I upgraded to a BFG 6800 GS OC AGP

[Iron Woode]

I went from a Radeon 9600XT on my XP2800+ system. So far its working great.

In 3Dmark03 I am getting 9820. That is without any tweaking and a bunch of stuff running in the background. I am sure I can squeeze some more out of it.

Games are way better than before, as is most anything video related.

This is actually a great upgrade for AGP for best bang-for-the-buck.

 

[RussianSensation]

Have you found any differences for clarity of text and vibrancy of colours as well as blacks and whites in 2D applications? I remember borrowing my friend's Ti4200 card and I had Radeon 8500 at the time. The difference in image quality in regular desktop applications largely favoured the ATI card. I was just wondering if Nvidia stepped up their 2D quality?

 

[CKXP]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Have you found any differences for clarity of text and vibrancy of colours as well as blacks and whites in 2D applications? I remember borrowing my friend's Ti4200 card and I had Radeon 8500 at the time. The difference in image quality in regular desktop applications largely favoured the ATI card. I was just wondering if Nvidia stepped up their 2D quality?

Digital Vibrance....FTW!!!(i just wanted to sound fanboish)

 

[BlacKJesuS]

I went from 6800 to x850XT....havnt really noticed a change in image quality

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Have you found any differences for clarity of text and vibrancy of colours as well as blacks and whites in 2D applications? I remember borrowing my friend's Ti4200 card and I had Radeon 8500 at the time. The difference in image quality in regular desktop applications largely favoured the ATI card. I was just wondering if Nvidia stepped up their 2D quality?

not really any noticeable differences.

both seem to do a great job of 2d.

 

[beggerking]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Have you found any differences for clarity of text and vibrancy of colours as well as blacks and whites in 2D applications? I remember borrowing my friend's Ti4200 card and I had Radeon 8500 at the time. The difference in image quality in regular desktop applications largely favoured the ATI card. I was just wondering if Nvidia stepped up their 2D quality?

ATI is generally known for its picture quality. I upgraded from 4200 to 9600, 3D looked better, about the same in 2D though.

 

[Wreckage]

Have you tried unlocking it?

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Have you tried unlocking it?

nope.

I am not a hardcore gamer, so I will be leaving it as is. I do have Rivatuner installed though.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: Iron Woode

Originally posted by: Wreckage
Have you tried unlocking it?

nope.

I am not a hardcore gamer, so I will be leaving it as is. I do have Rivatuner installed though.

This is wise. You don't wanna mess with bios changes and risking a dead card if you are not a hardcore gamer. :thumbsup:

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Unlocking the pipes is relatively safe, overclocking is where you get the trouble

 

[zagood]

Unlocking pipes and basic clock speed increases won't, by themselves, ruin a card.

Both are softmods and don't modify the VGA BIOS. Unlocking, if unsuccessful will not damage your card. Increasing clock speeds at relatively low steps (5-10mhz) and testing each step will almost never damage your card, if you see artifacts or your temps start jumping then just clock back down.

Damage is caused when you run it in an unstable overclocked state for too long, if it doesn't crash first, or upping the voltage in the BIOS. It's pretty hard to mess up a card if you follow the basic guidelines.

-z

 

[Powermoloch]

6600 - X850XT , never been happier since then

 

[Iron Woode]

the card is already OC'd (not by much though 370 core and 1050 ram).

I may try unlocking the one quad, but it may be damaged.

I will make a decision soon, and let everyone know what happened.

 

[RossCorp]

so what happened?

Edit: Sorry, didn't realize you just posted, lol

My two cents: I have this card as well and I am a gamer. I unlocked with absolutely no problems at all and oc'd with no probs as well. OC'ing can be tricky and even dangerous if you don't know what you're doing or you're not careful. I would leave it alone as it didn't give huge remarkable aww inspiring gains.

However, I would try to unlock your other pipes and vertex shader. If they are damaged you can just mask them again and pretend like your card still has it's virginity, and if they work then hurrah, free performance gain

 

[Iron Woode]

ok, I unlocked the quad pipes.

no artifacts. However, I am not sure if that is how you tell if there are problems with those pipes.

I left the shader locked.

results:

3dmark2003:

before 9820

after 10817

3dmark2005:

after 4920

there was no before.

all tests were done at default settings and all tests checked off.

 

[NoStateofMind]

If you are going to unlock the quad, you might as well unlock the shader too. No harm in that.

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
If you are going to unlock the quad, you might as well unlock the shader too. No harm in that.

that is true.

I will try it and see what happens.

 

[Iron Woode]

ok, shader unlocked and no artifacts yet.

3dmark03 is now 10998

3dmark05 is now 5127

hmmm, not too bad.

 

[EPZ Soldier]

what prog are you using to unlock the pipes? coolbits?

 

[MTLink]

To those who have this card:

How are the temperatures? People on Newegg reviews complain about the temps, and there are TONS of reviews like this. However, there have also been a few reviews saying that it runs cool, nothing like the other people say.

I just ordered this card myself (not Newegg tho) and it should be arriving tomorrow - I can't wait!

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: EPZ Soldier
what prog are you using to unlock the pipes? coolbits?

as I posted at the beginning: Rivatuner

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: MTLink
To those who have this card:

How are the temperatures? People on Newegg reviews complain about the temps, and there are TONS of reviews like this. However, there have also been a few reviews saying that it runs cool, nothing like the other people say.

I just ordered this card myself (not Newegg tho) and it should be arriving tomorrow - I can't wait!

my temps vary, but at idle I get around 58C according to Nvidia's driver.

Under heavy load it hits 69C - 72C. The driver lists 120C as Core Slowdown threshold.

system temp is 41C.

 

[AkumaX]

hehe, it'd be great if you got bit by the o/cing bug

 

[EPZ Soldier]

got my baby at 450/1200 and i havent even unlocked the 4 pipes yet!! oh sweee-t having a $200 ultra

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: AkumaX
hehe, it'd be great if you got bit by the o/cing bug

so far I have the equivalent of a 6800 GT with a mild overclock.

I am happy with that.