game (oblivion) seemed not just to look exactly the same as before, it also seemed to be a bit slower. i made a testrun with 3dmark and got a 4679 score - with pretty much overclocked settings - that made me wonder. my previous scores, without any overclocking at all, were always above 5000.

so i removed the xtreme-g drivers and reinstalled the original nvidia 84.21 ones - 3dmark is up at 5331 again WITHOUT any overclocking, and oblivion is displaying my usual framerates.

i don't want to talk bad about the xtreme-g drivers (i loved the new control panel btw!) but for me they don't seem to work, sorry
btw, currently i'm using the old ntune version 2 utility for overclocking and that works ok for me, so i think i'm gonna stick with it for now. thanks for the help anyway!

[dsio]

There is actually a method for installing them that you have to go through, else you get issues like that.

You need to uninstall the old drivers, reboot into safe mode, run drivercleaner, install new drivers and reboot. What happens if you don't is the previous drivers conflict with the newer version, and cause issues like you have experienced. I should have told you about that.

Overclocked, you will get more performance from the newer ones, if you do the proper installation. With the improved overclocking on the 91.33s, you should definitely get better scores.

[JackAshley]

Hey! This is a great thread, but I have one question! If anyone could help me out, I would much appreciate it!

I unlocked my PNY Verto 6800GS AGP to 16/6...then I got greedy and overclocked it just a wee bit to 380/1060 mhz (stock 350/1000). Stock cooling, I should mention.

Now, the stock temps were 53 idle, about 65 full load, and now after unlocking and overclocking, they are 54 idle (not much difference), but while playing oblivion for an hour or so, they reach about 75 degrees under this full load...is this a dangerous temperature? There is no artifacting or any instability that I have noticed, and I even tried it at 390/1075 with no artifacting, but got scared of the temps and backed it up a bit....

I guess the whole point is...what is a safe temperature? 75 degrees seems a bit high...

-Ashley

[dsio]

No worries mate. Its not going to cook at 75, but I wouldn't want to heat it up much higher.

Have you done the coolermod as suggested in this guide? And also, have you regooped your heatsink?

By this I mean:

Remove heatsink
Carefully clean the stock thermal goop off the heatsink and the core with silicone degreaser, getting all of it off
applying a thin, even layer of Arctic silver to the core
reinstalling the heatsink

That should improve your temps a bit. As I mentioned above, which drivers are you using?

[JackAshley]

I have not done the cooler mod, or any other hardware mod, goop included...I simply dont trust myself with delicate operations, I'd probably muck it up somehow...

As for drivers, I'm just using RivaTuner on stock nvidia drivers...I, too, had some trouble with the xtreme-g ones...

But, knowing that my temps are safe is a whole world of relief upon me!

-Ashley

[dsio]

This is the method of installing them:

1: Go to www.driverheaven.net and download DriverCleaner Pro

2: Go into control panel -> Add/remove programs -> uninstall Nvidia drivers

3: Reboot and enter safe mode

4: In safe mode, run Driver Cleaner Pro, and use it to remove the leftovers of the previous Nvidia drivers

5: Install the new driver

6: Reboot, and you are done!

That ensures a clean installation of the new drivers, and safe removal of the old drivers. It also ensures you don't have conflicts when changing. That's how to get it to work.

[JackAshley]

Much thanks! I owe you one!

-Ashley

[Seperah]

Jack. You really should try to apply a nice thermal compound to your GPU.
Its nothing hard and you can see an overall drop of several degrees C if done properly. A 5g tube of AS5 and 10 minutes can make a big difference bud.

[tecxx]

Originally Posted by dsio

There is actually a method for installing them that you have to go through, else you get issues like that.

You need to uninstall the old drivers, reboot into safe mode, run drivercleaner, install new drivers and reboot. What happens if you don't is the previous drivers conflict with the newer version, and cause issues like you have experienced. I should have told you about that.

Overclocked, you will get more performance from the newer ones, if you do the proper installation. With the improved overclocking on the 91.33s, you should definitely get better scores.

