6800gs agp overclocked unlocked benchmarked comparison

[RossCorp]

Hello everyone, well, I finally finished benchmarking and testing the crap out of my new graphics card. First off, anyone with a 6800(whatever) agp please post scores and thoughts on the card. Please include the model, drivers, and speeds which were used.

Alright, I recently upgraded from my MSI rx9800pro plus, to a BFG 6800GS OC! What an improvement. To anyone who isn't sure if the performance increase is a justifiable reason to upgrade your card, let me just say that unless you have your heart on getting an SLI rig or using the new dual-cores, this card is probably your best choice.
I've only had it for a few days and I can tell you it is well worth the $250 I paid for it.
It unlocked to 16 pipes and 6 vertex shaders with no problems at all. I then decided to put a Zalman VF700-Cu LED on it.
It dropped the temps from 61c to 50c at idle and 78c to 66c under load.

Now came the time to see what this card was capable of.

First number showing is my MSI 9800pro with r360 core@default (378/675), just for comparison
Second is the 6800gs@default 12p5v @ 370/1050
Third is same as above but unlocked to 16p6v
Fourth is what I will be running my system at from now on. It's a fairly safe overclock, considering the results i was recieving This setup includes: 215mhz FSB=3.44ghz cpu....ram 1:1=ddr430.....bfg 6800gs unlocked to 16p6v @ 401/1151

3DMark06 763 2100 2429 2573
3DMark05 2395 4511 5132 5555
3DMark03 6214 10720 11912 12845

Here are some other tests I did over the last couple days......

3DMark01 with 12p5v@default=18980

Aquamark3 with 12p5v@default=59,096 (unlocking the extra pipes did next to nothing when it comes to this test. At 16p6v it only got 61,895!)

These were all done with 16pipes/6vertex shaders in 3DMark05:

@391/1082 - 5284
@401/1101 - 5379
@414/1161 - 5513
@417/1151 - 5520
@406/1142 - 5538
@425/1151 - 5580
@430/1202 - 5778
@435/1220 - 5833
@440/1220 - 5874 (at this setting i finally noticed a few artifacts)

Hope these were helpful, or at least informative
Please post your scores and thoughts......

By the way, does anyone know if there are any other drivers out there that work for GS? I'm using 82.12's. Also, what is the voltage supposed to be for AGP slot? Mine's set at 1.6v. Is this OK?

 

[RossCorp]

no one has any scores or stories to post???

 

[MX2]

6800GT (for comparison to the GS purposes) @ stock speeds with the 71.89's

3D Mark 03...11479

XP Mobile 2400@2.0 Ghz, 1 GB Ram

EDIT: For typo

 

[SelfishGene]

Hmm i'll have to get 3dmark 03

I have one tip though. Get another case fan .

My card was running 425mhz/1118 more or less without any artifacts. Suddenly whilst in Guild Wars the card crashed, i got a "green screen of death", and had to hard reset the computer. I've since been running it at 400/1100 without issue.

However a couple days ago i got a new 120mm case fan and installed it as best i could. There wasn't any way to direct the airflow into the card so i just set it down standing upright in the case blowing onto the card. Supprisingly this did very little good, although my ambient temps dropped by about 10c. I was still running 80+C, and even 90C under load.

Finally i rearranged all my case fan, and now all of them blow out except for the 120mm. I also sealed a big hole in the top of the case where a fan should be but can't fit because of my power supply (bad designed case :/). And it works! By sealing the extra holes and directing the airflow better, i now run around 75C without changing the stock cooler.

I'm going to start running it at 425 again and see if the cooling will help it stabilize.

 

[Munky]

An unlocked 6800gs at 400mhz would be the equivalent of a 6800u. Not bad for $250. Also, dont bother with older benchmarks like AQ3 or 3dmark01, because on modern cards their performance is cpu limited.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: munky
An unlocked 6800gs at 400mhz would be the equivalent of a 6800u. Not bad for $250.

Not bad for $199 shipped!
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=326031

 

[rmed64]

Gigabyte 6800GS PCIe 12 pipes/5 vp

@ stock 425/1000 3DMark 2005: 5109
@ oced 495/1200(current oc) 3DMark 2005: 5982

idle 43C, load ~58C

 

[RossCorp]

those are nice temps rmed64!

 

[imported_Finny]

Heh... And that's the exact setup I'm hoping to get soon, too! (The BFG 6800GS AGP + ZALMAN VF700-CU) So, you're really capable of running it stable at 16x6, 400/1150? No artifacts or whatnot?

