Improving Performance on BFG 6800OC 128mb

[MaliceX]

I recently built myself a new pc.

3.0 P4 /w HT
M955G 800FSB Dual-Channel
1 Gig kingston DDR400
BFG 6800 OC 128mb

Ive already unlocked the BFG to 16 pipes via Rivatuner, and im wondering what other "safe" methods I can use to get the most out of the card. Ive never gotten into overclocking and I certainly dont wanna fry my card/pc, im a university student, so I wont have the $$ to replace it.

Can anyone recommend some tweaks that I could do to the card?

 

[CoBRaXT]

Download Aquamark3 and 3DMark03 and report back with your scores
Then we'll see how much actual tweaking (if any) you need to do.

For now, update your chipset, download newest agp/ide drivers for your mobo.

 

[MaliceX]

Aquakmark took forever to give me a picture and when it did it was slooow framage with massive Artifacts... time to turn off the extra pipes?

 

[CoBRaXT]

Yeah, try it with the pipelines off but with the vertex shaders on. If it still artifacts, turn both off.

 

[MaliceX]

Thanks, I turned off the pipes but left the extra shaders on, runs fine now. Here are the scores I got

Aquamark 3 : 50423
3dMark05 : 3266

 

[Navid]

Don't overclock. It will void the warranty.
Does the card not perform well while playing any game you play?

 

[Gamingphreek]

Warranty is already voided by softmodding the card man nice try though.

-Kevin

 

[Hyperlite]

hmm 3.2k sounds about right for a 3ghz P4 i guess, i'm getting 3.7k on my main box, the first one down there...

and yeah, after softmodd your warranty is out the window anyway, so go ahead and OC if you want.

 

[mwmorph]

how would they know you oced or softmodded?

 

[impemonk]

They won't know the card has been softmodded unless you willingly and honestly report that you've done such a thing. Seriously, its kind of like the inner workings of a bureaucracy, there are always loopholes to get around

 

[cmp1223]

Yes, they will never know you softmodded, once rivatuner is uninstalled, it reverts back to normal hardware masked pipes. Overclocking on the otherhand, will be noticable if the components are fried (duh). Using the 66.93 nvidia drivers with the sytem in my sig i got about 3650 on 3DMark05. Upgrading to (beta) 71.20 drivers netted me 4006. I do not know if this is because the drivers are that much better, or if 3DMark05 can not effectively benchmark beta drivers--anyone know? These are both with the 16p,6vp enabled. Without the softmod, it was about 3250. None the less, i notice hang-ups and suttering in HL2 and the beta drivers, so i will reinstall the 66.93 drivers and wait for the official 7X.XX series drivers, which i know will only increase my performance . There is not much you could do in terms of video card enchanements. Opening up the extra pipes and shaders without artifacts is a HUGE step, probably better than any overclocking in terms of in-game performance. Other than that, use blackviper's guide to kill RAM-hogging Windows services, maybe get a RAM recovery program (like cacheman i believe)

BTW, my aquamark score was 54,479 if you wanted to compare our systems (same vid cards, diff CPUs)

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: MaliceX
I recently built myself a new pc.

3.0 P4 /w HT
M955G 800FSB Dual-Channel
1 Gig kingston DDR400
BFG 6800 OC 128mb

Ive already unlocked the BFG to 16 pipes via Rivatuner, and im wondering what other "safe" methods I can use to get the most out of the card. Ive never gotten into overclocking and I certainly dont wanna fry my card/pc, im a university student, so I wont have the $$ to replace it.

Can anyone recommend some tweaks that I could do to the card?

Nice system- I have a 6800NU myself in my son's computer, used it a couple months in mine. I wouldn't worry about OCing- the benefits of OCing a 6800NU are negligible.

The Softmod is a huge benefit- but it looks like you didn't win that lottery. No big deal- your rig is fast enough to play anything at 12X10.