6800 Vanilla Overclocking...

[jamesbond007]

I am thinking about getting some more juice out of my 6800 vanilla. I currently have a Dell XPS Gen4 with a 6800 256MB PCIe card that came with it. I've never overclocked a videocard before and am a little hesitant. I'd like to get a bit more juice in my Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source games. I downloaded and installed Coolbits 2.0 this morning from Guru3D and it says my card is currently running 325/600 for the GPU/mem. I had it detect the optimal settings and it came up with 422/796! Is this what my card is capable of or is this a bit extreme? Are those speeds safe? I'm anxious to hit apply, but I don't want to burn my card up!

I have stock cooling on there right now and my card is idling around 54C with the ambient reporting 41C. I'm thinking about picking up the NV Silencer 5 Rev2 (please correct me if this is wrong) for my card before I overclock. Is there any significant danger I could encounter in the long-run from overclocking?

By the way, is this the right cooler for my series of card? (6800 vanilla PCIe)

Thanks!

 

[rogue1979]

I have an EVGA 6800 currently running 410/800. The auto overclock gives you a good idea what your card can do, but it may actually run a little slower or faster. But at least you have a place to start.

The gpu temps are fine, but the case temp of 41c is a little toasty. Make sure the Dell power supply is up to snuff.

 

[jamesbond007]

Do you run with stock cooling?

My powersupply is a 460W! They're nice with the XPS series!

 

[Slitherythesnake]

The cooler you selected is an old revision. This is the one you should get. Usually, voltage mods will damage your card a lot more than a little extra heat will.

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: Slitherythesnake
The cooler you selected is an old revision. This is the one you should get. Usually, voltage mods will damage your card a lot more than a little extra heat will.

I've read that the revision 3 is merely to accomodate for the 7x00 series cards. I figure if I can save $5, why not? Though, I could be wrong!

 

[jamesbond007]

Just an update!

I got anxious and overclocked my card before my NV Silencer Rev3 comes next week! Ran 3DMark06 Pro, everything was default, but I set the resolution to 1024x768. I don't know if anything else is different than the Pro defaults vs Free defaults, so let me know if I should change something to match the free versions' default settings.

(I'm using the official 81.89 nVIDIA Forceware drivers with the Coolbits 2.0 tab.)

Anywho! On to the benchmarks!

Stock:
325/600: 2249

Overclocked:
375/725: 2574
410/775: 2768
425/800: 2864

I've stopped it here and I think that's where I'm comfortable leaving my settings at. I'm *extremely* pleased with the results, considering the age of my system compared to many of you here. After about an hour of testing (which did not show any artifacts, so I think I'm stable) my GPU temps crept up to a max of 67C with an ambient case temp of 50C inside. It's a bit roasty in there, I know, but Dell only gives you two case fans in the XPS rig that I know of, excluding the PSU ones. One that doubles as a HSF/case exhaust and one that blows over my 3 HDDs in the front! The NV Silencer will definitely be a welcomed addition, especially when summer comes!

Comments and suggestions are welcomed! As an overclocker newcomer, I'm very open to advice and help!

[EDIT]
System Specs: Dell XPS Gen4, 3.4GHz P4/HT, 2GB DDR2, 6800 PCIe 256MB, and I think the rest is basic. (WinXP Pro/SP2, 17" LCD, etc) [/EDIT]

 

[professor1942]

Don't trust the 'detect optimal settings' thing in coolbits, I couldn't get near what it detected and actually run stable. My Leadtek 6800 went up to 390/800 without problems.

Sounds like your card is doing very well, just run some different benchmarks (Lost Coast showed artifacts on mine before any other) and maybe back off a bit from what you find to be 'max stable'.

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: professor1942
Don't trust the 'detect optimal settings' thing in coolbits, I couldn't get near what it detected and actually run stable. My Leadtek 6800 went up to 390/800 without problems.

Sounds like your card is doing very well, just run some different benchmarks (Lost Coast showed artifacts on mine before any other) and maybe back off a bit from what you find to be 'max stable'.

Are artifacts the only thing I should be looking for? I guess that'd be the only thing to really see, I guess! I played some CS last night (looked fantastic and the increased fps were greatly welcomed). I will play some HDR maps in a few minutes and report back with my findings.

As long as my card stays cool, can this increased core/mem performance hurt my card in the long run? I plan on keeping this card for another year at least and I'd be heartbroken if it died anytime soon. It seems by the post of Slitherythesnake and others I've read, it's the voltage increases that decrease the overall life of a card. Correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[jamesbond007]

I've clocked my card back down to 325/600 until my cooler comes. HDR maps (like you said) were damn intensive and after about 10 minutes of play, my machine hardlocked. Upon reboot, my GPU temps were like 73C and 50-something ambient! During the gameplay, there was absolutely NO artifacting. I was playing CS_Militia for the first time and it was simply beautiful and amazing with all of the settings cranked. Only getting ~40FPS, but it was sufficient to play.

I can't wait to get the NV Silencer though! Would you say that a hardlock would be attributed to excessive heat or the card couldn't handle the OC?

Thanks!

[EDIT: When I played CS before, it was on Dust 2, a non-HDR map, so perhaps that had something to do with the heat created due to the lack of HDR.[/EDIT]

 

[Shmalls]

my EVGA 6800 gt stock frequencies are 350/1000 and benched (3DMARK 06) at 3055. cool bits detected optimal settings of 401/1100. i started with 375/1030 and it bumped my score to 3277. i brought it up to 400/1100 and it crashed halfway through the test. I backed it down to 400 on the core and 1030 on the mem and seems to be running fine, at a temp around 68 c. I am also waiting for a NV silencer (coming in the same box as jamesbond007's hehe) then i will play a litlle more.

chow for now

 

[Shmalls]

is there any way to change the shut down temp for the core in the Nvidia control panel. mine is set at 120c and i want to change that. the card would probably melt before i hit that temp.

 

[Shmalls]

accendental post, please remove!