If so, then I will cram my pants...

Also, can anyone give me a comparison of the zalman cooler I named above (vf700-cu, copper) with the Arctic Cooling Rev 3? I just want to know which one does a better job of cooling...

Oh, and I have a case fan in the front & rear, so I'm not all that worried about ventilation...

 

[rmed64]

Originally posted by: RossCorp
those are nice temps rmed64!

Thx. But I think all the PCIe 6800GS chips are cooler than the AGP versions because they are NV42 core chips on 110 nanometer, where the AGP versions are on 130 nanometer

 

[jimmy43]

Hello Everyone!! I just bought the BFG 6800GS AGP card and installed it into my system. I dont know whats going on, but i'm getting some pretty horrible results!!

3dmark 05 score: 3017
Cpu score: 1246

I think those scores are very low for my system:

BFG 6800GS AGP (slightly overclocked out of the box)
2500xp @ 2.1 Ghz
1Gig Corsair Valueram
Asus A7V8X-X
160gig drive
82.12 Beta drivers (came with the card)

It looks like my cpu score is ridicoulously low, but I thought these tests were highly GPU dependant.

Any Ideas??!! Thanks

 

[RossCorp]

Originally posted by: jimmy43
Hello Everyone!! I just bought the BFG 6800GS AGP card and installed it into my system. I dont know whats going on, but i'm getting some pretty horrible results!!

3dmark 05 score: 3017
Cpu score: 1246

Those scores seem really low. I'm running Kingston Value ram and have a 3.2 prescott and my cpu score in 05 is ~4400. I know that your cpu is a little slower, but not even close to the gap you're saying. What did it score before?

Also, what kind of power supply do you have?

 

[jimmy43]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply! I actually made sure I have enough power, I got a 400W Fortron PS to go with the video card upgrade.

I dont have a previous 3dmark 05 score since I upgraded from a ti4200 which cant run it.

I'm pretty picky with my system so I know i dont have extra junk running (only 25 processes)!

Any other information you would like??

 

[RossCorp]

Originally posted by: Finny
Heh... And that's the exact setup I'm hoping to get soon, too! (The BFG 6800GS AGP + ZALMAN VF700-CU) So, you're really capable of running it stable at 16x6, 400/1150? No artifacts or whatnot?

First off, I did my research before I bought the VF700-CU and I did look at other options, including the Arctic Cooling coolers. Everything I have read and what I've heard from peoples mouths tell me that the Zalman is hands down better. I would have to also agree. This cooler dropped my stock idle from 60+c to 50c. Under load it was running at close to 80c, and now it won't go past 71c. Well worth the money. Now, about the card...

After a lot of testing, using synthetic benchmarks, in-game observations, and a few oc'ing tools, i have come to the conclusion that my card can run stable with no artifacts at 422/1124!!!!!

I had tested it past these numbers, mostly because I hadn't used ATITool's artifact scanner before that, and in certain games, I couldn't see any artifacts @435/1220.

However, AtiTool detected artifacts at anything past 422 on the core and 1124 on the memory. So to be safe I guess I'll have to settle for Ultra speeds, 400/1100 WooT

 

[RossCorp]

Originally posted by: jimmy43
Hi, thanks for the quick reply! I actually made sure I have enough power, I got a 400W Fortron PS to go with the video card upgrade.

I dont have a previous 3dmark 05 score since I upgraded from a ti4200 which cant run it.

I'm pretty picky with my system so I know i dont have extra junk running (only 25 processes)!

Any other information you would like??

That's a head scratcher...I know you have probably done this, but did you plug in the extra power cable to your card? Also, is your AGP bus 8x, and if so is it set to that? I have to leave for the night but I'll check back asap. Gotta get this card workin' right!

 

[CKXP]

Originally posted by: jimmy43
Hello Everyone!! I just bought the BFG 6800GS AGP card and installed it into my system. I dont know whats going on, but i'm getting some pretty horrible results!!

3dmark 05 score: 3017
Cpu score: 1246

I think those scores are very low for my system:

BFG 6800GS AGP (slightly overclocked out of the box)
2500xp @ 2.1 Ghz
1Gig Corsair Valueram
Asus A7V8X-X
160gig drive
82.12 Beta drivers (came with the card)

It looks like my cpu score is ridicoulously low, but I thought these tests were highly GPU dependant.

Any Ideas??!! Thanks

check your settings in the NV control panel....vsync off,aa/af off, high performance instead of high quality.

