Gigbabyte 6800GT

[Rongisnom]

I just put together my first gaming rig and could use some advice on optimizing it. I'm not talking about any real OC'ing just getting the specs trimmed out like they should be.

Specs:
Soltek SL-K8TPRO-939 - yeah I know it's not a great OC board but I read that it's very stable. I've flashed it to the W1.2 bios
OCZ EL Platinum DDR PC-3200 1GB(512MBx2)
AMD64 3200 90nm
Zalman CNPS7000B
Gigabyte 6800GT GV-N68T256DH
Seagate 7200 ST3200822
Audigy 2ZS
500W ALLIED AL-B500E
Win2k sp4

I just got everything stable last night and got all of the HD recognized. What is the best way to go about getting the GPU set up? I tried running the free version of 3DMark05 last night but when it went to go into the segment after the "Jet powered zepplin" it did a bunch of screen flickering and reloaded the zepplin segment but only running at 1-3fps. I killed it at that point having seen the comments about turning off fast writes. (I'll try that this evening)
Prime 95 ran very well and the temp never got above 51c, idles around 39c, so I'm pretty happy with the Zalman cooler.
I've been reading (but not understanding) you gurus yakking about the RivaTuner, unlocking pipes, yada, yada, yada...
Where's a good guide - starting point for me to get a handle on what to do next. To be honest a lot of this is like reading Greek to me. I need the "short bus" guide if you know what I mean.

Thanks in advance,

Rong

 

[Rongisnom]

OK maybe I should make my question a little simpler. If you had just built this system, with the specs given, what would you do to make sure that it's running in an optimized manner without over-clocking it?
Or should I just load the free Doom3 game and get on with it?

 

[James3shin]

well theres a few things you can do to optimize your system, such as using tunexp to tweak your system overall, defrag after you install big files, and check your gpu settings such as the standard AA, and AF settings.

 

[James3shin]

here is a link to tunexp

and here is a guide for tunexp, as well as some common tweaks for your system

 

[Rongisnom]

Do I need to play with things like the drivers or should the drivers that came with it be OK for now? Sorry I'm at work and don't know what drivers came with it.
I keep reading comments about people using the RivaTuner. Should I look into downloading this?

 

[Omega Ohm]

Make sure the fast writes are off in the BIOS for the AGP port and the AGP is locked.

Also, make sure you have the latest BIOS and drivers. Install Gigabyte's software but download your drivers directly from nvidia. Lastly, make sure the BIOS on the Gigabyte is up to date. You can do that through Gigabyte's software. If you're still having problems, take out the sound card and use the onboard sound.

Your setup is almost identical to mine except I'm using onboard sound and a 3500+ 90nm.

Oh yea, what's your idle temperature on that Gigabyte? It should be around 55.

 

[Rongisnom]

Idle temp is 39c and using 95Prime last night got it up to 51c. The Zalman cooler is doing its thing.

What are the current recommendations for NVidia drivers or is it a hit and miss game? How do I determine which driver is giving me the best performance - do I run 3DMark - or is there a better method?

 

[Omega Ohm]

Just go to nvidia's web-site and download the driver package, it'll automatically put in the correct drivers for the card.

Was that your CPU temp or the GPU temp? You can get the GPU temp from the Gigabyte software.

 

[Rongisnom]

That was CPU, I didn't know how to get the GPU temp. I'll check at Gigabyte.

Thanks for the help!

 

[James3shin]

do determine which driver is best for you, is to run a game, check the frame rates and if the frame rates are to your liking then you are done. The newest drivers should be the best but in some cases the newest drivers can actually decrease performance. So in short, just go home, install some drivers (i'd recommend trying the 66.93's, its the most up to date) and see how it performs. YOu can also check your frames for games either by a programs called FRAPS or the ingame commands to display frame rates. Rivatuner is a overclocking utility btw, and doubt you'll be utilizing it with you GT unless your trying to go for Ultra speeds.

 

[Omega Ohm]

He can overclock with the Gigabyte software that comes with his card.

 

[James3shin]

indeed, i was just answering his question regarding what rivatuner was. :beer:

 

[Rongisnom]

Thank you all very much for the help. I didn't have far to go, but wanted to make sure that I was heading in the right direction.

Man I love these forums!

 

[Icepick]

Originally posted by: Rongisnom
That was CPU, I didn't know how to get the GPU temp. I'll check at Gigabyte.

Thanks for the help!

Congrats on your new setup!

Up until last week I owned this same card. It's very nice looking. To check the temperature of the video card you need to install V-Tuner2. That's the software that comes on your driver CD from Gigabyte. That will give you the temperature and also reports the fan speed. V-Tuner2 is really a nice overclocking utility you can use with that card.