Nvidia Max Shader Overclocks

[SteveI]

Since this hasn't been listed separately yet, I am curious to see what people are getting out of their 8800/9600/9800 GPU Shaders...

To a large extent, they appear to be the same core rebranded.

1836 seems to be the max I can get:
9600GSO & 9800GT (both EVGA)
5,184PPD & 5,760PPD

I haven't messed with core or memory speeds.

For reference these cards have "trigger points" at:
1728,
1782,
1836,
1890,
1944

So what is everyone else getting?

[PorPorMe]

When i had my KFA2 9600Gt I topped out at 1755. I wasn't able to tweak with it though as the motherboard failed. It's out RMA so we shall see what we shall see.

[dabaerman]

I have 2 MSI 9800GT OC Edition; 660 Core, 950 mem, 1700 shader. I have tweaked the core to 665, yes, only 5MHz just because i just couldn't leave it at stock. I left the mem alone. Shaders are at 1836 on both cards and so far the 939@2.0/9800GT on a 5506@5184 ppd. the AM2@3.0/9800GT on a 5506@5456 ppd. the MSI 9600GT OC 700MHz core, has trouble with the shaders past 1750 at this time. it's paired with a 939 Venice single core @ 2.0MHz. I'll keep pushing the shaders until things go bad, back off and report back when I've maxed out.
it looks like processor speed has a positive effect on the GPU Folding. I know it's big with SMP.

Ron

edit: I didn't wait long enough on the 939/9800 combo @ 1836. it's now @ 5385 ppd. just when I thought the 939 was going to be turned off!

Ron

found this about the MSI 9600GT. stock shaders-1680, next 1700, then 1750 and 1800.
looks like this one goes in steps of 50. it is the OC version and I can only guess that the non-oc shaders might be 1650.

Ron

[ThunderRd]

My shaders are at 1847 for both cards with this 1.15 core.

With the previous core I was at 1905, flawlessly. I backed it off when I hit some bumps on the core release.

Maybe with the new one I can push them again, but I'm waiting to see what others are saying before I download it.

[dabaerman]

good idea, waiting. I don't have the time to be a crash tester. I will when I can.

Ron

[ThunderRd]

Originally Posted by SteveI

For reference these cards have "trigger points" at:
1728,
1782,
1836,
1890,
1944

So what is everyone else getting?

I don't understand. Are you saying that you cannot adjust the MHz in any finer increments than that? For me, Rivatuner gives me 8MHz increments all the way up the scale.

You could always mod the BIOS as well, which is what I do when I know where I want the speeds to run. It's easy and actually quite painless.

One more thing - if your board can handle it, you can raise the PCIe frequency in the BIOS as well for a bit of a speed boost in folding. On my ICH9R board I can go 10% before it starts to give me problems booting - from 100 - 110. At 112 it won't pass OCCT, at 110 it's fine, and it shaved 8-10 seconds per frame off GPU folding. You may have to add a bit of voltage to the Southbridge to do this. I needed only about .02V to get it stable at 10%.

[dabaerman]

I believe it can be fine tuned in 1MHz increments. EVGA Precision only shows those 'trigger points'. no detail, ie, 1700-1727 only shows 1700. 1728-1781 showing 1728, etc, etc.
have to get better acquainted with RivaTuner.

Ron

[ThunderRd]

EVGA is too simplistic for me. I need better and fuller control of what's happening, and Rivatuner gives it to me. You'd have to be a genuis to understand all of the features, but I understand the ones that I need, and I'm happy with dat. New version coming soon, BTW, with support for Big Bang and full drive-lever fan support for SLI and twin card setups, never available before.

[SteveI]

TR,
Riva tuner is giving me tiny increments, but when I look in results, it seems to lock to the nearest trigger point.

Thanks on the PCI-e oc idea... 8 to 10 seconds seems worth the effort.... When I have a chance, I may try 5mhz w/o volts for a freebie.

Question on managing affinities... what program did you mention that let's me manage cores in XP?

[ThunderRd]

Originally Posted by SteveI

TR,
Riva tuner is giving me tiny increments, but when I look in results, it seems to lock to the nearest trigger point.

Thanks on the PCI-e oc idea... 8 to 10 seconds seems worth the effort.... When I have a chance, I may try 5mhz w/o volts for a freebie.

Question on managing affinities... what program did you mention that let's me manage cores in XP?

Don't know Riva is doing that...there's probably an option to unlock it int he Power User settings. I'll try to find out.

Set Affinity II has been superceded by PriFinitty:
Get and Set CPU Affinity - Set Affinity II - Edgemeal Software

[dabaerman]

I've reached that point of shader oc where the client fails 100%. for one of the 9800GT's it is 1890. nothing will fold at that setting. 1836 is max for that card. back to work!

Ron

[SteveI]

Obviously no guarantees, but it seems that 1836 is a common max.
That's the limit for both my 9800GT & 9800GSO. Both EVGA. Messing with core & memory only yield about 1-3 second improvements... just not worth the effort.

[ThunderRd]

Originally Posted by SteveI

Messing with core & memory only yield about 1-3 second improvements... just not worth the effort.

qft.

Only one thing I'll add...the several seconds of speed will yield a noticeable increase in temps, too. Not worth it, yes.

[dabaerman]

I will say the temp at 850MHz is 68c but the gain in ppd is small, <3%. I will back off to 750MHz and see where the temp goes.

Ron

oops! I new I would put this in the wrong place! the ATI clocks very easy and the only way to increase the ppd.

I don't mess with core/memory timings on my nVidia cards

Ron