 

[jimmy43]

Yes! Bingo! Solved the problem. It was the AGP bus setting (4x) instead of 8x which was causing (apparently) a huge bottleneck. I upgraded my Mobo agp drivers and presto! Here is my new score:

3dmark 05 score: 4476

Thats more like it! Still havent played around with anything, Im going to now try to see how healthy my extra pipes are and give them a go.

Also, thanks for you help! Wouldnt have though the agp bus could be such a bottleneck. :Q

 

[RossCorp]

Alright, glad it worked out! It's a great card and I wouldn't have been happy until you could share my joy Let me know how the oc goes....if you plan on it.

 

[ocntscha]

Originally posted by: jimmy43

Thats more like it! Still havent played around with anything, Im going to now try to see how healthy my extra pipes are and give them a go.

Please please do post again soon and let us know how that goes. I've been lurking in the shadows following all the 6800GS threads and I'm about ready to jump on that BFG 6800GS deal at zipzoomfly. If unlocking the pipes on your BFG 6800GS works out for you that'll probably finalize my decision and I'll be ordering one for myself.

 

[jimmy43]

The extra pipes unfortunately were completely unusable. The last vertex shader was also unusable. Lots of artifacts all over the screen. I did manage to get a huge overclock on it to 420 / 1200, but I find it's not neccesary at all, I can run HL2 an FEAR at full settings (no soft shadows) with no problems at the stock speeds. I figure sometime in the future when I may need the extra performance I may give it a bump, but for now I will keep it at stock speeds and keep my system cool. :moon:

 

[Wolfshanze]

But I think all the PCIe 6800GS chips are cooler than the AGP versions because they are NV42 core chips on 110 nanometer, where the AGP versions are on 130 nanometer

Yeah, the PCIe 6800GS definately runs cooler, unfortunately, it's "stuck" with 12-pipes... there's no extra pipes to unlock on the PCIe 6800GS (then again, it's clocked higher to begin with).

 

[RossCorp]

Originally posted by: jimmy43
The extra pipes unfortunately were completely unusable. The last vertex shader was also unusable. Lots of artifacts all over the screen. I did manage to get a huge overclock on it to 420 / 1200, but I find it's not neccesary at all, I can run HL2 an FEAR at full settings (no soft shadows) with no problems at the stock speeds. I figure sometime in the future when I may need the extra performance I may give it a bump, but for now I will keep it at stock speeds and keep my system cool. :moon:

I'm sorry to here that, luck of the draw i guess. Like you said though, even at stock settings this BFG 6800gs is a really nice card for the price. I would still recommend buying this card ocntscha, it scored 10,720 in 3dmark03 for me when stock and I can get a 422/1124 oc with 16x6, and while the boost is a nice bonus (11,912), it really isn't that substancial that it makes much of a difference in-game. Clocking the card has more of an effect imo.

If you do buy the card please post the results, good luck!

 

[diginob]

I just got my evga 6800gs co agp card and have no idea what im doin lol. got rivatuner, unlocked it, and started clocking...

running @ 425/1200
3dMark05 score: 5932

i hope thats good, but i think im running hot, idle is 50C and max is 64C...

 

[Jman13]

Just got mine. I've just done a standard overclock to Ultra speeds (400/1100). I'm happy with that. I may push it further when I start getting performance lags in most games, which I figure will be in about 9 months to a year. Until then, I'm perfectly happy with the performance, and I have no need to push it to oblivion (though I'll probably test to see how for it will go just so I know).

So: All pipes/vertex units unlocked, running at 400core 1100Mem:

3DMark03: 12,485
3DMark05: 5511

 

[RossCorp]

Originally posted by: diginob
running @ 425/1200
3dMark05 score: 5932

i hope thats good, but i think im running hot, idle is 50C and max is 64C...

your memory clock is nice! Mine was stuck at 1124 but since I got this card I have installed a 120mm fan behind my 3 empty 5.25 drive faceplates (drilled holes in the front of course), and although it didn't drop my vga temps significantly, i can get the memory to 1138 now.

I think its because of the zalman ram sinks, ambient temps make a big difference! More notably it dropped my NB temp to 32c from 36-37 and after an hour of gaming it only at 38, as opposed to 45-46! Could be unrelated but since I put the fan in i can get 2.5-3-2-5@440mhz on Kingston Value ram ........what a value!

I wouldn 't worry about the temps either, mine idles at 50, load at 67.

And I agree with Jman13, i can run mine higher completely stable with no artifacts, but Ultra speeds are just fine by me. Especially for 220usd