EVGA 6800GT overclocking very poorly

[Paktu]

...and it gets far worse above those speeds. Aquamark is showing similar results. Temperatures are normal: 55C idle, maybe 65-70C load. The NVIDIA overclocking utility won't let me go over 420/1100 at all, nor will Rivatuner.

On top of that, benchmarks are worse than when I first tested them. My first Aquamark benchmark was at about 55k, now I can't get better than about 52-53k. I am using modified (VXG 71.20) drivers.

I purchased the card from Circuit City so I could easily exchange it for another one. I simply would like some advice on this- should I try changing some obscure setting? Or simply be satisfied with what I have?

 

[blckgrffn]

You are CPU limited, almost without a doubt. That happened with my 6800 and 3000+ XP the more I OC'ed the lower my 3dmark01 bench went, when I moved to the 3400+ A64, everything shot way up. 390 is still a decent overclock, I would be happy with that.

 

[Paktu]

My specs:
Antec Sonata with 380 watt TruePower PSU
Soltek K8AN23-GR (NF3-250Gb chipset)
Athlon 64 3200+ at stock
512MB Kingston PC-3200 ValueRam/512MB generic PC-2700
Audigy 2 ZS
40GB/160GB Western Digital IDE drives, 200GB Maxtor external drive
EVGA Geforce 6800GT now running at stock
WinXP SP2

 

[nitromullet]

"512MB Kingston PC-3200 ValueRam/512MB generic PC-2700" isn't helping you any either. You have to remember with RAM that your system will always run at the lowest common denominator. In this case, you are running at PC2700, 333MHz instead of 400MHz.

 

[Paktu]

Yeah, I know about the RAM thing, it's a VERY long story. It's not so much the benchmark scores that concern me, since they seem in line with what other people are getting with that card. My main issue is why the card won't overclock very well. I'm starting to think that the 5027 I got in 3dmark05 was just a fluke.