hy there,
i've spent the last 4 hours doing benchmarks and tests, using your installation technique, and here are my results, if anyone is interested:

system: nvidia geforce 6800gs agp 512mb nv42 core, 77mhz agp bus, athlonxp @ 3100mhz and 2*512mb dualchannel ram @ 380mhz fsb (400 is not stable with my msi k7n2 nforce2 mainboard, prime95 tested)
3dmark standard settings (1024x768, no AA, optimal filtering, vs3.0, ps3.0)

results:
not overclocked (1200mhz gpu bus, 450mhz gpu core)
official driver: 5299
beta driver: 5307
xtreme driver: 5287

overclocked (1300mhz gpu bus, 474mhz gpu core)
official driver: 5532
beta driver: 5549
xtreme driver: 5545

using oblivion as a "real world" test program:
1280*1024, hdr on, no aa, all details high except shadows(all off) and grass distance set to 50%:

it looks the same with all drivers, and i get the same fps with all drivers. ~25 in cities, way more than 30 in dungeons, and around 11-16 in forests and open areas with lots of grass. changing various detail settings or screen resolutions had nearly no impact (~1frame), except the grass distance and tree shadow settings. also quite noticeable was the fact that overclocking didn't change the frame rate in a noticeable way. it seems oblivion is a) pretty cpu intensive and mine is too old for this game and b) the engine is far away from an optimized and performance enhanced state.

so my resume is that with my system it doesn't really matter which driver i use, especially when playing oblivion.
i'm off now, byebye... :=)

[JackAshley]

A lesson to be learned, perhaps? Your system is very similar to mine, I'm running:
Athlon XP 3000+, 2 x 512 pc2700 not so fast ram , with a pny geforce 6800 gs 256 mb agp...

Running 3dmark standard settings (1024x768, no AA, optimal filtering, vs3.0, ps3.0), I pull a score of 5155 with pipelines unlocked on my vid card, oc'd to 380/1060...stock was about 4217, so the unlocking and oc'ing had definite benefits, and yes, oblivion is the current game of choice, but my framerates arent quite as high as yours....crappier cpu and not as much video memory, most likely!

-Ashley

[dsio]

Your video card is completely different though. You have an NV40, not an NV42. Essentially yours is the same as mine. I would still try the new drivers, you might get something out of them.

[Deadman93723]

Hi, I'm new to these forums, and I'm sure this question has been asked before, but how is anyone getting a 450mhz core on a 6800gs agp?

[dsio]

It depends on the card, the cooling, and the voltage.

The 6800GS is an NV40 on AGP cards, and is therefore a 130nm 16 pipe card.

It is the same chip used in the 6800 Ultra, which ran at 400Mhz standard.

As a general rule of thumb, 400-420Mhz is to be expected of one of these cards, with 420-440 considered good, and 440+ considered very good.

I run a lapped and polished heatsink, with a quality arctic silver 5 thermal paste job, in a very good case, with an Ultra Extreme (+0.1V) BIOS. This gives me between 450-465 depending on the driver in use.

With a heavy volt mod, and watercooling, an NV40 can run into 500+ territory without much effort.

What have you done so far with your card? (unlocking, overclocking, volt mods, cooling, drivers)

[Deadman93723]

I have only been able to unlock it to 12/6, 16/6 gives me artifacts. I have been able to hit 420/1160. I have an Arctic NV Silencer on the card, and my temp are very good about 47c idle 62c load. I tried the volt mod in the bios, it didn't help(I may have done it wrong).

BTW: My specs are:

P4 3.0E(Prescott)@3.6 240fsb(Which I can go up to 3.75 250fsb Prime stable, but my video card doesn't like it that high for some reason)
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe
1.5gb dual-channel Crucial Ballistix PC4000
eVGA 6800GS CO AGP
Antec TrueBlue 480w PSU

[dsio]

All very nice.

There is a pencil mod for the voltage on NV40 cards, which works very well, and I can get that for you when I get up (Its 7AM and I still havn't spelt) until then, Monkeyman and Samuknow would be good help in the volt mod area.

There are a few threads on 6800 volt modding if you search the forums.

[Deadman93723]

Originally Posted by dsio

All very nice.

There is a pencil mod for the voltage on NV40 cards, which works very well, and I can get that for you when I get up (Its 7AM and I still havn't spelt) until then, Monkeyman and Samuknow would be good help in the volt mod area.

There are a few threads on 6800 volt modding if you search the forums.

Ok, cool. I'll check 'em out.

[JackAshley]

been playing around with mine, gonna order some better cooling pronto, and it seems to me like the 6800 GS (and most likely the NV40 in general) has alot of potential for a cheaper card...I can get mine to run 440/1160 stable at load with stock cooling, though the temps do get very high, so I figure i'll run it there when the cooling comes in...hopefully it can compete with some of the better cards for a little while to come

-Ashley

[Deadman93723]

I'm waiting on a couple of atx power Y adapters, so I can clear a dedicated rail for my 6800gs agp. I think that could be one of my problems. The 6800gs requires 18amps my psu puts out 22amps but with other stuff on the rail I feel my card may not be getting sufficiant amperage. I do know the voltage from my psu is good 11.94v rock solid on the 12v rail.

[dsio]

Definitely a good idea. Did you find the threads with the volt modding guides?

[Seperah]

The 6800GS require 18amps?? wow, I thought it was lower than that...